Venezuela

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Wed Feb 09, 2022 3:22 pm

Communist Party of Venezuela: "This government is not socialist and there has never been socialism in our country"
02/09/2022
Interview with Politburo member of the Central Committee-CPV Pedro Eusse
From the editor. We present the translation of an interview with a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela, Pedro Eusse , published on the website of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties.
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Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee-CPV Pedro Eusse

Political parties in Venezuela have to face many problems, especially left-wing parties that criticize the current system of government.

Among them is the Communist Party with its critical view of what is happening in the country.

To clarify the position of the party, Contrapunto interviewed Pedro Eusse, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Poland and national secretary of the Workers' and Trade Unions' Movement.

Challenges before the party

Asked about the challenges facing the CPV in 2022 and about the situation in Venezuela in general, Eusse assured that many of the controversies will be discussed at the upcoming 16th party congress:

“This is the year of the 16th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, which we will hold in an atmosphere of growing aggravation of class contradictions in the world and in Venezuela, in general terms, stemming from the deep crisis of world capitalism in its imperialist phase, aggravated by the protracted pandemic and the claims of transnational monopoly capital to absolute subordination of the world order, which leads to an aggravation of inter-capitalist and inter-imperialist contradictions.

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Delegates of the XV Congress of the CPV

CPV before the crisis

Also, the national secretary of the Labor and Trade Union Movement said that the main responsible task of his party, its leadership and activists, is to confront the crisis that has overwhelmed Venezuela.

“In Venezuela, we communists have the difficult task of confronting a serious crisis, strengthening the CPV as a revolutionary instrument of the working class and working people, overcoming ideological-political and organizational weaknesses, in order to effectively promote the revolutionary choice of the people, capable of resisting both the onslaught of US imperialism and its henchmen from far-right opposition, and a government led by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which imposes policies that are contrary to the interests of the working class and the masses, policies that serve through oligarchic collusion only to the capital and the elites of the corrupt bureaucracy.

Political Opportunities

Pedro Eusse noted that one of the most important tasks of the CPV and its activists is to achieve absolute class independence in political, organizational and logistical actions in the face of hostile economic and political forces.

He also considers it necessary to "fight on any terrain", defending the interests of the working class, the working people of the city and the countryside; build up strength to resolve the crisis in a revolutionary way.

According to Eusse, the moment has come when the Communist Party must be particularly demanding in terms of its organizational strength and combat capability, based on serious theoretical and political training, with a clear class consciousness based on patriotism and internationalism, with iron discipline, close ties with the workers, the peasantry and by the masses as a whole; act as a genuine revolutionary vanguard of the working class and working people.

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Demonstration organized by the CPV

Is there socialism in today's government?

“No, because this government is not socialist. There has never been socialism in our country, its construction has not even begun. True, in official propaganda the cliches "socialism", "revolution", "workers' government" are widely used, but in fact the economic and labor policy, especially since 2018, has a clearly neo-liberal direction, that is, it imposes the tyranny of the "free market" and creates conditions for maximizing capitalist profits, seeks to reduce the regulatory role of the state in the economy, sacrificing workers with wage cuts, elimination of collective bargaining agreements and neglect of worker safety in the workplace.

“In this way, the government of Nicolás Maduro fights the crisis and criminal imperialist “sanctions” by granting “comparative advantages” to foreign capitalists and the local parasitic bourgeoisie (erroneously called the “revolutionary bourgeoisie”), such as tax exemption and the cheapest labor force on the continent, maybe even in the world. To this end, they developed the so-called “anti-blockade law” and the law on special economic zones that provide benefits and other privileges to foreign capital.”


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President of Venezuela N. Maduro and head of Rosneft I. Sechin

Failed socialism

Eusse assures that socialism was not built after the late Hugo Chavez came to power.


“In truth, the preaching of false socialism did not begin with the current government, but with President Chavez, when he put forward the thesis of “socialism of the 21st century”, which included a reformist (non-revolutionary) concept based not on the class struggle typical of Marxist theory, but on the theory of reconciliation of classes, which is typical of bourgeois social democracy.”

Eusse also noted what the process of progressive reforms meant to him:

“During the reign of Chávez, with some reservations, the Venezuelan people felt the result of progressive reforms: in the form of redistribution of income and strengthening of national sovereignty; while under the present government, after reconciliation with the right opposition, almost all progressive achievements have been destroyed. A process of regressive neo-liberal reforms began, with re-privatization, deregulation, over-exploitation, state authoritarianism, violence against workers, peasants and revolutionary activists, anti-democracy, growing elitism and rampant corruption.”

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Ideology and a real revolutionary approach

“The CPV promotes a revolutionary worldview, Marxism-Leninism, the application of scientific theory to the service of the working class and working people for a holistic and dialectical knowledge of reality and for moving towards a truly revolutionary transformation of society, develops the theory of scientific socialism, opposing the idealistic and false theses of pseudo-progressive reformism, that imaginary " socialism, devoid of scientific support, which disarms the working class so that it cannot fulfill its revolutionary role, subordinates it to the elite, which in turn is controlled, through state institutions, by the interests of the bourgeoisie, ”Eusse confirmed.

In his opinion, the application of the principles of scientific socialism (in the presence of sovereignty and social progress) will make it possible to outline a strategy for the systematic development of productive forces that fully meet the needs of industry, under the leadership of the working class in alliance with the peasantry and a broad popular movement, using natural resources and the entire production the potential not to be exploited by foreign and national capitalist elites, but to meet the material and non-material needs of the entire people.

"Venezuela is being demolished into neoliberalism"

According to the communist, Venezuela is undergoing a "neoliberal shift". This is coupled with the crisis of peripheral capitalism and the fall in export earnings under a heavy siege from US imperialism.

“Venezuelan workers are under crossfire: on the one hand, the structural crisis of a peripheral export-oriented dependent economy, on the other, imperialist aggression that hits us all hard, on the third, a government committed to the bourgeoisie and the nouveaux riches that sees no other way out. In addition to handing over the country to foreign capital and sacrificing workers, a pandemic is raging against the backdrop of hyperinflation and an almost complete collapse of healthcare.”

“The strategy of sovereign industrialization was never adopted (although there were attempts) either during Puntofigismo (the two-party system in Venezuela that existed before the arrival of Chávez), or for the next two decades after the Bolivarian Revolution. Oil revenues, to a greater extent and in winding ways, went into the pocket of large international capital and into the accounts of criminal structures involved in importing scarce products, ”Eusse emphasized.

“Therefore, the criminal and cruel plunder of the country continues. The US and its accomplices, with the help of local mercenaries, operate with complete impunity. As a result of all of the above, the Venezuelan working class is currently in its worst economic and social situation in many years. At the same time, the despotic, anti-democratic, anti-worker and anti-communist character of the ruling elite manifests itself - which is the height of cynicism - under the slogans in the name of "socialism".


What to do to return the country?

According to Eusse, it is necessary to create a truly revolutionary government.

“We need a truly revolutionary government. A government based on the workers, peasants and the whole people. This is achievable if the balance of forces is in favor of the working class and the working people of town and country ."

Accordingly, Eusse assures, it is necessary to organize and unite the struggle of workers, peasants, various communities and the people as a whole in order to restore and protect our rights, but with the prospect of seizing political power, implement a program in the service of the working people, which proposes to save the gains of the Chavez era, but which transcends the reformist confines of the Bolivarian Revolution and advances towards the triumph of a genuine Socialist Revolution.

“But for the interim period, as a tactic, we call on the working class and the people in general to rise up to fight for the preservation of wages, pensions and social benefits, to promote popular mobilization for the adoption of two bills: a law on a sliding salary scale indexed to the basic consumer basket, and the law on the maintenance and revaluation of social benefits”.

Eusse also emphasizes the need to fight against the criminalization and prosecution of the labor movement and popular struggle in order to achieve the release of dozens of workers in the near future, including activists who remain behind bars on unjust charges. Also seek justice in court cases on the disappearances and murders of popular fighters and revolutionary activists (including three communists).

“All this, while maintaining a steady accumulation of quantitative and qualitative forces, for the benefit of the proletariat and the Venezuelan working people,” Eusse concluded.

https://www.rotfront.su/kp-venesuely-et ... tvo-ne-so/

Google Translator

Funny we gotta get this piece from Russia...

In theory I agree with the VCP, and I ranted often to this effect for years. However, oft times theory and reality do not align. When this is recognized theory must adjust to reality. In the case of Venezuela it seems to me the question is "what is possible?", and this question in the context of The Ravaging Beast Of The North. That is:"How much socialism will the US tolerate before it goes berserk?" Who knows? Many of the welcome reforms of this Bolivarian Revolution have been more of the 'welfare state' sort and there has been almost no expropriation of the means of production except in the case of derelict properties, which it would be harder to criticize. But I suspect that a full scale assault upon bourgeois property would elicit a severe and likely violent response. Now the Beast is weakening but is not yet so weak as to not strike viciously. Were it not for climate/environment we might just wait the Beast out until it is too weak to respond vigorously. But how long?

As to the realty of Venezuela I am unclear. It might be past time to strike at the heart of things, for the time being it seems that revolutionary enthusiasm might be waning and might not hold up under the ensuing punishment. I hope I am wrong. For the time being I think that the VCP's tactics in this 'interim period are correct.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Wed Feb 16, 2022 3:12 pm

JUDICIAL SOVEREIGNTY AGAINST IMPERIAL LAWFARE
Ana Cristina Bracho

Feb 14, 2022 , 9:29 p.m.

