Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC).

For years, the criminal government of the United States has attempted to remove the democratically elected president of Venezuela and discredit the peoples’ movement in that country that has been so successful in lifting millions of Venezuelans out of extreme poverty. Under the corrupt Trump administration alone, the United States has conducted multiple illegal attacks against President Nicolas Maduro and the people of Venezuela, including: failed assassination attempts by drone, poorly orchestrated military coups, the random declaration of political-nobody Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela, and the continuous use of deadly, multilateral sanctions (even in the midst of a global pandemic).

On Thursday March 26th, in yet another desperate move, the Trump administration announced charges of narco-terrorism against the two-time democratically elected Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and a host of other top Venezuelan officials. US Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of Defense Mike Pompeo declared a $15 million reward for any information leading to the arrest of Maduro. With zero evidence to support their bold claims, the US is alleging that Maduro and other government officials oversaw the use of Venezuelan territory and resources to help the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to move cocaine to the US.

This sensational charge from the DOJ nothing more than the latest transparent attempt by the Trump regime to oust President Maduro, by any means necessary. It is a clear violation of Venezuelan sovereignty aimed at provoking the elite-led opposition in Venezuela into toppling the legitimate government in Venezuela. The opposition, coordinated with the Trump administration, has routinely failed to mount any popularly supported attempt to bring down Maduro in the last three years.

These charges come as Venezuela accuses the governments of Colombia and the United States of plotting to use Colombian paramilitaries to selectively murder Venezuelans and sow chaos through terrorism. This accusation by the Venezuelan government came after a man was detained on March 24th at the Colombian border in a vehicle carrying dozens of weapons and other tactical materials to known terrorist groups training in the region.

Furthermore, it is a gross irony for the US to accuse another government of collaborating with narcotraffickers, given the role the CIA played during the Central American Dirty Wars in the 1980s. During that time, the CIA worked to bring cocaine into the U.S. in order to fuel arms sales to the right-wing Contras in Nicaragua. Meanwhile, those drugs ravaged African-American and Latino communities in the U.S. and Reagan’s War on Drugs created a police state in cities throughout the country.

The Venezuelan government represents an anti-imperialist movement that has refused to bow to the whims of the U.S. empire. And with so many precious minerals, so much oil, and myriad other resources within Venezuelan borders, it is no surprise that the U.S is willing to go to such lengths to install a puppet government in that country instead.

We denounce these bogus charges against the rightful president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro and condemn the Trump administration’s continuous illegal attempts to remove President Maduro from office.

We support the government and people of Venezuela, as they attempt to battle the Covid-19 outbreak, even under crippling U.S. sanctions.

We stand in solidarity with the people’s revolution in Venezuela, which has increasingly taken political and economic power away from neoliberal and corporate interests (foreign and domestic) and given it to the poor and working class.

We call for an end to the deadly, crippling sanctions that the Trump administration continues to impose on the people of Venezuela.

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