Good Riddance Guaidó: he was supposed to be appealing, human face of US-backed regime change. His ouster as "interim president" is proof of US failure

[bripat9643]

of being awesome?

A recent article in Foreign Af airs tells us what lay in store for the longsuffering people of Venezuela should the US decide that it can only get what it wants (Venezuela’s rich oil supply) by a military invasion. As Foreign Af airs explains, in a quite disturbingly dispassionate and clinical fashion, one possible scenario would be, and this is their words, “Death from Above.” 1 And “Death from Above” could look something like this:

"In the worst-case scenario, a precision strike operation would last for months, killing possibly thousands of civilians, destroying much of what remains of Venezuela’s economy, and wiping out the state security forces. The result would be anarchy. Militias and other armed criminal groups would roam the streets of major cities unchecked, wreaking havoc. More than eight million Venezuelans would likely flee. The chaos would likely lead the United States to send in ground troops in order either to finally dislodge the regime and its security forces or to provide security once the dictatorship had collapsed."

Foreign Affairs notes that we know this is a very real scenario, as we know from other US regime change operations such as the one that has left Libya a wasteland where slaves are now being sold openly in markets. In quite typical fashion, Foreign Af airs does not advocate such an operation, but only because it would have negative consequences for the US. The suffering of the Venezuelan people is at best an afterthought.

Anyone who supports Maduro is an imbecile.

 

[basquebromance]

The US’s theft—and that is what it is—of billions of dollars of Venezuela’s oil revenues is already preventing the Venezuelan government from obtaining life-saving medicines for its people. Other US sanctions have already made it impossible for Venezuela to purchase food abroad, to buy necessary parts for its public transportation and electrical system and to generally keep up its civilian infrastructure. In a height of irony, the US sanctions—intended, the Administration claims, to bring democracy to Venezuela—are also preventing Venezuela’s National Electoral Commission from purchasing equipment necessary to keep up the country’s voting machinery.

All of this imposed deprivation is, of course, by design. Indeed, the US’s former hand-picked puppet, Juan Guaido, previously publically threatened the Venezuelan people that they will not have electricity or water until President Maduro is gone. Mike Pompeo made similar comments

 

[ReinyDays]

i've been to Venezuela numerous times. i go all around the world for free. don't ask me how. white privilege!

Then you must be blind ... white privilege ...

 

[basquebromance]

I just returned from Venezuela where electricity was out about half the time I was there. And without electricity, there is no running water, internet, phone service or gasoline. In addition, without electricity, there is no refrigeration for food, and much food spoiled during the five-day outage, including 100 thousand liters of milk.

Incredibly, though, the country was still amazingly calm, with people finding ways to adjust the best they can. Indeed, much to the chagrin of those in Washington hoping that such deprivations would lead to chaos and to people being at each other’s throats, those on opposite sides of the political spectrum have been pulling together to help each other out through the periodic blackouts.

 

[bripat9643]

The US’s theft—and that is what it is—of billions of dollars of Venezuela’s oil revenues is already preventing the Venezuelan government from obtaining life-saving medicines for its people. Other US sanctions have already made it impossible for Venezuela to purchase food abroad, to buy necessary parts for its public transportation and electrical system and to generally keep up its civilian infrastructure. In a height of irony, the US sanctions—intended, the Administration claims, to bring democracy to Venezuela—are also preventing Venezuela’s National Electoral Commission from purchasing equipment necessary to keep up the country’s voting machinery.

All of this imposed deprivation is, of course, by design. Indeed, the US’s former hand-picked puppet, Juan Guaido, previously publically threatened the Venezuelan people that they will not have electricity or water until President Maduro is gone. Mike Pompeo made similar comments

How has the US stolen Venezuelan oil revenues? The incompetence of the Venezuelan government is the only thing preventing them from purchasing life-saving medicines.

How have any sanctions prevented Venezuela from buying food from other countries, parts for its public transportation or electrical system? US sanctions apply only to US companies.

 

[bripat9643]

I just returned from Venezuela where electricity was out about half the time I was there. And without electricity, there is no running water, internet, phone service or gasoline. In addition, without electricity, there is no refrigeration for food, and much food spoiled during the five-day outage, including 100 thousand liters of milk.

Venezuelans can thank their socialist government for that.

