On February 7th, a fugitive Venezuelan Colonel was shown on video confessing to ties with the CIA and Colombian officials. He was captured in January after slipping back into the country.
“Colonel Oswaldo Garcia Palomo, 54, who’d publicly professed plans for rebellion and whose welfare was the focus of international attention, is shown looking reasonably fit in a dress shirt standing against a neutral background. He described logistical support and freedom to enter and exit Colombia as he worked last year to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government,” Bloomberg reported.
La CIA estructuró un equipo de militares para realizar una operación en Caracas
La CIA estructuró un equipo de militares para realizar una operación contra la Base Aerea La Carlota y las comunicaciones de la Gran Caracas. Aquí el video con la confesión de CNEL(R) Oswaldo Valentín Garcia Palomo tras ser capturado por las autoridades venezolanas
Posted by Prensa Presidencial on Thursday, February 7, 2019
“We managed to get a very important group together,” Garcia said. He added that he spoke with a CIA agent in Tampa, Florida, who told him the U.S. was considering military action in the first quarter of 2019. Garcia said he told the agent he and his group wanted to carry out a coup without U.S. help. “Let’s resolve this ourselves, we Venezuelans,” he said.
The video was posted by Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez at a press conference in Caracas. According to him, Garcia had ties to the opposition and intended to rally soldiers to mutiny, close off the capital and overtake the presidential palace.
“We were following Mr. Garcia Palomo’s extensive operation very closely,” Rodriguez said, adding the colonel was captured on January 30 by intelligence officials who infiltrated his group. “He provided abundant testimonies that lasted hours and hours, all of which he gave voluntarily.”
Alonso Medina, Garcia’s lawyer, said in a telephone interview that Garcia showed signs of torture including bruises on his abdomen, cuts on his legs, and burns on his wrists. “He also told me they injected some unknown substance into his hands.’’
Meanwhile, images of alleged defectors from the Venezuelan military are circulating online:
Click to see full-size images
Click to see full-size images
Click to see full-size images
In the early hours of February 8th, the Tienditas bridge at the Venezuelan-Colombian border remained blocked, BBC reported.
US-proclaimed Interim President Juan Guaido on Twitter said that everything with the delivery of humanitarian aid was going according to plan and the trucks are en route to the collection center in Cucuta.
¡Venezuela, vamos avanzando!
Ya está llegando al centro de acopio en Cúcuta el primer avance de la #AyudaHumanitaria para atender a los venezolanos más vulnerables.
La primera fase sigue con centros de acopio en tres países aliados.#AvanzaAyudaHumanitaria#VamosBien pic.twitter.com/HluLkv5xMk
— Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) February 7, 2019
NBC News reported that “over 50,000 Venezuelans cross the Simón Bolívar Bridge into Colombia on a daily basis to pick up much needed supplies including diapers, medicine and toilet paper. The families are hungry and desperate to feed their children.”
Meanwhile, Fox news cited Navy Adm. Craig S. Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command who testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 7th. He said that Maduro, fearing for his own safety, has “completely surround[ed]” himself with Cuban security. “I think it’s a good sense of where the loyalty of the Venezuelan people are, that his immediate security force is made up of Cubans.”
“I don’t have that number” but “I’d say there are many,” Faller said.
Faller added that Russia and China have been involved in what intelligence officials say are measures to support Maduro’s regime. “We’ve seen reporting of Russian security forces being flown in,” he said. “China’s not been helpful in a diplomatic way, I’ll leave that to the diplomats but China’s in there and they’re involved in cyber ways that are not helpful to a democratic outcome.”
On February 6th, US National Security Adviser John Bolton tweeted that the US is considering lifting sanctions on Venezuelan military officers that join the opposition’s side.
The U.S. will consider sanctions off-ramps for any Venezuelan senior military officer that stands for democracy and recognizes the constitutional government of President Juan Guaido. If not, the international financial circle will be closed off completely. Make the right choice!
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) February 6, 2019
This was also supported by US Senator Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban descent.
Time running out for #Venezuela military leaders to defend constitution by recognizing @jguaido & supporting #Maduro exit.
If you do U.S. willing to abide by amnesty law & potentially remove sanctions.
If you don’t you be live the rest of your days as an international pariah.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 6, 2019
He also used the chance to smear Maduro’s government a bit:
Apparently #Maduro is blocking $5 million Global Fund shipment of HIV & AIDS medicine from entering #Venezuela. This is a death sentence to those who depend on anti-virals for survival.
