I am no expert about Venezuela. What I know about it is just what I've heard or read over the years. And there was a long period of time when that country was rarely even mentioned on the news. It was a hot topic when Chavez was elected, a bit of chatter as Venezuela and Cuba established a relationship, and a bit of reporting when Chavez died and when Maduro took over. Overall, there are a lot of lengthy gaps in my information.
But I'm inclined to put stronger emphasis on U.S. sanctions against Venezuela than I heard in this discussion. In the longer history I see much closer parallels with Cuba than with Iraq. Chavez came to office with strong popular support, reportedly through a very fairly run election and he proceeded to nationalize the oil industry, but also raise living conditions of the underclass. Within days of the Chavez election, there were efforts to overthrow him, probably engineered by the oil companies but with some support by the U.S. military. Those efforts failed, but then the U.S. imposed sanctions against the new government.
Cuba had no oil industry, but prior to Castro coming to power the Batista government was responsive to U.S. interests. It was a popular resort island and U.S. money had flowed in to build a popular tourist industry. All that was put in jeopardy by the Castro government, which the U.S. initially tried to overthrow, but subsequently just imposed severe sanctions.
Under sanctions, both the Cuban and later the Venezuelan economies suffered. And as the economy fails in just about any country, the government takes all the blame. The government can either collapse or it can adopt a more autocratic style. And that is the purpose of the sanctions; they do work, but often not exactly as intended.
I am no expert about Venezuela. What I know about it is just what I've heard or read over the years. And there was a long period of time when that country was rarely even mentioned on the news. It was a hot topic when Chavez was elected, a bit of chatter as Venezuela and Cuba established a relationship, and a bit of reporting when Chavez died and when Maduro took over. Overall, there are a lot of lengthy gaps in my information.
But I'm inclined to put stronger emphasis on U.S. sanctions against Venezuela than I heard in this discussion. In the longer history I see much closer parallels with Cuba than with Iraq. Chavez came to office with strong popular support, reportedly through a very fairly run election and he proceeded to nationalize the oil industry, but also raise living conditions of the underclass. Within days of the Chavez election, there were efforts to overthrow him, probably engineered by the oil companies but with some support by the U.S. military. Those efforts failed, but then the U.S. imposed sanctions against the new government.
Cuba had no oil industry, but prior to Castro coming to power the Batista government was responsive to U.S. interests. It was a popular resort island and U.S. money had flowed in to build a popular tourist industry. All that was put in jeopardy by the Castro government, which the U.S. initially tried to overthrow, but subsequently just imposed severe sanctions.
Under sanctions, both the Cuban and later the Venezuelan economies suffered. And as the economy fails in just about any country, the government takes all the blame. The government can either collapse or it can adopt a more autocratic style. And that is the purpose of the sanctions; they do work, but often not exactly as intended.