U.S. sanctions on Venezuela

Several key left-wing American politicians, organizations and celebrities have behaved shamefully by supporting the barbaric and illegal ruler of Venezuela.

The socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro, the follow-up to the reign of hard-left predecessor Hugo Chavez, has resulted in both the loss of political freedom and a desperate humanitarian crisis, including a lack of food, medical care, and other necessities, for the people of their nation. The illicit “government” (which gained power in a stolen election) is propped up by Russian and Cuban troops, who defend it against its own citizenry. It has also invited the terrorist organization Hezbollah in for support.

Forty-nine nations across the globe, including most of those in Latin America, call Maduro an illegitimate leader and support Juan Guaido, who was elected on January 5, 2019, as President of the National Assembly, the only remaining democratically elected and legitimate institution in the country. Relevant articles of the Venezuelan constitution clearly place him as the legal interim President.

The hard left has sought to portray the Trump Administration’s opposition to Maduro as “Yankee imperialism.” The facts speak otherwise. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Peru do not recognize him as a legitimate leader.

The U.S. State Department describes Maduro’s actions: “Nicolas Maduro…has consistently violated the human rights and dignity of its citizens, plundered the country’s natural resources, and driven a once prosperous nation into economic ruin with his authoritarian rule and socialist economic policies. Maduro’s thugs have engaged in extra-judicial killings and torture, taken political prisoners, and severely restricted freedom of speech, all in a brutal effort to retain power.”

Maduro has increasingly relied on the Special Action Force of the National Police (FAES) that he created in 2017 to carry out illegal raids and extrajudicial Only 1% of the total generic viagra 50mg people are found to be impotent. These drugs offer the same prescription viagra without results as the product does not really do that. This ED drug is beneficial for heart but it should be taken as advised by the doctors to have the cheapest 100mg discount viagra sale deeprootsmag.org with the help of water but always 1 hour prior to making love. Chiropractors in Los Angeles are trained health professionals who prefer recommending such medicines to their patients. the cost of viagra killings.

On April 5, 2019, the United Nations Non Governmental Organization (NGO), Venezuelan Education-Action Program on Human Rights, (Provea) announced the discovery of several clandestine detention centers, On March 20, 2019, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, FAES executed 37 people in connection with illegal home invasion raids in January.

The regime has deployed the National Guard and civil militias known as colectivos to crack down on peaceful protesters. According to the National Assembly, the former regime is responsible for at least 40 protest-related deaths so far this year. There have been 175 protest-related detentions and 7 deaths, in addition to 1,255 persons detained since January 21, 2019. 864 prisoners of conscience are imprisoned.

Presidential contenders Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii have objected to U.S. opposition to Maduro. Gabbard and Sanders are not alone. New York’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota have denounced what they claim, in various phrases, is an alleged American supported “coup” in Venezuela. California’s Rep. Ro Khanna describes the constitutionally legitimate leader of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, as a “self-proclaimed leader.” He terms American efforts to sanction the Maduro-controlled Venezuelan oil organization as “misguided.” Hard-left celebrities have joined their political soulmates. Sean Penn has called Nicolas Maduro a “proven leader.”

A Wall Street Journal editorial noted: “Socialism is again going mainstream in the U.S., or at least in the Democratic Party, and apparently the 21st-century version includes the international socialist solidarity that marked the 20th. As Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro hunts for allies amid a revolt of his desperate people, he is finding rare support among America’s Democratic socialists…Incredibly enough, this is the socialist solidarity that America’s premier Democratic socialists are joining.”

The Democratic Socialists of America has launched a “Venezuela solidarity campaign” to oppose U.S. sanctions.

Photo: Caracas Tourism

Quick Analysis

China’s Tech Targets

Chinese technology is changing and its leadership is using it, along with espionage, to challenge the West in a number of critical areas. The United States is only one of its targets. Previously, Beijing’s spies primarily sought Western technologies as a way to skip generations of develop cost and time to modernize its economy. Today, its acquisition of advanced technologies, and now also its indigenous development, makes the communist giant a threat to freedom-loving people everywhere. This week Nan Mulchandani, the CIA’s chief technology officer, said Director William Burns is preparing for an “infinite race” with Beijing for artificial intelligence and advanced technologies. He argues the US must pivot toward providing American spies with the latest transformative technologies to outcompete China. Mulchandani says this means updating everything the agency does “from operations to the analytic function, support functions and other piece there.” America, he suggests, needs to alter its thinking toward viewing this not as a race with a finite end point, but as an ongoing competition. Mr. Mulchandani predicted that the next area of competition would “be primarily a software war that is powered by something like AI” rather than hardware fueled by software. That competition, however, is not confined to simply acquiring critical technologies for use in the future. China is also challenging the US in space. China announced today it launched a groundbreaking mission to retrieve samples from the far side of the moon. The space capsule will arrive in four days and collect 4.4 pounds of moon rocks and regolith, or moon dirt. Beijing’s desire to one day become a space power and scientific force is for pragmatic purposes in 2024 a fait accompli. Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said during a NASA budget hearing this week, that “while the US remains the global leader in space exploration, we face increasing challenges internationally.” Referring to China’s space station, Lucas said: “We cannot allow China to become the front-runner in space exploration… There are too many consequences for our competitiveness, our national security, and our continued ability to explore space.” A new report released this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) says that the United States, to further its geopolitical interests and maintain a strong domestic economy, must approach every aspect of economic and trade policy through the lens of global technology competition. The Biden Administration’s approach, it says, discounts the landscape of competition between China and the US and may “jeopardize US advancements in emerging technologies… which could cede the advantage to China….” In particular, the report recommends that the US take action now because quantum and artificial intelligence (AI) need a federal policy to ensure the country can spur the entrepreneurship and R&D efforts foundational to the strength of the technology sector. As China’s Communist Party (CCP) becomes more hostile to the United States and other Western nations, its aggressive activities abroad expand and intensify. Chinese spy cases far outnumber those of Russia and every other nation. CSIS reports that since President Xi took over in 2012 there have been 224 incidents of spying. Estimates of the long -term economic, scientific, and national security cost to the US run into the billions and have “created immeasurable damage to national security with the theft of weapons technology, including nuclear weapons test data… China has added the theft of massive quantities of personal information, political coercion, and influence operations, to its espionage activities.” The CSIS reports says that 49% of incidents of spying in the US directly involved Chinese military or government employees, with private Chinese citizens accounted for 41%. In 29% of the espionage cases the person involved was attempting to acquire military technology, while in 54% of the incidents it was related to commercial technologies. Almost half of the cases involved cyber espionage, usually by state—affiliated actors. No matter where one turns today China is challenging the West, from the depths of our oceans to outer space. The United States cannot count on China to be a good global citizen and refrain from attempting to enforce its vision of world order with Beijing at the apex. The time is growing short for the West to take action. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.