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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/30/as-the-world-tackles-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-u-s-raises-the-pressure-on-venezuela/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/30/as-the-world-tackles-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-u-s-raises-the-pressure-on-venezuela/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">As the World Tackles the COVID-19
Pandemic, the U.S. Raises the Pressure on Venezuela <br>
</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/vjprplnm48881/"
rel="nofollow">Vijay Prashad, Paola Estrada, Ana Maldonado,
and Zoe PC</a> - March 30, 2020</span></div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4 reader-show-element"
dir="ltr">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
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<p>In a <a
href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/video/attorney-general-barr-and-doj-officials-announce-significant-law-enforcement-actions">press
conference</a> on March 26, it was almost comical how
little evidence the U.S. Department of Justice provided
when it accused Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and
several of the leaders of his government of
narco-trafficking. The U.S. offered $15 million for the
arrest of Maduro and $10 million for the others. Maduro,
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said dramatically, “very
deliberately deployed cocaine as a weapon.” Evidence for
this? Not presented at all.</p>
<p><b>Sanctions</b></p>
<p>It is surreal that the United States—during the
COVID-19 global pandemic—chooses to put its efforts into
this ridiculous, evidence-free indictment against Maduro
and other members of the government. There is better use
for the money put up as a reward in the <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-hospitals.html">overstretched</a>
hospital in Elmhurst in New York City. Already, there is
pressure on the United States to cut the sanctions not
only against Venezuela but also against Iran (even the <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/opinion/iran-sanctions-covid.html"><i>New
York Times</i></a> came out on March 25 to call for
an end to sanctions on Iran). The World Health
Organization has made it clear that this is just not the
time to hamper the ability of countries to get precious
supplies in to tackle the pandemic. UN Secretary-General
António Guterres has <a
href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059972">called</a>
for a ceasefire in conflicts; it is only a matter of
days before he was expected to make a statement about
sanctions. Now, out of desperation, the U.S. has tried
to change the conversation—no longer about COVID-19 and
sanctions but about narco-terrorism.</p>
<p>When asked about these indictments during the COVID-19
pandemic, U.S. Attorney General William Barr tried to
say that the fault lay not in Washington but in Caracas.
He said, absent any evidence, that Venezuela is blocking
aid from coming into the country. Nothing could be
further from the truth, since Venezuela has welcomed
medical supplies and medical personnel from China, Cuba,
and Russia, as well as from the World Health
Organization. In fact, the World Health Organization has
pressed the U.S. to allow it more free rein to bring
goods into the country—a request that the U.S. has not
allowed (the U.S. also has made it <a
href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/03/15/sanctions-against-iran-and-venezuela-during-a-pandemic-are-cruel/">difficult</a>
for the World Health Organization to get medical
supplies into Iran). When Venezuela went to the
International Monetary Fund with a request for $5
billion for COVID-19 related purchases, it was the
United States government that put pressure on the Fund
to <a
href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/03/19/imf-refuses-aid-to-venezuela-in-the-midst-of-the-coronavirus-crisis/">deny</a>
the request. Barr can so easily say the very opposite of
truth because none of the media outlets at the press
conference would challenge him based on matters that are
clearly in the public record.</p>
<p><b>Regime Change</b></p>
<p>In 1989, the U.S. used the accusation of
narco-trafficking, specifically cocaine trafficking, to
taint the reputation of its former asset, the president
of Panama Manuel Noriega. It was based on this <a
href="https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-panama-deception/">accusation</a>
and an indictment in Florida, that the U.S. eventually
invaded the country, seized Noriega, planted
Washington’s puppet in Panama City, and threw Noriega
into a Florida prison. The shadow of how the U.S. dealt
with Noriega hangs over Caracas: will the U.S. launch an
expeditionary raid based on this new indictment? This is
not a theoretical question. The U.S. has tried since at
least January 2019 to destabilize and overthrow the
government of Nicolás Maduro. What this indictment does
is to merely try to tighten the screw.</p>
<p>The bounty on the heads of Maduro and his leadership
suggests that the U.S. government has essentially put a
mafia-type hit out on these Venezuelans. This is a very
dangerous move by the United States. It essentially
gives gangsters a green light to attempt assassination
inside Venezuela. The refusal to allow Maduro to travel
outside Venezuela is a violation of a series of
international conventions that promote diplomacy over
belligerence. But, given the lawless way that the U.S.
