Venezuela

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Sun Mar 03, 2019 5:11 pm

Venezuela. A brief history of infamy
Jean Baptiste Thomas

There are comments that would smile if the situation was not so serious. Without even mentioning Donald Trump's war-time statements, relayed on twitter, in French in the text, by Emmanuel Macron, according to some media, all acquired, or almost, to the cause of Juan Guaidó, the corruption, authoritarianism, nepotism, political violence, extreme poverty and dependence on oil would be an invention of Hugo Chávez that Nicolás Maduro would inherit. Having a short memory is one thing, but it sometimes sounds like a lot of slander in due form.
Credit. Francisco Solórzano. Photo taken during the repression of Caracazo, early March 1989

It is enough to look at the history of Venezuela in the twentieth century to understand that the realities of the Maduro regime, as well as certain mechanisms that Chavismo has cultivated are, in fact, deeply embedded in the world. identity of the country, shaped or, rather, deformed, by the US imperialism and a rentier bourgeoisie which made, during the 20th century, infamy, a mode of governance. This same infamy that Jorge Luis Borges describes, in one of his most famous collections, published in 1935, as a succession of scams, robberies, concealment and murders, made up more or less skilfully.

Black gold and the beginning of the end
The history of contemporary Venezuela, or "useful Venezuela," one could say, officially begins on July 31, 1914, near the town of Baralt, near the Gulf of Maracaibo, in the west of the country. Until then, Venezuela had never been more than a distant Captain-General of the Spanish Crown, during the time of the Empire, especially important for its strategic location, advanced point of Madrid in the Caribbean, vis-a-vis the Viceroyalty of the Brazil, controlled by the Portuguese, and against Dutch, British and French interests, attached to the sugar islands of the small and large Antilles. After independence, and since the Liberator's dreams of unity, Simón Bolívar, had stranded on the petty narrowness of the interests of the creole, white and latifundist bourgeoisies, supported by Great Britain, Venezuela separates from Greater Colombia, becoming a small, poor country. Poor, for the descendants of slaves and the little people. Rich, on the other hand, for the planters. In 1914, however, the situation changed dramatically and made the country from an absolutely peripheral zone to global capitalism as a pivotal region for the entire system.

Almost concomitantly with what is happening in the Caspian Sea, off Baku, and in San Luis Potosí, as early as 1904, then in the East Coast regions of Mexico, it is therefore in Baralt and its surroundings in the area of ​​the Gulf of Maracaibo that emerge the first derricks that will pump the Venezuelan black gold. This is the beginning of a huge economic boom that, far from making the country's fortunes, will make the fortunes of a few, especially on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico, in the tall buildings of New York where you will find the seats of companies that will grab the jackpot. The United States, until then, had been relatively quiet in Venezuela. We forget too often, indeed, that Latin America is, at least until the First World War - or even until the 1930s for the Southern Cone - the hunt for the British Crown. It is indeed the Europeans who control Venezuela until the beginning of the 20th century. They arrogated even the right, faced with a default of payment of Caracas, in 1902, to send a squadron prusso-britannico-Italian to bombard Puerto Cabello and to assert their banking interests. On their knees, the government will eventually pay and the last installment will not happen until the 1930s. to send a Prusso-British-Italian squadron to bomb Puerto Cabello and assert their banking interests. On their knees, the government will eventually pay and the last installment will not happen until the 1930s. to send a Prusso-British-Italian squadron to bomb Puerto Cabello and assert their banking interests. On their knees, the government will eventually pay and the last installment will not happen until the 1930s.

The United States, they, are dedicated to investment, especially in this new sector that looks to be juicy and the Europeans will need after the war: oil. This is the best way to move their competitors from across the Atlantic. Washington maintains excellent relations with the dictator in place, Juan Vicente Gómez. First a great landowner before becoming a general, holding more of a soldier than a brilliant strategist, he came to power with the support of the British in 1908 and stayed there, with the blessing of the Americans, until 1935 Archetype of the Latin-American dictator at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century, both brutal and liberal, the one who serves as a model for Gabriel García Márquez in The Autumn of the Patriarchis never anything but the aide-de-camp of the American Majors, those companies that will make their fortune in the black gold.

If at the origin of any accumulation, there is a theft, it is called the absence of accounting books, for Venezuela, between 1914 and 1938. Throughout the period, there is no tax record of the quantity of oil pumped, barreled and exported from the Gulf of Maracaibo to the United States or Europe. In 1922, American jurists drafted the first petroleum law in Venezuela. If the crude represents, in 1920, a little less than 2% of the country's exports, this figure rises to 91% in 1935. The dependence on oil is therefore not new. What has changed over the decades, based on the relationship between the governments in place and the big northern neighbor, is the ownership of the oil industry.

Anticommunism, Cold War and dictatorship
After the Second World War, Washington ended up securing a full hold over most of Latin America. In Venezuela, this will be done through a much more modern and directly pro-American dictatorship, in a Cold War regime, where Juan Vicente Gómez had, a few decades earlier, sometimes managed to play British interests against the United States. Americans, and vice versa. General Marcos Pérez Jiménez, meanwhile, is the Washington man. And Washington does it well.

He dominated Venezuela's political life from 1950 and, when two years later, it was the opposition that was about to win the elections, the military was named "interim president", the National Constituent Assembly on proclaiming the President in December 1952. Under the Constitution, it goes without saying. The dictatorship of Pérez Jiménez, which is inaugurated by the prohibition of the great left-wing Social Democratic Party, Democratic Action (AD), and the Communist Party of Venezuela, could be summed up in three key moments, quite paradigmatic. Caracas, the capital, is transformed from top to bottom and the oil money is used to destroy the old historic center to replace it with concrete buildings, steel and glass, pale copy of the city of New York. Special legislation is passed in such a way as to reduce to a minimum the royalties that Majors are expected to pay to the government. It is estimated that in the 1950s half of the profits earned by Standard Oil came from its Venezuelan subsidiary. This embezzlement of funds in due form gives an idea of ​​the largesse of the dictatorship with respect to its petroleum tutors. Finally, they make it good since Pérez Jiménez is given the"Legion of Merit" , in 1954, one of the highest decorations in the United States, generally rewarding, almost exclusively, a North American serviceman for services rendered to the homeland. This is how Washington had to see Pérez Jiménez.

Fraudulent alternation, false democracy and real corruption
A fraction of the army, however, as well as a portion of the bourgeoisie, do not agree to be kept on the margins of the lucrative contracts that Pérez Jiménez and his relatives spend, and kept on the sidelines from a political point of view. Many, moreover, who believe that such a dictatorship, politically and economically excluante, is a real threat to the established order because generating unsustainable contradictions in the long term. The overthrow of Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban dictator friend of the United States, by the BarbudosCuban, early 1959, will show how right they were. It was therefore in 1958 that, in favor of a military coup, the parties of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie, the Democratic Republican Union, the Christian Democrats of COPEI and the Social Democrats of AD agreed to put in place a new system of electoral alternation with very democratic appearances, but excluding, in fact, the PC. Similarly, this regime, resulting from the "Pact of Punto Fijo", should allow to renegotiate the conditions of subordination vis-à-vis the United States, without ever, to question the latter. The money from the oil rent is supposed, in the last instance, to oil all these mechanisms, each party reinforcing its trade union power over the workers in the energy sector. We change everything so that nothing changes. It is,"Pacto de Punto Fijo" , bold enough to generate, sometimes, conflicts and friction with Washington without ever, however, that Venezuela is emerging from Western orbit.

