Will you support genocide in Venezuela? Congress member Ilhan Omar challenges notorious coup-monger Elliott Abrams
US
Congress member Ilhan Omar asked Trump’s new Venezuela special
envoy Elliott Abrams if he would oversee genocide and war crimes as
he did in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
by
Ben Norton
US Rep.
Ilhan Omar boldly challenged infamous Iran-Contra felon Elliott
Abrams in a House of Representatives hearing on the Donald Trump
administration’s policy in Venezuela.
“Would
you support an armed faction within Venezuela that engages in war
crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide, if they believe they
were serving US interests, as you did in Guatemala, El Salvador, and
Nicaragua?” asked Omar, a progressive Democrat representing
Minnesota.
In this other amazing clip from today's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Venezuela, @Ilhan grilled coup-monger Elliott Abrams over his history of lying to Congress & his overseeing of brutal massacres by far-right death squads in Central America.https://t.co/toMJZA0O22 pic.twitter.com/Cqghx50vMH— The Grayzone (@GrayzoneProject) February 14, 2019
In
January, President Donald Trump appointed Abrams as his special envoy
for Venezuela. The Trump administration has been leading a right-wing
coup attempt in the oil-rich South American nation, seeking to topple
its elected leftist government.
Abrams
is notorious for overseeing an array of atrocities in Central
America. In 2002, under then President George W. Bush, Abrams also
supported a brief military coup in Venezuela.
In the
hearing, which took place on February 13, Omar continued grilling
Abrams over his involvement in US crimes in Central America.
Omar
said:
In
1991, you pleaded guilty to two counts of withholding information
from Congress regarding your involvement in the Iran-Contra affair,
for which you were later pardoned by President George H. W. Bush.
I
fail to understand why members of this committee, or the American
people, should find any testimony that you give today to be truthful.
...
On
February 8, 1982, you testified before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee about US policy in El Salvador. In that hearing, you
dismissed as ‘communist propaganda’ a report about the massacre
of El Mozote, in which more than 800 civilians, including children as
young as 2 years old, were brutally murdered by US-trained troops.
During
that massacre, some of those troops bragged about raping 12-year-old
girls before they killed them. You later said that the US policy in
El Salvador was a ‘fabulous achievement.’
Yes
or no, do you still think so?
Bold
new foreign policy voice in Congress
Omar, a
freshman in the US Congress, has shown leadership in challenging the
bipartisan foreign policy consensus.
This
February, she was smeared as “anti-Semitic” for calling attention
to the influence of the Israel lobby and right-wing Israel-backed
groups in Washington.
Abrams
is a longtime ally of the Israel lobby, and was directly involved in
the failed coup attempt against the elected Hamas government of the
Gaza Strip in 2007.
Elliott
Abrams’ crimes in Central America
In her
comments during the Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Ilhan Omar
referred to the role Elliott Abrams played in backing the military
junta in Guatemala in the 1980s.
Under
the sponsorship of the United States, Guatemalan dictator Efraín
Ríos Montt carried out a campaign of genocide against the local
Indigenous community, in a bloody attempt to crush any shred of
communist and socialist resistance.
Abrams
lobbied for the US government to send more and more weapons to Ríos
Montt’s regime. He attacked human rights activists and actively
downplayed US-backed atrocities. Abrams even insisted that the
Guatemalan junta “brought considerable progress” on human
rights, progress that needed “to be rewarded and encouraged.”
Abrams
was also deeply implicated in the notorious Iran-Contra scandal, in
which the United States used the money made in secret arms sales to
Iran in order to fund far-right death squads in Nicaragua, known as
the Contras.
In the
1980s, Abrams even smuggled weapons to the Contras by hiding them in
supposed “humanitarian aid” shipments.
With announcement from John Bolton that US military will help deliver humanitarian aid to Guaido & Venezuela opposition, worth recalling this history: in 1980s, CIA arranged to deliver military equipment to Contra rebels in Nicaragua on planes designated for "humanitarian aid." pic.twitter.com/8Q6a49507D— Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) February 3, 2019
Activists
from the women-led peace group CODEPINK interrupted Abrams’
congressional hearing.
“Don’t
listen to this war criminal!” protester Ariel Gold chanted.
“Venezuela needs negotiations, not a coup or military
intervention!”
BREAKING: CODEPINK interrupts convicted war criminal Elliott “Death Squad” Abrams, Trump’s special envoy for Venezuela. No to US imperialism, no to the coup! #HandsOffVenezuela https://t.co/EkEbrUOTVk pic.twitter.com/C5ZdA9yU9L— CODEPINK (@codepink) February 13, 2019
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