Under the guise of protecting human rights, the Trump administration is illegally meddling in three countries it has souzesoen the “troika of tyranny” — Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. National Security Adviser John Bolton claimed, “Miami is home to countless Americans, who fled the prisons and death squads of the Castro regime in Cuba, the murderous dictatorships of Chavez and Maduro in Venezuela, and the horrific violence of the 1980s and today under the brutal reign of the Ortegas in Nicaragua.”
But the U.S. government’s Mënscherechter Rekord doesn’t compare favorably to Cuba’s. And the Trump administration, which ignores notorious human rights violators like Saudi Arabia, is acting out of more cynical motives in its commission of egregious human rights violations against Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.
D'US Regierung huet opgeléist unlawful, coercive sanctions on these nations, and attempted to mount a coup to illegally change Venezuela’s regime.
Trump and the real troika of tyranny — Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams - hunn net fonktionnéiert an hire Länner Putsch Versuch géint d ' demokratesch gewielt Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump’s troika, eegéiert by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), are seeking to substitute U.S. puppet Juan Guaidó for Maduro as president of Venezuela.
On May 1, Pompeo gesot Fox Business that the U.S. might use military force in Venezuela “if that’s what is required.” Eric Prince, founder of the infamous Blackwater mercenary group, presented a plan to U.S. and European leaders to provide 5,000 mercenaries to Guaidó.
McClatchy confirméiert that covert U.S. weapons shipments arrived in Venezuela from Miami in February.
Dëst ass besonnesch alarméierend well Russland eng solidaresch Präsenz am Venezuela huet an en US-ënnerstëtzten Attack kéint eng Konflagratioun mat Russland riskéieren.
Ausserdeem verbitt d'Vereenten Natiounen Charta Länner ze benotzen oder ze menacen Gewalt géint d'territorial Integritéit oder d'politesch Onofhängegkeet vun engem anere Land ze benotzen. D'Charta vun der Organisatioun vun den amerikanesche Staaten verbitt all Land an d'intern oder extern Affäre vun enger anerer Natioun ze intervenéieren. An den internationale Covenant on Civil and Political Rights garantéiert d'Recht op Selbstbestëmmung.
Sanktiounen bilden illegal kollektiv Strof
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has increased punishing sanctions on Venezuela as a step toward forcible regime change. “Statements from the [Trump] administration indicated that the purpose of the sanctions was to provoke a military rebellion to topple the government,” according to a neie Reportage by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Those sanctions are exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe in Venezuela. They have gefouert fir more than 40,000 deaths from 2017-2018 and oil production has fallen more than 36 percent since January 2019.
De Bericht seet datt d'wirtschaftlech Sanktiounen, déi den Trump am August 2017 opgesat huet, "d'Kalorienaufnahme vun der Ëffentlechkeet reduzéiert hunn, d'Krankheet an d'Mortalitéit erhéicht hunn (fir Erwuessener a Puppelcher), a Millioune vu Venezuelaner verdrängt, déi d'Land geflücht hunn als Resultat vun der verschlechterter wirtschaftlecher Depressioun an der Hyperinflatioun. " Zousätzlech, "Si hunn d'Venezuela Wirtschaftskris verschäerft an et bal onméiglech gemaach d'Wirtschaft ze stabiliséieren, weider zu iwwerschësseg Doudesfäll bäigedroen. All dës Auswierkunge hunn disproportionnell déi äermsten a vulnérabel Venezuelaner schueden.
Laut dem Bericht, "Nach méi schwéier an zerstéierend wéi déi breet wirtschaftlech Sanktiounen vum August 2017 waren d'Sanktiounen, déi duerch exekutiv Uerdnung den 28. Januar 2019 a spéider Exekutiv Uerder dëst Joer agefouert goufen; an d'Unerkennung vun enger parallele Regierung."
Seeking to pressure Cuba to cease its solidarity with Venezuela, Trump has slammed Cuba with méi Sanktiounen, stiffening the economic and travel blockade and activating Titel III vum Helms Burton Act to allow thousands of lawsuits that will discourage tourism and investment in Cuba.
Den Trump huet threatened Cuba with “a full and complete” embargo if it does not “immediately” stop supporting the Maduro government. Cuba called Bolton a “pathological liar” for alleging that Cuban troops are stationed in Venezuela. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez stated at a news conference, “This is vulgar calumny. Cuba does not have troops nor military forces nor does it participate in military or security operations of the sister Republic of Venezuela.” Indeed, the CIA has determined that Cuba is much less involved and its solidarity is much less crucial to Venezuela than U.S. officials think, entspriechend zu a former official.
In December 2018, Trump signed a bill levying sanctions to block Nicaragua from obtaining loans from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The U.S. government is targeting Nicaragua’s Bancorp, which has ties a Venezuela.
All of these sanctions constitute kollektiv Strof of the civilian population, which is prohibited by the Geneva and Hague Conventions. They also violate the Charter of the Organization of American States, which prohibits intervention in the internal or external affairs of another country and the use of economic or political coercive measures “to force the sovereign will of another State.”
This is not the first time the U.S. government has interfered and intervened in these three sovereign socialist countries. In 1960, responding to a secret State Department memo, the Eisenhower administration imposed an economic embargo on Cuba. The memo proposed “a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” The cruel U.S. economic blockade against Cuba, which continues to this day, has never led to the overthrow of the Cuban Revolution.
In the 1980s, the Regan administration illegally assisted the Contras, who sought unsuccessfully to overthrow Daniel Ortega’s socialist government in Nicaragua.
