Venezuela in Washington's Crosshairs, Ep. 3: Exposing the 'Donroe' Doctrine

This episode was the third in our timely 3-part series "Venezuela in Washington’s Crosshairs: Breaking the Information Blockade," which is co-hosted by Just World Ed's Helena Cobban and Roger Harris of Task Force on the Americas. The series is presented by these two organizations and co-sponsored by the U.S. Peace Council, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, and the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition.

This episode featured: 

• Michelle Ellner, of CodePink
• Dan Kovalik, international human-rights lawyer and author
• Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace.

Ms. Ellner, a Venezuelan American, gave us some vivid descriptions of the effects the U.S. military attack of January 3 and Washington's many other hostile actions have had on her family members and colleagues back home in Venezuela. She spoke of the extreme importance of breaking the "information blockade" regarding Venezuela that nearly all the Western corporate media have engaged in.

Mr. Kovalik described the many ways in which U.S. actions, including the lengthy and debilitating sanctions and the U.S. military's attacks against shipping, have violated fundamental tenets of international law. He explored some of the regional dimensions of the ongoing crisis. He also warned that the violence the trump administration has deployed so widely and so illegally in other countries is also coming home, with the attacks the ICE forces and their allies have been taking against protesters in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Mr. Baraka situated the U.S. actions against Venezuela's sovereignty within both the broader history of Western colonialism and the long history of the United States' push for expansionism.

The speakers and moderators engaged in a broad conversation on these issues and underlined the need for concerted global action to resist and overthrow Western colonial hegemony.