V Is For Venezuela...
G is for Gaza. I is for Iran. We can’t take our eyes off of other events happening in the world just because the oligarchy wants us to focus on one thing at a time. It’s all interconnected.
I was in the middle of writing an “annotated freestyle poem” when I heard about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife’s kidnapping. The news sent my head spinning. I asked our resident armchair historian his opinion of what was going on, what we could learn from history, and where it might be going. Here’s his take on the developing story in Latin America.
Venezuela: The New Sudetenland
By Coast Watcher
I feel like a German who saw WW2 coming and couldn’t do anything.
So wrote a friend on Saturday when the news broke of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife’s abduction from their home. Their subsequent transportation to New York City to be processed for alleged crimes unfolded over the next few hours, during which social media lit up like a Christmas tree.
Few posts by ordinary citizens and commentators praised America’s actions. Those that did were probably AI generated trolls and bots. Musk’s Grok is particularly asinine in condemning President Maduro with a spiel straight out of Trump’s playbook.
Most Western governments issued statements supporting President Maduro’s “arrest,” although reading between the lines there’s a sense of shock and disbelief that such a thing could have happened. For anyone with knowledge of history, there are few precedents. We’re in uncharted territory, but that territory is looking increasingly similar to the years leading up to World War 2.
The post World War 1 (WW1) seismic shift that moved the boundaries of Europe took huge populations and resources of various kinds from the Central Powers and either transferred them to the victors’ control or set them up as independent polities. The former Austro-Hungarian Empire was shattered as its disparate ethnic peoples went their own ways. Latent or oppressed nationalism surged into life, leading to the creation of new states such as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
Control of coal deposits was crucial to the post-war revival of the global economy. France and Belgium demanded the Saar-Warndt Basin in compensation for the destruction of their mines by Germany during the war. Germany needed to retain the coalfields to fuel its own industrial recovery so it could pay the war reparations demanded by the Entente Powers. Wrangling over the coalfields delayed economic revival by years and caused a great deal of hardship to ordinary people during some harsh winters.
American President Woodrow Wilson’s cherished dream of a League of Nations bringing perpetual peace to the world got off to a rocky start when the US Senate refused to ratify the treaty to join the new organization. Both Germany and Japan joined but left after they failed to gain any support for their positions.
Over the next decade the world settled down—to a limited extent. None of the Great Powers of the British Empire, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union wanted another war, certainly not one with anything approaching the devastation of WW1. All governments knew their populations would not stand for it.
Conflicts did arise, notably in the Middle East where justifiable Arab outrage at their treatment from the Great Powers led to major uprisings in Iraq, Syria, and Palestine. The uprisings caused a serious panic in the so-called Mandate Powers of France and Britain and threatened the oilfields, requiring the deployment of troops and resources that both war-weary and near-bankrupt countries could ill afford.
Turkey also refused to back down when the Entente Powers demanded it give up certain former Ottoman Empire territories it held to be essential to its security. After war between Turkey and Greece, which included the massacre of over one million Armenians, peace was eventually reached in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. A constant state of tension in the Turkey-Syria-Armenia region persists to this day.
In Manchuria in the latter part of the 19th century, Japan gained control over the largely Chinese population, railroads and resources. Expanding Japanese interests began to collide with those of Russia and China. Russia’s defeat in the War of 1904-05 led to revolutions in Russia culminating in the Communist Revolution of 1917 with the overthrow of the Tsar.
In Europe, the ancient Spanish monarchy had given way to a republic in 1931, which did not go down well with the naturally right wing Hidalgo aristocratic class. What began in 1936 as an uprising of army officers and troops in Spanish Morocco spread and became civil war that lasted until 1939 with the final victory of the right wing faction under Francisco Franco.
At the same time as the Spanish Civil War was entering the closing phase, Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler decided to annex the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Outwardly it was to bring its largely German-speaking population “back into the fold”. Regaining population was useful to Germany in terms of staffing agriculture and mechanical industries as well as the military.
In reality the Nazi government wanted to seize the Czechoslovak armaments industries which lay within the Sudetenland. The massive Škoda Works was the most advanced factory in the world. It was already tooled up to produce tanks and artillery for the Czechoslovak army. Germany directed the armaments into its own military upon annexation.
With the major part of its industrial base and population gone, the rump of Czechoslovakia soon fell under Nazi control. Britain and France looked on, deplored the situation, collectively wrung their hands, but in the end did nothing until Germany invaded Poland the following year.
The League of Nations had shown its uselessness in preventing conflict. Without the support of the United States and effective means of compelling arbitration between warring parties, it was bound to be no more than a debating society. For all its most-vaunted improvements, the Leagues’ successor, the United Nations, is not much better. The inclusion of the UN Security Council and the right of permanent members to veto anything they don’t like has seen to that.
We’re living in a world where the capitalist-driven United States feels it can plunder other countries, steal their resources at will, and kidnap any national leader who doesn’t immediately bow down to American hegemony. It’s no secret that Trump keeps a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kamp by his bed. No doubt it’s the coloring book version with big pictures and easy to read text.
