Venezuela

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Fri Oct 14, 2022 2:26 pm

Dramatic Development in Venezuela’s Fight for Gold Seized by Bank of England
OCTOBER 10, 2022

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Gold ingots being piled on a table. Photo: RedRadioVE/File photo.

Saturday, October 8, Venezuelan Vice Minister for Anti-Blockade Policies William Castillo reported, through his Twitter account, on the progress of the Venezuelan government’s claims on Venezuelan gold reserves seized by the Bank of England.

“The judge handling the case of the Venezuelan gold confiscated in the Bank of England authorizes the legitimate representation of Venezuela (BCV) to appeal the decision (before the same judge) that had ruled [previously] in favor of Guaidó,” wrote Castillo, communicating an important development pertaining to Venezuela’s legal battle to regain gold reserves seized by the United Kingdom.

On Wednesday, October 5, the BCV welcomed the decision of the English Court of Appeal concerning the legal claim against the Bank of England. In the statement, it highlights that: “the unusual decision issued by the judge on July 2, 2020—that attempted to ignore the legitimate authorities of the Central Bank of Venezuela and the inalienable rights of the legitimate Venezuelan institution over the assets of the Republic, seized by the Bank of England—was dismissed.”

For his part, the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, recently stated that “Venezuelans know that this gold will arrive in the country sooner rather than later. It is not surprising that at any moment they [the British] come around requesting anything that we have here.”

Unsafe place to store foreign assets

It should be noted that McEvoy wrote: “the United Kingdom’s decision to recognize Guaidó, and to freeze Venezuela’s gold, was taken under pressure from the US, although the US is (gradually) normalizing relations with Venezuela, given the context of rising oil prices internationally.”

For now, the Venezuelan government hopes that there will be a date to introduce the appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice of the United Kingdom. In addition, he added that, “the Bank of England can no longer be seen as a safe place to store foreign assets.”

In an informative Twitter thread, McEvoy added the following relevant comments:

• Justice Cockerill, the judge overseeing the case, noted that the legal issues at stake here are “effectively unprecedented.” She thus allowed the “Maduro Board” to appeal her own decision—a rare judgment.
• The “Maduro Board” argued in court that, if the “Guaidó Board” was allowed to give instructions to the Bank of England regarding Venezuelan assets, these assets could then be transferred to the personal accounts of Guaidó and his associates.
• The “Maduro Board” further argued that Venezuelan assets held in the UK could be used to fund an armed insurrection in Venezuela. This would put the UK in a dangerous, embarrassing, and virtually unprecedented position.
• Specifically, the “Maduro Board” referred to a book published by former US Secretary of Defence Mark T. Esper, in which he described discussions with Guaidó about a “special operation targeted directly at Maduro.”
• While the UK courts are assessing technical matters of law, this is a political case, as it rests on the UK’s recognition of Guaidó as Venezuelan president in 2019.
• The UK’s decision to recognize Guaidó, and to freeze Venezuela’s gold, was made under US pressure. The US is now (gradually) normalizing relations with Venezuela, in light of the international oil context.
• It remains possible that the UK will hand over Venezuelan state assets to Guaidó, even while the US government distances itself from him. This is a farcical situation that the UK finds itself in.
• There is not yet a date for the appeal, but I will update this thread when there is. It’s an incredibly important issue—a matter of modern-day piracy—which the UK press has either downplayed or ignored.

https://orinocotribune.com/dramatic-dev ... f-england/

Venezuela Rejects Arbitrary & Illegal Plan to Sell CITGO Shares
OCTOBER 13, 2022

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CITGO headquarters in Huston, Texas, with the flags of the US, Venezuela, Texas and CITGO. Photo: Reuters.

This Wednesday, October 12, Venezuela issued a statement rejecting the arbitrary decision of the US, regarding to the judicial sale of the shares of the state-owned company CITGO Petroleum, belonging to PDV Holding, a company owned by Petróleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA).

The document was shared by the Ministry for Petroleum’s Twitter account, on Wednesday afternoon.

According to the text released by the Alí Rodríguez Araque Presidential Commission (formed by President Nicolás Maduro to consolidate the Venezuelan oil industry), Venezuela rejects the illegal order issued by a judge of the US District of Delaware, Leonard P. Stark, which establishes a set of procedures for an alleged judicial sale of the shares of CITGO.


Part of the text indicates that, “the Venezuelan State completely rejects this reckless decision; tainted with arbitrariness and veiled with partiality by the judge who dictates it, who, aligned with the company Crystallex International Corp (Crystallex), which is part of the international framework, responding to the hegemonic and imperial power of the United States of America, thus deepening its multiform war and its intention to indiscriminately plunder the assets belonging to the Venezuelan people.”

Last Monday, news agencies reported that US federal judge, Leonard P. Stark, presented and approved an auction schedule to sell shares of the Venezuelan state-owned company CITGO Petroleum which, if carried out, could lead to the dismantling of the most valuable Venezuelan asset abroad.

Stark, “approved the sale of shares in PDV Holding, whose only asset is CITGO shares, to pay Canadian mining corporation, Crystallex, $970 million,” on the grounds of a litigation for the expropriation of a mine in Venezuela, a litigation that was plagued with irregularities.

https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-re ... go-shares/

Fake News About Las Tejerías Tragedy Uncovered
OCTOBER 13, 2022

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Screenshots of local leader of Las Tejerias Isaac Castillo as he is being interview by Telesur. Photo: Telesur.

Media manipulation gets rowdy when there are moments of crisis, with the clear intention of generating opinion trends that add to a particular interest. Therefore, it was not surprising that some media played disinformation and tried to create fake news in the current situation in Las Tejerías, Aragua state, where a landslide has taken the lives of more than 40 Venezuelans. More than 50 also remain missing.

In social networks, an inhabitant and survivor of this tragedy went viral last Tuesday and Wednesday, stating that the government authorities and state security forces were not letting in humanitarian aid for the victims of Las Tejerías.

The media and various websites that lend themselves to these false scenarios or fake news quickly took advantage of those seconds of the video to accuse and rant against the government of Nicolás Maduro. Once again they pointed out that they were not helping the people of Las Tejerías, and that the aid was being withheld. When, in reality, absolutely the opposite is happening.

It should be noted that from the very moment the avalanche occurred, Venezuelan authorities have been taking care of the inhabitants of the sector, and a command made up of several agencies has been created to help, search and rescue those affected. The Venezuelan government has been present in Las Tejerías since day zero of the tragedy; and has guaranteed the recovery and care of those who need it.

Fake fallen

Later, this same person, named Isaac Castillo, who was visibly upset in the initial video, gave much calmer statements to Telesur’s journalist Madelein Garcia. He expressed that he already understood how the authorities are working at the moment and that he spoke directly with Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, who has been present all the time in Las Tejerias at the instructions of the president.

In the video the Venezuelan Vice President can be seen explaining the whole distribution of aid and emergency response kits to Castillo and telling him that 23 distribution centers were created; all of them with an Army General in charge, to handle the distribution of all the aid and avoid chaotic aid distribution scenarios.

In addition, the reason why they are centralizing all the aid that arrives at the distribution centers, is to carry out an equitable distribution, Vice President Rodriguez explained to him. He also let the public know that he has seen the Army delivering food and emergency relief kits by air but he also explained that the organized community—that he is part off—has organized to also deliver that aid by foot.


The ease and speed with which some media outlets distort and manipulate what actually happens is evident. They very often participate in fake news with very selfish intentions, especially in hard times like those experienced in Las Tejerías. Sometimes they manage to confuse public opinion, but the truth about Venezuela always comes to light.

https://orinocotribune.com/fake-news-ab ... uncovered/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Sun Oct 16, 2022 3:02 pm

US Foreign Policy Impasse Over Venezuela: Contending With Self-Inflicted Contradictions
OCTOBER 15, 2022

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Former US President Donald J. Trump delivers a speech to the Venezuelan American community at the Florida International University Ocean Bank Convocation Center Monday, Feb. 18, 2019 in Miami, Florida. Photo: White House/Andrea Hanks.

By Roger D. Harris – Oct 12, 2022

The seamless official policy of the Trump and Biden administrations has been that Juan Guaidó is Venezuela’s “interim president.” The US is thusly caught in the self-inflicted fiction of having to deal with a powerless puppet because it does not accept the democratically elected Nicolás Maduro. Although Trump has at least retreated to Mar-a-Lago, Guaidó keeps on asking to be invited to the party, much to Biden’s embarrassment.

A related conundrum of its own making is the US sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry and at the same time needing the fuel. It wasn’t so long ago that Venezuela supplied the US with a significant amount of its daily petroleum consumption. Now Uncle Sam finds himself confronted with price inflation at the gas pump and the inevitability of negotiating with a government it does not recognize.

Similarly, the US is faced with an influx of Venezuelan immigrants fleeing economic conditions themselves caused by the US sanctions. “Because the US ended diplomatic relations with the Maduro government,” the New York Times reports, “Venezuelan migrants cannot be easily sent back—a key reason they are arriving at the border in waves,” in the first place.

Juan Guaidó – pretend president of Venezuela
When the US first picked the then 35-year-old US security asset as president of Venezuela, it must have come as a surprise to his constituents. A national poll showed that 81% of them did not recognize the name Juan Guaidó, who had never even run in a national election.

Guaidó had become head of Venezuela’s National Assembly in January 2019 when, in a rotational scheme, it was his party’s turn to designate that position. The US government didn’t care for the leftist Venezuelan president and vice president. So, disregarding the people’s democratic vote, the US chose to anoint the person who just became third in the leadership succession according to the Venezuelan constitution.

A measure of the US’s imperial influence, over fifty countries initially followed the US dictate and recognized Guaidó. Always more popular abroad than at home, Guaidó went on an international tour, where he was fawned upon by both US President Trump and House Speaker Pelosi. Meanwhile, the UN and a majority of the sovereign states of the world continued to recognize the Maduro government.

Currently, Mr. Guaidó is still the designated “interim president” of Venezuela for the US, although only a handful of other states still maintain that fantasy. He is no longer even a deputy in the National Assembly, obviating any constitutional claim to leadership.

Last March and June, high level US delegations visited Venezuela to meet directly with President Maduro, while snubbing the hapless Guaidó. When Biden hosted his “Democracy Summit” for the Organization of American States (OAS), also in June, Juan Guaidó was not on the guest list of hemispheric heads of state.

This October 6, nineteen countries voted to oust Guaidó’s delegation as the recognized representative of Venezuela at the OAS foreign ministers meeting; only four voted in favor. Although the vote failed to get the required 24-vote supermajority for expulsion, Guaidó’s “envoy” chose to forego attending the meeting in Lima. The Peruvian capital had previously lent its name to the “Lima Group” of anti-Venezuelan nations. But, as the current Peruvian Foreign Minister Cesar Landa noted, that group has “ceased to exist.”

New York Times counsels the US empire on how to be more efficient
William Neuman in a The New York Times opinion piece advises: “The US cannot uphold the fiction that Juan Guaidó is the president of Venezuela.” The former Times reporter and Andes region bureau chief offers to help the imperialists with their “incoherence” problem.

Noting that “the Guaidó gambit has failed and that most Venezuelans, and most of the international community, have moved on,” he states: “the fact is that Mr. Maduro is president of Venezuela and Mr. Guaidó is not.”

Neuman praises Guaidó for showing courage. And, indeed, it takes nerve for the pretend president to show his face in public. Guaidó’s championing of repressive US sanctions against Venezuela has made him profoundly unpopular. In a recent video, Guaidó gets physically roughed up by his own people on a visit to the state of Sucre.

Neuman admits that the US-backed opposition “never had a viable plan, beyond vague hopes for a military coup or for US intervention.” Although these are far from democratic forms of political expression, the former Times reporter still maintains that the opposition is the “primary political force in the country committed to democracy and the defense of human rights.”

The US has expended tens of millions of dollars to foster an opposition in Venezuela loyal to US foreign policy. But to paraphrase the nursery rhyme, “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put the opposition together again.” Neuman laments: “Venezuelans are fed up with opposition parties that often seem more interested in fighting with each other than in improving the country’s fortunes.”

In a tellingly truthful admission, Neuman notes: “Today, Mr. Maduro is stronger than he was three years ago, and the opposition is in disarray.”

Venezuelan government talks with the opposition stalled
At Washington’s urging, the Maduro administration had been negotiating with the opposition. But Caracas withdrew from the talks a year ago to protest the kidnapping of a Venezuelan diplomat by the US. On October 16, 2021, Venezuelan special envoy Alex Saab was abducted from his US-mandated detention in Cabo Verde and imprisoned in Miami.

The US charged Alex Saab with conspiracy to money launder. Venezuela maintains that the diplomat was procuring humanitarian supplies in legal international trade. Further, he is supposed to be protected from arrest and detention under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, to which the US is a party.

The US wants Venezuela back at the negotiating table with the opposition. But Venezuela has made the release of Alex Saab a condition for their return. Both parties agree that Saab was instrumental in helping circumvent the crippling US sanctions against Venezuela.

Possible thawing of US-Venezuela relations
Now that inflation has soared in the US and internationally, due in part to fuel shortages driven by US-led sanctions on oil producers such as Venezuela (and Russia), Washington may be compelled to confront the blowback from its regime-change policy for Venezuela.

Starting in 2017, the US had imposed a series of increasingly draconian measures with the express intent of crashing Venezuela’s oil industry, which was the country’s primary source of income. Both direct and secondary sanctions were imposed in what amounted to an oil embargo.

Venezuelanalysis reported: “The US-led economic blockade has also seen the freezing and seizure of Venezuelan assets abroad, including oil subsidiary CITGO, 31 tons of gold deposited at the Bank of England, and a number of bank accounts.”

Recently, US oil companies such as Chevron, whose profitable concessions in Venezuela were shuttered by the sanctions, have been pressuring the Biden administration to allow them to resume operations.

The need for the US to relax sanctions to again allow Venezuela to export oil to its former largest customer became even more manifest when the OPEC+ cartel (which includes Russia) voted on October 6 to cut oil exports by two million barrels to maintain high prices by limiting supply.

The Wall Street Journal speculated that same day that the “US looks to ease Venezuela sanctions” in hopes of stimulating oil production in Venezuela. The industry publication OilPrice.Com reported, “US considers easing Venezuela sanctions to boost oil supply,” which was echoed by the Business Standard, Politico, and MarketWatch.

Nevertheless, the Biden administration has so far been quick to quash any rumors of détente. A spokesperson for the US National Security Council immediately assuaged any US congressional fears from either side of the aisle that Washington’s illegal and murderous strategy was about to end: “Our sanctions policy on Venezuela remains unchanged.”

