American Intervention in Venezuelan Affairs
In the wake of the Cold War, America prided itself for being at the forefront of the “Free World,” a group of countries associated with democratic, capitalist political landscapes. In the name of this “free” world, the U.S. government bypassed the autonomy of other nations in order to fight the good fight against communism. By painting the USSR as an evil, immoral institution, America sidestepped smaller socialist countries without blinking an eye.
Even today, America attempts to reconcile the problems of other countries, and more often than not, our hands do not always come out clean. Desert Storm is an example of this.
I believe that because of our past actions and protrusions, America, as a rich and autonomous nation, should help the countries we once bullied and bulldozed. Although there are many countries that deserve our help and charity, Venezuela is certainly in need of urgent relief.
During the 1970s, Americans’ deep and visceral fear of communism lead to the planning of Operation Condor—a campaign which destroyed many South American countries through America’s promotion of brutal dictators. In order to destroy any Soviet influence on South American nations, the CIA and other intelligence agencies backed dictators and any leaders who promised to employ strict, authoritarian regimes.
Now, the United States faces a crisis of instigation. I believe that because of the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, America should start the long overdue process of reparations to the continent of South America and help the country regain strength.
Although Venezuela was not immediately affected by Operation Condor, I believe that the country is only now feeling the effects of this clandestine mission. Because of America’s capitalist intentions to secure profit from any resource-rich country, Venezuela now suffers greatly from the exploitation of what was once their most valuable source of income: oil. Around 11 billion dollars in oil revenue “disappeared” from the state-run oil fund, and due to the mismanagement and confiscation of oil profits, Venezuelan currency has reached an inflation rate of 800 percent.
As a result of an incompetent leadership from socialist president Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelans live in crime-ridden squalor. According to the Washington Post, many lawmakers and congressmen in Venezuela believe Maduro to be a dictator in the making. Before much outcry and protest from global news networks and leaders, Maduro stripped Venezuela’s highest supreme court of any ability to pass legislature. As a result of the country’s declining quality of leadership and its increasing debt and poverty, thousands of citizens have been forced to rob stores in order to get basic convenience items such as toilet paper, and thousands more cross into neighboring countries each day to eat a meal. Gangs and violence threaten the streets. Infant mortality and homicide rates are steadily increasing.
In a particularly profound NPR news segment, reporters interviewed a Venezuelan woman who had turned to sex work in order to sustain her family. They talked about the desperate measures that some Venezuelans must take, sometimes walking for hours to beg for food in Colombia and Brazil.
Starting around 2011, United States-Venezuelan relations have been rocky. Then-Vice President Maduro ejected two American military attachés from Venezuela, and as a response, many Venezuelan diplomats and ambassadors were expelled from the United States. Before then, there were plenty of problems with the intercountry relationship: drug trafficking, accusation of working with the Soviets and the Iranians, among many other scandals.
Venezuela is facing the consequences of our materialism. It is time for the government to lend a helping hand to a country in need, once our greatest supplier of oil, now forgotten with the brush of a presidential hand.