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Petro, Maduro and Iran – regime change en route to Colombia?

Gavin O’Reilly

Gustavo Petro’s victory in Sunday’s Colombian Presidential election, marking the first time Bogotá has elected a left-wing head of state, was not the only far-reaching geopolitical event to recently take place involving Latin America.

A week prior to the former guerrilla fighter’s electoral success, President Nicolás Maduro of neighbouring Venezuela paid an official two day visit to Iran where he signed an official 20-year cooperation agreement with Iranian head of state Ayatollah Khameini – a deal intended to counter the wide-ranging US sanctions targeting both Caracas and Tehran.

With one of Petro’s Presidential aims being to develop further relations with Venezuela however, his incoming Presidency has undoubtedly already been placed in the sights of the regime change lobby, wary that friendly relations between Bogota, Caracas and Tehran, will undermine US-NATO hegemony from South America all the way to the Middle East.

Indeed, CIA involvement in fomenting regime change in Latin America has a history stretching back more than half a century.

In 1970, at the height of Cold War tensions between East and West, the election of Socialist candidate Salvador Allende in Chile, and his subsequent nationalisation of Santiago’s lucrative copper mining industry and telecommunications sector, would quickly draw the ire of Washington.

With corporate interests at stake, and fearing that socialism would take root on its doorstep, a plan was hatched by the White House to remove Allende’s Left-wing government.

On September 11th 1973, a bloody CIA-backed coup was launched in Chile, which would see the death of Allende, officially by suicide but with foul play highly suspected, and the seizing of power by the US-backed General Augusto Pinochet, whose 17-year long reign would see the extrajudicial killing of more than 3,000 left-wing activists, and the further forced exiling of 200,000 more.

The instalment of Pinochet’s leadership would subsequently lead to the CIA launching Operation Condor, a Cold War initiative intended to halt the spread of Communism in South America via the covert backing of right-wing political movements in the region.

Like Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil had also come under the rule of military dictatorships, Argentina following in 1976, with each receiving the full support of the United States.

Despite the end of the Cold War following the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 however, this US interference in Latin America would continue unabated,  most recently seen in 2020 when Operation Gideon, a failed Bay of Pigs-style coup attempt involving US mercenaries and most likely sanctioned covertly by the White House, was launched in order to remove the Venezuelan leadership of Nicolás Maduro – a long-time target of the regime change lobby since he was elected as President of the oil-rich nation following the death of Hugo Chávez in 2013.

Coming just a year after another failed coup attempt in the Latin American country, involving US-backed ‘Interim President’ Juan Guaidó, the motivation for Maduro to further develop relations with Iran, following Tehran’s May 2020 export of almost two million barrels on Iranian oil to Venezuela in order to counter US sanctions, should be clear.

Like Venezuela, the Islamic Republic has also been a long-time opponent of the US-NATO hegemony, when following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the anti-American Ayatollah Khomeini would come to power, overthrowing the Western-backed Shah Pahlavi, who had himself been installed in a 1953 CIA and MI6 orchestrated coup launched in response to then-Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh’s decision to nationalise his country’s vast oil reserves.

With striking similarities between both Venezuela and Iran in terms of nationalisation of natural resources, opposition to US Imperialism, and being subject to Western sanctions, it would only seem natural that both countries would seek to develop diplomatic relations.

It would also only seem natural that with the election of Gustavo Petro in Colombia, and his campaign promise to normalise relations with Venezuela, that Bogotá may soon also experience the same regime-change attempts that have previously befell both Caracas and Tehran.

Gavin O’Reilly is an Irish Republican activist from Dublin, Ireland, with a strong interest in the effects of British and US Imperialism; he was a writer for the American Herald Tribune from January 2018 up until their seizure by the FBI in 2021, with his work also appearing on The Duran, Al-Masdar, MintPress News, Global Research and SouthFront. He can be reached through Twitter and Facebook and supported on Patreon.

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Zane
Zane
Jun 27, 2022 9:25 AM

Colombia was doing ok economically last time I was there, but it shouldn’t take too long for the leftists to turn it into another Venezuela. Speaking of Venezuela, they are importing oil from Iran? What happened to the largest oil reserves in South America? I guess an anaconda swallowed them.

Lizzyh7
Lizzyh7
Jun 27, 2022 7:47 PM
Reply to  Zane

VZ doesn’t have large refining capability, probably thanks to Uncle Sam deciding not to build that out for them under the auspices of the IMF, World Bank, etc. I think there are also issues with the type of oil it has – ie, heavy or light require different refining techniques.

NickM
NickM
Jun 28, 2022 5:54 AM
Reply to  Zane

That’s inzane. Venezuela’s oil is still in Venezuela, only waiting for a nationalized refinery to be built (now that Uncle $cam is no longer there to prevent it).

Can’t wait for the Leftists to turn Colombia into a new Venezuela, Or even a new Cuba, strong and independent.

McMurhpy
McMurhpy
Jun 28, 2022 1:49 PM
Reply to  Zane

Chile was doing really well under Salvador Allende last time I was there. Similarly, Venezuela was doing fantastically well under Hugo Chavez last time I was there. Then the usual suspects (read CIA) visited and they decided that doing well and taking care of your own people is a terrible crime that you have to be punished for. Now that the empire of illusions is on its last legs, there is a real possibility that those countries in the South America that have been bullied and raped of their natural resources for nearly a century can organize and defend their sovereignty.

les online
les online
Jun 27, 2022 8:15 AM

It may be a quibble to you but the countries you mention are better understood, not as “opponents to US/NATO hegemony” who conduct “opposition to US imperialism”, but as resisters / resistance**…

As for the CIA, i never can understand them. By now the CIA should have realised that left-wing parties in office are an asset. Such parties have a track record of betraying voters…

In Australia most regard the Australian Labor Party (ALP) as left-wing. Yet In the 1940s it was the worker friendly ALP that used troops against coal miners; and in the 1980s it was the same worker friendly ALP which busted-up an airline pilots dispute… Had the other mob, the Bosses party, tried such, there’d have been national strikes…

Maybe because Americans label everything they dislike leftwing, some even regarding the CIA as a left-wing organisation, might explain something ? But the CIA need only recall how recently, BC, a highly popular left-wing party was elected in Greece. That party, to stay in office, imposed EU austerity on the lower classes, its voters…No need for a coup !

The CIA seems to have forgotten how to get rid of worker friendly governing parties. In the 1970s it helped get a national ALP government sacked. The “leaks” it helped orchestrate so scandalised voters that the Bosses party won by a landslide…

** Ask yourself “What Would Orwell Say ?”

Zane
Zane
Jun 27, 2022 9:27 AM
Reply to  les online

Hopefully Orwell would say: ” Free Assange NOW! “

susan mullen
susan mullen
Jun 27, 2022 3:28 AM

Someone must stop “Big, Stupid Bully” US. Until 2022, no one has even lifted a finger to try. The UN fully supports US crimes as was seen in its backing of US violent overthrow of Ukraine in 2014. With unlimited access to US tax dollars, US has tried to overthrow 57 countries 1949-2014, not to mention annexing one third of Syria. No one ever retaliated against the US until 2022. After decades of polite, intelligent Russian officials being treated like garbage by the US, the extremely patient president of the Russian Federation, Mr. Putin, could wait no longer. I’m thrilled that Iran and Venezuela have a partnership. As to Colombia, it has long been a George Soros Colony as Ukraine is.

NickM
NickM
Jun 28, 2022 6:21 AM
Reply to  susan mullen

+1

But there is an even bigger and more stupid bully in Ukraine: EU.

Remember, Europe brought genocide and misery to America long before the United States were even a gleam in Uncle’s eye.

Paul Watson
Paul Watson
Jun 26, 2022 7:20 PM

The great Satan…

Zane
Zane
Jun 27, 2022 9:28 AM
Reply to  Paul Watson

The Mullahs are a real barrel of laughs. They’re more fun than a day at Disney World.

paul
paul
Jun 26, 2022 6:54 PM

I hope Colombia hasn’t got any gold or assets at the Bank of England. If they have, they need to get it moved pronto.

Researcher
Researcher
Jun 26, 2022 6:34 PM

Sanctions only ever affect the bottom sector of society so the sanctions (or the staged, orchestrated military conflicts) are supposedly held up as proof of genuine geopolitical animosity between blocs or countries instead of what they really are, which is racketeering opportunities, organized land grabs, price gouging, Order Out Of Chaos control mechanisms and calculated genocide.

Every country on earth is owned and controlled by the same global financial cartel. Certainly the political scum on the “left” and the “right” work in cahoots. Always have, always will.

