I predict Trump will get us into a big war here to turn the attention away from the evil corrupt ness of his Presidency and White House personal . This war when it comes we need to start the draft again and take all the rich young adults and no more letting them buy there way out. I was in during the Vietnam era I volunteered . If you start a war your sons and daughters need to go to the front lines.
3
Nothing new here. This has long been known to intelligence agencies in the US and elsewhere. Venezuela is a socialistic, kleptocratic, narco-state that supports terrorism through conduits with Hezbollah and Iran. Russia and China have troops there, not to support Maduro, but to protect their billions of dollars of investments in Venezuela. I do not support an American military intervention into Venzuela. After Iraq and Afghanistan, the American people do not have the will to engage in another long protracted occupation and nation building exercise. Besides, Juan Guaido will probably replace Maduro's government with his own brand of liberal socialism.
16
@cb Interesting that it manages to be a narcostate where friends of the president are trafficking drugs for the personal benefit of themselves and Maduro, but this same totalitarian dictator is unable to stop those friends for being locked up for that same drug trafficking by the security services of his own government.
Very strange story indeed.
8
Sooner or later it was going to come out. It isn't really about the Cuban and Venezuelan communities in Florida and our pandering to their futile quest to return Latin America to the 1950s.
The US's--and more than ever the Trump Administration's--obsession with Venezuela has more to do with Middle Eastern politics and Venezuela's closeness to Iran and Hezbollah. And behind this near-paranoia we see the ominous influence of Binyamin Netanyahu and his many supporters in the US.
46
@Displaced: Well, no.
It's interesting to be reminded that there are long-standing connections between South America and the Middle East. The world has never been divided conveniently into separate ethnic zones, and the petroleum business has always been a global network.
But to refer it all to the "ominous influence" of Netanyahu and his "many supporters" is just to return to the crude anti-Semitism we've all been talking about lately.
8
It’s probably also “about” Chavez and Maduro bankrupting a resource rich nation, fixing elections and letting their people starve.
18
I suspect you know neither the history of Chavismo nor the economics of reconfiguring a nation's finances when it is emerging from half a century of the most extreme form of corrupt crony capitalism in the world. Chavez and his followers were up not just against the entrenched interests of the two dominant parties who had ruled Venezuela for decades (the AD and Copei) but also the international financial markets led by the US -based ratings agencies who made it impossible for a young government to redistribute some of the wealth hoarded by its elites and at the same time to invest for the future. PDVSA's capital budget had to be slashed repeatedly because the markets would offer financing at prohibitive rates, even though Venezuela had a better record of servicing its debt obligations than its neighbors. I should know; I worked for one of those agencies from 2006 to 2012.
13
So why are "secret dossiers" on the Venezuelan government suddenly appearing? Why not secret dossiers on Saudi Arabia? Why not secret dossiers on Egypt? Why not secret dossiers on Israel? Why not secret dossiers on Kazakhstan?
Why? Because the US is 100% focused on regime change in Venezuela, and already has the regimes it wants in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, and other countries. Regime change in Iran failed long ago. Regime change in Vietnam failed. Regime change in Iraq is failing. Regime change in Afghanistan is failing.
Oil-rich Venezuela has become the primary US target for regime change, and it has little to do with the well-being of the Venezuelan people.
151
The “regime” in Israel was democratically elected.
35
@Paul Well so were the apartheid regimes in South Africa.
37
@Greg
Greg, not just “regime change” for one thing like oil, but the big picture is “regime change” for global control of this Disguised Global (crony) Capitalist Empire, which is only nominally HQed in, and merely ‘posing’ as, our formerly promising and sometimes progressive country.
17
the US and the UK cannot even keep track of the fantasies they are spinning...maduro is no prince, but they are surely gunning for his overthrow in a true 60s CIA style overthrow...the BBC hit a new low this past tuesday with two journalists/cheerleaders describing the online overthrow of the elected government...
16
@cossak
This is pure and simple. IT IS RUSSIAN COLLUSION. USA and UK never overthrow governments. They are only putting in new goverments.
Remember: Glass half empty; glass half full.
4
The 2018 election was fraudulent according to observers, Maduro has arrested opposition leaders, shut down opposition media and intimidated voters with violence. I don’t think you can simply call them the “elected” government.
13
The discovery of oil down here made all the difference....OPEC supports its members....
I have no trust in the US anymore after all lies (Kosovo,Iraq,Syria,Ukraine and more)...sorry. This is mots likely a fabricated story.
Operation Mockingbird ?
3
Read some oldy but goody by Tom Clancy. He wrote a book about a terrorist body in the Middle East in co-hoots with some Drug pushers in Latin America. Sounds familiar. So was the book which predicted 9/11. Scary.
4
After the Iraq war, we should all read articles like this and ask "Who benefits from this information being released to he media?" and "Is there any reason someone might make this up?". It may well be true, but history has shown us that we shouldn't blindly believe what is reported about Governments with which the West is in conflict.
12
No doubt, the Maduro regime is full of unsavory characters, and Venezuela is a nexus for all sorts of narcotics trafficking. However, that is no justification for the U.S. to foment a Coup d'Etat against Maduro, or to launch some military intervention to force the ouster of Maduro and the Chavista loyalists. The invasion of panama in 1990 was unjustified, and playing with the fate of the Venezuelan people would be an even more egregious and pernicious act of folly.
Of course, the presence of Hezbollah ought not be tolerated--not in Venuezuela, nor in any other part of Latin America. The Maduro regime should be emphatically encouraged to clean out Hezbollah, and indeed there are several other countries in the region, most notably Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador, which should be given incentives and rewards for resolutely addressing the excessive and malignant influences of those with ties and deep loyalties to the Middle East, and who therefore serve to abet and facilitate those who are engaged in narcotics smuggling or global terrorism.
3
what is wrong with deep loyalty to the Middle East
1
Suddenly the US brings to the surface a blend of previously unknown facts and figures that are essential to assuring that Maduro will be the looser. Iraq, here we go again. Very dangerous considering that Russia, who already is in Venezuela, and China, Turkey (a NATO member of all things), and little Cuba will be less than pleased.
18
Dude just google this guy’s name and you’ll see it’s not “sudden” news or information. Let’s try to be objective - a drug dealer is a drug dealer
9
Any solution to the problems faced by Venezuela has to come from its people, not imposed from without. Otherwise, it will just lead to bigger and worse problems. Undeniably, it is a hardship, but solutions imposed from the outside have a tendency to lead to even more violence and chaos.
But if and when Trump is looking for a nice war to give him a 5 point bump in approval ratings, anything goes.
27
The corruption existed previous to Chavez and obviously post Chavez. Oil price decline and US sanctions have resulted in more misery and the current political struggle. Venezuela is a land with many natural resources and will certainly be able to pay off its' debt in time.
The answer to how this is done does not come from Russia, the US, or China but through the United Nations and world cooperation. Once again we have to tell the world to disarm and live ecologically.
8
The sanctions are on individuals like the one described in this article, not Venezuelans as a whole...
6
This is all utterly perverse, and perfectly easy to understand.
The US establishment, as per usual, is always alert for opportunities to meddle in LatAm affairs, in order to keep client regimes in power as much as possible. Also, of course, "we" (read: "American power elite") *never* pass up a chance to put large oil reserves under the control of tractable foreign "leaders."
The idiot Trump cares little about these issues of Great Power machinations, of course, but he certainly knows that Florida's electoral college votes will be important in next year's election, and nothing makes the Cuban-Latinx reactionary communities in southern Florida happier than a good old-fashioned attack on evil socialists or progressives in their ancestral homelands.
10
Ah, these misadventures of "ours" have been going on for an awfully long time, almost always for the same unmentionable reason:
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."
