On Jan. 3, U.S. forces launched a military attack against Venezuela. The purpose was to kidnap President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores and to terrify the government and people of Venezuela.
The high-tech operation paralyzed air defenses. A cyberattack caused a blackout in part of Caracas. More than 100 people were killed in the attack, including 32 Cubans in Maduro’s security detail.
There was no prior declaration of war, although the United States has been escalating aggressions against Venezuela for some time, positioning a flotilla in the Caribbean and killing more than 123 people in small boats since last year.
Despite the psychological warfare and self-aggrandizing statements of the U.S. regime, the United States is not in control of Venezuela. Delcy Rodriguez, once the vice president and now the acting president, and the Venezuelan Congress and military are still intact, although they might be negotiating “with a pistol to their head.”
Maduro and his wife are in custody in New York City. Faced with the need to prove in court the allegation that President Maduro is the head of a fictional “Cartel de los Soles,” the United States has dropped that charge and now frankly admits that the incursion into Venezuela is all about taking control of “our oil” (which just happens to be located in the sovereign country of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela).
In legal scholar Elie Mystal’s words, “The bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of its president, Nicolás Maduro, so that he can stand for a show trial in New York, is a flagrant violation of international law. The United States should be condemned by the international community and all peoples of this earth.”
