Steve Ellner, one of my go-to sources on Venezuela, cautions that although the Maduro government has unquestionable shortcomings and is not above criticism, the left’s priority today shouldn’t be purity tests. It should be about the struggle against US imperialism, as it invokes the Monroe Doctrine and evidence-free, “narco-terrorist” narratives on behalf of regime change in Venezuela. There is a relentless effort to demonise Maduro, and some on the putative left fail to recognize the need for a strong state and how difficult it is to construct socialism when your country “has been singled out by Washington for special attack, a fact that has been thoroughly documented.”
Ellner continues, “If Maduro is brought down, the far right — headed by Maria Corina Machado, who says she wants to see Maduro and his family behind bars — will undoubtedly dominate the new regime with Washington’s blessing. If this were to happen, the most likely scenario would be the kind of brutal repression that has historically followed the downfall of previous governments from Indonesia in 1967 to Chile in 1974.” Eric Zuesse adds thatMachado is the “U.S. Deep State’s Venezuelan puppet, successor to Juan Guido and Leopoldo López.”
Given the above, it was disheartening but not totally surprising that Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City, recently said he believes “Nicolas Maduro and Miguel Diaz-Canel are dictators.” This ill-timed and totally unnecessary statement parrots the CIA’s false narrative about Maduro and helps legitimize decades of U.S. aggression against Venezuela and Marco Rubio’s call for regime change in Caracas and Havana. I’m afraid Mamdani is sounding a bit like Bernie Sanders.
At this point, it’s unclear whether the U.S. will actually invade Venezuela, attempt to destroy the Bolivarian Revolution, install a puppet government, and gain control of the country’s oil, gas, and precious metals. So far, there have been four strikes (September 2, 15, 16, and October 3) on vessels in international waters, but not a scintilla of evidence that the vessels were carrying drugs. Some 4,500 troops (insufficient for a land invasion) and eight warships are stationed off Venezuela’s coast. In addition, several fighter jets have been moved to Puerto Rico. The U.S. State Department has raised its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest from $5 million to $50 million.
Here we might recall that on September 4, 1970, the Chilean Left held an enormous rally of some 800,000 workers and peasants who marched before President Salvador Allende, who was standing on the balcony of the Moneda Presidential Palace in Santiago. They chanted, “Build People’s Power! Allende, Allende! The People Will Defend You!” And perhaps more importantly, they pleaded, “We Want Guns! We Want Guns!” For clearly debatable reasons, Allende refused to arm the workers and peasants, and on September 11, a military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the socialist government. Allende was too late in finding out that there is no “peaceful road to socialism” when faced with the implacable force of U.S. imperialism that refuses to allow the “threat of a good example.” Maduro learned from the Chilean case and has distributed AK-47s to millions of citizens who are eager to defend the country’s sovereignty.
We know there has been a strategic retreat by U.S. imperialism in the face of China’s rise and the U.S./NATO defeat in Ukraine. Trump’s fascism is directed at “the Homeland” and the Western Hemisphere. But Trump — who couldn’t even defeat Yemen — might pause at the prospect of coffins coming home from Venezuela.
Finally, a note: John Pilger’s documentary War on Democracy (2007) opened my students’ eyes to U.S. imperialism in Latin America as no classroom lecture could have done. Among the film’s countless attributes were interviews with Hugo Chavez and how the Venezuelan people (and military) rallied to save him from being toppled by Washington. Even given the passage of time, Pilger’s film remains timely for understanding what’s happening today.
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