AGAINST THE SO CALLED NEW DEFENSE STRUCTURE OF YANKEE IMPERIALISM AND
ITS PLAN OF JOINT MILITARY FORCE UNDER THE COMMAND OF THE YANKEE
IMPERIALIST AND FORMED BY THE LACKEY ARMIES OF LATIN AMERICA!
In two notes that came up in The New York Times newspaper, in September
8, 2018, entitled: “Trump Administration Discussed Coup Plans With Rebel
Venezuelan Officers” and “Venezuela Accuses U.S. of Plotting Coup
Against Maduro” respectively, the newspaper covers the conversations
held by the United States government functionaries with military
officers that were planning a state coup in Venezuela against N. Maduro.
The pretext that is sustained by the high functionaries of the Yankee
imperialist government, which means the Trump government, are the same
with which they are developing its intervention in all the planes in the
internal affairs of Venezuela, which means its concern with the
situation of democracy in this country, the torture of the opposer to
the regime, the arrest of hundreds of political prisoners, the wounding
of thousands of civilians, traffic, etc, the humanitarian crisis in the
country and its spread to the other countries in the region (the problem
of the refugees).
All these are only shameless pretext from the top representatives of
Yankee imperialism, which as sole hegemonic superpower and world great
counterrevolutionary gendarme, who acts in its backyard together with
the reactionary governments of Latin America to repress the struggle of
the proletariat and the peoples of the oppressed nations of Latin
America in order to maintain its semicolonial and semifeudal situation,
where a bureaucratic capitalism develops serving imperialism,
principally Yankee, which is the principal imperialism that oppresses
our peoples. And does it by all means by blood and fire, impulsing
“democratic” governments of fascist governments according to
convenience, through state coups and, when this is not possible, through
direct intervention, just as the last hundred years of the history of
Latin America has witnessed.
Yankee imperialism, sole hegemonic superpower and principal enemy of the
peoples of the world, is deepening and widening its domination over the
oppressed nations of our continent, in all fields economic, political,
educational, military, etc. It has put forward agreements that allows
them to intervene in the internal affairs of our countries I order to do
so.
One example of it, among many other, are the agreements at the level of
the OEA like the “Democratic Letter”, the continental meetings and
statements of “struggle against corruption and organized crime”, against
“terrorism”, against “drug trafficking”, the impulse to change all the
legal systems of all countries of Latin America, for them to adopt the
accusing penal system with the preeminence of the prosecutors in all the
process. Providing training to judges and prosecutors through its
Institute of Judicial Studies of the Justice Department of Puerto Rico,
providing the police that is responsible for anticorruption combat with
training and equipment for electronic tapping, while submitting these
“anticorruption” police bodies and prosecutors to its direct command;
thus it monitors the functionaries of the different countries through
these tapping and with the posterior spreading through the media
monopolies to impulse the change of functionaries and governments of the
different countries into other that better suits their interests.
Through the economic and financial domination of all countries of the
region, it imposes sanctions and limitations when it strikes against
governments, functionaries and companies of the countries where Yankee
imperialism put effort to change functionaries or governments for other
that are more convenient to US interests. With the instruments of the
IMF, World Bank, IDB, ECLAC it imposes their economic policies like the
cut in social security, cut in subsides, that serves their famous plans
of combat to poverty like the so called conditioned help to justify the
imperialist exploitation of the natural resources and of the
proletariat, the dispossession of communal land, spread consumerism and
bank-isation of the poorest.
Yankee imperialism impulses its plans of privatization of education in
all levels and establish a “plan of scholarships” to justify its plans
of suppression of public and free education to benefit its big
monopolies that has tentacles in the education business of US and Latin
America and with bureaucratic capitalism at its service.
However, all this system with which they are clinching the nodes of its
domination over our countries are not enough, not even the Mutual
Defense Assistance Act, MDAA, which all the countries of Latin America
are part of since after the World War II, together with the American
armies altogether and joint army maneuvers and all this is not enough.
This is why since the beginning of the 90s of the last century until
today they are establishing a whole “New Defense System in the Western
Hemisphere”, divided in a North Command of the USA Army, which will
incorporate the Armed Forces of the countries of Latin America that
ranges from the south of Mexico to Patagonia. As part of what is in
motion from this plan they were deploying the military forces of Yankee
imperialism by sea, rivers and land with a whole system of military
bases.
