What's Cooking in Clinton's Cauldron?

[Mrs. M.]

"AMERIZUELA"​

Socialism: "Better Together" - Hillary's Vision For America

​

What's cooking in Clinton's cauldron? Amerizuela. Hillary and her media lap dogs have created a news media blackout on Venezuela because under her administration, the failed state is precisely what America will look like. Today in Venezuela there are rolling blackouts, people are starving and have resorted to eating zoo animals, the inflation rate is reported to be anywhere from 485% - 720% (depending upon the source) and the country is collapsing under installed socialist President Manduro who came to power after Hugo Chavez died of cancer. Chavez suspected that he had been poisoned by CIA agents. He believed this was another State Department / CIA coup d' etat planned against him to remove him from power in Venezuela.

After reading many articles written by mainstream media which described Chavez as a tyrannical socialist dictator oppressing the poor in Venezuela, I decided to search for the other side of the story. After all, Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State at the time. It wouldn't be the first time the media had covered up the truth. I learned that Chavez was adamantly opposed to the NWO and was an outspoken critic of Hillary Clinton's close friend and mentor, Henry Kissinger. A former army colonel stated that Hugo Chavez was not an a Socialist. That he was he was an enemy of the struggle for socialism. This statement is a complete contradiction of what mainstream media has written about Hugo Chavez.

With that, here is the other side of the story as presented by Mark Weisbrot:

Mark Weistbrot wrote:
The New York Times, for its part, ran yet another hate piece on its op-ed page. Dog bites man. Nothing new here, they have doing this for almost 14 years – most recently just three months ago. This one was remarkably unoriginal, comparing the Chávez government to a Latin American magical realist novel. It contained very little information – but being fact-free allowed the authors to claim that the country had “dwindling productivity” and “an enormous foreign debt load.” Productivity has not “dwindled” under Chávez; in fact real GDP per capita, which is mostly driven by productivity growth, expanded by 24 percent since 2004. (For an explanation of why 2004 is a reasonable starting point, see here.) In the 20 years prior to Chávez, real GDP per person actually fell. As for the “enormous foreign debt load,” Venezuela’s foreign public debt is about 28 percent of GDP, and the interest on it is about 2 percent of GDP. If this is enormous – well, let’s just say these people don’t have a good sense of quantity.

The authors were probably just following a general rule, which is that you can say almost anything you want about Venezuela, so long as it is bad – and it usually goes unquestioned. Statistics and data count for very little when the media is presenting its ugly picture. - end quote
Venezuela Hate-Fest

Turning his attention to yet another American News Source the author writes:

This is especially true for Jon Lee Anderson, writing in the January 28 issue of the New Yorker (“Slumlord: What has Hugo Chávez wrought in Venezuela?”). He mentions in passing that “the poorest Venezuelans are marginally better off these days.” Marginally? From 2004-2011, extreme poverty was reduced by about two-thirds. Poverty was reduced by about one-half, and this measures only cash income. It does not count the access to health care that millions now have, or the doubling of college enrollment – with free tuition for many. Access to public pensions tripled. Unemployment is half of what it was when Chávez took office. -end quote

Whether we approve or not of Chavez's anti-semitism and his opinion of Israel (I don't approve) it does appear that he was well liked by the poor in his country and the country was doing well under his leadership without UN / NATO assistance which perhaps is why the CIA led a failed coup d' etat against him in 2002. The timing appears to have coincided with a slow down in the Venezuelan economy which recovered after Chavez won the recall referendum:

Caracas, Venezuela during Hugo Chavez Presidency
​

What is interesting is that Hugo Chavez went on record stating that he wasn't a Socialist nor was he an anti-Imperialist. What exactly he believed in is difficult to ascertain. Another point of view offered:

Hugo Chávez died on March 5 2013. He was President of Venezuela between February 1999 and March 2013. His long hold on power was a result of the 4 elections in which he won by clear majorities. There is little disputing the fact that his main base of support came from the poorest layers of Venezuelan society and there is a good case to be made that his period in power saw some improvement in their condition (according to the World Bank the desperately poor in Venezuela has declined from 23% to 9% of the population).

Anyone reading the more ridiculous comments of the neo-liberal right would be pushed into a positive picture of a benevolent, socially concerned man of the people. When US papers accuse him of monopolising the media or recklessly increasing Venezuela’s debt burden we can only laugh. There are plenty of Berlusconi’s or Murdochs in the West and Venezuela’s debt burden is still much less than any of the G20 powers reeling from the collapse of 2008. To the open supporters of capitalism we have no more to say. A much more dangerous myth has to be countered: the widely-held belief that Chávez and ‘Chavismo’ represented real socialism.

Hugo Chávez: Neither Socialist Nor Anti-Imperialist | Leftcom

The comparison between the Chavez presidency and Socialist President Manduro's are stark - judging by the state of the economy, inflation rate, poverty rate and astronomical rise in crime...

"What's Happening in Venezuela?"​

2016: Caracas, Venezuela named as the world's most violent city

​

This looks quite different from Venezuela during Chavez Presidency!​

Why does the mainstream media in the United States refuse to report one of the most important stories of our time? It happened under Clinton's watch as Secretary of State. This is what has happened to Venezuela after Hugo Chavez died and the Socialist President Manduro who replaced him was installed. While I do not agree with Mr. Chavez's anti-semitism, it is quite clear that Venezuela was far better off under his leadership than it is today under Socialist President Manduro. Was there a second coup d' etat against Chavez which led to his death and the installation of this Socialist Tyrant who is now using military force and starvation to control the people of Venezuela? If so, it was another Clinton Coup d' etat. This might explain their not reporting what is happening in Venezuela now.

Venezuelan Journalist Rightly Wonders Why American Media Ignores Unfolding Crisis

A Venezuelan woman and her children suffer because of the current Socialist regime that was installed after President Hugo Chavez died. This poor mother and her children! What a tragic picture and it is the same all over Venezuela!

Last but not least we have this final report on Venezuela...

Dave Hodges reports:

Venezuelans are in search of anything they can eat. Despite having one of the world’s richest oil reserves, dogs, cats, and pigeons are in danger. Soon, there will be only thing left to eat, each other! America is following the same path. At the center of it all is Hillary Clinton. As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was responsible for the unfolding starvation holocaust in Venezuela with regard to her role as Secretary of State. Venezuela is on the verge of a human holocaust due to a lack of food caused by Clinton’s actions against then Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez.

