If the Biden administration wants to stop the mass displacement that is leading enormous numbers of Cuban and Venezuelan migrants to the US-Mexico border, it should end the sanctions that have made life in those countries all but impossible for average people.
Source: US Sanctions Are Driving Displacement and Migration From Cuba and Venezuela
State-sponsored piracy has been a UK tradition since the British East India Company
The U.K. stripped the assets of a foreign state and transferred them to political actors engaged in regime change, John McEvoy reports. The result has been a form of collective punishment for people in Venezuela. By John McEvoy Declassified UK In late December, Venezuela’s leading opposition
In late December, Venezuela’s leading opposition parties voted to oust Juan Guaidó as “interim president” and dissolve his parallel government.
This was clearly not the ending the U.K. government had in mind.
Four years ago, the British government made the bold decision to recognise Guaidó as Venezuelan president and proceeded to facilitate his legal battle to seize roughly $2 billion of gold held in the Bank of England.
Indeed, the U.K. government insisted at every turn that it recognised Guaidó — and not Nicolás Maduro — as Venezuelan president. In turn, Guaidó’s lawyers argued that he was authorised to represent and control the assets of the Central Bank of Venezuela held in London.
Throughout this time, Guaidó paid his U.K. legal costs by drawing on millions of dollars of his country’s assets originally seized by the U.S. government. In other words, Guaidó tried to seize Venezuelan state assets with looted Venezuelan state assets.
Meanwhile, it seems certain that the Foreign Office also used a significant amount of public funds to sustain its backing of Guaidó.
Now that Guaidó has been ousted, the legal argument for transferring the gold to the Venezuelan opposition has effectively disintegrated. Despite this, the gold remains frozen in the Bank of England, with no clear resolution in sight.
Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Why are Havana’s food markets so empty? For the Cuban people, the U.S. War on Venezuela stands out as a clear culprit contributing to these daily frustrations and hardships.
The War on Cuba and Venezuela – CounterPunch.org
US Military is in Colombia. The US is sanctioning Venezuela. The US wants Exxon to control the oil as they do in Iraq and Syria. Why Green Solar and Wind energy is essential (ODT)
Imperial over-reach was on full display this week as the US government demanded that a pair of US citizens — former Special Forces soldiers leading a 60-man invasion of Venezuela with the goal of fomenting a coup and/or capturing or killing that country’s elected president — be released from arrest and returned to the US.
Bad enough that the US almost certainly knew in advance about this invasion which involved multiple simultaneous border crossings and beach landings by mercenary forces, many of them reportedly sketchy former Venezuelan soldiers involved in the drug trade, who were on a payroll as soldiers-for-hire. But how about the gall to also claim that when the effort fails, the intended victim of the coup, Venezuela, has no legitimate right to punish the perpetrators, but must release them to their home country, the US — a country that has for years been trying to oust Venezuela’s elected government?
Trump’s failure denied by a straight out lie. His ex bodyguard was involved (ODT)
The head of state recalled that the U.S. President Donald Trump, who receives a report every day on Venezuela, affirmed he knew nothing of the foiled armed infiltration in his country.
“It is impossible that Trump did not know what happened in Venezuela this weekend. Mike Pompeo said they have not had direct participation, but have they had indirect participation?”
The Venezuelan president also reiterated that the former U.S. green beret Jordan Goudreau, who is the head of the Silvercorp company, has worked with Trump for several years.
via US Mercenary Confesses on Failed Plot Against President Maduro | News | teleSUR English
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says authorities have captured 13 “terrorists”, including two US citizens he described as mercenaries, on allegations they were involved in a failed plot to invade the country and oust him.
In a state television address on Monday local time, Maduro showed what he said were the passports and other identification cards of Airan Berry and Luke Denman, who he described as employees of Silvercorp, a Florida-based company whose owner, Jordan Goudreau, has claimed responsibility for the invasion attempt.
via Venezuela coup attempt: American ‘mercenaries’ detained, says Nicolas Maduro
Venezuela is battling COVID-19 within its own borders, as we are doing here at home. The country is also experiencing a deep economic crisis and facing severe shortages of medical supplies, a situation that has been compounded by U.S. unilateral economic sanctions. President Trump has no business deploying U.S. military assets against Venezuela, a country that in no shape or form represents a threat to the security of the United States, especially not now when a pandemic is raging around the world and in our own country.
via Threatening Military Intervention in Venezuela During a Pandemic? | The Smirking Chimp
History of America’s failed control of Latin American States has been told over and over again only to make fools of somany American leaders and can anyone make Trump look a bigger fool than he already is? (ODT)
The brazenness of the indictments in attempting to cast Venezuela as a narco-state, the lack of foresight regarding possible repercussions, the attempted sabotage of dialogue and the mixed messaging are all signals that the Trump administration is desperate to ensure its regime change policy shows results. The victims of this policy are the Venezuelan people, who would be much better off with a policy of de-escalation, dialogue and a removal of the deadly sanctions.
via Trump’s Narcoterrorism Indictment of Maduro Already Backfires | The Smirking Chimp
In the case of Noriega one forgets he worked for the DEA. There is nor country on the planet like the USA with rendition, and the abuse of extradition of anybody thay regard as opposition to what they want and the Oligarchy in the USA want Iranian and Venezuelan oil (ODT)
Analysts said the indictments could boost US President Donald Trump’s re- election chances in the key swing state of Florida, which he won by a narrow margin in 2016 and where Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans fleeing authoritarian regimes have political muscle.
