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Venezuelan Tragedy: United States planning another coup d’état in Latin America

Gabriella Lima

Venezuela’s self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido, Colombia’s President Ivan Duque and Vice President Mike Pence (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Washington is making extensive preparations to overthrow the legitimate government of Venezuela. The American authorities intend to adopt the most stringent measures, including the physical elimination of the current president, Nicolás Maduro, in order to promote their interests in the region.

In his recent speech on CNN, U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo stated that the U.S. “will take action” in Venezuela in order to support its opposition leader Juan Guaido. ‘Maduro’s days are numbered’, he added.

Thus, Washington is obviously not interested in a peaceful way of resolving the Venezuelan crisis. In fact, the American scenario does not provide any resolution of the crisis. It all comes down to the financial and political interests of the United States, which are promoted by the American intelligence agencies and special services.

Guaido’s entry to the Venezuelan political arena is caused not by the economic and political crisis in the country but by the U.S. plans to strengthen the influence of Washington in Latin America through its political puppet.

Military support

The United States is using its security agencies to overthrow the government in Venezuela. Washington is also planning to ship weapons through countries neighboring Venezuela for their subsequent transfer to the opposition.

Pompeo’s threats followed opposition clashes with police on the border with Colombia. Guaido and his supporters went there as well, ostensibly for receiving humanitarian aid from the U.S. Such coordination and sequence of events raise a lot of questions. Apparently, Washington intends to use Columbia as a foothold for its military intervention in Venezuela. The White House is deploying the U.S. Special Operations forces in the country, despite the discontent among the local population.

The fact is that the Colombian authorities have long been controlled by the United States. Back under Bush’s administration, the country has begun receiving considerable financial assistance, although it had no positive effect on the economic performance of Colombia.

According to Colombian economist Alvaro Pardo, the current economic situation in the country is even worse than in 2003. And it is no better than in Venezuela. But the American authorities haven’t rushed to save the Colombian people and overthrow their government.

It is because the United States always strives to invest its money in the projects it can benefit from.

Financial support

While Washington spares no expense to support its special services’ operations, it found a way to save money on supporting the Venezuelan opposition.

The U.S has frozen Venezuelan financial assets clearly in order to invest them into making Guaido legitimate leader of Venezuela, which once again confirms the American intention to eliminate the country’s legitimate leader as well as demonstrates the U.S. absolute indifference to the fate of Venezuelan people.

Information support

In addition to financial and military assistance, the United States is actively pushing news about the brutality of the Venezuelan current government seeking to undermine its position, wreak havoc while promoting its protégé. Fortunately, many European citizens analyze the information they get and don’t hesitate to express their concerns.

As can be seen, Washington is using all means to overthrow the government non grata justifying its perfidious intervention with such beautiful abstract concepts as “freedom” and “democracy”. The end is not difficult to predict. After all, the United States played out such scenarios more than a few times.

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Robert Laine
Robert Laine
Mar 8, 2019 8:55 PM

Thanks, Gabriella, for keeping the Venezuelan crisis in the OffG limelight.

Except for the US “keeping the military option” on the table, I see little evidence that the US plans to provide military support to the opposition. It is likely that the humanitarian aid “show” at the border was to make Maduro look bad, not smuggle arms, and it worked. The Venezuelan military will have to make the decision to oust Maduro but currently they are in their barracks. If the crisis continues to worsen and colectivos armed by the government keep killing people, chances are they will act.

The assets seized through economic sanctions are, as I understand it, being held in escrow and will be turned over after elections are held and a new government formed.

Information support is part of info wars which make it very difficult to ferret out the truth and allow a diversity of views including non-dualistic ones. This is the value of OffG where there is no censorship and differing views can be presented and discussed without fear of ad hominen attacks.

While I am very much against a US military invasion, my concern is that the situation in Venezuela is being portrayed as a US initiative which ignores the majority of Venezuelans who want a democratic regime change. The big question is: when a government becomes non-democratic, how can a democratic change occur without outside help? The electoral loss of the ruling party in December 2015, the first ever since taking power in 1999, was the straw that broke the democratic back leading to non-recognition of the National Assembly, creation of an alternative Assembly in 2017 and the illegitimate election in 2018(major opposition parties disqualified by the government, leading candidates eliminated etc.).

