A score of Attacks in Caribbean and Eastern Pacific waters that has already caused more than 100 deadunilaterally justified by a government that accused the recipients of its missiles and drones of being drug traffickers or “narcoterrorists” without yet providing reliable evidence to support its accusation.
A few hours after a total blockade, which was also imposed unilaterally, an oil tanker was boarded in a filmed interception operation and its cargo was confiscated, which the besieged country’s executive branch simply described as a “raid”.
A regional scenario that creates additional tensions in the hands of a ruler accustomed to carrying out coups and with little commitment to the forms and contents of an international law whose validity he despises, Donald Trump, who for weeks Set the clock of political survival of the interrogated resident of the Miraflores Palace, Nicolás Maduro, in the countdown.
The detailed display of power that the tenant of the White House repeats in almost daily allusions to the situation in what the most conservatives in the United States have always considered their “backyard” ricochets off the mirror and perhaps feeds the devalued support of whoever governs in Caracas.
Javier Milei sharply criticized Mercosur and said Argentina “welcomes the pressure” from Trump on Maduro
Venezuela has been in the news for weeks and almost daily as various media outlets announce an intervention, a war, an attack or an “imminent” invasion. In the midst of this escalation, which is increasing every day a country that is blockaded and increasingly besiegedAnd in a Caribbean where the largest deployment of the world’s most powerful military force is taking place in these waters, there are facts, actions and phrases that cannot go unnoticed.
And the winner is…
The delivery of Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado was surrounded by special spices, not only by the history and recent sayings of the award-winning Venezuelan opposition leader, who, despite his ban, was the architect of the Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutiawhich is considered in many parts of the world the legitimate winner of the July 2024 presidential electionin which Maduro called for re-election amid allegations of fraud.
Machado, whose departure from the secrecy in which she lived in Venezuela to Norway would deserve a chapter of its own, was unable to be present on the evening of her official awards ceremony in Oslo, where her daughter represented her and accepted the Nobel Prize on her behalf, surrounded by royalty and local authorities as well as a bouquet of Latin American presidents, including Javier Milei. All of these leaders waited another day for the photo with María Corina, with the exception of the Argentine presidentwho began his return to the country and completed an international journey as unusual or more unusual than the one he had undertaken some time ago to Florida in search of a Failed photo with Trump.
Even the Nobel Peace Prize was not spared from the current tensions. Far from the Caribbean heat, in the cold Scandinavian autumn, there were marches in support of Machado and rejection of the Maduro regime, but also demonstrations They denounced a political and biased tone to the awardgranted amid North American threats to launch a major armed operation on Venezuelan soil.
María Corina herself, who years ago openly suggested US intervention to overthrow Maduro, was asked about it again in an interview. They asked him if there was no a contradiction between awarding the Nobel Prize and advocating armed intervention or an invasion of Venezuelan territory, and Machado reiterated his support for this eventual intervention, saying that his country It has already been “invaded by China, Russia, Iran or Cuba…”
For Lula, an armed intervention by the USA in Venezuela would be a “humanitarian catastrophe”
A few days later the Australian Julian AssangeFounder of the leak site WikiLeaks, presented a Complaint against the Nobel Foundation for awarding the prize to Machado, who, he claimed, contradicted the goals of peace and harmony then espoused by Alfred Nobel and could facilitate a United States-led war operation in South America.
Dictacracies and Demoduras
While Corina met on European soil with family, friends and other opposition leaders in her country, including González Urrutia himself, who was living in exile in Spain, a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk was denounced that the repression, political persecution and harassment of opponents in Venezuela has increased. And all this amid growing rumors of covert or non-covert North American actions aimed at destabilizing or undermining the ruler’s support in certain sectors.
Meanwhile, the issue of Venezuela and its immediate future in the immediate neighborhood continued to be the focus of debate and controversy, although some preferred not to speak out.
This is not the new piece in the regional puzzle, the elected far-right president of Chile, José Antonio Kast. After winning the runoff against Jeannette Jara by a large margin last Sunday and after meeting with Milei at Casa Rosada, Kast said this week that he supports “any situation that ends with a dictatorship.”
Kast, defender of the dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte in Chile for almost 17 years and “his legacy”, who will take office on March 11 in La Moneda, abandoned a certain moderate tone evident on the night of his victory and expressed his opinion on a possible intervention on Venezuelan territory to force Maduro’s departure. “Of course we cannot intervene because we are a small country,” said the newly elected president, adding tellingly: “It solves a gigantic problem for us and for all of Latin America, for all of South America.”
This is assumed in the new continental scenario Kast will join Milei, to the Paraguayan Peña and the Ecuadorian Noboa is among the rulers who most strongly support Washington’s policies and interests.
On the other hand, and although with critical voices towards Maduro – whom they asked in vain to show the record of his alleged victory in the last elections – the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva; his counterpart from Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaumhave shown theirs complete rejection on threats, operations and acts of war in a “land of peace”.
The Mexican president and the Colombian leader, whose country Trump ranked as “next” on a list of possible armed interventions, more than forcefully condemned the actions against boats, the seizure of an oil tanker or the orders given to the CIA for secret operations.
Lula, in turn, once again offered to act as a mediatordeclined to intervene and said yesterday that he would repeat his suggestion to the US president in a telephone call, possibly before Christmas.
Mercosur: Ice cold in the Milei Lula greeting, with an agenda focused on the European Union
Under pressure
Alarm bells were ringing this week due to journalistic versions, events and statements from officials raising the tone. The closure of Venezuela’s airspace and blockade of ports and coasts, which were considered acts of war, were accompanied by urgent movements and demands within the United Nations.
And although the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubiodefined the current Venezuelan government as “something already intolerable” for the United StatesWhile Trump reiterated that Maduro’s “days are numbered,” other prominent players in the international body voiced expressions of support for the Caracas regime.
Chinaa country that disputes United States influence in the region and global hegemony and is the largest buyer of Venezuelan crude oil (at about 600,000 barrels per day), on Wednesday supported Venezuela’s request for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. “We support countries in defending their sovereignty and national dignity,” said Wang Yi, foreign minister in Xi Jinping’s government, who called the Trump executive’s actions “unilateral intimidation.”
Again, Vladimir Putinwho called Maduro by phone last week, “Reaffirmed Moscow’s support for Venezuela’s policies to defend its national interests and sovereignty.”
Those interests and sovereignty were once again put on the table based on the “true intentions” revealed again this week by one of Trump’s recurring verbal excesses. “Remember, they took away all of our energy rights. They took all our oil not long ago. “We want it back, they took it from us illegally” Trump himself said at an air force base outside Washington. Almost a confession.
Maduro quickly responded that this sentence from his American counterpart confirmed that “Venezuela’s oil, land and mining wealth is a priority for those who today violate international law, free trade and freedom of navigation.” His questioning and dejected speeches found unexpected support.
The greatest source of Venezuelan wealth is once again fatally intersecting the fate of this country. The oil industry was nationalized in 1976during the first term of Carlos Andrés Pérez, partially revisited in his second term and reformulated by Hugo Chávez after the failed coup attempt against him in 2002, It is the most appetizing snack by many who hide more than necessary and urgently behind those who fly the flags of democracy and freedom to hide dark interests and intentions.
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