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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."

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."

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.

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?

"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.

Yesterday's "humanitarian aid" stunt at the Colombian-Venezuelan border was supposed to achieve four points:

1. to breach the border and thereby open venues that could later be used for the passage of arms and fighters,
2. to incite large scale defections from the Venezuelan army and police forces,
3. 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,
4. 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?

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