Venezuela's Navy Begins Escorting Ships as U.S. Threatens Blockade

He already got the very prestigious FIFA peace prize.

> getting the peace prize

Maybe if they can pinpoint its whereabouts at a specific time when it's not heavily guarded, they can send a team to snatch it with minimal casualties.

How financing ruSSia with oil money promotes peace?

The POTUS declared a blockade yesterday on social media.

https://trumpstruth.org/statuses/34245

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Isn't it completely standard for international shipping to fly random flags? Ive never understood exactly why but I think its common?

Hard to comprehend the stunning levels of cope required to still view what happened in Iraq as some kind of decisive victory for anyone except Blackwater and Halliburton.

There is a poor track record on war against jungle covered countries whose names start with V.

This is what astounds me. Why waste all the money and blood on a frankly failed state like Venezuela that was always a basket case. What's next Haiti?

If your assumed goal is regime change from autocratic to democratic, they lost. If it was for stability in the middle east, the lost. If it was for oil and pressure on OPEC, I'd say they lost, but I would hear and understand an opposite argument (and change my mind).

Could the buyers just send their own ships to retrieve oil from Venezuela? Say, China sends a oil tanker, I imagine it would be trickier for US Navy to just sink or steal it.

If they go bankrupt, then they start using russian missiles to blow up US aircraft carriers. This is a war that neither side wants to win.

The US would bomb a bunch of brown people, declare victory, get the hell out and leave it to a decades long civil war. Like they did with Mexico.

Like seriously not even Trump can be stupid enough to actually want to GOVERN it. Can he?

> That the US cannot win a war is silly. The US could erase every population center within a few minutes.

Although the U.S. ruling class often likes to pretend it can operate with no regard for its domestic perceptions of legitimacy, the stunning amounts they expend on relentless psychological operations suggest otherwise. Killing millions in an aggressive nuclear strike would do nothing but reveal to many people (who are desperately trying to pretend otherwise) that they are controlled by a klatch of relentless psychopaths.

That ship has sailed.

Don’t need to source it. I lived under the regime and still have many relatives there. I know exactly what I am saying by my own experience not by reading a journalist from the NYT. The drug business is very real and has deep roots in the military since the early 2000s so this is not new. Even the presidential plane has been used to transport drugs, that’s well documented. Chavez himself didn’t like it once his son got involved, but he died and Venezuela became the Wild West. There are two factions controlling the country, the ideological one and the “business” one. Both are involved in drug trafficking but the ideological branch supports Cuba and other communist regimes with free oil. Cuba hasn’t paid one dime for oil in more than 25 years. In fact many of the ships leaving Venezuela are bound to Cuba’s “customers” directly. The non ideological branch of the regime hates this “deal”, and many senior military are actually anti-Cuba, they have never been there, reason why the Cuban regime keeps Maduro in power. All of Maduro’s security ring is Cuban for that reason. The non ideological branch made a deal to stay out of oil in exchange for illegal mining. There’s a human and environmental catastrophe happening in the Amazonas state, with natives being displaced or killed and one of the most beautiful naturals reserves in the planet being destroyed. This is also well documented. Most of the gold is sold to Russia and Iran. There’s also some mining for uranium which Iran needs for their nuclear program. And that’s it, there’s really no other economy in the country. Don’t be naive believing Maduro is selling oil and keeping the country funded. As I said the economy is largely supported by “remesas” from the exodus and by the informal economy which is completely dollar based, no one takes local currency there.

Putin seems intent on keeping up his threats, he might just use a "low yield" nuke to shake out the weak hands in Europe - - which it appears there are plenty of - - the question is how EU NATO would respond. I doubt they would then match him, nuke for nuke.

Could it be Trump is leaning towards just letting Putin and the EU settle their own differences by themselves - - while Trump concentrates on his side of the world, which Venezuela is a too easy prize to win. The old playbook: Find a US leaning Venezuelan leader who can be bought off with CIA money, get rid of Maduro, by force if needed, then the huge discoveries in the oilfields of Guyana next door that Exxon, Hess Corporation, CNOOC and others have their hands deep in are secured.

Thanks for this. The warrant claims this ship was involved, basically, in financing Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. So kind of bad things.

I think we need to be wary of the pattern where:

- some bad things happen but are ignored / uncontested by the "good" side

- the "bad" side comes in and does a lot of genuinely bad things of their own

- but also, perhaps selectively, contests other "bad" things that were left hanging by the "good" side, where it fits their narrative

- the "good" side is up in arms against the "bad" side following the law

Clearly this argument hinges on recognising Trump as a baddie and the Democrats, somewhat, as baddies. As a non-American, this is roughly how I see it, but I can't stir up outrage against Trump for enforcing sanctions according to his country's own laws. Bullying Venezuela, sure, but not this particular fragment.

I remember how defensive Democrats were of illegal immigration during the last election. I'll agree with anyone who wants to treat people fairly and humanely, but the Democrats were almost making out that illegal immigrants are some kind of modern day martyrs. If you think the immigration laws are not right, change them, but don't sit on and praise a system perpetuated by illegality.

It's just a hypocritical, massive own goal, and I detracts from all the genuinely bad things done by the "bad" side.