total economic terrorism waged on Venezuela: submit or face the consequences
‘Food Shipment Destined for Venezuela Seized Due to US Blockade’, August 7, 2019, telesurenglish.com
“Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez denounced Wednesday that a ship containing 25 thousand tons of soy-made products has been seized in the Panama Canal due to the U.S. blockade while calling on the United Nations to take action against the “serious aggression” that impede Venezuela “right to food”.
“Venezuela denounces before the world that a boat that holds 25 thousand tons of tons of soy, for food production in our country, has been seized in the Panama Canal, due to the criminal blockade imposed by Donald Trump,” the vice president said in a tweet.
“Venezuela calls on the UN to stop this serious aggression by DonaldTrump’s govt against our country, which constitutes a massive violation of the human rights of the entire Venezuelan people, by attempting to impede their right to food.”
In a subsequent tweet, the Venezuelan senior official explained that the owner of the vessel carrying the merchandise of food was informed by the insurance company that it was prevented from moving that cargo to Venezuela.”
The background:
‘Washington Escalates Venezuela Sanctions into Full-Fledged Embargo’, Aug 6th 2019; The latest measures amount to a total trade embargo impacting both US and foreign entities, venezuelanalysis.com
“An executive order signed by Trump on Monday declares all Venezuelan state assets in the US “blocked,” prohibiting them from being “transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in” unless specific exemptions are issued by the Treasury Department. All transactions with Venezuelan state entities are likewise forbidden.
Crucially, the executive order likewise authorizes the Treasury Department to issue secondary sanctions against non-US third parties deemed to have “materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services” to the Venezuelan government.
While previous executive orders had already laid the legal basis for secondary sanctions against foreign actors dealing with Venezuela’s state oil, mining, and banking sectors, the present White House decree expands the blacklist to encompass all business with the Venezuelan state.
“We are sending a signal to third parties that want to do business with the Maduro regime: Proceed with extreme caution,” stated US National Security Advisor John Bolton, adding that those who flout sanctions “risk [their] business interests with the United States.” [snip]
“Bolton made the remarks during a gathering of fifty-six countries that recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s “interim president” in Lima, Peru on Tuesday. President Nicolas Maduro continues to be recognized by Russia, China, the United Nations, and the rest of the international community [*see coverage below] below.
At the conference, Bolton threatened Moscow and Beijing not to “double-down” in support of the Maduro administration, which he described as “now join[ing] that exclusive club of rogue states.” [snip]
“Monday’s embargo follows months of escalating sanctions from the Treasury Department against key sectors of the Venezuelan economy, including mining, banking, and especially oil. Washington targeted Caracas’ main source of foreign currency with an embargo in late January, while also imposing restrictions on Venezuela’s ability to import diluents and fuel. More recently, the Treasury Department sanctioned the government’s CLAP subsidized food program.”
*See: ‘120 Countries Defend Venezuela at the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Caracas’, July 20, 2019, June 21, 2019, resumen-english.org
Popularresistance.org, Aug. 6, 2019 adds more:
“The executive order blocks the Venezuelan government from having access to any of its property in the United States or any property that enters the United States. It also contains very broad language that allows the Treasury Secretary, in consultation with the State Department, to block any person who is considered to be:
“owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.”
And it imposes a travel ban, under the discretion of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, to block anyone from entering the United States who supports the elected government of Venezuela.
According to Reuters, John Bolton told the meeting in Lima, Peru that “U.S. authorities can now target and sanction anyone, including foreigners, who support Maduro’s government.” This action is being taken by the United States to further its attempts at regime change in Venezuela since multiple coup attempts and other interferences have failed to date.”
‘Chancellor Arreaza Rejects Savagery Used by the US in its Threat of Naval Blockade against Venezuela (Video)’, August 5, 2019, orinocotribune.com
“In an interview granted on Friday to the Caracas based network Telesur, Arreaza cataloged this measure as “crimes against humanity” because if implemented it would violate “the human rights of 30 million Venezuelans” and will have a great effect on the country’s economy.
He also attacked the US Administration for using “savagery” precisely when the Government and the opposition sectors are struggling to get points of possible agreement in the negotiations they have held in Barbados, under the mediation of Norway.
