[News] US and Allies Look to Military Intervention in Venezuela

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/23/us-and-allies-look-to-military-intervention-in-venezuela/ 



  US and Allies Look to Military Intervention in Venezuela

by W. T. Whitney <https://www.counterpunch.org/author/gaguwe/> - 
February 23, 2018

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Bolivarian social and political movement first led by former 
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and holding state power since1999 has 
long faced U.S. assaults.  They’ve ranged from U. S. support for an 
unsuccessful military coup in 2002, backing for violent street 
disturbances, U.S. moneys assigned to political opponents, and U.S. 
economic sanctions against Venezuelan political leaders. Now the U.S. 
government may be on the verge of blocking Venezuelan oil sales in the 
United States.

One avenue for altering Venezuela’s government seems to be closing. 
Political forces rooted in Venezuela’s business class and mobilized 
against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro are flailing. But another 
has yielded results. Years of shortages at the hands of bankers and 
commercial interests have led to suffering and distress such that 
serious destabilization, their goal, may be at hand. Terrible inflation 
and real hardship for most Venezuelans may be the cue for military 
intervention billed as humanitarian.

It’s evident from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit February 1-8 
to Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, and Jamaica that the United States 
sees action ahead, and soon. In Austin, Texas, en route, he noted that, 
“_The corrupt and hostile 
<https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/02/277840.htm>_ regime of 
Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela clings to a false dream and antiquated 
vision for the region that has already failed its citizens.” He noted 
that, “In the history of Venezuela and in fact the history in other 
Latin American and South American countries, oftentimes it’s the 
military that handles that, that when things are so bad that the 
military leadership realizes they just – they can’t serve the citizens 
anymore, they will manage a peaceful transition.”

A day later in Mexico City he charitably mentioned that, “_If President 
Maduro would 
<https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/02/277876.htm>_ return to 
the Venezuelan constitution, restore the duly elected assembly, 
dismantle the illegitimate constituent assembly, and return to free, 
fair elections, then he’s happy to stay.”

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, never shy about regime change in Venezuela, 
tweeted that, “_The world would support 
<https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Republican-Senator-Calls-for-Coup-in-Venezuela-20180209-0015.html>_ 
the Armed Forces in Venezuela if they decide to protect the people & 
restore democracy by removing a dictator.”

But as Tillerson arrived in Colombia on February 6 there was a snag. 
  Having negotiated intermittently for two years, representatives of 
Venezuela’s government and of rightwing opposition parties, meeting in 
the Dominican Republic, had _reached an agreement 
<https://www.hispantv.com/noticias/opinion/368553/venezuela-golpe-estado-oposicion-derecha-disturbios-eeuu>._ 
It called for “rejection of foreign intervention,” electoral guarantees, 
common defense against economic sanctions, and “end of economic 
warfare.” _The negotiators agreed 
<https://venezuelanalysis.com/News/13660>_ also on a date for upcoming 
presidential elections.

Then Julio Borges, representing the opposition negotiators, took a 
telephone call from Tillerson in Bogota. He was ordered to _call off the 
agreement <https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13647>_.

On February 13, the Lima Group – Latin America and Caribbean nations 
supporting U.S. neo-liberal objectives – announced they _wouldn’t 
recognize the <http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=237912>_ results 
of Venezuela’s presidential elections set for April 22.  Polling data 
gives President Maduro a _55 percent 
<http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/02/18/venezuela-encuesta-55-de-la-poblacion-ratifica-reeleccion-de-maduro/>_ 
advantage.

At that meeting the Peruvian foreign minister disinvited President 
Maduro from attending an Organization of American States summit meeting 
in April hosted by Peru.

Admiral Kurt Tidd, head of the U.S. Southern Command, met with Colombian 
President Juan Manuel Santos and other officials in Bogota on February 
8-9. Venezuela presumably was on the agenda. Testifying before the 
Senate Armed Forces Committee in 2017, Kidd opined that, “_The growing 
crisis 
<http://misionverdad.com/COLUMNISTAS/los-planes-del-comando-sur-y-el-rompecabezas-de-la-guerra-contra-venezuela>_ 
in Venezuela could eventually require a regional response.”

