The U.S. is a purveyor of global violence, as illustrated by the intensifying militarism in the Caribbean and targeting of Venezuela. The struggle to establish a Zone of Peace directly challenges this dynamic. The achievement of this requires the dismantling of the US global network of hundreds of military bases and the diversion of its massive war budget toward human needs.
Originally published in Black Alliance for Peace.
The Caribbean must remain a Zone of Peace!
The Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) meeting in the Executive Committee last evening mandated that the Party issue a statement unequivocally condemning the US military buildup in the southern Caribbean, which is targeted at the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We totally reject the so-called pretext for this unprecedented assembly of naval and other military assets and personnel as being one to “deal with narco-trafficking”.
The US Coast Guard - in conjunction with Caribbean and European countries (UK, France, Holland) that have colonies in the region - has for years been involved in the interdiction of narco-traffickers in the Caribbean. Indeed, there have recently been major drug seizures in the Caribbean as a result of this collaboration. These have been widely reported in the media, most recently in June of this year. The US Coast Guard while part of the US military, is not an offensive component of the military. US Navy destroyers, a guided missile cruiser, helicopter carriers, amphibious vessels and other assets, US marines, nuclear submarines are all offensive – to attack another country or target. Significantly, a US spokesperson did not deny that these assets may be used against another country.
The US operates with a policy of imperial hegemony – that it and it alone – must be in charge. This is expressly articulated in the 200+ year old Monroe Doctrine, which essentially says that it can intervene anywhere and in any country in this hemisphere if it is in the “US national interest”. And only the US defines what is in its national interest. So the Trump regime now says that stopping narcotics entering the US is in its “national security interests” and so it can deploy huge military assets to the southern Caribbean. Yet in the 1980s, the US military and State Department were importing narcotics into the US to finance the right-wing fighters (the Contras) in El Salvador and Nicaragua who were seeking to defeat the progressive movement in El Salvador and the government of Nicaragua, respectively. That use of drug money was then in the US national interest. When the FBI engaged in illegal activities against US citizens in the 50’s and 60s (documented in the COINTELPRO) and also introduced and promoted drugs in mostly African American inner cities in the late 1960s to combat the rise of popular civil rights and black power movements, that was also in the US national security interest. US hypocrisy knows no limits.
This military buildup is no different. It’s all a lie. The real intent is to effect regime change in Venezuela. This is evident by the new “bounty” of US$50 million to capture the President of Venezuela. In this regard, Trump and the Republican neo-fascists are little different from the (Biden) Democrats, as it was Biden who first put a “bounty” on President Maduro. And this again demonstrated US hypocrisy and duplicity. A bounty on the head of President Maduro but the White House and the US Congress welcome with open arms Benjamin Netanyahu who is a fugitive from international justice with a warrant for his arrest to be tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court and the state of Israel which he leads also found guilty of such crimes by the International Court of Justice.
The MSJ calls out the US. We oppose its colonial and imperial agenda! We stand with the people of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its President, Nicolas Maduro, and with the PSUV – the party which is in government. And we call on all peace loving people in the Caribbean to speak out. Silence is not an option. Silence is a condonation of the US imperial agenda and the discredited 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine.
The Caribbean as a Zone of Peace has been declared by three regional and/or hemispheric bodies in which Trinidad and Tobago is a member: CARICOM, the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), which has its headquarters in Port of Spain, Trinidad; and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Venezuela is a full member of both the ACS and CELAC. We therefore call on CARICOM as a regional group and individual CARICOM Member States to make statements on this issue so that the Trump regime understands that it is not going to be supported in any military intervention in Venezuela. We call, further, on CARICOM governments that have SOFA and other similar agreements with the US not to allow themselves to be used by the Trump regime as a military staging point or Trojan horse against the sovereign state of Venezuela. We also do not wish to see any US military action against commercial vessels of countries like China that are trading with Venezuela. That will have far reaching consequences.
This is a crucial moment in our region. Trump claims that he has stopped six wars recently. He must not start one here in our region, which we insist is, and must remain, a Zone of Peace.
Movement for Social Justice
David Abdulah
Political Leader
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