The Scapegoat in Downton Abbey (Part 6): Thomas Barrow and Venezuela
I've been writing this essay about the scapegoat for months as a form of catharsis. I discovered Downton Abbey in September 2024, watching it with my sister. We loved the story and identified with Thomas, suffering alongside him from the first episode. I thought it was because we were working poor, but that didn't explain such a deep connection. In January 2026, when I rewatched Downton to de-stress, I understood: Thomas is the scapegoat of the series. He did questionable things to survive in a system that oppressed and rejected him for who he was. Similarly, Venezuela is the scapegoat of Latin America, caught in the crossfire between superpowers and regional ideological agendas. I understood René Girard's assertion that literature contains more truths than all the social sciences combined. Downton Abbey helped me understand my personal and collective reality.
On January 3, 2026, I woke in the middle of the night to a strange, very low, high-pitched, and unsettling buzzing sound that was impossible to escape. Neighbors were screaming, and phone lines were jammed; something was happening, and we didn't know what. The first news report was that Caracas was being bombed, then Higuerote, La Guaira, Puerto la Cruz, and the rural towns near Caracas. I live in a small town that wasn't attacked (Guarenas) and is located between two that were (Caracas and Higuerote). That night was the longest and most terrifying of my life. Then Donald Trump threatened us with a second bombing. In a press conference, Mr. Orange mentioned the word "oil" 23 times; he didn't speak about democracy, values, or principles. From that day forward, it should be obvious to the world that labeling Venezuela as an epicenter of drugs and crime is a lie. However, this was already known; The word "Venezuela" doesn't even appear in the 2025 drug reports prepared by the UN and the European Union. The reason for the attack was the abundance of all the elements on the periodic table. They bombarded us with the aim of robbing us. In 1999, the international smear campaign against Venezuela began, and in 2013, a cognitive and economic war was launched, which in recent weeks has intensified with absolute cruelty.
On January 3, the president and his wife were kidnapped. In the hours and days that followed, the country's institutions tried to maintain social peace. They succeeded; there were no lootings, protests, or clashes. Calm, patience, and discipline prevailed—the same virtues that protected us during the pandemic. For its part, the interim government made a pragmatic decision, questioned by many: to give in to the blackmail, since the existence of Venezuela as a country and that of millions of human beings is in danger.
Furthermore, the aid that Venezuela provided to Cuba for 27 years can no longer be sent. The empire seeks to starve the dignified Cuban people, while military vessels remain near Venezuelan territorial waters. To say that we are "negotiating" with a gun to our heads is not a metaphor. Meanwhile, the Latin American left despairs over Cuba and reproaches Venezuela for its "inaction" in the face of the Cuban tragedy. It is a left that does nothing but complain, criticize, and judge.
It turns out that the world never left the Roman circus. The right kills people in its endless wars, and the left needs the dead to sustain its narrative. The left accuses the current government of treason and the Venezuelan people of cowardice. Coward is how Reddit users describe Thomas for refusing to be cannon fodder in a war that was not his, nor William Mason's, nor any of the other children who died in it. It was simply another war started by a minority of old men to divide the world. Today, nobody wants to be Venezuela. Both the left and the right use us as a "bad example": the common refrain is "if we don't do X, we'll end up like Venezuela." Similarly, the servants Jimmy, Alfred, and Andy didn't want others to think they were like Thomas.
Thomas was trapped in a legal system that criminalized his very existence, and his colleagues used the "not-so-nice" label to justify their offenses, loudly proclaiming that "everyone hates Thomas." For years, he refused to be the victim; he craved respect and recognition. Yet, he only accumulated trauma and emotional exhaustion. I reject the Manichean view of "good guys and bad guys" in Downton Abbey and in real life. The "good" characters (like Carson, Bates, Anna, and the Crawleys) act and judge from a position of moral superiority and the comfort of their privilege. How do you explain to Anna that no one goes to a war of one against all? It was offensive to hear her blame the victim for her anguish and misfortune. When the enemy is launching missiles at you, guerrilla warfare is impossible; but at least you should have the right to complain.
Thomas was branded evil by the very people who defended the system that oppressed him. The left defends the system that seeks to destroy Venezuela when it asks us to resist the Empire, as they do in Iran. To comply with this demand, Venezuela would have to bomb the military bases from which it was attacked; that is, the US military bases in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago. From a military standpoint, this would be a mistake, since we lack the capacity to rearm, nor should we contribute to the balkanization of the region. Then, for not doing what the left considers "right" and "dignified," they claim that "we have a cultural weakness in refusing self-immolation." For months, historians, politicians, social activists, and international analysts have demanded that the Venezuelan people participate in an asymmetric war that, from the beginning, was known to be impossible to win. Real people, not bots or algorithms, are ordering us to commit suicide in the name of dignity and courage.
Tomás was punished for not bowing his head. Venezuela is rejected for deviating from the Manichean script and living its own way, neither sacrificing itself for the left nor kneeling before the right. Thomas and Venezuela are the scapegoats; their mere existence shakes the moral narrative of the "good guys." In the final episode of Downton Abbey, Bates shakes Thomas's hand and laments that things could have been different. Bates, with a troubled past, arrived at the house fifteen years earlier, robbed Thomas of his chance at advancement, and abused him physically and verbally. Obviously, the relationship could have been different if Bates had acted differently. Thomas, facing Bates, chose pragmatism. Venezuela, on January 3rd, also chose pragmatism, but the left is offering it cyanide. They are not satisfied with a five-hour bombing, 120 Venezuelans and 32 Cubans dead, research and health centers destroyed, hundreds of people homeless, traumatized children, and missiles exploding 50 meters from a nuclear reactor. They want war! This is also not enough for the American right. They are worried that Venezuelans will refuse to kill each other in a civil war to facilitate the regime change they so desperately crave. Venezuela must free itself from the system proposed by both the left and the right (which, at heart, are the same thing in different disguises). Just as Thomas had to leave Downton Abbey to smile in the third film. The entire world must change this international system, for it is incompatible with life. We cannot continue to normalize dehumanization, unequal treatment of peoples, genocide, harassment, and self-immolation.
