Dying Empire Lashes out at Venezuela

Donald Trump has launched a war on Venezuela, with the US military bombing the capital Caracas and capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores in the early hours of the morning.

As I write, the US Attorney General Pam Bondi has posted:

“Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States. They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts. On behalf of the entire U.S. DOJ, I would like to thank President Trump for having the courage to demand accountability on behalf of the American People, and a huge thank you to our brave military who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers.”

To avoid any doubt, this is an illegal regime change war by the U.S. to steal Venezuela’s oil. It’s unclear to what extent Maduro was complicit in this in return for safe-haven and handing over access to Venezuelan oil and mineral resources.

The invasion was quickly met with approval from Trump’s British supporters. Piers Morgan gushed that it was an: “Incredible operation. Maduro was protected by massive security. How Delta Force got him out will be the stuff of movies.”

Andrew Neil called it an “amazing military operation.” “If you want to see regime change, for good or ill, whether it works is another matter, but this is regime change in action.”

Reform’s Tim Montgomorie, seemingly having lost any moral compass, said: “The reality is that almost no other NATO ‘power’ has the military capacity or skill to have even contemplated the scale of operation that the USA has just successfully executed. For some it’s a good cop and for others it’s a bad cop but – for the foreseeable future – America is the only cop that Western civilisation has.”

Strangely, Nigel Farage suggested that Trump’s actions, would somehow deter Russia and China.

Of course it will do no such thing. Trump’s illegal attack on Caracas sends a green light for China to invade Taiwan and for Russia to be victorious in Ukraine.

Among the chaos, our spineless, useless Prime Minister came out with a statement saying he needed to “establish all the facts” before commenting on the capturing of Venezuela’s President by the US and reassuring people that “What I can say is that the UK was not involved in any way in this operation.”

While this is all chaos, it’s been a long time like this. Those bemoaning the collapse of the ‘rules based order’ haven’t been paying attention, since: Grenada (1983); Panama (1989); Iraq (2003) or Gaza today.

In multipolar chaos, the Big Three of the US, China and Russia act with impunity, unless of course their interests clash. As Trump’s legal and political troubles surround him he is increasingly likely to turn to aggressive diversions of military threats and actions, be it, improbably, against Canada, Mexico or Greenland.

As Yanis Varoufakis has said today: “The Empire strikes back, not just to grab oil and other riches but, fundamentally, to hide its own weakness at home – and to prepare the ground for subjugating its own people, in Chicago, Portland, NYC etc. Meanwhile, a vassal Europe watches in silence…”

This sense of decline and failure, and a regime utterly exposed, is palpable across America, and it fuels an already reckless collection of individuals. As Richard Seymour, author of Disaster Nationalism writes:

“A dying empire is a dangerous beast, and will exact much blood as the price of its downfall. Obviously Trump wants to consolidate the chain of far-right governments in Latin America — but like much else it does, that is pure ideology and it won’t stop the decline.”

The US assault may not be, as some have suggested, ‘regime change’ in any traditional understanding. No pretence of ‘democracy’ will be attempted. Waiting in the wings is María Corina Machado, the far-right US-backed Venezuelan coup leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize, and has promised a “massive privatization” if Trump can put her in power. She has vowed to sell off $1.7 TRILLION of Venezuela’s oil, gas, gold, infrastructure, etc. to US corporations.

She will be duly installed.

As natural resources dwindle and climate catastrophe accelerates, elite rule becomes even more brutal and uncontained. As Trump’s legal position deteriorates and his physical and mental health dwindles, his regime is increasingly likely to shift from the unhinged to the psychotic. Like here, the much-vaunted ‘guardrails’ are largely the figment of a liberal class who are watching in privileged disbelief as the lunatics take over their asylum.

Late Britain, utterly isolated from an already exposed and disempowered Europe, looks on as its partner in the ridiculous ‘Special Relationship’ descends into grotesque parody.

The anthropologist and writer Jason Hickel has written:

“Over and over the US inflicts obscene violence against the global South, in flagrant violation of international law, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation for its decadent billionaire class.  It’s disgusting and intolerable.  We cannot continue to accept this.” But its difficult to see how an isolated Britain can do anything about it.