The United States vs. Iran: The power war played out on the Caribbean Coast

"The history of the struggles for power, and of the real conditions of its exercise and its sustenance, remain almost totally hidden". The French philosopher and sociologist Michel Foucault defined with these words what for him was part of the essence of the microphysics of power. Throughout history, this authority has manifested itself in various ways, either through conflicts or through the application of international sanctions.  Since World War II, the United States has used its economic and political structure to sanction those nations that did not align with its economic and strategic interests. In this context, Washington has imposed sanctions this Wednesday on the five captains of the Iranian ships that recently brought fuel to Venezuela. "As a result of these sanctions, the assets of these people will be blocked. Their careers and prospects will be affected by this appointment," said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 

During his speech, Pompeo also assured that they would continue "to support the National Assembly, interim President Guaidó and the Venezuelan people in their quest to restore democracy". In May, Tehran challenged Washington on the Caribbean coast by sending five oil tankers that allegedly carried 1.5 million barrels to Venezuela, a country in the throes of an unprecedented triple crisis (political, economic and social).  If this country has already had and still has to face problems such as the shortage of basic products, the fiscal deficit or inflation, the fall in oil prices in recent years has made the economic situation that punishes the Bolivarian nation even worse. The economy of this OPEC member state has collapsed, while the country's exports are at their lowest levels in the last 70 years. 

The White House considers the arrival of the five oil tankers to Venezuela a threat to its interests. Over the past few months, the Administration of President Donald Trump has blocked energy trade between Iran and Venezuela in an effort to bring down the Maduro government. And to achieve this, it has threatened certain ports, shipping companies and insurance companies with reprisals. In response to these sanctions, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has called the measures "desperate" and stressed that "despite the pressure from Washington on Iran and Venezuela, both countries will remain firm in their fight against the illegal US sanctions". "The desperate actions of the United States against Iran (...) only show a total failure of the so-called policy of maximum pressure", Mousavi has stated through his Twitter account. 

His Venezuelan counterpart, Jorge Arreaza, has used the same social network to claim that the measures imposed by the United States are a "waste of arrogance". Arreaza considers that these sanctions are "another proof of the hatred of Donald Trump's hawks against all Venezuelans, beyond their political positions. The Venezuelan foreign minister has also stressed that this element will be presented as evidence before the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

On February 13, Arreaza denounced the United States before this body for "crimes against humanity due to the economic sanctions imposed on his country. "We are convinced that the consequences of these unilateral coercive measures constitute crimes against humanity; in this case, against the civilian population of Venezuela," said the Venezuelan diplomat in a press conference from The Hague. " These are weapons of mass destruction and only with fully activated multilateralism, and on the offensive against illegality, can we stop them; and not only will the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its capacity for resilience do so, but the multilateral system, the States in coordination must stop the barbarism and the imposition of the only empire that should exist, which is the rule of law," he emphasized.

The Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Ministry has issued a statement on Wednesday in which it also criticizes the report on terrorism published by the US. "Venezuela complies with its international commitments in the fight against terrorism, and has the world as witness that in the particular case of the Colombian conflict, Venezuela is a signatory of the peace treaties and guarantor of their compliance, as stated by the United Nations Security Council," they stressed. 

In this statement, the Ministry stated that it "seems unusual that the United States should try to accuse Venezuela of not taking sufficient measures against the scourge of terrorism". At the same time, they warn that "the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will continue to defend itself against any attempt to trample on its sovereignty, which is why it demands that the United States put an end to its arrogant practice of pretending to evaluate and qualify the public policies of other countries, as well as to its unhealthy practice of using the fight against terrorism for propagandistic purposes to justify its plan of aggression against Venezuela".

The Venezuelan military and Minister of People's Power for Defense, Vladimir Padrino, has used the same rhetoric during a ceremony commemorating the 199th anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo - one of the main military actions of the Venezuelan war of independence - to criticize that "the U.S. empire has put all its batteries into punishing, starving and subduing the people of Venezuela". Venezuela's self-proclaimed "president in charge," Juan Guaidó, has spoken of this battle via Twitter. "It will remain in the Army to redeem itself, to make its contribution to the recovery of the full sovereignty of Venezuela and to be able to call itself again the legitimate heirs of Bolivar and Paez", he said.

The fall in oil prices coincided with the death of Hugo Chávez.  After the presidential elections held in 2013, Nicolás Maduro, the candidate chosen by his predecessor, won over his opponent Henrique Capriles. Two years later, the opposition organized around the Democratic Unity Table (MUD) won the parliamentary elections. Thus, if until 2015 the power was assumed almost entirely by the party of Chavez and Maduro, from the elections of that year the monopoly of institutional power is broken and power began to be shared between the Presidency and the Assembly. 

In January 2019, Venezuela's political crisis worsened after Maduro decided to begin a second six-year term; a term that neither the opposition nor much of the international community recognized because they considered the elections held on May 20, 2018 to be a "fraud". Faced with this situation, the highest representative of the Assembly, Juan Guaidó, proclaimed himself interim president of Venezuela with the aim of "ceasing the usurpation, creating a transitional government and holding free elections".

Since then, the confrontation between both institutions has worsened the economic, political and social crisis that is punishing the country. After demonstrating the failure of the oil-dependent centrist state model, Venezuela is challenged to seek extraordinary measures to respond to the current crisis and to deal with the sanctions imposed by Washington, in an exceptional situation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed at least 38 people in the country.