Stephen Lendman

The Times is a longstanding mouthpiece for wealth, power and privilege. Its record is deplorable - pro-business, anti-populist, endorsing all US wars of aggression, color revolutions and coups by other means against sovereign independent states.

It denigrated Hugo Chavez throughout his tenure, calling him “a would-be dictator…a populist demagogue…an authoritarian caudillo (strongman),” among other pejoratives.

It bashes President Nicolas Maduro the same way. Its history shows a consistent record of supporting despotic regimes like Saudi Arabia, other repressive Gulf States, Egypt, Turkey and Israel among others, while opposing sovereign independent democratic governments Washington doesn’t control.

Majority US supported Venezuelan National Assembly fascists openly call for ousting democratically elected President Maduro.

Their strategy includes economic war, reducing presidential terms from six to four years, rewriting Venezuela’s model Bolivarian constitution, mobilizing violent street protests, and ousting Maduro by recall referendum.

Earlier US sponsored coups failed. Another is being hatched by constitutionally permitted recall. A previous article discussed it.

If constitutional requirements are met, Maduro can be ousted if over 50.6% of Venezuelans supporting his 2013 election vote to remove him.

A US supported fascist could replace him by yearend. NYT editors endorse it, disgracefully calling populist democrat Maduro “an incompetent autocrat (with) no sound ideas for addressing the crisis…largely of his making” - a shameless perversion of truth.

National Assembly fascists obstruct his efforts to address economic crisis conditions legislatively, including stimulative spending proposals.

Instead, they want public housing privatized, other anti-populist pro-business “reforms,” and prisoners convicted of sedition freed. Times editors support these outrageous policies.

They accused Chavez and Maduro of “weaken(ing) the country’s democratic institutions” instead of acknowledging the hemisphere’s most free and open state - polar opposite sham US democracy in name only, governance of, by and for its privileged few alone, shamelessly endorsed by NYT editors.

US orchestrated efforts to replace Bolivarian fairness with neoliberal harshness leaves the fate of the nation and welfare of its people up for grabs.

An earlier article said Chavismo lives. Bolivarianism is institutionalized. Venezuelans expect no less.

They put their bodies on the line earlier to protect it. Now more than ever it’s vital they do it again. At stake is freedom or fascist rule.

-###-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs