{"id":31625,"date":"2019-03-02T07:50:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T11:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/?p=31625"},"modified":"2019-03-02T07:50:09","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T11:50:09","slug":"neocon-regime-change-plot-falls-apart-in-venezuela-but-u-s-will-try-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/?p=31625","title":{"rendered":"Neocon Regime Change Plot Falls Apart in Venezuela, But U.S. Will Try Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><a href=\"http:\/\/themillenniumreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Venezuela-resists-regime-change-696x456.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-76701\" src=\"http:\/\/themillenniumreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Venezuela-resists-regime-change-696x456.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"456\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Maduro 1: Abrams 0: but this match is far from over\u2026<\/h2>\n<h3>Maduro wins the first round<\/h3>\n<p>The standoff between Venezuela and the AngloZionist Empire last week-end has clearly ended in what can only be called a total defeat for Elliott Abrams.\u00a0 While we will never know what was initially planned by the demented minds of the Neocons, what we do know is that nothing critical happened: no invasion, not even any major false flag operation.\u00a0 The most remarkable facet of the standoff is how little effect all the AngloZionist propaganda has had inside Venezuela. There were clashes, including some rather violent ones, across the border, but nothing much happened in the rest of the country.\u00a0 Furthermore, while a few senior officers and a few soldiers did commit treason and joined forces with the enemy, the overwhelming majority of the Venezuelan military remained faithful to the Constitution.\u00a0 Finally, it appears that Maduro and his ministers were successful in devising a strategy combining roadblocks, a concert on the Venezuelan side, and the minimal but effective use of riot police to keep the border closed.\u00a0 Most remarkably, \u201cunidentified snipers\u201d did not appear to shoot at both sides (a favorite tactic of the Empire to justify its interventions).\u00a0 I give the credit for this to whatever Venezuelan (or allied) units were in charge of counter-sniper operations along the border.<\/p>\n<p>Outside Venezuela this first confrontation has also been a defeat for the Empire.\u00a0 Not only did most countries worldwide not recognize the AngloZionist puppet, but the level of protest and opposition to what appeared to be the preparations for a possible invasion (or, at least, a military operation of some kind) was remarkably high, while the legacy corporate Ziomedia did what it always does (that is whatever the Empire wants it to do), the Internet and the blogosphere were overwhelmingly opposed to a direct US intervention.\u00a0 This situation also created a great deal of internal political tensions in various Latin American countries whose public opinion remains strongly opposed to any form of US imperial control over Latin America.<\/p>\n<p>In this respect, the situation with Brazil is particularly interesting. While the Brazilian government fully backed the US coup attempt, the Brazilian military was most uncomfortable with this.\u00a0 My contacts in Brazil had correctly predicted that the Brazilian military would refuse to attack Venezuela and, eventually, the Brazilians even issued\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/452404-brazil-venezuela-us-invasion\/\">a statement to that effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Alas, there are still plenty of US puppet regimes in Latin America to mindlessly do whatever Uncle Shmuel wants them to (Colombia would be the worst offender, of course, but there are others).\u00a0 But that is not the main problem here.<\/p>\n<p>The main problem is that the Neocons cannot accept defeat and that they are likely to do what they always do, double down and make a bad situation even worse.\u00a0 The head of the Russian Security Council,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/452431-venezuela-us-oust-maduro\/\">Nikolai Patrushev, has warned<\/a>\u00a0that the US has deployed special forces in Colombia and Puerto Rico in preparation for a possible invasion.\u00a0 Uncharacteristically, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs made intelligence information public, which described in some detail what kind of plans the Empire and its allies had, even before this past week-end\u2019s confrontation.\u00a0 See for yourself:<\/p>\n<div class=\"fluid-width-video-wrapper\"><iframe id=\"fitvid830721\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UhwjgqH4c04?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>In fact, the leaders of the Empire and their puppets are not making any secrets about their determination to overthrow the constitutional government and replace it with the kind of\u00a0<em>comprador<\/em>\u00a0regime the US already imposed in Colombia.