Mensenrechten- en milieuactivisten worden massaal vermoord in Brazilië en Colombia, waar het laatste land NAVO bases heeft…….

De Colombiaanse verzetsbeweging FARC
heeft een paar jaar geleden een vredesverdrag gesloten met de
Colombiaanse regering en sinds die tijd is het geweld flink toegenomen tegen de
arme bevolking en tegen de ngo’s die zich inzetten voor deze
vooral oorspronkelijke bevolking, hetzij op het gebied van
mensenrechten bescherming dan wel milieubescherming…… (deze 2 zaken zijn verbonden, zoals je begrijpt)

Eric
Draitser is de schrijver van het hieronder opgenomen artikel dat
gisteren werd gepubliceerd op CounterPunch. Hij meldt o.a. de moord
afgelopen week op Edwin Dagua Ipia, de gouverneur van de
oorspronkelijke bevolking in de provincie (‘departement’) Cauca ten zuiden van
de belangrijke stad Cali dat in de aangrenzende provincie Valle del Cauca ligt
……..

Kaart van Cauca

De kaart van de Colombiaanse provincie Cauca met hoofdstad Popayán

Het
afgelopen jaar werden in Colombia zelfs meer dan 100 moorden gepleegd op
mensenrechtenadvocaten en op leden van de gemarginaliseerde en
onderdrukte bevolkingsgroepen, zo meldt het Washington Office on
Latin America (WOLA)…….

Het
aantal moorden is toegenomen sinds Ivan Duque (Márquez) werd gekozen tot president, een  fascist en vriend van de voormalige rechtse corrupte president
en opperploert Álvaro Uribe…….

Er is nu
zelfs sprake van misdaden tegen de menselijkheid, aldus WOLA…… Duque laat deze doodseskaders gewoon hun gang gaan, niet zelden worden deze eskaders dan ook bevolkt door militairen en politiepersoneel……

Het is
al een schande van formaat dat de NAVO een land als Colombia toelaat tot het bondgenootschap, dezelfde NAVO waarvan Nederland één van
de leden is, de NAVO een terreurorganisatie die nu al minstens 2 militaire bases heeft in Colombia…..
De aansluiting van Colombia bij de NAVO werd onder Uribe voor elkaar
gebokst, ten overvloede het teken dat de NAVO schijt heeft aan
mensenrechtenschendingen, terwijl deze terreurorganisatie daar wel
mee schermt als het bijvoorbeeld om Rusland of Iran gaat…… 

De NAVO heeft overigens nooit moeite gehad met dictaturen, zie de voormalige dictaturen Spanje, Griekenland en Turkije (de laatste is intussen weer een dictatuur), alle 3 dictaturen die lid waren van de NAVO, terwijl de NAVO top, als de VS (haar feitelijke baas), de vuilbek niet kon en kan houden over het ‘bevorderen van democratie in de wereld….’ ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!

De hoogste tijd
voor de FARC de wapens weer op te nemen, zeker gezien het feit dat de
rechtse doodseskaders gewoon doorgaan met hun moorden, verkrachtingen en martelingen van socialisten,
mensenrechtenactivisten, milieuactivisten en advocaten die zich
inzetten voor het arme deel van de Colombiaanse volk, waaronder zich zoals gezegd ook de oorspronkelijke bevolking bevindt…….. Doodseskaders die de
deze bevolkingsgroepen ronduit terroriseren…..

Draitser
richt zich in zijn artikel ook op de fascistische president Bolsonaro
en wat zijn wanbeleid betekent voor het arme deel van de Braziliaanse
bevolking…….. Zo is het hek nu helemaal van de dam wat betreft de
oorspronkelijke volkeren in het Amazone gebied, hun gronden worden met
veel geweld overgenomen, zonder dat de verantwoordelijke psychopaten
bang hoeven te zijn voor het ingrijpen van de overheid….. 

Bolsonaro
liet al weten dat wat hem betreft het Amazonewoud mag worden
gebulldozerd……. Je begrijpt dat e.e.a. gepaard zal gaan met een groot
aantal moorden, zoals dat nu eigenlijk al praktijk is….. Het werkelijke aantal doden zal wel nooit bekend
worden, daar de gebieden waar het over gaat zo uitgestrekt zijn en
er amper telefoonverkeer mogelijk is anders dan met
satelliettelefoons….

Beste bezoeker, lees het volgende artikel van Eric Daitser en geeft het ajb door:

DECEMBER
20, 2018

Killing
Fields of Colombia and Brazil

by ERIC
DRAITSER

In
Colombia, the last week has been a particularly bloody one for
indigenous leaders. In the state of Cauca, just south of the major
city of Calí, the indigenous governor Edwin Dagua Ipia
was 
assassinated after
having received numerous death threats from paramilitaries in the
area. He is one of at least ten indigenous people murdered in the
country just in the last week.