Military leaders who cooperate with this sadistic tactic will be as guilty of them as Maduro
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 6, 2019
Elliot Abrams, the new US envoy on the Venezuelan crisis, said that Washington was revoking the visas of an unspecified number of members of the Constituent Assembly.
“The body has usurped many of the constitutional powers of the legitimate National Assembly and embodies Maduro’s destruction of democratic institutions,” Abrams told reporters.
He also denounced a meeting in Montevideo of ministers from more than a dozen European and Latin American countries who are seeking a mediated path to end Venezuela’s standoff.
Meanwhile, peace activists from CODEPINK arrived at John Bolton’s home on early February 5th “to deliver a symbolic indictment for his participation in war crimes against the people of Venezuela, Palestine, Iran, and Iraq.” They called for Bolton to be taken to the Hague and tried for war crimes.
5/6 Sabotaging international law, particularly the International Criminal Court, threatening sanctions and travel bans against those who cooperate with the court
— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) February 5, 2019
On his side, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in the early hours of February 8th shared “Open Letter to the People of the United States.” It is being signed by the free people of Venezuela and the world. It is to be delivered to the White House in the following days.
I share the "Open Letter to the People of the United States," which is being signed by the free people of Venezuela and the world. We are going to deliver it to the White House to demand respect for our inalienable right to Peace. pic.twitter.com/qtaV5SqgqC
— Nicolás Maduro (@maduro_en) February 8, 2019
The translated letter can be found on Popular Resistance.
Maduro said he planned to collect 10 million signatures against the interference of the US into Venezuela’s internal affairs.
“Today, Venezuela is united in one only cry, demanding the assault seeking the asphyxiation of our economy and society to stop,” said Maduro speaking from the Plaza Bolivar in the capital, “As well as the serious threats of military intervention in Venezuela.”
“I have just signed the petition supporting the peace, the sacred sovereignty of Venezuela, the right to independence and self-determination of the Venezuelan people. Empire, hands off Venezuela! Venezuela deserves respect,” he added.
Maduro also said that the provision of humanitarian aid was just a cover up for military plans.
“The humanitarian crisis is only a cover for the military plans of the Trump government. The whole crisis in Venezuela is that the United States imposed sanctions and imposed a financial blockade”, he stated.
On February 7th, Kremlim Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there were no plans for the potential evacuation of Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela.
“This issue has not been raised,” he said when asked about the Kremlin’s view about other countries’ proposals to guarantee immunity to the Venezuelan leader and evacuate him from the country. However, there was no exchange of views with the US.
The Kremlin spokesman assured that Moscow would try to convince its foreign partners to keep a neutral stance. “An intensive exchange of views with all foreign partners is underway,” he said. “During our contacts we stress that any foreign interference is unacceptable and that such meddling is malign and there may be catastrophic consequences of any military interference in this situation by third countries.”
Guy confessing things after being captured by a dictatorship? Yeah, I believe that. I also believe that that 2nd hand car was only being driven by an old lady on sundays. And that that Nigerian princess will send me a couple of millions if I send her $10.000 to make it happen.
I’m weary about any confessions though, I’ve seen too many criminal cases where the police kept mentally pressuring someone until they cracked and confessed to crimes that were later proven they didn’t commit.
Are you trying to tell us that US has nothing to do with another regime change attempt, this time in Venesuela? Dictatorship? Who are you to call Venesuelian government a dictatorship? Western world if fine with Saudi Arabia – I guess they love “thriving democracy” over there?
But what about Hezbollah in VZ??
Not to mention this article has elements from a Bloomberg article that are saying he was tortured. Thank god they are so unbiased and totally believable. NOT. But I also love the way some immediately jump on the Maduro is a dictator bandwagon. The fact that he was re-elected with far more support that any recent US president means squat? I guess the part about this guy being caught after returning from Columbia is a non-sequitur? or maybe the fact that he openly promotes insurrection is suddenly moot? What about those that support Maduro that have been set afire..by the same group supporting Guano? I guess some people could even see ISIS as a victim in such light. I personally do not care what happens to those that would commune with the neocons from the north, for they are selling their country for what? Personal gain? Power? Certainly not for the people in their country that they swore to serve.
Well said.
