February 24, 2019 Trump was right: In Venezuela's wake, protests are breaking out in Cuba By Monica Showalter | https://www.americanthinker.com/blo...s_wake_protests_are_breaking_out_in_cuba.html You don't often hear about protests in Cuba, despite the hellish conditions of that socialist dictatorship, but I suspect that's going to change, and maybe pretty fast. Alberto de la Cruz at Babalu blog reports that protests are breaking out on the communist island dictatorship in the wake of Venezuela's popular fight for freedom: Video from Cuba shows hundreds of Cubans marching on the streets of Havana this Saturday in protest of the communist Castro dictatorship. This rare show of massive dissent in Cuba comes on the eve of the Castro regime’s sham referendum vote to ratify a new communist constitution. Translation: HAPPENING NOW – Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of Havana, Cuba in protest against the Castro regime. It has the look of a chain reaction, and for that reason, Marxist Nicaragua and Bolivia need to be watched closely, too. Here is the video from a source inside Cuba who witnessed the protest of hundreds: [Please click on the link to the article above to view the video.] President Trump, in his great speech in Miami a few days ago, knew it was going to happen, stating: “The days of socialism and communism are numbered, not only in Venezuela, but in Nicaragua and Cuba as well," Trump told a crowd gathered in Miami. And right on cue, the dominos started tottering. It sounds like the Cubans are taking courage from Venezuelans as they seek to "take back" their democracy and are deciding that that's a great project for themselves to pursue, too. What's more, the Venezuelans have arranged it so that they are winning - they are calling all the shots on how they take the democracy back, they have a built-in government waiting for the transition, and they are rallying the international community of nations behind them. They also mobilizing civil society for the great mission of distributing aid to the hungry and destitute ravaged by socialism, which is a great thing for the country's trashed social capital, and focusing on rebuilding the country. That frankly looks like a winning plan, and people recognize winners - and they follow. One has to realize that Trump most likely had something to do with this, too. His stellar speech, noted here by Thomas Lifson, very likely was heard in Cuba, the same way Gulag prisoners heard President Reagan's great 'evil empire' speech and took heart from it. Trump understood this. And now we see motion not just in Venezuela but also in Cuba. One can only hope that all three countries most plagued by socialism in the hemisphere go down together. The celebratory fireworks will be amazing. Edited to add: Refs. Trump's speech on Venezuela was magnificent By Thomas Lifson 2/19/2019 https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/trumps_speech_on_venezuela_was_magnificent.html Venezuelan Rebel Cop Oscar Perez Massacred By The Government After He Surrendered by Tyler Durden Sat, 01/20/2018 https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018...rez-massacred-government-after-he-surrendered https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Óscar_Alberto_Pérez The problems in Venezuela began a long time ago - Venezuela crisis: How the political situation escalated 24 January 2019 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36319877 I'm praying that things improve soon for the Venezuelan people.
Unrestricted Capitalism is also condemned. I guess Team Trump would not mind if Russia decided to declare Hillary the real President and proceed to install her. Maduro may be many things but he is not a Communist in the traditional sense of the word. Its not up to the West who runs Venezuela; its up to the Venezuelan people. Team Neocon's tactics against Maduro prove that Team Neocon is the real Tyrant and much more of a threat to Law, Order and Justice than anything Maduro has done. Trump is digging his own demise the more he doubles down on this demonic regime change plan for Venezuela. If the Neocons really cared about "humanitarian aid" they would immediately remove the unjust sanctions on Venezuela, sanctions whichvare not hurting the Venezuelan elite. Sanctions always end up hurting the common folk. But the Neocons don't care about humanitarian issues; just look at the real starvation they have caused in Yemen by supporting Saudi Arabia's demonic war there.
