The United States' Hidden History of Regime Change-Revisited

"Since the early 20th century, the US has commandeered coups around the world, helping opposition figures and their mutinous militaries topple leaders whose policies they abhor. Why? These heads of state launched programs to redistribute land; strengthen labor unions, health and education systems; and nationalize industries. Washington insists they are "communist" or "socialist" and will threaten American dominance and corporate interests."

"In the good old days, the hanky-panky was hidden, since the US signed both the United Nations and Organization of American States charters, which stated that forced regime change was illegal. But by the 1990s, US politicos scrapped the secrecy and told it like it was. For example, right-wing thinkers such as William Kristol and Robert Kagan, pilots of the Project for a New American Century,"

"Along with Kristol and Kagan, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and Richard Perle joined the Bush II team. Finding no need to pussy-foot around, they insisted the US should intervene wherever regimes rejected Washington's roadmap. Venezuela is just the latest country the US considers a threat. Since it sits on the world's largest oil reserves (five times that of the US), former president Hugo Chávez and, after him, Nicolás Maduro chose an independent course."

Since the early 20th century the United States has supported coups and assisted mutinous militaries to remove leaders who pursued land redistribution, stronger labor unions, expanded health and education, and nationalization of industries. Washington routinely labeled those leaders "communist" or "socialist" and portrayed them as threats to American power and corporate interests. International legal constraints initially enforced secrecy, but by the 1990s neoconservative planners openly advocated overthrowing regimes. Prominent officials and strategists pushed interventions. Venezuela’s independent oil policy under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, including exports to China, India, Cuba, Turkey, and parts of Europe, has prompted sanctions and escalated military posturing.

Read at The Nation