[Salon] Brace, Brace: The US Strikes in the Caribbean Create Uncertainty, Fear, Around the Region - Guest Post

[Salon] Brace, Brace: The US Strikes in the Caribbean Create Uncertainty, Fear, Around the Region - Brace, Brace: The US Strikes in the Caribbean Create Uncertainty, Fear, Around the Region Venezuela Marian García was bracing for crowds of Black Friday shoppers at a mall in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas recently, where she went hoping to snag a pair of boots she had been eyeing at a steep discount. When she arrived at the store, however, she was surprised to find it nearly empty. “It’s difficult to indulge in luxuries,” García, 26, told the Associated Press of the lack of shoppers. “Due to the current economic situation, people are cutting back and only spending on the essentials, such as food.” Yet even food has become a luxury in Venezuela, where families need about $500 a month to pay for basics but where many earn only about $0.52 a day. As a result, Venezuela’s poverty rate tops 91 percent as inflation and unemployment in recent years have eaten into earnings, even as the supply of basic necessities has become unreliable. The US airstrikes off the coast of Venezuela are now exacerbating the situation. Over the past few months, the Trump administration has targeted boats allegedly smuggling drugs into the US, strikes that have killed at least 83 people. US President Donald Trump insists, without presenting evidence, that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, as the alleged leader of the Cartel de los Soles, is using his state to support drug trafficking. Trump has threatened land strikes against the country. Now, caught between the threat of a US attack and a government they do not trust while struggling to survive, Venezuelans say they are overwhelmed by the uncertainty, wishing that whatever is going to happen would happen already. “On Monday every street was empty,” one woman told the Washington Post, describing a day in late November when US fighter jets escorted a strategic bomber near the coast and Venezuelan soldiers fired at the sky. “On Wednesday, it was a normal country again. The uncertainty is killing me.” The US strikes have impacted countries across the Caribbean, especially those closest to Venezuela. Fishermen in Otaheite Bay, in Trinidad and Tobago, said fears of US operations near Venezuelan waters were forcing them to be cautious, worried that their boats could be mistaken for drug-smuggling vessels, CBS News wrote. Since September, bodies have been washing up on the shore. “We as a country never had a problem with Venezuela. Now … some fishermen are afraid to take the chance to go where they normally go,” Dave Johnson, a fisherman in Trinidad, told the Guardian, adding that it’s creating an issue for the country. “If we didn’t have fishermen, how would we eat fish? The fishing community gives back a lot.” Recently, the family of a Colombian fisherman killed in a US strike on Sept. 15 filed the first formal complaint against the United States with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, seeking compensation for the death they call an extrajudicial killing. Alejandro Carranza was sailing off the coast of Colombia when his boat was allegedly hit. “I never thought I would lose my father in this way,” Cheila Carranza, 14, told the New York Times from the one room she shares with her mother and two siblings. The family disputes that Caranza was a drug trafficker. “If he was some kind of narco-terrorist,” Cheila’s mother, Katerine Hernández, told the newspaper, “then why are we living in misery instead of a mansion?” Colombian President Gustavo Petro described the strikes as “murders.” Colombia, meanwhile, is also a possible target for strikes by the US. Trump has acknowledged that the warships are probably “stopping some fishermen too,” even in nearby waters where the US is not operating. Some also argue that the added risks fishermen face, combined with smaller catches in the shallower waters where they moved to fish, could push some of them toward drug and arms smugglers looking for recruits to transport their illegal cargo. Meanwhile, analysts say the strikes are reshaping the security situation in the region. “While global attention remains fixed on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, a new danger zone is emerging in an unlikely location: the Caribbean,” Australia’s Lowy Institute wrote. “This surge in violence has sparked alarm among Caribbean islands, particularly those closest to Venezuela. The Dutch island of Curaçao…faces particular vulnerability. While Curaçao’s government has urged calm and emphasized the island’s neutral status, officials acknowledge the growing risk of being drawn into a US-Venezuela conflict.” “The Caribbean’s small island nations and territories now find themselves uncomfortably positioned at the intersection of US-Venezuela hostilities and broader great power rivalry, with limited ability to influence events that could fundamentally reshape their region’s security landscape,” it added. The Caribbean twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, which is cooperating with the US military, is just 11 miles away from Venezuela and is also now entangled in a geopolitical face-off between the United States and its neighbor. Kenrick Modie, a fisherman in a small village, says he is worried that his life and livelihood could be wiped out by a US military strike because his boat could be mistaken for a drug-smuggling vessel. “(Trump) is giving instructions to shoot and kill people,” Modie told CBS News. “What can we do? We’re just a little dot.”