Steve Ellner debunks the myth (systematically promoted by Washington) that the Venezuelan “crisis” preceded the implementation of U.S. sanctions and thus the Maduro government alone is to blame for the current catastrophe.
For the empire, genocide, like aggression, is a normal part of politics. Nuclear planners plan how to commit it. Sanctions officials administer it. And for the most part, human rights organizations take no position on it.
Trump and the real troika of tyranny — Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams — have failed in their coup attempt against the democratically elected Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
In a nakedly political move, Jeremy Corbyn's right-wing critics are painting the lifelong anti-racist's criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. Corbyn’s wing of the Labor Party is accused because criticism of Israel is now defined as anti-Semitism.
Israel sees the international boycott campaign as an existential threat to the Jewish state. Palestinians regard it as their last resort. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel has been driving the world a little bit mad.
It is encouraging to see that a new campaign is taking shape "to end U.S. and Canada sanctions against Venezuela," writes Nino Pagliccia.
Both involved Trump associates Michael Cohen and Felix Sater—and US sanctions.
On Friday, a group of members of Congress published a letter opposing the threatened sanctions. It began, “We write to express our deep alarm regarding the escalating political, economic and social crisis in Venezuela and urge you to work with our regional partners to help prevent a civil war. We strongly recommend that you support negotiations mediated by respected external actors such as Pope Francis, who enjoys credibility with broad segments of Venezuela’s people.
Given the specter of nuclear war, the rational policy is one of de-escalation.
What the sanctions made clear is that President Obama’s opening to Cuba represented exactly zero change in Washington’s overall strategy toward the region: The intention of expanding commercial and diplomatic relations with Cuba was mainly to pursue a more effective strategy of undermining the Cuban government--and all of the left governments in the region.
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