The American newspaper The New York Times published on Saturday (the 3rd) an editorial stating that the United States’ attack on Venezuela “is illegal and reckless.” Signed by the Editorial Board and released a few hours after the action of the American armed forces, the text acknowledges that the Venezuelan president is “undemocratic and repressive, having rigged the presidential election in 2024.” However, according to the publication, in recent months the president Donald Trump would have mobilized an imposing force in the Caribbean solely to threaten Venezuela.
For the newspaper, few people will feel sympathy for Maduro, due to his undemocratic and repressive profile, as well as having destabilized the Western Hemisphere in recent years. But the editorial stresses that, if there is a fundamental lesson to be learned from American foreign policy in the last century, it is that trying to topple even the most deplorable regime can make the situation even worse.
“The United States spent 20 years unable to establish a stable government in Afghanistan and replaced a dictatorship in Libya with a fragmented state. The tragic consequences of the 2003 war in Iraq continue to affect the United States and the Middle East. Perhaps the most relevant is that the U.S., sporadically, destabilized countries in Latin America, including Chile, Cuba, Guatemala and Nicaragua, while trying to topple governments by force,” the text says.
Take advantage of the stock market rally!
In another passage, the text states that “Mr. Trump has not yet offered a coherent explanation for his actions in Venezuela and would be pushing the U.S. toward an international crisis for no valid reason. If Mr. Trump wishes to argue otherwise, the Constitution defines what he must do: appeal to Congress. Without Congressional approval, his actions violate American law.”
According to the publication, throughout history, governments have labeled leaders of rival nations as terrorists to justify military incursions as police operations. An assertion that, in this case, is particularly absurd, since Venezuela is not a significant producer of fentanyl or other drugs that dominate the recent overdose epidemic in the U.S., and the cocaine it produces is mainly destined for Europe.
For The New York Times, the most plausible explanation for the attacks on Venezuela can be found in the National Security Strategy recently released by Trump: “After years of neglect, the United States will reaffirm and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere.”
In what the document calls the “Trump Corollary,” the government promises to redeploy forces from around the world to the region, deter smugglers at sea, use lethal force against migrants and drug traffickers, and potentially station more American troops in the region.
