…with news and views from the UNSC conference over Venezuela called by amerika. First up: Tweet of the month:
A**hole of the month, year, decade, longer…
From sputniknews.com: ‘United Nations Security Council Holds Emergency Meeting on Venezuela, feb. 26
“Addressing the UN Security Council, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza demanded the proof of the election fraud, the United States and its allies claimed. He repeatedly recalled that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is a legitimate head of state.
He continued questioning the logic behind the European states ultimatums put forward by Germany, UK, France and Spain earlier in the day. As he noted, Venezuela simply asks for respect of international laws, including the UN charter in the issue.
“I hope that the Security Council will convene a meeting to evaluate who was behind this coup d’etat and to punish those who were behind it… And they would not need a lot of intelligence because of the evidence is abundant,” Arreaza said.
“It was Donald Trump who threatened the use of military force directly against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. How is that he was not even challenged or questioned by the entities of multilateralism?” Arreaza said.
US Accuses Cuba, Urges Int’l Community to Recognize Guaido as Interim President
“Cuba has directly made matters worse. And the United States and our partners are the true friends of the Venezuelan people,” Pompeo said.
Also, he called on the international community to recognise Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela.
Earlier, Bolivian President Evo Morales called the convening of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the current crisis in Venezuela, branding recent developments an “invasion” of the country’s internal affairs.
Addressing the UN Security Council, Anne Gueguen, the French deputy permanent representative to the UN stated that France calls on Venezuela authorities to respect the rights of the National Assembly.”
From the WaPO:
“The Lima Group of nations and Guaido issued an 18-point declaration Monday in which they reiterate their call on the Venezuelan military to recognize Guaido as their commander in chief. They also ask the International Criminal Court to consider Maduro’s blocking of emergency food and medical supplies a crime against humanity and urge the United Nations to play a bigger role in resolving the crisis.
Brazil’s vice president says his nation will maintain its strategy of avoiding military intervention when it comes to neighboring Venezuela.
Monday’s tweet by Vice President Hamilton Mourao came as U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met with regional leaders about Venezuela and said that “all options are on the table.” Mourao said Brazilian officials “believe in diplomatic and international economic pressure.”
Germany is calling for greater pressure against the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro to bring about fresh elections.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr said Monday that Germany believes “the pressure on Maduro needs to be increased so as to move in the direction of free, fair and democratic presidential elections. Demmer said Germany was particularly concerned by “the apparent deployment of militias and groups of thugs to intimidate the population.”
Typically unbiased and transparent news form the NYT.com: ‘Cold War-Style Accusations Fly as Security Council Meets on Venezuela’, feb. 26
“A United Nations Security Council meeting on Venezuela’s crisis briefly turned into a diplomatic brawl on Tuesday, as the United States and Russia traded rejoinders reminiscent of the Cold War.
Nothing was resolved, and it appeared that if anything, the meeting illustrated how antagonists have hardened their positions over the crisis afflicting Venezuela, once Latin America’s most prosperous country, now in an economic free fall.”
From RT.com:
“Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has denounced US sanctions and “theft of assets” from his country and accused the Trump administration of trying to foment a coup in violation of international law.
Speaking at the United Nations, Arreaza said that $30 billion had been “confiscated” from Venezuela since November 2017 due to Washington’s tightening economic measures against the country.
Arreaza suggested a meeting between Trump and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to “try to find common ground” and reach a diplomatic solution as tensions between the two countries continue to rise.
Arreaza said on Tuesday that trucks supposedly carrying humanitarian supplies were also loaded with nails and wire. Guaido tried to assist the entry of the trucks across the Colombian border into Venezuela, which Arreaza said was a “well-orchestrated operation to violate the territory” of the country.
Speculation has mounted that the US may use its ally Colombia as a backdoor to invade Venezuela, prompting Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia to call on all neighboring states to reject the use of force, “regardless of political affiliations.”
Nebenzia said that US sanctions on Venezuela were designed to bring the country to a “state of destitution” as a pretext to trigger a “humanitarian intervention” and regime change to install a government friendlier to the US.
I’m not sure why the video won’t boot, but if you click on the pscp.tv hyperlink, press the on button at the top of the screen, you can watch.
