Venezuela

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Fri Apr 19, 2019 5:20 pm

The Commune is the Supreme Expression of Participatory Democracy: A Conversation with Anacaona Marin of El Panal Commune
In this interview, VA talks with a member of the Alexis Vive Patriotic Force, an organization based in the 23 de Enero barrio in Caracas that has worked to build one of Venezuela’s flagship urban communes.

By Cira Pascual Marquina – Venezuelanalysis.com
Apr 19th 2019 at 7.49pm

http://venezuelanalysis.com/YopW

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Anacaona Marin of the Alexis Vive Patriotic Force and El Panal Commune. (Venezuelanalysis)

The Alexis Vive Patriotic Force, which has deep roots in Caracas’ 23 de Enero barrio, began planning a commune years before Chavez even proposed the communal path toward socialism. Yet when Chavez announced the plan to join communal councils into a higher form of organization, Alexis Vive wholeheartedly embraced the initiative and has since then built a highly successful commune called El Panal Commune[1] involving some 13,000 people. We spoke with a key cadre of El Panal about this project that is both economic and political to find out how it is coping with the crisis escalated by US aggressions.

The commune is usually thought of a space of construction – for the political and economic reorganization of society –, but it is also a space of resistance. Let’s talk about the commune today, in a period where Venezuela is under attack by imperialism.

There is a confrontation of models, a clash of two paradigms not only in Venezuela and in Latin America, but also worldwide. One of the questions in the debate is: who is the historical subject? For us, that is the question of who is it that activates, who lights up the field, who pushes changes forward. And when we reflect on this issue, which means thinking about our own practice, we guide our interpretation by the proposal that developed with Comandante Chavez.

Chavez developed a hypothesis after a process of maturing, after a rigorous analysis of the Venezuelan and continental realities, and after a reflection on the revolutionary potential under our feet (based also on a commitment to justice for the poor that was there from the start). His hypothesis was: The commune is the historical subject, the commune and its people, the comuneros, that is where the revolution really begins. So we made this proposal ours, we committed to it.

We were aware that the proposal and our embracing it was going to be attacked from its onset, at its genesis. When Chavez first raised the banner of socialism in 2006, when he said that the Bolivarian Revolution must be socialist, when he said that a vote for him is a vote for socialism, he committed himself and the people to a collective project of rupture. Well, that is where we find the seed of the commune. Self-government and economic emancipation go hand-in-hand with socialism, with a people in power. So that is where we find the initial seeds for the commune: in [Chavez’s 2006] proposal to build a socialist “patria.”

It became clear to us then that there was going to be a new level of confrontation. We knew that the path towards socialism was going to be demonized, that contradictions would pop up everywhere, inside and outside. So we can say that the communes hadn’t even been born yet, and we were already in resistance! But the truth is that we have been in resistance for more than five hundred years.

Today, we are not only resisting imperialism. We are also resisting old forms of production and their diverse forms of domination: from the organization of education and affects, to the organization of the formal political sphere and the economy.

Why is there conflict? We are making a counter-hegemonic proposal to a system that is powerful, a system that seems part and parcel of what the human being is. In the face of this system, the communal subject stands tall and says: Hey, this doesn’t have to be so, this is not the only option. The communal subject is the one that affirms that capitalism is not a natural occurrence, it is an imposition.

The communes are counter-hegemonic spaces with a vocation for hegemony. From our commune, we aim to show that another organization of society is possible, that power must be reorganized, and that power should be in the hands of the people. That means combining new economic relations with an exercise of power in the commune’s territory.

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Preparing for food distribution at El Panal Commune. (Comuna El Panal)

Here we are in the midst of El Panal Commune, which has a range of productive projects: from a bakery and a textile factory to cultivated land and an industrial packaging plant. How is all this organized?

El Panal Commune has some specific characteristics. We, as Alexis Vive, began to think about building a commune in 2006 and shortly after we began working on it. However, the Law of Communes wasn’t promulgated until 2009. The law states that communal councils would be the embryo that would foster the formation of a commune. Here, by contrast, the forming of the commune followed its own path.

This commune comes out of a practice and a set of symbols that we put on the street. In our case, the Alexis Vive Patriotic Force generated a collective practice and a discourse that pointed the way [with Chavez] towards the commune. This worked quite well: the community here, in the central part of 23 de Enero, picked up the idea and ran with it.

Here, in these territories, the “Panalitos por la Patria” [“Beehives for the Homeland"], which are small working and discussion groups] are the DNA of the communal body. The Panalitos are formed by people from the community with a high degree of commitment to the commune. They are the engines of the communal initiative.

Additionally, we have brigades, which is a term that the Alexis Vive Patriotic Force chose after much debate. The debate touched on the subject of the Chiliying Commune,[2] which had various structures of participation for the people: councils, brigadists and producers. The division was based on the commitment to work and struggle. The brigades were made up of a militant group of communards with a life-commitment to the struggle. In our commune, these brigades are made up of professional cadres, and they take on the larger issues of production and distribution in the community. They are also, it almost goes without saying, highly politicized units.

Finally, we have the associated work collectives, which are the communal groups directly involved with producing goods and services. Since the commune is not an appendix of the state or the government, it must be autonomous and it must generate the resources it requires to address the community’s needs. The associated work collectives are spaces for direct production, and the surplus from their production goes back to the commune and thus to the community.

All this relates to the commune’s process of grassroots planning and administration of resources. Some of our resources go to sustaining a “comedor popular” [people’s canteen], some to communications, some to the community’s medical expenses, and some to transportation and infrastructure. We also have resources allotted for contingencies. All of these resources come from the associated work collectives. After all, the commune is not just a cultural, social and political organization, it is also an economic organization.

There is another “higher” element to the commune’s organization: the patriotic assembly, the space where comuneros gather to decide collectively what must be done, and how, through participatory democracy.

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“Abejitas de El Panal” is an associated work collective that produces clothing. (Comuna El Panal)

Let’s come back to the situation today: the imperialist aggression. In the past couple of months, we have witnessed a new form of war with the electrical blackout and the attacks on the electric grid. Tell us about how you have organized resistance in the commune in this context.

We are the daughters and sons of Chavez. We listened to his words and we learned. As a result of that, we understood that when you go up against capital and against imperialism, there is only one option: to prepare. If we are going to tell imperialism that we are no longer its backyard – that we have chosen the path to full independence and on top of that we are transitioning towards socialism –, then we must understand that we are going to be in a war with a military superpower.

A new phase of aggression against our country has begun. They try to restrict our access to food and they have implemented a financial blockade and, more recently, an oil embargo. They also attack us culturally. They try to inspire fear in us. Most recently, they attacked our electrical system, which is fundamental for modern life.

We were aware that this was coming, so we prepared for a war economy, through organization and work. We also prepared through research and [by paying attention to] popular creativity. A contingency plan was in place. So when this new phase of the aggression began, we were ready for it with the necessary resources.

Our planning allowed us to build – in the midst of the blackout – a diesel-powered electrical grid for our collective spaces. In fact, the commune acts as a kind of state or government in everyday life, and it does so also when faced with a contingency or aggression. Obviously, that [alternative power supply] made for a less hostile environment during the blackout.

Many people do not know about the spontaneous forms of solidarity that emerged during the blackout. I witnessed beautiful gestures during those days, especially among my neighbors, both Chavistas and opposition. What happened here in 23 de Enero?

It was an all-out exercise of violence against our lives! But when faced with ugly, catastrophic situations, popular kindness, solidarity and sisterhood blooms! This is not just discourse: people were brave and noble. We don’t believe that the human being is selfish by nature. Humans are formed in society; the human being is part of a whole, of a collective. The genesis of humanity is in the commons, in working together towards shared ends, and those collective instincts flourish when people face a war-like situation.

I can give you an example from our experience. We organize weekly fairs where fruits and vegetables are sold at very low prices through the “Pueblo a Pueblo” initiative [direct coordination with campesinos]. During the blackout, we sold on credit [since the electronic payment infrastructure was offline], and the neighbours came through. One by one, they came back and paid their debts when the blackout was over. One can see there that the response from the people was not selfish. People didn’t take advantage of the situation, even though they could have. Instead, those days were characterized by collective consciousness.

In describing popular power I often refer to the trilogy of self-government, self-determination, and self-defense. If the commune sometimes functions as a state, as you said, that means communes generate a situation of dual power. This could lead to tensions between the existing state and the commune.

When Chavez promoted the idea of the commune, what he did was very daring. In fact, much of what was advanced in terms of the law was done via the Enabling Act [the National Assembly had given Chavez the power to legislate by presidential decree] since his proposal was sure to rub the establishment the wrong way. By doing so, Chavez broke with the logic of the state.

Alvaro Garcia Linera talks about “creative tensions” that allow for new things to happen. When you pull away from constituted power, that opens a space for the new to bloom: that flower springs forth from the creative tensions. We welcome contradictions. If we didn’t have them, it would mean that we wouldn't have a project. Instead, we would be part and parcel with our society’s hegemonic logic, which is capitalist.

On the question of dual power: we don’t think of it in terms of a parallel state... Instead, we consider the communes to be the crystallization of a proposal left by President Chavez. He understood that the commune, through self-government and autonomous popular economic activity, would bring about the new state, a communal state. But all that is a process under construction.

As I was saying earlier, we encounter contradictions everywhere. Although some [state] institutions may be somewhat more hostile than others, we can also say that our commune has [in general] benefited from the goodwill of people within the state, people who have cast their lot with the commune. We have received economic and technical support from the state, and that has helped us build popular power…

We know that tensions and contradictions will remain, and we welcome them since we do not seek a static situation. Rather, we seek change, and change only happens when there are contradictions.

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A patriotic assembly, the highest instance for decision‐making in El Panal Commune. (Comuna El Panal)

Is it fair to say, however, that the commune is not in the forefront of the government’s political discourse now?

Absolutely. Look, when Chavez became a public figure, many from the left didn’t understand that they had to change course, that the only way forward was with Chavez. Likewise, many within Nicolas Maduro’s government maintain the old conception of the state and don’t understand that the commune is the goal.

However, that is what the Bolivarian Revolution is: a combination of very diverse currents. Within the Revolution there is a latent debate about the commune. Our role is to show that the commune is indeed the historical subject. We show this through our example, and, in doing so, we hope to make a rupture with the old ways and become hegemonic.

Our contribution to this big debate is through our practice, through work. Our constructive criticism can be found in our concrete example. Building a commune brings forth a new culture, a new form of doing politics, and new economic relations... Against the logic of representative democracy, we propose participatory and protagonic democracy, and the commune is the supreme expression of the latter.

The media discourse tends to criminalize poor barrio‐dwellers. It has been going on for a long time. Recently, there has been a great deal of focus on “colectivos” [a common form of grassroots organization in urban Latin America and Venezuela in particular] to make them seem as if they were merely gangs or paramilitary organizations. Has that affected your projects in the 23 de Enero barrio?

Indeed there is nothing new about all that. In the Fourth Republic the “ñangaras”[3] or the “tupamaros”[4] were the source of all evil. Later the Bolivarian Circles were criminalized. Frankly, every expression of popular organization that isn’t submissive has always been criminalized in history. That’s because popular organization is, indeed, a problem for the system. The mass media has always demonized the people when they organize, so it shouldn’t surprise us.

Now, in this new phase of the imperialist aggression, we can see that popular action is once again being criminalized. They are in a process of rebranding “colectivos” as terrorist organizations, as the maximum expression of evil. Imagine that, poor Chavistas in the street, barrio‐dwellers defending their territories! That should be stopped, and the most efficient way is criminalization. Why do they do this? To instill fear into the people, to keep poor people from organizing.

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El Panal communards and members of the Alexis Vive Patriotic Force in a march against fascism and corruption. Caracas, April 2016. (Comuna El Panal)

http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14435
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Wed Apr 24, 2019 1:33 pm

FINANCIAL BLOCKADE: CHRONOLOGY OF A STRATEGY TO DESTROY VENEZUELA
14 Feb 2019, 6:58 pm.

Sanctions against Venezuela are real and palpable mechanisms of destruction of the State, its identity and, with it, of Venezuelan society. They form part of a war strategy based on the application of diverse resources and sophisticated tools of financial hegemony against fundamental nodes of our national life. Although in Venezuela there are no bombs falling down and no U.S. Marines are seen disembarking along the coasts, there is plenty of evidence of the resources of permanent aggression, nationally and internationally, used on the part of corporate and political sectors.

In this context, since 1999, the internal domestic of anti-Chavismohave alternated between low-profile mechanisms such as boycott or corporate disinvestment and forceful actions such as the April 2002 coup or the oil lockout.

Since 2015, when the then president of the United States, Barack Obama, declared Venezuela as an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States," the political vanguard and leadership in anti-Chavismoof the transnational elite that governs in Washington became irrefutable, they gave greater hardness to a string of measures that have determined not only the destruction of the national economy but also seriously modified the cultural perception of the issue.

What can be understood from recent statements made by Jack Lew, former Secretary of the Treasury during the Obama administration, economic sanctions are the most effective and lower cost option to subdue an enemy, when compared to the common traditional power by force. Besides the fact that they have a direct and noticeable influence in the American finance market, the core of the global economy.

Sanctions employed today are different, they are the modern channels to seize fortresses, just like in medieval times, an updated genre on this technologically smart and globalized era, where every nerve stimulated by the global power is towards twisting the arms of its enemies, said Lew.

2015: UNITED STATES ASSUMES COMMAND OF ANTI-CHAVISMO

The financial blockade has mutated from the attack on the debt, through isolation by the US financial system, to the application of espionage techniques that chase after Venezuelan transactions and withhold funds destined for the import of food and medicines.

Since then, Venezuela has suffered the effects of the fall in oil prices due to the fact that the United States agreed with Saudi Arabia to aggressively increase oil production in order to lower prices and affect important oil-producing countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran.

In addition, the economy began to deteriorate due to a lack of income and by the activities of a company created in Miami in 2010, called DólarToday, which artificially devalued the value of the currency in order to induce an inflationary spiral. Venezuela lost approximately 60% of its national income that year.

The Executive Order (13692) signed by the Obama Administration in March 2015 initiated financial blockade actions against Venezuela and, with it, the U.S. government made the economic attack against the country, legal. Based on the Emergency Law of International Economic Powers, activated at the constitutional level, to provide whichever administration with tools to "defend" itself from the threat.

Under this pretext, the White House placed its financial system, through the Treasury Department, on alert with respect to Venezuelan financial operations.

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On March 5, 2015, Barack Obama signed an executive order declaring Venezuela "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to U.S. national security (Foto: White House)

With the excuse of blocking the mobility of unproven personal accounts, until then, of seven Venezuelan officials, this legal instrument has forbidden the use of the U.S. financial system to import food and medicine by the Venezuelan state.

At the same time, risk-rating agencies, agencies created by the United States to destabilize sovereign countries, published a global map of "risky countries”. This is to supplement the economic-financial siege against the Venezuelan government's recovery plans, as a result of the fall in oil prices.

Venezuela was catalogued by the French financial company Coface as the country with the highest risk in Latin America, similar to African countries that are currently in situations of armed conflict. The "study" was carried out based on the negative ratings of the three major U.S. rating agencies, Standard and Poor's, Fitch Rating and Moody's, which were largely responsible for the global financial collapse of 2008.

From 2015 onwards, the country-risk variable began to increase artificially in order to hinder the entry of international financing and, until the first half of 2018, these three major rating agencies have stepped up their attacks against Venezuela, omitting the on time Venezuelan debt payments, in order to push the country towards default and project a situation of insecurity for potential foreign investment.

In this context of siege based on social discontent produced by the fall in oil prices, scarcity, shortages and a wave of looting, anti-Chavismowon the majority in the National Assembly and structured a higher plane, now from the National Assembly, for financial aggressions against Venezuela.

