Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Obama Ratchets Up Conflict With Venezuela

Tensions between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments mounted this week following the news that President Obama had officially declared Venezuela a national security threat and had levied sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials.

This latest round of political maneuvers comes in response to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s March 1 diplomatic clampdown against American officials and tourists in his country. 
Al Jazeera on Tuesday brought details of the Obama administration’s latest salvo:
In Monday’s statement, White House called on Venezuela to release all political prisoners, including “dozens of students”, and warned against blaming the US for its problems.
“We’ve seen many times that the Venezuelan government tries to distract from its own actions by blaming the United States or other members of the international community for events inside Venezuela,” [White House spokesman Josh] Earnest said.
“These efforts reflect a lack of seriousness on the part of the Venezuelan government to deal with the grave situation it faces.”
The White House said the executive order targeted people whose actions undermined democratic processes or institutions, had committed acts of violence or abuse of human rights, were involved in prohibiting or penalising freedom of expression, or were government officials involved in public corruption.
The new sanctions were the third set imposed on Venezuelans since December.
President Maduro responded later on Monday by announcing to his people on national television that Obama, “representing the U.S. imperialist elite, has personally decided to take on the task of defeating my government and intervening in Venezuela to control it.”

Original Article
Source: truthdig.com/
Author: Kasia Anderson

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