The following statement was issued by the revolutionary government of Cuba on 12 February 2019.
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The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba condemns the escalation of pressures and actions of the US government in preparation for a military adventure under the guise of a ‘humanitarian intervention’ in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and calls on the international community to mobilise in order to prevent its consummation.
Between 6 and 10 February 2019, several military transport aircraft have been flying to the Rafael Miranda airport in Puerto Rico; the San Isidro airbase in the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean islands that have a strategic location, most certainly without the knowledge of the governments of those nations.
These flights took off from US military facilities from where special operation troops and US Marine Corps units operate. These units have previously been used for covert operations, even against leaders of other countries.
Media and political circles, even in the US, have revealed that extremist figures of that government with a long history of actions and slanders aimed at causing or instigating wars, such as John Bolton, US national security advisor; and Mauricio Claver-Carone, director of the National Security Council’s office of western hemisphere affairs, counting on the connivance of Marco Rubio, senator of the anti-Cuban mafia of Florida, designed, directly and thoroughly organised and obtained the funds, from their posts in Washington, for the attempted coup d’etat in Venezuela by means of the illegal self-proclamation of a president.
They are the same who, either personally or through the state department, have been putting brutal pressures on numerous governments to force them to support the arbitrary call for new presidential elections in Venezuela, while promoting recognition for the usurper, who hardly earned 97,000 votes as a parliamentarian, against the more than 6 million Venezuelans who elected constitutional president Nicolás Maduro Moros last May.
After the resistance put up by the Bolivarian and Chavista people against the coup, evidenced by the mass demonstrations in support of President Maduro and the loyalty of the national Bolivarian armed forces, the US government has intensified its international political and media campaign and strengthened unilateral economic coercive measures against Venezuela, among them the blocking of Venezuelan funds in third countries’ banks, which are billions of dollars’ worth; and the theft of the oil revenues of that sister nation, which are causing grave humanitarian damages and harsh deprivations to its people.
In addition to this cruel and unjustifiable plunder, the US intends to fabricate a humanitarian pretext in order to launch a military aggression against Venezuela, and is seeking to introduce in the territory of that sovereign nation, by resorting to intimidation, pressure and force, an alleged humanitarian aid which is one thousand times inferior as compared to the economic damages provoked by the siege imposed from Washington.
The usurper and self-proclaimed ‘president’ shamelessly announced his disposition to call for a US military intervention under the pretext of receiving the aforementioned ‘humanitarian aid’; and has described the sovereign and proud rejection of that maneuver as a “crime against humanity”.
US high officials have been arrogantly and blatantly reminding us all, day after day, that when it comes to Venezuela, “all options are on the table, including military action”.
In the process of fabricating pretexts, the US government has resorted to deception and slanders, for it presented a draft resolution at the United Nations security council, which cynically and hypocritically expresses deep concern about “the human rights and humanitarian situation … the recent attempts to block the delivery of humanitarian aid, the millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants”, the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, the breakdown of regional peace and security in Venezuela, and urges the UN “to take the necessary steps”.
It is obvious that the United States is paving the way to forcibly establish a ‘humanitarian corridor’ under ‘international supervision’, invoke the ‘obligation to protect’ civilians and take ‘all necessary steps’.
It is worth recalling that similar behaviours and pretexts were resorted to by the US during the prelude to the wars it launched against Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya, which resulted in tremendous human losses and caused enormous suffering.
The US government attempts to remove the biggest obstacle – the Bolivarian and Chavista revolution – to the imperialist domination of Our America and deprive the Venezuelan people of the largest certified oil reserve of the planet and numerous other strategic natural resources.
It would be impossible to forget the sad and painful history of US military interventions perpetrated more than once in Mexico, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Honduras and, most recently, Grenada and Panama.
As was warned by army general Raúl Castro Ruz on 14 July 14 2017: “The aggression and coup violence against Venezuela harm all of ‘Our America’ and only benefit the interests of those set on dividing us in order to exercise their control over our peoples, unconcerned about causing conflicts of incalculable consequences in this region, like those we are seeing in different parts of the world.”
History will severely judge a new imperialist military intervention in the region and the complicity of those who might irresponsibly support it.
What is at stake today in Venezuela is the sovereignty and dignity of Latin America and the Caribbean and the peoples of the South. Equally at stake is the survival of the rules of international law and the UN charter. What is being defined today is whether the legitimacy of a government emanates from the express and sovereign will of its people or from the recognition of foreign powers.
The Revolutionary Government calls for an international mobilisation in defence of peace in Venezuela and the region, based on the principles enshrined in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, which was adopted by the heads of state and government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in 2014.
It likewise welcomes and supports the Montevideo mechanism, an initiative promoted by Mexico, Uruguay, the Caribbean Commonwealth (Caricom) and Bolivia, which seeks to preserve peace in Venezuela based on the principles of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, legal equality of states and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, as stated in its recent declaration.
It welcomes the positive consideration given to said initiative by President Maduro Moros and the international community and expresses its concern about the categorical rejection by the US government of the initiatives of dialogue promoted by several countries, including this.
The Revolutionary Government reiterates its firm and unwavering solidarity with constitutional president Nicolás Maduro Moros, the Bolivarian and Chavista revolution and the civic and military unity of its people, and calls upon all peoples and governments of the world to defend peace and put up a joint opposition, over and above political or ideological differences, to a new military and imperialist intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will harm the independence, sovereignty and interests of all peoples from Rio Bravo to Patagonia.
Havana, 12 February 2019
