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March 11, 2015 - No. 1
Defend the Bolivarian Revolution
and Venezuela's Right to Be!
U.S. President Declares Venezuela a
Threat to National Security
Defend
the
Bolivarian Revolution and Venezuela's Right to Be!
• Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
Condemns Latest U.S. Sanctions Against Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
• U.S. President Declares Venezuela a Threat to
National Security
• U.S. Preparing for Military Aggression on
Venezuela - Telesur Editorial
• Venezuelan Parliament Passes Law to Confront
U.S. Aggression
• UNASUR Summit Convoked on "Gross" U.S.
Threat to Venezuela
• U.S. Aggression Against Venezuela: Fact, Not
Fiction - Eva Golinger
Defend the Bolivarian Revolution and
Venezuela's Right to Be!
Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) Condemns
Latest U.S. Sanctions Against
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Emergency demonstration in
support of Venezuela and to oppose U.S. threats,
Vancouver, March 10, 2015.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
condemns the
hostile statements made by U.S. President Barack Obama against
Venezuela. On March
9, Obama used emergency executive powers to label Venezuela as "an
extraordinary threat to US national security." The U.S. has also
tightened unjust
and illegal sanctions against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Canada is also part of U.S. attempts to stir up counter-revolution and
several failed attempts
to overthrow the democratically-elected government of President
Nicolás
Maduro.
Obama's statement is as hypocritical as it is
hysterical. Every day,
all over the world, the U.S. acts as judge, jury and executioner to
declare who poses a
danger to U.S. national interests and engage in selective
assassinations, kidnappings, torture and invasions. The U.S.
incarcerates the greatest number of people
in the world, especially Hispanics and African Americans, and is known
for abusing due process as well as police killings of black youth
with impunity and
many other crimes it commits against humanity. But it accuses the
Venezuelan government of "human rights abuses against anti-government
protesters." Besides
which, Venezuela has invaded nobody and poses no danger to the United
States.
 In fact it is the
Venezuelan Government, faced with repeated attacks
against its sovereignty, which has consistently upheld the rule of law.
All those arrested
for criminal offences linked to violent destabilization efforts will
have fair trials.
History has shown that since the election of President
Hugo Chávez
by an overwhelming majority in 1998, Venezuela has been under
continuous illegal,
hostile and increasingly aggressive activities of the so-called
opposition backed by U.S. imperialism.
The Venezuelan people have firmly faced the most vicious
form of
foreign interference. Time and again they have defended the Bolivarian
Revolution and
thwarted every attempt of the U.S. and its agents to reverse the great
achievements of the people since 1998.
CPC(M-L) is convinced that the latest desperate actions
of President
Obama will again fail to block the people from defending and developing
their
Bolivarian nation-building project which is based on putting the
people's well-being and dignity in the first place. The destabilization
efforts are intended to
hurt the people so that they turn against their President and
revolutionary process. They will face the difficulties and the
reactionaries will again be defeated.
The day after the imposition of Obama's sanctions
President Nicolás
Maduro announced that, "Venezuela is preparing to draft
an anti-imperialist law to prepare
for all scenarios."
CPC(M-L) demands that the illegal sanctions which
violate the
sovereignty and right of the Venezuelan people to chart their own path
be immediately
withdrawn and that Canada not participate in this reactionary campaign
which violates Venezuelan sovereignty. CPC(M-L) calls on its forces
across the country
and on all Canadians to make every effort to make sure that the
historic achievements of the Venezuelan people are defended in Canada.
Obama Stop Sanctions
Now!
Victory to the Bolivarian Revolution of the Venezuelan People!
 
Vancouver, March 10, 2015
U.S. President Declares Venezuela a
Threat to National Security
U.S. President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order
against Venezuela on March 9 aimed at interfering in the country's
sovereignty. His Executive
Order is based on arguments claiming Venezuela is a threat to national
security because of alleged human rights violations and widespread
corruption. It
reads:
 "I, BARACK OBAMA, President
of the United States of
America, find that the situation in Venezuela, including the Government
of Venezuela's erosion
of human rights guarantees, persecution of political opponents,
curtailment of press freedoms, use of violence and human rights
violations and abuses in response
to anti-government protests, and arbitrary arrest and detention of
anti-government protestors, as well as the exacerbating presence of
significant public corruption,
constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national
security and foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare
a national emergency to
deal with that threat."
Obama also ordered sanctions against seven Venezuelan
officials, saying that they all would be banned from traveling to the
United States and any and
all assets and properties belonging to them would be frozen.
