The reports emerging from Venezuela sketch a grim and familiar tableau: a shift from punitive sanctions to overt US military action, a population bracing itself amid fear and uncertainty, and a chorus of international condemnation over a flagrant breach of Venezuelan sovereignty. Together, they form less a sudden rupture than the latest chapter in a long-running script of coercion dressed up as concern.

The United States has shown little regard for the sovereignty of countries that refuse to align with its strategic preferences. From Latin America to the Middle East, interventions have been packaged as moral crusades—democracy promotion, human rights, global........

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