Spanningen in Venezuela

[Harald]

De naaste buurman van Venezuela (BV-NL) heeft niet gereageerd of ....

1) te ver weg en hier in Nederland zitten we veilig
2) zal wel over waaien
3) er is niets aan de hand, met de kop in het zand

Als onze Oosterburen (Duitsland) nu eens een toestel neerschiet en het toestel stort in een Twents weiland neer, dan roepen we moord en brand dat zoiets zomaar niet kan en Rutte heeft gelijk contact met Merkel en nu .....

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

U.S. declares Venezuela a national security threat, sanctions top officials

By Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON  Mon Mar 9, 2015

(Reuters) - The United States on Monday declared Venezuela a national security threat and ordered sanctions against seven officials from the oil-rich country in the worst bilateral diplomatic dispute since socialist President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013.

U.S. President Barack Obama issued and signed the executive order, which senior administration officials said did not target Venezuela's energy sector or broader economy. But the move stokes tensions between Washington and Caracas just as U.S. relations with Cuba, a longtime U.S. foe in Latin America and key ally to Venezuela, are set to be normalized.

Declaring any country a threat to national security is the first step in starting a U.S. sanctions program. The same process has been followed with countries such as Iran and Syria, U.S. officials said.

The White House said the order targeted people whose actions undermined democratic processes or institutions, had committed acts of violence or abuse of human rights, were involved in prohibiting or penalizing freedom of expression, or were government officials involved in public corruption.

"Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets and their use of U.S. financial systems," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.

"We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government's efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela's problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent," he added.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez told reporters that Caracas would respond to the U.S. move soon and later tweeted that Venezuela was calling home its charge d'affaires in Washington for consultations.

The two countries have not had full diplomatic representation since 2008, when late socialist leader Hugo Chavez expelled then-U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy. Washington at the time responded by expelling Venezuelan envoy Bernardo Alvarez.

The list of sanctioned individuals includes: Gustavo Gonzalez, head of state intelligence service Sebin; Manuel Perez, director of the national police; and Justo Noguero, a former National Guard commander who now runs state mining firm CVG. It also includes three other military officers and a state prosecutor.

The individuals' would have their property and interests in the United States blocked or frozen and would be denied entry into the United States. U.S. citizens and permanent residents would be prohibited from doing business with them.

BLAME GAME

The White House also called on Venezuela to release all political prisoners, including "dozens of students," and warned against blaming Washington for its problems.

"We've seen many times that the Venezuelan government tries to distract from its own actions by blaming the United States or other members of the international community for events inside Venezuela," Earnest said in the statement. "These efforts reflect a lack of seriousness on the part of the Venezuelan government to deal with the grave situation it faces."

U.S. officials told reporters in a conference call that the executive order did not target the Venezuelan people or economy and stressed that upcoming legislative elections should be held without intimidation of the government's opponents.

The sanctions effectively confirm Venezuela as the United States' primary adversary in Latin America, a label that was for decades applied to Communist-run Cuba until Washington and Havana announced a diplomatic breakthrough in December.

Washington said last week it would respond through diplomatic channels to Venezuela's demand for it cut the U.S. Embassy's staff in Caracas after the government called for a plan within 15 days to reduce staff to 17 from 100 at the American facility.

Commercial ties between Venezuela and the United States have largely been unaffected by diplomatic flare-ups, which were common during the 14-year-rule of Chavez.

The United States is Venezuela's top trading partner, and the OPEC member in 2014 remained the fourth-largest supplier of crude to the United States at an average of 733,000 barrels per day - despite a decade-long effort by Caracas to diversify its oil shipments to China and India.

Opposition leader and twice-presidential candidate Henrique Capriles told Reuters the sanctions were a problem for a corrupt elite in the Maduro government, but not ordinary Venezuelans.

"It's not a problem with Venezuela or with Venezuelans; it's a problem for the corrupt ones. It doesn't affect we Venezuelans."

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton, additional reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Andrew Cawthorne in Caracas; editing by G Crosse)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/09/us-usa-venezuela-idUSKBN0M51NS20150309?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

[Huzaar1]

reden is dat die landen stil zijnomdat Cuba al die landen domineert samen met Venezuela.

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

The Simple Reason Venezuela's Neighbours Won't Do Anything To Stop The Violence

Linette Lopez  March 27, 2014

An anti-government demonstrator, with a bleeding bullet hole drawn on her forehead, takes part in a protest in front of an office of the Organisation of American States, OAS, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, March 21, 2014. Opposition lawmaker Maria Corina Machado is scheduled to speak before the OAS council in a closed-door session Friday in Washington, D.C., presenting the situation in her country where at least 28 people have been killed in daily anti-government protests that began in early February.

