Bolton's book makes any attack on Venezuela immoral.

By José Renaldo Carvalho, from Journalists for Democracy John Bolton, former US National Security Advisor between April 2018 and September 2019, has just dropped a bombshell on the White House whose fallout could have devastating effects in this final stretch of President Donald Trump's term, compromising not only different aspects of domestic policy, but especially the foreign relations of what, although declining, is still the world's greatest superpower. 

In the book "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," the former presidential advisor reveals, among other things, that Donald Trump considered invading Venezuela. The White House occupant considered it "legal" to occupy the South American country, turning it into a colony, because he considered it "truly part of the United States," according to John Bolton's account. 

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the author, alleging that the book contains "classified information" and that its publication would "compromise national security," which is why the book's release was postponed to July, although this date remains uncertain. The excerpts that have come to light are leaks published by US corporate media outlets.  

Bolton's reasons for making the compromising revelations certainly don't stem from political and ideological positions far removed from those of his former boss, since Trump's former National Security Advisor is an ultraconservative and staunch defender of American supremacy in the world. He also served the reactionary governments of George H.W. Bush (2001-2009), the executioner of the Iraqi people, and Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), a historical exponent of the American right. Bolton was dismissed in September 2019 for tactical reasons, after clashing with Trump over the president's refusal to bomb Iran in retaliation for the downing of a US spy drone in the Persian Gulf.

During his time in government, Bolton championed a policy of intervention in Venezuela, intensified blockades against Cuba, and increased sanctions against Iran. He was an orthodox proponent of the theory that economic sanctions, by strangling a country, have the power to incite the people against governments that the United States intends to overthrow through coups or military intervention.  

Bolton's revelations immensely compromise and expose Donald Trump and the White House power circle, even due to the president's proverbial ignorance of not knowing about the United Kingdom's nuclear capabilities or that Finland was not part of Russia. The possibility that tomorrow some other advisor might reveal that Trump is also unaware that the Soviet Union ceased to exist and the Cold War ended 30 years ago should not be ruled out. 

Regarding Venezuela, Trump's ambitions have always been undisguised, a fact corroborated by Bolton's book. 

His term has been marked by the mantra that "all options are on the table" for Venezuela. He meticulously and consistently applied a policy of sanctions, always harsh, but, for a time, partial. In August 2019, he proclaimed total sanctions, a blockade of the Bolivarian country. Throughout 2018 and 2019, US agents and spies fomented the "guarimbas," violent actions aimed at triggering civil war in the country.

The decision to stage a coup was made in January 2019, when Congressman Juan Guaidó proclaimed himself "interim president," a position quickly recognized by the United States and several other countries. 

Military intervention was considered a month later, with the help of the far-right governments of Brazil and Colombia, under the pretext of forcibly bringing alleged economic aid into Venezuela. 

Last May, American mercenaries were captured in Venezuela in a failed attempt to infiltrate the country and kidnap President Nicolás Maduro. 

The reaction from the Bolivarian head of state was swift. Maduro promptly addressed the nation on television this Wednesday (17), denouncing Trump's interventionist and colonialist ambitions and again announcing his defeat.  

Maduro quipped: "According to Trump, we are not Venezuela, we are gringos," but "the truths are being revealed, the truths of what we faced and defeated during these years of 2019 and 2020 are coming to light and we will continue to defeat them," said the Venezuelan president.

The revelations in Bolton's book about Venezuela represent yet another setback for Trump's strategy to dismantle the Bolivarian revolution. 

Although it may not have been his intention, Bolton's book makes any attack on Venezuela immoral, but not only that. His revelations also strike at the crude conceptions of the global right, specifically the Brazilian right, and the opportunistic vision of sectors of the "left." From the right, because the foreign policy of Itamaraty under Bolsonaro-Ernesto Araújo is driven by an obsession to attack the neighboring country in order to annihilate its democratic-popular government. And from opportunistic sectors of the left for labeling the late leader Hugo Chávez and the current president as "dictators." 

In both cases, they disregard the essence of anti-imperialism and the democratic-popular character of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, whose Constitution proclaims the country as "irrevocably free and independent," founded on moral principles and values ​​such as "liberty, equality, justice, and international peace." These are concepts so simple that both the right and the wavering sectors of the left fail to understand and accept them: anti-imperialism, democracy, justice, and peace.

These values ​​are inspired by the doctrine of Simón Bolívar, the Liberator, updated and perfected by Hugo Chávez, in stark contrast and antagonism with the "manifest destiny" of US imperialism, which the Bolivarian Revolution swore to combat. "The United States seems destined by providence to fill America with hunger and misery in the name of Liberty" (Simon Bolívar). The opposing factor, according to Hugo Chávez, was the understanding that the spirit of our time is anti-imperialism, which is exercised by trusting in the "revolutionary impulse of the popular masses."