The Dangerous Price Tag Being Attached to Venezuelan Liberation
I am tired of violence, I am tired of warfare, I am tired of seeing my taxpayer money being spent to kill people on foreign soil and foreign waters. It is sickening to see this every single year, under every single administration, and even when every single time the American public does not approve of the violence that is being committed.
Most important of all, I am tired of Latin America being inches away from once again experiencing violence on their soil because of United States intervention and United States’ desire to dominate their precious resources. As the grandson of a Latin American political prisoner, these events that are unfolding are alarming as hell.
Venezuela’s airspace is currently empty as the country is embracing incoming attacks from the Trump Administration in an attempt to oust Venezuela’s current president (and noted dictator) Nicholas Maduro. Only God actually knows why, because the reasoning is all over the place and then is contradicted by facts and other decisions being made by Trump and the MAGA administration. Trump claims Maduro has ties to multiple cartels and drug trafficking rings, which makes no sense considering that Venezuela is not actually a narco state nor is it even a hotbed for the development of drugs---you’d have to look at rural Colombia, west coast of Ecuador, and as far away as China to see the higher numbers. It also doesn’t make sense to say you’re doing this because of drugs when you literally pardon a former Latin American president who was found guilty of helping smuggle cocaine into the United States. It also-also doesn’t make sense when 85% of fentanyl being sent across borders to the United States are being moved by actual American citizens.
MAGA has also claimed that Venezuela dumps criminals at the U.S. border, which also simply isn’t true. MAGA has even claimed Maduro had a hand in manipulating the 2020 election results, which…no, what are we doing here? Trump and MAGA has made Maduro this evil boogeyman when in actuality he’s a tiny dictator who doesn’t wield any major influence outside his border. Chavez was significantly more of a Latin American influence during his time.
The more likely explanation is that Trump straight-up doesn’t like Maduro and wants to see him defeated and publicly humiliated. Yes, sometimes international politics can be super simple and super petty, especially under this edgelord administration full of bloodlust individuals using violence as a mask for their insecurities. Looking directly at you, Pete Hegseth, you tiny snot. Makes more sense to see this as a scorned bully that didn’t like the disrespect during the Juan Guaido era, when Trump tried helping install another president for Venezuela during his first term after (another) disputed election and was denied by Maduro.
Of course, as an eternal reminder, Trump doesn’t mind dictators when he gets along with them or publicly envies them, whether it be the Saudi Arabian government, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, or war criminal Vladimir Putin.
For the record, Nicholas Maduro is a terrible leader who made terrible decisions and continues to rule over a country that has repeatedly voted against him. Maduro has no vision on how to fix the problems facing Venezuela, and has burned nearly every bridge on the international stage, with even former allies like Lula being exasperated at his behavior. Maduro is no saint in this situation, and also has refused to accept offers of leaving Venezuela at the risk of military violence being committed to ensure his ouster.
Maduro doesn’t deserve to remain as president, and also doesn’t deserve to have Venezuelan (and likely Colombian) soldiers dying while battling a hostile foreign superpower trying to distract the public from the Epstein Files (yes, don’t forget about this aspect).
Yes, Maduro sucks and has always sucked, but it gives the United States zero right to toss its military weight around in order to get something it wants on another nation. And it makes you wonder why not use this military might to try to save the systematically broken Haiti from all the gang activity having the region in a chokehold?
The endgame is so obvious, it’s embarrassing to see. Once again, U.S. wants resources, otherwise they wouldn’t be invested in Venezuela in the first place.
Head to the 32 minute mark to see Machado talking about Venezuela’s resources
You have recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado basically begging for a war, demanding the violence to happen to ensure she gets placed as the leader, promising the U.S. full unfiltered access to their natural resources in exchange. This groveling is almost just as bad as Maduro’s refusal to quit, Machado is selling Venezuela’s future to the U.S. in exchange for political power, she is stripping her own country for parts despite the history of the U.S. wrecking Latin American countries for resources.