When Maria Corina Machado, a leader of the opposition movement protesting in Venezuela, went to Washington, D.C., last week to speak to a group of Latin American countries about violence in the streets, she was completely shut out.

The Organisation of American States not only voted to keep her speech off the record, but also voted overwhelmingly not to discuss the situation at all.

There are two reasons for that. One is obvious: Venezuela has ideological allies in countries that consider themselves even slightly socialist. That's Cuba, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil, to name a few.

The other reason is less obvious, but quite simple: oil.

Since 2005, 17 regional countries including Jamaica, Nicaragua, Honduras, most small Caribbean islands, Haiti, and more, have been part of a program called Petrocaribe. It's basically an agreement in which Venezuela sells or trades oil to member nations at rock-bottom prices.

Guatemala joined but withdrew at the end of last year, saying that Venezuela didn't deliver as good a deal as the country expected.

So last week when Machado appealed to the OAS, she was appealing to a bunch of Petrocaribe members. As a result, all but one of the Caribbean nations voted against her (with Barbados abstaining), as did Nicaragua and El Salvador. These countries may not have any socialist leanings, but they have love for Hugo Chavez and his legacy.

The Dominican Republic, for example, isn't Venezuela's ideological ally, but it's hard to censure a country that sells you 40,000 barrels of oil every day for 5% of the price. The rest of the amount is paid over 25 years at an interest rate of 1%.

This is huge for countries where per capita income can be as low as $US1,300 (Haiti).

"Venezuela is teaching an impressive lesson to the world that solidarity and generosity can prevail over speculation, greed and unquenchable thirst for wealth," said former Dominican President Leonel Fernandez at the group's inception.

Nicaragua trades jeans, sugar, and coffee with Venezuela for oil. Petrocaribe did Haiti the favour of erasing all of its oil debt after a devastating earthquake hit in 2005, and sends Jamaica enough oil to power 95% of the country.

According to a report by think tank The Brookings Institute, this leaves Venezuela's opposition with limited options in terms of who it can successfully appeal to for help.


Within Venezuela, people have suggested that the Catholic Church and maybe Pope Francis mediate. From within the region, former Brazilian president Lula da Silva and Uruguayan president Mujica have indicated willingness to act as brokers. Neither regional leader can be considered neutral, but either individually or as a group, they can be considered relatively honest brokers. So long as they are perceived as seeking the interests of a stable and democratic Venezuela that will work toward reconciliation, they can become acceptable.

In this instance, it's possible that Venezuela's deteriorating economy could work in the opposition's favour. Venezuela may have more oil than Saudi Arabia, but it may not be able to afford basically giving it away if the country is really broke.

It could try to raise oil and gas prices at home, but when the government tried to do that in 1989, violent riots broke out in Caracas.

Another important thing to note here is that Venezuela still exports 40% of its oil to the United States, despite their horrid diplomatic relationship.

If Washington wants to, perhaps it could put some pressure on that.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/why-venezuelas-neighbors-wont-do-anything-to-stop-the-violence-2014-3

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Venezuela arrests three generals for 'plotting coup'

Reuters | 2014-3-27 
By Reuters 

Venezuela has arrested three air force generals accused of plotting a coup in league with opposition politicians during the country's rumbling civil unrest, the president said on Tuesday.

The move follows weeks of violence around anti-government protests that have killed 36 people in the nation's worst unrest for a decade.

Venezuela's socialist government has routinely accused its rivals of scheming to seize power by force and assassinate its leaders, although it has rarely followed up with concrete proof of such claims.

"Last night we captured three generals ... who tried to raise the air force against the legitimate, constitutional government," President Nicolas Maduro said on state TV.

He did not name the officers, but said the plot was revealed by colleagues of the generals who were "alarmed" when they heard of the conspiracy. The three were now in custody of military courts.

"This group has direct links with sectors of the opposition. They were saying that this would be the decisive week ... in the belief that Venezuela did not know how to defend itself."

Hard-line protesters are demanding that Maduro resign, while he says they are seeking a coup like the one 12 years ago that briefly ousted his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.

