I have now been in Caracas for 48 hours and the contrast between what I have seen, and what I had read in the mainstream media, could not be more stark.
I drove right through Caracas, from the airport through the city centre and up to posh Las Mercedes. The next morning I walked all through and weaved my way within the working class district of San Agustin. I joined in the “Afrodescendants festival”, and spent hours mingling with the people. I was made extremely welcome and invited into many homes – this from a district they tell you is extremely dangerous.
I must admit I had great fun at this bit.
After this I continued on for miles walking through the residential area and through the heart of the city centre, including Bolivar Square and the National Assembly.
In all of this I have not seen one single checkpoint, whether police or military. I have seen almost no guns; fewer than you would see on a similar tour taking in Whitehall. I have not been stopped once, whether on foot or in a car. I have seen absolutely zero sign of “Chavista militia” whether in poor, wealthy or central areas. I drove extensively round the opposition strongholds of Las Mercedes and Altamira and quite literally saw not a single armed policemen, not one militia man and not one soldier. People were out and about quite happily and normally. There was no feeling of repression whatsoever.
Again, nobody stopped me or asked who I am or why I was taking pictures. I did ask the Venezuelan authorities whether I needed a permit to take photos and publish articles, and their reply was a puzzled “why would you?”
The military checkpoints to maintain control, the roving gangs of Chavista armed groups, all the media descriptions of Caracas today are entirely a figment of CIA and Machado propaganda, simply regurgitated by a complicit billionaire and state media.
Do you know what else do not exist? The famous “shortages.” The only thing in short supply is shortage. There is a shortage of shortage. There is no shortage of anything in Venezuela.
A few weeks ago I saw on Twitter a photo of a supermarket in Caracas which somebody had put up to demonstrate that the shelves are extremely well stocked. It received hundreds of replies, either claiming it was a fake, or that it was an elite supermarket for the wealthy and that the shops for the majority were empty.
So I made a point, in working-class districts, of going into the neighbourhood, front room stores where ordinary people do their shopping. They were all very well stocked. There were no empty places on shelves. I also went round outdoor and covered markets, including an improbably huge one with over a hundred stalls catering solely for children’s birthday parties!
Everyone was quite happy to let me photograph anything I wanted. It is not just groceries. Hardware stores, opticians, clothes and shoe shops, electronic goods, auto parts. Everything is freely available.
There is a lack of physical currency. Sanctions have limited the Venezuelan government’s access to secure printing. To get round this, everybody does secure payment with their phones via QR code using the Venezuelan Central Bank’s own ingenious app. This is incredibly well established – even the most basic street vendors have their QR code displayed and get their payments this way. Can you spot the QR codes on these street stalls?
To get a Venezuelan phone and sim card for the internet I went to a mall which specialises in phones. It was extraordinary. Four storeys of little phone and computer shops, all packed with goods, organised in three concentric circles of tiered balconies. This photo is just the inner circle. I picked up a phone, sim card, lapel microphones, power bank, multi-system extension lead and ethernet to USB adapter, all in the first little store I entered.
Registering the sim was quick and simple. There is good 4G everywhere I have been in Caracas, and some spots of 5G.
“Relaxed” is a word I would use for Venezuelans. You could forgive paranoia, the country having been bombed by the Americans just three weeks ago and many people killed. You might expect hostility to a rather strange old gringo wandering around inexplicably snapping random things. But I have experienced no sense of hostility at all, from people or officials.
The African festival was instructive. A community event and not a political rally, there were nevertheless numerous spontaneous shouts and chants for Maduro. The Catholic priest giving the blessing at the festivities suddenly started talking of the genocide in Gaza and everybody prayed for Palestine. Community and cultural figures continually referenced socialism.
This is the natural environment here. None of it is forced. Chavez empowered the downtrodden and improved their lives in a spectacular manner, for which there are few parallels. The result is genuine popular enthusiasm and a level of public working-class engagement with political thought that it is impossible to compare to the UK today. It is the antithesis of the hollowed out culture that has spawned Reform.
I am very wary of Western journalists who parachute into a country and become instant experts. Although the stark contradiction between actual Caracas and Western-media Caracas is so extreme that I can bring it to you immediately.
