ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: Service members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces
On March 2nd, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo discussed the situation in Venezuela over the phone.
The conversation was held on US initiative and during it Lavrov condemned the American threats against her legitimate leadership, which is blatant interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state and a flagrant violation of international law. Instigation and destructive external influence, and even under the hypocritical pretext of rendering humanitarian aid, has nothing to do with the democratic process.
In connection with Washington’s proposal to hold bilateral consultations on Venezuelan issues, we have indicated that we are ready for this, but it is necessary to strictly follow the principles of the UN Charter, since only the Venezuelans have the right to determine their future.
On March 3rd, US-Proclaimed Interim President Juan Guaido announced his return to Venezuela.
He left the country to visit Colombia on February 22nd and has since visited several South American countries. He did so despite a prohibition to leave Venezuela by the country’s Supreme Court.
Anuncio mi regreso al país y la convocatoria de movilizaciones en todo el territorio nacional para este lunes y martes.
Difundamos este mensaje y estén muy atentos a nuestro llamado a través de las redes oficiales. #VamosBien
— Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) March 3, 2019
“I announce my return to the country and the call for mobilizations throughout the national territory for this Monday and Tuesday [March 4th and 5th]. Spread this message and be very attentive to our call through official networks.”
Ahead of his return, the EU Higher Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini released a statement saying that “any measure that could put at risk Juan Guaidó’s freedom, safety or personal integrity would represent a major escalation of tensions and meet the firm condemnation of the international community.”
Declaration by @FedericaMog on behalf of the EU ?? on #Venezuela ??
Any measure that could put at risk @jguaido’s freedom, safety or personal integrity would represent a major escalation of tensions & meet firm condemnation of international community.https://t.co/s3XNB7UYuC
— EU Council Press (@EUCouncilPress) March 2, 2019
Furthermore, the statement reminded that members of the National Assembly enjoy constitutionally granted immunity that needs to be fully respected. They should be able to exercise their parliamentary mandate free of intimidation on them or their family members.
Before returning to Venezuela, Guaido visited Ecuador, meeting with President Lenin Moreno. He went there after being invited by Moreno on February 28th.
He conversado con el presidente @jguaido. Le he invitado a Ecuador para que reciba el afecto y respaldo de un pueblo que ama la democracia.
— Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) March 1, 2019
“I’ve talked to the President @jguaido. I have invited him to Ecuador to receive the affection and support of a people who love democracy.”
Hoy Venezuela y Ecuador reivindicamos los lazos que nos unen.
Gracias Presidente @Lenin por respaldar nuestros esfuerzos por liberar y reconstruir a Venezuela.
Como naciones hermanas, seguiremos profundizando la cooperación mutua y fortaleciendo nuestras relaciones. #VamosBien pic.twitter.com/niDLPo5pJl
— Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) March 2, 2019
“Today Venezuela and Ecuador strengthen the bonds that unite us. Thank you @Lenin, President, for supporting our efforts to liberate and rebuild Venezuela. As sister nations, we will continue to deepen mutual cooperation and strengthen our relations.”
Prior to that he visited Argentina and spoke to Argentinian President Mauricio Mauri:
Ya nos encontramos en territorio argentino, donde nos reuniremos en instantes con el Presidente @mauriciomacri en el marco de nuestra agenda para que Venezuela recupere su democracia y conquiste su libertad. pic.twitter.com/SoCTM1bPpH
— Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) March 2, 2019
“#Argentina we are already in Argentine territory, where we will meet in moments with the President @mauriciomacri in the framework of our agenda for Venezuela to regain its democracy and conquer its freedom.”
And before that Paraguay:
Gracias Presidente @MaritoAbdo por acompañar decididamente nuestra lucha por recuperar la democracia en Venezuela.