The system is, in reality, extremely corrupt, perfectly clientelist and practices fluency and nepotism. With its democratic screen, however, it only holds as long as crude prices hold. And they will hold for nearly three decades. From an economic point of view, the oil question is central to attempts to reform the development model. We go as far as to nationalize, partially, the sector, with the creation of PDVSA, in 1976. Nevertheless, the extreme dependence on the prices of the crude, whether they are in good condition or at the lowest, causes, mechanically and cyclical, phases of hyperinflation. The first, moreover, goes back precisely to the oil boom of 1974-1978. Over the decades, however, the country is caught up by the mechanisms of dependence, aggravated by a heavy burden of external debt. If Venezuela does not apply, like the rest of the Latin American countries, the neoliberal recipes advocated by the IMF in the first half of the 1980s, the contradictions accumulated are no less great. They will explode in broad daylight in 1989.

Caracazo. The big collapse
In a context marked by strong political uncertainties, Carlos Andrés Pérez was largely re-elected in 1988. Man of left, the leader of AD had been, between 1974 and 1979, the "president of the Venezuelan miracle" . He came to power in 1988 with his anti-IMF rhetoric, promising a "big turn," and Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega were invited to the inauguration ceremony. The turnaround, just weeks after his election, is even more dizzying. Under the pretext of getting a loan of $ 4.5 billion, the new government says it is forced to apply, zealously, the shock therapy of the Monetary Fund. Carlos Andrés Pérez has confidence in his ability to persuade and channel, in the name of his "glorious presidency"of the 1970s, the popular grumbling that could be expressed.

It is nonetheless more than the grumbling, which breaks out, and Carlos Andrés Pérez will have to do with his beautiful speeches. The detonator is the increase in the price of gasoline, a paradox in a country that is one of the main producers. In the province of Miranda, in Guarenas, clashes erupted on January 26, 1989 in minibus depots between employees, going to work and not wanting to pay the rise, and drivers. On the 27th, the wind of anger spreads to Caricuao, La Guaira, Maracay, Valencia, Merida, Maracaibo and, of course, Caracas. On the 28th, in the face of what is increasingly resembling a mass popular uprising, the "leftist" government proclaimed a state of emergency and reinstated the "Plan Ávila", the anti-insurgency program that had was used against rural guerrillas in the 1960s.

The IMF program applied in a bloodbath
The result is without appeal. The movement is crushed in blood and ends on March 8, 1989, but the repression probably causes more than 3000 deaths for the city of Caracas alone. In the "barrios" of the capital, the soldiers retrieve the bodies and throw them into mass graves. The IMF program is applied to the letter, but the political caste in Venezuela since 1958 is perfectly discredited, morally and politically. Poverty reaches almost 80% of the population. In the army, which has brutally repressed, dissenting voices are rising. Among them, that of a lieutenant-colonel of paratroopers of 38 years, named Hugo Chávez.

It is therefore against a backdrop of popular reflux and through mechanisms of expression of the still latent anger that Chávez attempts a first failed coup in 1992. He will then be triumphantly elected in 1998. invested with the mission to put an end to this "Pact of Punto Fijo" responsible for so much misery, violence and suffering. The 1998 election is, precisely, a reaction to this corrupt, clientelist regime which, after three decades of redistributionist policies of the oil windfall, was watering everywhere as soon as its financial room for maneuver was reduced. But with the coming into power of Chávez, supported by a strong support that will be transformed, between 2002 and 2006, into a much more active mobilization of the popular sectors,

The history of Venezuela is therefore the story of a great swindle, a large-scale theft, which continues today. The perpetrators have sometimes changed their name and costume. The scams, they have always been Venezuelans. Being poor in a country sitting on the richest oil reserves in the world: this is a paradox that has been, periodically, an extremely powerful fuel of revolt, controlled, channeled or repressed by governments in place, often responding directly to North American interests. but also European Majors. This is what has structured Venezuelan contemporary history. All these elements, purely secondary, no doubt, that journalists, politicians and heads of state forget when making the black legend of Maduro and Chavismo and support, with more or less finesse,

https://www.revolutionpermanente.fr/Ven ... -l-infamie

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Tue Mar 05, 2019 3:02 pm

Guaido Returns to Venezuela amid US Threats Against Maduro
Despite entering Venezuela without obstruction, Guaido made no announcements of concrete next steps in his effort to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

Image
Juan Guaido transits Caracas’ Simon Bolivar International Airport. (EFE)

By Lucas Koerner & Paul Dobson
Mar 4th 2019 at 5.41pm

https://venezuelanalysis.com/N4XT

Caracas, March 4, 2019 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido touched down in Caracas’ Simon Bolivar International Airport Monday afternoon following visits to several neighboring countries in previous days.

Despite official warnings that he would be arrested for violating a Supreme Court-ordered travel ban, the self-proclaimed “interim president” successfully went through airport customs before proceeding to attend an anti-government rally in eastern Caracas. A number of ambassadors and consuls of those countries which have recognised him as Venezuela’s head of state, including representatives of Germany, France, Chile, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania, received him at the airport.

“Entering Venezuela as free citizens, no one can say anything to the contrary. Now I can feel the sun of my Guaira, the expectation of the people who await us here,” he tweeted upon arrival.

Speaking to supporters gathered in Alfredo Sadel Plaza in Caracas’ upper middle class Las Mercedes district, Guaido announced meetings on Tuesday with unions representing public sector employees, whom he said were “kidnapped” by the Maduro government. He also promised an “important announcement” slated for Tuesday and convened his followers to take to the streets in renewed anti-government demonstrations on Saturday.

Guaido also offered a balance of February 23, when he led an attempt to force US-delivered humanitarian “aid” into Venezuela, describing the initiative as “unsuccessful.” He went on to blame Venezuela’s armed forces for the failure, complaining that they neglected to “do their part.”

Nonetheless, the president of the opposition-held National Assembly reassured the crowd in Las Mercedes that “we are doing well,” telling supporters that “change” is on the way. “I will give my all until we achieve freedom,” he pledged.

Guaido did not, however, offer specific details regarding when and how he plans to oust President Nicolas Maduro and take up office in Miraflores Presidential Palace. His speech coincided with medium-sized opposition rallies in different regions of the country, which according to on-the-ground reports, saw small pockets of street violence in some cities, such as Merida. No injuries have thus far been reported.

On January 29, Venezuela’s Supreme Court issued a travel ban against Guaido pending an ongoing investigation carried out by the Public Prosecution for usurpation of presidential powers amongst other offenses. The opposition lawmaker does, nevertheless, continue to enjoy parliamentary immunity, and his legal status remains unclear.

Venezuelan analyst Victor Hugo Majano from investigative blog La Tabla pointed out on Twitter that no arrest warrant has been issued Guaido, which coupled with his parliamentary immunity means he can freely enter and leave the country.