Pretty well everything that I have read by Western journalists which can be immediately checked – checkpoints, armed political gangs, climate of fear, shortages of food and goods – turns out to be an absolute lie. I did not know this before I came. Possibly neither did you. We both do now.
I had lived for years in Nigeria and Uzbekistan under real dictatorships and I know what they feel like. I can tell sullen compliance from real engagement. I can tell spontaneous from programmed political expression. This is no dictatorship.
I am, so far as I can judge, the only Western journalist in Venezuela now. The idea that you should actually see for yourself what is happening, rather than reproduce what the Western governments and their agents tell you is happening, appears utterly out of fashion with our mainstream media. I am sure this is deliberate.
When I was in Lebanon a year ago, the mainstream media were entirely absent as Israel devastated Dahiya, the Bekaa Valley, and Southern Lebanon, because it was a narrative they did not want to report.
Disgracefully, the only time the BBC entered Southern Lebanon was from the Israeli side, embedded with the IDF.
The BBC, Guardian or New York Times simply will not send a correspondent to Caracas because the reality is so starkly different from the official narrative.
One narrative which the Western powers are desperate to have you believe is that Acting President Delcy Rodríguez betrayed Maduro and facilitated his capture. That is not what Maduro believes. It is not what his party believes, and I have been unable to find the slightest indication that anybody believes this in Venezuela.
The security services house journal, the Guardian, published about their fifth article making this claim, and flagged it as front-page lead and a major scoop. Yet all of the sources for the Guardian story are still the same US government sources, or Machado supporters from the wealthy Miami community of exiled capitalist parasites.
What is interesting is why the security services wish you to believe that Delcy Rodríguez and her brother Jorge, Speaker of the National Assembly, are agents for the USA. Opposition to US Imperialism has defined their entire lives since their father was tortured to death at the behest of the CIA when they were infants. They are both vocal in their continuing support for the Bolivarian Revolution and personally for Maduro.
The obvious American motive is to split and weaken the ruling party in Caracas and undermine the government of Venezuela. That was my reading. But it has also been suggested to me that Trump is pushing heavily the line that Rodríguez is pro-American in order both to claim victory, and to justify his lack of support for Machado. Rubio and many like him are keen to see Machado installed, but Trump’s assessment that she does not have the support to run the country seems from here entirely correct.
A variation on this that has also been suggested to me is that Trump wants to portray Rodríguez as pro-American to reassure American oil companies it is safe to invest (though exactly why he wants that is something of a mystery).
Meanwhile of course the USA seizes, steals and sells Venezuelan oil with no justification at all in international law. The proceeds are kept in Qatar under Trump’s personal control and are building up a huge slush fund he can use to bypass Congress. For those with long memories, it is like Iran/Contra on a massively inflated scale.
I am trying to get established in Venezuela to report to you and dive much deeper into the truth from Venezuela. I am afraid I am going to say it takes money. I am looking to hire a local cinematographer so we can start to produce videos. The first may be on what happened the night of the murderous US bombings and kidnap.
I did not want to crowdfund until I was sure it was viable to produce worthwhile content for you. The expenses of getting and living here, and building the required team, to produce good work do add up. I was very proud of the content we produced from Lebanon, but ultimately disappointed that we could not crowdfund sufficiently to sustain permanent independent reporting from there.
So we now have a Venezuela reporting crowdfunder. I have simply edited the Lebanese GoFundMe crowdfunder, because that took many weeks to be approved and I don’t want to go through all that again. So its starting baseline is the £35,000 we raised and spent in Lebanon.
I do very much appreciate that I have been simultaneously crowdfunding to fight the UK government in the Scottish courts over the proscription of Palestine Action. We fight forces that have unlimited funds. We can only succeed if we spread the load. 98% of those who read my articles never contribute financially. This would be a good moment to change that. It is just the simple baseline subscriptions to my blog that have got me to Venezuela, and that remains the foundation for all my work.
Anybody is welcome to republish and reuse, including in translation.
