Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalThe US Covert War on Venezuela in 2015 – Diary: Jan 29
The US Covert War on Venezuela in 2015 – Diary: Jan 29
By Arturo Rosales and Les Blough in Venezuela
Axis of Logic
Thursday, Jan 29, 2015
Plenty of coffee in the coffee houses and bakeries in Caracas. In the supermarkets or grocery stores? Very rare in the last few months. This is hardly surprising when, in the last week, the authorities uncovered more than 1,000 tons of ground coffee and roasted coffee beans waiting to be spirited away to Colombia. In Falcón state 15 tons of coffee was found; in Lara state a supplier and packaging company had 500 tons standing idle in his warehouse; in neighboring Portuguesa state a further 460 tons were discovered hidden in a warehouse and being sold as “gourmet coffee” which is almost 6 times the official price for standard ground coffee when there is, is fact, very little difference.
At the other end of country in Anzoategui state, the National Guard found 91 tons of food, personal hygiene and cleaning products. In this haul the authorities found 50,600 kilos of corn flour; 23,180 kilos of wheat flour; 9,100 kilos of rice; 3,510 kilos of pasta; 4,700 liters of vegetable cooking oil and 830 cans of fish. We could not detect if arrests were made.
Interestingly enough cooking oil has suddenly become easy to find in Caracas - BUT, as this game continues, now white rice has vanished and all you can find is brown rice. Venezuela exported rice last year so where has it gone? Has it all been eaten suddenly?!
A smaller haul of hoarded basic products was found in Catia in the west of Caracas on Saturday. Local people noted something strange about movements at night in a warehouse and alerted the Superintendent of Fair Price whose tram took the corrective action and placed three individuals in the hands of the Attorney General’s Office for hoarding 33 tons of basic products.
In this economic war being waged by the business sector against its own customers, it is not just food that is hoarded. In recent months it has been difficult to find motor oil as it was being hidden and sold at speculative prices. In Guatire – a satellite town on the outskirts of Greater Caracas - the authorities decommissioned 967 liters of motor oil along with hundreds of kilos of corn flour and other personal hygiene products such as the “impossible-to-find shampoo” and bath soap. Investigations continue to try and locate the owner of the warehouse.
More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_69213.shtml
The U.S. Covert War on Venezuela in 2015
The U.S. Covert War on Venezuela in 2015
The US Covert War on Venezuela in 2015 – Diary: Feb 7 Printer friendly page Print This ShareThis
By Arturo Rosales writing from Caracas
Axis of Logic
Saturday, Feb 7, 2015
Arrests Confiscations and Civic-Military Commands
The owners of the Farmatodo chain of 167 shops in Venezuela were remanded in custody to await trial at the request of the Attorney General’s Office. The Executive President and Vice-President of Operations, Pedro Luis Angarita Azpurua and Agustin Antonio Álvarez Costa are accused of boycott and destabilizing the economy – both crimes are included in the Law on Fair Prices.
Breaking News – President Maduro stated on the afternoon of February 6 that Farmatodo must regularize its operation immediately or he will be obliged to “take other decisions” – which could mean confiscation of the company. The heat is on for the capitalist speculators and this will serve as a message to other companies participating in the economic war.
Before these two Farmatodo criminals were arrested, the rumor on the street was that the Farmatodo chain really belonged to the President of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, who is the second most powerful politician in the country after President Maduro. In fact, for many years rumors have been rife about Cabello owning a huge business empire with millions of dollars stashed offshore or in the US.
No evidence has ever been presented to substantiate these wild claims and several court cases brought against Cabello in the past failed to succeed due to lack of evidence. However, the owners of Farmatodo let these rumors run until they had their day in front of the judge when the truth about the ownership of the 167 shops was revealed.
In an almost poetic twist to scotch such rumors about his “business empire”, Cabello authorized the workers at businesses that were rumored to be his to take control of them if the bourgeoisie did not admit who were the real owners.
More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_69293.shtml
A Rush to Judgment in Argentine Bomb Case?
A Rush to Judgment in Argentine Bomb Case?
