Venezuela votes for Chavez, elects Maduro as president

[conniption]

CrossTalk: Viva Venezuela!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muRSUrsIF18

Published on Mar 23, 2015

Washington has again put Venezuela into its cross hairs. New sanctions appear to reflect a new cycle of cynicism given Venezuela’s own fragility in the face of depressed oil prices. Is Caracas now the focus of forced regime change? And could we see a repeat of the 2002 coup attempt? CrossTalking with Mark Weisbrot, Michael McCarthy, and George Szamuely.

[semper occultus]

No One in Venezuela Is Talking About Maduro's Relatives Who Were Busted on Drug Charges

By Alicia Hernández

November 12, 2015 | 11:50 pm

https://news.vice.com/article/no-one-in-venezuela-is-talking-about-maduros-relatives-who-were-busted-on-drug-charges

The news that two relatives of President Nicolás Maduro's wife had been been detained in Haiti and then indicted for cocaine smuggling in the United States spread like wildfire through the Venezuela as soon as it broke on Wednesday.

But while social media has been buzzing ever since with the comments of ordinary citizens, the authorities, the media and most public figures in the country have been all but silent.

Even the president limited himself to little more than a quick and unspecific tirade against imperialism.

"The fatherland will continue along its path," Maduro tweeted on Wednesday. "Imperial ambushes cannot bring down the people of the liberators. We have a single destiny, which is to overcome."

Maduro also spoke about "imperial harassment" during a speech to the UN human rights body in Geneva on Thursday in which he promised that Venezuela would "break down their lies."

But the president's subsequent tweets contained no hint that something might be wrong. "We have have received a shower of love and solidarity in Geneva," one read.

Related: Venezuela Is Jailing Mystics Who Make 'Predictions' on Twitter

Back in Venezuela no government spokesman and nobody notable from the judicial system or the prosecution service stepped forward to make a comment on the arrest of Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efraín Antonio Campos Flores.

Both men are nephews of Maduro's wife — Cilia Flores — who the president likes to refer to as the "First Combatant" and who has a notable political career of her own. Accompanying her husband in Geneva, she avoided requests for comment from reporters.

The two men were arrested in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Tuesday by anti-narcotics police at the request of the US authorities and then flown out of the country accompanied by DEA agents, The Associated Press reported citing a senior Haitian official.

The news agency said that the charge against them in a New York federal court cited their alleged participation in the organization of a shipment of cocaine to the United States via Honduras.

The case comes at a particularly delicate time for the administration of President Maduro who took office in 2013, hand picked by President Hugo Chavez before he died. He faces tough congressional elections in December that could see the ruling Socialist Party lose its majority for the first time since Chavez took office in 1999.

Related: Fiery Protest Leader Leopoldo Lopez Faces 13-Year Sentence in Venezuela

One of the few public figures in Venezuela who has spoken in the wake of the arrests is Jesús Chuo Torrealba, who heads the main opposition grouping called the Table of Democratic Unity. And even he was cautious.

"We believe in the presumption of innocence, everybody is innocent until proven otherwise, but there should be a process," he told reporters. Chuo Torrealba said that the Venezuelan congress should name a commission to go to the US to find out what was happening.

Former presidential candidate and governor of the state of Miranda, Henrique Capriles Radonski, took to twitter with two comments.

"Venezuela is waiting for the national government to provide information about what happened in Haiti with the two detainees with diplomatic passports," he said in one tweet, referring to reports that they were traveling with diplomatic papers despite not being entitled to them.

National and local, private and public TV and radio channels, meanwhile, ignored the news entirely on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. Of the main national papers only two — El Nacional and Diario 2011 — included it in their print editions.

The arrests also remained absent from the online news site Ultimas Noticias into the afternoon. El Universal did mention the arrests. It did not, however, explain who the "two Venezuelans arrested for drug trafficking" were. Most digital media did carry the news, though internet coverage in Venezuela remains limited.

[SonicG]

Very interesting...this article from May was linked below...

