TRUMP: OPERATION CONDOR 2.0.
Apparently, a successful coup against a democratically elected socialist president is not enough.
Immediately after overseeing a far-right coup in Bolivia on November 10, the Trump Administration once again looks over Nicaragua, whose Sandinista (democratically elected) government defeated a violent coup attempt in 2018.
Washington designated Nicaragua as a threat to the national security of the United States, and announced that it will expand its suffocating sanctions against the small Central American nation.
Trump also increases the temperature in Mexico, linking the country with no basis to terrorism, even suggesting a potential military intervention. These movements are manifested after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador warns of attempts at a coup d'etat on the right.
Like Colombia, Brazil, Chile and Ecuador (Washington's allies), they are desperate to defeat the massive popular uprisings against neoliberal austerity policies and the huge inequality gap, the United States increases aggressions against progressive governments still in progress. foot.
These movements have led left forces in Latin America to warn about the resurgence of a Condor Operation of the 21st century: the violent and veiled Cold War campaign with the support of the United States throughout the region.
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DECLARES NICARAGUA A "THREAT TO HIS NATIONAL SECURITY"
One day after the coup in Bolivia, the White House issued a statement applauding the military putsch and making it clear which are the two countries that come next on the list of Washington targets : "These events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes of Venezuela and Nicaragua, " Trump said.
-On November 25, Trump's White House discreetly published a statement characterizing Nicaragua as "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States."
This extends for another year the executive order signed by Trump in 2018 declaring the state of "national emergency" to the Central American country.
Trump's 2018 statement came after a failed and violent coup attempt in Nicaragua. The government of the United States has financed and supported many of the opposition groups that sought to overthrow Daniel Ortega, the elected president of Nicaragua, and took them while they sought to knock him down.
After the designation of threat to national security of 2018, then, and quickly, the economic war followed. In December of that year, the US Congress passed the NICA Act without any opposition. This legislation gave Trump the authority to impose sanctions on Nicaragua, prohibiting international financial institutions from doing business with Managua.
Trump's new statement launches bizarre propaganda against Nicaragua, referring to his elected government - which for decades has been subject to attacks by Washington - as an alleged "regime" violent and corrupt.
This executive order is similar to the one signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2015, which also designated Venezuela as a threat to the national security of the United States.
Both orders were used to justify the unilateral imposition of suffocating economic sanctions. And the renewal of the order paves the way for an escalation in the economic attack against Nicaragua.
The corporate media in English gave little coverage to this extension, but the right-wing media in Spanish in Latin America greatly amplified it.
And opposition activists cheerfully intensify Washington's hybrid war against Managua.
MORE AGGRESSIVE SANCTIONS AGAINST NICARAGUA .
The main information service of the United States government, Voice of America (VOA), indicated that the extension of the executive order will be accompanied by more economic attacks.
Carlos Trujillo, the Washington ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), told VOA that "the pressure against Nicaragua will continue."
The representative before the OAS added that Trump will announce in the coming weeks a new round of sanctions against the Nicaraguan government.
VOA clearly stated that "Nicaragua, along with Cuba and Venezuela, is one of the Latin American countries that has become a priority in the use of diplomatic and economic pressure to achieve regime change . "
This is not a rhetorical phrase. The Treasury Department updated the sanctions section related to Nicaragua on November 8.
And in September, the Office for the Control of Foreign Assets (OFAC) of the Treasury Department announced an additional series of "comprehensive regulations", reinforcing existing sanctions against Nicaragua.
Summary of the new regulations in US sanctions against Nicaragua (Photo: Treasury Department)
The VOA report cited several right-wing Nicaraguans who openly called for more US pressure against their country.
Bianca Jagger, celebrity and opposition activist who was married to the leader of the Rolling Stones , Mick Jagger, made a call to the United States to impose more sanctions, particularly against the army.
"[The sanctions] have not touched the Nicaraguan army because [US officials] are hoping they will act as they did in Bolivia ," Jagger said, referring to the officers who violently overthrew the democratically elected president of Bolivia.
Many of these military leaders were trained at the School of the Americas, a notorious subversion base that dates back to the years of Operation Condor. In recent days, the Latin American media have been full of work that highlights that to carry out the putsch the Bolivian soldiers received up to 50 thousand dollars and the generals 1 million.
VOA added that "in the case of the Central American government, the effect that the sanctions will have may be greater because it is an economically vulnerable country."
VOA cited Roberto Courtney , a prominent exile activist and executive director of the opposition group Ethics and Transparency, who monitors elections in Nicaragua and who receives support from the arm for the regime change of the US government, the National Endowment for Democracy (the NED)
Courtney , who claims to be a human rights activist, salivated the prognosis of the US economic war against his country, telling VOA that "there is a subtle difference [between Nicaragua and Bolivia] ... economic vulnerability makes the sanctions possibly possible. more effective. "
Courtney , described by VOA as an "election process expert" added that "if there is a stick, there must also be a carrot . " He said the OAS could help apply political and diplomatic pressure against the Nicaraguan government.
These unilateral sanctions of the United States are illegal under international law, and considered an act of war. Iran's Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif , has characterized the economic war "financial terrorism", explaining that it aims disproportionately for civilians to turn them against their government.
High-level figures of the Nicaraguan right applauded Trump for extending the executive order and for requesting new sanctions against his country.
The United States extended for a year the validity of the National Emergency Declaration regarding the Situation in Nicaragua. https://t.co/Xq8m8UWVfr Nicaragua Civic Alliance (@ AlianzaCivicaNi ) November 25, 2019
The Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy, an opposition front that brings together several groups, many of which are funded by the NED, celebrated the order.
TRUMP CALLS "TERRORISTS" TO MEXICAN POSTERS, DOES NOT UNLOCK ATTACKS WITH DRONES .
