[skinster]

Former UN Expert: US Sanctions in Venezuela Largely Responsible for Crisis, Possible “Crime Against Humanity”
“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.” — Former UN official Alfred de Zayas

LONDON — In a comprehensive interview with the U.K.-based outlet The Independent published on Sunday, former special UN rapporteur Alfred de Zayas claimed that crippling U.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuela for the past several years are illegal and amount to “economic warfare” against the Bolivarian Republic. De Zayas also asserted that the U.S. sanctions targeting Venezuela could amount to “crimes against humanity” under international law, share much of the responsibility for the current economic crisis in Venezuela, and have resulted in needless deaths of Venezuelans as a result.

De Zayas, who completed his term at the UN less than a year ago, has been critical of the U.S. sanctions regimen — which began in earnest in 2015 when former President Barack Obama declared Venezuela a “national security threat” without evidence. Since then, President Donald Trump has intensified sanctions and has also openly mulled a military intervention in the country, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

Notably, this is not the first time that de Zayas has spoken up about the dangerous consequences of U.S. sanctions. Last September, de Zayas presented an explosive report he had helped compile to the UN Human Rights Council, showing that “economic warfare,” and sanctions in particular, practiced by the U.S. and its allies have greatly exacerbated Venezuela’s economic crisis. The U.S. had withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council a few months prior to the release of de Zaya’s report, citing the body’s alleged bias against Israel.

Though de Zayas also blamed the Venezuelan government, led by President Nicolás Maduro, for overdependence on oil, poor governance and corruption, his report called for the International Criminal Court to investigate economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Venezuela as a possible crime against humanity per Article 7 of the Rome Statute.

In his report, which de Zayas claims has been largely ignored by the UN since its release, the former UN rapporteur wrote:

"Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns….Twenty-first-century sanctions attempt to bring not just a town, but sovereign countries to their knees.”

De Zayas went on to the tell The Independent that “sanctions kill” and discussed how these measures disproportionately affect the poorest of society and often cause deaths from the resulting shortages in food, medicine and other essential goods. He also told The Independent that these tactics aimed at a country’s most vulnerable civilians were intended to coerce economic chaos and regime change in Venezuela.

Challenging the narrative, only to be ignored
In his interview, de Zayas opened up about why he felt that the UN and much of the international community had ignored his findings despite the fact that he was the first UN official to visit and report from the country in 21 years:

"When I come and I say the emigration [of Venezuelans to other countries] is partly attributable to the economic war waged against Venezuela and is partly attributable to the sanctions, people don’t like to hear that. They just want the simple narrative that socialism failed and it failed the Venezuelan people.”

Indeed, de Zaya’s past report and recent interview are at odds with the narratives commonly promoted by many media outlets and even some prominent NGOs, which lay the entirety of the blame for the country’s economic crisis on the Maduro-led government.

De Zayas, who was also formerly the UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, added:

"When I came back [the UN and media were] not interested. Because I am not singing the song I’m supposed to sing so I don’t exist … And my report, as I said, was formally presented but there has been no debate on the report. It has been filed away.”

He also recounted to The Independent that he had been given the “cold shoulder” by top UN officials, including then-UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, because they “are only interested in a rapporteur who is going to … do grandstanding, is going to condemn the government and ask for regime change. And I went there to listen. I went there to find out what’s actually going on.”

Ultimately, de Zayas — a Cuban-born American citizen — felt that the U.S.’ methods of “persuasion” were largely responsible for the decision of top UN officials to ignore his report. The former UN official noted:

"I’ve seen that happen in the Human Rights Council, how the United States twists arms and convinces countries to vote the way they want them to vote, or there will be economic consequences, and these things are not reflected in the press.”

However, some incidents to this effect have received coverage in recent years.

“No one would give a damn”
De Zayas also pulled no punches went it came to discussing the U.S.’ true motives for waging “economic warfare” and last week’s decision by the Trump administration to recognize the unelected 35-year-old politician of the CIA-linked, U.S.-funded Popular Will party, Juan Guaidó, as the “legitimate” interim president of Venezuela:

"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… If you crush this government and you bring in a neoliberal government that is going to privatize everything and is going to sell out, a lot of transnational corporations stand to gain enormous profits and the United States is driven by the transnational corporations.”

