Bolton's Plan: Starve Venezuela

[Brian4Liberty]

Bolton's Plan: Starve Venezuela

US "humanitarian" aid to Venezuela is being weaponized - routed through the US-backed opposition to feed its supporters. Meanwhile, backers of the Venezuelan government will face draconian sanctions designed to starve them into accepting the US-appointed president. If it does not work, Bolton and the neocons are fomenting civil war in the country.

[euphemia]

The starvation of Venezuela predates the Trump adminis traction by a long shot. Their economy has been in free fall for 15 years or more.

[angelatc]

They're already starving.

Their government put price caps on everything, then banned all imports, and now are blaming capitalism or something.

[Anti Globalist]

Go away Bolton.

[angelatc]

His plan is to make the elites and the troops starve along with the population since they're refusing to allow aid into the country.

Capitalism only works properly when both parties are willing to engage in trade.

[Stratovarious]

They should have voted harder.

Seriously , sanctions hurt citizens, they have no effect on the elite.
Why do we keep beating up on citizens, we caused a million Iraqi civilian
deaths, is this our plan now, kill a million Venezuelans.

[Origanalist]

His plan is to make the elites and the troops starve along with the population since they're refusing to allow aid into the country.

Capitalism only works properly when both parties are willing to engage in trade.

Are you Boltonsplaining these days?

[angelatc]

No, I actually stole that from a Venezuelan that supports the opposition. It makes more sense than engaging the military.

[nobody's_hero]

They're already starving.

Their government put price caps on everything, then banned all imports, and now are blaming capitalism or something.

Yeah, I feel like this just gives them a scapegoat, though. Even though you're right, this won't really change any of the conditions. Like giving a glass of water to someone who is drowning.

[Zippyjuan]

Venezuela military barricades bridge in attempt to block aid


CUCUTA, Colombia (AP) — The Venezuelan military barricaded a bridge at a key border crossing with Colombia, issuing a challenge Wednesday to a U.S.-backed effort by the opposition to bring humanitarian aid into a nation plagued by shortages of food and medicine.

The Tienditas International Bridge was blocked the day before with a giant orange tanker, two large blue containers and makeshift fencing near the border town of Cucuta, Colombian officials said.

The bridge is at the same site where officials plan to store humanitarian aid that opposition leader Juan Guaido is vowing to deliver to Venezuela. The Trump administration has pledged $20 million in aid and Canada has promised another $53 million.

The aid squabble is the latest front in the battle between Guaido and President Nicolas Maduro, who is vowing not to let the supplies enter the country. Maduro argues Venezuela isn’t a nation of “beggars” and has long rejected receiving humanitarian assistance, equating it to a foreign intervention.

Venezuelan Jose Mendoza stood at the entrance to the Colombian side of the bridge holding a sign that said: “Humanitarian aid now.” Mendoza, 22, said he is tired of seeing Venezuelans suffer from food and medical shortages and that the military should stand on the side suffering Venezuelans.

“They have to be by the side of the people and support us,” Mendoza said. “They have family members who are dying of hunger. The call is for them too.”

Roughly 40 countries around the world have backed Guaido, who swore himself in as president in late January contending that as head of the opposition-led National Assembly he is Venezuela’s rightful leader because Maduro’s re-election last year was a sham.

Guaido says the emergency shipment is a “test” for Venezuela’s armed forces, which will have to choose if they allow the much needed aid to pass, or if they instead obey orders. No details have been released on exactly how the opposition plans to get the shipments into Venezuela.

Soaring hyperinflation has forced millions of Venezuelans to flee or go hungry as they struggle to find or afford basic goods and medicine.

Maduro appeared on state TV Wednesday evening wearing a white lab coat demonstrating what he considers Venezuela’s modern health care system in clinics countrywide — without mentioning attempts to block medical supplies at the border.

“The revolution is more alive than ever,” Maduro said. “We’re advancing in the development of health care for the good of the people.”

An emphatic U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Venezuelans desperately need the emergency supplies that the U.S. and other countries are preparing to provide.

“Venezuela’s military under Maduro’s orders is blocking aid,” Pompeo tweeted. “The Maduro regime must LET THE AID REACH THE STARVING PEOPLE.”

Guaido on Wednesday accused Maduro’s government of rejecting the assistance because officials often handed out imported food and medicine in exchange for bribes.

