Advocates say June parole hearing may be Leonard Peltier’s last chance at freedom and they plan to push hard for his release

RAPID CITY, S.D. – At 80 years old, Leonard Peltier is approaching what may be his last attempt at freedom.

On June 10, the Anishinaabe elder will participate in what may be his final parole hearing. Peltier is currently serving two consecutive life sentences after being convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975 at the Jumping Bull Ranch in South Dakota.

Peltier is asking for the public to spread the word about his parole hearing, said Dawn Lawson, secretary of the Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee.

“For a long time, people have been dying in that prison and the (Federal Bureau of Prisons) is out of control,” Lawson said. “They’re (U.S. Penitentiary Coleman 1) currently on indefinite lockdown, not because anybody has done anything, just because they can. They (prisoners) are living in their own filth. Leonard is making an appeal to his people to please get anybody’s attention.”

In the past few months, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa citizen’s health has taken a turn for the worse, so much so that his attorneys say they’re concerned he won’t make it to the June parole hearing.

“He didn’t sound good when I spoke with him on the phone today (April 22), he doesn’t even know if he’s going to make it to next week,” said Nick Tilsen, Oglala Lakota and CEO of the NDN Collective. “He told me, ‘I hope I make it to June 10, and I hope I can make it 30 days after that.’”

Peltier has been struggling with health concerns for years. He’s had trouble managing his diabetes while incarcerated, experienced the loss of vision in one eye, had open heart surgery, an aortic aneurysm, and is dealing with the lingering effects of contracting COVID-19.

On April 16, the Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee issued a press release and organized a calling campaign to urge federal prison officials to address Peltier’s health problems. Since then, Peltier’s lead attorney, Jenipher Jones, was able to arrange for a doctor outside the prison to meet with Peltier twice.

The medical visit revealed Peltier was experiencing eye damage and would need to see a specialist, but prison officials said it would take 8 to 10 months to coordinate such a visit.

In February, Judith LeBlanc, executive director of the Native Organizers Alliance, requested the U.S. Department of Justice approve the compassionate release of Peltier based on his health problems. Compassionate release is available for prisoners who seek early release due to extraordinary or compelling circumstances, according to the American Bar Association.

“At a time when democratic values are being challenged, DOJ should take action as he nears the end of his life and allow him to return to his family on his ancestral homeland,” LeBlanc said in a statement. “We implore the DOJ to grant Peltier’s compassionate release.”

Tilsen called on the Biden administration to take action.

“This administration, the Biden Administration, has said that Native American rights are a priority to them, and yet they’ve got the longest sitting Indigenous political prisoner locked up and we’ve seen no action from the federal government,” Tilsen said. “If he dies in prison this will forever be a part of that administration’s legacy as it relates to Native people.”

Tilsen said he’s been fighting for Peltier’s freedom since he was a small child. Now, his organization is on the front lines of Peltier’s fight.

“It’s all hands on deck,” Tilsen said. “With the right medical treatment Leonard could live for a while, but without it he’s almost guaranteed to not make it.”

With the announcement of Peltier’s parole date, NDN Collective is switching gears from putting its energy toward compassionate release for Peltier and instead educating the public on his push for parole.

A chance to tell his story

Within 30 days after the June 10 parole hearing, the parole commission will issue its decision. A recommendation will be delivered to the commission for a final decision to be made.

Since Peltier is a federal prisoner serving a sentence of 30 years or more, he is eligible for a parole hearing within 9 months of his eligibility date as determined by the Bureau of Prisons. This hearing may be his only shot.

“The parole hearing on June 10 is the most important parole hearing of Leonard’s life,” Tilsen said. “He won’t live long enough for another parole hearing to come around.”

Source: ICT

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the official news agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), published two important commentaries in April concerning US strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, noting that its principal target is China.

Writing on April 12, Jong Min, an international security analyst, focused on the US attempt to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the region.

He said that not long ago, the US army Pacific commander claimed that the Chinese army is taking an irresponsible way in the use of military means, adding that the US forces are planning to deploy new intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region later this year to restrain China.