De Zayas then added:

"The business of the United States is business. And that’s what the United States is interested in. And they can’t [currently] do business with Venezuela.”

Given his nuanced perspective on the crisis in Venezuela, it seems that de Zayas’ recent remarks — much like his past report on the country — will go ignored by the UN and the international media for challenging the “simple narrative” that not only manufactures consent for U.S.-backed regime change in Venezuela but also absolves the U.S. of responsibility for the country’s current crisis.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/former-un ... n-WZFtHzIQ

Actually I'm supporting these people.

[ckaihatsu]

And after that you are trying to tell me that the Venezuela did the right choices and Maduro has support? Do not make me laugh. I do not know how will you take my story or if you even will read it. But from 1 side we have a story of success and on the other side we have a story of failure. Venezuela doesn't want to involve itself with US? This is laughable, we are not less free since we have aligned ourselves with the West and the EU. We are perhaps at the most free and most prosperous we have ever been since the 14th - 15th century where we did basically the same thing.

I have felt and experienced what is happening now in Venezuela to a relative degree. The situation are not identical but quite similar. I can tell you that there is a way out. A light at the end of the tunnel. You only need only to apply yourself and take the chance. After all Venezuela is in a far better situation then we were.

The problem with *capitalism*, JR, is that there are no *real* choices. With the decline and fall of the USSR what else *is* there but the larger world market economy? That's not a *choice*, obviously.

Thanks for the personal backstory, but around the realm of politics we need to examine what the *countries* and other major entities are doing -- one's personal life may be interesting, but it's the money and power that shape the world. Many people fall into the 'community' trap and don't look 'up' high enough to see the social forces that shape *all* of us, due to hierarchies and privileged elitism at the top. Venezuela has become a prime example, unfortunately, of this top-down fomented reality-by-diktat:

“Economic sanctions are effectively compounding the grave crisis affecting the Venezuelan economy, adding to the damage caused by hyperinflation and the fall in oil prices. This is a time when compassion should be expressed for the long-suffering people of Venezuela by promoting, not curtailing, access to food and medicine,” Mr. Jazairy said.

Precipitating an economic and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is not a foundation for the peaceful settlement of disputes, Mr. Jazairy noted. “I call on States to engage in and facilitate constructive dialogues with all parties to find solutions which respect the human rights of Venezuelans,” he said.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14283

And, for overall context:


‭History, Macro-Micro -- politics-logistics-lifestyle

Spoiler: show

---

It is an example skin. Your whole rhetoric and the majority of the people in here that are for Maduro think that liberal government and close ties to USA = you are slave of the US.

To clarify the current geopolitical situation, what's happening is that people need to support *the country* of Venezuela, in which Maduro just happens to be at the helm of -- *very* similar to Syria in that no one's waving a flag for Assad, but rather the country of *Syria* needs to be defended from Western predations no matter how bad things are *internally* at the moment.

My example shows that if you play your cards right then there is a way to improve your country by miles even without any oil or natural resources or riches. You don't loose your independence in the process nor do you become a colony. It should be a lot easier for Venezuela if they play their cards right. Yet you are here supporting Maduro who is responsible for the shortages and food scarcity to a great degree. Well hey, at least he is not pro-US right?

This is more typical blaming-the-victim from your side of the political spectrum, JR. Right-wingers *always* avoid significant external, more-complex factors (as seen in my graphic framework, above), for the sake of favoring (over-)simplicity and a tidy bow on the box, at the expense of ignoring real major factors from without, like that of imperialism.

Venezuela has been on the U.S. shit list for *decades* now:

Venezuela coup linked to Bush team

Specialists in the 'dirty wars' of the Eighties encouraged the plotters who tried to topple President Chavez

Observer Worldview
Ed Vulliamy in New York

Sun 21 Apr 2002 09.30 EDT First published on Sun 21 Apr 2002 09.30 EDT

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The failed coup in Venezuela was closely tied to senior officials in the US government, The Observer has established. They have long histories in the 'dirty wars' of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time.