Speaking to farmers, Guaido said the transitional government he’s mounting to replace Maduro is taking steps to make Venezuela self-reliant.

“We don’t want to depend more on a food subsidies than is necessary today,” he said, calling the blockade an “absurd reaction from a government that doesn’t have the interest and well-being of Venezuelans” in mind.

Maduro has clung to power with the support of Venezuela’s highest-ranking military officers. He dismisses Guaido as a puppet of the United States, which he says is seeking to colonize Venezuela and exploit its vast oil resources.

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Donald Trump vowed to ratchet up pressure on Maduro, saying that the U.S. stands with the people of Venezuela.

“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 said.

In a trip to Washington on Wednesday, Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said that any attempt to block aid from entering Venezuela is tantamount to “a crime.”

“Committing such a crime would give even more reason for the unified countries to ask the International Criminal Court to investigate Maduro,” Trujillo told reporters after a meeting with the head of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro.

Colombia shares a 1,370-mile (2,200-kilometer) border with Venezuela and is backing Guaido. The neighboring Andean nation has received over one million Venezuelan migrants in the last three years.

Looking up at the giant containers blocking the bridge Wednesday, aid worker Alba Pereira shook her head and dismissed the barricade as another government ploy. She said that humanitarian volunteers would find a way to get the aid into the country regardless.

“It’s a means of intimidation,” said Pereira, director of the nonprofit Entre Dos Tierras, which aids Venezuelans migrants. “But I don’t think it will accomplish anything.”

https://www.apnews.com/011ef02872f5452e8114116573c9cd4c

[RonZeplin]

The Cynicism of Empire: Sen. Rubio Tells Venezuelans to Overthrow Their Government...or Starve!

Written by Daniel McAdams


There is a sad disregard for human life among the neocon regime-changers. The devastation of Iraq, with its million dead, was a mere stepping stone to a "re-making" of the Middle East. A Libya turned into a modern day slave market after neocon-backed "liberation" is off the radar screen. Who cares, right?

Syria suffered a half million dead after a US backed jihadist insurgency - strongly backed by the neocons - and not a word of remorse.

In fact, in a remarkable act of chutzpah, neocons have taken to blaming the victims in Syria, with the Washington Post's Josh Rogin branding Assad, who fought and ultimately defeated US-backed terrorists (and in so doing saved Syria's ancient Christian community) an "enemy of humanity." One need not join the Assad fan club to come to the easy conclusion that an al-Qaeda-controlled Aleppo, for example, was a living hell while an Aleppo liberated by Assad very soon was on its feet again as a multi-confessional and multi-cultural center of Syria.

The sick disregard for human life as Washington gins up the regime change machine is on display again, bolder and more sadistic than ever. Witness the neoconservative Senator from Florida, shown above, who Tweeted this week that as hunger is growing in Venezuela, that country's military must make a choice whether to support the US-backed overthrow of its government or allow the people to starve. Clearly threatening war, Rubio wrote, "military leaders should make a choice, before a choice is made for them."

MintPressNews writer Whitney Webb put it best: "Marco Rubio is openly saying that if Venezuela's military doesn't turn on Maduro soon, 'a choice will made for them' by the United States. Scariest threat for an imminent invasion of Venezuela I have yet to see."

Other neocons behind this regime change operation are showing signs of desperation as after more than a week of their backing the US-selected "interim president" - who had never run for the office - there are not yet any major signs of the Maduro government crumbling under the pressure.

National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has spearheaded this idiotic operation (as he helped spearhead the idiotic 2003 invasion of Iraq), is almost begging the Venezuelan military to change sides. He is no doubt frustrated that the "cake walk" he likely promised Trump is to this point looking like no such thing.

Bolton Tweeted on Wednesday:

The U.S. will consider sanctions off-ramps for any Venezuelan senior military officer that stands for democracy and recognizes the constitutional government of President Juan Guaido. If not, the international financial circle will be closed off completely. Make the right choice!

Translation: "Want some money? Help us overthrow your government!"

The cynicism goes even deeper than that, however. After supporting the most brutal and aggressive sanctions against Venezuela for years - a policy that no doubt contributed to the misery they now pretend to seek to ameliorate - the regime changers are now dangling US "humanitarian" aid in front of Venezuelans if only they come over to the pro-rebel side and help overthrow their government.

