Venezuela Says U.S., Allies Repeating Libya Strategy in Syria

Caracas, March 27, 2011 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – On Saturday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the United States and other nations are seeking to intervene militarily in Syria using the same strategy as in Libya.

“The supposedly peaceful movements have already begun, and then there will be some deaths and they’ll be accusing the Syrian president of killing his people. Later, the Yankees come and want to bomb the people in order to save them, imagine that,” said President Chavez.

“What shameless cynicism! It’s a new strategy they’ve invented, to generate violent armed conflicts and spill blood in a country in order to then bomb it and intervene and take ownership of its natural resources and convert it into a colony,” Chavez said.

Venezuelans “already lived through it on April 11 and 12,” Chavez said, referring to the U.S.-backed coup in 2002. On April 11, snipers gunned down pro-Chavez and opposition protestors, and the high military command released a video recorded before the shootings renouncing their loyalty to Chavez. The president was kidnapped and replaced by a dictatorship led by the country’s business elite.

Chavez also defended Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, calling him a “humanist” and pointing out that he is “a doctor educated in London, he is no extremist.”

The wave of Middle East uprisings hit Syria on Saturday as protests broke out in major cities. There were reports of protestors and state security forces dying in clashes between armed groups. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said each Arab uprising is unique and that the Syrian regime has been less brutal than the Muamar Gaddafi regime in Libya, implying the U.S. might not intervene militarily.    

Meanwhile, Venezuela continues to denounce the international military operation in Libya, which has now been taken over by NATO commanders.

“These colonial powers have only one objective and it is to take ownership of the oil and riches of our brotherly people of Libya,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro told a state-owned radio program.

Venezuela supports the African Union’s proposal for a plan for peaceful mediation, Maduro said. “The empire desperately bombs the Libyan people every night. They want to destroy Libya before arriving at a peace accord,” he said.

“All of the world is seeing are lessons that we are learning about the way the former colonial powers desperately act when presented with an opportunity. They speak of democracy and human rights, but until yesterday they flattered Gaddafi, they were really courting the oil,” Maduro said.

Before the military intervention in Libya began, Chavez proposed a multi-national commission to mediate the conflict between Gaddafi and the rebels and forge a peaceful solution.

The Chavez administration has forged unprecedented diplomatic and economic ties with Middle East and African countries to form what Chavez calls a “multi-polar world” not subject to domination by any superpower.