US policy towards Venezuela is deception and hypocrisy.
Deception: US claims to seek freedom and democracy for Venezuela, but the primary goal is to subvert it. While sanctioning Venezuela and pushing it toward crisis, the US simultaneously has tried to give aid, which could very possibly be a cover for a direct coup. We help pull Venezuela down and then act as humanitarians.
Hypocrisy: The US government claims to care about supposed Venezuelan food shortages while at the same time assisting in the delivery of famine to war-torn Yemen.
Hypocrisy: There is no shortage of bad leaders in the world: el-Sisi, Netanyahu, Modi, MBS, Trump – the list goes on. But we pick Maduro to bully. The US cares about the Venezuelan people in so far as it salivates over the largest world’s oil reserves.
Unlike most Latin American elites in power, Chavez used resource wealth for the people. Nicolas Maduro is not as effective and has caused some of the problems now engulfing Venezuela. But this is an internal Venezuelan issue. It does not warrant the economic warfare of sanctions or an intervention. Lifting the sanctions would be one major step to mitigate the crisis; it may turn Venezuela’s current problems into an everyday recession.
Chavistas not letting hegemonic interests pilfer the country’s resource wealth is the principal reason that the US government demands Maduro step down. Venezuela had seen improved social conditions under Chavez, homicide rates notwithstanding. But the country has backslid thanks to US sanctions and opposition funding, oil price decreases and Maduro’s lackluster leadership. In Cuba, a backer of Venezuela and long-time US enemy, the education and health care system are among the best in Latin America. In each country, US policy is regime change because the piggy bank is blocked.
If the US government cared about freedom of the world’s people, it would not support the profound captivity of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. If we cared about freedom and democracy, we would not elect a president who tells professional football players how to behave before a game. If the US government cared about freedom, it would call China out for its Uighur concentration camps instead of desperately trying to block its 5G network.
When leaders feign concern about people they want to maim, isn’t the deception obvious?
Have we not learned anything from the Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan debacles over the past few decades?