“To determine whether his defiance of the Supreme Court order forbidding him to leave the country represents obstruction of justice an investigation from the Public Prosecution would need to take place,” Majano added.

Guaido’s foreign trip included visits to Colombia, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador, where he met with the respective presidents of each country. He was accompanied on the trip by his wife, Fabiana Rosales, his political team, as well as US Under-Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Kimberly Breier, who traveled with him to Brazil and Paraguay.

On the eve of Guaido’s much anticipated return, the Trump administration issued warnings of a “significant response” if the opposition politician’s safety were put in jeopardy.
John Bolton

@AmbJohnBolton
Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido has announced his planned return to Venezuela. Any threats or acts against his safe return will be met with a strong and significant response from the United States and the international community.

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Earlier on Sunday, Bolton said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that Washington is seeking to assemble a “broad coalition” to “replace Maduro.” The national security advisor likewise invoked the Monroe Doctrine to justify regime change, denying that US support for dictatorial regimes elsewhere delegitimizes US efforts in “our hemisphere.”

On Monday, the Trump administration also announced new economic sanctions against Cuba over the island nation’s alleged “role in usurping democracy and fomenting repression in Venezuela.”

In a speech in Miami in November, Bolton singled out Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua as the “troika of tyranny,” and more recently Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated that Washington would soon turn its sights on Havana and Managua.

With additional reporting by Ricardo Vaz from Caracas.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14366
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:30 pm

COLOMBIANS ASK MILITARY DESERTERS AND GUARIMBEROS TO RETURN TO VENEZUELA
Mar 6 2019 , 9:47 a.m. .

Image

The mayor of the Villa del Rosario municipality, Pepe Ruíz, in an interview with RCN Radio, said that the number of Venezuelan soldiers deserting to the Colombian side is growing, and that this bothers the departmental authorities because of the logistics involved in maintaining them.

According to Migración Colombia, more than 500 military deserters have reached the Colombian border, a supremely minimal percentage since the FANB has more than 230,000 assets, which has caused inconveniences. Therefore, Ruiz advocates that "the Venezuelan guards should not defect to Colombia, because the fight must be done there (in Venezuela), not here in Cúcuta."

Both the Russian Federation and Venezuelan authorities have warned of the possible creation of irregular cells in Colombia with the aim of inserting them into Venezuelan territory to create chaos and commotion in the coup strategy and intervention carried out by Washington through its Colombian and Venezuelan delegates, represented in Juan Guaidó and his team of Voluntad Popular.

Added to this, irregular agents identified as "La Resistencia" are in Cúcuta, making certain areas of the Norte de Santander department unsafe for local residents, who have complained to the Colombian authorities about their movements at the border.

The mayor told RCN Radio, about the "resistant": "I ask the public force to do the respective operations to ensure the tranquility and safety of the inhabitants of the border area and the people who circulate daily through the place".

http://misionverdad.com/tendencias/colo ... -venezuela

500/230000 is odds i'll bet against. They should be refused re-entry, obvious fuck-ups.
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:40 pm

@jaarreaza

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela makes public the decision to declare persona non grata to the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Daniel Kriener, before his recurrent acts of interference in the internal affairs of the country. Release:

Image

Throws da bums out!
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Thu Mar 07, 2019 1:46 pm

Venezuela - Guaidó Planned To Use Arms - Frustration Over Stalemate Sets In
New reports about the U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela describe the current mood in Washington as 'frustration'. They also shine new light on why of the opposition's plans failed.

When the U.S. set out for the failed 'humanitarian aid' stunt at the border between Colombia and Venezuela an important role was given to its puppet, the self-declared 'president' Juan Guaidó. It was his task to bring the aid across the border.

The New York Times reported at that time:

[One] option, pushed by those looking for a more direct confrontation with Mr. Maduro, would have activists encircle an aid truck in Colombia as it slowly makes its approach to Venezuela. Under this plan, protesters from Venezuela would overrun soldiers stationed on the Venezuelan side and allow the aid to move in, possibly using a forklift to push aside the containers blocking the bridge.
In Curacao, opposition officials were buoyed by the willingness of the country’s foreign minister to stage aid along a sea corridor long used by Venezuelan migrants to flee the country. But in recent days, plans appeared to be falling apart as politicians in Curacao objected to the use of the aid as a political weapon.

Additionally the opposition planned to receive the 'aid' on the Venezuelan side:

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido plans to head to the Colombian border in a convoy of vehicles on Thursday to receive humanitarian aid for his crisis-stricken nation, despite the objection of increasingly isolated President Nicolas Maduro.
...
He will undertake the 800-kilometer (497-mile) road trip from Caracas in the company of some 80 lawmakers from the opposition-controlled congress, which he leads, opposition legislators said.
...
“Through this call for humanitarian aid, the population will benefit from the arrival of these goods to the Venezuelan border,” said opposition legislator Edgar Zambrano, as he waited in a plaza of eastern Caracas with other lawmakers to board buses.
While Guaidó traveled to Colombia, the convoy from Caracas to the border never materialized. The attempt by a few stone throwing thugs to move two trucks with 'aid' across a bridge failed when the Venezuelan National Guard simply blocked them. Riots ensued and the thugs used Molotov cocktails to set the trucks on fire.

The whole stunt comically failed. But until today it was unclear why the issue was managed so badly.

Now Bloomberg reports that the real plan was quite different:

Late last month, as U.S. officials joined Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido near a bridge in Colombia to send desperately needed aid to the masses and challenge the rule of Nicolas Maduro, some 200 exiled soldiers were checking their weapons and planning to clear the way for the convoy.
Led by retired General Cliver Alcala, who has been living in Colombia, they were going to drive back the Venezuelan national guardsmen blocking the aid on the other side. The plan was stopped by the Colombian government, which learned of it late and feared violent clashes at a highly public event it promised would be peaceful.
...
Alcalá, the retired general, did acknowledge the plan to escort the aid across the border and said he understands why the Colombians wanted to avoid trouble.

It seems that the politicians in Bogotá did not objected "to the use of the aid as a political weapon" as the NYT reported, but got cold feet over the plan, initially kept secret to them, to cross the border by military force. It would have been an overtly hostile aggression against its neighbor country, something that Colombia is very keen to avoid.

In late January CNN talked with uniformed young men who claimed to be defectors of the Venezuelan army. They begged the U.S. to supply them with arms and communication equipment. (How many did they receive?) But the uniforms they wore had the wrong markings. They showed a patch saying "FAN" which stand for Fuerzas Armada Nacional. Several years ago Venezuela changed the name of its armed forces into Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana and all current uniforms show "FANB". It is possibly though that the interviewed people were part of the 200 "exiled" defectors or mercenaries who were supposed to storm the broder.

Bloomberg further reports that some important people are not happy with Guaidó's performance:

The U.S. officials who have driven the Venezuela policy -- Rubio, National Security Adviser John Bolton and special envoy Elliott Abrams -- continue to put on a brave face, increasing economic and diplomatic pressure and tweeting daily about Maduro’s certain departure.
Behind the scenes, however, there is concern and dismay.
...
[W]hen Guaido was in Colombia, its president, Ivan Duque, expressed frustration to him. Witnesses said Duque complained about the failure of Guaido’s promise to bring tens of thousands of Venezuelans to the border to receive the humanitarian aid.

