Adam
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
For most people, the Venezuela crisis is about the political tensions between the popularly elected socialist President Nicolas Maduro and the legislature which backs him, the Constituent Assembly. The executive and Constituent Assembly are in conflict with the pro-US National Assembly whose powers have been reduced after Venezuela’s Supreme Court discovered voting irregularities in the 2015 election. Because of this protesters who are strongly backed and funded by the United States and US based NGOs have been engaged in violent protests and even a small terrorist operation against the government.
But CIA Director Mike Pompeo feels otherwise. For him it is because of RUSSIA, CUBA, IRAN and HEZBOLLAH!
In a recent interview, Pompeo stated,
“Venezuela could very much become a risk for the United States of America. The Cubans are there; the Russians are there, the Iranians, Hezbollah are there. This is something that has a risk of getting to a very very bad place, so America needs to take this very seriously”.
Let’s break down this patent absurdity point by point.
1. Russia
Russia has healthy, normal relations with Venezuela. In October of 2016, the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro awarded President Putin the first ever Hugo Chavez Peace Prize.
Russia and Venezuela are both energy producers, but unlike Venezuela, Russia is not in OPEC. Apart from that, Russia maintains an embassy in Caracas and normal bilateral relations.
2. Cuba
Although the Marxist-Leninism of the Castros is not identical to the Bolivarian Socialism of Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro, Cuba has tended to give strong political backing to a fellow left-wing country. Cuba no longer has a Russian military base on its soil but it does still have a very controversial US base at Guantanamo Bay.
Cuba maintains good fraternal relations with Venezuela, but Cuba is in no position to assist Venezuela even if it wanted to. Venezuela due to its oil is a far richer country than the small island of Cuba.
3. Iran
Iran and Venezuela maintain healthy bilateral relations. Both states are members of OPEC and both states have frequently been the target of US military threats.
Iran’s military however limits itself to the Middle East where it is fighting terrorism in Syria at the behest of the Syrian government.
There is no contingent of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Caracas and there probably never will be. The only Iranians in Venezuela are those in the embassy as well as the occasional international businessman.
4. Hezbollah
The Lebanese political party Hezbollah has literally nothing to do with Venezuela. Hezbollah is not an international organisation but a Lebanese one whose armed resistance wing primarily acts to secure southern Lebanon and has more recently helped Syria in its fight against groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda.
The only remote connection between Venezuela and Lebanon is the fact that Tareck El Aissami, the current Vice President of Venezuela has a Lebanese mother and a Syrian father.
His Druze father was involved in the secular socialist Ba’ath party in the Middle East but not with the primarily Shi’a group Hezbollah.
Apart from this, Venezuela’s connection to the Middle East is limited to the fact that the Venezuelan left strongly supporters Palestine.
Mike Pompeo has yet again shown his penchant for wild conspiracies.
His previous conspiracy theories include stating that Russia rigged the elections in the US where Barack Obama won, that Julian Assange would have been a Nazi in a past life, RT and Sputnik prevent Russia from going to war and this is bad, RT runs Wikileaks.
READ MORE: 5 weird conspiracy theories from CIA Director Mike Pompeo
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
“He also falsely accused Iran, Cuba and the Lebanese party Hezbollah of operating in Venezuela.” Wott!!! Surely, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah should not disappoint the Pompous CIA a….. hole? As a sovereign country, Venezuela has the right to call for support from any allies, especially after Trump threatened them with military intervention. It will be then up to those allies to see if they can come to its aid. How else will the rampant US military threat be countered? Or does Maduro want to share the fate of Saddam, Gaddafi and what they had planned for Assad? What the Pompous… Read more »
Ah, but we know the “story” behind this moron’s back, don’t we.
What this troublemaker actually means is that it is Venezuela own fault that is in trouble with US because she is not handing over its resources and sovereignty to the private company US Inc.
That is all.
Precisely! It is the God-given right of the US to exploit and have access to all resources in their God’s Earth. Why don’t the rest of the world get that message?
Racism, exceptionalism and imperialism. I hope Venezuela calls on allies before they become another Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq etc…
Yes, all the people who refuse to do exactly what they are told by Washington, immediately, must hate America. And they are all in league together because they HATE OUR FREEDOMS.
Psychological projection is being superscaled here.
And yet, it was Trump himself who handpicked this moron. The current POTUS should realize that if he wants to show strength then he must go after the powerful vested interests in Washington and within the US in general and not after other countries that have not threatened his. This childish display of international machoism is a failed policy and one that damages his presidency as well.
Trump was ordered to pick Pompeo, because this moron was too stupid to get in the way.
Remember what happened to Kennedy when he wanted to rain in the CIA?
to rein in
Thanks for the edit :-))
I assume you refer to Kennedy’s attempt to ‘rein’ in the CIA. Well, he tried to work on that and other endeavours which would divert the US from its imperialist course and he paid the price. But what is your point? That Trump should simply betray his promises and opt for supposedly easy solutions? He’s already down this road and his opponents still want him out. Meanwhile, his policies are a compete mesh.
Thanks for the edit :-))
My point is that he is not in charge…Pretending that he is will result in him being stopped one way or the other. This seems to have been pointed out to him already. Trump is entirely unfamiliar with politics and lacks the curiosity to learn. He behaves like a 9-year old tweeting the greatest nonsense that keeps the whole world entertained, but he does NOTHING for this country. Schultz (Germany) considers Trump a danger to this country and a threat to world peace.He is an embarrassment to the office of President….
