Thread: Venezuela Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- The men who ripped Carlos Guillen’s toenails out and tightened a plastic bag over his face at counterintelligence headquarters in Caracas were Venezuelan. But the officers overseeing his torture were Cuban.


What immediately gave them away was how they spoke Spanish, said Guillen, a former lieutenant in the Venezuelan military who was accused of treason and, after being placed under house arrest and escaping, fled to Colombia.

Accents were a tip-off, too, for Maria Martinez Guzman. She was on the Univision team that scored an interview in February with embattled
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and she said she was amazed by what she witnessed: Cubans in suits and earpieces telling Maduro aides, wearing jeans, what to do. The president was so angered by the journalists’ questions that he ordered the crew briefly detained and then thrown out of the country.

“It was very clear who was guarding Maduro, who was responsible for him and who was just taking orders,” Guzman, a Cuban-American television producer from Miami, said recently. She said the slang the suited-up men in the room used made it clear they were from the island.

As the international community tries to comprehend how Maduro has, despite a collapsing economy and punishing U.S. sanctions, held onto power over these past couple months, the role played by Russia and China, key financial backers of his authoritarian regime, gets most of the attention.

But Cuba and its cadre of operatives on the ground are crucial too, providing intelligence support that’s helped frustrate the bid by Juan Guaido -- the opposition lawmaker recognized by more than 50 countries as Venezuela’s rightful leader -- to topple Maduro and install a transitional government.

‘Nervous System’

“We know that Maduro’s own bodyguards are Cuban. We know there is a very substantial Cuban presence in the two main intelligence agencies,” said Elliott Abrams, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for Venezuela, in an interview. “The Cubans constitute a kind of nervous system for this regime. It wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for them.”

In a tweet 10 days ago, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez described as lies and propaganda assertions that Cubans train and intimidate Venezuelan officials. Venezuelan government spokesmen didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The tight relationship between the two countries began after Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998, and he and Fidel Castro became close, aligned in their socialist visions. Over the following decade, tens of thousands of Cubans were sent to Venezuela to establish medical and community centers and develop athletic programs, as well as offer tools of political repression. Venezuela paid in oil.

Caracas continues to provide the island with at least 50,000 barrels daily, Abrams said. After Chavez died and Maduro took over in 2013, the plunge in oil prices, along with rampant mismanagement and corruption, made that provision a bigger burden. Now, Venezuela’s unraveling means Cuba, once a Soviet-sponsored showcase of third-world defiance, must find other ways out of poverty.

Transactional Relationship

Still, there’s little debate that Cuba’s agents still hold substantial sway in Venezuela, a potential powerhouse with the world’s biggest oil reserves. As Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, put it in an interview, “Cuba has always punched above its weight in the intelligence field.”

Scholars offer a more nuanced view, but only somewhat more. Ted Piccone of the Brookings Institution said it’s an exaggeration that Cubans call all the shots in Caracas. But they’ve been instrumental in reinventing the way Venezuela is run, he said. “They’re political agents of that mindset of one-party control.”

Whereas under Chavez the Cuba relationship flourished on many levels, today it’s transactional, as Cuban agents mostly just hold key security and intelligence slots, said Brian Fonseca of Florida International University, who has written a study of Cubans in Venezuela for Washington’s Wilson Center.

But with that, “Cuba has been able to firewall the regime and help assure its survival.”

Venezuelans say that, for years, if you needed documentation for property or motor vehicles or an ID card, you might find yourself facing a Cuban at the government office. As budgets have dried up, many of those Cubans have left, but their systems remain in place. The U.S. government estimates that between 5,000 and 10,000 Cubans hold key slots in Venezuela.


At President’s Request

Anthony Daquin, who worked for the Interior Ministry when it was modernizing its identification system, said that it is “technically and operationally controlled by Cubans from the University of Information Sciences of Cuba.” A consultant who now lives in the U.S., Daquin said there are some 300 Cubans running the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Foreigners Saime and that there is “a copy of the file of each Venezuelan ID” is at the university in Havana.

Zair Mundaray, a senior Venezuelan state prosecutor who escaped in mid-2017, said in an interview in Bogota that when he was part of a six-member council advising Maduro on citizen security, he noticed two Cubans who sat on the side taking notes during meetings. Mundaray said he objected to the minister in charge, saying the meetings were secret, and was told the men were there at the president’s request.

