PREDATORY HEGEMONY AND SYSTEMIC COLLAPSE: VENEZUELA AS A CATALYST FOR AMERICAN DECLINE

Abstract

This paper analyses the escalation of the conflict between the United States and Venezuela as an intersection of financial necessity and strategic insolvency. The thesis builds upon the fundamental matrix of Neo-Structural Realism, to explain the conflict dynamics through four pillars: Subject (Who?), Instrument (With What?), Motivation (Why?), and Method (How?). The study predicts that the attempt at forceful resource expropriation will lead to a reverse effect: internal consolidation of Venezuelan society, the formation of a Latin American anti-hegemonic bloc, and the permanent entry of Russia and China into the Western Hemisphere. This process marks the transformation of a local crisis into the total collapse of global American domination.