The officials affected by Obama's sanctions are Antonio
José Benavides Torres, Commander of the Strategic Region for the
Integral Defense (REDI) of
the Central Region of Venezuela's Bolivarian National Armed Forces
(FANB); Gustavo Enrique Gonzalez López, Director General of
Venezuela's
Bolivarian
National Intelligence Service (SEBIN); and President of Venezuela's
Strategic Center of Security and Protection of the Homeland (CESPPA).
Also targeted are Justo José Noguera Pietri,
President of the
Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana (CVG), a state-owned entity;
Katherine Nayarith Haringhton
Padron, a national level prosecutor of the 20th District Office of
Venezuela's Public Ministry; Manuel Eduardo Perez Urdaneta,
Director of Venezuela's
Bolivarian National Police; Manuel Gregorio Bernal Martinez, Chief of
the 31st Armored Brigade of Caracas of Venezuela's Bolivarian Army;
Bernal Martínez,
who was the head of SEBIN on February 12, 2014; and Miguel
Alcides Vivas Landino, Inspector General of the FANB.
"We now have the tools to block their assets and their
use of U.S. financial systems," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said
in a statement.
As if who is responsible for the criminalization of
dissent is not known the world over, Earnest added, "We are deeply
concerned by the Venezuelan
government's efforts to escalate intimidation of its political
opponents. Venezuela's problems cannot be solved by criminalizing
dissent." (He must have been
chosen White House spokesman because of his name).
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro condemned
President Obama's measure and explained the executive order signed by
the U.S. President coincided
with a failed coup attempt in Venezuela last month, which had links to
U.S. citizens.
 "After we dismantled the
coup attempt [...] the U.S. and
President Barack Obama [...] decided to personally fulfill the task of
ousting my government," Maduro said.
According to intelligence reports he had received recently, over the
last nine days "many meetings were held between the Department of
State and the White
House" to discuss measures to be taken against his government, Maduro
said.
Highlighting the hypocrisy of Obama's executive order,
Maduro called the statement "a Frankenstein, a monster" -- it heavily
criticizes
Venezuela but ends with Obama vowing to build a better
relationship with the South American country.
Speaking from Miraflores Palace on the afternoon of
March 9, Maduro described the U.S. measure as the most aggressive step
taken yet, attributing this to its frustration and desperation.
Maduro further criticized Obama's announcement by
pointing out that the U.S. is a bigger threat to the world.
"You are the real threat, who trained and created Osama
Bin Laden you are the people who created al-Qaida," said Maduro. Bin
Laden was trained by the
CIA during the late 1970s to fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan.
Maduro pointed to the hypocrisy of the U.S. in focusing
on the human rights of Venezuelans: "Defend the
human rights of the black U.S.
citizens being killed in U.S. cities every day, Mr. Obama," he stated.
Maduro pointed out that the U.S. has issued 105
statements on Venezuela over the past year, of which half explicitly
supported opposition politicians.
The Venezuelan president reiterated previous calls he had publicly made
to his U.S. counterpart, urging him not to take the path of
intervention that his
predecessors took in Latin America.
"I've told Mr. Obama, how do you want to be remembered?
Like Richard Nixon, who ousted Salvador Allende in Chile? Like
President Bush, responsible
for ousting President Chávez? Well President Obama, you already
made your choice you will be remembered like President Nixon."
Maduro
explained that a political agreement was brokered in December between
opposition lawmakers
and the government, and that according to Venezuela's intelligence
sources it was at this point that the latest coup plot began. The
opposition lawmakers broke the agreement
after they
received a phone call, which Maduro revealed came from the U.S.
Embassy in Caracas.
By then, the president said, "we knew who had called and
from where they had called, and in what language they spoke."
The Venezuelan authorities were also monitoring a group
of rogue officials, who they had tracked as a result of intelligence
obtained from anonymous
sources in contact with the U.S. government officials.
"They were trying to revise the events of April 11,
2002,"
said Maduro, highlighting the similarities between recent actions
carried by the opposition with
events leading to the brief coup against President Hugo
Chávez in 2002.
Maduro also referred to the role of Carlos Osuna,
believed to be the mastermind and financier of the coup. Osuna "is in
New York, under protection
of the U.S. government," he said.
President Maduro also pointed out at the historical
parallels in Latin American history of similar actions taken by
different U.S. administrations against
left-wing governments.
The rhetoric being used against Venezuela was like that
"used against Salvador Allende in Chile," overthrown in a 1973
U.S.-backed coup and like that
"against Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala" in 1954 when a progressive
government was ousted by the U.S.
