U.S. at the Crossroads in Venezuela - Luis
Beatón - 
According to
allegations from Caracas and by reputable international analysts,
President Donald Trump seems willing to resort to an "October
surprise," in which Venezuela would be the target of his bellicose
machinations in order to bolster his November re-election bid.
It is an open secret that they will resort to some desperate
action as a means to rally Americans around the president, something
traditional with leaders aspiring to re-election when the numbers are
against them. A Pentagon-sponsored military attack
on Venezuela could take place before the November 3 election, alleged
journalist Ángel Guerra in an analysis published in the
Mexican newspaper La Jornada. Colombia
is the visible face of the preparations since it has hosted seven U.S.
military bases that would spearhead the attack on the neighbouring
nation and other states in the region, although the "drums of war" are
also beating in Brazil and other nations. Samuel
Moncada, Venezuela's ambassador to the UN, emphatically denounced the
preparations and pointed out that Washington's propaganda machine is
already promoting the invading multinational force against his country,
which would constitute a military occupation, but without the visible
presence of the Pentagon on the front lines. It is
the armies of Colombia and Central America that will be doing the dirty
work, said Moncada in another tweet, while warning that the higher
stage of aggression against his country is already under way, with a
campaign of maximum pressure now moving into the military sphere.
"They're looking for an 'October surprise,'" he tweeted,
quoting from an article on the conservative Washington
Examiner's website, where insinuations of the head of the
U.S. Southern Command, Admiral Craig Faller, and Phil Gunson of the
International Crisis Group about an eventual invasion can be seen.
With this objective in mind, White House officials frequently
travel around the region seeking support and stooges. In this scenario
a meeting that took place between President Iván Duque,
Faller, U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, his deputy for
Latin America, Cuban-American Mauricio Claver-Carone, appointed to head
the Inter-American Development Bank, and U.S. ambassador [to Colombia]
Philip Goldberg stands out. Clearly, the "situation
in Venezuela" was the main topic, although embellished by others such
as drug trafficking and immigration, all of which were used to
"justify" war against Venezuela. Added to this is
the hatred of Cuban-American Senator Marco Rubio, who is promoting
Trump's campaign, to convince the president to invade Venezuela so as
to secure Florida's 29 electoral votes: Sergio
Rodríguez Gelfenstein, a Venezuelan academic and analyst,
considers that it is clearer than ever that Washington's foreign policy
cannot be achieved through diplomatic channels that are inclined
towards negotiation and dialogue and can only be imposed through
submission, force, threats and blackmail. The
failure of the U.S. State Department's strategy for Venezuela in the
political sphere is obvious. In recent weeks,
pardons for opposition figures and other political actions of the
government of President Nicolás Maduro have undermined
arguments for the aggressive plans, though the threat exists and
becomes increasingly evident as Washington officials travel around
Latin America seeking support. In that context,
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the Brazilian city of Boa
Vista, on the border with Venezuela, where he carried out a hostile act
against Maduro's constitutional government, reported the website Brasil
247. With the complicity of the government of Jair
Bolsonaro, the former head of the CIA sought to "grease" the plans for
aggression, already rehearsed for years through exercises of "alleged
humanitarian assistance" from the Brazilian border, in which several of
the region's armies and even NATO troops have taken part. The
presence of the U.S. secretary of state on the border between Brazil
and Venezuela is intended to escalate the aggression, according to
various Brazilian social forces, who see this action as another media
event designed to promote the electoral interests of the Republican
Party on the eve of the elections in that country. Pompeo
included in his tour other nations such as Suriname, Guyana and
Colombia, with the latter, like Brazil, being an ally of the White
House in its hostility toward Venezuela. It is also
noteworthy that Honduras recently agreed to allow over 60 Puerto Rican
soldiers to enter the country to reinforce security operations of the
U.S. Southern Command, something which may be aimed at Venezuela, as
that Central American nation is considered the perfect "aircraft
carrier" for U.S. missions in South America. While
Venezuelans are prepared to respond to any aggression,
theamericanconservative.com points out that Washington needs
to abandon its dead-end policy on Venezuela, which in the end does not
serve its interest. An analysis by Daniel Larison,
a senior editor of TAC [The American Conservative], stresses that White
House policy has reached a crossroads. Those in charge in Washington
have two paths before them: they can continue along the path of
"maximum pressure" and sabre-rattling, or they can choose the path of
pragmatism, supporting more flexible negotiations towards a democratic
transition at the ballot box, as proposed by the Caracas authorities.
It is obvious that conservative sectors close to Trump will
continue to bet on maximum pressure and an eventual military
intervention, in which a gang of servile nations will support the U.S.
strategy. Hopefully that is not the preferred
option, as the Venezuelans are prepared and armed for a drawn out war.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 36 - September 26, 2020
Article Link:
U.S. at the Crossroads in Venezuela - Luis
Beatón
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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