Why US-backed aid to Venezuela harkens back to a dark history of covert operations

Thank you, my friend PO1 William "Chip" Nagel for sharing the perspective of Kelsey Gilman. As many of us know, that looking back in time it is easy for moderns to look back as though they are aware of all the nuances and interrelations back in the day :-)
I prefer to take a wait and see:-)

"A push to bring US-backed food and medicine into Venezuela ended in chaos on Feb. 23, as trucks carrying supplies across the Colombia-Venezuela border were set aflame and several hundred people are reported injured in clashes. The humanitarian aid could have brought some relief to Venezuelans facing a humanitarian crisis — 90 percent live in poverty, and the dire shortages have forced millions to flee. But the move was also a confrontation over Venezuela's political leadership and international backing — and brings up a history of American involvement in the region. "

Venezuela’s opposition leader and self-appointed interim President Juan Guaidó supported the ill-fated move to bring US aid into the country. Supplies were forced back by Venezuela's military, under the direction of embattled President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro has been accused of rigging his re-election in 2018, and has refused US assistance, arguing that the US is trying to destabilize his socialist government.
Many others, from leaders of international aid organizations to scholars, have said US-backed aid uses Venezuelan suffering as a pawn to further American political goals, including ousting Maduro.
The standoff over American aid harkens back to a sordid history of US intervention and "democracy promotion" in Latin America, which has been fraught with links to human rights abuses.

This history was re-examined in a House Foreign Relations Committee on Feb. 13 when Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) challenged Elliott Abrams, recently-appointed US Special Representative for Venezuela, about his controversial role while serving as President Ronald Reagan's former assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs. In a heated exchange that went viral, Omar raised issues of Cold War-era human rights violations in Latin America that occurred under Abrams' watch in the 1980s, and asked about US action in Venezuela today.

“Will you make sure that human rights are not violated?” she asked. Abrams avoided a direct answer: “The entire thrust of American policy in Venezuela is to support the Venezuelan people’s efforts to restore democracy to their country," he said.

By the way, Ollie North is an acquaintance of mine since he ran for the Senate in Virginia.

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