Turmoil in Venezuela [Archive] - Page 2 - The Project Avalon Community Forum

Hervé

7th February 2019, 12:57

...

... when power and control is wrestled out of empaths' hands by the top dog psychopath... one gets the current "World Order":

For an idea on the “big” picture…

Below are excerpts from the work of whistle blower Sue Ann Arrigo (http://pauljackson.us/sue_arrigo/).

These give the blue print for what’s happening currently to this planet on the 3D level

Here is how the implemented strategy has worked in the past:

Rothschilds/John D. Rockefeller, Sr. funded the Bolshevik Revolution

Per his writings in the Archives, John D. Rockefeller helped fund the Bolshevik Revolution to get the wealth of the Czars, the labor of the Russian people, and much the Southern Oil fields in Russia. That wealth changed its name from Czarist, to Russian Government owned. Ignore the names, what happened to it? Did the people of Russia get it? No. The Rockefeller Archives show that he built a private army in Russia, much like the Brown Shirt army later. His accountant said that for each 2 cents that he spent to build that Army he got a dollar back. That Army was not staying up late to knit socks to sell. They were beating people up and committing assassinations, massacres, and mayhem to terrorize the populace into submission. And he was bribing officials to get what he wanted. He was apparently famous for that in the US as well. See www.reformation.org/rockefeller-bribery.html (http://www.reformation.org/rockefeller-bribery.html) .

[...] the Rockefellers charged about 18% interest on the money that they loaned Lenin for the Revolution. The way that agreement was set up made all of the loot that Lenin could seize in Russia, the Rockefellers/Rothschilds.

[…]That meant that Lenin and Stalin could never get out of debt unless they could work people nearly to death to produce the goods Rockefeller/Rothschilds wanted. People thought that the ridiculous factory quotas the Russians tried to accomplish were the result of communism. That was not what I thought after reading the Archives. The Rockefellers were setting the quotas and delighting in the profits. They also delighted in giving the Russians quotas they could not meet as a way of humiliating them.

[…] I sent him [Gorbachev] copies from the Archives of documents that showed those policies had been forced upon Stalin by Rockefeller. While the people of Russia starved, Rockefeller was also insisting that Stalin sell him the grain at the price and amounts previously agreed to. But Rockefeller did not need that grain. And Rockefeller was, to a large extent, responsible for the bad policies that caused the poor crop yields and meant that selling that same amount of grain overseas ensured famine. It appeared to be a deliberate attempt, not just to get grain cheaply, but to starve people. The private journals of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. confirmed that. The Rockefeller Family seemed obsessed by the desire to kill people off, including by starvation. The Rockefellers have long backed population control measures fairly publicly. That was not a secret, nor their funding of ‘eugenics’ research’. See http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/omegafile29.htm (http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/omegafile29.htm) , http://www.eugenics-watch.com/eugbook/,euod_ch1.html (http://www.eugenics-watch.com/eugbook/euod_ch1.html) , http://illuminati-news.com/nazi-california.htm (http://illuminati-news.com/nazi-california.htm). But, the behind the scenes maneuvers on how they were committing those Crimes Against Humanity were secret. To them Communism was a lovely excuse to steal the wealth of the rich Russians and then kill off the poor who were not working in their factories. The factories and the oil fields had the name of the Soviet Union on them, as if they belong to the Russian Govt.. But an examination of the chain of command structure and the flow of money made it look like the Rockefellers et al were already well on their way to being Kings of the World.

Let me give you an example of that so you can understand how this system worked in practice.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., wanted to crash prices in South America of a type of goods to force his competitors into closing. If I remember correctly, the country was Argentina and the goods were stainless steel cookware--pots and pans, bowls, and cutlery. They were items peasants had to buy to live. They were also heavy and it made absolutely no sense to ship them from Russia since they were already made in adequate quantities by factories in that country. But they were not Rockefeller’s factories so a part of the markets’ share of money was not going to them. That was an anathema to John. D., Jr. He wanted to own everything and everyone, or kill them.

So, he wrote a letter to Stalin and told him how much and what kind of each item he wanted. It was a huge order, perhaps several Latin American countries worth. Rockefeller was going to dropped the prices of the goods to drive the Latin American factories out of business. Then he would buy them cheaply. Having a monopoly he would then raise the price of the goods to steal even more from the peasants. His journal shows that he intended to cause their children to starve, if at all possible. It was not an unintended consequence of his business practices. I saw instances in which he was willing to lose money to make others starve. It was really quite sad to read about the life of a man who was so desperately unhappy that this was what it took to distract him from that fact.

[...]

Stalin got the order and wrote back saying that he could not meet those deadlines in 2 months time. Rockefeller wrote back saying he had to ‘or else’.

I wanted to know what the “or else” was.

Later I came across invoices for the guards of Stalin which Rockefeller was paying. They were not just regulars, they were a special outfit chosen by Rockefeller. They were not ethnically the same as Stalin. It appeared that they had been chosen by Rockefeller to have no qualms about killing Stalin, if ordered to do so. The head of them was writing reports on Stalin’s activities to John D. more often than Stalin was writing to John D. After looking into it even further than I have said, I concluded that John D.’s threat to kill Stalin was a credible one.

Stalin was humiliated in more ways that one by trying to fill that order in time. He did not succeed, as hard and as desperately as he tried. He was a week late. Furthermore, this was during the height of the German attack on Russia, about a month before the battle of Stalingrad when the order was completed. It meant that steel and railway transport that would have gone into making of rifles did not. Russian soldiers went into the battle of Stalingrad, Stalin’s namesake, with only about 35% of them carrying a rifle! They had to rush forward into battle defenselessly or be shot in the back. Only after one of their buddies got killed could they pick up a fallen weapon to defend themselves. That caused a huge rift among them which they could not solve. It was designed to destroy their team spirit and turned them against each other.

The Battle of Stalingard was almost a defeat for the Russia people because of what John D. did. His journal showed that he intended for the battle to be a Russian defeat and allow him to spread the war all across Russia. He agonized on the pages of his journal about whether his timing was right and the order big enough. He wanted the fighting to continue all across Russia and not just lead to a Russian capitulation. He wanted to destroy all the shop keepers and small enterprises that had not yet been nationalized and brought under his control. His journal said that he cried at his loses when the Russians bravely managed to force the Germans to retreat. But he did not call them brave in his journal and I will not repeat the derogatory phrases. Skull and Bones calls people not in it Barbarians, will they help the Rockefellers plan and execute mass murders, such as at Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. It is clear that they have some problems in their thinking.

[…]

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

There... the blue print for the "Economic Hitmen" and the outsourcing of any and all significant domestic industries to sweatshops worldwide so they could remain "competitive" while getting rid of any social gains of the past by blaming them to be hindrances to "competition" and to the survival of "industries" in a "boarder-less" world.

The world needs to start wearing their "Yellow Vests."

Related:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?105808-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1273242&viewfull=1#post1273242

Tintin

7th February 2019, 14:34

Noam Chomsky, here, in a lecture recorded in March 1990 provides some historical antecedents.

It's a shade under 10 minutes long and he does provide good examples here - worth listening to in its entirety - and with poignant observations made at around 05:20.

Note that USAID were selected as a 'neutral agency' by the US government to provide humanitarian aid.

Propaganda Terms in the Media and What They Mean - Noam Chomsky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmoXze-Higc

guayabal

7th February 2019, 16:25

Venezuelans trying to stop militaries:

MDLXsmryaoU

The whole situation makes you realize the importance of the 2nd amendment.

Hervé

7th February 2019, 16:34

...

Food for a bird's view of the situation:

Saker interview with Michael Hudson on Venezuela, February 7, 2019 (http://thesaker.is/saker-interview-with-michael-hudson-on-venezuela-february-7-2019/)

The Saker

February 06, 2019

[This interview was made for the Unz review (http://www.unz.com/tsaker/saker-interview-with-michael-hudson-on-venezuela/)]

Introduction: There is a great deal of controversy about the true shape of the Venezuelan economy and whether Hugo Chavez’ and Nicholas Maduro’s reform and policies were crucial for the people of Venezuela or whether they were completely misguided and precipitated the current crises. Anybody and everybody seems to have very strong held views about this. But I don’t simply because I lack the expertise to have any such opinions. So I decided to ask one of the most respected independent economists out there, Michael Hudson, for whom I have immense respect and whose analyses (including those he co-authored with Paul Craig Roberts (https://www.unz.com/proberts/will-russia-reject-neoliberalism/)) seem to be the most credible and honest ones you can find. In fact, Paul Craig Roberts considers Hudson the “best economist in the world (http://prn.fm/paul-craig-roberts-why-michael-hudson-is-the-worlds-best-economist/)“!

I am deeply grateful to Michael for his replies which, I hope, will contribute to a honest and objective understanding of what really is taking place in Venezuela.

The Saker

---------------------------------------------------

The Saker: Could you summarize the state of Venezuela’s economy when Chavez came to power?

Michael Hudson: Venezuela was an oil monoculture. Its export revenue was spent largely on importing food and other necessities that it could have produced at home. Its trade was largely with the United States. So despite its oil wealth, it ran up foreign debt.

From the outset, U.S. oil companies have feared that Venezuela might someday use its oil revenues to benefit its overall population instead of letting the U.S. oil industry and its local comprador aristocracy siphon off its wealth. So the oil industry – backed by U.S. diplomacy – held Venezuela hostage in two ways.

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Venezuelan-oil-reserves-300x300.jpg

First of all, oil refineries were not built in Venezuela, but in Trinidad and in the southern U.S. Gulf Coast states. This enabled U.S. oil companies – or the U.S. Government – to leave Venezuela without a means of “going it alone” and pursuing an independent policy with its oil, as it needed to have this oil refined. It doesn’t help to have oil reserves if you are unable to get this oil refined so as to be usable.

Second, Venezuela’s central bankers were persuaded to pledge their oil reserves and all assets of the state oil sector (including Citgo) as collateral for its foreign debt. This meant that if Venezuela defaulted (or was forced into default by U.S. banks refusing to make timely payment on its foreign debt), bondholders and U.S. oil majors would be in a legal position to take possession of Venezuelan oil assets.

These pro-U.S. policies made Venezuela a typically polarized Latin American oligarchy. Despite being nominally rich in oil revenue, its wealth was concentrated in the hands of a pro-U.S. oligarchy that let its domestic development be steered by the World Bank and IMF. The indigenous population, especially its rural racial minority as well as the urban underclass, was excluded from sharing in the country’s oil wealth. The oligarchy’s arrogant refusal to share the wealth, or even to make Venezuela self-sufficient in essentials, made the election of Hugo Chavez a natural outcome.

The Saker: Could you outline the various reforms and changes introduced by Hugo Chavez? What did he do right, and what did he do wrong?

Michael Hudson: Chavez sought to restore a mixed economy to Venezuela, using its government revenue – mainly from oil, of course – to develop infrastructure and domestic spending on health care, education, employment to raise living standards and productivity for his electoral constituency.

What he was unable to do was to clean up the embezzlement and built-in rake-off of income from the oil sector. And he was unable to stem the capital flight of the oligarchy, taking its wealth and moving it abroad – while running away themselves.
This was not “wrong”. It merely takes a long time to change an economy’s disruption – while the U.S. is using sanctions and “dirty tricks” to stop that process.

The Saker: What are, in your opinion, the causes of the current economic crisis in Venezuela – is it primarily due to mistakes by Chavez and Maduro or is the main cause US sabotage, subversion and sanctions?

Michael Hudson: There is no way that’s Chavez and Maduro could have pursued a pro-Venezuelan policy aimed at achieving economic independence without inciting fury, subversion and sanctions from the United States. American foreign policy remains as focused on oil as it was when it invaded Iraq under Dick Cheney’s regime. U.S. policy is to treat Venezuela as an extension of the U.S. economy, running a trade surplus in oil to spend in the United States or transfer its savings to U.S. banks.

By imposing sanctions that prevent Venezuela from gaining access to its U.S. bank deposits and the assets of its state-owned Citco, the United States is making it impossible for Venezuela to pay its foreign debt. This is forcing it into default, which U.S. diplomats hope to use as an excuse to foreclose on Venezuela’s oil resources and seize its foreign assets much as Paul Singer hedge fund sought to do with Argentina’s foreign assets.

Just as U.S. policy under Kissinger was to make Chile’s “economy scream,” so the U.S. is following the same path against Venezuela. It is using that country as a “demonstration effect” to warn other countries not to act in their self-interest in any way that prevents their economic surplus from being siphoned off by U.S. investors.

The Saker: What in your opinion should Maduro do next (assuming he stays in power and the USA does not overthrow him) to rescue the Venezuelan economy?

Michael Hudson: I cannot think of anything that President Maduro can do that he is not doing. At best, he can seek foreign support – and demonstrate to the world the need for an alternative international financial and economic system.

He already has begun to do this by trying to withdraw Venezuela’s gold from the Bank of England and Federal Reserve. This is turning into “asymmetrical warfare,” threatening what to de-sanctify the dollar standard in international finance. The refusal of England and the United States to grant an elected government control of its foreign assets demonstrates to the entire world that U.S. diplomats and courts alone can and will control foreign countries as an extension of U.S. nationalism.

The price of the U.S. economic attack on Venezuela is thus to fracture the global monetary system. Maduro’s defensive move is showing other countries the need to protect themselves from becoming “another Venezuela” by finding a new safe haven and paying agent for their gold, foreign exchange reserves and foreign debt financing, away from the dollar, sterling and euro areas.

The only way that Maduro can fight successfully is on the institutional level, upping the ante to move “outside the box.” His plan – and of course it is a longer-term plan – is to help catalyze a new international economic order independent of the U.S. dollar standard. It will work in the short run only if the United States believes that it can emerge from this fight as an honest financial broker, honest banking system and supporter of democratically elected regimes. The Trump administration is destroying illusion more thoroughly than any anti-imperialist critic or economic rival could do!

Over the longer run, Maduro also must develop Venezuelan agriculture, along much the same lines that the United States protected and developed its agriculture under the New Deal legislation of the 1930s – rural extension services, rural credit, seed advice, state marketing organizations for crop purchase and supply of mechanization, and the same kind of price supports that the United States has long used to subsidize domestic farm investment to increase productivity.

The Saker: What about the plan to introduce a oil-based crypto currency? Will that be an effective alternative to the dying Venezuelan Bolivar?

Michael Hudson: Only a national government can issue a currency. A “crypto” currency tied to the price of oil would become a hedging vehicle, prone to manipulation and price swings by forward sellers and buyers. A national currency must be based on the ability to tax, and Venezuela’s main tax source is oil revenue, which is being blocked from the United States. So Venezuela’s position is like that of the German mark coming out of its hyperinflation of the early 1920s. The only solution involves balance-of-payments support. It looks like the only such support will come from outside the dollar sphere.

The solution to any hyperinflation must be negotiated diplomatically and be supported by other governments. My history of international trade and financial theory, Trade, Develpoment and Foreign Debt, describes the German reparations problem and how its hyperinflation was solved by the Rentenmark.

Venezuela’s economic-rent tax would fall on oil, and luxury real estate sites, as well as monopoly prices, and on high incomes (mainly financial and monopoly income). This requires a logic to frame such tax and monetary policy. I have tried to explain how to achieve monetary and hence political independence for the past half-century. China is applying such policy most effectively. It is able to do so because it is a large and self-sufficient economy in essentials, running a large enough export surplus to pay for its food imports. Venezuela is in no such position. That is why it is looking to China for support at this time.

The Saker: How much assistance do China, Russia and Iran provide and how much can they do to help? Do you think that these three countries together can help counter-act US sabotage, subversion and sanctions?

Michael Hudson: None of these countries have a current capacity to refine Venezuelan oil. This makes it difficult for them to take payment in Venezuelan oil. Only a long-term supply contract (paid for in advance) would be workable. And even in that case, what would China and Russia do if the United States simply grabbed their property in Venezuela, or refused to let Russia’s oil company take possession of Citco? In that case, the only response would be to seize U.S. investments in their own country as compensation.

At least China and Russia can provide an alternative bank clearing mechanism to SWIFT, so that Venezuela can by pass the U.S. financial system and keep its assets from being grabbed at will by U.S. authorities or bondholders. And of course, they can provide safe-keeping for however much of Venezuela’s gold it can get back from New York and London.

Looking ahead, therefore, China, Russia, Iran and other countries need to set up a new international court to adjudicate the coming diplomatic crisis and its financial and military consequences. Such a court – and its associated international bank as an alternative to the U.S.-controlled IMF and World Bank – needs a clear ideology to frame a set of principles of nationhood and international rights with power to implement and enforce its judgments.

This would confront U.S. financial strategists with a choice: if they continue to treat the IMF, World Bank, ITO and NATO as extensions of increasingly aggressive U.S. foreign policy, they will risk isolating the United States. Europe will have to choose whether to remain a U.S. economic and military satellite, or to throw in its lot with Eurasia.

However, Daniel Yergin reports in the Wall Street Journal (Feb. 7) that China is trying to hedge its bets by opening a back-door negotiation with Guaido’s group, apparently to get the same deal that it has negotiated with Maduro’s government. But any such deal seems unlikely to be honored in practice, given U.S. animosity toward China and Guaido’s total reliance on U.S. covert support.

The Saker: Venezuela kept a lot of its gold in the UK and money in the USA. How could Chavez and Maduro trust these countries or did they not have another choice? Are there viable alternatives to New York and London or are they still the “only game in town” for the world’s central banks?

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Venezuelan-elections-300x300.jpg

Michael Hudson: There was never real trust in the Bank of England or Federal Reserve, but it seemed unthinkable that they would refuse to permit an official depositor from withdrawing its own gold. The usual motto is “Trust but verify.” But the unwillingness (or inability) of the Bank of England to verify means that the formerly unthinkable has now arrived: Have these central banks sold this gold forward in the post-London Gold Pool and its successor commodity markets in their attempt to keep down the price so as to maintain the appearance of a solvent U.S. dollar standard.

Paul Craig Roberts has described how this system works. There are forward markets for currencies, stocks and bonds. The Federal Reserve can offer to buy a stock in three months at, say, 10% over the current price. Speculators will by the stock, bidding up the price, so as to take advantage of “the market’s” promise to buy the stock. So by the time three months have passed, the price will have risen. That is largely how the U.S. “Plunge Protection Team” has supported the U.S. stock market.

The system works in reverse to hold down gold prices. The central banks holding gold can get together and offer to sell gold at a low price in three months. “The market” will realize that with low-priced gold being sold, there’s no point in buying more gold and bidding its price up. So the forward-settlement market shapes today’s market.

The question is, have gold buyers (such as the Russian and Chinese government) bought so much gold that the U.S. Fed and the Bank of England have actually had to “make good” on their forward sales, and steadily depleted their gold? In this case, they would have been “living for the moment,” keeping down gold prices for as long as they could, knowing that once the world returns to the pre-1971 gold-exchange standard for intergovernmental balance-of-payments deficits, the U.S. will run out of gold and be unable to maintain its overseas military spending (not to mention its trade deficit and foreign disinvestment in the U.S. stock and bond markets). My book on Super-Imperialism explains why running out of gold forced the Vietnam War to an end. The same logic would apply today to America’s vast network of military bases throughout the world.

Refusal of England and the U.S. to pay Venezuela means that other countries means that foreign official gold reserves can be held hostage to U.S. foreign policy, and even to judgments by U.S. courts to award this gold to foreign creditors or to whoever might bring a lawsuit under U.S. law against these countries.

This hostage-taking now makes it urgent for other countries to develop a viable alternative, especially as the world de-dedollarizes and a gold-exchange standard remains the only way of constraining the military-induced balance of payments deficit of the United States or any other country mounting a military attack. A military empire is very expensive – and gold is a “peaceful” constraint on military-induced payments deficits. (I spell out the details in my Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1972), updated in German as Finanzimperium (2017).

The U.S. has overplayed its hand in destroying the foundation of the dollar-centered global financial order. That order has enabled the United States to be “the exceptional nation” able to run balance-of-payments deficits and foreign debt that it has no intention (or ability) to pay, claiming that the dollars thrown off by its foreign military spending “supply” other countries with their central bank reserves (held in the form of loans to the U.S. Treasury – Treasury bonds and bills – to finance the U.S. budget deficit and its military spending, as well as the largely military U.S. balance-of-payments deficit.

Given the fact that the EU is acting as a branch of NATO and the U.S. banking system, that alternative would have to be associated with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the gold would have to be kept in Russia and/or China.

The Saker: What can other Latin American countries such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba and, maybe, Uruguay and Mexico do to help Venezuela?

Michael Hudson: The best thing neighboring Latin American countries can do is to join in creating a vehicle to promote de-dollarization and, with it, an international institution to oversee the writedown of debts that are beyond the ability of countries to pay without imposing austerity and thereby destroying their economies.

An alternative also is needed to the World Bank that would make loans in domestic currency, above all to subsidize investment in domestic food production so as to protect the economy against foreign food-sanctions – the equivalent of a military siege to force surrender by imposing famine conditions. This World Bank for Economic Acceleration would put the development of self-reliance for its members first, instead of promoting export competition while loading borrowers down with foreign debt that would make them prone to the kind of financial blackmail that Venezuela is experiencing.

Being a Roman Catholic country, Venezuela might ask for papal support for a debt write-down and an international institution to oversee the ability to pay by debtor countries without imposing austerity, emigration, depopulation and forced privatization of the public domain.

Two international principles are needed. First, no country should be obliged to pay foreign debt in a currency (such as the dollar or its satellites) whose banking system acts to prevents payment.

Second, no country should be obliged to pay foreign debt at the price of losing its domestic autonomy as a state: the right to determine its own foreign policy, to tax and to create its own money, and to be free of having to privatize its public assets to pay foreign creditors. Any such debt is a “bad loan” reflecting the creditor’s own irresponsibility or, even worse, pernicious asset grab in a foreclosure that was the whole point of the loan.

The Saker: Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my questions!

-----------------------------------------

Related:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?105808-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1273222&viewfull=1#post1273222

perolator

7th February 2019, 18:03

In fact, Paul Craig Roberts considers Hudson the “best economist in the world (http://prn.fm/paul-craig-roberts-why-michael-hudson-is-the-worlds-best-economist/)“![/I]

The Saker: Could you summarize the state of Venezuela’s economy when Chavez came to power?

Michael Hudson: Venezuela was an oil monoculture. Its export revenue was spent largely on importing food and other necessities that it could have produced at home. Its trade was largely with the United States. So despite its oil wealth, it ran up foreign debt.

Wrong.
Oil was a large percentage of the country GDP. But the country was an Aluminium and Iron exporter. Not just that, it exported coffee, rice, aloe, pineapples, cocoa and bananas. Internal market was satisfied fully. Yes, trade was largely with the U.S. but the foreign debt was a consequence of corruption and populist practices. When Chavez & the Castros took hold of Venezuela's resources, they ensured oil was closer to 95% of revenues and destroyed the rest of exports. When chavistas got engaged in illegal drug distribution and world oil price declined, they neglected oil production. Therefore, the industry is exporting less and less oil. Refineries are damaged, plagued with odd maintenance and accidents.

From the outset, U.S. oil companies have feared that Venezuela might someday use its oil revenues to benefit its overall population instead of letting the U.S. oil industry and its local comprador aristocracy siphon off its wealth. So the oil industry – backed by U.S. diplomacy – held Venezuela hostage in two ways.

Wrong.
Oil revenues *never have been* used to benefit overall population of my country, ever. Is this an economist?

First of all, oil refineries were not built in Venezuela, but in Trinidad and in the southern U.S. Gulf Coast states. This enabled U.S. oil companies – or the U.S. Government – to leave Venezuela without a means of “going it alone” and pursuing an independent policy with its oil, as it needed to have this oil refined. It doesn’t help to have oil reserves if you are unable to get this oil refined so as to be usable.

Wrong.
The Paraguaná Refinery Complex is a crude oil refinery complex in Venezuela. It is considered the world's third largest refinery complex (according to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_refineries#Venezuela), is the second largest). It has 3 refineries: Amuay, Cardón and Bajo Grande. There is the Jose Cryogenic Complex in eastern Venezuela, one of the biggest Cryogenic complexes in the world... The El Palito refinery is a large complex in Carabobo shoreline... I almost forgot the Puerto La Cruz refinery. FYI, there are TWO Venezuelan refineries in the U.S. (!) and another one (Isla) in Curaçao.

How can it be possible this man is "the best" economist ever?

I can go on and on... ad infinitum.

Hervé

7th February 2019, 20:38

Wikileaks doc reveals US military uses IMF, World Bank as "unconventional" weapons (https://www.mintpressnews.com/leaked-wikileaks-doc-reveals-how-us-military-uses-of-imf-world-bank-as-unconventional-weapons/254708/)

Whitney Webb MintPress News (https://www.mintpressnews.com/leaked-wikileaks-doc-reveals-how-us-military-uses-of-imf-world-bank-as-unconventional-weapons/254708/)
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 18:59 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509234/large/AP_18134576691411_edited.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509234/full/AP_18134576691411_edited.jpg)

A masked demonstrator wearing a detail of a 100 U.S. dollar bill protests the government's plans to make a deal with the IMF and increase the price of utilities such as gas and electricity in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 14, 2018. © Natacha Pisarenko

In a leaked military manual on "unconventional warfare" recently highlighted by WikiLeaks, the U.S. Army states that major global financial institutions - such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - are used as unconventional, financial "weapons in times of conflict up to and including large-scale general war," as well as in leveraging "the policies and cooperation of state governments."

The document (https://file.wikileaks.org/file/us-fm3-05-130.pdf), officially titled "Field Manual (FM) 3-05.130, Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare" and originally written in September 2008, was recently highlighted (https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1089985249034027009) by WikiLeaks on Twitter in light of recent events in Venezuela as well as the years-long, U.S.-led economic siege of that country through sanctions and other means of economic warfare. Though the document has generated new interest in recent days, it had originally been released (https://wikileaks.org/wiki/US_Army_Special_Operations_Forces_Unconventional_Warfare,_FM3-05.130,_30_Sep_2008) by WikiLeaks in December 2008 and has been described as the military's "regime change handbook."

View image on Twitter
(https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1089985249034027009/photo/1)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DyBmsFnWoAEhkvP?format=jpg&name=small (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DyBmsFnWoAEhkvP.jpg:large)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/512138307870785536/Fe00yVS2_normal.png (https://twitter.com/wikileaks) WikiLeaks ✔ @wikileaks
(https://twitter.com/wikileaks)
What's happening with Venezuela? @WikiLeaks (https://twitter.com/wikileaks)' publication of US coup manual FM3-05.130, Unconventional Warfare [UW], provides insight

DOS=Department of State
IC=Intelligence Community
UWOA=UW operations area
ARSOF=US Army Special Operations Forceshttps://file.wikileaks.org/file/us-fm3-05-130.pdf … (https://t.co/8q4oQfsMzY)

1,837 (https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1089985249034027009)
10:35 PM - Jan 28, 2019 (https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1089985249034027009)WikiLeaks' recent tweets on the subject drew attention to a single section of the 248-page-long document, titled "Financial Instrument of U.S. National Power and Unconventional Warfare." This section in particular notes that the U.S. government applies "unilateral and indirect financial power through persuasive influence to international and domestic financial institutions regarding availability and terms of loans, grants, or other financial assistance to foreign state and nonstate actors," and specifically names the World Bank, IMF and The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as well as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), as "U.S. diplomatic-financial venues to accomplish" such goals.

The manual also touts the "state manipulation of tax and interest rates" along with other "legal and bureaucratic measures" to "open, modify or close financial flows" and further states that the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) - which oversees U.S. sanctions on other nations, like Venezuela - "has a long history of conducting economic warfare valuable to any ARSOF [Army Special Operations Forces] UW [Unconventional Warfare] campaign."

This section of the manual goes on to note that these financial weapons can be used by the U.S. military to create "financial incentives or disincentives to persuade adversaries, allies and surrogates to modify their behavior at the theater strategic, operational, and tactical levels" and that such unconventional warfare campaigns are highly coordinated with the State Department and the Intelligence Community in determining "which elements of the human terrain in UWOA [Unconventional Warfare Operations Area] are most susceptible to financial engagement."

The role of these "independent" international financial institutions as extensions of U.S. imperial power is elaborated elsewhere in the manual and several of these institutions are described in detail in an appendix to the manual titled "The Financial Instrument of National Power." Notably, the World Bank and the IMF are listed as both Financial Instruments and Diplomatic Instruments of U.S. National Power as well as integral parts of what the manual calls the "current global governance system."

Furthermore, the manual states that the U.S. military "understand[s] that properly integrated manipulation of economic power can and should be a component of UW," meaning that these weapons are a regular feature of unconventional warfare campaigns waged by the United States.

Another point of interest is that these financial weapons are largely governed by the National Security Council (NSC), which is currently headed by John Bolton. The document notes that the NSC "has primary responsibility for the integration of the economic and military instruments of national power abroad."

"Independent" but controlled
Though the unconventional warfare manual is notable for stating so openly that "independent" financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF are essentially extensions of U.S. government power, analysts have noted for decades that these institutions have consistently pushed U.S. geopolitical goals abroad.

Indeed, the myth of World Bank and IMF "independence" is quickly eroded by merely looking at the structure and funding of each institution. In the case of the World Bank, the institution is located in Washington and the organization's president has always been a U.S. citizen chosen directly (https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/unitedstates/overview#3) by the president of the United States. In the World Bank's entire history, the institution's Board of Governors has never rejected Washington's pick.

This past Monday, it was reported that President Donald Trump nominated (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-05/trump-nominates-former-bear-stearns-chief-economist-lead-world-bank) former Bear Stearns economist David Malpass to lead the World Bank. Malpass had famously failed to foresee the destruction of his former employer during the 2008 financial crisis and is likely to limit World Bank loans to China and to countries allied or allying with China, given his well-established reputation as a China hawk.

In addition to choosing its president, the U.S. is also the bank's largest shareholder (https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/unitedstates/overview#1), making it the only member nation to have veto rights. Indeed, as the leaked unconventional warfare manual notes, "As major decisions require an 85% supermajority, the United States can block any major changes" to World Bank policy or the services it offers. Furthermore, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs banker and "foreclosure king," Steve Mnuchin, functions as the World Bank's governor.

Though the IMF is different from the World Bank in several respects, such as its stated mission and focus, it too is largely dominated by U.S. government influence and funding. For instance, the IMF is also based in Washington and the U.S. is the company's largest shareholder - the largest by far, owning 17.46 percent (https://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/members.aspx) of the institution - and also pays the largest quota for the institution's maintenance, paying $164 billion (https://www.dawn.com/news/1426092) in IMF financial commitments annually. Though the U.S. does not choose the IMF's top executive, it uses its privileged position as the institution's largest funder to control IMF policy by threatening to withhold (https://www.dawn.com/news/1426092) its IMF funding if the institution does not abide by Washington's demands.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509237/large/AP_200219389258_edited.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509237/full/AP_200219389258_edited.jpg)
© Protestors hold an effigy of Captain America with a photo of IMF Director Christine Lagarde during meetings by the IMF and World Bank in Lima, Peru, Oct. 9, 2015. Geraldo Caso Bizama / Associated Press

As a consequence of the lopsided influence of the U.S. on these institutions' behavior, these organizations have used their loans and grants to "trap" nations in debt and have imposed "structural adjustment" programs on these debt-saddled governments that result in the mass privatization of state assets, deregulation, and austerity that routinely benefit foreign corporations over local economies. Frequently, these very institutions - by pressuring countries (http://www.globalexchange.org/resources/wbimf/oppose) to deregulate their financial sector and through corrupt dealings (https://www.mintpressnews.com/whistleblower-greek-debt-crisis-manufactured-unscrupulous-accounting/228076/) with state actors - bring about the very economic problems that they then swoop in to "fix."

Guaidó hits up IMF
Given the close relationship between the U.S. government and these international financial institutions, it should come as little surprise that - in Venezuela - the U.S.-backed "interim president" Juan Guaidó - has already requested (https://www.mintpressnews.com/venezuela-us-backed-coup-leader-immediately-targets-state-oil-company-requests-imf-money/254282/) IMF funds, and thus IMF-controlled debt, to fund his parallel government.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509239/large/AP_19026625258807_edited.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509239/full/AP_19026625258807_edited.jpg)
Venezuela’s self-declared president Juan Guaido Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 29, 2019.© Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press

This is highly significant because it shows that top among Guaidó's objectives, in addition to privatizing Venezuela's massive oil reserves, is to again shackle the country to the U.S.-controlled debt machine.

As the Grayzone Project recently noted (https://www.mintpressnews.com/venezuela-us-backed-coup-leader-immediately-targets-state-oil-company-requests-imf-money/254282/):
Venezuela's previous elected socialist president, Hugo Chávez, broke ties with the IMF and World Bank, which he noted were "dominated by US imperialism." Instead Venezuela and other left-wing governments in Latin America worked together to co-found the Bank of the South, as a counterbalance to the IMF and World Bank." However, Venezuela is far from the only country in Latin America being targeted by these financial weapons masquerading as "independent" financial institutions. For instance, Ecuador - whose current president has sought to bring the country back into Washington's good graces - has gone so far as to conduct an "audit" of its asylum of journalist and WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange in order to win a $10 billion bailout (https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/01/04/ecuadors-moreno-prepared-to-sell-out-assange-for-imf-payoff-now-auditing-his-asylum-citizenship/) from the IMF. Ecuador granted Assange asylum in 2012 and the U.S. has fervently sought his extradition for still sealed charges ever since.

In addition, last July, the U.S. threatened Ecuador (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/health/world-health-breastfeeding-ecuador-trump.html) with "punishing trade measures" if it introduced a measure at the UN to support breastfeeding over infant formula, in a move that stunned the international community but laid bare the willingness of the U.S. government to use "economic weapons" against Latin American nations.

Beyond Ecuador, other recent targets of massive IMF and World Bank "warfare" include Argentina, which awarded the largest IMF bailout loan in history (https://www.mintpressnews.com/argentina-imf-bailout/243522/) just last year. That loan package was, unsurprisingly, heavily pushed by the U.S., according to a statement from Treasury Secretary Mnuchin released last year (https://www.wsj.com/articles/imf-executive-board-to-meet-soon-to-vote-on-argentina-bailout-1528382633). Notably, the IMF was instrumental (https://www.mintpressnews.com/argentina-imf-bailout/243522/) in causing the complete collapse of the Argentinian economy in 2001, sending a poor omen for last year's approval of the record loan package.

Though it was released over a decade ago, this "U.S. coup manual" recently highlighted by WikiLeaks serves as a salient reminder that the so-called "independence" of these financial institutions is an illusion and that they are among the many "financial weapons" regularly used by the U.S. government to bend countries to its will and even overthrow U.S.-disfavored governments.

Related:

Behind the Headlines: Confessions of an Economic Hitman: Interview with John Perkins (https://www.sott.net/article/282040-Behind-the-Headlines-Confessions-of-an-Economic-Hitman-Interview-with-John-Perkins)

More confessions of an economic hitman: This time they're coming for your democracy (https://www.sott.net/article/317418-More-confessions-of-an-economic-hitman-This-time-they-re-coming-for-your-democracy)

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Documentary) (https://www.sott.net/article/273007-The-Shock-Doctrine-The-Rise-of-Disaster-Capitalism-Documentary)

ThePythonicCow

8th February 2019, 05:25

Michael Hudson: Venezuela was an oil monoculture. Its export revenue was spent largely on importing food and other necessities that it could have produced at home. Its trade was largely with the United States. So despite its oil wealth, it ran up foreign debt.

Wrong.
I wouldn't say wrong. I would say that by "monoculture", Hudson meant mostly, not exactly 100%. I really doubt that he thought or intended to claim that Venezuela had no other exports whatsoever. Hudson is not that unrealistic.

From the outset, U.S. oil companies have feared that Venezuela might someday use its oil revenues to benefit its overall population instead of letting the U.S. oil industry and its local comprador aristocracy siphon off its wealth. So the oil industry – backed by U.S. diplomacy – held Venezuela hostage in two ways.

Wrong.
I wouldn't say wrong. Hudson did not say that Venezuela did use its revenues to benefit its population. He only said that the U.S. oil companies feared they would.

First of all, oil refineries were not built in Venezuela, but in Trinidad and in the southern U.S. Gulf Coast states. This enabled U.S. oil companies – or the U.S. Government – to leave Venezuela without a means of “going it alone” and pursuing an independent policy with its oil, as it needed to have this oil refined. It doesn’t help to have oil reserves if you are unable to get this oil refined so as to be usable.

Wrong.
The Paraguaná Refinery Complex ...
You might be right on that one ... I don't know.

How can it be possible this man is "the best" economist ever?

I can go on and on... ad infinitum.
I've been enjoying reading and listening to Michael Hudson for many years. He's damn good. But his style of speaking, and of writing, is a bit odd, and difficult to make sense of at times. It took me a year or two of sampling him before I could follow him without considerable effort.

Hervé

8th February 2019, 15:07

What the Press Hides From You About Venezuela — A Case of News-Suppression (http://thesaker.is/what-the-press-hides-from-you-about-venezuela-a-case-of-news-suppression/)

by Eric Zuesse for The Saker Blog
February 07, 2019

INTRODUCTION
This news-report is being submitted to all U.S. and allied news-media, and is being published by all honest ones, in order to inform you of crucial facts that the others — the dishonest ones, who hude such crucial facts — are hiding about Venezuela. These are facts that have received coverage only in one single British newspaper: the Independent, which published a summary account (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?105808-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1272231&viewfull=1#post1272231) of them on January 26th. That newspaper’s account will be excerpted here at the end, but first will be highlights from its topic, the official report to the U.N. General Assembly in August of last year, which has been covered-up ever since (http://web.archive.org/web/20190130200411/https://chicagoalbasolidarity.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/un-report-on-venezuela-and-ecuador-alfred-de-zayas.pdf). This is why that report’s author has now gone to the Independent, desperate to get the story out, finally, to the public:

THE COVERED-UP DOCUMENT
On 3 August 2018, the U.N.’s General Assembly received the report from the U.N.s Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, concerning his mission to Venezuela and Ecuador (http://web.archive.org/web/20190130200411/https://chicagoalbasolidarity.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/un-report-on-venezuela-and-ecuador-alfred-de-zayas.pdf). His recent travel through both countries focused on “how best to enhance the enjoyment of all human rights by the populations of both countries.” He “noted the eradication of illiteracy, free education from primary school to university, and programmes to reduce extreme poverty, provide housing to the homeless and vulnerable, phase out privilege and discrimination, and extend medical care to everyone.” He noted “that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and Ecuador, both devote around 70 per cent of their national budgets to social services.” However (and here, key paragraphs from the report are now quoted):

—

22. Observers have identified errors committed by the Chávez and Maduro Governments, noting that there are too many ideologues and too few technocrats in public administration, resulting in government policies that lack coherence and professional management and discourage domestic investment, already crippled by inefficiency and corruption, which extend to government officials, transnational corporations and entrepreneurs. Critics warn about the undue influence of the military on government and on the running of enterprises like Petróleos de Venezuela. The lack of regular, publicly available data on nutrition, epidemiology and inflation are said to complicate efforts to provide humanitarian support.

23. Meanwhile, the Attorney General, Tarek Saab, has launched a vigorous anticorruption campaign, investigating the links between Venezuelan enterprises and tax havens, contracting scams, and deals by public officials with Odebrecht. It is estimated that corruption in the oil industry has cost the Government US$ 4.8 billion. The Attorney General’s Office informed the Independent Expert of pending investigations for embezzlement and extortion against 79 officials of Petróleos de Venezuela, including 22 senior managers. The Office also pointed to the arrest of two high-level oil executives, accused of money-laundering in Andorra. The Ministry of Justice estimates corruption losses at some US$ 15 billion. Other stakeholders, in contrast, assert that anti-corruption programmes are selective and have not sufficiently targeted State institutions, including the military. …

29. … Over the past sixty years, non-conventional economic wars have been waged against Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, the Syrian Arab Republic and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in order to make their economies fail, facilitate regime change and impose a neo-liberal socioeconomic model. In order to discredit selected governments, failures in the field of human rights are maximized so as to make violent overthrow more palatable. Human rights are being “weaponized” against rivals. Yet, human rights are the heritage of every human being and should never be instrumentalized as weapons of demonization. …

30. The principles of non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign States belong to customary international law and have been reaffirmed in General Assembly resolutions, notably [a list is supplied]. …

31. In its judgment of 27 June 1986 concerning Nicaragua v. United States, the International Court of Justice quoted from resolution 2625 (XXV): “no State shall organize, assist, foment, finance, incite or tolerate subversive, terrorist or armed activities directed towards the violent overthrow of the regime of another State, or interfere in civil strife in another State”. …

36. The effects of sanctions imposed by Presidents Obama and Trump and unilateral measures by Canada and the European Union have directly and indirectly aggravated the shortages in medicines such as insulin and anti-retroviral drugs. To the extent that economic sanctions have caused delays in distribution and thus contributed to many deaths, sanctions contravene the human rights obligations of the countries imposing them.Moreover, sanctions can amount to crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. An investigation by that Court would be appropriate, but the geopolitical submissiveness of the Court may prevent this.

37. Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns with the intention of forcing them to surrender. Twenty-first century sanctions attempt to bring not just a town, but sovereign countries to their knees. A difference, perhaps, is that twenty-first century sanctions are accompanied by the manipulation of public opinion through “fake news”, aggressive public relations and a pseudo-human rights rhetoric so as to give the impression that a human rights “end” justifies the criminal means. …

39. Economic asphyxiation policies are comparable to those already practised in Chile, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua and the Syrian Arab Republic. In January 2018, Middle East correspondent of The Financial Times and The Independent, Patrick Cockburn, wrote on the sanctions affecting Syria:
There is usually a pretense that foodstuffs and medical equipment are being allowed through freely and no mention is made of the financial and other regulatory obstacles making it impossible to deliver them. An example of this is the draconian sanctions imposed on Syria by the US and EU which were meant to target President Bashar al-Assad and help remove him from power. They have wholly failed to do this, but a UN internal report leaked in 2016 shows all too convincingly the effect of the embargo in stopping the delivery of aid by international aid agencies. They cannot import the aid despite waivers because banks and commercial companies dare not risk being penalised for having anything to do with Syria. The report quotes a European doctor working in Syria as saying that “the indirect effect of sanctions … makes the import of the medical instruments and other medical supplies immensely difficult, near impossible”. In short: economic sanctions kill. …
41. Bearing in mind that Venezuelan society is polarized, what is most needed is dialogue between the Government and the opposition, and it would be a noble task on the part of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to offer his good offices for such a dialogue. Yet, opposition leaders Antonio Ledezma and Julio Borges, during a trip through Europe to denounce the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, called for further sanctions as well as a military “humanitarian intervention”. …

44. Although the situation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has not yet reached the humanitarian crisis threshold, there is hunger, malnutrition, anxiety, anguish and emigration. What is crucial is to study the causes of the crisis, including neglected factors of sanctions, sabotage, hoarding, black market activities, induced inflation and contraband in food and medicines.

45. The “crisis” in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is an economic crisis, which cannot be compared with the humanitarian crises in Gaza, Yemen, Libya, the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq, Haiti, Mali, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Somalia, or Myanmar, among others. It is significant that when, in 2017, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela requested medical aid from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the plea was rejected, because it ”is still a high-income country … and as such is not eligible”. …

46. It is pertinent to recall the situation in the years prior to the election of Hugo Chávez. 118 Corruption was ubiquitous and in 1993, President Carlos Pérez was removed because of embezzlement. The Chávez election in 1998 reflected despair with the corruption and neo-liberal policies of the 1980s and 1990s, and rejection of the gulf between the super-rich and the abject poor.

47. Participatory democracy in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, called “protagónica”, is anchored in the Constitution of 1999 and relies on frequent elections and referendums. During the mission, the Independent Expert exchanged views with the Electoral Commission and learned that in the 19 years since Chávez, 25 elections and referendums had been conducted, 4 of them observed by the Carter Center. The Independent Expert met with the representative of the Carter Center in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, who recalled Carter’s positive assessment of the electoral system. They also discussed the constitutional objections raised by the opposition to the referendum held on 30 July 2017, resulting in the creation of a Constitutional Assembly. Over 8 million Venezuelans voted in the referendum, which was accompanied by international observers, including from the Council of Electoral Specialists of Latin America.

48. An atmosphere of intimidation accompanied the mission, attempting to pressure the Independent Expert into a predetermined matrix. He received letters from NGOs asking him not to proceed because he was not the “relevant” rapporteur, and almost dictating what should be in the report. Weeks before his arrival, some called the mission a “fake investigation”. Social media insults bordered on “hate speech” and “incitement”. Mobbing before, during and after the mission bore a resemblance to the experience of two American journalists who visited the country in July 2017. Utilizing platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, critics questioned the Independent Expert’s integrity and accused him of bias, demonstrating a culture of intransigence and refusal to accept the duty of an independent expert to be neutral, objective, dispassionate and to apply his expertise free of external pressures. …

67. The Independent Expert recommends that the General Assembly: (g) Invoke article 96 of the Charter of the United Nations and refer the following questions to the International Court of Justice: Can unilateral coercive measures be compatible with international law? Can unilateral coercive measures amount to crimes against humanity when a large number of persons perish because of scarcity of food and medicines? What reparations are due to the victims of sanctions? Do sanctions and currency manipulations constitute geopolitical crimes? (h) Adopt a resolution along the lines of the resolutions on the United States embargo against Cuba, declaring the sanctions against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela contrary to international law and human rights law. …

70. The Independent Expert recommends that the International Criminal Court investigate the problem of unilateral coercive measures that cause death from malnutrition, lack of medicines and medical equipment. …

72. The Independent Expert recommends that, until the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court address the lethal outcomes of economic wars and sanctions regimes, the Permanent Peoples Tribunal, the Russell Tribunal and the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission undertake the task so as to facilitate future judicial pronouncements.

—

On January 26th, Britain’s Independent headlined “Venezuela crisis: Former UN rapporteur says US sanctions are killing citizens” (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/venezuela-us-sanctions-united-nations-oil-pdvsa-a8748201.html), and Michael Selby-Green reported that:
The first UN rapporteur to visit Venezuela for 21 years has told The Independent the US sanctions on the country are illegal and could amount to “crimes against humanity” under international law.

Former special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas, who finished his term at the UN in March, has criticized the US for engaging in “economic warfare” against Venezuela which he said is hurting the economy and killing Venezuelans.

The comments come amid worsening tensions in the country after the US and UK have backed Juan Guaido, who appointed himself “interim president” of Venezuela as hundreds of thousands marched to support him. …

The US Treasury has not responded to a request for comment on Mr de Zayas’s allegations of the effects of the sanctions programme.

US sanctions prohibit dealing in currencies issued by the Venezuelan government. They also target individuals, and stop US-based companies or people from buying and selling new debt issued by PDVSA or the government.

The US has previously defended its sanctions on Venezuela, with a senior US official saying in 2018: “The fact is that the greatest sanction on Venezuelan oil and oil production is called Nicolas Maduro, and PDVSA’s inefficiencies,” referring to the state-run oil body, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA.

Mr De Zayas’s findings are based on his late-2017 mission to the country and interviews with 12 Venezuelan government minsters, opposition politicians, 35 NGOs working in the country, academics, church officials, activists, chambers of commerce and regional UN agencies.

The US imposed new sanctions against Venezuela on 9 March 2015, when President Barack Obama issued executive order 13692, declaring the country a threat to national security.

The sanctions have since intensified under Donald Trump, who has also threatened military invasion and discussed a coup. …

Despite being the first UN official to visit and report from Venezuela in 21 years, Mr de Zayas said his research into the causes of the country’s economic crisis has so far largely been ignored by the UN and the media, and caused little debate within the Human Rights Council.
He believes his report has been ignored because it goes against the popular narrative that Venezuela needs regime change. …

The then UN high commissioner, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, reportedly refused to meet Mr de Zayas after the visit, and the Venezuela desk of the UN Human Rights Council also declined to help with his work after his return despite being obliged to do so, Mr de Zayas claimed. …

Ivan Briscoe, Latin America and Caribbean programme director for Crisis Group, an international NGO, told The Independent that Venezuela is a polarising subject. … Briscoe is critical of Mr de Zayas’s report because it highlights US economic warfare but in his view neglects to mention the impact of a difficult business environment in the country. … Briscoe acknowledged rising tensions and the likely presence of US personnel operating covertly in the country. …

Eugenia Russian, president of FUNDALATIN, one of the oldest human rights NGOs in Venezuela, founded in 1978 before the Chavez and Maduro governments and with special consultative status at the UN, spoke to The Independent on the significance of the sanctions.

“In contact with the popular communities, we consider that one of the fundamental causes of the economic crisis in the country is the effect that the unilateral coercive sanctions that are applied in the economy, especially by the government of the United States,” Ms Russian said.
She said there may also be causes from internal errors, but said probably few countries in the world have suffered an “economic siege” like the one Venezuelans are living under. …

In his report, Mr de Zayas expressed concern that those calling the situation a “humanitarian crisis” are trying to justify regime change and that human rights are being “weaponised” to discredit the government and make violent overthrow more “palatable”….

Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world and an abundance of other natural resources including gold, bauxite and coltan. But under the Maduro government they’re not easily accessible to US and transnational corporations.

US oil companies had large investments in Venezuela in the early 20th century but were locked out after Venezuelans voted to nationalise the industry in 1973.
Other than readers of that single newspaper, where has the public been able to find these facts? If the public can have these facts hidden from them, then how much trust should the public reasonably have in the government, and in the news-media?

(NOTE-1: Zeid Raad Al Hussein, who “reportedly refused to meet Mr de Zayas after the visit,” is Prince Zeid Raad Al Hussein (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeid_Raad_Al_Hussein), a Jordanian Prince. Jordan is a vassal-state in the U.S. empire. But Prince Hussein is a Jordanian diplomat who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2014 to 2018 — hardly an unbiased or independent person in such a supposedly nonpartisan role.)

(NOTE-2: Here is the garbage that a reader comes to, who is trying to find online Mr. de Zayas’s report on this matter: https://documents-dds-ny.un. (https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G18/239/29/PDF/G1823929.pdf). As intended, the document remains effectively hidden to the present day. Perhaps the U.N. needs to be replaced and located in Venezuela, Iran, or some other country that’s targeted for take-over by the people who effectively own the United States Government and control the U.N.’s bureaucracy. The hiding of this document was done not only by the press but by the U.N. itself.)

(NOTE-3: On January 23rd, Germany’s Die Zeit headlined
[U]“Christoph Flügge: ‘I am deeply disturbed’: The U.N. International Criminal Court Judge Christoph Flügge Accuses Western Nations of Threatening the Independence of the Judges” (https://www.zeit.de/2019/05/christoph-fluegge-internationaler-strafrichter-unabhaengigkeit-justiz). Flügge especially cited U.S. President Trump’s agent, John Bolton. That same day, the Democratic Party and Labour Party organ, Britain’s Guardian, bannered “International criminal court: UN court judge quits The Hague citing political interference” (http://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/jan/28/international-criminal-court-icc-judge-christoph-flugge-quits-citing-political-interference-trump-administration-turkey). This news-report said that, “A senior judge has resigned from one of the UN’s international courts in The Hague citing ‘shocking’ political interference from the White House and Turkey.” The judge especially criticised Bolton: “The American security adviser held his speech at a time when The Hague was planning preliminary investigations into American soldiers who had been accused of torturing people in Afghanistan. The American threats against international judges clearly show the new political climate. It is shocking. I had never heard such a threat.” Flügge said that the judges on the court had been “stunned” that “the US would roll out such heavy artillery”. Flügge told the Guardian: (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?105808-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1272401&viewfull=1#post1272401) “It is consistent with the new American line: ‘We are No 1 and we stand above the law’.”)

perolator

8th February 2019, 15:53

I wouldn't say wrong. I would say that by "monoculture", Hudson meant mostly, not exactly 100%. I really doubt that he thought or intended to claim that Venezuela had no other exports whatsoever. Hudson is not that unrealistic.

@Paul: When an expert as Michael Hudson speaks, cannot be measured in terms of "more or less" or "mostly". Economists deal with math, and precise terminology, IMHO.

Venezuela was an oil monoculture. Its export revenue was spent largely on importing food and other necessities that it could have produced at home.

This complete quote is wrong. Venezuela began to import food when the bolivarian enchilada found another way to steal the country's money and found another way to control the population.

I wouldn't say wrong. Hudson did not say that Venezuela did use its revenues to benefit its population. He only said that the U.S. oil companies feared they would.

Okay. Do you really believe this one? Do you think oil companies are charity? Companies, in general, care about profits. Chinese and Russian companies in Venezuela Q.E.D. Politics aside, Do you think oil companies in the U.S. feared Venezuela "socialist" government used oil (or whatever) revenues to benefit their population? Au contraire, U.S. cash flow indirectly allowed "socialism" in Venezuela to keep in power.

The Paraguaná Refinery Complex ...
You might be right on that one ... I don't know.

@Paul: You have to admit Michael Hudson was wrong in this one. How can I lie about this? Google is your friend.
Below is a picture of part of one of 3 refineries of Paraguaná Refinery Complex. Zero maintenance structures. An example of how the "revolution" takes care of the assets of the Venezuelan people.

http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/00/08/08/82_big.jpg

Quoting the whole concept:

First of all, oil refineries were not built in Venezuela, but in Trinidad and in the southern U.S. Gulf Coast states. This enabled U.S. oil companies – or the U.S. Government – to leave Venezuela without a means of “going it alone” and pursuing an independent policy with its oil, as it needed to have this oil refined. It doesn’t help to have oil reserves if you are unable to get this oil refined so as to be usable.

Completely wrong. Not just about the refineries; IMHO, it is wrong. I am no expert, by the way.

I've been enjoying reading and listening to Michael Hudson for many years. He's damn good. But his style of speaking, and of writing, is a bit odd, and difficult to make sense of at times. It took me a year or two of sampling him before I could follow him without considerable effort.

I do respect your opinion. Maybe I was too blunt with him. I apologize.

ThePythonicCow

8th February 2019, 19:34

Economists deal with math, and precise terminology, IMHO.
If you impose a particular definition of a person's role on your reading of what they write, and if that definition doesn't entirely fit their work and role, then you may make it difficult to accurately understand what they wrote.

Okay. Do you really believe this one? Do you think oil companies are charity?
I do not believe that oil companies are charities. I do not recall ever writing anything to the contrary on this forum.

Google is your friend.
Google may be your friend, and I certainly use it. But it's not my friend.

perolator

8th February 2019, 20:48

ThePythonicCow

9th February 2019, 05:55

If you impose a particular definition of a person's role on your reading of what they write, and if that definition doesn't entirely fit their work and role, then you may make it difficult to accurately understand what they wrote.

@Paul: I am not imposing a definition over a person's role. Economics is a science.
When I say "imposing a definition" I mean that you have determined what is the correct definition of "economics", that in particular it is a "science", which in turn apparently means to you economists should not speak in approximate phrases unless they explicitly say they are doing so. Then you say that Michael Hudson should not call himself and/or be called an economist if he implicitly used a phrase imprecisely, as I suggested.

I am saying that Hudson is most definitely an economist, and that he was implicitly using an imprecise phrase. I am saying that you are being overly demanding of the meaning of the words economist (and scientist) when you so object, and I am saying that it is flawed rhetoric to criticize what someone says by first imposing on their words the specific meaning you think those words must have, when other common meanings of those words better fit their writing.

In short, when you say "Economics is a science," that is for me an example of you imposing a (a partial) definition on a word, exactly as you deny doing in the immediately preceding sentence.

Venezuela was an oil monoculture. Its export revenue was spent largely on importing food and other necessities that it could have produced at home.
This is simply wrong. Before chavismo took power, 98% what most Venezuelans consumed was not imported. We were importing mostly Scotch Whiskey. :beer: (just kidding)
What you say here does not contradict what Hudson said.

Let's say there is an imaginary country that has an almost entirely self-contained economy, which includes large cattle farms, producing milk and beef.

Let's say that it does have one export ... say beef.

Let's say it mostly uses the income from selling that beef to buy Irish butter.

Then both: It is spending on export revenue on importing food that it could have produced at home (what Hudson said).
It is consuming mostly domestically produced food (what you said).
Therefore, just because one of these is true, does not make the other "wrong".

===

It can be frustrating to use tools, including the tools of language and logic, if one demands that those tools provide precise results, but one does not use them precisely. No matter how precise a tool might be, if it is used imprecisely, it will usually produce imprecise results.

Dennis Leahy

11th February 2019, 14:58

This is an "Open letter to the American people", by Maduro:

Feb. 10, 2019

***

If I know anything, it is about people, such as you, I am a man of the people. I was born and raised in a poor neighborhood of Caracas. I forged myself in the heat of popular and union struggles in a Venezuela submerged in exclusion and inequality.

I am not a tycoon, I am a worker of reason and heart, today I have the great privilege of presiding over the new Venezuela, rooted in a model of inclusive development and social equality, which was forged by Commander Hugo Chávez since 1998 inspired by the Bolivarian legacy.

We live today a historical trance. There are days that will define the future of our countries between war and peace. Your national representatives of Washington want to bring to their borders the same hatred that they planted in Vietnam. They want to invade and intervene in Venezuela – they say, as they said then – in the name of democracy and freedom. But it’s not like that. The history of the usurpation of power in Venezuela is as false as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is a false case, but it can have dramatic consequences for our entire region.

Venezuela is a country that, by virtue of its 1999 Constitution, has broadly expanded the participatory and protagonist democracy of the people, and that is unprecedented today, as one of the countries with the largest number of electoral processes in its last 20 years. You might not like our ideology, or our appearance, but we exist and we are millions.

I address these words to the people of the United States of America to warn of the gravity and danger that intend some sectors in the White House to invade Venezuela with unpredictable consequences for my country and for the entire American region. President Donald Trump also intends to disturb noble dialogue initiatives promoted by Uruguay and Mexico with the support of CARICOM for a peaceful solution and dialogue in favour of Venezuela. We know that for the good of Venezuela we have to sit down and talk, because to refuse to dialogue is to choose strength as a way. Keep in mind the words of John F. Kennedy: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate”.

Are those who do not want to dialogue afraid of the truth?

The political intolerance towards the Venezuelan Bolivarian model and the desires for our immense oil resources, minerals and other great riches, has prompted an international coalition headed by the US government to commit the serious insanity of militarily attacking Venezuela under the false excuse of a non-existent humanitarian crisis.

The people of Venezuela have suffered painfully social wounds caused by a criminal commercial and financial blockade, which has been aggravated by the dispossession and robbery of our financial resources and assets in countries aligned with this demented onslaught.

And yet, thanks to a new system of social protection, of direct attention to the most vulnerable sectors, we proudly continue to be a country with a high human development index and low inequality in the Americas.

The American people must know that this complex multiform aggression is carried out with total impunity and in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which expressly outlaws the threat or use of force, among other principles and purposes for the sake of peace and the friendly relations between Nations.

We want to continue being business partners of the people of the United States, as we have been throughout our history. Their politicians in Washington, on the other hand, are willing to send their sons and daughters to die in an absurd war, instead of respecting the sacred right of the Venezuelan people to self-determination and safeguarding their sovereignty.

Like you, people of the United States, we Venezuelans are patriots. And we shall defend our homeland with all the pieces of our soul.

Today Venezuela is united in a single clamor: we demand the cessation of the aggression that seeks to suffocate our economy and socially suffocate our people, as well as the cessation of the serious and dangerous threats of military intervention against Venezuela.

We appeal to the good soul of American society, victim of its own leaders, to join our call for peace, let us be all one people against warmongering and war.

Long live the peoples of America!

Nicolás Maduro

President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

spade

11th February 2019, 16:01

Give up your seat Maduro! You're a complete sham! Find someone competent to replace your incompetence. You suck at every level, who gives a crap about where you came from? You've basically leveled the entire population to be worse off from where you have claimed to come from - now eating out of trashcans in abject poverty, fleeing as refugees into neighboring countries even without any war occurring. I loathe sociapathic narcissists like you, who insist on holding on to power whatever the means, if includes buying out your minions with food. ANYONE is better than you. and I mean ANYONE - Chavez was a thousand times the man you are. If he could see what you are doing, he'd be rolling out of his grave to wring your well-fed chubby neck.

https://twitter.com/trish_regan/status/1094413157093818368
#Maduro attempting to “buy off” the people through intimidation tactics... exploiting their vulnerabilities ... namely, HUNGER. In this video, reps from his regime offer food boxes in exchange for signing a petition to effectively support him #VENEZUELA #Libertad

Hervé

12th February 2019, 16:22

...

FYI:
Dear Readers and Members,

A series of unfortunate technical incidents occurred on this thread which wiped out a portion of its database containing all the "Thanks" allocated and reset the "Viewed" and "Read by" counters and records, etc...

Our apologies for the inconvenience this may (have) cause(d)...

The Avalon Admin Staff

perolator

12th February 2019, 16:35

Translation of the tropical dictator's letter

This is an "Open letter to the American people", by Maduro:

Feb. 10, 2019

***

If I know anything, it is about people, such as you, I am a man of the people. I was born and raised in a poor neighborhood of Caracas. I forged myself in the heat of popular and union struggles in a Venezuela submerged in exclusion and inequality.

I like the people so much I love to see how they suffer. I was born and raised in Colombia, moved with my parents to Venezuela when I was young. I forged myself in Cuba when I was in the communist party, and I was member of the union only to avoid going to work.

I am not a tycoon, I am a worker of reason and heart, today I have the great privilege of presiding over the new Venezuela, rooted in a model of inclusive development and social equality, which was forged by Commander Hugo Chávez since 1998 inspired by the Bolivarian legacy.

I am a mobster, a heartless lunatic, today I have the shameful disgrace of being the puppet used my the Cuban masters to squeeze the last ounce of the natural resources of Venezuela to Cuba, Russia, China and countless other nations.

We live today a historical trance. There are days that will define the future of our countries between war and peace. Your national representatives of Washington want to bring to their borders the same hatred that they planted in Vietnam. They want to invade and intervene in Venezuela – they say, as they said then – in the name of democracy and freedom. But it’s not like that.

People in Venezuela is living a historical trance, not me. I live like a king. We have being buying a large amount of weapons since early 2000's, not to defend the country, but, to keep Venezuela's resources safeguarded from nobody else but Cuba and our "allies". I don't give a damn about democracy and freedom.

The history of the usurpation of power in Venezuela is as false as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is a false case, but it can have dramatic consequences for our entire region.

The usurpation of power in Venezuela is completely true. The Venezuelan constitution disqualify a person not Venezuelan by birth to become president. This situation has dramatic consequences regardless for our entire region since long time ago.

Venezuela is a country that, by virtue of its 1999 Constitution, has broadly expanded the participatory and protagonist democracy of the people, and that is unprecedented today, as one of the countries with the largest number of electoral processes in its last 20 years. You might not like our ideology, or our appearance, but we exist and we are millions.

The 1999 Constitution is tissue paper to me. I use it the way I see fit to fulfill my goal of being in power forever. We own the electoral council, therefore, we can win any election. We loathe any ideology different than "socialism", anybody who thinks different in Venezuela has to emigrate or suffer. People who oppose me are millions but I do not care.

I address these words to the people of the United States of America to warn of the gravity and danger that intend some sectors in the White House to invade Venezuela with unpredictable consequences for my country and for the entire American region. President Donald Trump also intends to disturb noble dialogue initiatives promoted by Uruguay and Mexico with the support of CARICOM for a peaceful solution and dialogue in favour of Venezuela. We know that for the good of Venezuela we have to sit down and talk, because to refuse to dialogue is to choose strength as a way. Keep in mind the words of John F. Kennedy: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate”.

Are those who do not want to dialogue afraid of the truth?

I need "noble dialogue" to have opposition entertained, gain time to continue stealing the country's money and to allow the world to recognize me as king.

The political intolerance towards the Venezuelan Bolivarian model and the desires for our immense oil resources, minerals and other great riches, has prompted an international coalition headed by the US government to commit the serious insanity of militarily attacking Venezuela under the false excuse of a non-existent humanitarian crisis.

Remember, Cuba, Russia and China only wants mangoes and arepas.

The people of Venezuela have suffered painfully social wounds caused by a criminal commercial and financial blockade, which has been aggravated by the dispossession and robbery of our financial resources and assets in countries aligned with this demented onslaught.

The "blockade" is not allowing my family and my inner circle's families to spend vacations in the Swiss Alps, Vegas, Sydney or Tokio.

And yet, thanks to a new system of social protection, of direct attention to the most vulnerable sectors, we proudly continue to be a country with a high human development index and low inequality in the Americas.

You have to believe me.

The American people must know that this complex multiform aggression is carried out with total impunity and in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which expressly outlaws the threat or use of force, among other principles and purposes for the sake of peace and the friendly relations between Nations.

The American people must know we are the only ones with right to harm people.

We want to continue being business partners of the people of the United States, as we have been throughout our history. Their politicians in Washington, on the other hand, are willing to send their sons and daughters to die in an absurd war, instead of respecting the sacred right of the Venezuelan people to self-determination and safeguarding their sovereignty.

We need the U.S. to continue payment in cash because the U.S. is the only country not trading oil for "services". We need U.S. money.

We need to safeguard the sovereignty of Cuba.

Like you, people of the United States, we Venezuelans are patriots. And we shall defend our homeland with all the pieces of our soul.

I have to defend Cuba as it were my homeland.

Today Venezuela is united in a single clamor: we demand the cessation of the aggression that seeks to suffocate our economy and socially suffocate our people, as well as the cessation of the serious and dangerous threats of military intervention against Venezuela.

Venezuela wants to have me removed from power as soon as possible.

We appeal to the good soul of American society, victim of its own leaders, to join our call for peace, let us be all one people against warmongering and war.

Long live the peoples of America!

Nicolás Maduro

President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

I don't care about America. All I want is Venezuela's my money.

Hervé

12th February 2019, 16:47

Can Venezuela and its neighbours survive the coming war? (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html)

by Thierry Meyssan

Voltaire Network | Damascus (Syria)

12 February 2019

The crisis which is destabilising Venezuela, like those which are beginning in Nicaragua and Haïti, needs to be analysed in order to enable us to address it. Thierry Meyssan reminds us of three interpretative hypotheses and argues in favour of one of them. He evokes the US strategy and the ways in which it may be countered.

https://www.voltairenet.org/squelettes/elements/images/ligne-rouge.gif

Deutsch (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205145.html)ελληνικά (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205155.html) Español (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205146.html) français (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205089.html) italiano (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205149.html)Português (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205151.html) română (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205150.html) русский (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205144.html) Türkçe (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205148.html)

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Today, Venezuela is divided between two legitimacies – that of Constitutional President Nicolas Maduro and that of the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó.

Guaido nominated himself as interim President, allegedly by virtue of articles 223 and 233 of the Constitution. We only need to read these articles to see that they in no way apply to his case, and that he can not claim from them any legitimacy for the post he seeks to usurp. Despite that, he has been accredited by the United States, the Lima Group and part of the European Union.

Some of Nicolas Maduro’s supporters claim that Washington is reproducing the overthrow of a leftist government, just as it did against Salvadore Allende in 1973, during the mandate of President Richard Nixon.

Others, reacting to the revelations of Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen about the career path of Juan Guaidó [1 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nb1)], believe on the contrary that this is a colour revolution similar to those we saw under the presidency of George W. Bush.

Facing an aggression by an enemy who is far stronger than oneself, it is crucial to identify its objectives and understand its methods. Only those who are capable of anticipating the attacks they are about to suffer will have any chance of surviving.

Three dominant hypotheses
It is perfectly logical for Latin-Americans to compare what they are presently experiencing to what they have already known, like the Chilean coup d’etat of 1973. But it would be risky for Washington to reproduce the same scenario 46 years later – it would be an error, because today, everyone is familiar with the details of this deception.

Furthermore, the revelation concerning Juan Guaidó’s connections to the National Endowment for Democracy and Gene Sharp’s team reminds us even more of a colour revolution, since Venezuela has already experienced such an event, which failed in 2007. Specifically, it would be dangerous for Washington, 12 years later, to attempt to reprise a plan which has already backfired.

In order to understand Washington’s intentions, we must first familiarise ourselves with its battle plan.

On 29 October 2001, just one and a half months after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, US Secretary for Defense Donald Rumsfeld created the Office of Force Transformation, whose mission was to revolutionise the US armed forces, to change their mentality in order to respond to the radically new objective of confirming US supremacy world-wide. He handed this job to Admiral Arthur Cebrowski, who had already accomplished the networking of US military units, and had participated, in the 1990’s, with the elaboration of a doctrine of digital warfare (Network-centric warfare) [2 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nb2)].

Cebrowski arrived with a pre-planned strategy which he presented not only to the Pentagon, but to military academies all over the place. Although it was very important, his work within the armed forces was not covered by the media until the publication of an article in Vanity Fair. Thereafter, his explanations were published by his assistant Thomas Barnett [3 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nb3)]. It goes without saying that these documents were not necessarily faithful to the Pentagon’s ideas, which they make no attempt to explain, but to justify. Nonetheless, the main idea is that the United States seize control of the natural resources of half of the world, not to use them for themselves, but to decide who would be allowed to use them. In order to do so, they would have to deprive these areas of any political power other than their own, and therefore destroy all the state structures present in the region.

Officially, this strategy has never been implemented. Nonetheless, what we have been witnessing for the last twenty years corresponds exactly to Barnett’s book. First of all, in the 1980’s and 1990’s, there was the destruction of the region of the « African Great Lakes ». We mostly remember the Rwandan genocide and its 900,000 dead, but the entire region was devastated by a long series of wars which caused the death of six million people. What is truly astonishing is that twenty years later, many states have not recovered sovereignty over all their territory. This episode pre-dates the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski doctrine. We do not know if the Pentagon had planned what happened, or if it was while they were destroying these states that they conceived of their plan. Later on, in the years between 2000 and 2010, we witnessed the destruction of the « Greater Middle East », this time according to the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski doctrine. Of course, we may choose to believe that all this was just a succession of « democratic » interventions, civil wars and revolutions. But apart from the fact that the populations concerned contest the dominant narrative of these events, we note that in these cases also, the state structures were destroyed and peace did not return with the end of military operations. As of now, the Pentagon is evacuating the « Greater Middle East » and is preparing its deployment in the « Caribbean Basin ».

Many elements indicate that our previous understanding of the wars of George W. Bush and Barack Obama was mistaken, while they corresponded perfectly to the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski doctrine. This reading of the events is therefore not the fruit of a coincidence with Barnett’s thesis, and forces us to rethink what we witnessed.

If we adopt this method of thought, we have to consider that the process of destruction of the Caribbean Basin began with the decree by President Barack Obama, on 9 March 2015, according to which Venezuela is a threat to the national security of the United States of America [4 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nb4)]. This may seem rather old, but in reality it is not. For example, President George W. Bush signed the Syrian Accountability Act in 2003, but military operations in Syria only began eight years later, in 2011. This interval was necessary for Washington to create the conditions for the troubles.

The attacks against the left before 2015
If this analysis is accurate, we have to consider that the events prior to 2015 (the coup d’etat against President Hugo Chávez in 2002, the attempt at a colour revolution in 2007, Operation Jericho in February 2015, and the first demonstrations by the guarimbas) corresponded to a different logic, while those that occurred afterwards (guarimbas terrorism in 2017) are part of the plan.

My logic is based also on my understanding of these elements.

Thus, in 2002, I published an analysis of the coup d’etat which revealed the role of the United States behind the Fedecamaras (Venezuelan company management) [5 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nb5)]. President Hugo Chávez wanted to check my information, and sent two emissaries to Paris. One of them has since become a General, and the other is currently one of the most senior personalities in the country. My work was used by prosecutor Danilo Anderson for his investigation. He was assassinated by the CIA in 2004.

In 2007, a number of Trotskyite students began a movement to protest the non-renewal of the licence of the Caracas radio-television company RCTV. We know today, thanks to Blumenthal and Cohen, that Juan Guaidó was already implicated, and that he had received training by disciples of the non-violence theorist, Gene Sharp. Rather than repressing the excesses of the movement, President Hugo Chávez, on the occasion of the ceremony of the signature of the ALBA agreement (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) on 3 June, read for twenty minutes from an old article that I had written about Gene Sharp and his conception of non-violence in the service of NATO and the CIA [6 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nb6)]. Realising the manipulation to which they had been submitted, a large number of demonstrators withdrew from the combat. Clumsily denying the facts, Sharp wrote to the President and then to myself. This initiative created confusion amongst the US left wing, for whom Sharp was a respectable personality with no links to the US government. Professor Stephen Zunes took his defence, but when faced with proof, Sharp closed his institute, leaving his place to Otpor (Resistance) and Canvas (Centre for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies). [7 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nb7)].

Let’s return to the present period. Of course, the recent attempt to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro reminds us of the way in which President Salvadore Allende was pushed to suicide. Of course, the demonstrations convened by the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, reminds us of a colour revolution. But this is not at all contradictory to my analysis. Let’s note that an attempt to assassinate Mouamar Kadhafi closely preceded military operations against Libya. And when the disciples of Gene Sharp supervised the first demonstrations against President Hosni Moubarak in Egypt, they even distributed an Arab version of their booklet, which had already been used in other countries [8 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nb8)]. But as further events were to show, it was neither a coup d’état or a colour revolution.

Preparing for war
If my analysis is correct – and for the moment, everything seems to confirm it – we have to prepare for a war not only in Venezuela, but throughout the Caribbean Basin. Nicaragua and Haïti are already destabilised.

This war will be imposed from the exterior. Its aim will no longer be to overthrow leftist governments for the profit of right wing parties, even if appearances will at first be confusing. The logic of events will make no distinction between one side or another. Little by little, the whole society will be threatened, without the distinction of ideology or social class. Identically, it will become impossible for other states in the region to shelter from the storm. Even those who believe that they can protect themselves by serving as a rear base for military operations will be partially destroyed. For example, even though the Press hardly ever mentioned it, entire cities were wiped out in the region of Qatif, in Saudi Arabia, even though this country was Washington’s main ally in the « Greater Middle East ».

Based on the conflicts of the African Great Lakes and the Greater Middle East, this war should unfold by stages.

First of all, the destruction of symbols of the modern state, by attacking the statues and museums dedicated to Hugo Chávez. This should not cause any victims, but would destabilise the mental representations of the population. Then the supply of arms and remuneration for the combatants in order to organise demonstrations which will degenerate.

The Press will supply – after the fact – unverifiable explanations of the crimes blamed on the government and against which allegedly peaceful demonstrators had allegedly revolted. It is important that the police believe that they had been the targets of shots fired from the crowd, and that the crowd believe that they had been the targets of shots fired by the police, because the aim of the operation is to sow division.

The third stage will be to organise bloody attacks all over the country. Very few men will be necessary to implement this stage, it will suffice that two or three teams move around the region.

It will only be at this point that it will become useful to send in foreign mercenaries. During the last war, the United States sent at least 130,000 foreigners to Iraq and Syria, to which were added 120,000 local combatants. These armies were numerous, but poorly taught and trained.

It is, however, possible to defend oneself, since Syria managed to do so. Several initiatives will have to be taken urgently :

Already, on the initiative of General Jacinto Perez Arcay and the President of the Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, the senior officers of the Venezuelan armies are studying new forms of combat (4th generation warfare). But military delegations will have to visit Syria to see for themselves how the events occurred. This is very important, since these wars are unlike any previous conflicts. For example, in Damascus, the major part of the city is intact, as if nothing had happened, but several neighbourhoods are totally devastated, like Stalingrad after the Nazi invasion. This supposes the use of particular combat techniques.

It is essential to establish the national union of all patriots. The President must become the ally of his opposition, and include certain of its leaders in his government. The problem is not to know whether or not we appreciate President Maduro – it is essential to fight under his command to save the country.

The army must form a popular militia. There is already such a force in Venezuela, numbering close to two million men, but they are mostly untrained. On principle, military men do not like to hand guns to civilians, but only civilians are capable of defending their own neighbourhood, since they know the area and everyone who lives there.

Major work must be done to secure state, army and hospital buildings.

All this must be done as quickly as possible. These measures take a long time to implement, and the enemy is almost ready.

Thierry Meyssan (https://www.voltairenet.org/auteur29.html?lang=en)

Translation Pete Kimberley (https://www.voltairenet.org/auteur125569.html?lang=en)

[1 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nh1)] “The Making of Juan Guaidó: US Regime-Change Laboratory Created Venezuela’s Coup Leader (https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/)”, Max Blumenthal & Dan Cohen, Grayzone Project, January 29, 2019.

[2 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nh2)] Transforming Military Force: The Legacy of Arthur Cebrowski and Network Centric Warfare, James R. Blaker, Greenwood, 2007.

[3 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nh3)] The Pentagon’s New Map, Thomas P.M. Barnett, Putnam Publishing Group, 2004.

[4 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nh4)] “Declaration of a National Emergency with Respect to Venezuela (https://www.voltairenet.org/article187289.html)”, “Executive Order – Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela (https://www.voltairenet.org/article187288.html)”, by Barack Obama, Voltaire Network, 9 March 2015.

[5 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nh5)] « Opération manquée au Venezuela (https://www.voltairenet.org/article8686.html) », par Thierry Meyssan, Réseau Voltaire, 18 mai 2002.

[6 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nh6)] “The Albert Einstein Institution: non-violence according to the CIA (https://www.voltairenet.org/article30032.html)”, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, 4 January 2005.

[7 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nh7)] « Impérialistes de droite et impérialistes de gauche (https://www.voltairenet.org/article157902.html) », par Thierry Meyssan, Réseau Voltaire, 25 août 2008.

[8 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article205147.html#nh8)] “The U.S. colored revolution user manual for Egypt (https://www.voltairenet.org/article168693.html)”, Voltaire Network, 2 March 2011.

Hervé

12th February 2019, 21:48

Profits and priorities: US heaps pressure on Venezuela, remains mute on Haiti's anti-government unrest (https://www.rt.com/news/451268-haiti-venezuela-protests-difference/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/451268-haiti-venezuela-protests-difference/)
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 11:38 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509848/large/5Demonstrators_take_part_in_an.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509848/full/5Demonstrators_take_part_in_an.jpg)
Demonstrators take part in an anti-government protest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. © REUTERS/Jeanty Junior Augustin

There's a nation that saw violent unrest, looting and anti-government protests over the past days, but don't think of Venezuela. This is Haiti, a country that received no mention from the US except for a vague travel warning.

Thousands of people demonstrated in the Haitian capital, demanding that President Jovenel Moise step down. Protesters, who engaged in bloody skirmishes with police in which at least four people were killed, also vented their anger at economic hardships, embezzlement and widespread corruption.

Just across the Caribbean Sea, Venezuela is facing an anti-government crisis as well, but this is where the similarities end. The Venezuelan government has been sanctioned by the US, its opposition is backed and recognized by the West and elected President Nicolas Maduro is portrayed as a politician with tyrannical traits.

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RT's Ilya Petrenko weighed in on the striking differences between two 'similar' situations.

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Haiti, for its part, didn't have the honor to be mentioned by US policymakers in recent days. The State Department has only warned American travelers to think twice before going to the crisis-ravaged country.

Back in 2017, however, Washington hailed Haitian election, saying "inauguration of a democratically-elected president allows Haiti to return to democratic and constitutional rule." That election wasn't a model of democracy as voter turnout was only 21 percent, and every tenth ballot sheet was discarded.

Notably, Moise positioned himself as a big fan of Donald Trump, hailing Trump's entrepreneurial talents and suggesting they have much in common.

ThePythonicCow

12th February 2019, 22:21

perolator

12th February 2019, 23:28

This is a compelling and important article (in my view,at least.) Thanks for posting it, Hervé.

There is a problem with some journalists. They take valid documentation and mix it with false arguments.

If this analysis is accurate, we have to consider that the events prior to 2015 (the coup d’etat against President Hugo Chávez in 2002, the attempt at a colour revolution in 2007, Operation Jericho in February 2015, and the first demonstrations by the guarimbas) corresponded to a different logic, while those that occurred afterwards (guarimbas terrorism in 2017) are part of the plan.

What color revolution? What did I miss in 2007?
Guarimbas terrorism is the same way the Venezuelan government called those 2017 protests. Many people, mostly young, died as a result of heavy repression. Sticks and stones against guns and rifles cannot be called terrorism. According to Wikipedia, 163 deaths were consequence of the 2017 protests. A young boy, Juan Pernalete, was killed by one tear gas canister shot at close range. Here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2017_Venezuelan_protests) is a timeline of the events, according to Wikipedia. Can this be called "Terrorism"?

Thus, in 2002, I published an analysis of the coup d’etat which revealed the role of the United States behind the Fedecamaras (Venezuelan company management) [5]. President Hugo Chávez wanted to check my information, and sent two emissaries to Paris. One of them has since become a General, and the other is currently one of the most senior personalities in the country. My work was used by prosecutor Danilo Anderson for his investigation. He was assassinated by the CIA in 2004.

The murder of Anderson is one of the most famous unsolved mysteries of my country. Even now, there are no direct suspects. One of the sources (https://infogalactic.com/info/Murder_of_Danilo_Anderson) in English with the most accurate theories is not involving CIA. To date, there are 2 men in a Venezuelan jail accused of material authors of the crime (none was CIA). It is widely known Anderson amassed a big fortune in a short period of time. Suspicious, isn't it?

ThePythonicCow

12th February 2019, 23:31

It is, however, possible to defend oneself, since Syria managed to do so. Several initiatives will have to be taken urgently

There's a nation that saw violent unrest, looting and anti-government protests over the past days, but don't think of Venezuela. This is Haiti, a country that received no mention from the US except for a vague travel warning.
There are immense petroleum and other natural resources in the Caribbean area, including near Haiti and within Venezuela.

The application of the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski doctrine that is described so well in the article by Thierry Meyssan that Hervé posted in the first of these two posts that I quote here destroyed some of the nations in the African Great Lakes area and in the Middle East. The nation of Syria has apparently survived that onslaught, thanks in part to critical support from Russia.

The Anglo-American empire, primarily armed by the United States for the last eighty years, has been on a long term mission to control the world's major energy and mineral resources. The Rumsfeld-Cebrowski doctrine is an example of how this has been done.

However, Russia is now on a similar mission, to control a substantial portion of the world's energy resources. Russia is become increasingly important in the Middle East, not just with Syria, but with other nations there as well. For example, Russia is working with Saudi Arabia to handle their oil exports, and Russia along with China has been negotiating purchasing or taking some sort of key position in the largest Saudi petroleum company, Saudi Aramco. In addition, Russia itself has vast petroleum resources, and is particularly well placed to become the dominant energy supplier to Western Europe, if they are not already so. Russia and China also have substantial investments in Venezuela's petroleum industry. As noted above, Venezuela has the largest reserves of any nation in the world.

It may be that the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski doctrine ultimately fails in obtaining dominant control over the Caribbean area, though no doubt we will have plenty of headline news to discuss along the way, and the lives and communities of many will be interrupted, or destroyed.

The Battle of the Titans is ongoing between the Anglo-American Empire, the reigning champions for the last few centuries, and the reinvigorated champions of centuries past, Russia and China. It is being fought, in part, of control of this planet's energy and mineral resources.

Up to, and including through, the Second World War, key new technologies such as nuclear energy (and bombs), as well as transistor based electronics and jet engines, were critical military assets in a global struggle. Hence they were kept classified and tightly controlled.

Only after the Anglo-American empire, especially the United States, became the clear victor in that War did we see a sudden burst of new technology into civilian use and public awareness, including nuclear power for civilian use, transistors, and jet engines.

I expect that the same thing will happen, again, with the newer, currently highly classified, technologies such as "free energy", "anti-gravity", and "much faster than light" propulsion.

Only after this world-wide struggle, between the Anglo-American empire on the one hand, and the Russia-China axis on the other hand, is clearly settled, with one side supremely confident that it has won, will civilian use of and awareness of such technologies be allowed on any broad scale.

Meanwhile, all nations depend on access to a supply of petroleum, and control of the major sources of that petroleum is an important way in which the opposing sides seek to extend their power and constrain the other side.

During the Second World War, Germany used synthetic oil manufacturing to produce substitute oil products from coal, and by other methods. Currently the United States is using similarly sub-optimal methods, such extracting ethanol from corn, and oil from shale rock, which enables the United States to be "energy independent" (making the petro we need) in the short term, but which is probably not a good long term solution. Extracting ethanol from corn is notoriously energy inefficient, and harms the farmland with toxins such as Round Up (glyphosate.) Extracting shale oil harms the environment, is relatively energy inefficient, and uses up available resources rather quickly.

The United States could become rather desperate, once the energy production from corn and shale drilling declines. Once a major nation at war loses control of its energy supplies, it becomes rather desperate, as did both Japan and Germany during the Second World War.

The major oil reserves of Venezuela and likely other undersea deposits in the Caribbean, along with major oil reserves under the Arctic Ocean, may be the last two major petroleum reserves that the United States has a chance of gaining undisputed control over. The struggle will not likely end anytime soon, but I'd guess that Russia and China will gain the final upper hand, in both those areas. Once that happens, then China, with the largest pool of well educated young scientists and engineers in the world, will be in a position to introduce major "new" energy, propulsion, materials, communications and computation technologies ... just as the United States did in the later part of the 1940's.

ThePythonicCow

12th February 2019, 23:35

... the attempt at a colour revolution in 2007

What color revolution? What did I miss in 2007?
Was there not even an attempt in 2007?

perolator

12th February 2019, 23:51

I am posting today's interview with the loony and megalomaniac man who is conducting the destiny of 35 million of souls. See for yourself.

BBC Mundo Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro interview (02/12/19): Full transcript (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47211509)

7 hours ago

The BBC's Orla Guerin has interviewed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas.

Here is the full transcript.

Orla Guerin, BBC News

As we sit here, there is US aid across the border in Colombia. We have met many people here who tell us they are desperately in need of aid. Why not allow it through?

Nicolás Maduro, Venezuelan president
First of all, it's a show, that the United States government has set up with the compliance of the Colombian government to humiliate the Venezuelans. Venezuela is a country that has the capacity to satisfy all the necessities of our people.

Venezuela is a country that has problems like any country. We are in a battle that has been going on for many years, a successful battle, to reduce poverty, misery, in order to increase the job capacity, to establish a social security system to protect 100% of our pensioners, in order to establish a public health system that reaches all the Venezuelan population, to establish an educational system, that reaches 90% of our girls, boys, and our young.

Venezuela is a country that has dignity, and the United States has intended to create a humanitarian crisis in order to justify a military intervention, "humanitarian". And this is part of that show. That's the reason that we, with dignity, tell them that the miniscule crumbs that they intend to bring with toxic food, with leftovers that they have, we tell them no - Venezuela has dignity, Venezuela produces and works and our people do not to beg from anyone.

Guerin
You say the humanitarian aid is a show, but are you actually saying that the hunger is a show? We have seen it with our own eyes. I have met a mother of five who told me that her children go to bed every night with nothing to eat, and just a short drive from here, we have actually seen people reaching into the garbage with their hands to find food to eat. Are you honestly saying there is no hunger in Venezuela?

Maduro
I am telling you that the BBC in London has created a stereotype - the American media also - of a Venezuela that doesn't exist. We have 4.4% of what we call extreme poverty, misery. Of course this is still something that we have to overcome, but we come from 25% of extreme poverty, and we have reduced all the indexes of inequality. Venezuela today currently has indexes recognised by international organisations in the highest levels of social equality in social investment.

Do we have problems? Yes. But Venezuela is not a country with hunger.

Venezuela has the highest levels of nutrients, has extremely high levels of access to food and that stereotype, that stigma that they have tried to put on us, has only one objective: present a humanitarian crisis that does not exist in Venezuela, in order to do an intervention.

In any case I tell you, the United States, Donald Trump's government, has sequestered $10 billion of bank accounts that belong to us. They have sequestered billions of dollars in gold in London that are ours - that is money to buy supplies, raw materials, food, medicines. They have sequestered $1.4bn for many months, that we are going to use to buy food, medicines in Euroclear.

It's very simple, if you want to help Venezuela, release the billions of dollars in resources that belong to us. So don't come with a cheap show, a show of indignity, of humiliation, where they offer $20m dollars in food that is toxic, and rotten.

Guerin
I know your position, President Maduro, is that there is no humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. If that is the case, why have more than three million of your people left? That's one tenth of the population. The Unites States says people are leaving at the rate of 5,000 per day. If there is no crisis here, what is driving them from their homeland?

Maduro
You all have a problem, in the Western media. That you take it as a fact any lie that is transmitted. All that emigration campaign that has been said about Venezuela has been exaggerated. Venezuela is a country that receives immigrants, and you don't show that and you don't transmit it. Venezuela has here 5.8 million Colombians, that have immigrated due to the war in Colombia - because of the violation of human rights, and because of the misery. We have more than 300,000 Italians, more than 300,000 Portuguese, more than 300,000 Spaniards, more than a million Arabs, more than 300,000 Ecuadorians, more than 300,000 Peruvians,

There are more than 10 million immigrations coming every year to Venezuela.

Now, due to the economic war there is a new phenomenon of migration.

We have the official numbers that show no more than 800,000 Venezuelans have left in the past two years, due to economic reasons, trying to look for new alternatives.

Many of those Venezuelans were shattered because they encountered situations they did not expect like racism, discrimination, labour slavery, and thousands are coming back. In any case I can tell you that Venezuela is a country that offers opportunities in areas such as social development, social protection, social security, and that is why that even though the economic blockade and with the economic sanctions, and the economic persecution, Venezuela still continues being a country that receives immigrants. That's the truth.

Last year, in December 2018, you know how many Colombians came? 120,000 Colombians came to set up in Venezuela, which led us to the number of 5.8 million. That's the truth that nobody says. The thing is that the script is established in the West to disfigure the Venezuela situation, and justify any intervention, any aggression, as is happening right now.

Guerin
But with respect, President Maduro, you can see every day at the border with Colombia large numbers of people leaving here. Even if we accept your figure that only 800,000 have gone, that's almost a million of your people who have left. Yet you are saying there is no humanitarian crisis.

Maduro
You have to see that economic war that we have been enduring, the financial persecution. Every single account that Venezuela has in the world has been traced. That has made an impact on the economic reality. And of course, some Venezuelans thought, because of the social media campaigns, go and find an alternative type of job abroad. The educational level of the Venezuelans that have left is very high. There's a lot of university professionals that have left, people of a very good level have left, qualified workers, technical of high standards, and looking for alternatives abroad, they found even worse situations. And you can almost be assured that the majority of these Venezuelans that have left due to the economic reasons are going to come back.

Venezuela has the problems that any country could have, in the South, in the third world, in Latin America. We have made a lot of progress in our social indexes, that is a reality. Venezuela is a country that has the highest social indexes in social advancement of the entire continent.

Now we have problems, yes, of course we do. If we have the most powerful empire in the world, Orla, the most powerful empire in the world, targeting all our accounts, freezing all our assets abroad, going after every ship that comes to Venezuela bringing products, of course that has brought considerable disruption. We have confronted it, and rest assured, we are going to overcome.

Guerin
You say some of the problems here could be seen in other countries, but with respect Mr President, you have a hyper inflation rate last year of 1,000,000%. Nowhere else in the world is experiencing hyper inflation like that.

When you came to power, just before you came to power, the inflation rate here was 20%. So are you saying that the complete economic collapse here has nothing to do with you?

Maduro
I'll tell you again, you take as reference anything that comes in the Western media. I invite you to look at Venezuela in depth. Of course we have problems of an economic aggression, but 1,000,000% inflation, no country in the world would survive that, Orla. So you take as truth, you don't even question any number as long as its against Venezuela, you don't question it. You are completely non-critical to the lies that are being said about Venezuela.

Well that's the way you are, that's the way BBC is, that's the way CNN is, you are the Western media, because you are in the script, to intervene in our country. Why is Venezuela so interesting for the West, why is it so interesting for the United States? If we produced potatoes, if we produced parsley, if we produced apples, maybe we would not even exist on the geopolitical map.

But because Venezuela produces oil, and it's the largest oil reserve in the world, because Venezuela has the fourth largest reserves of gas, because we have and are now certifying the largest gold reserves in the world, Venezuela is important. Venezuela is leader of OPEC, Venezuela presides nowadays in OPEC, so it's important to throw stuff at Venezuela, to make attacks of all sorts - social, economic, political, military - to surround Venezuela in order to create a situation the way they did with Iraq, with Libya. But Venezuela is not Iran or Libya, Venezuela has its capacity. We will confront all these issues and be assured that all those campaigns of media aggression, of lies, slowly we will start conquering them with reality.

