THE DEPLORABLE STATEMENT ON VENEZUELA BY THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Michael J. Fitzpatrick, the spokesperson on Venezuela of the U.S.  Department of State has just given a statement on the Venezuelan situation that is deplorable and sadly characteristic of the chaos that prevails in the Trump administration. Fitzpatrick calls the Maduro government a dictatorship but, at the same time, says that it will not recognize the current National Assembly as an alternative government. He simply forgets that this Assembly is the only democratic, legitimate institution in the country.

He calls the government of Maduro “legitimate”, forgetting that his colleagues at the Department of the Treasury have just sanctioned Maduro and designated vice president El Aissami as a money launderer and the Minister of the Interior, Nestor Reverol as a drug trafficker. How can these designations coexist with his definition of Maduro’s regime as legitimate is beyond my imagination.

In a very spineless statement the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere says: “We respect the official government of Venezuela and President Maduro at this time”. Such respect comes in spite of the fact that President Trump has called the regime “a mess”, that the U.S. Congress has been extremely strong in denouncing the regime as abusive and the Treasury Department has classified its main members as criminals.

Although he says that “What we have seen during the last 18 months is a series of decisions and actions by the Venezuelan government (to) stifle democracy, close space for differences of opinion, and attack any organization or group of people who think different and has attacked the political parties, the National Assembly, the Prosecutor's Office and even soldiers who have been detained precisely because they have had differences of opinion”, Mr. Fitzpatrick still defines this rogue regime as legitimate.

Trying to sound vigorous he says: “if Chavismo acts on its threats to remove Venezuela's attorney general, Luisa Ortega Diaz, that would be a step in the wrong direction." Wow! He also says that the arrest of Antonio Ledesma and Leopoldo Lopez has left the State Department “very worried”. What strength, what determination!

He adds: "What we ask the government is that they calm the waters, that they seek a national consensus; not more arrests for differences of opinion and more political prisoners”. He would seem to suggest that the U.S. will not object to the regime keeping its “Constituent Assembly” and that the U.S. would keep mum about the elimination of the current National Assembly. This would be a despicable act of weakness and political cynicism on the part of the U.S. government.

In his statement Mr. Fitzpatrick confirmed that the United States has frozen "about $500 million" in assets held in the U.S. by Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who the U.S. sanctioned in February for his ties to drug trafficking. He added: “There are apartments, there are mansions, there are cars, but more than anything, there is a lot of money in financial instruments.... And the question is, if he had this in the United States, what would he have in the Caribbean islands, or in Europe or elsewhere?" he wondered.

This man Mr. Fitzpatrick is talking about is the second person in command in what he, in the same breath, calls a “legitimate government”. I find this frankly incredible.

It is highly disappointing that the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has failed to demonstrate, so far, al, the qualities of fortitude, determination and clarity of vision that made him a successful business tycoon. He looks pallid and distant in the cabinet meetings and has already taken some unscheduled vacations to rest from the strain of what has been, so far, a pretty colorless office.

I feel lucky to be a geologist and not a diplomat in these mediocre times. I can at least study a noble subject.