No transcript, but here are the incendiary highlights from the Evil God-loving Evangelical:
“as Prez Trump says, there will be no turning back; the LIMA group was formed two years ago to prevent VZ from sliding further into a brutal dictatorship; we want to thank the leaders of Brazil and ‘ColUMbia’ to help the VZ people in their hour of need; the nations gathered here today agree with us that Nicola Maduro is a usurper, with no legitimate claim to power and he must go; the struggle is between dictatorship and democracy (he said about a dozen times); Maduro actually danced while truckloads of food and medicine burned while thousands of children are starving, even while Maduro sent aid to his puppet-masters in Cuba; nearly 200 members of the military defected to Guiado’s camp; as DT said, the fight has begun; Cuban thugs in masks went around border towns randomly shooting at innocents; as Prez Duqué and I agree, our efforts will increase; we encourage all nations to free the assets of Maduro govt. to the rightful President, Guaido; stronger sanctions are on the way; DT says all options are on the table; and I say to the VZ armed forces, you can support Juan Guaido or you and your families will be held accountable, and as Prez Trump said last week: you will find no safe harbor, no easy exit, no way out, you will lose everything; we know that many of you don’t defect because you’re loyal to Maduro, but due to fear for your families by Cuban-trained secret police; those nations still supporting Maduro should reconsider and stop further isolating themselves on the world’s stage; where the spirit of the lord lives, there is liberty’ then he had the huevos to quote Simon Bolivar; freedom’s on the way for the VZ people, you go with God, then: Libertad! Vaya con Dia!
Related items:
AOC has long lamented the fact that *her* socialism…isn’t like Venezuela’s.
(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
They won’t stop, they never stop, even when the truth is so obvious even a caveman could see it. I guess we have a lot of cavemen and women.
AOC just keep getting better doesn’t she? Michael Moore was right, she should be president right NOW!
I was trying to find what Gabbard has said about Maduro, all I’ve seen is the tweets you’ve provided. I think we can get a better idea on what she’d really do as Prez with that. Have you seen anything from her on Maduro?
I notice that Club de Cord tweeter chain seemed to like Gabbard, In the end it doesn’t matter and it’s all a waste of time to even think about this upcoming presidential race, except how to disrupt it, but she seems to be backtracking a lot on previous stuff while portraying something she really isn’t. At least to me.
i had seen a few moans that to run for pres in amerika you have to be 35, but somewhere in this zillion comments is gabbard’s hands off VZ, sovereign nation, etc., although i can’t even begin to want to suss it out.
https://caucus99percent.com/content/dear-bernie-1
but it may be the place i’d asked about her as the peace candidate, and finally referenced my ‘bolton greenlights india to militarly attack pakistan’, and tulsi’s response, although i’d forgotten to mention: between two nuclear armed nations!
i’m lost as to this: “I notice that Club de Cord tweeter chain seemed to like Gabbard”, but backtracking for both of them, yes. as you’d said, gjohnsit posted ‘what tulsi should have said to megan mcccain’, and as you’d indicated: moral squints. thanks for commenting; no one has at 99% yet.
closing time; g’ night, and good dreaming to us all.
Just read that tweet from Gabbard again you posted in your other essay about Bolton/India/Pakistan. She talks about stopping the jihahists and their ideology. She’s big on ideology. That combined with what I’ve read on her stance on the war OF terror, 9/11, and why the U.S. was fighting in Syria indicate to me Gabbard is bad news. You feeling that? I’m tempted to go say that on C99 just to mess with the Gabbard fans, of which there is a lot now since their previous hero Bernie continues to let them down.
and thi a.m. RT is reporting that india is bombing JeM terr’ists ‘pakistan harbors and funds’on the pakistani side of kashmir. god’s blood, yes, ‘peace for whom’, tulsi? guess the post-911 enemies still need to be routed.
given craig murray just got back from pakistan a week or so ago, he might write about it,
but i’m still not getting why you think cordeliers approves of her.
I think that’s my mistake, in one of the tweet threads, a Karen Free had a statement “I can’t believe a presidential contender can be this good on foreign policy!”. But re-reading it, it appears to be a quote from Steve Bannon. So I don’t know what Cordeliers stance on Gabbard is.
you’ve reminded me of this hazy memory i had on thisstory i found sticking ‘bannon, trump, and gabbard’ into a search engine:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/307106-bannon-set-up-trump-gabbard-meeting
Ya, Bannon and some on the far right seem to like her. Not sure why that doesn’t tell the “progressive” Bernie turned Tulsi supporters something, but evidently not. I did a lot of research on Trump’s foreign policy statements and opinions prior to his being elected, basically trying to beat back the notion that he would be non-interventionist. To no avail, it’s something people won’t move on unless they’re beat over the head with it, like with Trump now and Venezuela. Even then for most it’s the “deep state”, not Trump. Gabbard’s is very similar. So if Gabbard were elected president, we could probably expect a combination of Trump/Obama/Bush foreign policies out of her. Of course.
the lesson is always: ‘watch what they do, not what they say’, and still, i’d hoped for some restraint from trump. but he did get hammered by Ds for his treason summits w/ kim jong un and trump in helsinki. otoh, his generals and bolton seem to over-ride his decisions, say in ‘leaving syria’.
but iirc, part of the ‘in defense of tulsi’ essays in the wider blogosphere had mentioned close to: even though some of the alt-right seem keen on her’…but i hadn’t paid much attention, myself. and when i’d added the ‘india bombing pakistan’ news, i offered what i’d noted tulsi had said on my ‘bolton green lights’ thingie. it was completeley creepy that no other sorta leftish sites even wrote about it, only the Left wsws.
couterpunch had a weird thing the other day written by a woman in the area who seemed to have said…close to nothing.