Because some people wish an alternative to PayPal, I have set up new methods of subscription payment including a Patreon account and a Substack account if you wish to subscribe that way. The content will be the same as you get on this blog. Substack has the advantage of overcoming social media suppression by emailing you direct every time I post. You can if you wish subscribe free to Substack and use the email notifications as a trigger to come for this blog and read the articles for free. I am determined to maintain free access for those who cannot afford a subscription.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
PayPal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address NatWest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Good morning Craig. As seems the case increasingly these days, I do not know what to write, so I’ll just say thank you and wish you well.
Wonderful! Thanks Craig
Did the USA military use a sonic weapon during the kidnapping in Caracas?
Thank you so much, Craig, for speaking to us from a place where humanity, compassion and community are still a normal way of life
Well, well, well. So yet again everyday life in a nation targeted for Washington regime change turns out to be somewhat different from the story spread around by the Guardian, Our BBC et al.
Another innocent misunderstanding by honest people? “Incompetence not conspiracy”? and so on
Well, as the late, great Michael Parenti pointed out:
“The basic distortions in the media are not innocent errors, for they are not random; rather they move in the same overall direction again and again, favoring management over labor, corporatism over anti-corporatism, the affluent over the poor, private enterprise over socialism, Whites over Blacks, males over females, officialdom over protesters, conventional politics over dissidence, anticommunism and arms-race militarism over disarmament, national chauvinism over internationalism, US dominance of the Third World over revolutionary or populist nationalist change. The press does many things and serves many functions but its major role, its irreducible responsibility, is to continually recreate a view of reality supportive of existing social and economic class power.”
— Inventing Reality: the politics of news media (1986)
Thanks Craig for exposing them again (and so easily) from yet another continent.
Needless to say, the entire tenor of their reportage underwent a shameless 180 when Trump targeted a white NATO state.
“The BBC, Guardian or New York Times simply will not send a correspondent to Caracas because the reality is so starkly different from the official narrative”.
I hope I may be forgiven for pointing out the blindingly obvious: that implies that the media arr literally working for the government.
And that implies that the UK is NOT a free country.
The same applies, a fortiori, to the USA.
Quite
” I hope I may be forgiven for pointing out the blindingly obvious: that implies that the media arr literally working for the government.”
Well, not quite. The BBC are, for sure, as the government hold its purse-strings, but the other media say what they say because the internet has eaten their lunch and the only way to make money, which is the purpose of all private enterprise, is to have a rich sponsor, who is prepared to run that media organisation at a loss in order for it to be their organ. The government is one of the biggest sponsors. It is a delusion to think that any media ever had a duty to tell the truth. If the lack of such a duty makes the UK not a free country, then it has never been a free country, so long as there have been news media.
Welcome to new journalism. This happened in Crimea and in Donbas, why would Venezuela be an exception?
Excellent.
Trump in Venezuela (or Denmark) has always been Dog the Wag.
President admits to trivial crimes in order to cover up the withdrawal from 2 wars.
The real story is US has pulled out of conflict with both Russia and China. Chickened out Trump – TDS observers might say. Wisely avoided conflict which US could only lose is what historians will say.
But for any President that is a huge embarrassment which has to be covered up by apparent vicious aggression elsewhere.
Trump’s attempt to appear the baddest MF in the world should be expected.
It appears in fact very little damage has been done to Venezuela (or Greenland) that hadn’t been done for the last 25 years Bush Obama Trump and Biden.
I hope you get to report on Venezuela’s true black gold, by which I mean of course chocolate. At my best friend’s wedding 12 years ago, his now brother-in-law, a Frenchman who lives in Venezuela, told me the collectivization of cacao farms had been a disaster for production and quality.
Venezuela is the ancestral home of cacao and their delicious but fragile and temperamental criollo varietal is the best in the world, far superior to the crude forastero from Côte d’Ivoire or Ghana that makes up most industrial chocolate production. Unfortunately, it is increasingly hard to get, even from luxury chocolate makers.
The story of Vanezuelan cocoa and chocolate looks like a good illustration of the failure of forced collectivization (as distinct from the collectives of Scandinavia). Are there books and articles about it in English?
It worked all right in England, unless you were a peasant.
