Washington D.C., Feb 8, 2019 / 01:50 pm (CNA).- Sen. Marco Rubio has called the humanitarian and political impasse in Venezuela “unsustainable,” and compared a blockade stopping food and medical aid from entering the country to a war crime.
The senator said leaders of the country’s security forces must choose between their orders and the needs of their families, neighbors and fellow citizens.
In a Feb. 8 interview with CNA, Rubio said that orders to prevent aid from crossing the border are illegitimate and should be refused by officers.
“They are being asked to do something that is illegitimate, they are being asked to do something that – if this were an armed conflict – would be a war crime,” Rubio said.
“Under the Geneva Conventions, the denial of the transit of food and medicine to civilian populations would be a war crime – that’s what they are being asked to participate in.”
The Republican senator from Florida is a key strategist and advisor to the Trump administration on the U.S. response to the political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.
Rubio said that while international support is important, the escalating humanitarian and political crisis can only be ended by Venezuelan leadership.
“Ultimately it falls upon the Venezuelan people, and by that I include members of the National Guard, the armed forces, and the police forces, to decide their own destiny and their own future.”
“The international community is here to help and support, but this is their cause.”
On Jan. 23, President Donald Trump recognised opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate interim president of the country. Nicolas Maduro has refused to recognize Guaidó, and clings to power through his control of the military.
Maduro succeeded Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in 2013. In 2017, the U.S. Treasury Department called Maduro “a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people.”
Rubio told CNA that Maduro must relinquish power to bring stability to a country that has seen more than 3 million people flee the country since 2015 amid spiralling inflation, food shortages and mass demonstrations.
The circumstances under which Maduro might be persuaded to abandon power are unclear, the senator said.
“Do I think Maduro is going to exit power eventually? Absolutely. Do I think he is going to do it willingly? I don’t know. But a lot of that depends on the people holding him up,” the senator said.
“Here’s the bottom line: the rank and file military does not support Maduro, but they are not willing to face the very grave consequences of breaking with him.”
These leaders, Rubio said, have the opportunity and responsibility to allow aid into the country.
“There are four or five senior military leaders, starting with the defense minister [Vladimir Padrino López], who if they were to recognize the interim government, that would be the end of the Maduro regime.”
If military leaders recognize the interim government, Rubio told CNA, they could also benefit from amnesties offered by the interim government but “that window is closing, on them and on the country.”
“The further this goes, the likelier it is that senior military leaders like [defense minister Vladimir] Padrino will disqualify themselves from the ability to receive domestic and international amnesty: because they deny food and medicine and thereby commit a crime against humanity; because they try to follow orders and attack unarmed protestors and civilians.”
“It’s in their hands, they can decide to change the trajectory of Venezuela.”
In the meantime, protests continue in the country and, according to Rubio, the Venezuelan people “are well aware” that the Maduro and his loyalists stand between them and the flow of foreign aid into the country.
“There is no way, if current trends continue, that Maduro holds on to power,” Rubio said. “The question becomes: how does he leave? Does he leave through a negotiated exit or does some other even occur that forces his hand?”
Earlier this week, Maduro issued a request for Pope Francis to act as a mediator in resolving the political standoff.
While the pope said that such a request for mediation would have to come from “both sides,” Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, Apostolic Administrator of Caracas, appeared to pour cold water on the notion of papal intervention, telling Argentina’s Radio Continental Feb. 6 that the suggestion was “non-viable.”
Rubio told CNA the request for papal mediation is a delaying tactic on the part of Maduro.
“He’s already done this before, the Vatican tried to mediate [in 2016] and it was a fiasco – they walked away from it knowing that he wasn’t sincere.”
“Maduro has a very simple plan: to buy time until he can fracture the opposition and the world’s attention is diverted to some other crisis and away from Venezuela.”
“That’s the model he has followed and he’s trying to pull it off one more time.”
The Venezuelan standoff began Jan. 10, when Maduro was inaugurated at the start of his second term. Both the National Assembly and the Venezuelan bishops’ conference declared at that time Maduro’s 2018 reelection to be invalid. Guaidó declared himself the nation’s interim leader Jan. 23.
Rubio paid tribute to Guaidó and other opposition leaders in the country, noting the real dangers they face.
“I have tremendous admiration for the risk that they are taking,” Rubio said. “They have always been at risk, there are a significant number of opposition leaders dead, in jail, or in exile as a result of this regime.”
But, he said, those committed to seeing genuine democracy in Venezuela recognize that they have had no other practical option than to put themselves at risk.
“As they themselves will tell you, the alternative would be for them to surrender and give in and live under this tyranny or have to leave their country.”
The senator told CNA that direct intervention by U.S. personnel – military or otherwise – remains “a controversial concept.”
