venezuela

The US is targeting Venezuela with the alibi of drug traffickers

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In recent months, the Caribbean has returned to sound like war. American B-52 bombers they have crossed the sky off the coast of Venezuela, helicopters Special operations forces have flown over the Gulf of Paria and a flotilla of Aegis destroyers patrols the waters where several vessels accused of transporting drugs have sunk. It happens that, under the guise of an intensification of the war on drug trafficking, Washington has woven a military device and intelligence that recalls the preludes to past interventions in the region. Yesterday is not today. Unlike 2019, when Trump openly proclaimed his desire to overthrow Nicolás Maduro, his second term has opted, at least until now, for a strategy more ambiguous and sophisticated: present the Venezuelan leader not as a political adversary, but as a narcoterrorist and, therefore, a legitimate objective within a global anti-narcotics operation. Lethal diplomacy. The change in focus is significant. In his first term, Trump tried to overthrow Maduro with sanctions, diplomatic isolation and the recognition of the opposition Juan Guaidó, without successyes indeed. This time, the discourse of regime change has dissolved into a campaign judicial and military focused on organized crime: rewards up to 50 million of dollars for the capture of the Venezuelan president, accusations of drug trafficking or lethal attacks against boats. Plus, and perhaps the “core” of it all: an authorization secret presidential finding (the so-called presidential finding) that allows the CIA to carry out covert operations and lethal actions within Venezuela. The measure, revealed by senior officials and confirmed by Trump himself, marks a qualitative leap: For the first time in decades, Washington formally enables its intelligence agency to intervene directly in a Latin American country, even without the cover of a declared conflict. The base reopened by the United States in Puerto Rico, the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads The militarization of the Caribbean. The truth is that the device around Venezuela is already considerable magnitude. More than ten thousand American soldiers are concentrated in bases in Puerto Rico and on amphibious ships; The Navy maintains eight surface ships and one submarine in the region, and the Army has deployed helicopters assault fighters of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the famous “Night Stalkers”next to B-52 strategic bombers on deterrence flights near Caracas. Officially, these are maneuvers and training exercises, but the accumulation of forcesunited with the maritime attacks against vessels suspected of trafficking, has been interpreted by international observers as a clear warning. Each new air or naval mission reinforces the feeling that the United States is rehearsingif not a total invasion, then at least the ability to execute fast and selective operations against Venezuelan targets. Hybrid Warfare Laboratory. The current strategy combine components of military, psychological and political pressure. The public revelation of the CIA’s covert operations, an unprecedented fact in itself, seems aimed at generating fear and distrust within Maduro’s circle of power. Intelligence analysts