Some histories do not stay in the past; they wait for the right moment to resurface.
I did not want to start my blog with this topic, but I am shocked by today’s unfolding events.
I am not a fan of Maduro at all. I find him dull, incompetent and power hungry. Venezuela deserves better. However, I was once a supporter of Chávez, but that was a long time ago.
No country has the right to invade or attack another country. Russia should be out of Ukraine, and the United States should have stayed out of Venezuela. Kidnapping a president and putting him on trial in another country is wrong and must never happen. It is a crime and must be punished under international law. There were and are other ways to get rid of Maduro, and the Venezuelans would have managed this themselves. It would have taken longer, but it would have been legal and would have given any new government legitimacy.
Instead, we now face either continued military rule or an illegitimate puppet regime. The West would welcome a Western-aligned puppet government if it meant access to cheap oil and gas from Venezuela. But in doing so, we would be complicit in breaking international law and would lose any moral ground to criticise others.
Why am I so harsh?
If you follow this blog, you will learn that I am related to Bruno Heck, a politician involved in the Condor terror years in Latin America. He was the first Western politician to congratulate Pinochet after the coup in Chile. In doing so, he legitimised torture, coups and mass murder. I also recall reading that he may have been involved in questionable dealings in Venezuela, though I will need to follow this up. If anyone knows more, I would welcome that information.
Let us see how this unfolds, and whether we are facing another terrible decade reminiscent of the Condor years. For the sake of Latin America, I hope not. The continent has already suffered enough from externally sponsored wars, from Guatemala through to Venezuela today.
The Condor years taught us that foreign interference rarely ends where it claims to begin.
Date first published: 03.01.2026
Leave a Reply