Venezuela

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Re: Venezuela

Postby Jerky » Tue Feb 12, 2019 2:03 pm

Abrams and Bolton accusing Maduro of TORTURE???

That's some sort of goddamned explosive irony, right there.

Fucking vampires. This situation makes me fall into adolescent power fantasies of righteous vengeance and setting things right somehow... which in and of itself feels like a pathetic admission of powerlessness and failure.

Anyone have any ideas of concrete action that can be taken?

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Re: Venezuela

Postby thrulookingglass » Tue Feb 12, 2019 2:34 pm

This situation makes me fall into adolescent power fantasies of righteous vengeance and setting things right somehow... which in and of itself feels like a pathetic admission of powerlessness and failure.

Anyone have any ideas of concrete action that can be taken? - Jerky


That's some powerful wisdom there. Let your elected officials know your outrage? Form a community protest. Power in the hands of the few... Sad that's all I've got right now. Guess we'll have to sit around and wait for Jesus to return for the world to get any better. Must be tied up with some real important shit right now. For an omnipotent god, he sure is stupid sometimes.
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Re: Venezuela

Postby Jerky » Tue Feb 12, 2019 4:35 pm

Thanks, Thru. It's not a nice feeling to have to admit to.

Also thanks for your suggestions. So far, I've mostly been limited to posting angry replies to online newspaper articles about Canada's embarrassing coup-enabling behavior in the wake of this "Guido" mafia punk's little "pro-democracy" (HA!!!) stunt.

As a donating member of the Liberal Party here in Canada, I will definitely be contacting my representative this week. Any other suggestions of citizen actions that can be taken, I'd love to hear them.

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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 14, 2019 5:21 pm

The Neocon Playbook Is a Recipe for Disaster in Venezuela

Elliot Abrams, Nosferatu, Venezuela

Neocon Nosferatu: Making South America Great Again. Photo credit: DonkeyHotey / WhoWhatWhy (CC BY-SA 2.0) See complete attribution below.

When Donald Trump promised that he would only hire the “best people,” maybe he should have been pressed on what, exactly, they would be good at. Because it’s clearly not running the US government. Over the past two years, it has become clear that liars, grifters, conmen, opportunists, and crooks seem to be drawn to the president like flies to … well, you know.

Now, however, a situation is arising for which one of Trump’s “best people” seems ideally suited for forcing regime change somewhere in the Americas.

At a time when the president seems intent on getting the US out of Syria and Afghanistan, he appears to be equally determined to plunge headfirst into the chaos in Venezuela.

His point person for this adventure is Elliott Abrams, who has a long history of mucking around in the US’s backyard — often with dubious methods. In other words, he’ll fit right in.

To those unfamiliar with Abrams, here are the CliffsNotes: In the early 1980s, Abrams served as assistant secretary of state for human rights, which, in retrospect, seems like some kind of cruel joke. In that position, Abrams once stated that former Guatemalan leader General Efraín Ríos Montt “brought considerable progress” to human rights in his country. In case you are not familiar with Ríos Montt, he was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2013.

Abrams’s motives back then seemed to be consistent with the goals of the military-industrial complex: He wanted an embargo on military aid to Guatemala to be lifted. Just as an aside, and unrelated to Abrams but possibly relevant to Venezuela, the CIA-engineered coup in Guatemala in 1954 did nothing to stabilize the country and led to a brutal and lengthy civil war.

Around the same time, Abrams sought to downplay reports of a massacre in El Salvador and testified before the Senate that the incident was being used for guerilla propaganda. A decade later, however, the UN-approved Salvadoran Truth Commission found that more than 500 civilians were “deliberately and systematically” murdered during that massacre. At the time, the Reagan administration was worried about El Salvador becoming a communist country and falling under the influence of the Soviet Union and spent billions to provide weapons to El Salvador’s military. Oh, and there was a brutal and lengthy civil war.

But Abrams truly left his mark when trying to solicit funding for the Nicaraguan Contras from the Sultan of Brunei. He later tried to cover up what happened and ended up pleading guilty to two counts of withholding information from Congress. He was pardoned by George H.W. Bush. All of this, of course, had to do with the US government supporting far-right “rebels” in Nicaragua and it involves a lengthy civil war that took a terrible toll on the country.

You may be detecting a pattern here.

We were certainly skeptical when it was announced that Abrams would be the special envoy for Venezuela. Throw in John Bolton and you have all of the ingredients you need for another neocon clusterfuck.

While Venezuela seems in urgent need of assistance, history has shown time and again that when the US “helps” in the Americas, almost everybody ends up worse than before — apart from the new US-backed right-wing regime and the people who supply the weapons. Just ask Abrams, who has had a front-row seat for some of the worst examples.

Based on his track record, he will make a terrible situation much worse. But maybe that’s the plan. And then he would certainly be the right man for the job.
https://whowhatwhy.org/2019/02/10/the-n ... venezuela/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:04 am

Maduro reveals secret meetings with U.S. envoy for Venezuela

Embattled Venezuelan leader also hopes to meet with Trump
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/venezuela ... -1.5020821


China and Russia loaned billions to Venezuela — and then the presidency went up for grabs

MacKenzie Sigalos11:49 AM ET Mon, 4 Feb 2019 | 02:38
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, right, walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they arrive to a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on January 7, 2015 in Beijing, China.
Andy Wong, Pool | Getty Images

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, right, walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they arrive to a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on January 7, 2015 in Beijing, China.

Venezuela is in the middle of a power struggle at the highest level, and that could mean trouble for its two biggest foreign allies: China and Russia.

The socialist petrostate is home to the largest oil reserves on the planet, but endemic corruption has devastated its economy. Beijing and Moscow have helped the country stave off collapse by repeatedly extending financial lifelines — to the tune of tens of billions of dollars over the last decade.

For the most part, those oil-for-debt swaps were good for all parties involved. But that may be changing.

"They’re worried the opposition will come in and not necessarily want to honor their contracts — or find loopholes." -Russ Dallen, managing partner, Caracas Capital Markets
With the United States and others backing opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's legitimate president over dictator Nicolas Maduro, it could take longer for Russia and China to get their money back. And in the case of some loans, they may not get anything back at all.

"I don't think they like regime change. I don't think they like the idea that the U.S. is seemingly declaring somebody president," says Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets. "Both Xi and Putin would be horrified if the U.S. got any ideas about trying to do this in any of their countries, or countries that they view as satellite states."

Venezuela's debt emergency

Venezuela owes around $100 billion to its external creditors, including China and Russia. Some reports put the figure higher.

Those agreements gave Russia and China relatively cheap oil — and a foothold in the backyard of the United States — and they supplied Venezuela with much-needed cash.

But Venezuela's oil production has plummeted. It is a third of what it was when Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998, which is especially troubling given that oil revenue accounts for about 98 percent of its hard currency earnings.

Venezuela still owes Beijing $20 billion, and Russia's state-backed oil company Rosneft another $2.3 billion, excluding interest. However, the question remains whether those debts are valid if Maduro is thrown out and replaced by Guaido.

'The situation keeps deteriorating'

Guaido has said all lawful agreements approved by Venezuela's National Assembly will be honored, a statement widely seen as an olive branch to China. Thus far, Beijing is still publicly backing Maduro.

"They're worried the opposition will come in and not necessarily want to honor their contracts — or find loopholes," said Russ Dallen, managing partner of investment bank Caracas Capital Markets.

But Dallen acknowledged that Beijing's loyalty may not last. "The Chinese don't know what to do. They're not getting paid by Maduro's guys ... and the situation keeps deteriorating."

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

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

Guaido has incentive to make good on Venezuela's debts to Beijing. China is Venezuela's biggest market. RBC's Croft pointed out that Guaido doesn't want to get on the bad side of the country that drives global oil demand.

