[News] From invading Iraq to Guaidó’s flop: the CV of coup-plotter John Bolton

[Anti-Imperialist News]

peoplesdispatch.org
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/15/from-invading-iraq-to-guaidos-flop-the-cv-of-coup-plotter-john-bolton/>
>From invading Iraq to Guaidó’s flop: the CV of coup-plotter John Bolton
Tanupriya Singh - July 15, 2022
------------------------------

John Bolton. Photo: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia

On July 12, former US National Security advisor John Bolton, admitted on
national television that he had helped orchestrate coups in foreign
countries. Bolton was speaking to CNN host Jake Tapper amid the hearings in
Congress on the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, by supporters of
former president Donald Trump.

During the exchange, Bolton stated his disagreement with accusations that
the riot was a “coup d’etat aimed at the US constitution”, arguing that it
was a “once in a lifetime occurrence”. Tapper then stated “One doesn’t have
to be brilliant to attempt a coup”.

Bolton’s response, in a widely circulated clip, was “I disagree with that.
As someone who has helped plan coup d’etats, not here, but you know other
places, it takes a lot of work. And that’s not what he [Trump] did.” Citing
his expertise “having planned coups”, in Tapper’s words, Bolton declined to
go into specifics, only to say “Well I wrote about Venezuela in the book
[“The Room Where It Happened”], and it [the coup] turned out not to be
successful– *not that we had all that much to do with it*– but I saw what
it took for an opposition to try and overturn an illegally elected
president and they failed…”

The comments shocked people across the world. Not so much in their content
given the documented history of US interference across the world- with an
estimated
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/12/23/the-cia-says-russia-hacked-the-u-s-election-here-are-6-things-to-learn-from-cold-war-attempts-to-change-regimes/>
72 attempts to change other countries’ governments between 1947 and 1989-
but the unabashed way in which they were made. The chasm between the
rhetoric the US empire has pushed abroad versus the reality of the way it
has conducted itself was captured in a speech made by Vice President Kamala
Harris to the Pacific Islands Forum on July 13:

“In this region and around the world the US believes it is important to
strengthen the international rules-based order. To defend it, to promote
it, and to build on it…Principles that importantly state that the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states must be respected.
Principles that allow all states big and small to conduct their affairs
free from aggression and coercion.”

Meanwhile, Bolton’s comments drew widespread condemnation, with former
Bolivian president and socialist leader Evo Morales stating, “It is proof
that the US is the worst enemy of democracy and life.”

Con el cinismo que caracteriza a la ultraderecha estadounidense, John
Bolton, exasesor de seguridad nacional de Trump, desde 2018 a 2019, admite
haber "ayudado a planear golpes de Estado" en países soberanos. Es la
prueba de que EE.UU es el peor enemigo de la democracia y la vida
pic.twitter.com/wTg8cQmc1S <https://t.co/wTg8cQmc1S>

— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) July 13, 2022
<https://twitter.com/evoespueblo/status/1547187574053056512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Good to hear John Bolton the former #US
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/US?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> National
Security Adviser admit that he had illegally helped plan attempted Coups in
foreign countries – We've known for a long time now that #US
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/US?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> Empire
believes International Law doesn't apply to them… https://t.co/LCCzpWjBZO

— Mick Wallace (@wallacemick) July 13, 2022
<https://twitter.com/wallacemick/status/1547142726684217344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

*A career of war-mongering and destruction*

Before his stint in the Trump administration, Bolton had already had a
decades-long career of hardline, right-wing, and hostile politics in the
White House– serving under Republican Presidents Ronald Reagen, George H.W.
Bush, and George W. Bush. Under W. Bush, he served as the Under Secretary
of Arms Control, and was one of the leading architects of the 2003 invasion
of Iraq, peddling the lie that Saddam Hussein was developing chemical
weapons.

Prior to that, in May 2002, Bolton delivered a speech at the Heritage
Foundation, a right-wing think tank, titled “Beyond the Axis of Evil” –
declaring <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1971852.stm> that Cuba, Libya, and
Syria were “rogue states” alongside Iran, Iraq, and North Korea on Bush’s
so-called “Axis of Evil”. Bolton started claiming that Cuba was developing
biological weapons, circulating a draft speech around the State Department.
When an analyst disputed his claims, Bolton pushed to have him fired.

Bolton also oversaw
<https://theintercept.com/2018/03/29/john-bolton-trump-bush-bustani-kids-opcw/>
the removal of Brazilian diplomat José Bustani as the head of the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, after threatening his
family. In his role, Bustani had been urging that Iraq join the international
treaty <https://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention> to ban chemical
weapons. In ratifying the Convention, Iraq would have been subjected to
inspections which would have proved that there were no weapons of mass
destruction.

Meanwhile, the War in Afghanistan was in its second year in 2002 when Bush
ordered the US to withdraw from the Rome Statute, and Congress passed the
American Service-Members’ Protection Act. The President would work to
prevent “to the maximum extent possible” any prosecution of US armed
forces, and its allies, by the International Criminal Court. The
legislation authorized the use of force to ensure international prosecution
was not taken forward, which led to it being dubbed the “Hague Invasion
Act”. Bolton was then sent to nearly 100 countries to secure bilateral
agreements that would protect US citizens from prosecution.

In 2018, Bolton threatened the ICC with sanctions amid news that it was
considering prosecuting US forces over allegations of abuse of detainees in
Afghanistan.