In
fact, according to the Washington Office on Latin America
(WOLA), 
more
than 100 assassinations
 of
human rights advocates and members of marginalized and oppressed
communities have taken place just in 2018. There is a sense among
observers that the killings have escalated since the election of Ivan
Duque, the young right wing president and close ally of former
president and international criminal Alvaro Uribe.

In
a damning 
report published
by the Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES), the
human rights NGO noted that 35% of the social leaders and activists
murdered belonged to ethnic minorities (19% Afro-Colombian, 15%
indigenous), a staggering figure which demonstrates just how targeted
those groups are, considering the proportion of violence with which
they’re targeted versus their total share of the national
population. Moreover, CODHES indicated that:

Approximately
50 percent of the victims were authorities or representatives of
ethnic territories and organizations. Another 36 percent were
community or union leaders, 8 percent land rights claimants and 6
percent are members of the family of women social leaders. The worst
affected regions in order of total numbers were Cauca, Valle del
Cauca, Antioquia, Chocó, and Córdoba.”

The
continued killings have drawn the attention of the United Nations,
though little has been done to stem the tide, particularly as the
government of Ivan Duque has slithered into power. Luis Guillermo
Pérez Casas, a lawyer with the 
Colectivo
de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo (CCAJAR)
,
explained in a report jointly submitted with the European Center for
Constitutional and Human Rights, that the killings, and total
impunity due to government inaction, rise to the level of crimes
against humanity.

He told
the Guardian
 that:

The
murders of our colleagues must stop…We hope the Office of the
Prosecutor of the ICC will warn the Colombian government that if the
impunity persists, they will be forced to open an investigation into
those responsible, at the highest level… The peace process is
failing because there’s a lack of implementation of the agreement.
The process that was agreed upon has not been delivered.”

International
human rights organizations have also raised the alarm about the
violence and assassinations in Colombia. In early 2018, after the
killing of 10 human rights activists, 
Amnesty
International issued a report
 which
called on the Colombian government to protect at-risk activists,
especially those in remote parts of the country, who face
extraordinary risks from paramilitaries and contract killers.
Similarly, 
Human
Rights Watch called on the Colombian government
to
do more to protect activists after a very bloody 2016. Sadly, the
situation has only gotten worse.

Brazil’s
War on Activists

The
election of the fascist Jair Bolsonaro, the man who as candidate
promised to open up the Amazon to mining and other environmentally
harmful, extractive industries, has sent a very dangerous signal to
indigenous and peasant groups in Brazil that the impunity that has
long existed will only expand further while their rights are
curtailed.

Bolsonaro
represents a unique threat to activists from all spheres, especially
indigenous and peasant communities who stand in the way of the right
wing goal of stripping land rights from those groups in the interests
of corporate investors and international financiers. And unlike the
somewhat more muted (though no less destructive) rhetoric from the
traditional neoliberal right, Bolsonaro and his far right, fascist
politics will likely escalate the war on oppressed groups from
simmering to white hot.

Speaking
of the potential impact of Bolsonaro on the already ghastly violence
against activists, Brazil-based independent journalist Michael Fox
explained to me that:

It’s
still very early to tell the effect his election has had. Violence
spiked in the lead-up to the second round vote, but there has been a
lull since the election while people regroup The recent killing of
[two] Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) leaders was very likely a
sign of things to come.”

Fox’s
analysis, which is no doubt accurate, reflects the general sense of
anxiety about the future, especially in the wake of the most recent
assassinations which he referenced.

On
the night of December 8, 2018 two leaders of the Landless Workers’
Movement (MST) were 
assassinated in
the state of Paraiba in the Northeast of the country. Their deaths,
in an area regarded as a traditional stronghold of the left, have
left many asking just what the future holds for activists in Brazil.

The
assassinations are certainly not the first high-profile killings of
social movement activists in Brazil in recent years, though they have
received some added attention given that they come on the heels of
the Bolsonaro victory – a worrying signal for some that the
horrendous violence is only going to escalate.

To
put it in perspective, the Brazilian religious advocacy group
Comissão Pastoral da Terra – CPT (Pastoral Land Commission)
released a thorough report which found that:

The
brutal reality of Brazil’s rural areas has become increasingly
harsher since 2013, back when 34 murders were recorded. In four
years, these figures have increased by 105%, reaching 70
executions in 2017 –  a 15% increase over 2016.

