Bloomberg Wonders Why Venezuelans Ignore US Warships, But Not Thanksgiving
Bloomberg breathlessly reports on Venezuelans, specifically the 'well-heeled,' embracing the holiday season, complete with 'half-turkeys, pecan pies and mashed sweet potatoes'—despite Thanksgiving not being a national holiday and President Maduro warning of a US invasion. The article frames this as somehow baffling, juxtaposing domestic celebration with the omnipresent external threat. What's
conspicuously absent from this sophisticated analysis? Perhaps the context of decades of US-backed coups, sanctions, and economic strangulation explicitly designed to cripple the Venezuelan state and create internal unrest. The US has imposed sanctions on Venezuela since 2005, significantly escalating them in 2017, targeting oil exports (their primary revenue), finance, and even food imports, as
documented by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. It's almost as if when a country's economy is actively being sabotaged by a foreign power (whose warships are now conveniently 'ignored'), its citizens might prioritize finding sustenance and moments of joy wherever they can, rather than hand-wringing over performative military saber-rattling. One might wonder what Bloomberg thinks
starving people should be doing instead of trying to eat.