Failing to repay China would also erode Guaido's credibility.

"If the opposition comes in and defaults, it would hurt them," said Kathryn Rooney Vera, chief investment strategist at Bulltick Capital Markets. "It would also hurt their future capacity to issue debt in terms of their credit. So I don't think that's going to happen."

A desire to avoid antagonizing the United States during an already complex, high-stakes trade war may encourage China to consider a change of allegiance from Maduro to Guaido, according to Dallen.

Maduro needs Russia

Though Guaido is signaling he intends to honor Venezuela's obligations to China, he has made no such overtures to Russia. Moscow's latest deals with Venezuela are something they don't want to risk losing, either.

"Not only are they getting oil, but they've also gained access to pretty good acreage in Venezuela," said Croft.

Moscow is considered the linchpin to Maduro's survival. Russia has come in with cash at the eleventh hour a few times to help Venezuela avoid default. If the country gave another financial lifeline or even continued to buy gold at a discounted rate, the situation could become a protracted crisis.

"The question is, do they believe a couple billion more dollars can tide the country over? If not to preserve Maduro, to preserve some type of regime that remains loosely or closely aligned with Moscow," said Croft.

Ironically, if Moscow lets Venezuela default on its debts, then Russia would actually be able to exercise its lien on Venezuela's most valuable asset: U.S.-based oil giant Citgo. In 2016, Maduro secured a fresh loan by giving Rosneft a 49.9 percent stake in Citgo as collateral.

"It would not be unusual for the Russians ... to try and exercise the lien they have on the Citgo collateral, just because it would be very disruptive and chaotic to the U.S.," said Dallen of Caracas Capital.

Where Venezuela goes from here

If Guaido wrests control of the government, there won't be widespread default, but nobody is going to get paid immediately.

The International Monetary Fund will likely take the lead in what would be one of the largest and most complicated sovereign debt restructurings ever. Venezuela will essentially have to be rebuilt completely.

The good news for Venezuela is that it sits on 300 billion barrels of oil, as well as underground reserves of gold, iron ore and other resources.

"What they have is a liquidity crisis, but not a solvency crisis. Everyone should be pretty sure they are going to get paid back," said Dallen.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/07/venezue ... rages.html


Exclusive: Trafigura halts oil trade with Venezuela - source

GENEVA (Reuters) - Global commodities firm Trafigura has decided to stop trading oil with Venezuela due to U.S. sanctions on the OPEC nation’s energy sector, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Trafigura logo is pictured in the company entrance in Geneva, Switzerland March 11, 2012. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
The decision will come as a blow to Caracas as Swiss-based Trafigura has a long-standing arrangement with state-run PDVSA to take Venezuelan crude and, in exchange, supply the Latin American country with refined products.

Washington imposed fresh sanctions on PDVSA last month to cut off a key source of revenue for President Nicolas Maduro. The move came after congress head Juan Guaido invoked constitutional provisions to become interim president, arguing that socialist Maduro’s re-election last year was a sham.

Last year, trading company Trafigura directly took 34,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Venezuelan crude and products, which were mostly resold to U.S. and Chinese refineries, according to internal PDVSA trade documents seen by Reuters.

Trafigura will stop business with PDVSA after completing a small number of already-concluded trades, the source said.

Due to the size of Venezuela’s oil-for-loan agreements with China and Russia and the weight of previous U.S. sanctions, cash-strapped PDVSA has become increasingly reliant on intermediaries to export its crude and import refined products.

PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trafigura is due to load two cargoes of Venezuelan crude before the end of February, the source with direct knowledge and a shipping source said.

It was not immediately clear whether these two tankers were the last of the already-concluded trades, or how many - if any - product tankers would be sent in return.

For the trading firm, the decision means giving up a source of crude supply for Russia-backed Indian refiner Nayara Energy, in which Trafigura holds a near 25 percent stake.

Nayara would still be able to buy Venezuelan crude through Russia’s Rosneft and other intermediaries.

The U.S. sanctions limit U.S. refiners to paying for Venezuelan oil by using escrow accounts that cannot be accessed by Maduro’s government. Foreign firms that use the U.S. financial system for oil trading or U.S. units are similarly restricted, cutting off avenues for PDVSA to collect revenue.

In an effort to ease domestic fuel shortages, PDVSA’s imports skyrocketed last year. Its own refining system is hobbled by technical failure, a lack of investment, delayed maintenance and insufficient crude supply.

Airbus to end production of the A380 superjumbo
In the last three months of 2018, Venezuela exported about 1.45 million bpd of crude and products. Trading houses lifted 225,000 bpd of that, according to the PDVSA documents and Refinitiv Eikon data.

Exports to the United States, Venezuela’s primary export customer, have since dried up, as well as those to other destinations, with loaded tankers left stranded off Venezuelan ports.

Reporting by Julia Payne; Additional reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City; Editing by Dale Hudson
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vene ... SKCN1Q41H8
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Feb 24, 2019 10:00 am

Here’s the real and terrifying reason Trump is pushing for a coup in Venezuela

Michael Fox / Independent Media InstituteFebruary 19, 2019

On Monday, President Donald Trump met with the Venezuelan community in Miami, Florida. His speech represented more than just disdain for the country’s president Nicolas Maduro; it was a sign of what may really be behind his increasing rhetoric against Venezuela: Reelection. 2020.

Florida will be a key swing state in next year’s elections. Trump’s overtures to both the Venezuelan and Cuban-American communities were clear.

“The days of socialism and communism are numbered, not only in Venezuela but in Nicaragua and in Cuba as well,” Trump told the crowd.

But Trump’s push on Venezuela is not just about winning over key votes in Florida. It’s about sidelining progressives, distracting from domestic policies, and driving the U.S. into a war that could easily lift him into a second term.

Venezuela has been front and center over the last month. The U.S. has backed the National Assembly head Juan Guaido in his grab for the presidency, enacted devastating sanctions, pushed humanitarian aid, and, according to Cuba, is sending special forces to Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands with the goal of toppling President Nicolas Maduro.

This is not the first time the White House has been engaged in trying to undermine the Venezuelan government. It’s been at it since the early 2000s. Washington backed the coup against President Hugo Chavez in 2002. The National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International Development have paid millions to opposition groups in the name of democracy.

But never have the sanctions been so crippling. Never has the threat of military intervention loomed so large. Such a move would play right into Trump’s 2020 campaign. A war in America’s backyard. A trojan horse to lock in the president’s second term. Democrats in Congress have been either complacent or complicit.

A war with Venezuela would not be swift, even if carried out through proxy militaries like Colombia and Brazil. Venezuela is polarized and politicized. The country has almost two million soldiers ready to serve, including reservists. Violent action would likely throw Venezuela into a bloody civil war—a war that would last well through the 2020 presidential elections.

Sound familiar?

George W. Bush launched his invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, the year prior to the 2004 electoral campaign. He was reelected. No WMDs were found. Nor was Osama bin Laden, though the United States did generate enough animosity that it planted the seeds for the birth of the Islamic State.

Ronald Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in October 1983 helped to lift his failing approval rating the year before his reelection.

Of course, the situation in Venezuela is dire. President Nicolas Maduro shoulders plenty of the blame. Inflation is through the roof. His fiscal policy has been ineffective. Over two million Venezuelans have left the country in recent years. But the economic warfare and the U.S. sanctions, imposed in 2017 and deepened in recent weeks, have cost the country billions of dollars and blocked access to critical medicine for Venezuelan citizens.

In his discourse on Venezuela, President Donald Trump talks about democracy and the humanitarian crisis. But he overlooks these issues for the countries he considers allies. A great example is Honduras.

If the president was actually concerned with resolving humanitarian crises in the region, he should look not to Venezuela, but to Central America, to fix the structural problems that have led to the migrant crisis—the whole reason Trump says he needs a border wall—and which the United States helped to cause.

