Category: Venezuela
US Secretly ‘Persuaded’ Bolsonaro to Reject Russian COVID Vaccine, Investigative Journalist Explains
worker | March 18, 2021 | 8:16 pm | Brazil, COVID-19, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela | Comments closed

https://sputniknews.com/interviews/202103181082380041-us-secretly-persuaded-bolsonaro-to-reject-russian-covid-vaccine-investigative-journalist-explains/

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The US government has been pressuring countries not to accept healthcare assistance from countries deemed to be “detrimental” to US safety and security, such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia, explains investigative journalist John McEvoy, who first broke the story.

John McEvoy is an independent journalist who has published in the International History Review, The Canary, Tribune Magazine, Jacobin, Declassified UK, and Brasil Wire, among other publications. He reported from Venezuela during the coup efforts in 2019, from Colombia during the student protests the same year, and from France in 2020 on the Yellow Vests movement and general strike.

Mr McEvoy’s main research focus is in contemporary British involvement in Latin America – notably British state intervention and natural resource extraction in Colombia since 1989. McEvoy told Sputnik about his latest exclusive with Brasil Wire, which revealed that the US Department of Health had pressured the Brazilian government not to accept Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, designed to protect against COVID-19.

“[T]he logic of denying a country necessary healthcare during a pandemic – simply in order to remove a potential soft victory from an Official Enemy – borders on genocidal”, McEvoy argued.

Sputnik: What exactly is it that you discovered the US Department of Health has been doing in relation to the vaccine Sputnik V, produced in Russia?

John McEvoy: According to the US Department of Health and Human Services’ own report, a US health attaché based in Brazil persuaded “Brazil to reject the Russian COVID-19 vaccine”. The reason for this, the report noted, was to counter “malign influences” in the Americas – meaning Russia, as well as Venezuela and Cuba. So, in short, we discovered that in order to deny Russia a soft power victory in the Americas, the US government actively encouraged the Bolsonaro administration, which owes its very power to a US-backed soft coup, not to purchase an independently approved vaccine.

 

This decision could have resulted in the deaths of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Brazilians. 282,000 Brazilians have died of COVID-19 already, Brazil is currently in its worst phase since the pandemic began, and Bolsonaro’s disastrous COVID-19 policy is largely to blame for this state of affairs.

Sputnik: Are there countries other than Brazil which were also pressured not to accept Sputnik V?

John McEvoy: It’s not clear from this report, but if the US is capable of weighing on Latin America’s largest country, it’s likely that it has at least attempted to pursue similar policies elsewhere. We also know that the US has dispatched health attachés to China, India, Mexico, and South Africa, who are likely charged with similar responsibilities. Of course, however, the health attaché is not the only way the US could achieve this objective of persuading smaller countries to purchase certain vaccines and not others.

Sputnik: Do we know whether these US policies have actually been effective in preventing the use of Sputnik V?

John McEvoy: The Bolsonaro government recently organised the purchase of tens of millions of the Sputnik V vaccine, almost certainly in response to his government’s total mishandling of the pandemic, leading it into crisis zone. But prior to this, Bolsonaro was slow to reach a deal for the purchase of any vaccine except for AstraZeneca’s, leading to total confusion among medical professionals with regards to his COVID-19 policy. Why was he relying on a vaccine that wasn’t even ready for production, while others had come online and were already proven to be effective? Well, it looks like we now have our answer.

 

On that note, Brasil Wire also recently revealed that in the run-up to the 2018 presidential election, the British government had also been secretly lobbying the Bolsonaro campaign on behalf of AstraZeneca, as well as its mining interests. It’s not clear whether a relationship between Bolsonaro and AstraZeneca was made as early as 2018, before the pandemic, but it’s certainly also worth considering.

Sputnik: The US Department of Health has also apparently targeted health support and solidarity coming from places like Cuba. Can you explain what is known about this?

