The mainstream media covered Venezuela non-stop yesterday. They many times mentioned Delcy Rodríguez, Vice President, because Trump stated she is now in charge. They never mentioned that 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the torture to death of her father, socialist activist Jorge Rodríguez, by the CIA-backed security services of the US-aligned Pérez regime in Venezuela.
That would of course spoil the evil communists versus nice democrats narrative that is being forced down everybody’s throats.
Nor did they mention that the elected governments of Hugo Chávez reduced extreme poverty by over 70%, reduced poverty by 50%, halved unemployment, quadrupled the number receiving a state pension and achieved 100% literacy. Chávez took Venezuela from the most unequal society for wealth distribution in Latin America to the most equal.
Nor have they mentioned that María Corina Machado is from one of Venezuela’s wealthiest families, which dominated the electricity and steel industries before nationalisation, and that her backers are the very families that were behind those CIA-controlled murderous regimes.
Economic sanctions imposed by the West – and another thing they have not mentioned is that the UK has confiscated over £2 billion of the Venezuelan government’s assets – have made it difficult for the Maduro government to do much more than shore up the gains of the Chávez years.
But that Venezuela is a major production or trafficking point for narcotics entering the USA is simply a nonsense. Nicolás Maduro has his faults, but he is not a drug trafficking kingpin. The claim is utter garbage.
The willingness of the West to accept the opposition’s dodgy vote tallies from the 2024 Presidential elections does not legitimise invasion and kidnap.
Yesterday almost every Western government came up with a statement that managed to endorse Trump’s bombing and kidnap – plainly grossly illegal in international law – and simultaneously claim to support international law. The hypocrisy is truly off the scale. It is also precisely the Western powers that support the genocide in Gaza that support the attack on Venezuela.
The genocide in Gaza demonstrated the end of hopes – which were extremely important to my own worldview – for the rule of international law to outweigh the brutal use of force in international relations. The kidnap of Maduro, the rush of Western powers to accept it, and the inability of the rest of the world to do anything about it, have underlined that international law is simply dead.
In the long list of appalling awards of the Nobel peace prize, none can be worse than the latest to the Venezuelan traitor María Corina Machado, intended actively to promote and bring forward the imperialist attack on Venezuela by the United States.
It takes a great deal of effort to come up with a worse decision than to award Kissinger immediately after the massive bombing of Laos and Cambodia. It was a dreadful award, but it was intended to recognise the putative Paris peace deal and prod the United States towards honouring the peace process. Initially it was a joint award with Vietnamese negotiator Lê Đức Thọ (who sensibly declined).
The Kissinger award was a terrible mistake, but the Committee were seeking to end a war, starting from a willingness to cooperate with unprincipled realpolitik. In the award to Machado, they are deliberately seeking to endorse and promote the start of a war. That is a very different thing.
Similarly the award to Obama was a crazed moment of hope after the despair of the invasion of Iraq. It was a combined mistaken belief that Obama would be better, with a mistaken idea it would encourage him to be so.
I accept that the line I am drawing is a thin one; rewarding the perpetrators of Western aggression is only a short step away from actually encouraging Western aggression. But nevertheless a line has been crossed.
The gross hypocrisy of the morally bankrupt Committee chairman, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, in claiming that the prize is for non-violent action on Venezuela, at the very moment that Trump gathered the largest invasion force since Iraq off Venezuela makes me feel thoughts towards Frydnes that ought not qualify me for any peace prize at all. I feel similarly towards Guterres and all those others abandoning their supposed international role to lick Trump’s boot today.
So what now for Venezuela? Well, on the most optimistic reading Trump’s action was performative. He had to do something to avoid the Grand Old Duke of York jibes after that immense concentration of forces off Venezuela, and he has produced a spectacular that actually changes little.
On this reading, the Americans may be making the same mistake they made in Iran, in believing that decapitation strategy and bombing will spark internal revolution. In Iran, they actually strengthened support for the Government.
As of yesterday afternoon, the Bolivarian government in Caracas genuinely did not yet know what had happened, how far there was collusion in the armed forces in Maduro’s kidnap, and whether they still had the control of the army.
Trump’s plain signal that the US views Rodríguez as in charge, and Trump’s contemptuous dismissal of Machado – the only bright point in an appalling day – might give pause to any in Venezuela expecting active US support for a coup.
To those who claim Maduro was a tyrant, I refer you to the comic opera Guaidó coup of 30 April 2019. Guaidó had been declared President of Venezuela by the western powers despite never even having been a candidate. He attempted a coup and wandered around Caracas with heavily armed henchmen, declaring himself President but just being laughed at by the army, police and population.
