The most recent episode of The Dig podcast has a great deal of useful
information about what has happened, and what is happening in Venezueala. My
feeling is that they don't emphasize enough, the part the US has played, and is
currently playing in Venezuela's financial difficulties, but there is
information about some of the errors of the current government and that Chavez
made, in terms of financial management. They also make clear that Venezuela has
never been socialist, although Chavez did a great deal to improve the lot of
the poor in that country.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2019 10:55 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; 3044374556@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Corporate titans target Venezuela
https://socialistaction.org/2019/02/03/corporate-titans-target-venezuela/
Corporate titans target Venezuela
/ 18 hours ago
Feb. 2018 Venez Hands off (AVN)By BRUCE LESNICK
Ruling elites have united behind the Trump administration in its illegal,
unjust, and brutal attempt to meddle in the internal affairs of Venezuela.
Democrats and Republicans alike have fallen in line, revealing the degree to
which the two parties march in lock step when the geopolitical prerogatives of
the one percent are at stake. The governments of some 20 countries—including
Canada, Britain, Spain, Germany, France, Australia, Brazil, Israe,l and
Argentina—have all pledged fealty to the U.S. and its hand-picked puppet in
Venezuela.
The New York Times, champion of the “liberal” wing of the ruling rich,
editorialized in support of the Trump administration’s transparent coup
plotting on Jan. 24, insisting, “the Trump administration is right to support
Mr. Guaidó.”
Pretend socialist and Democrat Bernie Sanders shed crocodile tears, decrying
violence and economic disaster in Venezuela while failing to note his own
government’s hand in creating those conditions. Sanders provides left cover for
U.S. military intervention, asserting, “The United States should support the
rule of law” in Venezuela. To date, self-described “democratic socialist”
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has been silent on U.S. aggression in Venezuela.
On the heels of a multi-year, evidence-free propaganda offensive denouncing
Russia’s supposed interference in the 2016 U.S election, it is beyond ironic to
see politicians, pundits, and corporate media moguls cheer for the proven,
documented, and admitted interference by the U.S.
in Venezuela. As reported by Al Jazeera, “On Venezuela, Democratic Party
leaders are often hard to distinguish from their Republican counterparts …
most, like Nancy Pelosi, have staked out openly pro-coup positions.
And after two years stoking anti-Russia panic, MSNBC’s standard script offers
little guidance to confused liberals seeking to triangulate a political
position—Trump is for the coup but Russia is against it—what to do?”
The devil is in the details
Soon after Donald Trump assumed the Presidency, Senator Marco Rubio
(R-Fla.) and Vice President Mike Pence began a concerted campaign to convince
Trump to adopt a plan to oust elected Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. As
The New York Times reported, “Mr. Rubio’s approach has generated unusually
bipartisan support, including from leading Democrats like Senators Richard J.
Durbin of Illinois and Robert Menendez of New Jersey.”
In September 2018, The Times ran the headline, “Trump Administration Discussed
Coup Plans With Rebel Venezuelan Officers.” The article reports, “American
officials eventually decided not to help the plotters, and the coup plans
stalled.” But the machinations didn’t end there. The focus shifted to finding
some figurehead who could claim to be the “legitimate” Venezuelan ruler. After
considering various opposition politicians, Rubio and Pence settled on the
little-known engineer serving as president of the Venezuelan National Assembly,
Juan Guaidó.
According to AP and the Washington Post, the preparations for the current coup
and secret meetings with Guaidó date back at least to December 2018: “In
mid-December, Guaido quietly traveled to Washington, Colombia and Brazil to
brief officials on the opposition’s strategy of mass demonstrations to coincide
with Maduro’s expected swearing-in for a second term on Jan. 10.”
On Jan. 22, Trump, Pence, and National Security Advisor John Bolton met to
discuss options. According to The Times, Pence advised Trump to assure Guaidó
that the U.S. would recognize his bid for power if, by chance, he were to make
such a claim. Trump agreed. Later that day, Pence called Guaidó to give him the
good news.
Pence then posted a video on-line asserting that elected President “Nicolas
Maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power.” In the video, Pence
went on to proclaim U.S. support for Guaidó. Then, surprise, surprise: Guaidó
claimed he was the rightful president the very next day. The Trump
administration and U.S. imperial allies around the world quickly endorsed
Guaidó’s claim.
Shortly after declaring himself “interim president,” Guaidó moved to seize
Venezuelan oil revenue held in the U.S. so as to use those funds to finance his
assault. As the Washington Post reported, “For now, the hope is to use the
newly declared interim government as a tool to deny Maduro the oil revenue from
the United States that provides Venezuela virtually all of its incoming cash,
current and former U.S. officials said.”