This deployment aims to subject all the Armed Forces of the continent to
Yankee military command, the North Command and the South Command. In
the north they have already advanced including the Mexican Armed Forces
in the North Command and in Latin America they are advancing by
deploying military bases while incorporating the Armed Forces of
Colombia to OTAN and with the South Command Seminars, counting with the
participation of representatives of the Armed Forces of some countries
of the region, which last year was held in Lima and in this year will be
held in Buenos Aires. The Yankees have already set a precedent, which
we have already denounced on the opportunity, which was the joint
intervention force in Haiti. The first note of The New York Times
addressed the following:
“In its statement, the White House called the situation in Venezuela ‘a
threat to regional security and democracy’ and said that the Trump
administration would continue to strengthen a coalition of 'Ike-minded,
and right-minded, partners from Europe to Asia to the Americas to
pressure the Maduro regime to restore democracy in Venezuela.’”
It is clearer in the second note of the newspaper:
“’If you don’t like the idea of the U.S. talking to the military, then
what do you propose?’ said Richard N. Haass, a former top State
Department official in the George W. Bush administration who is now the
president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
He said that while he did not support a coup, the region should consider
a ‘Latin American coalition of the willing,’ an alliance of Venezuela’s
neighbors created for a possible regional military intervention,
similar to the United States’ invasion of Iraq.”
It is clear that the current situation in Venezuela, the failure of N.
Maduro regime, a representative of the bureaucratic fraction of the big
bourgeoisie, is used as a pretext by Yankee imperialism to carry forward
its plans of military intervention, solely or jointly, to dominate the
oil and overthrow N. Maduro and replace him with a reactionary who is
more loyal to its interests.
But that's not all, the so-called "New Defense Structure of the Western
Hemisphere" and the military deployment of Yankee imperialism aims to
defend its status as the sole hegemonic superpower at world level,
because Latin America, as its backyard, is the strategic base for its
hegemony and Yankee imperialism, as a great gendarme, points directly
against the development of the revolution of a new democracy in our
continent. In some cases, its action as a great gendarme seeks to
annihilate the ongoing People's War and the preventive action in other
cases, that is, through the coup d'état led directly by them to
annihilate revolution in its cradle, as they have been plotting in
Brazil.
Yankee imperialism seeks to annihilate the People's War in Peru, which
since 1980 the PCP has been developing under the Great Leadership of
Chairman Gonzalo, and which has never ceased. Yankee imperialism aims
against the rising of the masses in all Latin America, like the one that
is taking place in Brazil, where the CPB (RF) advances in the
reconstitution of the CPB, in concretizing the vanguard of the
proletariat of this country, a process that is also being developed in
Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, Colombia and other countries. A process of
constitution or reconstitution of the CP that has to be assumed by the
Maoists in Venezuela.
A great opportunity to reconstitute its CP has been presented to the
Venezuelan proletariat, because it is a necessity, the proletariat of
this country represented by its vanguard has to strive to lead the armed
struggle to oppose the military intervention of imperialism if it
occurs, but whatever the situation, the Maoist revolutionaries in
Venezuela must put themselves at the head of the struggle of the masses
and struggle to lead it against imperialism, semi-feudality and
bureaucratic capitalism and, in the midst of it, constitute or
reconstitute their party, to transform this armed struggle into a
People's War, in the case of military intervention of imperialism, or,
in the case it was not produced, start the People's War to make the
revolution. The proletariat, represented by its CP, must initiate and
develop the People's War, with military intervention of imperialism or
without it, to make the revolution of a new democracy.
In addition, we must not neglect that Yankee imperialism is going
through a serious crisis as an expression of its own collapse and sweep
away, which is why it is also clear that it intends to take advantage of
the situation in Venezuela to internally establish order and gain
positions abroad and this is why it fuels the conflict. The collusion
and struggle between Yankee imperialism, the sole hegemonic superpower
(the fat dog), and Russia, the atomic superpower (the skinny dog), and
other powers is also expressed on its development, and in this situation
the collusion is expressed as principal, but the struggle underlies and
is expressed.