Hillary Clinton deserves all comparisons to Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Even as the Secretary of State, she has demonstrated a gross disdain for the sovereignty of any nation. In these emails, Clinton is demonstrating the kind of sociopathic behavior possessed by all mass murderers. With regard to her actions in Venezuela, she has not only earned her title as the Butcher of Benghazi, she has far exceeded that label.

The reader now has the ability to access Clinton’s recently leaked emails that demonstrates her propensity to become one of the greatest mass murderers in World History should she ever gain the power of the US Presidency.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Clinton-Emails-Reveal-Direct-US-Sabotage-of-Venezuela-20160726-0041.html …

​

Clinton Emails Reveal Direct US Sabotage of Venezuela

Clinton Is Responsible for the Venezuelan Mass Starvation​

Control oil and you control nations, control food and you control the people.
- Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger

What's cooking in Clinton's Cauldron?

AMERIZUELA!
​

2016:Caracas, Venezuela named as the world's most violent city

Trump: The U.S. Will Become ‘Another Venezuela’ if Clinton Wins in November

Trump: If Hillary wins, 'we will be a large-scale version of Venezuela'

CIA's Cancer Weapons

US dismisses claims that CIA gave Chávez cancer as 'absurd'

Clinton Is Responsible for the Venezuelan Mass Starvation

Clinton Emails Reveal Direct US Sabotage of Venezuela

 

[Mrs. M.]

Fox News Latino finally reported today (captions w/ pictures - their idea of a story) that the Venezuelan people are protesting the Socialist Dictator Manduro who was installed after Hugo Chavez died. It took this to get them to write a story and still it is filed under Fox Latino. Incredible.

A mass of people take a highway during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016. Venezuela's standoff deepened after congress voted to open a political trial against Maduro for breaking the constitutional order and opposition leaders called for mass demonstrations on Wednesday to drive the leader from office. Opposition figures say turnout is expected to rival a Sept. 1 rally that drew hundreds of thousands into the street to demand that a recall campaign against President Nicolas Maduro be allowed to proceed. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Why has the US Media been avoiding this story? Because Hillary Clinton is behind it and this isn't a convenient time for the media to run it. The American people might get the idea that what Clinton has done to Venezuela she will do here if she gets election. She will!

 

[Bleipriester]

US-Led Economic War, Not Socialism, Is Tearing Venezuela Apart
Americans have been trained by decades of Cold War propaganda to look for any confirmation that ‘socialism means poverty.’ But in the case of Venezuela and other states not governed by the free market, this cliche simply doesn’t ring true.

WASHINGTON — (ANALYSIS) The political and economic crisis facing Venezuela is being endlessly pointed to as proof of the superiority of the free market.

Images and portrayals of Venezuelans rioting in the streets over high food costs, empty grocery stores, medicine shortages, and overflowing garbage bins are the headlines, and the reporting points to socialism as the cause.

The Chicago Tribune published a Commentary piece titled: “A socialist revolution can ruin almost any country.” A headline on Reason’s Hit and Run blog proclaims: “Venezuelan socialism still a complete disaster.” The Week’s U.S. edition says: “Authoritarian socialism caused Venezuela’s collapse.”

Indeed, corporate-owned, mainstream media advises Americans to look at the inflation and food lines in Venezuela, and then repeat to themselves clichés they heard in elementary school about how “Communism just doesn’t work.”

In reality, millions of Venezuelans have seen their living conditions vastly improved through the Bolivarian process. The problems plaguing the Venezuelan economy are not due to some inherent fault in socialism, but to artificially low oil prices and sabotage by forces hostile to the revolution.

Starting in 2014, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil. This is not a mere business decision, but a calculated move coordinated with U.S. and Israeli foreign policy goals. Despite not just losing money, but even falling deep into debt, the Saudi monarchy continues to expand its oil production apparatus. The result has been driving the price of oil down from $110 per barrel, to $28 in the early months of this year.The goal is to weaken these opponents of Wall Street, London, and Tel Aviv, whose economies are centered around oil and natural gas exports.

And Venezuela is one of those countries. Saudi efforts to drive down oil prices have drastically reduced Venezuela’s state budget and led to enormous consequences for the Venezuelan economy.

At the same time, private food processing and importing corporations have launched a coordinated campaign of sabotage. This, coupled with the weakening of a vitally important state sector of the economy, has resulted in inflation and food shortages. The artificially low oil prices have left the Venezuelan state cash-starved, prompting a crisis in the funding of the social programs that were key to strengthening the United Socialist Party.

Corruption is a big problem in Venezuela and many third-world countries. This was true prior to the Bolivarian process, as well as after Hugo Chavez launched his massive economic reforms. In situations of extreme poverty, people learn to take care of each other. People who work in government are almost expected to use their position to take care of their friends and family. Corruption is a big problem under any system, but it is much easier to tolerate in conditions of greater abundance. The problem has been magnified in Venezuela due to the drop in state revenue caused by the low oil prices and sabotage from food importers.



The Bolivarian experience in Venezuela
Americans have been trained by decades of Cold War propaganda to look for any confirmation that “socialism means poverty.” A quick, simplistic portrait of the problems currently facing Venezuela, coupled with the fact that President Nicolas Maduro describes himself as a Marxist, can certainly give them such a confirmation. However, the actual, undisputed history of socialist construction around the world, including recent decades in Venezuela, tells a completely different story.

Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela in 1999. His election was viewed as a referendum on the extreme free market policies enacted in Venezuela during the 1990s. In December, when I walked through the neighborhoods of central Caracas, Venezuelans spoke of these times with horror.

Venezuelans told of how the privatizations mandated by the International Monetary Fund made life in Venezuela almost unlivable during the 1990s. Garbage wouldn’t be collected. Electricity would go off for weeks. Haido Ortega, a member of a local governing body in Venezuela, said: “Under previous governments we had to burn tires and go on strike just to get electricity, have the streets fixed, or get any investment.”

Chavez took office on a platform advocating a path between capitalism and socialism. He restructured the government-owned oil company so that the profits would go into the Venezuelan state, not the pockets of Wall Street corporations. With the proceeds of Venezuela’s oil exports, Chavez funded a huge apparatus of social programs.