All the frustrated Venezuelans in support for this intervention are not seeing the bigger picture, not seeing the potential dangers related to the extreme capitalist ways of the U.S. parking itself on their homeland for an unknown period of time. The Venezuelan diaspora of course deserves the ability to return to their homeland under better conditions, but this cannot be the way to do it. More importantly, we cannot pretend like Venezuela’s downward spiral and current mass migration had nothing to do with decisions made by the United States. Widespread desperation can lead to crazy decisions (like American voters electing Trump…twice…) but haven’t you all wondered why the U.S. spent billions on the Middle East in search of oil while the largest oil reserves were literally on their side of the world?
Don’t you ever ponder how Venezuela would be today without the threats, the sanctions, the economic blockades, and the petroleum thefts of the U.S. in Iraq, Iran, and beyond? Isn’t it a possibility that without the U.S. being hostile to Venezuela throughout the entire 21st century, the economy would resemble more like other petroleum-laden nations like a Saudi Arabia or a United Arab Emirates?
Even with Maduro in control, we’d likely see a totally different country if not for the U.S. government’s insistence that Venezuela’s economy fails; which is eerily similar to what the U.S. did to Mexico (multiple times), Cuba (for multiple decades), Honduras, Brazil, and especially Chile (whose dictatorship can still be felt in the country’s constitution and upcoming election). Then let’s also not forget what the U.S. did to Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Bolivia, and the list just keeps growing to cover almost every country in Latino America.
But on top of all the ugly history and ridiculous economic blockades, can we just stop having warfare dominate the U.S. news cycle? Please? Can we stop wasting resources and money we can otherwise use to actually improve the country to blow shit up?
This isn’t just a Trump problem, even though Trump had promised no new wars. Biden stupidly and unforgivably allowed Israel commit war crimes (and failed to stop Russia from continuing theirs). Trump the first time around from 2016-2020 nearly had us fighting Iran and North Korea in different moments while committing assassinations and even more drone strikes than Obama, who is also a war criminal in spite of our hopes he’d be different. Of course, can’t forget the OG warmonger Cheney and Bush Jr. starting wars in Iraq AND Afghanistan in order to destabilize governments, siphon foreign oil, and of course eliminate the need to depend on oil belonging to Venezuela. After all, the sanctions against Venezuela, Cuba, among other countries have occurred under multiple administrations, and each without the foresight of finally eliminating these dated tactics that do nothing more than bring about more pain to innocent lives.
Latinos in the United States are a unique diaspora in which despite being multiple nations we share a common language and an unexpectedly common past that involves deadly governments, deadly dictatorships, deadly coups that have mostly been supported by United States interests. We are tired of seeing our smaller, less prosperous countries try to grow, only to see the efforts being thwarted by larger powers or large egos. In a better United States, we see the concept of sanctions being a thing of the past, in a better United States we allow Venezuela, Cuba, and yes even Puerto Rico to trade with whoever they want without the risk of crippling punishments.
In a better scenario, we finally see Maduro give up his power peacefully, allow an instantaneous election to give Guiado or Machado their chance to become president without having to sell off all resources and coastlines to United States capitalism. In exchange under this better scenario, the United States finally drops all the sanctions and backhanded deals and blockades against them, and stops threatening the entire Caribbean with their warships as if we’re about to have World War 3. I know, longshot dream, but we have to stop seeking solutions that involves violence and warfare. The Americans don’t deserve it, the soldiers on both sides don’t deserve it, and the entire continent of South America doesn’t want any part of it.
Desperation is always dangerous, and we Latinos have to always see the big picture and remain patient without resorting to desperate solutions and deals with the Devil. Venezuela deserves freedom and full liberation from the Maduro regime, but it shouldn’t happen at the hands of the Trump Administration and the United States. Recent and distant history has proven that Latin America fares much better when the United States isn’t getting directly involved with their affairs.
No more wars, no more interventions, no more repeats of the disasters seen throughout the 20th century.
Venezuela belongs to the Venezuelans that actually love their beautiful country, nobody else.