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Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro might be forgiven for thinking there’s a foreign-backed conspiracy against him in repeatedly accusing the US of engineering a “coup” and waging “economic war” against his regime, especially given that US advisers are now quite openly admitting this is precisely the case. In fact just after Maduro’s contested reelection and swearing in to a second six-year term, his foreign minister Jorge Arreaza told Democracy Now that “Nothing that the opposition does is without the permission or authorization of the State Department… They say, ‘We have to make consultations with the embassy. We have to make consultations with the Dept of State.'”

While that broad brush assertion could remain over-simplistic, White House officials aren’t making it any easier for the opposition in terms of Maduro painting it as tainted by a foreign hand. As a prime example, Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton recently admitted to Fox Business that the US has a “lot at stake” amidst the ongoing Venezuela crisis given the fact that it has the world’s largest proven oil reserves. Bolton told host Trish Regan:

It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.

So it appears that as the administration contemplates ratcheting up both economic and political pressures in favor of opposition National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó, and as “all options are on the table” according to senior officials last week, Bolton in a candid moment which went largely overlooked by the rest of the mainstream media has given us a glimpse into the administration’s less than pure motives on Venezuela.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Bank Of England Refuses To Release Venezuela’s Gold After US Lobbying

January 27, 2019

Bank Of England Refuses To Release Venezuela’s Gold After US Lobbying

With Maduro desperately clinging to power in Venezuela – albeit protected by Russian “security contractors” – The Bank of England just ‘virtue-signaled’ another jab in the socialist utopia’s back by confirming its refusal to hand over Venezuela’s gold from its vaults.

Bloomberg reports that Maduro’s embattled regime, desperate to hold onto the dwindling cash pile it has abroad, was stymied in its bid to pull $1.2 billion worth of gold out of the Bank of England, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Bank of England’s (BoE) decision to deny Maduro officials’ withdrawal request comes after top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, lobbied their U.K. counterparts to help cut off the regime from its overseas assets, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified.

M ike Krieger recently dug into the gold part of the Venezuelan coup saga. In case you forgot, Hugo Chavez didn’t make any friends in the empire back in 2011 when he repatriated around 160 tonnes of gold from banks in the United States and Europe. But the story doesn’t end there. As Reuters reports:

The government of Nicolas Maduro has since last year been seeking to repatriate about $550 million in gold from the Bank of England on fears it could be caught up in international sanctions on the country.
Its holdings at the bank more than doubled in December to 31 tonnes, or around $1.3 billion, after Venezuela returned funds it had borrowed from Deutsche Bank AG through a financing arrangement that uses gold as collateral, known as a swap, one of the sources said.
Venezuela last year started carrying out gold barter operations with Turkey to import food following U.S. sanctions that have made international banks reluctant to handle Venezuelan transactions.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The American Empire Pivots Toward Venezuela

January 26, 2019

The American Empire Pivots Toward Venezuela

Many people are coming to quick takes on yesterday’s extraordinary decision by the U.S. government to recognize an unelected opposition leader as interim President of Venezuela based on their view of Maduro and his government. Similar to the emotional responses to those first clips of the Covington students and Nathan Phillips, such superficial opinions feel good and confirm biases, but don’t tell you much about what’s really going on. From my seat, the move by the Trump administration to choose the leader of Venezuela by diktat is just straight up imperial geopolitics. Nothing more, nothing less.

A month ago, I reassessed my geopolitical assumptions in the post, Is U.S. Geopolitical Strategy Experiencing a Monumental Shift? In it, I detailed how U.S. foreign policy seemed to be shifting toward a focus on containing China, which would lead to a far more serious confrontation between the world’s number one and number two economies.

I’ve now seen enough to seriously consider that we may be entering an entirely new geopolitical environment dominated by vastly increased tensions between the U.S. and China. If so, it will likely last a lot longer than you think as leaders in both China in the U.S. will be looking for a scapegoat as their crony, financialized economies struggle under unpayable debt and unimaginable levels of corruption.

With the attempt to push Russia back in Syria a clear failure, the neocons in Trump’s administration quickly got to work on their next scheme. Enter Venezuela.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Exceptional Nation Asserts Its Exceptionalism

January 26, 2019

The Exceptional Nation Asserts Its Exceptionalism

Washington has chosen a president for Venezuela. I wonder if Trump saw the black humor in doing to Maduro what the Democrats and presstitutes are doing to him.

Few Latin American governments have ever had a government that represents the majority indigenous people or a president who was not of Spanish descent. Chavez in Venezuela perhaps was the longest lasting indigenous leader. His successor Maduro is also indigenous.