In any country in the world Guaidó would have been jailed for life for attempting an armed coup, and I expect in the majority he would have been executed. Maduro just patted him on the head and put him back on a plane.
So much for the evil dictatorship.
By pure chance, on Friday I had texted Delcy Rodríguez about arrangements for travel and accreditation so I could go and report from Venezuela and bring you more of the truth from that country that the media is hiding from you. I made plain I was not asking for financial support. Things are obviously fluid at the moment, but it is still my intention to get there.
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CM.. “But that Venezuela is a major production or trafficking point for narcotics entering the USA is simply a nonsense. Nicolas Maduro has his faults, but he is not a drug trafficking kingpin. The claim is utter garbage”. I agree.
US accusations of Venezuelan trafficking illicit fentanyl have proven to be completely wrong as declared recently by America’s own narcotic’s agency.
“International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 2025 (INCSR), published in March by the US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, makes clear that Mexico is the sole significant source of illicit fentanyl and its analogues that have affected the United States in 2024.
This finding is conclusive: Venezuela is not mentioned as a producer country, a transit route, or a relevant actor in the trafficking of fentanyl into US territory.
Even worse, these unfounded accusations [against Venezuela] undermine US credibility in international forums. If a country accuses another of illicit activities without presenting verifiable evidence—and, worse, in contradiction to its own official reports—its moral and diplomatic standing is weakened”.
https://mltoday.com/venezuela-and-fentanyl-dismantling-the-us-narrative-with-data-from-the-us-government/
As I said on the previous thread, it may be that the kidnapping of Maduro was purely performative, and it is interesting that Mr Murray does not rule this out either.
On the other hand, we have Jeffrey Sachs’s opinion, yesterday, that this is only the beginning of a process (regime change, oil, etc…).
We shall see…..
“If a country accuses another of illicit activities without presenting verifiable evidence—and, worse, in contradiction to its own official reports—its moral and diplomatic standing is weakened”
Well, it certainly should be so. And in an ideal world, in which everyone is both well-informed and rational, it would be so.
But in the real world, dominated by the voices of the people who control the mass media and the censorship of social media, I fear it ain’t.
Harry, do you seriously suggest that the USA has any credibility in international forums or elsewhere? I hope that by now everyone in the world knows that Great White Father speak with forked tongue.
Exactly right.
They mention Venezuela as a transit hub for cocaine, claiming that 10-13% of the worlds cocaine passes through the country. They claim these numbers come form some US estimate dating back to 2020 (which I was not able to find) and that some “Venezuelan nonprofit organisation” recently confirmed this estimate. They do not name this nonprofit, most likely, because it is funded by DoS. The funniest part of reading comes in the end of the Venezuela chapter where they discuss Maduro’s anti-drug actions. To quote, “Maduro representatives continued to make sweeping claims about their counternarcotics efforts. SUNAD reported that 41.6 MT of drugs were seized in 2022. On September 12, 2023, SUNAD reported that 33.5 MT of drugs had been seized and 11,612 people detained in connection with drug trafficking crimes. SUNAD also reported destroying four cocaine processing camps in Zulia with the assistance of the armed forces. However, experts were unable to independently verify these claims.”
This begs for the question, what stopped the “experts” to verify these claims? Did they ask to come and see the seized drugs? There is a section C titled “National Goals, Bilateral Cooperation, and U.S. Policy Initiatives” which consists of a single sentence: “Drug control cooperation between Venezuela and the United States has been limited since 2005.”
Nice. So the US side made no efforts to resume cooperation with the Venezuelan authorities, so they can claim that drug-seizing claims by these authorities can not be verified.
However, in the end it is fentanyl that matters because it killed 2.5 times more Americans in 2023 than cocaine.
One of the reasons for this regime change is, it could enable the US to control those vast Venezuelan reserves [the largest in the world, eclipsing Saudi Arabia] to use as collateral which could bring down US debt from $38 trillion to about $20 trillion. Others say it is to exclude Russia, China and Iran [all who have extensive dealings with Venezuela] as per the new Monroe doctrine {Donroe doctrine] all three have said they will back Venezuela. Failure to do so would mean US gunboat diplomacy [piracy and regime change] had paid off big time, to the detriment of the “four villains” [bad actors]. We shall see.
Many supporters of this action are denying that fact. But Trump says the US is going to be taking “a tremendous amount of wealth” out of the ground in Venezuela – i.e. in the form of oil. How else can his words be interpreted?
