By Juliana Vasquez | Staff Writer
The abduction of a foreign leader was not on most students’ bingo cards for winter break. Once news headlines began appearing about Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and how his wife were removed from Venezuela, most people scratched their heads in confusion, wondering where the news came from and why it happened.
Assistant professor of history Dr. Ricardo Álvarez-Pimentel said aside from scholars who have been following U.S.–Venezuela relations for decades, most citizens weren’t aware of the steadily rising tension between the two nations. This is largely due to a lack of reporting on the Latin American region, which most analysts consider within the sphere of influence the United States holds.
“These tensions have been evolving for the last 25 to 30 years, ever since President Hugo Chávez was elected in the late 90s,” Álvarez-Pimentel said. “He pursued [a] leftist populist style of politics that economically did not favor a lot of U.S. interest.”
Venezuela, once considered one of the richest countries in the world due to its oil, cocoa bean and coffee exports, slowly is developing into a petrostate with an over-dependence on fossil fuel income and an excess of government corruption.
Associate professor of economics Dr. Lourenco Paz said since Chávez’s lead, Venezuela has become overly dependent on gas exports.
“As the Chávez administration started implementing economic changes in Venezuela, it pretty much killed all the other industries Venezuela had,” Paz said.
However, oil prices have only fallen, with the Council on Foreign Relations stating that oil once valued at more than $100 per barrel in 2014 fell to under $30 per barrel in 2016.
Paz said this was due to Venezuela’s inability to keep up with the demands of the oil industry.
Aside from a weak economy, Venezuela has struggled with political corruption over the last few decades, as the presidency shifted from Ceasar Chávez to Maduro, who was handpicked as Chavez’s successor before his death in 2013.
Álvarez-Pimentel noted that the Venezuelan government is not democratic, with human rights violations and corruption documented under Maduro’s leadership.
“There is a legitimate effort by Venezuelans who are opposed to the regime to try to regain their country democratically,” Álvarez-Pimentel said. “At the same time, the United States, through sanctions, diplomacy and, at this point, overt intervention, has also tried to pressure that government into ceding to its demand.”
However, as Venezuela has attempted presidential elections over the last 20 years, opposition candidates have historically been harassed and exiled from Venezuela, Álvarez-Pimentel said.
“Essentially, the forces that are stopping any [change] from happening are corruption, intimidation, abuse of power, state power, specifically, violence, imprisonment, censorship … This was by no means a democratic government or society,” Álvarez-Pimentel said.
Álvarez-Pimentel and Paz both noted the parallels between the U.S. intervention in Venezuela and other interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq and their lack of success.
“Rebuilding infrastructure, an economy, a citizenry that believes in democratic institutions after 25 years of oppression — that doesn’t happen overnight. There’s a very real risk that this region is going to be disabled even more because the U.S. essentially took someone out,” Álvarez-Pimentel said.
As this story continues to unfold with Maduro, his wife and his son facing trial in New York for “corruption of legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States,” according to the BBC, Álvarez-Pimentel encourages students to research the history of the conflict to better understand why we are where we are today.
“I would encourage them to go out and really read up on some of this and ask these questions so they can connect the dots for themselves and come up with their own conclusions,” Álvarez-Pimentel said.
Looking to history, and former U.S. involvement in other countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, could serve as cautionary tales to lawmakers and students about where this conflict has the potential to go.
“My fear right now is that Venezuela is going to be another example of the United States squandering money, squandering resources and trying to change a government overnight,” Álvarez-Pimentel said. “Beating resentment amongst the people who live there, creating a crisis, destabilizing a region and then leaving — this is exactly what happened in Afghanistan.”
