Sunday, December 31, 2017

Economic War. The Evidence.

Alfredo Serrano Mancilla, a Spanish economist who has served as an advisor to the Maduro Government, has published an article that has been extensively shared in social networks. 

The article is titled “The Evidence of the Economic Crime against Venezuela” and begins with a well-known conspiracy theory rhetorical formula: most analysts are either blind or have consciously chosen to ignore the evidence of a wide spread conspiracy. In this case, the evidence of the “continued economic aggression Venezuela has suffered during the last years.”

The purpose of Serrano’s article is therefore to lay out the “manifest proofs” of the “constant harassment” the Venezuelan economy has suffered. These are:

1. Country Risk: according to Serrano the low credit rates given to Venezuela by credit rating agencies are inappropriate, given the “fact” that Venezuela has always honored it debt.

2. Default terminology: The word “default” is inappropriately used in the Venezuelan case. News agencies have used the term “selective default” to signify late payments by the Venezuelan government. This is evidence, for Serrano, that “remarks against Venezuela do not follow criteria of economic rationality.”

3. Trump: Us President’s executive order has to be read “in detail to realize that it is an explicit boycott” of the Venezuelan economy.

4. Blockade by the international financial system: According to Serrano, Citibank, Comerzbank, and Deutsche Bank, among other international financial institutions, have barred Venezuela from international funds.

5. Blockade of food and basic products: A by-product of the previous point, Venezuela’s payment for imports has been turned back and this has limited the countries access to basic imported goods. The recent pork import scandal, which the Maduro government blamed on Portugal for not sending the Christmas perniles Venezuela had allegedly payed for, is not included in Serrano’s article.

6. Black Market Dollar: the “parallel illegal exchange” rate of the local currency does not have, according to Serrano a real “‘parallel’ with any macroeconomic variable.” It is in reality, “a political weapon of economic destruction, used to induce an inordinate increase of inflation.”

“Reality is undisputable,” closes Serrano his article, “no other country is being subjected to an economic siege of such high intensity and persistency.”

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Cryptocurrency conspiracy

Venezuela’s government media has been explaining how the Petro, the new “crypto currency” announced by president Maduro, will help the country fight the “economic war” being waged against the Bolivarian Revolution and its accomplishments.

The Centro de Investigaciones en Procesos Económicos Entrópicos (CIPEE), has published an article in Aporrea showing what it claims is a correlation between the black market price of the Bolivar Fuerte, as reported by the web portal DolarToday, and Bitcoin.

The CIPEE does not have a webpage, put a Google search leads to a previous article published in the pro-government website Ensartaos. “Profoundly worried by our nation’s destiny,” says the CIPEE, “we have decided to issue a preliminary study about the disturbed and threatened state of the Venezuelan economy. In this brief analysis we will show the interference with the Venezuelan economy by (web)portals which list the illegal Dollar, such as DolarToday and BolivarCucuta. Our aim is to scientifically proof (…) that the macroeconomic variables of our country have no relationship with the invention created by wise (sesudos) formal economists.”

This brief analysis announced by the CIPEE includes a “Psychological factor” called by the authors “the stupidity gene”, a metaphor for the fact that “the Cuarta República (the governments before Chávez), imbedded our people with a ‘gene’ of inferiority and of lack of human and moral value (minusvalía) vis-à-vis the rest of the world, this made us one of the most insecure humans in the planet,” and therefore made us think that our currency is worth less that other’s.

The second part of CIPEE’s analysis seems to be the article published by Aporrea, showing the correlation between the black market Dollar and Bitcoin. This correlation forces the authors to ask important (not yet answered) questions, such as: “Has the artificially inflated value of the Dollar in Venezuela influenced in a significant way the behavior of Bitcoin? (…) Is Bitcoin the Trojan horse by which DolarToday aspires to make the Venezuelan economy implode as soon the speculative bubble bursts? Is the Petro the answer by president Maduro to make the effect of bitcoin (…) disappear...?

