Is US Aggression Against Venezuela like Russian Aggression Against Ukraine?

[Karmadillo]

Last edited Thu Feb 26, 2015, 02:58 PM - Edit history (1)

This article provides a nice history of US aggression in Venezuela that takes us up to our most recent coup attempt. Our aggression seems pretty well-documented. Why have our efforts at a coup in Venezuela failed when we've been so successful with similar actions elsewhere? Those who lament the cloaking device that has allowed Russia to overrun Ukraine will no doubt feel the need to express their discontent at the USA's refusal to respect democracy and the sovereignty of nations. Or are the cases different?

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/26/us-aggression-against-venezuela/

US Aggression Against Venezuela
by EVA GOLINGER
FEBRUARY 26, 2015

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: “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 Chavez in Venezuela in 2002, Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti in 2004 and Jose 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 Chavez 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 Chavez 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 Chavez’s death in 2013 from cancer, his democratically-elected successor, Nicolas Maduro, became the brunt of these attacks.

What follows is a brief summary and selection 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 Chavez 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 unfriendly 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.[1]

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 Chavez, the U.S. State Department issued a special fund via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to help the opposition continue efforts to overthrow Chavez. 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 brought the oil industry to the ground and devastated the economy. It lasted 64 days and caused more than $20 billion in damages. Nonetheless, the efforts failed to destabilize the Chavez government.

more...

[Karmadillo]

1. Kick

[Mnemosyne]

2. K&R for later read. nt

[brooklynite]

3. Is the US sending troops into Venezuela?

[cstanleytech]

33. No its not and it isnt likely to either imo so the comparison between the two isnt there.

[NuclearDem]

4. Not on the same scale at all, but similar.

Also, not surprised to see Counterpunch already defending Maduro's arrest of opposition members as "stopping a coup." No autocrat whose boots those fuckers won't lick.

[KamaAina]

5. Wake me up when we shell Venezuela from Puerto Rico.

Or shoot down a foreign airliner over Venezuelan airspace.

[NuclearDem]

6. Or illegally occupy for decades, or commit an act of genocide against.

[Sheepshank]

28. While trying so very hard to draw parallels, the forget huge, huge differences

kind of a "thing" being done a lot lately.

[hack89]

7. Eva Golinger works for the Venezuelan government (when she is not working for RT news)

No bias in her reporting what so ever.

Eva Golinger (born Eve Winifred Golinger; February 19, 1973) is an American-born[1] attorney and naturalized Venezuelan citizen who edits the Correo del Orinoco International, a web- and print-based newspaper which is financed by the Venezuelan government.[2][3] Golinger is also a member of the Venezuelanalysis.com team.[4][5][6] In a 2011 profile in The New York Times she was described as "one of the most prominent fixtures of Venezuela’s expanding state propaganda complex", and her newspaper as "Venezuela's equivalent of the Cuban newspaper Granma".[1] "I'm a soldier for this revolution," she told The New York Times.

Golinger is the author of several books on Venezuela's relationship with the United States. She is an outspoken supporter of the former socialist president of Venezuela, the late Hugo Chávez.[7] As of May 2011 she serves as a foreign policy advisor to the Venezuelan government.[8] Chávez has called her La novia de Venezuela ("The Girlfriend of Venezuela&quot .[9] According to the National Catholic Reporter in 2004 Golinger was "head of the pro-Chávez Venezuela Solidarity Committee in New York".[10] Her website, venezuelafoia.info, aims to shed light on what she calls links between U.S. government agencies and Venezuelan organizations by publishing documents obtained using the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).[11]

Golinger is a weekly host for a television show on RT News, a television channel financed by the government of Russia[1] and a member of the International Organization for a Participatory Society.[12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Golinger

[Karmadillo]

10. Thank you for the info. Is there anything inaccurate in

the article she wrote?

[hack89]

12. Anyone can string together cherry picked facts to produce a conspiracy

Here is a question to consider: Is it just possible that Venezuela's economic implosion and resulting social disorder is purely self inflicted due to incompetence and poor policies? Because there is certainly plenty of analysis that can be found with minimal effort on Google that make a very good case for it.

[TheKentuckian]

17. Plenty of analysis can be found on Google regarding Obama's Kenyan birth certificate too.

Hell, I got over 3 million hits on unicorns in tea cups one time.

It is beside the point anyway which was the exceptionalism fueled blind eye hypocrisy. Our death squads, coups, and clandestine interference is the sanctified variety it seems.

There is always some rationalization for the dirt we do by the loudest howler for actions against other's dirt and indignation at calls for us to clean up our own business instead of thinking we can clean up the world particularly in light of our long ass track record of "cleaning messes" which sucks ass by the way.