RELATED CONTENT: ‘Venezuela “Ready for Battle” if Trump Imposes Blockade – Maduro’, August 7, 2019
“They are making us all go hungry, suffering. They are attacking the stomach and the life of the people thinking that they will not resist, but the people trust in their government, in the State,” he emphasized while criticizing Washington’s sanctions against Caracas that according to a recent study prepared by [CEPR] economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachsen, have killed some 40,000 Venezuelans in the last two years.
In reaction to Trump’s new threats, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro called on the nation on Friday to prepare for battle and said his government will denounce the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to the United States for its policy of threats and pressure.”
Venezuelan VP Rejects US Blockade, Calls for Unity’, telesurenglish, August 6, 2019
“She said that although the opposition says the measures are against President Nicolas Maduro, the U.S. blockade affects all Venezuelans.
The Venezuelan government has rejected the blockade ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said Tuesday and defined the blockade as an attack against the entire country.
“He has taken the most dangerous steps against our country to lay the foundations for absolute suffocation against Venezuela,” Vice President Rodríguez warned.
She went on to say that although the opposition says the measures are against President Nicolas Maduro, the U.S. blockade affects all Venezuelans.”
“Is it really [about] Maduro? Or is it a total financial blockade against Venezuela? If you financially close Venezuela, how will the country buy its food and medicines?” she asked.”
‘Washington orders international embargo on Venezuela, threatens invasion’, Andrea Lobo, 7 August 2019, wsws.org
“In other words, US imperialism is starving Venezuelans into submission in order to install a puppet regime under Juan Guaidó to gain full control of the largest proven oil reserves on the planet. Above all, the move is aimed at overthrowing a key Western Hemisphere economic and political ally of Washington’s declared geopolitical rivals, Russia and China.” [snip]
[I think Lobo's wrong about the 'above all aim'...]
“Ahead of the meeting [in Peru], the US envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, a war criminal from his involvement in covering up genocide and other abuses during the Central American civil wars in the 1980s, gave an interview to the Peruvian daily El Comercio. “We are following the options we have,” he declared. “If you had told George Bush Sr. in 1988 that he would invade Panama, he would have called it madness. But two or three years later, it happened. So, no one knows what will happen in the future, but it’s not today’s policy.”
The summit was organized by Washington to threaten the world into obeying the US blockade against Venezuela. US National Security Advisor John Bolton told the conference: “We are sending a signal to third parties that want to do business with the Maduro regime: Proceed with extreme caution. There is no need to risk your business interests with the United States for the purposes of profiting from a corrupt and dying regime.” [snip]
“Around the time of the change in policy, in December 2017, the White House published a new National Security Strategy proclaiming openly “great-power competition” against the “revisionist powers” of China and Russia as its central priority. “Both China and Russia support the dictatorship in Venezuela and are seeking to expand military linkages and arms sales across the region,” the document warned. Thus, in one of its “priority actions,” the document said, “We will isolate governments that refuse to act as responsible partners in advancing hemispheric peace and prosperity,” referring to Cuba and Venezuela.” [snip]
“Guaidó’s self-proclamation as president in January saw an aggressive expansion of sanctions, this time directly aimed against PdVSA. Exemptions for several US companies doing business with PdVSA or its branch in the US, Citgo, ended on July 27, while sanctions were recently placed on the Russian Evrofinance Mosnarbank and several shipping companies associated with Venezuelan oil exports.
International reserves in Venezuela are virtually gone, beginning the year at $8.75 billion but facing a deepening crisis and a World Bank ruling ordering Venezuela to pay $8 billion in compensation to ConocoPhillips for expropriations in 2007. On April 10, the International Monetary Fund cut access to a $400 million credit line. Venezuela’s oil production has fallen from 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2015 to 734,000 bpd in June.
Earlier this year, the UN requested a fund of $738 million chiefly to aid the millions of migrants that have escaped Venezuela, but by July international donors had only provided 23.7 percent.”
NPR Shreds Ethics Handbook to Normalize Regime Change in Venezuela’, Lucas Koerner, August 6, 2019, TRNN (loads of examples)
Rebuilding the Hegemony of Chavismo: A Conversation with Gerardo Rojas (Part I), an intellectual committed to the communal project talks about the contradictions that the popular movement is facing in Venezuela today, venezuelanaysis.com, August 4, 2019
@AmbJohnBolton Aug 6 “Productive day at the International Conference for Democracy in Venezuela working w/ our regional partners & allies who are united in supporting Interim President Guaido & Venezuelans. The intl. community remains committed to increasing pressure on the regime until Maduro goes”
@AmbJohnBolton Aug 6 “Pleased to meet with FM Faurie of Argentina today. Argentina’s steadfast support for Interim President Guaido is a testament to its commitment to defending freedom and democracy in Latin America. We support Argentina’s efforts to reform its economy and increase prosperity.”