Washington's involvement in the turbulent events that briefly removed left-wing leader Hugo Chavez from power last weekend resurrects fears about US ambitions in the hemisphere.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/ ... .venezuela

And:


Trump’s Economic Sanctions Have Cost Venezuela About $6bn Since August 2017

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14073

[ckaihatsu]

High stakes for the Venezuelan working class



By Sean Orr

Chicago, IL - The contradictions at the heart of Venezuelan society have burst asunder. A fierce struggle is now underway to determine the foundations of the country's future. The Venezuelan bourgeoisie have wholeheartedly decided that they are willing to endure civil war and foreign invasion so long as it leads to the repression of the upright masses. The working class and other popular sectors, meanwhile, can no longer tolerate the economic suffering inflicted upon them from the business owners, and are ready to do battle against any invaders that seek to return their class enemies to power.

From this struggle can only emerge either the most vicious reaction, or a qualitative leap forward in the struggle to establish a real socialist state. All depends on the strength of the Bolivarian revolutionary movement, and above all on the leadership of this movement by the advanced detachments of the working class. This in turn depends on their strength of organization, their ideological firmness, and their capacity to carry out every form of struggle necessary to beat back imperialism and its running dogs.

As the United States and its proxies inch closer to war, it is important to reflect on what is at stake for the Venezuelan working class. Over the past 20 years of the Bolivarian Revolution, the workers have built power for their class and for all oppressed sectors. While there is more to be won, the concrete victories must be held up, because they are what will be defended in the coming days.

What have workers won in these two decades, and what still must be won for them to become the leading class in Venezuelan society?

Workers take control of their own organizations

When Hugo Chávez was first elected president in 1998, the Venezuelan labor movement was led by class collaborators. It was dominated by the Democratic Action (AD) party, which acted as one of the main defenders of bourgeois rule during the 40 years of the Fourth Republic (1958-1998). They had done everything they could to repress working-class struggle and ensure that oil production continued to serve foreign interests. Chávez's election was a rejection of AD rule, and the party opposed his movement from the start. When the Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce orchestrated a coup in April 2002, the AD trade union leaders of the trade unions cheered them on. They did the same when managers at PDVSA organized a lockout of the country's oil industry in the spring of 2003, sending the economy into free-fall.

By then, the AD was incredibly unpopular with the working masses, who saw their interests clearly represented for the first time by Chávez and his administration. Bolivarian trade unionists organized to oust the class collaborators from leadership. In the midst of the 2003 lockout, they founded a new federation - the National Workers Union (UNETE) - and called on unions across the country to break from the AD-led Venezuelan Labor Confederation (CTV). The old formation collapsed as local after local split off and joined UNETE.

Over a period of several years, UNETE was replaced by the Bolivarian Socialist Central of Workers (CBST) as the main labor federation of the country and of the Bolivarian movement. Today, the CBST is a key player in the Bolivarian Revolution and works to ensure that the working class is active in the constant struggle for political power. Many of its leaders have been brought into positions in the national government, such as Eduardo Piñate, the current Labor Minister. Communists play a critical role in the labor movement. A good example is the CBST federation in the industrial state of Lara, which has been led by the Marxist-Leninist Labor Current (CSML) for nearly a decade.

A major step forward in the Bolivarian Revolution was the consolidation of many of its political organizations into a single party, the United Socialist Party (PSUV), in 2008. Many of the advanced workers were now brought together into one body, although critical elements of leadership remained outside of the PSUV, such as the Communist Party. The consolidation of parties meant the bringing together of the many classes of the Bolivarian movement, and internally there is a struggle for which class will lead. While the PSUV leadership is mostly made up of petty bourgeois elements (military officers, professionals, professors) the workers, who make up the vast majority of the party rank and file, are well-represented at all levels of the party. The great example of this, of course, is Nicolás Maduro himself, the bus driver and trade unionist who became the president of Venezuela and the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Workers fight for control of the economy

It cannot be disputed that the working class holds significantly more economic power today than it did 20 years ago. In general terms, the Bolivarian process can be defined by a working class on the advance, and a bourgeoisie on the retreat.

