By Stephen Sefton
It's hard to overstate the insanity of the ruling elites of the collective West. They have proven incapable of recognizing that they can no longer continue to dominate the governments of the majority world as they once did. For now, they continue to act to impose more easily manipulated regimes in countries susceptible to destabilization, such as, in recent years, Bangladesh and now Nepal. However, to overthrow governments or political movements steadfast in defending their countries' sovereignty, Western governments have been forced to resort to military aggression supported by regional allies and vassals, as they did most recently successfully in Syria.
In the case of West Asia, the recent attack in Qatar against the Palestinian peace negotiating team calls into question the extent to which Arab countries that have collaborated with US regional policy will continue to do so. Now, the collective Western military plans to overthrow the governments of Iran and Venezuela indicate the growing desperation of the US and European elites. They see that their political and economic power is no longer enough to achieve what they want, so they resort to direct military aggression, for example against Iran, or indirect aggression against Russia.
Against Iran and Venezuela, it appears the Americans are testing local support levels before deciding on the precise form of their military attack and launching it. This process of weighing the pros and cons and evaluating the costs and benefits of attacking Iran and Venezuela occurs within a strategic realignment of traditional American alliances around the world. Much commentary on the international situation suggests a rationalization of the US ruling elites' political-military approach to the Western Hemisphere, without being able to accurately determine the scope of this process.
If the Yankee elites were truly confident in their political-military power to defeat Venezuela, they likely would have done so already. Last June, Iran already demonstrated the inferiority of Western military technology. Yemen has demonstrated the weakness of American military power against a country with relatively modest deterrent power. To date, in the Caribbean, the Yankee Navy has only demonstrated its capacity to attack unarmed civilian boats and fishermen. Venezuela has had years to prepare and has already successfully activated its civil-police-military fusion model equipped with modern Russian military weapons.
In any case, amid this period of transition in American foreign policy, it is evident that President Donald Trump is seeking to compensate in one way or another for the collapse of American economic power, especially relative to China. For this reason, he pursues the illusion of taking control of Venezuela's hydrocarbon and mineral resources. While Venezuela asserts its national dignity and defends its sovereignty, the Donald Trump administration claims that the world at large must help sustain the American economy, through large investments or increased imports of American goods.
Specifically, European countries, and other vassal states such as Japan, South Korea, and Australia, have been required to urgently increase their military spending to purchase large quantities of American equipment and weapons. For their part, all European NATO member countries have agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of their Gross Domestic Product. They have also agreed to purchase tens of trillions of dollars' worth of American weapons, partly to ship to Ukraine but also to satisfy their absurd obsession with a possible war in Europe against Russia.
Among US allies in Asia and the Pacific, Japan is on track to increase its military spending by 65% by 2027 compared to 2022. The Japanese military is projected to become the third largest in the world behind the US and the People's Republic of China. In 2023, US President Joe Biden praised Japan's increased military spending as a contribution to the US policy of "strongly opposing attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion" in the East Asian region. This in fact refers to the US government's unspoken, cynical position to prevent the reunification of the rebellious Chinese province of Taiwan with the People's Republic of China.
Since 2020, the US government, in open violation of its supposed recognition of the one-China principle, has authorized the sale of more than US$14 billion in arms and military equipment to the Taiwanese authorities. In the same meddling manner, the US government continues to stir up tensions on the Korean Peninsula. This year, the South Korean government will increase its military spending by more than 8%. And although this increase does not seem very significant, from China's perspective, it complements the significant increase in Japan's military spending, continued US military support for Taiwan, and increased US military cooperation with the Philippines.
Furthermore, South Korea, like Japan and Europe, maintains tens of thousands of US military personnel on its territory. There are nearly 80,000 US military personnel in South Korea and Japan, distributed across more than 40 bases. Australia hosts several US military bases, including a nuclear submarine base. Europe and the United Kingdom host more than 40 military bases with more than 65,000 US military personnel. This political-military reality demonstrates the neocolonial dependence of the ruling elites in these wealthy countries and explains their submissive surrender to President Trump's aggressive demands.