It
should be noted that, of course, this shocking rise in volence cannot
be attributed to Bolsonaro himself, but rather to deeper structural
and economic factors, in particular corproate privatization. As CPT
coordinator Ruben Siqueira 
explained to
Brasil de Fato:

We
see this as a new land rush, in which land is a means of production,
a store of value, like wood, water, ore, agribusiness, expansion of
land-based businesses. This has to do with the financial crisis that
started in 2008 with the speculative bubble. Since then, the
hegemonic capitalist sector, which is financial capital, is looking
for backing, something that can support this international
speculative game

Indeed,
it seems the escalation of violence against indigenous and peasant
activists is directly connected to the growing need for consolidation
of land and natural resources resulting from the econmoic downturn of
the last ten years. However, it is perhaps even more precise to
pinpoint the drop in commodity prices, most conspicuously the
collapse of oil prices in 2014-2015, as one of the primary drivers of
this renewed push for capital accumulation.

And
though this process was jumpstarted during the tenure of Dilma
Rousseff and the Workers’ Party (PT), it has picked up momentum
under the right wing Temer government. And it’s about to go into
overdrivwe with Bolsonaro taking power. For it is Bolsonaro himself
who has 
promised
to open up as much protected land as possible
 to
big business.

Indeed,
within days of Bolsonaro’s victory, reports began to circulate that
indigenous lands were being invaded and/or seized, with all the
attendant violence one would expect. As Beto Marubo, a native leader
from the Javari Valley Indigenous Land in Brazil’s far
west, 
explainedto
National Geographic, “Many brothers tell us there are invasions,
people entering the territories with no regard for the rules and no
fear of the authorities.” This final point is critical because
while impunity has long been the norm in Brazil, the utter disregard
for any semblance of governmental or law enforcement oversight will
likely increase underr Bolsoanro who has all but given his blessing
to displacement and violence against these groups.

Ultimately,
the struggle is about land rights, especially for the indigenous
peoples who have fought for official demarcation of lands for
decades.

Dinamã
Tuxá, Coordinator of Brazil’s Association of Indigenous Peoples
(APIB) 
summed
it up neatly
:

This
scenario is totally heartbreaking. Bolsonaro has made clear and
consistent declarations about ending the titling of indigenous lands,
which are completely opposed to our rights. His racist, homophobic,
misogynist, fascist discourse shows how Brazilian politics will be in
the coming years… His discourse gives those who live around
indigenous lands the right to practice violence without any sort of
accountability. Those who invade indigenous lands and kill our people
will be esteemed. He represents an institutionalization of genocide
in Brazil.

Of
course it must be remembered that Afro-Brazilian communities will be
targeted as well. Marielle Franco’s assassination in March 2018 was
in many ways a watershed moment for the social movements in the
country. However, rather than driving positive political change on
the national level, Brazil has instead elected a fascist leader who
praises the extrajudicial methods historically employed by the
dictatorship and its enablers in the country.  It remains to be
seen how the left can regroup, respond, and reestablish its political
power.

One
thing is certain in both Brazil and Colombia: the far right is in
power, and that means the war on social movements and activists is
only just getting started.

And
while it may seem bleak as we read about seemingly daily atrocities
visited upon the indigenous and poor of these (and other Latin
American) countries, we cannot simply despair. Instead, we must
organize and mobilize. For those of us in the Global North, that
means doing what we can to be in solidarity with these activists,
helping to build power internationally.

Duque,
Bolsonaro, and the far right of Latin America may have ascended to
power, but they are not omnipotent.

Now
is the time for organizing; the time for struggle; the time for
resistance.

More
articles by: 
ERIC
DRAITSER

===================================

Zie ook:

Bolivia: staatsgreep maakt eind aan succesvol presidentschap Evo Morales‘ (zie ook de links in dat bericht naar meer artikelen over Bolivia, waar de VS in feite een coup heeft georganiseerd….)

Amazonegebied in brand, Black Rock verdient daar vele miljoenen mee

Braziliaanse natuurbeschermer vermoord door illegale houthakkers

Berta Cáceres voorvechter gelijke rechten en milieuactivist vermoord in Honduras

Hondurese activiste ontvoerd en vermoord (alweer…), met instemming van de VS………

Hillary Clinton mede verantwoordelijk voor moord op Berta Cáceres………..

Door VS gesteunde bewind in Honduras heeft de staat van beleg afgekondigd……..

9 ‘ex-FARC rebellen’ vermoord door leger Colombia: FARC-EP opgericht

Koenders heeft vrijlating gegijzelde Spoorloos makers in Colombia bewerkstelligt……. AUW!!!

Paus Franciscus in Colombia om vrede te prediken……

People of Brazil: my sincere condolences with ‘your’ fascistic, psychopathic president Bolsonaro……

VS commando’s vechten o.a. in Midden- en Zuid-Amerika, aldus het VS ministerie van oorlog………

NAVO gaat VS helpen in Zuid-Amerika terreur uit te oefenen: Colombia lid van de NAVO………

NAVO naar Zuid-Amerika? Weg met dit agressieve, terroristische bondgenootschap, NU!!!

Bolton geeft toe dat de VS een fascistisch beleid voert……

Bolsonaro, de fascistische nieuwe president van Brazilië, werd volgens Avaaz en fake news brengers als de NYT gekozen door manipulatie via WhatsApp

Bolsonaro wint Braziliaanse verkiezingen >> weer zijn we een fascistisch geleid land ‘rijker…’

Braziliaanse verkiezingen: democratie versus (neo-) fascisme, ook een groot gevaar in Europa

Katy Sherriff (Radio1 correspondent Z-Amerika) brandt socialistische partij Brazilië af……

Wat betreft VS terreur in Bolivia:

NOS met fake news over Bolivia

Bolivianen eisen hun president terug

Bolivia: staatsgreep maakt eind aan succesvol presidentschap Evo Morales

Bolivia: bewijs op tafel dat VS aanstuurt op een coup

Bolivia’s Evo Morales ‘unhurt’ after helicopter emergency landing

The US EMBASSY in Bolivia continues carrying out covert actions to support the coup d’état against President Evo Morales.

Bolivia Closes 2018 Among The Highest Economic Growth Rates

Bolivia’s Remarkable Socialist Success Story: President Evo Morales has transformed his country’s economy with an unapologetically left-wing agenda.

Venezolaanse verkiezingen door Maduro gewonnen, ondanks economische oorlogvoering VS

In
het hieronder opgenomen artikel aandacht voor alle (gewelddadige)
bemoeienis van de VS met Midden- en Zuid-Amerika. Naar aanleiding van
de verkiezingen in Venezuela is de aandacht met name op dit land
gericht, een land dat zich probeert te verdedigen tegen de
economische oorlogvoering van de VS, een oorlogvoering die al jaren
duurt en die m.n. het volk keihard treft….

Zo
bevoorraden de VS winkelketens voor levensmiddelen al een paar jaar
hun winkels niet meer, dit onder druk van de VS regering (ingevoerd
onder ‘vredesduif’ Obama….). Medicijnen, veelal afkomstig uit de VS
zijn bijna niet meer te krijgen, intussen zijn door het gebrek aan medicijnen zelfs al mensen overleden…. Je had het al begrepen: dit alles om zo een
ontevreden bevolking te kweken, die zich tegen de democratisch
gekozen regering zou moeten keren…..

Lullig
voor de VS, maar ook nu weer heeft de
Venezolaanse bevolking gekozen voor een regering onder Maduro, de
huidige linkse president….. Niet zo vreemd, zeker als je ziet wat
Chavez, de voorganger van Maduro en Maduro zelf hebben gedaan voor de
grote arme onderlaag: fatsoenlijke huisvesting, scholing en medische
zorg, plus een inkomen waar men mee rond kan komen (al is dat door de eerder genoemde VS
bemoeienis een stuk moeilijker geworden)….  

Voornoemde
zaken, belangenbehartiging voor het arme deel van Venezuela, zijn uiteraard een doorn in het oog van de VS, dat zelf kampt
met een enorm grote arme onderlaag, die men maar al te graag onder de
duim houdt…… Een zaak waarvan het beest Trump een sport heeft gemaakt,
met veel leugens wist hij deze mensen te paaien om op hem te stemmen, maar zoals verwacht: van
zijn beloften komt niet veel terecht, iets dat hij aan anderen wijt
en niet aan het smerige onmenselijke neoliberale beleid dat hij
voert…..

Afgelopen zondag, werden er verkiezingen gehouden in Venezuela, reden voor de reguliere media in ons land in dit geval Radio1 en de nationale radiozenders van Duitsland en Groot-Brittannië (plus uiteraard de andere westerse massamedia) de laatste weken Venezuela en dan met name president Maduro te demoniseren….. De oppositie boycot deze verkiezingen, daar men van tevoren wist dat Maduro deze verkiezingen zou winnen….. 

