US Takes Illegal, Dangerous Actions Toward Regime Change in Venezuela

[Judi Lynn]

US Takes Illegal, Dangerous Actions Toward Regime Change in Venezuela



Pro-government supporters march during a rally on April 6, 2019, in Caracas, Venezuela.
EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI / GETTY IMAGES

BY
Marjorie Cohn, Truthout
PUBLISHED
April 7, 2019

The United States is taking illegal and dangerous actions to execute regime change in Venezuela. In January, Juan Guaidó declared himself “interim president,” in a strategy orchestrated by the United States to seize power from President Nicolás Maduro.

. . .

This strategy is detailed in a 75-page regime change manual prepared by the U.S. Global Development Lab, a branch of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The manual advocates the creation of rapid expeditionary development teams to partner with the CIA and U.S. Special Forces to conduct “a mix of offensive, defensive, and stability operations [in] in extremis conditions.”

Some of these actions will, in all likelihood, involve combat operations. A USAID official said, “Anybody who doesn’t think we need to be working in combat elements or working with SF [special forces] groups is just naïve.”

. . .

Guaidó is funded by USAID’s sister organization, the National Endowment for Democracy, which is notorious for meddling in other countries and putting a good face on the CIA’s dirty business, as the late journalist William Blum explained.

More:
https://truthout.org/articles/us-takes-illegal-dangerous-actions-toward-regime-change-in-venezuela/

[roody]

1. You won't see this in the MSM.

[Blue_Tires]

2. And here's what you won't see on Truthout

Link to tweet

[Blue_Tires]

3. So... Care to edit or delete this?

[Judi Lynn]

6. Ah, yes, the announcer was devastated, wasn't he? "Oh, the humanity." Uh, huh.

They started throwing up images which, when tracked down, were from Eastern Europe, the mid-east, etc. over time, pretending they were actual events happening in Venezuela. Everyone is very familiar with that racket, clearly, starting a very long time ago.

[Blue_Tires]

7. False Flag accusations? Oh come on, you're better than that...

Just admit to yourself that you're doing the Kremlin's work by propping up a despot like Maduro and cut bait...

This isn't the hill you want to die on.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Democrats choose their hills after doing continual research, instead of swallowing propaganda. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

11. Oh I get it -- We love despotic bullies as long as they're leftist despotic bullies now?

Please show me this "research" that says Maduro is such a swell guy and why the BBC and other respected world media is "propaganda" all of a sudden -- Because right now you're dancing dangerously close to the line of "insulting my intelligence"...

Can't WAIT to read it...

PROTIP: You'll have to do a hell of a lot better than some no-name at Truthout...

[PufPuf23]

12. Economist Jeffrey Sachs: U.S. Sanctions Have Devastated Venezuela & Killed Over 40,000 Since 2017

Sachs is about as reputable an economist as it gets.

Evidently you have not been paying much attention to Venezuela. Judi Lynn does pay attention. Just because one does not embrace USA foreign policy and methods regard "regime change" does not mean one embraces Maduro. Neither does not approving of aggressive foreign policy make one a commie or otherwise supporter of the Kremlin; that is sleazy and stupid, evidently you are a fan of Trump and Bolton and 3rd world oligarchs in general. See how that works?

May 01, 2019

More than 40,000 people have died in Venezuela since 2017 as a result of U.S. sanctions, according to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research co-authored by economists Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot. The report examines how U.S. sanctions have reduced the availability of food and medicine in Venezuela and increased disease and mortality. We speak with Jeffrey Sachs in our New York studio. In the report, he writes, “American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and thereby lead to regime change. It’s a fruitless, heartless, illegal, and failed policy, causing grave harm to the Venezuelan people.”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. Our guests are Miguel Tinker Salas, a Venezuelan professor at Pomona College in California; Jeffrey Sachs is with us here in New York, leading economist and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He’s recently co-authored a report for the Center for Economic and Policy Research headlined “Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela.”

