The “Lima group”, which convened in Canada on Feb. 4, 2019, represents a group of governments opposed to Venezuela’s elected government.
More accurately, the group consists of plotters, conspirators, who are criminals under International Law.
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Ken Stone of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, February 4, 2019.
International criminal lawyer Christopher C. Black explains quite clearly in “The Lima Group: International Outlaws”[1] that
“(t)he world can see that the Lima Gang, who like to use the phrase “the rule of law” in their diktats to others, are committing egregious crimes under international law and together these crimes are components of the supreme war crime of aggression. The Lima Group therefore is a group of international criminal conspirators and the every individual involved is a war criminal. So when the Lima conspirators issue their press statement after the Ottawa meeting, planning aggression against Venezuela, calling for the overthrow, for the head of President Maduro and dressing it up in the usual language of the aggressor, of “human rights” and “democracy” and their fake and illegal doctrine of “responsibility to protect” it will not be issued by nations interested in peace or who have respect for international law but by a gang of criminals, of international outlaws.” (from NEO)
Not only are Lima group members conspiring to overthrow the sovereign nation of Venezuela, but the Canadian government is also pledging 53 million dollars to further this agenda.
The legitimate Venezuelan government will not have access to these funds. In fact, Canada and its co-conspirators against Venezuela have been waging a criminal economic war against the country which has so far has cost Venezuela about 20 billion dollars, so the pledge is insulting at the very least, and again, it obviates root causes. If imperialist countries were to cease waging criminal economic warfare against Venezuela, there would be no need for “humanitarian” or any other aid in the first place.
READ MORE: Canada Fuels Assault on Syria, but Syrians Are Resilient
In this short video, Doug Brown discusses the toll that economic warfare exacts on victim populations:
Doug Brown of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War
On a more personal note, I would like to offer my opinion to Venezuelans:
If you support the “opposition” in Venezuela, you are supporting US military intervention. I have seen firsthand what “military intervention” looks like in Syria. Your country will be destroyed, looted, plundered. Your infrastructure will be destroyed. Your economy will be destroyed. Death squads and bombing raids and terrorism will plague your country for years, decades. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions will die. Russia and China have a strong legitimate presence in Venezuela, and Venezuela is a lynch pin country. Venezuela will not go gently into that good night.
Let us all hope that the rule of international law, and values of common sense and decency, will prevail.
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Mark Taliano is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and the author of Voices from Syria, Global Research Publishers, 2017.
Note
[1] Christopher C. Black, “The Lima Group: International Outlaws.” 4 February, 2019, New Eastern Outlook.
(https://journal-neo.org/2019/02/04/the-lima-group-international-outlaws/) Accessed 5 February, 2019.
