2/18/19, “Trump proclaims ‘twilight’ of socialism in the Americas during speech on Venezuela,“ Miami Herald, David Smiley and Martin Vassolo
“President Donald Trump…cast impending regime change in Venezuela as a harbinger of things to come in Cuba and Nicaragua….
Trump addressed the Venezuelan people in an effort to further increase pressure on embattled ruler Nicolas Maduro to flee….He spoke directly to military leaders who continue to support Maduro, warning that the U.S. has identified their off-shore holdings and is prepared to use force, if necessary.
“We seek a peaceful transition of power. But all options are open,” Trump said, ominously. “If you choose this path, you will find no safe harbor, no easy exit and no way out. You’ll lose everything.”
Trump’s speech, delivered at Florida International University, reflects the peaking U.S. involvement in…Venezuela….
Congress pushed economic sanctions against Maduro months before National Assembly leader Juan Guaido declared himself in January as Venezuela’s president….
He [Trump] issued crippling sanctions on Jan. 28 that prevent state-owned oil company PDVSA from conducting business with U.S. corporations except under special conditions. Citgo, PDVSA’s U.S. refining arm, remains in operation, but profits have been funneled into an escrow account that the Trump administration plans to make available to Venezuela only after Guaido takes full control.
For now, Guaido has set up a parallel government recognized by more than 30 nations as the legitimate administration in Venezuela. Before Trump spoke Monday, Guaido appeared on video and spoke to the crowd of roughly 1,000 packed into a closed-off area of FIU’s Ocean Bank Arena….
Guaido’s presidency is not universally recognized. The United Nations and European Union continue to view Maduro as the country’s president, and activists on the left have accused Trump of adopting decades of hawkish behavior by the U.S. in South America. Outside the FIU Ocean Bank Arena, a crowd of several dozen marched in protest, with some waving signs with Guaido’s face crossed out, and reading “No U.S. Coup in Venezuela.”
“This is not about democracy. This is about special interests,” said Yadira Escobar, a 31-year-old local radio personality representing the anti-interventionist group Hands Off Venezuela. Other protestors said they support Trump’s actions in Venezuela, but oppose the president.
Inside the arena, the crowd chanted “Libertad!” and roared at predictions of Raul Castro’s downfall in Cuba, and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Throughout the afternoon, Florida’s U.S. senators warned that a deadline set Saturday by Guaido for Maduro to allow aid into the country will be a tipping point in the struggle for leadership of Venezuela.
Maduro, unwilling to relinquish power, has been using the military to block trucks carrying food and medicine…from crossing the Tienditas Bridge from Colombia and through the northwestern border of Venezuela.
Trump, as he did Monday, has suggested the U.S. might use force to push the materials through. But national security adviser John Bolton told reporters in Miami that there is no plan to use the U.S. military to force the aid into Venezuela. Instead, he said the press [weaponized by Trump] will either show the aid getting into the country, or reveal Maduro for a thug who blocks food and medicine from millions of hungry and ill people.
Either way, he said, Guaido wins.
To be sure, the U.S. has hoped to avoid confrontation by encouraging military and political leaders to abandon Maduro. Last week, even as it implemented new sanctions against Maduro associates, the Treasury Department said it would consider lifting economic sanctions against individuals who took steps to restore democratic order in the country (code for pushing out Maduro)….
Bolton told reporters…“The national assembly has indicated certainly for military leaders there could be an amnesty for those who come over to the opposition, something they and their family should think (over) very carefully.”
Rubio, who was part of a Miami delegation that accompanied a [US taxpayer funded] 180-ton United States Agency for International Development [USAID] shipment to Cucuta, Colombia, over the weekend and visited the Tienditas bridge, reiterated a warning Monday that he gave in Colombia….
Trump’s assertiveness on Venezuela has been one of the few bright spots in his administration in recent months.”…
[Ed. note: Since when is a US taxpayer funded coup d’etat a “bright spot?”]
(continuing): “His efforts to topple Maduro have been welcomed by both Republicans and Democrats.”…
[Ed. note: Memo to Miami Herald: If something is “welcomed” by “both” so-called parties, it’s guaranteed to be yet another sellout of remaining Americans, a depraved crime against humanity which will inflict permanent misery on multiple countries if not entire continents, which then will bleed millions more homeless, non-English speaking people from violent cultures who will become lifetime responsibilities of US taxpayers.]
