Hunger and Sanctions 2

Let's now talk about very real starvation on an unspeakable scale: Yemen.

I will not explain here any of the reasons and historical facts behind the aggression on Yemen. In his article The US-Led Genocide and Destruction of Yemen, David William Pear brilliantly explained everything a reasoning and truly humanist mind needs to know about the Western-Gulf aggression on Yemen. So please read it;  I will move on to the most important consequence: the many millions starving to death there.

If the US administration had an unlikely and remote interest on humanitarian aid, instead of providing Saudi Arabia with weapons and military assistance used to destroy Yemen, the US and its client states should punish Saudi Arabia with harsh sanctions and embargoes (instead of Venezuela)

If the US administration had a minimum concern about human life, it would not allow (let alone help, has it does) Saudi Arabia to destroy Yemeni harbors and Yemeni airports in which could arrive the food and medicines necessary to stop the imminent genocide (by starvation) of millions of Yemenis. 

If the US administration does not care about the many thousands of Yemenis killed with US weapons and the many thousands of Yemenis killed by the Saudi blockade on Yemen (implemented with the use of US weapons), there's no logical argument to make any reasonable being believe the US somehow cares about starving Venezuelans.

The problem is: there are many people who have lost the ability to reason!

In the West and in many other clients states of the West, billions manage to self-inflict total ignorance about Yemen, total ignorance about the 2002 failed coup in Venezuela (2019's failed coup is almost a blueprint of 2002's failed coup), so they can conveniently be the deeply committed humanists they mistakenly believe to be when they express their outrage on the human suffering Maduro does not inflict on the Venezuelan people. And so they can become nonconscious supports of US humanitarian bombs that would come after US fake humanitarian aid. And so I call them Western sheep-like humans.

My question to those who support intervention in Venezuela because people are starving:

Where is your outrage for the 14 million Yemeni civilians at the brink of starvation because of our intervention and support of Saudi Arabia in Yemen?

— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) January 29, 2019

Sheep-like humans are precisely what biased Western MSM need, so they can exaggerate the amount of Venezuelans starving, hide the real imperial reasons behind Venezuelan starvation and, of course, ignore accessible official information about the millions that are indeed starving to death in Yemen.

According to a report published by UN News on February 14, 2019:

An estimated 24 million people – close to 80 per cent of the population – need assistance and protection in Yemen, the UN warned on Thursday. With famine threatening hundreds of thousands of lives, humanitarian aid is increasingly becoming the only lifeline for millions across the country.

(...)

Thursday’s 2019 Humanitarian Needs Overview for Yemen report, shows that 14.3 million people are classified as being in acute need, with around 3.2 million requiring treatment for acute malnutrition; that includes two million children under-five, and more than one million pregnant and lactating women.

Highlighting that more than 20 million people across the country are food insecure, half of them suffering extreme levels of hunger, the report focuses on some key humanitarian issues: basic survival needs, protection of civilians and livelihoods and essential basic services.

 

What else must be said to wake up those Westerners who cry for starving Venezuelans? What else? Force them to read the full overview published by the UN: 2019 Humanitarian Needs Overview for Yemen report? I don't think so. They need to reason, but they can't.

And to force them not only would be a violation of their fundamental rights, but also an ineffective way to show them the obvious and real reality they provenly don't want to know about. Most of the people in the West (the Western sheep-like humans) don't want to know, only want to believe "Maduro is bad" and "socialism doesn't work". 

So be it.

But the reality is still out there: millions starving to death in Yemen as a consequence of Western-Saudi terror;  thousands feeling hunger due to the Western economic war on Venezuela.

Their Machiavellian Western MSM, sometimes, even offer them emotional warfare, approaching facts, showing them that yes, it is true, Yemenis are literally starving to death. For instance, look how the British SkyNews shows starving Yemeni children without explained the British government and the British Terrorist Army are (also) to be blamed:

This footage comes from the same parallel reality of Western MSM blaming Yemenis for daring to attack Saudi military bases with drones! Yes, a parallel reality. A perverted parallel reality in which Western media like shameless France24 cries for the damages Yemenis cause in infrastructure used to exterminate Yemenis: "the Sanaa strikes targeted nine military sites in and around the city, residents said, with humanitarian agencies reporting a number of casualties", or "the coalition described the drone attack as a 'war crime'." Really? How dare you?

Still, how can't Westerners manage to not link the dots? How is it possible the vast majority of Westerns do not notice the blatant contradiction between having Yemenis starving and having media blaming Yemenis for daring to resist? Well, probably because they become... Western sheep-like humans! Voila! All they need is to read, in the same France24's article, that the bogeymen (the Iranians) are to blamed: "Iranian-aligned movement", "Iranian tools", etc. And nothing else matters...

