In its analysis titled “Why Donald Trump is now playing the pirate”, the German newspaper daily newspaper (TAZ) states that there is speculation and uncertainty following the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela by the US.
“First there were boats with drugs, now an oil tanker (…). Information about the incident is scarce and partly contradictory. Trump’s exact strategy is unknown; however, one thing is clear: the action benefits several American interests,” the news article states.
daily newspaper It also replicates research from media outlets such as Washington Post and the New York Times which suggest that the tanker is used for international oil transactions that circumvent US sanctions: “According to an unconfirmed source cited by the Washington Post, The ship was heading to Cuba. “It was supposedly carrying two million barrels of heavy oil.”
According to daily newspaperthe seizure of the oil tanker represents a new escalation of US attacks in the Caribbean. “The Trump administration has focused its foreign policy on the Western Hemisphere and has targeted Venezuela. The objective: to put pressure on President Maduro (…). To justify it, Trump tirelessly affirms that he wants to combat narcoterrorism, which, according to him, is flooding the United States with drugs (…). If the United States wants the Venezuelan government to run out of money, oil is the most important factor,” he comments.
The note slips that, since China also benefits from Venezuela’s oil, “Washington could kill two birds with one stone by focusing on oil tankers: this way it secures its own oil supply and contains China’s power.” On the other hand, adds the German newspaper, Trump agrees regarding Ukraine with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who in turn is an ally of Maduro. “It has not yet been definitively clarified whether there is a strategy behind the attack on the tanker and, if so, what it is,” underlines TAZ.
An Argentine recipe for the German economy?
For its part, after two years of Javier Milei in power in Argentina, the Swiss newspaper New Zurich newspaper (NZZ) compared the economic situation of the South American country with that of Germany: “The German economy is in crisis. Production is contracting, companies are cutting investments and unemployment is increasing. But the reforms that could revitalize the economy are not materializing. This is due, in part, to the lack of courage of politicians,” the article describes.
The media highlights that the situation is very different in Argentina: “There, President Milei revitalized the economy in crisis with a radical program of deregulation and privatization. Growth has returned, the budget deficit has disappeared and inflation is receding.”
In that sense, “can Germany learn something from Argentina?” Yes, says lawyer and publicist Carlos A. Gebauer, resident in Düsseldorf, in statements to the NZZ. Gebauer has just founded the Javier Milei Institute for Deregulation in Europe, together with the businesswomen and former deputies of the German Bundestag Frauke Petry and Joana Cotar, the economics professor and Milei’s biographer, Philipp Bagus, of the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, and the head of economic research at the Kiel Institute of World Economy, Stefan Kooths.
The note explains that the Milei Institute “brings together people who, from their respective fields, with their individual skills and intellectual networks, wish to contribute to promoting the exchange of knowledge and experiences between Argentina and Europe.” According to Gebauer, this institute “works with a European perspective to promote deregulation as a freedom project with a high level of specialization.” The institute is considered a think tank impartial and non-partisan, adds the journalistic report.
(ct/ms)
