Venezuela crisis

Plane Used by Guaido’s Negotiating Team for Barbados Talks Also Carried Moïse’s Assassins - Report, by Morgan Artyukhina for Sputniknews. 21.07.2021.

When news broke that Haitian President Jovenel Moïse had been killed by a hit squad, analysts quickly drew parallels to the 2020 “Bay of Piglets” attempt to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by hired mercenaries, and revelations by Haitian police that many of the accused men hailed from Colombia only hardened those suspicions.

According to a report by Venezuelan television network La Iguana, the same private jet used to transport some of the hit squad that killed Haitian President Jovenel Moïse earlier this month was also used to transport Venezuelan self-declared interim president Juan Guaido to negotiations.

The aircraft in question is a Cessna Citation Mustang four-seater small business jet with the tail number HI949. Back on May 15, 2020, when the aircraft took off from Maquietta, Venezuela, the aircraft tracking service AeroNoticiasVE noted on Twitter that the same aircraft had transported Guado’s team to Barbados in September 2019 for peace talks with representatives from the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who Guaido has attempted to overthrow.

​This aircraft, it was reported, also transported three alleged members of the commando unit that shot to death Moïse and injured his wife, Martine, early on the morning of July 7 in their home on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. One of them was allegedly Christian Emmanuel Sanon, who Haitian National Police (PNH) have said was the mastermind behind the assassination plot.

The aircraft is owned by Helidosa, an airline in the Dominican Republic. CEO Alex Castillo said in a statement obtained by Haiti Libre that the three passengers “passed all the immigration controls in the airports by which they left and entered and that his company had no means of establishing that those who used his services had criminal ends,” according to the outlet.

"We are not a security agency, or an investigative agency to be able to know it," Castillo said. He revealed that his airline was also responsible for transporting Martine Moïse to Florida for treatment after the attack, as well as for transporting former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Cuba last month for emergency COVID-19 treatment. He noted the company has 15 planes and 24 helicopters.

However, this isn’t the first connection between the assassination plot and the Venezuelan opposition: Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Jorge Rodriguez said last week that CTU Security, the mercenary group allegedly contracted for the hit job, was also behind the 2018 attempt to assassinate Maduro with exploding drones during a speech. He added that it was also connected to the 2020 attempt by Silvercorp mercenaries from the US to kidnap Maduro, which was paid for by Guaido’s US-backed ersatz government.

The PNH says they have arrested 20 men connected to the assassination plot, 18 of whom are Colombian and two of whom are Americans. Many of the Colombians have been confirmed to be former military personnel, some of whom received training from the US military as part of their service, while one of the Americans was a former informant for the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), a federal police agency that also works extensively in Colombia.

On Monday, Claude Joseph, the former acting prime minister who was nonetheless recognized as the de facto leader of Haiti by the United Nations and the US after Moïse’s killing, announced he would step aside in favor of Ariel Henry, who Moïse appointed to replace Joseph just a day before the assassination. Thus, the new government will have a prime minister, but no president until the elections scheduled for later this year.

While in power, Joseph appealed to the US and UN for troops to defend the country’s vital infrastructure, but so far those requests have been denied, in part because of their lack of specificity. However, the US has sent some federal police officials to evaluate how the US can help the investigation.

For months before Moïse’s death, millions of Haitians had been protesting in the streets in spite of deadly police and gang violence, demanding that Moïse step aside in line with a Superior Court ruling that his presidential term had expired. Moïse had ruled by decree since early 2020 after allowing most of parliament’s terms to expire without calling new elections and had planned a new constitutional referendum that critics said aimed to cement his hold on power. Despite this, the US and Organization of American States Core Group continued in their support for Moïse.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/202107211083426894-plane-used-by-guaidos-negotiating-team-for-barbados-talks-also-carried-moses-assassins---report/

Strangely back in April this report doesn't seem to have attracted much publicity

syrseal
@syrseal44
·
19h
On April 16, USAID released the report "Enhanced Processes and Implementer Requirements Are Needed To Address Challenges and Fraud Risks in USAID's Venezuela Response" revealing that Guaidó received more than $500 million and only delivered 2% for "humanitarian" aid.


https://www.oversight.gov/report/USAID/Enhanced-Processes-and-Implementer-Requirements-Are-Needed-Address-Challenges-and-Fraud

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15274

Venezuela to Receive Sinovac and Sinopharm Vaccines Through COVAX as Delta Variant Confirmed

Venezuela will receive the Sinovac and Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines through the United Nations’ COVAX program, with a first batch expected “in the coming weeks.”

