Vol. 79/No. 25      July 20, 2015

A July 1 Reuters article reported that U.S. and Venezuelan officials “have embarked on their most extensive dialogue in years in an attempt to improve their acrimonious relations, according to a senior U.S. administration official.”

Working people in Cuba won a historic victory Dec. 17 when Washington admitted their decades-long economic embargo and assaults against the revolution had been a failure, leading to isolation in Latin America and the Caribbean. New steps toward re-establishing diplomatic relations for the first time in more than 50 years were announced. As part of the package, Cuban leaders made it clear that Washington’s moves against the Venezuelan government would be a deal-breaker.

The U.S. ruling class has a long history of intervening in politics in Venezuela, the fourth largest supplier of crude petroleum to U.S. refineries.

Washington backed the military coup that overthrew President Hugo Chávez in 2002, which was reversed by a mass mobilization of working people in Caracas. It supported and instigated other attempts to undermine the rule of Chávez and later Maduro, who took over leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and was elected president after Chávez died in 2013.

Among other measures that provoked Washington’s ire, the Chávez government in 2005 launched PetroCaribe, a program that has provided oil to Cuba at preferential prices, crucial aid in the face of Washington’s economic embargo against the Cuban Revolution. Thirteen other Caribbean countries also benefit from the program, which lessens their dependence on profit-hungry U.S. oil barons. Cuban President Raúl Castro called the program “an extraordinary, generous and humanistic contribution.”

The fall of oil prices over the past year has had a big impact on Venezuela’s already battered economy, giving Washington hope that a government could be elected there that will do its bidding.

In the first half of 2014, U.S. capitalist dailies were full of articles on protests in Venezuela calling for Maduro’s resignation, some of which were met by riot police. More than two dozen people, both opponents and supporters of the government, died in clashes. A number of people were arrested, including opposition leader Leopoldo López, charged with inciting violence. Venezuelan officials pointed to Washington’s history of financing and backing the opposition.

At a Feb. 20, 2014, meeting with the heads of state of Mexico and Canada, Obama said the Maduro government should stop “trying to distract from its own failings by making up false accusations against diplomats from the United States,” address the “legitimate grievances” of the opposition and free those arrested during protests.

With strong support from Cuba, the Maduro administration repudiated Obama’s comments and accused Washington of “continuing to attack a free and sovereign Latin American and Caribbean country.”

Last December the Obama administration pushed bipartisan legislation through Congress imposing sanctions on a number of Venezuelan government officials. Obama ratcheted up the attack with an executive order March 9 “declaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.”

The order slapped sanctions on seven military and police officials for alleged corruption and human rights violations against opposition figures.

Raúl Castro, addressing the Third Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC, in Costa Rica Jan. 28, condemned “the unacceptable and unjustified unilateral sanctions against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

The day after Obama’s executive order in March, Fidel Castro sent a letter to Maduro denouncing “the brutal plans of the United States government.”

Raúl Castro led a Cuban delegation at an emergency March 17 meeting in Caracas of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, or ALBA, to stand with Venezuela against U.S. threats.

‘Venezuela is not alone’

“The United States must understand once and for all that it is impossible to seduce or buy Cuba, or intimidate Venezuela,” Castro said. “Our unity is indestructible.”

The day before, the third round of talks between U.S. and Cuban diplomats on restoring diplomatic ties between the countries ended abruptly.

The ALBA meeting also backed Caracas’ call for Washington to open up diplomatic channels of communications. In addition, the Union of South American Nations and CELAC called for Washington to rescind the March executive order.

By the time the Seventh Summit of the Americas convened in Panama April 10-11, Obama had changed his tune from the executive order. “Venezuela is not a threat to the U.S. and the U.S. is not a threat to Venezuela,” he told the Spanish news agency EFE on the eve of the summit.
 
 
Related articles:
In victory for revolution, Cuba, US to open embassies
Relations require ‘respect for independence and sovereignty’
Cuban 5 in South Africa: ‘We are soldiers of revolution’
Build on revolutionary Cuba’s victory
 
 
 
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