Jong adds: “Not content with persistently escalating the situation and inciting constant war fever through frequent dispatch of strategic assets to the Asia-Pacific region, the US is scheming to deploy even ground-launched intermediate-range missiles capable of directly aiming at specific countries in the region and promptly striking them at any moment. This clearly shows what phase the US ambition for military supremacy has reached.”

He notes that the US started to develop and modernise intermediate-range missiles, as soon as it unilaterally withdraw from the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles between Russia and US in August 2019 and completed the development of an intermediate-range missile system by the end of 2022.

“This fact goes to prove that the US attempt to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region is not a defensive step to cope with ‘threat’ from someone but a product of the offensive and hegemonic military strategy which has been steadily pushed forward in a sequential and planned way for a long time.

“The US attempt to deploy intermediate-range missiles is dangerous enough to explosively aggravate the political and military situation in the Asia-Pacific region, trigger off strong rebuff and counteraction of China and other regional countries and spark off a fierce arms race in the region.

“In view of the range of those missiles, their deployment in Guam, Hawaii and other territories of the US has no military significance. Accordingly, they will have to be deployed in such allies of the US in the Asia-Pacific region as Japan and the puppet Republic of Korea (ROK).

“The US arms buildup to check China’s peaceful development and growth and restrain it militarily will inevitably invoke strong countermeasures. And Japan and the puppet ROK or any third country might be well aware of the fact that they would be the first target of military retaliation if the US intermediate-range missiles were deployed in their territories.

“After all, the US deployment of intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region is not for protecting its junior allies. On the contrary, it will lead them to the fate of being victims and sacrifices of the US strategy for hegemony.”

Then, on April 25, international affairs analyst Kang Jin Song commented on the US attempt to expand the AUKUS military alliance, presently consisting of Australia, Britain and the United States, to other countries, starting with Japan.

He notes that since its founding, AUKUS has been called a nuclear mine planted in the waters of the Asia-Pacific as ‘the Anglo-Saxon nuclear submarine alliance’ for seeking nuclear supremacy in the Asia-Pacific region by detouring the international nuclear non-proliferation system.

It is the sinister intention of the US to make Japan a crewmember of a confrontation ship called AUKUS and put it at the outpost line of the anti-China pressure and push the nuclear minefield in the Asia-Pacific region closer to China.

He goes on to outline how the Biden administration recently held a tripartite summit of the US, Japan and the Philippines in the wake of a US-Japan summit to call for strengthened security cooperation between Manila and Tokyo, as well as Canberra and Seoul.

“This is mainly aimed at building double and triple infrastructure for implementing the ‘integrated deterrence strategy’ against China by ultimately putting together tools designed for achieving supremacy existing in the Asia-Pacific region in a ‘latticed’ way.

“The reality goes to prove once again that the ‘competition accompanied by dialogue’ with China and the ‘installation of a guard rail’ in bilateral relations, heard from US public officials, are nothing but deceptive slogans and their thinking and practice are oriented to anti-China confrontation from A to Z.

“Owing to the establishment of a ‘small group’ of the US whose arch enemy is China and its ceaseless attempt to expand the group, the Asia-Pacific region, where opportunities and potentials for development are richer than any other region of the world, is turning into a theatre of muscle-flexing and a touch-and-go nuclear minefield.”

The following articles were originally published by KCNA.

Int’l Security Analyst on U.S. Attempt to Deploy Intermediate-range Missiles in Asia-Pacific Region

Pyongyang, April 12 (KCNA) — Jong Min, an international security analyst of the DPRK, issued the following article “U.S. attempt to deploy intermediate-range missiles causes strategic instability in Asia-Pacific region” on Friday:

The U.S., immersed in realizing the military supremacy over the world, is trying to play a new military gambling in the Asia-Pacific region.

Shortly ago, the U.S. army Pacific commander said that the Chinese army is taking an irresponsible way in the use of military means, adding that the U.S. forces are planning to deploy new intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region late this year to restrain China.

