Haiti Action Committee Denounces U.S. Attack on Venezuela
Haiti Action Committee denounces the brutal U.S. assault on the people of Venezuela and the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
This outrageous attack on a sovereign nation is simply the latest attempt by the United States to assert its hegemony over the people of the Americas. Building for months, with criminal attacks on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, this assault on Venezuela’s sovereignty is an example of unbridled imperialism. Now that the deed is done, Trump and his minions have made it clear: far from being an attempt to stop “drug trafficking” or promote “democracy,” this was aimed at seizing control of Venezuela’s oil reserves and making sure that any new Venezuelan government will be forced to bow down to the dictates of the United States. As Trump and Rubio gloat about their “Don-roe Doctrine,” the next target could very well be Colombia, Mexico or Cuba – all in the crosshairs of the criminal enterprise known as the U.S. empire.
Those of us in solidarity with the grassroots movement in Haiti know this playbook all too well. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, was overthrown twice by U.S.-orchestrated coups in 1991 and 2004. In both cases, the U.S. State Department trumpeted false charges of corruption and drug dealing against the most progressive governments in Haiti’s history. On February 29, 2004, U.S. marines kidnapped President Aristide and his wife and colleague, Mildred Trouillot Aristide, forcing them into seven long years of exile. The coup was reinforced by a U.S./U.N. foreign occupation which maintained elite, corrupt rule over the Haitian people. Haiti has never recovered.
As the U.S. increases its military presence in the Caribbean, threatening every progressive government in the region, it is time to take the strongest stand possible in support of the people of Venezuela.
