Will US Regime Change Operations In Venezuela Create A Civil War?
Andreas Lehner/ Flickr
By Staff, www.morningstaronline.co.uk
August 3rd, 2017
Above Photo: Andreas Lehner/ Flickr
Note: Sadly, we fear that a civil war in unfolding in Venezuela.
This week, 8 million Venezuelans voted for a Constituent Assembly. This puts
regime change further out of the reach of the oligarchs in Venezuela and the
United States. Both have been trying to regain control of a country with
vast oil reserves ever since Chavez was elected in 1999. It has been a
constant ongoing coup using all the tactics of US regime change.
The immediate reaction of the United States were threats against this
massive vote calling it a step toward dictatorship, and adding more
sanctions, including on President Maduro. The US does not like how
Venezuelans voted because it keeps them from profiting from and controlling
Venezuelan oil.
Now there is been talk of civil war coming to Venezuela in the US corporate
media, see e.g., Washington Post, Washington Post again, Washington Post
again, Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Years of economic sabotage
have failed, elections have failed, a coup has failed so the path of
violence is next on the regime change agenda. The US has experience in
creating civil wars. They have a game plan.
Watch closely now because when the civil war heats up people in the US will
be confused. Misinformation and war propaganda will rule. Maduro will be
blamed for the civil war and for killing his own people defending
Venezuela from US imperialism and oligarch rule. He views, and many agree,
that the vote for the Constituent Assembly was a vote for peace against the
increasingly violent opposition protests.
We should do all we can to stop it, but the US is pretty determined, a lot
of oil is at stake. KZ
CIA Confirms The US Has Its Eyes On Venezuelas Oil
Trumps intervention in Venezuela represents another chapter in the long
history of US interference in Latin America, writes SUSAN GREY
RECENT comments show the CIA is still working for regime change in Venezuela
and encouraging the right-wing governments of Mexico and Colombia to do the
same. In a Q&A session at the Aspen Institute think tank, CIA director Mike
Pompeo said he was hopeful that there can be transition in Venezuela and
that he had recently been in Mexico City and Bogota talking about this very
issue, trying to help them understand the things they might do so that they
can get a better outcome for their part of the world and our part of the
world.
The remarks which are strongly suggestive of collaboration between the CIA
and the governments of Mexico and Colombia to remove the elected President
of Venezuela have been condemned by supporters of Venezuela both at home
and abroad.
Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro, in a televised interview, denounced
the comments and called for explanations from the Mexican and Colombian
governments.
In a meeting with reporters in Washington, Venezuelan Foreign Minister
Samuel Moncada accused the CIA of a secret operation to split up a
democratically elected government, and Venezuelan charge daffaires Carlos
Ron said: What this group is trying to do with Venezuela is basically
divide the government, recognise other leaders and foment a conflict with
the Venezuelans. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research in
Washington and critic of US foreign policy in Latin America, said attempts
to get rid of the Venezuelan government dated back 15 years.
US interference in Venezuela takes many forms, including not only political
pressure, sanctions and propaganda, but also funding of right-wing
opposition activity through organisations such as the National Endowment for
Democracy. In 2016 alone more than $1.6 million (£1.2m) was channelled to
opposition groups for dozens of projects thinly disguised as efforts to
promote political awareness or participation. For example, over £26,900 was
given for a project to promote citizen engagement in the development of
innovative alternatives to address Venezuelas democratic challenges and
over £37,800 for training youth groups in critical thinking, democratic
principles, human rights, cyberactivism, and leadership skills.
One of the first major actions supported by the US was the temporarily
successful coup to unseat former president Hugo Chavez in 2002 by a
combination of industrialists, businessmen, media owners and conservative
military officers.
The coup was unsuccessful thanks to popular support for the government.
Since then opposition groups have persisted with undemocratic efforts to
topple the elected government, including a management lock-out of the oil
industry, aided and abetted by US-linked IT staff who sabotaged computer
systems, and multiple incidents of street violence and attacks on government
institutions and public services, which are still continuing today.
Universities have been ransacked, health clinics set on fire, bus stations
wrecked and food delivery vehicles attacked.
In the streets, masked protesters throw Molotov cocktails and set fire to
barricades as they try to provoke the security forces into retaliation.
Maduro has repeatedly called for dialogue with opposition groups, but has
been rebuffed.
When challenged about the CIA chiefs comments, the US State Department
claimed to support democracy in Venezuela, but called for the cancellation
of the elections for the Constituent Assembly which over eight million
people (41.5 per cent) participated in on Sunday despite right-wing
opposition calls for boycotts and violent protests seeking to derail the
elections and threatened to intensify sanctions against Venezuelan
citizens.
Ironically, the CIA revelations take place at a time when the White House is
struggling to deal with suggestions that Trumps campaign team colluded
illegally with Russia to influence the result of the US elections.
These latest revelations confirm that the US is stepping up intervention and
hostility against Venezuela aimed at regime change. With so much media
misrepresentation taking place at the moment, one thing you should remember
and what should be the context to every media story about Venezuela is that
US President Donald Trumps administration is seeking to complete the job
George W Bush couldnt and get US hands back on Venezuelas massive oil
reserves.
Progressives internationally should be clear that whatever problems
Venezuela has, Trump, US intervention and neoliberalism are not the answer
the US should keep out of Latin America and national sovereignty must be
respected.