Na
alle moeite die de VS zich al 20 jaar getroost om een eind te maken
aan het democratisch gekozen socialistisch bewind van Venezuela,
wijst alles erop dat de VS bezig is met Peru, Colombia en Brazilië, van wie de laatste twee landen grenzen aan Venezuela, een invasie voor te bereiden in dat land……..

Er
hebben in 2017 al vier grote militaire oefeningen plaats gevonden in Latijns Amerika en
zelfs de NAVO schijnt nu een militaire basis te hebben in
Brazilië, waarschijnlijk dezelfde als de ‘tijdelijke’ militaire VS basis in Brazilië, in de buurt waar Venezuela, Brazilië en Colombia aan elkaar grenzen…… Zoals gezegd: vorig jaar hebben er maar liefst 4 grote militaire oefeningen plaatsgevonden, met deelname van Colombia, Brazilië en Peru, alles o.l.v. de VS….. Eén van die oefeningen, ‘Operation: America United’ was zelfs de grootste militaire oefening ooit gehouden in Midden- en Zuid-Amerika (Latijns Amerika)………

Overigens heeft de VS al militaire bases in Colombia en het Caraïbisch gebied, onderhoudt daarnaast innige banden met andere landen in de buurt van Venezuela, wat dat betreft is Venezuela al omsingeld met VS militaire bases (uiteraard speelt ook Nederland weer ‘een mooie rol’ in deze…)

De
VS is al meer dan 18 jaar bezig met een economische oorlog tegen
Venezuela, al heeft deze tot nu toe weinig of niets opgeleverd wat betreft ‘regime change’. Al
onder ‘vredesduif’ Obama heeft de VS deze oorlog verscherpt en VS
bedrijven ‘dringend aangeraden’ hun supermarktketens in Venezuela
niet langer te bevoorraden. Hetzelfde deed de VS met buitenlandse
investeerders en je weet het waarschijnlijk wel, als de VS dreigt, gehoorzamen de bedrijven en instellingen, daar ze het anders wel
kunnen vergeten als bedrijf of instelling……..

Als gevolg van deze boycot is er niet alleen een groot tekort aan levensmiddelen, maar bijvoorbeeld ook aan medicijnen. Daarmee kan de VS ten overvloede nog eens worden aangewezen als een terreurstaat, die schijt heeft aan ellende onder de gewone bevolking en aan mensenrechten, zoals dit gestolen land al zo vaak elders heeft laten zien, maar zeker in Zuid- en Midden-Amerika…….

De gewelddadige demonstraties in Venezuela van vorig jaar, werden ook al door de VS georganiseerd, waar zelfs gewapende groepen uit het buitenland werden ingezet tegen politie en leger van Venezuela……

In 2002 heeft er al een militaire coup plaatsgevonden in Venezuela, die met hulp van de (arme) bevolking de kop werd ingedrukt, een coup die zoals gewoonlijk werd geregisseerd door de CIA…….

Een
militaire coup nu lijkt zeer onwaarschijnlijk ,daar het leger voor het
overgrote deel achter de socialistische regering Maduro staat.

Lees
het volgend uitstekende en sterk onderbouwde artikel dat duidelijk maakt waar de VS mee bezig is
t.a.v. Venezuela, een artikel van Kevin Zeese en Maragaret Flowers, door
Anti-Media overgenomen van Consortium News:

US
Regime Change Fails in Venezuela: Military Coup or Invasion Next?

February
14, 2018 at 10:27 am

Written
by Consortium
News

(CN) — Several
signals point to a possible military strike on Venezuela, with
high-ranking officials and influential politicians making clear that
it is a distinct possibility.

Speaking
at his alma mater, the University of Texas, on February 1, Secretary
of State Tillerson suggested a
potential military coup in in the country. Tillerson
then visited
allied Latin American countries urging
regime change and more economic sanctions on Venezuela. Tillerson is
also reportedly considering banning the processing or sale of
Venezuelan oil in the United States and is discouraging other
countries from buying Venezuelan oil.

In
a series of tweets, Senator Marco
Rubio,
the Republican from Florida, where many Venezuelan oligarchs live,
openly called for a military coup in Venezuela. “The world would
support the Armed Forces in #Venezuela if
they decide to protect the people & restore democracy by removing
a dictator,” the former presidential candidate tweeted.

How
absurd — remove an elected president with a military coup to
restore democracy? Does that pass the straight face test? This
refrain of Rubio and Tillerson seems to be the nonsensical public
position of U.S. policy.

