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US seeking to destroy independent nation of Venezuela: Analyst

Sunday, 06 March 2016 6:23 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 06 March 2016 8:28 PM ]

The Obama administration is continuing to “destabilize, to undermine and to do whatever it can to destroy the independent, socialist nation of Venezuela,” says Eric Draitser.

Under US President Barack Obama, Washington has sought to “destabilize” and “undermine” Venezuela because of its anti-imperialist policies and close ties to countries like China and Iran, an American geopolitical analyst says.

“The United States is directly targeting Venezuela because it sees in Venezuela a threat to its own regional hegemony,” said Eric Draitser, the founder of stopimperialism.org.

“Venezuela as a close ally of Russia, a close ally of Iran, as a close ally of China,” Draitser said during an interview with Press TV on Sunday.

The Obama administration is continuing to “destabilize, to undermine and to do whatever it can to destroy the independent, socialist nation of Venezuela,” he added.

The US government has also led destabilization efforts in other left-wing and anti-colonialist Latin American nations, including Argentina, Bolivia and Equator, Draitser observed.

US President Barack Obama has renewed an executive order that declares Venezuela a threat to the US, extending sanctions against the South American country for one more year.

In renewing the measure, Obama said on Thursday that the situation in Venezuela constituted an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States" and that he was declaring a "national emergency" to counter that threat.

The Obama administration first issued the executive order against Venezuela in March of last year, which provoked a storm of controversy inside the country and a backlash throughout Latin America.

Tensions increased between the United States and Venezuela after the socialist President Hugo Chávez assumed elected office in 1999.

Those tensions were further raised after Venezuela accused the administration of George W. Bush of supporting the Venezuelan failed coup attempt in 2002 against Chavez.

In February 2014, the Venezuelan government ordered three American diplomats to leave the country on charges of promoting violence.

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