Incredibly, though, the country was still amazingly calm, with people finding ways to adjust the best they can. Indeed, much to the chagrin of those in Washington hoping that such deprivations would lead to chaos and to people being at each other’s throats, those on opposite sides of the political spectrum have been pulling together to help each other out through the periodic blackouts.

What a fucking load.

 

[basquebromance]

former UN expert Dr. Albert de Zayas reminds us that the US, even back in 1973, managed to cause a blackout in Chile just weeks before it successfully overthrew President Salvador Allende in a coup, and he believes that the US is behind the blackout in Venezuela:

from the AP:
Thus, de Zayas recounts that, four weeks before the coup d’etat of Augusto Pinochet against the Chilean president, “there was precisely a blackout.” “Salvador Allende was in the middle of a speech when that happens, and evidently behind the blackout was sabotage,” he said. The expert explains that the idea behind this type of act is to cause “anxiety” and “confusion”, which in turn is combined with the sanctions of the North American country to generate “chaos” in Venezuela. “The United States, then, is causing this chaos. It wants to present itself as a good Samaritan,” stressed De Zayas. The analyst, appointed by the United Nations for the promotion of a democratic and egalitarian international order (2012–2018), emphasizes that this US strategy “is not only illegal and not only violates customary international law,” but also entails death

 

[bripat9643]

former UN expert Dr. Albert de Zayas reminds us that the US, even back in 1973, managed to cause a blackout in Chile just weeks before it successfully overthrew President Salvador Allende in a coup, and he believes that the US is behind the blackout in Venezuela:

Well, if a "UN expert" says it's true, then it must be true!

from the AP:
Thus, de Zayas recounts that, four weeks before the coup d’etat of Augusto Pinochet against the Chilean president, “there was precisely a blackout.” “Salvador Allende was in the middle of a speech when that happens, and evidently behind the blackout was sabotage,” he said. The expert explains that the idea behind this type of act is to cause “anxiety” and “confusion”, which in turn is combined with the sanctions of the North American country to generate “chaos” in Venezuela. “The United States, then, is causing this chaos. It wants to present itself as a good Samaritan,” stressed De Zayas. The analyst, appointed by the United Nations for the promotion of a democratic and egalitarian international order (2012–2018), emphasizes that this US strategy “is not only illegal and not only violates customary international law,” but also entails death

One characteristics of socialist dictatorships is that they always blame failures in their economy on "sabotage" and the sinister forces of reaction. The Soviets did it, as did the Communist Chinese, North Koreans, Cubans and North Vietnamese.

 

[basquebromance]

Well, if a "UN expert" says it's true, then it must be true!


One characteristics of socialist dictatorships is that they always blame failures in their economy on "sabotage" and the sinister forces of reaction. The Soviets did it, as did the Communist Chinese, North Koreans, Cubans and North Vietnamese.

Forbes magazine printed a story explaining the very real possibility of a US cyberattack upon Venezuela’s electrical system. Thus, as Kalev Lootaru, who specializes in the intersection of data and society, writes for Forbes:

" In the case of Venezuela, the idea of a government like the United States remotely interfering with its power grid is actually quite realistic. Remote cyber operations rarely require a significant ground presence, making them the ideal deniable influence operation. Given the US government’s longstanding concern with Venezuela’s government, it is likely that the US already maintains a deep presence within the country’s national infrastructure grid, making it relatively straightforward to interfere with grid operations. The country’s outdated internet and power infrastructure present few formidable challenges to such operations and make it relatively easy to remove any traces of foreign intervention. Widespread power and connectivity outages like the one Venezuela experienced last week are also straight from the modern cyber playbook. Cutting power at rush hour, ensuring maximal impact on civilian society and plenty of mediagenic post-apocalyptic imagery, fits squarely into the mold of a traditional influence operation. Timing such an outage to occur at a moment of societal upheaval in a way that delegitimizes the current government exactly as a government-in-waiting has presented itself as a ready alternative is actually one of the tactics outlined in my 2015 summary. "

journalist and author Steven Gowans opined:

