patrick iber

In January, after the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, I wrote a piece for Dissent emphasizing the tragic nature of the situation for Venezuelans:

It is a sad fact that Venezuelans have, for years, been trapped between two rogue states, with many reduced to hoping that one could solve the problem of the other. Those of us who do not believe that the United States should play an imperial role in Latin America or elsewhere must face that we had no answer for a criminal apparatus that took over a country. But that doesn’t mean that we have to accept a United States determined to govern the hemisphere with its own interests in mind. The abuses to follow will be too many to count. It is, remember, the Venezuelan people who should decide how Venezuela is governed, and by whom. Not the United States. Not a dictatorship. And certainly not some chimera of the two.

More recently, I was asked to write about Cuba for Rolling Stone. Some differences, many similarities. It is understandable that some Venezuelans and Cubans, seeing no other exit to very difficult situations, have accepted the “Trump solution.” I know one person who is no longer a political prisoner in Venezuela, and I wish him nothing but the best. But he is aware that the door to democracy is only open a tiny crack, and that the Trump administration doesn’t have his best interests at heart. In the meantime, in Cuba, President War Crimes is imposing mass suffering. That kind of brutal imperialism was one of the causes of the Iranian and Cuban revolutions in the first place. There were alternatives, but not alternatives that satisfy Trump’s demand for grandiosity and power. People are dying not for a better future, but because of his narcissism.

Trump, speedrunning his way through history, thought that the tactical success in Venezuela meant that Iran and Cuba would soon fall. He is now trapped in an escalatory spiral in Iran, while Cuba sweats. Ten years ago, it is understandable that some heard Trump’s skepticism of nation-building and extrapolated a commitment to principled anti-interventionism. But it never was that.

In a strange way, both Donald Trump and Fidel Castro have been political leaders who have managed to convince more people than you might expect that their personal glory was inseparable from the glory of the nation. Castro’s ego was sustained by rebellion; the David who fought Goliath and won, no matter the cost to others. Trump’s ego demands that he be Goliath, and win, no matter the cost to others. Cubans are paying the cost. They deserve better.