‘Venezuela’s Parallel Ambassador Seated at OAS as Activists Defend Embassy; The Organization of American States allowed the ambassador of Venezuela’s self-declared president to participate in his first meeting. The move could signal an attempt to take over Venezuela’s embassy in DC, which activists are defending’ April 24, 2019, TRNN (the transcript’s at the link)
Anya Parampil was in attendance, bless her heart; a few teasers:
‘Venezuelan opposition reps throw temper tantrums when confronted about lack of legitimacy, interventionist plans at OAS’ Anya Parampil, April 24, 2019
“At the OAS, two top representatives of Juan Guaido’s US-backed shadow government – Gustavo Tarre and David Smolansky – lost their cool when confronted with critical questions. Both recently attended a closed-door DC meeting on a US military assault.
On April 23, the Venezuelan lawyer and opposition activist Gustavo Tarre stood outside the Simon Bolivar room inside the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington DC and fielded friendly questions from reporters.
It was a rare day of celebration for the Venezuelan opposition, which had been deprived of concrete victories since launching their coup with US backing in January. Having just been installed with as Venezuela’s “ambassador” at the OAS, Tarre controlled little more than the chair he sat in. But as he was trotted out into the hall by a young handler in order to hold his first press-conference as “ambassador,” he beamed with pride.
As soon as I approached Tarre and another key figure in Juan Guaido’s coup administration with critical questions about their legitimacy – and about their apparent participation in a closed door meeting to discuss a US military assault on Venezuela – their ebullience turned to rage.
When I asked Tarre if he had participated in the roundtable, and if he thought it was normal for an ambassador to discuss a foreign invasion of his own country, he pivoted to a familiar opposition talking point: “[Venezuela] is a country invaded by foreigners. Invaded by Russian agents. Invaded by Cubans.”
‘US Military Attack on Venezuela Mulled by Top Trump Advisors and Latin American Officials at Private DC Meeting’, Max Blumenthal, grayzoneproject.com, April 13, 2019
The Washington, DC-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted a private roundtable on April 10 called “Assessing the Use of Military Force in Venezuela.” A list of attendees was provided to The Grayzone and two participants confirmed the meeting took place. They refused to offer any further detail, however.
Among the roughly 40 figures invited to the off-the-record event to discuss potential US military action against Caracas were some of the most influential advisors on President Donald Trump’s Venezuela policy. They included current and former State Department, National Intelligence Council, and National Security Council officials, along with Admiral Kurt Tidd, who was until recently the commander of US SOUTHCOM.
Senior officials from the Colombian and Brazilian embassies like Colombian General Juan Pablo Amaya, as well as top DC representatives from Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaido’s shadow government, also participated in the meeting.”
(The complete list of attendees for the private CSIS event on US military options against Venezuela appears at the bottom of this article.)
Venezuela withdrew from the OAS (some note it’s the Monroe Doctrine stretched a bit) on April 26, 2017 before the Bolivarian nation could be tossed out. Mercosur, the Southern Common Market, suspended Venezuela from the august partnership on Dec. 1, 2016. Long live ALBA! Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America: Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela.
Perhaps Trump and Bolton can find a CIA Cubano expat in Florida to crown himself King of Cuba, or an opponent of Miguel Díaz-Canel to do the same.
‘Trump cracks down on Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela’, April 17, 2019, apnews.com
“…rolling back Obama administration policy and announcing new restrictions and sanctions against the three countries whose leaders national security adviser John Bolton dubbed the “three stooges of socialism.”
“The troika of tyranny — Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua — is beginning to crumble,” Bolton said in a hard-hitting speech near Miami on the 58th anniversary of the United States’ failed Bay of Pigs invasion of the island, an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government.
The measures seem likely to hit hardest in Cuba, which is at a moment of severe economic weakness as it struggles to find cash to import basic food and other supplies following a drop in aid from Venezuela and a string of bad years in other key economic sectors.
Bolton announced a new cap on the amount of money that families in the United States can send their relatives in Cuba. The Obama administration had lifted limits on remittances, but the new limit will be $1,000 per person per quarter. Remittances to Cuba from the United States amounted to $3 billion in 2016, according to the State Department.”
Non-family travel to Cuba, i.e.: tourism, cultural, and educational exchanges may be ‘restricted’ as well. Details to follow, the administration notes. Warning: Chief Mafia Boss ahead:
“Bolton spoke hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a new policy allowing lawsuits against foreign firms operating on properties Cuba seized from Americans after the 1959 revolution. The United States has enforced a trade embargo against Cuba since the early 1960s.
Cuban officials met the announcements with defiance.” (as did President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Twitter)
Ya think? The rest again, is here. Can we hold a contest to name the True Troikas of Tyrrany?
For your browsing pleasure: https://venezuelanalysis.com/
For instance: ‘Report: US Sanctions Have Cost 40,000 Venezuelan Lives’, Apr 26th 2019; Economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs conclude that US sanctions “would fit the definition of collective punishment.”