Guerin
You think we have a preconceived idea. I came to Venezuela for the first time two weeks ago. We have had a chance over those two weeks to see living conditions for ourselves. We have met with a young cancer patient whose mother was told she had to pay for his biopsy herself, and she told us it would take two years to earn the money. We met a young patient with tuberculosis, who was getting no treatment because there are no medicines. We met a young man with a brain tumour who told us he has been waiting a year for an operation because he himself has to rent surgical equipment. These are people that we have met and have heard their stories first hand. What do you say to them?

Maduro
That we are putting up a huge fight, of the $1.4bn that were sequestered in Euroclear, half of that was to bring medicines to fight diabetes, to fight cancer. They were frozen over there, and then we start looking via Portugal, and then they froze over $2bn with which we had bought the substitutes of these medicines. In spite of all that we brought medicines into the country. It's a huge effort. No country has endured what we have endured.

Guerin
But the people can't afford to buy it. There may be medicine but we have met people who say that two boxes of antibiotics costs a month's salary.

Maduro
You are first talking about specific cases - some people that had surgery, and some people that are being taking care of. You can rest assured that the Venezuelan social health system will reach them, and rest assured that everything that has to do with the medical system, we have a primary system of medicine distribution, that no other country in the world has. We have the family doctors, we have more than 30,000 doctors distributed in the communities, in the barrios, and the doctor not only takes care of his clinic, he goes house by house, in the clinic and in the visits house by house he takes the medicine directly to the person that needs it. That gives us a very extensive coverage and we have been managing with a huge effort - with the economic blockade, with the economic persecution - we have been stabilising the pharmaceutical industry, the national pharmaceutical industry, and we have been regulating with a huge effort, three times what a country that is not blocked has to do, in order to regulate the supply and sale of medicines, in the private system.

Guerin
But we stood in a hospital not far from here and we saw ourselves that they didn't have insulin, they had not had it for five years. They didn't have basic medication. This is a public hospital in Caracas, not in a distant part of the country.

Maduro
I'm not talking about the interior of the country, or about Caracas, I'm talking about the entire country, which is affected. So they choke us and they ask us why are we suffocating? That's your question. You don't question anything. The financial persecution, the blockade, the mental scheme that you bring, from the West, from London, simply is just to finish killing the person who is being choked, and kicked.

And our scheme is different, our scheme is of resistance to take care of the people. You come to justify all the persecution, and the social consequences of that persecution. Because if I had my money secured, the money of the country, in a bank account and then it's sequestered, and that money was to bring medicines, then you come and say that there is no medicines in the country. Why don't we have medicines, and then you should also ask, why did it arrive? Try to change your mental scheme. Why is Venezuela the geopolitical centre of the world, why Venezuela, and why is it not any country in Asia, or Latin America, or Africa, why? Ask yourself. Because they want to conquer us, colonise us. They won't be able to, we are solid, legitimate, and popular. People that are suffering are conscious why, and they are conscious of the protection that we give them, and they support this revolution. If that wasn't the case we would not have been here for 20 years, wining 23 elections out of 25. You have to ask yourself, why the mental schemes that you do, why the script that you bring from the North, does not work in Venezuela. Why?

Guerin
But your election victory last year is disputed by many people. There are now more than 50 governments that have recognised Juan Guaidó as the interim President of Venezuela.

Maduro
Fifty, where did you get that number from? Where do you get your numbers from, really? You bring a mental picture that you should check. You should check, I am not going to tell you more because really it's on your part. If you are an objective journalist, stable, or you only come here to verify your war campaign, the BBC's war campaign, and the western campaign against Venezuela.

Venezuela is a noble country. Venezuela has the right to peace, it's not right that we are enduring this campaign of war.

Venezuela does not want war. Venezuela does not want the result of all this campaign that you conduct. ne day troops come, in order to conquer our country. Venezuela wants peace and respect, and all of you to stop lying daily, please.

Guerin
But do you dispute the figure, do you dispute that 50 countries have now recognised the opposition leader Juan Guaidó?

Maduro
It's not that I agree, is that you are lying. It's not that I agree or you agree, you bring an image, you are a person, that expresses a dogmatism, of the West, against Venezuela. You are dogmatic, you are not capable of checking yourself, and see if one thing is true, or not, you are dogmatic, you have no critical sense, there is only one way of thinking. That's how you call it, it's called one way of thinking.

Guerin
President Maduro, these are facts. These countries have now recognised the opposition leader here as the President. What do you say to them?

Maduro
First of all it's not 50, not even the European Union. It's not my duty to say. It's about 10 countries - governments, not countries, governments - that are in alignment with the politics of Donald Trump. What you have to ask yourself is where does all this political aggression come from? Where does this coup d'état scenario come from? Where does it come from? Trying to impose in Venezuela a government that nobody has elected, a government that declared itself in a public square, absolutely unconstitutional and irregular. Where does it come from? From the White House, who conducts it? Donald Trump. The extremists of the White House have taken it upon themselves to carry out a coup in Venezuela. And we have rejected it and the entire world has rejected it. Now a Western campaign continues in a rushed way, I would say in an evil way. Donald Trump's politics continue. I would tell the world - Europe, London, the United Kingdom - ask yourselves, if you are not being led to a road with no exit, to failure, as you are letting Donald Trump lead you to a completely extremist illegal politics that violates the United Nations charter. And it has no support in Venezuela.

It has already failed, that politics of trying to impose a government that nobody elected. In Venezuela according to this constitution, the sovereignty resides in the people and is non-transferable. It is non-transferable.

And only through the people's vote you can elect a president in Venezuela. That's like someone comes to a public square in London, and proclaims himself Queen of England, or proclaims himself Prime Minister, and then three governments come and recognise it. That's outrageous. It's one of the biggest political outrages in international politics. In Venezuela, the people elect and according to this constitution, only the people can put you in power and remove you.

Guerin
You say it's up to the people to decide. Why not call a new presidential election, a free and fair and credible election, and let the people have their say? It seems as if your country now is very divided on the question of who should be president.

Maduro
Well there could be a debate in any country - who should be Prime Minister, who should be president - but every country has an electoral schedule, they have rules, electoral rules. Venezuela in the last 18 months has had votes to elect 23 governors, and we won 19. We have 335 municipalities, and out of 335 we won 307. We have chosen, and we have gone six times to election in the past 18 months, and on 20 May of last year, we had an election based on the constitution, for president of the republic, and I won with 68% of the vote. The opposition since then, the government of the United States, has boycotted this election.

Because they knew that there was no candidate from the opposition that could beat me in a presidential election, and they positioned this coup d'état a year ago. Venezuela already had its election.

The election that's still pending, and probably we will bring it forward, is the election of the parliament. That's the organism of the democratic institutions in Venezuela that has not been re-legitimised. I completely agree that we should bring that election forward, the parliamentary elections, and the Presidential elections, look at this, there is a very important element.

Our constitution allows a feature called a revocatory referendum. It's one of the few places in the world where it exists. It means that in the middle of the term of any popular election, the people could activate a revocatory referendum.

The opposition has that option left, in the year 2022, to start the process of a revocatory referendum. Let's respect the rules of the game, let nobody impose a worldwide blackmail, an international blackmail, so that Venezuela breaks its rules, or electoral regulations.

Guerin
Could you win a presidential election now?

Maduro
I already won it. And nowadays all the polls say that the Popular Bolivarian forces that I represent - that we represent - we have the social majority, cultural, political, electoral, we have won. You should know, in 20 years, we have won 23 elections out of 25 that we have held. Presidential elections, for governors, for mayors, for parliament, referendums.

Guerin
But many would say they have not always been fair, particularly the last one. There are allegations of ballot stuffing, and opposition candidates were not allowed to take part. It was not a level playing field in the last election, and this is why many would say that your victory in that election is in doubt. If you are confident now of a new victory, why not have a new election?

Maduro
What is the logic, reasoning, to repeat an election? There has not been even one legal question internally to the electoral authority, which is the maximum authority that regulates the elections, within the judicial power. What there have been are political questions, and from whom? From the government of the United States. The government of the United States, since January 2018, four months before the elections were held, Donald Trump said we are not going to recognise any results of the Presidential elections held in Venezuela. And still we hadn't even set the date. Listen Orla, please, it's a war. I pray that God enlightens you, and enlightens the opinion of the audience watching the BBC. It's a political war, of the United States empire, of the interests of the extreme right that today is governing, of the Ku Klux Klan, that rules the White House, to take over Venezuela, and they have positioned a political strategy, communications, diplomatic, warmongering, in order to take over Venezuela. And us, with the truth in our country, we are dismantling all that manipulation, all those lies that repeated day after day.

Guerin
Do you really think the Ku Klux Klan is ruling America?

Maduro
I believe that the extremist sector of the White Supremacist of the Ku Klux Klan lead the United States. I believe it's a gang of extremists.

Guerin
Are you calling President Trump a white supremacist?

Maduro
He is, publicly and openly, and he has stimulated the fascist tendencies, neofascists, neo-Nazis, within the United States, in Europe, in Latin America.

It's an extremist sector that hates the world. They hate us Latin Americans, Central Americans, Mexicans, Venezuelans, they hate us, they belittle us, they hate the entire world, because they only believe in their own interests, and in the interests of the United States. So in this battle that we are leading for Venezuela, I tell you, it's a battle that goes beyond our country. The battle to respond, look at this, Donald Trump threatened us with a military invasion, just a few days ago. He said he was going to send the United States army into Venezuela.

Why? What is the reason? The pretext, the motive to declare war against Venezuela, which is a peaceful country. I call upon the people of the world, to wake up, open your eyes, to see that it is an aggression against the peaceful country. That Venezuela has problems like many other countries in the world, but only in peace can we solve our problems. And if you really want to help Venezuela you have to support peace.

Say no to the intervention, tell the United States, hands off Venezuela, and support Venezuela in its own efforts to resolve its own problems through dialogue.

Guerin
You say to the Americans hands off Venezuela, and that's fair enough, it's your country. But do you think you are also facing criticism from Latin American nations? It's not only Washington that is criticising you at the moment, it also some of your neighbours here in Latin America.

Maduro
Well unfortunately some governments of the extreme right are now in power - Colombia for example, Chile. They are governments, the one from Chile comes from the Pinochet tradition, President Pinera, Macri in Argentina, and now they form a bloc of extreme right.

They have substituted the international policy of respect, tolerance, to impose an ideology, an ideology that has imposed a very big intolerance in international politics. And we have very opposing viewpoints. Well they form a group of 11 countries. With the rest of the countries of Latin America, and the Caribbean, we have permanent relationships. We just had a meeting in Montevideo, a very important meeting that everyone should know about, promoted by Mexico, Bolivia, Uruguay, and the 14 governments from CARICOM, from the Caribbean. They propose a mechanism for dialogue, to help Venezuela in four phases. With these countries, there are 17 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, they are currently working on a process of dialogue that I fully support, a dialogue with no secrets, an open dialogue, and that will allow the Venezuela to treat these items in peace, and resolve them.

Guerin
But Europe is also questioning your legitimacy. It's not only the White House, it's not only some of the neighbours here in Latin America. It's also large powerful countries in Europe.

Maduro
It's unfortunate that Europe, after being kicked by Donald Trump, are now behind Donald Trump - some countries, some governments. Behind Donald Trump in a completely illegal policy that has no reason to be. I have been in meetings very frequently with European Union ambassadors, and I have read them the constitution, and I have demonstrated that they are outside of the international rules of the game, of respect. Everything that they say is a lie. Well I really hope from the European countries, even those who have gone in the wrong direction, and those who are just waiting, observing, I hope more from them. I hope that they listen to us, they only listen as I told them to one version, the statements and the communications from the European Union, are a complete reproduction of what the Venezuela extreme right has said. It can't be.

Orla, we are really a force that exists, with a historic background, and cultural background, with a political and democratic background, this Bolivarian movement that was founded by Commandante Chavez has an existing force, powerful, in Venezuela, that deserves to be heard. I tell Europe, listen more, open your ears, and please, go in the path of respect.

Guerin
How much of your gold is currently being frozen in the Bank of England? There are assets of Venezuela belonging to this country that you have been trying to access through the Bank of England. How much of your gold is currently frozen, and have you any chance of getting that?

Maduro
Well in general, in England there could be more or less 80 tonnes. Legally, it's Venezuela's gold, established by the institutions.

It's protected by the central banks. It's gold that belongs to the central bank of Venezuela. And I hope that the international law is respected. And the Central Bank of Venezuela is respected. And that hopefully the law will prevail.

And that Venezuela is not robbed of its gold/expropriated of the gold that legally belongs to us.

Guerin
What would you say to the British government and to Theresa May?

Maduro
In reality we have not had much of a relationship with the prime minister. If she would listen to me, I would tell her that she should open her ears wide and see the aggression and not be partners in crime in what could be an invasion, a war in Latin America. That the extremist group that is in the White House is willing to do anything, and in the name of Venezuela, I tell her look at the reality, look into the heart of Venezuela. It goes beyond the information and the campaigns that are being waged daily against us. And that hopefully she has the opportunity that the UK and in general Europe could then propose a respectful dialogue between Venezuelans. There is a severe risk to peace in Latin America and the Caribbean. Venezuela will fight if we have to. For our liberty and for our independence. We fought in the past and there were many English, Irish that were on the battlefields of Venezuela. I am sending a message beyond Mrs May to the people of the United Kingdom, the people of England, to all the people of the United Kingdom, to have solidarity with us and support peace, and to enforce John Lennon's song, Give Peace A Chance. Give Peace a Chance and give truth a chance in Venezuela - that would be my call.

Guerin
You have said you are ready to fight. Are you ready to take up arms against the US military if they decide to cross the border?

Maduro
They would not leave us any other option. We would have to defend the right of our country to exist. To defend our right to peace. I hope that doesn't happen. I hope that public opinion will be on the side of peace and they can see how noble the Venezuelan people are, and that we have a right to discuss our own problems in peace. And that nobody interferes with Venezuela. No-one. And that this extremist group that is in the White House is defeated by powerful world-wide public opinion. I have faith in that. I am a believer, I am a Christian and I always ask God to enlighten us and protect us. And I have faith that we are going to accomplish everything in piece.

Guerin
The opposition has talked about getting volunteers, getting people to the border to get the aid across. If they attempt to do that would your troops fire on your own people?

Maduro
We have never done that. We would never do that. We have never done that. The opposition has its tactics. It's politics. They create their own shows. They have the freedom in this country to do anything they want. But there has never been and never will be repression of that kind. Please.

Guerin
But there have been people killed in anti government protests. Just last month the United Nations said that as many as 40 were killed, about 26 by your security forces. People have been killed for protesting -

Maduro
What protests? They have not shown a single bit of proof of a campaign that lasted 15 days. I saw it, I watch international news and the international news was showing a Venezuela that was not on the street. Of course on the 23 January there were big rallies. The opposition held a big march and so did we. And with those images and other images of confrontation on the streets, they ended up saying that there were enormous protests that lasted fifteen days in Venezuela. I spoke with prime ministers and presidents from around the world who called me, the 25, 28, 29 January, the first of February and they were asking me if there were big demonstrations in the streets. And I said no, Venezuela is working, Venezuela is in peace. Because they tried to show - look at this. In order to justify this coup d'état and find the international support they had a plan to stir up the main cities in the country but they failed. It's a small group of delinquents that went out to the streets, paid for by sections of the opposition and they were caught in the middle of their violent action.

Guerin
There were many large-scale protests. We have seen some of those ourselves. We have also seen your supporters. But do you dispute that the opposition has been able to bring large numbers out and these people have said they are calling for change?

Maduro
Yes, I saw them. And they were given the right to protest and have big protests. The same for the opposition as for us. Venezuela is a dynamic democracy with people who support the revolution and people who oppose the revolution. Whenever they go out and march, they will have the right to do so. And I always say I hope they do it in peace. They have small violent cells of protestors that when the demonstrations are over, the marches of the opposition, always try to have a confrontation with the police in order to cause disturbance. The opposition has all the freedom to march as many times as they want, with their slogans and demands and we are also going to mobilise our people. Fortunately our people have a dynamic democracy.

Guerin
Is there any set of circumstances in which you would give up power?

Maduro
It is not about me as an individual wanting to be in power, Orla, and it is not my individual choice to abandon power. I am part of a social, political and historical revolutionary movement and that popular movement placed me in this position of responsibility. Complying with all the constitutional steps, electoral requirements and the mandate that they gave me is very powerful. And I have to comply with that mandate with my life. I swore to do this. I swore in the national supreme court to give my life to uphold and enforce the constitution, that is the mandate. And I am going to go beyond words to the end of what is possible to do this.

Guerin
Are you confident you still have the support of the army? There is a lot of intimidation in the army now - people are being jailed when they speak out against you.

Maduro
Well, that is another of the myths that were created throughout this campaign against me. The national Bolivarian armed forces is structurally humane. It's Bolivarian. democratic. Structurally institutionalised. And it's an armed forces forged through its values and a new doctrine, a new concept with teaching academies, and with a university for permanent learning. It's a new type of armed forces. This is not just an army, just made up of a random group of people, nor is it a rebellious army. It is not an army in the style of Pinochet. Nor will it be. So therefore these armed forces are loyal to the constitution. Loyal. Firmly loyal to the constitution. Mobilised in defence. Preparing themselves to defend the country. With very high moral values. They are very conscientious. And loyal to the Constitutional Commander in Chief, who is Nicolás Maduro. I am the head of state and the head of government and am, according to the constitution, the Commander in Chief. They are loyal because they have a conscience and they have morals. It's not a rebellious armed forces. And it's not an armed forces that will put themselves at the service of the interests of the United States, of Donald Trump's Empire of the United States. Donald Trump has given orders on Twitter, it's incredible, Orla. Donald Trump, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence - they have commanded the Venezuelan armed forces to rise up in rebellion against the president of the republic. They have gone to extreme lengths and I am sure it has never been done with any country in the world before. And where are the armed forces? Are they going to serve Donald Trump? No. The armed forces are loyal. To the country and the constitution and recognising their commander in chief as the legitimate chief. I have a level of relationship that I inherited from commandante Hugo Chavez, and that I have developed. So it is now a very deep, sincere honest and real relationship with all the officers, with the armed forces, with the soldiers. And that is a big strength that our country has.

Guerin
How do you think Hugo Chavez would feel if he saw Venezuela today?

Maduro
He would feel motivated to fight for our country as he always did. Commandante Chavez had to endure very similar circumstances to these, very similar. George W Bush launched a coup d'état against him on 11 and 12 April 2002. He was kidnapped and they were going to kill him and Chavez did not hesitate, not even for one second, to defend his principles, his ideals and to fight to stay alive. So therefore Chavez for us is a huge inspiration. I always think, what would Chavez do in these circumstances? And that helps me a lot to find the right way forward, to know what to do every day.

Guerin
One last question, if I may, about the Americans. If President Trump was to put 5,000 US troops on the Colombian border, how would you respond?

Maduro
He can put a million if he wants to. If it's inside Colombia he can bring a million tanks, a million planes, a million soldiers. It's not a problem, if they stay inside Colombia, there is no problem. We will defend Venezuela and we will make them respect Venezuela. And with the conscience of the world and the conscience of the decent people of the world, we must tie the hands of Donald Trump, prevent Donald Trump from starting a war in Latin America. Or to assault Venezuela. I appeal for solidarity. I appeal for active solidarity of all the people of conscience in the world, beyond any ideology. No to a war in Venezuela. No to an invasion of Venezuela. And that we all tell Donald Trump: hands off Venezuela. Venezuela wants peace, tranquillity, happiness.

Guerin
If a convoy comes through without authorisation would you fire upon it? If a plane comes in without authorisation would it be attacked?

Maduro
They should send a convoy with the dollars they have stolen from us. Send a convoy with the gold with the 80 tonnes. Let it come, the convoy with money. It's our money. With that, we could solve all our country's problems.

Guerin
What would you say to the people who are hungry now, to the people who can't find food, can't find medicine, who are worried they won't have fuel. What do you say to them?

Maduro
I tell them, and more than that, I act. I generate jobs, the pension system, protect Venezuelan families, continue to protect Venezuelan families, continue reducing extreme poverty. We have made a commitment between 2017 and 2025 to reach a state of zero poverty and we are going to accomplish it. You will see that we will do it.

Guerin
A very last question: can you tell me how much a kilo of cheese costs in Venezuela?

Maduro
It has different prices depending on the region.

Guerin
Because we have been told it is the equivalent of a month's wages and that is what it is costing people just to buy one kilo of cheese.

Maduro
We have different scales of salary. Now this is a very Venezuelan issue.

I don't think your audience is interested in that. You see, because if we had time to compare the jobs, social protection, social security, public health, and public education available to the Venezuelan people, then with time probably your audience would understand. So I can tell you in Venezuela we have a policy of social protection to generate jobs and our people progressively will start solving their problems and they won't want for anything. I can tell you that.

Guerin
Have you heard from Jeremy Corbyn, the British opposition leader, during this crisis? Do you feel he hasn't given you enough support? He has been a strong supporter of Venezuela in the past.

Maduro
No, we haven't spoken.

Guerin
And do you think he should have given you support?

Maduro
I think he should continue to be the leader that he is in the United Kingdom.

perolator

13th February 2019, 00:04

... the attempt at a colour revolution in 2007

What color revolution? What did I miss in 2007?
Was there not even an attempt in 2007?

The 2007 protests were mostly linked to the closure of RCTV national TV broadcaster and the robbery of its nationwide broadcasting network by the Venezuelan government, one of the largest robberies the government made, ever. Some students were called themselves "White hands" (manos blancas) but that was not considered by most Venezuelans a color revolution. Those were simply, protests. 2007 protests cannot be compared to 2002, 2014 or 2017.

Baby Steps

13th February 2019, 00:08

Is it possible that this long, excellent thread has only had 369 views?

Hervé

13th February 2019, 01:33

Is it possible that this long, excellent thread has only had 369 views?
See post # 288 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1275154&viewfull=1#post1275154)...

perolator

13th February 2019, 17:03

This is the kind of Russia Today "news" that enraged 5th. I am so accustomed to propaganda that I do not care.

https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/305401-glover-criticar-sanciones-venezuela-salvarlos

Glover says in the interview that (The U.S.) "take thousands of millions dollars away from The Venezuelan government Venezuelans, impose sanctions to prevent The Venezuelan government Venezuelans to access their own money and after doing so, (The U.S.) tries to "save" Venezuelans.

hMKLK6UQBaQ

I laughed watching the late Chavez speaking with Glover about racism, Black Panthers, Malcolm X, socialism, bolivarian enchilada, among other topics. An ideological pastiche.

Danny Glover is no fool. has been one of the opportunists longtime chavismo allies. He received US$ 18 million as funding for a movie in 2007 and 2008. 18 million dollars for an Haitian leader documentary is not enough? The movie was never made.

And it never will.

When I spoke to Danny Glover about his long-in-development Toussaint L’Ouverture film in late 2011, this is what he had to say: “We’re still working on it; we’re in one of those periods where the idea is still alive and still resonates out there; we just have to get all the resources together to make it happen, and we believe, I believe it’s still a signature piece of our company and a piece we want most to happen.”

And when I asked about the challenges he must have been facing in trying to get a film on this subject matter financed and produced, he laughed and added: “You don’t want to hear those stories man… the stories I could write a book on… just on the process of trying to make a film about the Haitian revolution; but the project is still alive.”

Source (https://www.indiewire.com/2015/07/danny-glovers-toussaint-louverture-film-that-never-was-but-could-still-be-other-films-on-the-haitian-revolutionary-235064/)

Hervé

15th February 2019, 14:24

Regime Change Template: The ocean of lies on Venezuela recalls the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq (https://blogfactory.co.uk/2019/02/12/the-ocean-of-lies-on-venezuela-recalls-the-lead-up-to-the-invasion-of-iraq/)

Blog Factory (https://blogfactory.co.uk/2019/02/12/the-ocean-of-lies-on-venezuela-recalls-the-lead-up-to-the-invasion-of-iraq/)
Thu, 14 Feb 2019 00:22 UTC

http://thepythoniccow.us/Bush_Blair_s.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/510107/full/Bush_Blair_s.jpg)
Minutes after the Coalition Provisional Authority transferred authority to Iraq's interim government, President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair shake hands during a work session at the NATO Summit in Istanbul, Turkey, Monday, June 28, 2004.

There are clear and disturbing parallels between the events that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the current frenzy promoting regime change (https://www.thecanary.co/topics/venezuela-coup/) in Venezuela. From the state actors to the massive disinformation campaign, Washington and its "coalition of the willing (https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/cfr/international/slot1_032803.html?mcubz=0)" appear to be following the same old imperialist formula.

The Canary spoke to activist journalists Mike Prysner and Fiona Edwards about the parallels between the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq and current events in Venezuela. Prysner was 19 years old when he was deployed to Iraq in March 2003. He is now an anti-war activist, producer and writer for The Empire Files (http://theempirefiles.tv/), and co-host of the Eyes Left podcast (https://soundcloud.com/eyesleft). Edwards, meanwhile, is a national officer of Stop the War (http://www.stopwar.org.uk/) coalition (a central organising (https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/feb/15/politics.politicalnews) force against the Iraq invasion) and a writer (https://eyesonlatinamerica.com/) on Latin America.

Déjà vu in Venezuela
Prysner began by saying:
The biggest parallel I see at the moment is the creation of a pretext for US invasion on two separate fronts; the first being the rhetoric of a 'national security threat'. Like with Iraq, the administration is building a case that Venezuela actually poses a threat to US security On 7 February, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told (https://twitter.com/trish_regan/status/1093321447437750272) Fox News that "Hezbollah has active cells" in Venezuela. This is today's equivalent (https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/1094271599308607488) to false and exaggerated claims (https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/rumsfelds-exaggerations-on-the-saddamal-qaeda-link/) surrounding Iraq's WMDs and links to Al Qaeda.

Prysner continued:
To me, [Pompeo's claims] are not taken seriously, but neither were WMDs in Iraq.... It was under the 'humanitarian intervention' that was ultimately the rationale I went to war with. In Iraq and Venezuela alike, the evidence of this humanitarian crisis was something actively manufactured by US policy through the use of sanctions and economic blockade. For the US government to asphyxiate the country for years, then be the saviors, really exposes that their policy never had anything to do with what was best for its people.

"The US is trying to starve and kill the Venezuelan people with crippling economic sanctions" Prysner noted that US sanctions (https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2018/12/19/as-corporate-media-endorses-sanctions-on-us-enemies-lets-remember-just-how-harmful-and-useless-they-are/) on both countries failed (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1094675018926223360) to have the desired effect of creating sufficient misery to cause the civilian population to overthrow their own government:

In both countries, the opposition factions backed and funded by the United States are totally incapable of taking power themselves - in Venezuela's case, the opposition has been unable to win the battle of democracy [losing the vast majority of democratic elections over the past 20 years].

Edwards added to this by pointing out that:

The current stage of the US offensive against Venezuela is to apply intense political and economic pressure. On the economic front, the US is trying to starve and kill the Venezuelan people with crippling economic sanctions that a United Nations rapporteur has described as possible 'crimes against humanity'. Brutal US economic sanctions were also imposed on Iraq for more than a decade in the lead-up to the US invasion in 2003. Armed violence
When the domestic population cannot (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1094661822081306626) be coerced to do Washington's bidding, Prysner attests that the US turns to armed violence: For [US president Donald] Trump to bring back key Iraq war architects - employing the same imperial rhetoric of an 'Axis of Evil' and now a 'Troika of Tyranny' - shows that their vision includes the use of brute force like they were willing to do in Iraq.

It is significant that Trump hasn't even remotely drained (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg9ypxT9V3g) "the swamp" as he claimed he would. Instead, he's got the band responsible for the invasion of Iraq back together again. His national security adviser John Bolton (https://www.thecanary.co/topics/john-bolton/), for example, was one of its strongest advocates (https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/john-bolton/556346/) - even after no WMDs were found (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/john-bolton-no-regrets-about-toppling-saddam) in Iraq. And Bolton is now perhaps the most ardent supporter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTE0SQA2jU8) of military intervention (https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1093965200343080961) in Venezuela. In November 2018, he evoked (https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2018/11/05/washington-takes-aim-at-a-new-axis-of-evil-but-the-world-isnt-buying-it/) Bush's 'axis of evil' speech by calling Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua a "troika of tyranny".

Elliott Abrams (https://www.thecanary.co/us/us-analysis/2019/02/08/bombshell-revelation-suggests-theres-nothing-humanitarian-about-us-aid-to-venezuela/), meanwhile, was one of the chief "architects (https://www.rt.com/usa/449756-abrams-pompeo-venezuela-iran-contra/)" of the invasion of Iraq. Abrams, who has a long history (https://theintercept.com/2019/01/30/elliott-abrams-venezuela-coup/) of "crushing democracy" in Latin America (https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/02/06/three-terrifying-reasons-never-to-trust-us-intentions-in-latin-america/), is now responsible for US "efforts to restore democracy" in Venezuela. Florida senator Marco Rubio (https://www.thecanary.co/topics/marco-rubio/) also maintained (https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/05/13/did-marco-rubio-just-flip-flop-on-the-iraq-war/) for years that, despite having no WMDs, invading Iraq was the correct decision. And today, he's telling (https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1093964418264821767) Venezuelan military leaders to "make a choice, before a choice is made for them".

The White House, moreover, directly compared (https://twitter.com/LaCasaBlanca/status/1093559350994616325) Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The mainstream media
Prysner also slammed the mainstream media, which has been predictably (https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/01/30/the-guardian-shows-its-true-colours-with-more-fearless-support-for-western-imperialism/) supportive (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14314) of intervention (https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2019/02/01/jill-stein-puts-establishment-politicians-to-shame-with-vocal-opposition-to-us-intervention-in-venezuela/): Their help was essential to paving the way for war on Iraq, and they are again dutifully playing their part. This includes twisting the truth, outright lies (like that Venezuela is a 'dictatorship'), and the deliberate omission of facts (like the fact that Venezuela's opposition is right-wing and carrying out lynchings).

The mainstream media was crucial to the Iraq war effort through uncritical acceptance of:
a) the West's 'legitimacy (https://twitter.com/NeilClark66/status/1094576631224635392)' to intervene;

b) the West's noble character and intentions (https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/op-ed-with-the-independent-as-a-former-un-special-rapporteur-the-coup-in-venezuela-reminds-me-of-the-rush-to-war-in-iraq/); and

c) the accuracy of governmental 'intelligence (https://twitter.com/crimesofbrits/status/1092126009988694016)'.
Today, journalistic errors (https://fair.org/home/western-media-fall-in-lockstep-for-cheap-trump-rubio-venezuela-aid-pr-stunt/) on Venezuela consistently strengthen (https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/01/30/the-guardian-shows-its-true-colours-with-more-fearless-support-for-western-imperialism/) the case for a foreign intervention that most Venezuelans don't want (https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-news/2019/01/29/new-poll-shows-venezuelans-overwhelmingly-oppose-military-intervention-and-us-sanctions/). And once again, 'liberal' outlets like the Guardian (https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/01/30/the-guardian-shows-its-true-colours-with-more-fearless-support-for-western-imperialism/https:/www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/01/30/the-guardian-shows-its-true-colours-with-more-fearless-support-for-western-imperialism/) and BBC (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14309) are among the worst culprits (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/04/nicolas-maduro-praying-us-intervene-venezuela).

The media-backed disinformation campaigns, meanwhile, are consistently directed at a particular type of country. In Prysner's words: It is no coincidence that both countries have vast reserves of oil, and more importantly, nationalized oil... Looking at every conflict my whole life, and the US allies and enemies globally, it really comes down to something more simple [than the level of human rights and democracy in these countries, or threat of attack]: does that country submit to the interests of US capitalism and militarism?

Edwards added:

The US wanted control of Iraq's oil then. And now, they want to get their hands on Venezuela's oil reserves, which are considered to be the largest in the world and are owned by the Venezuelan state.
"For the past 13 years I've wished I could turn back the hands of time"
Paved by the lies of the Western political and media establishment, the invasion of Iraq caused the country's destruction (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-anniversary-.html) and the deaths of over 1 million (https://www.psr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/body-count.pdf) Iraqis. And Edwards insisted:

These horrific crimes should not be repeated in Venezuela. Prysner, meanwhile, finished with a sobering message to US troops: Seeing the same playbook [as Iraq] used to now build a case for war with Venezuela is disturbing... For the past 13 years, I've wished I could turn back the hands of time and refuse to have gotten on that plane to Iraq. I hope to tell as many US troops as possible that they have that chance now.

Change the narrative
Some commentators say (https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/isis-syria-al-qaeda-middle-east-saddam-hussein-uk-us-iraq-venezuela-a8747091.html) that intervention in Venezuela shows that the Western political and media elites have learned nothing from Iraq. They misunderstand that many of the forces behind Iraq (political (https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/06/02/important-objective-measures-show-that-the-iraq-war-was-a-success/) and media (https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/06/02/important-objective-measures-show-that-the-iraq-war-was-a-success/)) consider (https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/06/02/important-objective-measures-show-that-the-iraq-war-was-a-success/) the war a success. A country that refused to submit to Western capitalism was bombed to smithereens, looted (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/mar/20/iraq-war-oil-resources-energy-peak-scarcity-economy) for the spoils, and sold to the public as 'humanitarian intervention'.

If we can change the narrative (https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/society-is-made-of-narrative-realizing-this-is-awakening-from-the-matrix-787c7e2539ae) surrounding the nobility of Western intervention, the legitimacy of Western imperialism (https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/why-all-anti-interventionists-will-necessarily-be-smeared-as-russian-assets-cb9b051951cf) will disappear. Ultimately, stopping war in Venezuela requires cutting through the ocean of lies that led to the invasion of Iraq.

Related:

Western govts failed to learn the lesson of Iraq, which is why their Venezuela gambit will be another disaster (https://www.sott.net/article/406026-Western-govts-failed-to-learn-the-lesson-of-Iraq-which-is-why-their-Venezuela-gambit-will-be-another-disaster)

"Their future vassal": US meddling in Venezuela just like Iraq and Libya - Russian Foreign Ministry (https://www.sott.net/article/405939-Their-future-vassal-US-meddling-in-Venezuela-just-like-Iraq-and-Libya-Russian-Foreign-Ministry)

New leader of US regime change in Venezuela: Trump-bashing, Iraq war architect Elliott Abrams (https://www.sott.net/article/405848-New-leader-of-US-regime-change-in-Venezuela-Trump-bashing-Iraq-war-architect-Elliott-Abrams)

Tintin

15th February 2019, 17:26

From Democracy Now that ran, and was shown, February 13th

Full show accessible here:
https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2019/2/13?autostart=true

--------------------------------------

Venezuela Accuses U.S. of Secretly Shipping Arms After Weapons Found on Plane with Possible CIA Ties

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/13/venezuela_accuses_us_of_secretly_shipping

A North Carolina-based air freight company has halted flights to Venezuela following a report by McClatchy linking it to possible arms smuggling. Last week, Venezuelan authorities claimed they had uncovered 19 assault weapons, 118 ammunition cartridges and 90 military-grade radio antennas on board a U.S.-owned plane that had flown from Miami into Valencia, Venezuela’s third-largest city. The Boeing 767 is owned by a company called 21 Air based in Greensboro, North Carolina. The plane had made nearly 40 round-trip flights between Miami and spots in Venezuela and Colombia since January 11, the day after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in to a second term.

The flights ended after McClatchy first reported on them. Venezuela accused the U.S. government of sending the arms as part of its attempt to topple the Maduro government. While no definitive links between 21 Air and the U.S. government have been established, McClatchy reports the chairman of 21 Air, Adolfo Moreno, as well as another employee at the company have ties to Gemini Air Cargo, which was involved in the CIA’s rendition program during the administration of George W. Bush. We speak to McClatchy reporter Tim Johnson, who broke the story. Johnson was part of a team that shared a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for its investigation of the Panama Papers.

AutumnW

15th February 2019, 18:47

Purolater,

BBC is mainstream media, not to be trusted...at all...when it comes to matters of war, foreign policy, impartial analysis of domestic political situations. You may want to read up on the David Kelly affair, involving the reporter Andrew Gilligan, in the lead up to the Iraq war, before ever giving BBC enough credit to post links to their interviews here.

The interview you posted featured Guirin, a mealy mouthed, effete, careerist who merely dabbles in the truth. His main function is stenographer to the powers that be.

perolator

15th February 2019, 20:01

--------------------------------------
Last week, Venezuelan authorities claimed they had uncovered 19 assault weapons, 118 ammunition cartridges and 90 military-grade radio antennas on board a U.S.-owned plane that had flown from Miami into Valencia, Venezuela’s third-largest city. The Boeing 767 is owned by a company called 21 Air based in Greensboro, North Carolina. The plane had made nearly 40 round-trip flights between Miami and spots in Venezuela and Colombia since January 11, the day after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in to a second term. The flights ended after McClatchy first reported on them. Venezuela accused the U.S. government of sending the arms as part of its attempt to topple the Maduro government.

"Arming the opposition" is ridiculous, to say the least. Let's say 20 assault weapons times 40 flights... 800 weapons in gross numbers. And the training? The bolivarian enchilada controls ALL of the Venezuelan land. (Counter-Strike and COD are not weapons training alternatives). Chavez's AK-103 first supply was 100000 units. Yes, one hundred thousand. Most of those weapons went to FARC and ELN guerrillas, a percentage to the Venezuelan army and a percentage to militias. Colectivos and gangs also have AK-103's and AR-15's. Even worse, a factory (https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/venezuela-set-to-mass-produce-kalashnikovs-sniper-rifles/) was scheduled since 2012 to mass-produce Kalashnikovs but, as always and fortunately, no rifles were made.

Venezuela is nearing completion of an arms factory which will produce 25,000 Kalashnikov and sniper rifles a year, a development which could have troublesome implications for the conflict in neighboring Colombia.

In a June 13 televised speech, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praised an arms factory in Aragua state, constructed with Russian assistance. Though it is still waiting on equipment from Russia, when production is at full capacity the factory will be able to produce 25,000 rifles and 60 million rounds a year. The factory has already produced 3,000 AK-103 assault rifles, according to Chavez.

The factory (see video below) will produce a series of rifles, which the president referred to as “Catatumbo” rifles. The guns will be available in various calibers, including a .50 caliber anti-materiel version which can be used against vehicles and helicopters. The first of these will be delivered to the military in September.

Claims of rifle production by Chavez are false. There is also a video confirming production started in 2014.

Source (https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/venezuela-set-to-mass-produce-kalashnikovs-sniper-rifles/)

In the video below, (unfortunately in Spanish) you can see how well armed are criminals inside a Venezuelan jail (!). What you are about to see is commonplace in any Venezuelan penitentiary under chavismo.

WMX84dIcROk

perolator

15th February 2019, 20:51

@AutumnW:

I respect your point of view. I did not emphasize any part of the interview to allow readers not to be influenced in any way.

The interview you posted featured Guirin, a mealy mouthed, effete, careerist who merely dabbles in the truth. His main function is stenographer to the powers that be.

Let me quote a segment of the interview.

Guerin
You say the humanitarian aid is a show, but are you actually saying that the hunger is a show? We have seen it with our own eyes. I have met a mother of five who told me that her children go to bed every night with nothing to eat, and just a short drive from here, we have actually seen people reaching into the garbage with their hands to find food to eat. Are you honestly saying there is no hunger in Venezuela?

Maduro
I am telling you that the BBC in London has created a stereotype - the American media also - of a Venezuela that doesn't exist.

That's what you, AutumnW, are saying. That's why teleSUR exists.

We have 4.4% of what we call extreme poverty, misery. Of course this is still something that we have to overcome, but we come from 25% of extreme poverty, and we have reduced all the indexes of inequality. Venezuela today currently has indexes recognised by international organisations in the highest levels of social equality in social investment.

Lies.

Do we have problems? Yes. But Venezuela is not a country with hunger.

Venezuela has the highest levels of nutrients, has extremely high levels of access to food and that stereotype, that stigma that they have tried to put on us, has only one objective: present a humanitarian crisis that does not exist in Venezuela, in order to do an intervention.

If you believe this, well, you are free to believe what you think is the truth. Well, to me, the stenographer did a good job. I do not have to believe anything. I know what is happening in my country. I know the truth.

Bill Ryan

15th February 2019, 21:05

I was asked to post this by a guest who contacted me by e-mail. It's copied verbatim, but I broke up some of the long paragraphs for easier reading.

https://caracaschronicles.com/2019/02/13/open-letter-from-peace-and-non-violence-activists-and-organizations-from-venezuela

Open Letter From Peace Activists And Organizations From Venezuela

We, the organizations and people who defend human rights, activists and promoters of Non-Violence and Peace, conscientious objectors and anti-militarists, who take action in Venezuela, address this open letter to our friends throughout the world, sharing our opinion about the conflict which is currently unfolding in our country.

We know that the decrease in the causes of violence are intimately connected with the dignity of the lives of people. There cannot be conditions of dignity and peace if there is not a decrease in poverty, hunger, inequality, and improvements in the access to basic goods and services for the entire population, especially for the most vulnerable sectors. Violence flourishes in societies without democratic guarantees for participation in free and fair elections to elect representatives and powers.

There is no way to promote non-violence and peace if we ignore the causes of discrimination and inequality which have forced millions of people to migrate. To promote non-violence and peace we must advance in the elimination of the exercise of Power from the logic of authoritarianism, unequivocal and militaristic which poses relations between people from the perspective of enemies, friends, allies, and traitors which seek to eliminate – both symbolically and in reality – difference and liberty.

Venezuela has been experiencing an accelerated process of significant setbacks to our quality of life, making it harder to access the most basic things which are necessary for subsistence, and deeply affecting the democratic system.

Since 2015, after the election of the National Assembly, it was evident that the pro-government political sector had lost its majority, and elections began being manipulated to guarantee that Maduro’s party (PSUV) remained in power.

The government does not publish official data and disregards and criminalizes studies and testimonies which reflect a reality contrary to what is shown in the national media, which is fiercely monitored and censored. The Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights of the United Nations reported that 3.5 million Venezuelans had been forced to migrate in the past years.

Venezuela suffers a Complex Humanitarian Emergency generated by political decisions, not by natural disasters or armed conflicts. The State is responsible for inflicting damage and has demonstrated that it has no will to repair the damages it has made.

In 2018, poverty rates reached approximately 48% of households, according to the three main universities of the country. Inflation reached 1,229,724% and, according to projections, could reach 10 million % in 2019. A single family needs 60 monthly minimum wages to acquire the basic goods and services necessary to survive.

In 2017, 64% of Venezuelans lost approximately 11 kilograms of weight and 33% of children between 0-2 years of age suffer delays in their process of growth and development. In a study conducted by Caritas, 53% of Venezuelan households has had to recur to survival strategies such as begging and searching for food in the trash.

In 2018, non-governmental organizations reported that 60% of the medical attention that existed in 2011 had disappeared and, according to official data, the maternal mortality rate increased by 66% and child mortality rate by 30%.

Since 2017, more than 79,000 people with HIV stopped receiving anti-retroviral medicine. Venezuela has the highest growth rate of malaria cases in the world, adding 43% to the cases of malaria in Latin America. Just in 2018, the cases of malaria increased by 53%.

There is an alarming health crisis given the resurgence of eradicated diseases such as tuberculosis (10,952 cases), diphtheria (9,362 cases), and smallpox, which has caused the death of at least 5,000 people. This resurgence has been caused by the lack of access to medicine and the lack of prevention and control programs. The Pharmaceutical Federation of Venezuela reported that in 2018, the scarcity of medicine reached 85%.

The deficit of beds available in hospitals reaches 64%, 79% of hospitals do not have running water, 53% of operating rooms have closed, and 95% of medicine, medical supplies, equipment, and pieces to repair broken down machines are imported.

In 2017, the Supreme Court of Justice tried to annul the National Assembly through a decree, which the Prosecutor General, Luisa Ortega Díaz, declared as a “rupture of the constitutional order”.

Consequently, Venezuela has experienced the largest cycle of peaceful protests in contemporary Latin American history, along with Nicaragua. Millions of people have taken to the streets asking for free and credible elections, the respect for the constitutional order, the separation of powers and the rule of law. The internal democratic means to change the situation have been blocked, the population engaged in marches, blocked streets, organized walks, petitions, artistic direct action, hunger strikes, referendums and dialogues.

The response has been the implementation of a repressive military plan called “Plan Zamora”, with the participation of security forces, the National Bolivarian Guard, and armed civilians. According to non-government organizations, there were 6,729 protests in 4 months across the country, 135 people murdered, more than 12 thousand people detained, 848 political prisoners, and over 230 victims of torture, cruel and unusual punishment, and millions in exile.

The result has been a systematic persecution against the political dissidence which has generated the opening of a preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Nicolas Maduro violated the Constitution by calling for a National Constituent Assembly, with supra-constitutional powers, declaring a state of emergency to govern without a balance of powers with the legislative body, with which he brought the date of the presidential elections forward, without the minimum conditions of fair elections for Venezuelans to choose a president freely.

This is how, in 2018, Maduro was re-elected for another 6-year term, in a political event that was not just, transparent, free, or credible, as evidenced by the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and 60 countries throughout the world, also denounced by the Venezuelan human rights movement.

During 2018, after the people’s struggle for the restitution of democracy was defeated, and with the worsening of the Complex Humanitarian Emergency, Venezuela had the largest index of forced migration which the region has witnessed. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, over 3 million Venezuelans have fled the country and, if the situation does not significantly change in 2019, this number could increase to 5 million people.

The protests in Venezuela have not ceased. In 2018, there were a total of 12,715 protests, which amount to 35 protests daily throughout the country, of which 89% were associated to social or labor demands, the provision of basic services, health and food-related. In this context, 14 people were murdered, 13 by firearms.

In 2017 the Fuerza de Acciones Especiales (FAES) police force was created with the purpose of conducting a social cleansing campaign in the popular barrios, they also committed arbitrary detentions, forced entries, and extrajudicial executions. According to the human rights organization, Provea, FAES has murdered at least 205 people.

On January 10th, Nicolás Maduro proclaimed himself president for a second period, violating the national Constitution and installing a de facto government. The National Assembly, on January 23rd, being the only institution legitimately elected by popular vote, basing their mandate on the Constitution, declared that the Presidency had been usurped and thus assumed the powers of the executive body to create a transitional government which would permit free and credible elections in the short-term.

Since January 21st, a new cycle of mass protests began, with the popular sectors as their protagonist, as the neighbors of the barrio of Cotiza protested in the streets demanding an end to the usurpation of the Presidency after a nearby military garrison declared their non-recognition of Maduro has the president.

The neighbors’ protest was repressed by security forces, led by FAES. Between January 21st and February 4th 2019, a total of 35 people were murdered in protests, 9 were extrajudicially executed in cases of forced entry after the protests ended for the day. There have been 939 arrests, amongst them hundreds of women, 77 teenagers, and 7 indigenous people.

The political, humanitarian, and migratory crises in Venezuela are a problem for the region. Countries of various ideological positions have expressed their concern for years, and the current situation had become a crucial moment for the future of the country and the region.

The 13 countries most populated and most affected countries by the Venezuelan migratory phenomenon created a coalition called the Lima Group, who have recognized the National Assembly, recognized Juan Guiadó as interim president, support the call for new elections, specifically through a peaceful transition without the use of force.

Additionally, 21 countries in the European Union have joined the called for free and credible elections, stopping the exercise of a de factogovernment by Nicolás Maduro, and the recognition of the rightful exercise of executive powers by the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó. The European community has called on the creation of a commission to last for three months to create credible elections in Venezuela.

Mexico and Uruguay have proposed a dialogue to create a peaceful exit to the crisis. Colombia and Brazil, countries which share borders with Venezuela, have been heavily affected by the border and migratory crises, and have support the Lima Group’s resolutions, offering to assist with the provision of humanitarian assistance at the border.

The United States of America have taken the more belligerent posture amidst the crisis, creating pressure towards a transition as proposed by the Lima Group but, in the case of failure, considering every other option on the table, including a military option.

The declarations by the United States government have generated a comprehensible global reaction. Unfortunately, the reaction has not been to avoid a war due to the tragedy which that would represent for the Venezuelan people and the region, also supporting the peaceful exit of Maduro from power so that the Venezuelan people can freely express their will.

The reaction posed the conflict as one of Maduro and Venezuelan socialism versus Yankee imperialism. This reaction, by amplifying the Venezuelan government’s propaganda, commits a great act of injustice against the people who suffer amidst a complex humanitarian emergency, who cannot exercise their liberties, and of whom the majority want a political change.

If we want to talk about imperialism in Venezuela we must tell the whole truth. Our country continues being an exporter of petroleum, and the United States continues being a main commercial partner along with China and Russia, which has created significant deals between the Russian oil company Rosneft and the Venezuelan oil company Pdsva which are not public information.

Additionally, since 2016, Maduro released a presidential decree which allowed for large-scale mining in the Arco Minero del Orinoco, an area of 111,843.70 km2– 12.2% of the Venezuelan territory and an area of land larger than Portugal – divided in four blocks for the extraction of gold, diamonds, coltan, and other minerals.

This is the area with the most drinking water in the country, it is indigenous lands, and there have been no environmental impact studies or prior, free, and informed consent to the projects, and the National Assembly has not approved the projects, a legal requirement per the national Constitution. The land has been militarized with important negative consequences with the increase in mafia activity, slave-like conditions, sexual exploitation, environmental damage, a negative cultural on indigenous communities who have been transformed, along with campesinos, into miners, along with massacres and disappearances of miners.

The public complaints, the possibility of one of the worse ecocides in the region, and the violation of environmental and social rights have been silenced by activists throughout the world. Turkey, China, Canada, Russia and various other African countries are the most interested and active in the exploration and exploitation of mines in the Arco Minero.

We must add that Russia has become the great arms trafficker to Venezuela. Rosoboronexport, the large-scale Russian arms exporter, announced in 2018 that it would reactivate joint work with the Maduro government in the construction and opening of an Kalashnikov gun factory in 2019, which had been delayed for years due to corruption issues.

Starting in 2016, the Maduro government, became a military government with limited civilian support. Venezuelan military officials, committed to military sectarianism, without any form of public accountability, currently occupy the most important positions in the purchase, importation, and distribution of the markets tied to the complex humanitarian emergency, along with a significant number of Ministries, governor’s offices, state and private companies, banks, etc.

In an investigation conducted by Transparency Venezuela, in 2018, 12 ministries and 6 state governments were under the leadership of military officials. The national production and distribution of basic foods, those which are most scarce and which are most speculated upon in black markets are in control by military officials: oil, rice, sugar, beef, coffee, black beans, personal hygiene products, pharmaceutical goods, diary, corn, corn flour, margarine, toilet paper, women’s hygiene products, diapers, pork, wheat, and soy.

Members of the Armed Forces coordinate the 9 main wholesale markets for the distribution of foods throughout the country, along with the management of airports and national ports. There are military companies in the areas of banking, finance, agriculture, communications, oil, mining, education, health, life insurance, industry, construction, and contracting. The country is governed and at the mercy of the military, including their logic and permanent war propaganda.

Venezuela, for over two decades, has experienced the logic of war which has divided Venezuelans. This has been a process of polarization that has been in transformation with the passing of the years and which today places people at two extremes: those who defend democracy and those who seek to maintain power through authoritarian means: violating the Constitution and confiscating the autonomy of independent powers, manipulating elections so they do not truly represent the will of the people.

Defending a military dictatorship with a civilian head of state, similar to that of Alberto Fujimori’s in Perú, against the majority of the population who seek a peaceful solution in which the voice of the Venezuelan people can be expressed through free and credible elections, so we can choose our destiny.

Nicolás Maduro has blocked every peaceful means for the restitution of democracy, the constitutional order, and the gravely needed attention for the complex humanitarian emergency. It has ignored and criminalized critical voices, including those who identify with chavismo who publicly criticize Maduro’s exercise of power.

What is happening in Venezuela today is not a case of imperialism versus a legitimate government of a socialist cut. It is a constitutional and peaceful route which the people are choosing in order to have a return of democracy. We do not want a forceful military intervention, we do not want more death or pain, we urge the entire world to not ignore the clamor of the Venezuelan people.

We can stop a war, we can stop a military intervention, if every unites inside and outside of our borders, raising our voice with us, demanding that it is the people, through truly free and democratic elections, who sovereignly decide our destiny.

The Venezuelan conflict has two solutions: a peaceful one, returning to the constitutional order which today is violated by a de facto government through free and credible elections. The second option is through force, whether through the action of the Venezuelan military against the governing elites or through an armed intervention by a foreign military.

It depends on every single one of us and our actions to place enough pressure so that the solution we face is non-violent, and inclusive, with the democracy and justice which the Venezuelan people and humanity itself deserves. We want it to be our voices and aspirations, not arms, which finally decide the future and destiny of our country. But for that, we need your help.

Sincerely:

Alba Purroy
Alejandro Álvarez Iragorry
Alexis Ramirez
Alfredo Infante
Ángel Zambrano
Aura Scaramelli
Catalina Valera
Cristal Palacios
Cristóbal Plaza
Daniel Arzola
Daniel Certain
Douglas Gómez
Erick Lairet
Euglis Palma
Feliciano Reyna
Gracia Salazar
Israel Valera Perez
Juan Carlos La Rosa
Katiuska Camargo
Lexys Rendón
María Eugenia Redondo
María Fernanda Abzueta
Norkys J. Salcedo
Rafael Uzcátegui
Raúl Hurtado
Robzayda Marcos Vera
Rodolfo Montes de Oca
Rolanda Larez
Santiago Zapata
Seymar Liscano
Susana Raffalli
William Requejo
Zoraida Pacheco

Organizations:

Acción Solidaria (Action for Solidarity)
Asociación Civil Oportunidad
Centro de Justicia y Paz -Cepaz
Clima21 – Ambiente y Derechos Humanos
CODHEZ: Comisión para los Derechos Humanos del Estado Zulia
Conciencia Ciudadana A.C
Creemos Alianza Ciudadana
EXCUBITUS DHE
Instituto Mead de Venezuela A.C
Laboratorio Ciudadano de Noviolencia Activa
Laboratorio de Paz
LuchaNoViolentaEnVenezuela
Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos (Provea)
Proyecta Ciudadanía A.C
Psiquearte
RedOrgBaguta
Revista SIC del Centro Gumilla
Unión Vecinal para la Participación Ciudadana A.C
Wainjirrawa

AutumnW

15th February 2019, 21:05

Perolater,

I think that Maduro is definitely exaggerating. I'll grant you that. But I do believe what he says about accounts being frozen, sanctions placed, etc...and how this has placed an enormous burden on Venezuela. Just out of curiosity, how do you personally feel the sanctions are affecting your country and the issue of hunger?

As well, Venezuela has a free press, does it not? Who owns the media, and how do you think those powers affect the general opinion of a government they are opposed to. Bearing in mind, they would be middle, upper middle and wealthy class?

perolator

15th February 2019, 21:08

Please,

Stop parroting the propaganda of Maduro’s regime in Venezuela (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/04/stop-parroting-propaganda-maduros-regime-venezuela/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8673c36b8350)

By Francisco Toro
February 4

(quoting)
But to many Venezuelans — the hundreds of thousands protesting in the streets or watching events from afar after being forced to migrate — the propaganda is easy to spot.

Why? Because Venezuelans have a hyper-developed nose for it.

We’ve been on the receiving end of an avalanche of state-sponsored manipulation, day in and day out, for 20 years. We now have decades of experience seeing how a regime that tramples democratic liberties can weaponize anti-Americanism, turning it into a club to beat those who call out state abuses.

If you haven’t lived in Venezuela, it’s difficult to conceive how relentless the regime’s propaganda machine can be. On radio, TV, Twitter and Facebook, in state newspapers, websites, advertising billboards, the drip-drip-drip of propaganda never lets up. The regime of Nicolás Maduro is happy to let its hospitals fall into hopeless disrepair, but not its propaganda arm: it spends lavishly on a sprawling set of outlets piping this message relentlessly both internally and to a foreign audience.
(end of quote)

1000% agree.
I know, Mass media...

AutumnW

15th February 2019, 21:16

Absolutely true that most of us have never been to Venezuela, much less lived there. I think what many of those who are anti-war are afraid of is the U.S. 'rescuing' you. In other words, bombing you to smithereens for your oil and to entrench its influence in South and Central America. We don't want you to become another Iraq or Syria.

I am so sorry your people are suffering. I DO believe you. It is just very hard to glean where it originates from.:heart:

perolator

15th February 2019, 21:33

Perolater,
I think that Maduro is definitely exaggerating. I'll grant you that.

Thanks. :clapping:

But I do believe what he says about accounts being frozen, sanctions placed, etc...and how this has placed an enormous burden on Venezuela. Just out of curiosity, how do you personally feel the sanctions are affecting your country and the issue of hunger?

The first Executive Order, 13692, was issued by Barack Obama on March 8, 2015. That is 17 years after the bolivarian enchilada started.

Source (https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/13692.pdf)

The first sanctions did nothing to the common man there. It is the truth.

Even now with more sanctions looming the horizon, Venezuela sent 100 tonnes of aid to victims of the Cuban tornado. How did they do it?
How did the top brass and the government import Ferraris, Toyota SUV's and all kinds of delicatessen for them?
We knew sanctions would be the perfect excuse to the government to further damage the general population.

As well, Venezuela has a free press, does it not?

It exists, but it is not "free". There are heavy censorship and control. Read the RCTV history.

Who owns the media, and how do you think those powers affect the general opinion of a government they are opposed to. Bearing in mind, they would be middle, upper middle and wealthy class?

In Venezuela are different shades of poverty. No middle class. Top brass (all branches), upper government, cartel leaders and the traditional wealthy class are the wealthy class.

Hervé

15th February 2019, 21:52

Oh, well...

From Jim Stone:
A very interesting post from an American who lived in Venezuela (http://82.221.129.208/.xp9.html)

Venezuela is more American than America , I'll give a list , I've lived there for many years!

This is part of the reason they want to end Venezuela as it is.

Free elections

That's right foreign observers are not even the start of it, you can not vote if you are a not a citizen, in fact it's impossible. Unlike in the USA.

You cannot get a job without being a citizen, that's right the jobs are only for their people. Not so in the USA.

Mom and pop shops run everywhere, If you have a lime tree you have grandma sit in the driveway and sell limes all day, no health dept comes around and shuts you down because your not a Walmart.

Real hardware stores where employees actually know what they are talking about. If they saw how we barricade down entire isles in home depot so they can use the fork truck they would laugh their asses off.

Not a lawsuit culture. Not in the USA we love lawsuits that's why we are treated like little baby girls .

Drink and drive or speed at your own risk. Yes they don't preemptively give you tickets. You are responsible for yourself, if you run someone over while drunk you pay a heavy price. If your in a hurry you speed and use your horn and nobody gets offended. Traffic stopped? they think for them selves and make a line like army ants through the grass and keep moving.

Restaurants are not served by Sysco , you will often find waiters and waitresses from your favorite restaurants running a cart through the grocery store throwing everything from lettuce to fish into the cart . And then running the cart through the mall to get it to the chef in the restaurant. Not in the USA !

Things don't have to be labeled organic or non gmo, know why?? Cause everything is already organic and non gmo, thanks to Chavez. In the USA you can assume quite the opposite.

Taxes are almost non existent, 3000 to 4000 sqft home property taxes are about 6 dollars a year! Not in the USA!

Gas is 1/10 of a penny for a gallon! That's right since it is their gas they get it damn near free. Not in the USA.

You have a choice for healthcare, free or private pay. We used the free ones, we had a military hospital right around the corner to us, we brought our kids in a few times for stitches, they don't even ask your name, they tie the 4 year old down with a towel and stitch up the wounds and your out the door! Not in the USA.

People say good morning and good afternoon religiously! Not in the USA!

You can tow a car down the highway with a motorcycle! Or drive a truck without any doors! Buying long rebar? won't fit in your car?? just strap it to the axles and let it stick out five foot in front of your car and five foot behind while hanging underneath and sometimes scraping the ground. Not in the USA!

Electric bill for our house was never over 12 bucks a month! Not in the USA!

If a major company does not benefit the country, if they are not loyal they are shunned or kicked out. Their resources are for the benefit of the people period! Not in the USA.

They have a more free form of capitalism without all the regulation! Not in the USA !

More then half the people carry around a copy of their constitution! Not in the USA !

The government is not controlled by a foreign gov. As the USA is told exactly what to do and how to act from Israel.

Venezuela does not kill their own with false flags!

Venezuela does not invade other countries to steal their resources!

Venezuela also has heavily armed local militias, they are there In case gov gets out of line!

I could keep going , this is what I can think of now.

Jim's comment:

Mexico is (sort of) similar. Property taxes are higher than that, and the police do DUI checks but the mom and pop stores are common, you can sell whatever you want, and medical is damn near free and VERY high quality and FAST. There's no such thing as "waiting for a doctor" in Mexico. I think the American system is set up the way it is to provide an illusion of scarcity and value, so they can then SCREW YOU.

There's no such thing as health insurance in Mexico, no one would ever consider it because the private medical system is so fast, effective and cheap, and I'm talking, usually 1/100th the price of the U.S. Claudia's heart attack dented the budget a bit, but the biggest expense was paying employees when the alt income plan was not (and still is not) running (and the loss of that income) because Claudia needs more recovery time. But there's no life robbing $50, 000 medical bill leaving a devastating aftermath.

People believe the media in the U.S. telling them how great it is, and how bad everywhere else is. But the reality is that America is so far gone now that former police state sh*t holes look like heaven by comparison now. The illegals only come up because deep state traitors have put in place a system that allows them to break any law they want and not have a consequence, and then hands them free housing, free medical, a welfare paycheck, and then they get to on top of it all work off the books. They have a seriously distorted view of America but it has to be that way to keep them here so they can do their job of undermining the country on behalf of the deep state.

perolator

15th February 2019, 22:21

Dennis Leahy

16th February 2019, 01:46

perolator

16th February 2019, 09:04

@Dennis Leahy,

Abby Martin (in one of the videos shot in Venezuela) showed some newspaper front pages and mentioned that there are a few pro-Chavista newspapers, and a few anti-Chavista newspapers in Venezuela. (I think she said one of the papers was sort of balanced.)

Let me help you a bit. She got from the newsstand:

Ultimas Noticias: Critic, Popular. Sold in 2013 to an unidentified party. Criticism towards government decreased dramatically since. 2014 protests not covered, led to resignation of several journalists. Right now: Pro-government. Abby said it is neutral.
Diario VEA: Pro-government, Abby said it is leftist.
Correo del Orinoco: Pro-government, Abby said it is leftist.
Diario La Razón: Neutral. Abby said it is pro-opposition.
Diario "Las Verdades de Miguel": Not a traditional newspaper. Miguel Salazar, the editor, was a journalist for Quinto Día, a known weekly newspaper, published on Fridays. "Las Verdades de Miguel" was formerly printed on the last page of that newspaper. Fervent Chavez supporter, Miguel obtained financing to create his own newspaper and webpage. Salazar learned that in journalism, criticism sells. He still supports the government. Abby said "Las Verdades de Miguel" is pro-opposition.
Zeta: Was a magazine, now is a newspaper. Rafael Poleo, Editor. Pro-opposition. As of now, out of print. Poleo said it is temporary. Abby said it is pro-opposition.
Diario Tal Cual: This was? is a weekly (former daily) newspaper also from Poleo. Pro-opposition. As of now, out of print. Poleo said it is temporary. Abby said it is pro-opposition.

7 newspapers, 1 neutral, 2 opposition and from the same editor *and* out of print. Therefore, 4 pro-government newspapers, 1 neutral. The most important nationwide newspapers were not considered. Abby was right only two times. You cannot judge a newspaper by its cover.

If anyone takes a peek at Caracas Chronicals website, it is pretty easy to see that the publication is anti-Bolivarian Revolution, anti-Chavista, anti-Maduro.

According to Wikipedia,

Abigail Suzanne Martin is an American citizen journalist and presenter, who currently hosts the investigative web series The Empire Files, which, until August 2018, was hosted on and funded by the Venezuelan Telesur network.[2][3][4][5][6] Martin serves on the board of directors for the Media Freedom Foundation which manages Project Censored.[7][8] She is the former host of Breaking the Set on the Russian network RT America, working from the Washington, D.C. bureau.[9] Before hosting her own show, she had worked for two years as a correspondent for RT America.

So, it is fair to say Abby IS pro-bolivarian enchilada, pro-Chavista, pro-Maduro, right?

The piece Bill referenced is noteworthy in that it calls for peace and not US military "intervention." The angle is different here - they say they want new elections and decry the Maduro election outcome.

I am grateful Bill posted this document on this thread. Dennis Leahy portrays this people as the bad guys, as "they" having a hidden agenda, et. al. Far from the truth, they are identifying themselves as peace activists, noting the organizations where they belong and posting their names in that open letter. They ARE peace activists. There is no hidden agenda here. SEBIN, DGCIM or even worse, FAES may knock their doors and get them as new political prisoners. Please be respectful of them.

... (try to delegitimize Maduro's election by demanding a new elections) followed by the knockout punch (inevitable hot war, when Maduro won't leave his legitimate office, bowing to globalist/US/anti-Chavista demands.)

From the document:
Nicolas Maduro violated the Constitution by calling for a National Constituent Assembly, (and without calling a national referendum, my words) with supra-constitutional powers, declaring a (continuous, my words) state of emergency to govern without a balance of powers with the legislative body, with which he brought the date of the presidential elections forward, (also ILLEGAL, my words) without the minimum conditions of fair elections for Venezuelans to choose a president freely.

@Dennis Leahy, is this your definition of "legitimate office"? I think it is a bit off.

If the figures I've read (a huge percentage of the population supports the Bolivarian Revolucion, supported Chavez, support Maduro) are anywhere close to the real pulse of the country, the anti-Chavista people don't have much of a chance to win any seats at all in a national election.

Sorry your figures are like your Minnesota-based socialism, completely out of the picture. Your figures are from 1998-2002, the popularity peak of the filthy enchilada known as 21st century socialism. Look for #MaduroChallenge in social media and you will start to comprehend. Maybe not, social media are used by the elites, oligarchs and such...

So, I don't believe they really want transparent free elections. Not yet. The plan is probably to sustain the economic war, and probably to double-down on generating the physical violence. The longer the US sustains the economic war,...

Economic war. Okay. Are you a member of the Venezuelan government? Sounds the same.

The US-Venezuela War is well underway...

Está equivocado. The US-Cartel de los Soles War is about to begin.

perolator

16th February 2019, 09:24

That’s kind of funny, the irony is that article is from the Washington Post. America’s top propaganda rag...

With all due respect, @Joe, I do not care the article is from MAD Magazine, as long as the article reflects my thoughts.

I’ve got to ask perolator, you are aware that 9/11 was a false flag operation against the American people? And that the executive branch was overthrown with a coup from the JFK assasination? You understand the number of false flags against my people every year, and the level of systemic control it takes to cover up?

That’s a serious question I pose to you, because the difference of opinion you express seems to miss that point entirely.

I would like to share with you my thoughts about 9/11. Not in this thread, of course. I decided not to intervene in any other threads, because I want people to know about what is happening in Venezuela from my particular perspective. I am currently reading the topic started by Dennis Leahy about socialism and sometimes wanted to post my thoughts, but I prefer to stick to this thread right now, just to differ with pro-bolivarian enchilada advocates.

Dennis Leahy

16th February 2019, 22:46

perolator

17th February 2019, 08:17

... So, it is fair to say Abby IS pro-bolivarian enchilada, pro-Chavista, pro-Maduro, right?I can't know the intent in someone's heart and mind, but Abby Martin went to occupied Palestine (zionist israel) to expose the truth about what US protectorate, israel, and certainly went there knowing in advance some of what she concluded. When she went to Venezuela, her information and knowledge about Venezuela and of the mobster empire that took over the USA and how they operate (see John Perkins book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, again) would almost undoubtedly have given her strong bias. Note that she did record some people who were anti-Maduro or anti-Chavista. It wasn't edited out. I know you don't like her but she did try to provide opportunity for balance, in an unbalanced situation.

@Dennis Leahy: Do you know why teleSUR exists? It was created by the twisted mind of Hugo Chavez to satisfy his narcissistic and megalomaniac self. He wanted a TV network capable of echoing his babbling without questioning anything, because he wanted to be praised no matter what he were doing, right or wrong. Chavez had to be obeyed. As simple as that. He fought with news reporters when unwanted questions were directed to him. Frustrated, he funded a news network. Remember, Venezuela was his personal money machine.

Abby Martin is a cute and intelligent woman. But, she cannot deviate from the teleSUR raison d'etre. Knowing that, she is succeeding to remove teleSUR's stain from her career. But, she is not balanced at all. She's the new and improved version of Eva Golinger.

I already read John Perkins' book. Why do I have to read it again?

The phrase "bolivarian enchilada" sounds like an epithet. Is it racist? Did you make up the phrase? Do you realize that your US audience is quite familiar with demeaning a group of Spanish-speaking people this way, using the word "taco?" If you do not intend to demean a race/ethnicity/class of people, you may want to drop that phrase.

Do I have an US audience? :welcome:

Good question. Why Bolivarian Enchilada?

No, it is not racist, @Dennis Leahy.

Here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1274392&viewfull=1#post1274392) is the post I read that made me use that word. Quoting:

Thus, attack Venezuela, and destabilize the bolivarian initiative...

Simón Bolívar, to we Venezuelans, is more than a national hero. He was an inspiration, a role model, a subject of study in my country. The University named after him has an institute devoted to all things related to him and his quest for independence. All the major cities has a Bolivar square. The most important country milestones are named after him. The national currency is named after him. Knowing this affiliation of Venezuelans with Bolívar, Fidel Castro and his puppet Chávez used this to their advantage. They created with fanfare the "Bolivarian Revolution", to "liberate" the poor from the corrupt and oppresive government that had the people submerged in poverty. At least, this is the theoretical concept.

@Dennis Leahy: Do you know what the Machurucuto incident (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machurucuto_incident) was?

http://critica24.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/agresion-armanda-cuba-a-venezuela.jpg

Quoting Wikipedia:

The Machurucuto incident, also known as the Invasion of Machurucuto, was a battle involving Venezuelan Army and National Guard troops against Cuban trained guerrillas. On 10 May 1967, a dozen guerrillas landed in Venezuela at the beach of Machurucuto. The Army of Venezuela and the National Guard engaged them on the night of 10 May and the battle lasted into 11 May. Two men were captured while the remaining were killed in battle. The guerrillas had completed paramilitary training in Cuba so they could recruit guerrillas in the Venezuelan Andes region to overthrow President Raúl Leoni.

It was planned for months. Venezuelan Army went to the mountains and wiped guerrillas. Unfortunately, some of them became politicians and waited. The rest is history and now my country is ruined.

Yes, we Venezuelans fought Cuba once. We had our own Bay of Pigs incident.

That's why the demonic Fidel Castro had to infiltrate Venezuelan military and use a way to undermine the deeply democratic nature of our people. What a better way to wash Venezuelan brains using the most revered and respected leader, Bolívar himself, to institutionalize a "Revolution"?

Why enchilada?

According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchilada), The Real Academia Española defines the word enchilada, as used in Mexico, as a rolled maize tortilla stuffed with meat and covered with a tomato and chili sauce.[1][2] Enchilada is the past participle of Spanish enchilar, "to add chili pepper to", literally to "season (or decorate) with chili".[3]

I used "bolivarian crap" before "enchilada", but crap is not the right word to define the movement. Is an enchilada because it is not socialism, it is not communism, it has elements of populism and it is demagogic. They were aligned with Catolicism, (or not, depended on Chavez mood), they aligned with Chinese beliefs and Buddah, Jesus, Sai Baba... Marxism, Salvador Allende, Gandhi... Why they aligned with Colombian guerrillas? To fullfill the Pablo Escobar dream of sinking the U.S. in cocaine and become millionaires. The bolivarian initiative is not an initiative, is the systematic robbery of Venezuelan resources. It is an ideological enchilada and the chili is the oppressed people. They want the poor to be poor, therefore, they may be easy to control and subjugate.

As you can see, there is no racism, no veiled demeanor. I AM VENEZUELAN. Please respect my urge of calling this "revolution" any way I wish. Yes, I made up the phrase. Feel free to use it. I have suffered in the flesh this (not you) and my family and friends are still suffering each second the nightmare of the bolivarian enchilada.

These may all be good people, my kind of people (anti-war, pro-peace.) That doesn't mean they cannot get used. The globalist machine that is about to annex Venezuela's resources will use and discard anyone that helps them - deliberately or inadvertently - achieve their agenda.

No, @Dennis Leahy. We want Cuba out. We do not care about the globalist machine.

Hmmmmm... I think you may be jumping to conclusions. You don't know my political ideology.

Okay. But, If quacks like a duck and walks like a duck and it looks like a duck...
Promise I will not speak about your ideology, from now on.

You said you read John Perkins' first book, right? It doesn't matter how much you despise Maduro, the US economic sanctions and UK refusal to release physical gold is an economic war. You can put some lipstick on it and say, "no, it's only sanctions and refusal to allow Venezuela to have some gold stored in the UK", but what would John Perkins call it?

@Dennis Leahy, why is so hard for you to understand Maduro is not the owner of the gold or the owner of the country's resources? Physical gold is the backup of the Venezuela National Reserve, not Maduro's possession. I already told you that. Venezuelan Constitution is being violated by Maduro when he tried to release gold. The Bolivar currency is 1/3000 of an U.S. dollar. If Maduro gets the gold, Venezuelans will never recover it and the Bolivar will be less valuable, and the poor even poorer.

I am glad that you have not posted about "political socialism" in that thread on "socialism", where the basic concept of social interaction for group survival is the topic, not political socialism.

Oh, beautiful.

I do want to start another thread about political socialism, and your thoughts would be most welcome. Further down the road, I'd like to start yet another topic about people's ideas of an intelligent solution for governance, and I'll hint, again, that you may be surprised at my views on whether having 100% socialist governance is the solution.

Again, if "bolivarian enchilada" is a racial epithet or socioeconomic class slur, as it sounds, you may want to self moderate and edit those out.

I am very sorry, but I have made clear "bolivarian enchilada" is neither a racial epithet nor socioeconomic class slur.

I know the path you are trying to go insinuating my definition as racial epithet. Forum Guidelines, Section B, subsection 1.

I am not editing my posts. I consider this as censorship. Do I have to censor my own posts? Maybe bolivarian rolled tortilla? or bolivarian spaghetti? or bolivarian arepa? No, not bolivarian arepa. I am thinking "bolivarian arroz con mango" should be okay.

Tintin

17th February 2019, 16:37

From the Empire Files (http://theempirefiles.tv/) and published in 2015 an important historical summary of the activities of, and prominent figures who have graduated from, the "School of the Americas."

Summary below video.

WARNING: contains graphic images.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGtegY0S3yo

On November 22, thousands gathered at the gates of Fort Benning, GA at the 25th annual protest of the School of the Americas to memorialize the tens of thousands of people who lost their lives at the hands of the U.S. Empire’s brutally repressive juntas it used to rule Latin America by force.

The dictators and death squad leaders, who committed acts of genocide, were trained within the gates of Fort Benning, at the School of the Americas – otherwise known as the “School Of Assassins.”

Abby Martin investigates this notorious school that is largely hidden from the American public; its crimes around the world, its star graduates, why it exists and the movement to shut it down.

Featuring interviews with School Of the Americas Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois and other SOAW leaders. [Follow @SOAWatch (https://twitter.com/soawatch?lang=en) and visit SOAW.org (https://www.soaw.org/en/) for more info on the movement]

perolator

17th February 2019, 18:50

Disclaimer: I am not a supporter of David Smolansky; I am not endorsing any individual, Venezuelan opposition or government related.

...Opposition mayor David Smolanksy falsely claimed that President Maduro had used chemical weapons against the Venezuelan people.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro condemned opposition politician David Smolansky’s accusations on social media last weekend, alleging that the Bolivarian government had used chemical weapons against its people in recent stand-offs with opposition protestors. Maduro has requested a national investigation into these claims which he suggests seek to legitimate US intervention into the South American nation.

Smolansky, mayor of the elite Caracas municipality of El Hatillo and national coordinator for the hard-right Popular Will Party (VP), published a tweet Saturday suggesting that, “the National Bolivarian Guard has a chemical that they are using so that people lose their balance, vomit and even lose their eyesight.”

In 2009, Venezuelan National Guard exhausted tear gas supplies. With almost daily protests, the goal of the government was to clear those ASAP. National guardsmen were tired and Chavez started to use what he called "gas del bueno" ("del bueno" loosely translate to "best of breed" or "the best available". So it translates to "gas them with the best we got"). And the best they had, reportedly (sincerely, I have no way to prove it, but I have seen the effects of the gas), is Adamsite (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamsite), known as DM gas.

Xoh_TKgWE9U

Red colored gas was first used in 2014 at San Cristóbal (Táchira). In that city, protests spanned several hours. When red "gas del bueno" was used, people started vomiting in seconds. Protesters lost balance, falling everywhere; and some of them, (young men mostly) were unconscious almost immediately. I saw a protest in Caracas, in "Los Proceres" broadcast by the local TV channel Globovisión. National guardsmen used tear gas, but protesters regrouped. When red gas was used, even National guardsmen, with their RoboCop-esque outfit and gas masks, were affected. Protesters collected empty canisters, all were labeled as country-made.

In 2017, Amnesty International once again criticized the Bolivarian government's usage of chemical agents, expressing concern of a "red gas" used to suppress protesters in Chacao on 8 April 2017, demanding "clarification of the components of the red tear gas used by state security forces against the opposition demonstrations".[151] Experts stated that all tear gas used by authorities should originally be colorless, noting that the color may be added to provoke or "color" protesters so they can easily be identified and arrested.[152] On 10 April 2017, Venezuelan police fired tear gas at protesters from helicopters flying overhead, resulting with demonstrators running from projectiles to avoid being hit by the canisters.[153]

The Venezuelan authorities using "Gas del bueno" are worse than some war criminals.

Source (https://infogalactic.com/info/2014%E2%80%932017_Venezuelan_protests)

Some mysterious chemical agents were used in Venezuela as well. On 20 March 2014, the appearance of “red gas” first occurred when it was used in San Cristóbal against protesters, with reports that it was CN gas. The first reported use of “green gas” was on 15 February 2014 against demonstrations in Altamira. On 25 April 2014, “green gas” was reportedly used again on protesters in Mérida. Venezuelan-American Ricardo Hausmann, director of the Center for International Development at Harvard made statements that this gas caused protestors to vomit. Some reported that the chemical used was adamsite, a yellow-green arsenical chemical weapon that can cause respiratory distress, nausea and vomiting.

Source (https://going-postal.com/2018/05/top-socialist-fails-part-one-venezuela/)

There are also reports of expired tear gas canisters used in protests.

A study by Mónica Krauter, a chemist and professor, involved the collection of thousands of tear gas canisters fired by Venezuelan authorities in 2014. She stated that the majority of canisters used the main component CS gas, supplied by Cóndor of Brazil, which meets Geneva Convention requirements. However, 72% of the tear gas used was expired and other canisters produced in Venezuela by Cavim did not show adequate labels or expiration dates. Following the expiration of tear gas, Krauter notes that it "breaks down into cyanide oxide, phosgenes and nitrogens that are extremely dangerous".[150]

Source (https://infogalactic.com/info/2014%E2%80%932017_Venezuelan_protests)

AutumnW

17th February 2019, 19:38

Purolater, If you hate the Cubans and the Enchiladas so much and consider them the sole source of Venezuela's problems, you are in for a real treat with Elliot Abrams, and Bolton. I know it's probably hard to believe, as things are bleak in your country now, but it could get much worse.

You have had money stolen or frozen. You have been sanctioned. Oil prices have collapsed. Drug trade flourishes in this scenario, and if government is involved, it may have as much to do with shoring up tax revenue in order to insure continuity of government, as enriching govt officials.

perolator

17th February 2019, 22:57

Purolater, If you hate the Cubans and the Enchiladas so much

@AutumnW: I do not hate enchiladas. Enchiladas are actually delicious. I chose to name the thing happening in my country that way because it was conceived as socialism, but contains elements so dissimilar, it looks like an enchilada. That's it.

I do not hate Cuban people, the common man. Actually, I have good Cuban friends. I loathe Cubans in charge (managing) my country.

...and consider them the sole source of Venezuela's problems,

Venezuela's source of all problems is the actual (20 years) government. They allowed all kinds of ways to steal money, resources, lead people to poverty and ruin the infrastructure. You know, in Venezuela we changed government each 5 years, we had a democracy. Chavez arrived and gave the country to Cubans.

you are in for a real treat with Elliot Abrams, and Bolton. I know it's probably hard to believe, as things are bleak in your country now, but it could get much worse.

Sincerely, let's wait and see.

You have had money stolen or frozen.

Stolen by chavistas: 700 billion dollars.
Retained by sanctions: less than 20 billion.

You have been sanctioned.

Okay.

Oil prices have collapsed.

My country had a special fund (FONDEN) to overcome variances in oil prices. Chavistas also stole it.

Drug trade flourishes in this scenario, and if government is involved, it may have as much to do with shoring up tax revenue in order to insure continuity of government, as enriching govt officials.

Agree. Government is involved, indeed.

AutumnW

18th February 2019, 00:04

Perolater,

You have mentioned several times that resources have been 'stolen' by Chavistas? Chavez regained control of the nation's oil when he came to power. The oil companies were state owned, prior to Chavez, but controlled by an elite fiefdom of Venezuelans who ran it as if it was privately held, and became very rich doing so.

A few years after Chavez gained control of oil resources the global price of oil collapsed. Do you think the poor and middle class would have fared any better under a different government? If so...why?

You also mentioned that there was money set aside, in the event of a collapse in oil prices but the government, "stole," it. What is your proof of that and also, where is your proof that the government didn't use it in a desperate bid to keep things going?

Also, feel free to answer or not. Do you have a background in political economy or are you simply fed up and want some change, any change?

Hervé

18th February 2019, 12:50

Russia, China & Turkey ignore US blockade to deliver critical aid to Venezuela (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/02/ignoring-us-trojan-horse-russia-and-china-deliver-critical-aid-to-venezuela/)

Paul Antonopoulos Fort Russ (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/02/ignoring-us-trojan-horse-russia-and-china-deliver-critical-aid-to-venezuela/)
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 10:38 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/510608/large/medicina_venezuela_15501095743.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/510608/full/medicina_venezuela_15501095743.jpg)

Venezuelan Health Minister Carlos Humberto Alvarado González reported that humanitarian aid made up of drugs from the Allied countries reached Venezuela.
"Despite the blockade, the Bolivarian government through agreements with Cuba, China, Russia, Palestine, Turkey, and cooperation with multilateral organizations of the UN, Pan American Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, Population Fund of the United Nations, among others, is responding to the population's health needs," Alvarado wrote on his Twitter account .
The minister also published photos of the containers with the help of the humanitarian who arrived in the country.

According to the Telesur channel, only on Wednesday, 64 containers were delivered to the port of La Guaira with 933 tonnes of medicines and equipment.

In all, according to Alvarado, since the beginning of the year, 99 containers with medicines and equipment worth €28 million arrived in the country, while in 2018 Venezuela received 918 containers with evaluated humanitarian aid in €254 million.

Venezuela's opposition insists on the immediate opening of humanitarian channels to the delivery of humanitarian aid from the United States, which is being concentrated on the border between Venezuela and Colombia, in the Las Tienditas bridge area.

Venezuelan officials have dismissed US aid, calling it "a border show," in which they have every right to say considering that US sanctions take out over $15 billion from the Venezuelan economy while the paltry US aid is worth only $50 million.

Hervé

18th February 2019, 14:00

What’s Not Being Said About the Venezuela Oil War (http://williamengdahl.com/englishNEO17Feb2019.php)

By F. William Engdahl williamengdahl.com (http://williamengdahl.com/)
17 February 2019
http://williamengdahl.com/images/worldIconSmall.png (http://williamengdahl.com/index.php) http://williamengdahl.com/images/IconFlagRussianSmall.png (http://williamengdahl.com/russian.php) http://williamengdahl.com/images/IconFlagItalianSmall.png (http://williamengdahl.com/italian.php) http://williamengdahl.com/images/IconFlagFrenchSmall.png (http://williamengdahl.com/french.php)

http://williamengdahl.com/images/neo17Feb2019.jpg
Image: Caracas, Canciller Ricardo Patiño participó en los actos de conmemoración de la muerte de Hugo Chávez Credit: Cancillería del Ecuador License: CC Some Rights Reserved https://bit.ly/2NfbhLi

So far much of the discussion over what is driving the bizarre Trump Administration intervention into Venezuela centers around the comments of National Security Adviser John Bolton to claim it’s about oil. In a previous analysis we looked at the prospects of the huge Chavez Basin, formerly the Orinoco Basin, said to hold the world’s largest reserves of oil by some definitions. Now it’s becoming clearer that this de facto war is about far more than control of the heavy oil of the Chavez Basin in Venezuela. .

First it’s important to look at which oil companies were already staking various claims on the region’s oil prospects. Within Venezuela, Chinese oil companies led by China National Petroleum Corporation, and the Chinese government have been playing a major role since the Chavez era. In fact the role has become so great Venezuela’s government owes China some $61 billion. Because of the financial problems of the Maduro government, China has been taking debt repayment in form of oil. Since 2010 the Russian state oil company, Rosneft has been involved in joint projects with the Venezuela state PDVSA, mainly in the Orinoco/Chavez Belt. Some years ago Rosneft extended some $6 billion in loans to Venezuela to be also repaid in oil. A recent statement from Rosneft says that $2.3 billion is due by end of this year. Rosneft has participation in five oil projects and 100 percent in a gas project. In addition to CNPC and Rosneft, France’s Total SA, Norway’s Equinor, and US Chevron all hold minority stakes in Venezuela projects, with most vowing to stay despite the political crisis. That raises the question what they know beyond the well-documented heavy oil of Venezuela. (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-oil-jointventure/venezuela-pressures-foreign-partners-on-oil-venture-commitments-sources-idUSKCN1Q02EV?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews)

The real prize?
The real prize that these powerful international oil giants are eyeing likely lies well to the east of the Orinoco heavy oil fields where they now operate. The real prize is the ultimate control over one of the best-kept secrets in the oil industry, the huge oil reserves of a disputed area straddling Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil. The region is called Guayana Esequiba. Some geologists believe the Esequiba region and its offshore could contain the world’s largest reserves of oil, oil of far better quality that the heavy Orinoco crude of Venezuela. The problem is that owing to the decades-long dispute between Venezuela and Guyana the true extent of that oil is not yet known.

Historically, both Venezuela and Guyana, a former British colony, laid claim to Esequiba. In 1983 a so-called Port of Spain Protocol, between the governments of Venezuela and Guyana, declared a 12-year moratorium on the Venezuelan reclamation of Esequiba to allow time for peaceful resolution. Since then a special UN Representative has kept the situation frozen. Neither party has developed exploration of the reported huge oil deposits in the territory. In January 2018 the UN Secretary General referred the status of Esequiba to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where it sits today.

Now it gets messy. In September 2011 the government of Guyana filed for an extension of its offshore Exclusive Economic Zone to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in order to extend its continental shelf by a further 150 nautical miles. To get UN permission, they declared the area was subject to no territorial disputes, ignoring the very active Venezuela dispute over Guayana Esequiba. Venezuela filed a strong protest. To further complicate the situation, Guyana awarded international oil exploration rights in the disputed maritime area.

Exxon in Guyana
In 2015 Guyana awarded an oil exploration contract to ExxonMobil, former company of former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Exxon soon discovered an oil field estimated at 5 billion barrels, significant enough to change the economy of tiny Guyana once production begins next year. Unlike the heavy and expensive oil of Orinoco/Chavez, the oil found offshore Guyana is high quality, light. Oil analysts cite an astonishing 82% success rate for Exxon drilling in frontier areas compared with industry averages of 35%. Wood Mackenzies analysts say the offshore region “will easily become the fourth largest oil producing nation in Latin America by the next decade, with chances to outperform the countries preceding it. If Venezuela and Mexico fail to address production declines, Guyana could quickly surpass them to number two.” (https://oilnow.gy/exploration/exxonmobil-gunning-for-more-oil-at-yellowtail-as-guyana-foray-continues/)

Keep in mind until now this entire Esequiba region, offshore and on, had been off limits to oil exploration by mutual agreement of the countries. The Exxon Guyana discoveries confirmed the belief that the Esequiba region holds enormous oil resources.

Here enters the complication of Venezuela’s Maduro government and the bizarre declaration of opposition National Assembly President Juan Guaido to be deemed legitimate president. The entire tragic drama now unfolding can be better understood if we look beyond Orinoco Belt oil to the huge untapped potential reserves of Esequiba.

Since the 2015 Exxon finds, Venezuela has launched complaints with Guyana and on occasion interdicted Exxon oil exploration vessels. Complicating the situation for the Maduro regime is the fact that a partner of Exxon offshore Guyana in the disputed waters is the state oil company of Maduro’s largest creditor, China’s CNOOC. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/23/business/guyana-oil-venezuela-navy.html)

Imagine a scenario where Maduro’s regime is replaced by a free-market Guaido who reopens Venezuela to foreign oil interests and reprivatizes the state PDVSA. Then Guaido, with help from his various international friends, aggressively asserts Venezuela’s claims to Esequiba. Britain, France and Spain, all with major oil companies in the region, have joined the US in recognizing Guaido as interim president. So long as Venezuela was controlled by Maduro, it suited Exxon and their backers in Washington to recognize Guyana’s legitimacy to the offshore Esequiba fields. Were Guaido to come in, that could easily change and a fragile Guyana could be arm-twisted to resolve the Esequiba issue to the benefit of Venezuela.

Right now we find Maduro with the open support of China and Russia, opposed by Guaido with the open backing of Washington, London, France, Brazil (also bordering on the Esequiba region) and others. Further adding to the explosive geopolitical cocktail of the region is the fact that China has formally incorporated Guyana into its Belt, Road Initiative and is building a highway link from Manaus in Northern Brazil through Guyana giving Brazil far more efficient access to the Panama Canal, cutting thousands of miles off the shipping route. Notable also are Chinese efforts in Panama, the central shipping crossing between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 2016 China’s Landbridge Group bought Panama’s Margarita Island Port, the largest port, on the canal’s Atlantic side, giving the Chinese company intimate access to one of the most important goods distribution centers in the world.

It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that the geopolitical stakes in the Venezuela crisis go far beyond issues of legitimacy or democratic elections and far beyond the borders of Venezuela. And this is only the oil.
F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook” (https://journal-neo.org/2019/02/03/is-oil-behind-washington-s-venezuela-coup-madness/)

perolator

18th February 2019, 20:24

Perolater,
You have mentioned several times that resources have been 'stolen' by Chavistas? Chavez regained control of the nation's oil when he came to power.

Let me clarify: Money has been stolen by chavistas and their allies. Mineral Resources have been sequestered (hijacked) by chavistas and their allies.

@AutumnW: Chavez did not "regained" control of the nation's oil, Robin Hood style. He took it in an arbitrary and authoritarian way, even grotesque, blowing a whistle on live national TV broadcasting. His decisions at that time and afterwards led my country to ashes. That's the simplified story. The myth of a Chavez Robin Hood defending poor people are in the minds of the few who are brainwashed with bolivarian enchilada propaganda.

There is a tale from 2010 I want to share with you. It is here (https://devilexcrement.com/2010/08/08/the-tale-of-venezuelas-free-gasoline-and-pdvsas-free-fake-profits/).

Please read the excerpt below.

Foreign Friend who does not follow Venezuela closely (call him F): How expensive is gas in Venezuela?

Devil: Gasoline is essentially free in Venezuela.

F: Free? Are you nuts? How can they give it away?

Devil: Ok, I lied, it’s not free, it’s 50 cents…

F: Woa! 50 cents a gallon that is truly cheap, almost free.

Devil: no, no, not for a gallon, it takes about 50 dollar cents to fill the full gas tank of a medium to large size car. It’s easier to calculate it that way than to figure out per liter or per gallon cost, but basically it is 1.1 cent per liter or 4.2 cents per gallon.

F: (puzzled look, glassy eyes): but this makes no sense, the poor have no cars, it is the rich that benefit from this. You can’t produce gasoline at that price.

Devil: You are absolutely right. Chavez says that profit is a capitalistic concept and the “people” own the oil anyway, so he has kept the price fixed for 11 years as inflation has hit 1,000% in the same period.

Now inflation is 1,000,000%, @AutumnW. And growing. There were no sanctions in 2010. Chavez has complete control of the country and some popularity. So what happened? Sanctions? Globalists? CIA? NSA?

