From Havana to Kiev: The US State Department a Covert Operative under Banner of Democracy Assistance

[KoKo]

‘Democracy Assistance’ and civil-society coups in Venezuela, Cuba, Ukraine, and elsewhere

by Howard Friel


The Congress Should Assert Its Oversight Function

In a brief piece in the New York Times on the AP’s investigative report about ZunZuneo, David Sanger observed: “By the standards of American efforts in Cuba, ZunZuneo was on the milder side. It did not involve poison cigars for Fidel Castro, or landings by exiles at the Bay of Pigs.” That’s true, perhaps, but Sanger overlooks what is likely going on, which is that the State Department has built a nest of covert action pieces that engages in secret, illegal foreign operations, including political destabilization for the benefit of powerful corporate and financial interests.

An illuminating moment in the U.S.-backed coup in Venezuela in 2002, and in the U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014, was the eager involvement of the International Monetary Fund with the unelected, illegitimate, post-coup governments.

In his documentary, South of the Border, Oliver Stone captures an IMF Webcast on April 12, 2002 – 9:30 a.m. to be exact. This Webcast thus took place only a few hours after the military junta in Venezuela had overthrown Chávez, had dissolved Venezuela’s National Assembly, its Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the head of the Central Bank, and the National Electoral Board to the accompaniment of raucous cheers, raised fists, and standing ovations among the coup plotters and their supporters.

Stone’s voice-over introduced the IMF Webcast on that day as follows: “The IMF, usually slow in responding to the genuine requests for aid from starving Africa, was quick off the mark to demonstrate its support for the coup.” On the screen is an IMF official, Thomas Dawson, addressing the new military junta in Venezuela: “I hope that these discussions will continue with the new administration, and we stand ready to assist the new administration in whatever manner they find suitable.” Stone: “The aim was straightforward. The IMF was making it clear to the world that the toppling of Chávez was in the interest of global capitalism.”

Likewise, less than two weeks after the elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown on February 22, 2014, the IMF engaged the post-coup government in negotiations over an IMF debt agreement that, in essence, had been rejected by Yanukovych in December, just three months earlier. By March 27, the IMF announced a deal on an $15-18 billion loan to the post-coup Ukrainian government. In reporting the agreement, the New York Times noted that the deal was “subject to the approval of the [IMF’s] board next month,” but not to the approval of the Ukrainian people, which had no voice after the coup through duly elected representatives to approve or reject the deal.

In both Venezuela and Ukraine in these instances, there isn’t a scintilla of democracy at work, yet State Department documents are larded with references to supporting and advancing democracies in their descriptions of U.S. policy toward those two countries in those years.

With respect to Ukraine, from FY 2011 to FY 2014, a period of four years, the State Department had requested from Congress at least $426 million for its operations in Ukraine, with no coherent explanation on how exactly that money would be spent. (See, “Congressional Budget Justification: Volume 2: Foreign Operations: Department of State: United States of America,”Fiscal Year 2013 and Fiscal Year 2014.)

For example, in the last two years (FY 2013-FY2014), the State Department requested $108 million for its operations in Ukraine through its “Economic Support Fund.” What is the Economic Support Fund and how does it operate in Ukraine? Here’s what the State Department says:

U.S. assistance aims to promote the development of a democratic, prosperous, and secure Ukraine, fully integrated into the Euro-Atlantic community as it struggles to overcome the effects of the global financial crisis and worsening backsliding on democratic reform. Funding will strengthen democratic institutions and processes, and accountable governance; support civil society, independent media, judicial reform, and anti-corruption efforts; improve conditions for investment and economic growth; help bring the damaged Chernobyl nuclear facility to an environmentally safe and stable condition; and improve energy security.

Except for the references to the Euro-Atlantic community and Chernobyl, this sounds pretty much like what the State Department published about its operations in Venezuela when it supported the coup that overthrew Chávez in April 2002. In fact, in the midst of this two-year, $108 million “democracy promotion” effort in Ukraine — which due to the fiscal year calendar of the federal government was in effect from October 1, 2012, to September 30, 2014 — a U.S.-supported coup occurred there in February 2014.

Furthermore, for FY 2013, the State Department requested $36.2 million through its Economic Support Fund for operations in Russia. The State Department explained the purpose of its ESF program in Russia as follows: “Assistance will support efforts by Russians to further democratic reforms through programs that provide support for civil society, independent media, the rule of law, human rights, and good governance; and will support Russia’s evolution towards becoming a global development partner.” This also sounds similar to the descriptions of State Department programs in Venezuela and Ukraine during the periods of U.S. destabilization in those countries discussed here.

Also, for FY 2014, the State Department requested no money for Russia through its Economic Support Fund. On the other hand, the State Department requested $68 million for “Europe and Eurasia Regional,” a line-item that did not appear in the State Department’s FY 2013 funding request, and which included “promoting civil society development and networks” among its funded activities. Were the funds allocated for the State Department’s Economic Support Fund for Russia for FY 2013 transferred to “Europe and Eurasia Regional,” a region which includes Russia, for FY 2014? There’s no easy way to know from the State Department’s documents.

The purpose of this exercise is not to take sides with Russia over the United States and Europe. The idea is to demonstrate that the State Department, which was established to function as the foreign-policy making center of the executive branch, has likely evolved into another covert operations hub of the U.S. government, with no discernible legal basis for having done so, and with no oversight from the Congress, the press, or the American public.

At a minimum, there is almost no way to know what the State Department does or doesn’t do in this regard, given that its principle public disclosure documents are, at best, uninformative from beginning to end. An organization that rates foreign-aid transparency, called Publish What You Fund, in its Aid Transparency Index, rated the U.S. State Department a 22 out of a top score of 100, “placing it near the bottom of the poor category.” It advises that “the State Department should begin publication in line with the International Aid Transparency Initiative standard as soon as possible.”

If there were someone in the Congress who would actually do it, one might call for a congressional investigation of the State Department’s “democracy assistance” and “civil society” programs that currently operate overseas under the banners of USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Office of Transition Initiatives, and the Economic Support Fund along the lines of the Church Committee and Pike Committee investigations of C.I.A. operations in the 1970s, hopefully before the State Department ends up going even further than it already has in starting a major war in Europe.
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https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/29-2

[Judi Lynn]

1. Much needed information. Thank you. n/t

[Cayenne]

2. Honduras is never mentioned when speaking of coups

We were loath to recognize the new government and considered using marines to re-install the deposed president. I guess the IMF does make all the difference.

[yurbud]

3. yep