Skip to content

Venezuela

Wilson Center Think Tank Reloads The US Roadmap Against Venezuela

February 13, 2023 Misión Verdad, Orinoco Tribune , , ,
The recent teachers’ protests in Venezuela took place in a climate where, along with the inflationary pressure of the beginning of 2023, they seem to be linked to a type of mobilization that has been gradually getting expressed, at the national level, with unions and other ”visible” platforms of “civil society,” in the background of the advances and tensions around the government-opposition dialogue process in Mexico. In the midst of this, the definitive collapse of the “Guaidó project,” the reckoning of Voluntad Popular with the G3 [other main parties of the opposition], and the loss of initiative of the opposition in general, seem to force a correction of Washington’s approach to Venezuela.

‘News From Nowhere’ – Building Communal Life In Venezuela

February 12, 2023 Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina, Venezuelanalysis. , , ,
In the world at large, the fact that a group of ordinary people comes together in some remote part of Venezuela to democratically determine their production and their way of living in a commune could seem to be completely unimportant. In the eyes of most who shape public opinion, this would be a quintessential nonevent. To be sure, it is never news. Nevertheless, if there were such a thing as a revolutionary news agency, the formation of such a commune and its advances would be the stuff of front-page articles, with banner headlines such as EXTRA! A NEW COMMUNE IS FORMED! or COMMUNARDS TAKE THE NEXT STEP!

White House Takes Possession Of Venezuela’s Embassy In Washington

February 10, 2023 Mision Verdad, Orinoco Tribune. , , , ,
Washington D.C. - Since this Monday, February 6, the US Department of State took possession of the Venezuelan Embassy headquarters, the ambassador’s residence in Washington DC, and the Venezuelan Consulate in New York, according to a Bloomberg citing “people familiar with the matter.” This was done in response to the disbanding of the fake Venezuelan diplomatic mission led by Carlos Vecchio, after the removal of Juan Guaidó as “interim president,” a decision taken by the same far-right groups that maintained that fictional position following US orders. According to anonymous sources, custody of the properties is due to the fact that, in the opinion of the US diplomacy and their failed understanding of international rules, there is no executive branch that represents the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This disregards the fact that Washington has been sending high level delegations in recent months to directly negotiate with the government of Nicolás Maduro.

Guaidó Is Gone But London Keeps The Gold

February 7, 2023 John McEvoy, Consortium News. , , , ,
In late December, Venezuela’s leading opposition parties voted to oust Juan Guaidó as “interim president” and dissolve his parallel government. This was clearly not the ending the U.K. government had in mind. Four years ago, the British government made the bold decision to recognise Guaidó as Venezuelan president and proceeded to facilitate his legal battle to seize roughly $2 billion of gold held in the Bank of England. Indeed, the U.K. government insisted at every turn that it recognised Guaidó — and not Nicolás Maduro — as Venezuelan president. In turn, Guaidó’s lawyers argued that he was authorised to represent and control the assets of the Central Bank of Venezuela held in London. Throughout this time, Guaidó paid his U.K. legal costs by drawing on millions of dollars of his country’s assets originally seized by the U.S. government. In other words, Guaidó tried to seize Venezuelan state assets with looted Venezuelan state assets.

UN Human Rights Chief: End Venezuela Sanctions

February 4, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy Report. , , , ,
The United Nations human rights chief has called for sanctions on Venezuela to be lifted, stating that they “exacerbated the economic crisis and hindered human rights” and created “hurdles” for “the country’s recovery and development”. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk visited Venezuela in January. There, he met with government officials, right-wing opposition leaders, civil society groups, and religious institutions. “I heard from across the spectrum of people I spoke to, including humanitarian actors and UN agencies, about the impact of sectorial sanctions on the most vulnerable segments of the population and the hurdles sanctions create for the country’s recovery and development, not least in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic”, Türk said.

