On the evening of June 24, two earthquakes registering magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck Venezuela about 90 seconds apart. Earthquakes of this magnitude would cause significant damage in any country, no matter how prepared its emergency response and how strong its infrastructure. Even countries with decent political leadership usually face controversies and popular backlashes over how the rescue and recovery operations are managed. When earthquakes like this hit poor countries in the Global South with limited geopolitical significance, they usually attract a few days of sympathetic media attention before the news spotlight moves elsewhere. And whatever assistance is forthcoming from neighbors and the international community is largely apolitical.
Venezuela, however, does not fit into any of these categories. Last week’s horrific natural disaster hit a country that had already experienced over a decade of decline that amounts to one of the worst economic meltdowns in world history, caused by the Venezuelan regime’s expropriations, corruption, mismanagement and dictatorship, and exacerbated by years of U.S. sanctions. As a result, it was close to total collapse even prior to the earthquake, lacks a legitimately elected domestic leadership and has been at the center of geopolitical controversy for years.
Then, on Jan. 3 of this year, the U.S. mounted a military operation to detain and remove former President Nicolas Maduro, leaving his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, in charge and flipping Venezuela’s international alignment on its head. For the past two decades, the country had been a central node in a network of America’s rivals and challengers on the global stage. Overnight, it hitched its wagon to the administration of President Donald Trump, putting it at the center of global political debates over Trump’s plans, intentions and extractivist foreign policy. When conflict in the Middle East triggered an urgent search for alternate sources of oil, Venezuela’s supplies became more attractive. And with Latin America electing Trump-friendly leaders in elections across the region, Rodriguez became the poster child of what alignment with Trump could bring, while also representing what Trump viewed as his biggest foreign policy victory.