After defeating an attempted coup against him in 2002, Chavez announced the goal of bringing Venezuela toward “21st Century Socialism.” Chavez quoted Marx and Lenin in his many TV addresses to the country, and mobilized the country around the goal of creating a prosperous, non-capitalist society.

In 1998, Venezuela had only 12 public universities, today it has 32. Cuban doctors were brought to Venezuela to provide free health care in community clinics. The government provides cooking and heating gas to low-income neighborhoods, and it’s launched a literacy campaign for uneducated adults.

During the George W. Bush administration, oil prices were the highest they had ever been. The destruction of Iraq, sanctions on Iran and Russia, strikes and turmoil in Nigeria — these events created a shortage on the international markets, driving prices up.

Big oil revenues enabled Chavez and the United Socialist Party to bring millions of Venezuelans out of poverty. Between 1995 and 2009, poverty and unemployment in Venezuela were both cut in half.

After the death of Chavez, Nicolas Maduro has continued the Bolivarian program. “Housing Missions” have been built across the country, providing low-income families in Venezuela with places to live. The Venezuelan government reports that over 1 million modern apartment buildings had been constructed by the end of 2015.

The problems currently facing Venezuela started in 2014. The already growing abundance of oil due to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, was compounded by Saudi Arabia flooding the markets with cheap oil. The result: massive price drops. Despite facing a domestic fiscal crisis, Saudi Arabia continues to expand its oil production apparatus.

The price of oil remains low, as negotiations among OPEC states are taking place in the hopes that prices can be driven back up. While American media insists the low oil prices are just the natural cycle of the market at work, it’s rather convenient for U.S. foreign policy. Russia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and the Islamic Republic of Iran all have economies centered around state-owned oil companies and oil exports, and each of these countries has suffered the sting of low oil prices.

The leftist president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, has already been deposed due to scandal surrounding Petrobras, the state-owned oil company which is experiencing economic problems due to the falling price of oil. Although much of Brazil’s oil is for domestic consumption, it has been revealed that those who deposed her coordinated with the CIA and other forces in Washington and Wall Street, utilizing the economic fallout of low oil prices to bring down the Brazilian president.

The son of President Ronald Reagan has argued that Obama is intentionally driving down oil prices not just to weaken the Venezuelan economy, but also to tamper the influence of Russia and Iran. Writing for Townhall in 2014, Michael Reagan bragged that his father did the same thing to hurt the Soviet Union during the 1980s:

“Since selling oil was the source of the Kremlin’s wealth, my father got the Saudis to flood the market with cheap oil.

Lower oil prices devalued the ruble, causing the USSR to go bankrupt, which led to perestroika and Mikhail Gorbachev and the collapse of the Soviet Empire.”

The history of socialist construction
Prior to the 1917 revolution, Russia was a primitive, agrarian country. By 1936, after the completion of the Five-Year Plan, it was a world industrial power, surpassing every other country on the globe in terms of steel and tractor production. The barren Soviet countryside was lit up with electricity. The children of illiterate peasants across the Soviet Union grew up to be the scientists and engineers who first conquered outer space. The planned economy of the Soviet Union drastically improved the living standards of millions of people, bringing them running water, modern housing, guaranteed employment, and free education.

There is no contradiction between central planning and economic growth. In 1949, China had no steel industry. Today, more than half of all the world’s steel is produced in China’s government-controlled steel industry.

Cuba has wiped out illiteracy, and Cubans enjoy one of the highest life expectancies in Latin America.

When the Marxist-Leninist governments of Eastern Europe collapsed in the early 1990s, economists like Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, who can be counted among capitalism’s “true believers,” predicted rapid economic growth. Since the 1990s, conditions in what George W. Bush called the “New Europe” have becomefar worse than under socialism. The life expectancy has decreased and infant mortality has risen. Human and drug traffickers have set up shop. In endless polls, the people of Eastern Europe repeatedly say life was better before the defeat of Communism.

Russia’s recovery from the disaster of the 1990s has come about with the reorientation of the economy to one centered around public control of its oil and natural gas resources — much like Venezuela. The Putin government has also waged a crackdown on the small number of “oligarchs” who became wealthy after the demise of the Soviet Union. Once strong state to control the economy was re-established, Russia’s gross domestic product increased by 70 percent during the first eight years of Putin’s administration. From 2000 to 2008, poverty was cut in half, and incomes doubled.



Neoliberal capitalism has failed
It is only because these facts are simply off-limits in the American media and its discussions of socialism and capitalism that the distorted narrative about Venezuela’s current hardships are believed.

American media has perpetuated a cold-war induced false narrative on the nature of socialism.

When discussing the merits of capitalism and socialism, American media usually restricts the conversation to pointing out that socialist countries in the third world have lower living standards than the United States, a country widely identified with capitalism. Without any context or fair comparison, this alone is supposed to prove the inherent superiority of U.S.-style capitalism.

If the kind of neoliberal “free trade” advocated by U.S. corporations was the solution to global poverty, Mexico, a country long ago penetrated with the North American Free Trade Agreement, would be a shining example of development, not a mess of drug cartels and poverty. The same can be said for oil-rich countries like Nigeria, where exports are massive but the population remains in dire conditions.

The governments of Bangladesh, Honduras, Guatemala, Indonesia, and the Philippines have done everything they can to deregulate the market and accommodate Western ”investment.” Despite the promises of neoliberal theoreticians, their populations have not seen their lives substantially improve.

If one compares the more market-oriented economy of the U.S., not to countries in the global south attempting to develop with a planned economy, but to other Western countries with more social-democratic governments, the inferiority of the “free market” can also be revealed.

The U.S. is rated 43 in the world in terms of life expectancy, according to the CIA World Factbook. People live longer in Germany, Britain, Spain, France, Sweden, Australia, Italy, Iceland — basically, almost every other Western country. Statistics on the rate of infant mortality say approximately the same thing. National health care services along with greater job security and economic protections render much healthier populations.

Even as the social-democratic welfare states of Europe drift closer to the U.S. economic model with “austerity cuts,” the U.S. still lags behind them in terms of basic societal health. Western European countries with powerful unions, strong socialist and labor parties, and less punitive criminal justice systems tend to have healthier societies.

The American perception that socialism or government intervention automatically create poverty, while alaissez faire approach unleashes limitless prosperity, is simply incorrect. Despite the current hardships, this reality is reflected in the last two decades of Venezuela’s history.



