” It will make a big difference to the United States economically, if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.” John Bolton, National Security Advisor of the United States, January 2019
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. With such a huge stocks of the most important commodity, this country should prosper. In reality, however, it looks completely different.
Venezuela’s problems come from two changes that took place at the beginning of 21st century. First of all, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez decided to significantly nationalize oil sector, limiting business for Americans. Secondly, both Venezuela leaders (first Chavez and later Nicolas Maduro) decided that they will create a socialist paradise, which of course destroyed their economy.
Nowadays, Venezuela is in crisis, which is largely related to the government policy. On the other hand, documents which have just come to light show that the U.S. is performing a plan that will lead to Maduro overthrow and establishment of U.S. dependent authorities.
UN observer report
Before we go into details of an American operation called “Masterstroke”, we briefly summarize the report of an independent UN expert about current situation in Venezuela. It was published in August 2018 by Alfred de Zaya, appointed by the UN expert to analyze situation in Venezuela and Ecuador.
In our opinion, this report allows us to look at state of affairs in Venezuela from a slightly different perspective. Perhaps, that is why it was published by only one important journal – The Independent from the UK.
Selected quotes from the report:
” Observers have identified errors committed by the Chávez and Maduro Governments, noting that there are too many ideologues and too few technocrats in public administration, resulting in government policies that lack coherence and professional management and discourage domestic investment, already crippled by inefficiency and corruption, which extend to government officials, transnational corporations and entrepreneurs.”
“ Over the past sixty years, non-conventional economic wars have been waged against Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, the Syrian Arab Republic and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in order to make their economies fail, facilitate regime change and impose a neo-liberal socioeconomic model. In order to discredit selected governments, failures in the field of human rights are maximized so as to make violent overthrow more palatable. Human rights are being “weaponized” against rivals. Yet, human rights are the heritage of every human being and should never be instrumentalized as weapons of demonization.”
“ The principles of non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign States belong to customary international law and have been reaffirmed in General Assembly resolutions.”
“ The effects of sanctions imposed by Presidents Obama and Trump and unilateral measures by Canada and the European Union have directly and indirectly aggravated the shortages in medicines such as insulin and anti-retroviral drugs. To the extent that economic sanctions have caused delays in distribution and thus contributed to many deaths, sanctions contravene the human rights obligations of the countries imposing them. Moreover, sanctions can amount to crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. An investigation by that Court would be appropriate, but the geopolitical submissiveness of the Court may prevent this.”
“ Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns with the intention of forcing them to surrender. Twenty-first century sanctions attempt to bring not just a town, but sovereign countries to their knees. A difference, perhaps, is that twenty-first century sanctions are accompanied by the manipulation of public opinion through “fake news”, aggressive public relations and a pseudo-human rights rhetoric so as to give the impression that a human rights “end” justifies the criminal means.”
“ Bearing in mind that Venezuelan society is polarized, what is most needed is dialogue between the Government and the opposition, and it would be a noble task on the part of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to offer his good offices for such a dialogue. Yet, opposition leaders Antonio Ledezma and Julio Borges, during a trip through Europe to denounce the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, called for further sanctions as well as a military “humanitarian intervention”.”
“ Although the situation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has not yet reached the humanitarian crisis threshold, there is hunger, malnutrition, anxiety, anguish and emigration. What is crucial is to study the causes of the crisis, including neglected factors of sanctions, sabotage, hoarding, black market activities, induced inflation and contraband in food and medicines.”
“ The “crisis” in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is an economic crisis, which cannot be compared with the humanitarian crises in Gaza, Yemen, Libya, the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq, Haiti, Mali, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Somalia, or Myanmar, among others. It is significant that when, in 2017, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela requested medical aid from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the plea was rejected, because it ”is still a high-income country… and as such is not eligible”.”
Over time, the report have been hidden by the United Nations on their website. However it is still possible to find it on the Internet.
Masterstroke operation
“Masterstroke” refers to American plan to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro. The strategy was created at the turn of 2017 and 2018, and then signed on February 23, 2018 by Kurt Tidd, the commander of the American unit responsible for operations in South America.
At the beginning of the document, authors state that democracy is again regaining influence in South America (examples are Argentina and Brazil).
Subsequently, its content concerns Venezuela itself, which is very weak (authors do not mention the impact of sanctions described by UN expert). Document shows that chaos in Venezuela is to be an ideal opportunity for Trump administration to show efforts to strengthen democracy and security.
Next part contains elements of military and diplomatic activities, as well as principles of propaganda. The whole would allow to overthrow Maduro.