And in 2002, the CIA during the George W. Bush administration mounted a failed coup attempt against socialist president Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
D'USA benotzen en duebele Standard fir hir Mënscherechter Bedenken an hir Attacken op sozialistesch Länner.
Ambassade Schutz Kollektiv schützt Venezuelan Ambassade
Mëttlerweil ass de Ambassade Schutz Kollektiv remains in the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C. Members of CODEPINK and Popular Resistance have lived in the embassy for more than two weeks to protect it from a coup attempt and possible invasion by U.S.-backed opposition forces. On May 1, members of the collective ofgerappt an attempted takeover of the embassy by forces loyal to Guaidó.
If the Trump administration were to enter the embassy to expel these people, who are present with consent of the Venezuelan government, it would violate the Wiener Konventioun iwwer diplomatesch Bezéiungen. Article 22 of that treaty states, “The premises of the mission shall be inviolable.” U.S. agents are prohibited from entering the embassy without the consent of the Maduro government. The United States is also “under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.” And the premises, furniture and other property “shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.”
Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, members of the Embassy Protective Collective, geschriwwen,
Wann déi venezuelanesch Ambassade zu Washington vun der Oppositioun iwwerholl gëtt, wäert dat katastrofal Resultater hunn. D'Venezuelanesch Regierung huet erkläert datt wann dëst geschitt, si wäerten d'US Ambassade zu Caracas huelen. D'USA wäerten dëst als en Agressiounsakt gesinn, a well se schonn no enger Excuse sichen fir dat ze maachen, kéinten Venezuela attackéieren. Well Russland a China enk Alliéierte vu Venezuela sinn, kéint dëst e globale Konflikt ausléisen.
Firwat Ass Team Trump Absicht op Sanktiounen a Regimewiessel?
Firwat ass dem Trump seng Troika sou virgesinn fir de Regimewiessel a Venezuela a Sanktiounen a Kuba, Venezuela an Nicaragua?
Last month, Bolton addressed the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association on the 58th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, in which the U.S. aided and abetted a failed attempt to overthrow Cuba’s Fidel Castro. “Together, we can finish what began on those beaches,” Bolton gesot, adding, “We must reject the forces of communism and socialism in this hemisphere.”
It’s not simply anti-communism that animates the Trump administration’s fixation on sanctions and regime change in these Latin American countries. “With at least a half-million voters who were born in Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia or Nicaragua — and more with ancestral roots in those countries — it’s a constituency that could prove pivotal in November 2020 in a state that’s essential to Trump’s reelection fortunes,” Marc Caputo geschriwwen at Politik.
U.S. strategies on Cuba and Venezuela intertwine in an insidious way, and Senator Rubio is pivotal in both. “Venezuela is really an extension of the position on Cuba,” according to Ricardo Herrera, director of the Cuba Study Group. The Wall Street Journal Rapporten that both countries are part of a plan to reassert U.S. dominance in Latin America and finally destroy the Cuban Revolution.
Moreover, corporate America wants to get its hands on Venezuela’s oil. Bolton gesot in January, “We’re in conversation with major American companies now…. It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies really invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.”
Veteranen fir Fridden hunn eng Erklärung erausginn, déi d'US Truppen opgeruff hunn illegal Uerder ze widderstoen fir Venezuela z'invaséieren, a bemierkt: "Während de President Trump vun der Ënnerstëtzung vun der Demokratie a Venezuela a Lateinamerika schwätzt, ass de richtegen Zweck vun der US Attentat op d'venezuelanesch Regierung komplett opzemaachen. grouss venezuelanesch Uelegreserven un d'US an aner westlech Uelegkonzerner wéi och fir progressiv Regierungen a Latäinamerika ze zerstéieren, déi hir eege Bedierfnesser iwwer d'Gewënn vun auslännesche Firmen stellen.
Although there is opposition to Maduro’s policies in Venezuela, people don’t want the United States to impose its will on them. Eva Golinger, former adviser to Hugo Chavez, gesot Demokratie Elo! datt "sëcherlech, et gi vill a Venezuela déi op Ännerung an hirem Land hoffen, awer si wëllen net en US-ënnerstëtzte Regime op der Plaz. Si wëllen net e wäit-riets imposéierte Regime, deen op auslännesch Interessen äntwert, wat mir am Land gesinn.
Am Mee 1, Rep Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), erschéngen och op Demokratie Elo!, gesot, “A lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of helped lead the devastation in Venezuela,” adding, “this particularly bullying and the use of sanctions to eventually intervene and make regime change really does not help the people of countries like Venezuela, and it certainly does not help and is not in the interest of the United States.”
Many in Congress and the corporate media walk in lockstep with the administration on its Venezuela strategy. On April 3, a bipartisan group of senators introduced eng Rechnung to recognize Guaidó as the president of Venezuela.
Instead, Congress should pass HR1004, the Prohibiting Unauthorized Military Action in Venezuela Act, which would forbid the use of U.S. military force in Venezuela without explicit congressional authorization. This bill is now pending in the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees. People can contact their representatives and urge them to co-sponsor and support H.R.1004.
D'Marjorie Cohn ass Professer Emerita an der Thomas Jefferson School of Law, fréiere President vun der National Lawyers Guild, Adjoint Generalsekretär vun der International Association of Democratic Lawyers a Member vum Berodungsrot vu Veterans for Peace. Hir lescht Buch ass Dronen a geziilten Killing: Juristesch, moralesch a geopolitesch Themen.
ZNetwork gëtt eleng duerch d'Generositéit vu senge Lieser finanzéiert.
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