News of the Restless

Canada and Ireland: BOLO!

Posted on December 22, 2016 by Sabina Becker

Attention, fellow Canadians and friends in Ireland: Have you seen this man? If you have, please return him to Mexico, where he’s wanted:

Canada or Ireland could be the two countries where one would find Javier Duarte, a fugitive from justice in Mexico, for whom the Mexican Attorney General’s office is offering a 15-million-peso reward.

This according to radio reporter Ricardo Rocha, with information from journalist Alejandro Aguirre, after a lawyer for the ex-governor of Veracruz informed, in a letter, that the man had abandoned the country in early November.

The former governor could be taking advantage of Canada or Ireland, where persons declaring themselves as politically persecuted can remain in those nations.

Translation mine.

So, folks, keep your eyes peeled. 15 million pesos translates to close to a million in Canadian dollars, and nearly 700,000 euros. That’s no chicken feed, and you’d be catching a fox who robbed his own henhouse, to boot.

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Irish Stew, Mexican Standoffs | Comments Off

Quotable: Tess Rafferty on Drumpf voters

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Sabina Becker

I couldn’t have said this better myself.

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Posted in Bullies, Der Drumpf, Fascism Without Swastikas, Isn't That Racist?, Not So Compassionate Conservatism, Quotable Notables, The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off

The Karlov assassination: Who’s responsible, and what it all means

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Sabina Becker

Cenk Uygur, who is Turkish himself, breaks down what happened in Ankara two days ago. Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov was gunned down during a presentation at an art gallery by an off-duty riot policeman, who had disguised himself as a member of Karlov’s security team, then shouted “Allahu akbar” and “Don’t forget Aleppo”, among other things. The assassin swore that he wasn’t going to be taken alive, and sure enough, he wasn’t. The actual security forces at the scene eventually “neutralized” him.

It now appears that the assassin was connected to a putschist faction led by a self-exiled cleric currently living in Pennsylvania, who is also considered to be responsible for last summer’s failed coup attempt. The police training centre in Izmir (Gülen’s hometown), where the assassin was taught and trained, is known as a hotbed of Gülenist fanatics, as well. Apparently these fanatics have now also aligned with Daesh, and/or other “Islamist” factions of the Syrian insurgency, who were defeated in Aleppo by Russian and Syrian-government forces.

All of this occurs at a critical (and very tense) juncture in Russian-Turkish relations: Erdogan and Putin have been in conflict over Syria before, and the Turks shot down a Russian fighter jet in November, 2015. Ambassador Karlov, an experienced and adroit diplomat, played a key role here: after initially criticizing the Turkish government’s actions, he de-escalated that particular conflict and got both sides talking again. It was his timely intervention, aimed at preventing all-out war between Russia and Turkey, that made Karlov a marked man.

There is also the question of whether Erdogan and his family have been materially supporting Daesh by furnishing money and weapons, and enabling those terrorist bandits to transport and sell oil illegally. (Correction: There is actual evidence pointing to this, which the English-speaking mainstream media have been oddly reluctant to address — or maybe not so oddly, given that their agenda appears to be “oppose Russia and the government of Syria at all costs”.)

This incident is clearly aimed at creating a permanent rupture between Russia and Turkey. So far, it seems to have failed in its objective. Let’s hope so, because World War III is the last thing any thinking person should want.

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Posted in Barreling Right Along, Newspeak is Nospeak, Teh Russkies, Turkish Treats | Comments Off

Who hacked the US elections…really?

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Sabina Becker

Your attention please, everyone. I have just received some pictures of the real hackers of the US elections. Here’s one of them:

Gee, he sure looks Russian to me!

And here are three more:

I could swear I saw these babushkas on the steppes, waiting for a troika.

Perhaps you’re familiar with this lovely couple?

Yeah, they’re hackers too.

And here’s a whole slew of Twitter avatars corresponding to Russian election hackers:

Very sinister collection of Rooskies there, no?

And finally, here’s a picture of some actual Russian election hackers at work, caught RED-handed:

And yes, we even have a confession from Vladimir Putin himself, telling how he directed the whole operation personally. With the help of his robot bear, Boris.

Ahem. Now, let’s get serious here.

I’m totally with Juan Cole on all of this, but especially this bit:

I have already said that the allegations of effective Russian interference in the US election do not make any sense to me. There is no point at which anything Russia is said to have done can be shown to have determined the election outcome.

