President Maduro of Venezuela urges US diplomats to leave country within next 72hrs

[loyola llothta]

Guaidó Claims He Can Authorize Foreign Military Intervention in Venezuela

Temir Porras, Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs under Hugo Chavez, says Guaidó’s assertion on Fox News is a violation of the Venezuelan constitution; Porras says the only way to avoid a blood bath is a negotiated political solution

 

[loyola llothta]

Fox News Doubles Down on the Big Lie and Venezuela
March 15. 2019

It doesn’t matter what corporate alphabet propaganda network you watch, you’re going to get the same line on Venezuela.

Here we have Trish Regan, a fixture at Fox News, telling numerous lies about Venezuela, lies put out by neocons and their captured president.

Ms. Regan’s rehearsed outrage centers on China for announcing it will help Venezuela get its power back in working order.

China, of course, is interested in Venezuela’s oil, same as the United States, or I should say the transnational corporations and banks that own the US government.

Regan says the latter is a conspiracy theory. Because Venezuela is in our “backyard,” it should be told in no uncertain terms selling oil to China is forbidden. “It matters that the others (China) don’t get it,” declared Ms. Regan.

Fox likes to pretend it is “conservative” and in favor of tree trade, but this is belied by its willingness to spread neocon falsehoods.

Regan claims Maduro stole the election. This is an integral part of the neocon Big Lie.

The Latin American Council of Electoral Experts (CEELA) said in 2017 “Venezuela’s voting system remains one of the most reliable in the world” and the “country’s electronic voting system boasts some of the world’s best checks and balances, and is both ‘safe and reliable.’”

Former president Jimmy Carter said Venezuela’s electoral system is “the best in the world” and added “of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.”

Ms. Regan, of course, ignores this and demands Maduro be thrown out while the neocons—in this instance, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida—fantasize Maduro as Libyan leader Gaddafi, who was sodomized with a bayonet and then assassinated by US-backed “rebels,” polite speak for fanatical Salafists who have turned Libya into a third world, failed state hellhole.

If you want to see the flip side of the corporate propaganda media’s propaganda on Venezuela, you have to read alternative news sources.

The establishment media, including no shortage of liberals—now humanitarian interventionists—tell us ad nauseam Maduro is a brutal dictator and Juan Guaidó is the legitimate leader of Venezuela. This is also the case with many leftist and progressive websites that claim to be alternative.

“The coup that is unfolding in Venezuela is not an American backed coup: it is an American coup,” writes Ted Snider. “Mainstream media coverage paints the events only as American recognition of a legitimate constitutional correction of government. Even in the left wing and alternative media, where writers condemn the American intervention, many of them feel the need to establish their credibility by conceding that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is an authoritarian leader, or even a dictator, who won a second term in office in elections that were illegitimate.”

Near the end of her theatrical presentation, Regan says the people of Venezuela are suffering under a “95% poverty rate,” which is clearly untrue, although the rate has increased since the US began its sanctions and not-so-covert coup attempt.

History demonstrates socialism is a largely failed system, but that is not the crux of Venezuela’s problems—US-imposed sanctions are.

“Over the past five years, American sanctions have cut Venezuela off from most financial markets, which have caused local oil production to plummet,” writes Garikai Chengu. “Consequently, Venezuela has experienced the largest decline in living standards of any country in recorded Latin American history.”

Again, the corporate media, both “conservative” and “liberal,” will not tell you this and will instead push the Big Lie on Venezuela.

“America’s media is unquestionably the most corrupt institution in America,” Chengu continues. “The nation’s media may quibble about Trump’s domestic policies but when it comes to starting wars for oil abroad they sing in remarkable unison. Fox News, CNN and the New York Times all cheered the nation into war in Iraq over fictitious weapons of mass destruction, whilst America was actually using sanctions of mass destruction on the Iraqi people. They did it in Libya and now they are doing it again in Venezuela.”

Regan, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the corporate media talking heads reading from the Big Lie script are serving the state and its decades-long effort to force by bullet and bomb a wealth and natural resource strip mining operation on those who have said “no thank you” to neoliberalism.

The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Kurt Nimmo, Global Research, 2019

 

[thekingsmen]

Fox News Doubles Down on the Big Lie and Venezuela
March 15. 2019

It doesn’t matter what corporate alphabet propaganda network you watch, you’re going to get the same line on Venezuela.

Here we have Trish Regan, a fixture at Fox News, telling numerous lies about Venezuela, lies put out by neocons and their captured president.



The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Kurt Nimmo, Global Research, 2019

Bu bu but the news never lies to us....