 The common discourse was
described by Maduro as the
"coup ideals," which are based on accusing these left-wing
democratically elected governments
of violating rights as a justification to oust them.
President Maduro reiterated that economic sabotage --
the same tactic used against Allende in Chile -- had been planned since
July 2014 by the
U.S. government. Sources told
the government "there was a meeting in the White House, back in July
where [the U.S. government and its agencies] decided to launch economic
warfare,"
the president revealed.
Maduro also reminded Venezuelans that he had warned
about the coup attempts in the early days of January, during his tour
through OPEC member
countries.
In related news, on March 9, President Maduro also
announced the introduction of new economic policies as a strategy to
counter hoarding, TeleSUR informs.
"Starting this week, we are going to establish
fingerprint scanners to guarantee security. We will install more then
20,000 fingerprint machines throughout
the country to guarantee food to the people," Maduro told local media
on March 9. He said that seven large private retail chains had
voluntarily agreed to install the scanners, which will help guarantee
the supply of basic foods and
goods.
"The fingerprint readers will prevent people from buying
more products than they are allotted in a measure aimed at reducing
smuggling and panic-shopping,
which is caused by the right-wing opposition's hoarding strategy aimed
at destabilizing the government," says a report from TeleSUR. The
report continues:
"The readers are also expected to significantly reduce
the amount of products being smuggled, allowing for the population to
purchase the goods in
stores.
"Following last week's fact finding mission lead by the
Union of South American Nations, or UNASUR, the regional bloc issued a
statement announcing
regional support for the supply of basic goods to Venezuela, including
agreements such as the creation of a regional food network."
U.S. Preparing for Military Aggression on Venezuela
- Telesur Editorial -
History shows that when the U.S. denounces a country, it
is often a pretext for intervention and regime change.
 Barack Obama, an ornamental
figure in the White House,
who was not able to impede a lunatic like Benjamin Netanyahu from
addressing both houses of
Congress to sabotage the talks with Iran on the country's nuclear
program, has received a strict order from the
"military-industrial-financial" complex: he must
create the conditions to justify a military aggression against the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The presidential order issued hours ago, and broadcast
by the White House press office, establishes that the country of
Bolivar and Chávez is an "unusual
and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of
the United States," and declares a "national emergency" to deal with
that threat.
This type of declaration tends to precede military
aggressions, either by its own hand, as was the case of the bloody
invasion of Panama to overthrow Manuel
Noriega in 1989, as well as the one issued in relation to Southeast
Asia that culminated with the Indochina war, especially in Vietnam,
starting in 1964. But
it can also be the prelude to military operations of a different kind,
in which the United States acts jointly with its European minions,
grouped under NATO,
and the region's oil theocracies.
For example: the first Gulf War in 1991; or the Iraq War
of 2003-2011, with the enthusiastic collaboration of Britain's Tony
Blair and Spain's unpresentable José Maria Aznar; or the case of
Libya in 2011, erected over the staged
farce in Benghazi, where so-called "freedom fighters" -- who later
turned out were
mercenaries recruited by Washington, London and Paris -- were hired to
overthrow Gadhafi and transfer control over the country's oil riches to
its masters.
More recent cases are those of Syria and, especially,
Ukraine, where the much yearned for "regime change" (a euphemism to
avoid talking about a coup)
that Washington pursues ceaselessly to redesign the world -- above all
in Latin America and the Caribbean -- in its image and likeness, has
been achieved thanks
to the invaluable cooperation of the European Union and NATO, and whose
result has been a bloodbath that continues in Ukraine today.
Miss Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for
European and Eurasian Affairs, was sent to Kiev's Maidan Square by Mr.
2009 Nobel Peace Prize
(aka President Obama) to express her solidarity with the demonstrators,
including the bands of neo-Nazis that later would seize power by storm,
through blood
and fire, and to whom the kindly official was handing out bread and
water bottles to quench their thirst, to demonstrate, with such an
affectionate gesture, that
Washington was, as always, on the side of liberty, human rights and
democracy.
When a "rogue state" like the United States -- which it
is because of its systematic violations of international law -- issues
a
threat like the one we are
commenting on, it must be taken very seriously. Especially if one
remembers the persistence of an old U.S. political tradition that
consists of carrying out coups
that serve as pretext for justifying its immediate military response.
