First, Nicholas Maduro was not “democratically elected.” He subverted democracy. Despite overwhelming opposition, which polls showed having a 20-point lead, Maduro claimed a 51% victory in the 2024 election and cracked down on dissent. Several Latin American countries refused to recognize his legitimacy as president.

Second, Trump’s removal of Maduro needs to be seen within the context of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which Trump has recently reasserted. Essentially, it declares the Western hemisphere as a preserve of US interest, which is why the charges against Maduro were not “manufactured.”

For 15 years, as a leading figure in the drug cartels, Maduro has been running narcotics operations which finance terrorism. By destroying narco-terror shipments within international waters, the Trump Administration is within its rights to protect US interests. Significantly, a clip recently surfaced of then Senator Joe Biden in 1989 urging the destruction of narco vessels on the high seas.

A further motive for removing Maduro concerns his close ties with the world’s chief bankroller and promoter of terrorism – Iran. Trump rightly opposes Iran having a second base in Venezuela to threaten peace and stability in the Caribbean region.

Third, Maduro, like his predecessor Chavez, has perpetuated an abysmal human rights record, which Trump’s intervention can now terminate. Therefore, it is absolute nonsense to lament the shattering of the Maduro regime as a “dark hour.” Comparisons with Bush and Obama’s foreign ventures ignore the fact that Trump is on record as strongly opposing “forever wars.” He seeks peace and stability, which cannot result when the likes of Maduro act with impunity against human rights and freedom.

Moreover, while there were never weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, narco-terrorism within America’s immediate hemisphere and the role of cartels in flooding the US with narcotics amply justify the decisive action in removing the menace that Maduro posed.

Finally, to claim that the minority ANC regime constitutes “moral leadership” and speaks “truth to power” for “courageously condemning” Trump’s removal of Maduro massively defies reality. Besides the ANC’s record of corruption, looting and dysfunctionalism as a so-called government, the fact that it acts as a proxy of Iran, whose financial aid it has received while supporting the terrorism of Hamas, demolishes any credibility there can be for even suggesting that the ANC “stands on the right side of history.”

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In romancing the relevance of Marxism, it is always fascinating how the proponents tip-toe around Marx’s core policies of overthrowing the existing order and replacing it with the dictatorship of the proletariat. While enjoying all the trappings of bourgeois life, these same people fail to acknowledge that Marx had what historian Paul Johnson calls “an essentially irrational hatred of the principle of private ownership and wealth.”

That is why Marx championed class warfare, the confiscation of all private property and state ownership of all resources and manufacturing. The political outcome of Marxism is the tyranny of a one-party state.

In claiming that Marx’s analysis “ran along scientific lines,” David Monyae is badly mistaken. Marx never visited a single factory to see first-hand what went on. He relied on secondary sources for his information which he then tailored selectively to fit his theory. He never worked a day in his life and relied on loans from Frederich Engels and family inheritances. As such, he was a hypocrite and a fraud.

In a nutshell, the most fundamental flaw of his bizarre philosophy was his denial of the right to individual enterprise and initiative which is the cornerstone of liberty.

Sent into The Mercury and published, 1 December 2019.

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To add insult to injury, Ebrahim claims that US sanctions against Venezuela constitute a “war crime” against which the UN should act. The truth of the tragedy in Venezuela is the exact opposite of what Ebrahim claims. The UN should be acting against the human rights abuses of the Chavez and Maduro regimes in Venezuela.

For Ebrahim to claim that socialism in Venezuela is “largely successful” is an outright lie. As a result of socialist policies, since 1999, six million hectares of privately owned land has been expropriated resulting in a 75% drop in food production. Mass starvation has become a reality in socialist Venezuela.

Banks, shops and industries have been nationalised resulting in widespread unemployment. Property rights have been eroded through expropriation. Nearly two million people have fled the country. Once the wealthiest state in South America, Venezuela has become a basket case of hunger, misery and fear.

Blaming US sanctions on Venezuela for its plight is typical socialist propaganda that one would expect in a former Soviet publication like Pravda but not in The Mercury. Sponsorship should be found to provide Ebrahim with a one-way ticket to the socialist paradise of Venezuela.

Sent into The Mercury and published, 2 September 2019.

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