The Black Alliance for Peace’s Feb. 15 newsletter, ‘Venezuela in Crisis’:
‘Friends,
The Black Alliance for Peace has received troubling news of an impending military assault on the sovereign nation of Venezuela by states and forces allied with the United States.
The objective is to remove the elected government of Venezuela and turn over the country to the right-wing oligarchy. This move is in line with the strategic objective of the last two U.S. administrations that identified Venezuela as a threat to U.S. national interests, which means the Venezuelan process is seen as a threat to the interest of the Euro-American colonial/capitalist project.
We are calling on folks to closely monitor this situation. We will provide as much information on this as possible. Please alert the forces you work with about the situation as you receive it from us or acquire it for yourself, and let’s assist in raising the level of awareness on this situation. We are all part of the “Americas” and as our BAP principles reflect, we stand in solidarity with the struggling peoples of the global South who are resisting U.S. imperialism.
The Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases—which BAP helped found—is organizing actions Feb. 16-23 for the 115th anniversary of the United States occupying Guantanamo. We demand the United States return Guantanamo to Cuba.
If you or your organization coordinate an action next week, please reply to this message with that information so we can include it in the weekly blast and on our event page.
As for BAP, we are organizing a national teleconference call for 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Feb. 23 on the U.S. presence in Guantanamo. We will announce our featured speakers in the next email blast. Tap this link to register for the call.
You will find value in this podcast episode of “Clearing the Fog Radio” that discusses amped up U.S. militarism—going from targeting so-called “terrorists” to outright war with nations. Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, founders of Popular Resistance, also interviewed BAP members Margaret Kimberley and Maurice Carney about the significance of the U.S. military invasion of Africa and what you can do about it.
BAP recently co-sponsored an event in New York City called “Militarization of African Communities at Home and Abroad.” Get insights you won’t hear in the corporate Western media in Part 1 and Part 2 of the recorded livestreams.
If you’re in Washington, D.C., join BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka and BAP member Maurice Carney on Saturday for the “All African Peoples Conference 60th Anniversary”. This event was coordinated by BAP member Netfa Freeman.
Finally, we appreciate the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) recognizing BAP’s work as part of the larger radical Black anti-war movement.
No retreat. No compromise.
In struggle,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace
P.S. Help BAP bring together Black organizers and organizations to beat the U.S. war machine. Contribute today.’
The blacks4peace coordinating committee members page is here; you’ll recognize some of them (ajamu baraka, margaret kimberly, kali okuno, lamont lily… Blacks4peace on Twitter.
After receiving the newsletter, and knowing only too much of the history, I’s checked in with Southern Command’s (Navy Admiral, Kurt W. Tidd) website and on Twitter, and yeppers, the Drums seem to be Banging ever more Loudly.
@southcomwatch Feb 15 “ADM Tidd Senate Testimony: #Colombia is probably our single most significant strategic partner in Latin America.”
@southcomwatch Feb 15 ‘ADM Tidd Senate Testimony: Russia continues to engage in direct competition for influence w/ our key partners in the region. Challenge is to disprove the false narrative by Russia… SOUTHCOM continued engagements show that we’re a trusted partner.
@southcomwatch Feb 15 ‘Venezuela situation puts a severe strain on region. Their humanitarian crisis is having a very significant impact on neighboring countries.’
@southcomwatch Feb 15 ‘ADM Tidd Senate Testimony: China & Russia seek to exploit perception that we are disengaging from the Americas. With success comes increased ability to interfere with our security relationships.’
Now, I’d then checked in with venezuelanalysis.com, and had discovered ‘Escalation of imperialist aggression against Venezuela: respond with revolutionary measures; Venezuelanalysis republishes this analysis of the current conditions in Venezuela from Lucha de Clases, in which they call for deeper revolutionary measures as a way out of the current economic crisis’, by Lucha de Clases (Marxist Social Class Struggle Movement), Feb 16, 2018, and this is hardball, though not from Maduro’s government.
All of their content is blessedly marked Creative Commons, so I’ll copy it all, especially as reproducing such a link-laden op-ed would be a killer and it provides a hella lot of recent history.
