TARVO MADSEN ⟩ Venezuela’s «Trolley Problem»

2026-01-25 - 21:07

Have you ever encountered the thought experiment in which a tram is about to run over five people, but to prevent this it is possible to divert the tram onto another track where there are one or two people? The number of victims would be smaller, but those victims would be the direct and conscious result of your own decision. This thought experiment is known as the «trolley problem», and the debate surrounding the Venezuela case among Estonian politicians and experts mirrors it with disturbingly precise accuracy. However, this analogy is ultimately somewhat misleading, because in Venezuela’s case the situation is far more complex, writes journalist Tarvo Madsen.