A U.S. Policy of Non-intervention in Venezuela Would Be a Welcome Change

[Judi Lynn]

A U.S. Policy of Non-intervention in Venezuela Would Be a Welcome Change
Updated June 30, 2016, 7:16 AM


The best thing that the United States government could do with regard to Venezuela, regardless of political outcomes there, would be to end its intervention there.

Washington has caused enormous damage to Venezuela in its relentless pursuit of “regime change” for the last 15 years. In March, President Obama once again absurdly declared Venezuela to be an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” and extended economic sanctions against the country. Although the sanctions themselves are narrow, they have a considerable impact on investment decisions, as investors know what often happens to countries that Washington targets as an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. national security. The sanctions, as well as pressure from the U.S. government, helped convince major financial institutions not to make otherwise low-risk loans, collateralized by gold, to the Venezuelan government.

Washington was involved in the short-lived 2002 military coup against the elected government of Venezuela, and the U.S. government acknowledged providing “training, institution building and other support to individuals and organizations” who carried out the coup. Afterwards, it stepped up funding to opposition groups and has continued to this day to give them millions of dollars. In 2013, Washington was again isolated in the region and the world when it refused to recognize the presidential election results (even though there was no doubt about the outcome); the U.S. thereby lent its support to violent street protests that were seeking to topple the government. Washington gave political support to similar efforts in 2014.

All this is well-documented and well-known to journalists covering Venezuela, but try finding one at a major news outlet who has the courage to write about it. It’s a bit like reporting on Ukraine and never mentioning Russia.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/06/28/how-to-save-venezuela/the-us-bears-blame-for-the-crisis-in-venezuela-and-it-should-stop-intervening-there

[Zorro]

1. "...the U.S. thereby lent its support to violent street protests..."

Yeah, right.

Another BS article from noted Venezuelan propagandist Mark Weisbrot, attempting to blame the US for the self-inflicted problems created by the Venezuelan government's incompetence and criminality.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Ah, a Mark Weisbrot attack. He doesn't seem to get the same rancor from progressives.

Wikipedia - Mark Weisbrot:

Mark Weisbrot is an American economist, columnist and co-director, with Dean Baker, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C. As a pundit, he contributes to publications such as New York Times, the UK's The Guardian, and Brazil's largest newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo.

As an economist, Weisbrot has opposed privatization of the United States Social Security system and has been critical of neoliberal globalization and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He has supported efforts by South American governments to create a Bank of the South, in order to make them more independent of the IMF. Weisbrot's work on Latin American countries (including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela) has attracted national and international attention, and in 2008 was cited by Brazilian Foreign Secretary Celso Amorim.[1] In early 2010 Weisbrot's work on Latvia's economic crisis attracted national and international attention. His work on Greece's ongoing debt crisis has influenced the debate over what measures the Greek government should take in negotiating a solution with the European Central Bank and European Commission, including with Greece's former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and current Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.[2][3]

Weisbrot has several times contributed testimony to Congressional hearings, in 2002 to a House of Representatives committee, on Argentina's 1999–2002 economic crisis[4] and in 2004 to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on the state of democracy in Venezuela, and on media representation of Hugo Chávez and of Chávez's Venezuela.[5]

. . .

Weisbrot has also sparred with Larry Rohter, the former South American bureau chief of The New York Times, over his statements on Venezuela. Rohter claimed that in support of the film "South of the Border", Weisbrot, Tariq Ali, and Oliver Stone manipulated data to present a positive image of Hugo Chávez.[54] Weisbrot has contested the claims of inaccuracies, suggesting that they are indicative of sloppy and misleading coverage of Venezuela in the popular press.[55]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Weisbrot

[Zorro]

3. Mark Weisbrot: Hugo Chavez's last propagandist standing

Last edited Thu Jul 7, 2016, 08:28 AM - Edit history (1)

From 2011:

<snip>

...The last man standing, in the closely knit circle of Americans-for-Chavez propagandists, is one Mark Weisbrot, highlighted in the picture above. Rumour in Washington has it that this man got $100,000 for writing the script of South of the Border. There is evidence that this individual has lied -on record in the senate of his own country- to the effect that Eva Golinger never got a penny from Venezuela. He is quoted in some publications as being the "architect" of the Bank of the South, one of Chavez multiple hare brained projects that never materialize.

He has gone to extreme lengths in defending Chavez over the years in the USA, publishing -in his own website- 'papers' that never undergo peer-review processes, even entering into academic debates where his views have been properly discredited. The last set of accounts of the organisation he co-chairs with another hack-for-rent (Center for Economic and Policy Research or CEPR) are from 2009 (this organisation is not to be confused with London-based CEPR). The organisation got $1,219,461 in "Gifts, grants, contributions, and membership fees", while it does not disclose sources of funds and related amounts...

.... that former Venezuela Information Office agents, such as Deborah James and Alexander Main, are now his employees?

Given the criminal nature of the regime he so feverishly defends -for free Weisbrot would like us to believe- it would not be surprising that he's getting his due in cash, or through undeclared transactions. As his other co-conspirators, Weisbrot had it coming. Sooner rather than later we will know how much his allegiance to Chavez cost Venezuelans.

<snip>

http://alekboyd.blogspot.com/2011/03/mark-weisbrot-hugo-chavez.html

This "founder" of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in D.C. (wonder why that's not mentioned in his undoubtedly self-authored Wikipedia entry?) has been a known propagandist for the Venezuelan government for years.