About Venezuela

I am certainly sympathetic to views that Trump’s Venezuelan adventure should be condemned because it dovetails with his generally pro-Israel views. It relieves Israel of a staunch critic  and offers opportunities for our oligarchic, heavily Jewish elite to exploit Venezuela. It does nothing to advance the interests of White America—unless some of Mayorkas’s Venezuelan illegals decide to repatriate themselves. And I feel betrayed by the years of Trump saying he was against regime-change actions only to attempt yet another one. Can Iran be far behind?

The good news is that—at least so far—there are no U.S. troops on the ground. The plan is to effect a bloodless decapitation by removing an evil dictator. If that happens, we can only regret that something similar didn’t happen in Iraq. What’s unacceptable is a forever war with American casualties.

The bloodless coup could only happen if Venezuelans were basically okay with it, and apparently they are or else there would be massive rioting in the streets of Caracas. If I were Venezuelan, I would be happy Maduro is gone no matter how it was accomplished. There are credible reports that his regime was engaged in oppressive behavior—killings, torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detention of his political opponents, and that he stole Venezuela’s presidential election in 2024. He destroyed the Venezuelan economy, including its oil industry to the point that Trump is asking American oil companies to invest hundreds of billions to rebuild it — unlikely to happen because companies like Exxon have had property expropriated in the past and lack confidence in the long-term stability of the government. Around eight million migrants left the country under Maduro. Many came to the U.S., and more would come if Maduro was allowed to continue his depredations and socialist incompetence.

So Maduro is a bad guy, but it was refreshing to hear that the reason for the decapitation was Venezuelan oil— but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad for the Venezuelans despite the “might makes right” rhetoric. This is not about the democracy and freedom excuses given by the neocons while their real aim is to help their favorite country. Like Stephen Miller, I am unconcerned about the legality of the operation or whether it can pass muster with sanctimonious, Trump-hating liberals. As Miller said, it’s about the ability to exercise power. ““The United States is using its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere. We’re a superpower, and under President Trump, we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower. … the post-World War II period of the West ‘apologizing and groveling and begging’ was over.” Miller has the mindset of his co-ethnics who are running Israel—it’s all about power. Morality be damned.

Now I suppose it’s possible that this will not turn out well for the Venezuelan people, but it’s hard to see how things could get any worse for them. So until it’s obvious they are worse off under the new arrangement, I will continue to believe that they could be far better off getting rid of socialism and an oppressive government, and getting an economy that works. Let’s face it, most of Latin America is unable to govern itself sensibly. As Ann Coulter wrote:

Back when the U.S. was constantly meddling in Latin America, removing and inserting leaders at will, I note that 100,000 Americans weren’t dying of drug overdoses every year. Cuba and Venezuela weren’t emptying their prisons and mental institutions into our country for fun. Third Worlders weren’t streaming across our border, killing, raping and robbing Americans. Instead of cocaine and Fentanyl, the region’s main exports were things like oil and sugar. Today, they can’t manage to extract natural resources there for the taking. …

With rare exceptions, brief periods of prosperity in Latin America are invariably followed by revolution, seizure of major industries, grandiose promises to “the people,” graft, corruption, gangsterism, violence and economic collapse. As historian Paul Johnson put it, “Everyone in [Latin America] talked revolution and practiced graft.”

Richard Lynn estimated Venezuelan IQ to be around 88, so it’s not surprising that they are not very good at governing themselves — like voting themselves into a socialist dictatorship. Some countries need managing for their own good. Haiti for example, but managing Haiti would be a crashing headache and there would be nothing for the U.S. in such a relationship, except maybe preventing Haitians from trying to get to the U.S.

There are also classic great power conflicts of interest here. Besides having access to Venezuelan resources, making Venezuela into a puppet of the U.S. would keep China at bay. And can anyone believe that China would treat Venezuelans better than the U.S.?

China is Venezuela’s largest creditor and, by far, its largest buyer of oil, accounting for more than 80 per cent of crude exports. China is also a major investor in mining and infrastructure under Mr Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. In 2024, bilateral trade in goods reached US$6.4 billion (S$8.2 billion), a year-on-year increase of 52.5 per cent.

Chinese companies also dominate telecommunications in Venezuela.

Russia is also deeply involved in Venezuela. As much as I would like to see Russia as part of the West and with a strong alliance with the U.S., that is not going to happen until Trump simply overrides Zelensky and the Europeans who are in favor of forever war and forces an end to the war. That would be an excellent expression of U.S. power and confirm the reality that NATO is essentially dead. Western Europe is dying—ideologically castrated, impotent and likely to become a Muslim caliphate in the foreseeable future. Hence Trump’s threats on Greenland.

Keeping other major powers out of the Western hemisphere is certainly a legitimate American interest. It’s the same logic that motivated Putin to invade Ukraine after repeated encroachments by the West. Putin had long been patient as NATO crept closer and closer to its borders despite promises to the contrary, the last straw being Ukraine’s desire to join NATO, especially after the 2014 CIA-led anti-Russian coup.

Of course, much could go wrong with this operation. There may eventually be significant pushback from armed gangs loyal to Maduro that would destabilize the country and force a bloody boots-on-the-ground intervention that could end up like Iraq. So this is a huge gamble.

There is now a new international order dominated explicitly by power and force. And an even more powerful presidency. Congress is already impotent, and it’s unlikely they could end the operation now, nor could they have prevented the decapitation even if they wanted to. The president has become more like an emperor—which means that elections become even more important if they are even allowed to continue at all. In the late Roman Republic, civil wars raged to the point that most people were happy to see the end of the Republic and the beginning of Empire.

Given our irreconcilable differences and hyperpolarization, that may just happen here.  The belief that the other side acceding to this kind of power is an unacceptable outcome is the sort of thing that can lead to civil war. Imagine a typical, very mainstream far-left Democrat obtaining power and imprisoning race realists, White advocates, and other dissenters. It’s already happening in much of Western Europe, especially in the U.K. with the Labour government in control. Freedom of speech is an increasingly distant memory.

We have entered a very dangerous period.