The oil companies were state owned, prior to Chavez, but controlled by an elite fiefdom of Venezuelans who ran it as if it was privately held, and became very rich doing so.

@AutumnW: There is one national corporation charred remains: PDVSA, Petróleos de Venezuela. It was autonomous, not controlled by an elite fiefdom (sic) of Venezuelans. It was the best company of my country, and working there was one of the goals of many Venezuelans, a reason to be proud.

A few years after Chavez gained control of oil resources the global price of oil collapsed. Do you think the poor and middle class would have fared any better under a different government? If so...why?

Venezuela is an oil producer and exporter since 1922 (I am not sure, some historians say 1908). Our country was okay without Chavez. Oil prices fluctuate constantly. Our country was okay with oil prices as low as US$ 4.35 (1973). In 1998, when the late Chavez took office, oil was US$ 11.91. Some Venezuelans (myself included) knew la parranda chavista would halt with oil prices as low as US$ 35.

Source (https://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/Historical_Oil_Prices_Table.asp)

I have no crystal ball to to know whether the poor (there are no middle class in my country) would fare better under a different government. But without the chavista gang, the country will be better. That's for sure.

You also mentioned that there was money set aside, in the event of a collapse in oil prices but the government, "stole," it. What is your proof of that and also, where is your proof that the government didn't use it in a desperate bid to keep things going?

I am not going to prove anything. The reason I am posting here is to show a different point of view for people who does not know what is really happening in Venezuela. There are some reliable sources of information in English. I need to make this crystal clear. I know what is happening, some people do not. Basically, that is the reason I am sharing information here.

Also, feel free to answer or not. Do you have a background in political economy or are you simply fed up and want some change, any change?

@AutumnW, I am covered with an anonymity cloak, just like yourself. That allows me to post in this forum freely. Therefore, I won't tell you about my background. I am a simple forum member. And yes, I am fed up. I (like millions of hopeless Venezuelans) want my country back.

perolator

18th February 2019, 23:39

Report from The Corbett Report
[snip]

In the latest Ron Paul Liberty report, published Monday February 18th, McAdams suggests that the coup will further galvanize support of Maduro and make him stronger politically by rallying the country against foreign intervention.

I just watched the interview. It is excellent.

I don't think Maduro tighten his arse on the presidential chair after this. He has some international support (from friend/ally countries) but almost no support in Venezuela.

The problem with most international analysts is about Maduro's (and Chavez's) legitimacy. There is an understatement: it is a coup, and Maduro is legitimate. Article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution was analyzed superficially, for instance. Discussion revolves on oil and Neo-con influence. I know Neo-con influence shall be considered and it is important, but, Venezuela has to be seen as a failed narco-state with close ties with international crime. When the picture is seen under the lens of a legitimate presidency, the image blurs considerably.

Yetti

19th February 2019, 00:05

Herve, you are wrong , in venezuela there is no respect people other than any obedient to the regime , I AM FROM VENEZUELA ! I know exactly what's going on there, still have family there. Economy totally destroyed ( 2000000 = % of devaluation) A month of income to buy a galon of milk. come on man why is so hard to understand socialism does not work, has fail everywhere in the world. and what we have in Venezuela is a dictatorship from the far left engaged in drug cartel ( the nephew of the pfirst lady are in jail for traffiking 800 lb of cocaine to US using diplomatic passports)

perolator

19th February 2019, 20:19

@Joe:

Thank you for bringing in this article.

I agree with a lot of the things Georgy Zotov exposed in the 3-part article. My comments below.

Judging by the stories on the Internet, in Venezuelan people should simply kill each other for dollars, but this is not the case.

Although having foreign currency is strictly forbidden as per Venezuelan government's policy, Venezuelans kill each other for dollars. Letting know people you have dollars in your possession is suicidal. A woman near my former neighborhood was beheaded in December because of that. I think she did not disclose the location of the dollars inside her apartment, and thugs (her own neighbors, by the way) tortured her to death. Right now, more and more services and goods are being paid in dollars. You cannot pay in dollars at a store, of course. In this context, either Zotov was extremely lucky (I don't think so) or he had an powerful and well-equipped escort protecting him, who knows.

Second photograph of day one was taken at the Urdaneta Avenue, in front of Plaza Candelaria, downtown Caracas. That area is mostly filled with government offices. It is easy to spot plenty of people there in daylight. It gives the impression of a normal city. I would like him going to the same spot in the middle of the night.

On the street there is a long line into a “social supermarket,” a place you can buy 400 types of goods at the solid low prices. These shops were established by the late President Hugo Chavez “to fight inflation and protect the poor.” The stores are funded by the Venezuelan government.

It sounds so romantic... "social supermarkets" are part of a mass expropriation Chavez did to two national-wide supermarkets: Automercados CADA (a former of those shops is the place where the photographs were taken) and Hipermercados EXITO (from the French Casino Group). Chavez settled with Casino Group and they got an undisclosed payment for expropriation, but CADA owners were less lucky, AFAIK. Chavez tried to compete with the big companies with their "social supermarkets" and failed. This is a 2018 photo of one of the "social supermarkets" and here is the link (https://maduradas.com/no-nada-abasto-bicentenario-se-salva-la-escasez-las-medidas-maduro-estas-fotos-lo-confirman/) to the article (in Spanish).

https://de6b5cc7c8deb8bhd.woldrwidessl.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/bicentenario-anz-3.jpg

...I’ve been all over the town. Restaurants, cafes, eateries, during the lunch hour are crowded, and people look well-dressed. The mass hunger, the Western media paints for us, doesn’t exist in reality...

One of the photographs shows a lot of unbranded tissue paper (imported, for sure). I tried to zoom in the price, but it was fuzzy. The price + VAT is about 5,000 Bs.S. (family and friends told me today is more than 6,500... yes, it's a "social supermarket") Last monthly decreed minimum wage is 18,000 Bs.S. You have to decide between food and hygiene. I know, no mass hunger.

According to CNN and BBC, impoverished people in Venezuela are revolting against the government. Nothing can be further from the truth; it’s a wealthy middle class that goes to demonstrate.

I am sick of comments like this... That means those crowded demonstrations all over the country are filled with the wealthy middle class?

Maduro is applauded in poor neighborhoods, because the President gives their residents free food sets enough for a month and gives free (!) apartments. Formally, they belong to the state, but people live in them for generations.

People are allowed to live in those "free" apartments as long as they support the government. I have seen families thrown out because they were seen in an anti-government protest.

perolator

19th February 2019, 20:27

According to the Telesur channel, only on Wednesday, 64 containers were delivered to the port of La Guaira with 933 tonnes of medicines and equipment.
In all, according to Alvarado, since the beginning of the year, 99 containers with medicines and equipment worth €28 million arrived in the country, while in 2018 Venezuela received 918 containers with evaluated humanitarian aid in €254 million.

The Venezuelan government is so criminal, 99% of that aid will go straight to the black market. Venezuelans going to national hospitals have to pay for supplies. Not only medicines.

Hervé

20th February 2019, 19:44

Roger Waters speaks the truth about the so-called “humanitarian” intervention in Venezuela (http://thesaker.is/roger-waters-speaks-the-truth-about-the-so-called-humanitarian-intervention-in-venezuela/)

tI6JH4JaK0U
3872 Views February 19, 2019 21 Comments (http://thesaker.is/roger-waters-speaks-the-truth-about-the-so-called-humanitarian-intervention-in-venezuela/#comments)

perolator

20th February 2019, 20:06

Roger Waters speaks the truth about the so-called “humanitarian” intervention in Venezuela (http://thesaker.is/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

21st February 2019, 00:04

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

21st February 2019, 01:31

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 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1275154&viewfull=1#post1275154)...

perolator

21st February 2019, 03:16

Well okay, I guess it’s time to hear from a couple of the six million enchiladas who live in Venezuela.:silent:

:silent::silent:

The legacy...

TargeT

21st February 2019, 20:14

McCabe lets his true feelings come out

Qr-iMLluTlw

perolator

21st February 2019, 20:54

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

21st February 2019, 20:59

US' vassals may soon regret rushing to embrace Guaido (https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201902211072626883-venezuela-us-maduro-guaido/)

Ekaterina Blinova Sputnik (https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201902211072626883-venezuela-us-maduro-guaido/)
Thu, 21 Feb 2019 18:33 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511160/large/1071775929.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511160/full/1071775929.jpg)
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 (http://newsjunkiepost.com/2019/02/16/can-maduro-emulate-castro-and-assad-to-keep-natos-imperialist-hands-off-venezuela/) 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 (http://newsjunkiepost.com/2014/03/04/ukraine-the-new-cold-war-heats-up/), 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 (https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201902011072038592-us-venezuela-oil-trump/) 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 (https://www.andrej-hunko.de/start/download/dokumente/1301-wd-2-014-19-venezuela/file?fbclid=IwAR3HzUldU49rRnZ_e-qzSfLyxLlcjyJWTja8TA6PqFODgbatIwRGwhStCQo) 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" (https://sputniknews.com/world/201902121072354138-bundestag-report-says-guaido-recognition-illegal/) in the Latin American country's internal affairs.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511162/large/1072626193.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511162/full/1072626193.jpg)
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 (http://newsjunkiepost.com/2015/05/26/humanitarian-imperialism-aid-as-a-trojan-horse/) 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 (https://sputniknews.com/latam/201902201072594304-us-threats-us-military/) 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 (https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201902211072615149-us-afghanistan-war/) 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 (https://www.sott.net/article/407746-Neocon-Bolton-threatens-Nicaragua-Venezuelan-military)

'Nothing to do with aid or democracy': Roger Waters slams 'humanitarian' concert for Venezuela (https://www.sott.net/article/407698-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 (https://www.sott.net/article/406433-Those-who-devastate-innocents-dare-to-declare-their-actions-humanitarian-Venezuelas-FM-slams-US)

TargeT

21st February 2019, 21:05

perolator

21st February 2019, 21:35

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

22nd February 2019, 15:59

Where are the ‘empty shelves’? Max Blumenthal tours Caracas supermarket (VIDEO) (https://www.rt.com/news/452158-blumenthal-venezuela-supermarket-shelves/)

RT
Published time: 22 Feb, 2019 11:27
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9ovy)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.02/xxs/5c6fdb72dda4c8cf778b45b0.png
© 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 (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/venezuela-crisis-food-inflation-refugees-life-people-maduro-a8762311.html). The country’s shops remain open but “sparsely stocked,” The Guardian laments (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/24/venezuela-news-latest-what-happened-after-day-drama). Even “basic commodities” such as toothbrushes aren’t available for purchase, CNN bemoans. “Hungry” Venezuelans must choose between “torture or starvation,” Bloomberg grimly concludes (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-23/what-s-worse-torture-or-starvation-venezuelans-to-answer-today). 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.

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.02/original/5c6fdae6dda4c8ae778b4595.png
© 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.

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.

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.02/original/5c6fdc5efc7e93b15a8b45db.png
© 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 (https://www.rt.com/news/452105-venezuela-border-brazil-colombia/)

The Making of Juan Guaidó: How The US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela's Coup Leader (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106003-Turmoil-in-Venezuela-Original&p=1272285&viewfull=1#post1272285) by Dan Cohen & Max Blumenthal Gray Zone (https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/)

US-run border ‘provocation’ to topple Maduro set for February 23, Moscow warns (https://www.rt.com/news/452179-us-venezuela-provocation-border/)

Humanitarian aid for Venezuela is ‘Trojan horse to provoke war’ – Bolivian President Morales (https://www.rt.com/news/452180-venezuela-aid-morales-trojan-horse/)

Hervé

22nd February 2019, 17:41

Video: An Ocean of Lies on Venezuela (https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-an-ocean-of-lies-on-venezuela/5669354)

Abby Martin and UN Rapporteur Expose Coup

By Abby Martin (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/abby-martin) and Alfred de Zayas (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/alfred-de-zayas)
Global Research, February 22, 2019
Empire Files (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii5MlQgGXyk)

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/screenshot_2019-01-31_at_11.10.39_pm-400x287.png

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.

ii5MlQgGXyk

Related:
What the Press Hides From You About Venezuela — A Case of News-Suppression (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1274650&viewfull=1#post1274650)

perolator

22nd February 2019, 17:56

“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.

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.

...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.

...as well as hoarding by private capitalist elements that support the opposition.”

Okay. Whatever.

Franny

22nd February 2019, 20:10

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.

Qr-iMLluTlw

Hervé

23rd February 2019, 13:26

The War on Venezuela is Built on Lies (http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-war-on-venezuela-is-built-on-lies)

John Pilger johnpilger.com (http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-war-on-venezuela-is-built-on-lies)
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.
https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511370/large/maduro_trump_bolton.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511370/full/maduro_trump_bolton.jpg)

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 (https://www.sott.net/article/407860-The-War-on-Venezuela-is-Built-on-Lies):
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) (https://vimeo.com/16724719)

perolator

23rd February 2019, 21:00

Bolivarian Enchilada regime burnt 3 humanitarian aid trucks.

7fDXSQaxKAs

Geneva conventions, anyone?

No English information, sorry.

Hervé

24th February 2019, 13:56

BEYOND BELIEF: Guaido’s U.S Backed Supporters Torched Own Aid Caravan in False Flag (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/02/beyond-belief-guaidos-u-s-backed-supporters-torched-own-aid-caravan-in-false-flag/)

By Paul Antonopoulos (https://www.fort-russ.com/author/p-ant/)
Last updated Feb 24, 2019

https://www.fort-russ.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/venezuela-bridge-attack-FRN-fort-russ-news-750x430.jpg

* Editor’s note –

previously FRN reported that the Venezuelan authorities had ‘stopped’ the aid convoy (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/02/major-venezuela-thwarts-trojan-horse-attempt-at-border-bridge-crossing/) 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 (https://www.rt.com/news/452179-us-venezuela-provocation-border/) 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/JornalTrincheira/videos/1043321632458399/ ]

“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/JornalTrincheira/videos/637733709991736/ ]

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.

https://www.fort-russ.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/venezuela-false-flag-750x430.jpg

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

24th February 2019, 18:47

‘They attacked civilians, they are not heroes’: Journalist recounts trampling by Venezuela defectors (https://www.rt.com/news/452317-journalist-hurt-defectors-venezuela/)

RT
Published time: 24 Feb, 2019 17:30 Edited time: 24 Feb, 2019 17:43
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9p0d)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.02/xxs/5c72d3afdda4c8eb0b8b466f.jpg
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.

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1099713198276730880/pu/img/qpp-ENh2T-0e5K4X?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/redfishstream/status/1099716919815491586)
(click on picture to watch video on twitter)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/928545401434669056/RO2Chva7_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/redfishstream)redfish @redfishstream (https://twitter.com/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 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash).

7:05 PM - Feb 24, 2019 (https://twitter.com/redfishstream/status/1099716919815491586)
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.

(https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1099329008880234497)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1099328233403830272/pu/img/tenbAYTEJiu1xMUE?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1099329008880234497)

(click on picture to watch video on twitter)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/697343883630481408/c08JBfBB_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/AFP) AFP news agency ✔ @AFP
(https://twitter.com/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 (https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1099329008880234497)
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.

(https://twitter.com/PiensaPrensa/status/1099407691674513408)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1099407305874067457/pu/img/ROS5b2GbA80AwqzL?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/PiensaPrensa/status/1099407691674513408)

(click on picture to watch video on twitter)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1021627884555980801/EXiyM3s4_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/PiensaPrensa) PIENSA.PRENSA @PiensaPrensa
(https://twitter.com/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 (https://twitter.com/PiensaPrensa/status/1099407691674513408)
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.

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 (https://www.facebook.com/Redfishstream/posts/647390542371447)

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 (https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/venezuela?source=embed&epa=HASHTAG). Her leg was injured but Nicole says she is ok and will continue working.

https://scontent-cdt1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p320x320/52901565_647390232371478_3368869289242132480_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&_nc_ht=scontent-cdt1-1.xx&oh=0a9ab85f58d18101abccb7e485b13840&oe=5D1EE0C0

https://scontent-cdt1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/q81/p180x540/52694927_647390339038134_346937270508453888_o.jpg?_nc_cat=103&_nc_ht=scontent-cdt1-1.xx&oh=1ddf7d7be35d22058ee0358e769b496b&oe=5CE5EC45

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 (https://www.rt.com/news/452260-venezuela-bridge-ramming-video/)

Dennis Leahy

25th February 2019, 04:58

Article:
Psychopathic US Senator Openly Calls For Maduro To Suffer Gaddafi’s Fate (https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/02/24/psychopathic-us-senator-openly-calls-for-maduro-to-suffer-gaddafis-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 (https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/22/libya-and-the-myth-of-humanitarian-intervention/). 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

25th February 2019, 15:02

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

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/styles/thumbnail/public/pictures/picture-5.jpg?itok=LY4e264- (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) by Tyler Durden (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/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."

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/branson%20concert%201.jpg

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 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/anthony-faiola/) and two other journalists, can still be seen at the Mercury News (http://archive.is/LiSYy), 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 (http://archive.is/LiSYy)
It can also be seen in a current Google search for the article:

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/200k%20ppl.png

A second version (http://archive.is/qM6Ie#selection-1585.0-1585.258) 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 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/guaido-and-supporters-prepare-to-challenge-maduros-blockade-of-aid/2019/02/22/b77eff44-3632-11e9-8375-e3dcf6b68558_story.html) of the article has no mention of Branson or his concert

Why the change of heart?
A Saturday analysis by Moon of Alabama (https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/02/venezuela-no-more-than-20000-people-came-to-bransons-concert-stunt.html) revealed that WaPo's 200,000 figure was Fake News.

"200,000 people?" asks MOA.

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/venconcert1a.jpg
Source (https://twitter.com/_ju1_/status/1099088520080179203)

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/venconcert2a.jpg
Source (https://twitter.com/fornerinojl/status/1099090950276698115)

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/venconcert5a.jpg
Source (https://twitter.com/richardbranson/status/1099318165157351425) MOA notes that RT correspondent "Dan Cohen was in the VIP area (https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1099154567156170752) in front of the stage"

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/front%20of.jpg

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:

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/venconcert3a.jpg

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 (http://www.gkstill.com/Support/crowd-density/CrowdDensity-1.html) 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 (https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/02/venezuela-no-more-than-20000-people-came-to-bransons-concert-stunt.html)
In short, Fake News.

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

BTW, that bridge couldn't ever be closed... simply because it never got to be opened in the first place (https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/venezuela-bridge-aid-pompeo-1.5018432)... Colombia having defaulted on its share of the construction costs.

TrumanCash

26th February 2019, 16:04

The Brutal Truth About the CARNET: The Venezuelan Biometric ID Also Known as the Fatherland Card

"If you want a totalitarian regime, you have to take extra steps to control the populace. And that’s just what Venezuela has done with the advent of a biometric ID called Carnet, loosely translated as The Fatherland Card. Carnet is closely related to the dystopian Chinese social credit program and in fact, uses much of the same technology to track and spy on citizens...."

"Without registering for the card, Venezuelans cannot access public healthcare, universities, or much-needed subsidised food provided in the Comités Locales de Abastecimiento y Producción (CLAP) box, a food package containing basic products such as rice, pasta, lentils, corn flour and oil...."

"Because most of Venezuela’s productive farming and food production industries have been expropriated, nationalised – and thereafter poorly managed or closed – this fertile country is struggling to produce enough food for domestic consumption. As a result, the basic foodstuffs in the CLAP box come from Mexico under a contract run by a company owned by Nicolás Maduro...."

Read more at https://www.theorganicprepper.com/carnet-venezuelan-fatherland-card-biometric/

Bill Ryan

27th February 2019, 15:18

From https://cuencahighlife.com/firsthand-accounts-of-the-situation-in-venezuela:

~~~

Firsthand accounts of the situation in Venezuela
27 Feb, 2019, by Jeff Van Pelt

On February 24, my wife and I attended a very moving presentation at Fishbon del Sur, given by a panel of 3 Venezuelan refugees, one a spinal surgeon now practicing at Monte Sinai Hospital here in Cuenca. Eight or ten refugees, who have opened three Venezuelan restaurants, sold food and came on stage briefly to tell us about their restaurants.

Some of their stories brought tears to my eyes. One talked about being robbed so often that he started staying home and eating only what he could get at a nearby store that he could get to safely. Another needed a Caesarean delivery and she had to go around town to find the necessary supplies, including surgical gloves.

There was no pain medication available after the surgery, when the anesthesia wore off, and she said the pain was terrible, yet she said she was “one of the luckier patients.” Another person’s mother was close to death because kidney dialysis was no longer available.

https://cuencahighlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/chl-refugees2-1.png
More than half a million Venezuelans have sought refuge in Ecuador to escape
crime and political violence. Photograph: Rodrigo Buendia/AFP/Getty Images

One individual said the military is putting common soldiers on the front line at the border, many of them women, blocking humanitarian aid. The masses of people who want the aid were begging the soldiers to think about their families, children, mothers, etc. and some of the soldiers cried but couldn’t do anything for fear of retribution from their commanders.

As bad as it appears to us in the media, I didn’t really comprehend the depths of their misery before hearing these accounts. And yet the doctor said Venezuela has millionaires who ride around in armored cars and can fly to New York, or wherever, whenever they like.

I asked them a question, to which they all gave the same emphatic answer. The question was, “How do most Venezuelans feel about foreign military intervention to remove Maduro?” They said it is absolutely necessary because nothing else can remove him. I then asked which countries should do it. Should it be a South American thing. They said Colombia, Brazil, and Chile are already preparing for this but they need the resources of the United States to succeed.

I think these are the voices we should be paying attention to, not the conspiracy theorists who are so quick to blame all of Venezuela’s problems on the United States’ sanctions and desire for their oil.

ThePythonicCow

27th February 2019, 19:43

TargeT

28th February 2019, 18:08

Here's an interesting point of view:

Ny5KFTLyiRw

Bill Ryan

28th February 2019, 20:31

Here's an interesting point of view:

Ny5KFTLyiRw

Jimmy Dore, 4:00: "There's food all over the place."

But Max Blumenthal, who'd made the supermarket video, was careful to point out that he had to pay in US dollars, which local people couldn't afford as the Venezuelan currency has been so undermined.

He said (2:20) that a bag of pet food cost 66,000 bolivars, which he also said is $20. But note this, from Jan 2018 (a year ago):

https://panampost.com/sabrina-martin/2018/01/04/new-monthly-minimum-wage-in-venezuela-barely-enough-to-buy-daily-cup-of-coffee

An average [monthly] salary in Venezuela is 248,510 bolivars (US $2.20). With additional food stamps of 549,000 bolivars (US $5.49), the salary is barely equivalent to eight dollars.
So according to that, to buy that $20 bag of pet food (or to have bought it a year ago), it'd take 100% of someone's earnings for 10 weeks.

That's why the supermarket was full of food, but almost empty of people. :)

Do note, though, that there's something wrong with this picture, somewhere. According to this currency exchange page (https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=66%2C000&From=VEF&To=USD), as of right now, that bag of pet food is $6,608. (Six thousand, six hundred dollars.)

http://projectavalon.net/VEF_to_USD.gif

If anyone who knows more about this than I do can clarify, I'd be genuinely most interested to understand this better.

TargeT

28th February 2019, 20:43

But Max Blumenthal, who'd made the supermarket video, was careful to point out that he had to pay in US dollars, which local people couldn't afford as the Venezuelan currency has been so undermined.

He said (2:20) that a bag of pet food cost 66,000 bolivars, which he also said is $20.

That's why the supermarket was full of food, but almost empty of people. :)

that was what they were trying to point out, it's not that there's a humanitarian crisis, it's that the economy was destroyed (and we played a part)... the "humanitarian aid" is just a cover for more regime change steps.

anyway, I think your post and that video agree, there IS a problem, it's not what we are being told (because if you trace it to it's source, the situation looks VERY different).

Hervé

28th February 2019, 22:05

See post # 351 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1277259&viewfull=1#post1277259)...

Bill Ryan

28th February 2019, 22:15

See post # 351 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1277259&viewfull=1#post1277259)...

Thx! :thumbsup:

But as best I can see, there's nothing there at all about what it all actually costs regular people who don't have US $ in cash.

Hervé

3rd March 2019, 17:10

Guaidó, a President Without Territory, Without an Army – But With the Bitter Taste of Defeat (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/03/guaido-a-president-without-territory-without-an-army-but-with-the-bitter-taste-of-defeat/)

By Luis Hernández Navarro Guest Author (https://www.fort-russ.com/author/guestauthor/)
Last updated Mar 3, 2019

https://www.fort-russ.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/guaido-723x430.jpg

Ureña, the Venezuelan side near the border of Colombia. It’s the manager’s loneliness. Bogota, Colombia, has become the seat of government of the self-proclaimed president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó. He does not command the army of his country. He is protected by the troops of a neighboring nation.

He has no control of any territory. His orders are not obeyed by any authority. Even his former opposition allies do not put their hands in the fire for him. At the worst moment of the February 23 crisis, almost none of them opened their mouths to encourage him. They chose to pay him with the same token that he used with them. His only significant internal support is his boss Leopoldo López.

Failed is his insurrectional intent, in which, under the pretext of forcing humanitarian aid intended to take territorial control of a border strip with Colombia, to install there a headquarters of his administration, ended up establishing a ghostly government in exile .

But the only real support he has is diplomatic, on the part of the United States, Colombia and some other nations. He also has some supporters that are with him inside Venezuela. But they have only bitter taste of defeat in their mouths.

They told them that Nicolás Maduro was leaving last weekend and yet he is still there.

However, although dressed in the guise of human rights, democracy and humanitarian aid, the support of Donald Trump is far from being disinterested. On page 136 of Andrew McCabe’s book, in which he reconstructs a meeting in the White House Oval Office in 2017, the former acting director of the FBI recalls: “Then the president spoke of Venezuela. It is the country with which we should go to war, he said. They have all that oil and they are right in our backyard .”

It does not seem like bravado. A senior Russian security official Tuesday accused the United States of deploying forces in Puerto Rico and Colombia in preparation for a military intervention in Venezuela to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro.

The transfer of US special operations forces to Puerto Rico, the landing of US forces in Colombia and other events indicate that the Pentagon is strengthening its troops in the region to use them in an operation to get Maduro out of power, Nikolai Pátrushev said, secretary of the Security Council of Russia, in an interview with the weekly Argumenty i Fakty .

The difficult normality
Little by little, the cities bordering on Colombia begin to take on their traditional dynamic of life. As normal as it can be in a border region with intense commercial exchange when the passage of goods and people is closed. Shops open their doors (not all), people take to the streets and parents think about whether it is time to take their children to school or not.

The size of the normality can be appreciated, too, in that, on the Colombian side of the Simón Bolívar bridge, a group of Venezuelan guarimberos (rioters) asked the police of Venezuela to allow them to return to Venezuela. They complained that their leaders had summoned them and then left them hanging.

The stampede follows the defeat. Just last Monday, the police removed the container blocking the bridge, using tear gas and plastic shields. The young rioters who used it as a defense ran out to take refuge on the Colombian side of the border. When they realized that there they would no longer be protected, they put their feet back into the dust.

Ureña is an industrial city severely affected by economic strangulation and the closing of borders. It is also the territory of operation of the Colombian paramilitaries.

On the Francisco de Paula Santander international bridge that connects that city with Colombia, fierce confrontations took place on February 23rd. When you get there, you can see how the smoking remains of the humanitarian aid lie on the platforms of two huge trailers that were set on fire. The ground is covered with ashes, the remains of soda and beer bottles that served as Molotov cocktails, stones and metal artifacts.

Next to cans of tuna and crackers that survived the fire for some reason that only an experienced chemist can explain, there are rolls of wire and more rolls of wire, nails, nail clippers, whistles, locks, gel to lower the temperature. The indispensable kit of the “guarimbero” (rioter) . They are concentrated, above all, in the front of the truck’s platform.

The two trucks entered the Ureña bridge early in the morning on February 23rd. In the back of the second truck, under in the awning, there were groups of young rioters with their faces covered and heavy sheets of metal fencing from the Venezuelan aduana as shields. As Madeleine Garcia, of Telesur, reported, when a policeman took the key to the first vehicle preventing the caravan from following its lead on the bridge, the hooded men threw Molotov cocktails to set fire to the merchandise. They fanned the fire by throwing gasoline that they’d transported in plastic drums.

Simultaneously, in the rear of the position of the command of area No. 21 Táchira, Detachment No. 212, 3rd Company Ureña, groups of guarimberos took passenger buses, removing some of them by force from the school where they were parked. They broke the glass, they flattened their tires and set them on fire. In a pincer operation (operacion tenaza), the opponents surrounded the military and began to attack them with firecrackers fired from PVC bazookas, stones, sticks and Molotov cocktails. Some of the anti-Chavista fighters from Ureña came from outside the city. In this “pincer” operation, about 3 thousand people participated.

Jorge Ramos
And while the Venezuelan political forces are preparing for a new phase of confrontation, the Jorge Ramos affair received significant media coverage in the Spanish-language press.

The Mexican Univision journalist and his team were expelled from Venezuela on Tuesday. From their hotel to the airport they were accompanied by diplomatic officials from the embassies of Mexico and the United States.

According to the journalist’s version, on Monday he interviewed President Nicolás Maduro at the Miraflores Palace, and after 17 minutes, the president suspended the session when Ramos showed him a video in which a group of young people eating from a garbage truck appear. The journalist and his Univision team were held there for two hours, interrogated and their equipment confiscated.

Before leaving Caracas, Ramos told Carmen Aristegui: I have suffered the dictatorship in my own flesh . And, upon arriving in Miami, he declared: what happened is an act of repression, a violation of international law, a violation of our right as journalists to ask any question. The bottom line is that our job is to keep asking uncomfortable questions to those in power. If we do not ask those uncomfortable questions, we are not doing journalism.

US journalist Max Blumenthal, editor of the Grayzone Project , asked Ramos at the airport if, now that he is back in Miami, he has plans to confront Marco Rubio for calling to assassinate Nicolás Maduro. The Univision journalist refused to answer the question. He just told him that “many people in the United States are supporting what he did. Marco Rubio, Vice President Mike Pence and many others were supporting what we were doing.”

Jorge Rodríguez, Minister of Communications of Chavismo, denied the journalist’s version. He assured that it was not true that they were detained. He said that, during the interview, Jorge Ramos called Maduro a murderer and dictator several times.
“Through Miraflores have passed hundreds of journalists who have received the decent treatment that we habitually impart to those who come to fulfill their journalistic tasks, and have published the result of that work. We do not lend ourselves to cheap shows ,” said Rodriguez. He added:

“At the same time that @ABC publishes an interview with the president @NicolasMaduro , the State Department (of the US) invents a new false positive with a show and a montage”.
Published on: Mar 2, 2019 @ 19:20

Hervé

4th March 2019, 20:29

Video: Pablo Allende and the Truth About Venezuela (https://www.globalresearch.ca/pablo-allende-truth-about-venezuela/5670311)

By Kurt Nimmo (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/kurt-nimmo) Global Research,
March 04, 2019

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pablo-allende-400x228.jpg

In just under six minutes, the grandson of the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende (murdered in a US-sponsored coup), tells the real story on Venezuela.

You’ll never see Pablo Allende on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc. The American people—mostly unthinking consumers of the corporate state’s propaganda—have bought into the lies, distortions, and half-truths about Venezuela (and Nicaragua and Cuba, explicitly targeted by Trump’s national security adviser, the psychopath John Bolton).

35xOW4TGTUo
I don’t believe socialism works. However, I don’t live in Venezuela, Cuba, or Nicaragua, and it’s none of my business what government or leader the people of these countries elect to represent them.

Here is a primer on Venezuela, the sort you’ll never see on the above mentioned corporate, government narrative-reading “news” (propaganda) networks.
*

fWJhV5JUhBE

This article was originally published on the author’s blog site: Another Day in the Empire (https://kurtnimmo.blog/2019/03/03/pablo-allende-and-the-truth-about-venezuela/).

Kurt Nimmo is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

TargeT

5th March 2019, 19:09

Another good expose' on the constant rampant lies we are told

HeNCbXVHrR8

some inaccuracies centered on how refineries work (can't use light sweet crude? no.... omg... NO!)

it's because the ****ty oil is vastly cheaper than sweet light crude (which is far easier to refine)... basically it's shifting costs from resource purchase to plant operations (which has a lot of tax breaks).

ThePythonicCow

6th March 2019, 01:46

some inaccuracies centered on how refineries work (can't use light sweet crude? no.... omg... NO!)

it's because the ****ty oil is vastly cheaper than sweet light crude (which is far easier to refine)... basically it's shifting costs from resource purchase to plant operations (which has a lot of tax breaks).

My understanding is that there are some refineries in Corpus Christie, Texas, that are custom built to handle heavy crude such as comes from Venezuela. Over the years, the US has imported lots of its oil from Venezuela. In 2010 (https://www.npr.org/2012/04/11/150444802/where-does-america-get-oil-you-may-be-surprised), the some 5.9% of US oil imports came from Venezuela (as compared to 7.5% from Mexico, by way of comparison.) In earlier years (https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mttimusve1&f=a), peaking in the late 1990's, the US imported even more of its oil from Venezuela.

In general, all the oil needs refining, yes. But few refineries are built to handle Venezuelan oil, and those refineries are not worth much refining lighter crudes.

So it seems that one reason for the Keystone XL Pipeline is to provide another heavy crude source, from the Canadian tar sands to the Koch brothers now under utiliized heavy crude refineries in Corpus Christi.

Unfortunately for Venezuela, these Corpus Christie refineries are about the only place that can refine Venezuelan oil, and refining that heavy crude requires some lighter crude (such as abundant in Texas). This has left Venezuela vulnerable to pressure from Big Oil. Venezuela has troubles getting (paying for) enough light crude to refine its oil itself, and doesn't have the refinery capacity of the Corpus Christie, Texas refineries to handle that refining.

So, in short, when Greg Palast tells viewers, at the 4:00 mark (https://youtu.be/HeNCbXVHrR8?t=240") in this video, that "The Koch brothers have a problem. They can't use Texas oil. It's not filthy enough. It's not dirty enough for their refinery", I think Palast is almost technically accurate. I think those Koch brother refineries do use some Texas sweet crude, but that not as the main input. That has to be something like Venezuelan or Canadian tar sand oil. If Palast had said "They can't use Texas oil as the main input to those particular refineries.", then I think Palast would have been technically accurate.

Another good expose' on the constant rampant lies we are told
Yes - good expose.

The history of Spanish, Dutch, French, British and American colonialism goes back to at least 1492, which Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

perolator

6th March 2019, 03:43

http://projectavalon.net/VEF_to_USD.gif

If anyone who knows more about this than I do can clarify, I'd be genuinely most interested to understand this better.

Thank you for your genuine interest to understand this part of the Venezuelan tragedy.

As you may know, in the late 70's, Venezuela was a reasonably good place to live. The exchange rate was fixed at 4.30 Bs./U.S. Dollar. In 1983, came the first major devaluation (product of mismanagement and corrupt practices) known as the Black Friday. The government established "Differential Change Regime" (Régimen de Cambio Diferencial(RECADI)) to manage a system of differential exchange rates and capital controls but it was disbanded in 1989 when the differential exchange rate system was abolished.

RECADI saw widespread corruption, and became a substantial scandal in 1989 when five former ministers were arrested, although the charges were later dropped. Only one person was convicted, a Chinese. That poor guy took all the blame.

Bad practices became the norm. Jaime Lusinchi was the president when the second major devaluation occurred. A despicable guy, unfit and alcoholic, implemented populist (i.e. socialist) measures to keep the general population happy.

In December 1986, the government decided to devalue the official exchange of the national currency bolivar by 93%, culminating with three years of depreciation of the national currency. Starting February, 1983, also introduced was a system of multiple currency changes. In 1987, Lusinchi finally stopped the economic program carried out from the beginning of his term in office, and gave up his attempts to pay off the external debt, control the fiscal deficit and restrain public spending.

After that, Lusinchi decreed salary increases, price controls, emission of currency and compensatory bonds for subsidies. These measures tried to appease social tensions, that from 1987 on had appeared with more intensity. Among the consequences of this economic program were, more inflation and budget deficits.

The return to economic populism as in previous administrations safeguarded Lusinchi's popularity. However, there occurred currency devaluation, corruption, media criticism and unsatisfactory results from the Presidential Commission for State Reform (COPRE) which was established on 17 December 1984 and whose work encountered the same bureaucratic problems and administrative inefficiency, which it attempted to solve.

Source (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Lusinchi)

The Caso Recadi was the proof currency controls in my country lead consistently to corruption, as the Bolivarian fiasco is showing now.

When the lunatic known as The Galactic Commander Chavez started mass expropriation (shortly after taking office), investors started moving their assets to U.S. dollars, mostly to safeguard themselves.

Property rights went out the window once Chávez had full control of the state apparatus. Expropriation of private property became the norm during the Chávez years. According to some reports, the Venezuelan government confiscated upwards of six million acres of farmland. Foreign companies such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips also fell on the wrong side of the Venezuelan government’s expropriation crusade.

Economic ignorance continued with currency and price controls, which have caused massive distortions in the Venezuelan economy. In fact, price controls are the main culprit behind Venezuela’s infamous shortage crisis.

Making matters worse, Chávez politicized Venezuela’s Central Bank and state-owned oil company, which were already under too much government influence. State-owned PDVSA was used as a money spigot to finance Chávez’s social spending projects. The Venezuelan Central Bank cranked up the printing press and increased the money supply at astronomical rates. Consequently, hyperinflation is now a reality in Venezuela and is on par with Germany in 1923, the year of Hitler’s infamous Beer Hall Putsch that sought to capitalize on the Weimar Republic’s failed economic policies.

Although Chávez died in 2013, his tyrannical socialist system lives on with his successor Nicolás Maduro. Maduro has continued Chávez’s policy of plundering PDVSA, stripping it of investment, sacking experienced managers, and replacing them with sycophantic military officers.

Source (https://ammo.com/articles/venezuela-economy-collapse-socialism-oil-envy-demagogues)

Then, Chavez announced with fanfare CADIVI, i.e. RECADI reloaded. When Chavez took office, 1 U.S. dollar was 500 Bs. Theoretically, CADIVI was designed to "help" the poor. How? by means of preferential dollars. Those were assigned by a flawed system that made top brass military, cubans, close relatives of the bolivarian enchilada leaders, gang leaders and their friends ultra-rich. Preferential dollars were assigned and promptly resold in the black market. That scheme started in 2003. CADIVI was disbanded, but the tyrannical regime relaunched it (renamed it, but the system is the same) as SICAD 1, SICAD 2, DICOM... ad nauseam. Here (http://fortune.com/2014/07/22/how-to-fix-venezuelas-toubled-exchange-rate/) is a 2014 article that may help you understand.

http://www.exchangerateusd.com/charts-show.php?curr=VEF&days=360

Take a look to the graph. Tell me which country may withstand this madness. Sanctions started in 2017. Socialism lovers have to look at this graph. That's the reason why the middle class disappeared and the ultra-rich chavistas are scattered all over the globe at the expense of common people like myself and my family. That's why there are people unable to buy a cookie for dinner.

One of the most sadistic measures was the adoption of the Bolivar Fuerte (Bs. F.) and the Bolivar Soberano (Bs. S.). Bolivar Fuerte was a devaluation mechanism that removed 3 zeros from the old Bolivar, and Soberano is the same 3 zero removal. It means 1 Bs.S. is 1/1,000,000 of the old currency.

In a seeming attempt to hark back to that earlier era of prosperity, Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's leftist president, first fixed the currency in 2005 and two years ago relaunched it with three fewer zeroes as the “strong bolívar”, at 2.15 to the dollar.

Source (http://fortune.com/2014/07/22/how-to-fix-venezuelas-toubled-exchange-rate/)

Hope this helps.

Bill Ryan

6th March 2019, 20:49

An interesting article here, which I'll not copy and paste — because what I really want to do is share one of the comments.

https://cuencahighlife.com/international-media-lies-about-conditions-in-venezuela-and-about-support-for-guaido

The article's author (a US expat) lives in Caracas, and said there's plenty of food and supplies on the shelves.

Here's what reader Kristine Prause (https://disqus.com/by/kristineprause) wanted to say:

~~~

Last year the inflation rate exceeded 1 million percent. I have friends there, as I taught for four years in Venezuela. The first time in 2003-2005, and the second time in 2010-2012.

I do think he's not truly aware of what is going on in Venezuela. Almost all of the Venezuelan teachers I taught with are now spread out all over the world teaching at other international schools. They all concur things are bad in Venezuela & there needs to be a removal of Maduro.

When I was there seven years ago, there were shortages of basic foods such as fresh milk, sugar, beef, and coffee, though the inflation rate was not so dramatic at that time. I visited Cuenca last July and invited a Venezuelan teacher friend to join me. She sent me several short videos telling me why she couldn't join me... crying the whole time.

She is a musician and lives in Caracas. She said all the people are vegetarians now, since there is no meat to be had. I talked to another friend Sunday who said he had 1,800 Bolivars (from his retirement pension) and was able to buy 2 eggs, 4 grams & one other small item and that was it... he was out of money.

Things are dire there, for sure. But, I don't want to try to convince anyone who believes they are right that they aren't. I don't have the energy.

TargeT

7th March 2019, 05:40

some inaccuracies centered on how refineries work (can't use light sweet crude? no.... omg... NO!)

it's because the ****ty oil is vastly cheaper than sweet light crude (which is far easier to refine)... basically it's shifting costs from resource purchase to plant operations (which has a lot of tax breaks).

My understanding is that there are some refineries in Corpus Christie, Texas, that are custom built to handle heavy crude such as comes from Venezuela. Over the years, the US has imported lots of its oil from Venezuela. In 2010 (https://www.npr.org/2012/04/11/150444802/where-does-america-get-oil-you-may-be-surprised), the some 5.9% of US oil imports came from Venezuela (as compared to 7.5% from Mexico, by way of comparison.) In earlier years (https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mttimusve1&f=a), peaking in the late 1990's, the US imported even more of its oil from Venezuela.

In general, all the oil needs refining, yes. But few refineries are built to handle Venezuelan oil, and those refineries are not worth much refining lighter crudes.

So it seems that one reason for the Keystone XL Pipeline is to provide another heavy crude source, from the Canadian tar sands to the Koch brothers now under utiliized heavy crude refineries in Corpus Christi.

Unfortunately for Venezuela, these Corpus Christie refineries are about the only place that can refine Venezuelan oil,

I have a unique perspective on this, based on where I currently live.

When I moved to the VI in Jan of 2013, HOVENSA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovensa) (one of the top 10 largest refineries IN THE WORLD) had just closed, HOVENSA exclusively refined oil for venezuela; in fact it was mostly owned by that country..... we had very special port laws, unique to the entire US at that refinery (still do, it's the only port in the US that is exempt from the JONES ACT (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/j/jonesact.asp).... think about how INSANELY profitable that single port is, just because of that)

I could keep typing, but I think if you do some timeline research you'll see some interesting 'coincidences' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez) that line up with the operandus mundi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modus_operandi) of many other regime change efforts.....

Who here knew that Venezuela had larger oil reserves than Saudi? anyone? (ok, before this year)

perolator

7th March 2019, 06:13

An interesting article here, which I'll not copy and paste — because what I really want to do is share one of the comments.

I read Mr. Cook's article. I do not want to comment it. But, for entertainment purposes, I would like to address some details:

https://cuencahighlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/chl-pro-maduro-3-300x269.png

Source (https://cuencahighlife.com/international-media-lies-about-conditions-in-venezuela-and-about-support-for-guaido/)

The selectively blurred picture above (Maduro does not look so blurred, thankfully) was not shot on February 2nd, 2019. It was shot on May 2017, at the closure of Maduro's Constituent Assembly rally. How do I know? That event was widely covered by international media. The Chavez's wide-spreaded-arms huge inflatable doll is barely seen, but it's noticeable. The building, right of the picture, was under construction. Maduro's red jacket is unmistakable.

Let's look at this picture below:

https://www.resistencia.cc/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Maduro-convocou-a-Constituinte.jpg

Source (https://www.resistencia.cc/perguntas-e-respostas-sobre-a-constituinte-na-venezuela/)

Is not the same picture, but the details I mentioned above are way clearer. The building is a reference for Venezuelans because we know is unmistakable, it is like a sore thumb. It was built by the government and it took more than one year to complete. In 2017, it was still under construction. Not convincing? Look at the unfinished building in this photograph below:

https://www.greenleft.org.au/sites/default/files/styles/glw_full_content/public/widerimages/caracas%20rally%20to%20support%20constituent%20assembly%20on%20july%2028.jpg?itok=X7fVLKJt

Source (https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/zero-hour-venezuela-ahead-constituent-assembly-vote)

How Mr. Cook can talk about lies so freely? I think one of the staples of journalism is credibility.

I was sitting in my apartment in Caracas, Venezuela, reading the online edition of Time magazine, which carried a report that there was not even something as basic as aspirin to be found anywhere in Venezuela: “Basic medicines like aspirin are nowhere to be found.”

Time magazine has a readership of 26 million souls as of now. Thank God it has a wider audience than Mr. Cook.

One of the items I send to my family are medicines. Among those, Tylenol. I can confirm something as basic as syringes, antibiotic ointments, hydrogen peroxide, sterile rolling gauze, even examination gloves are scarce. Mr. Cook, stop telling lies to your audience. Do I have to show the bills and photos of the medicines I send to my country to him? I think he is living in Narnia as chavistas are.

People everywhere are believing this. I ran a Google image search against the main picture of the article and it retrieved 169 (!) hits. Some of the pictures EXIF provenance date metadata was mangled to appear as (the shot) was made on February 2, 2019, some on February 8, 2019. One appears as shot on July 29, 2019. Another on September 29, 2019, believe it or not. The propaganda machine uses old rally photographs worldwide to show Maduro has plenty of supporters and the "right wing" is composed of oligarchs, like myself.

The article's author (a US expat) lives in Caracas, and said there's plenty of food and supplies on the shelves.

I am sure Mr. Cook is well-fed. No doubt about it.

Kristine Prause (https://disqus.com/by/kristineprause) words are 100% accurate.

(Kristine Prause wrote) ...Things are dire there, for sure. But, I don't want to try to convince anyone who believes they are right that they aren't. I don't have the energy.

I am losing the energy too. Every time I dig deeper I learn how hard will be fighting against the bolivarian enchilada and Socialism as ideology.

Hervé

7th March 2019, 13:26

Sanction the world! US threatens 'secondary sanctions' against countries that refuse to back Venezuela coup (https://www.rt.com/news/453114-us-threatens-secondary-sanctions-venezuela/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/453114-us-threatens-secondary-sanctions-venezuela/)
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 11:46 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513010/large/my_doa_trung_phat_thu_cap_nhun.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513010/full/my_doa_trung_phat_thu_cap_nhun.jpg)
Elliott Abrams next to Colombian President Ivan Duque at the border with Venezuela. © AFP / RHONA WISE

With the vast majority of the world still seeing Nicolas Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, America's hawkish special envoy has hinted that Washington might sanction third parties that defy the US regime-change efforts.

The international community must choose sides wisely in the Venezuelan conflict, the curator of US intervention in the Latin American country, special envoy Elliott Abrams, suggested on Tuesday, noting that Washington would not limit itself to economic sanctions just against the Maduro government, but against all who chose to support him.

"Secondary sanctions, it's clearly a possibility," Abrams said at a press conference, warning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WyYYDnSqN8) that a decision to sanction third party countries "would depend on the conduct of the [Venezuelan] regime over time."

So far some 54 countries (https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2019/03/290013.htm%2054%20link) have bowed to US pressure and recognized the self-proclaimed 'interim president' Juan Guaido, who since January has been rallying support for regime change. Whilst the US claims (https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2019/03/290013.htm%2054%20link) the "momentum is good" to get more countries on board, the majority of the world's countries and population rejected Washington's "imperialist"ambitions, Colin Cavell, associate professor of political science at Bluefield State College, told RT.

The US administration is "internationalizing the Venezuelan conflict on a very dangerous basis... threatening other countries who deal with Venezuela, saying that if you do not support our sanctions, we are going to impose sanctions on you," Cavell explained.

"The Trump administration is forcing its allies and other countries to choose: are you to support this aggressively attempted coup to overthrow the elected government of Venezuela or are you going to go and support this government that the United States does not like."

Sanctioning governments across the globe for backing Maduro over Guaido not only violates the international law but highlights the brazen interference of the US in the affairs of a sovereign nation. Furthermore, the academic believes, the US administration seems to be acting under the assumption that "if there's more pain on the Venezuelan people" then they will rise up and "overthrow" their government.

"Three-quarters of the world's countries are siding with the elected government, the democratic government of Venezuela and that includes the largest countries in the world, China and Russia," Cavell concluded. "So despite what Donald Trump says internally to keep in power domestically, the world is watching very closely this imperial aggression in Venezuela."

Now John Bolton has threatened all foreign financial institutions that are doing business with Venezuela. RT reports:
"The United States is putting foreign financial institutions on notice that they will face sanctions for being involved in facilitating illegitimate transactions that benefit Nicolas Maduro and his corrupt network," the US National Security Advisor John Bolton said in a statement (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-national-security-advisor-ambassador-john-bolton/) released by the White House. He was repeating the earlier threat (https://www.rt.com/news/453114-us-threatens-secondary-sanctions-venezuela/) by US special envoy Elliott Abrams.

Washington also reiterated that it "strongly supports" what it called "democratic transition in Venezuela" led by the self-proclaimed 'interim president' Juan Guaido, who has enjoyed consistent support from the US and some of its allies ever since he announced his leadership bid.

The national security adviser also said that the US "is pursuing several new diplomatic and economic initiatives in support of that transition" but did not reveal any specific details.

Hervé

7th March 2019, 14:12

BREAKING: FULL AUDIO – Elliot Abrams DUPED into FULL CONFESSION of U.S War & Theft Plans for Venezuela (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/03/breaking-full-audio-elliot-abrams-duped-into-full-confession-of-u-s-war-theft-plans-for-venezuela/)

By Joaquin Flores (https://www.fort-russ.com/author/joaquin-flores/)
Last updated Mar 7, 2019

https://www.fort-russ.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/abrams-duped-breaking-news-750x430.jpg

WASHINGTON D.C – In breaking news, Russian pranksters ‘Vovan and Lexus’ managed to get US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams on the line, posing as President of Switzerland Ueli Maurer. The subject involves an invasion by the US in Venezuela and freezing of Maduro’s accounts. These pranksters operate highly effectively, and are known for similar ‘stunts’ which had profound geopolitical ramifications.

As such, it is possible that ‘Vovan and Lexus’ indeed operate as Russian media-intelligence sphere agents.

The details of the US plans are revealed in this ‘prank’, which reveals tremendous volumes on the US’ plans and how Abrams pitches and couches the theft of Venezuela’s oil and assets using the language of ‘protecting’ these assets from being stolen by Venezuela’s government.

j1LLsffYH3E
Published on: Mar 6, 2019 @ 19:47

Hervé

8th March 2019, 13:52

From Jim Stone (http://82.221.129.208/.xo6.html):

HEADS UP: NATIONWIDE POWER OUTAGE IN VENEZUELA (http://82.221.129.208/.xo6.html)

My original report follows. It is in part confirmed accurate by the facts that:
They deleted the airtime off the primary data plan (I am on a backup one now, with the old modems) and/or shut it off when I was typing this, PLUS they deleted the Fukushima report from the web site, PLUS the Stuxnet graphics, and then locked me out of the site entirely, with my only way in being the unstoppable "combat mode" which I have not tested yet by hitting "post" with all of this but I bet it will work. I'll get all of the Fukushima stuff put back up when I can finally log in again. So things got dicey with this one, it's a DOOZIE.
Probable Stuxnet attack underway

At approximately 1:40 PM CST the Guri dam was cyber attacked, which tripped a nationwide blackout.

Here is a cute one: POMPEO TWEETED: (https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1103872530450771968)

"No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro."
Given that statement, it can be fairly safely assumed the power outage in Venezuela was done on purpose by the United States. He has since rescinded the comment, but the genie is out of the bottle, THAT ONE is not going back in.

Ok, more details: There have been various comments about the turbines at Guri dam (that must be a huge hydroelectric project) went off frequency, phase canceled with the rest of the grid, and tripped the blackout.

FACT: Once a generator is online and synchronized, as the turbines at Guri dam were, there's no way they lose sync and go out of phase unless something causes it. My guess is that most likely someone got a virus into the control systems at Guri dam which gave the engineers a false frequency reading while it opened the valves into the turbines too much and pushed them ahead of phase, which would trip a blackout.

Most likely, the generators at Guri dam have been destroyed after they played tug of war with the entirety of Venezuela's grid. AND ONLY STUXNET OR A VARIANT COULD HAVE DONE THAT.

Now that word has gotten out about, what actually happened:
STUXNET ALL THE WAY BABY!!!! American/Israeli attack basically confirmed.
And for THAT I got a connection cut, got files deleted, got locked out of the web site and posted this with another connection I had in reserve via combat mode!

UPDATE TO ABOVE:

I AM CALLING IT: THE POWER OUTAGE IN VENEZUELA WAS CAUSED BY A STUXNET TYPE OF ATTACK ON AN ENORMOUS HYDROELECTRIC FACILITY
I likely know EXPLICITLY what happened based on posts Venezuelans managed to get onto Twitter, and here it is:

Someone from either American or Israeli DOD got into the PLC controllers on the hydroelectric Guri dam. They attacked the systems that regulated water flow through the valves on the dam that send the water to the turbines.

This is precisely the type of attack Stuxnet is supposed to be made for.

They opened the valves all the way. They (or whatever virus they planted, probably Stuxnet) then told the engineers, via the readouts, that the water flows and turbine speeds were normal.

With an enormous amount of pressure from the dam, the turbines managed to push ahead of phase on the rest of Venezuela's grid, got into an enormous tug-of-war with power stations elsewhere and blew everything up, tripping a nationwide blackout.

Since people at Guri have stated that they had a runaway problem with the turbines, where they pushed ahead of phase and that's what triggered the blackout, a virus or other cyber attack is assumed.

It is safe to assume this because once a power station is locked into the grid, it stays locked into the grid come hell (but not high water, ) - water, which in this case had enough pressure to force the generators to spin ahead of phase, no matter what, once the valves were simply totally open, controlling nothing.

Once the generators were more than 20 degrees ahead of phase, everything would have absolutely no choice whatsoever to do anything but go kablooey. After that, pure destruction would commence.

VENEZUELA WAS ATTACKED, this could not have happened any other way, case closed.

Update to above:

I re-traced steps looking for the tweets that said the generators went "off frequency" at Guri and can't find them anymore. There is censorship underway.

If the generators did go off frequency, power will not be back up to all of venezuela any time soon.

Such an event would likely permanently destroy anywhere from 30 - 50 percent of generating capacity in one whack.

The types of generators Venezuela would have lost can't be replaced within a year, even without sanctions.

My guess is that the news will now be continuously full of reports about how bad Venezuela's electrical system is, all reports blaming Maduro. If that happens, the report above is going to stand the test of time. If Venezuela now goes into continuous rolling blackouts that never stop, the reason is as stated as above.

Hervé

8th March 2019, 15:07

Rubio Demands US Initiate "Widespread Unrest" In Venezuela

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/styles/thumbnail/public/pictures/picture-5.jpg?itok=LY4e264- (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) by Tyler Durden (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Thu, 03/07/2019 - 23:25

Predictably during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday (https://miami.cbslocal.com/video/4042322-senate-foreigh-relations-committee-holds-hearing-on-venezuela/), Republican chairman Marco Rubio condemned Venezuela's Maduro as a "clear danger" and a "threat to the national security of the US." To be expected the hearing was filled with plenty of threats and talk of flipping "military elites" and enforcing tougher sanctions.

But perhaps unexpected was just how out in the open and brazen Rubio's own admissions of how far he's willing to go in promoting regime change in Caracas. In public testimony he called on the US to promote “widespread unrest” in order to eventually bring down the Maduro government.

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/Rubio%20Colombia%20Venezuela.jpg
Rubio previously at the Colombian border, near the Simon Bolivar international bridge in Cucuta, Colombia on February 17. Image source: AFP

It appears Rubio is now urging the White House to initiate a full-on "Syria option" (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-25/venezuela-danger-becoming-another-syria) for Venezuela, which implies covert arming, funding, and militarization of the opposition to reach peak escalation and confrontation with the government, perhaps inviting broader external military intervention, similar to efforts to topple Syria's Assad over the past years.

We've commented before about how popular anti-Maduro protests seemed to have lost significant momentum of late, pretty much fading out altogether over the past couple weeks, after tensions came to a head on Feb. 23 when US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido led a failed attempt (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-23/venezuela-border-tensions-soar-guaido-mounts-aid-convoy-attempt-cross-blocked) to get an unauthorized humanitarian aid convoy across the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

This as it appeared the opposition was itching for a provocation that might draw the US and regional allies into some of kind of more direct intervention, and as a significant uptick in US military flights went to and from Colombia near the border with Venezuela.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1Erg35WkAEcw2F?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1103711231553216513/photo/1)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/813889164156534788/_Mgx0fNt_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal) Max Blumenthal ✔ @MaxBlumenthal
(https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal)
At Senate hearing on Venezuela just now, Marco Rubio called for the US to promote “widespread unrest” (violent guarimba riots) as a means of encouraging regime change. His proposal was met with approval. https://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/us-venezuela-relations-and-the-path-to-a-democratic-transition … (https://t.co/PDBCNoi4Q5)

(https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1103711231553216513)7:37 PM - Mar 7, 2019 (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1103711231553216513)During Thursday's Senate hearing, there appeared a willingness to admit the fact that it appears Maduro is not going anywhere anytime soon, for example, when the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said (https://www.voanews.com/a/us-lawmakers-warn-maduro-loyalists-in-venezuela/4817812.html), "Confronting tyranny requires sustained commitment. But Maduro is not invincible. He's far from it."
Though issuing plenty of threats of tighter sanctions and strangling Venezuelan oil exports, the Democrats on the committee stopped short of endorsing military action: "The support that we have lent unequivocally on Venezuela does not include the use of force," Menendez said further (https://www.voanews.com/a/us-lawmakers-warn-maduro-loyalists-in-venezuela/4817812.html).

However, Rubio's extreme "regime change by any means possible" hawkishness was on full display. Journalist Max Blumenthal reports:
At Senate hearing on Venezuela just now, Marco Rubio called for the US to promote “widespread unrest” as a means of encouraging regime change. His proposal was met with approval.
Blumenthal noted this was a reference to instigating further "violent guarimba riots" — referencing the local Spanish word — that have been a feature of Venezuelan city streets since Maduro was sworn in for a second six year term in January, and which has further represented the more violent side of Venezuelan politics for years.

Journalist Clifton Ross, who has long reported from on the ground in Venezuela, explained the term as follows (https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/04/17/the-venezuelan-guarimba/):
Your Spanish lesson for the day is guarimba, (feminine, as in ‘me voy a la guarimba’ I’m going to the guarimba) the blocking of roads, lighting of tires, and sometimes involving defensive acts of rock-throwing, a practice adopted by the Venezuelan opposition in response to elections they feel are unfair. Those who participate in the guarimbasare known as guarimberos. It is presently the season of guarimbas, and one can only hope, for the sake of the nation, that they will soon come to an end.
Though Maduro has survived the latest round of international pressure to succumb to internal coup efforts led by a US-supported opposition, the fires of unrest Venezuela don't look to be extinguishable anytime soon.

As Ben Norton also pointed out on Thursday while speaking of using "humanitarian aid" as a pretext for regime change: "They're not even hiding it at this point."

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1048703090839310336/C4YpHdmM_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton) Ben Norton ✔ @BenjaminNorton
(https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton)
They're not even hiding it at this point: Venezuela's US-backed neoliberal opposition leader Antonio Ledezma is openly admitting the strategy is to falsely claim Venezuela needs "humanitarian intervention" on "R2P" grounds, just like Yugoslavia and Libyahttps://twitter.com/alcaldeledezma/status/1102168397285150721 … (https://t.co/lh8wuMwnIg)
Antonio Ledezma ✔ @alcaldeledezma

¿Se justifica o no la Intervención Humanitaria?, ¿o la aplicación del Concepto del R2P? ¿o si se hace efectivo el artículo 187, numeral 11 de nuestra Constitución Nacional? ¿ Qué esperan, que masacren más pemones? ¿ Qué el genocidio sea superior al que ejecutó Milosevic ?
(https://twitter.com/alcaldeledezma/status/1102168397285150721)
(https://twitter.com/alcaldeledezma/status/1102168397285150721)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1102168288480628743/pu/img/xaCg4x-xSjDGAzig?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/alcaldeledezma/status/1102168397285150721)

5:21 PM - Mar 7, 2019 (https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1103677108071657472)
Indeed, Rubio personally promised just this during hearing:

"To those in Venezuela: Your fight for freedom and restoration of democracy is our fight, and the free world has not and will not forget you," he said, and added,

"We [the United States] will be [focused] on this as long as it takes."
Earlier in the day Rubio told Fox News that (https://video.foxnews.com/v/6011156832001/#sp=show-clips):
"Trump won't give up until Maduro is gone in Venezuela."
More ominously, Rubio predicted during the hearing (https://www.voanews.com/a/us-lawmakers-warn-maduro-loyalists-in-venezuela/4817812.html), "Venezuela is going to enter a period of suffering no nation in our hemisphere has confronted in modern history," in reference to the Venezuelan military blocking US aid shipments and tightening sanctions.

Of course Rubio laid all blame for the dire future plight of common Venezuelans on the Maduro regime alone, and not on his own admitted desire to stir yet more unrest in the country.

perolator

8th March 2019, 18:02

At approximately 1:40 PM CST the Guri dam was cyber attacked, which tripped a nationwide blackout.

The electrical network in Venezuela is ruined. 20 years with no investment, mismanagement, no maintenance and corruption now are a cyberattack, according to Jim Stone, Freelance Journalist.

A 765 KV trunk collapsed between two major substations in the Central region. That was a catastrophic event on the SEN (Venezuela's power grid) because there are no backups, no redundancy, no nothing. The real enchilada. No Stuxnet, no hackers.

Ok, more details: There have been various comments about the turbines at Guri dam (that must be a huge hydroelectric project)...

El Complejo Hidroeléctrico de Guri is the 4th largest hydroelectric plant in the world. Finished in 1982, it was the largest by many years. Bolivarian enchilada ruined it, a prime example why 21st century socialism is a big fiasco. Must be, Jim Stone.

...went off frequency, phase canceled with the rest of the grid, and tripped the blackout.

FACT: Once a generator is online and synchronized, as the turbines at Guri dam were, there's no way they lose sync and go out of phase unless something causes it. My guess is that most likely someone got a virus into the control systems at Guri dam which gave the engineers a false frequency reading while it opened the valves into the turbines too much and pushed them ahead of phase, which would trip a blackout.

Wow, a hyperskilled hacker... War Games... Matthew Broderick is not a kid anymore.
More spy movies.

When Jesse Chacón (participant of the Chavez's 1992 failed bloody coup attempt) started a role as Energy minister in 2010, blackouts started to be common. Now, people's frozen food will rot (if not rotten by now), there are 79 deaths in hospitals because of the blackout, and Jesse is living the golden exile, with millions of euros in Austria.

According to the newspaper El Nacional, there have been 10,647 failures in the SEN (National Electric System) between January and June 2013. The states of Zulia, Anzoátegui, Miranda, Amazonas, and Aragua have been the most affected by the current crisis— leaving populations in those areas seething with anger.

On August 11, 2013, in the central states of Carabobo and Aragua, the western state of Falcón and the eastern state of Anzoátegui, blacked-out customers vented their frustrations on Twitter. Three days later, in the city of Valencia, in Carabobo state, residents blocked the highway for seven hours after a day without electricity. Consumers soon found themselves short of candles, since the power outage had closed stores as well.

Meanwhile, businesses—from factories to restaurants—are using diesel-based generators to stay open, further driving up the cost of goods and services in a country where inflation is already raging at over 20 percent. Some families purchase small generators to produce electricity when blackouts occur, but this has led to tragedy as well: between April 2012 and January 2013, 10 people died after inhaling the fumes produced by the machines.

Source (https://www.americasquarterly.org/content/venezuelas-electricity-deficit)

Cubans found a novel way to squeeze more money from my country when they started to "sell" old diesel (mostly refurbished or re-painted for show) generators to Venezuela, and The Galactic Almighty Commander (Chavez) announced "the end of the energy emergency" with those diesel crap machines -of course right now all generators and transformers are dumped- some of them are really museum-worthy.

In April 2013, former Minister of Electric Energy Héctor Navarro claimed that in one decade the Chávez government had quadrupled the electricity-sector investment made by the governments of Carlos Andrés Pérez, Ramón J. Velázquez and Rafael Caldera in the 1990s. Government supporters claim that in the past decade, electric installations were abandoned because of the plan to privatize the sector.

Venezuelan engineer and electricity-sector expert José Aguilar explains that although it is true that $38.5 billion have been invested on over 40 projects and that 5,105 mw have been brought online between 2008 and 2012, only 3,343 of the new mw are available for consumption, due to mismanagement and likely corruption. According to an analysis by Aguilar, the average cost of the 40 planned projects is already 256 percent over estimates, based on global market prices.

A study published jointly by Últimas Noticias and El Mundo Economía y Negocios in September 2011 demonstrated that Bariven—a subsidiary of the state oil company PDVSA—overpaid $403 million to acquire 17 electric power plants from three recently created midsize companies: KCT Cumaná, Ovarb and Derwick. The last company, Derwick, has been in the media spotlight recently due to corruption scandals.

Between October 2009 and December 2010, the company—which had no previous experience in the sector—was awarded 12 state contracts to participate in electricity projects. One of its directors, Leopoldo Betancourt López, has since been linked to the disappearance of $500 million later found in bank accounts of the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) in Lebanon.

And the situation is likely to get worse. According to the Ricardo Zuloaga Group, one of the reasons to declare an emergency is that it allows the state to award power plant construction projects without opening them to public tender—in violation of the Law of Public Contracts

Derwick Associates is a company so immerse in corruption, linked to an "opposition leader" and former president of the National Assembly Henry Ramos Allup, it is impossible he's not involved.

The Galactic Baloney quadrupled the "investment" but the network collapsed anyway.

Viva la revolución.
Patria, Socialismo o muerte.

ThePythonicCow

8th March 2019, 18:29

ThePythonicCow

10th March 2019, 00:02

ThePythonicCow

10th March 2019, 00:10

Meanwhile, the attacks on Venezuela's electrical grid continue.

From ‘Cyberattacks & insider sabotage’: Venezuela’s power grid still under attack – Maduro (RT; 9 Mar, 2019 21:41) (https://www.rt.com/news/453434-venezuela-maduro-cyberattack-power-grid/):

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

Electrical systems in Venezuela have been targeted by another cyberattack, President Nicholas Maduro has said. Caracas has accused the US of “sabotage”, while US officials blame local corruption and mismanagement for the blackout.

After a failure at the Guri hydroelectric power plant left much of the country without power on Thursday night, Venezuelan authorities managed to restore power to “many parts” of the country. However, the country’s grid took another hammering on Saturday, with many of the restored systems knocked out once again, the country’s embattled president said.

According to Maduro, the systems had been nearly 70 percent restored when “we received another attack, of a cybernetic nature, at midday… that disturbed the reconnection process and knocked out everything that had been achieved until noon.”

Additionally, “one of the sources of generation that was working perfectly,” was also sabotaged, he added, accusing domestic “infiltrators of attacking the electric company from the inside.”

Authorities are now trying to restore the systems “manually,” while struggling to “diagnose why the computerized” systems failed on such a massive scale.

Earlier, unconfirmed reports suggested that 95 percent of the crisis-stricken country was again without power, after Sidor Substation in Bolivar state had allegedly exploded, spewing clouds of black smoke into the sky. The substation had reportedly been sustaining the country’s power supply since the Guri plant –which produces 80 percent of the country’s power– failed.

One of Venezuela’s main substations that was keeping electricity flowing is now on fire. Venezuela has lost power on a larger scale than originally on Thursday. All hydroelectric plants in the south are basically useless now#Venezuelapic.twitter.com/z1qOjW5g1e
— CNW (@ConflictsW) March 9, 2019

The Venezuelan government blamed Thursday’s blackout on US “sabotage.” President Nicolas Maduro accused Washington of waging an “electricity war” on the socialist state, while communication and information minister Jorge Rodriguez blamed the outage on a US-orchestrated cyberattack.
============

ThePythonicCow

10th March 2019, 02:32

Hal Turner (https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/sub-stations-explode-as-venezuela-tries-to-restore-electric) reports:

Venezuela's entire Aluminum production industry is DESTROYED. Plants which melt the raw aluminum to be poured into casts, lost power and could not dump the molten metal. As the metal cooled, it cracked the smelting vats; which are now just giant hunks of metal that can no longer be used for anything.

This is permanent destruction of a major industry in Venezuela. They have no hope at all of recovering without external help. Since economic sanctions prevent such help, Venezuela is unable to bring that industry back online.

perolator

10th March 2019, 03:31

Frankly, perolator, I trust Jim Stone more on this.

Paul, I am just a forum member who also happens to be Venezuelan.

I am not a journalist, I am nobody. I don't even have a website.
I can confirm Jim Stone's information on Fukushima was wiped off and some of his claims are food for thought. He needs a capable webmaster.

I hate misinformation. That's why I intervened here. My intention is not to try and convince anybody about what I am posting. I am constantly biting my tongue.
The neocon threat is real, and I know a lot of the information about it here is true. But, a very large amount of the information posted in this thread in particular is not even slightly close to the reality of my country.

If the long nightmarish government in my country were any good, believe me, I would be the first one praising it.

Here's part of his latest update on the events at Guri:
Guri is a 12+ gigawatt hydroelectric dam. There are no nuclear reactors that generate significantly more than a gigawatt in the United States. There are very few facilities in the United States that generate much more than two gigawatts total. 12 gigawatts is a MONSTER facility of epic global significance. Guri was the third largest generating station in the entire world.

As I said in a previous post, It was once the largest worldwide in terms of installed capacity.

Jim Stone finally did his homework research about Guri.

Furthermore, Guri was not a piece of crap.

It was state of the art in the 80's. However, it, like the rest of the country, now is crap, under 21st socialism fiasco. Few countries had a power system so efficient, to be proud of, as the Venezuelan SEN. In the 70's and 80's, a power outage longer than 5 minutes were uncommon. We supplied electricity to some cities north of Brasil and south of Colombia for a few years. Worse, most of the skilled engineers and specialists were removed, or left the country.

In 2010 the "energetic revolution" started. 100 billion dollars were "invested" in the power grid. So, the government replaced key engineers with military personnel with no knowledge in power engineering, and worse, including some "experts" from Cuba such as this man in the picture below:

https://observadorjuvenil.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/ramiro-valdes-menendez-2006.jpg?w=278&h=555

This man is Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, brought by the Bolivarian enchilada to be the savior of the electric power in Venezuela.

According to his brief entry in Wikipedia:

Ramiro Valdés Menéndez (born 28 April 1932) in Artemisa in the province of Havana) is a Cuban politician. He became a Government Vice President in the 2009 shake-up by Raúl Castro.[1]
(snip)
A veteran of the Cuban Revolution, Valdés fought alongside Fidel Castro at the attack on the Moncada barracks in 1953 and was a founding member of the 26th of July Movement. He has been a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba since October 1965, and has held many important governmental posts, including those of Interior Minister and Vice-Prime Minister. On 31 August 2006, he was named Minister of Informatics and Communications.

Source (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramiro_Vald%C3%A9s)

This man was really bad news for my country. Having him on a position of power like this (pun intended) was an act of high treason.

Here (https://cubaout.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/ramiro-valdes-el-ministro-mutante-en-venezuela/) is an article (in spanish - no information about this kind of things in English... that is a shame. It is weird journalists like Jim Stone overlook information like this)

I just translated part of the article below:

Chavez announced the arrival to Venezuela of Ramiro Valdés Menéndez. They [the Venezuelan government] are presenting him as Minister of Technology and they add he has arrived to manage the technical commision who has to face the electric crisis. If it was not so grave the situation, one has to laugh of that joke among such manipulations. The only technology Ramiro Valdés, "ex Ministro del Interior Cubano" (equivalent to Home Secretary in the U.S.) handle to perfection is repression and control, and he is ruthless at it. The Great Inquisitor who will burn infidels in the stake. That's why he is an information technology fan, it brought him not only to have the control of Cubans but also the control of many countries in the ALBA axis.

And he is the Great Inquisitor. I predicted the SEN would collapse and repression would be the worst ever... Unfortunately I was right. Thank God I could escape from the madness.

It went online in the late 80's, and got all new generators and hardware in 2010, under a socialist system. Far from being a disheveled piece of crap like the scamming American media claims, Guri was a STATE OF THE ART BUGATTI. The U.S. has ZERO generating facilities that are that modern, and none that are significantly over 20 percent of it's size, even if they are nuclear or coal powered. I am not talking the third largest hydroelectric dam, I am talking the third largest power station in the world, PERIOD.

No. It had minor repairs but most turbines are inoperative. All of the backup thermo-electric plants are also inoperative.

Jim Stone is echoing exactly, Stuxnet included, what Maduro and his people are saying. I don't believe a single word of the narco-thugs in charge, Paul. And I don't have to, because I am well-informed about my country.

Jim Stone is reporting that Guri wasn't an old system improperly maintained for many years. It was the third largest generating station, of any kind, in the world, brought online in the late 1980's, with all new generators and hardware in 2010.

Paul, no all new generators and hardware.
Why the system is not working? Stuxnet? SEAL and Delta Force hacking into the systems? (Venezuela has the worst Internet in the world)... The opposition? Guaidó?

Where is the money?

The system supports more than 20 gigawatts. Only 5 of 15 turbines were refurbished, and 5 more were supposedly installed. If the system works as the bolivarian crap advertised, there were no power issues in Venezuela. That is a fact.

Yes, Venezuela has problems, deep problems. But who or what is the primary cause of those problems, Maduro or American Imperialists?

I have answered this before. Cuba and world socialism has all the blame. Maduro is just a puppet.

Everything I know of recent history, as has transpired in the last half century or so, tells me that we're seeing another round of nation building destruction, as the forces (military, intelligence, financial, and media) of American Exceptionalism bring Democracy Death and Destruction to yet another people and nation.

God Bless the America I was taught to believe I was born and raised in. God Bless the people of this once great and still powerful nation. But God Damn the über wealthy, powerful and evil beings ruling over the America that I find myself in now.

I cannot comment about the U.S., I cannot say America is the evil empire.

But i loathe socialism. That's for sure.

ThePythonicCow

10th March 2019, 03:59

in the power grid.
I wouldn't be surprised if the power grid in Venezuela was very unreliable. I don't know either way, and haven't see enough evidence to form a reliable guess.

But what evidence do you have that the generators in Guri were so unreliable that they might run away from the grid, pushing massive power into the grid sufficiently out of phase to cause major failures?

How do you know that this wasn't a result of sabotaging the control system at Guri?

===

What I know, having seen it time and time again, is that this sort of attack, in a hundred variations, is just the sort of thing that the Evil Empire does. So I tend to suspect that they are up to their old tricks, once again. I'll never have hard evidence, either way, and if ever I did, I'd probably be "suicided" before dawn. But it's a safe guess.

ThePythonicCow

10th March 2019, 05:36

perolator

10th March 2019, 06:01

in the power grid.
I wouldn't be surprised if the power grid in Venezuela was very unreliable. I don't know either way, and haven't see enough evidence to form a reliable guess.

The power grid in my country before chavismo, was very reliable. Guri is very far from Caracas and the major cities including Maracaibo, one of the biggest power-hungry cities. The first 765 KV EHV lines in Latin America were part of SEN in Venezuela. Historically, most power outages were localized, seldom covered a whole state (it became a national news subject for weeks) and never nationwide, as it is going right now, thanks to 20 years of chavismo.

But what evidence do you have that the generators in Guri were so unreliable that they might run away from the grid, pushing massive power into the grid sufficiently out of phase to cause major failures?

Let me quote myself.

A 765 KV trunk collapsed between two major substations in the Central region. That was a catastrophic event on the SEN (Venezuela's power grid) because there are no backups, no redundancy, no nothing.

Let me explain. When a critical substation or a critical power point collapses, the system will react shutting down generation to avoid further damage. In this case, a domino effect occurs, and the technicians diagnose and run the system again, step by step.

How do you know that this wasn't a result of sabotaging the control system at Guri?

Stuxnet was discovered in late 2010. Its payload is really huge (400-500 kbytes). Any security officer in a highly strategic facility like Guri would update their systems to avoid attacks of this nature years ago. Stuxnet affects Windows-based systems and Siemens S7 PLC's. I don't know Guri uses Simatic S7 PLC's. I don't know either how the firewall is implemented or the control systems. But, If an attack of this nature really happened, system administrators and control engineers in Guri are the worst ever. I think Edelca civilian engineers are quite capable. As I said before, any official statement coming from the Venezuelan government is a lie.

By the way, Guri is heavily guarded by the Army and the National Guard.

Here are some links from Caracas Chronicles about the electrical crisis in Venezuela:

https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/03/15/everything-ever-wanted-know-guri-afraid-ask/

https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2013/02/20/the-electric-crisis-is-escalating-quickly/

https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2013/03/09/sabotaje-por-dentro/

https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/01/25/the-nth-crisis/

What I know, having seen it time and time again, is that this sort of attack, in a hundred variations, is just the sort of thing that the Evil Empire does. So I tend to suspect that they are up to their old tricks, once again. I'll never have hard evidence, either way, and if ever I did, I'd probably be "suicided" before dawn. But it's a safe guess.

I think you are right, you may know how the Evil Empire works, but I do know how the Cuban Empire and the 21st century socialism works very well.

CurEus

10th March 2019, 15:10

Another substation has mysteriously blown up

ANOTHER power substation blows up in Venezuela. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/ANOTHER power substation blows up in Venezuela.)

Bill Ryan

10th March 2019, 19:12

Another substation has mysteriously blown up

ANOTHER power substation blows up in Venezuela. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/ANOTHER power substation blows up in Venezuela.)

That seems to be a bad link (where was it intended to go?) — but here are some news sources: many more are easily found.

Venezuela hit by massive blackout as power fails (https://www.france24.com/en/20190308-venezuela-hit-massive-blackout-amid-power-cut-maduro-guaido) (8 March)
‘Cyberattacks & insider sabotage’: Venezuela’s power grid still under attack – Maduro (https://www.rt.com/news/453434-venezuela-maduro-cyberattack-power-grid/) (9 March)
A powerful fire occurred on Saturday at the Sidor transforming substation in the Venezuelan state of Bolivar (https://sputniknews.com/latam/201903091073091662-fire-sidor-venezuela/) (9 March)

perolator

10th March 2019, 19:30

Jim Stone is echoing exactly, Stuxnet included, what Maduro and his people are saying. I don't believe a single word of the narco-thugs in charge, Paul. And I don't have to, because I am well-informed about my country.
True - and that gives me pause too. I'll accept your observation that Maduro can't be trusted. Similarly in my country, I can't trust, for example, Hillary Clinton. Anytime I find her on the same side of an issue as myself, I double and triple check my position, because that probably means I am very wrong.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

I'm not saying that I think you're fundamentally wrong, at one level. Maduro may well be the puppet of socialist crooks (or some such), and his government a criminal disaster.

He is a puppet. His government is a joke. That is the truth.

What you're telling us about Maduro is echoing almost exactly what John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and other U.S. Government Neo-con operatives are saying about Maduro. Perhaps that should give you pause, just as I was given pause by your observation that Stone and Maduro are telling the same Stuxnet story.

I am very sorry, Paul, but I cannot agree. I oppose the Venezuelan government from the first Chavez failed coup, 27 years ago. John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and the rest of the Neo-con operatives are saying what myself and most of expats know very well. I paused when Chavez won presidential elections in 1998, after seeing the euphoria of the general population. And, to be sincere, I hated the "right wing" candidate, Henrique Salas Römer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrique_Salas_R%C3%B6mer). However, in December 15th, 1999, casually a national election day, I experienced the Vargas floods firsthand. My family and myself luckily escaped. That Chavez son of a filthy bitch had the reports in his hands on the ongoing catastrophe (started the previous day) and he could stop the elections, focusing on mass evacuation from the affected areas. He did not, mumbling the famous Simón Bolívar's quote:

If Nature is against us, we shall fight Nature and make it obey.

...and people died. More than 30 thousand people died, Paul. The exact number won't be known, Paul. He also rejected U.S. help. The U.S. government sent several aid ships and that Galactic loony refused help, just because Cubans told him not to receive it. I can write a book with all the information I have about that event.

Chavez refused the help of United States soldiers in handling the emergency situation, even though the arrangements had been made and U.S. Navy ships had been already dispatched with men, heavy machines, and aid supplies. Those vessels returned in mid-voyage to their home ports after Chavez rejected their help.

Source (http://www.thefullwiki.org/1999_Vargas_mudslides)

Heavy rains fell in December 1999 along the north-central coast of Venezuela, culminating in a period of extreme intensity from the 14th to the 16th of December. Starting around 8 PM local time (AST) on December 15, runoff entered channels and rushed towards the sea, picking up and depositing sediments on its way. Generally after this first wave of flooding, from the coast to just past the crest of the Sierra de Avila, these rains triggered thousands[3] of shallow landslides that stripped soil and rock off of the landscape and sent them slipping down the mountainside. Additional water liquefied these landslides into debris flows, which are granular flows in which water mixes with high concentrations of rock and mud. The first eyewitness accounts of debris flows were from 8:30 PM on the 15th, and the final debris flows were reported between 8 and 9 AM on December 16. Many catchments released multiple debris flows, some of which carried large boulders and tree trunks onto the alluvial fan deltas. Starting between 7 and 9 AM on the 16th and continuing until late that afternoon, a new wave of floods occurred. These floodwaters were less concentrated in sediment and were therefore able to entrain new material and incise new channels into the flood and debris flow deposits from the previous days.[1]

Source (http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/1999_Vargas_mudslides)

Sometimes the best rule of thumb, in situations of such conflicting narratives and finger pointing is to ask "Cui bono?" Who benefits?. Rather obviously, from my perspective, one key beneficiary will be the Koch brothers, as discussed in more detail in my Post #374 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1279529&viewfull=1#post1279529) above. More generally, this Venezuelan tragedy will most likely end with the nation of Venezuela even more permanently destroyed, and with the country's rich oil and other mineral resources firmly back in the control of the Evil Empire. That's who benefits.

No. Cuba and their allies took the best part.
Why Koch Brothers waited for 20 years to proceed with takeaway?
Why now?

guayabal

11th March 2019, 12:45

Here is another substation blowing up (subestación Tarabas-Maracaibo):
LWV3sISsOJw

Another ciberattack orchestrated by the evil capitalist empire!! no no, this was ~6 months ago, nobody said anything about cyberattacks back then, it didn't suit Maduro's narrative. What we are seeing now is the final collapse of the electrical system that has been poorly maintained (to say the least) since it fell in hands of the socialist regime.

perolator

12th March 2019, 15:51

pyrangello

12th March 2019, 23:26

This is day 4 of no power for most of this country, I'm sure these photos represent the poor districts of this country but when I saw what remains of the leopard, just left me a bit speechless and I still am. And this is only day 4!!!!
Venezuela in Complete Societal Collapse; Widespread Looting, Armed People attacking neighbors to get food . . ."We're Going to Start EATING EACH OTHER!"
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/venezuela-in-complete-societal-collapse-widespread-looting-armed-people-attacking-neighbors-to-get-food-we-re-going-to-start-eating-each-other

perolator

13th March 2019, 00:09

According to the official echo of the Venezuelan crooks, Jim Stone (http://82.221.129.208/.xo2.html):

AFTER MADURO BUSTED TWO PEOPLE AT GURI WITH THE VIRUS CODE BEING USED TO TAKE OUT VENEZUELA'S GRID, THE U.S. ANNOUNCED IT IS EVACUATING THE EMBASSY TO "MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO PUT MORE OPTIONS ON THE TABLE." THAT MEANS WAR.
Yep. After Maduro busted two spooks while they were attempting to re-plant viruses at Guri, and even got their code and took them into custody, America put out a blanket statement that was basically a declaration that the U.S. military will begin strikes against Venezuela in the near future. Here is that statement:
"The U.S. will withdraw all remaining personnel from @usembassyVE this week. This decision reflects the deteriorating situation in #Venezuela as well as the conclusion that the presence of U.S. diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on U.S. policy." Translation: We need to get the Americans out of there before we blow the place up with smart bombs, rather than electrical viruses because we know the "failing grid charade" is about to end now that Maduro has our spooks and our code. Game on while they are still having seizures over the virus.

So now that the U.S. knows it is busted, and Maduro has the American spooks in detainment along with their virus code, suddenly having embassy staff in Venezuela amounts to a "constraint on U.S. policy"
YEP.

Just watch: Guri dam will soon fail like Oroville, because you really can cause concrete dams to fail in tropical locations by neglecting them even without there being salt water or freeze thaw cycles, and even when by common norms the dams are relatively new. They just flush themselves when "REGIMES" take control, dams cry "for the people" too I guess, and there are LOTS of tears when they do!
Folks, I'll repeat: The fact viruses can take out Venezuela's grid proves without question it was modern and well updated, CASE CLOSED.

BOOM: MADURO CAPTURED TWO (suspected) AMERICAN ASSETS AT GURI WHILE THEY WERE HACKING THE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS AND PLANTING VIRUS CODE. HE GOT THE VIRUS CODE. BOOOOOOM!!!!!

Let me quote myself.

That's gruesome aversion to all that the U.S. represents. While people in my country struggle daily to get food and basic services, experiencing power outages daily... People said nothing about it.

Every Venezuelan is prone to suffer:

Power outages (daily), several times a day in some places, 1 day or more in suburban or rural zones.
Lack of running water (tap water is undrinkable; an analysis by international standards may make it unsuitable for human beings). Bottled water is more expensive than gasoline.
Gas shortages.
Lack of spare parts for cars, trucks and buses.
Scarcity of food.
Scarcity of medical supplies, medicines, medical infrastructure and personnel.

I also said the system was poorly maintained. Every Venezuelan knows that. I knew the system would collapse at any moment. Is it enough to qualify me as cyberterrorist?

Luis Carlos Diaz was detained yesterday, supposedly in flagrance. It was captured in Caracas, when he was on his way home, not near Guri. He is Venezuelan-Spaniard. He is a good journalist and a good man. I have listened to his program, his specials, and his employer, the Venezuelan radio station network Unión Radio, for years.

Now, he is a Maduro's patsy. That's unfortunate. He has become a political prisoner overnight. Jim Stone is appearing to me as sensationalist, a yellow journalist... BOOM!

I am not happy knowing he is being beaten to death right now, bolivarian enchilada style.

A prominent Venezuelan journalist is in the custody of the country’s intelligence agents after he was picked up after leaving work Monday, according to the National Union of Press Workers.

The union reported that Luis Carlos Diaz, a reporter for Unión Radio News in Caracas and activist for internet and press freedom, appeared near his home Tuesday morning in handcuffs while government security agents raided his home.

The union said that they took Diaz’s computers, cell phones, money, and other belongings.

"And other belongings" means in Venezuelan "they stole money and jewelry, if any". The new policeman man, Awwww, the joys of Venezuelan socialism.

Diaz told journalists and others who were outside his home that he had been arrested and beaten in detention, the union tweeted. He is reportedly being held at the notorious El Helicoide political prison.

Source (https://www.foxnews.com/world/detained-venezuelan-reporter-says-he-has-been-beaten-while-in-custody-of-government-agents)

It all started with a lie. A lie organized by the State and broadcasted on prime time TV, using precisely the weapons Luis Carlos Díaz has been warned about for years.

As the lie would have it, Luis Carlos and Nelson Bocaranda knew about the looming nationwide blackout.

Nelson, a TV, radio, press and now online investigative journalism veteran, is one of the highest-profile journalists in the country. He was the only source of reliable information on the Chávez terminal illness for months, while the Maduro regime kept telling the nation that the Comandante was recovering.

Luis Carlos is a cyber activist, radio journalist and occasional Caracas Chronicles contributor who started working on new media and freedom of speech at the communications journal SIC, and then developed an international profile as a multi-channel writer and speaker on Internet-users’ rights and online journalism.

Source (https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2019/03/12/the-dictatorship-scapegoats-luiscarlos-for-the-nationwide-blackout/)

Speaking of lies,

My country had a special fund (FONDEN) to overcome variances in oil prices. Chavistas also stole it.

FONDEN money was used to fund Evrofinance Mosnarbank. This is ironic, because that money was supposed to be used by... Venezuela.

According to Wikipedia, (I am starting to love Wikipedia)

En 2011 el gobierno de Venezuela adquirió —con 400 millones de dólares provenientes de FONDEN— el 49,9 % de las acciones de Evrofinans Mosnarbank.23 Uno de los objetivos principales de dicha operación fue el agilizar la compra de productos bélicos de la empresa Rosoboronexport.

Source (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/FONDEN)

Translation: Venezuela acquired 49.9% of the bank, to facilitate Russian weapons acquisition through the Rosoboronexport company.

My translation: They bought the bank to perform wide-scale money laundering. Thank you, for stopping this, Evil Empire.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned a Moscow-based bank owned jointly by Russian and Venezuelan state companies for evading U.S. restrictions aimed at putting economic pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime.

Evrofinance Mosnarbank was placed on the U.S. sanctions list on Monday, according to a Treasury Department notice, for supporting Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA. The U.S. in January sanctioned the oil company.

“This action demonstrates that the United States will take action against foreign financial institutions that sustain the illegitimate Maduro regime and contribute to the economic collapse and humanitarian crisis plaguing the people of Venezuela,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a long-time ally of Maduro. While more than 50 countries, including the U.S., have recognized National Assembly leader Juan Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela, Russia has sided with Maduro’s regime. Putin has helped Maduro stave-off further declines in oil production, at least temporarily.

Source (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-11/u-s-sanctions-russian-bank-citing-venezuela-economic-penalties)

pyrangello

13th March 2019, 01:40

In case anyone forgot , back in December Russia relocated some of their Tu-160 White Swan bombers in Venezuela. And the chess game continues doesn't it. Wouldn't it a grand thing if we could take world leaders, dictators, bankers, and lawyers and drop them off on an island somewhere to hash out their differences and they can't leave until its settled and just leave the common good people of the earth alone. As advanced as so many countries are , we are so much better than allowing this to happen. I do understand the power grid in this country like many others is fragile but .............................................

ThePythonicCow

13th March 2019, 02:38

ThePythonicCow

13th March 2019, 03:45

From the UK Daily Mail:

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

America is withdrawing all remaining diplomatic personnel from Venezuela as the country descends into chaos amid a nearly week-long blackout (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6798165/US-withdrawing-remaining-diplomatic-personnel-Venezuela.html)

The United States is withdrawing all remaining diplomatic personnel from Venezuela this week amid nearly week-long blackouts around the country, the US State Department has announced.

It follows a January decision to withdraw all dependents and reduce embassy staff to a minimum in the country.

'This decision reflects the deteriorating situation in Venezuela, as well as the conclusion that the presence of US diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on US policy,' Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted on Monday night.

Pompeo said the remaining diplomats in Venezuela will be removed by the end of the week.

Venezuela has struggled to restore electricity after the blackouts began on Thursday and began adding even more fuel to a deepening political crisis in the country.

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

This is not a good sign. It tells me that the U.S. expects things to get worse in Venezuela, and causes me to suspect that the U.S. knows things will get worse because they will have a hand in making it so.

ThePythonicCow

13th March 2019, 05:17

Another report, with more details of what it means, on the removal of all U.S. diplomatic personnel from Venezuela
BsyhUV0TzW8
The entire 20 minute show is focused on recent developments in Venezuela and related U.S. actions.

ThePythonicCow

13th March 2019, 05:38

Dave Hodges of the CommonSenseShow has a more sensational take on the events between the U.S. and Venezuela. In an article The World Has Never Been Closer to World War III (https://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/the-world-has-never-been-closer-to-world-war-iii/), he writes, in part:

About five days ago, I received some stunning information from my very best intelligence/military deep cover source. And only yesterday, I discovered, and have been interviewing a source from Arizona, who has the exact same information.

In anticipation of a US attack on Venezuela, the Russians have moved a sizeable number of submarines 12 miles off both the East and West coast of the United States. NATO has moved nuclear missiles batteries close to the Ukraine.

Yesterday, Russian ally, Syria, military threatened Israel. Why would a military inferior force such as Syria threaten a superior force in Israel, unless Syria knew it was going to have help from her ally, Russia?

As I reported yesterday, the Border Patrol has reported arresting a record number of people from Pakistan and more importantly, China!

Finally, it was widely reported when the Russian nuclear targeting of American sites was announced, that if Clinton had won the election, the Russians would launched a first strike against America.

At this point, the only thing that the rank and file of the country can do is to sit, wait and watch the events unfold. these events are eerily similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Oh, we could call the Congressional and Presidential offices, but these events are in motion and what is going to play out has already been decided. Further, it should be noted that Pelosi announced that she would not be seeking impeachment against Donald Trump. Why the sudden reversal? Perhaps she already knows that it won’t matter given what it coming.

perolator

13th March 2019, 06:14

An innocent Venezuelan journalist was detained by the regime. He is being accused of hacking into Guri. He was detained "in flagrance" while riding a bicycle towards his home in Caracas. He has to enter the 2019 Guinness World Records book as the most skilled hacker ever, capable of hacking a Venezuelan Power Plant and planting Stuxnet, generating a blackout while biking.
Presumably who ever did the hacking of the power plant controllers (if that's what happened) did not do it while biking at the same time.

Correct. Common sense is enough to know hacking is not possible while biking. Stanley character's incident in the Swordfish movie is more feasible. The journalist told his wife yesterday SEBIN (Venezuela's Political Police) told him he was captured in flagrance when they detained him. That's what they told him. That is the reasoning behind my words. The government even had a poorly doctored video: "Operation Blackout", starring Luis Carlos Díaz and his wife. The government is accustomed to fabricate proof.

Also, I think you're greatly over stating the security of the key controllers that are critical to the functioning (or self-destruction) of major power generation and transmission equipment.

Transmission equipment is guarded by the National Guard and the army. Almost all of the facilities are not connected to the Internet. Maintenance and monitoring is via point to point links.

Security is extremely important in critical national facilities. I have been in several of those, although I never have been at Guri. The plant has a LAN and a WAN. The WAN is protected by a redundant CISCO ASA firewall. The LAN has redundancy. The DCS (Distributed Control System) was designed and implemented by ABB in 2005. All controllers are ABB on Profibus or RS-232 for the older equipment and AC800M over Profibus and Ethernet for newer units. All controllers can operate independently of the LAN. The plant may be operated from the Powerhouse 1, 2, the master SCADA station or any UCS. The master station connects via a proprietary interface to the DCS. Besides, there is no Internet access to any element of the DCS. So there is no possibility for a hacker to control an element from the outside. And, all controllers may operate independently, so, in case of compromise, operation may resume. Besides, Stuxnet affects Siemens S7 PLC's, not ABB's. Therefore, no Stuxnet, no hackers.

I did my homework.
Please, don't believe the Venezuelan government. Maduro said "the attack" was initiated from Chicago and Houston. Don't believe me either. Believe Jim Stone if you want.

There have long been warnings in the alt-media that hacking major infrastructure controllers is not that difficult.

Correct.

That equipment is online, and often (it is said, and I believe it) have notoriously poor security.

Correct. Control equipment is designed for real-time or near real-time performance. Security is not a concern in ladder logic.

You could station the five hundred best special ops soldiers outside a power plant, so that not even a cockroach could sneak in, and the hacking could proceed, unnoticed and unimpeded, over the Internet.

Only in movies. They have to know *exactly* how the control elements are programmed and how the sensors interact with each control element (sensors are not hackable). That is not an easy task, even for genius-level special ops soldiers (well, it may be difficult for any genius). There are several control points at the generator level and at the turbine level.

Likely also, Venezuela almost certainly did not itself build, from the core computer chips on up, the controllers for those big generators. So whatever countries or large corporate conglomerations did have a key hand in designing and developing those controllers would have been strongly incentivized to leave some "back doors" in, so that they could take over control of those generators when it suited them to do so. That and a combination of a not very security conscious development typical for such work leads to the weak security that allows hacking.

Correct.

The only countries that I know of that have the level of ground up technology development skills needed to independently build more secure big system controllers (whether for use in uranium centrifuges or in big hydroelectric generators) are Israel, the US, Russia and China ... and I am no longer sure that the US belongs on that list.

Correct. And the U.S. belongs on that list.

The fact is: Luis Carlos Díaz is innocent. An engineer was killed and another disappeared in hands of the SEBIN.

-= Post Update =-

Luis Carlos was released with restrictions.
I am impressed, I was not expecting this, that government is characterized by criminal injustice and violence. The support he had was huge, though.

ThePythonicCow

13th March 2019, 06:27

The fact is: Luis Carlos Díaz is innocent. An engineer was killed and another disappeared in hands of the SEBIN.
That could well be. I wouldn't know, one way or the other.

TargeT

13th March 2019, 17:09

US withdrawing all personnel from venezuela
X0Ay159Luzg

Bill Ryan

13th March 2019, 22:36

From https://reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-china/china-offers-help-to-venezuela-to-restore-power-idUSKBN1QU0ZM, today:

China offers help to Venezuela to restore power

BEIJING (Reuters) - China offered on Wednesday to help Venezuela restore its power grid, after President Nicolas Maduro accused U.S. counterpart Donald Trump of cyber “sabotage” that plunged the South American country into its worst blackout on record.

Maduro, who retains control of the military and other state institutions as well as the backing of Russia and China, has blamed Washington for his nation’s economic turmoil and denounced opposition leader Juan Guaido as a puppet of the United States.

With the power blackout in its sixth day, hospitals struggled to keep equipment running, food rotted in the tropical heat and exports from the country’s main oil terminal were shut down.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang said China had noted reports that the power grid had gone down due to a hacking attack.

“China is deeply concerned about this,” Lu said.

“China hopes that the Venezuelan side can discover the reason for this issue as soon as possible and resume normal power supply and social order. China is willing to provide help and technical support to restore Venezuela’s power grid.”

He gave no details.

Power returned to many parts of the country on Tuesday, including some areas that had not had electricity since last Thursday, according to witnesses and social media.

But power was still out in parts of the capital of Caracas and the western region near the border with Colombia.

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said power had been restored in the “vast majority” of the country.

The blackout was likely caused by a technical problem with transmission lines linking the Guri hydroelectric plant in southeastern Venezuela to the national power grid, experts have told Reuters.

Maduro has blamed Washington for organising what he said was a sophisticated cyber attack on Venezuela’s hydroelectric power operations.

perolator

14th March 2019, 21:45

This is a Facebook post of an American who is currently living in Caracas, dated March 10, 2019.
I am posting it here with his permission.

This is the current situation in Venezuela:

- The entire country has had no electricity for 65 hours and counting (March 10, 10am).
(Update: certain sectors had intermittent electric service after three days, but most hadn’t.) (Update #2: after 110 hours, my electricity is on.)

- Running water is not available because the pumps that distribute it aren’t working. Water service has been intermittent for years.

- Gas for cooking is no longer available to most of the population that uses portable gas containers. Gas distribution has been very difficult for years, with people regularly making lines for miles to fill their containers.

- Gasoline for vehicles or electric generators is not available anywhere in the country, because the pumps require electricity.

- Food has been an important problem for years, with people forced to stand in lines for hours everyday to buy the most basic items, and required to go to several different places to find what they need.

- Most people live with barely enough food to get by each day. Food storage is not possible for the vast majority of Venezuelans, because of cost and availability. Canned foods have been mostly unavailable for years.

- Water fit for drinking is very scarce. Most people have relied on trucks that distribute bottled water or commercial filters, both of which are not functioning without gasoline and electricity.

- Money in cash has been a huge problem for several years, with banks limiting what customers can withdraw to less than $1 per day, and many days no cash at all is available. Most people rely on bank transfers or debit cards to make purchases; both are unavailable without electricity.

- The constant and severe devaluation of the Bolívar has caused levels of hyper-inflation that the world has seldom seen. Levels of yearly inflation are counted in the millions % making the currency close to worthless. This is the result of the chavista government constantly printing inorganic money to cover their social programs, including subsidized food items.

- Venezuelans earn about $5 a month for working a full time job. Most food items have regular prices that are higher than one would expect in cities like New York or Paris, making Venezuelans entirely dependent on subsidized food and giving the chavista government a tight hold on people’s everyday lives. People who have protested against the chavista government have been cut off from food subsidies, forcing many Venezuelans to eat out of garbage trucks or dumps. This is something that we have gotten used to seeing all around Venezuela, for years.

* The Venezuelan military have had control over all oil, mining and natural gas extraction since 2016. This came to be after a power struggle in the aftermath of the elections for the National Assembly, in which it appears that the minister of defense ordered the chavista government to respect the true outcome of said electoral process, which was a landslide victory for the opposition. With the threat of so much power in the hands of the opposition, the defense minister probably used this leverage to negotiate in his benefit what is known as CAMIMPEG (company for extraction of minerals, oil and gas) which was awarded to him less than a month after the election. Six months later the defense minister was also suspiciously put in charge of all distribution of food in Venezuela. Since the chavista government subsidizes many basic food items at a small fraction of the actual price, most of this food is distributed not to Venezuelans, but to other countries, at enormous profit. The same occurs with gasoline, with local subsidized prices so low that they cannot even be calculated in dollars, you can freely see long lines of gasoline trucks lining up close to the border with Colombia, driven by military personnel, to sell on the other side at the regular international price. I travelled to this border in March 2018 and observed this firsthand.

- These levels of military corruption make it extremely unlikely that the military will help oust the chavista government.

- The chavista government has imported thousands of cuban troops to defend their hold on power. The chavistas know that they cannot entirely trust their own Venezuelan soldiers, so they are controlled by cubans at every level of the military.

- Other armed groups brought to defend the chavista hold on power are Hezbollah, Farc, ELN, etc... turning Venezuela into a completely failed state controlled by criminals and terrorists of many kinds, all enemies of the United States.

- The chavista government has institutionalized the drug trade in Venezuela.

- In 2017 the chavistas invented a National Assembly of their own (the ANC) to supersede the legitimate National Assembly, in fraudulent elections and completely outside the constitution. This illegitimate group called for an electoral process outside of the regular schedule in which the opposition was limited in many ways: jailing potential candidates, disqualifying entire political parties, etc... Of course, no opposition candidates participated in the fake electoral process and the government frantically invented two “oposition” candidates to try to legitimize their power grab. One of the candidates was an ex-chavista official that fooled no one with his “change” of political sides, and a evangelical pastor, famous for ridiculous religious services and outright fraud.

- This deeply fraudulent electoral process was not recognized by the majority of the world and thus, in January 2019 at the end of the presidential term, there was no legally elected president in Venezuela. The next in line is the President of the legally elected National Assembly, Juan Guaidó. For this reason, Guaidó has been recognized by over 60 countries all over the world, all democracies. The few countries that have shown support for Maduro have very keen interests in the vast resources of Venezuela and have governments that are clearly not democratic, like China, Nicaragua, Cuba and Russia.

- Juan Guaidó is the current interim President of Venezuela and he should be assisted in every way possible to rid the country of the criminal groups that expect to hold onto power forever, and to prevent a national genocide.

Hervé

14th March 2019, 22:29

Rubio's Gloating Betrays US Sabotage in Venezuela Power Blackout (https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/03/14/rubio-gloating-betrays-us-sabotage-venezuela-power-blitz.html)

Finian Cunningham Strategic Culture (https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/03/14/rubio-gloating-betrays-us-sabotage-venezuela-power-blitz.html)
Thu, 14 Mar 2019 21:21 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513968/large/Cvs9Ee8UsAAAiTO.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513968/full/Cvs9Ee8UsAAAiTO.jpg)
Rubio el Cubano: 'Say hello to my little friend'

US imperialists are so desperate in their regime-change predations over Venezuela, they seem to have a problem controlling their drooling mouths.

The latest orgy of American gloating was triggered by the massive power outages to have hit Venezuela. No sooner had the South American country been blacked out from its power grid collapsing, senior US officials were crowing with perverse relish.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio - who has become a point man for the Trump administration in its regime-change campaign in Venezuela - was a little too celebratory. Within minutes of the nationwide power outage (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14374) last Thursday, Rubio was having verbal orgasms about the "long-term economic damage"... "in the blink of an eye". But it was his disclosure concerning the precise damage in the power grid that has led the Venezuelan government to accuse the US of carrying out a sabotage.

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez noted (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3kNHhYbD-M&feature=youtu.be) how Rubio, in his tweeted comments "three minutes" after the power outage, mentioned failure of "back-up generators" in Venezuela's main hydroelectric plant, known as the Guri Dam, located in Bolivar State. The dam supplies some 80 per cent of the Venezuelan population of 31 million with its electricity consumption.

Rodriguez mockingly ascribed "mystic skills" to Rubio because the Florida Republican senator appeared to know the precise nature of the power failure even before the Venezuelan authorities had determined it.

The Venezuelan government has since claimed that the failure in the electric grid was caused by a cyber attack on the computer system controlling the Guri Dam turbines. Caracas said it will present proof of its claims to the United Nations.

Apart from Rubio's apparent insider information, there are several other indicators that Venezuela's latest turmoil from power blackout was indeed caused by US sabotage, and specifically a cyber attack.

[...]

Full article: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/03/14/rubio-gloating-betrays-us-sabotage-venezuela-power-blitz.html

Hervé

14th March 2019, 22:47

US regime change plan hatched 8 years ago proposed Venezuelan power blackout as 'watershed event' to 'galvanize public unrest' (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/11/us-regime-change-blueprint-proposed-venezuelan-electricity-blackouts-as-watershed-event-for-galvanizing-public-unrest/)

Max Blumenthal The Grayzone (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/11/us-regime-change-blueprint-proposed-venezuelan-electricity-blackouts-as-watershed-event-for-galvanizing-public-unrest/)
Wed, 13 Mar 2019 18:27 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513822/large/guaido_pence_duque.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513822/full/guaido_pence_duque.jpg)
© Associated Press/Martin Mejia

Pretend "president" Juan Guaido, Colombian President Ivan Duque (C), and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence

A September 2010 memo (https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=218642) by a US-funded soft power organization that helped train Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaido and his allies identifies the potential collapse of the country's electrical sector as "a watershed event" that "would likely have the impact of galvanizing public unrest in a way that no opposition group could ever hope to generate."

The memo has special relevance today as Guaido moves to exploit nationwide blackouts caused by a major failure at the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant at Guri dam - a crisis that Venezuela's government blames on US sabotage.

It was authored by Srdja Popovic (https://twitter.com/SrdjaPopovic/status/977698005615894528) of the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), a Belgrade-based "democracy promotion" organization funded by the US government that has trained thousands of US-aligned youth activists in countries where the West seeks regime change.

This group reportedly hosted Guaido and the key leaders of his Popular Will party for a series of training sessions, fashioning them into a "Generation 2007" determined to foment resistance to then-President Hugo Chavez and sabotage his plans to implement "21st century socialism" in Venezuela.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513823/large/Srdja_Rector_Canvas.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513823/full/Srdja_Rector_Canvas.jpg)
Srdja Popovic © CANVAS

In the 2010 memo, CANVAS's Popovic declared, "A key to Chavez's current weakness is the decline in the electricity sector." Popovic explicitly identified the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant as a friction point, emphasizing that "water levels at the Guri dam are dropping, and Chavez has been unable to reduce consumption sufficiently to compensate for the deteriorating industry."

Speculating on a "grave possibility that some 70 percent of the country's electricity grid could go dark as soon as April 2010," the CANVAS leader stated that "an opposition group would be best served to take advantage of the situation and spin it against Chavez and towards their needs."

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513824/full/Capture.jpg
© Srdja Popovic/CANVAS

Flash forward to March 2019, and the scenario outlined by Popovic is playing out almost exactly as he had imagined.

On March 7, just days after Guaido's return from Colombia, where he participated in the failed and demonstrably violent (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/02/24/burning-aid-colombia-venezuela-bridge/) February 23 attempt to ram a shipment of US aid across the Venezuelan border, the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant experienced a major and still unexplained collapse.

Days later, electricity remains sporadic across the country. Meanwhile, Guaido has done everything he can "to take advantage of the situation and spin it" against President Nicolas Maduro - just as his allies were urged to do over eight years before by CANVAS.

Rubio vows "a period of suffering" for Venezuela hours before the blackout

The Venezuelan government has placed the blame squarely on Washington, accusing it of sabotage through a cyber-attack on its electrical infrastructure. Key players in the US-directed coup attempt have done little to dispel the accusation.

In a tweet on March 8, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo framed the electricity outage as a pivotal stage in US plans for regime change:

At noon on March 7, during a hearing on Venezuela at the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, Sen. Marco Rubio (https://youtu.be/bRVTNyoMfWQ?t=8072) explicitly called for the US to stir "widespread unrest," declaring that it "needs to happen" in order to achieve regime change.

"Venezuela is going to enter a period of suffering no nation in our hemisphere has confronted in modern history," Rubio proclaimed (https://www.voanews.com/a/us-lawmakers-warn-maduro-loyalists-in-venezuela/4817812.html).

Around 5 PM (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14374), the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant experienced a total and still unexplained collapse (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14373). Residents of Caracas and throughout Venezuela were immediately plunged into darkness.

At 5:18 PM, a clearly excited Rubio took to Twitter to announce the blackout and claim that "backup generators have failed." It was unclear how Rubio had obtained such specific information so soon after the outage occurred. According to Jorge Rodriguez (https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuela-Denounces-US-Participation-in-Electric-Sabotage-20190308-0021.html), the communications minister of Venezuela, local authorities did not know if backup generators had failed at the time of Rubio's tweet.

Back in Caracas, Guaido immediately set out to exploit the situation, just as his CANVAS trainers had advised over eight years before. Taking to Twitter just over an hour after Rubio, Guaido declared (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1104584010553049088), "the light will return when the usurpation [of Maduro] ends." Like Pompeo, the self-declared president framed the blackouts as part of a regime change strategy, not an accident or error.

Two days later, Guaido was at the center of opposition rally he convened in affluent eastern Caracas, bellowing into a megaphone (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics/venezuelas-guaido-calls-for-massive-protest-as-blackout-drags-on-idUSKBN1QQ0DC): "Article 187 when the time comes. We need to be in the streets, mobilized. It depends on us, not on anybody else."

Article 187 establishes the right of the National Assembly "to authorize the use of Venezuelan military missions abroad or foreign in the country."

Upon his mention of the constitutional article, Guaido's supporters responded, (https://www.rappler.com/world/regions/latin-america/225373-juan-guaido-calls-for-nationwide-march-against-maduro-venezuela) "Intervention! Intervention!"

Exploiting crisis to "get back into a position of power"

As Dan Cohen and I reported here at the Grayzone (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/), Guaido's rise to prominence - and the coup plot that he has been appointed to oversee - is the product of a decade-long project overseen by the Belgrade-based CANVAS outfit.

CANVAS is a spinoff of Otpor, a Serbian protest group founded by Srdja Popovic (http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO1Oct2017.php) in 1998 at the University of Belgrade. Otpor, which means "resistance" in Serbian, was the student group that worked alongside US soft power organizations to mobilize the protests that eventually toppled the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

CANVAS has been funded (http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2013/01/14/breaking-desperate-for-destabilization-in-venezuela-us-funded-otpor-rears-its-ugly-head/) largely through the National Endowment for Democracy (https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/20/inside-americas-meddling-machine-the-us-funded-group-that-interferes-in-elections-around-the-globe/), a CIA cut-out that functions as the US government's main arm of promoting regime change. According to leaked internal emails (https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/17/1792423_information-on-canvas-.html) from Stratfor, an intelligence firm known as the "shadow CIA (https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/15/stratfor-canadian-government_n_4449505.html)," CANVAS "may have also received CIA funding and training during the 1999/2000 anti-Milosevic struggle."

A leaked email (https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/17/1713359_re-insight-venezuela-canvas-analysis-.html) from a Stratfor staffer noted that after they ousted Milosevic,
"the kids who ran OTPOR grew up, got suits and designed CANVAS... or in other words a 'export-a-revolution' group that sowed the seeds for a NUMBER of color revolutions. They are still hooked into U.S. funding and basically go around the world trying to topple dictators and autocratic governments (ones that U.S. does not like ;)." Stratfor subsequently revealed that CANVAS "turned its attention to Venezuela" in 2005, after training opposition movements that led pro-NATO regime change operations across Eastern Europe.

In September 2010, as Venezuela headed for a parliamentary election, CANVAS produced a series of memos outlining the plans they had hatched with "non-formal actors" like Guaido and his cadre of student activists to bring down Chavez. "This is the first opportunity for the opposition to get back into a position of power," Popovic wrote at the time.

In his memo on electricity outages, Popovic highlighted the importance of the Venezuelan military in achieving regime change. "Alliances with the military could be critical because in such a situation of massive public unrest and rejection of the presidency," the CANVAS founder wrote, "malcontent sectors of the military will likely decide to intervene, but only if they believe they have sufficient support."

While the scenario Popovic envisioned failed to materialize in 2010, it perfectly describes the situation gripping Venezuela today as an opposition leader cultivated by CANVAS seeks to spin the crisis against Maduro while calling on the military to break ranks.

Since the Grayzone exposed the deep ties between CANVAS and Guaido's Popular Will party, Popovic has attempted to publicly distance himself (https://balkaninsight.com/2019/02/13/serbian-activist-denies-training-venezuelas-guaido-in-rebellion/) from his record of training Venezuela's opposition.

Today, however, Popovic's 2010 memo on exploiting electricity outages reads like a blueprint for the strategy that Guaido and his patrons in Washington have actively implemented. Whether or not the blackout is the result of external sabotage, it represents the "watershed event" that CANVAS has prepared its Venezuelan cadres for.

Sophocles

14th March 2019, 23:51

In a course I took last year («Mass media and the social media») I wrote a short assignment about Venezuela that I (just now) thought might be interesting to post (the relevant parts of) here.

The task was to pick a Norwegian news paper and go through the three last months articles containing the word «Venezuela». And then explain how and why the presentation of the country turns out like it does in the msm (10 articles in total.)

(This English translation was done by google as it’s originally in Norwegian.)

Though the function of the msm is rather clear ("helping" us in "making sense" of the world) the techniques that are being used might not always be as familiar.

----------------------------------
----------------------------------

The 10 headlines of the articles from the paper VG (https://www.vg.no/)

(Time period: Nov. 16th. 2017 - Feb. 13th. 2018):

1. - Venezuela handles its debt
2. Another defeat for the left
3. - Maduro will be re-elected in 2018
4. REPORT: Systematic abuse of protesters
5. New conversations in Venezuela
6. Ever ordinary people have become multimillionaires on bitcoins
7. In Venezuela, the crises are in line. The currency has fallen by 97.5 per cent this year
8. Iranian fight against cyber police
9. "Where resistance is strong, populist thrust has been limited. But where the normal politicians surrender to the message of hatred and exclusion, populism flourishes. "
10. Took suspected abuser

Discussion (Date: April 2018)

Of all the cases, those who are primarily about Venezuela have in common that they are well suited to producing negative associations with the reader. And so-called priming or interpretation frame is important here. "Every frame emphasizes selected parts of reality while toning down others" (de Vreese, 2003, cited in Ihlen, 2015, p. 43).

For we see that half of the headlines have words such as "debt," "defeat," "systematic abuse," "queuing queues," and "hatred." So the immediate observation one makes of the overview, testifies to a highly unrepresented country with very high debt. And going further through the cases, one finds that the overall content creates an impression of President Nicolas Maduro and his board as far as responsible for the misery of Venezuela now. "Coupling and media focussing thus helps to create specific associations at the receiving party »(Aalberg & Elvestad 2018, 58%).

When we consider the most relevant of the VG cases chronologically, it becomes clear that the country owes something of just under NOK 1200 billion (case 1) and that it is the furthest down of all the countries in Latin America that today experience economic downturn (case 2). Venezuela is also experiencing a strong political crisis, which increased in scope as President Maduro last year curtailed the opposition's power (Case 3). A report can tell about the abuse of peaceful protesters in 2017 (Case 4). And while the government and the opposition do not agree on a solution to the crisis and are going to meet for new talks, the latter demands that the president receive assistance from the international community (Case 5). Difficult access to necessities such as food is called the "Maduro diet" and it is expected that inflation in Venezuela in the year was around 2000 percent (case 7). The country practices a strict censorship of the internet and of social media (Case 8). And we can read that it is the inept and sovereign president and his board that is why the economy is now destroyed (Case 9).

All in all, these cases show a particularly negative and gloomy picture of a multifaceted Venezuela, where the opposition is presented as the good party and the president as the evil. And a tool that can be used to help precisely refine and color the audience's interpretation framework in such a way, is the media twisting technique simplification. That is, "The complexity of the message must be reduced, the diversity limited, the nuance narrowed, and the complexity presented simply and concisely" (Hernes, 1977, p. 187-8).

Simplification consequently leads to a one-sided presentation - with lack of nuance and potential stereotypes in the audience as possible consequence. This can be due, among other things, to the fact that journalists today have to produce far more cases than before. That quality must give way to quantity. But it may also indicate how important the socialisation of journalists is to the communication of messages (Warren Breed, 1955, as quoted in Aalberg & Elvestad, 2018), especially in view of the internalisation of the guidelines which, as a minimum, must be the basis for the role exercise.

The news criteria (VISAK (S)) that apply to these cases are timeliness and conflict. It can also be mentioned that these two criteria are not necessary for something with news value to be spread on social media (Aalen, 2016, p. 143). Something that points back to the introduction, where paper newspapers are referred to as the best means of increased political understanding.

On the same occasion, mention should be made of the twelve hypotheses for what comes through foreign news (Galtung & Ruge, 1965, cited in Aalberg & Elvestad, 2018). In two of these, it appears that the news should be a consequence of an individual's action (in this case Maduro) and that the event should have severe negative consequences (distress). Criteria that we see the cases in the table fulfill.

Seen through a conflict perspective, one could argue that VG's angle helps to increase rather than lower the temperature around the turmoil in Venezuela. This perspective claims that the elite use the media as a means to justify and maintain their own power in society. Thus, one can imagine that when VG produces Venezuela consistently negatively, it opens up an opportunity for influencing the reader against perceiving the situation and leadership in the country in a (deterrent) way that makes one more averse about their own power system (reinforcing) and to strengthen the inroads and outgrowth recognition (divisive).

This is close to the Marxist-inspired hegemonic perspective, which states that the media are channels for the elite's thoughts (Aalberg & Elvestad, 2017). So what we think about certain issues is thoughts that someone else wants us to think. On the other hand, it is not difficult to envision that as a newspaper reader, at the same time, you feel increased solidarity and sympathy with someone you experience as a sufferer. And with average historical and political knowledge of the region, the idea should not be alien to the fact that Venezuela can also be a victim of an external (and therefore non-democratic) influence.

Robert Merton's manifest and latent functions (Aalberg & Elvestad, 2018) are also helpful when we want to look at the message's communication impact. The manifested function will mean the obvious, intentional and intentional message. While the latent refers to its unintentional, underlying and sublime side.

The fact that VG here (manifesto) conveys a dark picture of a country in (debt) crisis is easy to see. Next comes the picture of the president as a scapegoat. And then the demand for help. More indirectly (and latently), however, we can say that the expectation of compulsory help is. The one that says "we" must "save" the land or "solve" the situation. Another point in view of Merton's functions may be the notion that participant democracy (as in Norway) is a more popular board model than competition democracy (Venezuela).

Conclusion

By looking at, among other things, priming, simplification, Merton's functions, the conflict perspective and the hegemonic model, we have seen how VG manufactures Venezuela as a much-needed and Norwegian-sanctioned country that is not far from needing foreign aid. And that one of the consequences of such a presentation may be the legitimacy of the reader's mind which makes the path to intervention easier.

Another consequence may be that readers themselves have to go to the lexicon and / or to other more neutral sources to find relevant nuances in order to better understand Venezuela's state: "The opposition, in turn, has helped to increase the level of conflict through tactical support for protests such as includes violent riots with major consequences for the population ”.

In recent times, we have seen several cases of externally imposed regime shifts, where the stated goal is to help the civilian population, preferably via democracy. And with this, the media can be used to construct a reality where there is a potential for sufficient popular unity to be able to intervene.

In this way, we have seen how the representation of Venezuela in the VG in the aforementioned period can implicitly encourage the choice of (right) side of the conflict.

And; by pointing to other countries' weaknesses, is elevated and, at the same time, one's own governance is simultaneously legitimized. And the group sense of belonging is reinforced. Which is in any case to the benefit of the rulers.

When VG has Venezuela on its agenda, it is clear which impression we will be left with. And that's not in favor of President Maduro. On the contrary.

This is how we see - through the eyes of the propaganda model - how Mathiesen's (2010) words make themselves felt; that the elites have a monopoly on explaining events (as quoted in Aalberg & Elvestad, 2018). Present in the same way that Sigurd Allern wrote more than 20 years ago: "Most mass media in the West are linked to the ruling class and the political system of countless bonds, economic and political" (Allern, 1996, p. 329).

ThePythonicCow

15th March 2019, 02:07

This is a Facebook post of an American who is currently living in Caracas, dated March 10, 2019.
I am posting it here with his permission.

This is the current situation in Venezuela:

... deeply fraudulent ... Maduro ... Juan Guaidó ...
Good grief, what a mess.

Makes me figure that any simple sounding narrative, whether it be Maduro good or Maduro bad, Guaidó good or Guaidó bad, any of China, Cuba, or the U.S. good or bad ... whatever ... is like claiming a large sanitary land fill is all this or that, on the basis of a few items that someone shows you from the landfill.

Perhaps Venezuelans have one advantage over Americans. The average person on the street in Venezuela must know by now, in their hearts and stomachs, that their country is being deeply messed with. That reality hasn't hit home yet for most Americans.

Hervé

18th March 2019, 15:10

Jim Stone (http://82.221.129.208/.wo9.html)'s perspective:

Things are looking sketchy this month, all donations appear to be blocked BECAUSE:

This site was the bleeding edge of the blade that cut the head off U.S. aggression in Venezuela. It cannot be denied, and "they" HATE ME for it.

http://82.221.129.208/pages/maduropower.jpg

And they can just F*** OFF, I am not a socialist and I am not a fan of Venezuela but you don't wipe out the world's foremost hydroelectric facility in a nation that has totally green power, being virtually all hydroelectric and geothermal, JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE OIL and you want it.

Ok, so Venezuela was not too cool about kicking American companies out and nationalizing the oil when they went socialist, but that's still no excuse to front hoax infrastructure problems and claim there is no maintenance.

If you are going to wreck Venezuela and oust their leadership, why not just be honest and say THEY VIOLATED OUR OIL CONTRACTS, SO WE WANT TO OUST THE LEADERSHIP AND GET THOSE CONTRACTS BACK.

That I might be sympathetic toward, but if you want to go dirty and stux people and sabotage them, killing lots of people in hospitals and causing a legit "baby incubator" story line you can stick it.

GET THIS:

Prior to this escapade against Venezuela's grid, there were only a couple significant power problems that were equal to power problems New York had during the same time frame. Venezuela had no significant outages of more than a few hours, and then only in isolated cities. But America is awesome and maintains everything perfect, and Venezuela is full of stupid goons who can't keep the lights on. YEP.

Tintin

19th March 2019, 13:52

A relevant article from Sharmine Narwani in Mintpress (https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-officials-offered-my-friend-cash-to-take-down-tehrans-power-grid/256266/)

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"This deep-dive (https://www.mintpressnews.com/did-the-us-recycle-a-bush-era-plan-to-take-out-venezuelas-power-grid/256113/) by investigative journalist Whitney Webb into Venezuela’s power outage reveals some interesting details about a Bush administration cyberattack plan against Iran. Exposed by the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/world/middleeast/us-had-cyberattack-planned-if-iran-nuclear-negotiations-failed.html?_r=0&mtrref=undefined&gwh=1915890CF33F5F8F996668DA689CD7D2&gwt=pay) in 2016, the “Nitro Zeus” plan — which involved the US Cyber Command — would, among other things, target crucial parts of Iran’s electricity grid."

________________________________________________________________________________

The State Dept Allegedly Tried to Coax An Iranian Expat into Sabotaging Iran’s Power Grid
An Iranian-American engineer was allegedly was approached by the State Department with an offer of cash for sabotage of Iran’s power grid.

March 15th, 2019
By Sharmine Narwani

It took a country-wide power outage in Venezuela, whispers of a cyberattack, and smug tweets from US officials to make me suddenly recall the cloak-and-dagger story of a close Iranian-American friend nine years ago.

My friend, an engineer — who I will not name for obvious reasons and who I will call ‘Kourosh’ for the purpose of this article — revealed to me in 2010 that he was approached by two “State Department employees” who offered him $250,000 to “do something very simple” during his upcoming trip to Tehran.

Kourosh was freaking out because he didn’t know how these guys knew he was going to Iran in the first place, and how they knew he was “cash-strapped,” in the second.

He wasn’t a particularly political person, though he had participated in some DC protests in the aftermath of the hotly contested 2009 presidential elections. He was just one of the thousands of Iranian-American engineers in the Washington-Maryland-Virginia technology belt looking to make a decent living.

Kourosh told the US officials that he was not interested, that if Iran needed to make changes, Iranians inside the country were the only ones who should do it. I begged him to let me write this story, but he was very nervous and declined. Over the next year or two, I pushed some more and he gave me further information, but wouldn’t budge on its publication.

Here is what he revealed: The State Department guys had since approached him a second time. They offered him further details about the job. They wanted him to disable Tehran’s power grid in exchange for the $250k. They needed someone with technical skills but said the job was a simple one. He would have to go to a specific location in the Tehran area with a laptop or similar communication device and punch in a code.

Kourosh even told me the code. Said he had memorized it and could recite it in his sleep. Here it is: 32-B6-B10–40-E (symbol for epsilon).

Okay, that’s not the actual code, but it looks exactly like that — same format, same sequence and amount of numbers and letters. I don’t feel comfortable publishing the code in case it is still relevant — sorry. If anyone knows what this code could be, please comment below.

A colleague with an engineering background has this to say about it:

"This could be a password for power grids or any equipment that is governed by an electronic or computer system. Manufacturers have codes they use for de-bugging or resetting a system. Control systems are all electronic and sometimes for any reason (like an earthquake) something is triggered and the system goes off. And then you reset it within the vicinity of the system usually and feed in the new code.

You don’t have to physically be there if you can hack into it, but that’s of course harder. If they (the Americans) needed to have someone physically there during the sabotage attempt, it probably means they didn’t have remote access to the system.”

I don’t actually know why Kourosh received that level of detail unless he was willing to go through with this act of sabotage on behalf of the US government, but he assured me he would never consider it — that he was just “curious” during the second meeting. “No way,” he told me.

"Imagine if I did it and someone’s grandmother or father died because their life support machine switched off.”

I remember these details because I discussed it with a number of people in and around 2010, without disclosing Kourosh’s name. Today, I dug up the old Facebook message I sent to Iranian-American author and activist Trita Parsi of the DC-based National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), a fellow Huffington Post blogger at the time. Trita gave me permission to post screenshots here:

40188

Disclosure: My Iranian-American husband and I ran an internet company in the telecommunications industry in Washington years ago and I was a founding member of the Iranian-American Technology Council, so I knew a lot of engineers and technology folks from that very background.

I recall writing to Trita precisely because he was so keyed into the political heart of this community. It would be extremely dangerous for myself and colleagues in my industry if the US government was recruiting Iranian-American civilian engineers as saboteurs in third countries.

This deep-dive by investigative journalist Whitney Webb into Venezuela’s power outage reveals some interesting details about a Bush administration cyberattack plan against Iran. Exposed by the New York Times in 2016, the “Nitro Zeus” plan — which involved the US Cyber Command — would, among other things, target crucial parts of Iran’s electricity grid.

Take note, however, that US officials asked Kourosh to sabotage Tehran’s power grid during the Obama administration. Obviously, aspects of the Nitro Zeus plan remained on the table despite a switch in government, political parties and policies.

Back to Venezuela

It’s been a grueling week for Venezuelans dealing with the nationwide blackout that has brought the country to a standstill. Last Thursday an “accident” at the Guri Dam power plant in Bolivar state — which generates around 80% of the country’s electricity — left at least 20 out of 23 Venezuelan states without electricity.

As power started to flood back to central states, a second “cyber attack” on Saturday plunged the country back into darkness. Government authorities have charged US officials with launching the attack on Venezuela’s electricity infrastructure and say they will present evidence of this to the United Nations and other international organizations.

The US has countered, blaming the power outage on corruption and infrastructure neglect by the government of President Nicolás Maduro — against whom Washington has been staging a rather unsuccessful coup effort these past months.

(Pompeo tweet of March 8th (https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1103872530450771968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1103872530450771968&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mintpressnews.com%2Fus-officials-offered-my-friend-cash-to-take-down-tehrans-power-grid%2F256266%2F))

But in the midst of this to-and-fro between longtime adversaries, insightful news reports and analysis are starting to emerge, suggesting that a US cyberattack against Venezuela’s power grid is actually a very possible — even likely — scenario.

Says Forbes Magazine‘s Kalev Leetaru (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/03/09/could-venezuelas-power-outage-really-be-a-cyber-attack/#2133cf3c607c):

"In the case of Venezuela, the idea of a government like the United States remotely interfering with its power grid is actually quite realistic. Remote cyber operations rarely require a significant ground presence, making them the ideal deniable influence operation.

Widespread power and connectivity outages like the one Venezuela experienced last week are also straight from the modern cyber playbook. Cutting power at rush hour, ensuring maximal impact on civilian society and plenty of mediagenic post-apocalyptic imagery, fits squarely into the mold of a traditional influence operation,” he continues.

For those of us who have spent years covering US irregular warfare in the Middle East, infrastructure targets are part and parcel of these wars — sometimes via direct strikes, other times via proxies and sabotage operations.

I’m not just talking about cyberattacks like the US/Israeli-made Stuxnet virus that destroyed hundreds of centrifuges at Iranian nuclear facilities.

In Syria, for instance, the US military specifically targeted major economic infrastructure (https://mideastshuffle.com/2012/05/26/going-rogue-americas-unconventional-warfare-in-the-mideast/) under the guise of ‘fighting ISIS.’ These include but are not limited to oilfields, wells and facilities, electrical transformer stations, gas plants, bridges, canals, a number of vital dams and reservoirs in the country’s northern agricultural belt — and power generation facilities.

And US-backed proxies — part of the Pentagon and CIA’s ‘irregular army’ in Syria — targeted bread factories, wheat silos and flour mills to deprive a population of basic food staples.

As opposed to conventional wars, US irregular warfare seeks to covertly use influence ops to turn the largest part of a country’s population, the “uncommitted middle,” (https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-the-expanding-u-s-military-presence-in-syria-legal/) into supporting regime-change. Destroying infrastructure, creating shortages, unleashing political violence, propaganda dissemination — these are all steps outlined in the US military’s Special Forces Unconventional Warfare manual (https://web.archive.org/web/20180122021231/http://www.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/Special_Forces_Report.pdf) to create a disgruntled population that will turn on its government.

And cyber warfare is the newest theater of engagement for the Pentagon, which is now openly ramping up its investment in “lethal cyber weapons,” regardless of the civilian casualties these attacks will leave in their wake.

So far in Venezuela, around 20 people are reported dead due to the blackouts, though I’ve seen some opposition sources place that number north of 70.

Is Venezuela’s blackout part of US cyber warfare against a Latin American adversary?

Has the US engaged in cyberwarfare against Iranian infrastructure?

Does a duck quack?

Hervé

19th March 2019, 18:22

Venezuela: Voices from on the ground vs. the media's spin circus (https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/18/on-the-ground-in-venezuela-vs-the-media-spectacle/)

Paul Cochrane Counterpunch (https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/18/on-the-ground-in-venezuela-vs-the-media-spectacle/)
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 15:57 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/507135/large/guaido_maduro.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/507135/full/guaido_maduro.jpg)
Juan Guaidó and Nicolás Maduro © Desconocido

British photojournalist Alan Gignoux and Venezuelan journalist-filmmaker Carolina Graterol, both based in London, went to Venezuela for a month to shoot a documentary for a major global TV channel. They talked with journalist Paul Cochrane about the mainstream media's portrayal of Venezuela compared to their experiences on the ground.
Paul Cochrane (PC): What were you doing in Venezuela, how long were you there and where did you go?

Alan Gignoux (AG): We went in June 2018 for a month to shoot a documentary; I can't disclose what channels it will be on right now, but it should be on air soon. We visited the capital Caracas, Mérida (in the Andes), Cumaná (on the coast), and Ciudad Guayana (near the mouth of the Orinoco river).

PC: How did being in Venezuela compare to what you were seeing in Western media?

Carolina Graterol (CG): I am a journalist, I have family in Venezuela, and I knew the reality was very different from what the media is portraying, but still I was surprised. The first thing we noticed was the lack of poverty. Alan wanted to film homeless and poor people on the streets. I saw three people sleeping rough just this morning in London, but in Venezuela, we couldn't find any, in big cities or towns. We wanted to interview them, but we couldn't find them. It is because of multi disciplinary programmes run by the government, with social services working to get children off the streets, or returned to their families. The programme has been going on for a long time but I hadn't realized how effective it was.
https://www.sott.net/image/s25/514531/large/venezuela.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/514531/full/venezuela.jpg)
© Getty Images

PC: Alan, what surprised you?

AG: We have to be realistic. Things look worn down and tired. There is food, there are private restaurants and cafes open, and you could feel the economic crisis kicking in but poverty is not as bad as what I've seen in Brazil or Colombia, where there are lots of street children. Venezuela doesn't seem to have a homeless problem, and the favelas have running water and electricity. The extreme poverty didn't seem as bad as in other South American countries. People told me before going I should be worried about crime, but we worked with a lady from El Salvador, and she said Venezuela was easy compared to her country, where there are security guards with machine guns outside coffee shops. They also say a lot of Venezuelan criminals left as there's not that much to rob, with better pickings in Argentina, Chile or wherever.

PC: How have the US sanctions impacted Venezuelans?

CG: Food is expensive, but people are buying things, even at ten times their salary. Due to inflation, you have to make multiple card payments as the machine wouldn't take such a high transaction all at once. The government has created a system, Local Committees for Production and Supply (known by its Spanish acronym CLAP) that feeds people, 6 million families, every month via a box of food. The idea of the government was to bypass private distribution networks, hoarding and scarcity. Our assistant was from a middle class area in Caracas, and she was the only Chavista there, but people got together and created a CLAP system, with the box containing 19 products. Unless you have a huge salary, or money from outside, you have to use other ways to feed yourself. People's larders were full, as they started building up supplies for emergencies. People have lost weight, I reckon many adults 10 to 15 kilos. Last time I was in Venezuela three years ago, I found a lot of obese people, like in the US, due to excessive eating, but this time people were a good size, and nobody is dying from hunger or malnutrition.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/514533/large/Capture.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/514533/full/Capture.jpg)
People check bags of foodstuff inside one of the food distribution centres, which have been set up by local committees ‘for supply and production’ in Caracas. © Ronaldo Schemidt/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

PC: So what are Venezuelans eating?

CG: A vegetarian diet. People apologized as they couldn't offer us meat, instead vegetables, lentils, and black beans. So everyone has been forced to have a vegetarian diet, and maybe the main complaint was that people couldn't eat meat like they used to do. The situation is not that serious. Before Hugo Chavez came to power, Venezuela had 40% critical poverty out of 80% poverty, but that rate went down to 27%, and before the crisis was just 6 or 7% critical poverty. Everyone is receiving help from the government.

PC: So food is the main concern?

CG: The real attack on the economy is on food. When you have hyperinflation everything goes up in price, but food has become the main source of spending because this is the variable going up in price at exorbitant levels. Bills like water, electricity, public transport haven't gone up that much and represent a small percentage of any family spending. This is why the distortions in the economy are not intrinsic, but caused by external factors, otherwise everything should have gone up, no matter what it is.

PC: Alan, did you lose weight in Venezuela?

AG: No! What surprised me was how many people are growing their own vegetables. It is a bit like in Russia, where everyone has a dacha. Venezuela is tropical, so it is easy to grow produce. Mango trees are everywhere, so you can pick a mango whenever you want.

PC: So the crisis we read about everyday is primarily due to the US sanctions?

CG: The sanctions have affected the country. I want to be fair. I think the government was slow to act on the direction the country was being pushed. It was probably not a good idea to pay off $70 billion in external debt over the past five years. In my opinion, (President Nicolas) Maduro decided to honor the external debt, thinking this was the right way to pay our commitments, but at the same time, this economic war started waging internally, and also externally, blocking international loans.

The government should also have taken action against Colombia for allowing over one hundred exchange houses to be set up on the border with Venezuela. These exchange houses eroded the currency as they were using different exchange rates, and that contributed to the Bolivar's devaluation. I think they should have denounced the (Juan Manuel) Santos government. If Colombia says that Venezuelan oil that crosses its border is contraband, why not currency? Remember, the biggest industry in Colombia is cocaine - narcotics trafficking - and it has grown exponentially, so they've an excessive amount of US dollars and need to launder them, which drained the Venezuelan currency. It is induced hyperinflation. Also, in Miami, the Venezuelan oligarchy created a website called DolarToday about 12 years ago to destroy the Venezuelan economy.

PC: What else struck you?

CG: People are still smiling and making jokes about the situation, which I find incredible. People are willing to share, and we were in some tricky situations, like when our car broke down at night.

AG: Everyone says don't drive at night in Venezuela. We were on the road, and figured we'd only half hour to go, what could go wrong? Then a transformer burned out. I thought I was about to have my Venezuelan nightmare, stuck in the middle of nowhere on a dark road at night. Who would ever find you?

CG: As there were no lights we had to use our phones to let big trucks know we were on the road.

AG: We pretended I was deaf as I couldn't pass for Venezuelan with my Spanish accent. So, a really old old pick-up truck pulls up, and the occupants looked rather salty, but they were very nice and took us to a petrol station.

CG: I told you Alan, you are not in the US, you are not going to be shot!

AG: I was with three women with money, I thought OK I will be shot, but it all turned out fine, and they thought I was deaf.

CG: We were told we could sleep in a shop but we slept in the car instead, and it was fine.

PC: What about the power cuts that have plagued the country?

CG: During blackouts, people told stories, played music, or went out and talked on the streets. It was a paradise, no TVs, smartphones, but real human contact. People cook together. During the day they're playing board games, dominoes, and kids are having fun. People with kids are possibly more stressed, especially if you live in a tower block, as if you've no electricity, you've no water. That is why the US hit the electricity grid as it means no water in Caracas - a city of 10 million people. Luckily there are wells with clean water around the city, so people queue up to get it.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/514537/large/AP19072698793809.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/514537/full/AP19072698793809.jpg)
Men fill containers with water at Avila National Park during rolling blackouts which has cut many off from running water in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 13, 2019. © Associated Press/Eduardo Verdugo

PC: So there was a real discrepancy between the image you were given of Venezuela and the reality?

AG: Sure, there are queues for oil, but people are not dying of starvation and, as I said, poverty is no where near what it is like in Brazil. I wouldn't say a harsh dictatorship, people were open, and criticized the government, and the US, but also Chavez and Maduro. The Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) have admitted they had made bad economic decisions. I thought it would be more repressive, and it wasn't. People were not fearful about speaking out. I think Venezuelans blame the Americans for the situation more than Maduro.

PC: What do you make of the hullabaloo in February about US and Canadian aid being blocked by Venezuela?

AG: It is a Trojan horse, a good way to get the US in, and why international agencies were not willing take part in the plan. Instead there has been Chinese and Russian aid.

CG: There's not the chaos US and Trump were expecting. (Opposition leader and self-proclaimed president Juan) Guaidó is the most hated guy in Venezuela. He has to stay in luxury hotel in La Mercedes, an expensive neighbourhood of Caracas. They have electricity there, as they were prepared, so bought generators. That is why Guaidó went there, and has a whole floor of a luxury hotel for him and his family. While people are suffering Guaidó is trying on suits for his upcoming trip to Europe. It is a parallel world.

AG: You think Guaidó will fail?

CG: Venezuelans are making so many jokes with his name, as there's a word similar to stupid in Spanish - guevon. And look at the demonstration in La Mercedes the other day (12 March), the crowds didn't manifest. It is becoming a joke in the country. The more the Europeans and the US make him a president, the more bizarre the situation becomes, as Guaidó is not president of Venezuela! Interestingly, Chavez predicted what is happening today, he wrote about it, so people are going back to his works and reading him again.

PC: There's plenty of material on the history of American imperialism in South America to make such predictions, also, more recently, the Canadians and their mining companies, in Paraguay, Honduras, and now backing Guaidó.

CG: Exactly. Look at Chile in 1973, what happened to the Sandinistas in El Salvador, in Guatemala.

It is a well rehearsed strategy to destroy an economy using external forces to drive up prices of supplies and products. When you have such a cycle, it explodes.

Alan Gignoux is a photojournalist, with a particular focus on socio-political and environmental issues. Alan's work has been published in The New York Times, CNN Traveller, The Independent, Reuters and World Photography News, among others (www.gignouxphotos.com (http://www.gignouxphotos.com/)).

Carolina Graterol is a Venezuelan journalist, filmmaker and artist (www.carolinagraterol.com (http://www.carolinagraterol.com/)). She has worked for the BBC World Service (Spanish) and Telesur. She is the director of A Letter from Venezuela (2019).

Paul Cochrane is a journalist living in Beirut.
Related:
Food prices skyrocketed 72% in Venezuela in 2013: International financiers' currency speculation to blame? (https://www.sott.net/article/270692-Food-prices-skyrocketed-72-in-Venezuela-in-2013-International-financiers-currency-speculation-to-blame)

perolator

26th March 2019, 19:42

Venezuelan Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez ... “ultra-right plans to promote regime change.” According to Rodriguez, Venezuelan intelligence services uncovered plans to contract mercenaries from Colombia and Central America and bring them into Venezuela to execute targeted killings and acts of sabotage, adding that “at least half” of the armed groups managed to make their way into Venezuelan territory and are currently being sought...

This man, Jorge Rodriguez, is one of the worst individuals of the regime.

Before speaking about him, a not so short story.
The year was 1976.

Venezuelan Terrorists Grabbed Bill Niehous Last February, and Now His Wife Waits for News

By LYNNE BARANSKI December 06, 1976 12:00 PM

It was the first night of carnival. Bill and Donna Niehous, an American couple living in Caracas, Venezuela, were preparing to go to a party. They never made it. That evening, Feb. 27, 1976, would mark the beginning of a nightmare.

Donna was sitting under a hair dryer and Bill was in the upstairs bedroom when seven terrorists—two cradling machine guns—entered their house in suburban Prados del Este. The intruders bound Donna Niehous and her maid with tape. Then they gave Bill Niehous an injection and took him away. Within 45 minutes police were swarming into the area. “But it was carnival,” Donna explains, “everyone in town was in costume.” She has not seen her husband since.

Bill Niehous is one of two U.S. citizens held by guerrillas—the other is Gustavo Curtis, a food company employee, who is missing in Colombia. Bill’s 45th birthday and his 22nd wedding anniversary have come and gone. Donna, 46, feels certain he is alive—”I just know he is,” she says. But still she asks, “Why Bill?”

William F. Niehous was like hundreds of other American businessmen stationed overseas by multinational companies. He had spent his entire career with Owens-Illinois, the glassmaking firm with headquarters in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio. He joined O-l as an accountant in 1953 after graduating from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Postings followed to such capitals as Mexico City and Madrid. In 1974 he was made vice-president and general manager of O-I’s Venezuelan operation. Bill, Donna and their three sons, Mark, now 19, David, 16, and Craig, 14, moved into a house on an isolated hilltop. “It was the loveliest home we ever had,” Donna recalls. “The political situation in Venezuela was stable. Nobody worried about kidnapping.”

A leftist group claimed credit for the abduction and eventually issued demands: among them, bonuses for O-l’s Venezuelan employees and the publication of a 3,000-word manifesto attacking Bill, the company and the Venezuelan government. Owens-Illinois complied with these demands—the bonuses cost O-l $185,600—but Niehous was not freed. (A further ransom demand of $3.4 million has been made.) In March the terrorists released a photo of Bill guarded by two hooded figures. “He looked so very angry,” Donna says.

Bill was allowed to write regularly until July. His last message urged the family to return to the U.S. for the Bicentennial celebration. Donna took the boys back to Toledo. When 12 suspects were arrested in Caracas, one of whom had Donna’s identification papers taken the night of the kidnapping, she returned to Venezuela to testify in court. One of the men died in police custody, and the others are still in jail, awaiting disposition of their cases. They have revealed nothing about Bill. With money raised through donations, Donna offered a $456,000 reward but to no avail. “Bill could be held five minutes from downtown Caracas,” she admits, “and we wouldn’t know it. But how did they manage to hide him? He’s a tall American with a lousy accent.”

Source (https://people.com/archive/venezuelan-terrorists-grabbed-bill-niehous-last-february-and-now-his-wife-waits-for-news-vol-6-no-23/)

Owens-Illinois ended paying USD 20 million to the guerrillas, led by Jorge Rodriguez, Sr.

Niehous was not released.

Then it happened. Just by chance, Niehous was found. 3 years lost in the jungle, in the hands of Venezuelan guerrillas. Jorge Rodriguez, Sr. was the leader of "Organización de Revolucionarios" and the political party "Liga Socialista". The Liga Socialista was the facade of the guerrillas, "Grupo de Comandos Revolucionarios" or Group of Revolutionary Commandos (GCR). They needed financing, therefore, were involved in bank robberies. Their most famous crime was the Niehous kidnapping.

K-PwizASJ9U

Mr. Niehous was rescued by accident: rural police officers searching for cattle thieves in a southern province stumbled upon Mr. Niehous chained to a pole in a rancher’s hut. The police shot and killed two armed men guarding him, handcuffed Mr. Niehous, and marched him to the nearest police station. They did not know who he was.

His rescue and reunion with his wife, Donna, were worldwide news.

“He came back the same man he had always been, as far as I could tell,” Mrs. Niehous said in an interview on Tuesday. “He was never bitter, never let the experience define him.”

Source (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/world/americas/william-f-niehous-survivor-of-abduction-in-venezuela-dies-at-82.html)

Among his kidnappers, two later emerged as close advisers to Hugo Chávez, the socialist Venezuelan leader. One, Gabriel Puerta Aponte, took part in a 1992 coup attempt led by Mr. Chávez in which more than 100 people were killed and for which Mr. Chávez was jailed; he is now the leader of the leftist political organization Bandera Roja. The other, Carlos Lanz Rodríguez, a sociologist, became education minister after Mr. Chávez was freed and elected president in 1998.

Mr. Niehous said he was surprised when Mr. Lanz and several other political figures admitted their role in the kidnapping in 2004. “But that’s history,” he told The Toledo Blade, adding that he had never taken his abduction personally. “I was just a symbol of what they were against,” he said.

And some people frown when I say the chavista government are ruthless criminals.

Source (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/world/americas/william-f-niehous-survivor-of-abduction-in-venezuela-dies-at-82.html)

Jorge Rodriguez, Sr., was captured 6 months after the kidnapping. He was accused by Iván Padilla, captured while he was getting part of the O-I money. He was tortured and died in prison.

But, his killing was not in vain for Venezuelan socialism. Jorge Rodriguez, Jr. and his sister, Delcy Rodriguez, are two high-ranked members of the bolivarian enchilada. They had the best private and public education and money never was an issue for them, despite of the fact they grew without a father, they weren't wealthy and their mother never re-marry. I have a theory: the whole of the country is being a victim of the Rodriguez brothers revenge, and I am not the only one who thinks that way. Delcy Rodriguez made it clear:

I am pretty sure that you are already aware of the sadistic Delcy R. (the Vice President of Venezuela) explaining that the Revolution was a REVENGE because of the killing of their father, Jorge Rodriguez, who was tortured by the police of those days after William Niehous, the CEO of the Owen Illinois was liberated. Rodriguez died, and the police responsible went to jail because of that. But Delcy and Jorge grew up and studied in good schools, and later good colleges. No one knows where they got the money for that: Jorge Rodriguez’s father was not a wealthy man.

He was just a guerrilla operator, that combated the “imperialism” and the “capitalism”. Their aunt took care of them and this remained as a secret until now. The money paid as a ransom for the Niehous liberation never appeared, of course. My theory? This money was right to the hands of the very same criminal organization that worked so hard to provide the Rodriguez with their vengeance.

Source (https://www.silverdoctors.com/headlines/world-news/the-engineered-collapse-of-venezuela-is-the-start-of-war-on-the-free-world/)

Jorge Rodriguez, Jr. psychologist, right now is Communications (lies) Minister.
Former:

Libertador (Caracas) Mayor (9 years)
Venezuela Vice-President (2 years) - his sister is currently Vice-President.
Chief of National Elections Council (2001-2006) - Father of "electronic vote system" a.k.a massive fraud system.
United Socialist Party of Venezuela Coordinator (2007-)

As always in the bolivarian enchilada, no academic background is required to get a position in the government.

I do not believe a single word of this man.

Ba-ba-Ra

26th March 2019, 20:19

This from Zero Hedge:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-24/russian-troops-aid-arrive-caracas-trump-leaves-military-intervention-venezuela

Russian Troops, Aid Arrive In Venezuela After Delivering Red Line Warning To Trump.

Just days after a high-level meeting in Rome this week, during which Russia reiterated a grave warning to the US – Moscow will not tolerate American military intervention to topple the Venezuelan government with whom it is allied - it appears Russia is taking no chances with its South American ally.

perolator

26th March 2019, 21:45

This is a little off-topic, but here it goes... some people say it is the real reason the whole country had a power outage and power failures. I insist 20 years with no maintenance and/or investment, i.e. the government, is the real responsible.

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Unfortunately, the video is in Spanish.

I have seen at least 6 UFO's in Venezuela. In 1997 I saw the most incredible UFO I have ever seen (sorry, no photograph or video), so I think it is very possible this series of events actually happened.

perolator

26th March 2019, 22:03

This entire post is a straw man logical fallacy, citing fake news propaganda sources (People Magazine, and New York Times).

I actually was witness of all those events. I was a boy, but the whole Niehous case was widely covered by Venezuelan media. There were daily news coverage of it for a long time. At least 2 books (https://www.worldcat.org/title/el-caso-niehous/oclc/11969602) have been written on the subject. I am citing English-language sources because this is an English-language forum.

William Frank Niehous (He was the first non-famous American I learnt his full name) was born and died in Toledo, OH. I don't think The Blade, one of the 100 largest daily newspaper currently circulating in the U.S., is a fake news propaganda source. So I will quote an 2013 article on him by Mark Zaborney:

William Niehous, an Owens-Illinois Inc. executive whose kidnapping and nearly 3½-year captivity by Venezuelan guerrillas made international news and whose later volunteer work for education earned plaudits, died Thursday in Sunset House, where he lived since July. He was 82.

Mr. Niehous of Ottawa Hills had Alzheimer’s disease, his wife Donna said.

He was barely recognizable on June 29, 1979, as he escaped during a gun battle that erupted as police unwittingly entered the jungle camp where he was held. The officers had been looking for cattle rustlers. He and his family were reunited less than 48 hours later at Toledo Express Airport.

He had been held for three years, four months, and three days.

Source (https://www.toledoblade.com/news/deaths/2013/10/11/William-Niehous-1931-2013-Abducted-O-I-exec-inspired/stories/20131010275)

If yet unsure, here (https://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/toledoblade/william-niehous-condolences/167480211?view=2&entry=135781809&referrer=1) is his obituary on The Blade. Let me quote a note from the guestbook:

I am a Venezuelan man that latter ended up moving to the USA due to the increased political unrest in my country. I grew up remembering this fabulous and great epic story of his kidnap. I am glad he finished his life where he had to and God granted him a long life afterwards. May God bless you Niehous family.
Oscar Chavez, Elkton, MD

It was a huge event in my almost peaceful by then country, indeed.

@Joe, do you really think I am fabricating all this (and former posts) to make socialism look bad? It is bad! never worked and never will. Not even with hundreds of billions of petrodollars at their disposal.

A forum member complained I have no proof of my claims. Despite of the fact less than 30% of the information available on the Venezuelan topic is in English, I try to locate "proof" to support my posts.

Another member of the forum tried to accuse me of racism, because I renamed the "bolivarian initiative" as enchilada.

And you insinuate I am getting paid.

You have an extreme, self-admitted bias that leads to wrong conclusions; what I don’t know is if you get paid for these posts or if you are a genuine crank wronged by a seriously flawed world... jury’s still out.

With all due respect, @Joe, I admitted (in past posts) I hate socialism, communism and the people who support it whilst living in democratic/capitalist/lawful countries. I never denied it.

I loathe socialism.

My conclusions are not wrong. Are simply conclusions, based on facts. I am not pointing a gun to somebody to believe what I am posting.

This is the best compliment I have received: I am getting paid to post here. If I were being paid, I can assure you, I would be targeting a larger audience.

Maybe I am a genuine crank as you say. Maybe I am a stray cat, or a straw in the wind...
Who knows?

Hervé

28th March 2019, 13:48

keeping this in mind:

US regime change plan hatched 8 years ago proposed Venezuelan power blackout as 'watershed event' to 'galvanize public unrest' (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/11/us-regime-change-blueprint-proposed-venezuelan-electricity-blackouts-as-watershed-event-for-galvanizing-public-unrest/)

Max Blumenthal The Grayzone (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/11/us-regime-change-blueprint-proposed-venezuelan-electricity-blackouts-as-watershed-event-for-galvanizing-public-unrest/)
Wed, 13 Mar 2019 18:27 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513822/large/guaido_pence_duque.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513822/full/guaido_pence_duque.jpg)
Pretend "president" Juan Guaido, Colombian President Ivan Duque (C), and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence © Associated Press/Martin Mejia

A September 2010 memo (https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=218642) by a US-funded soft power organization that helped train Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaido and his allies identifies the potential collapse of the country's electrical sector as "a watershed event" that "would likely have the impact of galvanizing public unrest in a way that no opposition group could ever hope to generate."

The memo has special relevance today as Guaido moves to exploit nationwide blackouts caused by a major failure at the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant at Guri dam - a crisis that Venezuela's government blames on US sabotage.

It was authored by Srdja Popovic (https://twitter.com/SrdjaPopovic/status/977698005615894528) of the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), a Belgrade-based "democracy promotion" organization funded by the US government that has trained thousands of US-aligned youth activists in countries where the West seeks regime change.

This group reportedly hosted Guaido and the key leaders of his Popular Will party for a series of training sessions, fashioning them into a "Generation 2007" determined to foment resistance to then-President Hugo Chavez and sabotage his plans to implement "21st century socialism" in Venezuela.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513823/large/Srdja_Rector_Canvas.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513823/full/Srdja_Rector_Canvas.jpg)
Srdja Popovic © CANVAS

In the 2010 memo, CANVAS's Popovic declared, "A key to Chavez's current weakness is the decline in the electricity sector." Popovic explicitly identified the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant as a friction point, emphasizing that "water levels at the Guri dam are dropping, and Chavez has been unable to reduce consumption sufficiently to compensate for the deteriorating industry."

Speculating on a "grave possibility that some 70 percent of the country's electricity grid could go dark as soon as April 2010," the CANVAS leader stated that "an opposition group would be best served to take advantage of the situation and spin it against Chavez and towards their needs."

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/513824/full/Capture.jpg
© Srdja Popovic/CANVAS

[...]
Here is Jim Stone's perspective on Venezuela's projected fate:
NEW TRICK: After Venezuela yet again got power restored by over 50 percent, someone shot the 750 KV line insulators with a .50 cal. That will drop the power lines on the ground. They are SCREWED.

. . Assessment: Venezuela will lose.

I'd like to again state that I am not a socialist, but it is still messed up to destroy nations for oil, no matter what they are.

Venezuela is in a no win situation. Despite suddenly getting 58 percent of power restored as of 6:30 PM CST today, there's no hope. Here's why: It all boils down to psychopathic dishonesty and sabotage by the American war department. Here are some examples:

1. They stated Maduro stole billions from the Venezuelan people. Here's how he stole billions: By not stepping down from power when asked, Venezuela "caused" the United States to seize tens of billions of dollars Venezuela had in foreign bank accounts. They were not Maduro's bank accounts, they were long standing national bank accounts. The U.S. defines "theft" as staying in power, causing the U.S. to take it. That level of dishonesty cannot be dealt with. If someone more powerful than you is willing to lie like that, it seriously curtails your ability to win.

2. ALL the successful cyber attacks on Venezuela's grid was done to very current and up to date Canadian made electrical infrastructure components operating under computer control. The Canadian gear had back doors Venezuela can't close, so they are sitting ducks. Venezuela got good at recovering quickly from these cyber attacks however, so the new, insurmountable offense was launched: Direct attacks on electrical infrastructure.
I am convinced that the United States used a cruise missile on Guri last night, at about 5 AM Venezuela time March 27, after the previous virus attack that happened hours earlier got solved too quickly. Venezuela was totally powered up, (the internet traceroutes don't show this because people were not awake to re-set many of the servers) but aside from the internet, Venezuela was at about 95 percent power. Then suddenly Guri mysteriously exploded, and instead of one transformer out that I said they'd bypass easily, three more were out, along with the associated power lines that were also knocked down. That's a cruise missile, no "lack of maintenance" is going to cause power lines to fall.

If the U.S. is going to sink to those kinds of dirty tactics, blaming kinetic attacks on "lack of maintenance" it is GAME OVER, the sanctions alone, which are preventing Venezuela from importing parts, will wipe out Venezuela's grid because they won't be able to repair the attacks. YES their power is now at 58 percent as of 6:30 PM CST, but that won't matter, another cruise missile has already been launched and Venezuela just can't win.

Mexico could save Venezuela and Obrador is a really good guy, however, if Mexico did, the wrath of the United States would rain down so hard on Mexico that Mexico would be SOL as bad as Venezuela very quickly.

Russia won't save Venezuela because THEY SUCK, and even if Putin could, he won't. He's a fair weather ally at best. I'd hedge my bets that Mexico has 10X as many replacement parts sitting around that could save Venezuela than Russia has, Mexico's electrical output now tops 90 gigawatts and despite Russia having double that capacity the Russian crap is old, and Mexico's stuff is modern and a lot more of a match for what Venezuela needs. Mexico can generate 6X what Venezuela can generate (already) and has on the drawing board an added ability exceeding Venezuela's total output three additional times over by 2032. Mexico is an energy champion right now. If anyone could save Venezuela right now, it would be Mexico.

I don't think China is going to do it, because they won't see enough benefit from it. So here is Venezuela's future:

1. Putin is a pussy. Forget Russia.

2. Obrador is a pal and is not a pussy, and Mexico could definitely do it, but Obrador has a gun to his head and he's not stupid. Mexico's out.

3. I don't think China cares about Venezuela, and China is not charitable. China's out.

4. Even if Iran could help, they'd best not, they are in the same situation as Venezuela and at least their lights are on . . . .

5. THAT LEAVES GUAIDO WINS. The U.S. simply blows up Venezuela until duck tape and fence wire won't put things back together, runs all kinds of propaganda about how Venezuela has crap (state of the art CANADIAN MADE crap) but you know - propaganda - and when 10 percent of the people have starved to death, the remaining people will surrender, stop supporting Maduro and HERE'S THE CLINCHER:

The U.S. will then install their puppet, move in with all kinds of "charity" and be the "savior", get Venezuela's grid up and running perfect in about a week with all new virus infectable parts that have tons of back doors and then, after playing the savior, bill Venezuela the full American national debt and run them as a slave state doing an oil payoff until the sun explodes. . . . . . Ok, that's an exaggeration I admit, - the sun won't explode, it will eventually go soft nova.
So there you have it, Venezuela WILL be a puppet state and Putin will EAT IT.

Current situation says: VENEZUELA IS OUT.

Venezuela: More details have come in, and it is looking more and more like a cruise missile or other explosive caused the second blackout

They got the power FULL ON last night. This is not shown on the internet connectivity maps because no one was around to put equipment back online in the middle of the night, but the power was there. Suddenly, early this morning everything exploded and the damage is so bad it appears it was a missile that did it. Now main transmission lines are blown up and on the ground, and Guaido is saying it was a lack of maintenance!!! How long are they going to sell that silly ruse?

Hervé

28th March 2019, 17:17

Running country like a business: Trump calls Venezuela ‘company,’ but is it a Freudian slip? (https://www.rt.com/news/454950-trump-calls-venezuela-company/)

By Alexandre Antonov RT
Published time: 28 Mar, 2019 09:12
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9r1i)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.03/xxs/5c9c8741dda4c8d1758b456f.JPG
©REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

Donald Trump seems to be taking the “running the country as a business” shtick pretty seriously. Why else would he refer to Venezuela, a country his administration targeted for its latest regime change op, as a “company”?

The slip of tongue, which some would call Freudian, came on Wednesday, as the US leader was meeting the wife of self-declared ‘interim president’ Juan Guaido.
“Venezuela was one of the richest companies, certainly, and now it’s one of the poorest comp… countries or the world,” the host declared.
When described in corporate terms, Washington’s Venezuela policy makes a lot of sense, one could argue. Think of it as a hostile takeover, aimed at creating a subsidiary out of a firm in financial trouble, which also happens to own potentially very profitable oil assets.

America Inc. has spent years aggressively undermining Venezuela by scaring other companies out of doing business with it. Of course, it didn’t stop purchases of Venezuelan products needed by the US. But lately Washington declared it will no longer pay for the oil supplies, because the management in Caracas is bad and cannot be trusted to handle the profits. But don’t worry; it’s nothing a few executive changes can’t fix.

In January, the attack started in earnest under the control of Elliot Abrams, a fixer with decades of experience of arranging things in Latin America. The guy, who ran guns to Nicaraguan militants and lied to US Congress about it, knows a thing or two about doing the kind of business Washington runs in Venezuela now.

Juan Guaido, a little-known low-level manager with all the right connections, appointed himself as acting CEO of Venezuela and started offering future lucrative contracts. The claim didn’t even require a vote in Venezuela itself to win unwavering support from the big bosses in DC.

There is also PR guru Marco Rubio, who may not be part of the current board in the White House, but certainly is on board with its Venezuela plans. He has been busy telling everyone how sending goons to seize someone’s property is totally fine, as long as you call the victim socialist. It’s not highway robbery, just how capitalism is supposed to work, putting the most efficient people in charge!

Of course the last thing you want to see in a situation like this is the security personnel of a competitor firm arriving at your target’s HQ. Hence Trump’s not-so-veiled threat to send his own security to kick out the Russians, which he uttered at the Wednesday meeting.

Guaido, meanwhile, announced his next big attempt to claim the Venezuela board room on April 6. It may have no power by that time, considering how blackouts started to affect the country one after another. It’s almost like the infrastructure follows a script on how one could take over penned by Guaido’s former teachers a few years ago.

Sara Flounders, who heads the anti-corporate group International Action Centre, said Trump’s policies vis-a-vis Venezuela are exactly what can be expected from a man, “representing the capitalist class in the US.”
“Trump has absolutely no interest in the lives of the average person in Venezuela,” she told RT.

“He is interested in business and in money and in maximizing profit.”
Alexandre Antonov

Related:
UN human rights chief decries US choking of Venezuela as Trump mulls imposing ‘toughest’ sanctions (https://www.rt.com/news/454346-un-venezuela-us-sanctions-crisis/)

'Get out of Syria first': Moscow reacts to Trump's demand to leave Venezuela (https://www.rt.com/news/454938-syria-venezuela-withdrawl-russia/)

guayabal

28th March 2019, 18:56

Joe, you say:

It is clear to me you do not understand how logical fallacies, or extreme bias, leads to false conclusions.

and immediately afterwards cite an extremely biased socialist source of information (Orinoco Tribune)? I don't get it... is it a joke?

perolator

28th March 2019, 19:15

It is clear to me you do not understand how logical fallacies, or extreme bias, leads to false conclusions.

@Joe, it is quite possible. Roughly, a logical fallacy is an error of reasoning. There are people who can spot those fallacies easily (like you). Maybe I have errors in my reasoning, maybe my mind is clouded because I am extremely biased. I do understand you. I know I post in a extremely bitter and ironic way, and I employ the Ad hominem fallacy constantly, for instance.

I decided not to discuss if I have a subset of factual errors or how my arguments are leading to fallacies. To post objectively hiding my anger about the Venezuelan situation, thus reducing the possibility of creating logical fallacies is not an easy feat. Besides, English is my second language, a very important variable.

My family, relatives and friends, in this very moment, are not living a set of false conclusions.

They are living a hurting reality.

perolator

28th March 2019, 20:56

**Guaido and his chief of staff were caught red handed funding foreign mercenaries to conduct assasinations and infrastructure sabotage in Venezuela. The significance of this report cannot be overstated. This is a direct link between Guaido (Eliot Abrams) and international terrorism.

The political police opened a hole with hammers to an adjacent wall to his apartment. It was easier and less costly knocking the door, it was completely nonsensical, Marrero went out to see what was happening and they grabbed him (and opened a hole in the wall anyway). Venezuelan political police is accustomed to terrorize. They went Marrero's home at midnight, attacking his apartment, scaring kids including Marrero's own 6 years old son.

Red handed? SEBIN brought rifles, money and several items to Marrero's house, that's their drill. How an "international terrorist" could have an armory in his own home, being himself a beamter?

The Orinoco Tribune is a new outlet that has been specially designed to provide relevant progressive information about Venezuela in form of news articles and opinion pieces for the English speakers around the world. We are a group of Venezuelans committed with the progressive perspective that have leave a big chunk of our lives in the U.S. and Europe and because of that we understand the need of information in other parts of the globe and also the idiosyncrasy on Venezuelans. We will defend the causes of the less privileged, the working class and peasant movement, the anti-imperialists and those that has been deny access to the media.

The Orinoco Tribune, a new pamphlet.
As if teleSUR, Jim Stone, Abby Martin, Max Blumenthal, Paul Cochrane and related fauna were not enough.

Joe, you say:

It is clear to me you do not understand how logical fallacies, or extreme bias, leads to false conclusions.

and immediately afterwards cite an extremely biased socialist source of information (Orinoco Tribune)? I don't get it... is it a joke?

"Oho!" said the pot to the kettle;
"You are dirty and ugly and black!
Sure no one would think you were metal,
Except when you're given a crack."

"Not so! not so!" kettle said to the pot;
"'Tis your own dirty image you see;
For I am so clean – without blemish or blot –
That your blackness is mirrored in me."

Enough said.

A Voice from the Mountains

28th March 2019, 22:48

I think the real key to understanding what is happening in Venezuela right now is understanding who Venezuela is most in debt to.

China and Russia loaned billions to Venezuela — and then the presidency went up for grabs

China and Russia have kept Venezuela afloat by lending billions to the economically crippled petrostate, sometimes with cheap oil thrown in as a sweetener for the two creditors.
Those deals were struck with strongman Nicolas Maduro, whose leadership is facing a serious challenge from Juan Guaido, and it’s not clear what happens to that debt if Maduro is kicked out of office.
Venezuela is indebted to external creditors by a total of something close to $100 billion.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/07/venezuela-china-and-russia-owed-debts-as-presidential-fight-rages.html

There are other articles out there that can be found with some digging.

I heard an analysis some weeks ago, maybe by Joseph Farrell but I don't remember, about how China was interested in Venezuela's ports.

Imagine this:

Venezuela goes bankrupt, still owes China a fortune, and, dependent upon Chinese trade, agrees to let China build an manage ports in Venezuela, potentially including military ports.

Do you think the United States would allow China to build a naval base on the Caribbean?

And that, in my opinion, is the greatest bone of contention between the United States and Venezuela, and why Trump is putting sanctions and other pressures on Venezuela to cause its socialist government to topple. There are some things Maduro says that I understand and even agree with, but at the end of the day, no form of socialism is sustainable and this whole fantasy of a socialist or communist utopia is about 200 years past its expiration date. Maduro does thuggish things in his country that the left only fantasizes about Trump doing here, and yet of course they love Maduro. It all goes back to the same totalitarian bent, an entire generation of hippies and their children who have been brainwashed into thinking that the solution to all of their problems lies in handing the government control of their entire lives.

Hervé

29th March 2019, 13:19

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, instead of facing the USA, Algeria is facing Europe:

A "Perfect Coup" Is Unfolding In Algeria (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-28/perfect-coup-unfolding-algeria)

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/styles/thumbnail/public/pictures/picture-5.jpg?itok=LY4e264- (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) by Tyler Durden (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Fri, 03/29/2019 - 05:00
Authored by Cyril Widdershoven via Oilprice.com, (https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/A-Perfect-Coup-Is-Unfolding-In-Algeria.html)

The ongoing unrest in one of North Africa’s largest oil and gas producers Algeria is reaching boiling point.

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/f09ec23b4f78cf161557b7876c12b7fe.jpg

After weeks of protests from the opposition, aimed at blocking the possible re-election of long-time president Bouteflika, there still doesn’t seem to be a resolution within reach. Even after the sudden withdrawal by Bouteflika from new elections, demonstrations continued.

Opposition and some regime insiders still feel that the old guard is clinging to power. The Algerian army, however, has stepped into the fray, urging the removal of the current president. Algerian army chief of staff General Ahmed Gaid Salah suddenly stated that Abdelaziz Bouteflika should be deemed unfit to rule. The latter was greeted by support of opposition parties and European analysts. The end to the old guard and Bouteflika clan seems to be near. Officially, the Algerian army has been stepping in to support the “legitimate demands” of the hundreds of thousands of protesters flocking the streets lately. Optimism is growing and Western media is already suggesting the possibility of a new Arab Spring movement. The reality of Algeria’s political upheaval, however, is that it is less Arab Spring 2.0 and more Cairo 2.0, with the re-emergence of the army as the real power broker.

Since the Algerian Revolt against France, the North African country has been ruled by a bipartisan system based on a political party, coming from the Algerian independency groups, and the newly formed Algerian army. This system has endured a multitude of changes and crises, and got almost obliterated during the brief rule of the Islamists after their election victory in the 1990s. Soon after this Islamist victory, the Algerian army with support of the old guard, took over and reinstated their own rule. The current situation looks almost the same, with one big difference. Algerian military strategists seem to have been reading all reports and analysis pieces written during and after the Arab Spring developments in Egypt. Cairo’s long-time ruling elite, headed by president Husni Mubarak, had outlived its time. Democratic and religious opposition combined their forces and removed Mubarak from power. At the same time, the Egyptian army stayed in their barracks, not interfering at all, despite the fact that Mubarak’s rule was built with the support of the army. After the removal of Mubarak, and the electoral victory of the Muslim Brotherhood, the army put in place its own strategy to regain its grip on the fractured country. Within 2 years, Egypt’s minister of defense and general Sissi took over, with a huge mandate from the Egyptian public.

When looking at Algeria, the same structures and strategies seem to be unfolding. An old president, supported by a corrupt and undemocratic political party, is heading for the abyss. Algeria’s economy is struggling at the same time, even though the country holds vast oil, gas and mineral resources. Mismanagement and clientism, combined with paternalistic political views, have brought the country to its knees. Europe’s former 2nd largest gas supplier is even struggling to keep its gas and LNG exports in place, despite its reserves being immense. The time is rife for change, looking at the political disorder and economic crisis scenarios.

The opposition feels that there is a chance for change. However, this may not be a change to their own liking, but a re-emergence of military rule, with official political support. By acting currently on the behalf of the legitimate demands of the Algerian people, the armed forces, including the security services, can play the same role as the Egyptian armed forces played several years ago. The media’s opinion that the army’ current move can be seen as ‘supporting the people’ is most probably a misperception.

The North African country is facing the Egyptian scenario without realizing it. The movement for change, currently being supported by the Algerian armed forces, is not going to increase democracy or change the rules of engagement. The army has analyzed the situation and has come to the conclusion that it needs to enter the void left by Bouteflika. The armed forces, which have always been a prominent force in the country’s domestic politics are reinventing themselves and a new generation of military politicians is being groomed. Without any doubt, Bouteflika will be removed, either by the National Assembly or forcefully by the army in the next couple of days/weeks. With a grand gesture, General Salah will hand over the powers to the president of the Algerian Senate, Abdelkader Bensalah, who will take over as interim president. The latter however will know that he has been given the position due to action of the military forces.

If the Cairo 2.0 scenario plays out, no real changes in the power structure in the country will be made. From a Western point of view, increased powers for the army are always bad, at least in the eyes of the media and politicians. Looking at the current state of the country, a power vacuum will bring no good at all. The economic crisis, combined with a fledgling oil and gas sector, needs some hard and strict changes the coming months. The Algerian opposition is not able to do this, as all crucial economic sectors are still in the hands of the ruling party structures. The army move is already seen as the “perfect coup”, as there is no viable opposition in place to take over when given the chance.

At the same time, Algeria’s neighbors are on edge. Algiers’s main rival Morocco will aim to keep a very low profile, and make sure not to stir up a possible regional conflict, such as the one in Western Sahara. Others are very worried about instability as Algeria is an important party in neighboring Libya, which is still struggling to get its act together. The super-powers US and Russia also have a lot at stake. Certain pundits in Washington will see a possible new opportunity for a rapprochement with Algeria, as Bouteflika has been leaning towards Russia. Washington’s dream could, however, be a fata morgana, as Moscow has been on the ground since the 1960s. Putin’s Mediterranean strategy, after getting a stronghold in Syria again, entails full military cooperation (army and navy) with Algeria. And after a short break in the 1990s, Russia, once again has a full grip on the North African country, supplying it with high-tech arms while entering its oil and gas sectors too. Russian officials even have stated that around 50% of total arms exports to Africa go to Algeria. At the same time, Moscow and Algiers are both worried about US-NATO operations in and around Central Africa or Libya. Moscow’s current analysis for sure will be that a military move in the country is not going to threaten its influence at all.

Europe, as always, is waiting for things to happen without showing any pro-active strategies. Algeria is close to the soft belly of Europe, and is potentially an entry point for migrants to the continent, but Brussels and NATO have so far kept quiet. At the same time, European based agencies such as the IEA in Paris publish reports that say that Algeria’s oil and gas production and exports are not yet threatened at all. The latter is in stark contrast to reports that US oil major ExxonMobil’s talks with Algeria stalled last week due to the unrest. At present there has been no real threat made by any party to Algeria’s oil and gas fields or exports, but when the heat is on Europe’s energy supplies could be squeezed. A possible counter-reaction by either Bouteflika supporters or disillusioned protesters can be expected. Algeria’s only life-source is oil and gas, so an eye should be kept on it. Growing instability in the country also will have its detrimental effects on Western Libya and the regions of Mauritania/Western Sahara and Central Africa.

ThePythonicCow

29th March 2019, 17:13

Helvetic posted an excellent analysis of the crisis in Venezuela, in an interview of F. William Engdahl, by Bonnie Faulkner of Guns and Butter, over on Helvetic's thread The Continuing Search For The Truth -- Post #1551 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?1383-The-Continuing-Search-For-The-Truth&p=1283249&viewfull=1#post1283249).

Here's what I wrote of that interview in the next Post 1552 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?1383-The-Continuing-Search-For-The-Truth&p=1283290&viewfull=1#post1283290):

This is the best explanation I've heard for what's behind the conflict in Venezuela, and how it fits in to the larger picture, of China laying the foundation for the dominant nation in the 21st Century, unfortunately following the same financial model of the British and American empires ... using debt to build up economies, and then collapsing them to gain control and ownership of nations, industries, infrastructure, labor, technology, and resources.

Now in Venezuela, the aging American empire, which has long considered the other nations of North and South America to be its back yard, as expressed in the Monroe Doctrine, is coming head-to-head with the up and coming Chinese empire, such as is manifest in their global "Belt and Road Initiative." Unfortunately for Venezuela, the typical American strategy is to destroy a nation so that they can "bring democracy to it" (gain ownership of its politics, economy, resources and income streams), while the typical Chinese strategy is to allow that destruction to continue, until the Chinese are in a position to pick up the pieces.

I recommend this interview. Bonnie Faulkner of Guns and Butter is one of the best interviewers in the business. I've enjoyed listening to her for decades now, back to when I would listen to her shows on a local AM radio station in the Bay area (near San Francisco) in the 1990's. F. William Engdahl is one of the most astute observers of these matters in our time.

Hervé

29th March 2019, 20:01

US playbook at work in Venezuela: Manufacture a crisis, produce chaos, trumpet 'need' for intervention (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/455081-manufactured-crisis-venezuela-us-intervention/)

Eva Bartlett RT (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/455081-manufactured-crisis-venezuela-us-intervention/)
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 15:39 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/515861/large/5c9e0de8dda4c8e46c8b457e.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/515861/full/5c9e0de8dda4c8e46c8b457e.jpg)
A massive pro-government rally on March 16, Caracas. © Eva Bartlett

Venezuela is America's current target for mass destabilization in the hope of installing a puppet government.

America has for years been waging an economic war against Venezuela, including debilitating sanctions (https://popularresistance.org/venezuela-what-activists-need-to-know-about-the-us-led-coup/?fbclid=IwAR2hrmPnsulBzDIJKwfldFQds48BH6Wws3Aj3BNqJ4uMh50U8OivFVhnW_0) which have dramatically affected the state's ability to purchase medicines, and even mundane replacement parts needed in buses, ambulances, etc. Alongside the economic war there has been a steady propaganda war, but in recent months, the propaganda has escalated dramatically, from corporate media to US political figures.

Venezuela is described as "the country pilots are refusing to fly to," as per a March 18, 2019, AP article (https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/the-country-pilots-are-refusing-to-fly-to/news-story/63bc566fa2dfdf3385e3115ccc9d6cf1) on American Airlines cancelling all flights to Venezuela, containing scary phrases like "safety concerns" and "civil unrest."

On March 9, American cancelled my Miami-Caracas flight on the basis that there wasn't enough electricity to land at Caracas airport. Strangely enough, the Copa flight I took the following day after an overnight in Panama had no problem landing, nor did Copa flights on the day of my own cancelled flight, according to Copa staff.

The cancellation of flights to Venezuela then lends legitimacy to the shrill tweets of Marco Rubio, Mike Pence, John Bolton, and the previously unknown non-president, Juan Guaido.

I've been in various areas of Caracas since March 10, and I've seen none of this "civil unrest" that corporate media are talking about. I've walked around Caracas, usually on my own, and haven't experienced the worry for my safety corporate media is telling Westerners they should suddenly feel more than normal in Venezuela.

QA4gTZvZYPU

In fact, I see little difference from the Venezuela I knew in 2010 when I spent half a year here, except the hyperinflation is absurdly worse and in my absence I missed the years of extreme right-wing opposition supporters street violence - a benign term for the guarimbas (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11211?fbclid=IwAR2Kwp6GugTUXEHOifTXq8YuJba4rWRv92gFeSXSCn5cLRsEOvPXd5o3fzg) which saw opposition supporters burning people alive (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13170?fbclid=IwAR1EoSgr7-SC7a__qhP3wZ8vBBc-mZEOs3d3cq-aMTT3N2-dWHOEF4ve8Es), among other violence against people and security.

So it strikes me that the decision of American Airlines to stop flying to Venezuela is not about safety and security issues, but is political, in line with increasingly hollow rhetoric about a humanitarian crisis that does not exist, even according to (https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2019/03/25/ex-un-human-rights-expert-blasts-manipulation-on-venezuela-we-are-swimming-in-an-ocean-of-lies/?fbclid=IwAR0pzAccxcG0r-66Ce1Vw0FA0KlDSBv8FwQaC72YRN_eKZhJdgsH97yBqGw) former UN Special Rapporteur, Alfred de Zayas.

I asked Paul Dobson, a journalist who has lived in Venezuela the last 14 years, if anything like this had happened before. Turns out it has, also at a very timely moment.
"At the time of the National Constituent Assembly elections, July 30, 2017, the major airlines - including Air France, United, American, pretty much all of the European airlines - suspended their flights one day before the elections, citing "security reasons." Most of the services were reopened about four days after the elections, some of them two weeks after the elections." So were there 'security concerns? I asked Paul.
"This was towards the end of street violence (guarimbas (https://twitter.com/VictimaGuarimba)) that had been going on for six months in the country. Why didn't they suspend their activity six months before, two months before? They did it the day before the elections, clearly trying to influence votes and the way that people see their country internationally. There were no extra security concerns that day than any day over the last 6 months. So, there was really no justification for it. And it caused massive problems on the ground, around elections."

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2s9C6AX0AAGnZL?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1111048997853188099/photo/1)

Eva Bartlett ✔ @EvaKBartlett
(https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett)
Replying to @EvaKBartlett (https://twitter.com/_/status/1111047199121727488)
I spent most of afternoon in Petare, one of poorest areas of Caracas & the most sprawling series of barrios in Latin America. Ppl I met there spoke about Imperialist & economic war against them, & how they will continue defending their country. Night & day fr these howling idiots
237 (https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1111048997853188099)
1:34 AM - Mar 28, 2019 (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1111048997853188099) America manufactures crises; Venezuelans respond with calm
On February 23, a month after a previously largely-unknown, US-backed man named Juan Guaido claimed he was the president of Venezuela, there was a short-lived period of instability at the Venezuelan border with Colombia, when America insisted on forcing aid trucks into Venezuela.

Aid trucks that burned that day were the result of attacks of masked young men on the Colombian side (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/02/24/burning-aid-colombia-venezuela-bridge/), and not from the Venezuelan military as western corporate media and Marco Rubio (https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1099468537184350209) would have you believe. Less-known is that the 'aid trucks' contained very odd humanitarian aid, including nails and wire (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhaXy_VS7iQ).

Were their fake concerns genuine, the US could have done what Cuba, China (https://www.globalresearch.ca/huge-defeat-for-imperialists-the-u-s-broke-its-teeth-in-venezuela/5672236), and Russia, among others, have done and send the aid through appropriate channels, like the UN and the Red Cross. America's attempt to ram trucks through Venezuela's border has been revealed as the cheap propaganda stunt (https://fair.org/home/venezuela-coverage-takes-us-back-to-golden-age-of-lying-about-latin-america/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork) that it was.

A couple of weeks later, suddenly there was a very timely country-wide power outage for six days, affecting most things in Venezuelan infrastructure and life, a reality that Palestinians in Gaza have been living since at least 2006 when Israel bombed their sole power plant, never since allowing them to import the parts needed to adequately repair it.

When I lived in Gaza, I grew accustomed to outages (https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/) of 16-22 hours a day, for months on end. Near-daily sustained 18 plus (https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181029-gaza-returns-to-8-hours-electricity-per-day-up-from-4/) hour power outages continue in Gaza, but that's not something the regime-change squad were or are outraged about.

Western media coverage of the blackout was tabloidesque, claiming without any proof (http://misionverdad.com/la-guerra-en-venezuela/cifras-falsas-de-muertos-tras-el-sabotaje-busca-abultar-el-expediente-de) whatsoever that 300 people had died due to the outage, portraying (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14392) Venezuelans collecting water from a spring at the Guaire river in Caracas as collecting dirty sewage water, looting (which actually occurred in the Western border city of Maracaibo and not in Caracas, unless there were localized and unreported incidents), and in general blaming the Maduro government for everything under the moon.

Talking with journalists of Mision Verdad (http://misionverdad.com/), an independent Venezuelan investigative news site, I learned that one of the targets of looting was a mall in Maracaibo, where electronics were the items of choice, not food. Another incident reportedly (http://misionverdad.com/entrevistas%20/reconstructing-the-history-of-the-electricity-sabotage-in-venezuela-special-report) involved looting beer and soft drinks. Odd behaviour for a starving people in a humanitarian crisis.

When I arrived three days into the outage, aside from darkened buildings, empty streets, and in following days long lines at water dispensaries and ATMs, I saw no instability. Instead, I saw and learned of Venezuelans working together to get through the drastic effects of the power outage.

I learned at the Ministry of Urban Agriculture of how they took vegetables and crops to hospitals and schools during the electricity outage, but also of how urban agriculture has become an act of resistance in a climate of war and fake news. At a circular plot next to a social housing block I saw young men and women working the land, bursts of lettuces, herbs, beetroots, spinach, and peppers, as well as plots still being planted.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2yDOoeU4AINXAL?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1111407588829061120/photo/1)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1111054642190974976/vrVLBYCo_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett) Eva Bartlett ✔ @EvaKBartlett
(https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett)
I know this is inviting Miami trolls & HRW groupies to jump on me & say poorest Venezuelans can't afford these prices (8000 around US $2 & a bit, depending if 3200 to $1 or 3500, etc).
However, got these yesterday & they'll last me a few days, avacadoes longer.

212 (https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1111407588829061120)
1:19 AM - Mar 29, 2019 (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1111407588829061120) At the Fabricio Ojeda commune, in Catia-a western Caracas barrio of over 1 million people-residents spoke of the 17 tons of produce they generated a few years ago, then sold in the community at prices 30-50% lower than the average market price.

One of the commune leaders spoke of raising rabbits as an affordable, and easy to maintain, source of protein.

"We're trying to achieve self sustainability of this produce, for the community. This is what we're doing against the economic war," he said.

Two days ago, visiting the Caracas barrios of Las Brisas, I asked Jaskeherry, head of a colectivo (organized group of people) how the community had managed during the power outage.

(https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1109866709928812545)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1109831661670359042/pu/img/ESxBL97EaF76BJPg?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1109866709928812545)

(click on picture to go to the video)

Eva Bartlett ✔ @EvaKBartlett (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett)
During a pro-Venezuela, anti-Imperialist march, I asked Paul Dobson of @venanalysis (https://twitter.com/venanalysis) to speak briefly on corporate media/opposition's attack on colectivos.
"Colectivo means collective, an expression of the organized community, incl workers, women's, ecological, pensioners..."
194 (https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1109866709928812545)
7:16 PM - Mar 24, 2019 (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1109866709928812545) "We had a contingency plan with all the colectivos in the area to organize ourselves to help the people. My fridge is connected to a power bank. The community brought their meat here and I stored it. We brought a cistern here. Around 300 families were benefiting from this. Each community has their own colectivo that does things like this to help out." I've heard from several different people here that one reason for the lack of chaos is that Venezuelans have already dealt with (http://misionverdad.com/MV-IN-ENGLISH/venezuela-under-attack-7-notes-on-electric-shock-special-report) US-instigated crises, and have learned to remain calm at such times, surely to the dismay of US pot-stirrers who hoped for scenes of chaos, the pretext to US intervention.

Manufactured poverty; Support from & for government
I've gone into a number of smaller and large supermarkets in the lower middle-class areas of Caracas, and in it's upper middle-class regions of Chacao and Altimira. There is food, including luxury items, which Venezuela's poor can't afford.

And in some stores there are empty shelves. The policies of private companies - including the largest, Polar, whose CEO happens to be an anti-Maduro opposition leader (https://youtu.be/BemFqGBSq3g) - hoarding goods and creating false shortages is well known. That said, this theme that there is no food is one continually pumped by Western corporate media, along with the "humanitarian crisis" claim.

To help the poorest, the government initiated a food box delivery program known by its acronym, CLAP, wherein organized communities distribute government subsidized food to 6 million of Venezuela's poorest families.

The system is not perfect, and I've heard complaints of boxes being late in reaching some communities. However, I've been told-including by a woman I interviewed yesterday who herself works in CLAP distribution-that problems lie in corruption on a local level, individuals in communities not distributing fairly or evenly.

Hotheads like Marco Rubio, and script reading corporate media, try to maintain that President Maduro has little support. But massive rallies of support, and a notable absence of opposition rallies of recent, counter that propaganda.

On March 16, for two hours I walked with Venezuelans at their anti-Imperialist, pro-government march, filming them, speaking with them, hearing person after person insist on their support for their elected president (https://popularresistance.org/venezuela-what-activists-need-to-know-about-the-us-led-coup/?fbclid=IwAR2hrmPnsulBzDIJKwfldFQds48BH6Wws3Aj3BNqJ4uMh50U8OivFVhnW_0), Maduro.

XaQ7SdSa9Fg

Many or most of those marching were from Caracas' poorest communities, the darker skinned, Afro-descendant Venezuelans that are scarcely given a voice by corporate media, almost certainly because they are ardent supporters of the government and Bolivarian revolution.

When I asked about their feelings of corporate media coverage of Venezuela, people told me it wasn't depicting the reality, "they make it up, it's all lies, all lies. The only president we recognize is Nicolas Maduro. And we want this man, Juan Guaido, to be arrested immediately".

A young tax lawyer told me:
"We're here to support our (Bolivarian) project. We don't want any war. We want medicine for our people - we don't want sanctions from any government that prevent us from purchasing medicine. It's very difficult for us to bring what's needed for our people." Leaving the still crowded demonstration, I went towards Caracas' eastern districts, hoping to attend one of the three or four opposition actions that a local journalist told me they had been tweeting about. None panned out.

A few days later, I went to Bellas Artes metro, the same scenario transpired, I couldn't find the opposition protest that I'd heard was planned. Eventually, in front of the National Assembly, I did film between 15-20 well-dressed men and women not doing much other than standing around. Eventually, most passed by security and onto the premises. I didn't hear them issue, or attempt to issue, any opposition statement, nor was there any violence from or against them.

A mass of government supporters arrived on motorbikes. A nearby man told me that these women and men on bikes had come to preserve the peace. He said that opposition had said they would stage a provocation (his words match what the local journalist told me, based on tweets to that effect from opposition/supporters), and that the pro-government bikers were not going to allow that to happen.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2s_BTdWoAA1L9u?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1111051152639119360/photo/1)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1111054642190974976/vrVLBYCo_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett) Eva Bartlett ✔ @EvaKBartlett
(https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett)
Replying to @EvaKBartlett (https://twitter.com/_/status/1111050568494133249)
On Avila, the mountain overlooking Caracas, I saw long line of tankers being filled by mountain spring water to be distributed around the city and outside, with a long list of hospitals to be supplied.

170 (https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1111051152639119360)
1:43 AM - Mar 28, 2019 (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1111051152639119360)Height of hypocrisy and irony; US to ensure 'foreign influences are not controlling Venezuela'
The US has been forcibly exerting its foreign influence over Venezuela for years, to the detriment of the Venezuelan people it crocodile-tear purports to care about. Most Western corporate media do not mention the manifold adverse effects of the immoral sanctions imposed on (https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2019/03/20/trump-strangling-venezuela-with-sanctions-and-not-working/m1DJkn0rJKYZr7HYIosJfN/story.html?fbclid=IwAR1alTbwHRnQqoZ8sp8_qHCG1HBP-FHTvJDFRCjr6Wwod-gLG2c__TGgNlU) Venezuela.

At the end of January, UN human rights expert Idriss Jazairy denounced (https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24131&LangID=E) the sanctions, clearly noting they are, "aimed at changing the government of Venezuela," and that, "Coercion, whether military or economic, must never be used to seek a change in government in a sovereign state."

On top of this, America recently withheld US$5 billion intended for the purchase of medicines and raw materials used in medical production, Venezuelanalysis reported (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14397), after already freezing numerous Venezuelan assets, apparently holding them for their groomed puppet would-be president, Juan Guaido.

Unsurprisingly, John Bolton recently again menaced (https://www.rt.com/news/454454-bolton-trump-venezuela-all-options/) Venezuela, reiterating Trump's, "all options are on the table," military intervention threat and as though hallucinating blathered on about foreign influence and Venezuela and keeping the Imperialist Monroe Doctrine (https://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/monroe-doctrine-venezuela.htm) alive.

In a meeting with the US Peace Council delegation in mid-March, Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza (https://twitter.com/jaarreaza), spoke of the openly-hostile US leadership.

"When you have such an administration saying almost every single day, 'all the options are on the table.' And they say the military option is not discarded, then we have to be prepared for all of the options.

We told Mr.Elliott Abrams, 'the coup has failed, so now what are you going to do?' He kind of nodded and said, 'Well, this is going to be a long term action, then, and we are looking forward to the collapse of your economy.'"

President Maduro, in a meeting with the delegation, told us: (https://youtu.be/6DMc3mrzg10)
"We do not want foreign military intervention. Venezuelan people are very proud of the national independence. These people surrounding president Trump - John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Marco Rubio, Elliott Abrams - every single day on Twitter, these guys are tweeting about Venezuela. Not about the US, the American people...they have an obsession with Venezuela, like a fatal obsession with Venezuela. This is extremely dangerous, and we need to denounce it and make it stop."
https://www.sott.net/image/s25/515862/large/5c9e0d98dda4c8586d8b4581.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/515862/full/5c9e0d98dda4c8586d8b4581.jpg)
© Eva Bartlett

Having written extensively about the war propaganda and Imperialist rhetoric around Syria over the past eight years, this obsession is very familiar. As Alfred de Zayas, said in a recent interview (https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik/the-us-is-going-to-continue-increasing-pressure-on-venezuela-expert):
"If you call Maduro corrupt, people will gradually believe, he must be somewhat corrupt. But nobody reminds you that corruption in Venezuela in the 1980s and 90s - before Chavez, before Maduro - was rampant. The press is focusing only on Maduro, because the name of the game is to topple him." We're seeing Syria (and Libya, Iraq...) all over again. The demonization of the leadership of a country America wants to dominate. The absurd rhetoric steaming daily from corporate owned media, pretty much in chorus. The troll army ready to attack with an energetic vitriol on social media anyone who dares to present a non-Imperialist perspective. And most worrisome, the acts of terrorism intended to hurt the people and incriminate the government.

Sadly, it seems the United States is ready to stoop to the same dirty tactics it and allies used against Syria over the past eight years: backing and collaborating with terrorists to attack the state. Indeed, last night while trying to finish this article, the power cut and remains off in many areas of the country.

Earlier this week, Information and Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez tweeted (https://twitter.com/jorgerpsuv/status/1110561554666344448) that the cause of this recent outage was an attack at the Guri Hydro complex, Venezuela's central hydroelectric power plant and transmission area.

By today, electricity has been restored to Caracas.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2s-IrfWoAE3Dng?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1111050568494133249/photo/1)

Eva Bartlett ✔ @EvaKBartlett
(https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett)
Replying to @EvaKBartlett (https://twitter.com/_/status/1111048997853188099)
Also, saw absolutely zero signs of the "humanitarian crisis" corporate media and the Marco Rubio, John Bolton, Eliot Abrahms gang masturbatingly tweet and shriek about daily.
Ppl I spoke to said it's a lie, they aren't starving.

219 (https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1111050568494133249)
1:41 AM - Mar 28, 2019 (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1111050568494133249)I spent much of this afternoon riding on the back of a motorbike around Petare. The district is known as the largest "slum" in Latin America, an extended series of barrios, and is one of Caracas' poorest and most dangerous areas. Wherever we rode, I looked for the humanitarian crisis corporate media insists exists. Instead, I found vegetables, fruit, chicken and food basics sold wherever I went, from the main square to hillside barrio of 5 of July (5 Julio).

On the hillside of Avila, the mountain overlooking Caracas, I saw at intervals while riding lines of people collecting spring water in jugs since the power outage has affected water distribution. I also saw lines of tankers, being organized by the municipality and with the military, to distribute water around the city and country. A chart listed over twenty hospitals designated to receive water.

The Venezuelan government has accused America of being behind both the March 7 outage and this week's, stating the former was a combination of cyber, electromagnetic and physical attacks on the power grids (like the alleged secret US plan (https://www.mintpressnews.com/did-the-us-recycle-a-bush-era-plan-to-take-out-venezuelas-power-grid/256113/) to do the same to Iran's grid), and the latter a direct physical attack on the Guri complex, causing a fire at three transformers (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14404).

Clearly, the goal of such attacks is to create so much suffering and frustration among the public that there is chaos, and a "needed" US intervention.

The chaos has not happened, the people have refused it.

Related:
Burning Aid: A US Warmongering False-flag on Colombia-Venezuela Bridge? (https://www.sott.net/article/407964-Burning-Aid-A-US-Warmongering-False-flag-on-Colombia-Venezuela-Bridge)

Four impacts of the blockade against Venezuela (https://www.sott.net/article/369639-Four-impacts-of-the-blockade-against-Venezuela)

Daylight robbery! Washington gives opposition leader Guaido control over Venezuela's deposits in US bank (https://www.sott.net/article/406021-Daylight-robbery-Washington-gives-opposition-leader-Guaido-control-over-Venezuelas-deposits-in-US-bank)

US puppet Guaido says opposition trying to freeze Venezuelan Govt's assets in Switzerland (https://www.sott.net/article/408025-US-puppet-Guaido-says-opposition-trying-to-freeze-Venezuelan-Govts-assets-in-Switzerland)

Venezuela wants to repatriate its gold from Britain, reduce reliance on the dollar - UPDATE: Bank of England REFUSES request (https://www.sott.net/article/400017-Venezuela-wants-to-repatriate-its-gold-from-Britain-reduce-reliance-on-the-dollar-UPDATE-Bank-of-England-REFUSES-request)

perolator

29th March 2019, 20:37

I don’t want to argue with you, same to you Guaybal. I suspect we have a lot more in common than not, our lens through which we view the world being from vastly different perspectives.:flower:

Agree. We have to have a lot in common. As an example, we both are against the bad guys, whoever they are.

By the way, your English is excellent maybe better than mine. So I understand you very well.

Maybe we can return to the topic of the thread?

Mastering a language is complex. I am learning. I think you are exaggerating a bit. ;)

@Joe, I've lost good friends because of divergent political views. One of the most regrettable things chavistas did in my country is politicize everything. As soon as Chavez took office, he said these divisive and unfortunate words:

Whoever is not with me, is against me. Is the revolution's enemy. Is my enemy.

Families torn apart, marriages ended, longtime friendships were cut throughout the years. Crime were not just crime, but merciless crime, because the poor, according to the twisted minds of Chavez and Castro, were the less privileged because they were the refused and neglected byproduct of the right wing. Think about it. The rivalry among Venezuelans before arrival of the bolivarian enchilada was in sports (Magallanes vs. Caracas, equivalent to Red Sox vs. Yankees) and it was okay. Now, if you oppose the government you are jeopardizing your future and risking your life. That's why I cannot be arguing with you.

Hence, we may continue respectfully exchanging ideas, information and thoughts here, it is the forum's raison d'être.

Hervé

30th March 2019, 15:01

Juan Guaidó Confesses Being Behind the Sabotage of Venezuela’s Electric System (https://www.globalresearch.ca/juan-guaido-confesses-being-behind-the-sabotage-of-venezuelas-electric-system/5673104)

By Gustavo Villapol (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/gustavo-villapol) and VTV (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/vtv)
Global Research, March 30, 2019
VTV (http://vtv.gob.ve/gustavo-villapol-guaido-sabotaje/)

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/WEB-BANNER-NOTA-400x223.jpg

Translated from the Spanish by Global Research.

“A confession from [America’s] puppet pointing to evidence,” said journalist Gustavo Villapol Wednesday, noting that the deputy of the National Assembly in contempt Juan Guaidó confessed to be behind the attacks perpetrated against the National Electric Service (SEN) that have affected the Venezuelan people since last March 7.

“The gentleman, Deputy Guaidó, has told the world that they are behind this devious and terrorist attack against the Electric System,” he said during an interview on the Punto de Encuentro program broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión.

[These are the quotations from Guaido’s statements at the National Assembly, video below 13′ 11″ – 14′ 09″, GR editor]

“And I repeat, the cessation of darkness will definitely come with the cessation of usurpation,” culminates the self-proclaimed Juan Guaidó (VTV Fotogram)

“There will be no solution to the electrical problem, there will be no water to the houses much less domestic gas”. the parliamentarian of Voluntad Popular stated verbatim.

“We will generate the necessary internal pressure to add up in this process of definitive cessation of the usurpation,” he is heard saying in the video broadcast from the floor of the Federal Legislative Palace.

“And I repeat, the cessation of darkness will definitely come with the cessation of usurpation,” culminated his TV intervention.

Journalist Gustavo Villapol described Guaidó as a symbolic expression of the new political-military doctrine that Donald Trump is trying to develop from the presidency of the United States (USA).

Original Spanish text below

Title: Guaido confesó estar detrás del sabotaje eléctrico
“A confesión de títere relevo de pruebas”, afirmó este miércoles el periodista Gustavo Villapol, al advertir que el diputado de la Asamblea Nacional en desacato Juan Guaidó (http://vtv.gob.ve/alemania-embajador-guaido-expiro-presidencia-interina/) confesó estar detrás de los atentados perpetrados contra el Servicio Eléctrico Nacional (SEN) que han afectado al pueblo venezolano desde el pasado 7 de marzo.

“El señorito diputado Guaidó ha expresado al mundo que ellos están detrás de este ataque artero y terrorista contra el Sistema Eléctrico”, dijo durante una entrevista en el programa Punto de Encuentro que transmite Venezolana de Televisión.

http://vtv.gob.ve/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/guaidodosocuridads.jpg
“Y lo repito, el cese de la oscuridad vendrá definitivamente con el cese de la usurpación”, culmina el autoproclamado Juan Guaidó (Fotograma VTV)

“No habrá solución al problema eléctrico, no habrá agua a las casas mucho menos gas doméstico”. manifestó textualmente el parlamentario de Voluntad Popular.

“Vamos a generar la presión interna necesaria para ir sumando en este proceso de cese definitivo de la usurpación”, se le oye decir en el video transmitido desde el hemiciclo del Palacio Federal Legislativo.

“Y lo repito, el cese de la oscuridad vendrá definitivamente con el cese de la usurpación”, culminó su intervención en el audiovisual.

Villapol calificó a Guaidó como expresión simbólica de la nueva doctrina política-militar que está intentando desarrollar Donald Trump desde la presidencia de Estados Unidos (EE.UU.).

Access complete Spanish text here (http://vtv.gob.ve/gustavo-villapol-guaido-sabotaje/)

spade

31st March 2019, 10:24

for what it's worth did Chavez starve his population whether or not they supported him?

¤=[Post Update]=¤

I don’t want to argue with you, same to you Guaybal. I suspect we have a lot more in common than not, our lens through which we view the world being from vastly different perspectives.:flower:

Agree. We have to have a lot in common. As an example, we both are against the bad guys, whoever they are.

By the way, your English is excellent maybe better than mine. So I understand you very well.

Maybe we can return to the topic of the thread?

Mastering a language is complex. I am learning. I think you are exaggerating a bit. ;)

@Joe, I've lost good friends because of divergent political views. One of the most regrettable things chavistas did in my country is politicize everything. As soon as Chavez took office, he said these divisive and unfortunate words:

Whoever is not with me, is against me. Is the revolution's enemy. Is my enemy.

Families torn apart, marriages ended, longtime friendships were cut throughout the years. Crime were not just crime, but merciless crime, because the poor, according to the twisted minds of Chavez and Castro, were the less privileged because they were the refused and neglected byproduct of the right wing. Think about it. The rivalry among Venezuelans before arrival of the bolivarian enchilada was in sports (Magallanes vs. Caracas, equivalent to Red Sox vs. Yankees) and it was okay. Now, if you oppose the government you are jeopardizing your future and risking your life. That's why I cannot be arguing with you.

Hence, we may continue respectfully exchanging ideas, information and thoughts here, it is the forum's raison d'être.

for what it's worth did Chavez starve his population whether or not they supported him?

perolator

1st April 2019, 15:45

for what it's worth did Chavez starve his population whether or not they supported him?

for what it's worth did Chavez starve his population whether or not they supported him?

@spade,
What is the answer you are expecting?

Sophocles

5th April 2019, 16:05

‘Venezuela won’t become 2nd Syria’: Lavrov sure S. America won’t back military invasion v. Maduro (https://www.rt.com/news/455486-venezuela-not-syria-us-lavrov/)

Rt.com
3 Apr, 2019 18:43

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.04/xxl/5ca4e9ecdda4c830738b4611.jpg
FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro attends a military exercise. © Reuters / Miraflores Palace

Tensions over Venezuela won’t escalate into a new Caribbean Crisis or turn the country into “a second Syria,” Russia’s FM Sergey Lavrov has assured, bashing the US for treating the Western Hemisphere as its backyard.

“We don’t accept the methods, with which the US is trying to improve the life of the Venezuelan people,” Lavrov said (https://www.mk.ru/politics/2019/04/03/sergey-lavrov-obyasnil-prisutstvie-rossiyskikh-voennykh-v-venesuele.html)in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

Washington has outright backed opposition leader, Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president of Venezuela in January. It has introduced hash economic sanctions against the struggling country, preventing it from importing food and medical supplies. Top US officials also threatened with so-called “humanitarian intervention” of Venezuela in order to remove unwanted socialist leader, Nicolas Maduro, from power.

Lavrov pointed out that even those countries on the continent that oppose Maduro and want a snap election in Venezuela got “really stressed out” when the Americans mentioned the use of force.

“I guarantee you that if there’ll be an attempt of a military intervention, the vast majority of Latin American states will outright reject it,” he said.

Despite the strong rhetoric from Washington, “I don’t think that the Caribbean Crisis will be recreated,” Lavrov said, adding that “there can also be no talk about ‘a second Syria’ in Venezuela.”

The Caribbean Crisis put the US and Soviet Union on the brink of a nuclear war in 1962 after Moscow placed its missiles in Cuba in response to Washington deploying ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey.

The top Russian diplomat also stressed that it was “insolent” of the US to treat the Western Hemisphere as its own backyard – one which other countries shouldn’t have access to.

The minister also responded to US National Security Adviser, John Bolton, who commented on reports of 100 Russian troops and cargo landing in Venezuela in late March, by saying that “the US will not tolerate hostile foreign military powers meddling with the Western Hemisphere’s shared goals of democracy, security, and the rule of law.”

Lavrov again clarified that the Russian military hardware was supplied to Venezuela legally under the 2001 military-technical cooperation with then president, Hugo Chavez.

This equipment requires scheduled servicing by Russian specialists and “now the time has come for such maintenance. That’s it,” he said, explaining the arrival of the Russian military specialists.

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/455486-venezuela-not-syria-us-lavrov/)

Bill Ryan

17th April 2019, 11:45

A personal note: I can verify this report. There are Venezuelan refugees on every street corner, holding cardboard placards and often also small babies. Many of them are in their 20s and 30s. It's a very sorry sight.

:flower:

From https://cuencahighlife.com/venezuelas-lost-generation

Venezuela’s lost generation
By R.S. Gompertz, April 16, 2019

There was a middle-aged Venezuelan man walking through Cuenca traffic yesterday, going from car to car waving a wad of paper money.

“He’s selling Bolivars,” our taxi driver explained, “probably his life savings.”
“What’s Venezuelan money worth?” I asked.

“Nothing.” The driver then reminisced about when the Ecuadorian currency, the Sucre, collapsed. Many people have told us of the economic trauma experienced when Ecuador converted over to the dollar in January, 2000. People fortunate enough to have shifted their savings abroad made out like bandits. Others were devastated. The country has since stabilized, but life is much more expensive than it was before the shift.

I should have bought a handful of Venezuelan currency to help the poor man in the street but the light turned green. We rolled on and he continued selling his dreams for a fraction of what they were once worth.

https://cuencahighlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/chl-bolivars.png

The UN High Commission on Refugees estimates that three million people have left Venezuela since 2014. Most have spilled over into the neighboring countries of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru. Costa Rica and Panama have opened up as well as island nations in the Caribbean.

Most of these neighboring countries have problems of their own. Some have only recently emerged from civil war, massive corruption or devastating poverty. Yet they help by offering free passage or quick pathways to normalized status for Latin America’s newest diaspora, a lost generation forced to start over at the bottom.

Traveling through Peru and Ecuador, our experience with this wave of refugees has been with those hustling on the outskirts of bus stations, families begging on the steps of churches, and the lucky, mostly young people who have found precarious work at the bottom rungs of the service industry.

I have heard of, but not seen the refugee camps. I don’t know the origins of those who populate the crowded favelas on the edges of the major cities I’ve passed through. But I come from a nation of refugees and I know that entry-level slums can change complexion as each new wave passes through.

I’m sure that economic exploitation of the refugees is already rampant. It’s probably just a matter of time before the political backlash starts. We have seen in Europe and the U.S. how refugee crises fuel nativism and cruelty. Will Latin America be any different?

I am saddened that my nation, once the “Mother of Exiles” who once welcomed the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” has banned Venezuelans in a trumped up effort to broaden a travel ban beyond the original, exclusively targeted Muslim countries.

When I congratulated a Venezuelan colleague of mine (an engineer who went to college in Miami) that his country had joined the likes of North Korea and Yemen on the travel ban terror list, he just shrugged it off. “In Florida they think I’m a Cuban. In New York they think I’m a Puerto Rican. On the West Coast they think I’m a Mexican. I don’t even bother correcting people anymore.”

But his remaining extended family is now stuck in Venezuela, picking through the garbage, dodging bullets, praying that no child will need medicine, or sneaking across closed borders hoping to find a new promised land.

perolator

23rd April 2019, 05:59

Today I stumbled upon some RT/teleSUR news. The new spokesman of the Venezuelan government is no less than the Russian Deputy Minister of Defense, Alexander Vasilyevich Fomin.

Here (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fomin) is his Wikipedia entry.

The full text of the RT article is here (https://www.rt.com/news/457242-moscow-security-conference-sovereignty-threats/)

And the teleSUR article is at https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuela-Blackouts-Part-of-Planned-US-Operation-Russia-Defense-Ministry-20190422-0018.html
(for a strange reason, it returns a 404 when linking) [[ Mod-edit: Link fixed, missing a "0". -- Paul. ]]

Thanks, Paul!

Alexander Fomin, No nos ayudes tanto, compadre. Don’t speak about sovereignty.

Fomin spoke just like a Soviet Union spokesman. He brought me memories of Chernobyl, when they assured it was a “small failure”. The most deceptive part was when he told the same lies and fantasy story Jorge Rodriguez did.

Is fair to quote an article appeared in The Guardian to balance things a bit.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Alexander Fomin said the recent series of blackouts in Venezuela was due to a planned operation led by the United States.

Fomin, during an interview with RT, said that "the United States does not stop" when it comes to pressurize on Venezuela.

"They do not reject any tool, they widely use the tools of hybrid wars, colorrevolutions, as well as train leaders and militants of radical movements," Fomin said.

"You can see that an operation called 'Blackout' is underway, it is a planned and artificial closure of energy facilities, which also negatively affects the atmosphere in the country and only aggravates the existing crisis, mainly the economic crisis.”

Source (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/23/operation-blackout-is-underway-russia-blames-us-for-venezuela-power-crisis)

Yeah. Right. Men in Black, maybe.

I am citing this just to help “telling the truth” about the power generation issue of Venezuela, the never ending story of the XXI century socialism. Sooner or later, my country will be the first one reverting to the stone age. Guri is dying slowly and is really hard to repair the facilities, generation and transmission equipment. If Russia were a real powerful ally they would send their most skilled engineers and equipment to help solve the problem, just as the U.S. tried to do in 1999 when the Vargas tragedy ocurred.

Gracias, Fidel.

Hervé

25th April 2019, 12:24

...

From Jim Stone:
It is a safe bet that for the first time in about a month, Venezuela finally has 95 percent power restored. (http://82.221.129.208/.wn2.html)

People who have been saying it is "fully restored" for a while don't know how to read the charts, which show 100 percent as "the highest value in the past week", not the actual power level, which can't be tracked without having records to compare the new data to.

There was another obvious attack yesterday (probably to Canadian switch gear) that knocked 50 percent of the power out, but it was recovered from - pronto - because by now they are getting good at handling attacks. Eventually they will have the entire thing virus proofed, and with Gaydo losing popularity faster than ever his forces are probably a lot less brazen with kinetic attacks. The power situation in Venezuela is probably history.

perolator

25th April 2019, 18:35

...

From Jim Stone:
It is a safe bet that for the first time in about a month, Venezuela finally has 95 percent power restored. (http://82.221.129.208/.wn2.html)

Poor guy. 95% power restored?

Most of the individuals of the Venezuelan government thinks Venezuela = Caracas. I confirmed countless times they don't know how to run a country. No, Venezuela is not just Caracas. I am referring to the government because Jim Stone echoes almost verbatim what they say. Just the way the U.S. is not just New York City. Maybe, and just maybe, 95% power is restored to Caracas. The worst part is the quality of the power. Huge voltage swings and AC noise are killing electronic and electric devices.

I would like to use a device to teleport Jim Stone to Maracaibo, San Cristóbal, Mérida, Barquisimeto or Valencia.

Eventually they will have the entire thing virus proofed, and with Gaydo losing popularity faster than ever his forces are probably a lot less brazen with kinetic attacks.

I agree Guaidó (Gaydo is Jim Stone's mother) is losing popularity, a large amount of people is desperate and hopelessly begging for military intervention. Guaidó is facing a powerful enemy.

The power situation in Venezuela is probably history.

The country itself is probably history.

Bill Ryan

27th April 2019, 12:37

From https://aljazeera.com/indepth/features/unable-afford-work-visas-venezuelans-ecuador-face-fines-190404144511857.html

Unable to afford work visas, Venezuelans in Ecuador face fines

Many Venezuelans in Ecuador find themselves suddenly in debt after being hit with immigration fines they can’t pay off.
by Johnny Magdaleno, 26 April, 2019

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/4/4/1522a55dc1f04f1e98f83af83a043731_18.jpg
After crossing Venezuela and Colombia, Jairo Barrios arrived at the Ecuadorian border in August 2018 with $12 [Johnny Magdaleno/Al Jazeera]

Quito, Ecuador - After his father died of cancer in a local hospital, Jairo Barrios said he paid a lawyer in Merida, Venezuela $3,000 to help speed up the application process for his Venezuelan passport. Just like the medication his father needed, Barrios's passport never came.

Facing unemployment and hyperinflation, Barrios left anyway. After crossing Venezuela and Colombia, he said he arrived with $12 in his pocket at the Ecuadorian border in August 2018. Immigration officers allowed him to enter the country without a passport for three months.

Once settled in Quito, he hoped to find work and take advantage of Ecuador's official currency, the US dollar, to build up savings and send money to his wife and children back home.

But like many of the more than 120,000 Venezuelans in Ecuador without a visa, Barrios, 42, soon found himself faced with an impossible choice: Either work illegally so he could afford the more than $450 needed to buy a Venezuelan passport and apply for an Ecuadorian visa, or not work and try to survive, leaving his family to struggle alone in the face of Venezuela's economic crisis.

Barrios saw no choice but to break the law.

In November 2018, immigration officers caught him selling cigarettes on the street for $0.15 a piece. They fined him $386 for working without a visa.

"How can somebody pay that if they don't have work?" Barrios asked. "They have to understand that. We came here to overcome. We all came here to work."

Between November 2018 and April 2019, Al Jazeera spoke to 10 Venezuelan migrants who found themselves suddenly in debt in Ecuador after getting hit by immigration fines they can't pay because they are not legally permitted to work.

Fined hundreds of dollars

Millions of Venezuelans have fled their country since 2015 due to the deepening political crisis, hyperinflation, unemployment and food and medicine shortages.

Ecuador's immigration laws allow Venezuelans to enter the country using only their national ID card because both countries are founding members of the Union of South American Nations, or UNASUR (https://www.acnur.org/fileadmin/Documentos/BDL/2017/10973.pdf), but they do not have permission to work and are only afforded the same legal rights as tourists in Ecuador unless they receive a long-term visa. In March, Ecuador announced it was leaving UNASUR, but as of this month the country was still offering UNASUR migration privileges to Venezuelans, according to the Civil Association of Venezuela in Ecuador.

If someone without a visa is caught doing anything that makes them money, he or she risks getting fined $386 - nearly 88 times the minimum monthly wage in Venezuela. Those who don't acquire a visa before their initial permission to be in the country expires are fined $772, and those who rack up multiple fines risk deportation.

"Basically what we're seeing are fines that are uncollectible because the people getting fined can't afford their high costs," said Javier Arcentales, a lawyer with Ecuador's public defender who is part of an ongoing lawsuit aimed at modifying a 2017 law that expanded the definition of immigration transgressions.

Oliver Blanco, 25, arrived at the Ecuadorian border in August 2018 with $5 and no passport. Last November, he was fined $386 for working for a local market in Quito.
Ecuadorian visas cost (https://www.cancilleria.gob.ec/visa-residente-permanente-estatuto-ecuador-venezuela/) between $130 and $450. Most Venezuelans, including Blanco, qualify for the $250 UNASUR visa.

Blanco said there is only one option he can see if he wants to buy a passport, pay off the fine and buy a visa: work without proper documents.

"What am I going to do?" he asked. "Keep working."

Fines apply to anyone who breaks immigration laws in Ecuador, regardless of their country of origin. But Daniel Regalado, director of the Civil Association of Venezuela in Ecuador, said the laws unfairly impact Venezuelans because of the impoverished conditions they arrive in and are fleeing from.

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdresplarge/mritems/Images/2019/4/4/02d3bbe53b384b7f80470c3bfa355c39_18.jpg
Regalado says the laws in Ecuador disproportionately harm Venezuelans [Johnny Magdaleno/Al Jazeera]

It can also take months for migrants to receive key documents like a Venezuelan passport or criminal background history, which further prolongs the risk that they are fined before they can apply for a visa.

"Other countries can provide the right documents for their citizens. But for Venezuelans [...] they practically don't have a country that represents them," said Regalado.
The Venezuelan embassy in Quito did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment.

'We invite them to leave the country'

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) declined to comment.

Ecuador's Subsecretariat of Migration denied multiple requests by Al Jazeera for the number of immigration fines issued to Venezuelans in 2018, citing privacy laws.
Ministry of Foreign Relations and Human Mobility Ambassador Jorge Icaza offered a solution for those who can't afford to pay their fines.

"We invite them to leave the country," he told Al Jazeera.

Ecuador has received an estimated 15,000 asylum applications from Venezuelans. In April 2019, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Human Mobility did not know how many had been granted asylum, only saying that there were "very few cases". In February 2019, a different spokesperson from the ministry had told Al Jazeera the number was zero.

"To say that 'I can't buy food, I can't buy medicine,' that is a problem in every country," Icaza said.

He added that Ecuador's economy is not "buoyant" and that "the cost of visas and the cost of fines" are part of the country's revenue.

A spokesperson for the ministry pointed out that an estimated 105,000 Venezuelans have received visas in Ecuador since 2014.

Unless Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno issues a decree that halts immigration fines, anyone that breaks immigration laws in Ecuador is still subject to them, Icaza said. "We consider it to be a delicate, vulnerable situation, but we can't break our own laws."

Exploitation by employers

Meanwhile, Venezuelans without visas risk being subjected to unscrupulous employers who hire them informally and pay unfair wages.

Lucero*, a 33-year-old Venezuelan woman, was one of many Venezuelans interviewed by Al Jazeera who alleged they had been exploited by an employer because of their legal status - a common transgression that Ecuador's government has been trying to crack down on over the past year. Lucero arrived at the Ecuadorian border cashless after spending all her savings, $100, on travel from Venezuela.

She said she was forced to work more than 100 hours a week, for the minimum wage of $386 a month, by a family in Guayaquil that hired her as a live-in caretaker for an elderly relative. When she complained, the family told her they could fire her and find another Venezuelan woman on the street who would take her job for less.

She saved up enough money for a visa but her application was denied. One of her documents from Venezuela had expired while she was waiting for the visa appointment.
During that same exchange with the immigration officer, she was then told that she was being fined $772 for being in the country without a visa.

"I've never thought of not paying it. If I'm thinking about establishing myself in this country I have to be legal and straight in everything," said Lucero, who has since quit working for the family.

"But I haven't found a stable job here."

*Name has been changed at the request of the individual due to fear she would be targeted.

Franny

29th April 2019, 21:33

This heart wrenching article addresses some of the effects of the sanctions and other actions taken by the US. Truly horrendous.

Link to article with extra embedded links. (https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-sanctions-venezuela/257960/)

The Washington DC-based Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) published a report Thursday on the effects of US sanctions against Venezuela.

The 27-page paper was authored by economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs, who determined that sanctions have “inflicted very serious harm to human life” in Venezuela.

“The sanctions are depriving Venezuelans of lifesaving medicines, medical equipment, food, and other essential imports,” Weisbrot, Co-Director of CEPR, said in a press release. For his part, Sachs added, “American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and thereby lead to regime change.”

Weisbrot and Sachs pointed out in the report that sanctions “would fit the definition of collective punishment of the civilian population as described in both the Geneva and Hague international conventions, to which the US is a signatory.”

While the legal groundwork for sanctions was laid by President Obama’s 2015 executive order declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security, Washington significantly escalated its unilateral coercive measures in August 2017 when the Venezuelan government and state oil company PDVSA were cut off from financial markets.

The authors contend that the impact of the sanctions went well beyond US financial markets as other international financial actors “had good reason to fear that there would be further sanctions affecting them,” something which would indeed happen later.

The August 2017 sanctions severely affected the country’s oil production, with an estimated US $6 billion in lost oil revenue over the ensuing 12 months. Weisbrot and Sachs argue that the loss in foreign exchange, needed for vital imports of food, medicine and productive inputs, caused by US sanctions, were the “main shock” that pushed Venezuela into hyperinflation in late 2017. They also contend that sanctions have also stunted any possibilities of tackling hyperinflation and Venezuela’s severe economic crisis.

Sanctions were significantly escalated in January, following Juan Guaido’s self-proclamation as “interim president” with strong US backing. The Treasury Department imposed a de facto oil embargo which brought oil exports to the United States from an average of 586,000 thousand barrels per day (bpd) to zero in March. If current production levels were to be maintained in lieu of further plummeting, this drop would amount to another $6.8 billion in lost export revenue.

The CEPR paper highlights that the latest measures further accelerated the decline in oil production, which was compounded by the March electricity crisis. Venezuela’s electric grid has also been severely affected by sanctions, with authorities unable to service equipment, while the oil embargo also led to shortages of fuel necessary to activate backup thermoelectric plants.

Weisbrot and Sachs explain that sanctions, beyond the immediate effect of lowering foreign exchange earnings and the billions worth of assets that have been frozen, have the additional effect of making financial transactions for food and medical imports much more difficult. The risk of violating US sanctions has seen a growing number of banks refuse to work as intermediaries in financial transactions involving the Venezuelan government or state companies.

Based on a number of different studies, the report estimates that sanctions were responsible for 40,000 deaths in 2017-2018, and that there are a further 300,000 people at risk due to lack of access to medicines. This includes “80,000 HIV patients who have not had antiretroviral treatment since 2017, 16,000 people who need dialysis, 16,000 people with cancer, and 4 million with diabetes and hypertension.”

The report likewise argues that sanctions have contributed to a deterioration of Venezuelans’ caloric intake and to malnutrition, with food imports down to $2.46 billion in 2018, from $11.2 billion in 2013. The authors warn that the decline in oil production caused by sanctions could shrink this number even further in 2019.

Weisbrot and Sachs stress that sanctions are illegal under the Organization of American States’ Charter, while pointing out that US officials have explicitly said that their goal is the overthrow of the Maduro government.

“The sanctions also violate US law,” they go on to say, since the executive orders are based on the premise that the US faces a “state of emergency” as a result of the “unusual and extraordinary threat” posed by Venezuela. “This also has no basis in fact,” they add.

[“T]he death toll going forward this year, if the sanctions remain in place, is almost certainly going to be vastly higher than anything we have seen previously,” the report concludes.

Edited by Lucas Koerner from Caracas.

perolator

30th April 2019, 16:26

Tintin

1st May 2019, 09:58

From Craig Murray, May 1st - today:

"I have been and am a critic of Maduro in many respects. I believe the constitutional changes to bypass Parliament were wrong, and the indirectly elected Constituent Assembly is not a good form of democracy. Venezuela does have a rampant corruption problem. US sanctions exacerbate but are not the root cause of economic mismanagement. There are human rights failings. But Chavez made revolutionary changes in educating and empowering the poor, and it is a far better governed country for the mass of its population than it would ever be under a US installed CIA puppet regime. Maduro was legitimately elected. The attempt at violence forces a binary choice."

..and the full article which, in my view, neatly describes these events:

Venezuela and Binary Choice

1 May, 2019 in Uncategorized by craig

Link: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/05/venezuela-and-binary-choice/

When a CIA-backed military coup is attempted by a long term CIA puppet, roared on by John Bolton and backed with the offer of Blackwater mercenaries (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-erikprince-exclusi/exclusive-blackwater-founders-latest-sales-pitch-mercenaries-for-venezuela-idUSKCN1S608F), in the country with the world’s largest oil reserves, I have no difficulty whatsoever in knowing which side I am on.

40495

Juan Guaido has been groomed for 15 years (https://consortiumnews.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/) as a long-term CIA project. His coup attempt yesterday, which so far appears to have stalled, was the culmination of these efforts to return Venezuela’s oil reserves to US hegemony.

It is strange how the urgent installation of liberal democracy by force correlates so often with oil reserves not aligned to the USA, as in Libya, Iraq or Venezuela, while countries with massive oil reserves which permit US military domination and align with the West and Israel can be as undemocratic as they wish, eg Saudi Arabia. Venezuela is an imperfect democracy but it is far, far more of a democracy than Saudi Arabia and with a much better human rights record. The hypocrisy of Western media and politicians is breathtaking.

Hypocrisy and irony are soulmates, and there are multiple levels of irony in seeing the “liberal” commentators who were cheering on an undisguised military coup, then complaining loudly that people are being injured or killed now their side is losing. Yesterday the MSM had no difficulty in calling the attempted coup what anybody with eyes and ears could see it plainly was, an attempted military coup.

Today, miraculously, the MSM line is no coup attempt happened at all, it was just a spontaneous unarmed protest, and it is the evil government of Venezuela which attempts to portray it as a coup. BBC Breakfast this morning had the headline “President Maduro has accused the opposition of mounting a coup attempt”… Yet there is no doubt at all that, as a matter of plain fact, that is what happened.

The MSM today is full of video of water cannons against “protestors” and a horrible video of a military vehicle ramming a group. But it has all been very carefully edited to exclude hours of footage of the same military vehicles being pelted and set alight with molotov cocktails, and shot at. The presentation has been truly shocking.

In any civilised country, attempting to mount a military coup would lead to incarceration for life, and that is what should now happen to Juan Guaido. The attempt by the West to protect their puppet by pretending the failed military coup never happened, must be resisted, if only in the cause of intellectual honesty.

The resort to violence forces binary choice. I have been and am a critic of Maduro in many respects. I believe the constitutional changes to bypass Parliament were wrong, and the indirectly elected Constituent Assembly is not a good form of democracy. Venezuela does have a rampant corruption problem. US sanctions exacerbate but are not the root cause of economic mismanagement. There are human rights failings. But Chavez made revolutionary changes in educating and empowering the poor, and it is a far better governed country for the mass of its population than it would ever be under a US installed CIA puppet regime. Maduro was legitimately elected. The attempt at violence forces a binary choice.

I know which side I am on. It is not Guaido and the CIA. [My emphasis - TQ]

Didgevillage

1st May 2019, 10:11

Just because I'm a citizen of country X and have lived there all my life, it doesn't mean I know everything about what's happening there on the streets and behind the scenes.

Do New Yorkers know what really happened on 911?
Hardly.

One thing is for sure: Putin is determined not to repeat the same as in Libya and Syria.
Though Putin was not President as NATO attacked and destroyed Libya, Russia permitted it passively.
Russia intervened in Syria very late, when the country was on the verge of total collapse because of US and Israeli sponsored terrorist organizations.

Tintin

1st May 2019, 10:16

WORLD NEWS
APRIL 30, 2019 / 6:04 AM / UPDATED 18 HOURS AGO
Exclusive -
Blackwater founder’s latest sales pitch: mercenaries for Venezuela
Aram Roston, Matt Spetalnick
7 MIN READ
•
•
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Erik Prince - the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater and a prominent supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump - has been pushing a plan to deploy a private army to help topple Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, four sources with knowledge of the effort told Reuters.

FILE PHOTO: Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater security firm, testifies before a committee of the U.S. Congress about security contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 2, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing/File Photo

Over the last several months, the sources said, Prince has sought investment and political support for such an operation from influential Trump supporters and wealthy Venezuelan exiles. In private meetings in the United States and Europe, Prince sketched out a plan to field up to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire on behalf of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to two sources with direct knowledge of Prince’s pitch.

One source said Prince has conducted meetings about the issue as recently as mid-April.

White House National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis declined to comment when asked whether Prince had proposed his plan to the government and whether it would be considered. A person familiar with the administration’s thinking said the White House would not support such a plan.

Venezuela opposition officials have not discussed security operations with Prince, said Guaido spokesman Edward Rodriguez, who did not answer additional questions from Reuters. The Maduro government did not respond to a request for comment.
Some U.S. and Venezuelan security experts, told of the plan by Reuters, called it politically far-fetched and potentially dangerous because it could set off a civil war. A Venezuelan exile close to the opposition agreed but said private contractors might prove useful, in the event Maduro’s government collapses, by providing security for a new administration in the aftermath.

A spokesman for Prince, Marc Cohen, said this month that Prince “has no plans to operate or implement an operation in Venezuela” and declined to answer further questions.

Lital Leshem - the director of investor relations at Prince’s private equity firm, Frontier Resource Group - earlier confirmed Prince’s interest in Venezuela security operations.

“He does have a solution for Venezuela, just as he has a solution for many other places,” she said, declining to elaborate on his proposal.

The two sources with direct knowledge of Prince’s pitch said it calls for starting with intelligence operations and later deploying 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire from Colombia and other Latin American nations to conduct combat and stabilization operations.

‘DYNAMIC EVENT’
For Prince, the unlikely gambit represents the latest effort in a long campaign to privatize warfare. The wealthy son of an auto-parts tycoon has fielded private security contractors in conflict zones from Central Asia to Africa to the Middle East.

One of Prince’s key arguments, one source said, is that Venezuela needs what Prince calls a “dynamic event” to break the stalemate that has existed since January, when Guaido - the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly - declared Maduro’s 2018 re-election illegitimate and invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency.
Maduro has denounced Guaido, who has been backed by most western nations, as a U.S. puppet who is seeking to foment a coup. Key government institutions – including the military – have not shifted their loyalty to Guaido despite increasing international pressure from sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies.

Guaido has stressed that he wants a peaceful resolution, and Latin American governments recognizing his authority have urged against outside military action. Senior U.S. officials, without ruling out armed intervention, have also emphasized economic and diplomatic measures to pressure Maduro.

CLOSE TIES TO TRUMP
Prince was a pioneer in private military contracting during the Iraq war, when the U.S. government hired Blackwater primarily to provide security for State Department operations there.

In 2007, Blackwater employees shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians at Nisour Square in Baghdad, sparking international outrage. One of the Blackwater employees involved was convicted of murder in December and three others have been convicted of manslaughter.

Prince renamed the Blackwater security company and sold it in 2010, but he recently opened a company called Blackwater USA, which sells ammunition, silencers and knives. Over the past two years, he has led an unsuccessful campaign to convince the Trump administration to replace U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan with security contractors.

Since 2014, Prince has run the Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group, which has close ties to the state-owned Chinese investment company CITIC and helps Chinese firms operating in Africa with security, aviation and logistics services.

Prince donated $100,000 to a political action committee that supported Trump’s election. His sister, Betsy DeVos, is the administration’s education secretary.

Prince’s role in Trump’s campaign was highlighted in the report by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, released this month, on alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

The report outlined how Prince financed an effort to authenticate purported Hillary Clinton emails and how in 2016 he met in the Seychelles islands, off east Africa, with a wealthy Russian financial official on behalf of Trump’s presidential transition team.

Prince spokesman Cohen declined to comment on the Mueller report.

TARGETING FROZEN ASSETS
The two sources with direct knowledge of Prince’s Venezuela plan said he is seeking $40 million from private investors. He also aims to get funding from the billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets that have been seized by governments around the world imposing sanctions on the OPEC nation, a major oil exporter.

It’s unclear, however, how the Venezuelan opposition could legally access those assets. Prince told people in pitch meetings, the sources said, that he believes that Guaido has the authority to form his own military force because he has been recognized internationally as Venezuela’s rightful leader.

Prince envisions a force made up of “Peruvians, Ecuadoreans, Colombians, Spanish speakers,” one of the sources said, adding that Prince argued that such soldiers would be more politically palatable than American contractors.

(This story has been refiled to fix typo in the first paragraph.)

Reporting By Aram Roston and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Kieran Murray and Brian Thevenot

perolator

1st May 2019, 17:05

Juan Guaido has been groomed for 15 years (https://consortiumnews.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/) as a long-term CIA project. His coup attempt yesterday, which so far appears to have stalled, was the culmination of these efforts to return Venezuela’s oil reserves to US hegemony.

Craig Murray's article referring yesterday's events as a "coup" is a bigger example of journalistic baloney. Maduro is illegally posing as Venezuela's president. Therefore, yesterday's events cannot be classified as a coup; Guaidó and his people are trying to restore democracy in Venezuela. Hard to understand?

Guaido as a long-term CIA project. Okay. After reading the full article, I went straight to the comments section and extracted some interesting snippets. Any emphasis (bold text) is mine.

Arturo
February 1, 2019 at 18:29
This is chutzpah. In a country where the inflation rate is one million percent, where a substantial number of the leaders of the opposition are in jail or in exile, where “experts” trained and employed by the failed Cuban regime but paid with Venezuelan cash sit astride the decision-making centers of the country, Cohen and Blumenthal endeavor to answer that most galling question: what explains the sudden appearance of Juan Guaidó?

They’ve been encouraged to assume this task by the sweet fire that those who are called upon to fight for social justice feel in their bosoms when they fight the right fight. Their war-cry is as follows: “Guaidó was selected by Washington: he is not expected to lead Venezuela towards democracy, but to collapse a country that for the past two decades has been a bulwark of resistance to U.S. hegemony. His unlikely rise signals the culmination of a two decades-long project to destroy a robust socialist experiment.”

[snip]

This logorrheic burst is the best evidence that Maduro has to go. I hope that the transition is a peaceful one. But I doubt it. His supporters believe that the problems facing Venezuela are Guaidó’s skinny buttocks, that the robust socialist experiment taking place there means that the country’s one million percent inflation rate doesn’t justify a change in government, that anyone wishing to change this regime is a right wing extremist, and that Maduro is the best and only Venezuelan worthy of the title of President. Maduro’s opponents point out the influence of Cuba in Venezuela and the bottomless economic. There are substantial allegations to the effect that the regime is involved in massive narcotics trafficking and money laundering. The political opposition is regularly mowed down by the regime despite the fact that there are no guerillas or terror cells. Under the circumstances, the denouement of the current impasse probably won’t be a peaceful affair. And that is unfortunate.

This comment below, angrily describes my feelings reading Max Blumenthal's excremental article:

Derah
February 1, 2019 at 17:34
As an actual Venezuelan, who currently lives in Venezuela, and has been trying to flee from this living nightmare of a country, allow me to say, in the most sincere way:

F**k you.

This has got to be the most ignorant, imbecilic, rambling, incoherent, stupid, biased, soul-sucking, bile-spewing, incomprehensibly moronic, utterly disgusting attempt at journalism I have ever seen in my entire life.

If you think this country even remotely ressembles a “Robust Socialist Experiment”, then tell you what, lets trade places. YOU come live in this socialist paradise, and I’ll go live in your capitalist hellhole.

Come on, lets do it.

And then, some Max Blumenthal supporters surfaced:

JOHN CHUCKMAN
February 4, 2019 at 13:28
Sorry, but your comments, for any person who keeps informed, border on crib notes from a basement room in Langley, Virginia.

Regula
February 1, 2019 at 20:04
Looks like you haven’t had enough yet of US meddling in Venezuela. Though your post doesn’t sound like you actually ever even as much as visited the country in its better times. Your English shows you to be American in America, not an American in Venezuela. Or you would of course know that the US gov doesn’t care if the people of Venezuela suffer more and more. But if it dies come to civil war in Venezuela and the US decides for one more humanitarian action to “liberate” Venezuela’s oil – and that is of course what this all turns around – maybe you will feel all consulates once Venezuela turns into a failed state like Libya.

How much did the US NGO’s pay you for your trolling rant?

bullseye
February 2, 2019 at 06:26
Floridian trolling. Nothing else.

And this lovely quote:

Derah
February 2, 2019 at 12:20
Regula, I do in fact live in venezuela, my entire life. And have been spending the last six years desperately trying to get out.

What, you’re saying that because my english is good, that somehow confirms I’m not a venezuelan? so not only are you an ignorant f**k-face, but also an ignorant, racist f**k-face who assumes all venezuelans are illiterate morons incapable of learning a second language.

Hijo de puta, mi ingles lo aprendi estudiando duro, leyendo bastante, y metiendole horas y horas de practica en el liceo. A ver si dejas de ser tan mamaguevo.

Lastly, if you honestly think anyone, ever, pays actual living people to write comments on a forum, then you are even more of an idiot I initially thought.

Lastly, Venezuela “in its better times” was before the rise of Chavez. Back when I was able to eat meat every day. Back when a slice of cheese didn’t cost half my salary.

The Spanish paragraph was written by a true Venezuelan or at least a CIA well-trained operative. Jokes aside, she roughly said (she) learned English by studying hard, reading a lot and practicing it in high school. I cannot understand why some people think people like her are being paid, are "Floridian Trollers" or backed up by CIA.

The comments section was incredibly similar to this thread.

P.S.
Hey CIA, I am here!! :welcome: hire me!!! A small house near Langley may be a good place to live.

Tintin

1st May 2019, 23:10

Perolator: i'm going to front up to you here.

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I hope you do - I may not be right, whatever that means, but neither may you.

You are an ex-pat - ie, not actually living in Venezuela at the moment: may be you got the heck out of there at some point? How you write suggests to me that you aren't actually there and are disseminating a political bias from a safe distance. Have I got that right?

I don't understand how you could interpret Craig's very fair surmise about what is going on as being at all inaccurate. He has over three decades of experience working within the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as an ambassador to boot. His information and candour will be, and is, rock solid. I have a family member who used to work there and they'd back this up, absolutely. He may even be more concerned than you are.

Guaido is a sock-puppet Kissinger/CFR/Rothschild cut-out scum bucket, and you know that but don't have the courage to admit it.

If what is going on in your homeland concerns you so greatly, then take steps to go back there and make a positive difference in some way, and take some steps to desist from playing 'cut-out' in your responses. It's getting a little tiring.

I'm being honest with you. And challenging you from a friendly place. Looking forward to your responses. And you can PM me any time you like.

Hervé

2nd May 2019, 18:25

Change of tack? EU quieter on latest failed Venezuela coup attempt as Guaido’s influence wanes (https://www.rt.com/news/458207-european-union-venezuela-coup-reaction/)

RT
Published time: 2 May, 2019 16:04
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9tjz)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.05/xxs/5ccb1301dda4c8f2188b45ab.JPG
Guaido takes part in a gathering with supporters in Caracas © REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

When the US announced support for Venezuela’s self-declared ‘interim president’ Juan Guaido in January, European leaders heartily backed the move — but three months later, after a second failed coup attempt, they are suddenly shy.

With US backing, Guaido attempted to launch a second uprising on Tuesday, urging his supporters to take to the streets and calling on the military to seize power from President Nicolas Maduro. While both pro and anti-government demonstrators held rallies in Caracas, the military did not defect in great numbers and the coup attempt fizzled out.

In January, European leaders instantly fell in line with US talking points on Venezuela. Germany, France and Spain issued almost identical (https://www.rt.com/news/449832-venezuela-europe-identical-ultimatums/) threats to recognize Guaido unless snap elections were held within eight days. UK officials also wasted no time in voicing strong support for Guaido, with little concern for the millions of Venezuelans who support Maduro and worry about the destabilizing effects of US intervention and devastating effects (https://www.rt.com/usa/457556-venezuela-sanctions-target-civilians-report/) of US sanctions.

This time around, however, having realized Guaido is not as powerful as they expected, Europe has not been as gung-ho in its support for him. Having initially added to the chaos by encouraging the first uprising, suddenly the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was calling for the “utmost restraint” in order to “avoid the loss of lives.”

Lack of courage?
Venezuelan Ambassador to the EU Claudia Salerno Caldera believes the sudden European reticence shows that EU leaders have “begun to realize that [Guaido] was losing influence, that he was no president at all.” With that realization, they “began to give up their positions” and “change their narrative” in order to make it “more realistic” and reflect the actual situation on the ground in Venezuela, she told Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.05/xxs/5ccb0ff9fc7e93e9318b4677.JPG

It is likely that the EU knows that the US stance toward Venezuela is “wrong, dangerous and illegal,” but it has “not got the courage to stand up and say so,” Dr Michael Derham, senior lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies at Northumbria University told RT. The EU “has to be seen to not advocate coups or violence” and it is not convinced by the US ultimatum against Maduro — but at the same time, Europe will “never go against the US, even if it were to invade Venezuela,” Derham said.

Another problem for Europe is that it is divided on the Venezuela issue. Therefore the ideological posture of the EU is “more and more obsolete” and “neutralized between contradictory positions” because it has never defined “common geopolitical objectives,” geopolitical analyst Pierre-Emmanuel Thomann told RT.

Hardline European supporters of Guaido underestimated Maduro’s “capacity of resistance” as well as Russia’s determination to prevent another US-led regime change operation, Thomann said, adding that “mainstream media never show this side of the story.”

At the same time, while the US is criticizing Russia’s posture on the Venezuelan crisis and is telling Moscow to stay out of affairs in the Western Hemisphere, the US and NATO have also been meddling and supporting uprisings in Russia’s own “zone of interest” in eastern Europe for years, he said.

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.05/original/5ccb1360dda4c8f2188b45b1.JPG
© REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

While some European countries (France, Germany, Spain, UK) took bold stances in favor of Guaido, apparently believing the January coup would be a success, they are now less and less in a position to renew relations with Maduro, Thomann said.

But Derham said the fact that the UK in particular will need to expand its trade with Latin American when it leaves the EU, means the “venal and hypocritical” politicians in London will be prepared to crawl back to Maduro if he retains power.

Europe’s initial decision to fall in “lock-step” with Washington on Venezuela was not surprising, journalist and political commentator John Wight told RT, describing the coup attempts as “open imperialism that you’d associate with the 19th century.”

What’s more, the US sanctions which the EU supports in addition to its own sanctions on Venezuela, have “only served to heighten the suffering of the Venezuelan people.” To add insult to injury, if the coup attempt had been successful, it is not even Guaido who would be president, Wight said. It would be US National Security Advisor John Bolton who is running the coup effort from Washington and acting like a “thug in a suit.”

Ultimately, while the EU has now realized it “backed a losing horse in Guaido,” and its reactions to the Venezuela crisis have exposed it to be “a supine bloc when it comes to Washington — and lacking any kind of moral or ethical principles.”

perolator

2nd May 2019, 19:15

AriG

2nd May 2019, 21:33

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8rnWIRrpW0

I have no dog in this race, but I will say that the history of US sponsored regime change must meet its end. its up to the people of Venezuela to work this out.

Tintin

2nd May 2019, 23:21

Perolator: i'm going to front up to you here.

Disclaimer: I do not want to argue with a moderator. I have to reply, but I cannot front up to you.

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I hope you do - I may not be right, whatever that means, but neither may you.

Alright. Who is right? Somebody has to be. Let's say you're right though. It is okay.

You are an ex-pat - ie, not actually living in Venezuela at the moment: may be you got the heck out of there at some point?

In my first post (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1274380&viewfull=1#post1274380) I clarified that point.

How you write suggests to me that you aren't actually there and are disseminating a political bias from a safe distance. Have I got that right?

With all due respect, what I am doing is exactly the same some forum members do, including yourself. For instance, some forum members are disseminating constantly a political bias completely different and no moderator is fronting them up.

I don't understand how you could interpret Craig's very fair surmise about what is going on as being at all inaccurate.

In this (https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/01/the-vultures-of-caracas/) article named "the Vultures of Caracas" Craig Murray is anything but very fair.

These are not the poor and most certainly not the starving. As it chances I have a great deal of life experience working amongst seriously deprived, hungry and despairing people. I know the gaunt face of want and the desperate glance of need.

Look at these Guaido supporters, one by one by one. This designer spectacled, well-coiffed, elegantly dressed, sleekly jowled group does not know hunger. This group does not know want. This is a proper right wing gathering, a gathering of the nicely off section of society.

According to Mr. Murray, people in Caracas has to be in rags to be qualified as poor. People dressed in day clothing are classified as "elegantly dressed, well-coiffed" and he tells readers (those people) does not know hunger. Far from reality. At plain sight, nobody, even myself, can tell whether a person in that photo came from the slums (los cerros), from suburbs or nearby the gathering point. Wealthy people do not care who is in charge of the country as long as their interests are unharmed.

He has over three decades of experience working within the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as an ambassador to boot. His information and candour will be, and is, rock solid. I have a family member who used to work there and they'd back this up, absolutely. He may even be more concerned than you are.

Sincerely, my country does not need that kind of help. That's why I post in this thread.

Guaido is a sock-puppet Kissinger/CFR/Rothschild cut-out scum bucket, and you know that but don't have the courage to admit it.

I do not care whether Guaidó is the devil himself, as long as he helps wipe the country of the "Robust Socialist Experiment".

If what is going on in your homeland concerns you so greatly, then take steps to go back there and make a positive difference in some way,

What is going on in my homeland do concern me greatly. Indeed. It affects me in many ways. But, what you are proposing is ridiculous, to put it mildly. I am quite useful to my relatives and friends outside the country.

and take some steps to desist from playing 'cut-out' in your responses. It's getting a little tiring.

Okay, I will do my best to post whatever way moderation see fit.

I'm being honest with you. And challenging you from a friendly place. Looking forward to your responses. And you can PM me any time you like.

Thanks.

And thank you too.

I do absolutely love your passion - it's a rare treat these days to experience someone who is so eloquent; thank you for that.

Before I respond to each of your points, many of which I will challenge (of course :) ) I am going to dangle a spin on this that is totally relevant, and I think interesting (and definitely very real):

For over 4000 years Chinese astrologers have determined, remarkably accurately, personality traits of people based on a lunar cycle; this is an Earth Pig year. On the surface, not terribly revealing. Provided you were honest with your personal information about your age - visible on your profile - you may well have been born in the year of the Wood Snake.

Snakes are under pressure this year because the Pig is in direct opposition. Anyone born, say, after February 2nd in each of the following years: 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989. (different elements apply to each year, but wood is associated with anxiety, in its negative shape.There are of course many positive traits.)

The snake personality is blessed with great intuition, insight, and originality, but tends to operate in the shadows, in the long grass, whereas the Pig energy is more disarmingly up-front honest - more immediately open. The snake type personality may see that as naive; the Pig type personality may perceive using any form of secrecy, or guile, as somewhat dishonest.

This is the energy cycle we are in.

Snakes may at the moment at least, and it will change in the cycle more positively eventually, not quite be at their very best; maybe a little drained and too many obstacles in the path. Discernment in some areas may become scrambled.

I've been there too often in the various cycles to know that this is consistent and, of course, understandable.

This is not a judgement calling - I don't do judgement or patronisation at all. It may be a factor in my understanding of where you are coming from (good) and how it is being translated, or not, more widely.

Speak to you soon.

:focus:

Tintin

3rd May 2019, 12:16

Perolator: i'm going to front up to you here.

Disclaimer: I do not want to argue with a moderator. I have to reply, but I cannot front up to you.

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I hope you do - I may not be right, whatever that means, but neither may you.

Alright. Who is right? Somebody has to be. Let's say you're right though. It is okay.

You are an ex-pat - ie, not actually living in Venezuela at the moment: may be you got the heck out of there at some point?

In my first post (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1274380&viewfull=1#post1274380) I clarified that point.

How you write suggests to me that you aren't actually there and are disseminating a political bias from a safe distance. Have I got that right?

With all due respect, what I am doing is exactly the same some forum members do, including yourself. For instance, some forum members are disseminating constantly a political bias completely different and no moderator is fronting them up.

I don't understand how you could interpret Craig's very fair surmise about what is going on as being at all inaccurate.

In this (https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/01/the-vultures-of-caracas/) article named "the Vultures of Caracas" Craig Murray is anything but very fair.

These are not the poor and most certainly not the starving. As it chances I have a great deal of life experience working amongst seriously deprived, hungry and despairing people. I know the gaunt face of want and the desperate glance of need.

Look at these Guaido supporters, one by one by one. This designer spectacled, well-coiffed, elegantly dressed, sleekly jowled group does not know hunger. This group does not know want. This is a proper right wing gathering, a gathering of the nicely off section of society.

According to Mr. Murray, people in Caracas has to be in rags to be qualified as poor. People dressed in day clothing are classified as "elegantly dressed, well-coiffed" and he tells readers (those people) does not know hunger. Far from reality. At plain sight, nobody, even myself, can tell whether a person in that photo came from the slums (los cerros), from suburbs or nearby the gathering point. Wealthy people do not care who is in charge of the country as long as their interests are unharmed.

He has over three decades of experience working within the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as an ambassador to boot. His information and candour will be, and is, rock solid. I have a family member who used to work there and they'd back this up, absolutely. He may even be more concerned than you are.

Sincerely, my country does not need that kind of help. That's why I post in this thread.

Guaido is a sock-puppet Kissinger/CFR/Rothschild cut-out scum bucket, and you know that but don't have the courage to admit it.

I do not care whether Guaidó is the devil himself, as long as he helps wipe the country of the "Robust Socialist Experiment".

If what is going on in your homeland concerns you so greatly, then take steps to go back there and make a positive difference in some way,

What is going on in my homeland do concern me greatly. Indeed. It affects me in many ways. But, what you are proposing is ridiculous, to put it mildly. I am quite useful to my relatives and friends outside the country.

and take some steps to desist from playing 'cut-out' in your responses. It's getting a little tiring.

Okay, I will do my best to post whatever way moderation see fit.

I'm being honest with you. And challenging you from a friendly place. Looking forward to your responses. And you can PM me any time you like.

Thanks.

Perolator:

Being a musician [guitarist] I have an abiding appreciation for the sound of drums being beaten, and with a certain degree of vigour. What gives me pause is that the whole kit-and-caboodle may be in danger of hurtling at speed down the side of a very tall mountain, something which I do not want to see happen on this thread (and neither do you), or more importantly, in Venezuela; her people seem to have great grace and dignity.

Which leads me to this beautiful historical piece: if there was a defining act of grace and dignity I have seen none better than this anywhere - it's how I hope we all wish to conduct ourselves here on the forum, and what I certainly strive to do. Anyone checking in here really should see this:

Sacheen Littlefeather accepting [declining] Marlon Brando's award at the 1973 Oscar ceremony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU

Perhaps in a more contemporary setting the people of Venezuela may be inspired to decline the 'award' (sic) of USA Inc. meddling in their nation's affairs.

Another, who has regrettably now left the building, had me in stitches a few months ago when they proposed the really quite absurd notion that I, and another, were insurrectionists, planning a takeover of the forum!! :)

It took me a week to recover from that - pure comedy gold, albeit delusional beyond absurdity. That was almost as funny as hearing Jordan Peterson in an ABC (Australia) Q&A programme, whilst discussing healthy debating principles and the ills of pejoratives, cracking me up, deliciously so, when he said: "I have been called a Jewish shill and a Nazi both on the same day; that was a kind of high point."

What is much less amusing of course is the very real and transparent takeover of your beloved nation, by forces who couldn't care less for her citizens' welfare; that pains me as I know it does you. (And thank you for directing me to your post providing background regarding your situation. Despite having read the entire thread I hadn't remembered seeing that.)

Here is what I wrote a little while ago concerning the information that is being provided for healthy debate on this very important thread:

Post 147 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1274516&viewfull=1#post1274516)

It did receive a few thanks at the time as well.

I value enormously your input here: it's critical to have all views represented fairly. I don't think we are ever really going to see things quite the same way, but that doesn't matter really very much at all. Having available as much [good] and varied information as possible so that the conversation can hopefully lead toward, and inspire a resolution, whatever shape it may take, takes precedence.

It may also be wise to consider this:

Not all problems have solutions, but most have explanations.

I continue to hold you in very high regard; thank you for your contributions, and long may they continue. Salut.

AutumnW

3rd May 2019, 19:38

This heart wrenching article addresses some of the effects of the sanctions and other actions taken by the US. Truly horrendous.

The 27-page paper was authored by economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs, who determined that sanctions have “inflicted very serious harm to human life” in Venezuela.

“The sanctions are depriving Venezuelans of lifesaving medicines, medical equipment, food, and other essential imports,” Weisbrot, Co-Director of CEPR, said in a press release. For his part, Sachs added, “American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and thereby lead to regime change.”

Sanctions are nothing compared to the Venezuelan government. Cuba has survived tighter sanctions for 60 years.

Right now riots are occurring, I hope the criminal regime ends ASAP.

The current sanctions are the main culprit here. To suggest otherwise is rather bizarre. Imho, the sanctions were imposed to put the squeeze on Venezuela, so Big Oil could move in and buy (take) oil wealth for cents on the dollar.

Most of what you are currently experiencing has been imposed from outside--including concerted Yankee efforts to keep the price of oil relatively cheap. They anxiously await a fire sale after Venezuela beats itself to death in a civil war. Perolator, you are not helping your countrymen by siding with the greater evil.

Hervé

4th May 2019, 12:18

Details Emerge on Failed US-Backed Coup in Venezuela (https://news.antiwar.com/2019/05/02/details-emerge-on-failed-us-backed-coup-in-venezuela/)

Jason Ditz (https://news.antiwar.com/author/jason/)
Posted on May 2, 2019 (https://news.antiwar.com/2019/05/02/details-emerge-on-failed-us-backed-coup-in-venezuela/)

Opposition figure Lopez met with generals while under house arrest

Venezuela has a recent history replete with cases of failed opposition uprisings, rebellions, and coup attempts. US involvement is usually alleged, often with evidence, but rarely confirmed. This week, however, the US was quick to put its stamp on the coup attempt, and seemed highly confident that it would be a great success.

Once it failed, it was a bit too late for the administration to deny involvement. Days later, information continues to emerge on what happened, why the US was so confident, and how ultimately the assured victory they thought they had didn’t pan out.

Much of the coup, after all, is in the planning stages. The US spent weeks getting what was thought sufficient support on their side to force Maduro from power. This network of support was built by US diplomats and, in part, opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez.

Mike Pompeo and others have claimed the US got together a deal with the Supreme Court chief justice, the defense minister, and the head of the presidential guard. Lopez, despite the considerable disadvantage of being under house arrest, said he met with a number of generals (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-lopez-spain/venezuelas-lopez-says-he-met-with-generals-while-under-house-arrest-idUSKCN1S827H).

All told, everyone seemed to think this would be enough. The plan was for the chief justice (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/02/news-details-emerge-failed-plot-oust-venezuelan-president-nicolas/) to rule Maduro’s inauguration invalid, giving Guaido pretext to name himself interim president. Then the defense ministry and generals would just fall into line.

Instead, almost none of the pieces fell into place, leaving the US just confidently predicting victory for a Guaido side, and then trying to blame Cuba, Russia, and everyone else when it didn’t go to plan.

The end result has Maduro still in power, Lopez managing to get from house arrest into the Spanish Embassy, and the Trump Administration with egg all over its face. Individual officials are scrambling for excuses, Pompeo claiming Russia talked Maduro off the tarmac at the airport, while John Bolton came up with allegations of 25,000 Cuban troops being present.

This embarrassing state of affairs is fueling a new round of threats for the US to invade outright and impose Guaido’s rulership. Large turnout at the pro-Maduro May Day rally (https://twitter.com/vijayprashad/status/1123705024960499712), however, are raising questions about everything the US is claiming, particularly the unity behind Guaido.

Some officials are still suggesting there might be some other way to oust Maduro, and Elliott Abrams is even claiming a secret document exists that was supposed to guarantee that the coup would work. Since it didn’t, however, the value of the document seems questionable.

Hervé

4th May 2019, 14:03

Alleged US government doc from February 2018 details planned coup in Venezuela (https://www.sott.net/article/412345-Alleged-US-government-doc-from-February-2018-details-planned-coup-in-Venezuela#)

Eric Zuesse Sott.net (https://www.sott.net/article/412345-Alleged-US-government-doc-from-February-2018-details-planned-coup-in-Venezuela#)
Sat, 04 May 2019 11:37 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/469098/large/5b02e0f6e9180f23188b4567.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/469098/full/5b02e0f6e9180f23188b4567.jpg)
Kurt W. Tidd © Ezequiel Becerra / AFP

A detailed plan from "UNITED STATES SOUTHERN COMMAND" dated "23 FEBRUARY 2018" was issued with the title "PLAN TO OVERTHROW THE VENEZUELAN DICTATORSHIP 'MASTERSTROKE'" and is here presented complete.

This document was personally signed by Admiral Kurt W. Tidd, who was the Commander (the chief) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Southern_Command), at SOUTHCOM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Southern_Command), and he was thus the top U.S. military official handling Venezuela. But this was far more than just a military plan. It was comprehensive - directing military, diplomatic, and propaganda, policies - regarding the Trump Administration's planned "Overthrow" of Venezuela's Government. His plan has since guided the Administration's entire operation, including "the capacities of the psychological war," regarding Venezuela.

It instructed SOUTHCOM:
"Encouraging popular dissatisfaction by increasing scarcity and rise in price of the foodstuffs, medicines and other essential goods for the inhabitants. Making more harrowing and painful the scarcities of the main basic merchandises." ...

"intensifying the undercapitalization of the country, the leaking out of foreign currency and the deterioration of its monetary base, bringing about the application of new inflationary measures." ...

"Fully obstruct imports, and at the same time discouraging potential foreign investors in order to make the situation more critical for the population." ...

"compelling him to fall into mistakes that generate greater distrust and rejection domestically" ...

"To besiege him, to ridicule him and to pose him as symbol of awkwardness and incompetence. To expose him as a puppet of Cuba." ...

"Appealing to domestic allies as well as other people inserted from abroad in the national scenario in order to generate protests, riots and insecurity, plunders, thefts, assaults and highjacking of vessels as well as other means of transportation, with the intention of deserting this country in crisis through all borderlands and other possible ways, jeopardizing in such a way the National Security of neighboring frontier nations. Causing victims and holding the Government responsible for them. Magnifying, in front of the world, the humanitarian crisis in which the country has been submitted to." ...

"Structuring a plan to get the profuse desertion of the most qualified professionals from the country, in order 'to leave it with no professionals at all', which will aggravate even more the internal situation and along these lines putting the blame on of Government." ...

"the presence of combat units from the United States of America and the other named countries, under the command of a Joint General Staff led by the USA." It was posted online at the Voltairenet site (https://www.voltairenet.org/article201100.html), and was first copied to a web archive on 14 May 2018 (http://web.archive.org/web/20180514190031/https://www.voltairenet.org/article201100.html). So, it has been online since at least that date. However, because the photo in it of the document wasn't made available via software which includes the individual symbols, but presented only the full visual image of the paper document, it still hasn't yet gone viral on the Web. Here, therefore, is the first appearance, on the Web, of the full document, that's manually copied, character-by-character, so that each phrase in this document becomes, for the first time, web-searchable, and thereby conveniently available for journalists and historians to quote from. This prophetic document - the source for what has happened afterward in and to Venezuela - might therefore finally receive the public attention that it so clearly merits.

The document starts with propaganda against Venezuela's existing Government (and it totally (http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/venezuela-sanctions-2019-04.pdf) ignores the extent to which the pre-existing U.S. economic sanctions against Venezuela had actually caused these problems (https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/09/what-the-press-hides-from-you-about-venezuela/)), and it then proceeds to present the U.S. plan to overthrow the 'dictatorship'. (Tidd refers to Maduro only as "the Dictator," except at the very start and very end. At the end, he commands "the denouncement toward Maduro's regimen" and he also uses the phrase "the enemy" to refer to him - as if there had been the U.S. Constitutionally required authorization, by the U.S. Congress, of this "war." The close urges "the dispatch of a UNO military force for the imposition of peace, once Nicolas Maduro's corrupt dictatorship is defeated." The U.N. is militarily to "impose" "peace," after the U.S. and its allies have conquered Venezuela.)

Although Tidd placed 100% of the blame for Venezuela's problems upon Maduro, and ignored the crucial extent to which U.S. economic sanctions had caused them (http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/venezuela-sanctions-2019-04.pdf), his plan emphasized that the U.S. must actively make things even worse for the Venezuelan public than America's economic sanctions had yet done (http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/venezuela-sanctions-2019-04.pdf). His coup-plan is loaded with such statements, and, in fact, opens with one: "Encouraging popular dissatisfaction by increasing scarcity and rise in price of the foodstuffs, medicines and other essential goods for the inhabitants. Making more harrowing and painful the scarcities of the main basic merchandises." So: he wasn't naive. America's induced suffering upon Venezuelans was part of his plan for Venezuelans, in order to get them to do what the U.S. regime wants them to do - overthrow Maduro. Furthermore, the United States Government has had extensive successes in previous such operations. One example is that this was how Chile's Salvador Allende was brought down in 1973 (https://www.globalresearch.ca/chile-september-11-1973-the-ingredients-of-a-military-coup-the-imposition-of-a-neoliberal-agenda/5545251) (at a time when the U.S. Government's claims to have done it for 'national security' reasons had much more credibility than its current excuse of helping the Venezuelan people does, because the supposedly ideological Cold War was still on). The only excuse that the perpetrators can come up with, this time around, is "to put an end to the Venezuelan nightmare and the awakening of theirs beloved nation at a luminous dawn, in which the vision of fortune, true peace and tranquility predominate for their fellow citizens." Impoverish the nation, in order to help Venezuelans attain "true peace and tranquility." That's the plan.

https://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH515/Capture_d_e_cran_2018-05-10_a_10-51-13-42a26.png (https://www.voltairenet.org/article201100.html)

Below is the document's entire text.
SOUTHCOM
TOP SECRET
23 FEB 2018

PLAN TO OVERTHROW
THE VENEZUELAN DICTATORSHIP
"MASTERSTROKE"

UNITED STATES SOUTHERN COMMAND
23 FEBRUARY 2018

TOP SECRET/20180223

CURRENT SITUATION

The Venezuelan Chavista dictatorship staggers as a result of its frequent internal problems; there is a great shortage of foodstuffs, an exhaustion of the sources of foreign currency and a rampant corruption. The international support, won with petrodollars, becomes scarcer each time and the purchasing power of its national currency is in a constant downfall.

Such scenario is not supposed to change, but the Venezuelan present-day leaders, as they usually do, in their despair to preserve their power, are capable to appeal to new populist measures that perpetuate their positions of privilege; the only mechanism that sustains them obstinate to the struggle to hold on their positions.

Maduro's corrupt regimen will collapse but regrettably, the divided opposing forces, legitimate defenders of democracy and the well-being of their people, do not have power enough to put an end to the Venezuelan nightmare and the awakening of theirs beloved nation at a luminous dawn, in which the vision of fortune, true peace and tranquility predominate for their fellow citizens.

The internal disputes, the supreme particular likings, the corruption similar to the one of their rivals, as well as the scarcity of rooting, do not grant them the opportunity to make the most of this situation and to give the necessary step to overturn the state of penury and precariousness in which the pressure group, that exercises the leftist dictatorship, has submerged the country. We are at the presence of an unprecedented criminal action in Latin America.

This affects the entire region, there is no respect to international right and local political alternatives are unacceptable.

Democracy spreads out in America, continent in which radical populism was intended to take over. Argentina, Ecuador and Brazil are examples of it. The rebirth of democracy has the support of the most valuable determinations, and the conditions in the regions run in its favour.

It is the time for the United States to prove, with concrete actions, that they are implicated in that process, where overthrowing Venezuelan dictatorship will surely mean a continental turning point.

It is the first opportunity of the Trump Administration to bring forward the vision in reference to security and democracy. Showing its active commitment is crucial, not only for the administration, but also for the continent and for the world.

The time has come to

Steps to speed up the definite overthrow of Chavismo and the expulsion of its representative:

Undermining the decadent popular support to Government.

Encouraging popular dissatisfaction by increasing scarcity and rise in price of the foodstuffs, medicines and other essential goods for the inhabitants. Making more harrowing and painful the scarcities of the main basic merchandises.

Securing he the present-day dictator's irreversible deterioration

Developing actions to encourage the egocentrism and the verbal incontinence of the Dictator, compelling him to fall into mistakes that generate greater distrust and rejection domestically, while continuing to minimize the international significance of his public figure.
To beseige him, to ridicule him and to pose him as symbol of awkwardness and incompetence. To expose him as a puppet of Cuba. Exacerbating the division among members of the governing group. Revealing the differences in his living conditions with respect to those of his followers, at the same time to incite them to keep on increasing those divergences. Highlighting examples as the ones of Rafael Ramirez from PDVSA and Nelson Mercengtes from gthe BCV.
Making his government unsustainable, forcing him to claudication, to negotiate or to run away, as other close collaborators have done.
Making provisions for a back or escaping door, in case he finally chooses to look for a safe port out of his country.

Increasing the internal instability to a critical level.

Intensifying the undercapitalization of the country, the leaking out of foreign currency and the deterioration of its monetary base, bringing about the application of new inflationary measures that increase its deterioration and that simultaneously provoke the citizens with less access - who support the present-day rulers - and those who are best positioned, to see their social status threatened or affected. Establishing that the use of bitcoin, Petro, is a key element in the deterioration of the economy, which is an unconstitutional and illegal manipulation of the national currency, useable for money laundering.
Fully obstructing imports, and at the same time, discouraging potential foreign investors in order to contribute to make more critical the situation of the population - mainly in the sphere of oil, essential for any attempt of recuperation of the national economy.
Appealing to domestic allies as well as other people inserted from abroad in the national scenario in order to generate protests, riots and insecurity, plunders, thefts, assaults and highjacking of vessels as well as other means of transportation, with the intention of deserting this country in crisis through all borderlands and other possible ways, jeopardizing in such a way the National Security of neighboring frontier nations. Causing victims and holding the Government responsible for them. Magnifying, in front of the world, the humanitarian crisis in which the country has been submitted to.
Making use of the generalized corruption and the originating profits from their operations with prohibited drugs, to do away with their image in front of the world and their domestic followers.
Promoting fatigue inside the members of the PSUV, inciting the annoyance and nonconformity among themselves, for them to break noisily away from the line of the Government; for them to refuse the measures and restrictions which also affect them, inciting the rising of internal politic factions, which divides it in its schism, making it as weak as the the opposition is. Creating frictions between the PSUV and "Somos Venezuela".
Structuring a plan to get the profuse desertion of the most qualified professionals from the country, in order "to leave it with no professionals at all", which will aggravate even more the internal situation and along these lines putting the blame on of Government.

Using the army officers as an alternative of definite solution.

Continuing hardening the conditions inside the Armed Forces to carry out a coup d'etat before concluding 2018, if the crisis does not make the dictatorship to collapse or the dictator does not decide to move aside.
Continuing setting fire to the common frontier with Colombia. Multiplying the traffic of fuel and other goods. The movement of paramilitaries, armed raids and drug trafficking. Provoking armed incidents with the Venezuelan frontier security forces.
Recruiting paramilitaries mainly in the campsites of refugees in Cucuta, La Guajira and the north of Santander, areas largely populated by Colombian citizens who emigrated to Venezuela and now return, run away from the regimen to intensify the destabilizing activities in the common frontier between both countries. Making use of the empty space left by the FARC, the belligerency of the ELN and the activities in the area of the Gulf Clan.
Preparing the involvement of allied forces in support of the Venezuelan army officers or to control the internal crisis, in the event they delay too much in taking the initiative.
Establishing a speedy time line that prevents the Dictator to continue winning control on the internal scenario. If it's necessary, act before the elections stipulated for next April.
Getting the support of the allied authorities of friendly countries (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Panama and Guyana).
Organizing the provisioning, relief of troops, medical and logistic support from Panama. Making good use of the facilities of electronic surveillance and signals intelligence, the hospitals and its deployed endowments in Danen, the equipped airdromes for the Colombian Plan, as well as the landing fields of the old-time military bases of Howard and Albrook, as well as the one belonging to "Rio Halo". In addition, the Humanitarian Regional Center of the United Nations, designed for situations of catastrophes and humanitarian emergency, which has an aerial landing field and its own warehouses.
Moving on the basification of combat airplanes and choppers, armored conveyances, intelligence positions, and special military and logistics units (police and military district attorneys and prisons).
Developing the military operation under international flag, patronized by the Conference of American Armies, under the protection of the OAS and the supervision, in the legal and media context, of the Secretary General Luis Almagro. Declaring the necessity that the continental commandment be strengthened to act, using the instrument of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, in order to avoid the democratic rupture.
Binding Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Panama to the contribution of greater number of troops, to make use of their geographic proximity and experience in operations in forest regions. Strengthening their international condition with the presence of combat units from the United States of America and the other named countries, under the command of a Joint General Staff led by the USA.
Using the facilities at Panamanian territory for the rear guard and the capacities of Argentina for the securing of the ports and the maritime positions.
Leaning on Brazil and Guyana to make use of the migratory situation that we intend to encourage in the border with Guyana.
Coordinating the support to Colombia, Brazil, Guyana, Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad and Tabago and other States in front of the flow of Venezuelan immigrants in the event of the crisis. Promoting international participation in this effort, as part of the multilateral operation with contribution of the States, Non-Profit Organizations and international bodies. Supplying the adequate logistic, intelligence, surveillance and control support.
Anticipating, specially, the most vulnerable points in Arauca, Puerto Carreno and Ininda, Maicao, Barranquilla and Sincelejo, in Colombia, and Roramia, Manaos and Boa Vista, in Brazil.

Information Strategie

Silencing the symbolic presence of Chavez-representative of unit and popular support-, and in the other way around, keeping the harassment to the Dictator as the only responsible of the crisis in which he has submerged the nation.
Holding the Dictator and his closer followers responsible, in the first place, for the prevailing crisis due to his inability to find the way out that the Venezuelans are in need of.
Intensifying the media denouncement about the cubanization of Venezuela.
Outstandingly intensifying the denouncement toward Maduro's regimen, considering him

A criminal
A illegitimate
A thief of the wealth of the Venezuelan people
Someone who plunders the national treasury to carry out his evasion

Highlighting the incompetence of the mechanisms of integration created by the regimens of Cuba and Venezuela, specially the ALBA and PETROCARIBE, in order to tackle the situation of the country and their inability to find solutions to the problems that the citizens are facing.
Increasing, inside the country and through the mass media established abroad, the dissemination of designed messages based on testimonies and publications originated in the country, making use of all the possible capacities, including the social networks.
Claiming, through that mass media, the need to put an end to this situation because of its unsustainable essence.
Justifying and assuring through violent means the international backup to the deposal of the dictatorship, displaying an extensive dissemination, inside the country and to the entire world, through all the open means and the capacities of the psychological war of the US ARMY.
Assuring that the disclosed images and reports of the military actions are approved by the General Staff to prevent their manipulation and use by the enemy.
The United States should entirely back up the OAS, strengthening the image of the OAS and other multilateral institutions for the inter-American system, as instruments for the solution to the regional problems.
Promoting the request of the the dispatch of a UNO military force for the imposition of peace, once Nicolas Maduro's corrupt dictatorship is defeated.

[signature]
K.W. TIDD
Admiral, USN
COMMANDER

https://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH519/Capture_d_e_cran_2018-05-10_a_10-54-08-e329e.png (https://www.voltairenet.org/article201100.html)

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010 (http://www.amazon.com/Theyre-Not-Even-Close-Democratic/dp/1880026090/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1339027537&sr=8-9), and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Q1H4EG).

Related:

Support the legal government in Venezuela not the US warmongers (https://www.sott.net/article/412336-Support-the-legal-government-in-Venezuela-not-the-US-warmongers)

'United as never before' Maduro leads a military march and thanks the army for its loyalty (https://www.sott.net/article/412322-United-as-never-before-Maduro-leads-a-military-march-and-thanks-the-army-for-its-loyalty)

Tension rises between US and Russia over Venezuela standoff (https://www.sott.net/article/412319-Tension-rises-between-US-and-Russia-over-Venezuela-standoff)

Trump and Putin discuss Venezuela and North Korea during phone call, Mueller report 'only briefly' (https://www.sott.net/article/412301-Trump-and-Putin-discuss-Venezuela-and-North-Korea-during-phone-call-Mueller-report-only-briefly)

Hervé

4th May 2019, 18:26

Coup flops in Venezuela and Guaido's shadow 'ambassador' flees in failure as DC embassy protectors hold their ground (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/05/02/guaido-vecchio-failure-coup/)

Max Blumenthal The Gray Zone (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/05/02/guaido-vecchio-failure-coup/)
Thu, 02 May 2019 15:27 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/520767/large/IMG_1590.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/520767/full/IMG_1590.jpg)
© The Gray Zone

A group of determined US activists forced Juan Guaido's shadow ambassador, Carlos Vecchio, to flee from a rally that was supposed to mark his triumphant entry into the Venezuelan embassy in Washington

It was supposed to be a day of triumph for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and his forces in Washington DC. In Caracas, the opposition had launched "Operacion Libertad," a coup attempt that promised to flip high level figures in the military and Maduro's inner circle and deliver Miraflores Palace to Guaido. And in Washington, self-declared ambassador Carlos Vecchio was poised to take control of Venezuela's embassy from Maduro's representatives.

But by the end of the Mayday holiday, Guaido's plot had been resoundingly defeated (https://www.mintpressnews.com/venezuelan-coup-attempt-sputters/258023/), while Vecchio was seen fleeing the embassy after his speech before 50 or so fanatical right-wing supporters was overwhelmed by a group of anti-coup protesters both inside and outside the embassy. It was a humiliating defeat for a US-backed opposition that has not achieved a single concrete victory since launching its coup attempt over 75 days ago.

For over a week, a group of US citizens calling itself the "Embassy Protection Collective" (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/04/26/americans-venezuelas-embassy-coup-guaido/) has stymied the opposition's plans to seize the embassy, denying its leadership the veneer of legitimacy it has been desperately seeking. Members of the collective moved into the embassy at the invitation of its official owners in the Venezuelan government, and have maintained a round-the-clock presence (https://www.mintpressnews.com/voices-from-inside-the-besieged-venezuelan-embassy/257910/) to prevent a growing mob of opposition activists from occupying the grounds.

On April 30, the pro-coup mob outside turned violent, physically assaulting (https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123767951885262850) embassy protectors, and hurling racist, sexist and homophobic abuse (https://www.mintpressnews.com/guaido-supporters-attempt-invade-venezuelan-embassy/258062/) at others. The following day, an opposition activist broke into the embassy and ransacked a room (https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123536909870010368?s=19) before he was removed by Secret Service officers. Hours later, a small band of opposition members destroyed security cameras (https://twitter.com/CarlosJRonVE/status/1123808190725087235) attached to the embassy. The Secret Service has done nothing (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1123655946293608449) so far to prevent or punish criminal acts that violate DC's civil code and Article 22 of the Vienna Conventions on the protection of diplomatic facilities.

(https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123643698812739585)

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1123643567111581697/pu/img/9y_f2AozF8sUHCCB?format=jpg&name=small
(https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123643698812739585)(click on picture to go to twitter video)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1044639870990389250/jWO1po_u_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi) Alex Rubinstein ✔ @RealAlexRubi
(https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi) Replying to @RealAlexRubi (https://twitter.com/_/status/1123642798299856899)

George Roy talks about how opposition activists compared him to a monkey and called him "negrito"

7:41 PM - May 1, 2019 (https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123643698812739585)
At 5 PM on May 1, Vecchio arrived with a gaggle of carefully coiffed supporters in formal wear, presenting the image of a team of professionals ready to get to work. In expectation of the takeover, they brought an official-looking placard and equipment to affix it to the embassy's front door.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D5gqJISW4AE2_6t?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/adriennepine/status/1123694449249398784/photo/1)

(click on picture to go to twitter video)

Adrienne Pine @adriennepine
(https://twitter.com/adriennepine)
The Secret Service just helped some “embassy workers” get their formal placard and equipment out so they can try to take over the embassy.

11:03 PM - May 1, 2019 (https://twitter.com/adriennepine/status/1123694449249398784)
But the changing of the guard would never take place. As soon as Vecchio launched into what was supposed to be a victory speech, he was drowned out by chanting from inside the embassy, and from across the street, where anti-coup protesters had filled the sidewalk.