“What there is a strong international consensus behind is that Maduro should not stand in the way of humanitarian relief reaching people who are literally dying,” Rubio said, but the moral imperative lay primarily on those carrying out Maduro’s orders.
“If Maduro is going to order that aid be blocked, then it is incumbent upon those that he is ordering not to follow those orders.”
“The military and its leaders are going to have to choose: do we follow these illegitimate orders that are hurting our own people or do we actually help them to reach the starving people of Venezuela, in many cases their own parents, their own siblings, their own families, their own neighbors.”
Rubio said that direct intervention is not something currently being contemplated in Washington. But, the senator noted, it remains an option to protect American personnel, including those trying to deliver food, medicine, and other aid to the country.
“Any U.S. personnel who comes in danger as a result of actions of the Maduro security forces- there will be grave consequences for it, they are well aware of it and they should govern themselves accordingly.”
“The plan here is not to have a caravan of American soldiers or aid workers entering Venezuela, the plan is to hand this over to whoever the interim government directs so that they can distribute in a non-political way.”
“The goal is to distribute the aid through non-governmental, non-political organizations inside Venezuela, for them to distribute through Caritas for the Catholic Church, the Red Cross and other NGOs that are operating within the country.”
Maduro’s security forces, who have erected roadblocks to prevent aid from entering the country, stand between food and medicine stockpiled across the Colombian border and Venezuelan organizations ready to distribute it.
Rubio said that while international pressure and consensus is important, responsibility for resolving the impasse lies with the soldiers blocking aid from entering the country. The senator suggested they should stand down.
“The choice is theirs.”
[…]
Hmmm. https://roddreher.substack.com/p/mexico-rebarbarizes?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=136360&post_id=158730057&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=p4r48&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
When you go to Mexico you see this ceremony performed on tourists in public squares. It’s not considered something sinister nor related to human sacrifice.
The president of Mexico is not a Catholic. Catholics should know better than to associate with non Christian rituals but in Latin America there’s a hazy line between those things.
I’d rather see more concern about organized crime, violence, and the increase of feticides in Mexico.
One problem in Mexico is that the country has made it official an exaltation of the Indigenous People past. But look at what this scholarly article tells us about the Indigenous People in Central America and the Americas in general:
https://www.thepostil.com/author/dario-fernandez-morera/
The demons of the Aztecs are back and this is their fruits! Stand by Christ and His Mother!
The cult of Santa Muerte (Our Lady of Holy Death) is quite popular within the criminal element in Mexico. Santa Muerte is also revered and seen as a saint and protector of the LGBTQ communities in Mexico. This cult has made inroads into the US. But “Diversity is our strength” – right?
Yes, Santa Muerte is really disturbing & as you say, it’s not unique to Mexico. I’ve seen SM candles for sale in several grocery stores & a otherwise respectable looking mother driving a nice SUV with a Santa Muerte decal on the rear window.
Question to all: Do you have evidence that Mexico is a Christian nation?
I have evidence that there are numerous Mexican Christians in the same ways there are numerous US Christians.
So, mrscracker, same question: “Do you consider the US to be a Christian nation at present? Thanks for your considered reply.
I guess my reply would be similar. There are many sincere Christian people in the US. Our nation didn’t begin in the same way Mexico did through the Spanish but I think we were certainly founded from a Judeo Christian world view.
mrscracker: But our country was founded 250 years ago. That doesn’t tell us whether the USA could be considered a Christian country in 2025. Are you saying that you think we are? Does it matter whether or not we are a Christian country?
Absolutely true. By attacking us, her children, they attack the Blessed Mother as our Lady of Guadalupe, since it was she who claimed the Americas for her Son.
Prayers and supplications to our Lady of Guadalupe are powerful in helping all the peoples of the Americas.
Amen.
In Guatemala where I used to lead medical missions, there was a cult practice that was intermingled with the local Catholic faith. The idol’s name was Machemon. Here is how Wikipedia describes the practice:
“Maximón is venerated in the form of an effigy or cult image. Worship varies greatly by location. In Santiago Atitlán, Maximón’s effigy resides in a different household every year. His image is normally only taken out of this house during Holy Week, whereafter it will change households, but is on display year-round due to the popularity of pilgrimages. The effigy has special attendants that stay by the altar year-round, drinking and smoking alongside it. They deliver offerings from the public to the image. Popular offerings include money, tobacco, and moonshine.
In the town of San Andrés Itzapa, there is a large temple to Maximón. Here, offerings such as corn, flowers, and candles are burned in public by shamans for the deity. Pilgrims travel to this temple from all across Latin America.
Guatemalan press has claimed that the worship of Maximón has declined in recent decades, but this is difficult to measure with much certainty”.
