At the end of World War II, Germany was left devastated and, as we know, also divided into two blocs: one controlled by the Soviet Union and the other by the United States and, eventually, NATO. We know that the eastern portion never truly recovered, since the virus of communism exerted its lethal effect and nothing good ever grows from it. By contrast, the western side flourished as never before, transforming Germany into Europe’s leading economic power. To achieve this, the United States had to tread very carefully, ensuring that the machinery of the State was not interrupted and that social discontent did not turn into potential civil conflict. With a handkerchief over their noses, they chose to allow Nazis to remain in executive and bureaucratic positions, except for war criminals who were tried at Nuremberg.
This story teaches something that is ultimately rooted in an intrinsic feature of human nature, which the great José Ortega y Gasset captured in an immortal phrase: “I am myself and my circumstances.”
Every person has light and shadow; everyone has had to do things in life that, under other circumstances, they would never have done. Belonging to a criminal state is not ideal for anyone with their human values in place, but sometimes the circumstances of life push people to make decisions based on sheer survival. In Germany, in order to work in academia or earn a living in almost any profession, a Nazi Party card was mandatory. Does that mean those people were evil? Does it mean they were responsible for the Holocaust? The answer is obvious: no, they were not. They were ordinary flesh-and-blood people who had to put bread on the table so their families would not starve.
In Venezuela, the immense pool of human beings that makes up the state apparatus does not share in the crimes of Chavismo, nor are they revolutionaries willing to flee to the mountains to start shooting and planting bombs. With the insurgent forces something different, though in some ways similar, occurs. Yes, those individuals can be described as malandros, capable of killing anyone for a handful of dollars. But it is also true that they are part of a hierarchical system that functions through orders and force. In that universe, whoever holds power commands—plain and simple. If the power belongs to a Chavista, they obey the Chavista. If it belongs to a “gringo,” they obey the “gringo.” The same can be said of the “military” trained within the “process”: they are brainless machines who follow whoever gives the orders, whether red or blue. What matters to them is that the one giving orders has God by the beard.
Now let us turn to Venezuela and what has occurred since yesterday. I should clarify before continuing: the picture is still uncertain, there is little information, and it is difficult to conduct analyses based on enough verified elements to make the premises universal and firm. Nevertheless, I will dare to assess the facts based on my personal intuitions and the experience life has given me in my short years of existence (for a believer in centenarian longevity, that statement has some grounding).
The operation to extract Maduro was flawless, with a perfect level of excellence: 100% success, 0% error. It involved simultaneously neutralizing each and every sensitive military node and capturing the head of the process and his partner without a scratch and with zero innocent casualties. An operation of that magnitude implies prior intelligence work achievable only by people with remarkable IQs and a standard of professionalism seen only in those who break every mold.
If we draw a parallel with sports, the people involved in this operation are the equivalent of a Michael Phelps or a Pelé; in music, Beethoven and Wagner; in science, Oppenheimer and Einstein; in literature, Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Borges. It is that simple: there were no improvisers and no idiots here. Consequently, the least we can do is deduce that the team of minds behind all this has thought through every single element necessary to achieve the final objective: to free the country and “make Venezuela great again.”
Why was Delcy left standing? Why is Diosdado still walking free? Weren’t they going to dismantle the narco-state? Why was the so-called legitimate government of Venezuela sidelined?
To capture Maduro the way they did, high-ranking Chavista figures must have been involved and must have concrete agreements with the United States. Delcy Rodríguez is unbearable to any decent person, but she has two points in her favor: (1) she handles crucial information to understand the inner workings of the process; (2) she is intelligent like an old fox or a lab rat—intellectual abilities not to be underestimated. And to uproot the “process,” the first thing that must be done is to know it at its roots, and for that Delcy can be a key card in Trump’s game.
Why Diosdado? The host of El Mazo Dando also has two extremely necessary qualities: (1) full control of the insurgent groups and (2) a very high IQ—to the point that I would dare to say he is the most sophisticated intelligence within Chavismo. The only way to avoid a civil war in Venezuela, an endless cascade of blood, is to have the capacity to restrain the insurgency and keep it pacified. Judging by the calm now felt in the streets, where even delivery services are operating normally, that objective has been achieved so far, and that has only one explanation: Diosdado has understood that he must cooperate with the United States.
As for the narco-state, let me pause to state categorically: drug trafficking is not eliminated; it is controlled, because the former is impossible. What is controlled are the routes—where the drugs leave from and where they arrive. The goal of any nation plagued by this scourge is to ensure that the routes are the right ones to minimize costs and maximize benefits. That is what the CIA achieved for years in the West, and when Colombia tried to get defiant, they decapitated Pablo Escobar and brought the rest into line.
