How the Venezuelan intelligence service defeated the CIA

Al Manar
ICH

The small Venezuelan counterintelligence service SEBIN (Bolivian National Intelligence Service) managed to humiliate the CIA, revealed the Romanian expert Valentin Vasilescu. According to him, the US intel service had undertaken an initiative in Venezuela aiming to overthrowing the president, Nicolás Maduro making use of its HUMINT section (human intelligence), that is, espionage carried out by infiltrated US agents, who in turn have networks of local informants.

But, says Valsilescu, SEBIN has managed to infiltrate all opposition groups trying to seize power in Caracas through its counterintelligence agents.

He (SEBIN; ndt) has also infiltrated his officers into the US-funded press and there has been an operation aimed at selecting and publishing the most miraculous but false news related to political events in Venezuela. Therefore, there were several “leaks” that were delivered to the CIA, such as, for example, the intention of some generals to betray Maduro.

To earn the trust of CIA agents, SEBIN members even organized conspiracy meetings with Venezuelan generals, under the full control of Venezuela’s intelligence service and military counterintelligence. The “desertion” of General Manuel Figuera, head of the SEBIN, the release of Leopoldo López from his house arrest and the provision, for Juan Guaido, of a platoon of more than 1,000 soldiers belonging to the SEBIN to take the garrison of Carlota, in Caracas, they were part of the intoxication operation directed at the CIA agents to convince Washington of the success of the coup.

When the White House finally gave the green light to the action on April 30, it became one of the biggest failures for the CIA in recent decades.

Venezuela has shown that fighting with patriotism and professionalism, even for an embargoed country, can disrupt the plans of the CIA, according to the Romanian expert.

Translation by Ana - original: http://spanish.almanar.com.lb/315636


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Planting the Seeds of Regime Change: How GMO Seeds and Monsanto/Bayer’s “RoundUp” are Driving US Policy in Venezuela

Mint Press News

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — As the political crisis in Venezuela has unfolded, much has been said about the Trump administration’s clear interest in the privatization and exploitation of Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world, by American oil giants like Chevron and ExxonMobil.

 

Yet the influence of another notorious American company, Monsanto — now a subsidiary of Bayer — has gone largely unmentioned.

While numerous other Latin American nations have become a “free for all” for the biotech company and its affiliates, Venezuela has been one of the few countries to fight Monsanto and other international agrochemical giants and win. However, since that victory — which was won under Chavista rule — the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition has been working to undo it.

Now, with Juan Guaidó’s parallel government attempting to take power with the backing of the U.S., it is telling that the top political donors of those in the U.S. most fervently pushing regime change in Venezuela have close ties to Monsanto and major financial stakes in Bayer.

In recent months, Monsanto’s most controversial and notorious product — the pesticide glyphosate, branded as Roundup, and linked to cancer in recent U.S. court rulings — has threatened Bayer’s financial future as never before, with a litany of new court cases barking at Bayer’s door. It appears that many of the forces in the U.S. now seeking to overthrow the Venezuelan government are hoping that a new Guaidó-led government will provide Bayer with a fresh, much-needed market for its agrochemicals and transgenic seeds, particularly those products that now face bans in countries all over the world, including once-defoliated and still-poisoned Vietnam.

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Target: Venezuela Juan Guaido | Venezuela Anti-War Voices on Both Sides Warn of Coming CIA Provocation to Kill Guaidó, Blame Maduro

Mint Press News

WASHINGTON — Prominent American anti-war figures from across the ideological spectrum are warning that the Trump administration may soon turn on Juan Guaidó — the man they recognize as Venezuela’s interim president — in order to justify military intervention in Venezuela. 

These warnings followed Guaidó’s failed attempt to lead a military uprising on Tuesday, which analysts characterized as a desperate move, with Guaidó’s parallel government having failed to gain any significant traction in Venezuela since late January. With Guaidó now quickly losing legitimacy and momentum since Tuesday’s failed coup, it has become increasingly probable that his political patrons — the United States — may soon turn on him, as any harm done to him could be blamed on Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, which would allow the U.S. government to justify aggressive action against the Maduro-led government.

One of the first prominent anti-war voices to raise concern that the U.S. government, particularly the CIA, may now see Guaidó as more valuable dead than alive was Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity and co-host of the Ron Paul Liberty Report, with the former congressman, presidential candidate and well-known libertarian. During Tuesday’s edition of the Liberty Report, Paul raised concern that a provocation could be used to push for foreign (i.e., U.S.) military intervention in Venezuela:

The big danger is a hard war breaking out. I’d still bet it won’t be too bad, with thousands of troops moving. But it could be a guerrilla war or something like that. If there is a false flag or some important official on either side gets killed, you can’t tell what might happen.”

McAdams responded, pointing out that Guaidó himself could soon become such a target for a provocation:

He [Guaidó] has been a kind of a hapless figure so far. He calls for mass protests and no one shows up. I don’t think he realizes right now that he is actually now worth more dead than alive not only to the CIA, but also to his own opposition people. A shot in the crowd or something like that to take Guaidó out. It might shock you, Dr. Paul, but the CIA is pretty good at this kind of things.”

