https://socialistaction.org/2020/04/11/u-s-weaponizes-covid-19-against-venezuela/
U.S. Weaponizes COVID-19 Against Venezuela
Socialist Action / 15 hours ago
U.S. Navy destroyer
By ANN MONTAGUE
As the news outlets are covering developments in the spread of the
coronavirus 24/7 and there are daily press conferences with President
Trump and the coronavirus Task Force, the State Department and the U.S.
military are taking Henry Kissinger’s advice: “Never let a serious
crisis go to waste.”
While the novel coronavirus spreads throughout the world, killing over
100,000, the U.S. is continuing its imperialist assault on Venezuela and
coup attempt, denying the country badly needed funds for its health
system and sending U.S. Navy destroyers and Marines to the country’s
coastline.
On March 19, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rejected a request by
Venezuela for a $5 billion loan to help it fight the coronavirus
pandemic. An spokesperson for the Washington D.C.-based IMF claimed that
the reason it would not consider the request was that loans are
“predicated on official government recognition by the international
community” and it had “no clarity” as to who is Venezuela’s rightful
head of state: President Nicolas Maduro, who has been democratically
elected by the people of Venezuela, or Juan Guaidó, the U.S.-backed
leader of an ongoing right-wing coup attempt who declared himself
president in January.
Guaidó is the current figurehead of a years-long effort by the U.S. to
overthrow the Maduro government, during which the U.S. has piled up
endless sanctions on Venezuela in its economic warfare against the
country, nearly wiping out Venezuelan oil production and exports,
seizing billions of dollars in Venezuelan bank accounts around the world
and turning the money over to Guaidó.
Venezuela requested the loan from the IMF from a special fund designated
to support countries’ response to crises. The money would strengthen the
capacities of the Venezuelan health system. President Maduro expressed
to the IMF that he believed that working with the World Health
Organization, receiving solidarity from other nations and social
discipline they could defeat the virus. This was the first IMF loan
request from Venezuela in nineteen years. Venezuela has also received
medical aid from Cuba, which has sent a delegation of 137 doctors to the
country to treat patients with Covid-19.
Days after the IMF rejected Venezuela’s request for aid, the European
Union stated that it was in favor of the request, making it clear that
the U.S., which holds veto power over IMF decision-making, was
responsible for denying the loan.
Following the IMF’s refusal of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó announced an offer
of $1.2 billion in loans from international financial institutions to
fight the virus, only if the government agreed to enter an “emergency
unity government” with Guaidó and his coup-makers, which would not
include Maduro or any of the other 14 Venezuelan officials recently
named in ridiculous drug trafficking charges fabricated by the U.S.
Justice Department.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) recently stated that
the U.S economic sanctions against Venezuela have prevented the country
from having access to lifesaving medications, medical equipment and
food. A study by the economists Jeffery Sachs and Mark Weisbrot,
published by CEPR last year, concluded that from 2017 to 2018 U.S.
sanctions killed more than 40,000 Venezuelans.
On March 26, U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced that President
Maduro and more than a dozen other government officials will be indicted
on “drug trafficking charges,” steps similar to those taken against the
Noriega government in Panama before the U.S. invaded in 1989 and
overthrew the government. Menacingly referring to the Venezuelan
government as “the former Maduro regime,” Barr announced a reward of $15
million for the arrest of Maduro.
Pino Ariacchi, the former director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
responded, “I have been dealing with the issue of drugs and crime for
over forty years and never encountered Venezuela. There is no illegal
drug trade between Venezuela and the United States”. In addition, the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration document of December 2019 does not
even mention Venezuela. It says 90% of cocaine comes from Columbia and
6% from Peru.
Five days later on March 31, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced
that economic sanctions would be removed from Venezuela in return for
President Maduro’s resignation and the creation of a 5 person “Council
of State” approved by the United States. Future elections would ban
Maduro from running and the U.S. designee for President would be Juan
Guaidó.
This proposal was immediately rejected and on April 1, during an update
on the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump announced that U.S. Navy
destroyers carrying helicopters and ground troops, along with
surveillance planes, were headed to Venezuela on a “drug interception”
mission. According to the Associated Press, the U.S. deployment is one
of the largest in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
End All U.S Sanctions!
Bring All the Troops Home!
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April 11, 2020 in Uncategorized.
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Thomas Paine
“One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
