Fourteen million people are facing starvation in Yemen, according to United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock. Every day 130 children die of hunger in Yemen.
All these deaths are the result of a cruel naval and land blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia and backed up by the U.S. Navy. So why is the Trump administration so concerned with food scarcity in Venezuela?
This is the same White House that wants to cut SNAP benefits (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps) by almost 30 percent.
On the Feb. 16-17 weekend, three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo planes brought “nutritional supplements for about 3,500 children” to Cúcuta, Colombia, located at the border with Venezuela. Accompanying these CARE packages was ultraright U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
How is this stunt supposed to help the more than 32 million people living in Venezuela? It’s such an obvious war provocation that both the United Nations and the International Red Cross are refusing to have anything to do with this so-called humanitarian aid.
Invasion concert
Not only does the $20 million of aid pledged by the Trump regime amount to less than 62 cents per person in Venezuela. It’s less than the $30 million that Venezuela loses daily in oil exports because of the U.S. economic blockade.
The $1.2 billion in Venezuelan gold that’s been seized by the Bank of England could also buy a lot of food.
Feb. 23 has been selected to stage a march across the Venezuelan border with this meager amount of food and other supplies. Welcoming this provocation is the Venezuelan traitor and self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaidó.
The country’s real president is Nicholás Maduro, who won over 6.2 million votes ― 67 percent of the total ― in last year’s election.
Both the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department are hoping for a violent confrontation at the border that can be used as an excuse for invading Venezuela. Colombian and Brazilian troops may be used in addition to U.S. forces.
A public relations gimmick designed to sugarcoat this possible invasion is a concert planned for the same day near the Venezuela/Colombia border. It’s being organized by British billionaire Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, owner of Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Rail and 400 other outfits.
Sir Richard is a cool, hip, slimy union buster who smashed an organizing drive of attendants at his Virgin America airline in 2011. Fortunately, the Transport Workers Union ― which also represents transit workers in New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco ― persevered and won a 2014 representation election. (Alaska Airlines has since gobbled up Virgin America.)
Never forget 9-11-73
Besides the U.S. Air Force planes bringing CARE packages, other planes are bringing more lethal items. Venezuelan authorities seized 19 assault weapons, 118 ammunition cartridges, and 90 military-grade radio antennas from a flight originating in Miami belonging to 21 Air LLC.
The majority owner of 21 Air, Adolfo Moreno, had ties to Gemini Air Cargo, which was used to transport prisoners to CIA torture centers.
All these actions are taken from the same CIA playbook that was used to overthrow democratically elected Chilean President Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973. Thousands of people in Chile were tortured to death in the coup ordered by President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Trump & Co. want to drag Venezuela back to the days when Nelson Rockefeller, who butchered the prisoners at Attica, had a Venezuelan ranch there half the size of New York City.
The Saudi monarchy that’s starving children in Yemen is just a puppet regime for Big Oil, whose biggest player is still the Rockefeller Dynasty. Exxon Mobil, the Rockefeller crown jewel, wants to get back into Venezuela after it was kicked out by late President Hugo Chávez.
Working and poor people in Venezuela are determined to defend their Bolivarian Revolution against the Pentagon and all its stooges.
We have to ally with them. Attend, support and organize actions everywhere that proclaim: U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!
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