US military attack on Venezuela mulled by top Trump advisors and Latin American officials at private DC meeting
Away
from the public eye, the Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) think tank hosted a top-level, off-the-record meeting
to explore US military options against Venezuela.
by
Max Blumenthal
Part
3
- A Who’s Who of Trump Administration Coup Advisors
The
CSIS check-in list not only confirms that the Trump administration
and its outside advisors are mulling options for a military assault
on Venezuela; it also outlines the cast of characters involved in
crafting the regime change operation against the country.
Few
of these figures are well known by the public, yet many have played
an influential role in US plans to destabilize Venezuela.
The
complete check-in list can be viewed at the end of this article.
Below are profiles of some of the more notable figures and
organizations involved in the private meeting. (Names of attendees
are in bold).
Admiral
Kurt Tidd, Former Commander of US SOUTHCOM:
From 2015-18, Tidd was the commander of the US Naval Forces Southern
Command, overseeing operations in Central and South America. Last
October, Tidd complained, “My Twitter feed is made up of about 50
percent of people accusing me of planning and plotting the invasion
of Venezuela, and the other 50 percent imploring me to plan and plot
the invasion of Venezuela.” Given his participation in the CSIS
meeting on attacking Venezuela, his accusers might have had a point.
On
February 20, Tidd’s successor, Admiral Craig Faller, threatened
Venezuela’s military and urged it to turn on Maduro in support of
the US-backed coup attempt.
Ambassador
William Brownfield:
Appointed as US ambassador to Venezuela under George W. Bush,
promoted to assistant secretary of state for international narcotics
and law enforcement affairs by Barack Obama, and now a CSIS senior
advisor, Brownfield has been at the center of psychological warfare
operations against Venezuela. According to McClatchy, Brownfield
helped devise a scheme in 2017 to generate suspicion within Maduro’s
inner circle by sanctioning all of his key advisors except one:
Diosdado Cabello, the president of the Constituent Assembly once seen
by the US as a potential rival to Maduro. The idea was to create the
suspicion that Cabello was a CIA asset, and “mess with the Chavez
mentality.”
Brownfield
advised Trump’s National Security Council, “Don’t just hit
everyone because you can. Hit the right people and then maybe get
others to just be scared and wonder when they’ll get hit.” Mark
Feierstein, a NSC official at the time who now works as a senior
associate at CSIS and attended its April 10 meeting, was reportedly
involved in the plot. However, the plan fell apart as soon as the US
sanctioned Cabello under pressure from Sen. Marco Rubio.
Fernando
Cutz and Juan Cruz, former National Security Council officials at the
Cohen Group:
Cutz collaborated closely with Brownfield on the plan to generate
rifts in Maduro’s inner circle. Born in Brazil, Cutz is a career
USAID foreign service officer who worked on Cuban policy under Obama
and entered the Trump NSC under its former director, Gen. H.R.
McMaster. Cutz is credited by the Wall Street Journal with presenting
Trump with his initial platter of options for destabilizing
Venezuela, starting with “a financial strike at Venezuela’s oil
exports.” Cutz’s colleague at the Cohen Group, Juan Cruz, was
Trump’s former Latin America director. In March 2018, Cruz became
the first US official to openly call for the Venezuelan military to
disobey Maduro and implement a coup.
Pedro
Burelli, BV Advisors:
A former JP Morgan executive and ex-director of Venezuela’s
national oil company PDVSA, Burelli allegedly helped foot the $52,000
bill for a series of meetings in Mexico in 2010 where Guaido and his
associates plotted to bring down then-President Hugo Chavez through
street chaos. In an interview with The Grayzone, Burelli called the
Mexico meetings “a legitimate activity,” though he refused to
confirm his participation. Today, he makes no secret of his desire
for Maduro’s removal by force, tweeting images of jailed Panamanian
President Manuel Noriega and the murdered Libyan leader Muammar
Ghadafi to suggest preferred outcomes for Venezuela’s president.
Roger
Noriega, American Enterprise Institute:
A veteran of the Iran-Contra scandals and regime change operations
from Haiti to Cuba, where he plotted to sabotage US efforts at
rapproachment – “stability is the enemy and chaos is the friend,”
he said – Noriega has been at the center of Washington’s efforts
to impose its will on Venezuela. Last November, Noriega recommended
that Trump appoint Ambassador Brownfield to lead contingency plans
for a military invasion of the country.
Carlos
Vecchio and Francisco Marquez, Guaido’s shadow embassy in
Washington:
Installed as the symbolic ambassador of the Guaido coup regime in
Washington DC, Vecchio currently oversees no consular facilities and
has no diplomatic authority. He is wanted in Venezuela on arson
charges and was photographed posing with a young man who brutally
beheaded a woman named Liliana Hergueta. Marquez is associated with
Vision Democratica, a DC-based lobbying outfit which employs another
Venezuelan opposition member who attended the CSIS meeting on
military force, Carlos Figueroa.