Many of the most important Cuban operatives in Venezuela are housed in well-guarded buildings, especially in Fuerte Tiuna, the main military base in Caracas near Maduro’s home, according to Guillen and other Venezuelans familiar with the base.

Blending In

Dissident former officers like Guillen -- who recounted his 2017 torture session in a recent interview in Colombia -- say that Cuban guards watch over the houses of Maduro and his defense minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez.

One question that hangs over the arrangement is why, given Venezuela’s decline into lawlessness and hunger, ordinary Venezuelans don’t now turn on the Cubans. They’ve been targets in the past, such as in 2002, during a coup that briefly removed Chavez from power, when a group of opposition supporters surrounded the Cuban embassy in Caracas to protest.

Today, Rubio said, there are anti-Cuban factions within the Maduro regime and tensions over the Cuban role. Abrams, the special envoy, said he believes fear is keeping the Cubans safe.

In a 2006 U.S. diplomatic cable from Caracas, published by WikiLeaks, a political officer discusses the low profile many Cubans kept and Chavez’s effort to sell the idea of welcoming Cubans, including on his weekly TV show. There have been consistent reports of Cubans being taught to blend in, taking on Venezuelan accents and mannerisms.

Fonseca, the Florida scholar, said the relationship is ebbing, noting that trade with Venezuela accounted for just 5 percent of Cuban commerce in 2017, down from 17 percent in 2012. And while many Cuban doctors and social workers reported back to the Havana regime, “it’s clear that not every Cuban is a spy. For one thing, the slush fund of an earlier era is no longer there.” For now, though, their presence in the centers of power still appears crucial.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/maduro-survived-lots-help-cuban-100000745.html

Chavismo and his cronies trying to pull a Hun Sen.

Venezuela's chief justice on Monday asked lawmakers to strip opposition leader Juan Guaido of immunity, taking a step toward prosecuting him for alleged crimes as he seeks to oust President Nicolas Maduro.




Supreme Court Justice Maikel Moreno said Guaido should be prosecuted for violating a ban on leaving the country when he went on a tour of Latin American nations that back a change in Venezuela's government.

The opposition leader, who has immunity from prosecution as head of the National Assembly, is also accused by Maduro's government of inciting violence linked to street protests and receiving illicit funds from abroad.

Guaido dismissed the Maduro-stacked high court as illegitimate and continued his calls for Maduro to step down. He accused the socialist leader of using the constant blackouts blanketing the country as political capital. The opposition leader has said years of neglect by the government has left the grid in shambles not sabotage.



He urged Venezuelans to take the streets until Maduro leaves power.

"We must unite now more than ever," said Guaido at a Caracas university earlier Monday. "We must mount the biggest demonstration so far to reject what's happening."

Since a massive power failure struck March 7, the nation has experienced near-daily blackouts and a breakdown in critical services such as running water and public transportation. Classes have been intermittently suspended for nearly a week, while workdays tend to end in the early afternoon so millions aren't stranded due to cuts to the Caracas metro service.


At the same time, frustrated residents are increasingly unable to find water, make phone calls or access the internet. Millions of Venezuelans struggle to understand an announcement by Maduro a day earlier that the nation's electricity is being rationed to combat daily blackouts.

Maduro said late Sunday that he was instituting a 30-day plan that would balance generation and transmission with consumption. He also called on Venezuelans to stay calm, but provided no further details.

Office worker Raquel Mayorca said she didn't know if her lights were off because of another power failure or whether it was part of the government's plan.

"We are worse off now more than ever," she said, adding that the power was out on one side of the street, but working on the other. "We do not know if the light went out due to a blackout, or whether they took it away because of the rationing."

As the lack of electricity became the latest sticking point in an ongoing political standoff, however, many Venezuelans simply found themselves wondering what the newly announced rationing plan would entail.

With few details, it was difficult to assess how effective the plan would be in restoring a consistent supply of power in the long term. Some electricity experts have also said there are no quick fixes to Venezuela's fragile power grid, presenting the prospect that electricity could be shaky and unreliable for the foreseeable future.

On Sunday, a mass of protesters took to the streets only to be threatened by contingents of alleged government supporters known as "colectivos" who appeared on motorbikes and quickly dispersed them. Videos posted on social media also showed armed men opening fire to drive residents inside.

Many had resigned themselves to a bleak reality.

