The Washington favorite has spent years at the forefront of a violent campaign of destabilization, write Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal of Grayzone.
By Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal
Grayzone
Before the fateful date of Jan. 22, fewer than 1-in-5 Venezuelans had heard of Juan Guaidó. Only a few months ago, the 35-year-old was an obscure character in a politically marginal far-right group closely associated with gruesome acts of street violence. Even in his own party, Guaidó had been a mid-level figure in the opposition-dominated National Assembly, which is now held under contempt according to Venezuela’s constitution.
But after a single phone call from from U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Guaidó proclaimed himself as president of Venezuela. Anointed as the leader of his country by Washington, a previously unknown political bottom dweller was vaulted onto the international stage as the U.S.-selected leader of the nation with the world’s largest oil reserves.
Echoing the Washington consensus, The New York Times editorial board hailed Guaidó as a “credible rival” to President Nicolás Maduro with a “refreshing style and vision of taking the country forward.” The Bloomberg News editorial board applauded him for seeking “restoration of democracy” and The Wall Street Journal declared him “a new democratic leader.” Meanwhile, Canada, numerous European nations, Israel, and the bloc of right-wing Latin American governments known as the Lima Group recognized Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
While Guaidó seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, he was, in fact, the product of more than a decade of assiduous grooming by the U.S. government’s elite regime change factories. Alongside a cadre of right-wing student activists, Guaidó was cultivated to undermine Venezuela’s socialist-oriented government, destabilize the country and one day seize power. Though he has been a minor figure in Venezuelan politics, he had spent years quietly demonstrating his worthiness in Washington’s halls of power.
“Juan Guaidó is a character that has been created for this circumstance,” Marco Teruggi, an Argentinian sociologist and leading chronicler of Venezuelan politics, told the Grayzone. “It’s the logic of a laboratory – Guaidó is like a mixture of several elements that create a character who, in all honesty, oscillates between laughable and worrying.”
Diego Sequera, a Venezuelan journalist and writer for the investigative outlet, Mision Verdad, agreed: “Guaidó is more popular outside Venezuela than inside, especially in the elite Ivy League and Washington circles,” Sequera remarked to the Grayzone. “He’s a known character there, is predictably right-wing, and is considered loyal to the program.”
While Guaidó is today sold as the face of democratic restoration, he spent his career in the most violent faction of Venezuela’s most radical opposition party, positioning himself at the forefront of one destabilization campaign after another. His party has been widely discredited inside Venezuela, and is held partly responsible for fragmenting a badly weakened opposition.
“‘These radical leaders have no more than 20 percent in opinion polls,” wrote Luis Vicente León, Venezuela’s leading pollster. According to Leon, Guaidó’s party remains isolated because the majority of the population does not want war. “What they want is a solution.’”
But this is precisely why Guaidó was selected by Washington: he is not expected to lead Venezuela towards democracy, but to collapse a country that for the past two decades has been a bulwark of resistance to U.S. hegemony. His unlikely rise signals the culmination of a two decades-long project to destroy a robust socialist experiment.
Targeting ‘Troika of Tyranny’
Since the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez, the United States has fought to restore control over Venezuela and is vast oil reserves. Chavez’s socialist programs may have redistributed the country’s wealth and helped lift millions out of poverty, but they also earned him a target on his back. In 2002, Venezuela’s right-wing opposition briefly ousted him with U.S. support and recognition, before the military restored his presidency following a mass popular mobilization. Throughout the administrations of U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Chavez survived numerous assassination plots before succumbing to cancer in 2013. His successor, Nicolás Maduro, has survived three attempts on his life.
Maduro is shown as a puppet of Fidel Castro in anti-government protest in March 2014. (Wikimedia)
The Trump administration immediately elevated Venezuela to the top of Washington’s regime change target list, branding it the leader of a “troika of tyranny.” Last year, Trump’s national security team attempted to recruit members of the military brass to mount a military junta, but that effort failed. According to the Venezuelan government, the U.S. was also involved in a plot codenamed Operation Constitution to capture Maduro at the Miraflores presidential palace, and another called Operation Armageddon to assassinate him at a military parade in July 2017. Just over a year later, exiled opposition leaders tried and failed to kill Maduro with drone bombs during a military parade in Caracas.
More than a decade before these intrigues, a group of right-wing opposition students were hand selected and groomed by an elite, U.S.-funded regime change training academy to topple Venezuela’s government and restore the neoliberal order.
Training for Insurrection
On Oct. 5, 2005, with Chavez’s popularity at its peak and his government planning sweeping socialist programs, five Venezuelan “student leaders” arrived in Belgrade, Serbia to begin training for an insurrection.
The students had arrived from Venezuela courtesy of the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies, or CANVAS. This group is funded largely through the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA cut-out that functions as the U.S. government’s main arm of promoting regime change; and offshoots like the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. According to leaked internal emails from Stratfor, an intelligence firm known as the “shadow CIA,” “[CANVAS] may have also received CIA funding and training during the 1999/2000 anti-Milosevic struggle.”
CANVAS is a spinoff of Otpor, a Serbian protest group founded by Srdja Popovic in 1998 at the University of Belgrade. Otpor, which means “resistance” in Serbian, was the student group that gained international fame – and Hollywood-level promotion – by mobilizing the protests that eventually toppled Slobodan Milosevic. This small cell of regime change specialists was operating according to the theories of the late Gene Sharp, the “Clausewitz of non-violent struggle.” Sharp had worked with a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, Col. Robert Helvey, to conceive a strategic blueprint that weaponized protest as a form of hybrid warfare, aiming it at states that resisted Washington’s unipolar domination.
Otpor at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards. (Brian Rasic)
Otpor was supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID and Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institute. Sinisa Sikman, one of Otpor’s main trainers, once said the group even received direct CIA funding. According to a leaked email from a Stratfor staffer, after running Milosevic out of power, “the kids who ran OTPOR grew up, got suits and designed CANVAS… or in other words an ‘export-a-revolution’ group that sowed the seeds for a NUMBER of color revolutions. They are still hooked into U.S. funding and basically go around the world trying to topple dictators and autocratic governments (ones that U.S. does not like).”
Stratfor revealed that CANVAS “turned its attention to Venezuela” in 2005 after training opposition movements that led pro-NATO regime change operations across Eastern Europe.
While monitoring the CANVAS training program, Stratfor outlined its insurrectionist agenda in strikingly blunt language: “Success is by no means guaranteed, and student movements are only at the beginning of what could be a years-long effort to trigger a revolution in Venezuela, but the trainers themselves are the people who cut their teeth on the ‘Butcher of the Balkans.’ They’ve got mad skills. When you see students at five Venezuelan universities hold simultaneous demonstrations, you will know that the training is over and the real work has begun.”
Generation 2007
The “real work” began two years later, in 2007, when Guaidó graduated from Andrés Bello Catholic University of Caracas. He moved to Washington, D.C., to enroll in the governance and political management program at George Washington University under the tutelage of Venezuelan economist Luis Enrique Berrizbeitia, one of the top Latin American neoliberal economists. Berrizbeitia is a former executive director of the International Monetary Fund who spent more than a decade working in the Venezuelan energy sector under the oligarchic old regime that was ousted by Chavez.
That year, Guaidó helped lead anti-government rallies after the Venezuelan government declined to renew the license of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). This privately-owned station played a leading role in the 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez. RCTV helped mobilize anti-government demonstrators, falsified information blaming government supporters for acts of violence carried out by opposition members, and banned pro-government reporting amid the coup. The role of RCTV and other oligarch-owned stations in driving the failed coup attempt was chronicled in the acclaimed documentary, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”
That same year, the students claimed credit for stymying Chavez’s constitutional referendum for a “21st century socialism” that promised “to set the legal framework for the political and social reorganization of the country, giving direct power to organized communities as a prerequisite for the development of a new economic system.”
From the protests around RCTV and the referendum, a specialized cadre of U.S.-backed class of regime change activists was born. They called themselves “Generation 2007.”
Yon Goicoechea wins 2008 Cato Institute’s Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty.
The Stratfor and CANVAS trainers of this cell identified Guaidó’s ally – a street organizer named Yon Goicoechea – as a “key factor” in defeating the constitutional referendum. The following year, Goicochea was rewarded for his efforts with the Cato Institute’s Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, along with a $500,000 prize, which he promptly invested into building his own Liberty First (Primero Justicia) political network.
Friedman, of course, was the godfather of the notorious neoliberal Chicago Boys who were imported into Chile by dictatorial junta leader Augusto Pinochet to implement policies of radical “shock doctrine”-style fiscal austerity. And the Cato Institute is the libertarian Washington, D.C.-based think tank founded by the Koch brothers, two top Republican Party donors who have become aggressive supporters of the right-wing across Latin America.
WikiLeaks published a 2007 email that American ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield sent to the State Department, National Security Council and Department of Defense Southern Command praising “Generation of ’07” for having “forced the Venezuelan president, accustomed to setting the political agenda, to (over)react.” Among the “emerging leaders” Brownfield identified were Freddy Guevara and Yon Goicoechea. He applauded the latter figure as “one of the students’ most articulate defenders of civil liberties.”
Flush with cash from libertarian oligarchs and U.S. government soft power outfits, the radical Venezuelan cadre took their Otpor tactics to the streets, along with a version of the group’s logo, as seen below:
Spinning Anti-Chavez Unrest
In 2009, the Generation 2007 youth activists staged their most provocative demonstration yet, dropping their pants on public roads and aping the outrageous guerrilla theater tactics outlined by Gene Sharp in his regime change manuals. The protesters had mobilized against the arrest of an ally from another newfangled youth group called JAVU. This far-right group “gathered funds from a variety of U.S. government sources, which allowed it to gain notoriety quickly as the hardline wing of opposition street movements,” according to academic George Ciccariello-Maher’s book, “Building the Commune.”
While video of the protest is not available, many Venezuelans have identified Guaidó as one of its key participants. While the allegation is unconfirmed, it is certainly plausible; the bare-buttocks protesters were members of the Generation 2007 inner core that Guaidó belonged to, and were clad in their trademark Resistencia! Venezuela t-shirts, as seen below:
That year, Guaidó exposed himself to the public in another way, founding a political party to capture the anti-Chavez energy his Generation 2007 had cultivated. Called Popular Will, it was led by Leopoldo López, a Princeton-educated right-wing firebrand heavily involved in National Endowment for Democracy programs and elected as the mayor of a district in Caracas that was one of the wealthiest in the country. Lopez was a portrait of Venezuelan aristocracy, directly descended from his country’s first president. He was also the first cousin of Thor Halvorssen, founder of the U.S.-based Human Rights Foundation that functions as a de facto publicity shop for U.S.-backed anti-government activists in countries targeted by Washington for regime change.
Though Lopez’s interests aligned neatly with Washington’s, U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks highlighted the fanatical tendencies that would ultimately lead to Popular Will’s marginalization. One cable identified Lopez as “a divisive figure within the opposition… often described as arrogant, vindictive, and power-hungry.” Others highlighted his obsession with street confrontations and his “uncompromising approach” as a source of tension with other opposition leaders who prioritized unity and participation in the country’s democratic institutions.
Popular Will founder Leopoldo Lopez and wife, Lilian Tinter.
By 2010, Popular Will and its foreign backers moved to exploit the worst drought to hit Venezuela in decades. Massive electricity shortages had struck the country due the dearth of water, which was needed to power hydroelectric plants. A global economic recession and declining oil prices compounded the crisis, driving public discontentment.
Stratfor and CANVAS – key advisors of Guaidó and his anti-government cadre – devised a shockingly cynical plan to drive a dagger through the heart of the Bolivarian revolution. The scheme hinged on a 70 percent collapse of the country’s electrical system by as early as April 2010.
“This could be the watershed event, as there is little that Chavez can do to protect the poor from the failure of that system,” the Stratfor internal memo declared. “This would likely have the impact of galvanizing public unrest in a way that no opposition group could ever hope to generate. At that point in time, an opposition group would be best served to take advantage of the situation and spin it against Chavez and towards their needs.”
By this point, the Venezuelan opposition was receiving a staggering $40-50 million a year from U.S. government organizations like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, according to a report by the Spanish think tank, the FRIDE Institute. It also had massive wealth to draw on from its own accounts, which were mostly outside the country.
While the scenario envisioned by Statfor did not come to fruition, the Popular Will party activists and their allies cast aside any pretense of non-violence and joined a radical plan to destabilize the country.
