Venezuela Unveils First Gold Processing Complex in Mining Arc — Paul Dobson

The Venezuelan government has launched its first gold processing complex as part of efforts to overcome US-led sanctions.

According to government sources, the Manuel Carlos Piar Complex in Matanzas, Bolivar State will initially process twenty kilograms of gold per month. When completed, it will reportedly have a capacity of 200 kilograms a month, which would make the complex the fifth largest in Latin America. The installation employs 150 workers and is made up of nine heap leaching plants which transform gold ore into commercially marketable gold bars.

Venezuela has 32 certified gold fields and the world’s second largest gold reserves, but currently depends heavily on costly foreign assistance to process the material. The gold industry was nationalised by former-president Hugo Chavez in 2011....

Venezuelanalysis
Venezuela Unveils First Gold Processing Complex in Mining Arc

Paul Dobson

The Crisis of Rentier Capitalism in Venezuela: A Conversation with Oscar Figuera

The secretary-general of the Venezuelan Communist Party calls for “unity within diversity” in the Chavista movement.

Venezuelanalysis
The Crisis of Rentier Capitalism in Venezuela: A Conversation with Oscar Figuera

Venezuela Links — 8 Aug 2019

Naked Capitalism
5 Reasons Why Trump’s Venezuela Embargo Won’t End the Maduro Regime
Marco Aponte-Moreno, Associate Professor of Global Business and Board Member of the Institute for Latino and Latin American Studies, St Mary’s College of California.
Originally published at The Conversation

Venezuelanalysis
In Venezuela, social, popular and communal unity is not an illusion

Corriente Revolucionaria Bolívar y Zamora interview with Ángel Prado, the spokesperson of the Socialist Commune El Maizal, a campesino organization dedicated to building socialism at the grassroots level in Venezuela

Oilprice.com
Chinese Company Will Help Venezuela Fix Its Refineries

Irina Slav

Fort Russ
Maduro humiliates [Colimbian President] Duque: Reminds him Colombian liberator was Simon Bolivar, not Captain America

Paul Antonopoulos

Sputnik International
Western Media is Lying & Fabricating Сhaos That Doesn't Exist in Venezuela - Journalist

Sputnik International
Russia, Venezuela Sign Protocol Facilitating Rosneft's Activities at Venezuelan Gas Fields

Venezuelanalysis

Venezuelan Gov’t Suspends Dialogue as EU Criticizes US Embargo

Fort Russ News
China warns that US sanctions against Venezuela will not help solve the problem
Paul Antonopoulos

RT — Venezuela blames nationwide blackout on ‘electromagnetic attack’

Preliminary probe into the incident has suggested the “existence of an electromagnetic attack that sought to affect the hydroelectric generation system of Guayana, the main provider of this service in the country,” the minister told state channel VTV.

While authorities are struggling to resolve the crisis, the US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido has used the power outage to once again attack his political opponent, accusing President Maduro of “destroying” the country's electrical system....

What might  the commonality be (if any) among Venezuela, Nacaragua, Cuba, Ukraine, Crimea, Georgia, Nordstream 2, Hong Kong, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, North Korea, Iran and Cold War 2? They all involve countries that the US considers adversaries or competitors challenging US global hegemony.

RT
Venezuela blames nationwide blackout on ‘electromagnetic attack’

See also

Monthly Review, July-August 2019 (Volume 71, Number 3), on imperialism.

Deconstructing Elliott Abrams on Venezuela — Peter Bolton

On June 26, the Trump administration’s so-called “Special Representative for Venezuela,” Elliott Abrams gave a five-minute update to reporters about the development of the coup attempt against the government of Nicolas Maduro, followed by a brief Q&A session. The event, held at the US State Department in Washington, was textbook Abrams: full of lies, loaded language, double standards and breathtaking hypocrisy. Below, I deconstruct each of his points by providing rebuttals, context and regional comparison.

Elliott Abrams as hit man.

Counterpunch

Deconstructing Elliott Abrams on Venezuela

Peter Bolton

From coup leaders to con artists: Juan Guaidó’s gang exposed for massive humanitarian aid fraud — Dan Cohen

A new investigation has exposed members of Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaidó’s inner circle for embezzling tens of thousands of dollars designated for humanitarian aid and spending it on luxury goods and lavish accommodations for themselves. Guaidó had been aware of the fraud for weeks and stubbornly defended his cohorts until a leak from Colombian intelligence forced him to acknowledge the scandal....

