Warships, fighter jets and the CIA – what is Trump’s endgame in Venezuela?
For two months, the US military has been building up a force of warships, fighter jets, bombers, marines, drones and spy planes in the Caribbean Sea. It is the largest deployment there for decades.
Long-range bomber planes, B-52s, have carried out “bomber attack demonstrations” off the coast of Venezuela. Trump has authorised the deployment of the CIA to Venezuela too, as tensions have escalated.
The US says it has killed dozens of people in strikes on small vessels from Venezuela which it alleges carry “narcotics” and “narco-terrorists”, without providing evidence or details about those on board.
The strikes have drawn condemnation in the region and experts have questioned their legality. They are being sold by the US as a war on drug trafficking but all the signs suggest this is really an intimidation campaign that seeks to remove Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro from power.
Look, I have very little time or sympathy for Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro.
I’m all for Socialist Revolution, but to then use the State to murder, torture strangle free and fair elections, create an economic collapse that sees the largest refugee exoduses in Latin American history alongside Repression of Civil Society and the Press?
That’s not my kind of Revolution comrades!
I like a consensual Revolution.
Maduro’s regime has serious questions to answer for the way he has abused his own people, of that there can be little doubt HOWEVER that doesn’t in any way shape or form justify what Trump is embarking upon here.
Trump is attacking any boat he suspects of drug trafficking and using military level violence to simply blow those boats up with zero legal evidence or process whatsoever.
Those are extrajudicial assassinations, that’s not Justice.
Trump’s build up of military is unacceptable.
Trump’s extrajudicial assassinations are unacceptable.
Trump’s use of the CIA to undermine Maduro’s regime is unacceptable.
This matters because America is now doing this in the Pacific, OUR pacific…
US strikes two more alleged drug-carrying boats, this time in the Pacific Ocean
The U.S. military on Wednesday launched its ninth strike against an alleged drug-carrying vessel, killing three people in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, expanding the Trump administration’s campaign against drug trafficking in South America.
It followed another strike Tuesday night, also in the eastern Pacific, that killed two people, Hegseth posted on social media hours earlier. The attacks were departures from the seven previous U.S. strikes that had targeted vessels in the Caribbean Sea. They bring the death toll to at least 37 from attacks that began last month.
The strikes represent an expansion of the military’s targeting area as well as a shift to the waters off South America where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled. Hegseth’s social media posts also drew a direct comparison between the war on terrorism that the U.S. declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Trump administration’s crackdown.
…14% of the US Navy fleet is off the coast of Venezuela!
Just today they have sent the entire Ford Carrier Strike Group to the region FFS…
US deploys Ford carrier strike group to combat narco-terror in Western Hemisphere
The Trump administration has ordered the deployment of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in the Western Hemisphere as the U.S. continues to target suspected drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean.
“In support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland, the Secretary of War has directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR),” chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Friday.
…this is the sort of thing you do if you are about to start bombing Venezuela.
Maduro certainly has crimes to answer for, but that is for the Venezuelan people to decide, it is utterly inappropriate in the extreme that Trump gets involved.
He has no authority, the claim that he’s stopping terrorists from bringing drugs into America is farcical when you consider alcohol kills more people in America than all drugs combined, is farcical when you consider 20% of over doses are from legal prescriptions and is farcical when so many American’s dying from Fentanyl got their first taste on legally prescribed Oxycodone and Hydrocodone!
If Trump cared about drug over dosses he would crack down on booze, legal heroin and provide public health, instead he sends a fucking Carrier Strike Group to bomb speedboats and over throw a regime he doesn’t like!
It’s so difficult to keep up with all the crazy Trump is unleashing, that invading Venezuela gets missed.
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There will be that one shot.
“to then use the State to murder, torture strangle free and fair elections”
This TOTALLY happened- according to Voice Of America and Fox News.
“create an economic collapse that sees the largest refugee exoduses in Latin American history”
What are US illegal unilateral blockades?
“Repression of Civil Society and the Press?”
Yes, calling for a coup against the legitimate elected government will get you disqualified from running for election in Venezuela.