Indigenous Latin American leaders are unacceptable to Washington, because they tend to be reformers who represent their country’s people instead of American business and financial interests. Consequently, when a Latin electorate elects a leader who will put them first, Washington overthrows the leader. This is the history of US/Latin American relations.

In the 21st century alone Washington has overthrown the elected presidents of Honduras, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela and overturned the independence of Ecuador that had provided asylum protection for Julian Assange. Washington’s coup with the Spanish elite against Chavez in Venezuela initially succeeded. Chavez was in captivity, but before he could be murdered the Venezuelan people and military forced his release.

Chavez, either because he lacked the power to move against the traitorous Spanish elite or because he chose to display magnanimity, did not hold those responsible who participated in the coup against his life and Venezuelan sovereignty. Washington’s agents, the Spanish elite, were not arrested and retained their control over the media and the economy. Venezuela has substantial oil revenues, but they do not reach the government’s budget or protect the value of the currency. I do not know who controls the Venezuelan oil, but it appears the revenues are being stolen.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Maduro Urges Supporters To Hit Streets As Russian “Security Contractors” Arrive In Venezuela

January 25, 2019

Maduro Urges Supporters To Hit Streets As Russian “Security Contractors” Arrive In Venezuela

Update: Maduro – now backed by Russian military contractors, has urged his supporters to take to the streets to defend the legitimacy of his government. The Venezuelan leader has vowed that his country won’t turn into a “Syria or Libya” situation, and that the Venezuelan military must prepare for an invasion.

According to Reuters, Maduro says he’s willing to travel to New York to discuss the situation with the UN Security Council.

✔

.@NicolasMaduro dice esta dispuesto a ir a Nueva York a debatir en Consejo de Seguridad de @ONU_es

***

As the international community splits along governments who continue to back embattled Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro and governments, led by the US, who have officially recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate head of state, Reuters reported that a group of Russian mercenaries with ties to the Kremlin have been sent to Venezuela to provide security for Maduro as he struggles with the biggest threat to his rule in his six years in power.

The contractors are believed to be from the Wagner Group, a group of private contractors who have performed secret missions on behalf of the government, including fighting in Syria and the Ukraine (which brings to mind this incident from last February when US-backed forces killed 100 Russian mercenaries in what was the closest thing to a direct proxy conflict between Russia and the US in Syria). It’s unclear when the contractors arrived, or when they intend to leave. Russia has offered to mediate the conflict between Maduro and Guaido, while joining with China to criticize the US for interfering in Venezuelan affairs.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Washington Has Appointed A President For Venezuela

January 24, 2019

Washington Has Appointed A President For Venezuela

After listening since 2016 to the American presstitutes complain, without providing a mere scrap of evidence, of Russia meddling in US elections, a person would think that the last thing Washington would do would be to meddle in other countries’ elections.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. Washington routinely meddles but now has gone far beyond mere meddling. Washington has this day (January 23, 2019) declared that the elected president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, is no longer the Venezuelan president. Washington, not the Venezulan people, has decided who is Venezuela’s president. Declaring the elected government to be “illegitimate,” President Trump elected by diktat the Venezuelan president: “Today, I am officially recognizing the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the Interim President of Venezuela.” https://www.rt.com/news/449533-trump-recognizes-venezuela-opposition/

Clearly, Gaido is in Washington’s pocket or Washington would not have chosen him.

Maduro, like Chavez before him, has committed the unpardonable crime of representing the Venezuelan people instead of American corporate and financial interests. Washington simply does not tolerate Latin American governments that represent Latin American people. As US Marine General Smedley Buttler said, he and his Marines made Latin America safe for the United Fruit Company and investments by US banks.

So, now Venezuela has two presidents. One elected by the people, and one appointed by Washington. How long before Washington does this to Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Turkey, India?

Washington managed to frame and remove from power the female reformist president of Argentina and to replace her with a right-wing Washington puppet.

Washington managed to frame, remove from power, and imprison the leaders of the reformist party in Brazil and to install a right-wing Washington puppet.

Washington managed to dispose of the reformist government in Ecuador, install a Washington puppet, and use him against Julian Assange.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Russia Warns US Intervention In Venezuela Would Have “Catastrophic Consequences”

January 24, 2019

Russia Warns US Intervention In Venezuela Would Have “Catastrophic Consequences”

Russia has dismissed the political crisis engulfing Venezuela as an attempted coup while expressing concern over the role of external states and the potential for foreign military intervention, calling Juan Guaido’s move to declare himself president illegal.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday, “We are very concerned by statements that don’t rule out some kind of external intervention,” as cited by Bloomberg. “We consider such intervention unacceptable,” Peskov added while describing the internal unrest spilling into the streets after the catalyst of Monday’s failed military revolt of 27 officers in an opposition neighborhood of Caracas an “attempt to usurp power”.

