The Coup!

       One of the US's favourite tactics for taking control of another countries resources is the "coup". It does this ruthlessly and has no consideration for the people of that country, their plight is of no concern to the millionaire/billionaire corporate gangs of parasites that control America and its policies. Over the years South America has been the theatre of American organised and backed coups, one so far successful, but meeting resistance is Bolivia, and one that never quite got off the ground is Venezuela. It is an on going strategy of America for control of the world's resources. Iran in the middle East is a permanent target. Where the coup fails, then there is always brute force in the way of an invasion preceded by an Armagedden of unbelievable weapons of mass destruction pored over the civilian population, Iraq, for example. 

        The recent coup in Bolivia is still meeting mass resistance, but as usual, this is met by the state, with ever growing brutal viciousness against that resistance by the people. They need our full support and solidarity, their struggle is our struggle, we live under the same savage exploitative system, it is all a matter of degree.

The following article is from Struggle La Lucha:  

 

         A 12-day national Bolivian blockade led by massive social movements, students, elders, unions and farmworkers ended on Aug. 13. It had paralyzed the entire country, resulting in food/fuel shortages and in the complete instability of the Andean nation itself. The blockade was temporarily lifted after the government agreed to have presidential elections on Oct. 18, but union workers forewarned that, if another delay occurs, expect more mobilizations to continue.
       On that same day, a terrorist attack by a group of hooded men used explosives against the centers of Las Bartolinas, a primary union organization of native Indigenous women, and of the COB, a union federation of Bolivian mineworkers. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the deliberate brutal attacks on rural Indigenous communities have the people on edge.

          Amid the blockades, student hunger strikes, privatization of natural resources, increased deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the deliberate abandonment/neglect foisted upon the Original Peoples, Bolivia continues to endure the worst state violence and political persecution it has seen in decades.
          Since the U.S.-backed coup took over, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and its Indigenous leaders have experienced non-stop civil unrest. On Aug. 18, the alt-right paramilitary group, Resistencia Juvenil Cochala (RJC), which is funded not only by the oligarchs but by the National Endowment for Democracy — a private “nongovernmental” operation that is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development — began passing out leaflets outside local banks with 39 images of Indigenous community leaders. The caption says, “MURDERERS REVEALED!! THESE ARE BOLIVIA’S ENEMIES!”
       One of the people listed is a young Quechua medical doctor and MAS member and leader, Marisol Coca Calderón, who resides in the Sacaba/Huayllani area, where a bloody massacre took place on Nov. 15, 2019. During a phone conversation with Calderón, she shared with me how she is being threatened and harassed daily. But because the de facto government supports and funds RJC, there is little she can do.
       For now, she continues to organize at a small local center called Juventudes de la Democracia Huayllani, which is a safe space for a community hit hard by the coup. There, they hold group meetings, provide support and guidance for one another and grow their own medicinal plants. I asked Calderón what people can do to help. Her response was, “Please keep speaking about us on social media. You are all our voices. We need your support more than ever. And, if people can help to keep the doors of our center open, it would be a major relief to not only the youth but to the widows and children of our protectors who were brutally killed in November.”
        If you would like to make a donation to help keep the Huayllani center open and to show your solidarity, please send to: Cash app: $AyniAllyuSolidarity. For more updates, please join us on our Facebook group, Ayni Allyu: The Official Llajta of Evo Morales & Indigenous Bolivians.

JALLALLA!
      Julia “Pachamama” Fernández is a Los Angeles Native/Quechua/Xicana organizer/activist and member of Ayni Allyu.

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Economy V People.

      Different countries respond to the coronavirus pandemic in different ways, it appears that the more capitalist developed a country is the more helping the economy is seen as a must, with the health of the people trailing behind. The more socialist orientated, then the more the health of the people is first and the economy trailing behind. Add to this the situation in the capitalist world of vested interests in the economy and crass stupidity of those in power, shaping the decisions made by our lords and masters and you can understand why some countries are facing a greater disaster than others.

     The following is an interesting article by Leonardo Flores from CODEPINK:

       Within a few hours of being launched, over 800 Venezuelans in the U.S. registered for an emergency flight from Miami to Caracas through a website run by the Venezuelan government. This flight, offered at no cost, was proposed by President Nicolás Maduro when he learned that 200 Venezuelans were stuck in the United States following his government’s decision to stop commercial flights as a preventative coronavirus measure. The promise of one flight expanded to two or more flights, as it became clear that many Venezuelans in the U.S. wanted to go back to Venezuela, yet the situation remains unresolved due to the U.S. ban on flights to and from the country.

       Those who rely solely on the mainstream media might wonder who in their right mind would want to leave the United States for Venezuela. Time, The Washington Post, The Hill and the Miami Herald, among others, published opinions in the past week describing Venezuela as a chaotic nightmare. These media outlets painted a picture of a coronavirus disaster, of government incompetence and of a nation teetering on the brink of collapse. The reality of Venezuela’s coronavirus response is not covered by the mainstream media at all.
      Furthermore, what each of these articles shortchanges is the damage caused by the Trump administration’s sanctions, which devastated the economy and healthcare system long before the coronavirus pandemic. These sanctions have impoverished millions of Venezuelans and negatively impact vital infrastructure, such as electricity generation. Venezuela is impeded from importing spare parts for its power plants and the resulting blackouts interrupt water services that rely on electric pumps. These, along with dozens of other implications from the hybrid war on Venezuela, have caused a decline in health indicators across the board, leading to 100,000 deaths as a consequence of the sanctions.
     Regarding coronavirus specifically, the sanctions raise the costs of testing kits and medical supplies, and ban Venezuela’s government from purchasing medical equipment from the U.S. (and from many European countries). These obstacles would seemingly place Venezuela on the path to a worst-case scenario, similar to Iran (also battered by sanctions) or Italy (battered by austerity and neoliberalism). In contrast to those two countries, Venezuela took decisive steps early on to face the pandemic.
      As a result of these steps and other factors, Venezuela is currently in its best-case scenario. As of this writing, 11 days after the first confirmed case of coronavirus, the country has 86 infected people, with 0 deaths. Its neighbors have not fared as well: Brazil has 1,924 cases with 34 deaths; Ecuador 981 and 18; Chile 746 and 2; Peru 395 and 5; Mexico 367 and 4; Colombia 306 and 3. (With the exception of Mexico, those governments have all actively participated and contributed to the U.S.-led regime change efforts in Venezuela.) Why is Venezuela doing so much better than others in the region?
      Skeptics will claim that the Maduro government is hiding figures and deaths, that there’s not enough testing, not enough medicine, not enough talent to adequately deal with a pandemic. But here are the facts:
      First, international solidarity has played a priceless role in enabling the government to rise to the challenge. China sent coronavirus diagnostic kits that will allow 320,000 Venezuelans to be tested, in addition to a team of experts and tons of supplies. Cuba sent 130 doctors and 10,000 doses of interferon alfa-2b, a drug with an established record of helping COVID-19 patients recover. Russia has sent the first of several shipments of medical equipment and kits. These three countries, routinely characterized by the U.S. foreign policy establishment as evil, offer solidarity and material support. The United States offers more sanctions and the IMF, widely known to be under U.S. control, denied a Venezuelan request for $5 billion in emergency funding that even the European Union supports.
       Second, the government quickly carried out a plan to contain the spread of the disease. On March 12, a day before the first confirmed cases, President Maduro decreed a health emergency, prohibited crowds from gathering, and cancelled flights from Europe and Colombia. On March 13, Day 1, two Venezuelans tested positive; the government cancelled classes, began requiring facemasks on subways and on the border, closed theaters, bars and nightclubs, and limited restaurants to take-out or delivery. It bears repeating that this was on Day 1 of having a confirmed case; many U.S. states have yet to take these steps. By Day 4, a national quarantine was put into effect (equivalent to shelter-in-place orders) and an online portal called the Homeland System (Sistema Patria) was repurposed to survey potential COVID-19 cases. By Day 8, 42 people were infected and approximately 90% of the population was heeding the quarantine. By Day 11, over 12.2 million people had filled out the survey, over 20,000 people who reported being sick were visited in their homes by medical professionals and 145 people were referred for coronavirus testing. The government estimates that without these measures, Venezuela would have 3,000 infected people and a high number of deaths.
         Third, the Venezuelan people were positioned to handle a crisis. Over the past 7 years, Venezuela has lived through the death of wildly popular leader, violent right-wing protests, an economic war characterized by shortages and hyperinflation, sanctions that have destroyed the economy, an ongoing coup, attempted military insurrections, attacks on public utilities, blackouts, mass migration and threats of U.S. military action. The coronavirus is a different sort of challenge, but previous crises have instilled a resiliency among the Venezuelan people and strengthened solidarity within communities. There is no panic on the streets; instead, people are calm and following health protocols.
      Fourth, mass organizing and prioritizing people above all else. Communes and organized communities have taken the lead, producing facemasks, keeping the CLAP food supply system running (this monthly food package reaches 7 million families), facilitating house-by-house visits of doctors and encouraging the use of facemasks in public. Over 12,000 medical school students in their last or second-to-last year of study applied to be trained for house visits. For its part, the Maduro administration suspended rent payments, instituted a nationwide firing freeze, gave bonuses to workers, prohibited telecoms from cutting off people’s phones or internet, reached an agreement with hotel chains to provide 4,000 beds in case the crisis escalates, and pledged to pay the salaries of employees of small and medium businesses. Amid a public health crisis - compounded by an economic crisis and sanctions - Venezuela’s response has been to guarantee food, provide free healthcare and widespread testing, and alleviate further economic pressure on the working class.
      The U.S. government has not responded to the Maduro administration’s request to make an exception for Conviasa Airlines, the national airline under sanctions, to fly the Venezuelans stranded in the United States back to Caracas. Given everything happening in the United States, where COVID-19 treatment can cost nearly $35,000 and the government is weighing the option of prioritizing the economy over the lives of people, perhaps these Venezuelans waiting to go home understand that their chances of surviving the coronavirus – both physically and economically – are much better in a country that values health over profits.

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Don't Iraq Iran!

        My ears are now hearing the familiar beat of the drums of war. Iraq, Libya, Syria, North Korea and Iran have been on the US agenda for regime change for almost 20 years, perhaps more. They have destroyed Iraq and Libya, they have  decimated Syria, Though the Assad regime still holds the power, that battle is still ongoing, to America, it is unfinished business. That now moves Iran up the list of regime change by the US and its puppet regimes. The reason those Middle East countries were labelled "evil", was the fact that their gas and oil reserves were nationalised, that doesn't suit the big boys in the Western financial Mafia. That pool of wealth has to be brought into coffers of the Western corporate world. Another country that has felt the wrath of the mighty dollar is Venezuela, yes, its oil and gas is nationalised, that makes them "evil".

Winter.

Dark malefic clouds crowd the sky

winds carry the stench of carrion to every nostril,

the crazy ape has followed the faculty of hawks.

All around stand crows, magpies, jackdaws, vultures,

edacious eyes anticipating their putrid feast.

A weary Cassandra laments;

doves, hearts weeping for a better yesterday

forsake their olive branches.

