Venezuela war clouds - US regime change target

[outsider]

U.S. Congress Passes Venezuela Sanctions, Obama Expected to Sign:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11065

'Mérida, 12th December 2014 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Late on Wednesday the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to introduce sanctions against Venezuela.

The bill was also passed by the Senate on Monday, and White House officials have indicated that President Barack Obama will sign the bill into law, although it was not specified when.

The Venezuelan Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act seeks to sanction high ranking Venezuelan officials accused of being responsible for human rights abuses during the opposition unrest movement earlier this year. Primarily, it will sanction such officials with a visa ban and a freeze on any U.S. assets they possess.

Democrat senator Robert Menendez, the Act’s main sponsor, said of the bill’s passage that, “The absence of justice and the denial of human rights in Venezuela must end, and the U.S. Congress is playing a powerful part in righting this wrong”.

The Act also calls for a U.S. government strategy to increase funding for and availability of anti-government media in Venezuela, including utilizing the Voice of America for this end. The bill states that U.S. foreign policy should aim to “continue to support the development of democratic political processes and independent civil society in Venezuela”.

Investigative journalist Eva Golinger has documented how over the last twelve years U.S. government agencies have provided well over $100 million to opposition groups in Venezuela for their activities....'


Venezuelan President Maduro to Reevaluate U.S.RelationsDue to “Interventionism":
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11059

'Mérida, 8th December 2014 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has warned of “interventionist” activity emanating from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, and says he is reevaluating relations with his country’s northern neighbour.

In an interview with Telesur on Saturday Maduro claimed that actions being taken by the U.S. embassy were aimed at undermining Venezuela’s stability and were “beginning to become intolerable” despite Venezuelan efforts to “normalise diplomatic relations”.

“It’s lamentable that [U.S. president Barack] Obama allows his own U.S. embassy in Venezuela to act in a dangerous way…I have a lot of information about the interventionism of the U.S. embassy,” he said.

The Venezuelan head of state explained that as a result his administration was “reevaluating” relations with the U.S. “At the right moment I will pertinently explain to our nation the actions that I have to take,” he added.

Maduro also gave his opinion that racism had worsened in the U.S. under Obama. He said that the U.S. president had become “tired” of struggling for a progressive agenda and had “joined the worst causes, in the United States and the world”.

The comments are the latest indicator of the poor state of U.S. – Venezuelan relations, which have remained frosty since the early years of the administration of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela accuses the U.S. of having supported the short-lived coup against Chavez in 2002 and of plotting to destabilise and overthrow the Bolivarian government. U.S. government agencies have funneled over $100 million to pro-opposition groups since 2002....'

[outsider]

The 'Evil Empire' still keeps up it's attacks (as Nick Rockefeller predicted to Aaron Russo):
Opposition Groups Suspected in Venezuelan Telecom Firm Attack:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11154

'Venezuela's Public Ministry is investigating the destruction of eight vehicles from the state-run telecommunications company CANTV in Puerto Ordaz, located in Bolivar state.

According to preliminary information, at approximately 3:00 am Saturday a group of people threw a petrol bomb at company's headquarters, caused the destruction of eight vehicles.

Although the attackers have not being identified yet, right-wing opposition groups and sympathizers have attacked public buildings and infrastructure in the past...'

MTV Glorifies Venezuela’s Barricade Protests in New Reality TV Show:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11097

'US entertainment channel MTV has signed a contract with a Venezuelan media group to purchase extensive footage of the violent anti-government protests that wracked the South American nation earlier this year, to be featured in the new reality series Rebel Music.

The footage, captured by citizen reporters with GoPro cameras, show masked and shirtless men throwing handmade grenades and wreaking general havoc in a coordinated effort to force president Nicolas Maduro’s resignation that lasted from February to May this year.

43 people were killed during that time, the majority while trying to clear rubbish from or cross the barricades set up by demonstrators. Numerous public institutions including hospitals, universities, and transportation agencies were also burnt down in protest.

Reporte Confidencial became known for editing the GroPro material nightly, adding in a pumping dubstep track befitting a London club scene, and posting the finished videos to YouTube, where they received thousands of views from around the world.

It is this material MTV now seeks to own.

The reality show Rebel Music claims to be inspired by young people who “are raising their voices to demand change for a better future…. often putting their lives on the line,” according to the show’s website.

With this premise, many Venezuelans fear the show’s narrative will grant hero status to those hardcore protestors- whose tactics were so violent they effectively drove away a majority of opposition supporters, according to polls.

Furthermore, as the White House approves sanctions against Venezuelan government officials, others accuse the MTV program of dovetailing too neatly with US foreign policy...'


But others give support:
China Commits $20 Billion to Venezuela at First Latin America-China Forum in Beijing: http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11143

G77 and China Condemn U.S. Sanctions on Venezuela, Say They Must Be Repealed: http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11112

Venezuela’s Maduro Secures Support from Iran & Qatar in the Face of Oil Glut: http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11157

[outsider]

Venezuelan Officials Seize Warehouse with Enormous Cache of Hoarded Items as Opposition Calls for Strike:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11158

'Andrés Eloy Méndez, the superintendent of fair prices signaled “They [the private sector] want to generate the sensation that there are no products. Here they are. This company has warehouses in 9 states in the country. Now, they are all occupied by the government and the merchandise will be distributed to the people.” Méndez also warned that this type of hoarding of basic goods comes with a 10-12 year prisons sentence.

As the government to continues to crack down on the trafficking of basic goods and re-selling of subsidized food at higher prices on the black market, the Venezuelan daily paper Ultimas Noticias reported the detention and deportation of 190 people, the majority of whom are Colombian nationals, accused of related activities. Since October of last year, selling basic goods on the informal market is illegal, in accordance with new laws passed to combat scarcity....'


The 'Evil Empire' uses the tried and tested methods time and time again, in setting up coupes just as in 'False Flag' attacks.
They used this economic sabotage and hoarding in Chile, before the Pinochet Coupe.

'NO MORE PINOCHETS!' is now a major slogan for Solidarity Groups.

[TonyGosling]

Analysis > Analysis
Timeline: The Anatomy of a Venezuelan Coup
The coup was set to coincide with the anniversary of last year
The coup was set to coincide with the anniversary of last year's deadly opposition violence Feb. 12, 2014. | Photo: AVN
Published 13 February 2015
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Timeline-The-Anatomy-of-a-Ve nezuelan-Coup-20150213-0006.html

This is what the opposition's coup in Venezuela would have looked like, if it hadn't been discovered and thwarted.
On the anniversary of right-wing opposition violence that gripped Venezuela beginning Feb. 12, 2014, the government in Caracas announced it had dismantled a violent coup plot. The plotters had planned to overthrow the elected government of President Nicolas Maduro with a campaign of violence, including mass killings and tactical bombings of strategic sites across Caracas. When the dust cleared, they coup plotters expected key government officials, including Maduro to be dead, with the country then firmly in their control.

The plot failed after the government said they uncovered it and arrested the ringleaders.

Below is a timeline of how the coup plotters hoped their plan would play out.

January 6-8: Coup plotters planned to conduct nationwide operations aimed at creating unrest in the streets. Queues outside commercial stores such as supermarkets were set to be among the primary targets, where operatives hoped to set off violence. Elsewhere, various groups planned to engage in other activities aimed at fomenting destabilization in the streets.

January 9-February: Over the weeks, plotters hoped the country would descend into a state of turmoil, paving the way for the violent overthrow of the Maduro administration.

February 3: Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas tried to bribe people in strategic positions to participate in a coup, said President Nicolas Maduro at the time.

February 12: The coup was scheduled to begin this day. Chavista and opposition rallies commemorating Youth Day were slated as the first targets. Coup plotters planned on attacking the marches to provoke panic in the streets. Then, strategic sites across the capital were to be bombed in a series of coordinated attacks, carried out using a Tucano attack aircraft. The Tucano is a small, highly maneuverable military aircraft manufactured in Brazil, though the U.S. military has purchased a handful for counterinsurgency operations. The sites targeted for bombing included public transport, government offices, mass media and open areas, such as the grandiose Plaza Venezuela. The full list of targets included:

- teleSUR headquarters (east Caracas)

- Headquartes of the Military Intelligence (DIM)

- Plaza Venezuela

- Metro station Zona Rental (center of Caracas)

- Ministry of Defense (center of Caracas)

- Caracas municipality building (west)

- Miraflores palace (national government and presidential headquarters)

- Public Prosecutor’s office (center of Caracas)

Members of both the opposition and the government – including Maduro – were expected to be assassinated during the ensuing chaos.

Amid the turmoil, media outlets would be forced to broadcast a statement announcing the collapse of the government.

February 13: The coup government was expected to be firmly in control of the country and free to begin rolling back Venezuela's socialist revolution.

[TonyGosling]

Britain and Canada Involved in Foiled US Venezuelan Coup Plot

By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, February 16, 2015
Region: Latin America & Caribbean
http://www.globalresearch.ca/britain-and-canada-involved-in-foiled-us- venezuelan-coup-plot/5431523

Britain and Canada were co-conspirators in the latest plot to topple Venezuela’s government.

TeleSUR provided detailed coverage of Washington’s war on Venezuelan democracy. Its dirty hands manipulate violence and instability worldwide.

US funded and supported key opposition fascist figures Antonio Ledezma, Maria Corina Machado and Leopoldo Lopez released a joint February 11 communique a day before the foiled coup.

Titled “A Call on Venezuelans for a National Accord for the Transition,” it promoted regime change. Called for Venezuela to be handed back to monied interests.

Called Bolivarian fairness “anti-democra(tic)…inefficient and… corrupt.” Run by “an unscrupulous elite (making) the State totalitarian.” Creating “a humanitarian crisis.”

“(T)he Maduro government has entered a terminal phase.” Claimed it’s “the duty of every democrat to help resolve the current crisis, to defend freedom…to make the transition…(to restore) democratic order.”

Ledezma, Marhado and Lopez want Maduro’s government violently overthrown, democracy crushed.

Washington, Britain and Canada hatched the latest plot to return Venezuela to its bad old days. TeleSUR reported new details.

“Fresh evidence” showing their involvement, saying:

“Many of the individuals being charged, included a military general – whom has confessed to participating in the plans – and a retired lieutenant colonel – have indicated you (fascist Justice Party president Julio Borges) as being a key participant in meetings, which resulted in the decision to carry out a series of bombing attacks as a part of the coup, targeting the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly,” key ministries, TeleSUR’s offices, and other Caracas sites.

Venezuelan authorities identified US embassy personnel involved. So were a Royal Canadian Mounted Police official and UK diplomatic core member, according to National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello.

They sought information on airport capabilities in case needed in an emergency.

Computers seized had detailed coup plans, including maps showing targets to be bombed.

A video showed military officials announcing Maduro’s government no longer was recognized. It was scheduled to be aired after planned bombings were launched. Either by a Venezuelan or Miami TV station.

Cabello showed a 10-year visa given to one of the plotters days ahead of the planned coup.

He noted Obama’s recent statement about “American leadership at times entail(ing) twisting the arms of states which don’t do what we need them to do.”

He said coup plotters planned to topple Venezuela’s government forcefully on the anniversary of US-manipulated 2014 street violence.

Killing 43. Injuring hundreds. Causing billions of dollars in physical and economic damage.

US planned, funded, implemented and directed economic, political, and street warfare continues to topple the hemisphere’s most vibrant democracy.

On Saturday, Maduro addressed Venezuelans a second time on national television. Following up on his Thursday coup plot revelations.

