And Maduro Might Accept!!
{UPDATED: Thursday, August 22nd, 2019}
{UPDATED: Thursday, August 22nd, 2019}
Despite his public protestations to the contrary, there are indications that Venezuela's besieged President Nicolas Maduro may capitulate to devastating U. S. sanctions. This AP photo recorded Maduro's last defiant protestation over the weekend in Caracas. But it is known that his negotiators in Oslo, Norway, have told Trump officials he will permit monitored elections within 6 to 9 months. That promise was made back in May and when Trump negotiators wondered anew if it was a delaying tactic, Maduro loyalists then made the same promise this month of August, 2019. The U. S. negotiators, who assume Maduro would lose an honest election, also reportedly promised him a safe exile to another country...but not Cuba because presumably the U. S. also plans the long-awaited regime-change in Cuba.
This updated AP photo shows a much-happier Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido rejoicing after he heard about the negotiations in Oslo. The United States and many of its allies have tried mightily since January to install Guaido as Venezuela's President. But support for President Maduro from Russia, China, and Cuba have stalled those plans. Guaido last weekend told the Washington Post about his new optimism with these exact words: "We are now negotiating, with Norway's mediation, guarantees -- internationally backed guarantees. That would be inside any accord."
At the moment President Maduro still has strong support from millions of Venezuela's poorest people despite the oil-rich nation being mired down with food & medicine shortages, blackouts, and even water shortages. This AP photo shows pro-Maduro/pro-government supporters this past weekend. In addressing friendly crowds like this, Maduro has strongly blamed U. S. money that is backing Guaido because the U. S. wants to eliminate pro-Cuban Maduro and install anti-Cuban Guaido as Venezuela's President; and because the U. S. wants control of Venezuelan LARGEST IN THE WORLD OIL RESERVES.
For decades Citgo gas stations have dotted the landscape in the United States. Citgo is headquartered in Houston, Texas, where it has an important refinery, and it is owned by the Venezuelan government. Citgo in the past year earned $34 billion in the U. S. but the Trump administration has frozen all Venezuelan assets in the U. S. and turned its money over to the U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido. Similarly, of course, the U. S. long-ago froze Cuban assets and made them readily available to lawsuits by revengeful Cuban-Americans in U. S. courts.
Losing the profits from Citgo was one of the last lifelines for the Maduro government, insiders report.
Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, shown above getting instructions from President Maduro, is right now the second most powerful person in Venezuela. Cabello sharply rebukes my interpretation of what is happening in Oslo concerning what clearly appears to be Maduro's capitulations to the stifling U. S. sanctions although, at the moment, Maduro still has the loyalist support of both Cabello and the Venezuelan military, which has been strengthened by both Russia and China who have both financial and regional interests in the beleaguered but oil-rich Latin American nation.
So, the Juan Guaido vs. President Nicolas Maduro tussle in Venezuela seems to have finally tilted strongly in favor of Guaido and the Trump administration.
This montage, left to right, shows John Bolton, Juan Guaido, and Elliott Abrams. Like all opposition leaders in Latin American countries, Guaido knows the phone numbers of all the anti-Cuban zealots in Little Havana in Miami, especially U. S. Senator Marco Rubio who thought months ago that he would get Guaido in charge of Venezuela as the prelude to Rubio's most-desired regime-change, the one in Cuba. If the Trump administration had the foresight months ago to allow Norway, Canada, and the United Nations to handle the Venezuelan crisis, Maduro would be in exile now and Guaido, instead of a U.S.-backed coup, would be one of the candidates in a closely monitored upcoming election. But with extreme ignorance, Trump allowed Rubio to reportedly put Bolton and Abrams in charge of the Venezuelan transition. Every Latin American nation is well aware that Bolton and Abrams are America's two most feared war-mongers, marred by Latin American and Caribbean histories that include Latin America's most famed massacre of civilians, as well as coups and attempted coups. Siccing Bolton and Abrams on Venezuela in 2019 to many was reminiscent of siccing Lucky Luciano and Fulgencio Batista on Cuba in 1952...or the 1973 Nixon/Kissinger-backed coup in Chile that killed the popular Democratically elected President Salvador Allende to install for 17 extremely bloody years the murderous but U.S.-friendly Pinochet dictatorship. Right-wing Republican thugs and administrations in Washington have fearful reputations throughout Latin America to this day. Bolton, Abrams, Mike Pompeo, Mauricio Claver-Carone, and all of Trump's top foreign policy zealots are hellbent on regime-changes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and, primarily, Cuba. But even the omnipotent influence of the richest and strongest nation in the history of the world can be stymied by its reputation for coups.
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Incredibly, supposedly prodded by Rubio, President Trump named Elliott Abrams as the USA's Special Envoy for Venezuela and Trump even wanted to name Elliott Abrams as the USA's Deputy Secretary of State, as you can see above. Any democracy-loving American who takes a few moments to GOOGLE "Elliott Abrams" will cringe that a plethora of the most controversial zealots from the Bush dynasty were resurrected by Trump...and Abrams, of course, needed a famous/infamous presidential pardon long-ago from President George H. W. Bush. Few Americans ever heard about the Mozote Massacre and that's why...SO OFTEN...politically connected American extremists are not held accountable. But EVERY Latin American nation remembers such things as...the Mozote Massacre.