“We will have to continue our investigations…” is the final line of the article. That’s great news for this Blog.

Monday, December 4, 2017

Bob Marley’s assassination

The confessions of Bill Oxley, an alleged retired CIA agent, are being treated as fake-news by several outlets. According to onlinethreatalerts.com:

“Be aware of fake-news websites that have published the article "I Killed Bob Marley - CIA Agent Confesses On Deathbed." The article is a fake because the man in it which they claim is Bill Oxley, a 79-year-old retired officer of the CIA who allegedly killed Bob Marley, is actually a photo model who works for a Polish microstock photography company.”

Venezuelan government media is however presenting the news as fact. Below is the reposted article from Correo del Orinoco. The “source” of the news quoted by the Correo del Orinoco is the web page of Diosdado Cabello’s TV show Con el Mazo Dando; which quotes as its source for the Spanish version the article the web page dothereggae.com; which quotes the article in English from thebreakingtimes.com.

The Venezuelan version of the article does add a final cautionary paragraph explaining that: “For the time being we cannot know for sure if the story is true, as most stories that are told, and as you, know this has been one of the greatest conspiranoias of Reggae, and this is why we considered that you [the reader] should know about it. But it is true that Bunny Wailer has talked about this on several occasions (…). We can only hope that one day the whole truth will be known…”

Un ex-agente de la CIA confiesa que asesinó a Bob Marley

Un oficial retirado de la CIA, cuyo nombre es Bill Oxley, ha realizado una serie de impresionantes confesiones desde que fue ingresado este pasado lunes en el hospital.

Este ex-agente afirma que cometió 17 asesinatos encargados por el gobierno estadounidense entre marzo de 1974 y agosto de 1985, incluido entre ellos el de Bob Marley.

Bill Oxley, quien trabajó para la CIA durante 29 años con autorizaciones de seguridad de alto nivel, supuestamente afirma que a menudo fue utilizado por la agencia para asesinar a personas que podrían representar una amenaza para los objetivos de Estados Unidos. Recientemente, se han publicado sus declaraciones en diferentes webs donde dice ser parte de una célula operativa de tres miembros que llevó a cabo asesinatos políticos en todo el país y, ocasionalmente, en países extranjeros. Al parecer, fue entrenado con armas de fuego y también fue adiestrado con otros métodos no convencionales para infligir daño, como explosivos, venenos, ataques cardíacos inducidos, sustancias cancerígenas…

La mayoría de sus víctimas fueron activistas políticos, periodistas y líderes sindicales, pero también confiesa haber asesinado a algunos científicos, investigadores médicos, artistas y músicos cuyas ideas e influencia “representaban una amenaza para los intereses de los Estados Unidos”. Por esa razón, afirma que no tuvo problemas para llevar a cabo el asesinato de Bob Marley, porque era un patriota, creía en la CIA y no cuestionaba los motivos de la agencia. Además, también dijo que siempre había entendido que a veces los sacrificios deben hacerse para un bien mayor.

“Estaba teniendo éxito en la creación de una revolución que usaba la música como una herramienta más poderosa que las balas y las bombas. En 1976, Bob Marley fue una amenaza muy seria para el ‘status quo’ global y para los poderes ocultos que implementan su plan para un nuevo orden mundial. En lo que respecta a la agencia, Bob era demasiado exitoso, demasiado famoso, demasiado influyente…”

“Un rastaman de Jamaica que comenzó a usar sus fondos y su fama para apoyar causas en todo el mundo que estaban en conflicto directo con la CIA. Para ser sincero, él firmó su propia sentencia de muerte “, dijo Oxley.

Pero con el paso del tiempo, el ex-agente ha confesado que Bob Marley ha sido ‘especial’ entre sus víctimas, ya que fue la única persona por la que ‘sentía algo’. Él dice tener ‘sentimientos encontrados’ sobre la muerte de Bob Marley. Por un lado, afirma que Marley era ‘un buen hombre, un alma hermosa’ con profundos dones artísticos y que no merecía que su vida se truncara. Aunque, según el Sr. Oxley, Bob Marley también estaba poniendo los objetivos de la CIA en peligro y amenazando la existencia de los Estados Unidos.

“No es que no lo hubiésemos advertido. Enviamos a unos chicos a disparar a su casa en Kingston“, refiriéndose al tiroteo en la residencia de Marley que dejó al cantante herido. “tuvimos un mensaje para él. Le presentamos la gravedad de la situación en la que se encontraba. no escuchó”, afirmó Oxley.

Entonces, ¿cómo fue asesinado Bob Marley por la CIA según Bill Oxley? Tras el tiroteo en su residencia (podéis saber un poco más de este asunto a través de este link) y después de un breve período en el hospital, Marley viajó a las Blue Mountains, a casa de Chris Blackwell, donde pasó un tiempo para recuperarse y esperar a que las aguas se calmasen. Fue entonces cuando Oxley utilizó unas credenciales de prensa para tener acceso a Bob Marley. Él se presentó como un famoso fotógrafo que trabajaba para el New York Times, y le regaló a Bob Marley un par de Converse All Stars. Cuando se las probó, gritó ‘Ouuuch’. Eso fue todo, su vida había terminado allí mismo, ya que se pinchó con un alfiler que estaba contaminado con virus y bacterias cancerígenas.

Hubo una serie de asesinatos de alto perfil de figuras de la contracultura en estados unidos a fines de los años sesenta y principios de los setenta. Para cuando llegó el momento de Bob Marley, pensamos que la sutileza estaba a la orden del día. No más balas y cerebros salpicados”, declaró el ex-agente.

Oxley dice que mantuvo un contacto cercano con Marley durante los últimos años de su vida, asegurándose de que el tratamiento médico que recibió en París, Londres y Estados Unidos apresuraría su muerte en lugar de curarlo. Bob Marley murió de cáncer en mayo de 1981 cuando tenía 36 años.

En fin, de momento no podemos saber si es cierta esta historia, como todas las que nos cuentan, puesto que como sabréis ha sido una de las grandes conspiranoias del Reggae y, por ello, nos pareció que podía ser de vuestro interés, al menos, el conocerla. Pero vaya, que Bunny Wailer ya ha hablado de este mismo asunto en sucesivas ocasiones, como os contamos en el post donde Bunny responsabilizaba a Rita de las muertes de Bob Marley y Peter Tosh. Esperamos que un día se sepa la verdad con pelos y señales. Por cierto, recordad que hace poco más de un mes os hablábamos también sobre la serie de TV en la que se está trabajando que tratará sobre el intento de asesinato del Rey del Reggae.

Friday, September 22, 2017

Maduro’s Magnicidio

President Maduro does not claim there is a plot to assassinate him as often as his predecessor did. This week however, Maduro directly accused opposition leader and president of the National Assembly, Julio Borges, of being “implicated” in an assassination plot against him.

“An order has been issued to assassinate the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and that order comes from the Oval Office, and Julio Borges is implicated in this outrage with all his unlimited cynicism, with his unlimited immorality,” said Maduro.

The president provided no evidence for his claims, but he had declared on August 19 that US president Trump’s declarations about Venezuela implied a direct threat to his life. According to Maduro:

“The threats made today by Trump, I know how to exactly interpret them: Donald Trump has threatened to kill the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, (…) but I tell him that if something happened to me, they would regret it for a hundred years, because the people would rise against imperialism.”

“Evidence” of Borge’s part in the plot is provided by the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias (AVN). According to AVN, the position leader is “one of the main promoters of an interventionist campaign against Venezuela. In the last weeks he has met several US government high officials to ask for an assault (arremetida) against the fatherland.”


AVN also cites a previous two coup magnicidio plot claims made by the government as evidence for the current plot: The Carpeta Amarilla (2014), and the Blue Coup plots (2015, also known as the Jericho Operation). No evidence has ever surfaced for those two previous plots.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

9/11, again…

For several years on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Venezuelan government sponsored Telesur has published a piece explaining the “many questions that still linger about the attack.” (See here my post of previous years.)