There have been other concerns. Guaido was planning to make a tour of European capitals this week to build international support, but the Americans told him he needed to return to Venezuela or he’d lose whatever momentum remained.

During his travel to several Latin American capitals Guaido was accompanied by the State Department’s assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Kimberly Breier. The Department describes her as "a policy expert and intelligence professional with more than 20 years of experience". She now seems to be Guaidó's personal minder.

The State Department's frustration that its plans failed are also visible in this clip from its press conference where the spokesperson scolded the media for calling Guaido "opposition leader" or "self-proclaimed president" instead of "interim president". AP's Matt Lee then reminds the spokesperson that some 140 countries simply do not recognize him as such.

Interestingly the State Departments own media outlet Voice of America used "self-proclaimed president" in at least two of its recent pieces.

Image

VOA then silently changed those articles to confirm with the new "interim president" wording. It still uses "opposition leader".

The State Department's frustration will increase over this prank (audio) by two Russian comedians who phoned up Elliot Abrams and induced him to demand the closing of non-existing "Venezuelan accounts" in Switzerland:

The pranksters also held one more conversation with Abrams in March, according to Russia 24, where the Special Representative told them that the US is not planning military intervention in Venezuela, but would like to “make the Venezuelan military nervous,” regarding possible guarantees ruling out military threats from the US to be “a tactical mistake.” However, according to the phone call, Abrams said that the main sources of leverage against the Venezuelan government are still financial, economic and diplomatic pressure.
Guaido's new order is to incited a general strike in Venezuela. The start though does not look encouraging:

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó stepped up efforts Tuesday to remove President Nicolás Maduro, meeting with public-sector unions and calling for rolling strikes in a bid to weaken the authoritarian government.
Guaidó managed to draw about 100 leaders of state-employee unions to the session. But only a few hundred workers came, ...
...
One union leader at the meeting, Besse Mouzo, said the plan involved organizing work stoppages that would eventually lead to a general strike. “We have to begin by convincing people” to join the smaller strikes, she said.

That effort is not likely to go anywhere. Who would pay those workers if they were to do so?

Bloomberg also says that the are no plans for any open military aggression. The plan for now is to starve the people of Venezuela into submission:

European and Latin American diplomats say they are preparing for a long and messy process in which Maduro stays in power despite an economy in tailspin. One Latin American diplomat said Maduro has learned from his patrons, the Cubans, about how to be resilient. Sanctions and international pressure may wind up strengthening his regime, at least in the short term.
Under economic sanctions the people dependent on the government for their needs. That is why sanctions never bring a government down and only hurt those who are already poor.

The situation is at a stalemate. The U.S. will increase sanctions. Venezuela will, like Iran and Syria, find ways around them. Years later nothing essential will have changed.

Guaidó may be an attractive looking man capable of charming officials in Washington. But he so far was not able to get anything done. He has only few followers and President Maduro simply ignores him.

This was not the plan when this 'regime change' operation started. Trump was promised a fast coup during which the military would jump to the site of the random guy the neoconservatives sold to him as "interim president". That did not happen. Plan B was the 'humanitarian aid' gimmick which went likewise nowhere. The idea to incited public sector workers to strike is also not realistic. There is no real military option.

How much patience will Trump have as the current situation festers? What will he do when it runs out?

Posted by b on March 6, 2019 at 02:35 PM | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/03/v ... ts-in.html

'What will Trump do?' Well shit, 'b', he will do what he always does, change the subject.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Venezuela

Post by chlamor » Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:16 pm

Venezuela - The Proxy for the Cold War Part 2

While it received negligible coverage in the Western media, an important meeting was held in Wuzhen, China by key members of the new global multipolar order, China, India and Russia aka the RICs. During this trilateral meeting of nations that represent 2.9 billion people or nearly ten times the population of the United States, one of the topics that was discussed was the situation in Venezuela.

Here is the press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation showing what the foreign ministers of the three nations discussed:

Here is what Tass, Russia's largest news agency had to say about the meeting and the conclusions that the three nations made about Venezuela:

"Russia keeps a close eye on brazen US attempts to create an artificial pretext for a military intervention in Venezuela, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks with his Indian and Chinese counterparts, Sushma Swaraj and Wang Yi.

"We are watching closely the reports about what is really happening there. We see how absolutely brazen attempts have been taken to artificially create a pretext for military intervention," Lavrov said. "We hear direct threats from Washington that all options remain on the table. The actual implementation of these threats is pulling in military equipment and training [US] special forces," he said.

The attempts to break through the Venezuelan border under the pretext of delivering humanitarian aid have been made "in hopes that there will be casualties," Lavrov noted. "Then hysterical screaming will follow under the well-known scenario and an attempt of military intervention will be carried out."

Moscow has been actively cooperating with all countries that are also concerned over the looming prospect of a military action, the foreign minister said. "It’s no coincidence that Brazil’s leadership has already stated that it won’t participate in this and provide its territory for the US for aggression against Venezuela," he noted.

"I believe that no Latin American country, including members of the so-called Lima Group, actively calling for an early presidential election and supporting [self-proclaimed president] Juan Guaido, has voiced support for military intervention," he noted.

Russia’s top diplomat called on the United States to listen to the opinion of regional states. "First of all, we advise to focus on the ideas of the Montevideo Mechanism envisaging a nationwide dialogue with participation of all political forces," Lavrov explained. "Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly stated his readiness for such a dialogue. Unfortunately, Mr. Guaido and his allies reject these proposals and only demand meeting their ultimatum on an early presidential election." (my bold)

After the trilateral meeting, Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, met with the Acting Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez on March 1, 2019. After that meeting, Mr. Lavrov made the following comments:

"Venezuela is an old and reliable partner of ours. Today we have reaffirmed our solidarity with the people and the legitimate government of the country and also supported its efforts to protect its sovereignty and independence.

We are in complete agreement on the need for unconditional adherence to the fundamental principles envisaged in the UN Charter by all states without exception – non-interference in other countries’ domestic affairs above all. It is especially important today when the entire world can see the cynical campaign that aims to topple the legitimate Venezuelan government, including by threatening it with direct military intervention.

Russia has consistently spoken in support of the exclusively peaceful resolution of internal Venezuelan problems. It is obvious that Venezuelans must independently take steps to fix the current situation without instructions, pressure or ultimatums from the outside.

We have expressed our solidarity with the friendly Venezuelan people and our support for the measures taken by Nicolas Maduro’s government to prevent further destabilisation. We have reaffirmed our readiness to join in the efforts of regional and international mediators calling for an inclusive national dialogue. As I have said, we will be ready to join in given the consent of the main political forces in Venezuela.

Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez confirmed what President Nicolas Maduro has said repeatedly: that the Venezuelan leadership is ready for such a dialogue. Of course, it is unfortunate that the opposition has consistently rejected dialogue – upon direct instructions from Washington, as we all know very well.

Ms. Rodriguez also informed us about the developments in Venezuela’s domestic politics and told us about the efforts to stabilise the socioeconomic situation that has deteriorated, as we all know, as a result of illegitimate unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States on the leading sectors of the Venezuelan economy and the freezing of Venezuela’s state assets abroad, above all in the United States and Great Britain....