It did so in 1898 when it made the U.S. cruiser Maine
explode in Havana harbor, sending two thirds of its crew to the grave
and provoking the indignation
of North American public opinion, which propelled Washington to declare
war on Spain. It did so again in Pearl Harbor, in December 1941,
sacrificing 2,403
mariners and wounding another 1,178 in that infamous maneuver. It did
so again in the Gulf of Tonkin incident to "sell" its war in Indochina:
the alleged North
Vietnamese aggression against two U.S. cruisers -- later unmasked as a
CIA operation -- which caused President Lyndon B. Johnson to declare a
national
emergency, and, a little later, war against North Vietnam. Maurice
Bishop, in the small island of Grenada, was also considered a threat to
U.S. national security
in 1983, and was overthrown and liquidated by an invasion of U.S.
Marines. And the suspicious 9/11 attack to launch the "War on
Terrorism"? The history
could extend itself indefinitely.
Conclusion: Nobody could be surprised if, in the
following hours or days, Obama authorizes a secret operation of the
CIA, or some other intelligence service,
or maybe the armed forces themselves, against some sensitive U.S.
target in Venezuela, for example the embassy in Caracas. Or begin some
other deceitful
operation against innocent civilians in Venezuela -- as in the case of
"terrorist attempts" that shook Italy -- the murder of Aldo Moro in
1978,
or the bomb in
the Bologna train station in 1980 -- to create panic and justify the
Empire's response in "restoring" human rights, democracy and public
liberties. Years later
it was discovered that these crimes were committed by the CIA.
Remember that Washington birthed the 2002 coup in
Venezuela, maybe because it wanted to assure for itself the oil supply
before attacking Iraq. Now it
is in the process of a two-front war: Syria/Islamic State, and Russia,
and also wants a secured energy rearguard. Serious, very serious. This
calls for the active
and immediate solidarity of South American governments, in individual
fashion and through UNASUR and CELAC, and popular organizations and
political
forces in our Americas to denounce and stop this maneuver.
Venezuelan Parliament Passes Law to
Confront U.S. Aggression
On March 10, the Venezuelan National Assembly passed an
enabling law
that allows the country's president to act to protect the peace against
recent threats
made by the United States government of Barack Obama, especially the
March 9 statement that declared Venezuela a "threat to the national
security" and calling
the situation a national emergency.
The bill received 99 percent of votes from the Great
Patriotic Pole
alliance, the largest voting bloc in the National Assembly, that holds
98 of 165 seats,
or 59.4 per cent of seats. It will now move to a second reading for
final approval. According to Venezuela's constitution, 60 percent of
the National Assembly
must approve an enabling law, and the purpose behind the law and its
time frame must be clear.
President Nicolás Maduro addressed the National
Assembly on the
afternoon of March 10 after the draft legislation was submitted, saying
the country's
parliamentary elections must go on in spite of the gravity of the
threats made by the Obama administration. "We are going to
parliamentary elections to let the
people decide what will happen in this country," he said. "And we will
go into it with the same position as always... If we win, we win, and
if we lose, we
lose and that's it ... Democracy, peace and constitution is what we
want."
During his speech, the president also thanked the Latin
America and
the Caribbean nations which have expressed support to his government
against the
constant attacks of the United States.
Speaking earlier on national public television, Maduro
explained
that the proposed law had been written together with Deputy Attorney
General Reinaldo
Muñoz in order to preserve Venezuela's "integrity, sovereignty,
in the
face of any circumstances that could arise with this imperialist
aggression."
Maduro also reported that various executive bodies had
discussed
actions "to politically and diplomatically denounce this United States
aggression to various
organizations," in order to prove the illegality of the U.S. decree.
President Maduro had previously requested an enabling
law in 2013 to
fight corruption and the economic warfare being waged by business and
opposition
sectors.
UNASUR Summit Convoked on
"Gross" U.S. Threat to Venezuela
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa announced that the
foreign
ministers from the member states of the Union of South American Nations
(UNASUR) will
meet on March 12 to discuss the "gross, illegal, shameless, outrageous,
and unjustified act of interference by the United States" in Venezuelan
affairs.
 "This Thursday the foreign
ministers of UNASUR will meet
in
Montevideo in order to organize a summit of the heads of state [of
UNASUR] next week
where we will give the corresponding answer to that gross, illegal,
shameless, outrageous, and unjustified act of interference by the
United States in the internal
affairs of Venezuela," said Correa during a press conference.
The meeting of UNASUR foreign ministers of follows the
March 9
declaration by U.S. President Barack Obama that Venezuela poses an
"unusual and
extraordinary threat" to the United States.
The head of UNASUR, Ernesto Samper, has already made
clear that the
bloc stands behind the democratically-elected government of President
Nicolás
Maduro.
"There is no possibility that UNASUR will validate any
attempt to
disrupt the democratic process in any country in the region," said
Samper.
