A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
Washington smelled blood when the successors to Hugo Chavez won by only a small margin in Venezuelan elections. The U.S. refused to recognize the results, gearing up for regime change. However, “Latin America quickly united to blunt the Yankee offensive in its tracks.” Washington must be taught, repeatedly, that it does not have a backyard to its south.
Latin America Unites to Tell Uncle Sam “Hands Off Venezuela”
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
“Republican and Democratic regimes in Washington have never acknowledged the legitimacy of the Chavez revolution.”
Venezuela has entered a new period of grave danger, the most perilous since George Bush backed an attempted coup against the late Hugo Chavez’s government in 2002. Earlier this month, Chavez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro, won a narrow victory over the U.S.-backed candidate Henrique Capriles, a front man for the business interests that still control most of the media and much of the economy in the country. Although the governing United Socialist Party won by only 1.6 percent of the vote, Venezuela’s elections system is so transparent – the best in the world, according to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter – there is virtually no chance that the opposition was cheated of victory. But that’s irrelevant to both Republican and Democratic regimes in Washington, which have never acknowledged the legitimacy of the Chavez revolution, no matter how many elections it won, by whatever margin. As the greatest disrespecter of democratic elections in the western hemisphere, the United States refused to recognize the results, holding out for a 100 percent audit, or recount. Naturally, Washington’s stooge in the race, Capriles, took the same position, and sent his people into the streets to create an atmosphere of crisis and instability. Washington also got the European Union to parrot the American line.
“Latin American presidents took such extraordinary measures to show their solidarity.”
The good news is, Latin America quickly united to blunt the Yankee offensive in its tracks. Leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador, met in an extraordinary summit in Peru, where they agreed to throw their weight behind Venezuela’s President Maduro. Then they flew on to Caracas, where 17 Latin American presidents and delegations from 47 nations attended Maduro’s swearing in ceremony. Even Colombia, Venezuela’s neighbor and Washington’s closest ally in the region, broke with the U.S. on the election issue. So did the Organization of American States, an anachronistic entity that has long acted as a puppet for Washington. When Spain backed off from the U.S., so did the rest of Europe, leaving the Americans totally isolated. Haiti, a country that lost its sovereignty to invasion by the United States – even helpless little Haiti named the airport in Cap-Haitien, its second largest city, after the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Why, then, did I begin by saying that this is a time of great danger for Venezuela? Because U.S. imperialism is implacable in its determination for regime change in Caracas. The closeness of the recent election only encourages Washington to believe that Chavez’s party can be overthrown by subversion, including U.S.-backed armed insurrection. That’s why the Latin American presidents took such extraordinary measures to show their solidarity with President Maduro – so that Washington would take note that Latin America is united in opposition to U.S. intervention.
The last thing these Latin countries want is to pick a fight with the Rude Boy of the planet, the United States. Rather, they are urging Washington not to attempt regime change in Venezuela – that those days are over, with or without Hugo Chavez.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com .
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Dr. Gerald Horne is an author and historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.