Not content with persistently escalating the situation and inciting constant war fever through frequent dispatch of strategic assets to the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. is scheming to deploy even ground-launched intermediate-range missiles capable of directly aiming at specific countries in the region and promptly striking them at any moment. This clearly shows what phase the U.S. ambition for military supremacy has reached.

The U.S. has possessed and deployed a large number of strategic means capable of dealing a fatal blow to any country on the globe. Nonetheless, it is planning to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region. This is prompted by its strategic intention to improve the efficiency of military pressure on China by additionally reinforcing tactical and operational strike means and deploying them in the forward area.

It is the ulterior calculation of the U.S. that it can check China’s advance into the seas and secure the constant capability of rapidly striking the inland of China if intermediate-range missiles are forward-deployed in the Asia-Pacific region.

The U.S. started to develop and modernize intermediate-range missiles, as soon as it unilaterally withdraw from the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles between Russia and U.S. in August 2019, and completed the development of intermediate-range missile system by the end of 2022.

The typical weapon system is Typhon, a ground-launched intermediate-range missile launch system, manufactured and delivered to the U.S. military by Lockheed Martin of the U.S.

According to experts, the Typhon can launch existing Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles and SM-6 multi-purpose guided missiles.

Besides, the U.S. is stepping up the modernization of the intermediate-range missile forces while focusing on the development of various types of hypersonic weapons, including the long-range hypersonic weapon (LRHW) of the Army, air-launched rapid response weapon AGM-183 and hypersonic attack cruise missile (HACM).

This fact goes to prove that the U.S. attempt to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region is not a defensive step to cope with “threat” from someone but a product of the offensive and hegemonic military strategy which has been steadily pushed forward in a sequential and planned way for a long time.

The U.S. attempt to deploy intermediate-range missiles is dangerous enough to explosively aggravate the political and military situation in the Asia-Pacific region, trigger off strong rebuff and counteraction of China and other regional countries and spark off a fierce arms race in the region.

The U.S. dreams about deploying the missiles within this year, but the process will never go smoothly.

In view of the range of those missiles, their deployment in Guam, Hawaii and other territories of the U.S. has no military significance. Accordingly, they will have to be deployed in such allies of the U.S. in the Asia-Pacific region as Japan and the puppet Republic of Korea (ROK).

The U.S. arms buildup to check China’s peaceful development and growth and restrain it militarily will inevitably invoke strong countermeasures. And Japan and the puppet ROK or any third country might be well aware of the fact that they would be the first target of military retaliation if the U.S. intermediate-range missiles were deployed in their territories.

After all, the U.S. deployment of intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region is not for protecting its junior allies. On the contrary, it will lead them to the fate of being victims and sacrifices of the U.S. strategy for hegemony.

The U.S. new military gambling in the Asia-Pacific region with “wager” called the deployment of intermediate-range missiles may be led to the nightmare-like result that even the security of its mainland should be mortgaged.

What Is Washington’s Scheme to Extend Sphere of Alliance Aimed at

Pyongyang, April 25 (KCNA) — Kang Jin Song, an international affairs analyst of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, issued the following article titled “What is Washington’s scheme to extend the sphere of alliance aimed at”:

The U.S. is now intensifying its scheme to expand and strengthen military blocs in the Asia-Pacific region.

As known, the U.S.-Britain-Australia tripartite defense authority talks on April 8 made public a joint statement on examining a proposal for promoting cooperation between AUKUS and Japan in the field of ultra-modern technology. And Biden confirmed Japan’s participation in AUKUS at the U.S.-Japan summit held in Washington on April 10.

It means that the extension of AUKUS and the preferential participation of Japan have become formal.

The U.S. defends itself saying that cooperation between AUKUS and Japan is limited to the field related to eight core defense technologies, including artificial intelligence and cyber, and it’s not aimed at increasing the number of AUKUS members, but the danger of Japan’s participation in AUKUS is making the whole international community tense, not to mention the regional countries.

In September 2021, AUKUS was forged as a tripartite security cooperation body involving the United States, Britain and Australia. Since its founding, it has been called a nuclear mine planted in the waters of the Asia-Pacific as “the Anglo-Saxon nuclear submarine alliance” for seeking nuclear supremacy in the Asia-Pacific region by detouring the international nuclear non-proliferation system.