Explaining more details of Washington’s scheme to oust him forcefully. “Almost all (opposition) leaders knew about this plan, this ambush, almost all of them, including the four-time losing candidate,” Maduro explained.

Referring to Henrique Capriles Radonski. One of many Venezuelan fascists wanting power back the old-fashioned way.

“I’m not saying all of them were actively involved,” Maduro said. “But it was a rumor circulating amongst them, that something was about to happen.

Figures arrested confessed to the plot, Maduro explained. They provided more evidence of Washington’s scheme.

It involved enlisting Venezuelan political and military officials. Bribing them with large cash payments. America’s Caracas embassy was coup plot headquarters.

Maduro called on Obama to stop interfering in Venezuelan affairs, saying:

“In your name, they are organizing coup plots against (Venezuela’s) democratically elected government…”

Bolivian President Evo Morales expressed solidarity with Maduro saying “(w)e all have the obligation to enforce respect for democracy and elections, and if we have a clear conscious, not even the empire can defeat us.”

Maduro received numerous other messages of support. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega condemned the “criminal and futile attempts of the empire to undermine the Bolivarian Revolution.”

From Mexico City, the Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity expressed solidarity in an official statement. It condemned plans to topple Venezuela’s government.

TeleSUR reported civil and political organizations worldwide expressing solidarity with Venezuela.

Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Secretary General Ernesto Samper denounced plans to oust Maduro.

Venezuelan opposition spokesman Jesus Torrealba lied saying “(t)he government makes up these stories about coups to avoid talking about how the country is breaking down.”

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki lied calling accusations about Washington plotting Maduro’s ouster “ridiculous.”

She absurdly added:

“(T)he United States does not support political transitions by non-constitutional means.”

“Political transitions must be democratic, constitutional, peaceful, and legal.”

“We have seen many times that the Venezuelan Government tries to distract from its own actions by blaming the United States or other members of the international community for events inside Venezuela. These efforts reflect a lack of seriousness on the part of the Venezuelan Government to deal with the grave situation it faces.”

[outsider]

Blimey, I hadn't heard about this! Just checked out 'Venezuela Analysis', best info source I know:

'Amid International Outcry, Venezuelan Officials Allege Blackwater, U.S. and Canadian Links to Thwarted Coup':
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11212

'Caracas, February 16, 2015 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - New revelations in Venezuela have linked U.S. private security firm Blackwater, now known as Academi, to the aircraft that was to be used as part of Thursday's thwarted "Blue Coup" attempt.

The four-stage plan included economic war, an international media offensive against the Venezuelan government, political destabilization fomenting ungovernability, and finally the use of a Super Tucano aircraft to strike "tactical targets" in the capital, such as the Presidential Palace, teleSur, and military intelligence

The coup was planned for the one-year anniversary of violent opposition protests known as the Guarimba and was to come one day after a public statement by leading opposition leaders calling for a "transition".

According to U.S. aviation records, the EMB-314B1 or "Super Tucano" aircraft in question was acquired from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer by the firm Blackwater Worldwide in 2008 allegedly for the purpose of pilot training. Registered under the serial number N314TG, the aircraft is, moreover, the only one of its kind sold by the Brazilian firm to a private company.

The Super Tucano is a light, highly agile Brazilian aircraft designed principally for pilot training and counterinsurgency operations. The aircraft has an operational range that extends from the U.S. to any point in Colombia, and has been widely used in Colombian counterinsurgency operations, including in the 2008 assassination of FARC second-in-command Raul Reyes in violation of Ecuadorian sovereignty.

While Venezuela does have its own fleet of 12 Super Tucanos, all aircraft are currently grounded and undergoing major repairs, stated President Nicolas Maduro, whilst offering further evidence regarding the foreign origin of the aircraft.

Blackwater has a checkered human rights record. Several of its contractors have been indicted in U.S. courts for their role in the 2007 massacre of Iraqi civilians, and Jeremy Scahill, national security correspondent for the Nation, has documented the firm's role in the CIA's global assassination program.

National Assembly President Accuses Canadian and UK Officials of Involvement

On Friday, National Assembly President, Diosdado Cabello, alleged that officials at the Canadian and British embassies had links to the failed coup attempt, in a new round of revelations surrounding the attempted putsch.

Cabello claimed that a Canadian official by the name of Nancy Birbek was investigating the contingency plans of the Arturo Michelena airport in Valencia.

"On Monday, together with another Canadian embassy official, this woman identified as Nancy Birbeck, was inquiring about the capacities of that same [airport] for special cases. Is this woman asking about the capacities of the airport for cases of contingency?"

The National Assembly President went on to indicate that he also had evidence that an official from the British embassy as well as a staff member of the U.S. embassy charged with overseeing visas had links to the thwarted coup plot.

For his part, President Nicolas Maduro has alleged that the U.S. government is behind the coup, accusing U.S. embassy personnel of attempting to "bribe" Venezuelan armed forces officials. The Venezuelan head of state also claimed that one unnamed U.S. official was responsible for authoring the "script" that was to be publicly broadcast by military officials on the day of the coup claiming that the armed forces had risen up against the government.

International Outcry

In the wake of Thursday's foiled coup plot, the Bolivarian government of Nicolas Maduro has received a raft of messages of support from regional leaders and civil society organizations alike.

On Saturday, the Latin American Parliament, a regional consultative assembly representing the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, issued a statement condemning the thwarted coup attempt. President of the regional body, Angel Rodriguez, called for a comprehensive investigation by Venezuelan prosecutors and advised Venezuelan citizens to remain "alert" in the face of destabilization efforts by "extremist groups" which he indicated were backed by the United States.

Moreover, the Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Ernesto Samper also rejected the coup attempt and expressed support for President Nicolas via his twitter account.



"UNASUR reiterates its will to find democratic and pacific routes and reiterates its support for President Nicolas Maduro"

The presidents of Bolivia and Nicaragua also joined the chorus voicing solidarity with the government of Nicolas Maduro.

"We all have the obligation to enforce respect of democracy and elections, and if we all have a clear conscience, not even the empire can defeat us," declared Evo Morales

For his part, Daniel Ortega denounced the "criminal and futile attempts of the Empire toundermine the Bolivarian Revolution."

From Mexico City, the Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity has also issued a statement announcing support for the Venezuelan government and condemning the coup efforts by opposition leaders.

Most recently, the Presidents of the Uruguayan Senate and House of Deputies spoke out on Monday against the thwarted coup and proclaimed their backing of the Bolivarian government of Nicolas Maduro. Brazil's Landless Movement has also thrown its support behind the Venezuelan government.'

[outsider]

Op-Ed on Venezuela Slips Past NYT Factcheckers By Steve Ellner:
http://fair.org/home/op-ed-on-venezuela-slips-past-nyt-factcheckers/

'A February 15, 2015, op-ed on Venezuela by Enrique Krauze seems to have slipped by the New York Times' factcheckers.

Krauze's thesis (a tired one, but very popular with Venezuelan and Cuban right-wingers in South Florida) is that Venezuela has not only followed "the Cuban model," but has recently outdone Cuba in moving Venezuela further along a socialist path even as Cuba enacts economic reforms. This idea is not merely an oversimplification--as it might appear to the casual observer of Latin American politics--but is largely misleading. To bolster his case, Krauze--a prominent Mexican writer and publisher--includes numerous false statements and errors, which should have been caught by the Times' factcheckers.

Krauze begins by claiming that the Venezuelan government, first under President Hugo Chávez and then his successor Nicolás Maduro, has taken control over the media. Chávez "accumulated control over the organs of government and over much of the information media: radio, television and the press," we are told, and then Maduro "took over the rest of Venezuelan television."

A simple factcheck shows this to be false. The majority of media outlets in Venezuela--including television--continue to be privately owned; further, the private TV audience dwarfs the number of viewers watching state TV. A 2010 study of Venezuelan television found that


as of September 2010, Venezuelan state TV channels had just a 5.4 percent audience share. Of the other 94.6 percent of the audience, 61.4 percent were watching privately owned television channels, and 33.1 percent were watching paid TV.

A 2013 Carter Center report found that Venezuela's private TV outlets had about 74 percent of the audience share for coverage of "recent key newsworthy events."

The media landscape has changed little since. National opposition station Globovisión was sold in 2013, but to a private party; it was not "taken over" by the government. And opposition voices continue to appear on national TV outlets--even the ones that are often described as "pro-government"--free to make the harshest criticisms of the government and to encourage people to protest, as several prominent opposition figures did last year during the violent street blockades and demonstrations aimed at forcing Maduro to step down.....'

Totally ignoring the Coup reports; but even worse is the NY Times AP coverage:
'Venezuela: A Coup Plot Is Alleged':
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/14/world/americas/venezuela-a-coup-plot -is-alleged.html?ref=topics

'The Venezuelan military and opposition politicians on Friday dismissed the government’s latest announcement that it had thwarted a planned coup, this one involving a plot to blow up the presidential palace, the headquarters of the Defense Ministry and a government news channel. Jesús Torrealba, a spokesman for the opposition coalition, said, “The government makes up these stories about coups to avoid talking about how the country is breaking down.” President Nicolás Maduro announced Thursday that a retired air force general had been arrested and that 13 other people had been implicated in the plot. The government frequently claims to have uncovered coup plots, often without providing much evidence. Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Assembly, said in a television broadcast that the United States had tried to buy the loyalty of air force officers. The State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, called the accusation “ludicrous.”

'..'The Venezuelan military and opposition politicians on Friday dismissed the government’s latest announcement that it had thwarted a planned coup, this one involving a plot to blow up the presidential palace, the headquarters of the Defense Ministry and a government news channel...'

'The Venezuelan military and opposition politicians on Friday dismissed the government’s latest announcement that it had thwarted a planned coup,...'
Oh, really? Sure, the Opposition may have, but 'The Venezuelan Military'?
Why are these 'Military' not named? 'The Venezuelan Military' implies the main Government forces, NOT some nameless coup-plotting military.
What shysters....

'Britain and Canada Involved in Foiled US Venezuelan Coup Plot':
http://www.globalresearch.ca/britain-and-canada-involved-in-foiled-us- venezuelan-coup-plot/5431523

'Britain and Canada were co-conspirators in the latest plot to topple Venezuela’s government.

TeleSUR provided detailed coverage of Washington’s war on Venezuelan democracy. Its dirty hands manipulate violence and instability worldwide.

US funded and supported key opposition fascist figures Antonio Ledezma, Maria Corina Machado and Leopoldo Lopez released a joint February 11 communique a day before the foiled coup.

Titled “A Call on Venezuelans for a National Accord for the Transition,” it promoted regime change. Called for Venezuela to be handed back to monied interests.

Called Bolivarian fairness “anti-democra(tic)…inefficient and… corrupt.” Run by “an unscrupulous elite (making) the State totalitarian.” Creating “a humanitarian crisis.”

“(T)he Maduro government has entered a terminal phase.” Claimed it’s “the duty of every democrat to help resolve the current crisis, to defend freedom…to make the transition…(to restore) democratic order.”

Ledezma, Marhado and Lopez want Maduro’s government violently overthrown, democracy crushed.

Washington, Britain and Canada hatched the latest plot to return Venezuela to its bad old days. TeleSUR reported new details.

“Fresh evidence” showing their involvement, saying:


“Many of the individuals being charged, included a military general – whom has confessed to participating in the plans – and a retired lieutenant colonel – have indicated you (fascist Justice Party president Julio Borges) as being a key participant in meetings, which resulted in the decision to carry out a series of bombing attacks as a part of the coup, targeting the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly,” key ministries, TeleSUR’s offices, and other Caracas sites.

Venezuelan authorities identified US embassy personnel involved. So were a Royal Canadian Mounted Police official and UK diplomatic core member, according to National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello.

They sought information on airport capabilities in case needed in an emergency.

Computers seized had detailed coup plans, including maps showing targets to be bombed.

A video showed military officials announcing Maduro’s government no longer was recognized. It was scheduled to be aired after planned bombings were launched. Either by a Venezuelan or Miami TV station.

Cabello showed a 10-year visa given to one of the plotters days ahead of the planned coup.

He noted Obama’s recent statement about “American leadership at times entail(ing) twisting the arms of states which don’t do what we need them to do.......”

[outsider]

March 5: ALL OUT in Solidarity with Venezuelan Revolution:
http://iacenter.org/venezuela/venez_3_5_15/

'U.S. Imperialism: Hands off Venezuela!
Chavez Presente, Maduro Presidente!


All Out Thurs ►March 5 for
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY Demonstrations with Bolivarian Revolution


It is a dangerous time for the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela.


The International Action Center urges the world wide anti-war and solidarity movement to intensify its solidarity with the Venezuelan people and its leadership. This solidarity is urgent.


Since the advent of the Bolivarian Revolution spearheaded by President Hugo Chavez who tragically died two years ago, Washington and the Venezuelan elite have worked nonstop to derail the progress made for working people in Venezuela.


President Nicolas Maduro has valiantly continued to carry out the legacy of the Revolution despite coup attempts, the hoarding of food and constant destabilization attempts from Washington and inside the country.


Venezuela's enemies will never reconcile itself to the will of the people and its leadership because they are attempting to build a society that benefits the poor and working class of Venezuela and not Wall Street.


These destabilization and extremely dangerous actions have escalated recently. Almost to the year after the start of violent street demonstrations known as guarimbas that attempted to overthrow the Maduro government and killed 43 people and injured hundreds, President Maduro revealed further dangerous plans against the government.


On Feb. 12, 2015 President Maduro informed the people that the government had dismantled another attack. He released details about recently discovered plans and the role of the U.S. government.


According to President Maduro, the coup was to unfold in three phases:


The first would be the publication of the "Program of the Transitional Government" in print, followed by the second phase, an attack with a Tucano fighter plane on the president's Miraflores Palace and more than a dozen other places, including government departments and the central station of Telesur, the Bolivarian media organization.
The third phase would be the publication of a "video of a general who had confessed and been convicted of a coup last year, who would report that a military force had revolted against President Nicolas Maduro and had overthrown him." (Telesur, Feb. 12)


This bodes ill for the Bolivarian Revolution, the working class of Venezuela and the world wide progressive movement.


We know what side Washington is on. Over 25,000 people have been killed in Honduras since 2009. The struggle for justice for 43 missing students along with the death and disappearances of tens of thousands in Mexico are a non-issue for the Obama administration. Why? Because in Honduras and Mexico, these deaths are of resistance fighters and people in struggle.


Washington allies itself with governments in Mexico and Honduras that have the blood of their people on their hands while at the same time it is attempting to overthrow the government of Venezuela. This shows once again that Washington's only aim in Latin America and the Caribbean is profits, domination and control for Wall Street.


The progressive movement must go all out to voice their opposition to destabilization attempts in Venezuela. A victory for the ruling elite there would be disastrous for the people of Venezuela and for the world.


On March 5 on the two year anniversary of the death of President Chavez, solidarity actions will be held in cities across the United States, in Venezuela, throughout Latin America and the world.



The IAC urges everyone to come out for these actions and demand:

US IMPERIALISM:

HANDS OFF VENEZUELA!



March 5 ► 4 pm

Human Rights Watch HQ
5th Ave (between 34th St & 33th St


March to: the Venezuelan Consulate
7 east 51st St (between 5th & Madison Aves.)
Manhattan

View planned actions at:

IACenter.org

AFGJ.org

Send info on your local plans to: iacenter@iacenter.org
afgj@afgj.org and cbalbertolovera@gmail.com

To read more: iacenter.org/venezuela/venez021815// '


Venezuela has the largest known oil reserves (albeit extra-heavy oil) in the world, little wonder then that the US is hell-bent on having a 'Friendly' puppet in power there. As Nick Rockefeller (yes, of THAT 'crime family') predicted, a year before 9/11, there would be 'an incident', and because of it the US would attack Afghanistan and Iraq, there would be US troops 'searching through caves for Arabs', then a 'War on Terror', and then they would go after Venezuela (first coup attempt against Hugo Chavez was in 2002). Rockefeller 'predicted' lots of other interesting 'nasty things' coming to the world, so if you haven't already, it is well worth watching 'Alex Jones Interviews Aaron Russo (Full Length)': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3NA17CCboA

There are to my knowledge no actions planned yet in the UK, but I've informed Stop the War, and hope they will organise something.

[outsider]

Breaking the Silence about Colombia and Ourselves:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41157.htm

'March 07, 2015 "ICH" - "Telesur" - According to the UNHCR’s latest figures, there are about 200,000 Colombians living in Venezuela as refugees – but less than 237 Venezuelans living in Colombia as refugees.[1] It you rely on the international media, you can be forgiven for assuming it was the other way around – that Colombia must be hosting hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have fled their country.[2]

Ever since the early 1990s, if one considers only crimes perpetrated within its own borders, Colombia has consistently had, by far, the worst human rights record in the Western Hemisphere (contrary to Ken Roth’s lunatic assertion that Venezuela and other ALBA bloc countries are the “most abusive”). The Colombian military, and right wing paramilitaries with whom it is closely allied, have perpetrated the vast majority of atrocities in a civil war that has raged for decades. In private, US officials have estimated hundreds of thousands of people killed by them. These killings have reached truly genocidal levels in the case of numerous indigenous groups who have been nearly wiped out. Colombia’s population of internally displaced people is almost 6 million, the highest in the world as of 2012.

If you follow Daniel Kovalik’s diligent work, you’ll understand why Colombia’s human rights record is so horrific and, at the same time, so widely ignored. Colombia has been lavishly funded and supported by the US government – and therefore depicted as one of the “good guys” by the international media. In September of last year, the New York Times editors singled out Colombia as a country that should “lead an effort to prevent Caracas from representing the region when it is fast becoming an embarrassment”.

The NYT editors registered zero “embarrassment” when US General John Kelly recently told Congress “The beauty of having a Colombia – they’re such good partners, particularly in the military realm, they’re such good partners with us. When we ask them to go somewhere else and train the Mexicans, the Hondurans, the Guatemalans, the Panamanians, they will do it almost without asking. And they’ll do it on their own. They’re so appreciative of what we did for them. And what we did for them was, really, to encourage them for 20 years and they’ve done such a magnificent job.”

General Kelly should add the international corporate media to his list of “magnificent partners”. It has kept most people ignorant of the mass murderers that US (and UK and Canadian) governments have been supporting for many years.

A very recent statement from Human Rights Watch (HRW) also praised Colombia. HRW said “UNASUR and the vast majority of Latin American governments have remained silent regarding the human rights situation in Venezuela. In January, the government of Colombia broke this collective silence….”.

Latin American governments have not been silent. Their collective statements have, for excellent reasons, rejected the US government’s assessment of the situation which is aped by HRW. The US government’s financing of atrocities in Colombia in only one of countless facts that expose the obscenity of HRW declaring the USA to be the “most powerful proponent of human rights”.

One of the rare periods since 1990 when atrocities in Colombia may have been surpassed in the hemisphere was in Haiti after a US-perpetrated coup ousted Haiti’s democratically elected president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, on February 29, 2004. HRW did not oppose the coup and actually stooped to requesting more firepower for the UN troops tasked with consolidating the dictatorship installed by the USA (with crucial help from both France and Canada). You are as likely to learn the details of quantum physics from the media as you are to learn the truth about the 2004 coup in Haiti whose anniversary just passed.

Peace talks taking place in Havana could potentially end Colombia’s civil war – and thereby deprive the USA of a “magnificent partner” in crime. However, Dan Kovalik reminds us that Bill Clinton’s “Plan Colombia was initiated in the midst of peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC guerillas, and actually played a key role in derailing these talks”.

The USA’s human rights record at home is terrible in some important (and quickly worsening) ways, but if one includes its victims beyond its borders then it is indisputably the most dangerous rogue state in the world. It cannot act as savagely as it does without a great deal of help – from other rich states like Canada and the UK, from the corporate media, and from establishment-linked NGOs like HRW.

As John Pilger very eloquently argued, the big imperial states act with such brutality and recklessness, their delusions and lies are so relentlessly spread by the media, that we are all gravely threatened. I think most people are decent enough not to require arguments based on self-interest, as important and valid as those arguments are, to oppose their own government’s crimes. They cannot, however, oppose what they do not even know about.

***

[1] Ecuador is home to roughly another 100,000 Colombian refugees according to the UNHCR.

[2] Venezuela's net migration has been positive in the Chavista era (post 1999). Hundreds of thousands more people have immigrated to Venezuela than have emigrated from Venezuela. In Colombia, the opposite has been the case, about half million more people have fled Colombian than have immigrated there since 1999.'

[outsider]

THINGS ARE REALLY HEATING UP:

Venezuela Solidarity Campaign Emergency Update, March 2015 - U.S Steps Up Aggression Against Venezuela

1) TAKE ACTION: LOBBY YOUR MP to oppose US sanctions on Venezuela here

2) NEWS ALERT: PRESIDENT OBAMA DECLARES VENEZUELA A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY AS MORE SANCTIONS INTRODUCED - PRESIDENT MADURO RESPONDS SAYING HE WANTS TO 'OUST' THE GOVERNMENT

On Monday President Obama issued an Executive Order against Venezuela interfering in the country’s sovereignty by declaring a national emergency based on arguments claiming that Venezuela is a threat to U.S national security and also ordered further sanctions against seven more Venezuelan officials. Venezuela's elected President Nicolas Maduro rejected Obama’s measure and explained the executive order coincided with a failed coup attempt last month, which had links to U.S citizens, saying “After we dismantled the coup attempt … the U.S. and President Barack Obama … decided to personally fulfill the task of ousting my government.”
Maduro further criticized Washington’s announcement by pointing out that the U.S is a bigger threat to the world & that the U.S has issued 105 statements on Venezuela over the past year, of which half were explicitly supporting opposition politicians.

The Venezuelan president reiterated calls he had made to his U.S counterpart, urging him not to take the path of intervention that his predecessors took, saying “I’ve told Mr. Obama, how do you want to be remembered? Like Richard Nixon, who ousted Salvador Allende in Chile? Like President Bush, responsible for ousting President Chavez? … Well President Obama, you already made your choice … you will be remembered like President Nixon”.
The president reiterated that the economic sabotage – used before in Allende’s Chile – was planned since July, saying sources told his government “there was a meeting in the White House, back in July … where they (U.S government and agencies) decided to launch an economic warfare.”
Maduro also reminded Venezuelans that he had warned about the coup attempts in January, whilst Diosdado Cabello, President of the National Assembly, pointed out the contradiction of Washington's statement, given that it is “the world’s superpower.” Warning that the aggression forms part of plans to destabilise the country, he said “What has been planned, and we have to say it, are military attacks on our country," adding that "This kind of emergency resolution has been used by U.S imperialist every time they want to attack a country.”