"I haven't had water at home for 15 days," said Maria Rojas, a 57-year-old homemaker looking for a water source to fill her jugs. "You try to find water in the street that's more or less safe to drink."

Meanwhile, U.S. officials in Washington said Monday they will do "everything possible" so that Guaido's representative can fill Venezuela's seat in the Organization of American States, a body that promotes economic, military and cultural cooperation among its members.

U.S. Ambassador Carlos Trujillo was optimistic about the possibility that a resolution to authorize Gustavo Tarre access to the seat of Venezuela will meet the 18 required votes.

"We have many friends who are very interested in the Venezuela issue," Trujillo told reporters after a brief ceremony in which he assumed the rotating presidency of the OAS Permanent Council. "There are some who have not recognized Guaido but know that what happens in Venezuela is unacceptable."

(AP)

https://www.france24.com/en/20190402-venezuela-judge-moves-strip-guaido-immunity-maduro

Originally Posted by OhOh

Keep this comedy "news" coming 'arry.

Waffle Waffle. Nothing useful to say as usual.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

some observers have attributed to years of underinvestment in power plants and the grid

Based in Washington, no doubt.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

seriously aggravated by the U.S. sanctions targeting Venezuela’s oil industry specifically as the main revenue generator for the Maduro government.

Wow, somebody has had an "exxxxxxxxceptional" moment. Get rid of her quick, where are those "sniffing photos".




Irina Slav, sounds a little East European, Bulgairian even.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...Blackouts.html



Stop digging your own hole, say no more 'arry.

How ingenious: to impose sanctions (i.e., blocking others to deal with, freeze and/or seize accounts, etc.), then to claim: Such a poor management, the population suffering...
Hasn't it worked in Cuba, Iraq, NK, to name just a few?

(and please not to forget a "no-fly zone")...

Originally Posted by OhOh

Based in Washington, no doubt.





Wow, somebody has had an "exxxxxxxxceptional" moment. Get rid of her quick, where are those "sniffing photos".




Irina Slav, sounds a little East European, Bulgairian even.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...Blackouts.html



Stop digging your own hole, say no more 'arry.

Not quite sure what you are expecting to achieve by quoting things out of context and posting pictures of some ugly bint:


A laugh?

Either way, it's just more waffle.

i.e. You have no comment on why he sacked a corrupt thieving general he put in there to buy backing from the military, and replaced him with someone who might actually know what they are doing - in an obvious attempt to respond to people knowing what an inept c u n t he is.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

it's just more waffle.

and Maple Syrup.

Q.E.D.

UN urged to scale up Venezuela response as country’s health-care system ‘has almost completely collapsed’


The humanitarian emergency caused by the collapse of the Venezuelan health system requires a full-scale response by the United Nations, two organizations said Thursday.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Human Rights Watch called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to have the UN emergency relief co-ordinator address Venezuela’s crisis as a top priority and to request official data from Venezuelan authorities in order to assess the scope of the crisis.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Mr. Guterres, said in response that the UN is “deeply concerned” by the situation in Venezuela and already has been scaling up operations, “focusing on nutrition, on health and protection.”

He said staffing has grown from about 190 in September, 2017, to slightly more than 300 in March. “This has allowed us to equip hospitals with emergency medical supplies as well as generators, provide pregnant women and children with nutritional supplements and vaccinate more children”

But he declined to say if the UN was considering an emergency declaration, noting that it would need “the consent of the government, in order to distribute humanitarian aid along with our principles of neutrality and impartiality.”


The two organizations said in a 71-page joint report that the administration of President Nicolas Maduro has exacerbated the crisis through its efforts to suppress information about the problems.

“No matter how hard they try, Venezuelan authorities cannot hide the reality on the ground,” said Shannon Doocy, associate professor of international health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We need UN leadership to help end this severe crisis and save lives.”

Venezuelan authorities have failed to publish health and nutrition data and retaliated against those who did, according to the report.
Mr. Maduro refused humanitarian aid for several years, saying it was unneeded and would amount to a foreign intervention to remove him from power.

Last week, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that it is poised to start distributing assistance to an estimated 650,000 people in the South American country.