Maduro, a 57-year-old former bus driver, portrays himself as an everyman icon of the Latin American left. He’s long accused the U.S. “empire” of looking for any excuse to take control of the world’s largest oil reserves, likening its plotting to the 1989 invasion of Panama and the removal of strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega to face drug trafficking charges in Florida.
USA’s Puppet in Venezuela
Guaido reviled by most Venezuelans
Reviled by most Venezuelans, Guaido’s own party members defrocked him for corruption related charges, replacing him as National Assembly speaker.
“The crisis in Venezuela is a result of attempts to launch a large-scale campaign (by the US) aimed at ousting the legitimate government with use of all options, as organizers of this campaign say, including use of force.”
via Trump and His Henchmen Vow New Steps to Eliminate Venezuelan Social Democracy
This the role model nation that all nations are expected to follow(ODT)
US military has just recently returned to Guyana for the first time in a decade. The purpose of this detachment, according to Military.com, is to “shore up relationships amid growing tensions in neighboring Venezuela.”
“the United States has a clear objective in Venezuela: regime change and the restoration of democracy and the rule of law.” A basic understanding of the English language would require that this sentence poses an oxymoron, as US-enforced regime change could never ever amount to the implementation of democracy and the rule of law.
there are at least five US military bases and a number of US military advisers in Colombia, which a simple glance at a globe will tell you is on the other side of Venezuela. By “shoring up relationships” to the east of Venezuela in Guyana, the US military will almost have the Latin American rival completely surrounded. The south is covered by Brazil, which is another stalwart Washington ally.
It bears to remind oneself that as part of this foreign policy playbook, right-wing, nationalist and/or populist ideologies are almost never opposed or rejected by the US, but welcomed warmly with open arms.
According to the Nation, the US has over 800 formal military bases in 80 countries, “a number that could exceed 1,000 if you count troops stationed at embassies and missions and so-called ‘lily-pond’ bases, with some 138,000 soldiers stationed around the globe.”
Collectively, some other 11 countries including Russia, the United Kingdom, Turkey, China, France and India, have barely some 70 bases between them.
US military encircling Venezuela: Regime change preparations? — RT Op-ed
![File: Chinese President Xi Jinping walks next to Venezuela''s President Nicolas Maduro during his welcoming ceremony in Beijing, China September 14, 2018 [File: Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/7/9/20eaa99b63a246788cbd3a07d1e2ac9b_18.jpg "China will determine the future of Venezuela")
China not Trump will determine Venezuela’s future that must gall him. (OTD)
via China will determine the future of Venezuela | China | Al Jazeera
Violent clashes erupted in the Venezuelan capital on Tuesday after opposition leader Juan Guaidó launched what appeared to be a military-backed challenge to President Nicolás Maduro, summoning thousands of people to the streets to demonstrate against the socialist leader.
US Senator Marco Rubio, who has strongly backed Guaido, issued a call for the military to rise up: “This is the moment for those military officers in #Venezuela to fulfil their constitutional oath & defend the legitimate interim President @jguaido, in this effort to restore democracy,” he tweeted. “You can write history in the hours & days ahead.”
via Clashes in Caracas after Guaido stages coup against Maduro
We saw it happen time and time again (ODT)
A war has been declared on Venezuela, of which the truth is “too difficult” to report.
It is too difficult to report the collapse of oil prices since 2014 as largely the result of criminal machinations by Wall Street. It is too difficult to report the blocking of Venezuela’s access to the US-dominated international financial system as sabotage. It is too difficult to report Washington’s “sanctions” against Venezuela, which have caused the loss of at least $6billion in Venezuela’s revenue since 2017, including $2billion worth of imported medicines, as illegal, or the Bank of England’s refusal to return Venezuela’s gold reserves as an act of piracy.
Should the CIA stooge Guaido and his white supremacists grab power, it will be the 68th overthrow of a sovereign government by the United States, most of them democracies. A fire sale of Venezuela’s utilities and mineral wealth will surely follow, along with the theft of the country’s oil, as outlined by John Bolton.
Under the last Washington-controlled government in Caracas, poverty reached historic proportions. There was no healthcare for those could not pay. There was no universal education; Mavis Mendez, and millions like her, could not read or write.
research February 14, 2019 6:15 PM EST
On February 14, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that President Donald Trump will “sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action – including a national emergency” to build a wall on the southern border.
video February 14, 2019 5:36 PM EST
On Thursday, John Bolton told Fox Business host Trish Regan the administration had the goal of putting U.S. companies in charge of Venezuela’s oil production. Because freedom!
It’s 2003 all over again, right down to the mustachioed John Bolton, who freely admitted to Fox Business host Trish Regan on Thursday night that the ultimate goal of United States activity in Venezuela is to take over their oil production — or, in simpler terms, take their oil.
Wouldn’t Koch Industries love that? After all, they’ve sued Venezuela for millions — basically calling their loans — in order to destabilize their economy and punish President Maduro, who is a terribly brutal leader, but nevertheless elected by the people in an election which has been certified.
Mike Pence, a wholly-sponsored Koch project, was instrumental in injecting the United States into Venezuelan political unrest, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
via John Bolton Says Ultimate Goal In Venezuela Is To Take Their Oil | Crooks and Liars
This is making a mockery of international law. The people who are responsible for choosing their representatives are the Venezuelans, not Washington. The United States of America today proves that it is ruled by a criminal regime which pursues criminal policies. It is a pariah state, an insult to international law, and has “shame” written on every page referring to it in the annals of history. The history book will be very cruel to Washington when it reports its heinous and hideous acts from 1945 onwards. Its assimilated, controlled and obedient yapping chihuahuas will fare no better.
olddogthoughts 