Nicolás Maduro. RIA
For almost a quarter of a century, the U.S. government has been waging an undeclared war against Venezuela.
“The Department is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information related to Nicolás Maduro Moros. If you have information and are outside the United States, contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. If you are in the U.S., contact the local Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) office in your city.”
In March 2020, the U.S. State Department circulated a Wanted-style “announcement” about a reward for information that would lead to the arrest or conviction of Venezuelan citizens, including that country’s president (!), Nicolas Maduro.
The list of accusations of alleged “crimes” is simply overwhelming. These include narco-terrorism, embezzlement of public funds, persecution, arrest, torture and murder of opposition figures, illegal trade in gold, arms, drugs and human beings, support for Colombian guerrilla groups… And even “conspiracy and possession for the purpose of ownership of machine guns and destructive devices.”
“Maduro is destroying Venezuela’s democratic institutions, economy, and infrastructure by abusing state power and forging alliances with outside countries, including Cuba, Russia, Iran, and China, which further oppress the Venezuelan people,” the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs report, “Venezuela: Democratic Crisis 2021: Sliding Toward Dictatorship,” states.
Since 2017, according to another report, “U.S. Relations with Venezuela 2023,” by the same U.S. State Department bureau, “the United States has imposed more than 350 sanctions against Venezuela, […] provided nearly $2.8 billion” to support the Venezuelan opposition inside the country and throughout the region.
“They [the US] are waging an unconventional war to weaken our homeland, implementing a conspiracy with a lot of money to divide and destroy the armed forces from within with the help of a group of traitors and conspirators,” said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, accusing U.S. intelligence agencies of the former president Hugo Chavez’s death, which may have been caused by an injection of a US drug that causes cancer and chronic diseases.
It may be a coincidence, but in the same year of 2011, cancer struck the leaders and leading politicians of the first “pink wave” in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia…
Since 2013, when Nicolás Maduro led the “chavistas” movement and became president of Venezuela and especially after winning the May 2018 presidential election, the White House has mobilized all means to overthrow the democratic government of the Bolivarian Republic.
On January 9, 2019, for the second time for a term until 2025, Nicolas Maduro took office as President of Venezuela. At the same time, the National Assembly (Parliament) of Venezuela elected a new head — Juan Guaido — by a majority of opposition votes. U.S.-funded anti-government protest marches began in the country. Guaido self-proclaimed himself interim head of state under the current president.
He was immediately supported by the administration of U.S. President and its vassals from the Organization of American States and the European Union.
Venezuela attracts attention not only for its oil reserves. It is also rich in gas, gold, iron ore, bauxite and other minerals. Specialists assume the presence of uranium deposits here, which has not been confirmed yet. But even this is enough to excite the already unlimited greed of North America.
The instrument of economic warfare — a plan to destabilize Venezuela in which the State Department, the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Agency for International Development were heavily involved — was lobbied for by then-Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton and “war criminal and unrepentant liar” Elliott Abrams.
All this “brotherhood” decided to repeat the “feat” of President Nixon’s administration in overthrowing Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973.
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in his book A Sacred Oath, recounted how President Donald Trump proposed on Feb. 5, 2020, to use U.S. military forces, including aerial bombardment and a naval blockade, to “get rid” of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump made the offer, which could not be refused, to opposition leaders Juan Guaido, Julio Borges, Carlos Vecchio and Mauricio Claver-Carona at the White House. The master of the Oval Office, as the former defense secretary testifies, was “infuriated by Guaido, who became nervous at such a prospect.”
Trump’s plan was unsuccessfully tested in May 2020 during Operation Gideon, when two former U.S. Special Forces officers led nearly 60 Venezuelan dissidents who infiltrated the country by boat with the intention of seizing power and overthrowing Maduro.
Trump lost both in his fight against Venezuela and in his fight for the presidency of the United States itself. His successor Joe Biden’s policy toward Venezuela was based on a give-and-take principle — lifting sanctions in exchange for “democratic” elections in 2024.
The deep state, which also governs American presidents, chose, according to American insiders, this new form of 21st century colonialism for the duration of leftist rule in most South American countries. The entire system of the liberal establishment was aimed at artificially slowing down socio-economic development, discrediting progressive reforms, and erasing the concepts of historical truth and national sovereignty from the consciousness of peoples (as has already happened in Ukraine and in the countries of the former socialist commonwealth) for the sake of providing “natives” with access to the numerous “benefits of digital civilization.”
At the same time, independent states are gradually turning into debtors, becoming “natural resource mines” vital for imperial energy security in the context of the current geopolitical confrontation with China and Russia.
The attempt to find and put in Venezuela by force its “Pinochet” failed. Washington has thrown all its moral, political, diplomatic and material forces into the search for a civilian replacement for the Maduro regime, which would ensure the seizure of Venezuelan oil by “legitimate means.”
And such a leader was a 55-year-old mother of three children and former member of the National Assembly, Maria Corina Machado, an ardent opponent of Chavismo. The extreme right-wing fanatic has long been “kept hidden” by the United States because of her scandalous and unpredictable character. But at present, it seems that there is no better figure for the “interim transitional manager.”
The pro-American credibility of the other two candidates — Maduro’s sane rivals in previous elections, Henrique Capriles and Freddy Superlano — has never been assured by the White House administration.
The White House administration has never been sure of the pro-American credibility of the other two candidates — Maduro’s quite sane rivals in previous elections, Henrique Capriles and Freddy Superlano.
Maria Corina Machado has been an open enemy of first Hugo Chavez and then Nicolas Maduro for at least 20 years. In 2004 she was accused of treason and in 2014 she was stripped of her parliamentary mandate. Maria Machado is still accused of treason for calling for tougher anti-Venezuelan sanctions and foreign military intervention.
All three have in common that they are all officially barred from running for public office. Despite this, they will participate in the October 22 primaries, which are expected to elect a single opponent to Nicolás Maduro.
What’s next? The easiest thing to do is to pay for “mass” demonstrations by Venezuelans starving on U.S. sanctions. The electoral path that the Biden administration has staked on is seen as the most viable option for solving the “U.S. Venezuelan problem,” but it is fraught with risks. First, the White House has not found a really strong figure to counter Nicolas Maduro’s charisma as a strong politician. Second, it is necessary to collapse the working state machine and only then bypass the legislation.
From the fact that in early July “Joe Biden’s government signed an executive order declaring Venezuela an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States of America for the eighth time,” nothing has changed in the presidential Miraflores Palace.
“The United States, along with allies and partners, is committed to pressuring the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to hold fair and free [presidential] elections in 2024,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, while U.S. Republican U.S. Senator from Florida and Tea Party Movement favorite Marco Rubio called for “cracking down on countries that restore diplomatic relations with the Maduro regime and indulge in its abuses.”
In the face of this “insolent pressure” and the deep fragmentation of the Venezuelan opposition, the Venezuelan government, according to the Constitution, intends to hold presidential elections in 2024, and for the National Assembly, governors, mayors, regional legislators and councilors in 2025.
The U.S. Demo-Republican Party is feverishly searching for, but cannot find, its presidential candidate in Venezuela. The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, although it has not yet officially nominated a candidate, has a viable one. The main thing is to prevent the same tragedy in Venezuela that happened 50 years ago in Chile.