Colombia is taking the lead in publicizing humanitarian crisis in 
Venezuela. Officials point to thousands of hungry and destitute 
Venezuelans crossing into Colombia’s eastern cities and departments. In 
fact, many are Colombians who long ago had _moved to Venezuela 
<http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/02/11/colombia-nueve-preguntas-sobre-las-ultimas-medidas-tomadas-por-santos-en-la-frontera/>_ 
because of threats to their survival in Colombia.

Santos is anathema to defenders of the Bolivarian process. /He “has 
opted to be the spokesperson for the White House with its constant 
aggression,” according to /former Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vincent 
Rangel, and “/_He’s mixed up in 
<http://www.panorama.com.ve/opinion/-El-vecino-artero-por-Jose-Vicente-Rangel-20180205-0052.html> 
_//our internal politics on a daily basis, and brazenly so.” /

In recent weeks Colombia’s government has sent 3000 troops to Cúcuta and 
Catatumbo, regions on Colombia’s border with Venezuela. _Extra 
paramilitary 
<http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/02/13/venezuela-bolivariana-el-punto-maximo-de-la-confrontacion-antiimperialista-por-carlos-aznarez/>_ 
forces are moving in.  In January the United States sent _415 marines to 
Panama 
<http://www.celag.org/ee-uu-venezuela-la-hipotesis-intervencion-militar/>_. 
They will be staying until June, 2018 as part of the military’s 
humanitarian intervention program called New Horizons. U.S. troops have 
long been in place in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curazao, Dutch-owned islands 
located off Venezuela’s northern coast. _Brazil is deploying 
<http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/02/14/igual-que-colombia-brasil-duplicara-presencia-militar-en-la-frontera-con-venezuela/>_soldiers 
to its northern border with Venezuela. The United States has its own 
troops and military bases in Colombia.

The U.S. Southern Command in November organized training exercises for 
U.S. Brazilian, Peruvian, and Colombian troops in Tabatinga, a Brazilian 
town on the Amazon River. They were _preparing a base_ 
<https://www.telesurtv.net/news/Maniobras-militares-de-Brasil-cual-es-la-intencion-de-EE.UU.-20171106-0019.html>to 
be available for future humanitarian operations.

The question remains: why is the United States focused on Venezuela? 
U.S. concerns have ranged from Venezuela as center for international 
drug trafficking, as safe harbor for Islamic terrorists, as owner of 
bountiful oil deposits no longer under U.S. control.  Surely power 
brokers in Washington are no fans of a government claiming socialism as 
one goal and continent-wide unity as another. They were never happy with 
Venezuela’s promotion of regional alliances for the sake of social 
programs and protection of sovereignty.

The role of China in _propping up Venezuela’s 
<https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/Russia-China-And-Iran-Lose-Interest-In-Venezuela.html>_ 
problem – ridden oil industry may be especially galling to the U.S. 
government, in part due to concerns that China is displacing the United 
States as Latin America’s main trading partner. Indeed, “In seven Latin 
American countries, China has surpassed the United States as the main 
destination for exports,” according to _one analyst_ 
<https://theglobalamericans.org/2017/07/shifting-trade-landscape-latin-america-favors-china-globalization/>. 
And, “Eight Latin American countries now import more from China than 
they do from the United States.”

Surveying the scene, Ángel Guerra Cabrera 
<http://rebelion.org/mostrar.php?tipo=5&id=%C3%81ngel%20Guerra%20Cabrera&inicio=0>, 
a Cuban political journalist living in Mexico, asserts that Venezuela 
“is the Spanish Republic of today.” As in the 1930s, “_a decisive 
struggle is underway <http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=237941>_ in 
Venezuela for democracy and self determination of the peoples.”

/*W.T. Whitney Jr.* is a retired pediatrician and political journalist 
living in Maine./

-- 
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863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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