\u00a0 Pompeo, Abrams and Pence have been particularly hysterical in their threats, but the entire \u201cLima Group\u201d is still at it:<\/p>\n<div class=\"fluid-width-video-wrapper\"><iframe id=\"fitvid814291\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f66qrnNwdUE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>As for the Russian UN Ambassador, he was very clear on what Russia expects to happen next:<\/p>\n<div class=\"fluid-width-video-wrapper\"><iframe id=\"fitvid490542\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5Gmf5jx8KuY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The Neocons are not even content to threaten Venezuela, and John Bolton could not help himself and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/452023-john-bolton-nicaragua-ortega-regime-change\/\">publicly threatened Nicaragua<\/a>\u00a0as being next in line for a US-sponsored regime change.\u00a0 He even spoke of a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/world\/2018\/11\/1\/18052338\/bolton-cuba-venezuela-nicaragua-speech-troika-tyranny\">Troika of Tyranny<\/a>\u201d reminiscent of the famous \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Axis_of_evil\">Axis of Evil<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n<p>This is all hardly surprising: US politicians always resort to infantile comic-book kind of language when they want to give their threats a special gravitas.\u00a0 Next we will be told that Maduro is a \u201cNew Hitler\u201d and that he is \u201cgenociding his own people\u201d, possibly with chemical weapons (\u201chighly likely\u201d, no doubt!).\u00a0 If not that, then Maduro will be distributing Viagra to his forces\u00a0.\u00a0\u00a0 To those puzzled by the fact that presumably adult politicians use the kind of language one could find in grade school, I can only say that this just reflects the state of the political discourse in the USA, which has been dumbed-down to an incredibly low level.\u00a0 Be careful, however, because while US politicians are rather comical in their infantile, ignorant, illiteracy, and while they have an almost perfect record of embarrassing failures, the past decades have also shown that they are quite capable of murderous rampages (in Iraq alone the US invasion resulted in over one million dead Iraqi civilians) or of wrecking even a very prosperous country (which Libya under Muammar Gaddafi definitely was).<\/p>\n<h3>Next, the Empire will probably strike-back<\/h3>\n<p>There is a small chance that Abrams &amp; Co. will conclude that the situation in Venezuela is a total mess and that the Empire cannot capitalize on it in the short to middle term.\u00a0 This is possible, yes, but also highly unlikely.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_40393\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ElliotAbrams01-300x211.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"211\" name=\"graphics1\" align=\"BOTTOM\" border=\"0\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40393\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-40393\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>He is back\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The truth is that Mr MAGA and his Neocon puppet-masters have failed, at least so far, at absolutely everything they tried. And if taking on China, Russia, Iran or even Syria is no easy task, Venezuela is by far the most fragile country in what could be called the \u201cResistance countries\u201d: Venezuela is far away from it\u2019s allies (except Cuba), it is surrounded by more or less hostile countries (especially Colombia), it\u2019s economy is crippled by US sanctions and sabotage and its armed forces are dwarfed by the immense firepower the Empire has available in the region.\u00a0 Add to this the truly demonic mindset of Neocons like Abrams and the future for Venezuela looks bleak.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that the Colombians and the rest of the Lima Group \u201cfriends of Venezuela\u201d probably don\u2019t have the military power to take on Venezuela by themselves.\u00a0 The preferred option for the USA would be to use the Colombians like the KLA was used in Kosovo or how al-Qaeda (and derivatives) were used against Syria: as boots on the ground while the US provides airpower, electronic warfare capabilities, intelligence, bomb and missile strikes, etc. The US also has immense naval capabilities which could be used to assist (and, of course, direct) any military operations against Venezuela (I highly recommend\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/natsouth.livejournal.com\/12110.html\">this analysis<\/a>\u00a0by my friend Nat South who describes in some detail the US naval capabilities and operations in the region).<\/p>\n<p>My gut feeling is that this approach will not work.\u00a0 As is often the case, the US has all sorts of impressive capabilities except for the main one: a military force capable of providing the boots on the ground (as opposed to a non-US proxy).\u00a0 The problem for the US military would not be so much getting in, as staying inside and getting something done before leaving \u2013 what the US called an \u201cexit strategy\u201d.\u00a0 And here, there are really no good options for the US.<\/p>\n<p>It is therefore far more likely that the US will use the weapon which it truly masters better than anybody else on earth: corruption.<\/p>\n<p>There is big money, really big money, all around the Venezuelan crisis: not only oil money, but also drug money.\u00a0 And there are a lot of truly evil and corrupt people involved in this struggle who will use that corruption-weapon with devastating effect against the constitutionally elected government.\u00a0 And, just to make things worse, Venezuela is already devastated by corruption. Still, there are quite a few factors which might well save Venezuela from being reconquered by the Empire.