Trump and Maduro: allies or enemies?

By: Luis Gonzales Posada - 24/01/2025

In 1987, Donald Trump published "The Art of the Deal," advised by journalist Tony Schwartz, who would later regret having participated in writing the book that catapulted the real estate magnate to national fame and later to become president of the United States.

More than 1 million copies were sold, and for 13 weeks the work occupied the number one spot on the New York Times list – undoubtedly a remarkable success for someone who is a powerful and bold communicator, who has made his name a brand of glamour, wealth, elegance and power.

In his work, Trump maintained, with absolute sincerity, that "the final key to what I promote is bravado. I play to people's fantasies. People may not think big themselves, but they get excited by those who do. I call it honest hyperbole." (ABC/January 21, 2025).

Yes, the exact, correct key word is hyperbole, which means exaggeration. That is what he does when he repeats "we will be great again," "the golden age of the United States has begun," "from this day on - the day of his inauguration - our country will flourish and be respected again in the world," or "we will be the envy of all nations."

He then adds that "we will return millions and millions of criminal foreigners to their places of origin" and "we will send troops to the Mexican border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country," while threatening to increase tariffs on the Aztec nation and Canada by 25% for migration and for exporting fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has killed thousands of young Americans.

These were the first announcements, along with the withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement on climate change, as well as the ban on the use of vaccines, a project promoted by Robert Kennedy, Secretary of Health and Human Resources, a fanatic promoter of not getting any medication, even when the pandemic was devastating his country.

On Venezuela, the tycoon was cautious, evasive, saying that “we will probably stop buying oil. We don’t need it.”

The caution is due to the fact that Chevron, Texaco, Mobil and Exxon are exploiting the fields of the Orinoco Belt, transporting light crude to their refineries on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, located in Texas, Illinois and Louisiana.

In the 2022-2023 period alone, the aforementioned companies exported 22 million barrels of crude oil to the USA, an amount equivalent to 17.65 billion dollars; which covers 58% of the Chavista regime's income, a large amount of money that it uses to repress the democratic opposition.

Asked about the increase in crude oil purchases, which reached 222 thousand barrels per day in the first quarter of last year, Mike Wirth, the cynical and anetic director of Chevron, justified the increase by saying that “we are a commercial actor, not a political actor”; that is, this guy is only interested in money, even if those dollars are stained with the blood of thousands of human beings.

Given this background, will Trump be able to put an end to the corrupt and genocidal satrapy of Chavismo, or will he make a pact with the dictatorship? Will he be able to remove Maduro from power, as the Americans, alone or in alliance with third countries, did with the Panamanian general Manuel Antonio Neriega, with Saddam Hussein in Iraq or with Muammar Gaddafi in Libya?

This is, without a doubt, a test of fire for his administration, adding that behind Maduro are China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia, enemies of the West.

We will also see how Trump reacts to other pressing issues, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine and China's expansionist appetite, which threatens to attack the island of Taiwan.

These are hard times, which require the unity of democratic states, the European Union and NATO, segments that the Republicans despise, or pretend to despise, as well as Latin America, saying "we don't need it."

In short, if Trump succeeds in bringing down the Chavista satrap, he will put an end to a long period of barbarism, which has seen thousands of murders, torture and imprisonment, according to two reports from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OAS, the 27 nations that make up the European Community and the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court, which classify these acts as crimes against humanity.

The Venezuelan situation is even more dramatic considering that, to escape the hell of 21st century socialism, some 7.7 million people have migrated, according to figures from the United Nations (UNHCR), a number that must have increased to more than 8 million after the scandalous electoral fraud against the

candidate González Urrutia, winner of the presidential elections with 67% of the votes.

If Washington does not recognize a spurious ruler, such as Nicolás Maduro, the next step should be to suspend diplomatic relations with Caracas; a democratic decision that other nations around the world should follow.

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».