Reuters

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/851029.shtml#.UzMHhWdOVjo

[Zander]

Enigszins verbazend dat er zo weinig aandacht in Nederland is voor de gebeurtenissen in een buurland van ons koninkrijk, gebeurtenissen die zo maar nog verder uit de hand kunnen lopen waarbij het koninkrijk geconfronteerd zou kunnen worden met een veiligheidsprobleem.

Verbaasd mij eigenlijk niets. De politiek steekt al tijden zijn kop in het zand als het gaat om onrust in de wereld. Of ze willen het niet zien of ze zijn gewoon te druk met populair proberen te zijn in plaats van regeren en doen wat het beste is.

Ook onze veiligheid is gebonden aan beschikbaar budget en de heren en dames in het Haagse willen alleen budget verspillen aan zaken waar ze stemmen mee winnen.

[Ace1]

En straks huilen met scheepsladingen vol Venezolaanse vluchtelingen of ander politiek/militaire inspiraties.

Venezolaanse vluchtelingen gaan eerder naar Columbia of Brazilie

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Ze hebben helaas het ongeluk dat men ook in Oekraïne bezig is.

En straks huilen met scheepsladingen vol Venezolaanse vluchtelingen of ander politiek/militaire inspiraties.

[Flyguy]

Ze hebben helaas het ongeluk dat men ook in Oekraïne bezig is.

[Elzenga]

Enigszins verbazend dat er zo weinig aandacht in Nederland is voor de gebeurtenissen in een buurland van ons koninkrijk, gebeurtenissen die zo maar nog verder uit de hand kunnen lopen waarbij het koninkrijk geconfronteerd zou kunnen worden met een veiligheidsprobleem.

hebben we even geen tijd voor nu eerst NSS2014 ;-)

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Weer betogers Venezuela dood

Enigszins verbazend dat er zo weinig aandacht in Nederland is voor de gebeurtenissen in een buurland van ons koninkrijk, gebeurtenissen die zo maar nog verder uit de hand kunnen lopen waarbij het koninkrijk geconfronteerd zou kunnen worden met een veiligheidsprobleem.

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Weer betogers Venezuela dood

zondag 23 mrt 2014

In de Venezolaanse hoofdstad Caracas zijn drie mensen doodgeschoten die meededen aan een betoging tegen president Maduro.

De oproerpolitie raakte slaags met een kleine groep demonstranten die probeerden een snelweg in een buitenwijk te blokkeren. Een man op een motor opende het vuur op de betogers.

Studenten

Eerder hadden duizenden Venezolanen vreedzaam betoogd in het centrum van de stad. Ze eisten onder meer de vrijlating van studenten die de laatste tijd zijn opgepakt.

De demonstranten protesteren al bijna twee maanden tegen de hoge prijzen en het gebrek aan eerste levensbehoeften in de winkels.

Het dodental van de onrust is nu opgelopen tot 34.

Bron: NOS

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Opinion: Russian Missiles Positioned In Caracas Are Ominous Sign Repression Will Worsen

By Joseph Humire
Published March 21, 2014/
Fox News Latino

Three U.S. diplomats, the Panamanian mission, and even CNN Español, have recently been expelled from Venezuela under the pretext of "foreign intervention" in the Bolivarian Republic. Straight from the playbook of the late Hugo Chávez, his heir apparent Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has repeatedly accused the United States of intervening in domestic affairs and recently sent his Foreign Minister, Elías Jaua, on a public tour to "denounce" the U.S. and accuse the Secretary of State, John Kerry, of "...encourage[ing] the protests in Venezuela" and went as far as to call him a "murderer."


Maduro is right in that Venezuelans should be wary of foreign intervention on their soil, but frankly the United States is the least likely candidate to take such action.

- Joseph Humire

In reality, it is Maduro who has invited foreign intervention into Venezuela on behalf of the Bolivarian government circumventing its sovereignty to Cuba, and calling on Iran, Russia, and China to aid and assist its violent suppression and intimidation of the Venezuelan people. 

Shortly after the student mobilizations began on February 12th, a surge of armed pro-government civilian militias took to the streets of Venezuela, terrorizing the public by beating protestors, torturing political prisoners, and shooting some of the students. These militias, including civilian snipers and motorcycle gangs, all part of the so-called "colectivos," are earning a reputation as one of the most violent, repressive civilian militias since the Iranian Basij organized a similar crack down on protestors during the Green Revolution of 2009.

The similarity, however, is more than speculation. 

In April of 2009, the current Iranian commander of the Basij paramilitary force, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi accompanied then Iranian Defense Minister General Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar on a high-level visit to Caracas upon invitation by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his then foreign minister Maduro.