Activities include:
– increasing the outflow of foreign currencies from Venezuela, strengthening inflationary trends,
– obstructing imports, discouraging foreign investors, so that the situation becomes unbearable for the Venezuelans themselves,
– generate greater distrust and rejection among people in power,
– ridiculing Maduro and presenting him as Cuba’s puppet, eventually forcing to negotiate or leave,
– linking Venezuelan authorities with drug dealers, which would weaken their image in the world,
– establishing contact with potential allies in Venezuela in order to provoke protests, riots, acts of theft, assaults and other forms of public disorder. Causing events that will bring fatalities and then blaming the local government for death of citizens,
– leading to a situation where all sorts of specialists and professionals will run away from the country, which will further weaken Venezuela,
– supporting unstability on the border between Venezuela and Colombia,
– using the support of the allied authorities of Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Panama, experienced in operations in forest regions,
– providing support from Colombia, Brazil, Guayana and Curacao in the face of Venezuelans influx to these countries (the effect of the crisis).
Activities in media:
– narration about Maduro’s addiction to Cuba,
– presenting Maduro as a sole guilty party of the entire crisis,
– making sure that photos and reports of military activities are approved by general command before publication,
– keeping the narrative about necessity of intervention,
– justifying the dictatorship overthrow by using all means and resources in American’s army capability in the field of conducting a psychological war.
These are not our inventions, it is an information coming from the American army strategy.
2019 events
At the beginning of this year, Venezuelan Parliament invalidated President Nicolas Maduro oath (elected for a second term last year). The act stated that Maduro usurps power. Immediately after this decision, speaker of the Parliament Juan Guaido referred himself as temporary leader of Venezuela.
Reaction of the world was amazingly quick. Donald Trump immediately recognized Guaido as the leader of Venezuela (as if he knew what was going to happen). Ultimately, Trump were followed by the leaders of many other countries, more or less dependent on the U.S..
In the following weeks, there were talks between important authorities from the highest levels of power in Venezuela. During those meetings both representatives of the opposition and Maduro allies determined “distribution of influences” after the president overthrow. According to that information, the aim was to enable Maduro to depart in a dignified way.
At the end of April, oppositionist Leopoldo Lopez was released (he was sentenced to house arrest for a role he played during anti-government demonstrations in 2014). Then, on April 30, Guaido published a video showing him surrounded by a group of soldiers. He was also supported by Lopez. During the recording, Speaker of the Parliament announced that brave soldiers responded to the call of Venezuelans and were ready to overthrow authorities. CNN reported that film was recorded in “liberated” military base of La Carlota in Caracas.
They created the atmosphere of great uprising, while within a few days it turned out to be a lot of nonsense. In fact, during the recording, Guaido had only a tiny group of soldiers behind him, and no visible supporters. In turn, movie was recorded on a bridge over a highway – no military base was liberated. The uprising ended just as quickly as it began. Lopez and his family found a shelter in Spanish embassy. A few soldiers fled to Brazil, the rest stayed in Venezuela – they claim that they have been “misled”.
One day later, on May 1 there was a demonstration suggesting Guaido for a long time has been inviting his supporters. Venezuelan government has not made any attempts to arrest him – in this way it would only strengthen Guaido’s popularity. In turn, the Americans were left with a question: what went wrong?
Most likely, the coup has been prepared for weeks and Maduro finally managed to get ready for it. It is characteristic how Trump administration representatives came to the whole event. Secretary Mike Pompeo said that Americans would prefer a peaceful transfer of power in Venezuela, but they are also prepared for military intervention. One would have an impression that Pompeo was talking about one of the U.S. states that suddenly rebelled. And yet – the conversation concerned a sovereign country with 32 million inhabitants.
It seems that Guaido will continue to be strongly supported by the U.S. and their allies. However, you can not say that nothing has changed. John Bolton, Trump’s security advisor, who also supports Maduro’s overthrow plan is having a difficult time. Now the U.S. president has more reservations about Bolton’s work (expulsion of this warmonger would be a good step for Trump).
There is more speculation about possible United States military intervention. However, there are strong arguments against such a decision.
First of all, the intervention of U.S. troops for many Venezuelans would mean one thing: “Maduro was right – Guaido is the puppet of America.” This would mobilize a large part of population to resist.
Secondly, as Larry Wilkerson, former chief of Collin Powell staff remarked, if the American military were to land in Venezuela, a large part of the Venezuelan army would move to very difficult to climb mountains. From there, they will conduct their operations, and their defeat could be very difficult. Worth to recall that, both the Vietnamese and Taliban were acting against the U.S. military in a similar way.
