© Reuters / Bruno KellyA man hurls stones at the Venezuela border in Pacaraima, Brazil February, 23, 2019
The US-backed opposition's call for a "human avalanche" to force American aid into Venezuela has erupted in violent clashes. Tensions were running high and the opposition soon claimed that government forces have killed civilians.
Self-proclaimed "interim president" Juan Guaido had called on his followers to create a "human wave" and bring the "avalanche" of humanitarian aid across the borders from Brazil and Colombia on Saturday. He'd crossed into Colombia unmolested the day before, to attend a concert extravaganza in support of regime change and organized by British mogul Richard Branson. Rather than lead the charge across the bridges himself, however,
Guaido was nowhere to be seen on Saturday afternoon, RT correspondent Dan Cohen
reported from Cucuta, Colombia.
Rocks, fire & tear gasOpposition supporters clashed with Venezuelan border security forces in several hotspots on Saturday,
pelting police officers with rocks and setting tires on fire. In one instance, protesters ripped up a tree and used it as a battering ram against Venezuelan police vehicles.
While the Tienditas bridge - featured in a lot of Western media reports about the tensions on the Venezuela-Colombia border, but never opened for traffic - remained calm, there were several incidents at the other two bridges in the area, and
police had to use tear gas on several occasions.
Another shocking incident happened at Simon Bolivar Bridge, where
three apparent defectors who the government in Caracas called 'terrorists,' hijacked armored carrier vehicles and rammed through the border posts into Colombia, injuring several people with total disregard for civilian lives. With the military mostly maintaining loyalty to the Maduro government,
only some 60 servicemen, including a number of officers, have defected so far - a rate that displeases both the opposition and officials in Washington.
Fake Red Cross & torched aid trucksAt least one truck attempting to get into Venezuela was
set on fire,
apparently before it could cross the border. Opposition activists circulated a photograph of the burning vehicle on the Francisco de Paula Santander bridge, though it was not clear who torched it and whether is was done deliberately or happened accidentally.
Meanwhile
the world's largest international aid organization has demanded that "unaffiliated" activists at the Venezuela-Colombia border not use their insignia, as it risks "jeopardizing our neutrality, impartiality & independence," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
said.
Armed 'masked men' & reports of casualtiesWith a lot of unconfirmed
reports and videos circulating on social media,
two people were reportedly killed in Santa Elena de Uairen, which is near the Venezuelan border with the Brazilian state of Roraima. One of the videos shows people being carried away after what were said to be clashes between security forces and Guaido supporters.
Another video was apparently filmed in San Antonio del Tachira, on the Venezuelan side of the border with Cucuta, Colombia, and shows
a masked man holding what appears to be a pistol, and several shots ringing out as a distressed woman recording the scene cries out that "colectivos" were shooting people in the street - referring to supporters of the Venezuelan government that the US and the opposition have accused of extortion and political violence.
The video ends with several still photos of masked men. RT has not yet been able to verify its authenticity.
US aid a 'Trojan horse' & 'PR stunt'?While the opposition claims that some of the US aid shipments have managed to enter the country, there has been no confirmation of this. Independent journalist Eva Golinger has
warned that there is "lots of false news and videos circulating," with the goal to "provoke violent confrontation as a means to justify intervention" - and opinion shared by other political experts RT spoke with.
Caracas has
denounced the US aid shipments as a "trojan horse" intended to bolster Guaido and undermine its authority, pointing out that US sanctions and its trade blockade were the cause of Venezuela's economic woes.
In response to the violence and provocations along the borders, Maduro cut diplomatic ties with the "fascist" Colombian government and addressed a rally in the capital, calling on the people to take to the streets to demonstrate their support for the country's sovereignty - and show the military that they have the full support of the public.
Comment: John Wight's comments
to RT on the aid stunt are on point:
The battle over 'humanitarian convoys' is just a big PR operation designed to provoke scenes of violence and justify further US intervention to oust Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela, political experts have told RT.
"This is an attempt to set out a pretext for some kind of intervention," political analyst and journalist John Wight told RT. "The Red Cross and all the other international aid agencies are refusing to touch this because they know that this is a Trojan horse, deployed to try to foment the kind of scenes we're seeing at the border."
Considering the US history of regime-change operations in Latin America, in particular how the hawkish US envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams helped smuggle weapons into Nicaragua, William Mallinson, a professor at Guglielmo Marconi University in Italy, warned that "leopards don't change their spots."
We're seeing a very big PR operation... US doesn't care about welfare of Venezuelan people.
The crisis in Venezuela was to a high degree "directly caused by the United States' sanctions and embargoes," Mallinson said, asserting that opposition leader Juan Guaido was simply picked by the US to do their bidding, selected to secure Washington's political and economic interests.
While Mallinson stressed that the US-led 'humanitarian' intervention might be aimed at keeping the country "as much as possible away from Russia and China," Wight slammed the American policies as a pure form of "gangsterism."
"Does anybody really think that Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, John Bolton Elliott Abrams care one bit about the welfare of the Venezuelan people?" he wondered, rhetorically. "These are thugs in tailored suits whose views are far closer to Al Capone than to Thomas Jefferson."
Speaking of gangsterism, here's Pompeo's latest display of
pomposity:
The US is "going to do the things that need to be done," Pompeo told Fox News Sunday, speaking about the potential use of military force against Caracas. The state secretary also denounced Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a "tyrant" and said he believes that the Venezuelan people see it too.
Washington will not stop until it "makes sure" that "there is a brighter future for the people of Venezuela," Pompeo said, adding that the US would continue to support the self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaido.
