Russia should never interfere in any other nation's internal politics, meanwhile the USA and IMF is helping kill Venezuela

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Saturday, April 18, 2026 19:07
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REAVERFAN

Wednesday, February 6, 2019 9:54 PM

Democracy is when someone from a violent, far-right extremist group declares themselves to be president and promises to privatize the nation's assets to benefit a foreign power, and that declaration is enforced on a sovereign nation by the foreign power that will benefit from those assets, and the more harshly it's enforced, the democracy-er it is.

SIGNYM

Wednesday, February 6, 2019 11:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by reaverfan:
Democracy is when someone from a violent, far-right extremist group declares themselves to be president and promises to privatize the nation's assets to benefit a foreign power, and that declaration is enforced on a sovereign nation by the foreign power that will benefit from those assets, and the more harshly it's enforced, the democracy-er it is.

Yep. I agree with the statement, recognizing that it is sarcasm. Also, it applies to Ukraine.

The "plan" for Venezuela is for Guaido to privatize the oil industry again, using money gained from the sale to pay off Chinese and Russian loans, and to go begging to the IMF for money. The IMF will, of course, impose "austerity" on Venezuela in order to get that money back. (Can you imagine what the USA would be like if we were held to the same program?)

The general consensus on alt-media is that the longer Maduro stays in power, the less likely a coup will occur. That depends on where the military and police side.

Guaido has approached China for recognition, since China has loaned Venezuela a gazzilion yuan. The silence on that result has been deafening. I suspect that China will "talk" to Guaido, but in terms of "doing" anything, the Chinese wouldn't piss on Guaido if he were on fire. Not because the Chinese are so moral, but because they want those loans to be made good on the terms that they negotiated with Maduro, not on some renegotiated IMF bullshit with Guaido. China doesn't want to be paid off in USA-funny-money, they want those ports and other hard assets, damnit!

Italy has not yet recognized Guaido because there is a division of opinion within their coalition (in this case I'm with the Five-Star side of the coalition), which will prevent the EU from recognizing Guaido until that happens.

The Russians have oil deals with Venezuela, and I believe they would be ready to defend Venezuela militarily if foreign powers were to intervene militarily.

Of course, the USA will continue its economic and hybrid warfare against Venezuela, seizing its assets (like their refineries in the USA) and preventing the Venezuelan government from getting income from its oil operations, and the Brits will continue to hold Venezuelan gold and refuse to turn it over. So Maduro really needs to get his shit together because the full economic/NGO/propaganda weight of a regime-change operation is upon him.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

REAVERFAN

Thursday, February 7, 2019 9:14 PM

Venezuela’s collapse is a window into how the Oil Age will unravel
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/venezuelas-collapse-is-a-windo
w-into-how-the-oil-age-will-unravel-f80aadff7786

For some, the crisis in Venezuela is all about the endemic corruption of Nicolás Maduro, continuing the broken legacy of Chavez’s ideological experiment in socialism under the mounting insidious influence of Putin. For others, it’s all about the ongoing counter-democratic meddling of the United States, which has for years wanted to bring Venezuela — with its huge oil reserves — back into the orbit of American power, and is now interfering again to undermine a democratically elected leader in Latin America.

Neither side truly understands the real driving force behind the collapse of Venezuela: we have moved into the twilight of the Age of Oil.

So how does a country like Venezuela with the largest reserves of crude oil in the world end up incapable of developing them? While various elements of socialism, corruption and neoliberal capitalism are all implicated in various ways, what no one’s talking about — especially the global oil industry — is that over the last decade, we’ve shifted into a new era. The world has moved from largely extracting cheap, easy crude, to becoming increasingly dependent on unconventional forms of oil and gas that are much more difficult and expensive to produce.

Oil isn’t running out, in fact, it’s everywhere?—?we’ve more than enough to fry the planet. But as the easy, cheap stuff has plateaued, production costs have soared. And as a consequence the most expensive oil to produce has become increasingly unprofitable.