That policy paralysis could evolve after the political pressures of mid-term US elections are past. The US may find it has to revisit its sanctions on Venezuela, which in turn could lead to dumping Juan Guaidó as “interim president” and even freeing imprisoned diplomat Alex Saab.

https://orinocotribune.com/us-foreign-p ... adictions/

Venezuela Opposition Primaries to Be Held in June 2023, Reuters Says
OCTOBER 15, 2022

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Featured image: A banner with the text "Plataforma Unitaria Democratica" (Unitary Democratic Platform) being fixed on a wall of a room before a press conference. Photo: Punto de Corte/File photo.

The Venezuelan opposition primary elections may be held in June 2023, as reported by Reuters, that had consulted “two sources familiar with the matter.”

In an article published this Friday, October 14, Reuters reported that the far-right section of the Venezuelan opposition agreed to hold primary elections to elect a single candidate for the 2024 presidential elections, by the end of June 2023.

Allegedly, the decision was made by the leaders of this political sector of the opposition during a meeting in Panama, which was held earlier this week. It raised concerns among many that it was not reported by any Venezuelan news outlet until Reuters published its English language piece on the matter.

It is expected that the official announcement for the holding of the internal elections will be made by the Unitary Platform next week.

According to the sources consulted by Reuters, the 10 main opposition parties in Venezuela agreed on the date. However, the sources were not certain about what will happen to the so-called interim presidency of former deputy Juan Guaidó.

Since 2019 Guaidó has asserted everywhere that he is heading an “interim government” in Venezuela. However, three years later, he has lost most of what little international support that he had to begin with. He is losing more and more “authority” over the assets stolen from the country, as happened with Monómeros, which has recently been returned to the control of the constitutional government of Venezuela, headed by President Maduro.

Guaidó has never had any kind of authority in the Venezuelan State, or in any of its territory, and his only capital was a group of 50 countries that the US pushed to recognize him but that, according to the most recent count, has dwindled to 10. Guaidó’s access to Venezuelan assets abroad is largely thanks to Washington underhandedly granting him said assets, utilizing piracy tricks and its control over the international financial system.

Venezuelan presidential elections are scheduled to be held in 2024, as established by the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Although President Maduro recently joked with the governor of the Miranda state, Héctor Rodríguez, about the possibility of early elections, the reality is that the National Electoral Council (CNE) has the last word on this issue. According to rules, the election will be scheduled for the month of December 2024.

Currently, several opposition leaders are campaigning throughout the country, demanding certain conditions for the internal primaries to be held.

One of them is the leader of Vente Venezuela, María Corina Machado, who does not want the electoral authority (CNE) to be involved in the primary elections at all. She is also asking that Venezuelans abroad to be allowed to vote in the US, where Guaidó’s “diplomats” control the embassy and consulates largely thanks to his big brother in Washington.

However, the CNE and its instances are part of the constitutional and historical logistics for presidential elections in Venezuela, which Machado will have to abide by if she wins the primaries.

https://orinocotribune.com/saturday-nig ... june-2023/

Venezuela Arrests US Citizen Linked to Colombian Paramilitary Terrorists
OCTOBER 15, 2022

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Featured image: Venezuelan army commandos deployed in the border area with Colombia where Colombian paramilitary gangs spread chaos and violence on a regular basis. Photo: Twitter/@CEOFANB/File photo.

Venezuela detained a US citizen for his alleged links with Colombian terrorist groups, called TANCOL by Venezuelan authorities, in Apure state, bordering Colombia.

The man of US nationality identified as Michell Travis Francois was detained in Puerto Páez, Pedro Camejo municipality, in the state of Apure; according to the report of the agents assigned to the River Detachment 354 of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), quoted on Friday, October 14, by the Venezuelan news agency Últimas Noticias.

Military sources indicated that Francois was seized with 704,000 Colombian pesos, 20 dollars, two cell phones, two bags containing clothing, personal items, candies and drinks inside.

The Venezuelan government denounces that the so-called TANCOL (Colombian Drug Trafficking Armed Terrorists) are made up of groups of “up to 100 terrorists trained and financed in Colombia,” who seek to traffic cocaine and launch attacks against military, police, and political targets in other countries. Particularly in Venezuela, in order to remove President Nicolás Maduro from power.

In September 2020, Maduro reported the capture of a US citizen who was doing espionage work in two refineries in the state of Falcón (north).

https://orinocotribune.com/saturday-nig ... errorists/

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VENEZUELA, THE UNITED STATES AND THE REGION: WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Diego Sequera

Oct 15, 2022 , 1:53 p.m.

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We are witnessing the return to the center of the action of the indirect approach (Photo: AP Photo)

After the arrival of Biden to the White House, relations between Venezuela and the United States seemed relegated to a passive-aggressive lethargy, now against the backdrop of the great global disorder, what can be inferred from the different events, actions and decisions in the matter, with its respective regional extension, that could be taking shape?

An enumeration as chaotic as the panorama could perhaps approximate some ideas with some form.

1. MIDTERM AND ANXIETY

Inflation and fuel prices; obscene and growing inequality; Democrats declaring general mobilization after the Supreme Court ruling against Roe v. Wade (the federal law that makes termination of pregnancy legal), (at least part of) the Republicans calling to arms after the FBI raid on Donald Trump's personal resort in Florida; all against Vladimir Putin; migration wars (open borders versus the wall); democracy threatened by MAGA, reactionary, retrograde white supremacism or the trans, migratory dictatorship, against white privilege, etc., all packaged by the alleged "cultural wars" on both sides where everything becomes existential, and comes to light as an apparent combat between good and evil, depending on which side is chosen.

The usual metaphor is to compare the election campaign as a horse race, to all such election cycles, but in this case, as one commentator would put it, one that "looks more like a manufactured race in which every horse is in betamethasone and the race is on its fourth billionth lap.

According to the AdImpact monitor, in this campaign cycle until the end of September, both sides have spent 6.4 billion dollars in advertising for all positions at all levels of the race (gubernatorial, congress, senate and local) on television, radio and digital ads. It is estimated that for the day of the elections, in November, the figure will rise to 9.7 billion, surpassing the electoral days of 2018 (also mid-term) and 2020 (presidential).

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This busy environment, saturated with political spots around a specific number of topics, already says a lot about the urgency and the need to maintain a state of tension and attention, reinstating the label of "the most important elections of our lives ".

That atmosphere of apparent extreme mobilization, where the decisive character of the voting day of November 8 is intended to be installed, responds very little to the needs or problems that afflict the average voter, regardless of the election and the state where they live.

The narrative breeding ground enables the possibility that political actors use any number of performative elements that turn the attention on the television waves or the bits in social networks to put presumed points on presumed i's.

An example, sending flights or buses full of Latino migrants from receiving states (Florida, Texas) to the emblematic heart of Democratic states like a shipment of Venezuelans from Florida to the island of Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts, to turn them into a political manifesto and the same blow, demonstrate a strong and decisive hand to deal with the problem. As did the governor, and candidate for re-election in Florida, Ron De Santis.

Foreign policy actions that conflict with the domestic one are a common resource ( Pelosi in Taiwan ), as a tactic to gain attention and a few points up in the polls. In these elections, it is clear that the case of Venezuelan migration is playing a prominent role, and the cost in damage to migrant lives is irrelevant if the political effect is effective.

But, as is also demonstrable, all these sub-themes within the spectrum of the exacerbation of "culture wars" (which have a real base in the population) are hardly an incentive for other interests.

Any more or less sober analysis that follows the electoral reality points to the fact that the main issue, which crosses states, political and geographical identities in a general way, are pocketbook issues : salary, economic stability and, above all, the threat of an economic recession on the horizon .

Seen this way, any magnification that reproduces ideological borders outside of specific material elements is, precisely, a distraction mechanism from what actually keeps people on edge.

The enormous electoral showbusiness apparatus , apart from being in itself a massive circular economy mechanism, is anything but the opportunity in life to elect those who attend to the needs and urgencies of a population hit hard by the various succession crises.

And what is done and not done regarding Venezuela (especially regarding its immigration issue in the United States), will take on a special emphasis in recent weeks, in elections where, beyond the noise, it is expected that the Republicans will win. on most fronts, despite the fact that De Santis' maneuver did not have the desired impact with, precisely, the Venezuelan vote in South Florida.

2. THE PRAGMATIC AND THE URGENT

For the Biden administration, not everything is electoral, even if it is an urgency for the Democrats in government who control both legislative chambers and the executive branch. Despite the label of the "most important elections in the universe," it will be difficult for what has been done in recent weeks to change the focus of attention of the electorate, because the focus will remain on economic issues and the result is predictable.

So in this practical calculation the issue goes beyond the November 8 elections and in those terms it is the presidential ones that set the tone, and the price of fuel is one of the main ones to ensure, even if territory is lost now in November, the possibility of continuity in the White House.

It is here where the dialogues with Venezuela and its variables reappear with more zeal.

On March 7, President Nicolás Maduro in a public act announced that a meeting had taken place between his government and a high-level commission sent by the White House. The same day, at a press conference, the executive's spokesperson in Washington at the time, Jen Psaki, confirmed this .

Psaki admits that the meeting addressed the energy issue, but was more emphatic in clarifying that its purpose was focused on ensuring "the well-being" of US citizens detained in Venezuela. She emphasizes that they were "a range of topics" and that they move "through different channels". After that visit, undoubtedly as a sign of good faith, Gustavo Cárdenas and Jorge Alberto Fernández were released .

On the 10th of the same month, in another round with the media, he emphasizes the two points mentioned above, recommending that journalists not focus on the conversations, with so many issues on the table. Act normal.

Other signs manifest in May. It is made public that there were new high-level contacts, also with the opposition. Where an incipient relief to the regime of unilateral coercive measures is already prefigured. AFP gives a (consoling) role to Guaidó in this request, but no other media confirms it.

In this context, on May 17, Jorge Rodríguez and Gerardo Blyde appear simultaneously on networks announcing the resumption of political dialogue. The Washington Post states that the central purpose of the visit is to encourage dialogue, frozen since October 2021.

But he inadvertently lets slip another piece of information : the Biden administration is trying to take advantage of "a closing window of opportunity" in the region ahead of the midterm elections in November, anticipating both a possible victory for the Republicans and the political shift in the region to the left (the cases of Colombia and Brazil), leaving the United States with "fewer allies" in the hemisphere.

In June two public movements take place. On June 9, the oil companies ENI (Italy) and Repsol (Spain) are authorized to resume a minimum of their operational commitments. The exports will be used to reduce Venezuela's debt with both.

The second movement , more sensitive, occurs at the end of the month, on the 28th, when Caracas receives James Story, virtual ambassador from Bogotá and lousy streamer , and Ben Carstens, White House envoy for hostage affairs, following up on the "well-being "of the detainees. The State Department swears on his mother that none of this has to do with oil.

It is an established fact that Carstens, Story, and senior National Security Council official Juan Gonzalez have led the delegations since March .

By September 15-16, Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state and consequently the Department's highest-ranking diplomat, rants before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Washington's patience "is not infinite," and that sanctions can return.

The following day, the tendentious report of the UN Independent Verification Mission (a para-commission without powers) is published, emphasizing "the crisis" in all its dimensions, according to the taste of the "collective West", deceiving the gap, which It is more than the plain way of saying that the waters are muddy and the situation is entangled, also openly supported by Nichols himself.

In September there was no carrot for Venezuela, only a stick.

Beginning in October , the exchange of detainees between Caracas and Washington is carried out, surprising many, since the progressive restart of Chevron's operations in Venezuela is made official.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) points out that financial resources held in US banks will also be released for the importation of food, medicine, as well as equipment for maintenance of the electrical system and water pumping.

Ali Moshiri, a former high-level Chevron manager who oversaw operations in Venezuela, said that of the 450,000 barrels a day it exports today, the figure could double in a few months and reach 1.5 million within two years.

But all those consulted for the note admit that these movements have a lot of weight, and of course what is focused on exchanges and political dialogues, has to do with the pressure imposed by the increase in energy prices, supply restrictions in the market and that relaxation "would allow multiple resources to help us lower energy prices. And where money speaks, human rights do not speak so loudly.

Regarding the illegal sanctions regime of the United States and its attenuations, the key word throughout this course, used by several spokesmen, has been "recalibrate". The last was Antony Blinken himself on October 12, conditioning "progress" in the political dialogue and the "constructive steps of the regime."

But the urgency to move faster is undeniable. Even more so in the face of the possible decision of OPEC + to establish a new cap on its production, promoted by Russia and backed by Saudi Arabia. Something that, among other things, responds to the G7's attempt to fix the price of oil acquisition.

"Unlike past energy history, the United States has no ally within the OPEC+ group," the seasoned Indian writer and diplomat MK Bhadrakumar wrote on October 11.

This sequence, seen as a whole, confirms that the exchanges between the government of President Maduro and the Biden administration have been much more dynamic. The expectorated rhythm is explained, of course, by the contrast that is established in these situations in the counterpoint of open and closed information.

And, in the latter, the lack of leaks, especially from the gringo side, perhaps speaks of the seriousness of complying, but even more so of the geopolitical urgency.

But something else also seems to be distilled: beyond the political value of "foreground" elements like the exchange of detainees, the apparent need for elections and political dialogue in themselves, it is better suggested that these two are political covers of the problem quasi existential that in itself afflicts the United States, since Venezuela, which would undoubtedly benefit, paradoxically is in a better position to wait and play with the times and political rhythms.

The recurring nuances in this arc, starting with Psaki and ending with Blinken, with the benefit of hindsight, look flimsier. As could be seen, beyond the Venezuelan situation, the energy urgency and the mid-term elections themselves operate here in that sense. This is the United States, not Venezuela.


3. REORDERING THE LANDSCAPE WITH WHAT YOU HAVE: COME WITH ME TO SEE THIS SAD HYPOTHESIS

Just as Venezuela witnesses a crescendo in the pace of modifications and adjustments, something similar could also be seen in the region, without this meaning that some leitmotifs do not persist.

Throughout 2021, and even part of 2022, the hemispheric approach of the United States in the region has been quite erratic, where notable signs cannot therefore be excluded. As a background, it seems that once again the practical (pragmatic?) in political terms seems to prevail over the urgency of affirming the exceptionalist elements, favoring the survivalist ones, for the Biden administration.

The first stop is the apparent purge of some officials and/or proconsular paladins of the Trump era, at a time when so many of them (Iván Duque, Jair Bolsonaro?) either headed or seem to be heading towards the exit door, further reducing the list of stalwarts, quite dirty and permeated by their ties to the Trump administration.

