Turmoil in Venezuela [Archive] - Page 3 - The Project Avalon Community Forum

Hervé

26th September 2019, 12:30

US sanctions wreak havoc on Venezuela as Washington plays ‘lifesaver’ with aid dollars (https://www.rt.com/news/469635-us-venezuela-aid-sanctions/)

RT
Published time: 26 Sep, 2019 04:57
Edited time: 26 Sep, 2019 09:16
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/a2df)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.09/xxs/5d8c7eef203027150f212c40.jpg
© Reuters / Nacho Doce

Despite years of devastating US sanctions on Venezuela, White House officials have painted themselves in the role of savior for the country, lavishing favored political operators with millions in aid as average citizens suffer.

Just one day after Washington announced a $52 million aid package for the Venezuelan opposition – pledging “full support” for ‘interim president’ Juan Guaido – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US would devote another $119 million in aid for Latin America to assist those who have fled the crisis in Venezuela. A total of $36 million will be set aside for “life-saving programs” in Venezuela itself, and getting citizens “the help they deserve.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1014454396522934273/w_96hmja_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/SecPompeo) Secretary Pompeo ✔ @SecPompeo
(https://twitter.com/SecPompeo) · 17h (https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1176931248108908544)
Today at #UNGA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/UNGA?src=hash), we announced $119M in aid for lifesaving programs in #Venezuela (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash) & the region, bringing total U.S. assistance for this ongoing crisis to $568M. We stand united w/ the Venezuelan people & remain committed to getting them the help they deserve. #EstamosUnidosVE (https://twitter.com/hashtag/EstamosUnidosVE?src=hash)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFVMutaXkAEmIum?format=jpg&name=360x360
(https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1176931248108908544/photo/1)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFVMuxmWsAcG038?format=jpg&name=360x360 (https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1176931248108908544/photo/1)
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/485435685814300672/dOZBbo0S_normal.jpeg (https://twitter.com/chenweihua) Chen Weihua ✔ @chenweihua
(https://twitter.com/chenweihua)
OMG. You deprived their people access to food and health and now you want to play savior. People are not fooled so easily.

10:06 PM - Sep 25, 2019 (https://twitter.com/chenweihua/status/1176951027330887683)While Pompeo bragged that US spending now totaled around $568 million in the country, he did not attempt to untangle the knot of contradictory American policies imposed on Venezuela – which effectively break the country’s legs, while providing only a flimsy crutch to help it walk again.

‘Helping’ Venezuela starve?
In late July, the US Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions related to Venezuela. Unlike previous penalties, which largely focused on the energy sector and government officials, these targeted the country’s ability to feed itself. The sanctions were imposed on 13 international companies and 10 individuals involved in a food subsidy program known as CLAP, which provided a home-to-home grocery delivery service.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin argued that the program constituted a “corruption network” which used “food as a form of social control,” though he did not explain how destroying the program with sanctions would help Venezuelans to eat.

Weeks later, in early August – soon after President Trump said he was considering (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-trump/trump-says-u-s-blockade-or-quarantine-of-venezuela-under-consideration-idUSKCN1UR5QF) an outright “blockade” on the country – Washington seized (https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Food-Shipment-Destined-For-Venezuela-Seized-Due-to-US-Blockade-20190807-0012.html) a foreign vessel in the Panama Canal carrying a reported 25,000 tons of food aid destined for Venezuela, which Caracas slammed as “serious aggression.”

An analysis (http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/venezuela-sanctions-2019-04.pdf) published in April by economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), moreover, found that American sanctions may have contributed to up to 40,000 excess deaths in Venezuela since 2017. While the economists cautioned that it is difficult to precisely quantify the role of US sanctions in the excess death rate – especially given socialist Venezuela’s pre-existing economic woes – they said the sanctions were “virtually certain” to have made a “substantial contribution” to the grim figure.

Venezuela’s political opposition – to whom many millions in aid have already been disbursed – have also proven to be less-than-honest brokers when it comes to the fate of US funds. In June, officials in opposition leader Guaido’s Popular Will Party were accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands in aid dollars, which they blew on high-end hotels, expensive clothes, alcohol and other luxury items. The US continues to dump millions into the opposition regardless.

While Washington poses as Latin America’s liberator and claims to want nothing less than to end the suffering of the average Venezuelan, US “soft power” policies continue to grind the country’s economy into the dirt and inflict pain on its populace. Some “help.”

Related:

US-backed Venezuela opposition caught embezzling ‘humanitarian aid’ cash (https://www.rt.com/news/462175-guaido-aides-embezzled-aid/)

Top economists & UN experts condemn US sanctions on Venezuela. Not newsworthy enough for the media? (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/458804-media-ignores-venezuela-sanctions/)

US triples regime-change aid to Guaido, doling out $52mn to restore ‘democratic governance’ in Venezuela (https://www.rt.com/news/469561-us-assistance-guaido-millions/)

Hervé

2nd October 2019, 11:53

Maduro and Political Opposition Agreement Ends U.S. Coup Attempt in Venezuela (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/09/maduro-and-political-opposition-agreement-ends-u-s-coup-attempt-in-venezuela/)

By Paul Antonopoulos (https://www.fort-russ.com/author/p-ant/)
On Sep 23, 2019

https://www.fort-russ.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1-19-750x430.jpg

The Venezuelan government and some opposition parties established the National Dialogue Table to reach a resolution to end the political crisis that has gripped Venezuela since neoliberal opposition leader Juan Guaidó unconstitutionally declared himself interim president of the country with U.S.-backing on January 10. The establishment of the National Dialogue Table between the Government and the Advanced Progressive Party by former presidential candidate Henry Falcón, the Movement to Socialism (MAS), the Solutions Movement and the Hope for Change Conservative Party led by evangelist Javier Bertucci, has changed the dynamics of the political crisis in Venezuela, especially since the signatories agreed on two critical points – possible elections and the denouncement of U.S.-led sanctions.

The five signatories agreed that socialist deputies be reinstated to the right-wing dominated National Assembly, along with the formation of a new National Electoral Council (CNE), to work with the Justice system to address the situation of detained politicians, the rejection of U.S. economic sanctions, the defense of Guyana Esequiba territorial dispute, and the roll-out of the oil-for-food exchange program.

This cooperation between the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela led by President Nicolás Maduro and the mostly right-wing opposition will prove to be a devastating blow to Guaidó who was only constructed as a U.S.-backed coup mechanism. With the opposition often disunited, they were always at least loosely united around a common goal of overthrowing the socialist Bolivarian Revolution that began after the ascendency of Hugo Chávez to the Venezuelan presidency in 1999.

The accession of career military officer Chávez to the presidency saw the beginning of what came to be known as ‘the Bolivarian Revolution’. The Chávez-led Bolivarian Revolution emphasized the redistribution of the country’s wealth by increasing the independence of the oil industry from international cartels. Importantly, Venezuela under Chávez became increasingly anti-hegemonic and opposed neo-liberalism and its institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Chávez also pushed for the economic and social integration of Latin America to make the region entirely independent from U.S. corporatist capitalism. This was to be achieved through initiatives like TeleSUR and The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

Venezuela’s new-found sovereignty and majority control of its own oil since Chávez came to power has made it the target of U.S. aggression as the Latin American country threatens the control U.S. hyper capitalism has over the majority of the continent. Maduro replaced Chávez after his death in 2013 and continued the same economic and foreign policy of his predecessor. Because of this, the U.S. continues to employ all methods to stop the continuation of the Bolivarian Revolution.

With photos published last week of Guaidó smiling with two leaders of the dangerous Colombian paramilitary group, The Rastrojos, it is likely this triggered a move by the non-radical elements of the Venezuelan opposition. These images proved to be a turning point for the U.S.-backed opposition leader as not only do the photos show the intimacy Guaidó has with the criminal organization, that for years violated the Venezuelan economy and security on the border with Colombia, but it forced allied parties to be alienated from blatant criminality.

Los Rastrojos began in 2006 as a private army of drug trafficker and by 2009 had become, according to experts, the largest drug and terrorism criminal organization in Colombia. The narcoparamilitary group has a strong history of murder, drug trafficking and extortion. It certainly does raise questions against Guaidó, especially as he has openly called for a coup against Maduro and for foreign military intervention.

Therefore, Guaidó is just the latest extension of Washington’s attempts to stop the Bolivarian Revolution. However, with continued support from China and Russia, it can be argued that Venezuela would have collapsed under U.S. economic pressure. With Washington deeming Latin America to be “its backyard,” the increasing economic and military ties that Russia and China have with Venezuela has made the removal of Maduro all the more critical for the U.S.

The emergence of the multipolar world with the rise of Russia and China brings an end to U.S. unilateralism. This means that the two Eurasian powers can challenge Washington in its “own backyard.” However, as Guaidó has failed to topple Maduro through political and economic means on behalf of the U.S., and the latest revelations that he is connected to criminal organizations, among many other controversies including the embezzlement of funds, it is likely that the separation of these opposition parties signifies the beginning of the end of the latest bout of U.S. aggression against Venezuela that has persisted since January.

As the U.S. has failed to remove Maduro, Venezuela’s military ties and arms deals are only increasing with Russia and China. This suggests that the U.S. no longer has control of its so-called “backyard” as states are now capable of making independent decisions based on their states interests because of the rise of the multipolar world order. Therefore, this agreement between Maduro and the opposition can be seen as the beginning of the end of the U.S. dominance over Latin America.

Source: InfoBrics (http://infobrics.org/post/29377/)

Hervé

29th October 2019, 13:18

Political persecution: Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal arrested months after reporting on Venezuelan opposition violence (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/28/this-charge-is-one-hundred-percent-false-grayzone-editor-max-blumenthal-arrested-months-after-reporting-on-venezuelan-opposition-violence/#more-15963)

By Ben Norton The Grayzone (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/28/this-charge-is-one-hundred-percent-false-grayzone-editor-max-blumenthal-arrested-months-after-reporting-on-venezuelan-opposition-violence/#more-15963)
Mon, 28 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s27/543354/large/maxresdefault.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s27/543354/full/maxresdefault.jpg)
The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal has been arrested on false charges after reporting on Venezuelan opposition violence outside the DC embassy. He describes the manufactured case as part of a wider campaign of political persecution.

Max Blumenthal, the editor of the news site The Grayzone, was arrested on the morning of October 25 on a fabricated charge related to the siege of the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, DC that took place between April and May.

A team of DC police officers appeared at Blumenthal's door at just after 9 AM, demanding entry and threatening to break his door down. A number of officers had taken positions on the side of his home as though they were prepared for a SWAT-style raid.

Blumenthal was hauled into a police van and ultimately taken to DC central jail, where he was held for two days in various cells and cages. He was shackled by his hands and ankles for over five hours in one such cage along with other inmates. His request for a phone call was denied by DC police and corrections officers, effectively denying him access to the outside world.

Blumenthal was informed that he was accused of simple assault by a Venezuelan opposition member. He declared the charge completely baseless.

"This charge is a 100 percent false, fabricated, bogus, untrue, and malicious lie," Blumenthal declared. "It is clearly part of a campaign of political persecution designed to silence me and the The Grayzone for our factual journalism exposing the deceptions, corruption and violence of the far-right Venezuelan opposition."

The arrest warrant was five months old. According to an individual familiar with the case, the warrant for Blumenthal's arrest was initially rejected. Strangely, this false charge was revived months later without the defendant's knowledge.

"If the government had at least told me I had a warrant I could have voluntarily surrendered and appeared at my own arraignment. I have nothing to fear because I'm completely innocent of this bogus charge," Blumenthal stated. "Instead, the federal government essentially enlisted the DC police to SWAT me, ensuring that I would be subjected to an early morning raid and then languish in prison for days without even the ability to call an attorney."

Background to the embassy siege
In April and May, Washington-backed Venezuelan coup leaders began taking over properties in the United States that belong to the internationally recognized government of Venezuela's democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/06/interview-venezuelan-president-nicolas-maduro/), in violation of international law.

A group of activists responded by keeping a vigil inside the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, DC, in order to protect it from an illegal seizure by the US-supported coup leaders. The activists formed what they called the Embassy Protection Collective. The internationally recognized Venezuelan government gave them permission to stay in its embassy, which is its own sovereign territory under international law.

In response, hordes of violent right-wing activists who support the Venezuelan opposition launched a de facto 24/7 siege of the embassy, preventing people, food, and supplies from entering the building.

The Grayzone reporter Anya Parampil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPEbRYtN18A) and Alex Rubinstein, a contributor to The Grayzone, were embedded in the embassy (https://www.mintpressnews.com/mintpress-grazyone-journalists-endure-us-govt-blackout-and-siege-at-venezuelan-embassy-in-dc/258347/) with several peace activists.

Parampil and journalists including Blumenthal documented the right-wing mobs lashing out with racist and sexist invective as well as violence at Venezuelan solidarity activists who gathered outside the embassy to show support for the protectors.

1126029731260981248
'This ginned up claim... is simply false'
Court documents indicate the false charge of simple assault stems from Blumenthal's participation in a delivery of food and sanitary supplies to peace activists and journalists inside the Venezuelan embassy on May 8, 2019.

The charge was manufactured by a Venezuelan opposition member who was among those laying siege to the embassy in a sustained bid to starve out the activists inside.

"I was not party to any violent actions around the Venezuelan embassy," Blumenthal reiterated. "This ginned up claim of simple assault is simply false."

According to court documents, Ben Rubinstein, the brother of journalist Alex Rubinstein, also participated in the non-violent and legal food delivery. Rubinstein was arrested over 12 hours later after the food delivery by Secret Service police officers.

He spent 20 hours in jail, alongside Gerry Condon, president of Veterans for Peace, who was arrested after being brutalized (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMzZHzcaTZ4) by Secret Service officers for attempting to toss a cucumber inside an embassy window.

"The opposition members made up these lies about Max and I know they're lying, and they are obviously using the government and police as tools to get revenge," Ben Rubinstein told The Grayzone.

Retaliation for The Grayzone's reporting on the violent Venezuelan opposition
Max Blumenthal reported extensively from outside the Venezuelan embassy in May. He filed a story (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/05/02/guaido-vecchio-failure-coup/) explaining how "the pro-coup mob outside turned violent, physically assaulting embassy protectors, and hurling racist, sexist and homophobic abuse at others."

Blumenthal documented an opposition activist breaking into and subsequently vandalizing the embassy, in violation of international law. He also reported on opposition members destroying the embassy's security cameras, while the authorities stood idly by.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1175140350907887618/w_kuq571_bigger.jpg Max Blumenthal‏Verified account @MaxBlumenthal (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal)

Max Blumenthal Retweeted Peter Bolton

To the left of the fascist is “Mohamed,” the right-wing vigilante who broke into the embassy two days ago and ransacked an entire room: https://twitter.com/realalexrubi/status/1123536909870010368?s=21 … (https://t.co/eIEjlKj4M7) @DCPoliceDept (https://twitter.com/DCPoliceDept) has taken no action beyond aiding and abetting this squalid mob

Max Blumenthal added,

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1124025449586331648/pu/img/v82h_8rvYgg0KT-m.jpg 0:08

Peter Bolton @PeterRBolton
Today outside the Venezuelan Embassy I witnessed a pro-coup demonstrator call a female Code Pink member a "****ing little bitch". #HandsOffVenezuela #Codepink #VenezuelanEmbassy #embassyprotectioncollective

12:02 PM - 3 May 2019
The Venezuelan coup regime's supposed ambassador to the United States, Carlos Vecchio, who is not recognized by the United Nations and the vast majority of the international community, helped to lead this aggressive mob as it besieged the embassy.

The Grayzone's Anya Parampil exposed Vecchio to be a former lawyer for the oil corporation Exxon (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/18/exxon-ambassador-carlos-vecchio-venezuela-coup-lobbyist/). The Grayzone has documented his close links to the US government, and has reported at length on accusations of corruption (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/29/venezuelan-opposition-corruption-citgo-crystallex/). Vecchio was a regular presence outside the DC embassy, appearing with his gaggle to stage manage the situation.

The Grayzone has also published numerous exposés on Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaidó (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/), who was selected by the US government to be the so-called "interim president" in Caracas, detailing his extensive ties to Washington and his notorious corruption.

Blumenthal was arrested literally hours after The Grayzone published an article on USAID paying the salaries of Guaidó's team (https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/24/usaid-funds-salaries-of-venezuelan-coup-leaders-to-lobby-us-politicians-for-regime-change/) as they lobbied the US government.

"I am firmly convinced that this case is part of a wider campaign of political persecution using the legal system to shut down our factual investigative journalism about the coup against Venezuela and the wider policy of economic warfare and regime change waged by the Trump administration," Blumenthal stated.

If this had happened to a journalist in Venezuela, every Western human rights NGO and news wire would be howling about Maduro's authoritarianism. It will be revealing to see how these same elements react to a clear-cut case of political repression in their own backyard.
Ben Norton is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. He is the assistant editor of The Grayzone, and the producer of the Moderate Rebels (http://moderaterebelsradio.com) podcast, which he co-hosts with editor Max Blumenthal. His website is BenNorton.com (http://BenNorton.com) and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton (https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton).

Tintin

29th October 2019, 14:32

Bill Ryan

14th December 2019, 16:31

From https://nbcnews.com/news/latino/venezuela-will-be-world-s-worst-refugee-crisis-2020-most-n1099631

Venezuela will be world's worst refugee crisis in 2020 — and most underfunded in modern history

11 Dec, 2019

The international community spent $7.4 billion on refugee efforts in the first 4 years of the Syrian crisis versus $580 million for Venezuelan refugees.

https://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2018_42/2604766/181015-venezuela-migrants-al-1002_22590844aab06205297116221019c7d9.fit-760w.jpg
Venezuelans carry their belongings along a pathway after illegally entering Colombia through the Tachira river close to the Simon Bolivar International bridge in Villa del Rosario, Colombia on Aug. 25, 2018

The Venezuelan refugee crisis is the most underfunded in modern history, according to an analysis from the Brookings Institution (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/12/09/venezuela-refugee-crisis-to-become-the-largest-and-most-underfunded-in-modern-history/?utm_campaign=Brookings%20Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=80597832) published this week.

About 4.7 million Venezuelans (https://r4v.info/es/situations/platform), 16 percent of the country's population, have fled Venezuela since its economy suffered a 65 percent contraction in 2013, the largest (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/world/americas/venezuela-economy.html)outside of war in 45 years.

Venezuela is second only to Syria i (https://hipgive.org/lp/venezuelansmovingfwd/)n terms of how many displaced people are living outside their country of origin. But estimates from the United Nations Refugee Agency show that if current trends continue, there could be as many as 6.5 million (https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2019/11/5dcbd7284/us135-billion-needed-help-venezuelan-refugees-migrants-host-countries.html) Venezuelans living outside of their country by 2020, far outpacing the speed of displacement seen in Syria (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/12/09/venezuela-refugee-crisis-to-become-the-largest-and-most-underfunded-in-modern-history/?utm_campaign=Brookings%20Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=80597832) with 6.7 million Syrians being pushed out of their birth nation.

And yet funding to aid this crisis affecting millions of Venezuelans and at least 17 host nations — the three largest being Colombia, Ecuador and Peru — has really been lagging.

The international community spent $7.4 billion on refugee response efforts in the first four years of the Syrian crisis. But the international community has only spent $580 million four years into the Venezuelan refugee crisis, according to Brookings. On a per capita basis, the international community has spent $1,500 to help each Syrian refugee and $125 per Venezuelan refugee.

Brookings experts said the international community has been able to get away with this by labeling the escalating catastrophe as a regional crisis instead of a global one, arguing that the Venezuelan economic collapse was not triggered by external forces or internal unrest and instead "was manufactured by those in power, and thus, was totally avoidable (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/12/09/venezuela-refugee-crisis-to-become-the-largest-and-most-underfunded-in-modern-history/?utm_campaign=Brookings%20Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=80597832)."

At the same time, organizations such as Hispanics in Philanthropy have been working on crowdfunding initiatives to help Venezuelan refugees worldwide (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-philanthropic-group-spotlights-forgotten-venezuelan-refugee-crisis-n1047496) while sounding the alarm over the crisis.

Countries like the U.S. have hesitated to label the Venezuelan refugee crisis a global one "because it is not directly impacting the U.S. yet," Nancy Santiago Negrón, vice president of strategic partnerships and communications at Hispanics in Philanthropy, (https://hiponline.org/) told NBC News.

But that might quickly change since it is almost certain the number of Venezuelan refugees worldwide will reach 5 million next month, said Santiago Negrón.

Venezuela already surpassed China in becoming the No. 1 country of origin for those claiming asylum in the U.S., with nearly 30,000 Venezuelans (https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R45539.pdf) applying for asylum with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2018.

Nearly one-third (https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Outreach/Notes%20from%20Previous%20Engagements/PED_AffirmativeAsylumStatisticsMar2019.pdf) of all claims filed at USCIS come from Venezuelans, the most of any country by far, according to recent numbers (https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Outreach/Notes%20from%20Previous%20Engagements/PED_AffirmativeAsylumStatisticsJan2019.pdf).

Funding is crucial not only for immediate humanitarian needs but also to create successful refugee integration efforts in host communities. International financing can help strengthen local infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools, roads and electricity as well as expand access to credit for local firms to help offset possible short-term negative labor market effects caused by the sudden labor supply inflow.

But analysts worry that lack of international funding to support host nations' integration efforts may soon backfire on a bigger scale. Countries such as Ecuador, Peru and Chile have already imposed barriers to entry for Venezuelans, which could cause the refugee crisis to spread to other regions.

Santiago Negrón said they are already seeing countries like Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago struggling to grapple with the growing crisis (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/trinidad-criticized-lack-action-venezuelan-migrants-flee-island-nation-n1028246).

Colombia, the largest Venezuelan hosting nation, launched over $230 million in credit lines (https://www.diariolasamericas.com/america-latina/duque-anuncia-plan-inversion-229-millones-la-frontera-venezuela-n4175520) for infrastructure and private investment in areas with high refugee density.

The World Bank (https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2019/04/12/us315-million-to-help-improve-services-for-migrants-from-venezuela-and-host-communities-in-colombia) and the Inter-American Development Bank (https://www.iadb.org/en/news/idb-approves-grant-funds-countries-receiving-migrants-latin-america-and-caribbean) have opened up financing to host governments to help support the additional strain on public works.

But given the scale of the Venezuelan displacement, these efforts may still fall short, meaning much more funding will be required to mitigate the crisis on a global scale.

"We know a lot of people and companies ready to help or intervene, but the challenge has been that people view this as a humanitarian crisis wrapped up in a political crisis," said Santiago Negrón. "We know people want to help human beings, but they don't necessarily want to get caught up in the politics."

perolator

22nd December 2019, 00:06

[LEFT]
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 figure is accurate. But there is a big omission. Total refugees accounted by UNHCR is a completely different number than venezuelan emigrants, we (emigrants) are several millions and increasing. Most of venezuelan emigrants (to the rest of South America) are leaving without the needed documentation to apply for asylum or refuge. Most of them are walking hundreds or even thousands of miles to arrive to Colombia, Ecuador and Perú.

Bill Ryan

7th January 2020, 22:36

In Venezuela, turmoil continues. From https://bbc.com/news/51018928, today:

Venezuela's Guaidó forces his way into assembly after stand-off

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/720x405/p07zmh8g.jpg

There have been chaotic scenes at Venezuela's National Assembly, with opposition leader Juan Guaidó gaining access to the legislative building after a tense stand-off with police.

National Guards in riot gear had formed a cordon around the building, but Mr Guaidó and another 100 opposition lawmakers broke through it.

The move comes two days after Mr Guaidó was prevented from attending a vote to re-elect him as Speaker.

He called it a "parliamentary coup".

'The people rule'

On Tuesday Mr Guaidó arrived at the National Assembly building in a convoy of cars and busses carrying 100 lawmakers who back his re-election as Speaker.

They were let through a number of checkpoints but not through the cordon of riot police surrounding the building. A tense stand-off ensued.

About 30 minutes, amid shouts of "this is not a military barracks" and "the people rule, not the military", Mr Guaidó and his supporters pushed their way past the guards.

Mr Guaidó tweeted footage of the moment they forced their way into the building.

Their arrival prompted pro-government lawmakers to leave.

Mr Guaidó sat down in the Speaker's chair. He and his supporters sang the national anthem before he was sworn in as Speaker.

A power cut forced them to use the flashlights on their mobile phones.

How did it come to this?

The melee follows similar scenes on Sunday when Mr Guaidó and a number of opposition lawmakers were successfully barred from entering the building.

In his absence, dissident opposition lawmaker Luis Parra was elected Speaker. But National Assembly members backing Mr Guaidó held a rival vote outside the chamber, re-electing him as Speaker.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/C9EB/production/_110419615_untitled-7.jpg
Luis Parra (left) and Juan Guaidó both claim to be the Speaker of the National Assembly

Why does it matter who's Speaker?

Under the Venezuelan constitution, lawmakers elect a Speaker for a one-year term on 5 January.

Opposition politician Juan Guaidó was elected to the post last year. A couple of weeks later, he jumped into the international limelight when he declared himself interim president of Venezuela.

Mr Guaidó argued that because the 2018 presidential election that returned President Nicolás Maduro to power had been widely been denounced as rigged, the presidency was vacant.

He invoked a paragraph in the constitution which states that in such cases, the National Assembly Speaker should take over power.

More than 50 countries recognised him as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. However, Mr Maduro, who enjoys the support of the Venezuelan military, has remained in power.

Mr Maduro's government and the opposition-controlled National Assembly have been at loggerheads for years. But as Mr Guaidó's claim to the interim presidency rests on his position as Speaker, this election took on a much greater significance than in previous years.

Opposition politicians accused the government of offering lawmakers financial incentives to vote against him - an allegation the presidency has denied.

What was the outcome?

Ahead of the vote, Mr Guaidó said he was confident of having enough support to be re-elected. But on Sunday he and other lawmakers were prevented from entering the National Assembly by the National Guard.

Footage showed Mr Guaidó attempting to jump the railing surrounding the building and being pushed back by police with shields.

Meanwhile, inside the chamber, there were chaotic scenes as government supporters clamoured for the election to go ahead regardless.

Eventually, an election was held despite the fact that there were not enough lawmakers for a quorum.

Luis Parra, a former ally of Mr Guaidó who was expelled from the Justice First opposition party over corruption allegations, was chosen as Speaker by pro-government lawmakers and a number of dissident opposition politicians in a show of hands.

Mr Guaidó argued that the election was illegitimate and convened opposition lawmakers to a vote at the headquarters of a newspaper. Their tally said 100 of the National Assembly's 167 legislators backed him.

The US, the European Union, Brazil, Canada, Colombia and many other Latin American countries welcomed Mr Guaidó's re-election and condemned the actions of the National Guard. Russia, a firm ally of President Maduro, took the opposite stance, calling Mr Parra's election "democratic".

Other BBC links:

Venezuela crisis in 300 words (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-48121148)
What's behind Venezuela's political crisis? (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36319877)

Dennis Leahy

27th March 2020, 00:48

So, what's really going on in Venezuela right now, as the phony Christian come Zionist, Trump, continues the war against Venezuelan citizens in the name of the American people, during their struggle with the US-made bioweapon covid-19?

"These sanctions have impoverished millions of Venezuelans and negatively impact vital infrastructure, such as electricity generation. Venezuela is impeded from importing spare parts for its power plants and the resulting blackouts interrupt water services that rely on electric pumps. These, along with dozens of other implications from the hybrid war on Venezuela (https://www.codepink.org/maximum_pressure_march_us_hybrid_war_on_venezuela_heats_up), have caused a decline in health indicators across the board, leading to 100,000 deaths (https://www.codepink.org/venezuela_asks_global_court_to_condemn_us_sanctions) as a consequence of the sanctions."
Read the full article, here: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/03/25/venezuelas-coronavirus-response-might-surprise-you

Dennis Leahy

28th March 2020, 05:59

https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Maduro-bounty.png?resize=522%2C445&ssl=1
Venezuela March 27, 2020
Trump admin’s $15 million bounty on Maduro triggers explosive confession of violent Guaidó plot
(https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/27/trump-bounty-maduro-guaido-plot/)
The Trump administration’s deception-laden indictment of President Nicolas Maduro and members of his inner circle has badly backfired, resulting in the exposure of a violent assassination plan that could lead to the arrest of coup leader Juan Guaidó.By Leonardo Flores

"For twenty years, right wing extremists in Miami and Washington have been slandering the Venezuelan government, accusing it of drug trafficking and harboring terrorists without offering even a shred of evidence (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14509).
The item at the top of their wishlist was fulfilled on March 26, when the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled indictments against President Nicolás Maduro and 13 other current or former members of Venezuela’s government and military.
In addition to the indictments, Attorney General William Barr offered a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Maduro, as well as $10 million rewards for Diosdado Cabello (president of Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly), Tarek El Aissami (vice president for the economy), Hugo Carvajal (former director of military intelligence) and Cliver Alcalá (retired general).
"
Read more here: https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/27/trump-bounty-maduro-guaido-plot/

My comments:
So, what's actually happening during the coronavirus, you know, in the background, where the people aren't supposed to be noticing? Donald Trump is busy orchestrating the takeover of Venezuela. Maduro's actual crime? Maintaining and putting forth some socialist programs and daring to call it "socialism", out loud. Maduro's predecessor (who was probably killed by the USA, INC.) had nationalized the Venezuelan oil industry - the biggest blob of oil on the planet.

