Spain and five Latin American leaders issued a joint message after the U.S. military seized President Nicolás Maduro, pointing to a reality Washington may have overlooked.
Venezuela holds 300 billion barrels of oil and gold worth more than 8,000 tonnes, which led Donald J. Trump to announce that the United States would oversee the country for an indefinite duration.
The cultural soul of the region drives the resistance.
Religious Spheres Clash Over Natural Wealth
Venezuela’s identity was forged through five centuries of Spanish Catholicism, a legacy that still binds the vast majority of the people to Madrid’s cultural sphere.
However, the region is now experiencing a new spiritual direction, as evangelical groups have grown to a fifth of the population over sixty years. The change followed decades of strategies by U.S. missionaries, a movement often encouraged by Republican leaders.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio monitored the operation closely, embodying a hardening regionalism that appears to have found total control in the second Trump term.
Madrid Sees Recurring Historical Cycles
Leaders in Mexico and Brazil called the arrest a return to the era of Washington unilaterally replacing local governments. In response, Spanish leaders insisted on the sanctity of global rules and the UN charter.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez vowed that Spain would refuse to recognise any government put in place through military force, a stance informed by the tens of thousands of people Spain has taken in recently. The action also evokes the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which Mr. Trump cited to explain the attack — a policy that defined a long era of American power in the south.
Catholic Leadership Stays Silent
The church is maintaining its own distance from the events. Catholic bishops in Venezuela had already pulled away from Maduro before the arrest, as Methodist leaders criticised the action as a violation of a nation’s right to stand alone.
The Vatican’s own paper ran news of the strikes, but Pope Leo XIV has not offered a word regarding Maduro being taken to New York. A similar demographic evolution is occurring in Spain as well, where immigrants now fill the pews in new Protestant churches, reversing the era of Spain sending priests across the ocean.
Economic Power Follows Old Lines
The land offers a vast fortune, as the Guayana Shield holds iron, gold, and the minerals needed for modern technology. Venezuela possesses the largest gold reserves in the region, which has led the U.S. to turn squarely toward energy security.
Experts say it will take $10 billion every year for a decade to fix the oil industry, but Goldman Sachs notes that if the U.S. manages such reserves, it would control nearly a third of the world’s oil.
Partners, Not Subjects
Spain views the region as a group of equals, building a bond on money and aid where the majority of Spanish help stays in the Latin American world.
Though Madrid seeks a sense of shared family, many in the region still push back on that framing. Brazil’s Lula warned that the region must stay a place of peace, and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro sent troops to keep the border steady. This collective protest proves that a shared memory is stronger than military control.
Washington may hold the ground for a while, but it is meeting a culture where history and faith are more resilient than the gold in the hills.
Keep up with Daily Euro Times for more updates!
Read also:
Red Sea, Red Lines: America’s Maritime Security Dilemma
Trumping Old Patterns: South America Re-Calibrates East
Submarines in the Atlantic: Europe’s Invisible Drug Frontier
