Trump’s next steps also worrisome

“We are really happy the United States intervened because the person responsible for all the miserable things that happened in the country is finally being taken care of.”

— Venezuelan-born Saidith Harrington, who now lives in Brandon

No doubt a great number of Canadians feel sympathetic to the feelings expressed by Venezuelan nationals like Saidith Harrington. Many Venezuelans cheered the removal of its president, Nicolás Maduro, by the U.S. military last Friday.

And rightfully so.

By all accounts, Maduro was leading an authoritarian government that was accused of several human rights abuses, including the deaths of thousands of people in extrajudicial killings — this according to the United Nations and Human Rights Watch.

To be fair, the U.S. mission was a military success: Maduro and his wife were captured and spirited from the country, and while as many as 80 died in the attack, no American military personnel were among the casualties.

But on the political side, things are far less straightforward, especially when it comes to the justification for the attack, and the questionable decisions made by the Trump administration in the aftermath.

For it was never about the drugs. While U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration were blowing up Venezuelan boats in foreign waters, that was the first claim, even though the boats weren’t the source of fentanyl the U.S. claimed they were.

Nor is it about regime change, despite the fact that there are plenty of reasons to seek the downfall of the illegitimate and despotic regime of Nicolás Maduro.

The United States has argued that Maduro is not the legitimate head of the Venezuelan government, because the 2018 election was fraudulent — but now has recognized Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, as interim president, with Trump arguing that Rodriguez is “co-operating” with the United States.

If that co-operation changes, then Trump says “she will face a situation probably worse than Maduro.”

But if Maduro’s election was fraudulent, then Rodriguez, on the same ticket, has no legitimacy either. So it’s not regime change — it’s regime acquiescence.

As of Tuesday, The Guardian reported that Venezuela’s new leaders had deployed armed militias to patrol streets, operate checkpoints and check people’s phones “in a crackdown to consolidate authority.” Apparently anyone who was suspected of supporting Saturday’s U.S. raid was liable for arrest.

“There’s fear,” stated Mirelvis Escalona, a resident in the western Caracas neighbourhood of Catia. “There are armed civilians here. You never know what might happen, they might attack people.”

So much for a liberated Venezuela. The dictator just changed names.

What seems more important to the United States president is whether Venezuela will be compliant. And Trump’s recent comments to media suggests the issue is profit, not political propriety.

Asked about what the next political steps would be for the country, Trump’s response was: “We haven’t gotten to that. Right now, what we want to do is fix up the oil.” And as we noted yesterday, Trump was pretty blunt about that oil, and its role in the U.S. attack.

But beyond Venezuela, the sabre-rattling has become more than unsettling.

Here’s Trump on ruling over the Western Hemisphere: “We sort of forgot about it. It was very important, but we forgot about it. We don’t forget about it anymore under our new National Security Strategy. American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”

After Venezuela? Trump’s words again: “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and the European Union needs us to have it and they know that.”

Emboldened by this successful — and wholly illegal — operation, Trump has spoken out about potential military involvement in Mexico, Iran and Colombia, and about throttling the supply of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, to the point of Cuban collapse.

“Cuba looks like it is ready to fall,” Trump said Sunday night. “I don’t know if they’re going to hold out, but Cuba now has no income. They got all their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil.” No need for military action in Cuba, he added, because “it looks like it’s going down.”

The most unsettling part is that no one in Trump’s own party seems to have any interest in reining in a president who has moved from generating international chaos to making war — and killing people — as a business decision. Just like a mafia boss.

It should be clear by now that Trump and his cronies are not the saviours that Venezuelans were hoping for, or deserved.

But it’s just as concerning what this wannabe despot may try next.

» Winnipeg Free Press and The Brandon Sun