Turmoil in Venezuela

[Hervé]

Roger Waters speaks the truth about the so-called “humanitarian” intervention in Venezuela

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tI6JH4JaK0U

3872 Views February 19, 2019 21 Comments

[perolator]

Posted by Hervé (here)
Roger Waters speaks the truth about the so-called “humanitarian” intervention in Venezuela

Roger, I am a huge fan of Pink Floyd and also a huge fan of all your solo work.
I am beginning to think David Gilmour's solo work is a lot better than yours.

Jokes aside, you have to get a better source of information about my country. Richard Branson can do whatever he wants to help Venezuelans. Any help is welcome.
Peter Gabriel also has friends in Venezuela. He had various sold out impressive concerts in Venezuela in the early 2000's. Unfortunately, I miss those. When was the last time you performed in Venezuela?
You know Venezuelans cannot afford tickets to see you.
By the way, tickets for your Latin-American concerts last year were extremely expensive. You should schedule some free concerts on Third World countries.

I will continue enjoying your work because I know you are the living example of someone who does not know about Venezuela.

Someone who has the power to reach to the hearts of the people should be better informed. 21 comments so far, 21 believers in Roger Waters' words.

[DeDukshyn]

Just out of curiosity ... what happened to the "thanks" on the first 14 pages of this thread? Was that an intentional move or a blunder?

[Hervé]

Posted by DeDukshyn (here)
Just out of curiosity ... what happened to the "thanks" on the first 14 pages of this thread? Was that an intentional move or a blunder?

See post # 288...

[perolator]

Posted by Joe (here)
Well okay, I guess it’s time to hear from a couple of the six million enchiladas who live in Venezuela.

The legacy...

[TargeT]

McCabe lets his true feelings come out

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qr-iMLluTlw

[perolator]

Posted by TargeT (here)
McCabe lets his true feelings come out

"That's the country we should be going to war with" is a big statement. I cannot comment on it. I cannot comment on the U.S. "arming rebels" because if opposition were armed, an armed coup would be staged long ago, IMHO. What I can comment about is regarding "manufacturing consent". Maduro is a bad guy. Absolutely. War may occur, as Jimmy Dore says. Maduro military government has to stay at any cost because they are criminals and a sane government may judge him and his people.

Maduro is protecting Colombian guerrillas and the illegal drug corridor, among a host of highly illegal activities. In this scenario, a civil war is not possible.

[Hervé]

US' vassals may soon regret rushing to embrace Guaido

Ekaterina Blinova Sputnik
Thu, 21 Feb 2019 18:33 UTC

Juan Guaido, President of Venezuela's National Assembly, reacts during a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government and to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the end of the dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez in Caracas, Venezuela January 23, 2019© Reuters/Carolos Garcia Rawlins

The Venezuela coup attempt is not going well at all and Washington's global allies may soon regret rushing to recognise Juan Guaido as the legitimate interim president of Venezuela, French journalist and geopolitical analyst Gilbert Mercier told Sputnik.

Make no mistake, the so called Venezuela crisis has been engineered through economic sanctions and plotted in Washington for many years, Gilbert Mercier, a French journalist, geopolitical analyst, and editor-in-chief of the News Junkie Post, told Sputnik.

He recalled that Washington's 2002 coup attempt plotted by Elliott Abrams, Donald Trump's current Venezuela special envoy, failed in Venezuela.

"I cannot foresee that the US imperial push against Maduro will be successful either as long as Venezuela's military remains loyal to him, and as long as Maduro consolidate both his regional and global support," the journalist said, adding that the Venezuelan legitimate head of state "should emulate the survival tactics of the Cuban revolution through striking the right alliances, and numerous improvements of his economic management of Venezuela's socialist society".

He remarked that "after all the Castros, first Fidel than Raul, defied US imperialism for six decades".

"In what must be called, as I did some time ago, a new Cold War, Venezuela is the major geopolitical test of our times. It might be even more critical than Syria, because this time around it is a conflict between imperial capitalism and a socialist state," Mercier opined.

World Divided Into Pro-Maduro and Pro-Guaido Camps
"So far the US sponsored coup to replace legitimately elected Nicolas Maduro by Washington-groomed Juan Guaido has not progressed as planned," the geopolitical analyst pointed out. "As matter of fact, as we stand, it is a fiasco, and US vassals in Europe and the Americas could soon regret their premature enthusiasm to embrace Washington's regime change policy".

On 23 January, Juan Guaido, the president of the disempowered National Assembly declared himself the interim president of Venezuela. His move was immediately endorsed by the US which triggered a domino effect among Washington's allies, with Canada and eleven Latin American states following suit.

