On September 26, 2018, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro approached the lectern at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Hulking and mustachioed, wearing a black suit and a bright red tie, Maduro was in a bilious mood.
At home, Maduro’s political position was deteriorating. The former bus driver turned autocrat had ruled Venezuela for five years, and had recently “won” reelection in a contest widely considered to be fraudulent. But he was facing stiffer-than-expected pushback. Anti-government protests were wracking the oil-rich South American nation. Hyperinflation was obliterating its economy. More than a million Venezuelans had fled, triggering a hemispheric refugee crisis.
For some time, the Trump administration had been working furiously to push Maduro—an ally of Cuba and Russia—out of power. In fact, then-president Donald Trump had even mused publicly about exercising “a possible military option, if necessary,” to deal with Venezuela. The day before Maduro’s General Assembly address, Trump stood at the same UN podium, called the situation in Venezuela a “human tragedy,” and decried the “suffering, corruption, and decay” wrought by communist and socialist regimes. The US president then announced the imposition of new sanctions against members of Maduro’s inner circle.
When Maduro began his UN address, he was raring to punch back. His country was the “victim of a permanent aggression” by the “imperial” United States, he said. Venezuela’s attempt at geopolitical independence—and huge gold and petroleum reserves—had aroused the ire and avarice of the “oligarchies of the continent and those who dominate from Washington,” he added.