“Venezuela is desperately in need of political intervention by its neighbors,” begins the final
paragraph of the April 12, 2016 Editorial in
the Washington Post. The final words of the
Editorial read: “An explosion is probably not
far off.”
Since the late President Hugo Chavez took
power in Venezuela in 1999, the Western
mainstream media apparatus has been running
a fierce campaign to demonize the government
of the Bolivarian Revolution and its leaders.
With each new wave of foreign meddling,
imperialist governments like the United States
and their violent and counter-revolutionary
allies in Venezuela work hand-in-hand with
mainstream media to create the climate of
confusion and fear that they need to carry out
their intervention.
What is the OAS?
The Washington Post Editorial goes on to
explain itself when it suggests that these
“neighbors” of Venezuela “have a ready
mechanism in the Organization of American
States’ Inter-American Democratic Charter, a
treaty that provides for collective action when
a regime violates constitutional norms.”
But before we get into why the OAS is being
called upon to act, there are two questions
that need to be asked, first, what is the OAS?
And secondly, what is the Inter-American
Democratic Charter?
The Organization of American States (OAS)
is an organization made up of 35 memberstates
in the Western hemisphere, including
Venezuela, as well as the United States and
Canada. Since its formation in 1948, it has
become known across Latin America for its
support of policies in favor of U.S. government’s
interests and against the interests of the vast
majority of poor and working people in Latin
America. This conclusion is no wonder, given
that, in 2014, the OAS received over 59% of its
funding from the United States (and a further
10% from Canada).
Venezuela’s Counter-Revolutionary
Opposition Receives a Nod of Approval
from the U.S. Government
Discussion about the intervention of OAS
is Venezuela is not new; in fact, the current
president of the OAS, Luis Almagro has
already threatened to invoke the charter,
publishing a letter on the OAS website
in January, 2016. However, Venezuela’s
violent counter-revolutionary opposition is
now beginning to take more action on their
demands.
In the last week of April, 2016 a delegation
made up of right-wing members of the National
Assembly went to Washington, DC to do just
what the Washington Post had suggested, to
ask for aid and foreign intervention from the
OAS. Those that travelled to the U.S. included
Luis Florido, the head of the delegation
and a deputy in the National Assembly of
Venezuela, who said to the news agency EFE,
“We demand that the OAS discuss urgently
the situation in Venezuela and move towards
a resolution where the political crisis and
political prisoners are is recognized, and the
people of Venezuela are permitted to hold an
election for the departure of President Nicolas
Maduro.”
Venezuela’s Opposition Struggles to Oust
President Maduro
In December of 2015 a majority right-wing
representatives were elected to the Venezuelan
National Assembly for the first time in the
nearly 16 years of the Bolivarian Revolution.
From the first days they took office in January,
this counter-revolutionary majority has been
very clear about their goal to roll back the
great gains made by poor and working people
in Bolivarian Revolution, as well as their intent
to oust the President of Venezuela, Nicolas
Maduro.
So far, their strategy to force the removal
of President Maduro has been focused on
attempts to pass laws in the National Assembly.
One such law that passed was supposed to cut
the Presidential term from six to four years, as
well as change some of the procedures of the
recall referendum, but a review by Venezuela’s
Supreme Court (TSJ) determined that this law
was unconstitutional (it altered the spirit of
the constitution fundamentally and therefore
required a vote by the people of Venezuela to
be made into law).
Now, outside of their calls for foreign
intervention, the counter-revolutionary
opposition is also starting the procedures to
complete a recall referendum against President
Maduro. This process is built into Venezuela’s
1999 Constitution and applicable to any
elected official that has served at least one-half
of their term in office. As per the Constitution,
the first step to begin the referendum is that
20% of the electorate must sign a petition
declaring that they want a referendum, in
Venezuela this means that the opposition must
collect about 4million signatures.
Following the completion of this step, the
opposition must collect more votes for a recall
then President Maduro received in the 2013
election for President, or over 7.6 million
votes, and they have to do it before January
if they want to trigger another Presidential
election. If the signatures are not collected by
next year, the Vice President of Venezuela will
take office for the remainder of the term.
Other Tactics of the Counter-revolutionary
Opposition in Venezuela
Beyond the legislation that the right-wing
opposition has proposed in Parliament related
to deposing the current government, there
have also been other laws introduced, such as
those to privatize public housing and reverse
some of the progressive changes made in
labour law. There is also a piece of legislation
that was passed in the National Assembly called the “Amnesty Law.” This law would
have released around 115 people currently
imprisoned in Venezuela for crimes including
terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking
and fraud, including criminals convicted of
involvement in the 2002 attempted coup
against President Chavez and the 2014 violent
opposition protests known as the “Guarimbas”
that killed 43 people.
