What are Washington’s prerogatives to intervene in the revolutionary processes undertaken by the peoples of other nations exercising their sovereignty based on universally recognized international law?

By virtue of which norms and principles of International Law does Washington have the right to order new sanctions against the sovereign government of Nicolas Maduro?

In the late eighteenth century, the founding fathers of US imperialist ideology developed the principles of "manifest destiny"; a philosophy which attributed to the US the alleged "special mission" of taking its system of economic, social and political organization throughout the whole of North America and, subsequently, to the entire Western Hemisphere.

The US internal expansion to the west was completed in the late nineteenth century through the destruction of virtually all the indigenous population which had settled in those territories from time immemorial. In addition, there was the dispossession from their Mexican neighbors of nearly half of their territory by means of a war declared by President James Polk in 1848. This war allowed the US to annex Texas, California and New Mexico, which they considered indispensable for the realization of its "manifest destiny" as a nation.

In 1823, President James Monroe had declared the doctrine of "America for Americans" known in history as the Monroe Doctrine. According to this doctrine, any interference by any European power in the emerging Latin American republics would be considered an unfriendly act against the United States. Under this doctrine, the US government attributed itself the power to "protect the region"; a statement of defensive paternalism toward the rest of the hemisphere that soon showed its true expansionist nature.

However, this project of territorial growth was only the lining of the imperialist essence that was rooted in the United States, and would eventually turn this nation into the most powerful world superpower.

None of these unilateral hegemonic policies were inserted in international law as a rule formally accepted by the community of nations on the continent. This, however, did not stop Washington from undertaking actions that qualify it as the leading predator of the contemporary world.

Since the slaughter in 1890 of 300 Native Americans at Wounded Knee –in the US West– and a military intervention in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to this day, historians have registered more than 120 interventions with troops carried out by the United States on all continents. This figure does not include a considerable number of covert destabilizing operations with similar results.

According to U.S. writer and political scientist William Blum: since the end of the Second World War, in 1945, the government of the United States has been militarily involved in the overthrow of forty governments they did not like on the continent. And it crushed thirty revolutionary movements which had fought against regimes rejected by their peoples but favorable to Washington.

In carrying out these actions, the United States bombed 25 countries, caused death to millions of people, and condemned many millions more to misery and despair.

What history fails to record are those successes of Washington’s in which threats, pressures and lies sufficed to achieve betrayal by sectors related to the interests of national oligarchies; the destruction of the unity of revolutionary forces; or discouragement within the ranks of the movements arising from mistakes in dealing with enemy maneuvers and campaigns. All of these caused bitterness and frustration among the people.

The development of the recent political events in our America, particularly after the executive order of the White House which declared a "national emergency" in the United States due to the "unusual and extraordinary" threat to its national security posed by the revolutionary process taking place in Venezuela, shows that the revolutionary and progressive forces in the region are now able to confront –based on the unity of its ranks and lots of serenity– the pressures, traps and maneuvers of the empire.

A few days prior to the start  of the Summit of the Americas in Panama –whose mere realization had been challenged by the strength and unity shown by the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean, demanding respect for Cuba's right to take part in the conclave against the imperial insistence to prevent it– Washington has put Latin American and Caribbean solidarity to the test again with this new blatant threat to Venezuela.

March 14, 2015.

- Manuel E. Yepe http://englishmanuelyepe.wordpress.com/

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann. http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs4310.html