The US government has pushed to the limit to see how far its counterpart governments will surrender their countries' national dignity and sovereignty. For decades, US governments have abused their dominance of vassal countries around the world, which they cynically call "allies," to harass and threaten governments and peoples defending their sovereignty, such as Democratic Korea and Iran, or even Russia and China. The US military constantly organizes provocations in the form of military exercises, a permanent presence of its Navy, and aggressive air force patrols.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the US armed forces have always maintained dozens of military bases in the region, notably in Central America and the Caribbean. But the US Southern Command also continually strengthens its regional presence through dozens of joint military exercises each year throughout the region. This year, exercises like "Tradewinds 2025" facilitate US and European regional involvement in the Caribbean. "Centam Guardian" in Guatemala and "Fuerzas Comando" in El Salvador facilitate US military control in Central America. "Southern Vanguard" and "Estrella Austral" bring together US military forces with their counterparts in South American countries.
Now, in addition to this permanent military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, the US government is escalating its threats against Venezuela to the same levels it maintains against Democratic Korea, Iran, Russia, and China, through the deployment of eight warships in the Caribbean. This naval force includes a nuclear-powered attack submarine, a cruiser, and three destroyers, all with guided missiles, along with three amphibious assault ships. While the pretexts for the US's aggressive stance in other regions of the world revolve around false accusations of nuclear threats or territorial expansion, the pretext against Venezuela is the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism.
The enormous and disproportionate military force deployed in the Caribbean has been justified by designating drug trafficking as a terrorist activity. On February 25, the US government formally designated eight drug cartels in the region as terrorist organizations. The cartels named were Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Northeast Cartel (formerly Los Zetas), the New Michoacan Family, the Gulf Cartel, and the United Cartels. More recently, US authorities have reinvented the Cartel of the Suns to justify their aggression against Venezuela with the fantasy that President Nicolás Maduro has resurrected it and is its leader.
Thus, the various false accusations, already refuted multiple times in reports by the same US authorities and the UN, are still used as media and political justifications for Yankee aggression in our region. Of course, it is common knowledge that the largest drug cartel and the largest terrorist entity in the region has always been the government of the United States. However, just as the lackey governments of West Asia, Europe, or East Asia serve as accomplices to legitimize the aggressions of the collective West in their regions, in Latin America and the Caribbean, subservient governments are not needed to support the aggression against the legitimate government of President Nicolás Maduro.
On September 5th, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States issued a statement condemning the dangerous US military escalation against Venezuela. But shamefully, ten CELAC member countries failed to sign it. Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Jamaica, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago abandoned their national dignity and betrayed the sovereignty of their peoples in favor of neocolonial submission as accomplices of the new US aggression against Venezuela.
The CELAC declaration recalls that all its member countries agreed to declare Latin America and the Caribbean a zone of peace, "based on principles such as: the prohibition of the threat or use of force, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the promotion of dialogue and multilateralism, unrestricted respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in the internal affairs of States, and the inalienable right of peoples to self-determination." These principles reaffirm the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter and are also the common basis for the new international relations promoted by the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS+ group of countries.
The vast majority of countries in the region uphold these essential principles for sustaining and promoting peace in a new world era. Instead, the U.S. government and its vassals revert to the imperialist gunboat diplomacy of the 19th century and replicate the same failed and counterproductive patterns they have tried in other regions of the world. Albert Einstein's famous definition of insanity applies: continuing to do the same thing repeatedly, always expecting a different result.
For some insane reason, the Yankee elites think they're going to achieve a result against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela that's different from their repeated historical failures. It's not necessary to recall their defeat in Vietnam; it's enough to note their most recent failures, such as their humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, their counterproductive harassment of Democratic Korea and China, and their failed aggressions against Iran and Russia. Even for Nicaragua, these historic dates of Todos San Jacinto demonstrate this in the most profound way. As our Co-Presidents, Commander Daniel and Compañera Rosario, so rightly remind us: They Couldn't, Nor Will They Be Able!