Violent Destabilization
In November 2010, according to emails obtained by Venezuelan security services and presented by former Justice Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres, Guaidó, Goicoechea, and several other student activists attended a secret five-day training at the Fiesta Mexicana hotel in Mexico City. The sessions were run by Otpor, the Belgrade-based regime change trainers backed by the U.S. government. The meeting had reportedly received the blessing of Otto Reich, a fanatically anti-Castro Cuban exile working in George W. Bush’s Department of State, and the right-wing former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
At the Fiesta Mexicana hotel, the emails stated, Guaidó and his fellow activists hatched a plan to overthrow President Hugo Chavez by generating chaos through protracted spasms of street violence.
Three petroleum industry figureheads – Gustavo Torrar, Eligio Cedeño and Pedro Burelli – allegedly covered the $52,000 tab to hold the meeting. Torrar is a self-described “human rights activist” and “intellectual” whose younger brother Reynaldo Tovar Arroyo is the representative in Venezuela of the private Mexican oil and gas company Petroquimica del Golfo, which holds a contract with the Venezuelan state.
Cedeño, for his part, is a fugitive Venezuelan businessman who claimed asylum in the United States, and Pedro Burelli a former JP Morgan executive and the former director of Venezuela’s national oil company, Petroleum of Venezuela (PDVSA). He left PDVSA in 1998 as Hugo Chavez took power and is on the advisory committee of Georgetown University’s Latin America leadership program.
Burelli insisted that the emails detailing his participation had been fabricated and even hired a private investigator to prove it. The investigator declared that Google’s records showed the emails alleged to be his were never transmitted.
Yet today Burelli makes no secret of his desire to see Venezuela’s current president, Nicolás Maduro, deposed – and even dragged through the streets and sodomized with a bayonet, as Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi was by NATO-backed militiamen.
.@NicolasMaduro, jamas me has hecho caso. Me has fustigado/perseguido como @chavezcandanga jamás osó. Óyeme, tienes sólo dos opciones en las próximas 24 horas:
1. Como Noriega: pagar pena por narcotráfico y luego a @IntlCrimCourt La Haya por DDHH.
2. O a la Gaddafi.
Escoge ya! pic.twitter.com/pMksCEXEmY
— Pedro Mario Burelli (@pburelli) January 17, 2019
The alleged Fiesta Mexicana plot flowed into another destabilization plan revealed in a series of documents produced by the Venezuelan government. In May 2014, Caracas released documents detailing an assassination plot against President Nicolás Maduro. The leaks identified the Miami-based Maria Corina Machado as a leader of the scheme. A hardliner with a penchant for extreme rhetoric, Machado has functioned as an international liaison for the opposition, visiting President George W. Bush in 2005.
Machado and George W. Bush, 2005.
“I think it is time to gather efforts; make the necessary calls, and obtain financing to annihilate Maduro and the rest will fall apart,” Machado wrote in an email to former Venezuelan diplomat Diego Arria in 2014.
In another email, Machado claimed that the violent plot had the blessing of U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, Kevin Whitaker. “I have already made up my mind and this fight will continue until this regime is overthrown and we deliver to our friends in the world. If I went to San Cristobal and exposed myself before the OAS, I fear nothing. Kevin Whitaker has already reconfirmed his support and he pointed out the new steps. We have a checkbook stronger than the regime’s to break the international security ring.”
Guaidó Heads to Barricades
That February, student demonstrators acting as shock troops for the exiled oligarchy erected violent barricades across the country, turning opposition-controlled quarters into violent fortresses known as guarimbas. While international media portrayed the upheaval as a spontaneous protest against Maduro’s iron-fisted rule, there was ample evidence that Popular Will was orchestrating the show.
“None of the protesters at the universities wore their university t-shirts, they all wore Popular Will or Justice First t-shirts,” a guarimba participant said at the time. “They might have been student groups, but the student councils are affiliated to the political opposition parties and they are accountable to them.”
Asked who the ringleaders were, the guarimba participant said, “Well if I am totally honest, those guys are legislators now.”
Around 43 were killed during the 2014 guarimbas. Three years later, they erupted again, causing mass destruction of public infrastructure, the murder of government supporters, and the deaths of 126 people, many of whom were Chavistas. In several cases, supporters of the government were burned alive by armed gangs.
Guaidó was directly involved in the 2014 guarimbas. In fact, he tweeted video showing himself clad in a helmet and gas mask, surrounded by masked and armed elements that had shut down a highway that were engaging in a violent clash with the police. Alluding to his participation in Generation 2007, he proclaimed, “I remember in 2007, we proclaimed, ‘Students!’ Now, we shout, ‘Resistance! Resistance!’”
Guaidó has deleted the tweet, demonstrating apparent concern for his image as a champion of democracy.
On Feb. 12, 2014, during the height of that year’s guarimbas, Guaidó joined Lopez on stage at a rally of Popular Will and Justice First. During a lengthy diatribe against the government, Lopez urged the crowd to march to the office of Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz. Soon after, Diaz’s office came under attack by armed gangs who attempted to burn it to the ground. She denounced what she called “planned and premeditated violence.”
Guaidó alongside Lopez at fateful Feb. 12, 2014 rally.
In a televised appearance in 2016, Guaidó dismissed deaths resulting from guayas – a guarimba tactic involving stretching steel wire across a roadway in order to injure or kill motorcyclists – as a “myth.” His comments whitewashed a deadly tactic that had killed unarmed civilians like Santiago Pedroza and decapitated a man named Elvis Durán, among many others.
This callous disregard for human life would define his Popular Will party in the eyes of much of the public, including many opponents of Maduro.
Cracking Down on Popular Will
As violence and political polarization escalated across the country, the government began to act against the Popular Will leaders who helped stoke it.
Freddy Guevara, the National Assembly vice-president and second in command of Popular Will, was a principal leader in the 2017 street riots. Facing a trial for his role in the violence, Guevara took shelter in the Chilean embassy, where he remains.
Lester Toledo, a Popular Will legislator from the state of Zulia, was wanted by the Venezuelan government in September 2016 on charges of financing terrorism and plotting assassinations. The plans were said to be made with former Colombian President Álavaro Uribe. Toledo escaped Venezuela and went on several speaking tours with Human Rights Watch, the U.S. government-backed Freedom House, the Spanish Congress and European Parliament.
Carlos Graffe, another Otpor-trained Generation 2007 member who led Popular Will, was arrested in July 2017. According to police, he was in possession of a bag filled with nails, C4 explosives and a detonator. He was released on Dec. 27, 2017.
Leopoldo Lopez, the longtime Popular Will leader, is today under house arrest, accused of a key role in the deaths of 13 people during the guarimbas in 2014. Amnesty International lauded Lopez as a “prisoner of conscience” and slammed his transfer from prison to house as “not good enough.” Meanwhile, family members of guarimba victims introduced a petition for more charges against Lopez.
Goicoechea, the Koch Brothers’ poster boy and U.S.-backed founder of Justice First, was arrested in 2016 by security forces who claimed they found found a kilo of explosives in his vehicle. In a New York Times op-ed, Goicoechea protested the charges as “trumped-up” and claimed he had been imprisoned simply for his “dream of a democratic society, free of Communism.” He was freed in November 2017.
Hoy, en Caricuao. Llevo 15 años trabajando con @jguaido. Confío en él. Conozco la constancia y la inteligencia con la que se ha construido a sí mismo. Está haciendo las cosas con bondad, pero sin ingenuidad. Hay una posibilidad abierta hacia la libertad. pic.twitter.com/Lidm8y5RTX
— Yon Goicoechea (@YonGoicoechea) January 20, 2019
David Smolansky, also a member of the original Otpor-trained Generation 2007, became Venezuela’s youngest-ever mayor when he was elected in 2013 in the affluent suburb of El Hatillo. But he was stripped of his position and sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Supreme Court after it found him culpable of stirring the violent guarimbas.
Facing arrest, Smolansky shaved his beard, donned sunglasses and slipped into Brazil disguised as a priest with a Bible in hand and rosary around his neck. He now lives in Washington, D.C., where he was hand picked by Secretary of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro to lead the working group on the Venezuelan migrant and refugee crisis.
This July 26, Smolansky held what he called a “cordial reunion” with Elliot Abrams, the convicted Iran-Contra felon installed by Trump as special U.S. envoy to Venezuela. Abrams is notorious for overseeing the U.S. covert policy of arming right-wing death squads during the 1980s in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. His lead role in the Venezuelan coup has stoked fears that another blood-drenched proxy war might be on the way.
Cordial reunión en la ONU con Elliott Abrams, enviado especial del gobierno de EEUU para Venezuela. Reiteramos que la prioridad para el gobierno interino que preside @jguaido es la asistencia humanitaria para millones de venezolanos que sufren de la falta de comida y medicinas. pic.twitter.com/vHfktVKgV4
— David Smolansky (@dsmolansky) January 26, 2019
Four days earlier, Machado rumbled another violent threat against Maduro, declaring that if he “wants to save his life, he should understand that his time is up.”
Pawn in Their Game
The collapse of Popular Will under the weight of the violent campaign of destabilization it ran alienated large sectors of the public and wound much of its leadership up in exile or in custody. Guaidó had remained a relatively minor figure, having spent most of his nine-year career in the National Assembly as an alternate deputy. Hailing from one of Venezuela’s least populous states, Guaidó came in second place during the 2015 parliamentary elections, winning just 26 percent of votes cast in order to secure his place in the National Assembly. Indeed, his bottom may have been better known than his face.
Guaidó is known as the president of the opposition-dominated National Assembly, but he was never elected to the position. The four opposition parties that comprised the Assembly’s Democratic Unity Table had decided to establish a rotating presidency. Popular Will’s turn was on the way, but its founder, Lopez, was under house arrest. Meanwhile, his second-in-charge, Guevara, had taken refuge in the Chilean embassy. A figure named Juan Andrés Mejía would have been next in line but for reasons that are only now clear, Juan Guaido was selected.
“There is a class reasoning that explains Guaidó’s rise,” Sequera, the Venezuelan analyst, observed. “Mejía is high class, studied at one of the most expensive private universities in Venezuela, and could not be easily marketed to the public the way Guaidó could. For one, Guaidó has common mestizo features like most Venezuelans do, and seems more like a man of the people. Also, he had not been overexposed in the media, so he could be built up into pretty much anything.”
In December 2018, Guaidó sneaked across the border and junketed to Washington, Colombia and Brazil to coordinate the plan to hold mass demonstrations during the inauguration of President Maduro. The night before Maduro’s swearing-in ceremony, both Vice President Mike Pence and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland called Guaidó to affirm their support.
A week later, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rick Scott and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart – all lawmakers from the Florida base of the right-wing Cuban exile lobby – joined President Trump and Vice President Pence at the White House. At their request, Trump agreed that if Guaidó declared himself president, he would back him.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met personally with Guaidó on Jan. 10, according to The Wall Street Journal. However, Pompeo could not pronounce Guaidó’s name when he mentioned him in a press briefing on Jan. 25, referring to him as “Juan Guido.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just called the figure Washington is attempting to install as Venezuelan President "Juan *Guido*" – as in the racist term for Italians. America's top diplomat didn't even bother to learn how to pronounce his puppet's name. pic.twitter.com/HsanZXuSPR
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) January 25, 2019
By Jan. 11, Guaidó’s Wikipedia page had been edited 37 times, highlighting the struggle to shape the image of a previously anonymous figure who was now a tableau for Washington’s regime change ambitions. In the end, editorial oversight of his page was handed over to Wikipedia’s elite council of “librarians,” who pronounced him the “contested” president of Venezuela.
Guaidó might have been an obscure figure, but his combination of radicalism and opportunism satisfied Washington’s needs. “That internal piece was missing,” a Trump administration official said of Guaidó. “He was the piece we needed for our strategy to be coherent and complete.”
“For the first time,” Brownfield, the former American ambassador to Venezuela, gushed to The New York Times, “you have an opposition leader who is clearly signaling to the armed forces and to law enforcement that he wants to keep them on the side of the angels and with the good guys.”
But Guaidó’s Popular Will party formed the shock troops of the guarimbas that caused the deaths of police officers and common citizens alike. He had even boasted of his own participation in street riots. And now, to win the hearts and minds of the military and police, Guaido had to erase this blood-soaked history.
On Jan. 21, a day before the coup began in earnest, Guaidó’s wife delivered a video address calling on the military to rise up against Maduro. Her performance was wooden and uninspiring, underscoring her husband’s limited political prospects.
At a press conference before supporters four days later, Guaidó announced his solution to the crisis: “Authorize a humanitarian intervention!”
While he waits on direct assistance, Guaidó remains what he has always been – a pet project of cynical outside forces. “It doesn’t matter if he crashes and burns after all these misadventures,” Sequera said of the coup figurehead. “To the Americans, he is expendable.”
Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including best-selling “Republican Gomorrah,” “Goliath,” “The Fifty One Day War“, and “The Management of Savagery.” He has produced print articles for an array of publications, many video reports, and several documentaries, including “Killing Gaza.” Blumenthal founded The Grayzone in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America’s state of perpetual war and its dangerous domestic repercussions.
