Bernardo Bátiz V.
V
Enezuela is at the center of the debate international since January 3, when it occurred to President Donald Trump to take the authoritarian blow without legal basis, “for his guns,” as they say in Mexico, and kidnapped Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela, diminutive of Venice, is a country that is rather small than large, by no means a military power, but rich in natural resources, especially oil.
The arbitrary and unexpected event has shocked and shocked everyone, but not only because of what has already happened. The precedent cannot be admitted in any way; What we know is that the president of the United States, one of the most powerful countries in the world, had the idea of ordering and carrying out the kidnapping of another president, without a declaration of war or a formal claim; The order was given and an armed and well-trained commando executed it in full force, with luxury of violence and dozens of deaths and injuries involved. It was impudent to violently enter a sovereign country, kidnap its leader, take him to New York and put him on trial; It is something that does not happen every day and cannot leave us undaunted; we have to debate the point, regardless of how bad or terrible the abductee may have been.
The international legal system, which has been sustained with much work and ups and downs since the founding of the UN in 1945, was destroyed by the coup of a powerful country. The rules of international law were flouted and a person’s freedom was simply violated, in an arbitrary act that should concern us all greatly.
The Catholic Church, through the voice of Pope Leo XIV, asks for “the well-being of Venezuelans, which must be above any other interest.” The pontiff emphasized two very important points, the need to guarantee sovereignty and respect the rule of law. He said it after praying the Angelus, from the window of the Apostolic Palace. Several Latin American countries, including Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica and others, along with Spain, also noted the seriousness of the incident. Our president, Claudia Sheinbaum, was timely and prudent in condemning what happened.
The Cold war What followed the Second World War was a period during which there was a balance that prevented confrontation between the socialist states led by the then so-called Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the free market countries led by the United States; It lasted for a long time and allowed the world to have relative peace, even when there were some clashes; the most serious, recently, the invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel and the clash between Russia and Ukraine.
For us Mexicans, it should not be a surprise. What we see now resembles similar events that have occurred throughout history; let us remember the punitive expedition of the gringo army, during the Carranza government, to persecute the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, who had had the audacity to take for a very short time the American city of Columbus, very close to the border. Another fact, undoubtedly very painful, in the 19th century, was the unjust war that culminated in the loss of a large part of the Mexican territory, which although it was largely unpopulated, belonged to us legally and was taken from us by force; Of that fact, the names of New Mexico and those of San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Antonio and others less known remain as memories “on the other side.” (I keep mentioning a town that I am not even sure exists: “Falfurrias”, Texas)
But to round out this collaboration, referring to a worrying current fact, I remember half-forgotten precedents, at the beginning of the 19th century, with the wars of Independence to separate us from Spain already concluded, an attempt was made to form a “perpetual league and confederation” of which Mexico and the then Gran Colombia were protagonists, which included Venezuela and other states such as Central America, not yet converted into a mosaic of small autonomies, Peru and Chile.
Simón Bolívar was one of the promoters of this attempt, along with several envoys from the Iturbide government; The matter was going well, its objectives were to achieve a defensive unity of the newly obtained independence, to stop the ambition of countries that, like England and France, saw in new Latin American states a possible loot, an opportunity for their imperialist ambitions; countries, Belize and the Guianas, “are dust from those muds.”
The effort seemed to be on the right track, but it was evident that the unwanted guests from the United States and England considered it (for them) dangerous and prevented it from reaching a successful conclusion. The first meeting was in Panama, the second would be in Tacubaya, but it could not take place due to obstacles and intrigues of the aforementioned powers. So abused.
