The United States is building up its military assets, sparking fears of another regime change attempt against Venezuela—and this one could be far more deadly than the others. Citing an influx of Venezuelan drugs into the U.S., the Trump administration is rapidly building up its military forces, encircling the South American nation, one which has been in Washington’s crosshairs for over a quarter of a century. MintPress News explores Trump’s extraordinary claims and assesses the history of U.S. efforts to overthrow the Venezuelan government.
by Alan Macleod
Part 4 - Venezuela in the Crosshairs
The U.S.’s intentions for Venezuela appear even more dubious, given its quarter-century-long history of regime change attempts against the government. The election of socialist, anti-imperialist president Hugo Chávez in 1998 immediately put Venezuela on Washington’s radar, and the United States soon began preparing for a coup d’état attempt against him. Right-wing leaders were flown back and forth from Caracas to Washington, D.C. for meetings with top American officials. The U.S., through the NED and USAID, began funding anti-Chávez forces who would spearhead an April 2002 coup.
On the day of the putsch, U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro was present at the coup headquarters in Caracas, and an American warship entered Venezuelan waters. The Bush administration immediately recognized the right-wing government, only for it to fall to a counter-insurrection two days later.
Undeterred, the U.S. ramped up its financial support to the Venezuelan opposition. In December 2002, it backed an opposition attempt to shut down the country’s oil industry, hoping that the government would fall.
It has consistently rejected the validity of Venezuelan elections, even when all relevant bodies (often including the local opposition itself) accepted the results. In 2013, for example, it refused to recognize the electoral contest that brought Nicolás Maduro to power—the only country in the world to do so.
These rejections of the popular vote set the stage for violent actions from U.S.-backed organizations. In 2014, for example, far-right groups carried out waves of attacks against food stores, hospitals, ambulances, kindergartens, and the Caracas Metro system, killing 43 people and causing an estimated $15 billion worth of property damage. They also shut down major highways with barricades, attacking anyone who attempted to pass through.
The U.S. government strongly supported the events. Then-Vice-President Joe Biden described those involved as “peaceful protestors” who were being “demonized” by the Maduro “regime”—one that was trying to “distract” Venezuelans from internal issues by “concocting totally false and outlandish conspiracy theories about the United States.”
When these actions did not produce the desired outcome, the United States turned to a new tactic: economic warfare. In 2015, President Obama declared an official State of National Emergency due to the “extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” This was a legal necessity for his administration to impose a wide range of unilateral coercive measures. U.S. sanctions, the State Department freely admits, are designed to “decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”
The U.S. government strongly supported the events. Then-Vice-President Joe Biden described those involved as “peaceful protestors” who were being “demonized” by the Maduro “regime”—one that was trying to “distract” Venezuelans from internal issues by “concocting totally false and outlandish conspiracy theories about the United States.”
When these actions did not produce the desired outcome, the United States turned to a new tactic: economic warfare. In 2015, President Obama declared an official State of National Emergency due to the “extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” This was a legal necessity for his administration to impose a wide range of unilateral coercive measures. U.S. sanctions, the State Department freely admits, are designed to “decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”
Studies and U.N. rapporteurs describe the sanctions’ effects as severe, citing shortages and economic collapse. Without spare parts and supplies, the country’s oil industry collapsed, resulting in a 99% decline in foreign revenues. Shortages of food, medicines, and other critical commodities became widespread. A report released by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, estimated that the sanctions caused the deaths of more than 40,000 Venezuelans in a 12-month period between 2017 and 2018. Millions of Venezuelans simply left the country.
The United Nations formally condemned the sanctions, urged all member states to break them, and even discussed reparations the U.S. should pay to Venezuela. One (American) U.N. rapporteur visited the country and compared the U.S.’s actions to a “medieval siege” and called for Washington to be investigated for possible “crimes against humanity.” Outside of small independent media websites, this was not reported anywhere in the American press.
Once in office, Trump ramped up the economic warfare, sensing his chance to, in his own words, “take all that oil.” Trump, according to those in the White House at the time, was fixated on an all-out invasion, declaring that it would be “cool” to do so, as Venezuela is “really part of the United States.” Some, such as National Security Advisor John Bolton, were in favor of the plan, but more “moderate” voices won the day, arguing that merely organizing waves of terrorist attacks inside the country would bring Venezuela back into American hands.
The United Nations formally condemned the sanctions, urged all member states to break them, and even discussed reparations the U.S. should pay to Venezuela. One (American) U.N. rapporteur visited the country and compared the U.S.’s actions to a “medieval siege” and called for Washington to be investigated for possible “crimes against humanity.” Outside of small independent media websites, this was not reported anywhere in the American press.
Once in office, Trump ramped up the economic warfare, sensing his chance to, in his own words, “take all that oil.” Trump, according to those in the White House at the time, was fixated on an all-out invasion, declaring that it would be “cool” to do so, as Venezuela is “really part of the United States.” Some, such as National Security Advisor John Bolton, were in favor of the plan, but more “moderate” voices won the day, arguing that merely organizing waves of terrorist attacks inside the country would bring Venezuela back into American hands.