2016: FINANCIAL SIEGE AND THE DEFAULT THAT DID NOT HAPPEN

In April 2016, the International Monetary Fund warned of the "economic catastrophe" in Venezuela through a report, generating expectations of collapse, inflation and scarcity to legitimize the actions of economic warfare carried out by Fedecámaras and Consecomercio, the Venezuela's two main associations of the private sector.

The National Assembly, in contempt for incorporating three Deputies whose elections were demonstrably fraudulent, approved legal instruments in May and August that declared "null" the oil contracts, foreign investments and the emission of new indebtedness on the part of the country, trying with it to prevent fresh money from entering the State coffers.

During 2016 and 2017, Venezuelan accounts in the United States were closed by large private banks, such as Citibank and JP Morgan, because Executive Order 13692 empowered the Treasury Department to use surveillance mechanisms for Venezuela's financial transactions in the United States.

With the excuse of protecting its financial system from "corrupt officials," the aim was to isolate Venezuela from the U.S. financial system and obstruct both its imports and the payment of foreign debt. Commerzbank, Germany's second-largest bank, joined in.

In July 2016, the country risk index EMBI, created by JP Morgan Bank, placed Venezuela with the worst score in the world (2640 points) below countries at war like Ukraine, even though the Venezuelan state paid 6 billion dollars in foreign debt that same year. In September, PDVSA made an offer to swap US$7.1 billion in bonds in order to ease its payments, and the three major U.S. risk-rating agencies sought to frighten investors by declaring default if they agreed to Venezuela state-owned oil company's proposal.

In November, JP Morgan issued a false default alert on an alleged PDVSA debt default of 404 million dollars to generate fear in the financial world and damage the image of the state-owned company. The US oil company ConocoPhillips also sued PDVSA before a Delaware court for its bond swap operation in order to frighten the participants and thus make the operation fail.

In this aggressive environment against the Venezuelan economy, inflation through the DólarToday effect closed at approximately 800%, according to figures leaked to some international agencies.

2017: EMBARGO, VIOLENCE FAILS AND FURTHER DESTABILISATION
In April 2017, the illegally elected president of the National Assembly, Julio Borges, demanded that more than 20 international banks cease their economic and financial ties with Venezuela. In May, he declared the purchase of US$865 million in PDVSA bonds by the U.S. bank Goldman Sachs, "null”.

In his eagerness to coordinate financial and economic sanctions against Venezuela, and using the National Assembly as an instrument to legitimize the financial blockade, Borges met with the then White House national security advisor General H.R. McMaster. In this way the financial blockade prevented the country from importing food and medicines necessary for its survival.

Supported by the United States and the OAS, Venezuelan anti-Chavismoundertook a new escalation of chaos and violence more intense and dangerous than that of 2014, which caused millions of dollars in losses to the country and left a lamentable toll of 130 dead and thousands injured. Likewise, the United States sanctioned more than 20 Venezuelan officials, representatives of all public powers and responsible for maintaining internal order, as a measure to feed the chaos of the violent street protests (guarimbas).

As an extreme measure, President Nicolás Maduro called in May for the election of a National Constituent Assembly (ANC), whose election took place in July amid intense violence. More than 8 million Venezuelans participated in the election and with it a traumatic scenario of violence was brought to an end. The country regained political and social stability in the face of a cycle of aggressions aimed at removing President Nicolás Maduro and destroying the current constitutional framework.

2017 AFTER THE NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ELECTION: INTERFERING VIRULENCE
Between August and November were the most dynamic days of the aggression against Venezuela that year. When the guarimbasfailed, Europe entered the destabilizing game; in August the Swiss bank Credit Suisse prohibited its clients from making financial transactions with Venezuela, as Julio Borges had requested in April.

In an executive order, Trump prohibited the purchase of Venezuelan debt and the repatriation of dividends from CITGO, PDVSA's U.S. subsidiary, thus closing two key financing channels for a Venezuela devastated by the guarimbas.

The U.S. then began executing an undeclared oil embargo. U.S. private banks, pressured by the Treasury Department, refused to issue letters of credit for the purchase of Venezuelan crude oil, thus negatively affecting the nation's revenues.

PBF Energy, one of the largest refineries in Venezuela, had to give up its economic ties to the country as a result of the sanctions.

In September, the Treasury Department, through its Financial Crimes Control Network (FINCEN), issued an alert called "red flags" that imposes a surveillance and control system on Venezuela's financial transactions to prevent the payment of food and medicines while, as a result of Trump's sanctions issued in August, CITGO began to have difficulties acquiring crude oil for its refineries and keeping its operations stable.

In this context, some 300,000 doses of insulin paid for by the Venezuelan government did not reach the country because Citibank boycotted its purchase. At the same time, the disembarkation of 18 million CLAP food boxes into Venezuela was interrupted by the obstacles imposed by the U.S. financial system, given that its authorities closed 52 Venezuelan bank accounts in entities such as Wells Fargo, East and City, because of their owners supposed links to the Venezuelan government.

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As Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, was in charge of pursuing Venezuela's transactions through technical measures (Foto: The Nation)

While this was happening, regional elections were held with more than 11 million votes in the entire process. Chavismo won 19 out of 23 governorships in elections called by the ANC, in which anti-Chavismopolitical parties such as Acción Democrática and Voluntad Popular participated.

In spite of this, even though in the last three years Venezuela never stopped honouring its international commitments, in November the European company Euroclear, founded by JP Morgan, decided to withhold 1,650 million dollars that were destined to the purchase of food and medicine.

The Americas Committee of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) declared Venezuela in default, ignoring the payment of 70 billion dollars in debt in the previous two years. While JP Morgan again increased Venezuela's country-risk to 2,989 points, the worst figure since 2014, when it stood at 1,458 points.

Risk-rating agency Standard and Poor's declared Venezuela in "selective default" because it was unable to honour debt commitments because the sanctions limited the country's financial transactions in the U.S. payment system. With these manoeuvres they tried to open the door to the confiscation of PDVSA's assets.

That same November the U.S. bond manager Wilmington Trust accused Corpoelec (Venezuela’s national electricity company) of not cancelling debt interest in the order of 27 million dollars, just when the country was experiencing a total blockade of means of payment in the U.S. financial system.

So much so that a shipment of Primaquina, a medicine used to treat malaria, did not enter the country because of the blockade of a Colombian laboratory called BSN Medical, and 23 operations in the international financial system were returned: a total of 39 million dollars for food, basic supplies and medicines.

In December, 19 other Venezuelan bank accounts abroad were arbitrarily closed by U.S. banks, preventing payments to creditors, while Venezuela's right-wing opposition decided not to participate in the municipal elections after its defeat in the October regional elections. Chavismo again won by landslide gaining more than 95% of all mayors.

2018-2019: A COLOSSAL AND MULTIFACETIC ATTACK
In January 2018, the current CIA chief and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a conference at the American Business Institute that the financial sanctions against Venezuela had been coordinated by him directly with President Trump.

At the same time, eleven Venezuelan and PDVSA bonds, worth 1.241 billion dollars, could not be paid to their creditors because of the obstacle of the sanctions. The National Assembly (still in contempt) passed a motion in which it criminalized the Venezuelan cryptocurrency the Petro, confirming its desire to keep the country without sources of financing.

In March, the Trump Administration, by executive order, declared illegal the purchase or other operations related to the Petroby U.S. companies and citizens. With this manoeuvre it legalized the agreement of the National Assembly affecting the initial pre-sale and the resources that would enter the country in a context where another 2,500 million of dollars belonging to Venezuela were retained in U.S. banks. Much of this money was to be used to pay international creditors.

In that month, fifteen Venezuelan boxers were unable to travel to the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) qualifying event in Mexico due to the financial sanctions that prevented the processing of payments for logistics. Once this stumbling block was overcome, the next drama was that Colombia blocked its air space for these boxers to make the trip.

The Colombian government blocked 400,000 kilos of food in CLAP boxes that would enter the country to strengthen this food program with which more than 6 million families are fed throughout the country.

