UN Security Council Holds Emergency Meeting on US-Venezuela

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio speaks to Richard Spurr for LBC in the United Kingdom.  

Transcript

Richard Spurr: 0:00

Perhaps reflect something rather more serious and uh rather more international as Russia and China pledge support for Venezuela as Donald Trump ratchets up pressure on Maduro. Uh nothing, of course, to do with the fact that there is so much oil underneath the ground in Venezuela. Well Jon Bonfiglio is uh Latin American correspondent for LBC and joins you now. Uh what's the latest, Jon?

Jon Bonfiglio: 0:22

Hey, good morning. Uh well, the standoff between the USA and Venezuela continues to evolve almost daily in the Southern Caribbean, in part because it's a US strategy to sort of keep it in the news and to use that as leverage to pressure uh Maduro. But today, yesterday the focus moved away from Venezuela and to the United Nations. The meeting held at Venezuela's request saw uh the country saw Venezuela described the US's actions as absurd and said that the threat is not Venezuela to the region. Uh it the threat is in fact the US government. China, for its part, uh urged the US to immediately halt actions and avoid further escalation of tensions, uh, whilst Russia suggested that the current actions were likely to um likely designed as a template by the US for further uh regional interventions, which is one of the um the fears that this what's taking place vis-a-vis Venezuela is actually the thin end of the wedge and not an end uh in itself as the US tries to bring the hemisphere into its direct service, either using Donald Trump's recent threatening phrase, the easy way or the hard way.

Richard Spurr: 1:25

To what extent do you feel, and I know that this is rather cynical question perhaps, that uh Donald Trump's interest in Venezuela is due to the fact that it has almost as much oil as Saudi Arabia?

Jon Bonfiglio: 1:35

Yes. I mean, look, um the the the administration is now saying as much. They weren't a couple of months ago, but now they've they've uh performed a full 180-degree U-turn and they they openly say that actually they're interested in the oil, they're interested in the rare earth minerals, they're interested in the gold. And again, I would sort of expand the line and say that this isn't just Venezuela specific. I think it is regional specific. Um I've said many times before, I think you can't understand what's happening in Venezuela without actually looking at the news stories coming out of the envoy that's just been uh signed up for Greenland, for annexing of Greenland in in the last couple of days. Same with same with Canada, same with military bases in in Ecuador, a new military um security agreement with Paraguay. It's all basically one and the same thing, which is what's being regarded as hemispherism and bringing the region into the into the broader control of the United States.

Richard Spurr: 2:25

I mean i it's the there's an irony here, isn't there? You know, Mr. Trump is uh obviously chasing a Nobel Peace Prize and uh claims that he's bought peace to the Middle East and may well uh bring peace to Ukraine. But on the other hand, you know, he's summarily executing people on ships in the Pacific. It doesn't really add up.

Jon Bonfiglio: 2:45

No, it doesn't. Um and of course there is a big disconnect between what we hear emerging, sort of press releases and discourse emerging from the Trump administration from the White House, and actually, of course, you know what takes place on on the ground or in this case on on the water. And and undoubtedly uh the um the the the broad international consensus as regards legal experts is that the killings that have uh continue to take place in the Southern Caribbean of um individuals on fishing boats um is extrajudicial. Whether they are carrying drugs or not, the fact is is that um you if it is not uh allowable um whether criminals or um civilians going about their daily business to to undertake summary extra executions. And even if you take the US's government's own logic, which again has shifted recently a little bit, but their their their sort of logic has been to to their public logic that actually they're at war with a non-state actor, and so as a result, uh these um these uh killings are uh are legal, but then this um this video which hasn't been released of the sort of of the double tap strike um on the two individuals that were clinging to the vessel in September on the 2nd of September throws that into question as well because it were that to be the case, which it seems it is, then we're what we're looking at is in fact a war crime.

Richard Spurr: 4:08

And I mean just finally, uh John Donald Trump has said that it would be better if Maduro were not to be in power. What is his major beef with the Venezuelan leader?

Jon Bonfiglio: 4:21

I tell I I I mean, I guess there is something of a personal beef in the sense that um probably as regards sort of international discourse, Venezuela has historically, certainly for the last 20 years, been just about as vocal a critic of uh the United States, um, the imperial foe as they would regard it, as as anybody else. But I really think that it is um, and again, broadly speaking, the the the consensus, the international consensus is that actually um Maduro is something of a soft target because he is generally unloved by anybody else in the in the in the hemisphere. So it's it's a useful entry point for the USA because we figure there will be no pushback and no and no resistance. So yeah, I I don't think it is particularly personal. I think it is uh absolutely an entry point into this sort of this new politicking in the in the hemisphere which uh undertakes the use, you know, takes us right back to the nineteenth century, the early twentieth century, um, and uses the strategy of um of gunpower diplomacy to enact uh to undertake its own uh regional desires.

Richard Spurr: 5:24

John, uh it's uh very good of you to bring us up to date uh with what I think is an escalating situation. Thank you very much indeed. Uh to John uh Bonfiglio.