I’ll leave the same comment I made the last time this was posted:

I don’t find the article very compelling on the issue of creating a link between Delcy and Claver. It’s able to describe the depravity of Gusanos in Washington right now, but it’s only way of linking them to Delcy are statements from anonymous US officials and “Venezuelan contacts” as well as suggesting discussed figures not responding to comment are a form of compelling evidence. Venezuela is not in an ideal situation right now, that’s undeniable, and it’s also true that the current government is not ruffling feathers in Washington right now. However, Blumenthal doesn’t really present enough for this to be active capitulation rather then strategic retreat.

We see how Iran, a country with much more leverage and military capacity to resist imperialism, has suffered from its anti-imperialist posture. Iran has the capacity to fight the empire, and so it did because that was objectively the best decision for their situation. But we shouldn’t forget what it has cost Iran. Their religious and political leader killed along with his family, thousands murdered by imperialist bombs, a girls elementary school with 180 children as victims on the first day of the imperialists genocidal campaign. Not to mention the murder of dozens of military officials in one of the world’s most sufficticated and forward thinking military organizations in the world.

Venezuela has no where near that military capacity, nor could they reliably build it without intervention by the US. The US still hasn’t tried a ground invasion of Iran, but why would they do it in Venezuela? I think it’s pretty apparent the US would bomb Venezuela with significantly more impunity then they can Iran, especially after the kidnapping of Maduro. It would be, at least in my opinion, irresponsible of the Bolivarian revolutionaries to endanger the lives of their people to such a degree without any form of leverage to counteract it.

There is literally nothing stopping the US from doing to Venezuela 10x what they are doing to Iran. If strategic retreat is seen as necessary by the current leadership to avoid that, then I really think it’s anti-materialist to condemn them over it.

I’m not going to act as if I know what the Venezuelan leadership is currently thinking, but I’m not going to actively denounce them and spread bad faith rumors at their expense out of ignorance. The consequences of that, in the scenario where this is in fact a strategic retreat, would be significantly more damaging to anti-imperialism.

Not to mention, I trust that the communes in Venezuela are able to navigate their own revolutionary struggle. If they determine that the PSUV is capitulating then I’ll trust them, but as far as I’ve seen they’ve not made such a drastic statement.

Apologies, if this is meandering, hopefully I expressed my perspective clearly.