Gloria La Riva / The ANSWER Coalition
https://www.answercoalition.org/national_march_on_washington_hands_off_venezuela
Caracas (March 9, 2019) — As Venezuela is plunged into darkness again, huge mobilizations took place today in opposition to the Trump administration’s war against the government.
The power went out for the third day, today, Sat. Mar. 9, due to cyber attack, which according to the Venezuelan government is similar to the CIA Stuxnet attack on Iran. The water situation is especially serious, as the water pumps run on electricity. Food situation is increasingly difficult as many people rely on debit cards which can’t be used due to outages. Due to contraband operations, there are almost no sovereign Bolivares, the national currency available to the population. Transport situation is in crisis as well as pumps are needed for fuel. The Simon Bolivar International Airport is shut down.
Immediately after the power went down, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sadistically boasted, ‘No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro.’ US sanctions have inflicted great damage on the Venezuelan economy.
When the power first went down on Thursday at 4:55 pm Caracas time, tens of thousands of workers were forced to walk home in the dark, some all night. Schools and most workplaces were forced to close, Power went down again on Friday and today.
Despite this situation, there was a huge demonstration in support of the government and the Bolivarian Revolution. There was also an anti-government protest where the US-chosen ‘president’ Juan Guaido spoke, demanding once more that the actual elected president, Nicolas Maduro resign.
The US overthrew the government of Guatemala in 1954, the Allende government in Chile in 1973, the government of Grenada in 1983, the government of Panama in 1989, and waged war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua throughout the 1980s.
Saturday, March 16, 12pm
White House, Washington, D.C.
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On Saturday, March 16, thousands of people will march in Washington, D.C. against the Trump administration’s effort to engineer a coup in Venezuela and a new devastating war there. The aggressive policy against Venezuela repeats the ugly pattern of wars for regime change in the oil-rich countries of Iraq and Libya. National Security Advisor John Bolton is reading from the same script, declaring a troika of tyranny in Latin America (like the axis of evil ) as a precursor for regime change first in Venezuela, and then Cuba and Nicaragua. Trump has always said that the mistake of the Middle East wars was that the US didn’t take the oil.
It is time to stand up and with a clear voice say NO to the newest example of the Monroe Doctrine, which the US government has used for over two centuries to repeatedly invade Latin America and Caribbean, control its politics and extract its resources.
The White House aims to overthrow the government of President Nicolás Maduro and replace him with Juan Guaidó. Guaidó is a US-trained operative who was unknown to the vast majority of Venezuelans before he proclaimed himself president — at Vice President Mike Pence’s urging. Although Guaidó has the backing of Trump, the CIA, and the Republican and Democratic Party leaderships alike, huge numbers of Venezuelans have marched to reject this coup and defend their independence.
On March 16, the people of the United States will come together to say:
- US hands off Venezuela!
- NO to the coup — the US does not have the right to select other country’s leaders!
- NO to the sanctions, oil embargo and economic war on Venezuela that aims to cause suffering for ordinary people in the country.
- NO to intervention and war from the US and their proxies in the region