         The following is from Code Pink:

      BREAKING NEWS: Just hours after the attack on the Japanese and Norweigan oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, Secretary of State Pompeo was already blaming Iran. He is using the attack to push his agenda of going to war with Iran, just like the Bush administration manufactured a crisis to go to war with Iraq. Take action right now. Tell Congress: Don’t let Trump take us to war with Iran.
        The attacks came as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrapped up his trip to Iran to help ease tensions between the U.S. and Iran. We don’t know who is behind the sabotage, but whoever is behind it wants to escalate the conflict between the two nations.
        The only REAL news here is that the Trump administration’s maximum pressure policy is pushing us closer to war. It’s the Trump administration’s bellicose actions, withdrawing from the nuclear agreement, imposing brutal sanctions, and deploying warships closer to the Persian Gulf to “send a clear and unmistakable message to Iran” that is driving this escalation. The facts of this latest attack on the oil tankers are not clear, but we know that we can’t trust anything warmonger Pompeo and serial liar John Bolton tell us about Iran without providing internationally verified evidence. And no matter who was responsible for this attack, the solution is mediation.
        What’s happening right now with Iran is all too reminiscent of the prelude to the war with Iraq in 2003, when Bush’s “intelligence” showed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction — which turned out to be all lies. Now in 2019, Trump’s “intelligence” insists that Iran is responsible for the attacks in the Gulf of Oman.
       Key members of Trump’s administration, especially John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, have been looking for a pretext for war with Iran. So have their allies in Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Israel. Against the will of Congress, the Trump administration is trying to sell more weapons to Saudi Arabia and the UAE under the guise of a national emergency — the emergency being Iran. And now the warmongers in the administration are using the incident in the Gulf to try to create that emergency. The Middle East is still coping with the horrible consequences of the Iraq war. Send a message to Congress now that they can’t let the Trump administration take us to war with Iran.

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Trying To See Through The Lies And Misinformation.

 

       Just a little more information on the web of US lead Western media lies and misinformation being woven around Venezuela.

From Information Clearing House by Eva Bartlett

         March 30, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - Venezuela is America's current target for mass destabilization in the hope of installing a puppet government.

        America has for years been waging an economic war against Venezuela, including debilitating sanctions which have dramatically affected the state's ability to purchase medicines, and even mundane replacement parts needed in buses, ambulances, etc. Alongside the economic war there has been a steady propaganda war, but in recent months, the propaganda has escalated dramatically, from corporate media to US political figures.

        Venezuela is described as “the country pilots are refusing to fly to,” as per a March 18, 2019, AP article on American Airlines cancelling all flights to Venezuela, containing scary phrases like “safety concerns” and “civil unrest.”

        On March 9, American cancelled my Miami-Caracas flight on the basis that there wasn't enough electricity to land at Caracas airport. Strangely enough, the Copa flight I took the following day after an overnight in Panama had no problem landing, nor did Copa flights on the day of my own cancelled flight, according to Copa staff.

        The cancellation of flights to Venezuela then lends legitimacy to the shrill tweets of Marco Rubio, Mike Pence, John Bolton, and the previously unknown non-president, Juan Guaido.

        I've been in various areas of Caracas since March 10, and I've seen none of this “civil unrest” that corporate media are talking about. I've walked around Caracas, usually on my own, and haven't experienced the worry for my safety corporate media is telling Westerners they should suddenly feel more than normal in Venezuela.

         In fact, I see little difference from the Venezuela I knew in 2010 when I spent half a year here, except the hyperinflation is absurdly worse and in my absence I missed the years of extreme right-wing opposition supporters street violence – a benign term for the guarimbas which saw opposition supporters burning people alive, among other violence against people and security.

         So it strikes me that the decision of American Airlines to stop flying to Venezuela is not about safety and security issues, but is political, in line with increasingly hollow rhetoric about a humanitarian crisis that does not exist, even according to former UN Special Rapporteur, Alfred de Zayas.

           I asked Paul Dobson, a journalist who has lived in Venezuela the last 14 years, if anything like this had happened before. Turns out it has, also at a very timely moment.

          “At the time of the National Constituent Assembly elections, July 30, 2017, the major airlines – including Air France, United, American, pretty much all of the European airlines – suspended their flights one day before the elections, citing “security reasons.” Most of the services were reopened about four days after the elections, some of them two weeks after the elections.”

       So were there 'security concerns? I asked Paul.

       “This was towards the end of street violence (guarimbas) that had been going on for six months in the country. Why didn't they suspend their activity six months before, two months before? They did it the day before the elections, clearly trying to influence votes and the way that people see their country internationally. There were no extra security concerns that day than any day over the last 6 months. So, there was really no justification for it. And it caused massive problems on the ground, around elections.”

         I spent most of afternoon in Petare, one of poorest areas of Caracas & the most sprawling series of barrios in Latin America. Ppl I met there spoke about Imperialist & economic war against them, & how they will continue defending their country. Night & day fr these howling idiots pic.twitter.com/hQxutY6vhR

— Eva Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) March 27, 2019

Continue Reading:

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An Ocean Of Lies On Venezuela.

        When will the so called "free press" start to publish facts instead of  pumping out propaganda and illusion to support the wealthy and powerful? Get used to it, never, the so called "free press" will see us all drown in a sea of lies, they are owned by the wealthy and powerful and are a tool in the control of the world's resources.  Venezuela is a very rich country with an abundance of natural resources, and that's the problem. To the corporate moguls those resources should be in their hands to be exploited for their personal gain, not spent on improving the lives of ordinary people. They will raise hell and high water to get their greedy grasping hands on that wealth and the suffering and death of millions is just collateral damage, to them, a price worth paying.

