Venezuelan Update (Florida Maquis)

Two interesting articles. The first discusses how Trump's Energy Policy translates into foreign policy.
Trump Betrays MAGA Over Venezuela - Gold Goats 'n Guns

The second asks "What Comes Next" in the Venezuelan campaign to overthrown Maduro. It seems there are fatal flaws in the planning stage.
MoA - Venezuela - Trump's Coup Attempt Is Based On A Seriously Flawed Plan

I hope at least two or three of the posters here out of several dozen bother to read the articles before chiming in. It is OK to disagree with analysis and conclusions, but first it helps to have an idea what you are talking about.
 
Monahorns said:
#1 An election can't be legit when you jail candidates or cause them to go into hiding out of fear. If you call that fair, then you are EVIL.

#2 Go Bernie! I completely agree with him on this. If only he would do a complete reversal on his economics.

#3 The Muslim lady is really really stupid if she thinks Trump is coming up with any plans for a coup. Trump's foreign policy has been coopted by the NSA and Pentagon. If there are any plans for the US military to use violence, that's DOD people not Trump.
Click to expand...
On #1, you might want to review the recent election in Brazil, because this is exactly how Bolsonaro was elected. And guess who is a strong supporter of Bolsonaro?
 
Mus, you are not being honest. Brazilian politicians were put in jail for stealing money from Petrobras, not because of politics. Just be honest for once in your life.
 
Joe, Monaghan’s;

The central issue is oil. Period. Corruption allegations, elections, humanitarian concerns etc. are diversions. Are they real? Yeah, sure a lot of it is real. But they are just distractions to justify the acquisition of the oil. Nothing else matters in terms of our actions. So you can discuss Socialism, dictators, corruption all you like. I assure you none of this is relevant to Trump, Pompeo, Bolton, Rubio, the State Department, or the Pentagon. It’s about the oil and the controlling the flow of energy. In Venezuela, Iran, the Caucuses.
 
President Nicolas Maduro: An Open Letter to the People of the United States - NewsVoice

Nicolas Maduro writes:

“If I know anything, it is about peoples, such as you, I am a man of the people. I was born and raised in a poor neighborhood of Caracas. I forged myself in the heat of popular and union struggles in a Venezuela submerged in exclusion and inequality. I am not a tycoon, I am a worker of reason and heart, today I have the great privilege of presiding over the new Venezuela, rooted in a model of inclusive development and social equality, which was forged by Commander Hugo Chávez since 1998 inspired by the Bolivarian legacy.

We live today a historical trance. There are days that will define the future of our countries between war and peace. Your national representatives of Washington want to bring to their borders the same hatred that they planted in Vietnam. They want to invade and intervene in Venezuela – they say, as they said then – in the name of democracy and freedom. But it’s not like that. The history of the usurpation of power in Venezuela is as false as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is a false case, but it can have dramatic consequences for our entire region.

Venezuela is a country that, by virtue of its 1999 Constitution, has broadly expanded the participatory and protagonist democracy of the people, and that is unprecedented today, as one of the countries with the largest number of electoral processes in its last 20 years. You might not like our ideology or our appearance, but we exist and we are millions.

I address these words to the people of the United States of America to warn of the gravity and danger that intend some sectors in the White House to invade Venezuela with unpredictable consequences for my country and for the entire American region. President Donald Trump also intends to disturb noble dialogue initiatives promoted by Uruguay and Mexico with the support of CARICOM for a peaceful solution and dialogue in favor of Venezuela. We know that for the good of Venezuela we have to sit down and talk because to refuse to dialogue is to choose strength as a way. Keep in mind the words of John F. Kennedy: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate”. Are those who do not want to dialogue afraid of the truth?

The political intolerance towards the Venezuelan Bolivarian model and the desires for our immense oil resources, minerals, and other great riches, has prompted an international coalition headed by the US government to commit the serious insanity of militarily attacking Venezuela under the false excuse of a non-existent humanitarian crisis.

The people of Venezuela have suffered painfully social wounds caused by a criminal commercial and financial blockade, which has been aggravated by the dispossession and robbery of our financial resources and assets in countries aligned with this demented onslaught.

And yet, thanks to a new system of social protection, of direct attention to the most vulnerable sectors, we proudly continue to be a country with high human development index and lower inequality in the Americas.

The American people must know that this complex multiform aggression is carried out with total impunity and in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which expressly outlaws the threat or use of force, among other principles and purposes for the sake of peace and the friendly relations between the Nations.

We want to continue being business partners of the people of the United States, as we have been throughout our history. Their politicians in Washington, on the other hand, are willing to send their sons and daughters to die in an absurd war, instead of respecting the sacred right of the Venezuelan people to self-determination and safeguarding their sovereignty.