A US convoy of "humanitarian" relief trucks has set out in Colombia all the way to the Venezuelan border. After trying to starve Venezuelans for years, suddenly the US government dangles food in front of them. For a price.

That's not humanitarianism, it's inhumanitarianism.

But the US "aid" convoy to Venezuela was so obviously a political move to use food as a weapon that even the UN and other NGOs refused to take part in the charade. Unsurprisingly, the Venezuelan government did not allow the US convoy to enter its territory and deliver aid to any rebels that might be eager to receive it.

Another example of how paranoid and unstable the Venezuelan government really is? No, actually just a couple of days earlier another "aid" shipment was found to contain a cache of weapons slated for delivery to the rebels.

Maybe they were just "moderate" rebels"?

You don't believe the US government would make such a dishonest and dangerous move as to hide a cache of weapons inside a "humanitarian" aid shipment? Ha! For Bolton and his new/old comrade in charge of regime change in Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, this was a return to the "good old days" where such practice was all in a day's work.

As an article in the 1987 Los Angeles Times informs us:

Oliver L. North and other Reagan Administration aides deliberately used a 1986 program of "humanitarian aid" for Nicaraguan rebels to help support the secret effort to deliver military aid to the contras , U.S. officials said Monday.
...
The aid was administered by the State Department's Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office, but officials said that all significant decisions were made by a "Restricted Inter-Agency Group," consisting of North, Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams and Alan D. Fiers, chief of the CIA's Central America Task Force. (emphasis added)

Boltlon, Abrams, and the rest of Trump's neocons aren't even trying to make this original. They have pulled the old 1980s "support Latin American dictators" playbook off the shelf and are blatantly plagiarizing themselves! And the tens of thousands of innocent dead littering the scorched earth of their murderous policies? Don't expect an apology: they are panting for more death and destruction!

The US "aid" convoy to Venezuela was a farce from the beginning. Delivering humanitarian aid was the last thing on the neocon mind. Much more important was to deliver a message. And thanks to the slavishly compliant mainstream media in the US and among its allies, that message was amplified to all corners of the globe. As German government mouthpiece Deutsche Welle put it, "Maduro rejects humanitarian aid as nation starves."

Score that headline a major win for the CIA and other psy-op masters.

Except unlike in Yemen, where the Germans and other "allies" back the US and Saudi genocide of the population amidst plenty of concrete evidence of horrific starvation, there is no evidence of anything remotely resembling a Yemen-like starvation nightmare in Venezuela. If there was, we'd see it in full livid detail. And again, Yemen doesn't count because it's the US and its allies doing the starving and blocking the humanitarian relief.

The neocons still have not broken up the Venezuelan government but they are not out of weapons. Secretary of State and top neocon dog Mike Pompeo may be about to go nuclear. In the face of a stalled regime change Pompeo came out yesterday with the outlandish claim that the Venezuela is now a central battle ground in the "War on Terror"! He told FoxNews' Trish Regan that Venezuela is full of "active Hezbollah cells." And that, "The Iranians are impacting the people of Venezuela and throughout South America."

He added, ominously: "We have an obligation to take down that risk for America.”

Having over decades established Hezbollah as the ultimate bogeyman (despite their not targeting Americans or the US and in fact being primarily focused against Israeli expansionism and aggression), the neocons are now doing their best to use raw fear of terrorism to motivate Americans to support a US invasion of Venezuela.

And if Americans are not sufficiently propagandized that the Venezuelan government is the new Hitler and must be deposed before it throws more babies from incubators and distributes more Viagra to its troops? Breitbart is always good for a few low-IQ chunks of red meat to the feverish masses. Today they breathlessly report - PROOF of the depravity of Maduro - that..."Nicholas Maduro Threatens to Kill American Troops if They Invade Venezuela."

What a revelation! Has there been country in history that actually welcomed a hostile invasion?

What is next for Venezuela and the neocon regime change plan? Well it is not going to plan at present, but as with all of these operations it is the neocons holding the cards (and the cash). The "correlation of forces" are definitely on their side. The neocon regime changers must only hit the target once, while the legitimate government of Venezuela must parry each blow.

