by
Finian Cunningham
US
imperialists are so desperate in their regime-change predations over
Venezuela, they seem to have a problem controlling their drooling
mouths.
The
latest orgy of American gloating was triggered by the massive power
outages to have hit Venezuela. No sooner had the South American
country been blacked out from its power grid collapsing, senior US
officials were crowing with perverse relish.
Republican
Senator Marco Rubio – who has become a point man for the Trump
administration in its regime-change campaign in Venezuela – was a
little too celebratory. Within minutes of the nationwide power outage
last Thursday, Rubio was having verbal orgasms about the “long-term
economic damage”… “in the blink of an eye”. But it
was his disclosure concerning the precise damage in the power grid
that has led the Venezuelan government to accuse the US of carrying
out a sabotage.
Information
Minister Jorge Rodriguez noted how Rubio, in his tweeted comments
“three minutes” after the power outage, mentioned failure of
“back-up generators” in Venezuela’s main hydroelectric plant,
known as the Guri Dam, located in Bolivar State. The dam supplies
some 80 per cent of the Venezuelan population of 31 million with its
electricity consumption.
Rodriguez
mockingly ascribed “mystic skills” to Rubio because the Florida
Republican senator appeared to know the precise nature of the power
failure even before the Venezuelan authorities had determined it.
The
Venezuelan government has since claimed that the failure in the
electric grid was caused by a cyber attack on the computer system
controlling the Guri Dam turbines. Caracas said it will present proof
of its claims to the United Nations.
Apart
from Rubio’s apparent insider information, there are several other
indicators that Venezuela’s latest turmoil from power blackout was
indeed caused by US sabotage, and specifically a cyber attack.
The
South American country has experienced recurring power cuts over
recent years due to economic problems and Washington’s sanctions.
But the latest outage was widespread – at least 70 per cent of the
country – and sustained for more than four days, rather than being
rectified within hours. That scale of disruption suggests an
unprecedented event, way beyond intermittent problems of maintenance.
The
duration of the blackout in the capital Caracas and other major
cities also indicates that the nature of the problem was difficult to
reverse, which would be consistent with a cyber attack on the power
grid. “It was a kill-shot,” says American political analyst Randy
Martin.
Furthermore,
US officials like President Trump’s national security advisor John
Bolton as well as “special envoy” on Venezuelan affairs Elliot
Abrams have been warning that Washington is seeking new ways to pile
pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to stand down.
Abrams
was caught out last week in a prank phone call made by two Russian
entertainers posing as Swiss President Ueli Maurer in which Abrams
openly advocated crushing the Venezuelan banking system in order to
topple the government in Caracas. The American envoy, who was
convicted over the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s for sponsoring
terrorism to sabotage Nicaragua, appeared to balk at using overt US
military power against Venezuela. That suggests Washington was
persuaded on the efficacy of cyber warfare to inflict social chaos
and incite popular anger against the Maduro government.
The
immediate reaction by Washington officials and the US-backed
political opposition in Venezuela was to blame the Maduro government
for the power disorder. The failure was flagged up as a sign of
“incompetence” and “mismanagement” of the oil-rich country by
the socialist administration. Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has
declared himself the rightful president with Washington’s blessing,
conveyed the logic of blackmail when he declared, “the lights
will come back on when usurper Maduro is gone”.
US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also weighed in with repulsive
gloating within hours of Venezuela’s power crisis. Pompeo tweeted:
“No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro.”
The
delight openly displayed by Washington officials in regard to
aggression against Venezuela has broken new ground in terms of the
brazenness of US imperialism.
Only a
few weeks ago, Bolton announced that the objective for seeking regime
change in Venezuela against the elected President Nicolas Maduro was
for US corporations to seize the South American state’s vast oil
wealth – reckoned to be the largest known reserves on the planet,
far exceeding those of Saudi Arabia.
Such is
Washington’s unbridled lust for Venezuela’s natural resources
that its imperialist advocates are falling over themselves with naked
lies and crimes.
When a
US Trojan Horse aid convoy was blocked from entering into Venezuela
from Colombia last month, American politicians and media immediately
blamed the Maduro government for sabotaging the effort. An aid truck
was set alight on a border crossing on February 23. US Vice President
Mike Pence and Senator Rubio, as well as CNN, condemned the
Venezuelan authorities for “callous” destruction of vital aid
delivery to its long-suffering people. It turns out, as even the New
York Times has now admitted three weeks later, that the aid truck
was torched by US-backed opposition supporters on the Colombian side
of the border.
The
obscenity of American imperialism is that it has inflicted huge
social misery in Venezuela from years of sanctions and illegal
confiscation (theft) of billions of dollars in assets belonging to
the nation. Then it has the audacity to mount a charade seeming to
deliver humanitarian aid.
The
latest twist to this sadistic game played by Washington is turning
the lights off across the entire nation, in homes, hospitals,
airports and schools, among other essential services, and attempting
to lay the blame on the Venezuelan government.
We may,
however, be thankful for Washington’s overweening arrogance and
criminality. Because, as Marco Rubio’s rash remarks concerning the
latest power outage show, the American gangsterism towards Venezuela
is being exposed for the naked aggression that it is.
US-based
political analyst Randy Martin, in comments for this column, says
that what Washington is doing to Venezuela is tantamount to the “rape
of democracy”. “American imperialism has no longer any
shame,” he said. “It used to rape countries under the
cover a seedy alleyway of false excuses and hollow claims of
righteousness. Now it has its trousers around its ankles and trying
to rape Venezuela right on the global Main Street.”
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