In October 2023, amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef’s dark humor captured the internet during a viral interview with British TV host Piers Morgan. He highlighted the sadistic nature of Israel and, by extension, U.S. imperialism, likening them to a “narcissistic psychopath” boyfriend who “messes you up and makes you think it’s your fault.”
His remark, “You look at Israel as Superman, but they’re really Homelander,” particularly stood out to me. I have always viewed superhero movies as imperialist propaganda, filled with clichéd one-liners and simplistic plots. Nevertheless, Youssef’s characterization of U.S. superhero Homelander as the quintessential narcissistic boyfriend was too good to ignore.
Recently, I watched all four seasons of “The Boys,” which featured Homelander—blue eyes, blonde hair, disingenuous smiles, and a massive American flag cape. He seems invincible, with Superman-like powers, and perceives everyone else as inferior. He kills and terrorizes at will while shifting blame onto “villains,” typically immigrants and anyone who defies his dominance.
Homelander leads “The Seven,” a group of (also sadistic) superheroes working for the Vought Corporation, which becomes an extension of the U.S. military.
The plot thickens when we find out that someone at Vought has given a drug called “Compound V” to international terrorist organizations. It’s later revealed that Homelander himself distributed the serum to generate “super terrorists” that only he could defeat, all in the name of spreading “freedom” to the world and protecting U.S. interests.
I’ve read that U.S. viewers have suffered from cognitive dissonance watching the show because they would like to believe that Homelander is an evil figure in isolation and not the embodiment of U.S. imperialism, white supremacy, and military interventions. His sadism and tactics mirror those of the U.S. government, which has historically funded and armed right-wing or criminal groups in countless nations that challenge U.S. hegemony to facilitate regime change. Not to mention the countries the U.S. has invaded or targeted with economic sanctions, thus killing thousands of people.
Homelander —not the fictional flying man but what he represents— has been soaring over Venezuela for quite some time now with the entire U.S. propaganda, military, and corporate apparatus behind him. He has not landed yet but not for lack of trying.
Following illegal sanctions that devastated Venezuela’s economy and a failed attempt to install a self-proclaimed president, the U.S. State Department and its local lackeys began trying another tactic: mercenary invasions. These have usually been led by a handful of U.S. mercenaries thus representing little to no risk to Washington (in terms of resources and credibility) or hidden behind humanitarian intentions.
The first attempt to invade Venezuela was quite unforgettable and the “masterminds” behind it most likely thought they created the perfect plan. It began with a “Venezuela Live Aid” concert sponsored by English business magnate Richard Branson on February 22, 2019, in Cúcuta, Colombia, right next to Venezuela’s Táchira state.
Live Aid was broadcast worldwide and counted on the support of the most vile far right in Latin America and Venezuela, including ex-presidents Sebastián Piñera, Iván Duque, and Mario Benítez as well as U.S.-backed self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaidó and accomplices.
The concert was nothing but a smokescreen for the real show: to force the entry of eight trucks across the international bridges of La Tiendita and Simón Bolívar filled with “humanitarian aid” supplied by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Venezuelan people, government, and military reacted quickly before the obvious attempt to justify a U.S.-led military intervention. In the afternoon of February 23, thousands of people of all ages walked to the border and became a barrier against the USAID-sponsored trucks in the famous “Battle of the Bridges” that left four dead and dozens injured on both sides.
In the confrontation, one truck caught fire by a Molotov bomb thrown by opposition groups revealing its real content: instead of food and medicine there were metal cables, nails, gas masks, and other supplies to arm anti-Chavista groups. The purpose was to establish the bordering Táchira state as a beachhead for the military (and paramilitary) invasion.
Venezuela successfully repelled this aggression, which has become a heroic tale that will surely make it into the history books in the section on victories against U.S. imperialism. Little did we know that different iterations of this story would repeat over and over again.
In May 2020, a 60-strong expedition comprised of deserting Venezuelan soldiers and two U.S. mercenaries left Colombia by boat with little fuel and a half-assed plan to infiltrate Venezuela, seize control of several strategic points, and detain (or assassinate) President Nicolás Maduro.
It turns out the plan had been so mediocre that the Venezuelan government knew about it two months in advance and was able to quickly neutralize the invaders as soon as they reached Venezuelan soil. Both U.S. mercenaries were handed heavy prison sentences but were released last year in a prisoner exchange with the U.S. that secured the liberation of Alex Saab.
The paramilitary operation was organized by U.S. special forces veteran Jordan Goudreau and retired Venezuelan Major-General Cliver Alcalá. The mercenaries were hired by Guaidó, who had signed a contract with Silvercorp, the private military company founded by Goudreau. Although, Guaidó vehemently denied knowing about it (perhaps out of embarrassment).
