Dear Editor,
On Thursday March 26th 2020, a release from the US Office of Public Affairs stated that Nicolas Maduro Moros [president of Venezuela], Venezuela’s vice president for the economy, Venezuela’s Minister of Defense, and Venezuela’s Chief Supreme Court Justice, were among 14 high ranking Venezuelan officials charged in New York City; Washington, DC; and Miami, along with current and former Venezuelan government officials as well as two leaders of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionaries de Colombia (FARC) a well-known terrorist drug group. This announcement was made by U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr, plus U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman of the Southern District of New York, plus U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the Southern District of Florida.
Attorney General Barr is quoted as saying that ‘The Venezuelan regime, led by Nicolás Maduro Moros, remains plagued by criminality and corruption.” “For more than 20 years, Maduro and a number of high-ranking colleagues allegedly conspired with the FARC, causing tons of cocaine to enter and devastate American communities. Today’s announcement is focused on rooting out the extensive corruption within the Venezuelan government – a system constructed and controlled to enrich those at the highest levels of the government. The United States will not allow these corrupt Venezuelan officials to use the U.S. banking system to move their illicit proceeds from South America nor further their criminal schemes.” This was in 2020 Editor, and these were allegations made directly by the US government, not some fly by night newscast on YouTube. It was done at a time when the US refused to recognize Maduro as President, recognizing instead that he lost the elections to Juan Guaido since 2015 from which time, the US recognized Guaido as being the de facto President of Venezuela, and Maduro as former President.
As recently as January 2023 we saw the following “US says Venezuela’s Maduro still illegitimate’’, even after he unilaterally disbanded what was supposed to be the legitimate opposition ‘government’. The United States said it still did not consider Nicolas Maduro to be the legitimate President of Venezuela and would maintain sanctions after the fledgling opposition dissolved its “interim government.” All my life, I and a few other close friends, have strived to have views which are immutable. That if people who you support no longer allow you to hold those views, you have an inalienable constitutional right to withdraw your support from them. Before I go further, I want everyone to know that of all countries in the world, I praise and respect the US domestic legal and political system the most, and I have lived and owned property there for over 23 years. If you beat your dog in the US, your neighbours will be outraged and the authorities will be coming for you, but American foreign policy has destroyed more countries and people than any other major world power in history, and American citizens seem to be completely unaware of it, or uncaring of its effect.
As recently as 4th January 2023 the US declared that they do not regard Maduro as Venezuelan’s President, but just a few months later around October 2023, this same illegal hombre, labelled by the US State Department as a drug dealing terrorist, was persuaded to promise that he would be a good boy in future and hold democratic elections next year and sanctions will be lifted. Editor, not that if he complies, the sanctions will be lifted, that the sanctions will be lifted if he agrees to be a good boy and hold democratic elections next year. The ink was not dry on THAT agreement in October this year when Maduro launched his attack on Guyana forcing us to seek help at the ICJ. So, the Venezuelan claim has always been rooted, according to my impeccable sources, in the Good Officer process which was foisted on us because the US wanted an extra big stick to keep Jagan and Burnham in line in case the Proportional Representation plan did not work.
All of this hypocrisy has to do with US interests, yes they are sending help to us now, and we appreciate it, but since this controversy was created by them in the first place, and since Maduro’s sudden attacks on Guyana is probably fueled by his perception that since the US needs Venezuelan’s oil and his promise to have democratic elections next year, he can do anything. In view of his current actions of thumbing his nose at the ICJ, the UN, the OAS etc. can anyone trust a man like this? I think that the US should invade Venezuela and collect that criminal and take him into the US and jail him, doing so will release 24 or 25 million people from a daily dose of hopelessness and despair.
Is it unreasonable for me as a Guyanese, affected by the actions of this drug dealing terrorist, labelled so by the US state department itself, to ask the US to invade Venezuela and collect Maduro as they collected the former president of Panama, Manuel Noriega, in 1989 who was also charged with drug trafficking and racketeering and who is still in jail in Florida? Aren’t the charges against Maduro equally as legal and serious as the ones against Noriega? How many Venezuelans, and indeed US citizens, have to die before they deal with this man? If I appear to be unduly harsh, its nothing compared to the release by the then DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon “These Venezuelan officials [under Maduro] repeatedly and knowingly betrayed the people of Venezuela, conspiring, for personal gain, with drug traffickers and designated foreign terrorist organizations like the FARC. Today’s actions send a clear message to corrupt officials everywhere that no one is above the law or beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. The Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration will continue to protect the American people from ruthless drug traffickers – no matter who they are or where they live.”
At least the US should put back the sanctions on this man who has terrorized the Venezuelan population for decades and is now doing the same to Guyana, they must also employ measures to force him out of government. The CIA will know what to do. What’s the clear message that they are sending to the world? Calling this man a drug dealing terrorist one month, and apparently forgetting it the next month and doing deals and lifting sanctions forgetting that he is a wanted criminal in the USA! It’s a bad image to have.
Sincerely,
Tony Vieira