The lawlessness of the US government, or more accurately “regime”, knows no bounds, as can be seen more than ever from the failed coup attempt in Venezuela this week.
The initial so-called “uprising” by a tiny group of Venezuelan military – reportedly armed with US assault rifles instead of standard firearms – was blatantly incited by senior White House officials on prime time media. The misconduct openly engaged in by the US is in total violation of international law and UN Charter principles upholding the sovereignty of nations.
As it turns out, the coup bid was an utter failure, descending into farce. Not for the first time over the past three months alone, has Washington brazenly tried to instigate mayhem in Venezuela – and failed.
Yet in the aftermath of Washington’s flagrant attempt at destabilizing the South American country, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has the gall to accuse Russia of “outrageous” interference in Venezuela. The Trump administration is recklessly escalating the conflict by internationalizing what is an internal political matter. Washington has spent years fomenting dissent in Venezuela to overthrow the legitimately elected socialist government in Caracas. Now, the US is trying to turn Venezuela into a site for geopolitical conflict, with preposterous accusations against Russia and Cuba for daring to be allied with President Nicolas Maduro and his socialist administration over the oil-rich country.
American politics and diplomacy have been substituted for outright gangsterism, propaganda and disinformation.
The White House has already openly and audaciously stated that it is seeking regime change in Venezuela in order to get its hands on the country’s immense oil wealth. There are more than enough legal grounds here for a prosecution of senior US officials, including President Trump, for crimes of foreign aggression and war-making.
The so-called Venezuela opposition led by US-backed and mentored figures like self-declared “interim president” Juan Guaido has no legal or popular mandate to demand Maduro stand down. Washington is fostering a civil war in the country by its imposition of economic sanctions to strangle the oil-dependent economy. Senior US officials like Pompeo and Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton have repeatedly called on Venezuelan ministers and military to act treasonously. All these outrageous moves by the US has exacerbated social conditions and tensions in Venezuela, leading to violent street clashes, as seen again this week.
As if Washington’s lawlessness were not enough, it has gone further in its crazed conduct to openly smear Russia and Cuba this week for what it claims to be propping up the “dictatorship of Maduro”.
Russia and most (75 per cent) of the UN member states continue to recognize the incumbent Venezuelan government as the legitimate authority. Russia, China, Cuba, Mexico, Bolivia, Turkey, Iran, among many others, are incontestably on the side of international law. It is the US and certain rightwing pro-Washington Latin American states, as well as European states, which are outside the law, in their baseless efforts to undermine the Venezuelan government and anoint some minor opposition figure as leader.
The lie of Washington’s claims about “supporting democracy” in Venezuela is demonstrated by the repeated failure to achieve regime change. The majority of Venezuelan people remain supportive of the Maduro government, or at least indifferent to Washington’s soliciting for an uprising. Crucially, the Venezuelan military remains solidly loyal to the government and the country’s constitution. The farcical coup attempt this week is further proof that Washington is trying to impose its illegal agenda on the country. Evidently, the Trump administration is not getting its nefarious way – exposing the limits of American imperial power in today’s world – but in its petulance over embarrassing failure, Washington appears to be going over the edge of lawlessness and reason by trying to embroil Russia, Cuba and other allies of Venezuela in an international conflict.
Pompeo reiterated this week that the US is prepared to use military force against Venezuela. Such rhetoric is a breathtaking act of criminal aggression in a long line of aggressions. There is absolutely no semblance of the US having any “national security” excuse to launch a military intervention in Venezuela. It is tantamount to state terrorism on par with Nuremberg-convicted crimes for which Nazi leaders were hung.
The US has no legal or moral right to threaten Venezuela and to intensify the crisis in that country with the loss of lives from violence and deprivation. Surely by now, the European states must realize how they have erred big time in their earlier support for Washington’s demands on Venezuela.
The American path is a road to perdition, and the European Union members must reverse their complicity in Washington’s criminal regime-change machinations. The American road to disaster over Venezuela dramatically emerged in plain sight this week with the failed coup, the deadly clashes it provoked, and, furthermore, the way in which the Trump administration is trying to orchestrate an international conflict with Russia over the latter’s law-abiding support for Venezuela.
After the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961 when a US covert coup in Cuba failed in disaster and ignominy, at least Washington had the shame to sack senior officials for that debacle. Today, a similar fiasco in Venezuela results in US officials doubling down on war. Washington is thus a regime that is utterly out of control and beyond any restraint.
