[Peace-discuss] Venezuela: Amnesty International in Service of Empire

Mon May 20 13:33:45 UTC 2019

Venezuela: Amnesty International in Service of Empire

By Roger D Harris 

May 19, 2019 

|  <https://popularresistance.org/educate/> Educate!

Uncle Sam has a problem in his South American 
<https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/05/11/john-bolton-and-the-monroe-doc
trine> backyard with those uppity Venezuelans who insisted on
<https://consortiumnews.com/2018/06/04/venezuela-reelects-maduro-defying-the
-u-s/> democratically electing Nicolás Maduro as their president instead of
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/08/juan-guaido-the-man-who-would-be-pr
esident-of-venezuela-doesnt-have-a-constitutional-leg-to-stand-on/>
by-passing the electoral process and installing the unelected US
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-reg
ime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/> asset Juan Guaidó. No
matter, Amnesty International has come to the rescue with a full-throated
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/05/venezuela-crimes-against-hum
anity-require-response-from-international-justice-system/> defense of US
imperialism:

Faced with grave human rights violations, shortages of medicines and food
and generalized violence in Venezuela, there is an urgent hunger for
justice. The crimes against humanity probably committed by the authorities
must not go unpunished.  Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty
International

Amnesty International fails in its broadside to put its claims against the
Maduro government in the context of a concerted regime-change campaign,
which amounts to war, by the bully from the north. The US is waging an
<https://countercurrents.org/2019/05/the-u-s-is-waging-a-war-on-the-bolivari
an-republic-venezuela-roundup> illegal war against Venezuela and Amnesty
Internationals broadside leaves out this inconvenient fact, egregiously
even omitting any mention of sanctions.

As human rights activist Chuck Kaufman of the  <https://afgj.org/> Alliance
for Global Justice noted about Amnesty International (AI): They dont seem
to even care about their credibility anymore. A more credible and honest
account of what is unfolding in Venezuela, than the hatchet job presented in
AIs May 14th
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/05/venezuela-crimes-against-hum
anity-require-response-from-international-justice-system/> Venezuela: Crimes
against humanity require a vigorous response from the international justice
system, would have also noted along with the alleged transgressions of the
Maduro government:

 Grave human rights violations. Economists Mark Weisbrot of the Center for
Economic and Policy Research and Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University
recently
<http://cepr.net/press-center/press-releases/report-finds-us-sanctions-on-ve
nezuela-are-responsible-for-tens-of-thousands-of-deaths> reported that US
sanctions on Venezuela are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. This
is the price being exacted on Venezuela, with a prediction for worse to
come, for the
<https://www.salon.com/2019/05/17/the-plot-to-kill-venezuela_partner/>
regime change that AI is implicitly promoting.

 Shortages of medicines and food. Since 2015, when US President Obama first
instituted them, the US has been imposing ever more crippling
<https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-imposes-illegal-deadly-sanctions-venezuela
/5676365> illegal sanctions on Venezuela expressly to create misery for the
population in the hope that it would then turn against their own
<https://fair.org/home/distorting-democracy-in-venezuela-coverage/>
democratically elected government. The sanctions are specifically
<https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-sanctions-make-economic-recovery-i
n-venezuela-nearly-impossible/> designed to suffocate the economy so that
Venezuela cannot address its problems. The US government
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/05/06/us-state-department-publishes-then-delet
es-sadistic-venezuela-hit-list-boasting-of-economic-ruin/?eType=EmailBlastCo
ntent&eId=d90d5a24-9b7a-4367-a01d-2989c50d19dc> boasts about the impacts
of sanctions. Playing the good cop to the US role as bad cop, AI
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/29/lamenting-venezuelas-humanitarian-c
risis-while-blocking-its-resolution/> laments the very conditions they are
tacitly promoting in asking for ever increasing 
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/05/venezuela-crimes-against-hum
anity-require-response-from-international-justice-system/> punishments. New
US sanctions on Venezuela were imposed on May 10th.

