Criticisms of The United States - Venezuela

www.tripolipost.com

The article from this website is one written by Alimamy Bakarr Sankoh, expressing condemnation of the United States' policy in Venezuela, and published in The Tripoli Post in June of this year.

In it he points a finger at the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's anti-Venezuelan policy, bequeathed by President Bush's administration. The author purports that this amounts to international state terrorism, with a wish to destroy the country's president Hugo Chavez. He accuses the United States of funding right wing fascist democratic opposition and criticises the building of military bases in Columbia, creating local fear. As a representative of the capitalist class, he accuses Hilary Clinton of 'ruthless exploitation of natural resources, and of degradation and dehumanizing worldwide.' He cites US action in other South American countries as destabilizing peace. He refutes the comments made about how the people are suffering under Chavez' leadership and names it as a lie, spread across the world through imperialist media. He says the US condones terrorism and subversion (a reference to the unsuccessful coup supposedly backed by the US) whom he calls an outside intruder.

The next part of the article reveals the strong resentment felt about another conflict - the struggle between Israel and Palestine. The author is writing in The Tripoli Post in Colonel Gadaffi's Libya. Gadaffi is a strong supporter of the PLO. The United States is seen to support Israel. He suggests Hilary Clinton diverted international attention away from that issue, by talking about the nations of Latin America.

He labels the US as a dirty imperialist. He uses emotive words such as ongoing holocaust and white supremacist to describe the policies of the United States and Israel.

He concludes with wholehearted support and admiration for President Chavez (he says he is the president of the Hugo Chavez International Foundation for Peace, Friendship and Solidarity) and calls on the US to end its' arrogant terrorism.

Believing all you read in this article is tricky, as is interpreting some of the accusations. If there's truth in Sankoh's accusations, his criticisms may be just, but without evidence, it is problematic to assume all of what he says is valid.

It may be helpful to look at the final two paragraphs of the Summary from the website below, which sets out the US Government's account of relations with Venezuela.

www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/PL32488.pdf

Jill Glazier