Dear Editor,
The recent strikes against Venezuela set a troubling precedent. When powerful nations choose to intervene abroad, whether through military force, covert operations, or economic pressure, they often leave behind fractured societies, weakened institutions, and enduring instability. Those who initiate these actions walk away unscathed, but the resulting destabilization represents a moral debt that must be addressed.
Imagine a neighbor who smashes your fence and then insists it’s your problem to fix. On the global stage, this is how powerful nations behave when they destabilize countries and abandon them. The principle should be simple: you break it, you fix it. Yet international politics routinely allows the strongest actors to evade accountability, leaving ordinary people to carry the cost.
Destabilization means children growing up in refugee camps instead of classrooms. It means families facing hunger as supply chains collapse. It means communities torn apart by violence. To abandon this man-made devastation in Venezuela is not merely negligence; it is complicity in suffering.
Responsibility for this harm requires several concrete steps. First, acknowledgment of harm: our nation must openly admit its role in destabilization, because silence signals denial, and denial deepens wounds. Second, restorative action: funding reconstruction, supporting displaced populations, and investing in long-term stability. Third, respect for sovereignty: recovery must strengthen local institutions rather than impose puppet leadership or exploitative economic arrangements. Fourth, justice mechanisms: truth commissions, reparations, and international accountability are not optional ideals; they are essential tools for healing.
Governments rarely volunteer to accept such responsibility. Instead, they move on to the next geopolitical contest. That is why civic voices matter. Citizens must demand accountability and insist that foreign policy is not a game of power but a matter of human lives. Destabilization is not a strategy; it is a wound, and wounds require care.
Unless citizens demand accountability, the cycle of intervention and abandonment will persist, causing the world’s most vulnerable to suffer the consequences.
Finally, if the U.S. entered Venezuela solely to arrest a criminal defendant, a goal already achieved, why is it necessary to remain and manage the country when Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez is next in line for leadership?
Eileen J. Marum, Marion
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