Even saddling Venezuela with Iraq’s arrangement; whereby oil revenues are controlled by the U.S.treasury is a highly abusive, sovereignty infringing relationship. Iraq has to put in requests to access its own revenues to this day. This despite the Iraq war, against Saddam’s regime, ending officially in 2011. The U.S. retains the right to decide over whether to release of funds, delay or deny, in an arrangement the UN has criticised. It’s not an unused ’empty threat’ either, the U.S has exercised the powers to delay and deny; for instance, when Iraq’s parliament demanded U.S. troops leave their bases in the country. Iraq isn’t truly sovereign, this weakens the Iraqi state and is being unjustly continued. I believe, in Israel’s interests. A similar arrangement in Venezuela would allow the U.S.to dictate contract conditions favourable to U.S. corporations.
Thanks for your brilliant analysis Craig. I have been eagerly consuming everything i could find on Venezuela, from all points of view. Your post knocks everything else into a cocked hat. I am proud to be a contributor and wish you very Happy New Year.
I’m going to send a one off contribution to try to help you get there.
Oil producers are on route from the US to take over the production facilities. Maduro’s last meeting the day before his abduction was to sign a trade agreement with Chinese officials. China controls most of the ports along the Panama Canal. Venezuela nationalised US corporate assets. America would consider this unlawful under American law. So what rights do sovereign national governments have when faced with foreign corporate interference? Do they own their territorial assets? There are foreign energy giants in the UK that are demanding the rights to land they intend to place energy pylons on.
The extreme poverty rate and the literacy rates are two extremely important indicators.
Cuba has the slogan “200 million children sleep on the streets – and none of them are Cuban”.
The first country in America to achieve full literacy was Cuba under Castro. The second was Venezuela under Chavez. The third was Bolivia under Morales. There’s a f*cking big lesson there.
Donald Trump says he will now run Venezuela.
The British regime has its filthy bloodsoaked hands on some of the Venezuelan state gold. Perhaps it will hand it over to Kushner-Trump? Perhaps it already has.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/venezuela-loses-uk-appeal-long-running-gold-reserves-battle-2023-06-30/
That Reuters piece is quite something – just the language alone is so biased, never mind the content. Thanks for posting.
Btw, when you wrote, “Britain and France have bombed Syria,” did you mean recently or just the raids we knew about in 2014?
Paul Cavaciuti
Yes the language is important – I’ve seen the words fallen and ousted used by the compliant MSM – with regards to the illegal abduction of the democratically elected president of Venezuela, and his wife.
An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council has been scheduled for Monday – for all the good it will do.
Hey Paul, the UK and French bombing in Syria was in very recent days, although it has been ongoing since 2014, according to an item on the BBC’s news web-site today … https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1m7l8keyexo
You are right. However, you know that the U.S. hates anything that elevates the working classes. The U.S. exists to destroy, not build.
The purpose of US foreign policy is to create “favorable investment environments.” Health care is an unnecessary diversion of resources; education reduces working-class docility; democracy reduces corporate control of society. We’re not opposed to them in principle, but in practice they have to go.
“It is also precisely the western powers that support the genocide in Gaza that support the attack on Venezuela.”
Furthermore: Venezuela under Chavez and Maduro didn’t just “not support” Zionist massacres, but Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with the Occupation regime in 2009 – in response to a previous massacre in Gaza – and it has never restored them since…
… But…
Netanyahu has congratulated Trump on the US action against Venezuela. He has also expressed the hope that relations between Venezuela and the Occupation can be restored.
The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama in 2009 was a patronising pat on the head by dickhead racist Scandinavians for being black. Nominations closed about two weeks after he was inaugurated! He hadn’t done anything!
Another comment, not off-topic to the burial of the notion of international law: Britain and France have bombed Syria.
Of course, Israel and the zionists are not just spectators in this illegal operation.
Trump had been in communication with NM for some time. It is possible NM wanted out. Internally it was not going well for him. Maybe it was a question of: “come and get me but make it look like I’ve been removed”.
That thought had also occurred to me, I must admit. The proof will lie in what now happens to him. Well worth following!
There had been allegations of nepotism surrounding Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores and the business activities of their respective sons (Maduro has one son and Flores has three sons from an earlier marriage).
Patricia Morton
Possibly?
It was too quick and slick in my eyes.
None of the kidnappers were hurt or fired upon.
If you believe Trump of course?
The MSM always do but, the truth will come out as it does with Netanyahu’s exagerrations.
Per Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism two helicopters were hit, so there was certainly fire. She also reports that some were injured (I’m not sure her source here), but none were killed. (Deaths they can’t hide, they would need to inform the families.)