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In Venezuela, a "Judicial Revolution" has been taking place since 2021 (Photo: File)

In the mechanisms to stop the rise and achieve the banishment of progressive governments in Latin America, judicial wars have been true protagonists of the last decade. A strategy that, for some, bears the same results as traditional coups but is cheaper and also receives less criticism.

It may, for example, be difficult to understand the impeachment procedure in Brazil, that it can be promoted only by repeating headlines in the newspapers or calling for ideas deeply rooted in the imaginary such as that all politicians are corrupt. However, in order to complete a legal coup, in addition to the psychological operation, the access of its promoters to the justice apparatus is fundamentally required.

It is there where the heart of a judicial war action truly resides, which, as Dr. Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni reminds us in a prologue to Lawfare: Judicial War and Neoliberalism in Latin America (2019):

" It is about the dissemination of lies or falsehoods, only using some officials called judges and with immediate consequences of imprisonment and stigmatization of the people against whom they are directed ".

It is difficult to pretend that in the past the courts never played an important role in the political future of the countries. However, what is undeniable is that they now have more resources to do so, including the fact that the Judiciary in recent decades has been gaining more power, especially in the Supreme Courts and in the spaces destined to preserve the constitutional order, have the form and ascription that the national political law has decided to grant them.

Thus, it is enough to take any classic text to find that the Judiciary should be a branch of the State that should be limited to being a stick and mouth of the legislator. In this model, the judge was seen as a lazy inhabitant of a bubble, who should be irreproachable, but by his very nature alien to the processes of his own people.

However, with the passage of time, the judges have been taking a more active role, in which they even have their own international relations, spaces where only they and their assistants enter, of which every so often it is pointed out that they serve for their alignment. and indoctrination, with principles or practices that are considered superior to those established nationally.

When we consider it, we can understand why since 2016 it has been clearly on the political agenda of the opposition to gain control over the Judiciary in some way, let us remember how much of the conflict sustained by the former National Assembly was anchored in the questioning of the appointment of the Magistrates and Magistrates, as well as in the reiterated will to disregard their instructions to the point of creating a para-court, which functioned from abroad.

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Maikel Moreno (center) is the current president of the TSJ (Photo: File)

From the same analysis, the importance that the Supreme Court of Justice has played in guaranteeing the stability of the national government is extracted. Containing -for example- the National Assembly during its default by declaring its actions null and void, correcting the situations that originated in the framework of the constitutional omission in which it repeatedly incurred, and even swearing in the authorities who had to appear, but the National Assembly refused or was not in legal conditions to receive.

The protagonism that this role played from the Supreme Court of Justice, and especially the Constitutional Chamber, we can also see if we take into account that this Power was a specific target of the unilateral coercive measures dictated particularly since 2017, and that aimed an important number of its Magistrates and Magistrates, in particular of the Constitutional Chamber.

Now, if we can see this clearly and it gives us a reading in which the Judiciary has been a brake on the strategies of lawfare in Venezuela, we also have to take into account that, in recent years, it has been repeatedly questioned part of the operation of this system. Being entrusted to the National Constituent Assembly a first revision and that, finally, is specified in the actions called "Judicial Revolution" that are carried out from the year 2021.

This process, carried out throughout the year, concluded with a reform of the Law of the Supreme Court of Justice, in which the composition of the chambers of the highest court was modified and it was announced that new Magistrates would be appointed, in virtue of this change.

For this purpose, on February 2, 2022, the Judicial Nominations Committee was officially installed , which convened on the 4th of the same month for the nomination of the different candidates to exercise the role of Magistrate or Magistrate, with the novelty that For the first time, it will be the National Assembly that will appoint the Director of the National School of the Judiciary and the General Inspector of Courts, who must meet the same requirements as the highest judges but cannot accumulate the two functions.

This act must also be dimensioned in relation to the fact that the formation of the Supreme Court of Justice was also the object of the negotiation process in Mexico, currently suspended due to the action of the United States on Alex Saab, since the decision of the parliamentary majority has been to continue the process and call those interested to apply, without this being done under agreed and public formulas of the meeting process.

In this, the substance of the position maintained by the Bolivarian Government and its main spokespersons on the negotiation process in Mexico is observed, on which they have stated that they are willing to meet again, but without blackmail, waiting for the fulfillment of what was requested from the opposition. Being able, as seen in this case, to advance on issues that have been considered important and directly call on citizens to participate.

https://misionverdad.com/venezuela/sobe ... e-imperial

Google Translator

The judiciary, in the form of the "Supremes', is the last (legal) resort of the ruling class scoundrels in the US too. That's why the Dems gave Roberts a pass on his nomination. Unlike some more recent appointees who are hardly more that partisan hacks Roberts always has put the stability of bourgeois democracy foremost in his rulings. Thus he is the most dangerous of that black robed gang.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Mon Feb 21, 2022 1:56 pm

MADURO AND THE NEW EXISTENTIAL SEARCH OF CHAVISMO

Franco Vielma

Feb 18, 2022 , 9:35 a.m.

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President Maduro called for a discussion to elucidate a new political stage until 2030 (Photo: Bloomberg)

In his Report and Account before the country presented in January, President Nicolás Maduro called for a national reflection to rethink the role of Chavismo in the face of the political lapses that await us.

The 2022-2030 period would be, according to the President's vision, a political time for the new government management. A New Stage of Transition to Socialism (NETS), relaunching the concept of the 3Rs, but from a new interpretation: Resistance, Rebirth and Revolution.

He calls for reflection on these keys, as inexorable points of the present, because if they are assumed with political clarity, they could guarantee revolutionary continuity, stability and good government, "with political efficiency and revolutionary quality", said the President, taking up the words of Alfredo Maneiro .

However, the president's expressed concern went beyond these concepts. He specifically called on all the social and territorial structures of Chavismo to discuss other areas. Almost at the end of his speech, he referred to the existence of new situations, in the events of the functioning of the world, the new political realities, the economic configuration of the country and the world, the social dynamics imposed by new technologies and subjectivity or the context of the common senses.

"In the first place, the pandemic changed everything, and it will continue to be so; social customs, social care, social relationships, the exchange of humanity. Second, the world economic model and the emergence of powerful nations, of new opportunities, of new technologies, which is changing everything rapidly. The way the world economy, trade, and technology are articulated. We are heading towards another post-petroleum era that today has an enormous influence on the industry and world technology, and as you know it has an enormous decisive influence on our country...", the President indicated.

To which he added that looking at "the change in the economic model, not only in Venezuela, which is already severe and radical, but in the world." "The impact on the communication method, on individual, family, and social functioning, and on access to information, communication, and the culture of humanity. Humanity, just for this aspect, is different," he remarked.

As a whole, the calls for these reflections are actually calls for a new search, an issue that is for Maduro a necessary, permanent and dynamic process, since a revolution will only be so as a sociopolitical process, to the extent that it manages to connect with the realities social.

"Our essence is to keep ourselves in the process of change," said the President, to prevent us from becoming "stagnant water."

Therefore, the development of a discussion of 3R in a New Stage of Transition to Socialism must necessarily come together considering the changing world, the new laws of gravity that govern our society and the accelerated changes and disfigurements that the country has suffered.

This must be interpreted as what it really is. It is not about questions and debates in the air. What happens here is a profound search for meaning and purpose for Chavismo and for the country, which is extraordinary.

WHY A NEW EXISTENTIAL SEARCH?

In his January speech, President Maduro made reference to several cycles that the Bolivarian Revolution has gone through, from the pre-revolutionary era that began on February 4, 1992 to the present.

In his opinion, all the cycles have been of evolution. It has been a process with advances and setbacks, with natural contradictions, but also through circumstances that have been navigated by being imposed for adverse purposes.

In perspective, Chavismo has waged the most formidable destituent maneuvers that can be known against a country: coups d'état, bosses' strikes, large-scale economic warfare, successive color revolutions, formation of a parallel proto-state, alleged international isolation, war communicational and cognitive perennial, total blockade of the State's foreign trade, induction of the emptying of the territory as a result of the war (migration), "maximum pressure" strategy, mercenary insertion, assassination attempts, spread of diffuse armed warfare from the front external, among other situations.

In short, it is inevitable that within this hard journey, Chavismo as an ideological and social construct will be free of distortions. Our existential position has changed with the circumstances in a continuous process of adaptation.

The times of political reality, so changing and complex, have been outdating some old beliefs, some old phrases, some previous formulations and interpretations about the country, about national life and about the future. The latter is what we understand as "existential reasons".

From Max Weber to Niccolò Machiavelli, from Vladimir Lenin to Simón Bolívar, thinkers about politics and politicians, despite the gaps of eras and ideologies, have agreed on the existence of national existential ideals as the primary elements that make up a nation. A territory emptied of it would be destined to be anything but a nation.

If we understand the sum of the aggressions that have existed against Venezuela in the last 23 years, but even before that, what has happened is an induced process of existential emptying, in some stages of history they were consummated and in times of Chavismo have been intended. That "emptying" is the first component of the apparatus of domination of a foreign hegemony with pseudo-Creole overtones that was the one that governed us until the advent of Chavismo.

