By VIJAY
PRASHAD JANUARY 18, 2019 5:21 PM (UTC+8)
Those troops that US President
Donald Trump is supposedly withdrawing from Syria might not be going home any
time soon. They might find themselves redeployed in Latin America.
On January 10, Nicolas Maduro
was sworn in for his second term as president of Venezuela. “I tell the
people,” Maduro said, “this presidential sash is yours. The power of this sash
is yours. It does not belong to the oligarchy or to imperialism. It belongs to
the sovereign people of Venezuela.”
These two terms – oligarchy
and imperialism – define the problems faced by Maduro’s new government.
Oligarchy
Despite 10 years of governance
by the socialist forces first led by the late Hugo Chavez and now by Maduro,
the Venezuelan oligarchy remains firmly intact. It dominates large sections of
the economy, holds immense amounts of the country’s social wealth and controls
the main media outlets.
A walk through the Altamira
neighborhood in eastern Caracas is sufficient to gauge the resilience of the
wealthy, most of whom have homes in Spain and in Florida as well. Pelucones is
the name used to define them – bigwigs, a term with aristocratic connotations.
They have resisted all attempts by the socialist Bolivarian movement to expand
political and economic democracy in the country.
This oligarchy, through its
media, controls the political and social narrative, defining the nature of
Venezuela’s crisis to its advantage. For this small sliver of the population,
all of Venezuela’s serious problems are blamed on the Maduro movement. None of
the problems are laid on the doorstep of their long domination of Venezuela,
nor do they cast an eye at the United States, which has tried to suffocate the
Bolivarian revolution since 1999.
Imperialism
Imperialism is a word that is
rarely used these days. It is relegated to histories of colonialism in the
distant past. There is little understanding of the suffocating way that
financial firms and multinational businesses drive their agenda against the
development aspirations of the poorer nations.
There is even less
understanding about the muscular attitude of countries such as the United States,
Canada and the Europeans against states that they deem to be a problem.
The gunsights were once firmly
on West Asia and North Africa – on Iraq, Libya, Syria and Iran – but now they
are focused on Latin America – on Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. These
countries face economic sanctions and embargoes, threats of annihilation,
covert operations and war. The definition of imperialism is simple: If you
don’t do what we tell you to do, we’ll destroy you.
Pressure on Venezuela has been
intense. Trump has repeatedly called for the overthrow of the Bolivarian
government, led by Maduro. Sanctions have been ratcheted up. Economic warfare
has become normal. Threats of a military invasion are in the air.
Lima Group
On January 4, the Lima Group
of 13 Latin American governments and Canada said it would not recognize Maduro
as the president of Venezuela. Behind them sits the US State Department, which
has put pressure along the hemisphere for the isolation of Venezuela as well as
Cuba and Nicaragua. The State Department characterized the inauguration of the
new president as “Maduro’s illegitimate usurpation of power.” Diplomatic
language has dissolved into this kind of crudity.
The Lima Group was set up for
one reason: to overthrow the current government of Venezuela. It has no other
purpose. Sanctions and diplomatic withdrawals are part of the Lima Group’s
arsenal. Buoyed by the election of far-right-wing politicians such as Brazil’s
Jair Bolsonaro and enthused by the fulminations of Trump, the Lima Group has
tightened the pressure.
Argentine President Mauricio
Macri went to Brasilia to meet Bolsonaro, where he condemned the “dictatorship”
of Maduro, and accused him – personally – of being responsible for the
difficulties in Venezuela. This is harsh language, rhetoric that sets in motion
a dangerous push toward regime change in
Venezuela.
The Lima Group’s violations of
the UN Charter have been helped along by the Organization of American States
(OAS), which held an extraordinary session to push its members to take economic
and diplomatic steps for the “restoration of democratic order” in Venezuela. It
perhaps needs to be emphasized that “restoration of democratic order” is a
euphemism for regime change.
When US Ambassador to the
United Nations Nikki Haley tried to draw the UN Security Council into such
language – of dictatorships and regime change – she was rebuffed by the other
members. In November 2017, for instance, Bolivia, China, Egypt and Russia
boycotted an informal meeting called by Haley. No other such meeting has been
possible.
There is worry that the Trump
administration will attempt in Venezuela what the Barack Obama administration
conducted in Honduras, or worse, what the George W Bush administration
conducted in Iraq.
It begins
Maduro was not permitted to
take his oath in the National Assembly. He was blocked by Juan Guaidó, leader
of the opposition. That is why Maduro took his oath in the Supreme Court, a
procedure that is validated by the constitution.
Strikingly, the head of the
OAS, Uruguayan politician Luis Almagro, sent out a tweet that welcomed Juan
Guaidó as the president of Venezuela. Guaidó, to his credit, had not claimed
the presidency. It was, instead, a foreign official from a regional body that
has superseded the Venezuelan people and attempted to install a new president
in Caracas.
More chilling has been the
words from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his department. Pompeo
tweeted, “The time is NOW for a return to democracy in Venezuela.” The word
“now” – in capitals – suggests that Pompeo is clear that there needs to be no
procedure, only a coup.
The day after this tweet,
Pompeo’s department said, “It’s time to begin the orderly transition to a new
government.” One does not need to read between the lines to know that this is a
call for regime change, for a coup, and that it comes from Washington, DC.
Trump’s national security
adviser, John Bolton, coined the phrase “troika of tyranny,” which comprises
Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. It is plain as day that the United States wants
to overthrow the governments in each of these countries, and perhaps Bolivia as
well. These are dangerous portents.
[...]
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