Crisis in Venezuela

[Karpatsky]

Russia deploying troops and arms to Caracas: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47688711

[dead0man]

Russia deploying troops and arms to Caracas: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47688711

does that classify as "military" "massing"?

[Karpatsky]

Russia deploying troops and arms to Caracas: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47688711

does that classify as "military" "massing"?

Obviously not, because they aren't American.

[Crumpets]

Russia confirms it sent troops to Venezuela, says they have "every right" to be there, doesn't give exact numbers.

https://apnews.com/c24e9be0ab1f4347ac659d0f8f47b7bb

[The Simpsons Cinematic Universe]

Sure as there may be many issues in Venezuela, and some non-negligible portion of them directly the fault of the government, not supporting US attempts to overthrow Maduro, for me, come from the broader context of US-Latin America relations and how the Western media has covered the situation there previously.

It's not as though the coup in 2003 wasn't extremely broadly supported in the US and similar claims to the ones being made now were taken for granted as true as well. If we were lied to about Venezuela then, why not now? The (historically small and extremely privileged, less so now) US funded opposition has engaged in sabotage tactics. The US has imposed sanctions uniquely crafted to affect not just government officials, but the entire population of Venezuela. With all of this going against it, it's inevitable the government will make some serious mistakes. And yet, again - there is also a huge media incentive to cover Venezuela as negatively as possible, and so there are some huge lies about the situation out there as well.

The center of the issue is that Venezuela's over-reliance on oil caused it to spiral into crisis, and the US used this opportunity to escalate the situation, just as they have tried to destabilize Venezuela for years. The last thing to do is to give in to the power which was trying for years to destabilize Venezuela.

[BenBurch]

American foreign policy has, for the past couple of decades, been schizophrenic.  I think criticizing foreign leaders and using non-military diplomacy is okay, but we shouldn't really go any further until we've straightened ourselves out.

[PSOL]

Opposition-aligned National Assembly approves additions to PDVSA Ad-Hoc board

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

'Large' IMF majority on Venezuela leader issue needed: Lagarde

Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the IMF “can only be guided by the membership, so it’s not a question of us deciding” whether to help in the event that Venezuela’s government reaches out to the Fund.

“It has to be a large majority of the membership actually recognizing diplomatically the authorities that they regard as legitimate,” Lagarde said in a press conference at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington.

[Skye]

https://twitter.com/jguaido/status/1123161692219686912

Guaidó is in the Carlota Air Base, in eastern Caracas, surrounded by the military, and calling for action. Behind him is Leopoldo López, who was the nation's most notorious political prisoner.

I'm shaking.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

CNN is reporting it as an attempted coup.

[PSOL]

It begins...

[Woody]

Trump needs to send in the army ASAP.

[PSOL]

Trump needs to send in the army ASAP.

Because proving Maduro right on recent events and galvanizing the Chavistas would work wonders on bringing peace to the region. Not to mention back home, with the president not even having a people’s mandate for this war, not to mention his presidency, in the first place.

[LoneStarDem]

It's still early, but I know that Maduro has Russia, PRC, Mexico (AMLO sticking with his half-assed policy of non-intervention crap is tacitly backing Maduro), Cuba, Iran, NK, Turkey, etc., in his corner.

Plus half of the Venezuelan Military is behind him as well.

Something tells me we're going to see a repeat of the 2016 Turkey failed coup d'état & we all know what happened to the coup letters in that one....

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Come on Maduro, hold on.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Trump needs to send in the army ASAP.

Because proving Maduro right on recent events and galvanizing the Chavistas would work wonders on bringing peace to the region. Not to mention back home, with the president not even having a people’s mandate for this war, not to mention his presidency, in the first place.

^^^^
Trump supporters would revolt if he deployed ground troops into any potential conflict there. Plus as PSOL noted, any such action would only dramatically worsen the situation.

[LoneStarDem]

Trump needs to send in the army ASAP.

Because proving Maduro right on recent events and galvanizing the Chavistas would work wonders on bringing peace to the region. Not to mention back home, with the president not even having a people’s mandate for this war, not to mention his presidency, in the first place.

^^^^
Trump supporters would revolt if he deployed ground troops into any potential conflict there. Plus as PSOL noted, any such action would only dramatically worsen the situation.

US Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) strongly believes the future of the Western Hemisphere is at stake considering PRC, Russia, Iran, Turkey, etc., are upping the ante against the United States for dominance of the Western Hemisphere.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Trump needs to send in the army ASAP.

Because proving Maduro right on recent events and galvanizing the Chavistas would work wonders on bringing peace to the region. Not to mention back home, with the president not even having a people’s mandate for this war, not to mention his presidency, in the first place.

^^^^
Trump supporters would revolt if he deployed ground troops into any potential conflict there. Plus as PSOL noted, any such action would only dramatically worsen the situation.

US Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) strongly believes the future of the Western Hemisphere is at stake considering PRC, Russia, Iran, Turkey, etc., are upping the ante against the United States for dominance of the Western Hemisphere.

Adam Kinzinger can go f—k himself, the future of the Hemisphere is not at stake because some tinpot dictator has a handful of Russian advisers and a few Cuban doctors.

[_]

Come on Maduro, hold on.

Why, why would you want Maduro to stay in power?

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Come on Maduro, hold on.

Why, why would you want Maduro to stay in power?

I am sick and tired of American backed and sometimes even done coups and regime changes and stupid foreign policy, enough already of the "democracy" thumping propaganda machine.

[LoneStarDem]

Sounds like Maduro & his loyalists in the Venezuelan Military are cracking down on the opposition hard.

[The Free North]

Come on Maduro, hold on.

The  is wrong with you?

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Come on Maduro, hold on.

The  is wrong with you?

Not subscribing to the toxic Cheney/Bolton style foreign policy and propaganda, that is why Gabbard is also awesome (besides a couple areas)

[Karpatsky]

Come on Maduro, hold on.

Why, why would you want Maduro to stay in power?

I am sick and tired of American backed and sometimes even done coups and regime changes and stupid foreign policy, enough already of the "democracy" thumping propaganda machine.

Respectfully, pull your head out of your rear end and learn some damn empathy. You are wishing millions of people to continue living under autocracy and poverty to spite the American foreign policy establishment.

[LoneStarDem]

Come on Maduro, hold on.

Why, why would you want Maduro to stay in power?

I am sick and tired of American backed and sometimes even done coups and regime changes and stupid foreign policy, enough already of the "democracy" thumping propaganda machine.

Respectfully, pull your head out of your rear end and learn some damn empathy. You are wishing millions of people to continue living under autocracy and poverty to spite the American foreign policy establishment.

You just took the words out of my mouth. I was thinking about saying the same thing, but in much more expletives deleted language.