Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
by Elvis » Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:48 pm
seemslikeadream » Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:41 pm wrote:so are you planning on merging or keeping them separate
by seemslikeadream » Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:53 pm
Elvis » Mon Jan 28, 2019 6:48 pm wrote:seemslikeadream » Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:41 pm wrote:so are you planning on merging or keeping them separate
No plans at the moment. Not sure why the second thread was felt necessary.
As for crossposting to similar threads, I don't see a problem if it's on topic. We all do it.
by Elvis » Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:07 pm
by seemslikeadream » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:37 pm
US hits Venezuela's state-owned oil company with sanctions
Embattled president vows to retaliate as Washington steps up pressure on him to cede power to Venezuelan opposition.
11 minutes ago
The United States has imposed sweeping sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned oil firm, in a move aimed at pressuring President Nicolas Maduro to cede power to the opposition in the crisis-hit South American country.
The measures on Petroleos De Venezuela SA (PDVSA) are expected to block $7bn in assets and result in $11bn of lost export revenue over the next year, National Security Adviser John Bolton told reporters at the White House on Monday.
The sanctions stop PDVSA from collecting the proceeds of oil exported to US customers, while also freezing assets of PDVSA's units, including Citgo, its US-based subsidiary.
Washington's toughest financial punishment so far against Venezuela's government came in coordination with Juan Guaido, the self-proclaimed interim president who issued his own statement said he was taking "orderly control of our republic's assets abroad" to prevent a departing Maduro from trying "to empty the coffers".
The announcements followed the decision by the US and several other countries last week to recognise Guaido, the leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, as Venezuela's acting leader instead of Maduro, who was re-elected last May in a widely-boycotted vote that many foreign governments refused to recognise.
Russia, China and Turkey have come to Maduro's defence.
'Hands off Venezuela!'
In response to the US' move, Maduro on Monday vowed to take action, calling the sanctions "criminal" and accused Washington of robbing Venezuelans of oil riches that rightfully belong to them.
"I have given specific instructions to the head of PDVSA to launch political and legal action, in US and international courts, to defend the property and assets of Citgo," Maduro said on state television.
In a direct message to President Donald Trump spoken in broken English, Maduro said forcefully: "Hands off Venezuela!"
Maduro has long accused the US and other countries of waging an "economic war" aimed at removing him from power.
"Oil is Venezuela's largest source of revenue and the US is Venezuela's biggest customer - 41 percent of their oil exports come to the US, and their biggest foreign asset is Citgo, the US-based refining army of their oil company," Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey, reporting from Washington, DC, said.
"And crucially, the state-owned oil company is controlled by the military which is key to Maduro staying in power, so the goal here by the US government is to hold back this money from Maduro's government and transfer it over to forces who are loyal to Guaido."
Venezuela, a once prosperous nation, has been in an economic collapse, with several million citizens fleeing to neighbouring countries.
"We have continued to expose the corruption of Maduro and his cronies, and today's action ensures they can no longer loot the assets of the Venezuelan people," Bolton said at the White House news conference.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his department also took steps on Monday to authorise certain transactions and activities with PDVSA. He said Citgo assets in the US will be allowed to continue to operate - provided that any funds that would otherwise go to the state-owned oil company be sent to a blocked account in the United States.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed that the new sanctions do not target the people of Venezuela and will not affect humanitarian assistance, including medicine and medical devices that are "desperately needed after years of economic destruction under Maduro's rule".
US Senator Marco Rubio, a vocal critic of Maduro who has called for such sanctions, welcomed the move even before it was announced.
"The Maduro crime family has used PDVSA to buy and keep the support of many military leaders," Rubio said. "The oil belongs to the Venezuelan people, and therefore the money PDVSA earns from its export will now be returned to the people through their legitimate constitutional government."
Decline in Venezuelan oil exports to US
The sanctions will not likely affect consumer prices at the gas pump but will hit oil refiners, particularly those on the US Gulf Coast.
Venezuelan oil exports to the US have declined steadily over the years, falling particularly sharply over the past decade as its production plummeted amid its long economic and political crisis.
In 2017, Venezuela exported fewer than 500,000 barrels of oil daily to the US, mostly to Citgo and refineries owned by Valero Energy Corp and Chevron Corp, down from more than 1.2m barrels a day in 2008, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Still, Venezuela has consistently been the third- or fourth-largest supplier of crude oil to the US, and any disruption of imports could be costly for refiners.
In 2017, the most recent year that data were available, Venezuela accounted for about six percent of US crude imports.
Critically, US refiners are among the few customers that pay cash to Venezuela for its oil. That's because Venezuela's oil shipments to China and Russia are usually taken as repayment for billions of dollars in debts.
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2019 ... 40770.html
by seemslikeadream » Tue Jan 29, 2019 9:49 am
Guaido says he's still willing to consider amnesty for Maduro, military
Understanding Venezuela's political crisis
(CNN)Venezuela's longtime strongman Nicolas Maduro and members of the country's armed forces could be granted amnesty as part of a transition toward democracy, self-declared interim President Juan Guaido said in an interview with CNN en Español.
Guaido, the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, declared himself acting president last week amid deadly protests against Maduro, who has refused to yield power.
Maduro was re-elected in May 2018 in a contest many in the international community said was not fair, free and transparent.
The country has since been mired in a severe economic crisis, with food shortages and soaring unemployment becoming the new norm.
Demonstrators and dissidents CNN spoke with said they're driven by hunger more than anything else.
Inside a Caracas supermarket last week, a modest basket of water, nuts, cheese, ham and fruit cost $200, though monthly wages are less than $10. No eggs or bread could be found.
"Our people have suffered," Guaido said. "We are waking up from a nightmare to the dream of rebuilding Venezuela."
The US is among a handful of countries around the world that have chosen to recognize Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate ruler. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru have also recognized Guaido as president, while Russia, China, Cuba and Turkey are among those backing Maduro.
Guaido has only been a leader of the opposition and head of the National Assembly for three weeks. Still, the 35-year-old has managed to tap into the frustrations of the populace and quickly energize them against Maduro.
As Venezuela creeps towards starvation, soldiers lose patience 04:03
In his interview with CNN, Guaido said he was hoping to win the support of the the country's powerful armed forces to convince Maduro to step down.
"We are ready to do what is necessary to see democracy," Guaido said.
However, he warned that he would not start a "false dialogue" with a regime that jails and tortures political opponents, something Maduro's regime has been consistently accused of.
Guaido told CNN he has spoken with US President Donald Trump and other leaders from the region, including Colombian President Ivan Duque and Argentinian President Mauricio Macri.
He declined to say if he and Trump had discussed military options in Venezuela. Maduro has accused Guaido and the United States of attempting to orchestrate a coup to remove him from power.
Maduro said Monday that any bloodshed in the country would be Trump's fault.
US announces sanctions
Guaido spoke to CNN just hours after the United States announced it was sanctioning Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA), in an attempt to put serious financial pressure on the Maduro regime by targeting oil, the country's most valuable export.
The United States accused Maduro and Venezuela's top leaders of pillaging the country's oil wealth for personal gain when announcing the sanctions.
US announces new sanctions against Venezuela 00:56
"A variety of schemes have been designed to embezzle billions of dollars from PdVSA for the personal gain of corrupt Venezuelan officials and businessmen," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
"The United States is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela's tragic decline."
In a televised address Monday night, Maduro denied any wrongdoing by PdVSA and accused Trump and his national security adviser, John Bolton, of robbing the people of Venezuela.
Bolton said the measure blocks about $7 billion in assets and would result in more than $11 billion in lost assets over the next year.
Maduro has consistently blamed Washington for the country's economic collapse, accusing it of carrying out campaign of economic terrorism.
But critics have long accused Maduro of mismanaging Venezuela's resources.
The regime has for years funded huge social welfare programs and price-control policies started by his predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chavez, who was seen by many as a champion of the poor as he steered the country toward socialism. Economists have long said the regime's practices were unsustainable and likely to lead to out-of-control inflation.
Years of financial mismanagement led to a serious crisis in 2016, when plummeting oil triggered hyperinflation and massive shortages of food and other necessities. Inflation has only gotten worse; the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts it will hit 10,000,000% this year.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/29/americas ... index.html
by seemslikeadream » Tue Jan 29, 2019 4:10 pm
Russia tells Venezuela it must repay its debt to Moscow on time
A vendor holds Venezuelan Bolivar notes and waits for customers at a street stand in Caracas, Venezuela, January 28, 2019. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia expects Venezuela to make its next scheduled debt repayment to Moscow on schedule at the end of March, the Russian Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday, hours after one of its top officials said he expected Caracas to struggle with repayments.
Russia’s deputy finance minister said earlier on Tuesday that he expected Venezuela to have problems repaying its debts to Moscow in comments made after Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil firm.
The finance ministry issued a separate statement later on Tuesday, saying it still expected a payment of over $100 million to be made on time.
“No changes in the agreement have been introduced and correspondingly Venezuela must fulfill the obligations it has taken upon itself to the creditor,” the ministry said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vene ... SKCN1PN1DM
Donald Trump's 'Axis of Evil': Pompeo, Bolton & Abrams
January 28th, 2019
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on countries to “pick a side” on Venezuela, urging them to back opposition leader Juan Guaido in a Saturday speech at the UN Security Council in New York.
“Now, it is time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem,” Pompeo told the Security Council.
Russia accused Washington of plotting a coup attempt and had tried to stop the meeting requested by the United States. “Venezuela does not represent a threat to peace and security. If anything does represent a threat to peace, it is the shameless and aggressive action of the United States and their allies aimed at the ouster of the legitimately elected president of Venezuela,” Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the UN Council.
On Friday, neoconservative Elliott Abrams was appointed U.S. special envoy for Venezuela.
“Elliott will be a true asset to our mission to help the Venezuelan people fully restore democracy and prosperity to their country,” Mr. Pompeo said, according to Reuters.
“It’s very nice to be back. This crisis in Venezuela is deep and difficult and dangerous,” Abrams said Friday. “And I can’t wait to get to work on it.”
Abrams is known as the “Assistant Secretary of Dirty Wars,” a title he earned during his stints with the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations:
In 1993, after a UN truth commission which examined 22,000 atrocities that occurred during the twelve-year civil war in El Salvador, attributed 85 percent of the abuses to the Reagan-assisted right-wing military and its death-squad allies, Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Abrams said: “The administration’s record on El Salvador is one of fabulous achievement.”