The things that appear to have hurt Clinton late in the election were her “deplorables” comment about Trump supporters, and the Comey letter about the new emails the FBI had found on Anthony Weiner’s computer. Neither of these incidents had any Russian connection.

I don’t doubt that Russian intelligence was interested in sowing discord in the US around its election. I am saying that there is no evidence that it succeeded.

And, be it noted, repeated assertions by the FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security, without sufficient proofs offered to back them up, do not constitute “evidence that it succeeded”, either. Repetition of tenuous links or even outright bullshit does not magically convert it into truth. Remember Karl Rove?

Of course, the intel agencies will insist, lamely (and without sufficient proof, again) that to show their work and how they arrived at their conclusions, as we were all taught to do in math class and essays from an early age, would “compromise” their “agents in the field”, or some such rubbish. Never mind that faces can be pixel-blurred during on-camera interviews (if the need for such should ever arise), voices can be disguised on audio recordings, scenarios can be re-enacted by actors, and all compromising details can be black-barred out of documents in which they appear. These are all tried and true media-redaction methods used to protect persons whose identities cannot or should not be revealed by an investigative report.

And yet, none of them have been employed here. Which makes the whole “just take our word for it, the Russians did this” business sniffy as hell…and the media, too, for going along with it. At a time when everybody is supposedly so concerned about stamping out “fake news”, isn’t that…well, just a wee bit awkward? And, oh, what’s the word I’m looking for here — hypocritical?

Fact-free assertions that the US election was rigged by Russia have dragged the whole ghastly mess from tragedy to farce. Are the Democratic Party establishment going to insist that Russia has also hacked their primaries to ensure that a losing establishment candidate would “win” over an actually popular one? Or how about that shambolic anti-democratic bomb, the Electoral College, which privileges “electors” from sparsely-populated states over the actual popular vote?

Seems to me that when you have a partisan system that allows questionably-valued “superdelegates” to determine, over and above the party rank-and-file, who gets to be your candidate, you have a systemic intra-party problem that doesn’t require outside hacking.

Ditto the Electoral College, which is a flaw built right in (and has a horrific history, too, of supporting first slavery, and later systemic racism).

And of course, let’s not forget all those deplorable assholes in the stupid pro-Drumpf shirts. After all, those fucking morons voted. They voted out of sheer spite and glee, just to be “politically incorrect”, never paying attention to policies that will end up hurting them worse than ever. They voted to punish women, non-white people, immigrants, LGBT people, workers, and basically anyone who benefited from having a black president in the White House. And, knowing that they did not represent anything near a popular majority, they supported gerrymandering, disenfranchisement, and the down-and-dirty tactic of voter intimidation, too.

Are you going to accuse them of being secret Russian agents? If you are, you just might be a deplorable idiot yourself. These people have been morons, politically speaking, since the days when Russia was ruled by czars and no threat to anyone but its own serfs. These are the descendants of those slave-state yokels who may not have owned slaves themselves, but by God, they were going to fight for the “states’ rights” to let rich white people buy poor, miserable black people!

So, dear establishmentarian Democrats, take this to heart: You didn’t need any Russian hackers to fuck up your democracy. You can also quit blaming the “Bernie bros”, and quit falsely accusing them of turning to Drumpf out of spite. You did all that yourselves, within your own party, by rigging its selection process until it broke.

And you let it happen on a nationwide scale, too.

You can stop wondering now how Germany “let Hitler happen”. When every supposed “safeguard” built into your electoral system misfires at every stage of the way, from the primaries down to the final certification, and you’re STILL too busy pointing fingers in all the wrong directions, blaming the other factions instead of pulling together to stop corruption before it can happen in your own midst, well…there’s your explanation of “how could it happen here”. Germany found this out the hard way in the 1930s, and now it’s your turn.

If you cannot do democracy right, even within your own party, you haven’t a hope in hell of staving off fascism. And you bear the blame right along with the deplorables who actually voted for it.

PS: And now it’s official. The FBI, with no help from Russia, hacked the US election too. At long last, can we FINALLY start blaming home-grown misrule?

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Posted in Confessions of a Bad German, Crapagandarati, Der Drumpf, Fascism Without Swastikas, If You REALLY Care, Isn't It Ironic?, Newspeak is Nospeak, Not So Compassionate Conservatism, Spooks, Teh Russkies, The Hardcore Stupid, The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off

The terrorists have won.

