It Could Happen Here: "Talking to Venezuelans about Venezuela" (March 31, 2026)

Episode Overview

In this episode, host James (Cool Zone Media) sits down with Marianne, a Venezuelan artist and activist, to discuss the realities of Venezuelan life, identity, and political discourse—emphasizing the urgent need for genuine Venezuelan voices in global conversations about the country's crisis. They critique how both the US left and right marginalize or misappropriate Venezuelan narratives and explore the deep trauma, complexity, and resilience of Venezuelans, both at home and in the diaspora. The conversation is a candid, emotional, and often personal challenge to prevailing assumptions, delivered in a raw and open tone.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Erasure of Venezuelan Voices

• Lack of Genuine Representation: James and Marianne express deep frustration about the US left discussing Venezuela without engaging actual Venezuelans.
  • “I am appalled at the discourse about Venezuela which is happening without Venezuelan voices for the most part.” (James, 03:34)
• Misuse of Narratives by Both US Left and Right:
  • Left: Silencing or dismissing critical Venezuelan perspectives if they don't fit the anti-imperialist narrative.
  • Right: Appropriating Venezuelan suffering to advocate intervention or promote US policy.
  • “Everyone’s trying to… steal our own narrative and suffering for their own gain. And the left and the right are doing both, like, equally.” (Marianne, 07:33)

2. Emotional Turmoil of Recent Events

• Mixed Responses to US Intervention and Ouster of Maduro:
  • Marianne describes a wave of fear, relief, confusion, and worry—not joy at American bombs but at the removal of an oppressor, tempered by deep skepticism of American interventionism.
    • "Joy, because… this guy who has done horrible things to the Venezuelan people is now paying for his crime somewhere. But at the same time, fear because of what is going to happen next." (Marianne, 06:44)
  • Realization of being caught between two predatory powers, exacerbating impotence and despair.
• Isolation and Exhaustion in Exile:
  • “Do I even have a place in the world if nobody wants to hear my voice?” (Marianne, 08:54)
  • Loss of friends and unfollowing leftist spaces as people ignore or invalidate her experience.

3. Binary Framing and Its Problems

• False Binaries: The choice is falsely framed as either supporting Maduro (and suffering) or supporting US-style intervention (with all its perils).
  • “It’s a complete failing of us on the left to not talk to people from Venezuela.” (James, 04:05)
• Critique of ‘Imperial Left’: The left’s consistent failure to offer solidarity or even to listen, often accusing critical Venezuelans of being fascists or CIA plants.
  • “They have sided with our oppressors. So, you know, if Trump comes and says, I recognize this regime is bad... people are going to take that.” (Marianne, 16:34)
  • “We’ve run directly into the hands of vultures because they’re the only hands that we’ve been given.” (Marianne, 17:38)

4. Trauma and Desperation

• Extreme Suffering Under Maduro and Chavismo:
  • Harrowing realities: famine, torture, executions, and a litany of abuses.
  • “People experience mock and real executions, getting electrocuted by their genitals, rape, being forced to eat feces, and a whole list of medieval-sounding torture methods.” (Marianne, 16:28)
• Desperation Shapes Political Choices:
  • Outsiders often misunderstand endorsements of intervention or the right not as ideological, but as emerging from trauma and hopelessness.
    • “Many of these leftists will criticize Venezuelans for siding with their enemies. But what they don’t see is that they have sided with ours.” (Marianne, 16:34)
  • “We have all these Venezuelans who, again, claim to be right wing... but if you actually talk to them, that is not the case.” (Marianne, 59:35)

5. Mutual Aid & Solidarity: Venezuelan Style

• Community-based Survival Tactics:
  • Resource sharing during famines; networks of aid in the absence of state support.
    • “In my backyard we had plantain and our neighbor had avocado. So you... we would exchange things. Somebody needed anything…” (Marianne, 28:39)
  • Deep-rooted mutual aid, often resembling anarchist practice more than internet ‘leftism.’
• Lesson for the US Left:
  • “They're probably doing more mutual aid than people who spend a lot of their time being anarchists on the Internet.” (James, 27:59)
  • Solidarity built not on ideology but on bare survival and common purpose.

