"Those who doubt the centrality of minerals to U.S. strategy should consider the recent agreement between Washington and Kyiv, which granted U.S. entities preferential access to Ukraine's mineral reserves as partial repayment for wartime assistance.

Whatever one thinks about that arrangement, one thing is clear: minerals are emerging as geopolitical currency.

And Venezuela has the kind of mineral wealth " $1.36 trillion, according to Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro " that can shape the next century."