"Washington very likely has the cyberwarfare capability to cripple Venezuela’s power grid. On November 12, 2018, David Sanger reported in the New York Times that, The United States had a secret program, code-named “Nitro Zeus,” which called for turning off the power grid in much of Iran if the two countries had found themselves in a conflict over Iran’s nuclear program. Such a use of cyberweapons is now a key element in war planning by all of the major world powers. If the United States can turn off the power grid in Iran, using a cyberweapon that is now a key element in war planning of all the major world powers, it’s highly likely that it can do the same in Venezuela. What’s more, the United States has on at least two occasions carried out cyberattacks against foreign states. Significantly, the attacks were unleashed against governments which, like Venezuela’s, have refused to submit to US hegemony. US cyberattacks were used to cripple Iran’s uranium enrichment program (now widely acknowledged) and to sabotage North Korea’s rocket program, the latter revealed by various sources, including, again, by the New York Time’s [sic] Sanger: “[F]or years … the United States has targeted the North’s missile program with cyberattacks,” the reporter wrote in August, 2017"

As Gowans correctly concludes, “[t]he aforesaid, of course, is only evidence of capability, not of commission, but when placed within the context of Washington making clear its intention to topple the resource nationalist Maduro government, US capability, motivation, and practice, does very strongly cast suspicion on the US government.” And indeed, there is even more to the story. Thus, an electrical blackout was specifically listed as a potential catalyst for social unrest in a blueprint for regime change in Venezuela back in 2010. As journalist Max Blumenthal explains, “[a] September 2010 memo by a USfunded soft power organization that helped train Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaido and his allies identifies the potential collapse of the country’s electrical sector as ‘a watershed event’ that ‘would likely have the impact of galvanizing public unrest in a way that no opposition group could ever hope to generate.’”

Blumenthal further explains that the timing of the blackout, as well as the response of US officials to it—seemingly before it even happened—seems quite suspicious. Thus, Blumenthal relates, “n a tweet on March 8, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo framed the electricity outage as a pivotal stage in US plans for regime change.” Thus, Pompeo tweeted out, “‘Maduro’s policies bring nothing but darkness,’” and, “‘No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro.’” Meanwhile, as Blumenthal further explains:

At noon on March 7, during a hearing on Venezuela at the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, Sen. Marco Rubio explicitly called for the US to stir “widespread unrest,” declaring that it “needs to happen” in order to achieve regime change. “Venezuela is going to enter a period of suffering no nation in our hemisphere has confronted in modern history,” Rubio proclaimed. Around 5 PM, the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant experienced a total and still unexplained collapse. Residents of Caracas and throughout Venezuela were immediately plunged into darkness. At 5:18 PM, a clearly excited Rubio took to Twitter to announce the blackout and claim that “backup generators have failed.” It was unclear how Rubio had obtained such specific information so soon after the outage occurred. According to Jorge Rodriguez, the communications minister of Venezuela, local authorities did not know if backup generators had failed at the time of Rubio’s tweet.

 

[bripat9643]

Forbes magazine printed a story explaining the very real possibility of a US cyberattack upon Venezuela’s electrical system. Thus, as Kalev Lootaru, who specializes in the intersection of data and society, writes for Forbes:

" In the case of Venezuela, the idea of a government like the United States remotely interfering with its power grid is actually quite realistic. Remote cyber operations rarely require a significant ground presence, making them the ideal deniable influence operation. Given the US government’s longstanding concern with Venezuela’s government, it is likely that the US already maintains a deep presence within the country’s national infrastructure grid, making it relatively straightforward to interfere with grid operations. The country’s outdated internet and power infrastructure present few formidable challenges to such operations and make it relatively easy to remove any traces of foreign intervention. Widespread power and connectivity outages like the one Venezuela experienced last week are also straight from the modern cyber playbook. Cutting power at rush hour, ensuring maximal impact on civilian society and plenty of mediagenic post-apocalyptic imagery, fits squarely into the mold of a traditional influence operation. Timing such an outage to occur at a moment of societal upheaval in a way that delegitimizes the current government exactly as a government-in-waiting has presented itself as a ready alternative is actually one of the tactics outlined in my 2015 summary. "

journalist and author Steven Gowans opined:

"Washington very likely has the cyberwarfare capability to cripple Venezuela’s power grid. On November 12, 2018, David Sanger reported in the New York Times that, The United States had a secret program, code-named “Nitro Zeus,” which called for turning off the power grid in much of Iran if the two countries had found themselves in a conflict over Iran’s nuclear program. Such a use of cyberweapons is now a key element in war planning by all of the major world powers. If the United States can turn off the power grid in Iran, using a cyberweapon that is now a key element in war planning of all the major world powers, it’s highly likely that it can do the same in Venezuela. What’s more, the United States has on at least two occasions carried out cyberattacks against foreign states. Significantly, the attacks were unleashed against governments which, like Venezuela’s, have refused to submit to US hegemony. US cyberattacks were used to cripple Iran’s uranium enrichment program (now widely acknowledged) and to sabotage North Korea’s rocket program, the latter revealed by various sources, including, again, by the New York Time’s [sic] Sanger: “[F]or years … the United States has targeted the North’s missile program with cyberattacks,” the reporter wrote in August, 2017"