Well, I’m not going to defend Trumps’ current policies or behaviour. My point is that he should have done his best to fight the good fight and he didn’t. In the case of Pompeo, he picked an idiotic ignoramus. In any case, I agree with much of what you said.
An interesting note: plenty of Trump supporters in Breitbart take Pompeo’s statement as some sort of revelation that validates Trump’s threat to use military options against Venezuela. So much about the clearheaded attitude of American ”conservatives” vs the ”liberals”…
Is there something about the Americancas where there is a idiocy quotient? The more important you are the more stupid things you say and the more you think other people are stupid like you?
But of course… it’s Russia’s fault. American sanctions of Venezuela are just there to help the people.
If the Russians hadn’t polluted the precious bodily fluids of American politicians they wouldn’t have placed sanctions on Venezuela.
What you are saying Americans are “pussies” need to go after weaker countries. It’s always about Russia with Americans.
Have to hurry, sorry. — Just googled “Pompeo Venezuela.” One hit http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/08/13/cia-director-mike-pompeo-iran-hezbollah-venezuela/ containing the full interview with Fox. The Company — a.k.a. “the world’s premier intelligence agency” and a.k.a. with the most “exquisite” intelligence and analysts — is cooking up a case for both humanitarian intervention and self-defense. Review the comments: Mike’s Iran- Hezbollah, Russia BS is serious, i.e., he is serious about spicing his dish with this flimsy connecto stuff. And the arms cashes falling into the “wrong hands”, e.g. FARC and the Venezuelan VP a drug dealer….
As a member of the deep state and proponent of the military-industrial complex, Pompeo is anxious to promote conflict anywhere he can find it. He’s a liar, just like most of his associates in the U.S. “intelligence” community. As is the case with Nikki Haley, it is hard to imagine Trump selecting Pompeo without undue influence from somewhere. He’s certainly not someone who would support Trump’s stated mission.
What is “Trump’s mission”? He failed to keep his word made to his followers “I’ll never betray you”. He promised to be only the president of the USA, not to pretend to be president of the world. He promised to stop “all the stupid wars”, and in one week he threatened three more countries with military interventions, while far from stopping the stupid war in Afghanistan, he’s sending more thousands troops there. Check out his promises and see how many he renounced, and how many he reversed. About NATO, during the campaign “I said it was obsolete” Trump said. After… Read more »
Daisy, Trump has not committed to sending more troops to Afghanistan. You might want to read this: https://morningconsult.com/2017/08/14/voters-pessimistic-afghanistan-trump-weighs-boosting-troops/
Regarding NATO and his threats of military action, I’m in full agreement with you.
As for his accomplishment of campaign promises, this article outlines many of them:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/07/president-trumps-first-six-months-are-historical-with-stock-market-on-fire-and-americans-hopeful-that-america-will-be-great-again/
A policy of loosing the war in Afghanistan is a bad idea. The US needs to convince the Taliban that they will get bombed until they agree not support terrorists. That deal could have been done in the first month of the war. They don’t enjoy getting bombed and were not interested in attacking us before we attacked them. It might be possible now because the Taliban is fighting ISIS.
Vladimir Putin was right concerning America, when he said presidents and governments change, but US politics remains the same. Bad administration yesterday=Bad administration today.
Republican presidents continued democrat presidents’ wars and vice-versa. The propaganda transmitted from one to another – intact. I guess it’s genetic by now (or contagious?).
Daisy, IMO it is correct and it is the ‘Deep State running the US Inc.
‘Democratic election” is the biggest scam of the establishment to enslave the people, by making them believe they have a choice.
Do they have any people with power in the US that aren’t totally NUTS, this idiot tops the whole Washington litter, moron!!!!
Some other idiots preceded him , the Bushes, Clintons and Obama.
As Oscar Wilde said “America is the only country who jumped from barbarism to decadence, without civilization in between”.
And this is what passes for intelligence! I say fire them all!
If you like to do this on that bases then the whole lot will be gone.????
Pompeo went on to say Big Foot stole his favorite socks, because of Russia.
These people are so full of it…I feel like puking every time.
Mike Pompino – Scaramouche’s older and not much wiser Mafia bruddah.
Just another totally out to lunch “nut-bar”, where do they find these idiots???
“He has just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wants to eat, but certainly no more.”
― P.G. Wodehouse
“Venezuela could very much become a risk for the United States of America”
I think that the biggest risk for USA come from … Virgin Islands and Micronesia
“Two things are infinite: the Universe and the human stupidity; and I’m not so sure about the Universe.”― Albert Einstein
Re. Albert E.
IMO it actually was Mrs. Einstein. She was the Brains behind him.
Common. Einstein had an IQ of 160.
Pompeo is just a straw man. Now a days, even the position of CIA Director has to be covered by a false entity, nobody in good mental health would accept the risk of being a fall man. Kim Jong-un has more legitimacy than this specimen
Pompeo, another schizophrenic…
All he has to do is stop funding the opposition in Venezuela which the CIA has done for the past 19 years. It’s not working.
CIA = Complete Idiocy Agency
hmmm… Is there a Mount Vesuvius in D.C.?
Well, it is – from his pov.
US is trying so hard, so really really HARD, to make another war and it’s failing EVERYWHERE!
But hey – they still had lil Venezuela – “We can go war VENEZUELA!”
Then that spoilsport Sergey (my favourite teddy bear) said ………… NO.
So … no war … not even in Venny!
It’s Russia’s fault that Mike Pompeo has piles.