“It is clear that US imperialism and its lackey countries have increased aggression against Venezuela in recent weeks. The aim has been declared publicly: to trigger a coup d’etat against the government of President Maduro and allow the capitalist oligarchy to take control again. It is necessary to respond with revolutionary measures that strike a blow at the economic power of the oligarchy: the agents of imperialism in the country.
Let’s look at the steps they have taken. On 1 February, the Secretary of State of the United States, Rex Tillerson, before starting a tour of several countries in the Americas, made a statement in which he raised the need for a military coup in Venezuela. “When things get so bad that the military command realizes that they can no longer serve the people, they will manage a peaceful transition,” he said in a speech at the University of Texas, in which he renewed support for the Monroe Doctrine. Tillerson’s entire tour, which took him to Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Jamaica, was intended to discuss the issue of Venezuela. During the same tour Tillerson raised the possibility of oil sanctions against Venezuela, affecting the import and refining of oil in the US. These sanctions would obviously have an even stronger impact on the economy than the financial sanctions already in effect. Tillerson boasted that plans were already on the table, only awaiting a decision by President Trump.
Meanwhile, a call directly from Washington finally gave the instruction to the opposition not to sign an agreement in the Dominican Republic . That it receives its instructions directly from imperialism demonstrates again the treacherous and lackey character of the Venezuelan opposition. Both the opposition and imperialism understand it will be very difficult to win in the presidential elections [on 22 April], and have therefore launched a campaign of escalation of imperialist pressure to delegitimize, and in the process overthrow, the government by provoking a military coup.
The day after the opposition’s withdrawal from talks, the European Parliament approved a motion demanding tougher sanctions against Venezuela. So far, European sanctions affect only some senior Venezuelan officials, but it is clear that an escalation is being prepared with the same objective as the US threats. None of this is taking place by coincidence. It is part of a campaign coordinated from Washington.
@southcomwatch ‘SOUTHCOM CDR @ADMKurtWTidd in #Colombia to discuss security cooperation w/ top leaders and get first-hand look at Colombia’s peace-building and security efforts.’ 5:05 AM – Feb 9, 2018
On Thursday 8 February, Colombia and Brazil announced they were sending troops to their borders with Venezuela, citing the excuse of the “migratory and humanitarian crisis”. Brazil announced it would double the number of forces patrolling the border between the two countries, while Colombia said it was sending 3,000 security personnel to the border, including over 2,000 soldiers. The day after the announcement, the Commander of the Southern Command of the US Army, Admiral Kurt W. Tidd, arrived in Colombia “to discuss security cooperation and examine Colombia’s security and peace-building efforts firsthand.” We all know what this language means. When the head of the Southern Command talks about peace efforts, we can be sure that they are preparing aggression.
At the same time, Peru announced the convening of the Lima Group on 13 February “to evaluate the measures that should be adopted in light of the development of the Venezuelan political situation”, adding that calling presidential elections “would not allow a process fair, free, transparent and democratic “. The Lima Group is a body without any kind of legitimacy, which was created precisely when imperialism failed in its attempts to approve measures against Venezuela in the official organizations of the United Nations, the OAS and UNASUR. It is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru. What is scandalous is that none of these countries, all with right-wing governments, have opened their mouths regarding the scandalous electoral fraud in Honduras, nor the constant violation of human rights in Colombia and Mexico.
Finally, on 9 February, US Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican and one of the most ardent supporters of imperialist intervention against Venezuela, declared in a tweet that “The world would support the Armed Forces in #Venezuela if they decide to protect the people & restore democracy by removing a dictator”. The hypocrisy of imperialism has no limits. While they support and install dictators, and participate in the organization of coups (Honduras, Venezuela, etc.), they allow themselves the luxury of talking about “restoring democracy and protecting the people”.
@marcorubio “The world would support the Armed Forces in #Venezuela if they decide to protect the people & restore democracy by removing a dictator”
The new US chargé d’affaires in Venezuela, Todd Robinson, has also adopted a very belligerent attitude since his arrival. The imperialist embassy in Caracas has published a scandalous communiqué supporting the withdrawal of the opposition from the talks in the Dominican Republic. Of course, Washington orders the opposition to withdraw and then supports the decision. In his first press conference in Caracas, Todd Robinson declared his intentions unambiguously:
Translated to the language of Cervantes: “I will work so that the oligarchy returns to the power and that this sector of the society can organize the coup that the US desires“.
