US Assembles 'Armada' for Venezuela, Media Calls it 'Blockade'
Newsweek reported on the US assembling its 'largest armada' to blockade Venezuela, framing it mostly as a response to 'drug trafficking.' This sounds like reasonable policing, until you remember the Monroe Doctrine isn't exactly a dusty scroll. The US has a rich, uninterrupted history of 'naval diplomacy' in Latin America, from the 1980s Contra Wars in Nicaragua (which, ironically, involved arming
drug traffickers to fund an illegal war) to countless coups backed by Washington. This isn't about drugs; it's about control, plain and simple. One might wonder if 'largest armada' truly translates to 'largest humanitarian aid flotilla' in the dictionary of US foreign policy. Historically, these 'blockades' tend to precede regime change rather than effective drug interdiction. It's a miracle how
American warships always seem to find 'threats to democracy' only in countries with vast oil reserves or inconveniently independent governments. How many times can a 'largest armada' sail before we recognize the pattern?