US and Allies Look to Military Intervention in Venezuela

- US and Allies Look to Military Intervention in Venezuela
by W. T. WHITNEY, https://www.counterpunch.org/
The Bolivarian social and political movement first led by former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and holding state power since1999 has long faced U.S. assaults. They’ve ranged from U. S. support for an unsuccessful military coup in 2002, backing for violent street disturbances, U.S. moneys assigned to political opponents, and U.S. economic sanctions against Venezuelan political leaders. Now the U.S. government may be on the verge of blocking Venezuelan oil sales in the United States.
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One avenue for altering Venezuela’s government seems to be closing. Political forces rooted in Venezuela’s business class and mobilized against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro are flailing. But another has yielded results. Years of shortages at the hands of bankers and commercial interests have led to suffering and distress such that serious destabilization, their goal, may be at hand. Terrible inflation and real hardship for most Venezuelans may be the cue for military intervention billed as humanitarian.
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It’s evident from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit February 1-8 to Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, and Jamaica that the United States sees action ahead, and soon. In Austin, Texas, en route, he noted that, “The corrupt and hostile regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela clings to a false dream and antiquated vision for the region that has already failed its citizens.” He noted that, “In the history of Venezuela and in fact the history in other Latin American and South American countries, oftentimes it’s the military that handles that, that when things are so bad that the military leadership realizes they just – they can’t serve the citizens anymore, they will manage a peaceful transition.”
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A day later in Mexico City he charitably mentioned that, “If President Maduro would return to the Venezuelan constitution, restore the duly elected assembly, dismantle the illegitimate constituent assembly, and return to free, fair elections, then he’s happy to stay.”
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Florida Senator Marco Rubio, never shy about regime change in Venezuela, tweeted that, “The world would support the Armed Forces in Venezuela if they decide to protect the people & restore democracy by removing a dictator.”
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But as Tillerson arrived in Colombia on February 6 there was a snag. Having negotiated intermittently for two years, representatives of Venezuela’s government and of rightwing opposition parties, meeting in the Dominican Republic, had reached an agreement. It called for “rejection of foreign intervention,” electoral guarantees, common defense against economic sanctions, and “end of economic warfare.” The negotiators agreed also on a date for upcoming presidential elections.
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