Don’t be surprised about Venezuela: the US has always been a ruthless, rapacious empire |
THE surprise is that anyone was surprised.
Maybe it was the speed and slickness of the operation to catch and capture Nicolás Maduro and his wife, but it’s not as if there weren’t warning signs.
There was the small matter of a naval blockade off Venezuela and 15,000 troops in an armada, including the biggest warship in the world.
We now know there were negotiations going on last year with Maduro to persuade him to stand aside but he wouldn’t buy.
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It’s not as if the US hasn’t done the same thing on many occasions before.
They kidnapped their former stooge Manual Noriega from Panama exactly 36 years ago in December 1989, flew him to the US, tried him and sentenced him to 40 years.
The president of Honduras was forced to stand aside in 2022, extradited to the US and jailed in 2024 for 45 years. Though in his case Donald Trump pardoned him last year.
The US has been doing this sort of stuff in Latin America for decades, deposing rulers, supporting authoritarian governments like Chile’s Pinochet or Paraguay’s Stroessner.
Nicolas Maduro getting off a helicopter on his way to Manhattan Federal Court (WABC via AP) (WABC/AP)It’s only since World War II that they extended their disastrous unilateral illegal activities to........