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Washington Goes For The Jugular: Puppet 'Leader' in Venezuela Launches 'Military Coup' Against Maduro Government

Niall Bradley
Sott.net

Self-declared Venezuelan 'interim president', Juan Guaido, aka RGN (Random Guy Named) Guaido (aka 'Guido', to the US State Department) - whose uncanny resemblence to former US president Barack Obama continues to amaze - has today outright called for a military uprising. So far, it just amounts to rioting at one location in Caracas, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends that way.

With his bosses in Washington perplexed over the failure of their color-revolution attempt back in January, they're going for the jugular by attempting to instigate a military coup.

Appearing in a video that was apparently shot at (or near) a Caracas military airbase, and accompanied by a number of what appear to be Venezuelan soldiers, along with fellow 'revolutionary', Leopoldo Lopez, Guaido announced that:

"The moment has come to start the end of the usurpation."

This, ironically, is exactly what might happen now that Washington has gone 'all in' with an attempted coup: they have gifted Maduro all the justification he needs to round up Guaido and his accomplices.

Leopoldo Lopez, incidentally, was arrested in 2014 and - because the Maduro government has been far too soft in its treatment of what are de facto rabid terrorists - was held under house arrest after being found guilty of inciting violence during that first post-Chavez round of bombings, murder and mayhem. Lopez claims that he is in attendance for today's outbreak of democrazi because he was "released by the military under Guaido's orders." More likely, he simply walked out of his house... 

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Venezuela - Journalists Doubt Guaidó's Legitimacy - Regime Change Plans Continue

Moon of Alabama

On February 23 the U.S. created a 'humanitarian aid' stunt at the border between Colombia and Venezuela. The stunt ended in a riot during which the supporters of the self declared 'president' Guaidó burned the trucks that where supposed to transport the 'aid'. Even the New York Times had to admit that.

The riots also marked the day that Guaidó lost the legal argument he had used to make himself 'interim president'.

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 hapless coup plotters in Washington DC were finally put on notice that the issue creates a legal problem for them. During a March 15 press briefing Elliott Abrams, the U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela, was asked about the issue:

QUESTION: [C]ould you explain to us the article under which Mr. Guaido declared himself president? It is said that it has expired last month. Could you explain that to us? What is the --

MR ABRAMS: As to the Venezuelan constitution, the National Assembly has passed a resolution that states that that 30-day period of interim presidency will not start ending or counting until the day Nicolas Maduro leaves power. So the 30 days doesn’t start now, it starts after Maduro. And they – that’s a resolution of the National Assembly.

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The Making of Juan Guaidó: How The US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela's Coup Leader

Dan Cohen & Max Blumenthal
Gray Zone

Before the fateful day of January 22, fewer than one in five Venezuelans had heard of Juan Guaidó. Only a few months ago, the 35-year-old was an obscure character in a politically marginal far-right group closely associated with gruesome acts of street violence. Even in his own party, Guaidó had been a mid-level figure in the opposition-dominated National Assembly, which is now held under contempt according to Venezuela's constitution.

But after a single phone call from from US Vice President Mike Pence, Guaidó proclaimed himself as president of Venezuela. Anointed as the leader of his country by Washington, a previously unknown political bottom dweller was vaulted onto the international stage as the US-selected leader of the nation with the world's largest oil reserves.

Echoing the Washington consensus, the New York Times editorial board hailed Guaidó as a "credible rival" to Maduro with a "refreshing style and vision of taking the country forward." The Bloomberg News editorial board applauded him for seeking "restoration of democracy" and the Wall Street Journal declared him "a new democratic leader." Meanwhile, Canada, numerous European nations, Israel, and the bloc of right-wing Latin American governments known as the Lima Group recognized Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.  

While Guaidó seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, he was, in fact, the product of more than a decade of assiduous grooming by the US government's elite regime change factories. Alongside a cadre of right-wing student activists, Guaidó was cultivated to undermine Venezuela's socialist-oriented government, destabilize the country, and one day seize power. Though he has been a minor figure in Venezuelan politics, he had spent years quietly demonstrating his worthiness in Washington's halls of power.

"Juan Guaidó is a character that has been created for this circumstance," Marco Teruggi, an Argentinian sociologist and leading chronicler of Venezuelan politics, told the Grayzone. "It's the logic of a laboratory - Guaidó is like a mixture of several elements that create a character who, in all honesty, oscillates between laughable and worrying."

Diego Sequera, a Venezuelan journalist and writer for the investigative outlet, Mision Verdad, agreed: "Guaidó is more popular outside Venezuela than inside, especially in the elite Ivy League and Washington circles," Sequera remarked to the Grayzone, "He's a known character there, is predictably right-wing, and is considered loyal to the program."

While Guaidó is today sold as the face of democratic restoration, he spent his career in the most violent faction of Venezuela's most radical opposition party, positioning himself at the forefront of one destabilization campaign after another. His party has been widely discredited inside Venezuela, and is held partly responsible for fragmenting a badly weakened opposition.
"'These radical leaders have no more than 20 percent in opinion polls," wrote Luis Vicente León, Venezuela's leading pollster. According to Leon, Guaidó's party remains isolated because the majority of the population "does not want war. 'What they want is a solution.'"

But this is precisely why he Guaidó was selected by Washington: he is not expected to lead Venezuela towards to democracy, but to collapse a country that for the past two decades has been a bulwark of resistance to US hegemony. His unlikely rise signals the culmination of a two decades-long project to destroy a robust socialist experiment. 

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