Against the US intervention in Venezuela
Article by Yiorgos Loukaides, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL and Parliamentary Spokesperson of AKEL
30th April 2017
The interventions and increasing US aggression against Venezuela and its people are inciting bloody clashes in the country with many victims. The world is witnessing yet another operation for a new “colour revolution” or a new “Maidan” aiming at the overthrow of a government that is not to the liking of the US. Their goal is, on the one hand, to put the Venezuelan oil resources under their control, which holds the 5th place in the world for oil exports and has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and on the other hand to undermine the countries of the “Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America” (ALBA).
Since the election of Hugo Chavez to the leadership of Venezuela in 1998, the United States has targeted the country, beginning with the failed 2002 military coup d’état. It should be recalled that since 2008, the United States has redeployed the 4th Fleet of the Southern Command of the US armed forces in southern and Central America, while they have also been building up a network of military bases, especially in Colombia, which is aggressively positioned against Venezuela. In addition, the Executive Order issued by Obama on 9th March 2015 described the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as “an unusual and extraordinary threat to US national security and foreign policy”, while in December 2014 the US Senate approved the imposition of sanctions against the people and government Venezuela until 2019.
Today, the United States and the domestic right-wing opposition have stepped up the operation to destabilize Venezuela and the Maduro government through the coordinated misinformation conducted by the mass media with the involvement of paramilitary forces in neighbouring Colombia in anti-government demonstrations, but mainly through the organized attempts to promote the domestic economic destabilization of the country by the local oligarchy which controls the food and medicine sector and is provoking artificial shortcomings.
These actions all exacerbate the economic difficulties which are due to the sanctions imposed on the country and the drop in the price of oil. This is a strategy reminiscent of the destabilization strategy that was implemented against the Allende government in Chile, on the orders of Kissinger, in order to prepare the coup d’état of Pinochet. Furthermore, on 6th April 2017 Admiral Kurt W. Tidd Head of the United States Southern Command revealed a disposition even for a US military intervention in Venezuela.
The operation aiming at the destabilization of Venezuela is part and parcel of the wider US strategy towards the whole of Latin America. The United States cannot accept that in Latin America, which they have always considered as their back yard under their control, not only did Cuba not yield and surrender, but in a number of countries in the region the pro-American right-wing was defeated in elections and that the way was paved for progressive changes and the disassociation from the US.
With the contribution of the local forces of the elite, the US overthrew the elected leaders of Honduras (2009) and Paraguay (2012), succeeded in removing Rousseff in Brazil (2016), proceeded to attempt to impose coup d’états in Bolivia (2009) and Ecuador (2010), while at the same time they are continuing the 60-year-old blockade and undermining of socialist Cuba.
AKEL denounces the policy of the United States, as well as the involvement of the EU and the Organization of American States against Venezuela. The principles of the respect for the sovereignty of states, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, the right of every people to choose the future of their country should be the common denominator of all, regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the choices of one or the other country.
AKEL expresses its full and unreserved solidarity with the Communist Party of Venezuela, the progressive Forces and the people of Venezuela, who are defending the Bolivarian Process and the social achievements achieved in recent years.