The
U.S. has been seeking
regime change in
Venezuela since Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998. Trump joined
Presidents Obama and Bush before
him in continuing efforts to change the government and put in place a
U.S.-friendly oligarch government.

They
came closest in 2002
when a military coup removed Chavez. The
Commander-in-Chief of the Venezuelan military announced Chavez had
resigned and Pedro
Carmona,
of the Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce, became interim president.
Carmona dissolved the National Assembly and Supreme Court and
declared the Constitution void. The people surrounded the
presidential palace and seized television stations, Carmona resigned
and fled to Colombia. Within 47 hours, civilians and the military
restored Chavez to the presidency. The
coup was a turning point that
strengthened the Bolivarian Revolution, showed people could defeat a
coup and exposed the US and oligarchs.

U.S.
Regime Change Tactics Have Failed In Venezuela

The
U.S. and oligarchs continue their efforts to reverse the Bolivarian
Revolution. The United States has a long history of regime change
around the world and has tried all of its regime change tools in
Venezuela. So far they have failed.

Economic
War

Destroying
the Venezuelan economy has been an ongoing campaign by the US and
oligarchs. It is reminiscent
of the US coup in Chile which
ended the presidency of Salvador Allende. To create the environment
for the Chilean coup, President Nixon ordered the CIA to “make
the economy scream.”

Henry
Kissinger devised the coup noting a billion dollars of investment
were at stake. He also feared the “the insidious model effect” of
the example of Chile leading to other countries breaking from the
United States and capitalism. Kissinger’s top deputy at the
National Security Council, Viron Vaky, opposed the coup saying,
“What we propose is patently a violation of our own principles and
policy tenets .… If these principles have any meaning, we normally
depart from them only to meet the gravest threat … our survival.”

These
objections hold true regarding recent US coups, including in
Venezuela and Honduras, Ukraine and Brazil, among others. Allende
died in the coup and wrote
his last words to the people of Chile,
especially the workers, “Long live the people! Long live the
workers!” He was replaced by Augusto Pinochet, a
brutal and violent dictator.

For
decades the US
has been fighting an economic war,
“making the economy scream,” in Venezuela.

Wealthy
Venezuelans have been conducting economic sabotage aided by the US
with sanctions and other tactics. This includes hoarding
food, supplies and other necessities in
warehouses or in Colombia while Venezuelan markets are bare. The
scarcity is used to fuel protests, e.g. “The March of the Empty
Pots,” a carbon copy of marches in Chile before the September 11,
1973 coup. Economic warfare has escalated through
Obama and under
Trump,
with Tillerson now urging economic sanctions on oil.

President
Maduro recognized the economic hardship but also said sanctions
open up the opportunity for a new era of independence and
“begins the stage of post-domination by the United States, with
Venezuela again at the center of this struggle for dignity and
liberation.” The second-in-command of the Socialist Party, Diosdado
Cabello, said, “[if
they] apply sanctions, we will apply elections.”

Opposition
Protests

Another
common US regime change tool is supporting opposition protests.
The Trump
administration renewed regime change operations in
Venezuela and the anti-Maduro protests, which began under Obama, grew
more violent. The opposition protests included barricades,
snipers and murders as well as widespread injuries. When police
arrested those using violence, the US claimed Venezuela opposed free
speech and protests.

The
opposition tried to use the crack down against violence to achieve
the U.S. tactic of dividing the military. The U.S.
and western media ignored opposition violence and
blamed the Venezuelan government instead. Violence became so extreme
it looked like the opposition
was pushing Venezuela into a Syrian-type civil war.
Instead, opposition violence backfired on them.

Violent
protests are part of U.S. regime change repertoire. This was
demonstrated in the U.S.
coup in Ukraine,
where the U.S. spent $5 billion to organize government opposition
including U.S.
and EU funding violent protesters.
This tactic was used in early US coups like the 1953
Iran coup of
Prime Minister Mossadegh. The
U.S. has admitted organizing
this coup
that ended Iran’s brief experience with democracy.
Like Venezuela, a key reason for the Iran coup was control of the
nation’s oil.

Funding
Opposition

There
has been massive
U.S. investment in creating opposition to the Venezuelan
government.
Tens of millions of dollars have been openly spent through USAID, the
National Endowment for Democracy and other related US regime change
agencies. It is unknown how much the CIA has spent from its secret
budget, but the CIA
has also been involved in Venezuela. Current
CIA director, Mike Pompeo,
said
he is “hopeful there can be a transition in Venezuela.”

The United
States has also educated leaders of opposition movements,
e.g. Leopoldo
López was
educated at private schools in the US, including the CIA-associated
Kenyon College. He was groomed at the Harvard Kennedy School of
Government and made repeated visits to the regime change agency, the
National Republican Institute.