March Delegation to Venezuela: Ten Years Commemorating Chávez’s Legacy

January 15, 2023 Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
The Alliance for Global Justice is organizing a new delegation to Venezuela for March 2023. This is a unique opportunity to get to know Venezuela’s reality first-hand and witness the heroic achievements of the Venezuelan people, who have been able to resist the US and European aggressions and blockade. You will get the chance to participate in the commemoration activities organized by Chavistas for the 10th anniversary of the departure of Comandante Chávez. Among our activities, we will visit the communities of Ciudad Caribia, Petare, and El Hatillo and meet with the community councils, street leaders, CLAP, and peasant leaders from the states of Carabobo and Yaracuy, as well as fishing communities. We will also learn about the new social missions created during the economic war against the Venezuelan people.

How Sanctions Contributed To Venezuela’s Economic Collapse

January 10, 2023 Francisco Rodríguez, Global Americans. , , ,
During the past decade, Venezuela lived through the largest economic contraction documented in the history of the Western Hemisphere. The implosion took place at the same time as the U.S. government barred oil purchases, froze government bank accounts, prohibited the country from issuing new debt, and seized tankers bound for Venezuela. One would think it should be self-evident that any account of Venezuela’s economic contraction would place economic sanctions in a central role. However, sanctions play a surprisingly limited role in most mainstream accounts of the Venezuelan crisis. A recent Council on Foreign Relations background piece on Venezuela mentioned sanctions only in passing and instead attributed the country’s economic collapse to “decades of poor governance” and the “perils of becoming a petrostate.”

Which Government Does The United States Recognize In Venezuela?

January 8, 2023 Vijay Prashad, People's Dispatch. , , ,
On January 3, 2023, Shaun Tandon of Agence France-Presse asked US State Department spokesperson Ned Price about Venezuela. In late December, the Venezuelan opposition after a fractious debate decided to dissolve the “interim government” led by Juan Guaidó. From 2019 onward, the U.S. government recognized Guaidó as the “interim president of Venezuela.” With the end of Guaidó’s administration, Tandon asked if “the United States still recognize[s] Juan Guaidó as legitimate interim president.” Price’s answer was that the US government recognizes the “only remaining democratically elected institution in Venezuela today, and that’s the 2015 National Assembly.” It is true that when the U.S. government supported Guaidó as the “interim president” of Venezuela, it did so because of his role as the rotating president in that National Assembly in 2019.

Washington’s ‘Democracy Promotion’ Spectacularly Fails In Venezuela

January 8, 2023 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. , , ,
The Los Angeles Times reports that “the audacious gamble by the U.S. government to…restore democracy” suffered a “spectacular failure” in Venezuela. What this State Department stenographer masquerading as a newspaper considers a “democratic” setback consisted of failing to impose unknown US security asset Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president. This man just got the boot from his own fractious opposition group, which voted 72-29 to disband his “interim government.” The Hill reports that the pretend president still claims the post and retains a “powerful network of support,” although not in his home country. Guaidó’s support comes from outside of Venezuela consisting of the likes of Democratic US Senators Dick Durbin and Bob Menendez along with the Biden State Department plus fellow neo-cons on the other side of the aisle.

Brazil: Defenders Return Embassy To Venezuelan Authorities

January 6, 2023 Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
This Monday, January 2, the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, deputy Jorge Rodríguez, received the keys to the headquarters of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Brazil from the hands of local social movements that, for more than three years, had protected the residence from attempts of aggression, siege, and attacks by fascism. Rodríguez, accompanied by the new Venezuelan ambassador to Brazil, Manuel Vicente Vadell, as well as the staff that works at the diplomatic headquarters, received the keys to the residence from João Pedro Stedile, Brazilian social leader. In 2019, the Venezuelan embassy in Brasília was subjected to occupation attempts by right-wing groups supported by the government of Jair Bolsonaro. This happened almost simultaneously with a similar attempt against the Venezuelan embassy in the US capital.

