Category Archives: Foreign Policy

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, September 13, 2019:

On the surface, Donald Trump’s reason for delaying by two weeks the increase in tariffs on Chinese imports is laughable: the only people celebrating the 70^th anniversary will be the communists themselves.

Beneath the surface, however, is the negotiating war taking place between the Chinese communists and Mr. Trump. And both know the rules.

They come from the Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation (PON).

Tweeted the President:

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday June 13, 2019: 

Following reports of suspected attacks on two oil tankers moving through the vitally important Strait of Hormuz early Thursday morning, crude oil prices jumped four percent. Following that initial spike, oil prices settled back slightly.

The Strait is the only water passage from the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and ultimately the Indian Ocean, and as a result a third of the world’s LNG (liquefied natural gas) and almost 20 percent of the world’s crude passes through the 21-mile-wide channel.

The early reports from the British Daily Telegraph were ambiguous,

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, May 22, 2019: 

It’s clear that the sanctions being imposed by the White House on Nicolás Maduro’s tottering regime in Caracas are forcing him into negotiating with his opposite number. Last week the Associated Press reported that talks between Juan Guaidó’s people and Maduro’s were scheduled to take place in Norway.

Those sanctions, which have been applied to dozens of Maduro’s top officials, have extended to countries doing business with the Marxist regime. Consequently, Maduro’s primary source of revenue from his state-owned oil producer PdVSA has been cut drastically. In the past two years, oil exports have dropped from more than three million barrels of crude a day to 500,000 barrels a day. And most of that production is committed to Cuba in exchange for its military and technical support.

In April, the White House applied sanctions on the Central Bank of Venezuela, sharply limiting its access to American dollars. Those sanctions also

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, May 6, 2019:  

Juan Guaidó, Nicolás Maduro’s opposition in Venezuela, said on Saturday that the reason his attempted coup failed last week was that he overestimated the support he would be getting from Maduro’s military: “We need more [of his] soldiers to support [us], to back the constitution.”

The failure has left the foreign policy wonks and neocons embedded in the Trump administration scratching their heads. What else can they do to get rid of Maduro and replace him with Guaidó?

Their options are limited. There are conversations between President Trump and President Putin over Venezuela, with both of them saying they don’t want war. Said Trump following that phone call on Friday:

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, April 1, 2019: 

Missing from much of the conversation over Trump’s decision to cut foreign aid to Central America’s Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Honduras) is the impact it would have on the NGOs funding and supporting the caravans threatening the southern border.

The 2016 film “Poverty, Inc.” exposed the multi-billion-dollar NGO-enriching poverty complex that has been built up over the years to milk the flow of foreign aid dollars from U.S. taxpayers to governments around the world. For its efforts, the film won numerous international awards but precious little attention from the MSM in the U.S.

With Trump’s determination to cut off foreign aid to these three countries in retaliation for their lack of assistance in slowing or thwarting the caravans marching north through their countries, this could be a significant benefit to U.S. national sovereignty.

After earlier threatening to end foreign aid to three Central American countries whose citizens make up a large part of the caravans overwhelming U.S. border security services, last Friday President Trump directed State Department Secretary Mike Pompeo to

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, March 20, 2019:  

Despite the Trump administration ratcheting up sanctions against Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, he remains firmly in control. Even his most dependable support from the slums — the barrios — is fading, and yet he remains the supreme authority. His exports of crude oil to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries has ended and yet he continues to rule. Recent sanctions applied to a Venezuela-based gold company were followed by the promise by the U.S. president of getting “a lot tougher” if necessary. Inflation has destroyed the bolivar, and still Maduro dominates the government he has illegally seized.

Many have blamed Maduro’ recent loss of popularity among the poor on the colectivos — motorcycle gangs of armed thugs trained and supplied by Cuba — that have invaded the barrios to quell incipient resistance and blatant opposition to Maduro with force and the threat of force.

In 2017, however, Maduro unleashed another arm of his military,