Millions have fled Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in recent years. They flee violence, drug gangs, repressive regimes. The murder rates in El Salvador and Honduras hover above the rate in Venezuela, according to the World Bank.

In Honduras, the Juan Orlando Hernandez regime retained power in 2017 through fraudulent elections, after he strong-armed Congress and the Supreme Court to approve changes to the Constitution to allow him to run for reelection—the very reason that Congress ousted president Manuel Zelaya in 2009.

In Venezuela, by contrast, despite the opposition’s boycott of last year’s election—after it pulled out of the two-year-long talks with the government at the last minute—Maduro still won the presidency with a greater percentage of the overall Venezuela voting population than Trump won in the United States in 2016.

In Honduras, the assault on community, environmental and indigenous leaders is widespread. Berta Caceres’ assassination is only the most prominent example. Security forces have killed protesters with live rounds to the head. Impunity is rampant.

According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Honduras has “the most unequal distribution of income in Latin America,” an inequity that has accelerated over the last decade.

This all has spurred hundreds of thousands to flee each year in an attempt to reach asylum in the United States. Trump’s response has been to send the military to the border and to build a wall.

Ironically, the Central American crisis is one the United States helped to create, by backing brutal regimes and illegally funneling weapons into the region—a strategy it seems it may be trying to duplicate in Venezuela. The very man in charge of those weapons was Ronald Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Elliott Abrams, who was recently tapped by Trump to bring so-called democracy to Venezuela.

If he succeeds in toppling Venezuela, the future is bleak. Central America today is perhaps an image of what we can expect for the future: a crime rate through the roof, poverty, widespread inequality.

The White House has an interest in keeping the focus on Venezuela, and not on the controversies and domestic issues that have dogged Trump and his presidency. Venezuela is a way for the president to distract U.S. citizens. A way to tarnish a resurgence in the debate about socialism, which he highlighted in his State of the Union address.

With his bellicose rhetoric and point people trained in subversion and violence, Trump is willing to put peace on the line, not in the interest of the Venezuelan people, but for the United States, for U.S. corporations and conservatives.

Donald Trump’s push on Venezuela is about grabbing at the largest oil reserves in the world, making an example to any other would-be leftist leaders, and above all else, reelecting Trump in 2020.

The Democrats appear to be willing to give it to him.

Michael Fox is a freelance journalist and the former editor of the NACLA Report on the Americas. He is the coauthor of the books Venezuela Speaks and Latin America’s Turbulent Transitions. He tweets at @mfox_us.

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/heres- ... venezuela/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Feb 24, 2019 11:04 am

Chris Murphy


1/ Democrats need to be careful about a potential trap being set by Trump et al in Venezuela. Cheering humanitarian convoys sounds like the right thing to do, but what if it's not about the aid? What if the real agenda is laying a pretext for war? Follow my logic for a second.

2/ First, so secret Trump has been talking up war with Maduro since 2017, when he repeatedly asked McMaster for a plan to overthrow Maduro. New McCabe book confirms Now, Trump says "all options are on the table" and Rubio objects to Senate resolution that forbids war.

3/ I want aid to get to Venezuelans. But let's be honest - Venezuela didn't just lurch into humanitarian crisis. The aid is being sent there now as part of a regime change strategy. Many are hoping that it will be the match that lights a civil war against Maduro.

4/ Senator Rubio rushed to tweet out reports today of Maduro allies firing into Colombian territory, warning that the "the United States WILL help Columbia confront any aggression against them." Venezuela ordered Colombian diplomats out in 24 hours, ramping up the crisis.

5/ Maduro is evil, and the U.S. should pursue a strategy to undermine him and prompt new elections. No one can defend what he has done to Venezuela. But it's quite a different thing for the U.S. to incite a civil war with no real plan for how it ends (sound familiar?).


6/ And finally - and perhaps most importantly - go look up the 1947 Rio Treaty, It's a western hemisphere mutual defense treaty, and may not require a war declaration if Trump is legitimately coming to the defense of Colombia. Don't think the Venezuela hawks don't know this.
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/statu ... 5927143424
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Venezuela

Postby Belligerent Savant » Sun Feb 24, 2019 12:42 pm

.


Chris Murphy:

5/ Maduro is evil, and the U.S. should pursue a strategy to undermine him and prompt new elections. No one can defend what he has done to Venezuela. But it's quite a different thing for the U.S. to incite a civil war with no real plan for how it ends (sound familiar?).


What makes Maduro 'evil'? What has he done in Venezuela, specifically?

What about the SANCTIONS imposed on Venezuela by the U.S., and the resultant loss of lives/livilihoods of the Venezuelan people? Would that be considered "evil", especially if these sanctions were cynically and criminally imposed as a means to set up precisely this current "humanitarian" crisis and subsequent attempts by the U.S. [and their 'allies'] to [illegally] overthrow a sitting President of a sovereign State?

Chris Murphy either is ignorant of the larger picture or is being dishonest here. Common traits among those that take to Twitter.

A few excerpts from the report of the Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (United States of America, Switzerland) on his visit to Venezuela and Ecuador form 26 November to 9 December 2017:

https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/201 ... d-ecuador/

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

In paragraph 37. “Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns with the intention of forcing them to surrender. Twenty-first century sanctions attempt to bring not just a town, but sovereign countries to their knees. A difference, perhaps, is that twenty-first century sanctions are accompanied by the manipulation of public opinion through ‘fake news’, aggressive public relations and a pseudo-human rights rhetoric so as to give the impression that a human rights ‘end’ justifies the criminal means. There is not only a horizontal juridical world order governed by the Charter of the United Nations and principles of sovereign equality, but also a vertical world order reflecting the hierarchy of a geopolitical system that links dominant States with the rest of the world according to military and economic power. It is the latter, geopolitical system that generates geopolitical crimes, hitherto in total impunity….” He concludes: “Economic sanctions kill.”

[...]

In paragraph 40 the independent expert calls for a renewal of dialogue between the government and the opposition parties. “There is nothing more in keeping with the letter and spirit of the Charter of the United Nations than mediation. For two years, the former Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (quoted in full in annex IV), with the support of the Vatican, headed a negotiating team in the Dominican Republic which facilitated talks between the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the opposition. Negotiations advanced to a balanced document entitled “Agreement of Democratic Coexistence” (quoted in full in annex III) that should have been signed by all sides on 7 February 2018. The Government signed, but, as was reported, a telephone call from Colombia frustrated the two-year negotiating process with the instruction: “Don’t sign”. Some believe that certain countries do not want to see a peaceful solution of the Venezuelan conflict and prefer to prolong the suffering of the Venezuelan people, expecting that the situation will reach the “humanitarian crisis” threshold and trigger a military intervention.”

[...]

In paragraph 30 the expert notes: “The principles of non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign States belong to customary international law and have been reaffirmed in General Assembly resolutions, notably 2625 (XXV) and 3314 (XXIX), and in the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. Article 32 of the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, adopted by the General Assembly in 1974, stipulates that no State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights.” In paragraph 31 he highlights chapter 4, article 19, of the Charter of the OAS, which stipulates that “No State or group of States has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State. The foregoing principle prohibits not only armed force but also any other form of interference or attempted threat against the personality of the State or against its political, economic, and cultural elements”.

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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Feb 24, 2019 12:55 pm

Trump Hawks don’t Care about Democracy, they Want a Brutal Coup for Venezuelan Oil

Peter Certo02/07/2019
Peter Certo

(Otherwords.org) – Do we think people who armed death squads and started wars really want to “bring democracy” to Venezuela?

By | January 30, 2019

For some months now, Venezuela’s socialist government has lurched through a series of escalating crises — hyperinflation, mass protests, political violence — while both the government and its opposition have flirted with authoritarianism.

