Vol. 4: Issue 1, 8th January, 2018
Bolivarian Government of Venezuela
Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs
Embassies of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the World
Newsletter Weekly
What’s inside New year greetings Israel step closer to making Jerusalem Jewish-only city Venezuela rejects sanctions imposed by the United States on Venezuelan State officials 12 Victories of President Maduro in 2017 Arab League requests International Aid for Palestinian State Imperialism Unmasked Inside Africa: Shadow Armies: The Unseen, But Real US War in Africa
Happy new year to you all. May this year be a move further towards fighting poverty, inequality and unemployment to our people as we continue to work together to better the legacy of our liberators
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Israel a step closer to making Jerusalem Jewish-only city The delayed bill called for expanding the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem to include major illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including Ma’aleh Adumim and the Gush Etzion settlement cluster. Moreover, it endeavored to bring 150,000 Jewish settlers into Jerusalem as eligible voters, who would naturally tip the political scene more to the right. Concurrently, the law would further demote the status of 100,000 Palestinians, who would find themselves in a politically gray area. That bill was cast aside only weeks before the United States government agreed to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The U.S. and Israel are now actively invested in a system of political Apartheid in Palestine, and are twisting the arm of the PA to facilitate such a dreadful regime.
While many in the international community were focused on what the American move would mean for the future of the region and the so-called peace process, few paid heed to the fact that the U.S. and Israel had something far more consequential in mind.
The Israeli government is planning a series of measures aimed at fully denying Palestinians their legal rights in Jerusalem and precluding any future peace settlement based on sharing the city between Israel and a future Palestinian state.
News agencies at the time reported that Israel agreed to shelf a popular bill "under U.S. pressure." But that "pressure" only aimed at giving President Donald Trump the needed time to formulate his own strategy and make the troubling announcement.
One of the most aggressive measures to date is a bill that was approved by the Israeli Knesset on Tuesday, January 2. The bill, which passed with the support of Israel's ruling rightwing and far-right coalition has several dangerous stipulations. According to the bill, two thirds of the Knesset majority is required for Israel to relinquish sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem. International law insists that Israel has no sovereignty over East Jerusalem, illegally occupied and annexed in 1967 and 1980 respectively.
Since then, many Palestinians were killed, hundreds wounded and more detained as Palestinians and their allies around the world displayed outrage by the U.S. decision. A symbolic but telling vote at the United Nations on December 21 showed that the U.S. and Israel stood alone in their fight to deny Palestinians their rights in their unlawfully occupied city.
An equally disturbing stipulation in the bill is that it removes two Palestinian neighborhoods from the municipal jurisdiction of the city. The two affected neighborhoods are Kufr Aqab and the Shufat refugee camp. By doing so, the Israeli government would have achieved another milestone in its demographic war on Palestinians.
Wasting no time, Israeli lawmakers are now pushing forward with designs to further isolate Jerusalem and to empty it from its Palestinian inhabitants. They understand that the unparalleled U.S. support must be exploited to the maximum, and that any delay on these bills would certainly be missed opportunities.
It is important to note that the two Palestinian areas are located on the other side of what Israel refers to as the "Separation Wall." This move confirms the assumption that the Wall was built around Palestinians areas that Israel plans to annex in the future.
The nature of the U.S.-Israel coordination is indeed unprecedented. Just as the Knesset voted to approve the bill, the U.S. moved quickly to cap any strong Palestinian reactions. That job was entrusted to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, who has gone further than any other U.S. official in her attempt to intimidate, and even bully Palestinians. Haley declared that the U.S. will cut off U.S. funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and will only resume funding when the Palestinians agree to return to the negotiations.
Now, that the wall construction is at an advanced stage, the process of annexation seems to have begun. But the latest bill - dubbed by Palestinians as the "race law" for it aims at vacating Jerusalem from Palestinian Arabs and increasing the number of the city's Jewish settlers - is a rewritten version of an earlier bill. "The Greater Jerusalem Law," which was poised to win a majority vote at the Knesset was only shelved temporarily.
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The U.S. and Israel are now actively invested in a system of political Apartheid in Palestine, and are twisting the arm of the PA to facilitate such a dreadful regime.
UNRWA is the main channel for support for Palestinians refugees. That decision will further tighten the noose on a struggling Palestinian economy and the Palestinian Authority which relies mostly on international aid to survive.
PA officials have made many threats so far, including the exclusion of the U.S. from the peace process and changing their demand to a one state solution.
Haley, of course, understands that no Palestinian leadership can engage politically with Israel and the U.S. when the two countries refuse to accept international law as a frame of reference in the negotiations.
But there is nothing concrete so far regarding that coveted Palestinian strategy; one that is predicated on a united Palestinian leadership that truly explores new options, allies and future outlook.
Now, the Palestinian leadership has to choose between its existing humiliation or further humiliation.
It is that lack of vision that compromises the Palestinian position even further, emboldening Israel to push forward with its racist laws and apartheid walls.
But Haley's threat is also aimed at changing the conversation, and taking the focus away from the racist Israeli bill that will surely lead to further annexation in Jerusalem itself and throughout the West Bank.
www.telesurtv.net www.israel.trendolizer.com www.toptopic.com The views and opinions expressed in these articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Embassy
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Venezuela rejects sanctions imposed by the United States on Venezuelan State officials
The most recent attack of Washington against Venezuela was witnessed on Friday, January 5th 2017 when the US again issued sanctions against public servants elected by the people through free, direct, secret and universal vote. The US Treasury Department issued sanctions against members and former officers of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces. The sanctions of the United States Government against the people of Venezuela are carefully planned to attack the democracy that has strengthened the Bolivarian Revolution through the continuous call to People's Power to exercise their democratic rights through voting and participating in elections. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the repeated intention of the Government of the United States of America to impose unlawfully, unilateral sanctions against high officials of the Venezuelan State, in violation of both international law and the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela alerts the international community about these new hostile and unfriendly actions by the US regime against the Fatherland of BolĂvar, which are part of a new wave of aggressions that have began in this New Year which is also the year that presidential elections will be held in our country. With these new attempts, it is clear that the US regime seeks to fill the void left by the Venezuelan opposition, after three important electoral defeats that were witnessed in 2017, aiming to hurt the Venezuelan people through sanctions and sabotage aimed at weakening our national institutions and reactivating the violence that the Venezuelan people overcame and rejected forcefully through the vote. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela furthermore categorically rejects the destabilizing plans that are intended to be advanced from the Embassy of the United States of America in Caracas, which aim to promote violent destruction of democracy in our country and the generation of social chaos. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela underlines to the free People of the world that all sanctions, whatever they may be, undoubtedly directly affect all Venezuelan women and men since their impact has repercussions, among others, on our sovereign capacity to negotiate debt and importation of basic consumer items such as food and medicines. It is therefore a criminal and hostile action against our noble people. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela once again invites the Government of the United States of America to focus among other things, on resolving the profound social and political inequalities that afflict 99% of its population, clarifying the influence of the presidential team, as well as the racial violence against people of African descent, instead of pretending to be a spokesperson of a moral stature that no person gave them. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, reaffirming that it is a free, sovereign and independent country, ratifies that neither its people nor its national institutions will ever submit to the designs of any foreign power as it will continue to reject strongly any attempt that threatens peace, democracy and the social stability of the nation.
www.mppre.gob.ve 4
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Victories of President Maduro in 2017
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1. Faced with the attempt of a parliamentary coup: Soliders of Integral Action Zamora Antiimperialist 200. Unity FANB, Government, PSUV and the People
7. Faced with the intention of Venezuela to remain in Default and financially isolated, a commission was created to consolidate the refinancing and restructuring of external debt
2. Faced with the "Great March’’ called by the opposition: The remains of Fabricio Ojeda were transferred to the National Pantheon accompanied by thousands of Caracans
8. Faced with the blockade against acquiring medicines: The urgent arrival to the country of important shipments of insulin coming from India was announced
3. Faced with the attempt to apply the Democratic Charter in the country: The diplomatic solidarity of most of the Latin American and Caribbean States was achieved
9. Against the financial blockade, The creation of Petro was announced
4. Faced with the guarimbas: Call for mass action and installation of the National Constituency Assembly
10. All the social advances achieved thanks to the Carnet of the Fatherland, We are Venezuela, Chamba Youth Plan and the CLAP
5. The victory of October 15th together with the conquest of 18 governorates and later on that of Zulia
11. Great Offensive against Corruption
6. The victory of the municipal elections of December 10 with the obtaining of 308 mayorships out of 335 (93% of the municipalities of the country)
12. Brought the opposition to the table of dialogue
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Arab League requests International Aid for Palestinian State
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi speaks during his joint news conference with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Amman, Jordan January 6, 2018. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed. | Photo: Reuters A meeting with all members of the Arab League will be held at the end of the month to determine the next mode of action. Arab foreign ministers are countering U.S. attempts to turn Jerusalem into Israel’s capital by summoning international support to recognize the city as the center of a Palestinian state. A committee of ministers from Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Palestine met with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi to strategize a response to President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city. "We (the Arab League) will confront the decision by seeking a resolution, an international one, to recognize a Palestinian state on 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital," Safadi said.
