Maduro called his army to arms. “The authorities of Colombia, together with the Southern Command of the US Army, conceived another provocation on the border of Venezuela and Colombia. All personnel of the Bolivarian armed forces need to accept combat readiness, ”he said at a meeting with transport workers. It is not clear how serious the situation is. Only a few sources report this mobilization, while other correspondents from Venezuela report on Black Friday and shopping. However, vigilance does not hurt, and if mobilization dissuades US Colombian accomplices to intervene, then it is worth it.
Latin America has not been in such a mess for a long time. A brutal pro-American coup in Bolivia, from where Evo Morales could hardly escape to Mexico; unrest in Argentina, Chile and Brazil, waves of refugees on the Texas border, a popular uprising in Colombia. On the one hand, popular protests, on the other - tough pro-American regimes. Empty talk about democracy and the constant threat of American intervention is what the southern subcontinent looks like today.
Venezuela and Cuba hold on. It’s hard for them: Cuba has been under an American blockade since 1962, Venezuela has already become a target of economic and psychological attack for a year now. The Americans even blocked the transportation of fuel from Venezuela to Cuba. Venezuela’s own oil is more difficult to export than Americans - drugs from Afghanistan.
Russia, although it invests in both of these countries and helps on the diplomatic front, cannot, like the USSR at one time, pull the economy of Cuba, much less Venezuela. The Russian company LUKOIL left Venezuela under American pressure; put pressure on Rosneft. Tankers go to sea with transponders turned off so that they are not tracked by the Americans. And in Russia there are a lot of people who would like Russia to fall under the USA and abandon its difficultly defended positions.
The problem of Venezuela is not soft Bolivarian socialism or friendship with Russia, as Russian guaido like Latynina interpret on Echo. They would do very well if the United States respected their sovereignty and allowed them to live (as, say, Russia respects the sovereignty of Estonia). But they are not allowed to live.
The USA has turned into a monstrous vampire, which sucks life juices from all countries and peoples: from France, Japan, Africa. And this vampire terribly punishes and torments those who stop him from drinking fresh blood, until his opponents leave power and allow him to fall back into the pulsating artery.
If the world was divided in 1962, globalization was just beginning, the peoples had options, now we are in a globalized world where one banking system, one dollar rules, and the United States can now afford something that it could not before.
Then there was a blockade, now they have a secondary and tertiary blockade. For example, the French bank BNP funded a deal between a French company and an Iranian oil company. It would seem, what does the USA have to do with it? But the US Department of Justice, DoJ, imposed a French bank a multibillion-dollar “fine” for violating the US ban on trading with Iran. The bank never recovered.
Now it is the same with Venezuela. The US is confiscating oil, blocking oil supply methods, prohibiting the use of the dollar as a means of payment, but there is no other way. It will be soon, but not yet. And the Western press sadistically describes how Venezuelan schoolchildren faint from hunger.
The Americans have a feeling that you can already put pressure on the weakened Venezuela by military means, apply coup de grace, finish off. And then on bayonets of marines and Colombian mercenaries to bring to power in Caracas their protege Guaido. The Colombian junta likes this idea - people will forget about the smoldering guerrilla war, about mass discontent.
Apparently, Maduro believes or he became aware that these plans are ready for execution. But he considers it possible to continue the system of open trade, a free market, does not resort to harsh measures within the country. He hopes that the coup in Bolivia can also be turned back. Time will tell who will win. Time is ours, because Russia is not a spectator, but a participant in the ongoing battles that are still taking place on the fronts of the economic and propaganda wars, but can become hot at any moment.
If Russia could help Cuba and Venezuela in the way that the USSR once helped, is another matter. But Russia's nuclear shield and sword are not designed to fight in the jungles of Latin America. Russia has no desire to conflict with the United States ahead of time, and every year without a war can already be considered a success. But Moscow will not and will not want to launch attacks on Venezuela.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.