Bay of Pigs 2.0 – armed invasion of Venezuela

Submitted by InfoBrics, authored by Lucas Leiroz, research fellow in international law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro…

Amid the global pandemic, Washington moves forward with its agenda in Latin America. Onсe again, the target is Venezuela. The American government’s opposition to the popular regime of Nicolás Maduro has reached increasingly drastic levels, with the United States officially stating the dangerous lie that the Venezuelan State would be involved in the international narcotics trafficking and, since then, carrying out bold military and intelligence maneuvers to destabilize the Bolivarian government.

At the end of March, Washington formally accused the government of Nicolás Maduro of involvement with drug trafficking. A 15 million dollar reward was offered for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan president. Since this moment, the American policy towards Venezuela has completely hardened, with increasingly aggressive maneuvers conducted against the South American government. Shortly after announcing the millionaire reward for data leading to Maduro’s arrest, U.S. President Donald Trump sent military troops to Venezuela. Powerful US Navy ships were sent to the Venezuelan coast in a military operation to “fight drug trafficking in South America”.

In practice, the US wants to surround Venezuela, obstruct the country’s navigations and repeat the old strategy of suffocating the enemy to overthrow Maduro, thus guaranteeing Washington’s interests in South America. However, the frontal attack through a maritime siege was not enough to overthrow Maduro and, then, the South American country was invaded by mercenary troops in the service of the USA in the beginning of April. Little or nothing was reported by the western media agencies regarding the invasion of Venezuela, however, it not only occurred but was extremely significant, requiring great government attention to dismantle the foreign conspiracy.

The way in which the invasion was designed is still little known outside Venezuela, however, it is speculated that there was a triad of collaboration between the United States, Colombia and the Guaidó’s Venezuelan opposition. At first, these three elements conspired to allow armed mercenaries to enter Venezuelan soil to overthrow the government. According to official sources, the guerrillas left Colombia on a sea route to enter Venezuela, being transported by an American company possibly hired by Guaidó himself. The attack occurred more specifically in the Chuao region, in the state of Aragua. Several photos and videos of the operation to contain the invasion can be easily found on the internet. The Venezuelan Attorney General has published a series of evidences, including the contracts signed between Guaidó and the American company, which describe the sea routes from Colombia, exactly as done during the attack, attesting the veracity of the Maduro government’s allegations.

On Sunday, Venezuelan Interior Minister Néstor Reverol made a public statement immediately after the invasion attempt, stating that the country’s security forces wounded, captured and slaughtered several terrorists in La Guaíra, just 20 miles from Caracas. In his words: “A group of mercenary terrorists from Colombia tried to carry out an invasion by sea, to commit terrorist attacks in the country and to assassinate the leaders of the revolutionary government”. The allegations on the part of the Venezuelan government were quickly answered by the Colombian authorities, who, however, did nothing but claim “no basis in the charges”, without providing proof that such invaders would not have left Colombia in coordinated action.

Diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Colombia were broken last year. Gradually, Colombia becomes a satellite state of American interests in South America, being absolutely occupied and submitted to Washington. It is worth remembering that in 2018 Colombia became NATO’s first “global partner” in Latin America. The most curious and even ironic in this whole scenario is the American accusation against Maduro’s government of involvement with drug trafficking, when, in fact, Colombia, its greatest ally in the global South, is the Latin nation with the greatest historical link to the international drug trafficking in the Americas, being a true Narco-State. Washington deflects the focus of its allies by imputing its crimes to its enemies.

The failed operation brings to mind a similar episode that took place in Cuba in 1961, the so-called Bay of Pigs Invasion. On that occasion, Cuba was invaded by a group of paramilitary mercenaries trained by the CIA and financed by the Italian-American Mafia who intended to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government. The operation was a complete failure and a real humiliation for the United States, which had to withdraw and recognize the Cuban victory. Again, history repeats itself, with mercenaries being paid and trained by the United States to invade non-aligned countries in an outsourced war tactic. And again, the US is defeated.

This “Bay of Pigs 2.0” reveals a truly outdated posture of American geopolitics. Increasingly, Washington is trying to revive Cold War tactics in a completely different global context and where such measures are intolerable. How long will the US insist on this strategy? When will they realize that their aggressive international policy is not effective in the current dynamics of international relations?