Forty thousand people have died in Venezuela because of unjust, immoral sanctions imposed by America and Western European nations. These cruel sanctions were first imposed by President Barack Obama in 2014. In 2017, Obama increased pressure. Then, in 2018, President Donald ‘The Great-Impeached’ Trump tightened the sanctions noose around Venezuelans’ throat. ‘Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela,’ written in April 2019, is a shocking report by Dr Mark Weisbrot and Dr Jeffrey Sachs. It exposes the devastating humanitarian crisis caused by the unjust American sanctions.

According to the authors, the sanctions “have inflicted, and increasingly inflict, very serious harm to human life and health, including an estimated more than 40,000 deaths from 2017 to 2018.” Analysis of the impact of American unjust policies found that over “180,000 medical operations were cancelled and 823,000 chronically ill patients are awaiting medicine” in Venezuela. Further evidence shows that Venezuela’s health crisis worsened after America’s illegal seizure of US$7 billion of the country’s oil revenues. Great Britain grabbed Venezuela’s US$1 billion gold reserve, too, thereby helping to starve the country of money urgently needed to buy food and medicine.

America’s objective is to push an angry, restless population to rise up and overthrow their government. American brutal, interventionist policies led to the October 2019 bloody Bolivian coup. This shows that it is wrong to become a prostrated prisoner of these policies. It is against this background that Mike Pompeo, the American Secretary of State, visited Jamaica in January 2020 to shore up support for American mischief-making. Many of Jamaica’s Caribbean colleagues are upset with its Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, including Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Keith Rowley. Mia Mottley’s comments reflected a ‘bitta truth’.

The Gleaner reports her saying:

“We must not follow like lemmings [small rats] but display the fortitude of those before us who have made Jamaica and Jamaicans symbols of international integrity and purveyors of the importance to international norms.”

JAMAICAN ACTIONS

Actions against Venezuela by the Holness Government include:

- Declaring breach of contract and nationalizing Petrojam shares, owned by PDVSA, the Venezuelan national oil company.

- In January 2019, Jamaica voted in the Organization of American States against recognizing President Nicolás Maduro as the duly elected leader of Venezuela.

- March 16, 2019, Napoleon Juan Guaido, who had not contested the election, declared himself president and announced his ‘Operation Freedom’ coup de’état. That same month, Holness and others met Donald ‘The Great-Impeached’ Trump in South Florida, ostensibly providing political cover to America coup plotting actions. Is it a matter of coincidence or chance that they met Trump the same month American interventionist plans were announced? Asked about his Donald Trump meeting, Holness said, “Everything went well.”

AMERICAN MISCHIEF-MAKING

At that time, a humanitarian disaster was unfolding in Venezuela. Back then, in March 2019, catastrophic electrical blackouts were reported in Venezuela that scientific investigations exposed as being caused by sabotaging the power grid. Babies died in incubators. Many patients died in the emergency room.

Following the electrical blackouts, the Associated Press reported on March 15, 2019, that scientists used engineering and geospatial technology to analyse American satellite images of Venezuela. This forensic evidence positively showed that “three large fires were burning beside a major Venezuela power grid that had catastrophic power outages,” the Associated Press reported. There have also been several violent attacks against the Venezuelan military that undermined the rule of law and political and social stability.

Very shocking, isn’t it?

This is Donald ‘The Great-Impeached’ Trump and American mischief-making at work. Therefore, Pompeo’s visit to Jamaica is not really of great significance since America is not taking action on LAC priorities such as the US$56 billion owed to ‘International Monetary BANKSTERS’.

From the standpoint of political psychology, Donald ‘The Great-Impeached’ Trump’s revanchist mentality – like the land-conquering, ‘Attila The Hun’ – has brought chaos and despair wherever he has set his expansionist eyes. There is a stark difference between middle-of-the-road pragmatism versus political opportunism.

A pragmatic leader steers a moderating political course in a desperate world filled with sharks. On the other hand, a political opportunistic leader – instead of just trying to swim with sharks – becomes just like the dangerous sharks! As Mia Mottley said, Jamaica’s actions betray Caribbean values forged by regional giants such as Michael Manley, Errol Barrow, Forbes Burnham, and Dr Eric Williams.

That is just the bitta truth! The Gleaner (Jamaica)