The day in which Donald Trump distributed threats to the world and especially to Latin America from the pulpit of the United Nations (UN) ended with an unusual meeting: the acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, met with the head of the American Executive, on Tuesday night (22), and the image immediately circulated around the world.
On your social network profile XRodríguez called the meeting with Trump “historic.” “We held a historic meeting with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, with whom we spoke about strengthening the bilateral relationship between our countries and advancing a cooperation agenda in strategic areas such as energy, mining, security”, published the president, with the photo in which they both appear smiling.
Some Chavistas celebrated what they called “the success of peace diplomacy.” The Minister of Communications, Miguel Ángel Pérez Pirella, described the image as “the photo of the day”. However, until this Wednesday morning (23), none of the main leaders linked to the current government reposted the photograph, which on the president’s networks had just over 46 thousand likes in the first ten hours.
The meeting is the first after the US military aggression against Venezuela on January 3 of this year, which left more than a hundred dead and resulted in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and the first lady, Congresswoman Cilia Flores.
A flood of memes invaded Venezuelan networks; some celebratory, others critical, some ashamed, others proud. The fact is that the issue became an issue and, such was the repercussion, that the Chavista forces called a demonstration this Wednesday to “support the president” on the day she will speak in the plenary of the UN General Assembly.
‘Humiliation’ and the defense of sovereignty
Venezuelan political scientist William Serafino establishes historical parallels with the imperial attempt at domination over the South American country, in an analysis published online after the meeting between Delcy and Trump.
“From a historical point of view, there is a deep connection between Venezuela and the launch of North American imperial devices in the region, codified under the updated Monroe Doctrine. The naval blockade of European powers against the country in 1902-1903 was the womb of the Roosevelt Corollary, finally consecrated with the fall of Cipriano Castro in 1908, Uncle Sam’s public enemy number one”, he comments.
“More than a hundred years later, a direct military intervention designed to tame and realign Venezuela in the North American orbit would be the official launch of the Trump Corollary. Venezuela, in its dramatic pendulum between the fracture and recomposition of imperial orders, between the desire for transcendence and the punishment of the powerful”, he adds.
In another publication, Serafino refers to “humiliation” as a “historical product” of elites against the sovereignty of non-aligned countries.
“Humiliation is, we could say, a historical product, the resounding result of mistakes shared by elites with limited vision and a very low sense of public responsibility, when evaluating the costs and benefits of their political and geopolitical aspirations”, argues the political scientist.
“The problem is not the diplomatic scene in which the offense to dignity takes place, but where this fact has its roots. If we do not begin by understanding the double emptying of the notion of sovereignty experienced by the country, it will be difficult to find the way back to a position of greater strength”, points out Serafino.
The gesture and the acid criticism
For social media semiotic analysts, the gesture of the acting president alongside Trump, in one of the photos published by the Venezuelan Presidency, did not go unnoticed. With your left hand, make a “V”, and with your right hand, make a closed fist. The sign came to be associated with the same sign that Maduro made when he landed in New York, after being kidnapped in Caracas by US forces.
The Deputy Minister of Anti-Blockade Policies at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, William Castillo Bollé, published the photo next to the recently released image of President Nicolás Maduro in prison, with the phrase: “Where have I seen this gesture before?”
Some internet users followed the same line. “Although neither this gesture nor the fist that accompanies it emerged with this Venezuelan political current, they are symbols strongly incorporated into the Chavista identity”, published an internet user on the network Threads.
“There was a detail that also did not go unnoticed: the gesture of his hands. Venezuelan politics has just taken another unexpected turn”, announced another, without detailing which turn he was referring to, whether to the left or to the right.
On the other hand, television presenter and former constituent deputy Mario Silva, who has been an acid critic of the current government, once again attacked the president because of the photo.
“I thought it was artificial intelligence or something like that, but it’s total surrealism. When we see the interim president meeting with those who bombed us and killed more than 100 compatriots, including 32 Cubans, and making the ‘V’ sign for victory, we can’t understand it”, commented the presenter in a video published this Wednesday morning.
“What will they do with all the Venezuelans who are currently outraged by this, when they see the government alongside a genocidal man, the same one who attacked us on January 3rd, taking a photo and publishing it on the Presidency’s own account?”, asked Silva.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
