Vol. 79/No. 11      March 30, 2015

The propertied rulers in the U.S. are especially upset that since Hugo Chávez was elected president in 1998, Venezuela has maintained close relations and extended support and aid to revolutionary Cuba. Every U.S. administration since has worked to bring down the Bolivarian government in Venezuela, backing the failed military coup in 2002 and other efforts to overthrow Chávez and used every opportunity to demonize the government.

The Venezuelan government further angered Washington and Wall Street when it launched PetroCaribe in 2005, providing Cuba and 13 other Caribbean countries with oil at preferential prices and weakening the stranglehold of the U.S. oil barons. When Venezuela helped launch the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in 2011, as a counter to U.S. efforts to continue imposing its will on the governments and peoples of Latin America, it deepened Washington’s determination to topple the regime.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, in Caracas on the eve of an emergency meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America in response to Washington’s threats, hit the nail on the head when he declared the time for the U.S. “to treat Latin America like its backyard has ended.”

Since 1959, when Cuban workers and farmers made a revolution 90 miles from U.S. shores, the propertied rulers’ state policy here has been to overthrow the Cuban government. Washington will never stop trying to dominate the economies and bully the governments of countries in this hemisphere, especially those that resist its dictates.

Washington hopes its economic and political pressure and threats of further sanctions, exacerbating the deepening economic crisis in Venezuela, will enable the pro-U.S. opposition parties there to unseat the government of Nicolás Maduro and end its collaboration with Cuba. The U.S. rulers have proven time and again that they don’t respect Venezuela’s — or anyone’s — sovereignty.

Washington’s foreign policy grows out of its domestic policy — to make workers pay so the U.S. rulers can maintain their capitalist system and its profits.

We agree with the Cuban government, which said last week, “Nobody has the right to intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. … Just like Cuba was never alone, Venezuela won’t be either.”

Working people in the U.S. and elsewhere should join revolutionary Cuba in demanding, “U.S. hands off Venezuela!” and “No to sanctions!”
 
 
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‘Cuba’s revolution and principles not negotiable’
Women’s delegation speaks at NY events
Cuba spurned FBI bid to swap Assata Shakur for Cuban Five
Cuban 5 stand up for Venezuela at Havana event
 
 
 
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