Venezuela: a very American Coup

Funny was that they do have a lot in common, lots of sick people who cannot afford treatment due to their leader’s crass ways though the folks ‘down south’ do have a slight lead in the number of dead and dying. They folks down south are also tending to be on the move a bit at the moment. Could another caravan be formed?

The US have a very long history of interfering with Latin America. This goes back to the 1823 Monroe doctrine under which the US treated the Caribbean as a US owned lake and will not allow any threats to its interests or traffic through the Panama. see article for history.

Venezuela made a big mistake in challenging the US hegemony with Petro-Venezuela, and I have seen arguments that the failure of Saudi Arabia to exert its normal upward pressure on oil prices was a three pronged attack on the oil&gas-based economies of  Russia, Syria and Venezuela. (Gas prices used to be linked directly to heavy fuel oil/crude prices).

Ed has it spot on, as Steve says. A masterful summing up, Ed.

The US has never learned from its often disastrous interference in Latin America. From the days of the Alamo, when they stole half of Mexico, through the Spanish-American War when they took the Philippines from Spain. Add Nicaragua, Colombia, etc, etc. As a nation, they castigated Britain for having the temerity to build the world’s biggest Empire and they never have missed an opportunity to criticise what they see as our colonial  past: they still do it today. They will never admit to creating the same colonial expansion in their own activities throughout the world, by the using military means supplied to puppet governments, or economic pressures.

Also as Steve says, any Socialist government, however centre of Left, is always seen as communist by the USA. That is why no Left wing Labour government has ever managed to hold on to government for long. Ask the ghosts of Keir Hardie, Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson, Michael Foot, Jim Callaghan. Read Tony Benn’s memoirs. The only way Blair could establish a Labour government and hold it in power for so long, was by renaming it “New Labour” and turn it into a political nonsense: a right wing Labour Party. After which he sucked up to America and became the Bush’s BF.

The US and the UK are, as someone once said, “Two nations divided by a common language.” They will never understand what they see as British liberal attitudes towards the rest of the world. In fact, most of the American population could not point to the UK on a map, or to any other countries. It should come as no surprise that Trump was able to appeal to the xenophobes and isolationists within the population of the USA. He is after all, ‘making America great again’. Someone should inform him that only one nation has “Great” in its name, even though we have been made almost ashamed to use it.

The Beeb does what it is told in today’s climate. That is why I only use a small percentage of Beeb reporting in my understanding of international news. The Independent has a much better unbiased grasp while the Economist gives the CIA view and of course RT the Russian view! China News is better all round as long as you ignore the US/China geopolitics.

[edit] Currently the value of China’s imports are almost half that of the US – I anticipate that China will now increase this share as over the last ten years it has been increasingly active in the Southern Hemisphere. link

Ed your second link blew my mind for a while, until I remembered the history of US involvement supporting Latin-American regimes, in the guise of opposing “Creeping Anti-Communism”. By whatever means judged necessary.

It does demonstrate the power of a misused, controlled media. Today, nothing else is a efficient in changing the minds of its audience.

I found Fermat’s Library fascinating, and have opened a subscription. I can never have too much unbiased information…

I think some of you might like the stuff over here.

Some very interesting takes on stuff .

I’m also about half way through my first issue of Nexus magazine. So far it’s great.