Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez has capitulated to U.S. pressure: Tariq Ali

Famous British intellectual and former editor Tariq Ali said that the claim that kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was involved in drug cartels was “a product of imperialist imagination”. New Left Review.

To talk Hindu Regarding the course of events in Venezuela, Mr. Ali said that the developments were not a surprise for him.

Mr. Ali recalled that the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro told Mr. Maduro’s predecessor in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, that he would carry out a Noriega-style operation if the United States came after them, and that both leaders agreed that they would rather die fighting on the front lines than hide like Saddam Hussein.

(Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who had close ties to the CIA since the 1950s, was removed from power by the US invasion in 1989 after falling out with Washington).

Referring to the US attack on Venezuela on January 3, Mr. Ali said, “I can think of other countries in the world where this could not happen.” “This cannot happen, regardless of the character of the president or the military. But it happened in Venezuela, and it shows to me that, despite the rhetoric, significant segments of the Bolivarian state apparatus are ready to abandon Mr. Maduro. I cannot come to any other conclusion.”

He added that acting president Delcy Rodríguez bowed to American pressure. “This is my opinion. Maybe he will change his mind; I don’t know. But the questions arise very clearly. You (Delcy) have known for months; the Americans openly said that they would impeach your President. They never specified how. The CIA has been in Venezuela for months and has been planning this operation,” he said. Mr. Ali also expressed skepticism about the mysterious circumstances in which all of Mr. Maduro’s Cuban bodyguards were killed. “Who killed them? Who shot them? How come their guns didn’t fire?” he said.

Mr. Ali said that the USA is now acting openly. “The only big difference between President Donald Trump and his predecessors is not that Trump is overtly doing things (like destabilizing, overthrowing governments). Trump is saying, ‘Yes, I’m doing that. So what can you do about it?’ he says.

According to Mr. Ali, the USA is after Venezuela’s oil reserves. “When Mr. Maduro refused to accept Mr. Trump’s demands, he wanted him gone… And when Maduro began to take action against the American presence in the Caribbean by arming his people and creating popular militias, the United States thought the sooner the better,” he said.

Mr. Ali said those celebrating Mr. Maduro’s kidnapping were the far-right wing of the Venezuelan opposition, not the entire Venezuelan opposition. He was also highly critical of Western media’s portrayal of the Venezuelan government, saying that the liberal Left and conservative media were in harmony “in the service of American interests and the American empire.”

“We’ve seen this on and off in Gaza since the beginning of the genocide. But it started earlier with Venezuela, and more seriously with NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It then continued with attempts to overthrow Chavez, constantly portraying him as a dictator even though he won more elections than most people.”

What happens in Venezuela also depends on the rest of Latin America, Mr. Ali said, where they are far-right (Chile, Argentina), Brazil is in trouble and the military is back in Bolivia. The only exceptional country in Latin America right now is Mexico, whose President has vowed to keep oil flowing to Cuba. Mr. Ali said that if Cuba falls as a result of Mr. Maduro being captured and America dominating Venezuela, it would be a very heavy blow. [to the Left] on a global scale.