One concrete measure of this shift in power is in the types of labor laws that have been won. Today in Venezuela, workers in all sectors have the right to form a union, to strike, to occupy their workplace, and are legally protected from mass layoffs and firings - courtesy of the Organic Law for Work and Workers (LOTTT) passed in 2012. They also have the right to elect delegates from among themselves to ensure that their bosses are meeting safety and environmental standards, and are legally empowered to levy fines, and even shutter, non-compliant companies - courtesy of the Organic Law of Prevention, Conditions and Work Environment (LOPCYMAT) passed in 2005. These constitute some of the most progressive labor protections in the world, and far surpass the repressive laws that we workers live under in the United States.

The depth of coverage of the LOTTT and LOPCYMAT reflect the intensity of class struggle in the past 20 years. Strike waves hammered the bourgeoisie, and led not only to significant economic victories but political ones as well, such as the state seizure of companies and even shifts in the political direction of the government. For example, the 2008 strike at the Sidor steel complex - the largest in South America - led Chávez to re-nationalize the plant, fire the Labor Minister, and replace Sidor's CEO with an elected "worker president."

When the Constituent National Assembly (ANC) was seated in August 2017, it ended nearly two years of political gridlock. Contradictions were sharp due to the greater politicization of the working class - and its corresponding desire to see deep revolutionary change happen - and the increasing isolation of the bourgeoisie, and as such the ANC delegates, many of them workers themselves, moved to ratify new laws to reflect the changing conditions. They passed the Constitutional Law of Workers' Productive Councils (CPTs) in February 2018. Workers now had the legal support to do what many had done already - form workers councils at their companies to take over production and redirect the productive capabilities to meet the needs of the nation instead of the drive for profit.

Venezuelan workers are not only building class power in the workplaces, but in society as a whole. Today tens of thousands of communal councils exist, forms of local self-government established by workers and other oppressed peoples to run the daily affairs of their neighborhoods. As the Bolivarian process has deepened over the years, the communal councils have been consolidated into communes, which bring communal councils together with "socialist enterprises" that produce to meet the needs of the people in the area. Some communes focus on the production of food, others on cultural work, yet all represent the same thing: workers having control over their own lives. Today there are thousands of communes across Venezuela, and the process to build them is ongoing. They are a true inspiration to Marxist-Leninists in the country, who demand that the current bourgeois democratic state be replaced with a "worker-campesino-communal state."

Workers on the front lines of the economic war

The past six years have been brutal for the Venezuelan people. The plummet in oil prices from over $160 to less than $60 a barrel - a deliberate act by the United States - meant that 95% of Venezuela's exports lost over a nearly two thirds of their value. The economy buckled and there was serious doubt as to how the government could maintain their social programs. It was amid this crisis that the bourgeoisie launched their economic war, with a single goal in mind: to break the morale of the Venezuelan people in order to bring down the Maduro government and end the Bolivarian Revolution.

Goods were hoarded, prices were hiked exorbitantly, and subsidized basic goods were smuggled out of the country. Business owners openly broke the country's labor laws, engaging in mass layoffs and shuttering plants without any warning. As the economy spiraled into crisis, the working class and the poor were made to feel great pain.

The working class responded with strength, backed to the hilt by President Maduro. Shuttered plants were occupied and either turned over to the state or taken over by a commune. To counter the worst effects of the economic war, Maduro led the creation of Local Committees of Supplies and Production (CLAP), which to this day deliver free food to millions of the country's poorest families. In the past year, the government called for the forming of a "new economy" as the way out of the crisis. Workers took it upon themselves to renew the country's productive capabilities in order to meet the needs of the people. Groups like the Productive Workers Army travel the country, repairing factories and other productive means that have fallen into disrepair and repurposing to meet the population's immediate needs. The government has announced a series of "socialist micro-missions" which amount to handing over to the workers key sections of the state sector to reactivate production.

It is a provable fact that no social stratum has done more to pull the Venezuelan people out of the economic crisis than the working class, and they do so in the interests of founding a new, socialist society.

The future is at stake

Mountains have been moved in Venezuela. Workers are stronger and more well-organized in the economy and the broader society than they have ever been. They have more to lose than we can imagine if imperialism's running dogs retake power. They will defend their victories by all means available to them.