On 31 January, the European Parliament (EP) recognised Guaido "the only legitimate interim president of the country" which was followed by a joint declaration signed by 19 EU states that "acknowledges and supports" Guaido as "president ad interim of Venezuela". On 19 February Japan joined the chorus of Guaido supporters.

"The United States, like any empires, has vassals and client states which they control through various organisations such as NATO or the OAS," the analyst elaborated. "This is what the anti-Maduro coalition is about. When the Empire's Diktats encounter resistance from vassals, it uses different level of coercion to get to the bottom of it. It is summarised by the "with or against us" US imperial litmus test. The very same allegiance test was, by the way, used in the build up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003".

In contrast, Russia, China, Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Turkey and many other countries have thrown their weight behind the legitimately elected president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.

Meanwhile, a report by the prestigious Research Services division of Germany's Bundestag found that there were "strong" legal reasons to consider the recognition of Guaido as interim president as "interference" in the Latin American country's internal affairs.

Opposition supporters carrying a cardboard cut-out of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido take part in a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government and to commemorate the Day of the Youth in Maracaibo, Venezuela February 12, 2019.© Reuters/Isaac Urrutia

Trump is 'Frustrated and Impatient' Over Stalled Coup Attempt
Judging from Donald Trump's harsh statements and threats, it appears that "the coup attempt has stalled and is not going well at all", Mercier emphasised.

"President Trump, himself, is showing his frustration and impatience," he opined. "Last Monday, while he was in Miami, Florida, Trump delivered a speech to threaten Venezuela's military. Trump said that Venezuela's military would 'lose everything by remaining loyal to Maduro', and not allowing the so called US humanitarian aid for Venezuelans stockpiled at the border of Columbia and Venezuela".

"As matter of fact, the Trump administration, and US imperialism's little helper in Venezuela Juan Guaido, has given Maduro an absurdly artificial deadline to let the US aid in the country: it is 23 February," Mercier noted.

According to the French journalist, "this stratagem completely falls into the humanitarian imperialism playbook".

"First you starve people through drastic sanctions, then you pretend to have compassion and send food and medical supplies," he said. "My partner at News Junkie Post, Dady Chery, actually was the first one worldwide to identify this strategy, which she coined in 2015 as Humanitarian Imperialism: Aid as a Trojan Horse."

Mercier stressed that the US humanitarian aid is by no means "about feeding the people of Venezuela", rather, "It is about trying to get Venezuela's military to either cave in to the request or become divided".

Commenting on the issue on 20 February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denounced Washington's threats to Venezuela's military as a violation of the United Nations Charter and "direct interference in the internal affairs of an independent country".

Chavez & Maduro Partially Responsible for Venezuela Economic Problems
Still, "both Chavez and Maduro have a partial responsibility in Venezuela's less than stellar economic performance", Mercier believes.

"It is of course a failure to efficiently exploit the country vast oil reserves, but actually, more importantly the lack of diversification notably in terms of exploiting Venezuela's rich agricultural potential," he said. "In other words, Venezuela, despite the US sanctions, should be a prosperous country, and let's face it, it is not. Maduro and his team, to survive and make Venezuela's brand of socialism not only a workable proposition but a thriving one, must diligently improve on this".

However, he emphasised that despite the dire economic situation, "Maduro still has his core support within most of the population intact".

"Venezuela's elite, needless to say a minority, had been opposed to Chavez, and his heir Maduro, for more than twenty years, this has remained, and many of them have actually immigrated to the United States," the French journalist said.

Why Trump Won't Send US Troops to Venezuela
Nevertheless, the geopolitical analyst cast doubt on the possibility of the US launching a military option against Caracas.

"After the recent military humiliations both in Afghanistan and Syria, which are de-facto defeats but spun in Washington respectively as 'negotiations with the Taliban' in the first case and "victory on ISIS [Daesh]" in Syria's case, I do not think that the United States and NATO partners have much appetite for direct 'boots on the ground' military adventures. Venezuela shall not be an exception," Mercier opined.

At the same time, he did not rule out a potential proxy operation.

"In the unfortunate eventuality, which I am sure is seriously considered by the Pentagon and the CIA, of using proxy agents to engage Venezuela's military and powerful Chavista militia, the prime candidate are right-wing regimes of Columbia and Brazil with a covert logistic support of US special forces/CIA field operatives, and also the powerful mercenary outlet of Erik Prince (formerly Blackwater)," the journalist suggested.

Mercier warned that "this proxy war scenario would be a disaster for Venezuela and the region", stressing that "if Venezuela's military stay loyal to Maduro, it is regardless doomed to fail".