John McEvoy: The US DHHS report also noted that it had offered, “CDC technical assistance in lieu of Panama accepting an offer of Cuban doctors”. Cuban doctors, as you know, have been on the frontline of confronting the pandemic since it first spread worldwide in early 2020. They’ve been operational in over 40 countries, mostly in places which have weak healthcare systems.

If you recall, at the start of the pandemic, Cuban doctors were also essential to helping British citizens trapped on a ferry which was refused permission to dock in the Bahamas and Barbados, for which the British government publicly thanked Cuba. So while Cuba exports health, the US – as a general rule – exports misery and poverty. This notion is rarely seen so clearly as in the example of the US actively trying to prevent Panama – which now has one of the worst COVID-19 rates in the entire region – from allowing entry to Cuban doctors, which clearly could have remedied its current terrible predicament.

Sputnik: Why should the average person care about these policies?

John McEvoy: I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that the logic of denying a country necessary healthcare during a pandemic – simply in order to remove a potential soft victory from an Official Enemy – borders on genocidal. Of course, we’ve seen the US engage in these types of activities for years – placing crushing sanctions on countries like Venezuela and Syria, which the UN special rapporteur found were massively impacting the civilian population. In a general sense, these types of erosions of sovereignty need to be public knowledge – Bolsonaro came to power through a US-backed soft coup, and now the US seems partially responsible for the deaths of thousands of Brazilians.

The average person should also care because when we see the US accusing Russia of spreading disinformation about vaccines or meddling in elections, there’s a significant element of projection to this – the US is basically always guilty of doing exactly what it says Russia or whoever else is doing.

US intel report claims Russia ‘probably’ tried to sway 2020 election (as well as Iran, Venezuela & Cuba… but not China)
worker | March 17, 2021 | 8:27 pm | China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Venezuela | Comments closed

https://www.rt.com/usa/518305-intelligence-russia-election-influence/

US intel report claims Russia ‘probably’ tried to sway 2020 election (as well as Iran, Venezuela & Cuba… but not China)

US intel report claims Russia ‘probably’ tried to sway 2020 election (as well as Iran, Venezuela & Cuba… but not China)
The Joe Biden administration is reportedly preparing new sanctions against Russia after an intelligence assessment claimed to find attempts at interference by Moscow, Tehran and other usual suspects in the 2020 presidential race.

15-page Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) released on Tuesday purported to review “foreign threats” to the last election, finding that most of the countries Washington has a grudge against – Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba – had acted in various ways to “influence” the outcome of the race.

Prepared in the waning days of the Donald Trump administration, the report said intelligence officials could find “no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process” in the 2020 race, but nonetheless pointed to suspected “election influence” operations by a number of states. It defined those malicious activities as vaguely as possible – as any effort by a foreign government, or somebody acting on their behalf, to “directly or indirectly” affect any aspect of the election.

Though the ICA asserts with “high confidence” that President Vladimir Putin personally directed the alleged Russian influence campaign, the document later hedges that stance, noting that he “probably” ordered the operation. At no point does the report cite any evidence, however, invoking the standard classified ‘sources and methods’ rationale common to the intelligence community.

ALSO ON RT.COMEx-CIA congressman says disputing election results helps America’s enemies STEAL ELECTIONS – just what the CIA always did!The report also alleges that “proxies linked to Russian intelligence” disseminated “misleading” narratives about then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden, namely claims that he and his family have “corrupt ties” to Ukraine. Presumably, the document referred to allegations that, as vice president under Barack Obama, Biden pushed to oust Ukraine’s top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating a gas firm where Biden’s son sat on the board of directors.

Biden himself has acknowledged pressuring Ukrainian officials to fire Shokin with a threat to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees, but denies the move was meant to protect his son. Local media reports suggest the investigation into the gas firm, Burisma Holdings, was ongoing at the time Biden urged to have the prosecutor fired.

The ICA, moreover, claims “Russian state media, trolls and online proxies” sought to stoke divisions in the US by calling attention to “social media censorship” and last summer’s wave of police brutality protests – implying sinister motives, even as the same topics were covered universally across global media and intensely debated online.

