Deteriorating Situation in Venezuela

[Papay]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPgbKRgYwpc


CNN claims that Maduro assasination attempt was planed from inside Colombia.

[NorseThing]

CNN is just repackaging old news from last August. https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/05/ameri...uro/index.html

Maduro has already arrested some and that was months ago. What is new here without my listening to another video on this old news?

[Ludicus]

Maybe Spain or Morocco can find him a nice old estate to retire to.

Why not the Trump's Tower? Trump continues to dismiss the conclusions of the CIA, State/ Defense Departments etc, that N.Korea will not abandon its nuclear program, continuing to insist that he and his great friend Kim, a true democrat, can negotiate a deal. Really unfair to Maduro.
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"It's the Oil, Stupid"...as Bolton put it, "Venezuela Oil is good for us". And let's go back in time...Iran/Anglo-Iranian Oil Company/ Mossadegh/Operation Ajax; Iraq/Bush ("...or to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq").
Come on, let's keep in mind that the Trump administration has stopped cooperating with UN on human rights violations...Trump, human rights activist?
Transcript of Trump's speech in Saudi Arabia,

...I also promised that America will not seek to impose our way of life on others. We must seek partners, not perfection. I thank you for your massive investment in America, its industry and its jobs

[Aexodus]

Ah yes, Comumbia’s ‘fascist’ government according to Nicolas

[Papay]

Ah yes, Comumbia’s ‘fascist’ government according to Nicolas

Venezuela is better on human rights that Colombia

https://colombiareports.com/534-poli...-last-5-years/

534 activists were murdered in Colombia in the period between 2011-2016. And this continues. This year already about 20 have already being murdered

https://www.wola.org/2019/02/human-r...-january-2019/

Now can you imagine Maduro putting hitmen to assasinate his enemies? What little Rubio would say?

[NorseThing]

Of course political muscle need not be measures by the number of murders.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.1765700e9540

I found that by going to Papay's wola site which is a bit of a collector of internet news.

The neighbors were fed up. For days, they’d had no electricity or running water because of a massive national blackout. So one morning this week, they piled logs and garbage into a makeshift barricade in their middle-class Caracas neighborhood and started yelling slogans against the government.
Then came the motorcycles.
There were at least 20 of them, their motors buzzing, driven by men with scarves over their faces, according to interviews with 10 witnesses. The demonstrators scattered. But as people in surrounding buildings started hurling bottles at the bikers, the men raised their weapons — pistols and rifles — and opened fire.
No one was injured. But the neighbors were terrified.
“Now we can’t even protest, because they’ll shoot at us,” said Delia Arellano, 72, one of the demonstrators.

The attack on Sunday was a chilling sign of how President Nicolás Maduro is increasingly relying on paramilitary groups as he clings to power. This week, he publicly urged the motorcycle-riding “colectivos” to intensify their efforts, as the country teetered on the edge of economic collapse and a U.S.-backed opposition movement pressed for his ouster.

[Ludicus]

Let's keep in mind that forced migration from Central America,people who have fled violence in Central America, migrant and refugee caravans, they are all are usually composed of criminals.
"Stone cold criminals", from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, Venezuela. So, what's the problem? Calm down, don't worry. Much of the new Hadrian Wall has already been fully renovated or built.
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[NorseThing]

So rather than show pretty graphic that shows the USA to be worse than Europe and Canada, how about itemizing the differences. Oh I did go to https://www.ituc-csi.org/ituc-global...dex-2018-20299 and other web pages on the ITUC site, but....

As near as I can tell, the problem that the ITUC sees is that we are denying open doors to immigrants for reasons that the Germans are happy to allow into the EU. Maybe not so much as a denial of rights, but more a different way to look at who may as a worker immigrate?

[Aexodus]

Apparently the UK regularly violates workers rights.

I find that rather hard to believe

[Aexodus]

https://santiagotimes.cl/2019/03/24/...-to-venezuela/

Russia is sending troops to Venezuela. So much for Western Imperialism...

[swabian]

https://santiagotimes.cl/2019/03/24/...-to-venezuela/

Russia is sending troops to Venezuela. So much for Western Imperialism...

If they were special forces, the world wouldn't learn anything about it. It's a method to 'show presence'. It's one of many signals the Kremlin is sending and it means: "We are going to intervene if and when we see fit". "We are interested in this region", etc.
It's Putin trying to revive the Soviet-Era. That doesn't mean the he can do anything that matters.