Yes, unrestricted capitalism is also condemned. That still doesn't make Maduro good. Maduro is a Communist, and Communism is condemned in any sense of the word. I agree with you that Trump has no business getting involved in regime change. He ran for election promising to get the US out of that kind of interference in foreign countries. Prior to Chavez, Venezuela was producing enough food for its own needs. Why does it rely now on imported food? What did Chavez and Maduro do to protect Venezuelan food producers? I don't know enough about the sanctions to know who is being targeted, but clearly the poor are suffering. Do the US sanctions prevent China and Russia from helping Venezuela with money and food? Surely those countries can't be afraid of repercussions from the US. The cost of bailing out Venezuela would be small change to China. What's happening in Yemen is shocking. I don't know much about it, but I have a vague memory of reading that it was a majority Sunni Muslim country with a Shi-ite regime with many of the problems we read about in other poor Muslim countries. Was the shi-ite government in power after winning free and fair elections?
Semantics. Maduro is a socialist/communist. You write a lot about politics Richard. That is the biggest waste of time because your words change absolutely nothing. You are in danger of looking only through an ideological window. One Rosary said for peace is more powerful than all of the posts you have written about politics on this forum. The problems in the world are primarily moral and spiritual.
As a Catholic I will have no part in supporting Trump's Neocon, Freemason regime change operation in Venezuela. The implication by some well-meaning Catholics is that a particular private revelation involving Venezuela somehow condones the demonic actions by Team Trump. I've heard similar arguments used to justify Team Neocons warmongering towards Russia by citing Fatima. These mistaken notions must be countered and not just with prayer. Prayer is essential but must be followed by concrete actions.
Only a "Cowboy" could come up with the idea that bcoz Russia plunders other countries; bcoz china plunders other countries.. then sure, its okay for america to plunder other countries. Some kind of reckless logic. The splinter and the plank, is how our blessed lord put it. Perhaps that's how the populations of many of the bigger countries justify the starving of children and the destruction of smaller countries the world over. Actually, I always wondered about that. Coming from a small country myself - that suffered greatly at the hands of one of these bullies, I coykd never quite grasp how their peoples slept at night
It’s not plundering for the U.S. to come to the rescue of a country on the brink of starvation. We have more resources than any other country in the world to help those in need. But more importantly Venezuela is in our own hemisphere! This is not using the CIA to plunder a legitimate government elected fairly like the one of Ukraine. Our meddling in Ukraine was insane. But for pete’s sakes Venezuela is not the same thing. Overthrowing a communist regime is a nobel thing to do. And Trump has been able to get a coalition with surrounding countries against Maduro. This is a positive move against those who hailed Castro, Mao, and Stalin. Don’t you want us to rid the world of monstrous communists? How can you agree with Bernie Sanders?
And I’m not talking about a fake overthrow like they did in Vietnam. That war was all about money. A never ending money pit that cost lives and was never intended for the anti communists to win, or even today’s Afghanistan war. Those wars were and are immoral, mostly about the power to control the global drug industry, which is killing our own children here in the USA.
I don't think that personal insults are appropriate and anyway I am not sure why 'only a cowboy'.... etc. What do you have against cowboys? An honourable profession surely! The US is interested in stability in its own backyard obviously and having regimes like Venezuela is not good for anyone on the continent but Russia and China love it. Moderate yourself please.
Fair enough, Steve, the cowboy comment was uncalled-for. I apologise. It however is infuriating in the extreme as to why many Christian people CHRISTIAN PEOPLE feel it is okay for the West to attack and decimate other countries indiscriminately. Iraq?! Afghanistan?! This is happening to such an extent that it is now merely a matter of 'who's next'! Look, who here cant see that the West has been infiltrated and overcome? It is a tool of the elite. The rest of the world trembles at who they'll 'pick-on' next!! How can we Christians make excuses for our pan-western governments as they annihilate country after country!? I dont understand?! There are innocent children in these places!!! On the one hand we make excuses for our government meddling in the affairs of various countries yet on the other; we chastise these same governments and politicians for their stance on abortion, Gay marriage, gender-stance etc. This is a contradiction. It doesn't make sense to me... My own country is a part of it too. And I abhor it. I am no longer Irish. I hate what my country has become. Until heaven intervenes we here in Ireland are lost. We are due a chastisement. And rightly so. I pray that it will not be too much of a jolt. But a jolt is needed in order that we see sense, see truth and return to the faith. If you ask me though, the irish are not alone in needing heavens intervention. Please, please as more countries are decimated by the West; do not justify the killing and slaughter of innocents with excuse after excuse. It is infuriating in the extreme, and sometimes my passion spills over into silly comments like the cowboy remark. Again, I sincerely apologise for that.
