U.S. Discovers Venezuela Has a Leader, After All
NPR’s recent piece breathlessly captures the 'confusion' in Venezuela after the U.S. 'captured' Nicolás Maduro, with former President Trump asserting the U.S. would take control. One might assume this was a surprise event, rather than the latest chapter in a long-running, publicly documented saga of U.S. interventionism. The 'who's in charge' question always seems to arise only after Washington
decides it doesn't like the existing answer. This 'wondering' conveniently omits the coup attempts Washington backed in 2002 (against Hugo Chávez), the sanctions aimed at crippling the economy since 2017, and the 2019 self-declaration of Juan Guaidó as 'interim president'—a move quickly recognized by the U.S. and its allies. The media consistently frames these foreign policy objectives as internal
'crises,' carefully sidelining the history of U.S. interference that predates NPR's sudden journalistic curiosity. How many times must a nation's sovereignty be 'misunderstood' before the pattern becomes clear?