 

[loyola llothta]

Venezuela's Top Prosecutor Probes Juan Guaido over Electric Grid Attack

• 
  
  Venezuela’s Attorney General Tareck William Saab speaks during a press conference. | Photo: VTV

William Saab said that these accusations add to those related to Guaido’s calls for criminal acts.

Venezuela’s Attorney General Tareck William Saab said that his Venezuelan Public Ministry has started an investigation against Juan Guaido, the lawmaker of the country’s National Assembly, which has been in contempt since 2016, over his alleged participation in the recent sabotage to the electric grid system in Venezuela.

The measure, which was reported to the Supreme Court of Justice, is meant to investigate whether the opposition lawmaker has acted as the mastermind behind the electric outage in the country that began last Thursday.

"We started a new investigation that joins the one that began on Jan. 29, against the citizen Juan Guaidó for his alleged participation in the attack on the electric system." informed the country’s attorney.

William Saab said that these accusations add to those related to Guaido’s calls for criminal acts related to the "promotion of violence and even instigation of looting, there are messages inciting looting, robbery, with the excuse of economic needs of the population.”

"Electrical sabotage is not a casual occurrence, it is part of an increasingly desperate escalation to overthrow a legitimately constituted government," the Venezuelan state official added during his speech.

Venezuela's Top Prosecutor Probes Juan Guaido over Electric Grid Attack

 

[loyola llothta]

Canada’s Next Target After Venezuela: Cuba?
March 17. 2019

“First we take Caracas then we take Havana.”

That’s the thinking driving the Donald Trump administration’s policy towards Venezuela, according to a Wall Street Journal story titled “U.S. Push to Oust Venezuela’s Maduro Marks First Shot in Plan to Reshape Latin America.” Adding credence to this thesis, on Monday USSecretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that “Cuba is the true imperialist power in Venezuela.”

Despite Washington’s hope that toppling President Nicolás Maduro could hasten the fall of Cuba’s government, the Justin Trudeau government, which is supposed to have good relations with Havana, has played a central role in the US-led bid to oust Maduro. It has also echoed some of the Trump administration’s attacks on Cuba’s role in Venezuela. Why would a ‘friend’ of Cuba do this?

While much is made of Ottawa’s seemingly cordial relations with Havana, the reality is more complicated than often presented, as I detail here. Most significantly, Canada has repeatedly aligned with US fear-mongering about the “Cuban menace” in the region.

Just days after the April 1961 CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, Prime Minister John Diefenbakerclaimed the Cuban government was a threat to the security of the hemisphere and “a dictatorship which is abhorrent to free men everywhere.” Two years later Ottawa’s representative to a NATO ministerial meeting was tasked with saying, “the Canadian government, of course, holds no sympathy for the present dictatorial regime in Cuba …. We remain deeply disturbed by the presence in the Western Hemisphere of a communist regime aligned with the Soviet Union and by the transformation of Cuba into an area which still retains a potential for disturbing East-West relations and the stability of the Hemisphere.”

U.S. Restores Diplomatic Relations with Cuba
Canada backed the US-led Alliance for Progress, which was the John F. Kennedy administration’s response to the excitement created in Latin America by the 1959 Cuban revolution. Ottawa began delivering aid to the newly independent Commonwealth Caribbean partly to counter Cuba’s appeal. In the early 1960s External Affairs officials, notes Canadian Gunboat Diplomacy: The Canadian Navy and Foreign Policy, “singled out Cuban revolutionary activity as the main threat to political and thus economic stability in the region and implied that developmental aid staved off Cuban interference.”

In 1963, that book notes, HMCS Saskatchewan was deployed to Haiti largely to guarantee that François Duvalier did not make any moves towards Cuba and that a Cuban-inspired guerilla movement did not seize power. Three years later two Canadian gunboats were deployed to Barbados’ independence celebration in a bizarre diplomatic maneuver designed to demonstrate Canada’s military prowess and to send a ‘signal’ to Havana. Canadian Gunboat Diplomacy explains,

“we can only speculate at who the “signal” was directed towards, but given the fact that tensions were running high in the Caribbean over the Dominican Republic Affair [1965 US invasion], it is likely that the targets were any outside force, probably Cuban, which might be tempted to interfere with Barbadian independence.”