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Former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced at a conference the theft of 400 tons of food in CLAP boxes (Foto: Casa de Nariño)

In April, the United States and Colombia created a financial intelligence group to block the import of food and medicines, internationalizing financial suffocation. And in May, the U.S. oil company ConocoPhillips executed a series of embargoes against PDVSA's assets for claims of a 2.4 billion dollar arbitration award demanded of the International Chamber of Commerce.

This manoeuvre not only affected its existing capacity in the international arena, but also limited the country's income from the sale of crude oil, thus intensifying the damage to the heart of the national economy and seeking to further dissolve the social fabric that sustains part of the stability.

This was joined by the Canadian-owned mining company Rusoro, which filed a lawsuit seeking to join the assets of CITGO and some of PDVSA’s as payment for an arbitration prize of 1,200 million dollars. The Canadian contractor SNC-Lavalin also sued PDVSA for more than 25 million dollars for alleged non-payment of debt, before a New York court.

Thus, the United States reinforced its policy of financial suffocation and sequestration of Venezuelan resources by limiting both the sale of Venezuelan oil assets on U.S. soil and the settlement of accounts receivable, in retaliation for the presidential triumph of Chavismo on May 20.

In turn, the countries of the Lima Group agreed, following Trump's policy, to use the financial intelligence of their respective states to chased after Venezuela's transactions, accounts and financial operations. The result of all this was a sharp drop in imports, which went from 60 billion dollars a year between 2011 and 2013 to a total of 12 billion in 2017.

One of the culminating points of this phase of aggression, without a doubt, is the embargo of PDVSA's company on U.S. territory, CITGO, announced by the director of the National Security Council, John Bolton, consistent with the imposition of an oil embargo against the country.

This seeks to further damage the ability to obtain financing for Venezuela and, therefore, pay for imports, given that the effects of this virtual embargo are, according to The New York Times, immediately "atrocious", considering that in the first week of its imposition Venezuelan oil sales to the United States declined by 40%.

Thus, the scenario of a "humanitarian crisis" that has been configured serves the interventionist pretensions that underpin Juan Guaidó's "interimship" in the framework of a definitive strategy to assault our resources and our national dignity.

DISLOCATING THE COUNTRY IS THE FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVE
Historical data show that the financial blockade has set the stage for the intervention and international recognition of a parallel government (Libya case), create economic incentives for mercenary movements stimulated by the CIA (Yugoslavia case), weaken the armed force of a government not aligned with Washington and strengthen the firepower of paramilitary groups (Syria case), fracture the political-military high command using the precariousness of the population as a means of political pressure (Cuba case) or the affectation of the oil industry and internal conditions to impede energy development as a political weapon (Iran case).

The financial blockade against Venezuela pursues the massive destruction of the national economy, the dismantling of the social achievements of the Chávez era and the affectation of the poorest population that since 1998 has proved to be the most solid political basis of Chavismoand, above all, the undermining of national confidence that the country's internal potential (its population and strategic resources) can provide the necessary resources to regain stability.

In short: to deny altogether the right of a nation to self determine its own solutions in the face of difficulties, and to decide its own future beyond the decisions taken in a few offices far away from the country.

Translated by Francisco Domínguez.

http://misionverdad.com/MV-IN-ENGLISH/f ... -venezuela
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Fri Apr 26, 2019 5:13 pm

What the US has Not Achieved in Venezuela – Military Option on the Way?

What the US has not achieved through attacking the economy, psychological or diplomatic attacks, it now seeks to achieve with military action: Pérez Pirela

The philosopher, communicator and political analyst, Miguel Ángel Pérez Pirela, analyzed during the broadcast of his show “DesdeDondeSea”, which is broadcast every Thursday through social networks, the latest events occurring both in the country and in the world.

He referred to the strategies, of a military nature, implemented by the US regime against the country and the Venezuelan people, in the face of constant failures in recent years.

“What it has not achieved with the policy of financial attack, psychological, diplomatic, now it wants to achieve through military actions,” he said.

He emphasized the meeting of the military high command with the Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, which took place between the 22nd and 24th of last April and analyzed the possibility of creating a parallel State that allows the overthrow of the Bolivarian Revolution.

He indicated that from the northern nation and with the support of satellite nations, it intends to use as an excuse an alleged fight against drugs and terrorism to achieve invasion of Venezuela, as was done in Libya, Syria and Iraq.

In this sense, he stressed that when the strategy of the deputy Juan Guaidó proclaiming himself president of Venezuela failed, the imperial regime is considering the military option to achieve its objective.

He also referred to the response of Gustavo Tarre Briceño to an American journalist, with whom I confirmed that, as reported by LaIguana.TV at the time, he was at the meeting that took place recently in the United States and in which he planned a military aggression against the nation.

On the other hand, Pérez Pirela, spoke about the movements that have taken place in the internal politics of the United States and that, in his opinion, help to understand what may happen in Venezuela.

“They do not have candles in this funeral, any kind of singing voice,” he said, referring to leaders of the Venezuelan right like Manuel Rosales, Henry Ramos Allup,, among others.

He also analyzed what is happening in Colombia, a country whose government is concerned about the situation in Venezuela despite facing a national strike due to the mismanagement of President Iván Duque and the violence that has been unleashed against social leaders.

Source URL: La Iguana
Translated by: EF/JRE

http://orinocotribune.com/what-the-us-has-not-achieved

US quislings will happy take the dough & sell their nation for pennies on the dollar But they ain't gonna risk a guaranteed quagmire in Venezuela which would end their rule.
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Mon Apr 29, 2019 1:49 pm

Report: US Sanctions Have Cost 40,000 Venezuelan Lives
Economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs conclude that US sanctions “would fit the definition of collective punishment.”

Image
Solidarity movements around the world have denounced and mobilized against US sanctions (@ChuckModi1/Twitter)
By Ricardo Vaz

Apr 26th 2019 at 12.08am

Caracas, April 25, 2019 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Washington DC-based Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) published a report Thursday on the effects of US sanctions against Venezuela.

The 27-page paper was authored by economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs, who determined that sanctions have “inflicted very serious harm to human life” in Venezuela.

“The sanctions are depriving Venezuelans of lifesaving medicines, medical equipment, food, and other essential imports,” Weisbrot, Co-Director of CEPR, said in a press release. For his part, Sachs added, “American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and thereby lead to regime change.”

Weisbrot and Sachs pointed out in the report that sanctions “would fit the definition of collective punishment of the civilian population as described in both the Geneva and Hague international conventions, to which the US is a signatory.”

While the legal groundwork for sanctions was laid by President Obama’s 2015 executive order declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security, Washington significantly escalated its unilateral coercive measures in August 2017 when the Venezuelan government and state oil company PDVSA were cut off from financial markets.

The authors contend that the impact of the sanctions went well beyond US financial markets as other international financial actors“had good reason to fear that there would be further sanctions affecting them,” something which would indeed happen later.

The August 2017 sanctions severely affected the country’s oil production, with an estimated US $6 billion in lost oil revenue over the ensuing 12 months. Weisbrot and Sachs argue that the loss in foreign exchange, needed for vital imports of food, medicine and productive inputs, caused by US sanctions, were the “main shock” that pushed Venezuela into hyperinflation in late 2017. They also contend that sanctions have also stunted any possibilities of tackling hyperinflation and Venezuela’s severe economic crisis.

Sanctions were significantly escalated in January, following Juan Guaido’s self-proclamation as “interim president” with strong US backing. The Treasury Department imposed a de facto oil embargo which brought oil exports to the United States from an average of 586,000 thousand barrels per day (bpd) to zero in March. If current production levels were to be maintained in lieu of further plummeting, this drop would amount to another $6.8 billion in lost export revenue.

The CEPR paper highlights that the latest measures further accelerated the decline in oil production, which was compounded by the March electricity crisis. Venezuela’s electric grid has also been severely affected by sanctions, with authorities unable to service equipment, while the oil embargo also led to shortages of fuel necessary to activate backup thermoelectric plants.

