The

The Hello and welcome to behind the news. My name is Doug Henwood.

Extraordinary Times demand extraordinary

measures, just one guest today in one segment, though there's a brief supplemental reprise at the end.

Forrest Tilton will talk about Venezuela, recent developments as well as its long-term history,

and we'll hear once again, briefly, from Alejandro Velasco from his 2018 behind the news interview.

The kidnapping of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, former in the de facto sense,

he's legally still the holder of the office, by the Trump administration and his delivery to a

federal lockup in Brooklyn to face ludicrous charges, stands out in shock value for an administration

that specializes in shock value. Parenthetical note, you don't have to think Maduro is a good guy

to find this seizure, an outrageous imperial act. We heard last week from the NYU historian

Alejandro Velasco on Venezuela. Here with Moors, behind the news, regular Forrest Chilton,

not only with an analysis of

recent developments, but a review of Venezuela's history over the last century or so. How did Hugo

Chavez, president of the country from 1999, until his death in 2013, with a three-day interruption

by a failed coup in 2003, emerge? What was the political economy of the Chavez years? How did his regime

relate to the rest of Latin America? What was lost in the transition from Chavez, who gave his name

to a movement, to Maduro, who didn't? Who is running Venezuela now? It seems not to be Trump,

despite his claims to the contrary. He actually posted a fake Wikipedia entry to Truth Social the other day,

declaring himself President of Venezuela, as well as God-helpous, President of the United States.

How does this political decapitation fit into the administration's broader imperial strategy,

generously assuming there is one?

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