But more mountains must be moved. Marxist-Leninists in Venezuela say that for the revolutionary struggle to succeed, there must be immediate action against all sources of corruption, bureaucratism, opportunism and reformism within the ranks of the movement. Space must be made for the workers to become the vanguard force of the Bolivarian process, and they must be given the support necessary to break bourgeois rule. These are not demands for an unforeseeable day down the road - they feel within grasp. The immediate task of the movement is the defeat of imperialist forces and their domestic cronies, the bourgeoisie and the forces of fascist reaction. If they win this battle, then the world belongs to them.

Sean Orr is a trade unionist, a writer for Fight Back! and a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

[ckaihatsu]

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/02/04/spai-f04.html


Spanish Socialist Party government backs US-led coup in Venezuela

By Alejandro López

4 February 2019

Since the Venezuelan crisis erupted, Spain has been at the forefront of the regime change operation underway in the oil-rich South American country. Today, Madrid is set to formally recognise Juan Guaidó as president. Guaidó is the right-wing leader of the National Assembly who Trump declared to be Venezuela’s president on January 23.

The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE)-backed newspaper El País called this “unknown territory,” adding: “Never in contemporary times has a country stopped recognizing a head of state that maintains control of its territory… It is one thing not to recognise a state or to break diplomatic relations, and another to keep an embassy open in a country without recognizing who still controls the mechanisms of power.”

El País, one of the main papers backing the coup, laid out the strategy of the PSOE: “Guaidó will then appoint an ambassador to Spain,” Madrid would accept Guaidó’s representative and “withdraw immunity and all diplomatic prerogatives from the ambassador appointed by Maduro… the current accounts of the embassy and in general all the assets and deposits of the Venezuelan state in Spain would be blocked and made available to the new president and his representative.”

El País added, “In diplomacy the principle of reciprocity applies, so the government can expect the Spanish Embassy in Caracas to be subject to similar measures.”

This is the latest in a list of provocations by the PSOE government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez against the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro.

No sooner had Guaidó self-proclaimed himself president than Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell spearheaded within the EU the demand for snap presidential elections. He declared, “We have to prevent the situation from worsening. This undoubtedly demands a process of intervention to guarantee the only way out is elections.” Days later, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez phoned Guaidó to convey his “empathy for your courage.”

On January 26, at Spain’s request, an EU foreign affairs meeting was held. Borrell said if presidential elections were not called, “We would consider adopting other measures including recognising (Guaido) as interim president.” This position was then backed by France and Germany and enshrined in the EU parliament statement that “The EU strongly calls for the urgent holding of free elections,” threatening that in the absence of “fresh elections … the EU will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition” of Guaidó.

Spain, along with the UK, Germany and France, then pledged to recognise Guaidó if elections were not called within eight days. In the meantime, Sánchez travelled to South America to promote the coup.

As soon as he landed in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic for a meeting of the social democratic Socialist International (SI), Sánchez met with right-wing, US-backed Venezuelan opposition leaders Carlos Valero, Mauricio Poler and Paula di Mattia. Sanchez called Guaidó “the leader of the Venezuelan transition, and it will be he who leads the process of elections and the transition.” He stressed that Madrid did not recognize the May 2018 elections that gave Maduro a second term. Valero told reporters that the “power vacuum” must be filled.

Sánchez, who recently led the campaign to expel Nicaragua’s Sandinista National Liberation Front from the Second International, then ranted against Maduro: “Whoever responds with bullets and prisons to the desire for freedom and democracy is no socialist, he is a tyrant. Venezuelans must feel the support of the Socialist International, and so must Nicaraguans.”

Sánchez’s next stop was Mexico, the only Latin American country besides Uruguay and Bolivia not to have recognised Guaidó. There, Sánchez tried to convince Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to break relations with Maduro and recognize Guaidó.

On Thursday, the PSOE, the right-wing Citizens party and the Popular Party (PP) endorsed the EU parliament’s resolution to support recognizing “Guaidó as Interim President of Venezuela.”

Spain’s support for regime change exposes fraudulent claims last June, after the installation of the PSOE government, that Sánchez was, in Foreign Policy’s words, “keen to show a more progressive and tolerant face to the world.”

In fact, Madrid is determined to use the US-instigated coup in Venezuela to carve out a new role for Spanish imperialism in its former colonies in South America. It fears that Spain is falling behind its rivals in the new redivision of the world.

