TEHRAN – “The people of South America—in Venezuela and the other countries of the region—are profoundly calm by nature and deeply averse to tension and confrontation.”

These are among the observations offered by an Iranian diplomat regarding the social character of the peoples of South America: peoples who, throughout their history, have displayed as much nobility and love of peace as they have been objects of greed for colonizers from Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Contrary to the widespread perception, the source of the overwhelming majority of conflicts in this region over the past five centuries has not been internal disputes, but rather uprisings and struggles against colonizers and their local collaborators.

Prior to the nineteenth century, the history of Latin America is replete with records of popular resistance and bloody revolts against the colonial machinery of Spain, France, and Portugal.

Yet with the decline of the traditional European powers after World War II, a new phase of domination commenced in the region—one now spearheaded by the United States of America.

The post-war flourishing of American industry and economy—owed to a global war whose flames never touched its own territory—was obliged to sustain its trajectory of expansion and hegemony. That expansion rested upon oil, mineral raw materials, and agricultural produce from the rest of the world.

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the geography of South America, almost in parallel with West Asia, became one of Washington’s most coveted prizes.

In this regard, the August 1953 coup that overthrew the national government in Iran for having nationalized its oil industry effectively served as an operational blueprint for toppling independent governments across South America—governments that refused to dance to the tune set by the White House.

The outcome of these interventions was that, throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Latin American societies—under the leadership of dictators beholden to the United States and the Western bloc—were transformed into the world’s foremost imperialist garrisons, charged with protecting the political and economic interests of the West.

Today’s belligerent rhetoric and warmongering by the United States against Venezuela are anything but novel; they represent a direct continuation of seventy-five years of neo-colonialism in the region.

If White House officials forcibly fastened the yoke of servitude around the necks of West Asian societies for the sake of oil, in South America, they showed no mercy even toward the fruit and crops of these peoples.

One of the most heartbreaking chapters in the region’s history is the tale of American capitalism’s lash and the relentless squeezing of the people’s lifeblood by corporations that, backed by corrupt dictators supported by Washington, plundered the region’s fruit and agricultural wealth.

The present narrative of pressure, sanctions, and encirclement imposed on Venezuela by the White House is once again the same centuries-old story of classical colonialism and the same 75-year saga of neo-colonialism.

South America—after four hundred years of direct European colonization and a full century of American-backed puppet dictators—continues, even in the twenty-first century, to wrestle with the oppressive shadow of domination.

The sole crime of these societies is this: they wish to determine their own destiny rather than have it dictated from Washington or be reduced to a mere appendage in the profit-driven geography of the White House elite.

Over the past fifty years, whenever the peoples of the region have refused to bow to domination and hegemony, the sword of the West has been unsheathed. That is precisely why nearly all conflicts across the past five centuries have been waged against colonizers and their local proxies.

It is as though old and new colonialism have sworn a solemn pact that the noble peoples of this region shall never taste the sweet water of peace.

South America’s true crime lies in its defiant “no” to hegemony and domination—thereby exposing the hidden essence of both classical and neo-colonial imperialism.

Source: Sedaye Iran, the online newspaper of the Institute of the Islamic Revolution of Iran — November 30, 2025