Mobilize and defend Venezuela
It is new and it is not new, but it is tremendously wicked and deadly – the latest type of coup the US invented and is now applying against Venezuela.
Andre Vltchek
The US-recognised “interim President” Juan Guaido (left) & the elected President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro (right).
Of course, coups and attempted coups are what could be described as the ‘West’s specialties’, and have been utilized by the U.S., U.K. and other imperialist countries against innumerable unfortunate nations on all continents.
In Latin America, basically each and every country has suffered from them, from the Dominican Republic to Chile and Argentina; in Asia, from Indonesia to Thailand, and in the Middle East from Iran to Egypt and Syria. Whenever people of some country dared to vote in the socialists, Communists, anti-colonialists or simply some decent bunch of people who were determined to serve their own population, the West corrupted and deployed local elites and military, overthrew elected or revolutionary governments and installed brutal servile regimes. Thousands died, sometimes millions, but the Empire couldn’t care less; as long as it got its way.
There has been a clear pattern to how the West constructed its terror acts against almost all truly freedom-loving nations.
But what the West is now doing to Venezuela is something else, and totally extreme; the hostile acts against President Maduro and his comrades are stripped of all the scruples and cosmetic “refinements” of the past. They supposed to demonstrate in the cruelest terms who the real ruler of the world is, and who is ‘in charge’. This is ‘Western democracy at its best’!
In the past, the US tried to overthrow Chavez, it attempted to starve Venezuela, to make its medical system collapse, then to assassinate Maduro. It produced a ‘deficit’ of food, even toilet paper. It ordered its lapdogs in Latin America to antagonize the Bolivarian revolution.
Now, in the latest development, the regime in Washington has simply hand-picked its favorite traitor inside the socialist republic of Venezuela – a treasonous cadre named Juan Guaido, (who served, briefly, as President of the National Assembly of Venezuela), “recognizing him” as the “interim President of the country”.
Of course, before Guaido first declared himself, pompously, President of Venezuela, he was almost immediately put into his place by the Venezuela’s Supreme Court, which disavowed him as the chief of the National Assembly. So, let us call him former chief.
But the Western mass media propaganda campaign kicked into top gear, and overnight became utterly unscrupulous. As a result, it is now becoming almost impossible to read any information about the Supreme Court ruling, unless one goes to non-Western sources.
So, let’s go ‘there’. As reported by Iranian Tasnim, on January 22, 2019:
Venezuela’s Supreme Court head Maikel Moreno announced on Monday that the judges had disavowed Juan Guaido as the chief of the opposition-controlled National Assembly.”
And the RT, just one day earlier:
Venezuela’s Supreme Court has declared all acts of the country’s National Assembly null and void, days after the opposition-held assembly declared President Nicolas Maduro’s election illegitimate.”
Also, the Venezuelan foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, snapped at Guaido on 21stJanuary, 2019:
You see this man, who nobody knows in Venezuela—you ask in the streets, “Who is Juan Guaidó?” and nobody knows him—but he’s being pushed to say that he is the new president, by the U.S.”
And he did say that! On the 23rd of January 2019, in front of his mob of supporters in Caracas.
And then, a day later, President Trump ‘recognized him’ as the country’s interim president. Canada did the same. The same did France, now a second-rate but increasingly rejuvenated imperialist and neo-colonialist power. Followed by that U.S. puppet – the Organization of American States (OAS), with such fascist countries on board, like Brazil, and Colombia now leading the pack.
Today, the world is clearly divided, as China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Syria, South Africa, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay and many others are firmly on the side of the legitimate revolutionary government of President Maduro.
Confrontation is inevitable.
Venezuela ordered all US diplomats to leave and it cut off all diplomatic ties with Washington. US refused to make its embassy staff depart from Caracas, declaring that the Venezuelan government is ‘illegitimate’.
This amounts to a declaration of war. The US refuses to recognize the sovereignty of Venezuela. It reserves the right to tell the Venezuelan people who their real president is! It only recognizes its own, supreme control over the hemisphere and the Planet, showing spite for international law.
It is childish, arrogant, outrageous, and surreal. But it is really happening. And unless it is stopped, right there, in Caracas, this new form of ‘spreading coups’, and enforcing global dictatorship, may spread to all other parts of the world.
*
Although there are many ‘new elements’ at play, the situation, to a great extent, resembles the ‘Syrian scenario’, as was conveyed to TASS, on January 24, 2019, by Venezuela’s Ambassador to Russia Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa:
The Venezuelan authorities know that the US is trying to stage a Syrian scenario with “government in exile” in Caracas… After US Vice President Michael Pence called for overthrowing our government, our president decided to sever diplomatic relations with the US authorities and asked US diplomats to leave Caracas in the next 72 hours. This is an adequate response which our brave president provided to flagrant interference… No country can allow any other country to state their opinions about the internal affairs of the state, especially when it comes to calls for overthrowing [the authorities].”