(continuing): “Florida Republicans have also recognized the situation as an opportunity to make inroads with Florida’s Hispanic voters, a group that, despite its diversity, largely leans Democratic….
There’s a backlog of 70,000 petitions for asylum from Venezuelan exiles that has accumulated over the last three years. Currently, 150,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S. would qualify to stay in the country legally should Trump choose to extend TPS by executive order….
Trump cast himself as the leader of the Americas before an enthusiastic crowd. And, in an arena not far from Doral — home to thousands of Venezuelan exiles — and Sweetwater — home to thousands of Nicaraguan immigrants — he promised that the freedoms they enjoy in the U.S. will be returning to the countries they left behind.
“We know what freedom can do in Cuba because we’re seeing that future right here in Miami,” Trump said. “We’ve seen that future in Sweetwater … We are going to see what the people will do in Caracas, Managua and Havana.””
(McClatchy Washington Bureau reporter Franco Ordonez contibuted to this report.) ©2019 Miami Herald
Added:
2/24/2015, “Obama failed his coup in Venezuela," Voltaire Network, Thierry Meyssan
“Once again, the Obama administration has tried to force the change of a political regime that resists it. On February 12, [2015] an Academi (formerly Blackwater) plane disguised as an aircraft of the Venezuelan army was supposed to bomb the presidential palace and kill President Nicolas Maduro. The plotters had planned to place former MP María Corina Machado in power and have her immediately acclaimed by former Latin American presidents.”
“President Obama had given a warning. In his new doctrine of Defence (National Security Strategy), he wrote: “We stand with citizens whose full exercise of democracy is in danger, as the Venezuelans.” Yet, Venezuela is, since the adoption of the 1999 constitution, one of the most democratic countries in the world. This sentence presaged the worst to prevent it from continuing its path to independence and wealth redistribution.
It was onFebruary 6, 2015.Washington was finishing developing the plan for the overthrow of the democratic institutions of Venezuela. The coup was planned for February 12.
“Operation Jericho” was supervised by the National Security Council (NSC), under the authority of Ricardo Zuñiga. This “diplomat” is the grandson of the homonymous president of the Honduran National Party who organized the coups of 1963 and 1972 in favor of General López Arellano. He directed the CIA station in Havana (2009-11), where he recruited and financed agents to form the opposition to Fidel Castro while negotiating the resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba (finally concluded in 2014).
As always in this type of operation, Washington is careful to not appear involved in the events it leads. The CIA works through supposedly non-governmental organizations to organize coup leaders: the National Endowment for Democracy and its two pseudopods of the right (the International Republican Institute) and left (the National Democratic Institute) Freedom House and the International Center for Non-Profit Law. In addition, the United States always seeks allies to outsource parts of the coup, in this case at least Germany (responsible for the protection of NATO nationals during the coup), Canada (responsible for controlling the civilian international airport in Caracas), Israel (responsible for the assassination of Chavez personalities) and the UK (in charge of the propaganda coup). Finally, they mobilize their political networks that are ready to recognize the coup: Washington Senator Marco Rubio, former Chile president, Sebastián Piñera, in Colombia former Presidents Alvaro Uribe and Andres Pastrana, in Mexico the former presidents Felipe Calderón and Vicente Fox, in Spain the former President of the Government José María Aznar.
To justify the coup, the White House had encouraged large Venezuelan companies to warehouse rather than distribute essential commodities. The idea was to cause queues at the shops, and to infiltrate agents into the crowd to cause riots. In reality, though there had been supply problems in January-February and queues in front of stores, never did Venezuelans attack shops.
To strengthen its economic action, on December 18, 2014, President Obama signed a law imposing new sanctions against Venezuela and several of its leaders. Officially, this was to punish individuals who had suppressed student protests. In fact, since the beginning of the year, Washington was paying four times the medium salary income – to gangs so that they would attack the police. The pseudo-students had thus killed 43 people in a few months and spread terror in the streets of the capital.
Military action was overseen by General Thomas W. Geary, from SOUTHCOM in Miami, and Rebecca Chavez, from the Pentagon, and outsourced to a private army, Academi (formerly Blackwater); a company now administered by Admiral Bobby R. Inman (former head of the NSA) and John Ashcroft (the former Attorney General of the Bush administration). A Super Tucano, registered N314TG, purchased by the Virginia firm in 2008 to assassinate Raul Reyes, the No. 2 man in the Colombian FARC, was to be disguised as an airplane of the Venezuelan army. It was supposed to bomb the Miraflores presidential palace and other targets from a pre-determined dozen, including the Ministry of Defence, the management of Intelligence at the ALBA, Telesur television channel. The plane, being parked in Colombia, the operational headquarters of “Jericho” had been installed at the US Embassy in Bogota with the participation of the Ambassador, Kevin Whitaker and his deputy, Benjamin Ziff.
