TARGET: VENEZUELA
As Venezuela Foils CIA Terror Plot Pompeo Tours Its Neighbors To Talk
Regime Change
The State Departments silence has been deafening following the arrest of a
US citizen and former CIA operative allegedly caught plotting an on a
Venezuelan oil refinery.
by Alan Macleod
September 16th, 2020
By Alan Macleod
Venezuelas government has announced it has foiled a potential terror
attack, arresting a former CIA operative while he was on a stakeout near the
countrys largest oil refining facility.
Matthew John Heath was arrested with three other Venezuelans outside the
Amuay and Cardon refineries in Falcon state in the west of the country,
reportedly carrying a submachine gun, a grenade launcher, four blocks of C4
explosives, a satellite phone, and stacks of U.S. dollars. He has been
charged with terrorism and weapons trafficking. The countrys prosecutor
general, Tarek William Saab, claimed that Heath entered Venezuela illegally
via the Colombian border without a passport, although police found a
photocopy hidden on his person. Saab also said that Heath was carrying a
small coin or badge that CIA employees use to prove their identity to one
another without raising suspicions.
Images released by the Venezuelan government show items seized from Heath
upon his arrest:
Venezuela John Heath
According to police investigations, Heath is a former marine who served as a
communications operator in a secret CIA base in Iraq for ten years between
2006 and 2016, where he was hired by private security firm MVM. MVM was
founded by a former U.S. Secret Service agent and continues to work closely
with Washington. According to business directory Dun & Bradstreet, the
company provides security staffing and consulting services, primarily to
U.S. government entities. Need a secret agent? begins MVMs biography.
Researcher Jeb Sprague told MintPress today that Heaths family has a
lengthy background in the oil industry. While this suggests that the
operation could have been as innocent as a corporate spying mission, it is
difficult to see why anyone would possess grenade launchers and C4 if not
for seriously nefarious purposes.
A deafening silence
Silence on the incident from the U.S. government, who never misses an
opportunity to escalate tensions with Venezuela, is notable. The fact that
the government has not commented on a U.S. citizen being charged with
terrorism is very telling, according to Caribbean specialist Arnold
August, who told By Any Means Necessary that Trump and Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo are in a difficult position, dancing around the fact that
there are obvious incursions organized by the U.S. into Venezuela that are
far from peaceful.
The story is also being downplayed or simply ignored by corporate media,
despite their predilection for printing stories that paint the Maduro
government as authoritarian. This, for Latin America expert Dr. Rodrigo
Acuña, was predictable. Im not surprised at the reaction to this article
at all. The mainstream media rarely look to verify or follow up any
allegations made by the Maduro government in Caracas that the Trump
administration is looking to overthrow it, he said. Acuña, a researcher and
former associate lecturer in Spanish and Latin American studies at MacQuarie
University, Australia, told MintPress that the media often follows the U.S.
governments line when it comes to Americas backyard.
When the Bush administration supported a coup against the government of Hugo
Chavez in 2002, with very few exceptions, most of the mainstream media
ignored these allegations. Then when evidence was presented they continued
to ignore the claims made by Chavez. This situation continues until this
day, where Washington is doing almost everything within its power to topple
the government of Nicolas Maduro
For its part, Washington then ignores the
statements that come out of Caracas or even at the United Nations while the
mainstream media for their part also act in a similar manner.
After the botched May coup attempt that saw two American mercenaries, Airan
Berry and Luke Denman, arrested, the government put out an extremely
half-hearted denial, with Pompeo stating only that there was no U.S.
government direct involvement, although he did admit that he knew who had
funded the operation, promising to release the information at an
appropriate time. This time, however, there has been radio silence from
Washington.
Pompeos regime change tour
The incident in Falcon state happens just as Pompeo is about to embark on a
four-day trip to many of Venezuelas closest neighbors in order, in the
State Departments own words, to defend democracy and strengthen security
against regional threats. Interestingly, when visiting Brazil, Pompeo is
not traveling to its capital Brasilia, nor either of its largest cities, Rio
de Janeiro or São Paulo, but to Boa Vista, a small city deep in the Amazon
jungle on the Venezuelan border, in order to underscore the importance of
U.S. and Brazilian support for the Venezuelan people in their time of need
by visiting with Venezuelan migrants fleeing the man made disaster in
Venezuela. That the regional threat means Venezuela is made explicit in
the press release, the State Department declaring that Pompeo will meet
Colombian President Ivan Duque in order to discuss threats to regional
security like Maduros illegitimate regime. Pompeo will also visit
Venezuelan neighbors Guyana and Suriname.
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The Bay of Piglets and other coups
Just before the coup attempt in May, Trump advisor John Bolton
not-so-cryptically tweeting that Morning is coming to Venezuela again.
U.S.-backed politician Juan Guaidó called on the military to rise up and
overthrow Maduro. At the same time, 300 troops, led by American ex-Green
Berets, attempted an amphibious invasion of Venezuela. Their mission was to
shoot their way to Caracas, taking the presidential palace and ensconcing
Guaidó as president. Guaidó had promised to pay the U.S. outfit around a
quarter-billion dollars for their services. However, the operation ended in
complete disaster upon even minimal pushback, as the mercenaries were
immediately overpowered and apprehended by disgruntled members of the House
of Socialist Fishermen in the sleepy coastal village of Chuao. Images show
that some of the heavily armed, highly-trained mercenaries appear to have
wet themselves in terror when coming into contact with lobstermen armed with
handguns, fishing knives and box cutters. Berry and Denman were recently
sentenced to 20 years in prison for their actions.
The U.S. government has bankrolled, if not organized, a great number of coup
attempts in Venezuela, going back to 2002, where it supported insurrection
attempts in April and December. Since then, it has spent hundreds of
millions of dollars funding, training, organizing and supporting groups
inside the country, all of which have one thing in common: a strong aversion
to the left-wing government that has held power since 1999.
Juan Guaidó, the self-declared president of Venezuela, emerged as a Pentagon
protege in 2007 as a leader of ultimately unsuccessful student protests
aimed at forcing a change of government, subsequently studying at George
Washington University in Washington, D.C. Since January 2019, Guaidó has
launched five audacious bids at seizing the presidency from Maduro, each
less successful than the last. Even before the Bay of Piglets fiasco in
May, he was supported by only three percent of Venezuelans.
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Economic crisis
The Amuay and Cardon refineries form the worlds second largest refining
complex, capable of producing nearly one million barrels of gasoline per
day, putting into perspective the enormity of the charges levied against
Heath. Current oil production is far lower, however, due to mismanagement,
and to U.S. sanctions, which greatly reduce the customers Venezuela has for
its primary product. As the economy shrunk, poverty rose and so did
shortages of key products. Large numbers of people simply left the country.
And as sanctions bite, production levels have dropped to the point where
there is even a gasoline shortage inside the country, causing long lines and
much resentment at the government, the U.S., the opposition, and anyone in a
position of authority. The COVID lockdown has led to reduced demand for oil,
as citizens stay home as much as they can. Nevertheless, the destruction of
the countrys largest oil refining complex would be a devastating blow to
the society all the more reason it might be targeted by those wishing to
finally see an end to the socialist government.