In an executive order last year, renewed this year, President Obama declared Venezuela to be an "unusual and extraordrinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States" and declared a "national emergency" to counter the "Venezuelan threat"
( http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2016/03/03/obama-extends-order-declaring-venezuela-national-security-threat/ ).

This manufactured "extraordinary threat" serves as the Obama regime's excuse for overthrowing President Maduro in Venezuela. It is a Washington tradition to overthrow elected Latin American governments that try to represent the interest of the people, and not the interest of US corporations and banks.

I wrote about Washington's attack on Latin American reformers on April 11 (http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/04/11/washington-continues-to-destroy-latin-american-reformers-paul-craig-roberts/) and on April 22
(http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/04/22/washington-launches-its-attack-against-brics-paul-craig-roberts/).

Decades ago US Marine General Smedley Butler confessed that he was "a gangster for capitalism," imposing the will of New York Banks and the United Fruit Company on Latin American countries by force of arms.