Stepping out of line

HAVANA – There’s a well-known tale that goes something like this. A gladiator is thrown into the arena to face a hungry lion while his feet and hands are tied. When the beast attacks, he is able to bite him in one ear and the lion roars in pain. The coliseum crowd starts yelling at him, calling him an abuser… That is, more or less, what is happening in Venezuela.

Venezuela stepped out of line, and the United States went after the Bolivarian Revolution. Directly or through an opposition financed by the U.S., over the past 20 years an attempted coup d’état took place, including the kidnapping of Hugo Chávez; the country’s oil industry was paralyzed; their economy was sabotaged; international financial restrictions were imposed; protests known as “Guarimbas” from the right happened, some who went to the extreme of burning people alive on the streets; and there was even an attempt to kill President Nicolás Maduro with drones.

Now they surprise us by naming an unknown as president — who proclaimed himself that — after not recognizing Venezuela’s last election. Under this premise, the United States and its allies can decide who governs anywhere in the world. The new world disorder is under way.

Reasons for this violation of international law are easily identifiable. While there is a progressive regime in Venezuela, the United States can not dominate the geopolitics of the region. Venezuelan riches are enormous and American companies can not control them as before. Finally, Donald Trump is in dire need of a victory that allows him to recover his image as a tough guy and divert attention from the pending investigations in his country.

To head the operation against Venezuela, Trump has named Elliot Abrams, an official convicted by U.S. courts of illegal actions against Nicaragua in the 1980s. Literally speaking, the imps of the Iran-Contra scandal again roam the White House.

In an action not dared by any other government due to the distrust it can generate with investors and the damages that it entails for the United States, profits derived from the sale of Venezuelan oil have been seized and their control handed over to a government that does not exist. Based on this, sales of Venezuelan crude to the U.S. have been suspended and a series of North American refineries, specifically designed to process it, have been paralyzed. The consolation offered by NSA director John Bolton to the big U.S. oil companies was that they could exploit the great Venezuelan deposits once the coup was consummated.

Even a military invasion has been considered by the United States and Bolton walks around with a notebook where coincidentally there is a solitary note where “5,000 soldiers for Venezuela” is written. This caused a stir even in the Pentagon and made clear that this [U.S.] government respects nobody.

It is not surprising that some Latin American governments support a president appointed by the United States in Venezuela, this has happened many times and is functional for their own internal interests. Demonizing the Venezuelan government is a way of disqualifying the left in their countries. The other side of the coin is that, in Latin America, sooner or later, the antipathy generated by the gross intervention of the United States in the region has a cost and this case is anthological.

Less rational is that the European Union, involved in its own sovereign crisis and competing for its interests in the region with the United States, supports such behavior. However, this should not surprise us, for some time now Europe has been moving in step to American pressure and Donald Trump has them scared. Everything seems to indicate that the European Union is preparing to support a coup d’état, that not even the OAS has found consensus in supporting.

In fact, beyond the hullabaloo of the corporate media, the United States has not achieved much to legitimize its actions and one cannot overlook the fact that Russia and China support Venezuela. The vast majority of Third World countries have remained firm in support of its legality and have backed the Maduro government, especially for Caribbean nations. This despite U.S. pressure.

I do not know any government, organization or person of the left that has supported this U.S. coup in Venezuela. It is true that this support could be more forceful, but its impact has been limited by the selective diffusion of the media, the almost pathological disunity of the movements of the left and, too often, their lack of political reality. The fact is that the left is not who controls the banks, the multinationals and the big armies.

It is true that the Venezuelan process can be criticized for administrative deficiencies, corruption and political mismanagement, something, that in fact, exists almost everywhere. But this criticism can not be from the perspective of the right, ignoring the external factors that have often conditioned these problems, especially at a time when the right closes ranks to go to slaughter.

Unfortunately the rules of democracy are restricted during the war. Sometimes it is frustrating because it is not what one wants, but to act differently in these cases is suicidal, given that the right is not characterized by respecting the rules of the democratic game.

It is also true that the economic and political encirclement, as well as errors committed, have generated a great popular discontent in Venezuela and it is possible that Maduro’s management of his government has debts to be paid, which in turn will have to be explained democratically. But at present the option of the left in Venezuela and in the rest of the world is to choose between Nicolás Maduro or Donald Trump, everything else is nonsense.

Venezuela’s destiny will be decided by the Venezuelans. As long as the hard core Chavismo remains firm and the Armed Forces side with the constitutional government of Nicolás Maduro, everything indicates that they will be able to once again resist a coup d’état like the one that the Americans have set in motion.

Hopefully that’s how it will be. The other option would be terrible for all because the lion is chronically hungry and insatiable.