The Disaster That Is Venezuela

VENEZUELA

Take the Help!

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is ready for an American invasion.

“We will arm the Bolivarian militia to the teeth,” he said recently, reported Newsweek, adding that the South American country’s civil militia had 1.6 million fighters. “An invading imperialist force may enter a part of our fatherland, but the imperialists should know that they will not leave here alive.”

Perhaps the militia was girding to fight US Marines. Or maybe it was a jobs program.

“Venezuela’s economy is in free fall,” NPR wrote.

Extreme poverty is the norm. Hyperinflation could hit 1 million percent. Food, medicine, water and even energy shortages are commonplace. Citizens of the oil-rich country are scrounging for gasoline.

In a typical strongman rhetorical ploy of identifying a foreign threat, Maduro has complained about US preparations for an attack, Reuters reported. He’s also said Colombia and Brazil are gunning for him, noted the Guardian. The classic psychological interpretation of that ploy, by the way, is paranoia.

But when people believe things are real, they might as well be.

Russian bombers capable of delivering nuclear weapons as well as around 100 military personnel recently landed in Caracas, wroteWorld Politics Review, fueling speculation of a potential Russian military base in Venezuela. Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised Maduro a $6 billion aid package a few days earlier when the two met in Moscow.

Could cooperation between Maduro and Putin herald a new Cold War that might result in a repeat of the Cuban missile standoff? Probably not. The real emergency here is slower, less dramatic but nonetheless fraught with real consequences.

Around 10 percent of Venezuela’s population has fled their imploding country since 2015. Those refugees are causing humanitarian crises in the country’s neighbors, including small, unprepared islands like Trinidad, and fueling far-right leaders like Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro.

Writing in a Washington Post op-ed, Human Rights Watch researcher Tamara Taraciuk Broner and Johns Hopkins University Medical School professor Kathleen Page argued that the European Union, Organization of American States and United Nations should draw up a proper aid plan to help the Venezuelan people, and then “put considerable pressure on Venezuela to accept whatever aid is needed.”

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a left-leaning group, criticizedthat suggestion as the sort of imperialism Maduro opposes and uses to retain his grip on power.

But if an invasion of medicine and supplies is necessary to solve a public health disaster, no militia that represents the people should stand in its way.