From: punditster@gmail.com   
      
   On 1/5/2026 11:57 AM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   > On Mon, 5 Jan 2026 18:20:27 -0000 (UTC), Tara  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On Jan 5, 2026 at 12:54:09?PM EST, "Noah Sombrero"  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> On Mon, 5 Jan 2026 16:11:59 -0000 (UTC), Tara  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> On Jan 5, 2026 at 11:02:19?AM EST, "Tara"  wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> On Jan 5, 2026 at 10:52:46?AM EST, "Tara"  wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>> On Jan 5, 2026 at 8:23:37?AM EST, "Julian"    
   wrote:   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> One of the few benefits of being an anthropologist is the uncanny   
   >>>>>>> exhilaration one feels watching novel current events as re-runs from   
   >>>>>>> previous episodes in the history of mankind.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Donald Trump?s capture of Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela, is no   
   >>>>>>> exception. Kidnapping Latin American emperors is a continental   
   >>>>>>> tradition. It?s simply most practical method for breaking the chain of   
   >>>>>>> command in the region. It triggers succession chaos, enables the   
   >>>>>>> extraction of resources, and keeps the rest of the hierarchy more or   
   >>>>>>> less intact. In earlier centuries, it was Spain and Portugal. Today,   
   >>>>>>> it?s the United States.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> In the colonial era, the objective was to secure enough gold to beat   
   >>>>>>> European rivals. Now, with an astonishing 90 per cent of Venezuela?s   
   oil   
   >>>>>>> produce heading to China, it?s about ensuring dominance over East Asia.   
   >>>>>>> And there has never been a better way of establishing dominance than by   
   >>>>>>> carrying out a good kidnapping.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> The first to try it in Latin America were the original Spanish   
   >>>>>>> conquerors led by Christopher Columbus. When he sunk his leather boots   
   >>>>>>> into the warm Caribbean sands in 1492, he discovered a continent of   
   >>>>>>> unprecedented size and a near-endless source of human slaves. But   
   >>>>>>> military resistance was immediate, and an Indian chieftain called   
   >>>>>>> Caonabó was the fiercest of all, directing surprise attacks that   
   killed   
   >>>>>>> nearly all the men Columbus left on the islands when he regularly   
   popped   
   >>>>>>> back to Spain. When the Admiral heard the news, he sent a terrible   
   >>>>>>> deputy, Alonso de Ojeda, to sort out Caonabó and eradicate any   
   opposition.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Ojeda, approaching the Indian chieftain peacefully with a mere handful   
   >>>>>>> of men, offered the chief some polished brass handcuffs and shackles,   
   >>>>>>> saying that they were ?royal ornaments? worn by kings in Spain that   
   >>>>>>> offered them divine and magical properties. Caonabó believed him. And   
   so   
   >>>>>>> he let the Spaniard put them on. Then, Ojeda snapped them shut,   
   >>>>>>> kidnapped the chief, and galloped back to his settlement ? effectively   
   >>>>>>> decapitating the native?s leadership. The entire culture crumbled soon   
   >>>>>>> after, and slaves poured into Seville. And I imagine the sketching of   
   >>>>>>> Caonabó?s face looked just like the pep shots of Maduro that have been   
   >>>>>>> circulating on social media today.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> A few decades later, the conquistador Hernán Cortés landed in   
   >>>>>>> Tenochtitlan, present-day Mexico City, and discovered yet another   
   >>>>>>> ancient civilization. This time, though, the sheer scale and   
   >>>>>>> sophistication of the Aztecs surpassed even the greatest cities back in   
   >>>>>>> Europe. The Emperor Moctezuma II, feeling untroubled by a couple   
   hundred   
   >>>>>>> badly smelling foreigners, invited him into the city to show Cortés   
   his   
   >>>>>>> personal aviary. The conquistador, following the Spanish tradition,   
   >>>>>>> immediately kidnapped him and put him under palace arrest.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Much like Trump?s recent announcement that the US would be running   
   >>>>>>> Venezuela for the time being, Cortés, too, governed the Aztec empire   
   >>>>>>> with Moctezuma as a puppet. The successful kidnap meant gold flowed   
   back   
   >>>>>>> to Spain in abundance, but the emperor himself soon died after being   
   >>>>>>> taken onto the palace rooftop to try and calm his subjects. One of   
   them,   
   >>>>>>> unhappy with the emperor?s performance, ended the whole charade by   
   >>>>>>> throwing a rock at his head.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Perhaps the most uncanny example happened a few years later, when   
   >>>>>>> another Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, landed on the shores   
   of   
   >>>>>>> Peru to discover an even bigger empire: the Inca. Their emperor,   
   >>>>>>> Atahualpa, also looked upon these straggly foreigners with little cause   
   >>>>>>> for concern. A gambling man, Pizarro took the biggest risk of his life   
   >>>>>>> by getting his priest to read the Inca emperor the Requerimiento; a   
   >>>>>>> forced submission to Christianity with cultural roots in the Moorish   
   >>>>>>> tradition, recently expunged from Spain, of the summons to accept Islam   
   >>>>>>> or be attacked.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Atahualpa refused, as all self-respecting Latin American emperors did   
   in   
   >>>>>>> the face of foreign conquest, but misjudged the cunning of the Spanish,   
   >>>>>>> who promptly closed the palace gates, locked out his army, butchered   
   his   
   >>>>>>> bodyguards and, as per tradition, kidnapped the emperor and held him to   
   >>>>>>> ransom. Like Maduro, Atahualpa was handed a set of trumped up legal   
   >>>>>>> charges ? in this case ?idolatry? and adultery (the emperor enjoyed   
   many   
   >>>>>>> wives). His kidnapping lasted 8 months before the Spanish strangled him   
   >>>>>>> with an iron collar, but not before being forcibly baptised as ?Don   
   >>>>>>> Francisco? after his conqueror and tormentor, Francisco Pizarro.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> It did not surprise me to see that Nicolas Maduro, too, has already   
   >>>>>>> ended up in today?s cultural equivalent of the ritual humiliation once   
   >>>>>>> offered as forced baptism. Maduro and his sovereignty were instantly   
   >>>>>>> mocked online, videos of American eagles eyeing up his power, were   
   >>>>>>> quickly reposted on Donald Trump?s Truth Social feed. Stuck in his cell   
   >>>>>>> in New York, awaiting trial, Maduro will take little comfort in the   
   >>>>>>> knowledge that he?s just the latest Latin American leader to go through   
   >>>>>>> this process.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Max Horder   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> "We learn from history that we do not learn from history"   
   >>>>>> - Hegel   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Hegel didn't actually say this but it sounds good anyway.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Hegel did say:   
   >>>> "But what experience and history teach is this, - that peoples and   
   governments   
   >>>> never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced   
   from   
   >>>> it."   
   >>>>   
   >>>>   
      
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