According to AI:
Key differences between English agricultural development and Soviet collectivization include:
English Enclosure Movement (17th–19th Century): This was a gradual process where common land was enclosed into private, individual ownership to improve efficiency and crop rotation, such as the Norfolk four-course system. This displaced many, but it was driven by market forces and private landlords rather than state seizure of all assets.
Soviet Forced Collectivization (1929–1933): A state-imposed, violent policy targeting “kulaks” (wealthier peasants), which abolished private farming in favor of state-controlled collectives (kolkhozy) to fuel industrialization.
Wartime Control (1917–1918): During WWI, England utilized local War Agricultural Committees to enforce production quotas on farms to maximize output, but this was a temporary, state-mandated directive to boost production rather than a permanent restructuring of land ownership.
Therefore, there is no historical parallel for state-forced, systematic, anti-private property agricultural collectivization in England.
“ This was a gradual process where common land was enclosed into private, individual ownership to improve efficiency and crop rotation, such as the Norfolk four-course system”
if that’s your understanding of the motives behind the enclosure movement and the consequences of then enclosure movement, then you have been wildly misled.
Alastair Leith: I’m sure that a large part of the motives behind the creation of the enclosures were self-interest on the part of larger landowners, though they might need to make a public case for efficiency. But one important difference would be that the Soviet inmates of the kolkhoz were chained to their collectives and could not leave, because they were denied “internal passports”. They could not leave for the cities as English farm labourers could, creating the conditions for the industrial revolution. The latter indeed included abuses which Blake referred to by “satanic mills”, and also provided material for Karl Marx for his theories.
The similarities matter more.
“They could not leave for the cities as English farm labourers”
Hmm, English labourers were free to be expropriated and ethnically-cleansed, how enlightened.
“They could not leave for the cities as English farm labourers could, creating the conditions for the industrial revolution.”
That’s putting the cart before the horse. The industrial revolution created a demand for labour which was filled by migration from the countryside, not the other way around. If there had been a similar migration from similar causes without there have been an industrial revolution, the migrants to the cities would have just starved on the streets. No dount, if there had been a similar demand for labour in Russia, the unemployed peasants would have been issued with the paperwork necessary to fill that demand. That presuppose, of course that the collective farms actually created a labour surplus, which isn’t a given. “Efficiency” in the British case meant, as it nearly always does, doing the same thing with less labour, so as to create larger profits for the landowner.
Your drive to get up and go and show what is really happening on the ground is again admirable. Thanks for making this trip and letting us know what you see. The main stream news narrative is a fiction.
Absolutely fascinating, Craig. I had the feeling there was a lot of smoke and mirrors about the news of the ‘coup’. Above all, I am really relieved to hear that things on the ground are fairly stable. Still, look after your own safety.
Craig, do connect with my former editor at Orinoco Tribune in Caracas. Jesus worked as a diplomat in Chicago and started OT when he got home. He is bilingual and a delight to work with. I’m sure he could be helpful. Enjoy Venezuela.
Certainly I will do.
Having some difficulty tracking him down – their online contact form isn’t working and they don’t post an address or phone number
Jesus Rodriguez-Espinoza seems to have a LinkedIn page. There is also a Rocket Reach page. The Orinoco Tribune has an Instagram page with a contact link.
Hope that helps.
Well done Craig. Good work. Important revelations.
I’ll send a contribution tomorrow. Busy getting pissed on a Philippine beach tonight.
That Venezuelan payment system sounds like WeChatpay in China. Impressive!
Similar QR code-based payment systems are in use not just in China but in several other Asian countries (India, Indonesia, mainland southeast Asia, etc.) and also in Brazil.
Also many Uighurs in Xinjiang have QR codes at their homes that are constantly scanned by the police.
Source ?
As Bayard said on the previous thread in response to a request for sources, “your favorite search engine with “Uighurs Xinjiang QR codes” entered into it will give you lots of hits.
And all of them on the first page are either European or US websites or simply repeating the same story word for word.
But of course, they know, unlike the people who actually live there:
“Seconded. I live in China. Nobody that I know has ever heard of social credit. None of my Xinjiang friends or colleagues or their friends or relatives have disappeared. Curious, eh?”
