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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/15/from-invading-iraq-to-guaidos-flop-the-cv-of-coup-plotter-john-bolton/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">From invading Iraq to Guaidó’s flop: the CV of coup-plotter John Bolton <br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Tanupriya Singh - July 15, 2022<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><p>John Bolton. Photo: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia
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<p>On July 12, former US National Security advisor John Bolton, admitted
on national television that he had helped orchestrate coups in foreign
countries. Bolton was speaking to CNN host Jake Tapper amid the hearings
in Congress on the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, by supporters
of former president Donald Trump.</p>
<p>During the exchange, Bolton stated his disagreement with accusations
that the riot was a “coup d’etat aimed at the US constitution”, arguing
that it was a “once in a lifetime occurrence”. Tapper then stated “One
doesn’t have to be brilliant to attempt a coup”.</p>
<p>Bolton’s response, in a widely circulated clip, was “I disagree with
that. As someone who has helped plan coup d’etats, not here, but you
know other places, it takes a lot of work. And that’s not what he
[Trump] did.” Citing his expertise “having planned coups”, in Tapper’s
words, Bolton declined to go into specifics, only to say “Well I wrote
about Venezuela in the book [“The Room Where It Happened”], and it [the
coup] turned out not to be successful– <i>not that we had all that much to do with it</i>– but I saw what it took for an opposition to try and overturn an illegally elected president and they failed…”</p>
<p>The comments shocked people across the world. Not so much in their
content given the documented history of US interference across the
world- with an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/12/23/the-cia-says-russia-hacked-the-u-s-election-here-are-6-things-to-learn-from-cold-war-attempts-to-change-regimes/">estimated</a>
72 attempts to change other countries’ governments between 1947 and
1989- but the unabashed way in which they were made. The chasm between
the rhetoric the US empire has pushed abroad versus the reality of the
way it has conducted itself was captured in a speech made by Vice
President Kamala Harris to the Pacific Islands Forum on July 13:</p>
<p>“In this region and around the world the US believes it is important
to strengthen the international rules-based order. To defend it, to
promote it, and to build on it…Principles that importantly state that
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states must be
respected. Principles that allow all states big and small to conduct
their affairs free from aggression and coercion.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Bolton’s comments drew widespread condemnation, with
former Bolivian president and socialist leader Evo Morales stating, “It
is proof that the US is the worst enemy of democracy and life.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="es">Con el cinismo que caracteriza a la ultraderecha
estadounidense, John Bolton, exasesor de seguridad nacional de Trump,
desde 2018 a 2019, admite haber "ayudado a planear golpes de Estado" en
países soberanos. Es la prueba de que EE.UU es el peor enemigo de la
democracia y la vida <a href="https://t.co/wTg8cQmc1S">pic.twitter.com/wTg8cQmc1S</a></p>
<p>— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) <a href="https://twitter.com/evoespueblo/status/1547187574053056512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Good to hear John Bolton the former <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/US?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#US</a>
National Security Adviser admit that he had illegally helped plan
attempted Coups in foreign countries – We've known for a long time now
that <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/US?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#US</a> Empire believes International Law doesn't apply to them… <a href="https://t.co/LCCzpWjBZO">https://t.co/LCCzpWjBZO</a></p>
<p>— Mick Wallace (@wallacemick) <a href="https://twitter.com/wallacemick/status/1547142726684217344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<h3><b>A career of war-mongering and destruction</b></h3>
<p>Before his stint in the Trump administration, Bolton had already had a
decades-long career of hardline, right-wing, and hostile politics in
the White House– serving under Republican Presidents Ronald Reagen,
George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Under W. Bush, he served as the
Under Secretary of Arms Control, and was one of the leading architects
of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, peddling the lie that Saddam Hussein was
developing chemical weapons.</p>
<p>Prior to that, in May 2002, Bolton delivered a speech at the Heritage
Foundation, a right-wing think tank, titled “Beyond the Axis of Evil” –
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1971852.stm">declaring</a> that
Cuba, Libya, and Syria were “rogue states” alongside Iran, Iraq, and
North Korea on Bush’s so-called “Axis of Evil”. Bolton started claiming
that Cuba was developing biological weapons, circulating a draft speech
around the State Department. When an analyst disputed his claims, Bolton
pushed to have him fired.</p>
<p>Bolton also <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/03/29/john-bolton-trump-bush-bustani-kids-opcw/">oversaw</a>
the removal of Brazilian diplomat José Bustani as the head of the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, after threatening
his family. In his role, Bustani had been urging that Iraq join the <a href="https://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention">international treaty</a>
to ban chemical weapons. In ratifying the Convention, Iraq would have
been subjected to inspections which would have proved that there were no
weapons of mass destruction.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the War in Afghanistan was in its second year in 2002 when
Bush ordered the US to withdraw from the Rome Statute, and Congress
passed the American Service-Members’ Protection Act. The President would
work to prevent “to the maximum extent possible” any prosecution of US
armed forces, and its allies, by the International Criminal Court. The
legislation authorized the use of force to ensure international
prosecution was not taken forward, which led to it being dubbed the
“Hague Invasion Act”. Bolton was then sent to nearly 100 countries to
secure bilateral agreements that would protect US citizens from
prosecution.</p>
