This is the real story (the Venezuelan expat community, not Trump owning the libs by kidnapping Maduro). Trump's war against Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs or oil. It is simply a matter of a handful of very wealthy Venezuelans who fled Venezuela when Chavez took power were able to get to Trump through their relationship with Rubio. Their story to Trump is that they were once among the wealthy elite in Venezuela, owning land, various industries, etc. until Chavez came to power and nationalized their companies and took their land. That is the socialist nightmare that every billionaire fears is the natural consequence of even the slightest egalitarian social democratic policy. Trump then agreed to take out Maduro in order to install a right wing government that will basically be a Pinochet 2.0. Violently repress any sort of leftist opposition and sell (or give back) all state owned industries to the expat communities living in south Florida. It is basically make the Venezuelan oligarchs of the 70s and 80s Great Again (MVO7080GA?).
But the big problem is the same as the big problem of the Iraq war, but in a different form. Maria Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez are a bit like the Venezuelan Ahmed Chalabi (for you youngins, he was who the Bush administration presumed would be treated by Iraqis as a hero and quickly become a unifying leader after the fall of Sadam). The opposition in Venezuela is not united behind these figures and for all the harm caused by Chavez and Maduro, there are still very large numbers of very poor Venezuelans who support the Bolivarian revolution and do not want to see a return to the days when all the wealth in Venezuela pooled into the hands of a few connected oligarchs in Caracas. In short, a transition to a government that can implement Pinochet/Chicago Boys style reforms without causing a civil war is a task that Machado's movement is not up to.
The only way to fully see through what the Venezuelan expats want is for a full scale US invasion and occupation on par with the Iraq War. It would probably be a far easier invasion as the Venezuelan armed forces are a joke and would quickly evaporate once US cruise missiles start taking out every military installation in the country. But the next step, occupation and transition to civilian rule, would be hell. There would definitely be a guerilla revolt in the rural areas that would basically be Vietnam-esque jungle combat with heavy casualties for both sides. Worse still, Venezuela imports 80% of its food because of the Bolivarian revolution's mismanagement of the agriculture sector and punishing sanctions. That would mean a very real chance for famine especially in the rural communities. And this could happen even if Trump does nothing further at this point or if a quick transition to a right wing government took place without a shot being fired.
And Trump is just getting started with Venezuela. Cuba is next. Both countries are in such desperate straits economically that the destruction of their governments without immediate Marshal Plan style aid flowing into the country will cause famine, civil war and mass exodus of people who will all try to get to the US.
Heavily armed leftist militia members have taken to the streets of Caracas. Members of the military have been seen deserting their posts. There was a gun battle around the presidential palace yesterday, but the government claimed that they were firing at drones. Xi made a very strong statement that China will protect its belt and road investments in Venezuela and seek international arbitration over its $100 bil in loans to Venezuela if a new Trump backed regime defaults on the loans or tries to take control of China's assets.
The US blockade of oil tankers leaving Venezuela was breached by a flotilla of tankers fleeing the country. But if the blockade continues, Venezuela's economy will collapse. Once the government is not able to pay the military and the police, militias will take over and hoard food and fuel to gain power. That will send millions more fleeing across the borders.
And on the weird side, Venezuela is suspected to be sitting on as much as 600,000 bitcoin. If all those bitcoin flood the market, that could cause a price crash. If the blockade continues, the government could try and liquidate those holdings to be able to buy food and pay soldiers, etc. That could cause the price of bitcoin to crash.
Trump administration seems to be banking on Delcy Rodriguez playing ball and acceding to Trump's demands. But Rodriguez may not have control over the leftist militias and Machado's opposition movement is jockeying for power, claiming that Rodriguez is worse than Maduro. But the only concrete action so far to control a post-Maduro Venezuela has been to get together with some oil companies to hear about how they really aren't interested in putting billions into drilling for oil that will undercut the prices they get for oil from the Permian Basin in Texas.
"Donald Trump has suggested US taxpayers could reimburse energy companies for repairing Venezuelan infrastructure for extracting and shipping oil....suggested his government could pay oil companies to do the work."
isn't the normal process the companies invest?
Socialist Republic of America. Where socialism is for corporations only.
There are two. One is in custody and the other is in the WH.
You haven't been awake for the last year. A "dictator from day one" who hasn't given up on that ambition.
We have re-entered the Thirties. Trump is Hitler or Mussolini - take your pick of those two strutting fascists - Congress is the Weimar Republic, and appeasement is now the norm in Europe. The collapse of the world order is the collapse of the League of Nations.