The Chavista era has proposed for the country to return to the founding and original ideas of Bolivarianism, bringing them to the present time from this theoretical but unstructured formulation that we understand as Chavism. Precisely for this reason, Chavismo, its existential proposal, has been the real center of the attack, since this dispute to disfigure our politics, our economy, our security, has been none other than the interest of disfiguring our political soul and purpose.

We must insist that, although Chavismo has proposed proportional responses to the aggression, managing to sustain itself against all odds in an unusual way, this whole process has also changed us and demands new searches.

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President Maduro proposes to update the bases that theoretically and practically make up Chavismo (Photo: CNN en Español)

President Maduro, in an extraordinary and clear manner, has called us to this debate in concrete lines about the new era of government. He has done so considering that there is a political stretch until 2024 that, apparently, is a favorable time to maneuver, a useful time to reflect and advance in the field of reality.

At the hands of new great shocks and attacks, we will have a minimum time this year to stop and think without the urgency of the maximum emergency, contrary to how it happened from 2015 to 2021.

THE TASK OF THINKING COLLECTIVELY

In recent days, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has taken a vanguard position in this discussion on a national scale. The goal has been to review the 3R.Nets. The discussion has taken place from its territorial bases according to a group of generating questions about the present of national politics, the economy, the tasks of the government and the ways in which resistance, rebirth and revolution should materialize.

It is not an incidental matter. The task is to think about our situation as a country in front of ourselves and in front of the world, in the midst of a set of changes that are taking place.

"A country that is attentive to changes, a revolution like ours, that is attentive to changes, has to change itself, has to walk and walk the times, has to ride them with its own strength, with directionality, with the reins in our hands, and we have to seek, as a 21st century revolution, to be one, two, three steps ahead of the great social, sociopolitical, sociocultural, sociocommunication, economic, and technological changes that are already impacting the life of our country and of humanity," Maduro said.

Since this is a task that has been carried out collectively, its purpose is to promote a collective result, analyzing what we have been, what we have done and what corresponds to us from today.

For that, an indispensable process is necessary. Necessarily, we must renounce some deeply rooted beliefs, reinterpret others and give birth to new ones, about national life, about Chavismo and about how we should approach the facts in a fine-tuned congruence between our idealism and our pragmatism, from a critical vision, rather dialectical .

"We cannot remain, even, in some definitions that could have been made, with the historical conditions of the Venezuela that we lived until 2014, either we renew or we err," exclaimed the President emphatically. We must "combine all that has been with the new."

The search for existential purpose, which is a permanent task, proposes a short-term horizon. The V Congress of the PSUV is approaching and it will be a space to unleash these reflections. It is worth emphasizing, it is the official chavismo and its party who at this point have arranged the possibility of discussing and redesigning our purpose as a country. We are the ones doing it.

They are not the disaffiliated "critics," nor the brawlers on the fringes of politics. It will not be the right or its apparatus of bourgeois ideological reproduction. They will not be the ideal ones for this discussion. Individualistic, inorganic speculations and chimeras can only arise from a few, which only serve to make an archipelago of ideas. From others only the argument of regression and restoration can arise.

They are not the ones who can generate a heroic result. It is the deeply organized country in this discussion, Chavismo, the only one empowered to propose a collective vision. How many times does this happen in Venezuelan politics?

Perhaps the initial task, in order to think collectively, is not to trivialize the President's clamor. In my opinion, these discussions are not a sterile episode, but rather a clarifying opportunity to assume political time.

The founding and original ideas of Chavismo were cemented in the very search process that brought us to this point, which we must reformulate. The national political command must reinstall itself in the trenches of ideas assuming that, only from them and through them, will we have a destiny. Is there full clarity on this throughout the political directory?

The above question is not rhetorical. Maduro's speech addresses us after last year he himself proposed a discussion before Chavismo to advance in the formation of a Historical Bloc , emphasizing the validity of an organic crisis, referring to Gramsci. At that time, Maduro's call was also raised from the concern of the necessary interpretation of the national reality and to unite the country in a tailor-made ideology. Does this read the underlying concern openly expressed by the President?

Both in his reflections last year, and those he has faced the country in January, the objectives are identical. Project ourselves into the future from the practice of a popular government and with full understanding of the realities. We're making it?

We are in the extraordinary times of the call to search. We cannot allow these to pass in front of us without assuming them.

https://misionverdad.com/chavismo/madur ... l-chavismo

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Sat Mar 05, 2022 2:34 pm

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Guaidó’s Achievement: US Judge Orders Auction of CITGO (+OFAC)
March 5, 2022

On Wednesday, March 2, Leonard Stark, a judge for the District of Delaware, approved the start of the procedure for the sale of shares of the Venezuelan state-owned CITGO Petroleum Corp., which includes “the selection of a winning offer,” reported The Wall Street Journal.

Stark made this ruling despite the fact that the company is covered by a resolution from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department that prevents its liquidation without prior authorization from OFAC. The OFAC has been in de facto control of CITGO since 2019, when Washington ignored the authorities designated by the legitimate government of Venezuela and delegated administrative management to agents of former deputy Juan Guaidó.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the judge defended his decision on the grounds that the restrictions imposed by the OFAC do not prevent taking “preliminary” measures to continue with the process of selling shares of PDV Holding, a conglomerate owned by the Venezuelan State to which CITGO is affiliated. The judge also set a deadline to present a joint report on the situation.

The ruling, cited by The Wall Street Journal, reads: “It is hereby ORDERED that the objections of the parties to the sale process to the order of sale procedures proposed by the special judicial expert be REJECTED IN PART, to the extent explained in the opinion. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the parties to the sale process and the special judicial assistant meet and consult and, no later than March 9, 2022, present a joint report on the situation.”

The news report specifies that this sale “would serve to pay compensation of $1.2 billion to the Canadian company Crystallex,” due to the expropriation of the Las Cristinas gold mine decreed by former President Hugo Chávez. The Canadian company was also accused of non-compliance with labor and environmental regulations in Venezuela.

In response to the expropriation, the now non-existant mining company—today its interests are represented by Tenor Capital Management, a New York hedge fund—had sued Venezuela in international judicial forums until in 2016 the International Tribunal for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered the Venezuelan State to pay compensation for $1.2 billion plus interest.

The Venezuelan José Ignacio Hernández, former pseudo-prosecutor for Guaidó, played a central role in the evolution of the case in the US courts. He has been in the US since 2017. Starting from in 2019 he designed the strategy that made the demands of Crystallex and other creditors such as ConocoPhillips viable, as has been denounced by the Venezuelan government and later independently corroborated by the Argus agency.

On January 15, 2021, Judge Stark reauthorized the sale of CITGO shares to “compensate” Crystallex, but the decision was made subject to obtaining an OFAC clearance. Even in September 2021, Reuters reported that the US Treasury Department had denied the request to collect part of the debt through the sale of the Venezuelan oil company.

Although OFAC extended the protection license for the Venezuelan subsidiary until January 20, 2023, it is not known if it will lift the measure before that date or wait for its expiration so as not to renew it again. In any case, the auction of one of Venezuela’s most prized assets abroad is all set to take place.

Featured image: CITGO’s Lemont refinery in Illinois. File photo

{La Iguana.TV)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

https://orinocotribune.com/guaidos-achi ... itgo-ofac/

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Venezuelan Far Right Supports Armed Nazi Groups in Ukraine
March 5, 2022
In the midst of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, with Russia’s special military operation against armed neo-nazi groups that have waged a war against the people of the Donbass region for eight years, the Venezuelan far-right goes on defending the actions of those Nazi sectors.

The faction of the Venezuelan opposition that supports former deputy Juan Guaidó called for an anti-war “mobilization” in Caracas on Thursday, March 3. A small group of people turned up, shouting slogans not in favor of peace but in condemnation of Russia, while openly siding with the Ukrainian nazis.

Also raising anti-chavista slogans, they politicized an event that has international geopolitical implications, and assumed the line imposed by the United States government and its European allies.


Warmongering opposition

The opposition spokespeople who today rail against Russia and defend Ukraine are the same ones who have historically aligned themselves with Washington’s policies of sanctions and interventions in foreign countries, including against Venezuela.

Two weeks ago, the self-styled “interim president” Juan Guaidó issued a statement in which he attacked the government of Vladimir Putin and dismissed the right of the Russian people and government to defend their national security.

In any case, Guaidó and those who support him are trying to make some kind of political gain, by polarizing and exploiting the situation between the Russian Federation and the Nazi groups in Ukraine.

Featured image: Far-right rally in Caracas, with marchers flying flags of Ukraine, Venezuela, and Colombia. Photo: RedRadioVE

(RedRadioVE)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

https://orinocotribune.com/venezuelan-f ... n-ukraine/
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:48 pm

WASHINGTON SHOOTS ITSELF POLITICALLY IN THE FOOT

Ernest Cazal

Mar 7, 2022 , 6:51 am .

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The poor negotiations between the US and Venezuela could have a political balance contrary to Joe Biden (Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP)

In just a few days, a series of events took place with Venezuela as the protagonist that, seen from a political angle, have the elements of a melodrama with a hint of comedy. It all started when a plane left Washington that first passed through Miami to end its journey at the international airport of Maiquetía (La Guaira), where a delegation of US officials would have been received by the Venezuelan government.

The visit, unprecedented in a framework of hostilities and diplomatic disconnection, was a kind of "effort" to break the Russian-Venezuelan relationship, since, according to the New York Times , the government of Nicolás Maduro "could begin to see Mr. Putin as an increasingly weak ally."