A punishment vote, not a vote for capitalism
The artificially low oil prices have left the Venezuelan state cash-starved, prompting a crisis in the funding of the social programs that were key to strengthening the United Socialist Party.

It is odd that the mainstream press blames “socialism” for the food problems in Venezuela, when the food distributors remain in the hands of private corporations. As Venezuelan political analyst Jesus Silva told me recently: “Most food in Venezuela is imported by private companies, they ask for dollars subsidized by the government oil sales to do that; they rarely produce anything or invest their own money.”

According to Silva, the economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the U.S., in addition to the oil crisis, have made it more difficult for the Venezuelan government to pay the private food importing companies in U.S. dollars. In response, the food companies are “running general sabotage.”

“Venezuela’s economy depends on oil sales. Now that oil prices are dropping down, the challenge is to get other sources of economic income,” he explained. “Meanwhile, the opposition is garnering electoral support due to the current economic crisis.”

When the United Socialist Party and its aligned Patriotic Pole lost control of Parliament in December, many predicted the imminent collapse of the Bolivarian government. However, months have passed and this clearly has not taken place.

While a clear majority cast a voto castigo (“punishment vote”) in December, punishing the government for mismanaging the crisis, the Maduro administration has a solid core of socialist activists who remain loyal to the Bolivarian project. Across Venezuela, communes have been established. Leftist activists live together and work in cooperatives. Many of them are armed and organized in “Bolivarian Militias” to defend the revolution.

Even some of the loudest critics of the Venezuelan government admit that it has greatly improved the situation in the country, despite the current hardships.

In December, I spoke to Glen Martinez, a radio host in Caracas who voted for the opposition. He dismissed the notion that free market capitalism would ever return to Venezuela. As he explained, most of the people who voted against the United Socialist Party — himself included — are frustrated with the way the current crisis is being handled, but do not want a return to the neoliberal economic model of the 1999s.

He said the economic reforms established during the Chavez administration would never be reversed. “We are not the same people we were before 1999,” Martinez insisted.

The United Socialist Party is currently engaging in a massive re-orientation, hoping to sharpen its response to economic sabotage and strengthen the socialist direction of the revolution. There is also talk of massive reform in the way the government operates, in order to prevent the extreme examples of corruption and mismanagement that are causing frustration among the population.

The climate is being intensified by a number of recent political assassinations. Tensions continue to exist on Venezuela’s border with the U.S.-aligned government of Colombia. The solid base of socialist activists is not going to let revolution be overturned, and tensions continue to rise. The Maduro and the United Socialist Party’s main task is to hold Venezuela together, and not let the country escalate into a state of civil war.

Be Sociable, Share!
(shared*)

US-Led Economic War, Not Socialism, Is Tearing Venezuela Apart
*my comment

 

[Mrs. M.]

Maduro is a socialist. By his own admission, Chavez was not. Not to say that he didn't mention a 21st century socialism before - he did - but it had nothing to do with his success vs Manduro's epic failure. Hillary Clinton sabotaged Venezuela purposely and it is in the emails. The article you posted does not get to the bottom of why Clinton wanted Chavez out. You need to read the emails and realize this was a State Dept./ CIA operation that had nothing to do with what was good for the country of Venezuela. They could care less!

Have a look at this link to Hillary Clinton Emails.

Clinton Emails Reveal Direct US Sabotage of Venezuela

When keeping an eye on regional meetings, Clinton was especially concerned with Venezuela. Responding to a United Nations statement against the coup in Honduras in 2009—that she supported—Clinton shifted the attention to Venezuela: “Ok—but have they ever condemned Venezuela for denying press freedom?” she wrote to Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan.

He responded “I highly doubt it. And that is just the tip of the iceberg,” to which Clinton wrote, “Ah, the proverbial iceberg.”

Clinton was cautious not to respond to all of Hugo Chavez’s “antics,” but her staff insisted that Venezuelan politics were a threat to U.S. interests.

ANALYSIS:
The US Role in the Failed Attempt to Overthrow Hugo Chavez

An email advising how to spend USAID funds strongly suggested refraining from backing leftist states like Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba because the money “could undermine real democratic development to hand over ‘ownership’ to populist centralizers.”

Clinton should use language like “‘local ownership’ in a nuanced way” to avoid having her words “used against her by demagogues and kleptocrats,” said the email. Any funds channeled into such unreliable states, it added, must be accompanied by “(h)uman behavioral changes.”

International aid to Venezuela was siphoned off, but broadcasts to counter local “propaganda” were amplified.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors—which runs the Marti stations, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks—requested more funding in a 2010 email forwarded to Clinton to “combat the public diplomacy efforts of America's ‘enemies,’ which he (chairman Walter Isaacson) identifies as Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and China.

NSA Spies on Venezuela's Oil Company, Snowden Leak Reveals

U.S. intelligence agents posing as diplomats in Caracas helped an NSA analyst try to crack open PDVSA’s computer network.

The U.S. National Security Agency accessed the internal communications of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela and acquired sensitive data it planned to exploit in order to spy on the company’s top officials, according to a highly classified NSA document that reveals the operation was carried out in concert with the U.S. embassy in Caracas.

The March 2011 document, labeled, “top secret,” and provided by former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden, is being reported on in an exclusive partnership between teleSUR and The Intercept.

Drafted by an NSA signals development analyst, the document explains that PDVSA’s network, already compromised by U.S. intelligence, was further infiltrated after an NSA review in late 2010 – during President Barack Obama’s first term, which would suggest he ordered or at least authorized the operation – “showed telltale signs that things were getting stagnant on the Venezuelan Energy target set.” Most intelligence “was coming from warranted collection,” which likely refers to communications that were intercepted as they passed across U.S. soil. According to the analyst, “what little was coming from other collectors,” or warrantless surveillance, “was pretty sparse.”
_________________

Beyond efforts to infiltrate Venezuela’s most important company, the leaked NSA document highlights the existence of a secretive joint operation between the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency operating out of the U.S. embassy in Caracas. A fortress-like building just a few kilometers from PDVSA headquarters, the embassy sits on the top of a hill that gives those inside a commanding view of the Venezuelan capital.
____________
Last year, Der Spiegel published top-secret documents detailing the state-of-the-art surveillance equipment that the NSA and CIA deploy to embassies around the world. That intelligence on PDVSA had grown “stagnant” was concerning to the U.S. intelligence community for a number of reasons, which its powerful surveillance capabilities could help address.

“Venezuela has some of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world,” the NSA document states, with revenue from oil and gas accounting “for roughly one third of GDP” and “more than half of all government revenues.”

“To understand PDVSA,” the NSA analyst explains, “is to understand the economic heart of Venezuela.”

“Fully sovereign oil company!” | Photo: Reuters

Increasing surveillance on the leadership of PDVSA, the most important company in a South American nation seen as hostile to U.S. corporate interests, was a priority for the undisclosed NSA division to which the analyst reported. “Plainly speaking,” the analyst writes, they “wanted PDVSA information at the highest possible levels of the corporation – namely, the president and members of the Board of Directors.”

Given a task, the analyst got to work and, with the help of “sheer luck,” found his task easier than expected.

It began simply enough: with a visit to PDVSA’s website, “where I clicked on 'Leadership' and wrote down the names of the principals who would become my target list.” From there, the analyst “dumped the names” into PINWALE, the NSA’s primary database of previously intercepted digital communications, automatically culled using a dictionary of search terms called “selectors.” It was an almost immediate success.

In addition to email traffic, the analyst came across over 10,000 employee contact profiles full of email addresses, phone numbers, and other useful targeting information, including the usernames and passwords for over 900 PDVSA employees. One profile the analyst found was for Rafael Ramirez, PDVSA's president from 2004 to 2014 and Venezuela's current envoy to the United Nations. A similar entry turned up for Luis Vierma, the company’s former vice president of exploration and production.

“Now, even my old eyes could see that these things were a goldmine,” the analyst wrote. The entries were full of “work, home, and cell phones, email addresses, LOTS!” This type of information, referred to internally as “selectors,” can then be “tasked” across the NSA’s wide array of surveillance tools so that any relevant communications will be saved.

According to the analyst, the man to whom he reported “was thrilled!” But “it is what happened next that really made our day.”

“As I was analyzing the metadata,” the analyst explains, “I clicked on the 'From IP' and noticed something peculiar,” all of the employee profile, “over 10,000 of them, came from the same IP!!!” That, the analyst determined, meant “I had been looking at internal PDVSA comms all this time!!! I fired off a few emails to F6 here and in Caracas, and they confirmed it!”

“Metadata” is a broad term that can include the phone numbers a target has dialed, the duration of the call and from where it was placed, as well as the Wi-Fi networks used to access the Internet, the websites visited and the times accessed. That information can then be used to identify the user.

F6 is the NSA code name for a joint operation with the CIA known as the Special Collection Service, based in Beltsville, Maryland – and with agents posing as diplomats in dozens of U.S. embassies around the world, including Caracas, Bogota and Brasilia.

A joint NSA-CIA team operates out of the U.S. embassy in Caracas. | Photo: AFP
Thank you for your comments, Bleipriester. I agree with you on many things but not this one. This is Clinton as SOS NSA, CIA spy agency using their US embassy in Caracas (capitol of Venezuela) to spy against Venezuela. Have you any idea what kind of a sick mind it takes to do this to an entire country - including starving the children to death? Despicable! .

 

[Mrs. M.]

Recap:

Control oil and you control nations, control food and you control the people.
- Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger

What did they take control of? The oil. What else did they take control of? The food. The Venezuelan people are in a very bad situation now. This is something the American people can avoid by voting for Donald J. Trump.

 

[Bleipriester]

Maduro is a socialist. By his own admission, Chavez was not. Not to say that he didn't mention a 21st century socialism before - he did - but it had nothing to do with his success vs Manduro's epic failure. Hillary Clinton sabotaged Venezuela purposely and it is in the emails. The article you posted does not get to the bottom of why Clinton wanted Chavez out. You need to read the emails and realize this was a State Dept./ CIA operation that had nothing to do with what was good for the country of Venezuela. They could care less!

Have a look at this link to Hillary Clinton Emails.

Clinton Emails Reveal Direct US Sabotage of Venezuela

When keeping an eye on regional meetings, Clinton was especially concerned with Venezuela. Responding to a United Nations statement against the coup in Honduras in 2009—that she supported—Clinton shifted the attention to Venezuela: “Ok—but have they ever condemned Venezuela for denying press freedom?” she wrote to Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan.

He responded “I highly doubt it. And that is just the tip of the iceberg,” to which Clinton wrote, “Ah, the proverbial iceberg.”

Clinton was cautious not to respond to all of Hugo Chavez’s “antics,” but her staff insisted that Venezuelan politics were a threat to U.S. interests.

ANALYSIS:
The US Role in the Failed Attempt to Overthrow Hugo Chavez

An email advising how to spend USAID funds strongly suggested refraining from backing leftist states like Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba because the money “could undermine real democratic development to hand over ‘ownership’ to populist centralizers.”

Clinton should use language like “‘local ownership’ in a nuanced way” to avoid having her words “used against her by demagogues and kleptocrats,” said the email. Any funds channeled into such unreliable states, it added, must be accompanied by “(h)uman behavioral changes.”

International aid to Venezuela was siphoned off, but broadcasts to counter local “propaganda” were amplified.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors—which runs the Marti stations, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks—requested more funding in a 2010 email forwarded to Clinton to “combat the public diplomacy efforts of America's ‘enemies,’ which he (chairman Walter Isaacson) identifies as Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and China.

NSA Spies on Venezuela's Oil Company, Snowden Leak Reveals

U.S. intelligence agents posing as diplomats in Caracas helped an NSA analyst try to crack open PDVSA’s computer network.

The U.S. National Security Agency accessed the internal communications of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela and acquired sensitive data it planned to exploit in order to spy on the company’s top officials, according to a highly classified NSA document that reveals the operation was carried out in concert with the U.S. embassy in Caracas.

The March 2011 document, labeled, “top secret,” and provided by former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden, is being reported on in an exclusive partnership between teleSUR and The Intercept.

