Trump Puts Notorious Regime Change Advocate, So-Called 'Abettor of Genocide' in Charge of Venezuela

[Judi Lynn]

Trump Puts Notorious Regime Change Advocate, So-Called ‘Abettor of Genocide’ in Charge of Venezuela Policy
by Colin Kalmbacher | 6:12 pm, January 28th, 2019



President Donald Trump is officially pushing for regime change in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. On Thursday, the White House released a statement recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president in defiance of the country’s democratically-elected president Nicolás Maduro.

The man recently selected to lead the United States’ controversial overthrow efforts is so-called “abettor of genocide,” Elliott Abrams. A notorious neoconservative and coup plotter, Abrams pleaded guilty to crimes during the Iran-Contra affair but was later pardoned by then-president George H.W. Bush on the recommendation of once-and-likely-future attorney general William Barr.

Abrams later led unsuccessful U.S. efforts to destabilize and overthrow the Venezuelan government in 2002 under the auspices of George W. Bush‘s regime-change-friendly White House–just months after Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, won a landslide re-election victory.

. . .

According to the Holocaust Museum of Houston, more than 200,000 people were slaughtered; exactly 626 villages were destroyed; and nearly 1.7 million people were displaced in a country with a total population of just over 7 million. Abrams never had a problem with those massacres and repeatedly criticized human rights activists and other critics of U.S.-backed Guatemalan death squads.

More:
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/trump-puts-notorious-regime-change-advocate-so-called-abettor-of-genocide-in-charge-of-venezuela/

[sandensea]

1. Boy, they really had to scrape the bottom to find that dinosaur.

But then, Abrams never met a right-wing dictator he didn't like.

He was especially fond of Argentina's brutal - and economically ruinous - dictatorship, and was said to have brokered an agreement with Galtieri (of Falklands War fame) around '81 to provide Argentine advisers to the Contras.

When his predecessor, Carter-era Human Rights Undersecretary Pat Derian, criticized his nonchalance as to their record, he considered her concerns "silly and sentimental."

As it happens, the Argentine dictatorship stepped down in '83 - thus ending Argentina's costly foray into propping up the Contras.

That's when Iran-Cocaine-Contra took off.

Thanks for keeping up with this Cold War fossil, Judi. I suppose it's just another way Trump's like an overgrown child: he loves dinosaurs.