The slogan for support to the Venezuelan people is good, we have to
spread it; We have never raised Maduro, but he is being attacked and the
action of Yankee imperialism is to arrogantly intervene in the internal
affairs of Venezuela and it threatens with its plans for military
invasion; an invasion based on a "joint intervention"; Venezuela is an
oppressed nation, they are plans of imperialist aggression; what the
United States intends to apply is an occupation of the Venezuelan
people, Yankee imperialism destroys peoples and acts as a gendarme;
Yankee imperialism must be called a great gendarme and the principal
enemy of the peoples of the world, because it is.
It is justified and necessary to support the Venezuelan people and we
must mobilize the masses with the slogan "Yankees go home!” We must do
all kinds of actions in support of the Venezuelan people and against the
plans of Yankee imperialism against the deep people, let us sow
anti-imperialism.
Yankees, out from Venezuela and Latin America! Let us support the
Venezuelan people! As Chairman Gonzalo told us in the case of Iraq:
beautiful are the words of the proletariat and the people.
With such a powerful and highly sophisticated war material, Yankee
imperialism has only conquered failure since after the Second World War
and it is bogged down in the Expanded Middle East, so, on this occasion,
it is also good to remember what Chairman Gonzalo told us: the weapon
is not the principal, the question is which idea arms the arm, ideology
is the weapon of victory, so Lenin taught us and comes from Marx; we
have, then, a strict Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought position.
Yankees go home!
Yankees, out from Venezuela and Latin America!
Let us support the Venezuelan people!
Peru People`s Movement (Reorganization Committee)
The two notes that came up in The New York Times newspaper:
Trump Administration Discussed Coup Plans With Rebel Venezuelan Officers
By Ernesto Londoño and Nicholas Casey
Sept. 8, 2018
Leer en español
The Trump administration held secret meetings with rebellious
military officers from Venezuela over the last year to discuss their plans to
overthrow President Nicolás Maduro, according to American officials and a
former Venezuelan military commander who participated in the talks.
Establishing a clandestine channel with coup plotters in Venezuela
was a big gamble for Washington, given its long history of covert intervention
across Latin America. Many in the region still deeply resent the United States
for backing previous rebellions, coups and plots in countries like Cuba,
Nicaragua, Brazil and Chile, and for turning a blind eye to the abuses military
regimes committed during the Cold War.
The White House, which declined to answer detailed questions about
the talks, said in a statement that it was important to engage in “dialogue
with all Venezuelans who demonstrate a desire for democracy” in order to “bring
positive change to a country that has suffered so much under Maduro.”
But one of the Venezuelan military commanders involved in the
secret talks was hardly an ideal figure to help restore democracy: He is on the
American government’s own sanctions list of corrupt officials in Venezuela.
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He and other members of the Venezuelan security apparatus have
been accused by Washington of a wide range of serious crimes, including
torturing critics, jailing hundreds of political prisoners, wounding thousands
of civilians, trafficking drugs and collaborating with the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which is considered a terrorist organization by
the United States.
American officials eventually decided not to help the plotters,
and the coup plans stalled. But the Trump administration’s willingness to meet
several times with mutinous officers intent on toppling a president in the
hemisphere could backfire politically.
Most Latin American leaders agree that Venezuela’s president, Mr.
Maduro, is an increasingly authoritarian ruler who has effectively ruined his
country’s economy, leading to extreme shortages of food and medicine. The
collapse has set off an exodus of desperate Venezuelans who are spilling over
borders, overwhelming their neighbors.
Even so, Mr. Maduro has long justified his grip on Venezuela by
claiming that Washington imperialists are actively trying to depose him, and
the secret talks could provide him with ammunition to chip away at the region’s
nearly united stance against him.
“This is going to land like a bomb” in the region, said Mari
Carmen Aponte, who served as the top diplomat overseeing Latin American affairs
in the final months of the Obama administration.
Image
Beyond the coup plot, Mr. Maduro’s government has already fended
off several small-scale attacks, including salvos from a helicopter last year
and exploding drones as he gave a speech in August. The attacks have added to
the sense that the president is vulnerable.
Venezuelan military officials sought direct access to the American
government during Barack Obama’s presidency, only to be rebuffed, officials
said.
Then in August of last year, President Trump declared that the
United States had a “military option” for Venezuela — a declaration that drew
condemnation from American allies in the region but encouraged rebellious
Venezuelan military officers to reach out to Washington once again.