Weisbrot and Sachs explain that sanctions, beyond the immediate effect of lowering foreign exchange earnings and the billions worth of assets that have been frozen, have the additional effect of making financial transactions for food and medical imports much more difficult. The risk of violating US sanctions has seen a growing number of banks refuse to work as intermediaries in financial transactions involving the Venezuelan government or state companies.

Based on a number of different studies, the report estimates that sanctions were responsible for 40,000 deaths in 2017-2018, and that there are a further 300,000 people at risk due to lack of access to medicines. This includes “80,000 HIV patients who have not had antiretroviral treatment since 2017, 16,000 people who need dialysis, 16,000 people with cancer, and 4 million with diabetes and hypertension.”

The report likewise argues that sanctions have contributed to a deterioration of Venezuelans’ caloric intake and to malnutrition, with food imports down to $2.46 billion in 2018, from $11.2 billion in 2013. The authors warn that the decline in oil production caused by sanctions could shrink this number even further in 2019.

Weisbrot and Sachs stress that sanctions are illegal under the Organization of American States’ Charter, while pointing out that US officials have explicitly said that their goal is the overthrow of the Maduro government.

“The sanctions also violate US law,” they go on to say, since the executive orders are based on the premise that the US faces a “state of emergency” as a result of the “unusual and extraordinary threat” posed by Venezuela. “This also has no basis in fact,” they add.

[“T]he death toll going forward this year, if the sanctions remain in place, is almost certainly going to be vastly higher than anything we have seen previously,” the report concludes.

Edited by Lucas Koerner from Caracas.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14446
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:27 pm

They report deactivation of coup attempt promoted by opposition in Venezuela

Image
In the social network, the official urged the Venezuelan people "to stay on high alert". | Photo: Alba City
Published April 30 2019 (2 hours 6 minutes ago)

The Venezuelan Vice President of Communication, Jorge Rodríguez, denounced the coup actions of a small group of soldiers and urged the people to preserve peace.

The Vice President of Communication of Venezuela , Jorge Rodriguez, reported on Tuesday that has proceeded to deactivate a small group of soldiers trying to promote a coup in the country.

Through his Twitter account, the official alerted of the activities of this rebellious group.

"We inform the people of Venezuela that we are currently facing and deactivating a small group of traitor military personnel who positioned themselves in the Altamira Distributor to promote a coup d'état against the Constitution and the peace of the Republic," Rodríguez said.

In the social network, the official urged the Venezuelan people "to stay on high alert to, together with the glorious Bolivarian National Armed Forces, defeat the attempted coup and preserve peace."

In turn, the country's defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, rejected the coup movement and ratified his support for the constitutional government presided over by Nicolás Maduro.


The pseudo political leaders who have placed themselves at the forefront of this subversive movement have used troops and police with weapons of war on a public highway in the city to create anxiety and terror," the official said on the same social network.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/desactiv ... -0008.html

Google Translator

****************************************

Back to the US: IMF Directive does not recognize Juan Guaidó

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Within three months of having self-proclaimed "president in charge" of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, he has not been able to achieve the objectives sought by the United States. | Photo: UPSI
Published April 14, 2019

Despite US persuasion, through Steven Mnuchin talks with senior IMF officials, there was no majority to recognize Juan Guaidó.

The director of the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ), Christine Lagarde , said on Saturday that within the executive committee of the financial organization there is no majority to recognize the Venezuelan deputy Juan Guaidó as "president in charge" of Venezuela , charge with which he proclaimed himself in January of this year.

"We can only let ourselves be guided by the members, it is not a matter of our decision, it must be a vast majority of our members that diplomatically recognizes the authorities that they regard as legitimate and, as soon as that happens, we will act," he said. Lagarde at a press conference after the Spring Meeting held on Saturday by the senior management of the IMF and the World Bank regarding the legitimacy of Guaidó .


What are Spring Meetings?

These are meetings between senior IMF and World Bank leaders , which meet once a year with central bank authorities, finance and development ministers, private sector executives and members of academic circles, to "debate issues that generate concern throughout the world, "says the IMF page. This 2019, the Spring Meetings were held between April 8 and 14.

This represents a new setback for the interventionist intentions of the United States ( USA ) against the people of Venezuela , since the US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin , had personally communicated with the IMF's high command to urge them to recognize the Venezuelan deputy , according to him said that Saturday.

The IMF - based in Washington, the US capital - is one of the instruments used by the Donald Trump administration to attack the Venezuelan economy with the aim of destabilizing its society and affecting its people. This was ratified on Thursday 11, when the agency suspended the access of the Government of Venezuela to 400 million dollars of special drawing rights (SDR).

A day before, on Wednesday, April 10, the ambassador of Venezuela to the United Nations ( UN ), Samuel Moncada , denounced that the It intends to indebt the South American country before the IMF .

"They have already announced a plan to indebt Venezuela for more than 70 billion dollars, they have already announced it with the International Monetary Fund," Moncada warned .

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/venezuel ... -0009.html

Google Translator

The jig is up, the party's over, little Juan can scoot back to commiserate with his gusano friends in Miami or he can look forward to serious time in the hoosegow. Looks as though the Bolivarians are being careful not to make a martyr of him while negating him. In a way this reminds me of the recent situation in Nicaragua which was handled expertly in retrospect. Gotta not jump to conclusions on the tactics of our southern comrades, they know the situation on the ground better than we ever will.
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:32 pm

Venezuela: Military Uprising in Caracas (in Development)
A military uprising is unfolding in Venezuela after a handful of the police and armed forces freed Leopoldo Lopez and blocked a highway in Caracas.

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Self-proclaimed "Interim President" Juan Guaido speaking to press during an attempted coup on April 30. (Reuters)
By Venezuelanalysis.com
Apr 30th 2019 at 7.54am

Caracas, April 30, 2019 (venezuelanalysis.com) - A military coup attempt is underway in Venezuela on Tuesday, April 30, with imprisoned right wing leader Leopoldo Lopez, and self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaido and some members of the armed forces blocking a highway in Caracas and calling on the military to rise up

According to reports, a group from Venezuela's Sebin intelligence service freed Leopoldo Lopez from house arrest early Tuesday morning. Lopez then joined Guaido and a handful of members from different branches of the armed forces in the Altamira highway in eastern Caracas close to La Carlota airbase. Lopez and Guaido published videos on social media calling on other elements of the armed forces to join the uprising and on their supporters to take to the streets. Guaido vowed that this was the "final phase" in ousting the Maduro government.

The Venezuelan government promptly reacted, condemning the coup attempt and vowing that it would be defeated.

"We inform the Venezuelan people that right now we are facing and deactivating a small group of traitor soldiers who have positioned themselves on the Altamira overpass to attempt a coup against the state and the constitution," Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez tweeted.

The President of the National Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, spoke on state television, vowing that the uprising would be defeated and that those responsible would have to "assume their responsibilities." He also called on the people and the Bolivarian militia to go out on the streets and defend Miraflores Palace.

For his part, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López reported that military units throughout the country reported total normalcy, and that the military remain loyal to President Maduro.

At the time of writing, Guaido’s followers are taking to the streets both in Caracas and other parts of the country, blocking roads in support of his new call for a coup. Minor confrontations with tear gas have been reported outside La Carlota air base in Caracas.

Guaido had previously called for the “largest march in Venezuela’s history” scheduled for Wednesday May 1, while a Chavista march celebrating workers’ day was also expected to take place.

(We will be updating this space with more developments.)

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14451
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Wed May 01, 2019 12:55 pm

Venezuelan Military Putsch Defeated as Leopoldo Lopez Takes Refuge in Spanish Embassy
Opposition protesters clashed with security forces while government supporters swiftly mobilized to defend the presidential palace.

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The military coup attempt led by Juan Guaido and Leopoldo Lopez was unsuccessful. (@leopoldolopez)

By Ricardo Vaz
Apr 30th 2019 at 11.37pm

Caracas, April 30, 2019 (venezuelanalysis.com) – “Interim President” Juan Guaido and right-wing opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez spearheaded an unsuccessful coup attempt in Caracas on Tuesday.