Sergio
Guzman, Bernardo Rico, and Karin McFarland, USAID:
The US Agency for International Aid and Development (USAID) has been
the leading edge of the Trump administration’s attempts to
undermine Venezuela’s government. After ramping up its activities
in Venezuela in 2007, USAID began contributing between $45-50 million
per year to Venezuelan opposition political, media, and civil society
groups. On February 23, USAID director Mark Green presided over a
deliberately provocative attempt to ram aid shipments by truck across
the Colombian border and into Venezuela. The humanitarian
interventionist spectacle backfired badly, resulting in opposition
hooligans setting fire to the aid shipments with molotov cocktails.
(Green falsely accused Maduro’s forces of burning the aid.) This
February, USAID rolled out plans for a “Red Team…to train aid
workers as special forces” capable of “executing a mix of
offensive, defensive, and stability operations in extremis
conditions.”
Emiliana
Duarte, Caracas Chronicles and advisor to Maria Corina Machado:
Duarte’s name was crossed off the CSIS check-in list, indicating
that she was invited to the private meeting on military options but
did not attend. She is a staff writer for Caracas Chronicles, a
leading English language publication echoing the political line of
Venezuela’s opposition. Duarte has also contributed to the New York
Times, most recently in February, when she argued that the US-backed
coup attempt was, in fact, “Venezuela’s very normal revolution.”
Nowhere in Duarte’s writing has she acknowledged that she is
serving as an advisor to Maria Corina Machado, a close ally of Sen.
Marco Rubio and one of the most extreme figures among Venezuela’s
opposition. In 2014, a series of emails were leaked allegedly
revealing Machado’s role in an alleged assassination plot. “I
think it is time to gather efforts; make the necessary calls, and
obtain financing to annihilate Maduro and the rest will fall apart,”
Machado wrote in one email.
Santiago
Herdoiza, Hills & Company:
While Herdoiza appears to occupy a low level position, he works at a
high powered international strategy firm founded by former George W.
Bush administration officials. The firm works on behalf of clients
like Chevron, Boeing, and Bechtel to “eliminate barriers to market
access and profitability.” In some cases, the firm says it has been
able to persuade governments to lower tariffs and drop opposition to
free trade deals. Through its participation in the private CSIS
meeting, Hills & Company seems to have signaled that it is
willing to also entertain the use of military force to open up
markets for its clients.
David
Smolansky, OAS coordinator for Venezuelan migrants:
Once a leader of Guaido’s US-backed Popular Will party, Smolansky
took sanctuary in Washington and began working for regime change in
2017. Following the US recognition of Guaido as “interim
president,” Smolansky was appointed by OAS President Luis Almagro
as coordinator for Venezuelan migrants. While it is unknown what
advice Smolansky offered at CSIS regarding a military assault on his
country, there is a near-consensus in Washington that an attack would
massively exacerbate the migration crisis. A war on Venezuela “would
be prolonged, it would be ugly, there would be massive casualties,”
Rebecca Chavez, a fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, declared in
testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in March.
(Chavez’s boss, Michael Shifter, was a participant in the CSIS
meeting on use of force).
Ένα χαρακτηριστικό παράδειγμα του system failure Άλλο ένα τσουνάμι δημοσκοπήσεων σαρώνει τα μυαλά των Ελλήνων, το οποίο αναμένεται να δυναμώσει όσο πλησιάζουμε στις εκλογές και όσο τα νέα πολιτικά κόμματα θα μπαίνουν πιο βαθιά στο πολιτικό παιχνίδι. Υπάρχουν ουκ ολίγα παραδείγματα που δείχνουν ότι οι δημοσκοπήσεις στην ουσία χρησιμοποιούνται για να δημιουργήσουν το επιθυμητό κλίμα για το καθεστώς Μητσοτάκη, παρά για να μετρήσουν απλώς τις δυνάμεις των κομμάτων σε κάθε χρονική στιγμή. Θα θέλαμε όμως να σταθούμε σε ένα συγκεκριμένο ερώτημα που οι εταιρίες συμπεριλαμβάνουν στις ¨μετρήσεις¨ τους όλο και πιο συχνά και ειδικά μετά την εμφάνιση των κομμάτων Τσίπρα και Καρυστιανού στην πολιτική αρένα. Οι ερωτώμενοι λοιπόν καλούνται να απαντήσουν αν θέλουν "πολιτική αλλαγή" ή "σταθερότητα". Χωρίς να χρειάζεται περαιτέρω ανάλυση, είναι ξεκάθαρο ότι από μόνο του αυτό το μανιχαϊστικού τύπου ερώτημα, είναι ουσιαστικά η γραμμή του καθεστώτος για το τι σημαίνει σταθερότητα, που εί...
The Jimmy Dore Show Colonel Douglas Macgregor explains that as a result of recent military conflicts, Russia, China, and Iran have become allies, and that Beijing and Moscow have concluded that "if we let Iran fail, we're next on the menu" from what he describes as a "rogue state led by a rogue personality," meaning they will intervene to prevent Iran's collapse if the US threatens it. He tells Jimmy Dore that Putin called Trump for an hour and a half to make it clear that a military campaign in Iran would not succeed and would make the situation much worse, offering to store Iran's enriched uranium as a diplomatic gesture. Macgregor warns that if the US restarts the war, China could send 40 or 50 surface combatants and submarines to the Indian Ocean, and Russia could fly MiG-31s into Iranian airspace — not to provoke a direct confrontation but to "make a point." He concludes that the British Empire overreached and overextended with World War...
