José Vicente Rangel and the 18 war planes: the plot thickens

José Vicente Rangel announced yesterday that five of the eighteen war planes he claims were bought by the opposition in the United States have already been delivered to a Colombian military base. Complicit in the plot are, according to JVR, an oil company based in Canada called Pacific Rubiales, the ex-PDVSA executives organization Gente del Petróleo, and also CIA, FBI, and DEA agents.

He also warned that “the conspiracy against Venezuela orchestrated from Colombia by the international and national right is increasing every day. (…) The ultra-right of Colombia, the Uribistas, the powerful economic groups, retired generals, media,  oil company Pacific Rubiales, and the intense activities of a sector of the Venezuelan opposition that moves with complete freedom in Colombia, have turned that country into an operation base against Venezuela.”

Elaborate plots have been routinely denounced by JVR in his TV program for more than a decade. He was behind many of the warnings of supposed attempts to kill President Chávez and, in his claims of an ongoing permanent conspiracy against the Venezuelan government, coined several memorable oxymora around the word coup, such as “electoral coup” and “continuous coup.”

Yesterday’s presentation by JVR included almost every event of the last months and every actor of the Venezuelan opposition in the ongoing plot: “an insistent campaign inside the Armed Forces, the exasperation of social conflicts, the political (politiquero) handling of university problems, speculation and hoarding of basic products of Venezuelan’s diet, and the excessive re-heating of street conflicts. Not a day goes by without an increase in the coup script and in the coverage of the conspirators.”

Also notable was his warning of the opposition’s “insistence on denying that there is an ongoing plot against the legitimate government of Nicolas Maduro.” For JVR precisely this denial constitutes proof of the conspiracy.