FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Lima Group Rejects Military Option on Venezuela, as British Empire Neo-Cons Seek Pretext for War‘

Feb. 26, 2019 (EIRNS)—The Feb. 25 meeting of the 14-nation Lima Group in Bogota rejected any option of military action against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, so urgently sought by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and the cabal of neo-con warmongers surrounding President Donald Trump. During the meeting, one foreign minister after another—Brazil’s Vice President Gen. Antônio Hamilton Mourão (ret.) made a very strong statement—voiced their governments’ categorical opposition to any military action. The final communiqué reflected this.‘

But, while the neo-con push for a military response has foundered, for now, Pence made clear in his speech that the British imperial strategy is to seek, or orchestrate, any provocation to justify a military intervention: a staged Venezuelan “attack” on Colombia, which Pence described as “our strongest ally in the region,” or harm to, or murder of “interim President” Juan Guaidó—providing a bloody shirt to wave—would serve the purpose. Thus, the situation remains extremely dangerous.‘

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, in statements reported by Sputnik today, warned ominously that the United States is deploying military forces to Puerto Rico and Colombia, which, he said, “clearly indicate that the Pentagon is reinforcing the grouping of troops in the region in order to overthrow the lawfully-elected incumbent President Maduro.” Ten days earlier, on Feb. 14, the Cuban government charged that between Feb. 6 and 10, U.S. military transport aircraft flew to airbases in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and to “other strategically-located Caribbean islands ... originating at American military installations from which units of Special Operations and Marine Corps operate, and are used for covert actions.”‘

The same day, Britain’s Express tabloid reported on a Cuban government official warning that Washington wants “to forcibly establish a humanitarian corridor under international protection, invoking the obligation to protect civilians”—the British imperial “Right to Protect” strategy used to justify invasions of many sovereign nations.‘

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador today continued to counter this warmongering, calling on “all parties” to “sit down in dialogue and find a peaceful solution.” Humanitarian aid should be handled by the UN and the International Red Cross, and not be politicized, he said. “I say this with all due respect and conclude with this phrase of [republican President Benito] Juárez: ‘nothing by force, everything through reason.’ ”‘