Elections

While
the US calls Venezuela a dictatorship, it is in fact a strong
democracy with an excellent voting system. Election observers monitor
every election.

In
2016, the economic crisis led to the opposition winning a majority in
the National Assembly. One of their first acts was to pass
an amnesty law.
The law described 17 years of crimes including violent felonies and
terrorism committed by the opposition. It was an admission of crimes
back to the 2002 coup and through 2016. The law demonstrated violent
treason against Venezuela. One month later, the Supreme Court of
Venezuela ruled
the amnesty law was unconstitutional.
U.S. media, regime change advocates and anti-Venezuela human rights
groups attacked
the Supreme Court decision,
showing their alliance with the admitted criminals.

Years
of violent protests and regime change attempts, and then admitting
their crimes in an amnesty bill, have caused those opposed to the
Bolivarian Revolution to lose power and become unpopular. In
three recent elections Maduro’s party won
regional, local and
the Constituent
Assembly elections.

The
electoral commission announced the presidential
election will be held on April 22.
Maduro will run for re-election with the United Socialist Party.
Opposition leaders such as Henry Ramos and Henri Falcon have
expressed interest in running, but the opposition
has not decided whether to participate. Henrique
Capriles, who narrowly lost to Maduro in the last election, was
banned from running for office
because of irregularities in his campaign, including taking foreign
donations. Capriles has
been a leader of the violent protests. When his ban was announced he
called for protests to remove Maduro from office. Also banned
was Leopoldo
Lopez,
another leader of the violent protests who is under house
arrest serving
a thirteen year sentence for inciting violence.

Now,
the United States says it will not recognize the presidential
election and urges a military coup. For two years, the opposition
demanded presidential elections, but now it is unclear whether they
will participate. They know they are unpopular and Maduro is likely
to be re-elected.

Is
War Against Venezuela Coming?

A
military coup faces challenges in Venezuela as the people, including
the military, are well educated about US imperialism. Tillerson
openly urging a military coup makes it more difficult.

The
government and opposition recently negotiated a peace settlement
entitled “Democratic Coexistence Agreement for Venezuela.”
They agreed
on all of the issues including
ending economic sanctions, scheduling elections and more. They
agreed on the date of the next presidential election. It
was originally planned for March, but in a concession to the
opposition, it was rescheduled for the end of April. Maduro
signed the agreement even
though the opposition
did not attend the
signing ceremony. They backed out after Colombian President Santos,
who was meeting with Secretary Tillerson, called and told them not to
sign. Maduro
will now make the agreement a public issue by
allowing the people of Venezuela to sign it.

Not
recognizing elections and urging a military coup are bad enough, but
more disconcerting is that Admiral
Kurt Tidd, head of Southcom, held a closed door meeting in
Colombia after
Tillerson’s visit. The topic was “regional destabilization” and
Venezuela was a focus.

A
military attack on Venezuela from its Colombian and Brazilian borders
is not far fetched. In January, the
NY Times asked,
“Should the US military invade Venezuela?” President Trump
said the US is considering US military force against
Venezuela. His chief of staff, John Kelly, was formerly the general
in charge of Southcom. Tidd
has claimed the crisis,
created in large part by the economic war against Venezuela, requires
military action for humanitarian reasons.

War
preparations are already underway in
Colombia, which plays the role of Israel for the US in Latin America.
The coup government in Brazil, increased
its military budget 36 percent,
and participated in Operation:
America United,
the largest joint military exercise in Latin American history. It
was one
of four military exercises by the US with
Brazil, Colombia and Peru in
Latin America in 2017. The US Congress
ordered the Pentagon to develop military contingencies for
Venezuela in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

While
there is opposition
to US military bases, James
Patrick Jordan explains, on our radio show, the
US has military bases in Colombia and the Caribbean and military
agreements with countries in the region; and therefore, Venezuela is
already surrounded.

The
United States is targeting Venezuela because the Bolivarian
Revolution provides an example against U.S. imperialism. An
invasion of Venezuela will become another war-quagmire that kills
innocent Venezuelans, U.S. soldiers and others over control of oil.
People in the United States who support the self-determination of
countries should show solidarity with Venezuelans, expose the U.S.
agenda and publicly denounce regime change. We need to educate people
about what is really happening in Venezuela to overcome the false
media coverage.

Kevin
Zeese and Margaret Flowers co-direct Popular
Resistance.
[This article originally appeared
at https://popularresistance.org and
is republished with authors’ permission.]