US VERDAD Act: Senate Support for Regime Change in Venezuela
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Seeking dominance over all other nations is imperialism’s defining feature – by brute force if other tactics fail.
That’s how the US has operated throughout the post-WW II era – beginning with naked aggression against North Korea from 1950 – 1953, followed by a decade of Southeast Asia war from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, the rape of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, things greatly escalated post-9/11.
The mother of all false flags launched endless US wars of aggression against nations threatening no one – continuing with no prospect for resolution in line with Washington’s permanent war on humanity agenda.
When it comes to endless wars and other imperial tactics, Republicans and undemocratic Dems are on the same page, raping and destroying one country after another for nearly 75 years.
With no end of it in prospect, they continue on the phony pretexts of humanitarian intervention, responsibility to protect, and democracy building – a notion US policymakers revile, tolerating it nowhere, especially not at home and in oil-rich Venezuela, Bolivarianism considered the threat of a good example.
It’s why four US regimes sought to eliminate it, beginning with the Clinton co-presidency, greatly escalated by Trump hardliners, going all-out to replace Bolivarian social democracy with US controlled fascist tyranny.
Their eyes are on two prizes -gaining another vassal state, along with control over Venezuela’s oil and its other valued resources, its people exploited as serfs.
On Wednesday, 15 bipartisan neocon Senators introduced the so-called Venezuela Emergency Relief, Democracy Assistance and Development (VERDAD) Act (sic) – supporting regime change in the hemisphere’s preeminent democracy they want eliminated.
The bipartisan gang of 15 includes John Barraso, Michael Bennett, Ben Cardin, Bill Cassidy, Chris Coons, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Dick Durbin, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Tim Kaine, Marco Rubio, Jeanne Shaheen, and Todd Young.
The measure calls for providing another $200 million for regime change efforts, $200 million more to Colombia and Brazil, blood money for hardening their support for the scheme, on the phony pretext of providing support for Venezuelan “refugees” in their countries.
The measure has nothing to do with “restor(ing) democracy and prosperity” in Venezuela (sic), nothing to do with humanitarian aid (sic), everything to do with supporting the Trump regime’s diabolical coup plot.
Other provisions call for revoking visas for relatives of illegally sanctioned Venezuelans and removing sanctions from others willing to recognize designated puppet/usurper in waiting Guaido.
The legislation urges nations complicit with the coup plot to act against Maduro’s legitimate government the same way.
It requires support from international financial institutions to fully go along with the scheme. It calls for State, Treasury and Justice Departments to wage toughened financial war on Venezuela.
It doesn’t provide temporary protected status (TPS) for undocumented Venezuelans in the US – adhering to Trump’s hardline position against aliens of the wrong race, ethnicity, and/or religion in the country.
Passage of the measure in both houses overwhelmingly and signed into law by Trump is virtually certain. Menendez said the following about the legislation:
“(T)he United States Congress is coming together in a bipartisan manner to put teeth behind our support for the Venezuelan people (sic) as they seek to restore democracy (sic) and address a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportions in our hemisphere (sic).”
Rubio has been waging near-daily Twitter war on Venezuela, conducting his own campaign for regime change, notably pushing for US military intervention. He turned truth on its head, saying:
“As Maduro and his gang of narco-terrorists thugs (sic) continue holding the Venezuelan people hostage (sic) under their failed socialist regime (sic), the United States Senate is sending a clear bi-partisan message by introducing the VERDAD Act…”
Other co-sponsors issued similar remarks. The measure is the latest US effort to increase pressure on Maduro.
Everything thrown at him so far failed, this measure likely to fare no better, as long as Russia is committed to preserving and protecting Bolivarian social democracy – key to defeating the Trump regime’s coup plot.
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