If your mind can envision the agenda of the elite, the one thing they can not tolerate is the concept of sharing (socialism), because sharing is the antithesis of the goal of the top tier of the elite, the Global Mafia. Think about it, they have a war on sharing. First they went after and destroyed anyone who they accused of "communism" (a form of sharing), then went after and destroyed anyone that adopted any socialist (a form of sharing) policy. Any nation on Earth that shows an example of socialism gets squashed by the USA, INC.

Smedley Butler made it extremely clear that he destroyed Central American nations for corporations. When the people revolted against the corporations and took back their land - land that some giant foreign (often American or Americentric-multinational) corporation claimed - the people temporarily had control over their own land and shared it. And then the USA, INC. came in and squashed them like a bug - bullets, bombs, and even napalm for daring to take back their own land, sharing it, and daring to call it socialism. The USA, INC.-commanded military is the muscle of the elite, the Global Mafia. That's why president after president has the same targets, the same hit list. You can pretend that your favorite president doesn't cling tightly to the script that the elite write, but you're going to look pretty silly making that argument if you observe reality.

The elites hate sharing.

The elites won't tolerate sharing.

Sophocles

5th April 2020, 14:55

First... US indicts Venezuela’s Maduro on narcoterrorism charges (https://apnews.com/d82797206561db03851e47df125c243f)

Then... Trump: US to deploy anti-drug Navy ships near Venezuela (https://apnews.com/d4c51884ba3ac6a4311b6f548434f958)

And now... Why Trump sent troops to Latin America (https://vz.ru/world/2020/4/3/1032290.html):

The southern command of the US armed forces began a military operation in the Latin American region. Warships and planes were sent there allegedly because of drug cartels, on which Trump wants to inflict a "decisive blow." But at the same time, the United States brought charges of drug trafficking against President Nicolas Maduro. Does all this mean that the Pentagon is embarking on an invasion of Venezuela?

The US Armed Forces operation in the Caribbean involves dozens of warships and aircraft ranging from reconnaissance aircraft and helicopters to drones. The declared goal of the Americans is the base and infrastructure of drug cartels.

[Google translate Russian - English]

and... Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration Blasts US Moves (https://www.telesurenglish.net/opinion/Caribbean-Movement-for-Peace-and-Integration-Blasts-US-Moves-20200404-0009.html)

In a statement by its General Secretary David Denny, the organization blasted the continuous and escalating aggressions by the Trump administration towards Venezuela.

Kind of makes you wonder what's next.

Lunesoleil

18th November 2020, 22:53

If your mind can envision the agenda of the elite, the one thing they can not tolerate is the concept of sharing (socialism), because sharing is the antithesis of the goal of the top tier of the elite, the Global Mafia. Think about it, they have a war on sharing. First they went after and destroyed anyone who they accused of "communism" (a form of sharing), then went after and destroyed anyone that adopted any socialist (a form of sharing) policy. Any nation on Earth that shows an example of socialism gets squashed by the USA, INC.

The elites hate sharing.

The elites won't tolerate sharing.

Venezuela: Letter from Nicolas Maduro to the peoples of the world

Caracas, October 2, 2020

To the Peoples of the World

My brothers and sisters:

Greeting you with affection, I allow myself to address you on the occasion to inform you of recent actions by Venezuela to face and overcome the illegal blockade that the United States government has imposed on my country for almost twenty years. years, and particularly in the last five years, causing serious effects on the Venezuelan economy, with a negative impact on the well-being of the population.

In this sense, I would like to inform you of the approval of a very special legislative instrument, called “Anti-blockade law for national development and guarantee of the rights of the Venezuelan people”, focused on the defense of heritage, sovereignty and dignity of our country, as well as the right of our people to peace, development and well-being.

It is a necessary legal response from the Venezuelan state, in perfect harmony with international law, which will allow the creation of mechanisms to improve the income of the nation and generate rational and adequate incentives, under flexible controls, to stimulate the internal economic activity and the celebration of productive alliances through foreign investments, which promote national development.

On the other hand, in the political sphere, I have the honor to reaffirm that in the face of the external aggression posed by the unilateral coercive measures of the United States against Venezuela, our objective is, and always will be, to strengthen and deepen our democracy.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, preparations for the legislative elections of December 6 are advancing at a good pace, where the population will turn out en masse to comply with the constitutional mandate to elect a new national parliament.

In this election, the conditions of which have been agreed with large sectors of the democratic opposition in my country, more than 900/0 of the political organizations registered with the National Electoral Council will participate, for a total of 107 political parties - including 98 from the opposition - and more than 14,000 candidates, who are vying for the 277 parliamentary seats.

The result of this electoral competition will undoubtedly give greater strength to our nation and our people, who have resisted foreign aggression with dignity and firmness and, despite everything, maintain their spirit of love and solidarity.

Dear comrades, once I have updated you on these two elements of the real situation in Venezuela, allow me to share with you some information of interest to broaden your field of knowledge on the general framework which explains the current reality. from my country.

Since 2014, the United States has enacted a law and seven executive orders or decrees, in addition to 300 administrative measures, which together constitute a sophisticated policy of multifaceted aggression against Venezuela.

In five years, the blockade succeeded in cutting funding to Venezuela, preventing it from having the necessary foreign exchange to buy food, medicine, spare parts and raw materials essential to economic activity. During this period, Venezuela experienced the largest drop in its foreign income in its history, close to 99%.

The United States has decreed a ban on the marketing of Venezuelan hydrocarbons, its main export product, and tax revenues. In this context, since the start of the pandemic due to the new coronavirus, on several occasions the United States has publicly boasted of storming ships that bring to Venezuela the products necessary for the production of gasoline and supplying the internal market with fuels, further aggravating the economic situation.

Citing this illegal regulation, the United States confiscated money and assets from PDVSA, the Venezuelan national oil company, including several refineries that are on American soil, worth more than $ 40 billion.

These legal instruments are the mechanism for enforcing a cruel blockade against the Venezuelan people, which Alfred de Zayas, an independent United Nations expert on human rights, unequivocally describes as a "crime against humanity".

In this sense, in an investigation by the United States Center for Economic Policy Studies on the blockade of Venezuela, the American economist Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the United Nations on the sustainable development goals, has determined that the blockade against Venezuela is responsible for at least 40,000 deaths in my country, the sanctions of which should be considered as a "collective punishment against the Venezuelan people".

In a startling official statement, in January 2018, the US State Department admitted its illegal intentions:

“The pressure campaign against Venezuela is working. The financial sanctions we imposed have forced the government to start defaulting, both on sovereign debt and on the debt of PDVSA, its oil company. And what we are seeing (.. is a total economic collapse in Venezuela. So our policy is working, our strategy is working and we will stick to it. "

It is the confession of an international crime, an act of economic savagery, a crime against humanity, with the sole purpose of harming my country and the people of Venezuela.

The illegal application of unilateral coercive measures, euphemistically called “sanctions”, is a policy repeatedly rejected by the United Nations General Assembly, contrary to international law and in violation of the United Nations Charter.

For all of the above, on February 13, Venezuela addressed the International Criminal Court to denounce those who, from the United States, have committed these heinous crimes against humanity. I am convinced that sooner or later international justice will examine Venezuela objectively and see the tremendous damage the United States has done to a peaceful, loving and hardworking people.

While thanking you for your attention to reviewing the content of this letter, which I hope has been helpful in keeping you properly informed about the real situation in Venezuela, I take this opportunity to thank you for your permanent solidarity with Venezuela. Together we will win!

Regards,

Nicolas Maduro Moros

http://bolivarinfos.over-blog.com/2020/10/lettre-de-nicolas-maduro-aux-peuples-du-monde.html

Journalist specializing in Venezuela
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fvenezuelainfos.wordpress.com%2F&sandbox=1
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.romainmigus.info%2F

I would like to know your position in relation to Venezuela, thank you
In France, many French people support Venezuela, as well as Jean Luc Melenchon deputy of rebellious France
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmelenchon.fr%2F2019%2F02%2F26%2Fla-paix-en-europe-commence-au-venezuela%2F

:Avalon:

perolator

8th October 2021, 21:14

Curious how somebody can echo the loony dictator's words as face value for the situation in Venezuela.

Mashika

9th October 2021, 05:19

Curious how somebody can echo the loony dictator's words as face value for the situation in Venezuela.

What is your view of Juan Guaido? Everyone in the Venezuelan opposition abandoned the guy, almost avoid him like the plague? Even the EU and the ONU, the US and others are moving forward and pretending they never supported him

There is also news all day long about how many billions of dollars Venezuela lost, through sanctions that caused terrible harm, that were designed and implemented by that guy (Juan Guaido) and his partners in the interim government

Do you think Venezuela would be better if he had not caused the country to lose billions over the years, just so he could justify his path to power? It is very much by now an accepted fact that he did it for power, and not for the good of the people.
That's why everyone is avoiding working with him in any way, it's going down hill day by day

So, given all the evidence the world has right now. What is your view on Juan Guaido?

Mashika

11th October 2021, 01:47

The acid test is the oil

The oil is just part of the problem. It is far from the big picture.

We are at the fork in the road.

Venezuela’s future is bright in any case, things have to get better

In scenario A the local politicians sell out to international oil interests, and the big boys reap most of the financial gains for themselves. These interests do throw a bone to the locals to keep up the impression of benefit.

In any case, It is not just the oil.

It is the gold uncontrolled extraction (causing criminal ecological damage) and smuggling.
The illegal drug machine (full fledged worldwide distribution).
International Terrorist (Hezbollah) training camps and safe zone.
Colombian guerrilla safe zone.
Diamonds, Coltan, Aluminium, Iron, Bauxite.
Iranian trade, circumventing U.S. sanctions.
Uranium distribution to Iran.

Venezuelans want a stable country, a safe country with a strong economy. That's it. If it means "being given a bone" it's okay.

Under scenario B which the Chavistas are holding out for, a publicly owned oil industry provides the financial benefits to the people via the government. This is how it is in Norway. This is the correct and just solution. This is the scenario that international capital and their US government. Stooges seek to avoid at all costs.

It is so hard to understand chavistas are ruthless criminals with no idea whatsoever how to run a country? They have 20 years with all the power at their disposal. They got enough money to fund 20 Marshall plans and despite that fact they ruined the country. The Norwegian government is no point of comparison to the Venezuelan government. Is like comparing an elephant to an ant.

Big claims, but no proof, can you provide proof, in terms of legal arrangement papers, some link, or anything at all that substantiate your claims?

They have 20 years with all the power at their disposal.

20 Years for sure, working around sanctions, limitations and plenty of sabotage from within from bad actors that don't want anything but to gain power. Evidence is mounting so bad around it that i can't believe people in general has not realised it yet

Words are meaningless, and forgettable. Didn't you know? Facts matter

perolator

20th November 2021, 11:19

Mashika

20th November 2021, 11:48

Hello Mashika,

Thank you for reading some of my posts.
All the information you want is out there. If you read my posts since the very first one, you’ll know I tried to substantiate my claims with more information and historical figures.
No proof? Use YouTube and search for “Situación en Venezuela” and you may pick among thousands of videos.
Sanctions?
How come venezuelan politicians are able to import anything, including luxury cars and goods, in a country with “sanctions”?
I am sick of providing proof. You want it, you search for it.

I lived for 50 years in Venezuela. And you? Have you been there?
Regarding Guaido… He was “the last hope” and resulted “the big fiasco”. There is no opposition in Venezuela. There are “the ruling class” and “the exploited”.

Billions of dollars were spoiled by the Galactic Emperor known as Chavez and his successor The Loony Dictator.
Guaidó spent chump change. Pennies, compared to the others.

But you have not provided real proof, youtube videos are proof of nothing, show us the documents :)

There is a very clear difference between pushing a narrative through videos and talking heads, and showing the proof with actual, hard to deny facts. Such as documents.

Here's a way, for example, if the Venezuelan government is able to import expensive, luxury cars from other countries, there is a paper trail, which country are they importing them from? Are those companies selling very expensive cars to Venezuela, going against the US sanctions? Show us the proof of that. If you make a statement like that, surely you have seen the documents yourself?

Maybe you consider you are 'tired of showing proof' but youtube videos are not proof. Have you considered you are tired of giving 'explanations'? And 'proof' does not equal 'explanations', by the way

You are making a giant mistake here, confusing real intent with public speak, confusing an agenda and narrative with a economical plan

For me, it's very simple to see, since i'm watching from the outside. Anyway look at how the EU and even now the US is treating Guiado, they can't get rid of him fast enough :)

I have been in Venezuela before, and i knew people there, i also, as said above, can see things from the outside.

Can you see things from the outside? OR are you living on an enclosed space where everything has an explanation, provided to you free of charge by someone who wants you to be lead and picks the right words every time?

"The fish always thinks the pond is the entire world, it has never seen how small the pond is, from the outside"

You are made to suffer for greater purposes than you can imagine, it's not your government who is to blame for that, it's way above that. You just don't have the higher view, sadly

If you think Maduro is who has caused you pain and misery and all that stuff, then you have, by choice, turned yourself into another brick in the wall.

All governments have issues, that's not the actual current problem with Venezuela, it goes way above that. Discussing the little details "he said this, he did that, this other person said this, and did that" is a waste of time, small talk like that? And which politician is more likeable? That's just noise

perolator

20th November 2021, 12:14

Mashika

20th November 2021, 12:36

Why are you asking me for documentation and proof?
I am an average joe. I am a simple person like anybody else.

How can you expect me to have hard proof on the highly illegal stuff the ruling class do in Venezuela on a daily basis?
I perceived the country going down the drain, day by day, since chavismo took over.
Do you have sensitive information to share with me?
If I don’t have such information, what I posted here is automatically lies and conjectures?

I don’t want to be rude, but this is nonsense, to say the least.

Do you have hard evidence of activities you want to disclose about your country?
If you don’t, that gives me enough arguments to dismiss everything you said?

Staying in Venezuela for some days and knowing people there does not qualify you to be knowledgeable about the country, their people and their customs, much less something complex as country politics.

I posted about things I lived and about things I know. My family, relatives and friends are surviving in a failed country. So please, if you disagree with my posts, at least be respectful and don’t ask me for “documents and hard, undeniable proof”.

Have a nice day.

By this, i can see how you don't understand what's truly happening to your country, family, friends and so on

You are 'tired of showing proof' but once asked about it, now you don't want to go through it in detail? You were played by bad actors all along, but you can't see it, and that's terrible sad

How much are you hurting your own country and family, by not realising you were used to push a narrative? You don't even know why Venezuela is actually being pushed to the limit, what's the interest in forcing it to break down and be destroyed, so that people ask desperately for help? Surely not oil, there is something more critical there that you are not even aware of, a very limited resource.

I do know a lot about my country's issues, but that has nothing to with this conversation. I can see you are attempting to deflect by using emotional means, such as telling me this

I posted about things I lived and about things I know. My family, relatives and friends are surviving in a failed country. So please, if you disagree with my posts, at least be respectful and don’t ask me for “documents and hard, undeniable proof”.

I may be a bully and cruel, but in this instance, you are hurting more your own family, than i could ever, just by running away from the facts

So if you did not had any evidence at all of what you said, then it was 'conjectures' and asumptions, based on youtube videos and narratives that were pushed to you by bad actors.

The easiest way to destroy a country is not by invading it, it's by causing the country's citizens to hate their reality, so they take it down themselves, then you 'help' them rebuild, under specific conditions that tend to favor the nation that is 'helping'

You won't be able to help your family until you understand that if your head doesn't remain cold and you look for facts instead of narratives and self-bias, you are part of the problem. Are you looking for solutions right now? Which one is it? Remove the government and allow an interim one setup by an external country?

Consider this. Who will be in control, once Maduro is removed? The 'Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation', also known as 'School of the Americas'? One of their excellent students? Such as Guaido?

What you feel is not anger towards people like me, what you may be feeling is anger about knowing inside you that this is all wrong, and you can't do much about it, but direct your anger at Maduro, which is exactly how it all was planned for you and your friends/family and other Venezuelans

I don't think, based on your last reply, that we can continue this conversation, as clearly you have been emotionally manipulated so that anything that feels dangerous and exposes the lies you have been told, you feel immediate rejection against.

Good luck and i wish you can all have better lives, but you will have to fight for it, both emotionally and eventually possibly physically, because you don't understand why you are being made to suffer the way you are, but you will some day, or your kids will

Bye now
Don't be another brick in the wall

perolator

20th November 2021, 13:17

By this, i can see how you don't understand what's truly happening to your country, family, friends and so on

All right. Please enlighten me.

You are 'tired of showing proof' but once asked about it, now you don't want to go through it in detail?

You were played by bad actors all along, but you can't see it, and that's terrible sad

How come I have to fullfill a duty of providing information to you? Oh, I understand. Bad actors are misguiding me. I cannot see it. Therefore, I will be more careful in my comments, because maybe I am part of a narrative. And maybe Venezuela is the tropical version of Narnia.

How much are you hurting your own country and family, by not realising you were
used to push a narrative? You don't even know why Venezuela is actually being pushed to the limit, what's the interest in forcing it to break down and be destroyed, so that people ask desperately for help? Surely not oil, there is something more critical there that you are not even aware of, a very limited resource.

Okay. I will not say anything wrong about the Loony Dictator or the (deceased) Galactic Emperor, I prefer to keep my country and family safe.

I do know a lot about my country's issues, but that has nothing to with this conversation. I can see you are attempting to deflect by using emotional means, such as telling me this
I posted about things I lived and about things I know. My family, relatives and friends are surviving in a failed country. So please, if you disagree with my posts, at least be respectful and don’t ask me for “documents and hard, undeniable proof”.

Yes, I am using psyop tactics. You are very smart. Glad you noticed.

I may be a bully and cruel, but in this instance, you are hurting more your own family, than i could ever, just by running away from the facts

So if you did not had any evidence at all of what you said, then it was 'conjectures' and asumptions, based on youtube videos and narratives that were pushed to you by bad actors.

You are right. Thus, you are actually silencing me or at least you are trying to. I have to have "evidence" of all and anything I said, because if I tell you to search in YouTube (a widely used resource in Project Avalon forum, by the way) this resource or narrative is surely pushed to me by bad actors.

The easiest way to destroy a country is not by invading it, it's by causing the country's citizens to hate their reality, so they take it down themselves, then you 'help' them rebuild, under specific conditions that tend to favor the nation that is 'helping'

I will not hate my reality. I never stated I want to destroy my country, the country where I was born and the country where my people lives.

You won't be able to help your family until you understand that if your head doesn't remain cold and you look for facts instead of narratives and self-bias, you are part of the problem. Are you looking for solutions right now? Which one is it? Remove the government and allow an interim one setup by an external country?

I don't have the power to remove any government. By voting in a heavily rigged system? You are joking, right?

Are you looking for solutions for issues relative to your own country? How is the effectiveness of those solutions in the context of the country, taking into account you are a single person with no power to change anything on your own?

Consider this. Who will be in control, once Maduro is removed? The 'Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation', also known as 'School of the Americas'? One of their excellent students? Such as Guaido?

What you feel is not anger towards people like me, what you may be feeling is anger about knowing inside you that this is all wrong, and you can't do much about it, but direct your anger at Maduro, which is exactly how it all was planned for you and your friends/family and other Venezuelans

Which anger? None of the crooks in charge will be removed by anger.
I don’t know who or whom would be in control. I just want things as they were before chavismo or better. 22 years ago, Venezuela still was a democratic country. Civil servants were elected and they worked in 5-year periods. I used to defend Guaido, and I, as a large volume of the people, believed in “the opposition”. I was wrong. Venezuelan politicians are capable of anything. They work for themselves.

I don't think, based on your last reply, that we can continue this conversation, as clearly you have been emotionally manipulated so that anything that feels dangerous and exposes the lies you have been told, you feel immediate rejection against.

Good luck and i wish you can all have better lives, but you will have to fight for it, both emotionally and eventually possibly physically, because you don't understand why you are being made to suffer the way you are, but you will some day, or your kids will

Bye now
Don't be another brick in the wall

Okay. You are right. I am emotionally manipulated, I am a puppet of those beings (bad actors) and I am probably lied to.

I will not be another brick in the wall... I am going to Shine my Crazy Diamond someplace else... But I will continue posting my ramblings here in this thread. Randomly and freely. I have deep respect for all forum members (including you) and for Bill.

Mashika

22nd November 2021, 08:52

Do please continue to post, it gives a very clear view of how things work on Venezuela, at least for some of the people there

But please spend some time looking into this, very deeply

"Purpose and intention"

You know the purpose, the goal you are trying to achieve, and you have repeated lines from the Venezuelan opposition, which are basically lies and push an agenda

You know your purpose, but.. Do you know the intentions of those people above you, the ones telling all about how great the country would be without Maduro or any other who resists getting the country stolen from you all?

"Proposito y la intencion detras del proposito" Tu proposito es liberar Venezuela de un gobierno corrupto y que 'ha destruido al pais'. Cual es la intencion de las personas que te inculcaron esas ideas? Las dos cosas no van de la mano.

In a chess game, are you the sacrificial piece at this point?

These kind of games are long running, you will most likely not be around to see the end game, and probably neither will I, however, fighting for the wrong side, just because they promised things they can't deliver (and never intended to in the first place), is the wrong chess move

While you and your family and friends suffer lack of nice things, Juan Guaido and friends incorporated have luxury lives you have no idea about. And it's paid for by you all. Billions of dollars of your money are in their hands, and they get paid millions just to show up on tv and talk lies. They could not care less about you, that's the truth

The problem is on your end

Dennis Leahy

22nd November 2021, 18:49

hahahahahahahah another "sham election" that the good old USA, Inc. has uncovered. Damn, the USA, Inc. is good at that! And, who should know more about sham elections than the USA, Inc.? Stunning accuracy in determining just which nation had a rigged election, which "dictator" rigged which election, and an amazing 100% track record of unmasking the evil dictator - the evil dictator who is forcing the USA, Inc. to starve the citizens of that country while the CIA does their 'fomenting a coup' thing that they are so very good at.

Venezuela, the USA, Inc. has determined that your election results are not working for their interests. The USA, Inc. therefore throws out your election results, and will determine who will preside over Venezuela.

Oh, why don't the people just lay down and allow the USA, Inc. to select the next American Empire-compliant puppet, er, president? Venezuela is like an inexperienced boxer that doesn't know when to stay down on the canvas. Stop it Venezuela! Stop it! Lay down! Don't try to get up! Submit! It will all be over in, well, ...some of the pain will stop when you stop resisting.

Ya know what Venezuela needs? A big US military base, that's what. Then, the USA, Inc. can help Venezuela to manage all that oil and gold that Venezuelans have had, and the people can go back to being happy peasants.

The USA, Inc., here to serve the world's citizens. The title of the USA, Inc. playbook is "To Serve Man." Trust the USA, Inc. Vaya con dios.

perolator

16th December 2021, 16:49

Hello, Dennis!
Merry Christmas to you too!
:peace:

perolator

16th December 2021, 17:00

Hello Malisa, (or Mashika, I dunno... Hello anyway)

After careful consideration I think you're right:

While you and your family and friends suffer lack of nice things, Juan Guaido and friends incorporated have luxury lives you have no idea about. And it's paid for by you all. Billions of dollars of your money are in their hands, and they get paid millions just to show up on tv and talk lies. They could not care less about you, that's the truth

Guaido and (his Venezuelan government friends) have luxury lives I have no idea about. Chavez died billionaire (in US dollars, BTW), and his followers and family own the country. Monkey see, monkey do.

The problem is ON your end. I do not comment about things I don't know.

Dennis Leahy

17th December 2021, 15:07

Sorry, amigo, I'll comment on anything I want to. Your comments about Venezuela sound like the US Deep State propaganda. You don't want the people of Venezuela to own their own oil (the world's largest reserves), you want the globalist oil corporations to own Venezuelas oil and to restore Venezuela's place as a globalist pirate controlled lapdog state. You may be Venezuelan, but you speak globalist.

Ravenlocke

11th October 2022, 17:30

https://twitter.com/jaccocharite/status/1579851746784215042
1579851746784215042

Ravenlocke

20th December 2022, 21:30

https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/status/1605157837583405057

1605157837583405057

Ravenlocke

20th December 2022, 21:35

https://twitter.com/MintPressNews/status/1604954565064826880

1604954565064826880

https://twitter.com/MintPressNews/status/1604954618605326347

1604954618605326347

https://twitter.com/MintPressNews/status/1604954693288935424

1604954693288935424

esN1qF0aTs8

Ravenlocke

20th December 2022, 21:48

Trudeau's Failed Coup

January 23 marks the third anniversary since Juan Guaidó declared himself president. The Canadian Foreign Policy Institute hosted a discussion about the Liberal's failed bid to replace the elected government of Venezuela.

On January 23, a little-known Venezuelan politician declared himself president during an outdoor rally in Caracas. The US and Canada immediately recognized Juan Guaidó.

Three-years later will the Liberals stop recognizing Guaidó? Lay the Lima Group to rest? Remove their sanctions on Venezuela?

What does Guaidó’s failure mean for US and Canadian influence in the region?

mGYs51dtPjg

Ravenlocke

23rd December 2022, 14:23

https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/status/1606234268849606656

1606234268849606656

Ravenlocke

23rd December 2022, 20:59

https://twitter.com/TheGrayzoneNews/status/1606372124792340480

1606372124792340480

Article here,

https://thegrayzone.com/2022/12/23/saab-principle-diplomatic-immunity/

Ravenlocke

27th December 2022, 20:41

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1606496758623870976

1606496758623870976

Ravenlocke

31st December 2022, 15:59

https://twitter.com/jmcevoy_2/status/1609140582596632577

1609140582596632577

https://twitter.com/jmcevoy_2/status/1609146022017617923

1609146022017617923

Ravenlocke

31st December 2022, 16:03

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1608990992132378624

1608990992132378624

Ravenlocke

31st December 2022, 16:47

https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1608915404075962368

1608915404075962368

Ravenlocke

25th April 2023, 18:01

Text:

On April 24/2023
@jguaido
arrived in Miami airport leaving behind a political scenario in Venezuela that not even any opposition party nor people support him. No official or any level of US delegation received their designated « president. » Now, will the journalists who lied about his « support » in Venezuela and the « Internacional community « make a self-criticism?

https://twitter.com/Arnold_August/status/1650865364194959360

1650865364194959360

Ravenlocke

25th April 2023, 18:12

https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1650870491370930177

1650870491370930177

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/UK-Spent-Public-Funds-Backing-Guaido-in-Gold-Dispute-20230425-0012.html?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

UK Spent Public Funds Backing Guaido in Gold Dispute

Britain’s Foreign Office spent £80,697 in public funds supporting Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaidó’s campaign to seize roughly $2bn of gold held in the Bank of England, documents obtained by Declassified show.

The data highlights the extent to which the UK government has assisted Guaidó’s efforts to access Venezuelan state assets, with the Foreign Office investing both political and financial capital into this case.

The UK Government Legal Department initially declined to provide this spending data, stating: “We will not comment further due to ongoing legal proceedings”. However, the Foreign Office later released the data following a Freedom of Information request from Declassified.

Freezing Venezuela’s gold

The Bank of England first refused to release Venezuela’s gold in 2018, citing doubts over the legitimacy of the Nicolás Maduro government, which has been in power since 2013.

Guaidó declared himself Venezuelan president in January 2019, using Article 233 of Venezuela’s constitution to argue that Maduro had abandoned his post and consequently left an “absolute vacuum of power”. As head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Guaidó claimed he was next in line to fill this vacuum.

