There's an interesting paragraph in this article:
The US maintains a blockade against Venezuela to try to strangle their socialist economy.
While the political system of Venezuela distinguishes itself from other republics in Latin America, what makes the Venezuelan economy "socialist"? Until this is better developed in the article, I will omit the "socialist" term in the sentence
I’ve replaced it with “independent economy” which is, in the eyes of the monopoly capitalist is the real crime. An economy socialist in name but without sovereignty and independence is no socialist economy at all.
Iran’s and Cuba’s and Venezuela’s crimes in the face of Empire are the same: economic independence
It's no "independent" at all. There are no independent economies, even the Democratic People's Republic of Korea exchanges goods with the People's Republic of China. The Venezuelan economy is a capitalist economy based on the rent of oil exports. Through this rent they try to finance their state industries, which are very distinguishable of the Venezuelan economy, such as PDVAL, but there is a growing private sector
I think you misunderstand what I mean by “independent“. I mean its economic policies are not dictated by Washington, which in the eyes of Washington is the ultimate crime. If such independence were successfully overthrown, the imperialist would like to have the oil companies back in their own hands. Similarly, Saddam Hussein‘s Iraqi oil markets were becoming “too independent“ when they considered selling oil using non-dollar currencies.