Caribbean Issues is a weekly sequence from Each day Kos. Hope you’ll be part of us right here each Saturday. In case you are unfamiliar with the area, try Caribbean Issues: Attending to know the international locations of the Caribbean.
Because the U.S. continues committing extrajudicial murders within the Caribbean and increasing our army presence there, it isn’t clear if we’re headed for conflict or simply carrying on with killing sprees.
Many pundits and commentators have pointed to the U.S.’s want to take over and management Venezuelan oil as the true motive behind this state of affairs, whereas others see this as yet one more distraction from the Epstein recordsdata scandal.
German Public TV raised the query in a phase titled “What does Trump want in Venezuela? | To the point”:
What is evident is the worldwide response to the present scenario, with many countries weighing in with criticism towards the Orange Cabal in energy.
The Guardian’s overseas affairs commentator Simon Tisdall didn’t mince phrases when he wrote “The US is now a rogue state – look at its extrajudicial killings off Venezuela’s coast”:
The UK’s reported determination to limit intelligence-sharing with the Pentagon on suspected drug-traffickers’ boats within the Caribbean is a modest but symbolic act of resistance to Donald Trump’s imperialist revival. Britain is claimed to have objected to repeated, deadly US airstrikes on alleged smugglers off Venezuela’s coast – which have been extensively condemned as unlawful extrajudicial killings amounting to homicide.
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The US lacks a persuasive justification for conflict, regardless of Trump’s fanciful portrayal of Maduro, and Latin American cartel bosses, as “narco-terrorists” with whom he deems the US to be at conflict. However Trump doesn’t care. He believes that he and his nation are above the regulation, which may makes proper. Name it by its identify: that is precisely the form of brash, monarchic imperialism that the New World colonists famously rebelled towards.
The self-aggrandising, regionally expansionist outlook of the second Trump administration is probably the most hanging latest manifestation of the brand new period of state lawlessness that has taken maintain around the globe. The idea of a standard rulebook and joint motion to deal with shared world issues has been scorned. In Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has taken state lawlessness to new extremes – and nobody appears ready or keen to cease him.
The Trump regime’s latest selections are placing a pressure on our overseas intelligence alliances—not that the loonies in cost will most likely care.
Simply Safety reported on “The International Law Obligation of States to Stop Intelligence Support for U.S. Boat Strikes”:
A number of States have curtailed intelligence-sharing with america because of the persevering with drug boat strikes within the Caribbean and Pacific which have killed 83 individuals thus far. Notably, the UK, which maintains a big presence within the Caribbean, has for years offered intelligence to assist U.S. Coast Guard drug interdiction, along with conducting its personal counter-narcotics operations. Involved that america may use that assist to unlawfully goal drug boats, over a month in the past, the UK suspended sharing intelligence. Requested concerning the CNN report that broke the story, Secretary of State Rubio labeled it “false,” with out stating why.
Experiences have additionally emerged that the Netherlands has curtailed intelligence cooperation as a result of concern that america may use it to assist human rights violations or, a reasonably stunning concern, help Russia.
The united statesGerald R. Ford plane provider leaves Naval Station Norfolk on June 23 in Norfolk, Virginia.
Canada, which is conducting Operation Caribbe in coordination with the Coast Guard and 13 different nations, has likewise knowledgeable america that the knowledge it gives just isn’t for use to facilitate the boat strikes. As a spokesperson for the Division of Nationwide Defence emphasised, “Canadian Armed Forces activities under Operation Caribbe, conducted in coordination with the United States Coast Guard, are separate and distinct from the activities you describe involving other branches of the United States military.”
And Colombia, which has lengthy collaborated hand-in-glove with america on counter-drug operations, has equally suspended intelligence sharing with U.S. intelligence companies till the strikes finish. Colombian President Gustavo Petro justified the choice by noting, “The fight against drugs must be subordinated to the human rights of the Caribbean people.” Mexico has additionally opposed the boat strikes, referred to as on america to respect worldwide treaties, and most not too long ago introduced an association with america whereby the Mexican Navy will intercept boats close to the international locations’ coasts with a purpose to stop additional deadly assaults in that space.
In latest days, E.U. leaders and member States, resembling France, have instructed journalists that they think about the boat strikes flatly unlawful. (France too has a big presence within the area, together with previous work with U.S. counter-narcotics operations.) In response to such European authorized issues, Rubio quipped, as a result of most of the shipments are certain for Europe, “Maybe they should be thanking us.”
Right here’s a present hyperlink to a New York Occasions article titled “Trump Said to Authorize C.I.A. Plans for Covert Action in Venezuela”:
The president has signed off on attainable operations inside Venezuela however has additionally reopened back-channel communications with the federal government of President Nicolás Maduro
El País printed “US escalates its campaign against ‘narco-terrorism’ in Latin America with the launch of Operation Southern Spear”:
U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced on Thursday the beginning of a U.S. army operation to take away “narco-terrorists” from the Western Hemisphere.
