What has happened in Venezuela is a coup. Trump's denial is dangerous | The Guardian Opinion |  

At the dawn of the 21st century, Hugo Chavez invoked Bolívar's promise and when the poor, black, Amerindian people of Venezuela returned him to power, time and again, especially after the failed US-backed coup of 2002, he too radicalised his stance against the mighty empire Bolivar had only speculated about, America. Again, the promise was realised only in part. Some might say the revolution has been betrayed or stalled during the rule of his successor Nicolás Maduro. No one can deny Venezuela's problems. The very source of its magic in the 1970s, oil, has proven its downfall. Chavez did not win his country's independence from oil and its geopolitics.

Crisis loomed when global prices fell, production stagnated, the value of the currency dropped, and under Maduro, dependence on imports and retail monopolies meant shortages that hurt many. That responsibility lies with the government and the industrialist rightwing opposition. But to think that this opposition, revived by Juan Guaidó's self-proclamation spectacle, acts out of genuine concern for the poor, black people and Amerindians who empowered themselves during the years of the Bolivarian revolution would be foolish.

Enter Donald Trump: megalomaniac, erratic, liar. Calling out the interventionism of previous US administrations, which had been constant in their hatred for Chavez and their attempts to regain influence in the region, Trump promised to put an end to all such shenanigans. But on Wednesday, vice-president Mike Pence saluted Guaidó's self-appointment, observing that although Trump disliked intervening elsewhere, he "has always had a very different view of our hemisphere". That's an explicit invocation of the Monroe doctrine under which the US has held it as its responsibility to intervene in the Americas, which it sees as its backyard.

Reactivation of the Monroe Doctrine constitutes a threat to Latin America

During his appearance before the press, from the headquarters of the United Nations (UN), where the 73rd Period of Sessions is held in homage to the South African leader, Nelson Mandela, the venezuelan diplomat indicated that with the recent unilaterally sanctions, the United States government reopened the Monroe doctrine, using it as the basis of its policy in Latin America, which in its opinion constitutes aggression not only against Venezuela but with the 34 Latin American and Caribbean states.

"This confirms how they intend to destroy multilateralism and reaffirms us as a people who are on the right side of history (...) The Monroe Doctrine is an old doctrine, meaningless and President Donald Trump comes to reopen it as his policy in Latin America. This is an aggression against Venezuela and the other 34 Latin American and Caribbean states is an aggression from every point of view."

He stressed that the reactivation of the Monroe Doctrine in the 21st century opens a new chapter of a historic struggle that Latin America has tried to wage for more than 200 years.

"We have to say that another chapter has taken place over a historical struggle in our America, between the Monroe Doctrine and Bolivarianism. Simon Bolivar in 1818 already pointed out the danger of the nation that arose in the north. Over two centuries and when we thought it was an forgotten mater, remembering the words of former US Secretary of State, John Kerry, who said that the Monroe Doctrine had already lost its life, President Donald Trump comes and exposes it again", said Arreaza.

In this regard, the venezuelan Foreign Minister recalled the words of our Liberator Simón Bolívar, who stated that "the United States seems destined by providence to plague all America of misery in the name of freedom", which in Arreaza's opinion is a clear sample for what the Monroe Doctrine intends to achieve, intervene in the nations and subject the peoples to the designs and policies of the North American empire.

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Previously posted ...

○ E-vote rigging in Venezuela | Wired - August 2004 |
○ Inside the British Army's secret information warfare machine | Wired - Nov. 18, 2018 |

Global Warming - distance between America and Europe is steadily increasing.