In a country like Venezuela, emerging from a history of US interference, plagued by internal economic mismanagement, combined with external intensifying pressure from US sanctions, this decline in profitability became fatal.

Since Hugo Chavez’s election in 1999, the US has continued to explore numerous ways to interfere in and undermine his socialist government. This is consistent with the track record of US overt and covert interventionism across Latin America, which has sought to overthrow democratically elected governments which undermine US interests in the region, supported right-wing autocratic regimes, and funded, trained and armed far-right death squads complicit in wantonly massacring hundreds of thousands of people.

For all the triumphant moralising in parts of the Western media about the failures of Venezuela’s socialist experiment, there has been little reflection on the role of this horrific counter-democratic US foreign policy in paving the way for a populist hunger for nationalist and independent alternatives to US-backed cronyism.

SIGNYM

Monday, February 11, 2019 10:17 AM

Here is an interesting prediction from The Duran. They predict China and Russia may cut Maduro loose because he's been such an ineffectual leader.

I happen to agree that Maduro is a basket case. The error started with Hugo Chavez. After he nationalized the oil industry he needed to provide some tough love for the nation along with help for the poor. He would have been able to get away with is because he had the military's support (being an ex-paratrooper himself) and proved his chops by doing a stint in jail for the revolution. I suspect- but don't know for sure - that Maduro bought the military's loyalty by allowing them to pilfer the economy.

A leader REALLY can't imagine trying to vault La Revolucion in the USA's backyard while being stupid and gelatinous. If you REALLY think that you're going to sit on the world's largest oil reserves and declare your independence and trade in something other than the petrodollar, you'd better be prepared to gird your nation for tough times ahead.

--------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

SIGNYM

Saturday, February 16, 2019 6:19 PM

Quote:
IMF Discreetly Preps Massive Aid Package For "Day After" Maduro's Fall

The International Monetary Fund is reportedly making plans for the "day after" embattled President Nicolas Maduro's fall, according to Bloomberg. Though there's been little momentum in military defections following US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido's offer of amnesty to any army officer that switches loyalties, Washington sanctions have effectively strangled state-owned PDVSA's access to global markets. News of IMF maneuvering also comes amidst fresh reports the US is amassing aircraft, troops and armored vehicles on the Venezuelan border under the pretext of getting humanitarian aid into the country.

The only significant cash flow that remains after the oil sanctions is through India, Venezuela’s second-biggest oil market after the United States, which still recognizes the Maduro government, and is now reportedly seeking to avoid purchases through US banks and even financial institutions with a heavy US presence. According to a Reuters report on Friday, "India has asked one buyer of Venezuelan oil to consider paying the South American nation’s national oil company PDVSA in a way that avoids the U.S. financial system, an Indian government source said, after Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Venezuela last month."

If oil buyers pay PDVSA through American institutions, US authorities can seize the funds. But the IMF reportedly sees cash dwindling from oil sales at such a rapid pace that Maduro can't possibly hold on, even with the staying power of his loyal armed forces. This also comes as the White House mulls a possible next step of blocking foreign entities all together from dealing with the PDVSA.

Citing an anonymous official due to the sensitivity of the matter, Bloomberg reports the IMF is planning for a near-term Maduro exit by discreetly preparing a massive financial aid package to rescue the nosediving economy, for years choked by US-led sanctions and corrupt socialist leadership, following transition of power.

Forbes also forewarned earlier this month what a new Caracas government would be facing, by comparison to other regional economies in crisis:

It is unclear just how much aid Venezuela needs or will be able to get. To put things into perspective for a moment, Argentina has a $56 billion aid package from the IMF and while their economy was leveled due to the closed-door, quasi-socialist policies of Cristina Kirchner, Argentina’s social unrest is nothing like what is taking place in Venezuela today.

