Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (left) and Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet (right) in Miraflores Palace, Caracas, Venezuela, January 1, 2024. Photo: Ignacio Ramonet/Resumen Latinoamericano/file photo.
Spanish writer Ignacio Ramonet holds an exclusive conversation with the Bolivarian leader.
I am in Venezuela to present, at the Caracas Book Fair, my new work: “The Infinite Conversation” (Acirema Publishing), a compilation of interviews with ten geniuses. I arrive here at a particular moment, because this country could be attacked at any time.
In fact, since last August, Washington has been building up, along the edge of Venezuelan territorial waters, a colossal military force that was reinforced in recent days by the arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford, the largest and most modern aircraft carrier in the US Navy.
This supercarrier and its strike group join a flotilla of destroyers, cruisers, submarines, warplanes, military drones, special operations units, and Marine Corps forces already deployed in the region, including El Salvador, Panama, and Puerto Rico. The number of troops ready to attack now exceeds 15,000, marking the largest US military deployment since the first Persian Gulf War in 1990.
On October 14, US President Donald Trump also admitted that he had authorized “covert operations” by the CIA on Venezuelan territory. The Republican leader justifies this unusual concentration of military power by claiming it is a “mission to fight drug cartels,” whose trafficking causes a high number of overdose deaths in the US.
But the US intelligence community itself has reiterated that those deaths are essentially caused by fentanyl, an opioid originating in Mexico, not Venezuela. Regarding cocaine routes, all studies conducted by the most serious investigative agencies also insist that 90% of the drug headed for the US travels through the Pacific, not the Caribbean nor Venezuela.
These facts did not prevent the US government from launching, beginning on September 2, a series of assassinations of civilians traveling aboard vessels, labeled without evidence as “narco-boats,” destroyed by US armed forces.
Trump repeats that his military forces are “permitted” to legally kill people suspected of drug trafficking because they are “enemy soldiers.” But this is false. Under US domestic law, Congress has not authorized any armed conflict, and has not even confirmed that a drug trafficking cartel may be classified as “terrorist.”
International organizations such as the United Nations have deemed these actions illegal, calling them “extrajudicial executions” and denouncing them as “violations of international law,” calling for an end to the bombings and for human rights to be respected.
All this has been in vain. So far, US forces have already destroyed about 20 vessels and murdered approximately 80 people without providing evidence of criminal activity, without any judicial proceedings and without any declaration of war by the US Congress.
In this context of heavy pressure and dangerous threats, I land in Caracas. To my surprise, from Altamira Square to the popular markets of La Hoyada and El Cementerio, everything is calm, serene, and normal.
The city is clean, beautiful as never before, landscaped, illuminated, decorated for the New Year holidays. I visit several shopping malls—Sambil, Tolon, and San Ignacio—and witness a festive consumer atmosphere, with overflowing café terraces. I observe no rush for “precautionary shopping.” Nor do I perceive fear, nervousness, or panic among the crowds.
I drive through the tangle of urban highways and do not detect any militarization or a besieged atmosphere awaiting bombing. There are no New Jersey-type fortifications, no Hesco barriers, no checkpoints, no visible soldiers. I do not see tanks, armored vehicles, or combat vehicles.
People move throughout the capital with complete normalcy. In short, if the intention of US authorities was to instill panic among Caracas residents, the operation has failed resoundingly.
I speak with several friends, including business leaders and foreign diplomats. All agree that this is a moment of high tension, but that citizens continue to live perfectly normal lives. They also emphasize that the authorities have enthusiastic support from their Bolivarian base and are working to transmit calm and avoid unnecessary alarm.
One morning, I am informed that President Nicolás Maduro has invited me to accompany him on a visit to a commune. I leave immediately. It is in Cagua, in Aragua state, 90 minutes from Caracas by highway.
We arrive at the La Segundera neighborhood, on the outskirts—a pleasant community with single-story homes surrounded by gardens full of blooming wallflowers.
I am struck by the beauty and splendor of the trees: saman, mahogany, ceiba, cedar. The commune is called “General Rafael Urdaneta,” and is number 4,000 in the country.