has formulated its regime change strategy against
Venezuela, it is unlikely that anyone is going to
criticize this move.</p>
<p>A few hours before the announcement in Washington, <a
href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/26/politics/venezuela-trump-administration-terrorism/index.html">word</a>
began to spread that the United States was going to
place Venezuela’s government on the “state sponsor of
terrorism” list—the very highest condemnation of a
government. But they had to pause. And the pause itself
came for absurd reasons. If the U.S. government accused
the government of Maduro of being a “state sponsor of
terrorism,” then it would be tacitly acknowledging that
the Maduro government was indeed the government of
Venezuela. Since last year, one of the attempts at
destabilization had been to deny that Maduro’s
government was the legitimate government of Venezuela,
indeed, to deny that it was any kind of government. It
would be impossible to say that the Maduro government
was a “state sponsor of terrorism” without acknowledging
that it is the government of Venezuela. So, the U.S. had
to stay its hand, caught out by its own logic.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the U.S. government does not dare take
action against its allies in the key drug-producing and
trafficking countries of Colombia and Honduras. Former
Colombian president and current Senate member Álvaro
Uribe Vélez is currently <a
href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/colombia/2018-05-25/narcopols-medellin-cartel-financed-senate-campaign-former">implicated</a>
in more than 270 legal cases in Colombia with charges
including illegal wiretapping, organized crime,
selective assassinations, and forced disappearances.
Uribe and members of his family have proven links with
the paramilitary group Metro Block of Antioquia, which
was responsible for thousands of assassinations of
Colombian civilians and was deeply involved in the
narco-trafficking. Uribe and his protégé Iván Duque have
a close relationship with the U.S. government and have
been the cornerstone and ally of diverse plans to attack
Venezuela.</p>
<p>Current Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/03/honduran-president-juan-orlando-hernandez-drug-money">implicated</a>
in the case brought by a New York federal court against
his brother Antonio Hernández, and prosecutors alleged
that the president had received <a
href="https://apnews.com/e85a0f7b43264a5eb6b879701356e1f3">$25,000</a>
in bribes from drug traffickers that were used for his
2013 presidential campaign.</p>
<p>The <a
href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nicol-s-maduro-moros-and-14-current-and-former-venezuelan-officials-charged-narco-terrorism">statement</a>
released by the U.S. Department of Justice reads like a
thriller, and the lack of evidence lends it to
comparison with fiction. It lists names and accusations,
makes constant references to “narco-terrorism,” and
claims that the Venezuelan government wants to “flood”
the United States with cocaine. It would take a
superhuman effort of blindness to believe this baseless
ranting and raving. But the problem is that the people
of Venezuela must take this seriously, since it is a
deepening of the belligerence of the United States
government. The people of Venezuela are aware of a
Panama-type situation. It’s hard to blame them. This is
the track record of the United States government.</p>
<p>The UN secretary-general’s comment that ceasefires are
the call of the hour given the global pandemic should
apply to the United States’ hybrid war against
Venezuela. It needs to stop now. This is the time of
healing and compassion, not the time of toxic
masculinity and warfare.</p>
<p><i>This article was produced by <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/globetrotter-/ds2pjl/586149539?h=tN6SBtfu_0ZA9BFGfKHfh0h0xMsK6bIrjI-YhI4N5FE">Globetrotter</a>,
a project of the Independent Media Institute.</i></p>
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