FURTHER READING: Read the full response from President Maduro:
http://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/madurorespondstosanctions/

NEWS - Ecuador's President Calls US Sanctions a 'bad joke' (http://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/ecuadors-president-correa-calls- us-sanctions-on-venezuela-a-bad-joke/ ) saying "an executive order by Obama declaring Venezuela a national security threat and declaring a national emergency to face this threat… It must be a bad joke, which reminds us of the darkest hours of our America, when we received invasions and dictatorships imposed by imperialism… Will they understand that Latin America has changed?"

ANALYSIS - What Does Declaring a Country a 'National Security Threat' mean? Read the Telesur piece explaining what this means and why it matters: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Declaring-a-Country-a-Nation al-Security-Threat-20150309-0018.html

ANALYSIS - The US Labels Venezuela a Threat While Backing Human Rights Abusers argues this piece: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/US-Labels-Venezuela-a-Threat -While-Backing-Human-Rights-Abusers-20150309-0027.html ) on the hypocrisy of the US administration.

ANALYSIS - US Preparing for Military Aggression on Venezuela? This piece ( http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Preparing-for-Military-Aggres sion-on-Venezuela-20150309-0034.html ) on Telesur argues "History shows that when the U.S. denounces a country, it is often a pretext for intervention and regime change."


ANALYSIS - Eva Golinger argues ( http://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/eva-golinger-us-aggression-agains t-venezuela-fact-not-fiction/ ) that U.S Aggression Against Venezuela is Fact Not Fiction, giving detailed analysis of the history & context to the current U.S threats.


3) GET INVOLVED: NATIONAL EVENTS:

a) Seminar - US Intervention & Destabilisation in Venezuela: Lessons of Chile & Nicaragua, March 31, Unite House - Full details below & register online here

b) Special Film Showing - John Pilger's The War on Democracy, April 13, Bolivar Hall - With international guest speakers on the lessons of the 2002 coup in Venezuela for today - get tickets here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/us-intervention-destabilisation-in-vene zuela-lessons-of-chile-nicaragua-tickets-15634779045

c) Rally for Venezuela - Celebrating 10 Years of the VSC, June 4, Hamilton House - A major event with speakers from Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia & Nicaragua plus guests including Tariq Ali, MPs, trade union leaders, peace campaigners & many more - reserve your place here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/diary-date-rally-for-venezuela-yes-to-s ocial-progress-no-to-us-intervention-celebrating-10-years-of-tickets-1 5060357936


For the latest news on Venezuela, follow us on social media – like us on Facebook here and follow us on Twitter here

This e-bulletin was published by the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign – for more information see www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk


Seminar – US Intervention & Destabilisation in Venezuela - Lessons of Chile & Nicaragua

Tuesday March 31, 6.30pm, Unite House, 128 Theobalds Road, London, WC1X (nearest tube: Holborn)

With: Marcos Garcia, Venezuelan Embassy & former Venezuelan diplomat in the U.S. // Dr. Francisco Dominguez, co-author Right Wing Politics in the New Latin America // Guisell Morales, Ambassador of Nicaragua plus short film premiere of Guerra Economica: Venezuela 2013 – Chile 1972.

You can register online here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/us-intervention-destabilisation-in-vene zuela-lessons-of-chile-nicaragua-tickets-15634779045

You can also help the event by: Inviting your friends on Facebook , joining the VSC or making a donation


ALSO:
'Venezuela Sounds Alarm after Obama Invokes International Emergency Act'
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11261

AND remember to watch: 'Aaron Russo - Historic Interview' online, if you haven't seen it already. Nick ($$) Rockefeller's evil predictions to Aaron Russo are being rolled out, one by one.

[outsider]

Rumour as a Weapon: The Case of the “Stolen Children”:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11300

Mar 30th 2015, by Misión Verdad

Venezuela has in recent weeks been swept by a wave of false rumors concerning the kidnapping of children, which some claim is pa

Venezuela has in recent weeks been swept by a wave of false rumors concerning the kidnapping of children, which some claim is part of a campaign of pyschological warfare against the Bolivarian government.


Different media outlets and social media accounts have been stirring up a series of rumours, alleged confirmations and pseudo-confirmations regarding several cases of child abduction, with some even providing an astonishing level of detail. However, outside of the realm of the corporate media, no reports have been filed with either state security forces or with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Since the end of February and the beginning of March, rumours have been circulating in the exceedingly malleable world of Facebook and through chains in other networks such as Blackberry Pin and Whatsapp Chat.

Today, March 24th, a ridiculous protest was reported in Petare (in the East of Caracas) denouncing the attempted abduction of a child, without a shred of evidence confirming this or other cases. The logic of the Tweeting middle classes assume it to be true, simply because it happened “there” in Petare (working class neighbourhood/barrio) without it even being verified.

Similarly, there has been no obstacle to the miserly news outlet Maduradas or Dollar today talking of a “wave of kidnappings”.

“Insecurity”: A revived matrix of opinion

It’s important to emphasise that from the 16th to the 20th of March, the written opposition press vigorously resurrected the issue of insecurity. This topic accounted for 44% of written reports in these media outlets, on top of 112 articles fuelling this matrix of opinion by way of analysis, opinion or investigative pieces.

The most prevalent descriptions were the following: the “dead” and “murder,” which were repeated with a frequency of 18% and 17%. Words such as “deaths,” “morgue,” “shots,” and “murder” took the opposition press headlines by storm last weekend.

The “formula behind these machinations,” devised by the master of Nazi propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, is advancing with all the brilliance that a new cycle of morbid media attacks against the Bolivarian Revolution merits: manufacture small ideas, repeat them to death, present them from different perspectives (opinion, rumour, gossip, “investigation” etc.) and from there on, develop a general discursive atmosphere that serves to validate the lie.

The lie to be corroborated at this particular moment is the supposed “abductions and kidnappings” of children. The media operation has been planned from the large media outlets (El Universal and El Nacional) with the objective of lending “authenticity” and at the same time the illusion of “truthfulness” to the reports that they themselves have invented and generated, in order to unleash a climate of tension, stress, intimidation and social paranoia corresponding to the short news reports which have been repeated over and over again in advance. Aimed at bestowing the rumours and convulsions in the media with the token of legitimacy that can only be provided by the disastrous, mafia like, and deceitful “freedom of the press”.

The Precedent in the Media

Two days ago El Universal published an extensive investigative piece on violence within the demographics of children and adolescents in Venezuela. The alarming figures which were given to readers were taken from NGOs (COFAVIC and CECODAP) which, in turn, write their reports on “violence” in Venezuela based on opposition news sources, namely, El Universal and others.

The regurgitation of the lies and the distortion of the statistics, in this sense, are pretty efficient in sustaining a set of psychological operations. The idea of the aforementioned investigation is exceptionally clear: children are the target that should be pursued in order to begin a new cycle of tension and social intimidation in the media.

El Nacional, for its part, also emphasised the “situation of violence” that befalls children and adolescents in Venezuela following the death of Kluiverth Roa [14 year-old student who was killed during violent protests in the opposition stronghold of Tachira by a police officer now arrested and facing charges]. The figures are almost the same as those used by El Universal, but they have an addition which it is important to point out: a good number of these homicides are alleged to have been carried out by state security forces.

The formula behind the machinations appears once again, but now it is more advanced. At once, the opposition propaganda machine signals the “guilty party” (“the regime”) which can be blamed for any unfortunate event that arises in the future in relation to the issue.

Now that the tension surrounding the issue and the guilty party have been established, the only thing missing to tie up all the loose ends is their usual distinctive signature of death which they avidly keep in store.

Rumours and Chain Messages

Once the communicational matrix had been set up by the rightwing media emporiums, there was no delay in the appearance of rumours and text messages chains.

The objective is to generalise a sense of panic and fear amongst the people below, in accordance with what the people above are saying. It is a psychological operation which is aimed at shaking up the public, increasing levels of unease and anguish amongst parents as well as contributing to the development of a collective paranoia. It is also an attempt to justify through the media an act of social disturbance over the following days. In this way, those who began the morbid media stampede, who are totally devoted to the irregular warfare being waged against Venezuela, can dress themselves up as “heroes of the truth".

Some of the chains and rumours being circulated through Whatsapp are the following:

Don’t send your children unaccompanied to the store, neighbour’s house or any other place unless you believe it to be very close. Constant parental supervision is important.

If you take your child to the park, make sure that they stay within a controlled area and don’t let them out of your sight. Make sure they are wearing an attention grabbing, brightly coloured piece of clothing. This will allow them to be easily identified.

Remove stickers and labels that say “baby on board” from your car, this can turn you into a possible victim, making it easier for perpetrators to locate children and complete their mission.

Don’t put your child’s name anywhere visible, such as in bags and even less on a shirt. This increases the risk of the kidnapper calling your child by their name and the child thinking that he is an acquaintance.

Primary and preschool teachers have also joined in the media paranoia at several schools, demanding that parents collect their children early in the face of the supposed “danger” that infants are running.

Corroborated Lies

El Nacional and El Universal had the campaign coordinated at all levels. When the rumours and chains began to intensify, they immediately published an account of recent violent events in which young people were directly involved. Although this might not have a direct link to the specific matrix of opinion which they are trying to establish (the supposed kidnapping of children), it still helps to revive the principle of exaggerating and disfiguring reality. A reality in which everything is related, and especially when using the key words (“death,” “murder,” “shot”),which contribute different elements to the same scenario.

In this sense, the Spanish documentary “On Hostile Ground,” promoted by the channel Antena 3 fits the scenario that they are trying to bring to life like a hand in a glove. Nothing is the product of coincidence, and even less so in the media war.

However the lie has extremely poor foundations. The directors of the CICPC [Venezuela’s criminal investigations body] have received no reports, nor have Polimiranda [Police in Miranda state]. The Secretary of Public Security in Lara hasn’t heard anything either. Equally, the Secretary of Public Security in Zulia has not registered a single report.

In this sense, the journalists that routinely dance to the rhythm of whatever is the matrix of opinion du jour, don’t even practice the kind of journalism that other media outlets such as NTN24 promote.

Ocariz [Opposition Mayor of Sucre, East Caracas] and Polisucre [Sucre Police] also exposed the rumours as lies (via Twitter).

“We are informing citizens: neither @polisucre_pms nor in the Sucre Division of the CICPC have received formal reports of kidnapped children. We are on the alert! - Carlos Ocariz (@CarlosOcaruz) marzo 24 2015.

The Director of Polisucre, Chief Inspector Manuel Furelos, announced that there is no register or report of any child abduction in this organism - Sucre Police (@polisucre_pms) March 24 2015.

However, there is never a lack of gatecrashers coming out with absurdities, providing an irresponsible chorus of support to those who set up the laboratories where they try to corroborate what is being said, knowing full well what they do and exactly where they can have an impact through such attempts.

“Worrying: the motive behind the motorbike protest is the kidnapping of children from schools. They say that it won’t even be covered in the press,” Freddy Guevara (@FreddyGuevaraC) March 24 2015.

[National Assembly President] Diosdado Cabello has claimed that [rightwing fugitive] J.J. Rendon is behind the rumours. Yet another psychological operation.'

Yes, indeed:'in order to unleash a climate of tension, stress...': a Latin American 'Gladio'. That's why there is so much crime in Venezuela - it's created by the US 'Goons'. The opposition Press and websites are viciously libellous and inflammatory; it's about time Maduro took serious action to bring them into line, or close them down; example: 'Dolar Today':
https://dolartoday.com/

[outsider]

Good meeting on Venezuela yesterday (15th April) at UCL, including the premier of a new documentary on Hugo Chavez by Pablo Roldan:

'Successful screening of new Hugo Chavez documentary in London':
http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/successful-screening-of-new-hugo-chav ez-documentary-in-london.htm

Video here: 'Chavez un retrato desde Europa - a portrait from Europe':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpNrh-u3S78
It has English subtitles, and is 55 minutes long.