Judging from the fact that the extension of AUKUS has become formal and the first candidate for its membership is Japan, a state of aggression and war criminal which tried to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War and has covertly beefed up its capability for manufacturing nuclear weapons after the war, this poses a serious problem in terms of security environment of the whole world including the Asia-Pacific region.

When the issue of extending AUKUS appeared on the table, Britain and Australia reportedly took a skeptical view, pointing out that Japan failed to fully protect sensitive information.

Although Canada and New Zealand, members of “Five Eyes” – an information-sharing body of Anglo-Saxons – were potential candidates for “AUKUS+”, Japan has been designated as a candidate member of AUKUS, which is attributable to the U.S. pressure and persistent persuasion, according to experts.

Clear is the intention of the U.S. that persists in involving Japan in AUKUS.

It is the sinister intention of the U.S. to make Japan, a vanquished country which revised the “Pacifist Constitution” and is making frantic moves to beef up the forces of aggression under the cloak of “possessing counterattack capability”, obsessed by nationalism, a crewmember of a confrontation ship called AUKUS and put it at the outpost line of the anti-China pressure and push the nuclear minefield in the Asia-Pacific region closer to China.

Most experts comment that the technical cooperation between AUKUS and Japan, promoted under the control of the U.S., will lead sooner or later to its full membership and to the additional admission of other potential candidate countries.

The Biden administration recently held a tripartite summit of the U.S., Japan and the Philippines in the wake of a U.S.-Japan summit to call for the strengthened security cooperation between Manila and Tokyo, and Canberra and Seoul. This is mainly aimed at building double and triple infrastructure for implementing the “integrated deterrence strategy” against China by ultimately putting together tools designed for achieving supremacy existing in the Asia-Pacific region in a “latticed” way.

The reality goes to prove once again that the “competition accompanied by dialogue” with China and the “installation of a guard rail” in bilateral relations, heard from U.S. public officials, are nothing but deceptive slogans and their thinking and practice are oriented to anti-China confrontation from A to Z.

Owing to the establishment of a “small group” of the U.S. whose arch enemy is China and its ceaseless attempt to expand the group, the Asia-Pacific region, where opportunities and potentials for development are richer than any other region of the world, is turning into a theatre of muscle-flexing and a touch-and-go nuclear minefield, and the ensuing immediate and prospective security burden has been heavily placed on the regional and international community.

The peace camp in the region and the rest of the world should heighten vigilance against the reckless moves of Washington to frantically expand its alliance sphere without limits, targeting a certain state.

Source: Friends of Socialist China

PROTEST DONALD TRUMP

Donald Trump will be in Saint Paul to headline the MN GOP Lincoln Reagan Dinner.

Join us to say NO to Trump and his whole reactionary agenda!

Save the date! Time and location info to be announced!

Protest call initiated by MIRAC, CAIR-MN & MNAAC

Baltimore: All Out for Rafah – Emergency Protest

Tuesday, May 7 – 6:00 p.m.

Gather at MLK Blvd & Mulberry Street, Baltimore

Hosted by Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly

In Los Angeles on May Day, hundreds of people set off on a march and motorcade from MacArthur Park for the annual celebration of the international workers’ holiday. The neighborhood that surrounds the park is home to thousands of immigrant workers and has become the traditional launching point for the annual event.

An opening rally was held from the back of a flatbed truck when the event kicked off. Then the loud procession slowly made its way downtown for a final rally at a busy intersection adjacent to the University of Southern California (USC).

Chants that called out all the issues that are important to working-class people at home were interspersed with expressions of solidarity for the people of Gaza. The anger over the Biden/Netanyahu genocide echoed off the storefronts along the three-mile route.

Originally, the march was to have ended at the Los Angeles Federal Building. But during the weeks of organizing for the May Day march, campus protests and encampments in solidarity with the people of Gaza seemed to pop up everywhere. By May Day there were tents occupying the grounds of college campuses not only across the country, but internationally. 

