Footage Contradicts U.S. Claim That Nicolás Maduro Burned Aid Convoy - Polidicks

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/world/americas/venezuela-aid-fire-video.html Venezuela’s opposition held up the images of the burning aid, reproduced on dozens of news sites and television screens throughout Latin America, as evidence of Mr. Maduro’s cruelty. But there is a problem: The opposition itself, not Mr. Maduro’s men, appears to have set the cargo alight accidentally. Below is a thread I started typing but never posted regarding a twitter thread listing false propaganda regarding Venezuela in social media and other, more mainstream, media. One part of this does menion aid caravans not being burnt by the Venezuelan government but I felt like at time of writing the post (about a week ago) it was a little too out there (along with me not being able to confirm some of the claims and the story about the molotov, at the time, only being on RT, whereas now its covered by more reliable media) for people to accept. OLD POST: https://twitter.com/discomfiting/status/1100101944415268864?s=20 Most of it is social media "news" but it also mentions a CNN story which appears fake. Mostly it's images being falsely attributed from one thing to another eg. Those babies that the Venezuelan opposition claims are thrown into boxes isn't even from Venezuela- this photo is from Honduras in 2013, shortly after the U.S. staged a coup in 2009. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0QraR8XgAEGshK.png https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0QsLwnXcAEYrFA.png Opposition supporters claim this man an example of "repression" in 2014 by the Bolivarian government. In reality, the man is a Chavista who was attacked by the opposition terrorists in 2013. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/516/8372ad84-da94-4811-9753-75cd87fea50c/image.png https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/516/b31bfda8-d811-409a-a6af-ccc88cfa376c/image.png They claim the Venezuelan government burnt the "aid" trucks on the Colombian-Venezuelan border. Except the opposition terrorists are *on video* creating molotov cocktails, lighting them on fire, and throwing them at the aid trucks. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0Qs0VeWoAI3Ubc.png https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0QuI3nWwAAt-wi.jpg Be careful what you read regarding Venezuela, be careful what you advocate for. Madurdo is an authoritarian piece of shit but we've seen enough US backed regime change(tm) to know how it goes, especially in South America. Corporations and their pet politician want to exploit Venezuela, they've wanted to for years, if they get their regime change(tm) the people of Venezuela will not benefit, cept the the US and allies cancelling sanctions. You may stop hearing about their suffering though because the Corporations/Politicians got what they wanted out of you, your mandate and consent, don't give it to them.

Americans telling falsehoods and bunkum concerning a leader they're actively trying to overthrown? Tell me it ain't so. Next you'll tell me they've been doing this for years - decades even!

any US intervention in venezuela is gonna make shit 100 times worse for them

Would you like me to list all of the non false atrocities that Maduro has committed or are you not interested in that?

Having paid attention to what you, other Venezuelan users here, and the information available elsewhere has said this is also basically standard operating procedure for collectivos or however exactly you call them. Hide among protestors, cause problems, then disappear to justify crackdowns on the protestors and to try discrediting them later.

If you want, but this is a thread highlighting that there is a large pollution of the facts surrounding the ongoing matters in Venezuela. Decrying the US's ongoing involvement does not equate to defending Maduro. It means that I trust the US about as far as I can throw it given their very real and extensive history in pulling illicit skulduggery and making virtually any situation of this type - no matter how bad it seems at first - significantly worse. See Libya and Iraq in recent history

