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Once again there was a wild robber gun in Venezuela. A conflict with the United States has been smoldering for many years because Venezuela has huge oil reserves, but their extraction is only worthwhile if the oil price is relatively high. So the United States first put pressure on the Saudis to produce more oil and then launched their fracking revolution to keep the price of oil artificially low, at the expense of the health of its own population if need be.
There were also coup attempts (one happened to have a BBC camera team on site and kept it up, the film is called "The revolution will not be televised") and, like Castro, all adventurous attempts to murder President Chavez. Only oil prices have really had an impact. In the end, Chavez died mysteriously and suddenly of cancer, in an action reminiscent of the Polonium of the Russians from the outside.
Since then, his protege Maduro has been reigning, but no longer has the oil income to really continue Chavez's programs. In Venezuela there is a small white elite that mercilessly exploits the rest of the population, the poor indigenous people, and which also owns the media. Chavez had taken the oil production away from them and nationalized it and countered their TV stations with a public TV station.
Western reporting on Venezuela is largely shaped by the allegations and allegations made by Venezuela's elite media and the US propaganda machine. That doesn't mean Maduro is a successful president, but if the government in Venezuela claims to have prevented a coup attempt, that's about three orders of magnitude more credible than if the United States had a "counter-president" established and its vassal states forced to quickly recognize him, because Maduro is supposed to be illegitimate.
Anyway, what happened now? Maduro announced that he had mobilized 25,000 soldiers because of an attempted invasion by the United States. That sounds completely absurd, but it turns out: he puffs it up for his propaganda, but the key message is correct.
A Florida veteran, Jordan Goudreau, had said before Maduro's speech that he had worked with the two arrested Americans on a mission to "liberate" Venezuela. They are also former US soldiers with whom he served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Technically speaking, this was actually an attempted invasion involving US soldiers.
Goudreau initially added that he had made a pact with the US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó to overthrow Maduro. However, Guaidó never complied with the agreement. Nevertheless, Goudreau claims to be advancing with an underfunded operation involving almost 60 fighters, including the two U.S. veterans. Guaidó, however, denied any involvement.
It just doesn't look like the US government was involved. It was just another free spinning Florida Man with his private army.
The reality is that this involved disgruntled Venezuelan military, former police, deserters, political opponents of the Maduro government, and was training in Colombia, and somehow thought that by landing two boats — one in Macuto, right next to the major airport and port, and the other one in Chuao in the state of Aragua — that they would somehow manage to get to Caracas and capture Maduro and install a new government. It is almost fictional.
originally posted by: ManFromEurope
"In Venezuela there is a small white elite that mercilessly exploits the rest of the population, the poor indigenous people, and which also owns the media."
originally posted by: Meniscus
a reply to: DerBeobachter
There is a $15,000,000 bounty placed on Maduro by the US for running a narco state and to face drug trafficking charges. I'm sure that bounty was at least in the back of these guys minds.
originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck
originally posted by: ManFromEurope
"In Venezuela there is a small white elite that mercilessly exploits the rest of the population, the poor indigenous people, and which also owns the media."
OK, kids, this sentence is key. A few years back, I read that the Venezuelan upper classes were going to overthrow the Socialist government by shutting down the economy. They would simply not use their collective wealth to provide jobs, commerce, any manner of economic norms that inject money into the system. They'd just head off to Spain, and wait for the cookie to crumble.
...and here we are today. Think I can find any reference to that scheme? Nopers. Suspicious about that fact? Yup.
originally posted by: Meniscus
originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck
originally posted by: ManFromEurope
"In Venezuela there is a small white elite that mercilessly exploits the rest of the population, the poor indigenous people, and which also owns the media."
OK, kids, this sentence is key. A few years back, I read that the Venezuelan upper classes were going to overthrow the Socialist government by shutting down the economy. They would simply not use their collective wealth to provide jobs, commerce, any manner of economic norms that inject money into the system. They'd just head off to Spain, and wait for the cookie to crumble.
...and here we are today. Think I can find any reference to that scheme? Nopers. Suspicious about that fact? Yup.
To blame "White Elites" for a Socialist Governments own mismanagement after taking over these industries is a false premise. After nationalizing so many businesses and industries who would invest in Venezuela?
originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck
originally posted by: Meniscus
originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck
originally posted by: ManFromEurope
"In Venezuela there is a small white elite that mercilessly exploits the rest of the population, the poor indigenous people, and which also owns the media."
OK, kids, this sentence is key. A few years back, I read that the Venezuelan upper classes were going to overthrow the Socialist government by shutting down the economy. They would simply not use their collective wealth to provide jobs, commerce, any manner of economic norms that inject money into the system. They'd just head off to Spain, and wait for the cookie to crumble.
...and here we are today. Think I can find any reference to that scheme? Nopers. Suspicious about that fact? Yup.
To blame "White Elites" for a Socialist Governments own mismanagement after taking over these industries is a false premise. After nationalizing so many businesses and industries who would invest in Venezuela?
You miss my premise. I read that this would deliberately be engineered to topple the government and take the resources out of the hands of the people...and now we see the process at work. As far as who would do business with a socialist government...seem to have no problems working with the Chinese and they're just a mite to the left, eh?
I'm no economist, but I can read.
originally posted by: Meniscus
a reply to: DerBeobachter
There is a $15,000,000 bounty placed on Maduro by the US for running a narco state and to face drug trafficking charges. I'm sure that bounty was at least in the back of these guys minds.