One of the key aspects of America’s new war of aggression in the Caribbean is that of the Dragon Gas Field. This gasfield, containing an estimated 4.2 trillion cubic feet of reserves, is within Venezuelan territory, albeit relatively close in proximity to Trinidad & Tobago. Trinidad’s economy is heavily dependent on liquefied natural gas and petrochemicals; however, it has been experiencing a crisis in terms of feedstock supplies in recent years. To that end, access to the Dragon gasfield is seen as vital for the stability of its economy — and, in a wider sense, to the energy security of the Caribbean region as a whole. For example, oil and gas make up roughly 45 per cent of Trinidad’s gross domestic product and about 80 per cent of its exports — although only about 5 per cent of employment — and much of the Caribbean depends on them for their energy production.

Long seen as crucial for Trinidad’s economic future — and the region’s energy future as a whole — the development of the Dragon gasfield has been thwarted by illegal unilateral sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the United States. I say they are illegal because, under international law, the only legal sanctions that can be imposed are those determined by the United Nations. This is made clear in the UN Charter — for those interested, I would direct them to articles 1, 2, 41, 55 and 56 — and was reaffirmed in the 1993 Vienna Declaration, which called upon member states to “refrain from any unilateral measures ... that create obstacles to trade relations among states and impedes the full realisation of the human rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. As such, the imposition of sanctions regimes — outside of UN imposition — are in breach of article 24 of the UN charter, as they are seen to be coercive and tantamount to collective punishment.

The challenge the world faces is that the US has long become a rogue state, one that applies the “might is right” logic of empire, believing it is so powerful that it can breach international law with impunity – albeit while enforcing it on weaker states when it is in its interest to do so, regardless of the hypocrisy involved. That the US routinely violates international law does not invalidate international law any more than the persistence of apartheid South Africa or apartheid Israel in any way means that international law ceased to exist as regards them. To this effect, the US’s unilateral imposition of economic violence against Cuba is a breach of international law – and the same applies to the economic violence the US has imposed against Venezuela.

The illegal sanctions imposed unilaterally by the US against Venezuela has meant that, in practice, the US seeks to decide when and how a sovereign state (Venezuela) can develop its own resources. And this also applies, in this case, to Trinidad, in seeking to partner with Venezuela to develop the Dragon gasfield. In this scenario, both of these sovereign countries are forced to apply to the US — through the Office of Foreign Assets Control — for a licence, or waiver from the sanctions, to develop their own resources, not those of the US. That is, quite frankly, imperialism. It is the US dictating to sovereign states how, if and when they can develop their own resources and economies.

The US imposed sanctions on Venezuela under Barack Obama in 2015, and these have been maintained under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Under Biden the US granted a licence (waiver) to Trinidad in 2023 to enter negotiations with Venezuela concerning the development of the Dragon gasfield; however, certain conditions were imposed. These conditions included that Trinidad could not pay the rent of this field from Venezuela with cash. That is, it imposed a barter regime where Trinidad could pay with only commodity goods — agricultural products, medicine, etc. Additionally, it imposed on Trinidad that the field could be developed provided that only American companies were involved, ensuring that the US had a stake, as well as that key profits would go to it — not to Trinidad or Venezuela.

Now, the governing party of Trinidad during Biden’s presidency was the People’s National Movement. The Opposition at the time, the United National Congress, saw that there was potential political capital to be had, especially in the wake of the November 2024 election of Trump in the US, to ally itself with Trump. Its leader, Persad-Bissessar, began to give flattering statements regarding Trump and making connections with Maga. On Trump’s coming to power in January 2025, he ended the waiver given to Trinidad to develop the Dragon gasfield, contributing to the political crisis there, and giving a boost to the UNC in the April 2025 General Election, which the UNC won, bringing Persad-Bissessar to power.

Having helped to bring a friendly government to power in Trinidad, Trump ultimately reissued the licence to the new government to proceed with developing the Dragon gasfield — again with the same (and harsher) conditions to prevent any revenue going to Venezuela. It is worth noting that this was only issued in October, after Trinidad gave political backing to the war of aggression by the US in the Caribbean. A rather classic carrot-and-stick approach of empire.

Now, obviously Venezuela is not exactly happy about the illegal sanctions imposed on it by the US — it rightly sees it as an affront to its sovereignty. Nor is Venezuela exactly happy about Trinidad siding with the US in its war of aggression. To that end, Venezuela has suspended energy co-operation with Trinidad as of October 27, rendering the Dragon gasfield development dead for the time being.

What we are seeing in the Caribbean Sea today is blatant imperialism by the US, one enforced with economic and military violence, as well as apparent bribery, to enforce the US’s right to dictate to other countries how and if they can develop their own resources — while ensuring the US has control of who benefits from those resources. And with control over Venezuela’s resources, the US threatens to subjugate the entire region by controlling the flow of energy.

• Jonathan Starling is a socialist writer with an MSc in Ecological Economics from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning from Heriot-Watt University