Particularly two of them. The first is the former senior director of the National Security Council, former adviser to the Treasury Department (particularly in matters of "sanctions") and recently ousted from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and structural major, Mauricio Claver-Carone.

Fired by the IDB board of governors at the end of September, Claver-Carone is accused of having had a privileged extramarital relationship with a subordinate, deciding to increase the salary of his sentimental staffer by 45%, as shown by an investigation by the The bank's ethics commission that, according to Reuters , began in April, leaving him out, as an Alpha-66 guayabera from Little Havana.

The other who is being investigated for a more or less similar situation is, nothing more and nothing less, than Luis Almagro, secretary general of the OAS and by far the most activist multilateral politician of all anti-American causes in recent times.

Despite the fact that at the close of these lines (October 14), Almagro has not been removed from his post, in this case an AP exclusive (signed by the always "diligent" Joshua Goodman) published on October 7, exposes a detailed "open secret" that had been exposing and maturing for some time in the corridors of the headquarters in Washington.

The affair between Almagro and the Mexican diplomat Marian Vidaurri, who boasted on her LinkedIn profile that she was "senior adviser" to the secretary general's office, has not only been confirmed as a "lasting romance and an open secret by some of its 600 employees ".

But by Almagro's own memoir published in 2020 and corroborated, in addition, by photographs that the journalist Anya Parampil published on The Grayzone portal , where the caramelized proximity is recorded at the Barajas airport, in Madrid, and on a flight , on a tour of the secretary general in 2019.

To further comfort those who want to see Almagro fall, the revelations were made at the very inconsequential general assembly of the OAS in Lima on October 7.

These two "revelations" of work romances and sentimental influence peddling are hardly an isolated practice of both, but rather they obey a conscious decision to "filter" their cases through high circulation agencies. Something that corresponds, rather, to a dirty political decision to get rid of two remaining Trump soldiers in the Pan-American system. A purge with schadenfreude .

But this must be contrasted with Tony Blinken 's recent tour of South America at the beginning of this month of October, limiting himself to touching three countries with progressive profiles, all on the Pacific coast of the continent: Chile, Colombia and Peru.

The exclusion of Brazil seems to be self-explanatory given the electoral context, but without a doubt with a Lula in Planalto it would have been an obligatory stop, and more because of the progressive "tune" than because of the recognition of the specific weight of the subcontinental country in the region.

In any case, a compilation of the three visits, Colombia on October 3 and 4, Chile on October 5 and Peru on October 6 and 7, with closure in the OAS assembly, establishes a particular ideological language. A more conventional tour would have incorporated countries more traditionally in the orbit like Paraguay, but the interest was within the "progressive axis" and the Pacific façade (the United States knows that its best ally in the region is the flatulent Chilean president).

And despite the fact that in the three cases there were variations on the topics of interest, such as checking the disposition of the new Colombian government, visiting Lima as host of the OAS and Chile due to commercial affinities (the bilateral turbo-FTAA in progress since the times of Bachelet) the common theme in all three was Venezuelan migration and human rights.

Superficial and insipid, like Blinken himself, it is that background theme that shines in that first movement of apparent activation of the new hemispheric rapprochement of the United States, once again it seems to become unhidden behind the discursive confetti that the background theme is, and still is , Venezuela.

4. THE RETURN OF SMART POWER?

Until now, this review seems to be leaving the best suggestion that Washington is putting order in its approach to the region. The very urgency of the global situation led him to wake up from the strange state of doze in which he found himself regarding the high points of Latin America.

Throughout the region, including Central America and the Caribbean, the pattern of interaction was still marked by the imprint and methods (somewhat naturally outdated) of the Trump administration, with its frontal, gangster and primitive backyard action.

One by one, not so sound reforms have been established but when associating the points they speak of that "recalibration" and clearing of obstacles from the past. Under that light, the rapprochement with the presumed progressive axis (with the exception of the unfortunate Argentina) seems to sweep and leave any vestige of the Lima Group under the rug.

It would also seem that a different calculation is being established in the tandem game between hemispheric needs and domestic politics, which is why actors who are already stylistically exhausted like Almagro or Claver Carone are gradually being left out of the picture. But the latter shows a sound unknown: will Juan Guaidó be the next to disappear ?


In 2012, ten years ago and when she was at her peak of glory, Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State in the Obama administration, published an article in The New Stateman under the title "The art of smart power ", where He reviewed the challenges of the moment and his way of approaching them.

Clinton affirmed that "the new geometry of global power is becoming more distributed and more diffuse even as the challenges we face become more complex and cross-cutting." Which meant that "building coalitions of common action" are also becoming "more complicated and more crucial."

To do this, he outlined the type of relationship in several bands, with variables in favor, but also adverse in his relationship with China as an example that, despite so much change, two constants remained. In a more "interconnected and interdependent" world, a more "open, fair and sustainable" international order was necessary to promote "global peace and prosperity."

And the second, "that this order depends on the economic, military and diplomatic leadership" of the United States, which has "supported and assured it for decades." Within this new complexity, "it is no longer enough to be strong. Great powers also have to be skillful and persuasive."

Under that apparently multidimensional gaze where sticks and carrots multiply rhizomatically, there is little space left for the historical stumble and interim role that Juan Guaidó represents, the least persuasive creature in the history of the continent.

The empire, despite Biden's insane and senile drift, has become intersectional . And the intersectional, in terms of governance, is blurred with the corporate logic of the moment, the ESG principle, for environmental (environmental), social and governance (governance), and with its conceptual cousin the DEI: diversity, equity, inclusion.

Seen this way, Boric is more digestible than Piñera, Lula than Bolsonaro. It is, therefore, more profitable to channel regime change efforts in Venezuela, under that topical umbrella, down the path of the electoral alternative, where the order has already been given (and where backyard mechanisms matter).

And within this dynamic, despite being forced to give ground on sanctions (what are a few concessions when OFAC at a planetary level went from 912 to 9,421 sanctioned entities in 20 years?) but ensuring a distant plan of the unilateralist blunders of Pompeo and Bolton.

In addition to the fact that with this simple variation they believe that covering it with a green, trans and white guilt-filled package is enough to placate the anxieties of a more delusional and stupid youth, whose social movements, conscious or not, operate as allies of the turbo- emerging oligarchy.

Mrs. Hillary's art of managing complexities was accompanied by the total destruction of Libya. They go hand in hand. One of them is barely a varnish.

Of all the active files that have been dragged on since the last adventure of regime change in Venezuela, the last one that still remains with a certain degree of reorganization is the migratory one, and we are already seeing how the narrative bubble, but no less infernal for that, of the passing through the Darién now we are moving towards a policy of sponsors, although the picture is not yet complete, and we are already seeing how they attend to the surplus that tries to cross on foot through the border states of the imperial wall.

Let us add to this that the mechanisms for dialogue and electoral participation are not flat elements, but rather poisoned present where, as in some cases, as in the mobilizations against Onapre (once the true working class that moved was sifted and left in its bone reinforced energy structures).

The effort will focus, once again, on the structures of civil society as a way to channel the necessary outsider , with a new strategy in the message that seeks to rely on the electoral defeat of Barinas as a political and moral base .

We are witnessing the return to the center of action of the indirect approach. Once it is clear that the imperial update in the region, with its internal reflection in the next elections (bread for the circus), is overcome, in which the same policy of intervention and regime change continues, even more so now that multipolarity lurks

https://misionverdad.com/venezuela/vene ... ta-pasando

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Venezuela: OAS Vote Exposes Guaidó’s Crumbling Support
The US-backed politician has found himself increasingly out of favor among Venezuelans themselves, being met with hostile crowds during a recent tour.

By José Luis Granados Ceja
Oct 10th 2022 at 3.44pm

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Embattled OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro presides over the 52nd General Assembly of the Organization of American States in Lima, Peru. (OAS / Flickr)

Mexico City, Mexico, October 10, 2022 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaidó suffered a strong rebuke after 19 countries voted Thursday to oust ​​his representation at the Organization of American States (OAS) during the regional organization’s 52nd General Assembly held in Lima, Peru.

Although the measure fell short of the necessary 24 votes to formally oust the self-proclaimed “interim government’s” representative to the OAS, only four countries opposed the motion, with the remainder of the member-states abstaining. Canada, the United States, Guatemala and Paraguay backed the hardline Venezuelan opposition. Guaidó’s team was not in attendance at the meeting in Lima.

The vote marks a dramatic shift in support from governments in the region for Guaidó, who once claimed to be the legitimate president of Venezuela and secured the backing of Washington and several of its allies in the hemisphere after declaring himself president at a demonstration in Caracas in January 2019. At the time member-states voted to give Venezuela’s OAS seat to a representative picked by the opposition-controlled National Assembly. Maduro announced his country’s exit from the organization in 2017.

After failing to make any inroads, the hardline opposition turned to increasingly erratic and dangerous plots to oust Maduro from office. In early 2019, Guaidó and his allies, including former Colombian President Iván Duque and OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, promoted an effort to violate Venezuelan borders under the guise of delivering “humanitarian aid”. The plot was subsequently revealed to be part of a strategy by Washington and the Venezuelan right-wing opposition to attempt to embarrass Maduro on the international stage.

The former lawmaker later led a failed military coup on April 30, 2019 and subsequently funded a mercenary outfit to stage an invasion that sought to kidnap the Venezuelan president. All of the opposition’s plots ultimately proved unable to topple Maduro, who instead has seen his position strengthened, with the Socialist Party winning back control of the National Assembly in 2020 and nearly sweeping regional elections late last year.

Guaidó has increasingly found himself out of favor among Venezuelans themselves. During a recent tour in the country the former lawmaker was met with hostile crowds, with one woman tearing away his shirt before he was able to board his vehicle. Meanwhile, at another stop, his car was pelted with eggs. Venezuelans have strongly criticized the opposition figure for his support for the US-led sanctions regime that has crippled the country’s economy and led to shortages of key goods.

The vote at the OAS General Assembly marks another setback for the opposition figure who never commanded any real political power in Venezuela and has found himself with few remaining allies. With the arrival of Gustavo Petro to the presidency in Colombia and his decision to restore diplomatic and economic relations with the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolás Maduro, the Washington-backed opposition has lost critical spaces of support.

OAS head Luis Almagro, another key opposition ally, is himself in the hot seat, facing a formal probe by the organization's inspector general over allegations he carried on an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. Almagro has pledged to abstain from interfering in the investigation and has denied he was ever the woman’s supervisor or that he favored her in any employment decisions.

An OAS spokesperson said the woman at the center of the allegation, who has not been named, had a role in the organization’s ​​Secretariat for Strengthening Democracy. During his term as secretary general, Almargro has worked closely with the Secretariat for Strengthening Democracy. Both the General Secretariat and the Secretariat for Strengthening Democracy are treated with suspicion by some regional leaders after the OAS played a key role in pushing a narrative that suggested the 2019 election in Bolivia was fraudulent.

That fraud narrative, which was later debunked, triggered the 2019 coup in Bolivia that saw Jeanine Áñez, a far right and little-known lawmaker, briefly take power in the country before being ousted in elections in 2020.

The vote by 19 countries to oust Guaidó’s representation likewise showcases the rise of the Latin American left that is resuming efforts to defend the sovereignty of states in the region. Since last year, leftist and left-of-center leaders in Chile, Colombia and Peru have replaced previous governments that were cozy with Washington.

Meanwhile, even in Washington, Guaidó is seeing his support decline. Despite continuing to claim they view the opposition figure as the “legitimate” president, the Joe Biden administration has found itself negotiating directly with the Maduro government. Washington and Caracas recently agreed to a prisoner swap and rumors continue to circulate that the US is considering handing a broader sanctions waiver to US oil corporation Chevron.

A recent opinion column in the New York Times, which has generally adopted a hostile policy toward the socialist governments in Venezuela, called for Washington to change its policy and abandon its support for Guaidó and his claim to the presidency.

In a recent interview with state-run VOA News in the wake of the OAS General Assembly, US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols reaffirmed his government’s support for Guaidó and the hardline opposition. Nichols once again called for the Venezuelan government to return to talks with the opposition but abandoned previous demands for early presidential elections, instead calling for a “free and transparent” vote in constitutionally mandated elections in 2024.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15619 ... 5ac15b4f7e

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The U.S. Cannot Uphold the Fiction that Juan Guaidó Is the President of Venezuela
William Neuman. New York Times. October 8, 2022

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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/opin ... uaido.html


Mr. Neuman is a former New York Times reporter and Andes region bureau chief, and the author of “Things Are Never so Bad That They Can’t Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela.”

When the United States arranged an exchange of prisoners with President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela last week — sending home two nephews of Mr. Maduro’s wife who had been convicted of drug trafficking in a swap for seven Americans held in Venezuelan jails — it exposed the incoherence of U.S. policy toward Venezuela.

Even as it negotiates with Mr. Maduro, the White House continues to insist that Juan Guaidó, an opposition politician, is the real president of Venezuela. The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with the Maduro government, and the embassy in Caracas has been closed since early 2019, shortly after President Donald Trump recognized Mr. Guaidó as president in an unsuccessful, long-shot bid to force Mr. Maduro from power.

It is time for the Biden administration to accept that the Guaidó gambit has failed and that most Venezuelans, and most of the international community, have moved on. The White House needs a Venezuela policy based on fact, not fiction. And the fact is that Mr. Maduro is president of Venezuela and Mr. Guaidó is not.

Accepting reality will have many potential benefits — not least to the Venezuelan opposition, which is in the midst of a turbulent effort to remake itself.

After Mr. Trump announced his support for Mr. Guaidó in January 2019, dozens of other countries followed Washington’s lead. But today, only a dwindling handful continue to recognize Mr. Guaidó as Venezuela’s president, and, like the United States, eschew direct diplomatic ties with Mr. Maduro’s government.

And that list is getting shorter.

Gustavo Petro, the newly elected leftist president of Colombia, moved quickly after taking office in August to abandon his country’s recognition of Mr. Guaidó and reopen its embassy in Caracas. That change is crucial because Colombia has long been Washington’s most important ally in South America and a key supporter of Mr. Guaidó.

Brazil, another powerful backer of Mr. Guaidó, could be next, if Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva retakes the presidency in a runoff election later this month.

Mr. Guaidó was always president in name only — he had no government and no power to act inside Venezuela. He showed courage when he defied Mr. Maduro’s repressive regime, but he never had a viable plan, beyond vague hopes for a military coup or for U.S. intervention. And he was wedded to Mr. Trump’s sanctions-heavy approach, which exacerbated Venezuela’s economic crisis.

