The Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC) has condemned the United States’ military aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, following reports Saturday morning of bombings in Caracas, Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira, and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his wife, Cilia Flores.
These acts constitute a violation of International Law and the Charter of the United Nations, as they were carried out without a declaration of war or authorization from the U.S. Congress, the UPEC Presidency warned in a statement which, due to its importance, Radio Havana Cuba is transmitting in its entirety:
The oil greed of an empire cannot prevail over the yearning for peace of a people and a region
Latin America, the Caribbean, and the world are now witnessing, at the highest price, the validity of previous denunciations by various governments and peoples regarding the voracity of the North, which is more turbulent and brutal today than in Martí’s time: the United States not only directly attacked areas of Caracas, Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira, but, leveraging its status as an international rogue state, kidnapped the legitimate president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, who have now joined the endless list of “disappeared” under imperial auspices.
Donald Trump is not content with playing games with his vast country; he is attempting to turn a world already upside down, as Eduardo Galeano described it long ago, into senseless, chaotic chaos.
In the height of cynicism, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Maduro and Cilia were taken to U.S. territory to be tried and added that U.S. bombings were protecting the agents responsible for the kidnapping. What kind of justice is there under Trump’s dictatorship? Who, really, should submit to international courts, the victims or the aggressors? Are we protecting invading criminals by attacking an entire people? Nothing surprises us anymore, in the old man’s catalog of crimes.
These criminal acts must shatter the long-held dream of the United Nations and its high-ranking officials, themselves victims of the White House’s continued disrespect, yet obligated, by their commitment to humanity, not to be intimidated by the Pentagon.
The plurinational veil of a Zone of Peace that Latin America and the Caribbean are trying to weave above diversity and dissension has been torn away, but perhaps the best argument for united condemnation today is the realization that the blow came from outside, from the “Other America,” as Martí would say, and not from Our own. Donald Trump, who shamelessly changed the name of his Department of Defense to the Department of War, is now trying, with the stroke of a pen, to change the name of our region. Are we going to allow it?
This act demonstrates that, indeed, the US president deserves the Nobel Prize for… war. In any case, the prize went to one of his admirers: María Corina Machado, who at this moment must be celebrating, with that strange zeal of the new “pacifists,” the treacherous and nightly wound inflicted on several of her compatriots. Probably, a little sisterly blood taints the latest Oslo ruling.
As we know, imperialism is a dark eagle; however, its actions today are clear: not only has an independent country been attacked and its constitutional president forcibly removed, but this was done without a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force from the United States Congress. The peoples and governments of the world must condemn it without hesitation, but perhaps the first to distance itself from this action is American society, the first stage for the rehearsal of its president’s dictatorial pastimes.
As in the prelude to the Bay of Pigs invasion, this point was reached after an unprecedented and cynical escalation that included the destruction of 36 vessels, without any evidence or charges, and the murder of at least 115 people, while the CIA received Trump’s brazen authorization in October to operate within Venezuela. These are the results.
It was feared, and it has come to pass: Venezuela is experiencing its own Bay of Pigs invasion because the boa constrictor of the North barely sheds its skin—now it’s a dirty yellow—but continues to strangle nations. Venezuela will fight: in addition to demanding proof of life for Maduro from the White House and denouncing the aggression to the world, the Bolivarian Government has activated all its defense capabilities.
Cuba, its government, its people, and its journalists, who once, with Fidel at the helm, defended Hugo Chávez from an equally vile kidnapping, are now standing with Maduro and the Venezuelan people.
The oil greed of an empire cannot prevail over the yearning for peace of a people and a region! Latin America and the Caribbean do not want to be anyone’s backyard, but their own garden!
Presidency of the Union of Journalists
