US Military Drills Near Venezuela: Just Friendly Games?
Deutsche Welle dutifully reports that Venezuela views recent US military exercises with Trinidad and Tobago as a 'provocation.' What they curiously omit is the US playbook in Latin America: military presence often precedes regime change efforts (see: Chile in '73, Nicaragua in the '80s). The US has openly backed opposition figures in Venezuela for years, imposed crippling sanctions, and even
supported a failed coup attempt in 2002. So, 'defensive readiness' (as the US Southern Command put it) sounds less like a football scrimmage and more like a pre-game warm-up for something else entirely. One might wonder if the US would welcome Chinese or Russian naval drills off the coast of Florida with such a casual shrug. History, after all, isn't just 'history' when it keeps rhyming with
current events. It's almost as if some nations aren't allowed to have sovereignty without first getting Washington's explicit permission. Funny how that works.