We know what the next steps will be. The US will now have a justification [for their actions] that there are two governments in the country, like they did in our fraternal Syria with President Bashar Assad and its people. They created a government in exile, which led to great losses, to casualties, to demolition of the country’s infrastructure.”
Will Caracas ask Moscow directly for help, as Syria did years ago, while fighting for its survival? It is not certain, yet, although this possibility certainly exists. Venezuela is counting on increasing support from Russia, Iran, China, Cuba and other socialist or independent countries.
For Venezuela, the only way to survive, is to cut off all its dependency on the West, immediately. Washington is threatening Caracas with further sanctions and even with an oil embargo.
There is no reason to panic. But Maduro’s government has to rapidly and fully realign itself. There are many countries outside the NATO realm which are willing to buy Venezuelan oil, and/or fairly invest in its infrastructure and industry. Russia, Iran, China and Turkey are the most important ones, but there are many others.
There has to be new strategy on how to alleviate the pain of the ordinary Venezuelans. This, too, has to come from ‘outside the Western sphere of control’, even outside Latin America; a continent known for its brutal European-descendent elites, consistent lack of solidarity, courage, and acceptance of the West’s rule (the greatest modern-day hero of South America, Hugo Chavez, died attempting to build an united, proud, socialist Latin America, just to be stabbed in his back and spat at by many of the servile Latin American nations. Cuba was fully abandoned after the destruction of the Soviet Union, and had to be saved by China).
The country has to mobilize; it has to fight. Fight for its survival. With all its allies united, ready to defend Venezuela, the same as it has been happening in Syria.
Venezuela suffers and struggles for humanity, not just for itself. With the name of Chavez and socialism on its lips.
Russia is standing by its ally, Venezuela. On 24 January, 2019, Sputnik reported:
Russia warns the United States against military interference in Venezuela’s affairs, it would be a disaster, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday:
“As we see how the situation in Venezuela develops, we note the willingness of a certain group of countries, including the United States, to use different platforms such as the Organization of American States, to increase pressure on our ally Venezuela under different pretexts… But we have always supported and will support friendly Venezuela that is our strategic partner.”
From the country devastated by a similar destabilization campaign as the one that is taking place in Venezuela, the Syrian official press agency SANA carried a message of support for the legitimate Venezuelan government:
The Syrian Arab Republic condemns in strongest terms going to extremes by the US and its blatant interference in the affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela which constitutes a flagrant violation of all international norms and laws and a brazen attack against the Venezuelan sovereignty,” a source at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said on Thursday.
The source added that the destructive policies adopted by the US in different parts of the world and its disregard of the international legitimacy represents the main reason behind the tensions and the state of instability in our world…
The Syrian Arab Republic affirms its categorical rejection of the blatant US interferences, and it renews full solidarity with the Venezuelan leadership and people in preserving the sovereignty of the country and foiling the hostile schemes of the US administration…
In the past, countries accepted the Western terror unleashed against them as something inevitable. But now, the situation is changing. Russia, Cuba and Syria, Iran and China, and now Venezuela, are refusing to surrender, or even to “negotiate with the terrorists”.
Aleppo, which I described as “the Middle Eastern Stalingrad”, stood tall, fought, resisted and defeated vicious enemies. Now Caracas, the Latin American Leningrad, is under siege, starving, but determined to fight against foreign invasion and treasonous cadres.
All over the world, people have to mobilize and fight, by all means, against fascism and for Venezuela!
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To be clear, the US Deep State’s “Venezuela project” started long before Trump: On December 20, 2011, Chávez called Obama “A clown, an embarrassment, and a shame to Black People” – a coconut in local parlance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93Venezuela_relations#Presidency_of_Barack_Obama
Things have changed over the past few years.
Global capitalism has become ever more reckless in the face of its multiplying failures and imminent collapse.
Without viewing the past in any way through rose tinted spectacles, things were a little different previously.
What has changed is that the globalist and corporatist elite have thrown caution to the winds and ratcheted up confrontations with an ever expanding group of nations, Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Syria, Venezuela and others. It is only a matter of time before this ignites into actual military conflict on an unimaginable scale. It is surprising this has not occurred already.
The predatory and parasitic nature of US aggression and western imperialism have remained constant over the years.
What has changed is the abysmal quality of western leadership, the worst in its history, the debilitating effects of their dysfunctional political systems, and the extremely crude, crass, blatant, and often infantile nature of their behaviour and language. The paper thin veneer of legality and civilised standards has been discarded. The mask has been cast aside. The crudity of the propaganda is ever more apparent, The false flags and mendacity are ever more transparent. There is a standard playbook of economic strangulation, sanctions, propaganda vilification, terrorism, subversion and military aggression, which has now failed on multiple occasions whenever it has been tried, at enormous cost to its proponents.
Of course, In a material sense this is nothing new.
Vietnam in the past, the Middle East today.
Chile in the past, Venezuela today.
But the desperation is new. The shredding of civil liberties, the ubiquitous mass surveillance, the distinctly third rate propaganda, the censorship, the crude and blatant gutter language of street thugs (and this is not a Trump monopoly.)