Venezuela has oil and gold. It’s close to lithium deposits and a potential Chinese-built Pacific-Atlantic railroad would bypass the Panama Canal. How lucrative! Browbeat, bully, threaten, blockade and ultimately abduct the nation’s leader in contravention of all international treaties, laws, usages, and customs, and it’s all yours.
Iran has oil, and it’s situated on the doorsteps of Russia and China. Rinse and repeat the above. Greenland has oil, other mineral resources, and is in a strategically useful location. Rinse and repeat the above—if Denmark doesn’t willingly yield up its territory in tribute to America. Canada has all of the above assets, and it has semi-socialized healthcare that can be plundered. Rinse and repeat the above.
I feel like a German who saw WW2 coming and couldn’t do anything.
So do many of us who study history and take note of what we’re seeing today. Will Venezuela be America’s Sudetenland? Will the world allow this to happen? Maybe the outrage expressed by the majority of people at what has transpired to President Maduro will translate into action that’ll pull the thuggish United States government back from the brink of another world war—possibly nuclear this time—before it’s too late.
Here’s my “poem” about how we can’t take our eyes off of other events happening in the world just because the oligarchy wants us to focus on only one thing at a time. It’s all interconnected.
How Many Babies Have To Freeze Before…
How many babies have to freeze before the people of the West take notice, rise up and overthrow their corrupt, genocide-enabling governments and makes sure humanitarian aid and shelter get into Gaza? How many innocent children should be orphaned and starved in Palestine before we even care?
Read: With Their Breadwinners Killed, Gaza’s Children Turn to Begging to Survive
How many Americans have to die unnecessary deaths before their fellow countrymen take notice, rise up and overthrow their corrupt, death-dealing government and create a universal healthcare system?
Read: More People Die Young in US Due to Health Care and Welfare Cuts, Study Finds
How many have to suffer rape and torture at the hands of the Israeli forces before the world at large takes notice, rises up and shuts down the sadistic, genocidal apartheid regime forever?
Read: Multiple journalists and activists raped by Israelis after abduction from the Freedom Flotilla
How many medical and food charities have to be denied entry into Gaza and the West Bank before the rest of humanity takes notice, rises up and rushes into these beleaguered areas and provide the medical and humanitarian aid so desperately needed?
Read: Israel Bars Doctors Without Borders From Gaza, Dismantling Life-Saving Services
How many innocent immigrants have to be criminalized and deported to torture prisons before the American people take notice, rise up and take down the racist-fascists trying to re-establish Hitler’s Third Reich?
Read: Trump canceled temporary legal status for more than 1.5M immigrants in 2025
How many war criminals will be allowed to roam freely before the public says “Enough!” and demand they be arrested and taken to The Hague to be put on trial before the International Criminal Court?
Read: Europe lets Netanyahu fly freely after downing Bolivian presidential plane in hunt for Snowden
How many Americans have to wake up from the insidious propaganda that voting for one or another faction of the duopoly will actually change anything for the better before they take notice, rise up, and tear down the entire corrupt system? (See the blue meme above. Americans don’t even remember that Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and chaired the DNC.)
How many hunger strikers for peace and justice in Palestine have to die before anyone in the mainstream media takes notices of their protest, rises up and rats out the corrupt and fascistic government that imprisoned them without bail in the first place?
Read: The hunger strike is not being televised – nor will the last gasps of our dying freedoms
How many indigenous peoples have to be wiped off the face of the planet before Western settler-colonialism is no more? (Please don’t say, “All of them.”)
How many American women have be be followed, arrested, and sent to jail because they take charge of their own bodies and reproductive needs before the public takes notice, rises up and overturns all challenges to the Roe v. Wade precedent?
Read: What you need to know about the state of abortion in the US today
How many United Nations special rapporteurs on Palestine have to be sanctioned, harassed, and threatened with death before the entirety of the United Nations stand up, speak out and sanction the US for its horrendous behavior?
Read: Francesca Albanese and the Lonely Road of Defiance
How many Venezuelan tankers have to be pirated, how many Caribbean fishermen murdered and their boats destroyed by the US, before the world takes notices, rises up and shuts down the terrorism of American imperialists? (See story above. It will take at the least all this and a presidential kidnapping.)
How many trillions of dollars do the oligarchs have to make off the working class before the workers decide to walk out, rise up and strike for better working conditions? (Don’t let them profit off our suffering—General Strike!)
How many AI surveillance programs and chat bots have to be installed before human beings start paying attention to the environmental and working hazards AI technology brings and junk it?
Watch: Everyone Knows It’s a Bubble (AI). What Happens Now?
How many times will I ask “How many?” and never receive a satisfactory answer to my questions?