         In this video, the UN Investigator and Human Rights Rapporteur Alfred De Zayas, exposes the callously planned coup against Venezuela, executed by the strangling a nation and its people, by the corporate gangsters and the financial Mafia, aided and abetted US imperial military might. Thanks Loam for the link.

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The Terrorists Are Back In Action.

       Today as I watch the plunder of Venezuela unfold and I fear for the people of the unfortunate country, visions of the past flash through my head. For those who still think that the media splurge of propaganda is to show the world that the West cares and to let them know that we will rescue the people of Venezuela from a mad evil dictator, I ask them to cast their minds back to recent history across the Middle East, and see the Western states for what they are, professional terrorists.

     I wrote this article back in March 2016, but because of what is going on in Venezuela I think it is well worth repeating. I have seen nothing since 2016 that would alter my opinion, but a lot that would re-confirm that view.

          We live in a world of terrorists, the religious fanatics who feel the need to kill, to prove how wonderful their religion is, how great their god, they kill hundreds indiscriminately, while praising their god. Then there is the professional terrorist, the states, who bomb into destruction entire countries, killing countless millions in the process, spreading terror across land after land. At the same time creating breeding grounds for the for the religious fanatic to recruit and win over more suicide maniacs. What links these two groups is the fact that will kill indiscriminately for an idea, they will kill innocent people who are in no way involved in the terrorist process. People who just happen to be in their line of fire.

        There is no terrorist organisation on earth or has there ever been one, that could compete with, let alone out do, the countless deaths and massive destruction of the nation state. Today we are witness to almost the entire Middle East in a quagmire if blood, death and destruction, we have seen countries with modern infrastructure reduced to rubble, with the victims numbering in the millions, and the vast majority of those killed have been killed by the various states. From Afghanistan to Iraq, from Libya to Syria, the accolade for the highest number of deaths and greatest destruction goes, unchallenged, to the Western states. Only an idiot would say that the West only carried out these blood soaked actions with the welfare of the people of the Middle East in mind. They done it for their own self centred ideology, just like the religious nutters.

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Truth, That Elusive Gem.

      In this world of capitalism, financial speculation and imperialism under the flag of corporate development, that diamond known as the truth is an elusive gem. We can't find it in the words of our prancing puppet, political ballerinas, who dance to the tune of their masters, and sing the song of their lobbyists. Their main interest is driving their lucrative career, so truth is something with which they are not familiar, on the contrary, it puts the in a state of confusion.

      Now where do we find it, this elusive gem? We have to look at the interests and agenda of "big money", and accept that that particular tribe will never have the interests of the ordinary people at heart. They will destroy a country, its infrastructure, and throw its people into the mire of deprivation and death, all in the drive to further their grip and control over any country's resources.

      So to Venezuela, our mainstream media that septic puss ridden mouthpiece of "big money" will pour out tainted vomit, laced with their crocodile tears, of the suffering of the people of Venezuela, weaving the illusion that they care, in the hope that you will willing accept their greed driven agenda, of stepping in with our flag waving military and rescue the poor people of Venezuela.

     I, like most of you, don't really know what it is like living in Venezuela today, but we can accept that the people of Venezuela are suffering, and not from the results of their own actions, but I'm sure we both agree that what we are served up as "news" is well divorced from that elusive gem, the truth. I'm also sure that most will accept that it is a power grab by American "big money" and it will take a tremendous outpouring of loud public anger to stop this intended rape and plunder of a people and their resources. "Big money" is not in the business of listening to the people, until we destroy the beast, the Venezuela type of events will keep on happening.

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Venezuela Is Not Alone.

       Over the years the people of Central America have suffered immensely at the hands of Western imperialist capitalism. They have had American puppet governments imposed on them with savage ruthlessness, bloodshed was the building bricks of the new globalisation regime in that part of the world. At the moment Venezuela is in the news, creating the impression that all else is fine, just this nasty Maduro to sort out, and peace and tranquility will return to cover the land.
       However, far from it, the entire surface of Central America is in turmoil as global capitalism hits another of its recurring "crises". The power elites fight ruthlessly and savagely to hold on to their wealth and power, while the ordinary people face ever deeper spiraling poverty and the realities of violent repression. Venezuela is not alone, the whole region is in the midst of bloody turmoil.
      An extract from a well researched and informative article by William I. Robinson posted on NACLA:

"My neighborhood backs me...my neighborhood is Nicaragua." Student protester at an SOS Nicaragua protest against Daniel Ortega in Managua in May 2018 (Flickr/Jorge Mejía Peralta).

      Some three decades after the wars of revolution and counterinsurgency came to an end in Central America, the region is once again on the brink of implosion. The Isthmus has been gripped by renewed mass struggle and state repression, the cracking of fragile political systems, unprecedented corruption, drug violence, and the displacement and forced migration of millions of workers and peasants. The backdrop to this second implosion of Central America, reflecting the spiraling crisis of global capitalism itself, is the exhaustion of a new round of capitalist development in recent years to the same drumbeat as the globalization that took place in the wake of the 1980s upheavals.
         Lost in the headlines on Central American refugees fleeing to the United States is both the historical context that has sparked the exodus and the structural transformations through capitalist globalization that has brought the region to where it is today. The mass revolutionary movements of the 1970s and 1980s did manage to dislodge entrenched military-civilian dictatorships and open up political systems to electoral competition, but they were unable to achieve any substantial social justice or democratization of the socioeconomic order.
      Capitalist globalization in the Isthmus in the wake of pacification unleashed a new cycle of modernization and accumulation. It transformed the old oligarchic class structures, generated new transnationally oriented elites and capitalists and high-consumption middle classes even as it displaced millions, aggravated poverty, inequality, and social exclusion, and wreaked havoc on the environment, triggering waves of outmigration and new rounds of mass mobilization among those who stayed behind. Hence the very conditions that gave rise to the conflict in the first place were aggravated by capitalist globalization.
       Despite the illusion of “peace and democracy” so touted by the transnational elite in the wake of pacification, the roots of the regional conflict have persisted: the extreme concentration of wealth and political power in the hands of elite minorities alongside the pauperization and powerlessness of a dispossessed majority. With the 2009 coup d’état in Honduras, the massacre of peaceful protesters in Nicaragua in 2018, and the return of death squads in Guatemala, this illusion has been definitively shattered. The Central American regimes now face mounting crises of legitimacy, economic stagnation, and the collapse of the social fabric.