[Throd]

8. Who needs the CIA when you have Maduro's aggression against the Venezuelan economy?

[BainsBane]

9. Yes, the US has intervened hundreds of times in Latin America

since the turn of the twentieth century. I took Psaki's statement to refer to the current status rather than historical, however. Whether that's true, I can't say (though it certainly wouldn't surprise me if it weren't). But surely she is not going to claim the US has never intervened when there have been US Senate and Joint Committees of Congress that have established just that. If you go to any repository of US public documents, of which they are many throughout the country, you can find any number of official US government publications outlining just that. Then of course the National Security Archives out of George Washington University keeps hundreds of thousands of documents released through Freedom of Information requests. http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/

At least historically US action in Latin America has been very much like Russian domination of Eastern Europe. It was LA that bore most of the cost of the Cold War through the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. The US, however, has lost a great deal of its influence in Latin America, as its interest declined with the collapse of the USSR. China has emerged as a major economic player in the region. US policy was always waged through a combination of carrot and stick, the carrot being economic assistance and loans, the stick being military intervention and US backed coups. In some ways, we are witnessing the twilight of two empires, the US in decline and the Russian desperate to regain its former glory.

[stevenleser]

11. I actually think that Africa bore most of the cost of the Cold War in six major proxy conflicts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proxy_wars#Cold_War_and_aftermath

Congo Crisis 1960–1965

Portuguese Colonial War 1961- 1974

Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970

Angolan Civil War 1974–2002

Libyan-Egyptian War 1977

Ogaden War 1977–1978

other than that I agree with most of your assessment.

[geek tragedy]

16. Don't forget Asia. Cold war enabled lots of atrocities across the globe nt

[geek tragedy]

13. Is German aggression against Poland like Russian aggression against Ukraine?

This crap article fails to cite a single act of aggression against VZ by the US since the Bush administration.

Russian troops have invaded Ukraine twice and have killed many Ukrainian soldiers.

More fail by the authoritarian apologists for Maduro and Putin.

[Rex]

14. I had to go look at current event news, nothing about us being at war with VZ.

It is nice to have a POTUS that keeps his promises. Make no mistake people, Russia and Ukraine are at war. The US and VZ? Where? When?

[geek tragedy]

15. Exactly nt

[FSogol]

21. It is a passive-aggressive response to this post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6279986

There is a RT post about the US trolling the interwebs too floating around in response to the troll army link.

[Karmadillo]

34. The post is from the Guardian, not RT.

[TheKentuckian]

19. Since the Bush administration? So the fuck what? The damage we do doesn't reset with elections.

Somehow you want to pretend we can meddle, disrupt, destabilize, and murder for fucking decades and all of that just disappears because we hold an inauguration is so far past ridiculous that it cannot be seen with the naked eye in the rear view mirror.

That is assuming there have been no subsequent activities which probably isn't that safe a bet considering bipartisan history for decades.

The "ship of state" turns ever so slowly when one wants to spout off excuses but whips around like a hand built Italian sports car when folks want to pretend pages are flipped and they are looking forward.

[geek tragedy]

22. Do you honestly believe that in 2014-2015 the behavior of the United States government

towards Venezuela has been the same as the Russian government's behavior towards Ukraine?

We are not talking about 2002.

2014-2015.

Yes, the Russian government is acting towards Ukraine as the US under Reagan did towards Nicaragua.

But that's not the question.

You want proof the US hasn't been engaged in acts of aggression towards VZ since 2008?

The complete lack of evidence provided by the chumps like Maduro who make such accusations when locking up political prisoners.

[TheKentuckian]

27. I guess just re-read the post you responded to my response is the same.

It is like he Palinated, you just rephrase the same stuff while ignoring what is directed at you unless you find a tedious chestnut to swing on.

While I don't share your confidence of not interfering I granted it for the sake of discussion yet the discussion doesn't move.

As far as your "burden of proof" argument it is a privileged position fallacy, considering a track record of decades of interference in the region that have generally been accompanied by vehement denials and indignant demands for evidence that often wasn't available real time or was denied as kookery. Track record places some the majority of burden of proof on a usual suspect with a record nine miles long.

Again, granting not only absolute innocence to the current administration for not willfully continuing destabilizing efforts BUT also granting that they have been zealous and righteous in rooting out or at least controlling decades worth of gremlins planted for that express purpose (and this is absurd in the scope of its optimism when we look at this faction of government in general).
Further, we are going to grant that Obama is sooooo fucking awesome that there was no lag, by the time he was finished swearing in all current actions ceased, the swamp was drained, and the gators chained.

