Children Under Siege, Chapter 3: Unilateral Coercive and non-Compensational Measures

Coercive measures are part of the set of interventionist strategies that, within the framework of soft coup theories, developed against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This combined coup process that Commander Hugo Chávez defined as a “slow fuse,” as similar to an explosive advancing until it reaches the detonator. This includes all anti-Chavista actions that are promoted and legitimized in the transnational media and digital networks.

Unilateral coercive measures are a type of warfare that “kills people just like conventional wars… The only difference is that in economic warfare people die in silence for lack of medication; and in traditional warfare he dies from a gunshot wound; but still dies.” (Jazairy, 2018) [1]

[1] Jazairy, Idriss. (2018, October 17). Economic wars can kill people just like conventional wars, says a UN rapporteur. UN News. https://news.un.org/es/ story/2018/10/1443861

Due to its strategic role as a result of its large energy reserves, and its characteristics as a geopolitical pivot, as a wide maritime border to the Caribbean and a gateway to the Common Market of the South, and as the challenge the revolutionary government presents to the unipolar world and the hegemony of the dollar, the country is subjected to a permanent aggression that has intensified since the military coup d’état against President Hugo Chávez in 2002, including the sabotage of the oil industry in 2002-2003, and later actions such as the call for guarimbas (violent closure of streets and communities with violent acts) in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, unilateral coercive measures, economic war, media war, psychological operations, exchange rate manipulation, hoarding of basic necessities, international blockade, sabotage of public services, incursion of mercenaries into the territory, frustrated assassination attempts against President Nicolás Maduro and the political and military high command, formation of an interim and parallel government, retention and dismantling of the Venezuela’s assets and goods. All this took place as an unconventional war promoted and financed by the U.S. government, with the purpose of destabilizing the internal national order and weakening civilian-military unity.

The U.S. government incorporates unconventional warfare as a concept in one of its Department of Defense doctrines, defining it in the Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms as:

“The set of activities aimed at enabling the development of a resistance movement or insurgency, to coerce, alter or overthrow a government, or to seize power through the use of an auxiliary and clandestine guerrilla force in a denied area.” (JP 1-02, 2018. p.239).

With Obama’s decree, the U.S. government moved to a new level of aggression, although it has maintained the fundamental line of the Pentagon of using either military elements, or diplomatic, economic, and sanctions coercion, among others. A narrative is then constructed where Venezuela would have to correct itself because it is committing the crime of not being submissive to the interests of the United States.

Venezuela’s geopolitical importance also places it at the center of NATO’s new strategic concept on collective defence, developed in its 2030 Agenda aimed at expanding its radius of influence through its network of partners, which currently includes Colombia. (Geostrategus, 2023) [2]

[2] Ministry of People’s Power for Defense. Vice-Ministry of Education for Defence. (2003). Geostrategus. Doctrinal Bulletin of the GJ Jacinto Rafael Pérez Arcay Doctrine Center. Volume No. 01. First Quarter of 2023.

Leydis Cruz Herrera (2021) argues that the true essence of the U.S. doctrine lies carrying out of an action conditioned by communication technologies, the development of Fake News, with the aim of destabilizing a country through its psychological, economic, military and political vulnerabilities.

Globalization and interconnectivity have placed the issue of war in a new dimension. As Kaldor (2001.p.25) points out, “in these new wars the objective is no longer military victory. Rather, the strategy is to gain political power by sowing fear and hatred, creating a climate of terror.” Fear as a tool for immobilizing and dispersing the adversary is one of the fundamental objectives of many of the information operations used in unconventional warfare.

Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez: We Will Send Evidence of Coup Attempts to Opposition Politicians Who Signed Barbados Agreement

Contreras, (2004, p. 278) agrees that “Information warfare is more a rationalization of terror and a socialization of fear that prevents any defense against this organized violence.”

Along these lines, Sara Miles argues:

“This war penetrates homes, families, the whole fabric of basic social relations, in a low-intensity conflict there are no civilians. The blurring of the distinction between military and civilian means that either operation could involve the action of a low-intensity conflict. The United States can do this through the State Department, AID, the CIA, and private aid agencies.” (Miles, 1998, p.36).

In this regard, the Venezuelan people, in particular, children and adolescents and their families, have been subjected to a progressive combination of psychological and media operations promoted by sectors of the Venezuelan opposition supported by the US government, legitimized in the media and social networks, aimed at taking over social unrest, demoralizing the population, inoculating the culture of hatred and fear in the family and community, as well as fracturing the social fabric, among others, to achieve a change of government in Venezuela.

