New Gangsters for Capitalism

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 intervention in Venezuela advanced U.S. interests. He cited the Monroe Doctrine, which marks Latin America as a sphere of influence. Like the president, he boasted that the United States now controls the country’s resources.

“We’ve got very significant control over the oil revenues at this point,” Kozak said.

Several Democratic lawmakers responded with strong criticisms. They condemned the Trump administration for acting so aggressively in the hemisphere, and they warned that its actions would create a backlash against the United States.

Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) described the administration’s approach as “shameful.” She insisted that the United States should not be “reviving a policy of domination and subjugation in the Western Hemisphere through the Monroe Doctrine.”

Castro repeated his warning that the Trump administration is focused on commerce and profits. He suggested that the president is using the U.S. military to enrich people close to him.

“What has happened now is that there’s a group of folks that the president favors in his circle that is able to commence commerce and make money off of, whether it’s valuable minerals, oil, anything else in Venezuela,” Castro said.

Kozak expressed disagreement with Castro’s analysis, but he acknowledged that the Trump administration has established significant controls over Venezuela. Once again, he boasted that the Trump administration controls the country’s resources.

“People can lift oil and sell it on the open market, but all that money goes into an account that we have control over,” Kozak said. “All the revenues that are coming from the mining sector and everything, instead of going into their bank accounts, are coming into the Treasury accounts, and then we can dole it out as we see fit.”

The Case of Cuba

Now that the Trump administration has moved against Venezuela, establishing new leadership and doling out profits from its resources, lawmakers anticipate that it will move against Cuba next.

For months, Trump has been openly threatening Cuba. He has moved to block oil shipments to the country, causingan economic crisis. Knowing that he has put tremendous pressure on the Cuban government, he has demanded that the country’s president leave office.

“I do believe I’ll be having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump said in March. “I think I could do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth.”

Although the Trump administration’s military intervention in Iran has shifted its focus away from Cuba, the administration is maintaining an economic stranglehold over the island nation, making its recovery impossible. The U.S. military continues blocking the free flow of oil to Cuba, even while Trump demands the free flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. The few oil shipments that have reached Cuba, for instance a recent tanker from Russia, have provided little relief.

At the congressional hearing last month, several lawmakers argued that the Trump administration is a major reason why Cuba is facing such tremendous hardship, including island-wide blackouts and preventable deaths at hospitals and health clinics.

“We cannot ignore our own country’s role in the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Cuba,” Castro said.

Representative Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), who recently visited the country, made the strongest criticisms. Warning that the administration’s policies are causing tremendous harm to the Cuban people, he indicated that the Trump administration is violating international humanitarian law.

“We have engaged in collective punishment,” Jackson said.

The congressman also accused the Trump administration of trying to make life so miserable for the Cuban people that they would rise up and overthrow the Cuban government. He described it as a failed “policy of starving” Cuba.

“It was one of the most cruel things I had ever seen in my life,” he said.

Just as the Trump administration has been able to get away with its actions in Venezuela, however, it has been able to continue its policies toward Cuba. The administration maintains support among Republicans and some Democrats, few of whom oppose the administration’s goal of regime change.

The president, who knows that he faces little opposition in Congress, continues threatening to direct a military intervention in Cuba, even citing the operation in Venezuela as a precedent.

“In January, our warriors flew straight into the heart of the Venezuelan capital, captured the outlawed dictator Nicolás Maduro, and brought him to face American justice,” Trump said last month. “And very soon this great strength will also bring about a day 70 years in waiting. It’s called, ‘A New Dawn for Cuba.’”

War Is a Racket

When Smedley Butler spoke against his exploitation as a racketeer for capitalism nearly a century ago, he made a criticism of the American way of war that was considered to be so radical by U.S. leaders that it has been largely excluded from mainstream political discourse.

Only a few politicians, such as former Representatives Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Ron Paul (R-TX), have cited Butler and his warnings. Rarely, if ever, does the mass media report on war as a racket in which the country’s leaders are exploiting U.S. military forces as gangsters for capitalism.

Today, however, some elected leaders are beginning to issue the same kinds of warnings about the Trump administration. Alarmed by the president’s insatiable lust for wealth and power, they are starting to suggest that the president is engaging in a kind of gangsterism across Latin America. The president, they say, is using the power of the U.S. military to steal the wealth of Latin American countries to enrich himself, his family, his closest business associates, and U.S. corporations.

“By any measure, this is the most corrupt administration in American history,” Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) saidearlier this year.

Now that the Trump administration is openly pillaging Venezuela and getting away with it, several lawmakers are warning that it may apply the same approach to other Latin American countries.

“It’s making me think that the goal in Cuba is going to be the same,” Castro said at the hearing in April. “It’s who’s going to go over there that’s friends with the president to make money and who’s going to profit off of Cuba and the Cuban people.”

Indeed, there is a growing sense in Congress that the Trump administration is turning to gangsterism. Moving beyond standard establishment critiques of the president’s contempt for norms and traditions, critics are giving serious consideration to the idea that Trump’s wars are a racket and that Cuba may be next.

This first appeared on FPIF.