Cuente con el apoyo de millones de venezolanos que también agradecen su respaldo y compromiso con nuestra libertad. pic.twitter.com/GZ22DWDiyD
— Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) March 1, 2019
“Thank you President @MaritoAbdo for accompanying decisively our struggle to recover democracy in Venezuela. Count on the support of millions of Venezuelans who also appreciate your support and commitment to our freedom”
Guaido also thanked Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández for the country’s contribution of 2 tons of humanitarian aid to Venezuela:
Gracias al Presidente @JuanOrlandoH y a todo el pueblo hondureño por la donación de dos toneladas de ayuda humanitaria para los venezolanos.
Seguiremos coordinando las acciones necesarias para lograr el ingreso de la comida y medicinas que tanto necesita nuestro país.
— Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) March 2, 2019
Meanwhile, on March 1st in response to the new sanctions imposed by the US against Venezuelan military officials, the Venezuelan government released a statement:
RT @jaarreaza: Venezuela rejects the intended imposition of unilateral coercive measures, wich are illegal, announced by the US government against Venezuelan military officers, as part of the failed strategy of Washington to promote a coup d'état. pic.twitter.com/f78DmuNBD0
— Nicolás Maduro (@maduro_en) March 2, 2019
The translated statement reads the following:
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects again and in the most categorical way, the alleged imposition of illegal unilateral coercive measures announced today by the United States government against Venezuelan military officers, as part of the failed strategy of Washington to promote and provoke an uprising against the Constitutional Government of the Constitutional President Nicolás Maduro.
The Trump administration thus admits its purpose to harm military patriots by acting in defense of the Constitution, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Venezuela, through actions aimed at repelling what evidently constituted a rude attempt of invasion to the country and a flagrant aggression to the dignity of the Venezuelan people.
In its sickly eagerness to undermine the institutions and the laws of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Washington has recognized that, appealing to the most infamous media, it intends to break the nationalist commitment of the Venezuelan military, going so far as to resort to attempts at bribery and direct threat, recurrently running into a wall of dignity and loyalty to the people, of the worthy officers of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces.
The Bolivarian Government demands the immediate cessation of the multiform aggression and demands that the international community enforce the Charter of the United Nations in its fundamental principles and purposes, in order to stop this obsessive imperialist onslaught against the sovereign people of Venezuela.”
Meanwhile, Ana Rosario Contreras, president of the School of Nurses of Caracas and an opposition supporter alleged that the Maduro government is to blame for any patient that dies in Venezuela.
#28Feb Ana Rosario Contreras, presidenta del Colegio de Enfermeras de Caracas: Fuimos objeto de mentiras por parte del gobierno que hoy usurpa Nicolás Maduro. Si en Venezuela muere un paciente es culpa de los usurpadores. pic.twitter.com/DvzBU7gnLO – @TVVnoticias
— Reporte Ya (@ReporteYa) February 28, 2019
“We were the object of lies by the government that Nicolás Maduro is usurping today, where are the medicines that were going to reach the Periférico de Catia, or the Pérez de León? You have lied to the country, we can not continue to allow health to continue to be a show, and every time a patient dies it is the responsibility of the usurper, “Contreras said.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton also used the chance to continue his accusations:
Maduro has lied about the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, he contracts criminals to burn food and medicine intended for the Venezuelan people, and now he is lying about purported aid from Russia. https://t.co/yQDscA6CSq
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) March 2, 2019
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I hope the Venezuelan authorities dont play it politically correct and the moment he step his foot in the country he is in prison where he belongs on his way to be hanged in public view.
The Venezuelan Supreme Court is not subordinate to any external court, so they should have full powers of justice. What is the penalty for traitors and fake Presidents who enact armed insurrection?
A very slow acid bath feet first an inch at the time in my territories. It is beyond my comprehension the thinking of the alleged western justice system, so I will not comment on that. To low and pathetic mentality.
A nice legal trial then hang him.
And bury Guaido in unconsecrated ground with a US flag over his coffin :)
Cremate him and send half of him to Bolton + half the flag and the other half to Abrams.
Would Bolton and Abrams prefer the cooked Guaido carcass Well Done or Rare , do you think Al ?
I suspect that Abrams is also a raw liver eater myself :)
And a sandwich to pompeo?
Yeah, they can’t make their own rope to hang them.
