The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 22nd February 2019
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 22nd February 2019
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 22nd February 2019
THE CHIEF of US imperialism, Donald Trump, has called on the Venezuelan military to support opposition leader Juan Guaidó, an American pawn, or “lose everything” this week. US imperialism wants Venezuela’s oil and gold reserves, but Russia has warned the Americans against any interference, including military, into Venezuela’s internal affairs.
Now Venezuela’s friends and allies are rallying to defend the Bolivarian government and Cuba has condemned America’s escalating preparations for military intervention, calling on the United Nations to back the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people and not allow, under any circumstances, interference in the internal affairs of the country.
“You will find no safe harbour, no easy exit and no way out. You will lose everything,” Trump said in a speech at Florida International University in Miami, calling on the Venezuelan military to ousted Nicolas Maduro or face the consequences. “We seek a peaceful transition of power but all options are open”, Trump warned. But Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro accused Trump of speaking in “almost Nazi style” thinking he could deliver orders to the Venezuelan army. “Who is the commander of the armed forces, Donald Trump from Miami?” Maduro said. “They think they are the owners of the country.”
Maduro has repeatedly called for the restoration of talks between his government and the opposition in order to maintain peace and avoid military intervention by the USA to remove him and replace the Bolivarian revolutionary government with an unelected puppet regime that would do the bidding of the big oil corporations.
Crippling imperialist sanctions and the crash in the price of oil has severely disrupted the Venezuelan economy. Self-proclaimed “interim president” Juan Guaidó, has called for American “aid” that has now been delivered to neighbouring Colombia. But there it stands because the Venezuelans fear that weapons could be concealed in the aid containers.
This week Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that Washington’s so-called ‘humanitarian convoy’ is a cover to prepare, from the Colombian town of Cucuta, a provocative action in Venezuela.
“Let us not be deceived, or deceive others. A provocation, including with casualties, is being prepared under the guise of a humanitarian convoy. And it is needed as a pretext for a forceful action from outside. And everyone should clearly understand this. We consider it urgently necessary to refrain from steps and statements that could provoke an escalation of tension in Venezuela, in particular, any appeals to the Venezuelan armed forces fraught with their involvement in an internal civil confrontation”, Zakharova said.
The USA is planning a confrontation in Venezuela, which has as its main objective to try to influence the Venezuelan Army to carry out a military coup, she said.
“Venezuelan servicemen are openly being incited to a rebellion. High-ranking officials in Washington are calling on the armed forces of a sovereign state to side with new political leadership. What right does the United States have to talk about democracy and legal framework both within a separate state and on the global stage after that?” Zakharova said.
The Venezuelan president says that the Bolivarian nation will not let the USA “put its hands” on the country’s vast oil reserves “as they did in Iraq or in Libya”. In an appeal to the American people last month, Nicolas Maduro said: “I call on the conscience, I call on your solidarity, I call on you to an awakening of the truth: we will not allow a Vietnam in Latin America. If the United States intends to intervene, they will have a Vietnam worse than you could ever imagine.”