The Venezuelan government’s second-most powerful figure, Diosdado Cabello, denied on Tuesday any involvement in the drug trade after US media reports that he and other officials were under investigation for trafficking and money laundering.

Stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times outlined long-simmering accusations from the US that the governments of president Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez have facilitated cocaine shipments.

But Cabello, 52, the highest-ranking target of the US probes, called the accusations baseless and part of a campaign to destabilise socialism in Venezuela.

“It would never occur to us to get involved in something that would hurt young people,” the National Assembly head and No 2 in the ruling Socialist party told Venezuela’s parliament. “Those who today accuse me of trafficking should present one piece of proof, just one,” he said.

Socialist legislators chanted, “We’re all Diosdado”, and passed a motion lauding him as a “hero”.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/m ... ing-claims

[Elvis]

Time once again to start counting the lies about Venezuela.

I just heard some fuckhead "expert" on NPR say that 'this will mean a return to democracy' in Venezuela (can't find the audio yet). The other fuckheads seemed glad to hear it, and none of them asked how it was—if Venezuela was no longer a democracy—that Venezuela even HAD ELECTIONS IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE.

I can't stand it.

Venezuela's opposition party wins parliament in a blow to Maduro

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/07/americas/ ... elections/

[MacCruiskeen]

Yeah, just sickening.

I can't stand it.

The Venezuelan people, like the Greek people and the Syrian people, will just have to stand it. We're all, eventually, going to have to stand these things, and more, much more. Stand it or else withstand it.

"Socialism or barbarism." (Rosa Luxemburg, 1915)

[cptmarginal]

[Elvis]

I'm always suspicious when I hear news about Venezuela.

Just heard (again) a lengthy and darkly intoned BBC radio segment supposedly about a Venezuelan woman who—because Venezuela's economy is so bad because of the socialists—is in Brazil working as a prostitute in order to pay for her daughter's college back in Venezuela.

Yet:

Higher education remains free under the 1999 constitution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Venezuela

[PufPuf93]

I'm always suspicious when I hear news about Venezuela.

Just heard (again) a lengthy and darkly intoned BBC radio segment supposedly about a Venezuelan woman who—because Venezuela's economy is so bad because of the socialists—is in Brazil working as a prostitute in order to pay for her daughter's college back in Venezuela.

Yet:

Higher education remains free under the 1999 constitution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Venezuela

For a number of years I followed Venezuela, Chavez and Plan Colombia (and for several of those years the missing Natalee Holloway that regardless of what actually happened to Holloway was used as a cover for intelligence gathering and in massaging public consciousness of the region in the media).

Venezuelanalysis is an English lanquage "news" site that covers Venezuela from a position positive to Chavez and the "Bolivarian Revolution".

https://venezuelanalysis.com/

[Elvis]

For a number of years I followed Venezuela, Chavez and Plan Colombia (and for several of those years the missing Natalee Holloway that regardless of what actually happened to Holloway was used as a cover for intelligence gathering and in massaging public consciousness of the region in the media).

Venezuelanalysis is an English lanquage "news" site that covers Venezuela from a position positive to Chavez and the "Bolivarian Revolution".

https://venezuelanalysis.com/

Thanks—now I remember following that site awhile not long after its founding. Good to see them still operating.

[JackRiddler]

Times trying to figure out who's going to stage a coup d'etat for them in Venezuela:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/06/worl ... tests.html

[seemslikeadream]

Seeking to keep up pressure, Venezuela opposition plans more protests

By Brian Ellsworth and Diego Oré | CARACAS
Venezuela's opposition renewed nationwide protests on Thursday to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to hold elections and improve a collapsing economy, and vowed to keep up pressure by staging three more protests in the next four days.

Thursday's crowds were smaller than the hundreds of thousands of people who flooded the streets of Caracas and provincial cities on Wednesday, the latest and largest in several weeks of protests against what Maduro's opponents condemn as a lurch toward dictatorship.

But still, thousands of people waving Venezuelan flags and shouting "No more dictatorship" took to the streets in the capital and across the oil-rich nation.