The fake geopolitical CLOWN show in the msm isn’t any more believable than the ridiculous, fake and staged (S)elections.

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
Jun 26, 2022 3:04 PM

Ah, the benevolence of corporate capitalism. Let’s clap and cheer… until we are all dead from the effluence and sewage…

The big diet
The big diet
Jun 26, 2022 3:01 PM

Just my considered opinion, but I say the Iranian government at the highest is in cahoots with globalists, completely

Ian
Ian
Jun 26, 2022 2:59 PM

Stating the obvious. But, what is important is when the obvious solutions that no longer work in fact backfire, Does Wall Street or the MIC have another gear? And, the answer is, NO. When people have nothing, but each other, they’ve got nothing to loose, other than their freedom and souls. That’s real “sovereignty”.

Edwige
Edwige
Jun 26, 2022 10:12 AM

Allende was a Freemason. I don’t claim to know what happened in the original 9/11 back in 1973 but I suspect the surface narrative is a crock. Allende’s cousin went on to be a best-selling author – does that smack of genuine opposition or of a bloodline, asset family? Her books push the line that magic is a real force in the world which seems very much part of elite ideology.

As for some sort of a Venezuela-Iran axis, the 1979 revolution in the latter looks fake and I’ve cited some evidence for that many times previously. Regarding Venezuela, I see it as Cuba 2.0 i.e. fake Latin American opposition to the US that acts as a laboratory for how a population cope with austerity combined with creating the left-wing of the dialectic. Where does the name Venezuela happen to come from? Gosh, isn’t that a bizarre coincidence! You can tell the real Latin American opposition because it gets crushed in a bloodbath.

BTW anyone who still believes the Cuban Revolution was genuine might explain how Cuban troops ended up in Angola in the 1970s defending the instalations of the Gulf Oil company? South Africa wanted to invade Angola thinking Western assets there were actually in danger but were warned off by NATO leaders who knew the bigger picture.

Ian
Ian
Jun 26, 2022 3:05 PM
Reply to  Edwige

Simplistic at best, there are always wheels within wheels. But, at the bottom of the pile are people who need to cooperate to live and eat. Most of them are neither sociopaths nor blind sheep.

The big diet
The big diet
Jun 26, 2022 3:07 PM
Reply to  Edwige

I’m inclined to agree with you.
Nothing is as it seems.
And until the average bloke in the street realizes this, the criminal organization in control will continue to run things.

Researcher
Researcher
Jun 26, 2022 6:20 PM
Reply to  Edwige

Exactly. The only people suffering in all these centrally controlled machinations, covering for land grabs, genocide and organized chaos are the populace’s being controlled by these Freemasonic criminal psychopaths.

NickM
NickM
Jun 28, 2022 6:41 AM
Reply to  Edwige

South Africa wanted to invade Angola”explain how Cuban troops ended up in Angola in the 1970s”

You’ve already explained it; “[The anti-Communist regime in] South Africa wanted to invade Angola”.

Dmass
Dmass
Jun 26, 2022 9:45 AM

So Yanks will fight war on 3 fronts now?!

MattC
MattC
Jun 26, 2022 8:17 AM

There’s not much difference between this and the CV19 scam: all involved are using coercion, corruption and intimidation aka propaganda to ensure their wealth grows.
The body count is mere collateral damage.

jiin
jiin
Jun 26, 2022 6:59 AM

You will never ever see Macron, Orban, Trump, De Pfeffel (Rothchild). etc doing this.
They couldn’t.

The big diet
The big diet
Jun 26, 2022 3:22 PM
Reply to  jiin

Yes.
And the reason to act is not out of guilt, sympathy, empathy, charity, the reason to act is pure self-interest.
If you allow these criminals to continue, you or your children can expect to experience directly what it is like to live in Sisi’s Egypt.
That should scare the daylights out of anybody.

penners11
penners11
Jun 27, 2022 11:36 AM
Reply to  jiin

Interesting video, here is an interesting article from 2015.

https://www.news24.com/News24/Libya-then-and-now-a-response-20150921

Viridis
Viridis
Jun 27, 2022 5:02 PM
Reply to  jiin

Disinformation produced to discredit “conspiracy theorists”. The claims that Libyans under Gaddafi used to get free electricity (!), money for getting married, and half the cost of their house covered by the government are especially ridiculous.

