Crisis in Venezuela

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

First good thing Trump has done. Though Hillary would've done it earlier.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

U.S. Coups™: Overthrowing Latin American Governments since 1823

Except Maduro is no longer a democratically-elected leader, so even if it was a coup (which it is clearly not, especially with the military still backing Maduro), it would be different.

1,500 international observers would disagree with you.

Maduro is the legitimate leader of Venezuela. This coup attempt by an international, Right-wing, imperialistic alliance is inexcusable; they have no power to recognize an unelected, illegitimate leader of another country. Is Maduro corrupt? Hell yes. He’s also a frequent violator of numerous human and civil rights. No question about that. But, he’s far, far from being among the world’s worst, and yet America, Canada, etc... are perfectly fine not only tolerating, but partnering with considerably worse states, such as Saudi Arabia. The reason behind all of this is obvious: oil. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, yet they aren’t particularly friendly with the world’s imperialistic powers (headed by the US).

Thankfully, Venezuela’s armed forces have already expressed their alliance with Maduro’s legitimate government.

It’s funny how everyone on this forum loses their collective sh** over simply alleged Russian meddling in American elections, scream about the Fascism of Trump and Bolsonaro, then at the same time champion American-Brazilian partnership in an attempted coup.

Trump is awful. Bolsonaro is awful. Maduro is awful.

Pretty simple and not contradictory.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm not even sure what people posting this even mean - are they arguing that it is preferable to avoid hypocrisy by supporting all dictatorships, including Maduro's, than to support some but not others, or what?

Preferably supporting no dictatorships would be sufficient.

That's what the liberals here are supporting. No,one's singing the praises of Saudi Arabia.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm not even sure what people posting this even mean - are they arguing that it is preferable to avoid hypocrisy by supporting all dictatorships, including Maduro's, than to support some but not others, or what?

Preferably supporting no dictatorships would be sufficient.

That's what the liberals here are supporting. No,one's singing the praises of Saudi Arabia.

Right, so we're pointing out the blatant hypocrisy of the U.S. government lecturing Venezuela and other countries on "democracy" when they themselves clearly do not support it. I'd rather American policy be focused on refusing to sell arms to the Saudis than to meddling in the affairs of country in the midst of an internal crisis, when we know damn well that the U.S. doesn't give two sh**ts about their government anyway.

So does that mean that random people on an Internet forum with no connection to the government can't call Maduro a piece of sh!t and hope for his government to fall?

I mean it's not hypocritical for me to both support ending arms sales to the Saudis and support recognizing Guaidó. And mind you, most Democrats in Congress DID vote to cut off arms sales to the Saudis.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Imagine if after the new Democratic House was sworn in, the Supreme Court stepped in and basically said that they were the new legislative House body and the House could just be ignored. And they later backed down after massive public outcry and let the House take control again, but then the Senate went ahead and voted on some bills stripping the House of most of its powers and abilities to pass legislation (obviously after abolishing the filibuster) and bypassed the House and just sent said bills to Trump's desk to sign (which the Supreme Court says was OK.) And if the House ever did anything they didn't like would just pass another bill bypassing the House stripping it of its power. And then when Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, etc. announced their campaigns, the Republicans in the Senate just went ahead and disqualified them as candidates. And as a result of that and any other remotely serious Democratic candidate being disqualified Trump's 2020 opponent ended up being that perennial candidate who's in federal prison for mail fraud and got almost 40% of the vote in West Virginia in 2012.

If what the Maduro-created National Assembly did (and frankly the Republican Senate has MORE democratic legitimacy than it does) is OK and his "re-election" was democratically legitimate, then all of the above is perfectly OK as well, as would be Trump's re-election in 2020 under those conditions.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Maduro is the one denying "the right of the Venezuelan people to self-determination". The Venezuelans elected an opposition legislature so he took action to strip its powers and set up a sham alternate legislature instead, and then a sham election with all his major opposition disqualified.

There's no question that Guaidó would defeat Maduro in an actual free and fair election.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

https://twitter.com/dylanmatt/status/1088921862846013443?s=19

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Guaido's chief of staff kidnapped.