By C.J. Atkins
The coordination
between Trump administration officials in Washington and the Venezuelan
opposition in Caracas couldn’t have been more obvious. On Tuesday evening, the
night before mass protests called by opposition leader and National Assembly
head Juan Guaidó were expected in Venezuela, Vice President Mike Pence suddenly
released a video pledging support for overthrowing elected President Nicolas
Maduro. Pence called him “a dictator with no legitimate power.”
By Wednesday morning,
rumors were circulating in Washington that Trump would soon recognize an
interim government in Venezuela. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, tweeted that the
whole administration stood “with the people of Venezuela as they seek freedom
from the oppression of dictator Maduro.”
Midday Wednesday—on the
anniversary of a 1958 coup in Venezuela that overthrew a dictator—Guaidó called
for the military to rise up against Maduro and declared himself the acting
president. Minutes later, the White House announced its formal recognition of
Guaidó as Venezuela’s head of state. Shortly after, Maduro severed ties with
the U.S. and gave diplomatic staff 72 hours to leave the country.
In the days since
Maduro was sworn in for his second term earlier this month, multiple events
have revealed a U.S.-backed coup in progress. When the 35-year-old Guaidó took
the reins of the National Assembly just before Maduro’s inauguration, he was
already calling the president a “usurper.”
A largely unknown
figure before he catapulted to head the country’s legislature earlier this
month, Guaidó was a founder of the extreme right-wing Popular Will Party, along
with Leopoldo López, known for his role in provoking deadly riots in 2014 that
cost 43 people their lives. Guaidó is an engineer by trade and a graduate of
both George Washington University in D.C. and the Instituto de Estudios
Superiores de Administración. The latter is Venezuela’s most elite business
school; it played a key role in drafting the neoliberal economic policies of
the governments that preceded the late President Hugo Chavez.
Guaidó first declared
himself interim president on January 11 and was arrested by government
intelligence officers under cloudy circumstances two days later. He was almost
immediately released, apparently on the order of Maduro. Communications
Minister Jorge Rodriguez said that the officers involved were already under
internal investigation for “conspirational links” with extreme right forces
before they had arrested Guaidó. He said the arrest was actually a provocation
carried out by opposition supporters within the intelligence services in order
to spur Guaidó’s backers into action.
Whatever the
circumstances, Washington was quick to jump on the opportunity to voice support
for Guaidó. National Security Advisor John Bolton said at the time that the
arrest marked “an opportunity for Maduro to step aside.”
The far-right
government of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil also joined in, declaring that the
Venezuelan presidency “now corresponded” to Guaidó. Luis Almagro, secretary
general of the Organization of American States, did the same. All were laying
the groundwork for other governments—and especially the United States—to shift
official recognition to Guaidó. Before Washington made the switch official,
many countries had already done the same, including Canada, Chile, and
Colombia.
On Monday, January 21,
there was a short-lived mutiny of soldiers in a barracks in Caracas in which
weapons were stolen. It was quickly put down, but Guaidó held it up as a
supposed example of mass unrest within military ranks toward Maduro. He
promised amnesty to any soldiers who take up arms against the government.
Tuesday night, January
22, saw a number of provocations, including clashes with police that killed
four people as well as the dramatic burning of a statue of Hugo Chavez in the
city of San Felix.
It was all preparation
for—January 23—when the opposition and Washington launched public coordinated
attacks in an attempt to push for the full overthrow of Maduro.
Backing Guaidó in his
extra-legal bid to take the presidency are most of the disparate and usually
divided elements of Venezuela’s major business interests and the old political
elite. Alone among the opposition, social democratic leader Henry Allup of the
Democratic Action party stressed he would not support any action taken by
Guaidó that is not “constitutional.”
The constitutional
basis for Guaidó’s position as National Assembly leader, much less as head of
state, is already in question. The legislature and all its acts have been
declared “null and void” by the country’s Supreme Court. Guaidó persists in
asserting the authority to replace Maduro, however, so constitutional
constraints seem to be of little concern.
Fears are now rising
that more direct U.S. intervention may be forthcoming should Guaidó’s efforts
on the ground fail. It was confirmed by a former U.S. official last September
that Trump administration officials met with renegade Venezuelan military
officers who were planning a coup against the government. There is no evidence
Washington has ended such efforts in the months since. On the contrary, the recognition
of Guaidó as head of state is a clear escalation of U.S. efforts.
Maduro, however, so far
appears still able to rely on the support of the bulk of the military as well
major sections of Venezuela’s working class and poor. The social welfare and
education programs that have defined the “Bolivarian Revolution” in the minds
of many Venezuelans since Chavez was elected 20 years ago still keep many on
the side of the government.
The policy failures of
the Maduro government, combined with a prolonged campaign of intentional
economic sabotage by Venezuelan capital and its international allies, have
brought the country to the desperate situation of the present.
With the actions taken
by the opposition and the Trump administration over the last 24 hours, it
appears as if the calculation has been made that Maduro’s domestic support
might now have withered sufficiently to allow for an unconstitutional seizure
of power—and if necessary, a military coup—to finally remove the socialist
government from office. (IPA Service)
Courtesy: People’s World
The post Trump In Confrontation With Maduro In Venezuela appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