[Exarch]

Russia sending troops into Venezuela is a clear sign the US is too afraid to do anything; has US power fallen so much that Russians can blithely send troops into south america?

[Vanoi]

Wouldn't be worried about a hundred Russian troops in Venezuela. Russia doesn't have the capability to actually sustain a large presence. This does make it even easier to justify foreign intervention.

[conon394]

Russia sending troops into Venezuela is a clear sign the US is too afraid to do anything; has US power fallen so much that Russians can blithely send troops into south america?

No rather amazingly the Trump Admin is doing the right thing. Right now the US has the bulk of Latin America backing its view - that not very common. Reacting to the Czar's play is most likely just to revive the past of US imperialism.

[Vanoi]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-t...191843021.html

So apparently Maduro broke more Constitutional law but it's not like it really matters. Allowing foreign troops into the country just makes it easier for the US to justify intervention themselves using the Monroe Doctrine.

[Ludicus]

Some facts...

1) In 2017 Venezuela requested medical aid from the Global Fund, the plea was rejected because it "is still a high income country". Read the letter,
RVG Board Members_Joint_2017.01.18

We regret to inform you that the current policy framework does not allow the Global Fund to provide funding to Venezuela...eligibility is determined by a country's income level, measured by appropriate economic indicators of the World Bank... in accordance per capita thresholds for income classification published by the World Bank...Venezuela remains among high income no-OECD countries and such is not eligible". As an agency relying itself on donations from multiple stakeholders, the Global Fund is not in the position to grant any exceptions from its rules"

2) According to the IMF, the economic crisis in Venezuela has gotten even worse than expected as U.S. sanctions exacerbate pain on Venezuela.
3) The Congressional Research Service shamelessly recognized,

...the stronger sanctions on PdVSA will further exacerbate Venezuela's difficult humanitarian crisis, already marked by shortages of food and medicines and mass migration, by limiting the country’s key source of revenue"

...And an analysis,

17 March, 2018- Venezuela: UN expert analyses the economic embargo situation

Humanitarian crisis is a term of art. It is a terminus technicus. The problem with hyperboles, the problem with loose use of language, is that you can say the government has failed to protect the human rights of the population, there is a humanitarian crisis; therefore, we should have a humanitarian intervention and a military intervention.
Now, humanitarian crisis … I’m not the only one who says that there is no humanitarian crisis. The CEPAL, which is an organization in Latin America that does studies and comparisons of the level of hunger or the level of poverty, etcetera, has said quite clearly there’s no humanitarian crisis. The FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization, in its latest reports they list 37 countries where there is a humanitarian crisis(1). Venezuela is not among them. So I want to move away from overheated rhetoric. I want to help the Venezuelan people, and the Venezuelan people are not being helped by the economic war.

(1) as we know from Gaza,apparently no one cares about Gaza. And Yemen, Libya,Syria, Iraq, Haiti, Mali, Central African Republic,Sudan, Somalia,Myanmar, etc.

[Ludicus]

@Vanoi

... US to justify intervention themselves using the Monroe Doctrine

.
According to the Monroe doctrine, the US would not interfere in the internal affairs/wars of European powers. The Monroe doctrine for NATO is the Monroe doctrine for the European continent.

[Vanoi]

Sure if you refer to the original 1823 Monroe Doctrine. Its been reinterpreted since then throughout its history.

[Ludicus]

Monroe Doctrine. Its been reinterpreted..

Precisely,that what I'm saying.Ironically, if I remember well, US repudiated the archaic concept of spheres of influence (sic),contending that it has no place in the modern international system. Condoleezza Rice, Bush's secretary of state, made that point explicitly in response to Russia's military intervention in Georgia, 2008.
Secretary Rice Addresses U.S.-Russia Relations At The German ...

We are acting in supporting Georgia...our vision of the world... It is a world in which great power is defined not by spheres of influence or zero-sum competition, or the strong imposing their will on the weak.

[Love Mountain]

She wasn't lying. Modern liberals and especially neoliberals don't believe in sphere of influence. They prefer a hegemonic model. Unfortunately, great power politics are back due to the up that was 21st century US foreign policy. Well that and new powerful players.