@AmbJohnBolton Aug 5 “Great discussion today with FM Araujo of Brazil. FM Araujo is in Lima to support the restoration of democracy in Venezuela. Brazil is a crucial partner for democracy, prosperity, and freedom in the hemisphere and around the globe.”
Our fierce resistance and fighting capacity is the key to confront the criminal aggressions of imperialism, of the national and international right-wing. We have the lineage of liberators, reason and moral force. Venezuela is blessed by God! pic.twitter.com/bZPMfvaiO2
— Nicolás Maduro (@maduro_en) August 7, 2019
(cross-posted from Café Babylon)
Comments
Crimes against humanity
No different than starving half a million children to death in Iraq.
How did that help?
And Americans have the chutzpah to be "shocked" that the indigenous people of the Middle East bombed the World Trade Center.
well, amigo...
"it was worth it", wasn't it, just to export amerikan democracy™ to iraq?
it's impossible to really peer into the evil minds who are able to hatch such dastardly and complicated plots to rid the world of any leaders who are either socialist, or almost socialist now (maduro, i guess: see Gerardo Rojas in the OP), and those who have managed not to suck up to the US.
but it's been going on in VZ for so long now, ever since Obomba first declared VZ a 'direct threat to US nat'l security' because: ReXXon tillerson's oil, esp. the huge reserves in the disputed offshore area near guyana. same with deposing mossadegh in iran in what, 1953? at the best of (then) Standard Oil.
who will stop the most tyrannical exporter of violence & weapons of war Amerikan Empire? those who can...and must.
Caitlin nails it
I'm always appalled that the world will sit by as we kill thousands just because we don't like their governments. Oh well. The world sits by as the US government sanctions its own people whilst many are okay with them doing it. Eat the rich might be coming soon.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Tastes just like chicken.
I only eat the white meat. Pass the gravy.
i hear rattlesnake
tastes like chicken, too.
Man, the US government
will do anything to keep some poor people from getting food huh. Ugh.
This shit is bananas.
not to mention that they
wouldn't be so poor were it not for this #shithole nation's punishing sanctions and stealing VZ gold reserves in UK banks, and allowing the Guadoistas to steal VZ oil money.
speaking of the opposition Guaidoistas, it knocked me out when bloggers and journalists would show the relatives whiteness of his supporters in crowds. some of you may remember, but wasn't he CIA before he appeared on the scene to crown himself King of VZ? or was that: Interim King of VZ?
juan and his Pale Faces:
she said it right, then,
didn't she? come to that, the world watches as amerika kills millions cuz she doesn't like their government leaders, really.
i hadn't included this as i'd thought the video would be longer, but i know how well you like aaron maté:
Washington will make Venezuelans ‘suffer’ until they acquiesce to regime change - Aaron Maté’, Aug, 2019, RT.com
Watch the full interview. (13 mins)
And the U.N. says
what? I can't hear you. Fucking amazing. The cat is completely out of the bag not only on what they're doing now but on basically every war crime they've committed since 9/11, the false flag which hardly anyone in the system is willing to challenge. That includes all dems like the progressives and DSA's and Gabbard especially, who touts joining the military in 2004 like it was right after 9/11 and is an admitted "hawk for the war on terror", which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, except the excuses made by her supporters for her warmongerness and unabashed militarism.
If there isn't anything the entire world can do about it, what can the duped and stupefied American public do about it? And certainly since our un-representatives are all in on it, they aren't going to stop it.
It's a damn shame that we the United States of America citizens, are killing children in Venezuela by our acquiescence, apathy, and outright support of the two oligarchy political parties perpetrating these crimes.