Abrams organized the illegal, covert financing of Contra rebels in Nicaragua behind the back of Congress, which had cut off funding.
Abrams lied to Congress twice about his role with the Contras. He pleaded guilty to both counts in 1991 but was pardoned by George HW Bush.
Abrams, a decade later, while working as special Middle East adviser to former president George W Bush, Abrams was an enthusiastic advocate of the disastrous Iraq invasion.
Abrams was in the Bush White House at the time of the abortive coup in 2002 against the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Abrams helped lead the US effort to stage a coup to overturn the results of the 2006 Palestinian elections, complete with murder and torture.
Also on Friday, a Wall Street Journal report confirmed suspicions that opposition leader Juan Guaido’s move to declare himself “interim president” of Venezuela this week was highly coordinated with the Trump White House and Republican lawmakers.
Guaido’s move and U.S. President Donald Trump’s rapid endorsement were quickly decried as a dangerous intervention—or the beginnings of a coup d’etat—which progressives argued would dramatically worsen the country’s economic and political crisis. As Common Dreams reported, over 70 academics and experts signed an open letter demanding that the U.S. “cease encouraging violence by pushing for violent, extralegal regime change.”
Top Photo | This composite image shows left to right Elliot Abrahams, Mike Pompeo, and John Bolton. Mintpress News Image | AP
Source | Common Dreams
https://www.mintpressnews.com/venezuela ... ms/254289/
U.S. considers putting Cuba on terror list over island’s support of Venezuela’s Maduro
The Trump administration is considering returning Cuba to the list of countries that sponsor terrorism if its government and military continue to support Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, a source with knowledge of the deliberations told el Nuevo Herald.
”What Cubans are doing in Venezuela is unacceptable,” a senior administration official said. “And the United States is evaluating options to address that behavior.”
The Obama administration removed Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism in 2015 — one of the island government’s demands for agreeing to reestablish diplomatic relations. But the Trump administration has increasingly highlighted Cuba’s role in Venezuela and threatened Havana with increased sanctions.
The official said Cuban intelligence operatives in Venezuela have been a “fundamental” factor in the continued support of Maduro by senior Venezuelan armed forces officers.
The United States and several other countries no longer recognize Maduro as president because he was reelected in balloting marred by allegations of fraud. Instead, the U.S. supports National Assembly President Juan Guaidó, who took an oath as interim president on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino and other members of the military high command pledged their support to Maduro in a televised statement.
“The Cubans are executing a strategy to keep the military from second-guessing their support to Maduro,” said the official. “The only thing that is preventing the generals from supporting President Guaidó is the surveillance Cubans are doing. What is keeping Maduro going is Cuba’s logistical support.”
In his first public appearance after he was sworn in, Guaidó urged the Cuban government to stop interfering in Venezuelan affairs.
“It’s time for Cuba to get out of the armed forces. It’s time for the Cubans to leave decision-making jobs,” Guaidó said. “Cuban brothers: You are welcome to stay in this country. But only outside the armed forces and decision-making jobs.”
After Guaidó was briefly arrested last week, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton complained that “such acts of intimidation by Maduro’s Cuban-sponsored secret police... represent a grave assault on the rule of law in Venezuela.”
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio also referred to the Cuban role in Venezuela during a speech Thursday, saying that Maduro had “bought” the loyalty of the largely corrupt generals.
“They are also loyal, by the way, because the Cubans are spying on them. The Cuban intelligence agencies quickly pick up on any of these military officers that are being disloyal or expressing doubts and those guys are arrested,” Rubio said. “There has been a massive purge of Venezuelan military officers over the last two years … And it wasn’t because of corruption … It was because the Cubans caught them and reported them.”
Although Venezuelan military officers and politicians who broke with the Maduro regime have reported the presence of Cuban military and security agents in Venezuela, the number is unknown. Retired Venezuelan Gen. Antonio Rivero told el Nuevo Herald in 2015 that nearly 20,000 Cubans were in Venezuela carrying out training “as militias, as combatants.”
The dismissal of secret police chief Gustavo González López last year was seen as a maneuver by Cuban intelligence to tighten its control over the department. The National Bolivarian Armed Forces confirmed last year that elite Cuban troops known as Black Wasps had taken part in military maneuvers on the border with Colombia.
The Cuban government’s refusal so far to extradite Colombian guerrillas — in Havana for currently suspended negotiations — may also give the White House cause to consider returning Cuba to the terrorist list. After last week’s car bombing in Bogota blamed on the National Liberation Army guerrillas, the Colombian government demanded the extraditions. Cuba and Norway, also part of the negotiations, refused and said they were following the required protocols.
The Cuban government was on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism from 1982 until 2015, when the Obama administration ruled the island was no longer supporting terrorist organizations. The Trump administration is also considering other sanctions on Cuba, including allowing Cuban exiles to file suits in U.S. courts against companies now “trafficking” on properties seized by the Castro regime after 1959.
Returning Cuba to the list could be “disastrous” for the Cuban economy because it would scare away desperately needed foreign investments, already very small, said Baruch College Prof. Ted Henken.
But others say that would have little effect on the island.
“Putting Cuba back on the list of state sponsors of international terrorism would not have a major practical impact on Cuba because almost all the financial sanctions that such a designation entails are already in place under the broader Cuban embargo,” said American University professor William LeoGrande. “However, Cuba would take it as a great insult, and it would certainly have an extremely negative effect on state-to-state cooperation on issues of mutual interest.”
It’s not clear if the threat of a new sanction would be enough to force a change by the government in Cuba, where the economy has largely depended on oil subsidies from Venezuela.
A Cuban government statement Wednesday condemned “energetically the attempt to impose, through a coup d’etat, a puppet government at the service of the United States” in Venezuela. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez added Thursday that Cuba’s support for “Nicolás Maduro and the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution is and will be steadfast.”
But in private, the Cuban government is likely to be evaluating the situation in Venezuela, said LeoGrande.
“The Cuban government certainly recognizes that Maduro’s situation is dire and the worst outcome for Cuba would be complete regime collapse through civil violence or external military intervention. Regime collapse would probably mean an immediate end to Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba — a blow to an already fragile economy,” he said.
“Cuba would be willing to help find a negotiated political solution to the Venezuelan crisis — like it did in Angola and Colombia — but only if both Maduro and the opposition are willing to seek such a solution,” LeoGrande added. “At the moment, neither side seems willing to accept any compromise. As a result, the Cubans are essentially stuck with Maduro, even as the chances for his survival diminish.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation ... 86505.html
Venezuela prosecutor moves to place travel ban on Guaido
Chief prosecutor asked Supreme Court to open preliminary investigation into self-proclaimed president Guaido.
an hour ago
Venezuela prosecutor moves to place travel ban on Guaido
As a legislator who also heads the National Assembly, Guaido has immunity from criminal investigation that can be removed only by the Supreme Court [Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters]
Venezuela's chief prosecutor has asked the Supreme Court to place a travel ban on self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido, as well to freeze the opposition leader's accounts.
The United States, along with several other countries, have recognised Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate head of state and denounced leftist President Nicolas Maduro as a usurper.
Maduro, sworn in earlier this month for a second term after last year's disputed elections, accuses Guaido of staging a US-directed coup against him.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Tarek Saab said on state television he asked the court "to open a preliminary investigation into Guaido as a result of diverse violent occurrences provoked in this country since January 22" - the day before Guaido named himself president.
Saab also accused Guaido of helping countries interfere in Venezuela's internal matters.
As a legislator who also heads the National Assembly, Guaido has immunity from criminal investigation that can be removed only by the Supreme Court.
Minutes after the announcement, Guaido said he was not underestimating a threat of imprisonment but did not believe it was "anything new".
"We are here, we will keep acting and working to confront the humanitarian crisis," he told a news conference in Caracas.
Protests and turmoil
The US, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Paraguay have officially acknowledged Guaido as the legitimate interim head of Venezuela, while Russia, Iran, Turkey and China, among many other countries, back Maduro.
Inside Venezuela, Maduro holds the reins with the armed forces still loyal to him despite an opposition push to gain their support by proposing amnesty for anybody who supports Guaido's transitional government.
Maduro has accused the US of leading an open coup against him to exploit Venezuela's oil reserves, the largest in the world.
Some analysts agree with the government's view.
"[The White House is attempting to oust President Maduro for] the same reason there were some intents on ousting president Chavez in 2002 or Maduro in 2014," Peter Dobson, a Venezuelan political analyst, told Al Jazeera.
"One simple word: Oil. The control of the oil resources in Venezuela, as well as the diamonds, gold, water, gas and a whole range of natural resources, is massively important for the US, and [their] geostrategic interests across the world," he added.
Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed off on the order for Guaido to control holdings in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and federally insured banks, the State Department said.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump's administration also announced sanctions against Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA.
The move is expected to block $7bn in assets and result in $11bn of lost export revenue over the next year.
"If the only source of [foreign] income comes from PDVSA, with these new measures, the income will decline. This will imply that the supply of dollars will decrease and the demand will be maintained," Carlos Eduardo Pina, a Venezuelan political scientist, told Al Jazeera.
"This will mean the exchange rate will increase a lot more, leading to inflation. If measures are not taken soon, inflation will continue to rise, generating a great discontent among the population," Pina added.
Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak told Russian state news agencies that "there will probably be problems" for Venezuela in paying its debts.
Storchak said Venezuela owes Russia $3bn, with repayments twice a year of around $100m.
China has also loaned Venezuela more than $50bn through oil-for-loan agreements over the past decade, securing energy supplies for its fast-growing economy.
On Tuesday, China's foreign ministry criticised the US sanctions.
"Experience has proven that external interference or sanctions will only complicate the situation and will not help solve practical problems," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular media briefing on Tuesday.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/ ... 11383.html
by seemslikeadream » Wed Jan 30, 2019 9:04 am
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro tells Russian TV Trump ordered his assassination
Updated on: January 30, 2019 / 7:40 AM
More than a week into a standoff with the U.S.-backed opposition in his country, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused President Trump of ordering his assassination, maintaining his trademark fiery rhetoric at Washington while signaling for the first time a willingness to negotiate with his domestic foes. In an interview with Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti, Maduro said, "Donald Trump gave the order to kill me, told the Colombian government, the Colombian mafia to kill me. If something happens to me once, Donald Trump and Colombian President Ivan Duque will be responsible for everything what happens to me."