Volgens deze nationale radiozenders zouden deze verkiezingen niet eerlijk zijn verlopen >> dat de VN deze verkiezingen controleerde noemde men er maar niet bij……. (daarover zo meer)

OP WDR liet men een correspondent horen die sprak ‘met een willekeurige passant’. Deze liet weten dat er geen voedsel meer te krijgen is en er een groot gebrek is aan medicijnen, dit is de schuld van falend overheidsbeleid, aldus de vrouwelijke passant……. De schuld van de overheid of de schuld van de VS dat al jaren een economische oorlog voert tegen Venezuela, zoals hierboven beschreven….???

Na de verkiezingen is het helemaal bal, de reguliere westerse media schreeuwen het uit met o.a. de volgende woorden: -de verkiezingen zijn frauduleus verlopen, -de verkiezingen zijn gestolen door Maduro, de verkiezingen waren een schijnvertoning en -stemmen zouden zijn gekocht*. Wat al deze media er niet bijvertellen, is het feit dat VN waarnemers deze verkiezingen hebben gecontroleerd en tot op heden heb ik geen verklaring gehoord van internationale waarnemers dat de verkiezingen frauduleus zijn verlopen, zoals dot ook in 2012 niet het geval was, terwijl ook toen veel organen van diezelfde media stelden dat de verkiezingen waren gestoken….. 

Marc Bessems van de ´onafhankelijke´ NOS kon natuurlijk niet achterblijven en bakte ze donkerbruin, volgens hem stond de uitslag al maanden geleden vast….. Ja Bessems, het was maanden geleden al bekend dat Maduro zou winnen, vandaar ook dat oppositiepartijen de verkiezingen hebben geboycot, oppositiepartijen die willens en wetens geweld op de straten van Venezuela brachten (zo hebben ze zelfs tegenstanders met benzine overgoten en in brand gestoken, dit nog naast het in brand steken van een geboortekliniek, terwijl daar moeders met baby’s aanwezig waren….)….. 

´Helaas´ voor deze figuren was en is het grootste deel van de bevolking arm en ja voor die groep heeft Maduro, zoals zijn voorganger Chavez, heel veel gedaan nadat ze een enorm lange tijd werden vertrapt door uiterst rechtse regeringen en dictaturen, kijk dat vergeet het overgrote deel van deze mensen niet!

Bessems durft als vele anderen te stellen dat het Maduro regime een wanbeleid heeft gevoerd en dat dit de oorzaak is van de economische ellende in Venezuela…… Bessems moet weten dat de VS hiervoor één op één verantwoordelijk is, ongelofelijk dat deze ´onafhankelijke journalist´ dergelijke leugens keer op keer durft te herhalen, sterker nog: hij durft in feite zelfs te stellen dat de regering Maduro liegt als het de VS beschuldigt van economische oorlogvoering tegen Venezuela………. (wedden dat Bessems goed bevriend is met welgestelde, anti-socialistische, anti-Maduro Venezolanen??)

Lees
het volgende uitgebreide (prima) artikel over de smerige rol die de
VS de laatste decennia in Midden- en Zuid-Amerika heeft ‘gespeeld’,
bewerkt door Roger Harris, dat eerder op Consortium News werd
gepubliceerd:

The
US is Definitely Meddling in the Venezuelan Election

May
19, 2018 at 8:09 pm

Written
by 
Consortium
News

(CN Op-ed) — Venezuelan
President Nicolás Maduro is the frontrunner in the presidential
elections that will take place on Sunday. If past pronouncements and
practice by the United States are any indication, every effort will
be made to oust an avowed socialist from the the U.S. “backyard
.”

This
week, the leftist president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, 
tweeted:
“Before the elections they (U.S. and allies) will carry out violent
actions supported by the media and after the elections they will try
a military invasion with Armed Forces from neighboring countries.”

U.S.
antipathy towards the Venezuelan government started with the election
of Hugo Chávez in 1998, followed by a brief and unsuccessful
U.S.-backed coup in 2002. Chávez made the magnanimous, but
politically imprudent, gesture of pardoning the golpistas,
who are still trying to achieve by extra-parliamentary means what
they have been unable to realize democratically. After Chávez died
in 2013, the Venezuelans elected Maduro to carry on what has become
known as the Bolivarian Revolution.

The
Phantom Menace

In
2015 then U.S. President Barack Obama declared “a national
emergency” because of a supposed Venezuelan threat to the U.S. The
U.S. has military bases to the west of Venezuela in Colombia and to
the east in the Dutch colonial islands. The Fourth Fleet patrols
Venezuela’s Caribbean coast. Yet somehow in the twisted logic of
imperialism, the phantom of Venezuela posed a menacing,
“extraordinary threat” to the U.S.