The Inglorious End Of Juan Guaidó

January 3, 2023 Ricardo Vaz, Venezuelanalysis. , , ,
And so it ended. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. After all, it was made of cardboard. It is very rare to have a political phenomenon beautifully encapsulated in a single moment or image. But in the case of (former) self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaidó, we got exactly that. On November 22, 2021, the Obama knockoff politician was giving a press conference in a fancy-looking set, with plenty of flags and a little podium. As he trudged along his nonsense something magical happened: the presidential shield behind him fell to the floor. It was made of cardboard. For all the absurdity that preceded and followed this episode, this will be Guaidó’s defining moment. Last week, his opposition allies finally had enough and decided to end the “interim government.”

Venezuela: Opposition Parties Oust Guaidó As ‘Interim President’

December 31, 2022 Ricardo Vaz, Venezuelanalysis. , , ,
Caracas - The three largest Venezuelan opposition groups voted to eliminate the so-called “interim government.” On Thursday, Democratic Action (AD), Justice First (PJ) and A New Era (UNT) followed through on their pledge to put an end to the bureaucratic apparatus led by self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaidó. The decision was taken during a virtual session of the defunct, opposition-controlled National Assembly (AN) elected in December 2015. Though its term ended in January 2021, the main anti-government parties boycotted the December 2020 legislative elections and instead kept a largely ceremonial parallel parliament by unilaterally extending its mandate on a yearly basis. Via a Zoom call, a project to reform the so-called “Transition Statute” garnered 72 votes in favor, 29 against and 8 abstentions.

Saab Oral Argument Focuses On Legitimacy Of Maduro Government

December 30, 2022 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going On in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
On December 20, in the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida, Judge Robert N. Scola heard oral arguments on Alex Saab’s motion to dismiss the case against him. The factual issue for the Court to decide was “whether Mr. Saab was a special envoy from Venezuela to Iran traveling on a mission when he was detained in Cape Verde and extradited to the U.S. and, therefore, entitled to diplomatic immunity.”  Dan was present for the hearing and will discuss, in detail, the hearing results.  WTF has been following The Case of Alex Saab since his detainment on Cape Verde 12 June 2020. Today is our third update.

Venezuelan Children Continue To Die Under US Sanctions

December 30, 2022 Andreína Chávez Alava, Venezuelanalysis. , , ,
Venezuelan human rights organization Fundalatin recently announced the death of Gabriel Cisneros, a Venezuelan child who could not receive a liver transplant because Washington’s murderous sanctions continue to paralyze the state-funded program that covered these procedures. Gabriel is sadly one more in a long list of victims of the US economic war. The Simón Bolívar Foundation is the social program of US-based Venezuelan oil subsidiary CITGO. It was created in 2006 by former President Hugo Chávez to help patients with rare cancers, especially children with leukemia, receive transplants and other life-saving treatments in hospitals abroad when these were not available in the country. However, financial sanctions imposed in 2017 against Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, CITGO’s parent company, blocked the Venezuelan government from using the international financial system, thus impeding payments for kids' treatments.

Saab Oral Argument Focuses On Legitimacy Of Maduro Government

December 27, 2022 Daniel Kovalik, Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
On December 12 to 13, 2022, an evidentiary hearing in the case of The United States v. Alex Saab was heard before Judge Robert Scola in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. In “Saab Hearing Proves He Deserves Diplomatic Immunity, Exposes Prosecution’s Duplicity” (coha.org, 12-16-22), I summarize the key facts presented by Alex Saab’s attorney in support of the following argument: “Saab was a diplomat, specifically a Special Envoy, of Venezuela, when he was captured in Cabo Verde, a country off the coast of West Africa in which Saab’s plane stopped to refuel on the way to Iran.  Saab, the defense contends, was and is therefore entitled to diplomatic immunity.” Here I provide an update on the hearing of December 20 in which Judge Scola heard legal arguments based upon the evidence submitted the week before.
«12345678910»
assetto corsa mods

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.