<p>In 2018, Bolton threatened the ICC with sanctions amid news that it
was considering prosecuting US forces over allegations of abuse of
detainees in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Bolton was rewarded for his crimes by being appointed as the US
ambassador to the UN in 2005. During his one-year tenure, he pushed his
aggressive policies further, including the imposition of multilateral
sanctions on North Korea.</p>
<p>Between leaving his UN appointment and joining the Trump
administration in 2018, Bolton spent his time calling for pre-emptive
attacks on Iran, especially during the negotiations around the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (the 2015 nuclear deal), and repeatedly
advocating for a regime change in the country. He also made similar
calls for the bombing of North Korea.</p>
<p>Once Bolton was back in the White House, provocations against Iran were<a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190524-john-bolton-nuclear-iran-military-trump-usa-ayatollah-khamenei"> ratcheted up</a>,
especially following the US’ withdrawal from the nuclear deal, and the
enforcement of the “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran.</p>
<h3><b>The “Troika of Tyranny” and the plot against President Maduro </b></h3>
<p>In a speech at the Miami Dade College in November 2018, Bolton, in
his capacity as Trump’s National Security Advisor, declared the US
foreign policy stance against Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.</p>
<p>“This Troika of Tyranny, this triangle of terror stretching from
Havana to Caracas to Managua, is the cause of immense human suffering,
the impetus of enormous regional instability, and the genesis of a
sordid cradle of communism in the Western Hemishphere…Under President
Trump, the United States is taking direct action against all three
regimes to defend the rule of law, liberty, and basic human decency in
our region.”</p>
<p>“This is not a time to back away…It is a time to increase the
pressure, not reduce it”, Bolton would add later, after announcing new
sanctions against the three countries. Bolton also welcomed the
elections of “like-minded leaders in key countries”- referring to the
election of far-right leaders Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Ivan Duque in
Colombia.</p>
<p>In December 2018, Venezuela’s democratically-elected President Nicolás Maduro specifically <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14185">accused</a>
Bolton of trying to overthrow the government– “Mr. John Bolton has been
assigned, once again, as the chief of a plot to fill Venezuela with
violence and to seek a foreign military intervention”. The President
also accused the US of being behind the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/04/nicolas-maduros-speech-cut-short-while-soldiers-scatter">attempt </a>on his life in August 2018.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="es">Desde la Casa Blanca, John Bolton prepara una
conspiración contra el pueblo de Venezuela, pretende llenar de violencia
nuestra Patria con la complicidad del gobierno colombiano. Exigimos a
los EUA, que cesen en sus campañas desestabilizadoras. ¡Defenderemos la
Paz de la Patria! <a href="https://t.co/nntUaRW3dL">pic.twitter.com/nntUaRW3dL</a></p>
<p>— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NicolasMaduro/status/1072964896034357257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p>In January 2019, the Trump administration launched the coup attempt
against Maduro, declaring right-wing politician Juan Guaido as interim
president. The US escalated the pressure in the following months,
imposing more comprehensive sanctions, openly calling on the Venezuelan
military to abandon Maduro, and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKCN1PS0DK">threatening</a>
a US military invasion. Venezuela’s Central Bank was sanctioned, the
assets of the state oil company PDVSA were frozen, and an economic
embargo was enforced.</p>
<p>Despite these relentless, illegal, and brutal measures, the coup
attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, and Bolton was removed from his
position in September. In 2020, he published his book, with an entire
chapter dedicated to the events since 2018 titled<a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/06/24/bolton-weaves-a-tall-tale-in-his-venezuela-chapter/"> “Venezuela Libre”</a>
. Bolton wrote that Trump had stated that Venezuela was “really part of
the United States” and that an invasion would be “cool”. The former
president reportedly also pushed for control over Venezuela’s oil once
Maduro was ousted.</p>
<p>Another major revelation was that the UK was “delighted to cooperate”
on steps it could take, including freezing Venezuela’s gold deposits
being held in the Bank of England. The UK <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/01/13/anti-imperialists-call-on-uk-govt-to-return-venezuelan-gold-held-at-bank-of-england/">continues</a> to hold nearly $2 billion of Venezuelan gold, with the case set to return to the courts this week.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Venezuela's gold is still frozen in the Bank of
England. The issue returns to the UK courts this week, and the UK
government just reaffirmed its recognition of Juan Guaidó.</p>
<p>The UK courts are effectively being asked to legitimate piracy.</p>
<p>Thread:</p>
<p>— John McEvoy (@jmcevoy_2) <a href="https://twitter.com/jmcevoy_2/status/1547202121472397313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p>On July 14, Venezuela’s National Assembly unanimously voted to <a href="https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/435566-venezuela-asamblea-nacional-repudio-john-bolton">condemn </a>Bolton’s
comments, with the chamber’s president Jorge Rodriguez declaring that
“Venezuela… will never surrender”. He added, “We can never tire of
thanking the dignified people and the Venezuelan Armed Forces that
repelled the most serious attack the republic has suffered in 150
years”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="es"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/14Jul?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#14Jul</a>
|| Sesión Ordinaria || Queda Aprobado el Acuerdo en repudio a las
declaraciones de John Bolton y la sra. Carrie Filipetti en las que
declaran abiertamente a medios de comunicación, los intentos de invasión
militar en la República de Venezuela y otros países. <a href="https://t.co/bimjKBHLXy">pic.twitter.com/bimjKBHLXy</a></p>
<p>— Asamblea Nacional (@Asamblea_Ven) <a href="https://twitter.com/Asamblea_Ven/status/1547645446708813825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 14, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
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