It isn’t pretty — and to hear the right wing tell it, it’s the future the U.S. left wants for our own country. As if to prevent that, the Trump administration is now fomenting a coup in Venezuela.

They’ve publicly recognized an unelected opposition leader as president, discussed coup plans with Venezuela’s military, and sanctioned oil revenues the country needs to resolve its economic crisis. They’re even threatening to send U.S. troops.

They’ll tell you this about restoring “democracy” and “human rights” in the South American country. But one look at the administration officials driving the putsch perishes the thought.

Take Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently spoke at the United Nations calling on countries to stand “with the forces of freedom” against “the mayhem” of Venezuela’s government.

This fall, the same Pompeo shared a photo of himself beaming and shaking hands with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince — just as the prince’s order to kill and dismember a U.S. resident journalist was coming to light. The same prince is carrying on a U.S.-backed war in Yemen, where millions are starving.

Does this sound like a man who gives one fig for democracy, or against mayhem?

Or take Pompeo’s point man on Venezuela, the dreaded Elliott Abrams. Pompeo said Abrams was appointed for his “passion for the rights and liberties of all peoples.” More likely, it was Abrams’ history as Reagan’s “Secretary of Dirty Wars” (yes, that’s a real thing people called him).

A singularly villainous figure, Abrams vouched for U.S. backing of a genocidal Guatemalan regime and Salvadoran death squads in the 1980s. And when a UN report cataloged 22,000 atrocities in El Salvador, Abrams praised his administration’s “fabulous achievement” in the country.

Abrams was convicted of lying to Congress about U.S. support for Nicaragua’s brutal Contras, but that didn’t prevent him from serving in George W. Bush’s State Department — which backed not only the Iraq war but an earlier coup attempt in, you guessed it, Venezuela.

“It’s very nice to be back,” Abrams told reporters. I bet!

Finally there’s National Security Adviser John Bolton, who recently took a cute photo with the words “5,000 troops” written on a notepad. Bolton still thinks the Iraq war was a good idea, and he’d like one with Iran too. Do we think it’s bread and roses he wants for Venezuela?

For all its faults, Venezuela achieved tremendous things before the current crisis — including drastic reductions in poverty and improvements in living standards. Mismanagement and repression may have imperiled those gains, but that’s no justification at all for the U.S. getting involved. In fact, U.S. sanctions have worsened the economic crisis, and U.S. coordination with coup plotters has poisoned the country’s political environment even further.

The future of Venezuela’s revolution is for Venezuelans to decide, not us. All that can come of more intervention now is more crisis, and maybe even war.

Instead of regime change, the U.S. — and especially progressive politicians (looking at you, Nancy Pelosi) — should back regional dialogue and diplomacy. While Democratic Party leaders appear to back Trump, a few representatives — like Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) — are bravely backing a diplomatic course.

For all the right’s warnings that the left wants to “turn the U.S. into Venezuela,” we should pay careful attention to what the people who gave guns to death squads and destroyed the Middle East want to do with it. Because unlike the left, they’re already running our own country.

https://www.juancole.com/2019/02/democr ... uelan.html





Turkey, NATO ally, Rejects US “Coup Attempt” in Venezuela
JUAN COLE
02/03/2019

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It is no surprise that Iran should be supporting the Venezuelan government of Maduro, given that both typically take anti-imperialist stands.

What is astonishing is that NATO member Turkey has piled on the criticism, along with the Turkish press.

It is s sign of US-Turkish relations being at their nadir.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on January 25 that he rejects the American “coup attempt” in Venezuela, according to BBC Monitoring of NTV Televsion in Istanbul.

He compared the situation in Venezuela to that in Egypt in June-July of 2013, when the Egyptian military took advantage of massive street crowds protesting the elected president Mohammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

(There isn’t actually any evidence, by the way, that the Obama administration backed the military coup, and on the contrary the US ambassador to Egypt got into trouble before the coup by warning against it publicly.)

Erdogan and his cabinet members have in the past also blamed the United States in part for the July 2015 failed military coup attempt against him in Turkey.

Ankara is also upset at the US for its role in Syria, supporting leftist Kurds there whom Turkey views as identical with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its guerrilla paramilitary. Turkey has applauded President Trump’s stated determination to withdraw US troops from eastern Syria.

The Turkish president said that democracy requires reverence for “the ballot box.”

The Trump administration recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the rightful president of Venezuela on Jan. 24.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also went on Haber TV according to BBC Monitoring and declared his opposition to US “meddling” in Venezuelan politics.

In the pro-government Turkish daily, Cumhurriyyet, a columnist wrote that the US was primarily driven by a desire to grab control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and to block the rising Moscow-Beijing sphere of influence in Venezuela.

This stance is, again, mind-boggling on the part of a NATO ally, and a sign that The organization is in decline. Article 5 of the NATO treaty requires all members to come to the aid of one who has been attacked. It is a consequential treaty. [While it would not obligate Turkey to support an actual US coup in Venezuela, the level of vituperation here is unprecedented, and comes after a year in which Erdogan has repeatedly implied that he was coming for the YPG leftist Kurdish allies of the US in Syria qnd that US troops should get out of the way or else.]* It seems Erdogan, like Trump, views it as so much kindling wood.
https://www.juancole.com/2019/02/reject ... zuela.html
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Don’t forget that.
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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Feb 24, 2019 1:43 pm

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-am ... ow_twitter


More than 100 Venezuelan soldiers have deserted and crossed into Colombia, immigration authorities report as tensions rise between the neighbors over humanitarian aid

Map locating aid storage points and violent clashes between Venezuelan security forces and demonstrators at border crossings with Colombia and Brazil

Image
https://twitter.com/AFP
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 25, 2019 11:34 am

Venezuela Accuses U.S. of Secretly Shipping Arms After Weapons Found on Plane with Possible CIA Ties
STORYFEBRUARY 13, 2019



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdGyoGJLiN4
Tim Johnson
McClatchy reporter who covers national security and technology.


"Venezuela says plane from Miami delivered weapons for use by enemies of Maduro"
A North Carolina-based air freight company has halted flights to Venezuela following a report by McClatchy linking it to possible arms smuggling. Last week, Venezuelan authorities claimed they had uncovered 19 assault weapons, 118 ammunition cartridges and 90 military-grade radio antennas on board a U.S.-owned plane that had flown from Miami into Valencia, Venezuela’s third-largest city. The Boeing 767 is owned by a company called 21 Air based in Greensboro, North Carolina. The plane had made nearly 40 round-trip flights between Miami and spots in Venezuela and Colombia since January 11, the day after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in to a second term. The flights ended after McClatchy first reported on them. Venezuela accused the U.S. government of sending the arms as part of its attempt to topple the Maduro government. While no definitive links between 21 Air and the U.S. government have been established, McClatchy reports the chairman of 21 Air, Adolfo Moreno, as well as another employee at the company have ties to Gemini Air Cargo, which was involved in the CIA’s rendition program during the administration of George W. Bush. We speak to McClatchy reporter Tim Johnson, who broke the story. Johnson was part of a team that shared a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for its investigation of the Panama Papers.

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to Venezuela. A North Carolina-based air freight company has halted flights to that country following a report by McClatchy linking it to possible arms smuggling. Last week, Venezuelan authorities claimed they uncovered 19 assault weapons, 118 ammunition cartridges and 90 military-grade radio antennas on board a U.S.-owned plane that had flown from Miami into Valencia, Venezuela’s third-largest city. The Boeing 767 is owned by a company called 21 Air based in Greensboro, North Carolina. The plane had made nearly 40 round-trip flights between Miami and spots in Venezuela and Colombia since January 11th, which is the day after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in to a second term. The flights ended after McClatchy first reported on them. Venezuela accused the U.S. government of sending the arms as part of its attempt to topple the Maduro government. Bolivarian National Guard General Endes Palencia Ortiz said, “This materiel was destined for criminal groups and terrorist actions in the country, financed by the fascist extreme right and the government of the United States.”