describe this campaign as a hybrid war examplewhere open threats are intertwined with disinformation operations, sabotage and stimulation of internal fractures in the regime. According to Washington sourcesthe immediate objective would be to push the Venezuelan military commanders to withdraw their support for Maduro, reproducing the model of internal decomposition that preceded the overthrow of Manuel Noriega in Panama in 1989. However, Venezuela is a more complex scenario, with a cohesive security apparatus, the presence of Russian and Iranian advisors and paramilitary groups that act as territorial control networks. Ripe The pretext: drugs. Trump and his advisors have presented the entire offensive under the umbrella of the fight against drug trafficking. They have accused the regime of being a drug stateto use Aragua Train group as an operational arm and to flood the United States with drugs. The narrative seeks internal legitimacy and support from public opinion, but the facts contradict it: the majority of opioids and fentanyl that devastate American society come from Mexiconot from Venezuela. However, the discourse of the drug enemy serves the White House to avoid the debate on direct intervention and reconfigure military action as a simple extension of a global war against organized crime. The parallelism with the justification used in the case of Noriega It is very powerful. No negotiated exit. I was counting a few hours ago AP exclusively that, in the face of growing pressure, the Venezuelan government would have tried to offer a political solution: a plan that contemplated the progressive resignation of Maduro within a period of three years and the transfer of power to his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, without subsequent re-election. The White House rejected the proposal immediately, arguing that he did not recognize the legitimacy of Maduro or his cabinet and that the country was a narco-state run by terrorists. The frustrated gesture illustrates, a priori, the point of no return: Washington is no longer seeking negotiation, but capitulation. Since then, Caracas has reacted with gestures of fear and defiance at the same time: irregular movements by Maduro, television broadcasts from undisclosed locations, deployments of anti-aircraft missiles and the use of civilians as a symbolic shield against a possible attack. The dilemma: invasion. The great unknown, therefore, seems clear: if Trump is willing to cross the threshold of a open military action. Its political base, with a strong isolationist component, is suspicious of any prolonged foreign war, but the narrative of the fight against narcoterrorism offers an entrance door for a limited operation: a precision attack or perhaps a raid aimed at a single objective: the Maduro himself. This type of action, presented as a measure of international justice More than an invasion, it could please both the nationalist electorate and the neoconservative sectors of his cabinet. However, such a move would entail an enormous risk: the possibility of a regional warthe breakdown of alliances and a large-scale humanitarian crisis. The shadow of history. The Latin American precedent it is unavoidable. From Guatemala in 1954 until Panama in 1989passing through Chile and Nicaraguacovert operations and coups endorsed by Washington left a … Read more

