US amasses special ops in Puerto Rico, army in Colombia to oust Maduro – Russian Security Council
The US is “preparing for a military invasion” in Venezuela, Nikolai Patrushev told Russian media on Tuesday.
The relocation of American special forces’ units to Puerto Rico, the deployment of the US Army units to Colombia and other facts evidently show that Pentagon is enhancing its military in the region in order to use it in ousting… President [Nicolas] Maduro.
“The people of Venezuela understand this clearly,” Patrushev said, adding that this notion increases popular support for Maduro and drives the government to reject the aid offered by “an aggressor state.”
Maduro himself also recently called out the US for preparing to wage a war over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. He added that he believes that Washington is deliberately stirring discontent among the Venezuelan people.
“The US wants Venezuela’s oil and they are willing to go to war for that oil. They are trying to fabricate a crisis to justify political escalation and a military intervention to Venezuela,” the president said.
Pence threatens war in Venezuela at Colombia summit: “There is no turning back”
US Vice President Mike Pence delivered a bellicose speech before representatives of 14 Latin American countries at a meeting of the Lima Group in Bogotá, Colombia, yesterday. The remarks were timed to coincide with the US-orchestrated provocations at the Venezuelan border over the weekend, resulting in clashes that left several people dead.
Pence rehashed phrases plagiarized from speeches given by George W. Bush in the run-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, combining them with denunciations of socialism.
“There is no turning back,” Pence said. “All options are on the table.”
“A new day is coming in Latin America,” he continued. “In Venezuela and across the Western hemisphere, socialism is dying and liberty, prosperity and democracy are being reborn before our eyes.” Pence issued an ultimatum to the Venezuelan military, threatening that if it did not overthrow Maduro, “You will find no safe harbor, no easy exit, no way out. You will lose everything.”
US imperialism stages provocation on Venezuela’s borders
This weekend’s attempt by the US to deliver “humanitarian aid” to Venezuela was a staged provocation, with flatbed trucks serving as US imperialism’s modern equivalent of the Trojan horse.
In Cúcuta, Colombia, and Pacaraima, Brazil, officials of the right-wing Colombian and Brazilian governments, operating under the direction of the Trump administration, attempted to move trucks carrying food and medical supplies across the Venezuelan border. Though the US and its regional allies knew the Venezuelan government would not allow entry, they encouraged supporters of self-declared Venezuelan “interim president” Juan Guaidó, a member of the far-right Popular Will party, to charge the reinforced border crossings. Four people were killed and dozens injured in the ensuing clashes.
From a political standpoint, the provocation was a failure. There were no mass crowds of Venezuelans cheering the prospect of intervention by the US and its far-right Colombian and Brazilian allies. There were practically no defections from the Venezuelan armed forces.