Major General Smedley Butler, USMC -- from a speech delivered in 1933
10
All of the New York Times readers who are apologists for the Maduro regime remind me of the Trump supporters who would continue to worship Trump even if he shot somebody on Fifth Avenue in New York City. If we were to see a video surface showing Venezuelan torture of dissidents, these apologists would undoubtedly claim it was a CIA fabrication.
16
>>> "If we were to see a video surface showing Venezuelan torture of dissidents, these apologists would undoubtedly claim it was a CIA fabrication."
Well, I haven't seen much evidence of "Maduro apologists" in this thread; I think you may be confusing skepticism about US motivation and concern for international law with . . . something else.
As for your imagined video, I would certainly hope that no one would accept it without adequate provenance. Our CIA "has previous" (as our Brit friends might say), you know.
5
@Allan Langland
I am no fan of Maduro, but the only way for the situation to improve for ALL of the people in Venezuela is for the citizens of Venezuela to collectively make a decision as to what their leadership should be.
In the last 3 Decades, Republican Politicians have on occasion been oh so concerned about the oppression in countries such as Iraq, Libya, and now, Venezuela. The GOP always seems to be more vexed by the excesses and depravities of a so-called despot, when they occur in a country with huge proven reserves of oil.
Now, Trump is supposed to be some sort of isolationist, and wants to follow Steve Bannon's cajoling arguments to have the USA disengage from the the world. But, of course, Trump is happy to make an exception in this instance. Trump's foreign policy establishment--Pompeo, Bolton, and the rest, will only want to install some stooge to replace Maduro. and the result will be catastrophic for the Venezuelan people.
7
@Outerboro The UN reports that, as of February 2019, 3.4 million persons have fled Venezuela. That is ten percent of the population, the equivalent of 33 million refugees fleeing the United States if we had similar problems. I would call that voting with your feet. And for those remain face the spectacle of starvation and horrors such as infants dying in hospitals because of lack of medical supplies
Several commentators on this thread have falsely characterized the 2018 Venezuela election as legitimate when in fact it involved massive and blatant fraud and was not recognized as fair by any credible international organization. Maduro has imprisoned opponents and unleashed armed mobs on protesters - how can the people "collectively make a decision as to what their leadership should be" under such conditions of repression?
And, finally, Guaido is no "stooge," he was the leader of the National Assembly and thus has more of a legitimate claim to be the leader of the country than Maduro. The U.S. equivalent to the political situation in Venezuela would be if Trump had committed massive and blatant fraud in the upcoming election to remain the White House, and Nancy Pelosi had refused to accept the result and proclaimed herself to be the legitimate president.
9
When you need to conjure up more excuses to start shooting up a place, just say ISIS or other Islamic terrorists are there. El Paso, Caracas, the house of your neighbor who borrowed your power sander and never gave it back...
6
Is he a Fed nominee?
2
I'd like to see Maduro overthrown by the Venezuelan military with the support of the US and allies and then charged for human rights abuses and corruption. I'd also like to see a new leader installed (Guaido). Failure to do so is to continue to stand by and watch innocent Venezuelans be run over, robbed, looted, bullied and the beautiful wealthy country torn apart by an arrogant criminal dictator.
9
Whoever controls the Venezuela Government effectively controls the worlds largest oil reserve.
7
@W that would be the castro-cubans, in case you're wondering
2
Citgo?
1
Isn't the timing of this article somewhat suspicious? Right as the US calls for the overthrow of the Venezuelan government--which is admittedly atrocious--suddenly new intelligence information appears linking one of Maduro's close associates to drug traffickers and Hezbollah. The latter may be on U.S. lists of terrorists but it is also a large part of the elected government of Lebanon. So before the NY Times gets too carried away with this intelligence narrative, it should remember that Hezbollah is also linked to another of the U.S.'s new mortal enemies: Iran! When one considers how fortuitous the timing of this sudden intelligence revelation is for those in the U.S. government who despise Iran and want to squeeze them and overthrow their government (but know they can't because that would mean a very serious war) and want to squeeze the Venezuelan government and overthrow them (but think they might be able to without getting into a real war) it sure seems convenient to have linked Venezuela with the U.S.'s new mortal enemy, Iran, via Israel's mortal enemy, Hezbollah. And in case anyone misses the point, the Venezulans all have Arab names. It could all be true, but the timing and the cast should, at the very least, give one pause.
10
@juan swift
The fact that El Aissami was involved in drug trafficking and in bringing Hezbolla operatives to Venezuela is very old news. Everybody in Venezuela has known this for years. NYT brings it up now probably because Venezuela is on the news so people might read the article due to that, but this is certainly very old news. Sorry to bust your carefully crafted conspiracy theory.
12
To think there is actual evidence of Muslim terrorists living in a Latin American country, but it's not Mexico! I would have thought with Trump's big mouth about this subject that he would have at least ordered a naval blockade if not invade. He's done almost nothing. Don't waste money building a southern wall, instead since it's been known for a while now what the situation is, send in the troops or is Trump afraid. Easy to pick on wimpy gov'ts like Mexico and other Central American countries than to go against a smaller but more aggressive one.
3
Thank you for this article. Venezuela, under Chavismo, has become what Colombia would have been, had Pablo Escobar controlled the national government, but Escobar never had any true control over that country's institutions and had to resort to terrorism, in Venezuela, on the other hand, the Chavismo Cartel has truly taken over, carrying through what the Medellin Cartel tried, but failed to accomplish, mobilizing the poor to their "cause"... In short, Venezuela is a nation state taken over by a criminal enterprise, consisting of tens of thousands of mafiosos benefiting at the top, including pretty much anyone who matters in the military, it has hard to believe that this whole thing will end without significant violence and need for U.S. military intervention, which, if it comes to that, would be an intervention likely to be worthy of its cost (as opposed to various other "adventures" around the world, e.g., Middle East)...
11
@John- Chavez was legally elected and reelected 3 times!!! The 3rd time he won with 63% of the vote. So his reign wasn't a "Cartel" , it was done the American way, by voting, as far as i know there were very few irregularities during those elections. Stop the whining and tell Trump to now either invade or blockade, there are legitimate terrorist concerns down there. He's been throwing a fit about our "souther border " being a gateway for terrorists to enter, he's looking at the wrong country. i think he's all talk, no action when the facts are in.
6
@lou andrews we're talking about Maduro, Chavez is dead, also, the point is not even whether Maduro was "legally" elected or not (he wasn't), but rather, whether he represents a criminal enterprise... criminals can be "legally" elected too, just like Pablo Escobar managed to do in Colombia by giving drug money hand-outs to poor people in destitute neighborhoods in Medellin, so, of course, there is a bigger picture here, poverty, income disparity, lack of education and plain desperation, but that does not change the fact that Chavismo has turned in to nothing but a cover for a giant crime family, something this article does a great job pointing out...
6
@John- you need to be clear. you're using the term "Chavismo" which is a Hugo Chavez based ideology. Please talk about Maduro specifically, you're not. So my comment is valid and it still stands as is.
5
I’m old enough to remember similar articles in the New York Times about Iraq in the lead up to the 2003 invasion. The particulars were different, of course, but they had that tone of expose: Saddam giving refuge to Al Qaeda fled from Afghanistan, his “reinvigorated” nuclear program, etc.
27
@citybumpkin, You nailed it!
7
Security experts suspect that the triple frontier between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay is linked to funding terrorist organizations, especially Hezbollah. One of the most prominent and influential members of the terrorist group Hezbollah, Assad Ahmad Barakat, was arrested on the Brazilian side of the border in 2018.
Terrorist groups have found a safe haven in Venezuela for other criminal activities, such as drug trafficking and money laundering. They also are involved in training armed groups that support Maduro. These armed groups are killing Venezuelans who are protesting against Maduro on the streets. A 14 yo girl was shot and killed today.
12
@Beatriz Citation please.