“We want to lessen any losses on the Palestinian side and lessen the Israeli gains,” Aboul Gheit added. Arab states will also discuss whether to convene an extraordinary summit of their leaders or wait until a scheduled summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh at the end of March, he added.
He did not elaborate on the timing of the diplomatic moves nor did he say whether he was referring to a U.N. Security Council or General Assembly resolution. Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the ministerial meeting would also discuss Washington’s role in future Arab-Israeli peacemaking that members states said was now jeopardized by what they see as U.S. bias towards Israel.
Following Trump’s announcement last month, the organization called for an emergency meeting during which they warned of violence in the region which would doubtlessly follow the move. Since then, protests have raged across Israel with international organizations joining the fight in support of Palestinians. www.telesurtv.net www.breaking.news.aboutcivil.org The views and opinions expressed in these articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Embassy
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Imperialism Unmasked By: Jorge Arreaza M. Venezuela’s Minister of Foreign Affairs
Many analysts claimed that the arrival of wealthy businessmen to power in our countries has nothing to do with Washington; others suggested that Washington no longer dominated the OAS, or that it would not use it to attack and interfere in the internal affairs of Latin America and the Caribbean.
2017 was a clarifying year; it managed to make international politics sincere and put the foreign policy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Bolivarian Diplomacy of Peace, to the test. There are no longer any possible doubts: American unilateralism and imperialism have been reaffirmed. Many people in the world tended to get confused after Barack Obama's smile and friendly way of working, ruling out the devastating nature of the current empire. The truth is more than evident today.
Even many opinion makers in the world came to question the inexorable thesis of the dominance of the industrial-military complex or that the American economy is nourished and energized through the production and sale of military equipment and weapons, that is, through the generation of wars and bloodsheds.
Those who thought that terrorist groups in the Middle East arise spontaneously without funding and support from the Pentagon were left without pretexts and arguments, as well as those who maintained the illusion when affirming that Washington no longer interferes in the internal affairs of other countries, or finances destabilizing plans and coups d’état; or that the Department of State no longer forges electoral frauds at its convenience, or creates tendentious propaganda in the media to justify subsequent war actions.
Those who thought -or wanted to believe- that these irrefutable facts were myths or inventions of the "communists, leftists and ecologists" have witnessed, as the whole world has, the irrefutable veracity of those practices, policies and actions, in light of the frankness by President Donald Trump who has proudly unveiled and assumed the intellectual and material authorship of all those violations to the international order (recognition that is appreciated).
What a misbelief of those who claimed that the U.S. agencies do not plan and develop relentless financial persecutions against entire peoples to make their economies "scream" and make government changes by force.
As the lawyers state: When there is admission by a party, no proof is required. It has been indisputably and emphatically demonstrated that imperialism not only exists, but given the signs of its decline and the evident failure of its economic support system and pensée unique, it has fallen into a phase of aggressive desperation, posing the main threat for humanity, as usually and ordinarily every imperial threat does. As the multipolar world is consolidating, the actions of the main actors of the imperial framework become more dangerous.
Those who claimed that the U.S. does not consider Russia and China as its staunch rivals and competitors were wrong, in the style of the Cold War; and also, those who came to think that the United States was rectifying and was going to respect multilateral institutions and Public International Law; but even worse, those who once believed that the U.S. responsibly would comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change; as well as those who denied that the Department of State is capable of economically pressing equal states if they dare to hold sovereign positions in the UN in matters concerning the Middle East.
In a U.S. university, a questioned and very weak Latin American businessman-president, very close to Washington, was very candid when describing the role that the United States
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and the Latin American right gives our people and their governments: "Latin America is a nice dog sleeping on the carpet, which does not cause any problem." The discriminatory and racist treatment that the White House has shown towards our countries in recent months confirms this theory of submission.
that organization, which states that Cuba and Venezuela do not deserve to be members of the UN Human Rights Council: “If there is country that does not deserve belonging to the UN Human Rights Council is precisely the United States of America. It is the main violator of human rights, not only in its territory but in the whole world; unjustified wars, bombardment in civilian populations, clandestine prisons where torture methods are applied, imposition of illegal unilateral actions against the economy of several countries, different kinds of economic pressure, and rash migratory policies.
