Vatican Opposition to Venezuelan Social Democracy
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Vatican history isn’t pretty. Pontiffs notoriously meddle where they don’t belong. Liberation theology supporting social justice is considered verboten.
Pope Francis’ high-minded rhetoric belies papal tradition, supporting wealth, power and privileged interests, paying lip service alone to democratic values, popular needs and welfare.
Its members elected by national referendum, Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly (CA) was inaugurated in August 2017 to rewrite or revise the nation’s Constitution – changes to be voted up or down by Bolivarian Republic voters.
A Vatican press statement opposed the CA, saying “(t)he (Holy See) asks that all political actors, and in particular the government, guarantee full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as for the existing Constitution; avoid or suspend ongoing initiatives such as the new Constituent which, instead of favoring reconciliation and peace, foments a climate of tension and confrontation and puts the future at stake” – code language for opposition to Bolivarian social democracy.”
The body is temporary for as long as it takes to complete its mandate – authorized by Article 349 of Venezuela’s Constitution, saying:
No other power can “in any way impede the decisions of the National Constituent Assembly” – not the president, National Assembly legislators, or Supreme Court justices.
Pope Francis follows Vatican tradition. Before becoming Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and a cardinal in 2001, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) supported Argentina’s dirty war, run by its military dictatorship.
Thousands were disappeared, detained, tortured and killed. Anyone expressing dissent or considered an ideological or political threat was vulnerable – notably communists, socialists, independent journalists, human rights supporters, trade unionists, students, and liberation theology-supporting priests.
According to the Catholic News Agency (CNA), Pope Francis wrote to Maduro on February 7, saying the Holy See backs the position of Venezuelan bishops.
At a January 9 plenary assembly, they falsely called Maduro’s January 10 inauguration illegitimate, CNA citing them saying it “paves the way for the unrecognition of the government, as democratic foundations on justice and right are lacking,” adding:
Pope Francis’ letter called for Maduro to go along with various opposition demands – while “plac(ing) the Holy See in the middle between” US/EU/regional recognition of Guaido as interim president (sic) and opposition” by most world community countries.
The pontiff’s alleged neutrality in what’s ongoing is far from it, supporting the position of Venezuelan bishops, opposing Bolivarian social democracy from inception.
Since Chavez’s democratic election in December 1998, they strongly opposed him, currently backing Guaido, ignoring his illegitimacy and complicity in the Trump regime’s coup plot.
According to Vatican News, Venezuelan bishops “condemned the arrest of” Guaido henchman Roberto Marrero, falsely calling it a constitutional breach, a violation of his human rights – ignoring his involvement in the Trump regime’s plot to oust Maduro and eliminate Bolivarian social democracy.
Supporting their view puts Pope Francis on the side of the diabolical US coup plot – without publicly admitting it.
According to CNA, “bishops on the ground are backed (by the pontiff) in supporting the population and to work for the common good” – meaning wealth, power, and privileged interests at the expense of ordinary Venezuelans.
Instead of denouncing the Trump regime’s coup plot, the Holy See supports it privately while pretending neutrality on what’s going on.
There’s nothing neutral when it comes to respecting Venezuela’s sovereign independence from from illegal foreign interference to eliminate it v. going along with the plot.
Put another way, there’s no middle ground between supporting or opposing the Trump regime’s coup attempt to gain another US imperial trophy.
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