From Venezuela to Iran, Jeffrey Sachs says US regime-change playbook risks disaster

Calling Washington’s actions a dangerous throwback to unchecked power politics, American economist Jeffrey Sachs has warned that the United States is being driven not by elected leaders but by a military-security establishment that thrives on regime change and confrontation.

Speaking to India Today TV, Sachs described the arrest of Venezuela’s deposed president Nicolas Maduro as a military abduction and a flagrant violation of international law, warning that such actions could trigger a wider global crisis.

“The United States is governed by a military security apparatus,” Sachs said. “The CIA, the Pentagon, other security agencies largely drive American foreign policy.” He argued that regime change remains a central pillar of US strategy, pursued through wars, sanctions, coups and so-called colour revolutions.

Sachs said Venezuela has long been in Washington’s crosshairs because of its politics and its oil. “The United States has been trying to change this regime for more than 20 years,” he said, pointing to a failed coup in 2002, protests in 2014 and sweeping sanctions imposed during Donald Trump’s first term. Those sanctions, he noted, crippled Venezuela’s economy but failed to remove the government.

“They kidnapped the president, but they did not change the regime,” Sachs said. “Most American regime change operations actually fail. They fail to achieve the political outcomes the United States seeks.”

He warned that Trump’s recent threats against Iran, Mexico, Colombia, Denmark and Nigeria were creating an atmosphere of global instability. “A president of the United States is making dire threats against half a dozen other countries,” Sachs said. “All of this is just like lighting the fuse all over the place and things could get really, really dangerous.”

Sachs was particularly critical of Europe’s response, accusing leaders of acting as “subservient vassals” of Washington. “They have to say it’s not right in Greenland, but it’s also not right in Venezuela, it’s not right in Iran,” he said.

He urged emerging powers, especially the BRICS nations, to assert themselves and defend international law. “We want the world to operate according to the UN Charter, to international law,” Sachs said.

Looking ahead, Sachs warned that Iran could be next. He said Israel’s hostility toward Tehran and Washington’s alignment with it risked a far deadlier conflict. “That one will be hotter than Venezuela,” he cautioned. “It would be potentially disastrous.”

For Sachs, the pattern is clear. “The deep state runs United States foreign policy, not presidents,” he said. “Presidents come and go, but the deep state remains.”

- Ends

Tune In