Mr. Guaidó’s claim to an alternate presidency rested on his role as head of the National Assembly, but his legislative term ended last year, and at that point many of his supporters inside and outside of Venezuela gave up on the notion.

Today, Mr. Maduro is stronger than he was three years ago, and the opposition is in disarray.

Dropping the pretense that Mr. Guaidó is president would set U.S. policy on a rational foundation but would not be an endorsement of Mr. Maduro. It could facilitate talks with Mr. Maduro over key areas, including the wave of Venezuelan refugees entering the United States and possible changes to economic sanctions related to oil exports. A resumption of consular activities would make it possible for citizens to obtain or renew visas and passports.

One of the greatest beneficiaries could be the Venezuelan opposition, which is in a turbulent, and necessary, state of flux. The opposition has been harshly repressed by a Maduro government committed at all costs to staying in power; while the opposition has made many missteps, it is the primary political force in the country committed to democracy and the defense of human rights, and it is therefore critical to finding a solution to the country’s crisis.

Over the last two years, most mainstream Venezuelan opposition parties have been thrown into crisis, hemorrhaging activists, splitting apart in leadership squabbles or watching once-loyal voters defect.

The government has frequently stepped in to stir the pot, using the courts or electoral authorities to order the takeover of parties by substitute leadership that is considered suspect by the rest of the opposition. But in most cases, the divisions were there to be exploited.

Venezuelans are fed up with opposition parties that often seem more interested in fighting with each other than in improving the country’s fortunes.

At the same time, new parties have emerged, organizing around new leaders.

The political changes were evident in elections held last November. The opposition won a third of the mayorships around the country, after previously holding fewer than one in ten. And although the opposition won just four governorships out of 23, it received a majority of votes in all but a few states. The reason it didn’t win more governorships was that multiple opposition candidates split the vote, essentially handing victory to candidates allied with Mr. Maduro.

The lessons of November were powerful. The election showed that Venezuelans still see the ballot box as a way out of the nation’s troubles. It unmasked the weakness of the government party among voters. It demonstrated, once again, that lack of unity is the opposition’s Achilles’ heel.

And it revealed gains for the nontraditional opposition, with about half of total opposition votes going to candidates outside the coalition led by the four mainstream parties, according to Eugenio Martínez, a journalist who specializes in election analysis.

Venezuelan politics are now aimed at a presidential election that will take place in 2024.

Will the opposition come together to choose a single candidate, or will it remain divided? The United States has urged Mr. Maduro and the opposition to resume negotiations that could lead to improved electoral conditions. But who will sit across the table from Mr. Maduro’s negotiators?

So far, Washington has thrown its weight behind the Unitary Platform, a rebranded coalition led by Mr. Guaidó and the traditional parties, which is seeking to steer the choice of a 2024 candidate and which controls the team that would negotiate conditions with Mr. Maduro.

But by continuing to uphold the fiction that Mr. Guaidó is president of Venezuela, the administration makes it harder for the opposition to go through the necessary process of reforming itself. The United States must acknowledge reality — as it relates to who actually governs in Venezuela and the need for Venezuelans to fashion the opposition that they choose. That is the only way that Washington can play a constructive role in solving Venezuela’s crisis.

https://groups.io/g/cubanews/topic/9425 ... 5ac15b4f7e
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Tue Oct 25, 2022 2:04 pm

Bitter Ending for Guaidó: Venezuela Opposition Wants to End His ‘Interim Presidency’
OCTOBER 22, 2022

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Fake president Juan Guaidó with his head in his hand. File photo.

The Venezuelan opposition, more divided than ever and internationally isolated, wants to end the “interim government” of Juan Guaidó and remove him from leadership position.

Three of the four main parties of the opposition alliance Unitary Platform expressed their support for ending the “interim presidency” and stop recognizing Guaidó as Venezuela’s “president in-charge.” They have enough votes to get this decision approved, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, October 20, citing a senior figure in the opposition alliance.

The decision comes as 10 largest opposition parties in Venezuela have agreed to hold primary elections in June 2023 to choose a single candidate for the presidency. The presidential election is scheduled for 2024.

This announcement is a major setback for the 39-year-old Guaidó, whose popularity levels have hit rock bottom after he tried for almost four years—and failed—to overthrow the elected president of the country, Nicolás Maduro. The only thing that Guaidó has managed to do is destroying the Venezuelan economy through overarching sanctions imposed on the country unilaterally by the US and its allies.

For Guaidó, the worst seems yet to come, as two sources close to the opposition leadership have told CNN that the United States, Guaidó’s main ally, plans to stop recognizing him as the interim head of state in January 2023, when a new legislative session begins in Venezuela.

Guaidó proclaimed himself the “president in-charge” of Venezuela in January 2019 with the support of then US President Donald Trump, who led an offensive to overthrow Maduro. In order to achieve this end, the Trump administration, the European Union, and the government of Canada bombarded Venezuela with unilateral sanctions, including an oil embargo that decimated the Venezuelan economy.

Despite getting control of the illegally seized billions of dollars of Venezuelan state assets and bank accounts frozen in the US and Europe, and the $1.8 billion worth of gold reserve deposited in the Bank of England, Guaidó has spent the last four years without any real power and with less and less international support.

Moreover, rocked by numerous corruption scandals, Guaidó and his entourage are now more divided than ever, and have become the most hated figures even among opposition supporters in Venezuela.

The end of the so-called interim government as well as Guaidó’s ouster from the opposition leadership are, in fact, an acknowledgment of defeat by the right wing and constitute a victory for Maduro.

“Imperialism believed that Venezuela belonged to them and that they could impose a president, like in colonial times,” President Maduro had said earlier.

https://orinocotribune.com/bitter-endin ... residency/

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THE US WILL SUPPOSEDLY STOP SUPPORTING GUAIDÓ'S FAKE GOVERNMENT IN 2023
21 Oct 2022 , 3:24 pm .

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For a long time, the "interim" was an uncomfortable reality for the countries that embarked on the adventure of supporting it, believing that it would materialize into a real mandate. But as time went by, it was more difficult to get out of that commitment without experiencing the pain of having made a mistake.

The greatest support and only support in time was the United States; however, it looks like it won't be for long. This Thursday, October 20, CNN published an article confirming that Washington will stop recognizing the Guaidó project next year.

"The United States plans to remove his recognition as interim president in January, when a new legislative session begins," a White House source said.

The veracity of this news was later confirmed by a source from the G4 circle, reported by the Financial Times, who also stated that Guaidó's leadership is not contemplated in the process of reconfiguring the opposition.

That same source said that ending the "government in charge" means recognizing Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela, something that he had already done symbolically when he sent delegates to meet in Miraflores to establish energy agreements.

So far, the White House has not made a statement, but everything seems to indicate that the interim has an expiration date, and it will be after January 5, 2023.

https://misionverdad.com/eeuu-supuestam ... do-en-2023

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Fri Oct 28, 2022 1:59 pm

How does Venezuela achieve the elimination of illiteracy?

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The leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Chávez, celebrates the declaration of Venezuela as a territory free of illiteracy in 2005. | Photo: @CancilleriaVE
Published 28 October 2022 (1 hour 17 minutes ago)

The reduction of illiteracy in Venezuela was achieved thanks to the Mission Robinson literacy program, created in 2003.

The declaration of Venezuela as a territory free of illiteracy by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) is considered one of the most relevant achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution.

17 years after recognition by UNESCO, Venezuela continues to advance in the fight to break the chains of illiteracy and reduce the inequality caused by this scourge.

The reduction of illiteracy was achieved thanks to the Mission Robinson literacy program, created by the Government of the South American country in 2003 with the support of Cuba.


With this program, launched on July 1, 2003, Venezuela expanded its training plans, based primarily on teaching reading to write, and included the teaching of trades for production and the digital area.

The objective of the social program is to teach literacy to the historically excluded population: poor, indigenous, deprived of liberty, the elderly and the disabled.

The intense work of educating and teaching literacy materialized through the Cuban program "Yo Sí poder" and the Robinson Mission, enabling 1,484,543 Venezuelans to learn to read and write.


This milestone led UNESCO to recognize the work of the Venezuelan Government on October 28, 2005, declaring that two years later the South American country was declared a territory free of illiteracy.

“Today Venezuela deserves to be recognized for the renewed vigor of its efforts in the field of literacy, an example of what can be done when societies mobilize in search of achieving educational goals. This is an example of national commitment that I hope will inspire others to accelerate their actions and free their countries and the world in general from the scourge of illiteracy," said Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations. .

In addition, he added that "with this recognition, Venezuela continues to meet the millennium goals."

Months later, the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution put into practice the Robinson II Mission, which motivated the people to study from first to sixth grade of basic education.

Subsequently, the Ribas and Sucre missions were created, so that hundreds of thousands of citizens could complete their secondary studies or enter university, always under the scheme of inclusive, free and universal social programs.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/venezuel ... -0028.html

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Venezuelan Government Has Built 4.2 Million Homes So Far

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President Nicolas Maduro, Oct. 27, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @PresidencialVen

Published 28 October 2022 (15 minutes ago)

President Maduro expects to build 500,000 social homes by the end of 2022. This is part of a public policy that aims to deliver 5 million homes by 2024.

On Thursday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro participated in the delivery of house number 4,200,000, which was built by the social program Venezuela's great housing mission (GMVV).

"The GMVV was born to respond to a natural catastrophe and now it is up and ready to respond to all our compatriots who have lost their homes due to the rains," he said.

“The housing mission is the queen of the Revolution's missions. In good times and bad times, we have guaranteed the rights of the most needy families because we are moved by love,"

"Do not lose faith! We will continue to fulfill dreams! "We are moving forward and we are heading towards five million houses,” he added.


In the same neighborhood where the GMVV house was delivered, Maduro also inaugurated the Cacica Urquia School, which will serve 630 children in the Tomas Lander municipality, in the state of Miranda.

The Bolivarian government expects to build 500,000 social homes by the end of 2022. This is part of a public policy that aims to deliver 5 million homes by 2024.

The GMVV was created by former President Hugo Chavez to assist families who had been left homeless due to the heavy rains recorded in the 2010-2011 winter season. Subsequently, it was consolidated as a social program to provide dwellings to the most needy citizens.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ven ... -0002.html

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New Torrential Rains Affect 162 Houses in Caracas This Monday
OCTOBER 25, 2022

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Collapsed home in the 23 de Enero parish of Caracas after torrential rains affected the city this Monday, October 24. Photo: Twitter/@2709mg.

Caracas, October 24, 2022 (OrinocoTribune.com)—On Monday, October 24, the collapse of 12 homes in the La Ladera sector of the 23 de Enero parish of Caracas was reported after heavy rains poured down on the capital city throughout the afternoon, adding to several weeks of torrential rains affecting Venezuela.

According to Telesur’s Madelein Garcia, Venezuelan Minister for Interior Relations, Justice and Peace Remigio Ceballos announced that the National Risk Management System, the civic-military union and the Capital District’s head of government responded to a landslide in the La Ladera 2 sector in the 23 de Enero neighborhood, west of Caracas. The landslide affected 162 homes and caused 12 homes to collapse, while 14 families were evacuated.


The Telesur journalist also said in an earlier tweet that no injuries or deaths were reported.

General Carlos Pérez Ampueda reported that preventive action taken by emergency response teams allowed for more than 50 families in a situation of vulnerability to rainfall and the risk of landslides to be evacuated.


According to a report from the Caracas Fire Department, the landslide occurred as a result of the soil saturation caused by heavy rainfall affecting the area on Monday, October 24.

“There are 12 collapsed houses. It should be noted that an Emergency Command Post called El Mirador was activated,” the Fire Department stressed.

The government secretary of the Caracas Mayor’s Office, Robinson Navarro, also participated in the evacuation and emergency response to those affected.

https://orinocotribune.com/new-torrenti ... is-monday/

Around the World in 60 Days: The OAS and Guaidó’s Death Knell
OCTOBER 27, 2022

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By Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein – Oct 18, 2022

The opposition leader’s “international recognition” charade no longer holds even in Washington-aligned forums.

In today’s world it is impossible to assume that local or even regional realities can develop in isolation, thus making it impossible to understand them if removed from the global situation. World events are interrelated in such a way that events that occur in distant places, far from where we are, have a direct influence on our environment, including on the daily life of each citizen.

Transnational media corporations and the powerful take advantage of this reality to generate “truths” that are quickly transmitted to hundreds of millions of people who, oblivious to the surrounding reality, believe, assume and echo these axioms as if they were paradigms of the sustainability of politics, the state and society.

This is what explains the rise of an obscure figure of dubious respectability such as Juan Guaidó to the category of head of state, without ever having been chosen for such post, not even if it were within the framework of the most fragile democracy that could have existed, which is not the case in Venezuela, a country where since 1958 the institutions of the State and society have functioned, with a National Constitution that supports them.

The year 2019 saw a change to this reality after 61 years of continuity of the democratic system, when Guaidó proclaimed himself president of the republic, sustained only by power and force expressed in the form of threats, blackmail and attempts at intimidation by the United States and the European Union.

Thus began a powerful media operation, working in tandem with strong diplomatic, economic, military and political pressure, to announce the “imminent overthrow of Maduro.” From then on, Guaidó was the axis around which all kinds of actions aimed at taking power by force revolved. These included efforts to fracture the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB); the attempted assassination of President Maduro, and invasions by sea and land with the complicity of the Colombian government of Iván Duque and that of other countries such as Chile, Argentina and Paraguay, to name a few. Likewise, there were alliances with drug trafficking and organized crime in order to unleash destabilization plans and terrorist sabotage against critical infrastructure facilities in the country.

The attacks from abroad also featured a strong targeting of the national currency (the Bolívar) through financial instruments that sought to weaken it and make its use unfeasible; the introduction by force of false humanitarian “aid” as a tool of political pressure that would grant credibility to Guaidó; brutal diplomatic concomitance to isolate Venezuela through the creation of the Lima Group as the driving force of said policy; the breaking of diplomatic relations, the withdrawal of ambassadors and a rejection of the diplomatic representatives of the Venezuelan state in order to accept those appointed by Guaidó; the illegal appropriation of assets belonging to the Venezuelan state, including [state-owned] companies, diplomatic and consular headquarters and other buildings; the theft of currency reserves and precious metals owned by Venezuela, protected in financial institutions outside the national territory; sanctions of all kinds against authorities and institutions in the country, especially those related to the production, distribution and export of oil; the blockade of the country’s maritime territory to prevent ships loaded with food and medicine from reaching national ports; and threats to private and public institutions of any country that relate, trade or exchange with Venezuela; among others.

