Venezuela and 21st Century Neocolonialism | VA Podcast Ep. 48

Nine months after the January 3 US bombing, Venezuela’s oil revenues are held at the US Treasury and its government has made a sharp political turn. In this anniversary episode, the Venezuelanalysis editorial team asks how to characterize Venezuela’s present reality, and who stands to gain or lose from it.

Recorded live to mark Venezuelanalysis’ 23rd anniversary, Episode 48 of the VA Podcast is our first conversation in Spanish, available here with English subtitles. Lead editor Ricardo Vaz is joined by Lucas Koerner, Jessica Dos Santos and Silvana Solano.

The discussion starts from what Vaz calls a deeply compromised sovereignty, with US control over the revenues from Venezuela’s main export. Silvana Solano describes a relationship of “transactional coexistence” and argues that 21st century neocolonialism is at its peak. Jessica Dos Santos describes an “era of opacity,” in which Washington and Caracas offer contradictory accounts of the same oil agreement, and criticizes coverage of acting president Delcy Rodríguez’s UN trip that focused on scarves and gestures rather than the content and consequences of her speech.

The team also examines the changes in Venezuelan foreign policy, including the government’s stance toward Cuba and Iran, and the clash between narratives that explain the government’s turn as the product of coercion or of pragmatism. Lucas Koerner argues that Venezuela is in a semicolonial situation comparable to Iraq after 2003, but that the weakness of the United States means this order will not be lasting. Finally, the panel assesses what the Venezuelan opposition, the Trump administration and the Rodríguez government are each betting on, and the role grassroots movements and communes may play in how Chavismo reconfigures.

About the participants:

• Ricardo Vaz is the lead editor of Venezuelanalysis.
• Lucas Koerner has been part of Venezuelanalysis since 2015 and is completing doctoral research on Venezuela in the 1980s and the rise of Chávez.
• Jessica Dos Santos is a Caracas-based journalist, writer, columnist and university professor with more than 20 years of experience in journalism.
• Silvana Solano is Venezuelanalysis’ correspondent in Mérida, a political scientist with experience in audiovisual and written journalism, and a member of the Tatuy TV media collective.

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