Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Crisis in Venezuela

Thursday, January 31, 2019, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the next meeting, we will discus the latest crisis in Venezuela. The US has committed itself to force new elections and the rest of the world is taking sides. This could escalate into a military intervention. 

Here are the videos:
----------------------------------- Updated 1/31/10 ---------------------------

Here are the rest of the videos shown at the meeting:


1 comment:

  1. Michael,

    Thanks for bringing this issue for discussion in Columbia. Unfortunately I will be out of town and I cannot attend. But, I think that it is important for folks to see who is behind this entire new attempt to overthrow the government of Venezuela. As more information comes out, some of the means of communication are clearly indicating that the most neoconservative sectors in the US are directly responsible for this attempt.

    Common Dreams, Jan. 26 says the following about neoconservative Elliott Abrams who was appointed US special envoy for Venezuela:

    "Abrams is known as the "Assistant Secretary of Dirty Wars," a title he earned during his stints with the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations:
    • In 1993, after a UN truth commission which examined 22,000 atrocities that occurred during the twelve-year civil war in El Salvador, attributed 85 per cent of the abuses to the Reagan-assisted right-wing military and its death-squad allies, assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Abrams said: “The administration’s record on El Salvador is one of fabulous achievement.”
    • Abrams organized the illegal, covert financing of Contra rebels in Nicaragua behind the back of Congress, which had cut off funding.
    • Abrams lied to Congress twice about his role with the Contras. He pleaded guilty to both counts in 1991 but was pardoned by George HW Bush.
    • Abrams, a decade later, while working as special Middle East adviser to former president George W Bush, Abrams was an enthusiastic advocate of the disastrous Iraq invasion.
    • Abrams was in the Bush White House at the time of the abortive coup in 2002 against the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
    • Abrams helped lead the US effort to stage a coup to overturn the results of the 2006 Palestinian elections, complete with murder and torture.
    Also on Friday, a Wall Street Journal report confirmed suspicions that opposition leader Juan Guaido's move to declare himself "interim president" of Venezuela this week was highly coordinated with the Trump White House and Republican lawmakers."

    The Trump administration is not interested in democracy nor in helping the people of Venezuela with the real problems they do have. If that were the case, the US would lift the sanctions they have against Venezuela and they would call for dialogue and not for intervention.

    Sincerely,

    Leslie Salgado, Chair
    Friends of Latin America
    Columbia, MD

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