Some senior officers, active or retired, had registered in advance a message to the nation in which they announced the takeover of power in order to restore order. They were scheduled to subscribe to the transition plan, published on February 12 in the morning by El Nacional and drafted by the US State Department. A new government would have been formed, led by former MP María Corina Machado.
- The coup was supposed to place Corina Machado in power María. On January 26, she hosted her main foreign accomplices in Caracas.
To facilitate the coordination of the coup, María Corina Machado organized a symposium in Caracas on January 26, “Citizen Power and Democracy today”, which was attended by most of the Venezuelan and foreign personalities involved.
No luck, Venezuelan Military Intelligence watched personalities suspected of hatching a previous plot to assassinate President Maduro. Last May [2013], the Caracas prosecutor had accused María Corina Machado, Henrique Salas Römer, governor, former diplomat Diego Arria, lawyer Gustavo Tarre Birceño, Eligio Cedeño, banker and businessman Pedro M. Burelli, but they challenged emails, claiming they had been falsified by Military Intelligence. Of course, they were all in cahoots.
By tracking these conspirators, Military Intelligence discovered “Operation Jericho”. On the night of February 11, the main leaders of the plot and a Mossad agent were arrested and aviation security was enhanced. Others were rounded up on the 12th. On the 20th, confessions obtained permitted the arrest of an accomplice, the mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma.
- The Mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, was the liaison officer with Israel. He secretly went to Tel Aviv, May 18, 2012 to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman. He represented the head of the Venezuelan opposition, Henrique Capriles Radonski.
For Venezuelans the failed coup poses a serious question: how do we keep democracy alive, if the main opposition leaders are in jail for the crimes they were about to commit against democracy?
For those who think, wrongly, that the United States has changed, that it is no longer an imperialist power and that now it defends democracy in the world, “Operation Jericho” provides endless food for thought.
The United States against Venezuela:
In 2002, the United States organized a coup against elected President Hugo Chavez Frias [1], then they murdered the judge in charge of the investigation, Danilo Anderson [2].
[1] « Opération manquée au Venezuela », par Thierry Meyssan, Réseau Voltaire, 18 mai 2002.
[2] « Notre ami Danilo Anderson assassiné à Caracas », Réseau Voltaire, 19 novembre 2004. “The CIA behind Danilo Anderson’s Murder?”, by Marcelo Larrea. “FBI and CIA identified as helping Plan Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Murder”, by Alessandro Parma, Voltaire Network, 1 December 2004 and 11 November 2005.
[3] « Venezuela : conclusion d’une année déterminante », par Romain Migus, Réseau Voltaire, 10 octobre 2008. “The Albert Einstein Institution: non-violence according to the CIA”, by Thierry Meyssan, and Gene Sharp’s answer, Voltaire Network, 4 January 2005.
[4] “US against Venezuela: Cold War Goes Hot”, by Nil Nikandrov, Strategic Culture Foundation (Russia), Voltaire Network, 8 March 2014. «Las “guarimbas” de Venezuela: derecha embozada», por Martín Esparza Flores, Contralínea (México), Red Voltaire , 28 de abril de 2014.”
[2] « Notre ami Danilo Anderson assassiné à Caracas », Réseau Voltaire, 19 novembre 2004. “The CIA behind Danilo Anderson’s Murder?”, by Marcelo Larrea. “FBI and CIA identified as helping Plan Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Murder”, by Alessandro Parma, Voltaire Network, 1 December 2004 and 11 November 2005.
[3] « Venezuela : conclusion d’une année déterminante », par Romain Migus, Réseau Voltaire, 10 octobre 2008. “The Albert Einstein Institution: non-violence according to the CIA”, by Thierry Meyssan, and Gene Sharp’s answer, Voltaire Network, 4 January 2005.
[4] “US against Venezuela: Cold War Goes Hot”, by Nil Nikandrov, Strategic Culture Foundation (Russia), Voltaire Network, 8 March 2014. «Las “guarimbas” de Venezuela: derecha embozada», por Martín Esparza Flores, Contralínea (México), Red Voltaire , 28 de abril de 2014.”
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