The thwarted uprising started in the early morning hours when renegade military and intelligence officers reportedly released Lopez from house arrest. Lopez then joined Guaido and a handful of soldiers on the Altamira overpass in east Caracas, outside the Francisco de Miranda airbase, known as La Carlota.

Lopez and Guaido released videos on social media, calling on the armed forces to back their efforts and urging supporters to take to the streets, in what they termed as the “final phase” of the so-called “Operation Freedom.” Large crowds of anti-government protesters, as well as opposition lawmakers, made their way to the Altamira overpass.

The scene then saw armed confrontations between the soldiers that backed Juan Guaido and those inside La Carlota airbase. According to witnesses in La Carlota, the Venezuelan armed forces fired tear gas towards the Altamira overpass, where civilian protesters began to gather, whereas Guaido’s soldiers returned live fire. Riot police also appeared on the scene to try and disperse the crowds. There are reports of protesters wounded and arrested that are unconfirmed at the time of writing.

At the same time, many of the originally deployed soldiers withdrew from the scene, later revealing that they had been “deceived” by their superiors. Simultaneously, Chavista leaders took to state and social media to denounce what they termed a coup in progress, and large crowds gathered to defend Miraflores Presidential Palace.

Guaido later attempted to lead a march, including some armed soldiers, into western Caracas but was stopped by Venezuelan National Guard forces in Chacaito, some 10 kilometers away from Miraflores.

Leopoldo Lopez was later reported to have joined his family in the Chilean Embassy. However, the Chilean ambassador subsequently explained on Twitter that Lopez and his family had instead moved to the Spanish Embassy, in what he termed a “personal choice.” Lopez was serving a 13 year sentence for his role in the deadly 2014 anti-government protests, which was later commuted to house arrest.

Brazilian authorities also confirmed at the time that 25 soldiers who had taken part in the failed insurrection had taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Caracas.

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Opposition protesters burned a public bus in Altamira, east Caracas. (Katrina Kozarek)

For his part, Guaido was absent for several hours before releasing a video on social media in the evening, calling on his supporters to take to the streets on Wednesday to continue the “final phase” of “Operation Freedom.”

The opposition leader went on claim President Maduro “does not have the support of the armed forces,” and vowed that his efforts to oust the Venezuelan government continue “as strong as ever.”

The day saw several localised outbreaks of violence in Caracas and several other cities, with protesters setting up burning barricades and authorities responding with rubber bullets and tear gas. Violent protests were particularly focused in traditional opposition strongholds of eastern Caracas, including outside La Carlota airbase. At the time of writing there are still reports of blocked roads and detonations.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro addressed the country in a televised speech on Tuesday evening, accusing those responsible for the military uprising of trying to provoke a “massacre” and lauding the armed forces for their restraint in avoiding direct confrontations.

“Who benefits from these [confrontations]? Who finances them? Undoubtedly the leadership of the terrorist ultra-right party Popular Will,” Maduro declared, referring to the party of Lopez and Guaido.

He added that today’s actions would not go “unpunished,” explaining that eight military officers and policemen were wounded in the armed confrontations, before going on to blast US leaders for their role in endorsing the coup attempt. Maduro also showed his appreciation for the tens of thousands who mobilized to defend the presidential palace beginning in the early hours of Tuesday.

The Venezuelan president, who was accompanied by high-ranking political and military leaders, ended his speech by calling for a “massive mobilization” on May 1st to celebrate workers’ day and “defend peace.”

Image
Crowds gathered outside Miraflores Palace on Tuesday morning. (@OrlenysOV)

US officials also weighed in during the day, with National Security Advisor John Bolton warning Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino and Supreme Court President Maikel Moreno that this was their “last chance” to support Guaido. President Donald Trump likewise tweeted that the US “stands with the People of Venezuela and their Freedom!”

The coup attempt was also condemned by world leaders, with Bolivian President Evo Morales “vigorously condemning” the putschand Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel rejecting “an attempt to fill the country with violence.”

The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini issued a statement in the afternoon, rejecting “any form of violence” and urging “restraint,” in contrast with European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, who tweeted his support for the unfolding coup. For his part, UN Secretary General also called for “maximum restraint” and for “immediate steps” to be taken to restore calm.

Edited by Lucas Koerner from Caracas.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14453
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Fri May 03, 2019 3:07 pm

enezuela: It’s Only a Coup if the US Government Says So
Media side with Trump cronies rather than common sense in labeling coup a 'protest.'

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Coup supporter in front of a burning bus. (Fernando Llano/AP)

By Alan Macleod – FAIR
May 3rd 2019 at 9.49am

It’s Groundhog Day again in Venezuela, as the local conservative opposition has launched another attempt to oust President Nicolás Maduro from power. Surrounded by a few hardcore supporters, Washington-backed self-appointed president Juan Guaidó on April 30 called on the military to rise up and overthrow the democratically elected Maduro. Guaidó, a man who has never even stood for president, attempted the same thing in January, and the opposition has attempted to remove Maduro, and his predecessor Hugo Chávez, on many occasions, including in 2017, 2014, 2013, 2002 and 2001.

Despite bearing the clear hallmarks of a coup—defined as “the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group”—US media have overwhelmingly supported it, as they have past attempts (FAIR.org, 1/25/19, 5/16/18, 4/18/02). CNN (4/30/19) told the United States that it must “root for the people” of Venezuela, before explicitly stating, “Rooting for the Venezuelan people means hoping that Maduro will step down”—thus underlining the phenomenon noted by FAIR (1/31/19) that to corporate media, “the people” of Venezuela are whoever agrees with the US government. CNN (4/30/19) also used images of Guaidó’s paramilitaries (identifiable by their blue armbands) to illustrate a report claiming the forces of “socialist dictator” Maduro were “mowing down citizens in the streets.”

Not a Coup, but a…
Framing how readers see an issue is an incredibly powerful tool of persuasion. It’s not carpet bombing, it’s surgical strikes. And people are more likely to accept advanced interrogation techniques than they are torture.

In their efforts to refrain from using the negative—but accurate—term “coup” to describe events they support, the media have sometimes had to go to bizarre, roundabout and garbled lengths to dance around it. The Washington Post (4/30/19) used the clunky phrase “opposition-led military-backed challenge.” The Post (4/30/19) also published an article in support of Guaidó headlined “Is What’s Happening in Venezuela an Attempted Coup? First, Define ‘Coup,” arguing that there were such things as “noble” and “democratic coups.”

Other outlets also refused to use the most logical word to describe events. CBS (4/30/19), Reuters (5/1/19) and CNN (5/1/19) chose the word “uprising,” NPR (4/30/19) and the New York Times (4/30/19) “protest,” and Yahoo! News went with the phrase “high-risk gamble” (5/1/19). Meanwhile, the Miami Herald (4/30/19) insisted that the “military rebellion” in Venezuela “can be called many things. But don’t call it a ‘coup attempt.’”

Even international organizations like the BBC (5/1/19), the Guardian (5/1/19) and Al-Jazeera (5/1/19) only used the word “coup” in quotations, characterizing it as an accusation attributed to government officials media have been demonizing for years (Extra!, 11–12/05; FAIR.org, 5/28/18, 4/11/19). This despite the fact that Al-Jazeera (4/30/19) reported on the day of the coup that Erik Prince, CEO of the private military contractor Blackwater, tried to persuade Donald Trump to let him send 5,000 mercenaries to Venezuela to “remove” Maduro.

Stenographers for Power

The reasons for the reluctance of the media to use the word “coup” can be found in official announcements from the government. With all the credibility of an armed man in a mask repeatedly shouting “this is not technically a bank robbery,” national security advisor John Bolton told reporterson April 30, “This is clearly not a coup,” but an effort by ”the Venezuelan people” to “regain their freedom,” which the US “fully supports.” Likewise, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that what we are seeing in Venezuela “is the will of the people to peacefully change the course of their country from one of despair to one of freedom and democracy.”