Imperialism’s plan is therefore clear, diaphanous and publicly announced. They will not recognize the presidential elections because they know that their lackeys of the opposition can not in any way win them and will put all the necessary pressure, including asphyxiating the economy, into provoking a coup d’etat against the Maduro government.
We must oppose with all our forces this new offensive of imperialism, that is nothing more than the continuation of 20 years of attacks, threats and interference against the Bolivarian Revolution.
A statement by Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert on Presidential Elections Announced in Venezuela. (<her Tweet)
To combat this threat effectively, it is necessary to take serious measures that destroy the base of imperialism within the country. We must begin by expropriating all the properties of multinational companies in the US and putting them under workers’ control. Then we have to expropriate the companies of all the Venezuelan capitalists who are sabotaging the economy and supporting the efforts of imperialism to organize a coup d’etat. It is necessary to cease immediately the delivery of dollars and credits to the private companies that participate in the economic war and to apply the state monopoly of foreign trade and the centralization of all the banking in the hands of the state under the control of the workers. Stop handing out dollars from oil revenue to the enemies of working people.
These measures must also serve to lay the foundations for resolving the situation of serious economic deterioration that working people suffer. This will require putting factories, banks and latifundia in the hands of workers and peasants as part of a democratic plan of production to satisfy the needs of the masses. These should not provide profits to a parasitic capitalist oligarchy that is also financing a pro-imperialist coup in preparation. The best way to guarantee the unity of the working people in the fight against imperialist aggression is to resolve the shortages and the devaluation of the wages.
In addition, the people’s militia must be strengthened, and establish units in all large workplaces. Arming the workers and peasants is the best guarantee for the defense of the country. It is necessary to establish revolutionary organizations of soldiers and officers within the FANB. This revolutionary vigilance is the best guarantee against the plots that surely exist and are being prepared with the active participation of the US embassy.
It is necessary to combine these internal measures with an international appeal to defend Venezuela against imperialist aggression. We must establish direct links with workers’ organizations and the rural poor throughout the continent, first of all in Brazil and in Colombia. The Colombian people are not our enemy; the Colombian oligarchy – agent of imperialism and class brothers of the Venezuelan oligarchy – is.
The imperialist aggression cannot be faced with calls for peace and dialogue, but with revolutionary measures to crush the economic power of the oligarchy that acts as an agent of Washington.
Original, Spanish language statement by the ‘Class Struggle’ Marxist Tendency here.
Venezuela as seen by the Imperial Press
(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
Over all these many years, Café Babylon, has been the “go to” web site on the interent for educating oneself with respect to the Latin America Region. And in this regard, you are to be congratulated for all this heavy lifting, and over these many years. As such, my Tip of the Hat to you!!!
As such, I have spent the majority of my time in Latin America during a ten year period of my adult life, and thusly, I have encountered and experiences much, including living out of a suit case and rickety beds and where the flotilla of bed bugs, and had these bugs organized themselves according, could have carried me out to the Pacific Ocean for a midnight swim.
And many years ago, the web site for the State Department would have carried and maintained a vast wealth on information, and thusly, during the Bush43 administration, Cheney radically downsized its Friday Afternoon Dump of information. Now, the US engagement generally follows the half dozen “influence” channels to continue to operate quite effectively, However, inserting oneself inside any of these tangential channels is a primordial challenge is today’s ever-present challenge, and this “work” is now incumbent on credentialed Journalists residing in the Region and even they know full well, jeopardizing one’s life is a consequential predictament to be considered. And needless to say, but I will, no Open Meeting Laws are available. As such, “good information” is hard to come by.
Jaango
i’m about to turn into a pumpkin, but for posterity on an invisible thread, i’ll add this video, apparently inspired by lines from milton’s ‘paradise lost’, i’ll say that this is the hidden lure of the Imperium:
‘Chained on the burning lake? That sure was worse.