The active imperialist offensive in Our America has been clearly demonstrated by the building of walls between peoples; expulsion and cruel treatment of migrants; repealing of preferential treatment policies granted to the Caribbean and Central American countries; economic sanctions and financial persecutions; permanent interference in the internal affairs; arrogant exercise of the economic power to control our countries, including humiliating actions during renegotiations of trade treaties, among other affronts.
The U.S. is the only country that has dared to use nuclear weapons against another people, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths. It is a country that led the invasion to Iraq in 2003 violating the essential institutionalism of the UN, arguing the search for weapons of mass destruction they never found, regardless of more than a million deaths caused by this bloody military operation.
From his position in the ineffable OAS, the dishonourable Mr. Luis Almagro flaunted discipline when following the Washington’s orders by means of countless hours of work, considerable efforts and incalculable resources invested to the solely purpose of overthrowing the Government of Venezuela. His induced behaviour is, undoubtedly, a part of the unveiled strategy of the imperialist offensive in the hemisphere.
The U.S is building a wall in the border with Mexico, and there are proposals for a bill to collect 7% of the immigrant’s remittances, not for their social security but rather to finance the building of this shameful wall.
However, his efficiency has been poor. President Maduro not only remains in office but has accumulated victories, one after the other. We can say in favour of Mr. Almagro that he has been very efficient for bringing the OAS to the Intensive Care Unit of history: It remains morally in an irreversible vegetative state, and politically, in a ridiculous dysfunctional state of absolute futility.
By using verifiable data from UN organs and rapporteurships, we can conclude that: the U.S has not yet ratified 62% of the main treaties on Human Rights; in the U.S there is no independent institution for the defense and promotion of Human Rights; the Special UN Rapporteur on Extrajudicial and Arbitrary Executions denounces the lack of independence of the judiciary power in the U.S; solitary confinement is an extended practice in that country.
Imperialism, anxious and furious because of the inefficiency of its actions and those ordered to the incompetent Venezuelan right-wing, aimed at finishing the Bolivarian Revolution, decided to attack from all fronts. The Department of State –always accompanied by the CIA– deployed its resources across Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in Europe –by ordering to sanction Venezuela– and governments in the five continents.
In the U.S. the number of homeless people reaches 3.5 million (1.5 million children amongst them); 28% of the poor people do not have access to the healthcare system; the maternity death rate has dramatically increased in the last years; 10,000 children are confined in prisons for adults, children can be sentenced to life imprisonment (70% are African American children). The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education has denounced the use of electric discharges and physical means of coercion in education centers in the U.S; it is one of the 7 countries of the world that has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; in the U.S paid maternity leave is not mandatory; denunciations on police abuses, specially against the African American population, are common; over than 10 million African American are still living in poverty, and half of them in misery.
Imperialism used Canada for leading a herd of subdued governments of the hemisphere to try pushing the Government of Caracas into the corner; it also made thousands lobbies at United Nations in both the Human Rights Council and the Security Council, exercising pressure and seeking for support in its obssession of pursuing Venezuela. In all cases imperialism was defeated. And precisely, the arrival of the supremacist and racist administration of Donald Trump pulled away the veil, allowing us to demonstrate -even by default- its real nature. The main argument for attacking the Bolivarian Revolution has been the human rights issue.
The U.S. is a country where slavery is supposed to be abolished, but the 13th Amendment permits slavery as a modality of criminal conviction; one in three American indigenous women is raped during their lifetime; It is a country where not only racial discrimination has not been overcome, but it has been intensified in the supremacist positions of the current government”.
Well, allow me to avoid the details of the situation of permanent violation of human rights by the U.S. governments in their own country and worldwide, and let me quote an eloquent paragraph about this issue, taken from the Venezuela’s speech at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, which responded the immoral assertion by the U.S. Permanent Representative in
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After political violence was defeated in Venezuela (largely funded by the U.S. centers of power) thanks to the people’s election of the National Constituent Assembly which brought us peace, and when the most diverse actors were preparing for new democratic debates and even for reopening the dialogue process, the U.S government showed again its true colours by imposing a series of unilateral coercive and illegal actions against the Venezuelan economy. This way, the U.S reinforced and made official the financial persecution against Venezuela, which has been taking place rudely since the times of Obama. We are not referring to the individual and harmless senseless actions against the civil servants of the government, members of the Electoral Council or the Constituent Assembly. We are referring to actions aimed at preventing Venezuela from receiving funding or making international transactions so as to comply with the country’s commitments and purchase raw material or end products to satisfy the needs of the people. It is a form of blockade similar to the one they have imposed to the sisterly Republic of Cuba during five decades.