In a message on X (previously Twitter), the pinnacle of the Pentagon defined: “President Trump ordered motion — and the Division of Warfare is delivering. As we speak, I’m asserting Operation Southern Spear.”
Hegseth’s announcement comes simply three days after the arrival of the plane provider Gerald Ford — the most important on the earth and probably the most fashionable within the U.S. fleet — to the world of duty of U.S. Southern Command in Latin America and the Caribbean. The ship and its escort group joined the flotilla already deployed in worldwide waters on the fringe of Venezuela’s territorial waters.
Harriet Barber on the UK’s Telegraph wrote “Trump mulling over Venezuela attack order”:
The US president has held a string of back-to-back conferences during which he reviewed army choices – together with the usage of particular operations forces and direct motion inside Venezuela.
Talking to reporters on Air Drive One late on Friday night time, he stated: “I sort of made up my mind. I can’t tell you what it is, but we made a lot of progress with Venezuela in terms of stopping drugs from pouring in.”
It’s straightforward to marvel how a lot “mulling” Trump is definitely doing. I doubt he might find Venezuela on a map, and it’s seemingly that as an alternative of mulling, somebody is “pulling” his strings.
Our colony of Puerto Rico has grow to be a staging level for the US army buildup.
CBS reported “U.S. reopens shuttered Puerto Rico naval base as Caribbean military buildup continues”:
Ceiba, Puerto Rico — A U.S. naval base in Puerto Rico that was closed greater than 20 years in the past is now again in operation as america builds up forces within the Caribbean forward of attainable army motion towards Venezuela.
Naval Station Roosevelt Roads closed in 2004 after having been in operation since 1943. However the Roosevelt Roads base has been reopened and is now one among 5 areas the place U.S. forces are working in Puerto Rico, an American territory strategically positioned north of Venezuela.
“Right now, the United States is the most powerful in the world,” Baez stated. “Having them here taking care of us, we feel more than safe.”
Fascinating that their report doesn’t embody something concerning the protests towards the U.S. presence which might be going down on the island.
Brett Wilkins lined that unrest for Widespread Goals in “Puerto Ricans Continue Protests Against US Militarism and War Threats”:
US Marines started large-scale amphibious warfare workouts involving tons of of troops on the finish of August as a part of Trump’s remilitarization of the area amid his army buildup towards Venezuela. There are at present round 10,000 troops on the island—which was conquered from Spain in 1898—in addition to weapons together with F-35 fighter jets, MQ-9 Reaper drones, surveillance plane, and assist gear.
The US buildup has evoked recollections of the struggle to kick the Navy out of Vieques, a picture-postcard island whose residents lived downwind from a US bombing vary for six many years. Tens of hundreds of tons of bombs had been dropped. Lethal chemical weapons had been examined and saved. Toxins polluted the land, air, and sea, together with Agent Orange, depleted uranium, and so-called perpetually chemical substances.
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Some Puerto Ricans dismissed the concept the buildup on what’s usually referred to as the US’ “unsinkable aircraft carrier” signaled any form of resurgence within the colonizers’ presence.
“The idea that the US military is no longer present in Puerto Rico is a myth,” former Puerto Rico Bar Affiliation president Alejandro Torres Rivera instructed CPI. “They never left, they merely scaled back their presence, or the intensity of it, for a time in their colony.”
“To those who celebrate this militarization, or remain complicit, I say: There is no worse bet than one made against your own people, your own land, your own future,” she added. “If only someone would dare to bet on Puerto Ricans, and their right to decide their destiny. After generations of allowing others to exploit Puerto Rico, and abandon it without justice, we have had enough.”
The transfer to reopen bases extends past Puerto Rico, based on “The US military’s plan to revive old bases in Latin America”:
Within the close to future, U.S. troops might as soon as once more be based mostly out of Ecuador after leaving 16 years in the past. Ecuador is ready to vote this weekend on a constitutional meeting that would enable overseas militaries to function bases within the nation, together with america.
The Trump administration and Ecuador have been discussing safety cooperation in latest months, together with the potential for as soon as once more basing American troops within the port metropolis of Manta. Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem visited the positioning with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, in addition to one other army set up, based on Noboa’s workplace. The Pentagon has not stated if it plans to ship forces again to the nation if allowed, however the referendum might open the door for an American footprint within the nation.
Widespread Goals studies that the individuals of Ecuador have soundly rejected their authorities’s willingness to permit the U.S. to reopen bases there and notes “It is, to date, the Noboa government’s biggest electoral defeat.”
Ecuador’s voters on Sunday delivered a significant blow to right-wing President Daniel Noboa by decisively rejecting the proposed return of overseas army bases to the South American nation’s soil—together with installations run by america.
Round two-thirds of voters opposed the measure with most ballots tallied, a consequence that was extensively seen as a shock. Voters additionally rejected a separate effort to rewrite the nation’s progressive 2008 structure, which enshrined sturdy labor and environmental rights.
“Ecuador voters reject referendum to bring back US bases”