As you can see, military intervention could bring the United States more harm than good. On the other hand, there are groups that want more wars to wage. Clearly, because it is a great business.
Conclusions:
1. Through his love of socialism, Maduro brought the country on the wrong path. In result, however, there should be a revolution led by Venezuelans themselves who would eventually overthrow the president. In the current situation, these activities are led by Americans who do not care how many people die during protests and riots. It would be much better if the Venezuelans took up this matter.
2. It is true that coup attempt of 30 April failed, but we decided to write the text due to details of the “Masterstroke” operation. It shows how coups are being currently prepared in other countries and what a great role is played by media.
3. Perhaps, provision of the U.S. plan to “bring death and blame the government” will give some food for thought in context of events in Maidan, Kiev where the snipers shot protesters from skyscrapers.
4. Americans mention that Venezuela uses “increasingly populist measures that help rulers to maintain a privileged position.” It is true. It is worth adding that nowadays we are dealing with the same situation in the world of finance in terms of central bank activities. They introduce solutions that have long been defined as a monetary policy for the rich, using smart-sounding and difficult names.
5. Slogans about saving democracy create a smile on the face. After all, thanks to the U.S. support, Michael Temer took over a power in Brazil and he never won any elections! This did not prevent him from being the President of Brazil in 2016-2019. His support in 2017 was between 3% and 6%, which made him the least popular president in history of Brazil.
6. Riots and possible overthrows will not have a major impact on the oil price, as the country’s share in global production is very low. A greater impact on the oil sector will be caused by those who will have an influence on Venezuelan oil after calming the situation down. Also in terms of the impact on the oil market, more important is development of events between Iran and the U.S.. In this case, the situation is starting to get quite serious.
7. Probably there will be people in the U.S. who find that their involvement in Venezuela is only due to concern about “human rights”. Unfortunately, U.S. leaders forget about this when their ally (Saudi Arabia) bombs Yemen and maintains there a humanitarian crisis. It is also worth remembering how the fate of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya citizens has been improved by the U.S. Army. Each time they were to short-term operations, which turned into long-term conflicts, killing tens or hundreds of thousands of people.
Independent Trader Team
P.S. We did not want to include too many threads in the main text, which is why we present one of them separately.
An important role in the coup preparation in Venezuela is played by current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Chrystia Freeland. She belongs to people who are most active in so-called group from Lima, consisting of 14 countries seeking to change power in Venezuela. In February, Freeland was proud to announce that support for the Lima group was expressed by several more states, mainly those belonging to the “old” European Union. Minister’s diplomatic activities are taking momentum, which is certainly aided by support of very influential people. Something tells us that we will hear more often about Freeland, which is why we will devote a few paragraphs about her story.
The Chrystia Freeland family (from the mother’s side) comes from Ukraine. Her grandfather was called Mikhail Chomiak. After the war, he moved to Alberta, Canada with his wife and children. What did he do during the World War II? Freeland claims that her grandparents from Ukraine were simply people injured as a result of hostilities. The truth, however, looks different.
Documents recently disclosed by the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland show that Mikhail Chomiak got involved in helping the Nazis even before Hitler’s army attacked the Soviet Union. First, Chomiak was trained by German intelligence and then took over the assets of Jewish newspaper “Nowy Dziennik” (its last publisher Moise Kanfer was murdered in Bełżec extermination camp in 1943). Chomiak began publishing “Cracow News”, which first appeared two and then three times a week. Grandfather of the current Minister of Canada was there an editor-in-chief. On the Internet you can find photos on which Chomiak is junketing in the Nazi-occupied Cracow.
In the Nazi newspaper, Chomiak at every possible opportunity, praised the victory of Hitler’s army and embittered on Poles and Jews.
Shortly before war ended, Chomiak moved to Vienna, where he continued his “activity”. In turn, in 1945, he and his family landed in western Germany. There is much less information about this period.
After the war, Polish authorities tried to find Chomiak. Efforts were made until 1984! It was not know, however, that after the war, Chomiak together with his family (and with the CIA help), was transported to Canada. The same happened with hundreds of other Ukrainians supporting Hitler’s army.
Families are not chosen, in this respect Freeland is not responsible for the actions of his grandfather. The problem is that, Canada’s foreign minister is proud of how her grandfather fought for democracy. In turn, every question about his collaboration with Nazis is considered as a “Russian provocation”. Chrystia Freeland, like her grandfather, thinks that she has the right to decide on the future of other nations. Taking into account her views and current position, she has a chance to make a great career.