Elizabeth Warren Endorses Trumpâs Economic War on Venezuela, Then Soft-Pedals Far-Right Bolivia Coup

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In a nauseating interview on Pod Save America, Elizabeth Warren endorsed suffocating US sanctions on Venezuela, backing Trumpâs strategy to stop its âability to have an economyâ while parroting neocon regime-change myths. She then whitewashed the far-right military coup in Bolivia.
By Ben Norton – Jan. 20, 2020
For the millions of Venezuelans suffering under a suffocating US blockade, there is no functional difference between Donald Trump and Elizabeth Warren. In fact, the liberal Democratic presidential candidate has enthusiastically endorsed the far-right presidentâs strategy of relentless warfare against Venezuela and its nearly 30 million inhabitants.
After praising the US governmentâs sanctions on Venezuela, which violate international law and have led to the preventable deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, Warren went on whitewash the far-right military coup in Bolivia, where the Trump administration has helped put racist Christian extremists and actual fascists in power.
Warrenâs eagerness for economic war on Caracas earned her the recognition of right-wing news websites like The Federalist, which gleefully emphasized that âElizabeth Warren Agrees With Trumpâs Strategy In Venezuela.â
The Massachusetts senator wanted to show off her foreign policy bona fides in a softball interview with a former Barack Obama administration apparatchik on the podcast Pod Save America, which is known for its centrist politics and close links to Hillary Clinton.
Warren praised Trumpâs strategy of appointing the deflated Venezuelan coup leader Juan GuaidĂł as president and declared, âI support economic sanctions.â She also described the countryâs democratically elected President NicolĂĄs Maduro as a âdictator.â
In the interview, the Democratic presidential candidate agreed wholeheartedly with her host Tommy Vietor, who previously served as a spokesperson for President Obama and the US National Security Council.
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Both spread lie after lie about Venezuela, based on hyperbolic corporate media myths.
Although the interview was conducted back in February, video clips have recently resurfaced and gone viral on social media.
https://twitter.com/AlytaDeLeon/status/1196428515366846465
Warren: âI support economic sanctionsâ and coup leader GuaidĂł
Tommy Vietor, an implacable critic of Donald Trump and a prominent symbol of the liberal self-declared âResistance,â kicked off the interview segment singing the praises of the far-right presidentâs strategy of economically and diplomatically strangling Venezuela.
âThe Trump administration has recognized the National Assembly president Juan GuaidĂł as the president, and encouraged a bunch of other countries to follow suit, in frankly what was a pretty impressive diplomatic play by them,â Vietor applauded â failing to mention that more than 80 percent of Venezuelans had never heard of GuaidĂł at the time Washington anointed him as the unelected head of state.
âMm hmm,â Warren uttered in agreement, echoing Vietorâs endorsement of the Trump administration for attempting to install GuaidĂł through a coup.
Trump âalso sanctioned Venezuelaâs oil industry, which is a major step to cut off all their supply of dollars and their ability to have an economy,â Vietor continued.
Warren chimed in: âStart with the fact that Maduro is obviously a dictator; heâs terrible; heâs stolen this election; itâs a nightmare for the people of Venezuela.â
The Democratic presidential candidate, who portrays herself as a progressive, proceeded to endorse all of the major planks of the Trump administrationâs hybrid war against Venezuela.
âThis notion of using our diplomatic tools, Iâm all for it,â she continued. âI think recognition [of GuaidĂł], I think getting our allies to do it; itâs a way to bring diplomatic pressure.â
âEconomic sanctions? Yeah, I support economic sanctions,â Warren added. âBut we have to offer humanitarian help at the same time.â
âWe should be leading the international community to get help to those people,â she said of Venezuelan migrants. âThat puts more pressure on Maduro,â Warren boasted.
The Democratic presidential candidate made it clear that she would continue the hybrid war on Venezuela, which has caused large numbers of Venezuelans to leave the country, while also incentivizing Venezuelans to leave the country with promises of aid on the other side of the border. In other words, Warren pledged to exacerbate Venezuelaâs migration crisis, which is already at epidemic levels thanks to crushing US sanctions.
A study published in April by economists Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot at the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that US sanctions on Venezuela, which are illegal under international law, caused at least 40,000 deaths from 2017 to 2018.
âThe sanctions are depriving Venezuelans of lifesaving medicines, medical equipment, food, and other essential imports,â said Weisbrot.
Warren has promised to continue lethal sanctions, fueling more migration from Venezuela, but simultaneously boosting aid â just like liberal war hawks who supported the international proxy war on Syria, which created millions of refugees, while pledging to help those displaced people.
