The Government of Donald Trump seeks to expand its interference in Venezuela after designating President Nicolás Maduro and his government allies this Monday as members of a foreign terrorist organization.
The alleged “Cartel of the Suns” (an organization for which there is no evidence of its existence other than Washington’s accusation) was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US government, which will authorize President Trump to impose new sanctions against Maduro’s assets and infrastructure.
U.S. administration officials have argued that the designation — one of the State Department’s most important counterterrorism tools — will give the United States greater military options to attack inside Venezuela.
The designation occurs in the context of the military deployment of US imperialism in what it has historically considered its exclusive zone of influence: the Caribbean and Latin America. The so-called Operation Southern Spear, announced with the bellicose pomp characteristic of Donald Trump’s government, is not a routine exercise. It is a demonstration of raw force, a message addressed to Venezuela, the region and the world, that Washington is willing to resort to the military option to impose its hegemony.
US imperialism has decided to deploy its military power in what it has historically considered its exclusive zone of influence: the Caribbean and Latin America. The so-called Operation Southern Spear, announced with the bellicose pomp characteristic of Donald Trump’s government, is not a routine exercise. It is a demonstration of raw force, a message addressed to Venezuela, the region and the world, that Washington is willing to resort to the military option to impose its hegemony.
Operation Southern Spear, far from being a simple “anti-narcotics mission,” as the Pentagon disguises it, is an unprecedented military deployment in the Caribbean, a threat of open war and a key piece in the strategy of imperialist aggression. The official justification—the fight against “narcoterrorism” and the flow of drugs such as fentanyl—is a hypocritical veil that has been clearly unmasked.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth himself, when announcing Operation “Southern Spear,” was explicit in his neocolonial vision: “The Western Hemisphere is the United States’ neighborhood and we will protect it.” For this reason, a large-scale military deployment has been launched in the Caribbean, accompanied by bellicose rhetoric that points directly to Venezuela and, by extension, the entire region.
The United States seeks to reaffirm its hegemony, especially in times of internal crisis and loss of global hegemonic control.
The Trump administration’s policy contrasts with the polls. The American television network CBS shows that 70% of American citizens oppose military intervention in Venezuela, compared to 30% who are in favor of this option.
Venezuela’s government has accused the United States of spreading “ridiculous nonsense” about its alleged role in sponsoring “narcoterrorism”, as Washington continued to increase pressure on Nicolás Maduro’s regime and left-wing European politicians warned that South America faced a “torrent of bloodshed”.
The Maduro government responds with a purely rhetorical “anti-imperialist” tone. In practice, its policy has been to negotiate with imperialism and foreign capital while brutally repressing workers and poor people. The so-called “decree of a state of external commotion” does not have as its objective national defense against imperialism, but rather the reinforcement of internal control, the persecution of workers’ struggles and the criminalization of social protest. And, as has been publicly revealed, it has been able to offer greater delivery of national resources to the United States, in order to negotiate its permanence in power.
Maduro uses the external threat to consolidate a Bonapartist regime that concentrates power in the hands of an enriched civil-military bureaucracy. Under the pretext of “national unity” in the face of aggression, it seeks to silence all criticism from the left and guarantee the continuity of a model of exploitation, corruption and surrender.
In the face of military escalation, the only effective response is the independent mobilization of the working class and the oppressed. It is urgent to build a continental movement that denounces this deployment, that explicitly rejects any intervention and that raises the flag of unity of the people of the Caribbean and all of Latin America against the imperialist policy of the United States.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