The Gray Zone
From coup leaders to con artists: Juan Guaidó’s gang exposed for massive humanitarian aid fraud
Dan Cohen

Also from GZ

Vecchio’s career did not start in the rough and tumble of Venezuela’s political scene, but instead with a promising career in the oil industry. Indeed, Vecchio entered the political arena in 2007 only after Hugo Chavez successfully drove out ExxonMobil, his employer at the time. For years, Vecchio had been leading Exxon’s legal fight against the Chavez government.

This revealing detail has been curiously omitted in his interviews with sympathetic US outlets and was mentioned only briefly in his autobiography. Yet it is critical to understanding Vecchio’s emerging role, especially as Guaido flounders back home....

From Exxon to “ambassador”: How Carlos Vecchio became Venezuela’s top coup lobbyist

Anya Parampil and Diego Sequera

Moon of Alabama — Cuban Doctors Provide Healthcare To Those In Need-The U.S. Wants To Stop Them

The Trump administration likes the steps Bolsonaro took. It wants to starve Cuba of access to hard currencies that the body leasing of doctors provides. It is also one of the reasons why it targets Venezuela:

Around 50,000 Cuban health professionals work in 66 countries worldwide, although around half of those work in Venezuela, with an additional 11,456 in Brazil.

The Cuban doctors in Brazil are gone and the U.S. is pressing for those in Venezuela to leave. Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton falsely claims that the Cuban doctors in Venezuela are military personal that should leave the country. The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces have in total only 39,000 regular troops. To suggest that more than half of them are in Venezuela, even though none are ever seen there, borders on lunacy.

The Trump administration is looking for additional ways to destroy Cuba's doctor leasing program:

Why would the US want to do this? Because the leasing of Cuban doctors, who were trained for free in Cuba, earns Cuba hard currency. This is a piece of the economic war.

Moon of Alabama
Cuban Doctors Provide Healthcare To Those In Need - The U.S. Wants To Stop Them

Vijay Prashad — The Plot to Kill Venezuela

The curse of oil and Dutch disease used to force compliance.

[Mark] Weisbrot and [Jeffrey]Sachs say that these sanctions “would fit the definition of collective punishment,” as laid out in the Hague Convention (1899) and in the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949). The United States is a signatory of both of these frameworks. “Collective penalties,” says the Fourth Geneva Convention, “are prohibited.” Tens of thousands of Venezuelans are dead. Tens of thousands more are under threat of death. Yet, no one has stood up against the grave breach of the convention in terms of collective punishment. There is not a whiff of interest in the UN Secretary General’s office to open a tribunal on the accusations of collective punishment against Venezuela. Allegations of this seriousness are brushed under the rug.

Venezuelanalysis

The Plot to Kill Venezuela

Vijay Prashad | Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books

See also

Once upon a time.…
How Many Damn Fucking Times Do I Have to Explain This?

Also

Strategic Culture Foundation

The Dead Don't Die: They March To War
Pepe Escobar

Eric Zuesse — Leaked: USA’s Feb 2018 Plan for Coup in Venezuela

What your government is up to. It is illegal under the UN Charter. Quite revealing that the US military high command would sign on to it. A foreign-mounted overthrow of a sovereign state's government without a UN Security Council resolution is a war crime. Calling it a "coup" is a misnomer. This is the overthrow of a government by a foreign state using its military to do so.

 There is no way to verify the document appended as genuine since it is labeled "Top Secret" however. But if true, this qualifies the US as a rogue state, and it appears reminiscent of Hitler's takeover of adjacent countries in the lead-up to WWII. This is one thing that the establishment of the UN was aimed at preventing. Serious stuff. "It can happen again," and it is happening. (See last link in this series.)

Congress should be on this immediately or the entire US government can be viewed as involved based on silence being consent.

I really don't think that the US politician get this. But the military high command certainly should. Following illegal orders is no excuse. This was decided international law at Nuremberg.

Off-Guardian
Leaked: USA’s Feb 2018 Plan for Coup in Venezuela
Eric Zuesse

Bullshit law.

Sputnik International
Pompeo Claims Any US Action in Venezuela, Including Military, to Be 'Lawful'
See also

It's certain that Trump and Putin had some words about this at their recent telephonic meeting.

RT
US attempt to topple Venezuelan govt by force would lead to grave consequences – Lavrov

Sputnik International

Lavrov Warns Attempts to Overthrow Venezuelan Gov't to Cause 'Catastrophe'

US' Real Actions Contradict Verbal Crusade Over Venezuela 'Humanitarian Crisis'

Rachel Maddow doesn’t think John Bolton is being hawkish enough.
John. Fucking. Bolton.