*Prior meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on December 5, 2018. Image source: AFP*

This follows President Trump’s declaration that the US would only recognize the unelected head of the opposition-held National Assembly as “the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the Interim President of Venezuela.” A senior Trump administration official followed by saying “all options are on the table”.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said further in website statement that Washington’s joining a growing list of about a dozen other countries to recognize Guaido “is aimed at deepening the split in Venezuelan society, increasing the conflict on the streets, sharply destabilizing the internal political system and further escalation of the conflict.” And in words eerily similar to the brief international exchange of words over prior US action in places like Libya and Syria the ministry said that external armed intervention would be “fraught with catastrophic consequences.”

The foreign ministry further described that the situation “has reached a dangerous point” and called on the international community to engage in diplomacy and mediation between the Maduro government and opposition.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Venezuela is Painfully Reminded of the Golden Rule

November 10, 2018

Venezuela is Painfully Reminded of the Golden Rule

He who holds the gold, makes the rules.

This is a motto that you will hear espoused by gold bugs, precious metals advocates, or anyone that has studied financial history in any meaningful way.

The fact is, if you don’t hold it, then you don’t own it.

This is something that I have warned about for years, as people continue to pile into “paper” precious metals assets, most specifically, those that do not guarantee to hold the precious metals in physical reserve, accounting for every oz that they own via regularly scheduled audits.

As Central Banks around the world continue to race into gold, a trend I have been noting throughout the course of this year, some, are being painfully reminded of the golden rule and are ruing the day they ever gave up physical ownership of their most valuable, real asset.

Venezuela, who is currently led by a failing socialist government, with President Nicolas Maduro at its head, is one such country that is learning this valuable lesson.

Venezuela, for months has been attempting to repatriate their gold holdings from the Bank of England, the latter of whom “allegedly” holds a large percentage of the worlds gold reserves since the ending of World War 2.

The reasoning for this, was one of the greatest cons in history, and one that continues to unfold. Western Central Banksters convinced many of the Worlds Nations that it would be “safer” to hold their reserves within the United States and England.

Ironically, over the last few decades, this has been just about the worst place in the world to hold your gold bullion, as these nations have rehypothecated this gold to near infinity. But don’t worry, they claim their “good” for it.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Venezuelans Face Gasoline Shortages

November 1, 2018

Venezuelans Face Gasoline Shortages

Cars, motorcycles and buses wrapped around Caracas’ gas stations earlier this week as oil production and refining becomes increasingly erratic in the former petro giant.

The fuel shortages have expanded across the country as Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s refineries run at the lowest rates seen this year amid a lack of crude oil and as Cardon, the country’s largest refinery, is still shut after an Oct. 15 blackout. In total, the state-run oil company’s five refineries are operating at less than a quarter of their capacity.

While the situation is nationwide, shortages tend to be less frequent in the capital, where the government is trying to prevent growing unrest. The gasoline lines are one more element adding to Venezuelans’ daily plight, which includes scarce basic goods amid hyperinflation, regular power outages and lack of public transport.

Despite the government’s efforts, a number of gas stations have closed in Caracas this week, forcing drivers to bounce between stations before forming in line at those still open for service.

Gas prices are still the among the cheapest in the world in Venezuela. The black market rate earlier this month was less than one cent per gallon. If you’re low on cash, pump attendants often accept snacks as payment. President Nicolas Maduro has yet to increase prices after vowing to do so at the end of September.

Venezuela’s Oil Ministry and PDVSA officials declined to comment.

Venezuela Ditches US Dollar, Will Use Euros For International Trade

October 17, 2018

Venezuela Ditches US Dollar, Will Use Euros For International Trade

Venezuela has just taken the next step in its quest to “free” itself from the tyranny of US dollar hegemony. One year after the country said it would stop accepting US dollars as payment for its (ever shrinking) oil exports (saying the country’s state-run oil company would accept payment in yuan instead), Venezuelan Vice President for Economy Tareck El Aissami said Tuesday that Venezuela will officially purge the dollar from its exchange market in favor of euros.