On Jan. 29, the U.S. imposed additional sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned
oil company, PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.) Forbes reports, “The
restrictions would amount to $7 billion in blocked assets today, and an
estimated $11 billion in export revenues over the course of 2019, according to
[National Security Advisor John] Bolton.” In an interview on Fox Business,
Bolton bragged of how U.S. corporations would benefit from the new sanctions:
“You know, Venezuela is one of the three countries I call the troika of
tyranny. It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we
could have American oil companies really invest in and produce the oil
capabilities in Venezuela. It’d be good for the people of Venezuela. It’d be
good for the people of the United States.”
On Jan. 25, the Bank of England refused to allow Venezuela access to
$1.2 billion in its gold reserves. Bloomberg reports, “The Bank of England’s
decision to deny Maduro officials’ withdrawal request comes after top U.S.
officials, including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and National Security
Adviser John Bolton, lobbied their U.K.
counterparts to help cut off the regime from its overseas assets.” The U.S.
Treasury department released a statement the same day announcing, “The United
States will use its economic and diplomatic tools to ensure that commercial
transactions by the Venezuelan Government, including those involving its
state-owned enterprises and international reserves, are consistent with” U.S.
recognition of Guaidó as the interim president.
Among the rationalizations presented in the corporate media for replacing
Maduro with Guaidó is that the process that resulted in Maduro’s 2018 election
victory was flawed. But former U.S. President Jimmy Carter declared in 2012
that “the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.” In February
2018, the main right-wing opposition parties, fearing defeat, pledged to
boycott the presidential election scheduled for May. Two minor opposition
candidates did participate.
Maduro won the election, but as intended by the boycott, there was lower than
normal voter turnout. The U.S. and the main Venezuelan opposition groups
refused to recognize the results.
Guaidó and his backers among politicians and the media also cite Article
233 of the Venezuelan constitution as justification for his ascension.
But that article refers only to a procedure to be followed if the elected
president (Maduro in this case) were to become permanently unavailable. And in
such a case, the next in line for the presidency would be Venezuelan Vice
President Delcy Rodríguez, not Guaidó, who is the leader of the National
Assembly.
Economic destabilization
Also cited as justification for attempting to illegally oust Maduro are severe
inflation and other economic difficulties currently confronting Venezuela. In a
perverse twist, corporate apologists seek to tie the current hardships in
capitalist Venezuela to the “failure of socialism.”
Bret Stephens, writing in an Op Ed for The New York Times, calls Venezuela a
“socialist catastrophe,” insisting that, “Twenty years of socialism, cheered by
[Jeremy] Corbyn, [Naomi] Klein, [Noam] Chomsky and Co., led to the ruin of a
nation.”
What coup supporters fail to mention, however, is the campaign of harsh
economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its imperial allies against
Venezuela, dating back to the Obama administration. Those sanctions, together
with U.S. moves to block loans to Venezuela from the world’s leading financial
institutions, have wreaked havoc with the Venezuelan economy.
In his recent report, former UN Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas
characterized the sanctions as “economic warfare.” He went on to recommend that
the International Criminal Court investigate the economic sanctions against
Venezuela as possible crimes against humanity. As quoted in the London-based
Independent, Zayas explained, “What’s at stake is the enormous, enormous
natural resources of Venezuela. And I sense that if Venezuela had no natural
resources no one would give a damn about Chavez or Maduro or anybody else
there.”
Eugenia Russian of FUNDALATIN, a Venezuelan human rights organization formed
before Hugo Chavez was elected president, explained to the Independent, “It is
insufficient to see only the errors or deficiencies that the government may
have, without seeing the environment of international pressure under which this
population lives.”
Familiar pattern
We should note that this latest campaign of U.S. imperial intervention is not
the first of its kind directed against Venezuela or other countries in Latin
America and the Caribbean that refuse to march in lock step with U.S. corporate
interests. Other hostile actions include:
•The illegal, decades-long economic blockade of Cuba.
•The CIA-backed invasion of Guatemala in 1954.
•The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.
•The invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965.
•The U.S. supported coup in Chile in 1973.
•The Contra war against Nicaragua from 1981-1990.
•The invasion of Grenada in 1983.
•The invasion of Panama in 1989.
•S. backed coups and occupations in Haiti in 1991, 1994 and 2004.
•The U.S. supported coup in Honduras in 2009.
•Material aid to Nicaraguan opposition groups from at least 2016 to the present.
•Support for Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.
•The U.S. supported coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 2002.
•Economic sanctions against Venezuela from 2006 to the present.
•A special $5 million fund for Venezuelan opposition groups established by
Barak Obama in 2011.