Each
year Obama renewed and deepened sanctions against Venezuela under the
National Emergencies Act. Taking no chances that his successor might
not be sufficiently hostile to Venezuela, Obama prematurely renewed
the sanctions his last year in office even though the sanctions would
not have expired until two months into Trump’s tenure.

The
fear was that presumptive U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson might
try to normalize U.S. -Venezuelan relations to negotiate an oil deal
between Venezuela and his former employer Exxon. As it turns out, the
Democrats need not have feared Trump going soft on regime change.

Last
August, Donald Trump publicly raised the “military option” to
overthrow Venezuela’s democratically-elected government. Then David
Smilde of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) 
counseled for
regime change, not by military means, but by “deepening the current
sanctions” to “save Venezuela.” The somewhat liberal,
inside-the-beltway NGO argued against a direct military invasion
because the Venezuelan military would resist, not because such an act
is the gravest violation of international law.

Meanwhile
the sanctions have taken a punishing toll on the Venezuelan people,
even 
causing
death
.
Sanctions are designed, in Richard Nixon’s blood-curdling words, to
“make the economy scream” so that the people will abandon their
democratically elected government for one vetted by the U.S.

                        

Maduro:
Phony threat to the U.S.

In
January, Trump’s first State of the Union address called for regime
change of leftist governments in Latin America, boasting, “My
government has imposed harsh sanctions on the communist and socialist
dictatorships of Cuba and Venezuela.” Hearing these stirring words,
both Democrats and Republicans burst out in thunderous applause.

Dictatorships,”
as the term is wielded by the U.S. government and mainstream media,
should be understood as countries that try to govern in the interests
of their own peoples rather than privileging the dictates of the U.S.
State Department and the prerogatives of international capital.

Attack
of the Clones

In
addition to summoning Venezuela’s sycophantic domestic opposition,
who support sanctions against their own people, the U.S. has gone on
the offensive using the regional Lima Group to destabilize Venezuela.
The group was established last August in Lima, the capital of Peru,
as a block to oppose Venezuela.

The
eighth Summit of the Americas was held in Lima in April under the
lofty slogan of “democratic governance against corruption.”
Unfortunately for the imperialists, the president of the host country
was unable to greet the other U.S. clones. A few days earlier he had
been forced to resign because of corruption. Venezuelan President
Maduro was barred from attending.

Along
with Peru and the U.S. ’ ever faithful junior partner Canada, other
members of the Lima Group are:

  • Mexico,
    a prime participant of the U.S. -sponsored War on Drugs, is plagued
    with drug cartel violence. The frontrunner for the July presidential
    election is left-of-center Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who
    is widely believed to have won the last two elections only to have
    them stolen from him.
     

  • Panama’s
    government is a direct descendent of the one installed on a U.S.
    warship when the U.S. invaded Panama in 1989. Recall the 
    triggering
    incident
     that
    unleashed U.S. bombs and 
    26,000
    troops
     into
    Panama against a defense force of 3,000: a GI in civilian clothes
    was fatally shot running a military checkpoint and another GI and
    his wife were assaulted. What similarly grave affront to the global
    hegemon might precipitate a comparable military response for
    Venezuela? Panama imposed sanctions against Venezuela in a spat in
    April, accusing Venezuela of money laundering. Panama is a regional
    money laundering center for the illicit drug trade (some alleged
    through a 
    Trump-owned
    hotel
    ). 

  • Argentina
    elected Mauricio Macri president in 2015. He immediately sold the
    country out to the vulture funds and the IMF while imposing severe
    austerity measures on working people. The economy has tanked,
    reversing the gains of the previous left-leaning presidencies of
    Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández. Military and diplomatic
    deference to the U.S. has become the order of the day. Macri has
    negotiated installation of two U.S. military bases in Argentina,
    first with Obama and now with Trump.
     

  • Brazil
    deposed its left-leaning, democratically elected President Dilma
    Rousseff in a 2016 parliamentary coup. Her successor, the unelected
    Michel Temer, has imposed austerity measures and cooperated with the
    U.S. in joint military exercises along the Brazilian border with
    Venezuela. Temer suffers from single digit popularity ratings and is
    barred from running for public office due to a corruption
    conviction. Former left-leaning president “Lula” da Silva is the
    frontrunner in October’s presidential election but was imprisoned
    in April by Temer’s government.
     

  • Chile
    was the victim of the U.S. -backed coup, which overthrew the elected
    left-leaning government of Salvador Allende in 1973. A reign of
    terror followed with the extreme rightwing government of Gen.
    Augusto Pinochet killing thousands. An economic and diplomatic
    destabilization campaign coordinated by Washington set the stage for
    the coup. The Chilean regime-change scenario could be the model for
    Venezuela. The rightwing opposition in Venezuela torched a maternity
    hospital with mothers and babies inside and even poured gasoline on
    suspected Chávez supporters, 
    burning
    them alive
    . 