As for the obligatory disclaimer (this is getting tedious): No, we do not "support" Maduro or socialism or all the really bad things he is accused of in Venezuela. Our opposition is as American patriots: We do not want a global US empire that arrogates to itself the authority to decide who is and who is not acceptable to govern a foreign country. No sanctions, no meddling, no "regime change". A sound defense of this country and a passionate dedication to leading not by force or subterfuge, but by example.

The neocons have been given carte blanche by a seemingly lazy or uninterested President Trump. Will we rise to the occasion and defend real American values against their obsessive, failed attempts to conquer the globe? Will we hold our representatives in Congress accountable to real American values? There is some wavering in Congress about an implied authorization for the use of force in Venezuela. It is a unique opportunity for us to make our preferences known in a way that might make a difference. What do you say? It's not that hard.

[Ender]

The Cynicism of Empire: Sen. Rubio Tells Venezuelans to Overthrow Their Government...or Starve!

Written by Daniel McAdams


There is a sad disregard for human life among the neocon regime-changers. The devastation of Iraq, with its million dead, was a mere stepping stone to a "re-making" of the Middle East. A Libya turned into a modern day slave market after neocon-backed "liberation" is off the radar screen. Who cares, right?

Syria suffered a half million dead after a US backed jihadist insurgency - strongly backed by the neocons - and not a word of remorse.

In fact, in a remarkable act of chutzpah, neocons have taken to blaming the victims in Syria, with the Washington Post's Josh Rogin branding Assad, who fought and ultimately defeated US-backed terrorists (and in so doing saved Syria's ancient Christian community) an "enemy of humanity." One need not join the Assad fan club to come to the easy conclusion that an al-Qaeda-controlled Aleppo, for example, was a living hell while an Aleppo liberated by Assad very soon was on its feet again as a multi-confessional and multi-cultural center of Syria.

The sick disregard for human life as Washington gins up the regime change machine is on display again, bolder and more sadistic than ever. Witness the neoconservative Senator from Florida, shown above, who Tweeted this week that as hunger is growing in Venezuela, that country's military must make a choice whether to support the US-backed overthrow of its government or allow the people to starve. Clearly threatening war, Rubio wrote, "military leaders should make a choice, before a choice is made for them."

MintPressNews writer Whitney Webb put it best: "Marco Rubio is openly saying that if Venezuela's military doesn't turn on Maduro soon, 'a choice will made for them' by the United States. Scariest threat for an imminent invasion of Venezuela I have yet to see."

Other neocons behind this regime change operation are showing signs of desperation as after more than a week of their backing the US-selected "interim president" - who had never run for the office - there are not yet any major signs of the Maduro government crumbling under the pressure.

National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has spearheaded this idiotic operation (as he helped spearhead the idiotic 2003 invasion of Iraq), is almost begging the Venezuelan military to change sides. He is no doubt frustrated that the "cake walk" he likely promised Trump is to this point looking like no such thing.

Bolton Tweeted on Wednesday:

The U.S. will consider sanctions off-ramps for any Venezuelan senior military officer that stands for democracy and recognizes the constitutional government of President Juan Guaido. If not, the international financial circle will be closed off completely. Make the right choice!

Translation: "Want some money? Help us overthrow your government!"

The cynicism goes even deeper than that, however. After supporting the most brutal and aggressive sanctions against Venezuela for years - a policy that no doubt contributed to the misery they now pretend to seek to ameliorate - the regime changers are now dangling US "humanitarian" aid in front of Venezuelans if only they come over to the pro-rebel side and help overthrow their government.

A US convoy of "humanitarian" relief trucks has set out in Colombia all the way to the Venezuelan border. After trying to starve Venezuelans for years, suddenly the US government dangles food in front of them. For a price.

That's not humanitarianism, it's inhumanitarianism.

But the US "aid" convoy to Venezuela was so obviously a political move to use food as a weapon that even the UN and other NGOs refused to take part in the charade. Unsurprisingly, the Venezuelan government did not allow the US convoy to enter its territory and deliver aid to any rebels that might be eager to receive it.

Another example of how paranoid and unstable the Venezuelan government really is? No, actually just a couple of days earlier another "aid" shipment was found to contain a cache of weapons slated for delivery to the rebels.

Maybe they were just "moderate" rebels"?

You don't believe the US government would make such a dishonest and dangerous move as to hide a cache of weapons inside a "humanitarian" aid shipment? Ha! For Bolton and his new/old comrade in charge of regime change in Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, this was a return to the "good old days" where such practice was all in a day's work.

