The hybrid wars against the ‘Maduro Regime’ in VZ

Mafia Don Pompeo’s October surprise? This is a longish read, but if they succeed in toppling the Bolivarian government for their own gains, who’s next?  Evo Morales has already been deposed…

‘It’s not dark yet…but it’s gettin’ there.’ ~ Bob Dylan

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces the patrols alongside Guyana’s newly installed conservative president, Irfaan Ali.

‘US & Guyana Unveil Joint Military Patrols on Oil-Rich Venezuela Border; US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo completed a whirlwind tour of Surinam, Guyana, Brazil and Colombia to boost anti-Venezuela efforts’, Sept. 21, 2020, venezulanalyis.com (CC)

“The US and Guyanese governments have announced that they are to begin joint military patrols on the disputed Venezuela-Guyana border.

The decision comes amid increased oil exploration in the territorial waters of the Essequibo strip by US multinational Exxon Mobil, which is looking to exploit the estimated 15 billion barrels of oil recently discovered there.” […]

“According to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who wrapped up a whirlwind three-day tour of Venezuela’s neighbours over the weekend, the joint maritime patrols will be aimed at “drug interdiction” and providing “greater security” for Guyana.

While the scope, nature and makeup of the patrols is yet to be released, it is expected that they will work alongside US naval warships controversially deployed to the Caribbean in April in alleged “anti-narcotics” operations targeting Venezuela.

Apart from Guyana, Pompeo also visited Surinam, Brazil and Colombia between Thursday and Saturday as part of efforts to increase pressure against Venezuela.

In each country, the former CIA director took aim at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, repeatedly describing him as a “narcotics trafficker.” Upon returning to the United States, Pompeo announced that Washington would sanction Maduro, whom he described as Venezuela’s “former president,” but offered no further details.

“Maduro has to go,” Pompeo explained from Guyana. “We know that the Maduro regime has decimated the people of Venezuela and that Maduro himself is an indicted narcotics trafficker. That means he has to leave,” he went on to say. Venezuela has dismissed the US Justice Department “narco-terrorism” charges, while critics have pointed towards US agency data showing most drugs arrive in the US from Colombia through Pacific and Central America routes.

“From the Brazilian border city of Boa Vista, the US politician struck a similar tone, promising the “fall of the Maduro regime,” while Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo likewise vowed that the Venezuelan government will “disappear.”

While in Brazil, Pompeo pledged another US $348 million to help the region deal with the Venezuelan migrant population, including $30 million for Brasilia.

Relations between Brazil and Venezuela have continued to worsen in recent weeks, with Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro declaring Venezuela’s diplomatic corps personae non gratae two weeks ago and suspending their visas and travel permits on Friday.

Pompeo’s last stop was Colombia, where he praised Colombian President Ivan Duque for his “support” for Venezuela’s opposition frontman Juan Guaido, as well for what Pompeo described as “the democratic transition for a sovereign Venezuela free of the malign influence of Cuba, Russia and Iran.” For his part, Duque promised to back a “new chapter in [US-Colombia] bilateral relations.”

The rest contains reactions to the provocations  from within and without VZ, including the beleaguered nation’s allies and business partners. You may remember that Colombia is ‘under NATO’s umbrella’ by now, as in ‘not quite an official member’, but this week Jens Stoltenberg announced that Georgia soon will be.

@jensstoltenberg  Sep 29  ‘Great to meet with Prime Minister @GakhariaGiorgi and Foreign Minister @DZalkaliani. #Georgia is one of #NATO’s most important partners & makes key contributions to our shared security.’

A reminder via Popular Resistance: ‘Wikileaks Exposed US’ Efforts To Destabilize Venezuela’,by Staff, www.wikileaks.org, February 19, 2014 (in part):

“Staff note: The wikileaks cable below from 2013 shows the depth of collaboration between private corporations and the US government to destabilize Chavez-Maduro government in Venezuela. This campaign is ongoing as seen in manipulation of the availability of goods and the destabilization of Venezuelan currency by the illegal influx of US dollars with the effects of manufactured scarcity and inflation that fuel unrest and as seen in the use of students to create opposition to President Maduro. In the last 6 months, Maduro has expelled 6 US diplomats who were caught causing these problems. These are time-tested methods of regime change used by the US. And the US and oligarchic media in Venezuela cooperate by telling outright lies and omitting important information. Let us not be fooled.