Russia will continue to support the Venezuelan authorities in resolving its socioeconomic problems, including through provision of legitimate humanitarian assistance. We proceed from the premise that the best way to help the Venezuelans is to expand practical, pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation. In this context we mapped out steps towards strengthening links in trade, investment, industrial production and finances, pursuant to the agreements reached by presidents Vladimir Putin and Nicolas Maduro last December in Moscow." (my bolds)

Mr. Lavrov also went on to note that there will be a high-level intergovernmental meeting of the two nations in Moscow in early April 2019 at which they will discuss the implementation of large projects in geological exploration and upstream operations and defense industry cooperation among other things.

When asked about the U.S. plans to establish an illegal armed unit in Venezuela, here is what he had to say:

"We are certainly worried about the US plans to arm militants in order to destabilise the situation in Venezuela and, frankly speaking, invade this sovereign country. The US is not embarrassed to speak openly about it. According to incoming reports, the US plans to buy small arms, mortars, portable air defence systems and a number of other types of weapons in an East European country, and move them closer to Venezuela by an airline of a regime that is the most, or rather absolutely obedient to Washington in the post-Soviet space.

Naturally, we see these intentions. Many other countries, including Venezuela’s next door neighbours, see them, too. Brazil and Columbia, for one, announced their intention not to support plans for a military invasion of Venezuela in any way. If they keep their promise and firmly adhere to this position, the US plans are unlikely to materialise. I hope the absolute, universal rejection of military scenarios by the world will cool down the hotheads in Washington, although some of them are truly unstoppable. But we will work on the basis of international law and demand that the US respect the UN Charter."

Now, let's look at what the United States Warrior-in-Chief, John Bolton, had to say during a one-on-one discussion with Jake Tapper on CNN:


Embedded video

CNN

@CNN
.@AmbJohnBolton on Venezuela: “I’d like to see as broad a coalition as we can put together to replace Maduro”@jaketapper: Do you not see US support for other dictators around the world undermines the credibility of your argument?

Bolton: “No, I don’t think it does." #CNNSOTU


Here are two key quotes from his musings:

“I’d like to see as broad a coalition as we can put together to replace Maduro, to replace the whole corrupt regime. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

“In this administration we’re not afraid to use the phrase ‘Monroe Doctrine. This is a country in our hemisphere and it’s been the objective of American presidents going back to Ronald Reagan to have a completely Democratic hemisphere.”

And, Mr. Bolton mentions Venezuela's corrupt regime, Transparency International's most recent Corruptions Perceptions Index for 2018 noted that the United States came in 22nd place, just ahead of the United Arab Emirates, down from 16th place in 201 as shown here:

If he wants to go to war so badly, perhaps Mr. Bolton should don a Marine uniform, pick up an M16A4 rifle, strap a parachute on his back and launch himself into the midst of the looming South American hostilities. That will prove the mettle of the man.

In any case, it certainly appears that Venezuela is becoming the Vietnam of the new millennium with both sides in the Cold War Part 2 using the nation as a proxy for their global agenda. The only problem is that, this time there is a new player on the scene. China is a growing world power and has shown that it is backing Russia, unlike the situation during the first Cold War.

https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2 ... art-2.html

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Sun Mar 10, 2019 1:55 pm

Dispatch from Venezuela: the government's massive food distribution apparatus
By Gloria La RivaMar 09, 2019

Image
Volunteers pack food at a CLAP food distribution center for the elderly and disabled who need delivery to their homes. Antímano neighborhood on the outskirts of Caracas, February. 16, 2019. Gloria La Riva, photo Liberation

Editor's Note: This article was written on February 22 when the author, Gloria La Riva, went to the border crossing with Colombia to observe the confrontation there.

A visit to any social project, walking the streets, seeing Venezuela with their own eyes, destroys the demonized images that the government of the United States and the media project of the Bolivarian Revolution.

The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, etc., publish or disseminate daily outrageous lies against the government of President Nicolás Maduro to present an image of "humanitarian crisis". Its function is to justify the aggression of the United States.

Gladys, a woman of retired age, recognized me and stopped me in the street yesterday afternoon. I was invited to one of the most popular morning television shows of the morning, talking about the anti-war efforts in the United States in defense of Venezuela.

She said emphatically: "Please, tell the truth to be heard in the media there. Tell the truth. We are not starving. Yes, it's true, we have a shortage, but the fault lies with the United States, which has restricted us. There have been so many lies about us. "

She added: "Even my daughter who lives in Spain called me and said: 'Mom, how many dead people are there?' That was so ridiculous that I had to hang it. "

This battering ram of false propaganda hides a more insidious truth: the government of the United States is the main cause of the shortage, with the sanctions of strangulation that it has imposed. The main Venezuelan and American corporations have participated in concerted production, an act of war, and in this war the attacks increase daily.

This week, a medical shipment from Qatar paid by the Maduro government was seized by Spain en route to Venezuela and returned to Qatar.

The confiscation of Venezuela's CITGO property in the United States alone will cost the country more than $ 7 billion. The bank accounts of the country are frozen, the Bank of England refuses to release gold from Venezuela.

Under such conditions, other governments would have collapsed long ago.

Resistance and international solidarity

The government of President Nicolás Maduro has endeavored to help the population to resist the economic war by expanding the focus and scope of the historic missions initiated by the leader of the revolution, Hugo Chávez.

This expansion did not happen overnight. It has been developing in the last three years, although undoubtedly at an accelerated pace in recent months.

Education, health, housing and food are the pillars of Venezuela's development to socialize larger sectors of the economy.

Despite the scenes of empty shelves of American television, there is no shortage of food in Venezuela. Private supermarkets and pharmacies are full of products. The problem is that they are largely inaccessible. The problem is the very high prices in private markets. A chicken costs 10,000 bolívares (Bs). while the minimum wage is 18,000 bs.

Vegetable and fruit stalls abound on the sidewalks. Most are run by people with limited means. Those prices are much more affordable.

Three years ago, Maduro launched the CLAP program to provide a vital food supply to six million families, through a system of community organization, census and distribution.

A neighbor of an important housing community, Carmen Requena, showed me the last monthly CLAP box she received. An architect, lives alone. His box contained six pounds of rice, six pounds of black beans, two pounds of lentils, two-liter bottles of oil, two bags of milk, 2.2 pounds of sugar, 10 pounds of cornmeal, the essential ingredients of arepas, mayonnaise, ketchup, two cans of tuna. The total cost of 500 Bs. The official exchange rate is 3,000 Bs for 1 USD.

CLAP supplies include chicken, meat and 36 eggs per month. Instead of 10,000 Bs for a chicken in the private market, the CLAP cost for all animal proteins added is 500 Bs.

CLAP is not just a simple delivery of a truck. There is a high level of community organization, also called CLAP, within the Communal Councils. The CLAP coordinator is chosen in the community, as any responsible position of the councils.

I attended an afternoon CLAP meeting in the parish of Antímano in Caracas, of three CLAP in which 207 families participate. All the families there are covered, 65,000. The coordinators and families worked together to make sure the numbers were accurate. And this was in the dark in the courtyard of a school, each group used the light of a cell phone. The lack of light did not dampen his spirit.