"Official communications between the Covax mechanism and Venezuela have confirmed that the vaccines would be arriving between July and September, both Sinovac and Sinopharm,” confirmed Ciro Ugarte, Health Emergencies Director at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), during a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

Ugarte explained that a series of necessary steps “are being completed rapidly so Venezuela receives a significant amount of vaccines in the coming weeks.”

On July 4, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro sent an ultimatum to the COVAX program after the country fulfilled its US $120 million financial commitments in April and two months went by without receiving the 11 million agreed upon shots.

The COVAX vaccines were delayed after the final four payments from Venezuela were blocked by Swiss bank UBS. The institution unofficially admitted over-compliance with US-led financial sanctions against the South American nation. Washington's coercive measures, imposed since 2017, have cut the country off from the international financial system, blocking payments, freezing or seizing state funds and accounts abroad. As a result, many banks are wary of processing Venezuela-related transactions.

On July 11, the blocked payments finally reached the COVAX accounts, and spokespersons from the program promised to allocate doses to Venezuela as soon as stocks were available.

Unilateral US measures, alongside secondary sanctions and threats against third parties, have seen Venezuela struggle to secure Covid-19 doses. The country lags behind its regional neighbors in the vaccination rollout and has turned to Russia, Cuba and China to acquire doses and begin its inoculation campaign.

Caracas has received a reported 3.5 million doses, between purchases and donations, which have been distributed in special centers nationwide. According to Reuters, 4 million doses have been administered, but a majority of Venezuelans have only gotten the first shot. Online publication "Our World in Data" estimates 3.9 percent (roughly 1.2 million people) are fully immunized so far.

Venezuela aims to immunize 70 percent of the population (some 22 million people) by the end of 2021.

The immunization plan is expected to speed up with the arrival of the COVAX vaccines, with the 11 million doses covering 5.7 million Venezuelans, around 20 percent of the population. Sinovac and Sinopharm, developed in China, were approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for emergency use. The two-dose shots have an efficacy rate of 51 percent and 79 percent, respectively.

Likewise, Venezuela has lined up a number of considerable Covid-19 vaccine purchases for the upcoming months. On June 24, the country received its first shipment of Cuba’s Abdala, a 30,000 batch under a 12-million dose contract, becoming the first foreign country to acquire the vaccine. The three-dose shot has a reported 92.2 percent effectiveness.

The Venezuelan government had previously signed an agreement to acquire 10 million doses of Russia’s EpiVacCorona doses and an equal number of Sputnik V, after hosting clinical trials. On May 15, Caracas also approved the single-dose Russian shot Sputnik Light, but no details on potential shipments and expected dates were disclosed.

Venezuelan health authorities likewise aim to locally manufacture Abdala, EpiVacCorona and Sputnik V jabs, with a 2 million monthly dose production goal of the Cuban vaccine set for August and September.

While the government waits for its immunization efforts to advance, the country continues to register a significantly lower Covid-19 spread than its neighbors. As of July 28, Venezuela reported 12,651 active cases and 18 new deaths, elevating the total figures to 302,988 and 3,542, respectively, since the pandemic started in March 2020.

Nonetheless, alarms were set off on Monday after President Maduro confirmed two cases of the Delta variant (first identified in India) were detected in the country. A young athlete and a 56-year doctor traveling from abroad have been isolated and are currently under treatment.

“We are facing a certain threat,” said the Venezuelan president, stating that the country will continue with its 7+7 scheme (alternating weeks of flexible and strict quarantine) after evaluating lifting the restrictive measures. According to the WHO, the Delta variant has reached 132 nations and the first vaccine dose does not offer enough protection against it, which means people are at risk in the period between the two doses.

Additionally, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez called the population to maximize biosecurity measures. "We cannot relax prevention, it is the best antidote against the virus," she wrote on Twitter.

Russia and Venezuela to Implement Energy Security Joint Projects

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15281

Guayaquil, Ecuador, August 5, 2021 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Russia’s Rostec corporation and Venezuela’s state electricity company CORPOELEC will set up joint projects to improve the Caribbean country’s energy infrastructure security.

In a press statement released on Tuesday, Rostec said it will provide “comprehensive support” and “advanced technology” to reinforce Venezuela's electrical grid, severely affected in recent years, with parts of the country suffering intermittent power cuts on a regular basis.