As seen above, the complete menu, as well as the operational methods used by Washington and Brussels against Venezuela, were very extensive and perverse. But against all odds set in the imperial capitals, the Venezuelan people resisted and were able to create conditions to overcome the worst of the crisis, although today the conditions that created it remain as an expression of a prolonged genocide of the global powers against the Venezuelan people.

What is certainly true is that there was never a day during this long ordeal in which the stability of the government was in question and the continuity of President Maduro’s mandate was at risk, despite all the headlines to the contrary made by the misinformation transnational media companies throughout this period. I remember that approximately two years ago, I typed the phrase “Maduro’s imminent fall” in an internet search engine and it returned some 600,000 hits… since 2014. This was more wishful thinking than reality.

Trying to make sense of this situation, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, when he was still Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, when asked by a journalist during an TV appearance in his country, as to who he recognized as president of Venezuela, he replied that: “undoubtedly Juan Guaidó.” Next, the journalist asked him what would happen if a problem arose with a Spanish citizen or company in Venezuela, with whom the Spanish State would deal with. Borrell responded undeterred: “With Maduro.” The somewhat surprised communicator snapped at him: “Mr. Foreign Minster, you realize that this is incongruent.” To which the flamboyant representative of His Majesty’s foreign policy explained that was not the case. According to him, they were “innovating in terms international law,” exhibiting with total self-confidence and the highest crudeness the legal aberration of Guaidó’s self-appointment.

But times have changed, the world, and in particular Latin America and the Caribbean, are evolving positively towards the construction of a different international system and that has weakened Washington’s hegemony. In the region, the loss of prestige of the Organization of American States (OAS) is evident, while at the same time the Lima Group has disappeared, reducing the weight of the United States’ policies against Venezuela.

This situation seems to have reached an almost terminal stage at the recent 52nd General Assembly of the OAS, held in Peru from October 5 to 7. At this gathering, where Venezuela did not participate due to having withdrawn from the organization in 2019, an event occurred that is surely indicative of the final death throes of Juan Guaidó as a political actor manufactured by the United States.

The OAS, maintaining the fiction of Guaidó as president of Venezuela, invited his representative to the conclave. However, he withdrew his attendance after learning that a resolution rejecting and expelling Guaidó from the organization was being prepared. Although the sponsors of the resolution did not manage to get the motion approved, the interesting thing about the case is that only Canada, Paraguay and Guatemala voted together with the United States -and in support of Guaidó, which undoubtedly expresses that the strategy of the self-declared [president] has failed, even in the bowels of an organization absolutely subordinated to Washington such as the OAS.

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Fri Nov 11, 2022 3:31 pm

Caught 15 million dollars by the hand
November 11, 2:47

Image

The photographer managed to capture the moment of instant wealth:
US Special Representative for Climate Change John Kerry caught Nicholas Maduro at the climate summit in Egypt, for whose capture the Americans promised $ 15 million

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7966620.html

Google Translator

Nice, I needed a laugh.

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

ENERGY CHANGES THE POLITICAL CONTEXT IN FAVOR OF VENEZUELA

Franco Vielma

10 Nov 2022 , 1:52 pm .

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The energy crisis put Venezuela in the center of international interest. President Nicolás Maduro greets French President Emmanuel Macron. (Photo: AFP)

Venezuela's situation on the international front continues to evolve favourably, mainly due to two factors. The first of these has been the political-institutional resilience of Chavismo, which has weakened the scope of "maximum pressure" against the country. Secondly, due to a change in the political and energy context on an international scale.

We will stop at some of these factors corresponding to the international context, in a very descriptive way.

1. THE NEW ENERGY ROUTE
The unilateral and illegal sanctions against Russia for its Special Military Operation (SME) in Ukraine are changing the energy picture dramatically. In June, just during the harsh deployment of commercial measures to stop imports of crude oil from Russia, the Central Bank of the Federation announced that the decrease in imports of Russian oil by Europe was compensated by the increase in exports to the market. Asia, especially India and China.

In its balance of payments report in the second quarter of this year, the bank reported that the total value of Russia's exports of goods and services increased by 20% annually in the second quarter and reached 153 billion dollars.

According to the report, China increased its import of Russian oil by 55% in May compared to the same period last year, making Russia China's largest oil supplier, ahead of Saudi Arabia.

For its part, India increased its imports of Russian oil 4.7 times, that is, by 400,000 barrels per day between April and May, compared to the same period last year.

For the month of August, China imported resources from Russia worth 72.9 billion dollars between January and August of this year, an increase of 50% compared to the same period in 2021, the Russian media Kommersant reported, citing data from the Office of China Customs Statistics.

As a result, Russia's trade surplus with China quadrupled this year, mainly due to the increase in the supply of Russian raw materials, especially gas and oil. Such a trend is part of Moscow's new "turn east" strategy.

In general perspective, this situation of shifting energy towards Eurasia and Asia will take on more consistency if the G7 insists on imposing a ceiling on the price of Russian crude oil, despite the rejection of other major producers such as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf kingdoms. Russia would be willing to withdraw even further from the Western market.

In this way a new path of energy is taking shape. Several sources have indicated that India would be selling the crude oil it has acquired from Russia to Europe, while Turkey would be selling the gas.

This new route implies a projection of Russian oil and gas to China and other markets, reconfiguring the Eurasian geoeconomy through the development of infrastructures, such as the Siberian Force 1 and 2 gas pipelines .

The entry into force in December of the West's ban on the purchase of Russian crude, while it could certainly affect Russia's exports, will also increase exports through these new corridors.

In short, there is a displacement, rather an entrenchment of the energy and raw material chains towards Eurasia and Asia to the detriment of the Western geoeconomic orbit.

Venezuela then begins to be a clearly viable option, since it has more than 300 billion barrels in certified crude oil reserves.

It should be added that the substitution of Venezuelan crude in the United States has taken place through the change of suppliers, especially Latin American ones. But the import of crude from Russia or Saudi Arabia to satisfy the diet of some refiners, continues to be adverse in a context of high prices.

Surely this explains the great interest of Emmanuel Macron against President Nicolás Maduro in Egypt, although it has been widely mediated between references to France's energy interest, it is not entirely surprising. Specifically, last June, France advocated the return of Iran and Venezuela to the international oil market to alleviate the supply and price crisis.

Through an official statement from the Elysee, the French urged to "diversify the sources of oil supply" in the market, including Iran and Venezuela, since the countries would increase their oil production "exceptionally" to curb the rise in prices. caused by the war in Ukraine.

The unsustainability of the energy crisis and the dangers of its prolongation have put on the table the possibility that the US company Chevron may be authorized by the US Treasury Department to restart oil pumping operations from Venezuela.

As is known, it is one of the fundamental angles in the discreet negotiations between the United States and Venezuela, so it should be analyzed.

One of the key points in this context is that Venezuela, for geoeconomic reasons, is clearly exposed to the western orbit. But the economic pressure of the blockade on its exports also weighs on it. Hence, there are conditions of mutualism that favor relaxation, but also a position of advantage that the Americans will surely want to exploit.

Energy, we know, continues to be the definitive factor that is now reversing the situation in Venezuela in the face of the adverse context and continues to push to determine the unsustainability and infeasibility of the blockade against Venezuela.

To refer to the regional picture, the Petrocaribe countries have asked the US government to allow Venezuela to return to the commercial activity of crude oil and fuels in the Caribbean axis.

In addition, Trinidad and Tobago has clamored for Venezuelan gas to develop its processing activities, since they have paralyzed infrastructures that were built to work jointly with Venezuela in this matter.

2. THE REGIONAL PICTURE AND THE ENERGY NEIGHBORHOOD
The clear political shift in several Latin American countries, which have gone to the left or to progressive and social democratic governments, is favorable for Venezuela. More in some cases than others.

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Venezuela is favored by the current oil context, but is exposed to the designs of the western orbit (Photo: PDVSA)

The distinctive element in this context has been, surprisingly for many, the government of Gustavo Petro in Colombia, which together with Caracas has promoted a relaunch of binational relations at the highest level and through a very positive synergy, which until recently little was priceless.

As we know, the reopening of the border, the normalization of commercial relations between private actors from both countries, the return of flights between Caracas and Bogotá and the meeting between the two leaders in the Venezuelan capital, are milestones of a clear strengthening of the return of Venezuela to relations with its neighboring country.

It is worth mentioning that Colombia returned to Venezuela the state-owned Monomeros Colombo-Venezolanos, the country's second most important asset abroad. But in addition, the military authorities of both countries have met at the border to articulate security policies. Both facts are especially key.

Lula da Silva's victory in Brazil is also very significant. In his electoral campaign, Lula did not fall into the trap of avoiding stigmatization due to his relationship with Venezuela and, on the contrary, advocated the return of friendship with Caracas.

It is necessary to look at Bogotá and Brasilia not only because of their political affinities. Both countries have a special situation when it comes to energy.

In the case of Colombia, the country is about to exhaust its crude oil reserves, which in a very short time will leave it under the condition of importer. Colombia has already shown that it wants to strengthen the link with Venezuela in the development of the petrochemical industry, in order to support agricultural production in that country, as could be seen with the return of Monomers.

Brazil, on the other hand, although through Jair Bolsonaro it has cemented a good agreement with Russia for the flow of fuels and fertilizers, is and will continue to be a country eager for energy sources to continue leveraging its agribusiness and its mechanized crops, highly dependent on fuels and highly vulnerable to cost fluctuations. For reasons of geographical location, Brazil must necessarily look at Venezuela.

3. RIPE IN EGYPT
It is not the first time that the Venezuelan president has visited a foreign country since the US prosecutor during the Trump era, William Barr, put a price on his capture as part of the strategy of systematic criminalization of Chavismo.

But this time his visit to the Climate Change Summit (COP 27) in Egypt placed him personally in an international forum in which he was banned just three years ago.

In addition to the effusive meeting with Macron, Maduro greeted the Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Costa and the United States envoy John Kerry, as a reminder to countries that actively joined the blockade against the country. A reminder that they definitely failed.

Let us remember that the representation of the Bolivarian Government gave rise through Vice President Delcy Roríguez at the 2021 Ibero-American Summit, in a slow but continuous process of retaking international space and, therefore, of recognition. But 2022 has been a year that has exhibited an undeniable evolution of the context.

Paradoxically, at this COP 27, where the end of fossil fuels and the difficult "energy transition" were insistently harangued, one of the main news items was precisely the presence of the president of an oil-producing country, blocked, but full of reserves.

The Western-manufactured energy crisis put Venezuela in unexpected relief.

https://misionverdad.com/venezuela/la-e ... -venezuela

Google Translator

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

Venezuela To Include Climate Change Training in Schools

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International and Venezuelan literary festival, the 18th edition of FILVEN 2022. | Photo: VTV

Published 10 November 2022

The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, said this Thursday that the country would include training on climate change and environmental preservation in the initial, primary and secondary educational programs.


"In Venezuela, everything that has to do with climate change, everything that has to do with the preservation of Mother Earth, of the Pachamama, (is the) the fifth objective of the homeland," he said in an act broadcast by the state channel VTV.

The head of state, who was at the inauguration of the eighteenth edition of the International Book Fair (Filven) in Caracas, called for "stimulating in children and youth (...) the love for reading", as well as "the appetite for knowledge" in all areas, including the environment.

Maduro participated in the COP27 Climate Summit, held in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh. He called last Tuesday to realize without delays or "bureaucratic artifices" of a financing fund to address climate losses and damages.

In addition, the president advocated for the protection of the Amazon after a meeting with the presidents of Colombia and Suriname, Gustavo Petro and Chan Santokhi, respectively.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ven ... -0019.html
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Mon Nov 14, 2022 2:48 pm

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Commune or nothing! Venezuela’s transition to socialism
Originally published: Venezuelanalysis.com on November 9, 2022 by Venezuelanalysis.com (more by Venezuelanalysis.com) | (Posted Nov 11, 2022)

Amidst Washington’s economic siege, Venezuela’s communes have continued advancing to offer long-standing solutions to the economic crisis in order to build a socialist future where life trumps capital. Communes are, by definition, deeply anti-imperialist and anticapitalist.

Currently, Venezuela has dozens of communes, between rural and urban, some new and others with a baggage of revolutionary struggle. They are made up of people that occupy a shared territory and have historical, cultural, social, ethnic, and economic ties that bind them together. Some rural communes were set up after campesino families took back lands that had historically belonged to them but were seized by landowners for private profit.

Today, communes are a wonderful demonstration of socialism as a viable way to practice substantial democracy and build sovereign production while taking care of the planet.

In his last political address, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez stated that communes were the cornerstone of the Bolivarian Revolution, with the power to truly emancipate the people. He urged cadres and organizations to prioritize the communes with his battle cry: “Commune or Nothing!”

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The Bolivarian Process’ political horizon got clearer with time, as Chávez set his sights on the construction of socialism and with communes being the “unit cells.” Find out more in our latest infographic. (Venezuelanalysis)

https://mronline.org/2022/11/11/commune ... socialism/

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Venezuelan Govt Rejects Renewal of EU Sanctions Against State

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Venezuela rejected EU decision to renew Unilateral Coercive Measures against it. Nov. 12, 2022. | Photo: Twitter: @manosfueradeven

Published 12 November 2022

On November 11, the EU announced the renewal, until November 14, 2023, of the sanctions against officials linked to the Administration of Nicolás Maduro.

The Venezuelan Government rejected the renewal, for one more year, of the sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) against its country, considering that they are illegal and limit the population's access to medicines and food.

"The unilateral coercive measures illegally applied by the European Union in a premeditated manner, punish and massively violate the human rights of the Venezuelan people, since their indirect consequences end up limiting access to food, medicines, primary inputs, machinery, spare parts and equipment necessary to guarantee fundamental rights and ensure the normal development of our society," states the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry.


Venezuela rejects the EU decision to renew Unilateral Coercive Measures against the national people.

On November 11, the EU announced the renewal, until November 14, 2023, of the sanctions against officials linked to the Administration of Nicolás Maduro.

In this regard, the Government highlighted that the renewal of the sanctions were announced on the same day in which the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, publicly expressed the willingness to support negotiations between the Venezuelan Government and a sector of the opposition.

"It is incoherent and constitutes a slap in the face of the French initiative called the Forum for Peace (...) We repudiate the unhealthy policy of resorting to these tools of political blackmail, contrary to democratic and human rights principles, instituting a dangerous practice contrary to the principles of international law and peaceful coexistence between States," the text reads.

According to the communiqué, this decision "is intended to insist on a completely erroneous strategy, with which the EU has failed, in the last five years, to achieve its objective of overthrowing the Bolivarian government".

