Abdulah warns of military intervention in Venezuela

MOVEMENT for Social Justice political leader David Abdulah has warned about the possibility of foreign military intervention in neighbouring Venezuela following the failed assassination attempt on Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.

In a letter to the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) international relations vice president Adan Chavez Frias, Abdulah said the assassination attempt was an “act of terrorism” against the Venezuelan people.

According to international news outlets, two drones packed with explosives reportedly flew toward Maduro on Saturday night while he was addressing a huge outdoor event in Caracas to celebrate the 81st anniversary of the country’s National Guard.

In his letter, Abdulah said “extreme right wing forces inside Venezuela together with right wing forces outside of Venezuela, no doubt with the support of US imperialism” have been “hell bent” on the destruction of the Bolivarian Revolution.

He said their strategies included a military coup d’etat against then president Hugo Chavez; economic sabotage including capital flight and the hoarding of goods and the creation of artificial shortages.

Abdulah said violent street protests and the attempt to expel Venezuela from the Organisation of American States also formed part of the strategies to lay the platform for a military invasion of Venezuela.

In a subsequent interview, Abdulah said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, at a post Cabinet media briefing on April 26, had also alluded to unnamed persons who had wanted TT to join an invasion of Venezuela.

Rowley had said: ‘There are people who want us to join them in invading Venezuela. We are not doing that. There are people who want us to come out and speak and say the Venezuelan government is this or that. They can stay where they are. We are not doing that. Venezuela is our closest neighbour we work on neighbourly relationships and the assistance we provide is the assistance we can afford.’”

Asked to clarify just who was asking TT to invade Venezuela, Rowley said, ‘Grenada, probably, I don’t know.’

However, Abdulah said this invasion force may be backed by US forces and cited recent reports in US media outlets that US president Donald Trump had asked senior administration officials and world leaders about an invasion of the south American country multiple times in the past year.

Abdulah said Latin America and the Caribbean must be a “zone of peace” and Caricom member states should repudiate any attempt at military intervention.

“We further call on Caricom States and all others who claim to stand for democracy and who recognise the international principles of respect for the sovereignty of independent nation states and non- interference in the internal affairs of another nation state to respect Venezuela’s sovereignty and to condemn the attempt to assassinate the democratically elected President of Venezuela as an act of terrorism and an attack on democracy.”