NickM
NickM
Jun 28, 2022 6:50 AM
Reply to  jiin

+1

I used to call Ghadaffi “Daffy”; but you remind me of what a wise old lady once told me:

“Before I became a social worker in a mental asylum I used to divide people into sane and daft. Now I divide us into daft but nice, and daft but not so nice.”

Gaddhafi was daffy but nice. NATZO is crazy and far from nice.

NickM
NickM
Jun 28, 2022 7:24 AM
Reply to  NickM

However, every positive claim in your Link is contradicted in the Link by Penners11 at 3.22 pm.

“The wells of Truth are muddied, and the world is sick”.

Today we no longer have media nor public institutions in The Democratic West where opposing opinions can be presented side by side, and attempts made to find objective truth. Perhaps a few scientific journals still publish independent research with peer review and open discussion. But popular media are very much driven by pre-formed opinion, buttressed by insufficiently verified facts or half-facts .

hotrod31
hotrod31
Jun 26, 2022 4:09 AM

The White-house, Whitehall and Washington are the visible nests for vipers and other assorted snakes. Unfortunately, it is the shadowy-reptiles, the ones who own these ‘snakes’, who run the world.
Sadly, there are still so many ‘innocents’ who are so deluded that they really believe that these monsters are their leaders. F F S, the sooner you/me/we, realise that these psych/socios have only their own interests at heart, the better.

Martin Usher
Martin Usher
Jun 26, 2022 2:32 AM

Petro’s probably safe for a few months because the US’s power base has its hands full elsewhere. That won’t mean that there won’t be a few NGOs and other private enterprise operations busy with ways to undermine him but its become clear that the US government itself can only deal with one major operation at a time. Having completely misjudged Russia over Ukraine they’ve set off a brush fire in Europe that’s going to take some time to contain. Meanwhile what should have been a cakewalk vis-a-vis China (so they thought) has turned into a bit of a rout.

The key to all this has been sanctions, or to put it more plainly, economic warfare. This is the ‘go to’ first stage for any attack on a country that appears to be getting out of line. Unfortunately its not the force it used to be. Quite apart from the US now being essentially a global dependent — we rely on everyone buying into our credit and currency to stay afloat — the ‘other bit of the world’ has evolved strategies and mechanisms to blunt the effect of sanctions. Nominally unaligned countries are looking at the treatment meted out to dissent nations seemingly on whim and noticing that unless they wish to be totally subservient to the western financial system (a system that has often done them more harm than good) then they have to disengage and thanks to initiatives like BRI they now have a choice.

All these fires springing up globally gives Colombia a fighting chance of being able to sort itself out before they cop it. After all, our SNAFU over Russia has meant that we’re now being all sweetness and light to Venezuela (which I’d guess they’re not falling for one bit) so the neighbors should be OK, large tracts of Central America have said “Non, gracias” to the US (or rather its policies) recently with the rather poor “Summit of the Americas” (held in Los Angeles, of course).

For those of us who yearn for some kind of fundamental change, for global policies not based on hegemony, force and confrontation, this is all welcome. I’m not holding out too much hope, though — hope has been dashed before (and given all my savings are in USD I can’t really root for the collapse of the currency even if it did finally put an end to this globalist, neocon nonsense).

Ian
Ian
Jun 26, 2022 3:28 PM
Reply to  Martin Usher

The globalists depended on domestic “divide and conquer” tactics. This is now blowing up in their face as local concerns, even in the US have caused such a dominance of division that foreign interests of Rothschild’s or corporate masters have been trounced. People have become the wild card that is not as simple to deal with that they originally thought. Control and social engineering is not enough once you take away enough wealth and freedom. They still have their souls.

Johnny
Johnny
Jun 26, 2022 2:27 AM

What a tangled web they weave.
Paranoia and hubris make for a self destructive combination.

Misprint: (of) Iranian oil to Venezuela.
Cheers.

wardropper
wardropper
Jun 26, 2022 1:17 AM

The white house and washington have no idea what ‘socialism’ even is.
They just look at the money that comes in – or doesn’t…

Fran
Fran
Jun 25, 2022 11:26 PM

“ Disneyworld “ must be maintained at all costs , it’s veneer of plastic animal parades a goofy representation of what we aspire to be , yet somehow we lose ourselves in this false world where men are turned into puppets ,America seems to value the maintenance of its veneer above the true application of its stated values – and we all in other places follow along