Since 2010, with the famous slogan “Comuna o nada!” (commune or nothing!), Commander Hugo Chávez envisioned the political project of a new “communal state,” meaning the democratic state of people’s power. Since then, the creation of communes has multiplied.
They are “a form of organization and citizen participation in which communities self-manage and make decisions on local development through bodies such as the Communal Parliament and the Communal Economic Council.”
The communes are autonomous and self-governing, and as President Maduro has reiterated: “No governor, no mayor, no minister can attempt to colonize the communes. The communes must be autonomous, self-owned, self-governing, powerful, free, sovereign, and rebellious. They must not allow anyone to colonize them.”
It is a sunny and very hot afternoon—91 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade. Upon arrival, I am surprised by the peace and emptiness of the streets. Usually, when the president is about to visit any location, streets fill with a boisterous crowd and one hears chants and cheers from afar. Here, silence reigns. Security is minimalist—at least in appearance. A man in civilian clothing discreetly armed over here. Another over there. A third on a corner. Nothing that draws attention. I imagine this is designed so that US military observation satellites will not detect any unusual crowd movement.
Suddenly, President Maduro arrives. I do not know where he left his vehicle. He comes walking, without close bodyguards, accompanied only by four or five assistants and advisers. He appears neither concerned nor uneasy. He displays spectacular physical fitness. He is agile, dynamic, active.
He is greeted by the very governor of the state, Joana Sanchez, and the Minister of Communes, Angel Prado. Members of the commune—almost all women—rush to welcome him with enthusiasm and affection. They surround him, embrace him, cheer him.
During the long weeks of this oppressive crisis, the president has made every effort, with grit and courage, to continue fulfilling his presidential agenda, despite the strict new security precautions he must take now that a US$50 million bounty has been placed on his capture or assassination.
It is a defiant message to his powerful enemies and their considerable technological capabilities. No one here forgets how five years ago near Baghdad airport in Iraq, these same adversaries killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a lightning precision attack.
This makes me admire even more the composure of Nicolás Maduro, who now walks undeterred, laughing, under the scorching sun, interacting naturally with all the commune members.
The president inaugurates a small comprehensive diagnostic medical center, delivers new equipment for the maternity ward, tours a renovated Super Mercal, promotes a water purification plant and a beauty salon, and warmly greets a group of young athletes on a refurbished baseball field. Then, under the shade of large mango trees, he begins a long and passionate two-hour meeting with commune members, broadcast live on public television.
At the end of this intimate, close-up gathering, the president—a Christian believer—presents the commune with a beautiful painting representing two new Venezuelan saints recently canonized by Pope Leo XIV: Saint Jose Gregorio Hernandez, the “Doctor of the Poor,” and Saint Carmen Rendiles, “Servant of Jesus.” To conclude, in the name of the Republic, he surprises the entire population of La Segundera by presenting them with a new ambulance, received with enthusiastic shouts and jubilant applause.
The event is over. Surrounded and embraced by commune members who want photos with him, the president signals subtly for me to approach his vehicle parked about 15 feet away. He finally manages to free himself from the affectionate crowd and gets into the car in the driver’s seat. I enter on the opposite side. No bodyguards ride with us. The president starts the engine, and for 90 minutes we are able to speak calmly about this crucial moment Venezuela is experiencing.
I have known Nicolás Maduro for about 20 years, when he was the brilliant foreign minister of the Bolivarian Revolution. I have always appreciated his modesty, remarkable intelligence, strong political culture, commitment to dialogue and negotiation, firm loyalty to progressive values and principles, keen sense of humor, austere lifestyle rooted in his popular origins, and unwavering fidelity to Commander Hugo Chávez.
I ask him how he interprets the current context of pressure, slander and threats against Venezuela. As he drives carefully in the soft Aragua twilight, he tells me:
“They have worked very hard to create a new narrative—‘narco-terrorism’—but at its core, it is the same thing they have always done: create a pretext to kill hope. Remember, for example, that in 1954 they accused Jacobo Arbenz, the democratically elected president of Guatemala, of being a ‘communist dictator’ because he implemented a modest land reform. They provoked a coup d’état, a military intervention, and overthrew him. Decades later they apologized, admitting it was never about communism and that they made a mistake.
