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href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/05/gaza-rallies-for-caracas-on-the-wests-dangerous-game-in-venezuela/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/05/gaza-rallies-for-caracas-on-the-wests-dangerous-game-in-venezuela/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Gaza Rallies for Caracas: On the West’s
Dangerous Game in Venezuela</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/ramzy-baroud/"
rel="nofollow">Ramzy Baroud</a> - February 5, 2019</span></div>
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<p>Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of
besieged Gaza to show their support of the
democratically-elected government of Venezuela and it’s
legitimate leader, President Nicolas Maduro.</p>
<p>Venezuela is struggling to defeat a coup attempt that
is supported by the United States, Israel and many
Western governments.</p>
<p>The relationship between Venezuela and Palestine has
been particularly strong under the presidencies of late
Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez and current president
Maduro. Neither leader has missed an opportunity to show
their solidarity towards the Palestinian people, a fact
that has always irked Tel Aviv and its western
benefactors.</p>
<p>The Gaza rallies, however, were more than a display of
gratitude towards a country that had enough courage to
break off ties with Israel following the latter’s 2008-9
war on Gaza – a bloody campaign known as “Operation Cast
Lead”. Thousands of Palestinians were killed in that
one-sided war. No Arab government that has diplomatic
ties with Israel severed its relations with Tel Aviv.
While Caracas – over 10 thousand kilometers away – did.
Then, former President Chavez, accused Israel of “state
terrorism”.</p>
<p>But there is more to Palestinian solidarity with
Venezuela than this recent history. Palestinians have
experienced decades-long collective trauma from
US-funded Israeli colonialism and military occupation.
The US has imposed itself as an ‘honest peace broker’ as
a way to mask its political interference and meddling in
the Middle East, while fully and blindly supporting
Israeli aggressions.</p>
<p>While the Venezuelan people have every right to protest
their government, demanding greater accountability and
economic solutions to the crushing poverty facing the
country, no one has the right to meddle in the affairs
of Venezuela or any other sovereign country anywhere.</p>
<p>We must remember that the US government has hardly ever
been a source of stability in South America, certainly
not since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Since then, the
US has done more than mere meddling, but outright
political and military interventions, supporting various
coups that toppled or attempted to overthrow
democratically-elected governments.</p>
<p>What is underway in Caracas is a repeat of that sad and
tragic history.</p>
<p>The unhealthy relationship between the US and its
southern neighbors took an even darker turn when, in
1904, then US President Theodore Roosevelt declared the
“right” of his country to hold “international police
power” in Latin America. Since then, the entire region
has been Washington’s business.</p>
<p>Always looking for opportunities to exploit, Washington
now sees a chance to undermine Venezuela and its elected
government.</p>
<p>The Venezuelan people are dealing with overwhelming
poverty and a very unstable social situation.
Hyperinflation and the crumbling of the country’s oil
industries led to a dramatic economic downturn, with
about 10% of the population fleeing the country. Poor
policy choices led to an escalation of the already
endemic corruption, to a significant weakening of local
production and increasing devaluation of the country’s
currency.</p>
<p>However, consensus around president Maduro’s socialist
government is still broad, as witnessed by their victory
in the 2018 presidential election.</p>
<p>Despite the presence of about 150 international
observers from 30 countries and international
organizations, which declared that the last Venezuelan
election was transparent, domestic opponents, supported
by the US and its western and regional allies denounced
it as “fraud foretold”, even before Maduro delivered his
victory speech.</p>
<p>The US and its Western allies are frustrated by the
fact that despite its economic problems, most
Venezuelans remained united around Chavez, and now
Maduro, who are perceived, especially by the poorer
classes, as independent national leaders fighting
against constant US destabilization and neocolonialism.</p>
<p>The world order is vastly changing, but US ruling
elites refuse to change. While speaking about
Washington’s need to “protect democracy” in Venezuela,
US National Security Advisor, the infamous Israel
supporter, John Bolton admitted that the coup in
Venezuela is an opportunity to exploit the country’s oil
and natural resources.</p>
<p>“It will make a big difference to the United States
economically”, Bolton told Fox News in an interview this
week, “if we could have American oil companies invest in
and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.”</p>
<p>Tragically, the US boycott against Venezuela forced the
country to sell its gold in return for valuable
currency, as well as consumer goods, food and medicinal
products. The coup is meant to completely push Caracas
to its knees.</p>
<p>Western predators are all moving in, each party playing
the role entrusted of them, as if history is repeating
itself. Bank of England (BoE) has blocked Maduro’s
officials from withdrawing $1.2 billion worth of
Venezuela’s gold. Worse, brazen interference from
foreign countries is becoming so pronounced that UK
foreign office minister, Sir Alan Duncan has suggested
that the BoE grant access to the gold reserves to the
self-proclaimed opposition leader Juan Guaido.</p>
<p>Germany, and France and Spain gave Venezuela’s Maduro
an ultimatum: the President has eight days to call
elections, otherwise they’ll recognize Guaido as
president. On January 31, the European Parliament
recognized Guaido as a de facto leader of Venezuela in
complete disregard of the democratic rights of the
Venezuelan people.</p>
<p>Yet, as odd as this may seem to some, Maduro still
enjoys greater legitimacy in his country than Donald
Trump or Emmanuel Macron do in the US and France
respectively. Yet, no entity is threatening to intervene
in France, for example on behalf of the ‘Yellow Vests’,
who have protested in their hundreds of thousands for
weeks, demanding an end to Macon’s rule.</p>
<p>It is doubly important that Venezuela doesn’t collapse
before this US-led sinister campaign because of the
rising far-right powers in South and Latin America,
namely the upsurge of reactionary forces in Brazil.</p>
<p>If Venezuela’s political order disintegrates, others,
too will become target: Bolivia, Cuba, and even Mexico.</p>
<p>Since the US partial withdrawal from Iraq in December
2011, and the Obama Administration’s ‘pivot to Asia’, to
challenge the inevitable dominance of China, US policy
makers have been keen on staging a comeback in South
America as well. More recently, the just-departed US
ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley was instrumental in
shaping the aggressive US policy towards Venezuela.</p>
<p>Now that the country is struggling with extreme poverty
– itself resulting from the manipulation of oil prices –
the US sees an opportunity to make its move, and reclaim
its destructive, domineering role in that part of the
world. The election in Brazil of far-right leader, Jair
Bolsonaro, who wants to “make Brazil great again’ is
tipping the balance in favor of reactionary forces in
the whole region.</p>
<p>But the plot against Venezuela is also an opportunity
for those who want to challenge the old order, to tell
the US government ‘enough is enough’; that the age of
coups and blood-soaked interventions should be behind
us, and that South America must not be subjugated again.</p>
<p>As Palestinians have fought Israeli tyranny for years,
Venezuelans will continue to fight foreign tyranny and
unlawful political and military interventions as well.
And with true and tangible global solidarity, both
nations will prevail – sooner or later.</p>
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<p> <em><strong>Ramzy Baroud</strong> is a journalist,
author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His latest
book is The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto
Press, London, 2018). He earned a Ph.D. in Palestine
Studies from the University of Exeter and is a
Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and
International Studies, UCSB.</em> </p>
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