The US coup with the self-proclaimed Venezuelan puppet president Juan Guaidó has been failing. Right-wing Latin American countries and the European Union, while willing to go along with the charade farce president have not been willing to take military action against Venezuela.
This week the US was caught seeking to create violent chaos with imported mercenaries disguised as Venezuelan military, funded by assets seized from Venezuela as part of the US economic war. Telesur reports the government unveiled telephone conversations and other evidence between leaders of the right planning violence against the country that came from a Guaidó aide.
Earlier this week Guaido’s ‘chief of staff,’ Roberto Marrero was arrested along with his bodyguard. In announcing the arrest, Minister of Interior Justice and Peace Nestor Reverol, Venezuela had dismantled a “terrorist cell” that planned to attack and destabilize Venezuela. As a result of that arrest evidence has been uncovered about a terror campaign planned against Venezuela.
The arrest uncovered new evidence about the terror campaign planned by the US and the Venezuelan opposition. Mission Verdad reports on a press conference by Jorge Rodríguez, Minister of Communication and Information which described how the arrest of the arrest Marrero led to the discovery of widespread terrorist plans. The new evidence points to a plot funded by assets seized by the United States from Venezuela and channeled into bank accounts through Colombia.
Reporting on the Rodríguez press conference, Mission Verdad describes how eight to ten teams of assassins were being brought to Venezuela from Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador and being trained in Colombia to carry out terrorist acts in Venezuela. They planned selective assassinations of high-profile figures of the Venezuelan State and attacks on the country’s public services. Half these groups had entered the country, while others were blocked by the shutdown of the borders over the phony attempt to deliver humanitarian aid.
The objectives of the terrorist plot were shown in a slide by Jorge Rodríguez. Mission Verdad reports the slide described how Operation Libertad (or Operation Freedom) planned:
- Selective killings of government officials
- New sabotage to the Caracas Metro, the Cable Car and the electric service
- False-positive operations or false flags by people disguised as military deserters
- A general strike, an assault on Miraflores and terrorist actions such as the assassination of President Maduro
The mercenary teams planned to conduct their terrorist acts disguised as deserters of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces to portray them as “military deserters.” They sought to show a non-existent conflict between the Venezuelan military and the legitimately elected government.
They also report that among the material seized from Marrero were cell phones that allowed investigators access to conversations, which showed $500,000 and $700,000 being spent per day to pay these assassins and to bribe members of the military to desert and join them. The money was deposited by NGOs created in January and February in accounts of Banesco and Bank of America by the government of Iván Duque after a request from Juan Guaidó. The communications indicate the funds came from money seized from Venezuelan companies by the United States. The money stolen from Venezuela that would be used to finance this operation would amount to $1 billion.
To add further to the hypocrisy of the United States, the Department of the Treasury sanctioned the Economic and Social Development Bank of Venezuela when Guaidó’s terrorist aid was arrested on suspicion of terrorism.
Mission Verdad reports Guaidó himself and right-wing leader, Leopoldo Lopez, who is under house arrest for previous violence, were implicated, writing,
“On Marrero’s phone, conversations were also found in a group called ‘the General Staff,’ made up of members of the Voluntad Popular party. Among them, Leopoldo López is identified, in charge of his leadership; Freddy Guevara, in charge of advising on the discursive line of Guaidó; Marrero, the deputies Freddy Superlano and Sergio Vergara, and Juan Guaidó himself.”
Guaidó has described “Operation Freedom” which is consistent with these plans. Freddy Guevara describes how the operation is moving “from a strategy of siege to one of assault” with selective assassinations and attacks against public services. This is all consistent with Guaidó comments at a rally on March 22 in El Tigre, Anzoátegui state, where he said: “Venezuelans do not beg for our rights, so soon we are going together to Miraflores to rescue the office of all Venezuelans,” and told his followers “we must organize because the dictator will not go out kindly.”
In a speech at the Mobilization for Peace outside of the Miraflores Palace on Saturday, President Maduro described how the country is facing “the strongest imperialist aggressions that the Republic has ever survived in 200 years.” Maduro said the people continue to be “the greatest guarantee of peace, democracy, and sovereignty of the Fatherland” against the attacks perpetrated by the Venezuelan right-wing and the US. Regarding the plans of the terrorist cell described in the article below, he assured the people: “We are going to capture them and hand them over to Justice.”
The long-time US effort to put in place a US friendly government in Venezuela is reaching new aggressiveness and violence under the Trump administration led by National Security Advisor John Bolton, Special Assistant Elliot Abrams and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. President Trump has openly called for military action since August 2017. Those opposed to US intervention in Venezuela will be holding a mass protest at the White House on August 30 to kick-of a week of action against NATO and the war against Venezuela.
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Kevin Zeese co-directs Popular Resistance where this article was originally published. He just returned from Venezuela with a peace delegation organized by the US Peace Council.