Ten years later, in 1964, in Brazil, they did the same with President João Goulart. And again, decades later, they apologized. And in 1965, they did the same thing in the Dominican Republic with President Juan Bosch. They accused him of being a ‘dictator,’ invaded the country with about 20,000 US Marines and OAS forces, and many years later again recognized that Bosch was a true democrat and that the invasion was a mistake. And in 1973, the same script in Chile against President Salvador Allende—followed by the same belated apologies.
Outside Latin America, they applied the same criminal formula. In Iran, in 1953, they overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh because he nationalized oil. They accused him of being a ‘communist,’ even though he was a democrat, as all historians now acknowledge. But that crime destabilized Iran and the Middle East up to today. How many wars? How many millions of deaths since then?
Since 1989, because there is no more ‘Cold War,’ they invent new pretexts. Everyone remembers, for example, the lies about Iraq in 2003 concerning the alleged ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that never existed. They themselves eventually admitted it.
Today, they have imagined a new narrative—‘narco-terrorism’—as false as the previous ones. That is why I say: let’s not wait decades to admit a falsehood. Admit it now. And let us avoid pointless confrontations, devastation and tragedies. We trust in God, and we will always choose dialogue, negotiation and peace.”
And what if they act? I asked.
“God forbid. We are ready to engage in dialogue and defend peace. But we have also trained for any contingency. We have urged all our popular, social, political, military, and police forces not to fall into provocations at any time. But if they want to come kill our people here in South America, we call on our citizens to mobilize with patriotic fervor, which is our legitimate and sovereign right.
I have already said that if they were to act in an attempt to destabilize Venezuela, at that very moment we would order a nationwide mobilization and combat operation, and the Venezuelan working class would begin an insurrectional general strike.
And I add this: we are determined to be free. No foreign power will impose its will on our sovereign homeland. But if they break peace and persist in their neocolonial intentions, they will face a huge surprise. I pray that does not occur, because—I repeat—they will receive a truly monumental surprise. We want peace, but we are prepared. Very well prepared, for any eventuality. They are warned.”
Your enemies have a powerful Fifth Column inside Venezuela. The far right, and even part of the right, would probably not hesitate to ally themselves with invaders if they were to cross the Rubicon. Don’t you think so?
“They are not that powerful. Their allies abroad are. But here they have little support. Don’t believe what some international media repeat. That ‘miserable right,’ as I call it, is mostly treacherous and sells out the homeland. Because one must have a very degraded soul and be utterly vile to wish and advocate for a foreign power to invade your homeland and steal from the population—your compatriots—the wealth that belongs to everyone. It is the vilest thing imaginable in politics. They are vermin. And it is true that some are maneuvering to assist the enemy.
In early October, for example, we discovered that extremist sectors of this local right were preparing a ‘false flag’ attack with lethal explosives against the US Embassy in Caracas to later blame, through mass media, our government for the attack and provoke a military escalation. Thanks to our intelligence services, we discovered the operation and warned, through diplomatic intermediaries, US authorities. We gave them all the data: the names of those involved, family names, meeting times, type of explosive—everything. The worst was avoided.
Weeks later, on October 26, we captured a group of three mercenaries linked to the CIA who also planned to carry out a ‘false flag’ operation in the waters of Trinidad and Tobago by perpetrating an attack against that country to provoke an armed response against Venezuela and call for assistance from the US Navy. That escalation was also avoided and the conspiracy dismantled.
Report: Trinidad & Tobago Army Kept in Dark on US Southern Command Drill
Unfortunately, it has not always been so. We must remember that the coup d’état of April 11, 2002, against Chávez was triggered by a ‘false flag’ attack in Puente Llaguno, Caracas, when gunmen hired by the opposition fired on right-wing demonstrators and caused 19 deaths and 127 injuries.