February 7, 2015
The mysterious death of an Argentine prosecutor has whipped up new suspicions around the case of who bombed the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) in 1994 and whether there was an official cover-up, but the evidence on both counts remains dubious or discredited, says Gareth Porter.
By Gareth Porter
The evidence already available about Argentine Prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s death from a gunshot to the head creates a strong presumption that he was murdered. He was about to present publicly his accusation that President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner and her foreign minister, Hector Timerman, conspired to absolve Iran of the 1994 AMIA bombing and lift the Interpol red notices on the accused Iranians.
And it was Nisman’s 2006 request for the arrest of six former senior Iranian officials for the bombing that prompted his push for those red notices. In the context of Argentine political culture, with its long experience of impunity for crimes committed by the powerful, the circumstances of his death have led to a general conviction that the government must have been behind his murder.
But there is good reason to be cautious about that assumption. Nisman’s case against Kirchner was problematic. The central accusation in his affidavit, made 96 times, according to press accounts, was that Kirchner and Timerman had sought to revoke the Interpol arrest warrants against the former Iranian officials.
But Ronald K. Noble, the secretary general of Interpol for 15 years until last November, denied Nisman’s accusation. Noble declared, “I can say with 100 percent certainty, not a scintilla of doubt, that Foreign Minister Timerman and the Argentine government have been steadfast, persistent and unwavering that the Interpol’s red notices be issued, remain in effect and not be suspend or removed.”
Noble’s denial raises an obvious question: Why would the Kirchner government, knowing that Nisman’s main claim could be easily refuted, have any reason to kill him on the eve of the presentation of his case? Why give those seeking to discredit the government’s policy on the AMIA bombing the opportunity to shift the issue from the facts of the case to the presumption of officially sponsored assassination?
More:
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/02/07/a-rush-to-judgment-in-argentine-bomb-case/
How US ‘Free Trade’ Policies Created the Central American Migration Crisis
How US ‘Free Trade’ Policies Created the Central American Migration Crisis
Michelle Chen on February 6, 2015 - 2:28 PM ET
When tens of thousands of Central American migrant children streamed across the US-Mexico border last year, some in this country received them as refugees fleeing violence and poverty; others demonized the “invasion” from the south with bigoted panic. What many overlooked was that these “unaccompanied minors” weren’t just coming in search of new homes—they were actually sent; their migration had been sponsored by some of the biggest corporations in the hemisphere.
A new report from the AFL-CIO examines the migrant influx in the context of global trade programs, tracing the the migration from one key “trading partner,” Honduras, back to the chaos wrought by years of transborder economic exploitation. Labor activists say that as the United States exports misery to the south, “free trade” has plunged a generation of youth into free fall.
While free-trade deals are routinely criticized in the US for promoting the outsourcing of “American jobs,” according to the research of a union-led delegation to Honduras, the trade system is systematically undermining democracy in the Latin American nations Washington has sought to control for decades through commercial exploitation and political coercion.
Honduras presents a case study in how the regime of free trade steels the corporate dominion that is both cause and effect of Latin America’s violence and oppression. One major factor is the 2009 coup that ousted the populist Zelaya government—a right-wing plot clandestinely supported by the Obama administration—and ushered in a wave of regressive economic policies in rural and industrial sectors and intensified corruption.
…since the 2009 coup, the ruling governments have failed to respect worker and human rights or create decent work, and instead have built a repressive security apparatus to put down dissent. Numerous trade unionists and community activists who participated in resistance to the coup were killed, beaten, threatened and jailed.
More:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/197313/how-us-free-trade-policies-created-central-american-migration-crisis
Political Activist Beheaded In Central Mexico
Source: Bernama (Malaysia)
Political Activist Beheaded In Central Mexico
MEXICO CITY, Feb 6 (BERNAMA-NNN-EFE) -- Police found the decapitated body of political activist Gustavo Salgado on a highway in the central Mexican state of Morelos, the People's Revolutionary Front, or EPR, said Thursday.