I mostly don't care what the Venezuelans decide to do now....It's up to them.
We got our Man and he's going to stand trial.
AND....The drug flow from Venezuela is drastically curtailed.
This is parody, right?
If there is a "drug flow" from Venezuela do you think one guy, albeit the President, was running it all by himself? Oh, wait. That's right. El Chapo's cartel gave up the second he was captured and extradited. His guys just couldn't hold it together!
But I guess it's good of you to be worried about drugs, not least because Trump himself doesn't give a fvck about drugs or "loser" American drug addicts (who, by the way, pay good money for their drugs, thank you very much).
Your output in this thread alone is among the most addled anywhere on the site-- a significant achievement!
meanwhile, we bomb the country, arrest and jail their head of state, kill 80 of their armed forces, threaten to kill the next head of state if she doesn't be a quiet puppet, we say we're 'running' the country, and we are stealing billions of dollars of their stuff.
That's a war. Congress needs to approve this, or it is an illegal operation.
Impeach, convict, remove.
The U.S. will sell blockaded Venezuelan oil “indefinitely,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday, a day after President Trump said Venezuela will give the U.S. between 30 million and 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that he has directed Wright to carry out his plan for the oil to be taken by storage ships and transported to the U.S.
remember, newname wants to be reminded when he shows his hatred of jews. So here he is hating jews. No mention of zionism as cover - just straight jew hatred.
He was a dictator so we had to destroy a scientific center.
Confirmed: The United States completely destroyed a vital scientific and academic center in Venezuela, located in Miranda state.
On Saturday, January 3 at 1:57am, facilities of the Mathematics Center of the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC) were destroyed in the… pic.twitter.com/wRpk2HeG2a
meanwhile, we bomb the country, arrest and jail their head of state, kill 80 of their armed forces, threaten to kill the next head of state if she doesn't be a quiet puppet, we say we're 'running' the country, and we are stealing billions of dollars of their stuff.
That's a war. Congress needs to approve this, or it is an illegal operation.
Impeach, convict, remove.
The U.S. will sell blockaded Venezuelan oil “indefinitely,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday, a day after President Trump said Venezuela will give the U.S. between 30 million and 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that he has directed Wright to carry out his plan for the oil to be taken by storage ships and transported to the U.S.
Venezuela's capacity to produce oil has been massively degraded under Chavez and Maduro. Chavez basically fired every engineer that knew anything about oil production and refining from the state owned oil company after many supported a coup against him. Then, Chavez and Maduro used oil revenues to fund anti-poverty programs to gain support of the country's vast impoverished people in rural areas and among indigenous peoples. But at the same time they also looted these companies for cash for themselves and their cronies. This allowed the oil industry to decay and lose capacity for production, which was then further hammered by western sanctions. The amount of money needed to turn around Venezuela's oil industry is far in excess of what the current profits are from production.
But Chevron is still in Venezuela and oil companies are always interested in production. Venezuela's oil industry is not yet a lost cause. But it could become a lost cause very soon. This is because political instability could make oil production impossible. The best prospects for restoring oil production are in the Lake Maracaibo region. That region is also the worst in terms of security. There is open gang warfare and pirates in the shipping lanes. There is currently barely enough security provided by the government to allow oil production to take place. If the very limited government security protection falls away or is dedicated to fighting a civil war (the Lake Maracaibo region is ethnically distinct from the residents of the highlands in Caracas, etc. and Chavez accused the governor of Zulia of fomenting a secessionist movement), then oil production will be impossible and existing oil infrastructure may stripped to sell for scrap by whomever is in control of that area.
Prediction: Sometime in the next month, Maria Machado will make a pilgrimage to Washington D.C. or Mar a Largo to hand over her Nobel peace prize to the MORE DESERVING recipient, Donald J. Trump, in a sad, public ceremony. She will then be installed as the new (puppet) president of Venezuela with the full backing of the US military.
Called it. The direction of our new imperialist project will be entirely based on who can give King Daddy the best presents. Good present? No bombs. Bad present? Bombs away!
I guarantee Denmark could make this Greenland sh*t disappear if they just give Fat Boy a viking helmet/crown made of gold.
Another war they will lose, add it to all the other wars unless they get help.
World xc is tomorrow and guess what it’s on American soil and guess what the founder and creator of cellphone weapons is none other than A M E R I C A sssshhhhhssss
Tomorrow is gonna be a day of carnage on the battlefield and Venezuela is just the beginning,
