Following his earlier threat that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s days are numbered, US President Donald Trump announced on social media he was closing Venezuelan airspace. He then immodestly proclaimed the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, commending his nineteenth century predecessor for presciently envisioning “a superpower unlike anything the world had ever known.”
On December 3, the US State Department followed suit by issuing an updated Venezuela Travel Advisory. The document is a masterpiece of geopolitical creative writing, where the main export of Venezuela is not oil but existential dread. According to Washington:
“Do not travel to or remain in Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure.”
And that’s just the opening sentence.
Lest you imagine that this is merely bureaucratic caution, the advisory repeats in bold print: “Do not travel to Venezuela for any reason.” Not even, apparently, to find out whether Venezuelans continue living their daily lives despite US-imposed sanctions designed to collapse the economy.
The State Department warns that “political rallies and demonstrations occur, often with little notice.” Protest is apparently terrifying to Washington. Perhaps the US administration was actually thinking about the 7 million US citizens demonstrating across all 50 US states last October 18, demanding that Trump himself must go.
The advisory also highlights the “shortages of gasoline, electricity, water, medicine, and medical supplies [that] continue throughout much of Venezuela.” Delicately omitted is the part where these shortages correlate precisely with Washington’s economic siege.
Still, Washington insists on painting Venezuela not as a country living under illegal US sanctions, but as a sort of geopolitical haunted house: “If you decide to travel to Venezuela: Prepare a will. Consider hiring a professional security organization. There is no safe way to travel to Venezuela.”
The section on “indefinite detention without consular access” if you enter Venezuela without a visa is presented as evidence of barbarism – rather than, say, a reaction to US mercenaries who have entered the country without visas, without permission, and with the stated intention of kidnapping President Maduro.
The State Department’s advisory presents Venezuela as uninhabitable so people from the US can never discover the uncomfortable truth that Venezuelans continue resisting Washington’s regime-change obsession.
The “Do not travel” in bold font is less a warning about physical danger and more a plea not to witness reality: that Venezuela still refuses to kneel despite sanctions, sabotage, frozen assets, assassination plots, coup attempts, and drone attacks.
After presidents Trump and Maduro had a telephone chat last week, Maduro reportedly declined the his US counterpart’s ultimatum to self-immolate.
The advisory’s tone reaches full panic when it implies that merely showing up in Caracas without the proper visa could lead to eternal captivity. It does not mention that Venezuela – unlike the US – has not arrested anyone for bringing humanitarian supplies, nor has it kidnapped foreign officials from third countries, nor has it built off-shore torture facilities.
The advisory carries a tragicomic irony: the US warns travelers of “arbitrary enforcement of local laws,” while the Yankee empire is openly deploying a naval armada in the southern Caribbean. Such an apparent blockade is an act of war that is orders of magnitude more arbitrary than being asked for a visa.
The deeper message is clear: Venezuela is dangerous because its Bolivarian Revolution insists on governing without the hegemon’s permission. That is what Washington fears most.
Venezuela’s greatest crime is not drug-trafficking, but sovereignty. Its unspeakable offenses are refusing to privatize its oil fields for American corporations, supporting the Palestine resistance, and campaigning regional integration. Its unforgivable act is electing leaders Washington dislikes.
Ultimately, the State Department is correct in one sense: travelers to Venezuela should indeed “prepare a will.” But this would be a “will” to learn; a will to question and to resist the propaganda that portrays an entire country as a disaster zone simply because it chooses a different socio-political model. Above all, it should be a will to oppose US imperialism’s structural imperative to interfere with nations that insist on deciding their own futures.
If there is anything truly unsafe about Venezuela, it is the danger that Americans might go there and discover a population surviving and resisting US pressure – proof that even under siege, sovereignty can be stubborn, resilient, and still very much alive.
Roger D. Harris is a founding member of the Venezuela Solidarity Network and is active with the Task Force on the Americas and the SanctionsKill Campaign. The author is currently trying to find a way to visit Venezuela with flights from the US cancelled.
