The US and the mainstream media blame Nicolas Maduro for "wrecking" the economy. They blame the Bolivarian process for having spent too much on social programs for the poor, not diversifying the economy, not fighting crime, and not putting away reserves in anticipation of low oil prices. The problem is that it is not true. Watch the 17-minute interview of Mark Weisbrot below:
Denying Impact of Venezuela Sanctions is 'Like Climate Denial'
According to a United Nation's analysis, and 150 experts and activists, the economic slump from falling oil prices was exacerbated by Obama's economic sanctions in 2015. The sanctions imposed by Trump in 2017, and the blockade in 2019 has sent the economy into crisis. That is what economic sanctions and blockades are intended to do, as is well-known (e.g. "make the economy scream.").
Other oil dependent countries in the region are struggling through the depression in oil prices. Venezuela could have too, except for the economic blockade, confiscation of Venezuela's US oil company Citco, and the freezing of assets by the US, Canada, and the EU countries. The constant threat of a US invasion diverts needed resources to increased defense spending, which is another drain on the economy.
What the US and Canada are doing to Venezuela meets the definition of terrorism. They are using violence against civilians, starving them to death and preventing life-saving medicine from getting through, for political and economic purposes. It is robbery in plain sight, but many people believe the mainstream media propaganda, rather than their own "lying eyes". The blindness is caused by "blockade denial".
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The elite white minority of Venezuelans want control of the vast wealth of Venezuela's natural resources, and the US and Canada are helping for their own imperial designs. It is a historical pattern. The US and Canada have long supported dictators and opposed anti-colonial and democratic movements in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Before the rise of the US Empire, Canada backed the British Empire in the Caribbean, and even considered annexing its own colonies in the West Indies. Now the UK and Canada are the US Empire's junior imperial partners.
After the 1898 Spanish-American war the US colonized Cuba and Puerto Rico, as well as the Philippines. The US invaded Mexico in 1914 to support the oligarchy against the nationalists. The US refused to recognize Haiti's government until 1862, even though it had gained independence from France in 1804. The US militarily occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. During the Spanish Civil War, the US supported the fascist dictator Franco.
Some of the most notorious dictators that the US has backed are Batista in Cuba, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Pinochet in Chile, Noriega in Panama, and "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier in Haiti. During the 1980's the US sponsored death squads in Central America. The US backed the French in Indochina and Africa, the British in the Middle East and the 1982 colonial Falkland Island War. The US backed Suharto of Indonesia in his genocidal invasion of East Timor. The US backed apartheid South Africa, and had Nelson Mandela on its terrorist list until 2008. Is this the picture of a country that loves democracy and human rights?
Just as the US overthrew a democratic government in Guatemala in 1954 for United Fruit Company, the US is now trying to overthrow a democratic government in Venezuela for the benefit of US oil companies, and Canadian mining companies. And just as neocon Elliot Abrams was in charge of the death-squads in Central America during the 1980's, he is now Trump's special envoy for Venezuela. To believe that the US wants to "restore democracy" in Venezuela takes cognitive dissonance.
The US is supporting a cabal of elite white supremist in Venezuelans to push the Washington Consensus of IMF loans, privatization of state-owned enterprises, invasion of foreign capital, Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) by the IMF, neoliberal debt slavery and austerity for the poor, Afro-Indigenous, and people of color. Even Monsanto is behind the coup because Venezuela is one of the few countries that bans cancer causing Roundup and GMO seeds.
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