Moscow has been one of Maduro's staunchest supporters, providing his regime with loans and weapons and accusing the Trump administration of backing a coup with its early backing of Venezuelan opposition leader and self-declared "interim president" Juan Guaidó.
Some two dozen nations, including the United States and most Latin American countries, have backed Guaidó, who is demanding Maduro hold a new election. He won a second term late last year in a vote condemned by the U.S. and its allies as illegitimate. Maduro barred, through a court system stacked with his allies, all serious opposition candidates from running in the election.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro leaves after offering a press conference in Caracas, Jan. 25, 2019. Getty
In an about face, Maduro also said he was willing to negotiate with Guaidó's opposition shadow administration. He had consistently rejected calls for such talks until Tuesday.
"I'm willing to sit down for talks with the opposition so that we could talk for the sake of Venezuela's peace and its future," Maduro told the Russian news agency.
He added that he was open to mediation by other countries and mentioned Russia, Mexico, Uruguay, Bolivia and the Vatican. Moscow has offered to mediate.
President Trump took some credit in a Wednesday morning tweet for Maduro's change in stance, noting that it came "following U.S. sanctions and the cutting off of oil revenues."
Maduro willing to negotiate with opposition in Venezuela following U.S. sanctions and the cutting off of oil revenues. Guaido is being targeted by Venezuelan Supreme Court. Massive protest expected today. Americans should not travel to Venezuela until further notice.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2019
Trump administration piles pressure on Maduro
The U.S. announced Tuesday it was giving Guaidó control of Venezuela's U.S. bank accounts.
On Monday, Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, a move that could deprive the Maduro government of $11 billion in export revenues over the next year.
Venezuela's economy is already ravaged by hyperinflation and widespread food and medical shortages that have driven millions of people to leave the country.
Maduro called the sanctions "criminal" -- an accusation echoed by Moscow -- and vowed to challenge the U.S. in court. "With these measures, they intend to rob us," he said.
Under Venezuela's constitution, the head of the National Assembly is empowered to take on the duties of the chief executive under a range of circumstances in which the presidency is vacated. The opposition argues Maduro's re-election last May was a sham.
The previously little-known Guaidó has re-invigorated the opposition movement by focusing on three immediate goals: an end to Maduro's "usurpation" of power, establishing a transitional government and holding a new presidential election.
The U.S. State Department has told Americans not to travel to Venezuela, warning of the threat of being arbitrarily arrested or caught in a violent protest. Venezuela was put on the highest U.S. level advisory, a list that also includes Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Death toll continues to mount on the streets
Violent street demonstrations erupted last week after Guaidó declared during a major rally in the capital of Caracas that he had assumed presidential powers under the constitution and planned to hold fresh elections to end Maduro's "dictatorship."
U.N. human rights office spokesman Rupert Colville said this week that Maduro's security forces had detained at least 850 people between Monday and Saturday, including 77 children. Colville said "more than 40 people" were believed to have been in killed "in different manners" amid the recent protests, including 11 people reportedly killed by "unidentified individuals" linked to incidents of looting. He said one member of the Bolivarian Guard was reportedly killed in the state of Monagas.
Maduro's allies blame the opposition for the violence and deny the high death toll as well as reports that minors were among those arrested.
On Tuesday, Guaidó urged Venezuelans to step outside their homes and workplaces for two hours mid-day Wednesday for what would be the first mass mobilization since last week's big protests.
The call came just a day after Venezuela's Supreme Court, loyal to Maduro's embattled socialist administration, barred Guaidó from leaving the country while it investigates him for alleged anti-government activities. The prohibition came after U.S. national security adviser John Bolton warned that the Maduro government would face "serious consequences" if Guaidó is harmed.
Maduro meanwhile is holding firm in refusing to step down. He oversaw military exercises in recent days while seeking to consolidate support from the armed forces, and continues to accuse Washington of trying to stage a coup.
On Tuesday, he said he was expanding the ranks of Venezuela's civilian armed militia to 2 million members. The reserve force was created by the late Hugo Chavez to train civilians to assist the armed forces and defend the socialist revolution from attacks.
Maduro vowed never to let the U.S. intervene in Venezuela's affairs.
"These are moment of history - and battle," he said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nicolas-ma ... 019-01-19/
$840M in gold bars prepared for loading onto Russian jet at Venezuelan airport: report
Edmund DeMarche4 hours ago
Former senior foreign policy adviser to President Bill Clinton says that the Trump administration needs to focus on supporting the Venezuelan opposition.
About 20 tons of gold from Venezuela's central bank was ready to be hauled away Tuesday on a Russian airline's Boeing 777 that landed in Caracas a day earlier, a Venezuelan lawmaker wrote on Twitter.
The destination of the $840 million in gold bars was unknown, but a source told Bloomberg News that it represented about 20 percent of the country's holding of the metal. The gold was set aside for loading, the report said.
The news outlet, which first reported on the tweet, identified the lawmaker as Jose Guerra. The lawmaker did not provide evidence for his claim but is identified in the report as a former economist at the country's central bank with close ties to workers still there.
Noticias Venezuela, a news outlet in the country, posted a photo of what it identified as a Nordwind Airlines plane from Moscow that made the trip with only a crew aboard.
Simon Zerpa, Venezuela's finance minister, did not comment about the gold when reached by Bloomberg and denied there was a Russian plane at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas.
"I'm going to start bringing Russian and Turkish airplanes every week so everybody gets scared," he joked.
Bloomberg reached out to Nordwind, which did not comment on the purpose of the flight. The airline did not immediately respond to an email from Fox News.
A plane belonging to a Moscow-based company was reportedly seen Monday heading to an international airport near Caracas, according to flight tracking records.
Reuters reported that there had been speculation about the jet that was “parked by a private corner of the airport.” And Reuters reported that it was the first time the plane made the trip.
Some conspiracy theories have circulated, including that the plane carried mercenaries, but there was no solid evidence, Reuters reported.
Russia, one of President Nicolas Maduro's staunchest supporters, is reportedly owed billions by the Latin American nation. Russia has said it expects Venezuela to have problems repaying debt ahead of an upcoming payment on a Russian loan.
Russia also has extensive commercial interests in Venezuela, including state oil company Rosneft’s partnership with Petroleos de Venezuela SA, a state company placed under sanctions Monday by the United States.
Venezuela is treading in the uncharted political waters after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim head of state last week in a direct challenge to Maduro’s reign. The 35-year-old head of the opposition-led national assembly has the backing of more than a dozen mostly western nations including the United States, Canada and several members of the European Union.
Venezuela's Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to a prosecutor's request to prevent Guaido from leaving the country while the Socialist government conducts a criminal probe into his activities.
Guaido said outside the National Assembly building that he was aware of personal risks, but added, "Venezuela is set on change, and the world is clearly conscious of what's happening."
https://www.foxnews.com/world/russian-p ... ker-claims
What Russia stands to lose in Venezuela
While the US pushes to drive Venezuela's Maduro from power, Russia vows to continue supporting it's 'strategic partner'.
Madeline Roache3 hours ago
What Russia stands to lose in Venezuela
Economic ties between Russia and Venezuela range from oil and loans to arms sales [File: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters]
As Washington intensifies its push to drive Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro from power, Russia's Vladimir Putin has vowed to support his South American "strategic partner" and warned of the "catastrophic" consequences if the United States were to send military assistance to opposition leader Juan Guaido.
When the US called a special United Nations Security Council session on Saturday, focused on the crisis in Venezuela, Russia used the session to warn against foreign intervention in the Latin American nation and accused the US of attempting a "coup".
Russian private military contractors have flown into Venezuela in recent days to increase security for Maduro, according to Reuters news agency.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied the reports.
On Friday, Russia offered to mediate between Maduro's "legitimate" government and the opposition if necessary, saying it was ready to cooperate with all political forces that acted responsibly.
Moscow stands to lose a great deal if the Maduro government collapses, experts say.
Pete Duncan, a Russian politics professor at University College London said: "Losing ties with Venezuela would be a huge blow to Russia. Putin will do his utmost to prevent regime change."
In the mid-1990s, Russia looked to Latin America for business opportunities.
Under Hugo Chavez - Maduro's predecessor - Russia became one of Venezuela's strongest allies with economic ties ranging from oil and loans to arms sales.
Duncan said that since Putin came to power in 2000, he has sought to cultivate partners in Latin America to counterbalance US influence in the region and to enhance Russia's great power status in the world.
Anton Barbashin, a political analyst at the Wilson Centre, said: "A major reason why Russia supports Maduro - the same principle why it supports [Syria's President Bashar] al-Assad - is the belief that no foreign power should meddle in the sovereign affairs of a particular state."
Vladimir Rouvinski, a foreign policy expert at Icesi University in Colombia, told Al Jazeera the Kremlin views Venezuela as the backyard of the US - in Washington's sphere of political influence - in the same way that Ukraine is in Russia's backyard - or what the Kremlin calls - "the near-abroad".
External observers typically view Cuba as Russia's key Latin American ally, but Rouvinski said Russia has never managed to restore the same level of confidence in Havana as in Soviet times.
The level of confidence between Moscow and Caracas is unrivalled.
"Venezuela is Russia's last asset in Latin America," said Rouvinski.
Russia's political elites believe the political developments that have occurred since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 - such as Georgia and Ukraine's efforts to achieve independence from Russia - are the result of US intervention.
"Russia wants to at least have a 'symbolic involvement' in Latin America as payback for US intervention in the near-abroad," said Rouvinski.
Putin found an ally in Venezuela. The late Chavez, and now Maduro have shared Putin's world view, opposed to US hegemony.
Ties between the US and Venezuela began to sharply deteriorate when the socialist President Chavez was elected in 1999.
Under the administration of then-President George HW Bush beginning in 2001, Chavez became highly critical of Washington's "imperialistic" foreign policy in the Middle East including the invasion of Iraq.
The US, meanwhile, has criticised the increasing authoritarian trends and human rights abuses in Venezuela.
In 2015, Caracas and Washington's relations hit rock bottom when former President Barack Obama issued an executive order, declaring Venezuela a "threat to US national security" and ordered sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials.
The US sanctions against Venezuela, which have intensified under President Donald Trump, prohibit US-based companies or people from buying and selling new debt issued by the state-run oil body, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) or the government.