3
@citybumpkin
Just read the news about Venezuela. There you will have all the citations you want, especially if you can read Spanish. There is little coverage in English of all that is going on there.
7
For as many years as the United States has been at war, cold or hot, with Russians, we have had almost a motto to keep,the Russians out of the Western Hemisphere. With the enemy within, trump, who knows what world changing mistakes this administration is going to make when it come to Venezuela and the whole of Central and South America.
@DavidJ So in order to allegedly keep the Russians out of Central and South America, the US supported and armed right wing death squad governments who slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent civilians, in short, everything we said the Russians would do.
5
So many armchair commentators here enjoying the luxury of discussing the suffering of others, filtered through personal views of past and current politics. Meanwhile, the suffering continues and politics stymies any will to help. Many on the left even deny the suffering exists, just to be good leftists. Maduro’ and Cuba’s continuing grip on Venezuela is a black stain on the conscience of the Western Hemisphere. Get him out!
10
@Sam McElroy How did liberating the people of Iraq from suffering under Saddam Hussein work out? How is saving Afghanistan going?
10
Replace “Venezuela” for “Iraq” and “Maduro” for “Saddam Hussein” and you’ll be advocating committing the same (criminal) mistake that G. W. Bush and Dick Cheney made.
10
The enabling concept of Socialism is to concentrate power in a few hands. When you do that, this is what you get. Power tends to corrupt...
5
>>> "The enabling concept of Socialism is to concentrate power in a few hands."
It might be possible to be more preposterously wrong, but it definitely would not be easy.
4
"The enabling concept of Socialism is to concentrate power in a few hands. When you do that, this is what you get. Power tends to corrupt..."
Seriously? Where to start. OK, the recent Lyft IPO made some people very rich. Never mind that the drop in price since the first day of trading, and, trust me, in a year's time the public stock price will be substantially lower. The same fantastically wealthy tech investors involved at startup became even wealthier. like, billions wealthier. A small, exclusive club of people. Do you know who one was? Monopolist Jeff Bezos. Really, please, when a hand full of Americans are worth more than half of all citizens, and continue to gain wealth, using that capital, you cannot be allowed to think like that. We're reaching a breaking point, and it's not the fault of socialism.
3
The opium peddling Karzai family in Afghanistan never seemed to bother the U.S.
22
Venezuela a little bit of Trump Inc. in South America. Different political philosophy's same contempt for laws and institutions ans strong desire to use force. Trump might rage about Venezuela but ha and Maduro are kindred spirits.
7
If they’re harboring terrorists, and their networks, and funding from drugs, it’s now a no brainer: we decapitate the Venezuelan government.
Figure it out Bolton, this is a neocon’s dream. And, they’re close by, no need to deploy for months in horribly hot sand. The Caribbean beaches (oh, Margarita Island) great for r&r. And, a short flight to go visit grandma in Florida.
3
Like that ever worked over the past 50+ years in decapitating the government in Cuba - even a shorter flight from Florida.
3
We are in the middle of a problem for the entire world to see. What shall we do about Venezuela now mired in a human crisis? What should America do? How should the concerned neighbors of Venezuela now respond?
We can all have our pet theories, and we can play with them until the universe is over. The fact remains – and, not an opinion, not an arm-chaired philosophical discourse even in our fondest disguise – is that her people are suffering; they are being denied living. Given this alone, just that, how do we respond?
One camp will say it is a Venezuelan problem; leave Venezuela alone to her fate that is mostly orchestrated by the Western interest. Is Venezuela a socialist country by any stretch of imagination? Do we let all the Venezuelan die while we credit the current government as being “Socialist”? Can you live anyway with $3.00 a month in Venezuela today?
Whether this particular report is true, or false, or just an exploratory probe does not matter anymore. The reality of it as is – and not our pet opinions – is the issue. How do we face this reality?
I have personally no answer. How do we as citizens attempt to find THE answer?
5
@Sam Sengupta As a Venezuelan, I thank you for this comment.
3
@Sam Sengupta
The first thing the world can do is MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS and let Venezuela and Maduro solve their own problem.
Maduro can simply not be in power without support from his own people. We saw the US and its media brew up a revolt in Cuba and failed to bring down the Cubans, who still have pride in their nation.
What brought Venezuela down is SOCIALISM and the expectation by its people that the government will provide. Now they probably think the new government of Guido will provide and solve their problems with US financial support.
The truth is that the US wants control of Venezuela's oil.
7
Well, that explains Elliott Abrams selection as the US State Department’s point person on Venezuela. With Mosad’s help, how can he fail. Ditto, Stephen Miller’s racist policies against Central American refugees
13
Many comments, on different issues, have become the grunting grounds for complaining about President Trump (not that he isn't worthy of criticism) while totally avoiding the issues presented in the articles. Wake up to smell the coffee. Whether the U.S. intervenes or not, the damage in Venezuela reverberates across southern and central America, and may strengthen the hands of terrorist entities working to keep despots in place while they promote their nefarious causes.
Hezbollah is a heroic movement to some, pure terrorism to many others. It certainly doesn't have democratic values in mind, and they ply their nasty involvements in many large drug cartels. Congressional investigations uncovered some of this many years ago. Why so-called leftists prefer to pretend none of this is true, and a mere made up pretense to go after Venezuelan oil, is frightening.
Need I remind readers about Hezbollah involvement in Argentina, or is that, too, a made up conspiracy of Jewish backed benjamins? Doesn't anyone outside of a few readers feel for the victimization of an entire country, whose despot holds on by a combination of terrorist money launderers, communist dictators, and the ever present hand of Putin? What an unholy mess.
16
@Rosalie Lieberman Sure, it is unnerving to consider that Mideast terror groups like Hezbollah are getting into the Latino drug cartels and using them for intelligence as well as moneymaking, it isn't right that the leftist ties of those crooks are being used as an excuse to argue that rightwing crooks are any more worthy of American support. Rightwingism aka fascism has its own long history of abuses of the common people, often favoring the war industry, militarism and conquest for corporate interests. This, I heard, really got started in Venezuela with the US corporations trying to dominate the banana business. They were probably some of the same corporate leaders who tried to overthrow FDR. No thanks, I don't want any of those rightwing types running the US govt, or the Venezuelan government either.
3
@Rosalie Lieberman
These movements succeed because they are "people's movements".
Nothing justifies intervention by a foreign power like in Venezuela today. The call was not for new elections. It was for Maduro to step down and be replaced by a US supporting Guido. And there lies the problem.
The UN could have asked Maduro for a timetable for new elections OR simply waited for his term to end and new elections would have replaced him.
2
@Anil
Neither one of you wish to honestly state that Maduro has to go. The starvation, disease, horrific uptick in crime, mass exodus, worthless money is unresolvable, and Maduro and his mega wealthy cronies do NOT care and will not use their personal wealth to ease some of the misery. If the anti-government protestors and Guaido cannot oust him, then an outside force will have to. The UN is essentially worthless in these matters. Remember it was the US that intervened in Serbia when nobody else would. The business of going after the oil is nonsense. If Maduro and Cuba, China, and Hezbollah retain their puppet ruler and more die from lack of food and medicine, don't you think that is a greater evil than intervention? Yes, foreign intervention can be messy, but the stakes get higher each day in Venezuela.
5
For reference on Hezbollah's involvement in drug and arms trafficking in South America, there is an excellent report done by politico:
politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/
5
@Heather - Traditionally at least since Vietnam and the tons of heroin created in SE Asia hard drugs have entered the US on US military aircraft in operations run by resourceful US military personnel.
4
But according to Bernie, AOC, and Ilhan Omar, we shouldn't get involved in Venezuela's future...
16
But according to the neocons like Pompeo and Bolton, we should get involved. Look at how well it worked in Iraq.
4
@Samuel What is your solution for Venezuela?
2
And isn't it just so interesting that Ilhan Omar was just on TV yesterday defending this kleptocratic government and condemning US sanctions on it.
11
This sounds like a propaganda peace in order to justify the undemocratic regime change. Guaido has not been elected to the presidency, he has no mandate a part from the imaginary one the USA put forward in order to recoup the oil. This is such an obvious play by los gringos. Our track record is not good remember Pinochet or what about San Salvador, Guatemala all were led by hand picked men by the CIA, all committed massacres, some genocide and all were shown the door by their people. Maduro needs to go but not like this . Let the proud Venezuelan people take care of their own business without foreign influence. Let's not forget that our own house is not in order and that we have no business giving lessons on democracy.
27
@arm19 So, if you agree that Maduro has to go, but object to Guaidó's role as acting president, then how should it be done? It's not as if a regime like the dictator Maduro's is ever going to allow a legitimate election. The CIA did not foist Guaidó on Venezuela. As a duly elected representative to the National Assembly, which elected him as its president in January, and under the 1999 Constitution, Guaidó's current position as acting president is arguably more legitimate than Maduro's current claim to the office.
5
@arm19 Guaido was the leader of the National Assembly and thus in the line of presidential succession according to the Venezuelan Constitution. The U.S. equivalent would be if Trump executed massive and blatant fraud in the next election in order to remain in the White House, and Nancy Pelosi refused to recognize the result and declared herself to be the legitimate president.
7
@arm19
Recent history shows that only the country's army can get rid of an unwanted tyrant. Zimbabwe is the perfect example. But, how long, and after how much suffering, did that happen? In the case of Venezuela, things are much worse, and the country doesn't have the luxury of waiting for a group of unpaid soldiers to finally get rid of the thug in the palace.
Makes Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette look good by comparison.
3
China, Russia, Cuba against thump I love it .
Axis of evil about to show pvt bone spurs he know nothing about foreign policy.
This article made my day
1
Americans take note. This is what happens to a Democracy when a corrupt president takes over the country. It has nothing to do with socialism and everything to do with dishonest, lying, cheating politicians like Trump.
5
I am "sure" to some degree that NYT tries to be independent in its reporting. However, I do have a healthy skepticism about it and other news organizations. A very good friend used to work for the London Times, Boston globe, and other news organizations both in the US, UK, and other places. He very clearly shared that often time the news papers were directly told by US intelligence agencies what not to write or how to change it to be more neutral. My friend had no reason to lie about any of it.
My father was an intelligence officer and had told me to be very skeptical about what I hear from the government, often they exaggerate stuff and not to believe narratives around what the government considers classified. They keep things secret as a means to put forward whatever story that suits them.
I have seen this to be true by personal observations.
19
Well, now that changes everything. The hearsay accounts of an anonymous poster’s unidentified friend and intelligence officer father are evidence enough for us to distrust any and all newspaper articles. Hallelujah.
9
Would love to see a similar expose on Lorent Saab, whose ties to the radical right -- and Columbian death squads -- confound his poster boy status. Look him up. Quite busy for a young man.
4
Compiled by Venezuelan “agents” with the failed coup blues and emailed directly to John Bolton no doubt, and thence... here. Strains credulity.
28
From the start he was a Dictator. Ties to criminals and terrorists, and then on the subject weighs in Ilhan Omar, who apparently thinks he is worthy of support more than our own experts...our own country. She does not belong in office or on the Foreign Relations Committee. It is Democratic to speak ones mind and have ones views, but hers seem to all fly in the face of US policy, and frankly she undermines the US.
12
@JHM
Good our policies are hypocritical and designed to exploit the resources of Venezuela not to benifit the people. Do you know our history in central and south america? We have faired far worse than maduro. How many death squads have we funded? How many dictators did we support? Who armed the Guatemalan military who committed a genocide of the natives?
Good old U S of A. So please this a case of the pot calling the kettle black and before you make such statements knowing the history of the region would be useful.
10
@JHM
"undermines the US?" WOW -- that could be used to condemn anyone who criticizes whatever politician is in power. And "our own experts?" Which ones? The ones who killed millions in a hopeless war in Vietnam or the ones who invaded Panama or caused so much death and destruction in the Middle East and the situation is worse than ever? The ones who support vicious dictators as the ones in Brazil and the Philippines, and dream of killing tens of thousands as the coups in Chile and Argentina did?
We can criticize Maduro without endorsing these "experts" who only care about protecting their interests and push "patriotism" to gain the support of some people and create fear of criticism in others -- while, again, just looking out for various special interests. Venezuela has LOTS of oil that certain companies would like to get their hands on.....
6
Here's my guess: Maduro survives because Venezuelan military leaders are taking a skim from rampant cocaine smuggling that flows over the border from Colombia. Further, Colombian drug smuggling is also the primary cause of the criminal violence and governmental breakdowns that afflict Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico. Back in the '90s we in the United States agreed that the War on Drugs wasn't worth fighting, and that may have been the right choice. But surrender has had a terrible price.
6
Most Lebanese think of Hezbollah as patriotic heroes, who freed their country from hostile foreign control (Israel). As to dealing drugs, tell it to the CIA, who have been proven to be involved in the drug trade time and again.
As to Maduro, yes, he is a pretty poor leader. But he was voted in, in an election monitored and certified by independent observers. Given the CIA's sordid history in Latin America, overthrowing a number of popular governments, my opinion is that the US should allow them the same freedom to make mistakes that we allow ourselves.
21
@Mike
'Most Lebanese think of Hezbollah as patriotic heroes, who freed their country from hostile foreign control (Israel). '
So does Omar (D-MI), she is pro Palestine and against Israel. She too would call them 'heroes'.
7
Clearly this leaked dossier is part of a propaganda war waged by Trump against the democratically elected government of Venezuela. The Trump government is aiming to get its hands on Venezuela s oil reserves. Seeing that Trump s puppet fails to get support from the Venezuelan people, the Trump regime is trying to come up with other tricks to undermine Maduro.
15
@Kristiaan
Maduro was not democratically reelected. The May 2018 presidential election was a total farce. That is true regardless of anything Trump does or doesn't do with regard to Venezuela. And really, is there anything the Trump regime could do to undermine Maduro any more than Maduro's own regime (and Chávez's before it) has done?
5
China, Cuba, Russia... and now Hezbollah? I strongly suspect that US military intervention is a matter of time.
6
I have never seen as many strange comments as to this article.
First of all, the article discusses a lot of easily plausible information about some nasty characters, some based on court filings. What's the problem?
But some readers see the appearance of this article as a plot to help Israel by criticizing somebody with ties to Hezbollah. Others think it is nothing but phony propaganda by Trump prior to a military attack. Some wonder why "the left" is out there defending Maduro (not that I've noticed any of that). Some wonder why "the right" are wondering about "the left".
Strange. Strange.
12
@Ben
'Easily plausible information' doesn't mean that it has to be true at all.
The NYT writes what the 'Intelligence Community' tells them, it has before and will do so in the future.
5
@Ben
Right? I just got flamed a few comments down for bringing up the same points.... I guess those troll factories are alive and well :( We need to take a lot of the anonymity out of the internet. It is destroying our civilisation!
1
There was a time I would believe what the US government said in its court filings, or what was uttered by its intelligence agencies etc.
With everything that is going on in the world and the USA being everywhere near it, it is clear that the USA is a corrupt nation with thugs at the top creating corruption everywhere and killing people wherever they go.
This indictment in USA against Tareck El Aissami just another ploy to legitimize the USA to go in and create extreme havoc everywhere in Venezuela, put current Venezuelan leaders in jail and install a US client government in Venezuela.
If the USA does not like Russia meddling in its elections (internal affairs) then it would be wise to stop meddling in other country's affairs.