While we’re sure that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro would love to frame this as his latest gesture of defiance against tyrannical imperialist overreach by Washington, which he has blamed for aggravating the country’s humanitarian crisis by waging an “economic war” against the oil-rich nation, remember that the US effectively blocked the Venezuelan government from transacting in dollars last year when it imposed restrictive sanctions on the Maduro regime and the country’s state-run oil company, PDVSA. Maduro started the process of moving the country’s DICOM system of official tiered exchange rates in September 2017 when he declared that Venezuela would use a “new system of international payments.”

“Venezuela is going to implement a new system of international payments and will create a basket of currencies to free us from the dollar,” Maduro said in an hours-long address to a new legislative superbody, without providing details of the new mechanism.

“If they pursue us with the dollar, we’ll use the Russian ruble, the yuan, yen, the Indian rupee, the euro,” Maduro declared.

The sanctions have largely excluded Venezuela from international capital markets and the US dollar-based financial system, forcing Maduro’s regime to rely on money-for-oil loans extended by China.

Maduro and many senior members of his government have been personally singled out for sanctions by the Treasury Department, a punishment that Maduro has called “an honor.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘Trump Wants To Have Me Killed’, Says Venezuela’s Maduro

October 13, 2018

‘Trump Wants To Have Me Killed’, Says Venezuela’s Maduro

As the US continues to send not-so-subtle signals that it could be open to a military invasion of Venezuela after a US-supported coup plot involving Venezuelan military officers fizzled, Nicolas Maduro – who only a few months ago evaded a bizarre assassination attempt involving C4-laden drones – has accused the Trump Administration of conspiring to have him assassinated.

When approached for a response to Maduro’s comments, a White House spokesman did little to rebut his claims, saying only that the US’s “policy preference” is “for a peaceful, orderly return to democracy in Venezuela.” Given Venezuela’s ailing energy infrastructure, and US sanctions that have made it difficult for the Maduro regime to sell its oil or tap capital markets for funding, the government has been forced to rely on China and, to a lesser extent, Russia to keep it afloat.

But China’s latest money for oil deal hasn’t been enough to plug the gaping hole in the socialist country’s budget, and the country’s frenzied money printing has stoked expectations that the country’s inflation rate will surge to 1.37 million percent by the end of next year. Meanwhile, the IMF earlier this week reaffirmed its forecast that Venezuela’s GDP will shrink by 18% during 2018.

Nearly 2 million Venezuelans have fled since 2015 as the economic mismanagement under Maduro left the oil rich nation with crippling shortages of food and medicine. In response, Maduro has authorized violent crackdowns on street protests and dissent. Earlier this week, the US accused Maduro of ordering the death of a jailed opposition leader who died in police custody. They say he killed himself.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Is Trump Eyeing A Coup In Venezuela?

September 28, 2018

Is Trump Eyeing A Coup In Venezuela?

The Trump administration and some others in the U.S. government have sent some not-so-subtle hints lately that they are open to a military invasion of Venezuela to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

“It’s a regime that frankly could be toppled very quickly by the military, if the military decides to do that,” President Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

The words seem to offer some encouragement for a coup, which may not come as a surprise because the New York Times published an investigation in early September that found that the Trump administration met secretly with Venezuelan military officers over the last year to discuss an overthrow of Maduro.

Venezuela is in tatters and there have been previous signs that Maduro’s grip is tenuous, including the renegade helicopter pilot earlier this year and the bizarre scene in which drones exploded during a military parade in August near Maduro.

In other words, the threat of a coup has been rising for some time.

But more recently, there have been louder murmurings in Washington and beyond. Bloomberg noted that Fernando Cutz, a former member of the National Security Council, said that a multilateral military invasion of Venezuela might be the best solution. Also, some prominent Venezuelan dissidents and former officials have supported regime change. Florida Senator Marco Rubio said there is a “very strong argument” for such a move. Then there were Trump’s comments in New York at the UN.

Some cautious, but notably receptive comments to an invasion or coup came from officials at the Organization of American States and in the Colombian government, Bloomberg pointed out. Also, Trump is expected to bring in some officials to his government that are notably hawkish in regards to Venezuela.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“The Threat Is With Us Today”: US Powerless Against Weaponized Drone Attacks, DHS Warns

September 27, 2018

“The Threat Is With Us Today”: US Powerless Against Weaponized Drone Attacks, DHS Warns

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is asking Congress for more powers to combat against malicious drones that could threaten the US. Top intelligence officials are increasingly concerned about the use of transporting narcotics via drones by drug cartels and weaponized drones by terrorists.

CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues was granted rare access and observed government surveillance drones in action at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility in Tucson, Arizona. Pegues saw behind the scenes of what it takes to operate a drone unit that frequently surveils the Mexico–US border searching for illegal activity.