Do you also believe that Guantanamo is a nature loving spa-holiday camp for a few lucky ones handpicked by the CIA…?
Of course I am. Why shouldn’t I? The TV and the internet tells me so. Also didn’t you get the holiday brochure?
Of cource you are what ?
Awwww, you say the poor gullible weak-willed army colonel was pressured into confessing? What were you saying about Nigerian princesses? But why would they want to pressure him into falsely confessing anything? He’s a colonel in the armed forces; the last thing the Venezuelan government needs is to create divisions in the military. And the PSUV has always worked hard to get the military on side with the Bolivarian agenda; the dirty little secret of the 2002 coup is that it failed only partly because the people came down from the hills, but mainly because the army rank and file refused to stop them. There’s no way they would have grabbed a senior military guy if they didn’t know for bloody sure he was guilty.
Side note: As others have mentioned, the Venezuelan government is not a dictatorship. The Venezuelan government is also unusually non-repressive by our modern “democratic” standards; people routinely get away with saying stuff on national TV or in major newspapers that would get them in deep trouble in most Western democracies and certainly in the United States.
Having mental diarrhea? First off, you don’t need a dictatorship in order to torture, the US is proof of that. Secondly, there no reason to assume he was – he simply noticed he played the wrong card.
Firstly, I said that confessions can be extracted in other countries too. There’s examples all over Europe in that regard as well.
Secondly, no reason to assume that he was? Yeah, right. If you believe that I have a 2nd hand car for you. Only being driven by an old lady on sundays.
Washington have failed on creation Syrian and Iraqi type chaos and coup in Turkey. Washington will again failed in Venezuela now
We are not finished in Turkey yet. We still controle the Kurds…………………………….LOL.
the kurds are the eternal tenants on the borders with turkey, syria, iraq and iran and there is nothing indicating that that will change anytime soon – the destitute states of morons (aka usa) is in the process to let the feckers down without it being too obvious that they are being let go of. what a larf, what gullible fools while the morons from moronistan try their hands on venezuela, bound to be a big cluster fuck or as they say a solid snafu moronistan way! what a larf!!!!!
Control is what you wanted to say,is it not….
Yeh may be may be not but as much I know the global Zionists conspirators will keep continue their plans in Turkey until Kurds shout out fuck Washington and Tel Aviv, we don’t need them, burn their flags.
So, Abrams “denounced a meeting in Montevideo of more than a dozen European and Latin American countries seeking a mediated end to the standoff”. Well now, what does Europe and Latin America say to Mr. Abrams… anything? Good to see Russia and China continuing to support Maduro. Perhaps China can start dumping some U.S. T-bonds, they’ll be worthless in a few years anyway.
Just more US arm twisting, reminding them who owns them…at least for now. Europe and those Latin American states who have recognized Guano cannot be trusted in the first place. This could also be good cop, bad cop, trying to legitimize any stance they might come up with to promote peace…as long as it destabilizes Maduro’s government and promotes power sharing with the traitors. Very few things are as they seem in US international relations.
The US will use the cover of humanitarian aide to smuggle arms to ‘random guy’s’ followers. That is the.reason why Maduro is refusing US aide.
I like the story about the plane of guns and ammo that landed in Caracas (from Miami) the day before Aid trucks started rolling.
Well, it’s in character. Abrams has never, ever believed in getting things done by mediation when he can use death squads instead. Whether it’s in El Salvador, or Nicaragua, where he was deep in the “Iran Contra” affair, or anywhere else he might turn up, the man believes in torture and death.
Yemeni starvation, death,health is not a concern to NATO who attack Yemen with special forces.All of a sudden Venezuela health is a concern what a bias superpower greedy aggressors.
The is no concern or the US would not have levied crippling sanctions against Venezuela for decades that directly affected supplies of food and medicine. Historically the US uses humanitarian aide to smuggle arms to CIA created opposition groups in nations they are trying to control.
I will never sell out my mother country because of money or wealth.Because that curse us dollar.
well well, cia, where have I heard that before!
These people doing the plots are nearly all old money. I’ve always suspected that the one thing that hobbles the opposition in trying to plot things without the government finding out is that the servants generally like the pro-servant-class government better than they like the bosses who are underpaying them and treating them like shit. And to them, the help is invisible. That’s sure who I’d recruit if I were running intelligence for the Bolivarians.
Zionist whore