This year’s article by Telesur is mainly about Scholars for 9/11 Truth, (From its webpage: “Scholars for 9/11 Truth is a non-partisan association of faculty, students, and scholars, in fields as diverse as history, science, military affairs, psychology, and philosophy, dedicated to exposing falsehoods and to revealing truths behind 9/11.” A spin-off of the group publishes the Journal of 9/11 studies. In the next months Aposta, Revista de Ciencias Sociales will publish a piece by me, in Spanish, featuring a detailed analysis of back issues of the journal up to 2014.)

The Agencia Venezolana de Noticas also carries this year an article by Hermán Mena Cifuentes, often featured in this blog. The tittle of Mena Cifuentes article: Is Nature punishing the United States for its aggressions against Venezuela and for the genocide of September 11?

The author writes that the United States “seems destined by nature to be plagued with misery by nature acting in the name of justice with devastating hurricanes that are drowning its economy, as punishment for the immoral and illegal sanctions with which they [The US] hope to drown the Venezuelan economy.”

Mena Cifuentes also argues that the punishment the United States is currently receiving is connected to the 9/11 attacks. According to the author: “Noted scientists, experts in accidents and explosives, and journalists, several of whom have died in “strange” accidents, others in exchanges with the police, have attributed the genocide [of 9/11] to the Yankee government, who used it as a pretext to fight against terrorism and to unleash against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria, wars to take over their oil, like they are doing today against Venezuela.”  

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Dissident Chavismo and conspiracy theories

Read my piece published by Conspiracy Watch about dissident chavistas, once conspiracy theorists, now labeled conspirators: Les chavistes dissidents et la théorie du complot, une histoire d’arroseurs arrosés. Thanks to Rudy Reichstadt for inviting me to contribute.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Maduro’s press conference: Three interlinked coup plots

Except for magnicidio plot claims, president Maduro’s press conference yesterday was a compendium of most of the conspiracy theories proposed by the Venezuelan government in the past years. The Empire was the main object of Maduro’s claims about destabilization attempts against his government, which he called a state of “permanent conspiracy.” But also local opposition leaders and other regional governments were included in the plots.

The economic war theory featured prominently. The United States was accused of promoting a “financial and economic blockade” of the country. “Nobody has the right to try to impose his policies with threats, pressures, sanctions, and economic, financial, political, diplomatic, and much less military aggressions. Venezuela claims its right to peace, independence, and self-determination,” said Maduro. He added that even though 86% of Venezuelans rejected a US intervention in the country, this possibility is supported by the opposition leadership: “Only they back this threat, which they have sanctified, and they have gone out of the country to ask for an economic and financial blockade against Venezuela.”

International media was also accused by Maduro of being part of this “permanent conspiracy.” The BBC was particularly singled out by the president as the media outlet behind what he called “an imperialist aggression of world-wide nature,” of which the BBC has become “the biggest propaganda apparatus.” He added that “since the war in Iraq, the BBC had not played such a disgusting [asqueroso] role.”

Most interesting of yesterday’s conference was that Maduro provided a theory of three interlinked coup plots backed by the United States against his government, financed and coordinated via Miami and Bogotá, and enacted by local opposition leaders:

“There is a permanent conspiracy from Miami against Venezuela. All those captured after the attack against the Paramacay fort have confessed, and we know of their links and finances. Another group [of plotters] is related to the old coupist military of 2002, which have fled the country. And another group belongs to the incorrectly called Blue Coup, even if most of them are in jail, they are still trying to make noise. These three groups have been activated by them [United States] with a lot of many, but the Venezuelan armed forces have developed very effective anti-coup strategies.”

Despite the “evidence” presented by Maduro of these coup plots, he also said he would be writing a letter to US President Trump asking for conversations. “Trump and I have to talk, because we don’t want our people to suffer, we have to co-exist in peace. We are anti-imperialists and anti-colonialists, but we are not against the United States, we love the people of the United States,” said Maduro.