16
Given the disaster in Venezuela, the incredible amount of human suffering, the abundant evidence for drug trafficking, you would think that the extreme left voices would at some point just shut up or maybe even agree that something needs to change.
Instead, it’s all about how terrible Trump is, about the US trying to rule Latin American countries and so on. I guess that even if Venezuela would be ruled by Aliens and Predators, the American far left would have kind words for them.
12
@Gimme A. Break
Yes - if the Venezuelans care to elect Aliens and Predators to rule themselves - we should have nothing to say but maybe "okay then". So should you and everyone else. The USA needs to stay out of other people's ways to govern themselves - the same way you expect Russia not to interfere in yours. Right?
6
The Trump regime are liars. Americans should not die so Trump can be a wartime President.
3
The entire “governmental infrastructure” around Maduro is made up of other nefarious characters. Diosdado Cabello is another crook with a similar dossier. Vladimir Padrino.... and so on.
One of the things that gets my goat is when well-meaning Americans refer to Venezuela as a socialist country. It’s not. It’s a narco state and a kleptocracy masquerading as socialist. Norway and Sweden are socialist. Venezuela, by contrast, is an ongoing crime scene.
Ask any Venezuela about their experiences voting and you’ll hear huge irregularities and red flags. No one I know believes that elections have been legitimately run for at least a decade. Maduro was selected in Cuba....
Thank you for writing about this. Next... please write an article about the terms in the Rofsnet loans to Venezuela. I’ve been told if Venezuela defaults due to sanctions, they lap up the 49% they don’t already own. If that accurate as described, it would explain Trump’s proactive interest in Venezuela. I read yesterday the US and Putin are negotiating Venezuela’s fate. I’d love a peaceful resolution but one that ends with Russia owning Citgo frightens me as both an American and a Venezuelan. Similarly, I don’t want a Russian military presence there. I’d love for someone in the Times to take this angle and explore it. Certainly the NY Post already has as gas Miami Herald and Washington Post. They’ve only skimmed the surface: we need a we’ll investigate piece like this one to take that angle.
128
@Gwe
Or next: NYT please write an article placing the current US coup attempt in context with the history of US backed coups in South America.
And how about we start by worrying about our own completely corrupt US administration before we deal with Venezuelas? The Trump administration is easily as corrupt as Maduro's regime. If not more so.
41
@Gwe The Venezuela disaster is an inevitable outcome of socialism. It always ends like this. This may not be your Utopian dream of socialism but it is the reality nightmare that always, with no exception, follows when a leader who calls themselves "socialist" gets in power.
Please stop insulting social democracies of Norway and Sweden - they have top level of protection of private property and are market driven economies. They are NOT socialist and NEVER call themselves socialist. USSR, North Korea, Venezuela ARE (or were) socialist.
I am strongly against any intervention in Venezuela and agree with much of the rest of your comment.
9
@JR
Listen. I don't disagree entirely with you. I thought that situations like this one were exactly why the UN existed.
Had the UN done their job, this all would have been avoided. There were SO MANY irregularities throughout the years but none as shocking as Hugo Chavez dying in Cuba and his replacement being named IN CUBA. Personally that was when the open secret became a secret no longer: Cuba was running Venezuela with a little assist from Putin.
But please don't let your understandable bias take away a more self-serving point: What happens in Venezuela matters to the US. From the refugee crisis it has created, to the propose Russian naval bases in Orchilla island, to the future of our oil supply—how this is decided WILL affect you and yours. Directly and indirectly.
…..and until you are ready to use the words "Comrade" you should do and ask we do all we can to beat back the Russian threat. Here, there, everywhere but especially within our own hemisphere.
8
I think part of our problem was our failure to engage with Cuba 50 years ago and our failure to comprehend the forces that brought Hugo Chavez to power, income inequality and lack of equality of opportunity. How could a rich country like Venezuela spiral out of control?
Rich Venezuelans using the western banking systems to launder drug profits, and assisting in tax evasion doesn't help. Now we have another immigration crisis, not the poor from El Salvador and Guatemala, but the rich Venezuelans flooding into South Florida.
5
Funny how widespread unrest in Venezuela is an argument for intervention on behalf of democracy - in France widespread unrest is an argument for the status quo.
That the corporate media refuses to show or report on the latter, is just more reason to see that media as nothing but the PR wing of the powerful.
Instead, they uncritically accept the dubiously-timed claims of two dubious sources and provide Trump more excuses to intervene militarily.
Did you think the liberal media would support "the resistance"?
4
Not sure I've understood everything here.
If Venezuela's security services are targeting drug traffickers whose business is linked to Maduro then that suggests that he lacks a degree of control.
Trump only needed a tiny bit more power and/or cooperation to curtail an investigation into him and his associates in the US. So how is the dictator in Caracas not able to prevent his cronies being locked up?
2
As this article identifies, Venezuela has become a South American franchise for Hezbollah operatives. Hezbollah, the Iranian terrorist arm, has implanted Iranian financiers and set up banking mechanisms to launder money from criminal enterprises significantly for international drug trafficking. What this means for America is that it has a direct relationship to the alliance Trump and the Republican Party made with Saudi Arabia months after Trump's inauguration. Trump has expressed an intent to send American military troops to Venezuela. A proposition Saudi Arabia would favor and may be pressuring America to follow through on seeing this as an opportunity to do serious damage to their tribal enemy Iran. And Trump and crew are in on it.
3
How does any of this justify illegal terrorist attacks against the legally elected government of Venezuela? The United States is engaged in the illegal threat of violence against the government and people of Venezuela for the purpose of political change. That is the textbook definition of terrorism.
4
I have exchanged emails with the author Nick Casey questioning his reports and sending him contradictory information that he should find enlightening. His replies evidence a man-on-a-mission mindset related to his career goals.
Maybe Casey should review in an article the backgrounds of John Bolton and Elliot Abrams rather than play ground man for a US oil corporation driven manipulation of our foreign policy for cash gain.
5
Maybe Nick Casey, who is actually doing journalistic work in Venezuela and has provided ample evidence and interviews in his reporting, has better and more accurate information than an armchair observer in Rye who is also seems to have a man-on-a-mission mindset related to his political beliefs.
6
On first reading the Hizbolah connection sounded too wacky to be given credence.
Then remembered Iran-Contra and a light dawned.
And by the way a dossier is typically a file containing multiple documents gleaned from differing sources over a period of time, and is used to build a case, to construct a narrative. Seems the this particular dossier contains pieces of evidence, including witness accounts, that cover years of activities by a group of people.
3
The American left doesn't like or support Maduro or other human rights suppressors and thieves. "We" want people to determine their own fate and it goes better for us if the governments are simply governing in the interests of their people. Things go worse if the US successfully works for the overthrow of standing government. Need examples???? Umm...Iran...Iraq...Afghanistan...Guatemala...Nicaragua...
The other major variable is that everyone in this country knows Trump to be a liar and thief, who has no knowledge or interest in governing for the benefit of our citizens.
I would love to hear your reasons for believing that this abuser of women, this liar, this wanna be despot is really interested in the fate of Venezuela and the other failed states run by corrupt gunmen. He admires that governance style. No one is safe.
27
@Joe Solo I didn't vote for Donald Trump & don't agree with him on many issues but we in El Salvador know he's on the right side of history now. Check CNNEE (CNN in Spanish) to see how their attitude toward him has changed since Mike Pence listened to Juan Guaido and his supporters. Maduro's "election" was not legal. The opposition were not even allowed to participate. When there is no legally elected president, the constitution of Venezuela estabishes a provision to avoid a military coup. The President of the National Assembly, the last people legally elected in events approved by international observers, becomes the interim President. See the first tweets of VP Mike Pence. He has been totally respectful of the constitution of Venezuela and has encouraged Guaido to stick to their Magna Carta. You can just follow CNNEE; you don't have to go to FOX. People are begging for a U.S. military presence in Venezuela now but I pray the Latin American governments will form their own military to help the people of Venezuela. Where is the United Nations? Totally absent. If Trump sends troops today, he'll be cursed tomorrow. This article gives details about El-Aissami but we have see most of this in newspapers in Central America for years. He's the real thorn in the side of a noble and courageous nation.