At the time, I thought MSNBC's hiring of Rachel was a great idea. Now I view it as an unmitigated disaster. The Democratic Establishment is digging a hole for themselves that will be impossible to haul themselves out of. That is a good thing. Time for the whole lot of them to do. They are all losers — born to lose.

Caitlin Johnstone — Rogue Journalist
On Venezuela, Tucker Airs Anti-Trump Ideas While Maddow Wants John Bolton To Be More Hawkish
Caitlin Johnstone

Fort Russ
MAJOR: Inside How The Coup Was Foiled – Venezuela’s Army Chief Padrino TRICKED Trump & Abrams
Vladimir Dobrynin

In the aftermath of the failed coup which FRN has covered in depth, the White House is in clear disarray. U.S President Donald Trump has openly contradicted the statements of his senior officials on Russian “involvement” in Venezuela after a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin held on May 3.

Clown government.

Fort Russ
VENEZUELA REVERSAL: Trump Says Russia not Interfering – ditches Pompeo-Bolton line on Venezuela after Putin talks

Paul Antonopoulos

MISSING: Guaido now in hiding ADMITS COUP A FAILURE, blames military’s loyalty to Maduro

Joaquin Flores

Caitlin Johnstone — Rogue Journalist
Venezuela: Establishment Talking Points Translation Key
Caitlin Johnstone

Yes, it can happen again. Fascism is alive and well, even in quarters that may seem unbelievable based on history.

Sputnik International
'Yes, We're Racists': Rabbis Recorded Endorsing Hitler, Urging to Enslave Arabs

Economist Jeffrey Sachs: U.S. Sanctions Have Devastated Venezuela & Killed Over 40,000 Since 2017 — Amy Goodman interviews Jeffrey D. Sachs

More than 40,000 people have died in Venezuela since 2017 as a result of U.S. sanctions, according to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research co-authored by economists Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot. The report examines how U.S. sanctions have reduced the availability of food and medicine in Venezuela and increased disease and mortality. We speak with Jeffrey Sachs in our New York studio. In the report, he writes, “American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and thereby lead to regime change. It’s a fruitless, heartless, illegal, and failed policy, causing grave harm to the Venezuelan people.”

The human cost of economic warfare.

Democracy Now!
Economist Jeffrey Sachs: U.S. Sanctions Have Devastated Venezuela & Killed Over 40,000 Since 2017

Amy Goodman interviews Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University, Director of Columbia’s Center for Sustainable Development, and Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network

See also

It is strange how the urgent installation of liberal democracy by force correlates so often with oil reserves not aligned to the USA, as in Libya, Iraq or Venezuela, while countries with massive oil reserves which permit US military domination and align with the West and Israel can be as undemocratic as they wish, eg Saudi Arabia. Venezuela is an imperfect democracy but it is far, far more of a democracy than Saudi Arabia and with a much better human rights record. The hypocrisy of Western media and politicians is breathtaking....

Craig Murray Blog
Venezuela and Binary Choice
Craig Murray, formerly British ambassador to Uzbekistan and Rector of the University of Dundee

Max Blumenthal — US Regime Change Blueprint Proposed Venezuelan Electricity Blackouts as ‘Watershed Event’ for ‘Galvanizing Public Unrest’

The US-funded CANVAS organization that trained Juan Guaido and his allies produced a 2010 memo on exploiting electricity outages and urged the opposition “to take advantage of the situation…towards their needs”

Hybrid warfare?

The Gray Zone
US Regime Change Blueprint Proposed Venezuelan Electricity Blackouts as ‘Watershed Event’ for ‘Galvanizing Public Unrest’

Max Blumenthal

TeleSUR — US Blockade on Venezuela Has Cost US$350 Billion: Report

The Economic Debates Unit of the Latin American Geopolitical Strategic Center (CELAG) released a report on "the economic consequences of the boycott against Venezuela," on Friday, in which it is proved that the "international financial blockade to Venezuela since 2013 is the main responsible for the economic crisis."

Economic strangulation.

TeleSUR

US Blockade on Venezuela Has Cost US$350 Billion: Report

Michael Hudson — Venezuela as the pivot for New Internationalism?

Everything you always wanted to know about Venezuela.

Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of Neoliberalism
Venezuela as the pivot for New Internationalism?
Michael Hudson | President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of
Missouri, Kansas City, and Guest Professor at Peking University
Crossposted at Saker interview with Michael Hudson on Venezuela, February 7, 2019

Related

Reuters
Venezuela opposition will name new Citgo board this week: WSJ

See also

Medium
Venezuela’s collapse is a window into how the Oil Age will unravel

Nafeez Ahmed

Frank Li — What Is Really Going on in Venezuela?