 Generalized violence. The US government has repeatedly and
unapologetically threatened
<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mike-pence-donald-trump-venezuela-military-opt
ion-colombia-juan-manuel-santos/> military intervention in Venezuela if the
elected government doesnt abdicate. Short of attacking militarily, the US
has
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/15/a-criminal-affair-united-states-imp
oses-war-on-the-venezuelan-people/> waged war against Venezuela by economic
and diplomatic means, not to mention low-intensity
<https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-venezuela-war-us/5671702> warfare such as
<https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-venezuela-war-us/5671702> cyber attacks.
The extreme  <http://www.coha.org/right-wing-terrorism-in-venezuela/>
rightwing opposition has called for the extra-legal overthrow of the
government and has eschewed electoral means for effecting political change.
AI is correct in noting that since 2017 new violence has been inflicted on
the Venezuelan people but fails to note the role of the opposition in
provoking that
<https://www.telesurenglish.net/analysis/Venezuelan-Guarimbas-11-Things-the-
Media-Didnt-Tell-You-20150211-0025.html> violence with their guarimbas and
other actions. Meanwhile Guaidó, whose popular support in Venezuela is
<https://countercurrents.org/2019/05/venezuela-roundup-guaido-now-seeks-dire
ct-relationship-with-the-u-s-southern-command> bottoming out, is reported
sending his envoy to meet with the US
<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/juan-guaidos-envoy-to-u-s-to-meet-with-u-s-sou
thern-command/> Southern Command to coordinate.

How is it possible that an organization purporting to stand for human rights
and global justice can so blithely ignore facts that do not fit into their
narrative and so obsequiously parrot the Trump-Pompeo-Bolton-Abrams talking
points? Why would AI go so far as to
<https://twitter.com/DuncanTucker/status/1097908420408213512> meet with the
<https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/01/30/what-the-mainstre
am-media-wont-tell-you-about-the-man-at-the-centre-of-the-us-backed-coup-in-
venezuela/> self-appointed Guaidó and then within days issue a
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/02/venezuela-hunger-punishment-
and-fear-the-formula-for-repression-used-by-authorities-under-nicolas-maduro
/> report condemning the Maduro government, without also investigating the
other side in the conflict?

Unfortunately, this is not the first time AI has shown an
<https://twitter.com/DuncanTucker/status/1097908420408213512> imperial bias
as it has regarding US-backed regime-change projects in
<https://www.lrb.co.uk/v13/n03/alexander-cockburn/right-stuff> Iraq,
<https://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2012/11/14/amnesty-international-and-
the-human-rights-industry/> Libya,
<https://dissidentvoice.org/2015/05/eight-problems-with-amnestys-report-on-a
leppo-syria/> Syria, and
<https://afgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Dismissing-the-Truth-Executive-
Summary.pdf> Nicaragua.

Objectively deconstructing the many allegations (e.g., more than 8,000
extrajudicial executions by the security forces) made against Venezuela in
the AI broadside and its accompanying report remains to be done.
Unfortunately, the Empire has a surfeit of resources to churn out propaganda
compared to the ability to counter it by genuine humanitarian groups. AI
alone has an annual budget of over
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/2017-global-financial-report/> $300 million.
According to sources cited by Wikipedia, AI receives grants from the US
State Department, the European Commission, and other governments along with
the Rockefeller Foundation.

To conclude, AIs broadside calls for justice about as often as it calls for
punishment with the subtext that punishment of the Empires victims is
justice. Were AI truly concerned about justice, rather than justifying
another US
<https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-
the-master-list> regime-change operation, they would champion the following:

 Ending the unilateral sanctions by the US on Venezuela, which are illegal
under the charters of the United Nations and the Organization of American
States.
 Supporting dialogue between the elected government and the opposition as
has been promoted by Mexico, Uruguay, Pope Francis, and most recently by
<https://apnews.com/46613ff2cbaa4712b3dfb09d76ce1bc7> Norway.
 Condemning regime-change activities and interference in Venezuelas
internal affairs and actively rejecting the US governments aggressive
stance as articulated by US VP
<https://sputniknews.com/latam/201902011072045106-pence-maduro-government-us
a-venezuela/> Pence: This is no time for dialogue. This is time for
action.
 Respecting the sovereignty of Venezuela and restoring normal diplomatic
relations between the US and Venezuela.

Roger Harris is with the Task Force on the Americas (
<https://taskforceamericas.org/> http://taskforceamericas.org/), a
33-year-old human rights organization, and is active with the Campaign to
End US-Canadian Sanctions Against Venezuela (
<https://afgj.org/focus-areas/venezuela-solidarity-campaign/campaign-to-end-
us-and-canada-sanctions-against-venezuela> https://tinyurl.com/yd4ptxkx).

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