This is all happening in a predominately Catholic nation. over 70% of Venezuela is Catholic with another 15% or so Protestant. As usual, Brother Nathanial nails it IMO.
Our military involvement in so many countries, including Venezuela, is highly questionable. After all the wars in the mid East the last 20 years, we should all be suspicious. Why did we invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein? Why was the US such a big cheerleader for the Arab Spring? Why was there huge effort to overthrow Assad in Syria? It seems to me that the one country that benefitted was Israel. Oh yes, and Israel receives 50% of US foreign military aid. Christians and others have suffered greatly in the mid-East because of these military actions backed by the US. I don't know the true agenda, but I do know that we're not involved with Venezuela just because people are starving.
China is more than happy to help Venezuela with its rich oil reserves and will also help develop their oil processing resources because Venezuela owes China over 50 Billion in loans it will repay in oil. Why should we believe the media is telling us the truth in regard to Venezuela when so much else is supposedly fake news? Soon, as usual we will be told about children in incubators being slaughtered or some other bazaar lie to stir up public sentiment for military intervention. It is only a matter of time since the coup attempt failed so miserably. Color me extremely skeptical about the entire situation.
You all need to read The fourth Floor by Earl Smith. This is a global war between conservatism and socialism (communism). Those in the Democratic Party including Obama who backed the April spring are communists. There is an alliance that was formed years ago between radical Islamists and global communists. They are helping each other to take over the world. So, when you have a country in our hemisphere that has fallen in the hands of those two groups like Venezuela, I think most rational, Christian, anti communists would agree with those in this administration who want to overthrow Maduro. Israel and Netanyahu are insignificant when it comes to Venezuela. They are too busy trying to survive in a region that wants them dead. Wake up people, it’s in our own backyard. Islamism and communism have merged worldwide. And this is much more dangerous than little itsy bitsy Israel.
One good outcome of US involvement in Venezuela is that it helps then to point to the absolute devestation that Socialism/ Communism causes in nations, thus informing the American public to recognise that the ideas of Communism, when adopted, do not lead to Utopia but to Hell on earth.
Finally! Because with Cuba the NYTimes depicted Castro as Robin Hood. And for over 50 years the media and all administrations never mentioned the horrors of Cuban communism. Even today you hardly have anyone compare Cuba to Venezuela. Insane. But there is a good reason why? There has to be. It’s benefiting someone to have a communist Cuba.
The Problem With Defending Democracy in Venezuela, But Not Cuba BY Patricio Navia | March 6, 2019 | https://www.americasquarterly.org/content/problem-defending-democracy-venezuela-not-cuba Maduro can learn from Cuba that if he hangs on a few months, regional leaders will forget about restoring democracy in Venezuela. JOE RAEDLE/GETTY The ineffectiveness of Latin American leaders in promoting a transition to democracy in Venezuela today has a lot to do with their lack of commitment to a democratic transition in Cuba in recent years. There is no question that Venezuela is a dictatorship. While there were reasonable arguments in favor of defining Venezuela as an ill-functioning democracy until a few years ago, when the Nicolás Maduro regime stripped the democratically elected legislature of its powers in 2017, Venezuela unequivocally descended into authoritarian rule. Unfortunately, not being democratic is not necessarily a problem when it comes to having good relations with other countries in the region. In theory, democracy should be the only game in town. Since signing the Inter-American Democratic Charter on Sep. 11, 2001, Latin American governments have had a mandate to protect democratic institutions in the region. However, the Democratic Charter has been ignored and overlooked several times in the past few years. After former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was forcefully removed from office in June 2009, there were profound disagreements among Latin American leaders about how to deal with the situation. Alleging that Zelaya himself was attempting to subvert the democratic process, the right-wing opposition succeeded in pushing him out with a Supreme Court resolution – though Zelaya was removed from office by force and sent into exile. Several left-wing leaders in the region – then led by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez – attempted to transform the Democratic Charter into a political tool to blast the United States and advance the now quasi-defunct Bolivarian Alliance. Regardless of who was right in the response to Zelaya’s ousting, the most worrying lesson from that