(Read previous posts on the Paramacay Fort incident here and here, and on the Blue Coup here, here, and here. Even though Maduro spoke against the term Blue Coup, it was widely used by government officials and state media at the time. The Agencia Venezolana de Noticias yesterday ran a note explaining the links between the three coup plots under the title “Groups managed from abroad have attacked the rule of law in Venezuela.”)

Here by Venezolana de Televisión on the press conference:





Saturday, August 12, 2017

Trump and anti-imperialism

“We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary” said US President Trump last night. “We have troops all over the world in places that are very far away. Venezuela is not very far away and people are suffering and they’re dying,” he added.

It’s unlikely that Trump’s declarations will be followed by an imminent invasion of Venezuela, but they are sure to boost the anti-imperialist and nationalist rhetoric of the Venezuelan government. The declarations will be presented as part of a “coordinated” hemispheric plan led by the US government, and backed by other “rightist” governments in the region and the local opposition, to put an end to the Bolivarian revolution and its “accomplishments”.

These are the first reactions by several government officials to President Trump’s declarations:

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López told Venezolana de Televisión: “This is an act of craziness, and act of extremism. There is extremist elite now governing the United States.”

Information and Communication Minister Ernesto Villegas, has said that the Venezuelan Foreign Minister will issue and official communique later today. He wrote on Twitter:

Amenaza proferida por Trump une a todos los venezolanos de bien en rechazo a injerencia y en defensa de la Patria

Delcy Rodríguez, President of the newly convened National Constitutive Assembly, wrote:

Rechazamos las cobardes, insolentes e infames amenazas del Pdte de los EEUU contra la sagrada soberanía de Venezuela

Translated by Telesur:

.: We reject the cowardly, insolent, and vile threats from US President against the sacred sovereignty of Ven

Both Rodríguez and Villegas re-twitted this response by Argentinian pro-chavista philosopher Fernando Buen Abad D.:

Nosotros también tenemos muchas "opciones" respecto al imperio y sus gerentes. Si quieren acelerar la lucha de clases nos encontrarán unidos

Abad added this picture:

   

Thursday, August 10, 2017

August 6: Hiroshima and Paramacay

On August 6, 1945, in Hiroshima an atomic bomb killed at least 90,000 people, perhaps as many as 146,000. On August 6, 2017, an armed group of at least 18 attacked the military fort of Paramacay in the Venezuelan city of Valencia. After a gun battle that lasted for three hours, two of the attackers were dead and 10 had been detained, according to the government. The rest of the attacker fled after stealing a cache of guns form the fort.

To even suggest a comparison between these two events may seem tasteless to most. Not so to the Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (AVN) and its main conspiracy theorist-in-residence Hernán Mena Cifuentes (previous mentions of him on this blog can be read here and here.)

Mena Cifuentes’s latest piece From the Hiroshima Genocide to paramilitary terrorism in Paramacay suggests that “There are crimes against humanity, such as the ones perpetrated on August 6 in Hiroshima 72 years ago, and on August 6, 2017, in Paramacay Fort, Valencia, that remain, not only in the collective memory of the people of the countries where they were committed, but also in the whole world, the footprint of the barbaric fascist terrorism on its grim march of violence, destruction and death.”


“Prohibido Olvidar” is the motto with which Mena Cifuentes closes his article.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Smartmatic, conspiracies and conspiracy theories

After Venezuela’s electoral authority the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) announced on June 31 that 8,089,320 people had voted on elections the previous day for the new Constitutive Assembly, the opposition immediately cried foul. Participation levels were important as the opposition refused to participate in the elections. The opposition argued that the participation in the elections had not reached 3 million. But the only evidence that the CNE had conspired with the Executive to inflate the participation numbers were images of empty voting centers, and previous polls that showed that more that 80% of likely voters rejected a new Constitutive Assembly.

