Trump’s Gunboat Diplomacy and The Blasphemy of American Exceptionalism

Imagine a government run by a convicted criminal. A president who lies, enriches himself and his family, and persecutes political opponents. A president who is willing to overthrow his own government just to stay in power.

A president who is, in all senses of the word, a bad hombre, shredding democratic norms. A president who will leave the country worse off than when he first took office, even while he makes billions of dollars.

It’s not hard to imagine, is it? For argument’s sake, let’s just say the country we are speaking about is the United States.

Now, what if some foreign power—oh, I don’t know, let’s say China—decides to be the liberator, the savior of the poor and minoritized citizens suffering under this opportunistic president. Imagine China launches a military operation that eliminates the president and then announces it will take control of our government.

I don’t know about you, but even though I may agree with China’s assessment of the bad hombre in the Oval Office, I would fight tooth and nail to defend the office of the presidency against the invading force. I will always stand against invaders on my soil. That is what it means to be a patriot.

Invaders and Aggressors

I believe in the Prime Directive, the core non-interference policy of Star Trek. (Yes, I’m a Trekkie.)

Let me make it simple: all invading forces are the aggressors. When it comes to military conflicts, I will always stand against invaders on anyone else’s soil, even if the invaders are us. That, too, is what it means to be a patriot.

It’s difficult to claim you are defending democracy or liberty when you are on someone else’s land.

The problem with the reason given for invading Venezuela—to get rid of a bad hombre—is, by the way, the same reason Putin gave for invading Ukraine. He accused government leaders of being drug addicts and neo-Nazis. “Bad hombres.”

Imitation is the truest form of flattery.

American exceptionalism is the most unethical political philosophy in existence. It argues that rules of right and wrong, justice and injustice, do not apply to us because we are exceptional. If China or Russia does it, it’s wrong. If we do the exact same thing, it’s right—because we are, after all, exceptional.

Blasphemy, according to the Good Book, is calling evil “good” and good “evil.”

Let’s be clear: Maduro is a bad hombre. He is an authoritarian dictator and has violated human rights. I stand against him because I stand against all forms of authoritarianism, whether from the political right or the political left. I support the people of Venezuela, as I support all people who fight against dictatorship.

But no matter how bad Maduro may be, it is no justification for the revival of gunboat diplomacy. This imperialist policy has brought misery, death squads and poverty throughout Latin America, especially Central America.

Precursors to Crisis

The stigmata of these neo-colonialist policies are still visible upon my flesh. These policies are why we have an immigration crisis, one that this current administration is addressing in the most sadistic way possible.

When one nation builds roads into another to steal its cheap labor and natural resources (in this case, oil), we should not be surprised when the inhabitants of those lands take those same roads to follow everything that has been stolen from them.

Our immigration crisis is the result of a century of gunboat diplomacy. Most of us from the Global South are here because of U.S. foreign policies masquerading as domestic policies.

If Maduro is indeed a human rights violator, which I believe he is, then he should be immediately turned over to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. If not, then our involvement in Venezuela has nothing to do with stopping the flow of drugs and everything to do with profits.

Because we have no intention of being a good global citizen, the invasion of Venezuela is illegal. It is as unlawful as the numerous invasions of the U.S. throughout the Caribbean basin over the past century to institute regime change. Three of these occurred in my country of origin.

I had hoped we would shed the jingoism of gunboat diplomacy. I really shouldn’t be surprised that Trump has revitalized it with a vengeance.

Let’s be honest: Maduro’s arrest has nothing to do with him being a drug lord. After all, the last drug lord in U.S. custody who was also a president—Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras, convicted by a grand jury and sentenced to 45 years’ imprisonment for cocaine trafficking—was given a presidential pardon by Trump.

False Pretense

Let’s not pretend our military action in Venezuela has anything to do with drugs. It has to do with oil. Venezuela has it. We want it.

Our military action in Venezuela is based on the same logic that justified the invasion of Iraq in 2003: to enrich then–Vice President Cheney’s former company, Halliburton.

To enrich the powerful and privileged, thousands of U.S. troops were sacrificed on the altar of profit. Rather than telling the truth, that they died for oil, we told them we were hunting for weapons of mass destruction, which did not exist.

Just as George W. Bush’s cronies enriched themselves in 2003, Trump and his family will enrich themselves in 2026.

We have become “a government of the tech bros, by the corporations, for the Trumps.”

Because I am anti-fascist, anti-imperialist, and anti-colonialist, I must stand against these latest actions by the U.S. on foreign soil. This isn’t because I hate America, but because true love demands calling out sin and demanding repentance and reparation, so that a new life based on radical love can be lived.

What we are doing is wrong on so many levels. May God have mercy upon us.