Thiruvananthapuram, January 17 (ANI): Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said that the United States did not carry out a regime change in Venezuela but instead executed what he described as a “decapitation” of the government.
Addressing reporters, Tharoor noted that although an interim president has taken over, the regime itself is continuing without significant changes. “Now, Venezuela, we’ve seen a very curious situation where the head of the government has been removed and taken away, but the regime is continuing without any change. All the ministers, the National Assembly, the government, the interim president—who is the former vice president—the security forces, everything is under control. So it is literally a decapitation, but not a change of regime,” he said.
Tharoor added that the intervention is not aimed at promoting democracy. “It’s the same regime that’s continued. And in those circumstances, it does look as if this change of government was brought about without any talk of democracy or the usual rhetoric we hear from Washington when such changes happen. Instead, it has been openly stated that it is about oil—the only area that Americans have asserted control over is Venezuela and its oil, American oil companies, and so on. We’ll have to see how this plays out,” he said.
He also commented on Venezuelan activist Maria Corina Machado, who reportedly handed her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump. Tharoor said the gesture holds little significance, suggesting there may have been implicit expectations involved. “We know that the Nobel Peace laureate from Venezuela, who is a democracy activist, Maria Corina Machado, was in the White House and handed over her peace medal to Mr. Trump as a tribute, but there’s also an implicit transaction there,” he said.
Tharoor described the situation in Venezuela as unprecedented. “In due course, it is difficult to imagine that there won’t be elections that are more free and fair in which everyone can participate, despite this kind of American oversight of the Venezuelan process. For the moment, it seems to be minimal change, only at the top and with oil headed over to the Americans. In due course, we’ll have to see where this ends. But it’s certainly a very unusual situation. No one has ever seen anything like this in recent history,” he said.
On Friday, Trump announced that Venezuela had offered the United States 50 million barrels of oil worth USD 5.2 billion, and he agreed to the deal. Addressing the press during the renaming of Southern Boulevard to Donald J. Trump Boulevard, Trump said, “We’re dealing with the new President. We’re dealing with a lot of the people who are running the country… They said, we have 50 million barrels of oil, and we have to get it processed immediately because we have no room. Will you take it? I said, we’ll take it. It’s equivalent to USD 5.2 billion.”
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