Students at USC had been arrested and their encampment had been cleared out when the L.A. cops were called in by the campus administration in the days leading up to the workers’ holiday. To the shock and dismay of the cops and campus authorities, the 93 arrests that they carried out didn’t end the protest. 

Students reconstituted their tent city almost immediately. It was this beautiful act of defiance that inspired May Day organizers to change their destination to make sure to express the utmost support for the campus protesters.

Shutting down traffic for Palestine

For the final rally, the flatbed truck that had led the march was parked across the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Figueroa Street for at least an hour and was surrounded by throngs of May Day marchers, blocking rush hour traffic.

There is a long tradition of May Day marches being organized by Union del Barrio, Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, BAYAN USA and others. This year took on a new level of determination and spirit. The courage of the students at USC and so many other campuses fed the militancy of the May Day demonstration. 

As the organizing days ticked by, a host of organizations joined in the effort, such as Unmute Humanity, which had held a demonstration at CNN to protest U.S. media support for the genocide, and the Palestinian Youth Movement, which has been organizing mass protests repeatedly since Oct. 7. 

The Association of Raza Educators, Gabriela LA, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, United Teachers Los Angeles, American Indian Movement, Los Angeles Tenants Union and others all joined in the effort to build May Day. 

The beautiful poster for the event was printed in English, Arabic and Spanish, and sported the logos of 23 community and anti-war organizations. Every group helped spread the word for weeks to bring people out.

The deadly agenda of U.S. imperialism and its proxies has never been more visible. Biden and Netanyahu are despised by millions for their terrible crimes. Those brave students and activists who protest are being slandered with ridiculous accusations of antisemitism and claims they are all “outside agitators” by the capitalist media. But the slanders are ineffective. 

Around the world, working-class people understand the nature of the Zionist state. The campus protests are hailed in the Global South countries that have been exploited and targeted by U.S. imperialism. There is growing awareness that it doesn’t matter which of the two parties of the billionaire class occupies the White House. The hope for humanity is in a united global working-class struggle that resists imperialism.

Long live International Workers’ Day! Viva, viva Palestina!

Talk given at the 2024 Los Angeles May Day march by John Parker of the Socialist Unity Party and Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice.

We remember George Floyd. We remember white knees on Black necks. We remember that on April 18, Frank Tyson was murdered by that white knee on his Black neck in Ohio. And the last thing he said was, “I can’t breathe.” 

How many times have we heard that? We’ve heard it many times, and it’s just part of the genocide that has been going on. It’s been beating records every year in terms of police killings of Black and Brown people.

We’re well aware of the murder of immigrants at the border, at detention centers and the denial of health care for immigrants that is currently causing more deaths. 

With so much genocide going on here that we can see with our own eyes, why would anyone be tolerant of genocide overseas in Gaza? We can see the denial of health care and homes and food that is afflicting all of the working class. 

When we talk about genocide against people of color, we also have to remember that during the height of the COVID pandemic, the likelihood of death for Black and Brown people was sometimes three times higher. 

And what did Biden do when federal funds were supposed to go to the states for pandemic relief? He told people like New York City Mayor Eric Adams, “Don’t worry about using money for COVID. Use it to hire more police.” He said that during another record year of police killings. 

We know that the genocide will continue until the movement for justice is strong enough to stop it. 

How do you stop genocide by building a movement? By making it so powerful that business as usual will not be possible. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re doing it right now and we’re going to do it tomorrow and we’re going to do it until those bombs that are falling on children in Gaza finally stop.

Palestine will be free, from the river to the goddamn sea!

According to sources based in Washington, on condition of anonymity, the Ecuadorian government’s assault on the Mexican Embassy in Quito was an operation directed and supported behind the scenes by the U.S. government.

The main objective was to create a political-electoral strategy aimed at reinforcing President Noboa’s image in the run-up to the April 21 referendum, as well as to send a message to the progressive Citizen  Revolution Movement (Revolucion Ciudadana).

