Imani Tafari-Ama | Warships in the Caribbean: The US threatens Venezuela

Even as Jamaicans were in the throes of a general election campaign an impending catastrophe was brewing in Caribbean waters. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) was returned to power, defeating the People’s National Party (PNP) by a close margin of five seats. Most people heaved a sigh of relief for the peaceful passage of the polls, in stark contrast to previous years of tribal violence.

Perhaps because of the preoccupation with national navel gazing, spokespersons on national and regional safety have not been vocal about the imminent threat of war on our doorstep. Meanwhile, the United States (US) has sent seven warships and a nuclear-powered submarine into Caribbean Waters. The pretext for this activity has been stated as pursuit of narco-terrorists in Venezuela. A carefully crafted demonisation of Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro has accompanied this extraordinary buildup of US military might in the region.

From reports in the international media, the US show of force includes the US Coast Guard (with US maritime vessels), US assault ships (guided missile destroyer and fast attack submarine), marine air-ground task force (amphibious assault ships and amphibious transport dock) and US assault (military) aircraft, including combat drones. With this array of armoury, is the US using the proverbial hammer to kill the gnat?

The distraction of election fever in Jamaica might suffice as an excuse for Jamaicans not paying alarmed attention to the clear and present danger that the US’s approach to solving its domestic drug problem poses to Venezuelan sovereignty and Caribbean security as a whole. Placing a bounty of US$50 million on President Maduro’s head sent a Wild, Wild West signal that a duly elected Head of State can be criminalised and eliminated with impunity.

On September 2, the US struck a boat that had allegedly left Venezuela for international waters, killing 11 persons on board. US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, was quick to jump in with justification of the opening onslaught for aggression that has been framed in the context of the US wars on terror and on drugs. As he explained, “what will stop them is when you blow them up, get rid of them. They were designated narco-terrorists.” Rubio elaborated that they used intelligence to determine that the boat was headed to the US “so, on the President’s orders, we blew them up.” Chilling.

DEADLY DRAMA

There is a déjà vu dimension to this deadly drama. Do you remember the buildup to the war in Iraq? How embarrassed we felt in Jamaica as Jamaican-born Colin Powell, then US Secretary of Defence, used blatant falsehoods to convince the world that President Saddam Hussein posed a danger to US security because he had “weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)!” And how, after the US used its deadly weapons to decimate over a million Iraqis, this dissonance was explained as an “oops?” We were later told that Saddam did not have WMDs after all.

Duh. We knew all along that the war objective was to gain control of the lucrative oil fields. Killing all those people was just collateral damage. Their crime was being in the way. As a relevant aside, the ongoing Genocide in Gaza is designed to make way for the US vision of a Riviera. Ethnic cleansing is the cover for the well-laid plans for this mega development. The defiance of international law and humanitarian law are undergirded by the desire to control the natural gas wealth as yet untapped, located in the Gaza Strip.

When apartheid in South Africa was the crime that we advocated against in the 1980s, we complained that international morality had disappeared. This conclusion was driven by the trauma we experienced when we got news of the systems of torture that the apartheid regime routinely used against black and brown Africans. Nowadays, it seems that even regional heads of state have capitulated to the unipolar interpretation of regional power. The US Monroe Doctrine still drives action taken by the northern superpower in the sphere of influence considered the US’ backyard. However, there are rumblings that China is the real target; Beijing has secured significant investment in Caracas’ oil wealth. And who has the oil has the power.

TERMINATE TPS

As part of the pressure campaign, on September 10, the US will terminate the temporary protected status (TPS) that Venezuelans enjoyed. The hook is that as the JLP burnishes its old coats and the PNP creates appropriate narratives to mask disappointment that they came so close but are at the helm for at least another five years, something about the impending crisis in Venezuela should be just cause for unity across the aisles in Gordon House.

Both parties would do well to consider that, after the election dust settles, the ideological and operational differences between the parties are relatively thin. Meanwhile, the regional threats to our collective sovereignty are hovering over our heads. They might have come for Venezuela now but the next time, it could be us.

I recall in the late 1990s, a news story announced that Colombians were running the cocaine trade in Jamaica. This takeover was an attempt to cut out Jamaican middle-men. Of course, the Caribbean is infamous as a transshipment zone for guns coming from North America and drugs from South America. With the complicity of corrupt officials, these weapons of mass destruction and enrichment have threatened citizen security for over four decades.

Cooperation among the divided politicians is of crucial importance considering all the vulnerabilities we face as small island underdeveloped states. What if the US decided to invade Jamaica to implement its version of law and order? How would the 63 politicians respond? Along party lines? Would the Government consider the Opposition outside the pale of contributing to matters of such high valuation national interest?

Even as we speak, the implications of the warships in Caribbean waters must sound alarm bells for all of us. Jamaica is reportedly stepping up oil exploration activities. If successful, this will also attract self-interested oil-mongers. Violence goes with the territory of such economic investments, which may be as brutal as military take-overs.

Imani Tafari-Ama, PhD, is a Pan-African advocate and gender and development specialist. Send feedback to i.tafariama@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com