Andrei Martyanov:
Some news (from there)–the chief of Maduro’s security detail as well as a number of others have been bought by the US. In fact, there was a Russian military group which rushed to Maduro residence but it was held off by the fire of … yep, Maduro security people. By the time Russians dealt with those traitors, Maduro was already gone. The chief of security detail has been caught and was executed already. So, this is update for you.
Vanessa Beeley says it will take $40-$50 bn to get the Venezuela oil production to pre-sanction levels and so numerous years. So the idea that an attack on iran and the subsequent closure of the Hormuz straits can be countered with Venezueal oil Fails. I agree.
This is of course a pretty good way to prevent China “meddling” (aka good honest development investment) in Venezuela and an effective deterrent to the rest of S America.
I’m afraid Andre is right. The perfidy of the United States and the oligarchy that controls its government is sickening and disgusting. I am ashamed to be a U.S. citizen. And the oligarchy is after us, the U.S. working class, as well. I cannot describe the loathing I have for them. I want to thank the Russians for their attempt to save Maduro.
“The chief of security detail has been caught and was executed already”.
So that went well for him, as it usually does for those who betray their own to take CIA money. He disgraced himself, he was a traitor, and now he’s dead.
I hope the Russians killed a lot of the others. They had no honour.
Very interesting info. If this is accurate, then clearly someone completely effed up the Russian forces’ intelligence, or communications between Maduro and the Russian forces. Let us hope Russian forces protect Rodriguez (assuming she doesn’t sell herself to burger muncher power) much more effectively, making it absolutely clear to the USA that the only way the burger muncher regime is going to come anywhere close to seizing her is by initiating direct hostilities with Russia. Let Russian forces be wherever she is, rather than having to “rush” to support her. Draw a line in the sand for Kushner-Trump. In Cyrillic.
Now is also the time that those with capability might like to consider giving the USA reason to fear for the security of all its installations everywhere around the world.
As a Norwegian: this is the first time I have seen anyone write what I think about this year’s “Peace price”. Thank you.
Trump has changed the name of the “US Defence Department” into the “US War Department”.
Perhaps we should change the name of the “Nobel Peace Price” to “Nobel War Price”?
I see the local press (in Norway) are getting cold feet; this increase the possibility of a US takeover of Greenland, then what is next: Spitzbergen?
If Trump seizes Greenland by force, or attacks it, that means war between the USA and Denmark right there and then. The regime in Norway, which is currently allied to both of the above, would find it hard to be neutral, even before Spitzbergen or Jan Mayen come into play.
Lech Walesa and Aung San Suu Kyi were also 2 disgustingly early nobels from long before the US had propelled them into power.
Amnesty International has raised concerns about human rights in Venezuela. But they have also pointed out the risk of the breakdown in international law as a result of the kidnapping of the President and his wife by American forces. They approve, however of the award of the Nobel peace prize to Marina Corina Machado.
The motive for the invasion, of course, is OIL and the interests of America’s capitalist oligarchy that backs Trump.
Amnesty International is a western NGO. Say no more !
Amnesty International is a global organisation, often campaigning against the actions of Western governments including the UK and US governments.
Q H Flack,
Amnesty International are heroes when they call out the likes of the US, UK and Israel but an MI6/CIA construct if they dare criticise Venezuela, Russia, Iran, China etc.
As these crises turn up I go to the history – as always the lamentable parade of interference, destruction, destabilisation for the purposes of control and theft of resources stemming from 2 centuries of colonial exploitation, uprisings against it, retaliatory violence and economic sanctions, all with the loathsome pretence that the “civilised” west is helping their “uncivilised” slaves.
It looks to me like a partial inside job – a coup if you like, where was Maduro’s bodyguards when he was taken why didn’t the military take action against the US helicopters, I think the US bombings were a distraction ploy – to turn heads away from the USA’s main goal, the illegal abduction of Maduro and his wife and some say his son was also abducted.
Yes Cuba and Colombia made loud noises about defending Venezuela, but the bottom line is they should’ve all stood together in a military sense – and attacked the US Pirate Fleet off the coast of Venezuela – the saying – or at least the end part of it, when they came for me there was no one left to defend me springs to mind.
When it comes to illegal US actions – and the Wests in general the UN is toothless.
Russia’s Foreign minister Lavrov has said that Venezuela should use dialogue to try and get out of its predicament – but that won’t work, Trump and his corporate buddies have their eyes firmly fixed on installing a puppet president – so for me Venezuela needs to fight and try and defend it nation and its assets – the USA is now a Terrorist/Pirate State that doesn’t recognise International Law unless it suits it – Trump has mention dishing out similar actions to Colombia, and Cuba – because their leaders are very vocal on what the US is trying to do to Venezuela.