Dan Cohen is a journalist and filmmaker. He has produced widely distributed video reports and print dispatches from across Israel-Palestine. Dan is a correspondent at RT America and tweets at @DanCohen3000. See his website for more information.
he is a Israeli isis terrorist
The similarties to the Chilean Coup in 1973 are striking. Yet there is not much mention of this in the press. First the demonization of Allende, then the crippiling of the economy ( Nixon to Kessinger, ” Make their economy scream”) Allende won the election and that was the last straw so then the military overthrow and Chile´s real nightmare began in ernest.
The good news, so far anyway, is that the military remains faithful to the government of Maduro.
Chavez foresaw this day coming and before his death he bought 100,000 Kalashnikov sniper rifles from Russia. The US Dept. of State demanded to know at the time who those rifles were to be used against. Well now they have the answer to their own question. On top of that the Venezuelan Military has recieved training from both the Cuban and Vietnamese militaries in guerilla warfare. Both militaries defeated the US. Even though the US has far superior arms, and forces numbers, they have never been successful in fighting a guerilla war against a determined enemy. Venezuela´s terrain is almost a carbon copy of that of Vietnam. Yes they may take over the government and infrastructure, they will be left with yet one more debilitating war that the American people will soon tire of. When they leave it will be another Vietnam where the Chavistas will over run the government in a matter of weeks.
Maduro’s Bid to Fly Gold Out of Venezuela Is Blocked
By Patricia Laya
February 1, 2019, 9:30 AM PST Updated on February 2, 2019, 4:39 AM PST
Transaction is halted after U.S. issues sanctions warning
The gold is key to power struggle between Maduro and Guaido
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-01/maduro-regime-said-to-halt-plan-to-ship-20-tons-of-gold-abroad
Chad Harper
February 1, 2019 at 3:02 pm
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-01/the-great-oil-paradox-too-many-good-crudes-not-enough-bad-ones
High U.S. production combined with the fact that the USG can simply pick up the phone, call Saudi Arabia and tell them to keep production at high levels has devastated Venezuela,
(Venezuela has thick dark pitch like oil that must be combined with lighter oil to make it sellable) Thick poor quality oil is harder to refine, expensive to process and hard on car engines,.
January 31, 2019 at 8:24 pm
https://www.insightcrime.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Venezuela-a-Mafia-State-InSight-Crime-2018.pdf
https://www.insightcrime.org/investigations/venezuela-mafia-state/
This is a comprehensive report done by insight in the past year.
EL CHAPO TRAIL UPDATE: 2/2/2019
DOCUMENTS UNSEALED IN EL CHAPO TRIAL SHOW COOPERATION WITH THE DEA:
DEFENSE WAS NOT ALLOWED TO QUESTION WITNESSES ABOUT DEA DEAL
USG DENIES DEAL TO CONFER IMMUNITY IN EXCHANGE FOR INFORMATION:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5720140/El-Chapo-trial-document-on-Vicente-Zamabada-s.pdf
Keegan Hamilton
Court doc also notes that Chapo met with the DEA in 1998 while he was still in prison and offered to provide information about rival cartels. Judge granted request from prosecutors to block questions about this during the trial.
https://twitter.com/keegan_hamilton/status/1091736105785982982
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/pa5xpk/prosecutors-dont-want-el-chapos-jury-to-hear-how-the-us-government-sent-guns-to-the-sinaloa-cartel
(…)
Keegan Hamilton
Prosecutors acknowledge that one of Chapo’s lawyers — who had all charges against him dropped — “would meet with the defendant and his partner, Mayo Zambada to gather information about rivals of the Sinaloa Cartel and provide this information to the DEA” from 2005 to 2015.
(…)
Keegan Hamilton
On Vicentillo’s Chapo-approved meeting w/ the DEA:
“At no time prior to that meeting, or during the meeting, did the DEA or any other entity of the US government confer any immunity or authorization for Zambada Niebla or the defendant to engage in narcotics trafficking.”
(…)
Keegan Hamilton
The reason this didn’t come up during the trial is that one of the cooperating witnesses — Alex Cifuentes — was also having sex with young girls and helping Chapo drug them. The government didn’t want that info to come up on cross-examination.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DyagIcxX4AMo2L2.jpg
This time we could run into Vietnam 2.0!
50,000 Cuban artisans in camouflage suits are already on their way, equipped with their best tools!
Is it only me that is missing the jackal? Eight gangsters are on the loose and need to be brought immediately to popular justice:
Bolton, Pompeo, Abrahams, Mnuchin, Macron, Merkel, May and Guaido
I know it is irrelevant, but as a Canadian I must add Trudeau.
It is astonishing what has been done by Liberals, Trudeau and Freeland.
I don’t think our subservience to Washington has ever been so openly and embarrassingly displayed.
Trudeau’s father gave Washington the finger over doing business in Cuba and over their massive slaughter in Vietnam.
Pearson was literally grabbed by the lapels and slammed into a wall by LBJ when he refused to send some troops to Vietnam.
Chretien told Washington no about sending troops to Iraq.
Venezuelan developments are clearly a coup-in-slow-motion.
Of course, the good old boys who gave you Pinochet and the horrors of Nicaragua and Honduras and Guatemala are hard at work.
I just never thought I’d see the government of Canada assisting them.
“Canada pledges $53M to help Venezuelan refugee crisis,” a headline is from this morning’s CBC.
Whenever we hear the word “refugee” we are softened and accepting, as we should be.
But this is an exploitation of those instinctive reactions by Canadians.
That money, or much of it, will wind up supporting the efforts of a self-proclaimed president and fighting the efforts of an elected president to fight off American imperialism.
Please remember who is the world’s great creator of refugees. American bombing in the Middle East has created millions of them.
And American interference in Central America has created tens of thousands more.
Then America turns around and virtually refuses to help the desperate people whom it made desperate.
The people from Central America are turned away by armed forces at the border with Mexico. The people from Syria and Libya and other places are called names by the American President and banned from applying in the US. as refugees.
Meanwhile, a recent poll in Venezuela indicates 65% support for Maduro with about 20% support for America’s usurper candidate, and that is in light of an intense American effort at economic war against the country.
Compare that to single-digit support for France’s Macron, a man demanding Maduro give way. And note Mexico’s new president has reiterated his lack of support for this American effort. Oh, that our Prime Minister had that kind of courage and conviction.
Italy for example is openly against this.
Mexico is against this.
The majority of Organization of American States is against this, which is precisely why the Lima Group was created with about a third of OAS members.
They are the American-compliant countries. It is effectively a CIA-front organization for toppling Latin American elected governments. They have several more they are going to target in future.
France’s Macron keeps opening his big mouth about things he does not understand. He literally has single-digit public support, and he has close to a national revolt on his hands.
Britain’s Prime Minister is quite unpopular and would likely lose if an election were held.
Not one leader in Europe enjoys Maduro’s level of support. And Trump is not popular either. Any decent opponent will defeat him in 2020, if he is not first indicted or impeached.
Here’s how open and transparent Canada is behaving on this matter of the Lima Group – as reported without editorial comment by Sputnik today:
‘Canada’s foreign ministry has denied accreditation to Sputnik and RIA Novosti for a meeting of the Lima Group foreign ministers on Venezuela in Ottawa.
‘”Thank you for your interest in the 10th ministerial meeting of Lima Group in Ottawa. This email is to let you know you have NOT been accredited as media,” the Canadian Foreign Ministry said in its original letter, notifying journalists about the refusal.
‘”The ministry did not cite any reasons behind its decision in the letter.”‘
This is chutzpah. In a country where the inflation rate is one million percent, where a substantial number of the leaders of the opposition are in jail or in exile, where “experts” trained and employed by the failed Cuban regime but paid with Venezuelan cash sit astride the decision-making centers of the country, Cohen and Blumenthal endeavor to answer that most galling question: what explains the sudden appearance of Juan Guaidó?
They’ve been encouraged to assume this task by the sweet fire that those who are called upon to fight for social justice feel in their bosoms when they fight the right fight. Their war-cry is as follows: “Guaidó was selected by Washington: he is not expected to lead Venezuela towards democracy, but to collapse a country that for the past two decades has been a bulwark of resistance to U.S. hegemony. His unlikely rise signals the culmination of a two decades-long project to destroy a robust socialist experiment.”
Guaidó isn’t interviewed for the piece. If any effort was made to contact him or his wife, or his daddy or his mommy, the particulars didn’t appear in the final product.
Danny and Max, however, didn’t lack for sources. For instance, they seem to have relied on one Luis Vicente Leon, whom they claim is Venezuela’s most respected pollster. They pluck him out of thin air for coming out in support of the memorable proposition that “Venezuelans would prefer peace to war.” And to this deep insight they hitch an unattributed claim: that Voluntad Popular, Guaidó’s party, “has been widely discredited inside Venezuela, and is held partly responsible for fragmenting a badly weakened opposition.” No opposition figure is cited in support of this claim. But who needs that? Danny and Max would not be favorably inclined to consider the possibility that any opposition could consolidate against a bona fide “robust socialist experiment.” And Maduro is perfect. He cn d no wrong. Right?
Marco Teruggi is another one of the luminaries upon whom they rely. Teruggi bloviates that Guaidó is both cause for laughter and worry. That’s profound. If only Dostoyevsky had hit upon such a happy juxtaposition of terms! Speaking of hit, that’s worth another hit. Pass the joint. Teruggi must berely smart because his brain droppings are found plentifully in Cuban propaganda outlets.
Diego Sequera, described as journalist, is another golden source of information. However, the somewhat relevant fact that Sequera worked in the office of Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s predecessor and anointer, goes unmentioned. Danny and Max clearly aren’t concerned with bias, as long as it’s the right bias.
The rest of the piece labors to bring together some Balkan operators skilled in the dark arts of installing pro-NATO regimes in countries of the former Eastern Block, Neo-Liberals???, a good looking lady whose surname “Machado” must be in every male to female transexual’s list, and a number of Venezuelan Popular Will politicos who are in jail or fleeing from it. Oh, I almost forgot one thing: a pair of bare buttocks presumably belonging to Guaidó is featured. Guaidó is absent from that section except that it is claimed that he participated in a five-day political training in a Mexican hotel.
There is also a discussion of a street uprising that took place in 2014 that resulted in the untimely death of certain motorcyclists. These motorcyclists were presumably exercising their constitutional right to terrorize anti-government demonstrators when they were felled by wiring cravenly strung about by the demonstrators. Maduro probably believes that the demonstrators should have allowed the aforesaid motorcyclists to approach them, shoot at them at will, and ride them down. Now, that’s what Maduro, Danny, and Max would surely consider a truly sporting approach!
This logorrheic burst is the best evidence that Maduro has to go. I hope that the transition is a peaceful one. But I doubt it. His supporters believe that the problems facing Venezuela are Guaidó’s skinny buttocks, that the robust socialist experiment taking place there means that the country’s one million percent inflation rate doesn’t justify a change in government, that anyone wishing to change this regime is a right wing extremist, and that Maduro is the best and only Venezuelan worthy of the title of President. Maduro’s opponents point out the influence of Cuba in Venezuela and the bottomless economic. There are substantial allegations to the effect that the regime is involved in massive narcotics trafficking and money laundering. The political opposition is regularly mowed down by the regime despite the fact that there are no guerillas or terror cells. Under the circumstances, the denouement of the current impasse probably won’t be a peaceful affair. And that is unfortunate.
Sorry, but your comments, for any person who keeps informed, border on crib notes from a basement room in Langley, Virginia.
You got that right in spades John.
As an actual Venezuelan, who currently lives in Venezuela, and has been trying to flee from this living nightmare of a country, allow me to say, in the most sincere way:
Fuck you.
This has got to be the most ignorant, imbecilic, rambling, incoherent, stupid, biased, soul-sucking, bile-spewing, incomprehensibly moronic, utterly disgusting attempt at journalism I have ever seen in my entire life.
If you think this country even remotely ressembles a “Robust Socialist Experiment”, then tell you what, lets trade places. YOU come live in this socialist paradise, and I’ll go live in your capitalist hellhole.
Come on, lets do it.
I agree with you!
Looks like you haven’t had enough yet of US meddling in Venezuela. Though your post doesn’t sound like you actually ever even as much as visited the country in its better times. Your English shows you to be American in America, not an American in Venezuela. Or you would of course know that the US gov doesn’t care if the people of Venezuela suffer more and more. But if it dies come to civil war in Venezuela and the US decides for one more humanitarian action to “liberate” Venezuela’s oil – and that is of course what this all turns around – maybe you will feel all consulates once Venezuela turns into a failed state like Libya.
