After listening to Democracy Now this morning, I realize precisely what the
mismanagement of Venezuelan financial resources that everyone keeps talking
about, really is. The big mistake that Chavez made, except, of course, no one
would have permitted him to do what needed to be done, was not to nationalize
the oil companies. All these countries are forced to allow foreign corporations
in, in order to manage their natural resources and you see what happens.
Venezuela is in debt to bond holders while the US holds billions of oil dollars
hostage. Well, when Iran and then Guatemala, nationalized their oil companies,
their democratically elected leaders were overthrown by Great Britain and the
US. The huge irony in all of this that no one talks about, is that if we don't
stop the massive use of fossil fuels within the next twelve years, the planet,
as we know it, will die.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2019 11:13 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Burning Aid: An Interventionist Deception on
Colombia-Venezuela Bridge?
This article reminds me of another Wall Story. It took place way back when,
and a long ways away. It involved a wall that was being well defended. It
began to appear that the defenders would win the day.
But then a plan was devised by the invaders. A "Gift" was set in front of the
city's gate. A huge wooden horse. A gift to declare that the defenders had
won. The horse sat in front of the gate when the sun rose, and not a single
invader could be seen.
What was inside that Trojan Horse was a thing called Greed. Greed lept from
the horse as soon as it was inside the gate, in the form of armed invaders.
This past weekend Greed once again attempted to play the same tired old trick,
by sneaking into Venezuela in truck loads of "medical supplies" for the needy
citizens of Venezuela.
And how terrible that the Venezuelan government...the legal one...refused to
accept this version of a Trojan Horse. And no one in the "Free Press" in the
American Empire thought to question how a nation could impose severe sanctions
on another nation, and then offer a few truck loads of medical supplies,
calling it "humanitarian Aid".
How about sending truck loads of driving instructors to the gates of Saudi
Arabia to teach all female citizens to drive? And along with them, truck loads
of teachers and school supplies to teach all Saudi Arabian women to the level
of a college degree? And present the Prince with a Woman's Declaration of
Independence?
Could it be that the American Empire lusts after the Venezuelan oil and not the
needs of the people?
Oh, bite my tongue!
Carl Jarvis
On 2/24/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Venezuela February 24, 2019
Burning Aid: An Interventionist Deception on Colombia-Venezuela Bridge?
Sen. Marco Rubio and coup leaders claim the Venezuelan National Guard
burned US aid trucks on the bridge in Colombia. But all available
evidence points in the opposite direction.
By Max Blumenthal
CARACAS, Venezuela - The Trump administration's coup against Venezuela
culminated on February 23 with US-backed opposition attempting to ram
several trucks loaded with boxes of USAID "humanitarian aid" across
the previously unused Francisco de Paula Santander bridge connecting
Colombia to Venezuela.
The trucks failed to reach the other side - but that was never really
the point of the stunt. As Father Sergio Munoz, a right-wing
Venezuelan activist posted on the Colombian side of the border,
explained to journalist Dan Cohen, the humanitarian "aid" was a purely
symbolic provocation aimed at discrediting Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro in international eyes and generating waves of
destabilizing violence.
By the end of the day, the trucks lined up on the Francisca de Paula
Santander bridge were flanked by gangs of guarimberos.
Photo courtesy: Telesur
These were the nihilistic masked youth who form the shock troops of
the right-wing opposition, and who placed Caracas under siege with
violent barricade protests, known as guarimbas, at several points
between 2014 and 2017. A mob of guarimberos burned to death Orlando
Figuera, a 22-year old black Venezuelan accused of supporting Maduro,
on an eastern Caracas street in broad daylight, back in June 2017.
On the Santander bridge this February 23, the guarimberos rained down
a hail of rocks and molotov cocktails on Venezuelan national guardsmen
holding the line against the USAID trucks. Suddenly, the trucks caught
fire and the masked youth began unloading boxes of aid before they
burned. Within minutes, pro-opposition media reported that the
Venezuelan national guard forces were responsible for the fires.
A reporter for the private anti-government channel NTN24 claimed
without evidence that the Venezuelan security forces had caused the
fires with tear
gas:
The claim was absurd on its face. I have personally witnessed tear gas
canisters hit every kind of vehicle imaginable in the occupied
Palestinian West Bank, and I have never seen a fire like the one that
erupted on the Santander bridge.
In 2013, the San Bernadino Sheriff's Department deployed special
incendiary teargas canisters ("burners") to torch the house where
fugitive cop killer Chris Dorner had holed up. But it is highly
unlikely that the Venezuelan national guardsmen had anything like this
weapon in their arsenal when they confronted the rioters on February 23.
The total lack of evidence of Venezuelan culpability did not stop
Cuban-American Senator Marco Rubio from tweeting this accusation from
nearby in Cucuta, Colombia:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is facing calls for her own resignation
after video appeared of her condescendingly browbeating a group of
environmentalist children, repeated Rubio's baseless allegation, using
it to call for Maduro to step down.
By blaming the Venezuelan government for burning the USAID trucks,
Rubio was clearly attempting to establish the casus belli he had been
seeking. Yet neither he nor anyone in the "whole world" had seen the
national guard set the fire, as he claimed. In fact, the evidence
pointed in the exact opposite direction, suggesting that the masked
opposition youth had torched the trucks themselves.
Colombian writer Humberto Ortiz produced footage from a pro-opposition
channel showing what appears to be the exact moment when a guarimbero
sets the aid on fire with a molotov cocktail:
Telesur reporter Madelein Garcia published photographs showing a
guarimbero with a gas canister next to one of the burning trucks:
Drone footage also published by Garcia shows how far away the trucks
were from Venezuelan national guardsmen when they caught fire, and
demonstrates that they were clearly on the Colombian side of the border:
Even Bloomberg News, which has run a relentless stream of
pro-opposition reports, published video showing guarimberos on the
bridge making molotov cocktails, which could easily set a truck cabin or its
cargo alight:
Meanwhile, the International Red Cross issued a statement condemning
Venezuelan opposition activists disguising themselves as Red Cross
workers
-
a blatant breach of humanitarian protocol. A screenshot from
pro-opposition
NTN24 coverage shows a fake Red Cross worker near one of the burning
trucks:
Days ago, self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido announced that
he would lead a "human wave" across the bridge and into Venezuela. But
as darkness fell on February 23, Guaido found himself at a stormy
press conference with other right-wing, US-aligned Latin American
leaders. By his side was Colombian President Ivan Duque, who repeated
the evidence-free allegation that Venezuelan security forces had burned the
aid trucks.
Having failed miserably at every phase of the coup he had attempted
engineer, Rubio ended the day with a Twitter tantrum that peaked with
a call for "multilateral actions" against Venezuela's government. What
form that action could take is still unclear, but it will certainly be
justified by a series of baseless claims about what took place on the
Santander bridge.
Max Blumenthal
Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of
several books, including best-selling Republican Gomorrah, Goliath,
The Fifty One Day War, and The Management of Savagery. He has produced
print articles for an array of publications, many video reports, and
several documentaries, including Killing Gaza. Blumenthal founded The
Grayzone in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America's state of
perpetual war and its dangerous domestic repercussions.