Op-Ed: Will there be a second coup attempt in Venezuela?
Op-Ed: Will there be a second coup attempt in Venezuela?
By Ken Hanly 13 mins ago in Politics .
Caracas - President Obama signed an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat, and also ordered sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials.
The executive order was said to target people who had undermined the democratic process or institutions, had committed acts of violence or abuse of human rights, been involved in public corruption, or prohibition of freedom of expression. So why is President el-Sissi of Egypt not being sanctioned since he certainly committed acts of violence and prohibits freedom of expression? Venezuela's real problem is that it has challenged US policies. None of these reasons for these sanctions show that Venezuela is a threat to US security. The targeted sanctions implement the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014, a bill that Obama had signed on December 18, 2014.
The declaration was accompanied by the inevitable moralistic justification:
"Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets and their use of U.S. financial systems. We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government's efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela's problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent."
The US has supported governments in Afghanistan in which corruption was endemic. It supports governments such as Saudi Arabia which will not allow demonstrations and where insulting the monarch is a crime. Of course the Reuters article has no mention of an earlier coup attempt. The degree of US involvement is not clear but certainly they knew about it and must have known that Chavez did not resign but was captured and held by the military.They went along with the lie that he resigned. I enclose a video on the failed coup back in 2002.
This is not to say that there is no repression in Venezuela or no corrupt politicians. Conditions in Venezuela are quite poor, due to a considerable extent, to a huge drop in oil prices. However, the government was facing public unrest and demonstrations when the 2002 coup was mounted. The video above shows how some private TV stations manipulated footage to portray Chavez supporters in the worst light. Of course manipulation of footage is common to both sides. The prize-winning documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Televised that I have appended, also has bits that are edited at times to provide a narrative favourable to Chavez. Some of the evidence for the US role in the 2002 failed coup can be found in this article.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/politics/op-ed-will-there-be-a-second-coup-attempt-in-venezuela/article/427928#ixzz3TwjKrtVF
