Rex Tillerson got burned in Venezuela. Then he got revenge.

the U.S. State Department oversees the program that is literally writing the regulatory and financial architecture that will govern energy extraction in Guyana. And Tillerson, the former CEO for ExxonMobil, is the top official at the State Department. The conflict of interest is clear as day.

Indeed, ExxonMobil has effectively made Guyana into a subsidiary.  As the Washington Post noted:
“…countries such as Guyana that have no existing oil industry are considered ‘frontier’ locations, and typically offer the most lucrative terms to foreign companies willing to invest.  Guyana’s foreign partners stand to earn 60 to 65 percent of profits… a far larger share than what more established nations are willing to offer investors.”

Does anyone really believe that the State Department is not going to target Venezuela when it is led by a man who has fomented conflict with Venezuela, is raking in billions from Venezuela’s neighbor and has a long-standing vendetta against the Bolivarian Republic?
In fact, Tillerson’s oil goons have already uncorked the champagne numerous times this year, having announced multiple oil finds off the coast that are worth billions. Naturally, this is as much political as economic. For Tillerson and Trump, every barrel of oil extracted from Guyana is a thumb in the eye of the Venezuelan government.

The priority of this U.S. oil company to topple Venezuela is geopolitical and geo-economic, as a fundamental pillar of a new political, economic and financial configuration of the continent (with Russia and China as alternative strategic partners), which poses a threat to the strategic advantages and the almost absolute control of the energy resources of the region that these corporations boasted throughout the 20th century. Securing that source of supply not only enabled it to carry out its arms race and military campaigns in the Middle East, but to maintain a global superpower status which is challenged today by emerging rivals.