It’s time for a general strike. I wish someone with a major platform and voice would call for one. The thought of another war and what it means for people both to in Venezuela and in the United States is unbearable.
Strikes of any kind take preparation, and a general strike takes far more preparation than a local one, or an industry-wide one. Do you think "we the people" are prepared for a general strike? I don't. Nowhere close.
I agree with your point about the nearly-transparent veneer Trump & his allies are trying to paint over their nearly-naked plan of oil extraction in Venezuela. I hope there are more than three Senators (Van Hollen, Markey, Warner so far) ready to condemn this action. Schumer re impeaching DJT: “we hope that we can have support from our Republican colleagues to put a brake on this long before it gets that far.” And who acted today after receiving the news? Who called DJT to voice his displeasure? Zohran Mamdani.
Your main points are well taken, Peter, but your equating Maduro with the likes of Saddam Hussein is off base. Hussein invaded two neighboring countries and deployed poison gas against them and some of his own citizens. (Not that it justified the U.S. invasion.) Maduro and Chavez before him, none and not. The slippage toward authoritarianism in recent years deserves criticism, but a lot of the blame lies on U.S. sanctions meant to make the economy scream and threats of invasion, dating back to the Obama years, not to mention the U.S.-backed coup attempt in 2002. Masses of Venuezelans defeated that in the streets; we'll see if there's anything similar now. It actually reminds me more of all the European powers and the U.S. invading Russia 100 years ago. Unsurprisingly, measures taken to defend the revolution led to authoritarian backsliding. Don't understate the threat to U.S. hegemony due to non-capitalist development as a major factor.
Not sure why many commentators get caught in the minutia of this historic event in that one. The United States is a rogue state and has been for at least a generation or two. What’s happening now is making what happened more subtly obvious to the world. Many countries have dirty laundry in their history. That doesn’t make our clean.
The last time the U.S. was on the right side of an international conflict was in 1956, when the Eisenhower administration opposed the British/French/Israeli invasion of Egypt over the nationalization of the Suez Canal. I was five years old at the time, so I learned about it a few years later.
P.S. Do you really think the U.S. is a "rogue state"? I don't. It's the self-appointed policeman of the world, but that's not the same as "rogue state." Was Britain a "rogue state" in the centuries it "ruled the waves"? Was the USSR a "rogue state" when it annexed a bunch of smaller countries and occupied Eastern Europe? Don't think so in either case.
All very true. Other comparisons have been made to the 1989 invasion of Panama and abduction of Noriega, who came to power in a coup and had no popular backing -- unlike Maduro who was endorsed by a beloved President on his deathbed and has since been elected 2X to carry out the popular Bolivarian project. The 2024 election had several irregularities (including a major hacking event that shut down the National Electoral Council's internet) but the rightwing opposition's claim to have won by 70% was based on their unverified paper tallies that they refused to present to the Supreme Court in response to their subpoena. Although Maduro certainly isn't as popular as Chavez, the Bolivarian project is still an important feature of Vz political and social life, despite the ramped up US sanctions and complicity with Rubio and the Nobel Prize Committee!
Below are a number of independent, neutral sources confirming that the July 2024 Venezuelan elections were
1) preceded by fierce voter suppression, and then
2) fraudulently stolen by Maduro.
The best estimates – based on investigations of the tally sheets published by the opposition, and effectively impossible to forge - are that the opposition garnered about 70% of the vote.
Additionally, of the approximate 5 million expatriate Venezuelans who were eligible to vote, only 1% were able to do so, due to bureaucratic obstacles put in place the Maduro regime. Had these expatriates (a number of whom are my friends) been able to vote, the landslide against Maduro would have likely been more on the order of 90%.
Prior to 2017, US sanctions were extremely limited, targeted to a few individuals. The collapse of oil prices starting in 2013, and policies initiated by Chavez (such as filling PDVSA with political cronies with no expertise) were among the major causes for Venezuela's economic collapse. Trump's 2017 sanctions did exacerbate the already dire situation, but they cannot be said to be the only cause. I respectfully recommend to you the Venezuelan economist, Francisco Rodriguez -an excellent source for detailed analyses of the effect of sanctions, as well as the earlier policies of Chavez.
Any pretense of acknowledgment of international law is gone. You just take whatever you want: Russia gets Ukraine; China gets Taiwan; the U.S. takes whatever it wants in its "sphere"....
Is Greenland next? Just because we "need" it? Street gangs have more adherence to rules than the current leaders of Russia, China, and the U.S.
