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Special envoy Elliott Abrams brute of US imperialism

Marxist Theory · 2019-01-23

Core Argument

The article argues that the appointment of Elliott Abrams as US Special Envoy to Venezuela is not an aberration or a sign of Trumpian extremism, but a revealing choice that strips away the liberal veneer from US imperialist intervention. Abrams embodies the continuity of American counterrevolutionary strategy across Democratic and Republican administrations — from the Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America through the Bush-era Middle East catastrophes to the present coup attempt in Venezuela. His career demonstrates that US imperialism does not need to disguise its brutality when the objective is clear: the destruction of any state that challenges capitalist property relations and US hegemony. The article's central claim is that the liberal hand-wringing over Venezuela from European leaders and media is pure hypocrisy, and Abrams' appointment exposes the real character of the operation.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws on the Leninist theory of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, treating US foreign policy not as a series of moral choices or strategic errors but as the necessary expression of capitalist accumulation's drive to dominate and exploit. The article implicitly deploys the concept of the permanent arms economy and the military-industrial complex as structural features of late capitalism, though it does not name them explicitly. It also draws on the Trotskyist tradition's understanding of counterrevolutionary intervention as a systematic feature of imperialism, not a deviation from liberal norms — a position that distinguishes this analysis from both mainstream liberal criticism of US foreign policy and from Stalinist theories of "peaceful coexistence."

The piece sits within the Marxist tradition that treats the state as an instrument of class rule, rejecting the notion that US foreign policy can be reformed by electing better leaders. Abrams' trajectory from Hubert Humphrey liberalism to Reagan neoconservatism is presented not as a personal journey but as the logical development of bourgeois anti-communism shedding its liberal disguise when the class struggle intensifies.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was published in February 2019, at the height of the US-backed coup attempt against Nicolás Maduro. Juan Guaidó had declared himself interim president on 23 January 2019, and the Trump administration had immediately recognised him, imposing escalating sanctions and threatening military intervention. The article connects this to:

  • The gilets jaunes uprising in France, where Macron's brutal repression exposed the lie of Western "democratic values"
  • The 2017 Catalan referendum repression by the Spanish state
  • The ongoing refugee crisis, which Abrams' policies across Latin America and the Middle East directly caused
  • The rise of Islamic State, which the article traces to Abrams' sectarian turn in Iraq under Bush

The article's relevance extends beyond 2019: Abrams' appointment prefigured the full-scale sanctions regime, the seizure of Venezuelan assets (including Citgo), and the ongoing US strategy of regime change by economic warfare. The piece anticipates that the "humanitarian" framing would collapse into open coercion — which is precisely what unfolded.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is a relatively short polemic focused on Abrams' biography. It leaves underdeveloped:

  • The economic drivers of US intervention in Venezuela — the oil reserves, the debt restructuring, the overaccumulation of capital seeking outlets
  • The internal class dynamics of Venezuela — the relationship between the Chavista bureaucracy, the working class, and the opposition
  • The global conjuncture of US imperialism in decline, and how Venezuela fits into the broader rivalry with China and Russia

These threads are taken up in other IDOM articles on Venezuela, particularly those analysing the sanctions regime, the role of the oil industry, and the strategic significance of Venezuela for global imperialism. The broader theoretical framework — the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, overaccumulation, and the drive toward interimperialist war — is developed in IDOM's theoretical series on Marxist economics and in Against the Stream episodes on the global crisis.

Connections

  • Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism — the foundational text for understanding US intervention as structural, not moral
  • Noam Chomsky, Turning the Tide: US Intervention in Central America — provides detailed historical context for the Reagan-era crimes Abrams oversaw
  • Greg Grandin, Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism — situates Central American dirty wars within the longer arc of US hemispheric domination
  • IDOM articles on Venezuela sanctions and the coup attempt — the ongoing analysis of the same conjuncture
  • Against the Stream episodes on Latin America and US foreign policy — the podcast format allows for deeper discussion of the class forces at play

Key Quotes

  1. "In the news coverage, public statements, and official explanations surrounding the coup attempt by Donald Trump and Juan Guaido, the liberal hypocrisy of the ruling class is breathtaking."

  2. "Abrams, who was in charge of the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office front, was strikingly direct and unapologetic in his testimonies. The investigation resulted in his criminal conviction, which was followed by a presidential pardon. Lost in the legal hullabaloo was the fact that the fundraising-by-drug-money scheme significantly propelled the continental narco-economy."

  3. "In more ways than one, Elliott Abrams helped push Latin America into bleak reaction and narco-capitalism."

  4. "As Reagan's man in Latin America and Bush's in the Middle East, Abrams may be singularly responsible for the record level of refugee displacement and migration."

  5. "His appointment to the administration of Trump, who made his political fame by vilifying migrants from Mexico and Central America and championing their deportation, is entirely appropriate — and revealing as to the 'humanitarian' intentions of Donald Trump and his friend and puppet Juan Guaido."

  6. "Political neoconservatism, nurtured in Washington, was a parallel development to that of the New York neoconservative intellectuals, though instead of Marxists becoming Nietzscheans, Democratic Cold War anti-communists became Republican Cold War anti-communists."