Dan Kovalik - 25 Jun

Copyright 2019 by Dan Kovalik

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Brian Peterson

Cover photos: Getty Images

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-5072-2

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-5073-9

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to my friend, Tibisay Lucena, a champion of democracy, womens rights and proud patriot of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. She is also the bravest person I know.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

I N A QUITE REVEALING STATEMENT, A senior Trump Administration official recently asserted that the cumulative effects of US sanctions against Venezuela are like Darth Vaders death grip upon that country. This, of course, is true. These sanctions are deadly, and they are killing Venezuelans. The US is attempting to starve out the people of Venezuela, as it has the peoples of so many other countriese.g., Chile, Iran, Nicaraguauntil they bend to its will. Meanwhile, the US and its compliant media blame Venezuela for starving.

What is most revealing about the Darth Vader quip, however, is that it is an inadvertent admission of a quite obvious truth which few are willing to acknowledgethat the US is the Empire in this saga unfolding, not just in Venezuela, but around the world. With its one thousand or so bases around the globe, the US is an empire dwarfing all others that preceded it by a huge magnitude, and yet, unlike all other empires, the US will never consciously admit to its imperial status.

And if the US is the Empire in this morality tale, then surely Venezuela and its people are the outgunned rebels. And yet, many Americans who should know better, including many liberals and self-proclaimed leftists, find themselves rooting against them and for the Empire and its culture of death.

How befitting, meanwhile, that the USs imperial plans for Venezuela are being led by a real-life villainElliott Abramsa convicted liar and an accomplice in some of the USs worst crimes in Latin America. These crimes include the genocide in Guatemala which claimed around 200,000, mostly Mayan, victims. Also included is an event which made such a horrifying impression on so many of us, myself includedthe El Mozote massacre in El Salvador. While Abrams would do his best to cover up and deny this crime, it was impossible to keep it buried for long, for the brutal murder of 1000 peoplemostly women and childrenis not so easily concealed. Neither is it possible to conceal the guilt of the US, which trained and armed those who carried out this crime.

As Abrams was recently asked by courageous congresswoman Ilhan Omar, we must ask, is Abrams planning another massacre in Venezuela like that of El Mozote? And of course, the answer is a resounding yes. And yet, this horrifying possibility is greeted by our sniveling press with a shrug of the shoulders.

A recent article in Foreign Affairs tells us what lay in store for the long-suffering people of Venezuela should the US decide that it can only get what it wants (Venezuelas rich oil supply) by a military invasion. As Foreign Affairs explains, in a quite disturbingly dispassionate and clinical fashion, one possible scenario would be, and this is their words, Death from Above. And Death from Above could look something like this:

In the worst-case scenario, a precision strike operation would last for months, killing possibly thousands of civilians, destroying much of what remains of Venezuelas economy, and wiping out the state security forces. The result would be anarchy. Militias and other armed criminal groups would roam the streets of major cities unchecked, wreaking havoc. More than eight million Venezuelans would likely flee. The chaos would likely lead the United States to send in ground troops in order either to finally dislodge the regime and its security forces or to provide security once the dictatorship had collapsed.

Foreign Affairs notes that we know this is a very real scenario, as we know from other US regime change operations such as the one that has left Libya a wasteland where slaves are now being sold openly in markets. In quite typical fashion, Foreign Affairs does not advocate such an operation, but only because it would have negative consequences for the US. The suffering of the Venezuelan people is at best an afterthought.

One might think that such a scenario is unthinkable and complete madness. I would agree, except for one thingthis country, and specifically its policy towards Venezuela, is being led by madmen. Does anyone truly believe that the likes of Trump, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and Elliott Abramscaricatures of villainycan possibly bring about a humane end to the USs regime change operation in Venezuela? The answer should be a resounding no, but incredibly, many who claim to be in the resistance against these thugs, believe that somehow they can and will pull off a humanitarian intervention in that country. Of course, such a belief also requires one to ignore the fact that one cannot point to even one intervention of the US in the Global South that has been humane.

Meanwhile, the inhumane consequences of the current US policies toward Venezuela are, as Kovalik details herein, already mounting. The USs theftand that is what it isof billions of dollars of Venezuelas oil revenues is already preventing the Venezuelan government from obtaining life-saving medicines for its people. Other US sanctions have already made it impossible for Venezuela to purchase food abroad, to buy necessary parts for its public transportation and electrical system and to generally keep up its civilian infrastructure. In a height of irony, the US sanctionsintended, the Administration claims, to bring democracy to Venezuelaare also preventing Venezuelas National Electoral Commission (CNE) from purchasing equipment necessary to keep up the countrys voting machinery.

All of this imposed deprivation is, of course, by design. Indeed, the USs hand-picked puppet, Juan Guaido, has publically threatened the Venezuelan people that they will not have electricity or water until President Maduro is gone. Mike Pompeo has made similar comments.

Somehow, this is what passes for humanitarian intervention in our Orwellian world. Thankfully, Kovalik helps to cut through the Orwellian lies and dissembling which make this intervention possible, and just when such truth-telling is so desperately needed.

Oliver Stone

PREFACE

Another Regime Change, Another Barrage of Lies and False Flags

A S I WRITE THESE WORDS, VENEZUELA is still struggling to get back on-line after five straight days without electricity in eighty percent of the country. I just returned from Venezuela where electricity was out about half the time I was there. And without electricity, there is no running water, internet, phone service or gasoline. In addition, without electricity, there is no refrigeration for food, and much food spoiled during the five-day outage, including 100 thousand liters of milk.