To achieve this purpose, the Russian state-run corporation explained that “the parties plan to implement joint products in digital technologies, technical support, supplies of required equipment, training and professional certification of Venezuelan specialists.”

“This will ensure uninterrupted power supply, improve the quality of life of Venezuelan citizens and contribute to regional socio-economic development,” added the statement.

According to Rostec, as part of the agreements, CORPOELEC expressed interest in “processes and emergencies control automated systems, operational monitoring and data flows management,” including the collection, transmission and storage of primary information.

For his part, Rostec’s Project Technologies general director, Sergey Yarosh, told press that a “technical commission” will be set up with “four representatives from each of the parties” to create a list of projects and schedule their execution. However, the energy facilities where the works will take place were not disclosed.

The memorandum was reportedly signed by Yarosh and CORPOELEC president José Luis Betancourt-González. At the time of writing, no public statement from the Venezuelan state company was available.

Founded in 2007, Rostec has a track record of developing high-end projects, particularly related to the aeronautical, construction, automobile, metallurgy, machinery and equipment manufacturing sectors. The Moscow-based corporation brings together over 800 industrial and scientific entities.

In CORPOELEC’s case, the state-owned company was created in 2007 during Hugo Chávez’s presidency to unify the country’s energy sector by merging ten public companies and six nationalized private ones. The corporation is in charge of power generation, transmission, distribution and sales.

The new cooperation agreement between the two companies is framed in a ten-year agenda signed in April with a view towards ending Venezuela’s electricity crisis. In 2019, a number of attacks caused two major nationwide power outages, on March 7 and March 25, respectively. In both cases, most of the country spent over five days in the dark, halting work, school, public transport and almost all commercial activities. The electric grid has not fully recovered since.

At the time, the Nicolás Maduro government denounced that a cyber-attack against the Guri Dam, the country’s main electricity generator located in Bolívar state, had come from the US cities of Houston and Chicago. The accusations were dismissed by Washington, though experts later attested that the US has the technology for this type of long-distance sabotage.

Following the 2019 blackouts, Venezuelan authorities have claimed that the electric grid continues to receive cyber and physical attacks, with the most recent one happening on January 5, affecting Caracas and 12 other states for a short period of time.

Additionally, Venezuela’s power facilities have been hard-hit by an economic crisis that began in 2014 with the drop in oil prices, later exacerbated by US financial sanctions imposed in 2017, followed by an oil embargo and a blanket ban on all dealings in 2019. The coercive measures have stopped the country from acquiring repair parts and servicing equipment.

Washington’s sanctions have likewise led to acute fuel shortages after the former Trump administration put an end to oil-for-diesel swap deals in 2020, leaving Venezuela without its main input to activate backup thermoelectric plants.

However, electrical workers have claimed that Venezuela’s current deteriorated energy infrastructure is also a consequence of years of under-investment, lack of maintenance, and qualified personnel migration.

While the country works to stabilize its energy supply, the population still sees intermittent and short power cuts mixed with a rationing plan; the latter mostly applies to Western states such as Zulia and Mérida.

As a result, Venezuela's water pumping systems, rural irrigation systems, retail, industry, and other areas have long been affected. The most recent electrical outage took place on August 2 in parts of Caracas as well as La Guaira and Miranda states.

In recent years, Venezuela and Russia have deepened their economic and political ties, with Moscow helping Caracas circumvent US coercive measures to place its oil output. However, in February 2020, secondary sanctions forced Russian energy giant Rosneft to shut down its dealings with PDVSA.

Russia has also assisted with food imports and provided Covid-19 vaccines to the South American nation.

Peru announces a departure from Grupo de Lima (Lima Group), a bloc of South American countries created to attack Venezuela internationally, 09.08.2021.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru, Héctor Béjar, announced that the country is withdrawing from the so-called Lima Group, created in 2017 to promote actions against the Venezuelan government in the Organization of American States (OAS).

"We will make a joint and multilateral policy. The partners of the Lima Group changed their policy. We will talk to members about their views, " the chancellor said.

In addition to Peru, the governments of Argentina, Bolivia and Mexico have also cut themselves off from the group, which is in danger of extinction, since it has eight members and has lost its symbolic headquarters, the Peruvian capital Lima.

In 2019, the Lima Group was a promoter of the application of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) against Venezuela, for considering the country a "regional threat".

Yandex Translate from Portuguese

https://www.brasil247.com/mundo/peru-anuncia-saida-do-grupo-de-lima-bloco-criado-para-atacar-venezuela-internacionalmente?amp

US, EU and Canada put a condition to review sanctions against Venezuela and Caracas responds, 15.08.2021.