However, granting all of this by what is the argument that all of this efforts for many years are not still a significant impact?

Just because a person's attention span is brief and they are unable or unwilling to conceive of consequences beyond the point blank doesn't mean anything to a much more complex and holistically connected reality that the childishly reductionist construct argued here.

[geek tragedy]

29. LOL. "As far as your 'burden of proof' argument it is a privileged position fallacy"

Yeah, who needs stupid things like facts?

If you're going to sit there and defend the grossly stupid argument that the US behavior towards Venezuela is as bad as what Putin is doing to Ukraine, yes in a rational debate you do need to support your argument with facts.

And, since we are debating things in the present tense, current policy is what counts.

If you want to go back far enough, Sweden is guilty of bullying Russia.

But, in the present tense, US coup plots in VZ are not a reality, just a talking point used by an authoritarian thug to round up his political opposition.

Maduro has arrested or used the police to investigate 33 opposition mayors in the past two years--more than Chavez did in his entire lifetime.

[TheKentuckian]

31. When did I state anything is "as bad as another"? I'm thinking that is your framing not mine.

[geek tragedy]

32. Check out the thread title nt

[TheKentuckian]

35. Not my title, you don't get to shove it in my mouth as mine.

[zappaman]

18. Nope. n/t

[TheKentuckian]

20. What are the differences?

[geek tragedy]

23. Please link to all reports of US troops, artillery, and tanks being

present inside VZ in the period of 2014-2015.

Also, all links reporting that the US is firing artillery rounds into Venezuela, and killing hundreds of Venezuelan soldiers. In the period of 2014-2015.

You cannot honestly think they are the same.

[NuclearDem]

24. This:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor

[Rex]

25. Well for one thing Hugo Chavez liked Obama. He has even praised Obama several times.

Not the actions of a leader about to be overrun by an invading army. I agree, the crimes we commit in the past don't just go away. We tend to rush on and try our best to forget about them. And as short as our attention span is, it works.

If Obama was trying to do a dirty war against VZ, you KNOW Chavez would have been talking all about it. The man was not scared of speaking up.

[TheKentuckian]

30. We don't have to always send in tanks rolling to have the same effect

In fact, in the history of the last several decades it generally isn't the way. The hot military actions probably have been one of the cleaner tools in the kit.

It is also far from unprecedented that a government backs off some and then presses the advantage during or after a transition.

Hell, seeing how our clandestine and security forces treat the American people and their congressional oversight and how well and darkly appropriated for decades all of this stuff is I'm inclined to believe there are likely any number of elements running their own show.

No, I think it is totally within reason that by any number of means shenanigans might well be afoot. I don't know that there are, I haven't been on any mission to assert they are but when folks go so far to act like they absolutely cannot be then I think it is time to speak up.

Going off history betting which side of US shenanigans would have the bigger pile of winnings. Nobody has gone broke yet betting on the US having dirty mitts in the region so I think the dead certainty, indignation, and eye rolling mockery is not only goofy but the typical act of those we find out later were full of shit and sometimes up to heinous shit (which of course is seldom punished and barely so when it is).

[leveymg]

26. The parallel with destabilization of Chile in '73 or Iran in '54 is probably closer.

Not an open military intervention, but economic and political destabilization along with coup organizing, definitely.

[EX500rider]

36. "but economic and political destabilization"

Right, their biggest trading partner who buys most of their oil....seems like we could do a better job of economic destabilization.


Exports - partners:
US 39.1%, China 14.3%, India 12%, Netherlands Antilles 7.8%, Cuba 4.6% (2012)

[leveymg]

38. The USG doesn't purchase VZ crude, but US-based oil multinationals will so long as it's not illegal.

It's a shorter supply chain than from Saudi Arabia, that's for sure. Economic and political destabilization comes in many more subtle fashions than an outright embargo on Venezuelan oil, for which there is no legal basis at this point.

The overall export figures don't prove the point you're trying to make. Try again.

[EX500rider]

39. "The overall export figures don't prove the point you're trying to make. Try again"

Actually yes they do.
What are Cuba's export and import figures to the US? That's how economic warfare looks.

To argue Venz.'s biggest trading partner is trying to strangle them economically sounds silly.

[leveymg]

40. During the Allende years, Chile continued to export copper to the U.S. Does that mean there was no

covert economic warfare against Chile during that time? No. Again, you're not making your point. The political-economy of destabilization is much more complex than you seem to understand. For the full range of declassified documents on Chile destablization programs, including CIA operations Track II and FUBELT, please see, http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm

Chile during the period of covert destabilization (1969-1973) was a case where, despite continued commodity export earnings, the economic effects of civil violence, coordinated industrial sabotage, lockouts, hoarding, and terrorism combined with policy choices resulted in a spiraling of currency inflation, shortages, and a breakdown in supply and distribution networks. The variety of economic, political and social effects are illustrated in the PBS Timeline that accompanies the Commanding Heights series: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/lo/countries/cl/cl_full.html

As for Venezuela, much the same dynamic is in effect. This column by James Petras sums up the campaign of anti-government violence in Venezuela last year: http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=1976

Democratic Politics or Terrorist Putsch?