El Pontificador AOC has your socialist diagnosis right here! Come and get it:
What a carnival of whores and gigolos the light of nations boasts!
Shake those asses, compradors.
wouldn’t that be ‘el pontificatora’ comrade. but she has a peace plan, save for voting for the nato defense act, signing the ‘dear colleagues’ letter.
but ocasio’s long lamented that folks think that *her* socialism is like VZ’s.
She done pretzeled herself. If she’s going flat out for her first and only term, please explain how she got it twisted. Exhaustion? Exasperation? Bad expertise?
mornin, x. nice site, new to me. but but but….”bernie hasn’t called gauido the rightful prez of VZ: and he took boatloads of shit for it!” #hero.bernie.
mornng additions:
bernhard at MoA’s reporting:
“Richard Haass is the president of the Council of Foreign Relations. On Friday, before the failed delivery of fake “humanitarian aid” to Venezuela, he opined that the rejection of the “aid” would justify an intervention based on the dubious doctrine of a Responsibility to Protect (R2P):
Richard N. Haass @RichardHaass – 19:26 utc – 22 Feb 2019
What the Maduro regime is doing to the people of Venezuela is inconsistent with the obligations that come with being a sovereign state. The time has come for the UN or OAS or Lima Group to consider how to apply the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine. bit.ly/2TZaoZv
eric london’s report on the LIMA group conference in bogata includes:
““Simultaneous with this weekend’s planned confrontation, the US military escalated its war plans. CNN reported that “the US military has flown an increased number of reconnaissance flights in international airspace off the coast of Venezuela during the last several days to gather classified intelligence” in possible preparation for a military intervention.
On Saturday, Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló reported that the Venezuelan military threatened to “open fire” on an American ship that entered Venezuelan territorial waters without permission. Though the ship was registered in Vanuatu, it was flying under a US flag in violation of international maritime law. US officials claim the ship was carrying 200 tons of “humanitarian aid.”
“The Washington Post wrote yesterday that behind the scenes in Bogotá, Guaidó “sought assurances that the United States could use force if necessary.” Venezuelan right-wing opposition leader Julio Borges tweeted Sunday that the opposition “will urge for an escalation of diplomatic pressure and the use of force against the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.”
he also brings ‘tear-jerking’ assertions by the WaPo that are hard to bear, and writes that Brazil wants no part of a military invasion (take that to the bank), and telesur has it that neither does the EU.
in my ignorance about borges, i’d wondered what a lot of tweets similar to this had even meant, one called borges ‘greenwald’s friend:
c99% commeter coolepairc had brought: This DN interview yesterday with Venezuela’s foreign minister is worth viewing, ‘The Coup Has Failed & Now the U.S. Is Looking to Wage War: Venezuelan Foreign Minister Speaks Out’
proving once again that sometimes DN gets it right.
very long interview, but here’s the transcript and the video.
i’d also had occasion over yonder to use the link juliania had brought on the previous thread to greg grandin’s book review in the london review of books:
‘What’s at Stake in Venezuela?’, Greg Grandin on sovereignty and Latin America, lrb.co.uk
i haven’t had time to check on what had happened at the USNC emergency meeting DT had called, but it must have been just bashing china and russia.
i updated this thread this a.m. with the news from the emergency meeting at the UNSC the trumpeter had…arranged. my apologies for not saying so in a comment, otherwise: how would you know? ; )
‘Russian, US resolutions on Venezuela fail at UN Security Council’, via RT, feb. 28, 2019
“The US draft blamed the government of President Nicolas Maduro for causing an “economic collapse” in Venezuela, which has sparked a migrant and refugee crisis. Referring to the authorities in Caracas as the “regime,” the document urged to “start a peaceful political process” that would result in “free, fair and credible presidential elections,” while denouncing the May presidential vote as “neither free, nor fair.”
“The US draft resolution garnered nine votes, while Russia, China and South Africa voted against the text. Indonesia, Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast abstained.
The council then voted on the Russian draft supporting a political solution, which failed with seven votes against it. A “no” vote by any one of the five permanent members – US, UK, France, Russia and China – is considered a veto, killing the proposal automatically.
The Russian draft suggested that the Security Council should express concern over civilian deaths in Venezuela and urge all political forces there to commit to resolving the situation.
The draft was similar to a joint statement on the violence in Haiti, which the US supported a few days ago. But when it came to Venezuela, the Americans “killed off” the Russian proposal by adding remarks condemning the government of Nicolas Maduro and making other changes, said Dmitry Polyansky, the Russian deputy UN envoy.”
https://www.rt.com/news/452700-russia-us-unsc-venezuela/