He met with DHS’ top intelligence official David Glawe and CBP Chief Rodolfo Karisch to discuss the threat of drones.

“If you want to move people, narcotics, God forbid weapons of mass destruction or anything else over the border, you have a surveillance location that can be now automated with drones at a very inexpensive cost by organizations outside of the United States,” Glawe said.

Countless videos over the last several years have shown ISIS using commercial grade drones for precision bombing strikes on their enemies.

One drone attack + a novum – suicide long-tailed drone. (New Mosul video) pic.twitter.com/anOt7EkbYt

— Paweł Wójcik (@SaladinAlDronni) May 17, 2017

Last month, two drones packed with high explosives reportedly flew toward Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in what the Venezuelan government has described as a failed assassination attempt. “Any time drones are used for an attack, what appears to have been an assassination attempt, it’s gravely concerning,” Glawe said.

6 people arrested in Venezuela after alleged drone attack on President Maduro pic.twitter.com/76QBUG8n6p

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) August 6, 2018

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Covert US Plot For Venezuela Coup Detailed In Explosive NYT Report

September 8, 2018

Covert US Plot For Venezuela Coup Detailed In Explosive NYT Report

“This is going to land like a bomb” in the region, a former Latin America diplomatic official told the New York Times in this morning’s explosive lengthy report detailing how the Trump administration held covert meetings with Venezuelan military coup plotters targeting President Nicolás Maduro.

The “clandestine channel” involved contacts with what are described as “rebellious officers” bent on bringing about regime change with the help of Washington.

The astounding revelation — though perhaps familiar-sounding when considering the historical string of coups and CIA covert interventions across the 20th century from Cuba to Nicaragua to Chile — comes just over a month after a bizarre assassination attempt involving two C-4 explosive laden drones which detonated near Maduro as he gave a televised speech during a military parade in Caracas.

At the time the Venezuelan president pointed the finger at Washington, claiming right-wing factions connected to Columbia and Florida and backed by the United States were behind the sensational attempt on his life; meanwhile some American pundits raised the question of whether it was a ‘false flag’ staged by Maduro himself, given the strangeness of the event.

Though the August 4 events remain very much a mystery, the new revelation of White House-sponsored coup plotting meetings are sure to add fuel to Maduro’s ravings against Washington, and will further be utilized to blame external forces for causing Venezuela’s collapsing economy and failed infrastructure.

Like prior US covert action in Latin America, The New York Times finds that the White House was in bed with some very unsavory local actors:

But one of the Venezuelan military commanders involved in the secret talks was hardly an ideal figure to help restore democracy: He is on the American government’s own sanctions list of corrupt officials in Venezuela.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Venezuela In Chaos After Maduro Announces Massive 95% Devaluation, New FX Rate Tied To Cryptocurrency

August 19, 2018

Venezuela In Chaos After Maduro Announces Massive 95% Devaluation, New FX Rate Tied To Cryptocurrency

Chaos and confusion erupted across Venezuela, and most stores were shuttered on Saturday, after president Nicolas Maduro announced that the government would enact a massive currency devaluation, implement a new minimum wage, hike taxes, and also raise gasoline prices for most citizens even as the country struggles with the greatest hyperinflation on record, surpassing even that of the Weimar Republic.

As a result of the enacted actions, the new version of the bolivar will be pegged to the value of the state cryptocurrency, the etro, which according to Bloomberg amounts to a 95% devaluation of the official rate, and will trade in line with where the black market was; the government will also raise the minimum wage more than 3,000 percent, which works out to about $30 a month.

Maduro said the new currency, set to enter circulation on Monday, will be called the “sovereign bolivar” and will be based on the petro, which is valued at $60 or 3,600 sovereign bolivars, after the redenomination planned for August 20 slashes five zeroes off the national currency. The minimum wage will be set at half that, 1,800 sovereign bolivars. The government would cover the minimum wage increase at small and medium-size companies for 90 days, Maduro added. It was not clear what happens after.

“They’ve dollarized our prices. I am petrolizing salaries and petrolizing prices,” Maduro explained in a Friday televised address. “We are going to convert the petro into the reference that pegs the entire economy’s movements.”

In other words, for the first time ever, an oil-linked cryptocurrency effectively replaces the sovereign currency. As a result the petro, which will fluctuate dramatically, will be used to set prices for goods. The package of measures combine the necessary with the baffling, Luis Vicente Leon, president of the Caracas-based pollster Datanalisis, said in a Twitter post on Friday.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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