By Stella Calloni on April 3, 2019
People-Armed Forces unity is patriotic resistance. Photo: Bill Hackwell
The questionable “interim” President of Venezuela, Juan Guaido -inexistent figure created by the Donald Trump Administration violating all international laws that is trying to “govern” on behalf of Washington amidst an illegal action- recently acknowledged to opposition groups that attacks against the country’s electrical system were “necessary” to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro’s “regime” and he apologized to some of his supporters for the “discomfort” caused, as if such actions were not crimes against humanity.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly Chairman Diosdado Cabello noted that Guaido has recognized his linking to such attempts, adding that there are plans for this month of April aimed at undertaking the “final blow” under the protection of the United States. He also warned that the country must be prepared to face these and other threats.
As a matter of fact, leaked information reveals that Guaido and Venezuelan opposition groups met on March 28 at El Paraiso, in Caracas, to review a “roadmap” to continue with pro-coup plans in their attempt to undermine the population regardless of its consequences.
According to Guaido, the operation was planned after the failure of the invasion prepared from Cucuta, Colombia, on February 23rd would be launched through a series of new and “more effective” actions and sabotage, including the arrival of experts not tied to the opposition to penetrate villages and cause destabilization.
These “experts” would be part of “freedom cells” and spread throughout the country. “They would be activated when Guaido instructs them on April 6 to start local protests on a large scale,” reported Whitney Webb for Mint Press News, according to a translation by Resumen Latinoamericano. Webb links this “operation” to a document released by the USAID regarding the creation of Rapid Expeditionary Development (RED) Teams. They would “be deployed as two-person teams and placed with ‘non-traditional’ USAID partners executing a mix of offensive, defensive, and stability operations in extreme conditions.” These experts are no less than U.S. Special Forces (SF) and the CIA.
This way Guaido provided encouragement to those present in his meeting, after failing in their attacks on the country’s largest hydro electrical plant. He also promised that they were close to seizing power –probably around April 21- and that accusations against President Maduro have been prepared; for instance, genocide for “negligence” in his actions and claiming that power cuts were the result of inefficiency and abandonment.
Terrifying fake reports that no one has been able to confirm have been spread in the media as well, charging President Maduro with violations of human rights. Guaido himself is visiting different areas in the country but he has not been given a friendly reception because most of the population knows what “democratic coups” are about, like the one proposed by the man here created by agencies like the CIA and who is also asking for an invasion from the United States.
This is a coup supported by the hegemonic mass media, which undertook a criminal battle by misinforming, lying, and manipulating through orders of the U.S. Pentagon, paving the way for new accusations of the U.S. empire against “narco-dictatorships,” pointing now against the governments of Maduro and Bolivia’s Evo Morales.
The latter is under daily attack by the same groups of power, such as the Cuban American lobby -which has representatives in the U.S. Congress with a long history of terrorism against Cuba and Latin America-, whom the Trump Administration has granted power with criminal results in the region.
Among these, it’s worth mentioning are delegates Marco Rubio, who is politically active against Venezuela, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who recently accused Evo Morales before the House of Representatives. They are following the pro-coup discourse addressed by Guaido, who recently announced the increase of campaigns to accuse Maduro of handing over the country to Russians, Chinese and Cubans, seeking to set up a people’s trial “for crimes of treason against the homeland,” calling on the Venezuelan people to go to the streets and end up with his Government.
Surprisingly, the man who self-proclaimed himself president of a country like a character out of a Latin American surrealist novel, is following orders from the empire and working to achieve a foreign invasion is now talking precisely about “treason to the homeland.”
In his “roadmap” that he explained in the meeting, Guaido announced the beginning of “operation freedom.” First, there would be a huge cacerolazo, or political protest by banging pots, which would be used as a signal for soldiers who support the operation, according to him, and would neutralize the Bolivarian National Armed Forces to make them surrender.
This is similar to the plan prepared last February, which resulted in a striking defeat given the amount of money spent on the Cucuta operation and the mass desertion of soldiers that didn’t occur. Those few that were enticed to desert were left out to dry when the plan failed and now languish penniless in refugee camps on the Colombian border.
The United States is obviously insisting on a political opposition that has proved its weakness and inefficiency in tens of coups tested in Venezuela since 2002, when for the first time in history a coup armed, funded and advised by Washington was defeated in about 48 hours by the people and the Armed Forces joining together in the streets. This marked a historical milestone that strengthened the people-Armed Forces relationship, plus over two million members of a militia formed by people’s organization. The United States knows very well these are not paramilitary soldiers, as those criminals they know and train in Colombia.
In his report about the new operation, Guaido called on attendants to save amounts of gasoline that would be used -this is not the first time this would happen- to set fire to anything they think represents the “regime”, as they call the legitimate and constitutional Government of Venezuela.
Top targets would be police stations, health care centers, government buildings and offices, not only in Caracas but in the whole country. Furthermore, actions against the National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), isolating military barracks like Fuerte Tiuna in Caracas, and destroying thermal electrical plants with special war weapons.
Some of these actions, as in the case of police and National Guard stations, would be undertaken with mortars, larger caliber weapons and grenades; in the case of police vehicles, they would use incendiary bombs and weapons from Colombia.
Counterinsurgency exercises have been carried out before with the support of Colombian paramilitary soldiers and other foreign mercenaries, attacking important barracks and strategic sites. The idea is to finally advance and isolate the Government by seizing Miraflores Presidential Palace.
According to information released, Guaido has set targets such as the Palo Negro air base, in central state of Aragua; immobilizing or setting fire to aircrafts since he has insiders, according to himself. Also, he is expecting to set fire to the port of Vargas state and to control airports, highways and others.
Through the different coup attempts in Venezuela we have seen that such violent actions were carried out before they could result in serious damage despite their failure: like arson against buildings, especially in 2014; attacks against health care centers; violence in the streets; snipers and the so-called “the way out” plan headed by Leopoldo Lopez.
Even the same night when Maduro won his first presidential election, on April 14, 2013, the defeated candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski called everyone to go to the streets and his supporters caused deaths and damage. The worst events took place in 2017, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Foreign paramilitary groups set fire to many people accused of being a Chavista and international agencies, governments and media said nothing about it.
Terrorist attempts against Venezuela’s electrical system last month are the most significant attacks so far following the bombings that caused similar results in Iraq, Libya, Syria and other countries. They are part of a low-intensity war tactic used to undermine the Maduro Administration and the Venezuelan people, whose resistance results have been unbearable for the empire.
It’s a sort of hidden intervention, led by a special technique expert handpicked as envoy to Venezuela by Donald Trump; none other than Elliott Abrams. This evil, ill-fated character participated in the United States secret war against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua during the eighties, when significant attempts took place such as the mining of ports and many other criminal actions.
Abrams’ experience include crimes against humanity in Central America and he was prosecuted for the Iran-Contra affair, in which he violated the laws of his own country and killed over six hundred people in one town in El Salvador, among others. Nothing happened to him. Now he is being sent on a new mission to carry out no less damaging activities for humanity.
IThe analogy with Nicaragua -and Libya and Syria in this century- is important given the bravery of the Venezuelan people, Government and the Armed Forces. They giving lessons about what patriotic resistance means with big sacrifices, defeating imperial plans, and they are the hope at this moment of the Latin America’s struggle for its definitive freedom. Meanwhile, it’s harder and harder for the United States to carry out Trump’s invasion attempt inside its own labyrinth.
Source: Contexto, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau