The end of an era
Forty-eight hours into the new year, Trump bombed Venezuela and kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro. Just as Palestine marked a turning point in international relations, allowing the first televised genocide in history with the passivity of world leaders (though not of the world's people, who remain mobilized), Venezuela is signaling the end of an era.
Unscrupulous bullying prevails, and the 'international community,' including the EU, merely calls for 'prudence,' once again revealing its colonial-rooted racism: what would we say if Trump had done what he did in any Western country? It's easy to oversimplify the issue, to paint Maduro as the bad guy and Trump as the good guy, the bringer of freedom, but the world and reality are far more complex than any Hollywood script.
The US made a huge mistake choosing a billionaire psychopath and pedophile to lead the country. It hasn't even been a year since Trump took office, and the world is already turning upside down. We've seen the president of the most powerful country on the planet threaten other Latin American countries, starting with Colombia, and Elon Musk warning President Petro that it's "silver or lead," like a mobster. We've also seen Venezuelan emigrants and the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate applauding the blatant plundering of their resources by the US… And even Spanish far-right groups are demanding the same treatment that was applied to Maduro for Pedro Sánchez, something, by the way, that is a crime.
In a world where cultural globalization reinforces the importance of symbolism, having the future of the majority in the hands of figures like Trump is a way of normalizing violence. Especially when political power is completely aligned, as in the case of the US (and to a large extent, the West), with technological power capable of shaping public opinion. Now it turns out that there was no democracy in Venezuela, but there the media suffers no more restrictions than those we have recently seen in our so-called civilized world: in our country, since 2022, Russian media outlets have been unavailable; in several EU countries, such as Germany, pro-Palestinian expressions and demonstrations are censored and repressed; the prestigious BBC recently sent out instructions on what language to use when reporting on Venezuela, omitting words like 'kidnapping'...
In short, democracy in Venezuela can certainly be improved. And in Europe as well. And let's not even mention the US, with a form of government increasingly resembling an oligarchic tyranny, where the wealthy finance the two major parties of the system and then demand their favors in return, like the energy corporations with Venezuelan oil. What is never justifiable is for one country to bomb another simply because it dislikes what's happening there.
The EU is being held hostage by its own bad decisions: it has fueled the confrontation with Russia hand in hand with NATO while simultaneously increasing its dependence on the US, which is indefensible today according to the very same 'European values' (or is it?)... And to make matters worse, they threaten to engulf us. And we don't see either Von der Leyen or Kaja Kallas defending European integrity in this case, nor Euronews urging us to prepare our survival kits.
What reinforces the thesis of the end of an era is the underlying reality: the decline of the Americans on the new world map. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) threaten the dollar's hegemony as the currency used in international transactions, and Venezuela, despite being blacklisted, exported in Chinese currency. The US cannot afford the dedollarization of international economic operations because, along with its arms industry and its necropolitics, it is the basis of its power and what prevents the country from going bankrupt.
Are we returning to the imperialism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with great powers dividing up the world? Perhaps so, but for now the violence comes mainly from one side, and unfortunately, it is "ours," as long as we don't rebel. With Palestine, we are already too late.
I have recalled before Ramon Llull's warning that there can be no peace without justice, and justice is much more than words. The violent drift of capitalism these days is a reminder that democracy is dispensable for those who profit at the expense of social inequality, the destruction of the planet, and mental alienation. What I am not so sure about, at this point, is whether justice can be achieved by bowing one's head or turning the other cheek. And the Islands, with our structural dependence on the outside world, are we prepared for this new era? Is anyone getting ready?