Awesome, so lets start with what Human Rights Watch says about the Maduro government, link to the report can be found here. Since Maduro has taken power in 2013, a mass migration wave of Venezuelans (of which I am part of) has begun, with millions escaping poverty, sickness, death, hunger, repression and rampant crime. The Venezuelan government has completely eroded the basis of the welfare state and has deprived the entire population of even their most basic needs. The UN reports over 3 million people have left the country, settling all over Latin America, particularly in Colombia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Panama, in the US (I believe Venezuelans are quickly topping the list of asylum requests) and in Spain. Maduro current hold to power is based on snap elections held last year, under conditions widely considered by the international community to be unfair. The main opposition candidates (Who are not currently part of the hundreds of political prisoners) were not allowed to run, and instead Maduro ran against Henri Falcon, a former member of the proto-PSUV party, MVR, and someone widely considered to be a stooge for the government. Leopoldo Lopez, the candidate the opposition would have preferred to field, is currently serving a 13 year sentence under house arrest, despite the fact the prosecutor for his trial absconded to the US and confessed the trial was a farce and that there was no credible evidence against him. What have the Venezuelan people done about this? Well, they've protested, and they've been met with brutal retaliation, more than 12500 people have been arrested for participating in protests since 2014, 750 of them were illegally tried by military courts, and many of those arrested were tortured, humilliated and even raped by government security forces. There is an infamous dungeon called "the tomb" inside the headquarters of SEBIN, where many have alleged to being tortured in methods varying from extreme sensory deprivation to beatings, which are used to then obtain false confessions that the government uses for propaganda purposes. It's not like the government is a stranger to extrajudicial killings anyway, which is another big reason why there isn't any form of armed rebellion, the government executed Oscar Perez, a former national police officer who's killing was streamed live over the internet as he attempted to surrender. The government has also killed hundreds of civilians as part of their OLPs, "Operaciones de Liberacion del Pueblo", which were claimed to be for the purpose of curbing crime, echoing similar attempts in Brazil by the BOPE. Widespread impunity means that none of the officers responsible for killing civilians have ever been put to trial. The Venezuelan government also refuses foreign aid from all sources, despite that maternal mortality increased by 65%, infant mortality by 35% and incidence of malaria by 76% just between 2016 and 2017. The government refuses to publish socioeconomic indicators of any sort, but a study done by the three largest universities of Venezuela reveal that 80% of all households in the country are food insecure, and that Venezuelans had, on average, lost 11kg since 2017. I will continue with the widespread corruption and economic disaster caused by Maduro in another post. This is just describing the political persecution and humanitarian crisis that Maduro is responsible of.

Nice review of the situation. Looking forward to reading the next one. The US - especially under the current administration - is still completely untrustworthy and should stay far the fuck away from Venezuelan affairs given their history with things like Operation Condor, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, and the poorly handled hit-job that was the Libyan Civil War.

This is the largest humanitarian crisis that Latin America has ever seen and you want other countries to stay out of it? Despite the fact that Maduro has already destroyed any semblance of democracy left in the country? Despite the fact it directly affects them as millions of refugees are pouring into their borders?

I understand as a Venezuelan this is a rough topic for you, but I feel like you are assuming that anyone who questions how events are reported is some tankie Maduro loving apologist. As I said in the other thread, there’s plenty of real terrible shit he’s responsible for (as you go on to list), but the US did and will continue to lie and distort the truth in order to oust him. This is the exact same thing that happened in 2003 with Iraq. Once we found out that Saddam having WMDs was bullshit, the response was “well, he’s still a bad guy.” Yes, but that’s not the point.

I don’t give a flying fuck about that. What do we do about Maduro? Give me a solution. I can’t support the opposition because the US is behind them, great, what now?

i was onboard with the whole ousting maduro thing for his atrocities and being a dictator and stuff, but after hearing that he doesn't like america or capitalism i'm a bit hesitant now

If you don’t see how the US lying about what Maduro is and isn’t responsible for gives ammo to the pro-Maduro side and muddies the waters in this whole mess then I don’t know what to tell you. The truth is pretty important when it comes to regime change, but that’s just my radical opinion. I never said you couldn’t support the opposition. I support the opposition. I tentatively support an international coalition to intervene if that’s what the majority of Venezuelans want, but not a unilateral US invasion.

perhaps Venezuelans wouldn't be relying on word of mouth quite so much if the most of Venezuelan media didn't happen to be state-owned?

"Not the US" is not the same thing as "no other countries". I trust any other first world nation to do it properly compared to the US which basically can't stop fucking up.

Did you just hear about this topic? That's exactly what has happened for the last 6 years, an international coalition, formed by most Latin American countries, except Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua have backed a democratic transition. Maduro blocked that, and denied any possiiblity of it. The majority of Venezuelans want Maduro out. They can't get him out by themselves, because he has guns and the will to use them. He's not going to step down unless pressured. What, do you think that if it were China or Russia backing the opposition it'd be better? They need help, and that help won't come for free. Yes, it's a fucked situation, but the only reason we're here is because when we had the possibility of a democratic transition, nobody fucking helped. Look into what the entire left, including popular leaders such as Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn and even Obama did when the possibility of a peaceful transition of government was there. Look up what they said and did. We're fucked because the world gave us up.

Given that the one handling US involvement in Venezuela is a war criminal convicted of doing insidious shit in another Latin American country, that the west's involvement in other interventions in times of crisis have resulted in absolutely apocalyptic conditions in the aftermath and beyond, I cannot in good faith and conscience support their continued involvement. I don't have solutions. I'm not going to pretend as if I have some magical political panacea to this ongoing shitshow, but I do support the Venezuelans in their pursuit for a true democracy and freedom from oppression, and I do feel confident in saying that - again - the west's involvement will make things a lot worse, as has been proven before, and I fear will be proven again.

Who's gonna do it? Sweden? Colombia? How many world powers do you think exist? China and Russia are backing Maduro, do we also ignore that or does that just not count as imperialism?

