{"id":4104,"date":"2026-01-06T17:57:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T17:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/?p=4104"},"modified":"2026-01-07T18:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:15:20","slug":"the-outrageous-hypocrisy-about-venezuela-by-marc-vandepitte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/2026\/01\/06\/the-outrageous-hypocrisy-about-venezuela-by-marc-vandepitte\/","title":{"rendered":"The Outrageous Hypocrisy about Venezuela: By Marc Vandepitte"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was two o\u2019clock in the morning on 3 January when the inhabitants of Caracas were woken by the roar of fighter jets and the blasts of missiles. Strategic sites such as the Fuerte Tiuna military base and La Carlota airport were bombarded relentlessly. Large districts of the city were immediately plunged into darkness, while thick columns of smoke blackened the horizon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As panicked families fled into the streets, information began to circulate on social networks: American elite units had just carried out a brutal operation. President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores had been abducted by US commandos and transferred to the United States. This is an unprecedented violation of the sovereignty of an independent state.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump claimed victory on his Truth Social platform. Speaking of a \u201csuccessful attack\u201d, he announced that the United States would temporarily take charge of the country\u2019s administration. This inevitably recalls the dark days when Washington overthrew or kidnapped Latin American leaders at will.<\/p>\n

The devil versus the businessman<\/strong><\/p>\n

The contrast with media coverage of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 is striking. At the time, Vladimir Putin was presented in every newspaper and every TV news bulletin as \u201cthe devil in person\u201d. Attention focused entirely on his personality, his supposed madness and his malicious intentions. The aggressor was given a face that everyone was expected to hate.<\/p>\n

Today, with Trump, the media are taking a radically different approach. There is almost no moral condemnation of the man as a war criminal. He is portrayed as a leader who is indeed brutal but pragmatic, someone who is \u201crestoring order\u201d. The aggression is described in an almost clinical way, stripped of the emotional charge that accompanied the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

Whereas Putin was depicted as an existential threat to humanity, Trump is treated as a head of state simply making a bold foreign\u2011policy choice. This personification of evil on one side and the normalization of aggression on the other steer public opinion in an extremely manipulative way.<\/p>\n

Double standards: democracy as a pretext<\/strong><\/p>\n

The way the leaders under attack are treated also reflects a shocking selectivity. During the invasion of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky was immediately crowned the ultimate champion of democracy. Any criticism of his pre\u2011war policies was completely brushed aside by the Western press, as if it had never existed.<\/p>\n

It became unacceptable to mention the banning of opposition parties or the ruthless war in the Donbass which, between 2014 and 2022, cost 14,000 lives. The tragedy of Odessa, where around forty trade unionists were burned alive, did not fit the heroic narrative and was therefore simply hushed up.<\/p>\n

In the case of Venezuela, the opposite is happening. Media attention is focused almost exclusively on Maduro\u2019s \u201cmalice\u201d. Every report on the US invasion comes with a list of his alleged failings. Emphasis is placed on interpretations and exaggerations about the lack of democracy under his rule.<\/p>\n

The White House is attempting to justify the kidnapping by linking Maduro to drug cartels. Yet this argument does not hold water: the main cocaine routes run through Colombia and Ecuador. Nevertheless, the media often \u201cforget\u201d to mention this, thereby legitimizing the military aggression in the eyes of the public.<\/p>\n

Imperialism or geopolitics?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Russian troops crossed into Ukraine, every Western commentator denounced Russian imperialism, speaking of a \u201cflagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of a country\u201d. Those terms were accurate, but today they are almost nowhere to be found in analyses of the US attack on Caracas.<\/p>\n

The brutal US invasion is all but trivialized, presented as a logical consequence of a balance of power. \u201cThis is simply what great powers do,\u201d one hears cynically on TV talk shows.<\/p>\n

In the evening news in Belgium, this brutal military invasion was described as a \u201cseries of incredible events organized by the United States\u201d. While 40 people were cold\u2011bloodedly shot dead to kidnap a head of state, the news spoke of the \u201cweirdest 24 hours of [Maduro\u2019s] life\u201d. The anchor recounted the events as if summarizing an action\u2011movie scene.<\/p>\n

Violating international law is apparently no longer so serious when it comes from Washington. The so\u2011called \u201crules\u2011based order\u201d turns out to be a paper tiger. This is the very essence of the double standard: when a non\u2011Western country invades another, it is a crime against humanity. When the United States does the same thing \u2013 including kidnapping a head of state \u2013 it is presented as an \u201cintervention\u201d or a \u201ctransition to democracy\u201d. Language has become a weapon.<\/p>\n

An overwhelming responsibility<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through this euphemistic portrayal of the invasion and the constant demonization of Maduro, this brutal military aggression is, in practice, legitimized. After the double standards revealed over Ukraine and Gaza, the West is losing its last shreds of credibility in the eyes of the countries of the Global South. The \u201crules\u2011based order\u201d has been definitively exposed as a tool of selective power.<\/p>\n

But there is more. With this attack, Trump is testing the limits of his imperial ambitions. Because of Europe\u2019s appallingly complacent attitude, Washington is receiving the signal that it can act with total impunity. European responsibility here is overwhelming.<\/p>\n

When, before long, the situation really escalates and the Panama Canal or Greenland are targeted in turn, no one should dare claim: \u201cWir haben es nicht gewu\u00dft\u201d [We didn\u2019t know].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was two o\u2019clock in the morning on 3 January when the inhabitants of Caracas were woken by the roar of fighter jets and the blasts of missiles. Strategic sites such as the Fuerte Tiuna military base and La Carlota airport were bombarded relentlessly. Large districts of the city were immediately plunged into darkness, while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-4104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-venezuela"],"byline":"M.B","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4109,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions\/4109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}