NATO’s mission creeps into Latin America as unholy alliance turns 70

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which should have ceased to exist some three decades ago when the Warsaw Pact collapsed, has not only expanded all over Europe in violation of Washington’s promise to Moscow, but not, after having meddled militarily in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, is planning to intrude into South America.

Here is an interesting article from MintPress by Alexander Rubinstein, titled:  “NATO’s Mission Creeps into Latin America as Unholy Alliance Turns 70”.

 “Vladimir Putin harbors dark dreams of imperialism,” US Secretary Mike Pompeo told his NATO audience with his usual lack of self-reflection recently in Washington where member states met to celebrate its 70th birthday.

Pompeo, who looks like a gangster rather than a diplomat, went on to bemoan Russia’s military presence in Venezuela, where 100 military personnel have been stationed in defense of the elected government of Nicolas Maduro, who is facing down a coup attempt backed by the United States.

NATO turned 70 years old last Thursday and, not unlike another figure in his 70’s who is in the news these days, a heavy dose of “creep” was involved. In the case of the former, however, it’s mission creep.

At the birthday bash, Pompeo echoed prevailing US military doctrine as defined by the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which characterized competition from other “great powers” as a greater threat to US national security than is terrorism. Pompeo bloviated in Washington to other member states that we’ve entered “a new era of great power competition.”

And in that paradigm, like the paradigm before it, there are new threats, which the US and its allies must combat. Gone are the days of threats of direct military confrontations, however. Instead, Pompeo alleged of what he called “emerging threats” from countries like Russia, China, and Iran.

He said: “We must adapt our alliance to confront emerging threats … whether that’s Russian aggression, uncontrolled migration, cyberattacks, threats to energy security, Chinese strategic competition, including technology and 5G, and many other issues.”

It isn’t clear what business NATO — a military alliance — has tackling issues like strong cellphone service in China, but let us continue nonetheless.

Last year, Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia joined NATO as a “global partner,” meaning that it would be “fully accredited” at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, but would not be forced to partake in military action. The move was widely seen as an affront to Venezuelan”sovereignty.

For Venezuela’s part, as NATO meets in Washington, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza is taking notes on, and reaffirming his country’s alliance with, another nation in the crosshairs of U.S. imperialism: Syria. Recently, he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom he says offered “advice for resistance, victory, and peace… long live Syria!”

Here we cast a glance at NATO and its sinister 70 years. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was started with 12 signatory nations as Cold War hysteria was reaching a fever pitch in the US. The idea was that, should the Soviets invade any of its members (they never did), the other members of NATO would be obliged by treaty to intervene. Today, there are 29 members of this alliance, and they have totally surrounded Russia’s western border with military bases.

According to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, NATO promised the USSR during negotiations on the fall of the Iron Curtain separating East and West Germany until 1991, that NATO would not expand “as much as a thumb’s width further to the East.” That commitment has been the subject of scholarly debate, but documents unearthed in 2009 point to its validity.

The German newspaper Der Spiegel reported: “After speaking with many of those involved [in the negotiations] and examining previously classified British and German documents in detail, SPIEGEL has concluded that there was no doubt that the West did everything it could to give the Soviets the impression that NATO membership was out of the question for countries like Poland, Hungary or Czechoslovakia.”

But NATO’s depravity was already well-known. Less than a decade after its birth, in 1957, NATO brought on one-time Nazi general Hans Speidel to serve as Supreme Commander of its ground forces in Central Europe, where he remained until 1963. In this time, he also oversaw the integration of Germany’s army into NATO. In contrast to Speidel’s invasion of France in 1940, Speidel was now charged with France’s protection from the Soviet menace.

For those wondering who the aggressor is, a look at the maps clearly show the proximity to Iran of US military bases, assets and NATO installations. Imagine if there were that many Iranian bases on the border of and within a few hundred miles of the US.

Today, NATO’s most notable project remains the destruction of Libya, once the wealthiest nation in Africa, where it backed rebels with air support in the toppling of the government of Mu’ammar Qadhafi in 2011. Since then, Libya has become a failed state where anarchy reigns and warlords do battle with one another in a bid for power in the vacuum left by NATO. Black Africans are even sold in open-air markets with no government to quash such abuses.

This history should give pause to anyone embracing NATO’s ambitions in Latin America and around the globe.

Coming destruction of the Caribbean basin

Whatever the evolution of the government of Venezuela, nothing can justify what is being prepared against its population by the US as part of the SouthCom plan to provoke wars between the Latin-American nations in order to destroy the structures of all the states in the Caribbean Basin, says Thierry Meyssan, a French political consultant and president-founder of the Réseau Voltaire (Voltaire Network), in his analysis titled: “Coming destruction of the Caribbean basin”.

Preparations for wars of this magnitude in Latin America, intended to follow on from the conflicts in the “Greater Middle East” according to the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski strategy, requires a decade. After the period of economic destabilization and that of military preparation, the actual operation should begin in the years to come by an attack on Venezuela by Brazil supported by Israel, US ally Colombia and Guyana (or in other words, the United Kingdom). It will be followed by others, beginning with Cuba and Nicaragua the “troïka of tyranny” according to John Bolton.

The original plan, however, may be modified, particularly because of the return of the imperial ambitions of Britain which may influence the US. This is where we are now: The evolution of Venezuela

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had developed relations with the Greater Middle East, or West Asia and North Africa, on an ideological basis. He had in particular grown closer to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Together, they had talked of the possibility of founding an intergovernmental organization, the “Free Allies Movement”, on the model of the “Non-Aligned Movement”, which was paralyzed by the alignment with the United States, over time, of some of its members.

Although Nicolas Maduro adopted the same language as Hugo Chávez, he chose a very different foreign policy. It is true that he continued the rapprochement with Russia and, in his turn welcomed Russian bombers to Venezuela. He signed a contract to import 600,000 tonnes of wheat in order to deal with starvation in his country. Above all, he prepared to receive six billion dollars of investments, including five in the oil sector. Russian engineers took over the posts which were intended for Venezuelan workers but which they had abandoned.

Nicolas Maduro reorganized the alliances of Venezuela on new foundations. He wove close links with Turkey, which is a member of NATO and whose army presently occupies Northern Syria. Maduro went to Istanbul on four occasions and Erdoğan went once to Caracas.

Switzerland was an ally of Hugo Chávez, and had advised him for the composition of his Constitution. Fearing that he would be unable to refine his country’s gold in Switzerland, Nicolas Maduro looked to Turkey, which transformed the raw material into bullion. In the past, this gold had remained in Swiss banks as a guarantee for oil contracts. From now on, the liquid assets were transferred to Turkey, while the newly treated gold returned to Venezuela. This orientation may be interpreted as being no longer founded on ideology, but on interest. Everything depends on who benefits.

Simultaneously, Venezuela became the target of a destabilization campaign which began with the guarimbas demonstrations, continued with the attempted coup d’etat on 12 February 2015 (Operation Jericho), then by a series of attacks on the national currency, and organized emigration. In this context, Turkey offered Venezuela the possibility of avoiding US sanctions. The exchanges between the two countries multiplied fifteen-fold in 2018.

On the other hand, from 31 July to 12 August 2017, SouthCom organized a vast exercise with more than 3,000 men from 25 allied states, including France and the United Kingdom. The goal was to prepare a swift landing for troops in Venezuela – possibly through Colombia, which is a state, but not a nation. Its population lives geographically separate according to social class, with enormous differences in the quality of life. Almost no Colombian has ever spent time in a neighborhood attributed to another social class than their own. This strict separation has made possible the multiplication of paramilitary forces and consequently armed interior conflicts which have caused more than 220,000 victims in thirty years.

In power since August 2018, President Iván Duque has challenged the fragile peace concluded with the FARC by his predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos – but not with the ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional or National Liberation Army). He has not dismissed the option of a military intervention against Venezuela.

According to Nicolas Maduro, the United States are currently training 734 mercenaries in a training camp situated in Tona with a view to carrying out a false flag operation intended to spark a war with Venezuela. Taking into account the sociological particularity of Colombia, it is impossible to determine with certainty whether or not the training camp is controlled by Bogota.

Another state of the anti-Venezuela alliance is Guyana. In the 19th century, the colonial powers agreed to a frontier between British Guyana (presently Guyana) and Dutch Guyana (presently Surinam), but no text ever defined the frontier between the British zone and the Spanish zone, that is, Venezuela. Consequently, Guyana administrates 160,000 km of forest which is still a source of dispute with its larger neighbor, Venezuela. By virtue of the Geneva agreement of 17 February 1966, the two states deferred to the Secretary-General of the UN (at that time the Burmese U Thant). Nothing has changed since then – Guyana has proposed to bring the case before the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration, while Venezuela prefers direct negotiations. This territorial dispute does not seem particularly urgent, because the contested area is an uninhabited forest which was believed to be without value – however, it is a huge area which represents two-thirds of Guyana. The Geneva agreement has been violated 15 times by Guyana, which specifically authorized the exploitation of a gold mine. Above all, the stakes were raised in 2015 with the discovery by ExxonMobil of oil deposits in the Atlantic Ocean, particularly in the territorial waters of the contested zone.

The population of Guyana is composed of 40 % Indians (from the Subcontinent), 30 % Africans, 20 % mixed race and 10 % native Amerindians. The Indians, are a strong presence in the civil services and the Africans in the army.

On 21 December, a vote of no confidence was lodged against President David Granger, a pro-British, anti-Venezuelan General, in power since 2015. To everyone’s surprise, a deputy, Charrandas Persaud, voted against his own party, and in an atmosphere of indescribable chaos, provoked the fall of the government which had only a one-vote majority. Since then, the country is in a state of great instability.

It is not known whether President Granger, who is presently undergoing chemotherapy, will be able to handle current affairs, while Charrandas Persaud left Parliament with an escort, via a back door, and has fled to Canada.

On 22 December 2018, in the absence of a government, the Ramform Tethys (under the flag of the Bahamas) and the Delta Monarch (Trinidad and Tobago) undertook submarine explorations in the contested zone on behalf of Exxon-Mobil. Considering that this intrusion violated the Geneva agreement, the Venezuelan army chased the two ships away. The Guyanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, working with current affairs, declared it a hostile act.

The United Kingdom Minister for Defense, Gavin Williamson, declared to the Sunday Telegraph on 30 December 2018 that the Crown was putting an end to decolonization, which had been Whitehall’s doctrine since the Suez affair in 1956. London is preparing to open a new military base in the Caribbean (for the moment the UK has bases only in Gibraltar, Cyprus, Diego Garcia and on the Falkland islands). The new base could be situated on Montserrat (West Indies), or more probably in Guyana, and should be operational in 2022.

Guyana is a neighbor of Surinam (Dutch Guyana), whose president, Desi Bouterse, is wanted in Europe for drug trafficking – an affair which pre-dated his election. But his son, Dino, was arrested in Panama in 2013, despite the fact that he entered that country under a diplomatic passport. He was extradited to the United States where he was sentenced to 16 years of prison for alleged drug trafficking – in reality because he was on friendly terms with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, in May 2016, Henrique Meirelles, the Minister of Finance for the transitional government of Libano-Brazilian Michel Temer, nominated Israelo-Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn as director of the Central Bank. Mereilles had also presided the Committee for the preparation of the Olympic Games, calling on Tsahal to coordinate the Brazilian army and police, thus guaranteeing the security of the Games. Simultaneously controlling the Central Bank, the army and the police of Brazil, Israel had no difficulty in supporting the popular movement of dissatisfaction in the face of the incompetence of the Workers’ Party.

Believing – without any solid proof – that Presidente Dilma Rousseff had fudged the public accounts in the context of the Petrobras scandal, the parliamentarians impeached her in August 2016.

During the Presidential election of 2018, candidate Jair Bolsonaro went to Israel to be baptized in the waters of the Jordan, and consequently obtained a massive percentage of the evangelical vote. He was elected with General Hamilton Mourão as his Vice-President. During the period of transition, Mourão declared that Brazil should prepare to send men to Venezuela as a “peace force” once President Maduro had been overthrown – comments which constitute a barely-disguised threat which President Bolsonaro attempted to downplay.

In an interview on 3 January 2019, on the TV channel SBT, President Bolsonaro spoke of negotiations with the Pentagon concerning the possibility of creating a US military base in Brazil. This declaration raised powerful opposition within the armed forces, for whom their country is capable of defending itself without assistance.

During his investiture on 2 January 2019, the new President welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This was the first time that an Israeli personality of this importance had been to Brazil. On this occasion, President Bolsonaro announced the coming transfer of the Brazilian embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who also went to the investiture, where he met Peruvian Minister for Foreign Affairs Néstor Popolizio, announced with President Bolsonaro his intention to fight with him against the “authoritarian régimes” of Venezuela and Cuba. Returning to the United States, he stopped over in Bogota to meet with Colombian President Iván Duque. The two men agreed to work for the diplomatic isolation of Venezuela. On 4 January 2019, the 14 States of the Lima Group (including Brazil, Colombia and Guyana) met to agree that Nicolas Maduro’s new mandate, which begins on 10 January, is “illegitimate” [8]. This communiqué has not been signed by Mexico. Apart from this, six of the member-States lodged a complaint with the International Criminal Tribunal against President Nicolas Maduro for crimes against humanity.

It is perfectly clear today that the process towards war is underway. Enormous forces are in play, and there is little that can be done to stop them now. It is in this context that Russia is studying the possibility of setting up a permanent aero-naval base in Venezuela. The island of La Orchila – where President Hugo Chávez was held prisoner during the coup d’etat of April 2002 – would enable the storing of strategic bombers. This would constitute a much greater threat to the United States than the Soviet missiles stationed in Cuba in 1962.

U.S. threatens Latin America and Caribbean as a Zone of Peace

By Yisell Rodriguez Milan

The current U.S. administration has escalated its intervention in the region during 2018, and recently approved a record “defense” budget of 716 billion dollars for 2019.

More than 76 military bases in Latin America, support for military and judicial coups against Presidents, the attempted assassination of Nicolas Maduro, sanctions and economic blockades are only some of the strategies being implemented by the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean in its attempt to reverse the victories achieved by progressive governments over the last few decades.

The Second Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) proclaimed the region a Zone of Peace in January 2014, but the U.S. is set on undermining this consensus.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson toured the region in February this year and Vice President Mike Pence in June, promoting the U.S. agenda.

Now it is Defense Secretary James Mattis has toured Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia, seeking military and diplomatic allies.

Recent events confirm the escalation:

- The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, recently denounced a "covert invasion" of Latin America with the deployment of a vessel capable of transporting combat helicopters. The excuse: humanitarian aid to Venezuelans living in Colombia.

- The capabilities of the Southern Command, with its network of military bases and the Fourth Fleet, have been strengthened.

- On the cultural front, big capital moves its media, churches, and technological resources, to demobilize youth, promoting the idea that socialism is not viable and social justice not the state’s responsibility.

- In official statements by the Trump administration, the Monroe Doctrine is proudly presented as more relevant than ever.

- The United States continues to promote non-governmental initiatives, aggressive media campaigns, and cooperation between judicial powers and Washington-controlled organizations, to carry out a targeted, brutal war against the left in the region.

These strategies are in line with "regime change" schemes, which claim millions of victims around the world and promote violence, war, humanitarian crises, and instability, at any cost.

(Source: en.granma.cu)