If ever a a rouge state needed a bloody nose its the USA.
I meant to add that Julian Assange, has been very vocal on the Nobel Foundation awarding its Peace Prize to Machado – I think he even filed a complaint about it.
Indeed. Not much in the corporate media but https://www.rt.com/news/629571-assange-war-nobel-prize-machado/ “Assange brings ‘instrument of war’ case against Nobel Foundation” and https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/19/julian-assange-files-complaint-against-nobel-foundation-over-machado-prize
I Agree RoS..That all makes Sense.. Were the Bodyguards already paid off..Military Too.. WTF.
There was almost certainly a lot of distraction from the main aim of capturing Maduro, but some of the bombing of bases was probably of direct importance too.
I hope Russia reiterates its guarantee to Cuba.
Maybe I mentioned it before: I once had a long conversation with one of the people who back then advised Chavez. This particular sociologist who taught at a Mexico City university opined for Chavez to get a nuclear deterrent in form of a sub. Chavez disagreed. Which I always welcomed very much.
However I since wondered if I had been correct or not rather naive. Especially with Ukraine War vs. the genocide and maybe Iran and NK in the equation for comparison – one could observe what possession of nukes – possibly – would have an affect on US policy. On the other hand I doubt Venezuela would have ever used them. So maybe, depending on the nature of the confict, it is still conventional forces which are decisive.
I am leaving out the late Russian non-nuclear hypersonic and nuclear-propelled systems (“Oreshnik in Venezuela”-trope) that do upset the known framework of non-proliferation and differentiation between conventional/nuclear systems. Not even the Russians have figured out all the political and military contingencies yet. And possible solutions they may offer. And would this sort of force deter what happened with Maduro? I doubt it.
I still hope Venzuelan civil society will resist. Unlike the nonsense our media like to spread the system there is totally different to top-down rule in Iran e.g. and much more inclusive. They have actually developed progressive new forms of local organizing and self-rule – together with government agencies not against them. Which doesn´t mean all is perfect. But the contrast between what is said here by an elite – that has no competence whatsoever in this area – and what has been accomplished in Venezuela on the ground are like night and day.
Everyone in Venezuela will remember the shortlived CIA-backed coup against Chavez in 2002, when Chavez was actually captured for about two days. In a development that must surely have shocked USA planners, much of the population of Caracas rose up in support of Chavez and the putschists released him.
Those events had few or no parallels in world history. The same can be said of the way Chavez successively instituted progressive reforms while most of the media, many of the schools, and even some of the trade unions, were in the hands of reactionary forces. Chavez simply “went round” the obstacles and achieved things that were feasible, given all the circumstances, to achieve. Has “dual power” ever lasted so long anywhere? As a military leader against neocolonial and compradore forces, he is right up there with Ho Chi Minh. This time it’s not going to be a dual power scenario, but let us hope that in 2026 other military leaders in the country have similar backbone and brains.
Thanks for pointing out that those were two decades of self-determined progress and development.
That´s remarkable. When did Europe ever have such span of continuous peaceful policy-making – in the shadow of a genocidal giant as the US has been to Venezuela – before the WWII catastrophe? The 20 years of peace before were called not without reason the “interwar years”. That tells you something about what beating Europeans needed apparently to come to their senses – for the same amount of time as Venezuela has accomplished – so far. Since the future is not written yet.
Delcy Rodríguez was at Birkbeck.
Birkbeck. Not St Antony’s or SOAS.
I believe this is part of a wider deep state agenda (deep western world if you like).
Trump is most likely under instructions from Netanyahu (with the Mossad videos of Trump in various compromising positions involving women/girls of various ages); and Netanyahu seems to want another go at Iran.
However, if that were to happen; the result would be a complete closure of the Straits Of Hormuz, and the blockade of most Arabian oil exports. They can’t have a full scale war with Iran, without extra oil and other mineral supplies guaranteed.
So, invade Venezuela and annexe Greenland – then drill, drill drill, baby!
The only good thing from this is that the world now see the clear nasty nature of the western elite – especially the EU, while they preach about human rights and respect for international law they are now so morally corrupt that they support kidnapping, right in the open. Same EU, that 24/7 bemoan Russia…sigh, well now we see the their real colors. They have zero credibility.