Since yesterday the claims by the opposition have suddenly received very strong support from Smartmatic, the e-voting company that has provided technical support in 14 of the last elections in Venezuela, including the June 30 Constitutive Assembly elections. Indeed, Smartmatic was accused by sectors of the opposition in previous elections of not revealing successive “elections frauds” in Venezuela. But now the company seems willing to do just that.
    
In a statement read in London by Smartmatic director Antonio Mugica, and first reported by the BBC, the company said it could not vouch for the results provided by the CNE: “Based on the robustness of our system, we know, without any doubt, that the turn out of the recent election for a National Constituent Assembly was manipulated. It is important to highlight that similar manipulations are made in manual elections in many countries, but because of the lack of electronic security and auditing safeguards, they go unnoticed.” Mugica also said that there was discrepancy of “at least a million votes” between Smartmatic data and what the CNE had reported. 

Also yesterday Girish Gupta, Reuters’ correspondent in Caracas, reported that according to CNE internal data, only 3.7 million people had voted by 5:30. The polls closed at 7:00 and political analyst Jennifer McCoy told Gupta: "Although it's possible to have a late push at the end of the day, and the Socialist Party has tried to do that in the past, to double the vote in the last hour and a half would be without precedent."

And now it is of course the government, and government media, hinting at Smartmatic being part of a broad right-wing imperial conspiracy to discredit the election’s results. The main argument exposed by government media is that Smartmatic is contradicting itself by claiming its systems are robust and that electoral results cannot be changed. However Smartmatic claims that its systems are as robust as ever, but that the CNE ignored the control and auditing safeguards this time around, and simply reported a different result.

The head of the CNE, Tibisay Lucena, gave a press conference yesterday afternoon. She said that what has been said by Smartmatic amounts to “an opinion by a company whose only role in the electoral process is to provide services and technical support, which do not determine the results. These declarations [by Smartmatic] have been made in the context of a permanent aggression against the CNE.”

“It is not a private company, located outside the country who guarantees the transparency and credibility of Venezuela’s electoral system. Antonio Mugica says the differences between what was announced and what the system provided were a million votes, that is and irresponsible and groundless assertion,” added Lucena.

After Lucena’s press conference, the Mayor of Caracas and top PSUV leader, Jorge Rodríguez, declared that if it were not for “the violent acts of the fascist”, 10 million would have turned out to vote in the elections. Asked by reporters if the PSUV would ask for an audit of the process, he said that chavismo would not “play the oppositions game.”

President Maduro has announced that the newly elected Constitutive Assembly will be stablished this Friday, in the nation’s Capitol, where the National Assembly meets. Maduro called Smartmatic’s director Antonio Mugica “stupid” and said that “this electoral process cannot be tainted by anything because it is transparent.”

Maduro also hinted at possible future solution to Venezuela´s economic troubles: he will summon the members of the Constitutive Assembly elected from the “business sector” to Miraflores presidential palace, where they will meet with him every day and advise him on economic decrees to defeat the “economic unconventional war waged by sectors of the opposition.”

“I would like for you (business sector representatives) to form a powerful economic commission that will go to Miraflores every day to issue permanent economic decrees until we recover that economy of the country,” explained the President.


Here is an image published yesterday by Telesur explaining Smatmatic’s “contradictions”:


Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Maduro: Trump could be behind the Plaza Catia attack

During the plebiscite organized by the Venezuelan opposition on July 16, a group of suspected pro-government armed groups attacked one of the voting centers in plaza Catia, Caracas. As a result of the attack one woman died and at least three more people were wounded.

President Maduro has hinted at the possibility that the “US Department of State and Donald Trump” could be behind the attack in Catia. His suspicions are based on the second paragraph of a press release published by the Department of States on July 17, a day after the plebiscite.

“…we condemn the loss of life in Catia, Caracas and deplore the violence. We call on the Venezuelan government to bring the attackers to justice,” says the second paragraph of the statement.