The second objective was to rarify the elections in Mexico, where the Morena party is in the lead, promoting lines of attack and crisis to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from the media and opposition forces. The third objective is to maintain the state of tension in the region, to prevent organizations such a the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) from being reactivated, complementing the offensive of the new Latin American right wing, which is waiting for Trump’s victory to go (even more) on the offensive.

As a fourth objective of the assault on the Embassy, the aim was to intimidate the opposition, especially Revolución Ciudadana, seeking to convey the message that the government is willing to cross any red line to crush Correism and make them disappear as a political force.

The assault on the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador had the prior consent of the U.S. Embassy, the State Department and the CIA. They informed the President of Ecuador that a possible imminent escape of Jorge Glas, similar to what happened in 2023 with the former Correista Minister María de los Ángeles Duarte, who was taking refuge in the Embassy of Argentina, would ridicule his government and would bury his aspiration for reelection, with an almost certain defeat in the popular vote.

The CIA station in Ecuador prepared in advance, together with Ecuadorian elite units, the operation to capture former Vice President Jorge Glas at the Mexican Embassy.

Prior to the operation, the CIA station in Quito shared with the government of Ecuador all available information from the Mexican Embassy, and the exact location of Jorge Glas. Information acquired from secret listening and filming applications illegally installed in the Mexican Embassy.

Hours before the raid on the Mexican Embassy, the President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa met secretly with the Ambassador of the United States, who gave his backing and consent to execute the action.

The military assault team was composed of foreign troops and advisors, who intervened wearing hoods and uniforms without official insignia, at the same time that the Embassy of Ecuador in the United States was in constant communication with the State Department during the development of the operation.

Currently, there is an alignment and subordination of the government of Ecuador with the United States, nothing is executed in the country without the approval of its Ambassador. Ecuador agreed with the United States, regardless of the fact that it has publicly “scolded” them, that the imperialist power was going to use its containment capacity so that the matter would not escalate, and to avoid economic implications and the application of sanctions against Ecuador. The United States for its part guaranteed Noboa, together with its regional and European allies, that the negative impact, both political and economic, would be limited.

Internationally, the incompetence of those responsible for Ecuadorian foreign policy, who do not represent the diplomatic officials of its Foreign Ministry, has become evident. In fact, the Minister of Foreign Affairs herself, Gabriela Sommerfeld, comes from business sectors linked to Israeli Zionism, with no previous links to diplomacy.

Lawfare, or the judicialization of politics, is driving major geopolitical changes in the region. An example of this is the actions of Lenin Moreno when he promoted through the judiciary the political persecution against Correa and his closest political circle. The same persecution that was or is being used against Dilma and Lula in Brazil, Evo in Bolivia, or Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Argentina. The objective is to destroy the main leaders and currents of the Latin American left, leaving the way clear for the rise of the new Latin American right wing.

Noboa and his government are not interested in what the international community says or does, and is gradually adopting a profile similar to that of Bukele, a figure for whom Noboa sympathizes. It is no coincidence that El Salvador was the only country that abstained in the condemnation resolution at the OAS.

Right now, Noboa’s government has other options that could be implemented in a scenario in which in the consultation won the Bukeleization of the security model, in order to reinforce its image internally while thinking about the presidential elections next year. The arrest warrant against the Prefect of Pichincha Paola Pabon for the crime of embezzlement is ready, and a coup in the form of the arrest of the narco “Fito”, to show Noboa’s commitment in the fight against organized crime.

Likewise, two important issues that could have a negative impact are being evaluated between the governments of the United States and Ecuador:

On the one hand, the questioning within the United Nations Security Council of Ecuador as a member country (observer) for violating international law and instigating a diplomatic conflict with another nation, or that contravenes the purposes of that body, consisting in theory with the preservation of international peace and security.

On the other hand, the loss of prestige and international leadership of Ecuador is in contradiction with the recognition of hosting the next Ibero-American Summit, to be held next November in the city of Cuenca.