As Gowans correctly concludes, “[t]he aforesaid, of course, is only evidence of capability, not of commission, but when placed within the context of Washington making clear its intention to topple the resource nationalist Maduro government, US capability, motivation, and practice, does very strongly cast suspicion on the US government.” And indeed, there is even more to the story. Thus, an electrical blackout was specifically listed as a potential catalyst for social unrest in a blueprint for regime change in Venezuela back in 2010. As journalist Max Blumenthal explains, “[a] September 2010 memo by a USfunded soft power organization that helped train Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaido and his allies identifies the potential collapse of the country’s electrical sector as ‘a watershed event’ that ‘would likely have the impact of galvanizing public unrest in a way that no opposition group could ever hope to generate.’”

Blumenthal further explains that the timing of the blackout, as well as the response of US officials to it—seemingly before it even happened—seems quite suspicious. Thus, Blumenthal relates, “n a tweet on March 8, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo framed the electricity outage as a pivotal stage in US plans for regime change.” Thus, Pompeo tweeted out, “‘Maduro’s policies bring nothing but darkness,’” and, “‘No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro.’” Meanwhile, as Blumenthal further explains:

At noon on March 7, during a hearing on Venezuela at the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, Sen. Marco Rubio explicitly called for the US to stir “widespread unrest,” declaring that it “needs to happen” in order to achieve regime change. “Venezuela is going to enter a period of suffering no nation in our hemisphere has confronted in modern history,” Rubio proclaimed. Around 5 PM, the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant experienced a total and still unexplained collapse. Residents of Caracas and throughout Venezuela were immediately plunged into darkness. At 5:18 PM, a clearly excited Rubio took to Twitter to announce the blackout and claim that “backup generators have failed.” It was unclear how Rubio had obtained such specific information so soon after the outage occurred. According to Jorge Rodriguez, the communications minister of Venezuela, local authorities did not know if backup generators had failed at the time of Rubio’s tweet.

Kalev Lootaru was a former Yahoo! Fellow in Residence of International Values, Communications Technology & the Global Internet at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University,[3] before moving to George Washington University.

Diplomats are notorious for being fools and leftists. You are asking us to trust a Communist government. The chances they are telling the truth is nil. The Chilean economy was imploding at the time. The US government didn't need to lift a finger for chaos to ensue

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

Some 7 million (!) refugees have left Venezuela — most in the period since Trump sanctions were put into effect. Of course mostly people with a modicum of money or education or with technical skills left — leaving Maduro supporters in a stronger position.

These emigrants (like those from Cuba and Nicaragua) are desperately working odd jobs all over South & Central America & Mexico. They face the same hostility as others fighting for refugee status on our Southern border. They together constitute the great majority trying to gain “refugee status” at the U.S. southern border.

Of course the bripat9643 ’s of the world could care less.

Probably the first and most important step to overcoming the authoritarian regime in Venezuela is to help and encourage these emigrants to return to their own homeland — but this would require recognizing the government there, ending most sanctions, opening Visa offices in the country (the Biden Administration finally re-opened our consulate visa operations in Havana this week). These and similar policies would require domestic will-power and determined statesmanship badly lacking in the U.S.A.

It is unfortunately much easier to play the U.S. bipartisan “anti-communist” or even “anti-terrorist” card against these governments, and this has been the case for generations. I am not optimistic that sanity will now prevail here in Uncle Sam’s backyard, where U.S. raw power and influence — and arrogance — is at its greatest.

