U.S. interferes in July 28 Venezuela election – once again

Venezuelans expect to go to the polls to determine the future of the country’s government on July 28, but the long history of U.S. interference in the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people looms over the contentious election. 

The history of U.S. interference in the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people dates back over a century. In 1895, President Grover Cleveland contested Britain’s influence in the Western Hemisphere through invoking the Monroe Doctrine — a policy of U.S. imperialist dominion over all of the Americas and the Caribbean.

The peoples of Venezuela live atop an ocean of oil, which the U.S. has sought to control since the early 20th century. The administration of Howard Taft supported General Juan Vicente Gomez’s seizure of power in 1908, the first of many U.S-backed coups d’etat. Gomez remained the country’s de facto head of state for almost 30 years. Capitalists raked in profits by exploiting workers under the succession of destabilizing military takeovers in 1945, 1948 and 1958.

The threat of military force and economic sanctions compelled subsequent civilian governments to comply with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other global financial institutions. To put a stop to the wholesale theft of the country, Hugo Chavez, a progressive military colonel, made two attempts in 1992 to march soldiers into Caracas and overthrow the comprador government. 

Famously, Chavez addressed the Venezuelan people on live television, saying, “Comrades: unfortunately, for now, we have not achieved our intended objectives in the capital. … New possibilities will present themselves and the country will move decisively to a better future.”

Hugo Chavez elected president in 1998

Six years later, Hugo Chavez would be elected president. His socialist-leaning government nationalized industries, and efforts were made to democratize the administration of state through the establishment of communal councils and a new popular constitution. Another coup attempt during the George W. Bush administration in 2002 was defeated by Chavez’s government within 48 hours. 

Venezuelans wrenched back control of domestic oil production to fund programs to increase literacy and access to food, health care and housing. After Chavez’s death in 2013, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela has continued to struggle for the health and sovereignty of its peoples through the administration of former bus driver and union organizer Nicolás Maduro, now president.

Ten years and myriad imperialist attacks later, Maduro now faces a re-election challenge from an opposition that will attempt to sell the country back to the capitalists. Borrowing a page from the Trump playbook, for the last several months corporate media has tried to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the outcome should Maduro be re-elected. 

The New York Times on July 10 cited dubious claims about electoral fraud by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems; its chairperson is international real estate banker William C. Eacho, who was granted an ambassadorship by President Barack Obama after donating over $500,000 to his 2008 campaign. The Times failed to disclose that Eacho was also a senior adviser for the Department of National Intelligence in 2015 when the Obama administration designated Venezuela as an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” This was, effectively, a declaration of hybrid war on the country.  

According to the Times, supporters of regime change insinuate that the Maduro government is to blame for the low voter registration rate among the 640,000 Venezuelan nationals in the U.S., while ignoring the fact that many of them are poor, undocumented and live nowhere near a Venezuelan consulate.

Critics of the socialist Venezuelan government claim refugees have fled “in search of the American dream,” yet thousands are denied entry at the U.S. border in Tijuana. (CSIS.org, Nov. 27, 2023) Last September, more Venezuelans attempted to enter the U.S. than people from any other country. (voannews.com, March 31)

U.S. sanctions behind flood of Venezuelan refugees

The unbearable conditions of living under a U.S.-sanctioned regime caused thousands of people to seek food, medical care, education and shelter abroad. The Center for Strategic & International Studies noted that of the half million migrants who crossed the treacherous Darién Gap on the border of Panama and Colombia in 2023, an estimated 60% were Venezuelan. 

Thousands more refugees enter the U.S. by avoiding Customs and Border Patrol checkpoints, leaving them vulnerable to arrest, deportation and violence at the hands of police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

The number of people attempting these so-called “illegal” crossings has halved in the last year because of the Biden administration’s recent deportation orders that specifically target Venezuelans. On Oct. 18, 2023, ICE claimed that it deported 300,000 Venezuelans during the summer of 2023. 

Those who are permitted to enter are placed on “parole,” an arrangement which allows businesses to exploit their labor in exchange for paltry wages.

Threat of U.S. military intervention

The threat of another U.S. military intervention has loomed over Venezuela for decades. Sen. Marco Rubio, who represents a fervently pro-war and anti-communist constituency, has preemptively declared the upcoming election illegitimate. Rubio, himself a right-wing child of Cuban exiles, decried Venezuela’s new laws cracking down on fascist agitation. As a ranking member of both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rubio made a clear threat on April 8, in a FRC press release: “The United States and the international community must respond swiftly and hold the regime accountable.”

In August 2018, Nicolás Maduro survived an assassination attempt which the Venezuelan government says was planned and financed by right-wing Venezuelans living in the U.S. According to CNN, at least one of the assassins later claimed to have met with officials from the U.S. State Department. (March 14, 2019)

Weeks later, Maduro defiantly traveled to New York City to attend a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, after which he made a surprise appearance at the Riverside Church in Harlem alongside Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel. He told the assembled crowd: “We have been the victim of enormous imperialist aggression. However, today on September 26, 2018, the Bolivarian revolution of Venezuela is on its feet, it is alive, and it is victorious.” (tinyurl.com/3685jj6u)