They Took Us by Surprise

The U.S. understood that its policy toward Venezuela was not working; it swapped the stick for the carrot.

Naive? We were the last to learn that United States government officials had met with officials from the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro. Although, according to Colombia’s efficient ambassador to Washington, Juan Carlos Pinzón, the Biden-Duque summit did take place. What results … the usual.

The international agendas had changed, finally, making it possible for the meeting to happen. And maybe for that reason it was not facilitated until the meeting. The U.S. had something very important to explain to Colombia: It would now end up buying oil from Venezuela. But that is neither the true nor the only reason for the rapprochement.

The war in Ukraine signified a paradigm shift in global geopolitics, perhaps forever. Before this war, the U.S. could afford the luxury of keeping channels of communication with Venezuela closed, and of maintaining drastic sanctions on Maduro’s top officials, his government leaders and their families. But that would have to change after the war in Ukraine started.

The U.S. was facing a new situation. Russia, while it was invading Ukraine, was also taking over a Latin American country, Venezuela, without any resistance and establishing military bases there. It is as if the U.S., on the world stage, was giving Venezuela as a gift to the Russians. That could not go on.

The U.S. understood that its current policy toward Venezuela was not working and that it had to start making approaches to Maduro. And if that upset Colombia, then they would come up with a consolation prize. What was it? Joe Biden’s announcement that he will designate Colombia as a “non-NATO ally.”

But the consolation prize was already outdated. Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menéndez had announced last month that he would introduce draft legislation to this effect. And he has proof because he commented on it in a TikTok on “Semana.” Since then, if Biden is promising to speed it up, then that’s even safer. To us, this “honor” means military perks that, in part, we already have, like advice, financing, technology, machinery and defense equipment. But this does not in any way imply that if Colombia should come under attack, the NATO countries would send their armed forces to defend us, or vice versa.

In the private meeting that took place first between the two presidents, Biden must have explained to Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez why this was happening. And it must have really surprised him, because if there is one thing about which Duque has been unyielding, it is that there will be no negotiations with the Maduro dictatorship while he is president. And until now, he was convinced that he could count on Biden as an ally.

Next on the agenda in Washington was the meeting between officials of the two countries, where vaccinations, Venezuelan immigrants and preparations for the celebration of 200 years of bilateral relationship were discussed. But the heart of the meeting was Venezuela. And in that respect, what many already knew was confirmed: The U.S. is a pragmatic country that defends its interests wherever it has to. And at this time, it has to be done in Venezuela.

On the new geopolitical map, the U.S. has a point. Channels have to be opened so Maduro can have some kind of relationship with the gringos. Regarding those exploratory meetings between officials of the two countries, some sources maintain that they are further along than we knew, and that they might even result soon in the resumption of diplomatic relations with Venezuela. It has gotten to the point that on Thursday [March 10], the Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Delcy Rodríguez Gómez, affectionately known as “la Chilindrina,”* had to travel to Turkey to explain things to Sergey Lavrov, Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister, so the Russians wouldn’t get upset.

Venezuela is happy about this hand extended by the U.S. Because of the sanctions, the Russian financial markets have been closed and its goods in the U.S. and the European Union have been embargoed. If Russia’s banking channels are blocked as a result of its being locked out of of the SWIFT banking system, Maduro, who uses that routing for his transactions, will have big problems keeping his money circulating through the Russian banks.

Asphyxiating Maduro might not be the tactic that the gringos would prefer at this time. In swapping the stick for the carrot, they may possibly have to make some concessions to put the brakes on Putin’s military presence in Venezuela. This could probably even mean resuming diplomatic relations — pure gringo pragmatism.

Meanwhile, Duque admits that during the meeting they did indeed discuss that the U.S., “like Colombia, did not envisage making the Venezuelan dictatorship a partner.” In that case, I don’t know what you call it when the officials of one government are talking to the officials of another government.

*Translator’s Note: “La Chilindrina” is the name of a character on a popular Mexican TV series, an 8-year-old girl. She is short and wears big black plastic glasses, which could also be a description of Rodríguez.