Soon after Bolton’s comments, Bloomberg published a series of articles (4/30/19; 4/30/19; 4/30/19), all by different writers, on why the events did not constitute a coup attempt. This, despite Bloomberg’s reporter Andrew Rosati revealing that coup leader Leopoldo Lopez told him and the rest the international media core that he wants the US to formally govern Venezuela once Maduro falls.

Pompeo made waves in April after publicly admitting at an event at Texas A&M University that he was a serial liar, cheat and thief. As CIA director, he declared, “We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses [on it]!” Nevertheless, the media credulously repeated his astonishing claims, made in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer (5/1/19), that Maduro, who has survived multiple coup attempts and assassinations, had been on the airport tarmac on his way to Cuba, “ready to leave” Venezuela for good, only for Russia to tell him to stay. This dubious, unverified and officially contested assertion made headlines around the world (Daily Beast, 4/30/19; Newsweek, 4/30/19; Times of London, 5/1/19; Deutsche Welle, 4/30/19), with few questioning its credibility.

This is not the first time the media have lined up behind the government on a Venezuelan coup. As detailed in my book, Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting, the US media also endorsed the April 2002 coup against Chavez, using euphemisms such as “popular uprising” (Miami Herald, 4/18/02), “unrest” (New York Times, 5/23/02) or “Chavez’s temporary downfall” (New York Times, 4/29/02) to frame events more positively. Only after an official White House spokesperson used the word “coup” on April 15, 2002, was the word frequently used in the media, suggesting a close synergy between government officials and those supposedly employed to hold them to account.

After barely 12 hours, the most recent coup attempt appeared to have failed under the weight of its own unpopularity. According to the New York Times (4/30/19), Guaidó failed to attract meaningful support from the military, his co-conspirator Leopoldo Lopez had sought refuge first in the Chilean then in the Spanish embassy, and 25 of his paramilitaries had done the same in the Brazilian one. Guaidó did not win over the Venezuelan majority, who had previously chased his motorcade out of a working class district when he tried to enter. Ordinary Venezuelans continued their lives, or even rushed to the defense of the government. As USA Today (5/1/19) summed up:

Guaidó called it the moment for Venezuelans to reclaim their democracy once and for all. But as the hours dragged on, he stood alone on a highway overpass with the same small cadre of soldiers with whom he launched a bold effort to spark a military uprising.

It appears that the main base of support for the coup was the US government…and the media. The press’s extraordinary complicity, lining up with the State Department’s version of the world in the face of empirical evidence, highlights the worrying closeness between media and government. When it comes to foreign policy, there is often no difference between deep state and fourth estate.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14463
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Sat May 04, 2019 11:48 am

UPDATE (May 5):

In a very unusual move U.S. Southern Command put out a press statement about the Pentagon meeting:

Yesterday the commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) was asked by Acting Secretary of Defense, Patrick M. Shanahan, to remain in Washington D.C. to provide a current assessment on the situation in Venezuela and the status on planning for military options
...
U.S. Southern Command stands with the people of Venezuela who are suffering at the hand of the illegitimate Maduro regime and remains prepared to support all options, when requested by senior leadership.
That U.S. Southcom was told to release this, lets me believe that it is part of scare tactic, not of serious war planning. Then again - the last sentence is somewhat confusing. Which "senior leadership" is meant here. The U.S. one or the wannabe leaders Guaidó/López? As Guaidó is recognized as 'interim President' by the U.S. could he ask the U.S. military to help him to 'restore democracy', i.e. request an invasion? Would that be a way for Trump to avoid a Congress vote?

Politico seems to confirm that the current talk of military planning is a head fake:

Two U.S. officials told POLITICO these actions are designed more to rattle Maduro — and Venezuelan military leaders who have been a key source of support for him — than to foreshadow an American military effort in Venezuela.
One can not "rattle Maduro" by tough talk. He hails from a tough neighborhood and has a working class and trade union background. Even the threat of an aircraft carrier offshore of Caracas, as the insane Senator Lindsay Graham demands, would not rattle him.

But even if the current tough talk and military planning is just for show, what happens when the White House recognizes that it does not have any effect? What will be the the next step after that?

End Update
---

Venezuela is not an easy target. Colonel (ret.) Larry Wilkerson, the former Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, writes:

I know the Venezuelan military; I’ve trained some of them.
...
The majority of them, if the U.S. military arrives in Venezuela, will take to the hills – very formidable hills, with jungle-like backdrops – and they will harass, kill, take prisoner from time to time, and generally hold out forever or until the “gringos” leave. We might remember how the North Vietnamese and the Taliban accomplished this; well, so will the Venezuelans.
The opposition is warry of a U.S. intervention:

Many believe U.S. troops could ignite internal conflicts within the military, irregular forces linked to Maduro and criminal cartels. Intervention would also undermine Guaidó’s claim to be a grass roots Venezuelan leader by seeming to confirm that he’s exactly what Maduro has claimed: A puppet of the United States.
A U.S. military intervention would “bring more problems than solutions,” said Carlos Valero, a Guaidó supporter in the National Assembly.
...
Political analyst Felix Seijas, director of the Delphos polling agency in Caracas, says fewer than a fifth of the Venezuelans he has surveyed this year support a military intervention. The numbers have gone up only slightly since the beginning of the year.

There were more warnings from Russia during a Trump-Putin phone call today:

While exchanging views on the situation around Venezuela, the President of Russia underscored that only the Venezuelans themselves have the right to determine the future of their country, whereas outside interference in the country’s internal affairs and attempts to change the government in Caracas by force undermine prospects for a political settlement of the crisis.
The planning and decision making for the next phase of the U.S. attack on Venezuela will take time.

Meanwhile we can continue to analyze why the U.S. coup plan failed so devastatingly.


To arrange for the coup attempt the administration and its Venezuelan proxies, Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López, talked with many senior Venezuelan officials and officers. They made offers and threats and tried to arrange deals. There was even a written 15 point paper. Most the officials and officers seem to have agreed to cooperate, only to turn around to inform their higher ups.
By talking to so many people the coup plotters made way too much noise. The Venezuelan government seems to have been well informed about the whole plot. It likely was convinced that a coup would fail and let it run its course to embarrass the people behind it. Allowing the coup attempt to happen would also reveal turncoats and spies within the government structures.

Of the many people the coup plotters thought they had convinced to come to their side only one man followed through. It was Manuel Christopher Figuera, the director of the national intelligence service SEBIN, who ordered the release of opposition leader Leopoldo López who was under guard of SEBIN agents.

From a new forensic piece by Bloomberg:

The Trump administration and Guaido’s team are still trying to figure out what went wrong.
...
Lopez’s clandestine release from house arrest by the feared Sebin intelligence agency was but one step in a complex transition negotiated with top aides to Maduro, not all of whom were speaking to one another, according to people in Washington and Caracas familiar with the negotiations and who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
And within hours, the deal between the opposition and the Maduro camp was dead. Lopez ultimately sought refuge in the Spanish ambassador’s residence in Caracas, emerging briefly Thursday to talk to reporters. U.S. officials expressed fury at the Venezuelans close to Maduro who they believe double-crossed them.

Those singled out by National Security Adviser John Bolton -- the defense minister, the supreme court president and the head of the presidential guard -- were central players in a large cast discussing how to abandon Maduro and recognize Guaido as the interim president, according to the people familiar with the negotiations.

Lopez was released because the Sebin intelligence chief, General Manuel Christopher Figuera, was fully on board, the people said. As part of the arrangement, Figuera’s wife flew to safety in the U.S. on Sunday. On Tuesday night, after Figuera released a letter explaining his decision, Maduro replaced him as intelligence chief. Figuera has left Venezuela, according to two opposition officials, though they said they don’t where he has gone.

It was also Figuera, the head of SEBIN, who arranged for additional soldiers to augment the 25 or so mercenaries Guaidó had at hand:

Some of Guaidó’s soldiers took the first opportunity to defect, claiming they had been tricked. One of them explained how officers had given them weapons at the Helicoide, the SEBIN headquarters, and told they were going to put down a mass jailbreak.
The Jim Dore Show has video of the soldier explaining how he and his comrades were tricked.

