Relations with the US Government

What muddies relations with the United States government is the repeatedly provocative and aggressive conduct of the Venezuelan regime.

Last Tuesday, the Venezuelan press published a notice with the heading “Caracas temporarily suspends” contact with Washington. However, effectively this is not about relations between Venezuela and the U.S., which have not suffered any setbacks, save for when the Americans made the decision to expel the Venezuelan consul in Miami who was accused of carrying out actions against the information technology systems of the White House, the CIA, the FBI, National Security Agency and the central nuclear agency.

Aside from the measure of reciprocity that normally occurs in such a case, the Venezuelan regime decided to close the consulate in Miami. This was not a reprisal against the U.S. government but in fact an arbitrary and unjust way of punishing all Venezuelans residing in Florida, obliging them to travel to consulates in other cities for marriage registration and to New Orleans to participate in the presidential election.

The foreign ministry stated that the usurper of the presidency decided “to suspend for the moment the existing channel of communication” as a means of rejecting the declarations made by Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson. “Mrs. Jacobson, when you learn that we are a sovereign country, then give us a call,” Jaua said, adding, however, that “all diplomatic and consular relations would be maintained …. Hopefully there will be a rectification and the meddling of the United States will cease.”

This final sentence confirms my view that bilateral relations are not experiencing any problems. Commercial exchange and business continue; in fact, purchases made by the Venezuelan government of food products and other products from the U.S. have increased considerably as a result of the scarcity in our own country, resulting from the absurd financial and commercial policies that have been implemented by the Venezuelan regime. More than that, we have even had to turn to the North American market in order to compensate for Petroleos de Venezuela’s production shortfall, which is simply unheard of! The same can be said for economic relations and migration. Venezuelans, even public officials, continue to travel to the “empire” unimpeded.

But let us look at what Mrs. Jacobson said which provoked such mania in the regime. She simply said that her country desired that the election on April 14 be democratic and stated that Obama’s government desires “a functional, productive and positive relationship with whatever government emerges from the presidential election.” “Venezuelans deserve open, fair and transparent elections in which all can vote with confidence that their decision will be respected … That will be a little difficult, but that is what Venezuelans and the international community should support.”

I wonder: Does this constitute meddling? Can a friendly government not express its hopes regarding an election which, as with former elections and as the international community knows well, has been characterized by abuses of power, manipulation, pressure placed on and threats made against voters, the use of resources, equipment, capital and people to try to impose the official candidate and which relies on the complicity of the organ responsible for supervising the electoral process?

On the other hand, the regime said nothing when — within days of Jacobson’s announcement — Commander of the U.S. Southern Command General John Kelly stated to an audience in Congress that “Expectations are that the vice president (Maduro) will win the election of April 14.”

The reaction of the U.S. government was swift. It categorically rejected the allegations made by the Venezuelan regime and claimed to be “disappointed” by its constant unfounded accusations. Furthermore, the U.S. government announced that it would remain “distant” from Venezuela’s election in order to avoid accusations “such as those witnessed in recent days.” Among these accusations, the one that stands out most was made by the usurper of Miraflores’ seat, who claimed that the CIA had injected cancer into our former head of state.

What utter nonsense, the product of the bigoted usurper’s ignorance. Only a simpleton would consider saying such a thing. Experts have already explained that it is impossible to inject cancer; yet now it has been declared that a commission will be created to “demonstrate” that that is effectively what happened. Why wasn’t a commission established to verify the state of health of the late head of state? Another ridiculous and absurd affirmation states that the CIA, in combination with Venezuelan agents, plans to assassinate Henrique Capriles. How much longer will they continue to invent fantastic accusations which they themselves do not believe and assume that we Venezuelans are imbeciles who buy all their lies?