Alex Rubinstein ✔ @RealAlexRubi
(https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi) · May 1, 2019 (https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123703675657101312)

Replying to @RealAlexRubi (https://twitter.com/_/status/1123702752406843398)

Embassy protectors chant "Trump's stooge" as Guiado ambassador's Carlos Vecchio speaks
(https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123703675657101312)

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1123703381607030787/pu/img/wfl_eGiCndWJaiqb?format=jpg&name=small
(https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123703675657101312)(click on picture to go to twitter video)

Alex Rubinstein ✔ @RealAlexRubi
(https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi)
Maybe it's because it's in my ear, but @ArielElyseGold (https://twitter.com/ArielElyseGold) seems to be drowning out Vecchio pic.twitter.com/wzwoOYfsQI (https://t.co/wzwoOYfsQI)

11:44 PM - May 1, 2019 (https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123704828776067078)

(https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123704828776067078)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1123704335165267970/pu/img/BOrqEUAL0vcze8Rt?format=jpg&name=small
(https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1123704828776067078)(click on picture to go to twitter video)
Minutes after his abbreviated speech concluded, Vecchio bolted from the rally and fled down a sidewalk, with Secret Service agents and opposition vigilantes pushing reporters away. His hurried exit from the scene marked the failure of an obviously ill-conceived publicity stunt.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1108405617952243718/KqGEsUB1_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal) Max Blumenthal ✔ @MaxBlumenthal
(https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal) · May 2, 2019 (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1123713947922771970)
Replying to @MaxBlumenthal (https://twitter.com/_/status/1123706320606175232)

Amazing scene at the Venezuelan embassy as fake ambassador @carlosvecchio (https://twitter.com/carlosvecchio) was unable to finish his own speech and overwhelmed by anti-coup protesters and embassy protectors. Vecchio fled with secret service.

(https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1123713947922771970)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1123713383356878849/pu/img/_1AhsltG7bcixOzU?format=jpg&name=small
(https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1123713947922771970)(click on picture to go to twitter video)

Max Blumenthal ✔ @MaxBlumenthal
(https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal)
Here is @carlosvecchio (https://twitter.com/carlosvecchio) fleeing at full speed from what was supposed to be his own triumphant moment, and bolting from the press.

The Venezuelan embassy remains under the control of the country’s elected government. pic.twitter.com/ChoQm3bQmb (https://t.co/ChoQm3bQmb)

(https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1123715103810043905)
12:25 AM - May 2, 2019 (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1123715103810043905)

(https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1123715103810043905)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1123714925589823489/pu/img/iHygCUtBPRE6Wr47?format=jpg&name=small
(https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1123715103810043905)(click on picture to go to twitter video)
After Vecchio fled the scene, the remains of the opposition mob returned to its favorite practices: hurling racist and sexist invective and death threats at the embassy protectors, vandalizing the embassy, and palling around with Secret Service officers.

Inside the embassy, the embassy protectors celebrated another success. They had held off a takeover attempt on a momentous day, while Guaido's coup flopped in Caracas.

"Today was a major victory for the Embassy Protection Collective," Kevin Zeese, an organizer of the embassy action, told The Grayzone. "Vecchio was embarrassed coming to 'his' embassy and being shouted down. He was unable to demand that we leave the embassy. Now we can say that the US coup is failing even in the United States."
Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including best-selling Republican Gomorrah (https://www.amazon.com/Republican-Gomorrah-Inside-Movement-Shattered/dp/1568584172), Goliath (https://www.amazon.com/Goliath-Life-Loathing-Greater-Israel/dp/1568586345), The Fifty One Day War (https://www.amazon.com/51-Day-War-Ruin-Resistance/dp/156858511X), and The Management of Savagery (https://www.versobooks.com/books/2868-the-management-of-savagery). He has produced print articles for an array of publications, many video reports, and several documentaries, including Killing Gaza (https://killinggaza.com/). Blumenthal founded The Grayzone in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America's state of perpetual war and its dangerous domestic repercussions.
Related:
Pro Guaido supporters harass journalists, anti-war activists outside Venezuela’s US embassy (VIDEOS) (https://www.rt.com/usa/458339-venezuela-embassy-standoff-continues/) (https://www.rt.com/usa/458339-venezuela-embassy-standoff-continues/)

Hervé

5th May 2019, 13:58

“Psychopath Capitalism”: US Economic Terrorism and Genocide Against the People of Venezuela (https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-economic-terrorism-genocide-people-venezuela/5676366)

By Carla Stea (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/carla-stea) Global Research
May 03, 2019

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/venezuela-aid-us.jpg

April 25: Foreign Minister Arreaza Describes Excruciating Suffering of the Venezuelan People Resulting From US Sanctions;

April 26: US Violates its Obligation as UN Host Country and Sanctions the Foreign Minister for Speaking Truth to Power
“We are not only on the wrong side, we are the wrong side.”
Pentagon Papers Expert Daniel Elllsberg

“American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and thereby lead to regime change. It’s a fruitless, heartless, illegal, and failed policy, causing grave harm to the Venezuelan people.”
Professor Jeffrey Sachs
US Maneuvers at the United Nations
The entire official schedule of meetings of the United Nations Commission on Disarmament – April 8 through April 29 – was forced to cancel because the United States, in violation of its obligations as host country, refused a visa to important Russian delegates.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/jorge-arreaza.jpg (https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/jorge-arreaza.jpg)

On April 25, Venezuela’s brilliant, charismatic Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza (above) detailed, in a United Nations press briefing, the horrific suffering the Venezuelan people are enduring as a result of the dictatorship of US sanctions against his country, and US terrorization of each and every global institution and nation which the US is demanding sever all economic and diplomatic ties with Venezuela.

In a stealthy, deadly march to global dictatorship, and consistent with its attempt to subjugate the United Nations to the interests of US oligarchic power, the United States is abusing its membership in the United Nations, attempting to force regime change on Venezuela, using criminal methods in violation of the Hague Convention, the Geneva Convention, the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of the Organization of American States, the Venezuelan Constitution, and in violation of U.S. law itself.

The U.S. maneuvers to destroy the Maduro government’s UN accreditation, and replace it with their puppet Guaido are horrifying and Machiavellian, and, quite realistically, since the US has absolutely no scruples, nor any respect for international law, there is an ominous possibility that they may succeed. Numerous diplomats of many countries, with whom I have spoken, are terrified by the sanctions the US just placed on the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, recognizing the threat to their own sovereignty, and sophisticated Iranian specialists delineated the dangerous possibilities the US has to use this method to force out the Venezuelan delegation to the UN, and de facto denude the Maduro government’s access to the UN. If the US succeeds in this criminal scheme, the credibility of the UN will be entirely and irreparably destroyed, as the many diplomats with whom I have spoken have confirmed. Many delegates are now saying that the UN would be better based in another more reliable and respectful country. Venezuela is Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, an organization of 120 member states. For the US to sanction her Foreign Minister is an unconscionable and intolerable abuse of the host country status.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/a1-2-500x333.jpg (https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/a1-2-500x333.jpg)

The US has, furthermore, forged another mafia-style organization of flunkey Latin American “governments” which give every indication of becoming a new Operation Condor, that systematically organized engine of murder arranged by Augusto Pinochet and Henry Kissinger, (image above) an international organized criminal plan to exterminate all progressive and humanitarian efforts throughout Latin America and beyond.

Operation Condor orchestrated the slaughter of Chilean former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier in Sheridan Circle, Washington, DC in 1976. Letelier bled to death after a car bomb arranged by Anti-Castro Cuban terrorists tore off his legs. An American girl working for the Institute of Policy Studies, Ronni Moffett was also killed in that terrorist action. In Argentina, Chilean General Carlos Prats was murdered when his Buenos Aires home was bombed; in Rome, Chilean Senator Bernardo Leighton’s wife was crippled by an assassin’s bullet intended for him; Operation Condor arranged the murder of former progressive Bolivian President Torres in Argentina.

Diabolic Methods Used by the US to Wreck Venezuela
In a colossal report entitled: “Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela,” and corroborating everything stated by Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, economist Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot describe the diabolic methods used by the United States to wreck Venezuela and discredit socialism, resulting in the deliberate murder of at least 40,000 Venezuelan people, including children, the elderly, the infirm and other of the most vulnerable civilians. This is a systematic and deliberate policy of the US government, a heinous plan to exterminate socialism and massacre the Venezuelan people in order to steal their oil, a spectacular act of piracy brazenly conducted with the collusion of obedient puppets in Western Europe and Canada, and craven, obsequious Latin American states whose shameful obedience to Washington is breathtaking.

Complete Blockade
Washington is now threatening to completely blockade and sanction Cuba to force that country to sever relations with Venezuela. Nicaragua is, of course, also in the crosshairs.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/guaido-lopez-venezuela.jpg (https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/guaido-lopez-venezuela.jpg)

Yesterday there was a failed coup, provoked by the Quisling Juan Guaido, (image above with Lopez) who incited a military revolt to violently overthrow the democratically elected government of Nicholas Maduro. If Joseph Biden or Bernie Sanders, or any American citizen advocated the violent overthrow of the US government, they would be imprisoned and/or executed. It is astounding that the Manchurian candidate Juan Guaido, advocating the violent overthrow of the Venezuelan government, is allowed to roam free, throughout Venezuela. This is incontestable proof of the impeccably democratic character of the Maduro government. And perhaps it is proof of Maduro’s strength and trust in the Venezuelan people. But Maduro’s life is at risk for his country. During yesterday’s emergency, Venezuelan Ambassador Samuel Moncada convened a UN press conference, and skillfully replied to often slanted and biased questions for which Moncada was well prepared, and had no doubt anticipated.

The US government is disintegrating, and has been for many years, with the current administration rife with internecine warfare. The French government is confronting an incipient popular revolution of the Yellow Jackets, the British government stymied by Brexit and separatist movements threatening the survival of the “United Kingdom.” It is only with the most flagrant arrogance that they criticize Venezuela.

It is agonizing to witness the mass murder of a heroic and progressive Venezuelan people, by a psychopathic capitalism which has not one iota of human decency, and wallowing in its cannibalistic behavior, desecrates the very concept of human rights. But that is the essence of monopoly capitalism, whose “highest” stage is fascism. One can only hope that Russia and China will recognize the future menace to their own survival, and will not indulge in the wishful thinking of a “win-win” arrangement with Washington. One can only hope that the crucible of Venezuela will prove to be the Stalingrad of this de facto World War III, and it will be on the battlefield of Venezuela, with its transgenerational legacy of Simon Bolivar, that fascism is defeated, and the future progressive destiny of humanity will be forged.

*

Carla Stea is Global Research’s correspondent at United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y.

Related:
The US Is Orchestrating a Coup in Venezuela (https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-orchestrating-coup-venezuela/5667501)

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

One may wonder why - if the economic state of Venezuela was indeed already so dire - would the US scavengers need to put all their might behind all possible sanctions to bring the Venezuelan population to its knees to trigger a revolution against their Bolivarian government? If the rumors of rampant corruption and criminal activities (the de-facto products of previous sanctions) of a bona fide dictatorship have any truth to it, the US scavengers would only need to wait a little while longer to scoop Venezuela into their pocket... instead, with their sanctions, embargoes and blockades, these scavengers are helping build an incredible united resistance of the remaining Venezuelan population.

Hervé

5th May 2019, 18:36

MAJOR: Inside How the Coup was Foiled – Venezuela’s Army Chief Padrino TRICKED Trump & Abrams (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/05/major-inside-how-the-coup-was-foiled-venezuelas-army-chief-padrino-tricked-trump-abrams/)

https://www.fort-russ.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/padrino-abrams-750x430.jpg

By Vladimir Dobrynin Guest Author (https://www.fort-russ.com/author/guestauthor/)
May 5, 2019 @ 01:09
Last updated May 5, 2019
[Editors note – Head of Venezuela’s armed forces, Padrino, entirely conned Abrams, and the April 30th event was supposed to be major with Padrino backing it. This explanation below uses all the facts, including official statements, and puts them all together. It also is based on highly reputable Spanish sources. Moreover this conforms to how CSS already understands regime-change operations to have been foiled in various places, and significantly as we have written before, in 2002 in Venezuela itself. That is why it is necessary for the military intelligence to work on coup operations, so that they can reverse them (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/04/flores-venezuela-black-magic-the-failed-military-coup-of-fourteen-tells-you-everything/). This story explains several others factors, such as the sporadic and pre-planned violence we saw on April 30th, such as a few armored cars fighting each other, as well as a likely fake situation where protesters were run over. In that scenario, its likely that the coup-involved personnel themselves ran over their own opposition protesters. We’ve seen it many times before, with the use of snipers, so why not with an armored car? FRN earlier today ran two stories which this amazing story below refer to, one that Trump talked to Putin after the failed coup attempt where Putin got to be extra firm (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/05/major-putin-warns-trump-in-phone-call-hands-off-venezuela/), and second that Trump expressed distrust in US intelligence on Venezuela (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/05/major-trump-loses-confidence-in-u-s-intelligence-on-venezuela/). This explains, of course, why. –
J. Flores]
While Juan Guaido and Nicolas Maduro played cat and mouse on Wednesday in the streets of Caracas with protests caused by the first of the two politicians named, the Trump administration tried to find out why the impostor was abandoned by the country on Tuesday, April 30th, and gave up on the coup operation.

According to confidential information obtained by the Spanish edition of ABC, the regime change plan arose from an agreement between US National Security Advisor John Bolton and Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino , which was concluded during several telephone conversations held in recent months. Padrino, and along with him, some other ministers and generals had to sign onto the agreement with the U.S president-appointed President Juan Guaido of the plan drawn up by opponents of Nicolas Maduro.

These documents contained a “road map”, according to which a coup would end with the election of the head of Venezuela “30 days after the Chavista regime surrendered and recognized Guaido as the person legally acting as head of the Republic.”

In parallel, the Supreme Court of Venezuela represented by its chairman, Michel Moreno , was to declare illegal the Constituent Assembly (National Constitutional Assembly), the branch of the legislative power created and controlled by Nicolas Maduro. And “with the observance of the necessary legal procedures and formalities to the head of the National Guard, General Ivan Rafael Hernandez Dala was charged with the duty to inform Maduro that he had only two options in the current situation: either he would leave the country, fleeing to Cuba, or be arrested at the request of the court. After that, a “top secret document from the depths of American intelligence” was supposed to appear on the scene, that in Venezuela there are between 20 and 25 thousand armed Cuban mercenaries supporting Maduro and keeping the whole Bolivarian Republic in fear ” (the armed forces of which have 235 thousand active military and 200 thousand more – reservists – author’s note.) Thus, by joint efforts of the USA and the Venezuelan military “the country would have been spared by the U.S appointed president of the dictator Maduro and from his support by battalions of soldiers of fortune from Cuba” .

But something went wrong. Maduro did not flee to Cuba, Padrino suddenly changed his mind about becoming the “godfather of the Venezuelan revolution” (by the way, Padrino translated from Spanish means “godfather”), and the vast majority of Venezuelan generals did not get in touch at the time appointed by the Americans. (There is an interesting moment during Guaido’s call to arms, with the 14 soldiers behind him, when a cell-phone goes off and distracts him – maybe that was the call, ‘it’s not happening’ – J. Flores)

Elliott Abrams, the special envoy of the US administration for Venezuela, complained that “he could not get through to anyone to give the right signal, as if by agreement, they turned off their mobile phones.”

ABC is a serious newspaper, not “jaundice” of any kind, operating with “phrases taken out of context and misinterpreted”. David Alandet , Lyudmila Vinogradoff and Imaru Rojas , three reporters of the publication, sharing information “received directly from a person at the US National Security Council”, never could be considered fans of Maduro (as is, incidentally, the leadership of Cuba and the Russian Federation), so to assert that their publication is fiction or fake, is baseless on those grounds.

“Agreements between representatives of the Washington administration and Venezuelan generals in the presence of Juan Guaido were to be signed on Tuesday (May 1) at the location of the La Carlota military base near Caracas. Together with the self-styled president, another opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez , was supposed to put his signature on the document. But strangely, instead of La Carlota, Lopez entered the Spanish embassy in the Venezuelan capital and asked for political asylum there. (FRN previously, and in error, reported that he arrived at the Chilean embassy – now we are clear that Chilean consular vehicles escorted him to the Spanish embassy – J. Flores)

“High-ranking sources” indicate a complete lack of information about what exactly went wrong with the American scenario. They know only the final result: Nicolas Maduro did not leave the presidential palace Miraflores on Tuesday. Some other unnamed experts say that “Vladimir Padrino [Defense Minister] is to blame for everything, at the last moment he made a total reversal”.

Elliott, according to the authors, “expressed particular disappointment with the position of Vladimir Padrino, a key figure of both the Chavistas and the intended revolution, designed to overthrow it.”

“They talked a lot, but they way it all came down, it was for nothing,” the special representative of the White House for Venezuela stated with frustration. But it was all a con-job by the Venezuelan military intelligence against the U.S coup plan. Acting US Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan even surprised many and canceled his visit to Europe – according to the Pentagon spokesman, he wanted to “personally coordinate the actions of the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security, taking into account what is happening in Venezuela and on the border of the States with Mexico. ” It is possible that champagne, in order to “raise the glasses and toast them all at once,” was also purchased and were kept in the refrigerator for the celebration.

But the hour did not come. Not as expected. Nicolas Maduro, who, according to the calculations of American strategists, was to be already hiding somewhere in the suburbs of Havana, suddenly appeared on May Day in the evening on the Republic’s television screens and said that “for betraying the interests of the state, aiding the self-proclaiming Guaido and American imperialism, SEBIN’s Venezuelan intelligence officer Manuel Christopher Figuera is removed from his post and arrested. ”

On Wednesday morning, a video clip went viral in social networks in which a group of Vladimir Padrino’s relatives, including his mother, appealed to the Minister of Defense with an appeal “to break with Maduro and make a courageous step towards the people.”

But Padrino did not heed the requests of relatives.

Guaido managed to raise his followers (in accordance with the plan) and organize crowds of protesters in as many as 14 areas in Caracas. The impostor arrived at one of them himself and delivered an inspired speech, from time to time choking on saliva and stating that “there is no way back, call everyone you know, we will win, the usurper will be removed from power, he has already lost”.

Maduro’s supporters had a different opinion on this matter, but it still didn’t come to a collision with the opposition: National Guard units intervened, initially separating the opposing sides, and then surrounding the military rebels (they counted about 300) at La Carlota.

John Bolton and Mike Pompeo called Padrino a traitor (to American interests, of course) and “a key figure guilty of Maduro remaining in power.” The Venezuelan defense minister was promised to “block the oxygen” by arresting all the assets and real estate he had in Canada and the United States if he did not give the order to the officers to take the army to the streets.
“They want to drown Venezuela in blood,” said Defense Minister Padrino, addressing the country’s population in a video broadcast on the Internet. – That is why I ordered all the military to remain in the barracks. And deal with the unrest with the National Guard”.
US President Donald Trump didn’t understand why the remarkably elaborated Elliott Abrams Plan for Venezuela didn’t work, it would seem, and on Friday called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and the Russian President reminded the American during the hour and a half that “interference from outside to internal affairs, attempts by forceful change of power in Caracas that undermine the prospects for a political settlement of the crisis would not be acceptable. ” Did Trump get it? We’ll find out later.

Vladimir Dobrynin, Madrid – translated by and for FRN –

Hervé

6th May 2019, 16:08

Here is a (long) summary of what has occurred in Venezuela in the past few months:

Solidarity, Survival and Sabotage: Reconstructing the History of the Blackouts Tormenting Venezuela (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/04/01/solidarity-survival-and-sabotage-reconstructing-the-history-of-the-blackouts-tormenting-venezuela/)

By Misión Verdad
April 1, 2019 (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/04/01/solidarity-survival-and-sabotage-reconstructing-the-history-of-the-blackouts-tormenting-venezuela/)

https://i2.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/blackout.jpg?resize=845%2C420&ssl=1

While Venezuela’s government and the Chavista movement proclaimed victory over the worst blackouts to plague the country, Washington’s coup masters have promised more darkness until their goals are complete.
[Editor’s note: Between March 7th and 10th of 2019, Venezuela experienced the longest interruption of its electric system in the country’s history. The government alleged that the blackout was the result of a sabotage directed against the central computer of the main hydroelectric power station at El Guri in Bolívar State.

If the electrical collapse was indeed the result of an outside attack, it represented the most severe escalation of hostilities since the beginning of the latest regime change campaign. The blackout significantly disrupted Venezuelan society and showed that the war against the country targeted everyone, regardless of their political affiliations.

What follows is a reconstruction of those moments of darkness, showing how the deluge of fake news and humanitarian propaganda, the interruption and recovery of the electrical services, the calls for violence and the organization of the people and their families transformed daily life into a struggle for peace and coexistence. As in the past, the Chavismo movement successfully resisted Washington’s attempts to foment a civil war.

This analysis was originally published at the Venezuelan independent website Misión Verdad (http://misionverdad.com/), and has been edited and adapted by The Grayzone]
Threats of intervention and the failure of “Plan Guaidó”
On January 23 of this year, the United States and its allies recognized Juan Guaidó as “President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”, completely ignoring the Venezuelan Constitution and the more than 6 million Venezuelans who voted for Nicolas Maduro in the elections of May 20, 2018.

During the last two months, all mechanisms of economic suffocation against the country have been deployed. Everything from bank accounts to the assets of the Republic have been frozen by the U.S. government. Most glaring among these cases was the blockage of $1.2 billion in gold (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-25/u-k-said-to-deny-maduro-s-bid-to-pull-1-2-billion-of-gold) owned by Venezuela, located in the Bank of England, and the confiscation of CITGO, a subsidiary of PDVSA on US soil.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0hq0jmW0AUAXnU?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/SMoncada_VEN/status/1101247574286180352/photo/1)

The amount of Venezuelan assets that the United States have seized is calculated at approximately $30 billion. Washington has used the excuse that it is merely “protecting those resources” to justify funneling them to the faux government of Guaidó.

Tactics of diplomatic and public relations harassment have also been escalated, with the intention of isolating the country internationally. But the plan has suffered multiple failures. The first occurred on February 23rd, the day when the “humanitarian aid” farce was used to generate an internal rupture in the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) and remove President Nicolás Maduro from power.

The hoopla of the ‘Aid Venezuela’ concert in Cúcuta, Colombia, and the supposed peaceful nature of the aid itself were exposed within a few hours as the violence on both international bridges and the failed attempt to ferry violent groups into Venezuela became impossible to ignore. When the opposition was exposed for burning trucks (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/02/24/burning-aid-colombia-venezuela-bridge/) loaded with US aid, it suffered a powerful public relations blow.

Meanwhile, the country maintained a state of relative calm while the military remained cohesive and composed, degrading the regime change agenda. The coup was losing momentum by the day.

Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-06/heavily-armed-soldiers-aborted-plan-to-enter-venezuela-by-force?srnd=premium) reported that while in Colombia, Juan Guaidó planned a European tour, but US officials ordered him to return to Venezuela to “take advantage of the momentum” and, in the process, “to seek his imprisonment.” In other words, the US was dangling Guaidó before the Venezuelan government, hoping to provoke them into arresting him and thereby generating the pretext for a military response. They knew that they were running against time and needed to stimulate military intervention.

Bloomberg also highlighted the declining importance of Guaidó in Venezuela and abroad. With Venezuelan institutions maintaining loyalty to Maduro, Guaidó’s promises of the “end of the usurpation” became increasingly improbable.

Meanwhile, in the UN Security Council, Venezuela’s diplomatic body pushed back in a meaningful way against the US agenda with the help of vetoes from the Russian and Chinese administrations against a US promoted draft resolution that aimed to further destabilize the country.

https://i2.wp.com/misionverdad.com/sites/default/files/styles/mv2_820/public/abrams_0.jpg?resize=820%2C546
The double veto of Russia and China prevented the approval of the resolution presented by Elliott Abrams in the Security Council (Foto: Lucas Jackson / Reuters)

The US had planned on a lightning coup through a combination of massive external pressure and internal destabilization. But they failed to dislodge Maduro, and were unable to trigger the fragmentation of Venezuelan society that would have justified intervention.

On March 7, as the pressure mounted on the US to deliver losses to a government it had clearly underestimated, the electrical grid went dark.

Just a week before the blackout, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had warned that the US would “take action” (https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-vows-to-take-action-as-venezuela-aid-operation-turns-deadly/) against anyone who obstructed entry of the humanitarian aid. When the blackout hit, it became increasingly clear what Pompeo was referring to.

The attack on the electrical power grid and the case for sabotage
Around 5pm on Thursday, March 7, there was a plunge in the essential electricity supply systems in more than 80% of the national territory. The blackout was immediate and comprehensive.

Luis Motta Dominguez, the Minister of Electric Power, informed the government that the event was an act of sabotage to the main hydroelectric plant in the Guri Dam, Bolivar State, Venezuela. President Maduro, during his first appearance before the country, reported that the attack on the national electric system occurred in three stages.

The first stage, according to Dominguez, was the hacking the main computer and control systems. These systems would have been electronically assaulted, “leaving all computer screens black,” said the President. On Monday the 11th, Maduro also indicated that the attacks were made from Houston and Chicago, reaffirming that the US government itself was responsible for the cyber attack.

The second stage, Dominguez said, consisted of the use of electromagnetic pulse devices. Highly sophisticated devices of electronic warfare were aimed at the transmission systems and the control platform, disabling them and inducing the system to overload and fail.

The third stage was a direct physical attack to the intermediate platforms of electric distribution. There were five attacks on four substations, with little time between each one them; they were carried out simultaneously to stabilize the general electricity supply.

In the midst of the attack, Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/03/09/could-venezuelas-power-outage-really-be-a-cyber-attack/#5c5bdaa7607c) published a piece by artificial intelligence and Big Data specialist Kalev Leetaru. While seeming to downplay the possibility of electrical sabotage, Leetaru made a remarkable concession.

“In the case of Venezuela,” he wrote, “the idea of a government like the United States remotely interfering with its power grid is actually quite realistic. Remote cyber operations rarely require a significant ground presence, making them the ideal deniable influence operation. Given the U.S. government’s longstanding concern with Venezuela’s government, it is likely that the U.S. already maintains a deep presence within the country’s national infrastructure grid, making it relatively straightforward to interfere with grid operations.”

Ver imagen en Twitter
(https://twitter.com/MV_Eng/status/1105664437774663680/photo/1)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1gYNauXgAIV-cX?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/MV_Eng/status/1105664437774663680/photo/1)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1084611936698974208/fuUVYclq_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/MV_Eng) MV English @MV_Eng
(https://twitter.com/MV_Eng)
It's not sci-fi: the blackout in Venezuela could have been US-made. Even Forbes magazine says so.

4:58 - 13 mar. 2019 (https://twitter.com/MV_Eng/status/1105664437774663680)
Leetaru added that, “The idea of a foreign state manipulating the electricity grid to force a transitional government, is very real.” He added that these methods of attacks “are increasingly being discussed in national (US) security communities as legitimate and legal tactics to undermine a foreign state.”

The striking comments from a widely recognized tech expert reinforced the Venezuelan government’s assessment of the situation.

Though it did not mention Venezuela, a recent analysis (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/hackers-are-causing-blackouts-it-s-time-to-boost-our-cyber-resilience?utm_source=Facebook%20Videos&utm_medium=Facebook%20Videos&utm_campaign=Facebook%20Video%20Blogs) by the World Economic Forum warned that “hackers are causing blackouts” in countries across the world, and demanded new policies to build up “cyber resilience.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1110847950752808960/img/_uv9vx2bo-3RYDO8?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/Davos/status/1110904307769958400)

World Economic Forum ✔ @Davos
(https://twitter.com/Davos)
A blackspot for cybersecurity?

Read more: https://wef.ch/2U1xmn8 (https://t.co/EKAyzWMv6Z) #electricity (https://twitter.com/hashtag/electricity?src=hash) #technology (https://twitter.com/hashtag/technology?src=hash)

4:00 PM - Mar 27, 2019 (https://twitter.com/Davos/status/1110904307769958400)
On March 26, less than three weeks after the blackout in Venezuela, the White House quietly issued an executive order (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-coordinating-national-resilience-electromagnetic-pulses/) warning that “an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) has the potential to disrupt, degrade, and damage technology and critical infrastructure systems.” The order stated that EMP’s could “affect large geographic areas, disrupting elements critical to the Nation’s security and economic prosperity, and could adversely affect global commerce and stability.”

The curiously timed assessment suggested that the US had no shortage of familiarity with the potential havoc that could be wreaked with EMP’s.

As The Grayzone (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/11/us-regime-change-blueprint-proposed-venezuelan-electricity-blackouts-as-watershed-event-for-galvanizing-public-unrest/amp/) previously reported, Otpor – the US-funded soft power NGO that trained Guaido and other Voluntad Popular activists – composed a regime change strategy blueprint in 2010 that explicitly urged Venezuela’s opposition to exploit massive electricity blackouts.

Authored by Otpor co-founder Srdja Popovic, the memo described the potential collapse of the country’s electrical sector as “a watershed event” that “would likely have the impact of galvanizing public unrest in a way that no opposition group could ever hope to generate.”

Prophecies of doom from Washington’s coup masters
Just hours before the collapse of the Venezuelan electric system, the American lawmaker at the forefront of the campaign of destabilization issued a doomsday prophesy for the country.

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Senator Marco Rubio visited Cúcuta to capitalize politically on the arrival of “humanitarian aid” (Foto: Archive)

At midday, March 7, during a hearing in the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Rubio warned that Venezuela was “going to enter a period of suffering that no nation has confronted in modern history.” He explicitly called for the US to stir “widespread unrest,” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRVTNyoMfWQ&feature=youtu.be&t=8072) declaring that it “needs to happen” in order to achieve regime change. The blackout hit exactly five hours later.

Even before Minister of Communication Jorge Rodríguez was able to inform the media about the scope of the attack on the electric system, Rubio declared (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3kNHhYbD-M) through his Twitter account that “backup generators have failed,” barely concealing his excitement.

On Friday 8th and Saturday 9th, the senator blamed the Maduro government for a “lack of diligence.”

At the same time, Guaidó took to Twitter to declare that ”the light would return to Venezuela when the “usurpation is terminated,” suggesting that the blackouts would only end once Maduro was out of power.

Rubio proceeded to publicize fake news (https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article227462709.html) about alleged newborn casualties at the University Hospital of Maracaibo, Zulia, and other hospitals of the national public health system. At the same time, several NGOs, such as Codevida, blasted out (http://misionverdad.com/la-guerra-en-venezuela/cifras-falsas-de-muertos-tras-el-sabotaje-busca-abultar-el-expediente-de) announcements of unconfirmed events regarding deaths, chaos and loss of public order in the national territory, creating a disproportionate and distorted perception of the events in order to market the theme of a supposed humanitarian crisis.

NGOs such as Codevida and others echoed Rubio’s false claim that 80 neonatal deaths had occurred, along with more than 200 deaths. This figure was denied by the president of the Medical Association of Zulia, Dianela Parra.

Meanwhile, Pompeo announced through social media platforms that Venezuela was, ”without medicine, without food, now without electricity and soon, without Maduro.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1014454396522934273/w_96hmja_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/SecPompeo) Secretary Pompeo ✔ @SecPompeo
(https://twitter.com/SecPompeo) · Mar 8, 2019 (https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1103869185078091779)

The power outage and the devastation hurting ordinary Venezuelans is not because of the USA. It’s not because of Colombia. It’s not Ecuador or Brazil, Europe or anywhere else. Power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regime’s incompetence.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1014454396522934273/w_96hmja_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/SecPompeo) Secretary Pompeo ✔ @SecPompeo
(https://twitter.com/SecPompeo)
Maduro’s policies bring nothing but darkness.

6:11 AM - Mar 8, 2019 (https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1103870885784514561)
The statement sounded less like a prediction than a strategic blueprint for regime change. His comments were echoed by Eliot Abrams, who proclaimed in a radio interview that “pressure will increase, US pressure and internal pressure also. Especially this week, when there’s no light!”

Meanwhile, John Bolton urged (https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1105167947994198016) the Venezuelan military to accept the amnesty offer put forward by Guaidó. It was just the latest attempt to promote rifts in the army’s officer corps and promote rebellion in the army, which was working to protect the national electric system from further damage.

Western media exploited the situation to amplify the narrative of a humanitarian crisis and portray a nation submerged in chaos. New York Times correspondent Anatoly Kurmanaev claimed hyperbolically that Venezuela had descended into the “law of the jungle,” (https://twitter.com/AKurmanaev/status/1105600631077769224) and predicted a post-apocalyptic “Mad Max” (https://twitter.com/AKurmanaev/status/1104961546747371520) scenario just over the horizon. In this way, the international press reinforced the messaging of the Trump administration.

(continued below)

...

Hervé

6th May 2019, 16:08

...

... continued:

Life during the blackout
The blackout coincided with the end of workday for the majority of the population. Traffic was interrupted by the non operational lights. In cities with underground public transportation, such as Caracas, Los Teques, Valencia and Maracaibo, overground traffic was overloaded with the population that could not use the tunnels. Similarly, the collapse of the rail system that connected Valles del Tuy with Caracas made the transportation situation even more difficult.

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The blackout interrupted all public services, including ground transportation that was replaced by Metrobus units (Foto: AFP)

The telephone communication system was affected and only those who were within reach of radio repeaters with an alternative source of power could communicate by cell phone. Thanks to radio broadcasts, many knew that the blackout was nationwide. Those who owned cars used them as a source of power to recharge phones and listen to the radio.

For many people, the first night consisted of staying home and waiting for news. Friday the 8th brought official confirmation that the blackout had done deep damage across the country. School and work activities were suspended, but news of a gradual and progressive recovery of the electric service soon arrived, starting with the eastern states of the country, communicated through official and extra-official means.

Still for many, there was a second night with absolutely no power.

On Saturday morning, after a significant recovery of the service, another widespread blackout hit the country. On top of the lack of electricity, there was the challenge to get basic goods like gasoline, food and drinking water.

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Caracas in the first hours of the blackout (Foto: Reuters)

Getting gasoline was possible only if a station had its own generator. The banking system did not work or was working intermittently, affecting all commercial activities. In Caracas, businesses lacked staff and last but not least, the supply of potable water to most areas of the country was limited because its pumping system relied on electricity. Only those communities with water supply sources at above ground level could access the service.

Instead of assuming a collaborative attitude and support to the community to overcome the crisis, the Venezuelan opposition led by Guaidó attempted to magnify the anxiety and anguish by attempting to ignite chaos in the streets and encouraging violent looting.

The cyber attack against Corpoelec’s computerized system at the Guri hydroelectric plant and against the main operational ’brain’ in Caracas, was followed by attacks explained by President Maduro as electromagnetic operations and, simultaneously, a sabotage to other infrastructure which halted and reversed the recovery process, with the apparent intention to make a total collapse irreversible.

President Nicolás Maduro placed special emphasis on one of the sabotages of this operation: the explosion of the electrical substations in Baruta and El Hatillo, which caused fires in the early hours of Monday morning. Much of Caracas suffered a power outage again.

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Explosion of two transformers of the electricity substation of Terrazas of the Club Hipico of Baruta (Foto: Gaby Oráa / RMTF)

The Communications Minister, Rodríguez, added that the Tacoa thermoelectric plant in Vargas had been sabotaged as well. He said that the gas that supplied the station had been cut off, causing an explosion and depriving the capital, Caracas, of a backup supply of energy.

It’s important to note that Venezuela has a mixed energy generation system. First, there is the hydroelectric power plant at Guri that supplies the majority of the country, and then there is a thermoelectric power plant at Tacoa. The capital, with the largest concentration of the population, feeds from both sources. Rodriguez explained that if the blackout happened under normal circumstances, “Greater Caracas could have easily been supplied on the Tacoa system.”

Other explosions of transformers were reported in the interior of the country, affecting mainly the western region. In Zulia, the explosion was reported on Tuesday 12th in the afternoon, in the Las Cabillas sector of the Cabimas municipality. This state has also suffered from violent and irregular actions that have affected several businesses. Also in the Larense municipality of Cabudare, the explosion of another substation occurred on Monday 11th, causing greater delays in the restitution of energy in the area.

The harsh consequences of the blackout and Guaidó’s destabilization plan
The blackouts caused serious discomfort and inconvenience for most Venezuelans. But they also prompted a striking show of resilience, as citizens came together to defy the attempts to destabilize their society.

National media outlets like El Universal and El Correo del Orinoco reported through their social media platforms that the traffic system of Caracas had collapsed due mainly to the interruption of electric power during peak hours. The operations of the Caracas Metro were stopped and the population had to travel by foot or by other means in order to get home on March 7.

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The interruption of the electricity system brought down telecommunications and banking platforms (Foto: Reuters)

The loss of electricity led to the collapse of the electronic payment platforms and their systems, generating serious complications for consumers throughout the country soon after the blackout. This platform malfunctions would only worsen, as banking institutions saw their backup generating systems also collapse because of the excessive number of transactions made during those hours. Offline points of sale, combined with the deficiencies in cash flow, limited the purchasing capabilities of the Venezuelan population during the following Friday and Saturday.

Sales and perishable goods such as meats and vegetables were also affected. The National Federation of Cattle Management reported a 2 million kg of beef loss during the blackout in slaughterhouses across the nation. In the majority of households, families chose to consume these foods as soon as possible.

In cities with high temperatures, such as Maracaibo, where the use of air conditioners is common, the discomfort was even greater. The water service was affected in cities and towns that depend on hydraulic pumps for their supply.

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A Caracas resident collects water from the Waraira Repano Hill after the blackout that stopped water pumping in the city (Foto: Federico Parra / AFP)

There was also a telephone and internet interruption throughout the country. The CANTV, ABA, Movilnet, Digitel and Movistar servers, which rely on battery powered transmitting antennas, experienced a progressive drop of their signals as the power of their antennas ran out. Cable service platforms were also affected, with the exception of satellite platforms such as DirectTv. Many families and businesses with power plants were able to access national and foreign TV services through these satellite signals.

In many cities, the interruption of open radio and television signals was reported. Many stations don’t have power plants and those that did survived thanks to backup generators. This meant that besides the electrical blackout, there was also an information blackout, given that many of the few private broadcasters still on air were simply playing music, violating their obligation to keep the population informed about the events under development.

The interference in communication systems and the radio-electric spectrum was the perfect recipe for a toxic broth of misinformation, especially in the Andean region, allowing fake news to overwhelm the reality of the situation.

All these components – rumors, false information, distortions and half truths – pushed a noticeable percentage of the population into a frenzied and anxious state of mind.

In the State of Zulia, violent groups looted deposits belonging to Empresas Polar: beer, soft drinks and other beverages. Guaidó justified the looting on the grounds that it was motivated by hunger.

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Juan Guaidó’s call for looting generated destruction and violence in shops in the state of Zulia (Foto: Reuters)

Many service stations do not have a generator to support the supply of fuel. Lines for gasoline were seen in places throughout the country and the mobility of the population was seriously affected, while gas was redirected to supplying generators around the country. Rubio’s prophecy of the collapse of gasoline and food distribution had begun to to materialize. But the continuity of the PDVSA system of fuel distribution mitigated the impact, and the transportation of people and food was maintained, albeit at half throttle.

In some cities, barricades and road closures appeared as an immediate response to Guaidó’s calls for violence. Other known figures from the Venezuelan political opposition tried to provoke reactions among the population and called for their followers to spread the chaos nationwide. But most rejected the appeals for chaos, ensuring that any eruptions of violence that did occur were isolated and insignificant. The ultimate effect of the blackout was keep most people in their homes.

By Sunday the 10th, the government announced the partial restoration of electricity in several cities throughout the country. This helped restore calm while testifying to the resilience of a population that was able to manage the dire situation with support from their families and through communal solidarity.

Information began circulating on cellular platforms and TV networks about the recovery of the electrical system as well as news of nationwide social stability and the noticeable absence of violent elements seeking destabilization.

By Monday, Maduro had informed the nation about the army’s actions during the contingency plan, the deployment of its security mechanisms and declared victory over the electric sabotage. The president instructed the military corps to supply fuel to all health center plants in areas that were still affected and emphasized the return of communication platforms and other services dependent on the electrical system.

From that point, Maduro made it clear that it was the Bolivarian Government and not any other political element that would use strategic management to assume the task of normalizing daily activities. The announcement was a substantial setback to the destabilization plans. The ultimate goals of Washington – social fragmentation and chaos – remained unmet thanks to the rapid government and society-wide response.

By Tuesday, the electrical system appeared to be returning to normal and was overcoming its vulnerabilities. The reinstallation and start-up of the electric distribution was similar to the recovery of the main PDVSA system in 2003 during the oil industry sabotage enacted by the opposition, but this time, with a greater sense of commitment and a greater level of clarity about the severity of the scenario.

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March 7, Bellas Artes Metro station. Some people tried unsuccessfully to agitate against President Nicolas Maduro (Foto: Rosana Silva)

Maduro declared victory over the assault on the electricity grid, framing the event as one of the most significant events in the protection of the country’s population.

Solidarity and communal strength: the people pool together
The magnitude of the electric attack would have resulted in a total collapse of Venezuela and its society, realizing the “failed state” label that Washington evokes constantly to justify direct military aggression.

But throughout Venezuela, the population rejected impulses to surrender to anguish, relying on family and community structures to address their needs. Resistance and community are constant themes in the culture of Chavismo, however, it is notable that despite calls to turn to violent protest, most opposition supporters stayed home – a tactic rejection of Guaidó’s divisive appeals.

In the barrios and countryside across the country, firewood was used to cook food, while neighbors scouted nearby areas for drinking water. Using cars only to make emergency trips and charge cellphones, communities were able to stay in touch and keep their members informed about the progress with respect to the restoration of the power supply.

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8th of March, Bolivar Square. Women gathered to commemorate women’s day and show support for the government in the face of the sabotage on the electricity system (Foto: Rosana Silva)

The previous work of the Committees of Local Supply and Production (CLAP) was also a highlight. This organization was established to provide food at low cost to over six million citizens. In some states the distribution of food and domestic gas continued even with all communications cut off.

The CLAP program has complete records of the populations they support. It has served as a support network with a comprehensive map of the strongest and weakest areas, allowing each community to act according to its needs. Thanks to CLAP, government was able to maximize its effectiveness during the blackout by targeting the communities with the greatest needs.

Other organized groups accompanied the state with the smaller tasks to support the most vulnerable. One example took place at the JM de los Ríos Hospital, where in addition to guaranteeing medical attention to the hospitalized children. There, they were visited by artists who provided hours of healthy entertainment in the midst of the uncertainty and helping stave off fear.

The civic-military union that forms the linchpin of the Bolivarian Revolution was also at the heart of the counterattack. Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino López highlighted the deployment of different elements of the Bolivarian National Armed Force to restore basic services and protect the Venezuelan population.

Instead of intimidating citizens accustomed to being locked in their homes lit with televisions and computers, the blackout served as an opportunity to improvise community activities, exchange ideas to protect food, and share information about medical care locations, commercial options and functional pharmacies.

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The popular organization, CLAP, was key to meet the pressing needs left by the blackout (Foto: Archive)

Each community’s story of persisting through the blackout paints a broader portrait of a society that has been shaped by the culture of Chavismo, where popular participation is seen as the most precious feature of the Venezuelan identity.

It was this feature of Venezuelan society that enabled it to effectively resist the most prolonged and massive attack on its infrastructure since the dawn of the Bolivarian Revolution. And it contrasted sharply with the negative solutions spun out of the “entrepreneurship” sector, which chose to privatize services during such a critical time, exploiting citizens in need by selling ice, water, candles and electricity supply in foreign currency.

Assessing the damage, charting a path back to normalcy
72 hours after the attack, the city of Caracas had recovered energy in most of its neighborhoods. In the the following hours, the eastern, central and southern states also recovered their power. The Western region had delays, extending the power stabilization up to 24 hours more in Táchira, Mérida, Trujillo, Zulia and Lara.

Five days after the continuous attacks to multiple substations and the parallel sabotage to the Guri dam, preventing the stabilization of the National Electric System, the entire country had managed to return to normal.

Through social media, the opposition attempted to deceive outsiders with images purporting to show desperate Venezuelans collecting water from the Guaire River, which is filled with sewage. Western outlets like Reuters, which serve as faithful stenographers of the opposition’s narrative, fell for the lie. However, a report made by the Catia TV team debunked the bogus claims. In fact, those people were drinking from a natural well.

What’s more, cistern trucks were set up to transport water to communities in need, a mechanism made possible by communal councils. Others supplied their homes by using buckets and wheelbarrows.

Although the exhaustion of those days was felt across the country, the government’s array of social programs were resumed as soon as the communications were fully operational. The food assistance policy of the CLAPs was reinforced by orders of Maduro, softening the blow for those whose food spoiled during the blackout.

The official balance on Wednesday presented by Minister Jorge Rodríguez was favorable, despite the fact that the cyberattack to the nation’s power grid caused losses of $877 million to the Venezuelan nation.

The country’s business class, meanwhile, made a stunning admission: the ‘regime change’ plan they supported had caused them massive losses. For instance, the National Federation of Cattle Ranchers of Venezuela (Fedenaga) stated $1.4 million were lost in the course of the coup and subsequent blackout.

One million kilograms of cheese and 900,000 kilograms of meat decomposed due to a lack of refrigeration. Another 6 million liters of milk were damaged while waiting for the electric power restitution.

The firm Ecoanalítica put the losses for the country were $875 million – approximately $100 million of damage per day – which reduced the gross domestic product by 1%.

Commercial establishments were also the target of vandalism, especially in the state of Zulia and, to a lesser degree, in Lara, Monagas, Miranda and Barinas. While the political opposition’s agenda was to whitewash these criminal acts, parading them internationally as consequences of the social crisis triggered by the blackout, they omitted the role that the national security forces played in protecting businesses
Long hours of intensive effort from the majority of the Venezuelan population alongside the government ensured an effective response. One week after the attack, the public and private labor, trade, production and industrial activities were resumed.

But just as life appeared to be returning to normal, the country was plunged into darkness again on March 29. From Washington, coup czar Elliot Abrams confidently stated (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1112592544691638272), “The likelihood is the blackouts will continue.”

Mision Verdad (https://thegrayzone.com/author/mision-verdad/)
Mision Verdad is an independent Venezuelan website delivering news and analysis

Franny

7th May 2019, 02:07

Do take a look at the State Dept's PDF at the link below, it's very informative and disgusting.

US State Department Publishes, Then Deletes Sadistic Venezuela Hit List Boasting of Economic Ruin

The Grayzone obtained a list of “key outcomes” on Venezuela deleted out of apparent embarrassment by the State Department. It boasts of wrecking the nation’s economy, destabilizing its military, and puppeteering its political opposition.

Grayzone — On April 24, six days before self-proclaimed Venezuelan “interim president” Juan Guaido’s attempt to violently overthrow Venezuela’s democratically elected government alongside a handful of military defectors, the U.S. State Department published a fact sheet that boasted of Washington’s central role in the ongoing coup attempt. After realizing the incriminating nature of its error, the State Department quickly acted to remove the page.

The Grayzone has obtained a full copy of the expunged report. The deleted page puts to bed any claims of Guaido’s independence from Washington, as the State Department emphasizes the fact that he “announced his interim presidency… in January” at the top of a section dedicated to breaking down “key outcomes” of U.S. efforts with regard to Venezuela.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Kimberly Breier recently took to Twitter (https://twitter.com/WHAAsstSecty/status/1123692018780262401) to claim that “since he became acting president, Juan Guaido has given tangible results to the people of Venezuela.” Her tweet was accompanied with an infographic detailing alleged accomplishments of the powerless coup administration based on data compiled by the legally defunct National Assembly, the only governing body actually controlled by Guaido.

But the Venezuela fact sheet posted and then deleted days earlier by the State Department told a dramatically different story.

[Read the entire expunged fact sheet here (https://thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/US-Department-of-State-Venezuela-actions.pdf) [PDF]

The State Department’s economic hit list

Entitled “U.S. Actions on Venezuela,” the document boasted that U.S. policy had effectively prevented the Venezuelan government from participating in the international market and has led to the freezing of its overseas assets. It read like a sadistic celebration of Washington’s retribution against the Venezuelan population as a whole, the kind of collective punishment which is illegal according to Article 33 of the Geneva Conventions.

The State Department gloated in the deleted fact sheet that its policy had ensured that the Maduro government “cannot rely on the U.S. financial system” to conduct business, noting “key outcomes” of U.S. actions include the fact that “roughly $3.2 billion of Venezuela’s overseas are frozen.” It went on to boast that “Venezuela’s oil production fell to 736,000 barrels per day in March… substantially reducing” government revenue.

“If I were the State Department I wouldn’t brag about causing a cut in oil production to 763,000 barrels per day — which is a 36 percent drop, in just the two months of February and March this year,” Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director at the Center For Economic and Policy Research, told The Grayzone. “This means even more premature deaths than the tens of thousands that resulted from sanctions last year.”

Weisbrot recently co-authored a bracing report (http://cepr.net/publications/reports/economic-sanctions-as-collective-punishment-the-case-of-venezuela) which found that 40,000 Venezuelans died between 2017 and 2018 as a direct result of U.S. sanctions. The State Department patted itself on the back for announcing its preparedness “to provide an additional $20 million in initial humanitarian assistance” to Venezuela, however, the CEPR report concluded that Trump Administration sanctions implemented in August 2017 resulted in “a loss of $6 billion in oil revenue over the ensuing year” alone.

While the State Department praised the opposition for “providing medical and hygiene attention to over 6,000” Venezuelans, those numbers dwarf in comparison to the 300,000 people CEPR “estimated to be at risk because of lack of access to medicines or treatment… 80,000 people with HIV who have not had antiretroviral treatment since 2017, 16,000 people who need dialysis, 16,000 people with cancer, and 4 million with diabetes and hypertension.”

In other words, the supposed “Venezuela Crisis Response Assistance” touted by the State Department is not even a band-aid over the gaping wound that US unilateral coercive measures have inflicted on the country.

In Weisbrot’s view, the “policy” and “outcomes” promoted by the State Department in the disappeared document will merely lead to “more cuts in imports of medicine, food, medical equipment, and inputs necessary to maintain water, health, and sanitation infrastructure.”

Having denied the Venezuelan government the ability to provide for its own population, the U.S. has essentially promised that thousands more deaths will occur.

The State Department did not respond to The Grayzone’s request for a comment on the fact sheet it deleted.

“A list of confessions”

In a recent interview with The Grayzone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxGPEhfkzKM), Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations Samuel Moncada characterized the deleted State Department fact sheet as “a list of confessions.”

“Imagine if any other country says… it’s proud of saying that we are destroying the economy of our neighbor; we are proud that we destroyed the political system of our neighbor; we are proud that they are suffering. They are saying we are waging war against Venezuela,” Moncada emphasized.

The ambassador went on to accuse the U.S. of engaging in “bullying” rather than international diplomacy.

The State Department’s own fact sheet appears to support this accusation, as it asserts “diplomatic pressure resulted in fewer markets for Venezuelan gold.” The document further highlighted U.S. actions that have supposedly led “more than 1,000 members of the military [to recognize] Juan Guaido as interim President” and defect to Colombia, as well as stranding “an estimated 25 crude oil tankers with 12 million barrels” off Venezuela’s coast.

“They [say] it’s our ‘key’ achievements,” Moncada commented. “They are saying that they are causing trouble in our military and inducing a military coup, [which] so far they haven’t achieved, but they are working towards.”

“If any other person says that themselves,” the ambassador concluded, “and you take that confession to court, they would be in prison.”

The State Department’s fact sheet even frames recent decisions by the Organization of American States, Lima Group, Inter-American Development Bank, and European Union to either recognize or support Guaido’s shadow administration as a U.S. achievement, highlighting Washington’s outsized influence within each of these supposedly international governing bodies. The decision to mention the E.U. and Lima Group is particularly noteworthy considering the United States is not a member of either organization.

“They are so far out of any normal parameters of decency, morality, legality, reason, that really they are dangerous,” Moncada said of the Trump administration. “They are a real threat to international peace, and they are a real threat to my people.”

[I]Anya Parampil is a Washington, DC-based journalist. She previously hosted a daily progressive afternoon news program called In Question on RT America. She has produced and reported several documentaries, including on the ground reports from the Korean peninsula and Palestine.

AutumnW

7th May 2019, 04:14

Abby Martin on Maduro. It's all so sickening.

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

Hervé

7th May 2019, 15:12

Beside BigOil, let's have a peek at the other vested interests/vultures active in Venezuela's downfall... BigAgro and its Bigpharma backers:

How GMO Seeds and Monsanto /Bayer’s “RoundUp” Are Driving US Policy in Venezuela (https://www.globalresearch.ca/gmo-seeds-monsantobayers-roundup-driving-us-policy-venezuela/5676799)

By Whitney Webb (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/whitney-webb) Global Research,
May 07, 2019
MintPress News (https://www.mintpressnews.com/how-gmo-seeds-and-monsanto-bayers-roundup-are-driving-us-policy-in-venezuela/258232/) 6 May 2019

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/monsanto-pesticide-dicamba-400x251.jpg

With Juan Guaidó’s parallel government attempting to take power with the backing of the U.S., it is telling that the top political donors of those in the U.S. most fervently pushing regime change in Venezuela have close ties to Monsanto and major financial stakes in Bayer.

***

As the political crisis in Venezuela has unfolded, much has been said about the Trump administration’s clear interest in the privatization and exploitation of Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world, by American oil giants like Chevron and ExxonMobil.

Yet the influence of another notorious American company, Monsanto — now a subsidiary of Bayer — has gone largely unmentioned.

While numerous other Latin American nations have become a “free for all” for the biotech company and its affiliates, Venezuela has been one of the few countries to fight Monsanto and other international agrochemical giants and win. However, since that victory — which was won under Chavista rule — the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition has been working to undo it.

Now, with Juan Guaidó’s parallel government attempting to take power with the backing of the U.S., it is telling that the top political donors of those in the U.S. most fervently pushing regime change in Venezuela have close ties to Monsanto and major financial stakes in Bayer.

In recent months, Monsanto’s most controversial and notorious product — the pesticide glyphosate, branded as Roundup, and linked to cancer in recent U.S. court rulings — has threatened Bayer’s financial future as never before, with a litany of new court cases barking at Bayer’s door. It appears that many of the forces in the U.S. now seeking to overthrow the Venezuelan government are hoping that a new Guaidó-led government will provide Bayer with a fresh, much-needed market for its agrochemicals and transgenic seeds, particularly those products that now face bans in countries all over the world, including once-defoliated and still-poisoned Vietnam (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-vietnam-glyphosate/u-s-criticizes-vietnam-ban-of-glyphosate-herbicide-imports-idUSKCN1RN2F4).

U.S.-Backed Venezuelan opposition seeks to reverse Chavista seed law and GMO ban
In 2004, then-president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, surprised many when he announced (https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/221/46944.html) the cancellation of Monsanto’s plans to plant 500,000 acres of Venezuelan agricultural land in genetically modified (GM) soybeans. The cancellation of Monsanto’s Venezuela contract led to what became an ad hoc ban on all GM seeds in the entire country, a move that was praised by local farmer groups and environmental activists. In contrast to anti-GM movements that have sprung up in other countries, Venezuela’s resistance to GM crops was based more on concerns about the country’s food sovereignty and protecting the livelihoods of farmers.

Although the ban has failed to keep GM products out of Venezuela — as Venezuela has long imported a majority of its food, much of it originating in countries that are among the world’s largest producers of genetically modified foods — one clear effect has been preventing companies like Monsanto and other major agrochemical and seed companies from gaining any significant foothold in the Venezuelan market.

In 2013, a new seed law (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10966) was nearly passed that would have allowed GM seeds to be sold in Venezuela through a legal loophole. That law, which was authored by a member of the Chavista United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), was widely protested (https://www.telesurenglish.net/amp/opinion/Venezuela-Farmers-Fight-Monsanto-Seed-Imperialism---and-Win-20161014-0026.html) by farmers, indigenous activists, environmentalists, and eco-socialist groups, which led to the law’s transformation into what has been nicknamed the “People’s Seed Law.” That law, passed in 2015, went even farther (https://www.ecowatch.com/venezuela-bans-gmo-crops-passes-one-of-worlds-most-progressive-seed-la-1882142600.html) than the original 2004 ban by banning not just GM seeds but several toxic agrochemicals, while also strengthening heirloom seed varieties through the creation of the National Seed Institute.

Soon after the new seed law was passed in 2015, the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition led by the Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD) — a group comprised of numerous U.S.-funded political parties, including Guaidó’s Popular Will — took control of the country’s National Assembly. Until Venezuela’s Supreme Court dissolved (https://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/30/americas/venezuela-dissolves-national-assembly/index.html) the assembly in 2017, the MUD-legislature attempted to repeal (https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuela-Opposition-Congress-Seek-To-Repeal-Anti-Monsanto-Bill-20160811-0038.html) the seed law on several occasions. Those in favor of the repeal called the seed bill “anti-scientific” and damaging to the economy.

Despite the 2017 Supreme Court decision, the National Assembly has continued to meet, but the body holds no real power in the current Venezuelan government. However, if the current government is overthrown and Guaidó — the “interim president” who is also president of the dissolved National Assembly — comes to power, it seems almost certain that the “People’s Seed Law” will be one of the first pieces of legislation on the chopping block.

The AEI axis
Some of the key figures and loudest voices supporting the efforts of the Trump administration to overthrow the Venezuelan government in the United States are well-connected to one particular think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). For instance, John Bolton — now Trump’s national security advisor and a major player in the administration’s aggressive Venezuela policy — was a senior fellow (https://www.whitehouse.gov/people/john-r-bolton/) at AEI until he became Trump’s top national security official. As national security adviser, Bolton advises the president on foreign policy and issues of national security while also advising both the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense. As of late, he has been pushing for military action in Venezuela, according to media reports.

Another key figure in Trump’s Venezuela policy — Elliott Abrams, the State Department’s Special Representative for Venezuela — has been regularly featured at AEI summits (https://legacy.tyt.com/2018/05/02/secretive-aei-summit-features-militarists-and-financial-deregulators-reveals-how-trump-base-has-lost/) and as a guest (https://www.owltail.com/podcasts/86639-aei-podcast-channel) on its panels and podcasts. According to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Abrams’ current role gives him the “responsibility for all things related to our efforts to restore democracy” in Venezuela. Other top figures in the administration, including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, were featured guests (https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/annual-aei-event-draws-pence-pompeo-kushner/article_1ee36c8a-0fa3-51ef-a4b2-045c4f55a045.html) at the AEI’s “secretive” gathering in early March. As MintPress and other outlets have reported, Guaidó declared himself “interim president” of Venezuela at Pence’s behest. Pompeo is also intimately involved in directing Trump’s Venezuela policy as the president’s main adviser on foreign affairs.

Other connections to the Trump administration include Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos who was previously on AEI’s board of trustees (https://web.archive.org/web/20161103215513/http://www.aei.org/about/board-of-trustees/).

AEI has long been a key part of the “neoconservative” establishment and employs well-known neoconservatives such as Fred Kagan — the architect of the Iraq “troop surge” — and Paul Wolfowitz, the architect of the Iraq War. Its connections to the George W. Bush administration were particularly notable and controversial, as more than 20 AEI employees were given top positions under Bush. Several of them, such as Bolton, have enjoyed new prominence in Trump’s administration.

Other key Bush officials joined the AEI soon after leaving their posts in the administration. One such was Roger Noriega, who was the U.S. representative to the Organization of American States (OAS) during the failed, U.S.-backed 2002 coup and went on to be assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs from 2003 to 2005, where he was extremely influential in the administration’s policies towards Venezuela and Cuba.

Since leaving the Bush administration and promptly joining the AEI, Noriega has been instrumental in pushing claims that lack evidence but aim to paint Venezuela’s current President Nicolas Maduro-led government as a national security threat, such as claiming that Venezuela is helping Iran acquire nuclear weapons and hosts soldiers from Lebanon’s Hezbollah. He also lobbied Congress to support Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, Guaidó’s political mentor and leader of his political party, Popular Will.

Not only that, but Noreiga teamed up with Martin Rodil (https://www.crunchbase.com/person/martin-rodil#section-overview), a Venezuelan exile formerly employed by the IMF, and José Cardenas, who served in the Bush administration, to found Visión Américas (http://visionamericas.com/), a private risk-assessment and lobbying firm that was hired (https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/world/americas/08honduras.html) to “support the efforts of the Honduran private sector to help consolidate the democratic transition in their country” after the U.S.-backed Honduran coup in 2009. In recent months, Noriega and his associates have been very focused on Venezuela, with Cardenas offering Trump public advice (https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/02/21/heres-how-trump-can-hasten-maduros-exit/) about how “to hasten Maduro’s exit,” while Rodil has publicly offered (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-12-08/why-witnesses-to-venezuela-s-catastrophic-corruption-keep-turning-up-in-the-u-s) “to get you a deal” if you have dirt on Venezuela’s government.

While the AEI is best known for its hawkishness, it is also a promoter of big agricultural interests. Since 2000, It has hosted several conferences (http://archives.jonentine.com/conferences.html) on the promise of “biotechnology” and genetically modified seeds and has heavily promoted the work (http://archives.jonentine.com/conferences.html) of former Monsanto lobbyist Jon Entine, who was an AEI visiting fellow (https://www.aei.org/profile/jon-entine/) for several years. The AEI also has long-time connections (https://www.gmwatch.org/en/latest-listing/43-2004/448-aei-wades-in-biotech-bounty-qsaving-billionsq-or-qmaking-billionsq-) to Dow Chemical.

The most likely reason for the AEI’s interest in promoting biotech, however, can be found in its links to Monsanto. In 2013, The Nation acquired (https://www.thenation.com/article/secret-foreign-donor-behind-american-enterprise-institute/) a 2009 AEI document (https://thenation.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/AEI_2009_schedule.pdf), obtained through a filing error and not intended for public disclosure, that revealed the think tank’s top donors. The form, known as the “schedule of contributors,” revealed that the AEI’s top two donors at the time were the Donors Capital Fund and billionaire Paul Singer.

The Donors Capital Fund, which remains (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5744017-Donors-Capital-Fund-2017-990.html#document/p1) a major contributor to the AEI, is linked to Monsanto interests through the vice chairman (http://donorscapitalfund.org/AboutUs/KimberlyDennis.aspx) of its board, Kimberly O. Dennis, who is also currently a member (http://jeffersonlives.com/2018/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2018-Annual-Report-Nov-17-FinalCCnew.pdf) of the AEI’s National Council. According to AEI, the National Council is composed of “business and community leaders from across the country who are committed to AEI’s success and serve as ambassadors for AEI, providing us with advice, insight, and guidance.”

Dennis is the long-time executive chairwoman (http://donorscapitalfund.org/AboutUs/KimberlyDennis.aspx) of the Searle Freedom Trust, which was founded in 1988 by Daniel Searle after he oversaw the sale (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-19-fi-6792-story.html) of his family pharmaceutical company — G.D. Searle and Company — to Monsanto in 1985 for $2.7 billion. The money Searle had made from that merger was used to fund the trust that now funds the AEI and other right-wing think tanks. Searle was also close to Donald Rumsfeld, who led (https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-05-24-8502020150-story.html) G.D. Searle and Co. for years and was Secretary of Defense under Gerald Ford and George W. Bush. Searle was also a trustee of the Hudson Institute, which once employed Elliott Abrams (https://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/elliott-abrams/).

After the family company — which gained notoriety for faking research (https://usrtk.org/sweeteners/aspartame_health_risks/) about the safety of its sweetener, aspartame or NutraSweet — was sold to Monsanto, G.D. Searle executives close to Daniel Searle rose to prominence within the company. Robert Shapiro, who was G.D. Searle’s long-time attorney and head of its NutraSweet division, would go on to become Monsanto’s vice president, president and later CEO. Notably, Daniel Searle’s grandson, D. Gideon Searle, was an AEI trustee (https://web.archive.org/web/20161103215513/http://www.aei.org/about/board-of-trustees/) until relatively recently.

Why is a top donor to Marco Rubio increasing his stake in Bayer while others flee?

https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Screenshot-261_edited.jpg

Yet, it is AEI’s top individual donor noted in the accidental “schedule of contributors” disclosure who is most telling about the private biotech interests guiding the Trump administration’s Venezuela policy. Paul Singer (image above), the controversial billionaire hedge fund manager, has long been a major donor to neoconservative and Zionist causes — helping fund the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), the successor to the Project for a New American Century (PNAC); and the neoconservative and islamophobic Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), in addition to the AEI.

Singer is notably one of the top political donors (https://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/30/politics/marco-rubio-paul-singer-endorsement/) to Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and has been intimately involved in the recent chaos in Venezuela. He has been called one of the architects of the administration’s current regime-change policy, and was the top donor to Rubio’s presidential campaign, as well as a key figure behind the controversial “dossier” on Donald Trump that was compiled by Fusion GPS. Indeed, Singer had been the first person (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/us/politics/trump-dossier-paul-singer.html) to hire Fusion GPS to do “opposition research” on Trump. However, Singer has largely since evaded much scrutiny for his role in the dossier’s creation, likely because he became a key donor to Trump following his election win in 2016, giving $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.

Singer has a storied history in South America, though he has been relatively quiet about Venezuela. However, a long-time manager of Singer’s hedge fund, Jay Newman, recently told Bloomberg (https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/jay-newman-warns-investors-of-venezuela-s-anti-creditor-army-1.1217015) that a Guaidó-led government would recognize that foreign creditors “aren’t the enemy,” and hinted that Newman himself was weighing whether to join a growing “list of bond veterans [that have] already begun staking out positions, anticipating a $60 billion debt restructuring once the U.S.-backed Guaidó manages to oust President Nicolas Maduro and take control.” In addition, the Washington Free Beacon, which is largely funded (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/conservative-website-first-paid-fusion-gps-for-trump-research/2017/10/27/ee05c1d6-bb6f-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html) by Singer, has been a vocal advocate (https://freebeacon.com/?s=venezuela&submit=Search) for the Trump administration’s regime-change policy in Venezuela.

Beyond that, Singer’s Elliott Management Corporation gave Roger Noriega, the former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs under Bush, $60,000 (https://fair.org/home/nyt-failed-to-note-op-ed-authors-funder-has-2-billion-motive-for-attacking-argentina/) in 2007 to lobby (https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=400F2902-8A48-43B8-83AE-EABA9E17A6F4&filingTypeID=1)on the issue of sovereign debt and for “federal advocacy on behalf of U.S. investors in Latin America.” During the time Noriega was on Singer’s payroll, he wrote articles linking Argentina and Venezuela to Iran’s nonexistent nuclear program. At the time, Singer was aggressively pursuing the government of Argentina in an effort to obtain more money from the country’s prior default on its sovereign debt.

While Singer has been mum himself on Venezuela, he has been making business decisions that have raised eyebrows, such as significantly increasing (https://nypost.com/2018/12/07/paul-singers-activist-fund-takes-stake-in-germanys-bayer/) his stake in Bayer. This move seems at odds with Bayer’s financial troubles, a direct result of the slew of court cases regarding the link between Monsanto’s glyphosate and cancer. The first ruling that signaled trouble for Monsanto and its new parent company Bayer took place last August, but Singer increased his stake in the company starting last December (https://nypost.com/2018/12/07/paul-singers-activist-fund-takes-stake-in-germanys-bayer/), even though it was already clear by then that Bayer’s financial troubles in relation to the glyphosate court cases were only beginning.

Since the year began, Bayer’s problems with the Monsanto merger have only worsened, with Bayer’s CEO recently stating (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bayer-ceo-idUSKCN1RN0WS) that the lawsuits had “massively affected” the company’s stock prices and financial performance.

Forcing open a new market for RoundUp
Part of Singer’s interest in Bayer may relate to Venezuela, given that Juan Guaido’s “Plan País” to “rescue” the Venezuelan economy includes a focus (http://www.102nueve.com/2019/01/31/plan-pais-guaido-presento-programa-para-recuperar-la-economia-de-venezuela/) on the country’s agricultural sector. Notably, prior to and under Chavismo, agricultural productivity and investment in the agricultural sector took a backseat to oil production, resulting in under 25 percent (http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/EL/visualize) of Venezuelan land being used for agricultural purposes despite the fact that the nation has a wealth of arable land. The result has been that Venezuela needs to import (https://www.export.gov/article?id=Venezuela-Market-Overview) much of its food from abroad, most of which originate in Colombia or the United States.

Under Chávez and his successor, Maduro, there has been a renewed focus (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4873) on small-scale farming, food sovereignty and organic agriculture. However, if Maduro is ousted and Guaidó moves to implement his “Plan País,” the opposition’s coziness with foreign corporations, the interests of U.S. coup architects in Bayer/Monsanto, and the opposition’s past efforts to overturn the GM seed ban all suggest that a new market for Bayer/Monsanto products — particularly glyphosate — will open up.

South America has long been a key market (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-argentina-idUSKCN0Y92YT) for Monsanto and — as the company’s problems began to mount prior to the merger with Bayer — it became a lifeline for the company due to less stringent environmental and consumer regulations that many Western countries. In recent years, when South American governments have opened their countries to more “market-friendly” policies in their agricultural sectors, Monsanto has made millions.

For instance, when Brazil sought to expand biotechnology (i.e. GM seed) investment in 2012, Monsanto saw a 21% increase (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1110783/000119312512428583/d410012d10k.htm) in its sales of GM corn seed alone, generating an additional $1 billion in profits for the company. A similar comeback scenario is needed more than every by Bayer/Monsanto, as Monsanto’s legal troubles saw the company’s profits plunge (http://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/bayer-profits-plummet-after-mammoth-monsanto-merger.phtml) late last year.

With countries around the world now weighing glyphosate bans as a result of increased litigation over the chemical’s links to cancer, Bayer needs a new market for the chemical to avoid financial ruin. As Singer now has a significant stake in the company, he — along with the politicians and think tanks he funds — may see promise in the end of the anti-GM seed ban that a Guaidó-led government would bring.

Furthermore, given that Guaidó’s top adviser wants the Trump administration to have a direct role in governing Venezuela if Maduro is ousted, it seems likely that Singer would leverage his connections to keep Bayer/Monsanto afloat amid the growing controversy surrounding glyphosate. Such behavior on the part of Singer would hardly be surprising in light of the fact that international financial media have characterized him (https://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/hedge-funds/inside-paul-singers-elliott-management-stalking-bhp-billiton-20170411-gvi6jq) as a “ruthless opportunist” and “overly aggressive.”

Such an outcome would be in keeping with the increased profit margins for Monsanto and related companies that have followed its expansion into countries following U.S.-backed coups. For instance, after the U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014, the loans given to Ukraine by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank forced (https://theecologist.org/2014/sep/11/ukraine-opens-monsanto-land-grabs-and-gmos) the country to open up and expand the use of “biotechnology” and GM crops in its agricultural sector, and Monsanto, in particular, made millions as the prior government’s ban on GM seeds and their associated agrochemicals was reversed. If Maduro is ousted, a similar scenario is likely to play out in Venezuela, given that the Guaidó-led government made known its intention to borrow heavily (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/world-bank-preparing-deeply-involved-venezuela-190411195030646.html) from these institutions just days after (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-guaido/venezuelas-guaido-considering-request-for-funds-from-imf-sources-idUSKCN1PJ21Q) Guaidó declared himself “interim president.”

*

Whitney Webb is a MintPress News journalist based in Chile. She has contributed to several independent media outlets including Global Research, EcoWatch, the Ron Paul Institute and 21st Century Wire, among others. She has made several radio and television appearances and is the 2019 winner of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism.

Related:
Who Owns the US Congress, Really? (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106374-Who-Owns-the-US-Congress-Really)

ThePythonicCow

10th May 2019, 00:50

Hervé

15th May 2019, 20:09

Venezuela isn't Syria... but America's war tactics are the same (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/459333-syria-venezuela-same-tactics-america/)

Eva Bartlett RT (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/459333-syria-venezuela-same-tactics-america/)
Wed, 15 May 2019 17:36 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/522375/large/5cdad671fc7e9330688b4591.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/522375/full/5cdad671fc7e9330688b4591.jpg)
© Getty Images/Anadolu Agency/Carlos Becerra; Global Look Press/ZUMAPRESS.com/Erik Mcgregor

Since Juan Guaido declared himself Venezuela's interim president, rhetoric emanating from Washington has grown increasingly familiar.

It echoes the bombastic & hollow humanitarian-crisis type of war propaganda which has been used repeatedly in resource-rich (https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1121336133303111681) nations, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria (https://twitter.com/TonyCartalucci/status/1122665127591813120). And now we're seeing it in Venezuela.

The regime-change recipe is straightforward (https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1121162436600586243): demonize the leadership and those who defend the country; support an opposition that is inevitably violent and whitewash their crimes; sanction the country & attack the infrastructure to create unbearable conditions; create fake news about humanitarian issues; possibly wage false flag incidents (http://theindicter.com/from-timisoara-to-khan-shaykhun-part-i-the-staged-massacre-routine-for-regime-change/) to incriminate the government; control the narrative (https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/03/20/americas-venezuela-strategy-coup-by-sheer-narrative-control/); and insist that intervention is necessary for the well-being of the people.

In Libya, black Africans are being sold as slaves (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/411562-libya-slave-markets-nato/) in a country devastated by Western fake humanitarianism and bombings.

Venezuela has for years been defiantly resisting the economic and propaganda wars, led by the US and Canada (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCq3tMtCrSI&feature=youtu.be&t=534&fbclid=IwAR1O4qKcMuK3AQrvocwCGU89LA-DZ5ArKf9gm9N19fAjemfVW5XxIb1M43Y), as well as coup d'état and assassination attempts, only to see the anti-Venezuela rhetoric once again ramped up in recent months.

In spite of the wreckage trail that America's regime change efforts have left over the decades throughout Latin America and the world, when comparing tactics against these countries and now again against Venezuela, some people surprisingly insist that this time it is different (https://www.facebook.com/EvaBoBeeva/posts/2365458610130786).

Venezuela isn't Syria, they say (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1113809615270154241). This time, they argue, it really is about a 'corrupt regime,' and 'human rights' - or in the case of Venezuela, a 'humanitarian crisis'... as if the US has ever had the best interests of any people, including their own (https://twitter.com/Underground_RT/status/1115542764643586048), at heart.

They ignore the West's murderous sanctions against Venezuela and the propping up of the violent 'opposition (https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-violent-past-of-venezuelan-opposition-leader-leopoldo-lopez/229679/)' - an opposition that has burned civilians alive (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13170) - as well as the millions of dollars spent supporting it.

Then there's the more recent violent actions against Venezuela, like the February 23 attempt to ram aid trucks (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/02/24/burning-aid-colombia-venezuela-bridge/) into Venezuela, and the April 30 US-backed coup attempt (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14453?fbclid=IwAR0DGTKtHTPBYozt8qTqTShnu_bhj2pNZkTGa90bCKxTiky6c4ok52Ak4u4) by Guaido and Leopoldo Lopez (a violent right-wing opposition leader (https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-violent-past-of-venezuelan-opposition-leader-leopoldo-lopez/229679/)) - an attempt clearly rejected by (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYjuEk5Jt-w&feature=youtu.be)masses of Venezuelans.

Colectivos, the new 'Shabiha'
Prior to 2011, the Western corporate media actually had many positive things to say about Syria's leadership, praising President Assad as an open-minded reformer. When the regime-change operation kicked off, Assad and allies were number one enemies. In both Venezuela and Syria, presidents Maduro and Assad were legitimately elected (https://popularresistance.org/venezuela-defeats-us-in-election/) and retain wide support among the population.

Yet, the Western corporate media and the politicians they echo routinely deem both countries to be "dictatorships" and the elected presidents illegitimate - while backing unpopular and undemocratic puppets they seek to put in place.

But demonizing the government isn't enough; supporters of the government likewise are targeted, or simply disappeared (https://www.sott.net/article/325238-Western-corporate-media-disappears-over-1-5-million-Syrians-and-4000-doctors). In Syria, supporters are called shabiha, inferring they - yes, millions of them! - are paid thugs of the government, and thus negating their voices.

It is an utterly disingenuous tactic used to silence the voices of the masses - along the lines of Western corporate media calling those of us (https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-the-mainstream-media-whitewashed-al-qaeda-and-the-white-helmets-in-syria/5624930) who actually question, let alone go to the places in question, 'conspiracy theorists.'

Venezuela's shabiha are the colectivos, and are likewise depicted as (https://www.rt.com/news/455603-venezuelans-colectivos-defending-revolution-redfish/) government-backed thugs, and designated by the US' actual thugs as 'terrorists.'

These collectives are organized, grassroots groups (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySnd_Mp_u1o) of people who come together as educators, feminists, pensioners, farmers, environmentalists, to provide healthcare in their communities, among other things, or in defense of their nation.

While smearing collective grassroots groups, Western corporate media and barking politicians like Marco Rubio and John Bolton whitewash the actual crimes of armed opposition supporters. One such recent example (https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1125041503489994752) was opposition members setting fire to (https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1125041503489994752) a Caracas PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) headquarters, leaving a note cursing colectivos.

In Venezuela, I spent time with the leader of a youth collective (https://www.thecanary.co/feature/2019/03/30/two-weeks-inside-one-of-venezuelas-notorious-colectivos/) of 170 families. The collective helps the community's youth with their needs and organizes activities for them, as well as providing affordable produce to the local community. During the power outages, this same colectivo supported hundreds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvnMm_Gabjs) of families in obtaining drinking and washing water, and in storing perishable foods.

On March 30, I joined hundreds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgFSeI2Km9Q&feature=youtu.be) of members of a motorcycle-taxi union colectivo driving their motorcycles through and around the capital in a show of support for their country and defiance against foreign intervention. These were women and men making a statement with their physical presence: they would not allow their country to be attacked, from within or without.

One of the organizers, acutely aware of how colectivos are portrayed, told me, "We are not terrorists, the terrorists have come with that lackey opposition," and went on to say that governments bring terrorism to Venezuela.

Another man at the motorcycle demonstration said, "We are suffering because of terrorism that has been implanted through a US puppet named Juan Guaidó. We say to you Guaidó and we say to you Trump: 'You took away our water, you took away the light, but you ignited our soul, and we are determined to defend the country with our lives if it is necessary.'"

The same bikers later joined up with the tens of thousands of Venezuelan civilians who took to the streets in a festive show of support for President Maduro. Two weeks prior, on March 16, I'd walked for a few hours in another such mass demonstration, filming demonstrators (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1110153250672705536), hearing their opinions on the non-president Guaido, on their support for Maduro, and on their refusal to see their Bolivarian project be destroyed.

Earlier that day, circling (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1112007675754237952)around for an hour on the motorcycle-taxi I had flagged down, I searched for opposition supporters who were meant (https://twitter.com/AmplioCcs/status/1111834863206830080)to have converged in multiple points across the city as per Guaido's calls to take to the streets. In one of the locations I instead found Maduro supporters, and finally in other locations found handfuls of supporters (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1112009345263456256), then a couple dozen (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1112010622139617283)supporters in the opposition stronghold, Altimira.

In Syria, mass demonstrations supporting President Assad occurred (https://www.globalresearch.ca/flashback-to-march-29-2011-over-6-million-people-marched-across-syria-in-support-of-president-al-assad/5439442#_blank)from the early months of 2011 and in years following (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZQ33sVnnNI).

Sanction the country & attack its infrastructure
The US and Canada have for years put Venezuela (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14431?fbclid=IwAR15Vk44W5JLbhpl2kjqJ8lPfKv2N9TIOm1gJYpu4pF3NQ7N0zw1hPVpGYI) under crippling sanctions, a form of collective punishment.

UN Special Rapporteur Idriss Jazairy on May 6 noted (https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24566&LangID=E) the hypocrisy of imposing devastating sanctions and related economic measures and yet it is claimed these help the Venezuelan people.

UN expert Alfred de Zayas aptly calls sanctions (https://twitter.com/Alfreddezayas/status/1124732644288233472) a form of terrorism, "because they invariably impact, directly or indirectly, the poor and vulnerable."

US talking heads downplay the drastic effects of sanctions, but the reality of their effect is staggering.

A recent report (http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/venezuela-sanctions-2019-04.pdf) estimated that sanctions caused 40,000 deaths in 2017-2018, with 300,000 more Venezuelans at risk. Recently, a six-year-old boy needing a bone marrow transplant and treatment (provided by an association in agreement with the PDVSA, Venezuela's oil and natural gas company), died as a result of (http://www.vicepresidencia.gob.ve/bloqueo-economico-contra-venezuela-evita-suministro-continuo-de-medicamentos/) his treatment being denied due to US sanctions on PDVSA.

When I arrived (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/455081-manufactured-crisis-venezuela-us-intervention/)in Caracas in March, it was three days into the first of two major power outages in Venezuela that month. Of the first, the Venezuelan government maintains that the US targeted Venezuela's power grid, through cyber attack, using electromagnetic pulse devices, and by physical attacks.

Targeting electrical infrastructure isn't a foreign concept for the US, and during the first outage, even Forbes wrote (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/03/09/could-venezuelas-power-outage-really-be-a-cyber-attack/#43136759607c) that, "the idea of a government like the United States remotely interfering with its power grid is actually quite realistic."

Hours before the power cut on March 7, Marco Rubio foresaw (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/florida-senator-marco-rubio-%E2%80%98venezuela-is-going-to-enter-a-period-of-suffering%E2%80%99/ar-BBUvtLj) that Venezuela would "enter a period of suffering that no nation has confronted in modern history."

In Syria, since 2011 terrorists have targeted (https://southfront.org/syrian-energy-crisis-what-you-need-to-know/)electricity stations and power plants. Syrians in Aleppo lived for years without electricity, deprived of power after terrorists took control of the district housing the power plant. Those who could afford it bought generator electricity by the ampere (https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-villages-in-aleppo-ravaged-by-americas-moderate-rebels/5544799).

Following the 2006 Israeli bombing of Gaza's power plant, Palestinians suffered years of power outages for 18 or more hours a day. At present, Gaza has eight hours of electricity per day.

Clearly, the concept of attacking infrastructure like electricity and water is one the US and allies are intimately familiar with, in order to creating hellish living conditions for the people of the country being targeted.

Starvation & garbage eating crisis
In Syria, every time an area occupied by Al-Qaeda and Co. is being liberated, corporate media screams en masse about starving civilians (https://www.mintpressnews.com/order-returns-to-western-syria-civilians-recount-horrors-rebel-rule/232380/), thrusting the blame on the Syrian government when in fact every time hunger has been the result of terrorists (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/429349-syrians-tell-terrorists-white-helmets/)hoarding and controlling food and aid.

The starving civilians propaganda has resurfaced in Venezuela, with Western media claiming an epidemic of empty-shelved (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/world/americas/venezuela-voices-protests.html)stores and people eating from garbage.

Jorge Ramos, a Univision journalist, claimed to have filmed three men eating out of a dumpster very near (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ureaEUFbL94) - even minutes from (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/opinion/jorge-ramos-venezuela.html) - the Venezuelan presidential palace, Miraflores. In reality, Ramos filmed in Chacao (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3eVCvKAXIQ), an opposition stronghold nearly 7km from the palace, more like half an hour away in Caracas traffic.

In late March, I walked with a youth colectivo leader I'd gotten to know around the barrio below his Las Brisas district in western Caracas.

To illustrate his point that the Western hype about mass starvation was nonsense, he knocked on doors in the lower-class district asking people we met if they were starving, and whether they'd eaten today. Most we met were confused by the odd question (clearly they haven't seen Rubio's Twitter feed).

In the hilltop housing complex of Ciudad Mariche, locals likewise were adamant that there isn't a humanitarian crisis. One man told me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGyjBsjTHZU): "We're not starving. We have many general problems, but not starving. This is not a humanitarian crisis. Say to your governments, this isn't a fight against Maduro, this is a fight against a people that are trying to be free."

Any state other than the US in Syria, Venezuela, 'illegal'
According to the bully of the world, only the US has the right to intervene in sovereign nations, in spite of the fact their uninvited intervention is illegal.

The US has threatened Venezuela's allies, including Cuba and Russia (https://sputniknews.com/us/201904151074130931-usa-venezuela-cuba-russia-pompeo/), bizarrely claiming Russia was intervening in Venezuela without the government's consent, a claim which runs contrary to (https://sputniknews.com/world/201904191074292260-us-russia-no-planes/?fbclid=IwAR38em2G6cov_JmACg3IihEkzQNj4PtxIyfYt6YcMrB8fk6lsGVqDIrPDPo) the bilateral agreement Russia and Venezuela have.

The hypocritical posturing of the US hasn't dented Russia's alliance with Venezuela, with Moscow announcing the intent to (https://www.hispantv.com/noticias/rusia/427527/eeuu-invasion-militar-venezuela-maduro-guaido?fbclid=IwAR0O_eF2DoZ5TN6PDCb1Cpml3bTKSUgaQgtaULlnj-KvNF8fppwV4U_9hrM) create a "UN coalition of countries to 'counter' the eventual invasion of Venezuela by the US."

In any case, like Syria, Venezuela will not be overtaken so easily, with its armed forces (https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1121345087471009793) of 200,000 and its nearly 2 million (https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bolivarian-Militias-are-Honored-Today-Across-Venezuela-20190413-0012.html) militias preparing to defend their land.

perolator

22nd May 2019, 21:09

Venezuelan army to keep PdV tankers on course (https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/1907207-venezuelan-army-to-keep-pdv-tankers-on-course?backToResults=true)

Venezuelan army troops have been deployed aboard 15 oil tankers owned by state-owned PdV to fend off mutinies and ensure that cargoes destined mainly for Cuba are delivered, according to officials from PdV, the defense ministry and the presidential palace.

The effective militarization of PdV's tankers reflects government concerns that dissident crew could thwart Venezuela's oil exports by sabotaging tankers or diverting cargoes, especially at a time of acute fuel shortages inside Venezuela. But the campaign could leave tankers vulnerable to search and seizure by warships patrolling the Caribbean, one expert warned.

Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro ordered the defense ministry to launch Operation Sovereign Petroleum that seizes vessel control from officers following a 1 May incident in which the PdV-owned Manuela Saenz tried to defy oil ministry instructions to deliver a diesel cargo to Cuba.

The captain of the Manuela Saenz and several crew members were immediately arrested by the government's intelligence agency Sebin and accused of treason. The arrested personnel have not yet been arraigned before a civilian court.

A defense ministry official said they could be prosecuted in military courts if they are formally indicted on treason charges.

The 15 tankers now under permanent army control include the Manuela Saenz, Icaro, Negra Hipolita, Eos, Luisa Caceres, Rio Orinoco, Rio Apure, Rio Caroni, Paramaconi, Proteo, Nereo, Zeus, Hero, Yare and Yavire. The Rio Arauca is also on the list, but the vessel is currently seized off the coast of Portugal.

The tankers include eight Lakemax tankers built for PdV in the 1990s by South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries to transport crude from Lake Maracaibo in Zulia state and Puerto La Cruz in Anzoátegui state to US clients.

Since US sanctions were imposed on PdV on 28 January, these tankers have been used to transport oil to Cuba, and for floating storage and cabotage in Venezuelan waters. In the past the tankers were also used to transport cargoes to PdV´s storage facilities in the Dutch Caribbean, and some, such as the Icaro, have previously been seized by creditors.

The merchant marine captains and crew currently aboard the tankers will continue to operate the vessels with up to four army troops per tanker acting as observers to ensure the tankers and cargoes are not sabotaged, and any dissidence among the crew is suppressed, the defense ministry official said.

The army security teams placed aboard the tankers are equipped with side arms and Russian-made AK-103 automatic rifles, the official said. "The security personnel are prepared for any contingency that could arise aboard the tankers."

The soldiers took position on the vessels without incident over 16-19 May, the defense official added.

Eduardo González, chief executive of PdV´s shipping arm PdV Marina, was present at the army deployment aboard the Icaro and Teseo tankers anchored near the Amuay terminal at the 940,000 b/d CRP refining complex in Falcon state, a PdV Marina official tells Argus.

Since US sanctions against PdV were imposed in January 2019, the company has sought to circumvent their impact on its export and import operations by engaging in offshore ship-to-ship cargo transfers, and instructing tankers to switch off their transponders.

Venezuela's top civilian authority on the country's armed forces, Rocio San Miguel, said the Maduro government's decision to deploy army troops aboard PdV's tankers "turns them into military ships" potentially at risk of being intercepted, boarded and inspected by non-Venezuelan warships patrolling in Caribbean waters.

The oil ministry and PdV declined to comment, referring inquiries to the defense ministry.

Venezuela has a two-decade-old agreement with close ally Cuba to supply oil to the island in exchange for the deployment of Cuban specialists in security, healthcare and sports, among other fields. The country's political opposition has long argued that PdV is giving the oil away.

The US government last month started sanctioning some tankers and shipping companies involved in transporting Venezuelan oil to Cuba, which Washington blames for propping up the Maduro government.

---
I am biting my tongue on this (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1291597&viewfull=1#post1291597) "organized, grassroots groups of people who come together as educators, feminists, pensioners, farmers, environmentalists, to provide healthcare in their communities, among other things, or in defense of their nation"

Awwwww, how cute :inlove:

Operation Sovereign Petroleum is all about sending oil to Cuba... I think some white powder is going forward also -my personal opinion-

Bubu

23rd May 2019, 00:54

Good to see that the people of the world are now aware of how this rogue government of the world operates. I read somewhere that Putin with the possible aid of China Iran India and many others are helping small nations that is targeted by this rogue government. Of course they should because if they dont, they will find out someday the vast part of the world had been converted into anti Rusian anti... . I think most of the world leaders are by now aware of this fact. We see all the copy pasted strategies like false flags or "lets go to war and save the world against this villain", miserably failed again and again. It seems that they can no longer come up with another idea that can work. Thus the copy pasting. The ship is sinking. god save the queen.

Gracy

23rd May 2019, 02:22

Might the following have something to do with why regime change is so badly needed in Venezuela? Besides who controls her natural resources?

This is the story of Venezuela in black and white, the story not told in The New York Times or the rest of our establishment media. This year’s so-called popular uprising is, at its heart, a furious backlash of the whiter (and wealthier) Venezuelans against their replacement by the larger Mestizo (mixed-race) poor. (Forty-four percent of the population that answered the 2014 census listed themselves as “white.”)

Four centuries of white supremacy in Venezuela by those who identify their ancestors as European came to an end with the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez, who won with the overwhelming support of the Mestizo majority. This turn away from white supremacy continues under Maduro, Chavez’s chosen successor.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14318

Franny

23rd May 2019, 06:02

It might have something to do with that, it might be about the oil.

This is a quote of the last 2 paragraphs.

The putsch in Venezuela is run by the wealthy, internationally connected minority operating by a regime-change plan designed by neocon retread John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser — a plan to control Venezuela (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/02/04/john-bolton-living-his-dream-224546) and its oil, as Bolton (https://truthout.org/video/bolton-pushes-privatization-of-venezuelas-oil-as-us-ratchets-up-pressure/) openly proclaims.
Ah, yes, the oil. It’s always the oil. And Venezuela has plenty to seize: the world’s largest reserves (https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/171.htm).

Might the following have something to do with why regime change is so badly needed in Venezuela? Besides who controls her natural resources?

This is the story of Venezuela in black and white, the story not told in The New York Times or the rest of our establishment media. This year’s so-called popular uprising is, at its heart, a furious backlash of the whiter (and wealthier) Venezuelans against their replacement by the larger Mestizo (mixed-race) poor. (Forty-four percent of the population that answered the 2014 census listed themselves as “white.”)

Four centuries of white supremacy in Venezuela by those who identify their ancestors as European came to an end with the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez, who won with the overwhelming support of the Mestizo majority. This turn away from white supremacy continues under Maduro, Chavez’s chosen successor.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14318

perolator

24th May 2019, 02:00

@Gracy May,

It is obvious Trump, Bolton and their allies want the oil. Cuba also wants the oil (and have been served steadily for 20 years for free or peanuts) and China, among others. Caribbean islands also want cheap/free oil. Russia wants the Venezuelan oil industry destroyed because Venezuela is a direct competitor.

My country CAN extract, store, refine and distribute oil and its derivatives without any external aid. Venezuela was the third oil exporter of the world. Venezuelan scientists patented a process called Orimulsion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orimulsion) to obtain a bitumen-based fuel. Most skilled oil experts had to leave the country.

The problem is my country is ruled by armed and merciless narco-thugs. Most Venezuelans want them out.

That's a fact.

The South-American white supremacy theory portrayed by venezuelanalysis.com, a known pro-bolivarian-enchilada outlet, is nonsense.

The original inhabitants of Venezuela were Amerindians, predominantly Caribs and Arawaks. The majority (about 68%) of the present population is mestizo (mixed race). Approximately 21% are European, primarily Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and German. Blacks account for an estimated 8–10%, and Amerindians for about 2%. Arab peoples are also represented in the overall populace.

Read more: https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Venezuela.html#ixzz5onptDEmZ

Almost all presidents (including Chavez) were also mestizo. Almost all families have "chino" and "negro" members, and racism is less than an issue compared to the U.S.

Have a nice day.

Gracy

24th May 2019, 11:24

The South-American white supremacy theory portrayed by venezuelanalysis.com, a known pro-bolivarian-enchilada outlet, is nonsense.