According to sources within the Venezuelan military, General Naqdi's role in these high level meetings was to serve as an advisor to Venezuela's Ministries of Defense and Interior to aid in training their civilian militias, i.e. the infamous colectivos.

This advisory support is now playing out on the streets of several cities in Venezuela, as the colectivos have enhanced their capabilities to be able to serve as Maduro's quick reaction force against protestors and opposition forces. Maduro's Minister of Prisons, Iris Varela, shamefully bragged about the vigilante terror, when tweeting that the opposition is "scared" of the colectivos and called the armed thugs a "fundamental pillar in the defense of the homeland."

Using civilian militias to shoot students and beat protestors is only one tool in Maduro's repressive apparatus. Other tools have come at the hands of one of Venezuela's top benefactors — China. According to Jane's Defense Weekly, at least two Chinese-made military systems have recently been battle tested on the streets of Venezuela.

The first is the Norinco VN-4 armored personnel carrier that has been recently deployed by the Bolivarian National Guard to patrol Venezuelan neighborhoods and intimidate its residents. The VN-4 is a multi-role, light armored vehicle with a light machine gun mounted on top. Venezuela purchased 141 of these armored vehicles in 2012 for this type of contingency, and they are now rolling through the streets of Venezuela in the face of the protests. The other system is the Shaanxi Y-8C military transport aircraft, of which Venezuela purchased eight from China for $353 million back in 2011. These Y-8C aircraft were seen on the tarmac of several Venezuelan airports last month, made public through an array of photos posted on Twitter that claimed Cuban Special Forces were disembarking this Chinese-made aircraft.

While Venezuela's Interior Minister denied the use of Cuban troops on Venezuelan soil, there is plenty of open source evidence to refute his claim. Some estimates approximate as many as 50,000 Cuban personnel in Venezuela, with a close hand on everything from immigration systems to training civilian militias, to providing personal protection to Nicolás Maduro. With protests spiraling out of Maduro's control, Cuba placed several hundred of its paramilitary troops on two-hour flights from Havana to Caracas, embedding their infamous Avispas Negras ("Black Wasps") in Venezuela's national security apparatus. Several eyewitness accounts have spotted Cuban agents on the streets of Venezuela disguised in military and police uniforms. 

Both Cuba and China have a large stake in maintaining the Venezuelan regime, and their incentives are simple — oil. Cuba imports approximately 115,000 barrels of oil a day (much at no cost) from Venezuela to avoid a complete economic calamity on the island. While China has invested billions of dollars into the Venezuelan economy in exchange for an agreed-upon 600,000 barrels of oil a day (at well below market value) over ten years.

While having the world's largest oil deposits has attracted some, having one of the largest arms markets in the region brought Russia to the table. The Latin American arms market is estimated to reach about $50 billion in the next decade, with Russia hoping to capture a significant market share. Venezuela has provided the gateway for Russian ambitions in this market, buying 76 percent of the total Russian arms sales to the region.

The recent unrest in Venezuela can only strengthen this relationship.

While Nicolás Maduro was repressing student protestors, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Moscow's plans to install military bases in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, among five other non-Latin American countries.

A few days later, on February 26th, a Russian Vishnya-class intelligence ship, the Viktor Leonov CCB-175, was identified in the Havana harbor, just hours from Venezuela. This spy ship arrived unannounced, fully equipped with electronic eavesdropping equipment and weaponry. That same day, several Russian-made surface-to-air missiles were relocated from the Venezuelan military industrial hub of Maracay, to the capital of Caracas. These particular missiles, the S-125 Pechora 2M, were sold to Venezuela by Russia in 2009, and delivered to the Bolivarian Republic as recently as a couple weeks before the mass mobilizations began.

These low altitude surface-to-air missiles are the same kind of anti-aircraft weapons that Vladimir Putin sold to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which limited the option of placing a "no-fly" zone over Syria as Assad unleashed chemical weapons on his people. The repositioning of the Pechora missiles to Caracas is an ominous indication that the repression in Venezuela will get much worse if the protests continue.

Nicolás Maduro is right in that Venezuelans should be wary of foreign intervention on their soil, but frankly the United States is the least likely candidate to take such action. Whether it's the oil interests of Cuba and China, or the potential loss of a launch pad for Russia and Iran, Venezuelans need to worry much more about Maduro's allies who, if things get worse, may send aircraft carriers to the Caribbean coast of Venezuela—or perhaps they already have? 