6. Diversity and Complexity of Political Views

• Opposition Is Not Monolithic or Right-Wing:
  • US/European left often assumes all anti-Maduro Venezuelans are right-wing, ignoring left opposition.
    • “A free Venezuela isn’t just free from imperialism, but also free from dictatorship. It’s free from both.” (Marianne, 24:20)
  • Diverse opposition encompasses many leftists, especially among queer artists/activists.
  • Family Division: Chavismo caused rifts, sometimes irreparably, reflecting growing polarization similar to current US politics.

7. Solidarity Means Learning, Listening, and Including

• Practical Advocacy:

  • Learn Spanish; engage with local voices and media.
    • “If you’re going to advocate for a specific group of people, at least learn the language, you know?” (Marianne, 49:27)
  • Active listening and empathy, especially when trauma influences politics.
    • “Don’t dismiss them as CIA, fascist, whatever. They’re not fascists. They’re just people who are traumatized.” (Marianne, 52:50)
  • Combine anti-imperialist and anti-authoritarian demands in activism (“US out” and “Down with Maduro” together).
    • “When you omit one side, you’re making it seem like the other side is better. When it should be abundantly clear that both the US and Maduro need to be out.” (Marianne, 33:09)

• “For the people” isn’t a slogan: True solidarity is hard work: language, context, dialogue, critical thinking.

  • “Very few for the people in that sense, where they engage and actually go and try to talk to us.” (Marianne, 56:22)

Memorable Quotes

• On Solidarity:

  • “We should be spoken to as humans and thought about as humans, not as some chess piece in this political game.” (Marianne, 61:13)

• On Opposition Diversity:

  • “I've heard a lot of people say that. Like, well, yeah, we, we wanted it too, so we supported it, but it wasn't. We didn't get that. We got prisons and cops.” (James, 41:21)

• On the Left's Failures:

  • “It is fundamentally a colonial impulse to steal someone's narrative and assume that they're incapable of speaking for themselves. So you must speak for them.” (James, 10:09)
  • "Being for the people takes a lot of effort... learn languages, visit places, talk to people who you might on the surface disagree with." (Marianne, 56:22)

• On Trauma:

  • “They're just people who are traumatized. And it's really important to understand their trauma in order to address the issues that actually concern them.” (Marianne, 52:50)

Key Segment Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |-------------|-------------------------------------------------| | 02:48-04:08 | Opening discussion—lack of Venezuelan voice | | 04:32-08:54 | Marianne describes post-intervention emotion/trauma | | 10:00-12:32 | Colonial narratives, opposition's diversity | | 13:57-17:53 | Trauma, balancing US and regime violence | | 22:29-26:37 | Being left-wing in Venezuela and diaspora | | 28:14-29:44 | Mutual aid & self-reliance in crisis | | 30:15-33:09 | Practical solidarity: how to support Venezuelans | | 36:39-41:51 | Memories of early Chavismo, family divisions | | 46:22-48:10 | Palestinian-Venezuelan solidarity | | 49:23-54:17 | How to listen and advocate | | 56:58-57:13 | Solidarity is work, language, effort | | 61:02-62:18 | Final appeals: “We’re not a monolith—listen to us”|

Concluding Takeaways

• Reject Simple Narratives: Venezuela’s crisis cannot be flattened to a left-vs-right or imperialism-vs-anti-imperialism debate. Listen to Venezuelans as multi-faceted, traumatized, and aspirational people, not caricatures.
• Include Real Voices: Solidarity begins with learning, listening, and translating—not with speaking for others.
• Empathy Over Assumptions: Understand support for “the enemy” as a desperate response; reject the labeling of traumatized people as agents or dupes.
• Practical Solidarity: Protest both US intervention and dictatorship, learn Spanish, and foster direct connections.
• Everyone is Human: “We’re human and we’re not the perfect victims. … We’re not a monolith. … Include us into the conversation.” (Marianne, 61:11)

Guest Contact

• Instagram: e.m.a.r.i.n (spelled out as “my name deconstructed”) (57:54)

Summary compiled by AI Podcast Summarizer (2026). All sections extracted and attributed per episode guidelines.