[H-PAD] Urgent statement on Venezuela

[Marc Becker]

Historians for Peace and Democracy encourages our members to contact Dan 
Beeton <beeton at cepr.net> to sign this urgent statement on Venezuela.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: *Dan Beeton* <beeton at cepr.net <mailto:beeton at cepr.net>>
Date: Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 8:43 PM
Subject: Urgent statement on Venezuela

The United States government must cease interfering in Venezuela’s 
internal politics, especially for the purpose of overthrowing the 
country’s government. Actions by the Trump administration and its allies 
in the hemisphere are almost certain to make the situation in Venezuela 
worse, leading to unnecessary human suffering, violence, and instability.

Venezuela’s political polarization is not new; the country has long been 
divided along racial and socioeconomic lines. But the polarization has 
deepened in recent years. This is partly due to US support for an 
opposition strategy aimed at removing the government of Nicolas Maduro 
through extra-electoral means. While the opposition has been divided on 
this strategy, US support has backed hardline opposition sectors in 
their goal of ousting the Maduro government through often violent 
protests, a military coup d’etat, or other avenues that sidestep the 
ballot box.

Under the Trump administration, aggressive rhetoric against the 
Venezuelan government has ratcheted up to a more extreme and threatening 
level, with Trump administration officials talking 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=tF%2F6V3EsJoxLEIlqLHz8YAo6XGG2y%2Fse> 
of “military action” and condemning Venezuela, along with Cuba and 
Nicaragua, as part of a “troika of tyranny 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Ouz1wnJDB3Feriwk3OlSzwo6XGG2y%2Fse>.” 
Problems resulting from Venezuelan government policy have been worsened 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=HkZqTgNsm2PNnmgwrEEkHwo6XGG2y%2Fse> by 
US economic sanctions, illegal 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=hcZ3UrEobMk3qmEM33jabDh%2Biyq9ZH%2Fr> 
under the Organization of American States and the United Nations ― as 
well as US law and other international treaties and conventions. These 
sanctions have cut off the means by which the Venezuelan government 
could escape from its economic recession, while causing a dramatic 
falloff 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=AEvAA%2FhDzRxaQE8bNoDvFwo6XGG2y%2Fse> 
in oil production and worsening the economic crisis, and causing many 
people to die because they can’t get access to life-saving medicines. 
Meanwhile, the US and other governments continue to blame the Venezuelan 
government ― solely ― for the economic damage, even that caused by the 
US sanctions.

Now the US and its allies, including OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro 
and Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, have pushed Venezuela 
to the precipice. By recognizing National Assembly President Juan Guaido 
as the new president of Venezuela ― something illegal under the OAS 
Charter 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=1L%2B34PHor5lS91CVldzdtwo6XGG2y%2Fse> 
― the Trump administration has sharply accelerated Venezuela’s political 
crisis in the hopes of dividing the Venezuelan military and further 
polarizing the populace, forcing them to choose sides. The obvious, and 
sometimes stated 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=4VLGMUoVDXPeKkDjVXm3bQo6XGG2y%2Fse> 
goal, is to force Maduro out via a coup d’etat.

The reality is that despite hyperinflation, shortages, and a deep 
depression, Venezuela remains a politically polarized country. The US 
and its allies must cease encouraging violence by pushing for violent, 
extralegal regime change. If the Trump administration and its allies 
continue to pursue their reckless course in Venezuela, the most likely 
result will be bloodshed, chaos, and instability. The US should have 
learned something from its regime change ventures in Iraq, Syria, Libya, 
and its long, violent history of sponsoring regime change in Latin America.

Neither side in Venezuela can simply vanquish the other. The military, 
for example, has at least 235,000 frontline members, and there are at 
least 1.6 million in militias. Many of these people will fight, not only 
on the basis of a belief in national sovereignty that is widely held in 
Latin America ― in the face of what increasingly appears to be a US-led 
intervention ― but also to protect themselves from likely repression if 
the opposition topples the government by force.

In such situations, the only solution is a negotiated settlement, as has 
happened in the past in Latin American countries when politically 
polarized societies were unable to resolve their differences through 
elections. There have been efforts, such as those led by the Vatican 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=fkgUJpZ7%2FKKrWfhKFimLTwo6XGG2y%2Fse> 
in the fall of 2016, that had potential, but they received no support 
from Washington and its allies who favored regime change. This strategy 
must change if there is to be any viable solution to the ongoing crisis 
in Venezuela.

For the sake of the Venezuelan people, the region, and for the principle 
of national sovereignty, these international actors should instead 
support negotiations between the Venezuelan government and its opponents 
that will allow the country to finally emerge from its political and 
economic crisis.

Signed:

Alfred de Zayas, former UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a 
Democratic and Equitable International Order and only UN rapporteur to 
have visited Venezuela in 21 years

Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus, MIT and Laureate Professor, University 
of Arizona

Greg Grandin, Professor of History, New York University

Miguel Tinker Salas, Professor of Latin American History and Chicano/a 
Latino/a Studies at Pomona College

Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
__
Dan Beeton
International Communications Director
Center for Economic and Policy Research
1611 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202-239-1460
Cell: 202-256-6116
Skype: dan.beeton

E-mail: beeton at cepr.net <mailto:beeton at cepr.net> / www.cepr.net 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=1Iz5RTxilPOFgw0QhZzRigo6XGG2y%2Fse>

Twitter: @Dan_Beeton 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ydm8oRclezaHeet5Oap%2BNQo6XGG2y%2Fse>
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