The U.S. government likewise denied any involvement, which was true to some extent. While the CIA did not actively participate, it was aware of Operation Gideon and chose complicit silence.
At this stage, there isn’t much more to say about this story. While Operation Gideon may seem laughable due to its poor execution, its very existence serves as a stark reminder that mercenary invasions are no trivial matter. It was a warning that such attempts were likely to increase as the U.S. government and mainstream media have created the perfect conditions for them.
Not only have Washington and its media stenographers falsely discredited Venezuela’s July 28 presidential elections, but they have continued pushing the regime change operation with illegal sanctions that hamper the country’s economic development and put a 15-million dollar bounty on Maduro’s head and other Venezuelan officials on outlandish accusations of “narcoterrorism” based on the sole proof of U.S. agencies saying so.
Fast forward to 2024 and Venezuela is now facing a real threat of (not so laughable) mercenary attacks, with the Maduro government even warning UN Secretary António Gutérres of “external aggression” promoted from U.S. territory.
On October 17, Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello reported the arrest of 19 foreign nationals, among them seven U.S. citizens and others from Spain, Colombia, Bolivia, Perú, and Lebanon. Authorities also seized nearly 500 U.S.-made weapons from criminal gangs, uncovering a huge arms trafficking operation from the U.S. to Venezuela.
The overarching plan involved these mercenaries collaborating with armed gangs to presumably sabotage public infrastructure (including oil facilities) and assassinate Maduro and other key figures in Venezuela’s government, all while potentially earning millions in the process.
At the head of the arms trafficking operation is Iván Simónovis, who fled to the U.S. in 2019 after escaping home arrest for his multiple terrorist crimes. Coincidentally, in July, a federal court in Tampa, Florida, indicted Goudreau (the organizer of Operation Gideon) for sending AR-styled weapons, ammunition, and other equipment to Colombia without a U.S. export license.
According to government sources, the main leader of the entire plot is no other than María Corina Machado, who has been MIA for over a month. Her involvement in the mercenary plot seems more than plausible considering her repeated calls for foreign interventions since 2018.
A quick revision of Machado’s speeches, interviews, and public statements shows how hard she has been campaigning for a foreign intervention in Venezuela. In 2018, she tried to invoke the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), the same mechanism used to invade Libya in 2011. In 2019, during the opposition-controlled National Assembly (AN), she promoted the approval of Article 187, section 11, of the Constitution “to authorize foreign military missions within the country.”
In 2019, Machado and the Guaidó camp requested the “Ministry of Colonies” OAS to apply the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) for “collective action” against Venezuela. By 2020, she had outlined her criminal ambition: an international coalition called the Peace and Stabilization Operation in Venezuela (OPE) to invade the country and depose the government.
It’s fair to say that Machado is in favor of any type of invasion that fulfills her homicidal dreams of getting the presidential seat. Naturally, U.S. imperialism and its allies are backing her up.
The Venezuelan government has pointed the finger at Spain’s National Intelligence Center (CNI) as well as the U.S. government, specifically the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for helping recruit the mercenaries and facilitating the smuggling of arms into Venezuela.
Truth be told, history and facts back this accusation. U.S. agencies have been involved in coups against progressive governments across the world for more than a century, and have driven tireless attempts to end Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution: from coup attempts to sanctions and financing the far right violent plans to take power by force after losing in the ballot as it happened after Maduro’s victory on July 28.
Moreover, the person at the center of the recently unveiled terrorist plot is an active-duty Navy SEAL named Wilbert Castañeda. The U.S. State Department claims Castañeda was in Venezuela for “personal reasons”. They say this as if a highly trained agent from the U.S. Army being in Venezuela is the sort of thing that just happens.
It is safe to assume that either Castañeda was on an assigned mission to gather intel and recruit mercenaries (he traveled to Colombia several times) or he was incentivized by the large price on Maduro’s head.
Either way, this botched mercenary plot, like the ones before and the ones to come, has the U.S. sadistic brand of imperialism written all over it. We certainly don’t need any TV show superhero satire to remind us of that, but it’s fun to watch a narcissistic blonde guy who flies, worships a Nazi and ruins lives while thinking:
Oh yeah, that’s a more realistic representation of the U.S.
In real life, the only superheroes are those who defy U.S. imperialism and Venezuela’s revolutionary forces will continue doing exactly that, especially against mercenary threats.
Andreína Chávez Alava was born in Maracaibo and studied journalism at the University of Zulia, graduating in 2012. She immediately started working as a writer and producer at a local radio station while also taking part in local and international solidarity struggles.
In 2014 she joined TeleSUR, where in six years she rose through the ranks to become editor-in-chief, overseeing news, analysis and multimedia content. Currently based in Caracas, she joined Venezuelanalysis in March 2021 as a writer and social media manager and is a member of Venezuelan artist collective Utopix. Her main interests are popular and feminist struggles.