The simultaneity of strategies, to which unilateral coercive measures have been added since 2014, has victimized practically a generation of Venezuelans, subjected to campaigns and actions to:

a) Inoculate hatred in the family and school: Educational Strike in the context of the opposition’s call for a Civic Strike; Banging pots and pans at the doors of schools to prevent classes; Campaign with My Children Don’t Get Involved; Cartoons in the media that discriminate against children in Bolivarian schools; Use of children and adolescents in messages of hatred towards the military; Subliminal advertising to promote violent messages: such as the Gasparín film; making posters calling for a Civic Strike at all public and children’s hours; Donating advertising space to the opposition: 63 days without advertising with an approximate impact of 800 million bolivars per day in losses. (Revista Producto, 2003, p.34). [3] The transmission of “televised messages or advertising, of a political nature in which, without complying with the established authorizations, children and adolescents participate”, which led to the request for precautionary measures by the Chief Judge for the Protection of Children and Adolescents of the state of Trujillo; (TSJ, 2023) [4],

[3] Product Magazine. “Real… and media.” Editorial Product. Caracas, March, 2003, p.34.

[4] Constitutional Chamber, Supreme Court of Justice. (2003, January) [Judge for the Protection of Children and Adolescents, Jesús Enrique Caldera Infante. Constitutional Protection. Decision on the request for precautionary measures]. http://www.tsj.gob.ve/decisiones/scon/Septiembre/2098-100904-03-0039.html

b) Possessing hate speech in the community: Convocation of Guarimbas and other terrorist acts, use of children and adolescents as human shields, recruitment and organization of young people for irregular groups, media campaigns and actions to naturalize and legitimize the use of violence. (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017). In 2017, the Ombudsman’s Office warned about the improper and illegitimate use of children and adolescents in public demonstrations that could put their lives and physical and psychological integrity at risk. [5]

[5] Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Ombudsman’s Office. (2017, July, 27). In Defense of Peace and For Truth (April-July 2017 Events Report). http://www.defensoria.gob.ve/images/ pdfs/Informe_Protestas_Abril_Julio_2017.pdf

c) Sowing fear and terror in the family towards the Bolivarian revolution: Campaign in the media and social networks, the use of fake news about the alleged intention of the Venezuelan State to take away the Parental Rights of the Parents, similar to Operation Peter Pan (Cuba). (2003 and 2009).

d) Attacking the Bolivarian project and ideology through the coup against our monetary unit the Bolívar: use of the media, social networks and the cultural industry to weaken the national identity and trivialize the epic of Bolivarian history, the figure of the Liberator Simón Bolívar.

e) Induced migration: Depopulation of the country. Fracturing of the family. Migration of professionals and technicians to become cheap labor for transnational capital. Possessing an international narrative against the Venezuelan government, its people and Latin American integration, among other information operations and media campaigns.

As tools of this multidimensional war, the constant and relentless unilateral coercive measures against the Venezuelan people constitute a generalized and systematic attack against the civilian population with full knowledge of its consequences. Inhumane acts have included extermination measures, including, as the Rome Statute establishes, the intentional worsening of living conditions, such as the deprivation of access to food or medicine, among others, aimed at causing the destruction of a part of the population.

As they become unconventional weapons of war, they are combined with a series of other actions such as informational, psychological and media campaigns, which impacts the physical and mental health of the population, especially children, with long term consequences, and increasing inequality and poverty.

“The attacks target the entire population, with different types of tools and messages. There is a systemic matrix, causing a brain drain so that young people feel that no matter what they study, they have no hope or future in Venezuela. This not only affects young people, but also uproots families. They are manipulating the most important fears of each of the sectors: in adults and the elderly, it is the risk of dying; in young people, the risk of their future; In the housewife, not having the control or the possibility of giving, of sharing, of belonging. The breakdown of family coexistence, therefore, affects both girls and boys.” (Suárez & Giuliani, 2013) [6]

[6] Suárez, O., Giuliani, F. (2013. October 20). Hand-to-hand combat is now in the mind. 20 keys to understanding the psychological war against Venezuela. Correo del Orinoco. http://www. correodelorinoco.gob.ve/20-claves-para-entender-guerra-psicológica-contra-venezuela/

The unilateral coercive measures attack the Bolivarian social inclusion project, leaving deep wounds in the population. While the organizational level and awareness of the people, and the strength of social policy, have made it possible to mitigate the impact of the measures, they criminally attack the rights of Venezuelan children.

(Chicago ALBA Solidarity)