In today’s edition our host Reagan Des Vignes speaks with the Venezuelan Ambassador to Ecuador, Carol Delgado about the March 9 decree imposed on Venezuela by the United States, its motives and repercussions. Delgado traces the origins of the decree to the election of Hugo Chavez as President of Venezuela in 1998. The U.S. wants people in power that are compliant with its interests so that they can control Venezuela’s oil reserves, says the ambassador. Since the failed 2002 coup, the U.S. policy in the country has been one of destabilization. The decree is just the latest example of interventionist politics. But it was a fiasco, says Delgado. It appears that President Obama didn’t calculate the widespread support that Venezuela would receive from other countries in Latin America and beyond. Among the positive effects of the massive petition signing campaign, she mentions that in Ecuador, it was an opportunity to talk to people about what is happening in Venezuela and about the history of U.S. military intervention in the world. She feels that many people realized that to defend Venezuela was to defend Ecuador. At the Summit of the Americas, every Latin American country supported Venezuela. The ambassador found it interesting that Obama acknowledged “dark chapters” of past U.S. history in Latin America, but doesn’t agree with his characterization, mentioning that the United States has been engaged in wars during 222 of the 237 years that it has existed. “So it’s not a case of dark chapters,“ she says. “It’s a history of military interventions, of defending and protecting predatory investments worldwide.”