In retaliation for the alleged “influence” operations, the Biden administration is now mulling a new round of sanctions for Moscow, which could come as soon as next week, Reuters and CNN reported, both citing anonymous US officials.

ALSO ON RT.COMWilliam Burns, ex-envoy to Russia who accused Putin of using judo-like tactics to ‘sow chaos’ in US, named as Biden’s CIA directorDespite previous rhetoric from the Trump administration to the contrary, the intelligence assessment found that China made no attempt at election-meddling, and “considered but did not deploy” any influence ops. It added that Beijing instead “sought stability” with Washington and did not prefer one candidate over the other.

That finding appears to cut against a statement from a top Trump intelligence official, William Evanina, who claimed last summer that China had already begun preparations to interfere in the race, though at the time he could only point to Beijing’s “public rhetoric” to “counter criticism” of itself on the world stage.

The assessment also reports a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign” by Tehran, intended to undercut Trump’s prospects for reelection and “sow division” in the US. While it left the charge largely unsubstantiated and offered few details, the ICA claims the Iranian effort focused on social media posts, mirroring the claims about mysterious and ill-defined Russian “proxies” online.

Those purported influence campaigns were joined by “smaller scale” ops by other actors, the report concluded, suggesting the governments of Cuba and Venezuela, as well as the Lebanese militant group and political party Hezbollah, “probably” acted to undermine Trump’s reelection bid.

The latest intel report comes after years of similar allegations of Russian meddling, hacking and “collusion” with the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential race, which refused to die even after a special counsel probe failed to prove any such conspiracy.

ALSO ON RT.COMIn politicizing intelligence, America is blaming everyone but itself for its self-inflicted woesThink your friends would be interested? Share this story!

https://sputniknews.com/latam/202103171082369581-venezuelan-mp-calls-us-intelligence-report-attempt-to-justify-interventions/?utm_source=push&utm_medium=browser_notification&utm_campaign=sputnik_inter_en
worker | March 17, 2021 | 7:24 pm | Cuba, Iran, Russia, Venezuela | Comments closed

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CARACAS (Sputnik) – The recently declassified US intelligence report is an attempt by the United States to find arguments for justifying intervention, Venezuelan lawmaker Roy Daza told Sputnik.

According to the report, declassified on Tuesday, Venezuela and Cuba made efforts to meddle in the 2020 US elections, acting in their own financial interests. It adds that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had intentions to influence former US President Donald Trump’s image, but had no possibility to do so. The report also accuses Russia of attempting to support Trump, denigrate current US President Joe Biden, and sow discord in US society.

“By this report, they try to find arguments for their unipolar position, interference into other countries’ internal affairs and other governments’ policy”, Daza said.

The Venezuelan MP also said that the report is “banal” and cannot be taken seriously, adding that the “USA strives for hitting the image of countries that run independent policies such as Russia, Venezuela, Iran and Cuba”.

According to Daza, the USA is trying to resist a movement that has emerged in the United Nations to save the principles of the UN Charter and that opposes restrictive measures against countries Washington considers as ideological enemies.

Biden committed to reviewing terrorism designation of Cuba: White House
worker | March 10, 2021 | 7:36 pm | Cuba, International Women's Day, Joe Biden, Venezuela | Comments closed

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-10/U-S-committed-to-reviewing-terrorism-designation-of-Cuba-White-House-YvCGRsRJ6w/index.html

Biden committed to reviewing terrorism designation of Cuba: White House
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U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on International Women’s Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 8, 2021. /Reuters

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is committed to reviewing the previous administration’s designation of Cuba as “State Sponsor of Terrorism,” the White House said on Tuesday.

“We are committed to carefully reviewing policy decisions made in the prior administration, including the decision to designate Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in a daily briefing.

But she also noted that “a Cuba policy shift is not currently among President Biden’s top priorities.”

