Washington already is waging political and economic war on the country, along with months of CIA-orchestrated street violence, responsible for scores of deaths, hundreds of injuries and numerous arrests made in an attempt to restore order.
Will Trump terror-bomb or invade the country next? Is sending in the Marines or other combat troops planned?
What’s going on? Venezuela never attacked its neighbors. It threatens none now, nor America.
Washington opposes its sovereign independence, its Bolivarian social democracy, the world’s best electoral system, the notion of sharing the nation’s wealth with its people, its refusal to be subservient to US interests. And it has the world’s largest proved oil reserves.
That’s what (US-orchestrated) internal turmoil is all about, falsely blamed on government efforts to restore order, Western media disinformation, Big Lies and fake news part of the problem.
When asked about his intentions for Venezuela, Trump said, “We have many options . . . The people are suffering and they’re dying. We have many options . . . including a possible military option if necessary.”
Trump refused a request by President Nicolas Maduro to speak by phone or meet next month in New York during the UN General Assembly’s 72nd session, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying: “Since the start of this administration, President Trump has asked that Maduro respect Venezuela’s constitution, hold free and fair elections, release political prisoners, cease all human rights violations, and stop oppressing Venezuela’s great people.”
Maduro “refused to heed this call . . . Instead [he] has chosen the path of dictatorship . . . President Trump will gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela as soon as democracy is restored in that country.”
Fact check:
Maduro scrupulously observes the letter and spirit of Venezuelan constitutional law.
The nation’s democratic elections are the world’s best, shaming America’s money-controlled sham process, one-party rule with two right wings, independents shut out.
People are imprisoned in Venezuela for criminality, not political reasons—unlike America’s system, thousands languishing in its global gulag despite innocence of wrongdoing.
Venezuela respects human rights for all its people. America is the world’s leading human rights abuser.
Venezuelans aren’t oppressed—unlike millions at home and abroad grievously harmed by US contempt for democratic values and rule of law principles.
Venezuela is governed democratically—unlike police state rule in America, serving its privileged class exclusively, abusing and exploiting its most vulnerable, waging war on humanity for unchallenged global dominance, raping and destroying one country after another to achieve it, threatening war and regime change on any nation it doesn’t control.
In response to Trump’s threat, Constituent Assembly President Delcy Rodriguez tweeted: “We reject the cowardly, insolent and infamous threats of the United States PDT @realDonaldTrump against the sacred sovereignty of Venezuela.”
Defense Minister Padrino Lopez blasted Trump’s “madness [and] supreme extremism,” adding “an extremist elite . . . rules the United States.”
Communication and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas tweeted: “Trump is the most . . . insolent threat ever made against the Bolivar homeland . . .”
Chile, a US ally, rejected military action, its Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz tweeting: “Reiterating all the terms of the Lima Declaration on Venezuela, Chile rejects the threat of military intervention in Venezuela.”
Former Mexican President Vincente Fox tweeted only an “imbecile would wage war” in the hemisphere.
US presidents learned long ago that tough talk against a vilified nation is a good way to boost public support.
How Americans would react to one or more additional wars could be something else entirely—already sick and tired about ongoing endless ones, along with disapproving of Trump by a two-to-one margin in recent polls.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
The US doesn’t need to overtly militarily intervene in Venezuela with all the economic sabotage and political violence its already causing. This implied threat is psychological warfare pure and simple. The US government wants Venezuela’s oil and other resources to be at its disposal and not that of China or Russia, in addition to preventing independent development and unity among the nations of Latin America, this is therefore a litmus test of the USA’s ability to continue its stranglehold on the Global South.