Among those sanctioned for more than four years are Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez; the Minister of Petroleum, Tareck El Aissami; as well as military, electoral and justice officials, deputies and governors, among others.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ven ... -0002.html
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Sat Nov 19, 2022 2:50 pm

Former Deputy Guaidó Leading the Polls: Venezuela’s Most Unpopular Politician
NOVEMBER 17, 2022

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Photo composition with Henry Ramos Allup (left), Juan Guaido (center) and Julio Borges (right), also, the coat of arms and the flags of Venezuela in the background. Photo composition: Orinoco Tribune.

Caracas, November 16, 2022 (OrinocoTribune.com)—This Tuesday, November 15, Hinterlaces, the Venezuelan pollster firm, published its ranking with the most unpopular opposition leaders in Venezuela. Former deputy Juan Guaido leads the ranking shared by Hinterlaces on its Twitter account. Not to mention Guaido’s forthcoming expiration of the imaginary “interim president” of Venezuela “title.”

According to the ranking of the most unpopular opposition leaders, Juan Guaidó has the most “unfavorable” position with 83%. Only 11% see him in a “positive” way and another 6% said they “didn’t know or didn’t answer.”

The poll, conducted in October 2022, having a 3% margin of error, was the result of 1,200 interviews conducted all over Venezuela on a stratified sample.

Image

Second place went to Julio Borges, with 81% of those consulted labeling him in “unfavorable” terms, 10% “positive” and 9% “didn’t know or didn’t answer.” Closely following in the top 5 ranking, albeit in third, is Democratic Action politician, Henry Ramos Allup. Who was voted “unfavorably” by 80% of those surveyed, compared to 10% who see him “positively.”

In fourth place is the fugitive from Venezuelan justice, Leopoldo López. Who is currently living the “sweet life” in Spain under the protection of the Spanish government. 79% of those consulted see him in “negative” terms and only 15% “positively.” Henrique Capriles places 5th, with 77% seeing him in “unfavorable” terms and 17% in “positive” terms.

Coming in last place is the current governor of Zulia state, Manuel Rosales, from Un Nuevo Tiempo, whom 64% of those surveyed see “unfavorably” and 24% in “positive” terms.

Opposition primaries
The opposition primaries commission are already in operation, and this is being debated in Venezuelan news outlets on a daily basis. Most have explained that it’s been decided to not invite the opposition sector, which participated in recent regional elections. This, in contrast with the US/EU financed far-right opposition, known as the G4, who have been calling for electoral abstention.

If events continue as they have been, the most probable outcome—thinking on the 2024 presidential elections—is that, once again, President Maduro will win the presidential race. This Wednesday, Mary Pili Hernandez, a Venezuelan journalist who hosts the daily show Union Radio, stressed possibility.

https://orinocotribune.com/former-deput ... olitician/

Venezuela Asks UN to Incorporate Impact of Sanctions in Its Agenda
NOVEMBER 19, 2022

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Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez meets with the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk. Photo: @madeleintlSUR

On Friday, November 18, the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, requested the new high commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, Volker Türk, to incorporate into his work agenda the impact of the unilateral coercive measures on Venezuela.

“We have requested the incorporation of the aspect of Venezuela as a blockaded country, as a victim of unilateral coercive measures that impact the enjoyment of human rights of the Venezuelan people,” Rodríguez told the press after her meeting with High Commissioner Türk in Geneva.

The vice president added that the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the human rights of the Venezuelan people was already reported by UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan.

“We have informed the high commissioner about the number of sanctions; how they affect public services; how the blockade impacts the salary system of our workers; its impact on health, food, education, electricity, water—all the dimensions of the blockade against our country,” Rodríguez stated.

In this regard, the vice president also highlighted the resilience of the Venezuelan people, with which they are trying to overcome difficulties. “But that does not mean that there is no blockade,” she said, and she added that “unilateral coercive measures violate international law and have a negative impact on our national life and the life of our people.”

Rodríguez pointed out that more than 30 countries are victims of economic blockades, and the UN bodies are starting to recognize this as an issue.

She also highlighted the importance of her visit to the headquarters of the United Nations Organization in Geneva, which she said was very fruitful. She stated that on behalf of the Venezuelan government, she has invited High Commissioner Türk to visit Venezuela.

More fruitful meetings with the UN

On Friday, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez also held a working meeting with the secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rebeca Grynspan. During the meeting, they discussed issues related to cooperation in economic matters to overcome the effects and consequences of the economic blockade imposed on Venezuela.


Earlier on Friday, Rodríguez held a meeting with the director general of the United Nations in Geneva, Tatiana Valovaya.

The meeting addressed the current challenges of multilateralism and the cooperation relationship between Venezuela and the UN, with a view to strengthening social protection programs in the country.

The vice president’s agenda in Europe began with her participation in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where she demonstrated the inadmissibility of the unilateral claim filed by Guyana over the Essequibo region. Guyana’s unilateral claim violates the Geneva agreement, in order to favor energy transnationals.

https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-as ... ts-agenda/
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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Thu Dec 01, 2022 3:17 pm

Washington Greenlights Chevron to Resume Oil Production in Venezuela, Uses Mexico Talks as Excuse
NOVEMBER 27, 2022

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Photo composition showing the Chevron logo (left) and the PDVSA logo (right). Photo: QuePasa.com.

Caracas, November 27, 2022 (OrinocoTribune.com)—This Saturday, November 26, the Biden administration, via the US Office of Asset Management (OFAC), issued General License No. 41 (GL41), allowing Chevron and its strategic partnership with PDVSA (Petro Piar and Petroboscán) to resume the production and marketing of oil in Venezuela. The measure has been presented by the White House as an outcome of the Mexico Talks, although according to many analysts, it is the outcome of the US’ insatiable energy needs and the unfeasibility of the failed Guaidó project.

Recently, the United States has been depleting its own strategic reserves to manage oil prices that were hit hard by US and European sanctions against Russia and their failed attempt to pressure OPEC into increasing production. Many experts believe that the US’ motivation for granting the license comes from its desire to obtain greater access to energy sources, as well as pressure being applied by the powerful energy lobby, in which the world’s second largest oil company, Chevron, plays a significant role.

In this way, Petro Piar and Petroboscán are authorized by the license mainly to:

• Produce and extract oil, and activities related to maintenance, repair or service.
• Sell, export or import to the United States, through Chevron.
• Purchase and import into Venezuela of products associated with the above, including diluents, condensates, oil, or natural gas.

Since 2017, the White House and the European Union, in their eagerness to overthrow the legitimate government of Nicolás Maduro, have launched a battery of sanctions against Venezuela and PDVSA, the engine of the Venezuelan economy, exacerbating an economic crisis and causing the deaths of tens of thousands of Venezuelans annually, according to studies conducted by Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in the United States.


The GL41 was announced on the same day that the Venezuelan opposition of the extreme right and the Venezuelan government resumed with the Mexico Talks and signed an agreement that allows the government of Nicolás Maduro access to the resources owed to Venezuela by order of the 3 billion dollars illegally retained by Washington. This decision is viewed favorably by Chavista analysts in Venezuela since it allows Maduro’s government, through the United Nations, access to resources which it did not have access to previously, which it has been requesting for months.

The decision makes evident the lack of confidence in Guaidó and the sectors linked to him, all which had US support and were given billions of dollars to manage. Guaidó and company have been implicated in countless corruption scandals since the very beginning of the failed coup d’état, all controlled and directed by Washington.

Washington presents this license as part of its efforts to achieve democracy in Venezuela and support the suffering Venezuelan people, but in reality the majority of Venezuelans, who overwhelmingly reject the sanctions regardless of their political beliefs, see it as evidence of the failed US strategy and as a way to progressively abandon the Guaidó project, which many experts point out is no longer in good standing with the White House.

Venezuela has gradually managed to evade the effects of the US and European blockade, mainly thanks to the support of Iran, Russia, and China. The license, in this sense, attempts to continue the logic of the misguided sanctions promoted by Washington, as in Note 1 of paragraph “a,” it states that any negotiation or arrangement with Iran not held within the guidelines for sanctions against that country is prohibited, including diluents, oil condensates, and natural gas.

In its paragraph “b,” number 4, it states that any transaction involving Russia or entities based in Russia is also exempt from the authorization for Chevron to resume oil operations in Venezuela.

Both decisions seem to be aimed at isolating both countries and their operations with PDVSA, a major shareholder in Petro Piar and Petro Boscán. But many analysts agree that most of them seem to be aimed at promoting the export of US inputs for Chevron’s operations in Venezuela.

The non-inclusion of the US oil service corporations Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Schlumberger and Weatherford International in the expansion of oil operations, contemplated in GL41, is mentioned by many analysts as an important limitation for a relevant increase in oil production in the Caribbean country.


For many experts, the publication of the GL41 and the authorization of access to $3 billion through the United Nations is further evidence of who really leads the Venezuelan opposition: they are the tenants of the White House. This, despite the stilted and propagandistic jargon used in the license and accompanying press releases.

On the other hand, the same jargon used in the GL41 seems to indicate that Chevron will not pay for the oil exported to the United States, and that it will not pay royalties or taxes, something which is very unlikely, since Venezuelan legislation prohibits the latter and mercantile logic makes the first point improbable. Both points were developed by the analyst Franco Vielma through social media, as well as by the anti-Chavista economist Francisco Rodríguez, although the latter presented the information from the perspective of imperial submission, typical of the opposition’s thinking. It emphasizes elements of transparency with the naïve idea that any US initiative is transparent in and of itself, or that the US has a god-given authority to declare transparency.

https://orinocotribune.com/washington-g ... as-excuse/

PSUV on Mexico Talks: We Signed an Agreement With the UN, the Money is Going to the People and That is What Matters
NOVEMBER 29, 2022

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PSUV Vice President Diosdado Cabello (left) and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (right) holding their fists up at a political rally. Photo: AFP/File photo.

On Monday, November 28, during the weekly PSUV press conference, Vice President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) Diosdado Cabello stressed that the agreement signed at the Mexico Talks is beneficial for the Venezuelan people.

He pointed out that although the resources will be returned to Venezuela through the United Nations (UN), they belong to the people and will be used for their benefit, which is what matters most.

“We [already] have some project agreements with the UN, and what happens if the UN is there? We don’t care. That money belongs to Venezuela,” he said, referring to the $3 billion for education, electricity, healthcare and other well-defined projects, which they will finally regain access to due to the agreement reached during the Mexico Talks.

“The great beneficiary of the dialogue is the people of Venezuela,” Cabello added during the press conference, “The PSUV applauds the restart of dialogue in Mexico and its proposals and results.”

Cabello positively highlighted that the agreements reached are in the social, political and economic areas. “We hope that they -the far right opposition- comply.”

He emphasized that the Venezuelan government knows the people’s priorities and, thus, has accepted the UN as the means of executing the agreement reached in the Mexico Talks.

Elections

Cabello criticized the sector of the Venezuelan opposition that requested free elections, recalling that in Venezuela, electoral guarantees “have been given for a long time. We have the most efficient electoral system in much of the world.”

He said that the opposition’s problem is the recognition of the National Electoral Council (CNE), as they only recognize their own victories but not their defeats.

He also recalled that when the opposition won the National Assembly (AN) elections in 2015, “they did not question the CNE and the fingerprint scanners because they won.”

“Electoral conditions have been in place in Venezuela for a long time, and here we will never return to paper ballots, that is from the past, from the old Venezuelan politics,” Cabello said in reference to the countless electoral fraud crimes committed before the election of President Hugo Chávez.

Similarly, he said that fingerprint scanners will not be eliminated, as they guarantee that each person casts just one vote rather than multiple votes, which was the common electoral practice before the Bolivarian Revolution.

Cabello asserted that the Venezuelan opposition is divided, every man for himself, “but they are the same ones who participated in the 2002 coup, in the attempted invasions of our country, in the attempted coup in Altamira, the same ones that allowed CITGO and Monómeros to be stolen.”

Dialogue in Colombia

Referring to the peace talks between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, where Venezuela acts as an international mediator, Cabello stated that peace in Colombia has repercussions throughout the continent.

“Welcome to peace. The Venezuelan government, not just from now on but always, has maintained that criterion,” he said regarding President Petro’s request for Venezuela to be a mediator in their negotiation process.

Cabello emphasized, “Venezuela is here doing our duty to our Homeland and the entire continent for the peace of the peoples. Colombia’s peace is our peace, and it is the peace of this continent.”

https://orinocotribune.com/psuv-on-mexi ... t-matters/

President Maduro Demands Lifting All Sanctions and Return of CITGO
DECEMBER 1, 2022

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a press conference with international correspondents at Miraflores Palace. November 30, 2022. Photo: Presidential Press.

The sanctions and unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States government against Venezuela must be completely lifted on the oil industry, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, said on Wednesday, November 30.

During a press conference at the Miraflores Palace, with national and international media, the head of state stated that Venezuela “has the right to freedom of trade and production.”

“All colonialist sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry must be lifted,” he said, “because they violate the agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO).”

He added that “all the licenses (those that are known and those that are not known) that the US government has given to Chevron go in the right direction, although they are not enough for what Venezuela demands, which is the complete lifting of them.”

President Maduro also requested that the Citgo Petroleum Corporation (CITGO) return to Venezuela, along with its dividends, having not been paid since 2019. “About CITGO,” he said, “it is owned by Venezuela, and it is vital that it return to Venezuela, and that the dividends from 2019 to 2022 be released to their Venezuelan accounts, to respond to social issues. We must demand the return of CITGO.”

The Venezuelan president added that “CITGO has dividends worth $24 billion, that should all be for Venezuelans. The Monitoring Commission will determine how to release those resources.” Previously, the Venezuelan leader clarified that all alleged creditors are part of a fraud and that CITGO should be returned intact to Venezuela.



Venezuela: Free Country

The president defended the right that Venezuela has, as a free and sovereign country, to exercise economic, commercial and productive freedom.

“Venezuela has the right to freedom of trade and production,” President Maduro stated, “and what they are trying to impose on us is a colonial system. You cannot sell or buy oil, that is called colonialism in the 21st century.”

He reiterated that the sanctions must be completely lifted “because they violate economic freedom.”

Very positive contracts
At the press conference, President Nicolás Maduro said that the minister for petroleum, Tareck El Aissami, explained that “in the next few days the operating contracts will be signed, within the framework of Venezuelan law and the Constitution, and it will be very positive.”

“The contracts will be very positive for both parties; Venezuela, Chevron, and the world all win,” President Maduro said.

The minister for petroleum, Tareck El Aissami, will be in charge of signing the operating contracts with the Chevron Corporation, within the framework of the Constitution and Venezuelan laws, which will result in a positive jump in the industry’s production and joint ventures.

