Latin America holds a special place in the history of the United States. For centuries, the U.S. government has tried and, more often than not, successfully invaded, overthrown, sanctioned, murdered, and/or destroyed anything or anyone in the region that hinted at being detrimental to U.S. capitalist interests.
In the mid-19th century, the Mexican-American War ended with the U.S. stealing half of Mexico’s territory. Mexican historian Enrique Krauze once said, “It would be hard to name a country where the United States didn’t have an intervention.” He is correct, as the U.S. has participated, either directly or indirectly, in Latin American regime changes over 50 times.
That number doesn’t even include the number of failed attempts, like the Bay of Pigs assault in Cuba. Imperialism is one hell of a drug, and the U.S. ruling class is woefully addicted. What happened in Venezuela last weekend was just another fix for our current drug-addled administration.
When Salvador Allende ran for president of Chile in 1964 as candidate of the Socialist Party, he pledged to nationalize the mostly U.S.-owned copper companies. U.S. capitalists were outraged and spent massive sums on anti-communist propaganda. It worked, and Allende lost.
He ran again in 1970, with Nixon in the White House and Henry Kissinger roaming the halls like a monstrous cryptid. Allende was now seen not only as a threat to U.S. financial interests but also as a potential friend of the Soviet Union.
Kissinger was especially concerned about the influence a freely elected socialist would have on Western European countries. Because of this, the U.S. pulled out all the stops.
Hundreds of thousands were spent on propaganda aimed at preventing Allende from taking power. It didn’t work. Allende won, and Nixon immediately instructed top U.S. officials to do whatever they could to prevent Allende from taking office.
The CIA met with Chilean military contacts in an effort to set up a coup, and a top Chilean general who opposed the coup ended up murdered. The CIA also funded the most important truckers’ union, which then went on strike. Shortages of food and necessities grew, and a general sense of chaos ensued. The Chilean military got involved, and a successful coup replaced Allende with General Augusto Pinochet.
Pinochet, a brutal far-right dictator, launched a campaign to arrest, detain, torture, and murder socialists, communists, labor leaders, student activists, and others.
Joe Eldridge, an American living in Chile at the time, said, “People were disappearing right and left from my neighborhood. Friends of mine were disappearing, and I was afraid I was going to disappear. The morgue was filled. Bodies were floating down the Mapocho River.” All of this happened because U.S. capitalists were at risk of losing money and control of the Western Hemisphere.
Last weekend, United States armed forces, under the direction of President Donald Trump, invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. Multiple civilians were killed in the attack, though Venezuelan officials have yet to confirm how many. At least 32 Cuban security officers were also killed.
Donald Trump now holds the distinction of being the first U.S. president to bomb eight countries in one year. It’s enough to doubt the credibility of the FIFA Peace Prize that Trump was recently awarded.
This operation in Venezuela strays fundamentally from previous acts of U.S. imperialism. The former neoconservative model that shaped Iraq and Afghanistan was “democratic” transformation, privatization of assets, and eventual withdrawal, or at least this is what was publicly shared.
Now, Trump is announcing direct U.S. involvement in running Venezuela and corporate control of its resources, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio keeps trying to walk back that declaration. The phrase “spheres of influence” is making a comeback, as is the justification of territorial control by national interest rather than universal values.
Maybe this is what Trump meant by “Make America Great Again,” returning the U.S. to pre-World War II rules of competition. The UN Charter’s 1945 prohibition on the seizure of territory by force is increasingly irrelevant. Case in point: Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, posted on social media a picture of Greenland with the U.S. flag superimposed, captioned “SOON.” Trump, too, is musing about seizing Greenland again, while also threatening Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, and other countries.
The kidnapping of Maduro fits neatly into the Trump administration’s previous comments about “America First” encompassing the Western Hemisphere. At his 2025 Inaugural Address, Trump announced plans to “take back” the Panama Canal, claiming Panama charges excessive rates for its use. He refused to rule out military force, stating, “We need them for economic security.”
Trump has also threatened Denmark with “very high” tariffs if it prevents Greenland from joining the U.S. and threatened to use “economic force” on Canada to pressure it to join the U.S. as the 51st state. I imagine Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have some thoughts on this plan.
The current Trump administration is pushing the U.S. and the world toward an era in which so-called superpowers supposedly compete without constraint for any resources and territories they desire. The debate around what to do with Venezuela is boiled down into two either/or false premises: support for U.S.-backed regime change or defense of all the policies of the government of Maduro.
This framing erases the voices of the people who matter the most. We can, and should, support working-class Venezuelans who have long pushed for democracy, accountability, and social justice. They should be able to do this without giving up anything to the right-wing opposition, as well as without foreign interference.
For centuries, the United States has created its own Frankenstein monster, piece by piece, put together from the bodies of thousands of dead working-class people who dared to go against the empire. It is up to us, the working people of the world, to stop the monster.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views expressed here are those of the author.
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