<\/p>\n<p>First, while US Neocons are too arrogant to bother with anybody\u2019s opinion except their own, and while the various US agencies primarily talk with the immensely wealthy rulers of Colombia and the rest of Latin America, it does appear that a strong majority of Venezuelans support their elected government.\u00a0 Furthermore, US leaders simply don\u2019t understand how hated the \u201cYankees\u201d are in Latin America (at least among the masses, not the comprador elites) and how fantastically offensive the appointment of a felon like Elliott Abrams as Envoy to Venezuela is to the vast majority of the people of this continent.<\/p>\n<p>Second, Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro did empower, for the very first time, the masses of the Venezuelan people, especially those who lived in abject poverty when Venezuela was still a US colony.\u00a0 These people are under no illusion about what a Guaido regime would mean to them.\u00a0 And while most of the supporters of Chavez and Maduro are not influential or wealthy, there are a lot of them and they will probably fight to prevent a complete reversal of all the achievements of the Bolivarian revolution.<\/p>\n<p>Third, Latin America might well be changing, just like the Middle-East did.\u00a0 Remember how, for years, the Israelis could attack their neighbors with quasi-total impunity and how poorly the Arab armies performed?\u00a0 That suddenly changed when Hezbollah proved to the entire region and even the world, that the \u201cAxis of Kindness\u201d (USA, Israel, KSA) could be successfully defeated, even by a comparatively tiny resistance with no air force, no navy and very little armor.\u00a0 As I never cease to repeat \u2013\u00a0<strong>wars are not won by firepower, but by willpower<\/strong>.\u00a0 Oh sure, firepower helps, especially when you can fire from far away with no risk to yourself and your victim cannot fire back, but as soon as big firepower is met by big willpower the former rapidly fails.\u00a0 There is a very real possibility that Venezuela might do for Latin America what the Ukraine did for Russia: act as a surprisingly effective \u201cvaccine\u201d against the AngloZionist propaganda.\u00a0 An indigenous leader like Evo Morales, who has declared his full and total support for the elected government of Maduro, is an inspiration to the people of Latin America far beyond the borders of Bolivia.\u00a0 The Russian ambassador to the UN got it right: there are already other leaders after Maduro which the AngloZionists want to eliminate and replace by a pliable puppet\u00a0<em>\u00e0 la<\/em>\u00a0Guaido or Duque M\u00e1rquez.\u00a0 At the end of the day, this is a typical dialectical problem: the more brutal and overt the US aggression against Latin America is, the more successful coups or even invasions the US organizes, the stronger the anti-Yankee feelings generated among the people of the continent.\u00a0 Think of it this way: the US has already terminally alienated the people of China, Russia and Iran, along with most of the Arab and Muslim world, and thanks to that alienation, the leaders of China, Russia and Iran have enjoyed the support of their people in their struggle against the AngloZionist Empire.\u00a0 Could something very similar not already be happening in Latin America?<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\">Conclusion: focus on the right question<\/h3>\n<p>To defeat the Empire\u2019s plans for Venezuela, it is crucial that we all keep hammering over and over again: the choice is not between Maduro or Guiado, the choice is not between poverty under the Chavistas and prosperity under the AngloZionists.\u00a0 This is how the agents of the Empire (whether paid or simply stupid) want to frame the discussions.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>The real issue at stake here is the rule of law<\/strong>.\u00a0 The rule of law inside Venezuela, of course, and the rule of law internationally.<\/p>\n<p>First year law students are often taught that the\u00a0<strong>purpose of the law is not \u201cjustice\u201d per se, but to provide a mechanism to solve disputes.\u00a0 That mechanism is, admittedly, a highly imperfect one, but it is understood by civilized people as being preferable to the alternative<\/strong>.\u00a0 The alternative, by the way, is what happens in every time a so-called \u201chumanitarian intervention\u201d is launched: a humanitarian disaster.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, this is the typical\u00a0<em>modus operandi<\/em>\u00a0of the Neocons (and of all imperialists, really). First, chose a country for destabilization, then use your control of the international financial markets and trade to trigger an economic crisis; then, send your \u201cdemocracy promoting\u201d spooks and agents of influence to foment protests or, even better, violent disorders; then send some \u201cunidentified snipers\u201d if the legitimate government does not use enough violence to quell the protests, then denounce the leader you want replaced as\u00a0 \u201cmonster\u201d \u201canimal\u201d or even \u201cnew Hitler\u201d and threaten to overthrow him.