'Economic warfare'
Former Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas, who visited Venezuela over a period of 21 years, has criticised the US sanctions, describing them as "economic warfare" that aims to strangle the economy and facilitate regime change.
Maduro's alliance with Russia has been important in strengthening a sense of sovereign Venezuelan national identity, in defiance of the US.
Caracas has historically taken a pro-Russian stance. Venezuela voted against the resolution condemning Russia's annexation the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea in 2014, and it was one of the few countries to formally recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the regions of Georgia which broke away in 1991.
Since the annexation of Crimea and the resulting sanctions by the US, an increasingly isolated Russia has sought to strengthen its ties to Venezuela.
In recent years, Russia has become a "lender of last resort" of Venezuela's collapsing economy, destroyed by a drop in oil prices, hyperinflation and US sanctions.
In 2017, Reuters reported that the Russian government and Russia's largest state-owned oil company, Rosneft, advanced Venezuela at least $17bn in loans and credit lines between 2016 and 2017, becoming Venezuela's largest sponsor, after China.
PDVSA has been secretly negotiating with Russia since at least early 2018, offering Rosneft ownership interests in up to nine of Venezuela's most productive petroleum projects, according to Reuters.
INSIDE STORY: Can the US force Maduro to step down? (25:26)
Rosneft already has minority stakes in five joint projects with PDVSA, which produced 59 billion barrels of oil in 2017, more than eight percent of Venezuela's annual output.
Maduro also signed a deal giving Rosneft 49.9 percent of the US-based, Venezuelan-owned refiner Citgo as collateral for a $1.5bn loan to PDVSA.
Political significance
Rosneft's increasing influence in PDVSA helps to position Russia as a middleman in sales of Venezuelan oil to customers worldwide, including the US market.
The Russian fuel giant currently resells approximately 225,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan oil - about 13 percent of the nation's total exports, according to the PDVSA trade reports.
Since, as Rouvinski said, relations between Russia and Venezuela have been based on personal top-level diplomacy, a change in Venezuela's leadership threatens Rosneft's influence in Latin America.
Venezuela's opposition has also said, once in power, it will not honour Rosneft and PDVSA's joint ventures.
But Russia never expected to make tangible profits in Venezuela, according to Rouvinski.
The collapse of Maduro's government would have a far greater political significance than economic importance for Moscow.
"Without his [Putin's] support, the opposition would have a much easier time taking power," said Rouvinski.
As Venezuela's opposition gains strength and international backing, experts are certain that Putin will do whatever it takes to keep Maduro in power.
As Duncan said: "Russia has no reason to back down."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/ ... 23335.html
What's Behind Turkey's Fervent Support for Venezuela's Maduro
Economic and political ties between Ankara and Caracas have grown stronger, with Turkey being shipped tons of Venezuelan gold for refinement and processing
Haaretz and Reuters 27.01.2019 13:08 Updated: 1:09 PM
Explained
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro touches a gold bar as he speaks during a meeting with the ministers responsible for the economic sector at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela March 22, 2018
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro touches a gold bar as he speaks during a meeting with the ministers responsible for the economic sector at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela March 22, 2018 REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has called Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to offer support after the opposition leader declared himself interim president and won the backing of Washington and various Latin American nations.
Socialist Maduro described Juan Guaido's move as a coup attempt. The United States, Canada and right-leaning Latin American governments recognised Guaido.
Economic and political ties between Ankara and Caracas have grown stronger, with Erdogan criticising sanctions against Venezuela during a visit there last month, without directly mentioning the United States or President Donald Trump.
Erdogan pledged to invest in Venezuelan's failing economy during the trip, with Maduro claiming that Turkish businesses would pump some 4.5 billion euros into the country. Politico points out that while Western carriers have mostly stopped their flights into Venezuela, Turkish Airlines still operates several flights a week to Caracas.
Immediately after news of Guaido's declaration, plane spotters tracked a jet belonging to Turkish Billionaire Turgay Ciner - owner of the Ciner Group - taking flight from Turkey to Moscow and then on to Venezuela.
Tons of Venezuelan gold, mined in horrendous conditions overseen by the military, are shipped to Turkey for refinement and processing. According to Bloomberg, U.S. officials say "some may be making its way to Iran in violation of sanctions on the Islamic Republic."
Turkey has previously been implicated in schemes to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran by trading in gold.
Maduro has since last year been seeking to repatriate about $550 million in gold from the Bank of England on fears it could be caught up in international sanctions on the country.
"My brother Maduro! Stand tall, we stand by you!" presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin quoted Erdogan as telling Maduro. "Under the leadership of President Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey will maintain its principled stance against all coup attempts. #WeAreMADURO," Kalin said.
In September of 2018, a viral video of Maduro and his wife eating a steak prepared by Turkish celebrity chef Salt Bae sparked outrage in Venezuela, where malnutrition has become widespread due to the economic crisis.
Turkey joined Russia and several other countries which came out in support of Maduro, Kalin writing on Twitter that Erdogan told Maduro Turkey would support him.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the United States and other Latin American countries have constantly meddled in Venezuela's internal affairs.
"There is an elected president and on the other hand the head of congress declares himself de facto president. Some countries recognised this. This may cause chaos," Cavusoglu told the A Haber news channel.
Many Turks voiced support for Maduro on social media using the hashtag, #WeAreMaduro. One posted an image of Maduro picking up a small Turkish flag and another one of him holding the flag of a historic Turkish clan.
"You're not alone, big-hearted man. Turkey is with you," another wrote.
https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/what ... -1.6872338
Venezuela crisis: Former UN rapporteur says US sanctions are killing citizens
‘Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns’
3 days ago
The first UN rapporteur to visit Venezuela for 21 years has told The Independent the US sanctions on the country are illegal and could amount to “crimes against humanity” under international law.
Former special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas, who finished his term at the UN in March, has criticized the US for engaging in “economic warfare” against Venezuela which he said is hurting the economy and killing Venezuelans.
The comments come amid worsening tensions in the country after the US and UK have backed Juan Guaido, who appointed himself “interim president” of Venezuela as hundreds of thousands marched to support him. European leaders are calling for “free and fair” elections. Russia and Turkey remain Nicolas Maduro’s key supporters.
Mr De Zayas, a former secretary of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and an expert in international law, spoke to The Independent following the presentation of his Venezuela report to the HRC in September. He said that since its presentation the report has been ignored by the UN and has not sparked the public debate he believes it deserves.
“Sanctions kill,” he told The Independent, adding that they fall most heavily on the poorest people in society, demonstrably cause death through food and medicine shortages, lead to violations of human rights and are aimed at coercing economic change in a “sister democracy”.
On his fact-finding mission to the country in late 2017, he found internal overdependence on oil, poor governance and corruption had hit the Venezuelan economy hard, but said “economic warfare” practised by the US, EU and Canada are significant factors in the economic crisis.
In the report, Mr de Zayas recommended, among other actions, that the International Criminal Court investigate economic sanctions against Venezuela as possible crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute.
The US sanctions are illegal under international law because they were not endorsed by the UN Security Council, Mr de Zayas, an expert on international law and a former senior lawyer with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.
“Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns.
“Twenty-first century sanctions attempt to bring not just a town, but sovereign countries to their knees,” Mr de Zayas said in his report.
The US Treasury has not responded to a request for comment on Mr de Zayas’s allegations of the effects of the sanctions programme.
US sanctions prohibit dealing in currencies issued by the Venezuelan government. They also target individuals, and stop US-based companies or people from buying and selling new debt issued by PDVSA or the government.
The US has previously defended its sanctions on Venezuela, with a senior US official saying in 2018: “The fact is that the greatest sanction on Venezuelan oil and oil production is called Nicolas Maduro, and PDVSA’s inefficiencies,” referring to the state-run oil body, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA.
Mr De Zayas’s findings are based on his late-2017 mission to the country and interviews with 12 Venezuelan government minsters, opposition politicians, 35 NGOs working in the country, academics, church officials, activists, chambers of commerce and regional UN agencies.
The US imposed new sanctions against Venezuela on 9 March 2015, when President Barack Obama issued executive order 13692, declaring the country a threat to national security.
The sanctions have since intensified under Donald Trump, who has also threatened military invasion and discussed a coup.
After backing Mr Guaido on 23 January, Mr Trump said, “I will continue to use the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration of Venezuelan democracy.”
Venezuela has also described US sanctions as illegal. In 2018, foreign minister Jorge Arreaza said they were “madness, barbaric, and in absolute contradiction to international law”.
Since 2015 around 1.9 million people have fled the country and on 23 October 2018 inflation reached 60,324 per cent, while the civilian death toll is unknown.
Despite being the first UN official to visit and report from Venezuela in 21 years, Mr de Zayas said his research into the causes of the country’s economic crisis has so far largely been ignored by the UN and the media, and caused little debate within the Human Rights Council.
He believes his report has been ignored because it goes against the popular narrative that Venezuela needs regime change.
“When I come and I say the emigration is partly attributable to the economic war waged against Venezuela and is partly attributable to the sanctions, people don’t like to hear that. They just want the simple narrative that socialism failed and it failed the Venezuelan people,” Mr de Zayas told The Independent.
“When I came back [the UN and media were] not interested. Because I am not singing the song I’m supposed to sing so I don’t exist … And my report, as I said, was formally presented but there has been no debate on the report. It has been filed away.”
The then UN high commissioner, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, reportedly refused to meet Mr de Zayas after the visit, and the Venezuela desk of the UN Human Rights Council also declined to help with his work after his return despite being obliged to do so, Mr de Zayas claimed.
He told The Independent the office gave him the “cold shoulder” because they were worried his report, which is now published, would be too independent.
“They are only interested in a rapporteur who is going to … do grandstanding, is going to condemn the government and ask for regime change. And I went there to listen. I went there to find out what’s actually going on,” Mr de Zayas said.
A spokesperson for the office of the UN high commissioner said: “The 56 Special Procedures – of which Alfred de Zayas was one – are independent, as well as very numerous, and so it is not a practice for the high commissioner to meet with them individually to discuss their reports. It would be physically impossible for him … to do so.”
The spokesperson said the actions of the Venezuela desk are more “complicated” then Mr de Zayas described, adding, “calling for regime change is not our business”.
Ivan Briscoe, Latin America and Caribbean programme director for Crisis Group, an international NGO, told The Independent that Venezuela is a polarising subject, dividing those who support the socialist government and those who want to see a more US-aligned business friendly regime replace it.