Beyond the laughter that such a Manichaean objective and out of context could cause, the main motivation of the meeting between high-level officials of the Biden administration and the Venezuelan executive should be brought to the fore: the oil trade.

In 2019, when the government of Donald Trump tightened the financial blockade against Venezuela in the form of an energy embargo, stealing Citgo and Venezuelan state money to transfer them to the hands of professional thugs (call it the "Guaidosian internship" or Federal Reserve), PDVSA products they no longer had a place in the US market; Russian companies took that space denied to the Bolivarian Republic.

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Russia replaced Venezuela in the US energy market after the US oil embargo in 2019 (Photo: The Washington Post)

Now that the government of Joe Biden has decided to unleash a large-scale economic-financial war against the Russian Federation, which had already been promoted with a certain tenor since 2014, the energy interests of the United States are in danger with high domestic inflation at a time key politician (legislative elections are coming next November), so its main decision makers decided to knock on the door of Caracas.

Rather it seemed that they wanted to kick it: the Reuters reports , which should always be taken with a grain of salt (along with the other media of the hegemonic Anglosphere), indicate that "Washington sought guarantees of free presidential elections, broad reforms of the Venezuelan oil industry to facilitate the production and exports of foreign companies and the regime's public condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine".

Although it could be expected that the Bolivarian Government would agree to allow US and European companies to invest in the national oil industry, as the President himself has repeatedly pointed out and according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal , that Venezuela would give Turning our backs on a strategic ally of the Global South such as Russia seems laughable after all the aggressions committed by the West against our respective countries for years.

Indeed, the government of Vladimir Putin has been fundamental in counteracting the "maximum pressure" strategy committed by the North American establishment, pivoting the oxygen channels to the Venezuelan economy and trade in the Eurasian area of ​​influence due to the full spectrum blockade maintained by Washington, including the veto of use of the SWIFT system.

Venezuela is not willing to commit strategic and political suicide by reneging on cooperation with Russia, having the same aggressors across the street and sharing interests that have nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with existence. The multilateral offensive of the United States against the two countries has strengthened the ties that we already shared, and solidarity and mutual support have been a reciprocal state policy in basically all scenarios of multipolar construction and crisis.

As for the "electoral guarantees", even the colonized European Union (EU) agrees that the results of the last mega-elections in Venezuela were legitimate, and even highlighted the fact that the representational disposition of the current leadership of the National Council Electoral (CNE) is adjusted to the institutional requirements of any democracy, even for a diminished one like the one experienced by European countries tied to NATO interests.

But the tragicomic arrogance of the Biden administration becomes more evident if we put the magnifying glass on the actors ( according to The Washington Post ) who would have visited the Miraflores Palace.

*Roger Cartens , a former US Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel who participated in the 1989 invasion of Panama (it should be noted: where there were more civilian than military deaths ), and who serves as a hostage negotiator for the State Department, was a again in Caracas with the intention of achieving the release of the so-called "Citgo 6".

*Juan González, senior director of the National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere, who recently declared that the recent "sanctions" against Russia were designed to hit Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela as well.

*James Story, "ambassador for the United States Foreign Office for Venezuela" based in Bogotá, a political operator who usually meets in his Colombian residence with the main actors of the Venezuelan coup to plan further destabilizing actions against the Republic.

This litter of officials to represent a negotiating delegation is nonsense if we take into account their professional profiles, recent actions and statements, and the bitterness unleashed against the Venezuelan authorities. Not surprisingly, the New York and Washington media prepared the ground for the meeting to take place, knowing that the demands bordered on tax maximalism.

It is very possible that a window for negotiation will remain open, with the dialogue table in Mexico as a scenario in a perhaps not so distant future, since the direct channels between the US and Venezuelan governments have been opened while sinking to the bottom from the political ocean the relevance of that fantasy called "Guaidó's interim".

However, Washington's prerogatives are unfulfillable today, border on the absurd and have no basis in the current geopolitical reality, especially if we take into account that Venezuela flatly rejects the update of the "night of broken glass" in the Oxident with an in extremis Russophobia that, in a certain way, we Venezuelans have already experienced in the areas of US influence.

And despite the unilateral aggression, the economic forecasts of institutions and personalities that cannot even be remotely classified as Chavistas, such as the IMF and ECLAC , announce a positive growth of the GDP, that is, an increase in the productive capacity of the country. It certainly cannot be said that we are on the right track towards economic independence and stability, but the difficulties are being overcome. With or without the lifting of the oil embargo, or the admission of licenses by the Treasury Department.

After all, the gringo delegation came to Caracas, and not the other way around. The (political) ball is in the North American court, although it seems not to want to take advantage of it.

If Biden signs the decree that would end up prohibiting imports of Russian oil to the United States , without accessing other energy markets related to his strategic interests, those who are going to pay (very) dearly are ordinary American citizens, and it is very may be charged to the Democratic Party in midterm elections . In that sense, Washington would be shooting itself politically in the foot, stabbing a deep wound into its real economy at the same time that its unilateral hegemony is going to shit, even though its hybris remains intact.

US officials have no choice but to fall into a constant state of excess, maintaining a coherence in their anti-political behavior that is only analogous to the mythical image? of Nero when he decided to drink wine and play his lyre while, in the distance, he watched the flames frolic over the city of Rome. History remembers him as a maniac blinded by his own complacency, typical of artists who are not very talented.

https://misionverdad.com/opinion/washin ... -en-el-pie

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Sun Mar 13, 2022 2:38 pm

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Venezuelan Foreign Minister Plasencia: Washington Wants to Return to Venezuelan Oil Market
March 13, 2022

Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister, Félix Plasencia, said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País on Saturday, March 12, that the United States wants to return to the Venezuelan oil market.

Plasencia, in his statements at the Second Edition of the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya, Republic of Turkey, stated that international companies, including US companies, will be welcome “if they accept that the only and legitimate government of Venezuela is the one led by President Nicolás Maduro.”

He explained that the interruption of the energy agenda between the United States and Venezuela was due to the imposition of illegal sanctions by Washington.

Plasencia stressed that Venezuela “did not remove them from the Venezuelan oil market… They left in order to impose unilateral coercive measures [wrongly call sanctions]. Now they want to come back.”

“We have been doing oil business with US companies for a hundred years,” added the Venezuelan foreign affairs minister. “We never asked them to leave the country. I hope they respect the sovereignty and legitimacy of my country. If they respect it, we can do a lot together in the oil business.”

The minister said that Venezuela currently produces one million barrels per day and reiterated that it will reach two million by the end of the year “with reliable partners, such as Russia, China and Iran.” However, there would always be room to expand this trade to the United States, he added.


Featured image: Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister, Félix Plasencia, at the Second Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Turkey, on Saturday, March 12, 2022. Photo: Twitter/@ViceVenezuela

(Últimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune


https://orinocotribune.com/venezuelan-f ... il-market/

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Washington Reveals New Agenda for Negotiation with Caracas
March 12, 2022
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One of the issues that will be on the agenda of an upcoming Washington-Caracas negotiation is the renewal of direct flights between Venezuela and the United States. The date of this meeting has not been announced yet.

This was confirmed by Juan González, deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the US government.

Some news agencies and mainstream media informed that González conditioned the possibility of lifting sanctions and renewing flights to political situation in Venezuela.

“That is the objective, that flights are renewed, that the pressure on the country [Venezuela] be lifted,” stated González. “And also that they release political prisoners and begin to put in place guarantees so that all political sectors are competing and that it is the Venezuelans themselves who decide their future.”

He added that the US delegation had told the Venezuelan government that if concrete steps are taken as a result of the negotiations, the White House would be willing to “relieve pressure so that these negotiations can be legitimized.”

Policy change?

Last week, a meeting between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and US envoys took place at the Miraflores Palace. The meeting disconcerted the most radical sectors of the Venezuelan right wing, and former deputy Juan Guaidó, who were not notified of the meeting.


Despite pushing Guaidó aside, Juan González assured that the US government continues to recognize the former as Venezuela’s “interim” leader. “But we are going to talk to everyone to communicate our interests and advocate for democracy,” declared US President Biden’s advisor.

Featured image: US President Joe Biden (left) and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Juan González (right). File photo.

(RedRadioVE) by José Manuel Blanco Díaz

Translation: Orinoco Tribune


https://orinocotribune.com/washington-r ... h-caracas/

Russia has been Venezuela's friend through a lot of US aggression against Venezuela. But Russia should not begrudge Venezuela the opportunity to revitalize their suffering economy. OTOH, Venezuela is in a good position to make demands: and end to sanctions and blockade, an end to interference in Venezuela, repatriation of CITGO corporation and that 3 Billion dollars in gold which the bank of England is stealing.

Yet, on the gripping hand we must curtail hydrocarbon use. It seems this can only be accomplished by a world socialist government. Get on it.

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Nicolás Maduro has called out Chile’s Boric and Colombia’s Petro over their stances vis-a-vis Venezuela. (Venezuelanalysis)

Crisis & Critique: Venezuela and the New Latin American Left
Originally published: Venezuelananlysis by Ociel López (March 10, 2022 ) | - Posted Mar 12, 2022

Recent diatribes between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Chile’s Gabriel Boric and Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro allow us to analyze two things: the Latin American left’s internal state and future relations between these governments.