If the “left” does not come up with more effective democratic support for national sovereignty, we will probably be stuck with governments on the “right” in Latin America and elsewhere for the foreseeable future.

mark
mark
Mar 9, 2019 10:31 PM
Reply to  Robert Laine

If you’re looking for evidence of US military support to their puppets in the Venezuelan putsch, you have only to look at recent seizures of US arms. And the previous activities of the convicted criminal and death squad queen Abrams, with the blood of hundreds of thousands of Central Americans on his hands, who has gone on record as justifying the “entirely legitimate ” practice of using aid shipments as cover for arms deliveries. Or the past history of the US regime, slaughtering and starving and immiserating tens and hundreds of millions as it rampages across the planet in its search for loot like Nazi Germany on steroids.

It is not the government that is burning people to death and otherwise killing people, and torching public buildings, it is Washington’s fascist stooges. Had they tried to pull similar stunts in the US or any European capital, they would have been unceremoniously gunned down without further ado. Venezuela’s assets have been stolen, as those of Iraq, Libya Ukraine and other countries have been in the past. It is not for Neocon war criminals to misappropriate the assets of the Venezuelan people.

The US regime has been waging a campaign of economic strangulation, sabotage, terrorism and propaganda vilification against the Venezuelan people for 20 years. It is not the Venezuelan people who want a regime change, it is the Washington Neocons and big US oil interests. The Venezuelan people have free and fair elections, certified as such by independent observers and election monitoring organisations. The Washington orchestrated opposition refuse to participate in elections because they know they have very little support in Venezuela and will lose. Their support lies in the Washington Beltway and Wall Street. The ruling Chavez/ Maduro governments have lost elections and referendums and have always respected the result. Lopez and Gweedo have openly called for the violent overthrow of the elected government and the invasion of the country by hostile powers. Had they done so in the US or UK or most other countries, they would now be starting a lifetime prison sentence.

Isn’t it strange how western politicians lie awake at night fretting over the supposed lack of democracy in oil rich countries that refuse to bend the knee to Washington’s dictates? And how there is always an army of Faux Left useful idiots to justify blatant aggression and imperialism?

I don’t know if you are genuinely deluded or just spreading disinformation, but it’s hard to believe anyone can actually be that stupid.

Tim Jenkins
Tim Jenkins
Mar 7, 2019 3:31 PM

Wanna’ know what Abrams is thinking ? Listen to him chat with Swiss President Ueli Maurer !

https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/03/breaking-full-audio-elliot-abrams-duped-into-full-confession-of-u-s-war-theft-plans-for-venezuela/

At least, that was to whom Abrams believed he was talking . . .

Firkin’ hilarious, get the picture ? lmao

vexarb
vexarb
Mar 7, 2019 12:18 PM

Misread the headline; but let it stand, let it stand:

“Venezuelan Tragedy: United States planning another coup defeat in Latin America”.

Tim Jenkins
Tim Jenkins
Mar 7, 2019 5:09 PM
Reply to  vexarb

But not militarily, Vexarb , check Abrams’ comments , to Swiss President Ueli Maurer: at least, he thought he was talking to Ueli Maurer >>> LMAO, gotta’ luv ‘Vovan & Lexus’ 🙂

Wanna’ know what Abrams is thinking ? or email him ?

https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/03/breaking-full-audio-elliot-abrams-duped-into-full-confession-of-u-s-war-theft-plans-for-venezuela/

Of course, when China back Russia & Maduro all the way to Caracas, Trump will have ‘outed’ Abrams, Bolton & d’hypocritical Rex “a Fucking Moron” Tillerson, (ex -CEO Exxon Mobil, remember ?), official positions on War for Resources, see ?

Trump may not be an angel, but, he’s perhaps to be remembered as a damn fine negotiator,
of cards on table 😉 and boxing & pigeon holing people’s positions, particularly those that have insulted or wholly underestimated his independent intelligence, or flaunted Laws ?

we’ll see, soon enough, Vexarb !