While Maduro's claims of foreign intervention stand in sharp contrast to U.S. inattention to events in the Americas for well over a decade, the growing intervention of Cuba, China, Russia and Iran has long posed a clear and present danger to the countries of the region, and by all evidence is now being used to repress the Venezuelan people themselves.

Joseph M. Humire is the executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS), a global think tank based in Washington D.C. and the co-editor of the forthcoming book "Iran's Strategic Penetration of Latin America" in 2014.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/opinion/2014/03/21/opinion-russian-missiles-repositioned-in-caracas-are-ominous-sign/

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Doden bij protesten in Venezuela

donderdag 13 mrt 2014

In de Venezolaanse stad Valencia zijn drie mensen doodgeschoten bij demonstraties. Het gaat om een student, een lid van de Nationale Garde en een derde man. Drie andere leden van de Garde en enkele demonstranten raakten gewond.

Bij ongeregeldheden in de wijk Isabelica, waar de oppositie sterk is, vielen twee doden. Een man die zijn huis aan het schilderen was, werd geraakt door een rondvliegende kogel. De student werd doodgeschoten tijdens het demonstreren. Het lid van de Nationale Garde kwam om bij een schietpartij elders in de stad.

De inwoners van Isabelica blokkeren al weken de straten en gooien stenen naar de politie. Ze zijn ontevreden over de toenemende werkloosheid en de schaarse basisvoorzieningen. Volgens de oppositie huurt de overheid mensen in om de demonstranten aan te vallen.

Grote onvrede

In Venezuela wordt al een maand lang gedemonstreerd in verschillende steden. Daarbij zijn tot nu toe 25 mensen om het leven gekomen. De Venezolanen hebben genoeg van de enorme inflatie, die vorig jaar op 56 procent uitkwam.

Ook de lange rijen bij de supermarkten en de hoge moordcijfers zijn reden voor veel Venezolanen om de straat op te gaan.

Bron: NOS

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Venezuela: meerdere acties in Caracas


24-02-2014

CURAÇAO – Aanhangers van de Venezolaanse oppositie hebben maandag op meerdere hoofdwegen in de hoofdstad Caracas versperringen opgeworpen. Het verkeer kwam in de ochtendspits op veel plaatsen tot stilstand en enkele buslijnen rijden voorlopig niet.

De politie maakte al snel een begin met het opruimen van de barricades van vuilnis en puin. Dat verliep zonder opstootjes. Ook in de provinciesteden Maracaibo en Valencia blokkeerden antiregeringsdemonstranten enkele wegen.

Generaal
Betogers tegen de regering zijn gisteren ook op de bres gesprongen voor de Venezolaanse generaal buiten dienst Angel Vivas. Maduro beval zaterdag de arrestatie van Vivas, maar de oud-generaal weigert mee te werken. "Ik zal mij niet overgeven", riep de 57-jarige Vivas, gekleed in een kogelvrij vest en gewapend met twee vuurwapens, naar een menigte juichende aanhangers.

Barricaden
De gepensioneerde generaal had via Twitter laten weten dat een groep 'Cubaanse en Venezolaanse handlangers' naar hem op zoek was. Na deze tweet schoten aanhangers Vivas te hulp en richtten barricaden buiten zijn huis op. Maduro beschuldigt Vivas van het aanmoedigen van betogers om gevaarlijke boobytraps in de hoofdstad te plaatsen.

Invloedrijk oppositiefiguur
Vivas werd een invloedrijk oppositiefiguur nadat hij in 2007 ontslag nam als hoofd van de ingenieursafdeling van het ministerie van defensie. Hij weigerde zijn ondergeschikten de door het communistische Cuba geïnspireerde eed 'vaderland, socialisme of de dood' te laten zweren.

Onrust
Het is de laatste weken erg onrustig in Venezuela. De vlam sloeg op 12 februari in de pan tijdens een antiregeringsbetoging in de hoofdstad Caracas. Sindsdien zijn zeker elf mensen om het leven gekomen bij gevechten tussen ordetroepen en demonstranten.

Onversneden socialisme
De betogers verwijten de regering van president Nicolas Maduro de torenhoge inflatie, de welig tierende misdaad en de economische problemen van het land. Venezuela is rijk aan olie, maar kan niet voorzien in allerlei basisbehoeften van de bevolking. Dat ligt volgens de oppositie aan het onversneden socialistische beleid van de regering-Maduro.

© Novum

http://www.versgeperst.com/nieuws/246861/venezuela-meerdere-acties-in-caracas.html