The census of the parish is part of a survey of the city throughout Caracas to ensure the exact number of beneficiaries. Once completed, the CLAPs will be delivered every 15 days instead of monthly, and will be applied nationwide.

As Diosdado Cabello, vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, PSUV, and president of the National Constituent Assembly, said about the US demand that his military rations of 70 tons of "aid" be accepted by Venezuela: "The United States says who want to bring 70 tons, when only in the Andean region, we directly deliver 12,000 tons of food. It's a media show. "

Securing rice supply with expropriation, Vietnamese solidarity

Traveling by bus with Venezuelans to Tachira to counteract the operation of the American Trojan horse, we passed through immense rice fields, a large agricultural complex and storage silos of rice.

Fernando Ávila explains, "when the Mari company that produces rice began to suppress its own rice production along with the opposition, the state took control of the factory by necessity designation. It is of very high quality and now the rice is being used in the CLAP deliveries. "

Yesterday, on television, with a team of Vietnamese agronomists and diplomats present, both countries announced a major aggression to help Venezuela grow rice in a self-sufficient manner.

Russia sends medicines, other countries to help also

Maduro has made it clear that Venezuela has the money to buy the medicines that the country needs. But, again, the purchases are being blocked by the dictates of Washington. The Venezuelan government's bank accounts and the taking of the country's oil reserves in the United States are a deliberate weapon to turn Venezuela into an impoverished country.

President Maduro announced on February 21 that a shipment from Russia had just arrived from 7.5 tons of essential drugs for cancer, diabetes and other diseases. It is part of the Russian shipments of 300 tons of medicines and equipment. Despite its hostility towards the Bolivarian Revolution, the European Union agreed to send medicines through the UN as well. More has recently arrived from China, Cuba and others.

Maduro explained: "Every week the medicines come permanently. Who pays? The Venezuelan government. We are not beggars. We are paying for all our obligations. But how criminal it is that the imperialist government of the United States is blocking our medicines. Trump is violating the human rights of the Venezuelan people when it blocks the entry of medicine. "

A woman with whom I became a friend on the bus on the way to Tachira, Liuska said: "It is more than our oil that the US wants. UU They are attacking us because of our effort to create a new society. "

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:51 pm

Venezuela Suffers Major Power Outages After Alleged Cyber Attack
Venezuelan authorities denounced repeated attacks against the central control system of Venezuela’s electricity grid.

By Ricardo Vaz
Mar 10th 2019 at 7.33pm

https://venezuelanalysis.com/N3WV

Image
A major power outage left Caracas (pictured) and most of the country in the dark after an alleged cyber attack on Thursday (AFP)

Caracas, March 10, 2019 (venezuelanalysis.com) – An electricity blackout has affected most of Venezuela for several days after an alleged cyber attack crashed the country’s main electricity generator, the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant in Bolivar State, commonly known as the Guri Dam.

Starting around 5 PM on Thursday, the outage affected 70 percent of the country, with only several eastern states unaffected. By Saturday morning, power had been restored to most of Caracas and to central states such as Miranda, Aragua and Carabobo, when a second major outage took place as a result of a renewed cyberattack, according to Venezuelan authorities.

As of Sunday evening, power has been restored to most of the capital and to parts of the western states of Tachira and Barinas. According to on the ground testimonies on social media, various other states, including Merida and Zulia, have not had power since Thursday.

On Saturday, President Maduro told crowds at the end of a pro-government rally that a large scale attack against the country’s electric infrastructure had taken place on Thursday afternoon. He pointed the finger at the US, stressing the high level of sophistication of the alleged aggression and adding that efforts to restore power were set back by a new cyber attack on Saturday morning.

Maduro announced that he was ordering a massive distribution of food and drinkable water starting Monday, as well as efforts to secure the normal functioning of hospitals. Water Minister Evelyn Vazquez announced on Sunday that water tanks were being deployed while the water pumping system was getting up to speed.

On Friday, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez told press that a cyberattack had taken place against the “Ardas” computerized system of the Guri Dam, targeting 3 of the 5 generators and forcing the dam’s turbines to stop. He added that Venezuela would present evidence of the attack to the United Nations Human Rights Commission and to other international bodies.

Rodriguez went on to deny the opposition’s claim that 79 people had died in hospitals as a consequence of the outage, but did not offer an official number. NGO Doctors for Health reported 21 deaths as of Sunday evening after allegedly contacting hospitals throughout the country.

Beginning in the middle of rush hour Thursday afternoon, the outage immediately affected public transit networks, with the Caracas metro and suburban trains paralyzed. Miranda’s governorship mobilized buses to help take citizens home, while many were forced to walk back from work. Caracas’ metro system has yet to restore service, with authorities waiting for the electrical supply to stabilize. The Venezuelan government has suspended work and school activities on Monday.

The power outages generated some skirmishes in various cities, with groups burning tyres or garbage, but no major confrontations with authorities have been reported at the time of writing.

Venezuela’s electrical system has been dogged by poor maintenance and sabotage in recent years, with infrastructure strained by under-investment and Washington’s economic sanctions further compounding difficulties. In addition, as The New York Times reported, fuel shortages caused by US sanctions have prevented thermal power plants from backing up the Guri Dam.

Self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaido gave a press conference on Sunday, slamming the government’s handling of the electricity crisis and repeating calls for the armed forces to back his efforts in ousting the Maduro government.

Guaido announced he would ask the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which has been in contempt of court since 2016, to declare a state of “national alarm” on Monday.

The opposition leader had previously addressed supporters after a march on Saturday in the east side of the capital. Tensions flared up between opposition followers and security forces after the former blocked the Francisco Fajardo highway for a short period.


“All options are on the table,” Guaido told supporters when pressed about calling for a foreign intervention, while adding that further mobilizations will be announced in the near future. Hours earlier he had tweeted that “electricity will return once the usurpation ends.”

Image
An anti-imperialist march was held in Caracas on Saturday, March 9. (Ricardo Vaz)

A Chavista anti-imperialist march from the city center to Miraflores Presidential Palace also took place Saturday, marking the fourth anniversary of the executive order declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security.

Maduro and other Chavista leaders slammed what they termed as the “worst aggression” in recent history, praising the population’s “resistance” and urging patience while efforts to restore electricity to the country continue.

For their part, US officials blamed the Maduro government for the blackout, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeting “No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro.” Venezuelan officials have pointed to tweets by Pompeo, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and other US leaders as evidence of a US hand behind the blackout, though further evidence has yet to be made public.

Edited by Lucas Koerner from Caracas.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14374
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:23 pm

THE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY OF ELECTRICAL SABOTAGE

Ana Cristina Bracho

11 Mar 2019 , 12:40 pm .

Image
People walk in the dark on the streets of Caracas, March 7 (Photo: Yuri Cortez / AFP)

Thinking war and law makes us fall into certain traps. For example, believe that war is forbidden and that all ways of hurting or the reasons to hurt or kill too. The reality is very different, especially when we move away from the main statements and reach agreements, resolutions or specific historical examples where we will get legal wars and sometimes, the whole structure for peace, simply strips naked as an apparatus to maintain a system of world domination, unipolar and according to the interests of a handful of masters.

