"Yankees, Go Home!" by Cindy Sheehan

"Yankees, Go Home"

"Nobody messes with Venezuela. Venezuela must be respected."

Rafael Ramirez, Venezuelan Energy Minister

Anti-imperialista

I am in Caracas, Vz today (May 29th--Casey's birthday)—a country I love and a people that I support with all my heart in their struggle against US imperialism and corporate interests so they can make their own lives better.

Nine of us came from the US to support the people of Venezuela in rejecting the US economic sanctions that were imposed by the State Departments because, apparently, Venezuela sent two shipments of oil product to Iran. 

During the Clinton regime, the US enacted The Iran Sanctions Act (ISA)--ironically first called the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act  (ILSA)--but then Libya became our friend during the Bush stain before it recently became our enemy again (dizzy, yet?). The ISA was enacted to prevent foreign countries from selling oil to Iran to stop its peaceful nuclear program. The point the leadership in Venezuela is trying to make is that it is now being "sanctioned" for allegedly breaking a law created by the US that it doesn't feel obligated to. Again, why should Venezuela make US corporate interests primary to its own? The immature arrogance of the US is stunning and my own country has absolutely no right to run roughshod over sovereign countries like a two-year old throwing a temper tantrum.

In my opinion, the USA just needs to grow the hell up. "Might" does not make "right," especially when the "might" destroys the economic health and credibility of the country exhibiting "might over what is right."

The hilarious thing about the new economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela’s state oil company: PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela, SA) is that Venezuela does not borrow money from the US, has repaid all of its debt and the economic sanctions do not stop Venezuela from selling petroleum to the US. More importantly, PDVSA and its US subsidiary, CITGO has helped over 250,000 US citizens by giving, or greatly reducing prices, on heating oil to our own desperately poor. No other oil company, including US oil companies, has done the same.

The newest sanctions are clearly symbolic to undermine Venezuelan credibility and to further demonize President Hugo Chavez because Venezuela ranks 4^th behind Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia in providing the black gold to the gluttonous US.

Why now? Well, for one thing, there is a hysterical Congressman from a very conservative district in Florida named, Connie Mack (R), who has been jonesing for the overthrow or assassination of President Hugo Chavez because Chavez had and continues to have the nerve to take from the excess wealth of the rich to give to the poor. Clearly, Chavez’s support of the poor runs counter to everything the oligarchy of the planet believes in. The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republica of Venezuela, written by representatives of the people in 1999, enshrines basic human rights as law in a country that has reduced the gap between the rich and the poor by 50% since Chavez achieved power. Chavez and his revolution are a thorn in the side of Capitalism and the “threat of a good example” must be neutralized.

This weekend also saw another big event in Latin America, Manual Zelaya of Honduras returned to his country after he had been in exile for nearly two years in a US-backed military coup (because he proposed the re-writing of the Honduran Constitution by the people). The intense diplomatic efforts of President Chavez and Venezuela helped facilitate this return with Zelaya flying back to Tegucigalpa from Managua, Nicaragua in a Venezuelan plane. The US taketh away and Venezuela giveth back.  

Another reason for the sanctions right now is that President Chavez is leading the hemisphere in advocating for strategic alliances to bring peace and continued prosperity to Latin American and Carribbean countries. When I was here last year, Chavez had just returned from a meeting of Latin American leaders in Cancun where it was decided that the Organization of American States was an anachronistic institution that exists to be a tool for the US’s continued exploitation of the region—so the leaders of the Latin American countries planned to form a new alliance to exclude the US and Canada. The new alliance will be launched on July 5^th in Venezuela on the 200^th anniversary of its independence from Spain. Will the alliance be a threat to the OAS? Probably not right now, but just the fact that Hugo Chavez is one of the leaders of this alliance and that the people of Latin America don’t believe the lies and demonization of the US against him, and, in fact, respect him immensely, must be grating to an Empire that has done everything possible to undermine and even overthrow the man.

The unification of South America was long a dream of freedom fighter, Simon Bolivar, and indeed he led Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and  Panama to independence from the Spanish monarchy in the early 1800s. Bolivar died a brokenhearted man after his dreams of unification were not realized. Hugo Chavez has the same dream and the new alliance is one more step closer to being able to resist US imperialist neoliberalism. Today, the thousands of Venezolanos who came to the rally to oppose the new US sanctions are rightfully proud of their accomplishments in a short 12 years and still support the leader who is making it all possible.

Additionally, the unification of Latin America and the Caribbean is necessary to have greater economic strength if each country wants to retain its sovereignty. The US only respects the sovereignty of either strong nations or puppet states—while many countries in South America have huge amounts of territory, individually, they are about as strong as each of the states in the US (except California). This alliance, or union, is also seeking to use its own currency, called the Sucre, like the European Unions’ Euro. Today, the USA has very little to offer the world beyond death and destruction and the strength of the US dollar is diminishing.

Another reason the sanctions appear now is because as the US wanes in the region, China ascends—according to an editorial in the right-wing Miami Herald:

The share of U.S. exports to the region has dropped from 55 percent of Latin America’s total imports in 2000 to 32 percent of the region’s imports in 2009, says a new report from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Meanwhile, China’s trade with the region has soared, the study shows.

In my opinion, the announcement of the new sanctions against Venezuela, while no doubt a very hostile act, is nothing but the US flexing its increasingly weak and flabby muscles. The over-extension of the US military combined with its plunging credibility over such continuing programs as torture and illegal regime change, has turned us into a big international laughingstock—still feared, because the US is nothing but a big imperial bully—but a joke, nonetheless.

This is the 3^rd time I have been to Venezuela, but as evidence of this new US paradigm in the region, for the first time I saw signs that read: Yankees, Go Home. Yes, I agree: “Yankees,” go home! Hands off of Venezuela and get your bloody imperial storm-troopers out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and even Palestine where US tax dollars fund an immoral Israeli occupation.

For sure, it will be a great day when the "mighty" US military empire falls and something new is born in its place. To we nine who traveled here to a real and vibrant democracy that is lead by Chavez but fueled by the revolutionary struggle of the people, the Phoenix that arises from the ashes of imperial collapse will hopefully look a lot like the structure of Venezuelan society: healthcare for all, free education for all, investment in an aging infrastructure and care for our elderly, community control and activism, respect for our indigenous cultures and protection of the environment. 

However, the thing that I love the most about Venezuela: the absence of a hostile and violent foreign policy.

PICTURES FROM THE DAY

CROWD AT CARACAS ANTI-SANCTIONS RALLY. RED FOR REVOLUTION

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We nine USAians

Crystal Geyer and Shamus Cooke from Portland

Jameelah Muhammad (Brooklyn), Crystal, Laura Wells (Oakland)