•Coup attempts against Venezuela’s Maduro in 2015 and 2018.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 30 that the current U.S. attack on
Venezuela is but the first move in a strategy to “reshape Latin America.” In
particular, “After Venezuela and Cuba, U.S. officials are eyeing Nicaragua.”
Fighting back
When first elected in 1998, the Chavez government promoted significant reforms.
It used revenue from the nationalized PDVSA energy sector to increase social
spending by 60% from 2002-2012. By 2012, Venezuela had reduced inequality by
54% and poverty by 44%. Extreme poverty was reduced from 40% in 1996 to 7.3% in
2010. Medical care became free, as did education from preschool through
university. But today, under relentless economic and political attack by U.S.
imperialism and its allies, many of these reforms have been whittled away and
the living conditions of the working class have become ever more dire.
Socialists support Venezuela’s right to self-determination unconditionally. But
this does not imply agreement with every policy or pronouncement of the Chavez
and Maduro governments. Within Venezuela, the only force strong enough to beat
back the current assault and future imperial offensives is the masses of
working people.
Unfortunately, the Venezuelan United Socialist Party, led by President Maduro,
has failed to fully prioritize working class interests. Despite its name, it
has demonstrated—by its consistent defense of private industry, land and
banking, and by its failure to fully mobilize the independent power of masses
of working people—that it is a capitalist rather than a socialist party.
When faced with similar aggression in the 1960s, the Cubans took a different
road, leading ultimately to the arming of the workers and peasants,
nationalization of key industries and banking under workers’
control, and the creation of committees of workers and farmers in every
village, neighborhood and workplace to defend their revolution.
Up to now, Maduro, and Chavez before him, have sought to tame Venezuelan
capitalism in the hope of gaining enough breathing space to implement reforms.
Meanwhile, attacks from the still-powerful Venezuelan capitalist class and
their imperial boosters continue unabated. In this manner, the Venezuelan
working class has been fighting with one hand tied behind its back. Unleashing
the full strength of the working class and openly challenging the capitalists
for power offers the best chance of defeating the current and all future
attacks against the Venezuelan people.
Nevertheless, we do not condition our support for the self-determination of the
Venezuelan people in any way. Any changes or improvement in the Venezuelan
government are for the Venezuelan people alone to make. The U.S. imperial
machine has no progressive role to play in Venezuela or elsewhere! The last
thing U.S. corporate leaders want is a truly mobilized, active and empowered
Venezuelan working class. In the U.S., antiwar and working-class activists must
take to the streets to demand, “U.S. Out Now! Hands Off Venezuela!”
Same enemy, same fight
Working people in the U.S. must understand that the same corporate behemoths
that push for cutbacks, layoffs, offshoring, and austerity here at home—all to
maximize corporate profits—are behind the latest threats against Venezuela.
Working people in the U.S. gain nothing, and stand to lose much, if the one
percent succeeds in imposing their will on the Venezuelan people. For this
reason, we must do all that we can to stay the hand of the warmakers,
understanding that in this context as in so many others, an injury to one is an
injury to all.
The power of organized, mobilized workers is the only thing that coup plotters,
war hawks, and capitalist oligarchs in the U.S or Venezuela truly fear. Two
recent examples demonstrate this point:
The first is the recent strike of the Los Angeles teachers. Inspired by their
brother and sister unionists who fought and won strikes in West Virginia,
Virginia, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Arizona, the 34,000-strong UTLA strikers
faced down an intransigent school board and forced it to accede to a number of
important demands that advanced the interests of teachers, students, and the
broader community.
Then there was the response of La Guardia air traffic controllers to President
Trump’s recent government shutdown. On the day that federal workers missed
their second paycheck, an unusual number of controllers at La Guardia Airport
called in sick. Delays resulted and quickly spread to other airports. Within
hours, the phony government shutdown was over!
The political and economic cost was high enough to force bipartisan agreement
to resume paying the salaries of government workers. That’s power!
That kind of power can stop the U.S. warmakers in their tracks. It can stop the
current U.S. aggression against Venezuela, and in Venezuela, it can be used to
mount a potent defense against the current capitalist assaults from the
internal coup plotters and their U.S backers.
U.S. Hands Off Venezuela! All Out Against a U.S. Regime Change Coup and War!
Join the protests scheduled for the coming weeks:
• Feb. 23, regional actions called by International Action Center:
iacenter@xxxxxxxxxxxx.
• March 16, in Washington, D.C., called by ANSWER: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
• March 30, bi-coastal marches in Washington, D.C., and Oakland, Calif., called
by United National Antiwar Coalition and No to U.S. Bases
Coalition: unacpeace@xxxxxxxxx
Photo: AVN
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February 3, 2019 in Anti-War, Latin America.
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Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind
and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says
everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the
fallibility of all the human beings involved?”
― Carl Sagan
___