How much did the US NGO’s pay you for your trolling rant?
The Bank of England has frozen Venezuelan funding of $ 1.2 billion. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wants the central bank to hand over the credit to the self-proclaimed transitional president, Juan Guaido.
Economics professor Richard Wolff of the University of Massachusetts considers the loss of confidence in such an approach to be enormous. Few countries would still trust London as a financial center should the British yield to US demands here. The alleged concern for the well-being of the Venezuelan population was also advanced. Once the Venezuelan oil is under US control, the citizens of the country again completely do not care.
Floridian trolling. Nothing else.
Ustedes creen que uno es analfabeta o que? You really think we’re not taught English in our public and private schools? Que tan egocentricos son ustedes? Aqui esta otro gringo mostrando que son la mata de la ignorancia ?????.
Abran paso que viene otro Americano, que vio un pseudo documental de 20 minutos pagado por el gobierno del dictador o leyo un artículo con falta de objetividad, a enseñarnos como son las vainas en nuestro pais. Otro blanco a dando clases de política Venezolana mientras chupa de la teta del capitalismo del primer mundo jajajaja. Los blancos como siempre creyendo que ellos son los unicos con la verdad y el poder de salvar el planeta. Abrete gringuito de mierda o mejor aun, educate que claramente lo que te ofrece tu sistema de educación no te alcanza. Si crees que sabes mas que la gente que aun vive en Venezuela solo porque un par de gringos mal informados te dieron información falsa, claramente explica que a los Estados Unidos les falta aun mucho para entender la politica y situacion de Centro y Sur America. Aqui no los queremos, ni a su presidente, ni a sus militares pero tampoco a ustedes Comunistas de tercer grado. Ustedes son todos iguales y ni porque esten vestidos en banderas de partidos políticos diferentes cambia esa mentalidad de superioridad. Fuera colonizadores! Guardense su discursito barato para otra ocasión o venganse a Venezuela a ver cuanto les dura la admiracion a su comandante.
Your Spanish proves nothing. Feel free to prove that the government of Venezuela is any worse than the US has forced it to be. Until then you are properly ignored as a Florida opportunist for oligarchy. I have never seen worse oligarchy scoundrels than the rich who fled socialism in Latin America. Why not try to prove that observation wrong?
“los Estados Unidos les falta aun mucho para entender la politica y situacion de Centro y Sur America.”:
¡No intentan entender, intentan explotarte! ¡Ni más ni menos!
You misunderstand Rodolfo.
For the very reasons you state, it is outrageous and an outrage that my gov’t (Canadian) would interfere in your affairs. Full stop.
However, monsters of our making are ours to expose and defang. One was last seen in your vicinity.
Regula, I do in fact live in venezuela, my entire life. And have been spending the last six years desperately trying to get out.
What, you’re saying that because my english is good, that somehow confirms I’m not a venezuelan? so not only are you an ignorant fuck-face, but also an ignorant, racist fuck-face who assumes all venezuelans are illiterate morons incapable of learning a second language.
Hijo de puta, mi ingles lo aprendi estudiando duro, leyendo bastante, y metiendole horas y horas de practica en el liceo. A ver si dejas de ser tan mamaguevo.
Lastly, if you honestly think anyone, ever, pays actual living people to write comments on a forum, then you are even more of an idiot I initially thought.
Lastly, Venezuela “in its better times” was before the rise of Chavez. Back when I was able to eat meat every day. Back when a slice of cheese didn’t cost half my salary.
Feel free to document that tripe with more than puerile insults.
Slaves of the US are sometimes fed well. Makes only fun to slaughter a fet pig!
It is a rant notably empty of any actual content.
“As an actual Venezuelan, who currently lives in Venezuela, and has been trying to flee from this living nightmare of a country, allow me to say, in the most sincere way:
Fuck you.”
Thank you for your illustration of your immersion/self-absorbtion in “individualism” and adversarial practices perhaps extending to “love making”.
“I’ll go live in your capitalist hellhole.”
Assumptions and their projections are also useful in facilitating and illustrating self-absorbtion and the transcendence of those so immersed.
All data-streams are useful as is anger.
Thank you for your data-stream.
Very well explained. So glad we have gringos like you to explain to us browns how things really work and help us digest what we’re living. No podriamos sin ustedes, gringos. Gracias! Lol
“So glad we have gringos like you..”
“Assumptions and their projections are also useful in facilitating and illustrating self-absorbtion and the transcendence of those so immersed.”
“Very well explained.”
Apparently not understood though.
Contempt of others is also a land of opportunity.
Thank you for your data-stream.
I say again. Please explain what you feel I should know. In your own words or any way you like.
Obviously having your country discussed like an errant child is annoying.
What about the guy in the article?
Actually Lola, I think you are painfully unaware of how the U.S. government works. People like you are disposable pawns when there is oil and gold at stake.
I am giving you the benefit of the doubt here.
As an American capitalist, let me say that all indications are that help is on the way.
I just hope the “help” doesn’t wind up being like what Iraq, Libya and Syria got.
And it might not be.
Latin America isn’t the same as the Islamic middle east. Chavez’s socialist brilliance was never better displayed when he made an enemy of the nearby country that was actually set up to refine the heavy oil that is Venezuela’s main source of economic wealth.
Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst.
Why do you fail to document your opinions, that “Chavez … made an enemy of the nearby country that was actually set up to refine the heavy oil” (an absurd claim in itself), and that US “help” would not be “like what Iraq, Libya and Syria got.” It is absurd to argue only that “Latin America isn’t the same as the Islamic middle east.”
Civil War is on your doorstep. Convince your opponents not us, we’ve seen this rodeo before. Better yet , given your predisposition, hire some killers then leave the country until the blood bath ends. As an American I know the Vietnam War affected the United States deeply. The mistake the USA made in taking this fight over fron France led to 3.5 million Vietnamese immigrating to the USA after the War . That’s a few and they weren’t all boat people. In fact many were not combatants at all , they were elites and collaborators informants > not fighters. Most received business loans and/or welfare , food stamps and other assistance .Too bad we left the Hmong mercenaries who did some of our most affective fighting for us, especially in Laos and western Vietnam, to fend for themselves. Economically, there was a deep Recession during the end of the war , after the War as well., it cost us a lot. Good luck, I suggest if you can’t get out of the country you should get some basic emergency medical skills and volunteer to patch folks up that agree with you. If Americans end up there , no matter to you, we take care of our own. The cost will be your oil regardless. Venezuela is a rich country but you people are ignorant. You still have a colonial mentality, the rich vs. the poor meanwhile thieves , criminals and murders abound. Some where white shirts and ties and receive direct payment from US Intelligence. Believe it. You deserve whatever happens .
Derah,
Please explain to readers of Consortium News how, why, when, etc. you came to visit the website – in other words, Derah, – why are you here? Please refute any of the claims made in the article which you disagree with, and please do so in an academic or debate format with presentation of facts, details, logic and otherwise ad hominem-free argument.
Please explain for readers what is the best course of action for the people of Venezuela, meaning the path forward which offers the best chance for achieving the highest level of health and well-being possible for Venezuelans.
If you think, Derah, that a quality response will be lengthy and possibly require 10,000-20,000 words, perhaps overwhelming the technical capacity of the web platform … don’t worry about that. Your lengthy and detailed … let’s call it “plan for Venezuela”, 10-20,000 word manifesto – will fit.
Consortium News readers are patiently awaiting your gracious response.
Thank you.
Jerry what a great idea. Why not?
I think the use of the word “manifesto” was a bit snarky. Maybe it’s me.
You were doing great up to there though.
Well, you can find lots of people who would say something very similar about Trump.
And Trump’s base said the same thing about Obama.
So what?
I fail to see how that is an argument.
Again, latest polls show 65% support for Maduro versus 20% for his self-annointed opponent.
And, so important, Venezuela is a matter for Venezuelans, not Americans, not Canadians, not contrived Lima Groups.
Much of the hardship in the country is owing to American sanctions, dirty tricks, and constant pressures.
Just as applied for decades to Cuba.
At the time of Chavez’s election, Jimmy Carter looked at the country’s election mechanisms and said they were among the best.
I trust his honesty.
Every country in the world has minorities who would like to seize power.
That very fact is what security services like CIA take advantage of with their various plots and coups.
My God, Washington doesn’t stop blubbering still about Russian interference in the 2016 election.
I doubt there was any worth speaking of. None has been proven.
But these same whining people think its just fine to play these dirty games with Venezuela, ignore its clear elections, and talk even about invasion.
It’s not.
Subscribe this 10000% Only difference being that, thank goodness, I and 37 other members of my family have been able to flee to 6 different countries since the chavista looting/catastrophe started.
Superb investigative reporting, very much in the tradition of Bob Parry (and Joe Laurio).
The number of neocon/neoliberal NGOs involved here is mind boggling and is the tip of the iceberg. I wonder if you or your colleagues could compile and post a directory of those and similar NGOs and their Boards of Directors and staff ‘experts’- to allow for a short cut to those of us who are seeking to understand sources with that bias when we read. (This isn’t Facebook or Google, or Newsguard censorship- it’s identifying what these organizations, and who these folks are, who have made themselves public figures who are trying to influence public policy.)
Chomsky says the next step in Venezuela is civil war. Just goes to show, the US is all about spreading peace and democracy… and taking your oil!
http://opensociet.org/2019/02/01/noam-chomsky-ocasio-cortez-and-other-newcomers-are-rousing-the-multitudes/
I respect Chomsky’s journalism and agree with what you’re saying, but the support and lack of objectivity that some of the US left is giving Maduro is baffling. He is not good for Venezuela, no matter how much some seem to want to compare him to Bernie.
Why not let us know why Venezuela needs sanctions before and massive aid after a coup to make any improvement visible. You too must spend a week’s pay for one meal? Why would adults believe that?
You might add details on the supposed corruption of your socialist government versus the oligarchy you want. We know all about oligarchy in the US. Why not prosecute if you have a case? Why not at least detail real evidence somewhere?
Thanks to the authors for this excellent article. This is real journalism.
1. I, Colodactylon, hereby declare Mr Corbyn Prime Minister of England, Mr Melenchon President of France and Mrs Wagenknecht Chancellor of Germany. The people currently still holding these influential positions have exactly eight days to resign.
2. I, Colodactylon, will meditate and pray daily for ALL neoliberals, neocons, zioliberalcons, promoters of endless war, desperation and unrest, be it moderates or hardliners, to be struck by lightning until fully barbequed, preferably in public.
3. I, Colodactylon, declare OTPOR and related “businesses” amateurs, losers and corporate c***suckers. Hand them all over to those Libyan militias, put them in yellow vests, so they can experience a whiff of what a real organic uprising smells like, and let them undertake a final desert training.
4. As it turns out, this guy Guaido seems to be yet another a freemason. Imagine Colodactylon’s surprise!
I therefore declare freemasonry and any similar form of arrogant conspiratorial networking the 8th and most disgusting deadly sin.
Punishment shall be executed by above mentioned professionals in Libya and will continue in hell, forever, in form of endless fellatio to scaly peckered demons, just like Bill Hicks had envisioned.
Thank you for your attention and thanks again Consortiumnews for proper reporting.
One gets a little suspicious when Washington turns the economic sanction screws tighter and tighter, deliberately forcing greater economic suffering on the Venezuelan population until they are actually driven out of the country over a period of years, and then says “See this fellow President Maduro needs to be replaced, even if he was elected, because the election was rigged.” I suppose they will blame him for escaping assassins bullets three times, for surviving to cause more economic harm on his country. Could it be that if the elected government were able to function, and actually receive money for the oil they sell, just maybe their economy could even improve. But for some reason Mr. Maduro has to be painted as an enemy of his people to order please the controllers of the sanctions that are ruining his country. Wow! At that rate, even Santa Claus could be could be made to look like the Grinch if someone had their hands on the toy bag. Are things that bad that we have to risk forcing a civil war on a suffering population just to please some fat cats lusting after the peoples’ resources in this land of no ending economic stress. Are there no restraints on interfering with another nations sovereignty?
No longer a moral nation seeking to encourage — and support when possible — democracy, the U.S. has been hijacked by Israeli
supporters and is, in effect, a rich province for the use of Israel. Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria have been either initiated
by the U.S. or encouraged and supported by massive amouts of cash and mountains of weapons.
The United States. my country, has allowed Jewish money to co-op congress. We may have the most powerful military in the world,
but all of that power is at the service of Israel. We. the U.S., are minions of Israel, sometimes recognized as such, but most often
completely unknown by the U.S.
Well, I am afraid to say this, though I am sure most people are aware of this: European countries, especially Germany, are becoming more and more like the US, in terms of exhibiting greed and dishonesty.