I’m certain that some in our current Vatican would approve of this practice of mixing the Catholic faith with other local cultural expressions.
This is all so interesting. I’m new to El Paso TX and my naivety about what I thought it would be like was so far off base I don’t know what to do with my feelings about; screaming in my head isn’t working and I trying to learn to leave it at the foot of the cross, to no avail. I’m not sure why but I idealized the notion of El Paso and New Mexico being a bastion of Catholicism being back stopped by Our Lady of Guadalupe. Instead I found that Satan still reigns; he passed the torch to Margaret Sanger who left her demonic mark on El Paso and New Mexico, which have become voracious purveyors of endorsing and action the slaughtering of the innocents; their target – the family, the cultures and the lives of the next generations. In my humble opinion – I can feel the demonic presence in this area, which is 100% on board with Margaret Sangers goal of destruction of the undesirables in the form of the local cultures, both Mexican /Hispanic and native populations that exist here – they even have cartoonish billboards right across the state line in New Mexico enticing young women and girls from those cultures toward abortion. The local populace en masse seems immune to, and supportive of the killing fields that exist, with few exceptions compared to the population. While Texas is a no abortion strong hold; El Paso County and City elected leaders have openly voted to stand in solidarity with Planned Parenthood as a matter of civic vote, with and without public comment. Elected National representatives are also voracious in their thirst for blood through abortion endorsement, tied the second place issue of maintaining unfettered migration across our southern border. I can’t even begin to expound on the demonic level of support for the mass slaughter that is championed with fanatical “religious” fervor by New Mexico elected officials from the state reps down through the Governor and local officials. It is chilling. As a pro-life supporter and active participant in prolife events in El Paso and New Mexico, the level of evil that hangs in the air is palpable as a stand for life is taken in this area. I’d say it’s not “the people” of El Paso or New Mexico who facilitate this, and have to pinch myself and hold back throwing the BS card on that, when our Lady of Guadalupe is revered yet abortion reigns here through public vote for elected officials whose stated platform objectives are to support and raise abortion and opportunities for the same to a frenetic level. Both can’t legitimately co-exist, and Our Lady seems to be a show piece of days gone by, certainly not by all, but obviously a majority given the voting outcomes, where abortion is the actionable item, second only to unfettered streams of broken humanity across an open border. Second only to abortion is support to unfettered open borders and the cash cow that facilitates, as well as setting the ground work to fundamentally change the electorate and the country. Arguing to the contrary is pointless given the feckless approach to the problem, and the horrendous outcomes leading to servitude and being beholden to a party only focused on power, not true benevolence toward rhe “invited” guests. Generally, the elected politicos and the masses in many cases, demonize those standing for the rule of law and managed immigration, amplified by the Diocese of El Paso’s clear focus on sustaining the migrant flow we’ve experienced while throwing the anti-abortion components of Family Life Ministry scraps from the bone of support, in my observational based opinion. The unfettered migration we’ve experienced is not only inhumane but undignified in itself; despite local civic and religious leaders calling the cessation of that unchecked migration, inhumane and undignified, the lack of moral standing of the argument and the subjugation of the issue that has a clear moral component to a second class issue. If there is unchecked abortion, the immigration issue becomes moot. There would be much less of a problem if the government had not circumvented law and the will of the people. The indignation by the local community leaders, faux outrage by local national representatives and the tale of woe from the Diocese is sad and appears farcical. Migrants streamed into the country with little to no pastoral care, in some cases based on status were fed and clothed as Christ commended by local pastors, but were fed into the mill of voter cultivation and loads of “free chicken” once onward moved into the corners of the country. There was little capacity enroute or while in this city to provided pastoral care, the Sacraments or nurture faith, which was likely lost or challenged when our goverment enticed people to walk across the southern portion of the continent to become unwhiting prey to one political party who offered overcrowding, inhumane conditions, facilitated human trafficking, extortion, rape, molestation, indentured servitude, and a host of other undignified outcomes intentionally or unintentionally; it doesn’t matter – it’s reality and a consequence of their action. I know this from good authority. We also hear about it from honest journalism and media, AND federal agencies trying to manage the nightmare our government created will attest to it, while being immediately vilified. We are at a major cross roads in Mexico and the US; none of it will lead to good; all of it leading away from Mother Mary and Her Son, to increased literal tribalism, rejection of the one true God, rejection of His mother and eventually, I believe, war over pat grievances, perceived utopia existing in the green grass across the road, etc. I pray that is not the case. I lament it will likely be so. God bless Mexico and the US and help us get focused on His will, and that His will be done; not the Devil and his demonic forces which have a strong hold on both countries, overtly and covertly.