Former Brazilian president Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva and Peru’s Pedro Castillo should also be added to the discussion. All have shown a clear intention to radically distance themselves from Caracas, shielding against the so-called “Venezuelanization” of the region’s politics.

The progressive leaders have denounced an alleged “democracy deficit” in the Venezuelan government. Meanwhile, Caracas has blasted the Latin American leftists for not taking a strong stance against U.S. sanctions on Venezuela or conveniently forgetting to even mention the issue.

These leftist sectors’ position is no coincidence. Venezuela has become one of the main arguments the region’s right-wing bloc uses to attack any progressive formula or proposal that arises. Especially in countries with a large presence of Venezuelan migrants.

Corporate media and establishment actors have led a campaign to criminalize leftist leaders by linking them to Maduro. In response, these actors have tried to circumvent these “accusations” in the most pragmatic way: attacking the Venezuelan government or, if possible, avoiding the matter altogether.

To tell the truth, this argument has been a failed weapon when it comes to electoral processes since it was ineffective in Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Honduras and Chile. In all these countries, the winning candidates were precisely those who mainstream media tried to ideologically link to Caracas. Voters proved not to be easily manipulated.

However, the electoral campaign wrapped up and Boric has continued to reject the Maduro administration. Far from supporting a dialogue process in Venezuela, he is now joining the right-wing crowd that accuses Maduro of alleged human rights abuses, aligning with the United Nations High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet. It is worth recalling that while former Chile president Sebastian Piñera “recognized” U.S.-backed Juan Guaidó, Boric has not shown yet his official stand on the matter.

For his part, Maduro without mentioning any names has said:

A cowardly left has emerged trying to attack the successful and victorious Bolivarian model, our historical legacy, my office and the Bolivarian Revolution.

This episode explains, to a certain degree, the internal situation of the Latin American left while giving a glimpse of how relations between these governments will shape up.

A new political cycle and the Venezuelan conundrum

The new progressive cycle that Latin America is experiencing now is not similar to the one at the beginning of the century.

In this new era, leftist politicians are trying to reach power after being defeated (not to say demolished) in the first cycle, as we saw in Brazil and Argentina. Meanwhile in Peru and Chile, progressive governments face opposing legislative powers as well as aggressive media and economic emporiums. All this is in addition to a judicialization drive that has targeted progressive figures. As a result, these politicians have opted for a more moderate discourse, depending on alliances and political pragmatism to survive.

Revolutionary experiences that survived the first cycle, such as Venezuela and Nicaragua, managed to do so by closing ranks as well. Their strategy was the judicialization of politics and radicalizing their stance against the U.S. government while facing a high-level financial and even military siege. They ended up isolated and placed in an “axis of evil” that the new left is trying to avoid.

Today’s Latin American progressive bloc is composed of two major currents that do not have the ideopolitical cohesion of those first cycle surviving left forces.

Although it might happen, and it is already happening, that they could align strategically.

Despite clashes between leftist forces, the leadership of Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the potential victory of Lula da Silva in Brazil could help smooth out differences. Both leaders have clout over the region’s ideological currents and could coordinate efforts to reach a common strategy.

López Obrador has already achieved an unexpected “milestone,” having sat Maduro next to right-wing presidents in last year’s VI Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Summit in Mexico City.

On the reelection campaign trail, Lula has stated that “Bolsonaro is worse than Maduro” in order to distance himself from the Venezuelan leader. However, there are no harsh tensions between Lula and Maduro and if the former president reaches power again, Brazil could offer Caracas different types of political and economic backing. While in prison, Lula publicly acknowledged his support for Venezuela against U.S. aggression. Whether he will continue to do so… remains to be seen.

In conclusion, these confrontations can be seen as part of a (pragmatic) political rhetoric, but their protagonists could end up aligned if there is strong leadership that prioritizes the defense of the region’s interests.

Would tensions persist or fade away?

Maduro has not opened fire or responded directly to criticism spawning from other leaders. He hopes that once in office, they will progressively backtrack their political approach towards Venezuela. With these potential progressive governments, the scenario of an invasion or increased pressure against Caracas is going out the window.

An example of this “slow normalization of relations” is Petro’s response to Maduro’s swipe about a “cowardly left.” The Colombian politician took the barb for himself and set even more distance from Caracas:

I suggest Maduro stop his insults. Cowards are those who do not embrace democracy.

Although Petro continues to clash with Maduro, at the same time he has offered to resume relations if he wins Colombia’s presidential vote on May 29. This could be the final blow to the U.S. interventionist agenda against Venezuela, currently sustained by the Iván Duque administration.

The same applies to Pedro Castillo. Even amidst his ambivalent position and Peru’s internal crisis, the progressive leader has recognized the Maduro government, condemning to the hall of historical failures the once-powerful Lima Group, which coordinated the attack against Venezuela in the last five years.

All these regional leaders have questioned Washington’s economic blockade against Venezuela. It is true though that they have changed their speech depending on the audience they are facing. Still, the fact that they have pledged to stabilize relations with the Maduro government in itself represents an invaluable political resetting.

https://mronline.org/2022/03/12/crisis- ... ican-left/#
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Tue Mar 15, 2022 1:57 pm

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Venezuela Defines Conditions for Sale of Oil to US
March 14, 2022

The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela maintained its willingness to resume its oil trade with countries such as the United States, and even those that belong to the European Union, but it has clearly outlined the diplomatic and political conditions necessary for any exchange to take place.

Venezuela’s position was reiterated by its Minister for Foreign Affairs, Félix Plasencia, within the framework of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, in the Republic of Turkey. This international meeting of diplomats coincides with the energy crisis facing North America and Europe, due to the economic blockade they have imposed on Russia amid the military conflict in Ukraine.

“If they accept that the only and legitimate government of Venezuela is the one led by President Nicolás Maduro, US and European oil companies are welcome,” said Plasencia.

Similarly, he recalled that Venezuela has maintained a hydrocarbons exchange with the United States for over 100 years. “We did not put them out of business,” said Plasencia. “They left and imposed illegal sanctions. Now they want to come back.”

Legitimate government

Although the White House and its European friends insist on recognizing former parliamentarian Juan Guaidó as the “interim president” of Venezuela, when US delegates travelled to Miraflores Palace to meet with President Maduro on Saturday, March 7, this demonstrated who actually holds the reins of power in matters of national importance.

As part of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia held a meeting—upon his request—with the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell. Both delegations addressed issues related to the situation in Ukraine and its impact on the world stage.

Minister Plasencia reiterated that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela currently produces one million barrels of oil per day, but the projection is to increase this figure to two million by the end of 2022. In this context he thanked the support of partners such as China, Iran, and Russia.

In addition, Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister repeated the Venezuelan government and people’s condemnation of the “unacceptable and violating” illegal coercive measures imposed by Washington and the European Union upon Venezuela that prevented, by the United States’ own will, a harmonious continuation of the oil trade.

https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-de ... oil-to-us/

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Guaidó Implores Biden to Level More Sanctions Against Venezuela
March 14, 2022

While White House authorities seek rapprochement with Venezuela’s government, former deputy Juan Guaidó has called for more sanctions by the Biden administration against the Caribbean country.

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, the Venezuelan extreme right winger addressed a letter to Washington, in which he dismissed Venezuela’s ability to “produce enough crude oil to lower oil prices.”

Guaidó also rejected the Mexico Talks promoted by Biden, claiming instead that lifting US economic sanctions would constitute a “reward” for the Venezuelan government which Guaidó has tried so hard to overthrow since 2019.

The article published in the US newspaper states that “Guaidó, whom Washington recognizes as interim president of the country, was angry, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.” His frustration stemmed from the fact that the US government never notified him about the meeting with the Venezuelan head of state, Nicolás Maduro.

Frustrated empire

Currently the United States faces the first phase of an energy crisis that will worsen as Washington applies more coercive economic measures (euphemistically called “sanctions) against the Russian Federation, a nation from which the US purchases a considerable amount of oil. In 2021 Russia ranked third, behind Canada and Mexico, among source nations for US oil imports.

However, tension is also growing in US Congress due to criticisms—voiced both by Democrats and Republican—of Biden’s decision to change course on Venezuela after all the attacks, conspiracies, and illegal sanctions that led to Venezuela’s drop in oil output.

Among the strongest detractors of rapprochement with Venezuela, US Republican senator of Florida Marco Rubio stands out—one of Donald Trump’s main chips in the past administration, and Bob Menéndez, one of Biden’s most influential allies,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

https://orinocotribune.com/guaido-implo ... venezuela/
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Thu Mar 17, 2022 1:59 pm

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Venezuela defines conditions for sale of oil to U.S.
Originally published: Orinoco Tribune by José Manuel Blanco Díaz (March 14, 2022 ) | - Posted Mar 16, 2022

The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela maintained its willingness to resume its oil trade with countries such as the United States, and even those that belong to the European Union, but it has clearly outlined the diplomatic and political conditions necessary for any exchange to take place.

Venezuela’s position was reiterated by its Minister for Foreign Affairs, Félix Plasencia, within the framework of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, in the Republic of Turkey. This international meeting of diplomats coincides with the energy crisis facing North America and Europe, due to the economic blockade they have imposed on Russia amid the military conflict in Ukraine.

“If they accept that the only and legitimate government of Venezuela is the one led by President Nicolás Maduro, U.S. and European oil companies are welcome,” said Plasencia.

