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“Zero Day” for Violent Regime Change in Venezuela
The U.S. supports the right-wing opposition in Venezuela against the socialist government of President Maduro.
Since April the opposition tries to dislodge the government by instigating a regime change by force. Its protests and street fights with the police are led by violent, militarized gangs:
Venezuela’s ongoing street protests are increasingly looking like outright warfare. As security forces shoot rubber bullets, tear-gas canisters and sometimes live rounds at the churning crowds, increasingly restive mobs are responding with lethal slingshots, homemade mortars and Molotov cocktails.
This week, seven National Guard members were injured in Caracas when a roadside bomb exploded as they drove by on motorcycles.
Leading the opposition shock-troops are loose-knit groups of young men and women that have names like The Templars, The Warriors and The Arcadias. Collectively, they’re known as the Chamos de la Resistencia or, roughly, the Youth Resistance.
This is not just by chance a similar development as was seen during the U.S. instigated color revolutions by force in Libya, Ukraine and Syria. Para-military forces hiding behind "peaceful protesters" attack police, military and civil government institutions to provoke an escalation towards a civil war. Last week the opposition in Venezuela announced that today is the "zero day" for another violent coup attempt against President Maduro:
The fugitive police pilot who allegedly stole a helicopter and used it to attack Venezuela's Supreme Court has appeared at an opposition rally in the capital, Caracas, attendees tell CNN.
Oscar Perez, an officer in the country's investigative police force, addressed the gathering, urging the opposition to continue protesting.
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"A general walkout for July 18, walkout with no return. The zero-hour will start on Tuesday. The referendum we'll do it, with dignity, we'll be in the street defending the people."
The date was confirmed yesterday:
Venezuelan opposition leaders have called for their supporters to escalate street protests and support a 24-hour national strike later this week after more than 7.1 million people rejected a government plan to rewrite the constitution.
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A coalition of some 20 opposition parties assembled in its headquarters Monday to call for a “zero hour” campaign of civil disobedience in the two weeks leading to the government vote.
On Sunday the opposition held a private poll in which less people attended than the opposition had hoped for. No results but the number of attendees was announced:
The opposition released only turnout numbers Sunday night, not tallies of responses to those questions, although virtually all who voted were believed to have answered “yes” to the central rejection of the constitutional rewrite.
There are some 19 million registered voters in Venezuela. A seven million turnout for a private poll, if real, is significant but neither decisive nor relevant. The hiding of the results lets one assume that the answers to the poll questions were not in favor of the opposition's plan.
It is difficult to ascertain what the real opinion of people in Venezuela is. Polls in the country are traditionally skewed. Maduro's economic polices, restricted by falling oil prices, sabotage by rich im- and exporters and U.S. sanction, was not successful. But the 2015 National Assembly vote won by the opposition was more a protest vote against the economic problems than a vote for the opposition's vague program.
It is obvious that the opposition in Venezuela is heavily supported by the various regime change institutions of the United States. Some of its operatives have deep ties with DEA and the CIA. U.S. media is -as usual- completely on the side of the U.S. regime change program. It has long agitated against the socialist government of Venezuela.
An official Trump statement on Venezuela released yesterday is noticeable for its lack of facts:
Yesterday, the Venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom, and rule of law. Yet their strong and courageous actions continue to be ignored by a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator.
The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles. If the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions.
Would Trump write a similar statement about the will of the "American people" if Democrats held a private poll against him with an assured multi-million strong turnout?
The Maduro government has called for a July 30 vote to elect members of an upcoming constitutional assembly. There is nothing "imposed" with that. The opposition will try to sew chaos in the streets up to that date and likely has planned for some culmination point of action.
The government has so far reacted passively to the violent protests. The police protects some government buildings and removes some road blocking barricades. But no arrest wave or more assertiveness for government control has been ordered. One wonders at what point such measures will become inevitable.
@107
I’ll do this once to prove a point.
“I couldn’t care less what you think considering everyone else didn’t post links either why is it me that somehow needs to proof myself.”
You like to frame this as if you had a deeper knowledge than us when it comes to the topic, so naturally, you’re held to a higher standard.
“If I did post a link you’d probably say it’s fake anyway considering the attitude you show me without even knowing me. Take another more neutral comment from an actual Venezuelan Garrett or Guy who are not rushing to the defence of Maduro either.”
I personally don’t have time, so honestly, I wouldn’t read any of your sources, so I won’t hold you to having any, but how does living somewhere provide deeper knowledge? I live in the American Midwest. Nobody, especially young people, understands anything about local issues. If anything, personal experience is limiting in ‘understanding’ because emotions get in the way too quickly.
“I agree with Garrett with most, funny what difference it makes to actually talk to someone who knows the country and region.”
This kind of passive aggressive ‘you don’t really understand’ attitude is why we hold you to a higher standard.
“Garrett I agree but I think Maduro has next to zero say in actual decision making, it’s down to Padrino, Aissami and maybe Diosdado that run the show with a few lesser known actors and Cuba, the different factions exist of course. Maduro belongs to the more pro-Cuban one, Padrino and Diosdado are more in the drug business. For the time being they all stick together though out of necessity because they fear losing control more than their enemies within their ranks. What is sure is that the Chavismo the support it had and the almost god-like veneration Chávez achieved during his lifetime died with him. No one in the camp of the ‘oficialismo’ comes even close to his charisma. Yes western MSM exaggerate with reports of food riots and queues, it is true one can still find food at rates most ordinary Venezuelans cannot afford. People queue though because often they have o choice for lack of income and basic staples such as coffee have become luxuries for many, I’m sure you’d agree. Also it’s no lie that the people were impoverished through the devaluation of the Bolívar. Look at the minimum wage and where it was in 1998 i.e.”