AMY GOODMAN: 21 Air has denied knowledge of the arms shipment, saying the flight had been chartered by another company called GPS-Air, which also denied sending arms. While no definitive links between 21 Air and the U.S. government have been established, McClatchy reports the chairman of 21 Air, Adolfo Moreno, as well as another employee at the company have ties to Gemini Air Cargo, which was involved in the CIA’s rendition program during the administration of George W. Bush. In 2006, Amnesty International identified Gemini as a front company that had authorization to land on U.S. military bases worldwide.

The CIA has a long history of running front companies for covert actions. Most famously, the CIA ran a front airline called Air America, which operated from 1950 to 1976. In the ’80s, a CIA front company called Southern Air Transport was used to send arms to the U.S.-backed Contras in Nicaragua.

We’re joined now by Tim Johnson, who has been reporting on the story for McClatchy, joining us from Pennsylvania.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Tim, would you lay out what you found?

TIM JOHNSON: Well, as you mentioned, this air charter company, 21 Air, went repeatedly to places in Venezuela and Colombia starting January 11th. Prior to that, it had largely operated domestically, and suddenly it began to change its patterns. And often there would be even two flights a day between Miami and places in Colombia or Venezuela.

I actually learned about this from somebody who tweeted about it. A gentleman in Canada who follows ship and plane movements noticed this, and we started looking into the history of the chairman of 21 Air and saw that he has a number of businesses. And two of those businesses used an address in northwest Miami that were previously used by a subsidiary of Gemini Air Cargo, which, as you mentioned, was listed in that Amnesty International report as having participated in renditions.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, Tim Johnson, a Boeing 767 is a pretty big plane, and the cache of weapons that the Venezuelan government claims they found, while they’re clearly lethal weapons, is not a huge shipment. I’m wondering: Do you have any way of being able to tell what the manifest of this flight, as well as the other 39 or so flights that this airline engaged in—what they were claiming to hold?

TIM JOHNSON: I actually don’t know. We’ve tried to get that, and we haven’t been able to get the manifests yet. So, you know, what was aboard the other flights going to South America, we don’t know. This is a very puzzling case. If you look on social media and dig into the backgrounds of employees of 21 Air and associated companies, you see that there are many accounts of employees who follow the Venezuelan opposition, and opposition accounts that follow them, as well. So, there’s certainly some sympathy from employees within the company to the opposition to Maduro in Venezuela.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk more about the leadership of the company that you investigated, based in North Carolina. And explain what you mean when you talk about the links to rendition under President George W. Bush.

TIM JOHNSON: Well, Adolfo Moreno is a 75 percent owner of 21 Air, and he’s got many other companies, but he’s been involved out of Miami. I don’t know—while the company is registered in North Carolina, the operations really are out of Miami, as far as I can tell. That’s where many of the flights have been operated. They have a huge operation center at Miami International Airport.

A curious secondary aspect of this story is that the company that consigned the cargo also has tangential links to, you know, this historical—the Iran-Contra affair. The head of GPS Air is a man named José Manuel Calvo, and he, like Moreno, has many companies. And one of those companies, with the partner that he used to create this company, is a company called Heavylift Air. And that company has a subsidiary out of the UAE that is controlled by in Iranian American named Farhad Azima, who also had a role in Iran-Contra. So there’s all these circumstantial things, but there’s really no smoking gun, that I could tell. You know, this may be just circumstantial.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you reporting this new now on Iran-Contra, what you’re saying? And explain, for people who aren’t familiar with the Iran-Contra scandal, this happening under the Reagan-Bush years, the selling of weapons to Iran to take that money to support the Contras in Nicaragua, which violated U.S. law, the Boland Amendment.

TIM JOHNSON: Yes. So, that scandal involved Southern Air Transport, which also was a CIA front company. That really exploded into the news back in 1986 because the Sandinista army shot down a twin-engine plane that was run by Southern Air Transport, that was taking armaments to the Contra rebels fighting in Nicaragua. So, Southern Air Transport was actually heavily involved in all the arms shipments to Iran and from the Middle East to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, I want to ask you about Eugene Hasenfus, who you mention in your article. In 1986, he was aboard a U.S. plane that was shot down in Nicaragua while on a secret mission to bring arms to the Nicaraguan Contras. He the only passenger to survive. I want to turn to a documentary made by Wisconsin Public Television called the The Eugene Hasenfus Story from 1991. It featured an excerpt from the station’s initial coverage of what happened to him in 1986.

REPORTER: A Wisconsin man has been the focus of international news this week. Forty-five-year-old Eugene Hasenfus of Marinette was captured in Nicaragua after his cargo plane was shot down. At a press conference Thursday, Hasenfus said his mission was directed by the CIA. But U.S. officials say the flights were privately directed. Mrs. Sally Hasenfus joined her husband in Nicaragua this week. Hasenfus has been jailed and may stand trial.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The documentary also featured an interview with Eugene Hasenfus’s wife, Sally.

SALLY HASENFUS: The next morning, I tried to call President Reagan. I thought, “Well, it’s the only place I’m going to get answers.” He’s—you know, I should be able to trust him. He’s the president. And I knew he knew. He put me in touch with a man named Elliott Abrams. He said, “I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I got angry. And before I hung up, he did admit that he knew what I was talking about. And he kept warning me that—you know, “Be careful of the press, and be careful what you say. Be careful what you do.”
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And interestingly or coincidentally, Elliott Abrams is now the special envoy of the White House to Venezuela. I’m wondering your assessment of this affair back then, the impact it had on what was going on at the time, in terms of the war on the Contras?

TIM JOHNSON: I’m not sure I can really speak to the historical impact. But, of course, it—you know, I think it helped lead to a negotiated settlement, leading to the elections in Nicaragua in 1990, because it was, you know, clearly a major impact on that. But I really couldn’t speak further to that.

AMY GOODMAN: But this whole issue of Eugene Hasenfus, this former marine, a mercenary, shot down over Nicaragua, then held by Nicaragua, eventually released, and his contact with the U.S. government at the time, and now you raising this issue in your current piece around the arms shipment that was found going into Venezuela—not clear exactly if there’s a connection to the U.S. government, but clearly the U.S. government is very overtly supporting the attempted overthrow of Maduro, explicitly, and these flights starting a day after Maduro’s inauguration on January 10th.

TIM JOHNSON: Well, yes, there’s a lot of these coincidental links, and it’s worth paying quite close attention to. Again, I use “coincidental” only because we don’t really know. You know, other people point out to me that there are many people that could have a vested interest in this, whether the arms were really aboard that plane. Or, is it possible that this was something that was ginned up by the Venezuelan government to rally support for Maduro? I don’t know. I just—we haven’t been able to determine for a fact that those weapons were loaded aboard that 767 in Miami, that somehow they passed through the normally rigorous screening by TSA for air cargo. These are things that are just yet to be investigated.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And has the company answered in terms of—as you mentioned, they normally were not traveling to Venezuela and Colombia—the 40 flights, what they were actually carrying, or are they saying they just didn’t know?

TIM JOHNSON: Both have been very limited in what they’ve said, other than denying that they knew what the cargo was. Generally, an air charter company would trust the consignee of the freight to handle any declarations, I believe. And for its part, GPS-Air said, well, it was—you know, it doesn’t know what was in the cargo.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, back to that issue of rendition, though you don’t know exactly who this company was working for, what you do have a record of is the company being involved with the U.S. government during the President George W. Bush years, being involved with rendition and having clearance to land on any military base in the world. Can you explain what those renditions, so-called, what some called kidnappings, were about?