If you think there’s ‘persecution’ against the ‘opposition’ (CIA spies) in Venezuela, then you should also condemn what happens to Reality Check Radio and the other cookers in NZ, because they’ve done far less than the spies attacking Venezuela have.
If the sales are stopped in Gaza a new war is needed. When the Afghan shop front closed down a new shop front was opened in Ukraine.
All wars are resource wars. The Gaza off shore gas is secured so next is the Venezualan oil. If China controls rare earth’s USA is going to control China’s Venezuelan oil supply. USA Chyna proxy war.
Is Trump crazy enough to invade Venezuela? Probably not. Is he psychopathic enough to use a Tomahawk missile to “decapitate” Venezuelan leadership? Probably. Will he think that will lead to lower gas prices at home after he installs a puppet regime? Probably. Will it actually bring about lower gas prices and inflation in America before the mid terms? Probably not.
Sigh. Anything to try to distract us from the Epstein Files.
No invasion, just trying to collapse the regime. Venezuela is unfortunate enough to have a lot of oil. If their main export was milk powder they’d have much more peaceful lives.
Why pick on Trump?
Every U.S. regime believes the “Monroe Doctrine’ (look it up) gives them the right to bully, intimidate and invade any Latin American country. History proves their willingness to do so.
President Diaz of Mexico, “poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States’.
“but that is for the Venezuelan people to decide“
How do they do that in a Socialist Dictatorship with rigged elections and would the people welcome US troops?
As a Venezuelan you have health care, education and food. What are the yanks doing to other brown people inside USA? And you ask if they would welcome the yanks? Please. All it does is empower Maduro. Leaving aside the guerilla war will wipe out a generation of young USA men. Or at the very least, disabled them in droves.
Well Frank that’s for the Venezuelans to work out, not some corrupt orange dickhead to decide
Well, Trump tried to overthrow the Maduro government in his first term. Now that US regime change puppet María Machado has won the nobel peace thing, guess this has given him cover to try and do a job on Venezuela again. Won’t be troops on the ground though, his maga crowd won’t abide that. Just do a Gaza and bomb them (a few times) under the Hamas-like guise of trying to eliminate imaginary drug cartels. This may do the trick.
As for Venezuelan elections. The Venezuelan election process is as good as anywhere in the world.
From John Pilger: The war on Venezuela is built on lies –“Of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored,” said former president Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Centre is a respected monitor of elections around the world, “I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.” — https://www.greenleft.org.au/2019/1211/world/john-pilger-war-venezuela-built-lies
Is it just me or every time the US sticks it’s beak into Venezuela, Maduro just gets worse and worse. Maduro gets more and more dictatorial. And the Bolivarian Revolution moves further and further away from it’s original social revolutionary aims.
Chávez must be rolling in his grave.
That said, the oil in Venezuela is plentiful, but of a really shitty quality, which needs extensive refining. The worlds largest refinery which can handle that crude is owned by non-other than the Koch family. With the corporate take over of the US government now complete – extending it’s violent fingers into the Pacific is a worry for us and everyone else who lives around this great ocean.
Most of us already know Trump is completely and utterly insane.
He is a Wannabe Dictator and is probably inflicting upon America and those that did not vote for him his Own kind of Witch-hunt and Vengeance, What a Sad State of America has Demeaned Itself to.
I predict for America the actions of one Lunatic i.e Trump; will have long term ramifications upon the country for many years to come. If America still exists in its current Downward Slope into Obliteration.
I believe Venezuela is an Oil Rich country and that is probably what Trump would be interested in. Now he wants to turn Canada into a 51st ‘state’ of America and it’s likely Venezuela into the 52nd state. Trump has no interest in Palestine and the Palestinians because there is No Money to be made from the State of Palestine or its population.
Overall for Trump Power is obtained by Controlling Others, Controlling countries. Using those countries for Self Gain and Profiting from the Loss of Others Rights. Trump is All About Donald Trump. An Insane Littler Creature who has been Twice Impeached. Is a Convicted Felon and Fraudster along with many other Less than Merit-worthy ‘accolades’ that makes many on this planet wonder as to When Will America Learn Common Sense????!!!
Good luck America. You got what you voted for.
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