  • Colombia
    is the U.S. ’ closest ally in the region, the recipient of the
    most U.S. military aid, and the source of the greatest amount of
    illicit drugs afflicting the U.S. . The Colombian government has
    flaunted its recent peace accords with the FARC and continues to be
    a world leader with 
    7
    million
     internally
    displaced persons and political assassinations of trade union
    leaders, human rights workers, and journalists. In cooperation with
    the U.S. , Colombia has been provocatively massing troops along its
    border with Venezuela.
     

  • Costa
    Rica is a neoliberal state that has been a staunch silent partner of
    U.S. imperialism ever since it served as a base for the Contra war
    against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.
     

  • Guatemala
    is a major source of undocumented immigrants fleeing violence into
    the relative safety of the U.S. . Femicide is rampant as is criminal
    impunity, all legacies of the U.S. -backed dirty war of genocide
    from the 1960s through the ‘80s, which claimed some 200,000 Mayan
    lives.
     

  • Honduras’
    left-leaning President Zelaya was deposed in a U.S. -backed coup in
    2009. In the aftermath of rightwing repression and domestic
    violence, Honduras earned the title of murder capital of the world.
    The current rightwing president was reelected last November in an
    election so blatantly fraudulent that even the Organization of
    American States (OAS) 
    failed to
    endorse the results.
     

  • Paraguay
    is the site of the first of the rightwing parliamentary coups in the
    region when left-leaning President Fernando Lugo was deposed in
    2012.

Pinochet:
Torturer and Murderer backed by U.S.

Such
is the nature of the right-wing states allied against Venezuela in
contemporary Latin America. Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of this
right tide is the willingness of Brazil and Argentina to allow U.S.
military installations in their border areas as well as conducting
joint U.S. -led military exercises with contingents from Panama,
Colombia and other countries.

Cuba,
Bolivia, and Nicaragua are Venezuela’s few remaining regional
allies, all of which have been subject to U.S. -backed regime-change
schemes. Most recently, the Nicaraguan government undertook modest
measures to increase workers’ and employers’ contributions but
lower benefits. It led to violent demonstrations. Some 
sources
hostile
 to
the Ortega government labelled the protests as “made in the U.S.
A.” In the face of such protests, the government 
rescinded the
changes on April 23.

The
Empire Strikes Back

In
early April, the U.S. Southern Command conducted a series of military
exercises, dubbed “Fused Response,” just 10 miles off the
Venezuelan coast, simulating an invasion.

Later
that month, Juan Cruz, Special Assistant to President Trump and
Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs, was asked whether the
U.S. government 
supports
a military coup
 in
Venezuela. Speaking for the White House and dripping with imperial
arrogance, he responded affirmatively:

If
you look at the history of Venezuela, there’s never been a seminal
movement in Venezuela’s history, politics, that did not involve the
military. And so it would be naïve for us to think that a solution
in Venezuela wouldn’t in some fashion include a very strong nod –
at a minimum – strong nod from the military, a whisper in the ear,
a coaxing or a nudging, or something a lot stronger than that.”

Across
the Atlantic on May 3, the European Parliament demanded Venezuela
suspend presidential elections. Four days later, U.S. Vice President
Pence called on the OAS to expel Venezuela. Adding injury to insult,
the U.S. announced yet another round of sanctions. Then the next day,
U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley joined the chorus calling on
President Maduro to cancel the presidential election and resign.

Haley:
End Venezuelan election. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

Far
more blatant and frightening is the 
Plan
to Overthrow the Venezuelan Dictatorship – Masterstroke, 
dated
February 23, 2018.
Masterstroke was
leaked on the website 
Voltairenet.org and
picked up by Stella Calloni in the reliable and respected 
Resumen
Latinoamericano
.

Although Masterstroke is
unverified, the contents as reported by Calloni are entirely
consistent with U.S. policy and pronouncements:

The
document signed by the head of the U.S. Southern Command demands
making the Maduro government unsustainable by forcing him to give up,
negotiate or escape. This Plan to end in very short terms the
so-called ‘dictatorship’ of Venezuela calls
for, ‘Increase internal instability to critical levels,
intensifying the decapitalization of the country, the escape of
foreign capital and the deterioration of the national currency,
through the application of new inflationary measures that increase
this deterioration.’”

That
is, blame the Venezuelan government for the conditions imposed upon
it by its enemies.

