It was the persistent nightmare of the revolution, a apocalyptic scenario repeated so often – every iteration more elaborate than the last – until it practically morphed into a joke: an American invasion is imminent.
The late Venezuelan leader, who ruled Venezuela from 1999 to 2013, warned of this scenario incessantly, claiming that the US president and his henchmen in the CIA and Pentagon were plotting a strike.
Covert agents, disruptors, hitmen, elite troops, hired guns, aerial bombardments, poison, submarines, fighter planes – the superpower would use every tool to smite Venezuela’s socialist project and remove its president.
“Could it be possible that they developed the technology to spread cancer and we wouldn't discover about it for 50 years?” he famously mused in 2011, while battling for cancer.
This was, to a significant degree, political drama. A fabricated series of allegations to rationalize strongman tactics, strengthen anti-US standing and delegitimise opponents. Eventually, even some adherents grew weary at tales of the Yankee bogeyman.
Rhetoric Meets Reality
But currently, over a decade after an failing Chávez passed power to his protege, Nicolás Maduro, the long-held fear is actual. This past weekend American military units targeted Caracas and seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores – the “empire” of Chávez’s discourse made manifest.
In the middle of the shock and uncertainty about what the future holds, there is a surreal twist. Historically, Chavismo – the political doctrine left behind by the late president – exaggerated the US threat in order to raise false alarms. When the danger finally arrived, he turned out to be an parallel figure of Chávez.
Parallels in Strongman Tactics
Donald Trump’s strongman approach resembles the Venezuelan strongman: both masters of bluster and showmanship who deeply divided electorates, intimidated opponents and co-opted state bodies. The real estate mogul naturally varies in myriad ways from an army officer who adopted anti-capitalist policies – but his knack to tap grievances, disregard traditions, monopolize attention and turn power into a TV show are pure Chávez.
It transcends irony that the most dramatic act of this presidency is the mission to seize Maduro. As international law lies in shreds, and the nation's citizens oscillate from optimism and fear, history has achieved a peculiar completion.
Background of Allegations and Interventions
Two decades ago, the US government at the time was implicated in a coup that temporarily removed Chávez – a action that drew parallels to the cold war era, when the US intelligence destabilized socialist administrations across Latin America.
The leader, supported by popular sectors and the military, returned to office, secured new democratic victories and spent the rest of his reign deriding Bush as a fool, a caricature, an evil figure. Following the 2003 US invasion of Iraq – rationalized through false claims about Iraq's military capabilities – many around the world shared Chávez’s assessment of the US president.
There were constant accusations of US conspiracies against him. Considering historical attempts and US military interventions in the Caribbean and Central America, a operation against Venezuela was plausible. However, it did not occur. The US continued to purchase Venezuela’s oil and remained passive while Chávez hollowed out his nation's finances.
The Successor's Strategic Warnings
Maduro, becoming president in 2013, continued the narrative of an imminent US military threat. With the economy cratering and public discontent growing, Maduro was compelled to manipulate electoral processes to stay in power – and a external menace was increasingly valuable.
During the preceding period, the US figure utilized similar exaggerations and falsehoods. He charged Maduro of heading a “narco-terrorist” cartel that was “flooding” the US with drugs – an extrapolation of Venezuela’s role as a passageway for Colombian cocaine.
Declarations of Victory and Control
“This stands as a remarkable, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and skill in the nation's record,” was publicly claimed. “No state in the world could achieve what the United States achieved.”
The operation interrupted energy to Caracas thanks “using specialized knowledge that we have”, enabling a smooth action that evicted a authoritarian leader, was stated.
Where he rests, Chávez must have spun. He often attributed blackouts – the consequence of a crumbling energy grid – on foreign agents. He frequently argued the northern empire wished to revive a 19th-century doctrine of US pre-eminence, and now there is a declaration of “supremacy”.
The plan involves the US administering Venezuela for an indefinite period. “The United States will govern until such time as we can do a secure, appropriate and measured transition,” officials stated. It was further said: “We’re going to have our major United States oil companies... go in, spend billions of dollars, repair the failing systems, the energy sector, and start making money for the country.”
Questions Over the Future
The situation was complicated by statements about working alongside individuals from the ousted administration.
Venezuelans, including the millions who have fled, are about to find out if they have woken from a political delirium or fallen further into foreign administration.
