An assassination attempt on the life of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro took place this week.
While Maduro was speaking at an open-air ceremony on Sunday to commemorate Venezuela’s national guard, two drones suddenly appeared near the speakers’ platform. A loud bang was heard as one of them exploded, injuring seven soldiers.
While Maduro was speaking at an open-air ceremony on Sunday to commemorate Venezuela’s national guard, two drones suddenly appeared near the speakers’ platform. A loud bang was heard as one of them exploded, injuring seven soldiers.
Venezuelan officials reported that the other drone spun out of control and crashed into the side of a nearby apartment building.
In an interview on state television on Monday, Néstor Reverol, the nation’s interior justice and peace minister, reported that the remote-controlled drones had each carried about two pounds of C-4 plastic explosives. He said the attempted assassination of the president was foiled, in part, by equipment designed to jam radio signals.
Six people were reportedly detained in connection with the attack, and at least two have been formally charged.
All the American media commentary on the assassination attempt had focused on Venezuela’s increasing economic crisis and hyperinflation, giving support to the idea that Maduro was under attack because he is unpopular with his people. Although the corporate media repeats this narrative ad nauseam, the facts show otherwise.
Maduro won a second term as president on May 20, 2018, receiving 68 percent of the popular vote in an election declared modern, transparent and fair by all outside observers.
According to the corporate propaganda machine, Venezuela is suffering under the dictatorship of President Nicolás Maduro, a former bus driver blamed by the capitalist powers for the shortages, hyperinflated currency, crime rates, instability and fraudulent elections.
What the corporate media doesn’t report is that the Venezuelan electoral process is one of the most legitimate in the world. After signing a register, a voter’s finger is stained with ink to make sure duplicate votes do not occur. Each voter casts their decision on a voting machine, which can be reviewed by the voter before placing it in a box next to the machine. More than 50 percent of machines are chosen for random audit, which means that the receipt box is opened and tallies compared to the computer readout. What results is a multiparty system run by the dominant PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela).
The PSUV’s position is buttressed by the people of Venezuela themselves. The government reports having built more than 3 million new housing units for the poor.
Health care and education are free in Venezuela, with state universities offering degrees free of charge. In government housing sectors, you can often find schools and CLAP (Local Food Production and Provision Committees) centers within walking distance of one’s front door. Six million Venezuelans utilize the CLAP centers each month, receiving a box of food aid that includes rice, beans, cooking oil, pasta, canned meats, powdered milk and other items.
The price of the box is subsidized, and nearly free under the illegal market’s exchange rates. This is one way that the Bolivarian Revolution seeks to protect its people from sanctions, erratic exchange rates and hyperinflation (The term “Bolivarian” refers to Venezuela’s efforts to free itself from U.S. domination, just as Simón Bolívar in the early 19th century fought to free Latin America from the grip of Spanish colonialism).
None of the mainstream media coverage on the recent assassination attempt has dealt with the strangling economic sanctions, imposed on Venezuela by the United States in a clear effort to bring down the Bolivarian government. Nor does the corporate media report on the continuing assistance given by US imperialism to the violent opposition within the country.
The Venezuelan economy for decades, starting long before the Bolivarian Revolution led by Hugo Chávez, has relied on oil sales to generate the currency for almost all its imports. Just one year ago, Washington sharply ramped up its sanctions, barring US financial institutions from lending to Venezuela, freezing its funds in the international banking system and blocking payments to Venezuela through US-controlled intermediaries.
In March 2018, after the sanctions cut access to dollars, the Venezuelan government launched the Petro, a cryptocurrency based in shares of its vast oil reserves, considered the largest in the world.
The Petro sparked international financial interest, and initial sales of the currency were reportedly worth 3.8 billion in US dollars. In response, US authorities barred American citizens and firms from trading in Petros and, along with its European and Canadian allies, implemented a range of additional sanctions.
Venezuela accused international financial institutions of then holding up the release of its state funds – money that had been earmarked for vital imports like food and medicine. As Maduro said, “The US government is chasing every last dollar that we have in the world.”
In an attempt to further paralyze the Venezuelan economy, more than 20 current and former Venezuelan government officials have been sanctioned, including Maduro, and the White House has barred US banks from loaning Venezuela any money.
Switzerland, a supposedly neutral country that is a financial center for all the major imperialist banks, joined the US in imposing sanctions on Venezuela, saying it was “seriously concerned” about “violations of individual freedom.”
The Swiss bankers have shown no such concern over Saudi Arabia’s domestic or external assaults on freedom, America’s mass incarceration of Black and Brown people or the Trump administration’s ripping apart of immigrant families.