Incredibly, Elliott Abrams is now the U. S. Envoy to Venezuela, Mike Pompeo is Secretary of State, and John Bolton is the USA's top National Security Adviser...the three men President Trump and Rubio would have wanted to name as ultra-powerful foreign policy advisers IF Trump and Rubio wanted to select America's three most anti-Cuban zealots.
If the United States, with its dire reputation in Latin America, wanted to inject itself as the leading player in the Maduro vs. Guaido quagmire in Venezuela, decent and respected Americans should have been named as the negotiators. But that didn't happen.
Yes, what was wrong with America's past in Latin America...its preference for Batista-like or Pinochet-like U.S-FRIENDLY DICTATORS and COUPS as opposed to Democracies...remains precisely what is wrong with Trump's current use of renowned right-wing greedy war-mongers to change the political dynamic in Venezuela. In other words, Uncle Sam, as shown above, should butt out of regime-changes until or IF the USA can be represented by decent and unbiased diplomats.
Americans may have been programmed to accept this Pinochet-Kissinger handshake in 1973 as democratic but it still to this day makes democracy-lovers across Latin America shiver.
In order to make General Pinochet the U.S.-FRIENDLY dictator of Chile for 17 blood-thirsty years, a U.S.-backed coup killed the Democratically elected President Salvador Allende. Typically, to this day the still-living and now 96-year-old Kissinger has never been held accountable for his role, and neither will his legacy. Americans have accepted such things and, with America the world's superpower, such acceptance has also either been purchased or simply shoved down the throats of nations that disapprove.
This historic SBS photo shows some of the aftermath on September 11, 1973, when the U.S.-backed coup killed Democratically elected President Salvador Allende to make the murderous but U.S.-friendly Pinochet the ruthless Chilean dictator for 17 years. Foreign-backed coups are never pretty, and neither are so-called "bloodless" Superpower-orchestrated regime-changes in much smaller countries. Ignorance of or acceptance of such things by Superpower citizens simply fuels more of the same.
Economic and military power China has thrust itself into the Venezuelan crisis but military SUPERPOWER Russia is more of a threat to the U. S. desire for regime-changes in both Cuba and Venezuela. Veteran Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks for President Putin when it comes to foreign affairs. And no one thinks Lavrov is kidding when he, as shown above, repeatedly states: "We will continue supporting the Cuban people." Putin and Lavrov reportedly are considering a military base in Cuba and, indeed, recently startled the U. S. when Russia's newest nuclear-armed ship steamed into Havana Harbor.
In the heat of the Venezuela crisis, Russian President Putin sent his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Havana to assure Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel that Russia has the military wherewithal to keep "Miami and Washington from regaining control of Cuba." Cuba would prefer friendly relations, especially regarding trade, with the nearby United States but, while trying to wait-out the Trump administration, Cuba feels it has no choice but to rely on help, including commerce, from Russia, China, Vietnam, etc., and even Japan. Those four nations, as the Trump administration has strongly exacerbated the economic blockade of Cuba, have recently assisted the besieged island with a modern railroad that includes magnificent air-conditioned passenger cars; 100 huge and colorful garbage trucks; and some badly needed financial projects at Cuba's most important Economic Zone centered at the deep-water Mariel Port 30 miles southwest of Havana. On his Twitter page and also in this recorded discussion with Lavrov, the Cuban President Diaz-Canel said, "No matter what is planned for us in Miami and Washington, while some people can be bought off, there will always be enough Cubans that will fight to the death to defend the sovereignty that the Cuban Revolution gave us in 1959."
Several months ago when he believed the regime-change in Venezuela was about to happen, Rubio brazenly sent a Three-Word Tweet to Diaz-Canel in Havana. The Tweet, translated from Spanish to English, said, "SEE YOU SOON." Apparently, Rubio meant that, as soon as he took care of Venezuela, he would lead the omnipotent U. S. military to Havana to replace Diaz-Canel. The Cuban leader was not amused, of course.
At the Miami-based Progreso Weekly, Editor Alfonso Fernandez, who knows Rubio as well as he knows the back of his hand, seems to believe that "Little Marco," as Trump once called him, is the last person to direct regime-changes "ANYWHERE." That includes Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. The image of Rubio above is from Miami's Progreso Weekly and, as you can see, Rubio's hometown weekly believes the "TRUMPIFIED" and Pinocchio-nosed Rubio is "USING LANGUAGE OF DEMOCRACY TO SUBVERT DEMOCRACY." Perhaps it is time the mainstream U. S. media and propagandized U. S. citizens accept that depiction of Rubio. The U. S. may have the economic and military power to execute regime-changes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua but would it be worth fighting endless revolutionary wars in the USA's backyard...or maybe even a nuclear war with Russia??? It is known that Sergey Lavrov himself has mentioned "The Cuban Missile Crisis way back in 1962 remains the closest the world has ever come to a nuclear holocaust..." Lavrov seemed to be hinting that Russia's nuclear missiles in 2019 are far more powerful and accurate than the Soviet Union's missiles were in 1962. Was he bluffing??? Maybe...maybe not. But, I guess...we'll see.