What happens in Venezuela is similar to other interventionist adventures of the United States in the present time. It is mandatory to mention the case of Libya, where a great media plot was created that drew an ogre and whose murder was not the death of a man but the ruin of a people.

But what happened legally? How are these wars justified? What strategies are used? Before answering, we must bear in mind that the international space is not a neutral structure that works for the good of humanity.

THE PLANNED DESTRUCTION OF A COUNTRY
On the contrary, they are units where national politicians and characters come from the most influential industries of our times that determine which way they move. Oscillating thus between antagonistic positions, such as those that determine the need to apply the "responsibility to protect" to invade before a country attacks or even violates national or international law, and complete indifference, as in the case of Palestine or the genocide in Yemen.

To destroy a country legally, in the current framework of law, the first step is to convince international public opinion that the people have a government that has committed a heinous crime or a series of atrocious crimes. The second is to generate elements that make presume that those responsible are people who are part of the government; and, the third, is to work deeply the perception of the people so that they are convinced that the others are the ones that are causing great harm to him or want to do it to him.

This is what he pointed out for the Russian television network RT, Thierry Meyssan, describing that the strategy of the United States in Venezuela was to empower the opposition until they were in a position to generate a civil war while at the same time blurring the responsibilities the facts, making people feel in a "dogfight".

This is complemented by what happens outside. What Serge Halimi analyzed in the case of the war in Kosovo pointing out that the media generated before the invasion, in Europe, a saturation on the subject and a rhetoric where trying to question the story was punished because the version that was disseminated of what It was so atrocious that the war seemed a minor evil.

BLACKOUT CASE IN VENEZUELA
The blackout occurred in Venezuela since March 7, 2019 is the act of interruption of a public service that has affected the greatest number of inhabitants, in a greater radius and for more time during the Revolution.

We can have a description of the event, supposedly neutral, that will help us to typify the action. Thus we will have that in Venezuela has occurred an interruption of the electric service that is an indispensable element for the life, the health and the enjoyment of the economic, social and cultural rights of the population.

A fact easily framed in one of the assumptions contained in the Rome Statute as a crime against humanity. For they must receive this name "the other inhuman acts ... that intentionally cause great suffering or attempt against physical integrity or mental or physical health".

WHO COMMITTED THE CRIME?
The word crime is used to define among all crimes, those that are considered more serious and the most reprehensible actions, although legally we do not get this to be a concept different from that of crime. So it is acts that may be actions or omissions, typified by law, unlawful and guilty.

Is it an act committed intentionally by antivenezolan agents? Is it the consequences of the government's omissions of attention? Here begins the process described by Thierry Meyssan.

The opposition has for years been pointing out the responsibility of the government for which they qualify as precarious maintenance of the system. On the other hand, government spokesmen have maintained that this is an attack perpetrated by the combination of an electromagnetic action at a distance and an internal sabotage.

Legally, this has different consequences because, in line with what has been said by the Venezuelan government, we are going to observe some elements: first, events like this occurred in the past in Iran, in Chile, in Ukraine or in Nicaragua; second, they are framed in the line of the speeches that the American spokesmen have had, pointing out that the suffering must be increased until the people surrender; third, the increase in the self- fulfilling prophecies of the opposition; finally, researchers like Vladimir Adrianza deny that the lack of maintenance could be the cause of a blow like this.

On the side of the opposition, it would be an act of gross negligence that would not obviously generate immediate and individual legal responsibility over government representatives unless they could prove that it is a professed act to "self-sabotage", which It sounds implausible.

However, the media quickly generated propaganda operations that attributed all the victims, direct and indirect, certain or not, that could potentially occur as a responsibility of the government. On this, Aristóbulo Isturiz denounced on March 9, 2019, from Plaza Bolívar, an unusual media display in hospitals, especially children's hospitals, to report deaths of children, due to facts and shortcomings related to the absence of electricity.

On the same date, the opposition deputy, Edgar Zambrano, to defend himself from the controversy he had on his side for having been found dining in a restaurant he tweeted "yesterday, deputies, we went through hospitals gathering data, electric crisis deaths, object of having statistics request international organizations, to the Interior Policy Commission ".

With which, it is evident to infer that the consequences of blackout are being compiled to be part of an investigation of a file for crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the Venezuelan authorities, inefficient in the provision of services and indolent before the consequences of these facts .

In that reading, even the time selected to make the operation makes sense because it occurs just before the arrival in the country of Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights and just after it declared that the sanctions on Venezuela torpedian the guarantees of rights humans in the country.

THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF MILITARY INTERVENTION
Just as today, social networks have been filled with comments that remind us that the blackouts occurred at other times in history when the United States set out to generate a "regime change". The pressures and legal blackmail against leaders against hegemonics is also characteristic.

In the present we have to evaluate some things: the existence of a preliminary investigation against Venezuela before the International Criminal Court ; as in September 2018 and February 2019, the prosecution of Nicolás Maduro before this instance has been demanded by the Lima Group; that political pressure on the ICC has made headlines after Christoph Flugge , one of its members, resigned after the United States. threaten the judges.

From the past, we can see that the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued in 2011 an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity against Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi for alleged war crimes in the repression of the revolts and that this was the second time that this instance directed a mandate of this nature against a president. The first occasion was when he did it against the Sudanese president, Omar al Bashir. What happened later in those countries, is the subject of many other articles and for that reason, this is a point that can not be left loose.

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:46 pm

“Lights Out!” Did Trump and His Neocons Recycle Bush-Era Plan to Knock Out Venezuela’s Power Grid?
Even as the Venezuelan government blamed the recent power outage on U.S.-led “sabotage,” the U.S. has long had a plan on the books for targeting the civilian power grid of adversarial nations.

by Whitney Webb


March 11th, 2019

By Whitney Webb Whitney Webb @_whitneywebb

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — For nearly four days, much of Venezuela has been without power, bringing the country’s embattled economy to a near standstill. Though power is now returning, the outage saw U.S. officials and politicians blame the Venezuelan government for the crisis while officials in Caracas accused the U.S. of conducting “sabotage” and launching cyberattacks that targeted its civilian power grid as well as of employing saboteurs within Venezuela.

Although many mainstream media outlets have echoed the official U.S. government response, some journalists have strayed from the pack. One notable example is Kalev Leetaru, who wrote at Forbes that “the United States remotely interfering with its [Venezuela’s] power grid is actually quite realistic.”

Leetaru also noted that “timing such an outage to occur at a moment of societal upheaval in a way that delegitimizes the current government, exactly as a government-in-waiting has presented itself as a ready alternative, is actually one of the tactics” he had previously explored in a 2015 article detailing U.S. government hybrid warfare tactics “to weaken an adversary prior to conventional invasion or to forcibly and deniably effect a transition in a foreign government.”

In addition to Leetaru’s claims, others have asserted U.S. government involvement after U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is deeply involved in Trump’s Venezuela policy, appeared to have prior knowledge that the blackouts would occur when he tweeted about them only three minutes after they had begun.

While several journalists have pointed out that the probability that the Trump administration was responsible for the blackout is highly likely, few — if any — pointed out that the U.S. has long had highly developed plans involving the use of cyberattacks to attack critical power-grid infrastructure in countries targeted for regime change by Washington.

