The US Covert War on Venezuela in 2015

[Judi Lynn]

The US Covert War on Venezuela in 2015

By Arturo Rosales and Les Blough in Venezuela

Wednesday, Jan 14, 2015



2014 was a year filled with the goodness and beauty that has made Venezuela one of the most livable countries on earth for the last 15 years. The music, art, climate, food and the spectacular beaches, stunning mountains and views and expansive plains are part of the charm. But it's the people themselves, their racial & ethnic plurality, sense of community, warm spirit, patience and the inevitable smile one receives immediately upon eye contact that brings joy to daily life here, even in the midst of adversity.
2014 was also a year here in Venezuela that was scarred by actions of the political opposition, funded by Washington and supported by the Western media. Bereft of support by the majority of Venezuelans and unable to gain power through a peaceful electoral process, the opposition resorted to: sabotage of the infrastructure (e.g. attacks on the electrical grid); hoarding and dumping food and daily household products to keep them off the retail markets; manipulating food distribution to create the appearance of “shortages;’ smuggling subsidized products across the border into Colombia for huge profits; attacks on the economy with speculation and an illegal black-market dollar system, driving up a manipulated rate of inflation with spiraling prices in retail markets; causing capital flight by abusing the government’s system of making dollars available for imports and leisure traveling and the violence we saw for 3 months from February to April in the guarimbas in which more than 40 people were killed under the pretext of “student protests.” The greater violence in 2014 ended with the assassination of the foremost leader of Venezuelan youth, youngest member of congress, Robert Serra along with his spouse in their home on October 1, 2014.

The attacks on the Venezuelan economy are manifold. The attempt to destroy the national currency, the bolivar, began in earnest in October 2012 after the re-election of former President Hugo Chávez Frías. At that time, the bolivar was trading at 13.4 bolivars to the dollar. By means of speculation and the illegal black-market dollar, the official exchange rate for most items was forced to soar to 50:1 and the black market dollar rate is currently at about 200:1 and increasing from week to week. By all these means, high prices, making food and products unavailable, standing in long lines waiting to purchase anything from laundry detergent to corn meal, electrical outages, etc, Washington is bent on making life as miserable as possible for the people to turn them against the government. Moreover, the violence is meant to cause fear and a climate of insecurity among the people – in a word, terrorism, laying blame on the government and to portray Venezuela in the media as one of the most dangerous countries on earth.

2015 promises to bring the same music, culture, climate, and smiling faces in the cities, towns, beaches, mountains and plains as all other years. The people are extremely patient and know the root causes of many problems. But given the US continuing focus to overthrow Venezuela’s socialist government and its unrelenting march for global dominance on other continents, it’s reasonable to expect that their attacks in 2015 will increase.

2015 will be an important nationwide election year for members of the National Assembly (parliament) and the assault on Venezuela this year will focus on turning the people against the government to gain control of the government through the National Assembly in the December elections.

More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_69015.shtml

[Bacchus4.0]

1. JL, look at the smiling faces that 2015 has brought in thanks to chavismo

You can hear the soothing sounds of el comandante in the background to accompany this blissful scene. What more could you want?

[polly7]

2. K&R. nt.

[Marksman_91]

3. I'm still waiting for any credible evidence to suggest that the US is responsible for Vzla's debacle

But of course, all you have is bullshit spewed from propaganda sites like AxisOfLogic and VenezuelaAnalysis. Your credibility in terms of your knowledge about Venezuela is really low at this point. Why do you even bother?

[Bacchus4.0]

4. I think its the last card in their hand

when all else fails, as it has, blame the US for everything.

[Judi Lynn]

5. A reminder of what observant US Americans knew back in 1975:

1975 Video: CIA Admits to Congress the Agency Uses Mainstream Media to Distribute Disinfo
Posted on January 14, 2015 by Melissa Melton

(Truthstream Media) It has been verified by a source who claims she was there that then-CIA Director William Casey did in fact say the controversial and often-disputed line “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false,” reportedly in 1981.

Despite Casey being under investigation by Congress for being involved in a major disinformation plot involving the overthrow of Libya’s Qaddafi in 1981, and despite Casey arguing on the record that the CIA should have a legal right to spread disinformation via the mainstream news that same year, this quote continues to be argued by people who weren’t there and apparently cannot believe a CIA Director would ever say such a thing.

But spreading disinfo is precisely what the CIA would — and did — do.

This 1975 clip of testimony given during a House Intelligence Committee hearing has the agency admitting on record that the CIA creates and uses disinformation against the American people.

More:
http://truthstreammedia.com/1975-video-cia-admits-to-congress-the-agency-uses-mainstream-media-to-distribute-disinfo/

(What a shame Democratic Senator Frank Church died far, far earlier than he should have.)

On edit:

Comment from Senator Frank Church in the article:

“I thought that it was a matter of real concern that planted stories intended to serve a national purpose abroad came home and were circulated here and believed here because this would mean that the CIA could manipulate the news in the United States by channeling it through some foreign country,” Democratic Idaho Senator Frank Church said at a press conference surrounding the hearing. Church chaired the Church Committee, a precursor to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was responsible for investigating illegal intelligence gathering by the NSA, CIA and FBI.

This exact tactic — planting disinformation in foreign media outlets so the disinfo would knowingly surface in the United States as a way of circumventing the rules on domestic operations — was specifically argued for as being legal simply because it did not originate on U.S. soil by none other than CIA Director William Casey in 1981.

As you recall from the _{George W Bush} occupation, we were told directly that they were doing this planting in other countries, and that some of them were bogus. They were very open about it. Guess they believed they were so powerful there was finally no one who could do anything about it if he/she/they wanted to do something about it.

[hack89]

6. So 40 year old history is relevant how?

America did something bad 40 years ago so they must be doing something bad today? Really?