Several Latin American heads of state have also
condemned the
declaration by the U.S. President. The 12-member states of the
Bolivarian Alliance for the
Peoples of Our America (ALBA) group also joined the growing list of
countries to speak out against U.S. threats against Venezuela.
"How is Venezuela a threat to the United States?
Thousands of
kilometers away, without strategic weapons and without the resources to
conspire against
the U.S. constitutional order; the [White House] declaration has little
credibility," read the statement of the Cuban government published in
the newspaper Granma on March 10.
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro praised President
Maduro's
"brilliant and valiant" response to what he described as "brutal" U.S.
plans against
Venezuela. The comments were made in a short letter to Maduro on the
night of March 9 when Obama issued his declaration.
Earlier in the day, Bolivia's President Evo Morales said
the
regional blocs UNASUR and Community of Latin American and Caribbean
States (CELAC)
and should immediately hold an "emergency meeting," arguing the U.S.
sanctions pose a threat to "all of Latin America and the Caribbean."
"In the 21st Century we condemn, repudiate and will not
accept this
kind of intervention by the United States," Morales said. "All of our
solidarity and
our support goes to President Maduro, and the revolutionary Bolivarian
government and people of Venezuela."
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correo said on his Facebook
account on
March 10, "An executive order by Obama declaring Venezuela a national
security
threat and declaring a national emergency to face this threat... It
must be a bad joke, which reminds us of the darkest hours of our
America, when we received
invasions and dictatorships imposed by imperialism... Will they
understand that Latin America has changed?"
Social media users have coined the hashtag
#ObamaYankeeGoHome,
posting over 80,000 tweets with the tag within the first 24 hours
following Obama's
announcements.
U.S. Aggression Against Venezuela: Fact, Not Fiction
- Eva Golinger -
The U.S. has a substantial history of aggression toward
Venezuela.
Recently, several different spokespersons for the Obama
administration have firmly claimed the United States government is not
intervening in Venezuelan
affairs. Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki went so far as to
declare, "The allegations made by the Venezuelan government that the
United States is
involved in coup plotting and destabilization are baseless and false."
Psaki then reiterated a bizarrely erroneous statement she had made
during a daily press
briefing just a day before [February 19]: "The United States does not
support
political transitions by non-constitutional means."
 Anyone with minimal
knowlege of Latin America and world
history knows Psaki's claim is false, and calls into question the
veracity of any of her prior
statements. The U.S. government has backed, encouraged and supported
coup d'etats in Latin America and around the world for over a century.
Some of the
more notorious ones that have been openly acknowledged by former U.S.
presidents and high level officials include coup d'etats against
Mohammed Mossadegh
in Iran in 1953, Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, Patrice Lumumba in
the Congo in 1960, Joao Goulart of Brazil in 1964 and Salvador Allende
in Chile
in 1973. More recently, in the twenty-first century, the U.S.
government openly supported the coups against President Hugo
Chávez in Venezuela in 2002, Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti in
2004 and José Manuel Zelaya of Honduras
in 2009. Ample evidence of CIA and other U.S. agency involvement in all
of these
unconstitutional overthrows of democratically-elected governments
abounds. What all of the overthrown leaders had in common was their
unwillingness to bow
to U.S. interests.
Despite bogus U.S. government claims, after Hugo
Chávez was elected President of Venezuela by an overwhelming
majority in 1998, and subsequently
refused to take orders from Washington, he became a fast target of U.S.
aggression. Though a U.S.-supported coup d'etat briefly overthrew
Chávez in 2002,
his subsequent rescue by millions of Venezuelans and loyal armed
forces, and his return to power, only increased U.S. hostility towards
the oil-rich nation. After
Chávez's death in 2013 from cancer, his democratically-elected
successor, Nicolásas Maduro, became the brunt of these attacks.
What follows is a brief summary of U.S. aggression
towards Venezuela that clearly shows a one-sided war. Venezuela has
never threatened or taken any
kind of action to harm the United States or its interests. Nonetheless,
Venezuela, under both Chávez and Maduro -- two presidents who
have exerted Venezuela's
sovereignty and right to self-determination -- has been the ongoing
victim of continuous, hostile and increasingly aggressive actions from
Washington.
2002-2004
A coup d'etat against Chávez was carried out on
April 11, 2002. Documents obtained under the U.S. Freedom of
Information Act
(FOIA) evidence a clear role of the U.S. government in the coup, as
well as financial and political support for those Venezuelans involved.