Nine days before former U.S. President Donald Trump left office, his administration announced on January 11 it was returning Cuba to that particular U.S. list, citing its harboring of American fugitives and Colombian rebel leaders and security support for socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Critics said Trump’s decision was “highly politicized” and not supported by evidence. Eighty U.S. House of Representatives Democrats urged Biden in a March 3 letter to repeal Trump’s “cruel” sanctions on Cuba and renew engagement.

Cuba had been put on the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1982 by the United States. In May 2015, the Barack Obama administration officially removed Cuba from the list, clearing a major obstacle to re-establishing diplomatic ties between the former Cold War rivals.

Bilateral ties have significantly deteriorated since Donald Trump took office in 2017. The Trump administration rolled back the detente by stepping up economic sanctions against Cuba and sought to prevent Havana’s support to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington is openly seeking to oust from power.

In addition to Cuba, the State Department currently lists Syria, Iran, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as state sponsors of terrorism.

(With input from Xinhua, Reuters)

US to Increase Pressure on Venezuela’s Maduro ‘Multilaterally’
worker | March 8, 2021 | 7:36 pm | Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela | Comments closed

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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The United States plans to multilaterally increase pressure on Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, by working with global partners to bring about an electoral solution to the ongoing political crisis in the country, a senior US administration official told reporters.

“The United States is going to continue to increase the pressure. It’s going to expand that pressure multilaterally to ensure that those that are guilty of human rights abuses, that are robbing the Venezuelan people, that are engaged in rampant criminal activity really find no quarter nowhere until they sit down to the table in earnest and make decisions that lead toward free and fair elections in the country,” the official reportedly said during a phone briefing Monday.

The official also stated that the new US administration would review unilateral sanctions imposed on Venezuela.

“We are going to review the sanctions to make sure that they are effective because the focus of sanctions should be to increase pressure on the regime, eliminate any sort of access to corrupt capital to sustain themselves but also not [a regime] that penalizes and punishes unnecessarily the Venezuelan people and the country,” the official said during a briefing on Monday. “But again… there is no rush to lift sanctions.”

The official admitted that unilateral sanctions imposed under the Trump administration were ineffective, and have not succeeded in achieving the desired electoral outcome in the country. Nowhere in the world, the official added, have unilateral sanctions actually led to democratic transition in the absence of a multilateral approach among the international community.

US Not in Bilateral Negotiations With Maduro

During the conference call, the US administration official said that the US was not engaged in bilateral negotiations with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

“The negotiation is one that is not between the United States and the [Maduro] regime, it is between the illegitimate regime and the interim government of Venezuela,” the US official said on Monday.

The US official said negotiations with Maduro have failed in the past and accused Caracas of using them as a delay tactic.

The Biden administration will work with global partners, including the European Union and Latin American ally countries, to multilaterally increase pressure on the Maduro government, the US official said, adding that Venezuela has adapted to Trump-era sanctions.

In 2018, Venezuela held a presidential election in which the incumbent president, Maduro, won. The United States did not recognize the results of the election or recognize Maduro as a legitimate president and introduced a series of sanctions against Caracas, in large part affecting the nation’s oil industry and business infrastructure.

Maduro accused Washington of working with opposition figure Juan Guaido to overthrow the former’s government as a means of seizing its vast petrochemical resources. According to a 2019 study co-authored by renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, US sanctions have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Venezuelans.

Venezuela & ALBA Weekly 3.5.2021: US sanctions nearly one-third of humanity vs Cuba provided healthcare to nearly one-third of humanity
worker | March 6, 2021 | 6:46 pm | COVID-19, Cuba, Venezuela | Comments closed

Venezuela & ALBA Weekly 3.5.2021: US sanctions nearly one-third of humanity vs Cuba provided healthcare to nearly one-third of humanity