Venezuela is in the news. Two big news stories:

• Trump recognizes Venezuela's opposition leader as its legitimate president.
• Venezuela breaks diplomatic relations with US.

Curious about the fast development of these stories, I decided to research into the matter.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. has, again, been meddling behind the scene. Let me share some interesting videos ...

econintersect
What Is Really Going on in Venezuela?
Frank Li | Chinese ex-pat, Founder and President of W.E.I. (West-East International), a Chicago-based import & export company, B.E. from Zhejiang University (China) in 1982, M.E. from the University of Tokyo in 1985, and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1988, all in Electrical Engineering

Pepe Escobar — Venezuela: Let"s Cut to the Chase

No wonder Caracas is supported by China, Russia and Iran. They are the real hardcore troika – not psycho-killer John Bolton’s cartoonish “troika of tyranny” – fighting against the Trump administration’s energy dominance strategy, which consists essentially in aiming at the total lock down of oil trading in petrodollars, forever....

In the end, this is all about economic war....

Strategic Culture Foundation
Venezuela: Let"s Cut to the Chase

Pepe Escobar

Andrew Koryko — A Venezuelan Coup Could Challenge OPEC+ And Build “Fortress America”

I have been saying something like this for some time. The American Empire is overextended and the strategic need is to withdraw to the core, which is the Western Hemisphere. Owing to logistics, and war is largely determined by the parties with logistical advantage, the US is disadvantaged by operating away from the Western Hemisphere, but it can easily control its own hemisphere militarily owing to logistical advantage. This is especially the case now that both Russia and China have "carrier killers."

There are two alternatives here, however, and the one that the US employs will make the difference.

The first is domination and the second is benevolent cooperation out of self-interest. The US can easily dominate its region but that would result in mere compliance. On the other hand, cooperation based on mutual advantage would benefit everyone and result in a a bigger pie. 

Could the US elite forgo their own advantage to secure a higher goal that would in the end benefit them more? Not likely.

So on toward WWIII.

Oriental Review

A Venezuelan Coup Could Challenge OPEC+ And Build “Fortress America”

Andrew Koryko

Ben Norton — Internal US Gov’t Document Outlines Program of ‘Economic Warfare’ on Venezuela

An internal government document reveals tactics of “economic warfare” and “financial weapons” the US is using against Venezuela in the name of “furthering capitalism.”

SOP (standard operating procedure). Told ya so.

Mint Press News
Internal US Gov’t Document Outlines Program of ‘Economic Warfare’ on Venezuela

Ben Norton

See also

One after another right-wing government in the region — including Colombia, Chile, and Brazil — affirmed their support for Guaidó. The wave of support in the hours after Guaidó’s proclamation suggested the coup plot had momentum.
Then, in a break in what had appeared to be a unified front, a spokesman for the Mexican government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that it would not recognize Juan Guaidó and would maintain diplomatic relations with the government of Nicolas Maduro.

With Mexico’s declaration, the façade that had been sold to the public — that this was a legitimate transition and not a coup — collapsed. Numerous other countries, including Russia and China, also came out against Guaidó’s unconstitutional attempt to seize power, interrupting Washington’s plans to install a U.S.-friendly regime in Venezuela.
AMLO, as the Mexican president is known, was met with heavy criticism from the punditry, many of whom claimed that he was out of step with Mexico’s allies in the region and that his government would be treated as a pariah as a result. Lopez Obrador’s leftist administration is already somewhat isolated, with votes throughout the region in recent years resulting in the election of right-wing and U.S.-friendly governments.

AMLO’s election in 2018 bucked that trend, but Mexico is still only one of only a handful of countries in Latin America with an independent foreign policy that remains willing to go against the wishes of Washington. However, AMLO presides over Latin America’s second-largest economy and is traditionally seen as a diplomatic heavyweight, making his government’s positions difficult to ignore....

Mexico’s AMLO Rejects Venezuela Coup and Becomes a Bulwark Against US Imperialism

José Luis Granados Ceja

The Saker — The US Aggression Against Venezuela as a Diagnostic Tool

Think of what currently passes as a “policy” of the US in Venezuela as a diagnostic tool. 