President Chávez
raises a defiant fist after the people defeat
the coup
and he is released on April 14, 2002.A "lockout" and economic sabotage of Venezuela's oil
industry was imposed from December 2002 to February 2003. After the
defeat of the coup against
Chávez, the U.S. State Department issued a special fund via the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to help the opposition continue
efforts to overthrow
Chávez. USAID set up an Office for Transition Initiatives (OTI)
in Caracas, subcontracting U.S. defense contractor Development
Alternatives Inc. (DAI) to
oversee Venezuela operations and distribute millions of dollars to
anti-government groups. The result was the "national strike" launched
in December 2002 that
ground the oil industry to a halt and devastated the economy. It
lasted 64 days and caused more than $20 billion in damages.
Nonetheless, the efforts failed
to destabilize the Chávez government.
The "guarimbas" of 2004: On February 27, 2004,
extremist anti-government groups initiated violent protests in Caracas
aimed at overthrowing
Chávez. They lasted 4 days and caused multiple deaths. The
leaders of these protests had received training from the U.S. Albert
Einstein Institute (AEI), which
specializes in regime change tactics and strategies.
The Recall Referendum of 2004: Both NED and USAID
channeled millions of dollars into a campaign to recall President
Chávez through a
national recall referendum. With the funds, the group Sumate, led by
multi-millionaire Maria Corina Machado, was formed to oversee the
efforts. Chávez won
the referendum in a landslide 60-40 victory.
2005
After the victory of President Chávez in the
recall referendum of 2004, the U.S. toughened its position towards
Venezuela and increased
its public hostility and aggression against the Venezuelan government.
Here are a selection of statements made about Venezuela by U.S.
officials:
January 2005: "Hugo Chávez is a negative
force in the region." -Condoleezza Rice.
March 2005: "Venezuela is one of the most
unstable and dangerous ‘hot spots' in Latin America." -Porter Goss,
ex-Director of the CIA.
"Venezuela is starting a dangerous arms race that
threatens regional security." -Donald Rumsfeld, ex-Secretary of Defense.
"I am concerned about Venezuela's influence in the area
of responsibility...SOUTHCOM supports the position of the Joint Chiefs
to maintain ‘military to
military' contact with the Venezuelan military we need an inter-agency
focus to deal with Venezuela." -General Bantz Craddock, ex-Commander of
SOUTHCOM.
July 2005: "Cuba and Venezuela are promoting
instability in Latin America There is no doubt that President
Chávez is funding radical forces in
Bolivia." -Rogelio Pardo-Maurer, Assistant Sub-Secretary of Defense for
the Western Hemisphere.
"Venezuela and Cuba are promoting radicalism in the
region...Venezuela is trying to undermine the democratic governments in
the region to impede
CAFTA." -Donald Rumsfeld, ex-Secretary of Defense.
August 2005: "Venezuelan territory is a safe
haven for Colombian terrorists." -Tom Casey, State Department spokesman.
September 2005: "The problem of working with
President Chávez is serious and continuous, as it is in other
parts of the relationship." -John
Walters, Director of the National Policy Office for Drug Control.
November 2005: "The assault on democratic
institutions in Venezuela continues and the system is in serious
danger." -Thomas Shannon,
Sub-secretary of State.
2006
February 2006:
"President Chávez continues to use
his control to repress the opposition, reduce freedom of the press and
restrict
democracy ....it's a threat." -John Negroponte, ex-Director of National
Intelligence.
"We have Chávez in Venezuela with a lot of money
from oil. He is a person who was elected legally, just like Adolf
Hitler..." - Donald Rumsfeld,
ex-Secretary of Defense.
March 2006: "In Venezuela, a demagogue full of
oil money is undermining democracy and trying to destabilize the
region." -George W. Bush.
U.S. officials try to link Venezuela to Terrorism:
June 2006: "Venezuela's cooperation in the
international campaign against terrorism continues to be
insignificant...It's not clear to what point the
Venezuelan government offered material support to Colombian
terrorists." - Annual Report on
Terrorism, Department of State.
June 2006: The U.S. government through the
Commerce Department and U.S. Treasury imposes sanctions against
Venezuela for its alleged role
in terrorism and prohibits the sale of military equipment to the
country.
July 2006: "Venezuela, under President Hugo
Chávez, has tolerated terrorists in its territory..."
-Subcommittee on International Terrorism, House
of Representatives.
U.S. increases its Military Presence in Latin America:
The Socialist Party
of Venezuela is founded, December 2006.
|
March-July 2006: The U.S. military engages in
four
major exercises off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea, with
support from NATO,
and based at the U.S. air force base in Curaçao. A permanent
military presence is established in the Dominican Republic and the
bases in Curaçao and Aruba
are reinforced.