The US government moved quickly to recognise Guaidó and shore up international support for regime change in Venezuela. As former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote, this was an opportunity to remove “a twenty-first-century violation of the Monroe Doctrine”, a policy which treats Latin America as Washington’s backyard.

Spriter
@Spriter99880
·
Follow
Venezuela has lost $232 billion since 2015 due to US sanctions, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez noted that the sanctions had a negative impact on oil production, which is the main source of income for Venezuela.
Image
12:47 PM · Apr 22, 2023

Read the full conversation on Twitter
129
Reply
Share this Tweet

With a coup in Venezuela now firmly on the cards, the UK government provided the Bank of England with “political air cover” to keep the gold frozen.

This came in the form of a “robust letter” from the Foreign Office to the Bank “outlining the growing doubts over Maduro’s legitimacy”, according to the recently published diaries of former minister Alan Duncan.

The Trump administration’s hostility to Maduro apparently weighed heavily on Britain’s decision-making process. According to former US National Security Adviser John Bolton, then UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt was “delighted” to help Washington’s destabilisation campaign, “for example freezing Venezuelan gold deposits in the Bank of England”.

Legal battle

On 4 February 2019, the UK government formally recognised Guaidó, triggering a protracted legal battle over who could lay claim to the gold. The legal process centred on whether the UK’s stated recognition of Guaidó allowed it to transfer Venezuelan state assets to his “interim” government.

Throughout this case, the UK government insisted at every turn that it recognised Guaidó – and not Maduro – as Venezuelan president. In turn, Guaidó’s lawyers argued that he was authorised to represent and control the assets of the Venezuelan Central Bank in London.

In 2021, for instance, the UK government acquired the services of Sir James Eadie QC and Jason Pobjoy (of Blackstone Chambers) and Sir Michael Wood and Belinda McRae (of Twenty Essex) – some of the UK’s top lawyers – to present its case in support of recognition of Guaidó.

At the Supreme Court, these lawyers argued on behalf of the UK foreign secretary that Britain’s recognition of Guaidó was “clear and not ambiguous”.

The implication of this argument was that the UK government could treat Guaidó for all intents and purposes as Venezuela’s president, and that Venezuela’s gold reserves could thus be transferred to Guaidó and his representatives.

TOTALLIBRATION
@TOtalLIBRATION
·
Follow
Most of the Gold stolen from #Africa
#Venezuela
#India is in The Bank of 🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Vault

The vault is hidden deep inside the streets of London It is one of the World’s largest stores of Gold ever The vault contains over 4million tons of Gold
but there's no single gold mine in #UK

Professor Francisco Rodríguez is a leading Venezuelan economist who has advised its national assembly on financial matters and currently teaches at the University of Denver.

He told Declassified: “Despite a long-established legal and diplomatic tradition that recognition is only granted to governments with actual control over a country’s territory, the British government went out of its way to make a convoluted case before courts that it was recognizing the Guaidó interim government even though it was not engaging with it diplomatically.

He added: “In contrast to the United States, the UK maintained an embassy in Caracas and interacted with the Maduro-appointed ambassador, refusing to accept credentials from Guaidó-appointed diplomats. In principle, these decisions would in and of themselves have implied unequivocal recognition of the Maduro government.

“However, the UK insisted before the Supreme Court that it recognized Guaidó as Venezuela’s president, an argument that had as its only practical effect the blocking of the Venezuelan Central Bank’s access to part of its international reserves”.

‘Nothing to do with this government’

The Foreign Office’s use of public funds to support Guaidó in court casts serious doubt on the government’s persistent claims that the gold case was not a political affair but a matter for the Bank of England and the courts.

In February 2019, Duncan declared in parliament that the freezing of Venezuela’s gold reserves “is entirely down to the Bank, as an independent Bank of England”.

He added: “It is nothing to do with this Government. We are not empowered to, nor should we in any way attempt to, influence the decision of the Bank of England.”

Shortly after, Treasury minister Robert Jenrick affirmed in a similar vein that: “Holding gold reserves on behalf of any foreign central bank is a matter for the Bank of England.”

However, the politicised nature of this case seems difficult to ignore. Indeed, the UK government’s recognition of Guaidó was a key prerequisite for the Bank of England’s refusal to release Venezuela’s gold.

The UK also has long-standing oil interests in Venezuela. In February 2020, a secretive Foreign Office team named the “Venezuela Reconstruction Unit” met in Caracas to discuss “UK involvement in the energy sector of Venezuela”.

Britain’s decision to freeze Venezuela’s gold thus formed part of a wider effort to remove the Maduro government and reassert Western domination over its key industries.

The data obtained by Declassified will make it increasingly difficult for the UK government to counter claims that the gold case has been political at its core.

Ravenlocke

2nd May 2023, 20:10

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1653237346756640771

1653237346756640771

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1653240452219273216

1653240452219273216

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1653241695197175811

1653241695197175811

Ravenlocke

2nd May 2023, 20:18

https://venezuela-news.com/maduro-repudia-resolucion-eeuu-robo-citgo-burla-bofetada-conferencia-bogota/

Maduro repudiates the US resolution that delivers Citgo to the opposition: It is a mockery and a slap in the face of the Bogotá Conference

President Nicolás Maduro repudiated this Monday, May 1, the resolution that on this same day was approved "between roosters and midnight" by the government of his US counterpart, Joe Biden. The document delivers the Venezuelan state company Citgo to "some people from the opposition, from the Unitary Platform of Venezuela, so that they can sell it and do whatever they want . "

He said that that decision is "unworthy" and is a "direct message of deliverance." "They have decided to hand over Citgo to a group of unknown people, supposedly the directive of the last National Assembly, which no longer exists in Venezuela. People that none of you or us know, who live abroad, who fled like rats at the time," he said.

He added that it is "a blatant robbery of a company estimated at more than 8 billion dollars, with more than 10,000 gasoline pumps in the United States. A blatant robbery of a company that annually gives more than a billion dollars, which has accumulated for at least four years without reporting profits to the country, as a result of the kidnapping to which Donald Trump subjected her on the first of May precisely."

Likewise, the national president added that "this is a despicable decision against the people and the sovereignty of Venezuela. We must all resolutely reject it in the streets."

"The entire opposition is complicit in the looting and theft of Venezuela's properties," he denounced.

Despite the Bogotá Conference

He condemned that this is happening despite the International Conference in Bogotá, which was held last Tuesday, April 25. In that quote called by President Gustavo Petro, "the participating countries almost unanimously asked the United States government to lift the sanctions that exist on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela."

Thus, Maduro said, "it is a mockery and a slap in the face to the International Conference convened in Bogotá and the almost unanimous request to lift the sanctions on Venezuela."

He also said that "on behalf of all the people of Venezuela that we reject and repudiate indignantly the theft of the Citgo company by the United States government and the United Platform of Venezuela."

"We must strive for the recovery of our homeland through work, union, economic growth and wealth creation," Maduro concluded on May 1st.

Ravenlocke

2nd May 2023, 20:23

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-backs-sale-of-citgo-to-pay-venezuelas-debts-1c56228a?st=oi00bm9hbcmsa3d&reflink=desktopwebshare_twitter

U.S. Backs Sale of Citgo to Pay Venezuela’s Debts

The federal government says it intends to strip Venezuela’s Citgo of protections against seizure to make way for a forced sale of the oil refiner

The Biden administration indicated it would no longer protect Venezuela state-owned oil refiner Citgo Petroleum from seizure, backing a forced sale of the company to satisfy the South American government’s foreign creditors.

The U.S. government intends to approve the sale of Venezuela’s ownership stake in Citgo once a winning bidder emerges in a court-supervised auction process, according to filings by a special master appointed in Delaware federal court to oversee the potential transaction.

The U.S. position, disclosed in a Justice Department letter dated April 7 and filed by the special master in federal court Friday, marks a new stance toward Citgo, a prime target for Venezuela’s creditors and a major state asset that owns refineries, pipelines and terminals and supplies thousands of Citgo-branded gas stations in the U.S.

The Houston-based company has been caught up for years in tensions between the regime in Caracas, its domestic opposition and their respective international allies. The U.S. gave control of Citgo to Venezuelan opposition leaders in 2019 as part of a pressure campaign against the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, while imposing sanctions that prohibited bondholders and other creditors from foreclosing on the company.

Any change in Citgo’s control requires a license from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which said last year that ending the company’s Venezuelan ownership to repay creditors would undercut the U.S. interest in supporting Venezuela’s opposition movement. Since then, the Venezuelan opposition has lost sway, its parallel government has dissolved, and its onetime leader, Juan Guaidó, fled to the U.S.

OFAC now “intends to implement a favorable licensing policy for license applications in connection with the execution of a sale,” according to the Justice Department letter filed in Delaware court.

Mr. Maduro, who has outlasted U.S. sanctions to remain Venezuela’s de facto leader, condemned the potential loss of Citgo, calling it a slap in the face.

“We indignantly reject and repudiate this robbery of Citgo by the U.S. government,” Mr. Maduro said during a May Day speech in Caracas on Monday.

Citgo declined to comment. Businesses that once partnered with Venezuela, including the gold mining venture Crystallex International, have targeted Citgo as the only valuable state asset they can seize through the U.S. court system as compensation for billions of dollars in unpaid claims.

A special master appointed in Delaware to design a sales process for Citgo said in court filings Friday that marketing the company to potential bidders should begin immediately because of the change in U.S. position. The sale procedures call for auctioning the shares of Citgo’s parent holding company to cover a roughly $1 billion judgment held by Crystallex, which filed for bankruptcy in 2011 when its gold mining rights in Venezuela were expropriated.

Judge Leonard Stark of the U.S. District Court in Delaware has indicated that other creditors of Venezuela might also be able to collect proceeds from a potential sale. The judge has criticized Venezuela’s failure to pay Crystallex, now a defunct shell that exists mainly to pursue litigation for its investors.

A sale of Citgo might generate proceeds sufficient to pay the debt to Crystallex, but Venezuela’s total liabilities are far larger, including arbitration claims by dozens of other companies and roughly $60 billion of defaulted bond debt.

Lawyers for the Venezuelan opposition have disputed that Citgo can be ordered to the auction block by a U.S. court and are appealing some of Judge Stark’s recent rulings. The company has considered bankruptcy as an option to protect its operations and sort out creditors’ competing claims, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

A U.S. official said that a license authorizing the sale of Citgo is months away and will be issued only after due diligence with respect to the potential purchaser and its proposed transaction.

The Biden administration has taken steps toward relaxing sanctions on Venezuela’s authoritarian regime but continues to recognize the opposition-controlled National Assembly as the country’s “last remaining democratic institution,” which is trying to negotiate from a position of weakness for free elections in 2024.

Ravenlocke

26th May 2023, 17:32

https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1662142741080424458

1662142741080424458

Ravenlocke

5th January 2024, 19:59

https://x.com/dana916/status/1743344132154626534

1743344132154626534

https://airwaysmag.com/argentina-hand-over-venezuelan-747-us/

Argentina to Hand Over Grounded Venezuelan Boeing 747 to US

DALLAS — An Argentine court has approved the transfer of a grounded Emtrasur Boeing 747-300M cargo plane to US authorities, according to the justice ministry.

Emtrasur is a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned Conviasa (V0), the country’s flag carrier. The new startup company was established in November 2020 with the purpose of planning, managing, and controlling air cargo and mail operations both domestically and internationally.

The Emtrasur Jumbo (YV3531, MSN 23413, LN 632) has been grounded in Argentina since June 2022. It landed in Argentina after attempting to enter Uruguay while carrying a shipment of auto parts from Mexico. Uruguayan authorities impeded the aircraft from entering the country’s airspace after receiving alerts from “foreign agencies,” forcing its return to Ezeiza International Airport (EZE), where it was detained citing the “excessive” number of crew on board, including Iranian nationals.

The plane’s 19-member crew, consisting of Venezuelans and Iranians, was initially detained but later released. The U.S. suspected one of the Iranians on board of having links to the Al Quds Force, a group classified as a terrorist organization.

Furthermore, the U.S. claimed that the sale of the plane from Iran’s Mahan Air (W5) to Emtrasur violated its sanctions against both countries. Both Venezuela and Iran have protested against U.S. attempts to seize the plane and have sought support from Argentina. However, on Wednesday, Judge Federico Villena ordered the plane to be surrendered to the United States, a decision that Venezuela criticized as theft.

The 747-300M has cargo capacity in the rear portion of the main deck similar to the -200M, but with the stretched upper deck, it can carry more passengers. The aircraft is a 747-300 Combi, which means it can be used to carry passengers as an airliner or cargo as a freighter. It may also have a partition in the aircraft cabin to allow both uses simultaneously in a mixed passenger/freight combination, hence its name.

Featured image: Emtrasur Boeing 747-300M. Photo: Venezuelan Embassy, Belarus, via Twitter. Article source: Barrons.com

Ravenlocke

1st March 2024, 20:26

Text:
In an act of supreme pettiness, the US government has destroyed Venezuela's EMTRASUR airplane after seizing it in Argentina.

This plane was used to import medications from China, Russia, Cuba at the height of the pandemic. Over >$30 billion in assets have been stolen by the US.

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1763327141780062313

1763327141780062313

Ravenlocke

28th July 2024, 18:27

Text:
President Nicholas Maduro is looking great in Venezuelas exit poll elections.

The people of Venezuela know the alternative is a CIA asset selling off the countries natural resources at a discount.

Despite sanctions that have killed over 100,000 people, Venezulans want to continue the Bolivarian Revolution

https://x.com/BenFRubinstein/status/1817605973432734062

1817605973432734062

Ravenlocke

28th July 2024, 18:28

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1817584391553736724

1817584391553736724

Ravenlocke

28th July 2024, 18:31

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1817350562708361413

1817350562708361413

Ravenlocke

28th July 2024, 18:32

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1817349371622461821

1817349371622461821

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 02:07

https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1817734733591146783

1817734733591146783

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 02:10

https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1817628330163654847

1817628330163654847

norman

29th July 2024, 06:20

The election fiddling software was originally developed to fiddle the Venezuelan election, since adopted in over 70 countries worldwide.

DEVELOPING: Argentinian Leader Javier Milei Claims Communist Tyrant Nicolas Maduro HAS LOST HIS ELECTION in Venezuela — Maduro Declared Winner Despite Contradictory Exit Polls
Jul. 28, 2024

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/developing-amazing-news-argentinian-leader-javier-milei-reports/

DICTATOR MADURO, OUT!!!

Venezuelans have chosen to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro. The data announce a crushing victory for the opposition and the world is waiting for him to recognize defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence and death.

— Javier Milei (@JMilei) July 29, 2024

The exit polls have Maduro losing by a landslide.

66.6% for opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez and 30.86% for Nicolas Maduro.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/maduro-loss.jpg

https://t.me/CaptKylePatriots/236224
CaptKylePatriots/236224

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 06:26

Text:
With 51% of the vote, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has won a third term.

In light of his victory, Maduro said in his statement, dedicating his victory to late Venezuelan President Hugo #Chavez, "This is your victory, Chavez."

He also said, "Starting today, peace and stability will reign in the country."

Slamming countries that have repeatedly interfered in Venezuela's internal affairs, Maduro said, "We do not interfere in any other country's elections, and what I now ask as president of Venezuela is to respect our sovereignty, constitution, and the will of our people."

#VenezuelaElections
#EleccionesVE
#elecciones2024
#MaduroPresidente

https://x.com/MayadeenEnglish/status/1817802205774151790

1817802205774151790

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 06:29

https://x.com/MayadeenEnglish/status/1817797667566518564

1817797667566518564

palehorse

29th July 2024, 07:01

what a pattern we have here, US, Brazil and now Venezuela, just to name a few more recent fraud in elections.

- Joe Biden (2020 U.S. Presidential Election): 51.3%
- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2022 Brazilian Presidential Election): 50.9%
- Nicolás Maduro (2024 Venezuelan Presidential Election): 51%

The winners always fluctuate around the 51%. Good luck believing elections are genuine. It is a selection process only. Both side are corrupted as hell, this whole **** is to only cause even more division with the masses.

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 07:07

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1817789866286920093

1817789866286920093

norman

29th July 2024, 07:53

The idea that the CIA is (A) representative of Americans and America (B) opposed to Maduro and a true popular vote has taken place and won, is ludicrously fake.

https://t.me/FENFreeEagleNetworkNews/33455
FENFreeEagleNetworkNews/33455

https://t.me/ExistentialGateway/14502
ExistentialGateway/14502

https://x.com/mjtruthultra/status/1817757613565894707
1817757613565894707

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 09:28

Text:
Putin Congratulates Nicolás Maduro On Re-Election As Venezuelan President

Despite dismissals from Western govts and smears from their aligned press, Maduro was elected with 51.2% of the vote, prompting a wave of street celebrations by ecstatic supporters, and whole lot of coping and seething from Washington.

https://x.com/RT_India_news/status/1817850141467934890

1817850141467934890

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 09:29

https://x.com/anadoluagency/status/1817832451814629680

1817832451814629680

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/latin-american-leaders-react-with-mixed-responses-to-venezuela-election-results/3288084

Latin American leaders react with mixed responses to Venezuela election results

After the results were announced by the Venezuelan electoral body, which declared Nicolas Maduro as the country's president, reactions were not long in coming. Some regional leaders applauded Maduro, while others rejected the results and called for independent audits.

According to the country´s electoral body, incumbent President Maduro obtained 51.2% of the votes, while the main opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, obtained 44.2%.

Bolivian President Luis Arce congratulated Maduro and celebrated that "the will of the Venezuelan people was respected at the polls." 

"We have been closely following this democratic celebration and we welcome that the will of the Venezuelan people has been respected at the polls," Arce said.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel also congratulated Maduro on this "historic victory". 

"Today the dignity and courage of the Venezuelan people triumphed over pressures and manipulations," wrote the Cuban leader on X. 

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo sent a letter to Maduro, which was published by the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, in which they hailed the "great victory".

Honduran President Xiomara Castro congratulated Maduro on his "undisputed victory that reaffirms his sovereignty." 

Chilean President Gabriel Boric also cast doubt on the results.

“The Maduro regime must understand that the results it publishes are difficult to believe,” he wrote on X, and made it clear that his country will not recognize data “that is not verifiable.” 

"The international community and especially the Venezuelan people, including the millions of Venezuelans in exile, demand total transparency of the electoral records and the process, and that international observers not compromised with the government account for the veracity of the results," he added.

The Costa Rican government said in a statement that it does not recognize Maduro's election, calling it "fraudulent" and saying it "repudiates" it.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said that his government is "very hesitant" to accept the results issued by the CNE.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed "serious concerns" about the election results.

"We have serious concerns that the announced result does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people. It is critical that every vote is counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that electoral authorities publish the detailed tabulation of the votes," he said.

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 09:30

Text:
BREAKING: The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces and alerts the world about an intervention operation against the electoral process, our right to self-determination, and the sovereignty of our Homeland, orchestrated by a group of foreign governments and powers.

This group, a version of the infamous, defunct, and defeated Lima Group, includes government officials from Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and the Dominican Republic, along with a group of ultra-right-wing political hitmen specialized in destabilizing governments in Latin America, such as Iván Duque, Mauricio Macri, Andrés Pastrana, Oscar Arias, Marco Rubio, and Rick Scott. They aim to distort what has been expressed today peacefully and with civic spirit in our country, which is nothing more than the exercise of the people's right to vote.

The right to vote in Venezuela is exercised with absolute freedom and legality under the aegis of our laws and the control of one of the five Public Powers of the State, the National Electoral Council. It is done through a transparent, secure, and inviolable system, recognized as one of the best in the world, which fully guarantees the principle of one voter, one vote.

The same individuals who recognized a puppet in 2019 are attempting to impose it again in 2024.

This miserable and desperate operation is destined to fail because Venezuela is a free and sovereign country and will never accept impositions or blackmail, especially from foreign entities without morality and legality to attack our rights and our people.

Caracas, July 28, 2024

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1817760320586195364

1817760320586195364

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 09:33

Text:
🇻🇪Nicolas Maduro wins the presidential election

Maduro spoke to supporters in Venezuela's capital, Caracas, after winning the Venezuelan election. The Presidents of Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia have already congratulated the leader of the Republic on his re-election. Argentina and Chile refused to recognize the election results.

At the same time, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the results of the vote allegedly "do not reflect the will" of the Venezuelan people

https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/1817825060092014746

1817825060092014746

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 09:35

https://x.com/tassagency_en/status/1817850031795261586

1817850031795261586

https://tass.com/world/1822539

Maduro wins presidency, US hints at foul play: results of Venezuelan election

Venezuela's National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso released the agency’s first ballot, according to which 5,150,092 voters, or 51.2% of the electorate, supported Maduro after 80% of the ballots were counted

CARACAS, July 29. /TASS/. Incumbent Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has won the country’s presidential election. He was re-elected for a third six-year term.

TASS has compiled the main information around Maduro’s election.

Voting results

Venezuela's National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso released the agency’s first ballot, according to which 5,150,092 voters, or 51.2% of the electorate, supported Maduro after 80% of the ballots were counted.

His main rival, far-right candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, got 4,445,978 votes, representing 44.2% of all those who voted, while a combined 4.6% of voters cast their ballots for one of the other eight candidates.

Opposition statement

One of Venezuela's opposition leaders, Maria Corina Machado, said that Edmundo Gonzalez and his campaign team would not recognize his defeat.

Machado, who won the opposition primaries but did not participate in the election because she was previously disenfranchised by a court, said that Maduro's opponents will try to challenge the election results

World reaction

Argentinian President Javier Milei said that his country will not recognize Nicolas Maduro's victory because it considers opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez to be the rightful winner.

The Chilean government will not recognize the results of the Venezuelan election until they are confirmed by international observers, Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren said.

The US authorities have "serious concerns" that the results of the presidential election announced by the Venezuelan authorities "do not reflect the will of the people," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

The Peruvian authorities refused to recognize the results of the Venezuelan election, Foreign Minister Javier Gonzalez-Olaechea said. The country also recalled its ambassador for consultations.

A number of countries, including Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua and Honduras, congratulated Maduro on his victory.

Venezuelan Foreign Ministry statement

Venezuela's Foreign Ministry said that nine Latin American countries attempted to interfere in the election. The ministry said the governments of Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay were "trying to distort the peaceful expression of the will" of the people.

Earlier, the foreign ministries of Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay issued a joint statement calling on Caracas to ensure a "transparent vote count."

Moscow's reaction

Russian Ambassador to Venezuela Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov said that "the convincing victory of Nicolas Maduro in the elections" will allow the comprehensive strengthening of the Russian-Venezuelan strategic partnership.

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 10:01

https://x.com/Zlatti_71/status/1817841591001764196

1817841591001764196

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 10:22

https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1816886499964547228

1816886499964547228

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 21:35

https://x.com/real1maria/status/1817806243097972826

1817806243097972826

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 21:40

Text:
🇻🇪‼️You will hear none of this on mainstream media:

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs details how the US systematically destroyed the Venezuelan economy through sanctions, killing 40,000+, in order to force Venezuelans to abandon the Bolivarian revolution and topple Maduro

https://rumble.com/v55y2mc-anya-parampil-on-corporate-coup-venezuela-and-the-end-of-us-empire-and-juli.html

https://x.com/afshinrattansi/status/1817882193919987855

1817882193919987855

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1817974309236937207

1817974309236937207

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 21:41

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1817994530743853334

1817994530743853334

Ravenlocke

29th July 2024, 21:44

https://x.com/SpiritofHo/status/1817803633024438630

1817803633024438630

Tintin

30th July 2024, 10:32

WELL DONE Alan MacLeod :muscle:

His thread here really helpfully debunks the ton of false information being spread on media platforms. And he is there as well, and better than most right now able to substantiate what's actually happened around the elections:

[Thread] There is a coup d'etat attempt underway here in Venezuela 🇻🇪, fueled by tons of fake news.

In this thread, I'll debunk some of the most egregious and viral fake stories circulating.

Add your own in the replies.
11:26 PM · Jul 29, 2024

Source: https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1818050593468072023

1818050593468072023

(Tintin: below, a rare instance of an accurate Community Note)
1818052769082704031

This video, claiming to show huge clashes between protestors and police today is going viral. But, as @ldejesusreyes and others have noted, this video is 7 years old.

1818054183485915218

This image, which many claim to be official election results, has been seen by tens of millions of people.

It claims that the vote count is 109%.

But actually, all that happened is that the three minor opposition candidates pictured got 4.6% of the vote together, not each.

This is a simple data entry error from someone making an infographic for the TV.

These are not the official results. The official results add up to 100%.

Dishonest actors are promoting this to spread the idea that the official election results are fraudulent.

1818059536583823366

People are claiming this image is from the national electoral council (CNE), and the charts on the screens show a Gonzalez victory.

But this isn't from the CNE at all. Rather, it is from Mercal Aragua, a totally different organization with no access to voting information.

1818064977078755666

The opposition is also blatantly using a bot network to boost their narrative on social media

HT: @JulianMaciasT

1818078328924074438

I know for a fact that this is fake news, because I was right there in this crowd as this video was taken.

It was, in fact, the opposition that tried to shut down this Caracas polling station.

A group of over 100 right-wing demonstrators crowded round the entrance to stop people from entering.

1818154265040335139

Tintin

30th July 2024, 11:00

Alan MacLeod here on video:

Source: https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1818094395800908156

1818094395800908156

norman

30th July 2024, 13:05

well that's one way of looking at it

Regional Police Officers, some with Tears in their Eyes, take off their Uniforms, and Simply Refuse to Repress their own Countrymen

https://t.me/candlesinthenight/73948
candlesinthenight/73948

norman

30th July 2024, 21:15

https://t.me/GeneralMCNews/9751
GeneralMCNews/9751

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 21:39

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1818308562344354156

1818308562344354156

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1818310454365618663

1818310454365618663

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1818316389360300075

1818316389360300075

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1818324339436990850

1818324339436990850

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 21:41

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1818390642923356610

1818390642923356610

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 21:42

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1818328417873359253

1818328417873359253

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 21:45

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1818306499438952511

1818306499438952511

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1818288060263534695

1818288060263534695

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 21:48

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1818388187502289304

1818388187502289304

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 21:51

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1818372239181361441

1818372239181361441

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 21:53

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1818159404035842157

1818159404035842157

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 21:54

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1818396317963669934

1818396317963669934

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 21:59

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1818294801495707837

1818294801495707837

https://eldiario.com/2024/07/30/japon-califico-de-opaco-el-proceso-electoral-en-venezuela/

Japan described the electoral process in Venezuela as "opaque"
Yoshimasa Hayashi, spokesman for the Japanese government, said that on several occasions he has asked Venezuela for transparency in the electoral process

The government of Japan described the electoral process in Venezuela on Tuesday as "opaque", and called for the holding of "fair and free" elections in the country, after the protests of Venezuelans in rejection of the results announced by Sunday's elections.

"There are many voices that doubt the transparency of the electoral process in Venezuela, and the situation is still opaque, so we believe that its development should continue to be observed," the spokesman of the Japanese Executive, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said today when asked about the subject at a press conference.

The Japanese spokesman added: "Japan has repeatedly requested Venezuela for free and fair elections. Therefore, Japan continues to closely and with increasing attention observe the process and the result of its presidential elections,"

The results given by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of the presidential elections in Venezuela, which granted the victory to President Nicolás Maduro with 51.2% of the votes, aroused on Monday the protests in Caracas and several regions of the country, several of them repressed by the military and police, while the opposition ratified the victory of its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia.

The international community
After the CNE issued the first bulletin, the international community spoke out against the results issued by the electoral body.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, asked on July 29 for "total transparency" about the results of the presidential elections in Venezuela on Sunday, and trusted that the disputes "to be resolved peacefully."

The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, warned in the early morning of July 29 that the results offered by the CNE "are difficult to believe" and that his country will not recognize "any result that is not verifiable."

For his part, the president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, announced that he is "suspending" diplomatic relations with Venezuela and will withdraw his staff from the country.

The government of Ecuador denounced that there was a "lack of transparency" in the results of the presidential elections in Venezuela on July 28.

On the other hand, the president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, indicated in a message on social networks that, in his opinion, the mechanisms to reach that victory of Maduro in the elections were not reliable.

Other countries such as Costa Rica, Argentina, Peru and Paraguay joined those who demonstrated against the first bulletin issued by the CNE.

Protests in Venezuela
On Monday, July 29, the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict (OVCS) registered at least 187 protests in 20 states of the country.

