Imani Tafari-Ama | Making of an enemy

When the president of the United States (US) announced that he was closing the airspace of Venezuela, I got the proverbial whiplash. With intense war threats a daily occurrence, this kind of escalation was expected. However, the bold declaration was still shocking. This was the biggest threat since the war drama started. Venezuela insists that the US’s Rambo-style aggression in the Caribbean waters is targeting its oil reserves rather than drug traffickers or illegal immigrants.

The Organization of American States (OAS) has warned that the US’s build-up of war assets to back its declaration of the Venezuelan state as foreign narco-terrorists is not in keeping with the region’s desire for peace. The OAS and European countries with colonies remaining in the region have expressed concern that the mounting tensions could threaten their assets.

Venezuelans are rallying behind their leader and have expressed commitment to defending their homeland against US invasion. They have suffered years of bruising US sanctions and repeated rogue attempts at regime change. Countries bordering Venezuela, including Brazil and Colombia, have called for cessation of US hostilities.

What gives the US the right (or wrong) to close a sovereign country’s airspace? What secures the impunity with which strong regimes act against those considered weaker in power? The easy answer is that surrounding states are paralysed by fear. They do not want to suffer the fate of similar threats being directed against them, so they are obliged to keep quiet.

The US has tried and tested this strong-man strategy, which usually works in their favour when it comes to meddling in the internal affairs of targeted countries. The US’s closure of Iraq’s airspace happened even as citizens in the US were protesting the invasion of another far-away country – on the pretext then that they possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Led by George W. Bush, the US engineered a similar atmosphere of psycho-economic warfare – to win minds and hearts for the war in Iraq, before the brutal fact. In preparation for war, the US also declared that they were closing Iraq’s airspace. These days, all it takes is a carefully crafted message on social media. While Copa Airlines from Panama was flying to Venezuela after this announcement, not many more airlines were so bold.

SOMETHING CREEPY

There is something creepy about the US’s wanton disregard for public trust and the capacity of vulnerable parties to discern the truth of their experiences from the falsehood of the dominant discourse. Even if they are unable to respond with corresponding might, the Venezuelan state and body politic have come to understand the manipulation mechanisms that have produced their plight.

From all indicators, we can rest assured that the US no longer uses gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean - just gunboats (and destroyers and aircraft carriers). In the 19th century, Euro-American colonial powers would place intimidating naval machinery near countries, which usually possessed coveted resources. In situations of classical gunboat diplomacy, such tactics were sufficient to ensure that the weaker entity would capitulate to this show of strength.

Despite the expensive sable rattling, however, Venezuela has not capsized. Expected regime change has not resulted from either external or internal pressure. Russian and Chinese support for Venezuela has deepened, bolstering Venezuela’s capacity to defend itself. The extrajudicial killing of more than 80 people under uncertain circumstances has raised the spectre of war crimes against the aggressors. At the eleventh hour, some US politicians are demanding congressional approval for the country to enter a full-scale war.

Beyond the bullying braggadocio, though, it is instructive that enemies can be plucked out of the proverbial hat at a moment’s notice. It is already a multibillion-dollar exercise for the US to maintain 10 thousand troops and six thousand sailors in war-readiness mode. It will be even more costly in terms of life and injury if the battle now brewing blows up.

The US’s calculus must be that even if you are wrong, you must be strong. The stakes are high, and it is too late for the US to back down without losing face. The current stand-off is a huge investment and the motivation to maintain the pressure for President Maduro to step down is compelling. Presumably, the prize of wresting access to the world’s largest oil reserves from Russia and China is an irresistible fantasy. Or is it really all a smoke-and-mirrors scenario to distract the scandal sleuths from the dastardly Epstein debacle?

CONSTRUCT NARRATIVE

All this goes to show that politicians, like professional performers, can construct a narrative and make it real. They can invoke an illusion, brand it, as in this case, “foreign narco-terrorist”, and deploy it as a weapon. Seriously. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made this his special hobby horse. As we speak, he is making another similar “anti-Islam” discourse to demonise people who advocate the Islamic faith. Predictably, this contrived identity is being used to justify opposition to people from countries like Somalia, whose citizens were recently styled by President Trump as “garbage”.

This derogatory designation of a people is the first stage in the dehumanisation process. It soft-soaps their erasure from access to human rights. It rationalises the legal grounds for their dismissal from the country. That kind of bigotry clearly has no boundaries when it comes wrapped with such clout.

Ominously, the going narrative is not just the proverbial bag-a-mouth, in local parlance. No, bro! This chat is backed by the assignment of over 100 ICE officers in Minnesota to hunt down said Somalis to do what they will with them. One of the first things that the current president did when he came into office was bomb Somalia on dubious grounds. Like so many other war efforts, this action bypassed congressional frameworks.

On what pretext are a set of people, such as the personae non grata from 19 countries, made undesirable visitors or actual enemies? Many would-be travellers are putting their suitcases into storage for fear of running afoul of such arbitrary designations.

Imani Tafari-Ama, PhD, is a Pan-African advocate and gender and development specialist. Send feedback to i.tafariama@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com.