In any case, everything seems to indicate that beyond containing these problems, there is a decision of the governments of the United States and Noboa’s Ecuador, to prevent by all means and at any cost, the victory of Revolucion Ciudadana in the presidential elections of February 9, 2025.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English

May 7, 2024, marks the 25th anniversary of NATO’s bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. This article was originally published in 2019, when Venezuela’s embassy in Washington, D.C., was being defended against Donald Trump’s illegal takeover.

Twenty years ago — on the night of May 7-8, 1999 — the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, was deliberately bombed by the U.S. Air Force.

This war crime was committed during the 78-day-long bombing of then-socialist Yugoslavia by NATO. Three Chinese journalists were killed. At least twenty were injured.

Ambassador Pan Zhanlin escaped being killed only because the bomb that crashed through the roof of his residence didn’t explode.

The bodies of newlywed journalists Xu Xinghu, 31, and Zhu Ying, 27, were found under a collapsed wall. They wrote for the Communist Party daily newspaper Guangming (Enlightenment).

Forty-eight-year-old Shao Yunhuan of the Xinhua news agency was also killed. Her husband, Cao Rongfei, was blinded.

While it was one or more U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bombers that attacked the embassy, it was the CIA that picked the target. The CIA director, George Tenet, later testified that the embassy bombing was organized and directed by his agency.

This liar claimed satellite images showed “no flags, no seals, no clear markings,” when in fact all three were present.

Why did the U.S. do it?

The CIA chose to bomb the embassy because the U.S. military-industrial complex wanted to launch a war on China. They viewed President Bill Clinton’s murderous bombing of Yugoslavia as a poor substitute.

After the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe were overthrown — with the exception of Yugoslavia — the Pentagon wanted to destroy the People’s Republic of China.

In 1996, Clinton had already used aircraft carriers in a military provocation against China, ostensibly over the stolen Taiwan province. But that wasn’t enough for the military. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1996 was Gen. John Shalikashvili, whose father had been a general in Hitler’s SS.

The attitude of a major section of the ruling class was shown by the Republican Majority Whip of the House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, who bragged how he physically confronted the ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the U.S. during a filming of Meet The Press:

“So he’s coming off the stage and I’m going onto the stage and I intentionally walked up to him and blocked his way. … I grabbed [his] hand and squeezed it as hard as I could and pulled him a kind of little jerk like this and I said: ‘Don’t take the weakness of this president as the weakness of the American people.’  And he looked at me kind of funny, so I pulled him real close, nose to nose, and I repeated it very slowly, and said, ‘Do-not-take-the-weakness-of-this-president-as-the-weakness-of-the-American-people.’”

Defend Venezuela’s Embassy

The attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was answered by hundreds of thousands of Chinese students demonstrating against U.S. imperialism. Even Boris Yeltsin — whom the U.S. had re-elected in 1996 — felt compelled to send troops to Yugoslavia at Pristina airport on June 12, 1999, a month after the embassy bombing.

Later that same year was the “Battle of Seattle,” where thousands of union workers and students confronted the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. People around the world saw the brutality of Seattle’s cops.

But it was world finance capital trying to squeeze blood out of a stone throughout Latin America that provoked the biggest fightback. Hungry people in Buenos Aires stripped supermarkets of food and Argentina was forced to cancel debt payments.

Latin American declared ¡Basta ya! to the neoliberal program of cutbacks and misery.  Hugo Chávez Frías was elected Venezuela’s president on Dec. 6, 1998, and inaugurated on Feb. 2, 1999.

The Bolivarian Revolution had begun.

Twenty years later, U.S. imperialism’s latest attempt to turn back the clock in Venezuela to the time when it was a colony of Big Oil and Nelson Rockefeller is sputtering.

Just like the CIA-directed bombing of China’s Embassy in Belgrade, the current attack on Venezuela’s Embassy in Washington, D.C., by the State Department and Secret Service, is an international crime.

Whenever you hear the State Department or the capitalist media attacking any country for violating “the freedom of the press,” remind them of the three Chinese journalists who were murdered in Belgrade: Xu Xinghu, Zhu Ying and Shao Yunhuan.

The best way to honor their memory is to continue to defend Venezuela’s Embassy. Hands off Venezuela!