"Numerous acts of repression and violence carried out by paramilitary collectives and security forces are reported," the non-governmental organization (NGO) said in its X account.

Likewise, the OVCS demanded that the authorities guarantee the right of the population to peaceful demonstration and free expression. They also urged the population to exercise their rights without resorting to violence.

At night, several cacerolazos and protests continued to be reported in much of Venezuela in protest against the results issued by the CNE in which Maduro was announced as president.

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:00

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1818387568989532271

1818387568989532271

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:03

Text:

Maracay - Edo. Aragua | Members of the US-backed opposition simulate a death, videotape it for social media and blame the government. Minutes later he appears completely normal, on the passenger seat of a motorcycle after the recording finishes.

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1818316729455382952

1818316729455382952

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1818379432568222134

1818379432568222134

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1818380135281623504

1818380135281623504

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1818379230268297483

1818379230268297483

norman

30th July 2024, 22:04

https://t.me/insiderpaper/29503
insiderpaper/29503

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:08

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1818394581857132796

1818394581857132796

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1818394957184430252

1818394957184430252

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:10

Text:
Trump's neoconservative National Security Advisor John Bolton made it clear from the beginning of the US coup attempt against Venezuela in January 2019 that US corporations wanted to exploit its massive oil reserves, which had been nationalized by President Hugo Chávez.

Bolton later bragged about his experience organizing coups, insisting it's hard work overthrowing democratically elected foreign governments.

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1668680877096747008

1668680877096747008

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:12

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1818290529001508887

1818290529001508887

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://x.com/RaniaKhalek/status/1818059478190666056

1818059478190666056

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:13

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1818274931190489088

1818274931190489088

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:16

"We are defending peace and the dignity of the people. We have fought a lot for it and don't get confused. People are still in the streets to support the legacy and the project of our commander, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías."

Tens of thousands are marching to the Miraflores Square in Caracas to defend the Bolivarian Revolution, their reelected president, Nicolás Maduro, and to condemn the right wing violence. We went to the ground and spoke to people at Catia Square.
@ZoPepperC

https://x.com/peoplesdispatch/status/1818395507422871953

1818395507422871953

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:19

https://x.com/vijayprashad/status/1818337819599016095

1818337819599016095

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/07/30/the-venezuelan-people-stay-with-the-bolivarian-revolution/

The Venezuelan people stay with the Bolivarian Revolution
About half of Venezuela’s voting population is reliably wedded to the Bolivarian project. No other political project in Venezuela has the kind of election machine built by the forces of the Bolivarian revolution

On July 28, the 70th birthday of Hugo Chávez (1954-2013), Nicolás Maduro Moros won the Venezuelan presidential election, the fifth since the Bolivarian Constitution was ratified in 1999. In January 2025, Maduro will start his third six-year term as president. He took over the reins of the Bolivarian Revolution after the death of Chávez from pelvic cancer in 2013. Since the death of Chávez, Maduro has faced several challenges: to build his own legitimacy as president in the place of a charismatic man who came to define the Bolivarian Revolution; to tackle the collapse of oil prices in mid-2014, which negatively impacted Venezuela’s state revenues (over 90% of which was from oil exports); and to manage a response to the unilateral, illegal sanctions deepened on Venezuela by the United States as oil prices declined. These negative factors weighed heavily on the Maduro government, which has now been in office for a decade after being re-elected through the ballot box in 2018 and now in 2024.

From Maduro’s first election victory in 2013, the increasingly far-right opposition began to reject the electoral process and complain about irregularities in the system. Interviews I have held over the past decade with conservative politicians have made it clear that they recognize both the ideological grip of Chavismo over the working class of Venezuela and the organizational power not only of Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela but of the networks of Chavismo that run from the communes (1.4 million strong) to youth organizations. About half of Venezuela’s voting population is reliably wedded to the Bolivarian project, and no other political project in Venezuela has the kind of election machine built by the forces of the Bolivarian revolution. That makes winning an election for the anti-Chávez forces impossible. To that end, their only path is to malign Maduro’s government as corrupt and to complain that the elections are not fair. After Maduro’s victory—by a margin of 51.2% to 44.2%—this is precisely what the far-right opposition has been trying to do, egged on by the United States and a network of far-right and pro-US governments in South America.

Europe needs Venezuelan oil

The United States has been trying to find a solution to a problem of its own making. Having placed severe sanctions against both Iran and Russia, the United States now cannot easily find a source of energy for its European partners. Liquified natural gas from the United States is expensive and not sufficient. What the US would like is to have a reliable source of oil that is easy to process and in sufficient quantities. Venezuelan oil fits the requirements, but given the US sanctions on Venezuela, this oil cannot be found in the European market. The United States has created a trap from which it finds few solutions.

In June 2022, the US government allowed Eni SpA (Italy) and Repsol SA (Spain) to transport Venezuelan oil to the European market to compensate for the loss of Russian oil deliveries. This allowance revealed Washington’s shift in strategy regarding Venezuela. No longer was it going to be possible to suffocate Venezuela by preventing exports of oil, since this oil was needed as a result of US sanctions on Russia. Since June 2022, the United States has been trying to calibrate its need for this oil, its antipathy to the Bolivarian Revolution, and its relations with the far-right opposition in Venezuela.

The US and the Venezuelan far-right

The emergence of Chavismo—the politics of mass action to build socialism in Venezuela—transformed the political scenario in the country. The old parties of the right (Acción Democrática and COPEI) collapsed after 40 years of alternating power. In the 2000 and 2006 elections, the opposition to Chávez was provided not by the right, but by dissenting center-left forces (La Causa R and Un Nuevo Tiempo). The Old Right faced a challenge from the New Right, which was decidedly pro-capitalist, anti-Chavista, and pro-US; this group formed a political platform called La Salida or The Exit, which referred to their desired exit from the Bolivarian Revolution. The key figures here were Leopoldo López, Antonio Ledezma, and María Corina Machado, who led violent protests against the government in 2014 (López was arrested for incitement to violence and now lives in Spain; a US government official in 2009 said he is “often described as arrogant, vindictive, and power-hungry”). Ledezma moved to Spain in 2017 and was—with Corina Machado—a signatory of the far-right Madrid Charter, an anti-communist manifesto organized by the Spanish far-right party, Vox. Corina Machado’s political project is underpinned by the proposal to privatize Venezuela’s oil company.

Since the death of Chávez, Venezuela’s right wing has struggled with the absence of a unified program and with a mess of egotistical leaders. It fell to the United States to try and shape the opposition into a political project. The most comical attempt was the elevation in January 2019 of an obscure politician named Juan Guaidó to be the president. That maneuver failed and in December 2022, the far-right opposition removed Guaidó as its leader. The removal of Guaidó allowed for direct negotiations between the Venezuelan government and the far-right opposition, which had since 2019 hoped for US military intervention to secure them in power in Caracas.

The US pressured the increasingly intransigent far-right to hold talks with the Venezuelan government in order to allow the US to reduce sanctions and let Venezuelan oil go into European markets. This pressure resulted in the Barbados Agreement of October 2023, in which the two sides agreed to a fair election in 2024 as the basis for the slow withdrawal of the sanctions. The elections of July 28 are the outcome of the Barbados process. Even though María Corina Machado was barred from running, she effectively ran against Maduro through her proxy candidate Edmundo González and lost in a hard-fought election.

Twenty-three minutes after the polls closed, US Vice President Kamala Harris—and now a presidential candidate in the November elections in the United States—put out a tweet conceding that the far-right had lost. It was an early sign that the United States—despite making noises about election fraud—wanted to move past their allies in the far-right, find a way to normalize relations with the Venezuelan government and allow the oil to flow to Europe. This tendency of the US government has frustrated the far-right, which turned to other far-right forces across Latin America for support, and which knows that its remaining political argument is about election fraud. If the US government wants to get Venezuelan oil to Europe it will need to abandon the far-right and accommodate the Maduro government. Meanwhile, the far-right has taken to the streets through armed gangs who want to repeat the guarimba (barricade) disruptions of 2017.

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:27

https://x.com/BTnewsroom/status/1818409488757543216

1818409488757543216

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:34

https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1818410476688068981

1818410476688068981

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1818414163359568046

1818414163359568046

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:38

https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1818392399816626453

1818392399816626453

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1818393357338476833

1818393357338476833

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 22:43

https://x.com/jimmy_dore/status/1818380714825613514

1818380714825613514

Ravenlocke

30th July 2024, 23:06

Text:
Since everyone is talking about Venezuela, I thought it would be a good time to share one of my favorite clips of Hugo Chávez: when he called George W. Bush the devil in front of the world at the United Nations in 2006

Americans: THE DEVIL IS STILL IN OUR HOUSE

We need an exorcism before we can even begin talking about our neighbors…

https://x.com/anyaparampil/status/1818098716248580384

1818098716248580384

Ravenlocke

31st July 2024, 17:48

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1818693105606124025

1818693105606124025

https://www.telesurenglish.net/were-witnessing-a-media-backed-coup-in-venezuela-defense-minister-padrino/?noamp=available

We’re Witnessing a Media-Backed Coup in Venezuela: Defense Minister Padrino

There is an international structure investing millions of dollars to discredit the 2024 presidential elections, he pointed out

On Tuesday, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino warned about the destabilization attempts being carried out by transnational far-right forces to disregard the results of the July 28 elections, in which President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected with 51 percent of the votes.

RELATED: China and Russia Condemn Attempts to Destabilize Venezuela

“The National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) vehemently reject the violent actions promoted by the far right on Monday in various regions of the country,” he said and recalled some acts perpetrated by the so-called Small Commands (“Comanditos”).

Under the influence of far-right politicians, these urban violence structures carried out operations such as attacks on public buildings, private residences, National Electoral Council offices, military and police units, and voting machines. They also desecrated national symbols like the statue of the Indian Coromoto and the sculptures of former President Hugo Chavez.

“These expressions of hatred are part of a preconceived plan by the political groups that were defeated. They are also part of an attempt at a media coup, which is supported by social networks and backed by the U.S. imperialism and its external and internal allies,” Padrino explained.

“Undoubtedly, we are witnessing fascism in its maximum expression. It is an international structure investing hundreds of millions of dollars to discredit the extraordinary demonstration of civic-mindedness shown by the Venezuelan people in the elections, which were attended by over 900 international observers and representatives of the parties that registered candidates,” he added.

“In recent years, the operations of urban violence called ‘Guarimbas’ only caused the death of innocents and significant material damage. The pseudo-leaders and criminal organizations, who urge the population to follow a dark path even though they are not right, hide cowardly while employing armed criminals and mercenaries trained abroad to carry out their macabre plans,” Padrino stressed.

“Many of them have already been fully identified, captured, and prosecuted,” the Defense minister announced and confirmed that far-right activists caused the death of First Sergeant Jose Torrents and injured 23 military personnel and 25 police officers.

“The FANB reiterates its unwavering commitment to peace. However, through a perfect civic-military-police union, we will act forcefully to preserve internal order throughout the national territory, always respecting the Constitution, the laws, and human rights,” he stated.

“We reaffirm our absolute loyalty and unconditional support to Nicolas Maduro, the Constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and our Commander in Chief, who has been legitimately re-elected by the peoplke and proclaimed by electoral authorities for the presidential term 2025–2031,” Padrino said.

Ravenlocke

31st July 2024, 18:21

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1818683885997228528

1818683885997228528

Ravenlocke

31st July 2024, 18:23

https://x.com/anon_candanga/status/1818483803045658694

1818483803045658694

Ravenlocke

31st July 2024, 18:43

Text:
🎙 Response of the Official Representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, M.V. Zakharova, to a Media Question Regarding the Recognition of Presidential Election Results in Venezuela by Several Countries 🇻🇪

❓Question: Venezuela has faced pressure following the presidential elections. Several countries have refused to recognize the results and N. Maduro's victory. Many of these "dissenters" previously recognized J. Guaido as the head of Venezuela. How would you comment on this?

💬 M.V. Zakharova: The Russian side's reaction to the Venezuelan presidential elections was outlined on July 29 in a statement by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which, among other things, clearly expressed our categorical rejection of attempts by certain states to claim the right to recognize or not recognize the results of the electoral process in Venezuela.

We would like to emphasize Russia's previously stated principled position: the election of a country's leadership is the exclusive privilege of the people. We are convinced that there should be no double standards in this matter. It is no secret that in recent years, in several countries (including those implicitly mentioned in your question), we have witnessed serious, and in some cases gross violations of democratic processes and legal procedures for the transfer of power. However, the same states that now deny the obvious did not express decisive condemnation or even basic concern at that time.

☝️ We believe that the reaction of the international community, and primarily of Latin American countries, to the elections in Venezuela should be aimed at promoting peace, finding constructive solutions, and maintaining public order. As we can see, the government of N. Maduro is ready for this.

https://x.com/Zlatti_71/status/1818701376328777857

1818701376328777857

Ravenlocke

31st July 2024, 20:32

https://x.com/ArthurM40330824/status/1818703518326243759

1818703518326243759

Ravenlocke

2nd August 2024, 17:19

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1819417886525383017

1819417886525383017

US Contractor Posts Messages Against Venezuelan President Maduro

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Aug. 1, 2024. Photo: X/ @RoiLopezRivas

On Thursday, Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s permanent representative to the United Nations, denounced that Erik Prince, the owner of the private military security company Blackwater, posted a message inciting attacks against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Vice President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello.

RELATED:

Mexican President AMLO Calls for Non-Intervention in Venezuela’s Elections

“If Kamala Harris and Joe Biden really want to support freedom and legitimate elections in Venezuela, then they should raise the rewards to US$100 million each on these already wanted criminals, Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, and all the others in their cartel,” Prince wrote on the social network X.

“Then sit back and watch the magic happen. You can even pay these out from frozen regime money already in U.S. banks,” he added in his message, which was accompanied by wanted-style photographs.

Ambassador Moncada harshly rejected Prince’s statements, highlighting that they incite hatred and violent action against those two Bolivarian leaders.

“In Venezuela, the struggle is against global fascism. The clear majority of our people are willing to fight for our independence,” said the Bolivarian ambassador.

In the elections held on July 28, the candidate of the Great Patriotic Pole, President Nicolas Maduro, was re-elected as president of Venezuela for the 2025-2031 term, with 51.2 percent of the votes.

In second place was the candidate of the far-right opposition Democratic Unity Platform (PUD), Edmundo Gonzalez, who received 44.2 percent of the votes, according to official data released by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

In response to that defeat, Venezuelan right-wing forces disregarded the results, launched a media campaign of disinformation, and promoted violent urban actions. All these events are part of a plan to carry out a coup against President Maduro.

Throughout this week, the owner of the social network X, Elon Musk, has shown his public support for the Venezuelan far-right. So far, X has not taken any direct action against Prince’s openly violent post.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1819066396334035249

1819066396334035249

Ravenlocke

2nd August 2024, 23:41

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1819437067664764994

1819437067664764994

Ravenlocke

2nd August 2024, 23:44

https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1819494314956747193

1819494314956747193

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1819450147631517924

1819450147631517924

Ravenlocke

5th August 2024, 02:12

https://x.com/TheRedactedInc/status/1819866837754274207

1819866837754274207

Ravenlocke

5th August 2024, 17:58

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1820470094847520867

1820470094847520867

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1820468907268051350

1820468907268051350

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1820467750596464701

1820467750596464701

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1820466992626983357

1820466992626983357

https://x.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1820465881543217318

1820465881543217318

Ravenlocke

5th August 2024, 20:55

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/1820549107402068239

1820549107402068239

Ravenlocke

7th August 2024, 16:38

https://x.com/BRICSinfo/status/1821214036148519127

1821214036148519127

Ravenlocke

7th August 2024, 18:54

https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1821195247092953130

1821195247092953130

Ravenlocke

30th August 2024, 20:34

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1828933296438362620

1828933296438362620

Ravenlocke

30th August 2024, 20:36

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1828942814492742128

1828942814492742128

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1828983209117290589

1828983209117290589

Ravenlocke

30th August 2024, 20:41

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1829488307488846086

1829488307488846086

Ravenlocke

30th August 2024, 20:47

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1829177558551986435

1829177558551986435

Ravenlocke

15th September 2024, 18:20

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1835057461742514522

1835057461742514522

Ravenlocke

15th September 2024, 19:16

Text:
Venezuelan intelligence services arrested three US citizens, two Spanish citizens and one Czech citizen. A large quantity of weapons and ammunition was confiscated.

They are suspected of plotting the assassination of President Maduro as part of a CIA and Spanish intelligence operation to carry out a coup d'état.

One of the detained Americans turned out to be an active member of the US Navy SEALs.

@Slavyangrad

https://x.com/Zlatti_71/status/1835325747117818365

1835325747117818365

Ravenlocke

16th October 2024, 19:04

https://x.com/dana916/status/1846575195311534521

1846575195311534521

Text:
🇮🇹❌🇻🇪 The Italian Prime Minister and G7 leader, Giorgia Meloni, reiterated her condemnation of the repression by Nicolás Maduro's regime in Venezuela on Tuesday, and called for a peaceful and democratic transition in the government.

"We continue to condemn the unacceptable repression of the regime, calling for the release of all political prisoners. Together with the European Union, we are working towards a peaceful and democratic transition in the country, so that the will of millions of Venezuelans, who continue to risk their lives for a democratic, prosperous, and secure future, can finally be realized."

https://x.com/EVTVMiami/status/1846193579351330862

https://x.com/dana916/status/1846573445955412114

1846573445955412114

Ravenlocke

26th November 2024, 21:18

Text:
🇻🇪🇷🇺 "Welcome to Venezuela, Sputnik"

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced the signing of an agreement between Sputnik and the country's Ministry of Communications and Information.

Sputnik journalists also became guests on the president's TV program — the first Russian journalists to do so.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1861437067567472683

1861437067567472683

Ravenlocke

8th January 2025, 20:20

Text:
US trying to assassinate Maduro ?

President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro announces that seven foreign mercenaries were captured in the country today, just three days before the presidential inauguration.

The hand picked senile Gonzalez wannabe next Juan Guaido was in Washington these days.

They are probably preparing something, Venezuela has too much oil to leave it alone.

https://x.com/angeloinchina/status/1876830393552548173

1876830393552548173

Ravenlocke

8th January 2025, 20:21

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1876370253963571544

1876370253963571544

Ravenlocke

8th January 2025, 20:27

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1876469305258201448

1876469305258201448

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1876394435082400056

1876394435082400056

Ravenlocke

10th January 2025, 22:30

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1877146115629363277

1877146115629363277

Ravenlocke

10th January 2025, 22:33

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1877160324538798218

1877160324538798218

Ravenlocke

10th January 2025, 22:34

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1877535025094099151

1877535025094099151

Ravenlocke

10th January 2025, 22:41

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1877540246893609179

1877540246893609179

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1877729369474367732

1877729369474367732

Ravenlocke

10th January 2025, 22:45

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1877724479821898142

1877724479821898142

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1877729778565890379

1877729778565890379

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1877731863596331140

1877731863596331140

Text:
🇻🇪 President Maduro at inauguration: "I have not been placed as President by the US government or by the pro-imperialist governments of the Latin American right wing. I have not been placed by the oligarchy.

I come from the people, I am of the people, and my power emanates from History and from the people, and to the people I owe my whole life, body and soul!

The power that I represent and carry belongs to the people, and to the people I owe myself!"

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1877745258458423480

1877745258458423480

Ravenlocke

10th January 2025, 22:50

https://x.com/georgegalloway/status/1877768590545309841

1877768590545309841

Ravenlocke

10th January 2025, 22:54

https://x.com/RealCalebMaupin/status/1877846282254860455

1877846282254860455

https://x.com/GlobeEyeNews/status/1877760750074343811

1877760750074343811

https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1877766444764606712

1877766444764606712

Ravenlocke

10th January 2025, 23:07

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1877478278795022516

1877478278795022516

Dennis Leahy

11th January 2025, 16:42

Ravenlocke

10th February 2025, 21:47

Translated text:
Two planes from Maduro's government bring deported Venezuelans from the USA. The Trump administration has informed that some are "criminals". Chavismo says they are recruited by "the opposition". The Trump-Maduro narrative against María Corina. Seeing is believing.

https://x.com/jdquesada/status/1889041381890330839

1889041381890330839

Ravenlocke

10th February 2025, 21:52

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1887960985626976612

1887960985626976612

https://kawsachun.com/from-the-aes-to-alba-burkina-faso-activists-visit-caracas-to-support-president-maduro/

From the AES to ALBA: Burkina Faso activists visit Caracas to support President Maduro

The towering peaks of Caracas’ mountaintops captured the attention of the delegates from Burkina Faso even before their airplane hit the ground at the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela. Venezuela’s imposing mountainous coastline is a sharp contrast to the long stretch of flat savanna that makes up the majority of Burkina Faso’s landscape.

The Burkinabé delegates from grassroots social movements, primarily members of the Thomas Sankara Centre for African Liberation and Unity based in Ouagadougou, had come from far away to visit Venezuela from 7 to 14 January 2025. Their excitement to attend the inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro and to participate in the Global Anti-Fascist Festival in this friendly and inspirational South American country was perhaps unmatched. Afterall, the two countries are at the forefront of the international struggle against imperialism and exploitation.

Witnessing and Experiencing the Bolivarian Revolution

On January 6, comrades Fabrice and Kouss from the Thomas Sankara Centre left Ouagadougou in the early hours of the morning for a 48-hour journey of over 14,000 km to Venezuela. As soon as they arrived at Simon Bolivar airport, the comrades were struck by the internationalist environment. Meetings with various delegates from Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Niger, Congo, Netherlands, India, Nepal, and elsewhere fostered a sense of belonging to a collective cause of social justice, anti-fascism and international solidarity. They would soon be joined by another comrade from the Thomas Sankara Centre, Inem, who arrived on the 8th to a similar atmosphere.

The delegates from Burkina Faso were struck by Venezuela’s technological and architectural progress in the face of sanctions and economic difficulties. Initiatives in the fields of agriculture, energy, and communications illustrated the resilience and ingenuity of the Venezuelan people. These discoveries broadened their perspective and understanding of the possibilities for sustainable development within a socialist state.

Participation in the Global Anti-Fascist Festival, the meeting with President Nicolas Maduro and the Third International Communications Congress provided opportunities to exchange ideas with activists from around the world, attend practical workshops and take part in discussions on strategies and tactics in a shared struggle spanning the Global South.

While in Venezuela, the delegation also sought to forge Pan-African connections between those coming from the African continent and their diasporic counterparts.

ALBA and the AES

Like Venezuela, which is the initiator of Latin America’s anti-imperialist Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA-TCP), Burkina Faso is a part of Africa’s foremost anti-imperialist intergovernmental organization, the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

ALBA was proposed by the rebellious and charismatic military man turned revolutionary leader, Hugo Chavez, and came into fruition in 2004. The AES was formed just two-years ago, first as a defense agreement and then as a working confederation in 2024, by three soldiers who also became revolutionary leaders from the West African Sahel, namely Captain Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso, General Assimi Goïta of Mali, and General Abdourahamane Tiani of Niger.

Both ALBA and the AES have fiercely and boldly defended the self-determination of the peoples of South America and Africa. In ALBA, this has meant working towards greater integration between socialist and progressive states in Latin America and the Caribbean in order to increase economic cooperation and provide social services in the region all while resisting imperialist domination. In the AES, this has meant expelling the French military occupation in all three countries, nationalizing critical resources such as gold and uranium mines, and developing a shared defense and foreign policy with the goal of unifying into a future Pan-African federation.

ALBA references and draws inspiration from historical revolutionary figures in the region, particularly Simón Bolívar, José Martí, and Augusto Sandino. The AES looks up to African revolutionaries of the past such as Thomas Sankara, Modibo Keïta, and Djibo Bakary.

Both ALBA and the AES are at the forefront of the international struggle for a multipolar world, shifting global power from the NATO bloc to the Global South.

Relations Between the Peoples and the States

Yet, when the Burkinabé delegates made their way to Caracas, they found that among ordinary Venezuelans who had come out to support their president, along with delegates who arrived from various other parts of the Americas, some had been paying close attention to the updates and developments unfolding in Burkina Faso and the Sahel, while others had never heard of Burkina Faso before.

Back home in Burkina Faso, the reality is similar. Some Burkinabé have paid attention to Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution and have followed it for years, yet others are not familiar with the country and its resistance to US hegemonic control.

The mutual gaps in awareness and knowledge between the two revolutions may be due in part to the language barrier that separates the circulation of information and news between the Spanish-speaking and French-speaking international spheres. When exciting and important developments get translated for an international audience, it tends to go from Spanish to English or from French to English. The need to break down linguistic barriers between Africa and Latin America through more Spanish to French translation and vice versa was a takeaway for many African delegates to the festival.

Nevertheless, this international gathering of thousands of delegates from 125 various countries across the globe, was the perfect opportunity for grassroots organizers from Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, to learn directly from Venezuelans and other Latin Americans about the struggles of their region. It was also the perfect avenue for a two-way exchange that enabled Sahelian delegates to convey to Latin Americans the major changes sweeping this critical region of the African continent, sometimes with rusty English as an intermediary language or occasionally with the interpretation assistance of multilingual delegates.

Since the coming to power of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso and Venezuela have had closer relations than ever before. They have a joint cooperation commission and a parliamentary friendship group designed to help the two countries collaborate in the areas of health, agriculture, education, security, mining, oil, culture, air transport, communication, electoral issues, human rights, and more.

Yet beyond agreements between ministers and heads of state, the desire for this close relationship was felt on the level of the people and the social movements during President Nicolas Maduro’s inaugural meeting with the people and organizations who gathered to see him on 10 January 2025.

“Burkina Faso! Burkina Faso!” The crowd erupted in a chant as people from near and far joined the West African delegates in their aim of getting Venezuela’s beloved president to recognize their beloved homeland. Cheers erupted when President Maduro screamed “Viva Burkina Faso! Viva Africa!” to the impassioned audience.

Collectivos and Wayiyans

Every revolution has its particularities, but Venezuela and Burkina Faso share much in common, in the way that working-class people and farmers have taken the initiative to form grassroots organizations across the country that both support the revolutionary government, while also raising their demands and needs in a constructive manner to push it further.

The Burkinabé visitors were thrilled to meet with grassroots organizations and colectivos which formed independently from the government, but which work fiercely to defend and protect the Bolivarian revolution.They drew parallels between these groups and Burkina Faso’s Citizen’s Nightwatch (la Veille Citoyenne) also popularly known as Wayiyans, a grassroots network of thousands of organizations across the country that serve as the eyes and ears of the AES struggle and who tirelessly defend the government of Ibrahim Traoré from attack. Both the colectivos and the wayiyans have their own political visions and their own sets of demands which they assert to push the struggles in their country further and further to the left.

This must be what activists around the world mean when they cry out “power to the people!”

Venezuela–Africa Relations

As much as the Burkinabé were thrilled to be in South America for the first time learning from a country at the forefront of a shared interntional struggle, Venezuelans were equally excited to meet with delegates from Africa, a part of the world to which they trace their roots.

Hugo Chavez not only worked tirelessly into strengthening Venezuela’s relationship with the people and states of Africa, he also declared himself an afro-descendant. In 2005, Hugo Chavez stated,

“Racism is very characteristic of imperialism and capitalism. Hate against me has a lot to do with racism. Because of my big mouth and curly hair. And I’m so proud to have this mouth and this hair, because it is African.”

Chavez’s final letter to the world before he passed away, his letter to the III Africa – South America Summit (ASA) delivered on 22 February 2013, was essentially a love letter to Africa from Latin America, detailing all the ways in which African freedom fighters have shed their blood to liberate the Americas and how African revolutionaries have inspired the people of both hemispheres.

Under President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela hosted the 2019 Afro-descendant International Congress hosted with participation from both the African diaspora and the African continent. The Maduro government also oversaw the opening of The Center of African, American, and Caribbean Wisdoms (CAACW), a center dedicated to synthesizing and sharing African and African diasporic knowledge, which the Burkinabé delegates hope to visit and exchange with in future travels to Venezuela.

The longstanding efforts on the part of the Bolivarian Revolution to reclaim and uplift its African roots may be one reason why Venezuelans routinely flocked to take pictures with the Burkinabé and other African travellers in the dozens.