“It was the commander in chief saying this now,” the former
Venezuelan commander on the sanctions list said in an interview, speaking on
condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals by the Venezuelan government.
“I’m not going to doubt it when this was the messenger.”
In a series of covert meetings abroad, which began last fall and
continued this year, the military officers told the American government that
they represented a few hundred members of the armed forces who had soured on
Mr. Maduro’s authoritarianism.
The officers asked the United States to supply them with encrypted
radios, citing the need to communicate securely, as they developed a plan to
install a transitional government to run the country until elections could be
held.
American officials did not provide material support, and the plans
unraveled after a recent crackdown that led to the arrest of dozens of the
plotters.
Relations between the United States and Venezuela have been
strained for years. The two have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010. After
Mr. Trump took office, his administration increased sanctions against top
Venezuelan officials, including Mr. Maduro himself, his vice president and
other top officials in the government.
The account of the clandestine meetings and the policy debates
preceding them is drawn from interviews with 11 current and former American
officials, as well as the former Venezuelan commander. He said at least three
distinct groups within the Venezuelan military had been plotting against the
Maduro government.
One established contact with the American government by
approaching the United States Embassy in a European capital. When this was
reported back to Washington, officials at the White House were intrigued but
apprehensive. They worried that the meeting request could be a ploy to
surreptitiously record an American official appearing to conspire against the Venezuelan
government, officials said.
Image
Venezuelans waiting to buy government-subsidized food in Caracas
in May. The country is experiencing extreme shortages of food and
medicine.CreditMeridith Kohut for The New York Times
But as the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela worsened last year,
American officials felt that having a clearer picture of the plans and the men
who aspired to oust Mr. Maduro was worth the risk.
“After a lot of discussion, we agreed we should listen to what
they had to say,” said a senior administration official who was not authorized
to speak about the secret talks.
The administration initially considered dispatching Juan Cruz, a
veteran Central Intelligence Agency official who recently stepped down as the
White House’s top Latin America policymaker. But White House lawyers said it
would be more prudent to send a career diplomat instead.
The American envoy was instructed to attend the meetings “purely
on listening mode,” and was not authorized to negotiate anything of substance
on the spot, according to the senior administration official.
After the first meeting, which took place in the fall of 2017, the
diplomat reported that the Venezuelans didn’t appear to have a detailed plan
and had showed up at the encounter hoping the Americans would offer guidance or
ideas, officials said.
The former Venezuelan commander said that the rebellious officers
never asked for an American military intervention. “I never agreed, nor did
they propose, to do a joint operation,” he said.
He claimed that he and his comrades considered striking last
summer, when the government suspended the powers of the legislature and
installed a new national assembly loyal to Mr. Maduro. But he said they aborted
the plan, fearing it would lead to bloodshed.
They later planned to take power in March, the former officer
said, but that plan leaked. Finally, the dissidents looked to the May 20
election, during which Mr. Maduro was re-elected, as a new target date. But
again, word got out and the plotters held their fire.
It is unclear how many of these details the coup planners shared
with the Americans. But there is no indication that Mr. Maduro knew the
mutinous officers were talking to the Americans at all.
For any of the plots to have worked, the former commander said, he
and his comrades believed they needed to detain Mr. Maduro and other top
government figures simultaneously. To do that, he added, the rebel officers
needed a way to communicate securely. They made their request during their
second meeting with the American diplomat, which took place last year.
Image
Lawmakers in Caracas last month. The plotters considered striking
last summer, when the government suspended the powers of the legislature and
installed a new assembly loyal to Mr. Maduro.CreditCristian Hernandez/EPA, via
Shutterstock
The American diplomat relayed the request to Washington, where
senior officials turned it down, American officials said.
“We were frustrated,” said the former Venezuelan commander. “There
was a lack of follow-through. They left me waiting.”
The American diplomat then met the coup plotters a third time
early this year, but the discussions did not result in a promise of material
aid or even a clear signal that Washington endorsed the rebels’ plans,
according to the Venezuelan commander and several American officials.
Still, the Venezuelan plotters could view the meetings as tacit
approval of their plans, argued Peter Kornbluh, a historian at the National
Security Archive at George Washington University.
“The United States always has an interest in gathering
intelligence on potential changes of leadership in governments,” Mr. Kornbluh
said. “But the mere presence of a U.S. official at such a meeting would likely
be perceived as encouragement.”