There will be new challenges for our America in 2018. Unity must be a fundamental principle of resistance, struggles and triumphs against imperialism. Beyond the notion of integration, we refer to the real UNION, the original, the Bolivarian. The unionist spirit of the peoples is in the essence of ALBA and Petrocaribe, which is strengthened in times of imminent imperialist offensive.
The aforementioned actions are aimed at making the Venezuelan economy scream that is, make the people scream, so as to force the fulfilment of their imperialist will in Venezuela. Such actions are also aimed at avoiding any form of dialogue between the political actors.
We must strengthen the autonomous integration mechanisms of Latin America and the Caribbean -which today suffer external attacks and attempts of implosion- having the ALBA as its virtuous core. The solidarity, complementarity and social and economic justice shall prevail against the new attempts of annexation by the capital.
While these so-called sanctions have caused damage, they have also contributed to raising even more the antiimperialist and libertarian awareness of Bolivar’s people. Furthermore, these unilateral decisions have made President Maduro’s government find ways to promptly break away from the U.S economy and the slaving U.S dollar standard.
The process of dialogue shall progress in Venezuela. As President Maduro said, come rain or shine, there shall be presidential elections this year. The conscience of the peoples which have Bolivar as a guide and example shall be imposed over the unconsciousness of the submissive elites that exist and preserve privileges thanks to the Monroe Doctrine and the fracturing effort of domination over our people.
Venezuela has been creating alternative routes to start decreasing the effects of Washington illegal sanctions to its very minimum, through alliances with China, Russia, Turkey, Iran and ALBA countries, among others. And it, once more, consolidates a new form of economic relations with new exchange standards that strengthen the Venezuelan economy in its efforts to become independent and overcome the oil-rentier model imposed in the 20th century.
The Bolivarian Diplomacy of Peace shall continue defending the dignity of a people determined to be free and independent, and the right of humanity to peace and justice. Thinking about the months to come, and although it may seem repetitive, we cannot but remember the slogan and reflection of struggle that Commander Chavez left us printed in our minds just over 5 years ago: Unity, Struggle, Battle and Victory!
From Venezuela, today we wave, once more, the banners of all those who have shown that imperialism, whatever face it shows, is not invincible or unquestionable. Let us evoke the “flashing instant” stated by the German thinker Walter Benjamin; the five-point star of Ho Chi Minh and the brave Vietnamese people; the immeasurable feat of the Sierra Maestra bearded people, and the resistance for almost six decades to the siege of different generations of vultures that flutter over the island without being able to break the dignity of the Cuban people; the feat of the libertarian Angola in the depths of Africa that still resounds between drums and ancestral rhythms. History teaches us that only the determination of a united and conscious people can face any imposition, any opprobrium and every force of domination.
We shall prevail. Always! Jorge Arreaza M. Venezuela’s Minister of Foreign Affairs www.mppre.gob.ve (in Spanish): http://blog.jaarreaza.org.ve/2018/01/imperialismo-sin-mascaras/
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Shadow Armies: The Unseen, But Real US War in Africa "Today’s figure of 3,500 marks an astounding 1,900 percent increase since the command was activated less than a decade ago, and suggests a major expansion of U.S. military activities on the African continent," VICE reported. Following the death of four U.S. Special Forces soldiers in Niger on October 4, U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, made an ominous declaration to a Senate committee: these numbers are likely to increase as the U.S. is expanding its military activities in Africa. It will be many years before Africa and its 54 nations are truly free from the stubborn neocolonial mindset, which is grounded in racism, economic exploitation and military interventions. There is a real - but largely concealed - war which is taking place throughout the African continent. It involves the United States, an invigorated Russia and a rising China. The outcome of the war is likely to define the future of the continent and its global outlook. It is easy to pin the blame on U.S. President Donald Trump, his erratic agenda and impulsive statements. But the truth is, the current U.S. military expansion in Africa is just another step in the wrong direction. It is part of a strategy that had been implemented a decade ago, during the administration of President George W. Bush, and actively pursued by President Barack Obama. In 2007, under the pretext of the "war on terror," the U.S. consolidated its various military operations in Africa to establish the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). With a starting budget of half a billion dollars, AFRICOM was supposedly launched to engage with African countries in terms of diplomacy and aid. But, over the course of the last 10 years, AFRICOM has been transformed into a central command for military incursions and interventions. However, that violent role has rapidly worsened during the first year of Trump's term in office. Indeed, there is a hidden U.S. war in Africa, and it is fought in the name of "counterterrorism." According to a VICE News special investigation, U.S. troops are now conducting 3,500 exercises and military engagements throughout Africa per year, an average of 10 per day. U.S. mainstream media rarely discusses this ongoing war, thus giving the military ample space to destabilize any of the continent’s 54 countries as it pleases.
