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<h1 class="title">Maybe Obama’s Sanctions on Venezuela are Not
Really About His “Deep Concern” Over Suppression of Political
Rights</h1>
<div class="ti-byline"> <cite>By <span><a
href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/staff/glenn-greenwald/">Glenn
Greenwald</a></span></cite>
<div class="ti-social"> <a class="twitter"
href="https://twitter.com/@ggreenwald">@ggreenwald</a> </div>
<time><span class="fltimestamp" data-timestamp="1426105132">Wednesday
at 1:18 PM<br>
<small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/11/maybe-obamas-sanctions-venezuela-really-deep-concern-human-rights-abuses/">https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/11/maybe-obamas-sanctions-venezuela-really-deep-concern-human-rights-abuses/</a></small></small></small><br>
</span></time> </div>
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<p>The White House on Monday <a
href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/09/statement-press-secretary-venezuela">announced</a>
the imposition of new sanctions on various Venezuelan
officials, pronouncing itself “deeply concerned by the
Venezuelan government’s efforts to escalate intimidation of
its political opponents”: <em>deeply concerned. </em>President
Obama also, <a
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/09/us-usa-venezuela-idUSKBN0M51NS20150309">reportedly</a>
with a straight face, <a
href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/09/fact-sheet-venezuela-executive-order">officially
declared</a> that Venezuela poses “an extraordinary threat
to the national security” of the U.S. — a declaration
necessary to legally justify the sanctions.</p>
<p>Today, one of the Obama administration’s closest allies on
the planet, Saudi Arabia, <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/11/saudi-arabia-jails-human-rights-activist-mohammed-al-bajadi">sentenced</a>
one of that country’s few independent human rights
activists, Mohammed al-Bajad, to 10 years in prison on
“terrorism” charges. That is completely consistent with that
regime’s systematic and extreme repression, which includes <a
href="https://news.vice.com/article/woman-is-publicly-beheaded-in-saudi-arabias-tenth-execution-of-2015">gruesome
state beheadings</a> at a record-setting rate, <a
href="https://news.vice.com/article/imprisoned-saudi-arabian-blogger-raif-badawi-is-awarded-geneva-summits-courage-award">floggings
and long prison terms</a> for anti-regime bloggers, <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/16/saudi-arabia-death-sentence-shia-nimr-baqir-human-rights">executions</a>
of those with minority religious views, and <a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2014/07/new-anti-terror-law-used-imprison-saudi-arabian-human-rights-activist/">exploitation
of terror laws to imprison</a> even the mildest regime
critics.</p>
<p>Absolutely nobody expects the “deeply concerned” President
Obama to impose sanctions on the Saudis — nor on any of the
other loyal U.S. allies from <a
href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/16/egypts-u-s-backed-military-regime-brutalizing-student-protestors/">Egypt</a>
to the <a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2014/11/uae-ruthless-crackdown-dissent-exposes-ugly-reality-beneath-fa-ade-glitz-and-glamour/">UAE</a>
whose repression is far worse than Venezuela’s. Perhaps
those who actually believe U.S. proclamations about imposing
sanctions on Venezuela in objection to suppression of
political opposition might spend some time thinking about
what accounts for that disparity.</p>
<p>That nothing is more insincere than purported U.S. concerns
over political repression is too self-evident to debate.
Supporting the most repressive regimes on the planet in
order to suppress and control their populations is and long
has been a staple of U.S. (<a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/31/cameron-galloway-saudis-bahrain-dictators">and
British</a>) foreign policy. “Human rights” is the weapon
invoked by the U.S. Government and its loyal media to
cynically demonize regimes that refuse to follow U.S.
dictates, while far worse tyranny is steadfastly overlooked,
or expressly cheered, when undertaken by compliant regimes,
such as those in Riyadh and Cairo (see <a
href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/03/08/iraq-iran-nuclear-kerry-dempsey-/24602807/">this
<em>USA Today</em> article</a>, one of many, recently
hailing <em>the Saudis</em> as one of the “moderate”
countries in the region). This is exactly the tactic that
leads neocons to feign concern for Afghan women or the
plight of Iranian gays when doing so helps to gin up
war-rage against those regimes, while they snuggle up to far
worse but far more compliant regimes.</p>
<p>Any rational person who watched the entire top echelon of
the U.S. government <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/world/middleeast/obama-leading-a-high-powered-delegation-to-saudi-arabia.html">drop
what they were doing</a> to make a pilgrimage to Riyadh to
pay homage to the Saudi monarchs (Obama cut short a state
visit to India to do so), or who watches the mountain of
arms and money flow to the regime in Cairo, would do nothing
other than cackle when hearing U.S. officials announce that
they are imposing sanctions to punish repression of
political opposition. And indeed, that’s what <a
href="http://www.ibtimes.com/gallup-poll-biggest-threat-world-peace-america-1525008">most
of the world outside of the U.S. and Europe</a> do when
they hear such claims. But from the perspective of U.S.
