Maduro severing Venezuelan relations with US

[Dashinka 23,238]

So Maduro is now trying to stifle those that used to be called his base of support.

Venezuelan Crackdown Takes Deadly Toll 

 By

Kejal Vyas |

Photographs by Oscar B. Castillo for The Wall Street Journal

Jan. 28, 2019 6:58 p.m. ET

 

CARACAS—Venezuelan security and military forces have killed at least 35 people over the past week, rights groups said, as authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro crushed uprisings in the working-class neighborhoods that had once made up his base.

The death toll has risen sharply in recent days, human-rights activists said Monday, adding that the government’s crackdown is likely to intensify as Mr. Maduro’s opponents have scheduled two more nationwide protests this week.

 

Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly president leading the battle to oust Mr. Maduro, aims to organize free elections and end two decades of socialist rule that has brought the oil-rich nation to economic ruin.

 

Violence has been heaviest in a series of nighttime clashes between security forces and protesters in poor neighborhoods around Caracas and other cities. Tired of an economic collapse that frequently leaves homes without running water, power or working phone lines, residents have been periodically blocking roads with smoldering trash since a small uprising at a National Guard stockade on Jan. 21.

 

In response, special-police units—carrying shotguns and wearing ski masks—and soldiers have been deployed to clear the crowds. All but one of the victims tallied so far were killed by gunfire, the rights groups said. Venezuelan soldiers are prohibited by law from using weapons against demonstrators, they said.

 

Among those killed was Nick Samuel Oropeza, a 19-year-old student who bled to death on Wednesday, less than two hours after he was shot by National Guard officers at a street demonstration where protesters banged pots—a traditional form of protest here— and blocked a road with a large trash container, witnesses said.

 

“The Maduro government is responding to the popular protests by pumping them with lead,” said Marco Antonio Ponce, head of the Venezuelan Observatory on Social Conflict, which is part of the group tracking demonstrations and deaths. “They’re using death squads to kill protesters.”

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelan-crackdown-takes-deadly-toll-11548719922

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

Very sad, this fake crisis that Trump started.  🙄

[Póg mo 1,749]

1 hour ago, ALFKAD said:

Very sad, this fake crisis that Trump started.  🙄

No, you are wrong. Previous administrations began this "crisis". 

 

Did you notice how the guy pretending to be president is a 35 year old extremist, plucked out of obscurity, after a single phone call with Mike Pence? 

John Bolton is now saying how a coup would be great for American oil companies. He is not even hiding the real reason behind the supposed concern for democracy. 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2019 by Póg mo

[Dashinka 23,238]

28 minutes ago, Póg mo said:

No, you are wrong. Previous administrations began this "crisis". 

 

Did you notice how the guy pretending to be president is a 35 year old extremist, plucked out of obscurity, after a single phone call with Mike Pence? 

John Bolton is now saying how a coup would be great for American oil companies. He is not even hiding the real reason behind the supposed concern for democracy. 

 

 

So the US, or more specifically Mike Pence placed him in the Venezuelan National Assembly and made him president of that body?

Just now, Bill & Katya said:

So the US, or more specifically Mike Pence, placed him in the Venezuelan National Assembly and made him president of that body?

 

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

On 1/28/2019 at 12:00 AM, Póg mo said:

The whole Venezuela crisis is fake. It is only a crisis, because a certain country feels entitled to tell everyone how to conduct their affairs. What particularly bothers me, is how supposed liberals who cry and moan about alleged Russian interference, are more than happy to go along with American interference in Venezuela. 

 

"The shortages of food, medicines and basic supplies have driven many to desperation. But these shortages are driven to a large extent by the US embargo. This led the Congressional Research Service to warn, in November 2018, that the stronger sanctions being introduced by President Donald Trump “could exacerbate a difficult humanitarian situation, marked by shortages of food and medicine, increased poverty and mass migration”."

 

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/venezuela-will-not-be-easy-win-for-donald-trump-1.3772437?mode=amp

 

49 minutes ago, Póg mo said:

No, you are wrong. Previous administrations began this "crisis".

 

Did you notice how the guy pretending to be president is a 35 year old extremist, plucked out of obscurity, after a single phone call with Mike Pence? 

John Bolton is now saying how a coup would be great for American oil companies. He is not even hiding the real reason behind the supposed concern for democracy. 

 

 

Ahh, the classic backpedal.  Sure do wish you had mentioned “previous admin” in your original post.  Might have changed many peoples’ response to what you (incorrectly) stated.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

24 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

So the US, or more specifically Mike Pence placed him in the Venezuelan National Assembly and made him president of that body?

 

Well, bear in mind Guaidó was politically active in 2007, and helped to create the Popular Will political party in 2009... yanno, when Pence first helped him rise to visibility world wide.

Edited January 29, 2019 by ALFKAD

[Dashinka 23,238]

2 minutes ago, ALFKAD said:

Well, bear in mind Guaidó was politically active in 2007, and helped to create the Popular Will political party in 2009... yanno, when Pence first helped him rise to visibility world wide.

Hmm, doesn't seem like obscurity to me...

[Póg mo 1,749]

9 minutes ago, ALFKAD said:

 

Ahh, the classic backpedal.  Sure do wish you had mentioned “previous admin” in your original post.  Might have changed many peoples’ response to what you (incorrectly) stated.

So sorry, I am not into hyper partisan nonsense, so excuse me if my reaction to every single situation not determined by who is occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.  This is perhaps one of the most infuriating aspects of American politics.

[Póg mo 1,749]

2 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

Hmm, doesn't seem like obscurity to me...

Most Venezuelans apparently have never heard of him, until last week. 

[Dashinka 23,238]

1 minute ago, Póg mo said:

Most Venezuelans apparently have never heard of him, until last week. 

And you know this how?

[Póg mo 1,749]

4 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

And you know this how?

From what I have read. The US is not the only source for information about Venezuela. 

 

Follow the below link. Lots of interesting information about the pretender president.

https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/

 

 

Here is a refresher on the previous election. The one where Jimmy Carter even came out and said the election system in Venezuela was one of the best in the world. 

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13848

[Póg mo 1,749]

Over 70 Experts Call for US to Stop Interfering in Venezuela

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14249?fbclid=IwAR1_tR6SzYbvtON2CsTDN0Wdk9YIjI90Kks1PK7925xHKcdWWvYoD98m8S0

[Póg mo 1,749]

https://www.thenation.com/article/venezuela-coup-guaido-maduro/

 

No matter how you slice it, an attempted coup is underway in Venezuela. Here are the basics: On Wednesday, Juan Guaidó, a relatively unknown second-string politician from the right-wing Popular Will party, simply declared himself acting president. Guaidó was not elected president—Nicolás Maduro was, in May of last year in a vote that the opposition might have won had they not boycotted it. 

[Dashinka 23,238]

Personally, I am all for the US staying out of the Venezuelan cesspool.  That doesn't negate the fact that socialism is a failure.

[Póg mo 1,749]

Anybody who believes that a country’s internal democracy is the determining factor in whether the West decides to move for violent regime change in that country, is a complete idiot. Any journalist or politician who makes that claim is more likely to be a complete charlatan than a complete idiot. In recent years, possession of hydrocarbon reserves is very obviously a major factor in western regime change actions.

In Latin America over the last century, the presence of internal democracy has been much more likely to lead to external regime change than its absence, as maintenance of US imperialist hegemony has been the defining factor. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/01/the-coup-in-venezuela-must-be-resisted/