Trump's Caracas Coup: The Hill Forgets 60 Years of US Hits
The Hill dutifully reported Donald Trump's claim that the US military captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and conducted 'large scale' strikes. While fact-checking confirmed these statements to be, shall we say, 'aspirational,' the article fails to contextualize why such a bizarre declaration isn't immediately dismissed as delusion. The US has, after all, a rather extensive resume of
interfering in sovereign nations' leadership. From Operation Condor in the 70s and 80s, which saw US-backed dictatorships install themselves across South America, to the 2002 coup attempt against Hugo Chávez in Venezuela itself—a coup quickly recognized by the Bush administration—the idea of Washington 'regime-changing' a Latin American leader isn't exactly unprecedented foreign policy, just
usually more discreet than 'large scale' strikes. One might wonder if The Hill will dedicate similar column inches to detailing the public record of US interventions that fuel these conspiracy theories, or if Trump's fantastical claims will remain isolated from the inconvenient historical scaffolding that gives them their perverse resonance. Apparently, actual history is less newsworthy than a
former President's fever dream of military prowess.