Would the triumph of Hilarious have been worse? I don’t know since I haven’t seen the other one in charge yet but I do know it would have been catastrophic. What she and her ilk did is unspeakable but let’s call a spade a spade. It’s state-sponsored, rogue neoliberalism. I don’t like beating around the bush.        

Bush, Rajoy, Cameron, Obama, Hollande, Santos, Kuczinsky, Peña Nieto, Temer, Macri – need I go on? You already know how badly they govern. They have at least three core allies: the media; the banks and the military industrial complex. They are totalitarian and therefore are simply devastating.

The media attack first. You know where the shots are coming from, at least literally when they go after someone or something like hysterical maniacs. And in the same way they forget it or just turn it around. They dedicate odes to freedom fighters, as Reagan called them - those who heroically resisted the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and were suddenly transformed into the Taliban. They were so powerful that they felled the Twin Towers commanded by Bin Laden, the world’s most evil bandit, who ordered the destruction of these skyscrapers from some mountain top where sheep breeders live, in the strangest terrorist act known and about which there are more questions than answers.

During the Rio Olympics the media obsession was zika, zika, zika. Suddenly it was Putin, Putin, Putin. And then it was Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela. This is very dangerous because after Libya, Libya, Libya, came devastation and destruction – the rest is silence. The Holy Trinity was operating there: the media, the banks and the military industrial complex. The brazenly grabbed $200 billion of Libya’s international reserves.

They’ve pushed Europe into a state of desperation because everything is for the banks. All the power is for the banks that launder drug money as there are no resources that should not be offered up as only the banks can save. According to the media you will be saved when the banks invest more. Then there will be more jobs and everyone will be happy, life will flourish, there will be no suffering according to the financial gurus. The Chicago Boys will spout the dogma and the Talking Heads will repeat it. Then come the political wimps and after that the bombers that pay millions to the military industrial complex for each missile launched.

Before leaving Obama renewed his decree saying that “Venezuela is an extraordinary threat to US security”. We’ve been saved from this so far and now we’ll have to see what comes with the next one……….. 

**Roberto Hernández Montoya (@rhm1947) is a Venezuelan intellectual, author, TV presenter, humorist and since 2001 is the president of the Romulo Gallegos Center for Latin American Studies (CELARG) in Caracas. This Center – along with the Miranda Center - is one of the most important and active cultural centers in Venezuela with seminars, theater, movies, documentaries and meetings of intellectuals held on a regular basis.

Roberto is multilingual and is probably best known by the Venezuela public for his TV and radio program “The Robertos” which he presents in conjunction with Roberto Malaver and where they take a critical and humorous look at the ridiculous antics of the Venezuelan opposition.

Article translated from Spanish by Arturo Rosales