What if the breath that kindled those grim fires,
Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage,
And plunge us in the flames; or from above
Should intermitted vengeance arm again
His red right hand to plague us? What if all
Her stores were opened, and this firmament
Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire,
Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall…’
‘Past the square, past the bridge
Past the mills, past the stacks
On a gathering storm comes
A tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat with
A red right hand
He’s a god, he’s a man
He’s a ghost, he’s a guru
They’re whispering his name
Through this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat
Is a red right hand
You’ll see him in your nightmares
You’ll see him in your dreams
He’ll appear out of nowhere but
He ain’t what he seems
You’ll see him in your head
On the TV screen
Hey buddy, I’m warning
You to turn it off
He’s a ghost, he’s a god
He’s a man, he’s a guru
You’re one microscopic cog
In his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by
His red right hand…’
Nice to see you crossing at 99, o’ which I wudn’t awares.
;-) as i’d told the badass bully (‘there’s not enough testosterone around here!’) over yonder, as this place is gettin’ increasingly ’boutique’, i’m cross-posting, tra la la…
after having straightened out my apparent misunderstanding that the site admin there had asked me to move on, recently, he gave me editor status to front-page my stuff. i just checked, and i started cross-posting again mid jan. the site admin, JtC taught me easy copy for firefox, but for some reason anything with a tweet in it, none of the versions i’ve tried will do it, so if i ask, he kindly cross-posts them for me.
but this time things are going fairly well. last time…not so much, lol, but i’d tried to realize that they’re mainly refugees from the great orange satan, sooo, class issues, anti-imperialism, global citizenry, etc. weren’t familiar to them. on this one, oooof, one woman said she hoped ‘they’ would chop off maduro’s head, and folks did some great diggin’ to counter her imperial majority report rubbish. kinda fun, in the end. ;-)
‘War Preparations Against Venezuela As Election Nears’ by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers (popular resistance, formerly of the Oct. 2011 movement), February 20th, 2018
“Is the Path to War Through Border Disputes?
One way to start a war would be a cross-border dispute between Venezuela and Colombia, Brazil or Guyana. On February 12, the Maritime Herald reported that Admiral Kurt Tidd, head of the US Southern Command, arrived in Colombia just two days after the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with President Juan Manuel Santos as part of Tillerson’s unprecedented regime change tour. Tidd met with Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas and other senior officials to coordinate efforts around “regional stability” with a focus on Venezuela.
The Maritime Herald also reports US troops coming to Colombian military bases, paramilitaries coming to Colombian towns along the Venezuelan border, plans for “a joint naval force between the United States, Colombia and Mexico,” and arrival of a contingent of 415 members of the United States Air Force to Panama to create support and logistics points for the operation against Venezuela. Also important are two fast-acting US military bases installed in the communities of Vichada and Leticia, Colombia, bordering Venezuela.
The corporate intelligence firm, Stratfor, which works closely with the US government, recently published a report that could be laying the groundwork for a border dispute. Stratfor wrote that Brazilian intelligence officials are going to meet with Guyana’s officials to warn them that Venezuela is planning to attack Guyana. There is a long-term dispute over land between Venezuela and Guyana that is being litigated before the International Court of Justice. The report includes a questionable claim that there is an “ongoing dialogue with the Trump administration over the terms of President Nicolas Maduro and his party’s departure from power.” The reality is that President Maduro is preparing for the April election.” and more, of course.
‘War Preparations Against Venezuela As Election Nears’ by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers (popular resistance, formerly of the Oct. 2011 movement), February 20th, 2018, via dissidentvoice.org
“Is the Path to War Through Border Disputes?
One way to start a war would be a cross-border dispute between Venezuela and Colombia, Brazil or Guyana. On February 12, the Maritime Herald reported that Admiral Kurt Tidd, head of the US Southern Command, arrived in Colombia just two days after the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with President Juan Manuel Santos as part of Tillerson’s unprecedented regime change tour. Tidd met with Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas and other senior officials to coordinate efforts around “regional stability” with a focus on Venezuela.
The Maritime Herald also reports US troops coming to Colombian military bases, paramilitaries coming to Colombian towns along the Venezuelan border, plans for “a joint naval force between the United States, Colombia and Mexico,” and arrival of a contingent of 415 members of the United States Air Force to Panama to create support and logistics points for the operation against Venezuela. Also important are two fast-acting US military bases installed in the communities of Vichada and Leticia, Colombia, bordering Venezuela.
The corporate intelligence firm, Stratfor, which works closely with the US government, recently published a report that could be laying the groundwork for a border dispute. Stratfor wrote that Brazilian intelligence officials are going to meet with Guyana’s officials to warn them that Venezuela is planning to attack Guyana. There is a long-term dispute over land between Venezuela and Guyana that is being litigated before the International Court of Justice. The report includes a questionable claim that there is an “ongoing dialogue with the Trump administration over the terms of President Nicolas Maduro and his party’s departure from power.” The reality is that President Maduro is preparing for the April election.
https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/02/war-preparations-against-venezuela-as-election-nears/
also from dissident voice, ‘Venezuela: Revenge of the Mad-Dog Empire’ by Ajamu Baraka, February 20th, 2018, a few snippets:
In every part of the world, the United States is engaged in maniacal, criminal assaults on democracy, basic human decency and common sense. From its support for armed jihadists groups in Syria and its illegal occupation of that nation, transferring heavy military equipment to its puppet regime in Ukraine, supporting unending war in Afghanistan, to the military invasion of Africa, the commitment to maintaining U.S. global dominance has moved war and militarism to the center of U.S. strategy.”
After centuries [of the pan-euopean project] experiencing the horrors of genocide, slavery, military dictatorships, environmental destruction, and neoliberal exploitation, the people of Latin America began to slowly extract themselves from the clutches of the hegemon from the North. Social movements and peoples undeterred by coups, structural adjustment and death squads started to take back their history in Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, and the rest of the continent. Venezuela has led the way, proclaiming the dawn of a 21st century socialism that would create the new society and the new human in the process.” long snip
“The left in the United States and Western Europe has completely abandoned any idea of solidarity with global South’s revolutionary projects. A bizarre example of the reactionary nature of the European left was the European Parliament awarding the Sakharov Freedom Prize to the Venezuelan “opposition,” a group that has openly attacked journalists and burned alive two dozen people of primarily Black or dark complexions who they assumed were probably government supporters because they were poor and black. Clearly for the representatives in the European Union’s only democratic body, the integrity of the press and “Black lives” really don’t matter!
The courageous struggle of the Venezuelan people to defend their national sovereignty and dignity in the face of the murderous intentions of their North American neighbors and the racist obsequious Venezuelan oligarchy deserves the support of all true anti-imperialists. Whatever failure or internal contradiction we see in the Bolivarian process does not outweigh the principle that anti-imperialists must support national independence, especially when a nation is in the cross hairs of the greatest gangster nation on the planet.”
https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/02/venezuela-revenge-of-the-mad-dog-empire/
oh, and also from yesterday at RT: ‘Venezuela’s Maduro tweets at Trump offering dialogue’
“Trump “campaigned promising non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” Maduro tweeted on Monday. “The time has come to fulfill that and change his agenda of aggression to one of dialogue. “Dialogue in Caracas or Washington DC?” Maduro asked, challenging Trump to name a “time and place and I’ll be there.” By Tuesday, there was no response to the invitation from either the White House or the US State Department.
https://www.rt.com/usa/419372-maduro-trump-talks-sanctions/
I don’t know how to do links on my puppy in training, christened Spot by wiser heads than me, but Pepe has a recent post on China’s silk road advance in South America, so shades of the Maidan tit for tat south of the US border, with blatant overt suggestive phraseology from the erstwhile powerful in Washington.
Even a dead rattlesnake can vite thwy tell us, but surely the fate of Ukraine will give even the opposition in Venezuela fair warning to genrly bend like those eternal grasses and let northern winds of pomposity and persuasion flow harmlessly over their bowed heads.
As we have learned to do here. After a while we’ll be able to nail that rattler over the old barn door.
That post being at the Saker, sorry.
given that the opposition, headed by capriles and l. lopez, have the backing of the US and client states in the EU and also these nation that pepe mentions are already dealing w/ china: “China is already the top trading partner of Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru. Others will inevitably follow.”
http://thesaker.is/chinas-new-silk-roads-reach-latin-america/
all of them are headed by neoliberals of the first order, and came to power after putsches, the VZ opposition doesn’t seem likely to bend, as ‘they don’t want no stinkin’ socialists in power!’ and reXXon, of course, wants ‘his’ oil, including the offshore liza field that’s still in contention w/ guyana. and reXXon is already drilling for. it’s said to be a mammoth pool. but yes, southern command as per the graphic above is there to counter chinese, iranian, and russian influence.
and if there’s war afoot, it’s started on the borders w/ colombia and brazil and likely guyana) already, and juuuuust might yanno, require some false flags necessitating an R2P mission.
““Is the Path to War Through Border Disputes?
One way to start a war would be a cross-border dispute between Venezuela and Colombia, Brazil or Guyana. On February 12, the Maritime Herald reported that Admiral Kurt Tidd, head of the US Southern Command, arrived in Colombia just two days after the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with President Juan Manuel Santos as part of Tillerson’s unprecedented regime change tour. Tidd met with Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas and other senior officials to coordinate efforts around “regional stability” with a focus on Venezuela.
The Maritime Herald also reports US troops coming to Colombian military bases, paramilitaries coming to Colombian towns along the Venezuelan border, plans for “a joint naval force between the United States, Colombia and Mexico,” and arrival of a contingent of 415 members of the United States Air Force to Panama to create support and logistics points for the operation against Venezuela. Also important are two fast-acting US military bases installed in the communities of Vichada and Leticia, Colombia, bordering Venezuela.
The corporate intelligence firm, Stratfor, which works closely with the US government, recently published a report that could be laying the groundwork for a border dispute. Stratfor wrote that Brazilian intelligence officials are going to meet with Guyana’s officials to warn them that Venezuela is planning to attack Guyana. There is a long-term dispute over land between Venezuela and Guyana that is being litigated before the International Court of Justice. The report includes a questionable claim that there is an “ongoing dialogue with the Trump administration over the terms of President Nicolas Maduro and his party’s departure from power.” The reality is that President Maduro is preparing for the April election.”
https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/02/war-preparations-against-venezuela-as-election-nears/
and juliania, as per your sensing ‘the intercept’ as by way of a double entendre as a ‘tunnel’, it occurred to me today that ‘cul de sac’ might even be more descriptive. ;-)
Great coverage of US sloth and Chinese diplomacy. It will take a bipartisan public panic to divert military power to South America. Afganistan is such a basket case and the effort to control Syraqistan in the US image is going so dreadfully wrong. The US no longer understands who its friends and enemies are in the search to keep defense spending high with a sufficient number of stated threats. Mattis, Tillerson, and the White House find it impossible to get on the same page.
are you commenting on pepe’s piece, thd?
Exactly,
See that later down the page you provide some diplomatic coverage of a 14-nation clique standing in opposition to Maduro. In the absence of journalistic attribution of the origin of this effort, my spidey sense is that the oil company executive who runs the US State Department is among those few who have actually done stuff or collaborated in doing stuff to their former employer’s requirements, a key job requirement of the Trump cabinet.
At the center, sloth.
thanks for coming back to explain, and i’d agree that largely it’s reXXon’s hand in it now, but under O some of the same shit was goin’ down, as far as (ahem) ‘advising’ other near neighbors and the OAS how to kick maduro off the island. under O: ‘military solutions are not off the table’. slimey way to speak, no?
guess it had to happen, but apparently some communist groups are telling maduro if he doesn’t listen to them, they won’t support him for prez. i don’t have the link handy, but perhaps even more…hardball than the marxist socialist workers party in the OP. guess we’ll just have to stay tuned….
Difference is that Obama commanded the military. Tillerson has only the State Department and his diplomatic networks. To my mind that means that the pressure on Maduro will be coming from parties aligned with other countries instead of parties aligned with US interests and might be harder to cope with by pointing to Uncle ReXXon. But for the moment, there is less risk of a CIA or special forces direct operation within Venezuela as was ramping up during the Obama administration.
Who are the communist groups affiliated with? It would not surprise me in the least to have nominally communist parties still affiliated with the security services of Putin’s Russia Federation just because of known personal networks and ideological sloppiness.
Affiliations are shifting all over. The most likely scenario now is a surprise election upset.
good observations and good questions. thanks, but some of the oas nations in the area could provide some heavy ally-oops w/ military and special ops, i think. guess we’ll just have to keep our eyes open.