All this is a sign of weakness and desperation, not strength.
“They gotta pay! They gotta pay! They gotta pay us!!” croaks Trump, like a two bit Mafia hood. “Grab the oil! Grab the oil! Grab the oil!!”
“We’re going to whack the son of a bitch in the street!” Pompeo and assorted other “statesmen” and luminaries of the political elite, soliciting the murder of Assange/ Snowden and others.
They are going down. But they are not going down without a fight, and millions are going to die. That is the price we will have to pay to get rid of them.
It’s too late.
https://www.rt.com/news/449898-maduro-us-diplomats-stay/
It’s clear that Maduro is losing and he’s just negotiating the $$$$ price for him and his corrupt leaders relinquishing their leadership without having a civil war, otherwise, he would have kicked the Yanks out already in retliation to their coup attempt. A $100m in each of their Cayman bank accounts and guaranteed place of safety will do the trick.
For what it’s worth, Maduro was never the revolutionary, he’s utterly inept, country falling apart, riding on the coat tails of Chavez. He was always going to sell out sooner or later.
That’s an unfair assessment given what Venezuela is up against (sanctions, a low starting base, regional instability, etc) – in other words its an almost possible task for any leader to maintain economic growth/stability while adhering to socialist ideals.
In Britain, a country with far greater economic resources millions are now impoverished – imagine how different things could be in Venezuela if they had the advantages we have whereas here;
Fourteen million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty.
Four million of these are more than 50% below the poverty line, and 1.5 million are destitute, unable to afford basic essentials.
The widely respected Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts a 7% rise in child poverty between 2015 and 2022, and various sources predict child poverty rates of as high as 40%.
For almost one in every two children to be poor in twenty-first century Britain is not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster, all rolled into one.
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Poverty/EOM_GB_16Nov2018.pdf
None of this stops our leaders from telling other countries who is best to rule them, nor does it stop them signing up to endless wars.
Indeed, our country is in an utter mess and it will need someone like Corbyn to sort it out. However, that does not detract from the utter mis-management and corruption of Maduro. I am pretty sure that he has his price to leave quietly.
If you were to read the RT.com article carefully, you would have found that Nicolas Maduro has set conditions for the US to meet during the delay in expelling US diplomats. The conditions include establishing a “US interests office” that deals mainly with immigration issues within a 30-day period and allowing Venezuela to establish an equivalent office in Washington, presumably to deal with similar issues. If the US does not agree, then the expulsion of diplomats resumes. What Venezuela is doing is what Cuba did decades ago before 2015.
There is nothing in the RT.com article that suggests that the Maduro government has given up or that the coup attempt against him is succeeding. As far as is known, the armed forces in Venezuela have pledged loyalty to Maduro, no-one is coming out into the streets (apart from the usual pro-opposition supporters) to call for Maduro’s resignation and downfall, and self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido has gone into hiding.
Most of Venezuela’s economic problems can be sheeted home to US sanctions against the country and the fall in oil prices in 2017 created by Saudi Arabia flooding the market with oil (at the behest of the US, in order to crash the Russian economy, and with it, Venezuela). Food hoarding by food manufacturers and importers like Empresas Polar SA, Venezuela’s largest food and beverage company, owned by billionaire Lorenzo Mendoza, has been another major issue.
“Venezuela: Maduro creates ‘socialist enterprise system’, collectives protest food giant’s hoarding”
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/venezuela-maduro-creates-socialist-enterprise-system-collectives-protest-food-giants
In those parts of Venezuela bordering Colombia, companies have been selling food (much of it subsidised by the Venezuelan government) to Colombian companies for profit, which then resell the food to Venezuelans living near Colombia – for profit.
“Blaming Socialism, US Media Distorts Venezuela’s Food Crisis”
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Blaming-Socialism-US-Media-Distorts-Venezuelas-Food-Crisis-20170223-0053.html
Also, since when does mismanaging the economy and being corrupt justify foreign intervention with intent to change government, over the heads of the people who elected that government? On that logic, perhaps the US should have sacked the government of Israel ages ago – because its current prime minister and his wife are actually facing charges of bribery and fraud.
If foreign tanks and foreign subversion are the answer to economic mismanagement, maybe we should all get ready to welcome the Russian tanks (or anybody else’s tanks) rolling in.
If you have evidence of corruption on Maduro’s part now is the time to produce it. Else be confirmed and treated as the concern troll that you’ve been till now.
Any election that produces a result Washington doesn’t like is “rigged” and “illegitimate.”
If election monitoring organisations and Jimmy Carter assess them as free and fair, with 6 million voting for Maduro, that is obviously totally irrelevant and doesn’t matter. They were probably all Russian bots anyway.
Yes, let’s get your Washington puppet in to loot the country for Wall Street instead.
Grab the oil! Grab the oil! Grab the oil!