‘The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.'(Lenin) He sure knew the Americun mind.
For a year now I´ve been following the situation in Venezuela from Mexico. I don´t support Maduro at all, he is a tyrant and he literally couldn´t care less for his people. He created his own Congress when he lost majority in the original one, prosecuted journalists and opposition members and parties, rigged elections and so on.
BUT, I don´t support Guaidó either. He is a puppet for the US Goverment in order to get Venezuela´s resources. A clown who claims himself to be the President when no one has elected him. Calling for intervention in his own country.
So yeah, venezuelans have it hard.
Do you come from a privileged background with Spanish/European ancestry? That would explain the “Maduro is a tyrant” line. People do not like to lose their privileges, do they, Joel?
So, do you support the sanctions against “tyrant Maduro” that has cost $20 billion of assets and $1.2 billion of gold looted by the US controlled Bank of England? Nice trick to sanction a country to destroy its economy and then shed crocodile tears for its people!
Maduro is a tyrant according to the racist Venezuelan oligarchy. Chavez and Maduro, in twenty years, have distributed 2,500,000 houses to the poor and homeless. I challenge you to see homelessness in Caracas or in Venezuela as you see in Mexico City or Los Angeles. Today, Colombians are far poorer than Venezuelans. What you have in Venezuela is an economic siege intended to starve the population into submission. The United States wants to steal Venezuela’s oil. This has been publicly stated by Trump. It is irrelevant whether you like Maduro or not, Venezuela needs protection, and Maduro’s job is to defend Venezuela’s sovereignty.
Well said.
So you do not believe Bolton perspective on mad Maduro the evil dictator?
Why do you even ask?
But such a convincing story!!!!!!!
I liked that Hesballah part of it. :) The rest was just boring.
Exactly!! Agreed.
It took you a year and you still don’t get it…
No one has answered me about the rigged elections or the artificial Congress, or the prosecution of opposition members. This is not propaganda guys, these are facts.
Your dectractors are very one-sided. You can see that from their black and white statements: privileged vs non-privileged, European (it’s always their fault!) non-Eurpean. Now, it is true that Chávez (and then Maduro) have catered to a part of the population that had been disenfranchised, it is also true, that rich elites are against him. Still, Chávez also established a cliental-system… not all the poor and disenfranchised are supported. The “Bolivarians” to me are still a better choice than Guaidó but you’re right that they supress real opposition that also exists… even by people who are not disgustingly white and European. Venezuela’s problem is that of any oil-rich country: the US will never let them in peace until they’re destroyed and ruined.
” these are facts.” Your facts are indeed, FAKE FACTS.
Here is a report by UN election observers of the 2018 Venezuelan elections.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13899
” We ( The observers from the EU ,US and elsewhere here ) noted, in particular, not only the sophistication of the voting system which, in our collective view, is fraud-proof, but also that every stage, from the vote itself to the collation of returns, their verification and electronic submission, was conducted in the presence of representatives of the contending parties.”
Well played sir.
Check!
I daresay that he was schooled in chess by CNN :)
The Venezuelan voting system puts most, if not all of the world to shame.
The British and US systems are easily abused, and it amazes be that in the UK , a voter only has to identify themselves with a name and to confirm their address to the poll station staff. Added to that , postal votes are an invitation to defraud.
This suggests to me that the UK establishment, and others , do not want a secure system of voting with a registration card containing fingerprint and eye scans in order to vote .
I agrre with you hypothesis. Keep status quo at home at all costs, seek to have everybody follow our own rules so we can stay on top.
MAKES SENSE TO ME!!!
You have no facts. Zero.
What and so you just pop here to give us your wise words !!!!.
Joel Ontiveros only popped in to deliver his Talking Point of the Day from ‘US Nonsense News Inc’ based in Langley, together with offices in Tel Aviv, Al.
Looks that way.
How is it that the elections to the National Assembly were free and fair, but the Constituent Assembly were rigged?
