Sputnik News- US Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo has admitted the US is working to change the elected government of Venezuela, and collaborating with Colombia and Mexico to do so. While it's the first public acknowledgement of US meddling in the embattled country, Latin American political analysts likely wont be surprized.
Speaking ata Q&A sessionatthe Aspen Institute think tank's annual security forum, Pompeo said he was "very hopeful" ofa "transition" inVenezuela.
"I was inMexico City and Bogota a week beforelast talking aboutthis, trying tohelp them understand [what] they might do so they can get a better outcome fortheir part ofthe world and our part ofthe world. I'm always careful when we talk aboutSouth and Central America and the CIA, butsuffice tosay, we're very hopeful there can be a transition inVenezuela and we [are] doing [our] best tounderstand the dynamic there, so that we can communicate toour State Department and toothers," he said.
Colombia and Mexico have beenquick torefutePompeo's allegations, both issuing eerily similar statements attesting totheir mutual respect forinternational law and rejecting the existence ofany plan or desire tooverthrow President Nicolas Maduro's administration oneither oftheir parts.
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Aspen Security Forum@AspenSecurity.@CIADirector Mike Pompeo talks to@BretStephensNYTabout todays national security landscape:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcSjUk8eYww#AspenSecurity
3:49 AM - Jul 21, 2017
Despite their protestations, Pompeo's statementsparked understandable outcryinCaracas, withMaduro slamming the US, Colombia and Mexico alike.
"The director ofthe CIA has said the CIA and US government is working indirect collaboration withthe Mexican and Colombian government tooverthrow the government and intervene inour beloved Venezuela. I demand the governments ofMexico and Colombia properly clarify the declarations and I will make political and diplomatic decisions accordingly beforethis audacity," he said.
The exposure comes asboth Maduro and Venezuela face mounting problems, withfood shortages and soaring inflation produced bythe US ongoing official economic war againstthe country producing much unrest, and protests sparked bythe decision ofthe Supreme Court toabsorblegislative powers fromthe opposition-controlled National Assembly raging sinceApril. They have endured despitethe Court reversing the ruling.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="566"]
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a meeting with businessmen in Caracas, Venezuela January 9, 2017[/caption]Opponents are also angry aboutMaduro's plan topress ahead witha vote fora Constitutional Assembly onJuly 30, claiming the rules ofthe Assembly ensure a majority forthe United Socialist Party ofVenezuela inturn, Maduro claims it's the only way torestore harmony.
Critics may find Pompeo's statements ironic given the ongoing uproar inmainstream US discourse aboutRussia's interference inthe 2016 Presidential election allegations based onevidence-free claims issued byanonymous sourceswhich have been refutedbycybersecurity experts and former intelligence professionals.
Furthermore, few will surely be surprised bythe revelation ofUS meddling inVenezuela while the first public admission byUS authorities that the CIA is actively working toundermine and topple the government ofVenezuela, evidence indicates the US has worked toweaken the governments ofboth Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez forsome time including bankrolling and organizing the 2002 coup that briefly removed the latter frompower.
There's much tosuggest the distribution offunds toopposition groups viaorganizations such asthe National Endowment forDemocracy has continued, while black propaganda aboutthe state ofaffairs inVenezuela has reached fever pitch inthe mainstream media the world over. In May 2016unidentified US officials said they doubted Maduro would be able tocomplete his Presidential term, due toend afterelections inlate 2018.
US interference inthe politics ofsovereign nations the world overis arguably borderline non-newsworthy particularly inLatin America. The US' first known foray intothe southern Americas was Operation PBSuccess in1953, which overthrew the democratically-elected, progressive government ofJacobo Arbenz.
The coup was motivated byArbenz' nationalization program, which saw plantations owned byUS fruit giant the United Fruit Company passed back intopublic hands. Washington feared the firm's vast profits would be dented, and Guatemala's social democratic reforms would spread acrossthe continent, and set the CIA towork.
"The engine ofAmerican foreign policy has been fueled not bya devotion toany kind ofmorality, butrather bythe necessity toserve other imperatives making the world safe forAmerican corporations, enhancing the finances ofUS defense contractors, preventing the rise ofany society that might serve asa successful example ofan alternative tothe capitalist model and extending political and economic hegemony overas wide an area aspossible," historian William Blum has observed.
The result was a country fractured, which has been ruled bya series ofvicious military dictatorships ever since and rulers have routinely employed death-squads, torture, disappearances and mass executions totaling hundreds ofthousands ofvictims.
Since then, the US has meddled onoccasion inseeming perpetuity inmany other countries inLatin America, including Haiti, El Salvador, Panama, Grenada, Brazil, Nicaragua, Chile, Dominican Republic and British Guiana. Nevertheless, their efforts are not always successful, asCuba has palpably demonstrated.