In 2018, Maduro narrowly survived an assassination attempt. The Venezuelan president accused the United States of being behind the plot. Bolton’s memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” strongly insinuates that Maduro had reason to suspect the White House was indeed involved.
Throughout the period, the Trump administration instructed the Venezuelan opposition to boycott elections, preferring to attempt to unseat Maduro through force. In 2019, it supported a bizarre attempt by Juan Guaidó, a relatively unknown leader of a smaller, far-right party, to declare himself the true president of Venezuela on a technicality. Trump immediately recognized Guaidó and pressured dozens of Western countries to do the same.
Members of Trump’s inner team piled the pressure on Maduro. Bolton allowed himself to be seen with a notepad reading “5000 troops to Colombia,” while Marco Rubio tweeted images of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s mutilated corpse to Maduro, a clear threat of what the U.S. had planned for him.
Three times throughout 2019, U.S. officials released statements telling Venezuelans that today was the day they would win their liberty, urging them to get out on the streets, and instructing Venezuelan military officers to rebel and march on the presidential palace.
Throughout the period, the Trump administration instructed the Venezuelan opposition to boycott elections, preferring to attempt to unseat Maduro through force. In 2019, it supported a bizarre attempt by Juan Guaidó, a relatively unknown leader of a smaller, far-right party, to declare himself the true president of Venezuela on a technicality. Trump immediately recognized Guaidó and pressured dozens of Western countries to do the same.
Members of Trump’s inner team piled the pressure on Maduro. Bolton allowed himself to be seen with a notepad reading “5000 troops to Colombia,” while Marco Rubio tweeted images of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s mutilated corpse to Maduro, a clear threat of what the U.S. had planned for him.
Three times throughout 2019, U.S. officials released statements telling Venezuelans that today was the day they would win their liberty, urging them to get out on the streets, and instructing Venezuelan military officers to rebel and march on the presidential palace.
Venezuelans, however, rejected these calls, and Guaidó was unable to go anywhere inside the country without being accosted, jeered, and attacked. Fewer than 0.1% of the armed forces defected, leading to the movement’s collapse.
Unable to spark a popular revolt or a military rebellion, Washington resorted to a more direct approach. In May 2020, an amphibious mercenary invasion force, led by ex-U.S. Green Berets, attempted to shoot their way to the presidential palace and install Guaidó as dictator. The operation—planned in the U.S. and greenlit by the White House after meetings at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., and the Trump Doral Resort in Florida—ended in complete failure, with the ringleaders surrendering upon encountering the first signs of resistance. Critics dubbed the failed operation Trump’s “Bay of Piglets.” Eventually, the U.S. gave up on Guaidó, withdrawing its recognition of him in 2023. Today, he resides in Miami, where he has been appointed to a role at Florida Atlantic University.
A few months after the 2020 maritime incursion, Matthew Heath, a former Marine Corps veteran, CIA operative, and counter-narcotics official for the State Department in Afghanistan, was arrested outside Venezuela’s largest oil refinery, carrying a submachine gun, a grenade launcher, four blocks of C4 explosives, a satellite phone, and stacks of U.S. dollars. Authorities accused him of planning to sabotage the country’s petroleum industry.
Unable to spark a popular revolt or a military rebellion, Washington resorted to a more direct approach. In May 2020, an amphibious mercenary invasion force, led by ex-U.S. Green Berets, attempted to shoot their way to the presidential palace and install Guaidó as dictator. The operation—planned in the U.S. and greenlit by the White House after meetings at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., and the Trump Doral Resort in Florida—ended in complete failure, with the ringleaders surrendering upon encountering the first signs of resistance. Critics dubbed the failed operation Trump’s “Bay of Piglets.” Eventually, the U.S. gave up on Guaidó, withdrawing its recognition of him in 2023. Today, he resides in Miami, where he has been appointed to a role at Florida Atlantic University.
A few months after the 2020 maritime incursion, Matthew Heath, a former Marine Corps veteran, CIA operative, and counter-narcotics official for the State Department in Afghanistan, was arrested outside Venezuela’s largest oil refinery, carrying a submachine gun, a grenade launcher, four blocks of C4 explosives, a satellite phone, and stacks of U.S. dollars. Authorities accused him of planning to sabotage the country’s petroleum industry.
In recent years, the U.S. turned to other extralegal methods to destabilize Venezuela. It seized Iranian tankers traveling to Venezuela, attempting to break the U.S.-imposed blockade. It expropriated the Venezuelan state-owned CITGO chain of gas stations across the U.S. It impounded a Venezuelan government plane after it landed in the Dominican Republic. It arrested Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab, while he was flying back from an official meeting in Iran, boarding his aircraft after it stopped off in Cabo Verde. Saab was held for over three years in American prisons. Today, he is Venezuela’s Minister of Industry and National Production. The U.S. government also leaned heavily on the United Kingdom, which confiscated $2 billion worth of Venezuelan gold reserves in the Bank of England.
