By Otiato Opali and Suleiman Ongara
With the levels of inequality growing stark by the day, the resurgence of the class struggle and the growing support for socialism in the working class is developing the world over. Runaway consumerism, a climate crisis, and a global pandemic have brought to the fore the glaring pitfalls of the capitalist system.
Nowhere is this truer than in Latin America, where some 650 million people confront the deepest social inequality on the planet.
From the CIA's backhand operations to overthrow popular socialist leaders in Latin America to Cuba's socialist revolution which overthrew the pro-American dictator Batista, United States of America’s foreign policy in Latin America has continued to fail. Enter Venezuela and the water gets murkier.
Venezuela's case is somehow a case study into how United States (U.S) capitalist interests can ravage a State that is not toeing the line of imperialist interests. Venezuela was once a darling of the U.S as was Cuba once. This was the time when U.S and foreign companies had a field day in running the Venezuelan economy.
However, after economic hardships brought about by neo-liberalism in the 1980s and 90s, the Venezuelan people put Hugo Chavez in power. Through people-centred policies, Chavez elevated the Venezuelan economy by nationalizing major oil companies eventually driving out western companies that bought into the privatisation of the seventies and eighties to make a kill out of the people’s resources.
The overthrow of the capitalist government not only marked an end to the West's grip on Venezuela's natural resources, but it also marked the beginning of the war on Venezuela this time waged on the economic and political front. However, Hugo Chavez was steadfast and Venezuelans stuck with him throughout western sanctions to the chagrin of corporate interests who still wanted a way back into Venezuela.
The latest elections held in Venezuela are a clear indication of the West’s incessant itch to interfere with nations that choose the socialist path to development. After openly disregarding Venezuela’s constitutional autonomy by their refusal to recognise the democratically elected President Nicholas Maduro, the United States has imposed a total embargo on Venezuela while the European Union has imposed more sanctions. So far, the West has not made any attempt to disguise their intentions to oust President Nicolas Maduro and replace him with Juan Guaido, an obvious puppet.
The United States under Donald Trump has been breathing fire on the Venezuelan Government and at times stating that they will consider intervening militarily in Venezuela ‘if necessary’. The former Secretary of State John Bolton frequently and openly encouraged generals in the Venezuelan army to overthrow Maduro.
Early July 2020, the UK High Court ruled against Venezuela's Government in a legal battle over access to $1bn of gold stored in the Bank of England. In its ruling, the court said that the UK had unequivocally recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as president, rather than President Nicolas Maduro.
While denouncing his Presidency, the UK is hosting Maduro’s ambassador who represents her country at the official Venezuelan residence in London and directs the staff of the embassy while the UK’s ambassador is also currently stationed at Caracas to maintain and develop relations between the UK and Venezuela led by Maduro’s government. Talk of a foot in mouth situation.
For the West, Venezuela presents a good opportunity to re-introduce a capitalist system and touch base with resources long lost. However, Venezuela is not up for sale to the highest bidder. It is a real place, full of real people who are undergoing an unprecedented crisis.
As a result of the West’s insatiable greed and punitive sanctions, lack of basic amenities and services are rife in Venezuela. In the long run, it is the working masses of Venezuela who have known and witnessed an economic war waged on them by western powers who do not respect their sovereign right to elect the leaders they want and to produce within a system of their choice.
This multipronged war on Venezuela is being aided by multinational corporations who are still bitter at being shown the door during the Bolivarian Revolution led by Hugo Chavez. To add salt to the injury, the economic sanctions imposed by the West haven’t been authorized by the United Nations Security Council.
Without the cover of the Charter of the United Nations, the sanctions are effectively illegal and more so because they obstruct food and medicine imports which means they violate international humanitarian and human rights laws especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
In the West’s grand scheme of things, Venezuela is viewed as a symbol of an opposing system that must be made to fail by all means to prove the superiority of capitalism over socialism, but this is where they go wrong.
Even amidst this extremely brutal imperialist economic, political, financial and commercial blockade, the Venezuelan socialists and patriots are resisting and fighting against all foreign domination and against restoration of capitalism. A people and a state that is struggling will ultimately triumph if not today, tomorrow.
We appeal to Kenyans, Africans and all progressive and anti-imperialist organisations globally to condemn the sanctions on Venezuela and to also condemn the blockade on Cuba. It is only through solidarity at an international level that imperialism can once and for all be defeated.