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Extraordinary Threat: The U.S. Empire, the Media, and Twenty Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela
The US foreign policy decisions behind six coup attempts against the Venezuelan government – and Venezuela's heightening precarity
In March 2015, President Obama initiated sanctions against Venezuela, declaring a “national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” Each year, the US administration has repeated this claim. But, as Joe Emersberger and Justin Podur argue in their timely book, Extraordinary Threat, the opposite is It is the US policy of regime change in Venezuela that constitutes an “extraordinary threat” to Venezuelans. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans continue to die because of these ever-tightening US sanctions, denying people daily food, medicine, and fuel. On top of this, Venezuela has, since 2002, been subjected to repeated coup attempts by US-backed forces. In Extraordinary Threat, Emersberger and Podur tell the story of six coup attempts against Venezuela.
This book deflates the myths propagated about the Venezuelan government’s purported lack of electoral legitimacy, scant human rights, and disastrous economic development record. Contrary to accounts lobbed by the corporate media, the real target of sustained U.S. assault on Venezuela is not the country’s claimed authoritarianism or its supposed corruption. It is Chavismo, the prospect that twenty-first century socialism could be brought about through electoral and constitutional means. This is what the US empire must not allow to succeed.
In March 2015, President Obama initiated sanctions against Venezuela, declaring a “national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” Each year, the US administration has repeated this claim. But, as Joe Emersberger and Justin Podur argue in their timely book, Extraordinary Threat, the opposite is It is the US policy of regime change in Venezuela that constitutes an “extraordinary threat” to Venezuelans. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans continue to die because of these ever-tightening US sanctions, denying people daily food, medicine, and fuel. On top of this, Venezuela has, since 2002, been subjected to repeated coup attempts by US-backed forces. In Extraordinary Threat, Emersberger and Podur tell the story of six coup attempts against Venezuela.
This book deflates the myths propagated about the Venezuelan government’s purported lack of electoral legitimacy, scant human rights, and disastrous economic development record. Contrary to accounts lobbed by the corporate media, the real target of sustained U.S. assault on Venezuela is not the country’s claimed authoritarianism or its supposed corruption. It is Chavismo, the prospect that twenty-first century socialism could be brought about through electoral and constitutional means. This is what the US empire must not allow to succeed.
248 pages, Paperback
Published July 20, 2021
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About the author
Justin Podur
9 books62 followersJustin Podur was born in Toronto in 1977. He was first published on ZNet around 1999, where he became a volunteer translator and editor - and continues to volunteer. Inspired by the community at ZNet, including Noam Chomsky, Michael Albert, Cynthia Peters, and Stephen Shalom, his writing is about international politics with an activist point of view. He has reported from Chiapas, Colombia, Israel/Palestine, Haiti, Pakistan, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Afghanistan.
He has also worked as a scientist, publishing work on forest fires in journals like the International Journal of Wildland Fire, Ecological Applications, and Ecological Modeling. He teaches at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, where he is an Associate Professor.
He has also worked as a scientist, publishing work on forest fires in journals like the International Journal of Wildland Fire, Ecological Applications, and Ecological Modeling. He teaches at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, where he is an Associate Professor.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 14, 2021
This lengthy, detailed account proved to have the surprising qualities of both excitement and amusement, something one might not have expected in a recounting of mere political shenanigans in the Americas. Yet the very nature of Empire's assumption that it would finally ride over the "anti-democratic" government of Venezuela by appointing its own president, has made for such a story, exciting and downright laughable at the same time.
The late but scarcely lamented president of the United States, Barack Obama, gifted the authors of this text with an ideal title: Extraordinary Threat, by condemning the government of Nicolás Maduro as such in 2015. It is now a commonplace for the US to describe a geopolitical situation in its own terms, by turning the meaning upside down. Designating Cuba as a "state sponsor of terrorism" for instance, when in fact it is the US that has been behind the terrorist activities carried out against the government in Havana. Similarly, it is clearly the US that poses an extraordinary threat to Venezuela, not the other way round, and Podur and Emersberger have put this reality into a perspective that can hardly be challenged, so great is the evidence.
I have suggested the book is an exciting read and indeed it does at times race along from one curious event to the next, as first Hugo Chávez and then Nicolás Maduro are targeted for regime change. What becomes almost comical during this process, is the absurd attempts that the Venezuelan opposition, buoyed by the mere fact of US backing, make to overthrow a government that constantly gets re-elected. Today, in late 2021, Maduro is still in power and elections are to be held shortly. Whether the Bolivarian Revolution, which Maduro's party supports, can survive into yet another decade, will perhaps indicate, as much as anything else, just how far US influence and power in Latin America has waned. An excellent read. To be continued...
The late but scarcely lamented president of the United States, Barack Obama, gifted the authors of this text with an ideal title: Extraordinary Threat, by condemning the government of Nicolás Maduro as such in 2015. It is now a commonplace for the US to describe a geopolitical situation in its own terms, by turning the meaning upside down. Designating Cuba as a "state sponsor of terrorism" for instance, when in fact it is the US that has been behind the terrorist activities carried out against the government in Havana. Similarly, it is clearly the US that poses an extraordinary threat to Venezuela, not the other way round, and Podur and Emersberger have put this reality into a perspective that can hardly be challenged, so great is the evidence.
I have suggested the book is an exciting read and indeed it does at times race along from one curious event to the next, as first Hugo Chávez and then Nicolás Maduro are targeted for regime change. What becomes almost comical during this process, is the absurd attempts that the Venezuelan opposition, buoyed by the mere fact of US backing, make to overthrow a government that constantly gets re-elected. Today, in late 2021, Maduro is still in power and elections are to be held shortly. Whether the Bolivarian Revolution, which Maduro's party supports, can survive into yet another decade, will perhaps indicate, as much as anything else, just how far US influence and power in Latin America has waned. An excellent read. To be continued...
March 19, 2024
This is an excellent account of the Western propaganda and intervention in Latin America. It goes a long way towards addressing the lies of omission by the western media. Read this book to fill in all the gaps deliberately left out by the western governments.
I am very impressed by the clear and factual accounts in the book that exposes the lies of the western government, and the methods of manipulation employed by media and journalism.
I am very impressed by the clear and factual accounts in the book that exposes the lies of the western government, and the methods of manipulation employed by media and journalism.
January 11, 2026
People don’t hate obama enough
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews