{"id":43359,"date":"2019-01-31T07:17:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T12:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=43359"},"modified":"2019-01-31T07:17:36","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T12:17:36","slug":"people-who-care-about-democracy-dont-plot-coups-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=43359","title":{"rendered":"People Who Care About Democracy Don\u2019t Plot Coups Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

People Who Care About Democracy Don\u2019t Plot Coups Abroad<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Illustration by Nathaniel St. Clair<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some months now, Venezuela\u2019s socialist government has lurched through a series of escalating crises \u2014 hyperinflation, mass protests, political violence \u2014 while both the government and its opposition have flirted with authoritarianism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It isn\u2019t pretty \u2014 and to hear the right wing tell it, it\u2019s the future the U.S. left wants for our own country. As if to prevent that, the Trump administration is now fomenting a coup in Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve publicly recognized an unelected opposition leader as president, discussed coup plans<\/a> with Venezuela\u2019s military, and sanctioned oil revenues<\/a> the country needs to resolve its economic crisis. They\u2019re even threatening to send U.S. troops<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ll tell you this about restoring \u201cdemocracy\u201d and \u201chuman rights\u201d in the South American country. But one look at the administration officials driving the putsch perishes the thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently spoke at the United Nations<\/a> calling on countries to stand \u201cwith the forces of freedom\u201d against \u201cthe mayhem\u201d of Venezuela\u2019s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fall, the same Pompeo shared a photo<\/a> of himself beaming and shaking hands with Saudi Arabia\u2019s crown prince \u2014 just as the prince\u2019s order to kill and dismember a U.S. resident journalist was coming to light. The same prince is carrying on a U.S.-backed war in Yemen, where millions are starving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does this sound like a man who gives one fig for democracy, or against mayhem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or take Pompeo\u2019s point man on Venezuela, the dreaded Elliott Abrams<\/a>. Pompeo said Abrams was appointed for his \u201cpassion for the rights and liberties of all peoples.\u201d More likely, it was Abrams\u2019 history as Reagan\u2019s \u201cSecretary of Dirty Wars<\/a>\u201d (yes, that\u2019s a real thing<\/a> people called him).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People Who Care About Democracy Don\u2019t Plot Coups Abroad Illustration by Nathaniel St. Clair For some months now, Venezuela\u2019s socialist government has lurched through a series of escalating crises \u2014 hyperinflation, mass protests, political violence \u2014 while both the government and its opposition have flirted with authoritarianism. It isn\u2019t pretty \u2014 and to hear the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[5493,2321,204,24159,15128,24242,827],"class_list":["post-43359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","category-liberty","tag-counterpunch","tag-coup","tag-democracy","tag-elliott-abrams","tag-mike-pompeo","tag-peter-certo","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43360,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43359\/revisions\/43360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}