Tim Jenkins
Tim Jenkins
Mar 7, 2019 5:29 PM
Reply to  Tim Jenkins

Just for clarity, Tillerson called Trump “a fucking moron” publicly, as internationally reported 😉

And i can never forget what Soros did to the pound and Trump in ’92’, because, i was ahead of both Trump’s financial thinking & Soros’, (thankfully), investing my tiny lil’ everything-everything in Swiss Francs, by the end of 1990, awaiting that manipulative move from Soros,
which forced Trump into Chapter 11.

I assure you, Vexarb, Trump has also not forgotten . . . 🙂

Rache ist Süß 😉

Rhys Jaggar
Rhys Jaggar
Mar 7, 2019 9:52 AM

It is about money was spent on a professional assassin to knock off some Americans.

Short List:

VP Mike Pence.
SoS Mike Pompeo
Genocidalist in chief: John Bolton
Chief Torturess: Gina Haspel.
Self-righteous git: Lindsey Graham.

Etc etc etc.

See how they like it.

Francis Lee
Francis Lee
Mar 7, 2019 7:40 AM

Yep, send a gunboat to teach those dagoes a lesson or two. ”Take up the White Man’s Burden” … ”Lesser Breeds without the law.” etc. Was Kipling the first neo-con.

Are actually doing a rerun of the 19th century? It certainly feels like it.

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Mar 6, 2019 11:42 PM

(Hands all stacked in the photo above).
Does the stack represent the piles of money to be made, or the bodies of the people who will be sacrificed on the altar of mammon during the invasion and occupation.
The world is $elf de$tructing and there’s nowhere to run.

tubularsock
tubularsock
Mar 6, 2019 9:26 PM

The truly humanitarian thing to do for the betterment of the world would be to carpet bomb Washington, D.C.!

And the most fun would be that it could be done with our own weapons because we sell them to every Tom, Dick and Abdul!

Maybe the pig sucking Saudi royal family could be behind the attack just like 9/11 except this time the American power neocon-fucks could blame Venezuelan socialist peasants!

Oh hell, the American public would buy it because when you have American Exceptionalism in play it is fundamental that the “other-guy” did it!

Hell, it’s just a random Tubularsock thought.

Unfortunately Tubularsock’s old B-52 Stratofortress is in the shop.

Cheers.

Some Random Passer-by
Some Random Passer-by
Mar 7, 2019 2:32 AM
Reply to  tubularsock

Your comment made me think of this

https://youtu.be/snTaSJk0n_Y

Major “King” Kong…

BigB
BigB
Mar 6, 2019 7:08 PM

I’m feeling psychic. I’ve read the Colombian coca leaves and I can see the plan: Guaido returns to Venezuela and gets arrested or ‘kidnapped’; or better still, assassinated by one of his clandestine imperialist escorts – posing as a Venezuelan secret policeman; which allows for NATO/EU and the Lima Group to escalate the tensions with a “strong and significant response” …but don’t worry: Guaido has left specific instructions for his international imperialist allies, setting out a “clear route to follow” if he is detained. Or kidnapped. Or killed.

If I was him, knowing the capabilities of those who are ‘backing’ him – I’d be heading for somewhere to lie low for ten or fifteen years …lest I became a sacrificial lamb. Or an imperialist pawn in the opening moves of the new geopolitical chess Venezuelan Oil Gambit.

But I’m not really psychic, and if anything like this does happen – it will be because the BBC telegraphed the outcome. The thing about using such obvious sources of disinformation and propaganda …is that they become quite informative. It amounts to what Jean Baudrillard referred to as “the map preceding the territory”. The learn by rote imperialist playbook in the policy and agenda led integrated news and propaganda simulation of reality.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-47436804

mark
mark
Mar 6, 2019 7:20 PM
Reply to  BigB

You could be on to something there. You need to make sure your life insurance is fully paid up when you agree to become a US/ western satrap. Things tend to end badly for their puppets – Diem, Noriega, Nemtsov, the “Heavenly Hundred”, Litvinenko, Skripal. When you have outlived your usefulness, you may still have some residual value as a sacrificial victim in a propaganda operation.

