More
than 80 people miraculously avoided injury or death in a helicopter
attack that targeted Venezuelan government buildings this week. The
attack may have been part of an attempted coup supported by the U.S.
as it seeks to topple Venezuela’s government to gain access to its
massive oil reserves.
Opposition
efforts to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government
are rapidly heating up, as months upon months of opposition protests
have failed to make the inroads desired by the more extremist
elements of the opposition and their foreign backers, particularly
the United States.
With the
current government still hanging on to power despite years of
economic sabotage and the funneling of millions from the U.S. to
right-wing Venezuelan opposition parties, those determined to see
Maduro removed from power have now turned to more drastic, violent
measures in order to spark a coup.
On Tuesday,
one of the more dramatic incidents of the most recent phase of the
Venezuelan crisis took place when a stolen police helicopter opened
fire on the Supreme Court and the Interior Ministry. At the time the
attack occurred – about 5 p.m. local time – there were an
estimated 80 people still inside the Interior Ministry and the
Supreme Court was in session. No deaths or injuries were reported, a
fact that the Venezuelan government attributed to a quick response by
national guard forces, who repelled the attacking helicopter before
it could do more damage.
Maduro
condemned the attack soon after it occurred, calling it a “terrorist
attack” that “could have caused dozens of deaths.” Ernesto
Villegas, Venezuela’s Communications and Information Minister,
stated that the attack was intended to be part of an attempted coup
led by extremist groups within the opposition, with full U.S.
government support said to be behind them.
Villegas’
assertion that the U.S. was involved in this attack is not based on
mere speculation. Pérez has been known to work for Miguel Rodríguez
Torres, a former general and former minister of Venezuela’s
Department of Interior Relations, Justice and Peace who is currently
being investigated for his ties to the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) and the CIA. The charges first surfaced when the
Venezuelan news agency Últimas Noticias obtained an official DEA
document that described Rodríguez Torres as a “key information
provider” for the agency and recommended that he be secured as a
protected source for the DEA and U.S. government. It also noted that
40 percent of his assets and wealth are held in the U.S. under his
wife’s name.
The U.S. has
long sought to oust the left-wing, democratically elected government
that was brought to power in Venezuela by Hugo Chávez in the late
1990s. Since Chávez’s election, the U.S. is believed to have spent
between $50 to $60 million to strengthen the country’s right-wing
opposition in the hope that they would win elections. Former U.S.
President Barack Obama alone dedicated $5 million to “support
political competition-building efforts” in Venezuela.
More
recently, the U.S. Senate has been mulling over new legislation that
would provide an additional $20 million for “democracy promotion”
efforts in Venezuela. However, some of these efforts in the past have
led to right-wing politicians and their affiliates paying protesters
in cash to violently escalate opposition rallies.
Such rallies
have turned increasingly violent in recent weeks, with three people
burned alive by opposition protesters just in the last week.
Journalists have also been targeted, with some being directly shot at
and others threatened with being lynched or set aflame. Despite the
violence, the Venezuelan opposition is likely to continue receiving
funding from the U.S., which is eager to gain control of Venezuela’s
oil reserves – the largest in the world – no matter the cost.
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