(April 10, 2020) — In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world are working to support each other and are calling for peace.
- China, Russia, Cuba, and others are sending health professionals and medical supplies to countries hard-hit by the virus.
- Many groups like the G77, the United Nations and European countries are calling for an end to sanctions. France, Germany and the United Kingdom bypassed the US sanctions on Iran to send medical supplies using a new trading tool called Instex.
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made an appeal for a global ceasefire and scores of countries have signed on.
These beautiful actions of international solidarity are desperately needed at a time of multiple crises — disease, war, poverty, and climate chaos. But our country, the United States, is an outlier.
Instead of showing solidarity, the United States is ratcheting up the pressure on countries like Venezuela and Iran.
- The US imposed more illegal coercive measures on Venezuela and Iran to cause suffering and death by preventing the purchase of necessities.
- On March 24, Venezuela stopped an attempt to bring weapons into the country from Colombia that were going to be used in another US-led coup effort.
- On March 26, the US Department of Justice filed false drug trafficking charges on President Nicolas Maduro and other officials, including a $15 million bounty for Maduro’s arrest.
- On April 1, President Trump announced the US would be sending warships and the military to Latin America.
These are desperate acts of aggression that are showing the rest of the world that the US will stop at nothing to impose its will on other countries.
As citizens of US Empire, we have a responsibility to take action to stop this aggression. Many peace groups in the US are working together to organize activities that people can do even though we are sheltering in place.
Sign on and spread the word about these actions:
1. Sign the Open Letter to the US government and United Nations against the US war on Venezuela. Click here to sign.
2. Sign the Open Letter to oppose the false charges being made against Venezuelan officials. Click here to sign.
3. Share a photo of yourself holding a sign opposing the war on Venezuela and use the hashtag #FightCovidNotVenezuela. Tag President Trump and your Members of Congress. If you tag @PopResistance, we will retweet it.
4. Start making plans now for the May 25 to 31 Global Week of Actions against sanctions and imperialism. Learn more at SanctionsKill.org. Be creative — if we can’t gather then do something virtual or a car caravan.
THE OPEN LETTER
To the Government of the United States and the United Nations
(April 9, 2020) — Dear Friends of Peace, Justice and Human Rights Around the World,
The global spread of COVID-19 has exposed the illegal and immoral practice of imposing unilateral coercive measures (economic sanctions) by the United States government against more than thirty nations. The economic war against those nations had already resulted in unimaginable suffering of the people in the targeted nations even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the devastation of the global pandemic, the targeted countries — especially Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Syria and Zimbabwe — are finding it prohibitively difficult to protect and save the lives of their citizens in the face of the ongoing global emergency. These sanctions constitute crimes against humanity.
Instead of helping these countries fight the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government of the United States is now using the public distraction caused by the pandemic to intensify its military actions against the targeted nations. It is increasing its threats against Iran and Syria by engaging in a silent buildup of its military forces in Iraq again, and has dispatched its Naval warships to the shores of Venezuela, demanding the total surrender of the Venezuelan government to the United States.
Only a global wave of popular protest can stop these anti-human policies and actions.
Please use the link provided below to sign the Open Letter to the Government of the United States and the United Nations, addressed to the President of the United States and Secretary General of the United Nations, demanding that all US and UN sanctions against the targeted nations be lifted, and all US military threats and actions against them be stopped immediately.
We are dealing with a global emergency and must act quickly.
Tim Anderson, Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies
Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus, MIT; Professor, U. of Arizona
Gerald Horne, Historian, University of Houston, Texas
Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental Institute for Social Research
Cornel West, Harvard University
Iraklis Tsavdaridis, World Peace Council
Bahman Azad, US Peace Council
Ajamu Baraka, Black Alliance for Peace
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK
Jackie Cabasso, United for Peace and Justice
Nathaniel Chase, International Action Center
Omowale Clay, December 12th Movement
Gerry Condon, Veterans For Peace
Darien De Lu, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom — US Section
Sara Flounders, International Action Center
Miguel Figueroa, Canadian Peace Congress
Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance
Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Roger Harris, Task Force on the Americas
Chuck Kaufman, Alliance for Global Justice
Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report
Joe Lombardo, United National Antiwar Coalition
Alfred Marder, US Peace Council
Makasi Metoma, People’s Power Assemblies
Teri Mattson, CODEPINK
Nancy Price, Alliance for Democracy (US)
Cindy Sheehan, March on the Pentagon
Gar Smith, Environmentalists Against War
David Swanson, World BEYOND War
Emily Thomas, IFCO Pastors for Peace
Gail Walker, IFCO: Pastors for Peace
Yasemin Zahra, US Labor Against the War
Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance
Open Letter to Condemn Trump Administration’s Hypocritical Indictment on Drug Charges of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and High-Ranking Venezuelan Officials
The Alliance for Global Justice, CODEPINK, and Friends invite your organization and prominent individuals in your community to sign on to the Open Letter below. The letter will be used to educate the press, public, and elected officials about the US government’s economic and political war against Venezuela at a time when all countries are struggling to combat the global pandemic, COVID-19.
For more background, we invite you to read this excellent analysis, Trump’s Narcoterrorism Indictment of Maduro Already Backfires by CODEPINK’s Leonardo Flores. If you are authorized to sign on behalf of your organization, click here or send an email to: AfGJ@AFGJ.org with name, title, organization name, city, country and contact email. This letter will be open for sign-ons until April 12, 2020.
Open Letter to Condemn Trump Administration’s Hypocritical Indictment on Drug Charges of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and High-Ranking Venezuelan Officials
We, the undersigned organizations and prominent individuals, condemn the false claims of criminal charges by the US government against the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and other high-ranking officials with the pretext of their alleged involvement in international drug trafficking.
The US government is offering a $15 million bounty for information that would lead to the arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro. Bounties of $10 million are offered for the National Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, retired generals Hugo Carvajal and Clive Alcala, Minister for Industry and National Production Tareck El Aissami, and other Venezuelans. The US government indictments accuse the Venezuelan officials of participating in a “narco-terrorism conspiracy” with the Colombian guerrilla group FARC to “flood the United States with cocaine.”
The US has refused to recognize the democratically elected Venezuelan President Maduro and has been seeking to install one to its liking, currently Juan Guaido. What the US is doing is ordering the arrest of world leaders it does not approve of, putting a bounty on their heads.
This decision of the US constitutes a further escalation in coercive measures against a sovereign country, which has included sanctions so extreme as to create a blockade, costing Venezuela 40,000 lives in a period of just over a year and $116 billion in lost revenue.
It is well-documented that two close and long-time US allies in Latin America, the governments of Colombia and Honduras, have been heavily involved in narco trafficking. The last Latin American leader the US charged with drug trafficking was Panama’s Manuel Noriega (who was running drugs with the CIA). The US then invaded his country and later imprisoned him in Miami.
Actual Evidence of Venezuela Involvement in Drug Trafficking
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), which is unfriendly to the Venezuelan government, finds: “CCDB [US interagency Consolidated Counterdrug Database] data does not justify many of the claims made by those who advance the ‘narcostate’ narrative to describe organized crime in Venezuela today and to argue against efforts to achieve a negotiated path to democratic governance in Venezuela. As noted, US authorities estimate that 93 percent of US-bound cocaine is trafficked through Western Caribbean and Eastern Pacific routes, not through Venezuela’s Eastern Caribbean coast.”
The WOLA study found that the US government data suggests that, despite these challenges, Venezuela is not a primary transit country for US-bound cocaine. The State Department reports that over six times as much cocaine passed through Guatemala in 2018 than through Venezuela. Around 90 percent of all US-bound cocaine is trafficked through western Caribbean and eastern Pacific routes, not through Venezuela’s eastern Caribbean seas.
The US Department of Justice has not presented evidence to substantiate their narco-trafficking indictment. Washington’s case looks politically motivated. In the wake of over six years of US sanctions and over a year of failed attempted coups, the majority support of the Venezuelan people for their democratically elected government has not been shaken.
We, the Undersigned, Demand that the US Government:
• Drop the groundless indictments against President Maduro and others.
• Lift the sanctions so that Venezuela can purchase life-giving medicines and medical equipment to fight the coronavirus pandemic that is threatening the entire world.
• Restore normal relations with Venezuela based on peace and respect for national sovereignty.
Sincerely,
Chuck Kauman, National Co-Coordinator, Alliance for Global Justice
Terri Mattson, Latin America Coordinator, CODEPINK
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
