Maduro: Scrap the Organization of American States

“The Organization of American States (OAS) is good for nothing. It’s only good for approving coups d’état. It always ends up turning into a lair of conspiracy against progressive governments,” said president Maduro.

According to him the OAS is “dominated by an imperial bureaucracy that is good for nothing. In 67 years it has only produced coups and conspiracies, instead the ALBA has brought life, has promoted and encouraged democracy.”

“Is it really worth it for OAS to continue existing?” asked the president. “The time of OAS is the time of coups and conspiracies. That time is over. It is time for other organizations.”

Maduro: Critics and opposition are in cahoots with paramilitary

President Maduro has accused critics of his new security initiative, the Operativos de Liberación y Protección del Pueblo (OLP), of being involved with “paramilitarism.”

Maduro said that the newspaper El Nacional had made critical comments about the OLP because of the involvement of the newspaper with paramilitaries: “They came out like crazy, for what? (…) they came out like crazy because they are fully involved [metidos hasta los teque-teques] with Colombian paramilitary groups, of the so called bacrim [from bandas criminals, criminal gangs.]”

Maduro also directly accused opposition leader and governor of Miranda state, Herique Capriles, of being the “articulator of paramilitary gangs in Miranda.”

“I am saying it, and when I say it, I know what I’m saying,” said Maduro. “I am waiting for all the clues to fall into place, to lead to results,” he added.

According to the president, Capriles has been secretly touring the State of Miranda personally organizing criminal groups: “He is traveling around the state, do you know why? Why he went to Higuerote? Why went to Valles del Tuy? And I say this because I have nothing to lose and everything to win: do you know why he went on a secret tour to all these municipalities of Miranda? To articulate with criminals and with [criminal] gangs,” claimed Maduro.

Maduro also accused Capriles of deliberately weakening Miranda’s police in order to make life easier for criminal groups: “Do you think he did this [weaken the police] only because he is an incompetent? No, it is because he is permanently conspiring. He is of the type that does the deed and the hides, he is of the type that become used to being inside the closet and not showing his true nature.”

Crime in Miranda state is, according to Maduro, generated by “the evilness of the battered right [la derecha maltrecha]. They give the orders to go out and kill people through these groups.”

“There are criminal gangs and camps [in Miranda], where we have even captured Colombians. These groups prepare themselves, they train. They take young people and then they tell them to go out and try to steal and to kill,” explained Maduro.

The president insisted that when he speaks, he does so backed by “specific and overwhelming evidence. When I say something it is something we are going to demonstrate and to prove.”

Jorge Mier Hoffman. The death of a conspiracy theorist sparks more theories from all sides

In July 17 Jorge Mier Hoffman was murdered while resisting a robbery attempt in the island of Margarita.

Mier Hoffman was a systems computer analyst and prolific author with more than 15 books, most of them on what he believed were the mysterious circumstances surrounding Simón Bolivar’s death.

He wrote a long running blog on “Archaeoastronomy,” defined by him as the “distancing oneself from the traditional concepts, in order to interpret the enigmas and mysteries that have yet to be revealed by scientific methods.”

He also claimed to be the founder of the new science of “Bolivarianology,” over which he wrote another blog and defined as the “science specialized in discovering the incommensurable legacy of this Venezuelan [Bolivar] of universal fame, and who is the only person in 13 thousand years to have received the title of LIBERTADOR!!!”

His books were quoted by President Chávez to support his theory that Bolivar did not die of tuberculosis, as mainstream historians claim, but instead was murdered by his enemies (see the two videos below).

In June 2010 Chávez order the exhumation of the remains of Bolivar in order to carry out tests to verify the “real” causes of his death. The results of the tests were “inconclusive.” Chávez however still maintained that he was convinced Bolivar had been murdered by his enemies. Quoting Mier Hoffman, Chávez claimed that Bolivar had been assassinated because he had “clashed with the Empire of the North,” by sending Venezuelan troops to help in the liberation of the “Republic of Florida.” (See video below)

  

In an article published by Aporrea, Juan Martorano, claims that Mier Hoffman had a big influence on his own research on the “assassination of the Liberator of our Latino-Caribbean [nations] in this twenty-first century: The Giant Hugo Chávez Frías.”