Well worth reading the full article HERE:

 

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Venezuela, Guatemala, Same Old Same Old---

 

     What are the people of Venezuela facing? History tells us the the US imperial machine stamps its blood stained boot heavily in that part of the world.

Havana Reuters:

      "Cuba said on Thursday the United States was moving special forces closer to Venezuela as part of a covert plan to intervene in the chaotic South American country using the pretext of a humanitarian" crisis.

      Scaremongering, fake news, or just the usual US behavior in that part of the world. We should have no illusions about the cause of Venezuela's problems nor should we doubt the motives of the US imperialist Empire. History tells us the story.

This from Freedom Socialist Party:

       “We came to work. I know I’m not getting asylum because they don’t give you asylum for hunger,” a young migrant from Honduras told a reporter. “But us on the caravan would rather die fighting than sitting in Honduras waiting to starve or be killed.”
      These stark words show the desperation of thousands of people, half of them women and girls, who have recently fled Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. What could force so many people to leave home and everything they know for a future that is uncertain at best? The history of U.S. intervention in Central America largely supplies the answer.
       Guatemala: coup, civil war, climate change. In 1954, the CIA engineered a coup against the government of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz. A 36-year civil war ensued, during which the U.S. militarily aided one bloody, right-wing regime after another. Each has conducted a genocidal campaign against the indigenous peoples, who are the majority of the population.
       During the war, more than 200,000 people were killed and another 43,000 “disappeared.” More than 80 percent of the victims were indigenous Mayans. Prosecution of the main military and political figures responsible for mass murder is still rare 23 years after peace accords were signed ending the war.
        Half of Central America’s people live in poverty. Global warming, caused mainly by carbon emitted by richer countries, is leading to drought and crop failures and making the situation even more dire. With hunger common across the region, Guatemala has one of the world’s highest rates of chronic malnutrition.

Read the full article HERE: 

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The Suffering Of The Libyan People, Part Of The Grand Plan.

       The destruction of Libya by the Western imperialist military wing, NATO, is no longer news. We are supposed to sit back and consider it a success and the people of Libya have been given democracy, thanks to our unselfish assistance. What a massive distortion of the truth, eight years on and Libya, and I'm not spouting praise for Gaddafi, far from it, what was a modern state with a national education system, health service and other modern facilities, has been reduced to a barbaric feuding tribal land, where poverty and bloodshed are co-joined twins. All part of the Imperialists' strategy to destroy any power structure in that part of the world, so that its resources can be freely plundered. Syria an on going process and Iraq, are similar scenarios, with Iran and Venezuela, marked for similar treatment. The callous savagery of Western imperialism knows no bounds. 

Democracy Western Style.

Some extracts from a Middle East Eye article: 

       NATO’s bombardment of Libya in 2011 was never about human rights. Rather, it was the wilful creation of a failed state, designed to ensure the country could never again re-emerge as a strong, united, independent power

       Of course there is not always unity between the Western imperialists, there is deep rivalry between the various power blocks within the power hungry cabal.

A blood-soaked chessboard

      At the same time, Libya continues to serve as a blood-soaked chessboard for inter-imperial rivalries between Western powers, with France and Italy backing different sides in the ongoing civil war, each vying to position itself as the "indispensable power" in the region. To this end, May saw a conference hosted by Emmanuel Macron in Paris – with the Italians cut out – while Italy held its own rival event in Palermo six months later.

     Neither produced anything concrete for Libyans, although the French president's promise of December elections may well have spurred further violence, as each side sought to create facts on the ground in the run-up. The elections, needless to say, never happened - nor could they have, in the absence of any kind of agreed constitutional framework for carrying them out. 

      Even when they come together to destroy a country, they can't always agree on dividing the spoils, greed dominates their entire individual ideology.

     - the progress of the LNA, the reconciliation with Gaddafi loyalists, and the success of the Libyan-led negotiations - were a blow to the US-UK policy of militia-led destabilisation.

Read the full article HERE:
   
      Looking at the Libya, Iraq and Venezuela situation, the logic should surely follow that with the mass protests in France and America, surely it is time for intervention to bring these poor suffering people democracy, NATO, where are you when you are needed.

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Yea, More On Venezuela.

      Yea, more on Venezuela, and why not, we need solidarity across borders, just as the corporate juggernaut and the financial Mafia don't recongnise borders, so why should we? It is people just like you and I, office workers, joiners, teachers, bus drivers, etc. that are at the receiving end of this callous and vicious maneuver to install a compliant puppet government that will facilitate the corporate grab of the countries natural resources. While at the same time putting this a "proof" that socialism doesn't work. I'm not spouting to support Maduros and his disciples, but to stand in solidarity with the people of Venezuela, and allow them to sort out their problems without the interference of the greed driven billionaires from across their borders, who are backed up by the military of the cabal of America and its puppets, and trumpeted loudly by the mainstream media, whose job it is to create a favourable false reality.