Something else very telling can be inferred from what we have seen since yesterday: the United States negotiated with Russia and China; otherwise, the extraction operation would have been unfeasible, since we are talking about nuclear bombs—and when that is at stake, nobody plays cowboys and Indians.
With Russia, there must have been a direct negotiation with Putin to secure Crimea and Donbas (and no Ukraine member of NATO); and with China, guarantees of oil business and economic activity in all areas, which suits the brilliant Xi Jinping, since otherwise the many billions of dollars Venezuela owes China would hardly be repaid.
An aggressive reactivation of Venezuela’s productive apparatus is a win-win scenario for the Chinese, and for that, U.S. investments come in like a glove. Besides, with the U.S. as an ally, the opening of airspace, the free flow of maritime commerce, and the lifting of economic sanctions that clog growth possibilities are guaranteed. Goods and services begin to flow, supplies of medicine and food increase, people start to feel a positive change in their lives—and that is key for Trump’s objective to be fulfilled.
And the cherry on the cake: Cuba is eliminated from the picture, and with it the absolute control that regime exercised over national identification systems, the electoral roll, and everything related to citizen surveillance and «Big Brother».
Why does Trump disdain the “opposition” led by the supposed legitimate president? In 2019, the U.S. president recognized the legitimacy of the interim government, convinced more than sixty countries to reject Maduro, put a price on his head, invited the interim president twice to the White House and once to a joint session of Congress, authorized billions in humanitarian aid, and allowed that interim government full control over Venezuela’s assets in the U.S.
And what happened? The humanitarian aid never reached its destination, the assets were used for unconfessable benefits, and the interim president and his entire orbit created, in the middle of the U.S. presidential campaign, a group called “Venezuelans with Biden,” stabbing Trump in the back more vilely than the twenty-three wounds suffered by Julius Caesar.
To top it off, four years later, barely after winning the presidency again, what does the brand-new “legitimate president of Venezuela” do? He is provided with a direct flight and travel expenses so that, with his slow gait and cloistered-friar voice, he can rush to Washington to meet—just before leaving—with none other than “Sleepy Joe,” the man most despised and detested by the new occupant of the White House.
As if the 2020 stab were not enough, this parrot-loving, fern-watering gentleman grips the weapon and plunges it where it hurts most—in a wound that will never heal, and for more than justified reasons. “Fool me once, it’s your fault. Fool me twice, it’s my fault.”
If Trump has anything, it is that he is not an idiot. He learned something from the universe of jackals, crows, vultures, rats, and snakes that make up the ecosystem of the Venezuelan “opposition,” the same one that has been betraying Venezuela since 1992, when it staged a coup against CAP, the president who was turning us into a First-World country, only to bring to the stage a murderer of Venezuelans whose crimes they forgave, dressed up as a gentleman, and escorted to Miraflores to unleash his plan of destruction. This is the same opposition that looked the other way at the crimes of Puente Llaguno, ignored the farce called “Venezuelan democracy,” and eagerly took part in every electoral circus that bolted the tyranny to power, laundering crimes and making them palatable to the world, while dancing with sharpened fangs at the CADIVI feast and filling their personal coffers with the money from the “spaces” granted by the tyrant to mask his ugliness and with the millions contributed by each of the countless electoral campaigns.
Moreover—and something very important people seem not to consider in their mental equations—on what basis would one recognize the “guacamayato” government (Lara Farías dixit) if it is the product of a process vitiated by absolute nullity? Can a system be taken seriously when machines are manipulated, the voter roll is bloated with millions of ghosts, and the referees are more prostitutes than those who ply their trade in places like La Libertador or La Solano? Do you award the title to a boxer who fights a fixed match? Do you consider that “fight” a real fight? The tallies? For God’s sake—what tallies and what nonsense? Those tallies are worth less than the toilet paper Maduro used on the «USS Iwo Jima«. To pretend otherwise is to understand nothing of what has happened in Venezuela over the past thirty-four years.
And what will happen to so many corrupt people who have devoured the national treasury? Here I think of what my Stoic friends have taught me: life itself puts everything in its place. Every pig gets its slaughter Saturday. This is not the moment to dwell on that, but rest assured they will pay sooner or later.
For now, there are reasons to celebrate: Maduro is in a cell awaiting sentence; Cuba is out of the game; Russia and China will not interfere; and the United States, our closest cultural sibling, is in charge of the process.
This means the clouds are clearing and a different horizon is emerging—one in which “Make Venezuela Great Again” no longer sounds like utopia but like a very real possibility.
Judging by the impeccable intelligence behind what we witnessed yesterday, we have reason to trust that everything will unfold at the necessary pace and that our nation will rise again like the Phoenix.
May God bless us all.
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