Jen
Jen
Mar 6, 2019 7:34 PM
Reply to  BigB

If Guaido wants to lie low for 10 – 15 years at least and avoid being killed by the Americans, I recommend he spend the same amount of time (and more) in a maximum security facility under Venezuelan government protection. Prison, in other words.

Ken Kenn
Ken Kenn
Mar 6, 2019 10:26 PM
Reply to  BigB

Let’s put it this way.

If the US becomes militarily involved in Venezuela with its own troops that is a big risk.

The folks Donald made his promises to about no more dead soldiers will witness that lie if it all goes wrong.

Like Syria the country will attract every pro and anti Yankee around the region spoiling for a fight.

Whether Russia and China make their moves in the future should also be pause for thought.

The US is overstretched as it is and every venture they have taken the lead in in the past has left those places in a worse state than when they arrived.

In all instances they have failed to unfail what they term a ‘ Failed State ‘

These states have failed to do what exactly?

To not do the US’s bidding is the stark answer.

Savorywill
Savorywill
Mar 6, 2019 11:38 PM
Reply to  Ken Kenn

I agree. Trump just postures and makes threats, but seems, so far, ill disposed to be actually starting yet another failed military intervention. He can see, as a practical person, that not one has been successful, certainly since WWII, except, perhaps the invasion of tiny Grenada when Reagan was president, which lasted only a week or so. That’s it, for anything that could be even remotely called a success story.

We also have to consider that Trump has, thus far, de-escalated military conflicts and even tweeted, in caps, ‘STOP THE ENDLESS WARS!!!’. Seems to me that starting another one is just not on the cards for him.

Probably what will happen is that Guaido will come back, not be arrested, and continue fighting the good cause in his role at the president of the national assembly, playing a ‘Nancy Pelosi’ role as a fervent critic of Maduro and Maduro will sensible enough to put up with it, as Trump is doing, and let things just play themselves out.

This may seen like wishful thinking, but the practicality of starting yet another war just seems implausible for a non-politician like Trump. Maybe it is all just an extension of the art of the deal that he prides himself at being so good at, and in the end it is all just theatre.

lundiel
lundiel
Mar 7, 2019 8:26 AM
Reply to  Ken Kenn

I think that Libya changed the rules on regime change. American boots are on the ground all over the place, but in small numbers of special forces and contractors. They are certainly on the ground in Columbia and very likely in Venezuela itself. Whether the coup goes ahead depends on three things: their ability to persuade Venezuelan army officers to rebel, if there are a significant number of opposition supporters willing to shoot fellow Venezuelans, smuggling enough arms in to start the coup.
Libya gifted Syria the arms to start the coup there. America has a man who knows a thing or two about smuggling of, and paying for arms supplies off the books.

vierotchka
vierotchka
Mar 6, 2019 6:41 PM

What is new is that the whole world is watching.

harry stotle
harry stotle
Mar 6, 2019 7:30 PM
Reply to  vierotchka

‘What is new is that the whole world is watching’ – not just watching but cheering on the neocons judging by some of the inane, context free commentary in ‘liberal’ organs like the Guardian.

Too many of prefer to swallow the line taken by Sir Richard, we are here to ‘help’ – ‘No need for greed or hunger …… A brotherhood of man’.

Some Random Passer-by
Some Random Passer-by
Mar 7, 2019 2:36 AM
Reply to  harry stotle
harry stotle
harry stotle
Mar 7, 2019 9:06 AM

I thought Sir Richard’s reputation could not sink much further after that money grubbing exercise (sueing the NHS) but there he is, providing PR cover while Elliot Abram dreams up new, and exciting ways of terrifying Latin Americans.

I find it impossible to believe Sir Richard cares more about poor Venezuelans than he does all the other impoverished people at the wrong end of hypercapitalism so what motives could he have for lending his imprimatur by staging a regime change event. – yes, he did get to sing his favourite song, ‘Imagine’, but he could have sang Imagine in the shower, or if he needed a wider audience at a private event where his army of lackeys could have told him how his rendition would have brought tears to John Lennons eyes (although probably not brave enough to say tears of laughter).