[outsider]

'Oil Provokes Diplomatic Spat Between Venezuela and Guyana':
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11412

& 'Campesino Leader Assassinated in Carabobo State, Authorities Blame Landowners': http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11416

Just like Aaron Russo was told by Nick Rockefeller: 'After the 'War on Terror', we'll go after Venezuela'. The first coup attempt was 2002; another was recently nipped in the bud. The 'Empire' hasn't forgotten about Venezuela (and it's vast oil reserves); NEITHER SHOULD WE.
Keep updated about Venezuela, and use your groups/contacts to support the Venezuelan Government and People, by subscribing to Venezuela Analysis (it's free!).

[outsider]

Venezuela’s Maduro Raises Minimum Wage by 30%:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11576

'Caracas, October 19, 2015 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Thursday a 30% increase in the national minimum wage and food tickets effective November 1.

Marking the fourth raise in the minimum wage this year and the 30th over the last fifteen years, the measure will also nearly triple the amount Venezuelans receive in food tickets, which can be used to purchase food and other everyday items in a variety of supermarkets and government-run stores.

“If we protect employment [and] wages, we are going to defeat the criminal and speculative prices of the bourgeoisie and the bachaqueros. I call on you to join the battle so I don’t have to face the criminal bourgeoisie alone,” the Venezuelan leader declared, referring to the country’s soaring inflation, which he estimated to be at 80% for 2015.

The Venezuelan Central Bank has yet to publically release official inflation statistics for this year, with the most recent figure dated December 2014. The International Monetary Fund, for its part, has estimated that Venezuelan inflation will average 159% in 2015.

The minimum wage increase will additionally affect all pensions, which since the start of the Bolivarian Revolution have been pegged to the national minimum wage, enjoying regular adjustments lacking under the Fourth Republic.'

[outsider]

Aaaargh...... The unbelievable has happened (on 6th December) while I took my eye off the ball - the Opposition got a big majority.
I'm too dispirited to put excerpts from below posts: anyone interested will obviously check the articles.

'Venezuelan Opposition Gains 2/3 Super Majority in National Assembly Elections': http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11762

'Venezuelan Supreme Court Suspends Swearing in of 4 Incoming Legislators': http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11762

The End of Chavismo? Why Venezuela’s Ruling Party Lost Big, and What Comes Next: http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11768

[outsider]

VSC EMERGENCY E-UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2016

A leading figure in Venezuela’s right-wing (National Assembly leader Henry Ramos Allup) has repeated his claim that the country’s elected President Nicolas Maduro should be removed from office within six months, declaring that Maduro would be removed due to an “unstoppable” force, even adding that "today, no one doubts that that lapse of six months is too long.”

Responding to these developments, VSC Secretary Francisco Dominguez said "These statements represent yet another attack on Venezuela’s democracy and constitution. It is very clear that sections of the Right Wing opposition - with US encouragement - not only have no interest in contributing to help address the country's serious economic difficulties but instead they are plotting to oust the democratically-elected government of President Maduro.”

He added, “Every time the right-wing opposition have previously tried to oust the elected President, they have engulfed the nation in a wave of violence, including huge destruction of public and private property, and loss of life. We must be vigilant regarding attempts at ‘regime change’ against the elected President in the months ahead. ”


GET INFORMED:
1) Read the full piece - Danger of Regime Change in Venezuela Draws Closer (see below)

2) Register today for our High Stakes in Venezuela & Latin America Dayschool

Saturday March 5, 11.00am (tea, coffee and registration from 10.30am), ITF House, 49-60 Borough Road, London, SE1 1DR (map here and directions here.)

You can invite friends on Facebook here – register online for the ‘early bird’ rate and get a free DVD of Aleida (Che’s daughter) Guevara’s DVD about Hugo Chavez - register online here today!
http://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/event-high-stakes-in-venezuela-la tin-america/

Responding to the latest offensive from the Venezuelan right-wing this week, the elected President Nicolas Maduro said “We cannot forget the threats that we have received, we cannot underestimate them.. The people must be ready [and] must be mobilized,” to face “the threats that he has made against the constitution and against the people.” Vigilance and solidarity is also needed internationally so don't miss out on this must-attend event - register online here today!




Danger of Regime Change in Venezuela Draws Closer:
http://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/danger-of-regime-change-in-venezu ela-draws-closer/

'The Venezuelan right-wing repeated on Friday its claim that the elected President Nicolas Maduro will be removed from office within six months, with National Assembly leader Henry Ramos Allup declaring that Maduro would be removed due to an “unstoppable” force, even adding that “today, no one doubts that that lapse of six months is too long.”

Arguing that “change is unstoppable because this government is going through a terminal crisis,” he added that the six-month time frame to oust the president set out by the opposition when they took control of parliament in January was not realistic.

“Today, no one doubts that that lapse of six months is too long,” he said.

The announcement came a day after Venezuela’s Supreme Court declared that a decree giving Maduro powers to face the economic crisis was underway, in spite of opposition from the right-controlled National Assembly. Allup has argued that “this decision only deepens and aggravates the crisis” with regards to the economy, and suggested that queues and other economic difficulties – which Government supporters partly ascribe to a planned ‘economic war’ from parts of Venezuelan business allied with the right-wing opposition – may now get worse.

Earlier last week, a post from Allup on Twitter seemingly implied that he did not believe the removal of Maduro needed to be constitutional, or even peaceful.

“Government has said that only a constitutional, peaceful and electoral exit that accepts it is revocatory. Others say that there are better solutions,” he wrote.

Following Allup’s comments, over the weekend, Venezuela’s right-wing opposition said it will launch discussions aiming to devise a procedure before the end of February to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

“There will be a special day of debate among political leaders on this subject,” Jesus Torrealba, executive secretary of the right-wing opposition coalition MUD, told AFP on Saturday, adding that “in a few days, we will announce our agenda for change.”

Additionally, prominent opposition deputy Freddy Guevara, representing the extreme Right Wing party Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), said on Twitter: “Tomorrow we will begin a discussion on the constitutional procedure for achieving a change of government,” adding that “before the end of February we will be announcing this procedure.”

President Nicolas Maduro has since replied to Allup’s comments, arguing Venezuelans must not underestimate the seriousness of the threats.

“We cannot forget the threats that we have received, we cannot underestimate them,” the elected President said, adding that “The people must be ready [and] must be mobilized,” to face “the threats that he has made against the constitution and against the people.”

[outsider]

Venezuelan Opposition Launches Campaign to Oust Nicolas Maduro:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuelan-Opposition-Launches-C ampaign-to-Oust-Nicolas-Maduro--20160308-0020.html

'The three-pronged strategy aims to remove President Maduro in 2016.


Venezuela's right-wing opposition launched a campaign Tuesday to remove socialist President Nicolas Maduro from power this year. The plan includes street protests for his immediate resignation, along with plans to hold a presidential recall referendum and to change the constitution so that there are immediate elections.

“We call on the entire Venezuelan people in order to force Maduro to resign as the President of the country,” the Executive Secretary of the Democratic Unity coalition Jesus Torrealba told reporters.

One of the mechanism sought by the opposition coalition is a constitutional amendment to cut Maduro's term short and hold new presidential elections. That could be requested either by the National Assembly or 2.9 million voters, paving the way for a recall referendum.

However, others have noted that under Article 24 of the Venezuelan constitution, any modifications to the constitution cannot be made retroactively.

The Democratic Unity coalition, known as the MUD, has long struggled to cultivate the disparate interests of a variety of political parties, with a wide range of priorities presenting challenges to policymaking.

However, Torrealba called on Venezuelans to take to the streets this coming Saturday to demand Maduro’s resignation.

In Caracas, Torrealba said, the rally will gather at Francisco de Miranda Avenue, while adding that they would notify of the other locations across the country in the following days.

"They want to organize street rallies to generate violence and bring about a coup, supported by U.S. imperialism," the Socialist Party's powerful no. 2, former National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello said this week.

The opposition also announced plans that would weaken the powers of the Supreme Court to determine what is constitutional.'

[outsider]

'The Murder of Chávez. The CIA and DEA Cover Their Tracks':
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/03/14/murder-chavez-cia-and -dea-cover-their-tracks.html

'The journalist Eva Golinger (US – Venezuela) has repeatedly questioned the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. The website aporrea.org quotes her statement: «Everything that Washington was trying to achieve during the administration of Hugo Chávez is today being realized in his absence. The cancerous illness from which Chávez suffered was unusually aggressive and suspicious, and every day turns up more evidence that it is possible Chávez was murdered».

The first signs of cancer were found in Chávez in May 2011. In June he underwent two surgeries at a specialized center in Havana. His Cuban surgeons found and removed a malignant tumor that had metastasized with sinister persistence, despite all preventive measures. New operations were needed. This athletic man, who was full of strength and physically robust, passed away on March 5, 2013 at the age of 58.

Expanding on this topic, Eva Golinger writes, «It is enough to know that one man who had for several years been one of his closest aides, who was often alone with him and brought him his food, coffee, and water, is now a protected witness in the United States. Soon Leamsy Salazar’s covert actions and close collaboration with intelligence agencies in Washington will be revealed».

The name of Hugo Chávez’s chief bodyguard was rarely mentioned in the media while the president was alive. Due to the nature of his work Leamsy Villafaña Salazar shunned publicity, did not like to be photographed, and tried to stay in the shadows. Chávez considered him to be a reliable, incorruptible, and professionally trained Bolivarian officer. This was precisely how the president described him on a TV broadcast about the attempted pro-American coup in April 2002. Conspirators managed to depose Chávez for three days, but with the support of the people and army, he triumphantly returned to the presidential Miraflores palace. From the roof of his palace he was welcomed by the military, among whom Salazar was readily visible, victoriously waving the Venezuelan flag. That image became the symbol of the victory over the counter-revolution.

Oddly enough, little is known about Salazar, and mostly from tight-lipped American sources. He was born in 1974 to a large family living in Petare, a slum district in the Venezuelan capital. After high school he entered the naval academy, graduating in 1998. He was a middling student, finishing 27th out of his class of 55. Nonetheless, in 1999 Salazar was tapped to be a presidential honor guard. Tito Rincón Bravo, Venezuela’s minister of defense and father of Leamsy’s first wife, played an important role in this appointment. Salazar became a personal assistant to Chávez. That job came with a very intense workload, due to the frantic pace of the president’s life.

After the events of 2002, Salazar was unexpectedly posted to a naval base in the provinces – in Punto Fijo (in Falcón State), but in 2006 Chávez ordered Salazar’s return to his former duties in the security detail.

Following Chávez’s death, Salazar provided security for the president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello. But oddities in Salazar’s behavior made Cabello uneasy. At that time debate was still raging about the causes of Chávez’s death and the people who could have been involved, and so Cabello eventually asked the minister of defense to transfer Salazar to another post. At some point during this period Salazar married once again. His new wife was Anabel Linares Leal, a graduate of the military academy who had been presented with her officer’s sword from Chávez’s own hands. For a while Anabel worked with the financial accounts of the Venezuelan armed forces at Banco Bicentenario, which means that she had access to secret information about arms purchases abroad. The newlyweds applied for permission to travel to the Dominican Republic for their honeymoon. That permission was granted, and soon the couple was in Santo Domingo, but from there flew on to Spain. A special plane belonging to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) flew Salazar and his family from Spain to the US.

