Justice to a Venezuelan Dictator or the Progression of US imperialism?

On Saturday 3rd January, President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela was illegally kidnapped and extradited to the USA, namely New York City, by CIA operatives ordered to carry out Operation Absolute Resolve. Alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, President Maduro is expected to face a grand series of allegations of crimes most notably involving Narco-Terrorism within New York. However, what many political theorists and politicians themselves have succumbed to regarding this action, is a clear shift in the global agenda and attitude involving sovereignty.

Within politics and international relations, a central concept in the way states govern and involve themselves in society is the key concept of sovereignty. Sovereignty is the supreme and independent control of a territory - often a state/country - and with this comes the capacity for the state to not be overridden by external political entities, such as bodies like the EU or UN. Furthermore, sovereignty also permits a state to utilise any framework it chooses in order to solidify control or grant more freedoms to their populus. Examples of these include democracies, monarchies and authoritarian regimes. Beyond this, interventionist means (when a state or other individual/body takes action inside the borders of another state) therefore can be perceived to violate the essential value any state should have, sovereignty.

Hence, we come to the core of our issue.

Why does the Trump Administration correlate the interests of the people of the United States to the political structure of Venezuela? 

Firstly, it is important to denote how the United States of America has a historical precedent for intentionally overthrowing dictators in power. However, it shall be contested in this very article, despite the proclamations of Secretary of War Pete Hesgeth, that the United States of America not only has violated international law through their forceful and unmandated bombing of Caracas alongside their kidnapping of a sovereign leader of a state but the purpose of this given assault was not to fulfil some moral-high-grounded agenda of ridding an undemocratic, fascist dictator but rather to exemplify ‘US Imperialism’. This term refers to the USA’s pattern of overthrowing far-right authoritarian regimes and as a byproduct often seizing their oil deposits or imposing damaging economic sanctions upon them.

An example of such US imperialism could be seen through the NATO Operation of 2011 in Libya, in which Muammar Gaddafi was eliminated due to his nation-wide eradication of the Libyan population. However, it is important to clearly identify the economic landscape, namely their vast supply of oil and how through NATO, the USA managed to acquire large sums of oil. Henceforth, the same sequence of international relations is projected into the realm of politics, one in which an authoritarian fascist regime is ignored by the USA until their dominion of oil begins to be threatened. 

Second, comes the calls and mentions of freedom and liberty, a disguise if you will, to legitimise the invasion of a sovereign state. Thirdly, the physical force enters into a state’s boundaries and murders the forces of the regime, supposedly guaranteeing the rights of the people. Lastly, the USA abandons any efforts to directly assist or remedy the wounded economy, selling and expending the natural resources in their own state.

A common criticism of such perspective is often how it fails to realise the sociopolitical relief brought upon the people by preventing crimes against humanity, genocides or ethnic cleansings, however it fails to recognise how the harsh economic sanctions and tariffs often projected from the USA result in these poor populations empowering authoritarian, far-right-wing extremists with the promise of basic human rights and physical basic commodities. Henceforth, it is appropriate to state that the USA fuels humanitarian and terror crises with the long-term goal of sustaining substantial amounts of fossil fuels, in the goal of economically expanding their energy sector.

I now ask you, reader, in the ending lines of this article, when do you think the momentum of US imperialism will be impeded and if so, by who?