Hands off Maduro! Hands off Venezuela!

by Gerald A. Perreira, Organization for the Victory of the People

CARICOM and countries across the Caribbean, Central and South America must defy Trump’s ludicrous and illegal no-fly zone.

The Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP) condemns Donald Trump’s latest moves in his war games off the coast of Venezuela. First, he declared the CIA created “Cartel de los Soles” a terrorist organization and the greatest terrorist threat to the world” and, second, he illegally and unilaterally declared the airspace over Venezuela closed. He has no authority to do this, and in the absence of any institution capable of enforcing international war, we call on CARICOM and countries across the Caribbean, Central and South America to break this no-fly zone immediately.

Across the Caribbean and South America, the majority of people know that the most serious terrorist threat to this region, and indeed worldwide, is the US Empire and its allies.  We must respond to the naked fascism and bullyism of gangsters parading as world leaders, like Trump, with one unified voice. The only way to stand against this existential and very real threat to our sovereignty, peace and security is to resist en masse. If this situation escalates into a full-blown invasion of Venezuela, it will have dire consequences for Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and the entire region. 

The people of the Global South have seen this same scenario played out too many times. If Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria have taught us anything, then it is that we must act now to prevent further escalation. 

When Capt. Ibrahim Traoré was threatened, we raised our collective voices from the African Continent to the Americas and everywhere in between, demanding HANDS OFF TRAORÉ, HANDS OFF BURKINA FASO, and we must do the same now. HANDS OFF MADURO, HANDS OFF VENEZUELA.

The US has fabricated the usual fiction. For the record, there is no structured organization called Cartel de los Soles. This is a nickname given to Venezuelan generals who assisted the CIA drug trafficking operations, dating back to the early 1990s, long before Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, assumed office. The nickname came from the fact that the generals’ uniform carried a sun symbol on the shoulder lapel. 

Those of us who live in the region are well aware of the fact that the CIA is part and parcel of the drug trafficking operations throughout this region. The CIA worked hand-in-hand with these corrupt Venezuelan military officers, Colombian senators and their death squads, as well as with a number of corrupt US government officials in Miami, to name just a few of its notorious connections.

These relationships and operations predated President Petro’s presidency. In fact, his predecessor, Iván Duque’s election campaign was financed by one of Colombia’s most powerful drug lords. President Petro has waged war on the drug cartels since coming to office and has received serious threats to his life as a consequence. Likewise, President Maduro, and Hugo Chavez before him, have cracked down on corruption, and the drug and human traffickers.

The US and Western Europe are in decline. China is now the largest trading partner in the Americas. This is a showdown. Trump and his murderous gang, including fascists like Marco Rubio, are reviving the Monroe Doctrine, but it is dead and buried and cannot be revived. Too many have given their lives in the struggle to free us from the absurd white supremacist notion that we are in the USA’s “backyard.” 

The murderous US military machine must be stopped. This funder and enabler of the ongoing Zionist genocide in Gaza, the horror of which has changed the world forever, must be brought to its knees. We can only do this with a strong and unified region-wide resistance. If we fail to stand up to this naked fascism now, it will surely engulf and consume us all. 

Gerald A. Perreira writes on behalf of the National Directorate of the Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP), Georgetown, Guyana, www.ovpguyana.org. For further information, call +592-675-5846.

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