Neil Barker
January 26, 2026 at 07:40
I don’t know who Neil Barker is but he is stupid or a liar. He misrepresents even the idea he is opposing, which is not about everyone in Xinjiang but about Uighurs specifically. If he lives in China and has never heard of social credit, I suggest he extracts his head from his fundament.
Edit: is he this guy? https://melbourne.china-consulate.gov.cn/eng/zlghd/202412/t20241227_11521892.htm
Why not look at some that aren’t on the first page provided by probably a company that is a main plank in western hegemony? Does the first page include any links to reports of protests against Volkswagen for example?
“I don’t know who Neil Barker is but he is stupid or a liar. ”
What makes you think that? You know absolutely nothing about him, so that only reason you can have for thinking so is that he challenges one of your precious prejudices. This a comment on a post which is all about how exactly the same organisations as are talking about oppression of the Uyghurs have been proved to have been lying about Venezuela.
“Why not look at some that aren’t on the first page provided by probably a company that is a main plank in western hegemony?”
Why don’t you let us know where you get your reports of Uyghur oppression from first and we can see if they look as believable as a first-hand impression?
“Does the first page include any links to reports of protests against Volkswagen for example?”
Why would it when I was searching for the use of QR codes to identify Muslims?
Start here: https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/09/10/eradicating-ideological-viruses/chinas-campaign-repression-against-xinjiangs
Wrt stupid or a liar, you’ll have obviously read the methodology used in your reference to the human rights watch [1] article where they essentially admit to making everything up by using third party dubious sources based everywhere but China.
I’ll give you the benefit of doubt that you’re not a liar …
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Human_Rights_Watch
Re Human Rights Watch, I went to their website and looked up their section on Ukraine. It was all about how those horrid Russkies were oppressing the Ukranians. Not a peep about the Ukranians shelling the Donbassians for years, nor forbidding them to speak their language, or oppressing their church, or anything that the whiter-than-white Kiev government has been doing since 2014. I think that tells me all I need to know about HRW. Shills
@ Bayard, Stevie Boy
all of which proves that when it suits one, one quotes HRW (for example) with great approval, and when it doesn’t suit one, one condemns HRW as being an agent of the Zionists, Americans or whomsoever.
In my book, that is intellectual dishonesty of the worst kind.
LCdaS, when have I ever quoted HRW?
Bayard
You have quoted from a HRW report in the post immediately above mine. Your post is time stamped 09:25.
Sorry, I have made myself clearer: LCdaS, when have I ever quoted HRW before the post to which you were replying? Given that you were accusing me of intellectual dishonesty for quoting HRW approvingly and then disparagingly, I would have thought that it was bleedin’ obvious that I hadn’t forgotten what I wrote a few minutes before. Mind you, since you seem to have had that exact same problem of not remembering what I was replying to when you were replying to me, perhaps you can be slightly forgiven for thinking I would do the same.
Thanks for an eye-opening report, which underlines that the Trump regime’s treatment of Venezuela includes suspected murder on the high seas, kidnapping of its head of state and theft of its resources. Trump should be impeached for high crimes, and his collaborative assistants prosecuted. Hopefully after November’s midterms that will start to happen.
Small coin in the tin.
Brilliant Craig, now do Iran and debunk western propaganda on Iran.
Iran would be a lot more risky, I’d imagine. Anyone venturing there would need assurances from the very top. Hypervigilance isn’t optional for them, with Israel and the U.S. brazenly killing scientists etc. Mr Marandi, active on [X], may be good person to try to contact.
It would probably be riskier for Craig to visit the USA.
Goose.
I take your point – however Craig did visit Lebanon – with Zionist drones buzzing above his head – he’s (Craig) a real brave soul, if only there were more like him.
Great work Craig, thank you very much.
Would love to see you reporting from China, Russia and Iran.
Could you not get funding from publishers to write books on these matters?
You miight still have a few good contacts from Lebanon to help in Iran..
.
Excellent. Some Bitcoin on the way
Just out of interest, which route did you [CM] take to Venezuela – was it straightforward or difficult, due to US activities.