Venezuela back at the international energy circuit
For Nicolás Maduro, removing Venezuela from the world’s energy circuit was a bad idea from Donald Trump.

“Venezuela is part of the world energy equation,” President Maduro saidd. “It has the most significant reserve sin the world, it must be in the world’s energy equation; they cannot take us out, we are a great oil power.”

He also noted that “we will be a gas power, and, sooner rather than later, we will be a petrochemical power. It is the reality of Venezuela.”

Faced with this situation, the head of state said that those who ideologize everything, like Donald Trump, cause harm, which “is unacceptable from the point of view of diplomatic and international relations.”

With conflict in Ukraine, Venezuela in the debate
President Maduro said that Venezuela entered the world debate after the conflict in Ukraine, because they have the most significant oil reserves.

The conflict began on February 24. By March 5, noted the president, “we had delegations from the United States and Europe. We do not place political conditions to sell oil, we sell it to whoever needs it… “We sell oil, gas, petrochemicals, to whoever needs it at a fair price based on contracts that respect Venezuelan legislation. It has always been so and always will be so.”

Given these premises, the head of state added that “when god created the world, he gave Venezuela gold, diamonds, land, and the most beautiful thing we have, the people and their nobility.”

https://orinocotribune.com/president-ma ... -of-citgo/

Nothing less will do. It would be madness not to exploit Washington's self-inflicted wounds. These opportunities do not often present themselves.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 20, 2022 11:41 pm

CULTURE AND ART ARE SHIT

The Cayapo

Dec 12, 2022 , 1:19 p.m.

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(Photo: El Cayapo)

To be others we need another thought. Many are upset by these writings, but we will tell you that today no one lasts more than 100 years, and those who read these words are already at least 25, that is, they have about 75 left, and building a country will take about 500 to a thousand years to establish a custom. Therefore, no one is upset or frightened by the selfish fear of losing their current plate of food. What we are saying is the need for future generations not to go through what we have already gone through, that they have a cultural compass that always guides them, not under the same customs, but taking into account the principle that life is the reason fundamental of existence and not that bunch of ideological hoaxes that support the scaffolding of humanist culture and its war apparatus: capitalism.

The coprophagy philosophers forcefully affirm that life is half shit, half arepa. If we listen to a reggaeton player talk about classical music, he will say that this is bullshit and vice versa, and this is the case with any fact of the intellect that is carried out from any angle of society.

Some people say that the arepa is shit and others that the bread, some that eat fish and others that beef or pork, and there are also those who assert that eating vegetables, boiled vegetables, shredded cabbage, and others that chigüire , rat or golfeado with a dogfish empanada inside.

Depending on where we are born or where we are culturally built, something can be sacred or demonic, according to the political and cultural borders and interests of each person. The things on the other side are an excrement or a loftiness, and in the midst of all this defecation-arepa that is the planet, it is discovered that there is a culture, the humanist one, that lives on those remains, because, in short, all shit produces money.

Art, that manifestation of talent, be it folkloric, popular, classical, refined, industrial, warrior, or imitation, does not escape its patrons, philanthropists and other sayons who make the most of any expression of this kind, be it manual. or intellectual. The owners don't give a damn who the demonstration is for or against, be it a white stripe on a black canvas or the most beautiful music that any people produce in any corner of this universe. What they are clear about is that culture is a deposit that produces surplus value.

Everyone talks about culture, but what we have in our brains as culture is the Western European civilizing model that, with its division between good and bad, the cultured and the savage, the civilized and the barbarian, culture and the folklore- naïve, popular culture, its minor and exclusive verses, the cultured and the uneducated, the literate and illiterate non-literate, the civilized, cultured, developed nations and the mine-countries, savage, barbaric, underdeveloped due to lack of culture, and this is what say the most exalted and radical left to the most recalcitrant Nazi-fascists in the world. But no one wonders what this culture is, how it is assumed, how much it costs, to whom it costs us, who exercises it, against whom it is exercised, who enjoys it and who suffers from it.

Is culture that all manner of things shown to us by the models of literature, cinema, theater, television, school, university, sculpture, painting, academies, halls, museums, mausoleums, all in the Western European style, or is it something else? ? What culture are you talking about? Of the humanist with its exclusivism, with its class divisions, mine-countries and corporations that control the strings of capitalism? Where does this culture come from, who invented it, why was it imposed on our bodies and brains? Is this western culture our duty to be? Is culture that commercial fact of the third category, called popular, folkloric, naive, or is it that monstrosity called the cultural industry of entertainment where we are equally sold to the competition in the art business, sunrise salsa, llanero, rapper , reggaeton, vallenatero, miss or mister of whatever, the cut and paste of foreign classical music, protest, folkloric, merenguera and dele porai? Or is it all of that and then some, as small middle class businesses say?

Isn't culture also the highest technology of warfare expressed in the nano and microchip used to murder thousands daily on the planet? Or is it not also the massive destruction of rivers, forests, wetlands, mountains, jungles? Why does Western culture deny the Yanomami, Guarao, Aymara, Cherokee, Aztec, Mayan, Chinese, Persian, Arab, Slavic, Indian cultures, and thousands and thousands of other cultures that it has destroyed in the name of its racial superiority? Why isn't there a culture of acceptance of the other? Why the invention of a selfish and individualistic culture? Can we be another culture and abandon the existing one?

Like these, thousands of questions must be resolved by the peoples of the world in the search for a harmonious balance of cultural diversity, that above anything else, we must manifest ourselves as a species, outside of the contradiction generated by the cultures of war.

When we are in the neighborhood, the building, the urbanization, we notice the coarseness of the humanist culture, of consumption in all social strata, shameless imitation, the absence of belonging to the territory, the stickiness of perreo and reggaeton, espaninglis as sick everyday life, the brain engaged all day individually and selfishly in telephones, televisions, computers. It is already a custom that takes root in children, old people, girls, women, and nobody seems to be interested. Could it be that this is how societies or civilizations die in their centers and peripheries? Because the same thing that happens in Venezuela happens in Europe or the United States to name the great centers of civilization.

Not only do people live on food, the philosophers said; It is understood, according to the ancients, that it is also necessary to cultivate talents, open your mind to different ideas, not get stuck in a single thought, whatever it is and from wherever it is. But currently we live in an exacerbated consumption not only of food, clothing, housing and luxury, but also of knowledge, but in one direction, in the same thought, with the same architecture. We are already 8 billion beings on the planet who consume the same shit, sorry, idea of ​​art, food, history, science, technology, that although we do not control it, it controls us and forces us to consume it.

We keep asking: Doesn't this situation interest intellectuals, politicians, academics, professionals, historians, philosophers, who are only concerned about their prizes, books, scholarships, positions, applause and platforms? How is it that we are not interested in the substantial transcendence of a people? We understand that the vassal elites do not worry about that but rather about their plate of food, but how is it that we call ourselves Chavistas and are not concerned about the most important thing that Chávez proposed to us: building a country radically different from the existing mine, which implies overcome the state of poverty in the first place? What does that mean for each of us? Or is it that it is not possible to create, give shape to the Chavista philosophy?

We have examples that with nothing you can make music, painting, sculpture, poetry, theater, chairs, houses, tools, from us, without having to imitate foreigners, without having them as a guide, because we must always ask ourselves: Which guide? Did the Chinese have to be Chinese, the Russians, the Persians, the Indians, or the Arabs, and many other cultures that still persist?

We must talk about these topics even if it hurts or bothers us, because while together with our government we make a titanic effort to overcome the blockade, the sanctions, the coups, the assassinations, confronting human-capitalist-imperialism with its corporations, the political, artistic, academic, professional demagogy of internal and external elites to try to overcome the mine condition in which we have lived for 500 years, and yet, the art, entertainment and show industry continue to promote the selfishness, competition, cultural garbage with reggaeton, with the shrill vallenato, with the imitation of the llanera music, the stupid ballad, with the perreo, feeding foreign classical music, foreign books, foreign theater, in the name of the universal,as if we no longer were for the simple fact of living in an X point of the universe.

And even the artistic elites condemn us, justifying that people perrea and sing reggaeton because we are Indians, blacks, mestizos, paw on the ground, ignorant, savage, and an endless list of insults and epithets, because these elites are convinced and swear that what we must do is listen to classical music and dance ballet to be up to the level of the educated and civilized peoples of the planet, and not go around giving pity to others.

This conversation must be assumed by the people, because academics, intellectuals, artists in general, humanists, will not do it because that is their livelihood and they will not attack or condemn their conduct in the name of any people, territory, country, nation, or homeland. Because its true cultural essence lies in selfishness, individuality, competition: deep substances of the human-capitalist culture settled in the heads of the elites and transmitted to us through industries, schools, universities, high schools, institutes, academies, halls of arts, media, entertainment and shows: sacred cathedrals of capitalist culture.

And that's how they sell us the subject of urban music, just like they sold us Oliver Twist or Beethoven before and all the examples of poor people getting rich through magic. There is no ranch, slum, favela, commune, hamlet, sidewalk or other expression of misery on the planet, where the poor do not consider our children as princes and princesses, Ken and Barbie, but the vast majority are nothing more than the papilunga mare, as told by the maracucho narrator Rutilio Ortega in his story of the same name. The other example is that if you work hard, it doesn't matter that you come from the most humble and miserable neighborhood as long as you throw balls and sweat your ass, you can get out of below and have your own record label. Example: the case of Bad Bunny or Calle 13, they play them as if they were protest music and in the end all that is valued in the market,

The other example is the use of superheroes, that permanent banality, that arrogance, when we are a heroic people, with heroic, real, concrete leaders. So, the propaganda industry wants us to imitate an imaginary of leaders alone without a people, like gods who come down from heaven to save the poor, and disguise the leaders as Ironman, Superman, Batman, and all the crap they have used. the empire to harm our minds by making us believe that these cheap heroes are neutral, as if these characters used by big industry, the gringo and European security apparatuses to subdue us and fill our minds had not been living in our minds for tens of years. garbage brain to all the peoples of this planet and that today, in the degree of third, fourth, fifth category,

The example is those nonsense of superheroes but now revolutionaries. How is a superhero going to be revolutionary? That is nonsense that, like reggaeton or ballet, convinces us that we think like that, that we like those idiots. No, we don't like it, it's just that the springs of alienation installed in our minds from birth are triggered and we think that we must repeat the stupidities of imperialism.

Who designs, how much is the one who is designing and animating those pods charging, why are they selling us seemingly innocent replays? Is it that they are incapable of producing anything else that contains us, that inhabits us as a people? At present, we are in a process of permanent social upheaval, because we are opposing the fact that the large transnationals continue to rob us, and they, the owners, need to break the unity between the people and the government. That is why it is not strange that they are now trying to sell our leaders as superheroes who will save us from heaven as gods.

All of us, the party, the communes, the communal councils, the creative youth, in general all the people who dream of and think of a different culture outside of pamphlets or slogans, we must talk about this issue and we are going to discuss the best way to imagine ourselves as a people in battle, with dignity, that they do not conceive of us from the outside as mockery, because it is not only that they sell us superheroes but they also sell us the image of mockery.

We have to see how we are a people fighting and not enslaved, thinking and not alienated, and we are going to show our images, not as the people subjected to consumption, but as the leading people of a historical social process with leadership like Chávez, Maduro , Diosdado, Rodríguez, all those women and men from CLAP who are with gas and food every day, thousands of coordinators of all those tasks, the soldiers, the people who work in the security apparatus and many others on every street , alley, field, building. So we must show ourselves through the media, whatever they may be, but people of flesh and blood, not idiot superheroes looking like monsters who throw pain in the ass who in the end deny collective creations, because with the superhero they disappear and it is the individual superhero who helps, the peeled egg, he solves everything, he alone against all, and we do not exist. Are they going to turn us all into superheroes, stupid alter egos of the European gringo? Are we also going to imitate him? Don't we have the capacity to be and look at ourselves from and within?


It is good that we shut out investors, Chevron trying to negotiate with the government, because well, we are a dependent economy, we are a capitalist economy, we are not going to overcome it from one day to the next, we are not going to eliminate excessive levels of consumption from one day to the next, we are not going to overcome these universities, these schools, these hospitals from one day to the next, that's fine. But from there we believe the story that this is the way, when we see the Europeans in crisis, who are supposedly the models of the civilizational development of that capitalist culture; when the gringos are eating each other and living like zombies in the streets due to the levels of drug addiction they have reached as a development of that civilization; when the Japanese, the New Zealanders,

That they sell us the idea of ​​the unionization of the population on the one hand the LGTBx, on the other hand the disabled, on the other women, on the other the blacks, on the other the Indians, and that we do not look inward as a total people: That is discussed or discussed, because the effort of four, six or 10 generations that will immolate themselves to create what is different, does not curdle all that heroic will of a people and their leaders, but rather, due to a lack of daring with thought, we end up nailed down again in a factory as workers and slaves all their lives.

When are we going to get rid of this idea of ​​progress, of civilization, that today has Europeans, Japanese, and gringos screwed over? Are we stupidly going down the same path to end up on the same hangman's stick? We are forced to look at ourselves in this territory, and decide what we are going to do with the rivers, lagoons, jungles, mountains, people, the musical, pictorial, artistic diversity in general. When will we talk outside of the stupidity of buying and selling, of selling the landscape, the music, the skirt? When are we going to see each other from that perspective?

That would then imply changing the mode of production, but if we continue with the milestone of economic growth and breaking Guinness records with stupidity, with misses, with people who dance salsa, which is not even the salsa that Venezuelans dance, with classical music, It's not Venezuelan music. Of course, if we do not decide to question ourselves, in the end, as always, we will put our faith in the superhero, and then we will come together in the same way, desperately running towards the Guinness record for perreo, merengueo, the Guinness record for arepa eaters or empanadas with golfed and pepsicola.

Now, the problem is not the casino salsa or the Cuban who brought it, the problem is not whether Bad Bunny is coming, Calle 13, reggaeton or perreo, the music of narcos, the narcorancheras, the narco vallenatos, or all those who They have come to satisfy our unbridled consumerism, neither of the Agayúos who want to get their hands on that real punch bowl with their shows, nor of those who traffic and consume drugs, nor of the government that is facing a brutal war supported by the owners of the planet, not. It is a problem for us, if we keep quiet or cover it up, it is a political problem for us as a country, how is it that we cover all that garbage can and we do not promote another possibility of existence. Demagogy with the zombies that we are is more important, or we propose to talk to each other about what is substantially transcendent, without fear, as Chávez proposed it to us. That is the most important discussion that we have to have as a people in the company of the government, because believing in the usual elites is condemning ourselves to tragedy for life.