officials, that’s fine, because such pretenses to noble
intentions are primarily intended for domestic consumption.</p>
<p>As for Obama’s decree that Venezuela now poses an
“extraordinary threat to the national security” of the
United States, is there anyone, anywhere, that wants to
defend the reasonability of that claim? Think about what it
says about our discourse that Obama officials know they can
issue such insultingly false tripe with no consequences.</p>
<p>But what’s not too obvious to point out is what the U.S is
actually doing in Venezuela. It’s truly remarkable how the
very same people who demand U.S. actions against the
democratically elected government in Caracas are the
ones who most aggressively mock Venezuelan leaders when they
point out that the U.S. is working to undermine their
government.</p>
<p>The worst media offender in this regard is <em>The New York
Times</em>, which <a
href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/17/democracy-really-means-u-s-jargon-subservience-u-s/">explicitly <em>celebrated</em></a> the
2002 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzSnH4_p0PY">U.S.-supported
coup</a> of Hugo Chavez as a victory for democracy, but
which now <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/world/americas/in-chavez-maduro-trusts-maybe-to-his-detriment-and-venezuelas.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=1">regularly
derides</a> the notion that the U.S. would ever do
something as untoward as undermine the Venezuelan
government. Watch this short video from Monday where the
always-excellent Matt Lee of <em>Associated Press</em>
questions a State Department spokesperson this week after
she said it was “ludicrous” to think that the U.S. would
ever do such a thing:</p>
The real question is this: if concern over suppression of
political rights is not the real reason the U.S. is imposing
new sanctions on Venezuela (perish the thought!), what is?
Among the most insightful commentators on U.S. policy in Latin
America is Mark Weisbrot of Just Foreign Policy. Read <a
href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/obama-absurdly-declares-venezuela-a-national-security-threat.html">his
excellent article for Al Jazeera</a> on the recent Obama
decree on Venezuela.
<p>In essence, Venezuela is one of the very few countries with
significant oil reserves which does not submit to U.S.
dictates, and this simply cannot be permitted (such
countries are always at the top of the U.S. government and
media list of Countries To Be Demonized). Beyond that, the
popularity of Chavez and the <a
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-03-07/venezuelans-quality-of-life-improved-in-un-index-under-chavez">relative
improvement of Venezuela’s poor</a> under his <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/oct/04/venezuela-hugo-chavez-election-data">redistributionist
policies</a> petrifies neoliberal institutions for
its ability to serve as an example; just as the Cuban
economy was choked by decades of U.S. sanctions and then
held up by the U.S. as a failure of Communism, subverting
the Venezuelan economy is crucial to destroying
this success.</p>
<p>As Weisbrot notes, every country in the hemisphere except
for the U.S. and Canada have united to oppose U.S. sanctions
on Venezuela. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean
States (CELAC) issued <a
href="http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/samper-venezuela-eeuu-conflicto-unasur.html">a
statement</a> in February in response to the prior round
of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela that “reiterates its strong
repudiation of the application of unilateral coercive
measures that are contrary to international law.” This week,
the chief of the Union of South American Nations
(UNASUR) issued <a
href="http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/samper-venezuela-eeuu-conflicto-unasur.html">a statement</a> announcing
that “UNASUR rejects any external or internal attempt at
interference that seeks to disrupt the democratic process in
Venezuela.” Weisbrot compares Obama’s decree this week on
Venezuela to <a
href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-05-02/news/8501260877_1_nicaraguan-economy-church-mediated-dialogue-trade-embargo">President
Reagan’s quite similar 1985 decree</a> that Nicaragua was
a national security threat to the U.S., and notes: “The
Obama administration is <a
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/president-obamas-new-policy-on-cuba-could-be-a-good-start">more
isolated today</a> in Latin America than even George W.
Bush’s administration was.”</p>
<p>If Obama and supporters want the government of Venezuela
to be punished and/or toppled because they refuse to comply
with U.S. dictates, they should at least be honest about
their beliefs so that their true character can be seen.
Pretending that any of this has to do with the U.S.
Government’s anger over suppression of political opponents —
when their closest allies are the world champions at that —
should be too insulting of everyone’s intelligence to even
be an option.</p>
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<div class="contact">
<p>Email the author: <a
href="mailto:glenn.greenwald@theintercept.com">glenn.greenwald@theintercept.com</a></p>
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