Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist March 2019 | Page 49

SPOTLIGHT
2012, when US sanctions against
Venezuela increased.
When the Venezuela leader Hugo
Chavez died in 2013, multiple problems
emerged to greet his successor, Nicolas
Maduro, with a US-imposed political
and an economic crisis. Falling global
oil prices (from $100 per barrel in
2011-13 to $30 per barrel in 2015),
and the US boycott and sanctions
forced Venezuela, whose main source
of income was oil exports, to reduce
imports by 81 percent from 2012 to
2017, and led to an acute shortage of
daily commodities.
Venezuela has already agreed to
accept Indian rupees. Such a payment-
mechanism would allow the Indian
government to reduce its external
defi cit without drawing down on foreign-exchange reserves.
Venezuela can also use rupees to purchase food and medicines
from India and pay its debts to Indian pharma. India is thus
helping usher in a new regime of international economic
relations, skirting the need for US dollars.
We can do a quick calculation. I
would estimate that of the world’s
7.5b people, governments representing
85 percent support, recognizing the
legitimate government (China, India,
Pakistan, Russia, Africa, Asia) – some
insisting on mediation and possibly
new elections. Despite the distorted
media coverage of Venezuela in the
West, probably half of the citizens
in the other 15 percent (US, Canada,
western Europe) agree. So maybe
10 percent of the world wants to see
Maduro overthrown.
Just having to make this calculation,
as if the world can elect the government
of Venezuela, is an aff ront to the people
of Venezuela.
The 1823 Monroe Doctrine is
the American version of international law. Then-president
Monroe warned European nations that the United States
would not tolerate further colonization or puppet monarchs,
that the American hemisphere was the backyard of the US.
Once upon a time, the US could just move into any
American country (Canada, the British-controlled exception)
and wipe out any pesky caudillo. Nicaragua and Cuba were
given especially harsh treatment in the 1930s. After Cuba held
on to its revolution, the tide started to turn. But with Trump’s
latest threat to invade Venezuela, it seems the empire is hell-
bent on removing Monroe.
The great game is not
for the faint-hearted.
Venezuela’s state-run energy
giant PDVSA is relocating
its European offi ce to the
Russian capital because
of high risks of potential
confi scation of oil revenues
amid US sanctions against
the country’s energy sector
if the coup plans succeed.
US machinations exposed
At the moment, the chess board activity is in Venezuela,
though there are equally risky games going on in Ukraine,
Syria, Afghanistan and other unfortunately players. Venezuela
is enduring what we may call the latest ‘colour revolution’.
For instance, Ukraine’s colour revolution was dubbed orange,
though no one has thought to give Venezuela a special colour.
Colour revolutions have a poor reputation, identifi ed with
US ‘soft power’ manipulation to align countries with US
needs. Massive street protests following disputed elections
overturned governments in Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Georgia
and Kyrgyzstan, and led to the resignation or overthrow of
leaders considered by their opponents to be authoritarian. The
National Endowment for Democracyi (created by Reagan to
do publicly what in Cold War days the CIA did covertly) is
a key funder, trainer, supplier in each case.
The western media rallies against the legitimate
government in Venezuela, claiming his election wasrigged
and that the world is against Maduro. Both claims are untrue.
Maduro was elected in an open election with 67 percent of the
vote. The former imperial powers – Britain, France, Germany,
Japan – all fell into line behind the US to dismiss them and
demand the overthrow of Maduro. Switzerland and Italy,
like India and most of the world (Asia, Africa, the sensible
European and Latin American countries) refused to buy into
this fl agrant violation of international law.
Venezuela - Afghan redux
Closer to India geopolitically is Afghanistan, which
suff ered its own colour revolution (black?) in 2001, giving
a crystal ball look at what Venezuela has in store if the US
invades.
A cultural clash with the empire, an ambitious attempt to
create a socialist state (Islamic state for Afghanistan - neither
of which the US can abide), a plan by the US to extend its
geopolitical and economic control over a strategic spot on the
chessboard, the plan including boycott, economic against a
starving population, thus resulting in total subversion.
Photo Demonstration
As I told Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia
Freeland on February 18 during her Family
Day reception (she is my MP), what happened
in Afghanistan in 2001, and what is in slow
motion now in Venezuela, is a replay of the US
conspiracy to overthrow Salvador Allende in
Chile in 1973. ‘Is this what you want?’ I asked.
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 3 • March 2019, Noida • 49