Terimah Kasih for this and for all your work—so important to bring it back to lived human experience from the endless spectacle we are supposed to keep focusing on. Similar expressions of stunned / numbed / anxiety from Venezuelans I know in New York.
Wonderful insight as always🔥 I think about the “autogolpe imperial” possibility a lot. Another layer to consider is the influence of the “libertarian” (or “anarcho-capitalist”) elites of Silicon Valley. They’re generally unconcerned about preserving the US as a functioning entity
That attack must have been terrifying for the people in Venezuela. I keep wondering how Maduro and his wife are doing and what's going to become of them.
The responses from your friends in Venezuela should, by themselves, be enough to answer many “progressives” in the West who rushed to talk about the capitulation of Chavismo after the kidnapping of Maduro.
From the safety of Western material comfort, they sit in judgment over the maneuvers a besieged country like the Bolivarian Republic is forced to make. Nothing satisfies them except demanding that others fight “to the last Venezuelan” — just as the West demands the same of Ukraine, only in the name of NATO.
I’m not referring to a single person or a literal quote. I’m describing a general mood among many Western progressives. Since the kidnapping of Maduro, and even more after the proposal to reform the hydrocarbons law, there’s been a rush to frame Venezuela as having “sold out” simply because it is talking to Trump under siege.
This reflects a serious inability to grasp the material pressures created by the brutal US economic blockade. From positions of relative safety, these same voices tend to judge besieged countries not by whether their people can survive, but by whether they conform to an abstract idea of “purity.”
That’s why I drew the analogy with Ukraine: in both cases, Western political cultures — progressive and reactionary alike — end up demanding resistance without limits, even if it means fighting to the last people of the country in question. The logic is different, the moral language is different, but the outcome is the same.
Autogolpe - the word has such a 70's, Costa-Gavras air. Excellent piece as always.
Terimah Kasih for this and for all your work—so important to bring it back to lived human experience from the endless spectacle we are supposed to keep focusing on. Similar expressions of stunned / numbed / anxiety from Venezuelans I know in New York.
Wonderful insight as always🔥 I think about the “autogolpe imperial” possibility a lot. Another layer to consider is the influence of the “libertarian” (or “anarcho-capitalist”) elites of Silicon Valley. They’re generally unconcerned about preserving the US as a functioning entity
That attack must have been terrifying for the people in Venezuela. I keep wondering how Maduro and his wife are doing and what's going to become of them.
What are some historical examples of autogolpe?
Louis Napoleon comes to mind
The responses from your friends in Venezuela should, by themselves, be enough to answer many “progressives” in the West who rushed to talk about the capitulation of Chavismo after the kidnapping of Maduro.
From the safety of Western material comfort, they sit in judgment over the maneuvers a besieged country like the Bolivarian Republic is forced to make. Nothing satisfies them except demanding that others fight “to the last Venezuelan” — just as the West demands the same of Ukraine, only in the name of NATO.
Who said these things? You saw someone in west talk about fighting "to the last Venezuelan?" Did you reply?
I’m not referring to a single person or a literal quote. I’m describing a general mood among many Western progressives. Since the kidnapping of Maduro, and even more after the proposal to reform the hydrocarbons law, there’s been a rush to frame Venezuela as having “sold out” simply because it is talking to Trump under siege.
This reflects a serious inability to grasp the material pressures created by the brutal US economic blockade. From positions of relative safety, these same voices tend to judge besieged countries not by whether their people can survive, but by whether they conform to an abstract idea of “purity.”
That’s why I drew the analogy with Ukraine: in both cases, Western political cultures — progressive and reactionary alike — end up demanding resistance without limits, even if it means fighting to the last people of the country in question. The logic is different, the moral language is different, but the outcome is the same.
Events trauma and violence creates ripples that hurt so many around the world.
Excellent thank you - critically important-