Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza reported on Friday that his country is “ready” to defend itself militarily from the US, and that they will “let no one trample sacred Venezuelan soil.“
This comment is a response to the US attempting to invoke the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) on behalf of Venezuela’s opposition in its latest attempt to try to impose regime change.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also promised US support to Colombia if a war breaks out. This comes amid President Trump vowing to get “very tough” on Venezuela since the ouster of John Bolton.
Trump has long talked of imposing regime change in Venezuela, and has claimed Bolton was “holding me back” in doing so. The US recognized the opposition as the rightful government of Venezuela earlier this year, and has since demanded the rest of the world do the same, though President Maduro has remained in power.
And the crowd that sees racism anywhere, fails to see it in Venezuela? We are supporting a clique of former regime that ruled Venezuela before natives defeated in election the supremacist and arrogant descendants of European colonizers. We are trying to get the old minority to rule the majority. We are trying to recreate what happened in Colombia — the urban descendants of European colonists controlling the coast and major cities , while native Colombians are pushed into hinterland and resist being taken over (FARC).
But this will not work in Venezuela. After Chavez, natives in the countryside have received identification — and can vote. They also have local government, run education for kids and adults. And with what is going in — armed and organized in local militia set up throughout the country. Hundreds of thousands kalashnikovs have been distributed.
It will not be wise for Columbia to get involved, as it will bring about civil war from the impoverished, nothing to lose natives, and ruin their charmed life in the cities.
Socialism in Venezuela? Natives got identity cards — now they can vote! How unfair to Guaido and his squabbling cronies? And see how the WOKE crowd keeps quiet?
Let us at least know what are we getting into. We have done same in El Salvador, Guatemala and under Obama, Honduras. Honduras voted for land reform to redistribute land to farmers if that land was taken by speculators and sitting idle for decades.
But that was threat to the descendants of colonists, and we toppled the president. We are having poverty flooding out of these three countries — and as much as I believe in lawful immigration — one can sense poetic justice here.
“This comes amid President Trump vowing to get “very tough” on Venezuela since the ouster of John Bolton.”
So much for the good cop/bad cop scenario working out in Venezuela. Turns out Trump was the bad cop and Bolton was the good cop. This will be fun to see how the Trump supporters spin this one.
Most Trump supporters I know want the US to invade Venezuela.
My experience, they will state they are for peace, then first in the stands for the war parade.
Not here.
Trump will start his Latin campaign in his second term.
We’re there for you Columbia, should any kind of conflict break out with your neighbor, wink wink…
Trump wants a war and figures Venezuela would be the easiest to attack.
I just looked up that “Treaty” on Wikipedia. This is a joke. Most of the nations who initially signed it back in the late ’40’s have left it and consider it a dead treaty. Most of the nations who emerged since the ’40’s never did sign it. Canada isn’t even a member.
The sole purpose of invoking this treaty is because of this:
In 2019 during the presidential crisis, the National Assembly of Venezuela, presided by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, opened talks on rejoining TIAR.[15] On 11 May, Guaidó sent a letter to Organization of American States (OAS) secretary Luis Almagro requesting that Venezuela be reinstated.[16] On 29 May 2019, the National Assembly approved its return to the Treaty in a preliminary discussion.[17] The National Assembly reiterated its approval to return to the treaty in July 2019. – Wikipedia.
So the whole point of this is to give Trump a fig leaf for naked aggression against Venezuela.
So much for “not starting unnecessary wars”…
Exactly. Thank you for the information.
The first thing that any attack would cause would be the arrest and probable death of the major opposition figures. Wars do cause the arrest and worse of the domestic allies of those countries which attack.
Excellent point. Such people do present a very real threat of sabotage and guerilla warfare. Certainly the arrests of the most extreme would be justified.
This is not surprising – Trump is also wanting a “mutual defense treaty” with the most aggressive, officially racist, land-stealing country since Nazi Germany – namely Israel. Our country has gone crazy – and there seems to be no end to the human rights abuses that America approves of.
The action will start from Brazil not Columbia.
Not too sure about that. They have the same problems as Columbia. Bolsonaro’s situation isn’t very strong. He only made it into power through corruption. He hasn’t shown any interest so far in stirring things up in Venezuela. It clearly would be a bad move politically and unpopular.
Fully agree.
No problem, they’ll just use Guerrilla fighters to enter Venezuela from the border much like Isis entered from Turkey into Syria.
Oil is both a blessing and a curse for Venezuela.
This business on being tough on Venezuela puzzles me.
First, just looking at reality. When Colombia was “reengineered” back then to ensure power of urban elites — mostly self-identified descendants of European colonists, it was easy. Colombian natives were quickly pushed into hinterland, and their resistance depicted as drugs related, with US supplying “anti-drugs” military support.
What is different today in Venezuela, and why Guaido and his urbanite crowd of descendants of European colonists did not topple the government quickly? Because after years of Chavez, the champion of native Venezuelans — the hinterland became organized. For the first time those millions of Venezuelans have received identity cards, they are taxpayers, they have local governments with local duties, like education , health care and infrastructure. And they VOTE.
Maduro won comfortably, and Guaido supporters KNOW thy cannot win through ballot box. They repeatedly refused elections unless they are in charge — so they cab disenfranchise the majority. The ONLY way to power is to topple the government through street action AND immediate foreign recognition of Guaido as President.
The old Colombia model of bifurcation of the country on pro-American elite and native Colombians pushed into jungles, was not going to work.
I have no idea why US thinks it is still possible to conquer the country. Sanctions play a role here, as a method of choking off economy and wearing down resistance. But in a country that has millions used to living within subsistence economy, it is the Guaido supporters in the cities that are hurting more.
If the strategy is to assault Venezuela Libya style, it may be a problem. There are no strong militias to tackle Maduro the way Islamists were organized against Ghadafi. And Maduro millions are armed.
It is also a BIG question how far will China and Russia go in order to protect Venezuela.
They may bail out and let US consolidate Western Hemisphere. Provides they get Eastern one.
Or, Russia and China make Venezuela a battlefield, in order to MOVE power conflicts away from their doorstep. Having a faraway place to wage skirmishes may be a good way to divert from Indo-Pacific, Middle East or even European theaters.
Trump’s haste clearly linked to election calculus may be ill conceived. US can — with some patience — get a cooperation from all Latin America. But that assumes leadership skills, as opposed to bullying.
But we will eventually get the war we should stay out off.
The outcome, a protracted war in the hemisphere, with possible unravelling of Colombia and Brazil — may be in offing. Both countries elites are heavily tilted against natives. The war may also become a theater for trying new weapons. At this point — it is only a guess what might happen.
We should not risk such eventualities.