Drafted by an NSA signals development analyst, the document explains that PDVSA’s network, already compromised by U.S. intelligence, was further infiltrated after an NSA review in late 2010 – during President Barack Obama’s first term, which would suggest he ordered or at least authorized the operation – “showed telltale signs that things were getting stagnant on the Venezuelan Energy target set.” Most intelligence “was coming from warranted collection,” which likely refers to communications that were intercepted as they passed across U.S. soil. According to the analyst, “what little was coming from other collectors,” or warrantless surveillance, “was pretty sparse.”
_________________

Beyond efforts to infiltrate Venezuela’s most important company, the leaked NSA document highlights the existence of a secretive joint operation between the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency operating out of the U.S. embassy in Caracas. A fortress-like building just a few kilometers from PDVSA headquarters, the embassy sits on the top of a hill that gives those inside a commanding view of the Venezuelan capital.
____________
Last year, Der Spiegel published top-secret documents detailing the state-of-the-art surveillance equipment that the NSA and CIA deploy to embassies around the world. That intelligence on PDVSA had grown “stagnant” was concerning to the U.S. intelligence community for a number of reasons, which its powerful surveillance capabilities could help address.

“Venezuela has some of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world,” the NSA document states, with revenue from oil and gas accounting “for roughly one third of GDP” and “more than half of all government revenues.”

“To understand PDVSA,” the NSA analyst explains, “is to understand the economic heart of Venezuela.”

“Fully sovereign oil company!” | Photo: Reuters

Increasing surveillance on the leadership of PDVSA, the most important company in a South American nation seen as hostile to U.S. corporate interests, was a priority for the undisclosed NSA division to which the analyst reported. “Plainly speaking,” the analyst writes, they “wanted PDVSA information at the highest possible levels of the corporation – namely, the president and members of the Board of Directors.”

Given a task, the analyst got to work and, with the help of “sheer luck,” found his task easier than expected.

It began simply enough: with a visit to PDVSA’s website, “where I clicked on 'Leadership' and wrote down the names of the principals who would become my target list.” From there, the analyst “dumped the names” into PINWALE, the NSA’s primary database of previously intercepted digital communications, automatically culled using a dictionary of search terms called “selectors.” It was an almost immediate success.

In addition to email traffic, the analyst came across over 10,000 employee contact profiles full of email addresses, phone numbers, and other useful targeting information, including the usernames and passwords for over 900 PDVSA employees. One profile the analyst found was for Rafael Ramirez, PDVSA's president from 2004 to 2014 and Venezuela's current envoy to the United Nations. A similar entry turned up for Luis Vierma, the company’s former vice president of exploration and production.

“Now, even my old eyes could see that these things were a goldmine,” the analyst wrote. The entries were full of “work, home, and cell phones, email addresses, LOTS!” This type of information, referred to internally as “selectors,” can then be “tasked” across the NSA’s wide array of surveillance tools so that any relevant communications will be saved.

According to the analyst, the man to whom he reported “was thrilled!” But “it is what happened next that really made our day.”

“As I was analyzing the metadata,” the analyst explains, “I clicked on the 'From IP' and noticed something peculiar,” all of the employee profile, “over 10,000 of them, came from the same IP!!!” That, the analyst determined, meant “I had been looking at internal PDVSA comms all this time!!! I fired off a few emails to F6 here and in Caracas, and they confirmed it!”

“Metadata” is a broad term that can include the phone numbers a target has dialed, the duration of the call and from where it was placed, as well as the Wi-Fi networks used to access the Internet, the websites visited and the times accessed. That information can then be used to identify the user.

F6 is the NSA code name for a joint operation with the CIA known as the Special Collection Service, based in Beltsville, Maryland – and with agents posing as diplomats in dozens of U.S. embassies around the world, including Caracas, Bogota and Brasilia.

A joint NSA-CIA team operates out of the U.S. embassy in Caracas. | Photo: AFP
Thank you for your comments, Bleipriester. I agree with you on many things but not this one. This is Clinton as SOS NSA, CIA spy agency using their US embassy in Caracas (capitol of Venezuela) to spy against Venezuela. Have you any idea what kind of a sick mind it takes to do this to an entire country - including starving the children to death? Despicable! .

While the article is clearly pro-socialism it stressed that the food companies remain private in Venezuela and asks how Socialism could be blamed for the mess, given that these companies are privately owned and run. The article also noted that these companies started to sabotage the country after the government ran out of Dollars to pay them. So, if Maduro is simply a victim or if he also made mistakes is not the question in the article but how the crisis began. The article also presents the reason for the US actions against Chaves: He reclaimed the oil company from Wall Street and got Venezuela out of the grip of the IMF and thus the US. In the long term, a relentless hegemony like Washington cannot tolerate this.

 

[Mrs. M.]

Bleipriester writes:
The article also presents the reason for the US actions against Chaves: He reclaimed the oil company from Wall Street and got Venezuela out of the grip of the IMF and thus the US. In the long term, a relentless hegemony like Washington cannot tolerate this.
______________
BINGO ! ! !

The CIA /NSA set up base inside their US Embassy in Venezuela to spy - tell me that wasn't illegal! Where is the UN on that one? Nowhere. Snowden laid the entire thing out and where is he? Hiding in Russia. Meanwhile, Venezuela goes up in flames, the people are perishing and our mainstream media doesn't find a need to report on the current situation in Venezuela.
________
Der Spiegel published top-secret documents detailing the state-of-the-art surveillance equipment that the NSA and CIA deploy to embassies around the world. That intelligence on PDVSA had grown “stagnant” was concerning to the U.S. intelligence community for a number of reasons, which its powerful surveillance capabilities could help address.

“Venezuela has some of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world,” the NSA document states, with revenue from oil and gas accounting “for roughly one third of GDP” and “more than half of all government revenues.”
__________
According to Snowden, the NSA / CIA hacked into the Venezuelan oil PDVSA company's network and were able to spy on them from the US Embassy inside Venezuela. It's on that video inside the link. You can see how they did it and they are also spying on the population over there now.
NSA Spies on Venezuela's Oil Company, Snowden Leak Reveals

 

[Mrs. M.]

Then there is this:

Media Deliberately Omits Critical Info to Demonize Venezuela
23 October 2016 - 08:38 PM
Analysis
Media Deliberately Omits Critical Info to Demonize Venezuela

The announcement from Venezuela's electoral authority that it would not proceed with a recall referendum has unleashed yet another wave of critical articles and opinion pieces throughout the English-speaking media, labeling the socialist government in Venezuela as “authoritarian” or even a “dictatorship.”