Edinburgh Madrid Lima Bogota Caracas. The final leg had to be paid in cash in Bogota due to sanctions. The rest of the roundabout route was about not having any money!
Thank you. A fair hike, indeed. I hope the journey proves worthwhile.
Impressive eye witness account.
I will try and contribute tomorrow if I can.
As you are in a Spanish speaking country may I take the liberty of recommending you a poem by Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) entitled (in English) The Lord of Dollars.
Best wishes.
Confirmation of donation.
Best wishes.
Have you approached the Morning Star to see if they might employ you as a foreign correspondent? I have written to them to suggest they approach you.
It’s not the first time I’ve suggested this, and I’m puzzled by the evident lack of interest on both sides. It seems to me to be a match made in heaven. They get Craig’s matchless reporting and commentary, Craig gets press accreditation from a national daily. What’s not to like?
The New York Times currently has a correspondent in Caracas, Anatoly Kurmanaev, and there is a short interview with him on his impressions (https://archive.is/20260120122203/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/briefing/our-man-in-caracas.html), which are not opposed to what Craig says here.
Thanks for confirming what some of us knew and guessed what Trump actins really were about – OIL
If Rodriguez et al. didn’t sell out Maduro, how could the Seppo terrorists kidnap him so easily?
It was suggested in early reports, one of his Cuban bodyguards was compromised, giving away his itinerary.
The U.S, used directed-energy weapons in the raid itself – high-intensity sound waves (audible or ultrasonic) to incapacitate. That’s why they(U.S.) sustained no casualties. This is something Craig could potentially explore, if, big if ,I know, and perfectly understandable if not, he can get an interview with someone who experienced what went down that night?
I think Mr Murray would do better to speak about what he sees and experience personally rather than to relay information which will inevitably be biased in one direction or the other and incapable of 100% verification.
“That’s why they(U.S.) sustained no casualties. ”
Well no casualties that they want anyone to know about, anyway.
They reported 7 WIA.
But the Cubans were murdered. Does this mean that they were stunned and the Americans then shot them dead?
From the reports, if you believe them, I don’t, it was more likely a directed microwave weapon if anything, but I suspect it is just American PR BS.
Could the septics really have “incapacitated” everyone with a SAM? I doubt it.
Excellent work as usual, Craig. Thank you.
Well done Craig.
I am puzzled by a certain contradiction. On the one hand, Mr Murray finds the shops full, with no shortages of any type of goods (including foodstuffs). On the other hand, it appears that many hundreds of thousands (if not more) of Venezuelans have emigrated to neighbouring countries, not for political but for economic reasons.
Any explanations? Could there be a great economic difference between the Caracas the capital and the rest of the country? Or is the price of the goods too high for the ordinary person’s pocket? If not these, then what…?
“economic reasons” usually means not being able to find skilled or well-paid work, not being too poor to buy anything. There are no shortages in the UK, yet still plenty of people emigrate.
Yes, that explanation of “economic reasons” could be defended, but it does seem to invite two observations:
Firstly, semantics might be at play here. If people are unable to find skilled or well-paid work, they presumably are unemployed or working in low paid jobs. Does that not make them “poor”? And hence emigrate to find better economic conditions?
Secondly, your point about buying reminded me of something I had noticed in Mr Murray’s report. That is, there is talk and there are pictures of well-stocked mall shops, street food stalls, etc, but there is no talk about how full or empty of customers those places are, not do the photos reveal very much. Perhaps Mr Murray will, in the course of his investigations, have more to say about purchasing power and the economic situation at the micro level.
“Does that not make them “poor”? ”
No. Being able to find better paid work outside the country doesn’t mean that the are currently poor, just not as rich as they think they can be, given their particular talents.
“That is, there is talk and there are pictures of well-stocked mall shops, street food stalls, etc, but there is no talk about how full or empty of customers those places are, not do the photos reveal very much.”
Shopkeepers aren’t stupid. If there are not plenty of customers, they don’t buy lots of stock, especially perishable items.
“
That, dear Bayard, is a “swerve” worthy of PM Starmer. Congrats!
We only know about “many hundreds of thousands” because that’s what they told us.
