--classstrugggle-flipmag CS Mar-2019 MKP | Page 10

World Affairs: Now They are Coming to Hunt Venezuela The last week of January saw an unprecedented move in the Latin American country, Venezuela. The leader of (Suspended) Parliament Mr. Juan Guido proclaimed himself as the President of that country. As expected immediately US imperialism recognised him as the interim President. So as nineteen members of European Union (EU) and other US allies quickly lined up to back Trump’s position. Trump warned the legitimate president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro for any act of violence against the self proclaimed president Guido and the anti -Maduro protesters. People in support of elected president Maduro brought out huge rallies throughout the country. Some Pro- Guido rallies though small in numbers are held since the self - declaration. This was followed by the US imposing sanctions on the Venezuela’s state owned oil company PDVSA and seizing its assets in the US worth 7 billion dollar. An additional 1.2 billion dollar in gold belonging to Venezuela is being withheld by the Bank of England on instruction from US. US also threatened other countries not to import petrol from Venezuela. The objective is to strangle the Venezuelan economy into submission. So far, the coup attempt has not managed to get any support from the armed forces and Venezuela military stood firm behind Maduro. Meanwhile nineteen of thirty five members of United Nations Security Council rejected foreign inter-ference in Venezuela while UN General Council reiterated that Nicolas Maduro is the consti- 10 tutional president of Venezuela. Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and Venezuela’s allies in Latin America such as Cuba, Bolivia spoke against US move and condemned US interference. South African Development Community (SADC), a group consisting of 15 African nations, issued a statement condemning the violation of international law in US- backed coup actions against Venezuela. Maduro has repeatedly called for the resumption of talks between the Govt. and the opposition in order to restore peace and avoid US-backed coup or military intervention. On the other side US president Donald Trump has made several threatening statements against elected President Maduro, saying that he won’t rule out military intervention. US special envoy to overself the matter of Venezuela notorious war convicted criminal Eliot Abrams claimed that time had passed to hold a dialogue with the govt. of President Maduro. The whole crisis is setting the stage for serious economic and political crisis leading to internal civil war. Blockade & sanctions have been going on for a long time that really brings havoc to the Venezuela oil export economy. Speculators & food super market owners make the crisis more worsen by short supply the food items hence making those expensive. Taking the plea of food shortage, US is propagating to provide humanitarian aid for Venezuelan people. Tons of US aid is piling up in Colombia close to the border with Venezuela. Guido the self proclaimed president vowed to defy Maduro’s efforts to block the supplies from entering the country. Maduro meanwhile blames Venezuela’s woes on US sanctions. Maduro referring to US food aid said that it is a booby trap, they are putting a show with rotten and contaminated food. They have stolen 30 billion dollar and are offering four crumbs of rotten food”. “If they want to help Venezuela put an end to the blockade, ask them to release our bank accounts”. In reality the so called humani- tarian aid will be used as a political instrument against Maduro and his Govt. Meanwhile Trump’s top adviser, National Security Adviser John Bolton openly admitted that Washington is heavily invested in political outcomes in Venezuela because this country has vast untapped oil reserves. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world along with Natural gas (4 th in the world), Gold and other natural resources. This is the real reason why US imperialism has a lot of stake in Venezuela’s political crisis. But in the name of humanitarian crisis, restore democracy, end authoritarian rule, uphold human rights, end food riots and end refugee crisis only are some the pleas to intervene in the internal affair of Venezuela. Washington’s intensifying effort at regime change in Venezuela are part of a pivot Latin America policy aimed at eliminating Chinese and Russian influence and transfor- ming the whole Latin America into the exclusive cheap labour and primary resources peripheral nations for US imperialism. In this light, we can see the Guido- the US stooge’s economic programme (though he is not yet official president). Guido has Class Struggle