Alejandro Velasco

Or it can't just be Stephen Miller saying, no, no, no, the continent is ours.

How dare they sell their natural resources to China?

Or it can't just be Marco Rubio saying, the left is over in Latin America for centuries to come.

Or it can't just be Pete Hegseth saying, you're next, whoever next might happen to be.

It all feels so contrary to instinct that the reaction, at least to my part, and I think more generally we might be sensing this, is somewhat of a delay.

That's my sense.

Yeah, it is absolutely dire.

And, I mean, there are many surprising turns in Venezuela since the attack on Saturday the 3rd.

But certainly, one of the most surprising is that

The entire regime has remained in place.

Yes, and also with the complete support, it seems like, of the United States.

So, at least again in the public pronouncements of Trump and others and his administration, the direct and loud sidelining of the opposition in favor of the remaining regime, which is again exactly the same as it was before, is...

certainly a type of regime change that I've never seen or read about.

And so we, I think, are at the cusp of reference that don't quite make sense on the surface, but that are laying bare a much scarier reality about the near and distant future for us in Venezuela and in the United States and the world.

I do think that what I would most hope for

especially in this moment, for people in the United States to think about when it comes to Venezuela is to resist the easy narrative of it's this or that.

This person is a hero, that person is a devil.

And that explains everything.

Leaning into complexity when it comes to Venezuela, I think, is the first step towards understanding it, even if actual understanding it may not come about very easily.

My name is Alejandro Velasco, and I'm Associate Professor of History at New York University.