5
@Joe Solo
Trump is more honest than our previous administration, he said to go get the oil and to use the military. Obama was as ready for a coup de tat against Chavez as the Trump administration is against Maduro. Then as now, the people stood with the elected president. Guido was trained and educated in the US and has been a CIA asset for years during the Obama administration. He will privatize the nation's Oil and will be rewarded by the oil giants, the modern-day robber barons.
The neocons and the corporations are in control, it is about oil not about the people and their poverty or freedom. And the Republicans and Democrats are equally corrupt neocons. Not a peep of OPPOSITION from politicians or the MSM including the NYT. But they work together manipulating public opinion in support of regime change and military invasion just as they did in Iraq.
1
Don the Con is honest? I have land in Florida to sell you.
1
I do not know whether this is true or not, but the timing is certainly interesting. Just a day after Trump declares that all options are on the table for Venezuela, including military intervention. Harkens back to the the Iraqi tubes that could be used for weapons that 'justified' that intervention
31
@Robert K I agree about Iraq but VP Mike Pence has put us on the right side of history in Venezuela so far. We have been reading and seeing reports on CNNEE (CNN in Spanish) about El-Aissami for years. The first day Guaido appeared, I asked my husband, "Where is El-Aissami?" He's the real thorn in the side of a noble and courageous nation. I think he's now Ministry of Industry but he's made a fortune for himself, his family and friends while the people of Venezuela starve.
3
So what?
Who cares?
Venezuela didn't hack and meddle in the American political campaigns and elections in 2016 and 2018.
11
Neither did any other group outside the United States. The United States has one of the most corrupt election systems in the world because of voter suppression by Republican governors and the corporate-owned and controlled media.
In addition, the government does not even control the collection and counting of the votes. That is handled by proprietary voting machines owned and controlled by private corporations. It's a mess and congress doesn't even discuss the issue.
2
@Blackmamba No but it sounds like they have provided funding for a group directly responsible for the deaths of US servicemen.
2
Going through the comments, it seems like there's a bit of 'social engineering' going on. I know alot of people are against foreign intervention, but the consistency of the arguments does seem a bit fishy me thinks. Regime change or not, Maduro is killing his brothers and sisters and a passive West is just as culpable.
24
@Raben What would you prefer to happen? Remember that the US track record for "restoring democracy" is pretty abysmal.
3
>>> "I know alot of people are against foreign intervention, but the consistency of the arguments does seem a bit fishy me thinks."
Yeah, right. All these people opposed to our government engineering coups and regime change. So unpatriotic. Be very suspicious.
1
@Raben
the West is everything but passive. The West, led by the Obama administration actively worked on a coup de tat to get rid of Chavez, they lost because of the people of Venezuela refused to play the game and supported the leader they had elected. Looks like the same happened again, Guaido called for an uprising and the people did not come.
All election observers called it a clean election, some say cleaner than the Trump election.
But it is not up to the people to elect a president, the corrupt plutocracy up north will determine who owns the oil in Venezuela, certainly not the people.
3
Maduro is Venezuela's Trump. He is a career criminal masquerading as a government official. To hear that he surrounds himself with other criminals is not at all surprising.
9
@WeHadAllBetterPayAttentionNow Curious analogy seeing as Trump is actually providing economic growth and stability where Maduro is not.
12
@cb - Trump is creating hatred and discord, and pandering to Russia and North Korea. It was Obama who created this economy, not Trump. And what Trump did contribute was a gigantic, unsustainable transfer of wealth from the middle class to the oligarchy. It is only the rich who are thriving in America.
1
Add credit card spending to a great economy, thanks to Obama, and you get a bubble. Trump is harming America. He needs a wag the dog war.
I spoke to a Venezuelan physician in Japan about her country, and she mentioned the Hezbollah connection as well. Very strange.
13
@Detached Actually, this has been known for years now. Quite a few Hezbollah throughout various Latin American countries. Given how we have made them an official enemy, it is a bit unsettling.
One thing that never gets reported is President Obama, in one of his last acts as President, signed an executive order that designated Venezuela as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security.
Citing erosion of human rights, corruption, lack of freedom of press, etc He signed it January 16, 2016.
I know people hate and suspect Trump of bad things in general. 2 administrations in a row have an issue from 2 different parties. Maybe where they there is smoke there is fire. And btw Venezuelan govt was giving Venezuelan passports to members of Hezbolah.
17
>>> "Maybe where they there is smoke there is fire."
Or, maybe US efforts to install client governments in countries with resources we want, e.g., oil, are a result of bipartisan interventionist policy.
40
@Douglas You have it sir. Whether Clinton, Obama, Bush I, Bush II or Trump, all serve the Deep State and it's policies of war-profiteering, conquest and chaos.
1
@Douglas
Best give the benefit of the doubt to terrorists in that case.
1
Maybe they will find some centrifuge tubes, mobile WMD trains, and evidence that Maduro blew up the USS Maine in the Gulf of Tonkin.
86
@John I agree with your suspicions. Always "Remember the Maine!" and what the Hearsts did to cause that war with Spain. I think they gave Jim Acosta a prize recently. I live in Latin America and majored in Spanish with Latin American studies. Venezuela has been the model of democracy in the past. Chavez and his puppet Maduro have destroyed a country which should be the most prosperous of South America. Over 3 million Venezuelans have left the country. Biden suggests free elections but how do you do that in a police state with 3 million citizens who hate Maduro living in other countries. Watch CNNEE (CNN in Spanish). They are no longer so hostile toward Trump. Mike Pence has put us on the right side of history.
2
Precisely. Straight out of the CIA playbook. If it wasn't so serious it would be laughable.
5
One way for the Times to validate its reporting on El Aissami questioned here, unfairly I think, put the dossier on line.
Look, a major problem flows from the Trump administration's confused efforts to intervene in Venezuela. It has caused people, including commentators here, to lose sight of the genuinely evil nature of the Maduro regime.
The tenor of comment in Latin America, most harmed by Maduro's depopulation of his country, is that Guaido is legitimate and Maduro is not but Trump's diplomacy, to this point, is making matters worse.
7
@Frank McNeil: Right. Trump's makes his gangsterish threats: "Asked what the options were, Trump said: “Well, some of them I don’t even like to mention to you because they are pretty tough.” This just underlines the picture of Guaido as a tool of the US.
Instead of putting John Bolton and Elliot Abrams forward as major actors here, we should be standing back and letting Venezuelans confront their problems, with any support coming from less problematic outsiders. Russia is apparently involved already; what about Canada, Mexico, or the EU?
3
@Frank McNeil Abrams and Bolton have been associated with intervention in Latin America, especially since old wouds have been reopened here in El Salvador. Trump has been unpopular since he made his remarks about criminals, taken mistakenly as criticism of an ethnic group. See first tweets about Vzla by VP Mike Pence, however. From the beginning he advised Guaido to stick to the constitution of Venezuela. Maybe that's why Leopoldo Lopez had to "visit" the Spanish embassy. He will probably be elected President but can't participate in politics right now.
@Frank McNeil
Please name one nation in Latin America that is better off because of American policies. Is there any nation where the US did not interfere in domestic politics, dictating the head of state including elected governments as in Chile and Venezuela?
Obama initiated regime change against the elected Hugo Chavez, he failed.
The US is a corrupt and criminal rogue state.
Venezuela is a mess ... and has been. My only hope is that Trump does not make the mistake Obama did in Syria and Libya.
We need to stay out ..support when it falls .. yes. But -- stay out.