That amount is well below the 3.7 million Venezuelans who were undernourished between 2015 and 2017, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

“All the evidence indicates that the health system in Venezuela has almost completely collapsed,” said Tamara Taraciuk Broner, senior Americas researcher for Human Rights Watch. “We are facing a devastating humanitarian crisis that is unprecedented in Latin America.”
Besides the lack of food and medicines, the report documents increased numbers of maternal and infant deaths, the unchecked spread of vaccine-preventable diseases and sharp increases in the transmission of infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.

The authors interviewed more than 150 people, including health care professionals, Venezuelans seeking or in need of medical care or food who had recently arrived in Colombia and Brazil, representatives from international and non-governmental humanitarian organizations, UN officials, and Brazilian and Colombian government officials.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-un-urged-to-scale-up-venezuela-response-as-countrys-health-care/

^

VCM (Venezuelan Children Matter).

Can't you post your irrelevant rubbish in your silly propaganda thread, you pair of idiots?

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday targeted oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba in its latest round of sanctions to pressure the government of President Nicolas Maduro, aiming to choke off a crucial supply of crude to the Communist island.

The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on 34 vessels owned or operated by Venezuelan state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A, or PDVSA , and also on two companies and a vessel that delivered oil to Cuba in February and March.

“Treasury is taking action against vessels and entities transporting oil, providing a lifeline to keep the illegitimate Maduro regime afloat,” said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in a statement.

“Cuba continues to profit from, and prop up, the illegitimate Maduro regime through oil-for-repression schemes as they attempt to keep Maduro in power.”

The latest round of U.S. sanctions, announced earlier by Vice President Mike Pence in a speech in Houston, aim to further undermine Maduro’s government after the United States and most Western nations recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the rightful president of Venezuela.

Guaido invoked the Venezuelan constitution to assume an interim presidency in January, arguing that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-pence-sanctions/u-s-targets-cubas-oil-supply-from-venezuela-in-new-sanctions-idUSKCN1RH296?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_ source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Fee d%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29& &rpc=401

Venezuela crisis: 'Brutal' oil slump hits new low

BY BNAMERICAS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2019


Venezuelan oil production hit a new decades-old low in March, ravaged by power cuts, US sanctions and ongoing political unrest.



Output averaged 732,000b/d, down from 1.021Mb/d in February, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Wednesday, citing secondary sources.

The figure represents Venezuela's lowest monthly oil production in more than three decades with the exception of a period in 2002 and 2003 when state oil company PDVSA was impacted by a workers strike.

"The fall in production ... is brutal," Pilar Navarro, a senior economist for New York-based investment firm Torino Capital, said on Twitter. "Both the sanctions and internal negligence are accelerating the debacle."


Overall OPEC output dipped by 534,000b/d to 30.022Mb/d in March, according to secondary sources, as Venezuela's decline was eclipsed by Saudi Arabia, which lowered production by 324,000b/d to 9.794Mb/d.

Analysts said the Middle Eastern nation voluntarily stepped up output cuts to maintain upward pressure on prices.

OPEC, Russia and other non-member producers agreed to slash supply by 1.2Mb/d in the first half of 2019 as part of a pact signed in December.

MILITARY COMMAND

Venezuelan crude output, which accounts for 95% of the country's export earnings, has fallen by more than 1Mb/d since 2017.

The decline coincides with the worst recession in Venezuela's history, marked by hyperinflation, severe food shortages and a mass exodus of its people.

The turbulence is widely blamed on the failed economic policies of President Nicolás Maduro, who began a second six-year term in January following 2018 elections that were widely deemed illegitimate.

Maduro says the country is the victim of a US-led "economic war". In January Washington imposed new sanctions on PDVSA that essentially blocked the sale of Venezuelan crude to the US market.


Caracas also accuses US President Donald Trump of conspiring with Venezuela's opposition to orchestrate a series of power blackouts.

The latest outage left the capital Caracas and at least 19 states without electricity for around two hours on Wednesday, according to local authorities.

On Tuesday, Maduro ordered the military to take command of the country's power infrastructure in the southeastern Guayana region to protect it from "fascist attacks"

National assembly leader Juan Guaidó, recognized by the US and at least 50 other countries as Venezuela's interim president, has ridiculed the claims, blaming the energy crisis on government corruption and mismanagement.

https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/venezuela_crisis_brutal_oil_slump_hits_new_low

Venezuela in crisis: 'There is no water, no power, no nothing'


Caracas, Venezuela - Repeated power grid failures in Venezuela have led to water shortages across the country.


