The global context in which the US bombing of Venezuelan territory and the kidnapping-capture of Nicolás Maduro took place, is marked by the rapid decline of North Atlantic hegemony, which some analysts call the transition from a unipolar world led by the US and the collective West to a multipolar world marked by the BRICS. This is a profound transformation in global power relations that shows the weakening of the international architecture formed after World War II and the first signs of a possible new order. When one order has not yet died and another has not yet been born, we find ourselves in an “ahistorical parenthesis” that implies a radical rupture that interrupts the established symbolic order, with existing norms, laws, and narratives suspended. Contradictions become apparent and open up a moment of political and existential possibility.
There are two events in recent years that mark the definitive collapse of United Nations agreements: the brutal genocide of the Palestinian people perpetrated by Israel before the eyes of the world, and the bombing of Venezuela by the US government with the capture of its president. In the history of US hegemony, there is an endless list of military interventions, overthrowing of presidents, massacres of peoples, etc. It is no secret that the US state has played the role of global police for the capitalist corporations that are part of the collective West. This role of exercising military violence intensified after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which took place within the framework of international law in the second half of the 20th century.
The uniqueness of the two events mentioned above has to do with the following:
- These two events are completely outside the bounds of any international law or norm and totally disregard the authority of the UN and the US Constitution itself. These are clearly cynical and unpunished actions that do not even construct a moderately elaborate discourse of justification. The rhetoric about Hamas “terrorists” and “Chavista narco-terrorists” fails to construct any credible discourse, given the disproportionate nature of the attack and the illegalities involved. The lies are so weak that they are easily refuted by the real reasons given by the perpetrators themselves. Netanyahu has said on several occasions, without shame or embarrassment, that he will wipe out the entire Palestinian people because Palestine is Israeli territory, and even more so, that the Middle East is the land of Israel. Trump has brazenly said that he is going after “the U.S.’s oil,” referring to Venezuelan oil. What I mean is that the empire’s actions within the framework of its international order, which were obviously directed within the globalist project, no longer exist. Its own rules, its own agreements, its own international law, its own laws no longer serve it, and it has no qualms about throwing them away with the approval of its European allies, such as Macron and Meloni.
- It is not the same when states accused of being totalitarian and anti-democratic, such as China, Russia, and Iran, etc., break the Western international order as when its major representatives do so. It was supposed to be the collective “democratic” West that safeguarded international order and law in the face of threatening actions by “anti-democratic barbarians.” Today, it is they who are going against their political foundations and blatantly destroying them. One need only look at “undemocratic” Russia, which, in its “special military operation” in Ukraine, did not enter Kiev, kidnap Zelensky, and take him to Russia for trial. Now they can do so without any problem; after all, they are much more powerful militarily than any country in Europe. They could enter France and kidnap Macron or Germany and kidnap Merz; China could enter Taiwan and kidnap T Chang Po-ya.
- The leaders of the European community who applaud Washington’s illegality will certainly not pursue a policy of economic, diplomatic, or cultural sanctions against the United States as they did with Russia. This attitude starkly reveals the political hypocrisy and double standards of international law as applied by the West, which destroys global confidence in its international system. The great modern and civilized Europe is showing itself to be a lackey subordinate to the illegalities brazenly exposed by the United States. We must not forget that Europe is the cradle of the bourgeois political order that has organized the world for the last few centuries. This upheaval of political principles is evident in liberal Macron’s support for military intervention in Venezuela, while pro-fascist Marine Le Pen sanctions it.
- It turns out that dictatorial Russia and totalitarian China, especially the latter, have sanctioned the United States’ violation of international law. In fact, China has already stated that its commercial interests in Venezuela and in all countries where they exist are protected by law, that legality of international agreements that the Americans have just cynically violated. Now we will have to wait and see how events unfold and what actions Russia, China, and Iran take in relation to their interests in Venezuela.
The direct breakdown of the international order opens the door to an era of might makes right, savage colonialism, looting, piracy, genocide, and criminality by the states with the greatest military power. This leads to the destruction of the principles and values of modernity, rational politics, and liberal democracy. Trump is not a president, he is the head of a mafia that seeks to maintain its imperial power over the world at the expense of the American people themselves. Trump’s psychological profile greatly influences his criminal policies at a time of clear decline in his US global hegemony. It is not wrong to compare him to the extreme madness, sadism, and megalomania of Caligula, who forced senators to run in front of his chariot. Trump has publicly humiliated his European allies and organized military attacks that clearly sacrifice strategy for the appearance of power, which in the long term accelerates the fall of the empire. He is setting the United States on fire as Nero set Rome on fire, with the aim of becoming the last emperor of the dying American hegemony. Just as Nero brutally persecuted Christians and turned them into scapegoats, Trump persecutes immigrants and turns them into expendable victims of brutal attacks by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Their erratic behavior is part of the psychological profile of a sociopath, who is generally the one who leads the era of decadence.
Within the framework of international law, acts of war have a rationale that makes them legible in that framework, which affirms and confirms hegemony, meaning that they are legitimate in the eyes of the authorities that support the hegemon. When acts of war break that legality, the hegemon loses the trust of its subordinates. The emperor has no clothes, and everyone can see it. From that point on, he rapidly loses his investiture of power, and his days are numbered. The powerful no longer seek consensus, acceptance, trust, legitimacy, or respect; they seek to provoke horror and fear. They want to be feared, and with their radically violent actions, they succeed. But he is left alone, and that loneliness increasingly causes him to lose his sense of reality. This explains Trump’s triumphant attitude on television regarding the kidnapping of Maduro, in a militarily weak operation, with a disproportionate war record and an unclear outcome.
The fall of Western hegemony takes with it its symbolic order (institutional system, agreements, norms, codes, principles, values), and therefore the civilization built under its leadership: Western capitalism, of which China is also a part. It is not surprising that China is calling for respect for the Western-based international order. The collapse of the United States is not only the collapse of the Western hemisphere; it will have strong repercussions throughout the world, since globalization, although over, has not yet been replaced by a new order, with the BRICS still in their infancy. As the last American emperor, I do not believe that Trump is seeking a new order or to sustain the current one; he is only seeking to set the planet on fire and drag us into its downfall. Unfortunately, Latin America is geographically located in the hemisphere of his total chaos.
What should we do?
Reviewing our history, the fall of Egypt and Rome, which are the only events comparable to what we are experiencing today. This historical memory will help us build spaces of survival to navigate this collapse, hoping to reach a port where we can rebuild our social and cultural life. This task involves trying to understand the moment in our history, for which we will have to construct our own horizons of understanding, our own meanings, an ethic of life that helps us overcome the economy and politics of death.
Original text by Natalia Sierra Freire published in Desinformémonos on January 8th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.