Just been rewatching ‘a very british coup’ …. seems quite prescient in a lot of ways and likely worse for brown skinned socialists. Venezuela has been ravaged by sanctions (soft warfare) stolen gold, manipulated oil prices, frozen bank accounts, oligarchs hoarding food, burning black people alive for being Chavistas etc. A pre planned internationally coordinated coup is taking place. . . . “Major obstacles to the participation of opposition political parties and their leaders, an unbalanced composition of the National Electoral Council, biased electoral conditions, numerous reported irregularities during the Election Day, including vote buying, stood in the way of fair and equitable elections.”
Dear Ms Mogherini,
I was a member of a roughly hundred-strong core of observers of the May 20 Venezuelan election. We met senior representatives of all the candidates, and questioned them closely. We met with the president and two vice-presidents of the Supreme Judicial Tribunal. We examined the electoral system in detail and, on election day, observed voting procedures across the country.
We noted, in particular, not only the sophistication of the voting system which, in our collective view, is fraud-proof, but also that every stage, from the vote itself to the collation of returns, their verification and electronic submission, was conducted in the presence of representatives of the contending parties. As for “reporting irregularities”, we would be interested to hear of examples, since the reporting system is exceptionally rigorous and tamper-free. We doubt you have any evidence to back up the EU’s claim of “numerous reporting irregularities”.
We were unanimous in concluding that the elections were conducted fairly, that the election conditions were not biased, that genuine irregularities were exceptionally few and of a very minor nature. There was no vote buying because there is no way that a vote CAN be bought. The procedure itself precludes any possibility of anyone knowing how a voter cast her or his vote; and it is impossible – as we verified – for an individual to vote more than once or for anyone to vote on behalf of someone else.
In short, the claims in your press release are fabrications of the most disgraceful kind, based on hearsay and not on evidence and unworthy of the EU. It has not escaped notice that the EU was invited to send observers to the election and declined to do so. NONE of the criticism in your EU press release is, therefore, based on direct EU observation in the field.
I would be happy to discuss this further with you and to put you or your colleagues in touch with other observers – among whom were senior politicians, academics, election officials, journalists and civil servants from many different nations including: Spain, UK, Northern Ireland, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Honduras, Italy, several Caribbean countries, South Africa, Tunisia, China, Russia,and the United States (sic).
Yours sincerely,
Jeremy Fox, journalist / writer
Jospeh Farrell, Board of the Centre for Investigative Journalism
Calvin Tucker, journalist MS
Dr Francisco Dominguez, Latin American Studies, Middlesex University
The Guardian is again beating the drum for war – actual facts are an inconvenience rather than obstacle to the general line they have taken despite the irony of pearl clutching articles about the dangers of ‘fake news’.
Yet when commentators point out ‘secret meetings’ between Assange and Manafort were bogus they are censored in the name of ‘community standards’ – exactly the same would happen if it was pointed out the EU had no input into observing the fairnes of the last election or if commentators objected to smears implying widespread official corruption in Venezuela.
Its certainly a situation Harry Perkins would be unhappy about!
Caitlin Johnstone’s 5 Dumbest Arguments for Venezuela Interventionism:
1. “Socialism is bad!”
2. “It’s not interventionism! There are no boots on the ground.”
3. “Maduro is bad!”
4. “I support the Venezuelan people!”
5. “You don’t understand what’s going on there! I talk to Venezuelans!”
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/01/26/top-5-dumbest-arguments-defending-trumps-venezuela-interventionism/
Law of unintended consequences? Rothschild’s vampire squid bank Goldman Sachs and Black Rock Investment Co now find that they need to Mobilize and Support Madero. In today’s Saker Vineyard:
“Among Venezuela’s creditors are such giants of the financial world as the American investment conglomerate BlackRock (the largest investment fund in the world, assets under management — 6,789 trillion dollars) and the most influential American bank Goldman Sachs, known for its political lobbying in the US and European Union [the EU$A]. _Venezuelan opposition has repeated that it will not pay the debt of the “anti-people regime” [meaning the Venezuelan govt] to Goldman Sachs Bank, which saved Maduro in 2017). Paradoxically several very large and influential American [meaning U$] financial companies are now rooting for Maduro, or else risk to “write-off in the name of democracy” at least $50 billion in debt plus interest.
[Vexarb adds: Alternatively, if the coup succeeds, these “Banks too Big to Fail” would bribe the New Venezuela regime to do like Gordon Brown and Barak Obama: load an even bigger debt on the shoulders of their people through “Quantitative Easing”. So I don’t think these AZC banks will lobby very hard for Maduro; nevertheless, an amusing paradox.]
So the real question here is why an evil socialist regime would go within 100 miles of vampire squids unless they had been somewhat silly in their management of oil revenues?
This sounds like UK being re-run. A nation down on its luck finds an oil bonanza, but instead of saving the revenues for generations to come, it splurges it immediately. It then calls in foreign creditors to prop it up.
Just what exactly is different between Conservatives 1979-1997 and 2010-2019 and the evil witch Chavez?
Not that Uk Labour was much different 1997-2010, but if we are raging against socialism, just ask what Conservatives have been doing elsewhere….
$21trn debts in the purity of USA?
Just how is that not worthy of an externally led coup?
