There Will Be No Democracy in Venezuela at the Point of a US Gun

The kidnapping of the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in January of this year has once again raised the spectre of US invasion in Latin America. This attack on Venezuela—the home of Latin American democracy and independence—has wide-ranging implications for both regional and global politics. In this article, I explore how Maduro’s policies set the stage for US intervention and Trump’s radical attempt to transform relations with the rest of the world through control of Venezuela’s petroleum resources.