Masterstroke calls
for, “Continuing to harden the condition within the (Venezuelan)
Armed Forces to carry out a coup d’état, before the end of 2018,
if this crisis does not cause the dictatorship to collapse or if the
dictator (Maduro) does not decide to step aside.”

Failing
an internal coup, Masterstroke plans an international
military invasion: “Uniting Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Panama
to contribute a good number of troops, make use of their geographic
proximity…”

A
New Hope

With
the urging of the Pope and under the auspices of the government of
the Dominican Republic, the Maduro government and elements of the
opposition agreed to sit down to negotiate last January in the hopes
of ending the cycle of violence and the deterioration of living
conditions in Venezuela.

By
early February they had come to a tentative agreement to hold
elections. The Maduro government initially opposed a UN election
observation team as a violation of national sovereignty, but then
accepted it as a concession to the opposition. The opposition in turn
would work to end the unilateral sanctions by the U.S. , Canada, and
the EU, which are so severely crippling the daily life of ordinary
Venezuelans. Two years of adroit diplomacy by the Maduro government
with the less extreme elements of the opposition were bearing fruit.

The
agreement had been crafted and a meeting was called for the
government and the opposition to sign on. The government came to the
final meeting, but not the opposition. The opposition as good clones
of Washington had 
gotten
a call
 from
their handlers to bail.

In
a damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don’t scenario, the U.S. first
accused Venezuela of not scheduling presidential elections. Then
elections were scheduled, but too early for the U.S. . Then the date
of the elections was moved to April and then extended to May. No
matter what, the U.S. would not abide by any elections in
Venezuela.Ipso factoelections are considered fraudulent by
U.S. if the people might vote for the wrong candidate.

Mesa
de la Unidad Democrática
(MUD),
the coalition of Venezuelan opposition groups allied with and
partially funded by the U.S., are accordingly boycotting Sunday’s
election and are putting pressure on Henri Falcón to withdraw his
candidacy. Falcón is Maduro’s main competition in the election.
MUD has already concluded that the election is fraudulent and are
doing all they can to discourage voting.

CNBC,
reflecting the Washington consensus, expects the U.S. to directly
target the Venezuelan oil industry immediately after the election in
what they describe as “a huge 
sucker
punch
 to
Maduro’s socialist administration, which is depending almost
entirely on crude sales to try and decelerate a deepening economic
crisis.”

Ever
hopeful and always militant, Maduro launched the new Petro
cryptocurrency and revalued the country’s traditional currency, the
Bolivar, in March. The Petro is collateralized on Venezuela’s vast
mineral resources: the largest petroleum reserves in the world and
large reserves of gold and other precious metals. The U.S.
immediately accused Venezuela of sinisterly trying to circumvent the
sanctions…which is precisely the intent of the Petro and other
economic reforms, some of which are promised for after the
presidential election.

The
Force Awakens

Latin
America has been considered the U.S. empire’s proprietary backyard
since the proclamation of the Monroe Document in 1823, reaffirmed by
John F. Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress in 1961, and asserted by
today’s open military posturing by President Trump.

The
so-called Pink Tide of left-leaning governments spearheaded by
Venezuela in the early part of this century served as a
counter-hegemonic force. By any objective estimation that force has
been ebbing but can awaken.

Before
Chávez, all of Latin America suffered under neoliberal regimes
except Cuba. If Maduro is overthrown, a major obstacle to
re-establishing this hemispheric wide neoliberalism would be gone.

The
future of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution is pivotal to the
future of the counter-hegemonic project, which is why it is the
empire’s prime target in the Western Hemisphere. If the Venezuelan
government falls, all Latin American progressive movements could
suffer immensely: AMLO’s campaign in Mexico, the resistance in
Honduras and Argentina, maybe the complete end of the peace
accords in Colombia, a left alternative to Lenin Moreno in Ecuador,
the Sandinista social programs in Nicaragua, the struggle for Lula’s
presidency in Brazil, and even Morales and the indigenous
movements in Bolivia.

Kissinger:
Issue too important for democracy.

As
U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger said in 1970: “I
don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist
due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too
important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for
themselves.”

Op-ed
by Roger D. Harris / Republished with permission / 
Consortium
News
 / Report
a typo

=============================

* Terwijl de VS zoals gezegd al een aantal jaren bezig is de bevolking tegen de socialistische regering op te zetten middels een economische oorlog, die zoals gewoonlijk de gewone bevolking het hardst treft……. Over het beïnvloeden van verkiezingen gesproken…….. 

Op 18 juni 2018 kop veranderd: zag tot mijn schrik dat ik het woord ‘door’ per abuis 2 keer heb vermeld (doordat de koptekst in concept werd veranderd), mijn excuus.