Sorry, but who is “they”?
Whoever said that about the “many hundreds of thousands” of emigrants that you quote. Do tell where you culled that piece of information from, then we can know who “they” are, too.
Well, for a start, those figures are advanced by the authorities of neighbouring countries and the press of those countries. In particular, Brazil and Columbia. And don’t come back and tell me that the authrities of those countries, and their press, are in the pockets of the Americans.
So, to repeat my question to Stevie Boy, who are “they”?
What still confuses me is how they could get Maduro alive by killing all his bodyguards with zero casualties to themselves or Maduro?
It is not the same as dropping bombs from above or other out of danger attacks. \_O_/
I imagine a very efficient, technically sophisticated operation plus inside assistance of one sort or another. Very different from Allende in 1973. Or, from the perspective of the perps, from Tehran (US embassy) or Somalia.
That does presuppose that the “zero casualties” claim is any more true than any other of the claims which Craig has just debunked.
Bayard
Is it important – or even relevant – whether any Americans were killed or not?
I submit that what is important and relevant is that a sitting President has been abducted and that we have little idea of what happens next in Venezuela.
Speculating about whether or not there were American (or, for that matter, Cuban) casualties merely diverts attention and energy away from the essential elements.
Who appointed you the arbiter on what we can or cannot discuss in the comments on this blog? If someone want to discuss something and it’s not off-topic, which this comment of Andy’s isn’t, as this post is about Venezuela and what is happening there and what has happened in the immediate past, then they are free to discuss it. If you don’t want to then you have the right to remain silent. I think it highly likely that some US servicemen were killed, given that the bodyguards had arms and used them and that the US is keeping these deaths quiet for obvious reasons.
Bayard
I think you have allowed your eagerness to answer every one of my posts to overcome some much needed discretion on your part.
I am in no way seeking to be an “arbitrator” of what can or cannot be said on this blog. I use the word “said” because you dignify what is often nonsense or bad faith with your verb “discuss”. I would not be so entitled.
I am however fully entitled to suggest that certain comments or posts are focusing on the inessential or the mini-details of certain matters, and therefore could even constitute a distraction from the essential. If you don’t like that, tough titty. Are you trying to deny me the freedom of speech you’re claiming for yourself?
Well, to my recollection it is extremely rare for any commenter to even suggest a subject that comments be focused on, unless someone has gone really off-piste, e.g. a rant about global warming in a post about something entirely different. This post isn’t and was never intended to be a post about the kidnapping of President Maduro, it is about how things are and have just been in Venezuela and the rubbish spread about them in the Western MSM, one of those subjects quite possibly being the claimed “zero casualties” amoungst the US invaders. So what Andy commented was not OT and there was no call for you to suggest that we talk about something else.
“I use the word “said” because you dignify what is often nonsense or bad faith with your verb “discuss”. ”
Why not, politeness costs nothing.
“Are you trying to deny me the freedom of speech you’re claiming for yourself?”
Freedom of speech is just that, freedom to air one’s opinions. It does not include a right for you not to have people objecting to what you say, arguing against it, or even calling you a bloody fool for saying it.
Thank you, Craig.
This news was, for me, an important “good news” article. While the jack boots of an elite, separated from reality by their security details are treading on the throats of their own culture’s ideas, people continue to live and celebrate. The contrast could not be more revealing.
Your two short videos (thank you for them and their brevity) displayed Venezuelans being Venezuelan.
I liked your reflection that, having lived in two dictatorships, you can read fearful compliance and did see it in Caracas.
“… having lived in two dictatorships, you can read fearful compliance and did see it in Caracas.”
Don’t you mean “didn’t see it”, YesXorNo?
If you wrote what you meant then reread Mr Murray’s report.
You said you’d go and you have.
Principled brilliant journalism Craig.
Up there with James Cameron
Well Done That Man!
It would be interesting to hear what currency Craig is using.
And (for example) how much the “phone, sim card, lapel microphones, power bank, multi-system extension lead and ethernet to USB adapter” etc cost.
“Western” prices?
I noticed that the burgers and such at the stall in the photo were priced in US$?
