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Power paradox
DEAR EDITOR,
The fight for Venezuela is similar to the fight for the Suez Canal in 1956. It will determine the fate of US global hegemony, similar to how Suez determined British fate. After being defeated, British prestige was permanently damaged.
On Saturday 23 March 2019, Russian Jets landed with about 100 soldiers and 35 tons of military equipment in Caracas, Venezuela. The message is clear from Russia to the United States – to get to Venezuela you have to go through me.
The United States has been trying to uproot the socialist government of Venezuela for at least 17 years. In 2002 Washington supported a failed coup to unseat Hugo Chavez who was a democratically elected president of Venezuela. This is a general trend of the US to remove leaders of countries that hinder US interests. In 2003, US troops overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein under the pretext that he had weapons of mass destruction, but up to today none have been found. In 2011 Muammar Gaddafi was killed by militants supported by the US.
Russia caught on and prevented the US from removing Bashar Assad from power in Syria. Last year US president Donald Trump announced he would remove US troops from Syria but later backtracked due to political pressure in the US.
Since 2012, the US has imposed more than 60 rounds of sanctions on Russian individuals, companies and government agencies. Although it has affected Russia’s economy, Russia does as she pleases. Russia dumped $101 billion in US holdings last year.
The US quest to mould the world to benefit the US is ubiquitous. On July 6, 2018, the US officially imposed heavy tariffs on Chinese imports. China imposed retaliatory tariffs on US goods. On May 20, 2018, China and US agreed to put the trade war on hold. They are still in negotiations and no one wants to back down. Neither Donald Trump nor Xi Jinping wants to appear weak, because both leaders pledge to make their country great again. China has shown that the US cannot push China around and her dominance is waning.
The world is no longer unipolar with the US in control undisputedly. Russia, China and Cuba are backing Nicolas Maduro along with more than half of the world’s countries while the US, Canada and United Kingdom along with about 50 allies are backing Juan Guaido. Caricom is split, with Jamaica, St Lucia, Haiti and the Bahamas backing Guaido and the rest backing Maduro or at least recognizing him as the president of Venezuela. Caricom’s official position is noninterference in Venezuela’s internal affairs and a solution must be reached through peaceful dialogue.
If the United States never sanctioned Venezuela, the country would not be in the mess it is in. Why did the US not allow Venezuela to sell its oil? This affected many Caricom countries adversely, because PetroCaribe allowed many countries to use the money available, because of credit, to supplement their budgets. That is the reason countries like Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines are upset with the attempt to overthrow Maduro. They were benefitting from PetroCaribe.
History has shown that the will of the people cannot be suppressed forever. Time will tell who will win.
Yours truly,
Brian E Plummer
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