NYT Discovers U.S. Interventionism Has 'Risks,' 60 Years Later
The New York Times portrays the Trump administration's actions in Venezuela as plunging the U.S. into a 'new era of risk.' This framing conveniently omits the foundational risks inherent in a century of U.S. interventionism in Latin America, from the overthrow of Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala in 1954 to the support for countless right-wing dictatorships. The U.S. has a long and documented history of
meddling in sovereign nations for resources, usually oil, and rarely for 'democracy.' Venezuelan oil, conveniently, is exceptionally valuable. We might ask: for whom is this 'new era of risk' exactly? For the U.S. corporate interests that benefit from regime change in oil-rich nations? For the Washington elites who profit from endless destabilization? Or for the Venezuelan people, who have been
enduring cycles of external interference since oil was first discovered?