Similarly, he recalled that Venezuela has maintained a hydrocarbons exchange with the United States for over 100 years. “We did not put them out of business,” said Plasencia. “They left and imposed illegal sanctions. Now they want to come back.”

Legitimate government

Although the White House and its European friends insist on recognizing former parliamentarian Juan Guaidó as the “interim president” of Venezuela, when U.S. delegates travelled to Miraflores Palace to meet with President Maduro on Saturday, March 7, this demonstrated who actually holds the reins of power in matters of national importance.

As part of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia held a meeting—upon his request—with the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell. Both delegations addressed issues related to the situation in Ukraine and its impact on the world stage.


Minister Plasencia reiterated that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela currently produces one million barrels of oil per day, but the projection is to increase this figure to two million by the end of 2022. In this context he thanked the support of partners such as China, Iran, and Russia.

In addition, Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister repeated the Venezuelan government and people’s condemnation of the “unacceptable and violating” illegal coercive measures imposed by Washington and the European Union upon Venezuela that prevented, by the United States’ own will, a harmonious continuation of the oil trade.

(RedRadioVE) by José Manuel Blanco Díaz with Orinoco Tribune content. Translation: Orinoco Tribune

https://mronline.org/2022/03/16/venezue ... il-to-u-s/

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Chevron Asks US Government for License to Expand Operations in Venezuela
March 16, 2022

The United States might be set to authorize increased production for Chevron in Venezuela as a result of its ban on oil imports from Russia and the subsequent increase in fuel prices.

According to an article published by the news agency Reuters: “Chevron Corp. is preparing to take operating control of its joint ventures in Venezuela if Washington relaxes sanctions on Caracas to boost crude supplies after banning Russia’s oil imports.”

Chevron has started putting a team together to market oil from Venezuela, and once they get approval from the US, they could expand the four joint ventures they already share with state-owned PDVSA.

Such a measure would recover the production and export of crude oil from Venezuela, and would benefit the US.

However, this move was not made out of genuine or productive interest, nor is it a show of solidarity or repentance over the coercive measures imposed on Venezuela, as Chevron officials have clarified: “any new authorization will depend on whether Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro takes further political steps, two sources said, such as releasing more jailed Americans and setting a firm date for resuming negotiations with the Venezuelan opposition.”

Irrefutable realities

After the meeting with Biden’s envoys at Miraflores Palace, the president of the Venezuelan Oil Chamber (CPV), Reinaldo Quintero, explained that: “Venezuela is important for stable transnational operators like Chevron, since it can contribute at least 400,000 barrels a day to the crude oil needs of the ​​the Gulf of Mexico refineries; this includes the CITGO refineries which are an asset of PDVSA and which depended on Venezuelan crude.”

Quintero added that “we are talking about 740,000 barrels per day, or more, that Venezuela exports and that could be very important for the North American market, which is more stable, closer to home and highly competitive.”

Neither the Oil Minister and Economy Sectorial Vice President Tareck El Aissami, nor state-owned PDVSA have issued any responses to this possible expansion by Chevron in Venezuela.

https://orinocotribune.com/chevron-asks ... nezuela-2/

One can only hope that Venezuela really sticks it to Biden on this: Sanctions and blockade ended, gold reserves and CITGO returned to Venezuelan sovereignty. Given Venezuela's current conditions that would justify taking actions which might be detrimental to Russia, which has aided Venezuela in it's hour of need considerably.

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IRAN, UKRAINE, VENEZUELA: THE BUSINESS OF SABOTAGE IN THE MULTIFACTORIAL WAR

Eder Pena

16 Mar 2022 , 1:55 p.m.

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There are multiple and diverse cases in which sabotage groups have managed to twist situations and scenarios in favor of the interests of the corporations that direct the United States and Europe (Photo: Oleksandr Klimenko / Reuters)

Sabotage has been an inherent part of the unconventional war that has been implemented from the Global North to align countries that do not bow to the supremacism with which they have conceived geopolitics. These are advanced groups whose mission is to generate chaos and destabilize in order to incubate or intensify social crises.

There are multiple and diverse cases in which these groups have managed to twist situations and scenarios in favor of the interests of the corporations that direct the United States and Europe, as well as their satellites in the different continents.

NOT NEWS: SABOTAGE AGAINST THE "AXIS OF EVIL"

Only last Monday, March 14, the Intelligence of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) of Iran declared that it had dismantled a network that planned to carry out an act of sabotage at the Fordo nuclear plant, in the southwest of the country, in favor of the Israeli regime that has been trying for years to carry out acts of sabotage in the facilities.

It was about an intelligence agent of the Zionist entity who acted as a manager of a company based in Hong Kong and tried to approach an employee through one of his neighbors to stop the talks in Vienna by paying him in cash or cryptocurrencies to carry out sabotage at the plant.

On the other hand, before and after the start of military operations by the Russian Federation, the action of saboteurs linked to Ukrainian intelligence was noted to the point of being a catalyst for confrontation. On February 18, the Donbas militias, specifically from the People's Republic of Donestk, intercepted a commando of citizens who, apparently, were trying to blow up a chemical plant, two of them were neutralized and another three were arrested.

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Within the framework of the attacks of the Ukrainian army against the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, the saboteurs are the advance guard allegedly trained by the United States and NATO, their arm in Europe (Photo: Reuters)

Days before, several car bombs directed against government officials had exploded, all within the framework of bombardments with heavy artillery in violation of the Minsk Agreements and the evacuation of civilians, these events were the trigger for the subsequent military actions directed from Moscow from 24 February. A few days after the frustrated attack, on February 21, a statement from the Russian Army stated that it killed "five saboteurs" who entered its territory from Ukraine, the events occurred near the town of Mityakinskaya, in the Rostov region.

The Border Department of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) stated that a unit of its unit, together with detachments from the Southern Military District, discovered "an unknown group of two infantry vehicles that violated the Ukrainian border with Russia", which was flatly denied from the Ukrainian government.

That same day in Donetsk , another saboteur was killed when a bomb he had planted exploded at the entrance to a market near the Donetsk railway station. A bag containing a second explosive device was found at the scene.

Zaporizhia, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and third in the world, was the center of attention on March 4 when some of its facilities were attacked. After being seized by 400 Russian soldiers on February 28, and finding "a large quantity of weapons and ammunition, particularly heavy weapons" as announced by the Russian National Guard, saboteurs from the Ukrainian military establishment fired a projectile that caused a fire in a building nearby, not in one of the reactors, as the Western media pointed out in the midst of the media siege.

The disinformation campaign was reversed by the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasili Nebenzia, who denounced the fire at the nuclear plant and its real authors. Meanwhile headlines around the world accused Russia of attacking the plant and causing a catastrophe "up to 10 times greater than that of Chernobyl" in total harmony with the representatives of kyiv in the UN who accused the Russian army of "nuclear terrorism".

A Sputnik Mundo informant revealed that a paramilitary group called the "Georgian National Legion", made up of about 25 Georgians, is engaged in sabotage and reconnaissance in the Lugansk People's Republic. They are nationalist volunteers recruited from Georgia who have experience in military operations against Russia and in missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to the report, the former president of Georgia and former governor of the Ukrainian region of Odessa, Mijail Saakashvili, coordinated the financing of the group from various US funds while Mamulashvili Ushangui, a mercenary with war experience in Georgia, Abkhazia and Chechnya, commands the activities in coordination with the Ukrainian troops and secret services.

THE ENDLESS SAGA OF SABOTAGE IN VENEZUELA

There have been many acts of sabotage experienced in Venezuelan territory for more than 10 years, however they had their intense period after the so-called "Operation Guaidó" was developed, which sought, without success, the change of regime in the Bolivarian Republic through violence and chaos.

Most of these plans had international support before the self-proclamation of the former deputy, however the narrative of the "interim government" has served the satellite governments of the United States to make their complicity in the development and escalation of the aggression invisible.

The establishment of mafias within the State, collaborationist networks that schedule and execute plans to attack nerve centers that cause uneasiness and restlessness in the national community, is not taken for granted. The objective? The social confrontation and the chaos that justify the intervention.

Among the most recent events are the computer attacks on the national financial system that included the Bank of Venezuela, the main banking entity that is owned by the State and whose operations were out of service for five days. This occurred in the days prior to the monetary reconversion process that took place on October 1, seeking to strengthen the development of the digital economy.

President Nicolás Maduro declared that private banking sectors were trying to sabotage the implementation of the digital economy, to prevent users' access to direct payment instruments and thus force the use of foreign currency in cash, tactics with which they managed to disrupt the national economy in coordinated action with the sanctions implemented from the Global North and its satellite countries.

Failures in the supply of electricity, drinking water and domestic gas have also been recurrent, particularly on dates close to the electoral processes, the president denounced that in Venezuela there is an "internal and Colombian guerrilla" that is in charge of sabotaging public services .

The Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, declared that the deterioration in the country's public services has been due to the sanctions imposed, clarifying that:

"We have shown and we will continue to show every proof of how the criminal blockade has prevented Venezuela from accessing the water pumps. In writing they say we cannot supply them with parts for the electrical mechanism of the water pumping system due to the sanctions of the OFAC (the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control)."

In March 2019, the drop in electricity service affected at least 15 of the 23 states of the national territory, including the capital, reaching two national blackouts. According to the government, the first was the product of a cybernetic and electromagnetic pulse attack on the automated regulation control of the Guri hydroelectric plant system, which supplies 80 percent of the country's electricity. The second blackout was caused by an arson attack in the power generation area.