One of the causes is the fact that Jews with their money and arsenal of deceit are again spreading themselves thick without fear of criticism for anything they do, (it being declared as anti semetic and punishable by imprisonment). They are are again infesting and controlling European governments with their love for money and weapons, and various other qualities.
I am curious why Jews are coming back to a country that rejected them and killed at least 6 million(s) of them? (Please don’t question that number, either. It is written in stone. (Theirs.)
The US has a huge number of citizens, many of them crooks, including politicians, such as presidents, governors, congressmen/women senators, CEOs , with money gained through illegal means. They have no shame declaring their love for mankind.
Venezuela has oil. Those Greedos are salivating with anticipation!
These are George Soros operations. He pays for all this.
Your proof? I have no doubt that these are shady figures with ill will but the US government seems to be the key actor.
I have posted this link with excerpt on a couple of other sites-I think it nails the description of the ziocons to a “T” and I could find no way to improve upon it-these people are psychopaths:
From saker link:
The Neocons never cease to amaze me and their latest stunt with Venezuela falls into this bizarre category of events which are both absolutely unthinkable and simultaneously absolutely predictable. This apparent logical contradiction is the direct result of a worldview and mindset which is, I believe, unique to the Neocons: a mix of imperial hubris and infinite arrogance, a complete lack of decency, a total contempt for the rest of mankind, crass ignorance, a narcissist/sociopath’s inability to have any kind of empathy or imagine another guy’s reaction and, finally, last but most certainly not least, crass stupidity. There is so much which can be said about the latest US aggression on Venezuela that entire books could be (and will be) written about this, but I want to begin by look at a few specific but nonetheless very symptomatic aspects:
http://thesaker.is/the-us-aggression-against-venezuela-as-a-diagnostic-tool/
There is this very informative article on Information Clearing House website by Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen on Juan Gaido. The link is:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51001.htm
Correction – Please ignore my above post. It was meant to be posted on the other news website, I was viewing. In a hurry, I mistakenly posted it here on this site.
For those who haven’t seen it, here is a link to Guadio’s article prominently placed
on the NYT ‘above the fold’ front page today (complete with handsomely heroic picture) :
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/opinion/juan-guaido-venezuela.html
WaPo ran a similar article a few days ago. Democracy dies in Despair.
It was on the op-ed page, below the fold. No picture (in print).
I was looking at the e-version. Interesting differences !
Big color picture of Guaido at Mass in the e-version.
Above the ‘virtual fold’.
The “Regime Change” cabal are always on the move for more countries to disrupt and destroy. More info at link below.
http://graysinfo.blogspot.com/2019/01/is-there-criminal-cabal-aiding.html
The western Occident banksters vomited up Henri Falconi to run against Maduro. The financiers dreamed up a feed ’em once and don’t teach them to fish strategy. By this I mean to point to that ridiculous proposal (s) by offering a twenty five dollar month cash transfer to any Venezuelan over eighteen years of age for the, get this, the most needy. Of course their ALL needy….This idea, reminiscent of Old man Rockefeller handing out dimes to the destitute folks on street corners in the wake of 1929. So, the guy(s) who cause the catastrophe feel a little guilty by extending their own brand of charity. Again, it’s just another example of the scandalous vomiting up of ideas from an inner rot within the human soul so aptly described by Milton Friedman when he commented, they got too greedy…. How can free enterprise survive with this kind of capitalism? Henri Falcon’s mentors also suggested a denationalization aka, privatization of the oil industry. This proposal hearkens back to the USA’s disastrous embrace of Hayek, Milton Friedman and Austrian Economics. Then another outrageous suggestion surfaced by the Falcon backers, to accept international aid again by the same folks who brought us the IBRD and the International Development Association IDA both headquartered in, you guessed it, Washington DC.
In my mind, the theme that keeps bubbling to the surface began with JFK, his desire to hand out foreign aid with No Strings Attached. Yes, once again JFK so as to compare him with Rockefeller’s charity. JFK’s idea of a pipeline wasn’t to fill it with oil but instead, fresh water running from Alaska to California and the desert states. But you all know what really happened, our last truly representative POTUS, the best example of American creativity (and charity) both in terms of domestic and foreign relations was murdered. In his place, oil was excavated from tar sands, dangerously pumped, pipe lined and sent though pristine water reservoirs against the wishes of our largest agricultural communities. This ecological horror only multiplied amplified by fracking. These, nightmares are the product of the legal instrument called, international corporation and is nothing short of a rogue elephant. The same banksters who conjured up the belief that it’s better to cap the richest, environmentally safest, repository of oil, as thick as Vaseline, deep under the feet of impoverished Venezuelans. Better to cap (at the behest of the GCC Countries not doubt). Yes! better to endanger and pollute our nations ecosystems, brilliant!! It’s the old “can’t trust nobody” clique and “we must control it all”, gangster-ism found within the International Corporation concept. These predators have managed to fire all the true diplomats, formally trained and carefully groomed for Foreign Service, replacing them with goons like Bolton! Oh! how I wish this administration hired a few dozen, Peter Ford type ambassadors, all our North-South America issues and problems would be quickly resolved and without revolution!
To state the obvious Maduro won the election fair and square. He would be bonkers to accede the office to a Judas goat whose vote total is zero. The presidents, prime ministers, and chancellors calling for President Maduro to step aside would not do so if a gaggle of foreign agitators contested their election on such flimsy grounds. In addition to fighting tooth and toenail for Maduro, his voters should sue the outside agitators jointly and severally in the International Court of Justice.
I don’t want to buy a car or groceries from government, but don’t fear socialism that can win an election.
Trying to steal Venezuela’s oil is like stealing the largest herd of horses on the planet just after Henry Ford invented the Model T. Even if oil is still the most used fuel for another 30 years, the 2 party system is criminally stupid for not moving the US off oil asap.
When i was born, i was communist. But later in life and until i became ca. 50 years old i began to think about religions and politics. It did not take more than a year for me to become a communist again.
Two or three years ago–while studying NT only–i found out that at least two of many Biblical scribes [notably Luke and James] were some of the first communists or socialists; however, only under God.
Under God or not under God? Say, we opt for a gregarious or social structure under God? That would be ok with me, provided that no single belief in a chosen God leads to or causes harm to even one human and even unnecessary harm to an animal.
Or we choose a structure under any sane idea, plan, human wish/want, etc., or not under sanity?
The politicians of both parties combined that have spoke out against this stupid regime change. Can be counted on one hand. Perhaps we should ask China or Russia just to declare some different better politicians to lead us. That’s acceptable now, I’ve heard that is what democracy is.
I find this “Journalism” so irresponsible. Everyone here has not idea of the pain that Venezuelans are going through. It is devastating, and yet you guys want to see just what you want to see because of Trump and because of the “America Agenda” Believe me, I am against this administration in MANY things. But recognizing a constitutional transition in Venezuela (Finally) like most of the world has done in the last week, It’s amazing for us!! and it will greatly help. It help all of those people (my family included) that have to cross the border to Colombia to find food, of to treat their cancer, And those staying back home who have to look through the garbage for food. You guys really have no idea what you guys are saying in here
“But recognizing a constitutional transition in Venezuela (Finally) like most of the world has done in the last week”
Well tried memes of misrepresentation of what constitues most of the world and an attempted coup not yet completed with “a constitutional transition” as a fait accompli.
“It help all of those people (my family included) that have to cross the border to Colombia to find food, of to treat their cancer”
Like some you attempt to conflate “we the people” with your family failing to address the question – How does your family and/or others finance their cancer treatment in Colombia or elsewhere?
Perhaps you should pay heed to Mr. Rove’s observation that “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you should concentrate on.”
““You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you should concentrate on.”
“The Washington favorite”
Some of the opponents have an assay of emotionalism as well asssays of notions of utility, including the utility of having insurance policies in the amalgam, since the opponents’ “intelligence agencies” as subscribers to the means justify the ends persuasion do not typically subscribe to the “We the people hold these truths to be self-evident” illusion; except when in interaction with those of the people who hold these truths to be self-evident.
Amongst the clauses typically included in the insurance policies are:
1. He who giveth can also take away.
2. Useful fools have a shelf-life often co-terminous with their utility as useful fools.
3. Assets have a shelf-life often co-terminous with their utility as assets.
4. Bearers of information have a shelf-life often co-terminous with their utility of bearing information.
5. Engagement in emotionalism including favouritism will arrogate the policy of insurance.
As a prologue to the insurance policies there is sometimes a reminder that policy renewal is often contingent in not demystifying the conditions above especially to third parties including but not restricted to believers of “We the people hold these truths to be self-evident.
Toca trabajar como burro y hasta pedir en la calle. Hay Venezolanos pidiendo limosna en Colombia pa poder mandar plata de regreso a Venezuela y poder comer! Una vez mas, gringo, si no sabes, callate jaja.. que descepcion con ustedes.
Apparently in addition to reliance on assumptions, the notions of Mr. Gogol are being extrapolated upon from correspondence by dogs to correspondence by donkeys.
Perhaps we can look forward to notions of Mr. Bulgakov being extrapolated upon ?
Thank you for your data-stream.
Mary if you think a coup against Maduro’s Government is going to accomplish anything to ease the suffering of the Venezuelan people you are either extremely naive to the point of being foolish or else you must have been asleep since for your entire life. No examples exist since at least World War II that foreign sponsored Revolutions and/or externally forced Regime Changes do anything to improve the quality of life in any country. . The only thing Regime Change in Venezuela would accomplish is Nationalization of Venezuelan Oil Reserves ,placing them under the control of Western Oil Companies. I’m fairly certain you know less about the suffering of the Venezuelan people than you intimate. . The rich never suffer, well almost never. And I’m certain you don’t spend a lot of time with the oppressed poor when you go on vacation. The hardships in Venezuela are due to sanctions imposed by the United States and it’s allies.. This has been going on since Chavez. I guess you forgot that GW Bush forced a re-election there which Chavez won with a 16% plurality . This is BS . What have you been smoking? Take off the Ruby Slippers. This is wrong.
Mary is obviously not a typical Venezuelan. She is one who was fairly comfortable pre-Chavez and didn’t like the fact that he was trying to help the less fortunate (the majority of Venezuelans).
She isn’t bright enough to realize that the sanctions have made things much worse for everyone but the very rich.
O y a ver me das un minuto Gringuito, O es posible que sea uno de los tantos Chavistas que ha perdido si empleo o esta pasando filo porque no tiene que comer o ha visto su pais convertirse en un cagadero.
Americanos ignorantes que nada mas se escuchan entre ellos. Que rico vivir comodamente y opinar desde afuera. Vayan y ayuden! Vivanlo por ustedes mismo si tanto les parece la “utopía” en la que se convirtió Venezuela. Patericos.
Your Spanish proves nothing. Evidence, Pastora. My information does not support your view at all. Why do you have none?
I doubt if you. LJ have any idea of what it’s like to live in Venezuela. Just because Chavez and now Maduro chant the slogans of helping the poor doesn’t mean they know how to do it. Both were and are incompetent administrators who have destroyed the Venezuelan economy. They should have learned lessons from Castro’s Cuba; don’t push out those managers who run businesses that keep things running or you’ll end with nothing running. Even Fidel realized that he had made a big mistake by scaring off the Cuban middle class. Chavez fired the engineers and administrators that kept the oil wells pumping. Not smart. Maduro has no clue. These guys read a few books by Marx and Trotsky and then they think can run a country. It doesn’t work like that. The Soviet Union fell apart for similar reasons. Guaido may be funded by the CIA or whomever, but he can’t worse than what they got.
Chuey, Chavez was forced to make changes in the various bureaucracies because of not only entrenched corruption but also because of active plots against his rule. I do not look at any President as the end all manager of a nation’s fate, the Calvin Coolidge fantasy of the Buck Stops Here, but even a guy wearing his predispositions on his shoulder like yourself should admit that Chavez had skills as a leader and charisma. Maduro not so much and not so many. . The question guys like you, who have clue more or less, should ask yourself is “What possibility is there that a US instigated coup with an obviously mediocre, anti-intellectual, pin-headed puppet as it’s nominal leader could lead to better conditions for the people of Venezuela?” You want to allow the puppet master to control your fate then you deserve a fate dictated by the Devil that You Do Not Know rather than the Devil that You Do Know. I admire your obstinate optimism in the face of the historical record . Settle it in the streets, or rather let somebody settle it in the streets for you. Homegrown is the way it should be.
Nothing but insults and accusations from a self-appointed expert?
Why did you not start with solid evidence, if you think that your opposition has none?
Mary,
Surely you must know what caused the inflation, shortages and distress of Venezuelans. It’s the US sanctions that prevents Venezuela from receiving its money (payments) from outside sources, and the US pattern of coups/wars. The US causes complete distress, then it’s easy pickings to take over. The US is evil to the core. You have no idea what cruelty is until the US takes over. Look at all the illegal coups and wars the US has committed since WWII. Millions have lost everything. It’s called “the shock doctrine” and was fashioned in the US by Milton Friedman and his ilk. This coup in Venezuela has been in the works for years and here it is, just as the US executed to Iran, Guatemala, Honduras, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Haiti, Ukraine, El Salvador and god knows where else. Venezuela is just another notch in the belt for the US pentagon and oligarchs who must own the world and all resources in it, thus all the profit and all the slaves it needs. It can only end in complete destruction unless ….what? People say, “no?” So far, it looks hopeless. Thank god for Max Blumenthal and other like-minded journalists. “Irresponsible?” I think not. This is way bigger than a dislike of Trump who is nothing in the scheme of things to come that were planned decades ago and continue to be carried out on schedule.
Estaba asi desde antes, mijo. Lean y edúquense. Hay muchos articulos en Español de gente que ha investigado desde que empezo esto. Ahora vienen dos pelagatos a juntar informacion de otras partes y nada de eso es valido. Muy triste.
Well then why do you make conclusions without presenting the alleged evidence? You would need a consensus of economists and political analysts, which is no doubt lacking. Not a consensus of articles you agree with. Odd that there seems to be no such evidence from the neocon thieves.
IT IS NOT A COUP!!! Opposition is Following the constitution that even Chavez created and his people are no violating like they always do. Venezuelans have been fighting for freedom and the lack of Medicine and food for years!! if people were not paying attention before well, sorry but it is not a coup.
Venezuelans have been fighting for freedom and the lack of Medicine and food for years!!
Seriously,your statement > ` for the lack of of Medicine and food for years … fighting for freedom` unfortunately is rather misplaced.
Did you read this article at all? Paid attention to Elliot Abrams, the convicted Iran-Contra felon and Israel fanatic in the bigger picture?
Your comment does apply instead to the `Palestinian people`s suffering on a daily basis for years ` by the racist state of Isreal!!
Sorry but this isn’t about them. We’re talking about Venezuela here and unless you have lived it, it’s easy to dismiss the struggle. We feel for everyone in the world who has or is still going through a similar situation but cannot deny that Maduro is not well equipped to run a country. Dismissing peoplems experiences as not valid is just as bad as what you claim those in power want to do to us and our country. You guys are arguing as if this is more about political leanings rather than a real humanitarian crisis.
Your comment reveals total nonsense with your ignorant` Dismissing peoplems experiences as not valid ` – and your silly arguing ` as if this is more about political leanings rather than a real humanitarian crisis `.
? Dismissing peoplems experiences as not valid ? What part of “Palestinian people`s suffering on a daily basis for years ` by the racist state of Isreal!! … you don`t understand > BUT is very much indeed a `real humanitarian crisis ` ?
Sorry to have to break this to you but commentators are on this site because we are paying attention. We have been paying attention to every single sordid oppressive act that has been committed in the Americas since at least the inception of the Monroe doctrine. We recognise every trick in the manual (first modern edition ‘published’ in Guatemala). We know how they have bben making the economy scream in the infamous words of Henry Killinger. We know how they breed these democratic leaders in the School of the Americas and their other terrorist factories. Ignorance or dishonesty (whichever as i dont know you) of this sort is better fitted to the comments section of the Clinton News Network or the BB(S)C. Why dont you copy and paste your comments there? You will find lots of understanding there by those who have been paying attention to the corporatist vomit that passes for news these days.
This.
Thank you.
Have you been paying attention to the Venezuelan crisis and its changes since the late 90s? Cause this has been happening for a long time. The fact that some people in the US as just becoming outraged and suddenly have all these “objetive” opinions about it is what makes most of the Latin American community so hesitant to trust all of your guys’s intentions. You are also telling us that our family and our friends experiences, including those who have died or have been exhiled, are not valid and that you rather have us starve, beg for money, or kill each other rather than keep a slim chance of hope alive.
“IT IS NOT A COUP!!!”
Yes it is an attempted coup not yet completed.
The attempted coups not yet completed have been in process in various since at least 2002.
“Venezuelans have been fighting for freedom and the lack of Medicine and food for years!!”
Some Venezuelans have been engaged in seeking such goals for many years, but other Venezuelans have been engaged in attempted coups in various forms throughout to maintain and re-enforce their social relations and benefits derived therefrom.
“Opposition is Following the constitution that even Chavez created and his people are no violating like they always do.”
Some Venezuelans who opposed the government since 2002 have followed the constitution whereas other Venezuelans have not followed the constitution since 2002 but have chosen to engage in attempted coups in various forms to maintain and re-enforce their social relations and benefits derived therefrom.
Thank you for your data-streams – If the ISP fails to satisfy, it can be changed on application.
“Opposition is Following the constitution”
Mary yoiu must be new here. CN readers are not that stupid. It has been clarified repeatedly that the article of the constitution on which Gweedo bases his usurpation does not say what Gweedo says it says.
Read it yourself.
As of today we are witnessing an attempted coup. Fortunately it looks like it is kind of losing steam, but the coupsters, unfortunately, will not give up.
If Gweedo is so great, perhaps we should ask him to come up here and proclaim himself president of the USA! Couldn’t be any worse than we have here, and many around teh world would agree with this! Then we would also see in real time the correct response to usurpers and traitors: probably to be shot down by a SWAT team on the steps of wherever Gweedo thinks to proclaim himself president of the USA.
So, the same goes for Venezuela, non?
*Guaido
Y asi no es que funciona, hermano pero buen intento. Si tu lo dices…
“Opposition is Following the constitution”
Mary you must be new here. CN readers are not that stupid. It has been clarified repeatedly that the article of the constitution on which Gweedo bases his usurpation does not say what Gweedo says it says.
Read it yourself.
As of today we are witnessing an attempted coup. Fortunately it looks like it is kind of losing steam, but the coupsters, unfortunately, will not give up.
If Gweedo is so great, perhaps we should ask him to come up here and proclaim himself president of the USA! Couldn’t be any worse than we have here, and many around teh world would agree with this! Then we would also see in real time the correct response to usurpers and traitors: probably to be shot down by a SWAT team on the steps of wherever Gweedo thinks to proclaim himself president of the USA.
So, the same goes for Venezuela, non?
Mary,
It’s a coup. Maduro was elected. Guaido wasn’t elected. Thus, it’s a coup.
And an Oswald is born, sheep dip anyone?
This Venezuela thing could usher in a new age of US diplomacy.
I mean, Trudeau is really annoying – so why not get rid of him? Replace him with…. Bolton? Have the CIA create the documents that prove he was born there, alter his appearance.
And why not just take Alberta as the 51st state? It’s an oil rich state…
ReallY??? Have you seen the conditions in Venezuela ??? compared not to Canada, but even CUBA! we are currently worse than Cuba right now in many aspects! Venezuelans started this and we have been claiming for freedom. It is so easy to pretend you know
“Have you seen the conditions in Venezuela”
Your data-stream is predicated on “We the people hold these truths to be self-evident”, “that personal experience” facilitates omniscience and hence you “know”, and ponderings described in Mr. Schroedinger and his cat.
“Venezuelans started this”
Yes some Venezuelans were engaged in this from inception but not without guidance and help – hence why it is another attempted coup not yet completed.
Perhaps you should reconsider your sales pitch and scripts derived therefrom.
Thank you for your data-stream.
Data stream? Este man cree que eso hace su comentario mas eficiente? ?
Vaya a recogese.
Yes “Really”.
This is another US regime change operation aimed at an oil rich state.
US economic sanctions and covert economic/financial warfare operations have had an effect, in addition to the socialist incompetency of Chavez and Maduro.
You want to see bad conditions for common people? Look at Libya, Syria, Iraq.
Venezuela is a sovereign state and if the US wants to help its common people, it can do it by terminating its economic/financial warfare operations and pointing out to Venezuelans what it thinks are better methods and leaders for its government and economy.
Mary-
I believe you need to look closer at why conditions are so bad in Venezuela. The socialist government has been under assault by the forces of empire. The majority of the people in Venezuela do not want to be another vassal of empire. They want their sovereignty respected, and they want to be allowed to trade freely with the rest of the world. It is not the USA’s job to dictate what form of government the people of Venezuela decide to have, and their attempt will only result in MORE misery. First there will be protracted civil war with many civilian deaths. Caracas will look like Tripoli today. Then if the forces of empire do succeed in installing a puppet regime, the IMF will come in and bribe the new government in exchange for “austerity measures”. Read “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins for an explanation of what to expect for Venezuela’s future should they end up going down that road.
Mary I completely understand your sentiment. W/O truly understanding the historical role that the US CIA IMF have played first impoverishing the country thru destabilizing its currency, imposing draconian sanctions on its resources, and then providing funding for counterrevolutionary activities that assassinate its leaders, you cannot make sense of the complete chaos and disorder sewn by these monsters. You then must understand that this is a numbers game. Its about the masses who get to survive and enjoy a meager existence have education healthcare and housing while the elite are constrained from stealing everything or a very small elite that get have everything. Do you know that Gates Buffett and Bezos own more than 50% of the entire bottom half of the US. Twenty US corporate elites own more than the bottom 50 % of the world (3.8 Billion People!). This is obscenity on another level! Venezuela would be even more pronounced.
Yes, conditions are horrible – but you ever wonder why that is? The US is embargoing the entire planet with any country not under their payroll being sanctioned. It’s modus operandi for regime change….create the conditions for poor living conditions, finance and support opposition to rise up, and when the Government cracks down rachet up the ever agreeable media to frame the narrative as a struggle against tyranny.
Wake the hell up!
Sanctions are the modern version of a blockade,
and much more effective because they take less
effort, are largely invisible to the outside world,
and allow the sanctioning entities to blame the
ensuing suffering on the sanctioned countries.
Diabolical.
My introduction to sanctions was after GHW’s
Most Excellently Short Gulf War 1. Except it
was NOT ‘short’ for the Iraqis. What we did was
we bombed their water treatment plants. Then,
after the war was ‘over’, we sanctioned the parts
and chemicals needed to rebuild the plants and
treat the water. This is why the 500,000 + children
died but according to Madeline Albright, their
deaths were ‘worth it’. Doubly Diabolical.
Mary, most of us posting here know a little bit about something and have been paying attention to the way our nations conducts itself for many years. Perhaps you believe what you say based on your own experience but that does not change the fact that the USA has been actively backing attempts to remove Maduro and Chavez before him for decades now. Maybe you are too young to remember Chavez being held on a plane while a coup was attempted before loyal military [personnel put down the coup and returned him to power. Maybe you should do some research. You can read about the reaction of the self proclaimed new President them being surprised and a bit chagrined when Chavez showed up at the Celebratory Party he was having with hundreds of his friends, This is true. Business as usual in Venezuela. You also may not know that audits of Venezuelan Oil after Chavez took power of the previous 10 years showed over er $120 billion looted from the oil sector without a trace. . Good luck kiddo.
Mary,
I’ve been in over thirty countries and Cuba is the only one where there is no racism whatsoever. It’s amazing. Also, it has excellent health care and education provided for all. Other countries should be so fortunate.
Oh, just returned from Russia, btw, and would rather live there than America. What Americans hear about other countries is what the government wants them to hear…from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, etc…i.e., mainstream news, and it’s all lies. Good grief, there is even a plan to pull a coup/regime change in Russia. Ha, that will finally be a stopper for this idiotic country.
Visitaste Cuba pero quedate viviendo alla como Cubano, sin ayuda externa y hablamos.
It would almost be worth it to have Nancy Pelosi proclaim herself president just to see Trump’s head explode.
Thanks for this informative and comprehensive background report on the Venezuelan golpistas.
FWIW, speaking of “manufactured” leaders: Guaido at the podium reminds me very much of Obama– they share a certain deceptive handsome, lean-faced earnestness.
Their respective opponents, GW Bush and Maduro, look nothing alike, but I think that both Obama and Guaido believe(d) that their looks and demeanor present(ed) a refreshing contrast to the incumbents they strive, or strove, to unseat.
Obama certainly fooled too many people too much of the time.
I hope there’s a Venezuelan equivalent to the saying, “Handsome is as handsome does.”
Yes, both are CIA constructs. Thanks for your observation.
Also, Obama was carefully groomed to play his part in the hideous farce we are subjected to.
“FWIW, speaking of “manufactured” leaders: Guaido at the podium reminds me very much of Obama– they share a certain deceptive handsome, lean-faced earnestness.”
That is part of the copy book and why in the Israel as Sparta thread comments the suggestion that there is utility in observing the trajectories of the dress/dressings of “Israeli” politicians since 1956.