Huh, Greg Palast is known throughout independent media as one of the few true, old school journalists out there still doing it right, are you saying hes just full of it?

Max Blumenthal is another such old school journalist. what do you make of his research on the history of Juan Guido, his movement, and his relationship with US led regime change organizations? Just a quick 5 minute interview on rt.
https://videodesc.com/max-blumenthal-how-us-trained-juan-guaido-for-regime-change/

Here is the original article he's speaking of i found it very interesting. love to hear your thoughts on that as well.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuela-coup-leader/254387/

Hervé

24th May 2019, 12:11

[...]
Max Blumenthal is another such old school journalist. what do you make of his research on the history of Juan Guido, his movement, and his relationship with US led regime change organizations? Just a quick 5 minute interview on rt.
https://videodesc.com/max-blumenthal-how-us-trained-juan-guaido-for-regime-change/

Here is the original article he's speaking of i found it very interesting. love to hear your thoughts on that as well.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuela-coup-leader/254387/
See post # 149 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1274518&viewfull=1#post1274518) (on page 8 of this thread) where that article is posted in full... you can follow the thoughts from there....

Gracy

24th May 2019, 12:44

Oops i must have missed that. Thank you Herve i'll go check it out!

Daughter of Time

24th May 2019, 16:34

I know several people from Venezuela. I've asked them their opinion on the current crisis in their native country since these people have relatives in Venezuela. Of course, I didn't expect them to know much other than what MSM tells them... and so it is...

Every one of these individuals fully believe that Maduro and his corrupt government is fully to blame for everything. Of course, there is truth in this... but no one wants to even entertain the idea that some countries north of South America and the powers that run the world might have something to do with it!

... and the ignorance and brain washing rages on!

I know this is not an enlightening or very informative post, but I wanted to share the result of my conversations with these people.

perolator

24th May 2019, 17:10

Oops i must have missed that. Thank you Herve i'll go check it out!

I just read this (https://www.gregpalast.com/in-venezuela-white-supremacy-is-a-key-to-trump-coup/) Greg Palast article with its doctored pictures. If I were not Venezuelan, I had not noticed the distorted faces of Dario Vivas, Diosdado Cabello and other members of the phony and illegal constituent assembly. How some people are shown with bigger, darker, clearly altered faces for impact?

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1501946919151/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/08/05/anc_3.png_1718483346.png

The picture above is from teleSUR, and fortunately it is not doctored. They look mostly mestizo, as most Venezuelans are.

https://www.dw.com/image/38351113_303.jpg

This picture is from a session of the legal national assembly. Notice most people are mestizo also.

I admit I am against socialism, and I loathe Venezuelan "robust socialist experiment" with all my soul. Therefore, it is likely you do not believe me. Anyway, if you really want to know, from an unbiased point of view about Venezuela's ethnicity read the book "Café con leche: Race, Class, and National Image in Venezuela (https://www.amazon.com/Caf%C3%A9-leche-Class-National-Venezuela/dp/029271128X?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=029271128X)" from Winthrop R. Wright. From the description:

For over a hundred years, Venezuelans have referred to themselves as a café con leche (coffee with milk) people. This colorful expression well describes the racial composition of Venezuelan society, in which European, African, and Indian peoples have intermingled to produce a population in which almost everyone is of mixed blood. It also expresses a popular belief that within their blended society Venezuelans have achieved a racial democracy in which people of all races live free from prejudice and discrimination.

There is some racism, thanks to the twisted mind of Chavez and their people, to divide what it were a country with almost no racism. Fortunately, the class struggle did not flourish; when they (military and government) became the rich and famous, they stopped propelling class struggle.

By the way, Greg Palast may be an excellent journalist to you, but *not* regarding the situation in my country. He is just like Max Blumenthal, Abby Martin, Eva Bartlett et al.

AutumnW

24th May 2019, 17:19

You can't reason with people who are politically ignorant. Take the situation of all of the homeless in the U.S. and Canada. So many people "tut tut. Their primary problem is drug addiction."

You will never hear the willfully ignorant discuss the logical progression of homelessness and how it is partly a result of big Pharma and the oxycontin debacle. Nor will you hear an informed discussion by the ignorant about the social and political forces at play that are directly responsible for all the crystal meth related addictions. (Read the book Methland)

When a society is pressured both from the inside (collapse in oil prices) and from the outside, by sanctions that deprive it of capital required to trade with U.S proxies, that country is forced to trade and develop stronger relations with countries that lie outside of that economic sphere. In the case of Venezuela, Cuba is the most obvious choice followed by Russia and China.

Those of us in Canada saw very dire consequences in oil producing regions when oil prices collapsed from 147.00 per barrel to 29.00 per barrel in 2008. This was partly due to political machinations in the U.S and Saudi Arabia but also just a natural consequence of supply and demand.

Anyway, it was pretty bad but some people still blamed the federal party in power for job losses. Oil prices were set internationally and a collapse in price affected a petro-state in alarming ways. It was not the federal government's fault that this happened. And it is wrong to blame Maduro for that as well. It had nothing to do with him.

I DO blame our former federal government for not encouraging more diversity in the economy and not looking at the big picture and preparing for worst case scenarios.

But...when you are on top of the world and the money is flowing like water, diversification seems unnecessary and it is also costly and involves government involvement in seeking venture capital

That's a tough job and distraction when the moneyed class want yield on investment rght away rather than years down the road. It also requires governments have too many balls in the air at once which is also difficult. And all this in Canada, a developed firs world country that was not being economically pressured by the biggest power on the planet. In that respect, things were stable and we only had supply and demand issues to deal with.

Further to that ALL societies steeped in despair and poverty gravitate towards the drug trade. People get high when they are unable to channel their energy in other directions. Plus, it brings money into a system that is starved for it.

Perolator, you aren't seeing the big picture and I don't know why. If you dislike Cuba so much you are going to just LOVE the U.S if it takes over...but then again, it may not affect you or your friends, if they are a member of the tiny upper WHITE class. If not...hoo boy.

perolator

24th May 2019, 17:35

Perolator, you aren't seeing the big picture and I don't know why. If you dislike Cuba so much you are going to just LOVE the U.S if it takes over...but then again, it may not affect you or your friends, if they are a member of the tiny upper WHITE class. If not...hoo boy.

@AutumnW, In my country there is no tiny upper WHITE class. The upper class is not tied to an ethnicity. My friends and family are ranging from the blond blue-eyed from Venezuelan andes to the afro-black from Venezuelan coast.

Let's wait and see. I am hoping the narco-government is forcibly removed from the country, U.S. intervention or not.

AutumnW

24th May 2019, 17:45

perolator

24th May 2019, 18:17

Perolater,

In your case, this may be true, but I trust Greg Palast's take on this and see no reason why I shouldn't. Those who oppose Maduro have more European ancestry in their blood. Why would your country be any different than any other former European colony?

Well, I do respect your thoughts.

What you are saying though, is not true. Those millions of souls who oppose narco-Maduro and Co. are simply Venezuelans, not "the wealthy white". Those lucky ones who had European ancestry took advantage and fled from the madness years ago. Some of them, mostly from Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Syrian, Libyan, Lebanese, Turkish and Italian ancestry are struggling to survive. All of the population is subject to crime, power and gas outages, lack of medicines, damaged infrastructure, high price and scarcity of food and services.

Hervé

24th May 2019, 18:23

Trump Regime Targeting of Venezuela’s Food Distribution Program. Starve Venezuelans into Submission?

By Stephen Lendman (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/stephen-lendman) Global Research
May 24, 2019

Region: Latin America & Caribbean (https://www.globalresearch.ca/region/latin-america-caribbean), USA (https://www.globalresearch.ca/region/usa)
Theme: Law and Justice (https://www.globalresearch.ca/theme/law-and-justice)

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/us-hands-off-venezuela-400x170.jpg

President Nicolas Maduro initiated Local Provision and Production Committees (CLAPs) in early 2016.

The program distributes subsidized food to around six million Venezuelan families, around two-thirds of the population, part of the nation’s participatory social democracy.

From inception with Obama in office, the US falsely claimed the program is used as a political weapon against opposition interests.

It’s nothing of the sort, all Venezuelans in need able to receive aid regardless of their political affiliations.

The CLAP program is administered by neighborhood committees connected to communal councils, social organizations operating nationwide, including community, environmental and feminist groups, others involved in cultural, education and various other activities.

Their common theme is defending Bolivarian social democracy they want preserved and protected, notably serving the rights and welfare of all Venezuelans as constitutionally mandated.

The nation’s Social Development and Popular Participation Ministry, later the Communes Ministry, mobilized activists to form government funded communal councils, encouraging ordinary Venezuelans to become involved in defending the revolution from internal and external efforts to undermine it.

In 1999, Chavez instituted revolutionary social change. Maduro carries his torch, participatory social democracy the way it should be, entirely absent in the West, fantasy democracies in these countries, not the real thing — notably how the US and its EU allies operate.

According to the Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-prepares-charges-sanctions-over-venezuelas-food-aid-program-11558467079), the Trump regime is preparing criminal charges and sanctions against Bolivarian Republic officials involved in the food distribution CLAP program.

What’s apparently coming has nothing to do with combatting what the Journal called
“a large-scale money-laundering operation run by the government,” adding:

“[The Trump regime] is preparing to allege in criminal charges and sanctions that Venezuelan officials and private contractors, including a Colombian businessman, have laundered billions of dollars in state funds meant for the food program and other state operations, the officials and other people familiar with the matter said.”
In April, Maduro slammed the accusations, calling them a smear campaign to undermine Venezuela’s ability to import food, stressing his government “will never surrender” to US pressure, threats and intimidation tactics.

What’s going on? Do Trump regime hardliners want to starve Venezuelans into submission? They continue going all out to topple Maduro and eliminate Bolivarian social democracy by waging war by other means, featuring unlawful sanctions and other hostile actions.

In its article, the Journal cited no evidence proving allegations made, just baseless remarks by named and unnamed Trump regime officials, including from Justice Department criminal division head Brian Benczkowski, saying:
The Venezuelan government and military commanders “are using the CLAP program to steal from it, launder money, and for political control (sic).”

According to an unnamed Treasury Department official, “…Maduro insiders continue to seek illicit revenue streams (sic), even as the Venezuelan people and economy sink deeper into despair,” adding:

“We are alerting financial institutions (that Maduro) is using sophisticated schemes (sic), including the diversion of humanitarian assistance (sic), to evade sanctions and maintain its grip on power (sic).”
Neither official backed allegations made with evidence because none exists.
Throughout Bolivarian Republic history, US regimes falsely charged its officials and entities with illicit drugs trafficking, including against Minister of Industries and National Production Tareck El Aissami.

He debunked false accusations against him and the Venezuelan government, saying its “fight against drug cartels achieved the greatest progress in our history and in the western hemisphere, both in terms of the transnational drug trafficking business and their logistics structures,” adding:
Under his public security corps leadership, “Venezuelan anti-drug enforcement authorities…captured, arrested and brought 102 heads of criminal drug trafficking organizations not only to the Venezuelan justice but also to the justice of other countries where they were wanted.”
The CIA has been involved in illicit drugs trafficking throughout nearly its entire post-WW II history. So are major US and other Western banks, laundering dirty money, boosting their profits.

Langley relies on involvement in drugs trafficking for a significant portion of its revenues. Venezuela leads the hemisphere in combatting this scourge.

The CIA in cahoots with organized crime and major Western financial institutions constitute ground zero for the global proliferation of illicit drugs, vital information major media suppress.

Accusations against Venezuela’s CLAP program are fabricated. It’s not a money laundering operation to enrich Bolivarian government and military officials.

Activist Gloria La Riva, former US Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) presidential candidate, observed how the CLAP program works firsthand, saying the following:
“Outrageous lies against the government of President Nicolas Maduro are being published or broadcast on a daily basis by the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, etc…to justify” unjustifiable Trump regime actions against Venezuela, adding:

“This battering ram of false propaganda hides a more insidious truth: The US government is the biggest reason for the shortages, with the strangling sanctions it has imposed.”

“Major Venezuelan and US corporations have engaged in a concerted production, an act of war, and in this war the attacks are increasing daily.”
Maduro’s government “has gone into overdrive to help the population resist the economic war, by expanding the scope and reach of the historic missions begun by the revolution’s leader Hugo Chavez” — including food distribution through the CLAP program to millions of Venezuelans in need.

A woman showed La Riva the food box her family receives monthly. It “contain(s) six pounds of rice, six pounds of black beans, two pounds of lentils, two liter bottles of oil, two bags of milk, 2.2 pounds of sugar, 10 pounds of corn flour, the essential ingredients of arepas, mayonnaise, catsup, two cans of tuna fish,” she explained.

“CLAP supplies (also) include chicken, meat, and 36 eggs per month,” said La Riva. The program involves entire communities, local coordinators administering it.

Trump regime claims about Venezuelan officials siphoning off funds earmarked for the program are refuted by its recipients.

Nourishing food reaches millions of Venezuelans on a regular basis. False Trump regime accusations about the program, along with sanctions and other measures apparently coming to target it are all about wanting to undermine what’s vital for millions of Venezuelans — aiming to starve them into submission.

There’s no ambiguity about how the US operates, demanding other nations bow to its will or face the full force of its wrath.

It’s an agenda risking humanity-destroying nuclear war by going too far — where things are heading if not challenged and stopped by the world community.

*

Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Stephen Lendman (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/stephen-lendman), Global Research, 2019

Related:
CIA Dirty Hands All Over the US Coup Plot Against Venezuela (https://www.globalresearch.ca/cia-dirty-hands-all-over-us-coup-plot-against-venezuela/5676829)

perolator

25th May 2019, 22:28

According to the above, evil Trump wants to target noble Venezuelan food distribution program.

How bad.

I have a question for whom it may concern and:
@Herve
@AutumnW
@Dennis Leahy
@Tintin
@Paul
@Joe
@Gracy May
@latte
@Bubu
@Daughter of Time - by the way, we Venezuelans abroad are not ignorant, much less brainwashed. You have to have some respect for those people who had to abandon their country, leaving everything behind.

This question is addressed also to all the glorious "journalists" defending narco-Maduro's regime.

What do you prefer: going to the local grocery store, Walmart, K-Mart, order online your food whenever you want OR having to wait, Fatherland card handy, to get a monthly box stuffed of some food of doubtful quality, from an undisclosed origin, without any sanitary revisions, and containing what the government considers good and healthy for you?

I will wait for your answers.

I want to share this with you. And no, It was not written by me.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-CLAP-box-in-Venezuela

On paper, CLAP means Comité Local de Abastecimiento y Producción (Local Committee for Production and Supply), and they are intended to make sure every person from their communities get the Government-subsidized boxes of basic goods such as milk, corn flour, vegetable oil, etc. Sounds awesome, right? Well…

ON PAPER.

In reality, it’s not so cool. But let’s go back a little.

Before the oil boom of the late 2000s, Hugo Chavez, that ugly ass walking cancer, put in place an economic policy called exchange control, which means you cannot buy or sell any currency other than Bolívares unless it’s from and to the government. Naturally, as basic economic says, a black market emerged, and a so-called black dollar, at about 50% to 100% more than the official exchange rate. It all still stands to this day, but they replaced the system about 3 or 4 times, with multiple exchange rates and a corruption mess that ended up taking about $1 trillion from our country.

You read that right, ONE TRILLION DOLLARS. Poof! Gone, just like that.

After a lot of years of corruption, legal corruption and political and privatized stupidity, the oil crisis started. Prices went down, along with our cash reserves, our gold reserves and every Venezuelan’s way of life. Why? Because the Intergalactic Leader Hugo Chavez and his followers cheered as he took private property from honest men and corrupt opposition idiots alike, and expropriated more than half of Venezuela’s food industry, fertile lands, cattle farms and the like. If it was a factory and somebody with connections to the Bolivarian Government or the PSUV (Chavez’s Party) wanted it, it was gone.

Obviously, PSUV is mostly made of thugs and lazy ass malandros who can’t make anything themselves so they gotta steal it. There are a few bright minds such as Jorge and Delcy Rodríguez, but they use it to, well, steal and hold power. So just educated thugs.

Down that path we went, and we went from importing about 30% of our food to now somewhere about 80%, and if the only USD available come from the Government, the end up in off-shore accounts in Andorra or the Cayman Islands. So food producers have to make magic to produce or their companies will be expropriated too, and, add price control to our no-access-to-USD-recipe and you get…

You guessed it! Scarcity.

But don’t worry, you just have to blame the USA and the private sector and raise your military’s salaries at about 400% a year, plus bribe them with cars and phones and allow them to extort the people, and of course give some of those $1TN to the Electoral Council officials and you have nothing to worry about. And, whenever you’re running low on cash, you can print it! It won’t cause major economic disruption! I promise. The 700% inflation we had last year wasn’t due to it, it was because of the American Empire!

Yeah, Nicolás, ripping off the Central Bank’s independence was a great idea. Thanks, Huguito.

So yeah, after all that, plus a rate of 120 murders for every 100.000 people, we Venezuelans have a lot to worry about. If you don’t get mugged or murdered while going to the super market, you won’t find rice or corn flour or anything else. And if you do find it in the black markets, it will get at least twice as expensive by the week. Yeah.

How does this whole thing have anything to do with the CLAPS?

Well, as it turns out, Mexico and Colombia sent some food to Venezuela, and Maduro and his team just came up with something awesome! They give them to loyalists to be sold in their communities. So, if the official exchange rate for basics is 10 bolívares for every USD, and it costs somewhere around 15.000 bolívares, every CLAP box is sold at around $1.500.*

Yeah, CLAP boxes are the product of years of mismanagement, corruption and stupidity, all inside an ugly ass cardboard box. And it’s only sold to communities with government loyalists, so it’s also a tool to extort an already hungry people.

---

* this was written in 2017. The guy talks about the cost of each CLAP box to the country, i.e. the hidden costs that makes the people involved in this "noble cause for the people" ultra-billionaire.

Even Wikipedia has the right information.

By the way, CLAP boxes are also marketed to the "White Supremacists/Upper Class" at 5x (average) the price. Business is business. In the States neighboring Colombia, CLAP boxes are distributed by ELN guerrilla.

Those boxes were banned (not being distributed anymore) from Mexico and Colombia. There are corruption cases opened in those countries. Now, those boxes are brought from Turkey, one of the “Allies” receiving gold as payment.

Nel

26th May 2019, 01:33

To those who don't believe, take a trip to Venezuela and find out for himself (See to believe).:facepalm:

Hervé

26th May 2019, 12:47

...

A sword of many edges...

https://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-who-controls-the-food-supply-controls-the-people-who-controls-the-energy-can-control-henry-a-kissinger-65-36-98.jpg

I guess some people believe Maduro is insane enough to starve his people and foster festering nests of revolution...

But, if not him, who? And Why?

When one gets an idea of who Stalin and the Bolshevik were the puppets of, and Kissinger a mouthpiece for, then a totally different worldview begins to emerge...

...

Regarding the Rothschilds/Rockefellers consortium:

For an idea on the “big” picture…

Below are excerpts from the work of whistle blower Sue Ann Arrigo (http://pauljackson.us/sue_arrigo/).

These give the blue print for what’s happening currently to this planet on the 3D level

Here is how the implemented strategy has worked in the past:

Rothschilds/John D. Rockefeller, Sr. funded the Bolshevik Revolution

Per his writings in the Archives, John D. Rockefeller helped fund the Bolshevik Revolution to get the wealth of the Czars, the labor of the Russian people, and much the Southern Oil fields in Russia. That wealth changed its name from Czarist, to Russian Government owned. Ignore the names, what happened to it? Did the people of Russia get it? No. The Rockefeller Archives show that he built a private army in Russia, much like the Brown Shirt army later. His accountant said that for each 2 cents that he spent to build that Army he got a dollar back. That Army was not staying up late to knit socks to sell. They were beating people up and committing assassinations, massacres, and mayhem to terrorize the populace into submission. And he was bribing officials to get what he wanted. He was apparently famous for that in the US as well. See www.reformation.org/rockefeller-bribery.html (http://www.reformation.org/rockefeller-bribery.html) .

[...] the Rockefellers charged about 18% interest on the money that they loaned Lenin for the Revolution. The way that agreement was set up made all of the loot that Lenin could seize in Russia, the Rockefellers/Rothschilds.

[…]That meant that Lenin and Stalin could never get out of debt unless they could work people nearly to death to produce the goods Rockefeller/Rothschilds wanted. People thought that the ridiculous factory quotas the Russians tried to accomplish were the result of communism. That was not what I thought after reading the Archives. The Rockefellers were setting the quotas and delighting in the profits. They also delighted in giving the Russians quotas they could not meet as a way of humiliating them.

[…] I sent him [Gorbachev] copies from the Archives of documents that showed those policies had been forced upon Stalin by Rockefeller. While the people of Russia starved, Rockefeller was also insisting that Stalin sell him the grain at the price and amounts previously agreed to. But Rockefeller did not need that grain. And Rockefeller was, to a large extent, responsible for the bad policies that caused the poor crop yields and meant that selling that same amount of grain overseas ensured famine. It appeared to be a deliberate attempt, not just to get grain cheaply, but to starve people. The private journals of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. confirmed that. The Rockefeller Family seemed obsessed by the desire to kill people off, including by starvation. The Rockefellers have long backed population control measures fairly publicly. That was not a secret, nor their funding of ‘eugenics’ research’. See http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/omegafile29.htm (http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/omegafile29.htm) , http://www.eugenics-watch.com/eugbook/,euod_ch1.html (http://www.eugenics-watch.com/eugbook/euod_ch1.html) , http://illuminati-news.com/nazi-california.htm (http://illuminati-news.com/nazi-california.htm). But, the behind the scenes maneuvers on how they were committing those Crimes Against Humanity were secret. To them Communism was a lovely excuse to steal the wealth of the rich Russians and then kill off the poor who were not working in their factories. The factories and the oil fields had the name of the Soviet Union on them, as if they belong to the Russian Govt.. But an examination of the chain of command structure and the flow of money made it look like the Rockefellers et al were already well on their way to being Kings of the World.

Let me give you an example of that so you can understand how this system worked in practice.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., wanted to crash prices in South America of a type of goods to force his competitors into closing. If I remember correctly, the country was Argentina and the goods were stainless steel cookware--pots and pans, bowls, and cutlery. They were items peasants had to buy to live. They were also heavy and it made absolutely no sense to ship them from Russia since they were already made in adequate quantities by factories in that country. But they were not Rockefeller’s factories so a part of the markets’ share of money was not going to them. That was an anathema to John. D., Jr. He wanted to own everything and everyone, or kill them.

So, he wrote a letter to Stalin and told him how much and what kind of each item he wanted. It was a huge order, perhaps several Latin American countries worth. Rockefeller was going to dropped the prices of the goods to drive the Latin American factories out of business. Then he would buy them cheaply. Having a monopoly he would then raise the price of the goods to steal even more from the peasants. His journal shows that he intended to cause their children to starve, if at all possible. It was not an unintended consequence of his business practices. I saw instances in which he was willing to lose money to make others starve. It was really quite sad to read about the life of a man who was so desperately unhappy that this was what it took to distract him from that fact.

[...]

Stalin got the order and wrote back saying that he could not meet those deadlines in 2 months time. Rockefeller wrote back saying he had to ‘or else’.

I wanted to know what the “or else” was.

Later I came across invoices for the guards of Stalin which Rockefeller was paying. They were not just regulars, they were a special outfit chosen by Rockefeller. They were not ethnically the same as Stalin. It appeared that they had been chosen by Rockefeller to have no qualms about killing Stalin, if ordered to do so. The head of them was writing reports on Stalin’s activities to John D. more often than Stalin was writing to John D. After looking into it even further than I have said, I concluded that John D.’s threat to kill Stalin was a credible one.

Stalin was humiliated in more ways that one by trying to fill that order in time. He did not succeed, as hard and as desperately as he tried. He was a week late. Furthermore, this was during the height of the German attack on Russia, about a month before the battle of Stalingrad when the order was completed. It meant that steel and railway transport that would have gone into making of rifles did not. Russian soldiers went into the battle of Stalingrad, Stalin’s namesake, with only about 35% of them carrying a rifle! They had to rush forward into battle defenselessly or be shot in the back. Only after one of their buddies got killed could they pick up a fallen weapon to defend themselves. That caused a huge rift among them which they could not solve. It was designed to destroy their team spirit and turned them against each other.

The Battle of Stalingard was almost a defeat for the Russia people because of what John D. did. His journal showed that he intended for the battle to be a Russian defeat and allow him to spread the war all across Russia. He agonized on the pages of his journal about whether his timing was right and the order big enough. He wanted the fighting to continue all across Russia and not just lead to a Russian capitulation. He wanted to destroy all the shop keepers and small enterprises that had not yet been nationalized and brought under his control. His journal said that he cried at his loses when the Russians bravely managed to force the Germans to retreat. But he did not call them brave in his journal and I will not repeat the derogatory phrases. Skull and Bones calls people not in it Barbarians, will they help the Rockefellers plan and execute mass murders, such as at Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. It is clear that they have some problems in their thinking.

[…]

Then, from a different quarter, about those same events in Russia:

[...]

And you new Czar, cursed by the little father, you shake the hand of the black dictator.

Look at the sea, It will be red with blood.

[...]

The new Tsar [Stalin] kills the true sons of the little father. He sports the eyes of a wolf. But the wolves are at the border.

[...]

The new Tsar has betrayed, he thought he had lost. He killed his men before the nails trampled them. And by his cowardice millions fall. But his honored body will be removed from the sanctuary.

[...]

We fight, but from the mountains, red and white flowers climb down, Europe, these are your best sons, who one day will be betrayed.

Because the leaders they believe they shot down will control again, always the same.

They shot down the money puppets, not the money masters. And they will be seduced by the new Tsar, who defeated despite the betrayal, with his fierce red flame.

The sons of Luther in Europe. War of weapons, wars of the passions. The youngs from the mountains have new flags, which the powerful will tear out through deceit. Beware the sons of Luther and the sons of the new Tsar. They want a world battered for the last meal. France, rise up the Cross of Lorraine. Europe, brandish your songs louder than the sound of the guns.

[...]

Hervé

29th May 2019, 13:42

Allies granted the blind eye? US silent on Colombian general’s alleged links to civilian killings (https://www.rt.com/news/460534-colombia-us-ally-general-killings/)

RT
Published time: 29 May, 2019 11:18
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9vcm)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.05/xxs/5cee640edda4c874338b4567.png
FILE PHOTO: Colombian soldiers patrol a beach as delegations arrived for the Americas Summit in Cartagena April 12, 2012. © Reuters / Joaquin Sarmiento

While US and Columbia rail against Nicolas Maduro’s “dictatorship” in Venezuela, Washington appears to be unconcerned by new evidence linking Colombia’s top general to scores of civilian killings.

Leaked documents recently obtained by the Associated Press suggest that General Nicacio Martinez Espinel, the head of Colombia’s army, participated in a cover-up of extrajudicial and civilian killings more than a decade ago.

Washington, which has cited alleged human rights abuses as part of its campaign to topple the socialist government of Venezuela, has remained curiously silent about the scandal unfolding in Colombia. Coincidentally, Bogota is a key partner in Washington’s efforts to bring about regime change in Caracas.

Colombia receives hundreds of millions of dollars in US foreign aid each year, distinguishing itself as Washington’s go-to ally in the region. Between 2000 and 2016 Congress appropriated some $10 billion in aid to the South American nation.

RT’s Caleb Maupin explored why Washington’s deep concern for human rights in South America appears to be rather selective.

[video at link (https://www.rt.com/news/460534-colombia-us-ally-general-killings/)]

Related:

Colombia harbors Venezuelan opposition, opens doors to defectors (https://www.rt.com/news/459408-venezuela-defectors-colombia-civilian/)

Hervé

29th May 2019, 19:14

How can a small Latin American country become a superpower? (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/05/how-can-a-small-latin-american-country-become-a-superpower/)

FRN
By Paul Antonopoulos (https://www.fort-russ.com/author/p-ant/)
On May 29, 2019

https://www.fort-russ.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/1-54-750x430.jpg

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – ExxonMobil says it has discovered more than 5.5 billion barrels of oil in Guyanese waters in the Atlantic Ocean. What future does this Latin American country expect and what does this have to do with Venezuela?

Nowadays, Guyana is the second poorest country in the region. According to estimates, in the coming decades this country can become one of the world’s largest oil producers per capita. However, the existence of resources does not always correspond to a developed economy.

The small Caribbean country could be the essential piece in the scheme that the United States is setting up in the region, according to the comment made by Tamara Lajtman, a specialist at the Latin American Strategic Center for Geopolitics (CELAG).
The recent history of relations between the US and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean indicates that US transnational corporations will be the major beneficiaries of this discovery.

Lajtman cites US researchers pointing out that Washington can replace Venezuelan oil from the so-called Caracas regional petro-political regime with a much more stable supplier.

The analyst explains that at the end of last year, the American Segurity Project (ASP), an organization dedicated to the study of national security problems, held an event called Guyana Building Sustainable Security.

Following the discussions at this event, a document was drawn up recommending that US policymakers establish a closer relationship with Guyana to ensure long-term sustainable security.

This implies that, as chaos continues to rise in Venezuela, a growing and more prosperous Guyana could become an axis of stability for the Caribbean Basin, Lajtman points out.

According to the Stratfor agency, some of the major US oil companies have already begun production in Guyana. However, even if Guyana’s government revenues increase, most of the country will not feel the economic benefits of oil, as jobs will be directed primarily to foreigners.

Earlier this month, the US Southern Command initiated the New Horizons military exercises in Guyana. These maneuvers are taking place precisely at the right moment, given that Guyana is at the center of regional geopolitics. There are two reasons for this, the crisis in neighboring Venezuela and the energy future of the Caribbean country.

In addition, there is a territorial dispute over Essequibo, a region with an area of about 160,000 square kilometers and whose sovereignty has been claimed by Venezuela for centuries. The US sees a threat to the oil extraction operations that are approaching the maritime border between the two countries.

In July 2018, Guyana entered the Chinese initiative of the New Silk Road, which includes investments in the plan to build new ports and roads.

The road link project is of extreme geostrategic importance, as it would reduce the transportation time to northern Brazil (China’s main trading partner in the region) with a faster route to the Panama Canal.

Guyana has long been considered as a transit country of cocaine that passes from Colombia to the US. The government has carried out anti-drug assistance programs and legislation against money laundering and terrorist financing. With the increase in oil revenues, more can be done about these problems.

Hervé

29th May 2019, 20:27

Sabotage to Ten Cargo Ships Preventing Them from Arriving in Venezuela (https://www.globalresearch.ca/sabotage-10-cargo-ships-preventing-them-arriving-venezuela/5678911)

By Maritime Herald (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/maritime-herald)
Global Research, May 29, 2019
Maritime Herald (http://www.maritimeherald.com/2019/sabotage-to-10-cargo-ships-preventing-them-from-arriving-in-venezuela/) 28 May 2019

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cargo-ship-venezuela-400x275.jpg

The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, on Monday announced that ten boats with gasoline heading to the South American country were the object of sabotage, as part of the “persecution” resulting from the sanctions imposed by the US, against the Caribbean nation.
“The boat that brought gasoline last week, ten ships sabotaged so that they did not reach the Venezuelan coasts,” Maduro said at a meeting with the political leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in Caracas .
Despite the incident, the South American president said that the problem with the ships “is in the process of being resolved”.

Boats with CLAP
The head of state also revealed the sabotage to the boats that brought food for the program of products with subsidized prices, known as CLAP (acronym of Local Committees for Supply and Production).
“The boats to bring the CLAP supplies were sabotaged and did not leave the ports where they were docked,” he said.
Last Thursday, the Bolivarian leader guaranteed to the population of the South American country the continuity of CLAP, despite US threats to sanction the officials involved in the plan.
“Do whatever you want to do, Venezuela will continue with the CLAP, which stings and extends from the hand of the people, from the national production,” he said.
The president’s announcement came after the US envoy for Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, indicated that the US prepares new sanctions against Venezuelan officials who allegedly profited from CLAP.

Meeting this Monday with the PSUV political high command, Maduro said that these actions against Venezuela are part of the financial blockade promoted by Washington (http://www.maritimeherald.com/2019/sabotage-to-10-cargo-ships-preventing-them-from-arriving-in-venezuela/), which includes the withholding of resources in international banks to make it impossible to purchase medicines, supplies and food for the population.
“It is a torture to the economic body of the country,” he added.
*

Featured image is from Maritime Herald

Facts Don’t Interfere with Propaganda Blitz Against Venezuela’s Elected President (https://www.globalresearch.ca/facts-dont-interfere-with-propaganda-blitz-against-venezuelas-elected-president/5668507)

The original source of this article is Maritime Herald (http://www.maritimeherald.com/2019/sabotage-to-10-cargo-ships-preventing-them-from-arriving-in-venezuela/)
Copyright © Maritime Herald (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/maritime-herald), Maritime Herald (http://www.maritimeherald.com/2019/sabotage-to-10-cargo-ships-preventing-them-from-arriving-in-venezuela/), 2019

Hervé

31st May 2019, 18:35

US Hints at Sanctions Against Venezuela CLAP Food Programme. Bolivarian Militia to Protect CLAP (https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-hints-sanctions-against-venezuela-clap-food-programme-maduro-incorporates-militia/5679136)

By Paul Dobson (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/paul-dobson) Global Research, May 31, 2019
Venezuelanalysis.com (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14514) 29 May 2019

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/maduro-clap-program-400x267.jpg
President Nicolas Maduro held a televised meeting alongside Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez (L) and Food Minister and Militia Commander Carlos Leal Telleria (Presidential Press)

The Venezuelan President looks to combat corruption and improve the programme which benefits 6 million Venezuelan families.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced the incorporation of the National Bolivarian Militia (https://venezuelanalysis.com/video/14420) into the subsidised CLAP (https://venezuelanalysis.com/video/12993) (Local Supply and Production Committees) food programme.

The move comes as rumours circulate of upcoming US-led sanctions against the leaders of the programme, which currently benefits six million Venezuelan families according to government sources.

Speaking from a CLAP packaging warehouse in Vargas State, Maduro announced that the body will be involved “directly in the tasks and functions of supervising and controlling the food mission (…) in the 1,141 parishes of the country.”
“We have to strengthen all of the food distribution mechanisms to make sure that our people are properly fed,” Maduro continued, before adding that the militia is also embarking on food production projects.
The Bolivarian Militia is a popular defense organization and the civilian branch of the Venezuelan Armed Forces. Created by Hugo Chavez in 2007, it has been expanded by Maduro to include two million civilians organized into 51,743 Popular Defense Units throughout the country. The government has vowed to extend the militia to three million citizens by December this year. The leader of the Militia, Major General Carlos Leal Tellería, was named Food Minister in April.

According to Maduro, one of the reasons behind the measure is to combat “the silent enemy” of corruption in the programme.
“The main enemy [of the CLAP] is North American imperialism and its internal lackees. We will defeat them with more production, better packing and supervision etc. Now there is a silent enemy in the CLAP, which is like a weevil, which is corruption, the people who steal the products from the CLAP boxes for the black market. We must put a stop to this,” he told the nation.
Government officials have previously gone on the record stating that over 200 local CLAP leaders have been detained for corruption. Maduro added that CLAP deliveries would be incorporated into the Patria electronic system, through which social benefits and bonuses are delivered.

The CLAP (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/12856) programme was created in 2016 as the Venezuelan government looked to shield the most vulnerable sectors from the economic crisis. The boxes (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/12827) contain a range of basic foodstuffs including cornflour, cooking oil, rice, beans, and pasta. According to a recent interview by CLAP chief Freddy Bernal, the boxes, which cost a mere US $0.40, come with a 98 percent subsidy from “regular market” prices. They are distributed by the communal councils and are prioritized by sector.
“If it weren’t for the CLAP, millions of families would be in an unsustainable crisis because of the US sanctions,” Bernal explained.
While government officials look to increase the coverage of the CLAP programme to 12 million families and the frequency of deliveries to every 15 days, many sectors of the country continue to have irregular, delayed, or non-existent coverage of the scheme. Recent gasoline shortages (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14500) have exasperated distribution problems in the interior of the country.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/files/styles/full_content/public/images/%5Bsite-date-yyyy%5D/%5Bsite-date-mm%5D/feria-clap.jpg?itok=7QDgwf1l

The CLAP structures have also been used to sell other products, such as meat or cleaning supplies, at subsidised prices. (VTV)

The attempts to strengthen the CLAP come on the heels of reports that the US Treasury Department is preparing direct sanctions (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-sanctions/u-s-readies-sanctions-charges-over-venezuela-food-program-sources-idUSKCN1SR2KY) against the food programme for the first time. US authorities accuse the programme of being a front for corruption, money laundering, and “political control” and are considering slapping sanctions against companies and individuals involved.
“They know that this program is corrupt, we know it, and we are investigating the details. A lot is to come,” US Special Envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams told Efe in an interview on May 22. “We don’t have a date for the sanctions but the (legal) accusations will come in good time,” he went on to say.
Abrams (https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/30/allan_nairn_trump_s_venezuela_envoy) is known for his leading role in the Reagan administration’s Central America policy, including the Iran-Contra scandal, and later for advising George W. Bush in the lead up to the war in Iraq.

US financial sanctions have hampered both the purchase and payment of (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13900) the goods which constitute the boxes, most of which come from Mexico, Turkey, or Brazil, while Venezuelan authorities claim that Washington’s measures are also blocking the shipment of the goods.

Caracas claims that only 2 of the 12 shipping companies involved in CLAP imports are currently delivering as a result of sanctions. Maduro also mentioned that a number of ships were blocked from leaving their ports on Monday, describing the action as “sabotage”. He did not offer further details.

According to a Reuters report (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-shipping/shippers-raise-rates-for-cargo-from-u-s-to-venezuela-documents-sources-idUSKCN1SX1TD), international shippers Hamburg Sud and King Ocean Services have both added a US $1,200 surcharge per cargo container for all shipments from the United States to Venezuela this past May 15. The report adds that this move aggravates prices which are already considerably higher than the corresponding ones for similar journeys to other Latin American ports. The alleged surcharge is accredited to the “risk involved of coming to Venezuela with sanctions.”

Last month Washington banned all direct flights to and from Venezuela, as well as landing sanctions (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14423) on nine non-Venezuelan tankers and four shipping firms which they claim transport oil to Cuba.

The US Treasury Department has imposed successive rounds of sanctions against Caracas in recent months, targeting several sectors of the Venezuelan economy. A January oil embargo (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14268) cut off all oil exports to the US and imports of refining products, contributing to the current widespread gasoline shortages (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14500) at the pumps.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Idriss Jazairy (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14474) has argued that US sanctions violate human rights and international law. A report (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14446) from the Center for Economic and Policy research also concluded that sanctions against Venezuela amount to “collective punishment” and have been responsible for over 40,000 deaths since 2017.

*

The original source of this article is Venezuelanalysis.com (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14514)
Copyright © Paul Dobson (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/paul-dobson), Venezuelanalysis.com (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14514), 2019

Related:
What’s the Deal with Sanctions in Venezuela, and Why’s It So Hard for Media to Understand? (https://magnetrack.klangoo.com/v1.1/track.ashx?e=AP_RA_CLK&p=5679136&d=5667880&c=c787d455-1fd6-444b-abe0-3f9cf6dff8ef&u=4df1d254-868a-4036-968e-4b665e235553&l=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalresearch.ca%2Fus-hints-sanctions-against-venezuela-clap-food-programme-maduro-incorporates-militia%2F5679136&redir=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalresearch.ca%2Fwhats-the-deal-with-sanctions-in-venezuela-and-whys-it-so-hard-for-media-to-understand%2F5667880%3Futm_campaign%3Dmagnet%26utm_source%3Darticle_page%26utm_medium%3Drelated_arti cles)

perolator

31st May 2019, 19:14

"You're going to choke on your provocation with Coca-Cola": Univision retrieves complete copy of Jorge Ramos' interview with Nicolás Maduro (https://www.univision.com/univision-news/latin-america/youre-going-to-swallow-your-provocation-with-coca-cola-univision-retrieves-complete-copy-of-jorge-ramos-interview-with-nicolas-maduro)

MIAMI, Florida. - The tense, 17-minute interview with Nicolás Maduro conducted by journalist Jorge Ramos in February was kept censored by the Venezuelan government - until Thursday.

Univision News was able to recover the February 25 interview in its entirety right up to the moment that Maduro cut it short and stormed off after he became upset by the line of questioning by Ramos. Venezuelan officials seized the interview, and Univision's camera equipment, and deported Ramos and the team of journalists who accompanied him.

"You come to provoke me. You're going to choke on your provocation. You are going to choke on your provocation with Coca-Cola," Maduro told Ramos when the journalist handed him a list with the names of 400 of the 989 political prisoners that human rights groups have registered in Venezuela.

That was only one of a half dozen threats and insults that Maduro launched against Ramos in response to his questions about the current humanitarian and political crisis in Venezuela, which has led to the exile of more than 3.5 million of its citizens as well as the emprisonment - and death - of hundreds more.

The tone of the conversation bothered Maduro from the first question: "You know, you are not the legitimate president. So, what do I call him? For them (National Assembly legislators) you are a dictator," Ramos told him.

Maduro answered the question waving a miniature copy of the Venezuelan Constitution: "You have to call me as the Constitution says. My name is Nicolás, I have only one name: Nicolás Maduro Moros. I am a worker, a simple man, by popular vote I have been elected and re-elected president. So, well, it's up to you how you want to call me," he said.

Maduro sought to dismiss the reasons why the Venezuelan National Assembly and more than 50 governments around the globe ceased to recognize him as the legitimate president, or the denounciations of fraud during presidential elections in 2013, the usurpation of legislative authority by he executive in 2015, and the allegations of fraud in the hastily advanced presidential elections in 2018 which resulted in the re-election of Maduro for six more years.

"You have to be a little more balanced," Maduro instructs Ramos, adding: "You are biased against the Bolivarian revolution. You are a right-wing opponent living in the United States, very anti-revolutionary. You're not just a journalist, Jorge."

Ramos employed the same incisive style with Maduro that he customarily uses to conduct his interviews with politicians and other powerful figures, his personal brand honed over a decades-long career. Maduro said he knew what he was facing: "I accepted your interview because I knew it would be like that," he said, before taking exception and bringing it to a halt.

"This interview, I tell you, does not make any sense to me or to you, did you hear? I think it's better to suspend it, did you hear? I thank you for everything, see you later," Maduro said as Ramos tried to show a video on his iPad filmed days earlier on the streets of Caracas, where children and adults are seen feeding directly from a garbage truck.

At minute 17:35 Maduro got up from his chair and ordered the temporary detention of the journalists and seized the material they had recorded until that point.

On Thursday's 6.30pm evening newscast, Univision News will broadcast part of the censored interview. The entire interview will be broadcast this Sunday, June 2, in the program Aquí y Ahora, at 7:00 pm (6:00 pm CT).

AutumnW

31st May 2019, 19:22

AutumnW

31st May 2019, 19:30

AutumnW

31st May 2019, 19:39

Ramos claims that his belongings were confiscated and his phone was wiped. “Our cameras and the records of our interview remained behind,” Ramos says. The “government’s intelligence agency cordoned off the hotel so we couldn’t leave,” he adds, but gives few further details. Miraculously, and conveniently for Ramos’ story, the footage that allegedly enraged Maduro survived.

After touching back down in Miami, Ramos tweeted:

I really want to thank the U.S. State Department and the American Embassy in Caracas for making sure that we were protected and safe in Venezuela. Their help was instrumental in our safe departure today from Caracas after being detained yesterday by the Maduro regime.”

https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-holes-in-jorge-ramos-story-about-his-clash-with-nicolas-maduro/255678/

perolator

31st May 2019, 21:49

I just returned from observing my fourth election in Venezuela in less than a year. Jimmy Carter has called Venezuela’s electoral system “the best in the world,” and what I witnessed was an inspiring process that guarantees one person, one vote, and includes multiple auditing procedures to ensure a free and fair election.

I then came home to the United States to see the inevitable “news” coverage referring to Venezuela as a “dictatorship” and as a country in need of saving. This coverage not only ignores the reality of Venezuela, it ignores the fact that the U.S. is the greatest impediment to democracy in Venezuela, just as the U.S. has been an impediment to democracy throughout Latin America since the end of the 19th century.

https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2018/05/25/The-real-Venezuela-is-not-what-you-think/stories/201805240020

@AutumnW, this paragraph is only one of the myriad of incorrect statements in the Professor Kovalik's article:

Chavez even started a world-class music program which has now provided 1 million underprivileged children with music education. One graduate of this program, Gustavo Dudamel, is now considered one of the greatest conductors in the world!

From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Sistema): El Sistema is a publicly financed, voluntary sector, music-education program, founded in Venezuela in 1975 by Venezuelan educator, musician, and activist José Antonio Abreu.

---
Excerpts from the comments section of the Professor Kovalik's article: (added emphasis mine)

John Miller
11 months ago
I lived in Caracas from 1998 to 2015 and I have seen first hand Hugo Chavez raise to power, close relationship with Castro, the 2002 coup and return to power, his divisionist rhetoric and actions, demagoguery and destruction of democratic institutions. All in the name of the poor and marginalized. I am a registered Democrat. And I shook my head while watching democrats visiting Caracas and taking full side with a government only because it went full steam against the status quo, without seeing the horrible impact they were doing to the already eroded Venezuelan democratic institutions and productive system. Now in the US, and in a bizarre twist of destiny, I am witnessing the same demagoguery, divisional politics and thugocracy that destroyed Venezuela merrily spreading like a nasty virus with no other opposition in congress than from politicians who have nothing to lose. This is NOT OK. Venezuela's reliance on high oil prices fueled the chavista regime and its programs for the poor, which were unsustainable without that huge income of dollars that were not used to improve their productivity but instead, to purchase consciences of other branches of power, including the military. Bribe Caribbean countries with cheap oil and to bolster a new class of oligarchy that pocketed from the oil bonanza. Listen people: Maduro is NOT good for Venezuela. They control ALL powers. They control markets with Draconian measures. They are only good at grabbing what's already built and destroy it with their incompetence. Venezuelan left IS NOT to be befriended by the American LEFT.

Mike Machi
11 months ago
Having family currently in Venezuelan, I can honestly say nothing in this article is true. Maduro is a bus driver who rigged elections to become president. He is destroying the country and has taken everything democratic away from its citizens. Nothing is left for its people besides the oil in the ground. The US government and everyone else in the region better act fast before China and or Russia has military bases in Venezuela. It will be Maduros next move since he will do everything he can to keep his ridiculous dictatorship.

Michael Griffith
11 months ago
No mention that after the last election, in which his party lost many, many seats in their parliament, Maduro went to court and had judges invalidate the candidacy of the recently elected opponents. Then Maduro stacked parliament with loyalists. This professor is a "Human Rights" advocate in the most Orwellian sense of the term.

Alexis Lozada
11 months ago
Mr. Kovalik's article reads as a typical script written by Maduro's regime. Such arguments ignore the human tragedy of a country with no rule law, proven evidence of crimes against humanity, severe scarcity of basic goods and services, high unemployment, cities with highest homicide rates in the hemisphere, hyper-inflation. Mr. Kovalik, I invite you to a public debate so the people of Pittsburgh can hear us and really capture views about Venezuela. Pick a place, date and time, and I will be there. You can contact me at (snip). Regards, Alexis Lozada, a citizen of Venezuela.

I removed Alexis e-mail address on purpose.

perolator

31st May 2019, 22:22

The Venezuela-Bolivarian Global Money Laundering Empire (https://www.csis.org/events/venezuela-bolivarian-global-money-laundering-empire)

Thursday, May 23, 2019 9:30 am - 11:00 am
CSIS Headquarters, 2nd floor

lKNIm_qyikQ

Please join CSIS Americas for a public discussion about the criminal enterprise of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and his Bolivarian allies. Douglas Farah, President of IBI Consultants and senior visiting fellow at National Defense University, will present a new report, based on five years of field research, which details the breadth of the global money laundering empire Maduro and his allies have developed throughout his regime. The report sheds new light on the Venezuela-Bolivarian money laundering structures and how they are are connected, the amounts of money they move, the geographic and criminal diversity of the network, adding context to help explain why regimes like those of Maduro do not fall quickly despite stiff U.S. sanctions.

This event will also feature Celina Realuyo, Professor of Practice at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies at National Defense University; José Cárdenas, Former Acting Assistant Secretary for LAC at USAID and Director of Vision Americas; and Caryn Hollis, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Global Threats, who will provide unique insights and expertise on the nature of transnational organized crime and financial structures ongoing in Venezuela. Following the presentations, the panelists will have a moderated discussion led by CSIS Americas Associate Director and Venezuela expert Moises Rendon. Additional speakers to be announced shortly.

Hervé

19th June 2019, 22:31

Guaido’s aides embezzled Venezuela aid fund in Colombia: Report (https://www.veteranstoday.com/2019/06/19/guaidos-aides-embezzled-venezuela-aid-fund-in-colombia-report/)

https://cdn.presstv.com/photo/20190221/e5a763eb-48c1-437a-9444-6581f77c74e9.jpg (https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/02/21/589133/Venezuela-Guaido-aid-Colombian-border)

By Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor (https://www.veteranstoday.com/author/dean/) -
June 19, 2019 413

…from Press TV (https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/06/19/598874/Venezuela-politics-fraud-Juan-Guaido-Colombia), Tehran

[ Editor’s Note: Oh my, Guaido’s aides looting Venezuelan refugee funds — who could image such a thing? Fortunately the report is a Columbian one, so it cannot be brushed off as Maduro propaganda.

For more background, we have Pompeo’s leaked comment to the US Jewish leaders that the Venezuelan opposition could not get its act together, and most of them were all in it for themselves.

One might want to ask if that is one of the reasons the US has backed them, thinking that personal greed was a dependable motivation to bet on.

Unfortunately, we have not heard of any outside controls or monitoring on the motherload of Venezuelan assets turned over to US-appointed rulers of Venezuela. Maybe now someone in Congress (Hello Mr. Ron Paul, please make the call) will initiate an independent receiver to keep the books on the hijacked Venezuelan assets.

Forgive me for dreaming, as I know that scenario would not have a snowball’s chance in hell. And so it goes, the Venezuelan people continue to suffer at the hands of US pretenda-kingmakers, while medical supplies are blocked due to frozen funds… Jim W. Dean (https://www.veteranstoday.com/editorial-board/) ]
– First published … June 19, 2019 –

Several close aides to Venezuela’s US-backed opposition figure Juan Guaido are revealed to have spent the money raised for “humanitarian” purposes on upscale restaurants, hotels and nightclubs in neighboring Colombia.

An investigation published by Miami-based Panampost revealed that two close aides to Guaido were caught by Colombian spies embezzling the “humanitarian” funds raised for Venezuela, where millions of people are struggling to afford basic items under harsh US economic sanctions.

Regional coordinator for Guaido’s Popular Will Party, Kevin Rojas, and his chief of staff Rossana Barrera are accused of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash on fancy hotels, lavish dinners, nightclubs and shopping trips.

In one example, the report said that the two claimed to have spent money on seven hotels to house over 1,400 Venezuelan migrants, but Colombian authorities counted only half that number crossing the border, and only two hotels were actually paid for.

The two spent over $125,000 on luxuries for themselves, including $40,000 in April alone, the report said.

Guaido has come under scrutiny over the report. The opposition figure — who calls himself “interim president” of Venezuela — admitted the allegations and promised to “clarify the case of officials appointed to serve our military in Cucuta.”

His “envoy to Colombia,” Humberto Calderon Berti, requested a “formal investigation related to the alleged irregularities” on Tuesday.

After unilaterally declaring himself “president,” Guaido announced a plan in February to bring in foreign humanitarian aid, including those from the US, through the Colombian border, to allegedly alleviate an economic crisis.

Following his failure to open the border in February, Guaido, who was recognized by the US and his western allies, orchestrated a coup against the government of Maduro on April 30.

The putsch, however, was quickly petered out by the Venezuelan army.

In the, meantime, US Vice President Mike Pence declared on Tuesday that the US administration continue to support the “Venezuelan people in their fight for freedom!”

Washington, which has been actively seeking to undermine Maduro’s government, has so far levied several rounds of sanctions against the country.

It has confiscated Venezuela’s state oil assets based in the US to channel them to Guaido. According to the United Nations figures, a quarter of Venezuela’s 30-million-strong population is in need of humanitarian aid.

Hervé

25th June 2019, 21:21

The US-led economic war is tearing Venezuela apart, not socialism (https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-led-economic-war-not-socialism-tearing-venezuela-apart/218335/)

Caleb T. Maupin MintPress News (https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-led-economic-war-not-socialism-tearing-venezuela-apart/218335/)
Tue, 12 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/527416/large/1_A_pro_government_supporter_w.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/527416/full/1_A_pro_government_supporter_w.jpg)
Pro-government supporter with Chavez shirt awaits results of congressional elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 6, 2015. © AP

Americans have been trained by decades of Cold War propaganda to look for any confirmation that 'socialism means poverty.' But in the case of Venezuela and other states not governed by the free market, this cliche simply doesn't ring true. The political and economic crisis facing Venezuela is being endlessly pointed to as proof of the superiority of the free market.

Images and portrayals of Venezuelans rioting in the streets over high food costs, empty grocery stores, medicine shortages, and overflowing garbage bins are the headlines, and the reporting points to socialism as the cause.

The Chicago Tribune published a Commentary piece titled: "A socialist revolution can ruin almost any country (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-socialist-revolution-venezuela-20160518-story.html)." A headline on Reason's Hit and Run blog proclaims: "Venezuelan socialism still a complete disaster (http://reason.com/blog/2016/01/29/venezuelan-socialism-still-a-complete-di)." The Week's U.S. edition says: "Authoritarian socialism caused Venezuela's collapse (http://theweek.com/articles/624768/how-authoritarian-socialism-caused-venezuelas-collapse)."

Indeed, corporate-owned, mainstream media advises Americans to look at the inflation (http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/12/news/economy/venezuela-imf-economy/) and food lines (http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-venezuela-lines-20160530-snap-story.html) in Venezuela, and then repeat to themselves clichés they heard in elementary school about how "Communism just doesn't work."

In reality, millions of Venezuelans have seen their living conditions vastly improved through the Bolivarian process. The problems plaguing the Venezuelan economy are not due to some inherent fault in socialism, but to artificially low oil prices and sabotage by forces hostile to the revolution.

Starting in 2014, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil. This is not a mere business decision, but a calculated move coordinated with U.S. and Israeli foreign policy goals. Despite not just losing money, but even falling deep into debt, the Saudi monarchy continues to expand its oil production apparatus. The result has been driving the price of oil down from $110 per barrel, to $28 in the early months of this year. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-prices-rise-on-output-uncertainty-1454993303) The goal is to weaken these opponents of Wall Street, London, and Tel Aviv, whose economies are centered around oil and natural gas exports.

And Venezuela is one of those countries. Saudi efforts to drive down oil prices have drastically reduced Venezuela's state budget and led to enormous consequences for the Venezuelan economy.

At the same time, private food processing and importing corporations have launched a coordinated campaign of sabotage (http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuela-to-Investigate-Food-Giant-Kraft-Heinz-for-Sabotage-20151201-0041.html). This, coupled with the weakening of a vitally important state sector of the economy, has resulted in inflation and food shortages. The artificially low oil prices have left the Venezuelan state cash-starved, prompting a crisis in the funding of the social programs that were key to strengthening the United Socialist Party.

Corruption is a big problem in Venezuela and many third-world countries. This was true prior to the Bolivarian process, as well as after Hugo Chavez launched his massive economic reforms. In situations of extreme poverty, people learn to take care of each other. People who work in government are almost expected to use their position to take care of their friends and family. Corruption is a big problem under any system, but it is much easier to tolerate in conditions of greater abundance. The problem has been magnified in Venezuela due to the drop in state revenue caused by the low oil prices and sabotage from food importers.

The Bolivarian experience in Venezuela
Americans have been trained by decades of Cold War propaganda to look for any confirmation that "socialism means poverty." A quick, simplistic portrait of the problems currently facing Venezuela, coupled with the fact that President Nicolas Maduro describes himself as a Marxist, can certainly give them such a confirmation. However, the actual, undisputed history of socialist construction around the world, including recent decades in Venezuela, tells a completely different story.

Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela in 1999. His election was viewed as a referendum on the extreme free market policies enacted in Venezuela during the 1990s. In December, when I walked through the neighborhoods of central Caracas, Venezuelans spoke of these times with horror.

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/527420/large/1_Demonstrators_in_Bolivar_Squ.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/527420/full/1_Demonstrators_in_Bolivar_Squ.jpg)
Demonstrators in Bolivar Square in support of President Nicolas Maduro © AP

Venezuelans told of how the privatizations mandated by the International Monetary Fund made life in Venezuela almost unlivable during the 1990s. Garbage wouldn't be collected. Electricity would go off for weeks. Haido Ortega, a member of a local governing body in Venezuela, said: "Under previous governments we had to burn tires and go on strike just to get electricity, have the streets fixed, or get any investment."

Chavez took office on a platform advocating a path between capitalism and socialism. He restructured the government-owned oil company so that the profits would go into the Venezuelan state, not the pockets of Wall Street corporations. With the proceeds of Venezuela's oil exports, Chavez funded a huge apparatus of social programs.

After defeating an attempted coup against him in 2002, Chavez announced the goal of bringing Venezuela toward "21st Century Socialism." Chavez quoted Marx and Lenin in his many TV addresses to the country, and mobilized the country around the goal of creating a prosperous, non-capitalist society.

In 1998, Venezuela had only 12 public universities, today it has 32. Cuban doctors were brought to Venezuela to provide free health care in community clinics. The government provides cooking and heating gas to low-income neighborhoods, and it's launched a literacy campaign for uneducated adults.

During the George W. Bush administration, oil prices were the highest they had ever been. The destruction of Iraq, sanctions on Iran and Russia, strikes and turmoil in Nigeria - these events created a shortage on the international markets, driving prices up.

Big oil revenues enabled Chavez and the United Socialist Party to bring millions of Venezuelans out of poverty. Between 1995 and 2009, poverty and unemployment in Venezuela were both cut in half (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/05/hugo-chavez-people-venezuelan-president).

After the death of Chavez, Nicolas Maduro has continued the Bolivarian program. "Housing Missions" have been built across the country, providing low-income families in Venezuela with places to live. The Venezuelan government reports that over 1 million modern apartment buildings (http://eeuu.embajada.gob.ve/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=515%3Apresidente-maduro-entregara-este-miercoles-la-vivienda-un-millon&catid=3%3Anoticias-de-venezuela-en-el-mundo&Itemid=19&lang=en) had been constructed by the end of 2015.

The problems currently facing Venezuela started in 2014. The already growing abundance of oil due to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, was compounded by Saudi Arabia flooding the markets with cheap oil. The result: massive price drops. Despite facing a domestic fiscal crisis, Saudi Arabia continues to expand its oil production apparatus (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-10/saudi-aramco-ceo-sees-significant-growth-in-oil-output-in-2016).

The price of oil remains low (http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/crude-oil.aspx?timeframe=6m), as negotiations among OPEC states are taking place in the hopes that prices can be driven back up. While American media insists the low oil prices are just the natural cycle of the market at work, it's rather convenient for U.S. foreign policy. Russia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and the Islamic Republic of Iran all have economies centered around state-owned oil companies and oil exports, and each of these countries has suffered the sting of low oil prices.

The leftist president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, has already been deposed due to scandal surrounding Petrobras, the state-owned oil company which is experiencing economic problems due to the falling price of oil. Although much of Brazil's oil is for domestic consumption, it has been revealed that those who deposed her coordinated with the CIA (https://www.rt.com/news/342933-temer-us-brazil-spying/) and other forces in Washington and Wall Street (https://www.mintpressnews.com/brics-attack-empire-strikes-back-brazil/214943/), utilizing the economic fallout of low oil prices to bring down the Brazilian president.

The son of President Ronald Reagan has argued that Obama is intentionally driving down oil prices not just to weaken the Venezuelan economy, but also to tamper the influence of Russia and Iran. Writing for Townhall in 2014, Michael Reagan bragged that his father did the same thing (http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelreagan/2014/03/06/putin-petroleum-and-pantyhose-n1804878) to hurt the Soviet Union during the 1980s:
"Since selling oil was the source of the Kremlin's wealth, my father got the Saudis to flood the market with cheap oil.

Lower oil prices devalued the ruble, causing the USSR to go bankrupt, which led to perestroika and Mikhail Gorbachev and the collapse of the Soviet Empire." The history of socialist construction
Prior to the 1917 revolution, Russia was a primitive, agrarian country. By 1936, after the completion of the Five-Year Plan, it was a world industrial power, surpassing every other country on the globe in terms of steel and tractor production (https://books.google.com/books?id=iM9CBAAAQBAJ&dq=Soviet+union+steel+production+1936&source=gbs_navlinks_s). The barren Soviet countryside was lit up with electricity. The children of illiterate peasants across the Soviet Union grew up to be the scientists and engineers who first conquered outer space. The planned economy of the Soviet Union drastically improved the living standards of millions of people, bringing them running water, modern housing, guaranteed employment, and free education.

There is no contradiction between central planning and economic growth. In 1949, China had no steel industry. Today, more than half of all the world's steel (http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterpham/2016/04/27/chinas-steel-industry-is-dominating-the-global-market-but-will-it-last/#2b165604380b) is produced in China's government-controlled steel industry.

Cuba has wiped out illiteracy (http://thecubaneconomy.com/articles/2010/10/cuba%E2%80%99s-achievements-under-the-presidency-of-fidel-castro-the-top-ten/), and Cubans enjoy one of the highest life expectancies in Latin America.

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/527422/large/1_Signs_with_images_of_Fidel_C.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/527422/full/1_Signs_with_images_of_Fidel_C.jpg)
Signs with images of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, May Day march in Havana, Cuba, 2013. © AP/Ramon Espinosa

When the Marxist-Leninist governments of Eastern Europe collapsed in the early 1990s, economists like Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, who can be counted among capitalism's "true believers," predicted rapid economic growth. Since the 1990s, conditions in what George W. Bush called the "New Europe" have become far worse than under socialism (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/20/eastern-europe-neoliberal-disaster-arab-spring). The life expectancy has decreased and infant mortality has risen. Human and drug traffickers have set up shop. In endless polls, the people of Eastern Europe repeatedly say life was better before the defeat of Communism (https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/kurt-biray/communist-nostalgia-in-eastern-europe-longing-for-past).

Russia's recovery from the disaster of the 1990s has come about with the reorientation of the economy to one centered around public control of its oil and natural gas resources - much like Venezuela. The Putin government has also waged a crackdown on the small number of "oligarchs" who became wealthy after the demise of the Soviet Union. Once strong state to control the economy was re-established, Russia's gross domestic product increased by 70 percent during the first eight years of Putin's administration. From 2000 to 2008 (http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20080301/100381963.html), poverty was cut in half, and incomes doubled.

Neoliberal capitalism has failed
It is only because these facts are simply off-limits in the American media and its discussions of socialism and capitalism that the distorted narrative about Venezuela's current hardships are believed.

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/527423/large/1_Tea_Party_placard_Obamafasci.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/527423/full/1_Tea_Party_placard_Obamafasci.jpg)
Tea Party placard 'Obamafascism' © Unknown

When discussing the merits of capitalism and socialism, American media usually restricts the conversation to pointing out that socialist countries in the third world have lower living standards than the United States, a country widely identified with capitalism. Without any context or fair comparison, this alone is supposed to prove the inherent superiority of U.S.-style capitalism.

If the kind of neoliberal "free trade" advocated by U.S. corporations was the solution to global poverty, Mexico, a country long ago penetrated with the North American Free Trade Agreement, would be a shining example of development, not a mess of drug cartels and poverty. The same can be said for oil-rich countries like Nigeria, where exports are massive but the population remains in dire conditions (https://www.mintpressnews.com/niger-deltans-plenty-avenge-yet-us-media-ignores-context-terrorism-oil-companies/217030/).

The governments of Bangladesh, Honduras, Guatemala, Indonesia, and the Philippines have done everything they can to deregulate the market and accommodate Western "investment." Despite the promises of neoliberal theoreticians, their populations have not seen their lives substantially improve.

If one compares the more market-oriented economy of the U.S., not to countries in the global south attempting to develop with a planned economy, but to other Western countries with more social-democratic governments, the inferiority of the "free market" can also be revealed.

The U.S. is rated 43 in the world in terms of life expectancy (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html), according to the CIA World Factbook. People live longer in Germany, Britain, Spain, France, Sweden, Australia, Italy, Iceland - basically, almost every other Western country. Statistics on the rate of infant mortality (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html) say approximately the same thing. National health care services along with greater job security and economic protections render much healthier populations (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/report-americans-less-healthy-die-younger-than-global-peers/).

Even as the social-democratic welfare states of Europe drift closer to the U.S. economic model with "austerity cuts," the U.S. still lags behind them in terms of basic societal health. Western European countries with powerful unions, strong socialist and labor parties, and less punitive criminal justice systems tend to have healthier societies (http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/04/03/24-7-wall-st-healthiest-countries/70859728/).

The American perception that socialism or government intervention automatically create poverty, while a laissez faire approach unleashes limitless prosperity, is simply incorrect. Despite the current hardships, this reality is reflected in the last two decades of Venezuela's history.

A punishment vote, not a vote for capitalism
The artificially low oil prices have left the Venezuelan state cash-starved, prompting a crisis in the funding of the social programs that were key to strengthening the United Socialist Party.

It is odd that the mainstream press blames "socialism" for the food problems in Venezuela, when the food distributors remain in the hands of private corporations. As Venezuelan political analyst Jesus Silva told me recently: "Most food in Venezuela is imported by private companies, they ask for dollars subsidized by the government oil sales to do that; they rarely produce anything or invest their own money."

According to Silva, the economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the U.S., in addition to the oil crisis, have made it more difficult for the Venezuelan government to pay the private food importing companies in U.S. dollars. In response, the food companies are "running general sabotage."

"Venezuela's economy depends on oil sales. Now that oil prices are dropping down, the challenge is to get other sources of economic income," he explained. "Meanwhile, the opposition is garnering electoral support due to the current economic crisis."

When the United Socialist Party and its aligned Patriotic Pole lost control of Parliament in December, many predicted the imminent collapse of the Bolivarian government. However, months have passed and this clearly has not taken place.

While a clear majority cast a voto castigo ("punishment vote") in December, punishing the government for mismanaging the crisis, the Maduro administration has a solid core of socialist activists who remain loyal to the Bolivarian project. Across Venezuela, communes have been established. Leftist activists live together and work in cooperatives. Many of them are armed and organized in "Bolivarian Militias" to defend the revolution.

Even some of the loudest critics of the Venezuelan government admit that it has greatly improved the situation in the country, despite the current hardships.

In December, I spoke to Glen Martinez, a radio host in Caracas who voted for the opposition. He dismissed the notion that free market capitalism would ever return to Venezuela. As he explained, most of the people who voted against the United Socialist Party - himself included - are frustrated with the way the current crisis is being handled, but do not want a return to the neoliberal economic model of the 1999s.

He said the economic reforms established during the Chavez administration would never be reversed. "We are not the same people we were before 1999," Martinez insisted.

The United Socialist Party is currently engaging in a massive re-orientation, hoping to sharpen its response to economic sabotage and strengthen the socialist direction of the revolution. There is also talk of massive reform in the way the government operates (http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11758), in order to prevent the extreme examples of corruption and mismanagement that are causing frustration among the population.

The climate is being intensified by a number (http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11912) of recent political assassinations (http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/12057). Tensions continue to exist (http://colombiareports.com/venezuela-considering-to-reopen-border-with-colombia/) on Venezuela's border with the U.S.-aligned government of Colombia. The solid base of socialist activists is not going to let revolution be overturned, and tensions continue to rise. The Maduro and the United Socialist Party's main task is to hold Venezuela together, and not let the country escalate into a state of civil war.

Related:

Venezuelan oil production set for another drop - little hope of turnaround (https://www.sott.net/article/415546-Venezuelan-oil-production-set-for-another-drop-little-hope-of-turnaround)

US media distorts Venezuela's food crisis by blaming Socialism (https://www.sott.net/article/343596-US-media-distorts-Venezuelas-food-crisis-by-blaming-Socialism)

Death of Chavismo in Venezuela: Election of right-wingers heralds privatization, pillage, and pro-Americanism (https://www.sott.net/article/308592-Death-of-Chavismo-in-Venezuela-Election-of-right-wingers-heralds-privatization-pillage-and-pro-Americanism)

One trick pony: US sanctions on Venezuela are to overthrow the government, not bring democracy (https://www.sott.net/article/385155-One-trick-pony-US-sanctions-on-Venezuela-are-to-overthrow-the-government-not-bring-democracy)

The US stealth war on Venezuela (https://www.sott.net/article/408841-The-US-stealth-war-on-Venezuela)

Poll shows 75% of Venezuelans support socialism (https://www.sott.net/article/356863-Poll-shows-75-of-Venezuelans-support-socialism)

ulli

26th June 2019, 15:08

https://www.outsideonline.com/2394952/venezuela-canaima-national-park-rolando-garcia-murder?fbclid=IwAR2DF2EdTok5ZwvEGDi54Bu_RD1TDTbhwdybbk4A4scyMDoTUtlvJMB-xIU

https://www.outsideonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/width_1200/public/2019/04/29/venezuela-kukenan-tepui_h.jpg?itok=3wFf4hax

Canaima National Park, sacred to the indigenous Pemón, is a marquee destination for international explorers. But the region's economic future is in doubt after forces loyal to Nicolás Maduro shot and killed longtime guide Rolando Garcia in February.

Rolando Garcia led his first group of trekkers to the top of 9,220-foot Mount Roraima in 1983, while he was still a teenager. He would go on to summit the mountain, the highest point in Venezuela’s Canaima National Park, at least 250 times during his career as one of the best guides in the region.
Garcia honed his craft in the time of “the other Venezuela,” when the country was the wealthiest in Latin America, during the last decades of the 20th century. The prosperity helped create a steady stream of adventurous Venezuelans and international tourists to Canaima to see Angel Falls, the world’s highest waterfall, and the ancient landscape that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. During that time, the park also attracted climbers seeking new big-wall routes up its giant tabletop mountains, called tepuis, including Kukenan and Roraima, which have hosted some of the most famous accomplishments of Chris Sharma, Kurt Albert, and Stefan Glowacz.
Straddling the main road that cuts through Canaima to the Brazilian border, and sitting at the base of Roraima, the indigenous Pemón village of Kumaracapay became a key stop for those coming to the park. It was also home to Garcia and his wife, Zoraida Rodriguez, who hosted climbers and trekkers in their household.
Many members of Garcia’s community might never get the chance to venture beyond their own corner of the park, but his career as the country’s most famous guide gave Garcia the chance to travel throughout Venezuela.
“People who saw Rolando at home in his hammock might think he had never left his village,” says Daniel Mamopulakos, “but this guy has been everywhere.” Mamopulakos, a climber and mountain biker who lives roughly 600 miles northwest of Canaima in Caracas, first met Garcia in 2002 and became close with him over dozens of backcountry trips.

Hervé

26th June 2019, 16:02

The US-led economic war is tearing Venezuela apart, not socialism (https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-led-economic-war-not-socialism-tearing-venezuela-apart/218335/)

[...]

... The problems plaguing the Venezuelan economy are not due to some inherent fault in socialism, but to artificially low oil prices and sabotage by forces hostile to the revolution.

Starting in 2014, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil. This is not a mere business decision, but a calculated move coordinated with U.S. and Israeli foreign policy goals. Despite not just losing money, but even falling deep into debt, the Saudi monarchy continues to expand its oil production apparatus. The result has been driving the price of oil down from $110 per barrel, to $28 in the early months of this year. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-prices-rise-on-output-uncertainty-1454993303) The goal is to weaken these opponents of Wall Street, London, and Tel Aviv, whose economies are centered around oil and natural gas exports.

And Venezuela is one of those countries. Saudi efforts to drive down oil prices have drastically reduced Venezuela's state budget and led to enormous consequences for the Venezuelan economy.

At the same time, private food processing and importing corporations have launched a coordinated campaign of sabotage (http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuela-to-Investigate-Food-Giant-Kraft-Heinz-for-Sabotage-20151201-0041.html). This, coupled with the weakening of a vitally important state sector of the economy, has resulted in inflation and food shortages. The artificially low oil prices have left the Venezuelan state cash-starved, prompting a crisis in the funding of the social programs that were key to strengthening the United Socialist Party.

[...]
As I pointed out in Post #487 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1293282&viewfull=1#post1293282)the above is standard Rockefeller's operating procedure who, incidentally (David), was Bush Sr's (and his CIA) boss.

So it goes for Iran as well... guess which countries have managed to keep a Rothschild's Central Bank at bay and out of their borders?

AutumnW

26th June 2019, 22:02

Joe Rogan interviews Abby Martin about Venezuela, and other topics. Amazing interview. She's a really admirable human being and so is he!

O51yryBeNuY

AutumnW

26th June 2019, 22:31

Wikipedia -- Recent History of Venezuela

Hugo Chávez's political activity began in the 1980s and 1990s, a period of economic downturn and social upheaval in Venezuela.[1] Venezuela's economic well-being fluctuated with the unstable demand for its primary export commodity, oil. Oil accounts for three-quarters of Venezuela's exports, half of its government's fiscal income, and a quarter of the nation's GDP.[2]

The 1970s were boom years for oil, during which the material standard of living for all classes in Venezuela improved. This was partly due to the ruling AD and COPEI parties' investing in social welfare projects which, because of the government's oil income, they could do without heavily taxing private wealth.

[3] "Venezuelan workers enjoyed the highest wages in Latin America and subsidies in food, health, education and transport.

"[4] However, "toward the end of the 1970s, these tendencies began to reverse themselves."[5] Per capita oil income and per capita income both declined, leading to a foreign debt crisis and forced devaluation of the bolivar in 1983.

[5] The negative trend continued through the 1990s. "Per capita income in 1997 was 8 percent less than in 1970; workers' income during this period was reduced by approximately half."[5]

"Between 1984 and 1995 the percentage of people living below the poverty line jumped from 36 percent to 66 percent, while the number of people suffering from extreme poverty tripled, from 11 percent to 36 percent."[6]

Along with these economic changes came various changes in Venezuelan society. Class division intensified, as summarised by Edgardo Lander

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Venezuela_(1999%E2%80%93present)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Want to add here. The mayors of Detroit weren't held responsible for the decay of the city, after the big car manufacturers pulled out.

They didn't have to deal with rampant interference and sanctions placed on their city by the most powerful nation on earth either.

Nor would they have been blamed for the city's descent into drug chaos, as that is a side effect of poverty and misery that the decline in manufacturing left in its wake.

What would you do, if you lived in Venezuela? If you were wealthy would you demonize the poor or try to understand them and help your country as much as you could.

Would you hoard your wealth while others starved? Would that be okay with you, or would you be happy to see redistribution programs that prevented a further descent into chaos.

And more to the point, would you believe the mainstream media (owned by the wealthy)? Would you let yourself be suckered in by those who twist perception to their own ends?

Hervé

1st July 2019, 21:09

Latin America's recurring tragedy: Why Bolívar has more in common with Guaido than Chavez (https://es.sott.net/article/67343-La-ironia-de-Latinoamerica-y-por-que-Bolivar-tiene-mas-en-comun-con-Guaido-que-con-Chavez)

Alejandro Rodríguez Sott.net (https://es.sott.net/article/67343-La-ironia-de-Latinoamerica-y-por-que-Bolivar-tiene-mas-en-comun-con-Guaido-que-con-Chavez)
Mon, 01 Jul 2019 22:03 UTC

In Latin Americans' collective consciousness, the figure of Simón Bolívar is seen as a symbol of resistance and the fight for peoples' liberation from the yoke of bloody and thieving monarchies. The very name by which he is known, The Liberator, reinforces the belief that Bolívar was simply responding heroically to a deep-seated need that consumed an entire continent.

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/525835/large/el_lider_opositor_juan_guaido_.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/525835/full/el_lider_opositor_juan_guaido_.jpg)
Juan Guaidó, the head of Venezuela's opposition, tried and failed to oust Nicolás Maduro in April. © Agence France-Presse

Within this context, Hugo Chavez used Bolívar as an archetype for his revolution, called for this reason the Bolívarian revolution, which would bring to Venezuela (and the entire region, if Chavez had been successful) the "socialism of the 21st century." Sadly, the reason why Chavez Frias' effort was destined to fail is the same reason why choosing Bolívar as the exemplary figure was a terrible mistake.

Simón Bolívar was born in Caracas in 1873 to a prominent Creole family. His education took place in Venezuela and in Europe. He was openly a freemason and had contacts in France and England. His desire for power was influenced (and perhaps directed) by the agendas of western European empires competing with the Spanish crown for global control, and for whom dismembering the vast Spanish territory was a priority that would represent a gigantic geopolitical victory.

You can find much detailed information on the internet about the life of Bolívar and his military campaigns, but I would like on this occasion to invite the reader to question the narrative myth using a little basic logic.

Where did the troops loyal to the Crown come from?
In the history of the independence of Latin America, in general, two camps are established: the troops of Bolívar, also called patriots, independents or liberators, and the Spaniards who are called royalists, royal troops, and so on. The point of using these specific names seems to be to establish the notion that Bolívar was in his country fighting against foreign or invading troops.

This presents a problem when you look at it carefully.

The territory of what became Gran Colombia after the Bolívarian intervention had been Spanish territory for centuries, controlled by viceroys from Spain, with town councils and captaincies that included significant Creole participation. In many cases the viceroy did not have real power over the decisions taken by the Creole, and served more as a ceremonial figure than as a leader.

This meant that the inhabitants of the viceroyalties and captaincies of the Spanish empire, by royal mandate of the Crown, were Spanish citizens, and the soldiers who protected the territory came not only from the Iberian Peninsula but from the entire Spanish territory, including the viceroyalties on the high seas, i.e. America.

That is why Bolívar's military battles were not fought against Spanish soldiers from the Iberian Peninsula - foreigners to the region - but against Spanish soldiers born in America - whether Creole, mestizo, or even indigenous.

This point is important because the image that emerges is not that of a heroic Bolívar fighting against an invading country, but that of a Bolívar attacking soldiers who protected their country from a rebel aristocrat who threatened the order of their homeland. The image of a traitor. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UmM3ER97PU)

Understanding this point is essential to studying what happened during their "liberation" campaign. For example, the fact that Bolívar declared "War to the Death (https://noticiasdeanzoategui.blogspot.com/2018/02/por-orden-de-bolivar-fueron-ejecutados.html)" as his military strategy meant the extermination of any Spanish (American) soldier who did not surrender immediately and join his army. In effect, "surrender and join our effort to destroy your country, or we kill you" - doctrinaire absolutes we are familiar with today thanks to such 'liberators' as George W. Bush or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

From Wikipedia:
"Spaniards and Canarians, count on death, even if you are indifferent, if you do not actively act in gratitude for the freedom of America. Americans, count on life, even if you are guilty," and that would give name to said period. Bolívar, at the end of the campaign, wrote to the Congress of New Granada (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincias_Unidas_de_la_Nueva_Granada) that he had passed through nine cities and towns "where all Europeans and Canarians were shot, almost without exception." The question that comes to mind is, of course, how did he determine who was a Spaniard and who wasn't? Such cruelty can only be devised by a ideologically-possessed criminal mind. This is readily apparent in his famous "Letter from Jamaica (http://www.juventud.psuv.org.ve/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/cartajamaica.pdf)", which reveals his narcissism and twisted reasoning. Tying this to other anecdotes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOBb5AV3nhE&t=804s) from contemporaries of Bolívar, the image that appears is that of a man for whom the end justifies the means. You can listen to this talk by Pablo Victoria (losdetallesdesucomportamientosonenrealidadtenebrososlosdetallesdesucomportamientosonenrealidadteneb rososhttps://youtu.be/l99e3TtDSJg), which contains many details not commonly known.

Even Karl Marx, in one of history's curious ironies, described Bolívar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim%C3%B3n_Bol%C3%ADvar#cite_note-marx-56) as follows in an unfriendly biography titled "Bolívar and Ponte, Simón", published in the New American Cyclopedia:
A "falsifier, deserter, conspirator, liar, coward and plunderer," and a "false liberator who simply sought to preserve the power of the old Creole nobility to which he belonged." This is evidenced by what happened following declarations of independence from Spain by the five new nation-states through which he passed. There was little desire for change, and no one had any idea of what it was they were seeking to do. Immediately after independence, the region entered into a round of military conflicts over whether to organize their new countries along centralized or federal lines.

What had been the viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, the viceroyalty of Peru and the captaincy of Venezuela, under one prosperous empire, ended up becoming the divided Gran Colombia (the "Patria Boba" or 'foolish homeland'), and later Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia - all weak countries, heavily indebted, and, 200 years later, largely vassals of the 'American' empire.

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/525954/large/800px_Bolivar_statue_Belgrave_.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/525954/full/800px_Bolivar_statue_Belgrave_.jpg)
Statue of Simón Bolívar in London. Apparently, the British government wanted to thank him for his services with this sculpture. © Wikipedia

Bolívar ended up dying in Colombia because, as the accounts go, he was unwelcome in neither Peru nor Ecuador, nor even in his 'own' Venezuela. His legacy is a region with common ancestors, common religion, common language... and yet disconnected from its own history, its own cultural roots, confused about its identity, and apparently destined to suffer the same tragic fate over and over again.

The Bolívar of the 21st century
Juan Guaido calls himself the leader of the Venezuelan majority, who fights for freedom from an oppressive dictator who usurped power. His efforts to seize power are financed from abroad and supported by nations for whom destroying Venezuela's integrity would represent a great geopolitical victory. Does that sound familiar?

Imagine if last April's pathetic coup d'état attempt had been successful; what would the globalist media have written about it?
"Juan Guaido achieves the impossible, frees Venezuelan people from Maduro dictatorship"

"'Freedom!' shouts Venezuelan crowd after a welcome victory in Caracas"

"The blood spilled was not in vain: today Venezuela breathes freedom"

"Guaido's liberation campaign retakes Caracas with help from France and U.S. - Bolívarian forces defeated" And so on. The point is that we have seen this before, not only in distant lands like Libya or Ukraine, but in Latin America itself.

The best example of this is Simón Bolívar and his betrayal of the homeland, which was later packaged in a revolutionary romanticism that ironically inspired Hugo Chavez, but which actually describes Juan Guaido.

Who else but a traitor, a useful idiot, a Washington puppet without conscience, would publicly call for military intervention to seize power, most likely killing Venezuelan soldiers, civilians and, of course, destroying the infrastructure of his own country? Today Juan Guaido, but 200 years ago, Simón Bolívar.

https://www.sott.net/avatar/friend/571 (https://www.sott.net/article/416016-Latin-Americas-recurring-tragedy-Why-Bolivar-has-more-in-common-with-Guaido-than-Chavez#searching) Alejandro Rodríguez (https://www.sott.net/article/416016-Latin-Americas-recurring-tragedy-Why-Bolivar-has-more-in-common-with-Guaido-than-Chavez#searching) https://www.sott.net/images/20_user.png (https://www.sott.net/user/571-Alejo)
Alejandro has been a SOTT editor since 2014. A Graphic Designer by profession, his curiosity led him to doing research and learning about anything he could get a hold of on the Internet. He is fond of saying,
"If you cannot explain it in a simple manner, you haven't fully understood it."
That sums up his tendency to want to try and understand as fully as possible the planet that we all share.

Hervé

2nd July 2019, 15:29

...

... and now, for something completely different:

Israël against the Venezuelans (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206898.html)

by Thierry Meyssan Voltaire Network | Damascus (Syria) |
2 July 2019

A new coup d’état was attempted on 24 June in Venezuela. Thierry Meyssan reveals that it was directed against both the administration of Nicolás Maduro and his pro-US opponent Juan Guaidó. Furthermore, according to the recordings of the conversations between the conspirators, it was supervised by the Israëlis.

https://www.voltairenet.org/squelettes/elements/images/ligne-rouge.gif
عربي (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206905.html) Español (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206900.html) français (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206889.html) italiano (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206904.html) Português (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206903.html) română (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206902.html) Türkçe (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206907.html) ελληνικά (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206906.html)

https://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH400/206889-f9b92.jpg
On 24 June 2019, Nicolás Maduro and Juan Guaidó were to be eliminated for the benefit of Raúl Baduel.

Yet another attempted coup d’état took place the 24 June 2019 in Venezuela. All the protagonists were arrested, and the Minister for Information, Jorge Rodríguez, delivered a lengthy explanation on television about the ins and outs of the affair.

Indeed, unlike the previous attempts, this conspiracy had been observed for 14 months by a unit of Military Intelligence which had been trained by Cuban Intelligence. During this whole period, the Venezuelans had penetrated the group and monitored their audio and video communications. As a result, they now have 56 hours of recordings which compose a wealth of irrefutable proof.

Several of the individuals arrested had already been involved in the previous conspiracies, and so it is difficult to imagine that this operation is distinct and separate from those commanded earlier by the CIA.

No better future for the opposition than for the government
Two remarks must be made. First of all, this conspiracy was directed both at Constitutional President Nicolás Maduro and also the self-proclaimed president Juan Guaidó, in order to bring a third man to power, General Raúl Isaías Baduel.

The latter, ex-head of the Chiefs of Staff, then Minister for Defense, had been relieved of his functions by President Hugo Chávez. Baduel then turned against Chavez and took the head of the opposition in 2009. However, it became known that he had misappropriated money from his Ministry. He was tried and condemned to 7 years of imprisonment, a sentence which he served. He was once again incarcerated during the mandate of President Nicolás Maduro, and is still in prison. A commando was supposed to free him and take him to the national television studios, from where he would announce the change of régime.

The fact of the promotion of a third president confirms our analysis, published two years ago [1 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206898.html#nb1)], according to which the aim of the United States is not to replace the Bolivarian régime with another, more obedient government, but to destroy the state structures of the country. From the US point of view, neither the nationalist majority nor the pro-US opposition must have hopes for a better future.

The Venezuelans who follow Guaidó and believe that US support will lead them to victory must now admit their mistake. The Iraqi Ahmed Chalabi and the Libyan Mahmoud Jibril returned to their countries in the backpacks of American G I’s. They never knew the destiny for which they had hoped.

Classical analyses of the 20th century, according to which the United States prefer vassal governments to equals are currently overtaken by transnational financial capitalism. This is the meaning of the Rumsfeld/Cebrowski military doctrine, operational since 2001 [2 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206898.html#nb2)], which has already devastated the « Greater Middle East » and is now crashing down on the « Caribbean Basin ».

According to the recordings of the conspiracy, this was not organised by the United States, even if it is probable that they supervised it, but by the Israëlis. Over the last 72 years, the CIA has organised an incredible quantity of « régime changes » by way of « coups d’état » or « colour revolutions ». For reasons of efficiency, the Agency can simultaneously hand identical missions to several units, even delegate certain operations to sub-contractors. This is also the case of Mossad, which hires its services to numerous other clients.

Thus, four years ago, another attempt at a coup d’état occurred in Venezuela. The operation planned for several assassinations and a demonstration which was intended to attack the Presidential palace of Miraflores. TeleSur revealed that this attempt was supervised by foreigners who arrived specially in the country a few days before the events. They did not speak Spanish. The intended route of the demonstration had been mysteriously signposted with graffitis of the star of David and instructions in Hebrew.

Israël in Latin America
Prudently, Minister Jorge Rodríguez avoided making a public statement as to whether the Israëlis who directed the conspiracy of 22 June were or were not mandated by their own state. Numerous examples attest that this is highly possible.

The rôle of the Israëli secret services in Latin America dates from 1982. In Guatemala, Judeo-Christian President Efraín Ríos Montt [3 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206898.html#nb3)] massacred 18,000 Indians. While Ariel Sharon invaded Lebanon, the Mossad pursued, in his shadow, the social experiments that had been on-going since 1975 in apartheid South Africa – to create Bantoustans for the Mayas – a model which would be applied to the Palestinians after the Oslo Agreements (1994). Contrary to an optimistic reading of events, the fact that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin personally supervised these social experiments in South Africa [4 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206898.html#nb4)] does not speak well of his sincerity when he agreed in Oslo to recognise a demilitarised Palestinian state.

Over the last ten years, the Israëli secret services:
https://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L9xH11/puce-cebf5.gif have « authorised» the « private » Israëli company Global CST to lead operation « Jaque » for the liberation of Íngrid Betancourt, held hostage by the Colombian FARC (2008) [5 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206898.html#nb5)].

https://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L9xH11/puce-cebf5.gif sent snipers to Honduras to assassinate the leaders of the pro-democratic demonstrations during the coup d’état against Constitutional President Manuel Zelaya (2009) [6 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206898.html#nb6)].

https://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L9xH11/puce-cebf5.gif actively participated in the overthrow of Brazilian Presidente Dilma Rousseff within the Central Bank, the security of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the Senate (2016).
Besides this, the Israëli Defence Forces:
https://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L9xH11/puce-cebf5.gif have rented a submarine base in Chile;

https://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L9xH11/puce-cebf5.gif have sent thousands of soldiers to follow two-week training courses on the property of Joe Lewis in Argentinian Patagonia [7 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article206898.html#nb7)].

Thierry Meyssan (https://www.voltairenet.org/auteur29.html?lang=en)

Translation
Pete Kimberley (https://www.voltairenet.org/auteur125569.html?lang=en)

Source Al-Watan (Syria) (https://www.voltairenet.org/auteur125461.html?lang=en)

Bill Ryan

4th July 2019, 15:40

A local update, from Ecuador.

https://cuencahighlife.com/city-officials-ask-for-help-to-house-and-feed-growing-number-of-refugees

City officials ask for help to house and feed growing number of refugees
Jul 4, 2019

Cuenca social service officials say they are maxed out in terms of handling the continuing flow of Venezuelan refugees into the city.

https://cuencahighlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/chl-venezuelan-beggars-mercu.png
Refugee beggars peddle candy and Venezuelan money on Cuenca streets.

Municipal councilman Iván Abril, who chairs the Immigration Committee of the Cantonal Council, says that a growing number of refugees are sleeping on city streets, under bridges and along the banks of rivers. “We are over-stressed in our ability to provide services to these people and we desperately need help from churches and private organizations,” he says.

He worries that Peru’s recent decision to place more restrictions on Venezuelans entering that country will boost the refugee population in Cuenca and other Ecuadorian cities. “The best estimates we have is that there are about 5,000 currently in Cuenca and that number is growing,” Abril says.

According to the city’s Proyecto Vida, there are currently 31 public and private services that assist indigent refugees, including those that provide overnight accommodations, food, clothing and special care for children, the elderly and the disabled.

Posada San Francisco, just off San Francisco Plaza, has told city officials it cannot handle any more arrivals at its overnight shelter. “We are already over our capacity of 100 and are turning families away,” one volunteer said Monday. “It breaks our hearts because we know these people will be sleeping outside on these cold nights but we have no choice.”

Paúl Delgado, commander of the Citizen Guard, reports many cases of people living in parks, under bridges and along river banks. “There are several dozen families camping in the Patrimonial Cemetery and in area around Tres Puentes,” he says. “There are others staying on the streets near Posada San Francisco in hopes that they can gain entry.”

Other services, including three that provide meals to refugees, including one sponsored by expats, say they are also working at capacity.

Delgado says that his officers are warning beggars on historic district streets that they are engaged in illegal activity, sometimes asking them to leave. “The beggars are sold candy and money by an organized group of Venezuelans and are trained how to beg pedestrians for money. We detained several of the organizers but the practice continues,” he says. “The beggars are encouraged to borrow or rent children from other refugees if they don’t have their own to increase the appeal.”

Delgado adds: “In most cases, those begging need money but they are being manipulated for profit by unethical people. It is a sad situation.”

In the appeal for community help, Abril and other commissioners say they have had some success. “We have some commitments but these need to be turned into action,” he says.

perolator

9th July 2019, 16:23

UN High Commissioner Bachelet’s Report On The Human Rights Crisis In Venezuela (https://elhem.co/2019/07/05/un-high-commissioner-bachelets-report-on-the-human-rights-crisis-in-venezuela/)

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet released the following statement about Venezuela on July 5, 2019.

[snip]
... However, as our report makes clear, essential institutions and the rule of law in Venezuela have been profoundly eroded. The exercise of freedom of opinion, expression, association and assembly, and the right to participate in public life, entail a risk of reprisals and repression. Our report notes attacks against actual or perceived opponents and human rights defenders, ranging from threats and smear campaigns to arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, sexual violence, and killings and enforced disappearance.