Martorano also argues that, after the exhumation of Bolivar’s remains, Mier Hoffman remained unconvinced of the test results and alleged that the samples had been tampered with, “so that we would never know the truth, because it affects very powerful interests.”

“The death of Chávez,” continues Martorano, “was used to hide the truth and to uphold the lie of the National Pantheon. A lie that would finally be exposed in the [unpublished] third part of ‘La Carta’ [on of Mier Hoffman’s book], which would finally reveal the evidence [of Bolivar’s assassination,] known by Chávez himself, and all the details of Mier’s investigations…”

Mantorano concludes: “I apologize if I seem paranoid, but I have a strong feeling that Jorge Mier Hoffman was murdered because he touched certain interests. (…) The historic class enemy is an expert in committing these types of crimes and to make them seem common crimes, or accidents.”

But from the opposition side a different theory is being proposed. The web page DolarToday has published a text claiming that Mier Hoffman’s death is rated to the “profanation” of the grave of Simón Bolivar, which he allegedly inspired by asking in one of his books for the exhumation of his remains.

“The Curse of Bolivar,” has already affected several participants in the famous exhumation affair, claims the text: “Those who are direct or indirect accomplices of the profanation of the grave of the Liberator Simón Bolivar, have had the misfortune of suffering horrendous deaths.”

This is the list of those affected so far by the curse according to the text -it seems to be a list of people related to the government who died after the exhumation, most where not actually present at the event-: Alberto Muller Rojas, Luís Tascón, Guillermo García Ponce and Hugo Chávez, all died of cancer; William Lara died in car accident; Lina Ron died of a heart stroke; José Ignacio Meléndez Anderson was murdered while resisting a robbery; Clodosvaldo Russian died of a stroke; and finally, Mier Hoffman was murdered last week.

       

The People know who the enemies are and why they do what they do

Here are relevant parts of an interview by TeleSUR with President Maduro, translated and published by venezuelanalysis.com.

[on the Essequibo dispute and Exxon Mobil]

There is a brutal campaign against Venezuela of lies, funded by Exxon Mobil, a U.S.-based oil transnational linked to the gun lobby in Washington, which has great influence within the Pentagon. While Obama is the president of the United States, his empire's influence goes far beyond him. Exxon Mobil has funded TV, radio and press campaigns, as well as political factions in the Caribbean, specifically Guyana.

This campaign is about economics, energy, geopolitics, land. It forms part of a campaign to put together an operation to “squeeze” Venezuela, which was exposed in Parliament.

It is trying to provoke a conflict to undermine the union of Caribbean and Latin America and undermine vital projects like PetroCaribe and overturn the policy of peace (Venezuela's socialist government) has maintained, as well as the fraternity we've forged with the people of the Caribbean.

It has several objectives, when Obama issued the decree of March 9 (calling Venezuela a threat to national security), I explained the reasons behind it and, simultaneously on the day the decree was issued, and our people began the battle (against it), they were strategizing in Guyana to provoke this moment of tension. (Essequibo) is indisputably Venezuela's by historical right (...) plundered by the British Empire in the 19th century.

This campaign, suggesting Venezuela is the aggressor, is a campaign that was created in the Caribbean. How do you respond to this, and what message to you send to the people of Guyana?

I said it in the National Assembly. If you look at the DNA of our mixed blood, you'll find the blood of Bolivar, Guacaipuro, Negro Primero and Sucre — who (went to great lengths to) free the people, who gave their lives and wealth. Liberator Simon Bolivar was born in one of the wealthiest families of the time, but, when he died in Santa Martha (Colombia), he died in a second hand shirt. He didn't have a home to die in. We are his children, the children of (former President Hugo) Chavez, who led a new stage (of struggle). Are they going to ignore the role of PetroCaribe as a project of solidarity, integration, brotherhood?

So let them say Exxon Mobil, which financed President David Granger's campaign, has given a little bit of petroleum to the people of Guyana, or the people of the Caribbean. But there is a campaign to show a back-to-front world, as great Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano said. Now Venezuela is the imperialist country, the aggressor. So I tell the people of Guyana: We are the country that was deprived and this land, the Essequibo, wasn't given to us by British or Spanish imperialism. Our grandfathers won that sacred land fighting in battles.

