Regime Change: The Veneer of Normalcy
Venezuela’s latest installment in the saga of 'regime change and its aftermath' offers little new for those paying attention. The NPR piece, with its casual mention of “U.S. forces seized Nicolás Maduro,” breezes past the actual genesis of this so-called 'normal.' One might wonder why such a significant detail is presented with the same gravitas as a weather report. The Playbook's First Draft:
Guatemala, 1954 The concept of an 'uneasy normal' following a U.S.-backed intervention isn't fresh off the presses. Consider Guatemala in 1954. After the CIA orchestrated a coup against democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán – largely to protect the interests of the United Fruit Company – the country entered decades of brutal civil war and military rule. While the U.S. initially
touted the restoration of 'freedom,' the subsequent client regimes overseen by Generals Armas and Peralta were anything but. The 'normal' then involved mass disappearances, state-sponsored terror, and profound economic inequality, directly attributable to the unraveling of Árbenz's land reforms. The historical record shows a direct causal link between the intervention and the resulting instability
(CIA document declassified 1997). The Sequel: Chile, 1973 Fast forward to Chile, 1973. Following the U.S.-backed coup against Salvador Allende, Augusto Pinochet's military junta took power. The 'normal' there was characterized by systemic human rights abuses – 40,000 killed or disappeared, according to the Rettig Report (1991). The Chilean economy was 'restructured' under the guidance of 'Chicago