i'm george galloway
thank you for joining me on live stream
to talk about venezuela
the tragedy and the farce let's start
with the tragedy as president nicolas
maduro
said today in his appeal to the american
people
the united states government a
collection
increasingly of lawless gangsters and
convicted
criminals are threatening venezuela
with a new vietnam but
perhaps this generation of americans
needs to remember
what happened in the original vietnam
58 000 american soldiers
came home in boxes hundreds of thousands
of them
came home maimed and wounded both
physically
and psychologically many never
recovering
from the trauma that they participated
in
there the united states was defeated
in the vietnam war and would be defeated
again in a venezuelan war
the reality is this
that venezuela will
resist and so will millions
of its latin american friends any
american intervention in venezuela
whether that comes in the form of
mercenaries
coming across the border from colombia
or from brazil
or whether it comes from a fully fledged
american
invasion landing on the beaches
of venezuela the people will resist
there are seven million eight million
nine million
chavez supporters in venezuela millions
of them
are armed does anybody imagine
that they're just going to disappear at
the first
whiff of american grapeshot
or do you think that in resisting
venezuela will quickly become an inferno
in which blood and misery
will proliferate that's what donald
trump
and john bolton and eliot abrahams the
convicted
criminal now in charge of the
venezuela file a convicted
criminal a man who was deeply involved
with the cutting of throats
of church people of teachers of medical
workers
all over central america and who was
convicted as a criminal he wouldn't even
be allowed
into the united states if he were not
already a u.s citizen
the gangsters that are gathered
on the potomac are threatening to open
the gates of hell not just
in venezuela but throughout latin
america and even inside america
itself so think carefully mothers
of america are you ready for your son
to die for john bolton for eliot
abraham's for donald j trump
think carefully the tragedy
is unfolding and has been for some years
the economic warfare naked
economic warfare in the form of
sanctions
embargo and quarantine has already
caused
massive and widespread misery for the
ordinary
people of venezuela and when these
criminals cry their crocodile tears
about suffering poverty hunger in
venezuela
just remind yourself it was them the
crocodiles
who caused it it's them who have brought
the venezuelan economy to its knees
through economic warfare
through sanctions and through the
deliberate
suppression of the oil price
venezuela is an oil dependent economy
and the reason why the united states has
strong-armed
saudi arabia and other gulf producers
to up and up and up production levels
is to depress the price so that the
depressed
price will cause economic difficulties
for venezuela for russia for
iran as well as boosting the shale
oil industry in the united states
itself now the reality is
this the oil price went up today
it's a no-lose situation for trump
and the oil industry that backs him
if they can get their hands on
venezuela's
oil then as john bolton has already
admitted
on television this will be a massive
boost to u.s oil interests
venezuela is of course the place
where the world's largest treasure trove
of black gold
oil lies beneath
the world's biggest supply
of oil lies in venezuela
do you really believe does anybody
really believe
that donald trump bolton and abrahams
cares
about the human rights of the people in
venezuela they're rolling around in bed
with saudi arabia which cuts people's
heads off in public
which crucifies them literally in public
which denies everyone in the country the
right to vote for
anybody the world's unfreest country
saudi arabia is the best friend
of trump bolton abrahams
and the rest of that grizzly crew
but it's not just tragedy it's farce
how else can you describe a situation
when a man in the street in caracas
declares himself to be the president
of a great latin american country of 30
million people
which the man behind me and bolivar this
is miranda
kicked european colonialism out of their
land
centuries ago a guy stands up
in the street and says i'm now the
president of venezuela
and the united states government
recognizes him
a man in the street that has never even
stood
to be the president of venezuela
is now recognized as the president of
venezuela
by trump and now by
european governments including my own
the british government
and the crowning glory the farce that is
the european parliament
voted overwhelmingly today to recognize
that man
in the street in caracas whose name they
don't even know
whose name they cannot even pronounce
is now the president of venezuela he's
just announced
that he's thinking of opening an embassy
where
well in jerusalem of course in occupied
jerusalem
in israel one of the first countries to
afford him
recognition and just by coincidence
hundreds of israeli soldiers arrived
today
in neighboring brazil with its long
border and its jungle between
it and venezuela brazil
led by a fascist bolsonaro
was one of the first to give recognition
to this
impostor the guy in the street
in caracas the first thing
he does is bring in the israelis
you may not know this but brazil has
applied to join
nato here's another level of farce the
north
atlantic treaty organization
nato north atlantic brazil
has just applied to join it and its
membership
will be accelerated that i promise you
because
that's what happened to colombia
another state with a border with
venezuela
and many many grudges
against venezuela two nato countries
on either side coincidence i'll let you
decide that but here is my take
these two countries our associates of
nato
and nato intends to join the regime
change
operation in venezuela whatever the cost
in bloodshed
terror fear and destruction
on top of the world's largest reservoir
of oil you don't have to be einstein to
work
that out now
this farce has led to a situation
where all over the world people
are having to make their stand
the african union on the same day as
these jokers in the european parliament
recognized the guy in the street
in caracas the african union which
knows something about colonialism which
knows something about invasion
about the looting of its national wealth
and treasure
the african union unanimously
continued its recognition of president
nicolas maduro
and venezuelan sovereignty
i think that's telling don't you the
european
parliament the parliament of the
countries
of modern day colonialism in the last
200 years
all of them were up to their necks in
colonies
in the third world miranda died in a
spanish prison
having been taken captive by them for
his role
in the anti-colonial movement in latin
america
so the parliament of the colonialists
recognizes the man in the street in