On Friday, the first round of dialogue between representatives of the Maduro government and the opposition began in Mexico.

The US, the EU and Canada have announced their "willingness to review sanctions policies" against Venezuela if the country's authorities "make significant progress in talks" with the opposition, according to a joint statement by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, EU high representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, and Canadian Foreign Minister Mark Garneau, which was published on the official website of the US State Department.

In the document they also reiterated that the upcoming elections must meet international standards.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter that he urges the parties to the dialogue in Venezuela to " reach lasting agreements that lead to the democratic future that Venezuelans deserve."

To this tweet, the Venezuelan foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, replied that " U.S. criminal sanctions cause suffering to the Venezuelan people and have blocked political dialogue." "These are not imperial concessions. They must be eliminated for their illegality and perversity. Blackmail and pressure must stop."

Start of dialogue

This Friday in Mexico the first round of dialogue between spokespersons of the government of Nicolás Maduro and representatives of the radical sector of the opposition began, which is expected to last until next Monday, August 16. 

The talks were attended by Jorge Rodríguez (representing the Government of Nicolás Maduro), Gerardo Blyde (head of the opposition delegation of the United Platform of Venezuela) and mediators Marcelo Ebrard (Foreign Minister of Mexico) and Dag Nylander, of the Norwegian Center for Conflict Resolution.

On this day, the parties met behind closed doors and signed a memorandum of understanding with the key points of future agreements. These include electoral guarantees, the lifting of sanctions, respect for the constitutional state and the renunciation of violence.

For its part, Moscow also welcomed the start of negotiations between the political forces in Venezuela and is ready to provide this process with the necessary assistance. "We are convinced that the problems facing this country can only be solved by Venezuelans themselves without destructive external interference," reads a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Yandex Translate from Spanish

https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/400820-eeuu-ue-canada-condiciones-sanciones-venezuela

Maduro appoints Félix Plasencia as Venezuela's new Foreign Minister, 19.08.2021.

CARACAS (Sputnik) - Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro appointed Felix Plasencia as the country's new foreign minister, replacing Jorge Arreaza, and made changes in five ministries, after several members of his executive cabinet were elected to be candidates for the November 21 elections.

"I also appointed Mr. Félix Plasencia as the new Chancellor of the Republic. It has the immense responsibility to continue the excellent diplomatic work carried out by Jorge Arreaza. More and more, let us succeed in the world our diplomacy of peace", said the president in the social network Twitter.

Plasencia served since October 2020 as Venezuelan ambassador to China, and was also Minister of Tourism and Foreign Trade between 2019 and 2020.

Meanwhile, Maduro appointed Arreaza as the new Minister of Industries and National Production.[...]

Maduro made the changes three months before the regional and municipal elections are held, and a week after the dialogues between his Government and the opposition led by former deputy Juan Guaidó began in Mexico.

Yandex Translate from Spanish.

https://mundo.sputniknews.com/20210819/maduro-designa-como-nuevo-canciller-de-venezuela-a-felix-plasencia-1115229988.html

Argentine Foreign Minister Felipe Solá: "We are overcoming the Grupo de Lima (Lima Group) and the differences of each country over Venezuela", 20.08.2021.

In an interview with RT, he said that there is more union in the region and asked that Mercosur "return to the levels of trade of ten years ago".

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Felipe Solá, spoke with this media about the main diplomatic goals of his country, relations with other Latin American States, trade challenges and the democratic present of his nation, banishing the possibility that there could occur a coup by the Armed Forces, as happened in Bolivia.

With optimism, the politician began by analyzing the regional context: "I Think this year is better than the previous one, and the next will be better still, in the division that had Latin America when we arrived," said the chancellor, who has been in post since that Alberto Fernández took office in December 2019.

Undoubtedly, one of the hot spots in continental diplomacy revolves around positions on the conflict in Venezuela, although for Solá there are already rough edges: "I am happy for the relationship we are having, overcoming the Lima Group and the differences that were made based on what everyone thought about Caracas," he said.

In this regard, under the Peronist administration, Argentina has a grey position: it has already repudiated foreign interference in the country led by Nicolás Maduro, but supported the UN report on human rights violations in Venezuelan territory.

https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/401472-canciller-argentino-felipe-sola-venezuela-mercosur-bolivia

Quite a long article explaining Chavez's rise to power


The following piece is adapted from the authors’ new book, Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media and 20 Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela, published by Monthly Review Press.

In his State of the Union address on February 6, 2019, Donald Trump said:

We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom—and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime, whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair.

Trump’s ridiculous comment was not considered controversial, because the Western media, including the anti-Trump outlets like the New York Times, have spent many years conveying a lie: that Venezuela had been very prosperous and democratic until Hugo Chávez, and then his successor Nicolás Maduro, came along and ruined everything. If readers believe that, then they may indeed wonder, “Why shouldn’t the US government help Venezuelans return to that prosperous state?”

But this attitude is the result of common deceptions about Venezuela’s economic history, and it ignores how the rise of Chávez actually brought democratic reform, not regression, to Venezuela. The story the Western media tell should instead make people wonder how Chavismo could have become the dominant political force if everything had once been wonderful in Venezuela.

https://fair.org/home/the-media-myth-of-once-prosperous-and-democratic-venezuela-before-chavez/

Bachelet calls for cancellation of US' sectoral sanctions' against Venezuela at UN event, 13/09/2021.

In a note, Caracas reported that it took note of the report presented by the high official in which the "devastating effects of US sanctions" are pointed out, however, it rejected another part of the document that cites "arbitrary arrests".

On Monday (13), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called for the cancellation of" sectoral sanctions " against Venezuela. Sanctions that, in his opinion, aggravated the situation of the South American country during the pandemic.

Bachelet points to the serious effects of the unilateral sanctions adopted by the United States government against Caracas from 2014, which generated a 99% reduction in the country's revenue.

"The pre-existing humanitarian and economic situation has been aggravated both by the COVID-19 pandemic and by sectoral sanctions, further limiting access to basic services. I reiterate my call for the sectoral sanctions to be canceled," Bachelet said.

The high commissioner still acknowledged the efforts made by the Venezuelan government to address the challenges posed by the pandemic, however, noted that, as elsewhere, "this meant diverting scarce resources from other necessary medical treatments, further widening the scarcity in the health sector."

In response, Caracas through a note released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported that it took note of Bachelet's report, while acknowledging the "devastating effects" of US sanctions against Venezuela.

​Venezuela takes note of the report published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which ratifies the perverse effect of unilateral coercive measures.

However, there is a point in the document in which the Venezuelan government makes a complaint to the UN body stating that it reproduces "the methodological flaws present in previous documents of the office and incorporates unsubstantiated statements, which have not been properly verified with state authorities".

The point revolves around arbitrary arrest requests under which Caracas rejects "the false claims of the report about alleged arbitrary arrests or persecutions for the exercise or defense of human rights, to the extent that they are part of the political roadmap of those who use this subject to attack the country".

However, the Venezuelan state said it will continue to cooperate with Bachelet's office, based "on respect for the truth and the principles of objectivity, non-selectivity, impartiality, non-interference in internal affairs and constructive dialogue as a mechanism that allows to raise the truth of Venezuela before this instance".

Yandex Translate from Portuguese

https://br.sputniknews.com/americas/2021091318014043-bachelet-pede-cancelamento-das-sancoes-setoriais-dos-eua-contra-venezuela-em-evento-da-onu/

Venezuela says it will not accept interference from EU Electoral Mission in its elections, 08/10/2021.

CARACAS (Sputnik) - The Venezuelan government rejected the statements of the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, who said that the "legitimization or delegitimization" of the November 21 electoral process will depend on the report issued by the European Union Electoral Mission.

"Venezuela ratifies that it will not accept any interference, and that an electoral observation mission with the characteristics described by Mr. Borrell will not be accepted by our country. The legality and legitimacy of the Venezuelan electoral process does not depend, nor will it depend, on any foreign actor," says a statement released by the foreign ministry.

https://mundo.sputniknews.com/20211008/venezuela-afirma-que-no-aceptara-injerencia-de-mision-electoral-de-ue-en-sus-comicios-1116919991.html

I want to come back and re read this thread, so I don't want to lose it!

Cowboy's daughter wrote:I want to come back and re read this thread, so I don't want to lose it!

You are more than welcome.    

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15333?fbclid=IwAR3MzuPyKIz97BUCvF0-UT2ZFwJonWYJMqKJ5-Yb_AzrUrHA76_zJBOBbMg

The Media Myth of ‘Once Prosperous’ and Democratic Venezuela Before Chávez

The lies peddled about Venezuela’s past make US aggression against it possible in the present. It is worth summing up some of these key lies:

Lie 1: Venezuela was “once prosperous” and ruined by socialism. In fact, Venezuela was an unequal country in which most people were poor despite the country’s oil wealth, which had generated huge export revenues since the 1920s.