.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venez ... SKBN17M1OO

Some 10,000 Venezuelan passports and other documents were issued to Middle Easterners
BY ANTONIO MARÍA DELGADO
adelgado@elnuevoherald.com

Within the span of a year, Venezuela illegally issued at least 10,000 passports and other documents to citizens of Syria, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries in a scheme spearheaded by current Vice President Tareck El Aissami, according to a former high-ranking immigration official.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation- ... rylink=cpy

As Venezuela Starves, Maduro's Regime Gave Trump $500K for Inauguration Party
THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017 AT 8:54 A.M. BY TIM ELFRINK

Venezuela's dire situation needs no embellishment: Millions are starving. There's hardly any food, no gas, and little medicine. Toilet paper has been scarce for so long that Caracas' airport bathrooms don't even pretend they have any. The dire situation has snowballed into massive protests against President Nicolás Maduro's authoritarian regime, including yesterday's "Mother of All Protests," which brought out hundreds of thousands and left at least three dead.

Amid all of the misery and chaos, $500,000 could go an awfully long way. Think of how many Caracas mothers could feed their families for a month with just a fraction of that sum.

Instead, newly filed federal campaign records show, Maduro's regime gave half a million bucks to Donald Trump to help him throw a party in Washington, D.C. Through the state-owned Citgo Petroleum, Maduro's government dropped that cash to Trump's inaugural committee: one of the largest corporate donations listed on the newly filed federal disclosures.

If it seems odd that a self-branded socialist revolutionary who blames most of his ills on evil American plots would give so much cash to the new U.S. president, it shouldn't. Maduro, though talking tough domestically, has worked hard not to overly antagonize Trump.

.......
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/nicol ... es-9290672

Businessmen with ties to Trump met with National Security Council officials: report
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 04/03/17 12:40 PM EDT 113

Businessmen with ties to Trump met with National Security Council officials: report
© Getty
Two businessmen with links to President Trump attended White House meetings in February as part of an effort to persuade officials to remove sanctions against Venezuela, Mic reported Monday.

Mic identified the two men as Gentry Beach and Wadie Habboush, adding that they went to the White House to meet with National Security Council officials on Feb. 8 to discuss how to expand relations with Venezuela.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -officials

Looks like the neocons and neoliberals are dipping their toes back into Venezuela to get their war on. Trump is such a narcissistic dupe (as the alt-right might say cuck).

Russia Warns Against US Interference in Venezuela, Calls for Dialogue

Russia’s foreign ministry voiced its concern over violence by right-wing protests in Venezuela while rebuking recent threats by the U.S. Southern Command, saying these would only stoke violence and ultimately act against U.S. interests.

“Seriously alarmed, we are monitoring the situation in our friend Venezuela, where violent clashes between opposition demonstrators and the police continue, even despite the arrival of Easter,” Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told media Wednesday.

The top Russian official also expressed sympathy “for the victims of the spiral of violence that feeds on street riots,” while also alluding to the tragic history of U.S. interference in the region.

“We should highlight the risks of the increase of the destructive scene that we had previously outlined and recall the sad events in the ’70s in Chile,” Zakharova said in a reference to the U.S.-backed coup against Chilean president Salvador Allende following months of violent protests and economic sabotage.

More at: https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13054


Venezuelans Flood Caracas in Pro and Anti-Maduro Marches amid Deadly Opposition

Caracas, April 19, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com)

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets of the capital Wednesday in massive pro and anti-government rallies marking the country’s independence day.

Thousands of red-clad supporters of President Nicolas Maduro mobilized in four separate marches that culminated in a mass rally along Bolivar Avenue in downtown Caracas.

“I am here to support the Revolution… because I love my country, I’m a Chavista in the flesh and I support Chavez and Maduro, and I want that to be heard in the US, Europe and the rest of the world so they can’t say this is a show, that we don’t have numbers, that we’re paid to be here. No, this is real,” one marcher told Venezuelanalysis.

