UN
"Independent Fact-Finding Mission" on Venezuela The Elite's Overkill with Venezuela -
Pedro Santander - 
An umpteenth
report by an international body has come out against Venezuela. And, as
expected in the sensationalist society, the hair tearing, wailing and
head-in-hands has begun. No matter that those who
today weep before the world for the suffering Venezuelan people are the
same ones who fail to comply with everything they demand of Venezuela,
or who always look the other way when it comes to other countries and
other peoples. International law has been trampled
on in recent years by those who attack Venezuela. Unilateral blockades
and sanctions, permanent military provocations, attacks on its
embassies, interception of ships carrying medicines. They say these are
"sanctions against a narco-dictatorship" -- at least that is how the
heads of state of the very countries that produce and consume the most
drugs on the planet explain it. The whole tradition
of Western diplomacy has been thrown in the garbage when it comes to
Venezuela. We have seen foreign presidents going to that country's
border inciting war and legitimizing a territorial violation. Nations
allied with the USA have suspended the credentials of diplomatic
personnel and banned their vehicles from travelling on public roads.
The United States, going back to its wild west days, has put a price in
dollars on the head of the Venezuelan president and those close to him.
The entire international financial order has been used to
"make the Venezuelan economy scream." Its Central Bank has been
sanctioned (a measure that is unique in the world), its gold has been
seized in England, its refineries have been confiscated in the United
States (Citgo), and third countries not paying their debts to
Venezuelan state companies are applauded. The same
people who are crying for more democracy in Venezuela are keeping quiet
about the recent coup d'état in Bolivia. They are the same
people who, like the Chilean Francisco Cox, editor of the UN report,
are pleading for human rights in Venezuela, while on his recent visit
to Chile he stated that he was unable to ascertain "attacks on the
civilian population as a state policy" and that "I do not believe the
President [Piñera] bears international criminal
responsibility." He says this with respect to a country which,
following the social upheaval of October 2019, has more than 1,500
youth in prison, total militarization of the territory and the sad
world record of almost 500 people having their eyes mutilated in barely
four months... Not even in Palestine does this happen. This
double standard, this worldwide hypocrisy, this cynicism is possible,
in good part, because the mainstream media of the world silence the one
and make a scandal out of the other. What happens then is that
thousands of journalists, many of them "progressive," become part of a
game in which Venezuela is permanently called into question. These
journalists, for example, those in my country -- Chile -- while
demanding declarations, put on sad faces, are affected and hurt by the
violations of human rights in Venezuela, yet they say nothing about the
recent coup and massacres in Bolivia (a neighbouring country). While
they talk about the "corrupt Maduro regime," they say nothing about
Peru (a bordering country) whose six last presidents have been involved
in major corruption that has led to imprisonment, suicides and
resignations. That is why in this debate the
arguments and counter-arguments make no sense. This is not a subject
for democratic debate; we are not dealing with a rational discussion.
There is no space for discovering reasons and counter-reasons that
could illuminate different positions. It is not a
debate, it is an attack. An attack that went from
preoccupation to obsession, and from there to overkill. And in the face
of the attacks, especially in their acute phases like the ones we are
seeing today, one can only affirm one's principles and take a position.
Because for Trump, Piñera, Bolsonaro, Aznar, Duque and
Santos, that is what it is all about: overthrowing positions, tearing
down the positions of those who, like millions of Venezuelans, believed
they had the right to think and to propose a non-capitalist society,
and to once again speak of socialism. It is a hard,
permanent, painful and uncertain attack, but let's not forget that it
is an attack of the global elite. The peoples are fighting another
battle, in their territories, in their communities. It is also a tough,
painful and uncertain battle, but whose end may be our beginning.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 36 - September 26, 2020
Article Link:
UN
"Independent Fact-Finding Mission" on Venezuela: The Elite's Overkill with Venezuela -
Pedro Santander
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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