Briscoe is critical of Mr de Zayas’s report because it highlights US economic warfare but in his view neglects to mention the impact of a difficult business environment in the country which he believes is a symptom of “Chavismo” and the socialist governments’ failures.
Juan Guaidó declares himself interim president of Venezuela
He said even if the sanctions are lifted, the country could not recover under current government policies, adding that Mr de Zayas’s report is the result of a “lawyer trying to understand the nature of supply and demand, and it didn’t quite work”.
But, speaking before the news of Guaido’s coup attempt, Briscoe acknowledged rising tensions and the likely presence of US personnel operating covertly in the country.
“Yes, something is going on. Yes there is talk of a military intervention. Which would be a very bad idea. But the fact of the matter is that the plan has been conceived in the context of the humanitarian crisis,” he said.
Eugenia Russian, president of FUNDALATIN, one of the oldest human rights NGOs in Venezuela, founded in 1978 before the Chavez and Maduro governments and with special consultative status at the UN, spoke to The Independent on the significance of the sanctions.
“In contact with the popular communities, we consider that one of the fundamental causes of the economic crisis in the country is the effect that the unilateral coercive sanctions that are applied in the economy, especially by the government of the United States,” Ms Russian said.
She said there may also be causes from internal errors, but said probably few countries in the world have suffered an “economic siege” like the one Venezuelans are living under.
The sanctions are part of a US effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government and instal a more business friendly regime, as was done in Chile in 1973 and elsewhere in the region, Mr de Zayas said.
“I’ve seen that happen in the Human Rights Council, how the United States twists arms and convinces countries to vote the way they want them to vote, or there will be economic consequences, and these things are not reflected in the press,” the former high-ranking UN official told The Independent.
“What’s at stake is the enormous, enormous natural resources of Venezuela. And I sense that if Venezuela had no natural resources no one would give a damn about Chavez or Maduro or anybody else there,” Mr de Zayas added.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world and an abundance of other natural resources including gold, bauxite and coltan. But under the Maduro government they’re not easily accessible to US and transnational corporations.
US oil companies had large investments in Venezuela in the early 20th century but were locked out after Venezuelans voted to nationalise the industry in 1973.
“If you crush this government and you bring in a neoliberal government that is going to privatise everything and is going to sell out, a lot of transitional corporations stand to gain enormous profits and the United States is driven by the transnational corporations,” the former UN special rapporteur told The Independent.
“The business of the United States is business. And that’s what the United States is interested in. And they can’t [currently] do business with Venezuela.”
In his report, Mr de Zayas expressed concern that those calling the situation a “humanitarian crisis” are trying to justify regime change and that human rights are being “weaponised” to discredit the government and make violent overthrow more “palatable”.
The Maduro government is responsible for “the worst human rights crisis in the country’s history,” according to Amnesty.
“Venezuela is going through one of the worst human rights crises in its history. The list of crimes under international law against the population is growing,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty’s Americas director, said in late 2018.
“It is alarming that, instead of applying efficient public policies to protect people and reduce levels of insecurity, the Venezuelan authorities are using the language of war to try to legitimise the use of excessive force by police and military officials and, in many cases, the use of lethal force with intent to kill.”
Violence erupts as anti-government protests in Venezuela continue
Mr De Zayas recommended dialogue between the international community and Venezuelans to make their government better, rather than squeezing the country with sanctions and backing coups. He proposed that Venezuela’s abundant natural wealth can help it recover once sanctions are lifted.
“The key to the solution of the crisis is dialogue and mediation… There is nothing more undemocratic than a coup d’état and nothing more corrosive to the rule of law and to international stability when foreign governments meddle in the internal affairs of other states,” he told The Independent.
“Only the Venezuelans have a right to decide, not the United States, not the United Kingdom … We do not want a repetition of the Pinochet putsch in 1973 … What is urgent is to help the Venezuelan people through international solidarity – genuine humanitarian aid and a lifting of the financial blockade so that Venezuela can buy and sell like any other country in the world – the problems can be solved with good faith and common sense.”
Mr De Zayas has since signed an open letter with Noam Chomsky and over 70 other academics and experts, condemning the US-backed coup attempt against the Venezuelan government.
He called the recent developments “totally surreal”.
Ms Russian, speaking about the economic crisis, said: “It is insufficient to see only the errors or deficiencies that the government may have, without seeing the environment of international pressure under which this population lives.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 48201.html
Venezuela Has 20 Tons of Gold Ready to Ship. Address Unknown
Patricia Laya
Venezuelan lawmaker Jose Guerra dropped a bombshell on Twitter Tuesday: The Russian Boeing 777 that had landed in Caracas the day before was there to spirit away 20 tons of gold from the vaults of the country’s central bank.
The claim set off a welter of social media speculation and outrage. When asked how he knew this, Guerra provided no evidence.
Just another outlandish comment from a lawmaker trying to draw attention to the plight of crisis-torn Venezuela? Perhaps not. For one thing, Guerra is a former central bank economist who remains in touch with old colleagues there. For another, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News Tuesday that 20 tons of gold have been set aside in the central bank for loading. Worth some $840 million, the gold represents about 20 percent of its holdings of the metal in Venezuela, the person said. He provided no further information on plans for those bars.
President Maduro Holds Televised Press Conference During Dueling Broadcasts
Photographer: Carlos Becerra/Bloomberg
With strongman President Nicolas Maduro losing control of the country’s already-scant finances and reserves thanks to U.S. sanctions, who can put his hands on the nation’s estimated 200 tons of gold at home and abroad has become a key question. The nation owes billions to its patrons Russia and China as well as bondholders, and also needs hard currency to buy food for its starving people.
Venezuela has been trying for years to increase its gold reserves by encouraging mining, putting the military in charge of vast territories that yield the precious metal. State gold processor Minerven melts the ore into bars, which military aircraft take to airbases around Caracas. Soldiers regularly unload it into armored vehicles bound for the central bank and beyond.
The U.S. has been working to put National Assembly head Juan Guaido, who says he is the nation’s rightful president, in charge of Venezuelan finances and starve the regime. Last week, the Bank of England denied Maduro officials’ request to withdraw $1.2 billion of gold stored there after top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, lobbied their U.K. counterparts to cut off the regime from its overseas assets.
Dueling Marches Of Pro-Government And Pro-Opposition Parties As President Trump Recognizes New Leader
Photographer: Carlos Becerra/Bloomberg
On Monday, a plane belonging to Nordwind Airlines, a popular Russian charter operator based in Moscow, landed at the international airport near Caracas, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24. A Nordwind spokesman declined to comment Wednesday on the purpose of the flight.
Finance Minister Simon Zerpa declined to comment on the nation’s gold and also said there was no Russian plane at Simon Bolivar International Airport.
“I’m going to start bringing Russian and Turkish airplanes every week so everybody gets scared,” he said.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has no information about the charter jet, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a message Wednesday. There are no plans to evacuate Russians from Venezuela, she said.
Kremlin Support
“Nordwind does a rather large number of these flights to order,” said Oleg Panteleyev, head of AviaPort, a Moscow aviation consultant. “As a rule, there aren’t a lot of orders for Venezuela, so this country can’t be called a popular destination among Russians,” though there’s no official ban on chartering an aircraft there, he said.
The Kremlin has lavished support on the Latin American country in recent years, making it one of the biggest recipients of Russian loans and investment and an outpost of Moscow’s influence in a region dominated by the U.S. But Russia has been reticent about committing more capital, especially because opposition officials have said they might not honor all the Maduro government’s obligations.
Russia vowed to “do everything” to protect Maduro against U.S. efforts to oust him as the Trump administration issued new sanctions against Venezuela on Monday, without elaborating what steps it would take.
A top Russian finance ministry official, meanwhile, warned that Venezuela could have trouble meeting payments under a $3.15 billion debt-rescheduling deal reached in 2017. The next installment of $100 million is due in March. The ministry said later that Russia expects Venezuela to meet its obligations, according to an emailed statement.
— With assistance by Andrey Biryukov, and Stepan Kravchenko
(Updates with Russian Foreign Ministry comment in 10th paragraph.)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... on-unknown
by seemslikeadream » Thu Jan 31, 2019 12:27 pm
Olga Lautman
Russian sources-Maduro received $1.2 Billion
According to Inforesist citing Novaya Gazeta outlet another Russian plane (757) left Venezuela headed to Dubai (selling gold taken out of Venezuela) and returned back to Venezuela after making stops in Morocco & Cape Verde w $1.2 Bil
Screenshot from Novaya Gazeta showing the flight pattern
Translation of article and source https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/20 ... rce=novaya …
The other empty flight that came into Venezuela a few days ago left and is back in Moscow according to @CivMilAir
https://twitter.com/olganyc1211/status/ ... 88929?s=21 …
This was the other plane. Lots of activity on the Russian side this month while they accuse the US of getting involved. Still something doesn’t make sense when it comes to this tiff between Putin and Trump. Seems orchestrated
Olga Lautman
When Russia is involved it’s always shady!
Venezuelan lawmaker says that the empty Russian plane (500 person capacity) that arrived yesterday was there to pick up 20 tons of gold from the central bank…
Show this thread
Olga Lautman Retweeted CivMilAir
https://twitter.com/civmilair/status/10 ... 70082?s=21 …
The plane is still in Venezuela
CivMilAir
@CivMilAir
The plain white Russian E-Cargo Airlines 757 from Moscow via Dubai & Morocco that landed in Caracas, remains on the ground at Caracas, #Venezuela #Russia
The head of Central Bank of Russia denied reports that 30 tons of gold allegedly were taken out of Venezuela to Dubai and then transferred to Russia for safekeeping in Russia’s central bank
https://twitter.com/olgaNYC1211/status/ ... 0777714689
Russian Mercenaries Reportedly Descend On Venezuela To Help Protect Maduro's Regime
The Kremlin routinely uses these shadowy forces to prop up friendly regimes and they can only present a challenge to Maduro's U.S.-backed opponents.
By Joseph Trevithick
AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos
Russia has reportedly sent a contingent of shadowy private military contractors to Venezuela to help President Nicolás Maduro fend off a challenge to his authority from the President of the country’s National Assembly, Juan Guaido. It’s unclear what their exact orders might be, but whether they’re in the country to protect Maduro himself, assist government security forces, stymy a U.S. military intervention, or something else, these mercenaries only add an additional layer of complexity to the still-evolving crisis.