I do wish we would use our influence to fight financial corruption world wide. Much of the worlds ill gotten gains end up in western banks and RE -- there should be no safe haven
27
@GT You're so right. People beg for U.S. troops today but will curse Trump and all U.S. citizens tomorrow if something goes wrong. As the article says, El-Aissami has his fortune in foreign, especially Swiss, banks. Why is this arrangement allowed? "...there should be no safe haven."
1
@GT
US can help fight financial corruption. Clean up its own corruption.
Truth? Half-truth? Outright fabrication? We may never know.
Only one thing is certain. Regime change orchestrated by a foreign power for its own benefit is against international law.
92
@Greg
"All options are on the table," and nothing re-elects a U.S. President like "defending democracy" in an oil-rich country.
19
@GiGi
We do not need oil anymore. This argument is old and irrelevant. The USA is a net exporter of petroleum products. It's up in the air as to whether or not higher or lower prices are better for US economy at this point.
Stop spreading misinformation.
3
my understanding is that the election was free and fair. I believe the international observers certified the election as such.
9
There are a widespread reports the last election was fraudulent. No international observers were allowed in the country. There is no free press in Venezuela. The opposition candidates were either jailed or expelled from the country.
16
@Mark
The Venezuelan government requested UN observers... the opposition told the UN not to send observers...
4
@BronxTeacher: It's controversial: "Several Venezuelan NGOs, such as Foro Penal Venezolano, Súmate, Voto Joven [es], the Venezuelan Electoral Observatory and the Citizen Electoral Network, expressed their concern over the irregularities of the electoral schedule, including the lack of the Constituent Assembly's competencies to summon the elections, impeding participation of opposition political parties, and the lack of time for standard electoral functions.[11] Because of this, the European Union,[12][13] the Organization of American States, the Lima Group[citation needed] and countries including Australia and the United States rejected the electoral process.[14][15] However, countries including China, South Africa, Cuba, Iran, Egypt, Russia, Syria, Turkey and others recognized the election result.[16]" (Wikipedia)
Maybe it could be argued that the results should be accepted anyway, but it doesn't seem that they can be called "free and fair", as if everything was just fine.
9
It dismays me that many Democrats and those on the progressive left have trouble expressing unequivocally that the Venezuelan regime is terrible. This is not a difficult moral quandary. It doesn’t need for you to point out how bad Trump is too. I am well left of center and despise Trump with every fiber of my being but he pales in comparison to the barbarous cabal that has starved and stomped their boots all over the Venezuelan people.
83
@Paul I've never heard anyone on the "left" not completely condone the regime as anything short of despotic. My suggestion for Republicans and conservatives in the United States is to really examine why Donald Trump is infatuated with strongmen in other parts of the world that very much resemble Maduro.
9
>>> "It dismays me that many Democrats and those on the progressive left have trouble expressing unequivocally that the Venezuelan regime is terrible."
It dismays *me* that so many Americans, from across the political spectrum, are supportive of, even eager for, our government's endlessly-repeated interventions in other countries.
We complain, in self-righteous indignation, about foreign interference in our election -- amounting to some social media posts and (allegedly) the release of purloined emails revealing uncontested facts about a presidential candidate. Meanwhile, we cheer as our operatives work, yet again, to foment a rebellion and coup in Venezuela.
We are just not good at principled behavior.
35
@Paul
Not true.
I challenge you to name someone on the progressive left who doesn't acknowledge the problems with Maduro's regime.
For example, I listen to Noam Chomsky and Amy Goodman. They've both challenged Maduro's restrictions on freedom of the press.
(I too support a free press, but it is complicated. Maduro's defenders respond that the Venezuelan press is owned by the oligarchs who are supporting the violent overthrow of Maduro's government. In the U.S. we jailed Communist newspaper editors for the same reason.)
Chomsky said that Venezuela's problems have 3 causes: (1) Global oil prices have dropped (2) The Chavistas didn't build up reserves during the profitable times (3) The US is trying to overthrow them, first by working with Saudi Arabia to flood the oil market, and finally by confiscating -- stealing -- Venezuela's assets, so that Venezuela can't even buy food on the free market. Bolton is starving civilians to drive them to overthrow Maduro. According to Chomsky, this is a war crime.
12
Venezuela is a favorite example for many conservatives as a demonstration of the "evils" of socialism. (Social Democrat policy "evils" are better demonstrated in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and some other European countries.)
Venezuela is actually an example of kleptocracy, pervasive corruption at all levels of government, gross mismanagement of abundant oil reserves and other natural resources, visionless and incompetent bureaucracies, rigged elections, deprivation of free speech press and assembly, and the dangers of the cult-like reverence of leaders and party (especially towards Chavez, though they're trying their best with the flavorless dotard that is Maduro).
19
@Mac
Venezuela is not a socialist nation. It never has been.
6
@Mac There seems to have been a concerted effort lately to make socialism mean the same as communism and force everyone to refer to what used to be called socialism as social democracy.
Soon Europeans will have to refer to their systems as "capitalist-but-with-socialised-healthcare" to avoid misunderstandings with the politically illiterate.
1
Venezuela is the best example of what socialism is. By the book. If you are in denial, I’m sorry for you. The evidence is out there for all to see.
1
These days with the effects of Trump, truth is up in the air. Trump Is, as he has been seemingly from the day he took office, on the campaign trail for the 2020 General Election. For example, consider the frequent rallies, including his State-of-the-Union addresses. The report here, basically on the criminality of El Aissami and his connection with both Venezuelan leadership and our adversaries in the Middle East, is suspect ... though not necessarily inaccurate ... due to where Trump stands on these ... perhaps as part of his fear-promotion strategy. The uncertainty involved is overall the insidious effect of Trump in his presidency that promotes chaos, the root of Trump’s hold ... if only because we’re so shocked by Trump’s outrageous, moving-target style. And the media are exploited by him to foster this.
3
Thank god we’ve got our house in order.
16
Convenient timing on this information release to the Times - almost like State/WH wants to build a public case for its continued intervention. I don't know what the endgame in Venezuela will be, but I expect more critical discussion of sourcing from the Times - if this article were the result of a long-running, truly journalistic investigation, that would be made quite clear in the article, as has been made clear in many stellar pieces in NYT in the past. I have no doubt that this guy is bad - but it is also our responsibility as Americans to question what is driving our public debate on this issue, particularly given the hamfisted work of the administration on this in the last few months.
33
@Beata I remember Judith Miller...
14
@Beata
The problem is, this isn't "convenient timing". This is old news for anyone who has followed the Venezuela situation for any period of time. The Venezuela-Hezbollah connection has been well established and this "news" is simply that connection coming to light in American media. Unfortunately, most Americans think if it isn't reported in America, it must a) not be happening or b) not be important.
But for those of us with a personal connection to Venezuela/LatAm and have been following the situation there for years, this is old news. For the rest of the world, because regime change appears to be imminent, this is now important enough to talk about.
1
“The dossier, provided to The New York Times by a former top Venezuelan intelligence official and confirmed independently by a second...”
That does not sound like sources that are sufficiently credible upon which to conclusively make the claims of the article. But the Maduro government are all official “bad guys” now in Washington’s eyes, so the corporate media is willing to go out on a limb for the powerful.
38
@Ed Watters
You say the dossier's source and a second confirmation of its existence and its accuracy are not sufficiently credible.
Shall I believe the negation of the confirmations by the poster of a comment or The Times journalist who lives and dies by the integrity of his byline?
Take a guess.