The international media wants the world to believe that what the Greek people have suffered can be expected in Venezuela. How does Venezuela see the future, in terms of the situation its economy is facing, especially in an election year?

We are dealing with a sustained political and economic war. I think in the first semester they have hurt us. They have kept attacking us and we protect the people. I think we are the only country in the world to increase wages three times, and in the last 15 years we have increased it 28 times, in order to protect people’s real income. We broke records with unemployment in the first four months of the year. I prioritized investment in public works, more than 66 billion bolivars. We advanced in building housing, beyond the aim of 400,000 housing units this year.

We're moving ahead with strength in all areas of battle; national and international politics, because we have morale and the truth, because we love this country. Four elites are not going to take away our social project, which we will defend with everything we've got, including our lives.

Can this “hijacking of the economy,” this economic war be won?

It’s a complex process in which we have to take measures and we are getting to the point of defeating the economic war. Almost 100 percent of the distribution systems of the country are in the hands of the capitalists, the private sector. What is in our hands works, the people have their services and products at fair prices. If you go to the public (distribution) networks, which are being attacked, people obtain the products at the prices they should be. Now, the economic war and the fear campaign will burn out because the people aren't kowtowing to it.

People can of course be bothered by things, but they know who the enemies are and why they do what they do. I am going to a lot of effort so that the people have their public education. This year is going to be a big test. The elections on Dec. 6 … we're ready for them, we're battle hardened. When the National Electoral Council authorizes it, we'll see the people in the streets. It will be a blow to the people who are waging this economic war, those who have been supported by international interests, those who haven't supported the struggle for Essequibo, because the people are clear.

Peace Zones and Paramilitaries

Over the weekend several “Peace Zones” (Zonas de Paz) were occupied by a joint police and military operation called “Liberation and Protection of the People.” The Cota 905 and Ciudad Tiuna in Caracas, Ciudad Betania, in Valles del Tuy, and San Casimiro, in Aragua were, according to the Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, Gustavo González López, “Liberated form Colombian paramilitarism, criminal gangs, extortions and kidnappings.”

The “liberations” left at least 18 “maleantes” dead, 247 arrested, and several weapons and stolen cars and motorcycles seized.

The 29 “Peace Zones” were created by the government in September 2013 as part of the citizens security program “Plan Patria Segura.” In designated areas police and military would have no permanent presence, and communities would be given resources to handle their own security issues. According to analysts, the Peace Zones quickly became distension zones in which criminal gangs made themselves strong.

According to the government there is more to the organized criminal gangs operating in the area than just common crime: they are the expression of a “paramilitary infiltration,” usually linked in the official discourse to destabilization plans plotted by enemies of the revolution.

Minister González López informed in the day of the operations: “Of those arrested, 32 where foreigners with direct links to Colombian paramilitarism. The used drugs and dollars to buy the things they needed for their criminal activities, for their disgraceful objectives [fines inconfesables].”

PSUV National Assembly deputy Freddy Bernal said in an interview: “For some time now, the national intelligence [agencies] have been working on this issue and they have detected an unusual presence of Colombian paramilitaries that nobody knows where they come from and that have been occupying spaces in popular areas.”

Also PSUV deputy Elvis Amoroso argued that the Peace Zone have, in most cases, been a success, but where they have not worked it is because they have been taken over by paramilitarism.

President Maduro has even ordered the creation of a special unit of the Bolivarian Armed Forces to deal with the “infiltration of paramilitarism.” The new unit will “face, with strategic operations, the paramilitary thread of drug traffickers who are threatening and murdering the Venezuelan people.”

Maduro also informed that the “Operation for the Liberation and Protection of the People” will continue during the next days until the government defeats “Colombian paramilitarism, Colombian drug trafficking, and all that conspiracy that has come here to take over, to hire, to control, to stablish a model to Colombia.”

“I am firmly committed to dismantling it [paramilitarism], to facing it, to defeating it, with the People, with the civic-military union, with the union of all of our People,” said Maduro.