“The National Assembly (Spanish: Asamblea Nacional) is the de jure legislature for Venezuela that was first elected in 2000. The National Assembly has been rendered ceremonial since the introduction of the Constituent Assembly in 2017. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who were elected by a “universal, direct, personal, and secret” vote partly by direct election in state-based voting districts, and partly on a state-based party-list proportional representation system.”
– National Assembly (Venezuela) –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Assembly_(Venezuela)
“Approximately two-thirds (364) of Assembly members were elected by municipal citizens while members of seven social sectors — including trade unions, communal councils, indigenous groups, farmers, students, and pensioners — elected the remaining one-third (181) of members.”
– Venezuelan Constituent Assembly –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Venezuelan_Constituent_Assembly_election
Not as hard a Libyans. Look at what transpired in that country very closely.
The removal of Maduro will have same effect.
Like i told a smarter guy than you,” unless maduro puts babies on his cornflakes, intervetion in venezuela is out of the question!!”.
The US having to go to Russia over this is pretty significant to me. Russia’s ties with Venezuela are deepening and that is an insurmountable roadblock to US intentions for Venezuela. The movement of Venezuela’s oil company HQ from Lisbon to Moscow, put much of the pressure on it, completely out of reach and it probably came by surprise and blew them out of the water. It would not surprise me to learn they had actually started the change, physically relocating, even before the crisis occurred. That is how Russia plays the game. They are many moves ahead, in general, before the first pawn is even pushed.
The support for Guaidó I am observing, is not much more than token in nature and mass. This is not longterm, heavy duty support. It was already set forth in Peru, that military intervention is something the US will be doing alone, if it choses. That was a gigantic deflation of the situation. The nonsense is going to continue for a very long time but, with ever diminishing effect. Venezuela is adjusting and gradually strengthening. After President Trump leaves office, either this term or next, the next president will probably be very unmotivated to continue something that is bleeding the US to unacceptable levels. My take, I wish well to all.
“Ahead of his return, the EU Higher Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini released a statement saying that “any measure that could put at risk Juan Guaidó’s freedom, safety or personal integrity would represent a major escalation of tensions and meet the firm condemnation of the international community.”
Fuck off EU, you put citizens in jail for saying the Islamic invasion is bad for Europe, you put civilians in jail for people insulting the Muslim terrorists AFTER they carry out a bloody terrorist attack.
STFU and stop licking the Yankee arses.
Al, you’re blind. This is just to confirm that Guaidó must not be physically attacked. It’s a very general statement; it has nothing to do with what you describe with somebody’s behind.
” Al, you’re blind ” And you are as usual being economic with the truth Davki.
But that’s what your kind are engaged to do, is it not ?
What a nice way to to say filthy fucking liar.
Its the polite British way of words ,Mike. :)
Point is Guano violated a supreme court order. He should be promptly arrested.
You are the one that is blind. Blind to the law!
Just the mere thought of the EU lackeys licking the humungous Yankee Arse has put me off my lunch ,Al :)
Sorry. But you have to come with it soon, relax now and think of it over dinner.
https://i.imgflip.com/v0yj1.jpg
If Maduro’s head on a stake is what Venezuela wants, so be it.
But being sold out to the Americans by a handful of political stooges doesn’t seem any better than whatever malfeasance can be ascribed to Maduro.
Humanitarian aid container awaiting transport into Venezuela :
https://imgc.artprintimages.com/img/print/exterior-of-the-replica-trojan-horse-troy-anatolia-turkey-minor_u-l-p7wap40.jpg?h=550&w=550
There is plenty of leeway within the Venezuelan constitution to arrest Guaido for a variety of crimes not covered by legislative immunity. Starting with violating the terms of outstanding court orders. Like making illegal border crossings in violation of an outstanding court order. If Guaido wants to contest court orders, he can hire a lawyer to defend him in court after he’s arrested. Right now he’s in blatant violation of one or more court orders.
Legislative immunity can also be waived for crimes like misappropriation of funds. Which it’s pretty obvious that he’s involved in.
He belongs in jail. https://www.pressenza.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Guaido-Puppet.png