Some found and continue to find opportunities facilitated through various of the opponents’ broadcasts which often illustrate the opponents resort to projection.
Definitions carry and are framed by cultural connotations.
In some societies smart is an analogue of wise, whereas in some other societies smart is an analogue of well-dressed, polished shoes, shiny teeth, radiant smile etc.
Now this is exceptional journalism, the sort that digs deep for the actual facts behind historical events and lays bare the matrix of false narratives spun for the public by the corporate “mainstream” media. I’ll bet 98% of America figures that Juan Guano is Venezuela’s legit national leader, whilst, as the article reveals, 80% of Venezuelans had never heard of the guy before his audacious seizure of power at Uncle Sam’s instigation.
These authors had better watch their six, or the Muellerstaffel will come for them after they take down Trump. Or does Trump redeem himself with the Deep State if his regime successfully annexes Venezuela and its oil to Washington’s empire?
Good work on this article. The guy looks like a pin head to me but I guess some of those Washington types like his butt. The whole thing seems a bit of an overreach but I suspect the time to act is now because the new President of Brazil may soon lose his power to act aggressively . Lets not forget that China has billions invested in Venezuela and this seems consistent with Trump/Pence’s tactics to leverage China and Russia whenever possible. Libya and Syria both cost China and Russia loads of money. Now Trump is railing also about Iran in contradiction of Intelligence assessments that are hardly pro Iran. Is he coming unhinged? Doubt it. Talk of the Wall is on the back pages now and Republican power players are on his side matter how hard he hits Venezuela. Sadly, the Democrats remain silent after, all Obama greased the slide for this kind of power play. Ukraine remains a hot spot as well. There appears to be a deal to get out of Afghanistan and Syria freeing up US Military assets. Basically, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Yanqui attack soon. Pence was the lead player here not Trump . Maybe that is why the Democrats are silent (If not complicit) because they know there is something going on here that bad press or Mueller indictments will not influence. Our nation does a lot of bad in the world and there appears to be no accountability. Smiling politicians, it makes them proud.
LJ from elmerfudzie. This guy Juan Guaidó is another sound alike and look alike, of that fella, our ex potus, O Bomber. His facial expressions come with a wide smile, slightly gaunt, tight skinned countenance and on the olive side in complexion. Pray tell, where have we all seen that package before? The NeoCon advertising agencies selected him with the thought in their minds that, we can game the Venezuelans as easily as we gamed the “folks” in the US of A! He even touts similar phrases like, come together and yes we can!
Yep, Call it the Cookie Cutter Coup.
Great timely and nicely researched article. Also today I would like to take this opportunity to declare myself president of something. Anything. Any suggestions?
Hey, if you can deliver enough pallets of freshly-printed Franklins, I’ll give you my endorsement. How about going for Emperor of the Galaxy? There’s a vacancy since Palpatine was overthrown. You’d be as legitimate as the puppets in Washington.
Tried to announce the Presidency over my houshold. Wife’s reply, “My foot. We’ll see who’s president around here.”
Looking on Twitter at which prominent anti-imps declared themselves or were declared by others as leaders…
-Rania Khalek declares herself U.S. President
-George Galloway declares himself Scottish First Minister
-Jeremy Corbyn declared by Galloway PM of Britain
-Vijay Prashad declares himself Secretary-General of the U.N.
-Yellow Vests declared leaders of France
-Gideon Levy declared Israeli PM
As for me, I declare Andre Vltchek President of Russia.
Not a bad start, have any suggestions for others?
Make them all Presidents for Life!!
The Island of Bonimo?
Freedonia is up for grabs, if you act before VP Pence claims it.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Here is an interesting extension of this conversation on Global Research. It will provide good reference information for the next Election. Could DJT be playing an intriguing game of “Rope A Dope”?
https://www.globalresearch.ca/bernie-and-the-dems-flunk-trumps-test-on-venezuelas-coup/5666974
Great Stuff Bob!!
It looks like I will be enjoying working with the Greens again this cycle.
.. (.. and, thank you for that motivation Bernie.)
(..smile..)
.. But, you are so correct Bob. Trump & the neocons, they are only following up on the Obama sympathy; as well:
It’s like we are watching the Wednesday night episode of the WWF. But in tonight’s episode, Uncle Sam, he with his global poodles went out into the audience and dragged Venezuela by their hair straight into the ring..
… You would say it’s comical, except up for grabs is the food and medicine, etc. for 34 million people.
… (..let alone, the world’s largest oil fields.)
The beast that is Wall St (and Private Equity) are on the hunt. They want some serious calories and fast.
Since the Sping of 2017, Ukraine has received no further financing from the IMF – because:
https://economics.unian.info/2325981-weeks-balance-thorny-road-to-bright-economic-future.html
“.. However, Groysman’s Cabinet, including because of the lack of support from the ruling coalition in the Verkhovna Rada, failed to advance in several strategic directions. The new law on privatization was adopted only in the first reading, while the promised sale of loss-making and corrupt state assets was never initiated. The implementation of land reform, allowing the purchase and sale of farmland to attract investment and spark agricultural development, was postponed indefinitely. Gas prices, contrary to obligations to the IMF and the government’s own decisions, have not been brought to import parity, while the volume of subsidies to the population has only been increased. The transformation of state-owned companies in 2017 has also failed as the appointment of independent supervisory boards and open biddings for the posts of heads of state-owned enterprises was extremely sluggish. Also, despite lengthy discussions about the need to create a financial investigation service for the sake of the introduction of a modern system of business supervision, the initiative has not progressed a bit.”
.. And, we all know what happened (for those caviar dreams and Private Equity) in Syria..
These very well paid kiddies/tools, in Venezuela – they have been serving their purpose – and quite cheaply.
This from 2014:
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2377482&CategoryId=10717
“President Obama today issued a new Executive Order (E.O.) declaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela. The targeted sanctions in the E.O. implement the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014, which the President signed on December 18, 2014, and also go beyond the requirements of this legislation.
..
“We are committed to advancing respect for human rights, safeguarding democratic institutions, and protecting the U.S. financial system from the illicit financial flows from public corruption in Venezuela,” the White House said.
..
We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government’s efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela’s problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent. We have consistently called on the Venezuelan government to release those it has unjustly jailed as well as to improve the climate of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as the freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly. These are essential to a functioning democracy, and the Venezuelan government has an obligation to protect these fundamental freedoms. The Venezuelan government should release all political prisoners, including dozens of students, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and Mayors Daniel Ceballos and Antonio Ledezma.”
.. And declaring that “national emergency” — was of course, the legal prerequisite to imposing today’s sanctions..
From 2009 until 2014, roughly, the average price of a barrel was about $90. — Remember, back in 2009, Wall St, desperately needed cash.
… But, from 2014 until 2019, it was rapidly adjusted to on average, roughly $50.
In 2014, Crimea and it’s oil & gas assets voted to join the Russian Federation. .. So, lowering the energy prices – was now beneficial in order for the Ukraine to pay the IMF. .. At the same time, it would crush Venezuela, who has been having a hard time finding alternative markets outside of the U.S., and they have always been very susceptible to inflation and the deflation of world oil prices.
These sanctions are extraordinarily comprehensive and very cruel. Venezuela is in quite the choke hold.
.. China, and others, had better suit up and tag team into the ring – real quick. .. The Syrians were/are so miraculously tough. And I hope the Venezuelans can equal their courage. .. Because, I would hate see a “tap out..” .. Not just for Venezuela, but it will cost the world dearly in the nuclear weapon that is oil, complete with all it’s leverage in pricing.
Many Thanks Mike Perry…
Mike, Great comment, kudos!
Here is an interesting extension of this conversation on Global Research. It will provide interesting information for the next Election. Could DJT be playing an interesting game of “Rope A Dope”?
https://www.globalresearch.ca/bernie-and-the-dems-flunk-trumps-test-on-venezuelas-coup/5666974
I wonder if Guaido understands the following:
1) His patron is the United States.
2) It is in the interest of his patron that he be assassinated so as to give the US an excuse to invade.
3) Other of the “patron’s sponsorees” (Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noreiga, etc.) have suffered decidedly unhappy fates once they fell out of favor.
I wonder, in the midst of all the back patting Guaido has received, if he has figured that out.
Which would be hypocritical to the max, can you imagine the US not arresting and immediately giving the death penalty somebody decreed by Xi or Putin as president and given all the gold reserves from those countries that belongs to the US? After inciting mob violence against the government and passing out leaflets to soldiers demanding rebellion? Americans get jailed for 60+ years for donning anarchist gear and smashing a bus stop.
Yeh, but instigating a coup isn’t like Russia/Putin election meddling with those Facecrap ads.
Putin was meddling with our democracy… and stuff…
And for that as many of Trump’s old business cronies as Mueller can catch in a perjury trap will pay… for stuff… and whatever. Viva la resistance!
Thanks for the detailed map of the evil US Empire’s activities. How many Americans will read this? How many would care about it even if they read it? Tell your friends about this article. Send a link to it via email. Dare to upset the complacent. Risk being called an oddball, or unpatriotic.
The Bolsheviks didn’t capture anything, it pretty much fell into their laps as all other forces proved inadequate to the task and capitulated to the counterrevolution. The Revolution would have ended in a far-Right military coup if the Bolshevik railway union hadn’t stopped the trains carring the counterrevolutionary troops. Workers and Soldiers surrounded the seat of the Petrograd Soviet (a council comprised of representatives of all socialist parties, some of which were also participating in a parallel coalition govt with Liberals) demanding ‘Take power dammit, when it is given to you!’
None of this is seriously disputed, most of the best eyewitness accounts came from members of other socialist parties who opposed the Bolsheviks. None of these parties were able to articulate the demands of the people and were swept aside by events, even the Bolsheviks struggled to keep up until Lenin showed up at the Finland station.
Critics like to point to Lenin’s pamphlet ‘What is to be Done’ (1902) as evidence of “conspiratorial methods” but really all it says is that building a party in an authoritarian state (eg Saudi Arabia) requires different methods as opposed to the methods suitable for a capitalist ‘democracy’ (eg the US), otherwise the secret police will eat you alive. And Russia in 1917 was no longer an authoritarian state so he promptly dispensed with these allegedly conspiratorial methods anyway, and simply let the people lead, as they had already advanced far beyond the dreams of 1902.
Chavez tried to take a leaf out if the same book when he first tried to take power in 1992 in the aftermath of the ‘Caracazo’, recognizing that the Venezuelan people had advanced far beyond their representative in providing Neoliberalism with an answer to ‘What is to be Done?’ And he too was accused of ‘conspiratorial methods’.
Let history judge.
Apologies added to the wrong thread, see earlier comment for context or moderator delete.
Reply to Paora, I was trying to make a point that Western strategies to create revolutions copied strategies of the Communist fighting fire with fire and these methods were what I was trying to characterize. As to the success of the Russian Revolution it was the Germans who financed the return of Lenin because he was the most vehement opponent of the disastrous war(for Russia) and Germany needed to concentrate on the Western Front. And whatever their intentions to seize the Revolution I think I described their methods. The behavior of the fellow we chose in Venezuela fits the pattern.
“Critics like to point to Lenin’s pamphlet ‘What is to be Done’ (1902) as evidence of “conspiratorial methods” but really all it says is that building a party in an authoritarian state (eg Saudi Arabia) requires different methods as opposed to the methods suitable for a capitalist ‘democracy’ (eg the US), otherwise the secret police will eat you alive. And Russia in 1917 was no longer an authoritarian state so he promptly dispensed with these allegedly conspiratorial methods anyway, and simply let the people lead, as they had already advanced far beyond the dreams of 1902.”
Some critics do as a function of their propensity to bridge doubt by belief to attain/iterate certainty/comfort, but other critics who had direct experience of “The Soviet Union” perceived/perceive “What is to be done” as incorporating some perceptions of Narodnaya Volya including that the narod (people) were capable at best of “trade union consciousness” – of particular connotation/relevance during the Zubatovschina – and hence the requirement for coercive social relations within the Bolshevik faction and within their strategies and tactics.
“Let history judge.”
History doesn’t judge, people judge, and a growing sum of some of the people judged “The Soviet Union” and in various ways acted on their judgement to facilitate the continuing lateral process of the trascendence of “The Soviet Union” by the Russian Federation.
Amazing reporting by Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal! All the more so for being so timely.
I had taken to deeming Guaidó a nobody, but reading this I am reproved: obscure as he was among the public, it is clear he has long definitely been a somebody among the elite U.S. and Venezuelan cliques behind this coup attempt – an agreeably half-baked attempt thus far.
Wait!
This sounds like the USA is meddling in a foreign nation’s democracy!
