Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. de Zayas blames illegal US sanctions which he says have caused many deaths and aggravated, directly and indirectly, the shortage of medicines, including insulin, which are crimes against humanity which should be referred to the International Criminal Court. They are strong words from a renowned expert. Even if we do not agree on the causes of the problems, I am sure the Tánaiste agrees that Venezuela is not the only divided country with economic problems, but it is the only one in which there is an unelected, self-proclaimed President who has been recognised as a head of state without any basis in law, including by Ireland. It is the only one which the US military is circling. We believe it is landing in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Colombia under the guise of delivering humanitarian aid. It is eerily like the weapons of mass destruction lie that was used to sell the Iraq war and it is happening on a continent where the provision of humanitarian aid has been used as cover for death squads by the same Elliot Abrams who is now at the head of the US operation in Venezuela. This is incredibly serious. One does not need to be a genius to work out that the humanitarian aid narrative is just a Trojan horse. Even the official organisations, the International Red Cross and the United Nations, want to have nothing to do with it, as it is not aid but provocation. It is being used as cover for military intervention and regime change.

The question for us is: are we going to go along with the herd, say nothing, wring our hands and say afterwards, "If only we had known," or are we going to speak out now and add our voice to those opposing military aggression and intervention and in favour of respecting the sovereignty of Venezuela and assisting its people in resolving their differences through dialogue and respect for internal law? Surely that is what a neutral country should be doing. Anything less is a facilitation of the latest resources war. We know that Venezuela has the largest oil resources in the world. We know that because President Trump and John Bolton have told us that they are in discussions with American oil companies to take the oil from the Venezuelan people. We know that they have wanted to do this for a long time. We also know that they tried to overthrow Hugo Chávez and about the sanctions that followed, but this is a turning point. We know what will happen next. Look at what happened in Libya, Iraq and Syria and President Trump says Nicaragua and Cuba are next. Are we going to stay silent or are we going to speak out against US military aggression and intervention and in defence of international law?

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