The body of the 32-year-old EPR member was found on Wednesday afternoon, a day after he was reported missing, by police in Mototepec, a town outside the city of Ayala.
Salgado, who appeared to have been tortured, was identified by EPR members, who blamed the government for the murder.
"This crime is part of the policy of terror that the state has implemented to try to scare the popular movement in general and our organisation in particular," the EPR said.
Read more: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1106775
[center]
political activist Gustavo Salgado[/center]
Robert White:Diplomat who served in El Salvador but angered many by speaking out on human rights abu
Robert White: Diplomat who served in El Salvador but angered many by speaking out on human rights abuses in the country
White's views cost him his career but earned him the respect of many Salvadorans and the vindication of history
Friday 06 February 2015
In 1980, when El Salvador was erupting in guerrilla war and military violence, the Carter administration sent a little-known Foreign Service officer as its new ambassador, hoping he could help the US-backed government find a reformist middle ground. Instead, Robert White became an outspoken critic of the assassinations and massacres being carried out by US-trained military units and private right-wing death squads. His views cost him his career but earned him the respect of many Salvadorans and the vindication of history.
His brief tenure in San Salvador was marked by atrocities such as the assassination of Catholic Archbishop Óscar Romero in March 1980 while he was saying Mass in the national cathedral, and the abduction and killing that December of four American women, two church workers, a nun and a lay missionary.
Whiteworked to promote human rights, economic reforms and political negotiations between leftist rebels and El Salvador's junta. But he found himself at loggerheads with the rightist military and establishment, which had powerful allies in Washington and Miami.
White began denouncing security abuses in diplomatic cables, then in interviews and congressional testimony. He called the right-wing leader Roberto D'Aubuisson a "pathological killer" and accused him of orchestrating the execution of Romero. White also accused the Salvadoran national guard of murdering the four American women, two of whom he had dined with the night before their disappearance. He was there when the women's bodies were dug up, and said angrily, "This time the bastards won't get away with it."
More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/robert-white-diplomat-who-served-in-el-salvador-but-angered-many-by-speaking-out-on-human-rights-abuses-in-the-country-10027275.html
Uribe administration directly involved in Supreme Court wiretaps: Former chief justice
Uribe administration directly involved in Supreme Court wiretaps: Former chief justice
Feb 5, 2015 posted by Nat Smith
The former President of Colombia’s Supreme Court has accused ex-Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of being directly involved in the wiretapping of the Supreme Court and others seemingly deemed inconvenient to the former administration.
Former chief justice Cesar Julio Valencia told weekly Semana that Maria del Pilar Hurtado, the former director of the now-defunct intelligence agency DAS, did not work alone and that the Uribe administration had given her the red light and subsequent support.
“There is no doubt that the orders to spy on me came from the Uribe government,” Valencia told Semana.
The former chief justice said he believed it most likely that the DAS director had been instructed by her superiors in the President’s Office.
“I do not think she acted on their own, she probably had someone more powerful than her who gave the orders” said Valencia.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/uribe-administration-directly-involved-supreme-court-wiretaps-former-chief-justice/
Scholarship students in Bogota receive hateful welcome messages from wealthy classmates
Scholarship students in Bogota receive hateful welcome messages from wealthy classmates
Feb 5, 2015 posted by Rebecca Florey
The new government scholarship program which allows more than 10,000 low-income students to study in the best universities in the country, has not been well received by some of the wealthy students who published a series of hateful messages on social media.
In a flurry of messages which often began with “I have nothing against the scholarship students, but …,” the scholarship students were being referred to as ‘thugs’ by the perturbed paying students.
The offensive messages began circulating on social networks relating to underprivileged youth who have been admitted to Bogota universities such as Los Andes and La Sabana, until recently only affordable by the most wealthy in the country.
