OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF THE CARIBBEAN

My dear Caribbean Brothers and Sisters,

I am writing this OPEN LETTER to you because as a Citizen of the Caribbean I am extremely concerned about the unprincipled attack that has been launched against the legitimately elected United Socialist Party (PSUV) Administration of President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela by wealthy extreme right wing political forces in Venezuela, aided and abetted by the economic and political establishment of the United States of America (USA)and by a variety of quisling right wing political actors throughout our region.

As we are all aware, Venezuela is a "Presidential Republic", and in the year 2013 the people of Venezuela elected Nicolas Maduro to be their President for a 5 year term that will end in 2018. Yet, as soon as the right wing Opposition parties managed to win a majority of the seats in Venezuela's law making Assembly in December 2014, these Opposition forces publicly declared that the only mission they were interested in was to force President Maduro out of office as soon as possible .

In other words, even though they had requested voters in the various constituencies to elect them to be national law makers or legislators, they were publicly declaring that they had no interest in carrying out any law-making functions other than to use their time and energy to somehow get rid of President Maduro before his lawful, constitutional term of office comes to an end in 2018.

And this is precisely how they have behaved over the past two years :- they have refused to carry out their law-making functions, thereby causing the system of government to become dysfunctional; they have unlawfully refused to respect and adhere to the rulings of the Supreme Court of Venezuela, and in particular to the Supreme court directive that they should not swear in some three National Assembly members whose elections had been marred by electoral fraud; and they have consumed themselves with a series of ill-conceived and futile schemes to have President Maduro and his Administration ( his cabinet of Government Ministers and Administrators) removed from office.

And now that all of their legislative scheming has come to naught, they have determined that the only way left to them to remove President Maduro before his term ends in 2018 is to create an impression that Venezuela has descended into a vortex of chaos, violence and governmental repression, as a justification for a USA sponsored and supported military coup against President Maduro and his PSUV administration. (In other words, they are trying to repeat the strategy that they used in 2002 when they staged a coup against the late President Hugo Chavez and temporarily removed him from power).

We should all therefore have a clear understanding of precisely what these so-called "street protests" that have re-emerged in Venezuela over the past six weeks are and mean.

These consciously designed manifestations of public street-level violence are orchestrated by wealthy elitist Opposition politicians who go so far as to pay lawless ruffians to carry out such acts as setting up barriers across public streets; violently attacking Police officers; vandalizing and setting fire to public, government-owned buildings; attacking and causing physical harm to members of the public; and the list of outrages goes on.

And most of these violent street protests are organized to take place in municipalities that are politically controlled by Opposition politicians who are only too happy to facilitate them.

It is also to be noted that in light of the fact that Venezuela has close to some 400 different municipalities, that these violent street protests-- in a handful of municipalities-- are relatively few in number. However, this is of little consequence, since the way in which the Western news media reports on these matters is designed to give their international audience the impression that the whole of Venezuela is enmeshed in these protests !

Furthermore, whenever these street protests result in the death or injury of any person, the News reporting is slanted in such a way as to suggest that a peaceful civilian protester was subjected to unlawful, heavy-handed violence by repressive agents of the state! This then leads to a chorus of international denunciations of the Government and calls for "intervention" on "humanitarian" grounds.

This is all very cynical and orchestrated, and it is being played up for all it is worth, particularly within the Washington D. C. based halls of the Organization of American States (OAS).

As we should all know by now, the OAS is a regional organization that was established by the USA in the 1940's, and is still very much an organization in which U S power and influence predominates. And to make matters worse, Luis Almagro, the current Secretary General of the OAS, is a virulent right wing former Foreign Minister of Uruguay who possesses a deep hatred of President Maduro and his PSUV administration.

Almagro has therefore been using his position of authority and influence within the OAS to get that organization to declare that the Maduro administration has destroyed the Constitutional order of Venezuela and is repressing the human rights of the Venezuelan people, and that as a result some type of political or military intervention to restore order and constitutionality is justified.

This evil plan by Almagro was unwittingly given a boost by the Supreme Court of Venezuela when on the 29th of March 2017 they responded to the unlawful and dysfunctional behaviour of Venezuela's National Assembly by invoking a provision within the Constitution which permitted the Supreme Court to temporarily take over the functions of any organ of the nation that was failing to carry out its constitutional responsibilities.

Now,even though the Supreme Court had the lawful constitutional authority to take this action, they had really committed a tactical error, since this gave the unprincipled, demagogic Opposition forces the opportunity to suggest that President Maduro was behind the Supreme Court ruling and that he was attempting to establish a dictatorship.

Of course nothing could have been further from the truth, and as a result of an intervention by Maduro's Attorney General and by the country's National Defense Council the Supreme Court was persuaded-- in the interest of national peace and security-- to rescind its ruling.

But, even though the Supreme Court's ruling was rescinded within two days, Luis Almagro and his right wing cohorts in the OAS were able to use this issue to cynically inflict as much harm as possible on the legitimate Government of Venezuela.

And what has been particularly worrying is that at several stages in his wicked campaign against Venezuela Luis Almagro has been able to secure the cooperation of five CARICOM member states of the OAS: namely, Barbados, Jamaica, Bahamas, St Lucia and Guyana.

This is a matter that should deeply concern all right-thinking citizens of our Caribbean Community (CARICOM), for our region has a proud tradition of standing up for principle in the international arena and of courageously speaking truth to power.

Please recall that it was four small Caribbean states -- Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago-- that in December 1972 defied the mighty USA and broke the diplomatic isolation of revolutionary Cuba. Furthermore, over the years CARICOM has proudly and defiantly held firm to a collective regional position in defense of Cuba and against the American blockade. Why then should we now abandon the tradition of a collective CARICOM foreign policy position and fail to give the legitimately elected Venezuelan government the solidarity and support that it deserves?

What right thinking and fair minded Caribbean citizen can doubt that the United Socialist Government of Venezuela has earned the principled solidarity of the Caribbean people and Governments, in light of the record of such Venezuelan contributions to the Caribbean as Petro Caribe, Operation Milagro, the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA) , Telesur, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and the list goes on.

Furthermore,we should all be aware that our fifteen (15) CARICOM nations possess the numerical strength within the OAS to provide Venezuela with iron-clad protection against the machinations of the USA and their OAS client states. Indeed,if we hold firm to a collective CARICOM position the USA and the other right wing forces in the OAS will never be able to win the majority vote that they need in order to set up a military invasion of Venezuela !

It is against this background therefore that I am hereby appealing to ALL CARICOM citizens to contact their respective Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and to let them know that we are calling upon them to do the right thing by maintaining a collective CARICOM position of solidarity with the legitimate Government of Venezuela in the OAS and in every other international forum.

Telephone your Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs; send them an e-mail or a letter; or meet them in person on the street, in the precincts of Parliament or in their offices-- and let them know that we are counting on them to live up to the shining example that Eric Williams, Michael Manley, Forbes Burnham and Errol Barrow set so many years ago.

If we all do our duty as principled and engaged Citizens of the Caribbean we can win a truly historic and meaningful victory for the future of our burgeoning Caribbean and Latin American Civilization.

Please act with the urgency that the situation demands.

I now look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. I and our Chapter of the International Network In Defense of Humanity may be reached at -- clementpaynechambers@gmail.com.

Yours in the struggle.

David Comissiong

Coordinator

International Network In Defense of Humanity (Caribbean Chapter)