Mr Putin: fund a US coup and provide backing for an unelected senator to proclaim themselves POTUS! Make sure Beijing, Delhi and loads of other seats of government immediately back the insurgent!!
@rtj1211
“So the real question here is why an evil socialist regime would go within 100 miles of vampire squids unless they had been somewhat silly in their management of oil revenues?”
That is indeed a good question.
One answer was given in “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”. A country which has been strangled economically, and destabilized by agents provacateurs, might regard Goldman Sachs as a “saviour”; the way old Gold Sacks “saved Maduro” after the riots and U$ economic sanctions of 2014-2017. But the “Saviour Bank” turns into the Devil when that Loan is called in — as Greece found out.
Another and I think better answer is for the country to sweat it out — as Cuba, Iceland, Syria, Iran and Russia have done. With help from China in some cases. Abandon the fictitious U$ Petrodollar and trade in your own currency. Build up your own resources to diminish imports. And arm your people to give a warm welcome to The Man from Uncle.
“So the real question here is why an evil socialist regime would go within 100 miles of vampire squids unless they had been somewhat silly in their management of oil revenues.”
Spot on.
I think that Maduro is not a true revolutionary, unlike Chavez, and he’s completely messed up the economy and corrupt as can be. I would not be surprised if Maduro, and probably his generals, have their price. Trump is a deal maker and will pay them $100+ million and the transfer to the US will be over and done without too much blood spilt.
PATHETIC.
Once again, the Saker proves his economic illiteracy. I smell a rat at that site.
BTL this morning’s SyrianPerspective:
hub #285796
Discussion in Security Council about Vénézuéla . The Russian diplomat (Vassili Nebenzia ) declared that if the UNO is truly concerned about rioting against an oppressive regime with protestors being shot and gassed in the streets, we should better discuss “Les Gilets Jaunes” . The French representatives took a dim view of this remark; in fact they looked upon it with jaundiced eyes.
I àm sure Nebenzia intended to induce outrage amongst the French. He wanted them to see the two-faced nature of their arguments.
Vexarb
In another amusing paradox: those ‘French representatives’ are now – as of the Aachen Treaty – ‘Franco-German-EU$A’ representatives. ‘France’ exists as a separate nation state in name only. Something that should be definitely be viewed as jaundiced.
I like the fact that the Bolivarian revolution is backed by Goldman $uchs and BlackRock. Well, at least till it pays its dues. Then they will fund the counter-revolution, which, no doubt, they already are. War: it’s win win for the bankers …which in no small measure is why they do it. Destroy, rebuild, destroy… it’s all money in the bank to them.
BigB, before a war, loans are issued by Rothschild to both parties — on condition that Winner repays debt of Loser also.
“What a country regards as a catastrophe is to the BIS simply a move of some numbers from one account to another”.
Arch Neocon, convicted perjurer and terrorist accomplice Elliott Abrams, architect of the failed 2002 coup against Chavez, has just been appointed “US Envoy for (against) Venezuela.”
That slimy little pipsqueak Alan Duncan was demanding the overthrow of the elected Venezuelan government at the UN. Nothing more annoying than yapping poodles.
Washington’s UK satrap May has just confiscated £500 million of gold bullion Venezuela was unwise enough to store at the Bank of England. Just like billions of Libyan assets were stolen in 2011.
Unsurprisingly, the presstitute MSM has saluted smartly and fallen into line. Motormouth Jeremy Clarkson was sprinkling random “anti semite” smears against Corbyn in the Murdoch Sun today before a longer piece by Ace Reporter Sid Scurvy puffing up Washington’s puppet coup leader and smearing Corbyn for not supporting the coup..
Maduro has been “declared illegitimate” and given 8 days to call fresh elections.
Maybe the Orange Baboon in the White House, with 3 million less votes than Clinton, needs to be declared illegitimate and given an ultimatum to call fresh elections in 8 days.
Or May, leading a minority government dependent on Northern Irish Reactionary Bigot support, needs to be declared illegitimate and ordered to call an election in 8 days.
Or Maybe Macron, with approval ratings in single figures. Or Mohammed Bin Salman. Maybe he needs to be ordered to call elections (for the first time ever.)
Despite the best efforts of western imperialist rogue states and their Latin American puppet dictators, it is likely this latest regime change stunt will fail, like Syria and Ukraine. But they may succeed in igniting a regional war costing the lives of hundreds of thousands, as they did in Syria. Maybe the Orange Baboon will rail against the refugees and illegal immigrants this creates.
Nardeep Pujji @ AWAKEALERT
10h Breaking News:
India Refuses to Recognise US appointed Fake President of Venezuela.
India to buy Venezuelan crude and pay in rupees, not US dollars.
India will export much needed rice and medicines to Venezuela.
Excellent responses to CelestiaQuesta folks!
‘American Ass’ he claims. Hasbara me thinks?
Just in case he is a duh! Yank. Here is Ron Paul, a few hours ago, speaking in American to explain that you don’t impose democracy!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UCESJ5JcJXc
I trust Labour are taking notes for the inevitable onslaught…
That SyrPer article is brilliant and so are many of it’s comments.