That the US Air Force flies its three B-52 bombers is normal. That he does it against Venezuela not so much

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At the beginning of September the southern Caribbean became in a hybrid war board where anti-drug operations, financial sanctions and military deployments mixed together. Then we learned that the United States had decided to open a base that had been closed for 20 years and had not been open since. F-35 have stopped arriving. Three have been added to the fighter jets monsters looking at Venezuela. The roar. In recent days, the Caribbean has once again been the scene of a military deployment reminiscent of the most tense years of the Cold War. Up to three strategic bombers American B-52 were spotted orbiting for hours off the coasts of Venezuelaescorted by F-35 fighters and supported by tankers and reconnaissance drones. The maneuver, carried out in international airspace, was all less discreet: a deliberate display of force a few kilometers from Caracas, in a context in which Washington intensifies the pressure against the regime of Nicolás Maduro and in which rumors about a possible direct action They begin to sound with increasing verisimilitude. Echo of the giants. The B-52s, based in Louisiana, sailed the Caribbean sky with the unequivocal purpose to be seen. His mere presence has a strategic meaning: each of these colossi can carry dozens of long range cruise missilescapable of hitting land or sea targets without having to fly over enemy territory. The United States assures that the patrols They are part of anti-drug operations, but the simultaneity with Trump’s threats and the recent attacks to vessels suspected of drug trafficking point to a clearer political message: warn Maduro that Washington’s reach extends from the air to the waters of the Caribbean and, if it deems necessary, beyond. The fence In just two months, the Pentagon has deployed in the region a naval and air device that includes three destroyers, a missile cruiser, a nuclear submarine and an amphibious group with more than 2,000 marines. TO they add up Reaper drones, C-17 transport planes and the feared AC-130J Ghostrider, specialized in interdiction operations and surgical strikes. The structure is more reminiscent of a preparation force for a limited campaign than a mere anti-drug operation. Washington has also confirmed the creation of a new force regional task force under the command of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, while reports of lethal attacks on suspicious boats in international waters accumulate: at least five in recent weeks, with 27 dead. Open threat. The turning point has arrived when Trump himself openly declared who studies “striking on Venezuelan land” after having “controlled the sea almost completely.” He said it with the naturalness of someone describing a logical extension of an operation in progress. He also acknowledged having authorized to the CIA to develop covert operations in Venezuelan territory, in a decision that marks a qualitative leap with respect to traditional diplomatic pressure. Although he avoided confirming whether this authorization includes the figure of Maduro, the hint was enough for him toturn on all alarms in the region. In Washington, sources from the Department of Defense maintain that these would be actions aimed at “disrupting drug trafficking networks,” but Trump himself has described the Venezuelan president as “head of a cartel,” blurring the line between anti-drug war and regime change operation. Venezuela on alert. From Caracas, the response It was immediate. Maduro accused the United States of preparing an invasion and denounced to the United Nations what qualified as “a very serious violation of international law.” His government maintains that the military movements seek to “legitimize a regime change operation to seize Venezuelan oil reserves.” In a televised speech, supported by his military leadership, evoked the blows sponsored by the CIA during the Cold War in Latin America and cried: “Down with coups d’état! Latin America neither wants nor needs them.” At the same time, he announced that 4.5 million civilian militiamen would be ready to defend the country, although the actual enlistment figures were far from his rhetoric. Meanwhile, the opposition, led by María Corina Machado (recently awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize), celebrated American support and dedicated his award “to Trump, for his decisive support of our cause.” Fuzzy red line. The situation has become a dangerous choreography of power. On the one hand, Washington insists that its mission is stop drug trafficking and irregular migration, on the other, their actions increasingly resemble the preparatory phase of a military operation. Trump’s rhetoric, direct and unfiltered, evokes the old ghosts of North American interventions in Latin America, while his deployment in the Caribbean resembles a modern reissue of the big stick politics. Venezuela, with a weakened armysuffocating sanctions and a perpetual internal crisis, thus becomes a board and excuse: the place where the United States’ ambition for regional control and the need for an external enemy to maintain the cohesion of Chavismo intersect. A prelude? He flight of the B-52 off the Venezuelan coast it was not a routine maneuver. It was a sign. A demonstration that pressure is no longer measured in sanctions or communications, but in long-range missions, combat escorts and submarines that silently patrol a few kilometers from the continental shelf of a sovereign State. Trump has found in Maduro the perfect antagonist: an isolated dictator, converted into a symbol of Latin American collapse and a justification of his new hemispheric doctrine. If you will, also a warning to sailors: it could become the first salvo of a selective intervention. Image | USAF In Xataka | The US can spend months attacking boats in the Caribbean. A base closed for 20 years has just opened and F-35s keep arriving In Xataka | Venezuela has found proof that the video of the US missile pulverizing a boat was made with AI: Google AI