The only Trump tactic Warren disapproved of was his âsaber-rattling,â referencing his belligerent tone. Instead of threatening direct military intervention, Warren argued, the United States should continue polices of hybrid and economic warfare to destabilize Venezuelaâs leftist government.
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And Washington should continue this hybrid warfare while âworking with our allies,â she stressed, in a way âthat increases the pressure on Maduro.â
While demonizing Venezuelan President Maduro, who was first elected in 2013 and then re-elected in 2018, host Tommy Vietor and Elizabeth Warren went on to praise German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is from a center-right religious party.
Critics pointed out that Merkel has been in power since 2005, but is not demonized as a dictator.
Why doesn’t she call Merkel a dictator? She’s been President since 2005, Maduro since 2013. The USâ FP is super racist.
â đš (@AlytaDeLeon) November 18, 2019
Warren reiterates her neoconservative policies against Venezuela
Elizabeth Warren repeated her support for regime change in Venezuela in an interview in September with the Council on Foreign Relations, a central gear in the machinery of the military-industrial complex.
âMaduro is a dictator and a crook who has wrecked his countryâs economy, dismantled its democratic institutions, and profited while his people suffer,â Warren declared.
She referred to Maduroâs elected government as a âregimeâ and called for âsupporting regional efforts to negotiate a political transition.â
Echoing the rhetoric of neoconservatives in Washington, Warren called for âcontain[ing]â the supposedly âdamaging and destabilizing actionsâ of China, Russia, and Cuba.
The only point where Warren diverged with Trump was on her insistence that âthere is no U.S. military option in Venezuela.â
We asked @ewarren 12 questions about her foreign policy views. Read her answers on China's treatment of the Uighurs, trade, Venezuela, and more âŹď¸ https://t.co/zwqaKGGIXN
— Council on Foreign Relations (@CFR_org) November 10, 2019
Elizabeth Warren soft-pedals the far-right coup in Bolivia
While Warren endorsed Trumpâs hybrid war on Venezuela, she more recently whitewashed the US-backed coup in Bolivia.
On November 10, the US government backed a far-right military coup against Boliviaâs democratically elected President Evo Morales, a leftist from the popular Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party and the first Indigenous head of state in a country where nearly two-thirds of the population is Native.
Warren refused to comment on the putsch for more than a week, even as the far-right military junta massacred dozens of protesters and systematically purged and detained elected left-wing politicians from MAS.
Finally, eight days after the coup, Warren broke her silence. In a short tweet, the putative progressive presidential candidate tepidly requested âfree and fair electionsâ and calling on the âinterim leadershipâ to prepare an âearly, legitimate election.â
The Bolivian people deserve free and fair elections, as soon as possible. Bolivia's interim leadership must limit itself to preparing for an early, legitimate election. Bolivia's security forces must protect demonstrators, not commit violence against them. https://t.co/oDiiGmzEzq
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 18, 2019
What Warren did not mention is that this âinterim leadershipâ she helped legitimize is headed by an extreme right-wing Christian fundamentalist, the unelected âinterim presidentâ Jeanine AĂąez.
AĂąez has referred to Boliviaâs majority-Indigenous population as âsatanicâ and immediately moved to try to overturn the countryâs progressive constitution, which had established an inclusive, secular, plurinational state after receiving an overwhelming democratic mandate in a 2009 referendum.
AĂąezâs ally in this coup regimeâs interim leadership is Luis Fernando Camacho, a multi-millionaire who emerged out of neo-fascist groups and courted support from the United States and the far-right governments of Brazil and Colombia.
By granting legitimacy to Bolilviaâs ultra-conservative, unelected leadership, Warren rubber-stamped the far-right coup and the military juntaâs attempt to stamp out Boliviaâs progressive democracy.
In other words, as The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal put it, Lizâs Big Structural Bailey compliantly rolled over for Big IMF Structural Adjustment Program.
Benjamin Norton is the founder and editor of the independent news website Multipolarista, where he does original reporting in both English and Spanish. Benjamin has reported from numerous countries, including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, and more. His journalistic work has been published in dozens of media outlets, and he has done interviews on Sky News, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, El Financiero Bloomberg, Al Mayadeen teleSUR, RT, TRT World, CGTN, Press TV, HispanTV, Sin Censura, and various TV channels in Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Benjamin writes a regular column for Al Mayadeen (in English and Spanish). He was formerly a reporter with the investigative journalism website The Grayzone, and previously produced the political podcast and video show Moderate Rebels. His personal website is BenNorton.com, and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton.
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