Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)

Washington consistently and illegally meddles in the internal affairs of other countries - a flagrant international law violation.

On Monday, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) unjustifiably sanctioned democratically elected Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro - following Sunday’s constitutionally permitted Constituent Assembly elections.

Elected members are tasked with revising or rewriting the nation’s constitution, aiming to promote dialogue and restore order - above all serving all Venezuelans equitably, a notion Washington fundamentally opposes.

A Treasury statement groundlessly accused Maduro of “aspir(ing) (to) illegitimately…usurp the constitutional role of the democratically elected National Assembly, rewrite the constitution, and impose an authoritarian regime on the people of Venezuela,” adding:

Sunday elections (in full compliance with Venezuelan law) represent “a rupture in Venezuela’s constitutional and democratic order.”

The legitimately elected Constituent Assembly reflects democracy in action, a process banned in America, a money-controlled one-party state with two right wings taking turns governing.

The US Treasury calling Sunday elections “a fundamental assault on the freedoms of the Venezuelan people” is an affront to a nation opposed to America’s imperial designs on its sovereignty and dignity.

Saying Sunday’s process “follow(ed) years of Maduro's efforts to undermine Venezuela’s democracy and the rule of law” is polar opposite how the nation is governed.

The Treasury illegally froze any Maduro assets subject to US jurisdiction - likely none. “US persons are prohibited from dealing with him,” Treasury Secretary Mnuchin adding:

“Yesterday’s illegitimate elections confirm that (democratically elected) Maduro is a dictator (sic) who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people…Anyone who participate(d) in this illegitimate ANC (sic) could be exposed to future US sanctions.”

Model democrat Hugo Chavez was shamefully called a strongman, another Hitler, and other pejoratives. Disgracefully calling Maduro a dictator aims to undermine his legitimacy.

Blaming him for years of economic war since his 2013 election and months of street violence since April ignores its made in the USA origin - a diabolical regime change plot, perhaps to intensify in the aftermath of Sunday elections.

The Treasury arrogantly called on democratically elected Constituent Assembly members “to decline to take office.”

The aim of America’s war on Venezuela since Hugo Chavez’s December 1998 election is to replace Bolivarian social democracy with US-controlled fascist tyranny.

It’s also about Big Oil able to plunder its world’s largest oil reserves, along with Washington able to claim another imperial trophy.

US created chaos has nothing to do with democracy building, a notion America’s criminal class abhors, rejects, and tolerates nowhere.

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

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."