VENEZUELA: TARGET “FOR REGIME CHANGE”?
Venezuela (est. pop. 34 million) was once a friendly, compliant nation for the US. It was a steady producer of petroleum and safely in the hands of governments controlled by and for the benefit of the local bourgeoisie and foreign oil companies. But in 1999 the government changed to one led by military officer Hugo Chavez, who promised to distribute the wealth of Venezuela, mainly from petroleum, among less wealthy Venezuelans. Chavez died in 2013 and was succeeded by Nicolas Maduro, who promised to continue the same policies. Chavez was popular with the masses, but Maduro is less skilled as a manager and politician, and opposition to him has grown to the point where the US felt it could actively and openly support an opponent. The anointed one was Juan Guaido, but he decamped to Florida. So now the order of the day may be ‘regime change”.
The US has come up with a pretext for “regime change”: it accuses Venezuela of shipping narcotics (esp. cocaine) into a receptive US market. But the truth is that Venezuela is not a major source of drugs being smuggled into the US. In any case the US Navy is actively patrolling the Venezuelan coast and US forces have killed 17 people as alleged drug traffickers. The idea is to intimidate the Maduro government and bring about defections from among his military supporters. If this does not work, can direct military action be far behind?
Sources: The New York Times,10/3/25, Calendario Atlante de Agostini, 2025