Share and confound the msm narrative.
“You see this man, who nobody knows in Venezuela—you ask in the streets, “Who is Juan Guaidó?” and nobody knows him—but he’s being pushed to say that he is the new president, by the U.S.”
This sentence reminds me of Micron, pushed by the MSM to be president of France. (Honte a la douce France, disent Les Gilets Jaunes). So does the lad’s smug mug (pictured above Andre’s article).
Andre Vltchek ! Before You continue to BASH .. Western People .. You should be aware .. that also these are under the Heel of Unscrupulous Corrupt Megalomaniac Elites who hold their populations in an IRONGRIP of SUBJUGATION … currently manifested by being the Target of nothing less than a DEMOGRAFIC GENOCIDE as formulated by the NEO CON GLOBALIST ELITE PUPPET : The UNITED NATIONS … I agree .. we should stand by Venezuela … and I do … But we should also be able to expect … that we will NOT be run over by Illliterate Hoardes of People IMPORTED by BILLIONAIRE ELITES into OUR COUNTRIES .. destroying OUR ANCIENT LANDS and CULTURE… well …WIPING THE PEOPLE OF THE WEST FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH …. As long as YOU do NOT support us .. the COMMON PEOPLE OF THE WEST … You can not .. expect us … the people in EUROPE and other WESTERN LANDS to stand by You ….. As much as I stand by VENEZUELA in its STRUGGLE for NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY .. as much I will FIGHT for the SOVEREIGNITY of MY OWN COUNTRY… If You cannot agree on this … You are a FALSE LIAR and HYPPOCRITE !
I don’t have much time, but I wanted to make a quick point: Venezuela doesn’t have any, and it is not sitting on oceans of, oil. Not in the way people may imagine. What Venezuela does have in abundance in the Orinoco Belt is sulphurous tar that is costly to extract. It also needs diluting, which is why Venezuelas imports of lighter grades of oil and diluents like naptha are up, and exports down. Someone mentioned the sell cheap (at or below the cost of production), buy back expensive scenario. Vexarb mentioned the need for a Pacific coast refinery, to avoid having to sell to the US Gulf Coast refiners (who can control the price on quality issues).
So the completely illegal and immoral shenanigans the US is involved in; have to be looked at as an act of environmental and economic desperation for a world, principally the US, that is addicted to the power of oil. The cost of oil is the Earth. Let me bracket out AGW: the global capitalist system is fully fuelled by oil. The US is already subsidising (debt funding) the shale ‘revolution’. The Canadian tar sands ditto, etc. Now the threat to Venezuela’s sovereignty is for a resource that is not economically viable. It will cost at least as much, if not more, to recover than it will be worth. Particularly if the ageing infrastructure has to be updated. It should be classed as a ‘stranded asset’: even by the internal ‘free market’ logic of the system. To recover it all would be economic suicide. Obviously, there will be nothing left for Venezuelans.
All of which has to be set against the tumbling price of renewables (60% in three years in some cases). Nuclear can’t compete (Toshiba and Hitachi have recently abandoned building reactors in the UK, because they cannot get the cost per MWHr to cover investment). But renewables can’t sustain capitalism, growing exponentially year on year.
So here’s the choice, do we want to live …or do we want carbon capitalism? Because the two are not compatible with each other. We are already past the point where oil is an economic liability, not a viability. More and more of the cost of extraction has to be offset against the cost of future extraction (EROEI). This means there will be less and less exergy (excess energy available for social needs). Plenty enough for the rich to get richer, none, and I mean none, left for socialisation …or even basic needs. We will continue to get poorer under a carbon capitalist system that is hugely subsidising the cost of extraction of oil as a basic survival need. For them. not us. Not to mention the exponential risk of real intra-capitalist war entailed in the scramble to control remaining resources.
Until we realise the problem, and make a concerted effort toward ecosocialism (whose hotbed is in Latin America) and sustainable living, situations like Venezuela will continue to become extremised. Oil oppresses us all.
We are all Venezuela now. It’s the Lords of Carbon against humanity. So long as we buy into their profligate ethos and false prosperity lifestyle, we are mutually oppressing ourselves and each other. Capitalism costs the Earth, and we only have one. The future is green and red: ecosocialist. Whatever the faults of the Bolivarian Revolution, the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) they made a move in the right direction. Can they complete that move? Only with our help. Conversely, if they fail, we fail.
¡Viva la Revolución!
Well said BB – oil is probably the best lens to examine US motives.
To recap Canada (Alberta) and Venezuela have huge reserves of ‘oil sands’ but this is a substance that is difficult to convert into barrels of oil – Canada manages to process only 15%, Venezuela even less.
In this respect Canada and Venezuela are direct competitors and might explain why Canada was so quick to endorse the US proxy championed by Trump?
But even if there was a more efficient way to process oil sands it is still only a temporary solution to both Venezuelas and the worlds resource problems, not least because reserves will last little more than a couple of decades if production is increased.