Thanks Loam for the link.

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Yes, Another Piece On Venezuela.

        I make no excuse for posting another article on Venezuela, for what we are witnessing in that country is the vicious hand of modern imperialism. It is being executed under a fog of misinformation, omissions, and lies, the outcome of which could be a blood bath of the ordinary people of Venezuela in the interests of the ruthless Western corporate juggernaut. The more information that becomes public the clearer we will be able to see the true situation. Such situations should never drop of our radar, knowledge of how the system works prepares us in countering its ruthless and brutish development.

From Black Rose Anarchist Federation
      The following is a statement on the current political crisis and U.S. backed coup underway in Venezuela produced by Solidaridad, a libertarian communist political organization in Chile. In the coming days we will be publishing an additional statement written jointly by anarchist groups in Brazil and Uruguay. For additional analysis we recommend our archive of articles and statements on Venezuela. Translation by Francisco C., Black Rose/Rosa Negra.

Original Link
A Public Statement on the Situation in Venezuela
        Venezuela is going through a profound crisis of which it is impossible to exempt the responsibility of the leadership of Chavismo: the failure in opening a path that allows the country to overcome the dependence of oil, the inefficiency in implementing measures that better the economic situation of the country, the bureaucracy that is drowning the popular initiative and the cases of corruption that affect officials who move key aspects of the economy. These are some of the unresolved problems.
      Nevertheless, this situation is within the framework of a polarization and conflict of classes where the Venezuelan right-wing, the loyal representative of the well-off sectors in the country in conjunction with diverse administrations from the U.S. government, has unfolded a destabilizing strategy intended to asphyxiate the Venezuelan economy contributing to the deterioration to the living conditions of millions of people. The objective of this effort is to undermine the popular support that has mainly sustained the process of change in Venezuela.
      Even worse, this right-wing, which presents itself as a democratic alternative and which hides its despise for the working class behind a false language that appeals to justice and respect to a constitution they had once insulted, operates in a criminal manner sharpening the levels of violence. Behind the figure of [self-proclaimed interim President] Juan Guaidó and the Voluntad Popular or Popular Will party, hiding behind the high-flown speeches amplified by the media has been an insurrectionary strategy which unfolded with armed attacks on military barracks, [1] destruction of health centers, [2] the burning of warehouses with food destined to vulnerable, [3] among other multiple actions of sabotage went on during these years. It came to the point where social leaders were being killed by hired hitmen [4] and to the burning alive of people simply for being Chavistas. [5]
        From what’s mentioned above we’ve learned that if the right gains power in Venezuela again, not only will it implement adjustment policies that include privatization of public enterprises, massive indebtedness with bodies like the IMF, and the opening of oil projects where private companies assume as principal shareholders, [6] but it will also be a government of revenge where the hate accumulated during these years will unfold brutally against organized sectors of the people who dared to dream of a country that would transition to non-capitalist ways of living together.
      The realization of a profound balance between Latin American progressives and in particular from the Venezuelan experience,even with all its contradictions and potential is a pending task for the left. Suffice it to say that many of these experiences have given way to political processes that directly harm the working class. Nevertheless, and despite the legitimate differences that we openly express with those who lead the Venezuelan process, the left and the people have to be emphatic in rejecting this new coup attempt – the ominous interference of the U.S and the other countries related to the destabilizing strategy which includes the government of [Chilean President Sebastián] Piñera and the political sectors who support its foreign policy all the way from Chile. Along with this we must demand the governments who quickly squared with the position of the United States to respect the rights of the Venezuelan people to its own conflicts without the interference of other states establishing as a minimum floor the non-recognition of the diplomatic delegations won over by Guaído.
       We manifest our solidarity with the people of Venezuela directly from our organization, especially with the fringes who even against the grain of the Chavista leadership and assuming all the contradictions of the change in process, protagonize [fight for] new experiences in building popular power that range from the takeovers of the land, the socialization of self-managed companies by its own workers or the government from below in rural and urban communities, [7] and obtaining spaces that prefigure the path of the people who fight against the ominous consequences of patriarchal capitalism we want to overcome.
Solidaridad, February 2019

      Notes [1]  https://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-53579
[2]  https://www.hispantv.com/noticias/venezuela/408335/ataque-incendio-hospi...
[3]
https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/242996-50-toneladas-alimentos-quema...
[4]
http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/08/03/asesinados-tres-voceros...
[5]
https://red58.org/cr%C3%ADmenes-de-odio-derecha-venezolana-quema-viva-a-...
[6]
https://www.elinformador.com.ve/2019/01/31/descargue-aqui-el-plan-pais-l...
[7] For an idea about the concrete experiences in building popular power in Venezuela we recommend you visit the following article written in 2016 written by two comrades of Solidaridad, “Political Situation in Venezuela: Crisis, Trends, and the Challenge of Class Independence.”

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Power Mongers Never Give Birth To Democracy.

      A little more on Venezuela, after all it is a possible flash point for more misery to be heaped on the heads of an already suffering population in the shape of foreign troops intervention, civil war, or both. One of the main problems is that all the moves in this power game are being called by a rich and wealthy elite in other countries, all with a vested interest in the resources of Venezuela, none of the external voices have the interests of the people of that country in there plans.
      Of course it is impossible to ask the powerful imperialists of this world to stay away and let the people of Venezuela decide their own future. They see wealth, and opportunities for grabbing resources, and in this economic madhouse, from wealth comes power.

