If you want to understand U.S. foreign policy, Venezuela is a perfect case study in how the empire operates when its dominance is challenged. Like Nicaragua in the 1980s, Venezuela has been systematically punished for daring to stray from Washington’s script. Its crime? Using its resources to benefit its own people instead of American corporations. Its punishment? Economic strangulation, coup attempts, and relentless propaganda designed to collapse the country and crush any hope of an alternative model.
The U.S. doesn’t just punish; it makes examples. Venezuela is meant to serve as a cautionary tale for any nation foolish enough to believe it can act independently. And just like Nicaragua, the U.S. wraps its assault in the language of “democracy” and “human rights,” while orchestrating policies that devastate an entire population.
Chavez and the Audacity of Defiance
The trouble started when Hugo Chavez came to power in 1998. Chavez wasn’t perfect, but he did the one thing the U.S. can’t tolerate: he tried to govern in the interests of his people. Using Venezuela’s vast oil wealth, he cut poverty in half, expanded healthcare, and improved literacy rates—all while nationalising industries and reducing foreign exploitation. He even had the audacity to lead regional resistance to U.S. hegemony, forming alliances with other leftist governments in Latin America.
Washington’s reaction? Pure panic. Here was a country, in its own backyard no less, refusing to play by the neoliberal rules of privatisation, deregulation, and corporate domination. Chavez wasn’t just a nuisance; he was an existential threat to U.S. control over Latin America. Something had to be done.
Economic Warfare: Starving a Nation Into Submission
Sanctions became Washington’s weapon of choice. They started small under Bush, escalated under Obama, and became outright economic warfare under Trump and Biden. The goal was simple: strangle Venezuela’s economy, push it to the brink, and blame the resulting suffering on its government.
Sanctions targeted Venezuela’s oil sector, its main source of revenue, and froze billions of dollars in overseas assets. The country was cut off from international banking, making it nearly impossible to import food, medicine, or basic necessities.
The result? A humanitarian catastrophe. A 2019 report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research estimated that U.S. sanctions killed 40,000 Venezuelans in just two years by cutting off access to life-saving resources. Hospitals ran out of medicine, malnutrition soared, and millions fled the country. These weren’t unfortunate side effects—they were the strategy. The U.S. used collective punishment, inflicting suffering on an entire population to force political change.
Let’s not mince words: this is economic terrorism. When the U.S. imposes sanctions, it’s not targeting leaders like Nicolas Maduro. It’s targeting ordinary people, making their lives so unbearable that they’ll turn against their own government. If that’s democracy, then words have no meaning.
Coup Attempts: Regime Change by Any Means Necessary
Of course, sanctions weren’t the only tool in Washington’s arsenal. The U.S. has tried—and failed—to topple Venezuela’s government through coup attempts that would be laughable if they weren’t so destructive.
In 2002, Washington backed a coup against Chavez, supporting opposition groups that briefly ousted him. The people of Venezuela had other ideas, flooding the streets and restoring Chavez to power within 48 hours. Humiliated but undeterred, the U.S. shifted tactics, supporting a patchwork of opposition leaders, all while funneling money to anti-government groups through organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy.
Under Trump, the clown show reached new heights. In 2019, the U.S. anointed Juan Guaido, a previously unknown opposition figure, as Venezuela’s “interim president.” Never mind that Guaido had no real support in Venezuela—what mattered was that he said the right things in Washington. Guaido’s self-declared presidency was accompanied by a half-baked military uprising, openly backed by U.S. officials. It failed miserably, as did “Operation Gideon,” a 2020 coup attempt led by U.S.-trained mercenaries who were hilariously incompetent but deadly in intent.
The lesson? Washington doesn’t care how reckless its interventions are or how much harm they cause. As long as they destabilise Venezuela and weaken its government, they’re considered a success.
Propaganda: Manufacturing Consent for Cruelty
None of this would be possible without the media. Corporate outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post have played their part, parroting State Department talking points and portraying Venezuela as a dictatorship while ignoring the impact of U.S. sanctions. The suffering of ordinary Venezuelans is either blamed entirely on Maduro or treated as collateral damage in a noble struggle for democracy.
Meanwhile, grassroots movements supporting the Bolivarian Revolution are dismissed as propaganda, and Venezuelan voices critical of U.S. intervention are erased from the narrative. The result is a media landscape where cruelty is justified, and empire is excused.
Regional Intimidation: The Bigger Picture
Venezuela’s crucifixion isn’t just about Venezuela—it’s about Latin America. Washington is terrified of a repeat of the Pink Tide, the wave of leftist governments that swept the region in the early 2000s. Bolivia, under Evo Morales, dared to nationalise its lithium reserves, and the U.S. promptly backed a coup in 2019. In Chile, the election of Gabriel Boric has reignited fears in Washington of a region slipping from its grasp.
Venezuela serves as both an example and a warning: step out of line, and this is what happens. Sanctions, coups, and propaganda are the tools of an empire desperate to maintain its grip on a region it has long treated as its backyard.
Conclusion: The Empire’s Brutality Knows No Bounds
Venezuela’s suffering lays bare the brutal mechanics of U.S. imperialism. Like Nicaragua before it, Venezuela has been punished not for its failures but for its defiance. The U.S. doesn’t care about democracy or human rights—it cares about control. When a nation resists, it is starved, destabilised, and vilified until it breaks or bleeds out.
The rhetoric of liberation is a cruel lie. What the U.S. brings isn’t freedom—it’s sanctions, suffering, and subjugation. Venezuela is a crucifixion, a nation nailed to the cross of empire, its people sacrificed to maintain Washington’s dominance. And yet, despite everything, Venezuela resists. That’s the real threat to the empire: not its oil or its alliances, but its refusal to bow.
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