This is how Emili J. Blasco, a Washington correspondent for the Spanish newspaper ABC who has often served as a mouthpiece for propaganda from US intelligence services, described Salazar’s escape. He claimed that in Spain the Americans had subjected the Salazars to lengthy interrogations in order to determine the «true objectives of their break with the regime».

The stories about Salazar in the international media, which were similar in tone and had obviously come from the same source, emphasize that while Chávez was alive, Salazar had been a «committed Bolivarian», but that after his death Salazar had decided to break with the regime. Therefore, Salazar had held secret negotiations with the DEA for 13 months, not only to arrange his escape, but also to obtain certain promises regarding his own safety, as well as that of his wife and children. But the CIA is not mentioned, only the DEA. The reason for that is clear – the CIA is a spy agency, and any indicator of possible long-standing secret ties with this «bureau of hit men» was something Salazar’s protectors tried to avoid, knowing that Venezuela’s SEBIN (Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional) counterintelligence agency would investigate the story of his involvement in Chávez’s murder.

Now the couple is in the US, living under federal protection, and they give testimony on a wide range of issues, but primarily on the «involvement» of various figures in the Bolivarian regime in drug trafficking, including military leaders. It should be kept in mind that long before Salazar made his escape, US intelligence agencies had begun to plant false information in the media about the existence of a so-called «Cartel of the Suns» (Cartel de los Soles), which was allegedly led by Diosdado Cabello and a group of Venezuelan generals with ties to him. Cabello was compromised as a preemptive measure, because US intelligence agencies saw him as the most likely successor to Chávez, but holding more radical anti-American views. Immediately after his escape, Salazar was recruited into this smear campaign against Cabello. Some of the information obtained from Salazar (or rather from his handlers in the CIA and DEA) was used by Emili J. Blasco in his book Bumerán Chávez, which was published simultaneously in Washington and Madrid in April 2015.

In particular, Salazar recounted how he had accompanied Diosdado Cabello on an excursion during which he had witnessed that leader of parliament’s (!) «direct involvement» in the late-night dispatch of drug-laden speedboats from the Paraguaná peninsula in Falcón State. For whom these drugs were intended and why this was done so close to the islands of Aruba and Curaçao, where there are surveillance outposts for the Pentagon, as well as CIA stations and DEA offices, Salazar did not explain. Based on Blasco’s commentary, one can conclude that the boats were headed for Cuba! What’s more, Salazar claimed that while accompanying Cabello he also had the opportunity to see his «secret armored vaults filled with US currency», with «mountains upon mountains of wrapped bills from floor to ceiling». That’s what a drug lord’s stash looks like in a Hollywood movie. According to Salazar’s account – or rather, the cover story that US intelligence services dreamed up for him – the troubles experienced by one of the guards who refused to take part in the drug deals were the last straw, prompting Salazar’s decision to flee: «They threatened to physically exterminate the man».

The pro-American media does its utmost to gloss over the questions that inevitably arise about Salazar’s participation in the preparations for Chávez’s murder. They claim that there can be no doubts about Salazar: he honorably served the regime and idolized Chávez until he realized that those immediately above him were mixed up in drug trafficking. However, the investigation conducted by SEBIN raises doubts about Salazar’s «spotless rectitude». Even his mother has admitted that Leamsy’s work in the presidential guard weighed heavily on him. But he was in no rush to distance himself from Chávez, because Salazar’s primary employer was someone else, and those people insisted that he strictly discharge his duties.

Recent media revelations about ties between Venezuela’s Cartel of the Suns and the Sinaloa Cartel have demonstrated the imagination and verve with which US intelligence agencies are fabricating «deals», with the intention of compromising their enemy. Allegedly «Chapo» Guzmán himself was in Venezuela in August and September of 2015 in order to discuss some joint projects. Passing mention has been made of his «business» trips to the country in 2009 and 2010 and of the warm nature of his relations with General Hugo Carvajal, a close associate of Diosdado Cabello. This is the same Carvajal whom the DEA tried to kidnap from the island of Aruba in the summer of 2014 – despite his diplomatic passport – and ship off to the US as a drug trafficker. Officials on the island prevented this from happening, and the general returned to Venezuela where he was greeted by President Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and other Bolivarian leaders as a hero. It would be naive to think the DEA’s hunt for Carvajal was over. He is still on their «wanted list» because of evidence fabricated by US agents. That list also includes the names of others whom the DEA has identified as the ringleaders of the Cartel of the Suns.

Salazar’s statements are sharply at odds with the image of the honorable patriot he had previously cultivated. Quite revealing are Salazar’s allegations that Chávez died not in March 2013 but in December of 2012. Supposedly all of Chávez’s relatives took part in this ruse, as well as the members of the Bolivarian government, the leaders of Cuba, and Cuban counterintelligence. This was done in order to preserve the continuity of government authority serving the interests of «Maduro’s factions». Thus, every decree and resolution signed by the president after December can be declared fraudulent, and the Maduro government – illegal.

Meanwhile, the buzz of reporting on the Venezuelan leaders’ «drug deals» is getting louder. The plan devised by US intelligence is clearly evident: to distract the global public from the fact that Salazar is the most likely candidate to have killed Chávez. The Bolivarian media calls Salazar «Judas». Official (and unofficial) agencies in Venezuela are collecting evidence of his criminal activities, his clandestine meetings with representatives from the CIA and DEA, and the possibility that he gave the Americans information about the president’s travel itineraries and individuals with whom he had planned to meet, as well as biological material that belonged to Chávez.

The Americans are doing their best to impede this work. In Madrid, for example, the CIA station has manufactured a crisis surrounding the Venezuelan Defense Attaché Office staff, accusing them of spying on members of the opposition. But of course the real issue is quite different – the threat of lurid revelations about Chávez’s murder. Right now it is difficult to say who exactly will reveal the whole truth. That could end up being an idealist like Snowden – someone who considers lynching a politician like this to be unacceptable. There is some hope that a material incentive might prove effective: Venezuela’s leaders have decided to offer a financial reward for any specific information about the individuals who coordinated and carried out the murder of Hugo Chávez.'

Re 'particularly aggressive form of cancer', the US created this in the early '60's, with the intention of infecting Castro: see ‘Me and Lee’ (Judyth Vary Baker) and ‘Dr. Mary’s Monkey’ (Edward T. Haslam).

[outsider]

Already the Empire's thugs have killed police on the day they 'passed' the law:
'Parliament Approves Contentious Amnesty Law, Potential Reforms to Supreme Court': Mar 31st 2016, by Rachael Boothroyd Rojas
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11911

Venezuelan Socialist Politician Slain in 'Vile' Killing:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11912

'Puebla, Mexico, April 1, 2016 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan authorities announced Friday they were investigating the killing of a socialist politician in Trujillo state.

Marco Tulio Carrillo was “shot repeatedly” outside his home in Trujillo Thursday night, according to a statement from Venezuela's public prosecutor's office. Carrillo was the mayor of the La Ceiba municipality, and a member of President Nicolas Maduro's socialist party, the PSUV.

The prosecution said Carrillo was hit by eight bullets fired from a passing car. No suspects have yet been named.

The killing has been condemned by other socialist politicians.

“Another worthy revolutionary has been vilely felled,” tweeted PSUV legislator Hugbel Roa.

Carrillo is the third pro-Maduro political figure to be killed in the past week.

Over the weekend, Haitian Venezuelan political figure and solidarity activist Fritz Saint Louis was gunned down in his home. Saint Louis had served as the international coordinator for the United Haitian Socialist Movement, as well as secretary-general of the Haitian-Bolivarian Culture House of Venezuela. It's unclear whether Saint Louis' killing was politically motivated, though in 2015 he ran as a candidate in the PSUV's National Assembly election primaries.

His death followed the suspected assassination of another socialist politician last Thursday. Legislator Cesar Vera was shot in Tachira state, in what local authorities say may have been a paramilitary attack.

Vera was a member of the Great Patriotic Pole, a political coalition of parties aligned with the PSUV. He was also a prominent figure in the leftist militia, the Tupamaro movement.

In another incident of political violence, two police officers were killed by right-wing militants earlier this week. The officers were killed while responding to a protest in Tachira state. Witnesses have said the pair were run over by a bus that had been hijacked by militants.'

Tupamaro Deputy Legislator Assassinated by Alleged Paramilitaries:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11906

'Caracas, March 25th 2016 (venezuelanalysis.com) - A deputy legislator for the pro-government coalition, the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), was murdered on Thursday night in what Venezuelan authorities and political groups have decried as a politically motivated assassination.

Deputy legislator César Vera (40) was shot dead in Táchira outside of a corner store at around 8.30pm. Two men described as paramilitaries by local law enforcement officials are wanted in connection to the murder.

“He was approached by two subjects who, according to people present at the time… were on a motorbike… One of them took out a firearm and fired it,” said Ramón Cabeza, secretary of security for the Táchira state government, in comments to state TV channel VTV.

“We are extremely dismayed by this vile act, carried out by paramilitary groups,” he added.

Vera was a member of the longstanding radical leftist militia known as the Tupamaro movement and was elected as a deputy legislator for the GPP in the congressional elections of December 6th.

The Tupamaros have publicly demanded action be taken in response to Vera’s murder.

“We demand immediate justice. We will never allow them to kill our comrades in struggle. Here there is militancy in all terrains. Pay attention - we are not asking for favours,” reads a statement on the Tachira Tupamaro Twitter page.

In statements made to press, Táchira state governor José Gregorio Vielma Mora confirmed that Venezuela’s forensic police, the CICPC, is currently investigating the murder.

A case has also been opened with the Public Prosecutor's office.

Tachira state lies on the Venezuela-Colombia border and is a notorious hotbed for political unrest, as well as food and drug smuggling.

Some reports suggest that paramilitary activity from neighbouring Colombia has also spilled over into Venezuela’s borderlands in recent years.

According to Mora, paramilitary and criminal groups in the region are currently involved in a turf war to take control over the lucrative border crossing, which was closed by the Venezuelan government in August 2015 for security reasons.

“Vera’s hired killer has interests in the smuggling mafias which are against the new peaceful border,” stated the governor.

Mora also claimed that the alleged killers are connected to the former rightwing Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, who has been accused several times of having links to paramilitary groups.

Although the immediate motive for the murder is still unknown, statements on social media suggested that Vera was targeted for being uncompromising in his politics and for actively fighting against “food and drug smuggling”.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly asked for zero reprisals in the face of several political assassinations over the last two years– including the murder of fellow legislator Robert Serra at the hands of hired killers in October 2014.'

Things are turning really ugly very rapidly; perhaps a pro-Bolivarian (pro-Chavista) coup is called for....

[outsider]

'Grassroots Chavista Leader Assassinated in Caracas':
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/12057

'A local leader of Venezuela’s United Socialist Party (PSUV) was gunned down in south-central Caracas Monday by alleged members of an armed criminal group.

Elizabeth Aguilera, 43, was the head of the local PSUV chapter– known as Bolívar-Chávez Battle Units– in the working class neighborhood of Cota 905 in the Caracas municipality of El Libertador.

The grassroots leader was reportedly in her home on Monday evening when she was accosted by armed men who demanded that she step out and subsequently shot her multiple times.

According to police authorities, the corpse was later incinerated by the suspects who are believed to have uploaded photos of the incident to social media.

The head of the regional Capital District government, Daniel Aponte, denounced the assassination via Twitter on Tuesday, describing Aguilera as, “A tireless fighter, RADICAL CHAVISTA, popular and communal leader. Woman loyal to her principles and committed to President Nicolas Maduro.”