caracas
the parliament the african union
of the continent most defiled
economically raped even
of its own people taken off as slaves
unanimously rejects this regime
change operation now i've been to
venezuela
many times i want to tell you
why all these people hate the venezuelan
revolution so much they hated
chavez the previous president
of venezuela for the same reason that
they hate
nicolas maduro because both of these
presidents
have determined to use venezuela's oil
wealth
for the benefit of the poorest people in
the country
to the disadvantage of the gold-toothed
emigres in miami and the rich 200
families
who before chavez owned and controlled
everything in venezuela the chavez
revolution
built houses built hospitals built
schools
built universities gave computers
to the students in every school in
venezuela they completely transformed
the lives of the poorest people in
venezuela and i'm here to tell you
the poorer the venezuelan the blacker
the venezuelan the more
mixed race the venezuelan the more
native american the venezuelan the more
they love chavez
the more they love maduro and the
converse
is also true the richer the venezuelan
the more they hate the chavez revolution
so
everybody has to pick aside here
everybody has to
decide are you with the rich venezuelans
or are you with the poor are you with
the black venezuelans
or are you with those with gold teeth
living in expensive exile where do you
stand
i know where i stand and it's not the
most difficult question
i've ever asked myself they
want to destroy the bolivarian
revolution
in venezuela because they cannot bear
riches wealth being under
the control of a government an elected
government
repeatedly elected government chavez and
maduro have won more elections
than any other politicians on the entire
planet elections that were judged
by jimmy carter no less who won a nobel
prize for observing other people's
elections as pristine
as the best in the world they can't
stand it
the imperialists the colonialists
how dare these poor southerners
from latin america repeatedly elect a
government
that acts for the poor and acts
against the interests of the rich and
powerful i don't want you to think
that i have no criticisms of nicolas
maduro
and of the venezuelan government i do
but some of you won't like what those
criticisms are
i criticize both chavez and maduro
for leaving the economy overwhelmingly
in the private sector if you own the
economy
you can own the politics or you can
successfully use your ownership of the
economy to make life
impossible for the elected government
and that's what's happening here
they they describe venezuela as a
socialist country
it's not a socialist country france is
more of a socialist country
than venezuela there's more industry
economy
in the hands of the state in france than
there is
in venezuela venezuela has a socialist
government yes
but it doesn't have a socialist
economy and it should have
made much more progress in taking into
public
hands the commanding heights
of the economy and taking
away the threat of the richest
venezuelans holding them to
ransom sabotage subversion
economic wrecking my second complaint
is equally controversial
there is a real problem of criminality
and lawlessness in venezuela in a way
that there simply isn't in cuba one of
the safest places
in the world if you're a revolution
you have to apply revolutionary
tactics against criminals
organized criminals or merely street
thugs
robbers and murderers venezuela
is not repressive it isn't repressive
enough to the criminal classes
that it should have dealt with long ago
and thirdly i have real criticisms
of corruption in certain elements
in venezuela it is not possible to be a
socialist government
and to allow corruption to flourish
underneath you this demands
revolutionary rigor
to root out corruption and to deal
in the most serious possible way with
the corrupt
elements that are poisoning the well in
your society
now i've been saying this for some time
and it hurts me
to have to say it again but i tell you
this
if you're asking me to choose between
donald trump
john bolton and elia abrahams
or whoever it is nobody knows their
names who run the european parliament or
whoever it is that's running the
european union
or theresa may or jeremy hunt if you ask
me to choose
between them and hugo chavez
and nicholas maduro well that's another
question that isn't
difficult to answer i stand with
the venezuelan revolution i stand with
its leader president nicolas
maduro who will be the president of
venezuela
until the people of venezuela vote him
out whatever pretenders usurpers
jokers imposters appear
on the scene finally
i want to say this when i was in
venezuela
last time for chavez final victory
not long before he was tragically taken
from us
i came back here to discover that there
were people
perhaps large numbers of people perhaps
some of them
even truly believed it that
thought chavez had somehow suppressed
dissent opposition media
in venezuela in fact
in my time in venezuela opposition
marches and demonstrations formed up
under my hotel window every day
and thousands of oppositionists some of
them
armed many of them ready to set fire to
anything they could
marched off in protest against hugo
chavez
when i looked at the newsstands it
astonished me
that the vast majority of the newspapers
and the magazines
owned by the rich were spewing out
their anti-chavez propaganda
and every time i turned on the tv
no matter how much i channel hopped
all i could find were television
stations
supporting the opposition and i suppose
the point i'm making is this the people
that told you
saddam hussein had weapons of mass
destruction
and that we must invade and destroy iraq
the people that told you that we must
invade and destroy libya
for freedom and democracy the people who
told you
we must invade and destroy syria in the
interests of human rights
and democracy ditto in afghanistan ditto
in the war camp in the ukraine
and many other places in the world the
same people
who told you all these lies
are telling you to hate nicholas maduro
a man most of you had really given
little thought to
just a week ago but a huge
effort is now being made to make you
think that this man is the worst
thing since i don't know
bashar al-assad colonel gaddafi
saddam hussein ho chi minh
the same people the same fake news
industry which tried to persuade you
and successfully persuaded enough of you
to allow them to bring about
disaster all across the world now
want to march you into yet another
disaster in many cases the very same
politicians
the very same journalists the very same
broadcasters
so in conclusion ask yourself this
if they were wrong then why are they
right now
if they were lying then why are they
telling the truth now
ask yourself that question
i asked myself it my answer
is clear viva venezuela
viva chavez villa armadoro
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