______
The entire country wants to proceed with the recall referendum and a handful of people are refusing to do it. Someone is trying to keep him in there and now the OAS is going to get in on the act as if they are the saviors. These people work for the UN / NATO/ IMF / Globalists....they will have them sign on the dotted line, install someone else and then it will be one more country that is going to fall into the hands of these NWO criminals. Incredible.

 

[Bleipriester]

"AMERIZUELA"​

Now that I view this picture I wonder who made it. Someone who doesn´t know socialist currencies don´t have inflation. As there is inflation, this is not socialism.

 

[Mrs. M.]

"AMERIZUELA"​

Now that I view this picture I wonder who made it. Someone who doesn´t know socialist currencies don´t have inflation. As there is inflation, this is not socialism.

Good question. I have no idea. I wanted the "all together" message seen but the bottom line I didn't agree with. After looking at Chavez's statement about not being a socialist I felt it was misleading. The country hasn't been under any real form of Socialism during the years Chavez was in power or they would have been in this shape before he died and never would have re-elected him 4 times.

 

[Bleipriester]

"AMERIZUELA"​

Now that I view this picture I wonder who made it. Someone who doesn´t know socialist currencies don´t have inflation. As there is inflation, this is not socialism.

Good question. I have no idea. I wanted the "all together" message seen but the bottom line I didn't agree with. After looking at Chavez's statement about not being a socialist I felt it was misleading. The country hasn't been under any real form of Socialism during the years Chavez was in power or they would have been in this shape before he died and never would have re-elected him 4 times.

Thanks to the oil Venezuela could go socialist. If socialist or not, countries need to import goods. And nobody accepts a socialist currency. But with the oil, the country could create the forex it needs to buy that goods. The only other option is having a whole bunch of countries that introduce socialism like the Warsaw Pact countries. But even this pact struggled to get the goods due to the West´s embargo controlled by the CoCom. In that context you might be interested in eastern Germany´s development of computers. The country was leading in this regard: Neue Leitungsschaltkreise sollen die flexible Automatisierung verbessern: DDR-Kombinat entwickelt die erste eigene 32-Bit-CPU - computerwoche.de

However, I don´t see Maduro introducing socialism. I just searched for laws that enact Socialism and I found nothing but this, to wich I agree. Instead, this was the first result on google:

""A new decree establishing that any employee in Venezuela can be effectively made to work in the country's fields as a way to fight the current food crisis is unlawful and effectively amounts to forced labor," Amnesty International said in a statement released on Thursday.
Antonio Pestana, chief of Venezuela's farming association, told reporters last month that only 25 percent of agricultural land is actually being farmed.
Last week's decree promises to boost production by increasing the workforce of companies in the sector. It orders that these companies should pay the salaries of the workers loaned to them."
Venezuela has a new 'forced labor' law that can require people to work in fields | VICE News

 

[Mrs. M.]

I believe that is what the Communists did, forced labor in the fields and the people were not even permitted to eat the food. They were starving to death. It looks like Communism to me. Socialism is just Communism lite - neither system can co-exist with Capitolism because poverty and prosperity cannot dwell under the same roof. It's one or the other. If people have prosperity the govt. cannot control them. If they are starving they can. Starving people are not in a position to revolt against the govt for long....Which is why Clinton plans on making the USA a 3rd world country - doubling taxes, etc.

Sad to say many Americans do not believe that she would do it. She not only would do it, she will. Look at what she's done to Libya, Syria, Iraq, Honduras, Venezuela...... horrific. She should be put on trial for war crimes.

 

[Bleipriester]

I believe that is what the Communists did, forced labor in the fields and the people were not even permitted to eat the food. They were starving to death. It looks like Communism to me. Socialism is just Communism lite - neither system can co-exist with Capitolism because poverty and prosperity cannot dwell under the same roof. It's one or the other. If people have prosperity the govt. cannot control them. If they are starving they can. Starving people are not in a position to revolt against the govt for long....Which is why Clinton plans on making the USA a 3rd world country - doubling taxes, etc.

Sad to say many Americans do not believe that she would do it. She not only would do it, she will. Look at what she's done to Libya, Syria, Iraq, Honduras, Venezuela...... horrific. She should be put on trial for war crimes.

I fact, Socialism is a step towards Communism, which knows no currency at all.
I think that the "forced labor" (temporary) is a measure to counter the food crisis. And I believe that starving people are the only people in a position to revolt. Government´s that starve their people cannot be told to go away in the first place. But Maduro is the legitimate President and a dictatorship does not have an opposition majority in the parliament. So the violence taking place is in favor of an pre-Chaves system in Venezuela, which would basically carve the current crisis in stone, make it the standard.

 

[Mrs. M.]

Once they become too weak, they may give up. It's a terrible situation and to read those emails and the story on how CIA / NSA set up a spy operation inside the US embassy in Venezuela to spy on the oil company was sickening. All for the UN no doubt. I'm praying that God will remove these wicked politicians / agents of Satan from political office once and for all. About the govt program of forced labor... there is an executive order that can put the American people into forced labor also seizure of any food stock piles, farms, etc. I believe I read it in his space weather Executive Order. I'll have to look it up.

 

[Mrs. M.]

Here it is:

Obama Executive Order 13603 Authorizes Slavery In The US – InvestmentWatch

Slavery is once more legal in the United States.

In this episode of The Truth Is Viral, host Bob Powell reveals language buried deep inside Executive Order 13603, which Barack Obama signed into law on March 16th 2012 that gives the Federal government the legal authority to force any person into de facto slavery.

According to this Executive Order the President, or those he designates, can conscript “persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation,” in “peacetime and times of national emergency.” In a nutshell, that means that Barack Obama, and those he designates, can seize any resource, property, or person at any time for any reason, including forcing that person with labor without being paid.

There is only ONE word for forced, “uncompensated employment.” That word is slavery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myfV_…

This episode also includes an appeal to Federal, State, County, and Local law enforcement officers to uphold the oath they took to “Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States,” by defending the citizens they have sworn to protect, even when the aggressor is a Federal Government that has devolved into nothing more than a Tyranny where one man (or those he designates) can order the enslavement of its citizens, their detention in labor and re-education camps – even their deaths – simply by signing a piece of paper.

