President Donald Trump has let the neocons within his administration run wild in Venezuela, and that continues with announcement of a $41.9 Million federal giveaway to Venezuelan resistance figure Juan Guaido to assist his ongoing coup d’état attempt.
Guaido was declared the new President of Venezuela by foreign powers months ago, but the Venezuelan people have not necessarily accepted the legitimacy of his rule. A revolution, which was pushed heavily by the Western media, fizzled out shortly after it was staged in April, but U.S.-backed interventionists have got given up on their imperial ambitions.
The foreign aid package will allegedly paper over Guaido and his associates so they can receive airfare, political training, regular salaries, propaganda services, assistance in elections, and other “democracy-building” projects.
Honduras and Guatemala were the two countries meant to receive the aid, but it will instead go to Guaido for more foreign meddling. While Trump’s denial of aid to those countries may be laudable from a libertarian perspective, directing it toward an intervention in another country is arguably an even worse use of the funds.
National security adviser John Bolton has cheered on the efforts of Guaido, attempting to threaten the Venezuelan people into accepting the preferred ruler of Washington D.C. as their own.
It is time for all Venezuelan military officials to do what is right for the Venezuelan people. https://t.co/91KCM6awmH
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) February 22, 2019
Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido has announced his planned return to Venezuela. Any threats or acts against his safe return will be met with a strong and significant response from the United States and the international community.
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) March 4, 2019
The U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams is arguably even more hawkish than Bolton, and Trump gave him the post despite being convicted for lying to Congress over the Iran-Contra scandal.
“More and more Venezuelans are aware of the fact that this regime has absolutely no answers to their problems. Everything is getting worse. We see it most recently with electric power and with water,” Abrams said.
“There will be no recovery of the economy, there will be no recovery of democracy with this regime. … It’s just not really conceivable that this regime which is destroying the economy and society of Venezuela will remain in power,” he added.
Abrams and Bolton may be correct that President Nicolas Maduro’s regime will crumble at some point, but U.S.-backed intervention is only proving the socialist’s claims that he is under siege from outsiders to be correct and arguably strengthening his dictatorship.
“I think he’s overwhelmed with his domestic problem and, I believe, I think he despises us. He despises all of America and the Caribbean. I think he despises the world,” Maduro said of Trump and his supposed coup against him.
“This is the reason for the coup. They don’t want us to get better. They sabotage us and try to destroy the economic system,” he added.
If the U.S. wants the socialist Maduro to be deposed, they should consider ending all foreign aid, and letting the people of Venezuela decide their new ruler for themselves.
