When countries steal, are they thieves? By Owei Lakemfa

The United States, US and some of its partners, notably the United Kingdom, UK  went to Venezuela and carted away  13.5 kilograms  of enriched uranium.  The materials which can be used to fuel commercial nuclear plants or   in  research  reactors, are  from an inheritance research reactor in Venezuela.  The research  which was concluded in 1991 had been in  the fields of physics and nuclear.

The uranium was transported 100 miles overland to a Venezuelan port, transferred to a U.K. cargo, the  Nuclear Transport Solutions and, transferred to the Savannah River Site (SRS)  in  South Carolina, US for processing to obtain low-enriched uranium for  the  super power.

This  is part of the on-going looting of Venezuela since the January 2026  kidnapping of President Nicholas Maduro and his wife from  their bedroom, in Caracas.

The US had claimed the abduction was to bring the Maduros to justice on alleged drug charges. But immediately the invasion was carried out, , the US commenced the systematic looting of that country especially its oil.  Apart from oil seized from hijacked oil tankers, the US in the first quarter of President Maduro’s abduction extracted 24.25  million barrels of crude oil from Venezuela. That reinforced the fact that what the US establishment wants, is to loot that country which has the largest oil reserves in the world.

Now, the US focus, as revealed by President Donald Trump, is to convert Venezuela into its 51st state.  He told the media on   May 11,  2026 that the American establishment is “seriously considering making Venezuela the 51st US State,”

However, Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodriguez  vowed that this attempt will be resisted. She told the world: “We will continue to defend our integrity, our sovereignty, our independence, our history.”   Rodriguez  added that  Venezuela is: “not a colony, but a free country.”

Apart from its undisputed natural resources, Venezuela is engaged in an international dispute with Guyana over a  62,000-square-mile territory which  is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources. The territory also  sits near massive offshore oil deposits currently producing an average 900,000 barrels a day. All these, the Trump administration is eyeing to convert.

Although Trump had suggested that Canada be added to the US as its 51st state and has so far not made any move in that direction, it may be costly if his latest desire on annexing Venezuela is taken for a joke.

The US was a colony of the UK; it was seized following the  genocide against the indigenous American-Indian population. It expanded in 1848 by forcing Mexico to cede   more than 525,000 square miles  or 1,360,000 square kilometres  to it. Those Mexican lands are today’s  Texas,  California, Kansas,  New Mexico,  Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma,  Utah and  Arizona. In 1898, it colonized Puerto Rico and, has until today, refused to grant independence to that country.

I am not implying that  the US has  seized more territories than the UK or stolen more resources from other countries. That dubious crown, undoubtedly, belongs  to the UK. That country,  in order to take New Zeland and Australia, wiped out their indigenous populations.   Following  British colonialization of Australia, in 1788, about ninety percent of the Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander population were wiped out.  In its genocide in order to take over New Zealand from its indigenous owners, Britain introduced diseases and wars which  by 1840,  reduced the indigenous population from 200,000 to 60,000.

Britain   tried the same tactics in Zimbabwe and South Africa, but did not succeed.   It also tried it in Kenya, but the people resisted.

France in its own case, massacred about  two million Algerians in an attempt to annex that African country to itself. 

Various European countries wiped out indigenous populations in order to take their lands. Spain for instance, still occupies the West African Canary Islands.  Until today, Spain has refused to evacuate territories in Africa like  Ceuta, Melilla,  Penones and the Island Groups including Chafarinas, Alhucemas and Penon de Valez de la Gomera.

In the case of Belgium, it outrightly tried to own what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. In its quest to do so, Belgium and its King Leopold II murdered about fifteen million Africans in their own homeland. It is the most horrific massacre in human history which Belgum and its European brothers and sisters have tried to hush up. Yes, Europe is loud about the Holocaust in Hitlerite  Germany which  insanely killed some six million Jews. But they are silent about Leopold II.

Some of the  current conflicts in the world were exacerbated by Western countries giving out lands they never owned.  For instance, Trump  on December 10, 2020 gave out  the Sahara Arab Democratic Republic, SADR, better known as Western Sahara  as a gift to Morocco.  For this act of criminality, parochial Morocco, awarded Trump   its highest national order.

The seemingly unending wars in the Middle East  were lit by Britain which on November 2, 1917,  gave Palestinian lands to  the White Jewish Zionist Movement. These were lands UK did not own whether by purchase or inheritance. That way, it imported  European terrorists who repressed and suppressed the indigenous Jewish, Palestinian and Arab peoples. Today, the West  through the racist Zionist movement,  intends to expand this European state it built in the Palestine by  trying to seize the Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon and Syria. Therefore  in that region, it is war without end.  So, what do we call these acts, taking or stealing?

But there are worse acts. For instance, Western Europe and the US  for four centuries, stole human beings from Africa and transported them over the Atlantic Ocean. The objective was not to convert them to Christianity, but to steal their labour. Over twelve million able-bodied Africans and their children were transported in this evil ‘free trade’ 

African nations and countries with conscience had this year, taken this  crime to the United Nations General Assembly and asked for reparations for these four hundred years of stolen  labour. The UN  had described the transatlantic slave trade as the: “the gravest  crime against humanity.”   But in May, 2026,  the UK Reform Party led by Nigel Farage threatened African countries  who seek  the implementation of this UN resolution,  with visa ban, if it formed the next government. It is an indication  that the slave masters are not remorseful for their  inhuman deeds. In all probability, if people like Farage have the opportunity, they will resume the  enslavement of human beings.

So, when countries steal and plunder  other human beings and their resources, can they be described as thieves or, for  political correctness, we should use some other acceptable nomenclature?

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