Conclusions from Inauguration

While the Burkinabé members of the Thomas Sankara Centre were thrilled to represent their country at Nicolas Maduro’s inauguration for his third presidential term, Burkinabé officials representing the government also attended the ceremonies and meetings. At the end of the events, the Legislative Assembly of Burkina Faso and the National Assembly of Venezuela signed a bilateral agreement for future collaboration. The Burkinabé Legislative Assembly will be returning to Venezuela to learn more from the National Assembly of Venezuela and Venezuela will organize a summit for African and Arab parliaments.

The Burkinabé activists and organizers who attended the inauguration like to imagine that they played a small role in strengthening this partnership. Afterall, Dr. Ousmane Bougouma, Burkina Faso’s President of the Legislative Assembly who stood near President Maduro on stage, smiled and waved at the cheering Burkinabé who riled up the audience, chanting “Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso,” until they finally captured President Maduro’s attention and his salute.

Ravenlocke

13th February 2025, 18:21

Text:
🇻🇪 Venezuela President Maduro: "They say USAID gave Juan Guaidó $5 billion. Did even a single dollar get to mothers, doctors, nurses? They stole everything for themselves! Being the opposition in Venezuela became a profitable business - now they're multimillionaires living in mansions. EVERYTHING we denounced was true!"

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1889853716137738543

1889853716137738543

Ravenlocke

3rd June 2025, 16:53

Text:
Venezuela's Maduro calls sanctions blessing in disguise — as they blocked western COVID vaccines

'God forbid, we would've had thousands of strokes and hundreds dead, like what happened in Europe and the US,' Maduro said

'By trying to harm us, they ended up doing us a favor'

https://x.com/RT_com/status/1929854640545304727

1929854640545304727

Ravenlocke

8th August 2025, 17:25

God help Venezueza when Trump is back in. He (and his CIA pals) will finish the job he started in his first term.* Venezuela will be the next Syria. Maduro will be executed by CIA-fomented gangsters, the country will be taken over by "moderate rebels", and the USA, Inc. will take control of one of the largest deposits of oil in the world, as well as possibly the largest deposit of gold in the world. Syria, Greenland, Venezuela - low hanging fruit for the USA, Inc. pirates and their new leader, Orangebeard the Pirate.

Vaya con Dios, Venezuela!

*(Trump regime indicted Venezuela's president Maduro, his cabinet members, and top generals, 13 people in all, as "narco-terrorists", with the key word "terrorist" in there to utilize the extra power the USA, Inc. gave itself internationally. The trump regime also officially recognized some douchebag that was the equivalent of a Senator or MP as the legitimate President of Venezuela, but the ruse fell apart. Trump regime also declared war on Venezuela, in the modern warfare method outlined by John Perkins, "Phase I of Modern War is Economic", with crippling sanctions.

To be fair to Trump that this wasn't his idea but rather a Deep State plan, we must note that yet another psychopathic douchebag, Joe Biden, went along with all the criminally insane BS the Deep State told Trump to do. This provides a powerful and specific example that Trump is just as bad as Biden, and that it is Deep State agenda that is the modus operandi of the USA, Inc. government. )

From Max Blumenthal,

This is so dumb, it’s a bigger reward than they ever offered for Osama Bin Laden. This is all the more pathetic when you know it’s just cope, a bone for the anti-Maduro hardliners in Florida after Chevron got a new license to operate in Venezuela.

https://x.com/GranadosCeja/status/1953636681120203164

1953636681120203164

Back to core competence…another way to “legally” bomb everyone

Trump is preparing to bomb drug cartels around the world.

The New York Times reports that the president has ordered the Pentagon to use US armed forces to conduct direct military operations at sea and on the territory of foreign states against the cartels.

https://x.com/Zlatti_71/status/1953832816757600678

1953832816757600678

Ravenlocke

8th August 2025, 17:34

This is why America put a $50 Million Bounty on Venezuelan President Maduro:

"Who's the one that bombs their neighbouring countries every day, Iran?

No. The Zionist state led by Netanyahu."

https://x.com/Kahlissee/status/1953626940927295634

1953626940927295634

Ravenlocke

8th August 2025, 17:37

Alex Christoforou,

Maduro, $50 million bounty. President Venezeula.
Al-Jolani, $̶1̶0̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶b̶o̶u̶n̶t̶y̶. President of Syria.

https://x.com/AXChristoforou/status/1953855306544357814

1953855306544357814

bojancan

10th August 2025, 00:04

Aug, 9
The Jimmy Dore Show
1.6M subscribers

Venezuela’s President Offers $50 MILLION For Epstein Files Release!
6OIINKCbmSA

The U.S. government has placed a $50 million bounty on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, ostensibly for drug trafficking fentanyl-laced cocaine to the United States, but in truth as a means to grab a hold of Venezuela's oil and to silence a key critic of U.S. foreign policy.

Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger point out connections between U.S. intelligence agencies and drug cartels, the ongoing opioid crisis, and immigration policies, suggesting these are deliberate and systemic rather than accidental.

Maduro’s counteroffer of a $50 million reward for the release of the Epstein files is presented as a political jab aimed at reminding Americans of the scandal President Trump is desperate to stop talking about.

Ravenlocke

16th August 2025, 18:23

#Venezuela |
The Network of Young Parliamentarians declared its support for President Nicolas Maduro while denouncing the United States government’s imperialist aggression against the Bolivarian nation.

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1956401849851879911

1956401849851879911

https://www.telesurenglish.net/venezuelan-young-lawmakers-pledge-full-support-to-president-maduro/?noamp=available

Venezuelan Young Lawmakers Pledge Full Support to President Maduro

They are ready to defend their nation’s sovereignty against any attempt at domination.

On Thursday, Venezuela’s Network of Young Parliamentarians declared its support for President Nicolas Maduro while denouncing the U.S. government’s imperialist aggression against the Bolivarian nation.

RELATED:

Diosdado Cabello Dismisses U.S. Alleged Seizure of $700 Million Belonging to President Maduro

In a statement, the network “firmly and categorically” rejected “the new interventionist actions by the U.S. government aimed at undermining the peace, stability and democratic institutions of our homeland.”

It also condemned the recent “baseless accusations and measures” announced by the U.S. Justice Department, calling them a new attempt to encourage extremist sectors and attack President Maduro.

The network, which includes national lawmakers, city council members, regional legislators and communal parliamentarians, reaffirmed its support for Maduro, stressing that he was “elected by the sovereign will of the people in the free, plural and transparent elections of July 28, 2024.”

The Venezuelan parliamentarians denounced the “criminal nature of unilateral coercive measures” for directly harming the development of young people and the future of the nation.

From “the sacred chamber where Venezuela’s Act of Independence rests,” the young parliamentarians recalled the independence struggle, declaring themselves “direct heirs of the immortal deed of independence and therefore unwavering guardians of that legacy.”

They called on those “seeking political power through alternative means” to respect the Venezuelan Constitution and democracy, warning that the legislative branch will defend democracy and enforce the law.

The statement ended with a strong demand that the U.S. government “end its interventionist and aggressive policy, respect the sovereignty of Bolivar’s people, its Constitution, and its inalienable right to decide its destiny.”

The young Venezuelan legislators pledged to “defend, with laws, with words, and if necessary, with our lives, the sovereignty of our nation against any attempt at domination.”

Jaak

21st August 2025, 16:54

1957593639091102193
1958248982515523956

norman

22nd August 2025, 14:02

1957593639091102193

U.S. WARSHIPS En Route to Venezuela — Trump Takes on Maduro’s 4.5 Million Cartel Militia
Ninoscorner

https://rumble.com/v6xweao-u.s.-warships-en-route-to-venezuela-trump-takes-on-maduros-4.5-million-cart.html?start=246

https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NYx5c_ClsKInsFVkm8w9gzu82BrmJ4fteMDDfirjuLHkHvwL_rsiCPh_clpfYkY2VaNIZ322A8QsTYyNudto3Dq7IEceecW zLyTbHgSuYZtmPT9tbFbeaK2IsZ-RUGwlQe5EqalfZjeEa2br6q4Lu_sd6lhInIkyi8bEjrqtvlIqW6U0HeL6pBNr0QTSzDnutrlRmvbjR-rzFzX9gaH2ZnyZBzi9vsMcD2qY_3EVmVizw6ZnJZkk95g5r0akWeUZfy4i7t_q9-_xrVQf50SUz9En3BUecqaYhuWW4y8PhDEuqrxbFXpFtd5PA=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1448,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F13e693ce-f2c7-4f07-80df-111a3cdafb3d_474x315.jpeg

This is a handy, 4-minute information piece, ideal for the attention span-challenged by Patrick Byrne about the structure of the Major "Mexican" Cartels that are a formidable flank in the current World War against the USA.

Unbeknownst to most, Patrick explains how the Mexican Cartels actually work for the Venezuelan Government, which is a Nation-State Mafia, run by the Generals of the Venezuelan military, known as the Cartel of the Suns.

A major objective of the Chavista Revolution is to overthrow the United States and to impose Global Communism, a goal shared by the World Economic Forum, the UN, the EU, the Vatican, the British Crown (i.e., MI6, Serco, CIA, US State Department, Senior Executive Service), the CCP, Cuba and their associated organs and NGOs.

Patrick doesn't get into the finer points, here about how these Major Cartels fit into the grander scheme of the global crime syndicate that controls this planet (which includes all of the above), or about how Venezuelan voting technology has already overthrown the governments of over 70 countries.

Patrick also doesn't get into how the Globalist WEF-UN agenda is to not only overthrow nations but to overthrow the human race, itself, through Transhumanism, via injected/inhaled nanoparticles and the 6G wireless communications network.

However, Patrick did post separately to Telegram on December 29th: "The Catholic Church has, over the last two decades become the bitch of the Venezuelan mafia. A Venezuelan archbishop criminal oversees the Bank of the Vatican. Patrick Michael Xavier Byrne (i.e., raised Catholic)."

Contributed by Alexandra Bruce (https://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/cartels-edge-of-the-wedge-of-the-cuban-venezuelan-conquest-of-the-usa/)

https://rumble.com/v64299g-cartels-edge-of-the-wedge-of-the-cuban-venezuelan-conquest-of-the-usa.html

v61tu8m/?pub=1yatds

v6vpi1u/?pub=1yatds&start=337

Rizotto

23rd August 2025, 09:17

Why would Trump go after Maduro at this point in time on the pretext of 'drug cartels' ? Trump has the means to stop drug trafficking from getting across the USA border, which should be a lot more effective for stopping drugs than starting another regime change war.

Sabby Sabs proposes the real goal is to control Venezuela's oil resources:

US SENDS Troops To Venezuela

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXx_K-OEXWU

HOWEVER, there's a lot more at stake. Trump may be trying to counter Russia's growing influence.

Remember that in 2023 Venezuela made an official request to join the BRICS.
https://news.bitcoin.com/venezuela-presents-official-request-to-join-brics/

There is a long history of military cooperation between Russia and Venezuela, including joint military exercises:
https://tfiglobalnews.com/2025/07/09/russias-military-expansion-in-venezuela-new-ammunition-hub-to-challenge-u-s-pax-americana/

Most striking is this August 3, 2025 article:
https://www.thekhybermail.com/russia-eyes-venezuela-for-potential-deployment-of-oreshnik-hypersonic-missiles/
Russia Eyes Venezuela for Potential Deployment of Oreshnik Hypersonic Missiles

Ravenlocke

23rd August 2025, 13:18

🇻🇪🇺🇲 Democracy has arrived on the shores of the country with the largest oil reserves in the world.

https://x.com/Megatron_ron/status/1958477133963030829

Ravenlocke

23rd August 2025, 13:22

🇨🇴🚁💥 A Colombian police helicopter was shot down during an anti-narcotics operation in rural Amalfi, Antioquia. At least 8 officers were killed and 8 others injured.

President Gustavo Petro blamed the attack on the 36th Front of the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), FARC dissidents who rejected the 2016 peace deal.

🇺🇸 The U.S. has recently accused Maduro’s Venezuela of arming the FARC. But historically, Washington itself spent decades funding and weaponizing factions in Colombia, including training paramilitaries, arming death squads, and running Plan Colombia under the banner of “counter-narcotics.”

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1958674604463202410

1958674604463202410

🇻🇪 Maduro Calls for National Enlistment of Bolivarian Militia

President Nicolás Maduro has called for a national enlistment of the Bolivarian Militia this weekend, activating 15,751 Popular Defense Bases across the country.

“I call all militiamen, militiawomen, and reservists to the ranks.”

Once again, Venezuela is preparing to defend its sovereignty, not only against external threats, but against two decades of U.S. coup attempts, sanctions, sabotage, and destabilization.

The truth?

The U.S. has never succeeded in toppling the Bolivarian Revolution. From the failed 2002 coup, to the clown-show Guaidó project, to the botched Operation Gideon, every regime change attempt has collapsed.

Let them try again.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1958695798407143612

1958695798407143612

DD Geopolitics
@DD_Geopolitics
🇺🇸🇨🇴🇻🇪 Propaganda ramps up.

Another attack has been reported, this time a truck bomb near a Colombian air base in Cali.

Media instantly points to “Venezuela-backed FARC terrorists.” Another narrative brick laid.

Washington’s gearing up to paint Maduro as a narco-terrorist menace. Classic playbook: demonize, destabilize, justify intervention.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1958698497873781128

1958698497873781128

Ravenlocke

23rd August 2025, 13:28

Statement from Guyana, the Israel of South America, a fake state used to steal oil and provoke states the West wants to go to war with i.e. Venezuela.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1958963621205352859

1958963621205352859

Ravenlocke

23rd August 2025, 13:33

🇺🇸✈️🇻🇪 U.S. Surveillance Ops Near Venezuela

Last night, around 1:00 AM local time, a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft was spotted conducting intelligence-gathering operations over the Caribbean Sea, just off the Venezuelan coast.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1959050318031069486

1959050318031069486

Ravenlocke

23rd August 2025, 13:36

#Venezuela | The Government rejected United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Director Terry Cole's statements, describing them as part of a groundless media campaign to justify new imperialist aggressions against the South American country.

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1958997607709385056

1958997607709385056

Ravenlocke

23rd August 2025, 13:43

🇻🇪🔥 Maduro Mobilizes 4.5 Million Militias

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has declared the mobilization of 4.5 million rural and urban militia membersto form combat-ready units tasked with defending the nation’s territory, peace, and sovereignty against increasing U.S. threats.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1959049857429381328

1959049857429381328

Ravenlocke

23rd August 2025, 14:08

Text:
Alex is shilling for Wall Street’s money-laundering cartels! Richard Grasso, NYSE boss from ’95 to ’03, embraces FARC’s narcoterrorist Raúl Reyes, proving the U.S. financial elite swims in dirty cash.

https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/1958639449849700852

1958639449849700852

Ravenlocke

24th August 2025, 00:10

#Venezuela | Vice President Delcy Rodriguez held a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, thanking Moscow for its “unconditional support” in the face of escalating threats from the United States.

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1959359993922363676

1959359993922363676

https://www.telesurenglish.net/venezuela-and-russia-reaffirm-strategic-alliance-amid-rising-u-s-military-pressure/?noamp=available

Venezuela and Russia Reaffirm Strategic Alliance Amid Rising U.S. Military Pressure

Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez held a phone call Friday morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, thanking Moscow for its “unconditional support” in the face of escalating threats from the United States.

RELATED:
Venezuelan Oil Output Exceeds One Million Barrels Per Day in July

The conversation comes amid heightened tensions following Washington’s deployment of naval forces near Venezuelan waters and renewed accusations against President Nicolás Maduro.

Rodríguez described Lavrov as a “good friend of Venezuela” and emphasized the strength of bilateral cooperation. According to her statement on Telegram, the two officials discussed the “beneficial course” of their strategic agenda and reiterated their shared commitment to defending international law and multilateral institutions, including the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Lavrov’s solidarity with Caracas, expressing full support for Venezuela’s efforts to protect national sovereignty and institutional stability amid growing external pressure.

During the call, Rodríguez also voiced Venezuela’s support for Russia’s peace initiatives regarding the war in Ukraine, framing them within the broader struggle against neofascism. Both leaders agreed on the need to advance a multipolar world order and strengthen global cooperation frameworks.

The exchange follows a wave of international backing for Venezuela this week. China, Iran, and member states of the ALBA-TCP alliance have condemned U.S. actions and reaffirmed their support for the Bolivarian Revolution. These nations also reiterated their commitment to the 2014 Declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, adopted during a CELAC summit in Havana.

The declaration affirms the region’s pledge to resolve disputes peacefully and reject the use or threat of force. It also commits states to non-intervention, respect for sovereignty, and the principles of equality and self-determination—core tenets of the UN Charter.

Ravenlocke

24th August 2025, 00:24

🇻🇪🇷🇺 Russian Coastal Missile Systems for Venezuela

by Elena Panina

Washington has ordered the reinforcement of the US Navy's presence in the southern Caribbean Sea—allegedly to combat drug cartels. This involves the additional deployment of 4,000 troops, P-8 anti-submarine aircraft, a group of universal amphibious assault ships, three guided-missile destroyers, and even a nuclear submarine.

▪️ It is obvious that the “Venezuelan drug cartels” (why not Colombian?) are merely a pretext. The plan is to pressure the official government in Caracas. Direct military aggression is also not out of the question. Incidentally, the US Department of Justice and State Department recently doubled the reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million. US Attorney General Pam Bondi even called him “one of the world's largest drug traffickers” and a threat to US national security.

American arrogance could be taken down a peg and a potential invasion prevented by quickly supplying Venezuela with Russian mobile coastal missile systems. Specifically, the Bal and Bastion systems. Optionally, on a reimbursable basis.

Indeed, the Americans boast that they do not give weapons to Kiev but sell them. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently emphasized this. Similarly, we could supply Caracas with weapons on a reimbursable basis, even with deferred payment. This would be an action fully symmetrical to American supplies to Ukraine. Let them walk a mile in our shoes, at least partially.

Furthermore, Russia is not interested in the fall of the current Venezuelan government. We have, by the way, already saved Maduro once in 2019, during Trump's first term. Back then, on March 23, 2019, two Russian aircraft arrived in Venezuela: an An-124 transport carrying 35 tons of cargo and an Il-62 passenger plane with 99 military personnel led by Chief of the Main Staff of the Ground Forces—First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, Colonel General Vasily Tonkoshkurov…

https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/1959335995410956597

1959335995410956597

Ravenlocke

24th August 2025, 00:26

🇨🇳🇻🇪 Chinese Company Invests Billion Dollars in Venezuelan Oil Extraction

by Yuri Baranchik 🇷🇺

China Concord Resources Corp has commenced development of two oil fields in Venezuela, planning to invest over $1 billion in a project aimed at producing 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day by the end of 2026. This is a significant event for Venezuela, which has faced difficulties attracting foreign capital due to international sanctions against the administration of President Nicolás Maduro. The investment amount and production plan are being disclosed for the first time.

Beijing currently purchases over 90% of Venezuela’s total oil exports, but since 2019, China’s state-owned company CNPC has ceased direct purchases of Venezuelan oil due to sanctions. Thus, they have begun operating through the private sector.

In this context, the obsessive desire of the United States to “combat drug trafficking” by deploying a fleet of ships, including a submarine, near Venezuela becomes clearer. And the chances of an attempted coup in Caracas are much higher.

Logically, one should expect some sort of “El Maidan” in Venezuela and the resurgence of anti-tyranny fighters in the local jungles. A submarine is entirely unnecessary for fighting drug cartels, but a fleet sent as a means of missile strike would be quite suitable.

It is also interesting why China has become concerned with Venezuelan oil. It should be understood that they are seeking a backup option in case the US takes real action against Russian oil. And these actions are not necessarily limited to sanctions; blocking shipments through the Baltic and Black Seas is not difficult with the technology and ready-to-do-anything extremists from Ukraine.

https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/1959344218381668769

1959344218381668769

bojancan

26th August 2025, 02:08

Just checked this video... Alex... :facepalm::facepalm:

Aug, 24
Kim Iversen
657K subscribers
Are We About To INVADE Venezeula? U.S. Sends Battleships...
O6VxVnJPAWw

Trump has deployed three U.S. warships to Venezuela’s coast after issuing an arrest warrant for Maduro — is regime change next?

Ravenlocke

26th August 2025, 15:34

Brian Berletic,

🇺🇲🇻🇪 US Threats to Venezuela Expose "Secured Border" Myth

- President Trump claims to have "secured" American borders but still claims fentanyl and other drugs are flowing into the country, blaming a list of nations the "deep state" (neocon, globalists, etc) has sought to overthrow for decades including Venezuela;

- ending drug abuse requires a combination of border security and internal security, something many nations have achieved including both Singapore and China, neither nation invaded and took over countries drugs were produced in;

- if drugs continue to be a US problem it is because President Trump lied and the borders are NOT secure, and nothing serious has been done to address the socio-economic factors INSIDE the US driving the problem;

- blaming "China" or "Venezuela" is simply the latest "WMDs" style lie told by the deep state and its servants including the Trump administration and media supporting it, to sell endless war abroad - the same endless war many Americans voted in Trump to stop, but are now rationalizing because Trump told them to;

- Trump supporters cannot see they are exactly where Obama supporters were during his 8 years in office and how they rationalized and excused the constant betrayal of his campaign promises;

- until Americans demand accountability and stop treating legitimate criticism of their favorite politicians as "derangement" or even "treason," America will continue its decline;

https://x.com/BrianJBerletic/status/1959506983369035875

1959506983369035875

Ravenlocke

26th August 2025, 15:36

The US: "Venezuela is a danger to the US."

Also the US:

https://x.com/thatdayin1992/status/1959911125807444072

1959911125807444072

Ravenlocke

26th August 2025, 15:37

From BreakThrough News,

Thousands of Venezuelans mobilized to enlist in a civilian militia in response to U.S. threats to invade.

Trump deployed U.S. war ships off the coast of Venezuela and put a $50 million bounty on President Maduro’s head

https://x.com/BTnewsroom/status/1960054256595333202

1960054256595333202

Ravenlocke

28th August 2025, 22:21

‼️🇻🇪🇺🇸The USA controls the drug business and should heal its own society, not fight abroad, — Venezuelan President Maduro

▪️Nicolas Maduro stated in an interview with the program Zona Digital that Washington's main problem is not the "fight for democracy" overseas, but its own mafia controlling the global drug trade.
➖"They need to heal their society. They have made American society sick. This harms humanity, but the USA is the country with the highest drug consumption in the world," Maduro emphasized.
▪️According to him, the USA previously justified military invasions as a "fight against terrorism," but now they have changed the label to "fight against drug trafficking." But it is Washington, the leader of Venezuela noted, that controls this business worldwide.
- RVvoenkor

https://x.com/Zlatti_71/status/1961144162507780469

1961144162507780469

Ravenlocke

28th August 2025, 22:50

US warships are closing in on Venezuela

"One of the reasons we have...given licenses to Chevron and a number of service companies...is to make it easier in the recovery of oil production..after the regime is replaced.”

-Elliot Abrams on Venezuela🇻🇪 during the 1st Trump Administration

The goal is regime change, to install a puppet government, and rob Venezuela’s oil resources

https://x.com/GUnderground_TV/status/1960619739014697412

1960619739014697412

Ravenlocke

29th August 2025, 20:33

🇻🇪📄🇺🇳 “No a la guerra. Sí a la soberanía y la paz!”

Venezuela’s Maduro has sent an urgent letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres, warning of a “grave hemispheric threat” as the U.S. deploys warships and a nuclear submarine to the Caribbean.

He cites violations of:
– The UN Charter
– Treaty of Tlatelolco (nuclear-free zone)
– CELAC’s Zone of Peace

Maduro accuses the U.S. of waging lawfare and threatening military intervention under a pretext of regime change. He demands immediate UN action.

🖊️ His final handwritten note:
“No a la guerra. Sí a la soberanía y la paz!”
(No to war. Yes to sovereignty and peace!)

(Google translation isn't that great.)

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1961507106299023852

1961507106299023852

Ravenlocke

29th August 2025, 20:45

#Russia🇷🇺 expressed its full support for the people and Government of #Venezuela🇻🇪 following the recent deployment of U.S. warships off the coasts of the South American country.

https://x.com/teleSURtv/status/1961504129353974233

1961504129353974233

https://www.telesurtv.net/rusia-respalda-venezuela-estados-unidos-paz/

Peace Zone: Russia supports the Venezuelan people in the face of military threats from the United States

The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that Moscow "categorically rejects the threat of the use of force against sovereign states as an instrument of foreign policy."

Russia expressed its full support for the people and the Government of Venezuela after the recent deployment of US warships off the coast of the South American country, in what has been perceived as a new escalation of military pressure by Washington.

READ ALSO:
Binational zone: Maduro thanks Petro for military reinforcement against narco-terrorist gangs

The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that Moscow "categorically rejects the threat of the use of force against sovereign states as an instrument of foreign policy" and stressed that Venezuela has "the inalienable right to freely determine its political, economic and social path without external pressures."

Russia reiterated that Venezuelan sovereignty must be respected and alerted the international community to the risk involved in the militarization of the Caribbean by the United States.

The White House has intensified pressure measures, including economic sanctions, threats of maritime blockade and the reactivation of narratives that try to justify the military presence in the region under the argument of fighting alleged "drug cartels."

Like Russia, China, Iran, Belarus, as well as countries in the region such as Colombia, Mexico, Cuba and Nicaragua, among others, have rejected the US military deployment. Likewise, the Organization of the Security Cooperation Treaty (OCSC) and nations of the multipolar axis that have warned that any aggression against Venezuela could destabilize the entire Latin American and Caribbean region.

Ravenlocke

30th August 2025, 21:11

From Wikileaks,

The sudden deployment of a US naval attack group toward the coast of Venezuela is raising fears of an expensive new military conflict in Latin America.

The legal cover for the tasking of the seven warships, surveillance aircraft, 2200 Marines and a nuclear attack submarine is an executive order in January 2025 and subsequent reclassification of eight organised crime syndicates as foreign terrorist organisations for the first time.

In May 2025 Secretary of State Marco Rubio was concurrently appointed National Security Advisor—the first time since Henry Kissinger that someone has held both roles.

The decision in early August 2025 to deploy the US military against “narco-terrorists” potentially leaves strikes by these forces outside Congressional authority.

The US expedition has galvanised opposition around the region, with the Latin American and Caribbean trading bloc ALBA-TCP issuing a communique describing the military escalation as “a direct attack on Venezuela's independence, but also a threat to the stability and self-determination of all the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Samuel Moncada, Venezuela's ambassador to the U.N described the deployment as “a massive propaganda operation to justify what the experts call kinetic action—meaning military intervention in a country which is a sovereign and independent country....it's ridiculous to think that they're fighting drug trafficking with nuclear submarines.”

https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1961798873321447899

1961798873321447899

Ravenlocke

30th August 2025, 21:12

BREAKING

🚨🚨🚨

Large blackout in parts of Caracas, Venezuela.

Unconfirmed reports that it is under a cyber attack.

https://x.com/intelFromBrian/status/1961893765880111268

1961893765880111268

Ravenlocke

30th August 2025, 21:15

Fishermen, aquaculture workers, motorized groups, communal farmers, and all the people of #Venezuela 🇻🇪 are in the streets to defend their sovereignty and the right to live in peace.

https://x.com/teleSURtv/status/1961896662768431347

1961896662768431347

Ravenlocke

30th August 2025, 21:19

Today, August 30, in Caracas, Venezuela, the motorized march is taking place, in repudiation of the interventionist actions by the United States against the South American country.

https://x.com/teleSURtv/status/1961885860766400973

1961885860766400973

Ravenlocke

1st September 2025, 00:06

From RT,

US Navy buildup off Venezuela GROWS

Destroyer USS Sampson seen in Panama

Official line: ‘to DISMANTLE drug trafficking organizations’

BUT main drug trade routes don’t even run where they’re deploying — Reuters

So what’s Trump planning?

American WARSHIP moves closer to Venezuela after Trump orders deployment

USS Lake Erie now in Caribbean Sea, crossing Panama Canal

47 planning regime change?

https://x.com/RT_com/status/1962276355627995381

1962276355627995381

Ravenlocke

1st September 2025, 00:07

🇻🇪🇨🇳 Jorge Rodríguez travels to China amid tensions between Venezuela and the US

A Venezuelan delegation led by the President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, arrived in the city of Beijing to participate in the commemorative events for the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance, according to Últimas Noticias.

Rodríguez arrives in China amid military tensions between the United States and Venezuela due to the deployment of military ships and submarines in the Caribbean.

At the event held in Beijing is Vladimir Putin, Russian head of state, with whom it is speculated he could meet.

