Trump Regime Escalates War on Venezuela by Other Means
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Under Republicans and undemocratic Dems, Washington’s imperial agenda is all about seeking dominance over other nations by brute force if other tactics fail.
Venezuela is in the eye of the storm. Gaining control over its world’s largest oil reserves, its other valued resources, along with eliminating the hemisphere’s leading social democracy has been the US objective since Hugo Chavez’s December 1998 election as president.
Twenty years of trying to topple Venezuela’s social democratic government failed, the Trump regime’s coup plot faring no better than earlier attempts so far.
Interviewed on Thursday by Breitbart News, neocon hardliner John Bolton repeated earlier Trump regime threats, adding a new one, saying:
DLT “has been clear…when he says all options are on the table…He’s very serious about it,” adding:
“(T)here are between 40 and 50,000 American citizens (in Venezuela), and the government of the United States has no higher duty internationally than to protect its citizens from violence and intimidation. So that’s something that I think everybody needs to keep in mind.”
Fact: No US citizens or anyone else in Venezuela is threatened by government authorities or security forces – threatened only by US-enlisted anti-Bolivarian thugs, imperial proxies involved in the plot to oust Maduro.
Bolton’s remark about protecting US citizens in Venezuela from alleged “violence and intimidation” sounded ominously like a US plan to intervene militarily – on the shelf, yet to be ordered. Though unlikely, it’s very much possible if all other options fail.
Bolton: “What we’d like to do is let the Venezuelan people make their own decisions here (sic), not through a government controlled by Cuba’s surrogate for Russia (sic), not through what we call the debt-diplomacy of China trying to finagle its way in to countries all around the world and get control of Venezuela’s oil reserves (sic).”
Fact: The Trump regime’s coup plot ignores the popular will. Most Venezuelans support Bolivarian social democracy. By an overwhelming majority, they oppose foreign meddling in the country’s internal affairs. Nearly 90% are against military intervention.
The Bolivarian Republic is sovereign and independent, controlled by no foreign power(s), valuing normal relations with Cuba, Russia, China, and other nations – what mutual cooperation the way it should be is all about, polar opposite US rage to dominate other countries.
Bolton lied claiming Cuba, Russia, and China seek to control Venezuela’s oil reserves – the US objective, not theirs.
He lied saying Cuban security forces are propping up Maduro in return for below-market-priced cheap oil.
He lied calling Cuban and Venezuelan governance authoritarian. He lied accusing Russia and China of wanting to gain control over Latin American countries.
“Our goal is to make sure these foreign influences are not controlling Venezuela and adversely affecting the United States and our interests in our own hemisphere,” he roared, adding:
“So we’re talking here about wresting control away from a socialist autocracy (sic) and keeping the Monroe Doctrine alive in the Western Hemisphere to have powers outside the hemisphere not dictating what goes on here (sic). I think it’s a very important thing for the United States and really everyone else in the hemisphere (sic).”
Separately on Friday, the Trump regime’s Treasury Department sanctioned Venezuela’s Economic and Social Development Bank (BANDES), along with other Venezuelan banks involved in development projects domestically and abroad.
The action followed detention of Guaido henchman Roberto Marrero, accused of involvement in an anti-government “terrorist cell.” In a pre-dawn Friday raid on his residence, assault rifles and grenades were discovered.
Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said he was “responsible for organizing…criminal groups,” planning attacks on public institutions.
In response to new sanctions, a statement by Maduro’s government said by “attack(ing) the heart of the finances of the Venezuelan people,” the Trump regime aims to undermine social programs and productive plans, benefitting everyone in the country, adding:
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will remain firm in the defense of their independence and political, economic and cultural sovereignty.”
Phony Trump regime offers of humanitarian aid are belied by “attacking the sources of generations of Venezuelan resources.”
“No desperate supremacist action, contrary to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, will succeed in breaking the will of the Venezuelan people.”
Everything Trump regime hardliners threw at Venezuela for the past two months and earlier failed.
Their latest action won’t likely fare better than earlier ones.
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