As an article in the 1987 Los Angeles Times informs us:

Oliver L. North and other Reagan Administration aides deliberately used a 1986 program of "humanitarian aid" for Nicaraguan rebels to help support the secret effort to deliver military aid to the contras , U.S. officials said Monday.
...
The aid was administered by the State Department's Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office, but officials said that all significant decisions were made by a "Restricted Inter-Agency Group," consisting of North, Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams and Alan D. Fiers, chief of the CIA's Central America Task Force. (emphasis added)

Boltlon, Abrams, and the rest of Trump's neocons aren't even trying to make this original. They have pulled the old 1980s "support Latin American dictators" playbook off the shelf and are blatantly plagiarizing themselves! And the tens of thousands of innocent dead littering the scorched earth of their murderous policies? Don't expect an apology: they are panting for more death and destruction!

The US "aid" convoy to Venezuela was a farce from the beginning. Delivering humanitarian aid was the last thing on the neocon mind. Much more important was to deliver a message. And thanks to the slavishly compliant mainstream media in the US and among its allies, that message was amplified to all corners of the globe. As German government mouthpiece Deutsche Welle put it, "Maduro rejects humanitarian aid as nation starves."

Score that headline a major win for the CIA and other psy-op masters.

Except unlike in Yemen, where the Germans and other "allies" back the US and Saudi genocide of the population amidst plenty of concrete evidence of horrific starvation, there is no evidence of anything remotely resembling a Yemen-like starvation nightmare in Venezuela. If there was, we'd see it in full livid detail. And again, Yemen doesn't count because it's the US and its allies doing the starving and blocking the humanitarian relief.

The neocons still have not broken up the Venezuelan government but they are not out of weapons. Secretary of State and top neocon dog Mike Pompeo may be about to go nuclear. In the face of a stalled regime change Pompeo came out yesterday with the outlandish claim that the Venezuela is now a central battle ground in the "War on Terror"! He told FoxNews' Trish Regan that Venezuela is full of "active Hezbollah cells." And that, "The Iranians are impacting the people of Venezuela and throughout South America."

He added, ominously: "We have an obligation to take down that risk for America.”

Having over decades established Hezbollah as the ultimate bogeyman (despite their not targeting Americans or the US and in fact being primarily focused against Israeli expansionism and aggression), the neocons are now doing their best to use raw fear of terrorism to motivate Americans to support a US invasion of Venezuela.

And if Americans are not sufficiently propagandized that the Venezuelan government is the new Hitler and must be deposed before it throws more babies from incubators and distributes more Viagra to its troops? Breitbart is always good for a few low-IQ chunks of red meat to the feverish masses. Today they breathlessly report - PROOF of the depravity of Maduro - that..."Nicholas Maduro Threatens to Kill American Troops if They Invade Venezuela."

What a revelation! Has there been country in history that actually welcomed a hostile invasion?

What is next for Venezuela and the neocon regime change plan? Well it is not going to plan at present, but as with all of these operations it is the neocons holding the cards (and the cash). The "correlation of forces" are definitely on their side. The neocon regime changers must only hit the target once, while the legitimate government of Venezuela must parry each blow.

As for the obligatory disclaimer (this is getting tedious): No, we do not "support" Maduro or socialism or all the really bad things he is accused of in Venezuela. Our opposition is as American patriots: We do not want a global US empire that arrogates to itself the authority to decide who is and who is not acceptable to govern a foreign country. No sanctions, no meddling, no "regime change". A sound defense of this country and a passionate dedication to leading not by force or subterfuge, but by example.

The neocons have been given carte blanche by a seemingly lazy or uninterested President Trump. Will we rise to the occasion and defend real American values against their obsessive, failed attempts to conquer the globe? Will we hold our representatives in Congress accountable to real American values? There is some wavering in Congress about an implied authorization for the use of force in Venezuela. It is a unique opportunity for us to make our preferences known in a way that might make a difference. What do you say? It's not that hard.

^^^THIS^^^

[juleswin]

The Cynicism of Empire: Sen. Rubio Tells Venezuelans to Overthrow Their Government...or Starve!

