The Los Angeles Times reports in “Trump administration diverts Central America aid to U.S.-backed opposition in Venezuela” that: “The Trump administration plans to divert more than $40 million in humanitarian aid from Central America to the U.S.-backed opposition in Venezuela, according to an internal memo and interviews.
“The memo, dated July 11 and obtained by The Times, is a notification to Congress from the U.S. Agency for International Development that the money is going to Venezuela in response to an ‘exigent’ crisis involving U.S. ‘national interest.’
“The U.S. has been an ardent supporter of forces attempting to oust the leftist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and now recognizes his challenger, opposition leader Juan Guaido, as the legitimate ruler of the besieged nation.
“All of the money being diverted will go to Guaido and his faction, the memo said, to pay for their salaries, airfare, ‘good governance’ training, propaganda, technical assistance for holding elections and other ‘democracy-building’ projects.
“The $41.9 million had been destined for Guatemala and Honduras, two of three countries in Central America’s so-called Northern Triangle, an impoverished and violence-ridden region that accounts for the majority of migrants now fleeing to the United States.”
DAN KOVALIK, dkovalik at outlook.com, @danielmkovalik
Kovalik is author of the just-released book The Plot To Overthrow Venezuela, which has a foreword by Oliver Stone.
Kovalik said today: “Again, we see that the claim of ‘humanitarian intervention’ in Venezuela is nothing but a fig leaf for imperial designs aimed at stealing Venezuela’s oil. As a recent study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, co-authored by economist Jeffrey Sachs, concluded, U.S. sanctions since August of 2017 have killed over 40,000 Venezuelans and will kill even more this year. Yet, the U.S. continue to ratchet up these sanctions, even attempting to sanction Venezuela’s food-distribution system known as CLAP [Local Supply and Production Committees]. The U.S. is simply running the same game plan of regime change it has since its coup in Iran in 1953 — starve out the target country and then blame it for starving.
“And now, we see the U.S. diverting much-needed humanitarian aid for Central America — a region greatly in need of such aid given the U.S.’s ravaging of that region with war and death squads — to the Venezuelan opposition. And, it is doing so despite recent revelations that the opposition forces it is supporting have themselves diverted aid to such things as luxury hotels, clothing and their own pockets. No, this is not a humanitarian intervention in Venezuela — it is an old-time stick-up which must be opposed.”
Background accuracy.org news release: “Will Elliott Abrams, ‘Abettor of Genocide,’ do to Venezuela What He did to Guatemala?“