With no electricity, pumping stations cease to function, severely limiting the water services.

But Venezuelans do their best to find water wherever they can: from springs, leaky pipes, gutters, government-provided tankers and the water that flows through the Guiare River in Caracas.

In the country's most impoverished areas, residents, who have experienced shortages for years, have felt the power cuts the hardest.

"Today, I feel sick, there is no water, no power, no nothing. I used to have a lot, but things have changed in the last years," said Carmen, a 70-year-old in Petare, one of the world's largest slums, located in the hills on the outskirts of Caracas,

President Nicolas Maduro blames opponents of sabotaging the power supply. The country’s opposition, led by Juan Guaido, says the problem is caused by mismanagement, corruption and lack up upkeep of Venezuela’s power and water networks.

The water shortages only add more stress to residents trying to cope with the country's deepening political and economic crises.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/venezuela-crisis-water-power-190411143110338.html

Reuters news agency reported on Monday night that Erik Prince, a prominent and wealthy Trump supporter who runs a global private security business, has been lobbying for a plan to deploy a private army to help topple Maduro.

According to the report, Prince, the founder of the controversial security firm Blackwater, has been seeking investment and political support for an operation that would involve up to 5,000 mercenaries.

Lital Leshem, director of investor relations at Prince’s private equity firm, Frontier Resource Group, was quoted as saying: “He does have a solution for Venezuela, just as he has a solution for many other places.”

However, Marc Cohen, a spokesman for Prince, said this month that Prince “has no plans to operate or implement an operation in Venezuela”.

Bolton has given a series of hawkish speeches on Latin America, declaring earlier this month that the Monroe doctrine, which places the Americas in the US area of influence, is “alive and well”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...a-coup-attempt

Someone needs to do something to get rid of Chavismo.

the US is sabotaging the country infrastructure, with the help of a national opponent? that new President should be shot for treason !!!

It was the scene everyone had waited for.


Juan Guaidó was standing in the street outside La Carlota military airbase, flanked by military that, for once, were there to protect him. By his side was Leopoldo López, founder of the Primero Justicia party and Venezuela’s most famous political prisoner, who had just been released by his military captors.

“This is the final phase of our operation to topple the usurper,” Guaidó said in an impromptu speech released on Twitter early Tuesday morning, but while he was speaking, all eyes were on López, a man many expected never to see alive in freedom again.


“Where is your guard?” a journalist yelled at Lopez, and just off camera a man’s smiling voice can be heard saying, “I’m right here.”


It was a clear sign that something had shifted, and that the promises made by the opposition and its leadership hadn’t been as empty as many Venezuelans had started to fear. For months, Guaidó had hinted at secret negotiations taking place between the opposition and the military, but with every week that passed without any noticeable change, the public support began to waver.

After that initial spark, massive clashes erupted throughout the day in and around Caracas, with paramilitary colectivos out en masse, shooting live rounds at protesters in the streets and military fighting military, creating chaos and uncertainty as to who is on which side.


In WhatsApp videos that The Daily Beast receives in real time from sources on the ground one can see police officers actively helping protesters, switching sides as fights break out outside a central shopping mall in Caracas, and colectivos shooting at both groups as they run for cover.


It is a war zone, only less structured, with no clear sides or definitive allies, and desperate citizens are capturing absolute carnage on their cellphones, filming armored vehicles running over protesters and paramilitaries beating down the uprising.

One of the main questions now is if a violent and bloody suppression of these protests would trigger a foreign intervention, but given the lack of support for such a drastic measure, that seems unlikely. Omar, one of the protesters The Daily Beast spoke to earlier Tuesday, said it would take a catastrophe to make the world react.

More + video https://www.thedailybeast.com/venezu...hones?ref=home

A link to pro coupe video showing a distinct lack of "protestors" and a frustrated looking illegal coupe leader's "lieutenant general".

https://twitter.com/SoniaPaezRey/sta...13934301990914

I suppose you have to take the chinky side and post government propaganda, eh HoHo?

^
Lord Hawhaw's "protesters" are looking quite healthy, even a little obese, ...considering they've only been eating trash from bins and drinking raw sewage water for the last 12 months.


Where did they get the money for all that shiny new democracy merch, flags, banner, caps etc??? ...obviously from their savings, as eating trash and drinking raw sewage is quite cost effective.

Just think what the local hospital could have done with that money...