CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

New Gangsters for Capitalism

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Some lawmakers have grown so alarmed by the Trump administration’s actions in Latin America that they are beginning to accuse the administration of gangsterism.

Representative Stephen Lynch (D-MA) saw the possibility of gangsterism at the start of the second Trump administration when he warned that the United States could “join the ranks of gangster nations,” but there is a growing sense in Congress that the day has arrived.

At a congressional hearing last month, Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX) asserted that the Trump administration is exploiting the U.S. military to take Latin American resources for U.S. corporations. Castro seemingly channeled the anti-war critiques of Smedley Butler, the U.S. military hero of the early twentieth century, who condemned war as a racket and lamented his exploitation as a racketeer for capitalism.

“For decades, our men and women in uniform who volunteered to protect our country became mercenaries ordered to risk their lives to protect the profits of U.S. corporations,” Castro said. “Today, President Trump is ordering them to do so again.”

The Case of Venezuela

The Trump administration’s critics in Congress have been warning about the administration’s gangsterism due to its actions in Venezuela.

Since the Trump administration directed a military operation earlier this year to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and take control of the country’s oil and minerals, several lawmakers have suggested that the administration has begun to employ force and intimidation as its basic tools of statecraft.

Lawmakers have condemned the administration for conducting a military operation without congressional approval, meddling in Venezuela’s internal politics, displaying contempt for Venezuela’s political process, facilitating corruption in Venezuela and the United States, and using the U.S. military to take control of Venezuela’s resources.

“You are taking their oil at gunpoint,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this year.

Although Congress has not held the president accountable, as the Republican majority in each chamber supports the president, critics have kept pressure on the White House, prompting officials to defend the administration’s actions.

At the congressional hearing last month, State Department official Michael Kozak claimed that the........

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