Bombshell revelation suggests there’s nothing humanitarian about US ‘aid’ to Venezuela

Trump, left; Maduro, right.
Support us and go ad-free

On 6 February, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo urged Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to open the country’s borders to US “humanitarian aid”. The request came after Venezuelan troops blockaded a bridge on the country’s border with Colombia:

But after decades of US interference, years of economic sanctions, and an ongoing coup attempt in the country, can Pompeo’s offer of “humanitarian aid” really be trusted?

Using “humanitarian aid” to smuggle arms

The mainstream media has predictably portrayed Washington’s offer of “aid” as noble and well-intentioned. Meanwhile, it paints Maduro as a stubborn tyrant, starving his country of vital resources.

Read on...

Support us and go ad-free

CNBC described Maduro’s actions as a “dramatic attempt to prevent a delivery of humanitarian aid”. The Independent reported matter-of-factly that Maduro closed the border “to stop humanitarian aid entering”. Other outlets like the Guardian failed to mention that “humanitarian aid” would hardly scratch the surface of the crippling effects US sanctions are already having on the country.

But most importantly, the media comprehensively failed to mention that the US has previously used “humanitarian aid” programmes to covertly attack left-wing governments in Latin America. And none other than Elliott Abrams, recently appointed Washington’s special envoy for Venezuela, was at the centre of it all.

Nicaragua

Nicaragua’s history follows a typical pattern of US intervention in Latin America. After toppling a US-friendly dictatorship in 1979, Nicaragua’s Sandinista government implemented a set of social and economic reforms aimed at wealth distribution. Finding these reforms unacceptable in its ‘backyard’, Washington waged brutal economic and covert warfare on Nicaragua throughout the 1980s. And this campaign was, at times, hidden behind “humanitarian aid” programs.

By the late 1970s, the Sandinistas were overwhelming the Nicaraguan dictatorship’s National Guard. At this point, in the words of Noam Chomsky, the Jimmy Carter administration “flew Guard commanders [later renamed contras] out of the country in planes with Red Cross markings (a war crime)”.

During the mid-1980s, US Congress issued a law allowing humanitarian aid to be provided only to Nicaragua’s contras.

But in 1987, as the Los Angeles Times reported:

Reagan Administration aides deliberately used a 1986 program of “humanitarian aid”… to help support the secret effort to deliver military aid to the contras.

The article continued by linking this to Abrams, Washington’s current special envoy to Venezuela:

Officials said that all significant decisions were made by a “Restricted Inter-Agency Group,” consisting of North, Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams and Alan D. Fiers, chief of the CIA’s Central America Task Force.

Another New York Times sourced within Chomsky’s The Culture of Terrorism detailed:

The official who headed the United States humanitarian aid program for the rebels in Nicaragua said today that he twice ordered his planes to shuttle weapons for the contras in Central America at the direction of Elliott Abrams.

Abrams, therefore, was a key figure in exploiting “humanitarian aid” programmes to wage covert warfare. And after a lifetime “crushing democracy” across Latin America, his reported advice to Maduro “to leave power… the sooner the better” carries an ominous tone.

“Not one invading soldier”

On 6 February, the BBC reported Maduro saying: “No-one will enter, not one invading soldier”.

Contrary to most media coverage, Maduro’s rejection of US “humanitarian aid” seems altogether rational. Quite predictably, Washington’s record of helping citizens while agitating for their government’s removal is shameful. And while the US continues to punish ordinary Venezuelans with crippling economic sanctions, there’s no reason to believe anything has changed.

Featured image via President of Russia and Wikimedia/Congreso de la República del Perú

Support us and go ad-free

Get involved

  • Join the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign.
  • Message your MP to ask them to condemn Trump’s actions.
  • Support Witness for Peace in its campaigns for peace and social justice in Latin America. You can also travel on one its many delegations to the region.

We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support

The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.

The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.

So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.

Support us