In its statement, the White House called the situation in
Venezuela “a threat to regional security and democracy” and said that the Trump
administration would continue to strengthen a coalition of “like-minded, and
right-minded, partners from Europe to Asia to the Americas to pressure the
Maduro regime to restore democracy in Venezuela.”
American officials have openly discussed the possibility that
Venezuela’s military could take action.
On Feb. 1, Rex W. Tillerson, who was secretary of state at the
time, delivered a speech in which he said the United States had not “advocated
for regime change or removal of President Maduro.” Yet, responding to a
question afterward, Mr. Tillerson raised the potential for a military coup.
“When things are so bad that the military leadership realizes that
it just can’t serve the citizens anymore, they will manage a peaceful
transition,” he said.
Days later, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has sought to
shape the Trump administration’s approach toward Latin America, wrote a series
of Twitter posts that encouraged dissident members of the Venezuelan armed
forces to topple their commander in chief.
Image
Venezuelans waiting to register with the Brazilian immigration
authorities in April. The economic collapse has set off an exodus of desperate
Venezuelans.CreditMeridith Kohut for The New York Times
“Soldiers eat out of garbage cans & their families go
hungry in Venezuela while Maduro & friends live like kings &
block humanitarian aid,” Mr. Rubio wrote. He then added: “The world would
support the Armed Forces in #Venezuela if they decide to protect the people
& restore democracy by removing a dictator.”
In a speech in April, when he was still White House policy chief
for Latin America, Mr. Cruz issued a message to the Venezuelan military. Referring
to Mr. Maduro as a “madman,” Mr. Cruz said all Venezuelans should “urge the
military to respect the oath they took to perform their functions. Honor your
oath.”
As the crisis in Venezuela worsened in recent years, American
officials debated the pros and cons of opening lines of dialogue with
rebellious factions of the military.
“There were differences of opinion,” said Ms. Aponte, the former
top Latin America diplomat under Mr. Obama. “There were people who had a lot of
faith in the idea that they could bring about stability, help distribute food,
work on practical stuff.”
But others — including Ms. Aponte — saw considerable risk in
building bridges with leaders of a military that, in Washington’s assessment,
has become a pillar of the cocaine trade and human rights abuses.
Roberta Jacobson, a former ambassador to Mexico who preceded Ms.
Aponte as the top State Department official for Latin America policy, said that
while Washington has long regarded the Venezuelan military as “widely corrupt,
deeply involved in narcotics trafficking and very unsavory,” she saw merit in establishing
a back channel with some of them.
“Given the broader breakdown in institutions in Venezuela, there
was a feeling that — while they were not necessarily the answer — any kind of
democratic resolution would have had to have the military on board,” said Ms.
Jacobson, who retired from the State Department this year. “The idea of hearing
from actors in those places, no matter how unsavory they may be, is integral to
diplomacy.”
But whatever the rationale, holding discussions with coup plotters
could set off alarms in a region with a list of infamous interventions: the
Central Intelligence Agency’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel
Castro as leader of Cuba in 1961; the American-supported coup in Chile in 1973,
which led to the long military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet; and the Reagan
administration’s covert support of right-wing rebels known as the contras in
Nicaragua in the 1980s.
In Venezuela, a coup in 2002 briefly deposed Mr. Maduro’s
predecessor, Hugo Chávez. The United States knew a plot was being hatched but
warned against it, according to a classified document that was later made
public. The coup took place anyway and the George W. Bush administration opened
a channel to the new leader. Officials then backed away from the new government
after popular anger rose against the coup and countries in the region loudly
denounced it. Mr. Chávez was reinstated as president.
In the latest coup plot, the number of military figures connected
to the plan dwindled from a high of about 300 to 400 last year to about half
that after a crackdown this year by Mr. Maduro’s government.
The former Venezuelan military officer worries that the 150 or so
comrades who have been detained are probably being tortured. He lamented that
the United States did not supply the mutineers with radios, which he believes
could have changed the country’s history.
“I’m disappointed,” he said. “But I’m the least affected. I’m not
a prisoner.”
Correction: September 8, 2018
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of a picture
caption with this article misidentified a person in the photograph. It is an
unidentified military officer, not President Nicolás Maduro.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 9, 2018, on
Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Met Rebels From
Venezuela About Coup Plot.
