Holy fucking shit, get a load of Donnie’s chief spook here:
Mike Pompeo, verbatim:
“Any time you have a country as large and with the economic capacity of a country like Venezuela, America has a deep interest in making sure it is as stable and as democratic as possible so we’re working hard to do that. I’m always careful when we talk about South and Central America and the CIA – and there’s a lot of stories – so I want to be careful with what I say, but suffice to say we are very hopeful that there could be a transition in Venezuela and we, the CIA, are doing our best to understand the dynamic there so that we can communicate to our state department and to others. I was just down in Mexico City and Bogotá the week before last, talking about this very issue, trying to help them understand the things they might do so that they can get a better outcome for their part of the world, and for our part of the world.”
Naturally, these words went over like a load of bricks in Venezuela, where Madurito had the following to say:
President Nicolás Maduro demanded on Monday of the governments of the United States, Mexico and Colombia to clarify “sufficiently” the interventionist statements of the director of the CIA, Michael Richard Pompeo.
Maduro assured that he will take decisions of a political and diplomatic nature regarding the “interventionist words” of the CIA director, who revealed in an interview that he had recently held meetings in Colombia and Mexico to evaluate the manoeuvres to apply via these nations to “achieve a better result” in Venezuela.
The Venezuelan president recalled that statements and documents from the CIA of an interventionist nature have occurred in the past, when Latin American leaders were toppled, such as Chilean president Salvador Allende.
“Just as I demand that they clarify sufficiently the declarations of the CIA director, I also demand of the government of President [Donald] Trump that he clarify the insolent, interventionist words of this CIA director, who thinks they are the global government,” Maduro said.
Maduro assured that “the time in which they believed themselves lords of the world is now bygone, and will remain far away, and Venezuela will demonstrate as much this week.”
During a speech marking the end of the commemorative parade on the 234th anniversary of the Liberator’s birth, the 194th anniversary of the Naval Battle of the Lake, and the Day of the Bolivarian Navy, President Maduro stated that the 24th of July marks the beginning of a decisive week for the Venezuelan people. “We are beginning a decisive week for the history of Venezuela. Let no one stand aside from the decisions the Venezuelan people must take,” Maduro said.
Maduro asked all Venezuelans to convert the week of July 24-30 into days of courage, valor and patriotism.
He also exhorted the people of Venezuela to participate in the National Constituent Assembly elections of Sunday, July 30, “whether it rains, thunders or storms.”
“There could not be a better way of starting the week than celebrating the Liberator’s birthday; we must regain his courage, his dedication and his bravery at times in which we must with much clarity take on the challenges they present us. A decisive week for the people of Venezuela is beginning. And in one week, the Venezuelan people will have their National Constituent Assembly to maintain constitutional guarantees. Let it demonstrate that it is a real guarantee of sovereignty and peace,” Maduro said.
The Venezuelan minister of Exterior Relations, Samuel Moncada, had already warned that the Venezuelan opposition is preparing an agenda to worsen their violence this week, actions which have been supported by foreign agents. Moncada said that the opposition is planning another meeting on Wednesday, July 26, with the Organization of American States (OAS), in Washington, to discuss the topic of Venezuela and make a statement regarding it.
“I warn of a wave of violence which they will try to create in Venezuela as of tomorrow,” said the foreign minister.
The foreign minister indicated that the embassy of the United States in Venezuela gave out a communiqué to their diplomatic personnel in which it advised “taking appropriate preparatory measures, including stocking sufficient food and water for 72 hours”, as well as avoiding demonstration zones in the face of “unexpected” events.
Translation mine.
Gee. Remember the last time the US embassy in Venezuela involved itself in local politics? It went over pretty badly for them that time:
But let’s not kid ourselves. Chavecito may no longer be with them, and neither perhaps any Irish TV crews. That doesn’t matter. They have a duly elected and constituted president, which is more than Mike Pompeo and the people of the United States can say for THEIR country. They also have a democratic process that works, which the US most certainly does not. And Venezuela is still overwhelmingly Bolivarian and socialist, in spite of 17 years of US efforts to turn them back to the nasty neoliberalism that sparked the Caracazo in 1989 (and the rise of Chavecito three years later). They’ve also been fighting for their freedom for as long as the US has been trying to repress it, and those efforts predate the very existence of the CIA by over a hundred years. This patriotic week leading up to the Constituent Assembly election is not a coincidence.
And when it ends in yet another Bolivarian victory, don’t say I didn’t tell you so.