The U.S. Embassy in Caracas establishes the "American
Corners" in 5 Venezuelan States (Lara, Monagas, Bolívar,
Anzoátegui, Nueva Esparta), to act as
centers of propaganda, subversion, espionage and infiltration.
U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield intensifies his
public hostility towards the Venezuelan government, making frequent
sarcastic and unfriendly comments
in opposition-controlled media.
NED and USAID increase funding to anti-government groups
in Venezuela.
2007
At the beginning of 2007, Venezuela is severely attacked
in the international media and by U.S. government spokespersons for
its decision
to nationalize Cantv (the only national telephone company), the
Caracas' electricity and the Faja Orinoco oil fields.
In May 2007 the
attack intensifies when the government
decides not to renew the public broadcasting concession to popular
opposition television station,
RCTV.
A powerful international media campaign is initiated
against Venezuela and President Chávez, referring to him as a
dictator.
Private distributors and companies begin hoarding food
and other essential consumer products in order to create shortages and
panic amongst the
population.
USAID, the NED and the State Department via the Embassy
in
Caracas foment, fund and encourage the emergence of a right-wing youth
movement and help
to project its favorable image to the international community in order
to distort the perception of President Chávez's popularity
amongst youth.
Groups such as Human Rights Watch, Inter-American Press
Association and Reporters without Borders accuse Venezuela of violating
human rights and
freedom of expression.
September 2007: President George W. Bush
classifies Venezuela as a nation "not cooperating" with the war against
drug trafficking, for the third
year in a row, imposing additional economic sanctions.
September 2007: Condoleezza Rice declares the
U.S. is "concerned about the destructive populism" of Chávez.
2008
January 2008: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chief of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces meets with Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe,
then Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos, U.S. Ambassador William
Brownfield and the Commander General of the Colombian Armed Forces
Freddy
Padilla de Leon and declares during a press conference that he is
"concerned about the arms purchases made by Chávez" and
expresses that this could
"destabilize the region."
John Walters, the U.S. Anti-Drug Czar meets with Uribe
in Colombia, together with 5 U.S. congresspersons and Ambassador
Brownfield, and declares
Venezuela a nation "complicit with drug trafficking" that presents "a
threat to the U.S. and the region." He also expresses his wish that the
Free Trade Agreement
between the U.S. and Colombia be ratified by Congress soon.
Condoleezza Rice visits Colombia, together with
Sub-Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and 10 congress members from the
Democratic Party to push the
FTA and back Colombia in its conflict with Venezuela.
President George W. Bush in his State of the Union
address emphasizes the importance of the FTA with Colombia alerts to
the threat of "populist" and
"undemocratic" governments in the region.
February 2008: SOUTHCOM sends the Navy's "4th
fleet" to the Caribbean Sea (a group of war ships, submarines and
aircraft carriers that haven't
been in those waters since the Cold War).
The Director of National Intelligence, General Mike
McConnell, publishes the Annual
Threat Report, which classifies
Venezuela as the "principal threat
against the U.S. in the hemisphere."
Exxon-Mobil tries to "freeze" $12 billion of Venezuelan
assets in London, Holland and the Dutch Antilles.
A Report on Present
Threats to National Security of the
Defense Intelligence Agency classifies Venezuela as a "national
security threat" to the U.S.
A Department of State report accuses Venezuela of being
a country that permits "the transit of illegal drugs," "money
laundering" and being "complicit with
drug trafficking."
The U.S. Department of Treasury classifies three high
level Venezuelan officials as "drug kingpins," presenting no formal
evidence. The head of Venezuela's
military intelligence, General Hugo Carvajal, the head of Venezuela's
civil intelligence force, General Henry Rangel Silva, and former
Minister of Interior and
Justice, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin are sanctioned by the U.S. government
and placed on a terrorist list.
Rear Admiral Joseph Nimmich, Director of the U.S. Joint
Interagency Task Force, meets in Bogota with the Commander General of
the Colombian Armed
Forces.
March 2008: The Colombian army invades Ecuadorian
territory and assassinates Raúl Reyes of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) and a dozen others, including 4
Mexicans, at a FARC
camp in the jungle near the border.
General Jorge Naranjo, Commander of Colombia's National
Police, declares that laptop computers rescued from the scene of the
bombing that killed Reyes
and others evidence that President Chávez gave more than $300
million to the FARC along with a quantity of uranium and weapons. No
other evidence is
produced or shown to the public. Ecuador is also accused of supporting
the FARC.
