The attempt by the United States to “own,” “subdue,” and “improve” Venezuela is rooted in a time long before the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine. It is rooted in imperial doctrine, not of Monroe or ‘Donroe’, but Don Fernando and Dona Juana, King and Queen of Spain, “subduers of the barbarous nations.” These imperialist methods of the Spanish Crown and its Council of Castile were laid out in their 1510 document ‘El Requerimento.’
The Requerimiento was read to the indigenous nations of the Americas by conquistadors and churchmen. Sometimes it was read in Latin. It professed to possess secondary written material to justify its claim, if the chiefs and “natives” wanted to see them as proof. It was sometimes read from the ships to empty beaches, tantamount to planting flags to authorize its claim to “these isles and terra-Firme”. Terra-firme means continent, firm land.
The document stated that the lands on which the “barbarous” kingdoms lay belonged not to them, but to God. And God in his wisdom gave these lands to St. Peter, the founder of the Church of Rome and the precursor of all popes. God ordained St. Peter “the head of the whole human race, wherever men should live, and under whatever law, sect, or belief they should be. This God authorized St. Peter “to have his seat in any other part of the world, and to judge and govern all Christians, Moors [Muslims], Jews, Gentiles, and all other sects.”
And St. Peter, in his wisdom, gave authority to the Pope, the Spanish Crown, to all conquistadors, churchmen, notaries, and cavaliers to read the Requerimiento and carry out its mandate. Conquest and theft are justified in terms of an abstract, fabricated body of rights. Just as the attempt to subdue and control Venezuela is justified by “democracy, freedom, human rights.”
It seems that all America needs to do is to wave the flag of “democracy,” “freedom,” or “human rights and it is automatically conferred right, authority. To commit the most heinous crimes. This flag-waver becomes automatically absolved from their crimes against humanity: genocide (the ‘barbarous’ natives of US terra-Firme), slavery (imported African slaves), and conquest, coup, infiltration, decapitation, subordination in the Pacific (China, the Philippines, Hawaii, Japan), the Far East (Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos), and throughout the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Additionally, the US uses the term “our backyard” to justify its authority and right over Venezuela and its resources. This rhetoric of “our backyard” is deployed not only by US senators but also by sycophants of US imperialism in the English-speaking Caribbean. One may well invert the rhetoric and claim that the US is in the backyard of Brazil or Venezuela.
The Requerimiento continues: “some islands, and indeed almost all those to whom this has been notified, have received and religious justification for global authority of the Roman Catholic Church … in the way that subjects ought to do, with good will, without any resistance, immediately, without delay, when they were informed of the aforesaid facts …to be treated as subjects and vassals; and you too are held and obliged to do the same.”
This language of extortion is common to the US. Become, like others, good vassals at once, and we will withhold our wickedness. How many times have we heard this extortion being gospelled by Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Peter Hegseth, and Stephen Miller? Give us control of Venezuela, to “improve,” or we will “subdue” you. They offer a fake alternative, a choice between vassalhood and subjugation.
The Requerimiento continues: “But, if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, …we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience…; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey; and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault.”
In other words, if you don’t accept US hegemony, we shall force you into “servitude.” And this will be your fault, not ours. And we shall make every manner of war and “mischief” upon you, into “perpetuity.” CIA mischief. Whitehouse press conference mischief. US War-General “expert” podium mischief. CNN, ABC, CBC, FOX, CNBC, BBC, and SKY News mischief. The mischief of sanction, oil and oil tanker stealing, blockade, freezing of your gold, US dollar assets, state assets mischief, seizing of your US oil refinery mischief, and in the mischief of legal and court weaponization.
Conquered caciques and their kin were captured by the early Spanish conquistadores and taken back to Spain as trophies, serving as proof of Spanish supremacy. And for trial, for resisting the Empire. Not very different from the kidnapping, assault, transportation, and imprisonment of President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Celia Flores. The tenets of Requerimiento imperialism have been deployed viciously, persistently, and globally by Western Europe and the US since 1492.
Yet, the Maduros have been kidnapped, but not Venezuela. The Government remains intact. Acting President Delci Rodriguez has vowed to meet the Requerimiento and its historical iteration, the Monroe Doctrine, with resolve: “Be assured that the Venezuelan people — wise, patient, and endowed with strategic patience — will know how to find the path to defending peace, defending tranquillity, and defending the homeland.”