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Back to Venezuela, another trending expression on Western Lying Media is "humanitarian crisis". Sure. The fault of the same Western economic war already mentioned here.

But even if not. Even it was, in fact, a humanitarian crisis created by Maduro's alleged mismanagement of Venezuelan internal affairs. So what?

Why so much Western concern about the hyper-exaggerated "humanitarian crisis" in Venezuela when the Western populace barely show any concern about the horrendous humanitarian crisis of slave markets in Western-raped Lybia? Or about the fast-motion and deliberate massacre of native Papuasians at the hands of genocidal Indonesia Army killing in the name of Western's companies and their divine right to profit from everything and over everyone's sufferance? Or about Afghanistan destroyed and colonized by Western armies? Or Syria suffering a genocidal blockade on energy, food and medicines imposed by the same criminal European states than injected terrorism in Syria soil and that bomb Syria anytime they want in total impunity?

What is going on with Western brains? Selective humanism? Supremacist blindness? Total assimilation of fallacious anti-socialism propaganda? Normalization of genocide if it is to sustain their privileged social welfare systems? I insist, the problem probably is: Westerners have lost the ability to reason! If not worst!

Thankfully, there are still Western brains reasoning, like Lee Camp's brain, who constantly and thoroughly breaks apart Western anti-Venezuela propaganda:

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If Western sheep-like humans were truly interested in exposing "humanitarian crisis", instead of blaming the victim (Venezuela), they should be blaming the aggressors (USA, EU and other brothers in crime). 

Once done with it, they should move further. For a matter of coherence, they should start thinking about the US citizens living in total misery, exactly like the Venezuelans shown above. And ask themselves questions such as:

• How dare Western MSM to ironically call Venezuela a "socialist utopia", when neoliberal capitalist US has the very same kind of poverty?
• How can we conclude "socialism" is incapable of producing wealth if socialist states are constantly embargoed, sanctioned and attacked? 
• How comes the fact that hundreds of millions of human beings living in total misery in turbo-capitalist South East Asia is not enough for Western MSM to conclude capitalism is a big failure?
• Why don't Western MSM ironize about an Indonesian "capitalist utopia"?
• Why can't we see more often examples of miserable US citizens in Western MSM?
• Why don't Western journalists take those real examples to start question capitalism the same way they take cooked examples to smear Venezuelan socialism or Cuban communism?

Here are some examples of what should be found in fair and honest Western MSM:

Homelessness and 3rd world conditions in Los Angeles

Alabama's sewage crisis

There's, of course, many more!

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All this I said about US and about gullible Westerners, does not mean I deny the genocide that is happening in Venezuela. On the contrary, it is a fact, a well-documented fact. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research that recently published the report Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela:

[US] sanctions have inflicted, and increasingly inflict, very serious harm to human life and health, including an estimated more than 40,000 deaths from 2017 to 2018; and that these sanctions would fit the definition of collective punishment of the civilian population as described in both the Geneva and Hague international conventions, to which the US is a signatory. They are also illegal under international law and treaties that the US has signed, and would appear to violate US law as well.

The  Center for Economic and Policy Research and its personnel are not the only ones exposing this crime. Recently, Alfred de Zayas, United Nations Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, arrived at a similar conclusion: 

The American sanctions and the European Union sanctions [on Venezuela] are premeditated murder."

Yes, besides being illegal, sanctions and embargoes do kill, as people do not live without goods, and cannot buy goods without money, and there's no money available if there are sanctions and embargoes, as the article Sanctions on PDVSA: the US Oil Lobby clearly demonstrates. The losses are not only direct, as consequences of embargoes and sanctions. Indirect losses such as lower prices for the oil Venezuela somehow manages to sell somewhere else represent also a big economic problem. If you look deeper, you will even find indirect losses outside Venezuela.

Criminal theft and illegal sanctions have cost #Venezuela tens of billions of dollars. Only fools and traitors want the crumbs from Trump's table. #TrumpHandsOffVenezuela . https://t.co/Q5N7XovbX9

— tim anderson (@timand2037) February 19, 2019

As well resumed by Abby Martin, "the US economic blockade of Venezuela already cost them $113 billion between 2013–2017 according to CELA. The embargo asphyxiated the economy, prevented recovery & laid propaganda framework for military intervention".