Above all the attack on Maduro tells us the US mind-set is locked into intimidating countries that posses certain natural resouces – after the Middle East and Latin America have been drained of oil and gas the US will merely turn its attention to another part of the world before inventing a new set of lies rationalising military intervention there (Russia, the far East, etc).
The average Guardian leader will be cheering them on of course despite the inevitable carnage that will arise should the US have its way in Venezuela.
@ BigB and Harry .You certainly make some good points .Living in Canada , I witness first hand the squables going on between big oil proponents and the eco centered groups that are fighting for a cleaner environment .
There is much happening that we are not privy to unless one goes deep into geopolitics and exopolitics .
I will go out on a limb here so please don’t shoot the messenger , but please stay with me here for a while.
I follow the logic of Dr.Richard Greer http://disclosureproject.org/ and I agree with same .The reason , he argues that disclosure has not been made is this ; Once disclosure is made , the proverbial cat is out of the bag .One of the main questions will be ,how did they get here. Surely not using fossil fuels or any directive thereof .
The rest of the story is connecting the dots .A new form of energy and I can only surmise infinitely abundant and non polluting . Just like the sale of buggy whips went out the window , well so will oil etc.etc.
And what would that do to politics and geopolitics .
Capitalism,communism,socialism ,schmelism ,etc also all out the window .A new world is born .
It is coming and sooner than anyone expects .Instead of chaos , well I will also leave that up to you to ponder
as equality will rule the day .Literally free energy means just that.
Until then we will have the West rattling sabers because that is what they do ,to amass as much wealth/riches/power as they can by any means that they can , dividing us all into 2 camps , rich and poor and also dividing our faiths , which again is going to go through a major overhaul once confronted with a new paradigm .
My heart goes out to the Venezuelan people right now and hopefully not too many lives are shed over the stupidity of Western politics .
On another note , it was -29 C last night .
Peace to all .
Thanks, summitflyer – valuable insights as ever.
More stumbling blocks to Trump’s Tweet for Venezuela. “There was a stone in the middle of the road”:
From Sputnik – MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Colombian government is not going to provide the United States will military bases so that the latter could launch a possible military invasion in Venezuela, the Colombian Defense Ministry told Sputnik.
Moon Of Alabama nails it — Trump’s Venezuela Coup-attempt Is Based On A Seriously Flawed Plan
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/01/venezuela-trumps-coup-attempt-is-based-on-a-seriously-flawed-plan.html#more
I wonder who was responsible for putting that stone on the road.LOL .I watched the video “War on Democracy” by John Pilger
the other day and your comment reminded me of what the Bolivian people had done when they revolted against their government .They had put stones all over the highway for miles and miles to slow down the army which was against the people .
To add to my above comment ,it is highly probable that the incursions from Columbia into Venezuela from time to time are CIA related in order to destabilize the economy and politics of the socialist government of Venezuela.This also is not a big jump in logic but not proven but if one Googles ” Colombian incursions into Venezuela” to sites are all inverted stating Venezuela incursions into Columbia .Hmmm , Google at work
here ??
SummitFlyer, I tried what you suggested and, as you yourself found, the first to pop up had it the wrong way round:
” Colombia protests Venezuelan border incursion – MSN.com ”
But I believe it was more Rothschild than Google at work, because Reuters is the primary source of this inverted emphasis:
Colombia protests incursion from Venezuelan soldiers | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/…colombia-venezuela/colombia-protests-incursion-from-ven…
Colombia is just a satellite of the US and now a NATO member. Colombia will do whatever it is told.
From anti_Republocrat BTL SyrPer #285732:
Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao has rejected the possibility of Brazil taking part in any kind of a military operation against neighbouring Venezuela.
Also from PacificNorthWest posting in SyrianPerspective. The Times They Are A’Changing:
TulsiGabbard [U$ presidential candidate]: The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don’t want other countries to choose our leaders–so we have to stop trying to choose theirs ——
The Multpolar World vs the Zio Capitalist Empire. From SyrianPerspective:
Mike-Florida #285663
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi reacted to recent political developments in Venezuela, and overt unlawful U$ interventions. “The Islamic Republic of Iran supports the Govt and Nation of Venezuela.”
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13971104000387
PacificNorthWest #285661
“We are declaring Israel a terrorist State. Israel does not respect the principles or purposes of the United Nations Charter nor the Universal Decalaratiin of Human Rights.”- Eva Morales – President of Bolivia
Why would anyone here at Off Guardian defend a ruthless dictator is beyond comprehension. I thought this site held a higher standard in global debates.
CelestiaQuesta – you came to the wrong site to troll such CIA sponsored nonsense and to expect anything but pity. The vast majority of readers at OffGuardian have educated themselves and learned about the world from I dare say a variety of more reputable sources than MSM spinning it’s CIA fairy tale narratives that provided you with your own evidence-free “understanding” of the world.