      This not me waving the flag for the Maduros government, on the contrary, it is an attempt to highlight how the powerful imperialist powers demand that they are in control. The only real answer to the "Venezuela problem" is for the people of that country to decide how they want to run their lives, without external interference.  

Again from Information Clearing House:

        For some months now, Venezuela’s socialist government has lurched through a series of escalating crises — hyperinflation, mass protests, political violence — while both the government and its opposition have flirted with authoritarianism. It isn’t pretty — and to hear the right wing tell it, it’s the future the U.S. left wants for our own country. As if to prevent that, the Trump administration is now fomenting a coup in Venezuela.
     They’ve publicly recognized an unelected opposition leader as president, discussed coup plans with Venezuela’s military, and sanctioned oil revenues the country needs to resolve its economic crisis. They’re even threatening to send U.S. troops. They’ll tell you this about restoring “democracy” and “human rights” in the South American country. But one look at the administration officials driving the putsch perishes the thought.
      Take Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently spoke at the United Nations calling on countries to stand “with the forces of freedom” against “the mayhem” of Venezuela’s government.
      This fall, the same Pompeo shared a photo of himself beaming and shaking hands with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince — just as the prince’s order to kill and dismember a U.S. resident journalist was coming to light. The same prince is carrying on a U.S.-backed war in Yemen, where millions are starving. Does this sound like a man who gives one fig for democracy, or against mayhem?
     Or take Pompeo’s point man on Venezuela, the dreaded Elliott Abrams. Pompeo said Abrams was appointed for his “passion for the rights and liberties of all peoples.” More likely, it was Abrams’ history as Reagan’s “Secretary of Dirty Wars” (yes, that’s a real thing people called him).
      A singularly villainous figure, Abrams vouched for U.S. backing of a genocidal Guatemalan regime and Salvadoran death squads in the 1980s. And when a UN report cataloged 22,000 atrocities in El Salvador, Abrams praised his administration’s “fabulous achievement” in the country. Abrams was convicted of lying to Congress about U.S. support for Nicaragua’s brutal Contras, but that didn’t prevent him from serving in George W. Bush’s State Department — which backed not only the Iraq war but an earlier coup attempt in, you guessed it, Venezuela. “It’s very nice to be back,” Abrams told reporters. I bet!
      Finally there’s National Security Adviser John Bolton, who recently took a cute photo with the words “5,000 troops” written on a notepad. Bolton still thinks the Iraq war was a good idea, and he’d like one with Iran too. Do we think it’s bread and roses he wants for Venezuela?
       For all its faults, Venezuela achieved tremendous things before the current crisis — including drastic reductions in poverty and improvements in living standards. Mismanagement and repression may have imperiled those gains, but that’s no justification at all for the U.S. getting involved. In fact, U.S. sanctions have worsened the economic crisis, and U.S. coordination with coup plotters has poisoned the country’s political environment even further. The future of Venezuela’s revolution is for Venezuelans to decide, not us. All that can come of more intervention now is more crisis, and maybe even war.

Read the full article HERE:

Video: Former UN Special Rapporteur talks about Venezuela:

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Guardian Angel America To Rescue Poor Venezuelans.

      Venezuela is in the news a lot at the moment, and it is the usual fabricated banal bullshit from the media puppets, handed to them by their political and corporate masters. The message goes something like this: "The people of Venezuela are in the grip of an evil despot, unlike us, here in the wonderful utopian free world, watched over by our guardian angel America. So we must do our duty and make that sacrifice, go in and bring them democracy, just as we have done to Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, the poor suffering Venezuelans deserve no less than this from us."
       The fact that across the world, in every country, poverty and deprivation are part and parcel of this economic system, doesn't seem to register in their twisted minds. It is all about power and control of world's limited resources. Lies, and the suffering of the people are all part of the power mongers' game, a price we pay for their wealth and power.
       In the past days of "the great British Empire" Britain was the master of regime change and setting up of puppet governments around the world, now in the days of "The American Empire", that mantle has fallen to America, and it carries out that role with brutal savagery and total disrespect for the people in its target areas.  

      The following is an extract from Information Clearing house:

( http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51021.htm)

Why Must Venezuela Be Destroyed. 