Excessive and lethal force has repeatedly been used against protestors. My Office has also documented excessive use of force in the context of security operations by the Special Action Forces, with multiple killings, mainly of young men. Many may constitute extrajudicial killings, and should be fully investigated, with accountability of perpetrators, and guarantees of non-recurrence.

The death in custody six days ago of a retired Navy captain – allegedly after torture – is deeply regrettable. I note the opening of an investigation and the arrest of two military counter-intelligence officers in this context. However, there is a pattern of torture reports in Venezuela in the context of arbitrary detention. The authorities must ensure full investigation in accordance with international standards, as well as accountability and, where relevant, remedy for all cases of alleged torture.

[snip]

On a personal note, I am impressed with the report. She was not able to hide the truth because is so outrageously obvious, is undeniable. Some Maduro's supporters argue that U.S. sanctions have to be taken into account. However, sanctions, as of 2019, will impact the country in full producing devastating consequences. I don't care about sanctions. Any method to weaken the narco-tyranny is welcome.

The full report says a big truth: “the economy of Venezuela, particularly its oil industry and food production systems, were already in crisis before any sanctions were imposed.”

The Grayzone Project, Peter Koenig and the journalist guerrilla (the usual suspects, including Ms. Abby Martin) quickly dismissed the report, trying to justify CLAP, for instance. This is incredible. I prefer Walmart, I rather buy what I want, when I want.

Dennis Leahy

9th July 2019, 18:36

AutumnW

9th July 2019, 20:04

Dennis,

The wikipedia article, if I read it correctly, is clear that Chavez (or socialism) did not cause the economic problems in Venezuela, that things improved radically for a number of years. It was oil prices tanking, with subsequent economic sanctions placed by U.S. sanctions that have done the most harm.

Your greater point, that wikipedia is not always reliable, as it can be used as a tool by propagandists as well as any mainstream news, is well taken.

Hervé

10th July 2019, 16:30

'Weaponizing human rights': UN chief Bachelet's Venezuela report follows US regime change script (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/07/06/weaponizing-human-rights-un-high-commissioner-bachelets-venezuela-report-follows-us-regime-change-script/)

Anya Parampil The Grayzone (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/07/06/weaponizing-human-rights-un-high-commissioner-bachelets-venezuela-report-follows-us-regime-change-script/)
Sat, 06 Jul 2019 09:18 UTC
Former UN special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas slams UN High Commissioner Bachelet's report on Venezuela as a politicized collection of baseless accusations by "advocates of regime change"

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/529534/large/Michelle_Bachelet.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/529534/full/Michelle_Bachelet.jpg)

When United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet traveled to Venezuela earlier this year, she met with an array of citizens who lost family members to right-wing violence in the country.

Among them was Inés Esparragoza, whose 20-year-old son, Orlando Figuera, was doused with gasoline and lit on fire by an opposition mob during violent anti-government riots, known as guarimbas, in May 2017.
"He was stabbed, beaten and cruelly burnt alive," Esparragoza declared before Bachelet in March.

"Simply because of the color of his shirt, the color of his skin, and because he said he was Chavista."
While Esparragoza poured her family's torment out before the former Chilean president, Bachelet scribbled notes and glanced down at horrific photos which captured the moment masked men attacked Figuera. As the young man knelt to the ground, a gang of anti-government thugs poured petrol over his body before lighting a match.
"I call on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to make justice," she said. "These are not peaceful protesters, they are bloodthirsty."

https://videos.files.wordpress.com/aHP36d71/orlando-figuera-mother-michelle-bachelet_hd.mp4

Yet shockingly, when Bachelet released her long-anticipated report on the situation in Venezuela (https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/07/1041902) on July 5, it was as though that meeting never took place.

Apparently unmoved by the testimony of Figuera's grieving mother, or anyone else's story of injury and suffering, Bachelet made no mention of opposition violence in her report. Her failure to properly detail the plight of Venezuelans who have suffered at the hands of anti-government rioters was just one of many glaring omissions which has one of the top international legal experts to have served at the UN calling the high commissioner's objectivity into question.

Alfred de Zayas became the first UN rapporteur to visit Venezuela in 21 years, traveling to the country in 2017 to examine the social and economic impact of unilateral coercive measures applied by the US. He determined US-led sanctions were largely to blame for the country's hardship, accusing Washington of waging "economic warfare," and comparing its harsh measures to "medieval sieges of towns (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/venezuela-us-sanctions-united-nations-oil-pdvsa-a8748201.html)."

De Zayas was no less scathing towards Bachelet's report, slamming it as a politicized document that depended heavily on unfounded claims by activists dedicated to Maduro's removal. "The new Bachelet report is methodologically flawed, as were indeed the earlier reports, relying overwhelmingly on unverified allegations by opposition politicians and advocates of regime change who are only interested in weaponizing human rights," the former special rapporteur told The Grayzone.
"The same occurred with the reports of [former UNHCHR] Zeid [Raad Al Hussein]," de Zayas continued, referring to Bachelet's predecessor.

"The lack of professionalism on the part of the UN secretariat is a disgrace and should be exposed by civil society."

"I was not a UN employee with a salary, and no one could give me instructions," de Zayas noted,

"A high commissioner is not independent and is subject to political pressures. I endured pre mission, during mission and post mission mobbing. A rapporteur is obliged to be independent. Sure enough, I was pressured, intimidated, insulted by non governmental organizations and even colleagues, but I was able to proceed with my investigation and reflect what I saw and learned on the ground. I am not an ideologue. There are many in the U N secretariat."
Prior to serving as UN high commissioner, Bachelet was a career politician in Chile, where she became the country's first female president in 2006. She was the most centrist figure among the leaders of the progressive "pink tide" that momentarily washed across Latin America. This January, a years-long corruption investigation (https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-42553987) into her son's land deals was closed.

Conveniently ignoring the impact of US sanctions
Just three short paragraphs in Bachelet's 16-page document are dedicated to the crushing sanctions the US and its allies have imposed against Venezuela since 2015. She went on to write off the claim "that due to over-compliance, banking transactions have been delayed or rejected, and assets frozen, [hindering] the State's ability to import food and medicines" as the government merely "assign blame" for its difficulties.

Bachelet's dismissal of the destructive impact of sanctions on the Maduro government overlook years of sustained economic attack on the Venezuelan economy by the most powerful nation on earth. With the Obama administration's move (https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/09/fact-sheet-venezuela-executive-order) to declare Venezuela's government a "national security threat" in March of 2015, Venezuela's economy and its ability to restructure its debt have been under systematic attack.

As the independent Venezuelan outlet Mision Verdad reported (https://mronline.org/2019/02/19/financial-blockade-chronology-of-a-strategy-to-destroy-venezuela/), "Venezuela was catalogued by the French financial company Coface as the country with the highest risk in Latin America, similar to African countries that are currently in situations of armed conflict... From 2015 onwards, the country-risk variable began to increase artificially in order to hinder the entry of international financing".

Even mainstream outlets like The Wall Street Journal have acknowledged (https://www.wsj.com/articles/evolving-venezuela-sanctions-pose-problems-for-banks-11551143320) that the measures applied by the US "have made banks more reluctant to touch accounts that might relate to Venezuela for fear of sanctions violations." WSJ even noted that Goldman Sachs was criticized in 2017 "when it was revealed that the company bought about $2.8 billion in Venezuelan bonds, which were seen as a lifeline to the Maduro government".

According to the US government's own summary (https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/IF10715.pdf) of Venezuela related sanctions, unilateral measures introduced by the Trump Administration in 2017 and 2018 "restrict the Venezuelan government's access to U.S. debt and equity markets" and "[prohibit] transactions related to the purchase of Venezuelan debt".

Considering these restrictions and Washington's move to freeze what National Security Advisor John Bolton estimated (https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/latin-america/article225199605.html) to be $7 billion worth of Venezuela's US-based assets, it's hard to understand how Bachelet so easily dismissed the idea that sanctions have contributed to the economic crisis. As The Grayzone reported (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/05/06/us-state-department-publishes-then-deletes-sadistic-venezuela-hit-list-boasting-of-economic-ruin/) this May, the US State Department openly bragged about its ability to destroy Venezuela's economy in a factsheet published on its own website, which it quickly deleted out of apparent embarrassment.

Among the "key outcomes of US policy" listed in the document was the fact that oil production in the country had been drastically reduced.
"If I were the State Department I wouldn't brag about causing a cut in oil production to 763,000 barrels per day," Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy research told The Grayzone at the time.

"This means even more premature deaths than the tens of thousands that resulted from sanctions last year."
In April, Weisbrot co-authored a report (http://cepr.net/publications/reports/economic-sanctions-as-collective-punishment-the-case-of-venezuela) which documented 40,000 preventable deaths that occurred between 2017 and 2018 as a direct result of US sanctions. This groundbreaking report was also ignored by Bachelet, who had far more resources at her disposal to investigate its disturbing conclusions and perhaps prevent thousands more deaths.

While Bachelet did concede "sanctions are exacerbating" Venezuela's economic woes, she argued that the current crisis predated those measures, thus transferring blame onto the policies of a besieged government.

The author of this article recently participated in a panel discussion during which Venezuela's ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, addressed accusations like these.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1123654691865407489/QtjWdoYY_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil) Anya Parampil ✔ @anyaparampil
(https://twitter.com/anyaparampil) · Jul 5, 2019 (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146960185019314176)

Replying to @anyaparampil (https://twitter.com/_/status/1146955815884140550)
.@mbachelet (https://twitter.com/mbachelet) frames the notion that sanctions have hurt the government's ability to import food as the gov "assign[ing] blame". She also claims the current economic crisis predates sanctions and therefore is the fault of the Venezuelan government.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-rSGLHXkAEcbvS?format=jpg&name=360x360
(https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146960185019314176/photo/1)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-rSJOwW4AIBAcc?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146960185019314176/photo/1)

Anya Parampil ✔ @anyaparampil
(https://twitter.com/anyaparampil)
I recently addressed this very point along w Ambassador @SMoncada_VEN (https://twitter.com/SMoncada_VEN). I note the fact that Venezuela's economy is still largely controlled by the private sector, while Ambassador Moncada highlights faulty logic: "if we are committing suicide, what do you need sanctions for?"
4:09 AM - Jul 5, 2019 (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146964160707813376)

(https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146964160707813376)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1146960257765302272/pu/img/IaD-3dsE6XfQ13q_?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146964160707813376)
(click on picture to see video)

Responding to the widely repeated accusation of economic mismanagement, Moncada asked, "If we are committing [economic] suicide, what do you need sanctions for? The problem is they are applying sanctions as never before. So they actually think that sanctions have an aim and an end result, and they are trying to implode the country."

Moncada also explained how the 2015 oil crash impacted Venezuela's economy, insisting that "we tried, perhaps erroneously, to keep the very same social support policies going without the oil" wealth on which the government traditionally depended. The international oil market collapsed in 2015, just months after Reuters reported (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudi-oil-idUSKBN0F300P20140628) US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Saudi King Abdullah in order to discuss plans to increase petrol production.

Anya Parampil ✔ @anyaparampil
(https://twitter.com/anyaparampil) · Jul 5, 2019 (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146964160707813376)

Replying to @anyaparampil (https://twitter.com/_/status/1146960185019314176)
I recently addressed this very point along w Ambassador @SMoncada_VEN (https://twitter.com/SMoncada_VEN). I note the fact that Venezuela's economy is still largely controlled by the private sector, while Ambassador Moncada highlights faulty logic: "if we are committing suicide, what do you need sanctions for?"

(https://twitter.com/anyaparampil)
Anya Parampil ✔ @anyaparampil (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil)

I also explain that since 2015, sanctions have prevented Venezuela from paying its debt & assert the only reason to sanction the country's top diplomat (@jaarreaza (https://twitter.com/jaarreaza)) is to support regime change. @SMoncada_VEN (https://twitter.com/SMoncada_VEN) notes crash in oil market also contributed to current crisis.

4:18 AM - Jul 5, 2019 (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146966599313821696)

(https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146966599313821696)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1146964570050895872/pu/img/oZHJg2GKURBeGPrM?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146966599313821696)
(click on picture to see video)
Former special rapporteur de Zayas agreed with that determination, telling The Grayzone, "the initial cause of the economic crisis was, of course, the dramatic fall in oil prices. The current crisis is 'made in the USA' and corresponds directly to the sanctions and financial blockade."

Bachelet claimed Venezuela's oil industry was "already in crisis before any sectoral sanctions were imposed," discounting the ebb and flow of the international market. She also noted a "drastic reduction of oil exports" between the years 2018 and 2019, but stunningly failed to connect the decline to US sanctions unleashed in January 2019 which specifically aimed to prevent Venezuela's oil industry from exporting products to the outside world.

By the logic of High Commissioner Bachelet, Maduro is so incredibly incompetent or evil that he refused to pay his country's bills and destroyed its entire oil industry singlehandedly in an effort to starve his own people.

Attacking Venezuela's food distribution program with baseless claims
In 2016, the government of Maduro introduced the Local Committees for Supply and Food Distribution program, or CLAP, to offset the impact of sanctions and the economic crisis brought on by falling oil prices. Today, the program provides food and sanitary supplies at almost no cost to six million families - a whopping slice of Venezuela's population.

According to Bachelet, Maduro did not initiate this program to feed the most vulnerable among his country's population, but in order to promote "intelligence gathering and defence tasks." She provided no supporting evidence for her claim.

Bachelet also baselessly claimed that the food delivery program was used in a politically prejudicial manner, asserting that some families "were not included in the distribution lists... because they were not government supporters."

Bachelet's attack on CLAP came just as the Trump administration threatened (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14514) to target the food delivery program with sanctions.

The claims made by Bachelet during an abbreviated tour of Venezuela stood at stark odds with the findings of multiple media outlets, Venezuelan citizens and foreigners who recently traveled to Venezuela to witness CLAP distribution.

Terri Mattson of CODEPINK spent three months living with a family in Venezuela earlier this year and was also on the aforementioned panel with this author and Ambassador Moncada.
"It's a fantastic program and it's helping people who would not otherwise have access to food," Mattson remarked.

"My neighborhood... was predominantly opposition. Those people got food just as we in the chavista household got food. The food was distributed through the community council, the community council was majority opposition... everyone got food, everybody participated in the weekly community council meetings."

Anya Parampil ✔ @anyaparampil
(https://twitter.com/anyaparampil) · Jul 5, 2019 (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146947414559010817)

Replying to @anyaparampil (https://twitter.com/_/status/1146944644464435200)
Bachelet says the gov's CLAP program, which provides food & supplies to 6 million households on a bi-monthly basis, is used for "intelligence gathering" & denied to families who support the opposition. This is a dangerous lie at a time when US is threatening to *sanction* CLAP.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-rGjPqX4AYnZf8?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146947414559010817/photo/1) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-rGj6OWkAA0z3u?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146947414559010817/photo/1)

Anya Parampil ✔ @anyaparampil
(https://twitter.com/anyaparampil)
As a reporter who recently witnessed the incredible local organization required to deliver CLAP, I can say these are outright falsehoods. But don't take my word for it, listen to Terry Madsen of @codepink (https://twitter.com/codepink) & another US citizen who recently traveled to Venezuela dispel that lie:

3:35 AM - Jul 5, 2019 (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146955815884140550)
Twitter Ads info and privacy (https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256)

(https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146955815884140550)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1146951178925813761/pu/img/YwH_ZBKYwleKzLPE?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1146955815884140550)

(click on picture to see video)
Bachelet's assault on CLAP will undoubtedly be used to justify the US government's attempts to sanction the program and further contribute to the starvation of Venezuelans. If a critical food distribution program is undermined from the outside, what other outcome can be expected but more hunger?

Ironically, Bachelet's critique of CLAP directly contradicts the recommendation at the end of her report, which requested that the government "take all necessary measures to ensure availability and accessibility of food, water, essential medicines and healthcare services," to average Venezuelans. Yet she did not demand the US government end the sanctions it has imposed against the country, this rendering the fulfillment of her recommendation nearly impossible.

"The government of Venezuela has demonstrated that it is already doing its utmost to ensure availability and accessibility of food and medicine," former special rapporteur de Zayas said in response, "what the high commissioner should have demanded is the immediate lifting of US and EU sanctions."

Bachelet's recommendations amount to an all-out attack on the structure of Bolivarian revolution. If implemented, they would not only amount to the dismantling of the government's structure, but would likely lead to society-wide chaos and mass starvation.

Echoing US propaganda on Venezuela's colectivos

Besides assailing the CLAP program, Bachelet called for the government to "disarm and dismantle pro-government armed civilian groups" known as colectivos, accusing them of "exercising social control".

Her comments echoed sensationalist (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/maduros-muscle-politically-backed-motorcycle-gangs-known-as-colectivos-are-the-enforcers-for-venezuelas-authoritarian-leader/2019/03/13/2242068c-4452-11e9-94ab-d2dda3c0df52_story.html) US corporate media headlines as well as allegations by John Bolton (https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1124083661710811136) and Florida Senator Mark Rubio (https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1116381907015667712), who have attempted to brand colectivos as violent gangs personally controlled by President Maduro.

This March, The Canary's John McEvoy spent two weeks living with a colectivo in Caracas. The British reporter found that the groups serve an entirely different purpose than the one relayed back to the Western public by corporate media and centrist leadership.

"After the election of Hugo Chávez in 1998, colectivos mushroomed across Venezuela with the wide scale devolution of power to local communities," McEvoy explained (https://www.thecanary.co/feature/2019/03/30/two-weeks-inside-one-of-venezuelas-notorious-colectivos/), "their demonisation in the corporate media serves a distinct purpose: to delegitimize Venezuela's grassroots democratic movements."

"As across Latin America, social organisations in Venezuela are deemed incompatible with the opposition's US-backed neoliberal project," the reporter continued. "They are consequently dehumanised, delegitimize, and attacked by a compliant media that categorically ignore their roots, popularity, and social value."

With this context, Bachelet's call for the colectivos to disarm appears to equal a demand that the country surrender its last line of defense against an ongoing regime change operation that has featured assassination attempts and threats of a full scale military invasion.

When Bachelet met with victims of guarimba violence this March, many hoped it meant those voices ignored by mainstream western media would finally be heard on the international stage. Yet the high commissioner decided their stories were unworthy, instead offering up a document which reads like a hand out from the US State Department.

And like clockwork, the State Department seized on Bachelet's report (https://twitter.com/statedeptspox/status/1147293203055312897) to drive its unilateral campaign for regime change, but this time with the stamp of UN approval and behind the guise of a respectable center-left political leader.
[I]Anya Parampil is a journalist based in Washington, DC. She previously hosted a daily progressive afternoon news program called In Question on RT America. She has produced and reported several documentaries, including on-the-ground reports from the Korean peninsula and Palestine.
Related:

What the Press Hides From You About Venezuela — A Case of News-Suppression (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1274650&viewfull=1#post1274650)

Video: An Ocean of Lies on Venezuela (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?106012-Turmoil-in-Venezuela&p=1277283&viewfull=1#post1277283)

perolator

10th July 2019, 21:07

... U.S. sanctions have to be taken into account. However, sanctions, as of 2019, will impact the country in full producing devastating consequences. I don't care about sanctions. Any method to weaken the narco-tyranny is welcome.

The full report says a big truth: “the economy of Venezuela, particularly its oil industry and food production systems, were already in crisis before any sanctions were imposed.”

"Sanctions." I'll bet the average person has no idea what "sanctions" means to the USA and to its victims. Most people don't care. "Sanctions" does not mean that a nation gets cut off from their supply of plutonium or even gunpowder, it means that the citizens of the nation are directly targeted by economic war, to try to force them to overthrow their government. "Sanctions" is cutting off the food supply, the water supply, the influx of medicines. "Sanctions" is cutting off a country's main exports (in North Korea, the USA 'sanctioned' textiles from export, and minerals...)

Venezuela has the largest gold deposits in the world, and the largest oil reserves in the world, so the way to hurt the citizens of Venezuela the most would be for the USA to disrupt oil exports and state mining (https://www.voanews.com/americas/us-adds-venezuelan-state-mining-company-sanctions-list) and the 'gold sector (https://www.steptoeinternationalcomplianceblog.com/2018/11/us-sanctions-venezuelan-gold-sector/).'

I note that the concept that Venezuela was "already in crisis" is mentioned in Wikipedia (US state-sponsored propaganda), as well as each of the pro-USA-Empire websites I visited to try to find a list of sanctions. A key piece of propaganda. Just like the, "he gassed his own people!" BS, used extensively by the USA imperialist war machine propagandists, the USA propagandists must establish that the USA is not just making an imperialist land-and-resource grab of Venezuela, but that rather that the USA - out of the kindness of its heart - is going to hurt all Venezuelan citizens as much as possible until they die or do what the USA wants, ...because the USA loves the people of Venezuela so very much?

I'm not really addressing any of this to you, perolator. I'm not trying to change you, you've made it clear that you are OK with literally anything the USA Empire does, including swallowing all of Venezuela's assets, as long as they murder all the poor people and depose Maduro. My words were for others, that might not know that "sanctions" is Modern USA Warfare, Phase I, and is targeted directly at whatever hurts citizens the most - ("devastating consequences.")

Hi Dennis :wave:

I don't want to argue with you.
I left Venezuela in 2016. Obama released the first batch of sanctions in 2015. Infrastructure was failing (running water, gas, electricity) in a steady manner as a byproduct of corruption and mismanagement, not sanctions. "Economic war" is a Venezuelan government false argument. I am not even angry at your communicational guerrilla tactics. 2019 sanctions are the "poor people" disruptive ones, not targeted sanctions as before.

Have you ever lived under sanctions? Do you have close relatives in Venezuela? Have you ever lived in Venezuela the last 20 years? if yes, you know what you are talking about.

If not, please investigate objectively.

P.S. The Venezuela "allies", i.e. Russia, Turkey et. al., are removing 50 tonnes of gold monthly (estimate). At least the U.S. was paying cash for the oil.

Did you know gold was not extracted before because the land is a national park, one of the biggest jungles of South America, one of the ancient rainforests of the world and the wicked government allowed extraction of the gold damaging the jungle, the ecosystem, the Caroni river nascent (Guri dam source), using toxic mercury and the worst methods with no regulations and no respect for the land? When the russians return home, they will leave a patchwork of mercury-polluted ponds and sand dunes, a landscape denuded of trees and other vegetation. To get the gold, they strip the land of trees or suck up river sediment and then use toxic mercury to tease the precious metal out of the dirt. The results are environmentally catastrophic.

Read. It does not hurt.

Franny

7th August 2019, 23:40

Maximum pressure is a Trump regime euphemism for unlawful political, economic and financial collective punishment against a sovereign state, its leadership and population — for not bending to Washington’s will.

Binding international law Fourth Geneva’s Article 33 prohibits it, stating:

“No (one) may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed.”

“Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.”

“Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against (individuals) and their property are prohibited.”

Fourth Geneva and other international laws to which the US is a signatory are automatically constitutional law.

The US under Republicans and undemocratic Dems operate by their own rules exclusively, time and again breaching the UN Charter and other binding international laws, norms and standards — by waging war on humanity at home and abroad.

Venezuela and Iran are in the eye of the Trump regime’s “maximum pressure” storm, the world community collectively and UN doing nothing to challenge its lawless actions.

In May 2018, Pompeo issued the following Orwellian statement, saying:

“The United States stands with the brave people of Venezuela as they strive for a return to dignity and democracy (sic).”

Fact: The Bolivarian Republic is the hemisphere’s preeminent social democracy, the majority of its revenues directed toward providing vital services to all its people — polar opposite how the US and other Western states operate.

Fact: US policy toward Venezuela from the Clinton co-presidency to Trump has been and continues aiming to replace its democratic rule with US-controlled fascist tyranny.

Fact: That’s what Trump and hardliners infesting his regime are going all out to institute short of hot war — so far. While unlikely, by no means is it ruled out.

Fact: Key for the US is controlling Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, the world’s largest, along with sending a message to the world community that nations unwilling to bow to its will face the force of its wrath.

Effective August 5 by executive order, Trump unlawfully ordered an embargo of Venezuela, prohibited by international law unless ordered by the UN Security Council. No nations may legally take this action on their own.

Under Trump’s executive order, nations, entities or individuals maintaining normal relations with Venezuela, their legal right, face (unlawful) US sanctions and other harshness.

On Tuesday, neocon hardliner Bolton said

“(w)e are sending a signal to third parties that want to do business with (Maduro). Proceed with extreme caution.”

Anyone continuing normal relations with Venezuela “risk(s) (their) business interests with the United States.”

He called support for Maduro by Russia, China and other nations “intolerable.” He mocked talks between government representatives and opposition elements in Barbados as “buying time (sic),” adding:

“We will not fall for these old tricks (sic),” again stressing “all options are on the table.”

In July, Trump’s envoy for regime change in Venezuela Elliott Abrams said he’s “absolutely” confident of Maduro’s ouster by yearend.

Trump Regime Imposes Illegal Embargo on Venezuela (https://magnetrack.klangoo.com/v1.1/track.ashx?e=AP_RA_CLK&p=5685826&d=5685729&c=c787d455-1fd6-444b-abe0-3f9cf6dff8ef&u=7c333472-3711-42d7-875f-6e32883df130&l=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalresearch.ca%2Ftrump-regime-maximum-pressure-high-crimes-against-world-peace-illegal-embargo-against-venezuela%2F5685826&redir=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalresearch.ca%2Ftrump-regime-imposes-illegal-embargo-venezuela%2F5685729%3Futm_campaign%3Dmagnet%26utm_source%3Darticle_page%26utm_medium%3Drelated_artic les)

Asked how Caracas intends to respond to Trump’s new executive order, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said:

“I’m going to paraphrase Donald Trump…All options are on the table.”

A Foreign Ministry statement said

“Washington has issued another executive order that aims to formalize the criminal economic, financial and trade embargo already underway, which has caused severe harm to Venezuelan society in recent years,” adding:

“The ruling elite in the United States aim to grant legal status to the embargo of all assets and properties belonging to the Venezuelan state.”

Venezuela’s UN envoy Samuel Moncada asked Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council to intervene against the Trump regime, saying:

“This is an act of war by the United States. Venezuela is not a threat to anyone and the United States is fabricating this aggression just to take the oil.”

On issues of war and peace, the UN is a virtual appendage of US imperial policies. US Security Council veto power prevents the body from censuring its unlawful actions.

Separately, Moncada denounced “the racist-ever (US regime) in the history of this continent…trying to fabricate a war on Venezuela,” adding:

“The militarization of the relations with Venezuela is one of the dangers that we are trying to expose.”

The Trump regime is an enemy of “international peace,” Bolton (and its other hardliners “enem(ies) of dialogue.”

On Tuesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called new Trump regime actions against Venezuela “economic terror,” adding:

“Such steps have no legal basis either in terms of international or domestic Venezuelan law. Obviously, the White House is driven by the ideology of intolerance and dictatorship, which are put above the interests of Venezuelans.”

She stressed that Moscow will continue to support legitimate President Maduro.

Russia’s upper house Federation Council International Affairs chairman Konstantin Kosachev denounced Trump executive order on Venezuela, calling it an act of “international banditry.”

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier warned that more sanctions on Venezuela “will only bring the law of the jungle…It is up to the people of a country to decide its internal affairs” — free from foreign interference.

Beijing supports Venezuela, Wang earlier saying the relationship with Maduro will be maintained “no matter how the situation evolves,” adding at the time:

“China will continue to support the search for a political solution in Venezuela through dialogue with the government and the opposition, so as to keep the country stable and the people safe.”

Trump’s action upped the stakes. His regime instituted similar actions against Iran.

In a letter by its UN envoy Takht-e Ravanchi to Secretary General Guterres, he said the following:

“Infatuated with rogue, unreasonable conducts at the international level, this well signifies that the US regime despises diplomacy, which is one of the greatest achievements of humanity to preserve and uphold peace and security among nations,” adding:

“It reveals the deeply-rooted hypocrisy of the United States’ authorities in their different but paradoxical claims.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran deems such illegal action a flagrant infringement of the fundamental principles of diplomatic law, in particular the principle of inviolability and immunity of high-ranking foreign officials, including immunity of incumbent ministers of foreign affairs, as a universally accepted norm and rule of customary international law.”

“The US’ illegal action is also in brazen violation of Article 105(2) of the United Nations Charter regarding the privileges and immunities of representative of Member States in exercising their functions in connection with the United Nations.”

“In this context, any restriction on discharging the duties of Ministers of Foreign Affairs is also in contravention of the Convention on the Privileges and immunities of the United Nations, the well-established customary principles enshrined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and the Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations.”

“Likewise, it is in contradiction with many relevant consensual resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, the latest of which is resolution 73/212 that, by underlining the obligation of the United States for the observance of the privileges and immunities of the missions accredited to the United Nations, ‘which cannot be subject to any restrictions arising from the bilateral relations of the host country, urges the host country to remove without delay any restrictions applied (and) ensure respect for such privileges and immunities.”

“Coercing nations into complying with the United States’ illegal demands threatens multilateralism, as the foundation of international relations, and sets a dangerous precedent, paving the way for those who aspire to rather divide, not unite, nations.”

Ravanchi called on the international community and world body to condemn unlawful US actions — maybe someday, not any time soon.

Today is the most perilous time in world history because of US rage for dominion over planet earth, its resources and populations by whatever it takes to achieve its imperial objectives.

*

Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

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

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Stephen Lendman, Global Research, 2019

Hervé

10th August 2019, 13:37

Venezuela and Iran in the Crosshairs of Murderers Inc – Who is Next? (http://thesaker.is/venezuela-and-iran-in-the-crosshairs-of-murderers-inc-who-is-next/)

by Peter Koenig for The Saker blog
August 09, 2019

Imagine just for a moment, the World would stand up in unison, sick and tired of the aggressive killer arrogance of the United States and her vassals – and their joint war-force called NATO – and this World, our World, what’s left of it when you deduct Washington and its Brussels allies, would at once block every shipment of everything destined for the ports of the United States of America; every sea port, airport and road port. Hermetically. Nothing would enter. Nothing, no food, no medicine, no electronics, no cars – no nothing. And nothing could leave. No exports, no petrol, no grains, no meat, no pharmaceuticals and foremost, no weapons. Nothing.

And now, take your mind a step further – and imagine the same – exactly the same, a total and full blockage of Israel – nothing would enter, no food, no fuel, no medication, no machinery and especially no weapons – and nothing would leave; a full and total blockage.

This would of course be totally illegal; illegal and unacceptable, by any international law, by the standards of the UN Charter, by the Human Rights Laws and Directives – by any ethical values of human morals. Wouldn’t it? – Yet, this is exactly what these countries are doing, have been doing for decades, sanctioning to strangle and murder entire populations into death or submission. The US with Cuba; Israel with Palestine. And the coercion and strangulation go on, unabated.

The longest embargo – illegal, inhuman and outright criminal – Washington imposed on Cuba – 60 years. Because Cuba has chosen socialism as her form of state and government. Cuba survived and will never give in to the tyrant of the north.

Now the US is expanding her palette of killing by impunity to dominate and subjugate nation after nation which they do not consider bending sufficiently to the dictate of their masters. Venezuela has been targeted for two decades, ever since former President Hugo Chavez was democratically elected in 1998; and Iran, ever since the US-imposed Shah was deposed in 1979 – exactly 40 years ago – by Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Both Venezuela and Iran are rich in natural resources, especially hydrocarbons but also in gold, rare earths and other precious metals and stones.

Contrary to what one would like to imagine, international world bodies, like the United Nations and her sister and associated organizations remain just about silent. When a high-level official utters some benign criticism of the US or Israel – it flairs up for a moment in the ‘news’, then it disappears again, as if it never happened. And indeed, nothing happens. They – the US and Israel – go on with their crimes in impunity.

The latest is an open declaration of economic warfare by Washington, a total embargo on Venezuela; the embargo is now being turned into a naval blockade. Similar steps are to be taken for Iran. That literally means that no merchandise – no matter how vital for survival, like food and medication, is allowed into Venezuela. Three days ago, the US seized, totally illegally, a cargo ship attempting to deliver food and medication to Venezuela – in the Panama Canal, territory which the US does not own or control anymore.

The ship was carrying soy cakes, from which Venezuela was to produce food. Never mind, that the cargoes are fully paid for by Venezuela. And this seems to be just the beginning. Vessels leaving Venezuela with petrol deliveries to client countries are also targeted for blockage, thus confiscating, or rather stealing, Venezuela’s main source of income on which she intends to survive and feed and provide health care for her people. This, in addition to the more than 130 billion dollars total Venezuelan assets confiscated – stolen – by the US worldwide .

And nobody says beep. Almost. Yes, there are some collective protests by countries in solidarity – like key members of the Sao Paulo Forum, as well as more than 60 members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM – total 120 members) that have become especially active in recent years in defense of Venezuela within the United Nations. Protests and protest declarations also take place by ALBA members, a Latin American trade alliance (ALBA – Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, 11 members [Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Ecuador, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Grenada and the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis]).

But most interesting are the hypocrites, those who write and scream that Venezuelans are starving to death, that the Maduro government neglects its people – yet these accusers-in-falsehood – let the US and her vassals strangle Venezuela and steal her foreign assets, including foreign reserves and gold, food and medical imports – they are saying zilch, nada, nothing. Just watching.

To top it all off, the Human Rights Commissioner, Madame Michelle Bachelet, Hypocrite-in-chief, who recently visited Venezuela, at the invitation of President Nicolas Maduro, on a Human Rights mission, and who delivered a devastating report about Venezuela’s HR, full of lies, half-truths and outright omissions, not mentioning with one word the US inspired coup attempts, the US-funded opposition and its bloody atrocities on the Chavista population, and the strangulating and starving by the US and US-dictated European sanctions – Madame Bachelet now came forward condemning the naval blockade. Great. But she did not stand up against the deadly embargo by the US and the European Union. – What credibility remains for the Human Rights Commission? – The world can see it – it’s all bought, coerced into submission, like so many other UN agencies by the Murderers Inc.

If we are not careful, they are soon going to rule the globe. Thanks god, for Russia and China – which are also subjects of US-EU sanctioning and targeted for take-over. But they are a tiny little bit too big and too strong for this sort of games by the decaying US empire and her obedient rats on the sinking ship.

Similarly, the European Union – despots as they have been for hundreds of years as colonialists in Africa, Asia and Latin America – and continue in a modern colonial role through economic control of much of Africa – this very EU, has been sanctioning Venezuela for years on the orders of Washington, naturally, who else? – Now they condemn the naval blockade, but continue their routine sanctions regime.

According to a study carried out by the Washington DC based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), under guidance of Mark Weisbrot, CEPR co-director and Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor, Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University, New York, US and EU sanctions have cost some 40,000 Venezuelan lives. This mainly since August 2017, when Washington escalated its unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela and her state oil company, PDVSA, cutting them off international financial markets.

Yes, the world would have plenty of reasons to stand up and dish out similar naval and air blockades against the US and Israel. Just as a teaser to begin with, and if that doesn’t send a strong enough wake-up message, perhaps such embargoes should be considered on a longer-term indefinite scale. It’s illegal. But we are living in a world where international laws don’t count – where laws are made, as we go, by the self-declared hegemon, the US of A, and her symbiotic Middle East ally, Israel. – So, why not nudging the legal, moral and ethical order back into balance?

Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; TeleSUR; The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed (http://www.amazon.com/Implosion-Economic-Environmental-Destruction-Corporate/dp/059545349X)– fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance (http://www.amazon.com/World-Order-Revolution-Essays-Resistance/dp/6027005874). Peter Koenig is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

Hervé

12th August 2019, 11:03

Adding Context to ‘News’ about Venezuela (http://thesaker.is/adding-context-to-news-about-venezuela/)

by Eric Zuesse for The Saker Blog
August 11, 2019
This past week’s meeting of the U.S.-and-Canada-created anti-Venezuela Lima Group of nations (https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/07/how-chrystia-freeland-organized-donald-trumps-coup-in-venezuela/) failed to achieve the U.S. regime’s intention of organizing a coalition of its members to participate in a U.S.-led invasion to overthrow Venezuela’s Government and install Trump’s choice, the self-styled ‘interim President’ of Venezuela, Juan Guaido (https://washingtonsblog.com/2019/01/what-the-venezuelan-constitution-says-about-changing-the-president.html), to rule there. Although 100 nations had been invited (https://www.peruviantimes.com/05/john-bolton-leads-u-s-delegation-to-the-lima-groups-conference-on-democracy-in-venezuela/31542/), only 60 attended, and the U.S. regime wasn’t able to obtain even one ally for an invasion. John Bolton (U.S. National Security Advisor) and Wilbur Ross (U.S. Secretary of ‘Commerce’ — mainly U.S. oil companies) represented U.S. President Trump at the meeting, which started on August 5th. The meeting ended with no official announcement. It was a humiliating defeat for the U.S. regime.

Below is a report about this meeting, by Agence France-Presse, a typical U.S.-allied ‘news’-medium. The italicized additions in brackets in and near the article’s end are essential historical context; it’s taken from Wikipedia’s article “International sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during_the_Venezuelan_crisis), and thus also isn’t from me. This way, the reader will be able to see what the ‘news’-report here leaves out, which is essential background in order for readers to know the reality that stands behind this particular ‘news’ report. The minor typos in the original report are also left unchanged; the entire article is unchanged, except that I boldface the passages toward the end, which passages are subsequently contextualized immediately below them. Afterward, I shall add my own comments, in order to provide a fuller context:
——
http://archive.is/pNGYl (http://archive.is/pNGYl)
https://www.france24.com/en/ (https://www.france24.com/en/20190806-us-warns-off-venezuelas-supporters-lima-meeting-opens)

US warns off Venezuela’s supporters as Lima meeting opens
Date created: Tuesday 6 August 2019, 06/08/2019 – 20:07

AFP, Lima (AFP): Washington warned third parties on Tuesday to avoid doing business with the Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro, as delegates from some 60 countries met in Lima to discuss ways of ending the crisis in South American nation.

The warning came one day after President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on all Venezuelan government assets in the United States and barred transactions with its authorities.

“We are sending a signal to third parties that want to do business with the Maduro regime: proceed with extreme caution,” said Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton, speaking in Lima.

“There is no need to risk your business interests with the United States for the purposes of profiting from a corrupt and dying regime.”

The Trump administration is determined to force Maduro from power and support opposition leader Juan Guaido’s plans to form a transitional government and set up new elections.

The sanctions drew an angry response from Caracas, which denounced the US move as “another serious aggression by the Trump administration through arbitrary economic terrorism against the Venezuelan people.”

Crisis-wracked Venezuela has been mired in a political impasse since January when Guaido, speaker of the Natinal Assembly, proclaimed himself acting president, quickly receiving the support of more than 50 countries.

Tuesday’s meeting was called by the Lima Group, which includes a dozen Latin American countries and Canada, most of which support Guaido.

The Lima meeting comes as representatives of Maduro and Guaido are involved in “continuous” negotiations mediated by Norway.

The first round of talks were in Oslo in May, and three further rounds have taken place in Barbados.

Caracas claims the US sanctions show that Washington and its allies are “committed to the failure of the political dialogue” because “they fear the results and benefits.”

Bolton, who is in the US delegation alongside Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, said Maduro was “not serious” about talks.

He said Trump’s move “authorizes the US government to identify, target and impose sanctions on any persons who continue to provide support” Maduro’s “illegitimate regime.”

He said it would “deny Maduro access to the global financial system and to further isolate him internationally.”

Venezuela’s opposition considers Maduro a usurper over his re-election last year in a poll widely viewed as rigged.

They want him to stand down so new elections can be held — but Maduro, with support from the country’s powerful military, refuses to go.

Maduro says the talks must lead to “democratic coexistence” and an end to what he describes as an attempted US-orchestrated “coup.”

But on Tuesday the White House was emphatic: the “dictatorship must end for Venezuela to have a stable, democratic, and prosperous future.”

The United States would “use every appropriate tool to end Maduro’s hold on Venezuela,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.

Oil-rich but cash-poor Venezuela has been in a deep recession for five years.
[“President Barack Obama signed the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014, a U.S. Act imposing sanctions on Venezuelan individuals held responsible by the United States for human rights violations during the 2014 Venezuelan protests, in December of that year.[13][14] (http://archive.is/WIexj" /l "selection-1489.0-1521.3) It “requires the President to impose sanctions” on those “responsible for significant acts of violence or serious human rights abuses associated with February 2014 protests or, more broadly, against anyone who has directed or ordered the arrest or prosecution of a person primarily because of the person’s legitimate exercise of freedom of expression or assembly”.[8]”]

Food and medicine shortages are routine, and public services are progressively failing.
[“As the humanitarian crisis deepened and expanded, the Trump administration levied more serious economic sanctions against Venezuela on 28 January (https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-01-31/us-sanctions-squeezed-venezuelas-chavismo-elites-time-its-oil) [2019], and “Maduro accused the US of plunging Venezuelan citizens further into economic crisis.”[3] Rafael Uzcátegui, director of PROVEA, added that “sanctions against PDVSA are likely to yield stronger and more direct economic consequences, and that “[w]e should remember that 70 to 80 percent of Venezuela’s food is imported, and there’s barely any medicine production in the country.”[3]” (http://archive.is/WIexj" /l "selection-2747.256-2761.3)]
——

Eric Zuesse's COMMENTS:
The U.S. regime’s sanctions against Venezuelans were aimed at producing such distress amongst the population so as to cause them not to vote for Maduro.

It didn’t work.

The sanctions had the intended effect of distressing Venezuelans, but this deprivation drove so many of the most anti-Maduro Venezuelans to leave the country so that the sanctions failed to force the expected “regime change.” It drove too many of his enemies out.

The U.S. regime is therefore trying even-stronger measures to grab the country.

Trump is dictating to Venezuela that “the dictatorship must end.” He has even chosen the person, Guaido, who is to replace the current nationally elected President, whom the U.S. regime has long been trying to oust.

Guaido has never even been a candidate in any national Venezuelan election, but he was trained in the U.S., and has always cooperated with the U.S. Government’s repeated efforts to take control over Venezuela.

Venezuela has never invaded nor even threatened the United States. This coup-attempt is purely an effort for imperialistic conquest of Venezuela, but it is cloaked in ‘democratic’ and ‘humanitarian’ lies, for fools, like America’s invasions and coups typically are.

Only idiots can’t see what the U.S. pattern is here, especially after the lies that had suckered Americans in 2003 to support “regime-change in Iraq.”

Trump is continuing Barack Obama’s policy, which continued that of George W. Bush. Whatever changes in personnel occur within the U.S. regime, the regime itself remains basically the same, though its theatrics change, and that’s enough change to satisfy most Americans that we live in a democracy.

Virtually all of the U.S. Congress supports these efforts to conquer Venezuela, and this fascism includes all of the Democratic Party’s Presidential candidates. Therefore, none of the candidates are being challenged about their votes supporting this (or any other) attempted conquest by the U.S. regime.

The neoconservative policy is bipartisan in America, though the personnel do change, from the representatives of one group of billionaires, to the representatives of another group of billionaires. And the vast majority of Americans think that it’s good, or at least okay — even after all of the lies have been exposed, they still approve.

Of course, most Italians, Japanese, and Germans, thought favorably about their Government’s imperialistic conquests, during WW II; but Americans became opposed to that when we were hit by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor and Germany declared war against us. This time around, we are the Japanese, and the Germans, and the Italians. Things weren’t supposed to turn out this way, but it has happened.

The U.S. is today the world’s leading fascist nation. And very few Americans recognize that it’s the way that things did turn out. Very few Americans know that we live in a fascist nation — today’s leading fascist nation.

AFTER THAT NEWS-REPORT:
The next day, August 7th, Venezuela’s Telesur headlined “EU Opposes Recent US Total Blockade Against Venezuela” (https://www.telesurenglish.net//news/EU-Opposes-Recent-US-Total-Blockade-Against-Venezuela--20190807-0006.html) and reported that Trump had failed to get the EU — his biggest hope for destroying Venezuela short of militarily invading it — to accept even that proposal.

The EU said
“We oppose the extraterritorial application of unilateral measures.” They further said (https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headQuarters-homepage/66242/statement-international-contact-group-conference-democracy-venezuela-held-lima_en)

“A negotiated outcome remains the only sustainable way to overcome this multidimensional crisis.”
The EU couldn’t muster enough fascists to go along with anything that the U.S. regime proposed. At this point, Trump isn’t far from the moment when he will need either to abandon his effort to grab Venezuela in this round, or else spring a blitz invasion without allies. Even if he calls off the effort, that would only be temporary.

Perhaps if and when he is re-elected, he will feel freer just to send in thousands of troops, tanks, and missiles, to get the job done. However, if Russia stands firm, then such an invasion could spark WW III. He would have to decide whether grabbing the world’s largest oil reserves (https://www.npr.org/2019/06/19/733955656/venezuela-faces-gas-shortages) is worth that risk. Meanwhile, he will almost certainly continue to try to make life as difficult as possible for the Venezuelan people, all the while blaming Maduro for their misery.

This has been the basic American plan, since well before Trump occupied the White House. At this stage, an American President is just a figurehead for one or another faction of America’s 607 billionaires, and it seems that whereas some of them demand conquest of Venezuela, none of the others opposes such a conquest. The only issue, therefore, for the American regime, is how and when to do that.

On August 8th, Venezuela, Iran, China, and Russia, held “war games” (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49285975) at Kaliningrad, Russia, on the Baltic coast, which military exercises had been organized by Russia, perhaps in order to indicate to Washington that a U.S. invasion against any of these four would be militarily responded to by all of the four. This symbolic act warns the fascist, and fascist-accepting, regimes: Your imperialist (https://thesaker.is/vladimir-putins-basic-disagreement-with-the-west/) alliance has 60 nations, but is fractious; ours, on the other hand — all resolute supporters of national sovereignty, and therefore opponents of imperialism — has 4 nations, but we are united.

Consequently, though “US warns off Venezuela’s supporters as Lima meeting opens,” Venezuela’s three allies here answered that verbal threat immediately after the Lima Group meeting, by a joint action, which symbolized that they are ignoring it.
—————
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010 (http://www.amazon.com/Theyre-Not-Even-Close-Democratic/dp/1880026090/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1339027537&sr=8-9), and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Q1H4EG).

Hervé

13th August 2019, 12:37

MSM ignores massive anti-sanctions protest rallies in Venezuela (https://www.rt.com/news/466343-venezuela-anti-sanctions-rally/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/466343-venezuela-anti-sanctions-rally/)
Tue, 13 Aug 2019 10:51 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/533897/large/3_venezuela_politics.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/533897/full/3_venezuela_politics.jpg)
Anti-sanctions march in Caracas, Venezuela. August 10, 2019. © Reuters / Manaure Quintero

Leading English-language news organizations have provided extensive and dramatic coverage of anti-government protests in Venezuela, but mostly ignored large-scale rallies against US sanctions, which took place over the weekend.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans flooded the streets of the country's capital, Caracas, on Saturday to denounce (https://www.telesurtv.net/news/maduro-protesta-mundial-contra-trump-y-bloqueo-a-venezuela-20190808-0042.html) the economic blockade and sanctions imposed by the US. Many were wrapped in national flags and sported red shirts, typically worn by the supporters of the government. The rallies were held under the slogan 'No More Trump'.

The mainstream media stayed largely silent on the massive anti-sanctions rallies. This is a striking contrast to the extensive and often dramatic coverage the leading English-language news organizations have provided during anti-government protests, led by opposition leader Juan Guaido.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1096380175791607808/0OVjpWb8_normal.png (https://twitter.com/Ruptly) Ruptly ✔ @Ruptly
(https://twitter.com/Ruptly)
'No more #Trump (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Trump?src=hash)' protest led by #Maduro (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Maduro?src=hash)#Venezuela (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash)

(https://twitter.com/Ruptly/status/1160510310916218882)
https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1160507347330117638/img/ZPhmZgfVirWlpdqu?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/Ruptly/status/1160510310916218882)

1:16 PM - Aug 11, 2019 (https://twitter.com/Ruptly/status/1160510310916218882)
CNN gave a brief mention to the 'No More Trump' protests on its Spanish-language website, CNN en Espanol, but the company's English-language service, CNN International, ignored the story altogether. As did the New York Times, whose weekend coverage passed over Venezuela entirely, but found space for an opposition march in Moscow.

The event did get some attention from Latin American public broadcaster Telesur (https://www.telesurtv.net/news/maduro-protesta-mundial-contra-trump-y-bloqueo-a-venezuela-20190808-0042.html), as well as other smaller left-leaning publications such as the British Morning Star, but they were outliers in the world press.

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/533896/large/5d51a265dda4c812098b45b2.png (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/533896/full/5d51a265dda4c812098b45b2.png)

President Nicolas Maduro had earlier called on "all Venezuelans" to gather at the city's squares to sign (https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelans-Continue-to-Sign-Petition-Against-US-Blockade-20190811-0008.html) a manifesto, decrying US pressure and affirming the will to "defend independence, peace and sovereignty" of the country. The government said it expects to collect more than 13 million signatures by early September, after which the document will be delivered to the UN as proof of what people think about the sanctions.

In January, opposition politicians declared Guaido, who leads the nation's parliament, 'acting president' of Venezuela, challenging Maduro. The move was dismissed by the government. The opposition has since staged several large-scale protests, some of which spiraled into riots and clashes with police. More than 100 protesters have died in the ensuing violence.

Guaido is openly backed by the US, its allies in Europe and the majority of South American states, including Venezuela's neighbors, Colombia and Brazil. Nations like China, Russia, Iran and Turkey continue to recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of the country.

Hervé

16th August 2019, 20:20

US crimes against Venezuela amount to economic terrorism (https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201908151076557341-american-crimes-against-venezuela-amount-to-economic-terrorism/)

Tommy Sheridan Sputnik (https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201908151076557341-american-crimes-against-venezuela-amount-to-economic-terrorism/)
Thu, 15 Aug 2019 14:43 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/534243/large/1Venezuelan_masses_protesting_.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/534243/full/1Venezuelan_masses_protesting_.jpg)
Venezuelan masses protesting Trump-USA © AP/Ariana Cubillos

It was an internationally significant event worthy of widespread coverage but my hunch is few, if any, of you reading this column will have heard of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit which took place in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 20/21st.

The weekend ministerial meeting brought together 120 member nations as well as seven observer countries, ten multilateral international organisations including the United Nations (UN), and fourteen specially invited nations.

The elected President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, addressed the opening session and outlined the broad and honourable aim of NAM, a voluntary international bloc of countries second in size only to the United Nations. Referring to the desire to end US global domination, unwanted interference in the internal affairs of sovereign nations and rejection of intolerable wars and armed conflicts Maduro said (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14596):
"The construction of a world without hegemonic empires, a world of peace, of respect for international law, is neither an odyssey nor an unrealistic utopia..." This assembly of free and sovereign nations representing 120 governments across the world united in condemnation of the unilateral decisions of successive US Governments to impose brutal and deadly economic sanctions (https://sputniknews.com/latam/201908091076509232-maduro-pledges-to-send-letter-against-us-sanctions-signed-by-millions-of-venezuelans-to-un/) on Venezuela cynically designed to cause economic chaos and hardship for ordinary people in the hope that they will turn their anger on the elected socialist government. Washington currently imposes cruel economic sanctions on a number of NAM member countries including Syria, Nicaragua, China, Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe.

Their economic blockade (https://sputniknews.com/us/201906071075730472-canada-welcomes-cubas-commitment-to-end-venezuela-crisis-report/) of socialist Cuba has spanned the 60 years since the Cuban revolution and been condemned consistently by the United Nations General Assembly as an illegal act amounting to economic warfare. Barack Obama refused to lift those sanctions despite their illegal character but he did relax some of the restrictions on travel and contact. Donald Trump has shamefully re-imposed them.

America despises the continued existence of a socialist country 90 miles from its Miami coastline, committed to free universal healthcare, education and housing. While the rich and powerful US exports bombs and denies millions of its own citizens health provision, socialist Cuba exports doctors, nurses and medical missions to poor and disaster struck areas across the world and guarantees all of its citizens quality healthcare. Cuba's decision to prioritise healthcare over warfare has resulted in life expectancy in Cuba being higher than in Americ (https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/cuba/usa?sc=XE24)a. A fact which should shame and embarrass the richest and most powerful country on the planet.

Anxious to prevent the spread of socialist economies prioritising health and education over armaments and personal greed the US has imposed economic sanctions and sought to engineer internal unrest and military coups in Venezuela since the election of charismatic socialist Hugo Chavez in 1999.

A failed coup in 2002 saw US-sponsored opposition groups amongst the rich minority bring violence to the streets of capital Venezuela's capital Caracas and the arrest of Chavez. But after 48 hours the ordinary people arose from the poor barrios areas around Caracas and united with lower-ranking army personnel to free Chavez and reinstate him in office.

The economic sanctions against Venezuela continued throughout the Chavez era but to little effect as the vast oil reserves within the country were deployed to raise the standard of living across the country and lift tens of millions out of extreme poverty. Proper housing, healthcare and education used to be the preserve of only the rich minority but are now rights enshrined in the new Bolivarian constitution which the people together wrote in a mass exercise in democratic engagement throughout 1999.

After Chavez succumbed to cancer (https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201903111073124477-venezuela-us-oil-nationalisation/) in March 2013 his trusted comrade and Vice-President Nicolas Maduro assumed power before being democratically elected in 2015. However a dramatic collapse in oil prices completely undermined the Venezuelan economy and they had to seek loans on international money markets to raise funds for the purchase of essential foodstuffs, medicines and manufacturing equipment.

The US could smell the opportunity to try and strangle the Venezuelan economy and uprated sanctions to deny Venezuela access to funds and slowly but surely the economy descended into chaos with shortages of food and medicines becoming commonplace.

These economic sanctions were ratcheted up and tightened by Trump but have no international legitimacy whatsoever. The United Nations (UN) has condemned them as contrary to international law and therefore illegal. They have been called 'economic warfare' (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14596). Thorough academic research has estimated that these sanctions have led directly to the loss of 40,000 lives, including thousands of children, in the last 18 months alone.

According to the UN Rapporteur (https://chicagoalbasolidarity.wordpress.com/2018/08/30/just-released-official-un-report-on-venezuela-by-alfred-de-zayas/) sent to Venezuela on their behalf to compile a UN Human Rights Council Report in 2017 and 2018 the United States has used the illegal sanctions and financial blockade against Venezuela to create a humanitarian crisis and are therefore criminally liable for the increased deaths of children and the infirm denied vital medical supplies directly because of the sanctions.

His damning report (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii5MlQgGXyk&feature=youtu.be) stated categorically that the US sanctions kill and therefore America should face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Alfred de Zayas, UN Human Rights Rapporteur, complained earlier this year that although he has written 13 separate Reports on humanitarian disasters and crisis across the world including Sudan, Somalia and Palestine and all were reported and used by the international media his Report on Venezuela has been ignored and not one single mainstream channel has interviewed him about it.

In November 2017 one US bank blocked the transfer of funds to pay for 300,000 doses of insulin. Another retained $1.65 billion Venezuela had paid for the purchase of food and medicine. Another blocked the transfer of over $9 billion profits generated by the US subsidiary of the publicly owned Venezuelan oil company. In May last year, Wells Fargo bank in America cancelled a payment of $7.5 million from Brazil to Venezuela for the supply of electricity and also blocked a $7 million purchase of dialysis supplies for patients in Venezuela, including thousands of children.

Alfred de Zayas condemns these economic sanctions as not just illegal under international law but also immoral as they are directly responsible for increased child mortality, maternal mortality and deaths due to shortages of life-saving insulin:
"Venezuela had succeeded in bringing millions and millions out of extreme poverty. Nobody cared in the 1980s and 90's that there were millions of Venezuelans dying of hunger and malnutrition. No one cared. It was a government palatable to Washington and a government that was a right-wing government. The moment that a left-wing government came into power priority number one in Washington was to topple it." No wonder the mainstream media don't want to talk to this guy. His Report was compiled after spending several months in the country speaking to real people all across Venezuela and reading credible reports from others. He is not spouting the corporate bull**** fed to the big news outlets by Trump, Bolton, Pompeo and Mike Spence.

The elected President of Venezuela won 6.2 million votes in 2018. The right-wing opposition urged a boycott. Yet Nicolas Maduro's votes represent 31% of the registered voters of Venezuela. That is the exact percentage of the vote Barack Obama was elected on in 2008. No one suggested Obama was democratically illegitimate.

Last week the US disgracefully decided to turn their illegal economic sanctions and financial blockade into a full-blown embargo and empowered themselves to punish any third party country who trades with Venezuela. It has been described as modern-day 'banditry'. It is also economic thuggery and callous warfare which the world should be condemning robustly.

Instead, John Bolton, the warmonger who drove the Iraq invasion based on lies and deceit, was last week addressing a meeting (https://sputniknews.com/world/201908151076554248-bolton-accuses-russia-of-stealing-us-tech-gets-tough-on-china-gives-flaccid-support-to-venezuela/) in Lima announcing the increased economic warfare against Venezuela to representatives of the 52 countries who have fallen into line and recognised the puppet Juan Guaido, installed from Washington in January this year. He has little and reducing support within Venezuela and therefore the threat of military intervention remains on the table according to these warmonger reprobates.

Yet when the mainstream press and media talk about 'international community support' for US puppet Guaido you would think it was the majority of the 'international community'. It isn't. It is not just a minority it is a white minority of imperialist colonizer nations and non-white nations are erased from the international community.

The US has managed to bully 54 nations into supporting their illegal and immoral sanctions and external interference policy but 120 nations have stood steadfast in support of international law and recognition of the sovereignty of nations. Thankfully support within Venezuela for the democratically elected President remains strong but that won't stop America trying to force regime change to get their grubby and blood-soaked hands on Venezuela's vast oil reserves, the largest in the world.

Terrorism is reviled across the world but economic terrorism can be just as deadly and destructive. The US is an economic terrorist and it should be condemned, shunned and prosecuted for its actions not supported.

I leave the last word to Venezuela's UN Ambassador and NAM Presidential Commissioner Samuel Moncada when he addressed the NAM summit a few weeks ago:
"In the world there are 193 countries and the United States [in backing self-declared "Interim President" Juan Guaido] cites only 54. Here there are 120, the international community is defending Venezuela (...) Two-thirds of the United Nations believes that the government of Nicolas Maduro is the legitimate government of Venezuela..." Hands Off Venezuela and its legitimate President Nicolas Maduro!

Hervé

17th August 2019, 16:11

...

... meanwhile, in the neighborhood:

Failed state made in the USA: Ex-president of Honduras and coup victim Zelaya tells all (https://www.rt.com/news/466687-zelaya-honduras-interview-coup/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/466687-zelaya-honduras-interview-coup/)
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 13:56 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/534437/large/5d574603dda4c8a07a8b460c.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/534437/full/5d574603dda4c8a07a8b460c.jpg)
Zelaya at a protest against the US-backed Hernandez government. © Reuters / Jorge Cabrera

President Jose Manuel Zelaya of Honduras was deposed from power in a military coup after joining a progressive alliance of Latin American leaders and he has "absolutely no doubts" the US was behind his ouster, he tells RT America.

"The US warned me: If you sign the Bolivarian Alternative to the Americas (ALBA), you're going to have problems with the US. I signed it, and six months later, I had problems," Zelaya told RT America's Rick Sanchez.

"They kicked me out."

AvQNPsSZZZc

Washington "wave[s] their flags of human rights abroad, but they only apply those concepts to those they consider to be adversaries," Zelaya says, pointing to his record of poverty reduction and economic growth - "I had the best indicators of human development in Honduran history!"

Because of the company he kept - working with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivia's Evo Morales, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, and other progressive US bogeymen to further Honduras' economic development - the US "had an allergic reaction" and moved to take him out, he says.

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"I didn't have problems with the US," Zelaya insists. "They simply didn't accept the competition, because these transnational companies live off monopoly, they live off concessions. When you give them competition in the free market, they stop being capitalist. They become retrograde, authoritarian, and they play coups, wars, invasions."

Zelaya was removed from power in 2009, deposed by heavily armed soldiers who came to his home while he was in his pajamas, in a coup Hillary Clinton's State Department refused to call a coup.

Honduras has been sinking into chaos ever since. His progressive reforms such as building schools, adopting a pension system for the elderly and raising the minimum wage have been rolled back, and homicide rates had soared 50 percent by 2011. Trade unionists, journalists, judges, human rights and environmental activists have been targeted for extrajudicial killings.

His efforts to return to power have also been thwarted, once again by the US, he says. After his party won the 2017 election with nearly three quarters of the votes counted, it was the US ambassador who appeared with 5,000 boxes of ballots to declare another candidate the winner. Even the pro-US Organization of American States called for a new round of elections. Instead, the government suspended the constitution and imposed 10 days of martial law, after which the US recognized the rigged results.

"And with that, they impose a dictatorship in Honduras... that's what we're protesting against."

Zelaya says the US sees Honduras "not as a colony or a province. They see us as an empty landscape where they invest and where they impose their rules."

He does not blame only the Americans for the suffering of Honduras, however.

"The Hondurans are guilty, the ones that bow down and kiss the boots of the US, the US military, or kiss up to the capitalist chiefs of Wall Street."

Related:

US gives the world a free choice: Dollar debt or death - Keynote speech by Michael Hudson (https://www.sott.net/article/417765-US-gives-the-world-a-free-choice-Dollar-debt-or-death-Keynote-speech-by-Michael-Hudson)

Pornographic Democracy (https://www.sott.net/article/417712-Pornographic-Democracy)

Hervé

17th August 2019, 17:19

...

... about the MSM silence on Honduras and Brazil beside Venezuela:

'How is that non-news?' Lee Camp reveals why MSM chooses to ignore Honduras and Brazil unrest (https://www.rt.com/news/466728-lee-camp-honduras-brazil/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/466728-lee-camp-honduras-brazil/)
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 16:46 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/534471/large/5d58068edda4c8bb1b8b460f.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/534471/full/5d58068edda4c8bb1b8b460f.jpg)
© REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera; Ricardo Moraes 8

Americans are bombarded with non-stop news on Hong Kong and Moscow rallies, but how come mass protests in Honduras and Brazil aren't high on the agenda? Lee Camp looks at why the US corporate media are keeping mum on the subject.

Honduras, a Latin American nation of nine million people, has been hit by massive unrest, with people venting anger at pro-US President Orlando Hernandez. The wave of violent demonstrations saw the US diplomatic mission attacked by protesters - but the American mainstream media didn't say a word about it, Camp pointed out, speaking on Redacted Tonight.

"Protesters are literally burning the US embassy because we installed a f******d [Hernandez] rule over them, how is that non-news?" he wondered.

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Hondurans are rightfully furious about "the neoliberal austerity measures supported by our country and the IMF." It caused massive layoffs, increased costs of basic goods and essentially made their lives suck down there, Camp reminded viewers.
But as long as their government is pillaging the people appropriately, our government is cool with it. All in all, Honduras isn't the only unrest-hit country overlooked by the US corporate media. Brazil, "the largest of countries Americans don't care about," has been rocked by a massive strike led by trade unions. Over 45 million people there - "can you imagine 45 million Americans agreeing on everything?" - are protesting against the right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and his controversial pension reform.

But this is "not a story your corporate media will cover," and for obvious reasons, Camp offered. On the one hand, it may not look good for the White House administration, including a particular president. On the other hand...
The American workers might think, 'what if WE have a general strike?'

Bill Ryan

17th August 2019, 17:24

This might deserve a different thread [Edit: now started here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?108371-People-power-in-Puerto-Rico)]: but there have been widespread popular protests in Puerto Rico, that ousted Governer Rosselló — who was forced to resign.

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/190722165246-puerto-rico-manifestaciones-exlarge-169.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSkuuRHxXyY

spade

6th September 2019, 14:16

jN5LZR4ejkg

1st of an 11 part series of what's it like in current Venezuela with no talking heads. Interesting to watch.

Hervé

6th September 2019, 14:55

The Venezuelan Disinformation Campaign (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207536.html)

Voltaire Network
6 September 2019

https://www.voltairenet.org/squelettes/elements/images/ligne-rouge.gif
français (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207524.html) Español (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207529.html) italiano (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207530.html) Português (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207533.html) Deutsch (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207537.html) Türkçe (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207540.html)

In August 2018, the international press reported on a massive exodus of Venezuelans fleeing the famine and chavist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro. There were 18,000 to cross the border each day. At the time, the UN predicted that there would be 5.3 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees throughout Latin America by the end of 2019. There was a major crisis.

Alas! These figures were pure propaganda: the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees has just published its official statistics as at December 31, 2018.

57% of the world’s refugees came from Syria (6.7 million), Afghanistan (2.7 million) and South Sudan (2.3 million).

Venezuelan refugees represented only 341,800 people (many of whom have since returned to their country).

The campaign of media disinformation, relayed in all the allied states of the Pentagon, was initiated in preparation for the destabilization operation targeting the Venezuelan State that began in December 2018. It was intended to convince the nationals that they no longer had a future at home and the people abroad that President Maduro was illegitimate.

This is a clear application of the theory of "migrations as weapons of war" [1 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207536.html#nb1)].

Translation Roger Lagassé (https://www.voltairenet.org/auteur125483.html?lang=en)

References:

[1 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207536.html#nh1)] “Strategic Engineered Migration as a Weapon of War”, Kelly M. Greenhill, Civil War Journal, Volume 10, Issue 1, July 2008.

"Understanding the Coercive Power of Mass Migrations,” in Weapons of Mass Migration : Forced Displacement, Coercion and Foreign Policy, Kelly M. Greenhill, Ithaca, 2010.

“Migration as a Coercive Weapon : New Evidence from the Middle East”, in Coercion : The Power to Hurt in International Politics, Kelly M. Greenhill, Oxford University Press, 2018.

Hervé

6th September 2019, 15:58

Trump Regime Training Paramilitaries to Attack Venezuela? (https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-regime-training-paramilitaries-attack-venezuela/5688315)

By Stephen Lendman (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/stephen-lendman) Global Research,
September 06, 2019

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Venezuela-US-400x227.jpg

Washington wants Bolivarian Venezuela transformed into a US vassal state — to eliminate its social democracy and gain control over its vast oil reserves, the world’s largest.
On Wednesday, the Trump regime earmarked over $120 million for Colombia.

Masquerading as “humanitarian assistance” for Venezuelans in the country, what’s planned may be something similar to US Central American paramilitary wars in the 1980s.

Edward Herman once explained that if US imperial aims go unchallenged, its ruling authorities will “continue to escalate violence (against targeted nations) to preserve military mafia/oligarch control” — state terrorism on a global scale.

If the Trump regime intends waging a cross-border paramilitary war on Venezuela, the toll could be horrendous.

In the 1980s, over 50,000 were slaughtered in El Salvador, more than 100,000 in Guatemala, over 200,000 in the country earlier and since the 1990s, thousands more in Nicaragua.

Mass slaughter was compounded by torture, rapes, mutilations, disappearances, and assassinations — on the phony pretext of combating communism.

Today US Latin America regime change tactics are directed against Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela’s social democracy, a notion its hardline ruling authorities abhor and want eliminated everywhere.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said
“alleged Venezuelan refugees (are) receiving training (in Colombia) to provoke violent acts in Venezuela,” adding:

Many were “transferred to a British military base in Guyana, but the truth is that these are people who came to receive training and integrate sabotage and spy groups.”
Guyana and Venezuela share a common border. US and UK troops are in the neighboring country on the phony pretext of aiding its government.

According to US Air Force General Andrew Croft,

Failed Trump Regime Coup Plot Against Venezuela Continues (https://www.globalresearch.ca/failed-trump-regime-coup-plot-against-venezuela-continues/5684919)

“Guyana is going to become a larger player in this region, both economically and politically in the future, so it’s important that we are closely tied with them,” adding:

“What we leave is an enduring, physical presence in addition to the partnerships that we build.”

“Guyana sits in a strategic location on the north edge of South America and on the Caribbean.”

“That’s what makes it important. Also, as political change happens in the nation and they become more aligned with us, it’s important for us to make those personal relationships not only through the embassy, but also through the military and the Guyana defense force, which is currently about 3,000 strong with the intent to nearly double it in the upcoming years.”
US and UK troops in Guyana are involved in Trump regime efforts to replace Venezuelan social democracy with US-controlled fascist puppet rule.

Zakharova stressed that US forces in nations bordering Venezuela are all about “caus(ing) destabiliz(ing) and violent acts” cross-border.

On Wednesday, Venezuelan President Maduro said the US is plotting a new conspiracy against the Bolivarian Republic from neighboring Colombia, adding:
“Yesterday, I declared the orange alert level for all branches of the Armed Forces…to protect the sovereignty and peace of Venezuela.”

“And the military forces are already being deployed (to the Colombian border). Now, we are going to deploy our rocket air defense system from 10 September to 28 September.”
Days earlier, Maduro said large-scale military drills will be held near Venezuela’s border with Colombia to protect against hostile cross-border actions.

In late August, the Trump regime established a so-called Venezuela Affairs Unit (VAU) in Bogota, Colombia.

Its mission is all about aiming to oust legitimate Venezuelan President Maduro, wanting hardline/anti-democratic US-controlled puppet rule replacing him.

Several cross-border attacks were foiled, including an attempt to detonate an explosive at the Justice Palace in Caracas.

On Thursday, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez accused Trump regime-designated puppet/usurper in waiting Guaido of transferring Venezuelan bonds to the US and other nations, adding:
“The Venezuelan people know who Juan Guaido is. He does not (represent) a political project. (He’s a front man for) a criminal group.”
In July, Venezuela’s Minister of Communication Jorge Rodriguez said two Guaido security guards were seized, trying to sell stolen National Guard weapons ahead of the failed April 30 coup attempt.

The above offenses and many others beg the question. Why hasn’t Venezuela held Guaido accountable for his lawless actions — notably sedition and treason against the state?

*

The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Stephen Lendman (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/stephen-lendman), Global Research, 2019

Hervé

6th September 2019, 17:53

Venezuela prosecutors probe opposition leader Juan Guaido for ‘high treason’ (https://www.rt.com/news/468196-guaido-accused-treason-venezuela/)

RT
Published time: 6 Sep, 2019 16:36
Edited time: 6 Sep, 2019 17:06
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/a19g)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.09/xxs/5d728dae20302766bb161b4c.jpg
© Reuters / CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS

A criminal investigation has been launched into Venezeulan opposition leader Juan Guaido and several key advisers after the government led by President Nicolas Maduro accused them of acts of treason.

Venezuelan Prosecutor general Tarek Saab announced the move on Friday. Guaido was allegedly involved in negotiating away Venezuela’s “historical claim” to the territory of Esequibo, which is formally under the administration of Guyana.

On Thursday, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez offered evidence in the form of phone records in which adviser Manuel Avendaño allegedly discussed with Venezuelan- American diplomat Vanessa Neumann relinquishing claims to the Esequibo region.

“The criminal organization headed by Juan Guaidó had initiated concrete actions to illegally appropriate Venezuela's assets, financial resources, Venezuelan gold, Venezuelan debt, to enrich themselves and to serve transnational interests,” Rodriguez said.

A vestige of South America’s colonial history, the dispute over Esequibo is long in the making, dating back centuries to squabbling between the Spanish, Dutch, and eventually British Empires. In the 20th century Venezuela and Guyana have been trying to settle the matter through UN. More recently, however, conflict over the territory has been tied to natural resources, eyed by companies like ExxonMobile.

Last year, a standoff broke out between the Venezuelan Navy and vessels of the energy firm searching for oil in the region with Guyana’s permission, forcing the surveyors to turn back.

Hervé

8th September 2019, 16:00

Mastercard Blocks Two Venezuelan Banks (https://www.globalresearch.ca/mastercard-blocks-two-venezuelan-banks/5688440)

A Chinese contractor has also suspended work on an oil expansion project.

By Ricardo Vaz (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/ricardo-vaz) and Lucas Koerner (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/lucas-koerner) Global Research, September 08, 2019

Venezuelanalysis.com (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14649)
6 September 2019

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/mastercard-400x209.jpg

US-based financial services company Mastercard has cut service to two Venezuelan banks sanctioned by the Donald Trump administration.

Effective this past Wednesday, clients of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces Bank (BANFANB) and the Agricultural Bank of Venezuela have been cut off from Mastercard’s international payment platform.

The move comes just weeks after a US executive order (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14615) freezing Venezuelan government assets in the United States and prohibiting all dealings with the Venezuelan state and its associated entities. The decree authorizes Mastercard, Visa, and other financial service firms to continue activities in Venezuela until March 22, 2020. Mastercard has yet to issue a public statement regarding its unilateral decision.

For its part, BANFANB issued a statement (https://twitter.com/BanFANB/status/1169351988787724294/photo/1) Wednesday accusing Mastercard of committing a “flagrant violation of our clients’ human rights.”

The state bank further announced that as of Wednesday evening it had succeeded in reconnecting its credit cards to 60 percent of the Venezuelan banking system.

The Agricultural Bank of Venezuela has yet to issue a public statement.

Earlier this year, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) likewise sanctioned Venezuela’s Central Bank (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14434) and three other state banks (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14398).

In response to Mastercard’s pull-out, Venezuela’s National Superintendence of Banks held meetings Wednesday with banking and financial service representatives to discuss progress in building an independent financial infrastructure. Several payment platforms are under development, including the Suiche Nacional and the C2P, while a biometric payment system is currently in a trial period.

Mastercard’s decision came on the heels of a Chinese oil contractor halting expansion work in Sinovensa, a joint venture between Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and its Chinese counterpart, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation, an affiliate of the CNPC, reportedly notified Sinovensa it was suspending work from September 3, citing US $52 million in unpaid invoices.

Sinovensa had recently announced (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14625) plans to expand a crude blending facility by 57 percent, to a total output of 165,000 barrels per day (bpd). The joint venture is located in Venezuela’s Orinoco Oil Belt. At the time of writing there has been no official confirmation from PDVSA or the CNPC.

Venezuela’s oil industry has seen output decline sharply in recent months as a result of corruption, brain drain, a lack of maintenance and mismanagement, and especially US sanctions (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14446).

An oil embargo (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14268) imposed in late January blocked all imports of Venezuelan oil by US refineries, leading output to fall (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14411) by over a third in February and March. The embargo was expanded (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14615) in August to all sectors of the Venezuelan economy, with the US Treasury also threatening secondary sanctions against foreign companies that trade with Caracas.

The latest measures have resulted in the CNPC cancelling (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14631) three oil shipments in August, reportedly worth around 5 million barrels. A joint venture involving US oil giant Chevron (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14609) is likewise in danger, with a sanctions waiver due to expire in October.

The fallout from the latest sanctions coincided with a report from the opposition-controlled National Assembly that monthly inflation was 65.2 percent in August.

According to the legislative body’s finance commission, inflation crept back above the 50 percent hyperinflation threshold for the first time since February. The country had previously suffered 16 consecutive months of hyperinflation. The Venezuelan Central Bank released figures (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14516) in May after a three-year hiatus, likewise dating the end of hyperinflation in March, but no further statistics have been released since.

August’s price rises came alongside an over 100 percent devaluation of the bolivar, both in the black market and the official exchange rate. The Venezuelan Central Bank lifted foreign exchange controls in May, allowing banks to set up “exchange tables,” but the measure has not deterred the continued devaluation of the official currency.

The liberalization of exchange controls, alongside a constriction of the quantity of bolivars in circulation, have been credited for the slowdown of inflation in the first half of 2019. However, some economists have warned that the measures have led to a contraction of demand, resulting in longer-term stagnation.

*

Ricardo Vaz reporting from Lisbon and Lucas Koerner from Venezuela.

The original source of this article is Venezuelanalysis.com (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14649)
Copyright © Ricardo Vaz (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/ricardo-vaz) and Lucas Koerner (https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/lucas-koerner), Venezuelanalysis.com (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14649), 2019

Hervé

12th September 2019, 12:53

Major Venezuelan oil company registers office in Moscow, facilitates oil trade with China, India (https://www.rt.com/business/468578-venezuela-petroleum-russia-registry/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/business/468578-venezuela-petroleum-russia-registry/)
Thu, 12 Sep 2019 00:25 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/537824/large/5d78d55f85f5407b6312f465.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/537824/full/5d78d55f85f5407b6312f465.jpg)
Cutouts depicting images of oil operations are seen outside a building of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA in Caracas, Venezuela. © Reuters / Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Venezuelan state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, has registered its office in Moscow. The move comes after Russian state oil major Rosneft last month became the main trader of Venezuelan crude.

"We've registered PDVSA in the Russian jurisdiction," Venezuela's minister for oil Manuel Quevedo told reporters on Wednesday. In July, Quevedo stated that Russia had asked PDVSA to register its own legal entity in the country to help ensure the work of the Moscow representative office of the company.

The PDVSA office was opened in Moscow in March, on the instruction of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro. It replaces the company's Portuguese branch.

According to the SPARK system, on August 6 PDVSA Rusia LLC was officially registered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE). Its owners are Venezuelan PDV EURO-ASIA SA (98%) and its Cuban subsidiary PDVSA Cuba (2%). PDVSA Rusia's main activity in Russia is registered as business and management consulting.

PDVSA's registry in Moscow comes after Rosneft became the main trader of Venezuelan crude in August, facilitating shipping of the country's oil to China and India. It took some 40% of PDVSA's exports in July and over 66% in August, according to the firm's export programs and the Refinitiv Eikon data. This came as an attempt to help Venezuela, where oil accounts for more than 95 percent of export revenue, to ease losses due to US sanctions.

Washington imposed its first batch of sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry in January, in an attempt to oust President Nicolas Maduro, whose re-election in late 2018 was viewed by the United States and some Western governments as illegitimate. Instead, they recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country's rightful head of state.

Both Russia and China, Venezuela's second largest oil buyer, have called the US sanctions against the Latin American country unilateral and illegal.

In August, Washington imposed a new set of sanctions on Venezuela, with warnings that it would take measures against any company which is "materially assisting" Maduro's government. The US administration also froze all Venezuelan government assets in the United States.

Due to sanctions, overall exports of crude and refined products by PDVSA and its joint ventures declined last month to some 770,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 992,565 bpd in July and 1.13 million bpd in June, according to Reuters data.

Hervé

14th September 2019, 11:12

Leaked photos of US-puppet Guaidó with Colombian narcoparamilitaries emerge (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/09/major-leaked-photos-of-us-puppet-guaido-with-colombian-narcoparamilitaries-emerge/)

Paul Antonopoulos Fort Russ News (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/09/major-leaked-photos-of-us-puppet-guaido-with-colombian-narcoparamilitaries-emerge/)
Fri, 13 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s26/538049/large/1_4.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s26/538049/full/1_4.jpg)

Venezuelan opponent Juan Guaidó took pictures with Colombian narcoparamilitary leaders while reportedly receiving help from them to cross his country's border with Colombia in February.

The photos were made public by the accusation of Wilfredo Cañizares, activist and leader of the Colombian Non-Governmental Human Rights Organization Foundation for Progress in the North of Santander (FPNS). According to Cañizares, the mysterious passage of Guaidó from Venezuela to Colombia was made with the help of Colombian criminals.

On the occasion, Juan Guaidó went to the neighboring country to attend an event called Venezuela Aid Live, whose purpose was supposedly to bring humanitarian aid to Venezuela from Colombian territory in February this year, but revealed just to be a big financial scam. Guaidó had been banned by the Venezuelan courts from crossing the border.

In the photos posted on Wilfredo's Twitter, you can see Guaidó with Albeiro wolf Quintero, known as Brother, and John Jairo Durán, known as El Menor, both leaders of the Los Rastrojos criminal organization. The photos were taken on February 22, the day before Guaidó attended the event that took place in Cucuta, Colombia.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1464411801/GetAttachment_8__normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/wilcan91) WILFREDO CAÑIZARES @wilcan91
(https://twitter.com/wilcan91)
Lo dijimos desde el primer día: la entrada a Colombia el 23 de febrero del sr @jguaido (https://twitter.com/jguaido) fue coordinada con los Rastrojos. Aquí están alias el brother armado, y el segundo al mando de este grupo paramilitar, alias el menor.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EEQoXF3W4AAKpDh?format=jpg&name=360x360
(https://twitter.com/wilcan91/status/1172106194695143424/photo/1)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EEQoXmKXkAM7_-L?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/wilcan91/status/1172106194695143424/photo/1)

1:14 PM - Sep 12, 2019 (https://twitter.com/wilcan91/status/1172106194695143424)

"We said it from day one: the entrance to Colombia on February 23 of Mr @jguaido. It was coordinated with the Stubble. Here are the armed brother, and the second in command of this paramilitary group, aka the youngest," Wilfredo said on Twitter.
From day one we said that Juan Juan Guaidó took pictures with Colombian narcoparamilitary leaders's entry on February 23 in Colombia was coordinated with Los Rastrojos. Here are Brother Armed and the second in command of the paramilitary group, El Menor.

Criminal organization
According to Alberto Ravell, spokesman for Juan Guaidó, the Venezuelan deputy and opponent did not know who were the people who helped him cross the border.

Los Rastrojos is a criminal organization that profits from drug trafficking and the illegal gold trade in Colombia, reported the Semana Web site.

Related:

Guaido under treason investigation in Venezuela over backroom Essequibo bargaining revelations (https://www.sott.net/article/420166-Guaido-under-treason-investigation-in-Venezuela-over-backroom-Essequibo-bargaining-revelations)

Right-wing opposition losing ground in Venezuela as popularity of US puppet Guaidó sinks (https://www.sott.net/article/417619-Right-wing-opposition-losing-ground-in-Venezuela-as-popularity-of-US-puppet-Guaido-sinks)

Putin to Guaido: Time to get back to reality (https://www.sott.net/article/416273-Putin-to-Guaido-Time-to-get-back-to-reality)

The meteoric rise and fall of failed CIA darling, Juan Guaido (https://www.sott.net/article/413801-The-meteoric-rise-and-fall-of-failed-CIA-darling-Juan-Guaido)

Guaido says Washington should help steal US refiner Citgo from legitimate Venezuelan government (https://www.sott.net/article/413694-Guaido-says-Washington-should-help-steal-US-refiner-Citgo-from-legitimate-Venezuelan-government)

Venezuelan traitor Guaidó asks US military for 'strategic planning' help to invade his own country (https://www.sott.net/article/413101-Venezuelan-traitor-Guaido-asks-US-military-for-strategic-planning-help-to-invade-his-own-country)

Guaido ready to enact grassroots uprising straight out of US regime-change operations manual (https://www.sott.net/article/410381-Guaido-ready-to-enact-grassroots-uprising-straight-out-of-US-regime-change-operations-manual)

Hervé

20th September 2019, 12:32

Driving to Colombia? New photos show Juan Guaido in car with ‘drug cartel gangster’ (https://www.rt.com/news/469220-guaido-drug-cartel-photos/)

RT
Published time: 20 Sep, 2019 08:37
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/a21w)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.09/xxs/5d848b7820302742a56dd0f7.JPG

FILE PHOTO. Juan Guaido during a news conference in Cucuta, Colombia February 23, 2019. ©REUTERS / Luisa Gonzalez

A Venezuelan official has published photos that he says are further proof of ties between the country’s self-proclaimed ‘interim president’ Juan Guaido and a drug cartel member, who allegedly helped him sneak into Colombia.

In January, Guaido declared himself the rightful head of state in Venezuela and has since made several failed attempts to actually seize power in the Latin American nation, with Washington backing the effort. During one of them in February, he traveled to neighboring Colombia to attend a concert and lead a column of trucks containing US-provided ‘humanitarian aid,’ which was ultimately stopped by Venezuelan border guards.

Last week, a Colombian NGO published photos showing the would-be president and two other people, who were identified as members of Los Rastrojos, a paramilitary criminal organization operating on the border between Venezuela and Colombia. It was alleged that Guaido had crossed the border with the help of the gangsters.

On Thursday, more photos apparently confirming the theory were published (https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/New-Images-Show-Juan-Guaido-with-Leader-of-Narco-Paramilitary-Group-Los-Rastrojos-20190919-0007.html) in Venezuela. One shows a smiling Guaido hugging a bulky man identified as Jonathan Orlando Zambrano Garcia, aka ‘Patron Pobre,’ a Los Rastrojos mid-tier commander. He was driving Guaido, who could be seen sticking out of an open door of the car.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1148343743147401218/aNJprp57_normal.png (https://twitter.com/planwac) William Castillo B @planwac
(https://twitter.com/planwac)
#NuevasImágenes (https://twitter.com/hashtag/NuevasIm%C3%A1genes?src=hash). Ya lo de las "incómodas" fotos de Guaidó con los paracos y narcos parecen imágenes de la Convención Anual de Los Rastrojos Corporation. No faltó ni uno de los jefes para anotarse en la fiesta de selfies con el mimado de Iván Duque.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EE10lxEW4AAxIoo?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/planwac/status/1174723281292845058/photo/1) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EE10lxMXsAEJL7S?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/planwac/status/1174723281292845058/photo/1) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EE10lxKX4AAqPEG?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/planwac/status/1174723281292845058/photo/1) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EE10lxJXkAcMBmr?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/planwac/status/1174723281292845058/photo/1)

6:33 PM - Sep 19, 2019 (https://twitter.com/planwac/status/1174723281292845058)
Guaido’s clothes in the photos are the same that he wore during his trip to Colombia in February. The images were first revealed by ‘Con el Mazo Dando,’ a TV program hosted by Diosdado Cabello, an influential Venezuelan MP.
Cabello also reported that Los Rastrojos had tried to kill a man known as ‘El Menor,’ one of the two cartel members shown alongside Guaido in photos that emerged last week. He said that assassins had failed to find him and instead killed his parents and two other family members in what he called an obvious attempt to cover up the scandal.

After the initial allegation emerged, Guaido denied that he had received any help from Los Rastrojos and said the two members were among hundreds of people with whom he posed for selfies after crossing the border. Colombian authorities, who support Guaido’s claim in Venezuela, confirmed that the two individuals were members of the organization, but said that the opposition leader was not accompanied by any criminal during his visit to the country.

The ties between the man in the new pictures and Los Rastrojos, however, are less clear. According to Colombian newspaper El Espectador, Colombian border guards don’t believe (https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/el-mundo/las-otras-fotos-de-juan-guaido-con-supuestos-miembros-de-los-rastrojos-articulo-881924) him to be part of the criminal organization.

Los Rastrojos are one of several paramilitary groups operating in the border area. They are involved in various crimes including illegal mining, racketeering, trafficking of drugs and gasoline, kidnappings and assassinations.

Hervé

24th September 2019, 11:40

National Unity in Syria and Venezuela (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html)

by Thierry Meyssan Voltaire Network |

Damascus (Syria) | 24 September 2019

As we alone announced at the beginning of the month, a decisive step towards peace was made simultaneously in Syria and Venezuela on September 16th. The two nations no longer force themselves to negotiate with terrorists, but their governments have undertaken to build a new regime in conjunction with their patriotic opposition.

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عربي (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207720.html) Deutsch (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207711.html) ελληνικά (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207719.html) Español (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207712.html) français (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207692.html) italiano (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207709.html) Português (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207721.html) română (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207722.html) русский (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207718.html) Türkçe (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207716.html)

https://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH300/Voltairenet-org_-_1-904-6db01-2-4be99.jpg
Presidents Bashar al-Assad and Nicolás Maduro.

The future of Syria and Venezuela are being played out simultaneously and in parallel. This is normal, because the origin of these conflicts is not local, it is the strategy of the Pentagon of destruction of the state structures, first in the "Enlarged Middle East", then in the "Basin of the Caribbean" "(Rumsfeld / Cebrowski doctrine [1 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html#nb1)]).

The situation and capabilities of the two states are very different, but their resistance to global imperialism is identical. Hugo Chávez (president from 1999 to 2013) was the voice of the peoples of the periphery in the face of the ambitions of transnational corporations. Disappointed by the Non-Aligned Movement through which, at the end of the Cold War, some members became vassals of the United States, Chavez had thought with President Bashar al-Assad to refound the Movement of free allies on a new basis [2 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html#nb2)]. To those who wondered about the time needed to carry out this ambitious task, the Venezuelan President responded by anticipating that his Syrian counterpart would take his place on the international scene. He also added, in the five-year plan from 2007-2013 that he authored, instructions to all the administrations of his country to support this distant political ally: Syria [3 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html#nb3)].

The war raged for eighteen years in the wider Middle East and for eight years in Syria. Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are already destroyed. Yemen is hungry. Regarding Syria, a government in exile has been recognized by the United States and a handful of its allies. All the country’s assets in the West have been seized. An alternative government replaced the constitutional government with the Arab League. And the regional vassals of the Pentagon have placed themselves under NATO’s orders.

The premises of the war are already well advanced in the Caribbean Basin, particularly in Nicaragua and Cuba. Regarding Venezuela, a self-appointed president has been recognized by the United States and a handful of its allies. All Venezuelan assets in the West have been seized. An alternative government replaced the constitutional government with the Organization of American States (OAS). And the regional vassals of the Pentagon have reactivated the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Tiar).

The war is ending in Syria because the Russian military presence makes it impossible to send new troops against the country; whether they are regular US soldiers, mercenaries officially engaged by the Pentagon, or jihadists unofficially engaged by NATO allies. But the victory of the Syrian Arab army against tens of thousands of foreign mercenaries does not mean peace.

Peace is possible in Syria as in Venezuela only on the condition that society, fractured by the war on the one hand or by war preparations on the other, be repaired. In Syria, this involves the drafting and adoption of a new constitution, as provided for by resolution 2254 four years ago. In Venezuela, this will happen by creating a national unity regime associating Chávistes and patriotic opposition. In both cases, the difficulty is to remove the mercenary opposition who, paid by the United States or their allies, will stop at nothing, and to mobilize the patriotic opposition, always present in the country and concerned with preserving the nation.

With the agreement of President Trump and despite opposition from Pentagon generals and State Department diplomats, Syria and Venezuela advanced on this path on September 16th. On the same day, Iran, Russia and Turkey announced the constitution of the "Syrian Constitutional Commission" [4 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html#nb4)], and Venezuela announced the opening of a "Dialogue Table" bringing together representatives of the Government and the patriotic opposition [5 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html#nb5)]. This replaces the negotiations that the constitutional government had conducted in Barbados, in the presence of Norwegian mediators, with the representatives of the self-proclaimed President, Juan Guaidó; negotiations that he had already declared "exhausted" and that he himself had left. Identically, the Syrian Constitutional Commission has put an end to the negotiations that the government had been conducting for years with the "moderate" jihadists under the auspices of the UN.

In Syria, the principle of the National Union has gradually been imposed since the beginning of the war. In 2014, President Assad managed to organize a presidential election in accordance with international standards of democratic regimes. But this is a novelty in Venezuela where all are not yet convinced. A previous attempt at union, initiated by Pope Francis, had failed. This time, in a few hours, the negotiators managed to agree on almost everything claimed by Juan Guaidó, but he refused to act. The Chávists have ceased to practice the empty chair in the National Assembly; the Electoral Commission is undergoing reform; the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, who was detained, has been released; etc.

This considerable advance was made public during the absence of the US National Security Adviser. The replacement of John Bolton by Robert O’Brien favors a new conversation in Washington. The two men have the same ideological references, "American exceptionalism", but opposite styles: the first threatened the whole Earth with war, the second is a professional negotiator.

The European Union and the Lima Group, who do not have the pragmatism of President Trump, condemn these advances because supporters of terrorism are excluded: the "moderate" jihadists and Juan Guaidó’s Guarimberos.

Thierry Meyssan (https://www.voltairenet.org/auteur29.html?lang=en)

Translation Roger Lagassé (https://www.voltairenet.org/auteur125483.html?lang=en)

References:
[1 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html#nh1)] The Pentagon’s New Map, Thomas P. M. Barnett, Putnam Publishing Group, 2004. “The US military project for the world (https://www.voltairenet.org/article197541.html)”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 22 August 2017.

[2 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html#nh2)] “Assad and Chávez call for the creation of a Free Allied Movement (https://www.voltairenet.org/article166122.html)”, Voltaire Network, 29 June 2010.

[3 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html#nh3)] Proyecto Nacional Simón Bolívar. Primer Plan Socialista (PPS) del Desarrollo Económico y Social de la Nación (2007/2013), Presidencia de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela.

[4 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html#nh4)] “Joint Statement by Iran, Russia and Turkey on the International Meeting on Syria (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207651.html)”, Voltaire Network, 16 September 2019.

[5 (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207710.html#nh5)] «Venezuela : Mesa Nacional (https://www.voltairenet.org/article207713.html)», Red Voltaire, 26 de septiembre de 2019.