Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast.

The United States claiming a divine, not to mention imperialist, right, to tamper in the politics of South American countries is nothing new.

As is so often the case with Trump, though, the biggest difference is that he's doing proudly and in the open

what used to be done only shamefully and in secret. For those looking for a quick overview,

the sources providing our top takes in about 50 minutes today includes Why America, Citations

needed, Red Menace, Counterspin, Un-Eeffing the Republic, the global story, and the

majority report.

Then, in the additional deeper dives half of the show, there will be more in four sections.

Section A, history and narrative, followed by Section B, Military Pretext, Section C, U.S.

aggression, and Section D, Regional Echoes.

But first, a reminder to check out our new show solved on the Best of Left YouTube channel. We're really proud of the show we're making. We know you'll get real value out of it. And you checking it out actually helps us find new viewers on YouTube. So thanks in advance for all of your views, likes, subscribes, and comments. That's all on the Best of Left YouTube channel, linked in the show notes.

And now, on to the show.

Just as a quick little recap, Hugo Chavez was democratically elected to the presidency of Venezuela at 1998 under the socialist banner.

He nationalized Venezuela's oil reserves and provided government support of goods and services

for the Venezuelan people, which quickly cut the extreme poverty rate in the country by 15%.

According to the Center for Preventive Action in the Council of Foreign Relations,

quote, years of economic mismanagement and corruption under Chavez transformed the

capably managed state-owned PDVSA oil company into a dysfunctional, corrupt, and bloated institution run by

military and political allies that lacked experienced technicians. Chavez also deepened Venezuela's

dependence on oil exports, with fuel as a percentage of total exports rising from around 71%

in 1998 to nearly 98% in 2013.

The collapse of global oil prices in 2014 led to a rapid economic decline.

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