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by Tony Cartalucci
May 24,
2017
from
LandDestroyer Website
The U.S. media has been paying increasing attention to the unfolding
crisis in the South American nation
of Venezuela.
As
the U.S. media has done
elsewhere, it is attempting to portray the unfolding crisis as a
result of a corrupt dictatorship fighting against a "pro-democracy"
opposition.
In reality, it is simply a repeat of U.S.-driven regime change aimed
at toppling Venezuela's independent state institutions and replacing
them with institutions created by and for U.S. special interests.
The
"opposition" is comprised of U.S.-backed political parties and
U.S.-funded fronts posing as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
many of which are listed on the U.S. State Department's National
Endowment for Democracy (NED)
website.
The UK Independent in a 2016 article titled, "Venezuela
accuses U.S. of plotting coup as Washington warns of 'imminent
collapse'," would even admit:
...observers of the region point out that the
U.S. has a long
history of seeking to interfere in the politics of
Venezuela, as well as elsewhere in Latin America.
In addition
to supporting those who ousted Mr Chavez in 2002, the U.S.
poured hundreds of thousands of dollars to his opponents via
the so-called
National Endowment for Democracy.
To understand
America's actual role amid Venezuela's unfolding crisis, one
must read policy papers produced by organizations called "think
tanks" which devise and promote U.S. policy.
The
Brookings
Institution is a Fortune 500-funded policy think tank.
It is populated
by policymakers who represent the collective ambitions of some
of the world's most powerful corporate-financier interests
including,
...and more.
Just some of the
Brookings
Institution's
corporate-financier
sponsors.
Brookings and
think tanks similar to it, have regularly produced policy and
media guidelines later disseminated across the Western media and
Western legislatures through public relations firms and
lobbyists.
Think tanks are
where the real agenda of the West is agreed upon and promoted
from.
A recent piece
featured upon the Brookings Institution's website titled, "Venezuela
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A Path Out of Crisis," lays out a 5-point plan toward
escalating Venezuela's already precarious situation:
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The United
States could expand its assistance to countries that until
now have been dependent on Venezuelan oil, as a means to
decrease regional support for and dependence on the Maduro
government.
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The United
States could increase monetary assistance to credible civil
society organizations and nongovernmental organizations able
to deliver food and medicines to Venezuelans.
By doing so,
the United States should make clear that international
pressure aims to support democracy, not punish the
Venezuelan people.
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The United
States could support efforts by the opposition in Venezuela
to build an “off-ramp” that would split moderate elements of
the government away from hardliners, encouraging the former
to acquiesce to a transition to democracy by lowering their
costs of exiting government.
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The United
States could coordinate with international institutions such
as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to offer financial
incentives for holding free and fair elections in 2018, and
for the opposition to unify and compete in those elections.
Such coordination would also involve developing and
publicizing a credible plan to restart Venezuela’s economy.
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As a last
resort, the United States could consider raising economic
costs to the government through an expanded sanctions regime
that aims to limit Venezuelan earnings from oil exports and
block further financing.
This policy is risky, given that
the Maduro government would be able to more credibly shift
blame for the economic crisis onto the United States, and
should be accompanied by well-publicized efforts to deliver
humanitarian aid through credible civil society and
nongovernmental organizations.
It is a
prescription for further economic isolation, U.S.-funded political
subversion, and with its reference to "a transition to democracy,"
an oblique call for regime change.
The U.S. media - particularly organizations operating from under right
cover - have portrayed Venezuela's economic crisis as primarily
related to "socialism" and corruption.
In reality, factors
that would have only impeded the full realization of Venezuela's
economic progress have been intentionally compounded through U.S.
sanctions, economic sabotage, and political subversion to
precipitate the currently unfolding socioeconomic and humanitarian
crisis.
Venezuela would not be the first nation the U.S. targeted for economic
implosion in South America.
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its own online archives
available to the public under a section titled, "CIA
Activities in Chile," would admit:
According to
the Church Committee report, in their meeting with CIA Director
Richard Helms and Attorney General John Mitchell on 15 September
1970 President Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry
Kissinger, directed the CIA to prevent Allende from taking
power.
They were “not
concerned [about the] risks involved,” according to Helms’
notes. In addition to political action, Nixon and Kissinger,
according to Helms’s notes, ordered steps to “make the economy
scream.”
These Cold War attitudes persisted into the Pinochet era. After
Pinochet came to power, senior policymakers appeared reluctant
to criticize human rights violations, taking to task U.S.
diplomats urging greater attention to the problem.
U.S. military
assistance and sales grew significantly during the years of
greatest human rights abuses.
According to a
previously released Memorandum of Conversation, Kissinger in
June 1976 indicated to Pinochet that the U.S. Government was
sympathetic to his regime, although Kissinger advised some
progress on human rights in order to improve Chile’s image in
the U.S. Congress.
With violence
increasing in the streets of Venezuela and many of the rhetorical
tactics used to set the stage for violent regime change and
humanitarian catastrophe
in Libya and
Syria now being used to topple
the government in Caracas - the world must get ahead of the
propaganda and begin exposing this open conspiracy against yet
another sovereign nation...
Venezuela's political system is for the Venezuelan people themselves
to decide - without U.S. interference.
A government
dominated by U.S.-backed opposition members will leave Venezuela as an
extension of U.S. corporate-financier special interests, not an
alternative or check against them.
This only serves in
inviting further abuse by these interests not only in South America,
but all around the world,
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Afghanistan
-
Syria
-
Iraq
-
Yemen
-
Libya
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Ukraine,
...for example, where America's unwarranted wealth and
influence is sowing instability, conflict, and catastrophe...
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