Above photo: Senator Rick Scott giving statements to the press outside the White House, escorted by Senator Marco Rubio and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Phil Ammann.
This Friday, December 16, the US Senate unanimously approved the Law to Prohibit Operations and Leasing with the Illegitimate Authoritarian Regime of Venezuela (BOLIVAR Act), presented by the ultra-conservative Floridian senator, Rick Scott. The discussion of the interventionist act in the lower house of the US Congress is still pending.
“The regulations prohibit federal agencies from doing business with anyone who supports the oppressive Maduro regime,” reported the official website of Scott, who was one of the primary promoters of the law. Scott was joined by far-right Senator Marco Rubio as well as other far-right congressmen. The bill had been unanimously approved by the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs in March 2021, as a preliminary step before being discussed in the Senate.
The new imperialist act against the democratically elected government of President Nicolás Maduro is approved just one day after the celebration of the physical disappearance of the founding father of the Venezuelan and our American homeland, Simón Bolívar, who already at the beginning of the 20th century questioned US imperialism with his famous phrase: “The United States seems destined by providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.”
On Saturday, via a released statement, the Venezuelan government spoke out fiercely in response, condemning this new aggression by the United States and indicating that the proposal seeks to make the policy of illegal sanctions against the Venezuelan people irreversible.
Answering directly to the news, Foreign Minister of the Republic Carlos Faría tweeted: “The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strongly condemns a new attempt by the US Congress to violate the economic rights of the Venezuelan people and offend the memory of the liberator, Simón Bolívar.”
The text of the statement, which was also published on the website of the Ministry for Foreign Relations, rejects the bill both in its name and in its content, for violating economic freedoms and representing “a serious offense to the Venezuelan people.”
It also stresses that the act is “contrary to international law and is conceived from the extremist sectors of United States politics.” Likewise, it points out that this measure “demonstrates, once again, the cruelty of ultra-conservative sectors and coup leaders in US politics that repeat their attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government.”
It indicates that these sectors of the United States Congress “have no interest in seeing a development process in Venezuela.” Likewise, it rejects the name of the bill “for offending the Venezuelan people, its history and its liberator.”
Below you will find an unofficial translation of the statement:
Venezuela rejects the shameful bill by US Congress that violates economic freedoms and offends the liberator, Simón Bolívar
The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela fiercely rejects the approval by the US Congress of a nefarious bill that, both in its name and in its content, constitutes a violation of economic freedoms and a serious offense against the Venezuelan people.
This instrument, contrary to international law and conceived from the extremist sectors of politics in the United States, violates the integrity of the sovereign people of Venezuela as well as that of the United States companies themselves, by placing them at risk of being penalized, in an arbitrary, unfair and illegal manner, by exercising their right to free trade through contracts with the Bolivarian government.
This abusive measure demonstrates, once again, the cruelty of ultra-conservative sectors and coup leaders in US politics that repeat their attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government and sabotage any possible route to dialogue and constructive relations between the two countries.
With this bill, which seeks to make unilateral coercive measures irreversible, it is confirmed that these same sectors have no interest in seeing a development process in Venezuela or any improvement in the quality of life of our population, much less that they are interested in guaranteeing free and fair elections, as they are promoting more obstacles and hostile measures against the country.
The name of said instrument, moreover, offends the Venezuelan people, its history and its liberator, whose republican values and commitment to the principles of freedom and peace are far above those of a handful of legislators ignorant of [Venezuela’s] glory, and that they will only be remembered in history due to their complicity with the aggression against free and sovereign countries.
Faced with a Monroist threat and its war-builder heirs, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will continue to cultivate and defend the legacy of the liberator Simón Bolívar, carving out its own path of political and social stability, economic recovery and peace diplomacy, for a world free of hegemonism, colonialism and imperialism.
Caracas, December 16, 2022