Former US Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has been on fire recently. In particular, she’s been putting the mainstream US left to shame with her vocal opposition to the US-backed coup attempt in Venezuela. This week, on the 30th anniversary of a notorious massacre by a US-backed government in the country, she had a perfect takedown of US warhawks. And we should all listen to her.
When the US turned a blind eye to Venezuela’s biggest massacre
As author George Ciccariello-Maher pointed out on 27 February:
https://twitter.com/ciccmaher/status/1100767976339460096
And Stein spread that message. In particular, she stressed how Washington ignored the Caracazo (Venezuela’s biggest massacre in the 20th century) just like it ignores the dire situations in Colombia and Honduras today:
30 years ago Venezuela's neoliberal gov't brutally crushed a poor people's uprising. US ignored it, just like it ignores political prisoners, targeted killings, & humanitarian crises in right-wing states like Colombia & Honduras. US cares about #Venezuela's oil, NOT human rights. https://t.co/XBKYZ7wpKw
— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) February 27, 2019
Colombia and Honduras, of course, are US allies. Venezuela, on the other hand, isn’t. And Washington has a long history of boosting far-right allies in Latin America while opposing anyone on the left.
Seriously, Washington? Stop taking the piss.
US political elites have been obsessing over Venezuela’s crisis for weeks now. They’ve also been tightening their chokehold on Venezuela’s economy with more and more sanctions. As a former UN expert told The Canary this week:
the sanctions are the direct cause of death… they constitute a crime against humanity
Stein isn’t falling for the warhawks’ propaganda and phoney concern, though. Instead, she’s been pointing out that these same elites have done precious nothing to end crises raging at home:
Isn't it weird that Trump hasn't done a thing to help 40M Americans in poverty, 29M without health insurance, 500K living on the streets, or entire cities without clean water… but suddenly he cares so much about humanitarian aid to #Venezuela that he's willing to start a war?
— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) February 25, 2019
Republicans seem concerned about a video of people in #Venezuela eating from the garbage. Strange – they've never done a thing to help over 500K homeless Americans! But if they really want to help Venezuelans, why not lift sanctions The Economist admitted will lead to starvation?
— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) February 27, 2019
Isn't it strange that Trump wants to ram through #Venezuela's border to "bring humanitarian aid to desperate people", while his party wants to prosecute Americans who give water to refugees at our border? Almost like their "humanitarian aid" is just an excuse to incite a war.
— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) February 26, 2019
Stein has brilliantly cut through the bullshit that US warhawks have been spewing for weeks now. And she’s exposed and stressed two key points:
- That Washington picks and chooses which foreign crises to get angry about, usually depending on whether the local governments are allies or not.
- That Washington waxes lyrical about poverty abroad, but does next to nothing to address the crisis of poverty and inequality at home.
They’re points that we all need to remember. And they’re points we need to be throwing back into the face of anyone who’s calling for illegal regime-change efforts in Venezuela.
Featured image via Wikimedia – Paul Stein