   A New World Is Possible: Combating COVID-19

                    Deaths per Million:    Jan 8              March 5

Cuba                                                  13                      30

Venezuela                                          37                      48

Nicaragua                                         25                      26

US                                                 1,129                 1,606

Canada                                            437                    583

Mexico                                          1,101                 1,455

El Salvador                                     214                    291

Guatemala                                       272                   355

Honduras                                         320                   423

Costa Rica                                       447                   552

Panama                                            993                1,352

Argentina                                         972                1,518

Bolivia                                              791                   998

Brazil                                               940                 1,223

Chile                                                 881                1,084

Colombia                                         884                1,174

Ecuador                                           797                   895

Peru                                              1,146                1,421

Uruguay                                            66                   181

ALBA Political Council Statement: ALBA Countries Denounce War Policies of Imperialist Countries

Cuba
CubaNews: Cuba Has Assisted Almost One Third of the World’s Population in Health Care In the six decades of Cuban medical collaboration abroad, its health personnel have assisted 1.988 billion people in the world, almost a third of mankind, said Dr. Jorge Delgado Bustillo, director of the Central Unit for Medical Cooperation (UCCM). He also stated that Cuban doctors have performed more than 14,500,000 surgical operations, 4,470,000 deliveries and have saved 8,700,000 lives, results that increase the prestige of Cuban medicine in the international arena. 

Venezuela
TeleSur: Venezuela Lost Over $30 Billion Due To the US Blockade “The U.S. has applied over 450 unilateral coercive measures, which have caused economic damages for over US$30 billion, which could have been used to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve better living standards for Venezuelans,” said Maduro. His statements were previously backed up by UN Human Rights expert Alena Douhan, who recently visited Venezuela and rendered a report on the negative impact of U.S. sanctions on this South American nation.

Orinoco Tribune: Biden Extends Obama’s Executive Order Against Venezuela for One More Year “The situation in Venezuela continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue with the national emergency declared in Decree 13692 with respect to the situation in Venezuela,” says part of the document that Biden sent to the Congress of his country to continue with the suffocation campaign against million of Venezuelans.

Sputnik News: Blinken Tells Guaido US Backs Continuing Multilateral Pressure on Maduro “Today Venezuelan Interim President Guaido and I discussed our unwavering support for democracy in Venezuela and our efforts to improve the lives of the Venezuelan people.”

Orinoco Tribune: Venezuela Ambassador to EU Claudia Salerno: Venezuela’s Presidents Are Not Elected in Brussels After being declared persona non grata by the EU bloc, the diplomat noted “a list of sanctions has nothing to do with that message with which they say they agree,” of dialogue and electoral channels. She regretted that Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands, which call themselves the core group on Venezuela in the EU, promoted “by surprise” and without consultation, new sanctions “at a time when we were building a solid bridge to establish the criteria for dialogue, of an approach of respectful cooperation.”

TeleSur: Venezuelan Soldiers Pay Tribute to Commander Hugo Chavez Venezuela’s National Armed Forces (FANB) Friday started the 2021 “Bolivarian Shield” Exercise in honor of the eighth anniversary of the death of former President Hugo Chavez. “The military maneuvers will show to the world that the FANB is ready to confront any threats against our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” President Nicolas Maduro said and informed that the national police will also take part in the operation.

Ecuador
The Grayzone: Coup-supporting academics spread lies to censor The Grayzone reporting exposing Ecuador’s pseudo-left candidate Yaku Pérez

Make Chevron Clean Up: Human Rights Attorney Defending Ecuadoran Indigenous against Chevron wins one battle In a major rebuke to Chevron and US trial judge Lewis  Kaplan, a New York appeals court threw out a key contempt finding against attorney Steven Donziger that had been used to fine him millions of dollars in court costs and led to criminal contempt charges that resulted in an unprecedented 19-month house arrest without trial. Donziger became the first person in U.S. history to be targeted in a corporate prosecution by an oil company, according to observers.

Bolivia
Peoples Dispatch (Cindy Forster): Bolivia for the record – the people speak

Bolivia for the record: the people speak pt. 2 A history of the struggle in Bolivia from the coup to today.

