A Giant Step Backward Towards Colonialism

Jan 22, 2026 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The January 3, 2026 kidnapping of the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has signalled that international relations have suffered a great disaster. We are back to a colonial period.

The big difference of this period and the earlier time is that in the past we had several colonial powers, all European countries, the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Today we see that the United States has taken their place as a super colonial state with a junior partner in Israel.

This did not happen overnight; it was a process. It began with the dismantling of the Soviet Union in 1991. At that time many people thought that the world was entering into an era of peace since the rivalry between the then two superpowers had ended.

Unfortunately, the United States could not resist the temptation of expanding its power and to control as much of the world as possible. The first sign of this was in 1994 when the Clinton administration announced its plans to expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to include many Eastern European countries that had once been in an alliance with the Soviet Union, known as the Warsaw Pact.

This was a renegation of its promise to the last President of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev, made in 1989 when the Soviet Union was told that if it agreed to the re-unification of Germany, NATO would not move an inch beyond the German borders.

At that time one of the most experienced US ambassadors, Mr. Jack Mattlock told the US Foreign Affairs committee that that may very well go down in history as the biggest mistake that the United States would make.

However, buoyed by its new status as the only superpower, the US went ahead and in waves, expanded NATO. By the end of the last century it bombed Serbia, a former state of Yugoslavia for seventy-eight days, and ripped away Kosovo from Serbia.

This process of expanding NATO is the principal reason for the present military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and proved Mr. Mattlock prophetic.

Apart from that expansion into Eastern Europe, the United States in alliance with Israel moved to crush any state in the Middle East that was opposed to Israel, Iraq being the first victim.

Using deception and misinformation that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction,” it launched a massive attack killing about one million people and leaving the country broken and divided. The world found out after that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and it was one big fat lie to invade Iraq.

Then we had the destruction of the most prosperous country in the Middle East, Libya. Its leader was publicly humiliated and murdered. Fifteen years after that, the country is in ruins with numerous warlords fighting for control.

Libya was destroyed for two reasons. In the first place it was opposed to Israel’s apartheid state and secondly its leader Gaddafi was pushing for a new currency, the Golden Dinar, to replace the US dollar for in trade with African countries.

On October 7, 2023, the oppressed people of the Gaza attempted to break out of their open prison which act was used as the excuse to destroy the whole strip. Almost all the buildings were destroyed by the Israeli army. The death toll is still unknown but is estimated between 300,000 to 500,000 persons.

This massacre was done with the full backing of the United States which supplied most of the weapons to kill the helpless Palestinian civilians. This was done by Presidents of both Democratic and Republican parties.

Since the election of Donald Trump in 2024, the mask was completely taken off. This US administration is not looking for excuses; it is making its intentions explicit. It wants to take over as much of the world as possible.

To do so, the US has taken a very hostile position to international institutions that it does not totally control. We have seen that it is using threats and sanctions against UN officials, among them the fearless Francesa Albanese whose visa was taken away because of her expose’ of the inhumane conditions of the Palestinian people.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) are attacked and officials facing sanctions, including withdrawals of visas.

The US President has openly boasted that he has no regard for laws, only what he feels is correct.

The US wants to take over Canada, Greenland, Venezuela, the Panama Canal among other places.

The other method that the US is using to exercise its control over countries is FEAR. Fear of being sanctioned, fear of tariffs, and fear of covert and overt CIA and military interventions in countries.

It is this fear that has kept the mouths of all Caribbean leaders, except the Barbados PM Mia Motley, tightly shut about the kidnapping of President Maduro and the pirate like seizure of oil tankers.

It is that fear that governments in the region are breaking contracts with Cuba even after the tremendous support that the Cuban government gave to the region, particularly in the area of healthcare. Now, many governments in the region are caving in under pressure from the US to end the contractual agreements with Cuba.

Fear of sanctions, of subversion is a big factor in US relations with weaker nations.

Even European leaders seem deathly afraid of the US and keep bending over to keep its president happy.

However, we are beginning to see some resistance developing that opens new possibilities.

For instance, Canada is very actively restructuring their international economic relations. Building new supply chains and repairing relations with countries such as China after sanctions imposed on them by the US. Clearly Canada values its sovereignty.

There are signs too that some European countries are beginning to see that alliances with the US mean to be subservient to the master and are beginning to rethink their positions. Some of them are even considering opening talks with Russia.

With one huge Super Colonial Power, the conditions for new alliances are taking shape. We may be able to build a north/south alliance against colonial domination.

This of course would not always be easy. After all the US is not just the most powerful country economically and militarily, it also controls most of the information flow in our world. It’s ability to influence thinking globally is unmatched.

Therefore, to speak of no ideology or not to worry about “isms” is to disarm the masses in the face of a new colonial onslaught.

Regards,

Donald Ramotar

Former President

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• Colonialism, Donald Ramotar, kidnapping, Letters, Nicolás Maduro

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