These are interesting questions and I hope we will learn more from Mr Murray. (Cf also the above exchange of views with Bayard).
I am not sure that a visit even by someone as honest as Mr Murray will convincingly debunk everything that has been and is being said about Venezuela, because there are obvious limits to what can be ascertained at the street level, so to speak. So, by going around enough – preferably not only in the capital but also in the countryside and smaller towns – getting into people’s houses, etc, it should be possible to get a reasonably plausible picture of economic life at the micro level. But there are other elements – eg, the extent of political repression or government competence/incompetence in the macro economic area – for which it might be beyond the powers of an outside observer to ferret out the real situation.
A previous post suggested that Mr Murray might link with the Morning Star which is evidently the only UK news outlet to carry the flag for Venezuela. Sounds like a good idea. To-day’s edition reported via its International Desk which means other than from the ground and a photo from AP of a large rally on Saturday last in support of Maduro. To quote the beginning: “THOUSANDS took to the streets of Venezuela on Saturday to demand the release of the country’s
President Nicolas Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores. The two were kidnapped during the January 3 United States attack on the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and the states of Aragua, Miranda and La Guaira during which some 100 people were killed”.
That was interesting. But pleasing to hear. I do wonder if Trumps selling his takeover of Venezuela to make money from it’s oil for American companies, (and he said the venezuelan people) is a bit of a Chimera. America is the worlds largest oil producer today, and globally for some time there is a glut in the oil market with oil prices very low.
Though it is well documented and literally shouted about in Western media how Venezuelas oil production collapsed, what is less well mentioned is that for the last 3 years up until a month before the capture of Maduro, Venezuelan oil output had grown steadily and consistently.
Trumps seizing of tankers is attrbuted to putting a stop to this.Rather than expanding Venezuelas production I can’t help wondering if Trumps attacks on Venezuela are really intended to do the opposite…fact is with oil prices already so low, the last thing American producers want is Venezuela putting even more oil into the world market. Not just that but having Venezuela sell it’s oil to countries America would rather sell its oil to. Trump has successfully put a stop to that. And increased the dependency of other countries on USA oil, and made it more difficult for Governements Trump doesn’t like to receive oil.
There are 2 kinds of oil, my friend: one that is light and one that is heavy. The US and Arab oil is light; Russian Urals and Venezuela’s are heavy. Because the sources of the heavy oil are under sanctions, the price of diesel in the US has been unsually high lately, $1.10 more expensive per gallon than the regular gas. Now that the tankers were seised, the difference went down a bit, to $0.70 per gallon.
Very interesting reportage Craig.
As usual you will get the ‘ your only a one man reporter ‘ and therefore you can’t get the whole picture like The ‘ News ‘ Teams from a bigger ‘ more professional outlets.
Hint: lot’s of guesses.
Or the Venezuelan government is so overarching that they hid the bad stuff from you – similar to when the Queen used to pay visits to a town the local authorities used to cover up or do up temporarily run down shops and even Public Toilets.
The have witnessed that with my own propagandised eyes when I was younger.
The US narrative is being churned out day by day at a distance as, it always is so, you get some BBC Herbert or Hermione stood on a Hill in Jerusalem giving us all the ‘Truth ‘ ( Israeli truth ) then dis-appearing back to their 4/5 star Hotel to send the copy via the net.
Anyone on the ground is looked upon as a traitor if they are really independent.
Or worse a Conspiracy Theorist and a biased believer.
The Venezuelans seem to be hanging on in there but, skintish the poorer you are of course.
As usual they find a way to keep going and good luck to them.
Whereas in the Soppy West these tough talking Middle Class Media Blowhards would burst into tears if Waitrose ran out of alfalfa sprouts never mind shortages of any kind.
I look forward to more reports from you as a genuinely Intrepid Reporter.
Mark
I think it is important to say that I was in no sense told to go anywhere, and certainly was not told not to go anywhere, by the Venezulan government. Most of which has not the foggiest notion who I am or that I am here.
Craig
You can bet your life that the Venezuelan Authorities will not be bothered but the CIA and others will be.
The watchers are never the people that the MSM are thinking are watchers.
Look forward to more reports.