On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

Re: Guidance: Exxon and Venezuela    Released on 2013-02-13 00:00 GMT

From	marko.papic@stratfor.com
To	analysts@stratfor.com

I am on CANVAS contacts… will email them, although someone should really
try to meet them in person. They were VERY eager to meet us in person last
time I talked to them (dec/jan) and are still eager to meet us in DC.—– Original Message —–
From: “Peter Zeihan” <zeihan@stratfor.com>
To: “Analyst List” <analysts@stratfor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:37:44 AM (GMT-0500) America/Bogota
Subject: Re: Guidance: Exxon and Venezuelabtw — for those who don’t know what CANVAS/Otpor is…..http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/venezuela_new_player_mixscott stewart wrote:I’m with Peter that this is far too slick for the Administration and am
also intrigued by the timing of this related to the spinning up of
CANVAS in Venezuela. It seems to fit timing-wise.

Any way we can chat with the CANVAS folks?

The rest is here.

It’s hard to over-estimate the power of the following report to Western Imperialists, including this coyness from a dozen or so US House ‘Progressives and the Squad’ (in part):

“We strongly condemn the Maduro government’s actions, including repression of Venezuelan civil society, failed economic policy, the killing of unarmed protestors, disregard for the rule of law, the holding of unfair elections, and blocking humanitarian aid from entering the country. However, threats of military intervention against a failed autocrat who poses no threat to our national security are simply unacceptable. U.S. military action in Venezuela would be unconstitutional without congressional authorization and illegal internationally without approval from the United Nations.”

 ‘Using human rights to promote war: debunking UN’s new Venezuela report’, Anya Parampill, October 1, 2020, thegrayzone.com, Video and transcript

“A new report by a special mission of the United Nations Human Rights Council was released in September and is making headlines after it accused Venezuela’s government of crimes against humanity.

Because it is getting so much attention, several people have reached out to me asking for clarification regarding the information and allegations presented in the report. So I thought I’d help provide some context.

The first point to understand about this report is that none of its authors set foot in Venezuela in order to produce it.

The Office of the High Commissioner of the UN Human Rights Council, Michele Bachelet, did not author this report.

Venezuela’s government has worked with Bachelet since September of 2018, when the council passed a resolution instructing the High Commissioner to produce a comprehensive report on the human rights situation in the country.

Bachelet has actually visited Venezuela and met with government officials in order to collect her information.

This report had nothing to do with that investigation.

Instead, it was issued by a special mission created by the council after the right-wing governments comprising the pro-US Lima Group proposed its creation.

And before I get into the report’s content, it’s worth taking a look at the background of one of the three individuals tapped to investigate human rights in Venezuela: Francisco Cox.

Cox is a Chilean lawyer who has previously represented functionaries of Chile’s military dictatorship, led by Augusto Pinochet between the years 1973 and 1990.

Parampill proceeds to shred him and his company into strips, and includes these extras:

“In fact Venezuela’s government has responded by saying it has investigated many of the cases presented in the report and punished the individuals responsible for the crimes– those details just simply weren’t reflected in the document.

But the fact this report even had to highlight the cases of [golpistas] López and Pérez tells you how desperate Cox and company — and by extension the U.S. and its allies– are to charge Venezuela’s government with wrongdoing. Why is that?

Well, just after the report’s publication, opposition leader Juan Guaidó gave an unusual speech billed as an address before the United Nations general assembly – which was actually just a zoom call live streamed on his YouTube channel.

During the phony “U.N. address”, he called on the international community to invoke its “Responsibility to Protect” Venezuelans and “contemplate scenarios after all routes have been exhausted”. To make his case for war, Guaidó referenced the U.N.’s recent findings.

Guaidó was openly calling for direct military intervention in Venezuela under the guise of a humanitarian intervention — because From Iraq, to Libya, to Syria, that’s worked out so well in recent history. There’s really no better way to restore democracy than for the U.S. air force to bomb the crap out of your own country’s capital city, right?”