People are what the elites mold through their factories, their industries, their means of education, information, art, etc. Example of Russia with the LGTB pod, that they said: "Look, this is a message that I do not want my people to receive and they will not receive it", because behind it are the financial swindlers and the owners of the West who intend to enslave even more to the world with extreme unionization and intend to condemn anyone who does not agree with their rules. The Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians think for themselves. We can agree or disagree with the orthodox, Christian or Muslim religion, or whatever, but these guys know that there is a political design behind feminism, after LGTBx, after Afro, after indigenous people,

It is an important conversation. Why dress up Caracas, Andean, Oriental, central, Zulian children as llaneros? Is there not the merengue, the guasa, the Andean songs and violin music, the central carousing, the oriental carousing, or oriental music, the tamunangue and the Larense blows? It is good that the llaneros value llanera music because it is their music, magnificent, but that is not the total music of this town and that is a discussion that we are obliged to discuss. We cannot standardize a town with a single music, impose a single music, when it is one of the towns with the greatest capacity for musical elaboration and diverse dances in each town and region, and suddenly we see ourselves uniformed in a professional joropo dance,

Following the rhythm, because we are exemplifying almost that with a single artistic manifestation, for example, with protest music. Many of these at the end of their statements end up being against the governments, according to whoever pays them they throw at Chavismo, they throw at communism, they throw at socialism or they throw at the Russians, or the Chinese, or any supposed country that Let the gringos, the OEA, the UN say that it is dictatorial, but in essence none of them goes to the bottom of the problem. It is that, as Ali Primera said, they speak jinxes but they leave the heart of the problem under the table, since the heart of the problem does not pay, because if they talk about the background of capitalism, that is where the business came to, and that is why they easily use them as they used Calle 13, how they used Soledad Bravo,

JOURNEY TOWARDS COLLECTIVE SUBSTANTIAL TRANSCENDENCE
silly generation, millennial zealot, glasses, crystal, stupid, consumerist, lazy, lazy, look at the phone. Well, this is the simplest thing they shoot at, but none of these supposed wise men have an idea and they forget that once upon a time they were that same youth, that one day in the remote or immediate past was cataloged by a bunch of old women. elites like the youth that served for nothing. And so, from frustration to frustration, many generations have immolated themselves at the stake of the human capitalist. that one day in the remote or immediate past it was cataloged by a bunch of old elites as the youth that was useless. And so, from frustration to frustration, many generations have immolated themselves at the stake of the human capitalist. that one day in the remote or immediate past it was cataloged by a bunch of old elites as the youth that was useless. And so, from frustration to frustration, many generations have immolated themselves at the stake of the human capitalist.

But what do we do with that swollen eye? Do we rub it, start crying, seek comfort, or do we get up strong and send all those frustrated adjectives to hell and decide to be substantively ourselves in this time and space with its facts, with its miseries, with its delights?

The world we know was built by young people guided by their experiences and the experiences of the ancients that were systematized over time and became a body of ideas joined by young people who had analyzed the present, the past, and had determined a possible future. Thus we have seen entire generations die in wars for religions, for economic systems, for ideas of redemption such as anarchism, communism, socialism, utopianism, democracy, Nazi-fascism, for freedom, equality, fraternity. , the nation, the empire, the homeland, all ideas today without meaning for the new generations.

None of these ideas light the fuse, they are all repetitions without content, flags in the use of power, and we see that in Ukraine and throughout the world, where the most idiotic idea in the world, racial superiority, is linked to freedom and democracy. and millions of dollars are invested to justify the looting of entire countries or continents.

The towns, countries, nations, ethnic groups, clans that we know today, were initially founded by way of myths, without real substrates, whether historical or magical, by imposition or by agreement of the population without third party intervention. In most cases, these myths are sustained by the imposition of a powerful class born of war, that is, crime and looting, which are clear about their interests and subdue the majority through power. In the particular case of founding ourselves as a country, we would not start from creating a culture based on these myths or these stories based on the exploitation of people, and this has a logical reason: we will start from principles and a historical conjunction lived between real leaders and the people. real,

Or we can also stay out of cowardice, hunger, ignorance, attached to the habit of being slaves, imitators of ways, uses and customs imposed from slavery to the present day, a culture that illusoryly proposes a non-existent happiness.

Now, carrying forward an idea of ​​a country, nation or homeland, community or other culture, cannot depend on the ideological stickiness of the past, but must be born by decision, by knowledge, by planning, because by history we have had one in common : the elites as dominators and the slaves as the dominated, and between them and us a production relationship that makes slaves believe in the possibility of being them.

To think of another idea of ​​being in this territory, another culture, is to reach the radical audacity of thinking, for example, of changing the name of Venezuela for another that is more in line with the decisions, convictions, knowledge or planning that we make; but that will be considered by force of custom as a reprehensible heresy, despite the fact that everyone knows that the name of this territory is a comparative pejorative created by the invaders as well as the imposition of language, religion or religions, art, borders. The simple thing is that, without questioning and replacing those physical ideological rivets of the past, another CULTURE is not possible, in capital letters.

The elites at the service of capitalism that have called for sanctions, for invasion, for the confiscation of assets, for a blockade, despite having been born in these territories are culturally vassals of the owners of the planet, and with them and their refined and exclusive culture they do not it will be able to build a collective culture, so that we and those who run the government think that we all fit. For them, we all fit to the extent that we are their slaves. They hate us, they love their owners.

https://misionverdad.com/chavismo/la-cu ... una-mierda

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

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Re: Venezuela

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 26, 2022 2:31 pm

CP of Venezuela, The National Budget was not approved unanimously: the PCV saved the vote
12/22/22 3:13 PM
Venezuela, Communist Party of Venezuela En Es South America Communist and workers' parties
The National Budget was not approved unanimously: the PCV saved the vote



Caracas, 12-20-2022 (Redacción TP).- This Monday, in the press statement of the Political Bureau, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela, Oscar Figuera, denied that the National Budget for 2023 as well as the Special Law of Indebtedness were approved unanimously in the National Assembly.

"The Communist Party did not vote in favor of these two instruments that were approved by the fraction that expresses the policy of the so-called "revolutionary bourgeoisie" and of the Venezuelan Government, in agreement with the collaborationist opposition", informed Figuera.

The deputy for the Popular Revolutionary Alternative explained that "it was not possible to express the opinion of the PCV because -as in other occasions- the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, proceeded to deny us the right to speak".

The communist leader denounced that on this occasion Rodriguez advanced towards "a new phase of violation of the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure and Debate" by handling a subterfuge with which the saved vote is prevented from appearing in the minutes of the discussions.

"They deny you the right to speak and then they say that if you save the vote that is not expressed in the minutes because it was not presented in writing", he added.

Figuera described this maneuver as a "trickery" of Jorge Rodríguez "to present a false unanimity regarding the National Budget Law and the Special Law of Indebtedness".

The parliamentarian also related that in October of this year when Minister Ricardo Meléndez presented the National Budget Bill, he refused to give figures.

"This prevents the issuance of an opinion and also implies risks because, since there is no information, the citizenship has no possibility of control and the risk of misuse of resources and corruption is increased", he explained.

Violations to the Constitution and complicity of public powers.

Regarding the anniversary of the referendum on the approval of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Figuera informed that his right to speak in the National Assembly was also denied while deputies of the opposition "tried to wash their faces in their speeches and present themselves as democrats".

"Yes, we have a Constitution that vindicates rights; now, those rights have been repeatedly violated by the government of Nicolás Maduro and other institutions because the Supreme Court of Justice serves to validate that violation and the Prosecutor's Office not only serves but is an accomplice", stated the PCV Secretary General.

Figuera reminded that article 84 in its literal five establishes that no person shall remain in custody after the release of the prisoner.

"In practice, a number of citizens have been granted release from prison and the government keeps them in custody. An emblematic case is that of the worker Johana González, who has been sequestered in the INOF since April 29".

The Deputy also recalled the cases of the young oil workers Aryenis Torrealba and Alfredo Chirinos who have a court order to receive a psycho-social evaluation that would help to make their prison house measures more flexible and have not yet been executed by the Ministry of Penitentiary Services.

"There is another set of norms that are violated, for example, article 91 which states that there must be a living wage and the Government with its false socialist policy, maintains miserable salaries", pointed out Figuer after recalling the promise made by President Maduro of a single bonus of almost 3 thousand dollars for pensioners and which was not fulfilled.

"That is the falsehood of the official discourse; that is the cynicism of the official discourse", he stressed.

PCV rejects interferenceist law approved by the U.S. Senate

the Red Rooster Party rejected the approval by the U.S. Senate of the Act to Prohibit Operations and Leases with the Illegitimate Authoritarian Regime of Venezuela (Bolivar) "not only because of its extraterritoriality, but because it hits the Venezuelan people".

"While Maduro's government negotiates with the U.S. government, the Senate approves an instrument for Maduro's government -which is already on its knees- to lie on the floor", denounced Figuera.

"However, "regardless of Maduro's surrenderist behavior, we condemn and reject this law", he insisted.

Pedro Castillo did not comply with the program he offered to the people.

The PCV "reiterated its solidarity with the people of Peru who are mobilizing for their rights, demanding the dissolution of Congress and the call for new elections."

"This crisis is a product of the permanent and systematic action of oligarchic groups, but also of the inconsistencies of the government of Pedro Castillo who did not fulfill the program he promised to the people", pointed out Figuera.

Pedro Castillo "instead of sustaining himself in the struggle of the people, dedicated himself to palatial negotiations with big capital and its political expressions, weakening his popular support", he added.

http://solidnet.org/article/CP-of-Venez ... -the-vote/

CP of Venezuela, PCV: Government gives good news to the capitalists while it hits the working people
12/21/22 11:37 AM
Venezuela, Communist Party of Venezuela En Es South America Communist and workers' parties
PCV: Government gives good news to the capitalists while it hits the working people



Caracas, 12-12-2022.- "The Government gives good news to the capitalists while it viciously hits the working people", this is how Pedro Eusse, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), referred to the recent information on financial matters given by the Venezuelan government while "a terrible devaluation of the national currency" is advancing.

A few days ago, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez informed the country that "in spite of the criminal blockade" the financial sector had increased its deposits by 210%. Rodríguez also assured in her Twitter account that the Government will take "actions in defense of the exchange market and the official rate, disturbed by the speculative criminal dollar", but did not give details on how this will be done.

This devaluation of the Bolívar "is the result of the general capitalist crisis and of bourgeois liberal policies that are creating conditions so that the capitalists can have maximum profit at the lowest possible cost, destroying labor rights and above all the salary", said Eusse during a press conference.

The communist leader informed that "an elite tripartite agreement is underway, sponsored by the International Labor Organization (ILO), in which Fedecámaras, the employers' union leaders and this neo-liberal government are agreeing to legalize the retroactive stripping of social benefits".

"This is being promoted by the former president of Fedecámaras, Jorge Roig, with his so-called Labor Emergency Law, with which they aspire that an important part of the remunerations will not be taken into account for the calculation of social benefits and other concepts established in the legislation", he added.

Eusse recalled that this comes along with the imposition of employer dispositions "where workers are forced to over-exploitation conditions with working hours in violation of the law that can reach between 12 and 14 hours a day; working hours where there is no respect for safety and health conditions at work, there are no collective bargaining agreements and there is no freedom of trade unions".

"A model of labor relations without rights is being imposed in Venezuela. This is being imposed by the employers' leaderships of private capital and the Government with its anti-worker and anti-polar policy", he pointed out.



II Plenum of the PCV Central Committee

The PCV successfully held the II Plenum of the Central Committee elected a little more than a month ago by the 16th National Congress.

Eusse informed that the secretariats and national work commissions of the Party were designated "to make the exercise of the collective leadership more efficient" and "in order to advance in the defense of the interests of the Venezuelan working class and to confront, in better conditions, the policies of big capital that are destroying the rights of the workers of our country".

"We have made an evaluation of how the crisis of capitalism is advancing and deepening and how in Venezuela, the Government is advancing in a policy at the service of the interests of big capital", he said.

"This plenary session of the Central Committee has reaffirmed the commitment of our party with the impulse of a process of the broadest unity of action of the Venezuelan working class and in that sense we are in solidarity with the struggles that are developing against layoffs, against illegal suspensions, the destruction of wages, for the recovery of the collective bargaining agreements, against the Onapre instructions and for the right to strike", he added.



Regarding the latter, the Political Bureau of the PCV warned of anonymous calls for an alleged national strike for December 15.

"We want to warn about anonymous calls for actions not decided by the union movement", said Eusse after warning that it could be "a trap, a provocation against the processes of unity and struggle that we have been developing in various organizations".



Worker Johana Gonzalez remains illegally imprisoned

The PCV joins the call of the Committee of Relatives and Friends of Imprisoned Workers for this Wednesday, December 14 in front of the Ministry of Penitentiary Affairs.

"The worker Johana Gonzalez remains kidnapped despite the fact that she has had a release order for almost eight months", explained Eusse.

"We also demand that the Ministry carry out psycho-social examinations that will allow some accused and even sentenced persons to enjoy less severe measures, as is the case of Aryenis Torrealba and Alfredo Chirinos, unjustly sentenced to imprisonment at their homes", he detailed.



Small-scale miners protest in Bolivar

The PCV has received complaints from the state of Bolivar indicating that the National Government has imposed some points of reception and processing of material coming from artisanal mining and is forcing small miners to deliver up to 60% of what they produce.

"All this is happening in the midst of a situation of control by mafias of all kinds, criminal and governmental. Mining workers end up being victims of the tyranny of these mafias and also of the Government with these points where small miners are being plundered," said Eusse.



Solidarity with the Peruvian people

"We express our solidarity with the Peruvian people who have been victims of non-democratic exits decided by oligarchic elites", declared the PCV before the coup d'état registered against President Pedro Castilo.

However, the Red Rooster Party clarified that "this has to do with the fact that the government presided over by Pedro Castillo was not consistent with its program which was supposedly at the service of the interests of the people".

"We are seeing in Peru the same as in other countries of the region where the inconsistencies of progressive reformism lead the most reactionary factors to go on the offensive and carry out coups against the interests of the people," Eusse pointed out.



Greetings to the new authorities of the Colombian Communist Party.

"We send our embrace to the Colombian Communist Party which has just held its 23rd National Congress in a successful manner," Eusse said.

"We are pleased with the fact that Comrade Jaime Caycedo has been elected President and Comrade Claudia Florez has been appointed as the new General Secretary of the Central Committee of the PCC," he concluded.

http://solidnet.org/article/CP-of-Venez ... ng-people/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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