by Stephen Lendman

The whole world knows America threatens humanity. Few public officials openly admit what's well known.

Hugo Chavez courageously spoke forthrightly about threatening US imperialism.

In 2006, he addressed General Assembly members the day after George Bush.

"The devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulfur still today," he said.

"Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the President of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world."

He "came to share his nostrums to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world."

Few leaders have the courage to speak this forthrightly. Doing so made Chavez special.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino spoke candidly with Sputnik News.

He called Obama's executive order declaring Venezuela a threat to US national security "a decree that in no way favors good relations between countries on the same continent."

Latin and Central America no longer comprise Washington's "back yard." Those days are over.

Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) nations can't "conceive of, much less tolerate, the idea that Venezuela" threatens any nation.

"Where is the threat," asked Patino? "They're a trade partner of the US. They sell them oil every day."

There are all sorts of relations - commercial, tourist - between the two countries."

"That's why the order doesn't make the least bit of sense, doesn't have the least basis."

Patino accused anti-government agitators of instigating earlier violent protests. They want Maduro ousted by elections or force, he explained.

Bolivarianism won't "end through external meddling. And it's not their place to put an end to (revolutionary change), but to respect each country," said Patino.

When US presidents issue verbal or written orders, often they precede "military interventions," he stressed.

"We know that - like Afghanistan, like Iraq, and other countries - that they were considered a threat and then invaded."

"They aren't always invaded. Sometimes not. But often it's just this justification that's given for intervention."

"(I)f I consider you a threat to me, I must act to stop that threat…That's why the terms he uses are so serious."

Latin and Central American nations have long histories of US military intervention, Patino explained.

"We know it. By heart and forever. For all of the 20th century, and even the 19th century, with the first interventions by the filibusters, as they were called, in Nicaragua."

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Washington intervened throughout the hemisphere.

Notably in Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panana, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Grenada, and elsewhere.

Presidents from James Monroe asserted America's right to intervene anywhere in the hemisphere for virtually any reason.

So-called "Banana Wars" sought to preserve and protect US economic interests. At the same time, political ones were advanced.

No nation in world history intervened lawlessly against more nations over a longer duration than America.

None more recklessly continue doing so today for far greater stakes.

"Not just military interventions" earlier, said Patino. "(W)e're talking about (US-installed) dictatorships…"

"In our country, in Ecuador, in 1963: We had a lovely tradition of democracy, economic progress and, as a result of CIA actions, a dictatorship broke that democracy to pieces."

"It's a shame, but the US longstanding tradition is one of intervening, invading, abusing and producing dictatorships in our region."

"If there is a threat on this continent, it is the United States. They're the only one that can be considered to be such from historical experience. They are a threat to our countries."

Fascists running America threaten everyone. World peace hangs by a thread.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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