Another example is December 6, 2002, in Caracas, when the right organized a large anti-Chavista rally in Altamira Square, and suddenly a man armed with a pistol began shooting at the crowd. He killed three people and wounded 29 others. Everything suggested it was a ‘Chavista’ attacking Chávez opponents. But the man was arrested. He was a Portuguese citizen, Jose de Gouveia, who had arrived in Caracas the previous day from Lisbon. He had been hired by opposition agents to carry out that ‘false flag’ attack to provoke a popular insurrection against the government. Thank God we dismantled that criminal plot in time. But yes, unfortunately, that is the usual modus operandi of an opposition that carries betrayal tattooed on its soul.”
Night has fallen and a light drizzle begins. Traffic is now heavy toward the capital. We are not traveling in a presidential convoy. There are no motorcycle escorts clearing the route. Only a plain vehicle ahead of us with some escorts dressed in civilian clothes.
We are immersed and concealed in ordinary traffic. Nicolás Maduro drives calmly. He shows no signs of worry or fatigue, although he confesses he has not had lunch and it is already late at night. I sense deep focus and impressive calm, despite increasingly crude threats.
What explains, in your opinion, this sudden and brutal aggression by the enemy?
“In reality, what we are seeing is an attempt to reposition the US hegemony within a geopolitical context that has greatly changed due to China’s impressive rise as a global power, and the emergence of the BRICS as a global decision-making pole. The global hegemony Washington previously exercised is increasingly challenged by these emerging powers.
In this new context, the decision of the White House and the Pentagon is first to reinforce the security theater closest to US territory—meaning Latin America and the Caribbean—its former ‘backyard.’ The goal is to reaffirm its dominance over an area that, for 150 years, since the Monroe Doctrine (1823), Washington has considered a type of ‘exclusive protectorate’ with ‘limited sovereignty’ for nations in the region, including Venezuela. The State Department also considered this area, since 1945 and the end of World War II, as a kind of ‘strategic rear base.’
By pressuring and threatening Venezuela, this new administration seeks to send a political message of force and domination to all states of the continent. They are saying ‘we are back,’ that ‘the empire has returned and we will reoccupy our central and dominant position in this continent.’ But time has passed and, as I said before, the geopolitical context is no longer the same. The era of gunboat diplomacy is over—as are the eras of coup-making and military interventions. The times of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt will not return, no matter how nostalgic the White House may be.
The new international order is increasingly multipolar and multicentric. Centers of power have multiplied, and now something exists that did not exist before: the Global South. Venezuela is part of that Global South and has numerous and powerful allies. The consolidation of these new centers of power inevitably dissolves US geopolitical influence.
This is why they want to make Venezuela an example—to deter alternative alliances and contain the expansion of other BRICS powers (China, Russia, India) in this region. Washington’s neo-imperialists want to restore exclusive political and military control over this continent to recover control of Latin America’s major strategic resources—oil, gas, copper, lithium, rare earths, and water. They will not achieve it. History does not move backward. No matter how strong their imperial nostalgia, the desire for freedom and sovereignty among our peoples is stronger.”
We are now in Caracas. Under intermittent drizzle, we drive along the endless urban expressways of this chaotic yet strangely endearing capital, weaving through monstrous traffic jams. Any other driver would lose patience, but not the president, who seems perfectly at ease. Was he not, for many years, a bus driver in the midst of such apocalyptic congestion? He drives calmly, unfazed, while clearly outlining his geopolitical analysis. Driving relaxes him.
Suddenly, turning a corner, he enters a gate leading to the patio of a modest house. We have arrived. We get out. There are large sofas outdoors. We sit and drink water. Several advisers approach with phones in hand. We say goodbye, but not without first taking some photos for this report. He agrees, as always, with kindness and a smile.
We depart with a heavy heart, watching our friend Nicolás Maduro, serious and focused, remain there alone in the beautiful Caracas night, facing with extraordinary courage the greatest and most dangerous global crisis of our time.
(Resumen Latinoamericano – English) by Ignacio Ramonet