Do you remember the figure of 40,000 deaths between 2017 and 2018? Now do the maths and calculate how many dozens of thousands were killed by Western Economic War on Venezuela during the period 2013-2017. And do not forget this multi-dimensional war on Venezuela begun much earlier, in the first day of Hugo Chavéz in office, 20 years ago. For instance, read this very well ellaborated resume about the last 5 years of US sanctions on Venezuela: Timeline of Half a Decade of US Economic War Against Venezuela.

Western imperialism is used to conquer and plunder and can't do nothing about it. It can't stop thinking about plundering the country with the world's biggest oil reserve, with the world's second gold reserve and the world's fifth iron reserve, etc. And to do so, first Western imperialism needs to denigrate, sabotage, destroy and exterminate the bad example the Venezuelan Bolivarianism represents. 

And so it starves many. It starves many to death. It kills many...

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As you understood, I am not here denying people are starving to death in Venezuela nowadays.

I'm here asking reasonable human beings to be reasonable and, if possible, Western sheep-like humans to stop being sheep-like on Venezuela and to be just humans, so we can all reasonably conclude what must be logically concluded: the inhuman responsible for death and starvation in Venezuela are the sanctioners and embargoers running the interfering-addicted US administration!

And none of this is new. As very well resumed  by Venezuelanalysis, bullier US imposing embargoes and sanctions on Venezuela is nothing new in this tenacious country, and the methodology is a copy of the murderous tactics inflicted on Allende's Chile and on all the other countless victims of US terrorist interventionism:

            “The United States government and the Venezuelan oligarchy first tried to overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution in 2002. Great hope in Chávez prevented a discredited oligarchy from victory. Oil revenues then allowed Chávez to build up pillars of support for the revolution. But the depletion of the oil prices from 2009 threatened the Bolivarian process. Chávez died in 2013. The combination of low oil prices and the death of Chávez changed the political calculations.

Egged on by the United States, opposition leaders Leopoldo López and María Corina Machado called for demonstrations against the newly elected president Nicolás Maduro in 2014. It was clear that the protests were intended as a provocation, drawing a crackdown from the government forces, which allowed U.S. President Barack Obama to sign the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014. This act allowed Obama to sanction individuals in the Venezuelan government. It was extended in 2016 and will expire—unless extended again—at the end of 2019. The sanctions policy was to be the new lever to pressure a vulnerable Venezuela.

In March 2015, Obama declared Venezuela a “threat” to U.S. “national security,” an extreme step, and sanctioned a handful of Venezuelan government officials. The administration of Donald Trump only sharpened and deepened the policy. Obama sanctioned seven individuals, while Trump has—thus far—sanctioned 75 individuals. Obama forged the spear; Trump has thrown it at the heart of Venezuela.”

And then there's the other kind of sanctions and interferences, equally illegal according to International Law. The sanctions the US usually imposes or threatens to impose on those who don't abide by US international illegality. For instance, read the explanation for what Reuters calls "secondary sanctions": U.S. presses India to stop buying oil from Venezuela's Maduro.

But who in the West cares about International Law, right? US administration never did and, nowadays, openly, John Bolton even makes fun of it, referring to Venezuela in this preposterous manner: "The Monroe Doctrine is alive and well. It's our hemisphere". He said it all. 

 Worse. Look at what Reuters reported 2 months ago:

"The United States will withdraw or deny visas to any International Criminal Court personnel investigating possible war crimes by U.S. forces or allies in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday."

Pompeo, the guy willing to bring "humanitarian aid" to Venezuela: https://t.co/pJKmhH8QWK

— Luís Garcia 🇻🇪🇸🇾🇰🇵🇨🇺🇨🇳🇷🇺🇮🇷🇵🇸 (@lgnomada) May 25, 2019

The US not only doesn't give a shit about International Law (as was always the case), but now openly spits on it! Pompeo clearly admitted US administration sees itself above the law, unpunishable for crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan, and with legitimacy to punish International Criminal Court personnel for doing their job. And there are still people out there genuinely believing the US wants to bring humanitarian aid to Venezuela? Seriously?

Today, the US doesn't care, doesn't try to hide it doesn't care, don't care about what others think about the US constantly breaking International law and, in fact, after having normalized disrespect for International Law, psychopaths like Pompeo, Bolton or Pence seem to be quite proud of their international misconduct.

And so they do it, and keep doing it, perfectly aware of the very high chances their international criminality might result in big troubles for others. And all this does result in (often) tragic consequences for others, all over the planet! And they calmly admit it. And they keep doing, no matter what

Psycopthats? Of course they are! For instance, according to African Globe:

The United States government has, for the first time, admitted that the illegal sanctions it imposed destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy and were hurting ordinary people.