Figuera might also be the source for a "secret dossier" that was peddled to the New York Times. It claims without evidence that Tareck El Aissami, a former vice-president and now industry minister of Venezuela, arranged passports for the Lebanese Hizbullah and was involved in drug dealing. Tareck El Aissami is of Syrian descent:

The dossier, provided to The New York Times by a former top Venezuelan intelligence official and confirmed independently by a second one, recounts testimony from informants accusing Mr. El Aissami and his father of recruiting Hezbollah members to help expand spying and drug trafficking networks in the region.
The quality of the dossier is likely as good as the one the former MI6 agent Christopher Steele created about Donald Trump.

Back to the Bloomberg piece:

“Many of us thought, as the weeks went by, that it was astonishing Maduro hadn’t discovered it already but that may be because so many on the inside wanted it to succeed,” one person familiar with the matter said. “They believe Maduro began to get an understanding of what was happening on the 29th and they had to move on the 30th or it would all collapse.”
...
Other speculation falls on Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez who, according to one person close to the situation, was engaged in the negotiations while informing Maduro and his Russian and Cuban allies of the talks. The defense minister was with Maduro when the president gave a speech at the military academy in Caracas Thursday.
...
But it may be that many more balked. There was confusion over who would make the first move, according to a person close to the situation. It could be that there were so many participants that one hand often didn’t know what the other was doing.
...
Elliott Abrams, the State Department’s special envoy for Venezuela, told a Venezuelan television station Wednesday that “a majority of the high command were talking with the Supreme Court and Juan Guaido about a change in government with the departure of Maduro and with guarantees for the military.”
He said the negotiations had created a 15-point document that included a “dignified exit” for Maduro and recognition by the high court of Guaido as interim president with elections within a year. It had been widely assumed that Leopoldo Lopez, a former mayor of a wealthy district in Caracas, would be a leading candidate.

The whole arrangement sounds extremely amateurish. Why talk to so many people? Why not concentrate on the few that really matter? Why not get some guarantees from them? The SEBIN chief who supported the coup had no other choice left as his wife was already in the U.S. and could have been used as hostage. Why were there not similar arrangements for other officials?

Back in March the U.S. withdrew all its staff from its embassy in Caracas. That must have weakened the CIA's capabilities on the ground. It also seems that much of the coordination was done by Elliot Abrams and others in the White House. They were obviously guided by wishful thinking and not by a realistic analysis of Venezuela and of the people leading it.

To believe that a Leopoldo López could win in fair presidential elections in Venezuela is pretty absurd. He has treid to overthrow the government six times. He led the brutal protests in 2014 and is known as an ruthless rightwing operator. His party, Voluntad Popular, describes itself as progressive social-democratic but is at best hard right if not fascists. It holds only 14 of the 163 seats in the National Assembly.

López is for now out of jail but isolated:

On Thursday, a Caracas court issued a warrant for Lopez, revoking his house arrest and ordering him to spend the remaining eight years of his 13-year sentence in Ramo Verde military prison; he was convicted of charges including arson and instigating violence after spearheading anti-government protests. The Spanish foreign ministry said on its website that Lopez would “under no circumstances” be handed over to Venezuelan authorities.
López can stay in the embassy. But as long as he is there Spain will not allow him a political role:

“Spain will not permit its embassy to be converted in to a center of political activity by Mr Lopez, or anyone else,” [Spain's acting Foreign Minister Josep] Borrell said on the sidelines of a conference in Beirut.
...
“Lopez has not asked for political asylum because, according to our legislation, for that you must request it while on Spanish territory,” Borrell said adding that while he was at the embassy, there would be a limit to his political activity.
The delusion of the coup plotters in the White House can be seen in their newest spin:

The U.S. is pointing to the breadth of the failed plot as evidence that, no matter how badly it went, Maduro’s days are numbered with the country having plunged into dysfunction and the economy in a shambles. “This was just the tip of the iceberg,” said a senior administration official who asked not to be named. Many close to Maduro were in on the endgame, the official said, and their eagerness to send him packing shows how isolated he is.
The logic makes little sense: "Many people told us they would take our side but stood with Maduro. That shows us that Maduro has lost them and that we will win."

Unfortunately U.S. mainstream media deliver similar stupid analysis:

Talks between opposition leaders and senior Maduro officials that have come to light this week suggest deception in [Maduro's] inner circle. And despite Guaidó’s actions, neither prosecutors nor the pro-Maduro Supreme Court have issued an arrest warrant for him — a sign, his allies say, of just how weak Maduro is.
There was a lot of deception within Maduro's inner circle. But it was the opposition and its backers who were deceived, not Nicolas Maduro.

Putting Guaidó into jail would only make him a martyr. The U.S. would use it to for further bashing. Guaidó running continues to turn himself into a clown.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/05/v ... -coup.html

'Winning' the Cold War and the subsequent reign of terror inflicted upon the world by the USA has made these scum arrogant & stupid
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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blindpig
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Sat May 04, 2019 2:40 pm

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA CLAIM THAT GUAIDÓ HAS EVERYTHING AGAINST
May 2, 2019 , 7:20 a.m. .

A day later, the failed coup of Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López breathed defeat in the international media, which after the expectation return to the same point they left: the lack of viability of the coup plans in Venezuela.

According to the Argentine newspaper Clarín: "About 10 hours after the announcement of Juan Guaidó about the" liberation "of the opposition leader Leopoldo López, little has changed in the Venezuela of Nicolás Maduro: neither battalions full of jaded soldiers joined the popular rebellion, nor the streets filled with opponents willing to reach the Miraflores Palace to end what the head of Parliament and "president in charge" calls "the usurpation." And, much less, the Chavez regime has fallen ".

In a note signed by Pablo Biffi with the title Conflict in Venezuela: the blow that was not and the fortress of Maduro, the newspaper also affirms that no middle or top high command was in favor of the call to overthrow Maduro. "The military backing of Maduro is key, but not the only leg that allows him to stay in power." It is undeniable that even in spite of the collapse of the economy that hits both Chavistas and anti-Chavistas alike, the regime enjoys respectable support in sectors of society that live on the dream of the Bolivarian Revolution inaugurated 20 years ago ", remarks Biffi in a search to find the reasons why the coup plans do not advance in the country.

In this same tone, the financial medium Axios describes the lament of the investors allegedly involved in Venezuela. "Despite calls for support from President Trump and politicians around the world, they are beginning to lose faith in the opposition's ability to overthrow Maduro given the apparent increase in Russia's support," Axios sums up. feeling of those who bet that Maduro falls to invest according to them (a euphemism to refer to the intention of auctioning Venezuelan resources).

According to the investors, in that sense, the opposition's efforts have fallen short due to the continued support that Maduro has for Russia, China and Cuba. This is why they are stuck in pursuit of a regime change that leads to the elimination of US sanctions that allow them to # invest in the country. "

While Bloomberg, one of the media that gives exclusive coups in Venezuela, says in an editorial note that "with Maduro still in control of the streets, highways, radio waves and the Internet, the immediate future for the momentum of Guaidó is uncertain. " But that projection of failure does not stop there because the media points out that the issue is "just as problematic for the Trump government, who after sanctioning Venezuela and supporting Guaidó, expected the opposition leader to finally take power" .

In the same way, Bloomberg argues that there is "the risk that Venezuelans will find themselves as pawns in a larger geopolitical game" after high-profile opponents such as Leopoldo López sought refuge in the Spanish embassy in Caracas. So obvious that the original strategy of the White House is to put Venezuelans in the middle, again and again, to assume the task of destroying their own country in a violent way. The pressures in that sense range from sanctions to open threats of military intervention.

http://misionverdad.com/entrevistas%20/ ... -venezuela

Google Translator

If little Juan values his wretched life he will join his fascist buddy Lopez in the Spanish embassy before the US makes a false-flag martyr out of him cause the Bolivarians wisely won't. Mebbe later they can cut off his nose & sequester him in a monastery, Byzantine style.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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