More at: https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13061


Venezuela Rejects "Interventionist" Statement by US Southern Command Chief

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects and protests the comments expressed by Admiral Kurt Tidd, commander of the United States Southern Command, which lay the groundwork for an attack on Venezuela under the aegis of the false doctrine of collective regional security.
On Thursday, April 6 2017, Admiral Kurt Tidd declared that: “…The growing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela could eventually compel a regional response”. This affirmation, aimed at creating uncertainty and instability in the country, is framed within the interventionist order of a group of governments that are harassing and relentlessly hounding Venezuela through the construction of false assumptions accompanied by operations in the media and fraudulent processes within the framework of the Organization of American States (OAS).

This is nothing new. This is exactly the same script that has been repeated by the spokespeople and regional executioners of the interventionist plan against Venezuela to justify their avaricious ambitions with regards to our resources, seriously threatening the peace of our homeland.

Just as his predecessor John Kelly, who at the end of 2015 voiced false opinions about the political, economic and social situation of the country, which without a doubt formed part of the well-known script for interference and provocation to justify, in the name of humanitarian reasons and the subterfuge of a “regional response”, a future military intervention in our territory whose real objective is simply to overthrow the legitimately elected government.

More at: https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13042

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40492

[Elvis]

I'm hearing on NPR and BBC about the thousands of "anti-government" protesters in the streets.

During the 2003 coup attempt, when there were thousands of pro-Chavez protesters in the streets, U.S. media fixed that by simply saying they were anti-Chavez protesters. Black became white, up became down, good became bad.

When the coup forces killed some pro-Chavez protesters, U.S. media blamed the shootings on some kind of "pro-Chavez militia" who were naturally shooting into crowds of innocent "anti-Chavez" protesters.

When the private oil interests locked out workers at oil refineries, U.S. media called the lockout a "strike," to imply that workers were unhappy with Chavez.

Given all that and more, I've been pretty well conditioned by USUK media to assume the opposite of whatever U.S. media say about politics in Venezuela.

So: I gather that thousands or even milliions of Venezuelans are in the streets protesting the power grab by the rightwing legislature. I assume they demand elections so they can vote the rightwing parliamentary rascals out.

[JackRiddler]

One could spend some time dissecting the invincible (il)logic and implicit power worship of the following passage:

Members of the elite, in this game, try to test one another over where they stand, as well as the government’s strength, in order to decide whether to remain loyal. If enough believe they have achieved critical mass to force a leadership change, they will all push at once.

Luisa Ortega, the attorney general, conducted such a test, whether she intended to or not, in late March. When the pro-Maduro Supreme Court moved to seize many of the legislature’s powers, Ms. Ortega condemned the ruling as a “rupture of the constitutional order.”

The government faced a dilemma. Tolerating Ms. Ortega’s dissent would signal that elites could more freely break with Mr. Maduro, making action against him easier. But punishing her would risk backlash from any elites who shared her view.

Ms. Ortega went unpunished, and the ruling was reversed.

“It’s a sign of enormous weakness inside the ruling clique that Luisa Ortega took the position that she did and kept her job,” said Francisco Toro, a Venezuelan political scientist who edits the Caracas Chronicles website. “That’s never happened before.”

[JackRiddler]

In 2002 there were thousands of opposition protesters, it's just that these crowds were dwarfed by the pro-Chavez outpouring, which was barely reported.

Today it's also the case that large protests for the government are completely blacked out in the U.S. and of course also the private Venezuelan press.

[MacCruiskeen]

"The gringophile Venezuelan opposition; Al Qaeda (Syrian franchise); and the Ukrainian ultra-right: all of Washington`s minions, hand-in-hand."

Christian Nader‏ @ExoSapiens 6. Mai

La oposición venezolana filogringa, al-Qaeda (franquicia siria) y los ultras ucranianos. Todos los esbirros de Washington de la mano.



16:13 - 5. Mai 2017

https://twitter.com/ExoSapiens/status/8 ... 5373700096

^^photo taken in Montreal.