Ministry factionalism, typical ‘drug conspiracy’ claims, the personality cult, leadership charisma, (uncensored) private media exaggerations, shortages, devalued currency, and (I assume) devalued wages. Maybe this wasn’t the best comment to prove the point, but this is indicative of my main issue regarding your comments: the lack of coherency. If you have a lot to say, you’re poor at explaining it (in context) to us laymans (and so, the anger).
“How does one evil justify another? I never claimed the US was a moral authority.”
You seem relatively ambiguous about where you think the U.S. government stands in all this (when it comes to solutions). I think the U.S. should have no involvement at all, including any sanctions and IMF credits. You?
“But I also have to disagree when b tries to portray the military junta as a victim of agression by the opposition.”
Aggression, in this case means: who shot first. The case can be made (although I’m indifferent, as a Leninist), and ‘military junta’ is rhetoric, not an explanation of an (apparent) expert who is (apparently) trying to explain all of this to us. I find the Carter Center, the EU, and the OAS (and the polls of Hinterlaces and Datanalysis) far more conclusive in their results, finding the early presidential elections (and later parliamentary elections) as being fair and transparent, millions of workers having and continuing to support the central government, and the overwhelming majority of the country supporting variations of socialist policy, compared to the ‘populist neoliberal’ policy of the street rioting (which is opposed by the overwhelming majority of the population) opposition.
Side comment: think of Russia. It lost all social support for neo-liberal policy in the aftermath of the ‘Harvard reforms.’ One poll showed more than half of the social base of the first President of the Russian Republic had regretted voting for him in early Soviet elections and admitted they would’ve have had voted for him if they knew his (secret) policy of comprehensive privatization of the Russian economy. The same history will unfold in Venezuela if the opposition ever comes to power (after, of course, a real anti-Chavismo military repression shows how passive this ‘military junta’ actually was). For some reason, I feel like you won’t be arguing about it with us when it’s being publicly recorded in the New York Times.
I might agree that diversifying export markets, buying less Western imports, receiving less IMF credits, and setting the exchange rate to favoring a higher value of U.S. currency (allowing black market scams to monopolize it, and naturally, most resources) wasn’t clearly a long-term solution, but what is it you’re offering that would have solved these contradictions of policy (in the context of U.S. threats and sanctions)? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you support Russia and China offering credit and infrastructure investments (and I support this), but is foreign direct investment really enough to solve this problem fundamentally?
“If you could listen to Maduro or Diosdado for only 1 hour each you’d know what I mean, it’s brute incompetence that has ruined the country.”
Rhetoric, and not policy, shows this?
“We’re talking about a military junta that completely reshuffles its cabinet every few months. Rafael Ramirez was energy minister under Chavez, foreign minister during Maduro, then appointed oil and mining minister and now representative at the UN in New York. And that’s just one example.”
When was a High Cabinet or Ministry ever elected anywhere? Reshuffling could explain a lack of risk taking, diversity in thought, nepotism, and political creativity (and this could relate to the current crisis), but even if there was a consistent change (mostly young or new members joining high ranking positions in the Ministry, which isn’t itself a bad idea), there could still very well be a lack of risk taking, diversity in thought, nepotism, and political creativity in the leadership. Most, if not all post-colonial governments, irrespective of ‘reshuffling policy,’ struggle to have found efficient alternatives to liberal capitalism or social democracy.
“Look where Colombia and Venezuela were security-wise in 1998 and where they are now? Almost reversed in order.”
Do you mean homicide rates? If so, according to the UNODC, Venezuela has twice as many homicides (per capita), and the opposite was true a decade ago, but if this is mostly gang related (as it is in the United States and Mexico; and El Salvador and Honduras, where Chavismo isn’t located and per capita homicide rates are the highest in Central and South America), how does this help the ‘authoritarian thesis?’
“And that is not to say I take Colombia as the role-model to follow, not at all. That country suffers its share of problems also due to US controlled drug violence, but one evil doesn’t justify another.”
Is the social environment created by drug cartels not a major factor for homicide rates in Venezuela? Oh, right, it’s all the junta. I’ll assume there wasn’t a drug problem until 1998.
If not Colombia, then what model? That’s the problem. You make this seem like it’s easy when it isn’t, and presume cases against the government, and take vague positions, and use cheap rhetoric, and pretend you know more than us (behind the veil of a lot of vague positions, including your anti-interventionism relating to this issue), and most importantly, you hold the government to standards no country in the world is held to (you think every federal mandate should be legally binded by popular referendums, and I assume, with your junta obsession, think a High Cabinet or Ministry should be elected directly).
@115
I concur Alexander is a faux-contrarian and you know nothing about Zimbabwe (you can be dismissed because you made no real argument, and your rhetoric isn’t even stirring enough to deserve real response).
Posted by: anonymous | Jul 21 2017 23:46 utc | 123
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