Bolton was rewarded for his crimes by being appointed as the US ambassador
to the UN in 2005. During his one-year tenure, he pushed his aggressive
policies further, including the imposition of multilateral sanctions on
North Korea.

Between leaving his UN appointment and joining the Trump administration in
2018, Bolton spent his time calling for pre-emptive attacks on Iran,
especially during the negotiations around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (the 2015 nuclear deal), and repeatedly advocating for a regime
change in the country. He also made similar calls for the bombing of North
Korea.

Once Bolton was back in the White House, provocations against Iran were
ratcheted up
<https://www.france24.com/en/20190524-john-bolton-nuclear-iran-military-trump-usa-ayatollah-khamenei>,
especially following the US’ withdrawal from the nuclear deal, and the
enforcement of the “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran.
*The “Troika of Tyranny” and the plot against President Maduro *

In a speech at the Miami Dade College in November 2018, Bolton, in his
capacity as Trump’s National Security Advisor, declared the US foreign
policy stance against Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

“This Troika of Tyranny, this triangle of terror stretching from Havana to
Caracas to Managua, is the cause of immense human suffering, the impetus of
enormous regional instability, and the genesis of a sordid cradle of
communism in the Western Hemishphere…Under President Trump, the United
States is taking direct action against all three regimes to defend the rule
of law, liberty, and basic human decency in our region.”

“This is not a time to back away…It is a time to increase the pressure, not
reduce it”, Bolton would add later, after announcing new sanctions against
the three countries. Bolton also welcomed the elections of “like-minded
leaders in key countries”- referring to the election of far-right leaders
Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Ivan Duque in Colombia.

In December 2018, Venezuela’s democratically-elected President Nicolás
Maduro specifically accused <https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14185>
Bolton of trying to overthrow the government– “Mr. John Bolton has been
assigned, once again, as the chief of a plot to fill Venezuela with
violence and to seek a foreign military intervention”. The President also
accused the US of being behind the attempt
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/04/nicolas-maduros-speech-cut-short-while-soldiers-scatter>on
his life in August 2018.

Desde la Casa Blanca, John Bolton prepara una conspiración contra el pueblo
de Venezuela, pretende llenar de violencia nuestra Patria con la
complicidad del gobierno colombiano. Exigimos a los EUA, que cesen en sus
campañas desestabilizadoras. ¡Defenderemos la Paz de la Patria!
pic.twitter.com/nntUaRW3dL <https://t.co/nntUaRW3dL>

— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) December 12, 2018
<https://twitter.com/NicolasMaduro/status/1072964896034357257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

In January 2019, the Trump administration launched the coup attempt against
Maduro, declaring right-wing politician Juan Guaido as interim president.
The US escalated the pressure in the following months, imposing more
comprehensive sanctions, openly calling on the Venezuelan military to
abandon Maduro, and threatening
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKCN1PS0DK> a US
military invasion. Venezuela’s Central Bank was sanctioned, the assets of
the state oil company PDVSA were frozen, and an economic embargo was
enforced.

Despite these relentless, illegal, and brutal measures, the coup attempt
was ultimately unsuccessful, and Bolton was removed from his position in
September. In 2020, he published his book, with an entire chapter dedicated
to the events since 2018 titled “Venezuela Libre”
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/06/24/bolton-weaves-a-tall-tale-in-his-venezuela-chapter/>
. Bolton wrote that Trump had stated that Venezuela was “really part of the
United States” and that an invasion would be “cool”. The former president
reportedly also pushed for control over Venezuela’s oil once Maduro was
ousted.

Another major revelation was that the UK was “delighted to cooperate” on
steps it could take, including freezing Venezuela’s gold deposits being
held in the Bank of England. The UK continues
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/01/13/anti-imperialists-call-on-uk-govt-to-return-venezuelan-gold-held-at-bank-of-england/>
to hold nearly $2 billion of Venezuelan gold, with the case set to return
to the courts this week.

Venezuela's gold is still frozen in the Bank of England. The issue returns
to the UK courts this week, and the UK government just reaffirmed its
recognition of Juan Guaidó.

The UK courts are effectively being asked to legitimate piracy.

Thread:

— John McEvoy (@jmcevoy_2) July 13, 2022
<https://twitter.com/jmcevoy_2/status/1547202121472397313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

On July 14, Venezuela’s National Assembly unanimously voted to condemn
<https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/435566-venezuela-asamblea-nacional-repudio-john-bolton>Bolton’s
comments, with the chamber’s president Jorge Rodriguez declaring that
“Venezuela… will never surrender”. He added, “We can never tire of thanking
the dignified people and the Venezuelan Armed Forces that repelled the most
serious attack the republic has suffered in 150 years”.

#14Jul <https://twitter.com/hashtag/14Jul?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> ||
Sesión Ordinaria || Queda Aprobado el Acuerdo en repudio a las
declaraciones de John Bolton y la sra. Carrie Filipetti en las que declaran
abiertamente a medios de comunicación, los intentos de invasión militar en
la República de Venezuela y otros países. pic.twitter.com/bimjKBHLXy
<https://t.co/bimjKBHLXy>

— Asamblea Nacional  (@Asamblea_Ven) July 14, 2022
<https://twitter.com/Asamblea_Ven/status/1547645446708813825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
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