A Venezuelan Fairytale

in #informationwar5 years ago

Before starting this rant, let me first make clear that I'm not intimately connected to, or have any profound knowledge about the intricacies surrounding the democratic procedures in Venezuela. But I do know how modern day imperialism works, and how it's both cloaked and powered by capitalism.


venezuela_small.jpg
Image by alexandersr - source: Pixabay

War by Other Means describes how today "nations increasingly carry out geopolitical combat through economic means. Policies governing everything from trade and investment to energy and exchange rates are wielded as tools to win diplomatic allies, punish adversaries, and coerce those in between." Economy is just war by other means and is used by those with economic power to bring to their knees the nations that refuse to become part of the global imperialist structure, refuse to become the slaves of undemocratic institutions like the IMF, World Bank and their army of pillaging multinationals.

I'll never forget how Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State during the Clinton administration, responded to a question about the devastating effects of economic sanctions posed on Iraq after the first Gulf War in 1990 and 1991. According to the UN hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children died as result of the sanctions, and Albright was asked if those deaths are "worth it" to the United States... Her answer: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it." I swear: these people have no soul. They'll even disappoint Satan, as there's nothing for him to collect...

Fast forward to the second Gulf War, justified by the lie that Iraq had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks and the lie that Saddam had "weapons of mass destruction" (remember the "smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud" trope?), and we see the banks, multinationals and oil-businesses collect the price they were after all this time: the oil, as well as keeping Iraq from trading that oil in another currency than the U.S. Dollar. The then much repeated "Axis of Evil" were exactly the countries that refused to trade their oil or other natural resources in the FED produced world-currency; Iran, Iraq, North Korea and, added later, Venezuela.

Look, Saddam was no choir boy, and this is not to defend him in any way, shape or form, but he was innocent of the accusations against him that were used to justify going to war. Also it was a blatant lie, as it always is, that we, the U.S. and its allies, went there to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people. It's mind-boggling to me that people still fall for that, only a few years after we murdered half a million of their kids through economic starvation. First we kill your kids, then we blow up your beautiful architecture to bring you the peaceful democracy you deserve... yeah right...

President Maduro of Venezuela will suffer the same fate; the powers that be have decided it's time for regime change in that country. The Venezuelan people deserve fair, open and transparent elections after years of suffering under a socialist dictatorship, cloaked by fake and corrupt elections. Maduro is painted in western media as the Devil himself, murdering his own people, killing their economy and causing millions to flee the country. I saw a video just now (linked directly below), where the vlogger overheard a conversation in his local supermarket about Venezuela and Maduro. And, I kid you not, they vilified Maduro! They just gobbled up what the TV told them and think regime change is the right thing to do. Especially for those poor Venezuelan people.


Venezuelaganda

Geez... do we never learn? How many times do we have to get suckered in to these false narratives? Like I said before: I'm no expert on Venezuelan democracy, but I do know how we, the west under U.S. leadership, operate when we want something. Venezuela has the largest reserve of heavy crude oil. Need I say more? Maduro took over from Chavez who regrettably passed away in 2013. I say "regrettably" because although I'm no expert, I do know that Chavez was one of the most popular South American presidents in history, topped only by Bolivar and Lula of Brazil, maybe. Since the early 2000s we've been told that Chavez is actually a socialist dictator. In 2003 there was even an attempt at a coup, with American support, to overthrow Chavez, but he was back in his place within 48 hours because of the protests of millions of Venezuelans demanding to put him back.

Chavez first got elected in 1998, and he immediately went to work to change the Venezuelan constitution. You know what he changed? He added a "recall clause", making it possible for the people to recall the presidency even during the administrations term. He gave the people the power to take his position away by referendum. Since then, there have been lots of referenda in Venezuela, and until the early 2000s, there were no complaints about the state of the Venezuelan democracy from the international community. In fact, all elections won by Chavez were deemed in order. Chavez won his last election by a historical margin with more than 60% of the votes and a record high participation; this man was, again as seen by me from the outside, the embodiment of what a democratic leader should be.

Under Chavez many good things were accomplished for the country and the people; I refer you to the video at the end of this post to see through the propaganda aimed against Maduro, and to get a sense of Chavez's accomplishments. But in the end there's only one thing we need to understand here; whatever "we" propose to "aid" the Venezuelan people is just an excuse to get what "we" really want, and that's for Venezuela to become obedient to western imperialist forces. To hand over the production of their oil to western multinationals. And for that, any price is "worth it", but it'll be payed by the Venezuelans and by us, the western taxpayers who indirectly, and often involuntarily or just ignorantly support this extreme imperialism by the plutocrats.

In my mind, Chavez was a hero. He wasn't afraid to call George W. Bush out on his bullshit. At the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 he spoke some time after Bush, a day later to be exact, and during his speech he showed the assembled dignitaries a book by Noam Chomsky. I can't make out the title, but I believe it must be the 2003 book "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance". Here's what he had to say:

"I think that the first people who should read this book, are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is in their own house. The Devil is right at home. The Devil, the Devil himself is right in the house. And the Devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the Devil came here, right here, and it still smells of sulfur here today. This table that I'm now standing in front of, yesterday ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer at as the Devil, came here, talking as if he owns the world. Truly as the owner of the world. I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterdays statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: The Devils Residence."

There you have it. Don't believe a word from the media about Venezuela, unless you live in India, South Africa, or any of the other nations that still support Maduro and are against intervention and are for the right of Venezuelans to determine their own future. Please watch the video below for some much needed propaganda-antidote:


The Coup in Venezuela, Explained


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