4
@Ed Watters: This "dossier" doesn't sound implausible in itself, but the timing of its release is pretty obviously part of the regime-change project. With that project underway, we have to be especially skeptical of the accuracy of this kind of convenient accusation. Remember the absolute certainty with which Colin Powell spoke of the nonexistent Iraqi WMD. Now, hearing that one former top Venezuelan official confirms the words of another doesn't give any confidence, given the long history of falsehoods we have been subjected to in this kind of situation. (And, even if the dossier is accurate, the timing makes it clearly part of the larger regime-change project. The NYT, along with the rest of mainstream media, has always played along with the government agenda at times like these.)
5
@ Ed Waters,
I disagree. The problems in Venezuela are due to corruption. We should be trying to help the suffering residents of Venezuela regardless of US politics.
2
“He was indicted in March in a Manhattan federal court and sanctioned two years ago by the Treasury Department, accused of working with drug lords.” How to mind others' business.
5
Secret dossier but writing about it. Actions here are what we see with Trump’s grab for power!
8
I suggest Mr. Casey puts his energy into finding the secret dossier(s) of the American leadership. This is far more important than what's happening in Venezuela.
18
@Greg Russia may have missiles in Venezuela; China almost got control of a Pacific port in El Salvador. This is a situation so volatile that it could lead to WWIII. Guaido is not even a conservative. He's more like a democrat than like a republican.
1
The ground rule seems to be very simple, easy to understand, and followed by almost all dictators and aspiring dictators and overtly ambitious (without much political ability, as a leader) politicians in many countries. Such countries used to include most of the developing countries, some with very functional democracy as well (e.g. India). But now it's been successfully used in at least few developed countries including USA.
6
With regard to El Aissami, it is what it is. There may be renewed interest and purpose now in the U.S. in publicizing his role, but it has been pretty public and known for a while.
5
Further evidence that authoritarianism stems from two motivations only, both lustful: greed and control. Beyond the empty rhetoric, ideological principle has nothing to do with it.
10
Does anyone else find it very suspicious that this unsubstantiated dossier by a "former intelligence" official just happens to drop one day after the failed coup attempt by Guaido? Seriously? Really? Can the CIA and the State Department be any more obvious?
104
@FXQ, obviously you have not been paying attention. I have family in Venezuela and they have been warning about this guy and his connections to drug traffickers and terrorists for years now.
47
@FXQ It doesn't make it to the front page always but members of the Chavez and Maduro's administration have through the years been indicted and prosecuted, not always successfully, but in the course a trail of shady characters have emerged. Corruption to ease the flow of illicit gains stemming from illicit activities has been the name of the game and now that the light shines on the issue it gets harder to lie low for these characters but once the spotlight shifts to another hot spot in the world it will go back to business as normal.
11
@CEA
True, I'm not an expert in Venezuelan politics or society, and I'm not saying Maduro is a saint, all I'm saying is I do know what Chavez and Maduro replaced and that was much worse. Maybe not for your family personally, but for society at large the people were totally exploited and suppressed by an elite cadre of families that siphoned the wealth out of the country for themselves while the majority of the population suffered and lived in poverty. That is a fact. What we are doing there is an obvious attempt by our CIA and corporations to extract the oil wealth out of Venezuela and Guaido is the foil to do that under the guise of "democracy." This report that dropped today is part of the propaganda effort by our CIA to manufacture consent so that it makes it easier to send in the military. It's WMD's all over again only the American people have gotten a look at the CIA's playbook and we are not buying it again.
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This is ominous for those who do not support US military intervention in foreign countries. This sort of propaganda is usually floated not long before troops are sent in. “All options on the table” as they say.
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Funny I didn't hear any outrage when we got involved in Syria, Libya, Egypt and Ukraine. I hear those countries are doing much better after our involvement, not from anyone that actually live there of course. The difference here is Venezuelan Americans and those in Venezuela actually want us to get involved. But I guess the privileged gluttonous Americans who have so much food they have to run on treadmills to burn it off do not care about starving people in Venezuela.
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Total hit job. Having 2 sources that are former intelligence agencies who have either betrayed the government, fled the country, or switched sides does not suggest anything other than the US is trying to cause havoc in the upper echelons of Maduro's government. Those sources could easily have been fabricated--Dossier's tend to be hitjobs made for a purpose. Having seen the games being played by Guido, Pompeo and Bolton would you really put faking the sourcing of a dossier out of their wheelhouse? They have all shown themselves to be liars, such that their lies have little capacity to be believed.
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The FBI has done similar things. The United States should stay out of foreign politics of other counties without proper understanding.
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I'd like to look behind the curtain and really see the sources of this new information as it has all the smell of a conjured-up pretext the same as the basis to race into Iraq and wreak havoc and destabilize the mideast. In fact, the smell is even more pungent.
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@BlackJackJacques
This article helps you to see behind the curtain. You may have to put your biases out of the way first to see.
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@bruno:
Well said.
This is stuff your average Venezuelan can recite. This and a lot more.
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Very true. But regime change is warranted in Venezuela.
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So now it is official in the USA. In Venezuela, it has been an open secret for many years. So if the USA extracted Noriega for the drug trafficking side of his regime, what is Trump going to do if Hezbollah is added to the mix. Add oil to that too. But most important add genocide.
Did informants get a break and kept their blood money? They made Venezuela a death chamber.
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Drug trafficking, murder, extortion, theft, presiding over a complete and total economic collapse leaving millions in squalor. Yet the American left continues to defend the Maduro government.
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@Mike
I think what the "left" objects to is American promoted coups and "regime change", as these ventures have in the past installed military dictatorships or one sort or another, not thriving democracies and decent civil societies. These countries are the source of the "carvavans" which Mr. Trump decries.
These same countries routinely engage in drug trafficking and other illegal activities -- rather like what this Venezuelan "confidant" is accused of -- but we don't seem to mind much.
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@Mike
Not defend. Just that we shouldn't install OUR person to traffic drugs, murder, extort, and steal to leave millions in squalor while the elite enrich themselves and our corporate oligarchs. We've done it so many times before in so many countries around the world. We are really good at it, but it just needs to end. That's all.
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@jrd "I think what the "left" objects to is American promoted coups and "regime change", as these ventures have in the past installed military dictatorships or one sort or another, not thriving democracies and decent civil societies."
Tell that to Europe.
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If everything is true about Venezuela, why would you call it leftist? What is leftist then? What is the meaning? Pretty nebulous. Why not call it a dictatorship or an authoritarian regime?
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I’ve been calling it an authoritarian dictatorship for years. There is nothing leftists, except on the minds of the right wing.
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John Kerry first refereed to Venezuela as a kleptocracy and that’s what it is.
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@Cm It is referred to as "leftist" because the current government in Venezuela is socialist. Socialism has long been associated with leftist ideologies.
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Sounds a lot like Trump, only smarter.
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I read that Putin gave Maduro a call that gave Maduro the assurance he needed to stay in power a little longer. Why is Russia constantly interfering with the politics of other countries? What has Russia to gain from proping Maduro and keeping him as a puppet? Is oil at the top of the agenda? Doesn’t Russia already have oil reserves and also access rights to Middle East oil? Venezuela has become the Syria of Latin America.
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@Hong, you do realize that Russia already has given billions in military aid to Valenzuela that is backed by oil right guarantees. Those mean nothing if the current regime falls.
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See reply by jrd. Why do you criticize Russia's intervention and NOT the US intervention? That is what the progressives object to. Lift the sanctions on Venezuela and help them stabilize and negotiate a transition.
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@Hong If you examine the behavior of Russia internationally there is a consistent pattern. Basiically Russia is saying to the U.S. over and over again stay out of the affairs of other countries and we will oppose you whenever you try to impose your will on others. Why does Russia do this? Because they are victims/targets themselves of U.S. meddling and they know the outcome if they don't step up - chaos. Really the U.S. foreign policy and attitude to the rest of the world is the cause of many problems and is largely a failure even for the U.S.,
let alone other countries. This issue has little to do with Trump although he has given positions of influence to some of the most ridiculous people who actually do believe the U.S. rules the world.
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