VNR

https://x.com/dana916/status/1962277122204139687

1962277122204139687

Ravenlocke

1st September 2025, 01:32

US General Laura Richardson lays bare the naked truth: the US doesn’t care about democracy, human rights, or any 'rules-based order.'
It’s a global predator, stripping other nations of their resources while feeding its own empire.
Every word about 'defending freedom' is a lie, a cynical cover for naked imperialist greed.

https://x.com/ricwe123/status/1962267217648869413

1962267217648869413

Ravenlocke

1st September 2025, 05:57

🇺🇸🇻🇪 U.S. Naval Buildup Escalates Near Venezuela

The USS Lake Erie (CG-70) has now joined an expanding U.S. fleet in the Caribbean. At least eight American warships, including the USS Iwo Jima, USS San Antonio, and USS Newport News, are deployed across the SOUTHCOM area of operations.

📍Together, these vessels represent ~12% of the entire U.S. Navy currently at sea. A clear signal: the pressure campaign on Venezuela is accelerating.

🇺🇸🇵🇦 The US Navy destroyer USS Sampson (DDG-102) turned on its AIS system at dock in Panama City outside of the Panama Canal.

USS Sampson is one of the 3x Arleigh Burke class DDGs set to deploy to the coast of Venezuela

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1962357955548086292

1962357955548086292

Ravenlocke

1st September 2025, 20:20

From Russia News,

🚨⚡️Venezuela President Maduro:

Eight warships with 1,200 missiles, as well as a nuclear submarine, are targeting Venezuela.

https://x.com/mog_russEN/status/1962580852187050190

1962580852187050190

From TeleSur English,

FromTheSouth | The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Maria Zakharova, expressed her government's support for Venezuela.

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1962602610713575730

1962602610713575730

Brazil | Social organizations, unions, and political entities issued a document addressed to President Lula da Silva and Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, expressing their concern over the US military maneuvers in the Caribbean, close to the Venezuelan coast

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1962606388447703165

1962606388447703165

Ravenlocke

1st September 2025, 20:22

From DD Geopolitics,

🇺🇸❌🇻🇪 The U.S. has announced a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López.

Cocaine? Lol wut?

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1962598736175210967

1962598736175210967

Ravenlocke

1st September 2025, 20:27

From Sputnik Brasília,

Translated from Portuguese by Grok
⚠️📌 Specialist warns of the risk of dangerous precedents with U.S. actions in Venezuela

Professor Carolina Silva Pedroso points out that the current situation in South America is unprecedented since the early 20th century, when Venezuela faced a blockade due to external debts.
According to her, regional leaders have a crucial role in trying to reduce tensions, aware that a direct attack by the United States on Venezuela would have serious consequences.

"A direct attack by the United States on Venezuela is disastrous, whether because it could further worsen the humanitarian situation in the country, increase the flow of immigrants, increase the degree… of economic instability […]," explains the professor.

She also warns of the risk of dangerous precedents for other countries.

"If Venezuela is framed within this symbiosis of the war on terror and the war on drugs, nothing could prevent other countries in the region from also becoming targets — including Colombia and Brazil itself," she stated

https://x.com/sputnik_brasil/status/1962607850661765313

1962607850661765313

Ravenlocke

2nd September 2025, 22:28

Rubio Says the US Military Conducted a ‘Lethal Strike’ Against a ‘Drug Vessel’ That Departed Venezuela
#Venezuela #Maduro #MarcoRubio
https://news.antiwar.com/2025/09/02/trump-and-rubio-say-the-us-military-conducted-a-lethal-strike-against-a-drug-vessel-that-departed-venezuela/

https://x.com/Antiwarcom/status/1962969922616582583

1962969922616582583

bojancan

2nd September 2025, 22:41

All the same... Trump is not better than Biden... brilliant extraordinary analyze by Berletić about these topics.. about Venezuela, Serbia and Indonesia... always the same agenda!!! And Venezuela crude oil is on the menu again... ja, for sure!!!

Sept, 2
The New Atlas
296K subscribers
Deep Dive: From Venezuela to Serbia & Indonesia, NED-Funded Color Revolution Continues Under Trump
rABDOqR0o-A

Examining US regime change operations targeting Venezuela, Serbia, and Indonesia through an in-depth examination of how the US sells regime change to its own population and how it implements it within a targeted nation.

References:

CBS News - U.S. guided-missile cruiser spotted crossing the Panama Canal after warships deployed to Venezuela (Aug. 30, 2025):
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-guide...
The White House - PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT: Border Security Achieved in Fewer Than 100 Days (Apr. 28, 2025):
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2...
NPR - Biden reinstates sanctions on Venezuela (2024):
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/18/124565...
NYT - Who Really Brought Down Milosevic? (2000):
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/26/ma...
Guardian - Serbia cannot accept violent street protests (Aug. 29, 2025):
https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...
Guardian - The Guardian view on protests in Serbia: a battle for democracy that the EU must not ignore (Aug. 25, 2025): https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...
National Endowment for Democracy - Homepage (accessed September 2025):
https://www.ned.org/
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) - Grant Listings FY24, Europe:
https://www.ned.org/wp-content/upload...
NED - NED’s Duty of Care and Public Disclosure Policies (Apr. 2025):
https://www.ned.org/ned-policy/
Center for Investigative Journalism in Serbia - About Us:
https://www.cins.rs/en/about-us/
Global Investigative Journalism Network - Sponsors and Supporters:
https://gijn.org/about-us/sponsors-an...
BIRN - Donors and Partners:
https://birnsrbija.rs/donatori-i-part...
Danas - Homepage:
https://www.danas.rs/
KRIK - News:
https://www.krik.rs/en/news/
CNN - Indonesia’s deadly protests paused but deep resentment remains. Here’s what to know (Sept. 1, 2025):
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/01/as...
The Ford Foundation - Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation Grant (for 2023-2028: https://web.archive.org/web/202404151...
HURISGHTS OSAKA - Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation:Struggling for Democracy and its Own Sustainability (2004):
https://www.hurights.or.jp/archives/f....
Mongabay - ‘Without us, no scrutiny’: Indonesia’s independent media count cost of US funding cuts (Mar. 2025):
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/wit...
Remotivi - X:
https://x.com/remotivi?lang=en
Project Multatuli - X:
https://x.com/projectm_org/status/196...
BBC - How a cartoon skull became a symbol of defiance in Indonesia (Aug. 7, 2025):
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3e...
AFSC - Indonesia: Strengthening Diversity Through Narrative Change:
https://afsc.org/programs/indonesia-s....
AFSC - Annual Reports:
https://afsc.org/reports-financials
The New Atlas - Twitter Supports US State Department’s “Milk Tea Alliance” with Emojis (2021):
• Twitter Supports US State Department’s “Mi...

Where to Find My Work:

Website: https://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/brianlovethailand
Twitter: / brianjberletic
Rumble (YouTube alternative): https://rumble.com/c/c-1459863

Ravenlocke

3rd September 2025, 00:41

Ravenlocke

3rd September 2025, 21:34

From Combate,

Maduro is right

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1962611605608239334

1962611605608239334

🇻🇪 President Maduro: "Marco Rubio is warmongering against Venezuela while having friendly meetings with Ecuador President Daniel Noboa, the man who actually traffics 60% of Colombian cocaine into the United States and Europe"

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1962582711639404998

1962582711639404998

🇻🇪 MADURO: "President Trump, you need to watch out, because Marco Rubio wants to stain your hands with blood. They want to drag you into a bloodbath

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1962577249586077751

1962577249586077751

⚡️ MADURO: "We are seeing how the Miami mafia has taken political power in the White House and State Department. They have 'Miami-fied' U.S. foreign policy in the worst sense"

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1962573484040532287

1962573484040532287

bojancan

4th September 2025, 16:12

Peace president!

Sept, 4
The Jimmy Dore Show
1.62M subscribers
The REAL Reason Trump Blew Up A Venezuelan “Drug Boat”!
RVHHaWxyW8k

bojancan

4th September 2025, 18:20

Krystal and Saagar discuss Trump plotting regime change in Venezuela.
IMO... this administration's decision I would categorize it as state terrorism.... Period!!! Thanks Trump!!!!

Sept, 4
Breaking Points
1.61M subscribers
Is Trump Planning VENEZUELA Regime Change?
9efJlVD9JYk

Ravenlocke

4th September 2025, 18:23

From RT,

'We're in a business of KILL or BE KILLED' — Pete Hegseth to US troops

That line hits harder now, after the US sank a motorboat off Venezuela in neutral waters, killing 11 and violating international law

https://x.com/RT_com/status/1963643780440944798

1963643780440944798

Ravenlocke

4th September 2025, 18:25

From DD Geopolitics,

🇺🇸❌🇻🇪 U.S. Navy forces spotted ~550 km off the Venezuelan coast in the Caribbean Sea.

Satellite imagery confirms the presence of:
• USS Iwo Jima (Wasp Class LHD)
• 2x San Antonio Class LPDs
• 1x Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer

All part of an escalating SOUTHCOM “counter-narcotics” mission that many fear is a cover for growing pressure on Venezuela.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1963409671844405572

1963409671844405572

Ravenlocke

4th September 2025, 18:27

From DD Geopolitics,

🇻🇪🇨🇴🇺🇸 Colombian President Gustavo Petro responds to U.S. bombing of a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean:

“If this is true, it’s murder.”

The strike killed 11 people, which USA claimed to be members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua. But Petro warns the victims may have been impoverished youth, not kingpins.

“We’ve been capturing civilians transporting drugs for decades without killing them. Those transporting drugs aren’t the big traffickers, but the very poor young people of the Caribbean and the Pacific.”

🇺🇸 U.S. Gusano in Chief warned that his country could once again strike vessels whenever they want:

“The president has declared those organizations, Tren de Aragua, Cartel de los Soles and all the others, as narcoterrorist groups designated under U.S. law, operating in international waters, aiming to bring drugs to the streets of the United States. And the president used force and power to prevent and protect the U.S., and a boat was blown up. And it can happen again, it could be happening right now, tomorrow, or in a few weeks.”

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1963396594960876004

1963396594960876004

Ravenlocke

4th September 2025, 23:54

From DD Geopolitics,

🇻🇪🇺🇸 BREAKING! 2 Venezuelan F-16s Buzz U.S. Warship in the Caribbean

In a bold show of force, two armed Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over the USS Jason Dunham earlier today, according to CBS News.

The Dunham is part of a larger U.S. naval flotilla deployed under the pretext of “counter-narcotics” operations, targeting what Washington calls criminal organizations and narco-terrorism in the region.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1963751312845365304

1963751312845365304

Ravenlocke

5th September 2025, 00:30

Judge Napolitano,

*** [SPECIAL - Venezuela ] - Anya Parampil : US Murders on the High Seas.

https://x.com/Judgenap/status/1963649006313365570

1963649006313365570

bojancan

5th September 2025, 17:26

They were talking few topics... not only Venezuela.. very interesting opinion about Tulsi I have... there is no position, she has today where she hasn't held the opposite position in the past... I remember.. if she is not a grifter, she's an op... so uneasy...

Aug, 4
Aaron Maté : UK’s Overseas Info War.
Pxew73xlB1s

Ravenlocke

6th September 2025, 21:32

🇮🇷🇻🇪 Zolfaghar-class Iranian speedboats now in Venezuela

Armed with Nasir anti-ship cruise missiles, these fast-attack vessels mark a major upgrade to Venezuela’s naval deterrent and a deepening Iran–Venezuela defense axis.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1964399530927075418

1964399530927075418

Ravenlocke

6th September 2025, 21:33

🇻🇪🇺🇸⚡- Heavy GPS jamming/interference ongoing over the Caribbean

https://x.com/MonitorX99800/status/1964381561807311083

1964381561807311083

Ravenlocke

6th September 2025, 21:35

BREAKING; CHINA has installed its first oil rig in VENEZUELA to extract oil as US prepares an invasion on the Caracas!

https://x.com/Recon_surv/status/1964404227868111354

1964404227868111354

Ravenlocke

6th September 2025, 23:02

⚡️🇺🇸 US Navy Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk reg 167780 from the USS Gravely spotted a few miles away from Venezuela waters, was operating with transponders switched off.

Venezuela C-130H been doing trips between Maracaibo & El Libertadorb AB since yesterday.

https://x.com/MenchOsint/status/1964363290538058195

1964363290538058195

Ravenlocke

6th September 2025, 23:05

US war department to shift focus from China to 'threats' in Latin America: Report

https://x.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1964341956688871768

1964341956688871768

https://thecradle.co/articles-id/33008

US war department to shift focus from China to 'threats' in Latin America: Report

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says the US is trying to overthrow his government and has pledged to combat any armed coup attempt

US War Department officials are proposing to shift the US military posture away from a focus on China, instead prioritizing alleged threats in Latin America and the Caribbean, Politico reported on 6 September.

A draft of the newest National Defense Strategy places "domestic and regional missions above countering adversaries such as Beijing and Moscow," Politico revealed, citing three people briefed on early versions of the report.

The news comes one day after Trump signed an executive order for the Department of Defense to be renamed the “War Department” to better reflect its mission.

Politico notes that the move, if implemented, would anger politicians in both the Republican and Democratic parties who have long been hostile to China and called for aggressive policies to counter its rise.

"This is going to be a major shift for the U.S. and its allies on multiple continents," said one person briefed on the draft document. "The old, trusted US promises are being questioned."

The document was prepared by Elbridge Colby, the War Department's policy chief.

Politico reports that the shift away from China and toward the Western Hemisphere appears to be already underway.

The War Department deployed thousands of National Guard troops to support police in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and has established a militarized zone across the southern border with Mexico that allows troops to detain civilians.

The policy shift may also result in the US withdrawing some troops from Europe and cutting military assistance programs for fellow NATO members.

"NATO allies increasingly expect some of the roughly 80,000 U.S. troops in Europe to leave over the next several years," Politico added.

The proposed policy shift comes amid escalating tensions between the US and Venezuela.

This week, Trump authorized the US military to shoot down Venezuelan warplanes if commanders judge them a threat to US naval and air forces in the Caribbean.

"If they do put us in a dangerous position, we'll shoot them down," Trump told reporters Friday.

Washington sent eight warships, a submarine, and F-35 warplanes to the region, claiming that Venezuela is responsible for a flood of drugs entering the US.

"Billions of dollars of drugs are pouring into our country from Venezuela. The prisons of Venezuela have been opened up to our country," Trump claimed.

In contrast, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says Trump is seeking to overthrow his government and that his armed forces would move to a stage of "armed struggle" if Venezuela were attacked.

The US has carried out multiple coup attempts in Venezuela in recent decades, while imposing sweeping sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector and financial system.

bojancan

11th September 2025, 14:22

The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal and Oscar Leon are joined by Venezuelan analyst Diego Sequera to discuss the role of US economic warfare on Caracas in the rise of the Tren De Aragua cartel.

Sept, 10
The Grayzone
469K subscribers
How US sanctions fueled Venezuelan cartels
5ZluHxYuVKI

=======

Sept, 10
Geopolitical Economy Report
620K subscribers
Trump's war on oil-rich Venezuela is based on lies: The real reasons why USA wants regime change
zU17g3DXwiY

The US government has waged economic war on Venezuela for years. The Donald Trump administration is escalating this with threats of military intervention. Ben Norton discusses the history of sanctions and US-backed coup attempts against President Nicolás Maduro, explaining why Washington wants to topple this ally of China, Russia, and Iran, so US oil corporations can exploit the South American nation's natural resources.

Check out our related video on how the US government supports drug traffickers in Latin America: • US gov't supports drug traffickers in Lati...

Topics
0:00 US-backed coups in Latin America
1:32 US economic war on Cuba
2:15 Venezuela's alliance with China & Russia
3:12 Dedollarization
4:17 Petrodollar system
5:45 US military threatens Venezuela
7:53 Drug production
8:37 US-backed drug trafficker in Colombia
9:24 US-backed drug trafficker in Ecuador
11:35 Fentanyl
12:52 UN data on drugs
13:39 Marco Rubio opposes international law
14:58 (CLIP) Marco Rubio attacks UN
15:42 "Cartel de los Soles" doesn't exist
16:32 Colombia's President Gustavo Petro
17:27 US-backed coup in Venezuela in 2002
18:53 Guarimbas: coup attempts in 2014 & 2017
19:28 Obama dubs Venezuela "threat"
19:54 US economic war & sanctions
21:16 Oil exports
22:16 US collapses Venezuela's oil industry
23:24 Coup attempt with Juan Guaidó in 2019
24:09 (CLIP) John Bolton boasts of coup
24:59 Trump admin discussed military attacks
26:02 Failed invasion in 2020: Operation Gideon
28:41 Bolivarian Revolution
30:25 Marco Rubio's drug lies
31:46 US bounty on Maduro's head
33:27 Scholar: "Cartel of the Suns" doesn't exist
35:10 US invasion of Panama in 1989
36:19 US turned against Saddam Hussein
36:52 Coup strategy
37:34 US intel debunks Trump admin's drug lies
39:49 Tattoos as "proof" of cartel membership
41:17 Juan Guaidó worked with drug cartels
43:06 Guaidó gang's corruption
43:52 US empire's puppets in Latin America
44:51 Colonialist Monroe Doctrine
45:46 (CLIP) John Bolton on Venezuela's oil
46:53 Trump wants Venezuela's oil
47:52 Goals of US empire
49:16 Outro

Ravenlocke

13th September 2025, 21:23

Text:
The US continues stoking tension in the Caribbean and looking to provoke #Venezuela and President
@NicolasMaduro
, this time by attacking and boarding a fishing boat off the coast of La Blanquilla Island and holding the crew hostage for 8 hours.

#VenezuelaSeRespeta

https://x.com/DenisRogatyuk/status/1966958457401340093

1966958457401340093

From RT,

⚡️ US troops seen SEIZING Venezuelan fishing boat in exclusive economic zone — FIRST visuals

Their craft pulls alongside as they approach the fishermen

American warship USS Jason Dunham visible in background

⚡️ Venezuela says US warship, armed with ‘highly trained marines’ and missiles, attacked TUNA fishermen INSIDE its Exclusive Economic Zone

‘Thos who give orders for these provocations are seeking an incident to justify MILITARY escalation’

https://x.com/RT_com/status/1966973604522029289

1966973604522029289

Ravenlocke

13th September 2025, 21:28

From the Venezuelan Embassy,

1/2 One destroyer against nine fishermen: hostile provocation by the US in waters under Venezuelan jurisdiction. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces that, on Friday, September 12, the Venezuelan vessel “Carmen Rosa,” manned by nine humble tuna fishermen....

2/2 sailing 48 nautical miles northeast of La Blanquilla Island, in waters belonging to the Venezuelan Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), was illegally and hostile assaulted by the US Navy destroyer USS “Jason Dunham” (DDG-109), equipped with powerful cruise missiles.

https://x.com/EmbaVEEgipto/status/1966974688548000020

1966974688548000020

bojancan

16th September 2025, 18:13

Those are international criminal acts.. if the other world leaders had any balls at all... they would have a hearing over Trump's continuing aggression.... disgusting!

Sept, 16
Democracy Now!
2.99M subscribers
U.S. Acts as "Judge, Jury & Executioner" in Venezuelan Boat Strikes, Killing at Least 14
YBXrEFuwpmI

On Monday, President Trump announced the U.S. bombed a boat in international waters, killing three people. The attack was the second to target what the Trump administration claims are drug smugglers from Venezuela.
A previous strike on another boat killed 11 people. In a third incident, the U.S. Navy raided a fishing boat in Venezuelan waters, detaining nine fishermen for eight hours. This escalating U.S. military action follows a secret directive that Trump signed approving the use of military force in Latin America and an ongoing buildup of U.S. military presence in the Caribbean.

"We have a very clear example of political theater, an attempt at provocation, an ongoing effort at regime change, and the strategy of trying to use the military to interdict drug trafficking, which has failed incredibly in Mexico, Colombia, everywhere else the U.S. has applied it," says Venezuelan historian Miguel Tinker Salas, who adds the Trump administration is "misleading the public in indicating that these were drug traffickers with no evidence whatsoever." He says its attempt to manufacture a crisis in Venezuela is reminiscent of the lead-up to the U.S. war on Iraq.

bojancan

24th September 2025, 21:45

EXCLUSIVE: Cuba Is ‘Very Worried’ About a Looming US War with Venezuela

Mehdi sits down with Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío to discuss relations with the US, Cuba’s human rights record, and the Gaza genocide.
MEHDI HASAN AND TEAM ZETEO
SEP 24, 2025

In an exclusive interview for Zeteo at the United Nations, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío tells Mehdi that US attacks on Venezuela are a “threat to the whole continent, the whole region,” and adds that if war were to break out, “Cuba will give its full political support” to its southern neighbor. Although when pressed about what that support looks like, de Cossío did not go as far as to say that Cuba would provide military support.

Experts are unsure of the role Cuba will play in a potential conflict, given that the country is under extreme economic pressure in addition to the US embargo, which de Cossío believes “damages Cuba in almost every sense of life.”

He explains that the US is “trying to cut Cuba off from the world economy,” and asks, “Which country can sustain its economy, develop itself, if the most powerful economy in the world has the capacity to threaten and to push other governments and other economies if they have links with Cuba?”

Mehdi and the deputy foreign minister go back and forth on Cuba’s human rights record, discussing whether its leaders are democratically elected, if the government truly supports a free press, and whether the island nation is hosting “terrorists” as claimed by the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, as world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, all eyes are on Gaza after Canada, Australia, France, and the UK became the latest countries to recognize a Palestinian state. De Cossío tells Mehdi, “It’s a genocide… It’s an issue of shame, we believe, for the international community and for the UN because of the incapacity of the UN to act.”

10 min video below;

https://zeteo.com/p/exclusive-cuba-is-very-worried-about?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=2325511&post_id=174387368&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=3y6lwd&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Ravenlocke

24th September 2025, 23:54

DD Geopolitics

🇺🇸❌🇻🇪 Converted Cargo Ship Turned Special Ops Hub Spotted Near Venezuela

The M/V Ocean Trader, a converted roll-on/roll-off cargo ship now serving as a U.S. special operations command center & “mothership” under Military Sealift Command, was spotted today in the Southern Caribbean near the U.S. Virgin Islands, roughly 400 miles from Venezuela.

Originally launched as the Cragside in 2011, the ship was refitted into a floating base for Navy SEALs, special operators, drones, and small boats. It can quietly deploy raiding teams, intelligence assets, and unmanned systems far from traditional U.S. bases, making it a crucial platform for shadow operations.

The Ocean Trader has previously been used in Mediterranean and African theaters, where it enabled surveillance and rapid-response missions in contested waters. Its presence in the Caribbean signals a direct projection of U.S. power toward Venezuela.

This is a forward operating hub for clandestine warfare.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1970922431423631858

1970922431423631858

Ravenlocke

30th September 2025, 23:22

🇻🇪 ❗️Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has declared a state of emergency in the country’s external forces, putting the armed forces on combat readiness, reports Army Recognition.

Caracas stated that this step was taken in response to “growing military threats from the United States,” authorizing the deployment of troops throughout the country, the militarization of civilian infrastructure, and the immediate readiness of land, air, naval, and cyber assets.

The armed forces have been granted greater autonomy to operate in cities, at critical infrastructure sites, and in coastal areas.

Units of troops and air defense systems (S-125, Buk-M2E, Igla-S MANPADS) have been deployed to protect key facilities, including oil sites and maritime approaches.

The activation of Bolivarian militia reservists integrates up to 3.7 million civilians into the defense system.

The Venezuelan Navy, including submarines, patrol ships, and armed boats, has been positioned near vital maritime corridors.

Earlier, Trump mocked the “Venezuelan militias.”

ukraine_watch

https://x.com/dana916/status/1973160277873951016

1973160277873951016

Ravenlocke

1st October 2025, 00:08

🇻🇪 Venezuela closed its airspace across the coast between Caracas to Eastern Curaçao

The 6-day airspace restriction for much of the populated coastline of Venezuela for “military operations” as issued by the Venezuelan Regime

Notice to Pilots – Air Restriction in the Maiquetía FIR (SVZM)

Effective:
From: September 27, 2025 – 11:49 a.m. local time (15:49 UTC)

Until: October 3, 2025 – 6:48 p.m. local time (22:48 UTC)

Daily Schedule: 7:00 a.m. to 6:48 p.m. local time (11:00 a.m. – 22:48 p.m. UTC)

Restriction:
Overflights and air operations are prohibited within an area delimited by coordinates in the maritime and coastal sector of north-central Venezuela.

Affected Altitude: from the surface to 3,000 feet.

Reason: Military operations.

Affected airways:
G442 between ALCOT and VUNUM
G446 between REPIS and VUNUM
G431 between ALCOT and CRO

Coordination frequencies:
ACC Maiquetía: 128.5 MHz
APP Maiquetía: 120.1 MHz
Maiquetía Tower: 118.1 MHz
Puerto Cabello Tower: 118.5 MHz
Coro Tower: 121.5 MHz

Prior civil/military coordination is required before planning operations in the area.

Arr3ch0

https://x.com/dana916/status/1973164044749033514

1973164044749033514

Ravenlocke

5th October 2025, 18:58

RT

Russia CONDEMNS Trump’s boat strike near Venezuela, in international waters

FM Lavrov speaks to his Venezuelan counterpart

Expresses 'serious concern' over 'escalatory actions by Washington' in Caribbean

https://x.com/RT_com/status/1974852737180565888

1974852737180565888

Vicus

10th October 2025, 15:05

If Ukrainian Tomahawks, then Venezuelan Oreshniki

As Military Review previously reported, Nicolás Maduro signed a strategic partnership agreement between Venezuela and Russia several hours ago, which had previously been ratified by the Venezuelan parliament.

The document's signing came at a fitting time. It comes amid Trump's statements about a "practically accepted decision to transfer Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine," and Finnish President Stubb's assertions that "Trump's carrots for Russia are over—the sticks remain." And, perhaps, also amid statements that the Tomahawk missile "will become a tool of pressure on Russia, even if the launchers are not delivered to Kyiv."

Well. Basically, everything has been clear with the West for a long time now.

What about our side?

On our part, this is an opportunity to support Venezuelan democracy by supplying the Venezuelan military with what could become a "pressure tool" against Washington. If Tomahawks are nuclear-capable and can, at the US's discretion, be deployed in Ukraine, then why can't, for example, the Kinzhal missile system, along with a couple of MiG-31s donated as aid, be deployed in Venezuela? And why can't the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile system, operated exclusively by Venezuelan forces, be deployed in Venezuela? They can do it, right? The Ukrainians have learned to fire with ATAKMS and Storm missiles, so why are the Venezuelans any worse? That's right – nothing.

Ultimately, nothing can stop the Venezuelans from creating their own Oreshnik/Iskander/Kinzhal—or whatever—while Trump is making the final decision regarding the Tomahawk. If Ukrainian experts are creating drone missiles that, by pure chance, are very similar to British or French ones, then how are the Venezuelans any worse? That's right—nothing.

https://topwar.ru/uploads/posts/2025-10/2660b1b799_5.webp

Incidentally, Venezuela is about 1800 km from Florida. A long way? Quite a distance. But is that really the distance for the Venezuelan "Oreshnik"? No, it's not. And it's certainly not the distance to US military bases in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, which is effectively occupied by the US. To say nothing of the American ships that decided to approach the Venezuelan coastline—they're just seconds away from Venezuelan anti-ship missiles.

Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0, you say? So be it. After all, without the acute sensation of a military crisis on the other side of the ocean, they simply can't let go of their role as the world's policeman.

But the main thing is not even the Venezuelan “Nuts” and “Daggers”, but something truly unique weapon: PV. Political will, it's called.

https://en.topwar.ru/272049-esli-ukrainskie-tomagavki-to-i-venesujelskie-oreshniki.html

Ravenlocke

10th October 2025, 16:51

Muhammad Shehada

🚨The Nobel Committee just gave its Peace Prize to a genocide supporter!

