Janice Silverman (10:32)
Sure, of course. So obviously it all goes back a little bit further, right. You know, 1823, which is the December 1823 James Monroe announces his famous doctrine, which again there's is a lot of controversy about it, about how much it really called for direct intervention by the United States in Latin America at that time, or is more just asserting the fact that it was under a sphere of influence and trying to keep out other European imperial powers in time, namely countries like Spain, while Spain was already there, but you know, France, Britain, etc. Fast forward a little bit and you start seeing a sort of more aggressive interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine over time, especially after the United States passes through its own internal conflicts in the 1860s during the Civil war. Right. So this is where you see again these famous cases of gun bloat diplomacy which again tend to happen more in the areas with more geographical proximity to the United States. Right. So we are talking about the Caribbean, we're obviously talking about Mexico, we're obviously talking about Central America and we're obviously talking about Venezuela. You know, and when we mean convo democracy, it literally. Diplomacy, sorry, it literally meant, you know, that the United States sending warships either directly as a government or privatized through other, what they called at the time, filibusters. I know today we use filibuster as a. Has a different meaning, right? But literally filibusters were, you know, these sort of private agents who came in and, you know, invaded countries. This literally happened in Nicaragua and I believe it was the 1870s where it was governed by an American for two years. And I believe it was the TAP government that actually recognized it diplomatically. So this happened in Venezuela, this. And again, it's also important to mention that it wasn't just the United States that was doing this, written did this quite often to mostly to make good on debts, sovereign debts that these countries held. Because again, let's going back a bit further again in the early 19th century, 1810s, 1820s, that's when all these countries were having their wars of independence. You know, Venezuela played an important, particularly important role. You know, it was the home of Simo, the birthplace of Simon Bolivar, which was the, you know, the liberator of most of South America. Right. But these countries entered, these newly independent countries in the 1820s and 30s, entered into massive debt, you know, to be able to pay their armies, you know, establish working governments, you know, hire police, those kind of basic functions, set up schools, etc. Etc. So again, depending on where these countries were located geographically in the region, some had stronger ties, financial and political ties with Britain in particular. Like we're talking Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, and then the ones close to the United States, like Venezuela, like Mexico, like Central America, had their principal ties with the United States. And then fast forward a little bit more, we get to the 1890s. So who comes into the scene that Teddy Roosevelt, right, and he create with the infamous, I would say, Roosevelt corollary, which basically states very clearly that the United States now gives itself the right to preemptively invade countries and take political control over Latin American countries if they discord with the way they are governing themselves, either politically or economically. And that takes its material expression in the Spanish Civil War, right? You know, which is, you know what? I think it lasted about 2, 3 months where the United States comes in, kind of does this trick at tries to say that it was allied with the Cuban independence forces. What in reality, it wants to take, you know, it wants to get the Spanish out and obtain more direct political and economic control over the island. And you have so that they win the war very easily, quickly in, like I said, in about three months, and Cuba becomes nominally an independent country. And there's also an interesting story about that, you know, Cuba, Cuba could have been you know, the 51st or whatever number state it wouldn't have been at the time. But there was a lot of backlash by US politicians at the time because they felt that there were too many Afro Cubans in the island and it would mess up this quote unquote racial balance. The United States to incorporate Cuba as a state. So that's why it was not incorporated, became an independent state nominally. But you had the plat amendment which was incorporated into the Cuban constitution, I believe it was 1902, 1903, which basically said that the United States had a right to again directly intervene in Cuban politics, Cuban affairs, if they discarded with the way that the government was, was handling things, even though Cuba was again a nominally independent state. And so that's when Puerto Rico becomes a colony, in addition to Philippines, Guam, et cetera. So all that to say that. And this is again skipping over Mexico, which would be a whole, you know, hour podcast in and of itself about the history of U.S. mexican intervention. Right. So all that to say that U.S. presence in the region in this sort of aggressive, you know, sort of unilateral perspective has been very, very obvious, you know, I, since the mid 19th century. So what they're doing in Venezuela, long story short, is nothing new.