And look at the corrupt western media, framing the obvious kidnapping as a mere “capture” and have headlines like “Why has US attacked Caracas” Why? Like there is a rational legitimate reason for the unprovoked attack?!
https://www.facebook.com/Jonathan.Cook.journalist/posts/i-guess-putin-made-a-mistake-in-not-kidnapping-zelensky-during-russias-illegal-i/1710518030273168/
Trump setting a dangerous precedent, he now see that he can get away with this because of the non existent condemnation by the rest of the world, so what nation is next? Iran? Or perhaps next time another nation decide to kidnap this or that leader. What if Trump decided to kidnap the PM of Greenland? Lets see what the hypocritical EU says then.
Also, what a kangaroo court Maduro will face, apparently accused of …weapons possession and the ridiculous made up crime of “narco terrorism”.
It’s extremely dangerous for the EU leaders to endorse kidnapping. If they accept this as the new norm, how come they aren’t afraid of being kidnapped themselves?
These extraordinary events are being hotly debated on Russian social media. There are comments like, “Putin, watch and learn how to properly conduct military operations.” There are also jokes that there’s a foreign president in the US, and a foreign president in Russia, too, but there’s a nuance.
(Imo, Russia already has two foreign presidents, Yanukovych and Assad, so Putin leads 2-1)
Allies of former leader Jeremy Corbyn lashed out after the Prime Minister last night said his administration will ‘shed no tears’ over the end of Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
While he added the caveat that he still supported international law the statement sparked uproar, especially from MPs who have previously spoken out in support of the South American dictator and his regime. International Law is not supposed to be selective, the invasion was or was not illegal, once again Starmer appears two faced.
In the same vein, the Reform UK leader said: “The American actions in Venezuela overnight are unorthodox and contrary to international law — but if they make China and Russia think twice, it may be a good thing”. So breaching International law is a good thing more duplicity. Are these two politicians serious?
Dig the putting of “unorthodox” before “contrary to international law” and the use of “may” by whoever penned Farage’s words.
Wait…..doesn’t the world banking system rely on international law?
Yes. By trying to appeal to “the centre”, Mr Farage has lost my support permanently. One of the fundamentals of sane UK policy must be to make peace with Russia and China, which have done nothing to harm us.
To quote other South American presidents:
Trump is a terrorist!
All US presidents have necessarily been terrorists – on a far larger scale than any of the people who are labelled as such, and believed by the broad masses to be such.
There have been a few exceptions, starting with Jefferson who was a model of legality.
Grossly unfair to Guterres. He has gone about as far as the UN Secretary-General reasonably can in expressing opposition to the US operation, bearing in mind the requirement to adhere to the strictest neutrality, and in the absence of any kind of legal ruling.
In fact, to be frank, I think you are so out-of-line re Guterres that you should retract. There are more constraints on Guterres than on any other world figure.
Some suggest Guterres is corrupt, but that may just be zionist lies.
Guterres was quoted as follows:
“Independently of the situation in Venezuela, these developments constitute a dangerous precedent. The Secretary-General continues to emphasize the importance of full respect – by all – of international law, including the UN Charter,” the statement continued.
“He’s deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected.”
What more could anyone expect him to say? Those are not neutral statements. Guterres deserves a lot more respect than he is getting in these comments. Offhand, I cannot think of any current world leader who has as honourable a record as Guterres (admittedly that’s not a high bar). The only negative spot on his record is the response to the Haiti cholera outbreak, and that was inherited from his predecessor Ban Ki-moon and exacerbated by the failure of UN member states to provide adequate funding.
Is there a rule that the UNSG must be neutral between good and evil? Between respect for law and lawlessness? If so, just one more reason why the UN is meaningless.
Agreed.
Having worked for The UN at the NYC Secretariat for several years, I do have some sympathy for the SG.
In reality, he is a glorified administrator / figurehead, and has to comply with the UN System and its suffocating protocols and bureaucracy.
The root cause for many / most problems is the Security Council’s historic arrangement for permanent members – and their veto.
Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, but the effectiveness / relevance of The UN is increasingly hindered by this outdated arrangement.
And why is the most populous [and nuclear] country – India – not a permanent member, before UK and France?
https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/2007530529097232487
« I interviewed incoming Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez in her office four years ago
Toward the end of our exchange, I asked her about her father, revolutionary leader Jorge Antonio Rodriguez, who was jailed and tortured to death by the US-backed gov’t in 1976, and how that experience has informed her as Venezuela confronts the coordinated violence of the opposition and threats of invasion from Washington
Reflecting on the torture that leftists endured under cover of “liberal democracy” during Venezuela’s Fourth Republic, she said, “The same forces who disappeared people, who tortured and murdered when they were in power, is the same opposition that has not changed its behavior but points to us as the violators of human rights” »
The big test for whether Putin is the property of Kushner and pals is whether he has given Rodriguez a security guarantee. Given the deployment of USA military forces, ideally this will take the form of a few hundred Russian soldiers in Caracas to protect Rodriguez’s person and office. Everyone who’s interested already knows that Trump has knackers the size of sesame seeds (all bullies are cowards), and perhaps this will soon become obvious to the world if a big boy faces him down in public.