While there is no news in the fact that the United States points against the governments of Nicaragua and Venezuela, Donald Trump is posing his gaze on the old-fashioned ally of the United States: Mexico.
-In 2018, the Mexican electorate made history when they chose Andrés Manuel López Obrador in an avalanche. López Obrador, often referred to as AMLO, is the first leftist president in more than five decades. Supported on a progressive campaign promising a boost to social spending, poverty reduction, combating corruption and even decriminalization of drugs.
In Mexico, AMLO enjoys a lot of popularity. In February it had an amazing 86% approval rating. And broad support has been gained by swearing to combat neoliberal capitalist orthodoxy.
"The neoliberal economic model has been a disaster, a calamity for the public life of the country," he said . "Corruption is the daughter of neoliberalism."
When he revealed his National Development Plan, López Obrador announced the end of "the long neoliberal night."
His leftist policies have caused commotion in Washington, which has long relied on neoliberal leaders to secure a stable, cheap and exploitable labor base, to maintain a reliable market for US goods and open borders for US and corporate capital.
On November 27, a day after he declared Nicaragua a "threat to national security , " Trump announced that his government will designate Mexican narco-cartels as "terrorist organizations ."
Such designation facilitates the path for direct military intervention by the United States in Mexico.
Trump revealed this new policy to Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly in an interview. "Are you going to designate those cartels in Mexico as terrorist groups and start hitting them with drones and things like that?" asked O'Reilly.
The president of the United States refused to rule out that possibility and other military actions against the cartels in Mexico.
President @ realDonaldTrump tells me he is 90 days into the process of designating Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations - which would give US forces more leverage in taking them out . pic.twitter.com/ewSJMkt6rr Bill O'Reilly (@ BillOReilly ) November 27, 2019
Trump's announcement apparently surprised the Mexican government, which immediately called a meeting with the State Department.
This designation is particularly ironic when it is taken into consideration that the main bosses of the Mexican cartels have had long-standing ties with the United States government. For example, the leaders of Los Zetas, a cartel that shows notorious brutality, were originally trained in counterinsurgency tactics by the United States.
Throughout the Cold War, the United States has armed, trained and funded death squads throughout Latin America, many of whom have been involved in drug trafficking. The CIA has also used drug money to finance far-right paramilitary groups in Central America.
These tactics were also used in the Middle East and South Asia. The United States armed, trained and financed Islamist extremists in Afghanistan in the 80s (of the last century) to fight against the Soviet Union. The same jihadist -salafistas then founded the Qaeda and the Taliban.
This strategy was later replicated in the wars of the United States against Libya and Syria. Omar al- Shishani ("Omar the Chechen"), for example, was trained by the US military and enjoyed direct support from Washington while fighting Russia.
Barack Obama administration also oversaw a campaign dubbed Project Gunrunner (Project Gunrunner) and Operation Fast and Furious ( Fast and Furious ), in which the US government cooperated with sending weapons to the Mexican cartels.
Mexican journalist Alina Duarte explained that by designating Mexican cartels as terrorists "they are creating the idea that Mexico represents a threat to their national security."
"Can we start talking about the possibility of a coup against López Obrador in Mexico?" , Duarte wondered.
He stressed that corporate media have embarked on an increasingly fierce campaign to demonize AMLO, portraying the democratically elected president as an aspiring dictator with a thirst for power that is supposedly destroying the Mexican economy.
In an interview with Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton, of The Grayzone , in his podcast "Rebels Moderates" ( Moderate Rebels ), Duarte discussed the issue of American interference in Mexican politics:
Today, a silent campaign is spreading throughout Mexico about the fear that the right-wing opposition could overthrow President López Obrador.
AMLO himself has publicly pointed out the rumors, making it clear that he will not tolerate any discussion of coups.
"How wrong the conservatives and their hawks are," López Obrador tweeted on November 2. "Now it is different," AMLO wrote, referring to the assassination in 1913 of the progressive president Francisco Madero, one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution.
"No other coup d'etat will be allowed," he said.
A few months ago, while the fear of a coup intensified, López Obrador has moved further to the left, directly challenging the United States government, also claiming an independent foreign policy that dramatically contrasts with his obsequent predecessors.
Now it's different. Although they are other realities and should not fall into the simplicity of the comparisons, the transformation that I lead has the support of a free and conscious majority, fair and lover of legality and peace, which would not allow another coup d'etat. Andrés Manuel (@ lopezobrador _) November 2, 2019
The Gov no AMLO rejected US efforts to delegitimize the government of Venezuela, are putting obstacles to Washington's efforts to impose activist Juan Guaidóg as the leader of the coup.
AMLO has welcomed Rafael Correa, the persecuted Ecuadorian socialist leader, and was also the host of the Argentine Alberto Fernández on his first trip abroad after winning the presidency of his country.
In October, López Obrador even welcomed Cuban President Díaz-Canel on a historic visit.
TRUMP CONDOR 2.0 OPERATION .
An independent and left-wing Mexico is intolerable for Washington.
In a speech to Venezuelans in Miami (with his caps of Make America Great Again , the slogan of Trump's first presidential campaign) in February, Trump spoke for more than an hour against socialism, threatening leftist governments with regime change remaining.
"The days of socialism and communism are numbered, not only in Venezuela, but also in Cuba and Nicaragua," he said, adding that socialism will never be allowed to take root in the heart of capitalism in the United States.
While Trump has stated that seeks to withdraw from the wars in the Middle East ( as long as you are not occupying oilfields), has concentrated aggressive intervention in Latin America.
Although the neoconservative hawk John Bolton does not continue to monitor US foreign policy, Elliott Abrams remains firmly embedded in the State Department, dusting his Iran- against script to decimate socialism in Latin America once again.