Better get a special counsel to investigate Guaido for the next 3 years…
But we’re the exceptional nation, dontcha know. You’re talking whataboutism here.
What do you mean by ` we’re the exceptional nation` …. USIsrael?
One needs to read the part of this article > ( Jew ) Smolansky held what he called a “cordial reunion” with Elliot Abrams / Jewish the convicted Iran-Contra felon installed by Trump as special U.S. envoy to Venezuela. Abrams is notorious for overseeing the U.S. covert policy of arming right-wing death squads during the 1980s in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. His lead role in the Venezuelan coup has stoked fears that another blood-drenched proxy war might be on the way.
… to get a better insight look ( again) as to why `Jews / Israel` are so ` immensly deep` involved in yet `another perculiar`plot.
Has anyone thought of what supporting a military intervention in Venezuela would do for Trump? It is the same tail wagging the dog plan that the republicans accused Bill Clinton of in the Kosovo NATO led Balkans War (with main support from the United States) as the republican doves begged Clinton not to act militarily to block the Serbians from attacking Kosovo. When Clinton did commit military arms in that crisis he was accused of wagging the dog in the run up to the election and also to avoid impeachment by taking on the mantle of a “war president” in order to insulate himself from the House Managers who presided over his impeachment trial. The media made a movie out of it “Wag the Dog” in 1997 describing the actions of a fictional president shortly before an election where a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a Presidential sex scandal.
Anyone familiar back then with all the republican doves begging Clinton to not go to war in the Balkans in 1997 will recognize that this film was all about building public support and an attempt to align the American public (via a fictional movie that closely traced current events) to believe republican claims that Clinton was just attempting to protect himself by embroiling us in a war which would distract the major efforts of the republicans and the media to build a case for Clinton’s impeachment.
The lesson was re-imagined in the Iraq II war when the republicans and the media aligned to elevate the powers of the war president Bush to the level of a plenary presidency wherein the president had unlimited power and was above the law and the law makers free to make executive decisions unencumbered by any national or Constitutional constraints. They advocated for a plenary presidential power to hold sway when they had just blamed a few years earlier the commander in briefs Bill Clinton of wagging the Dog and trying to go to war as they claimed over and over again that Clinton had lost his “moral authority” due to the scandals swirling around him which were the narratives leaked by Ken Starr and is inquisition which was supported and broadcast by every main stream media outlet in lock step with the republican agenda to impeach Clinton.
Fast forward to today as Trump and the republicans calculate their strategy to fend off any attempt by a democratic controlled House of Representatives to enmesh the president with investigations.
With the recent Supreme Court appointments hand picked by the republicans likely to support the plenary powers of a sitting president in war time we can see how military action against Venezuela would immunize Trump from any attempt to prosecute him especially given a state of war where the Commander in Chief would be upheld by the Supreme Court as un-indictable and immune from prosecution. Trump would emerge unscathed and unassailable as a plenary president.
The National Emergency to build a border wall as envisioned by Trump would automatically be a matter of national security and as a plenary president Trump would be supported by the republicans and the Supreme Court to do anything to counter the security threat coming from Venezuela and other South American Nations. Locking up illegal immigrants like the Japanese in WWII would be a matter of presidential decree.
This is the possible path toward a military state of America where we go after the vast oil reserves in Venezuela (the largest in the world) and invade Venezuela to “free the population” from the despotism of Maduro and lay claim the the richest oil reserves on the planet while simultaneously shielding Trump from any domestic investigations and giving him ultimate power to build walls and arrest immigrants.
What might come next is a ploy to postpone the presidential election due to the war and the undue influence of millions of illegal voters that have infiltrated the country. Of course that is pure nonsense but is also nonsense that has been at the forefront of republican claims that the election was rigged by George Soros and Hillary Clinton to send waves of illegal immigrants over the border with the express purpose and intent of voting for democrats, seizing control of the country and killing us all in our millions as wave after wave of terrorists hiding among the poor South American peasants sneak across our borders.
It is no wonder that the plans for a coup or a military intervention in Venezuela have suddenly out of nowhere reached a fever pitch in the media. The tail is wagging the dog and this distraction from domestic affairs is just the ticket for the Trump Administration and the republicans and the military contractors and the oil companies to clean up.
Of course all the main stream news outlets unquestioningly support the decision by Pence (Trump’s messenger) to support Maduro’s adversary and claim that Guaido is the legitimate president even though he did not win the election.
Also not surprising is the support coming from other nations who all have interests in seeing the nationalized oil fields of Venezuela come under the control of the oil companies.
It seems like a redo of the Coup in Iran which installed the Shah and returned the oil fields in Iran to the big oil companies.
There is no surprise by the recent events to attempt a renewed effort to turn over the Venezuelan oil fields to the giant oil companies just as it is no surprise that Trump and the conservatives see this as their ticket to continued power. But at what cost to democracy?
What democracy? Certainly there is none in the US – whose government tries to destroy democracy anywhere it raises it’s dangerous (to the elites) head.
Thank you Citizen One. And here is the result of president Clinton’s “tail wagging”.
http://www.warfare.today/2017/04/26/kfor-why-are-troops-still-in-kosovo/
Venezuala proves Trump has lost and is becoming desperate.
Wash, Rinse & Repeat? Trump, the Idiot in chief has privatised out his Coups R US, Regime change agenda to the psychotic Bolton, Pompeo & a convicted criminal Abrams. And just as their numerous other Coups have failed, so will this one in Venezuela?? Its a complete joke how this Nation can lecture Russia about interference in their Democracy but can shamelessly & without even a shred of hypocrisy, attempt to install Leaders of their choosing & overthrow other Countries Govts? What a sick, diseased & mentally defective & totally lawless Country that the US has become! Trump should build his Wall that encircles his entire Country from East coast to West Coast, Northern Border to Southern border? A Wall that keeps the entire US Govt & Nation, confined & kept within its own borders like one giant prison because that is where you should house criminals!
And the NYT and Washington Post (who rail on ad nauseam about Russian interference and Trump collusion) are cheerleading on this disaster.
By a process of simple elimination it seems to me that the only long term interest putting this character in this role at this time is to sacrifice him.
He doesn’t look or sound like a credible President, he has never been elected to anything, he is inclined to violent and angry behaviour rather than compromise and negotiation. Clearly he was not handpicked to put together an ‘alternative team’ or to win an election. He fits only as a puppet able to do precisely what his masters tell him to do but there is no shortage of them among Venezuelan Opposition politicians.
No, he is there to be martyred. And if Maduro doesn’t oblige I doubt that the neo-cons will hesitate for a moment.
They certainly didn’t in Kiev where foreign snipers were employed to shoot policemen and protesters alike and they won’t in Caracas either.
The question is whether anyone in his right mind would hold the results of violence in Venezuela, now, to be a casus belli. It seems unlikely given that it seems to be entirely attributable to the Opposition.
One more thought: Victoria Nuland estimated that the Maidan had cost the US government $5 billion. It looks as if the
subversion of Maduro’s government will cost much more than that. And that is not even counting the money that Canada has put into it.
Hey, why not sing along with Harry Belafonte to the tune of “Jamaica Farewell”!
Bolton Pence and Pom-pay-oh
Hatched a plot to make Ma-duro go
They made a plan to arrange a coup
They got advice from Mar-co Ru-bi-o
But they’re sad today, he wants to stay
All their plans have gone astray
The neocons frown, the oil’s still in the ground
They’ll try to keep Maduro’s gold in London Town
Bolton’s notes con-veyed a threat
And the diplomats are laying low
The sanctions aren’t working yet
It doesn’t look so good for Juan Guai-do
But the Trump regime will reign supreme
The George Bush swamp is on his team
Elliott Abrams and the Nuland crowd
Are doing everything they can to make a mushroom cloud
Down at the UN you can hear
All the asset stripper banking tripe
Finance crooks push Marxist fear
And the interventions of every type
But those Euro banks and big think tanks
Are cheering Trump and closing ranks
Wasserman Schultz will turn elections around,
She’ll help to steal the votes in Ca-racas Town
Down the way where the nights are gay
And the petro-dollar on the chopping block
The global gangsters all support the plot
They ordered Trump to use financial shock
But they’re sad to admit, Maduro won’t quit
He called the Russians, they had a fit
The Neocons frown, Vlad thinks Pompeo’s a clown
He said don’t let that gasbag chase you out of town
Sad to say, he plans to stay
Those gasbag plans have gone astray
The neocons frown, the oil’s still in the ground
They’ll try to keep Maduro’s gold in London Town
Great!
Keep em comin F.G. You’ll hit the top fifty on the charts any day now!
I’ll jump in here F.G. Sanford if you don’t mind. First, thanks again for you clarity.
Classic Regime Change going on here: “Friedman, of course, was the godfather of the notorious neoliberal Chicago Boys”, this process is well described in “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism” by Naomi Klein. When I first read that book, even I, the long jaded conspiracy theorist, was Shocked by the formal organization, but I shouldn’t have been. I have a sense that good old Miltie, a key advisor, to Arnold Swartzenneger in California pulled off the same kind of Regime Change domestically.
Many thanks Max Blumenthal…
Another American tragedy. One wonders, although they are on the other side of the fence, how much of these destabilization strategies were influenced by the Bolsheviks of the early twentieth century and its success in capturing the Russian Revolution. Amoral, cynical, opportunistic but effective in achieving their ends.
“Amoral, cynical, opportunistic but effective in achieving their ends.”
Evaluation is a function of framing including time framing.
The Bolsheviks were amoral, cynical and opportunist and the length of their time frame was facilitated by many factors inherent in coerc ive social relations including but not limited to the use of the other, the nostra of we, and the usages of benefits derived from exploitation internally and externally.
The process of transcendence of temporary social relationships self-described as “The Soviet Union” was ongoing from inception, as a consequence of the experience of “The Soviet Union” by a growing sum of some of the population of “The Soviet Union” and of others, presenting in various indications of alienation, all of which undermined the use of the other, definitions of we, and the usages of benefits derived from exploitation internally and externally.
Not all of the Bolsheviks and connected nomenklatura beneficaries were unaware of this process – some sought to maintain “The Soviet Union” through increasing and widening resort to coercion including displacement, some sought to “reform” “The Soviet Union”, some sought to wear new clothes to benefit from the opportunities of dissolution of “The Soviet Union”, and some aided/aid the transcendence of “The Soviet Union” by the Russian Federation – a lateral process which continues.
“Another American tragedy”.
Perhaps an unconscious connotation sought is Mr. Putin’s remarks in Russian in regard to “The Soviet Union” truncated through framing and mistranslated into English to suggest that the Russian Federation seeks to emulate “The Soviet Union”?
An authenticated and definitive version can be found on the website – http://en.kremlin.ru/
Evaluation is a function of framing including time framing.
Framing in we tends to lead to lead to self-absorption and self-indulgence.
“The Soviet Union” was emulative of “The United States of America” in seeking to create a coercive class society under the cloak of a cooperative non-class society; a supposed meritocracy, beacon on a hill, land of opportunity without defining oppoirtunity or to whom.
The length of their respective time frames was facilitated by many factors inherent in coerc ive social relations including but not limited to the use of the other, the nostrum of we, and the usages of benefits derived from exploitation internally and externally, plus the process of transcendence of temporary social relationships self-described as “The Soviet Union” and “The United States of America” was ongoing from inception as a consequence of the experience of “The Soviet Union” and “the United States of America” of a growing sum of some of the population of “The Soviet Union”, “The United States of America” and of others, presenting in various indications of alienation, all of which undermined the use of the other, definitions of we, and the usages of benefits derived from exploitation internally and externally.
In such scenarios – some seek to maintain “The United States of America” through increasing and widening resort to coercion including displacement, some seek to “reform” “The United States of America”, some seek to wear new clothes to benefit from the opportunities of dissolution of “The United States of America”, and some aided/aid the transcendence of “The United States of America” through coperative systems of equal and different – a lateral process which continues.
Some immersed in the “exceptionalist/we” paradox to some degree will seek to continue to deny time.
Although a thumbnail these hypotheses and their testing may aid understanding of “the present” including some of the opportunities derived therefrom/therein.
Well Well Well…..It’s beyond belief the stupidity or out right cowardice of the people of the world. Take a look at the people chosen to “rescue” the Venezuelan people…..out right criminals! These people are either Jewish Zionist or Christian Zionist. Come on people! Are you just going to lie down like a street dog begging for food.
It’s pathetic…..no…..it’s well beyond pathetic.
I had ask that people wiki “neoconservatism” along with the magazine “commentary”. This is just a small taste of the Christian and Jewish Zionist movement.
It’s going to crush you! I lament !! Why should I even care
This is an interesting summary which highlights the career of a typical Latin American quisling supporting the yankee power structure. He should be arrested if he can be found and tried for treason.