Lie 2: Venezuela was a democracy before Chavismo. In fact, Venezuela’s democracy was a gravely flawed system in which politicians alternated holding power according to an undemocratic agreement, and rammed austerity down the throats of Venezuela’s poor by committing massacres, such as the Caracazo.

Lie 3: Chavismo ruined Venezuela’s democracy. Chávez indeed attempted to carry out a coup in 1992, but he came to power through an election in 1998, and afterward made changes through extensive democratic processes.

Economists typically use GDP per capita to assess how rich a country is. It is basically a measure of the average income per person. If journalists cared to be at all precise when they say that Venezuela had once been “rich,” then that’s a statistic they’d cite.

The chart below shows World Bank data for Venezuela’s real (inflation-adjusted) GDP per capita since 1960, and it contradicts Western media’s relentlessly insinuated story that a transition from prosperity to poverty took place because of Chavismo. Real GDP per capita peaked in 1977, near the end of an oil boom, then went into a long-term decline. When Chávez took office in 1999, it was at one of its lowest points in decades. Then it was driven even lower by the first two attempts to oust Chávez: the April 2002 coup and, several months later, a shutdown of the state oil company—the “oil strike.” By 2013, real GDP per capita recovered dramatically, nearly reaching its 1977 peak.

Under Chávez, the poverty rate was cut in half, so there certainly is a correlation between GDP per capita and living conditions in Venezuela. But a country’s GDP per capita, by itself, says nothing about how income is distributed. And that can also make international comparisons very misleading.

For example, 1980 was very close to Venezuela’s historic peak in real GDP per capita, which ranked 32nd in the world that year when adjusted for purchasing power parity, as economists recommend for international comparisons. But its infant mortality rate ranked 58th in the world, far below Cuba, whose infant mortality rate was 28th that year. Infant mortality is a basic health indicator that helps reveal the extent to which a country’s wealth is actually being used to benefit its people. In fact, Venezuela’s infant mortality rate in 1980 was more than twice as high as that in Cuba.

Another revealing year is 1989, when the massacre of poor demonstrators later known as the Caracazo took place. In terms of GDP per capita (adjusted for purchasing power parity), Venezuela ranked highest in Central and South America—while its government perpetrated the most infamous slaughter of poor people in its modern history.

The massacre exposed the essentially fraudulent nature of Venezuela’s prosperity and democracy. It explains the rise of Chávez, and also reveals how the US government and media reflexively helped the Venezuelan government that perpetrated the massacre.

Americans have a Mickey Mouse understanding of modern reality. They think that "socialism" is "ruining" places like Venezuela as
if the US puppet regime economics before Chavez were some golden era of prosperity. For most of the world, moving to "socialism"
is a serious improvement of their quality of life including their freedom. This is something Americans and other NATO residents do not
understand. They think that their own standard of living somehow flows from the rubber stamped system model that they live under.
In reality, their standard of living is trickle down from the looting of the planet by the NATO west. Colonialist mercantilism never went
away, it forms the basis of the blood prosperity of the first world.

Naturally, Russia is outside this hyena pack of colonialists and they want to turn it into one of their colonies. They almost succeeded
during the 1990s. The comprador regime of Boris Yeltsin that was sending Russia down the river is referred to as the golden era by
maggots like Navalny. This is the same revisionist excrement as the narratives about Venezuela being better off before Chavez.

kvs wrote:Americans have a Mickey Mouse understanding of modern reality.     They think that their own standard of living somehow flows from the rubber stamped system model that they live under.
In reality, their standard of living is trickle down from the looting of the planet by the NATO west.  

Nailed it KVS.

And the main mechanism for the looting is the virtually invisible to the man on the street, and most politicians, the Reserve Currency system, perfected over the past 70 years and optimised since 1971. The US prints a few billion $ at almost zero cost and spends it in the rest of the World, buying real products, like oil the source of all wealth, in return.

That is real looting, they don't even need to make shiny beads.

Venezuela and its oil is a classic example of $ exploitation. Of course the US wants its vassal back.

The really scary thing is that when you say socialism is bad then you are promoting the opposite and when you look at the opposite... what America actually is.... a country that will invade Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya and Syria to build gas pipelines from its UAE allies in the ME to Turkey to get the gas to Europe so they can be competitive with Russian gas imports to Europe... but starting wars and therefore creating conditions where enormous numbers of people can be murdered by your proxies working towards your goals is not enough, they have to impose all sorts of economic sanctions on Russia for supplying cheap gas to the EU at prices the US can't match.