crisis was that defense of democratic rule in the region is often conditioned on the ideological leanings of a given Latin American government. The Democratic Charter has also been overlooked when dealing with Cuba. In 2009, at the Organization of American States’ meeting in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, the 34 member countries unanimously agreed to pave the way for Cuba, a country ruled by a dictatorship since 1959, to be admitted back into the community of Latin American democracies. The initial resolution that had banned Cuba from the OAS also established that the country would be allowed back in after a transition to democracy. The problem back then was that many of the members that expelled Cuba were not democratic either. But the 2009 resolution by the OAS showed that Latin American democracies were willing to relax the strict adherence to the principle of democracy in Latin America. It is true that reasonable people can question the effectiveness of the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Moreover, many people committed to democracy are in favor of engaging in talks, negotiation and even cooperation to ease a transition to democracy – even when dealing with the 60-year-old Cuban dictatorship. Yet, the indecisive position Latin American democracies have maintained on how to promote democracy in Cuba has been symptomatic of the lack of a firm commitment to denounce dictatorships and authoritarianism in the region. Many Latin American leaders would be amenable to accepting Cuba back in the community of nations regardless of whether there is a transition to democracy on the island. Many Latin American leaders regularly visit Cuba and fail to advocate for the respect of human rights or even meet with opposition civil society groups in the island. Not surprisingly, this lack of consistent behavior in favor of a democratic transition in Cuba in recent years has made it difficult for Latin American democracies to now speak with a unified voice in favor of the restoration of democratic rule in Venezuela. While some countries have joined the U.S.-led coalition to bring about the end of the Maduro regime (with some stepping back when Washington declined to rule out the use of military force), others have simply issued non-committal statements in favor of democratic rule. After all, if those countries have been able to look the other way when dealing with the Cuban dictatorship, it makes no sense to use a different standard when dealing with Maduro. Unless Latin American countries demonstrate consistency in defending democracy as the only game in town – regardless of how long those authoritarian governments have been in power and regardless of their ideology – the governments of the region will not be an effective and influential voice in forcing the restoration of democracy in Venezuela or in preventing future democratic breakdowns elsewhere in Latin America. [Emphasis added.] -- Navia is a contributing columnist for AQ, a professor of liberal studies at NYU and a professor of political science at Diego Portales University in Chile. *** US military is “already active” near Venezuela as America prepares sanctions on Cuba: Major Gen. Bob Scales By Emily ReynoldsPublished March 05, 2019 Latin America FOXBusiness | https://www.foxbusiness.com/politic...epares-sanctions-on-cuba-major-gen-bob-scales Cuba intervention in Venezuela has kept Maduro regime in power: Major Gen. Bob Scales [Please click this link to view the video.] Former Army War College Commandant Major. Gen. Bob Scales (Ret.) says Cuba has been infecting the intelligence and defense apparatus in Venezuela. Retired U.S. Army General Robert Scales told FOX Business’ Trish Regan Opens a New Window. that the United States military is indeed operating in the region of Venezuela Opens a New Window. . He says U.S. forces have been active for some time in Colombia attempting to thwart the drug trade. “Let's be very clear. The military is involved. We have had a Special Forces group in Colombia for almost 60 years fighting against the terrorist groups in Colombia” Major Gen. Scales said on “Trish Primetime Opens a New Window. ” Monday. “But they are purely on the periphery. They are helping facilitate the delivery of aid. They are training the Colombian army. They are keeping watch electronically over the border with Venezuela.” The retired Army major general issued a warning to the Nicolás Maduro government of Venezuela Opens a New Window. should any harm come to opposition leader Juan Guaidó Opens a New Window. , the man the U.S. and more than 50 free nations recognize as Venezuela’s interim president. “If Mr. Guaidó goes to prison, or God forbid they mess with him or his family, that country, particularly the citizens of Caracas, will explode,” Scales said. “I think Maduro knows that he can't push his much farther.” His caution echoes those from Vice President Mike Pence Opens a New Window. and Nation Security Adviser John Bolton, as well as other world leaders, many of whom recognize Guaidó as the country’s rightful president, per article 233 of Venezuela’s 1999 constitution.