Not just to diagnose the moral degeneracy and mental pathology of the leaders of the AngloZionist Empire, but also to diagnose the very real state of despair and chaos of the Empire itself. Under Obama, for all his faults and weaknesses, the US succeeded in subverting a list of crucial Latin American countries (like Brazil or Argentina) but now, with Mr MAGA, it can’t even do that. The kind of antics we see from the Pompeo, Bolton & Abrams gang is amazing in its crudeness and, frankly, makes a supposed “indispensable nation” look absolutely ridiculous. These losers already had to fold several times, in spite of equally hyperbolic threats delivered with maximal gravitas (think DPRK here), and yet they still think that crude bullying methods can yield success. They can’t. Immense firepower is not a substitute for brains.

In its short and blood-soaked history, the US has pretty much always acted like some criminal enterprise run by brutal gangsters, but in the past some of these gangsters could be extremely well educated and intelligent (think James Baker here). Today, their guns are still lying around (albeit in various states of disrepair), but they are wielded by ignorant retards. Yes, ignorant retards with guns can be very dangerous, but they can never be effective!

Conclusion

Right now the US, backed by its various colonies and vassal states, appears to be ready to deliver a death blow to Venezuela and, truth be told, they might be able to do just that. But, for whatever it is worth, my gut feeling is that they will fail again, even against the weakest countries of the Axis of Resistance. That is not to say that Venezuela is not in a heap of critical problems. But I believe that in spite of being in a critical condition, Venezuela will be able to bounce back, just like Syria did. After all, the Syrian example proves that it *is* possible to resist a superior invading force while at the same time successfully engaging in critically needed reforms. Yes, today’s Caracas is in very bad shape, but the city of Aleppo was in a much worse shape until it was liberated, and now quasi-normal life has returned to it (in sharp contrast to the US liberated devastated city of Raqqa which still lies in ruins). Yankees (to use the usual Latin-American expression) are just like their Israeli overlords: they are capable of devastating violence but they have no staying power: if things don’t go their way fast, really fast, they run and barricade themselves somewhere faraway from danger. In our case, they might even do what they did in Iraq and Afghanistan: build obscenely huge embassies, create a special zone around them, and sit tight while the country is engulfed in a bloody civil war. This way, they can provide CNN & Co. with footage of a “peaceful neighborhood” while still claiming that the Stars and Strips are still proudly flying high over the enemy’s capital and that “these colors don’t run”. This would be a disastrous outcome for the Venezuelan nation and this is why we all have to try to prevent this, by speaking out before the US further wrecks yet another country.

Hopefully the memory of past completely failed, humiliating and bloody invasions will convince the right people at the Pentagon to do whatever it takes to prevent the US from launching yet another stupid and immoral war of choice on behalf of the Neocons.

The Unz Review
The US Aggression Against Venezuela as a Diagnostic Tool
The Saker

See also

Zero Hedge
Armed Services Committee Chairman Warns US And China "Headed For World War III"
Tyler Durden

Also

Detonation of a single generic nuclear bomb between 30-400 kilometers above earth will create an EMP that propagates outward towards earth with a radius of between 600 and 2,200 kilometers. The effects of an EMP would be catastrophic and could plunge a nation into indefinite darkness. There would be widespread destruction of computers, nuclear power plants, satellites, phones, refrigerators, transformers, and more.

The EMP commission estimates a full 90 percent of the American population could die within a year of an EMP attack....

The Epoch Times
China’s EMP Weapons Pose Grave Threat to America, Newly Declassified Report Shows
Daniel Ashman

New Oil Sanctions on Venezuela: “Would Destroy What’s Left of its Economy” Sharmini Peries interviews Mark Weisbrot

Video and transcript

MARK WEISBROT: Well, it’s all illegal, of course. I mean, the sanctions that Trump imposed in August of 2017, or you can go back further to the Obama sanctions in March of 2015, the sanctions have always been illegal under the OAS Charter, under the UN Charter, under the treaties that the U.S. has, various international conventions that the U.S. is a party to. And also under U.S. law, because the president has to state in order to impose these sanctions in the executive orders going back to 2015, both Obama and Trump, have had to say that, under our law, that Venezuela poses an unusual and extraordinary threat. To the national security of the United States, which everyone knows is false. And so on that basis it’s really not even legal under U.S. law, because the president is stating something false in order to comply with the law....

Liberalism or fascism?

TRNN
New Oil Sanctions on Venezuela: “Would Destroy What’s Left of its Economy”

Sharmini Peries interviews Mark Weisbrot

Lazar Jeifets — The Venezuela Crisis: Mistakes and Misunderstandings

• Cause No. 1: Traditions
• Cause No. 2: Economics
• Cause No. 3: Mistakes on all sides

Valdai
The Venezuela Crisis: Mistakes and MisunderstandingsLazar Jeifets | Professor at the Department for American Studies of St. Petersburg State University