The PSUV leader suggested that the assassination was the work of a “paramilitary group”, promising, “justice will be done”.....'

'...Last July, state security personnel operating under the Venezuelan government’s anti-crime operation, the OLP, conducted massive raids in the neighborhood, aiming to uproot the armed groups.

The Venezuelan daily El Nacional has reported that residents in the different communities of Cota 905 acted in the capacity of informants, aiding authorities in locating members of the criminal organizations.

Venezuela’s forensic police, the CICPC, have indicated that the assassination of Aguilera may have been a revenge killing carried out by gang members in response to the local leader’s collaboration with police authorities.

The murder is the latest in a string of assassinations of Chavista political leaders, which has included the killing of a local Tupamaro leader and a Haitian solidarity activist in March as well as the assassination of prominent left-wing journalist Ricardo Duran in January.'


And the creep Obomba weighs in with his slime ball input:
'Obama Urges Dialogue in Deadlocked Venezuela, Sides with Opposition':
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/12060

'US President Barack Obama has weighed in on Venezuela’s political turmoil, calling on the government to release what he called “political prisoners” and to respect the country’s National Assembly.

The head of state made the comments in a press conference from the North American Leaders Summit in Ottawa, Canada, where he also urged both political factions in Venezuela to participate in dialogue. He was accompanied by his Mexican and Canadian counterparts, Enrique Peña Nieto and Justin Trudeau.

“Together we call on the government and the opposition to engage in meaningful dialogue and we urge the Venezuelan government to respect the law and authority of the National Assembly,” commented the president.....'

[outsider]

Opposition Activist Arrested with Explosives Equipment:
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/12252

'By Rachael Boothroyd Rojas

Caracas, August 30th 2016 (venezuelanalysis.com) - The US prize winning opposition activist Yon Goicoechea has been arrested by Venezuelan authorities for the alleged possession of explosives equipment just two days ahead of the opposition demonstration scheduled for September 1st.

On Monday evening, Venezuelan news agencies began reporting Goicoechea’s arrest, which was subsequently confirmed by Diosdado Cabello, Vice-president of the United Socialist Party for Venezuela (PSUV).

“He was detained, and they found in his possession detonator chords for explosives. This man was trained by North American imperialism for years,” stated Cabello.

“We prefer a million times over to imprison a murderer in time, than to let a drop of blood flow through the streets of Caracas, because that is what they want,” he continued.

Venezuelan citizen Goicoechea was awarded the U.S.-based Cato Institute’s $500,000 “Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty” in 2008 for his role in anti-government protests in 2007. His family has denied the allegations against him to the press.'

Published on Aug 30th 2016 at 12.25pm


My, the Yanks sure are generous to a fault backing 'tewwowists'!!!
Time the Venezuelans took a page out of the US book, and confiscated his assetts - just like Yank police do on even 'suspicion' of criminal activity, never mind terrorism.

The Cato Foundation was originally called the Koch Foundation; the Kochs are still intertwined with it, not sure of the details.
True Freedom Supporters!!!

[outsider]

'Obama Declares Cuba and Venezuela National Security Threats':
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Obama-Declares-Cuba-and-Venezuel a-National-Security-Threats-20170113-0024.html

'News > World
'Obama Declares Cuba and Venezuela National Security Threats

In March, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Cuba in 88 years. The visit came amid thawing relations with the countries restoring diplomatic relations and lifting several travel and trade restrictions.

The executive order allows the President to use national emergency resources to fight the threat, such as enforcing sanctions against the country.
The United States declared a national emergency to deal with perceived "threats" in Cuba and Venezuela on Friday, along with Iran, Libya, Ukraine, Zimbabwe and countries Washington claims "support terrorism." The declarations effectively extend for another year economic sanctions already in place.

President Barack Obama warned that one of the main national security threats to the U.S. is mass undocumented immigration from Cuba, days after he ended the "Wet Foot, Dry Foot" policy, which granted residency to Cubans who arrived in the U.S. without visas, reported Sputnik.

Obama used an executive order in March 2015 to declare that the situation in Venezuela has “not improved.” He cited human rights violations, persecution of political dissenters and restrictions on the freedom of the press.

When a national emergency was declared against Venezuela in 2015, Obama also ordered sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials, saying they would be banned from traveling to the United States and any and all assets and properties belonging to them would be frozen.

Under the National Emergencies Act sanctions must be renewed every year, however the executive orders Obama signed on Friday are not set to expire until two months into the Trump administration. The move appears to suggest that the Obama administration is concerned that the renewals could get overlooked in the expected chaos of Trump's White House. If he chooses to, Trump could rescind the sanctions by executive order.

The extension of U.S. sanctions against Iran come despite the historic agreement reached last year between the two countries. The extension of sanctions against Russia, imposed in response to their actions in Ukraine and Crimea, come amidst recent hysteria about suspected interference in the U.S. election by the Putin regime. Some have speculated that Trump's pick for foreign secretary, Rex Tillerson, may soon move to remove the sanctions given they block a multi-billion dollar project he negotiated with Russia while CEO of ExxonMobile.

The United States currently has 31 officially declared national emergencies.'

[TonyGosling]

Venezuela's Maduro decried as 'dictator' after Congress annulled

By Diego Oré and Andrew Cawthorne | CARACAS
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKBN17122M

Opposition leaders branded Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro a "dictator" on Thursday after the Supreme Court took over the functions of Congress and pushed a lengthy political standoff to new heights.

There was swift and widespread international condemnation of the de facto annulment of the National Assembly, where the opposition won a majority in late 2015 amid an unprecedented economic crisis that has seen Maduro's popularity plummet.

The head of the 34-nation Organization of International States (OAS), Luis Almagro, said the Venezuelan court had dealt the final blows to democracy and accused Maduro's "regime" of carrying out a "coup."

Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala and Panama expressed strong concerns while Peru withdrew its envoy after what it termed a rupture of democracy.

The United States described the move as a "serious setback for democracy in Venezuela" while the European Union called for a "clear electoral calendar" going forward.

Venezuela's top court had already overturned most National Assembly decisions since the opposition win. Then late on Wednesday, it explicitly stated it was assuming Congress' role in a ruling authorizing Maduro to create oil joint ventures without the previously mandated congressional approval.

"As long as the situation of contempt in the National Assembly continues, this constitutional chamber guarantees congressional functions will be exercised by this chamber or another chosen organ," the court said in its ruling.

The contempt charge stems from vote-buying accusations against three lawmakers from southern Amazonas state. Even though they no longer sit in Congress, the court said parliamentary leaders had not handled their case legally.

Critics of Maduro say it is an excuse for him to consolidate power and muzzle the opposition amid a severe recession, soaring inflation and acute shortages of food and medicine.

Maduro, a 54-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister, was narrowly elected in 2013 to replace late leftist President Hugo Chavez. He has accused Washington of leading a push to topple him as part of a wider offensive against leftist governments.
Deputies of the Venezuelan coalition of opposition parties (MUD), clash with Venezuela's National Guards during a protest outside the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) in Caracas, Venezuela March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Stung by the rebukes around Latin America, Maduro's government condemned what it described as a "right-wing regional pact" against it on Thursday.

"We reject the Peruvian government's rude support for the violent and extremist sectors in Venezuela," Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said in a series of tweets.

Leaders of Venezuela's Democratic Unity opposition coalition renewed their demand for early presidential elections and accused Maduro of duplicating Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori's notorious 1992 closure of Congress.

"Nicolas Maduro has carried out a 'coup d'etat' ... this is a dictatorship," said National Assembly President Julio Borges, before tearing up a copy of the Supreme Court ruling at a news conference in the gardens of the legislature.

"This is trash from people who have kidnapped the constitution, rights and freedom of Venezuelans ... The National Assembly does not recognize the Supreme Court."

PROTESTS

The opposition promised new street protests starting from Saturday - but that tactic has failed in the past despite marches that have drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters.

Last year, the opposition pushed for a referendum to recall Maduro and force a new presidential election, but authorities thwarted them and also postponed local electoral races that were supposed to have been held in 2016.

Maduro's term in office ends in January 2019.

Around a dozen opposition lawmakers trying to march to the Supreme Court on Thursday clashed with National Guard soldiers and pro-government supporters lined up to stop them.

Pockets of youths took to the streets in parts of Caracas and attempted to block a major highway. They held flags and banners saying, "No to dictatorship."

However, numbers were small and they quickly dispersed.

In 2014, a wave of unrest swept the country, leaving more than 40 dead, though now many opposed to the government say they feel protesting is pointless.

"If the international community stays firm, demanding elections, we are sure the government will have to turn back," another opposition leader and two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said.

Spooked by the opposition's warning that investment deals bypassing Congress would not be valid, foreign oil companies were closely following the political showdown.

As Venezuela tries to raise funds for bond payments and a reeling economy, it has sought to sell stakes in oil fields. State oil company PDVSA recently offered Russia's Rosneft a stake in the Petropiar oil joint venture, sources with knowledge of the proposal told Reuters.

"We want to make perfectly clear to all the oil companies that any strategic alliance (that did not go through Congress) is null," Borges said on Thursday.

While some investors could see the Supreme Court sentence as giving them the green light to invest, others are increasingly worried about Venezuela's murky legal framework.

"There is reasonable doubt about the legality of all this," said a source at a foreign oil company.

(Additional reporting by Corina Pons, Eyanir Chinea, Andreina Aponte, Girish Gupta in Caracas, Mitra Taj in Lima, Rosalba O'Brien in Santiago and Enrique Pretel in San Jose; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Tom Brown and Andrew Hay)

[outsider]

'Time for the International Left to Take a Stand on Venezuela':
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47445.htm

'..By Gregory Wilpert

July 16, 2017 "Information Clearing House" - The mainstream media consistently fails to report who is instigating the violence in this conflict.

Venezuela is heading towards an increasingly dangerous situation, in which open civil war could become a real possibility. So far over 100 people have been killed as a result of street protests, most of these deaths are the fault of the protesters themselves (to the extent that we know the cause).

The possibility of civil war becomes more likely as long as the international media obscure who is responsible for the violence and the international left remains on the sidelines in this conflict and fails to show solidarity with the Bolivarian socialist movement in Venezuela.

If the international left receives its news about Venezuela primarily from the international media, it is understandable why it is being so quiet. After all, this mainstream media consistently fails to report who is instigating the violence in this conflict.

For example, a follower of CNN or the New York Times would not know that of the 103 who have been killed as a result of street protests, 27 were the direct or indirect result of the protesters themselves. Another 14 were the result of lootings; in one prominent case, because looters set fire to a store and ended up getting engulfed in the flames themselves. Fourteen deaths are attributable to the actions of state authorities (where in almost all cases those responsible have been charged), and 44 are still under investigation or in dispute. This is according to data from the office of the Attorney General, which itself has recently become pro-opposition.


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Time for the International Left to Take a Stand on Venezuela
By Gregory Wilpert

July 16, 2017 "Information Clearing House" - The mainstream media consistently fails to report who is instigating the violence in this conflict.

Venezuela is heading towards an increasingly dangerous situation, in which open civil war could become a real possibility. So far over 100 people have been killed as a result of street protests, most of these deaths are the fault of the protesters themselves (to the extent that we know the cause).

The possibility of civil war becomes more likely as long as the international media obscure who is responsible for the violence and the international left remains on the sidelines in this conflict and fails to show solidarity with the Bolivarian socialist movement in Venezuela.

If the international left receives its news about Venezuela primarily from the international media, it is understandable why it is being so quiet. After all, this mainstream media consistently fails to report who is instigating the violence in this conflict.

