With
Juan Guaidó’s parallel government attempting to take power with
the backing of the U.S., it is telling that the top political donors
of those in the U.S. most fervently pushing regime change in
Venezuela have close ties to Monsanto and major financial stakes in
Bayer.
by
Whitney Webb
Part
3 - The AEI axis
Some
of the key figures and loudest voices supporting the efforts of the
Trump administration to overthrow the Venezuelan government in the
United States are well-connected to one particular think-tank, the
American Enterprise Institute (AEI). For instance, John Bolton —
now Trump’s national security advisor and a major player in the
administration’s aggressive Venezuela policy — was a senior
fellow at AEI until he became Trump’s top national security
official. As national security adviser, Bolton advises the
president on foreign policy and issues of national security while
also advising both the Secretary of State and the Secretary of
Defense. As of late, he has been pushing for military action in
Venezuela, according to media reports.
Another
key figure in Trump’s Venezuela policy — Elliott Abrams, the
State Department’s Special Representative for Venezuela — has
been regularly featured at AEI summits and as a guest on its panels
and podcasts. According to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,
Abrams’ current role gives him the “responsibility for all
things related to our efforts to restore democracy” in
Venezuela. Other top figures in the administration, including Vice
President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, were
featured guests at the AEI’s “secretive” gathering in early
March. As MintPress and other outlets have reported, Guaidó
declared himself “interim president” of Venezuela at Pence’s
behest. Pompeo is also intimately involved in directing Trump’s
Venezuela policy as the president’s main adviser on foreign
affairs.
Other
connections to the Trump administration include Secretary of
Education Betsy DeVos who was previously on AEI’s board of
trustees.
AEI
has long been a key part of the “neoconservative” establishment
and employs well-known neoconservatives such as Fred Kagan — the
architect of the Iraq “troop surge” — and Paul Wolfowitz, the
architect of the Iraq War. Its connections to the George W. Bush
administration were particularly notable and controversial, as more
than 20 AEI employees were given top positions under Bush. Several of
them, such as Bolton, have enjoyed new prominence in Trump’s
administration.
Other
key Bush officials joined the AEI soon after leaving their posts in
the administration. One such was Roger Noriega, who was the U.S.
representative to the Organization of American States (OAS) during
the failed, U.S.-backed 2002 coup and went on to be assistant
secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs from 2003 to 2005,
where he was extremely influential in the administration’s policies
towards Venezuela and Cuba.
Since
leaving the Bush administration and promptly joining the AEI, Noriega
has been instrumental in pushing claims that lack evidence but aim to
paint Venezuela’s current President Nicolas Maduro-led government
as a national security threat, such as claiming that Venezuela is
helping Iran acquire nuclear weapons and hosts soldiers from
Lebanon’s Hezbollah. He also lobbied Congress to support Venezuelan
opposition leader Leopoldo López, Guaidó’s political mentor and
leader of his political party, Popular Will.
Not
only that, but Noreiga teamed up with Martin Rodil, a Venezuelan
exile formerly employed by the IMF, and José Cardenas, who served in
the Bush administration, to found Visión Américas, a private
risk-assessment and lobbying firm that was hired to “support the
efforts of the Honduran private sector to help consolidate the
democratic transition in their country” after the U.S.-backed
Honduran coup in 2009. In recent months, Noriega and his associates
have been very focused on Venezuela, with Cardenas offering Trump
public advice about how “to hasten Maduro’s exit,” while Rodil
has publicly offered “to get you a deal” if you have dirt on
Venezuela’s government.
While
the AEI is best known for its hawkishness, it is also a promoter of
big agricultural interests. Since 2000, It has hosted several
conferences on the promise of “biotechnology” and genetically
modified seeds and has heavily promoted the work of former
Monsanto lobbyist Jon Entine, who was an AEI visiting fellow for
several years. The AEI also has long-time connections to Dow
Chemical.
The most
likely reason for the AEI’s interest in promoting biotech, however,
can be found in its links to Monsanto. In 2013, The Nation
acquired a 2009 AEI document, obtained through a filing error and not
intended for public disclosure, that revealed the think tank’s top
donors. The form, known as the “schedule of contributors,”
revealed that the AEI’s top two donors at the time were the Donors
Capital Fund and billionaire Paul Singer.
The
Donors Capital Fund, which remains a major contributor to the AEI, is
linked to Monsanto interests through the vice chairman of its board,
Kimberly O. Dennis, who is also currently a member of the AEI’s
National Council. According to AEI, the National Council is
composed of “business and community leaders from across the
country who are committed to AEI’s success and serve as ambassadors
for AEI, providing us with advice, insight, and guidance.”
Dennis
is the long-time executive chairwoman of the Searle Freedom Trust,
which was founded in 1988 by Daniel Searle after he oversaw the sale
of his family pharmaceutical company — G.D. Searle and Company —
to Monsanto in 1985 for $2.7 billion. The money Searle had made from
that merger was used to fund the trust that now funds the AEI and
other right-wing think tanks. Searle was also close to Donald
Rumsfeld, who led G.D. Searle and Co. for years and was Secretary of
Defense under Gerald Ford and George W. Bush. Searle was also a
trustee of the Hudson Institute, which once employed Elliott Abrams.
After
the family company — which gained notoriety for faking research
about the safety of its sweetener, aspartame or NutraSweet — was
sold to Monsanto, G.D. Searle executives close to Daniel Searle rose
to prominence within the company. Robert Shapiro, who was G.D.
Searle’s long-time attorney and head of its NutraSweet division,
would go on to become Monsanto’s vice president, president and
later CEO. Notably, Daniel Searle’s grandson, D. Gideon Searle, was
an AEI trustee until relatively recently.
Source,
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Thank you for naming names and bringing to light the back story.Now it looks like U.S. is doing a left jab right hook combo on Venezuela and Iran.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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