Related:

• Neocon Bolton threatens Nicaragua, Venezuelan military

• 'Nothing to do with aid or democracy': Roger Waters slams 'humanitarian' concert for Venezuela

• 'Those who devastate innocents dare to declare their actions humanitarian': Venezuela's FM slams US

[TargeT]

Posted by perolator (here)
Maduro is protecting Colombian guerrillas and the illegal drug corridor, among a host of highly illegal activities. In this scenario, a civil war is not possible.

well that makes it sound less like we are backing US lead regime change of old... and maybe actually helping? It worries me that the "new guy" gets so much backing from what I consider "bad players".

[perolator]

Posted by TargeT (here)

Posted by perolator (here)
Maduro is protecting Colombian guerrillas and the illegal drug corridor, among a host of highly illegal activities. In this scenario, a civil war is not possible.

well that makes it sound less like we are backing US lead regime change of old... and maybe actually helping? It worries me that the "new guy" gets so much backing from what I consider "bad players".

True. It worries me also.

The new guy's main goals are:

• Send humanitarian aid (food, medicines) all over the country.
• End the Maduro's government, restoring civil rights, removing military from government.
• Call for free presidential elections.

Theoretically. That's what Venezuelans are hoping.

[Hervé]

Where are the ‘empty shelves’? Max Blumenthal tours Caracas supermarket (VIDEO)

RT
Published time: 22 Feb, 2019 11:27
Get short URL

© Youtube / Grayzone Project

Corporate media grieve for the barren shelves and empty bellies in Venezuela, but are the alleged food shortages real? After touring a supermarket in Caracas, Max Blumenthal found plenty to buy – even craft beer.

“Grocery shelves lie empty as food becomes increasingly scarce” in Venezuela, the UK Independent weeps. The country’s shops remain open but “sparsely stocked,” The Guardian laments. Even “basic commodities” such as toothbrushes aren’t available for purchase, CNN bemoans. “Hungry” Venezuelans must choose between “torture or starvation,” Bloomberg grimly concludes. Mainstream media coverage of Venezuela gives the impression that President Nicolas Maduro is slowly starving his own people – a narrative which, as journalist Max Blumenthal found after surveying a massive supermarket in Caracas, is wildly deceptive.

© Youtube / Grayzone Project

The store offered a wide selection of meat, produce, and dairy (although no low-fat Greek yogurt, an indignity which is likely the result of Maduro’s tyrannical ways, Blumenthal jokingly hypothesizes). Most importantly, craft beer – a hallmark of heroic consumerism – could be found in the supermarket’s alcohol aisle.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mbXqGiNlWWw

Blumenthal also marveled at the store’s huge variety of scented toilet paper, shampoo and toiletries – the “basic commodities” which, according to CNN, are nowhere to be found in Venezuela.

© Youtube / Grayzone Project

“There isn’t an issue here with food distribution or food scarcity,” Blumenthal concludes.

“The issue is the buying power of Venezuelans has been completely destroyed because their currency has been so badly weakened by hyperinflation, speculation and the flood of dollars that the government can’t control here, as well as hoarding by private capitalist elements that support the opposition.”

The amusing bit of on-the-ground reporting comes amid a tense stand-off over US attempts to deliver what Washington describes as humanitarian aid into Venezuela, in defiance of the wishes of its government. Juan Guaido, the US-backed, self-declared “interim president” of Venezuela, said on Thursday that he will personally go to the border with Colombia to get the shipment from the US, urging drivers to go with him and defy the border guards ordered to prevent the delivery.

Humanitarian organizations have distanced themselves from the alleged aid package, amid accusations that the “humanitarian aid” could contain military equipment, or be used for political purposes.


Related:
Venezuela closes border with Brazil, may do the same at Colombia border – Maduro

The Making of Juan Guaidó: How The US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela's Coup Leader by Dan Cohen & Max Blumenthal Gray Zone

US-run border ‘provocation’ to topple Maduro set for February 23, Moscow warns

Humanitarian aid for Venezuela is ‘Trojan horse to provoke war’ – Bolivian President Morales

[Hervé]

Video: An Ocean of Lies on Venezuela

Abby Martin and UN Rapporteur Expose Coup

By Abby Martin and Alfred de Zayas
Global Research, February 22, 2019
Empire Files

On the eve of another US war for oil, Abby Martin debunks the most repeated myths about Venezuela.

She uncovers how US sanctions are crimes against humanity with UN investigator and human rights Rapporteur Alfred De Zayas.

Watch the video below.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ii5MlQgGXyk

Related:
What the Press Hides From You About Venezuela — A Case of News-Suppression

[perolator]

Posted by Hervé (here)
“There isn’t an issue here with food distribution or food scarcity,” Blumenthal concludes.

Wrong. The supermarket he visited is Excelsior Gama, located at La Trinidad. You can buy anything there. Lots of imported goods. The problem is: how to get enough money to buy. An average Venezuelan has to save money for one year and a half to fill a cart of goods.

No lines full of buyers.

Go to Guasdualito, go to Tucupita, Altagracia de Orituco... Go there instead of one of the biggest non-government owned supermarkets in Caracas.

Posted by Hervé (here)
The issue is the buying power of Venezuelans has been completely destroyed because their currency has been so badly weakened by hyperinflation, speculation...

True, and true.

Posted by Hervé (here)
...and the flood of dollars that the government can’t control here...

Max Blumenthal, are you out of your mind? The goverment controls dollars since 2002...

Quoting Georgy Zotov, your Russian colleague:

...I have started to realize that in the very next few days I’ll starve to death with dollars in my pocket. A unique fate, perhaps, that has never happen in history.

Posted by Hervé (here)
...as well as hoarding by private capitalist elements that support the opposition.”

Okay. Whatever.

[Franny]

Interesting take on Venezuela from Jimmy Dore. He uses a passage from Andrew McCabe's new book to kick it off where President tells McCabe that he wants to go into Venezuela and take the oil. He then moves into how painting Maduro as a bad guy is the manufacturing of consent for the coupe - and how popular it is with such luminaries as Pelosi and most of the rest of the left.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qr-iMLluTlw

[Hervé]

The War on Venezuela is Built on Lies

John Pilger johnpilger.com
Thu, 21 Feb 2019 11:08 UTC

In this analysis, John Pilger looks back over the Chavez years in Venezuela, including his own travels with Hugo Chavez, and the current US and European campaign to overthrow Nicolas Maduro in a 'coup by media' and to return Latin America to the 19th and 20th centuries.

Travelling with Hugo Chavez, I soon understood the threat of Venezuela. At a farming co-operative in Lara state, people waited patiently and with good humour in the heat. Jugs of water and melon juice were passed around. A guitar was played; a woman, Katarina, stood and sang with a husky contralto.

"What did her words say?" I asked.

"That we are proud," was the reply.

The applause for her merged with the arrival of Chavez. Under one arm he carried a satchel bursting with books. He wore his big red shirt and greeted people by name, stopping to listen. What struck me was his capacity to listen.

But now he read. For almost two hours he read into the microphone from the stack of books beside him: Orwell, Dickens, Tolstoy, Zola, Hemingway, Chomsky, Neruda: a page here, a line or two there. People clapped and whistled as he moved from author to author.

Then farmers took the microphone and told him what they knew, and what they needed; one ancient face, carved it seemed from a nearby banyan, made a long, critical speech on the subject of irrigation; Chavez took notes.

Wine is grown here, a dark Syrah type grape. "John, John, come up here," said El Presidente, having watched me fall asleep in the heat and the depths of Oliver Twist.

"He likes red wine," Chavez told the cheering, whistling audience, and presented me with a bottle of "vino de la gente". My few words in bad Spanish brought whistles and laughter.

Watching Chavez with la gente made sense of a man who promised, on coming to power, that his every move would be subject to the will of the people. In eight years, Chavez won eight elections and referendums: a world record. He was electorally the most popular head of state in the Western Hemisphere, probably in the world.

Every major chavista reform was voted on, notably a new constitution of which 71 per cent of the people approved each of the 396 articles that enshrined unheard of freedoms, such as Article 123, which for the first time recognised the human rights of mixed-race and black people, of whom Chavez was one.

One of his tutorials on the road quoted a feminist writer: "Love and solidarity are the same." His audiences understood this well and expressed themselves with dignity, seldom with deference. Ordinary people regarded Chavez and his government as their first champions: as theirs.

This was especially true of the indigenous, mestizos and Afro-Venezuelans, who had been held in historic contempt by Chavez's immediate predecessors and by those who today live far from the barrios, in the mansions and penthouses of East Caracas, who commute to Miami where their banks are and who regard themselves as "white". They are the powerful core of what the media calls "the opposition".

When I met this class, in suburbs called Country Club, in homes appointed with low chandeliers and bad portraits, I recognised them. They could be white South Africans, the petite bourgeoisie of Constantia and Sandton, pillars of the cruelties of apartheid.

Cartoonists in the Venezuelan press, most of which are owned by an oligarchy and oppose the government, portrayed Chavez as an ape. A radio host referred to "the monkey". In the private universities, the verbal currency of the children of the well-off is often racist abuse of those whose shacks are just visible through the pollution.

Although identity politics are all the rage in the pages of liberal newspapers in the West, race and class are two words almost never uttered in the mendacious "coverage" of Washington's latest, most naked attempt to grab the world's greatest source of oil and reclaim its "backyard".