Seen on X: A list of the US regime change efforts in Latin America over the years: 1846–1848 – Mexico 1898 – Cuba 1903 - Panama 1906–1909 - Cuba 1909 - Nicaragua 1912–1933 - Nicaragua 1913 -Mexico 1914 - Mexico 1915–1934 - Haiti 1916–1924 - Dominican Republic 1916–1917 - Mexico 1932 – El Salvador 1933–1940s – Cuba 1944 – Guatemala 1946 – Bolivia 1948 – Costa Rica 1952 – Cuba 1953–1954 – British Guiana 1954 – Guatemala 1960s: Cold War Escalation 1960–1961 – Cuba 1961 – Cuba 1961 – Dominican Republic 1962–1963 – Brazil 1963 – Dominican Republic 1963 – Ecuador 1963 – Honduras 1964 – Brazil 1964 – Bolivia 1965 – Dominican Republic 1966–1996 – Guatemala 1970s: Operation Condor Era 1970–1973 – Chile 1971 – Bolivia 1973 – Chile 1973 – Uruguay 1976 – Argentina 1976–1983 – Region-wide (Operation Condor) 1979 – Nicaragua 1980–1989 – Nicaragua 1980–1992 – El Salvador 1980s – Honduras 1980–1992 – Guatemala 1980s – Jamaica 1982 – Bolivia 1983 – Grenada 1989 – Panama 1991 – Haiti 1994 – Haiti 2002 – Venezuela 2004 – Haiti 2009 – Honduras 2019 – Bolivia 2017–present – Venezuela 2018–present – Nicaragua Every U.S. president from 1901–present has been involved in Latin American regime change. The US remains an imperialist presence in Latin America.
News to Know to Start Out the New Year…
Empire’s Body Count: The Hidden Carnage of the U.S. Since 1967 https://futuredude.substack.com/p/empires-body-count-the-hidden-carnage
BREAKING: US Invades Venezuela, Kidnaps President Maduro https://realleecamp.substack.com/p/breaking-us-invades-venezuela-kidnaps
Trump kidnaps Venezuela’s president to steal the country’s oil https://www.aaronmate.net/p/trump-kidnaps-venezuelas-president-d03
Venezuelans Say They Will Continue to Resist in the Face of Trump’s Aggression https://truthout.org/video/us-attack-and-seizure-of-venezuelas-president-signal-illegal-regime-change-experts-warn/
Why China Won’t Fight the U.S. Over Venezuela — and Why That Terrifies Washington https://futuredude.substack.com/p/why-china-wont-fight-the-us-over
The REAL reason why Trump bombed Venezuela and ‘captured’ President Maduro youtu.be/YnD0p5F7MNs
Here is the Unsealed Maduro Indictment. Not ONE WORD about Fentanyl after Trump Claimed for MONTHS this why Venezuela was a Danger to America https://www.thenorthstar.com/p/here-is-the-unsealed-maduro-indictment
5 Alarming Truths: Mexico Condemns US Military Intervention in Venezuela as UN Charter Breach https://www.telesurenglish.net/mexico-condemns-us/
Trump Says US Will “Run” Venezuela After Maduro Abduction https://truthout.org/articles/experts-decry-illegal-aggression-after-trump-says-us-captured-maduro/
A Moment of Hope in Gaza https://codepink.substack.com/p/a-moment-of-hope-in-gaza
Israel continues killing Palestinian fishermen while blockading Gaza https://palestinewillbefree.substack.com/p/israel-kills-palestinian-fishermen-gaza-blockade
Burkina Faso: an attempted coup d’état foiled, several arrests made https://www.moroccomail.fr/2026/01/04/burkina-faso-coup-d-etat-traore-sahel/
Trillionaire Cometh, Democracy Goeth https://inequality.org/article/trillionaire-cometh-democracy-goeth/
Dayton At 30: US Betrayal Old And New https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/dayton-at-30-us-betrayal-old-and
Israel Bans Aid Groups For The Same Reason It Bans Journalists, And Other Notes https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-bans-aid-groups-for-the-same
Jeffrey Sachs: Two Centuries of Russophobia & Rejection of Peace https://consortiumnews.com/2025/12/24/jeffery-sachs-two-centuries-of-russophobia-rejection-of-peace/
Unwelcome Allies: The Forgotten History of Soviet and Russian Attempts to Join NATO https://chandragupta.substack.com/p/unwelcome-allies-the-forgotten-history
How Trump dismantled a promising energy industry — and what America lost https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/offshore-wind/how-trump-dismantled-a-promising-energy-industry-and-what-america-lost
China Just Redefined the Future of EVs — And the World Will Have to Catch Up https://felixabt.substack.com/p/china-just-redefined-the-future-of
"I feel like a German who saw WW2 coming and couldn’t do anything"
I've been writing how Trump is revisiting 1930s and 1940s Germany. I think how many in the world actually supported Hitler in the beginning. Much like there are those claiming Maduro is an innocent victim.
To be sure, he is definitely a villain but still has rights. American imperialism looks very much like the beginning of a threat of global war. The justifications Trump offers are the same as Russia and China offer for their expansionist actions.
Thinking about how these big 3 wish to divvy up the world feels very much like 95 years ago.
I'm not sure what to do anymore. I just try my best to sleep at night.
My real fear is that Americans will act like the Germans of the 1930s and welcome the furhrer to revive their failing empire. They simply don't care what others think or feel or need. If that's the case, a lot of people will leave it and who. wants them?