Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration for a third six-year term Jan. 10 has heightened discussions in U.S. ruling-class circles about what Washington’s next moves on the country should be. In July, Maduro was declared the winner of a highly polarized election, which Venezuela’s opposition forces, Washington, the European Union, and some governments in Latin America have refused to recognize.
“Here’s one goal that is overdue,” op-ed columnist Bret Stephens wrote in the Jan. 14 New York Times, “deposing the regime … through coercive diplomacy if possible or force if necessary.”
The incentive, he says, should be an offer of amnesty or permanent exile for high officials in the Maduro government and Venezuela’s armed forces. Washington accuses them of throttling democracy and turning the country into a global hub for drug trafficking and money laundering.
Stephens says this might mean “U.S. military intervention of the sort that in 1990 swiftly ended the regime of the Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega.” Under Democratic and Republican administrations alike, the U.S. imperialist rulers have imposed political and economic sanctions on Venezuela for 20 years. Washington’s goal is to overthrow Maduro and his government and impose a regime more subservient to Washington.
Over a year ago, the Joseph Biden administration decided to try a new wrinkle. In exchange for a promise from Maduro that the upcoming presidential election would be fair and transparent, the administration lifted some of the crippling sanctions on oil and gas exports it had imposed on Venezuela in 2022. It also gave Chevron, the one U.S. oil company Washington currently allows to operate there, a green light to step up operations.
Washington hoped this reengagement would lead to somewhat greater stability and a more favorable situation for the interests of U.S. imperialism both in Venezuela and the region. And to tone down Caracas’ collaboration with Moscow, Beijing and Tehran.
These overtures came to an end after the July election. Chevron continues to lobby for a negotiated settlement, fearful any other solution might disrupt its business there.
But whether it’s open support by Washington to provocations by bourgeois opposition figures in Venezuela, new economic sanctions or menacing declarations about possible military intervention, they are all flagrant violations of Venezuela’s sovereignty.
The U.S. imperialist rulers’ posturing as the world’s foremost defender of “democracy” crumbles in the face of its record of bloody interventions and wars in Korea, Guatemala, Vietnam, the Balkans, Iraq and more.
Their goal is to defend their position as top dog in the world imperialist pecking order and access to markets and raw materials. The U.S. rulers and their Venezuelan capitalist allies could care less for the rights and interests of working people there.
U.S. sanctions batter working people
U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, especially those on the country’s oil and gas industry, have battered the country’s economy. Driven by growing economic hardship, more than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, more than a quarter of the population.
Meanwhile, the Maduro government has privatized some factories, mines and agricultural operations. This has led to thousands of workers being laid off, with some jailed for opposing the measures. Some 370 peasants and rural workers have been killed by hit men hired by capitalist landowners in the process of evicting them and taking back the land.
The oil sanctions have also achieved another one of Washington’s goals, to make it difficult for Venezuela to continue oil exports to Cuba at the same level it did earlier. In 2024, they were halved. The U.S. rulers will never forgive Venezuela for any aid it has provided to Cuba.
Washington increased its promised blood money for Maduro’s arrest the day of his inauguration to $25 million, and laid bounties on other figures in his administration.
On Jan. 22, incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call with Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate in the July election. Describing González as Venezuela’s rightful president, Rubio reaffirmed the new administration’s determination to continue Biden’s policy.