We could take an educated guess as to why he waded into Venezuela but all we know for sure is that Branson puts profit ahead of decency and moves in extremely sinister circles when it comes to threats that are being made against Maduro or the people he democratically represents.

mark
mark
Mar 8, 2019 3:58 PM
Reply to  harry stotle

I was only surprised he didn’t freight in Tony Blair so they could sing a duet together.

mark
mark
Mar 6, 2019 5:56 PM

A new pretext for US aggression and western imperialism that is being increasingly pushed is “demographic aggression”, which is often also touted as a sinister Putin plot. When a country in the Neocon cross hairs like Syria or Venezuela is successfully destabilised and turned into a Mad Max hell hole, inevitably there is a flow of millions of refugees and internally displaced. Because of the destabilising effect of refugee flows on neighbouring countries and even globally, bombings and invasions are supposedly justified on “humanitarian” grounds and to restore some semblance of order, ignoring the sovereignty of those countries. This is a development of the R2P/ Humanitarian Bombing theme. “We have to act”, “these countries are failed states”, “these countries no longer exist”, and much similar guff, enthusiastically parroted by the MSM.

Colombia endured a 50 year civil war fuelled by the US which cost 250,000 lives and produced 7 million refugees. Tens of thousands of peasant farmers, indigenous people and trade union leaders were murdered and disappeared by US trained/ funded/ orchestrated death squads. Yet surprisingly enough, nobody in Washington ever sought to orchestrate a coup to overthrow the regime in Bogota. Branson never organised any pop concert extravaganzas for Colombia. And the Bank of England never stole any Colombian gold. Odd.

It is alleged that there are 3 million refugees from Venezuela because of its current economic problems, and this represents “demographic aggression.” Some people believe this figure may have been exaggerated by a factor of 3 or 4. Whatever the true situation, there are 5 million Colombians currently living in Venezuela. and hundreds of thousands from both Ecuador and Brazil. And 300,000 from Spain. So maybe Colombia/ Ecuador/ Brazil/ Spain have committed “demographic aggression” against Venezuela.

I see a lot of similarities between the situation in 1941, when the Nazi Regime decided to go for broke, invading Russia and declaring war on America, and the current US/ Neocon Regime, which increasingly resembles Nazi Germany on steroids. Hitler is often thought to have been mad to do this, but it was a rational strategy. He realised that time was working against him, and he had to win the war before the UK/ US/ Russia could fully mobilise their economies against him. He staked everything on destroying Russia in a short campaign in 1941. When that failed, such enormous losses had been inflicted on Russia that he thought he could still finish the job in 1942. By declaring war on the US, it would be drawn into a war with Japan in the Pacific and give him a window of opportunity to complete the operation. This obviously failed, but was not completely irrational.

Fast forward to the present day. The US shows all the symptoms of an empire in decline. A vast, bloated, out of control and yet inefficient and ineffective military establishment. Gross inequality between rich and poor, flaunting of wealth, degeneracy and excess of all kinds. Widespread poverty. A corrupt and dysfunctional political system incapable of reform. Insoluble economic, social, racial and cultural problems. The debasement of the currency and crippling debt. Declining economic power, as it is outmatched by China, Russia and other countries economically and technologically. The solution: Go For Broke, while there is still believed to be a margin of military superiority. Destroy Venezuela and Iran in Regime Change operations. Grab The Oil. Control the energy of the world’s largest producers. Grab Russian, and more importantly Chinese, assets and investments worldwide. Control the world’s energy flows. Then confront and destroy Russia and China. All or nothing.

How likely is this to succeed? Hitler came very close in 1941-2. They could get away with it. But the odds are stacked against it. Consider the past history of similar operations, where much less was at stake. Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Yemen. The omens are not good. A key factor is the quality, or otherwise, of its leadership. And US leadership is probably the worst in its history – arrogant, venal, corrupt, ignorant, deluded, and ideologically driven. Where there is a clear margin of strength and power, this may not be so important. But that margin no longer exists. We are looking at a recipe for disaster, with Venezuela, or Iran, or both. Either can escalate uncontrollably in both time and space. Either will lead to confrontation with Russia and China. I believe these are not casual, opportunistic moves by the US, that can be scaled back when they fail. This time we are looking at Armageddon.

notheonly1
notheonly1
Mar 6, 2019 7:36 PM
Reply to  mark

Yes to most all of Your points. However, the unpredictability of the Universe is missing. The 1000 year Reich only lasted twelve years. That’s insignificantly more than a permille. The Vietnam war wasn’t a stellar success as well – if not for the profits of the MIC and Monsatan owners. The list goes on.

