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It was the fever dream of the Bolivarian movement, a dark fantasy spun so many times – every iteration more extreme than the last – until it almost became a running gag: an American invasion is imminent.

The late Venezuelan leader, who led Venezuela from 1999 to 2013, warned of this threat repeatedly, warning that the US president and their agents in the US intelligence and military were plotting a strike.

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

“Would it be so strange that they’ve invented the technology to spread cancer and we wouldn't discover about it for 50 years?” he famously mused in 2011, while battling for cancer.

Much of this amounted to performance. A constructed narrative to justify authoritarian rule, strengthen anti-US standing and undermine political rivals. Over time, even some loyalists grew weary at tales of the American specter.

Fantasy Turns to Fact

But currently, over a decade after an failing Chávez handed the reins to his chosen heir, Nicolás Maduro, the prophesied event is actual. Recently US forces targeted Caracas and seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores – the “empire” of Chávez’s speeches realized in full.

In the middle of the shock and questions about what the future holds, there is a surreal twist. For years, the ruling ideology – the political doctrine left behind by the deceased leader – exaggerated the US threat in order to raise false alarms. When the wolf showed up, he proved to be an US counterpart of Chávez.

Echoes of Populist Authoritarianism

The former US president's disruptive leadership resembles the Caracas leader: both exponents of bluster and showmanship who deeply divided electorates, silenced criticism and hijacked institutions. The real estate mogul naturally varies in numerous aspects from an military man who championed leftist ideals – but his capacity to channel frustration, shatter conventions, suck up all the oxygen and turn power into a TV show are pure Chávez.

The paradox is profound that a defining moment of this era is the operation to capture Chavismo’s heir. With global legal frameworks ignored, and the nation's citizens swing between optimism and fear, events has completed a peculiar completion.

Background of Allegations and Interventions

In 2002, the US government at the time gave quiet support to a coup that temporarily removed Chávez – a decision that evoked memories to the mid-20th century, when the US intelligence toppled leftist leaders across Latin America.

Chávez, backed by popular sectors and the military, was restored, won fresh electoral mandates and spent the following years taunting Bush as a fool, a caricature, an evil figure. Following the American military action in the Middle East – rationalized through false claims about Saddam Hussein’s weapons arsenal – many around the world echoed Chávez’s view of the US president.

Chávez made repeated claims of US plots against him. Considering CIA efforts and US military interventions in Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989, a strike against Venezuela was within the realm of possibility. Yet it never materialized. The US continued to purchase Venezuela’s oil and took no direct action while Chávez weakened his economy.

Maduro Continues the Narrative

Maduro, assuming power in 2013, upheld the fiction of an imminent US military threat. As economic conditions deteriorated and public discontent growing, Maduro was compelled to rig and steal elections to retain control – and a Yankee bogeyman was increasingly valuable.

In recent months, the US figure employed exaggerations and falsehoods. He accused Maduro of heading a “narco-terrorist” cartel that was “flooding” the US with drugs – an broad interpretation of Venezuela’s role as a transit route for illicit substances.

Declarations of Victory and Control

“This was one of the most stunning, successful and dominant exhibitions of American military might and proficiency in US annals,” was publicly claimed. “No country in the world could achieve what the United States achieved.”

The US raiders cut the power supply to Caracas thanks “to a certain expertise that we have”, facilitating a precise mission that evicted a authoritarian leader, was stated.

Where he rests, Chávez must have spun. He used to blame blackouts – the consequence of a dilapidated infrastructure – on CIA saboteurs. He used to say the United States wished to revive a historical doctrine of hemispheric control, and now there is a declaration of “supremacy”.

The plan involves the US running Venezuela for an indefinite period. “The United States will govern until such time as we can do a orderly, correct and careful transition,” was announced. He added: “We’re going to have our major United States oil companies... begin operations, spend billions of dollars, overhaul the badly broken infrastructure, the energy sector, and produce profits for the country.”

Questions Over the Future

The situation was complicated by comments about engaging individuals from the previous government.

Citizens, including the vast diaspora, are now discovering if they have escaped a long national nightmare or slipped deeper into nightmare.