<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div id="container" class="container font-size5 content-width3">
<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"
dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/23/us-and-allies-look-to-military-intervention-in-venezuela/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/23/us-and-allies-look-to-military-intervention-in-venezuela/</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">US and Allies Look to Military
Intervention in Venezuela</h1>
<p class="post_meta"> <span class="post_author_intro">by</span>
<span class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/gaguwe/"
rel="nofollow">W. T. Whitney</a></span> - February 23,
2018<br>
</p>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div id="moz-reader-content" class="line-height4" dir="ltr"
style="display: block;">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div class="post_content" itemprop="articleBody">
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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, “<u><a
href="https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/02/277840.htm">The
corrupt and hostile</a></u> 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.”</p>
<p>A day later in Mexico City he charitably mentioned
that, “<u><a
href="https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/02/277876.htm">If
President Maduro would</a></u> 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.”</p>
<p>Florida Senator Marco Rubio, never shy about regime
change in Venezuela, tweeted that, “<u><a
href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Republican-Senator-Calls-for-Coup-in-Venezuela-20180209-0015.html">The
world would support</a></u> the Armed Forces in
Venezuela if they decide to protect the people &
restore democracy by removing a dictator.”</p>
<p>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 <u><a
href="https://www.hispantv.com/noticias/opinion/368553/venezuela-golpe-estado-oposicion-derecha-disturbios-eeuu">reached
an agreement</a>.</u> It called for “rejection of
foreign intervention,” electoral guarantees, common
defense against economic sanctions, and “end of economic
warfare.” <u><a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/News/13660">The
negotiators agreed</a></u> also on a date for
upcoming presidential elections.</p>
<p>Then Julio Borges, representing the opposition
negotiators, took a telephone call from Tillerson in
Bogota. He was ordered to <u><a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13647">call
off the agreement</a></u>.</p>
<p>On February 13, the Lima Group – Latin America and
Caribbean nations supporting U.S. neo-liberal objectives
– announced they <u><a
href="http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=237912">wouldn’t
recognize the</a></u> results of Venezuela’s
presidential elections set for April 22. Polling data
gives President Maduro a <u><a
href="http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/02/18/venezuela-encuesta-55-de-la-poblacion-ratifica-reeleccion-de-maduro/">55
percent</a></u> advantage.</p>
<p>At that meeting the Peruvian foreign minister
disinvited President Maduro from attending an
Organization of American States summit meeting in April
hosted by Peru.</p>
<p>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,
“<u><a
href="http://misionverdad.com/COLUMNISTAS/los-planes-del-comando-sur-y-el-rompecabezas-de-la-guerra-contra-venezuela">The
growing crisis</a></u> in Venezuela could eventually
require a regional response.”</p>
<p>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 <u><a
href="http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/02/11/colombia-nueve-preguntas-sobre-las-ultimas-medidas-tomadas-por-santos-en-la-frontera/">moved
to Venezuela</a></u> because of threats to their
survival in Colombia.</p>
<p>Santos is anathema to defenders of the Bolivarian
process. <em>He “has opted to be the spokesperson for
the White House with its constant aggression,”
according to </em>former Venezuelan Vice President
Jose Vincent Rangel, and “<em><u><a
href="http://www.panorama.com.ve/opinion/-El-vecino-artero-por-Jose-Vicente-Rangel-20180205-0052.html">He’s
mixed up in</a> </u></em><em>our internal
politics on a daily basis, and brazenly so.” </em></p>
<p>In recent weeks Colombia’s government has sent 3000
troops to Cúcuta and Catatumbo, regions on Colombia’s
border with Venezuela. <u><a
href="http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/02/13/venezuela-bolivariana-el-punto-maximo-de-la-confrontacion-antiimperialista-por-carlos-aznarez/">Extra
paramilitary</a></u> forces are moving in. In
January the United States sent <u><a
href="http://www.celag.org/ee-uu-venezuela-la-hipotesis-intervencion-militar/">415
marines to Panama</a></u>. 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. <u><a
href="http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/02/14/igual-que-colombia-brasil-duplicara-presencia-militar-en-la-frontera-con-venezuela/">Brazil
is deploying </a></u>soldiers to its northern
border with Venezuela. The United States has its own
troops and military bases in Colombia.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.telesurtv.net/news/Maniobras-militares-de-Brasil-cual-es-la-intencion-de-EE.UU.-20171106-0019.html"><u>preparing
a base</u> </a>to be available for future
humanitarian operations.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The role of China in <u><a
href="https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/Russia-China-And-Iran-Lose-Interest-In-Venezuela.html">propping
up Venezuela’s</a></u> 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,”
<a
href="https://theglobalamericans.org/2017/07/shifting-trade-landscape-latin-america-favors-china-globalization/">according
to <u>one analyst</u></a>. And, “Eight Latin American
countries now import more from China than they do from
the United States.”</p>
<p>Surveying the scene, <a
href="http://rebelion.org/mostrar.php?tipo=5&id=%C3%81ngel%20Guerra%20Cabrera&inicio=0">Ángel
Guerra Cabrera</a>, a Cuban political journalist
living in Mexico, asserts that Venezuela “is the Spanish
Republic of today.” As in the 1930s, “<u><a
href="http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=237941">a
decisive struggle is underway</a></u> in Venezuela
for democracy and self determination of the peoples.”</p>
</div>
<p class="author_description"> <em><strong>W.T. Whitney Jr.</strong> is
a retired pediatrician and political journalist living
in Maine.</em> </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>