U.S. hands off Venezuela!
The Nobel Peace Prize committee in Norway ignored Gaza’s doctors and ambulance drivers who stayed with their patients while bombs rained down in war-torn Gaza.
Instead, it honored María Corina Machado — a regime-change conspirator, ally of Israel’s Netanyahu, and friend of Donald Trump.
The mainstream media fixated on the grotesque circus of Trump coveting the prize and his fake love fest with Machado. She gushed over him, declaring he should have been the winner.
But war propaganda always trumps personal ego. The Nobel Peace Prize marches to the drumbeat of the U.S. war machine.
The most important thing about this award is its timing.
On Oct. 15, Trump authorized the CIA to operate in Venezuela, granting it lethal authority and the power to coordinate with U.S. armed forces.
An invasion force now sits in the Caribbean — eight warships, a submarine, and 10,000 troops.
The Pentagon continues its illegal bombing of small boats, killing 27 people on false drug-trafficking claims.
So, who is Machado?
Machado is more than a smiling face for Washington’s regime-change machine. She is the polished spokesperson for sanctions and foreign intervention.
From the start of the Bolivarian Revolution, centered in Venezuela’s workers and poor, Machado has been an architect of violence. She represents and is a member of the discredited oligarchy and has done everything possible to overthrow the Bolivarian government.
2002 coup against President Hugo Chávez
In April 2002, María Corina Machado backed the coup against President Hugo Chávez. A faction of the military officers allied with reactionary oligarchs, and the U.S. government under George W. Bush, orchestrated the plot. Chávez was captured and held prisoner.
Machado was among 400 signers of the “Carmona Decree,” a document falsely titled the “Constitution of the Government of Democratic Transition and National Unity.” The decree was a parliamentary maneuver to formally overthrow Chávez’s government.
The coup quickly collapsed. A massive popular uprising demanded Chávez’s release. Loyal military officers rescued him and restored constitutional order. Afterward, the coup plotters were purged from the ranks.
2014 ‘La Salida’
After Hugo Chávez’s death in 2013, Nicolás Maduro was elected his successor. On Feb. 12, 2014, María Corina Machado joined forces with Leopoldo López of the Voluntad Popular party in a violent campaign called “La Salida” — “The Exit.” This initiative orchestrated violent attacks, referred to as guarimbas, which resulted in the deaths of 43 people.
Anti-Bolivarian protesters blocked streets with burning trash and barbed wire. Buses carrying workers were torched. Workers suspected of being Chavistas — especially Afro-Venezuelans — were attacked. Schools, food trucks, and public buildings were destroyed.
The Maduro government, backed by popular mobilizations, ultimately defeated the violent offensive.
2019 support for Guaidó
In January 2019, Donald Trump backed Juan Guaidó after he declared himself president of Venezuela. Guaidó had the support of Machado, Venezuela’s wealthiest reactionaries, and the right-wing regimes of Colombia and Brazil — yet their coup attempt failed.
Machado then became an “ambassador” in Guaidó’s phantom government. She lobbied for brutal U.S. sanctions and pushed for the theft of Venezuela’s foreign assets, including its gold reserves and the Citgo oil company. These crimes cost the Venezuelan people hundreds of billions of dollars and countless lives.
She even appealed to Benjamin Netanyahu to help “liberate” Venezuela and backed U.S. sanctions that have killed by cutting off food and medicine to the population.
Machado is no ambassador of peace — she is a tireless representative of her class of parasitic rich, both in Venezuela and in the United States.
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