Summing up America’s actions in Venezuela, Emersberger stated:
Summing up America’s actions in Venezuela, Emersberger stated:
Since 2001, when the U.S. decided Chávez could not be bought, it has sought to overthrow him or, by imposing hardships through economic warfare, to at least make sure Venezuela’s socialist government could never be seen as a model for others in the region. U.S. impunity gives it all the time in the world to pursue both those objectives at once. And U.S. impunity stems from the lack of any significant organized political opposition at home.
Despite all this, however, Maduro has managed to survive. Last year, he won re-election, beating American-backed candidate Edmundo Gonzalez by seven points. The U.S. refused to recognize the results. The government’s continued support is based in part on what it has been able to achieve for its people. Hugo Chávez, in power from 1999 until 2013, renationalized the country’s oil industry and used the proceeds to fund massive social welfare programs, including free healthcare, education, and subsidized transportation. Under his rule, poverty and extreme poverty were reduced by half and three-quarters, respectively. Illiteracy was eradicated, and the student population grew to become the fourth largest in the world. Previously marginalized groups also saw a marked rise in political participation.
Despite all this, however, Maduro has managed to survive. Last year, he won re-election, beating American-backed candidate Edmundo Gonzalez by seven points. The U.S. refused to recognize the results. The government’s continued support is based in part on what it has been able to achieve for its people. Hugo Chávez, in power from 1999 until 2013, renationalized the country’s oil industry and used the proceeds to fund massive social welfare programs, including free healthcare, education, and subsidized transportation. Under his rule, poverty and extreme poverty were reduced by half and three-quarters, respectively. Illiteracy was eradicated, and the student population grew to become the fourth largest in the world. Previously marginalized groups also saw a marked rise in political participation.
Chávez promoted the vision of an anti-imperialist, independent future for Global South nations, spearheading initiatives aimed at Latin American unity. He used the country’s oil wealth to fund medical surgeries for people across the region, and even to heat the homes of hundreds of thousands of underprivileged or marginalized families in the United States. On the issue of Palestine, he was particularly vocal, declaring Israel to be a “terrorist state,” and breaking ties with the nation over its 2008-2009 attack on Gaza. Today, Palestinian murals can be seen all over Caracas, and solidarity with the oppressed is a key facet of the government’s ideology. As Nicolas Maduro cast his vote in the 2024 election, he announced, “Long live a free Palestine!”
Maduro has undoubtedly presided over extremely tough times in Venezuela, in no small part due to U.S. actions against his country. Yet even as the economy cratered, a significant section of the public continued to support the socialist project. Today, Venezuela appears to have weathered the worst of the storm. Stores are full again, and the country now produces a large percentage of the food it eats. Maduro’s signature social housing policy, Misión Gran Vivienda Venezuela, has delivered more than 5.2 million homes to citizens, greatly improving the country’s problem with slum housing.
Maduro has undoubtedly presided over extremely tough times in Venezuela, in no small part due to U.S. actions against his country. Yet even as the economy cratered, a significant section of the public continued to support the socialist project. Today, Venezuela appears to have weathered the worst of the storm. Stores are full again, and the country now produces a large percentage of the food it eats. Maduro’s signature social housing policy, Misión Gran Vivienda Venezuela, has delivered more than 5.2 million homes to citizens, greatly improving the country’s problem with slum housing.
Another factor that kept Maduro in power is the military. The large majority of the Army has stayed loyal and rejected calls for a coup d’état. Venezuela counts hundreds of thousands of men in uniform, as well as millions more in armed left-wing militias. Facing the threat of an American attack, the government has deployed 4.5 million people to defensive positions, making an imminent U.S. invasion less likely. The 1,200 missiles the U.S. task force has on hand, however, could easily destroy much of the country.
Moreover, the Trump administration has clearly made Venezuela a top priority. And the news that the U.S. is planning to withdraw its forces from Asia to prioritize control over the homeland and its Latin American “backyard” makes some sort of action against Maduro and Venezuela all the more possible.
The military buildup along Venezuela’s coastline, the increased reward for the arrest of Maduro, and the claim that he is a major drug kingpin all serve as ominous harbingers of coming conflict. The accusations about Tren de Aragua and the Cartel de los Soles may be fictional, but so were the lies about weapons of mass destruction. And with the U.S. eager to find any casus belli, they may serve as the justification for an Iraq War 2.0.
Moreover, the Trump administration has clearly made Venezuela a top priority. And the news that the U.S. is planning to withdraw its forces from Asia to prioritize control over the homeland and its Latin American “backyard” makes some sort of action against Maduro and Venezuela all the more possible.
The military buildup along Venezuela’s coastline, the increased reward for the arrest of Maduro, and the claim that he is a major drug kingpin all serve as ominous harbingers of coming conflict. The accusations about Tren de Aragua and the Cartel de los Soles may be fictional, but so were the lies about weapons of mass destruction. And with the U.S. eager to find any casus belli, they may serve as the justification for an Iraq War 2.0.
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