Given recent Middle East disasters and long history of US military interventions in Latin America there is much to worry about with the current Venezuela situation. Neo-conservative ideology has resurfaced with Bolton and “true believers” are always a threat.

Trump is a wild card. Based on public statements and actions he is not a neo-con (eg. pulling out of Afghanistan and Syria), nor a neo-lib (eg. pulling out of TPP). So the main question is: how much control does he have over Bolton and will he take his meds?

Will Venezuela and Venezuelans be able to exercise national sovereignty given that countries with economic and military power often override both sovereignty and international law. The will of the majority needs to be respected and coups resisted. Venezuela has a Constitution and democratic institutions to defend that Constitution.

In 1992 Chavez and a group of military officers attempted a coup, mainly against the neo-lib policies of the Perez government and rampant corruption. It failed, but in 1998 Chavez used the democratic process and won the presidency.

In 2002 there were large protests against government changes to the state oil company. This resulted in a coup when Carmona, the chamber of commerce president proclaimed himself president of Venezuela with military backing. However, he dissolved the Constitution, eliminated the National Assembly and, Supreme Court by decree. Two days later the military removed him and restored Chavez.

On January 23rd Guaidó became interim president of Venezuela. According to Article 233 of the 1999 Constituion, approved during the first Chavez presidency, the National Assembly(AN) has the power to declare the position of President vacant and did so when President Maduro completed his term of office on January 10, 2019. The AN stated that the presidential election of May 2018 did not adhere to the Constitution in terms of time frame etc. In the parliamentary elections of December 2015 the opposition took control for the first time since 1998 winning 67% of the seats.

A new election must be held within 30 days. It will be almost impossible to effect a new election within that time. The election has yet to be called and primaries need to be held, therefore the time limit needs to be extended.

The President of the AN becomes the Interim President of Venezuela automatically until the election if he/she accepts that responsibility. Guaidó was elected as an AN deputy in 2010, President of the AN in December 2018 and accepted the position of Interim President on January 23, 2019. Comparing the 1992 attempted coup and 2002 actual coup, this recent event appears to be neither.

As for the humanitarian crisis I would disagree that the privations are “rubbish” or that they have been caused mainly by sanctions. The latter began in 2015 under Obama and targetted individuals who were guilty of major crimes. The Trump financial sanctions of last month, however, definitely will have an impact.

Your article began by mentioning a “victory of the people” which would certainly be my desire. The majority of Venezuelans supported the Bolivarian Revolution until the crises of food scarcity, inflation etc. reached crisis stage and the government was unable to deal with them. By December of 2015 the majority wanted a change and began voting for the opposition. If a new government reverts back to a neo-liberal strategy and does not protect Venezuela’s oil sovereignty, etc., the position of the majority would likely shift again.

Not just some excellent on the ground researched journalism with some objective history of the situation in Venezuela , Jay-Q , one could easily add that the photo (not shopped) of Guaido’s naked arse, is also of a fine quality as evidence & an excellent demonstration of what a complete ass & CIA propaganda sock-puppet Guaido really is, his attention grabbing methods & mentality, and how anyone with a brain found the violent guttersnipe ever credible , remains an embarrassing mystery to all nations supporting such a political non-entity, who loves flashing his arse to demonstrate, when his brain fails to even fart start his image management,

Talk about childish & those supporting Guaido, equally so . . .

Probably Captain Mainwaring and his men at the 77th Brigade.

Neighbouring Colombia (now a NATO member) has had a decades long US sponsored civil war that cost 250,000 lives, with 7 million internal refugees (more than Syria.) Tens of thousands of peasant farmers, indigenous people and trade unionists were slaughtered by US trained and bankrolled death squads. But for some strange reason you don’t see anything about it in the Guardian and you don’t get all the Blairite Backstabber MPs shedding bucket loads of tears about it in Parliament. Odd.

The article was probably supplied direct by MI6 or the FCO for some bought and paid for hack stooge to put their name on it. Whether it’s Jenkins or Harding or Sid Scurvy, Ace Reporter for the Daily Bugle, doesn’t really matter.

There was outrage and more bucket loads of tears over a couple of trucks carrying US supplied aid at the Colombian border.

Is there any point at all in voting Labour? Why vote for a Red Tory when you can vote for an actual Tory?

Your first sentence may be correct, Glass. Your second one is definitely wrong. Now troll along, do! Byeee!

This is exactly the kind of language found at CIF when there is disagreement, except of course it’s Russian Troll /Putin Bot etc over there. It’s ironic that this site is becoming more and more like CIF all the time.

You don’t remember 2002? The same scenario is happenning now, but with a whole 5 Eyes mob involved, not just a chancy CIA one-off..