They'll back him coz he's opposed to the US. The US want to own Venezuela. China and Russia (both with their own shitty imperial ambitions which perhaps contribute to their stance) are opposing US imperialism. It's not black and white and a US lead regime change is not for the benefit of Venezuelan people. Don't, out of desperation for a solution, advocate for one of the worst possible solutions.

What's the solution then? A democratic transition is no longer possible because Maduro has assumed full control. A crisis is underway, people are dying, what do we do?

i don't think you quite understand the situation Venezuela is in if you think any single intervention, let alone one in a largely humanitarian and political capacity (the capacity Maduro himself is making impossible), could turn it into Iraq?

Okay so it wasn't by order of Maduro to burn the trucks. I can not only believe that but accept it. But it seems that the general consensus is "If it wasn't Maduro, then the US was the evil one!" When in fact, the US did not burn the trucks either and most likely doesn't even know who the hell the individual that threw the molotov cocktail is. Yeah, the US and the Venezuelan Opposition seem to be using this story for brownie points but that does not make them necessarily the culprits in the arson.

Then why can’t those countries send in their troops now that a peaceful transition is obviously not possible? Because I have more trust in a coalition of Venezuela’s neighbors than I do the US. Have Guaidó take the reigns so he can hold elections and restore power to the National Assembly.

I haven't paid all that closely to the international news, but from what I understand the most any other country has done for Venezuela is simply recognize Guido as interim president, which honestly is not hard work at all. Where is the international coalition to oust Maduro if he is so unrecognized as the leader of Venezuela? What is Europe doing to actively help South America? What the US has done in the region is questionable and honestly, the US does not have the interests of the Venezuelan people at the heart of their intentions but if there is no other active nation to help, what does the Venezuelan opposition have left other than the US? The US is the lesser of all evils for aid because there really are no others to pick from.

First of all stop contributing to the crisis there, cut the sanctions. The sanctions are not removing maduro and is just making the situation worse for the people there (by cutting funding to a state in centrally planned economy youre cutting funding to public spending, ultimately hurting the people) No modern country can thrive with sanctions and it is, imo, morally bankrupt to blame a country for the consequences of sanctions imposed. Imo any deaths caused by sanctions should be attributed to those doing the sanctioning, sanctions are a weapon and in this case they are being used against the people there. It might not remove maduro but it will stop the economic crisis there, people wont be going hungry if the economy is strong (as it should be) because the sanctions are cut. Also Venezuela would need to diversify economy, no more dependancexon oil coz it makes them vulnrable to dips in oil market (unintentional or intentional). I don't have much faith in the US (or other countries) orchestrating regime change there, the US (and especially the guy advising trump on Venezuela) has a terrible track record for regime change and fucking up Latin America. This doesn't answer how to deal with maduro but it does say what should be done to address the current crisis. If one advocates going after maduro coz he's a bad guy then one must also be consistent and explain why Venezuela is a special case which needs intervention where as other places run by bad people don't. Also I don't believe in the way aid is used. Sanctioning a country to the point of food shortages then riding in as a saviour with aid is, in my mind, aid rendered in such a manner that it is a form of coercive violence. I don't approve of Russias role in this, they are Imperialist and exploitative, but two wrongs don't make a right, oligarch run US imperialism is not an answer to oligarch run Russian imperialism.

There is nothing to prevent a coalition from sending in troops. So the actual question is "why haven't they", not "why can't they". And my answer is, probably because overwhelming majority of the Venezuelan military is backing Maduro because he has lined their leadership with all the money he can get.

Let me be as blunt as possible: Every possible avenue of non-violence and non-interventionism has been exhausted. The longer this situation pans out, the greater chance for a constant string of failed governments to take place will occur. You guys are aware of the fact that the Venezuelan dictatorship is currently sending off ALL of it's monetary and gold reserves to their own bank accounts in Russia, right? The longer this charade of concern, whining, and bitching about intervention, the greater the chances of Venezuela NEVER being able to recuperate it's losses. What you are looking at is decades of warlord activity and drug cartel control in Venezuela, leading to further destabilization to nearby countries and regions, and causing more suffering that could easily be avoided. You are looking at military equipment like SAMs entering the hands of drug lords, families being ripped apart and pushed into slavery, and all sorts of other nasty shit... And you guys are concerned about big mean USA doing something..? Seriously, I'm unable to understand what in god's name you guys are seeing in this.

US is the big cock of the farm yard and Latin America is it's stomping grounds.

Europe has an incredibly shit response time to international emergencies within their own Continental borders. The Baltic States being a prime example.

So the alternative big power to help Venezuela is......?