Indeed, the most well-known plan of this type, known by its codename “Nitro Zeus,” was originally created under the George W. Bush administration and was aimed at Iran. With so many former Bush officials now calling the shots in the Trump administration, particularly its Venezuela policy, the potential return of a “Nitro Zeus” virus, this time tailored to Venezuela, seems increasingly likely.



A little hammer to use when big hammers have been nixed
The “Nitro Zeus” plan first came to light in a November 2016 exposé published in the New York Times, which described it as an “elaborate plan” that was created for use against Iran were negotiations over its nuclear program to fail. That program targeted “Iran’s air defenses, communications systems and crucial parts of its power grid. At its height it “involved thousands of American military and intelligence personnel” and is believed to have cost tens of millions of dollars. The program intimately involved both the National Security Agency’s Tailored Access Operations unit and the U.S. Cyber Command.

The program was shelved when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was established, though the Trump administration’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from the deal has led some to ask whether the Trump administration has been considering reviving the program. While they may not have revived it for use against Iran, they instead may have done so in Venezuela, if Venezuelan government assertions that a U.S. cyberattack is to blame for much of the country’s recent power outage are to be believed.

Indeed, Leetaru noted in his recent Forbes article that “given the U.S. government’s longstanding concern with Venezuela’s government, it is likely that the U.S. already maintains a deep presence within the country’s national infrastructure grid,” much as it did with Iran in connection with the Nitro Zeus program prior to its public revelation three years ago.

The Nitro Zeus program is not nearly as well known as its relative, the Stuxnet virus, which was co-developed by the U.S. and Israel and used to attack Iranian software controlling uranium enrichment centers. Yet Nitro Zeus, despite its relative lack of infamy, is notable for several reasons. First, it “took it [U.S. cyberwarfare] to a new level,” according to a former official involved in the project cited by the Times. This was because, prior to Nitro Zeus, “the U.S. had never assembled a combined cyber and kinetic attack plan on this scale,” and also because executing the program would have “significant effects on civilians, particularly if the United States had to cut vast swaths of the country’s electrical grid and communications networks.”

Another reason Nitro Zeus is notable, particularly in light of U.S. efforts to meddle in Venezuela, is the motive for its creation. Indeed, although Nitro Zeus became the “enormous, and enormously complex” program detailed by the Times during the Obama administration, work on the program had actually begun during the George W. Bush administration. According to a report in the Daily Beast, Bush had considered Nitro Zeus “a necessary tactical alternative after the Iraq War sabotaged his chances of starting another Middle East invasion.” In other words, after the Iraq War debacle made it more difficult for the U.S. to launch unilateral military interventions, the Bush administration opted to develop “non-kinetic” military tools that would avoid angering the U.S. public and U.S. allies abroad.

Furthermore, as Tyler Rogoway wrote at Foxtrot Alpha:

[Programs like Nitro Zeus] can be paired for synergistic effect, leaving its target country’s military blind and deaf and its population suffering. And all this can be had without ever dropping a bomb and even under the veil of plausible deniability.”

This, according to Rogoway, has led such programs to become “more and more a viable alternative to traditional forms of attack,” given that the U.S. can deny its involvement, avoiding potential diplomatic blowback, and because it can wreak havoc not just on a country’s military but its civilian population.



The logic behind the likelihood of U.S. cyber sabotage
While “Nitro Zeus” was never unleashed upon Iran, it’s likely that the program spawned similar attack plans on the power grids of other adversarial nations given the precedent it set. As the Times pointed out in its Nitro Zeus exposé:

The United States military develops contingency plans for all kinds of possible conflicts, such as a North Korean attack on the South, loose nuclear weapons in South Asia or uprisings in Africa or Latin America. Most sit on the shelf, and are updated every few years.”

This point was expanded upon by Rogoway, who noted:

Nitro Zeus is most likely one of a whole slew of plans to attack potential enemies via cyber weaponry. Plans surely exist for all of America’s potential adversaries, and some are likely to be far more elaborate and deadly than anything that has been disclosed to date.”

There are more than a few indications that many of the more aggressive “contingency plans” have moved to the top of the toolbox under the Trump administration. For instance, key former Bush officials that are now in the Trump administration, particularly John Bolton and Elliot Abrams, are known for their aggressive stances and willingness to promote extreme policies targeting adversaries, even those policies that harm or kill scores of innocent civilians. Thus, voices like those in the Obama State Department and National Security Council, who had warned of the potential adverse effects on civilians that a Nitro Zeus blackout could cause, are unlikely to influence the likes of Bolton and Abrams — who have an outsized role in creating the administration’s Venezuela policy.

Furthermore, such a plan would be considered valuable by Bolton and Abrams in the same way that Bush valued Nitro Zeus after his “hands were tied” following the Iraq War disaster. In regard to Venezuela, Bolton and Abrams similarly have their hands tied when it comes to military action, given that military intervention of any type has been resoundingly rejected by the U.S.’ allies in Latin America and elsewhere. Not only that but Abrams’ favored tactic of providing arms disguised as “humanitarian aid” to insurgents has also failed, limiting the aggressive actions that can be taken by the administration.

Unable to launch a military intervention — either overt or covert — a Nitro Zeus cyberattack would likely have been a top contender for a next step following the failed “humanitarian aid” stunt and the rejection of any type of military intervention by the U.S.’ Latin American allies.

In addition, many of those responsible for the creation of the Nitro Zeus program share connections with neoconservatives who are influential in the Trump administration. For instance, Keith Alexander — who was NSA director at the time the Nitro Zeus program began and for much of its development — is now the CEO of his new cybersecurity consultancy, IronNet Cybersecurity. Sitting on IronNet’s board of directors alongside Alexander is Jack Keane, a zealously pro-war retired general whom Trump valued enough to offer the position of Secretary of Defense, an offer Keane declined. Keane is a close associate of the neoconservative Kagan family and is currently chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, founded by Kimberly Kagan and financed by top U.S. weapons companies.

With Bush-era warmongers now dominating Trump’s Venezuela policy, it seems increasingly likely that efforts to revive the Bush/Obama-era Nitro Zeus program have taken place. Indeed, with such an enormous and complex program already on the books and the likely existence of spin-off programs that have developed over the past decade, it was likely the easiest route for another “aggressive” U.S.-backed measure targeting the Venezuelan government.

However, if the U.S. did conduct a cyber attack on Venezuela’s power grid, it would not be powerful neoconservatives in the administration who would ultimately be to blame, as only the U.S. president can authorize an offensive cyberattack. Thus, if any part of Venezuela’s current blackout was indeed U.S.-directed sabotage, it was President Donald Trump who gave the order to attack Venezuela’s civilian power infrastructure, a strange thing to do for someone who professes to care so much for the Venezuelan people.

Top Photo | Relatives of a patient walk in the darkened hall of a clinic with a candle lighting the way, during a power outage in Caracas, Venezuela, March 7, 2019. A power outage left much of Venezuela in the dark in what appeared to be one of the largest blackouts yet. Ariana Cubillos | AP

Whitney Webb is a MintPress News journalist based in Chile. She has contributed to several independent media outlets including Global Research, EcoWatch, the Ron Paul Institute and 21st Century Wire, among others. She has made several radio and television appearances and is the 2019 winner of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism.

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