On Jan. 25, 2019, Reuters reported that individuals linked to the now infamous Russian private military company Wagner were in Venezuela. The story cited Yevgeny Shabayev, the head of the Khovrino Cossack organization, who has his own background as a soldier of fortune and routinely speaks to the international press about Russian mercenary activities, as well as anonymous sources.
Cossack organizations in Russia are quasi-official, semi-autonomous bodies of Slavic peoples that have historically contributed armed personnel to serve in wars and as internal security forces at the direction of the government in Moscow. Many of these groups continue this tradition today to varying degrees, sending individuals to fight on behalf of pro-Russian interests in conflicts in Chechnya, Georgia, and Ukraine.
“Our people are there directly for his protection,” Shabayev told Reuters, adding that the mercenaries were there specifically to prevent rogue members of Venezuela’s security forces from detaining Maduro. He also claimed that Wagner had around 400 individuals in the country.
Radio Svoboda capture
A screen grab from an interview Yevgeny Shabayev gave Radio Svoboda, a Russian language news service that is part of the U.S.-government operated Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, in 2018.
After being in the grips of a devastating economic crisis for years, Venezuela plunged into an all-new period of upheaval on Jan. 23, 2019, when President of the National Assembly Guaido declared himself Interim President of the entire country and quickly received recognition from the United States, Canada, and a number of countries in Latin America. Maduro, who has long accused the U.S. government of plotting his overthrow without providing any hard evidence, has refused to step aside and still commands the loyalty of the vast majority of the country’s military and national police.
In addition, Maduro has called for U.S. diplomats and their staff to leave by tomorrow, Jan. 26, 2019. The United States has ordered nonessential diplomatic personnel to leave the country, but has refused to shut down its Embassy and other facilities entirely, arguing that Guaido is the country’s legitimate leader and has asked the U.S. government to stay. An emergency United National Security Council meeting on the issue is scheduled for tomorrow.
AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd
A caravan of US government vehicles leaves Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas after dropping off nonessential US diplomatic staff, who took a commercial flight back to the United States without incident on Jan. 25, 2019.
The Wagner mercenaries had already begun arriving earlier in the week before this standoff emerged, according to Shabayev. Other sources who spoke to Reuters said that the total number of contractors was far smaller than Shabayev’s estimate and that they had arrived in multiple groups, including one that only touched down “recently.” These individuals also did not confirm that these personnel were guarding Maduro.
Maduro’s regime is a major regional ally of Russia’s and publicly available information shows a relatively steady stream of Russian government and Russian-registered aircraft flying to and from the country since the beginning of December 2018. Reuters reported that two Russian Air Force aircraft, an Antonov An-124 and an Il-76, had been in Venezuela between Dec. 10 and Dec. 14 and that another Il-76 had been in the country between Dec. 12 and 21, but these are almost certainly unrelated to the deployment of any Russian mercenaries.
Russia sent a pair of Tu-160 Blackjack heavy bombers to Venezuela between Dec. 10 and Dec. 14 with supporting personnel and equipment on board an An-124 and an Il-62 airliner. The report of an Il-76 during this timeframe may be a mistaken reference to the Il-62. The other reported Il-76 in the country around the same time could have been supporting that mission or otherwise delivering Russian-made weapons and other military equipment to the Venezuelan government as part of existing contracts.
More to the point, it would be unusual for the Russia military to so visibly deployment of members of Wanger. This group, and others like it, exist specifically to give the Kremlin a plausibly deniable means of intervening in sensitive conflicts. Russia exploited these murky links and very promptly disavowed a group of Wagner mercenaries after the U.S. military killed hundreds of them in a skirmish in northeastern Syrian in February 2018.
InformNapalm.org
A chart showing various Russian private military companies, including Wagner, as well as the Cossack organizations, all of which have ties to the Russian government and have been involved in numerous proxy conflicts.
Reuters’ own sources said that the contractors used chartered aircraft to take them from unspecified locations where they had been conducting operations to the Cuban capital Havana. There they boarded commercial flights bound for Caracas.
That’s not to say that the Kremlin isn’t directly involved in their deployment or that they haven’t been potentially overseeing their activities closely. On Jan. 23, 2019, a Russian government Il-96-300 belonging to the country’s Special Flight Detachment also appeared in Havana after taking a somewhat circuitous route from Dakar, Senegal via Asunción, Paraguay.
Russia’s Special Flight Detachment also operates the specially configured Il-96-300PUs that fly President Vladimir Putin around and a similar in form and function to the U.S. Air Force’s VC-25A Air Force One presidential aircraft. The reason for the plane’s trip to Cuba or stops before arriving in Havana are unclear. Paraguay has recognized Guaido and Senegal has not publicly announced its support for either Venezuelan leader.
It could potentially have something to do with the movement of Wagner personnel from Africa to Venezuela. In March 2018, there were images and reports that the group was training personnel or otherwise conducting operations in Central Africa Republic (CAR). Two months later, images appeared showing what appeared to be the same personnel near that country’s border with Sudan.
Then, in December 2018, purported Wagner mercenaries appeared on the streets of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, reportedly to help put down massive protests against the government there. Both CAR and Sudan are essentially on the other side of the continent from Senegal, but that country could still have served as an intermediate stop for any individuals heading toward Venezuela.
So far, no photos or video of any Russian mercenaries in Venezuela have appeared online that might help confirm their presence in the country and the scope of their deployment. But it would make good sense and be in line with the Kremlin’s increasing use of groups such as Wagner as a low-cost, readily deniable force for supporting its partners overseas without serious risk of becoming embroiled directly in any particular conflict. These proxies have become a cornerstone of Russia's so-called "hybrid warfare" tactics.
Mercenaries linked to the Russian government have bolstered pro-Russian separatist groups in Georgia and Ukraine, helped prop up Syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad when his regime was at its most fragile, and more recently helped Sudanese strongman Omar Al Bashir in trying to quell major nationwide protests. Venezuela’s Maduro is one of Russia’s few major allies in Latin America and it is certainly in the Kremlin’s interests to keep him in power.
Even just giving Maduro a more reliable security detail, as Shabayev said was the case when talking to Reuters, could be important. He was the target of an assassination attempt using explosive-carrying drones in August 2018. There were reports that some Venezuelan security forces had sided with anti-government protesters or otherwise abandoned their posts in the days leading up to Guaido's announcement that he was assuming the role of Interim President.
There remains no clear indication that the U.S. military is planning to intervene in the crisis, or even deploy forces to provide additional security at the American embassy in Caracas or other diplomatic sites. Still, it seems hard to believe that there has been no crisis response planning or movement of forces into position to better respond to various contingencies already.
A U.S. Air Force C-17A Globemaster III transport, using the callsign Reach 543, was visible using online flight tracking software making a highly unusual trip from Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia area into the Carribean on Jan. 24, 2019. It disappeared from radar before reaching its final destination, but was seen heading back to the continental United States just hours later.
Norfolk is home to one of the U.S. Marine Corps' Fleet Antiterrorism Security Teams, a crisis response unit also known as a FAST Company. There are two more FAST Companies at the nearby Naval Weapons Station Yorktown in Yorktown, Virginia. Marine FAST elements regularly deploy overseas to bolster security at American embassies and other diplomatic facilities, as necessary. There is a major U.S. Navy SEAL presence at Dam Neck in Virginia, which is also close by.
USMC
A FAST Company Marine stands guard during a training exercise.
Regardless, the presence of Russian contractors could change the risk calculus for any such operation. They could also present a deterrent to any potential U.S. government plan to try to more forcefully eject Maduro from power.
Maduro's Russian benefactors could have sent the mercenaries to guard the Venezuelan leader for fear that he may be increasingly at risk of ending up like the late former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega. In 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause into Panama to oust Noriega after a protracted crisis that has many similarities to the present situation Venezuela, including a disputed election.
The murder of an off-duty U.S. Marine by Panamanian forces at a roadblock and the decision by Panamanian authorities to detain and abuse a U.S. Navy lieutenant and his wife, incidents that both occurred on Dec. 16, 1989, helped provide additional justification for the invasion two days later. There is a risk of similarly dangerous alternations in Venezuela now if Maduro orders government security forces to remove the remaining Americans from the Embassy in Caracas or any other diplomatic facilities.
In the ensuing operation in Panama more than 30 years ago, American special operations forces rushed to detain Noriega. Noriega initially evaded capture by fleeing to the Vatican embassy in Panama City, where he endured 10 days of American psychological warfare tactics before finally surrendering on Jan. 3, 1990.
Russia could also use the mercenaries as a way of testing the waters for their own larger, overt military deployment on behalf of Maduro, similar to its use of "Little Green Men" ahead of taking over Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014. As noted, Russia has a vested interest in keeping its ally in power in Venezuela. After the deployment of Tu-160 bombers to the country in December 2018 there was a report that Venezuelan authorities had offered the Kremlin a more permanent basing deal.
This would give the Russian an unprecedented ability to challenge the United States in its own hemisphere, the implications of which you can read more about here. Having a formal base in the country could only provide Russia a more permanent foothold to help support Maduro’s regime in the future. Sending the bombers to the country in the first place was a very visible signal of continued Russian support for the government in Caracas.
Still, if Reuters’ report is accurate, Russia’s active involvement in the crisis seems relatively limited in size and scope for the moment. But, at the same time, we’re only three days into the confrontation between Maduro and Guaido and their respective domestic and international supporters and neither side appears to be inclined to back down.
Whether any Kremlin-linked mercenaries that are actually in Venezuela turn out to be key to ensuring Maduro remains in power or are a prelude to a larger Russian intervention remains to be seen.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/26 ... ros-regime
by seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 01, 2019 6:36 pm
Maduro Regime Halts Shipment of 20 Tons of Gold Out of Venezuela
Patricia Laya
February 1, 2019, 11:30 AM CST
The embattled Nicolas Maduro regime halted plans to ship 20 tons of Venezuelan gold overseas as a growing international push to ring-fence the country’s dwindling hard assets unnerved those handling the transaction, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Maduro Holds Press Briefing On 'Petro' As U.S. Bans Venezuelan Digital Currency
Nicolas Maduro on March 22, 2018.