“This is a very delicate and strange paragraph in this statement,” explained Maduro, “we are now investigating the reason for this second paragraph. Donald Trump and the Department of State concerned with Catia? What is this about? (…) What importance could plaza Catia have had for the failed imperialist strategy?”

“How far can a conspiracy go in preparing false flags (falsos positivos) and massacres? How far does the hand of the US embassy reach into the massacre attempts that have been staged in Venezuela in the last one hundred days?” Maduro also asked.


To answer these questions the president has asked Venezuela’s “highest authorities” to mount a full investigation “in order to concentrate our efforts, and to integrate all the institutions, in the task of clearing this strange and unique expression in the second paragraph by the Department of State, naming plaza Catia.”


Emergency Justice: Search and seizure of conspirators

President Maduro has announced a new “Special Plan of Emergency Justice” for the “search and capture conspirators.” The announcement was made during a televised session of the Council for the Defense of the Nation (Codena), which was declared in “permanent sessions” by the government in order to “face the imperial threat” against the country.
The plan, according to Maduro, is the brain child of Maikel Moreno, President of Venezuela’s highest court, the Tribunal Supremo de Justicia (TSJ), and will involve several state security agencies, including “military justice, police institutions, the Interior Minister,” and the recently appointed by the TSJ, pro-government vice-attorney general, Katherine Harrinton. 

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Forty-three symbols written in Hebrew

This video by Telesur’s Madelein Garcia (@madeleintlSUR) surpasses most of what has been reported in this blog. It begins with the revelation that “43 symbols written in Hebrew” have been found painted along the main opposition protests routes in Caracas. An “expert” interviewed by Garcia explains that the symbol roughly mean “I stand here” which, the expert says, is a symbol used by “Masonic”, “Zionist”, and “other US organization to harm governments that work in the service of their people.” Garcia further explains that the places in which the symbols have been found could indicate evacuation routes, meeting places for “terrorist gatherings,” or even an the invasion route to be used by foreign forces.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Helicopter

Things are getting pretty weird, at least according to some opposition supporters. This is being often retwitted:


Wednesday, June 28, 2017

CIA linked to helicopter attack


(Updated June 29. Thanks Gabriel Andrade and Trina Coleron for your comments.)

What we know so far of yesterday’s confusing incident is that a group of agents of the CICPC (intelligence police) flew a police helicopter over the buildings of the Venezuela’s Supreme Justice Tribunal and Interior Minister. Several shots were fired at the buildings from the helicopter and at least one grenade was thrown. No injuries were reported.

The helicopter had been commandeered by Oscar Pérez and a group of at least four more officers. Pérez published a video explaining that his aim was to “return power to the democratic people.”

The government is also being accused of conspiracy. Some opposition supporters expressed via social networks their suspicions that the actions could have been staged by the government as an excuse for further militarization and repression. Francisco Toro of Caracas Chronicles hypothesized that the event could be a “false flag” by the government: “(Oscar Perez’s) video looks like a two-bit parody of what an underpaid TeleSUR intern thinks the opposition looks and sounds like,” wrote Toro. However he concluded that he leans more to Pérez being a “random lunatic”.

The government however was quick to alert of an unfolding coup attempt. On early evening, president Maduro said on television that the event had been a “terrorist attack” and that the armed forces would be deployed in full to stop the coup.

The Ministry of Information issued a statement saying that the event was part of “an escalation of a coup against the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its institutions.” Oscar Pérez, says in the statement, “is under investigation for his links with the CIA and the United States Embassy in Caracas, and for his links with an ex-minister of Interior (of Venezuela), who has recently publically confirmed his contacts with the CIA.”

The “ex-minister of Interior” mentioned is Miguel Rodríguez Torres, who said in a news conference that he in fact had had contacts with the CIA as Chavez’s Interior Minister and under his orders. “When I was the director of the intelligence services, president Chávez told me that we should have the best relations with all the other intelligence services of the world, including the CIA,” said Rodríguez Torres.