At this point, may I mention that there are large numbers of US state and business personnel around the world, capable of being captured.
https://readthespirit.com/explore/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2021/09/General-James-Dozier-while-held-captive-by-the-Red-Brigades.jpeg
Russia, China, Iran and others could, if they chose, force a US climbdown by escorting tankers and other vulnerable merchant ships wherever they go. It would just take one frigate or even smaller vessel for every ship – and perhaps good publicity could be earned by forming convoys for protection against the Americans, as the Allies did during WW1 and WW2.
Capturing a tanker is not easy under the most ideal circumstances, and it would be hopeless if the tanker were defended by a warship of a major power.
The only question is whether they think it worth while, or whether they are happy to watch as the USA crumbles under its own weight.
No combination of countries can come close to standing up to the US Navy.
The most powerful warship in the world (by far) is the Nimitz-class carrier. Accompanied by its support ships forming what they call a “carrier group”, just one NImitz-class carrier group probably outguns the entire Chinese or Russian navy.
The US has 10 (yes, ten) of these carrier groups, and recently built the first carrier of a new, even more powerful class, the “Gerald R. Ford”.
Townsman, you are very much out of date. It was said long ago that there are now two types of warships: submarines and targets. The American carriers will be about as much use against any serious enemy as H.M.S. Hood when she fought “Bismarck”. Or, to strike a better parallel, as much use as the gigantic Japanese battleships “Yamato” and “Musashi”, which were ignominiously sunk by hundreds of aircraft – their enormous 18-inch guns useless to defend them.
Half a dozen small Chinese or Russian warships can fire scores of hypersonic missiles, each of which could disable a carrier or sink any other US ship. And their submarines can do that without even being detected.
I do not believe Putin at the moment is interested in Venezuela except to threaten the USA. He proposed a Russian military base in Venezuela but Maduro denied such option. That’s why Maduro flew away on an American jet, not on a Russian one (as the Russian joke goes with a reference to Assad). There are some Russian investments in Venezuela of course.
Thanks for this very Informative post Craig.
I’m not sure I want to see you over there..Dangerous ..But I hope Delcy Rodriguez gets back to you regards your reporting trip..
You Real reporters are so Vital.. Stay safe
Leaving aside possible future kidnappings (oh, sorry, “bringings to justice”), if I were the EU and the Danish Prime Minister I would be seriously worried right now. Given that Trump is on a roll and that it is in the western hemisphere, of plausible increasing importance in a military/geo-strategical sense, mineral rich and indefensible by its current masters (it is in essence still a colony), what are the odds against the US taking over Greenland? Not as the 51st state but as a kind of “protectorate”?
I wonder what the EU would say or do in such an event? Ditto Sir Starmer.
Many people have drawn a comparison between Mr Trump and Caligula. Caligula began promisingly enough, but before the end literally no one was safe.
It’s going to be interesting to see how long it takes Congress to realise they have a tiger by the tail.
Comment on Larry Johnson’s website provides a dose of reality.
https://sonar21.com/trump-the-robber-baron/#comment-358569
“The genocide in Gaza demonstrated the end of hopes – which were extremely important to my own worldview – for the rule of international law to outweigh the brutal use of force in international relations. The kidnap of Maduro, the rush of Western powers to accept it, and the inability of the rest of the world to do anything about it, have underlined that international law is simply dead”.
I completely agree. Actually I have long been deeply pessimistic about “international law” as it appears to have no visible means of support. People tend to ignore laws that are not enforced – a glance at any British road or town centre today confirms this – and “international law” has never had any means of enforcement. When something of the sort appeared to be happening, it was mostly self-interested parties pushing their own interests. While some governments have tried hard to stick to the letter of “international law”, it has been hard going – as Mr Putin has found much to his cost.
The only good thing about the situation is that things are now clear. Mr Trump and his accomplices (for theirs is nothing more nor less than a gigantic criminal conspiracy) have openly denounced all law, including the USA’s own, and declared that might is right. Now everyone knows where they stand.