Recent and Upcoming Webinars

Building Food Sovereignty in Nicaragua with Erika Takeo and Rita Jill Clark-Gollub

SanctionsKill.org: The US Economic War Waged at Home and Abroad

Code Pink (Teri Mattson, Margaret Flowers): US Economic War on Latin America-A Primer

About Face, Veterans against the War: U.S.-led hybrid war on Venezuela,  significance of the 2020 National Assembly elections, recent visit of UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan’s to investigate the impacts of US sanctions

March 5: End Sanctions on Venezuela Now! Maria Paez Victor, Alison Bodine, Nino Pagliccia

March 8: Women’s Voices from Central America Hear from women from El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, countries heavily impacted by US foreign policy

March 9 Code Pink Capitol Calling Party: End Sanctions on Venezuela with Carlos Ron, former Minister Counsel of Political Affairs at the Venezuelan embassy in the United States; Lorena Gimenez of Género Con Clase, a feminist human rights organization; and Leonardo Flores, a coordinator of CODE PINK’s Latin America campaign.

March 14: Feminist Solidarity! Celebrating International Women’s Day and the Advancement of Cuban Women

To follow Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador daily:

Orinoco Tribune

Stand with Venezuela

Venezuela Solidarity New York

NicaNotes

Friends of Sandinista Nicaragua

Friends of Evo’s Bolivia

Friends of Ecuador – North America

About the Weekly

It is AfGJ’s conviction that we in the US defend Venezuela’s sovereignty and recognize that the Bolivarian Revolution has improved the lives of its citizens, led the movement toward Latin America integration, and is building participatory democracy structures that are an example for us in the US as well. -AfGJ staff

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New US admin stands for same grotesque & brutal policies against Venezuela, shows just how little they actually CARE for people
worker | March 4, 2021 | 9:23 pm | Joe Biden, Venezuela | Comments closed

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/517234-venezuela-biden-policies-guaido/

New US admin stands for same grotesque & brutal policies against Venezuela, shows just how little they actually CARE for people

Eva Bartlett
Eva Bartlett

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian independent journalist and activist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine (where she lived for nearly four years). Follow her on Twitter @EvaKBartlett

New US admin stands for same grotesque & brutal policies against Venezuela, shows just how little they actually CARE for people
Venezuelan non-president, Juan Guaido, is back in headlines after the new US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called him to discuss America’s favorite talking points: “a return to democracy” via “free and fair elections.”

I’m sure the irony will not be lost on those who question the legitimacy of the US election that saw Biden take power.

Anyway, you would have to have been offline or in a coma for the past couple of years to not be aware of some key facts about ‘interim president’ Guaido and US “concern” for Venezuelans.

Venezuelans didn’t vote for Guaido to be president, he hasn’t even stood for president. Venezuelans voted for Maduro. America can huff and puff and whine, but that won’t change the reality.

Guaido named himself ‘interim president’, to the support of only roughly 50 countries – leaving a glaring nearly 150 countries not recognizing this Western-groomed stooge as Venezuela’s leader.

Further, Guaido not only isn’t president of the country, he is no longer president of the National Assembly. As a result, recently, even the EU dropped its recognition of Guaido as interim president. He is a Western-groomed thug who fully backs America’s aggression and sanctions against his own country.

Venezuela’s election process has been recognized as transparent and effective, with former US President Jimmy Carter in 2012 calling it “the best in the world.” On the other hand, Venezuelan opposition, as well as Western nations, have interfered with and attempted to sabotage elections.

As for America’s grave “concern” for Venezuelans, the US in February 2019 staged a “humanitarian aid” delivery via Colombia (“aid” which contained nails and wire, likely meant for opposition barricades), blaming Maduro for “burning food & medicine,” when in fact the trucks were burned by “opposition” supporters. That same month, President Trump threatened military intervention against Venezuela.

The US allegedly sabotaged Venezuela’s power grid in March 2019 (and then blamed the Maduro government for the power failure).

ALSO ON RT.COM‘Cyberattacks & insider sabotage’: Venezuela’s power grid still under attack – MaduroAnd two former US Special Forces soldiers were in May 2020 arrested in a failed invasion (with the goal of capturing Maduro) which allegedly the Trump administration and Guaido himself were involved in.

