Maduro’s pilot was offered millions of dollars by a U.S. agent to divert the Venezuelan president’s plane, one step in many by Washington to overthrow Venezuela’s regime. Behind the rhetoric of counter-narcotics and democracy promotion is a familiar pattern of coercion: covert intelligence activity, crippling economic sanctions, and an expanding military presence across the Caribbean.
At the centre of this escalation is Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony whose lack of sovereignty makes it a strategic asset for imperial projection. Reactivated naval bases, stationed drones, and fighter aircraft now operate from its territory, making the archipelago a base for intervention in Latin America.
The ongoing assault on Venezuela and the continued subjugation of Puerto Rico reveal the structural continuity of U.S. imperialism. Both nations confront the same architecture of domination; one through sanctions and siege, the other through occupation and enforced dependency. The language of freedom continues to mask the practice of empire.