If Socialism is not OK then you believe in the free market, but there is nothing free about the mafia power base of the US and its hold on the world.

The alternative to socialism where healthcare and education and policing and sometimes other things as well like electricity and utilities are all guaranteed civil rights for all people... in return for the tax you pay, is the system the US has now.... where a health scare can lead to crippling debt and losing your house, where going to school could get you shot or stabbed, where cold weather leads to the electricity being cut with regulations banning fires because they pollute the air... so as you freeze to death you can contemplate how green you are and how good for the environment that you stop breathing out CO2 is... where big business and most people with a bit of money can hire accountants so they don't pay tax like anyone else.... the people with the most money contribute the least to the country, but then politicians will squander any funds they do get and can't get their accounts to balance either...

Venezuela had some serious problems but its biggest problems are all from the west and the US in particular.

Their biggest problem was that to play ball with the US they had to sell their souls... Venezuela has oil so it does not need to grow food or do anything for itself.... it can just pump oil and use all the money it makes from that to buy everything it needs. That is excellent for the US because they can then sell them stuff to offset all that oil they are buying from them, but for Venezuela if the price of oil goes down for a very long period like it has then they have problems balancing their budget and feeding their people... and it is not an accident... it is supposed to be happening to Russia.... that was the intended target of the cheap oil prices...

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15342

Venezuelan Victims of Xenophobic Attacks Return from Chile

Millions of Venezuelans have left the country as a result of the economic crisis in the country but many have found xenophobia and discriminatory attitudes throughout the region.

Those anti-immigrant sentiments culminated in an attack on a group of Venezuelans that had gathered in the Chilean city of Iquique on September 24 and 25, where their possessions were burned by a right-wing mob as an act of intimidation. The migrants were first expelled by police from their improvised camp and images on social media showed demonstrators subsequently burning their clothes, mattresses, strollers, and tents.

The attacks were widely condemned by politicians of various political stripes in both Venezuela and Chile. However, facing poverty and marginalization, discrimination toward Venezuelans abroad has largely continued unabated.

Demonstrations against the presence of Venezuelans in Chile have also risen, with those protesting employing stereotypes and blaming the presence of migrants for social ills. Chilean right-wing presidential candidate José Antonio Kast has made the anti-immigration discourse a key part of his campaign.

Many Venezuelan migrants have irregular status after arriving by land and often lack any sort of support from host countries, leaving them to fend for themselves under difficult conditions.

The attacks against migrants in Chile are not the first such instance of xenophobia toward Venezuelans. In 2019, a series of violent incidents targeting Venezuelans living in Peru led to a diplomatic row between Lima and Caracas, while migrants have likewise been targeted in Brazil and Colombia.

Venezuela will have to get its shit together and stop blaming US for their ills. While it is the US' fault for embargo's and or what not, it hasn't stopped other countries from trading with them. Maybe it did for a lot of crappy countries with no real power or anything to offer, but bigger players are still trading with them.

So that means Venezuela's government needs to get off its ass and fix its broken system and actively try to look for nations willing to invest in it even if they are nations not worth much in salt either. But better than nothing.

Maybe there should be more than just medicine and energy deals between them and Cuba? I don't know.....

Chilean right-wing presidential candidate José Antonio Kast has made the anti-immigration discourse a key part of his campaign.

Kast is an utter nazi, as well as the infamous President Piñera, who has been caught in the recent Pandora Papers (let's hope that the Chilean authorities won't use them to wipe their arses).

Kiko wrote:

Chilean right-wing presidential candidate José Antonio Kast has made the anti-immigration discourse a key part of his campaign.

Kast is an utter nazi, as well as the infamous President Piñera, who has been caught in the recent Pandora Papers (let's hope that the Chilean authorities won't use them to wipe their arses).