When 7,000 US troops invaded Grenada in 1983 to reassert US hegemony in a country supposedly overrun by Cuban doctors, Canadian officials criticized Grenada’s government and abstained on a UN resolution calling for the withdrawal of all foreign troops (predominantly American) from that country. The next year Canadian ambassador to Panama, Francis Filleul, complained that

“Nicaragua has been penetrated so badly by Cuba and other [eastern bloc] countries that it is destabilizing. It was not that the people of Nicaragua … chose to welcome the Russians and the Cubans. It was that the FSLN [Sandinistas] had gained control of the revolutionary movement and that was their policy.”

As with the US Caribbean Basin Initiative, the 1986 Caribbean-Canada Trade Agreement (CARIBCAN) sought to isolate Cuba from the region.

According to a 2006 cable released by Wikileaks headlined “Canada’s new government: opportunities and challenges”, the US embassy in Ottawa pushed the Stephen Harper government to begin “engaging more actively in other hemispheric trouble spots such as Venezuela, Colombia, and Cuba.” In the spring of 2008 the Canadian embassy in Panama teamed up with the US National Endowment for Democracy to organize a meeting for prominent members of the opposition in Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela to respond to the “new era of populism and authoritarianism in Latin America.” In 2012 Canada was alone with the US in opposing Cuba’s participation in the Summit of the Americas.

While purportedly sympathetic to Cuba, Justin Trudeau’s government has criticized Cuba’s actions in Venezuela. In a recent article titled “Canada at odds with Cuban ‘ally’ over Maduro’s fate” Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told CBC that Cuba’s role in Venezuela is “concerning” and that“we have heard directly from the Venezuelan opposition that they’re concerned by the role that some Cubans are playing in their country.” The article, written by extreme Canadian officialdom sycophant Evan Dyer, quoted an opposition group claiming thousands of Cuban agents “direct centres of torture in Venezuela.”

Compared to Washington, Ottawa has had cordial relations with Havana since the Cuban revolution. Still, Canada has generally sided with US fear mongering about the “Cuban menace”, which is propaganda largely designed to justify keeping the region subservient to western capitalist domination.

The original source of this article is Yves Engler
Copyright © Yves Engler, Yves Engler, 2019

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Can't believe you haven't posted this yet brotha @loyola llothta shyt aint looking good for Guaido and his people.


Viva la Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba.

 

[loyola llothta]

Can't believe you haven't posted this yet brotha @loyola llothta shyt aint looking good for Guaido and his people.


Viva la Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba.

Yeah i forgot to post it

 

[loyola llothta]

Venezuelan Authorities Detain Guaido Henchman for “Terrorist Cell” Involvement

March 22, 2019

Overnight Thursday, Venezuelan police arrested and detained three Guaido henchmen, two now released, the third still held.

Interior Minister Nestor Reverol accused Roberto Marrero of planning armed terrorist attacks in the country, saying the following:

An “investigation carried out by intelligence agencies together with the office of the prosecutor general…led to the detention of (Guaido henchman) Roberto Eugenio Marrero, 49, who is a lawyer and is directly responsible for the organization of criminal groups. A batch of weapons and cash money in foreign currency were seized from him.”


Roberto Eugenio Marrero Borgas and Luis Alberto Paez Salazarwere also detained (later released) in the overnight raid, Reverol adding:

“Facing the failure of the entrance through our border of the so-called humanitarian aid last February 23, wanting to violate our sovereignty and facing the victory that the people of Venezuela gave against the electric attacks, these groups continue with their spiral of violence.”

Maduro “will continue fighting any demonstration and elements associated with organized crime to continue guaranteeing the peace of the people of Venezuela.”

The discovered “terrorist cell would have hired Colombian and Central American mercenaries to attack the lives of political leaders, military men, magistrates of the TSJ (Supreme Justice Court), and to carry out acts of sabotage to public services to create chaos in the Bolivarian society.”

According to Maduro, more arrests could follow, efforts underway to dismantle an anti-government “terrorist” network in the country.

During the overnight raid, assault rifles and grenades were discovered in the El Cafetal neighborhood of the Baruta municipality in the Metropolitan District of Caracas.

Guaido accused Venezuelan security forces of “planting” the seized weapons and “kidnapping” the detained individuals. Marrero alone remains in custody.

In early February, Venezuela’s Deputy Minister for Prevention and Citizen Security Endes Palenciasaid the country’s National Guard and National Integrated Service of Customs and Tax Administration (SENIAT) personnel seized 19 rifles, 118 rifle chargers, 4 rifle holders, 3 gun sights, 90 radio antennas, and 6 mobile telephones.

They were covertly flown from Miami to Valencia state’s Arturo Michelena International Airport – likely disguised as humanitarian aid, found at a storage facility, he explained.