Mattis, like other defense officials in the previous two administrations, justifies the U.S. military transgressions as part of ongoing 'counter-terrorism' efforts. But such coded reference has served as a pretense for the U.S. to intervene in, and exploit, a massive region with a great economic potential. The old colonial "Scramble for Africa" is being reinvented by global powers that fully fathom the extent of the untapped economic largesse of the continent. While China, India and Russia are each developing a unique approach to wooing Africa, the U.S. is invested mostly in the military option, which promises to inflict untold harm and destabilize many nations. The 2012 coup in Mali, carried out by a U.S.-trained army captain, Amadou Haya Sanogo, is only one example. In a 2013 speech, then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cautioned against a "new colonialism in Africa (in which it is) easy to come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave." While Clinton is, of course, correct, she was disingenuously referring to China, not her own country. China's increasing influence in Africa is obvious, and Beijing’s practices can be unfair. However, China's policy towards Africa is far more civil and trade-focused than the military-centered U.S. approach. The growth in the China-Africa trade figures are, as per a U.N. News report in 2013, happening at a truly "breathtaking pace", as they jumped from around $10.5 billion per year in 2000 to $166 billion in 2011. Since then, it has continued at the same impressive pace. But that growth was coupled with many initiatives, entailing many billions of dollars in Chinese credit to African countries to develop badly needed infrastructure. More went to finance the "African Talents Program," which is designed to train 30,000 African professionals in various sectors.
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It should come as no surprise, then, that China surpassed the U.S. as Africa's largest trading partner in 2009. The real colonialism, which Clinton referred to in her speech, is, however, under way in the U.S.'s own perception and behavior towards Africa. This is not a hyperbole, but in fact a statement that echoes the words of U.S. President Trump himself. During a lunch with nine African leaders last September at the U.N., Trump spoke with the kind of mindset that inspired western leaders’ colonial approach to Africa for centuries. Soon after he invented the none-existent country of "Nambia," Trump boasted of his "many friends (who are) going to your (African) countries trying to get rich." "I congratulate you," he said, "they are spending a lot of money." The following month, Trump added Chad, his country's devoted "counter-terrorism" partner to the list of countries whose citizens are banned from entering the U.S. Keeping in mind that Africa has 22 Muslim majority countries, the U.S. government is divesting from any long-term diplomatic vision in Africa, and is, instead increasingly thrusting further into the military path. The U.S. military push does not seem to be part of a comprehensive policy approach, either. It is as alarming as it is erratic, reflecting the U.S. constant over-reliance on military solutions to all sorts of problems, including trade and political rivalries. Compare this to Russia's strategic approach to Africa. Reigniting old camaraderie with the continent, Russia is following China's strategy of engagement (or in this case, reengagement) through development and favorable trade terms.
But, unlike China, Russia has a wide-ranging agenda that includes arms exports, which are replacing U.S. weaponry in various parts of the continent. For Moscow, Africa also has untapped and tremendous potential as a political partner that can bolster Russia’s standing at the U.N. Aware of the evident global competition, some African leaders are now laboring to find new allies outside the traditional western framework, which has controlled much of Africa since the end of traditional colonialism decades ago. A stark example was the late November visit by Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir to Russia and his high-level meeting with President Vladimir Putin. "We have been dreaming about this visit for a long time," al-Bashir told Putin, and "we are in need of protection from the aggressive acts of the United States." The coveted "protection" includes Russia's promised involvement in modernizing the Sudanese army. Wary of Russia’s Africa outreach, the U.S. is fighting back with a military stratagem and little diplomacy. The ongoing U.S. mini war on the continent will push the continent further into the abyss of violence and corruption, which may suit Washington well, but will bring about untold misery to millions of people. There is no question that Africa is no longer an exclusive western "turf," to be exploited at will. But it will be many years before Africa and its 54 nations are truly free from the stubborn neocolonial mindset, which is grounded in racism, economic exploitation and military interventions.
www.telesurtv.net www.straightlinelogic.com The views and opinions expressed in these articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Embassy