For example, a follower of CNN or the New York Times would not know that of the 103 who have been killed as a result of street protests, 27 were the direct or indirect result of the protesters themselves. Another 14 were the result of lootings; in one prominent case, because looters set fire to a store and ended up getting engulfed in the flames themselves. Fourteen deaths are attributable to the actions of state authorities (where in almost all cases those responsible have been charged), and 44 are still under investigation or in dispute. This is according to data from the office of the Attorney General, which itself has recently become pro-opposition.




Also unknown to most consumers of the international media would be that opposition protesters detonated a bomb in the heart of Caracas on July 11, wounding seven National Guard soldiers or that a building belonging to the Supreme Court was burnt by opposition protesters on June 12th or that opposition protesters attacked a maternity hospital on May 17.

In other words, it is possible that much of the international left has been misled about the violence in Venezuela; thinking that the government is the only one responsible, that President Nicolas Maduro has declared himself to be dictator for life (though he has actually confirmed that the presidential elections scheduled for late 2018 will proceed as planned), or that all dissent is punishable with prison (disputed by major opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez – who was partly responsible for the post-election violence in 2014 – recently being released from prison and placed under house arrest).

If this is the reason for the silence on Venezuela, then the left should be ashamed for not having read its own critiques of the mainstream media.

All of the foregoing does not contradict that there are plenty of places where one might criticize the Maduro Government for having made mistakes with regard to how it has handled the current situation, both economically and politically. However, criticisms – of which I have made several myself – do not justify taking either a neutral or pro-opposition stance in this momentous conflict. As South African anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Perhaps the Venezuelan case is also confusing to outsiders because President Maduro is in power and the opposition is not. It could thus be difficult to see the opposition as being an “oppressor.”

However, for an internationalist left, it should not be so confusing. After all, the opposition in Venezuela receives significant support not only from private businesses but also the U.S. Government, the international right and transnational capital....'

There are a couple of video clips on the website which should be watched.

[outsider]

'Venezuela Divided Over Opposition’s General Strike':
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13256


'....State owned dairy company Lacteos Los Andes has alleged that since early hours of the the afternoon, they have been under attack by armed opposition groups. The groups are allegedly armed with home-made mortars and molotov cocktails, and have reportedly “tried to set on fire to an industrial gas tank...” according to the Proletarian Agency of Information....'

And this will be reported by our MSM as 'Peaceful Demonstrations', no doubt...

'75% of Venezuelans Support Socialism: Poll': https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13251

'Puebla, Mexico, July 19, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The majority of Venezuelans believe in a socialist economy, but want the government to be more efficient and promote private investment, a top pollster said Wednesday.

“Most [Venezuelans] believe in a strong, vigorous state [to] establish clear laws for the market,” said Oscar Schemel, the head of polling agency Hinterlaces.

He pointed to the latest Hinterlaces poll, which asked participants if “the best thing for Venezuela is a socialist economic model of production, where various forms of private property exist”.

While three out of four Venezuelans agreed with this statement, 24 percent disagreed, while 1 percent were unsure.

Schemel said the data shows Venezuelans want a socialist state with private investment and a “mixed economy”. He added that Venezuelans believe the state "should be a referee” that directs investment.

"Sixty one percent of the population affirms that the economy must be led by the state, 86 percent think that the government should promote private investment,” he said.

The comments were made during a speech to a meeting of local business leaders in Caracas. The topic of the meeting was how to promote a post-oil economy.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has long had a terse relationship with Venezuelan business leaders, though Schemel argued voters want dialogue.

“Seventy eight percent consider that the government's dialogue with businesspeople is more important than with the opposition, and 63 percent distrust the opposition,” he said.

Schemel’s figures were based on new polling data from Hinterlaces, which asked over 1,500 Venezuelans for their views on the state of the economy.

While the majority of Venezuelans said they support socialism, 63 percent of respondents said the government needs to become “more productive and efficient”. Thirty two percent of participants said the current model should “change”......'

[outsider]

Vigil Venezuela Embassy in South Kensington, 1 Cromwell Road, Kensington

Nearest tube South Kensington

Sunday 30 July.from 12 pm. ( Day of the Assembly Election).
Try to get there early; there'll be a presence from about 11:00

Placards and megaphones welcome.

[outsider]

'Empire Files: Head of Venezuela National Guard on Insurgency & US Threats':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4PpOtRcA7Q

Excellent interview with the head of the National Guard of Venezuela. (22 mins).

[outsider]

Here's part of a comment I put on a blog (and paper comment):
'Who does America talk to to try to influence the situation in Venezuela?
Why, those bastions of ‘Democracy and Human and Civil Rights, Mexico and Columbia!
Let’s take Colombia: ‘Colombia: Ethnocide and Political Violence on the Rise’:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/colombia-ethnocide–polit_b _9556570.html
I realise HuffPost is not the best source, but it will do to give readers an idea of the situation.
Many Colombian mercenaries cross the long, unprotectable border to kill, engage in drugs and smuggling, and to do paid assassinations on behalf of the Venezuelan ‘Opposition’.
And Mexico? ‘Mexico violence peaks with over 2,200 murders in June’:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/mexico-violence-peaks-2200-murde rs-june-170722115004326.html

So the Empire has chosen some very strange ‘helpmates’ to sort out Venezuela; wonder they didn’t call in ‘Al-CIAdah’ and the ‘head choppers’.

Ask yourselves, what would the US do if it’s government supporters, police and military were being shot and firebombed?
Would they arrest one of the main instigators who had already broken ‘House Arrest’ terms, and then free him back to ‘House Arrest’ hours later?
Would they pussy-foot around with tear gas when faced with live rounds and Molotov cocktails? With gross arson against the community and State facilities like clinics, hospitals, schools and government buildings?'

I realise, of course, that most readers here are 'on-side'.

[outsider]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/unknown-snipers-and-western-backed-regime -change/27904
‘…Venezuela 2002
In 2002, the CIA attempted to overthrow Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, in a military coup. On the 11th of April 2002, an opposition March towards the presidential palace was organized by the US backed Venezuelan opposition. Snipers hidden in buildings near the palace opened fire on protestors killing 18. The Venezuelan and international media claimed that Chavez was “ killing his own people” thereby justifying the military coup presented as a humanitarian intervention. It was subsequently proved that the coup had been organized by the CIA but the identity of the snipers was never established….’
Likewise, they payed youths to violently protest, kill and burn down facilities, including clinics, shops, government buildings.
This was documented, with photos of youths being payed in University facilities in the 2002 events:
http://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/right-wing-opposition-provokes-vi olent-destabilization-efforts/
‘…“It’s about organized groups which are coordinated and paid in US dollars. We have photos of them being paid within the hallways of the Universities” he stated.
“Underneath the violence and the spite there is a scheme, planned from outside of Venezuela, to generate violence… They had 9mm pistols in their hands, with munitions, to create chaos…they have mortars, armaments, munitions, and guns, to hurt the people of Táchira”.
The youths vandalized various private institutions which work alongside the local government, such as the Foundation for the Family of Táchira and the Táchira Institute for Women, as well as inflicting infrastructural damage to various buildings, and the attempted burning of an ambulance.
Táchira State was one of those lost by the opposition forces in December local elections, despite strongly voting for Capriles Radonski in October, and was previously considered a center for anti-Chavez sentiment…..’

‘Venezuela: Opposition ‘Activists’ Confess Being Paid to Promote Violent Protests’:
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/venezuela-opposition-activis ts-confess-being-paid-to-promote-violent-protests/
‘..In one video broadcast during the president’s televised evening address, a young opposition protester named Guido Rodriguez admits being paid 300,000 bolivars (US $70) – more than double the monthly minimum wage – to commit acts of anti-government violence during April 8’s demonstrations.
“They proposed that I go to today’s march and burn and vandalize, and that they were going to pay me 300,000 bolivars. And I accepted,” stated Rodriguez, who says he has been working with the youth section of the right-wing Justice First (PJ) party “for a while”…..’
‘…In another video confession, one of the Sanchez brothers explains that attacks were planned three weeks ago by PJ Caracas Youth Secretary Carmelo Zambrano in conjunction with PJ National Assembly deputies in Caracas.
“We participated in the burning of the DEM [Executive Office of the Judiciary] together with Carmelo Zambrano who is the planner and executor of this play. They gave him the money, I don’t know, he has contacts among the Caracas [PJ] deputies, Marialbert Barrios, Tomás Guanipa, José Guerra,” the right-wing youth leader told the camera.
Sanchez continued, “Three weeks ago in the basement of the [PJ] headquarters in Chacaito they met and planned this. The instructions were to set Caracas alight and he was going to distribute the money they gave him among the parishes of Caracas.”
According to Sanchez, the orders came directly from PJ General Secretary and lawmaker Tomás Guanipa, with Zambrano “divvying up the money among the bases to buy water and do protest activities”…….’

So small wonder if the Maduro government is starting to crack down on these ‘peaceful protesters’ and their instigators in the ‘Opposition’.

By the way, 'PJ' deputies are deputies of the 'Justice First' Party(!), the largest Opposition party.

[outsider]

'UN human rights team’s findings indicate patterns of rights violations amid mass protests in Venezuela':
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21948 &LangID=E

What a load of BS!
Here is a comment I put on Craig Murray's blog:

'Ouch! I was astounded with that overt baloney from the OHCHR, so did a quick check.
Who is the High Commissioner for Human Rights?
Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein of Jordan!
Firstly, a ‘Prince’ from a staunchly pro-Western country, firmly in the pockets of Uncle Sam.
They ‘hosted’ the first training camps for the intended mercenary ‘head chopper’ onslaught against Syria, in 2009.
Zeid al-Hussein even gets a roasting from Foreign Policy magazine (which appears to be very right-wing):
‘The Scandal of Ambassador Zeid’: http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/06/26/the-scandal-of-ambassador-zeid/
Though in the article, he is praised by ‘Human Rights’ groups:
‘….The nomination of longtime career diplomat Ambassador Zeid (shown in the photo above at right) has been largely met with approval from major human rights organizations. Human Rights Watch’s executive director Kenneth Roth tweeted that Zeid had “a strong rights record.” Suzanne Nossel, former director of Amnesty International USA and current executive director of PEN America, also wrote a mostly positive piece on Ambassador Zeid in Foreign Policy….’
I don’t know anything about Roth, but I do know HRW is basically under the thumb of Western interests.
But Nossel! She was forced to resign as Director of Amnesty International by widespread grass-roots protest; she would have made a better NATO Secretay General! Then she went for, and became, Director of PEN, against many objections (‘An Appeal to PEN: Exec. Director Suzanne Nossel Must Go’: https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2013/04/03/an-appeal-to-pen-exec-director -suzanne-nossel-must-go/ ).
Check out her CV!
I’l have to follow this up further, as I am deeply concerned about the US destabilisation campaign against Venezuela (and other Latin American countries); I cut my teeth on Human Rights campaigns for Latin America in the early 1970’s.
Interestingly, there is a link with 9/11, via Aaron Russo and Nick Rockefeller: in the interview here ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3NA17CCboA ) Aaron explains how Nick Rockefeller told him, in 2000, that ‘there was going to be an incident, and we (the US) would attack Afghanistan and Iraq; there would be US troops hunting through caves for Arabs; there would be a ‘War on Terror’; and after that, we would go after Venezuela’ (that is paraphrased, but very close to the original, which is in the interview).
So we had 9/11 in 2001, and the (unsuccessful) coup in Venezuela in 2002. All Rockefeller’s predictions came true (he made some others as well, which are on the way to ‘fruition’.'