For all the chavistas' faults -- such as allowing the Venezuelan economy to become hostage to the fortunes of oil and never seriously challenging big capital and corruption - they brought social justice and pride to millions of people and they did it with unprecedented democracy.

"Of the 92 elections that we've monitored," said former President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Centre is a respected monitor of elections around the world,

"I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world." By way of contrast, said Carter, the US election system, with its emphasis on campaign money, "is one of the worst".

In extending the franchise to a parallel people's state of communal authority, based in the poorest barrios, Chavez described Venezuelan democracy as "our version of Rousseau's idea of popular sovereignty."

In Barrio La Linea, seated in her tiny kitchen, Beatrice Balazo told me her children were the first generation of the poor to attend a full day's school and be given a hot meal and to learn music, art and dance.

"I have seen their confidence blossom like flowers," she said.

In Barrio La Vega, I listened to a nurse, Mariella Machado, a black woman of 45 with a wicked laugh, address an urban land council on subjects ranging from homelessness to illegal war. That day, they were launching Mision Madres de Barrio, a programme aimed at poverty among single mothers. Under the constitution, women have the right to be paid as carers, and can borrow from a special women's bank. Now the poorest housewives get the equivalent of $200 a month.

In a room lit by a single fluorescent tube, I met Ana Lucia Ferandez, aged 86, and Mavis Mendez, aged 95. A mere 33-year-old, Sonia Alvarez, had come with her two children. Once, none of them could read and write; now they were studying mathematics. For the first time in its history, Venezuela has almost 100 per cent literacy.

This is the work of Mision Robinson, which was designed for adults and teenagers previously denied an education because of poverty. Mision Ribas gives everyone the opportunity of a secondary education, called a bachillerato. (The names Robinson and Ribas refer to Venezuelan independence leaders from the 19th century).

In her 95 years, Mavis Mendez had seen a parade of governments, mostly vassals of Washington, preside over the theft of billions of dollars in oil spoils, much of it flown to Miami. "We didn't matter in a human sense," she told me. "We lived and died without real education and running water, and food we couldn't afford. When we fell ill, the weakest died. Now I can read and write my name and so much more; and whatever the rich and the media say, we have planted the seeds of true democracy and I have the joy of seeing it happen."

In 2002, during a Washington-backed coup, Mavis's sons and daughters and grandchildren and great-grandchildren joined hundreds of thousands who swept down from the barrios on the hillsides and demanded the army remained loyal to Chavez.

"The people rescued me," Chavez told me.

"They did it with the media against me, preventing even the basic facts of what happened. For popular democracy in heroic action, I suggest you look no further."

Since Chavez's death in 2013, his successor Nicolas Maduro has shed his derisory label in the Western press as a "former bus driver" and become Saddam Hussein incarnate. His media abuse is ridiculous. On his watch, the slide in the price of oil has caused hyper-inflation and played havoc with prices in a society that imports almost all its food; yet, as the journalist and film-maker Pablo Navarrete reported this week, Venezuela is not the catastrophe it has been painted.

"There is food everywhere," he wrote.

"I have filmed lots of videos of food in markets [all over Caracas] ... it's Friday night and the restaurants are full."

In 2018, Maduro was re-elected President. A section of the opposition boycotted the election, a tactic tried against Chavez. The boycott failed: 9,389,056 people voted; sixteen parties participated and six candidates stood for the presidency. Maduro won 6,248,864 votes, or 67.84 per cent.

On election day, I spoke to one of the 150 foreign election observers.

"It was entirely fair," he said.

"There was no fraud; none of the lurid media claims stood up. Zero. Amazing, really."

Like a page from Alice's tea party, the Trump administration has presented Juan Guaido, a pop-up creation of the CIA-front National Endowment for Democracy, as the "legitimate President of Venezuela". Unheard of - by 81 per cent of the Venezuelan people - according to The Nation, Guaido has been elected by no one.

Maduro is "illegitimate", says Trump (who won the US presidency with three million fewer votes than his opponent), a "dictator", says demonstrably unhinged vice president Mike Pence and an oil trophy-in-waiting, says "national security" adviser John Bolton (who, when I interviewed him in 2003, said, "Hey, are you a communist, maybe even Labour?").

As his "special envoy to Venezuela" (coup master), Trump has appointed a convicted felon, Elliot Abrams, whose intrigues in the service of Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush helped produce the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s and plunge central America into years of blood-soaked misery.

Putting Lewis Carroll aside, these "crazies" belong in newsreels from the 1930s. And yet their lies about Venezuela have been taken up with enthusiasm by those paid to keep the record straight.

On Channel 4 News, Jon Snow bellowed at the Labour MP Chris Williamson,

"Look, you and Mr Corbyn are in a very nasty corner [on Venezuela]!"

When Williamson tried to explain why threatening a sovereign country was wrong, Snow cut him off. "You've had a good go!"

In 2006, Channel 4 News effectively accused Chavez of plotting to make nuclear weapons with Iran: a fantasy. The then Washington correspondent, Jonathan Rugman, allowed a war criminal, Donald Rumsfeld, to liken Chavez to Hitler, unchallenged.

Researchers at the University of the West of England studied the BBC's reporting of Venezuela over a ten-year period. They looked at 304 reports and found that only three of these referred to any of the positive policies of the government. For the BBC, Venezuela's democratic record, human rights legislation, food programmes, healthcare initiatives and poverty reduction did not happen. The greatest literacy programme in human history did not happen, just as the millions who march in support of Maduro and in memory of Chavez, do not exist.

When asked why she filmed only an opposition march, the BBC reporter Orla Guerin tweeted that it was "too difficult" to be on two marches in one day.

A war has been declared on Venezuela, of which the truth is "too difficult" to report.

It is too difficult to report the collapse of oil prices since 2014 as largely the result of criminal machinations by Wall Street. It is too difficult to report the blocking of Venezuela's access to the US-dominated international financial system as sabotage. It is too difficult to report Washington's "sanctions" against Venezuela, which have caused the loss of at least $6billion in Venezuela's revenue since 2017, including $2billion worth of imported medicines, as illegal, or the Bank of England's refusal to return Venezuela's gold reserves as an act of piracy.

The former United Nations Rapporteur, Alfred de Zayas, has likened this to a "medieval siege" designed "to bring countries to their knees". It is a criminal assault, he says. It is similar to that faced by Salvador Allende in 1970 when President Richard Nixon and his equivalent of John Bolton, Henry Kissinger, set out to "make the economy [of Chile] scream." The long dark night of Pinochet followed.

The Guardian correspondent, Tom Phillips, has tweeted a picture of himself in a cap on which the words in Spanish mean in local slang: "Make Venezuela ****ing cool again." The reporter - as clown - may be the final stage of much of mainstream journalism's degeneration.

Should the CIA stooge Guaido and his white supremacists grab power, it will be the 68th overthrow of a sovereign government by the United States, most of them democracies. A fire sale of Venezuela's utilities and mineral wealth will surely follow, along with the theft of the country's oil, as outlined by John Bolton.

Under the last Washington-controlled government in Caracas, poverty reached historic proportions. There was no healthcare for those [who] could not pay. There was no universal education; Mavis Mendez, and millions like her, could not read or write. How cool is that, Tom?

SOTT Comment:
Besides the pecuniary interest pro-Globalist, liberal-cosmopolitan Westerners have in seeing Venezuela screwed over, there is an important socio-cultural aspect: they're screaming like banshees that Venezuela be dragged back down into the gutter of degradation and domination, the realm they themselves reign over and from which they cannot abide any people raising themselves up from. Hence their brutal suppression of the popular classes in France, for example, where that country's Chavistas are seeking a way up out from the mendacious sewer of lies and deception they're kept in by the oligarchy's parliamentary dictatorship.

Related:
The War On Democracy (English subtitles)

[perolator]

Bolivarian Enchilada regime burnt 3 humanitarian aid trucks.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7fDXSQaxKAs

Geneva conventions, anyone?

No English information, sorry.

[Hervé]

BEYOND BELIEF: Guaido’s U.S Backed Supporters Torched Own Aid Caravan in False Flag

By Paul Antonopoulos
Last updated Feb 24, 2019

* Editor’s note –

previously FRN reported that the Venezuelan authorities had ‘stopped’ the aid convoy from entering into Venezuela, without clarifying that the actual setting ablaze of said convoy was done by Guaido’s own supporters in an attempt to smear the Maduro administration of Venezuela.

Adding to the confusion was our relaying of the Russian announcement from foreign ministry representative Zakharova that Russians had strong evidence that the U.S would attempt to use this or any aid convoy as a means to smuggle in specific classes of weapons and equipment, connected to a strategy of tension, like that seen in the Maidan in Ukraine five years ago.

This would seem to infer that the Maduro government ‘stopped’ the convoy by setting it on fire. That is not the case.

Additionally, given that the Russian forewarning came days prior to the actual attempt yesterday, it is furthermore likely that this particular aid convoy did not contain anything but humanitarian aid goods, with the U.S and its opposition knowing full-well that it would not be let in, and with a plan instead to put on a pyrotechnic show to discredit the Maduro-led government in the eyes of its own sock-puppet media industrial complex. FRN’s own Paul Antonopoulos weighs in with clarifying comments.

