Former Pink Floyd singer and bassist Roger Waters recorded a sharply-worded video criticizing President Donald Trump and expressing solidarity with the people of Venezuela as the country is roiled by internal conflict according to The Independent . The 75-year-old angrily noted that it is hypocritical of the U.S. president to pose as a humanitarian by squabbling with the embattled socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro over a shipment of U.S. food and aid when Trump already has the power to provide much-needed relief to the people who are suffering there.
“I have a message. Lift the sanctions. If you care about the Venezuelan people, lift the sanctions.”
The rocker, who recorded the video to be played at a rally and concert at the Venezuelan border with Colombia Saturday night, is no stranger to making his voice heard in the political arena. Waters is an outspoken critic of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians, and supports the BDS or boycott, divest, sanction movement that seeks to apply economic pressure to force Israel to change. In his video addressing the Venezuela crisis, the legendary singer went on to name the elephant in the room that many observers fear is being readied.
“Do not invade Venezuela,” he said. “This is a proud independent sovereign nation and they can figure it out for themselves. The last thing they need is Elliott Abrams’ and John Bolton’s stamping all over their country with heavy boots…Viva Venezuela.”
A video I made for the concert on the Venezuelan side of the border tonight. #handsoffvenezuela pic.twitter.com/XeTUngFYGF
— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) February 24, 2019
John Bolton, who served as George W. Bush’s ambassador to the U.N. and has strongly pro-war views, now serves as National Security Adviser to Trump. Perhaps more troubling to Waters and other observers is Trump’s appointment of Elliot Abrams as a U.S. “special representative” to Venezuela. Abrams was a key figure in U.S.-controlled conflicts in Central America during the Reagan years, and oversaw U.S.-backed groups that committed countless atrocities and human rights violations, even slaughtering entire villages, including women and children. Abrams was convicted of lying to Congress about his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.
Which brings us to the ongoing stand-off this week over a shipment of U.S. humanitarian aid that President Nicolas Maduro has rejected. Abrams and his operatives in Central America in the 1980s are widely believed to have used similar “humanitarian” shipments to smuggle arms and other supplies into nations like Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador to illegally assist right-wing paramilitary groups.
Waters went on to call himself a great believer in the U.N., and suggested that Trump and his allies are not.
“The United Nations charter says that sovereign nations should be inviolate to attack from outside. There are others in this world who don’t seem to have read [it].”
In addition to the message, Waters tweeted another video of himself playing an acoustic guitar and singing “We Shall Overcome.”
