The United States' sanction threat against Venezuela could backfire by reviving its image as an arrogant imperial power in the region, Cuban political observer Manuel Yepe has said.
"The United States does not gain very much by imposing sanctions against Venezuela and the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro," Yepe, a former diplomat and ex-director of Cuba's Prensa Latina news agency, told Xinhua on Friday.
The United States took a more explicit stance to back Venezuela's opposition in its struggle for power earlier this week, echoing the opposition's demand that the government cancel the July 30 election for the members of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) to review the constitution and possibly draft a new one.
The government reckons the July 30 election as the best way to lead the country out of the current political and economic crisis, while the opposition sees the move as a power grab by Maduro.
On Monday, a White House statement from President Donald Trump warned: "If the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions."
However, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said "it is not the first time we have denounced and confronted crazy threats such as those contained in this unusual document," and vowed to hold the vote as planned, despite this latest "brutal threat."
"If (the U.S.) goes through with it, Latin America would react in a big way," said Yepe.
Some 150,000 Venezuelan troops will be guarding 14,515 voting stations, as the country's 20 million registered voters go to the polls on July 30.
While "the sanctions would make Venezuela's domestic situation worse, it would not benefit the United States to add difficulties to its cracked hegemonic power," said Yepe.
The right of calling for a constituent assembly is consecrated in the country's 1999 constitution, he said.
"The Venezuelan state has the power to do what it is doing. There is nothing illegal or punishable about it," he said.
However, Yepe said, Venezuela's aspirations clash with those of the "U.S. establishment, which wants to remove from the top the problem that an independent Venezuela presents for its hegemonic plans in Latin America."
"After the constituent (vote) we will know if it is an effective measure, because right now it is being questioned by many people," he said.
The clash between the government and the opposition became a constitutional crisis in January 2016, when the latter won control of the National Assembly and ended a 17-year control by former president Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro.
According to Yepe, the opposition has erred in resorting to escalating violence and disregarding the opportunities for a negotiated solution to the political stalemate.
"Dialogue would be the solution that benefits everyone, especially its people, who are paying for the increasingly violent clashes with blood," he said.
Anti-government demonstrations have claimed more than 100 lives since April, with several government supporters lynched by angry mobs of protesters.
A destabilized Venezuela is bad for Latin America, but a civil war or foreign military intervention would be much worse, said Yepe, who hopes the country will be able to overcome the protracted political crisis peacefully.
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