Wolf at the Door: Prospects of US Military Intervention in Venezuela
The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office ordered an investigation to identify individuals responsible for trying to escalate violence in the country. Security was tightened at all entry points.

Longstanding US coup tactics include political, economic, financial and sanctions war, targeted assassinations, orchestrated street violence, establishment media-supported propaganda war, supplying coup plotters with weapons, and military intervention if all else fails.

Imperialism is all about seeking dominance over other nations, doing whatever it takes to achieve objectives extrajudicially.

In response to the overnight action, Bolton tweeted:

“Maduro has made another big mistake (sic). The illegitimate arrest (sic) of Roberto Marrero…Guaido’s aide, will not go unanswered. He should be released immediately and his safety guaranteed,” adding:

“…Trump says US has not yet imposed toughest sanctions on #Venezuela.”

Pompeo tweeted the following:

“The United States condemns raids by Maduro’s security services and detention of Roberto Marrero, (henchman) to…Guaido. We call for his immediate release. We will hold accountable those involved.”

Deputy State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said Marrero’s detention “will not stand. There will be consequences for a continued crackdown.”

Guaido tweeted:

“They have kidnapped (Marrero), my chief of staff (sic),” his whereabouts unknown.

Michelle Bachelet, more imperial tool than chief UN human rights representative, tweeted:

“We urge the (Venezuelan) government to strictly respect due process and immediately reveal (Marrero’s) whereabouts.”

A Brussels statement said

“(t)he European Union urges Mr. Marrero to be released immediately and unconditionally, and holds the relevant authorities responsible for his safety and integrity.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted:

“Appalled by the news that @jguaido’s chief of staff (sic), @ROBERTOMARRERO, has been illegally detained (sic) by the Maduro (government). Intimidation and fear (sic) will not stop the return of democracy to #Venezuela (sic). Those responsible must be held accountable.”

All of the above remarks by foreign authorities reflect subservience to Washington’s imperial agenda – ignoring its flagrant violation of international law.

The State Department named five Venezuelan officials involved in Marrero’s detention: Judge Carol Padilla, prosecutors Farid Mora Salcedo and Dinora Bustamante, along with intelligence officials Danny Contreras and Angel Flores.

The US formed Lima Group of regional nations issued a statement, saying Maduro “is responsible for the security and physical integrity of Roberto Marrero and Sergio Vergara. We demand the end of harassment of Venezuelan democrats (sic) and of the systematic practice of arbitrary detention (sic) and torture (sic) in Venezuela.”

OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro made similar comments against what he called Marrero’s “arbitrary arrest (sic).”

According to the Venezuelan chief prosecutor’s office, Marrero is being investigated for crimes, including a plot to kill Maduro.

He’ll likely remain in custody until formally charged or released if exonerated.

Washington’s only options are further sanctions and/or stoking violence and chaos by armed proxies or direct military intervention, the latter possibility highly unlikely – unless all else fails.

Copyright © Stephen Lendman

 

[loyola llothta]

Stealing Venezuela’s Assets: US-based Citigroup to Sell Venezuela’s Gold “Placed as Collateral”
March 21, 2019

Citigroup Inc is planning to sell several tons of gold placed as collateral by Venezuela’s central bank on a $1.6 billion loan after the deadline for repurchasing them expired this month, Reuters reported, citing four sources with knowledge of the matter.

“Maduro’s government has since 2014 used financial operations known as gold swaps to use its international reserves to gain access to cash after a slump in oil revenues left it struggling to obtain hard currency.

In the past two years, however, it has struggled to recover its collateral.

Under the terms of the 2015 deal with Citigroup’s Citibank, Venezuela was due to repay $1.1 billion of the loan on March 11, according to four sources familiar with the situation. The remainder of the loan comes due next year.

Citibank plans to sell the gold held as a guarantee – which has a market value of roughly $1.358 billion – to recover the first tranche of the loan and will deposit the excess of roughly $258 million in a bank account in New York, two of the sources said.

The ability of Maduro’s government to repay the loans have been complicated by the South American country’s dire economic situation as well as financial sanctions imposed by the United States and some European nations,” the report says.

Reuters also cited a supposed Venezuelan government source as saying that the country’s Central Bank did not transfer the money to Citibank this month.

Neither Citigroup, nor the Venezuelan Central Bank has commented on the report yet. However, such developments as well as further economic pressure on the Maduro government are highly expected because the US-led bloc has not abandonned its plans to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

Therefore, Venezuela will likely continue to loose its economic assets in the areas, which could be impacted by Washington and its allies in these regime change efforts.

