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It is a fact of life that Stalin, Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, and Salazar have plenty of nostalgics across the world. Roosevelt and Churchill not so much, despite their actions impeding the little moustachioed man from annexing continental Europe to South Bavaria. Most people commenting on Venezuela these days must have forgotten their own history and have taken leave of their senses. Instead, in this moment of cautious optimism after enduring 26 years of chavista rule, Venezuelans the world over have had to put up with pedantic callousness from people that have no skin in the game. Since January 3, the whole world seems suddenly preoccupied with what will happen with Venezuela's oil. Did we ever hear a word of condemnation for the 55,000 barrels of oil a day Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro sent to Cuba since 2000? We did not.
Fidel Castro was the eternal "anti imperialist" figure. With open and secret admirers in most countries, siding against Uncle Sam became fashionable (not before Europe was saved from Nazi Germany of course). Chavez invited Castro's occupation army, disguised as several thousand "doctors, nurses, sports trainers, and policy advisers." In reality, Castro personally handled Chavez and Maduro, and Cuban intelligence contributed significantly to establishing chavismo. Did we ever hear any criticism about chavismo's peculiar understanding of sovereignty? We did not.
Now the whole world is "worried" about Venezuela's sovereignty and oil. Not the sovereignty trampled by Fidel Castro's occupation army. Not about the oil Cuba already took at the rate of 55,000 per day since the year 2000. Opinions have already been formed. It was never about the plight of Venezuelans and their suffering. No, it's about Donald Trump and his imperialist designs. Had Trump not ordered the military operation of January 3, Venezuelans would still be adding 55,000 barrels a day to the losses. Had U.S. forces not killed 32 Cubans that formed part of Maduro's closest security detail, we would still be described as unreliable alarmists. Apart from official statements from Cuba, the fact that 32 Cubans were killed in very close proximity to Maduro, inside Maduro's sanctum, has not made any eyebrows to raise among those "preoccupied" with Venezuela's oil. Imagine the uproar had 32 Americans been killed while handling Venezuela's President's security.
People "concerned" with Venezuela belong in two camps: one formed by those who have forgotten their own history (nostalgics of Stalin, etc.) and secretly pine for Maduro due to his "principled and sovereign" stance, and another that discovered Venezuela in the news on January 3. Both groups are equally ignorant of our reality. Both groups's concerns are equally misinformed. Venezuela is not a topic that lends itself for chit chat, for meaningless conversation like the weather. It is a hugely complex scenario, unique in many respects. Those who have not been suffering chavista rule for 26 years can't begin to comprehend what this is about. Our collective lived experience could not be more different to that of American and European citizens. We've seen the glee of Delcy and Jorge Rodriguez on forced TV broadcasts at times when chavista thugs and army were literally killing Venezuelans opposed to chavismo. We've seen the results of Chavez performative "conciliatory" displays, now poorly replicated by uncharismatic Jorge Rodriguez. Since 1999, Venezuelans have seen chavista officials lie with such perverse gusto that it is impossible for us to take them at face value any longer.
There are many examples of chavista deranged mendacity. Some unfounded claims have been more successful than others. For instance, once upon a time, on publication of poverty figures by Venezuela's Statistics Institute (INE) showing that poverty had increased in the first five years of chavista rule, Chavez took the phone and rang INE's Chief to order that "neoliberal" methods of measuring poverty should be discarded, new "revolutionary" methods should be used, and announced that poverty had decreased from over 50% to about 30%. The miraculous drop in poverty took place overnight. Another time Chavez said that UNESCO had "certified" that Venezuela was an "illiteracy free country." But perhaps the most successful BS claim Chavez ever came up with, was to order his minions to "certify" and add to Venezuela's oil reserves whatever amount of untapped extra heavy crude oil deposits in the Orinoco Oil Belt (OOB). Thus, Venezuela's oil reserves went from over 100 billion barrels to over 300 billion barrels. On Chavez's orders, pretty much overnight.
The claim "Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves" has never been independently verified. It's a self reported number, shrewdly fed and repeated to predominantly ignorant audiences. While Chavez was making indiscriminate and unaccountable use of Venezuela's largest ever oil windfall (exceeding a trillion USD), both the country and its oil conglomerate (PDVSA) were being indebted at a very rapid pace through issuance of bonds. Claiming to have the world's largest reserves as collateral turned out very useful. Estimates suggest over $160 billion worth of debt was issued. However, everyone ignored a crucial aspect of the claim: for crude to be accepted as proven reserves it has to be recoverable. In fillings to the Security and Exchange Commission, PDVSA admitted that OOB reserves had a 20% recovery (maximum). For that recovery to happen billions of dollars of fresh investment need to be made. If recent news are any guide, Venezuela remains "uninvestable" until a robust legal framework to protect foreign investment is implemented. Repsol's CEO's sexing up his company and Italy's ENI operations in Venezuela should be ignored. Both companies exert huge influence in their respective country's governments and President Trump's people should demand from those governments to start handing over Maduro's associates instead, before asking to be considered as reliable partners.
Another curious aspect of Maduro's arrest lost in the commentary has been the treatment he and Cilia Flores are getting, showing together everywhere, rather than keeping them separated. When Noriega was apprehended he wasn’t shown that kind of deference. Ditto Chapo Guzman.
A dark fleet vessel that was trying to escape was boarded in the North Atlantic, between the UK and Iceland. The UK cooperated in the mission. All of this happened despite Russian claims that a submarine had been dispatched to protect the vessel, which re-register as a Russian ship mid way through the Atlantic. The Trump administration appears resolved to show that this time around they’re serious about dealing with Maduro and his friends. As a result, three of the 16 dark fleet tankers that escaped the naval blockade around Venezuela u-turned and headed back.
In light of President Trump's operation in Caracas, Europeans have shifted their attention to Greenland. The conventional wisdom appears to be that the U.S. is about to invade it. The U.S. keeps military bases in Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, Poland and Belgium. The U.S. is also a NATO founder and member, and has made important contributions to the Ukraine's defence against Putin, whose overt and covert actions against NATO and non-NATO nations since 2022 have been an endless cause of concern among EU countries. European leaders are too busy protecting badgers, putting the environment before people's needs, and stifling growth and entrepreneurialism. Militarism is a dirty word in Europe, however inexplicably, having witnessed what's been happening in the Ukraine, bordering countries and beyond since February 2022, EU leadership's reaction to Putin's war of aggression is still meek and deficient. Rallying behind Denmark and Greenland regarding Trump's claimed annexation wishes is widespread, however it's a great shame that such resolve against Putin is lacking. Which prompts the next question: what will Denmark individually, and Europe collectively do, when Putin decides to take control over Arctic’s waters, or direct a ballistic missile to a European city? If Europeans can’t get their act together when it comes to its own borders' protection, what hope there is for Venezuelan victims of chavismo? We'd say to Greenland: let the yanks come already and establish a base. For what's the alternative: Putin?
Pedantic callousness takes many forms. One is to believe without question and to replicate farcical statements coming from President Trump's alleged Venezuelan puppets (Delcy and Jorge Rodriguez). One of the latest is that a large number of political prisoners had been released as a goodwill gesture. This proves that chavismo's efforts to disprove existence of political prisoners in Venezuela was as believable as non-existence of a Cuban occupation army. Second, releasing couple dozen of over 1,000 estimated isn't goodwill, but yet another exhibit of the Rodriguez siblings' wretchedness. They've been "in power and control" for over a week.
We can only hope that the threat of kamikaze drones hangs over the different heads of the chavista Hydra. If that doesn't work, Palmer Luckey should be unleashed on chavismo.