    -------To be thorough, let’s look at the arguments being used to advance this regime change operation. There is the contention that Nicolas Maduro is not a legitimate president because last year’s elections, where he was supported by 68% of those who turned out, lacked transparency and were boycotted by certain opposition parties, whereas Juan Guaidó is 100% legit in spite of him and his inconsequential National Assembly being opposed by 70% of Venezuelans according to the opposition’s own polling numbers. There were also some unfounded allegations of “ballot-box stuffing”—except that the Venezuelans do not use paper ballots, while according to international election-watcher and former US president Jimmy Carter, “the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.”
      There is the contention that Maduro has badly mismanaged Venezuela’s economy, leading to hyperinflation, high unemployment, shortages of basic goods (medicines especially) and a refugee crisis. There is some merit to this contention, but we must also note that some of Venezuela’s neighbors are doing even worse in many respects in spite of Maduro not being their president. Also, many of Venezuela’s economic difficulties have been caused by US sanctions against it. For instance, right now around 8 billion dollars of Venezuela’s money is being held hostage and is intended to be used to finance a mercenary army which would invade and attempt to destroy Venezuela just as was done with Syria.
     Finally, a lot of Venezuela’s predicament has to do with the oil curse. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, but its oil is very viscous and therefore expensive to produce. During a period of high oil prices Venezuelans became addicted to the oil largess, which the government used to lift millions of people out of abject poverty and to move them out of slums and into government housing. And now low oil prices have caused a crisis. If Venezuela manages to survive this period, it will be able to recover once oil prices recover (which they will once the fracking Ponzi scheme in the US has run its course). We will return to the topic of Venezuelan oil later.
      As a side comment, a lot of people have been voicing the opinion that Venezuela’s woes are due to socialism. According to them, it’s fine if lots of people are suffering as long as their government is capitalist, but if it is socialist then that’s the wrong kind of suffering and their government deserves to be overthrown even if they all voted for it. For example, the site ZeroHedge, which often publishes useful information and analysis, has been pushing this line of thinking ad nauseam. It is unfortunate that some people imagine that they are being principled and right-thinking whereas they are just being dumb jerks at best and somebody’s useful idiots at worst. The politics of other nations are not for them to decide and they should stop wasting our time with their nonsense.
       This naked attempt at regime change would set a very dangerous precedent for the US itself. The doctrine of legal precedent is by no means universal. It comes to us from the dim dark ages of tribal English common law and is only followed in former British colonies. To the rest of the world it is a barbaric form of injustice because it grants arbitrary power to judges and lawyers. The courts must not be allowed to write or alter laws, only to follow them. If your case can be decided on the basis of some other case that has nothing to do with you—well then, why not let somebody else pay your legal fees and your fines and serve out your sentence for you? But there is an overarching principle of international law, which is that sovereign nations have a right to keep to their own laws and legal traditions. Therefore, the US will be bound by the precedents which it establishes. Let’s see how that would work.
        The precedent established by the US government’s recognition of Juan Guaidó allows Nicolas Maduro to declare Donald Trump’s presidency as illegitimate for virtually all of the same reasons. Trump failed to win the popular vote but only gained the presidency because of a corrupt, gerrymandered electoral system. Also, certain opposition candidates were unfairly treated within the electoral process. Trump is also a disgrace and a failure: 43 million people are on food stamps; close to 100 million are among the long-term unemployed (circularly referred to as “not in labor force”); homelessness is rampant and there are entire tent cities springing up in various US cities; numerous US companies are on the verge of bankruptcy; and Trump can’t even seem to be able to keep the federal government open! He is a disaster for his country! Maduro therefore recognizes Bernie Sanders as the legitimate president of the United States.

Read the full article HERE: 

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Venezuela Punished For Social Spending.

        In our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, we hear a lot about the plight of the people of Venezuela, mass migration out of the country to escape dire poverty and deprivation, they spout the usual drivel about the collapse of the economy, hyper inflation, and put it down to the failure of socialism/communism. Though most socialists will agree that Venezuela was not a socialist country.

     Never once will they mention the true cause of the plight of the Venezuelan people to the deliberate policy of the US, in conjunction with Saudi Arabia. The US can't hear the word socialism without jumping in with the boot, as such a system would ruin the ability of the grossly over rich parasites from continuing to exploit the world, its people and its resources. 

      The root cause of the collapse of the Venezuelan economy was the deliberate strategy of the US and Saudi Arabia to flood the market with cheap oil forcing the price from $110 a barrel, down to $28 a barrel, pulling the plug from the pool of rich oil resources with which Venezuela was developing the country. The US hypocrites will of course pretend to be the benefactor by organising a totally inadequate supply of food aid to the migrating millions.

      The unbelievable misery foisted on the people of Venezuela is of no consequence to the power mongers of the "free market", any price will be paid to safeguard their privileged position, their wealth and their power. The problems of the people of Venezuela are not internal problems, it is punishment for their failure to pay homage the corporate moguls of the free market. Hoist the flag of socialism and you will feel the wrath of the corporate moguls aided and abetted by their minders, the US state, its allies and puppets.

This from Mint Press News:

        The political and economic crisis facing Venezuela is being endlessly pointed to as proof of the superiority of the free market.

Images and portrayals of Venezuelans rioting in the streets over high food costs, empty grocery stores, medicine shortages, and overflowing garbage bins are the headlines, and the reporting points to socialism as the cause.  

        The Chicago Tribune published a Commentary piece titled: “A socialist revolution can ruin almost any country.” A headline on Reason’s Hit and Run blog proclaims: “Venezuelan socialism still a complete disaster.” The Week’s U.S. edition says: “Authoritarian socialism caused Venezuela’s collapse.”

         Indeed, corporate-owned, mainstream media advises Americans to look at the inflation and food lines in Venezuela, and then repeat to themselves clichés they heard in elementary school about how “Communism just doesn’t work.”

In reality, millions of Venezuelans have seen their living conditions vastly improved through the Bolivarian process. The problems plaguing the Venezuelan economy are not due to some inherent fault in socialism, but to artificially low oil prices and sabotage by forces hostile to the revolution.

        Starting in 2014, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil. This is not a mere business decision, but a calculated move coordinated with U.S. and Israeli foreign policy goals. Despite not just losing money, but even falling deep into debt, the Saudi monarchy continues to expand its oil production apparatus. The result has been driving the price of oil down from $110 per barrel, to $28 in the early months of this year. The goal is to weaken these opponents of Wall Street, London, and Tel Aviv, whose economies are centered around oil and natural gas exports. And Venezuela is one of those countries. Saudi efforts to drive down oil prices have drastically reduced Venezuela’s state budget and led to enormous consequences for the Venezuelan economy.

         At the same time, private food processing and importing corporations have launched a coordinated campaign of sabotage. This, coupled with the weakening of a vitally important state sector of the economy, has resulted in inflation and food shortages. The artificially low oil prices have left the Venezuelan state cash-starved, prompting a crisis in the funding of the social programs that were key to strengthening the United Socialist Party.-----

Read the full article HERE: 

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