Eduardo Vasco
In 2019, Washington threatened aid cuts to pressure Security Council members against Venezuela - but secret ballots foiled the plot. Open votes ? Then the empire gets its way.
The years 2018 and 2019 were among the most dramatic in Venezuela's recent history (which is permeated by dramatic events). The country was suffering from an economic war imposed by imperialism, expressed through sanctions by the United States and the European Union, exclusion from the international financial system, the inability to import basic goods such as food and medicine, and internal sabotage by capitalists aligned with the foreign bourgeoisie.
In May 2018, Nicolás Maduro won the presidential election by a wide margin, despite the pressure of the economic war, the boycott by the coup-supporting opposition, and the political interference of U.S. NGOs and institutes. Naturally, imperialism did not accept the result and attempted to repeat the coup script of 2013 and 2014, with violent protests and guarimbas organized by the far right. The pressure intensified in the following months, fueled by the diplomatic maneuvers that Washington and Brussels were carrying out on the international stage.
The point of greatest tension came at the beginning of 2019, when the terrorist campaign surrounding the "humanitarian crisis" in Venezuela led to an attempted land invasion through Venezuela's borders with Brazil and Colombia and an attempt to impose a puppet government led by the illegitimate president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó.
The UN played a fundamental role in the destabilization of Venezuela. In the first weeks of 2019, the United States attempted to pass a resolution in the Security Council recognizing Guaidó as the sole legitimate authority in Venezuela. As even Western news agencies reported, Washington conducted "intense lobbying" to persuade Council members to vote in favor of the resolution, which called for new elections, the restoration of democracy, and the forced delivery of humanitarian aid. The pressure succeeded with a majority of members (NATO countries and other puppets), but the resolution failed due to the vetoes cast by China and Russia.
The countries elected to UN decision-making bodies, such as the rotating seats on the Security Council, had a revolver pointed at their heads ever since Nikki Haley declared two years earlier that Washington was "taking names" of those who voted against U.S. interests. Donald Trump, then in his first term, had threatened to cut foreign aid, which the United States uses as a means of co-opting the leaderships of smaller countries, if they failed to follow its orders.
Blackmail of this kind is frequent and is aimed primarily at nations most dependent on U.S. assistance programs. First, imperialism plunders and impoverishes smaller countries; it then offers possibilities for economic and social recovery, palliative measures that are only provided on the condition that the original exploitation continues indefinitely.
As I discussed in a recent article, this method had already been denounced by Cuba. In order to obtain a "humanitarian" pretext for regime change there, Washington allegedly attempted to buy the votes of African countries in the Human Rights Council by offering assistance in the fight against AIDS, promises of diplomatic protection at the UN, or threats to withdraw protection from their borders.
At the same time, the United States spent months investing in a "fierce campaign" - in the words of Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza - against Venezuela's election to the UN Human Rights Council. It was an operation carried out jointly with imperialist NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, in an effort to portray the Maduro government as a violator of human rights.
In addition, Costa Rica's candidacy (a U.S. pawn) was put forward at the last minute as an alternative for those who might succumb to American pressure. Latin America had two seats at stake, now contested by three candidates: Brazil, Venezuela, and Costa Rica.
However, the pressure did not produce the desired effect: Venezuela came in second place and was elected alongside Brazil. The reason for the U.S. failure was the secret nature of each country's vote. Thus, it was clearly demonstrated that when imperialism lacks the power to retaliate against poor countries, they feel free to vote according to their own interests. Furthermore, Trump had withdrawn his country from the Human Rights Council in 2018, reducing U.S. influence within the body - which is why major newspapers and imperialist institutions disagree with Trump's isolationist policies.
This case stands in sharp contrast to situations in which voting is public. A notable example occurred the month before the election of the new composition of the Human Rights Council, when the outgoing Council approved a resolution creating the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela. It was a maneuver to send "experts" linked to Western institutions into Venezuela in order to produce biased reports that would lend legitimacy to accusations against Maduro, thereby increasing pressure for an imperialist intervention.
That vote was open, meaning that the United States could know who followed its directives and who disobeyed them. As a result, 19 countries voted in favor of the interventionist resolution, 21 washed their hands of the matter, and only seven opposed it. Since the United States could no longer participate directly in internal maneuvers after leaving the Human Rights Council, it assigned the infamous Lima Group - composed of right-wing governments recently installed by Washington in South America - the task of coordination. "This small group follows to the letter the instructions handed to them by the American empire," denounced Venezuelan ambassador to the UN Jorge Valero. "These are shameful subjects of President Trump's administration," he added.
The mission was renewed in 2020, 2022, and 2024 through the same open voting model.
In January 2026, Venezuela was invaded and Maduro was kidnapped by the government of the United States. The persistent campaign carried out through the UN provided an essential service in preparing that intervention. Naturally, this imperial institution washed its hands once the fait accompli had been achieved.