In the latest Empire Files @empirefiles, Abby Martin discussed Venezuela with UN Investigator and Human Rights Rapporteur Alfred De Zayas. The 40 minute video is worth your time, but if you don’t have 40 minutes, I’ve transcribed some of the most noteworthy quotes below for your perusal.
De Zayas: “From Iraq to Libya to Venezuela, what usually pre-empts U.S. military intervention is the pretext of a humanitarian crisis. And right now, pretty much everyone speaks with authority about the fact that there is a human rights crisis caused by the Maduro government.”
De Zayas: “If you know a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and in Yemen and in Syria and in Sudan and in Somalia, you wouldn’t say there is a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, and at no point when I was walking in the streets in Venezuela did I feel threatened or did I see violence or did I consider that this country was undergoing a humanitarian crisis, but I see human rights more and more being instrumentalized to destroy human rights. There is a weaponization of human rights. I see the rule of law being instrumentalized to destroy the rule of law, and unfortunately the complicity of the mainstream media.”
De Zayas: “What is particularly Machiavellian, what is particularly cynical is to cause an economic crisis that threatens to become a humanitarian crisis. That’s what the United States has done through the financial blockade, through the sanctions. And then say ‘oh, we’re going to offer you humanitarian help.’”
De Zayas: “The solution of the problem is much easier than the Band-Aid of sending some packages of food or of medicine. The solution is in my report. What I told the Human Rights Council is that the financial blockade has had extremely adverse human rights impacts.”
De Zayas: “I am certain that the increase in child mortality, the increase in maternal mortality, the increased death for lack of insulin or anti-retroviral drugs is a direct result of this blockage so that Venezuela has not been able to purchase what its people deserve. It’s not like the government does not want to distribute. It’s that the government is being, through an external economic war, is being asphyxiated, and that was the name of the game.”
De Zayas: “What the United States intended to do was to create a situation whereby the people or the military would topple the government and then the 1% could again come in and could again control the wealth of Venezuela.”
De Zayas: “Sanctions kill.”
De Zayas: “When you deliberately impose sanctions and financial blockades and an economic war that asphyxiates a country’s economy, and thereby make it very difficult for that country to provide the necessary food and medicines to its population, and as a consequence, thousands of people die, you have a case of crime against humanity. But the narrative in the mainstream press completely ignores it.”
Martin: “As usual, the African continent is erased from the dialog. There, 51 countries recognize Maduro. Only one, Morocco, recognized Guaido. Then, there’s Asia and Oceania, where again, only Australia recognized Guaido. The other 33 nations recognize Maduro. Moving on to the Middle East, where staunch U.S. ally Israel is the only country to recognize Guaido. The rest in the region continue to support Maduro’s presidency.” Martin goes on to show that Europe and Latin America are split on who they support.
Martin: “By [saying that the] international community [supports Guaido], they really just mean a minority led by the white imperialist and colonizer nations, erasing non-white nations as members of the international community.”
De Zayas: “We all believe in the rule of law. We all believe in the separation of powers, in checks and balances. This national assembly, since Day 1 when it was elected in 2015, aimed at a parliamentary coup against Maduro. The program was called la salida (the exit).”
De Zayas: “It had been determined at least three deputies—parliamentarians—had been elected through fraud. This was demonstrated, and the Supreme Court was called to make a decision and they instructed the National Assembly as it is foreseen in the constitution of Venezuela to re-run those elections. And this National Assembly was confrontational. It was intransigent. It didn’t want to do that, so it was declared in contempt. So since that moment on, whatever the National Assembly does, has no legal validity in the context of Venezuelan constitutional law. It’s not for us Americans or Swiss or French to say we disagree.”
Martin: “Venezuela’s voting system has more checks and verifications than most countries. A system of voter cards, fingerprints, and more make fraud near impossible.”
Martin: “Surprisingly, it was the opposition who asked the UN to not send observers to the 2018 election, which could have proved alleged voter fraud. The opposition could have actually won that election, but instead they boycotted it. Nobody should run, and nobody should vote.”
Martin: “In the end, Maduro won with 6.2 million votes, which is 31% of eligible voters. This is the same percentage Barack Obama won in the 2008 election.”
De Zayas: “We’ve been talking about fake news, about the ocean of lies that we read in the papers every day. But it’s not just the lies that create the problem. It is the absence of information. When a whole dimension is suppressed, and you do not hear anything about other points of view, sooner or later, you accept the narrative that yes, there is a humanitarian crisis, ergo you need a humanitarian intervention.”
De Zayas: “There is, and has been for a while, a human rights industry. Since 1980 when I joined the office…I’ve had the opportunity of observing the behavior of non-governmental organizations, organizations that started out very, very committed for human rights and really honestly concerned with the suffering of human beings have been bought out. The donors essentially set the music.”
Martin: “The opposition against Maduro is broad and comprised of many factions: moderates, progressives, even some socialists. They oppose Maduro but respect the constitution and democratic process. But the faction currently trying to seize power is the extreme right.”
De Zayas: “What will happen if the coup goes through is that you will have what Naomi Klein called the disaster capitalism forced down the throat of the Venezuelan people. You will have retrogression in the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights. You will have the privatization not only of the oil industry but you will have privatization of gold mining and bauxite mining and coltan mining. They will do away with healthcare, they will do away with subsidized housing, et cetera.”
De Zayas: “Maduro has been asking the opposition for dialog since the elections in 2015.”
De Zayas: “And I told that to members of the opposition. You may topple Maduro, but the 7, 8 or 9 million committed Chavistas are not simply going to roll over. They are not going to disappear. So you may find yourself in the position of a bloody civil war. Do you want that for your people?”
