By Liam Takura Kanhenga and Obert Masaraure
The Global South is currently trapped in the “death-grip” of a decadent imperial epoch. We are being squeezed by a dual noose: at home, by parasitic dictatorships that auction off our future; and abroad, by an imperialist core that uses “democracy” as a marketing slogan for resource extraction.
The recent American unilateralism in Venezuela—the literal kidnapping of a head of state—is not a victory for human rights. It is a terrifying blueprint for the “New Imperialism.” As people of the Global South, we must confront this reality with eyes wide open: we are fighting a dual struggle that cannot be won in isolation.
*The Venezuela Case:Sovereignty vs. The Strongman*
Let us be intellectually honest: Nicolás Maduro is no hero of the working class. Under his watch, Venezuela has seen the rise of a “Bolibourgeoisie” that has mismanaged the state into a corner of hyperinflation and repression. However, to support the U.S. intervention is to support the right of the “Empire” to act as a global bailiff.
When the U.S. violates international law to seize Maduro, they aren’t hunting a dictator; they are securing oil assets. This is the “Monroe Doctrine” updated for the 21st century. If we allow the precedent that a superpower can “disappear” a foreign leader at will, then every nation in the Global South becomes a mere administrative district of Washington.
The Client State Factory: From Pinochet to Museveni
The “Empire” has never had a moral allergy to dictators. In fact, it prefers them, provided they are “Comprador” rulers—local elites who act as middlemen for foreign capital.
The Blueprint: In 1973, the U.S. helped dismantle Chilean democracy to install Pinochet, a butcher who opened the veins of his country to neoliberal shock therapy.
The Modern Enforcers: Today, the U.S. maintains cozy military alliances with Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Paul Kagame (Rwanda). Why? Because Kagame is the most efficient regional manager for the flow of coltan and diamonds—the “blood minerals” that power the smartphones of the Global North.
The Hypocrisy: While the U.S. lectures the South on “transparency,” it funds the very military machines that suppress our local democratic movements, so long as the minerals keep moving.
ZANU-PF: The “Anti-Imperialist” Mimic
In Zimbabwe, the ruling ZANU-PF elite provides a masterclass in cognitive dissonance. They scream “Anti-Imperialism” to deflect from their own domestic failures, yet their “Agenda 2030” is nothing more than an audition to become a client state.
They are currently imposing austerity on a starving population to service odious debt, while looting gold and lithium to enrich a tiny parasitic clique. Their silence on the kidnapping of Maduro is telling. They don’t fear the loss of Venezuelan sovereignty; they fear that they haven’t yet become “useful” enough to the Empire to be granted the same impunity as Kagame. They want to be the Empire’s next regional enforcer, not its next target.
The Marxist Necessity of Solidarity.
For the layman, this might seem like a distant geopolitical game. It is not. It is about bread and dignity.
In Marxist terms, we are seeing the “Imperialist Chain” at its most brittle. The Empire uses NGOs and liberal civil society to “discipline” our social views, ensuring we focus on identity politics rather than the structural looting of our mines. They want us to fight over the “form” of democracy while they steal the “content” of our wealth.
Why must we stand with Venezuela? Because a “small nation” fighting alone is a nation already conquered. We must form a horizontal front of the Global South that rejects both the local despot and the foreign financier.
Conclusion: No Democracy Under Empire
True democracy is impossible under the shadow of Empire. You cannot have a “government by the people” when the IMF writes your budget and a foreign drone determines your leadership. Our struggle is a dual liberation: we must overthrow the puppets who loot us from within, and simultaneously sever the strings of the puppet-master from without.
The struggle in the streets of Harare is the same as the struggle in Caracas. We are not just fighting for a change in personnel; we are fighting for the right to exist as sovereign human beings in a world that currently views us only as “resource deposits.”