– J. Flores

*

This is becoming hilarious now. Unelected Venezuelan wannabe president Guaidó was suppose to triumphantly lead a Trojan horse aid convoy into Venezuela from Colombia but he completely failed, and achieved nothing. He is now in exile in Colombia while legitimate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has cut all diplomatic ties with their neighbor.

Things got so so so desperate yesterday that the Venezuelan opposition in Colombia decided to set the aid convoy on fire and blame Maduro. However, if you’re going to make a HOAX, you should probably make sure that people are not filming you when you are making these plans 😂

In the first video you can hear the Venezuelan opposition talking about using gasoline and making Molotov cocktails literally just minutes before the aid convoy was set on fire.

[video at: https://www.facebook.com/JornalTrinc...3321632458399/ ]

“Gas has arrived!” can be heard in this video moments before some aid trucks were burned. Of course the media blamed Maduro.

[video at: https://www.facebook.com/JornalTrinc...7733709991736/ ]

This video, it is straight forward – you can see the opposition prepare Molotov cocktails – the same Molotov cocktails used to set the aid trucks on fire.

In the photo you can even see where the Venezuelan forces are located (circled in green) and where the cockroaches are (circled in blue).

These idiots cannot even make a hoax correctly but they want to remove an entire elected government from power?

This comes as part of a larger campaign to create justifications for the invasion of the oil-rich Latin American country.

Days ago, opposition figures began spreading fake news that up to 10 indigenous Venezuelans were shot at by Venezuela’s security forces and were rushed into Brazil to be treated in a hospital. But? No evidence has emerged of this. No photos. No hospital documents. No official announcements from the Brazilian government who are staunchly against the Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution.

Although the aggression continues, the fake President has not secured any power in Venezuela. The military remains staunchly loyal to Maduro with only 5 recorded defections so far, 3 regular soldiers and 2 superiors who are not in direct control of any units. All governmental ministries have remained loyal. Overwhelming majority of Ambassadors have remained loyal. The majority of the international community recognizes Maduro as president. With this, the only thing [which] can help ‘save’ this coup-attempt is a direct military invasion of Venezuela. For everybody’s sake, we hope to never see a Vietnam 2.0.

[Hervé]

‘They attacked civilians, they are not heroes’: Journalist recounts trampling by Venezuela defectors

RT
Published time: 24 Feb, 2019 17:30 Edited time: 24 Feb, 2019 17:43
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Nicole Kramm © Facebook

In one of the most violent incidents in a day full of them, camerawoman Nicole Kramm was inches away from two hijacked army vehicles as they sped through a crowded border crossing between Venezuela and Colombia.

The three men inside were among the military personnel who defected from the government side on Saturday.

(click on picture to watch video on twitter)

redfish @redfishstream

This video filmed by Chilean journalist Nicole Kramm shows the moment she was injured as Venezuelan opposition supporters rammed armoured vehicles through the border with Colombia. Nicole has been working for redfish in #Venezuela.

7:05 PM - Feb 24, 2019

In the Western media they were treated as courageous augurs of the imminent collapse of the Nicolas Maduro regime. To Kramm, who is Chilean, they are anything but.

This was an attack on civilians. I can’t believe they are being treated as heroes. If I didn’t run, and was 15 centimetres closer, I would not be here to tell you this

Kramm said this from the hospital hours after her ordeal, in an interview posted on Twitter.

(click on picture to watch video on twitter)

AFP news agency ✔ @AFP

VIDEO: Watch as three Venezuelan troops use their jeep to smash through a security barrier, on the Simon Bolivar bridge, as they desert to neighbouring Colombia

5:23 PM - Feb 23, 2019

Western opposition backers knowingly added fuel to an already intense internal standoff in the South American state with their promise to deliver unsolicited humanitarian aid at the Colombian border.

They knew that Caracas would not open the border to let in the trucks, which they called a stunt, provocation, or worse, an attempt to smuggle weapons into the country.

The Simon Bolivar Bridge near the town of Urena on the Venezuelan side was one of three proximate crossings through which the transports were reported to be heading.

From Saturday morning, hundreds gathered at the flashpoint – Colombian and Venezuelan troops, opposition and pro-government activists.

Also journalists, among them Kramm, who is a freelancer covering the conflict for RT’s project Redfish, and Mexican media.

(click on picture to watch video on twitter)

PIENSA.PRENSA @PiensaPrensa

Ahora | Relato de la fotoperiodista chilena Nicole Kramm, joven herida en la frontera entre Venezuela/Colombia.
Fue impactada por 2 tanquetas con 4 desertores en su interior

10:36 PM - Feb 23, 2019

She had seen slogans shouted, abortive attempts to penetrate the cordon, police lining up in formation, and tear gas deployed.