I don’t quite understand what Mr Trump has gained by kidnapping Mr Maduro and his wife. He has stated publicly that he does not consider Mr Maduro to be the legitimate president of Venezuela, despite his election being much cleaner and more decisive than Mr Trump’s own. Now, apparently, Mr Maduro is to be tried on such absurd charges as “narco-terrorism” and “owning a machine-gun”. Thus the USA is treating him as an ordinary civilian with no special standing or privileges. As such, however, he has no political value.
Was it an attempt “encourager les autres” – to frighten Venezuelans into jumping to do what they are told? One rather doubts if that will happen.
” …the rush of Western powers to accept it, and the inability of the rest of the world to do anything about it, have underlined that international law is simply dead”.
This is the critical point and the reason why Trump could get away with this (and worse to come) because no one even bother to condemn him.
This unfortunately also prove what an immense power the US still have. US hegemony still rule the world, it is not dead: there are simply too many propped up pro-US leaders out there making this development possible.
In Gaza we have the arab leaders approving the genocide just like the european leaders and in Latin America we now also see how few nations that dare to take a stance against the US, (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay seems to be the only ones).
The useless DNC party is passive too of course, they should call for an impeachment, Trump turning the US into a crackpot dictatorship with this erratic behavior but as usual the warmongering neocon base in the DNC (and the media class) love Trump, when he wage war.
I agree about people who would invade other countries to advance their own interests being akin to gangsters, following only the law of the jungle. We should hope for them to be frustrated or lose power. In the US, for the judiciary to restrain Trump. In this particular situation, I hope that the American courts might throw out any case against Maduro that won’t pass the tests of evidence-based justice. Hopefully the US Congress will frustrate his designs, if the Republicans are massively defeated in November (which they may well be) and for the next generation of Americans like Mamdani and AOC, inspired by people like Bernie Sanders to prevail – if America doesn’t go fascist first, as in the Sinclair Lewis novel It can’t happen here (adapted well by BBC Radio 4). In the case of Israel, it will take sanctions to end genocide and apartheid, as in South Africa. In the case of Russia the EU may need to do what it takes to protect Ukraine.
If anyone in politics and the MSM thinks that all the US has to do is send its CEO’s into Venezuela and all will be great they had better think again.
An alleged democracy ( Congress was not consulted) is ‘Regime Changing ‘ what they view as a non democracy because they are allegedly a democracy and they have a perfect right to do that.
As per usual the MSM keep pushing the narrative ( unquestioned ) that the last elections were rigged.
Muchado and the Old Bloke who stood claimed that the vote was rigged and that they had ‘ the evidence ‘
When they were asked to show the evidence to an Electoral Court they didn’t come up with any.
So, it is unproven but, the MSM state it as a given.
No forecast where this all might go from here – Civil War – Guerilla War?
It could all get very messy -very quickly.
And if any Oil Execs think that they can just plonk themselves down there remaining un – hindered or un – touched they need their Corporate heads testing.
As does Trump – The Mar a Largo Meglomaniac.
Come to think of it, Mr Trump himself could be arrested when he travels. That would be amusing, but his whereabouts would have to be secret unless the arresting nation were untouchable – which means Russia or China. He would look nice in a prison jumpsuit, and in shackles.
Needless to say, I strongly condemn any such scenario and I sincerely hope that it never happens.
Interesting YouTube vid by Danish poster re Greenland.
Suggests billionaire Trump supporter is suborning Greenland elected officials.
https://youtu.be/UwVJq6BhRZE?si=zdkSBmYNhrpS022W
Thank you very much, Craig. This is the first text I have read that I am 100 per cent satisfied with – full of facts, sober, humane, sincere. Yes, travel, follow what is happening, tell us about it. I, and surely many others, depend on it. You made my day!
Jeffrey Sachs support renaming the Peace Prize to the “Nobel War Price”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZuTOuwKGA
And it looks as if it is Greenland, next. (according to the latest Trump interview in the Atlantic)
Trump interview with Michael Scherer in the Atlantic:
https://archive.ph/AGq1A
Scherer calls Greenland “part of Denmark”, but in reality Greenland is a colony. I strongly support Greenland’s independence. The crimes committed against Inuit families and children in that territory make this issue a complete no-brainer IMO. Nonetheless one can detourn Ho Chi Minh’s famous observation about France and China with respect to Vietnam and observe that it’s better to sniff a little Danish sh*t now than to eat USA sh*t for a lifetime. (There was serious wisdom in Uncle Ho’s words. He was not in any sense a compradore.)
“The kidnap of Maduro, the rush of Western powers to accept it”
The rush of the Gaberdine swine.