Here is the transcription made by Telesur of the statement read by Information Minister Ernesto Villegas yesterday (the statement has not yet been published in the MINCI web page):

El Gobierno de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela informa a la ciudadanía en general y a los pueblos hermanos del mundo sobre los ataques armados perpetrados durante la tarde de hoy, martes 27 de junio, contra la sedes del Ministerio para el Poder Popular para las Relaciones Interior, Justicia y Paz, y el Tribunal Supremo de justicia, como parte de una escalada golpista contra la Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela y sus instituciones.
Ambos ataques fueron efectuados desde un helicóptero Airbus Volcom, modelo 105, siglas CICPC02, hurtado de la base aérea Generalísimo Francisco de Miranda, en La Carlota, Caracas, por parte de un sujeto de nombre Óscar Alberto Pérez, quien para cometer los atentados se valió de condición de inspector adscrito a la división de transporte aéreo del Cicpc.
El complotado voló la aereonave hasta las inmediaciones del Ministerio para el Poder Popular para las Relaciones Interior, Justicia y Paz, en la avenida Urdaneta, y efectúo alrededor de 15 disparos contra la edificación, mientras se desarrollaba en la terraza de ésta un agasajo a un grupo de comunicadores sociales, con motivo de celebrarse el día de hoy el Día Nacional del Periodista. Para el momento del ataque, se encontraban ahí unas 80 personas.
Posteriormente, el helicóptero fue llevado hasta la sede del Tribunal Supremo de Justicia, precisamente mientras se encontraba sesionando allí la Sala Constitucional del Máximo Tribunal, con todo sus magistrados, mientras un grupo de trabajadores permanecían laborando en sus oficinas. Contra estas personas, fueron efectuados disparos y lanzadas al menos cuatro granadas de origen colombiano y de fabricación israelí, de las cuales una no estalló y fue colectada. Dos de estas granadas fueron lanzadas contra los efectivos de la Guardia Nacional Bolivariana que custodiaba el edificio.
Gracias al rápida reacción de los custodios pudo evitarse una tragedia. El autor material de estos hechos está siendo investigado por sus vínculo de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia de los Estados Unidos y la embajada de ese país en Caracas, así como su vínculo con un exministro del Interior, quien recientemente ha confirmado públicamente sus contactos con la CIA.
Para el Gobierno Bolivariano, se tratan de ataques terroristas enmarcados en la ofensiva insurreccional adelantada por factores extremistas de la derecha venezolana, con apoyo de gobiernos y poderes extranjeros.
La Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana y los cuerpos de seguridad del Estado se encuentran desplegados, con el objetivo de capturar al autor de estos hechos y recuperar la aeronave. Se exhorta a quienes puedan aportar elementos que ayuden a dar con su paradero, comunicarse con las autoridades a través del teléfono 911.
Emplaza, el Gobierno Bolivariano a los partidos políticos coaligados en la llamada Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, así como la jerarquía eclesiástica y demás factores de la sociedad venezolana a condenar resueltamente estos hechos y a deslindarse de una vez por toda la violencia.
El Gobierno Bolivariano llama al pueblo venezolano a estar alerta frente a la escalada golpista que pretende alterar el orden constitucional en Venezuela y que ha demostrado carecer de cualquier escrúpulo para el logro de sus ambiciones políticas y económicas.
Ninguno de estos ataques detendrán la activación del proceso popular constituyente, ni impedirá el ejercicio del derecho al voto, por parte del pueblo venezolano, el próximo 30 de julio, para elegir a los miembros de la Asamblea Nacional Constituyente.
El presidente constitucional de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, quien encabezó hoy la entrega de los Premios Nacionales de Periodismo, se encuentra al frente de su equipo gobierno dirigiendo las acciones, para asegurar la seguridad y la tranquilidad del pueblo venezolano.
Hoy más que nunca están vigentes las palabras del comandante Chávez: Unidad, lucha, batalla y victoria.

Caracas, 27 de junio del año 2017