Executive Order 13603:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-…
note* It's part 1 page 1 section 102,103 a, b, c, d , e - to save you some reading time

Internment and Resettlement Field Manual:
http://publicintelligence.net/restric…

Executive Order -- National Defense Resources Preparedness

 

[Bleipriester]

Once they become too weak, they may give up. It's a terrible situation and to read those emails and the story on how CIA / NSA set up a spy operation inside the US embassy in Venezuela to spy on the oil company was sickening. All for the UN no doubt. I'm praying that God will remove these wicked politicians / agents of Satan from political office once and for all. About the govt program of forced labor... there is an executive order that can put the American people into forced labor also seizure of any food stock piles, farms, etc. I believe I read it in his space weather Executive Order. I'll have to look it up.

There was a documentation about the US social system on TV. it is basically a private labor market and the unemployed have to do the work that they are told to. Is that correct?

 

[Bleipriester]

Here it is:

Obama Executive Order 13603 Authorizes Slavery In The US – InvestmentWatch

Slavery is once more legal in the United States.

In this episode of The Truth Is Viral, host Bob Powell reveals language buried deep inside Executive Order 13603, which Barack Obama signed into law on March 16th 2012 that gives the Federal government the legal authority to force any person into de facto slavery.

According to this Executive Order the President, or those he designates, can conscript “persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation,” in “peacetime and times of national emergency.” In a nutshell, that means that Barack Obama, and those he designates, can seize any resource, property, or person at any time for any reason, including forcing that person with labor without being paid.

There is only ONE word for forced, “uncompensated employment.” That word is slavery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myfV_…

This episode also includes an appeal to Federal, State, County, and Local law enforcement officers to uphold the oath they took to “Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States,” by defending the citizens they have sworn to protect, even when the aggressor is a Federal Government that has devolved into nothing more than a Tyranny where one man (or those he designates) can order the enslavement of its citizens, their detention in labor and re-education camps – even their deaths – simply by signing a piece of paper.

Executive Order 13603:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-…

Internment and Resettlement Field Manual:
http://publicintelligence.net/restric…

So one can be forced into some work without reason?

 

[Mrs. M.]

Once they become too weak, they may give up. It's a terrible situation and to read those emails and the story on how CIA / NSA set up a spy operation inside the US embassy in Venezuela to spy on the oil company was sickening. All for the UN no doubt. I'm praying that God will remove these wicked politicians / agents of Satan from political office once and for all. About the govt program of forced labor... there is an executive order that can put the American people into forced labor also seizure of any food stock piles, farms, etc. I believe I read it in his space weather Executive Order. I'll have to look it up.

There was a documentation about the US social system on TV. it is basically a private labor market and the unemployed have to do the work that they are told to. Is that correct?

I'm not sure about that as I haven't see it. I thought I had seen the EO mentioned in the story about the space weather Oct 13th story but I didn't find it in that EO. The link I did find has a video on there but I haven't seen it. Now there was a discussion at one time I believe about people receiving assistance from the govt. having to work at a job they gave you. I don't know if anything ever became of that. That would not be the same as forced labor as there is no compensation for forced labor.

 

[Mrs. M.]

Here it is:

Obama Executive Order 13603 Authorizes Slavery In The US – InvestmentWatch

Slavery is once more legal in the United States.

In this episode of The Truth Is Viral, host Bob Powell reveals language buried deep inside Executive Order 13603, which Barack Obama signed into law on March 16th 2012 that gives the Federal government the legal authority to force any person into de facto slavery.

According to this Executive Order the President, or those he designates, can conscript “persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation,” in “peacetime and times of national emergency.” In a nutshell, that means that Barack Obama, and those he designates, can seize any resource, property, or person at any time for any reason, including forcing that person with labor without being paid.

There is only ONE word for forced, “uncompensated employment.” That word is slavery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myfV_…

This episode also includes an appeal to Federal, State, County, and Local law enforcement officers to uphold the oath they took to “Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States,” by defending the citizens they have sworn to protect, even when the aggressor is a Federal Government that has devolved into nothing more than a Tyranny where one man (or those he designates) can order the enslavement of its citizens, their detention in labor and re-education camps – even their deaths – simply by signing a piece of paper.

Executive Order 13603:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-…

Internment and Resettlement Field Manual:
http://publicintelligence.net/restric…

So one can be forced into some work without reason?

In peacetime and in times of national emergency is how it reads but to my knowledge it has never been used.

 

[Mrs. M.]

I believe that is what the Communists did, forced labor in the fields and the people were not even permitted to eat the food. They were starving to death. It looks like Communism to me. Socialism is just Communism lite - neither system can co-exist with Capitolism because poverty and prosperity cannot dwell under the same roof. It's one or the other. If people have prosperity the govt. cannot control them. If they are starving they can. Starving people are not in a position to revolt against the govt for long....Which is why Clinton plans on making the USA a 3rd world country - doubling taxes, etc.

Sad to say many Americans do not believe that she would do it. She not only would do it, she will. Look at what she's done to Libya, Syria, Iraq, Honduras, Venezuela...... horrific. She should be put on trial for war crimes.

I fact, Socialism is a step towards Communism, which knows no currency at all.
I think that the "forced labor" (temporary) is a measure to counter the food crisis. And I believe that starving people are the only people in a position to revolt. Government´s that starve their people cannot be told to go away in the first place. But Maduro is the legitimate President and a dictatorship does not have an opposition majority in the parliament. So the violence taking place is in favor of an pre-Chaves system in Venezuela, which would basically carve the current crisis in stone, make it the standard.

It just came to me that as the US is watching this via NSA / CIA op base at US Embassy from Venezuela and as Snowden confirmed he ran a test and confirmed they are spying on the Venezuelan population (listening in on their conversations) this may very well be a study on how a population reacts to forced labor - the ongoing food shortage - a dry run so to speak for what they plan on doing here. No wonder Clinton was so excited about it in 2015. She of all people, would know where this is all going. They are probably watching the entire thing as a model towards future endeavors (takeovers). Snowden said they have these set up at every US embassy not just this one in Venezuela. I'm sure the UN is tied into this. They already have their own foreign police here inside the USA and clearance (through another EO) to use deadly force against civilian populations in time of riots, etc and do not need any prior authority from the govt. to act.

Executive Order: United Nations allowed to use Force on US Citizens | We Are Change