Immigration is a non-issue for Chile. It has none of the problems that Europe had from mass migration in the name of PC.
Clowns like this are just spouting talking points and not relevant policy for Chile. I am sure his first duty is to his foreign
corporate masters and job one is to sell Chileans down the river.

https://www.vtv.gob.ve/1-100-ha-de-arroz-sembradas/?fbclid=IwAR3jmKRiZeo_c21-NcD9lfKvPtJECYCJabgbHDnWrutUgFLjrW29oZ_RFrY

Google Translate wrote:More than 1,100 ha. of rice sown with seeds from Vietnam-Venezuela agreement enhances food sovereignty of the people in Guárico

"More than 1,100 hectares (ha) of rice, sown with seeds from the Vietnam-Venezuela agreement, enhance the food sovereignty of the people in Guárico," reported the Minister of Popular Power for Agriculture and Lands, Wilmar Castro Soteldo, from Calabozo, La Candelaria sector, Guárico state, in its Sunday program Cultivando Patria broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).

Antonio Álvarez, agricultural producer of the sector, said that “we use the Bi80 seed in 1,100 hectares, in the San Francisco de Asís Farm, and we have 1,800 more hectares, not yet sown for the summer cycle, totaling 3,000 hectares of arable rice ”. This seed is vigorous, it resists drought as well as a lot of humidity, practically in any atmospheric condition it is productive.

For his part, Francisco Rotundo, commented that "the VIVE 90 seed is a variety of the 5 types of rice seeds originating from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which does not require fungicides, has a higher concentration of tillers, and requires less herbicide" .

The producers continued to explain that the seed time or phenology (phenology works with the start and end dates of the different phases of crop development, registering them in order), varies between winter and summer, “since thanks We can sow the irrigation system that we have in any of the cycles ”.

With these seeds you have between 90 and 100 days to harvest the rice in summer, this is a very important fact for rice producers in general, since they will have fewer days to obtain their harvest, at the same time, less risk for the attack of pests, and of course less investment cost.

Finally, Fredy Álvarez, with his experience in the field, added the following comment: "To combat pests, specifically rodents, we use more than 300 owls as biological controllers, and thus we do not use poisons to care for the plantation."

Protests grow against U.S. kidnapping of Venezuelan diplomat, 21/10/2021.

Authorities from several countries and international bodies express their rejection of the extradition of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab to the United States, after spending 491 Days illegally detained in Cape Verde.

Cuban Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez denounced on Tuesday (19) the" arbitrary detention and judicial process for political reasons " of Washington against the Special Envoy of the Government of Venezuela.

Through his account on the social network Twitter, the island's chancellor described it as "a manipulation of justice and international law by a government that protects terrorists, attacks and steals funds from the Venezuelan people."

During a meeting held on Tuesday with ALBA-TCP Executive Secretary Sacha Llorenti, Nicaraguan vice President Rosario Murillo reiterated the Central American country's solidarity with the authorities and the people of Venezuela, in the face of an event that violated all the norms of international law.

In this sense, the Bolivarian Alliance for the peoples of our America-Peoples ' Trade Treaty described Saab's transfer to the United States as kidnapping to face charges for alleged economic crimes.

In this regard, the countries of the bloc warned the international community about the bad precedent of this action in violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

The Alliance called for respect for the life and physical integrity of Alex Saab, who is the permanent representative of the Venezuelan government at the dialogue table with the unitary platform of the opposition based in Mexico.

ALBA-TCP ratified its support to the executive and the people of the South American nation in all actions aimed at guaranteeing and protecting the human rights of its citizens.

The São Paulo Forum also spoke out demanding that the judicial authorities of the United States immediately release and repatriate Alex Saab, expressing its rejection of the arbitrary transfer of the Venezuelan diplomat to the territory of the United States.

The Executive Secretary of the Forum, Mônica Valente, said in a statement that Washington once again shows its disregard for international law, by ignoring the immunity of a diplomatic representative, which opens a serious international precedent.

Venezuela accredited Alex Saab in 2018 as a special envoy, whose duties were to facilitate the obtaining of medical supplies, food and other essential goods, in the face of obstacles imposed by the United States blockade.

In mid-2020, Saab was detained in Cape Verde at the request of Washington, during a technical stopover of the plane carrying him, ignoring the inviolability of the immunity corresponding to his investiture as a diplomatic agent.

According to reports from the Bolivarian executive, the arrest corresponds to the siege campaign orchestrated by the previous United States government against Venezuela, with the aim of inflicting more suffering on the people and destabilizing their institutions and internal order.

Yandex Translate from Portuguese

https://www.brasil247.com/mundo/crescem-protestos-contra-sequestro-de-diplomata-venezuelano-pelos-eua?amp

The US is a pirate state.

As expected.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15363

New Investigation Reveals CIA Knew About Operation Gideon but Failed to Stop It

A VICE News report revealed a meeting between a representative of the CIA and plot mastermind Jordan Goudreau.