Posted on December 19, 2016 by Sabina Becker

In Ankara, Turkey. Twice.

In Berlin, Germany.

In Washington, DC, USA.

And oh yeah: In Naples, Italy, THIS happened.

Brace yourselves, kiddies, the new year is looking shitty already, and we’re not even there yet.

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Posted in Confessions of a Bad German, Der Drumpf, Fascism Without Swastikas, The United States of Amnesia, Turkish Treats | Comments Off

Music for a Sunday: Obligatory.

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Sabina Becker

“Linus and Lucy”, by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. The Christmas-song-that-isn’t that defined my childhood.

(And if you’re wondering which kid I am at the dance, I’m the girl with the curly red hair.)

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Wankers of the Week: Damn Rooskies!

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Sabina Becker

Crappy weekend, everyone! And a very crappy one to all you commie spies out there in Moscow, snurk. Don’t worry about the New Cold War, we’ve got you beat for cold weather here in Canada, easily. Just hand over the moose and the squirrel, and no one gets hurt. Except of course the following, in no particular order:

1. Marine Le Fucking Pen. Oh sure, charge refugees to have their “children taken care of”. People who came with literally NOTHING, and who are often already in debt to the smugglers who brought them in. How’s that supposed to work again? Oh yeah…by appealing to the Frenchness of the French, and appeasing the xenophobes. Silly me. I guess I just don’t understand this fascist merde.

2. Bill O’Fucking Reilly. Oh lordy, here goes that Billo-made War on Xmas thing again. Hey Billo, go easy on the eggnog, wouldja? Or at least, stick to the non-alcoholic kind during working hours. Wouldn’t want to start humping a loofah while you’re on the air, would you now?

3. Sarah Fucking Palin. Oh, Quitbull. How is it that you managed to quit everything halfway through…except acting like a moron? Because if you had any brains in that stripey head of yours, you’d have learned that the original War on Christmas was fought by the Pilgrims, who didn’t believe in celebrating that pagan holiday. PS: HAHAHAHAHAHA! Like hell you will.

4. Pamela Fucking Taylor. Hey, Clay County Development Corporation, are you really sure you want this ape in heels working for you? STILL? Because, y’know, keeping her around isn’t exactly a good look. Especially since she’s as ungrammatical as she is unqualified and unprofessional.

5. Lance Fucking Wallnau. Oh, so college profs are “intellectual pedophiles” who “molest the minds” of their students? Gee. Where is the anti-PC brigade when you need them? Out to lunch, apparently. Because this guy is one hell of a special-snowflake advocate, calling for all church-ridden idiots to be forever insulated from heretical thought. And they’re not saying boo!

6. Theresa Fucking May. And speaking of intellectual sheltering and PC-ness, how about the apartheid wall that’s being built against honest discussion of Israel and ITS apartheid wall, by a certain unelected and very unprogressive PM of Britain?

7. Tom Fucking Horn. By now you should know better than to trust anyone or anything that appears on Jim Fucking Bakker’s televangelist show, right? Right.

8 and 9. Steve Fucking Hawes and Dick Fucking Venn. And speaking of “by now you should know better”, how about these guys? Yeah. They chose to write shitty letters to the editors of the LA Times, in which they made the fascistic internment of Japanese Americans out to be a Good Thing. Never mind that people actually died in those camps, that none of them were spies, and that all of them lost their hope of a decent life in their adopted country thanks to government-sanctioned racism. “Unbalanced” news coverage? I’d say these idiots are the unbalanced ones.

10. David Fucking Grisham, Jr. Santa Claus isn’t real? Neither is your imaginary friend, preacher-man. See how it is when two can play at that game?

11. Bibi Fucking Netanyahu. He’s not worried about Der Drumpf’s (or his followers’) antisemitism? Stands to reason. In his eyes, even the stinkingest Nazi is a better Zionist than the overwhelmingly left-leaning US Jews.

12. Philip Fucking Davies. Well, looky here. An antifeminist wanker has gotten himself elected to a commission on women and equality. His great idea for gender equality? Send more women to jail. Yes, really. And just think, this was in Britain. Der Drumpf didn’t even have to appoint this one! The Brits have just proved that the US doesn’t have a corner on fucking idiocy, after all.