Last year Colombia reportedly contacted international lending agencies about crafting a $60 billion aid package. Given the massive investment needs of the Venezuelan economy, access to international financing will be essential to lift the country of its version of the Great Depression.

And this will come, Forbes noted, via the IMF and World Bank, which "will require massive structural reforms, including a return of foreign investment and foreign companies into the Venezuelan oil market."

This followed after Bloomberg reported in November of last year that Venezuela hadn’t reported GDP and inflation data since 2016, for which its central bank prepared a report sent to the IMF in accord with a Nov. 30 deadline while "hoping to avoid sanctions that included the loss of voting rights or a potential expulsion from the lender."

Bloomberg also noted at that time that the IMF was already eyeing drastic action: "Expulsion from the fund would cause Venezuela to lose access to what little remaining funds it has associated with the lender, but more importantly, it could trigger a cross-default on some sovereign bonds."

Again, it was noted last November:

While Venezuela often lambasted the IMF for its policy recommendations under former President Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro, the central bank has repeatedly used special drawing rights held at the fund. Venezuela still has access to $52 million, whic

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THG

Tuesday, February 26, 2019 1:56 AM

T

Elliot, Shit I thought his name was walter

SIGNYM

Sunday, March 10, 2019 10:52 PM

Somewhere hubby found a video that detailed the sanctions that the USA was putting on Venezuela and twisting the arms of its alllies to follow suit; one example was how euroclear blocked the sale of billions of dollars of pharmaceuticals that Venezuela had already paid for. It becomes clear why Venezuela is in such shit shape. OTOH it also makes clear why Venezuela should have focused on becoming self-sufficient in the essentials. When I find that video I'll post it.

In the meantime ... very early in this thread a posted a history of the opposition in Venezuela and ran out of time to follow up, but ONE of the questions that occurred to me as I was researching and posting their history is ... where was Guaido in all of this???

His name never comes up in the decade+ of opposition to "Chavismo"; he seems to have been plucked out of near-obscurity (like "our guy Yats" and Poroshenko "The Chocolate King") by our deep state neocons to lead the "regime change" effort in Venezuela. The OTHER thing that seems to come up is that the opposition itself seems to be led by several figures who are pretty intent on maintaining their own individual power bases; cooperation not a big thing amongst the opposition there. I imagined them thinking Who are YOU? when Guaido declared himself President; and Guaido has not caught fire amongst "the people" either.
One of the commentators that I listen to called Guaido "Mr Nobody", or something like that, which I think as very apropos.

So the "shock and awe" operation seems to have stalled out; expect a lot of false flags (like the so-called burning of the aid trucks), covert action, economic warfare, and fake news* on the topic of Venezuela. Figuring out the real situation will be very difficult.

*After all of the news about mobs of Venezuelans killing farm animals by hand because they're starving (altho I have to say the young men in those videos looked pretty well-fed to me!) NPR ran segment about the poor people of Caracas. It seems that their major complaint (according to NPR) was that Venezuelans could no longer make their traditional breakfast out of 100% cornmeal, but had to mix in wheat flour, rice flour, or even (horrors) yucca root .. and what does this do to their food traditions???

If that's the biggest complaint that they have ....?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

THG

Monday, March 11, 2019 12:48 AM

Cites comrade, I see no cites.

T

SIGNYM

Monday, March 11, 2019 1:00 AM

Cites for what? My very first post details the several opposition figures and their on-again off-again cooperation with each other and participation in/boycotting of the electoral process. Guaido is mentioned in NONE of these links. That, I think, is the main reason why support for Guaido isn't in the news much anymore: He made little headway with the rest of the opposition or with the Venezuelan people.

Aside from the opinion expressed about him ("Mr Nobody") and the sudden lack of press coverage, what else would you like to have? Links to NPR? YouTube?

As I posted, when I find that video of the details of our sanctions against Venezuela, I'll be sure to post it.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

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