U.S. Intervention in Venezuela Continues
Political support for Venezuela’s counterrevolutionary
opposition is only one tentacle of
the U.S. strategy for intervention in Venezuela.
The big picture of how the U.S. government
is working to defend their interests against
the Bolivarian Revolution and the interests
of the vast majority of people in Venezuela is
stated clearly in a 2004 cable released through
Wikileaks. In this cable, the U.S. Ambassador
to Venezuela at the time outlined a fivepoint
strategy: “Strengthening Democratic
Institutions, Penetrating Chavez’ Political
Base, Dividing Chavismo, Protecting Vital US
business, and Isolating Chavez internationally.”
In March of 2016, U.S. President Obama
renewed an unnecessary and inflammatory
Executive Order declaring Venezuela an,
“unusual and extraordinary threat to the
national security of the United States”, and
with it enabled the renewal of U.S. economic
sanctions against Venezuela. These sanctions,
called the “Venezuela Defense of Human
Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014,” have
already been extended until 2019 by the U.S.
Senate, and are now awaiting a vote in the
House of Representatives.
Beyond the lies and media manipulation
coming from U.S. and Western mainstream
media outlets, there is also an abundance of
right-wing, opposition media in Venezuela.
Direct ties between the U.S. government and
media in Venezuela have also been exposed
in recent years, including a 2010 Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) request that
revealed the U.S. government had been paying
off journalists in Venezuela and other Latin
American countries though the Pan American
Development Foundation.
President Maduro, the Bolivarian
Revolution and Venezuela Are Not Alone!
In the face of over 16 years of constant U.S.
intervention, the Bolivarian Revolution has
continued to fight against a violent counterrevolutionary
opposition and capitalist
class that still control major sectors of
the Venezuelan economy including food
production and distribution.
So far President Nicolas Maduro, the United
Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the
Bolivarian Revolution have held strong against
U.S. imperialist intervention and attacks from
the counter-revolutionary opposition. In fact,
all three main strategies in the “road-map”
of the right-wing coalition in the National
Assembly, called the MUD, have failed. They
have tried to “carryout street mobilizations
to push for Maduro’s resignation,” but each
time the Bolivarian Revolution has been
able to organize massive counter-protests
and demonstrations in support of Nicolas
Maduro. They tried to use their majority in
the Venezuelan National Assembly to “to
pass a constitutional amendment reducing
the presidential term to four years, leading to
elections this year,” and to “begin to mobilize for
a recall referendum, starting with a new law on
referendums, to impede it from being blocked
or impeded,” but both of these laws have been
determined to been ruled unconstitutional by
Venezuela’s Supreme Court.
Now that the right-wing opposition is directly
appealing for intervention from the OAS it is
also clear that they have forgotten even their
short-term history. According to an article by
the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
thinktank, “Despite U.S. and Canadian
backing, During the crisis in Venezuela in
2014, even if the U.S., Panamanian, and
Canadian governments wanted to do more to
interfere in Venezuela’s local situation and use
the Democratic Charter to promote a more
energetic and interventionist active policy,
29 member states chose to vote in favor of a
resolution supporting the elected government
of President Nicolas Maduro.”
They had forgotten about institutions that
the Bolivarian Revolution Venezuela has
fought so hard to build and strengthen, such
as the Union of South American Nations
(UNASUR), the Community of Caribbean
and Latin American States (CELAC) and
the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas
(ALBA).
Viva Venezuela!
There is another infamous editorial in the
recent history of U.S.-Venezuela relations. On
April 13, 2002, the New York Times published
an editorial titled “Hugo Chavez Departs.”
The Editorial continues, “With yesterday’s
resignation of President Hugo Chávez,
Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened
by a would-be dictator. Mr. Chávez, a ruinous
demagogue, stepped down after the military
intervened and handed power to a respected
business leader, Pedro Carmona.” Little did
the New York Times know that despite U.S.
funding and political support, the people of
Venezuela would triumph later that day and
President Hugo Chavez would be returned
to power less than 48 hours after his forced
resignation.
On May 1, 2016 the people of Venezuela
mobilized alongside workers from all around
the world to celebrate International Workers
Day and demonstrate their support for the
President of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro and the Bolivarian
Revolution. These mobilizations took place in
a different political situation then the day that
President Chavez was triumphantly returned
to power in 2002, but they do take place in the
same current.
President Nicolas Maduro and the people of
Venezuela led by the United Socialist Party
(PSUV) are fighting to maintain and advance
the gains made for poor and working people
in Venezuela. From imperialist countries
like the United States and Canada it is our
responsibility to defend the sovereignty and
self-determination of Venezuela against
imperialist intervention.
Follow Alison Bodine on Twitter:
@alisoncolette
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