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An electromagnetic attack left almost all of Venezuela without electricity, which, added to the sanctions and internal mafias, caused countless economic losses but unlocked new levels of resistance in the national population (Photo: File)

At that time, the Venezuelan attorney general, Tarek William Saab, assured that the acts of sabotage to the electrical system sought to generate confrontations to justify foreign intervention.

Deputy William Gil, president of the Administration and Services Commission of the Legislative Branch, declared last year that:

"More than 64% of the equipment that is in Venezuela is of German and North American technology, that is, totally dependent on imported technology, which are the countries that are blocking us. In cities like Caracas, for example, we have to pump water through pipes up to 1,900 meters of altitude, which requires a great effort in pumps and electrical panels".

The attack on citizens is based on a weakness in our national infrastructure such as technological dependency and, from this, cascades of problems are produced that impact everything from food supply to public health.

In 2017, in the midst of the violent escalation (guarimbas) orchestrated by the United States Department of State, there were multiple sabotage actions that affected dams in various parts of the country, including the extraction of strategic material from the theft of cables and pipes. . More than 40 people died or were burned as a result of explosions, electrocutions or fires of electrical equipment caused by trying to cause damage and commotion in the population.

The participation of the political establishment of the United States is clear, already in 2013, just assuming the presidential mandate and at the time of the Obama administration, President Nicolás Maduro ordered the expulsion of three American diplomats who would have participated in the financing of sabotage groups, "especially active in Bolívar state" where the steel sector was facing a long strike by its workers. The president denounced that the anti-Chavista sectors, sympathetic to Washington, were preparing a "Total Collapse" plan that consisted of intensifying shortages, inflation, repeated cuts in the electricity service and various assassination attempts, always frustrated.

THE TRANSNATIONAL AND EXTRACTIVIST CIRCUIT OF SABOTAGE

The attempt to dismantle the State and the disappearance of Chavismo at its command began to advance by leaps and bounds from the moment it became a profitable business, not only for "national" but also transnational interests. The participation of geopolitical actors, such as neighboring countries and the economic interests in their charge, began to cause significant, and even extraordinary, damage to the Venezuelan infrastructure.

One of the many examples is the smuggling of goods produced or imported to Venezuela, for which the operators had the "tolerance", if not cooperation, of the Colombian governments of both Juan Manuel Santos and Iván Duque. Also from some nearby Caribbean islands like Aruba.

An investigation by the website Insightcrime.org from 2017 analyzes how Venezuela seized tons of contraband cable as part of "the flight of basic supplies in the country while the economic crisis worsens" and attributes it to "citizens taking measures desperate to earn some extra money.

In the approach of this medium, which is openly anti-Chavista, it has been a series of fortuitous events attributed to a "severe economic crisis, chronic inflation and shortages" that do not correspond to a highly financed and surgically structured plan.

It refers to the confiscation of up to 7.5 tons of copper pipes extracted from Caracas, Aragua and Carabobo, mainly, and the arrest of more than 100 people in various operations against smuggling, in addition to the capture of a ship that was heading from the coastal state of Falcón to the Caribbean islands.

The "analysis" also describes the prices of metals such as copper that were around one dollar in the Colombian border city of Cúcuta, from where the accelerated devaluation of the bolivar, the official Venezuelan currency, was orchestrated. It is inevitable to highlight the effects of this criminal chain on public services and public and private infrastructure, including schools, health centers, coal briquette factories, traffic lights and light poles.

In particular, copper, essential for telecommunications, was one of the most desired metals by sabotage networks and their international buyers. The effects can be seen when reviewing the export figures for said metal for those years (2015-2019) by from some neighboring countries. In 2016 this metal, together with aluminium, iron, bronze, steel and other ferrous materials, were declared strategic and vital materials for the development of telecommunications, water, electricity, industry and oil exploitation services, with which an attempt was made to regulate their traffic and extraction.

According to the UN COMTRADE database on international trade, Colombia showed a rebound in its copper exports between 2015 and 2019, but after the start of the covid-19 pandemic the figures have decreased. Aluminum exports did not stop growing between 2014 and 2019, up to four times their net value, while those of iron and steel grew between 2016 and 2018.

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Aluminum exports from Colombia grew up to four times between 2014 and 2019, years in which extraction smuggling has been fundamental in the siege against Venezuela (Photo: Trading Economics)

However, a neighboring country of Venezuela like Aruba did show an unusual and extraordinary behavior of its copper and iron-steel exports during the most intense years of internal and external aggression.

Copper exports from Aruba increased 75 times between 2014 and 2015 and then increased 238 times between 2014 and 2016, this being the year in which the small island reached its maximum, the following figure shows what is indicated.

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Vertiginous increase in copper exports from Aruba, an island near Venezuela where shipments of strategic materials were intercepted since 2015, when the multiform aggression against Venezuela intensified (Photo: Trading Economics)

Regarding aluminum, the behavior of exports by Aruba is similar, between 2014 and 2016 a sustained increase can be seen but between 2016 and 2017 the value increases six times. Aruba's iron and steel exports increased 3.8 times between 2015 and 2016, but in 2017 the value was also six times higher.

It seems that Aruba is no longer a reliable extraction channel, due to the fact that the export figures for metals that are considered strategic in Venezuela have decreased. It could be assumed that some interests have opted for underreporting or underreporting the data due to the striking increases that are evident.

On March 10, Saab reported the dismantling of mafias in Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the National Electric Corporation (Corpoelec) and the Capital Region Hydrology Corporation (Hidrocapital), all of which are state-owned companies. He added that so far in 2022, 213 thousand 547 kilos of scrap metal made up of iron, aluminum and copper have been seized that have been illegally marketed, the actions have led to the apprehension of 439 people (inside and outside the companies). ), of which 326 have been deprived of liberty, 96 received precautionary measures and 17 in full liberty.

The extraction and smuggling circuits of strategic materials have sophisticated strategies and complex triangulations that mutate and infiltrate institutions. It is curious that the blackouts in regional entities such as Zulia, where the newly elected governor, Manuel Rosales, is anti- Chavista , are no longer news. Until a few months ago, together with the lack of water, they were a reason for profound disruption of daily life.

Certainly the sanctions and their multiform effects have affected the operation of many public services, however the media pressure, disguised as a complaint, exerts an added destabilization and collective anguish when it determines at its own discretion which problems are important and which are not.

Finally, questions about technological dependency have been raised in different State companies and collective answers are being sought to prevent the repetition of complicated scenarios due to problems that can be resolved with audacity and determination. It's up to a class that knows that the war in progress was invented to crush it, having it clear helps not to have a purchase price.

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Mon Apr 04, 2022 2:08 pm

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Daniel Ceballos Shocks Guaidó: ‘He doesn’t Represent Anyone’
April 3, 2022
Extreme right-wing Venezuelan politician Daniel Ceballos definitively rejected the authority of the self-proclaimed “interim president” Juan Guaidó, and asserted that the former deputy does not represent anyone in Venezuela.

Ceballos also recognized President Nicolás Maduro as acting head of state, thus trying to distance himself from the violent groups with which he shared responsibility of organizing the violent acts during the guarimbas, both in 2014 and in 2017.

Ceballos, who was a former mayor of San Cristóbal municipality in Táchira state, said that opposition supporters “have been told that with Maduro in power nothing can be done. That thesis is wrong; the president is Nicolás Maduro.“

He added that Venezuela has evolved in recent times, as well as all Venezuelans and Venezuelan political sectors. For this reason, citizens have an interest in politics and wish to solve their problems, and to live and work.

Ceballos against Leopoldo López

With all this, Ceballos made clear that the self-proclaimed Juan Guaidó “no longer represents anyone in the country.” Regarding Leopoldo López, Ceballos stated that he is far removed from the reality that Venezuela lives, and that the Voluntad Popular (VP) wing that López controls lacks internal democracy.

“Popular Will is not Leopoldo’s party,” said Ceballos. “Nor is it the party of Ceballos, Noriega or Guaidó. It is the party that responds to the will of Venezuelans who want to participate in democracy.”

He also admitted that in 2014 he himself accompanied López in the violent coup attempt that they named La Salida [The Exit] and even defended López when he was incarcerated and facing a judicial procedure. However, he denied that López, a fugitive from Venezuelan justice, formerly his ally, has recently launched a smear campaign against him.


Featured image: Daniel Ceballos (left) and Leopoldo López (right) participating in the coup attempt La Salida in 2014, before their arrest. File photo

(RedRadioVE) by José Manuel Blanco Díaz

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

https://orinocotribune.com/daniel-cebal ... nt-anyone/

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Venezuela Denounces New Terrorist Plans by Colombia’s Iván Duque
April 4, 2022

This Saturday, April 2, President Nicolás Maduro denounced his Colombian counterpart Iván Duque for ordering extremist sectors of the Venezuelan right to deepen their terrorist attacks against the country.

During a phone call with the authorities of the Somos Venezuela movement, the Venezuelan president reported that sectors of the right met in Bogotá and received an order from Duque to deepen the terrorist attacks against public services, before the Colombian president ends his term.

The head of state warned: ”Recently, they held a meeting of extremists in Bogotá and received an order from Iván Duque to deepen the terrorist attacks before he leaves the presidency on August 7. As well as the sabotage of social life and public services in Venezuela.”