(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
The Existential Gangsters? They’ve misfitted Kwistian and Judaist masks but essentially they’s the evangelized/ists of the final stage of crapitalism.
The crapitalist Zion requires genocide of the unfaithful.
you’re on a roll, comrade x! had to get ‘world war continues’ translated, though. a Q: wordpress has been jerkin’ stuff today, some of it’s fixed for now… but i use firefox, and have had to control ++ to get rid of the wide margins on either side. you?
¡La Guerra Mundial Continua!
A good crucifixion is very useful. When even the best have failed, and none dare to more, the oppressors are absolved (Ours is the natural order!)
Julian, hallowed be thy name!
well, truth to tell, although wsws writes about the war on VZ a lot, they always qualify their rants with: it’s now a capitalist nation…
And these capitalist assholes are worse than Pilate.
keep on squeezing, keep on killing…
the backstory is here: ‘Venezuela: Arreaza Slams US for ‘Criminal’ Blockade’, telesurenglish.net, April 26, 2019
“The United States Treasury sanctioned Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza Friday, who condemned the move and denounced what he described as “criminal” acts by the U.S. against the oil-rich Latin American country.
“The Office of Foreign Assets Control, a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of Treasury Department, designated Jorge Arreaza and Judge Carol Bealexis Padilla de Arretureta as targets of fresh sanctions April 26.
“There are reactions that confirm that we are on the right path and give us more STRENGTH to fight. Yesterday at the UN, we irrefutably denounced the US criminal blockade against Venezuela. Today the Trump administration responds with despairation against us. The TRUTH hurts!” Arreaza tweeted Friday just after the U.S. treasury made the announcement.
At a United Nations meeting Thursday, Arreaza said that the unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States are not against officials, but against the general population.”
“The report also indicates that the Venezuelan government is unable to access over US$20 billion of its own funds and gold because of the U.S. sanctions.”
Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin claimed Friday in an official press release that “the United States will not stand by and watch as the illegitimate Maduro regime starves the Venezuelan people of their wealth, humanity, and right to democracy.”
“(The) Treasury will continue to target corrupt Maduro insiders, including those tasked with conducting diplomacy and carrying out justice on behalf of this illegitimate regime. This Administration stands with the Venezuelan people, and alongside an international coalition committed to holding accountable those who are responsible for Venezuela’s tragic decline,” he added.”
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuela-Arreaza-Slams-US-for-Criminal-Blockade-20190426-0015.html
the United States will not stand by and watch as the illegitimate Maduro regime starves the Venezuelan people of their wealth, humanity, and right to democracy.
Capitalism is fraud, a special kind of fraud: once you realize you’ve been had you still have to pay.
this is the former commander of southern command max had mentioned in his list:
what a sick amerikan imperialism bubble they dwell in.
closing time for me. tonight’s closing song will be the last song the late, great
alchemist john trudell recorded before his ‘ride came for him’. g’ night.
Don’t worry, Bernie’s an expert at certatus interruptus.
i assume it’s a play on coitus interruptus, but i dunno what ‘certatus’ means. ‘c’ now? how succinct. ah, the bern has also joined a joint project w/ DiEm or whatever (varoufakis) to create a less neoliberal IMF or something.
but his FP policy advisors in the new yawker piece: oh, my stars. what.a.mensch. know what’s weird? this diary over yonder at c99% only drew two commenters.
http://latin-dictionary.net/definition/9144/certatus-certatus
Too quick on the return key.
What? Bernie on a Harley and Varaifokus on his Kawasaki? sexxxxy!
From Vali Nasr’s “Democracy in Iran” (2006):
The veil of capital is his aphrodisiac. Nasr’s father,
Nasr’s among the CIA Democrats, no?
the def’s were: fight, struggle, contention…so interrupted struggle, or: the pretense of struggle? gotta read the rest later, i hate those block quote italics thingies.
dunno, i’ve forgotten his name, although wsws had a 3-pt series on the cia democrats.
quite an image of the two dudes on vrooom-vrooom machines; add bernie in black leather riding gear…
Bad Ass Bernie. You’re gonna like my socialism, punk.
Everyone’s an exile and there’s only one Zion … and that’s a delusion.
tweets from 2/3 of the True Troika of Tyranny:
closing time for me; given that cuba and nicaragua are next on the troika of tyranny’s hit list, i’m gonna go with these cubano viejos for tonight’s closing song; g’ night:
Things are heating up in VZ.
These are recommended twitter feeds:
@andrewrosati
@PattyLaya
@AlexVasquezS
@zerpius
AFP: Jailed Venezuelan politician Leopoldo Lopez says ‘freed’ by soldiers supporting Guaido.
Miami Herald: Venezuela’s Guaido claims military backing and calls for uprising and ousting of Maduro