Hands off Venezuela

Declaration of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba

The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba condemns the massive increase in pressure and punitive measures by the US government to prepare for a military adventure in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela disguised as “humanitarian intervention”. It calls on the international community to actively prevent its implementation. Between February 6 and 10, 2019, military transport aircraft flew to Rafael Miranda Airport in Puerto Rico, the San Isidro Air Base in the Dominican Republic, and other strategically located Caribbean islands. This probably happened without the knowledge of the governments of these nations. These flights departed from US military facilities, from which special units and naval infantry units operate and are used for covert operations, also against governments of other countries. Political media and the press, including the United States, have already proven that extremist actors in the U.S. government conceived, administered and organized the coup attempt in Venezuela directly and in detail from Washington through the illegal proclamation of a president. These actors have a long history of actions and slander aimed at provoking or promoting wars. This concerns the National Security Adviser John Bolton, the Director for the Western Hemisphere of the National Security Council, Mauricio Claver-Carone, and the Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio.They themselves, personally or through the Foreign Ministry, are exerting massive pressure on numerous governments to force their support for the arbitrary demand for new presidential elections in Venezuela and at the same time to promote recognition of the usurper, who as a parliamentarian received barely 97,000 votes, while more than six million Venezuelans elected constitutional President Nicolás Maduro Moros last May. In view of the resistance of the Bolivarian and Chavist people to the coup attempt, which was expressed in the massive demonstrations in support of President Maduro and in the loyalty of the Bolivarian national armed forces, the United States government has intensified its international political and media campaign and unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela. These include the blockade of billions of Venezuelas dollars on bank accounts of third countries and the theft of revenues from oil sales by our brother state. These measures cause serious humanitarian damage and have serious consequences for the population. Along with this momentous and unjustified expropriation, the United States intends to create a humanitarian pretext to launch a military aggression against Venezuela. They intend, through intimidation, pressure and violence, to introduce alleged humanitarian aid into the territory of this sovereign nation a thousand times less than the economic damage caused by the blockade policy imposed by Washington. The usurper and self-proclaimed “president” has shamelessly agreed to call for military intervention by the United States to obtain such “humanitarian aid”. Every day, high-ranking US officials remind us with arrogance and impertinence that with regard to Venezuela “all options are on the table, including military options”.
In constructing pretexts, the United States government has resorted to deception and slander by submitting to the United Nations Security Council a draft resolution that cynically and hypocritically expresses grave concern about “the humanitarian and human rights situation (…), recent attempts to block the provision of humanitarian aid, the existence of millions of migrants and refugees (…), and the lack of a response from the United Nations Security Council to the humanitarian crisis.It is clear that the United States is preparing the ground for the forced establishment of “a humanitarian corridor” under “international protection”. It is important to remember that the United States adopted similar strategies and used similar pretexts in the run-up to the wars it waged against Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya. The price has always been an immense loss of human life and enormous suffering. The US government is trying to eliminate the Bolivarian and Chavist revolution because it is currently the greatest obstacle to the exercise of imperialist rule over our American continent and to the planned expropriation of the Venezuelan people with its world’s largest oil reserves and other extensive strategic resources. As Army General Raúl Castro Ruz warned on 14 July 2017: “Aggression and coup violence against Venezuela harm our America and only benefit the interests of those who are out to divide us, to exercise their rule over our peoples, without worrying about the incalculable consequences of the conflicts in this region as we experience them in different parts of the world”. History will severely condemn a new imperialist military intervention in the region and the complicity of those who irresponsibly accompany it. The sovereignty and dignity of Latin America, the Caribbean and the peoples of the South are decided today in Venezuela. Decisions are also taken on the validity of norms and rules of international law and the Charter of the United Nations. Here and now it will become clear whether the legitimacy of a government is determined by the explicit and sovereign will of its people or by the recognition of foreign powers. The revolutionary government of Cuba demands an international mobilization to defend peace in Venezuela and the region on the basis of the proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a peace zone, which was adopted in 2014 with the signing by the Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac). Cuba welcomes and supports the Montevideo Mechanism, an initiative by Mexico, Uruguay, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and Bolivia to preserve peace in Venezuela on the basis of the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, equality of rights between States and the peaceful settlement of disputes, as stated in its recent declaration. The Cuban Government welcomed the positive reception given to this initiative by President Maduro and the international community and expressed its concern at the United States Government’s strong opposition to the dialogue initiatives promoted by various countries, including those under the Montevideo Mechanism. The revolutionary government of Cuba reaffirms its firm and unchanging solidarity with the constitutional president Nicolás Maduro Moros, the Bolivarian and Chavist revolution and the civil-military union of its people, and calls on all peoples and governments of the world to defend peace and, beyond political or ideological differences, to oppose a new imperialist military intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean which will harm the independence, sovereignty and interests of the peoples of Rio Bravo to Patagonia. Havana, 13 February 2019