Like you, people of the United States, we Venezuelans are patriots. And we shall defend our homeland with all the pieces of our soul. Today Venezuela is united in a single clamor: we demand the cessation of the aggression that seeks to suffocate our economy and socially suffocate our people, as well as the cessation of the serious and dangerous threats of military intervention against Venezuela. We appeal to the good soul of the American society, a victim of its own leaders, to join our call for peace, let us be all one people against warmongering and war.

Long live the peoples of America!

Nicolás Maduro
President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”
 
If that picture really represents the level of support for Guaido, then it shouldn't be hard for the citizens of Venezuela to depose Maduro on their own. Get a general or two to support the cause and it's game over.

Then the big question is whether or not Guiado is any better. Who knows.
 
Monahorns said:
If that picture really represents the level of support for Guaido, then it shouldn't be hard for the citizens of Venezuela to depose Maduro on their own. Get a general or two to support the cause and it's game over.

Then the big question is whether or not Guiado is any better. Who knows.
Click to expand...
The crowds supporting Maduro are even larger. But the demographics are vastly opposite and there is a huge racial component. Guiado’s supporters are overwhelmingly middle and upper class, light skinned, with European features. Maduro supporters come from the lower classes and tend to be darker skinned with native features.

The economy would no doubt improve somewhat under Guaido as the sanctions would be lifted and US investments would come into the picture with privatization. But this is what existed prior to Chávez and none of the wealth went to be general public, environmental measures were nil, working conditions were abysmal, and the poverty rate exceeded 80%. These people remember that and will never accept US colonization, which is clearly the objective.

Maduro cannot win because the combination of low oil prices, internal opposition, and US sanctions are too much. But if a coup displaced him the Chavistas, numbering in the millions, will fight to the death and it will spread to Colombia. The smart thing for the US would be to stay out of the way, but the empire doesn’t opporate that way.
 
The empire is an empire for a reason. Maduro will succumb to the inevitable. He will need to learn to code.
 
Just started paying attention to this thread. The level of bovine manure about the tropical workers paradise of Venezuela in this thread is getting much higher than boot-level, so I'm pasting a few of my posts from other threads for your reading enjoyment. Here's one:

"Perhaps the lovely AOC could take a fact finding trip to the tropical workers paradise of Venezuela. She could come back and tell us how to best run a country after seeing real socialism in action.
I knew one real old-timer who worked for decades with Creole Petroleum (aka Exxon in Venezuela). He described a really great place--back then at least. Perhaps if I only had a Che t-shirt, I could put it on and see Creole for the harmful capitalist imperialist institution that it was. Neither Chavez nor Maduro ever mentioned that without US know-how their massive oilfields would not have been discovered, and certainly would not have been developed.

Here's a bit of capitalist propaganda/fake news I just found: "Since president Hugo Chavez fired 18,000 PDVSA employees and replaced them with avowed loyalists of his own party, PDVSA has suffered from a series of safety and productivity problems." [PDVSA is the state-owned oil company that took over Creole]" -- imagine that, nobody could have seen that coming...
 
Here's another:

"Well, at least the socialist countries like Venezuela are better at protecting the environment... (see 1:30 - about 5:00 of video below). On a similar note, surely the former Soviet Union must be one of the most pristine natural environments on Earth. AOC's push towards socialism is "green" after all."

Look at the bright side, Chavez and Maduro have added a new dish to their nation's cuisine: Oily Crab.

 
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Chopper,

Today is Youth Day in Venezuela. All the western media broadcasted the large opposition marches leaving the impression the entire country wants change. They didn't show the pro-government attendance.





The France24 mini-doc presented the hardships suffered and offered Maduro's incompetence and corruption as the sole reason. And no doubt, the Maduro regime has failed. But the entire documentary only stated the word sanctions once, near the end of the piece and didn't have make a single comment about how the sanctions have effected the decline of the Boliver (currency) and plight of the people. This is pure propaganda where cherry-picked truths are shown and other facts are purposely omitted.

Does France24 have any mini-docs on the Yellow Vest protests? And if so, I wonder how that coverage slants? Maybe the US should impose massive sanctions on France, encourage a coup and name a CIA trainee as the new democratic leader of France.
 
Maduro is a totalitarian, as was Chavez before him. Think about that before you defend him. Economically, he's a full-blown socialist--not a liberal democrat at all. There is nothing liberal about him. He's behind only a small handful of leaders (N. Korea's Kim for instance) as the most illiberal national leader on the planet. He is also vehemently opposed to us and our nation. Not sure what your motives are for defending this guy ...
 
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