"We're very hopeful in the days and weeks and months ahead the Maduro regime will understand that the Venezuelan people have made its days numbered."
See also:
"Yankee, go home": Venezuela expels Colombia's diplomats, US 'aid' trucks sent back - Bridge border standoff rundownWhile blowhards like Bolton are using the burning aid truck as a means to attack Maduro, it's looking as if it was opposition activists who started the blaze - hardly Maduro's fault or the fault of the Venezuelan troops on the border. First of all, as
Fort Russ points out:
Imagine the response if Venezuela tried to drive a caravan of "humanitarian aid" across the border in McAllen, Texas, Nogales on the Arizona border, or the crossing in California at Mexicali. It would likely resemble Bush the Elder's Highway of Death in Kuwait.
Aerial view of “The Highway of Death” on which Iraqi forces suffered devastating losses at the hands of Coalition Forces as they retreated from Kuwait in February 1991. Between 1,400 and 2,000 vehicles were destroyed or abandoned.
Fort Russ also provides the evidence showing that opposition members planned and started the fire:
In the first video you can hear the Venezuelan opposition talking about using gasoline and making Molotov cocktails literally just minutes before the aid convoy was set on fire.
"Gas has arrived!" can be heard in this video moments before some aid trucks were burned. Of course the media blamed Maduro.
This video, it is straight forward - you can see the opposition prepare Molotov cocktails - the same Molotov cocktails used to set the aid trucks on fire.
In the photo you can even see where the Venezuelan forces are located (circled in green) and where the cockroaches are (circled in blue).
These idiots cannot even make a hoax correctly but they want to remove an entire elected government from power?
Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza
challenged US Secretary of State Pompeo and his 'hitmen', saying they were searching for the pretext for war.
"The CIA expert in false flag operations, Pompeo, thinks he can fool the world with a truck set ablaze by his own agents in Colombia," Arreaza tweeted on Saturday in response to recent clashes along the Venezuelan-Colombian border. ...
In his tweet, Minister Arreaza posted several photos which appear to show the burnt truck on the Colombian side of the bridge, where it was set on fire after failing to cross the border.
"If you want to find those who burnt the truck with fake humanitarian aid, look among your own employees," Arreaza wrote.
And as
Moon of Alabama argues, the aid stunt failed to achieve any of its objectives:
Yesterday's "humanitarian aid" stunt at the Colombian-Venezuelan border was supposed to achieve four points:
- to breach the border and thereby open venues that could later be used for the passage of arms and fighters,
- to incite large scale defections from the Venezuelan army and police forces,
- to demonstrate to the outside world that the Random Guyaido, who declared himself president, has a large following and is thereby legitimate enough to support him,
- to deliver justification for further steps against Venezuela.
Point 1 was clearly not achieved. A few hundred young men attacked the Venezuelan National Guard force that closed off the border. Attempts were made to ram "aid" trucks through. Random Guyaido was nowhere to be seen. The whole thing ended in a minor riot. The violent attackers received gasoline and made Molotov cocktails to attack the guards and set the "aid" trucks alight. The riots continued (vid) until about midnight but neither any rioters nor the aid passed through the border.
...
The attempt to incite defections of Venezuelan security forces largely failed. A handful of National Guard foot soldiers went over to the Colombian side. But the National Guard lines held well even under a hail of stones and fire and the units were quite disciplined in taking and holding their positions. The military of Venezuela stays firmly on the side of the state.
The "aid" nonsense did not help to brush up Guaido's legitimacy. Defying a court order Guaido left Venezuela and entered Colombia. If he ever goes back he will have to go to jail. The large mobilization inside and outside of Venezuela he had promised completely failed to appear. The melee at the border crossing only showed that his followers are a gang of brutal thugs.
Guaido also lost his original legal position. He claimed the presidency on January 23 under this paragraph of article 233 of the Venezuelan constitution:
When an elected President becomes permanently unavailable to serve prior to his inauguration, a new election by universal suffrage and direct ballot shall be held within 30 consecutive days. Pending election and inauguration of the new President, the President of the National Assembly shall take charge of the Presidency of the Republic.
That the "elected President becomes permanently unavailable" was never the case to begin with. But if article 233 would apply Guaido would have had 30 days to hold new elections. The 30 days are over and Guaido did not even call for elections to be held. He thereby defied the exact same paragraph of the constitution that his (false) claim to the presidency is based on.
...
The next steps the U.S. will take will "soften up" its target for an upcoming invasion. They will include further measures to make Venezuela ungovernable and to starve its people into submission. One possible step, even while legally unjustifiable, is a sea and air blockade. The "soften up" phase will take many month, if not years, to achieve some noticeable changes on the ground. Only then will further action be merited. The actual point in time will depend on how it may influence Trump's domestic standing.
Would launching a war on Venezuela help him to get reelected or will the war have to wait until he wins his second term?
Comment: John Wight's comments to RT on the aid stunt are on point: Speaking of gangsterism, here's Pompeo's latest display of pomposity: See also: "Yankee, go home": Venezuela expels Colombia's diplomats, US 'aid' trucks sent back - Bridge border standoff rundown
While blowhards like Bolton are using the burning aid truck as a means to attack Maduro, it's looking as if it was opposition activists who started the blaze - hardly Maduro's fault or the fault of the Venezuelan troops on the border. First of all, as Fort Russ points out: Fort Russ also provides the evidence showing that opposition members planned and started the fire: Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza challenged US Secretary of State Pompeo and his 'hitmen', saying they were searching for the pretext for war. And as Moon of Alabama argues, the aid stunt failed to achieve any of its objectives: