From our friend, Marcy. Thank you so much for putting this information
together for us!
------------------------------------------------------------------ When we
make our calls this week, we need to ask our legislators to speak out against
US intervention in Venezuela.Just as there is no factual basis for Trump's
"national emergency," there is no factual, moral or legal basis for the US-led
coup, in violation of international law, currently underway in Venezuela.
This urgent issue is getting very little attention. All republican legislators,
most Democrats, and most of the media have bought the lie that Venezuela must
be saved by US intervention. They are painting Maduro as a dictator who is
starving his own people. But the fact is, the US has been starving the
Venezuelan people for years through crippling sanctions. The one-time "aid"
that the US is trying to force into Venezuela is estimated to be worth $20
million. But the US had been costing Venezuela $30 million per day in
sanctions. Further, the US hasillegally seized and frozen $billions of
Venezuelan money (estimates I've read vary from $7 billion to $30 billion).
So, the US is greatly exacerbating Venezula's economic crisis in order to stage
a stunt offering aid, and to then use Maduro's refusal of this "aid" as an
excuse to send troops to overthrow him. The US's puppet Guaido claims the
election of Maduro (who won the popular vote by 67%) was fraudulent. But
Sally-Alice and I attended a lecture by a Venezuelan professor last week who
explained the Venezuelan voting system in detail: it's more accountable, more
democratic, and harder to rig that US elections. But even if the election was
fraudulent, the US still has no legal authority to overturn it -- just as
foreign nations have no authority to overthrow Trump even if we wanted them to.
So, why does the US care about Venezuela's crisis, when there are between 40
and 60 countries around the world whose economies and dictators are just as bad
or even far worse? (North Korea's Kim, for example, is a vicious dictator who
really does starve his people.) Venezuela is of interest because it's sitting
on the world's largest oil reserves. The oil companies that own our politicians
want access to that oil without having to pay Venezuela for it. Here is a brief
incisive explanation of the situation by Jeremy
Scahill:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVQn_DdkYlU Scahill also published a ;
more in-depth 65-minute podcast on the
subject:https://theintercept.com/2019/01/30/donald-trump-and-the-yankee-plot-to-overthrow-the-venezuelan-government/
And if we really embrace a Green New Deal, we have to getoff fossil fuels --
so why do we keep invading countries to steal their
oil?:https://www.greanvillepost.com/2019/02/18/venezuelan-coup-democrats-vomit-on-green-new-deal/
Here is a statement about the illegality of the US-led
coup:https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Former-UN-Expert-Zayas-US-led-Coup-in-Venezuela-Violates-International-Law-20190124-0017.html
Bernie Sanders says the US should not be in the business of regime change in
other
countries:https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/22/trump-pushes-overthrow-venezuela-sanders-warns-against-repeating-historys-mistake
Here's a very easy-to-understand description of the
issue:https://www.truthdig.com/articles/a-call-to-halt-an-illegal-invasion-of-venezuela/
More:https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/01/sorting-through-the-lies-about-venezuela/https://truthout.org/articles/the-us-is-orchestrating-a-coup-in-venezuela/https://www.truthdig.com/articles/everyone-has-fallen-for-the-lies-about-venezuela/
