¿Y para cuándo la justicia, justa?
Para tod@s, la misma vara de medir.
The world has become a maelstrom, a “war of all against all.” A state of nature, again quoting Hobbes, that is “”solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” We will have only ourselves to blame.
There is no doubt Maduro was hated; that he was corrupt; that he presided over a police state. No doubt that he lost the last election. But there is a huge difference between knowing these things and executing regime change. Invading a country and throwing its leader into a prison used to be the exception, rather than the norm. Now that the US has done it, everyone will follow suit. The result will be global chaos.
There’s no doubt that Trump has provided a green light for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s likely invasion of Taiwan. They are pleased that he has legitimized their own aggression against their own neighbors. Now, Israel will assassinate Khamenei (it proposed doing so last June, but Trump rejected it). If Israel doesn’t get him first, Khamenei could assassinate Mohammed bin Salman. Putin would assassinate Zelensky–or vice versa. Xi Jinping will invade Taiwan and arrest or assassinate its president. Who would stop them? And who could blame them, considering the opportunity Trump has laid at their doorstep? Unfortunately, there are many prepared, even eager, to emulate his criminal behavior.
As for Latin America, it has known the American boot since the days of the Monroe Doctrine. America has created countries, overthrown governments, stolen its resources, imposed lackey-leaders, and bellied up to its dictators. The very term “banana republic” described American satellite states whose agricultural plenty was raped by tinpot dictators on behalf of US corporate interests.
For example, Henry Kissinger orchestrated the Chilean coup, which violently overthrew the Marxist Pres. Salvador Allende and installed Gen. Augusto Pinochet as our puppet. Rather than surrender to the goons, Allende killed himself, becoming a martyr, resisting US-backed tyranny to the end. Decades of violent repression followed, including the murders of tens of thousands of leftists, some of them US citizens.
Then there was Bush overthrowing Manuel Noriega in Panama and Reagan invading Grenada to overthrow revolutionary leftist, Maurice Bishop. Not to mention our cozy relationship with dictators Fulgencia Batista in Cuba (see Godfather II) and Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. We enjoyed a similar relationship with “Baby Doc” Duvalier in Haiti. After he was overthrown, we essentially washed our hands of the country and watched it devolve into chaos and mass violence. It has become a drug-running web of gangs. Not even a narco-state, because there no longer is a state. We made the mess and walked away, making it someone else’s problem. Similarly, Trump has added Cuba to the list of future vassal states, claiming “it is ready to fall” (undoubtedly he’s prepared to give it a push). More recently, Trump pardoned the drug dealing former president of Honduras. We are a toxic, malevolent force in Latin American politics.
America has returned to its colonial past. Latin America has, or threatens to become our sphere of influence, to do with what we wish regardless of what the citizens want. Trump’s detestation of historical precedent sets back US-Latin American relations by a century. It may take decades and barrels of blood before we can return to some semblance of decency.