But the most terrifying moment was captured on camera, as two white “tanquetas” covering most of the width of the two-lane road hurtled at full speed towards the checkpoint.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vQhGtKkw5Rs

In front of them the crowd – supporters, opponents and bystanders – scatter as best they can into the barriers. In the next snippet of video, another victim emerges screaming, face covered in blood.

Kramm’s own pained expression is seen in another glimpse of the shaky video as panic breaks out.

She is taken to hospital with a concussion and a leg injury.

“I got scared and cried because I could not feel my legs,” she wrote on Facebook on Monday.

“But the pain passes, and I love you, and feel your affection.”

Redfish 5 hours ago

The Venezuelan opposition members who rammed armoured vehicles into civilians on the Colombian border yesterday nearly killed Nicole Kramm - the lead camerawoman for redfish's work in #Venezuela. Her leg was injured but Nicole says she is ok and will continue working.

She told her employers she plans to return to work as soon as she can.

Meanwhile, the men who nearly killed her got out and calmly walked to the other side, holding their weapons aloft, and were warmly welcomed by the Colombians.

Juan Guaido, near the same border, said they must not be “treated as deserters, but those who put themselves on the side of the people and the constitution.”

But for all the lofty words, they do not conceal that almost as many people were injured in Venezuela on Saturday alone. As the conflict only gathers in intensity, what is less clear is the human cost of revolutionary aspirations, and who will pay it.

Related:
Horrifying VIDEOS show RAMMING at Simon Bolivar bridge in Venezuela

[Dennis Leahy]

Article:
Psychopathic US Senator Openly Calls For Maduro To Suffer Gaddafi’s Fate

Influential US Senator and 2016 presidential candidate Marco Rubio has tweeted a blatant death threat and incitement of violence against Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. As of this writing the post has 13 thousand shares and counting.The tweet consists of a “before” and “after” photo of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who in 2011 was mutilated to death in the streets following a US-led NATO intervention in Libya which was launched on false humanitarian pretexts. The first photo depicts Gaddafi alive and confident with a smile on his face, the second depicts him covered in blood following his capture by a militia group minutes before his death.


...(click title for full article)...

[Hervé]

WaPo Quietly Deletes Branson's Venezuela Concert From Article After 'Fake' Attendance Figures Exposed

by Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/25/2019 - 03:30

The Washington Post has stealth-edited all mention of Richard Branson's Venezuela aid concert in Cucuta, Colombia, after the paper originally claimed that the event "drew a crowd of more than 200,000 people Friday."

Branson hoped to attract 250,000 people to the concert and raise $100 million to "buy food and medicine for Venezuelans suffering widespread shortages."

The original version of the article, written by WaPo's South American bureau chief Anthony Faiola and two other journalists, can still be seen at the Mercury News, which aggregated it before the changes were made (including a headline change).

The attention on Saturday remained immediately focused on the single largest staging ground for aid in Cucuta, Colombia — where a massive benefit concert hosted by British billionaire Richard Branson drew a crowd of more than 200,000 people Friday. -WaPo via the Mercury News

It can also be seen in a current Google search for the article:

A second version of the article mentions Branson, but eliminates the 200,000 figure:

"A convoy of 14 trucks bearing 280 tons of aid was being prepped near a warehouse loading dock here in Cucutá, where thousands of volunteers had camped overnight following a massive benefit concert for Venezuela put on by British billionaire Richard Branson."

And the most recent version of the article has no mention of Branson or his concert

Why the change of heart?
A Saturday analysis by Moon of Alabama revealed that WaPo's 200,000 figure was Fake News.

"200,000 people?" asks MOA.

Source


Source


Source MOA notes that RT correspondent "Dan Cohen was in the VIP area in front of the stage"

Here's where the Post's 200,000 claim is destroyed. MOA used Google Maps to check the size of the concert area and performs a bit of math:

The stage was build at the top right across both roadways with its front towards the southwest. There was room for a few hundred VIP and reporters right in front of it. The field where the plebs were kept away lies between the north to south treeline at the right and the north to south ditch with the two single trees. According to the Google map scale the field's northern edge is some 125 meters wide. The crowd was standing at the northern end of the field at a depth of about 50 meters. The density of the static crowd was low to medium with on average 2 to 3 people per square meter.

125m * 50m = 6,250 m2 * 2.5 people/m2 = 15,625 people One may generously add a count of one or two thousand for the people mingling around in the back of the public area. In total there may have been up to 18,000, but certainly no more than 20,000 people at the concert.
-Moon of Alabama

In short, Fake News.

========================================

BTW, that bridge couldn't ever be closed... simply because it never got to be opened in the first place... Colombia having defaulted on its share of the construction costs.