The original source of this article is South Front
Copyright © South Front, South Front, 2019

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[Breh13]

This Rubio weirdo is such an utter piece of shyt. An indictment on USA politics.

These fukkers are living a delusional life.

 

[Breh13]

These people are amazing.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

lol. USA taking a giant L. Guiado looking shady. Military leadings not budging. Power back on. Russia/Chinese backing. And more Venezuelan support for Maduro.

 

[loyola llothta]

Russia Sends “Peacekeeping” Troops to Venezuela. Joint Military Exercises.

March 25, 2019

According to Reuters on Sunday, Russia sent around 100 troops to Caracas, saying the following:

“A flight-tracking website showed that two planes left from a Russian military airport bound for Caracas on Friday, and another flight-tracking site showed that one plane left Caracas on Sunday.”

“That comes three months after the two nations held military exercises on Venezuelan soil that President Nicolas Maduro called a sign of strengthening relations, but which Washington criticized as Russian encroachment in the region.”

Reportedly Colonel General Vasily Tonkoshkurov, Main Command of Russian Land Forces chief, is leading whatever purpose lies behind its Defense Ministry’s mission.

Tonkoshkurov is a senior military figure. From October 2013 to May 2018, he was General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces subcommander – currently head of Russian ground forces.

Reportedly he was onboard one of two military aircraft sent to Caracas with other Russian forces. The second aircraft carried equipment for their mission.

Reuters: “An Ilyushin IL-62 passenger jet and an Antonov AN-124 military cargo plane left for Caracas on Friday from Russian military airport Chkalovsky, stopping along the way in Syria, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.”

“The cargo plane left Caracas on Sunday afternoon, according to Adsbexchange, another flight-tracking site.”

An unnamed Russian embassy source said officials arrived for “exchange consultations” with the Bolivarian Republic, likely with its senior military staff, according to Sputnik News, the source adding:

“Russia has various contracts that are in the process of being fulfilled, contracts of a technical military character.”

So far, neither Russian nor Venezuelan officials commented on the above report. Moscow has been supplying the Bolivarian Republic with hundreds of tons of medicines.

In January, both countries held joint military exercises in Venezuela. Two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers flew to the country.

At the time, Sputnik News said “(d)uring their visit to Venezuela, two Russian strategic bombers (capable of carrying nuclear and conventional weapons) carried out a planned flight over the Caribbean Sea and held military drills in the equatorial area, including joint flights with the Venezuelan Air Force jets.”

Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino Lopez said both countries will continue to create a “productive and energetic team of brotherhood and effective cooperation…We are getting prepared to defend Venezuela when it is needed.”

Around 100 Russia troops are far short of a Kremlin peacekeeping mission to the Bolivarian Republic I’ve been urging – something similar to combatting US-supported terrorists in Syria, short of conducting military operations unless needed.

Trump regime hardliners aren’t likely to risk harming them by direct or proxy military intervention – why I believe it’s the most effective way to defeat their coup plot.

Is a token Russian force in Venezuela prelude to sending greater numbers?

Maduro exposed a US paramilitary plot against him and his government, arrests made, indicating more to come.

In a Saturday address, he said “American imperialists want to kill me. We just exposed the plan that the devil’s puppet (Guaido) personally directed to kill me,” adding he has “evidence,” revealing the plot against him and his government.

Detained Guaido henchman Roberto Marrero’s cell phone reportedly has information about plans for eight to 10 paramilitary hit squads, each with at least eight anti-government mercenaries – trained in Colombia to carry out assassinations, sabotage, and other terrorist actions against Maduro and the Bolivarian Republic.

According to Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez,

“(a)ssassins and paramilitaries have been recruited, using large amounts of money so that they can be sent to Colombia to receive training.”

“Marrero was involved in contracting people from Guatemala and Colombia to comply with the recruitment and training plan for assassins.”

“At least 30 paramilitaries hired from El Salvador, Honduras or Guatemala, trained in Colombia, entered Venezuela. We are looking for them. We have already identified some.”

Has Russia drawn a red line to preserve and protect the Bolivarian Republic it won’t permit Trump regime hardliners to cross?

A small contingent of troops to the country headed by a senior commander is an encouraging sign.

sjlendman.blogspot.com

 

[loyola llothta]

"No War for Oil" as Thousands March Against US Intervention in Venezuela

As part of an international day against US intervention in Venezuela, a mobilization in Washington, DC with speakers Daniel Ellsberg and Jill Stein emphasized that Trump is only interested in Venezuela's resources, not in its human rights