USS Gerald R Ford’s arrival marks the largest US military presence in the region since the invasion of Panama in 1989
The US navy has announced that the USS Gerald R Ford, regarded as the world’s newest and largest aircraft carrier, has entered the area of responsibility of the US Southern Command, which covers Latin America and the Caribbean.
The deployment of the ship and the strike group it leads – which includes dozens of aircraft and destroyer ships – had been announced nearly three weeks ago, and its arrival marks an escalation in the military buildup between the US and Venezuela.
The regime of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, meanwhile, announced what it called a “massive deployment” of land, sea, air, river and missile forces, as well as civilian militia, to counter the US naval presence off its coast.
@MicroWave
The US is getting ready to steal that sweet sweet #venezuela oil.
Gunboat “diplomacy” V3.0
Yes they are. I know you probably weren’t referring to this, but it is the opposite of sweet. It’s very heavy crude which is far more costly to extract and refine. SA oil is light and actually deemed “sweet”. Venezuelan oil is dirty, BUT (of more importance) it seems their reserves are the largest in the world. And even if it is crappy, it is oil and we seem hellbent on using every last bit of it. Apparently petrochemical industry profit supersedes the health of the planet and the entirety of its occupants.
Plus, it’s much closer and Venezuela is weak. Republicans are bullying them like the bullies they are.
Refineries need a mix of both. Light oil like what America produces is good for light distillates like gasoline but is inefficient for heavy grades like lubrication or diesel fuel. Heavy dirty oils are best for the latter types of distillates and the two are often mixed to get an ideal crack ratio for the desired outputs.