I Am Sorry for My Friends in USA

By Maria Páez Victor – Dec 20, 2024

The Global North, empire-like countries, do not think generally they have anything to learn from the smaller, weaker, or poorer ones. This is hubris, and this attitude is to their detriment. I recall that in Venezuela, when Hugo Chávez was elected at the end of 1999, he overthrew a plutocratic system whereby the business elites of that country had dominated the two main parties which had governed for 40 years dispensing oil revenues to themselves and their associates. They were governed by the rich for the rich. On his very first days in office, President Chávez received a visit from Venezuela’s richest man, Cisneros. He came to give him a list of the names of the people he said Chávez should name to his Cabinet. Chávez answered with indignation: (paraphrasing)“Who do you think you are talking to? I am the president of all Venezuelans and you and your list can leave my office now.” Chávez wanted no truck with the people who had been responsible for the greatest theft in the country’s history, to the tune of more than 15 times the Marshall Plan. His government was not to be a government for the very wealthy. And it wasn’t and it isn’t to this day under Nicolás Maduro.

In the USA, the situation is quite different with their incoming president who is more than welcoming the ultra-rich. The Congressmen & women, Republican and Democrats, have just negotiated together a deal for the mid-year budget. This is no easy exercise which takes time and much tact. When, in years past, they could not reach a timely agreement, the citizenship was greatly affected for lack of paychecks and services. So, this was good news. Until Elon Musk, an unelected super-billionaire, now the right-hand man of billionaire president-elect Trump, decided that it was not a good deal and so persuaded Trump. But that was not all: they had the temerity to threaten the Republicans, that if they voted for this, their political career was ended. This is beyond bullying; it is a threat to the legitimate representatives of the people. Did not the citizens of the USA realize this violence to their government? Are Congressmen & women serving unelected billionaires or the people who elected them? The situation has not yet been resolved.

If Musk feels he can threaten US representatives, I also fear what he will try to do with respect to other nations. Like Trump, Musk thinks he can wade in on the domestic affairs of other countries with impunity. This week he just described the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as the country’s only savior, which led to calls from Berlin for the US billionaire to “stay out” of their politics. Musk also dared insult Canada calling Prime Minister Trudeau insufferable and saying he would soon lose power, heedless of the fact that Canada is the staunchest US ally and main commercial partner.

It then becomes quite probable that Musk will once again try to destabilize the Venezuelan government now that Trump has been elected. Musk has shown himself quite an adversary of Venezuela. President Maduro has revealed that Musk has tried to overthrow the legitimate Venezuelan government by instigating deadly terrorist acts in the country spending $1 billion to that effect.

Venezuela is in a tight spot seeing how in Trump’s past term he instigated a false president, robbed Venezuela of its oil company CITGO, intensified to the extreme the illegal economic sanctions against Venezuela which, and by blocking it from buying food and medicines, led to the deaths of at least 100,000 Venezuelans.

However, to be fair Trump has campaigned on wanting to stop the US being involved in so many foreign wars. As well he is quintessentially a businessman. So, it would more likely appeal to him to give access to Venezuelan oil to the oil producers of Texas and Louisiana to keep the price of gasoline low, than to go on a wild military adventure in Venezuela that would, with absolute certainty, result in a regional quagmire, not to mention trouble with China and Russia which have defense accords with Venezuela. The oil refineries in the USA were built specifically to refine the heavy crude from Venezuela and it is not easy, or even possible, to change that configuration. In any case, while it is true that the USA can get oil from other parts of the world, none can beat the geographic advantage that Venezuela has: the oil is only 5 days away by ship.

The US, of course, has the capacity to invade and bomb Venezuela. After all, it destroyed Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya but that would mean the destruction of the oil infrastructure. More importantly, however, is the fact that the government of Nicolás Maduro is a very popular government. Its people are highly organized into many grassroots associations, the militia counts with more than 5 million civilians, and Venezuelans -historical liberators of South America- will intensely fight for their sovereignty. There will be no welcome for any invader there. It would be Vietnam redux.

Just how much Trump will heed his noxious billionaire advisor we have yet to see. If Trump continues to be advised, led and persuaded by the likes of Musk with such disdain for the normal political protocols and customs, the result can only be ad hoc chaotic governance. Democrats should be looking seriously at the issues that these two do not share. Trump basks in popularity; he wants to be admired and fawned over. He should beware because Musk, to put it mildly, is very light on charisma or popular appeal, and he may come between him and his fans. There is a toxic whiff about Musk.

The Function of the Compatible Left Seen in Its Attacks on the Venezuelan Revolution

History has examples and lessons that we should heed. All empires fall, and the fall of Rome holds ominous warnings for today’s empire:

“The final victory over Carthage in the Punic Wars led to rising economic inequality, dislocation of traditional ways of life, increasing political polarization, the breakdown of unspoken rules of political conduct, the privatization of the military, rampant corruption, endemic social and ethnic prejudices, battles over access to citizenship and voting rights, ongoing military quagmires, the introduction of violence as a political tool, and a set of elites so obsessed with their own privilege that they refused to reform the system in time to save it.” (Mike Duncan, “The Storm Before the Storm, the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire”, 2017)

Having spent so much time, effort, study and discussion criticizing and lamenting the way the US governments have mistreated Latin America, and specifically its criminal hybrid war against Venezuela, (as well as towards Cuba and Nicaragua), it feels strange to be feeling such sympathy for the US today. My personal friends there are admittedly, not a random sample of its population. They are from my same socio-economic sphere: professionals, academics, or writers, in other words middle class, whose friendship I treasure through so many years. Admittedly, I do not personally know many of the working classes there, but I find myself worried for them even more as they can be sorely taken advantage of by Trump and his entourage.

Do they all know what perils they are facing? The Republic of the United States some time ago gave way to the Empire of the United States. If not, what are those 800 military bases around the world for if not for domination? But this week we have witnessed how that Empire is now turning into an overt, openly, unabashedly, Plutocracy. That is, government for and by the rich. The very rich.

And none of my friends, acquaintances or people I respect, belong to that deplorable class. Beware, my friends, the barbarians have entered your gates.

MPV/OT