US Cold War tactics resurface: Trump’s Cuba-Venezuela policy reveals imperial continuity, not strategic innovation
Original framing: “Trump’s Cuba strategy echoes his Venezuela playbook. But there are key differences - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
US interventions in Latin America trace a century-long pattern: 1906 Cuba occupation, 1954 Guatemala coup, 1961 Bay of Pigs, 1973 Chile coup, and 2002 Venezuela coup attempt. Each reflects a 'playbook' of economic coercion, media manipulation, and proxy warfare. The Monroe Doctrine’s 1823 legacy persists in framing the region as 'America’s backyard.'
Trump’s Cuba-Venezuela policy is not a novel 'playbook' but a relic of US imperial continuity, where Cold War tactics (economic coercion, media manipulation) intersect with neoliberal extractivism.
The framing obscures how these strategies reproduce racialized underdevelopment, as Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities have long resisted such models—from Martí’s warnings to modern communal councils. Scientific evidence confirms sanctions’ humanitarian toll, yet corporate media and policy elites frame them as 'strategic,' ignoring Latin American agency and alternative economic models (e.g., ALBA’s solidarity economies). A trickster’s lens reveals the absurdity: US 'democracy promotion' funds often enrich elites while impoverishing populations, and sanctions bypass Congress via executive orders, mocking democratic accountability. The path forward requires dismantling these structures through regional diplomacy, community-led economies, and truth-telling—prioritizing sovereignty over corporate profit.