After listening to the words of President Donald J. Trump, I believe that Venezuela has solid reasons to feel hopeful.
The operation carried out in the early hours of today was conducted with the essential premise in mind: it was not an act of war, but a police operation, led by the U.S. Department of Justice through the DEA, with assistance from the Department of Defense in providing logistics and technology.
It was a clean operation, focused exclusively on neutralizing the regime’s military centers while taking the utmost care to protect innocent human lives. The tyrant Maduro and his partner, like rabid rodents, were captured just before they could take refuge in their burrow and were placed at the disposal of justice, so that the full weight of the law may be applied to them and they may pay, as they should, for the terrible crimes for which they are directly responsible.
President Trump, reminding us of the person we so strongly supported during his first term, redeemed himself “in no time at all” when he dispelled any doubt about what is to come next.
The problem I saw before today was “the day after.” After the fraud perpetrated by the interim government of the “padel player,” it became clear that those people had neither the moral nor the intellectual capacity to lead any kind of process in Venezuela.
When, in the 2024 elections, the most nefarious figures of national politics hand-picked a person with no merit or ability for the role he was to play, I knew that with him the poisoned universe that seized humanitarian aid and enriched itself with Venezuela’s assets abroad was being resurrected.
To pretend that such people would have the capacity to take the reins of the country in a scenario as delicate as the one we are experiencing would have been a nightmare of Dantean proportions. That alternative would have opened a Pandora’s box from which the worst demons would have emerged. The cure would have been worse than the disease.
That scenario would have deepened the Venezuelan tragedy, condemning the country to an uncertain number of years of endless conflict, in which the exodus would multiply, scarcity would worsen, and isolation would reach such a level that Venezuela would have no life at all.
But the moment Trump spoke about taking control of the process and having the United States directly oversee the reconstruction, we moved into another dimension — now we are talking about the Major Leagues.
What Trump explained was the application in Venezuela of the brilliant formula the United States used to rebuild Japan after World War II: General Douglas MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (“SCAP”), leading the occupation from 1945 to 1951, with responsibility for demilitarizing the country and carrying out democratization and reconstruction through pivotal changes, while respecting the symbolic figure of the Emperor.
The United States became the supreme military and political authority, taking charge of every essential element of Japanese life. It promoted a new legal framework, compelled the country to lay down its arms, and established a parliamentary system with universal suffrage. It dissolved the imperial army. It preserved Emperor Hirohito as a symbol of unity, but stripped of divine and political power, making the transition possible. It also applied socioeconomic reforms and promoted the dissolution of the great conglomerates (“zaibatsu”) and the creation of labor unions, opening the floodgates to meteoric economic development that turned Japan into one of the world’s leading economic powers.
The United States, under MacArthur’s executive and moral leadership, was the architect of Japan’s transformation, and we can say that the process was impeccable and admirable from every point of view.
When Trump stated that it would be the United States that would take the reins of Venezuela until making it a great and powerful nation — “Make Venezuela great again” — by restoring private property stripped from its legitimate Venezuelan and foreign owners and using the energy sector as the locomotive of the process, the possibilities for our nation shone in my mind: we could, in the blink of an eye, become one of the most admired countries in the world, because we have everything needed to achieve it, including the cultural learning gained after three decades of betrayals, hardships, and blunders.
Trump’s words resurrected the energy plan put into practice by Andrés Sosa Pietri in 1990, which was so traumatically aborted by Chávez’s attempted coup in 1992.
Trump’s words brought back the memory of that fighting man Franklin Brito, whose soul was murdered and then his body when his lands were taken from him.
Trump’s words recalled the dozens of Venezuelan entrepreneurs whose efforts and patrimonies, built over years and years of sacrifice, were snatched away in an instant.
Trump’s words also reminded us why it is important for the United States to understand the need to prevent the advance of communism on the planet and the entrenchment of criminal regimes in Western nations.
Today’s speech presented us with a statesman in full command of his mental faculties, clear and precise about his role as a global power, and — most importantly — it showed that behind what happened today in Venezuela there is sound intelligence: competent people designing and executing strategies without improvisation, fully aware that a process this delicate and historic cannot be left in the hands of incompetent, stupid, and/or immoral individuals.
Obviously, there is still much ground to cover before we can have a clearer picture and carry out a more complete analysis based on additional elements.
But today is a day of jubilation. I believe we have solid reasons to be optimistic.
May God bless us all.
Deja un comentario