Photographer: Carlos Becerra/Bloomberg
The gold bars, which are worth about $850 million, had been weighed and separated for transportation, but will not be sent out anytime soon from the central bank’s vaults in Caracas, the person said. The blocking of the shipment comes just a week after the Bank of England denied Maduro officials’ request to withdraw $1.2 billion of gold stored there.
While the destination of the gold and the nature of the transactions aren’t known with certainty, it’s somewhat unusual for a country to be shipping around such massive amounts of gold. And the U.S. officials who are leading the push to have Maduro cede power to a transitional government contend that the attempted transactions form part of his authoritarian regime’s bid to ransack the country in its final days in power.
“My advice to bankers, brokers, traders, facilitators, and other businesses: don’t deal in gold, oil, or other Venezuelan commodities being stolen from the Venezuelan people by the Maduro mafia,’’ National Security Adviser John Bolton said in a tweet this week.
The gold bars held both in Caracas and London are an important source of wealth for a country that has plunged into extreme poverty under Maduro’s socialist rule. The $2 billion worth that was caught up in these two transactions represents about a quarter of all the Venezuelan central bank’s foreign reserves. Those assets form a key part of the fierce battle for control of Venezuela’s finances between Maduro and Juan Guaido, the National Assembly leader who is trying to install a transitional government with the support of the U.S. and other countries.
On Thursday, Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who has helped spearhead the U.S.’s hard-line stance toward Maduro, fired off a tweet calling out the United Arab Emirates’ Noor Capital as the financial firm orchestrating the gold transaction with Venezuelan authorities. Rubio went on to warn the firm that both it and any airline it hires to take the gold away will be subject to the sanctions that the U.S. government has been stepping up in recent days.
Attempts to reach Noor Capital for comment outside normal business hours in Abu Dhabi were unsuccessful. Press officials for Venezuela’s Central Bank and Finance Ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“This has to do with risk assessment due to Venezuela’s current state, not only because of political consequences but due to the impact of sanctions,” said Asdrubal Oliveros, director of Ecoanalitica, a consulting firm in Caracas. “It’s very likely the countries interested in buying are weighing the implications and reputational factors."
In interviews and press conferences, Guaido has stressed again and again his team’s push to safeguard Venezuela’s assets so that they can be used to fund the flow of humanitarian aid. He has scored key victories in recent days on this front. The Trump administration imposed fresh sanctions on the national oil company PDVSA, effectively blocking Maduro from exporting crude to the U.S., and granted Guaido control of Venezuelan assets at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. These moves followed the Bank of England’s decision last week.
“The English stole the gold in the Bank of England,” Diosdado Cabello, the powerful No. 2 in Maduro’s socialist party, said in a speech broadcast on state television this week. “The imperialist bosses should know that we will never give up.”
— With assistance by Nathan Crooks, Andrew Rosati, Ben Foldy, and Fabiola Zerpa
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... old-abroad
Mystery Deepens Over Venezuela Gold
Jamie DettmerLONDON —
The Kremlin may have helped Venezuela's embattled socialist leader Nicolas Maduro swap gold for cash, transporting Venezuelan bullion deposited in Moscow to the United Arab Emirates and then flying U.S. currency into the Venezuelan capital, an investigative newspaper has claimed.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gives a press conference at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 25, 2019.
The report in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta is adding to the fears of pro-democracy activists in Venezuela that the Kremlin will try to make good on its pledge to stand by Maduro to help him survive a popular uprising against him.
Russian officials have condemned U.S. sanctions imposed last month against Venezuela's vital oil sector, a move aimed at depriving Maduro of the funds he needs to pay his army, which has so far remained loyal to him. The Kremlin says the sanctions are illegal meddling in Venezuela's domestic affairs. And it rejects, too, the widespread Latin American and European endorsement of the popular protests against Maduro.
Gold swapped for dollars?
Citing unnamed sources in the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper alleged that on Jan. 29, a Russian-operated Boeing 757 cargo plane took Venezuelan gold stored in Russia's central bank to Dubai. The bullion was replaced with containers full of U.S. dollars and the aircraft, which is owned by the Russian company Yerofei, took off again and flew via Morocco to Venezuela, the paper said.
A Boeing 777 from Russia's Nordwind Airlines remains parked on the runway at La Guaira airport, near Caracas on Jan. 30, 2019.
The director of Russia's central bank, Elvira Nabiullina, denied the allegation, saying the bank was holding no Venezuelan bullion.
On Friday, a senior Venezuelan official told the Reuters news agency that Caracas plans to sell 29 tons of gold to the UAE in return for euros and said the sale of the nation's gold began with a shipment of three tons on Jan. 26, following the export last year of $900 million in unrefined gold to Turkey. But the official said Moscow was not involved in the gold-for-cash operation.
Social media theories
Turkey has been refining and certifying Venezuelan gold since last year after Maduro switched operations from Switzerland, fearing Venezuelan bullion could end up being impounded.
The Jan. 29 flight, though, is the second unexplained Russian plane to have landed in Caracas since the high-stakes standoff began between opposition leader Juan Guaido and Maduro. A Boeing 777 belonging to a Russian charter company called Nordwind flew from Moscow's Vnukovo airport on Monday to the Venezuelan capital, according to flight tracking data. Nordwind normally only flies Russian tourists to vacation destinations in the Mediterranean and southeast Asia.
The arrival of the Nordwind jet in Caracas triggered an avalanche of social media theories about what it was doing in the Venezuelan capital. Some anti-Maduro lawmakers claimed that it brought Russian mercenaries to help guard the socialist leader. One theory that prompted jubilation among street protesters was that it was there to spirit Maduro into exile.
The flight also prompted Venezuelan lawmaker Jose Guerra, who previously worked as an economist in Venezuela's central bank, to warn in a tweet: "We have received information from officials at the Central Bank of Venezuela: A plane arrived from Moscow, with the intention of taking away at least 20 tons of gold. We demand that the Central Bank of Venezuela provide details about what is happening."
'Fake news'
Dmitry Peskov, press spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters midweek the reports about Venezuelan gold and the Kremlin were inaccurate and urged journalists to "deal carefully with fake news' of various kinds."
He dismissed Guerra's claims, saying, according to TASS, "Russia is prepared to promote a settlement to the political situation in Venezuela without meddling in that country's internal affairs. Russia is categorically against any meddling by third countries in Venezuela's internal affairs."
FILE PHOTO: Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido arrives to attend a holy mass in Caracas, Jan. 27, 2019.
For Moscow and Beijing, the high-stakes standoff between Guaido, who declared himself interim president in late January, and Maduro represents a geopolitical headache. Both Russia and China have lent billions of dollars to Maduro. Russia's oil-giant Rosneft has stakes in five onshore oil projects, according to Bloomberg News, and has loaned the Maduro government more than $7 billion, which is meant to be repaid in oil deliveries.
The Bank of England this week refused a Venezuelan request for the return of more than one billion dollars' worth of gold it has on deposit. The refusal came after the United States urged Western countries to block the Maduro government from accessing any assets outside Venezuela's borders.
https://www.voanews.com/a/mystery-deepe ... 69065.html
by Elvis » Sat Feb 02, 2019 11:45 am
https://www.rt.com/news/450146-de-zayas ... tions-war/
‘Direct nexus between US sanctions & death’ – UN rapporteur slams ‘economic war’ on Venezuela
Published time: 30 Jan, 2019 13:24
Edited time: 31 Jan, 2019 08:26
The US is waging “economic war” against Venezuela and engaging in a coordinated effort to “demonize” President Nicolas Maduro, believes UN rapporteur to Venezuela and expert on international law Alfred de Zayas.
In an interview with RT, de Zayas, who is also a former secretary of the UN Human Rights Council, said it was “obscene” for Washington to invoke human rights as motivation for its actions in Venezuela while it continues to wage an economic war on Venezuelan citizens.
“Who is causing, who is aggravating the problem? The sanctions have aggravated the problem. The economic war has aggravated the problem,” he said.
US President Donald Trump recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s “interim president” last week, throwing the country further into political crisis. In response, the Maduro government accused Washington of trying to engineer a coup and steal its oil.
Asked to explain his previous characterization of the US sanctions as possibly amounting to “crimes against humanity,” de Zayas said there is “a direct nexus” between the sanctions and death.
De Zayas recalled a UNICEF report which determined that 500,000 children had died as a direct results of the US sanctions regime against Iraq by 1996. There are currently estimates that hundreds of Venezuelans have already died as a result of sanctions-related shortages, he said.
De Zayas said that financial mismanagement by the Maduro government was also a real factor in the current unrest and that the government has "too many ideologues and not enough technocrats" – but ultimately said that choosing the government to run Venezuela is not up to the US.
“I believe in democracy. I believe in the ballot box. If you believe in democracy, you can not boycott an election. The name of the game is that you actually have to put your candidate out and expect that the people will vote for you or against you,” he said, referring to the Venezuelan opposition’s decision to boycott the recent presidential election, which saw Maduro re-elected.
Echoing comments from other analysts, de Zayas said that the US was interested in getting control of Venezuela’s oil and gold. Looking at Iraq and Libya — two other oil-rich countries which faced US regime change — he said it is the major oil companies which are “reaping the benefits” and not ordinary people.
If Venezuelans were benefiting from their natural resources that would be fine, he said, but “when all the profits flow outside of the country, when they flow to the United States or when they flow to a super-rich elite of Venezuelans, that does not serve the Venezuelan people.”
(more)
by chump » Sun Feb 03, 2019 11:55 am
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2019/01/w ... .html#more
TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2019
Why must Venezuela be destroyed?
Last week Trump, his VP Mike Pence, US State Dept. director Mike Pompeo and Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton, plus a bunch of Central American countries that are pretty much US colonies and don’t have foreign policies of their own, synchronously announced that Venezuela has a new president: a virtual non-entity named Juan Guaidó, who was never even a candidate for that office, but who was sorta-kinda trained for this job in the US. Guaidó appeared at a rally in Caracas, flanked by a tiny claque of highly compensated sycophants. He looked very frightened as he self-appointed himself president of Venezuela and set about discharging his presidential duties by immediately going into hiding.
His whereabouts remained unknown until much later, when he surfaced at a press conference, at which he gave a wishy-washy non-answer to the question of whether he had been pressured to declare himself president or had done so of his own volition. There is much to this story that is at once tragic and comic, so let’s take it apart piece by piece. Then we’ll move on to answering the question of Why Venezuela must be destroyed (from the US establishment’s perspective).
