Trump’s overplayed hand |
IT’S useful to know the lay of the land that Donald Trump sought to breach with the kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Is there a power vacuum after Maduro’s exit? Evidently not. Will the Bolivarian republic crumble before the firepower of America? Unlikely, in view of the fact that too much Russian, Chinese and Iranian investment has gone into buttressing Bolivarian rule for it to be easily scuttled. Remember that Hugo Chávez was also kidnapped in a coup staged by the CIA. But his people rallied and Chávez returned to lead the country until his mysterious early death. Tariq Ali, in his memoirs, You Can’t Please All has a chapter on his meetings with Chávez and Maduro. It’s titled “Was Hugo Chávez murdered?” There’s a distinct possibility his cancer was induced.
The story, however, is about Donald Trump’s fear of Brics and his suspicion of the Bolivarian revolution Chávez launched after his electoral victory in Venezuela in 1998. This has irked the West. In this sense, the story hasn’t really moved forward since the Anglo-American Operation Ajax toppled Mohammad Mosaddegh’s elected government in Iran in 1953. That was about oil. Last week’s kidnapping of Maduro is also about oil even if the Trump administration is rowing back from its claim of running Venezuela.
What role is Brics playing to worry Trump, so much so that two key Brics members, Iran and Venezuela, are in America’s constant crosshairs? They are both heavily sanctioned countries. With Brics becoming a cohesive financial and economic platform, the hold of sanctions as a........