US Economic War on Venezuela Has Rewarded Corruption and Undermined Democracy

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s fall from grace symbolizes the failure of U.S. and opposition tactics.

By Jonathan Ng , TRUTHOUT
Published June 11, 2023



Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Guaidó speaks to the press in Miami, Florida, on April 27, 2023.
GIORGIO VIERA / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

This spring, the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó delivered a solemn address to the international press in Miami, Florida. Claiming his life was in danger, Guaidó announced that he fled Venezuela to escape persecution and rally the world against the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

In bold strokes, he argued that Maduro constitutes a threat to “the entire world,” declaring that Russian officials recently “gave [the president] instructions” to subvert hemispheric security. “We cannot allow Russia to also continue destabilizing the American continent,” he emphasized, while blaming the foreign superpower for the region’s immigration crisis.

Ridiculing his press conference, foreign political analysts and pundits portrayed Guaidó’s speech as a sad attempt to increase his visibility after opposition leaders dissolved his “interim government” in December.

. . .

Toxic Allies
Current tensions trace back to 1998, when Venezuelans elected Chávez, an outspoken critic of neoliberal policies that exacerbate inequality. Chávez oversaw the drafting of a new constitution that redistributed power to the poor and disenfranchised — even extending social security to housewives and formally granting them the status of workers. His progressive agenda and Afro-Indigenous heritage alarmed the elite and U.S. officials, who viscerally opposed his reforms and racistly referred to him as a “monkey.” Increasingly, the State Department regarded Chávez as an obstacle to the liberal consensus — the blend of open markets, formal democracy and U.S. hegemony — that policy makers envisioned for the region.

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https://truthout.org/articles/us-economic-war-on-venezuela-has-rewarded-corruption-and-undermined-democracy/