Incoming US Ambassador to Zimbabwe David Bruce Wharton made the admission yesterday at a media roundtable discussion in Harare and pledged to work with authorities in Zimbabwe and the US to normalize relations.

 

What did they learn with the economic warfare they inflicted on Zimbabweans? Nothing: psychopaths!

What did westerners learn from having been manipulated about Zimbabwe? Nothing: sheep-like humans!

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As Maduro constantly says, Venezuelans suffer immensely from the economic war the West inflicts upon them, but this is a transitory process for those who decided to confront the bullies (instead of kneeling). It is transitional torture that must be endured while the solutions for total independence from the imperial West are being built and tested.

Now Venezuelans are faced with hard times they didn't provoke nor asked for. It was imposed from abroad.

The economic siege is there, Venezuelans decided not to surrender... so now the only possible path is to seek true independence.

Measures are being taken to completely de-dollarize the economy; there are plans to trade using rubles, renminbi and more currencies other than the US dollar; the central bank of Venezuela is developing an independent national payment system to avoid being strangled by a Visa/Mastercard blockade; a cryptocurrency named El Petro was created, backed by Venezuela’s oil price; the government establishes partnerships with Chinese investment banks and other banks from China, Russia and other nations; the government looks for alternative markets in countries like Turkey that no longer abide by US dictates; in theory, China, another prime victim of US sanctions, could buy the entire production of Venezuelan oil. 

Once this process is completed, Venezuelan will be in a much better situation: economically independent from the US and Europe. Venezuelan never asked for it, was forced to have it. If it succeeds, no one in the West will compensate Venezuela for the inflicted losses and sufferance Venezuelan economy and Venezuelan had to endure. But Venezuela will no longer be exposed to the risk of being bullied by Imperial West. 

The economic independence will be politically and militarily backed by the emerging nonconformist forces: Russia, China, Iran, and others.

As a result, we will live in a two-blocks world, with the West and its plundered client states on one side, and the non-submissive nations all united on the other side. Now they are only a few, but soon many more will join them, as soon as they find a way to do so.

Many now understand that being allied with Russia and China is the only option available to not end out like Libya. And it is a good positive option. Many now in Haiti beg Russia to intervene, to restore democratic order and expel the Western plundering forces that now occupy and enslave them (read: ‘Long live Putin!’ Haiti opposition protesters burn US flag, demand Russian intervention). Many more will follow.

Until then, while still struggling for economic independence, Venezuela will surely suffer many US crimes against humanity, increasingly more obvious and more absurd, although it is hard to imagine a lower attack than the latest one under preparation: "U.S. Prepares Charges, Sanctions Over Venezuela’s Food-Aid Program"!

Yes, the US administration is preparing an attack on CLAP, a program to provide food to those in need. US is preparing to sanctioning CLAP, a project that was precisely created to fight the hunger and sufferance the US interferences brought!

Yes, the US is ready to sanction humanitarian solutions created to face previous US sanctions! 

Hawkish think tanks like @CSIS have promoted targeting CLAP for years. US argues CLAP "buys votes" & support and justifies destroying what it admits is a lifeline for millions of people - all for the purpose of putting a gov in power the US likes. https://t.co/bRriQKuWL2 pic.twitter.com/pe2jKt2ecX

— Morgan Artyukhina (@LavenderNRed) May 22, 2019

Yes, the US is ready to target native humanitarian help with more sanctions, so Venezuelans can starve to death and Western sheep-like humans can ignorantly shout: "I told you, Maduro is a genocidal dictator!".

No, the US is not sanctioning the Venezuelan private distribution companies behind the artificial shortages of food and medicines.

No, no Western MSM reports the fact that, often, the availability of certain goods drops while the levels of production or importation are, in most cases, constant.

Those companies are private and - here is the problem, Maduro's government has no control over their artificially-created shortages. Nationalize those companies and a big part of the problem could be solved. Or, at the least, impose regulations over the prices to end with artificially-inflated prices, as many in Venezuela ask for. 

Venezuelan socialism brought CLAP to fight private artificially-created shortages. The US does not attack those responsible for the shortages. The US attacks the socialist government trying to solve the shortages with CLAP and other measures. The US adds international blockade to assure people in Venezuela will be left without essential goods.

This is not the right way to prove "socialism doesn't work". This is the right way to prove socialism works too good to be tolerated by neoliberal imperialism and, therefore, must be slaughtered and starved to death! 

TO BE CONTINUED

(read the other parts here)

Luís Garcia, Bang Sarai, Thailand