At this point I will reiterate that the present members of the US regime resemble exactly Adolf Hitler’s split personality. Various personas of the Hitler character at the helm of a Fascist military dictatorship – what could go wrong?

However, I put all my money on the Universe. With odds of a trillion to one against the collective American psyche to find a capable shrink for a mass session to cure the collective American psychopath from delusions of grandeur and its unprecedented trigger happiness.

The odds seem to be much better for a ‘limited’ nuclear exchange between the two each other beloving enemies Pakistan and India.

DunGroanin
DunGroanin
Mar 7, 2019 8:31 AM
Reply to  mark

in an effort to divert from the doom and gloom dystopian reactions here – let me move the stage from Jesus ranting in a temple a few thousand years ago (maybe) to somewhere nearer in time as well as place for the ‘yanqui’.

Such dystopian narrative creation and reiteration by others could almost come directly from the same head and office!

Just remember some basics:

US was built on slavery – it hasn’t recovered from that mindset. The American Dream is nothing more than that.
Btw, slaves were not just the ‘Africans’ bought, sold and owned (they are in the constitution you know!).
Plenty of ‘European’ slaves were shipped in – ‘bring us your dispossessed..’ indeed.

The Irish, the Scots… all the many Russians, Scandies, Armenians …and the Chinese!

Indentured slavery hasn’t gone away – now restyled with student loans and unrepayable life on credit and mortgage.

That is the simple truth – the same institutions and families that were benefitting two hundred years ago are still benefitting today – they just have a lot lot more slaves, tied with self imposed economic chains.

Instead of slave songs and religious promises, we are diverted with the Dream – Hollywood and Dystopian fears.

A 21 year old girl has just been declared the youngest billionaire in the US – you believe that?

Nuclear war will happen, because the belligerents believe that fallout will be contained at the site of the bombs – do you believe that?

Humanity can be easily wiped out by another plague/flu/meteorite that we may not see coming, or even if we do, we can’t do anything about it – that is about as much doom and gloom as is needed without imagining whole new ones because some humans think they are in control of the whole planet.

They are the disease that has lurked in our body and caused most of the ills we suffer.

They are the sulliers of the modern day ‘temple’.

(Fortunately for the UK we have our very own modern day JC!)

vexarb
vexarb
Mar 6, 2019 5:44 PM

U.$. $ecretary of $tate Mike Pompeou$ A$$ $tated, ‘Maduro’s days are numbered’.

Oh yes, same as that previous $o$ $tated about mild mannered eye doctor Bashar Assad. Now, what was her name, Hillary Killary Shrillary Billary…? Never mind, she’s gone; but mild mannered eye doctor Bashar Assad MD is still around.

harry stotle
harry stotle
Mar 6, 2019 4:29 PM

The Guardian is unlikely to take account of the meta-narrative affecting Venezuela, in other words the US applying its tried and trusted regime change formula of economic sanctions, and strangulation of cash-flow to begin with (assisted by corrupt financial institution) and then an array of clandestine millitary operations, including kidnap, torture or other forms of intense intimidation (gleefully overseen by veteran war criminal Elliot Abrams).

The media will pretend not to notice, or simply avert its gaze from what is really happening and will certainly make no reference to the fact that regime change of a near identical nature played out in Iran, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc, etc- leaving all those countries much worse off.

On the other hand Guardian apparatchiks will babble excitedly about boder skirmishes although these accounts will be devoid of any context, or how Venezuelans long for the day when Juan Guaidó can divert the country’s oil assets to US corporations, and the Guardian will definitely tell you about Sir Richard belting out ‘Imagine’ while paramilitaries sway rhythmically in the front row joining in with sun-kissed mogul when he mouthes the famous lines – ‘Nothing to kill or die for …… And no religion, too’.

