Independent
media outlets tend to pose alternative viewpoints that conflict with
the narratives espoused by mainstream media. But when it comes to
Venezuela, whose socialist government is in danger of being
overthrown, they are parroting the mainstream line or ignoring the
issue altogether.
by
Whitney Webb
Part
2 - CIA-backed coups and opposition funding
For any
student of U.S.-led regime change efforts, Venezuela’s current
situation has the hallmarks of previous scenarios: lucrative
resources, a history of U.S.-backed coup attempts, U.S.-led economic
sabotage and a U.S.-funded political opposition.
Venezuela,
which has the largest oil reserves in the world, found itself in the
crosshairs of the US corporate empire as soon as its people rejected
the U.S.-allied oligarchical government by electing socialist
President Hugo Chávez in 1999. Chávez then began implementing
policies that put the Venezuelan people ahead of American business
interests that sought to exploit the nation’s resources.
Just a few
years later, a U.S.-backed coup took place, one that involved many of
the same figures who now lead the Venezuelan opposition. Chávez then
ejected two major U.S. oil corporations, ExxonMobil and
ConocoPhillips, in 2007, further fomenting the ire of the United
States government and corporate world. In the years that followed,
numerous foiled coup attempts were uncovered in Venezuela and though
Chávez resisted them all, he eventually succumbed to a sudden and
rapidly advancing strain of cancer, with some going so far as
claiming that the cancer was induced by his foreign enemies.
Ever since
Nicolás Maduro, Chávez’s successor, won a tight election in the
aftermath of Chávez’s death, he too has faced major problems.
Similar to what transpired in other Latin American countries targeted
for regime change, a scarcity of goods, food and medicine emerged in
parts of the country. However, much of this was caused by major
corporations – whose owners side with the opposition – hoarding
those goods and refusing to put them on shelves.
The shortage
was compounded by a drop in oil prices, which was brought about
through artificial manipulation by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Though
the price manipulation had the ultimate aim of hurting Russia, other
oil-dependent economies, like Ecuador and Venezuela, have also
suffered tremendously as a result.
Yet, the
clearest sign of U.S. involvement in seeking regime change in
Venezuela comes from its funding of the opposition. The U.S.
government gave well over $100 million to the Venezuelan political
opposition from 2002 to 2010, with the “progressive” Obama
administration alone pledging $20 million to that cause.
The Obama
administration also notably slapped Venezuela with sanctions, calling
the nation a “threat to national security” despite no evidence
being provided to support that claim. In addition, a current Senate
bill, if passed, would give $10 million more to opposition parties.
Many of the top figures in the Venezuelan opposition, including those
lionized by Western media, have direct ties to the U.S. government.
For
instance, according to a leaked recording from 2013, opposition
leader Maria Corina Machado detailed how Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, the
chairman of the opposition umbrella group Mesa de la Unidad
Democrática, told the State Department that “the only way to
resolve this (salir de esto) is by provoking and accentuating a
crisis, a coup or a self-coup. Or a process of tightening the screws
and domesticating to generate a system of total social control.”
In addition,
recent coup attempts in Venezuela were shown to be linked to the CIA
and the DEA. More confirmation of current CIA involvement in
Venezuela came earlier this week when the director of the CIA, Mike
Pompeo, stated that the U.S. is working towards a “transition” in
Venezuelan governance in coordination with the governments of
Colombia and Mexico.
Were
Venezuela to be replaced in this account with the name of any other
country (save Cuba), it is likely that the very same alternative
media sites that refuse to recognize that something is amiss in the
mainstream narrative on Venezuela would be up in arms at the U.S.’
meddling in yet another attempt to force a democratically-elected
government from power.
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