Carlos Malamud, chief analyst on South America for the think-tank Instituto Elcano, wrote: “with a highly fragmented Latin America, Spain must have a stronger Latin American policy ... If other countries, whether European or not, have increased in recent years their presence in some specific countries of Latin America, it has been because they have taken sides and deepened certain alliances to the detriment of others.”

The PSOE, like other EU governments, is ruthlessly pursuing regime change to advance its imperialist interests. According to Spain’s Ministry of Commerce, 100 Spanish companies operate in Venezuela, including major corporations like Telefónica, Mapfre, Repsol, BBVA, Duro Felguera, Zara and others. Spain is the second-largest European investor in Venezuela after the Netherlands. In 2015, Spain’s direct investments in Venezuela were €21.3 billion.

Madrid’s actions are so brazen that even former PSOE Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero felt compelled to admit that Madrid’s “obsession against the Government of Venezuela corresponds to economic interests.”

These economic interests have shaped the policies of the entire Spanish ruling class since the fall of the fascist Francoite dictatorship in 1978. The ensuing PSOE government of Felipe González, who now staunchly defends regime change in Venezuela, supported in 1989 his close friend, Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez, as he unleashed the army on mass protests against International Monetary Fund austerity programmes. This led to 3,000 deaths in what is known as the “Caracazo.”

González’s deputy prime minister from 1982 to 1991, Alfonso Guerra, recently endorsed the bloody US-backed Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, claiming it was more “effective” than the Maduro regime.

In 2002, the PP government supported a US-led coup that briefly ousted Chavez, and pressed other countries to endorse US State Department calls for recognition of Pedro Carmona’s “transitional government.”

Millions of workers and youth in Spain are appalled by the US- and European-backed coup in Venezuela. To oppose it, however, requires fighting the pseudo-left Podemos party, which sets out to demobilise all opposition to Spanish and European imperialism.

Before the coup, top figures of Podemos, whose founders were advisors to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, were distancing themselves from the “Bolivarian” regime they once enthusiastically endorsed. Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias said he no longer “shared” the opinions he had formulated in the past on Venezuela. Iñigo Errejón said the same to El País.

When Guaidó proclaimed himself president, Podemos spokeswoman Irene Montero asked Sánchez to call for dialogue instead of “following Donald Trump.” Spain and the EU, she said, “should lead the positions of mediation and respect for the processes in Venezuela that guarantee a dialogue, negotiated and peaceful solution to the conflict.” Similarly, EU MP and Pabloite leader Miguel Urbán criticised the EU parliament resolution, as the “EU should be a mediator in this conflict.”

Podemos’s reactionary line not only aims to suppress social opposition to imperialism but also reflects sections of the Spanish ruling class who fear that the current aggressive regime change in Venezuela will trigger civil war, wiping out Spain’s investments there.

This crisis is a new exposure of Podemos and its alliance with the PSOE. They are tools of the European bourgeoisie as it joins Washington in ruthlessly pursuing regime change in Venezuela.

Noemon Edit: Quotes Added. When you post articles you should wrap them around [quote] tags.

[ckaihatsu]

Growing risk of U.S war on Venezuela



Commentary by Sean Orr

Chicago, IL - The eyes of the world are on the Venezuela-Colombia border, as the forces of reaction - the Trump administration, the Lima Group led by Colombia and Brazil, and the far-right Venezuelan opposition - attempt to provoke an invasion of Venezuela under the guise of ‘humanitarian aid.’

They are demanding the truckloads of aid provided by the U.S. military (read: guns, bombs and ammo) be allowed into Venezuela, and they plan to drive them in from Colombia on Saturday, February 23. The Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), unswervingly loyal to the elected president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has promised to prevent any such event from happening.

Juan Guaidó, the illegally self-declared president and head of the in-contempt National Assembly, has flown to Colombia to participate in the theatrics, where he joins U.S. warmongers like Elliott Abrams and Senator Marco Rubio. Guaidó has called on his supporters in Venezuela to surround military bases and prevent troops from mobilizing to the border, in effect to betray their nation and side with the enemy.

It is clear to anyone with any sense - the United States and its lackeys want to provoke Venezuela into a war.

What options are left?