Eyes open, yes. That will tell to what extent the C, R, and S members of BRICS will act to balance power. We already know that Brazil has been subverted and India is a key majoritarian ally of the Trump administration.
The idea that there might be regional wars unallied with the US but supporting interests that include US corporations is another to watch out for. There might be some US arms sales preliminary or once it gets started. Compare with the southern Arabian peninisula.
yes, as THD points out above, there are similarities to “Syraqistan.” esp multiple parties to a dispute (Turkey, Israel, S. Arabia & GCC, etc; Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, etc.) getting embroiled in a gigantic pile of clusterfudge with every possibility that these belligerents will start fighting each other. or there will be coups & unrest in these countries. certainly masses & masses of refugees. so these countries are getting ready…
as a replay of Syraqistan in this regard, it is a strategy of chaos, given that consequences are known. they were known long, long ago but Syria just provides the latest fresh example of the complete indifference to the catastrophes they are inflicting on millions & millions & millions of lives. and will inflict on more.
till they start using tactical nukes on the battlefield, as planned. nuke the bughole as they say in Starship Troopers, big bug splat.
or some other such complete moral insanity.
(let’s count the nations in which the US has deployed jihadis as its proxy: Afghanistan, Chechnya, former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran, China, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia…I’m probably missing several. death squads by another name.)
yeah, let’s keep monitoring the situation.
dunno, j, even after further considering thd’s comment. but the whole ‘military massing at the borders’ ‘is this how it will start?’ makes me think that yes, this is how it could start. and the entire region, plus the oas, is foaming at their collective mouths. when you google the former lives and positions of the heads of state backed by the amerikan empire in brazil, peru, chile…it gives you the shivers, or does me.
well, sorry to be so fuzzy-minded, but RL chaos w/ the kids here has me by the rope. throat?
they don’t really care, do they? as my fav Scientologist Beck sang, spreadin’ disease all across the land. and yeah, the history of US interventions & crimes…anyway, stay sane with the family. hope all is going well.
thanks for the good thoughts, my friend. w/ ‘adult’ kids, some weeks it just dudn’t pay to get up in the mornin’. any resemblance to my sanity is…strictly aspirational. ;-) perhaps the ensuing nightmares do serve a purpose, though in that they don’t quite come true.
i did play the hotwax; hadn’t heard it before. i like the nausea puppets and the clap clap table percussion glass-tapping ones i saw on snl long ago. scientologist, eh?
juliania, julian assange has coined his own new name for TI:
based on this:
How about CON-cept?
lol x10, juliania! and yes, ‘masquerades’, sorry for my hasty shorthand. damn, spot, dayum!
“‘Last week, Peru’s Kuczynski government revealed that the Venezuelan head of state would not be welcome at the summit on the grounds that Venezuela’s early presidential elections would deepen the country’s alleged “rupture of the constitutional democratic order”. Peru announced the decision on behalf of the so-called “Lima Group”, a bloc of fourteen conservative governments in the hemisphere opposed to the Maduro administration.
The ban on Maduro was immediately endorsed by the US State Department, which previously said it will not recognize the outcome of Venezuela’s April 22 elections, despite the date being agreed on as part of internationally mediated negotiations between the Venezuelan government and the opposition.
wiki on PPK: Kuczynski worked in the United States before entering Peruvian politics.[1]
He held positions at both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund before being designated as the general manager of Peru’s Central Reserve Bank. He later served as Minister of Energy and Mines in the early 1980s under President Fernando Belaúnde Terry, and as Minister of Economy and Finance and Prime Minister under President Alejandro Toledo in the 2000s.
he just pardoned alberto fujimori imprisoned in 2009, on ‘humanitarian grounds. swell guy. part of the convictions:
‘On 7 April 2009, a three-judge panel of Peru’s Supreme Court convicted Fujimori on charges of human rights abuses, declaring that the “charges against him have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt”.[48][49] The panel found him guilty of ordering the Grupo Colina death squad to execute the November 1991 Barrios Altos massacre and the July 1992 La Cantuta massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 25 people, and for taking part in the kidnappings of Peruvian journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer;…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Fujimori%27s_arrest_and_trial#Conviction_for_human_rights_abuses