She signed an alliance agreement with Netanyahu's Likud; calls for reestablishing relations with Israel; calls Israel a “genuine partner;" & said "I myself look forward to visiting the state of Israel"

Choosing Maria Corina Machado (a right wing politician) for the Nobel Prize was perhaps a strategic decision. Since Trump supports her to collapse the Maduro regime in Venezuela, it would be difficult for him to oppose her Nobel win!

https://x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1976612274216263708

1976612274216263708

Venezuelanalysis

In 2018, Venezuelan far-right leader María Corina Machado penned a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu asking the genocidal entity to lead a foreign intervention in Venezuela.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2025 Nobel "Peace" Prize winner

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/1976661422320087438

1976661422320087438

Ravenlocke

10th October 2025, 16:52

Truthseeker

🙄Venezuela’s election loser Maria Corina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize:
‘If we win, we will move the Venezuelan embassy to Jerusalem to support the state of Israel.’

https://x.com/Xx17965797N/status/1976683213037674628

1976683213037674628

Ravenlocke

10th October 2025, 16:53

Brian Berletic

🇺🇸🇻🇪 Nobel Peace Prize Goes to US Gov-funded Puppet Aiding in Overthrow of Venezuela

▪️The Western propaganda tool know as the "Nobel Peace Prize," is awarded to functionaries of US imperialism, from Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar to warmongering neo-con US President Barack Obama - to now Maria Corina Machado, founder of the US NED-funded front Sumate;

▪️Reuters reports she founded it in 2002 and participated in multiple US backed attempts to overthrow Venezuela's government;

▪️NED even wrote a letter signed by various Neo-Cons defending Sumate and other tools of US interference;

▪️Trump's desire for this "deep state" stamp of approval speaks volumes to who and what he himself really is;

Sources:

Reuters article: https://archive.ph/4kVw5
NED admission to funding Sumate: https://ned.org/international-coalition-expresses-concern-for-democracy-in-venezuela-havel-albright-mc/

https://x.com/BrianJBerletic/status/1976647638276575720

1976647638276575720

Ravenlocke

10th October 2025, 16:56

Venezuelanalysis

When Maria Corina Machado Wins the Nobel Peace Prize, “Peace” Has Lost Its Meaning

Far from a symbol of peace, the article exposes Machado’s history of supporting coups, sanctions, and calls for foreign military intervention in Venezuela

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/1976688289626407245

1976688289626407245

https://venezuelanalysis.com/opinion/when-maria-corina-machado-wins-the-nobel-peace-prize-peace-has-lost-its-meaning/?swcfpc=1

When Maria Corina Machado Wins the Nobel Peace Prize, “Peace” Has Lost Its Meaning

When I saw the headline Maria Corina Machado wins the Peace Prize, I almost laughed at the absurdity. But I didn’t, because there’s nothing funny about rewarding someone whose politics have brought so much suffering. Anyone who knows what she stands for knows there’s nothing remotely peaceful about her politics.

If this is what counts as “peace” in 2025, then the prize itself has lost every ounce of credibility. I’m Venezuelan-American, and I know exactly what Machado represents.

She’s the smiling face of Washington’s regime-change machine, the polished spokesperson for sanctions, privatization, and foreign intervention dressed up as democracy.

Machado’s politics are steeped in violence. She has called for foreign intervention, even appealing directly to Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of Gaza’s annihilation, to help “liberate” Venezuela with bombs under the banner of “freedom,” She has demanded sanctions, that silent form of warfare whose effects – as studies in The Lancet and other journals have shown – have killed more people than war, cutting off medicine, food, and energy to entire populations.

Machado has spent her entire political life promoting division, eroding Venezuela’s sovereignty and denying its people the right to live with dignity.

This is who Maria Corina Machado really is:

She helped lead the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew a democratically elected president, and signed the Carmona Decree that erased the Constitution and dissolved every public institution overnight.
She worked hand in hand with Washington to justify regime change, using her platform to demand foreign military intervention to “liberate” Venezuela through force.
She cheered on Donald Trump’s threats of invasion and his naval deployments in the Caribbean, a show of force that risks igniting regional war under the pretext of “combating narcotrafficking.” While Trump sent warships and froze assets, Machado stood ready to serve as his local proxy, promising to deliver Venezuela’s sovereignty on a silver platter.
She pushed for the U.S. sanctions that strangled the economy, knowing exactly who would pay the price: the poor, the sick, the working class.
She helped construct the so-called “interim government” a Washington backed puppet show run by a self-appointed “president” who looted Venezuela’s resources abroad while children at home went hungry.
She vows to reopen Venezuela’s embassy in Jerusalem, aligning herself openly with the same apartheid state that bombs hospitals and calls it self-defense.
Now she wants to hand over the country’s oil, water, and infrastructure to private corporations. This is the same recipe that made Latin America the laboratory of neoliberal misery in the 1990s.
Machado was also one of the political architects of La Salida, the 2014 opposition campaign that called for escalated protests, including guarimba tactics. Those weren’t “peaceful protests” as the foreign press claimed; they were organized barricades meant to paralyze the country and force the government’s fall. Streets were blocked with burning trash and barbed wire, buses carrying workers were torched, and people suspected of being Chavista were beaten or killed. Even ambulances and doctors were attacked. Some Cuban medical brigades were nearly burned alive. Public buildings, food trucks, and schools were destroyed. Entire neighborhoods were held hostage by fear while opposition leaders like Machado cheered from the sidelines and called it “resistance.”

She praises Trump’s “decisive action” against what she calls a “criminal enterprise,” aligning herself with the same man who cages migrant children and tears families apart under ICE’s watch, while Venezuelan mothers search for their children disappeared by U.S. migration policies.

Machado isn’t a symbol of peace or progress. She is part of a global alliance between fascism, Zionism, and neoliberalism, an axis that justifies domination in the language of democracy and peace. In Venezuela, that alliance has meant coups, sanctions, and privatization. In Gaza, it means genocide and the erasure of a people. The ideology is the same: a belief that some lives are disposable, that sovereignty is negotiable, and that violence can be sold as order.

If Henry Kissinger could win a Peace Prize, why not María Corina Machado? Maybe next year they’ll give one to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for “compassion under occupation.”

Every time this award is handed to an architect of violence disguised as diplomacy, it spits in the face of those who actually fight for peace: the Palestinian medics digging bodies from rubble, the journalists risking their lives in Gaza to document the truth and the humanitarian workers of the Flotilla sailing to break the siege and deliver aid to starving children in Gaza, with nothing but courage and conviction.

But real peace is not negotiated in boardrooms or awarded on stages. Real peace is built by women organizing food networks during blockades, by Indigenous communities defending rivers from extraction, by workers who refuse to be starved into obedience, by Venezuelan mothers mobilizing to demand the return of children seized under U.S. ICE and migration policies and by nations that choose sovereignty over servitude. That’s the peace Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine, and every nation of the Global South deserves.

Ravenlocke

10th October 2025, 17:00

Camila

The United States has requested authorization from Grenada for the installation of radar equipment and technical personnel at Maurice Bishop International Airport, as U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean continues

🇬🇩 Statement from Grenada's foreign ministry:

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1976462381237796997

1976462381237796997

Ravenlocke

10th October 2025, 17:02

Camila

🇻🇪 Venezuela has formally requested an URGENT United Nations Security Council meeting in response to the serious escalation of aggression and unprecedented military deployment by the United States in the Caribbean. (1 of 2)

🇻🇪 Venezuela's request, addressed to the Security Council president, warns that U.S. build up of missile destroyers, fighter jets, elite troops, and a nuclear submarine near the Venezuelan coast in recent weeks, endangers the region's Zone of Peace. (2 of 2)

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1976448024630194288

1976448024630194288

Ravenlocke

10th October 2025, 17:07

Kawsachun News

“Each year, the State Department produces a 1000-page report (..) and before President Trump came to power, Venezuela 🇻🇪 never appeared in this report.”

“It's not just the UN; there's no anti-drug agency in the world that can confirm
@marcorubio
's fantasies.”

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1976429849104482652

1976429849104482652

Ravenlocke

10th October 2025, 17:08

Venezuelanalysis

With the US once again issuing military threats against Venezuela, VA’s columnist Jessica Dos Santos recalls the 1958 visit of Richard Nixon to Caracas, when mass protests forced Washington to mobilize its naval fleet.

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/1976407068492931343

1976407068492931343

Ravenlocke

10th October 2025, 17:12

Moon of Alabama

New on MoA:

Fearing Trump's Wrath Nobel Committee Gives Peace Price To Regime Change Puppet

https://moonofalabama.org/2025/10/fearing-trumps-wrath-nobel-committee-gives-peace-price-to-regime-change-puppet.html

https://x.com/MoonofA/status/1976611982439801240

1976611982439801240

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/10/fearing-trumps-wrath-nobel-committee-gives-peace-price-to-regime-change-puppet.html

Nobel Committee, Fearing Trump’s Wrath, Hands Peace Prize To Regime Change Puppet – Moon of Alabama

October 10, 2025

The President of the Unites States Donald Trump had demanded to be given the Nobel Peace Prize. But following that demand would have been disastrous for the already blemished prestige of the Nobel. The government of Norway, which strongly influences the decisions of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, was in a pickle (https://www.irishtimes.com/world/2025/10/10/norway-braces-for-trumps-reaction-if-he-does-not-win-nobel-peace-prize/):
With hours to go until the announcement of this year’s Nobel peace prize, Norwegian politicians were steeling themselves for potential repercussions to US-Norway relations if it is not awarded to Donald Trump.
…
Mr Trump has long been outspoken about his belief that he should be awarded the peace prize, an honour previously bestowed on one of his presidential predecessors, Barack Obama, in 2009 for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.
In July, Mr Trump reportedly called Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s finance minister and the former Nato secretary general, to ask about the Nobel prize.
…
The newspaper columnist and analyst Harald Stanghelle speculated that retribution from Mr Trump – if it were to come – could take the form of tariffs, demands for higher Nato contributions or even declaring Norway an enemy.
After some talks behind the scenes it was decided to give the price to a different person (https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/nobel-peace-prize-awarded-venezuelas-maria-corina-machado-rcna236816) than Trump but with the very obvious intent to also satisfy Trump by furthering a major foreign policy aim of his:
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado who lives in hiding after attempting to run against President Nicolás Maduro.
Machado, 58, was recognized for keeping “the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness” and “ever-expanding authoritarianism in Venezuela.”
…
She leads the Vente Venezuela opposition party, but was blocked from running as the nation’s president and expelled from office in 2014. She now lives in hiding and faces “serious threats against her life,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
The Trump administration has long aimed at ousting Nicolas Maduro, the socialist leader of Venezuela. It has positioned its military assets around the country and is planing from regime change under false pretense (https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/archive/2025/10/caribbean-drug-boat-strikes/684481/):

Shortly after taking office, Trump declared Tren de Aragua to be a foreign terrorist organization that had “flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.” In July, the president ordered the Pentagon to target certain Latin American drug cartels. By August, there were eight naval vessels—including destroyers, a cruiser, and a littoral-combat ship—operating in the Caribbean Sea. By September, the first of four boats had been struck, and 21 alleged drug traffickers have now been killed. Last week, the administration sent a confidential notice to Congress signaling its intent to carry out more strikes. The campaign could extend inside Venezuelan territorial waters or include drone strikes inside its land borders, defense officials told us.
…
But it is far from clear that the ties between Maduro’s government and Tren de Aragua are as extensive as the Trump administration has suggested, or that they exist at all. Ronna Risquez, author of the book El Tren De Aragua, told us there was “no evidence” that Maduro leads gang or drug-smuggling operations; an internal memo from the U.S. National Intelligence Council arrived at a similar conclusion. It’s also not clear that Venezuelan drug operations, centralized or otherwise, are significant enough to merit the country being singled out as a threat to American lives. Venezuela is not a major cocaine or fentanyl producer. And even though most of the world’s cocaine grows in neighboring Colombia, Venezuela is also not a major transit hub.
Trump’s anti-‘narco-terrorist’ campaign is clearly aimed at regime change. This despite extensive offers by the Venezuelan government to allow the U.S. to profit from Venezuelan riches (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/world/americas/maduro-venezuela-us-oil.html) (archived (https://archive.ph/jZavw#selection-527.0-531.180)):
Venezuelan officials, hoping to end their country’s clash with the United States, offered the Trump administration a dominant stake in Venezuela’s oil and other mineral wealth in discussions that lasted for months, according to multiple people close to the talks.
The far-reaching offer remained on the table as the Trump administration called the government of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela a “narco-terror cartel,” amassed warships in the Caribbean and began blowing up boats that American officials say were carrying drugs from Venezuela.
Under a deal discussed between a senior U.S. official and Mr. Maduro’s top aides, the Venezuelan strongman offered to open up all existing and future oil and gold projects to American companies, give preferential contracts to American businesses, reverse the flow of Venezuelan oil exports from China to the United States, and slash his country’s energy and mining contracts with Chinese, Iranian and Russian firms.
That offer wasn’t enough for a greedy Trump:
The Trump administration ended up rebuffing Mr. Maduro’s economic concessions and cut off diplomacy with Venezuela last week. The move effectively killed the deal, at least for now, the people close to the discussion said.
The Trump administration did away with generous offer because it is confident that its plans for regime change will achieve a total domination over Venezuela.

The new Nobel Peace Prize laureate, María Corina Machado, plays a big role those plans.

Who is that lady you might ask. In July 2024 the NY Times published a friendly portrait of her (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/24/world/americas/venezuela-election-opposition-machado.html) (archived (https://archive.ph/4k1ca#selection-4325.0-4329.185)):
Ms. Machado, a conservative former member of the national assembly once rejected by her own colleagues, has not only corralled Venezuela’s fractious opposition behind her, but has also captivated a broad swath of the electorate with a promise for sweeping government change.
…
If the opposition wins, Mr. González, 74, will be president. But from Washington to Caracas, everyone understands that Ms. Machado is the driving force behind the movement.
…
She became a political activist in 2002, helping to found a voter rights group, Súmate, that eventually led a failed effort to recall Mr. Chávez. She was a darling of Washington — the U.S. government provided financial aid to Súmate — and became one of Mr. Chávez’s most detested adversaries.
But it wasn’t just the government that loathed her. Among colleagues in the opposition, she was often viewed as too conservative, too confrontational and too “sifrina” — Venezuelan for “snobbishly high class” — to become the movement’s leader.
She has said that the politician she most admires is Margaret Thatcher, the conservative icon known for her stubbornness and fealty to the free market. And Ms. Machado has long supported privatizing PDVSA, the state oil company, a move other opposition leaders say would put Venezuela’s most valuable resource in the hands of a few.
Machado, while on the U.S. payroll, was involved in a 2002 military coup attempt in Caracas:
Questions still surround Ms. Machado’s actions in 2002, when dissident military officers and opposition figures led a short-lived coup meant to oust Mr. Chávez. Ms. Machado was at the presidential palace during the installation of a new president, Pedro Carmona.
In the 2005 interview with The Times, Ms. Machado insisted that she and her mother were in the palace that day only to visit Mr. Carmona’s wife, a family friend — not to support the coup.
More recently, in a 2019 interview with the BBC, Ms. Machado called on “Western democracies” to understand that Mr. Maduro would only leave power “in the face of a credible, imminent and severe threat of the use of force.”
Machado even asked the Zionist war criminal Benjamin Netanyahoo for military support (https://www.globovision.com/nacional/22029/revelan-solicitud-en-la-que-mcm-pide-a-netanyahu-intervencion-militaren-el-pais) in a coup (edited machine translation) :
María Corina Machado asked the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, a military intervention in Venezuela, through a document posted on its social network X in 2018.
…
Machado described the military intervention of “power and influence” against the Venezuelan government.
“Today sending a letter to Mauricio Macri, President of Argentina, and to Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, to ask them to apply their strength and influence to advance the dismantling of the criminal regime in Venezuela, intimately linked to drug trafficking and terrorism,” she wrote.
In addition, the document points out that Machado was “convinced that the international community, according to the doctrine of the responsibility to protect, is called to give Venezuelans the support needed to generate the change,” a change of government.
Machado is still in cahoots with (and likely still payed by) the U.S. to further regime change in Venezuela (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/us/politics/maduro-venezuela-trump-rubio.html) (archived (https://archive.ph/wwUDq)):
[U.S. Secretary of State] Rubio met with five opposition figures in May who secretly fled to the United States in what he called a “precise operation.” He has praised the opposition leader, María Corina Machado, whom he called by her nickname, the “Venezuelan Iron Lady,” in a tribute this year.
…
Pedro Urruchurtu, an adviser to Ms. Machado, said in an interview that the opposition had developed a plan for the first 100 hours after Mr. Maduro’s ouster that would involve a transfer of power to Edmundo González, who ran for president against Mr. Maduro last year.
…
“What we’re talking about is an operation to dismantle a criminal structure, and that includes a series of actions and tools,” Mr. Urruchurtu said, adding: “It has to be done with the use of force, because otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to defeat a regime like the one we’re facing.”
The opposition’s plans include persuading other governments to take diplomatic, financial, intelligence and law enforcement actions, he said.
To recap – the Nobel Peace Prize committee is giving the price to an opposition politician in South America who is on the payroll of the U.S. government and has been involved in previous military coups attempts in her country. Her advisor is arguing for the use force to overthrow the government. Ms. Machado’s plan is to the sell out whatever Venezuelans have to the foreign empire that pays her.

The Nobel Committee and Norway may, for now, have saved themselves from Trump’s wrath but the decision to award the prize to Ms. Machado is another huge blemish to its record.

Ravenlocke

10th October 2025, 17:38

🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉

Oct 8
🇻🇪🇷🇺 The Caracas-Moscow Axis: The Post-Western Score

The new Strategic Partnership Treaty between Venezuela and Russia is a geostrategic composition. Its ratification, staged on Vladimir Putin’s birthday, premiered as a performance of multipolar intent, with Nicolás Maduro conducting a ceremony of statecraft. “Pass my congratulations to the President,” he instructed—a single line resonating as the opening note of a post-Western overture.

The treaty charts a parallel world. Its staves outline an autonomous financial circuit, independent of the West’s faltering rhythm. Deep, resonant themes of energy and mining harmonize with soaring melodies of cooperation in transport, telecoms, and health. Simplified trade serves as a pragmatic cadence, a lifeline of goods and investment giving the composition its immediate pulse.

The strategic crescendo arrives in Article 14. Elena Panina deciphers its notation with precision: “Any Russian deployment in Venezuela would be a symmetrical response to NATO’s advance… Intermediate-range Oreshnik missiles in Venezuela’s soft underbelly represent the nightmare of the American elite.” Trump’s “beautiful, big, beautiful ocean” becomes a silent interval in a score already rewritten. The Oreshnik—the “Rubezh” in Western headlines—doesn’t just cross oceans; it reshapes the acoustic reality of strategic power.

Yury Baranchik provides the historical leitmotif: “What the Bolsheviks long spoke of has begun—the transition to the opponent’s strategic territory.” The Monroe Doctrine, exposed as an atonal dogma, fades into final diminuendo.

Amid the dissonant counterpoint of Ukraine, Panina warns that ignoring missile strikes risks a catastrophic finale. Yet the axis composes a more ambitious movement: the foundational theme of a new economic architecture across the Americas. Integrated with China’s Belt and Road and Brazil’s continental ambitions, it unlocks the hemisphere’s productive potential—transforming sterile, zero-sum confrontation into collaborative development conducted through energy grids, rail corridors, and industrial renaissance.

The Caracas-Moscow axis emerges as a masterstroke on the geopolitical board and a manifesto for a new world. Rising powers are composers of a post-Western reality, actively scoring it into existence—note by note, missile by missile, corridor by corridor.

https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/1976151750529949905

1976151750529949905

Ravenlocke

15th October 2025, 18:38

DD Geopolitics

15m
🇺🇸🇻🇪 BREAKING: The Trump administration has secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela, escalating its campaign to remove President Nicolás Maduro.

The new authorities, a presidential finding, allow the agency to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela and the Caribbean, either unilaterally or alongside potential U.S. military action.

This comes as the Pentagon draws up strike options and continues a large military buildup in the Caribbean, with 10,000 U.S. troops, eight warships, and a submarine already in place.

The authorization was developed under National Security Adviser Marco Rubio and C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe, who has vowed to make the agency “more aggressive.”

Privately, U.S. officials have been clear: the goal is regime change.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1978526713249509445

1978526713249509445

Ravenlocke

16th October 2025, 17:44

Max Blumenthal

Rick Scott’s $500 million family fortune is heavily invested in Big Oil companies desperate to plunder Venezuela, from ExxonMobil to Phillips 66

These same companies have funded his campaigns

Scott represents a web of rapacious corporations, not a political party or a state

https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1978829353828933790

1978829353828933790

Ravenlocke

16th October 2025, 17:46

DD Geopolitics

🇺🇸🇻🇪 U.S. Special Operations Helicopters Expand Caribbean Missions Near Venezuela

The Washington Post reports that U.S. Special Operations helicopters, including MH-6 Little Birds and MH-60 Black Hawks, were spotted flying less than 90 miles from Venezuela’s coast near Trinidad earlier this month, suggesting preparations for potential operations in or around Venezuela.

📝 Key Points:
· U.S. officials described the flights as training missions, part of an expanded campaign against alleged drug traffickers.
· President Trump recently authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, while the U.S. military has struck at least five boats, killing 27 people.
· The helicopters are likely from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which supports elite units like Navy SEALs and Delta Force.
· The presence of Little Birds indicates possible preparation for ground insertion missions, while Black Hawks could support troop transport and search-and-rescue.
· The MV Ocean Trader, a converted special operations base ship, has been operating in the Caribbean near Trinidad and may be supporting these flights.
· Roughly 10% of U.S. naval power is now concentrated in the region.

Venezuela’s Russian-made S-300 systems, SA-24 shoulder-fired missiles, and anti-aircraft guns pose serious risks if U.S. aircraft enter Venezuelan airspace, analysts warn.

A bipartisan Senate attempt to block Trump’s lethal strikes on alleged traffickers failed last week, leaving the administration’s campaign unchecked.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1978872473354682862

1978872473354682862

Ravenlocke

16th October 2025, 23:50

teleSUR English

Venezuela's permanent representative to the UN, Samuel Moncada, reads excerpts from a letter detailing the unfounded U.S. attacks on fishing boats in the Caribbean, in which Colombians and Trinidadians have been killed, which means that it affects the entire region and not just Venezuela.
#Venezuela #USA #Caribbean #UNSC #UN #teleSUR

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1978965690993295395

1978965690993295395

Ravenlocke

17th October 2025, 00:30

dana

🇺🇸⚔️🇻🇪 New York Times: “Admiral Alvin Holsey steps down as head of the US Southern Command less than a year after taking the position, amid a major Pentagon operation targeting alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean region.”

stayfreeworld

https://x.com/dana916/status/1978950175474237908

1978950175474237908

Ravenlocke

17th October 2025, 00:53

Max Blumenthal reposted

Venezuelanalysis

Reports that two of the six men killed in the latest boat strike were from Trinidad. Relatives of one of them denied any ties to drug trafficking, saying he was only trying to return home. Apart from Venezuelans, Colombians and now Trinidadians have been killed

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/1978648184676401381

1978648184676401381

Ravenlocke

17th October 2025, 22:11

The Grayzone

Who were the CIA assets and key Trump figures who orchestrated the failed ‘Bay of Piglets’ mercenary invasion of Venezuela?

In this explosive tell-all interview, coup leader Jordan Goudreau exposes the Trump organization and US intel in a plot to steal Venezuela’s resources ⬇️

Watch the full interview between Operation Gideon leader Jordan Goudreau and
@MaxBlumenthal

Goudreau is speaking out and disclosing previously unseen FBI documents - and the Trump admin is working to silence him

https://x.com/TheGrayzoneNews/status/1979194555644719615

1979194555644719615

Ravenlocke

17th October 2025, 22:14

Kawsachun News

PROTEST OUTSIDE U.S. EMBASSY IN PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO🇹🇹

The Assembly of Caribbean People denounces extrajudicial killings at sea and rejects the United States’ use of Caribbean countries as a military staging ground to attack Venezuela

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1979275204531564977

1979275204531564977

Ravenlocke

17th October 2025, 22:16

Reuters Legal

Relatives of a Trinidadian man who say he was killed in a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean this week are demanding evidence to back up allegations by U.S. President Donald Trump that those who died were trafficking drugs.

https://x.com/ReutersLegal/status/1979282526746083421

1979282526746083421

Ravenlocke

17th October 2025, 22:19

Venezuelanalysis

Two men from Trinidad and Tobago were killed in a US airstrike off Venezuela’s coast, the third nationality hit in Trump’s Caribbean bombing campaign. Relatives say they were fishermen, not smugglers. Full report here: https://shorturl.at/d7PFV

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/1979306175892955306

1979306175892955306

Ravenlocke

18th October 2025, 00:16

MintPress News

As the US renews its threats against Venezuela, authorizes a CIA operation and mobilizes regime change rhetoric, the country is still being denied access to its own gold reserves — frozen in the Bank of England.

Over $1.8 billion in Venezuelan gold remains locked in London after a UK court upheld the freeze last year — recognizing the unelected, US backed “interim government” of Juan Guaidó instead of President Nicolás Maduro.

Now, as Venezuela strengthens ties with Russia, China, and BRICS, and 8 million citizens join the country’s defense militias, the frozen gold serves as a political weapon — part of Washington’s broader campaign to strangle Venezuela’s economy and justify intervention.

It’s not about democracy. It’s about control of Venezuela’s oil, gold, and lithium — and punishing nations that resist empire.

https://x.com/MintPressNews/status/1979280811229630704

1979280811229630704

bojancan

18th October 2025, 04:18

Oct, 17
MeidasTouch
5.48M subscribers
Trump IN TROUBLE as MILITARY STRIKES go TERRIBLY WRONG
XKHEDW8RO8M

Two survivors of Trump’s attack on a vessel in the Caribbean — part of his self-proclaimed “war on cartels” — may finally bring the legality of his strikes before the courts. Dina Doll reports on this and how Scott Bessent, his Treasury Secretary, is sending billions to bail out Argentina and help Trump’s far-right ally Javier Milei before the elections.

bojancan

18th October 2025, 18:24

Oct, 18
DW News
6.03M subscribers
Target Venezuela: Drug war or US power grab? | Mapped Out
AdBwca6-sSw

Trump has authorized a CIA covert operation against Venezuela. His administration has already targeted “drug boats” in the Caribbean. Dozens of people have been killed, and UN rights experts have called the US strikes extrajudicial executions. Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro says it is about taking control of the oil-rich nation. Trump calls Maduro a “narcoterrorist” and has declined to answer if the goal is regime change in Venezuela. Is it just about drugs? Or is something bigger going on that might affect the entire region? And how will Venezuela’s backers, Russia and China react?

00:00 Intro
00:52 War on drugs: Trump's Caribbean deployment
05:37 Regime Change in Venezuela?
10:54 The bigger picture: Back to America's Backyard?
15:50 Outro

Ravenlocke

22nd October 2025, 18:18

Venezuelanalysis

Final battles? Gold Reserve is throwing a hail mary in the Citgo auction, attempting to disqualify the winning offer, the special master, even the judge. Given creditors' pressure to collect, it's hard to see the court going back now

Read our report for more on the plunder of Venezuela's most important foreign asset

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/1980884107942064341

1980884107942064341

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/venezuela-asks-us-court-reject-elliott-affiliates-bid-citgo-parent-2025-10-21/

Bidders, creditors battle in US court over who should win Citgo auction

HOUSTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Bidders pursuing the parent of Venezuela-owned U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum and creditors waiting to cash proceeds from the court-ordered auction clashed in Delaware on Tuesday over which offer should be approved as the clock ticks to move the process towards a takeover.
Following three bidding rounds, the court is trying to complete the auction to compensate up to 15 creditors for debt defaults and expropriations in Venezuela. Citgo's parent PDV Holding was found liable for the South American country's debt as part of the eight-year case.
Sign up here.

Lawyers representing Citgo and Venezuela asked the court in a hearing to reject a $5.9 billion bid from an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management due to its "low price," which was below a $7.9 billion rival offer from a subsidiary of Gold Reserve (GRZ.V), and said the sale process was "defective."
The bid from Elliott's affiliate Amber Energy was recommended in August by an officer overseeing the auction, a switch from his previous support for Gold Reserve's offer. Objections and challenges have prevented the court from pushing forward the sale process in recent months.
A counsel for court officer Robert Pincus said the court conducted "the broadest marketing process of any asset ever."

He also said Amber's bid implies a business value of about $9.5 billion and provides the best combination of price and likelihood of transaction completion.

Amber's offer includes a side pact to pay $2.1 billion to holders of a defaulted Venezuelan bond. Because the agreement is only valid through early December, Amber, Pincus and some creditors are pressing the court to soon select a winner.

"We are here not to overburden the court, but as a supplicant and to ask for the court to be mindful of that date," said Andrew Rossman, counsel for Amber.