Events seem to be spiraling towards this. The officials in the Trump administration continue to say that "all options are on the table," including military intervention, to remove Maduro from power and defeat the Bolivarian Revolution. At the moment, it seems to be the only option left.

They first tried to defeat Maduro through elections, yet their lackeys in the opposition made themselves so unpopular with their embrace of reactionary violence and a weak political program that they could not beat him. Then they tried to assassinate Maduro in the bombing of a military parade on August 4 - that too failed. Next, after anointing Guaidó president, the imperialists called on the FANB high command to break from Maduro and launch a military coup. That too, failed - the most they got were a couple dozen soldiers, the highest ranking among them a lieutenant, who tried to steal some guns, and all ended up in prison.

The entirety of the FANB high command is not only loyal to Maduro on a constitutional basis (Guaidó has no legal leg to stand on with his claim that he can be declared president), but they are politically committed to the revolutionary goals of the Bolivarian movement. You are as likely to see a book of essays by Fidel Castro in the office of Vladimir Padrino Lopez, the Defense Minister and head of FANB, as you are a book on military theory. Meanwhile, the rank and file of the military comes from those classes and social sectors who have benefited the most from the Bolivarian Revolution. Many of them were born after Chávez first came to power in 1998 - they know nothing but the country they live in that has won its freedom through hard struggle. They will certainly defend it at all costs.

In the current reality, the United States faces the Maduro government - democratically elected and backed by the "civil-military union" of the millions of members of the Bolivarian movement and the entirety of the FANB - with an opposition so unpopular that over 80% had never heard of Juan Guaidó before he declared himself president. They cannot vote Maduro out of office, they cannot kill him, and they cannot get the military to overthrow him. Do they have any other option left other than invasion?

Is an invasion likely?

While a military intervention seems to be the only option left, it is not one that favors the United States at all. To paraphrase Maduro, it would be the greatest U.S. military defeat since Vietnam.

Venezuela is not Iraq in 2003. It has not suffered two disastrous wars followed by over a decade of genocidal sanctions. Its 350,000-strong military, backed by over a million member Bolivarian Militia, is well-armed, is backed to the hilt by the popular masses, and has very high morale. It includes in its arsenal the largest anti-aircraft missile system in Latin America, and the backing of the Russian military. 300,000 troops were required to defeat the crippled Iraqi army in 2003 - how many would they need to defeat the Venezuelan army in 2019? And if they managed to defeat the military, how many soldiers would be needed to pacify a population that has been radicalized by decades of revolutionary struggle? How long would they need to occupy a nation that would every day fight unrelentingly to drive the invaders out?

In a recent essay on Tribuna Popular, the press organ of the Communist Party of Venezuela, Colombian activist Adalberto Santana raises a truth that must terrify the ruling classes of the Americas: "If a U.S. military operation takes places on Venezuelan soil, the Trump government must know it will lead to a war across South America."

The Bolivarian Revolution has not happened in a void - it is the latest expression of a decades-long continental struggle to end the U.S. empire. If war comes to Venezuela, the reactionary regimes of Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile and Honduras will be rocked to their core by popular revolt. There is already a popular rebellion taking place in Haiti, partly fueled by their government's complicity in the attempted overthrow of Maduro.

Beyond popular revolt, there is also the real threat of renewed guerrilla wars across the region. The National Liberation Army (ELN) in Colombia has already vowed to act as partisans in the rear for Venezuela if their country acts as a staging ground for U.S. invasion. If their recent attack on a Colombian police academy is any indicator, they would inflict serious damage, and will limit Colombia’s ability to act as the main force in an invasion.

The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean - "Our America" as the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutionaries refer to it - are fed up with living under the imperialist boot. To them, Venezuela does not represent a brutal dictatorship, but a glorious future where they can live in freedom. It is worth fighting for.

In the face of this unconquerable strength, Santana ends his essay with a piece of advice of Donald Trump: "the best he can do to stay in the White House is get his hands out of Venezuela."

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at info@fightbacknews.org






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[Stardust]

In the face of this unconquerable strength, Santana ends his essay with a piece of advice of Donald Trump: "the best he can do to stay in the White House is get his hands out of Venezuela."

Well said! Trump better wise up...