Venezuela mobilizes troops to the border with Colombia.
The U.S. Navy sends the Aircraft Carrier Harry Truman to
the Caribbean Sea to engage in military exercises to prevent potential
terrorist attacks and
eventual conflicts in the region.
President Bush states the U.S. will defend Colombia
against the "provocations" from Venezuela.
Uribe announces he will bring a claim before the
International Criminal Court against President Chávez for
"sponsoring genocide and terrorism."
March 2008: President Bush requests his team of
lawyers and advisors review the possibility of placing Venezuela on the
list of "STATE
SPONSORS OF TERRORISM" together with Cuba, Iran, Syria and North Korea.
 
Mass rally celebrates 10
years of Hugo Chávez, December 6, 2008.
2009
May 2009: A document from the U.S. Air Force
shows the construction of a U.S. military base in Palanquero, Colombia,
to combat the
"anti-American" governments in the region. The Palanquero base is part
of the 7 military bases that the U.S. planned to build in Colombia
under an agreement
with the Colombian government for a ten-year period.
2010
February 2010: The U.S. Director of National
Intelligence declares Venezuela the "anti-American leader" in the
region in its annual report on
worldwide threats.
February 2010: The State Department authorizes
more than $15 million via NED and USAID to anti-government groups in
Venezuela.
June 2010: A report from the FRIDE Institute in
Spain, funded by NED, evidences that international agencies channel
between $40-50 million
a year to anti-government groups in Venezuela.
September 2010: Washington ratifies sanctions
against Venezuela for allegedly not cooperating with counter-narcotics
efforts or the war on
terror.
2011-2015
Mass action in Falcon
state, repudiates U.S. inteference and affirms the Venezuelan people's
dignity and sovereignty, March 21, 2014.
President Obama authorizes a special fund of $5 million
in his annual budget to support anti-government groups in Venezuela. In
2015, Obama increases
this amount to $5.5 million.
NED continues to fund anti-government groups in
Venezuela with about $2 million annually.
Each year, the U.S. government includes Venezuela on a
list of countries that do not cooperate with counter-narcotics efforts
or the war on terror. Also in
its annual human rights report, the State Department classifies
Venezuela as a "violator" of human rights.
Subsequent to President Chávez's death from
cancer on March 5, 2013, new elections are held and Nicolás
Maduro wins the presidency. Opposition leaders
hold violent demonstrations that result in the deaths of more than a
dozen people.
The broad masses of
Venezuealans show their support for the Bolivarian Revolution and
President Maduro, February 15, 2014.
|
In February 2014, the violent protests resume,
led by Leopoldo López and Maria Corina Machado, who openly call
for the
overthrow of President
Maduro, and over 40 people are killed. López turns himself in to
authorities and faces charges for his role in the violence. The U.S.
government calls for his
immediate release.
In December 2014, President Obama imposed
sanctions on more than 50 Venezuelan officials and their relatives,
accusing them of violating human
rights and engaging in corruption. No evidence has been presented to
date to support these serious allegations. The Commerce Department also
expanded
sanctions against Venezuela, prohibiting the sale of "any products"
that could be destined for "military use" due to alleged human rights
violations committed
by the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
January 2015: Vice President Joe Biden warns
Caribbean countries that the government of President Nicolás
Maduro will soon be "defeated" and
therefore they should abandon their discounted oil program with
Venezuela, PetroCaribe.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki condemns the
alleged "criminalization of political dissent" in Venezuela.
February 2015: President Obama unveils his new
National Security Strategy and names Venezuela as a threat and stresses
support for Venezuelan
"citizens" living in a country where "democracy is at risk."
Anti-government leaders circulate a document for a
"transitional government agreement" which warns President Maduro's
government is in its "final stage"
and pledges to overhaul the entire government and socialist system in
place, replacing it with a neoliberal, pro-business model. The document
is signed by Maria
Corina Machado, jailed opposition leader Leopoldo López and
Antonio
Ledezma, mayor of Metropolitan Caracas.
Days later, a coup plot against President Nicolás
Maduro is thwarted and 10 active Venezuelan military officers are
detained. Antonio Ledezma is arrested
and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government and the U.S.
State Department issues a harsh condemnation of his detention, calling
on regional
governments to take action against the Maduro administration.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest denies any U.S.
government role in the coup attempt against Maduro, calling such
allegations "ludicrous," but further
reveals, "The Treasury Department and the State Department are
considering tools that may be available that could better steer the
Venezuelan government in
the direction that we believe they should be headed."
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