If the recommended offer does not materialize, a new pact with the bondholders or even re-bidding could be necessary, advisers and lawyers have said. A counsel for the holders said they would stick to the Amber agreement's terms for now.

OBSTACLES IN THE ROAD

Delaware Judge Leonard Stark this week heard arguments about motions by Venezuela and Gold Reserve to disqualify him, court officer Pincus and two advising firms over alleged conflict of interest.
Final arguments over the bids were also presented to the court.

Amber's bid "is so low ... that it shocks the conscience of this court and can't be confirmed," Nathan Eimer, counsel for Citgo and PDV Holding, said during the hearing.

Gold Reserve also asked the court to reject Amber's bid and approve the offer submitted by its subsidiary instead, which is about $2 billion higher in price but does not include an agreement to pay the Venezuelan bondholders.

Gold Reserve's bid intends to distribute auction proceeds among a larger number of creditors in Delaware, instead of settling the bondholders' claim, which is pending a final resolution over the notes' validity in a separate New York case.

"It would be a fundamental injustice in the event a substantial amount of value was diverted from the attached judgment creditors here to the 2020 bondholders on the basis of a security, a pledge instrument that might be deemed invalid," said Matthew Kirtland, counsel for Gold Reserve.

Both Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition reject the auction. The U.S. Treasury Department, which has shielded Citgo from creditors in recent years, must approve the auction's winner.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-court-mandated-citgo-sale-edges-closer-to-completion-as-judge-backs-elliott-bid/

Venezuela: Court-Mandated CITGO Sale Edges Closer to Completion as Judge Backs Elliott Bid
Amber Energy will sign a binding agreement outlining the transfer of ownership of Venezuela’s US-based refiner.

Lisbon, Portugal, September 22, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – A Delaware court overseeing the auction of Venezuelan refiner CITGO has endorsed an offer from vulture fund Elliott Management’s subsidiary Amber Energy.

Judge Leonard P. Stark approved Friday a US $8 billion bid from Amber Energy following a four-day hearing that marked one of the final stages in the forced sale of Venezuela’s most important foreign asset.

The judge ordered Special Master Robert B. Pincus, the court officer overseeing the sale, to sign a stock purchase agreement (SPA) with Amber Energy. The binding agreement will set the sale terms and outline the transfer of shares.

Analysts predict that the sale might still be subject to appeals and might not conclude before 2026. CITGO’s change of ownership is subject to the US government’s approval, though the US Treasury has promised a “favorable licensing policy.”

Blue Water Acquisition Corp. III, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) set up to bid for PDVH, reportedly submitted a $10 billion offer in early September. Nevertheless, Stark denied a Blue Water request to extend the hearing due to uncertainty over the bid’s financing.

In 2022, the Delaware District Judge set in motion an auction of shares belonging to PDV Holding (PDVH), a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA and CITGO’s parent company. The process was designed to satisfy creditor claims against Venezuela, mostly from international arbitration awards secured as compensation for assets nationalized by the Hugo Chávez government in the 2000s.

In July, Pincus backed a $7.4 billion offer from Dalinar Energy Corporation, a subsidiary of Canadian miner Gold Reserve, itself a creditor in the CITGO proceedings. However, he later changed his recommendation to the Elliott affiliate’s bid, arguing that it offered a higher certainty of closing.

Amber’s proposal sets aside $2.1 billion for a settlement with holders of the defaulted PDVSA 2020 bond, with $5.9 billion left to satisfy creditors. Gold Reserve, which raised its bid to $7.9 billion, argued that its offer would fulfill more claims but ultimately had a motion to disqualify Amber’s bid rejected by the court.

The court’s endorsed offer received a decisive boost Thursday as New York District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that the PDVSA 2020 bond was issued legally. Half of CITGO’s shares were pledged as collateral for the debt, but successive US Treasury orders have barred bondholders from executing it.

CITGO’s board, appointed by the former self-proclaimed “interim government” after Washington granted it control over the company in 2019, has unsuccessfully tried to challenge the legality of the PDVSA 2020 bond. Board president Horacio Medina stated that the firm would appeal the latest ruling.

The Delaware auction proceeds will pay creditors on a “first come, first served” basis, with Crystallex ($1.0 billion), Tidewater ($80 million), ConocoPhillips ($1.3 billion) and O-I Glass ($700 million) first on the list. Canadian miner Crystallex initiated the process in 2018 thanks to an “alter ego” ruling that made PDVSA liable for Venezuela’s debts.

With CITGO under the management of the US-backed opposition, subsequent alter ego verdicts led other corporations to tag claims to the proceedings. Former self-proclaimed “interim president” Juan Guaidó and associates drew accusations of malfeasance and conflicts of interest for actions that ballooned the company’s liabilities to $20.6 billion.

For its part, the Nicolás Maduro government has labeled the court-led sale of the Caribbean country’s most valuable foreign asset as “the theft of the century” and vowed to challenge the loss of the Houston-based refiner.

Valued at around $13 billion, CITGO owns refineries in Illinois, Louisiana and Texas with a combined processing capacity of 769,000 barrels per day (bpd). The firm’s portfolio also includes a pipeline network and over 4,000 service stations, mostly on the US East Coast.

Ravenlocke

22nd October 2025, 18:20

Venezuelanalysis

The Guardian reports that the CIA is providing "real-time intelligence" from satellites and signal interception for US forces to bomb boats in the Caribbean Sea. It's no wonder that they are just killing civilians at random

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/1980880351842185478

1980880351842185478

Ravenlocke

24th October 2025, 15:43

DD Geopolitics

🇹🇹🇺🇸 Bodies Wash Ashore in Trinidad After U.S. Strikes

Two mutilated, burned corpses have washed up on the shores of Trinidad, believed to be victims of the U.S. military campaign against “narco-terrorists” from Venezuela.

The bodies appeared days after the first U.S. strike on Sept. 2, which killed 11 people at sea. Both showed signs of explosive trauma, missing limbs, charred skin, suggesting they were caught in mid-ocean blasts from U.S. aircraft.

Washington claims the campaign targets drug traffickers, but regional leaders and legal experts say it increasingly resembles a covert war on Venezuela under the banner of counter-narcotics.

Trinidad’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, a key Trump ally, openly supports the strikes, even as locals say the bodies washing ashore are evidence of “casualties of war.”

So far:
· 6 confirmed U.S. strikes on vessels since September
· At least 37 killed across the Caribbean
· Victims include possible Trinidadian and Colombian nationals
· UN experts warn of extrajudicial killings in international waters

Venezuela’s defense minister has vowed to respond if U.S. attacks are launched from Trinidad’s territory.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1981547081849589809

1981547081849589809

bojancan

25th October 2025, 01:00

Oct, 24
Breaking Points
1.65M subscribers
EXCLUSIVE: Saagar And Ryan EXPOSE Trump Venezuela Regime Change LIES
D2PRNPBZRSY

Saagar, Krystal, Ryan, Griffin, and Mac discuss an exclusive BP report on Trump's push for Venezuelan regime change, Bannon says Trump will be President in 2028, VA delegate Sam Rasoul joins on the future of the Democratic Party.

Timestamps:
(00:00)Intro
(0:36) Trump's Push for Venezuelan Regime Change
(33:11) Government Shutdown
(43:48) Bannon Says Trump 2028
(54:54) VA Delegate Sam Rasoul

Ravenlocke

25th October 2025, 01:26

🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉 reposted

Chris Martenson

Why aren't the narco boats from non-oil-rich countries being bombed?

https://x.com/chrismartenson/status/1981710920859734374

1981710920859734374

Ravenlocke

25th October 2025, 01:30

DD Geopolitics

🇺🇸🇻🇪 The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and its strike group are currently in the Adriatic Sea.

It will take the vessel approximately 12 days to enter the SOUTHCOM arena.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1981809233403486523

1981809233403486523

Ravenlocke

27th October 2025, 00:31

Moon of Alabama

New on MoA:
Trump Targets Venezuela

https://moonofalabama.org/2025/10/target-venezuela.html

https://x.com/MoonofA/status/1982122744775864797

1982122744775864797

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/10/target-venezuela.html

Trump Targets Venezuela
October 25, 2025

One never know how serious Trump’s ‘leaked’ plans are. Their purpose often seem to be solely to increase pressure on opponents, to move things into a direction he likes. If that does not work the plans may just be discarded. Or may, just may, be carried out.

Trump considering plans to target cocaine facilities inside Venezuela, officials say (https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/venezuela-cocaine-trafficking-routes-trump) – Politico
President Donald Trump is considering plans to target cocaine facilities and drug trafficking routes inside Venezuela, though he has not yet made a decision on whether to move forward with them, three US officials told CNN.
Outward signs on Friday pointed toward a major potential military escalation, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier strike group currently stationed in Europe to the Caribbean region amid a massive buildup of US forces there. Trump has also authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
The president has not ruled out taking a diplomatic approach with Venezuela to stem the flow of drugs into the US, two officials said, even after the administration cut off active talks with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in recent weeks.
Venezuela is, as Politico points out, not known for drug trafficking. It does not have ‘cocaine facilities’. But it does have the largest oil reserves in the world. That has always made it a target for a U.S. regime-change operations.

But Venezuela is also a huge country double the size of Iraq with a mountainous and often densely wooded countryside. The U.S. military is unable to invade, occupy and control it.

But what the U.S. might want to try in Venezuela is a variant of the Israeli plan for Iran.

A decapitation strike killing President Maduro and the military leadership accompanied by a bombing campaign to take out air defenses and primary defense units. Meanwhile the CIA and special forces will have to work on the ground in Caracas to organize local thugs for an assault on the main government sites and radio/TV buildings.

As soon as those are captured the U.S. selected regime-change puppet (https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/10/fearing-trumps-wrath-nobel-committee-gives-peace-price-to-regime-change-puppet.html), as identified by the Nobel Peace Prize committee, can declare herself president.

The rest is just media work. Unless – and that is a big question – there will be some real resistance.

The Venezuelan Bolvarian movement can motivate its youth to resist the U.S. coup even a well planned operation may end up like the Bay of Pigs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion).

Ravenlocke

27th October 2025, 18:05

DD Geopolitics

🇻🇪🇷🇺 Wagner in Venezuela?

Western tracking sources report the arrival of aircraft in Venezuela previously associated with Wagner-linked logistics.

A Russian Il-76TD heavy transport, operated by Aviakon Tsitotrans, a company long tied to military cargo movements for Wagner, landed in Venezuela with undisclosed cargo.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1982832642853879912

1982832642853879912

Ravenlocke

27th October 2025, 18:10

DD Geopolitics

Oct 26
🇻🇪
@ChrisHelali
reports from the meeting with Maduro in rural Venezuela.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1982417666435629498

1982417666435629498

Ravenlocke

27th October 2025, 19:09

Max Blumenthal

Marco Rubio says he's using the US military against Venezuela to stop fentanyl from "poisoning our people"

But Rubio was a key sponsor of a 2016 bill that fueled the opioid crisis, blocking the DEA from investigating corrupt drug companies

Rubio was heavily funded by Big Pharma, raking in $290K from the industry in 2016 alone

The bill caused so much death and destruction that its lead sponsor, Rep. Tom Marino, was forced to withdraw his nomination as Trump's drug czar

It's just another reason why Narco Rubio is a fitting name for the war-crazed Secretary of State

https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1982869728428425404

1982869728428425404

Ravenlocke

28th October 2025, 21:06

DD Geopolitics

🇺🇸🇻🇪NEW: U.S. military officials participating in President Trump’s expanding Latin America operations to put pressure on Venezuela were required to sign non-disclosure agreements, an uncommon measure that restricts congressional oversight, according to Reuters.

The move comes amid Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s broader effort to tighten secrecy and media control within the Pentagon.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1983230626309517547

1983230626309517547

Ravenlocke

28th October 2025, 21:08

DD Geopolitics

🇺🇸🇻🇪 BREAKING — AP Investigation

A retired U.S. Homeland Security agent and former Army Ranger, Edwin Lopez, spent 16 months attempting to recruit Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s personal pilot, Gen. Bitner Villegas — urging him to divert Maduro’s presidential jet mid-flight so the U.S. could capture him.

The plot involved encrypted messaging, secret meetings, and proposals to hand Maduro over during foreign trips.

Villegas repeatedly refused and remains loyal to Caracas, later appearing on Venezuelan state TV to denounce the recruitment attempt.

The covert operation reportedly continued into 2025, despite Lopez’s retirement raising major questions about who authorized the effort and how far Washington is willing to go in regime-change operations against Venezuela.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1983251168844198277

1983251168844198277

Vicus

28th October 2025, 23:03

Venezuela Dismantles Three Terrorist Plans -today

These operations were aimed at overthrowing the Bolivarian government.

On Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the dismantling of three terrorist operations orchestrated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), all of which were aimed at overthrowing the Bolivarian government.

These operations were structured around three specific actions: an attack in Venezuela Square in Caracas, an assault on the former U.S. Embassy, and a self-attack plan. These actions were detected thanks to intelligence work and coordination among security agencies.

The announcement was supported by Citizen Security Minister Diosdado Cabello, who reported the arrest of three individuals in possession of CIA execution manuals. The detainees attempted to conceal their participation in the incidents, but their methods failed to prevent authorities from identifying them.

Cabello added that cellphones containing relevant information were seized. “Those phones talk… What we’ve found is pure gold: the CIA linked to groups that hate Venezuela,” he said.

Venezuelan authorities continue to investigate the international connections of those involved in this latest attempt to violate the country’s sovereignty.

Maduro also accused the United States of carrying out actions aimed at seizing Venezuela’s natural resources. “What the elite economic class that currently controls power in the U.S. wants is Venezuelan oil, gas, and gold. They want our wealth,” he said.

Currently, the U.S. intervention strategy is based on accusations related to drug trafficking. The Venezuelan president, however, emphasized that his administration has implemented a firm policy against drug trafficking.

“Only 5% of the cocaine produced in Colombia tries to pass through Venezuela. We have managed to capture all of those drugs and destroy them. This has been a major effort, backed by evidence and widely known,” Maduro said.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/venezuela-dismantles-three-cia-terrorist-plans/

Ravenlocke

29th October 2025, 18:10

teleSUR TV

Translated from Spanish
Russian Presidential Spokesman 🇷🇺, Dmitri Peskov, stated that everything that happens in relation to #Venezuela 🇻🇪 must comply “with the spirit and the letter of international law,” recalling that the South American country is a sovereign State

https://x.com/teleSURtv/status/1983591158782517537

1983591158782517537

bojancan

31st October 2025, 04:15

Oct, 30
The Young Turks
6.33M subscribers
Tucker SLAMS Trump For Regime-Change War On Venezuela
oNBGiO7dqn8

Tucker Carlson slammed the Trump administration for claiming that the attacks on fishing boats from Venezuela are a drug-preventative measure. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks.

0:00 Tucker thinks we're headed for regime change
1:20 Are Trump's attacks about drug trafficking?
3:00 Tucker goes after Lindsey Graham
5:00 The Great Awakening
7:00 Ana's experience at CNN debating foreign policy
8:00 Why are we going to war with Venezuela?
13:45 Colonel Douglas MacGreggor

bojancan

31st October 2025, 20:22

Listening LIVE now... good one!!!

Oct, 31
COL. Douglas Macgregor (returns) : Is Trump Lying US Into Another War?
1huMf5SizO0

Ravenlocke

1st November 2025, 00:13

Kawsachun News

Oct 29
Venezuelans marched on Tuesday in defense sovereignty and the Bolivarian Revolution amid U.S. military provocations.

Marchers carried signs of U.S. puppet Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has allowed Trinidad and Tobago to be used for a military build up against Venezuela.

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1983627219068186985

1983627219068186985

bojancan

1st November 2025, 01:39

It seams to me.. that they are targeting any country that is friendly with China or Russia...

Oct, 31
The Jimmy Dore Show
1.69M subscribers
Rand Paul Makes HUGE MISTAKE Over Venezuela Strikes!
JE1ImjaWtfQ

White Cedar

1st November 2025, 02:53

The worst thing in Venezuela is Maduro regim itself, people are suffering alot there, spread poverty, can't buy food, cloth and stuff is a communist disaster. On the other side Trump is a illuminati cabal puppy, maybe he want's the oil or something like that, and a war will kill lot's of innocents.

Many Venezuelans flee to Brazil in order to have a normal life. It's horrible what communism ditatorial does.

Ravenlocke

1st November 2025, 18:49

The worst thing in Venezuela is the long sanctions and oil embargo imposed on the country by the US.

TeleSUR English
@telesurenglish
·
May 24, 2019
The US has been trying to strangle Venezuela since 2014.

This is a list of the US economic sanctions on the Bolivarian Revolution.

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1132028497055010817

1132028497055010817

S.L. Kanthan

Jul 29, 2024
The sanctions that began under Obama have crippled Venezuela’s economy and oil production.

Nothing to do with “socialism” or “dictatorship.”

American imperialist propaganda has no shame or ethics.

(The original sanctions began under Bill Clinton when Chavez got elected)

https://x.com/Kanthan2030/status/1818167159652008254

1818167159652008254

Boots Riley
@BootsRiley
·
Oct 13
Venezuela's economy has been tied to oil since oil was discovered there.

The worldwide oil price crash in 2014 crashed the VZ economy.

During recovery from that crash, in 2017, the US embargoed VZ oil, minerals, banking, & food imports- to hurt the ppl, making things way worse.

https://x.com/BootsRiley/status/1977968618844639568

1977968618844639568

☀️👀
@zei_squirrel
the Israeli-US-NATO Zionist empire has been obsessed with destroying Venezuela ever since it had a popular revolution to overthrow its shackles. Coups, assassinations, CIA-Mossad operations daily including invasions by mercs trained and funded by them, and a total economic terror campaign.

Jeffrey Sachs published a study in 2019 on the effects of what the Western media and political class euphemistically calls "sanctions" on Venezuela, showing it had killed at least 40.000 people just between 2017 and 2018 (see https://cepr.net/publications/economic-sanctions-as-collective-punishment-the-case-of-venezuela/).

Here he talks about how the US waged this economic terror campaign against Venezuela because it dared disobey its orders:

https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1976692804454588768

1976692804454588768

https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1976750365413462216

1976750365413462216

Ravenlocke

1st November 2025, 18:54

Kawsachun News

Sep 25, 2024
🇻🇪 Venezuela: “Nearly a thousand sanctions have cost our nation more than $642 billion in the last seven years alone; to which we must add the losses of our state oil company, PDVSA, amounting to $232 billion; and the theft of 31 tons of gold deposited in the Bank of England..”

https://x.com/KawsachunNews/status/1839130413115023384

1839130413115023384

Ravenlocke

1st November 2025, 19:28

A U.S. court says Juan Guaidó used PDVSA assets to fund himself and a fictitious government, as well as its legal expenses, costing Venezuela $19 billion.

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1709713076100956188

1709713076100956188

Ravenlocke

1st November 2025, 19:38

Venezuelanalysis

22h
[in Portuguese] Our recent interview with grassroots organizer and solidarity activist Ana Maldonado. Many thanks to our friends at
@dialogosdosul
for translating it

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/1984365493042725372

1984365493042725372

https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/the-imperialist-offensive-is-nothing-new-for-the-bolivarian-revolution-a-conversation-with-ana-maldonado/

‘The Imperialist Offensive is Nothing New for the Bolivarian Revolution’: A Conversation with Ana Maldonado
A Chavista organizer examines the US militarization of the Caribbean and the Bolivarian Revolution’s enduring resistance to imperial aggression.

Cira Pascual Marquina October 24, 2025

In recent months, Washington has stepped up its military presence in the Caribbean, sending warships, aircraft, and even a nuclear submarine to waters near Venezuela amid extrajudicial attacks on fishing vessels. For many, this new phase of aggression is all too familiar — part of a decades-long campaign of hybrid warfare designed to undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty.

In this context, Cira Pascual Marquina spoke with Ana Maldonado, a sociologist, international relations coordinator for the Francisco de Miranda Front—a national Chavista movement—and member of the Venezuelan chapter of ALBA Movements. In this interview, Maldonado offers her perspective on how Venezuelans are experiencing the latest imperialist escalation, reflects on the country’s long resistance to hybrid war, and situates the current threat within the broader struggle for sovereignty in Latin America and the Caribbean.

How are the Venezuelan people experiencing this new imperialist escalation?

President Nicolás Maduro has said that in this scenario of maximum pressure, our response must be maximum preparation. At the same time, he has called on us to combine vigilance with calm, to continue our daily lives, and to defend the peace with social justice that has cost us so much to build and preserve.

You can see this clearly in the fact that, even amid the current military escalation, the new school year began normally across the country. More than 20,000 educational institutions opened their doors without disruption, and over six million children and youth returned to class, as they do every year around this time.

While we are indeed facing a serious threat of war, people are also carrying on with their everyday lives and that, in itself, is a victory, since the enemy seeks precisely to disrupt our life.

People abroad are often surprised to learn that daily routines here continue undisturbed and that Venezuelans are not living in a state of panic. How do you explain this?

This is far from our first encounter with imperialist aggression. The tactics may shift, but the strategy remains unchanged: hybrid warfare. For years, US imperialism and its allies have waged a relentless campaign against Venezuela, beginning in earnest in April 2002 with the coup d’état and the people’s heroic counteroffensive that restored democracy. That was followed by the oil sabotage, mercenary incursions, and global media campaigns against our democracy.

After Comandante Chávez passed in 2013, a new and sustained period of aggression began. Initially, they bet that we would fail to hold peaceful elections or that President Maduro would never be elected. The dominant narrative was “Maduro is not Chávez.” With that simplistic argument, they sought to demoralize the Chavista social base, implying that the Bolivarian project would not withstand the loss of the Comandante. Yet we won the elections and, even as we mourned Chávez, the project continued.

But the US and their local agents were determined not to let us go on with our revolution. In 2014, the opposition launched a violent campaign called “La Salida” [The Exit], led by Voluntad Popular and María Corina Machado, the same factions now openly calling for foreign intervention. The following year, the United States took another war-like step: Obama’s 2015 executive order declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”

That decree was followed by the 2016 economic strangulation, marked by deliberate shortages aimed at making everyday life unbearable. Ten years later, we remain under a blockade that has killed tens of thousands.

In 2017, the most extreme factions of the opposition returned to the streets with fascist violence, committing atrocities such as the burning alive of a young Black man, Orlando Figuera, targeted simply for looking like a Chavista. More than 100 people were killed during this period of intensified fascist terror.

President Maduro responded by calling for a National Constituent Assembly, once again raising the banner of peace and democracy in the face of fascist violence. People from all sectors, including residents of middle-class neighborhoods whose polling centers had been attacked, were able to vote in peace at the Poliedro de Caracas.

Since then, we’ve lived through multiple phases of hybrid war: Juan Guaidó’s self-proclamation as “interim president” in 2019 and the “Battle of the Bridges,” when the opposition attempted to stage a false-flag operation on the Colombian border under the guise of a humanitarian aid effort. That was followed by massive blackouts that left the country in darkness for days and the 2020 Operation Gideon, recently further exposed in a Max Blumenthal interview with its US organizer, Jordan Goudreau, a former Green Beret.

None of these were isolated incidents: they are coordinated fronts in a sustained hybrid war combining political, psychological, economic, and military aggression.

Yet, in each of these moments, the government and the organized pueblo have responded effectively. During the 2019 electrical sabotage, for example, communities mobilized to ensure access to water and basic needs, while Operation Gideon was defeated by the same fisherfolk who are now being attacked in the Southern Caribbean.

So, to return to your original question: yes, people are alert because the threat is real, but we are also seasoned and organized. We know we are capable of defending the Revolution with unity and discipline. We are in a phase of maximum preparation, with millions voluntarily enrolling in the militia and preparing for the defense of the Patria [homeland].

Indeed, people are not only enlisting in the Bolivarian Militia but also preparing collectively. You’ve given us a historical account of the attacks faced by the Bolivarian Revolution over the past 25 years. But as we know, the current military buildup in the Caribbean is not only against Venezuela: it is an attack on the continent. How do you understand its broader implications?

The imperialist onslaught on the Caribbean is nothing new. Haiti, still punished today for its revolution more than two centuries ago, remains under siege. Now, armed gangs tied to the Dominican Republic are also involved. Puerto Rico continues to endure capitalist dispossession, with five million Puerto Ricans now living in the US while barely three million remain on the island. All the while, revolutionary Cuba has faced a brutal blockade for many decades.

However, the recent imperialist military buildup should deeply concern the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, since it signals a shift in Washington’s military policy. Around 10,000 US troops are currently stationed in the Caribbean, mainly in Puerto Rico, to say nothing of the destroyers, nuclear submarine, and air force deployments.

They are not there only to threaten Venezuela; this is the revival of the Monroe Doctrine. As Trump once said, “Why pay for Venezuelan oil, if we can just take it?” That’s how they think about the resources of the continent.

When it comes to Venezuela, beyond seizing our resources, the US also aims to strip away our sovereignty and destroy the example that we represent. If our project succeeds, it will inspire the entire continent. From Canada to Patagonia, people are struggling for liberation, and the Bolivarian Revolution represents a living example of how that can be done.

Attacking Venezuela serves two purposes: to loot our resources and to extinguish the example of participatory democracy. Since 2021, Venezuela has experienced renewed economic growth and the strengthening of its communes and popular power.

That is precisely what Washington wants to halt: they fear that the peoples of Latin America, and even within the United States, will draw inspiration from our experience.

Why the military escalation at this particular moment?

Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” is itself an admission of decline. The US is no longer what it once was, and its elites are desperate to recover lost ground. Yet even within those elites, fractures abound between the neoconservatives, the Zionist zealots, and the MAGA bloc. Their internal contradictions often produce erratic foreign policy decisions.

However, on one point they all agree: war is profitable. The military-industrial complex remains central to sustaining the US economy. So even amid domestic tensions, there is a bipartisan consensus around war as business.

Before the recent attacks on Venezuelan vessels, President Maduro warned that they might attempt to recreate a Gulf of Tonkin incident, because their hunger for war is insatiable. He was right: this aggression is ultimately driven by the economic imperative of feeding the war machine. In a post-Cold War world, it survives through perpetual “hot wars”—and what better front than Venezuela, which is rich in resources and defiant of imperial domination?

Let’s close with Chávez. He declared the Bolivarian Revolution anti-imperialist in 2004, but in truth, it always had a sovereign and anti-imperialist character. Could you reflect on Chávez’s anti-imperialism?

Indeed. The formal declaration came during a historic rally at the Botanical Garden in 2004, but the Revolution was Bolivarian from the start, and Bolívar himself was profoundly anti-imperialist. He warned that the United States seemed “destined by Providence to plague the Americas with misery in the name of liberty.” That same spirit lives in our revolution since day one.

Chávez revived Bolívar’s anti-imperialist legacy as early as 1977, when he created the People’s Army for the Liberation of Venezuela, whose founding document enshrined Bolivarianism and anti-imperialism as guiding principles. Later, in The Blue Book [1991], he outlined the vision of sovereignty and dignity that still guides us. President Maduro calls that text a “historical compass” pointing us steadfastly, no matter how much we have to maneuver, toward our strategic goal: the defense of sovereignty and the rejection of imperial domination.

For us, being anti-imperialist means not only refusing to surrender our resources, but also defending our identity, our dignity, and our very being. The empire’s elites belong nowhere; they want the world to belong to them. We, by contrast, define ourselves by belonging to a land, to a pueblo, and to a history.

That is why even symbolic aggressions, such as the attempt to erase “Bolivarian” from the Republic’s name during the 2002 coup, or mocking us as “venecos” in an attempt to erase our identity, are part of the war.

Bolivarianism and anti-imperialism are also deeply rooted in your organization, the Frente Francisco de Miranda. Can you tell us about it?

Indeed. In 2003, Fidel and Chávez founded the Frente Francisco de Miranda as a movement of Bolivarian, anti-imperialist social workers. However, anti-imperialism isn’t limited to my organization; it’s in the bloodstream of millions of Venezuelans who have resisted International Monetary Fund impositions since 1989 and continue defending the Bolivarian project today.

To be Chavista is to be anti-imperialist. Chávez was the first Latin American president to recognize Palestine, to support the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and to speak of our historical debt to Haiti. His backing of these and other liberation struggles was not just a matter of words but also about material support. He also linked the defense of Haiti to a history that, for him, didn’t begin with Pétion and Dessalines, but with Hatuey, the first known hero of an anti-colonial Caribbean rebellion.

That is our Chávez—the anti-imperialist Chávez—whose legacy continues to guide us!