IntergenerationalTrauma
IntergenerationalTrauma
Mar 6, 2019 4:15 PM

The comparison with Colombia is quite excellent. Though to be clear U.S. military and financial aid didn’t begin with either Bush the Dumber or Bush the Drug Runner elder, and the military aid goes back many decades. Bill Clinton’s “Plan Colombia” aid in the 1990’s was designed to continue the U.S. counter-insurgency war there, just as previous U.S. administrations had done in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua prior. I took two trips to Colombia during the 1990’s on human rights delegations and I still remember our delegation asking a poor farmer what he thought about the upcoming “democratic elections” to be held in Colombia. He smiled and explained – “we don’t chose our president here, our president is chosen in Washington.” As the saying goes, “the more things change, the more they remain the same” – eh.

In my travels there I encountered an interesting example of the complete amorality of U.S. policy in Colombia, I mean beyond the obvious support for the torturers and mass murderers in power. This was “pre-9/11” so Europe still maintained a somewhat more independent foreign policy at that time. I toured many EU funded projects in which cacao was being planted for chocolate production, offering poor farmers an alternative to coca production for illicit cocaine as an income. It took years for a new cacao plantation to become productive and the frustration of the farmers was that while the EU was supporting this alternative to the drug economy, the U.S. policy was to spray these areas and plantations with herbicides killing everything in sight – justified as part of the -war on drugs, which of course in this case was actually the “war on chocolate.”

The Colombian military and their death squads were up to their ears in cocaine trafficking, but of course the U.S. denied this and America coined the term “narco-guerrillas” in order to instead blame the FARC rebels as the major drug runners – instead of as challengers to the continued rule of the American supported neocolonial oligarchy.

We’ve obviously come a long way from the late 1990’s when the EU still had the integrity to carry out some humane policies in Colombia and the region – now of course replaced by the Eu’s complete groveling subservience to American imperial war mongering in Venezuela in total disregard for international law and any basic notion of human decency.

sarmis2018
sarmis2018
Mar 6, 2019 5:59 PM

in order to illustrate the complete immorality and total disregard for international law (“fuck the EU” ) I am telling you a jock…It goes like this…Q: Why aren’t there any “color revolutions” in USA?…A: Because there is no USA embassy in the USA…

bevin
bevin
Mar 6, 2019 3:50 PM

Short and sweet. Properly so.
The matter is very simple: will the United States be allowed to impose its will. Or not.
The decision is one that will be taken by the people of Venezuela. If they have the strength of will to maintain the sovereignty of their state they can do so, but they will have to make many sacrifices in order to prevail.
To put this into context, the US tried to do the same thing in Syria. For a variety of reasons it failed and is currently involved in attempting to limit the damage to its prestige and power of its defeat. The intervention in Venezuela is perhaps the most important of the steps that it is taking, to demonstrate to the world that it retains, unimpaired, its ability to overthrow governments at will and whim.
This is not an open and shut case: if Latin America is now, for the most part, run by regimes dependent on the United States-the so called pink tide of Chavismo having been turned- it is also the case that none of these regimes has the stability that popular support could give.All of them face widespread and growing popular anger, though opposition is not focused, as in Venezuela and Nicaragua by enormous and well financed US campaigns of subversion
And in Colombia, the most likely base for US attacks, the country has been in a permanent state of civil war, modified only by intense repression, death squads and imperialist assistance of every kind, since 1948 when the left wing candidate for President was assassinated on the brink of a landslide victory. It is very possible that by attacking Venezuela the US will set Colombia and much of the continent ablaze and its attempt to achieve victory will end in a comprehensive series of defeats.
After all the basis of this US action is that mixture of arrogance and stupidity which has been cultivated in Washington during decades of unchallenged global domination. Those who took this decision “to take Maduro out” are not deep thinkers, they grew up in a world whose most prominent geopolitical feature was an empty hole where the Soviet Union had once been. The world will be a much better place when chastened and discredited, they return to the obscure rocks under which they belong.

tutisicecream
tutisicecream
Mar 6, 2019 3:42 PM

Power = Democracy

Wealth = Freedom

How the 1% sells its product…

Philpot
Philpot
Mar 6, 2019 3:20 PM

Sad, terrifying…but true.