The Use of "Diplomatic Means" to Force
Regime
Change
More Desperate Measures from the Lima Group
- Margaret Villamizar -
Picket against Ottawa meeting of Lima Group, February 4, 2019.
The Lima Group of countries[1],
established
to
assist
the
U.S.
in
its
aim
of
regime
change
in
Venezuela,
held
its
latest
meeting on June 6 in Guatemala. The
declaration issued at the conclusion of the meeting can be seen as yet
another desperate attempt to cover up the litany of failures of the
U.S. operating through its puppet Juan Guaidó and the parallel
government he allegedly heads. It is full of diatribes echoing the lies
emanating from the U.S that attempt to link the Venezuelan government
and President Nicolás Maduro with such things as corruption,
drug trafficking and "transnational organized crime" and giving
protection in Venezuelan territory to "terrorist organizations and
illegal armed groups."
The declaration rejects the proposal made by President
Maduro on May 20 for early legislative elections to defuse Venezuela's
political crisis and find a "political, constitutional and democratic
path forward." Instead, the Lima Group is demanding the holding of new
presidential elections to replace President Maduro, as if it is their
place to dictate such things to the people of Venezuela. Elections for
the National Assembly are scheduled for 2020; however for the past
three years the body has been declared in contempt by the Supreme
Court, and all its decisions "null and void," after it defied a
judicial order to remove three deputies accused of electoral fraud in
the December 2015 election, among other things. Furthermore
several of its members are currently detained, have fled the country or
gone into hiding, charged with active participation in the failed coup
attempt of April 30.
The declaration goes on to arrogantly call out four countries,
including Cuba, "that still support the illegitimate Maduro regime,"
urging them to become part of the Lima Group's intrigues, which it
presents as the solution to the crisis which the Lima Group is itself
fuelling.
 In what was said to be a
secret recording that was leaked to the Washington Post and reported on
June 5, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking to a group
of people in New York behind closed doors, expresses his frustration
with trying to work with the divided Venezuelan opposition. Pompeo said
the U.S. strategy to get rid of President Maduro is now focused on Cuba
and finding a way to "disconnect" it from Venezuela. "We're working our
tail off to try and deliver that," he said.
Just before Pompeo's remarks came to light, the U.S. had
ratcheted up its punishing blockade of Cuba with an announcement
of drastic new restrictions on travel to Cuba from the U.S., with
cruise ships prohibited from docking at Cuban ports and a new ban
on people-to-people educational and cultural trips, the most
popular forms of travel to Cuba for U.S. citizens and those who
depart from the U.S.
It is in this context that Canada's Foreign Minister
Chrystia Freeland has been deployed in the role of the good cop to try
to convince Cuba that its interests would be best served by
"disconnecting" from Venezuela. It is not inconceivable that Canada's
suspension of visa processing services in Havana, forcing Cubans to
travel to a third country for this purpose, would be used as leverage
for this.
On June 7, the day after the Lima Group meeting,
Freeland met in Toronto with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno
Rodríguez Parrilla. After the meeting concluded Freeland
referred in a press conference to what she called "an international
convergence around the need for a peaceful transition in Venezuela
resulting in free and fair elections and the return to democracy," and
said "Cuba will have a role to play in this." Her words were calculated
to make it sound like she had succeeded in getting Cuba to abandon its
principled position of upholding the Venezuelan people's sovereign
right to determine their own affairs free from foreign interference to
join with a gang of governments doing the bidding of the U.S. to try to
overthrow the constitutionally elected president of Venezuela,
Nicolás Maduro, that the Liberal government terms a "peaceful
transition to democracy." This was despite the fact that Cuba's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs had made it clear in a statement issued
just days before that Cuba's principled support for President Maduro
and the Bolivarian Revolution is not negotiable.
No matter how hard the forces fomenting regime change
shout
that they oppose military intervention and are working for a
"peaceful transition to democracy," they are already engaging in
a violent assault on the Venezuelan people in the form of the
deadly economic, financial and commercial blockade that is
causing people to die for lack of access to medical treatment. They are
also pushing for a social explosion that will be used to
justify labelling Venezuela a failed state that requires a
"humanitarian intervention." It must not pass.
Note
1. The Lima Group is a minority of
countries in the Organization of American states, created for the sole
purpose of regime change in Venezuela. It is comprised of Argentina,
Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras,
Panama, Paraguay, Peru and a representative of U.S. puppet Juan
Guaidó claiming to represent Venezuela.
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number
21 - June 8, 2019
Article Link:
The
Use of "Diplomatic Means" to Force
Regime
Change: - Margaret Villamizar
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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