What stands out immediately is the combination of incompetence and desperation exhibited by all of the above-mentioned public and not-so-public figures. Pompeo, in voicing his recognition of Guaidó, called him “guido,” which is an ethnic slur against Italians, while Bolton did one better and called him “guiado” which could be Spanish for “remote-controlled.” (Was that a Freudian slip or just another one of Bolton’s senior moments?) Not to be outdone, Pence gave an entire little speech on Venezuela—a sort of address to the Venezuelan people—which was laced with some truly atrocious pseudo-Spanish gibberish and ended with an utterly incongruous “¡Vaya con Dios!” straight out of a hammy 1950s Western.
Some more entertainment was provided at the UN Security Council, where the ever-redoubtable Russian representative Vasily Nebenzya pointed out that the situation in Venezuela did not pose a threat to international security and was therefore not within the purview of the Security Council. He then proceeded to ask Pompeo, who was present at the meeting, a pointed question: “Is the US planning to yet again violate the UN Charter?”
Pompeo failed to give an answer. He sat there looking like a cat that’s pretending that it isn’t chewing on a canary, then quickly fled the scene. But then most recently Bolton, as he was presumably exiting a national security meeting and walking to a White House press briefing, accidentally flashed his notepad before reporters’ cameras. On it were written the words “5000 troops to Colombia” (that’s a US military base/narco-colony on Venezuela’s northern border). Was this another one of Bolton’s senior moments? In any case, it does seem to answer Nebenzya’s question in the affirmative. The appointment as special envoy to Venezuela of Elliott Abrams, a convicted criminal who was complicit in the previous, failed Venezuelan coup attempt against Hugo Chávez, automatically making him persona non grata in Venezuela, is also indicative of hostile intent.
It would be quite forgivable for you to mistake this regime change operation for some sort of absurdist performance art. It is certainly a bit too abstract for the real-world complexities of the international order. Some poor frightened minion is thrust in front of a camera and declares himself President of Narnia, and then three stooges (Pence, Pompeo and Bolton) plus Bozo the Trump all jump up and yell “Yes-yes-yes, that’s surely him!” And a pensioned-off failure is pulled off the bench, dusted off and dispatched on a mission to a country that won’t have him.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, the Venezuelan army and the Venezuelan courts remains squarely behind the elected president Nicolas Maduro and a list of countries that comprise the vast majority of the world’s population, including China, Russia, India, Mexico, Turkey, South Africa and quite a few others speak out in Maduro’s support. Even the people in the remote-controlled Central American countries know full well what a dangerous precedent such a regime change operation would set if it were to succeed, and are thinking: “¡Hoy Venezuela, mañana nosotros!”
To be thorough, let’s look at the arguments being used to advance this regime change operation. There is the contention that Nicolas Maduro is not a legitimate president because last year’s elections, where he was supported by 68% of those who turned out, lacked transparency and were boycotted by certain opposition parties, whereas Juan Guaidó is 100% legit in spite of him and his inconsequential National Assembly being opposed by 70% of Venezuelans according to the opposition’s own polling numbers. There were also some unfounded allegations of “ballot-box stuffing”—except that the Venezuelans do not use paper ballots, while according to international election-watcher and former US president Jimmy Carter, “the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.”
There is the contention that Maduro has badly mismanaged Venezuela’s economy, leading to hyperinflation, high unemployment, shortages of basic goods (medicines especially) and a refugee crisis. There is some merit to this contention, but we must also note that some of Venezuela’s neighbors are doing even worse in many respects in spite of Maduro not being their president. Also, many of Venezuela’s economic difficulties have been caused by US sanctions against it. For instance, right now around 8 billion dollars of Venezuela’s money is being held hostage and is intended to be used to finance a mercenary army which would invade and attempt to destroy Venezuela just as was done with Syria.
Finally, a lot of Venezuela’s predicament has to do with the oil curse. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, but its oil is very viscous and therefore expensive to produce. During a period of high oil prices Venezuelans became addicted to the oil largess, which the government used to lift millions of people out of abject poverty and to move them out of slums and into government housing. And now low oil prices have caused a crisis. If Venezuela manages to survive this period, it will be able to recover once oil prices recover (which they will once the fracking Ponzi scheme in the US has run its course). We will return to the topic of Venezuelan oil later.
As a side comment, a lot of people have been voicing the opinion that Venezuela’s woes are due to socialism. According to them, it’s fine if lots of people are suffering as long as their government is capitalist, but if it is socialist then that’s the wrong kind of suffering and their government deserves to be overthrown even if they all voted for it. For example, the site ZeroHedge, which often publishes useful information and analysis, has been pushing this line of thinking ad nauseam. It is unfortunate that some people imagine that they are being principled and right-thinking whereas they are just being dumb jerks at best and somebody’s useful idiots at worst. The politics of other nations are not for them to decide and they should stop wasting our time with their nonsense.
This naked attempt at regime change would set a very dangerous precedent for the US itself. The doctrine of legal precedent is by no means universal. It comes to us from the dim dark ages of tribal English common law and is only followed in former British colonies. To the rest of the world it is a barbaric form of injustice because it grants arbitrary power to judges and lawyers. The courts must not be allowed to write or alter laws, only to follow them. If your case can be decided on the basis of some other case that has nothing to do with you—well then, why not let somebody else pay your legal fees and your fines and serve out your sentence for you? But there is an overarching principle of international law, which is that sovereign nations have a right to keep to their own laws and legal traditions. Therefore, the US will be bound by the precedents which it establishes. Let’s see how that would work.
The precedent established by the US government’s recognition of Juan Guaidó allows Nicolas Maduro to declare Donald Trump’s presidency as illegitimate for virtually all of the same reasons. Trump failed to win the popular vote but only gained the presidency because of a corrupt, gerrymandered electoral system. Also, certain opposition candidates were unfairly treated within the electoral process. Trump is also a disgrace and a failure: 43 million people are on food stamps; close to 100 million are among the long-term unemployed (circularly referred to as “not in labor force”); homelessness is rampant and there are entire tent cities springing up in various US cities; numerous US companies are on the verge of bankruptcy; and Trump can’t even seem to be able to keep the federal government open! He is a disaster for his country! Maduro therefore recognizes Bernie Sanders as the legitimate president of the United States.
Vladimir Putin could then build on these two precedents by also recognizing Bernie Sanders as the rightful US president. In a public speech, he could say the following: “I freely admit that we installed Donald Trump as US president as was our right based on the numerous precedents established by the US itself. Unfortunately, Trump didn’t work out as planned. Mueller can retire, because this flash drive contains everything that’s necessary to nullify Trump’s inauguration. Donny, sorry it didn’t work out! Your Russian passport is ready for pick-up at our embassy, as are your keys to a one-bedroom in Rostov, right next door to the Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovich who was violently regime-changed by your predecessor Obama.”
Why the unseemly haste to blow up Venezuela? The explanation is a simple one: it has to do with oil. “It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.” said John Bolton on Fox News. You see, Venezuelan oil cannot be produced profitably without high oil prices—so high that many oil consumers would go bankrupt—but it can certainly be produced in much higher quantities at a huge financial loss.
Huge financial losses certainly wouldn’t stop American oil companies who have so far generated a $300 billion loss through fracking—financed by looting retirement savings, saddling future generations with onerous debt and other nefarious schemes. Also keep in mind that the single largest oil consumer in the world is the US Dept. of Defense, and if it has to pay a little more for oil in order to go on blowing up countries—so it will. Or, rather, you will. It’s all the same to them. The US is already well beyond broke, but its leaders will do anything to keep the party going for just a while longer.
Here’s the real problem: the fracking bonanza is ending. Most of the sweet spots have already been tapped; newer wells are depleting faster and producing less while costing more; the next waves of fracking, were they to happen, would squander $500 billion, then $1 trillion, then $2 trillion… The drilling rate is already slowing, and started slowing even while oil prices were still high. Meanwhile, peak conventional (non-fracked) oil happened back in 2005-6, only a few countries haven’t peaked yet, Russia has announced that it will start reducing production in just a couple years and Saudi Arabia doesn’t have any spare capacity left.
A rather large oil shortage is coming, and it will rather specifically affect the US, which burns 20% of the world’s oil (with just 5% of the world’s population). Once fracking crashes, the US will go from having to import 2.5 million barrels per day to importing at least 10—and that oil won’t exist. Previously, the US was able to solve this problem by blowing up countries and stealing their oil: the destruction of Iraq and Libya made American oil companies whole for a while and kept the financial house of cards from collapsing. But the effort to blow up Syria has failed, and the attempt to blow up Venezuela is likely to fail too because, keep in mind, Venezuela has between 7 and 9 million Chavistas imbued with the Bolivarian revolutionary spirit, a large and well-armed military and is generally a very tough neighborhood.
Previously, the US resorted to various dirty tricks to legitimize its aggression against oil-rich countries and its subsequent theft of their natural resources. There was that vial of highly toxic talcum powder Colin Powell shook at the UN to get it to vote in favor of destroying Iraq and stealing its oil. There was the made-up story of humanitarian atrocities in Libya to get the votes for a no-fly zone there (which turned out to be a bombing campaign followed by a government overthrow). But with Venezuela there isn’t any such fig leaf. All we have is open threats of naked aggression and blatant lies which nobody believes, delivered incompetently by clowns, stooges and old fogies.
If Plan A (steal Venezuela’s oil) fails, then Plan B is to take all of your US dollar-denominated paper waste—cash, stocks, bonds, deeds, insurance policies, promissory notes, etc.—and burn it in trash barrels in an effort to stay warm. There is a definite whiff of desperation to the whole affair. The global hegemon is broken; it fell down and it can’t get up.
by Elvis » Sun Feb 03, 2019 12:41 pm
by chump » Sun Feb 03, 2019 2:00 pm
Elvis » Sun Feb 03, 2019 11:41 am wrote:^^^ Great overview, Chump, thanks.
My only real disagreement with the writer is when he says, "the US is already well beyond broke"; the US cannot "go broke" but he may be forgiven because we've all been brainwashed to believe otherwise.
by seemslikeadream » Tue Feb 12, 2019 8:41 am
by Sounder » Tue Feb 12, 2019 11:52 am
The report in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta is adding to the fears of pro-democracy activists in Venezuela that the Kremlin will try to make good on its pledge to stand by Maduro to help him survive a popular uprising against him.
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