Likewise, he explained that the target of the attacks ordered by Duque is to sabotage social life and public services, such as the national electricity system and drinking water.

Maduro instructed the working class and the security forces to be on alert and protect the operation of public services.

He added: “You have to take care of the electrical system, it is the central objective of sabotage. Attention to the security forces, attention to popular power, attention to the working class. To take care of the electrical service. To take care of the water service.”

In that sense, he called for protecting the process of recovery and economic growth that Venezuela is currently experiencing.

He urged everyone to take care of the stability and security of the country, since the Venezuelan people showed that they want to continue peace, progress, prosperity and that they want to advance.

“Let no one dare to continue with their little wars against the currency, against trade. We are advancing at a good pace in the economic recovery and it will continue like this,” he assured.

Finally, he urged the Venezuelan people to join efforts to consolidate a new era of expansion and consolidation of policies aimed at favoring the majority.



Featured image: Iván Duque receiving Venezuelan fugitive Leopoldo López in Bogotá, December 2020. Photo: EFE.

(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Sat Apr 09, 2022 1:50 pm

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Venezuela Delivers 4 Millionth House to Population
April 8, 2022

The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, announced this Thursday, April 7, that the goal of building four million homes, which was set by the Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela [Great Venezuela Housing Mission] (GMVV), had been reached.

“We have reached four million houses through the Great Venezuela Housing Mission, a world record for houses built by the hands of workers, community members, men and women,” he said from the Miraflores Palace, from where he led the delivery ceremony remotely.

He affirmed that the government has not stopped and will work for the next milestone of five million homes. “We have set this goal and we are going to meet and exceed it,” he added.

“Between April and May, in 2024, we will reach five million homes,” stressed the president, who also said that the idea is to replace working class barrios with “developed, dignified, decent and comfortable” urban spaces.

The milestone of the four millionth home was delivered in the Juan Antonio Sotillo municipality of Anzoátegui state, in the Battle of Bomboná urban development, which was built following a request made by a resident of the area -five months earlier- in a broadcast with president Maduro.

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The president affirmed that the milestone was reached despite the difficulties that the country has gone through in economic matters as a result of the blockade and sanctions.

“In times of prosperity, houses were built and in times of difficulty as well, because we have learned to do more with less, thanks to our father, Hugo Chávez, and his teachings,” he stressed.

He added that with the stage of economic recovery that Venezuela is going through, “the Bolivarian welfare state is being reborn,” for which he regretted that milestones like these or the salary recovery recently being push by the government are not reviewed by the Western and local media, and political actors that choose to blame him, without looking at the whole picture of the complex situation lived by the country in recent years.

The head of state stressed that it is not only about the construction of houses, but that each urban development must be economically active, with clinics, CDI (diagnostic centers), schools and everything necessary for the inhabitants.

House delivery day

During the ceremony, which was broadcast on radio and television, the mayor of Caracas Carmen Meléndez led the delivery of 92 multi-family homes to workers in the “Fuerte Tiuna Simón Bolívar” urban development.

In this urban planning area, more than 10,000 apartments have already been delivered, and currently there are 5,800 more under construction.

For his part, in the “Villas de Los Rosales” urban development, located in Mérida, Governor Jehyson Guzmán handed over 25 single-family homes. This urban planning zone was built by the community together with State institutions.

“It is part of the networking through the popular power, and thanks to the Great Venezuela Housing Mission, we are witnessing the delivery of these homes,” said Guzmán.

Announcements about the housing sector
The head of state announced the revival of production at the Petrocasa company, guaranteeing the supply of raw material by Pequiven, needed for the housing program.

The aim is to establish -he explained- a production plan that will reach 15,000 metric tons of PVC processing by the year 2024.

In addition, he announced a method for attracting private sources of resources for the GMVV through two modalities. The first includes the stock market with the “invest, save and build your home” method, and the second consists of a credit instrument designed by the beneficiary, according to their ability to pay.

Another announcement was made regarding the activation of the Higher Body of Construction, in seven entities, and the Communal Body for Good Living, which grants greater participation to organized popular power to improve the environment in urban developments, based on the identification of needs.

Hospitals and education

The president urged the nation “to make broad improvements on all social fronts,” especially in education, to strengthen its quality and recover institutions at a structural level.

He indicated that educational institutions had suffered deterioration as a result of the sanctions, but assured that work is being done to recover “all the institutions of the country.”

In addition, the president asserted that “the time has come for us to recover and take back the country’s hospitals from the mafias.”

“We are going to recover all the hospitals in the country from the mafias, let the people know, I have the support of the community of health professionals in Venezuela,” he asserted.



Featured image: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with part of his cabinet during the awarding ceremony of house #four million, delivered through the Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela program, at Miraflores Palace in Caracas. Photo: Presidential Press.

(Últimas Noticias) by Robert Araujo

Translation: Orinoco Tribune


https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-de ... opulation/

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María Corina Machado Fantasizes about Holding Her Own Elections
April 7, 2022

From various factions of the Venezuelan extreme right, representatives continue to join the route towards the 2024 presidential elections. However, in the case of the far-right politician María Corina Machado, it is evident that she is fantasizing about carrying out an election process that only adheres to her own whims and conditions.

This was revealed by the representative of the Vente Venezuela movement by posting a video to her Twitter account, in which she raises what she considers to be a legitimate proposal before the Venezuelan people. In the video she suggests holding primary elections between the groups of opposition, but without taking into account the legitimate institutions of the state.

According to Machado, the five conditions for having a “real” election are as follows: “Zero CNE (electoral authority), zero TSJ (Supreme Court), zero Republic Plan (military operation to safeguard voting ballots), and zero electronic voting machines (manual vote instead).” She also suggested including those who are abroad, which obviously also refers to fugitive opposition leaders.

However, she did not offer details with regards to what would be the platform, organization or company in charge of channeling that voting process. However, her speech recalled her years as founder of the Súmate company, which was proven to have fraudulent operations in collecting signatures to recall former President Hugo Chavez.

Is Machado getting it?

Similarly, the spokeswoman tries to impose her version of “the truth,” on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For this reason, she assumes all the accusations against the national electoral system as true.

On the other hand, María Machado attacked the sectors of the opposition that did decide to comply with the period established by the Constitution for the elections. That being said, they decided and are working hard to go to the polls in 2024, within the framework of the elections for the presidency of the Republic, as defined by the Venezuelan Magna Carta.

The far-right leader also dismissed any indicator of recovery that the country is currently experiencing; as well as the advances in terms of joint work between the Venezuelan State and entities such as the ICC and even the US government, as has been recently demonstrated.



Featured image: María Corina Machado this Thursday, April 6, in her latest Twitter video telling Venezuelans how to get rid of the “dictatorship.” Photo: Video screenshot by Orinoco Tribune.

(RedRadioVE) by José Manuel Blanco Díaz, with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune


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Credit Suisse Corrects Venezuela Economic Growth Estimate from 4.5% to 20%
April 8, 2022

Caracas, April 7, 2022 (OrinocoTribune.com)—The investment bank Credit Suisse, based in Switzerland, adjusted their projections on the growth of the Venezuelan economy and estimated that the national gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 20% by the end of 2022, correcting the previous estimate of 4.5%.

“For 2023 we are also increasing our GDP growth forecast to 8% from a previous estimate of 3%,” read a part of the report. “These are not typos! If we are accurate, these might end up being among the strongest growth prints globally for these years.”

Similarly, it indicated that the increase in oil production, tied to a lifting of oil sanctions by the US government, contributes favorably to Venezuela’s economy.

Inflation will continue to slow down, added Credit Suisse, estimating that it will be at 70% for this year, thus modifying the previous forecast that was around 150%.


Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was among the first to report the information with a post on his Twitter account on Wednesday, sharing a page of Credit Suisse’s report along with a note: “Credit Suisse regarding Venezuela. Gloria al Bravo Pueblo (“glory to the brave people,” a line from Venezuelan national anthem.”

Since March 9, 2015, when Democratic Party President Barack Obama signed Executive Order #13692, declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” Venezuela formally entered the growing list of illegally sanctioned countries. Prior to the executive order, the country was already being targeted by various unilateral coercive measures—euphemistically called sanctions—particularly in the military and oil sectors.

With the arrival of Republican President Donald Trump, the “sanctions” attack on Venezuela reached unprecedented levels, catapulting the country into the top five most-sanctioned countries, and in practical terms blockading the Venezuelan economy by boycotting any attempts by the national petroleum company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), to fulfil its regular oil production and oil exporting operations. This caused a decrease of 99% in the national revenue of Venezuela in 2020, in comparison with the previous year.

Despite all these powerful external factors damaging the Venezuelan economy, President Nicolás Maduro’s administration and the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) launched, in August 2018, an economic program that achieved a GDP growth of 4% in 2021, and put an end to the hyperinflationary spiral last December, as Venezuela concluded 12 consecutive months registering monthly inflation below 50%. This week, the BCV reported a monthly inflation of only 1.4% amid an international scenario marked by an inflationary epidemic caused by the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic upon the capitalist economic system—particularly in the “developed” countries of the North—now exacerbated by the Ukrainian conflict.



Featured image: Venezuelans doing lines for last minute Christmas shopping last December 2021 in the Sambil shopping center, Caracas. File photo.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff


https://orinocotribune.com/credit-suiss ... 4-5-to-20/
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