An US missile dynamited a boat in the middle of the Caribbean. And then Venezuela went to Gemini to see if the video was real

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The story began on September 2, when Donald Trump affirmed That the United States Armed Forces had executed a precision attack against a “positively identified” vessel that transported drugs from Venezuela and was operated by members of the Aragua Train, designated by Washington as narcoterrorist, with a balance of eleven dead according to their own story. From then on until now all kinds of events have occurred. The video. Shortly after, the president amplified the message with A declassified video Through social truth that shows the detonation of a white missile in the high seas and a public warning to future traffickers, while Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, He corroborated the characterization of “lethal coup” against an objective that would have sailed from Venezuelan coasts. A senior defense official, cited in the background, confirmed The action as a precision attack against a “Drug Vessel”, in line with the known employment of rapid boats of three or four force used for cocaine routes to the north. Context and political framework. The announcement came days after Trump will order to deploy Three marine ships in the Caribbean to reinforce the interdiction of posters against Venezuela, expanding the role of the pentagon in missions traditionally led by the coastal guard. The president already He had instructed At the beginning of the year to prepare force use options against transnational criminal organizations after declaring them as foreign terrorist organizations in executive order, an framing that seeks to provide greater legal flexibility to extraterritorial kinetic operations. In parallel, the treasure sanctioned to the so -called Cartel de los Soles (Officer Network accused by Washington of drug trafficking and supporting the Aragua Train and the Sinaloa Cartel) as a specially designated global terrorist entity, consolidating a financial and safety pressure scaffolding. Caracas responds. Shortly after, Nicolás Maduro, whom the United States considers an illegitimate ruler for electoral fraud, human rights and drug trafficking violations, He warned That Rubio pushed Trump towards war and promised resistance if Venezuela is attacked, describing US military accumulation as “the greatest threat that our continent has seen in 100 years.” Although the Venezuelan government did not immediately react to the concrete attack, the martial tone and the doctrine of “defense of the territory” enunciated by Maduro raise the political bar and increase the risk of incidents of narrative or operational climbing in a dense maritime environment and complex jurisdictions. The norm vs the lethal force. It also happened another problem. I remembered The Wall Street Journal that the expansion of the prominence of the Pentagon contrasted with the standard procedures of the Coast Guard described by the former United States embassy in Panama, John Feeley: Identification, stop orders, priority for preserving life, neutralization of engines with .50 caliber shooters from helicopters if the boat tries to flee and approach to verify load. According to that doctrine, the use of direct lethal fire is not the norm except in legitimate defense; Hence, the kinetic destruction of a suspicious boat, without the typical sequence of “interdiction and approach”, represents a qualitative leap in commitment rules and in the signal issued to criminal networks and the states that shelter them. The video goes on a suspect. The clip, which Trump presented as proof of the effectiveness of its anti -drug strategy and as a warning to organized crime, He went to the protagonist being quickly questioned by Caracas. Freddy Ñáñez, Minister of Venezuelan Communication, accused in the networks Social to the president to disseminate images “generated by artificial intelligence”, pointing out the aesthetics “almost caricaturesca” of the explosion, visual artifacts and water with an artificial aspect, characteristic of synthetic productions. He did it with an equally doubtful study. Namely: He asked Google’s AI, Gemini, what seemed to him the sequence, and it responded after an analysis that “it was very likely” that it would have been created generated by ia. The doubts to the operation. Again, Trump said the ship crew belonged to the Aragua Train, a Venezuelan criminal organization designated by Washington as a terrorist group in February. However, the veracity of the material was questioned. Reuters Indian That he did not find conclusive manipulation evidence, although he continues to review the video as part of his verification process. Beyond the technical debate, security experts They expressed reservations On the performance in itself following the exhibition of Feeley and remembering that the usual practices of the Coast Guard seek to preserve lives and rarely open fire against suspicious vessels, since most crews are surrendered without resistance. Electoral key message. Plus: The episode has acquired a greater relevance for the context in which it occurred: it was Trump’s first public appearance in a week, in the midst of Speculations about your status Health at 79. The video became A propaganda instrument More than in a military part, used by the president and his main ministers (Marco Rubio outdoors and Pete Hegseth in defense) to underline his hard hand against drug trafficking. The message that accompanied the clip In social Truth, written with Trump’s usual excessive style, reinforced the intimidating tone towards any attempt to introduce drugs in the United States. The shadow of AI. In addition, the controversy has spread to the broadest field of digital manipulation. Ñáñez insisted in which the piece was an artificial creation aimed at manufacturing a media victory, while, in parallel, Trump himself contributed to confusion by disqualifying as “probably generated by AI” another viral recording that showed alleged objects thrown through a White House window, despite the fact that the Executive himself himself He had explained which was a contractor performing maintenance work. The contradiction fed the perception of a president willing to use the Technological ambiguity To mold the political story. F-16A of Venezuela Two fighters appear. In the last hours the tension has increased. The pentagon confirmed that two Venezuelan fighters F-16 They approached To the American destroyer USS Jasson Dunham, a Arleight Burke class ship deployed in the Caribbean as part of the drug … Read more

The countries with the greatest oil reserves, exposed in this graphic with a sad protagonist: Venezuela

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Humanity is still tied to oil. Although the rise of renewable energies He pointed to one revolutionrecently we have seen that, when things get ugly and We need energy peaksone has to Pull fossil fuels again. The oil companies themselves who got into the renewable car They unchecked a few months agoand that is why it is interesting to know What countries have that oil. And it is something that is illustrated perfectly in this graph. The rich. Prepared by Visual Capitalist With data from the EIAin it the production is not shown, but the reserves. They are two very different things and will make sense immediately. Before that, Venezuela’s reserves are imposing, with 303,000 million certified barrels. Secondly, Saudi Arabia with 267,000 million and, in third place, an Iran in which oil has been the protagonist in recent weeks due to the confrontation with Israel. A lot of distance from Venezuela we have Canada, Iraq, Eau, Kuwait, Russia, the United States or Libya. And, of these last names, the two American countries are those that are separated in the graph because they are not part of the OPEC. OPEC+ and the monopoly. In 1960, five heavy pesos on that list (Venezuela, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi IRK and Rabia formed the organization of oil export countries, OPEC. Its objective was to coordinate and unify oil policies to maintain stable prices, ensure supply and, above all, protect your interests. Over time other countries were added, forming the well -known OPEC+ (which has its own internal cohesion problems. Together, member countries concentrate about 80% of global oil reserves, but although Venezuela has imposing reserves, its production does not go to par due to political blockages and limitations. At its peak, they produced three million barrels per day. Today they are the twenty -first producing country with 770,000 barrels per day, behind countries with much lower reserves. One of the wells that China is operating China wants to sign up for the list. At the top, the United States, Saudi Russia and Arabia lead the ranking with 8-12 million barrels per day, but although it does not appear in the graph, there is a country that we should take into account: China. Currently, the Asian giant is the Greater World Oil Importerbut in recent years it has increased significantly Its internal production. Thanks to pharaonic works that include some of the deepest wells carried out by humanityin March of this year they got a record of 4.6 million barrels per day. It was the highest point in the history of the country and, although inequality was very high between production and import, apart from continuing excavating they have been made with record reserves in recent years. It is calculated that They tell With more than 1,180 million stored barrels that would shield them, for a while, of any cutting in the supply. The United States, for example, also has a reserve to respond to crises and the sources vary, but the updated figures point to about 400 million barrels. Pure and hard strategy. Beyond the obvious importance of oil on the economy of a producing country, we have the Strategic Facet. As oil continues moving the worldhaving large reservations allows countries to exercise their influence on international politics. As? Coordinating production to influence prices and economyFor example. And we have also seen how oil has been a protagonist agent in armed conflicts. The invasion of Iraq, for example, or the war between Iran and Israel that, without affecting the flow of crude oil, already caused that The market will panic. Images | Visual Capitalist, CNPC In Xataka | The oil market faces a triple coup and IEA is clear why: Iran, Opep+ and electric vehicles

Marco Rubio promises González Urrutia US support for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela

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In his role as Trump’s new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio gave his support to opposition leader María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia, recognized by the Joe Biden administration as president-elect of Venezuela. Through a video call, Machado said that, “the transition to democracy in Venezuela is crucial for regional stability and the security of our hemisphere.” Therefore, Marco Rubio reaffirmed to Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia his support from Washington for the restoration of democracy in his country. The spokesperson for that cabinet, Tammy Bruce, indicated in a statement that “Rubio reaffirmed the support of the United States for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela and the unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners, in line with the peaceful democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people.” For its part, González Urrutia assured that, “The Secretary of State reaffirmed his admiration for the Venezuelan people and highlighted the courage and democratic spirit that made the undisputed victory of 28J possible. He also confirmed his willingness to work together at this crucial moment for our nation. “Your support is a key impetus to continue moving towards free Venezuela.” The conversation with Rubio comes after what appears to be the first contacts between the two administrations and without Donald Trump referring to the fight against the dictatorship beyond announcing that he is willing to stop buying Venezuelan oil. It should be remembered that US President Donald Trump insisted last Monday that the United States is not interested in Venezuelan oil. On his first day in the White House, he insisted that he is closely watching Venezuela, a country he claims to know “very well for many reasons.” “It was a great country 20 years ago and now it is a disaster,” he declared. Regarding whether he will take measures to pressure President Nicolás Maduro, he stated: “We will probably stop buying oil from Venezuela.” Keep reading: · “Trump mixes disinterest and fury towards Latin America”· What are Donald Trump’s plans for Venezuela during his term?· Senate approves nomination of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State

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