But hey, don’t despair – you’ll find lots of sympathetic opinions from throughout the military industrial complex, the Democratic and Republican Parties in the U.S., the Western intelligence services, the global corporate Western mainstream media, the big oil companies who can’t wait to get their hands on Venezuela’s oil reserves, Wall Street and global bankers everywhere, you know, all the big players, all the important people. So hey, you’ve got lots and lots of company, just not here at OffG. You’ll never be lonely once you shove your head up the arse of power and let the wealthy and powerful do your thinking for you. Just ask most any mainstream politician or media pundit.
Kiss my American ass. All of you.
OMG! I just threw up.
“Kiss my American ass. All of you” – hard to to know if your repsonse is to intergenerationaltrauma, or if you are simply re-tweeting Donald Trump’s latest missive.
But if you have come to Off-G anticipating support for the kind of corporate and military gangsterism the US exports across the globe I do not think you will find too many kindred spirits, Matt and comite espartaco, aside.
What I suggest is you go and do some homework on Syria then comeback if you still want to argue conditions in Venezuela are not the result of an external campaign conducted by US security agencies on behalf of neocons and their friends in the banking and corporate world with the express aim of destabilising any country not led by a pseudo fascist sympathetic to US oil, gas or currency demands.
And what will you do if we refuse, big boy?
How will you prove your manhood?
Live like a coward in an underground bunker in the Rockies while firing bunker busters?
Or cry boo hoo hoo because Mexico will not pay for your little wall??
You do not seem to enjoy authority here.
In fact, contempt and disdain is yours to endure.
No doubt mommy will comfort her little boy as he wanders home, tail between his legs.
Really wasn’t necessary to throw in the “American” bit. We are all well acquainted with your utterly parochial compatriots’ anus obsessions.
CelestiaQuesta – we like to share information with each other here at OffG. In the name of broadening horizons here’s an excellent post by Caitlin Johnstone on the “American” regime change operations in Venezuela.
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/top-5-dumbest-arguments-defending-trumps-venezuela-interventionism-93d31b67aa4a
I guess we won’t be seeing any more of CelestiaQuesta then. Didn’t put up very much of a fight, did s/he?
‘CelestiaEtc’. And I thought this site didn’t attract too many brainwashed twits, but here you are.
“a ruthless dictator”
The most sincere love the US has for the last 60~70 years has been reserved for ruthless dictators. They install them and equip them with the apparatus of oppression, support them politically and militarily. Almost every tyrant wouldn’t remain in power has it not for the US extensive material support.
Perhaps, CelestiaQuesta agrees that the actions of the murderer Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (a key US ally) are ‘creative and efficient’!
Does your social worker know you are online?
You are right : nobody should defend a ruthless dictator like Guaido.
Who are you talking about? Trump? May? Macron? Uncle Sam’s Puppet Dictators and Satraps around the world? Mohammed Bin Salman?
The US elites constantly interfere in the internal politics of nations which have political and social systems which do not suit their corporate interests and their plans for the world. The claims that they do it for humanitarian reasons or to protect freedom & democracy is propaganda for the mass of the people who live their lives immersed in the myths and official media narrative of the US social matrix. US elites and US foreign policy have zero respect for democracy in other nations or in the US itself. The way they treat their own sitting President shows their contempt for US citizens and democracy.
David – it seems we are living in some sort of “irony-free parallel universe” of sorts here in the U.S. For two years running the deep state here has been telling us non-stop that “Russia” somehow “put the Orange One into the White House,” and how this manipulation of American democracy (though totally fictional) is completely unacceptable and constitutes an “act of war” – then – without even blushing, these same U.S. sociopathic deep state forces have the gall to publicly name a new head of state for another sovereign nation – Venezuela. It’s like – “wait a minute, what about the whole last two years and your Russiagate nonsense?” How much cognitive dissonance can this bunch of amoral deep state psychopaths manage without their heads exploding? The answer would seem to be – “a great deal,” apparently.
.. and then they came for Venezuela. I am not sure how to speak out.
When they come for me, will any one be left to speak for me?
The toxic tentacles of imperialism reach everywhere.
http://thesaker.is/argentina-is-the-imf-intervention-helped-by-haarp/
Fair Dinkum, the toxic tentacles of the IMF are worse than the weather. Here, from your Link, are the IMF in action, applying their toxic Loans to Albania:
Anonymous on January 26, 2019 · at 12:15 am EST/EDT
Albania has hydroelectric centrals with an Installed Capacity of 1466 MW, and an average hydropower production of 5283 GWh. The Albanian Engineers, Technicians and workers took care for operation and maintenance for more than 15 years. After the “Regime Change”, based on concessionary contracts mysterious corporate “Privatized” everything, increased the price of electricity 10 fold, and the profit is stolen from Albanians. Poor Albanian couldn’t afford to pay, and many refused to pay creating a debt of $ 500 million.
IMF intervene with a $500 million loan with interest, that paid the corporate, so the Albanian people has to pay back to IMF $500 million + Interest.
Actually most of Albanian has no heating or cooling because the only option is electricity, which is prohibitive.
Something similar happens to Greece too.
Privatization is looting a Nation by the corporate.