On a university confessions page where the students normally wrote anonymously about the boy or girl they had a crush on, many students began posting offensive and accusatory messages suggesting that the new influx of underprivileged youths had led to robberies and thuggish behavior on campus.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/scholarship-students-bogota-receive-hateful-welcome-messages-wealthy-classmates/
The US Covert War on Venezuela in 2015 – Diary: Feb 4
The US Covert War on Venezuela in 2015 – Diary: Feb 4
By Arturo Rosales writing from Caracas
Wednesday, Feb 4, 2015
Government Counter Offensive well underway
Tuesday February 2nd was a fitting day to take enemy territory and prisoners in the ongoing media and economic war being waged against Venezuela, its government and people. This date, 16 years ago was when President Chávez was first sworn in as President in 1999 after his landslide victory the previous December.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) held a plenary meeting attended by around 14,000 delegates from all 24 states to plan the strategy for internal elections to postulate candidates for the December elections for the National Assembly (Congress) and to plan strategy to combat the economic war that has been waged by the business sector and property owning bourgeoisie against its own people.
President Maduro spoke in detail about the arrest and occupation of the 167 Farmatodo shops in the country and then went on to describe another important retailer and distributor of food that had been caught participating in the economic war against the people.
The supermarket chain Supermercados Día a Día has 36 hypermarkets up and down the country, located mainly in popular areas. Reports have shown that each day, every day, there were lines outside these outlets as people struggled to find basic products for their families. The directors of the chain had been to Miraflores Palace on at least two occasions to assure the Executive that they were “doing their best” to provide decent service and products to the customers. However, this assertion and demonstration of good will proved to be a well-crafted web of deceit.
When the Minister for Food Sovereignty and Security, Carlos Osorio, accompanied by Caracas Governor Ernesto Villegas, went to inspect the Supermerados Día a Día store in the popular area of La Yaguara in south west Caracas, they discovered the doors closed and a line of about 60 people waiting to be allowed entry to search for the products they needed.
Osorio challenged the duty manager and the people were allowed in to buy their goods. This irregularity led to an inspection of the warehouse and – lo and behold – the authorities discovered more than 2500 tons of food, cleaning and personal hygiene products hoarded there. Some of the corn flour needed to make traditional arepas had the date of being packaged on August 7th 2014 and was still sitting there. In fact, the country’s biggest private producer of food, The Polar Company, had over 1000 tons of products in this warehouse including corn cooking oil, margarine and the fabled corn flour.
More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_69274.shtml
A Peace Deal with Colombia's Marxist Guerrillas Won't Fix Latin America's Cocaine Problem
A Peace Deal with Colombia's Marxist Guerrillas Won't Fix Latin America's Cocaine Problem
February 4, 2015
By Steven Cohen
At last year's United Nations General Assembly, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos asked the world to imagine his country "without coca," the plant precursor to crystal cocaine. This "dream," which would have been unthinkable a decade ago, is now at least plausible, with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest rebel group, signing a preliminary peace agreement and partnering with the government to implement programs to replace coca crops with other plants.
But coca production has never been the focal point of the Colombian drug trade, and the FARC has only ever played a marginal role in moving cocaine to foreign markets. Colombia's broader drug problem is, and always has been, that drugs are illegal elsewhere, and the global drug war does not seem nearly as close to ending as the FARC's guerrilla insurgency. There's just too much money left on the table.
It was an accident of geography that brought cocaine to Colombia in the first place. Vast territories with little to no state presence and coasts on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans made the country a prime maritime shipping hub. Nestled between traditional growing regions to the south and Central American smuggling routes to the north, Colombia stood—and, thanks to Brazil's rise as a top consumer, remains—at the key crossroads of international supply and demand. Pablo Escobar, who has become as synonymous with cocaine as cocaine has with Colombia, built his empire as a middleman, not a producer.
The right-wing paramilitary groups funded, and in some cases even founded, by Escobar and other drug lords looking to mask their activities under the guise of Cold War counterinsurgency have played a far greater role in international trafficking than the FARC ever has. Indeed, the rebels' initial foray into the drug business was facilitated by the very groups whose mission, ostensibly, was to eliminate them.
More:
http://www.vice.com/read/why-peace-with-colombian-marxist-guerrillas-wont-fix-latin-americas-cocaine-problem-204
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