Don't Speak News

By Marc Vandepitte at globalresearch.ca. Reposted with permission.

War Drums in the Caribbean

Suppose a Russian or Chinese fleet were to station off our coasts in Europe and torpedo boats. We would be in the highest state of alarm and would prepare everything to repel a military attack.

This is not fiction, but exactly what is currently taking place off the coasts of Venezuela, where the US has deployed a war fleet in recent weeks. It includes destroyers, missile-equipped warships, F-35 fighter jets, reconnaissance aircraft, an attack submarine, more than 4,000 Marines, and even a nuclear submarine.

In addition, an estimated 10,000 US military personnel are in the region, mainly in Puerto Rico and on amphibious ships.

This war fleet is not a parade. In recent weeks, the Trump administration ordered at least five deadly attacks on boats it calls “drug boats,” without evidence. Twenty-seven people were killed. In these attacks, there is no question of arrest or trial. The New York City Bar Association condemns these acts of war as “illegal extrajudicial executions — murders.”

As if the maritime attacks were not enough, B-52 bombers were observed close to Venezuelan airspace. At the same time, President Trump openly admitted that he had given the CIA the green light for secret operations in Venezuela, with a broad mandate ranging from cooperation with local opposition groups to lethal actions on Venezuelan territory, according to American sources.

The war deployment and the attacks against the boats are being sold as a “war on drugs,” but that excuse doesn’t hold for two reasons. First, Colombia and Ecuador constitute the main routes for cocaine heading toward the US. Venezuela plays, at most, a secondary role in this drug trade.

Second, it is evident that such a large-scale military buildup is totally unsuitable for an operation against drug trafficking.

A much more aggressive goal is being pursued here. The Trump administration does not say it openly, but it is clear that it is keeping open the option of ground attacks, with the aim of regime change.

Motives Revealed

In Washington’s eyes, Venezuela combines three “sins”: the largest oil reserves in the world over which the US has no grip, a sovereign foreign policy — marked by alliances with China, Russia, Iran, OPEC, and South–South networks — and a social project that utilizes natural resources for public purposes.

That is why, since 1998, when Hugo Chávez was elected president, the US has done everything to carry out regime change and install a puppet government. That ranged from economic sanctions, diplomatic warfare, coup attempts, influencing and manipulating elections, to secret operations.

Recently, General Laura Richardson, the former commander of the US Southern Command—which directs US military operations in the Caribbean and around Venezuela—openly admitted what Washington usually conceals behind words like “democracy” and “human rights.”

According to her, US policy in Latin America is in reality about controlling the enormous natural resources of the region—oil, lithium, gold, and rare earths—needed for Western military and technological power.

She pointed above all to Venezuela’s huge resource reserves as the real reason behind the decades-long attempts at regime change and the economic sanctions against the country.

“Peace Dove” as a Fig Leaf for War

Image is licensed under CC0

In the political theater, meanwhile, a face “acceptable” to the US emerges to replace the current President Maduro: the far-right opposition leader María Corina Machado.

With support from top figures in Washington and a Nobel Peace Prize in her pocket, she is being polished up internationally as a democratic alternative—despite her role in the 2002 coup attempt, open support for sanctions, and the violent street protests in 2014 and 2017.

Machado’s position has been clear for years: no negotiations, increase the pressure, toughen sanctions, and, if necessary, military intervention. Her Nobel Prize comes precisely at a moment when Washington is making war preparations against Venezuela. Could that be a coincidence?

In any case, it is downright cynical that in the West she is being deployed as a peace icon at the moment when Trump openly speaks of ground attacks that she approves and encourages.

Sharp Condemnation

Because of this military threat, the Venezuelan government has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. There, a call was made for de-escalation and respect for international law. The UN Assistant Secretary-General pointed out that member states must carry out their anti-drug operations in accordance with international law.

At home, President Nicolás Maduro is responding with national defense exercises, the plan ‘Independence 200′, while also emphasizing the call for dialogue. In Caracas and the state of Miranda, civilian militias, police, and the army are training together to protect strategic infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, and hospitals.

In Latin America, work is meanwhile underway on the formation of internationalist brigades to support Venezuela. According to João Pedro Stédile, leader of the Brazilian Movement of Landless Peasants (MST), social organizations from different countries of Latin America are coordinating their efforts to send activists who will make themselves available to help defend Venezuela against US aggression.

The inspiration comes from the international brigades of the Spanish Civil War, when volunteers from many countries came to defend the Spanish Republic.

Several presidents from the region have spoken out against Washington’s threat of war. Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia, warned that any attack on Venezuela would be considered an aggression against all of Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Latin America, South America and the Caribbean must unite now to reject and respond to any aggression against Bolívar’s homeland and the Latin American and Caribbean territory, without rhetoric. Venezuela belongs to the Venezuelan people,” Petro said.

The Brazilian president Lula also spoke out forcefully against US aggression:

“The Venezuelan people are masters of their own future. And no president of another country needs to determine what Venezuela will be like.”

China condemned any threat or use of force in international relations. Beijing resolutely rejects any foreign interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs, under whatever pretext. It condemns any action that endangers peace and stability in the area.

In the US, a bipartisan group of senators has introduced a resolution to prevent President Trump from carrying out military actions against Venezuela without the approval of Congress. They want to restore the constitutional authority of Congress to declare war and stop the expansion of Trump’s military power in the Caribbean under the pretext of the “war on drugs.”

Also very remarkable is that Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of the US Southern Command, has submitted his resignation. According to The New York Times, Holsey opposes the massive troop buildup in the region and the bombing of five Venezuelan boats, attacks for which no evidence was provided that they were drug-carrying vessels.

Within the Pentagon, serious disagreements are said to have arisen between Holsey and Minister of War Pete Hegseth, and according to Reuters, the admiral stepped down just before a possible dismissal.

Oil, Ideology, and Lies

Anyone who thinks back to 2003 can easily see parallels. Back then, weapons of mass destruction had to justify the invasion of Iraq. The real goal was a geopolitical redrawing and control over oil.

Today, “narco-terrorism” and a “threat to the US” serve as a rhetorical pretense. The end goal remains the same: regime change and the dismantling of the Bolivarian Revolution, an important anti-colonial point of reference in Latin America.

History teaches that military interventions exact a heavy toll: thousands and thousands of deaths, countries laid waste, and a region in permanent instability. Just think of Iraq and Libya. The current war buildup off the coast of Venezuela is therefore extremely alarming and must be condemned in the sharpest possible terms.

*

Click the share button below to email/forward this article. Follow us on Instagram and X and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost Global Research articles with proper attribution.

Marc Vandepitte is a member of the Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity and was an observer during the presidential elections in Venezuela. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

Featured image: Protest against U.S. intervention on Venezuela, in front of the White House, Washington DC, 2020. Credit