\u00a0 After that, declare\u00a0<em>urbi et orbi<\/em>\u00a0that it is \u201chighly likely\u201d that the \u201cnew Hitler\u201d will massacre his own people, add a false flag op if needed, and then declare a \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d composed of \u201cfriends\u201d of the country you want to occupy who will take action due to the \u201cineffectiveness of the UN\u201d, ditch any thoughts about international law and only speak of \u201c<strong>rules-based order<\/strong>\u201c.\u00a0 Check out how Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov explains the meaning of this substitution:<\/p>\n<div class=\"fluid-width-video-wrapper\"><iframe id=\"fitvid377641\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T-u1hVCrTOY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>When you listen to the supporters of Guaido you will always hear them talking about how terrible Maduro is, how horrible the economic situation of Venezuela really is, how corrupt the members of the regime are, etc. etc. etc.\u00a0 This is all a smokescreen.\u00a0 Even the accusation that the last elections were stolen by Maduro is just another smokescreen.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because even if Maduro did steal the election, Guaido did not have the right to declare himself President, Trump had no right to recognize him as such, and the Empire had no business threatening a military intervention or even a violation of the sovereign border of Venezuela under the ridiculous pretext of bringing in humanitarian aid while, at the same time, keeping the country under draconian (and fully illegal) sanctions.\u00a0 The solution to a crisis brought about by a violation of law cannot be a wholesale abandonment of the very core principles of law, but such a solution can only be a restoration of law and order by legal means.\u00a0 Kinda obvious, but so many seem to forget this, that it is worth repeating.\u00a0 And here, I will again post a graphic which really says it all:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39906\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Venezuelan-elections-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" name=\"graphics2\" align=\"BOTTOM\" border=\"0\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39906\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-39906\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Which elections are legitimate and which are not?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The most powerful tools in the arsenal of the Empire are not it\u2019s nuclear forces or its bloated, if generally ineffective, armed forces.\u00a0 The most powerful tool in the Empire\u2019s arsenal is its ability to frame the discussion, to set what is focused upon and what is obfuscated.\u00a0 The Empire\u2019s legacy corporate Ziomedia even dictates what words should or should not be used in a discussion (example: never speak of \u201cillegal aggression\u201d but speak of \u201chumanitarian intervention\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>This is why we must speak of \u201c<strong>true sovereignty<\/strong>\u201c, of \u201c<strong>international law<\/strong>\u201c, of \u201c<strong>constitutional procedures<\/strong>\u201d and of \u201c<strong>aggression<\/strong>\u201d and \u201c<strong>threat of aggression<\/strong>\u201d as war crimes.\u00a0 We need to continue to demand that\u00a0<strong>basic fundamental principles of civilized societies<\/strong>\u00a0(such as the principle of \u201cinnocent until proven guilty\u201d) be upheld by governments and by the media.\u00a0 We need to\u00a0<strong>deny the rulers of the Empire the right to declare that they have the right to completely ignore the most sacred principles of the post-WWII international order<\/strong>.\u00a0 We need to continue to\u00a0<strong>insist that a just international order can only be a multi-polar one;<\/strong>\u00a0that a single World Hegemon can never deliver justice and that there shall be no peace if there is no justice.\u00a0 Finally, we need to\u00a0<strong>ceaselessly demand that each country and each nation live according to its own traditions and beliefs<\/strong>\u00a0and reject the notion that a single political model must, or even can, be applied universally.<\/p>\n<p>These are all principles which the Neocons hate and which they would love to bundle together under a single all encompassing concept, like George Orwell\u2019s \u201c<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thoughtcrime\">crimethink<\/a><\/em>\u201c.\u00a0 Mostly, the Neocons like to use the \u201canti-Semite\u201d and \u201canti-Semitic\u201d to dismiss these principles, and when that fails, then \u201cterrorist\u201d is always available for use.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let them do that: every time they try that trick, immediately denounce it for what it is and continue focusing on what really matters.\u00a0 If we can force the Neocons to deal with these issues we win.\u00a0 It is really that simple.<\/p>\n<p>It is impossible for me to guess how this conflict will play itself out.\u00a0 Will the brazen arrogance of \u201cthe Yankees\u201d be enough to seriously red-pill the people of Venezuela and the rest of Latin America?\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 My hope and my gut feeling is that it might.<\/p>\n<p>The Saker<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/thesaker.is\/maduro-1-abrams-0-but-this-match-is-far-from-over\/\">http:\/\/thesaker.is\/maduro-1-abrams-0-but-this-match-is-far-from-over\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}