So much is being used against the presidency of Maduro, saying he’s brought the country to an economic standstill. You make a different case, Jeffrey Sachs.

JEFFREY SACHS: Well, it’s not an economic standstill. It’s a complete economic collapse, a catastrophe, in Venezuela. There was a crisis, for sure, before Trump came to office, but the idea of the Trump administration, from the start, has been to overthrow Maduro. That’s not a hypothesis. Trump was very explicit in discussions with presidents of Latin America, where he asked them, “Why shouldn’t the U.S. just invade?” He said that already in 2017. So the idea of the Trump administration has been to overthrow Maduro from the start. Well, the Latin leaders said, “No, no, that’s not a good idea. We don’t want military action.” So the U.S. government has been trying to strangle the Venezuelan economy.

It started with sanctions in 2017 that prevented, essentially, the country from accessing international capital markets and the oil company from restructuring its loans. That put Venezuela into a hyperinflation. That was the utter collapse. Oil earnings plummeted. The earnings that are used to buy food and medicine collapsed. That’s when the social, humanitarian crisis went spiraling out of control. And then, in this year, with this idea, very naive, very stupid, in my view, that there would be this self-proclaimed president, which was all choreographed with the United States very, very closely, another round of even tighter sanctions, essentially confiscating the earnings and the assets of the Venezuelan government, took place.

Now Venezuela is in complete, utter catastrophe, a lot of it brought on by the United States deliberately, creating massive, massive suffering. We know there’s hunger. We know there’s a incredible shortage of medical supplies. We can only imagine, because we won’t know really until the dust settles and careful studies are done, how much excess mortality there is, but, surely, in a context like this, this is a catastrophe largely created by the U.S., because, as was said earlier, this is an all-or-nothing strategy. What the U.S.—what Trump just doesn’t understand and what Bolton, of all, of course, never agrees to, is the idea of negotiations. This is an attempt at an overthrow. It’s very crude. It’s not working. And it’s very cruel, because it’s punishing 30 million people.

Remainder of interview transcript and video under a Creative Commons License at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/1/economist_jeffrey_sachs_us_sanctions_have

[Judi Lynn]

14. Just discovered your post, and read some of the transcript. So glad to see it.

Amy Goodman is impeccable, thorough, and totally, constantly conscientious. She has been courageous throughout her career, and has never wavered in her dedication. She is a true journalist.

Have read things by Miguel Tinker Salas for some time. Excellent person. Am looking forward to finishing the reading, and watching the interview.

Thank you, so much, for your information.

[PufPuf23]

15. You are most welcome.

I admire your fortitude and heart at DU.

Jeffrey Sachs is no slouch either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs

Some other DUers do not grasp the propaganda they themselves fling and attempt to stifle discussion.

[Blue_Tires]

17. Nobody who has Greenwald and Assange on every week

can be called a "true journalist" by any stretch...

By the way, thanks for completely dodging my point for the hundredth time...

[Blue_Tires]

16. You'll have to do better than Democracy Now

which these days might as well be Maduro's pro bono PR firm...

[Blue_Tires]

18. I'll just leave these here, chief

https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-is-starving-1493995317

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/02/08/us-says-maduro-is-blocking-aid-starving-people-venezuelan-says-his-people-arent-beggars/?utm_term=.b86e2eb35532

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/world/americas/venezuela-aid-block-brazil.html

https://globalnews.ca/news/4930480/maduro-venezuela-putin-russia/

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-usa-weddle/u-s-journalist-detained-in-venezuela-says-he-was-pushed-to-support-maduro-idUSKCN1QO2MI

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-12/venezuelan-police-arrest-prominent-journalist-as-he-cycles-home

https://cpj.org/blog/2019/03/venezuela-crisis-detained-journalist-weddle-maduro.php

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/human-rights-groups-say-deaths-venezuelan-protesters-appear-be-targeted-n973651

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/venezuela-security-forces-punish-anti-maduro-protesters-amnesty-190220174639089.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/world/americas/venezuela-maduro-protests-faes.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/maduro-government-detains-expels-journalists-in-bid-to-keep-power/2019/01/31/a736ad2a-24cc-11e9-b5b4-1d18dfb7b084_story.html

You people sure do know how to pick your "heroes"

Yeah, yeah I know the drill -- Y'all will dismiss all these links and the hundreds more like them as imperialist propaganda or whatever, so I'll leave you to your devices.

