US Offers Bounty, Forgets History of Coups and Failed Statecraft
Al Jazeera dutifully reports on the $50 million bounty the US government, courtesy of Donald Trump, has placed on Nicolás Maduro's head, hoping to finally destabilize Venezuela. The piece frames this as a new gambit, detached from a long, sordid history. What they forget to mention is that the US has been gunning for Venezuela since Hugo Chávez, supporting coup attempts in 2002 (under Bush) and
repeatedly imposing sanctions designed to collapse the economy, not just target 'bad actors.' This isn't a strategy; it's a playbook. The US government has a proud tradition of offering rewards and funding opposition groups, from Cuba to Nicaragua to Iraq, achieving little beyond empowering dictators or creating vacuums for worse actors. Sanctions on Venezuela, for example, did not topple Maduro
but contributed to a humanitarian crisis, according to a 2019 report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, causing tens of thousands of deaths. So, one might ask, how many more 'bold new strategies' will it take for Washington to realize economic warfare and bounties rarely lead to 'democracy,' but rather, prolonged suffering and regional instability?