TIM JOHNSON: Well, basically, the renditions were to take terrorist suspects, following 9/11, for interrogation in black site jails scattered around the world. There were a number of them in Eastern Europe. I know there was one outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand, elsewhere. And these were used to, you know, forcefully interrogate, waterboard even, suspects in the war against terror. So these rendition flights were commonly used in the period after 9/11.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you so much for joining us, Tim Johnson, McClatchy reporter who’s been covering national security and technology issues since 2016, his recent article headlined “Venezuela says plane from Miami delivered weapons for use by enemies of Maduro.” Tim Johnson was part of a team that shared a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for its investigation of the Panama Papers. Earlier in his career, he spent two decades as a foreign correspondent in Asia and Latin America. We’ll link to your piece at democracynow.org.

When we come back, None of the Above: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal, Corporate Greed, and the Criminalization of Educators. Stay with us.
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/13/ ... y_shipping
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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:03 pm

Univision News
@UnivisionNews
Attention: A
@Univision
team, headed by
@jorgeramosnews
, is being arbitrarily detained at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas. They were interviewing
@NicolasMaduro
but he didn't like the questions. Their technical equipment was also confiscated



Quote Tweet
Daniel Coronell
@DCoronell
Atención: Un grupo periodístico de @Univision, encabezado por @jorgeramosnews, está arbitrariamente retenido en el Palacio de Miraflores en Caracas porque a @NicolasMaduro no le gustaron sus preguntas. También están confiscados los equipos técnicos.

https://mobile.twitter.com/UnivisionNew ... 8634964993





Maduro arbitrarily detains Univision team headed by Jorge Ramos


Six journalists from Univision News were detained while interviewing Nicolás Maduro at the Miraflores Palace and their equipment confiscated.
UNIVISION
26 FEB 2019 – 8:55 PM EST
COMPARTE

A team of journalists from Univision News, headed by Jorge Ramos, was briefly detained on Monday at the Miraflores Palace on the orders of the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. They were later released unharmed.

PUBLICIDAD

Ramos was conducting an interview with Maduro who became upset with the line of questioning and ordered the seizure of the video and Univision equipment, including TV and phones, as well as the detention of the journalists.

The Univision team held at Miraflores were: María Martínez, Claudia Rondón, Francisco Urreiztieta, Juan Carlos Guzmán, Martín Guzmán and Jorge Ramos.
https://www.univision.com/amp/univision ... ssion=true




What triggered the escalation of US-Venezuela policy?

For two decades the US was powerless to alter the course of Venezuela’s socialist rule. But, in recent weeks Trump has turned the screws on the Maduro regime. So, what changed? How a casual meeting at Trump Tower and a photo op at the White House, dovetailed with the evolving crisis inside Venezuela.

04:10

Two days after taking office in January 2017 President Donald Trump surprised White House staff by asking for a briefing on Venezuela. At the time, Fernando Cutz was on the National Security Council staff as the President's Director for South America.

“For whatever reason, and honestly I don’t know what the reason was, but President Trump started on Day One, literally on Day One, asking about Venezuela. So, it was a priority of his from the very start,” Cutz told a forum at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank, after he left government last year.

Lea este articulo en español

Cutz didn’t know, but the seed was planted a few days before Trump’s inauguration during a casual meeting at Trump Tower in New York. Trump had invited some South Florida friends to pay him a visit, among them Freddy Balsera, a Cuban American Democrat, who represented the real estate mogul on several South Florida golf projects.

468C196D-2791-4673-9B33-A43340476D57.jpeg



During the meeting, Trump asked Balsera for some advice on what South Floridians would like to see from his presidency, according to witnesses. Balsera mentioned taking a tougher line on the Maduro regime in Venezuela, adding it would have bipartisan support and could make for a good foreign policy victory.

The president’s son-in-law and close advisor, Jared Kushner, was in the room and his ears picked up, the sources said. Balsera told Trump and Kushner about Venezuela’s most famous political prisoner: Leopoldo Lopez. And he had a suggestion: “You should meet with his wife, Lilian Tintori,” he said.

That’s precisely what happened a few weeks later, courtesy of another Cuban American - a Republican this time - Senator Marco Rubio.

Tintori was at the White House to meet Vice President Mike Pence and press the administration to do more about human rights in her home country. Tintori made her case during the 40-minute meeting. First lady Melania Trump, who was also in the room, expressed her sympathy.

In the midst of the meeting, Trump tweeted “Venezuela should allow Leopoldo Lopez … out of prison immediately.”

So, why was Trump’s meeting with Lilian Tintori so important?

Treading carefully


For the eight years under President Barack Obama, the U.S. chose to tread cautiously with Venezuela’s fiery President Hugo Chavez, who enjoyed strong support among the poor. U.S. officials feared that punitive actions, such as oil sanctions, might cause a backlash with familiar accusations of foreign meddling by the ‘gringo imperialists.’

Instead, they banked on the socialists coming unstuck at home due to their own misrule. But for years the opposite occurred, especially when oil prices soared, hitting $120 a barrel in 2008.

In 2013 the socialists suffered a massive blow. Their charismatic leader, was struck down by cancer. Chavez was replaced by political ally Nicolas Maduro, a loyal acolyte but lacking the same popular appeal.

By the time Trump entered the White House things had really begun to fall apart in Venezuela. Corruption was rampant, mismanagement at the state oil company had seen output fall dramatically. Oil prices had also plummeted. And to cap it off Maduro and his allies were using PdVSA as their personal piggy bank, pocketing billions of dollars in the process, according to a series of major federal indictments in New York, Houston and South Florida.

Maduro’s regime was rapidly losing legitimacy at home – while a flood of refugees was creating big problems for his neighbors in the region. The Trump administration saw an opportunity. The stars were aligning in the region with leftist governments in Brazil and Colombia moving to the right.

“A lot of it was a continuity of the vision that folks under President Obama had, but we were given the green light to act,” said Cutz.

Obama had begun to impose sanctions on some top Venezuelans. The Obama White House even looked at oil sanctions, but decided the moment wasn’t right.

That changed soon after the Trump administration took office as violence on the street of Caracas mounted, and evidence of corruption piled up.

An ‘escalatory roadmap’


“The plan that we designed was a step-by-step approach that was getting stronger as the situation on the ground warranted. It was a designed program of escalation, an ‘escalatory roadmap’ as we called it,” said Cutz.

“It listed these certain actions that … we would take based on what was happening on the ground,” he added. “We were given full freedom and liberty to go through the possibilities, and that was critical, because we had that top cover from the President who really cared about this."

Trump intensified the sanctions regime.

In the summer of 2017, Venezuela was rocked by street demonstrations.

In photos: Violence and repression in Venezuela reaches shocking new levels after month-long protests

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Cargando galería

In August 2017, Trump went as far as announcing that the “military option” was on the table.
The Trump administration also began to raise the rhetoric, calling Maduro a dictator, and a ‘madman.’

But it wasn’t until 2018 that Trump assembled a new more hawkish foreign policy team. Out went Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Council Advisor General HR McMaster. In came conservatives Mike Pompeo and John Bolton.

'Little Marco' gains influence


Rubio’s influence has also grown since that White House visit with Lilian Tintori. Despite calling him ‘Little Marco’ during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump has now taken to heaping President Donald Trump has lately taken to heaping praise on his former presidential rival.

“I do listen a lot to Senator Rubio on Venezuela, it’s close to his heart,” Trump told a small group of reporters representing regional news outlets last month.

Rubio was also instrumental in bringing into the government some key Cuban Americans; Mauricio Claver-Carone at the NSC. Another John Barsa, is awaiting confirmation to lead USAID’s operations in Latin America. Claver-Carone is a longtime activist on Cuba policy and staunch backer of the economic embargo against Havana’s communist government.