 

[basquebromance]

As Glenn Greenwald lamented shortly after the New York Times quite belatedly reported on what many independent reporters, such as Max Blumenthal, had revealed over two weeks before at the time it was actually happening—that is, that aid trucks were being lit ablaze by pro-Guaido forces and not by those loyal to Maduro:

"Every major US war of the last several decades has begun the same way: the US government fabricates an inflammatory, emotionally provocative lie which large US media outlets uncritically treat as truth while refusing at air questioning or dissent, thus inflaming primal anger against the country the US wants to attack. That’s how we got the Vietnam War (North Vietnam attacks US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin); the Gulf War (Saddam ripped babies from incubators); and, of course, the war in Iraq (Saddam had WMDs and formed an alliance with Al Qaeda). This was exactly the tactic used on February 23, when the narrative shifted radically in favor of those US officials who want regime change operations in Venezuela. That’s because images were broadcast all over the world of trucks carrying humanitarian aid burning in Colombia on the Venezuela border…. As it always does—as it always has done from its inception when Wolf Blitzer embedded with US troops—CNN led the way in not just spreading these government lies but independently purporting to vouch for their truth. On February 24, CNN told the world what we all now know is an absolute lie: that “a CNN team saw incendiary devices from police on the Venezuelan side of the border ignite the trucks,” though it generously added that “the network’s journalists are unsure if the trucks were burned on purpose.” That lie—supported by incredibly powerful video images—changed everything. Ever since, that Maduro burned trucks filled with humanitarian aid was repeated over and over as proven fact on US news outlets. Immediately after it was claimed, politicians who had been silent on the issue of Venezuela or even reluctant to support regime change began issuing statements now supportive of it."

 

[bripat9643]

Some 7 million (!) refugees have left Venezuela — most in the period since Trump sanctions were put into effect. Of course mostly people with a modicum of money or education or with technical skills left — leaving Maduro supporters in a stronger position.

You mean in the period since the socialists came to power.

These emigrants (like those from Cuba and Nicaragua) are desperately working odd jobs all over South & Central America & Mexico. They face the same hostility as others fighting for refugee status on our Southern border. They together constitute the great majority trying to gain “refugee status” at the U.S. southern border.

Not. It's a long way from Venezuela to the Mexican/US border.

 

[bripat9643]

As Glenn Greenwald lamented shortly after the New York Times quite belatedly reported on what many independent reporters, such as Max Blumenthal, had revealed over two weeks before at the time it was actually happening—that is, that aid trucks were being lit ablaze by pro-Guaido forces and not by those loyal to Maduro:

What the fuck are "aid trucks?"

"Every major US war of the last several decades has begun the same way: the US government fabricates an inflammatory, emotionally provocative lie which large US media outlets uncritically treat as truth while refusing at air questioning or dissent, thus inflaming primal anger against the country the US wants to attack. That’s how we got the Vietnam War (North Vietnam attacks US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin); the Gulf War (Saddam ripped babies from incubators); and, of course, the war in Iraq (Saddam had WMDs and formed an alliance with Al Qaeda). This was exactly the tactic used on February 23, when the narrative shifted radically in favor of those US officials who want regime change operations in Venezuela. That’s because images were broadcast all over the world of trucks carrying humanitarian aid burning in Colombia on the Venezuela border…. As it always does—as it always has done from its inception when Wolf Blitzer embedded with US troops—CNN led the way in not just spreading these government lies but independently purporting to vouch for their truth. On February 24, CNN told the world what we all now know is an absolute lie: that “a CNN team saw incendiary devices from police on the Venezuelan side of the border ignite the trucks,” though it generously added that “the network’s journalists are unsure if the trucks were burned on purpose.” That lie—supported by incredibly powerful video images—changed everything. Ever since, that Maduro burned trucks filled with humanitarian aid was repeated over and over as proven fact on US news outlets. Immediately after it was claimed, politicians who had been silent on the issue of Venezuela or even reluctant to support regime change began issuing statements now supportive of it."

You're the one speading lies, turd. One thing every leftwing totalitarian government does is blame all the countries economic problems on the United States when it's obviously the socialist government that is responsible.

 

[bripat9643]

I just returned from Venezuela where electricity was out about half the time I was there. And without electricity, there is no running water, internet, phone service or gasoline. In addition, without electricity, there is no refrigeration for food, and much food spoiled during the five-day outage, including 100 thousand liters of milk.

Incredibly, though, the country was still amazingly calm, with people finding ways to adjust the best they can. Indeed, much to the chagrin of those in Washington hoping that such deprivations would lead to chaos and to people being at each other’s throats, those on opposite sides of the political spectrum have been pulling together to help each other out through the periodic blackouts.

How did you establish that the US was responsible?

 

[basquebromance]

The United States appears to be destined to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty. —Simon Bolivar, 1829