[PufPuf23]

19. You would be better mannered to read other other's posts and knock off the insults.

Sachs is a well-respected economist and specializes in poverty and the conversion of communist to capitalist economies. He is not popular as some because Sachs is a Keynesian and not a neo-liberal economist. Some say neo-liberal is a meaningless word but it specifies an economic approach.

Yes you are catapulting the propaganda. Venezuela has been targeted since Chavez was elected POTUS of Venezuela. Neither Chavez nor (much less so) Madura are my cup of tea. Venezuela has been subject to several failed coups, notably 2002; an oil strike and oil sector sabotage, and a separatist movement in Zulia. THE USA established military lily pads on Curacao and Aruba (not that developed because of local opposition) as part of Plan Colombia.

The Maracaibo Basin of west Venezuela was important in WWII; the two largest oil refineries in the World then were Lagos Colony on Aruba and Shell on Curacoa. Germany actually attacked Lagos Colony. If (when) there is ever a hot WWIII, the very first thing the USA will do is seize western Venezuela for the oil.

So Trump now with the aid of Bolton and Abrams have turned up the heat in destroying the already struggling Venezuelan economy since 2017. It is a shame that the conditions have been so dire for most people of Venezuela despite the great natural resource wealth; they seem to get screwed over by their own leadership, left or right wing, and are subject to outside interference to keep the oil flowing and money coming in to the wealthy over basic needs of most people there.

So keep in mind you are siding with Trump, Bolton, Abrams, and the part of the CIA that specializes in destabilizing resource-rich countries for regime change. Often the regime changes make some rich but don't do much for the USA nor the local people as a whole; think Iran, Libya, and Iraq.

[reACTIONary]

4. Venezuela SOS!

Regime change NOW

[Judi Lynn]

5. hy Does the United States of America Want to Overthrow the Government of Venezuela?

Published on
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
by Common Dreams

A look at what drives the US to persist in its interventions—diplomatic, economic and military—against the Venezuelan government

by Vijay Prashad

Since 1998, the United States of America has tried to overthrow the government of Venezuela. What threatened the government of the United States since then was the Bolivarian dynamic set in motion by the election of Hugo Chávez as president of Venezuela that year. Chávez won the elections with a mandate from Venezuela’s workers and poor to overhaul the country to tend to their long-neglected needs.

Venezuela, with the world’s largest proven oil reserves, had enriched the U.S.-based oil companies and its own oligarchy. Venezuela’s key oil minister in the early 1960s (and architect of OPEC—the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso rightly called oil the “devil’s excrement.” It promised so much and delivered so little. Chávez arrived as the embodiment of popular hope. He threatened the oil companies and the oligarchy, which is why the United States tried to overthrow him.

The first attempt at a coup came in 2002, when the United States egged on the military and the oligarchy to overthrow Chávez. They failed. He was supremely popular, the Chavista base eager for change that would improve their lives. They had no faith in the United States or the oligarchy, both of whom had suffocated them for the past century.

Never has the Monroe Doctrine—which the United States invoked to control the American hemisphere—done much good for the millions of people from the southern tip of Argentina to the northern reaches of Canada. It has helped along the big corporations and the oligarchs, but not the ordinary people—the base of the Chavistas.

More:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/02/12/why-does-united-states-america-want-overthrow-government-venezuela

[BeckyDem]

8. +1

Thanks for the posts on this topic.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Thanks for reading them, BeckyDem. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

20. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Judi Lynn.