In the 8 weeks up to March 15, 2014, the terrorist opposition committed 500 violent actions throughout the country. At least 68 members of the Venezuelan National Guard have been injured, shot, or killed by Secretary Kerry’s “democratic protestors”. On May 13, government officials were attacked with high powered rifle fire and seven snipers were arrested with arms and explosives. Paramilitary terrorists have been openly trained and housed at two or more elite universities (Carabobo University and UCV in Caracas). Phony claims of “autonomy” have been used to shield the fact that these privileged campuses are used to stockpile weapons, set up training bases and shelter for paramilitary gangs and snipers.

The economic impact is immense: Business revenues, salaries and wage losses run in the tens of millions. Sniper fire has prevented civil servants, pro-government workers and ordinary citizens from shopping, going to work and participating in pro-government counter demonstrations. The terrorists have sown fear and insecurity, primarily in middle class neighborhoods where they mostly operate – not daring to enter the militant poor and working class barrios.

The government is seen by the masses as extraordinarily tolerant (or excessively conciliatory) in their dealings with these violent opposition gangs, considering the scope and depth of mayhem: As of March 15, only 105 street thugs out the 1,529 violent demonstrators arrested remain in jail facing charges.

Many concerned Venezuelan and international democrats and experts on terrorism believe the Maduro government’s restraint has given the terrorists plenty of time and opportunity to arm, recruit and distribute US funds channeled through phony NGO’s, in preparation for even bigger and more destructive acts of terror, such as bombing bridges, power stations and clinics, as well as assassinating top civilian and military officials. Their assessment of the Maduro government’s security policy is that it is too narrowly focused on the ‘lowest level’ of activists – those caught with Molotov cocktails or engaged in other acts of violence – rather than the political and financial networks which extend deep into the major opposition political parties and business elite who provide funding, political cover and ideological justifications for the growing war of terror against ordinary Venezuelan citizens. Moreover, the ‘revolving door’ judicial system simply emboldens the thugs and saboteurs — since a day in jail is a very small price for having blown up a community health center or engulfed a National Guardsman in flames.

The government, in its efforts to secure agreements with a section of the opposition, appears to have tied the hands of its security forces: small groups of National Guardsmen have become especially vulnerable to acts of terror from thugs protected by highly-placed opposition political leaders.

Conclusion

In the past two months over a thousand public buildings have been destroyed or damaged, mostly fire-bombed by what US Secretary of State John Kerry has called the “democratic and peaceful opposition”. Most of the arson is directed at buildings closely associated with the government’s popular and effective social welfare programs. These include neighborhood centers for adult education and training; free public medical and dental clinics; public banks providing low interest loans for micro-economic projects; primary and secondary public schools in poor neighborhoods; publicly-owned food-stores providing subsidized food and groceries as well as the trucks carrying subsidized food and essential goods to working-class neighborhoods; public transportation, municipal sanitary workers, community radio stations, pro-government media centers and local Socialist Party headquarters.

Recently large scale caches of arms, including automatic rifles and mortars were discovered in the underground parking lot owned by an opposition-controlled municipality. Another cache of 2,000 mortars and other weapons were found in the opposition stronghold, Táchira State, which borders Colombia, across which arms, drugs and mercenaries enter freely. Many of the National Guardsmen injured were shot by opposition snipers. On March 16, a National Guard captain was assassinated by a sniper shooting from a high rise apartment. The assassin was captured and turned out to be a Chinese mercenary hired by the opposition and part of a para-military hit team

Kerry-Obama’s claim that the protestors are mostly peaceful students is refuted by the fact that nearly two-thirds (971) of the total arrestees (1,529) are not students; many are self-styled street fighters receiving outside material support and funds.

Kerry’s claim that the US is ‘not involved’ and the State Department’s ludicrous effort to portray Venezuela’s charges of US intervention as “paranoia” have been refuted by official US documents showing a continuous annual flow of tens of millions of dollars to opposition organizations linked to the terror networks, including $15 million disbursed during the first two months of this year. The even greater extent of ‘covert’ material aid, including weapons, is unknown.

[treestar]

37. Not in the least

Is there some group of Venezuelans that wants their part of Venezuela to be part of the US?