Written by Daniel McAdams


There is a sad disregard for human life among the neocon regime-changers. The devastation of Iraq, with its million dead, was a mere stepping stone to a "re-making" of the Middle East. A Libya turned into a modern day slave market after neocon-backed "liberation" is off the radar screen. Who cares, right?

Syria suffered a half million dead after a US backed jihadist insurgency - strongly backed by the neocons - and not a word of remorse.

In fact, in a remarkable act of chutzpah, neocons have taken to blaming the victims in Syria, with the Washington Post's Josh Rogin branding Assad, who fought and ultimately defeated US-backed terrorists (and in so doing saved Syria's ancient Christian community) an "enemy of humanity." One need not join the Assad fan club to come to the easy conclusion that an al-Qaeda-controlled Aleppo, for example, was a living hell while an Aleppo liberated by Assad very soon was on its feet again as a multi-confessional and multi-cultural center of Syria.

The sick disregard for human life as Washington gins up the regime change machine is on display again, bolder and more sadistic than ever. Witness the neoconservative Senator from Florida, shown above, who Tweeted this week that as hunger is growing in Venezuela, that country's military must make a choice whether to support the US-backed overthrow of its government or allow the people to starve. Clearly threatening war, Rubio wrote, "military leaders should make a choice, before a choice is made for them."

MintPressNews writer Whitney Webb put it best: "Marco Rubio is openly saying that if Venezuela's military doesn't turn on Maduro soon, 'a choice will made for them' by the United States. Scariest threat for an imminent invasion of Venezuela I have yet to see."

Other neocons behind this regime change operation are showing signs of desperation as after more than a week of their backing the US-selected "interim president" - who had never run for the office - there are not yet any major signs of the Maduro government crumbling under the pressure.

National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has spearheaded this idiotic operation (as he helped spearhead the idiotic 2003 invasion of Iraq), is almost begging the Venezuelan military to change sides. He is no doubt frustrated that the "cake walk" he likely promised Trump is to this point looking like no such thing.

Bolton Tweeted on Wednesday:

The U.S. will consider sanctions off-ramps for any Venezuelan senior military officer that stands for democracy and recognizes the constitutional government of President Juan Guaido. If not, the international financial circle will be closed off completely. Make the right choice!

Translation: "Want some money? Help us overthrow your government!"

The cynicism goes even deeper than that, however. After supporting the most brutal and aggressive sanctions against Venezuela for years - a policy that no doubt contributed to the misery they now pretend to seek to ameliorate - the regime changers are now dangling US "humanitarian" aid in front of Venezuelans if only they come over to the pro-rebel side and help overthrow their government.

A US convoy of "humanitarian" relief trucks has set out in Colombia all the way to the Venezuelan border. After trying to starve Venezuelans for years, suddenly the US government dangles food in front of them. For a price.

That's not humanitarianism, it's inhumanitarianism.

But the US "aid" convoy to Venezuela was so obviously a political move to use food as a weapon that even the UN and other NGOs refused to take part in the charade. Unsurprisingly, the Venezuelan government did not allow the US convoy to enter its territory and deliver aid to any rebels that might be eager to receive it.

Another example of how paranoid and unstable the Venezuelan government really is? No, actually just a couple of days earlier another "aid" shipment was found to contain a cache of weapons slated for delivery to the rebels.

Maybe they were just "moderate" rebels"?

You don't believe the US government would make such a dishonest and dangerous move as to hide a cache of weapons inside a "humanitarian" aid shipment? Ha! For Bolton and his new/old comrade in charge of regime change in Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, this was a return to the "good old days" where such practice was all in a day's work.

As an article in the 1987 Los Angeles Times informs us:

Oliver L. North and other Reagan Administration aides deliberately used a 1986 program of "humanitarian aid" for Nicaraguan rebels to help support the secret effort to deliver military aid to the contras , U.S. officials said Monday.
...
The aid was administered by the State Department's Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office, but officials said that all significant decisions were made by a "Restricted Inter-Agency Group," consisting of North, Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams and Alan D. Fiers, chief of the CIA's Central America Task Force. (emphasis added)

Boltlon, Abrams, and the rest of Trump's neocons aren't even trying to make this original. They have pulled the old 1980s "support Latin American dictators" playbook off the shelf and are blatantly plagiarizing themselves! And the tens of thousands of innocent dead littering the scorched earth of their murderous policies? Don't expect an apology: they are panting for more death and destruction!

