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<p class="u-hiddenVisually" data-aria-label-part="1">Donald J.
Trump Retweeted Vice President Mike Pence</p>
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<p class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--jumbo js-tweet-text
tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="4" lang="en">The citizens
of Venezuela have suffered for too long at the hands of the
illegitimate Maduro regime. Today, I have officially
recognized the President of the Venezuelan National
Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the Interim President of
Venezuela.</p>
<p class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--jumbo js-tweet-text
tweet-text" data-aria-label-part="4" lang="en">January 23,
2019<br>
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<font size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14242">https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14242</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">The U.S. Has Venezuela in Its
Crosshairs</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Vijay Prashad - January
23, 2019</div>
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<p>Last Thursday—on January 10—Nicolas Maduro
was sworn in for his second term as
president of Venezuela. “I tell the people,”
Maduro said, “this presidential sash is
yours. The power of this sash is yours. It
does not belong to the oligarchy or to
imperialism. It belongs to the sovereign
people of Venezuela.”</p>
<p>These two terms—oligarchy and
imperialism—define the problems faced by
Maduro’s new government.</p>
<h3>Oligarchy</h3>
<p>Despite 20 years of governance by the
socialist forces—first led by Hugo Chavez
and now by Maduro—the Venezuelan oligarchy
remains firmly intact. It dominates large
sections of the economy, holds immense
amounts of the country’s social wealth and
controls the main media outlets. A walk
through the Altamira neighborhood in eastern
Caracas is sufficient to gauge the
resilience of the wealthy, most of whom have
homes in Spain and in Florida as well. <em>Pelucones</em>
is the name used to define them—bigwigs, a
term with aristocratic connotations. They
have resisted all attempts by the socialist
Bolivarian movement to expand political and
economic democracy in the country.</p>
<p>This oligarchy, through its media, controls
the political and social narrative, defining
the nature of Venezuela’s crisis to its
advantage. For this small sliver of the
population, all of Venezuela’s serious
problems are blamed on the Maduro movement.
None of the problems are laid on the
doorstep of their long domination of
Venezuela nor do they cast an eye at the
United States, which has tried to suffocate
the Bolivarian revolution since 1999.</p>
<h3>Imperialism</h3>
<p>Imperialism is a word that is rarely used
these days. It is relegated to histories of
colonialism in the distant past. There is
little understanding of the suffocating way
that financial firms and multinational
businesses drive their agenda against the
development aspirations of the poorer
nations. There is even less understanding
about the muscular attitude of countries
such as the United States, Canada and the
Europeans against states that they deem to
be a problem.</p>
<p>The gunsights were once firmly on West Asia
and North Africa—on Iraq, Libya, Syria and
Iran—but now they are focused on Latin
America—on Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
These countries face economic sanctions and
embargoes, threats of annihilation, covert
operations and war. The definition of
imperialism is simple: if you don’t do what
we tell you to do, we’ll destroy you.</p>
<p>Pressure on Venezuela has been intense.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly
called for the overthrow of the Bolivarian
government, led by Maduro. Sanctions have
been ratcheted up. Economic warfare has
become normal. Threats of a military
invasion are in the air.</p>
<h3>Lima Group</h3>
<p>On January 4, the Lima Group of 13 Latin
American governments and Canada said that it
would not recognize Maduro as the president
of Venezuela. Behind them sits the U.S.
State Department, which has put pressure
along the hemisphere for the isolation of
Venezuela as well as Cuba and Nicaragua. The
U.S. State Department characterized the
inauguration of the new president as
“Maduro’s illegitimate usurpation of power.”
Diplomatic language has dissolved into this
kind of crudity.</p>
<p>The Lima Group was set up for one reason:
to overthrow the current government of
Venezuela. It has no other purpose.
Sanctions and diplomatic withdrawals are
part of the Lima Group’s arsenal. Buoyed by
the election of far right-wing politicians
such as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and enthused
by the fulminations of Trump, the Lima Group
has tightened the pressure.</p>
<p>Argentina’s Mauricio Macri went to Brasilia
to meet Bolsonaro, where he condemned the
“dictatorship” of Maduro, and accused
him—personally—of being responsible for the
difficulties in Venezuela. This is harsh
language, rhetoric that sets in motion a
dangerous push toward regime change in
Venezuela.</p>
<p>The Lima Group’s violations of the UN
Charter have been helped along by the
Organization of American States, which held
an extraordinary session to push its members
to take economic and diplomatic steps for
the “restoration of democratic order” in
Venezuela. It perhaps needs to be emphasized
that “restoration of democratic order” is a
euphemism for regime change.</p>
<p>When U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
Nikki Haley tried to draw the UN Security
Council into such language—of dictatorships
and regime change—she was rebuffed by the
other members. In November 2017, for
instance, Bolivia, China, Egypt and Russia
boycotted an informal meeting called by
Haley. No other such meeting has been
possible. There is worry that the Trump
administration will attempt in Venezuela
what the Obama administration conducted in
Honduras, or worse, what the Bush
administration conducted in Iraq.</p>
<h3>It Begins</h3>
<p>Maduro was not permitted to take his oath
in the National Assembly. He was blocked by
Juan Guaidó, leader of the opposition. That
is why Maduro took his oath in the Supreme
Court, a procedure that is validated by the
Constitution.</p>
<p>Strikingly, the head of the Organization of
American States—the Uruguayan politician
Luis Almagro—sent out a tweet that welcomed
Juan Guaidó as the president. Guaidó, to his
credit, had not claimed the presidency. It
was, instead, a foreign official from a
regional body that has superseded the
Venezuelan people and attempted to install a
new president in Caracas.</p>
<p>More chilling has been the words from the
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his
department. Pompeo, in a tweet, wrote, “The
time is NOW for a return to democracy in
Venezuela.” The word “now”—in
capitals—suggests that Pompeo is clear that
there needs to be no procedures, only a
coup. The day after this tweet, Pompeo’s
department said, “It’s time to begin the
orderly transition to a new government.” One
does not need to read between the lines to
know that this is a call for regime change,
for a coup, and that it comes from
Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>Trump’s national security adviser—John
Bolton—coined the phrase “troika of tyranny”
that includes Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
It is plain as day that the United States
wants to overthrow the governments in each
of these countries, and perhaps Bolivia as
well. These are dangerous portents.</p>
<p>Those troops that Trump is withdrawing from
Syria might not be going home anytime soon.
They might find themselves deployed soon
enough on the beaches of Punto Fijo, facing
a Bay of Pigs style resistance from the
Chavistas.</p>
<p><em>The views expressed in this article are
the author's own and do not necessarily
reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis
editorial staff.</em></p>
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