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For years, it served as the dark fantasy of the Bolivarian movement, a apocalyptic scenario spun so frequently – each version wilder than the previous one – until it practically morphed into a political punchline: an American invasion is imminent.

Hugo Chávez, who led Venezuela from 1999 to 2013, invoked this threat again and again, claiming that the American leadership and his henchmen in the CIA and Pentagon were preparing an assault.

Spies, saboteurs, assassins, special forces, mercenaries, missiles, poison, submarines, fighter planes – the northern giant would spare no effort to overthrow Venezuela’s socialist project and overthrow its president.

“Is it so far-fetched that they developed the technology to induce illness and we wouldn't discover about it for 50 years?” the leader once questioned in 2011, while he was being treated for cancer.

Much of this amounted to performance. A confection of claims to excuse centralized power, polish revolutionary credentials and delegitimise opponents. Eventually, even some supporters expressed skepticism at warnings of the American specter.

The Dream Materializes

But currently, over a decade after an sick Chávez passed power to his successor, Nicolás Maduro, the prophesied event is tangible. On Saturday US forces bombed Caracas and seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores – the superpower of Chávez’s discourse realized in full.

In the middle of the surprise and uncertainty about what happens next, there is a surreal twist. For years, the ruling ideology – the ideology left behind by the late president – overstated the US threat in order to cry wolf. Now that the threat has materialized, he turned out to be an American version of Chávez.

Echoes of Populist Authoritarianism

The former US president's populist authoritarianism echoes the late comandante: both exponents of thunder and dazzle who deeply divided electorates, silenced criticism and co-opted state bodies. The real estate mogul obviously differs in numerous aspects from an military man who championed leftist ideals – but his knack to channel frustration, break norms, monopolize attention and transform politics into entertainment are pure Chávez.

It transcends irony that a defining moment of this era is the mission to abduct the revolutionary successor. As international law lies in shreds, and Venezuelans swing between elation and anxiety, events has reached a strange full circle.

A History of Tensions and Plots

Two decades ago, George W. Bush’s administration gave quiet support to a attempted overthrow that for a short time displaced Chávez – a move that elicited comparisons to the mid-20th century, when the US intelligence destabilized leftist leaders across Latin America.

Chávez, backed by barrio-dwellers and the armed forces, regained power, won fresh electoral mandates and spent the following years mocking Bush as a fool, a caricature, an evil figure. Following the American military action in the Middle East – justified by inaccurate intelligence about Iraq's military capabilities – many around the world shared Chávez’s assessment of the US president.

Chávez made repeated claims of US plots against him. Given historical attempts and US military interventions in Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989, a operation against Venezuela was within the realm of possibility. Yet it never materialized. The US continued to buy Venezuela’s oil and remained passive while Chávez hollowed out his economy.

The Successor's Strategic Warnings

Maduro, taking the reins in 2013, continued the fiction of an imminent US military threat. As economic conditions deteriorated and voters rebelling, Maduro was compelled to manipulate electoral processes to retain control – and a foreign adversary was increasingly valuable.

More recently, the US figure deployed his own misrepresentations and claims. He charged Maduro of heading a “drug-trafficking” cartel that was “saturating” the US with drugs – an expansion of Venezuela’s role as a passageway for Colombian cocaine.

Statements on Power and Resources

“This was one of the most stunning, effective, and powerful demonstrations of American military might and skill in US annals,” was publicly claimed. “No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved.”

The US raiders interrupted energy to Caracas thanks “through particular skills that we have”, enabling a precise mission that extracted a authoritarian leader, was stated.

Where he rests, Chávez must have spun. He used to blame electricity failures – the result of a dilapidated infrastructure – on CIA saboteurs. He claimed the gringo superpower wished to reinstate a outdated doctrine of hemispheric control, and here was a declaration of “supremacy”.

This includes the US administering Venezuela for an unspecified duration. “We will administer the nation until such time as we can do a orderly, correct and careful transition,” was announced. He added: “There will be involvement from our leading United States oil companies... enter the country, invest heavily, repair the severely damaged facilities, the oil infrastructure, and generate revenue for the country.”

Questions Over the Future

The situation was made unclear by statements about working alongside figures from the previous government.

Citizens, including the exiles abroad, are now discovering if they have emerged from a long national nightmare or slipped deeper into foreign administration.