President Maduro blamed the August 2018 drone assassination attempt on Colombia and elements in the US. The US was also linked to the kidnapping and coup against former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

But aside from those and many other provocations against Venezuela, it is the brutal sanctions against the country that is a clear indicator of just how little America cares for the people.

As many have already surmised, the Biden administration is a continuation of the previous admin’s policies, and Blinken is the new Pompeo. They even sound the same.

  • Blinken to Ukraine’s foreign minister: “unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” “Russian aggression...”
  • Pompeo to the same“support for #Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is ironclad,” “Russia and its proxies’ intransigence, aggressive actions...”
  • Blinken on Crimea: “Russia’s invasion and seizure,” “we call on Russia to end its occupation,” “#CrimeaisUkraine” (newsflash: it’s not, and there was no invasion).
  • Pompeo on the same: “#Crimea is #Ukraine,” “We call on Russia to end its occupation of Crimea.

And of course, their American speak on Guaido is also the same, with both Blinken and Pompeo feigning concern for the lives of the Venezuelan people.

Flogging a dead horse named Guaido

The guy just isn’t popular in Venezuela, not now, not back in early 2019 when America & allies tried to foist him onto Venezuelans.

When I traveled to Venezuela in March 2019, aside from documenting the lack of chaos that Western pundits and media insisted was ongoing at the time, I also tried to find evidence of the massive support the same pundits and media claimed Guaido had.

ALSO ON RT.COMUS is manufacturing a crisis in Venezuela so that there is chaos and ‘needed’ interventionI had seen on various occasions massive demonstrations of solidarity with President Maduro, the man who average Venezuelans support, particularly impoverished indigenous and Afro-Venezuelans who are conveniently ignored by Western media.

On March 30, I spent a good chunk of the day riding around on motorcycle taxi trying to find pro-Guaido protests which had been advertised, instead at designated sites and times finding none, a trickle, or pro-Maduro protesters instead.

Later the same day, I saw another massive pro-Maduro demonstration.

In encounters with Venezuelans during my few weeks in Caracas, I met people who made clear they didn’t support Guaido and what they were fighting for.

In a hilltop community, one such man told me:

We are poor people, but we are proud, we have dignity. We are fighting against Imperialism, against rich people that want our country, that want us as slaves, that want our oil, our water. But we will win.

The governments of the United States and other nations want to tell everybody that we are starving, we are dying in the streets, we are being oppressed by our government. But we’ve never been more free than now, in spite of all the problems we do have.”

He and others spoke of the extreme racism and discrimination Afro-Venezuelans and indigenous Venezuelans faced before Chavez came to power.

Before, we were treated like nothing, we were treated only as workers, that was it. Say to your governments, this isn’t a fight against Maduro, this is a fight against the people that are trying to be free.”

I won’t even repeat some of the unbelievable racist slurs they were subject to.

Some months later, back in Ontario, I met Ronald Abache, an Afro-Venezuelan who attended a lecture I gave. During the question period, he was so articulate about racism in Venezuela, “very alive, but hidden under class status,” that I asked to record his words.

In 1999, for the first time ever in any country in South America, a law was passed to not discriminate against people of color. People that never had a voice now have one and will never give it up again. You can go to the remotest area in my country and everybody can read. Everybody knows their rights and knows that their voice counts.”

He also challenged the opposition to answer one question:

What would they do different? What is their plan? If they’re planning to go back to those great old days (sarcasm), the people are not having it. Two million militias, old people, young people, everybody knows what the United States is doing. My mother is 70, she’s about to join the militia!

These are just some of the people marginalized by Western media and politicians. The ones who claim concern for Venezuela.

As Mr. Abache noted, Venezuelans themselves aren’t going to accept US hegemony, not only the leadership. I got a powerful sense of that in the demonstrations I observed and from the people I spoke with.

The new Biden administration may want to pressure Venezuela into compliance, but the people won’t accept that.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.