Peter, two points. One, the US is fighting China behind the scenes on this, fearing that Chinese investment in South America could be threatening US primacy; and two, according to Feminist News and Fiona Hill, "Trump didn’t suddenly wake up wanting to 'liberate' Venezuela; he’s cashing in on a years‑old Kremlin idea that the U.S. could be 'given Caracas in exchange for looking the other way on Ukraine. 'We’ll run the country and make a lot of money from the oil' isn’t foreign policy, it’s a foreclosure notice. Trump is finally acting on the old Moscow daydream where Washington gets Venezuela and Putin gets Ukraine — and somehow we’re supposed to pretend that bombing Caracas is about democracy, not a loyalty test to his favorite autocrat."
Well said. One of the big things that concerns me and that i’m seeing more and more, is that whenever our Western Governments who represent Western values like democracy and human rights, and rule of law- lie (so blatantly), people begin to doubt them - even when the threat is real like in the case of Covid, and then they start doubting what the West stands for, instead they see it as a sinister imperial power and they talk as if Russia and China are a viable alternative. To lie so blatantly to your own people, to gaslight them in this way has very serious and harmful affects- this shit has to stop.
First, thank for your humility about Iraq. I too made the mistake of supporting it - and learned the lesson that interventions abroad are more complicated than advertised and have a high probability of becoming very costly/failing. Of course, there are some very limited times when necessary. Venezuela is not one and you mention just about all the reasons why. Not sure why we need to re-learn this lesson over and over again especially with our current President who ultimately cares only to enrich and empower himself and has no clue what he is getting us into.
“I think, sure, many, many Venezuelans have very good reason to think he was doing terrible things to them and their country. Just like many Iraqis had reasons to believe that about Saddam Hussein, and many, many people around the world have many reasons to believe that about their governments.”
This remark seems to me uncharacteristically dismissive and unempathic of you. I put to you a similar question that you often put to interlocutors in discussions of Israel-Palestine:
Do you personally know any Venezuelans, or have you had discussions with Venezuelans?
Do you have any Venezuelan friends?
Also, have you previously taken any public stands on Venezuelan issues? Did you take a position in 2019 regarding Juan Guaido’s claims on the presidency? Note: at that time the US took a multilateral approach, coming together with over 50 countries who recognized Guaido’s legitimacy. Much preferred to Trump’s unilateral approach, though in the end, ineffective.
Did you write anything at the time about the 2024 elections in Venezuela? Elections brazenly stolen in an act that would make Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 elections in the US look like amateur hour. (In my response to another comment, I give a number of links to neutral sources - such as the Carter Center and a UN Panel of Electoral Experts - that provide evidence for the claim of the theft of the election that the opposition won in a landslide.)
What actions do you think ordinary Venezuelans should take, having tried the electoral route and won? Just suck it up?
You have sometimes noted that Palestinians are justified in taking up arms, having been denied non-violent means to effect change. Would you support Venezuelans similarly taking up arms to oppose the dictatorship.
I agree that the Trump administration’s justifications for the military attack, and subsequent capture of Maduro, are fig leafs for larger geopolitical goals. Unfortunately, Venezuela has become a pawn in the larger conflict of super-powers.
But that does not mean that we, as individuals, should only think about Venezuela in terms of imperial pretensions (those the US, Russia, and China) and spheres of influence, ignoring the human cost on the ground to real people - including many personal friends of mine.
One can oppose the unilateral actions taken by the US and still show solidarity with the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans who oppose the current Chavista regime, and are glad to see Maduro go.
good idea going back to cold war. in some way now the cold war is on multipolar milder world VS than the simplistic risk game of mafioso.. or other big daddies regime empire, wanna be empires and nostalgic empires. Putin and other big daddies world view. etc.. don't know about China. it was talking multipolar and diplomatic relations including trade...
It’s time for a general strike. I wish someone with a major platform and voice would call for one. The thought of another war and what it means for people both to in Venezuela and in the United States is unbearable.
Strikes of any kind take preparation, and a general strike takes far more preparation than a local one, or an industry-wide one. Do you think "we the people" are prepared for a general strike? I don't. Nowhere close.
I agree with your point about the nearly-transparent veneer Trump & his allies are trying to paint over their nearly-naked plan of oil extraction in Venezuela. I hope there are more than three Senators (Van Hollen, Markey, Warner so far) ready to condemn this action. Schumer re impeaching DJT: “we hope that we can have support from our Republican colleagues to put a brake on this long before it gets that far.” And who acted today after receiving the news? Who called DJT to voice his displeasure? Zohran Mamdani.
Bernie has of course condemned the actions in Vz, but so have some of the other "Progressives on Everything but Palestine" like Schiff and Adam Smith.
Your main points are well taken, Peter, but your equating Maduro with the likes of Saddam Hussein is off base. Hussein invaded two neighboring countries and deployed poison gas against them and some of his own citizens. (Not that it justified the U.S. invasion.) Maduro and Chavez before him, none and not. The slippage toward authoritarianism in recent years deserves criticism, but a lot of the blame lies on U.S. sanctions meant to make the economy scream and threats of invasion, dating back to the Obama years, not to mention the U.S.-backed coup attempt in 2002. Masses of Venuezelans defeated that in the streets; we'll see if there's anything similar now. It actually reminds me more of all the European powers and the U.S. invading Russia 100 years ago. Unsurprisingly, measures taken to defend the revolution led to authoritarian backsliding. Don't understate the threat to U.S. hegemony due to non-capitalist development as a major factor.
I look forward to the day some foreign military liberates us from our tyrants.
Not sure why many commentators get caught in the minutia of this historic event in that one. The United States is a rogue state and has been for at least a generation or two. What’s happening now is making what happened more subtly obvious to the world. Many countries have dirty laundry in their history. That doesn’t make our clean.
The last time the U.S. was on the right side of an international conflict was in 1956, when the Eisenhower administration opposed the British/French/Israeli invasion of Egypt over the nationalization of the Suez Canal. I was five years old at the time, so I learned about it a few years later.
P.S. Do you really think the U.S. is a "rogue state"? I don't. It's the self-appointed policeman of the world, but that's not the same as "rogue state." Was Britain a "rogue state" in the centuries it "ruled the waves"? Was the USSR a "rogue state" when it annexed a bunch of smaller countries and occupied Eastern Europe? Don't think so in either case.
All very true. Other comparisons have been made to the 1989 invasion of Panama and abduction of Noriega, who came to power in a coup and had no popular backing -- unlike Maduro who was endorsed by a beloved President on his deathbed and has since been elected 2X to carry out the popular Bolivarian project. The 2024 election had several irregularities (including a major hacking event that shut down the National Electoral Council's internet) but the rightwing opposition's claim to have won by 70% was based on their unverified paper tallies that they refused to present to the Supreme Court in response to their subpoena. Although Maduro certainly isn't as popular as Chavez, the Bolivarian project is still an important feature of Vz political and social life, despite the ramped up US sanctions and complicity with Rubio and the Nobel Prize Committee!
Below are a number of independent, neutral sources confirming that the July 2024 Venezuelan elections were
1) preceded by fierce voter suppression, and then
2) fraudulently stolen by Maduro.
The best estimates – based on investigations of the tally sheets published by the opposition, and effectively impossible to forge - are that the opposition garnered about 70% of the vote.
Additionally, of the approximate 5 million expatriate Venezuelans who were eligible to vote, only 1% were able to do so, due to bureaucratic obstacles put in place the Maduro regime. Had these expatriates (a number of whom are my friends) been able to vote, the landslide against Maduro would have likely been more on the order of 90%.
Carter Center
https://www.cartercenter.org/news/features/p/democracy/center-finds-democracy-thwarted-in-venezuela.html
UN Panel of Electoral Experts
https://news.un.org/en/sites/news.un.org.en/files/atoms/files/Interim_Report_PoE_Venezuela_090824.pdf
AP review of Tally Sheets
https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-election-tally-sheets-actas-oas-carter-center-41d1000926d0ab99e522e53bf6c2b916
Washington Office on Latin America
https://www.wola.org/analysis/explainer-venezuelas-unfair-election/
Human Rights Watch
Report on pre-election repression
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/25/venezuela-repression-mars-key-upcoming-election
2025 HRW Report endorsing findings of the Carter Center and UN Panel of Electoral Experts
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/venezuela
Amnesty International
Endorsement of the findings of the Carter Center and UN Panel of Electoral Experts
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/09/venezuela-la-onu-debe-renovar-el-mandato-de-expertos-independientes/
The Guardian:
“Evidence shows Venezuela’s election was stolen – but will Maduro budge?”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/06/venezuela-election-maduro-analysis
Prior to 2017, US sanctions were extremely limited, targeted to a few individuals. The collapse of oil prices starting in 2013, and policies initiated by Chavez (such as filling PDVSA with political cronies with no expertise) were among the major causes for Venezuela's economic collapse. Trump's 2017 sanctions did exacerbate the already dire situation, but they cannot be said to be the only cause. I respectfully recommend to you the Venezuelan economist, Francisco Rodriguez -an excellent source for detailed analyses of the effect of sanctions, as well as the earlier policies of Chavez.
Any pretense of acknowledgment of international law is gone. You just take whatever you want: Russia gets Ukraine; China gets Taiwan; the U.S. takes whatever it wants in its "sphere"....
Is Greenland next? Just because we "need" it? Street gangs have more adherence to rules than the current leaders of Russia, China, and the U.S.