Barsa, who enlisted in the U.S. Special Forces reserves, previously worked for another Cuban American congressman in Miami, Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

In an exclusive interview with Univision, Claver-Carone said the U.S. wasn’t interested in negotiating with Maduro, unless it was to discuss his exit. "What we are not willing to have is a conversation about how he can go on wasting time and usurping power," he said.






EEUU “no titubea” cuando dice que h...

EEUU “no titubea” cuando dice que habrá “consecuencias serias” si Maduro no deja el poder

Cuba in the crosshairs


Otto Reich, another conservative Cuban American and former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela says the Trump administration clearly has Cuba in its sights.

"I think that what they are preparing in the government is first of all to use the fall of the Venezuelan dictatorship that has financed so much violence and subversion in the hemisphere, to later bring about changes, transitions in Cuba and Nicaragua," he told the Jaime Bayly show last month.

Meanwhile, U.S. policy shift dovetailed with a new unified purpose among Venezuelan opposition leaders, who began to put together a ‘Made in Venezuela’ national reconstruction plan, dubbed, ‘Plan Pais, para el dia despues.’ (The Country Plan, for the day after)

The situation on the ground took an important turn in May 2018 when Maduro sought re-election for another six years. With the main opposition leaders either disqualified or jailed the election was declared a fraud. When Maduro was sworn in January 10 this year, the opposition denounced his presidency as illegitimate, creating a new constitutional crisis.

Guaidó enters the picture


That grew on January 23, when Juan Guaidó, the largely unknown president of the National Assembly, was sworn in as interim president.

Trump administration officials say they had been waiting for this moment. For the first time in 20 years, U.S. officials could argue there was a rightful president they could put their support behind.

In mid-December, Guaidó had quietly traveled to Washington, Colombia and Brazil to brief officials on the opposition’s strategy of renewed demonstrations to coincide with Maduro’s swearing-in. In a trip over the New Year’s holidays, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with his Brazilian and Colombian counterparts.

With the support of an international coalition backing Guaidó, the US is now hell bent on a plan to oust Maduro, and hold new elections. Part of the strategy is to use a massive humanitarian relief effort to test the loyalty of the Venezuelan military.

But it’s a high-risk strategy.

“The people of Venezuela, are we going to make them suffer more than they are right now? And if the answer to that is yes, then you need to really be careful," warns Cutz.

"Will the United States be solely on the hook to fix Venezuela if we do that? Yes, absolutely, because then everybody in the region, everybody in Venezuela, will point to the United States and say, ‘This is your mess,’” he adds.
https://www.univision.com/univision-new ... 30a28821c3



Univision News Retweeted

David Adams
@dadams7308
·
Feb 23
Vzla interim president says some Maduro officials have left for Turkey...
Quote Tweet
Juan Guaidó
@jguaido
Vamos con toneladas de ayuda, mientras la usurpación hoy sólo tiene asesinatos en Bolívar, soldados que los desconocen y altos funcionarios que los condenan o ya se fueron a Turquía.

Desde Santa Elena hasta Ureña, el Pueblo exige el paso de la ayuda.
https://mobile.twitter.com/UnivisionNews
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They could still get him out of office.
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Don’t forget that.
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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 28, 2019 9:23 am

US flying more reconnaissance flights off Venezuela, military sources say

(CNN)The US military has flown an increased number of reconnaissance flights in international airspace off the coast of Venezuela during the last several days to gather classified intelligence about the embattled government of President Nicholas Maduro, according to two US defense officials.

The officials would not detail which US military aircraft are being used, but the Navy and Air Force maintain several large fixed-wing aircraft capable of intercepting communications and monitoring the status of weaponry.


The officials noted that the effort is limited to whatever the aircraft can gather by staying in international airspace.

Several US military officials continue to emphasize there are no military options actively being considered for the Venezuela crisis. For now, the US military would only contemplate a response if US assets, personnel or the embassy were attacked.

Venezuela is in crisis as self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido battles Maduro for control.

Guaido has called for other nations to send aid to the country in response to worsening food and medicine shortages. Maduro denies a humanitarian crisis exists in Venezuela and says the aid efforts are part of a coup attempt.

Over the weekend, violence broke out when the Venezuelan military blocked aid convoys at the country's border.

Venezuelan opposition leader to meet Pence in Bogota after weekend of violence
In the state of Tachira, along the border with Colombia, more than 300 people were hurt in clashes that involved firearms and Molotov cocktails, said the Venezuelan government's special envoy for Tachira state, Freddy Bernal.

He said the attacks were conducted by irregular groups protesting Maduro's government on the international bridges along the border between Venezuela and Colombia -- the Simon Bolivar bridge in San Antonio and the Francisco de Paula Santander bridge in Ureña.

"We registered no deaths despite the violent attacks for more than 15 hours of battle" by groups on the international bridges fighting "against thousands of patriots who fought and defended themselves," he said. CNN has not independently verified the numbers of the injured in these clashes.

The opposition group said five people were killed. CNN has not verified those numbers.

In other developments:

• 274 service personnel from different branches of the Venezuelan armed forces have defected to Colombia, Migración Colombia, Colombia's immigration agency, said in a statement Monday evening. Members of the national police, national guard, army and navy are among the defections, the statement said.

• The US Treasury Department imposed new sanctions against four Venezuelan governors aligned with Maduro, effectively freezing their assets in the United States. The sanctions were imposed on these governors: Omar Prieto of Zulia, Rafael Lacava of Carabobo, Ramon Carrizalez of Apure and Jorge Garcia Carneiro of Vargas.
• More than 150 Venezuelan security forces have defected to Colombia in the last 48 hours, according to Colombia's customs agency, Migration Colombia. Immigration officials said 146 Venezuelan forces entered through the department Norte de Santander and 10 entered through Arauca.

• The Brazilian president's office said two trucks carring humanitarian aid that had crossed into Venezuelan territory from Brazil turned back around on Sunday. Citing "the impossibility of continuing into Venezuelan territory as planned," the vehicles returned to the Pacaraima area of Brazil, a news release said.

• The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued a warning to US pilots about flying into and out of Venezuela because of "continued political instability and increasing tensions."
• The United States requested that the UN Security Council to discuss Venezuela on Tuesday.

• UN Secretary General António Guterres has called for the end of violence in the Venezuelan conflict, his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric said Monday. "It's very important for him that in no circumstances lethal force should be used against demonstrators," Dujarric said.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/25/americas ... index.html
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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Mar 30, 2019 10:22 am

Russia confirms its military personnel are in Venezuela
Russian-made Venezuelan Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MKV multirole strike fighters overfly a military parade to celebrate Venezuela's 206th anniversary of its Independence in Caracas on July 5, 2017.
Dozens of pro-government activists stormed into the seat of Venezuela's National Assembly Wednesday as the opposition-controlled legislature was holding a special session to mark the independence day. / AFP PHOTO / FEDERICO PARRA (Photo credit should read FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/Getty Images)
Moscow (CNN) — Russia acknowledged Thursday that it has military personnel in Venezuela, which is facing political turmoil and a humanitarian crisis, saying the deployment is legal and does not alter the delicate balance of power in the region.

In a briefing Thursday in Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said "Russian specialists" were on Venezuelan soil but declared their deployment to be "in accordance with the provisions of the bilateral intergovernmental agreement on military-technical cooperation" between Moscow and Caracas.

Asked at the briefing by CNN how long they would be deployed, she replied that the personnel would remain in Venezuela "for as long as needed, and as long as the government of Venezuela needs them."

Moscow has continued to back embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, while Washington and more than 50 other countries recognize Juan Guaido, the president of the country's National Assembly, as the Venezuela's interim president.

Trump says 'Russia has to get out' of Venezuela
Zakharova provided few specifics about the activity of the personnel but said their presence "doesn't violate international law, doesn't change the balance of forces in the region."