Thanks for the op wd.
mr. wd said this morning
that somewhere he'd recently read an op-ed positing that with the wealth of the US coupled with such military might, that it's possible no one can stop "Us". but i think you're correct in thinking that our duopoly Rulers are pretty close to fine with most of it, even though many laud "peace" as a goal, and part of the rationale is that War Is So Expensive, not that it's most of based on lies, and creates more enemies like ISIS and cousins.
oh, and i did stick up an update diary recently from the new lawyers inquiry into 9/11; the brooklyn firefighters have joined with the evidence they've discovered over the years, so that's a very good thing.
but i had cause yesterday to go dig up this ro khanna march 19, 2019 letter to the secretary of gunboat diplomacy (few snippets):
but see, it's all rubbish, but has all the virtue signaling one could want. but as for grounds for an R2P mission like libya? sure.
Reads to me like a cya thing,
purely political to give them credential. That's what I've felt about the complaints from various representatives when they bring up the "congressional approval" thing. They're more than willing to approve the NDAA and the Pentagon and contingency operations (wars) budgets but they tell their constituents that it's not their fault, the President didn't seek their approval. That's bullshit.
Also, their emphasis on blaming Maduro clearly indicates full support of the imperialist lies which are used for sanctions, etc., while they carefully warn about "military" intervention, which everyone knows isn't going to happen.
I'd say this is a clear stain on those that signed that letter, seemingly providing democratic party and progressive cover of protest while supporting the propaganda and lies. Is it better than those who say nothing or agree with Trump's actions, no, I don't think so. I think it's worse because it presents a progressive protest that supports the imperialist lies which solidifies those lies with the public, particularly the left, thereby paving the way for acquiescence to the non military war actions.
i'd also admired the
'stop the sanctions' section, as well (they harm regular citizens being starved by the evil maduro who kills his own people), as if the sanctions will stop. but...at least they stopped short of recognizing juan guaido as interim King of VZ.
if this new round of economic sanctions terrorism doesn't cause maduro to retire, the threats of military action sure are extant. of course the guaidoistas have been trying to turn the military against him, but so far it hasn't worked. the assassination attempts on his life may have solidified their support, yes?
nice interview with Maduro
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/06/interview-venezuelan-president-nicola...
38 min video with transcript.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
thanks, lookout
it just came in the popular resistance newsletter, and i was going to add it. blumenthal does do good interviews, as i remember it. the title is: ‘John Bolton tried to assassinate me’.
"You'll take OUR food with guns hidden inside or no food at all"
exactly right.
that's what USAID (cia) food convoys look like (plus accordion wire, wasn't it)?
i couldn't remember where i'd seen this hilarity earlier, but found it again this a.m.:
“Only 9 Chancellors in Attendance” – Delcy Rodriguez on Lima Group “Reloaded” Meeting’, (with photo) orinocotribune, aug.6
and telesur english has this morning news that cuba will survive the US economic blockades, and not enter recession.
didn't the US lay sanctions on the doctors who went to VZ to help? they may even have brought a ship of medicines, as well.
People wag their moral fingers at local killers
But support the mass starvation of people in Venezuela and Yemen.
isn't the same violence at play?
i haven't clicked into any of the headlines about the numerous mass murders over the past few weeks, but the headlines remind me of Urban Commandos mirroring the greater USian culture's predilection for violence first, sort it out later.
and of course, it never really gets sorted out, from impunity for killings by kops, to amerikan war criminals being in prison at the hague.
dah, if i amend and expand 'amerikans' a bit, i'll be highjacking my own thread. never mind for now, but so much of it's all of a piece.
i know i've said it before, but
all of this is so reminiscent of salvador allende's being toppled by a CIA military coup with the help of nixon and kissinger (aided by the amerikan trained chigaco boys economists (milton friedman, et.al) dictate to 'Make the Economy Scream'.
and given that the several coup attempts against maduro have/had failed, an the military is still behind him, this script seems to have been written before. and as i remember it, it wasn't very long ago that Kissinger had visited the T white house; do any of you recall seeing that (more recently than the 'official surprise visit' in 2017?
One silver lining in the right-wing crazy-nutbags cloud is that
right wingers very often overplay their hands. Since they are guided by the crazy voices in their heads rather than some reasonable objective metrics they often cross the line into crazy town, and they don't know it, but everyone else does.
(Ok, "everyone" is an exaggeration. But more people know it now than earlier.)
from your mouth to the gods'
ears, but is anyone is their any #McResistance from the #NotRight? but if one looks at the second and third party (plus: in-kind aid) sanctions in every sector of VZ's economy, ya gotta think it would take a veritable army of watchdogs and technocrats to fulfill the 'promises'. but hey, maybe it's all by way of a jobs program to MAGA!