Peter, two points. One, the US is fighting China behind the scenes on this, fearing that Chinese investment in South America could be threatening US primacy; and two, according to Feminist News and Fiona Hill, "Trump didn’t suddenly wake up wanting to 'liberate' Venezuela; he’s cashing in on a years‑old Kremlin idea that the U.S. could be 'given Caracas in exchange for looking the other way on Ukraine. 'We’ll run the country and make a lot of money from the oil' isn’t foreign policy, it’s a foreclosure notice. Trump is finally acting on the old Moscow daydream where Washington gets Venezuela and Putin gets Ukraine — and somehow we’re supposed to pretend that bombing Caracas is about democracy, not a loyalty test to his favorite autocrat."
As Peter emphasizes, this is a test for the Democratic establishment. Time to show some strength and integrity.
🕰️
Well said. One of the big things that concerns me and that i’m seeing more and more, is that whenever our Western Governments who represent Western values like democracy and human rights, and rule of law- lie (so blatantly), people begin to doubt them - even when the threat is real like in the case of Covid, and then they start doubting what the West stands for, instead they see it as a sinister imperial power and they talk as if Russia and China are a viable alternative. To lie so blatantly to your own people, to gaslight them in this way has very serious and harmful affects- this shit has to stop.
First, thank for your humility about Iraq. I too made the mistake of supporting it - and learned the lesson that interventions abroad are more complicated than advertised and have a high probability of becoming very costly/failing. Of course, there are some very limited times when necessary. Venezuela is not one and you mention just about all the reasons why. Not sure why we need to re-learn this lesson over and over again especially with our current President who ultimately cares only to enrich and empower himself and has no clue what he is getting us into.
I'm curious why you supported the war against Saddam Hussein in the wake of 9/11 and what led you to change your mind, Peter Beinert?
Israel Welcomes Trump's Attack on Venezuela as a Blow to the Iranian Axis - Israel News
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2026-01-03/ty-article/.premium/israel-welcomes-trumps-attack-on-venezuela-as-a-blow-to-the-iranian-axis/0000019b-853a-d487-a3bf-fd3f6b2c0000?gift=4f706ef8b82d41548de4ff7ef5048669
Agreed!
Once again Peter bears it all in brute honesty. Thank you!!
Suppose a country is committing crimes against humanity? Imagine Nazi Germany
exterminating Jews in the 30's before WW2? Not bomb the camps?
Peter, you say:
“I think, sure, many, many Venezuelans have very good reason to think he was doing terrible things to them and their country. Just like many Iraqis had reasons to believe that about Saddam Hussein, and many, many people around the world have many reasons to believe that about their governments.”
This remark seems to me uncharacteristically dismissive and unempathic of you. I put to you a similar question that you often put to interlocutors in discussions of Israel-Palestine:
Do you personally know any Venezuelans, or have you had discussions with Venezuelans?
Do you have any Venezuelan friends?
Also, have you previously taken any public stands on Venezuelan issues? Did you take a position in 2019 regarding Juan Guaido’s claims on the presidency? Note: at that time the US took a multilateral approach, coming together with over 50 countries who recognized Guaido’s legitimacy. Much preferred to Trump’s unilateral approach, though in the end, ineffective.
Did you write anything at the time about the 2024 elections in Venezuela? Elections brazenly stolen in an act that would make Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 elections in the US look like amateur hour. (In my response to another comment, I give a number of links to neutral sources - such as the Carter Center and a UN Panel of Electoral Experts - that provide evidence for the claim of the theft of the election that the opposition won in a landslide.)
What actions do you think ordinary Venezuelans should take, having tried the electoral route and won? Just suck it up?
You have sometimes noted that Palestinians are justified in taking up arms, having been denied non-violent means to effect change. Would you support Venezuelans similarly taking up arms to oppose the dictatorship.
I agree that the Trump administration’s justifications for the military attack, and subsequent capture of Maduro, are fig leafs for larger geopolitical goals. Unfortunately, Venezuela has become a pawn in the larger conflict of super-powers.
But that does not mean that we, as individuals, should only think about Venezuela in terms of imperial pretensions (those the US, Russia, and China) and spheres of influence, ignoring the human cost on the ground to real people - including many personal friends of mine.
One can oppose the unilateral actions taken by the US and still show solidarity with the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans who oppose the current Chavista regime, and are glad to see Maduro go.
Bob F - Rochester Michigan
I would love to see you talk to Robert Arnold.
good idea going back to cold war. in some way now the cold war is on multipolar milder world VS than the simplistic risk game of mafioso.. or other big daddies regime empire, wanna be empires and nostalgic empires. Putin and other big daddies world view. etc.. don't know about China. it was talking multipolar and diplomatic relations including trade...