Letters to Editor

When Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State of the United States of America expresses hope that India will not buy oil from Venezuela, in diplomatic terms the ‘hope’ has to be understood as ‘warning’.  The situation in Venezuela, created by the US and nurtured by the so-called civilized western world, is now reaching its climax and the US is preparing for direct onslaught. They are calling back all their diplomatic staff from Venezuela. It is a grace that they waited for two months for it. They were expecting surrender of the country to the machinations of capitalist regimes. They thought that the people will drive out President Maduro leaving the Chair to the puppet Juan Guaido installed by them. But the people in Venezuela saw through the game and stood by the elected President. They know that the scarcity of essential goods in the country is the creation of the sadistic west in a naked attempt to appropriate the rich natural resources of the country.

It is true that there is scarcity of essential goods in Venezuela. People are starving, patients are dying for want of medicines. But the country cannot use its own assets and income to ameliorate the situation. It is a situation created by the sanctions promulgated by the US. They seized the assets of the country and froze the same. Nay, they told the banks to transfer all the  balances in the name of Venezuela to the account of Juan Guaido, who is installed and recognised as the legitimate President of Venezuela. Nobody, none of the civilized countries objected and everybody complied. That is the power of sanctions of America. Nobody is allowed to have any sort of commercial dealings with Venezuela. How can the Venezuelans survive? That is not their concern. But they blame the Venezuelan government for the inhuman situation and for the troubles of the people. Having created the situation, they shed crocodile tears. They had the temerity to send help to feed the people. But when the trick did not work, they tried to instigate the neighbouring countries to cross the border. This also failed as the people are against such an invasion. Then they resorted to sabotage of the electrical system.

The West is claiming that the elections in Venezuela are not legitimate. In this connection it is desirable to look to the legitimacy of those elections. Jimmy Carter, the former President of the US, established a Center to monitor elections over the world. His statement is worth noting. “Of the 92 elections that we have monitored I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world. . . . By way of contrast the US election system, with its emphasis on campaign money is one of the worst.” Now the person elected by the worst system is calling the person elected by the best system as illegitimate. Worse than kettle calling the pot black.

How does America get the right to declare sanctions on Venezuela and force all other sovereign countries to follow suit? The secret lies in its might—both economic and military. It is the lone super power. Leave alone other countries, even the Secretary General of the United Nations, President of the Security Council or of the General Assembly fail to open their mouths.

The US can do whatever it wants with impunity. Who is there to question? That is what happened with Iraq. It will be repeated with Venezuela.