A few excerpts from ‘Unfounded UN Report on Venezuela Being Used as an Instrument of Regime Change (US Peace Council Statement)’, September 29, 2020, orinocotribune.com (Creative Commons)

“Venezuela is a historically petroleum exporting nation and has consequently suffered from the crash in the international oil prices starting in 2014. Since this spring, Venezuela along with the rest of humanity has been hit by the additional stressor of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking advantage of these externally induced vulnerabilities, the two-decades-long campaign by the U.S. and its allies of low-intensity war has only intensified under U.S. President Trump’s “maximum pressure” hybrid war operation. […]

“All this is concert with the U.S. government’s long-term effort at regime change in Venezuela, which has set bounties on the heads of top elected Venezuelan officials while selecting Juan Guaidó as the unelected president of the country.

Inside Venezuela, mercenaries based in Colombia staged an incursion of the Venezuelan coast in May. More recently, heavily armed U.S. mercenary Matthew John Heath was captured before he could sabotage Venezuelan power facilities.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Fourth Fleet patrols and threatens Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, and the US has permanent land military bases surrounding Venezuela in Colombia, Aruba, and Curacao. This is in addition to a multi-national U.S.-led naval armada deployed this spring under the ruse of interdicting drugs.

Over-arching all military threats are punishing U.S. and EU sanctions – unilateral coercive measures, illegal under U.S., OAS, and international law – causing great suffering in Venezuela. There is a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. But it is not due to human rights violations by the elected government. The Independent Mission human rights report blames the victim for the intended consequences of U.S. imperialist blockade and other forms of warfare against the people of Venezuela.

The U.S. Peace Council strongly condemns the imperialists, politically biased and motivated Independent Mission report and calls for ending of all unilateral coercive measures by the U.S. and its allies, ceasing the U.S. blockade, and respecting the sovereignty of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

A glimmer of hope for Nicolas Maduro and Venezuela: ‘UK Appeal Court Removes Guaido’s Access to Venezuelan Gold’, Oct. 5, 2020, telesurenglish.net

“President Nicolas Maduro’s administration wins appeal related to monetary gold reserves deposited in the Bank of England.

The United Kingdom Court of Appeals Monday annulled the decision that granted opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido control of 31 tons of gold that Venezuela has deposited in England.

In September, Venezuela filed an appeal against the decision of the British High Court that prevented President Nicolas Maduro’s administration from accessing monetary reserves valued at more than US$1 billion [some say $2 billion], which are deposited in the Bank of England in London.

Previously, in July, High Court Judge Nigel Teare granted self-proclaimed president Guaido control of those monetary reserves, arguing that the United Kingdom recognized him as the “president in charge” of Venezuela.”

Alan MacLeod sees the case like this: ‘UK Court Decision on Venezuela Gold Deals Blow to Regime Change Efforts’, October 5, 2020, strategic-culture.org

“Following President Trump’s lead, in July, the U.K. government took the extraordinary step of derecognizing President Maduro in favor of the self-declared Guaidó, despite the fact that for nearly six months, he had not even been a member of his Popular Will party, let alone its leader. The move was labeled “highway robbery” by supporters of the Venezuelan government.

A nearly unheard of politician before his ascension to the role of head of the Venezuelan National Assembly (a post given out on a yearly rotational basis among all parties in the institution) in January 2019, Guaidó shocked the country by using his appointment to unilaterally declare himself president of the country. He then led a series of coup attempts throughout 2019 and 2020, the last of which involved paying Trump-linked American mercenaries to shoot their way into the presidential palace. However, the plan ended in complete disaster, with the Americans subsequently sentenced to 20 years of prison time.” […]

“The United Kingdom and the United States have been leaders in a years-long economic and political campaign to oust Maduro from power, hitting the country with sanctions and attacking it politically. When Maduro attempted to use the impounded gold to buy humanitarian aid from the United Nations to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the Johnson administration blocked it.”

Additionally, ‘Venezuela Announces New Fuel Scheme [rationing by license plate numbers] as Iranian Gasoline Arrives; The Maduro government also presented a new “anti-blockade” law’, Oct. 1, 2020, venezuelanalysis.com

and

‘Venezuela to Begin Clinical Trials of Russian Covid-19 Vaccine; The first batch of the Sputnik V vaccine was delivered by the Russian Investment Fund to the South American nation’, Oct. 6, 2020

“Mérida, October 6, 2020 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela will be the first Latin American nation to participate in clinical trials of the Russian Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine.

Vice President Delcy Rodriguez made the announcement upon the arrival of the medical cargo on Friday, and informed that the vaccine’s phase 3 clinical trials will begin this month with 2,000 citizens from Caracas taking part.”

(cross-posted at cacus99percent.com)