While
Venezuela’s government and the Chavista movement proclaimed victory
over the worst blackouts to plague the country, Washington’s coup
masters have promised more darkness until their goals are complete.
by
Misión Verdad
Part
2 - Threats of intervention and the failure of “Plan Guaidó”
On
January 23 of this year, the United States and its allies recognized
Juan Guaidó as “President of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela”, completely ignoring the Venezuelan Constitution and the
more than 6 million Venezuelans who voted for Nicolas Maduro in the
elections of May 20, 2018.
During
the last two months, all mechanisms of economic suffocation against
the country have been deployed. Everything from bank accounts to the
assets of the Republic have been frozen by the U.S. government. Most
glaring among these cases was the blockage of $1.2 billion in gold
owned by Venezuela, located in the Bank of England, and the
confiscation of CITGO, a subsidiary of PDVSA on US soil.
The
amount of Venezuelan assets that the United States have seized is
calculated at approximately $30 billion. Washington has used the
excuse that it is merely “protecting those resources” to justify
funneling them to the faux government of Guaidó.
Tactics
of diplomatic and public relations harassment have also been
escalated, with the intention of isolating the country
internationally. But the plan has suffered multiple failures. The
first occurred on February 23rd, the day when the “humanitarian
aid” farce was used to generate an internal rupture in the
Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) and remove President Nicolás
Maduro from power.
The
hoopla of the ‘Aid Venezuela’ concert in Cúcuta, Colombia, and
the supposed peaceful nature of the aid itself were exposed within a
few hours as the violence on both international bridges and the
failed attempt to ferry violent groups into Venezuela became
impossible to ignore. When the opposition was exposed for burning
trucks loaded with US aid, it suffered a powerful public relations
blow.
Meanwhile,
the country maintained a state of relative calm while the military
remained cohesive and composed, degrading the regime change agenda.
The coup was losing momentum by the day.
Bloomberg
reported that while in Colombia, Juan Guaidó planned a European
tour, but US officials ordered him to return to Venezuela to “take
advantage of the momentum” and, in the process, “to seek his
imprisonment.” In other words, the US was dangling Guaidó before
the Venezuelan government, hoping to provoke them into arresting him
and thereby generating the pretext for a military response. They knew
that they were running against time and needed to stimulate military
intervention.
Bloomberg
also highlighted the declining importance of Guaidó in Venezuela and
abroad. With Venezuelan institutions maintaining loyalty to Maduro,
Guaidó’s promises of the “end of the usurpation” became
increasingly improbable.
Meanwhile,
in the UN Security Council, Venezuela’s diplomatic body pushed back
in a meaningful way against the US agenda with the help of vetoes
from the Russian and Chinese administrations against a US promoted
draft resolution that aimed to further destabilize the country.
The US
had planned on a lightning coup through a combination of massive
external pressure and internal destabilization. But they failed to
dislodge Maduro, and were unable to trigger the fragmentation of
Venezuelan society that would have justified intervention.
On March
7, as the pressure mounted on the US to deliver losses to a
government it had clearly underestimated, the electrical grid went
dark.
Just a
week before the blackout, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had warned
that the US would “take action” against anyone who obstructed
entry of the humanitarian aid. When the blackout hit, it became
increasingly clear what Pompeo was referring to.
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