Venezuela Accuses U.S. of Plotting Coup
Against Maduro
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela,
right, with his closest ally, President Evo Morales of Bolivia, in Caracas in
April. Mr. Morales tweeted on Saturday, “We condemn Trump’s coup
conspiracy.”CreditCreditFederico Parra/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Federico Parra/Agence France-Presse —
Getty Images
By Nicholas Casey and Ernesto Londoño
Sept. 8, 2018
Leer en español
Venezuela and one of its allies accused
the United States on Saturday of plotting against its president, Nicolás
Maduro, who has presided over a near collapse of the country.
Jorge Arreaza, Venezuela’s foreign
minister, responded Saturday to an article by The New York Times detailing
secret meetings between American officials and Venezuelan officers seeking to
oust Mr. Maduro. “We denounce before the world the United States’ intervention
plans and help to military conspirators against Venezuela,” he said on Twitter,
adding that the article had “brought to light new and crude evidence” of such a
plot.
The Times article, based on interviews
with United States officials and a Venezuelan former military commander who is
seeking to overthrow Mr. Maduro, gave an account of several meetings that took
place starting last fall and continuing into this year.
The main request of the military plotters
was encrypted radios, which they planned to use to communicate among themselves
in order to capture Mr. Maduro and his lieutenants. But the United States never
granted the request, and after multiple meetings, the Venezuelans became frustrated.
Mr. Maduro’s government has since jailed dozens of the conspirators, though
many remain at large.
Among those who denounced the secret
meetings was President Evo Morales of Bolivia, a longtime leftist ally of Mr.
Maduro, who referred to them on Saturday as “Trump’s coup conspiracy.”
In a tweet he wrote, “The free countries
of Latin America will withstand and defeat any further attacks of the Empire
against the peace and democracy in the region.”
The White House has not commented on the
meetings.
On Saturday, Garrett Marquis, a spokesman
for the National Security Council, said the United States preferred “a
peaceful, orderly transition to democracy in Venezuela.” He added that the
government “hears daily the concerns of Venezuelans from all walks of life” and
that “they share one goal: the rebuilding of democracy in their homeland.”
However, some former officials defended
the meetings, arguing that something must be done to stem the humanitarian
crises set off by Mr. Maduro’s authoritarian leadership, from shortages of food
and medicine to the migration of millions of Venezuelans from the country.
“If you don’t like the idea of the U.S.
talking to the military, then what do you propose?” said Richard N. Haass, a
former top State Department official in the George W. Bush administration who
is now the president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
He said that while he did not support a
coup, the region should consider a “Latin American coalition of the willing,”
an alliance of Venezuela’s neighbors created for a possible regional military
intervention, similar to the United States’ invasion of Iraq.
While Latin American leaders loudly
condemned remarks by President Trump last year saying there was a
“military option” to thwart Mr. Maduro, the reaction to the news that American
officials had met with coup plotters was muted this time. Mr. Morales was the
only president who came to the defense of Mr. Maduro.
That reflects the growing exasperation
with Mr. Maduro’s government, some experts say.
“There is so little sympathy now,” said
Michael Shifter, the president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington
policy forum. While Mr. Shifter does not support a coup either, he said
comparisons to the overthrow in Chile of Salvador Allende in 1973 by Gen.
Augusto Pinochet, who became a military dictator, were unfounded, given the
humanitarian crisis Mr. Maduro had caused.
There are signs that the Trump
administration may harden its stance toward Mr. Maduro, one of the few sitting
presidents currently under sanctions imposed by the United States. The White
House is expected to name Mauricio Claver-Carone to head Latin America affairs
at the National Security Council.
Mr. Claver-Carone is considered a
conservative hard-liner on Cuba and was involved in tightening American
sanctions against Venezuelan officials. He would report to John Bolton, who
came to lead the N.S.C. in April and is also seen as more hawkish than his
predecessor.
Shannon K. O’Neil, a vice president at the
Council on Foreign Relations, said she would have a wait-and-see approach on
shifts in American policy toward Venezuela, despite the growing chaos there.
“Why should Latin America be different
than other parts of the world where people have stepped in?” she asked. “But
the realpolitik of this is there’s no will to do so yet.”
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