There is so much misinformation in mainstream corporate media about recent events in Nicaragua that it is a pity that Mary Ellsberg’s article for Pulse has added to it with a seemingly leftish critique. Ellsberg claims that recent articles, including from this website, often “ paint a picture of the crisis in Nicaragua that is dangerously misleading. ” Unfortunately, her own article does just that. It looks at the situation entirely from the perspective of those opposing Daniel Ortega’s government while whitewashing their malevolent behavior and downplaying the levels of US support they have relied on. Her piece is an incomplete depiction of what is happening on the ground, ignoring many salient facts that have come to light and which have been outdated by recent events. The following is a brief response to Ellsberg’s main points from someone who lives in Nicaragua and has observed the situation directly and intimately: https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/15/a-res...
Everyday, it becomes clearer: the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting poor, working, and marginalized communities the hardest. Millions of workers – especially low-wage retail, food service, hospitality, and care workers – have faced the terrible choice daily between going to work and risking their health, or staying home and risking their paychecks. Many other workers don’t even have that choice, with around 30 million people in the US filing for unemployment in the past six weeks. But billionaires don’t face these same problems. As tens of millions have lost their jobs over the past two months, billionaire wealth soared by a whopping $282 billion between March 18 and April 10, according to a new study from the Institute for Policy Studies. And while finding enough space to wait out the pandemic is something many struggle with, billionaires have been escaping to their second (or third, or fourth) homes to ride it out in luxury – all while they position themselves to ...
Why people don't rise up massively today? Why there are no real revolutions? How we tolerate all things that have been imposed to us? These questions come up in people's minds more and more often today in Greece and abroad, due to the economic crisis. Some theories are circulated as an answer, among these, explanations which include, for example, the psychosynthesis of modern Greeks, but the truth is that there is something more fundamental behind this passive behaviour and concerns not only Greece, but the entire Western world. by system failure Prior to the beginning of the 20th century, Friedrich Nietzsche declares God's death and Western world will put all its hopes in science. Laplace's Determinism leads to the almighty man, who through science, can find all the answers for the world. Technology, which naturally comes from scientific discoveries, promises prosperity and a better life for the majority. Science becomes the central "pylon...
The Jimmy Dore Show Guest host Garland Nixon interviews former intelligence analyst Larry Johnson about escalating tensions involving Iran, Israel, and the United States, focusing on reports that Israel is not only urging Washington to abandon negotiations, but is also pressuring the U.S. to assassinate Iran’s lead negotiator. Johnson claims that Iran has withdrawn from talks with the U.S., may leave the nuclear non-proliferation framework, and could potentially conduct a public nuclear test to demonstrate deterrence capabilities, citing information he says came from intelligence sources. The discussion examines the strategic roles of Pakistan, China, and Russia in the region, as well as disputes over the Strait of Hormuz, Israeli military actions, and the prospects for a new Middle East security architecture independent of U.S. influence. The speakers argue that Israeli efforts to weaken Iran have instead strengthened Tehran's regional position and altered the geopolitical balan...
Άλλη μια 'ιερή αγελάδα' της νεοφιλελεύθερης χούντας που κανείς δεν επιτρέπεται ούτε καν να διανοηθεί να αμφισβητήσει του system failure Το Ελληνικό πείραμα διανύει ήδη τον έβδομο χρόνο του με την οικονομία ρημαγμένη και κανένα σημάδι ανάκαμψης στον ορίζοντα. Εκτός από την απόλυτη αποτυχία των νεοφιλελεύθερων πολιτικών που επιβλήθηκαν στην Ελλάδα από την Τρόικα της καταστροφής, έχει ενδιαφέρον κανείς να εξετάσει και τον τρόπο που τα νεοφιλελεύθερα αφηγήματα έχουν επηρεάσει σε μεγάλο βαθμό την κοινή γνώμη, με αποτέλεσμα να καταλήγουν αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι ενός στρεβλού ορθολογισμού μέσα στις κοινωνίες. Η διαδικασία αυτή γίνεται με όχημα, κυρίως, την προπαγάνδα και την πλύση εγκεφάλου από τα ΜΜΕ και το πολιτικό κατεστημένο. Ένα από τα κεντρικά κλισέ των φερέφωνων του νεοφιλελευθερισμού στην Ελλάδα και αλλού αφορά την απόλυτη αναγκαιότητα των ιδιωτών 'επενδυτών' για την ανάκαμψη της οικονομίας. Τα ιδιωτικά κυρίαρχα μίντια και το πολιτικό κατεστημένο κατ...
CGTN Russian President Vladimir Putin has wrapped up his state visit to China. The bilateral meeting in Beijing has led to the extension of the 25-year-long Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, with high political mutual trust the backbone. Meanwhile, China and Russia issued a joint statement on promoting a multipolar world and a new type of international relations. What does the China-Russia relationship seriously mean to the two countries and to the world?
Comments
Post a Comment