Erik Prince is most known for his company Blackwater which committed myriad war crimes in Iraq. Several of his mercenaries were convicted of murder for their actions in the Nisour Square Massacre and later pardoned by former president Donald Trump. The Iraqi government revoked Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq in 2007 but the U.S. allowed the company to continue its operations until 2009.
Prince is often referred to as a war criminal and is used by the United States because they can allow him to break the rules of war. The U.S. does not care about international law or the sovereignty of nations or nonwhite people in select countries as has been made abundantly clear since Israel began its slaughter of Palestinians.
This makes Prince and his company – which now operates under the name Academi – the perfect candidate for the U.S. in interventions and to violate international law. His efforts to coordinate a coup in Venezuela also seem to violate U.S. law under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 and no law enforcement agency has intervened as of this writing.
Now, despite his blatant disregard for nonwhite countries and after declaring the West should colonize Africa and Latin America, the United States seems poised to ignore Prince’s calls for a violent coup in Venezuela and starting a civil war as he tries to raise $100 million to support violence in a country he refers to as El Dorado because of its vast gold and oil reserves. Since his efforts to raise the money are falling flat, he is now recruiting the help of lawmakers.
Plotting terrorist acts against another country while in the U.S. is illegal and is a violation of international law. Price reportedly resides in Miami in a recently purchased mansion. To further drive this point home are the arrests of several Cubans who plotted attacks against Cuba over the last several decades and were arrested by the FBI for doing so.
Smuggling arms into a foreign country is also illegal under federal law.
All of this comes despite no one being able to authenticate the opposition’s tally sheets that declared Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia the winner of the most recent presidential election in Venezuela. Just days ago, Venezuela seized hundreds of weapons designated for the U.S. military entering the country. Several U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries were arrested in connection to the weapons shipments in what reeks of an Erik Prince operation.
Since the Biden administration has seemingly ignored his calls to raise the reward for Maduro’s arrest from $15 million to $100 million, Prince is now recruiting Republican U.S. Senators to raise the money using seized assets that belong to the Venezuelan people. Let’s be clear, Prince is motivated by money and access to the assets of foreign governments.
Now, it seems Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are partnering with Prince in his illegal activities. Scott and Rubio are best known for their hyperbolic and Christian nationalist affiliations making Prince, who boasts similar views, a seemingly perfect partner. On Friday, Scott and Rubio introduced a bill setting aside the $100 million Prince wants to depose Maduro.
The Securing Timely Opportunities for Payment and Maximizing Awards for Detaining Unlawful Regime Officials Act of 2024 (Stop Maduro Act) would take money seized from the people of Venezuela and essentially hand it over to Prince so that he can continue to coordinate an attack on Venezuela. This goes against the system in Venezuela which has declared Maduro the winner of the last election with data from one of the most secure election systems in the world.
Prince and the Senators seem to think they’re being slick in what is becoming obvious to the general public. They are after Venezuela’s vast resources and many high-ranking government officials, including the Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, General Laura Richardson have spoken about the nation’s interests in the region: resources.
U.S. interventionism is rarely about “democracy,” it’s about theft.
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