Why Biden is continuing Trump’s failed Venezuelan policy of international sanctions and recognition of Juan Guaidó

There are two reasons for Biden’s continuation of Trump’s Venezuela policy which in the words of Connecticut Senator Chris Murphey has been an “unmitigated disaster.” First, it's to teach Venezuela a lesson for the world to see and assimilate. You can't challenge U.S. hegemony without paying a price. Washington has targeted Venezuela for special treatment from the beginning because Chávez, more than any other progressive president in the region, championed what he called the "multi-polar world," a euphemism for anti-imperialism. And second, the sanctions and recognition of Guaidó serve as leverage (a term now used in Washington to justify the policy of international sanctions) to extract concessions from the Maduro government in accordance with U.S. strategic interests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7nXO1GYDS4

 

The nuts and bolts of capitalism: Big capital invades new space

A few days ago my wife and I took a two-hour walk around the outskirts of Alexandria, Virginia. On most blocks we saw signs like this one in front of middle-class housing complexes. They all say the same: LEASING CENTER. Under capitalism, big capital perpetually invades new spaces. Over past decades this is what has happened in non-industrial sectors such as housing. Other examples include pharmacies, restaurants, hotels, private transportation to name just a few. This pattern contributes to the growing disparity in wealth which has become particularly apparent during the pandemic. Not only have the rich gotten richer but some of the rich have lost everything, allowing vultures like Jeff Bezos and his Amazon to operate with less competition and as a result make repulsive amounts of profit.

 

In Nicaragua and Venezuela, Washington’s strategy may change but the objective of regime change remains the same

The same country (the United States, in case anyone has doubts) that objects to Russian interference in its presidential elections, is money laundering in order to bypass Nicaraguan legislation requiring NGOs to report all funds that they receive from abroad. Similar legislation is on the books in the U.S., but the Washington establishment opposed its enactment by Managua and also by Venezuela since it was first considered in 2006 and until it was enacted five years later. Now the National Endowment for Democracy and its affiliates are getting around the law in Nicaragua by handing recipients the money in cash in the US embassy in Managua and using the Fundación Arias in neighboring Costa Rica as a conduit. 

The objective is to unseat the Sandinistas by any means possible. Both in Venezuela in 2019-2020 and Nicaragua since April 2018, the use of violence to topple the Chavista and Sandinista governments hasn’t worked. After declaring elections to be fraudulent in Venezuela and supporting electoral abstention, the U.S. “democracy promotion” team may be edging toward participation and replacing Guaidó with former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles as “Our Man in Caracas.” Capriles, who refused to oppose Juan Guaidó’s self-proclamation as president in January 2019 is now branding himself a moderate. A similar strategy may be followed for the November general elections in Nicaragua. A far cry from the use of violence, but foreign intervention is foreign intervention and should be opposed in all forms. The financing of political actors by NED and USAID is a violation of national sovereignty, the very same term used by Democrats to denounce alleged Russian interference in U.S. elections. 

 

Protest at OAS Headquarters against Haiti's Repressive, Neoliberal, Undemocratic Government of Jovenel Moise

Yesterday’s protest in front of the headquarter of the Organization of American States to protest that organization’s support for the corrupt, undemocratic and repressive regime of Jovenel Moise in Haiti. Listening to Haitian speakers and others at the rally was extremely informative. One speaker confirmed what I previously had thought to be the case, that Haiti is the only country in history in which the slaves who rose up against their masters took power and ended up running the country. One speaker, Leonardo Flores of Code Pink, detailed how Moise siphoned money off programs to alleviate poverty financed by Venezuela’s PETROCARIBE. Moise then thanked the Venezuelan government by courting favor with Washington by recognizing Venezuela's bogus president Juan Guaidó. That corruption scandal triggered protests, which are now demanding Moise’s exist from power on grounds that his presidential term expired last month.  

 

It’s telling that in front of the OAS’s headquarter is a statue of Queen Isabella I, who initiated the conquest of the Indigenous people of the Americas which nearly decimated their entire population. In addition, she expelled the Jews and Moros from Spain and strengthened the Spanish Inquisition.   

For the corporate media, the issue of cutting military spending is virtually taboo

In an article in today’s (March 5, 2021) N.Y. Times titled “Too Many Smart People Are Being Too Dismissive of Inflation,” op-ed writer Steven Ratner suggests that various social programs be cut in order to curb inflation But not one word about military spending. Ratner brought up the possibility of different budgetary cuts for controlling inflation. These included the stimulus bill, as well as “income replacement programs that would help Americans who still have jobs but have had their earnings cut significantly by the pandemic,” and “the $510 billion in aid to states and localities (including for education) should also be dramatically reduced” and also “an indirect bailout of multiemployer pension funds.” The article ends “Wasting precious dollars that could be better spent can’t possibly be worth the risk of igniting high inflation again.”

 

These statements not only represent the opinion of Steven Ratner, who represents the financial interests. It’s typical of the corporate media which refuses to raise in any meaningful way the issue of the military budget and that of related programs, which arguably take in over half of the federal budget. The subject is virtually taboo for the corporate media. You may even call their refusal to place such a critical issue on the table a form of censorship.

 

 

One-hour long interview (in Spanish) with the legendary founder and longtime leader of Brazil's Movement Without Land (MST), João Pedro Stédile

On Tuesday (March 2, 2021), I interviewed João Pedro Stédile, the legendary founder and former president of the Movement Without Land (MST), for my co-edited book "Progressive Governments and Social Movements in Latin America: The 'Creative Tension' between Resistance and Convergence" (with co-editors Kyla Sankey and Ronaldo Munck) to be published by Rowman and Littlefield as part of the “Latin American Perspectives in the Classroom” series. Stédile discussed the relations between the MST and the Workers Party (of Lula) and stated that the MST paved the way for Lula's election as president in 2003. He also says that unlike the previous neoliberal government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Lula and his successor Dilma Rousseff always engaged in dialogue with the MST and other social movements but that there was a fundamental difference between the MST and the PT government: while the government attempted to maintain social peace on the basis of an "equilibrium," the MST engaged in social struggles to achieve class aims. He also points out that the MSM turned down the request of PT leaders for the MST to name various cabinet ministers (possibly members of the MST itself) as ministers at the outset of Lula's first administration. The MST, in contrast to the pro-PT labor confederation (the CUT), assumed this position in the name of social movement autonomy. Stédile ends the interview saying that in the face of the repressive Bolsonaro government, unity among leftist parties and social movements has been forged on the basis of concrete demands including COVID vaccinations for all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fcuriNDOoU