She added that Russia had delivered a shipment of humanitarian aid at the request of the Venezuelan government.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Russia was within its rights to send military specialists to Venezuela.

"Russia has a longstanding, highly developed and mutually beneficial relationship with Venezuela," Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. "Russia has contractual obligations based on previously signed documents, contracts to supply special equipment. To implement these contracts, Russia is taking the actions that its taking."

Peskov said Russia's relations with Venezuela should not worry third party countries. "We do not interfere in the domestic affairs of Venezuela," he added. "We count on these third countries to follow our example and allow Venezuelans to decide their own fate."

The Trump administration has warned Russia over the recent arrival of a small contingent of Russian troops on two military aircraft.

Trump on Venezuela: Russia has to get out 01:04

The revelation comes a day after President Donald Trump urged Moscow to "get out" of Venezuela following reports that Russian planes were arriving in the country.
During an Oval Office meeting Wednesday with Guaido's wife, Fabiana Rosales, Trump was asked whether Russia's involvement complicates the situation in Venezuela. Questioned if Russia doesn't leave Venezuela, Trump said: "We'll see. We'll see. All options are open. ... All options are open."

On Thursday Peskov said: "Regarding the US, they are present in many corners of the world, nobody tells them where they can be and where they can't be."

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also called on Russia "to cease its unconstructive behavior" through its reported insertion of a contingent of Russian military personnel in Venezuela, according to a State Department readout of a telephone conversation between Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/28/euro ... index.html



Why Russia just sent troops to Venezuela
Trump wants them out.
By Alex Ward@AlexWardVoxalex.ward@vox.com Mar 27, 2019, 12:50pm EDT


Russian Air Force personnel stand in front of a supersonic bomber aircraft upon landing at Maiquetia International Airport, just north of Caracas, on December 10, 2018. Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images
Russia recently sent two military planes full of troops and equipment to Venezuela. It’s a move that could provoke a strong response from the United States and potentially plunge the South American nation into further chaos.

Around 100 Russians landed outside of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, with unidentified equipment on Saturday. It’s not entirely clear why they’ve arrived now, although some fear they’ve come to help Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro fend off a US-led attempt to depose him. While Russia has in the past sent a few advisers to Venezuela, 100 is more than normal, CBS News reported.

Other experts and US government officials, though, say Russia is merely trying to protect diplomatic and other staff in Venezuela as well as perform maintenance on their military equipment in the country. In other words, the 100 or so Russians are in Venezuela to help themselves, not Maduro.

But US officials and experts remain vigilant, mainly because there’s a small fear that Moscow might intervene militarily in Venezuela’s crisis like it did in Syria.

Since January, the Trump administration, joined by governments in Latin America and Europe, has called for Maduro to step down, partly because the country has suffered from an economic collapse and humanitarian crisis during his rule. The US and others now recognize Guaidó, the leader of the country’s opposition-controlled legislative body, as Venezuela’s rightful president.

Russia didn’t take kindly to that. “Destructive interference from abroad blatantly violates basic norms of international law,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin (the same leader who orchestrated the annexation of Crimea) on January 24.

And while the Kremlin insists it has a right to send Russian troops to Venezuela, the US isn’t happy about it.


According to the State Department, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a March 25 call that America “will not stand idly by as Russia exacerbates tensions in Venezuela.”

“The continued insertion of Russian military personnel to support [Maduro] risks prolonging the suffering of the Venezuelan people,” the call readout continued.

And on Wednesday, seated alongside Guaidó’s wife in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump said, “Russia has to get out” of Venezuela.

All of which raises the question: Why would Russia risk inciting US anger over Venezuela? It turns out there are two key reasons.

Russia has had ties to Venezuela for decades
The Trump administration says it’s trying to remove Maduro because of his horrid mismanagement of the country. Some critics believe the main reason, among others, is that Trump wants to make his fight against socialists a wedge issue in the 2020 presidential election.

The US focus on Venezuela, long a target of anti-socialists in the United States, has led it into a small-scale proxy war with Russia.

At first glance, it seems odd that Moscow, which recently has spent so much time trying to wield influence in Europe and the Middle East, cares so much about a Latin American country. But it turns out that Venezuela has been a top concern of Russia’s for decades.

The first reason is allying so closely with Venezuela gives it a firm foothold in the United States’ hemisphere. Russia, especially under Putin, has designs to become a top global player. Wielding a lot of influence in South America, then, is one way to do that and possibly curb Washington’s power in the process.

Russia built and maintained its friendship with Venezuela by getting close to the country’s socialist leadership, which has been in power since the 1990s. That makes the US-led effort to remove Maduro so troubling for Moscow: If Maduro leaves and Guaidó takes his place, then Venezuela may become more friendly with the US than with Russia.

“Were Venezuela ever to fall from the Russian orbit, it would be very painful for the Kremlin,” Vladimir Rouvinski, an expert on Russia-Venezuela relations at Colombia’s University of Cali, wrote in a February report for the Wilson Center in Washington. “Moscow is trying hard to prevent this from happening.”

The second reason is purely about economics. Venezuela has bought billions in Russian military equipment, to the point that nearly all of its modern-day arsenal comes from Russia. Moscow certainly doesn’t want to lose such a prominent customer.

But the real economic links center on oil.

Russia’s national oil company, Rosneft, has spent about $9 billion investing in Venezuelan oil projects since 2010, Reuters reported on March 14. It has yet to break even, and in fact is owed roughly about $3 billion from Venezuela.

What’s more, Rosneft owns two offshore gasfields in Venezuela and has a stake in around 20 million tons of crude there.

It’s why Igor Sechin, Rosneft’s chief and arguably Russia’s second-most-powerful man, cares so much about Venezuela. For example, last November he traveled to Caracas to meet with Maduro, mainly to complain about all his company is owed.

Between Russia’s worldwide aims and its economic interests in Venezuela, then, it’s no wonder it sent a few troops to the country to bolster Maduro and shows its resolve.

“Russia is now so deeply invested in the Maduro regime that the only realistic option is to double down,” Alexander Gabuev, an expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote in the Financial Times on February 3.
https://www.vox.com/2019/3/27/18283807/ ... uro-guaido
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
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Don’t forget that.
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Re: Venezuela

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Apr 02, 2019 6:27 pm

Chinese army arrives in Venezuela just days after the Russian miltary
2019-04-02
Image
BEIRUT, LEBANON (7:00 A.M) – A group of Chinese soldiers arrived in Venezuela on Sunday as part of a cooperation program between Beijing and Caracas.

According to reports, more than 120 soldiers from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army arrived at Venezuela’s Margarita Island to deliver humanitarian aid and military supplies to the government forces.

The arrival of the People’s Liberation Army in Venezuela comes just days after the Russian armed forces deployed to the country to install a military helicopter training facility.

However, this move by the Russian military has not come without heavy criticism from the Trump administration and several U.S. congressmen.

“Maduro calls for hands off #Venezuela while he invites security forces from Cuba and Russia, so he and his cronies can keep plundering Venezuela. It is time for Venezuelan institutions to stand for their sovereignty. Russia and Cuba, #HandsOffVenezuela,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted on March 28th.

These moves by the Russian and Chinese armed forces appear to be a powerplay against the U.S. administration, who is actively pushing to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.

The U.S. has attempted to deliver humanitarian aid to Venezuela from Colombia; however, the Maduro administration contends that the purpose of these deliveries is to transport weapons to the opposition.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/ch ... n-miltary/



Sukhoi Su-57 frazor

#Venezuela #China #Russia #Caracas

#Chinese army soldiers arrived in Venezuela

Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers, as part of a cooperation program, arrived, after delivering humanitarian supplies, to one of Venezuelan military facilities.
Image
Image
https://twitter.com/I30mki/status/11125 ... miltary%2F
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
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