The US "aid" convoy to Venezuela was a farce from the beginning. Delivering humanitarian aid was the last thing on the neocon mind. Much more important was to deliver a message. And thanks to the slavishly compliant mainstream media in the US and among its allies, that message was amplified to all corners of the globe. As German government mouthpiece Deutsche Welle put it, "Maduro rejects humanitarian aid as nation starves."

Score that headline a major win for the CIA and other psy-op masters.

Except unlike in Yemen, where the Germans and other "allies" back the US and Saudi genocide of the population amidst plenty of concrete evidence of horrific starvation, there is no evidence of anything remotely resembling a Yemen-like starvation nightmare in Venezuela. If there was, we'd see it in full livid detail. And again, Yemen doesn't count because it's the US and its allies doing the starving and blocking the humanitarian relief.

The neocons still have not broken up the Venezuelan government but they are not out of weapons. Secretary of State and top neocon dog Mike Pompeo may be about to go nuclear. In the face of a stalled regime change Pompeo came out yesterday with the outlandish claim that the Venezuela is now a central battle ground in the "War on Terror"! He told FoxNews' Trish Regan that Venezuela is full of "active Hezbollah cells." And that, "The Iranians are impacting the people of Venezuela and throughout South America."

He added, ominously: "We have an obligation to take down that risk for America.”

Having over decades established Hezbollah as the ultimate bogeyman (despite their not targeting Americans or the US and in fact being primarily focused against Israeli expansionism and aggression), the neocons are now doing their best to use raw fear of terrorism to motivate Americans to support a US invasion of Venezuela.

And if Americans are not sufficiently propagandized that the Venezuelan government is the new Hitler and must be deposed before it throws more babies from incubators and distributes more Viagra to its troops? Breitbart is always good for a few low-IQ chunks of red meat to the feverish masses. Today they breathlessly report - PROOF of the depravity of Maduro - that..."Nicholas Maduro Threatens to Kill American Troops if They Invade Venezuela."

What a revelation! Has there been country in history that actually welcomed a hostile invasion?

What is next for Venezuela and the neocon regime change plan? Well it is not going to plan at present, but as with all of these operations it is the neocons holding the cards (and the cash). The "correlation of forces" are definitely on their side. The neocon regime changers must only hit the target once, while the legitimate government of Venezuela must parry each blow.

As for the obligatory disclaimer (this is getting tedious): No, we do not "support" Maduro or socialism or all the really bad things he is accused of in Venezuela. Our opposition is as American patriots: We do not want a global US empire that arrogates to itself the authority to decide who is and who is not acceptable to govern a foreign country. No sanctions, no meddling, no "regime change". A sound defense of this country and a passionate dedication to leading not by force or subterfuge, but by example.

The neocons have been given carte blanche by a seemingly lazy or uninterested President Trump. Will we rise to the occasion and defend real American values against their obsessive, failed attempts to conquer the globe? Will we hold our representatives in Congress accountable to real American values? There is some wavering in Congress about an implied authorization for the use of force in Venezuela. It is a unique opportunity for us to make our preferences known in a way that might make a difference. What do you say? It's not that hard.

The neocons say it would be more like Chile instead of Libya i.e. it would hurt if they struggle and might enjoy it if they ease up, what is your counter to this argument?

[RonZeplin]

The neocons say it would be more like Chile instead of Libya i.e. it would hurt if they struggle and might enjoy it if they ease up, what is your counter to this argument?

Isn't this equivalent to telling a rape victim, just relax and enjoy it?

I haven't heard of any Venezuelans demanding that Rubio or Bolton choose a new president for them, or they'll starve themselves to death. . If there are any that secretly desire neocon election assistance that much, they're keeping it to themselves.

[juleswin]

Isn't this equivalent to telling a rape victim, just relax and enjoy it?

I haven't heard of any Venezuelans demanding that Rubio or Bolton choose a new president for them, or they'll starve themselves to death. . If there are any that secretly desire neocon election assistance that much, they're keeping it to themselves.

This is going to sound counter intuitive but during a rape, it is actually better not to resist than trying to fight back especially when the attacker is bigger, stronger and has the jump on you.

But yea, its sorta like telling a rape victim not to fight back, not quite sure if anyone says they should enjoy it.