13. Lorne Fucking Gunter. Meanwhile, out in Alberta, here’s a shitty “journalist” who hasn’t even the common courage to admit that he took a bribe before he went on record as defending Ezra the Putz. Or was it before he went on a cruise with Ezra? I don’t know. But I bet HE does.

14. Kanye Fucking West. He didn’t vote. But if he did, he would have voted for the comb-over who now wants to make him “an ambassador of sorts”. For what? Pussy-grabbing? Sweet Jeebus.

15. Tom Fucking DeLay. Maybe HE “got over” slavery…but then again, none of his ancestors were dragged across the Atlantic in chains, so there was nothing for him to get over. Except, of course, himself…which he will NEVER be over, because he’s the fucking Bugman, and all the chemicals he huffed have eaten his brain.

16. Ted Fucking Bonner. The South shall rise again! Nope. Still nope. Just…nope.

17. Theodore Fucking Beale. When is a Nazi NOT a Nazi? Apparently, when the Nazi himself says so. Fuck this “alt-right” ‘winger-PC bullshit, Ted…you ARE a Nazi. OWN IT.

18. Riley Fucking Herchenbach. Trying to get a woman fired from the company she owns, because she tried to set you straight on your dumb ass? Oooooooo, dude…how embarrassing for you. On so many counts, too. Ha, ha.

19. Alex Fucking Jones. Look, a shiny object! Too late for the inane distraction, Alex…we all see how hard you’re trying to shove #PizzaGate (and that preposterous slander I listed you for last week) down the memory hole. Also, are you forgetting that Der Drumpf’s own “soul-cooking parties” put those of your imaginary Illuminati to shame?

20. Condoleezza Fucking Rice. It’s been a while since Dubya’s Auntie Condi has been mentioned here, but it’s nice to see she’s lost none of her talent for backing a winner…and by “winner”, I mean a corrupto out the wazoo.

21. Milo Fucking Yiannopoulos. Aaaaaand there he goes again, being a drunken, self-serving douche with no redeeming social value whatsoever, posing as a “speaker” at a university. And harassing a trans student so badly that she’s now being forced to leave. But let anyone bar the door against him, and he’ll whine about how his Freeze Peach is being squashed. Who’s the special snowflake, again?

22. Gordon Fucking Klingenschmitt. Susan B. Anthony probably said it best when she said (and I’m paraphrasing) that she didn’t trust anyone who knew well what God’s will was, because it invariably coincided with their own. And conversely, John Jacob Jingleheimer shouldn’t be trusted, because everyone who disagrees with him is oh so conveniently “demon-possessed”.

23. John Fucking Bolton. Der Drump is BIGLY upset about lies, lies, LIES! So much so that he’s now installing this lying sheepdog as his deputy secretary of state. Yup, this shitshow is just gonna keep right on shittin’.

24. Lorrie Fucking Goldstein. “There you go, you colossal donut.” Care for some Ozonol? Because you sure smell like you got burned!

25. Fred Fucking Couch. Remember Affluenza Boy? Well, looks like he’s a chip off the ol’ block. Dear ol’ Affluenza Dad has no respect for public institutions, either…and no qualms about pretending to be a uniformed member of one.

26. John Fucking Sousa. Oh sure, you’re not a racist. Because making deportation threats against students of other colors is totally not a racist thing to do. Lemme guess: Anyone who points your racism out is the REAL racist? Yeah, thought so.

27. Bill Fucking Gates. Drumpf may have the “opportunity” to be like JFK, but in fact he’s going to make like Mussolini. And if justice prevails, he’ll probably end up hanging by his feet from a gas station roof like him, too.

28. Eric Fucking Drumpf. First he was going to auction off his own sister as a coffee date to the highest bidder — for charity, natch. But then someone must have twigged him to how bad that looked, especially since it’s a massive conflict of interest, so he stopped the auction. And well-heeled perverts everywhere sniffled and were sad. Bawwww!

29. Tony Fucking Perkins. Yes, Rex Tillerson must be stopped, all right. But not because of abortion or Teh Ghey. It’s the crapitalist conflicts of interest, stoopid!

30. Pat Fucking McCrory. Wow. Spiteful much? I guess being soon to be out of power must be getting to Gubnor Hatemonger, because he’s trying desperately to disempower the guy who beat him fair and square at the ballot box. Tyrants gonna tyrant, eh?

And finally, to the so-called “alt-right”, again. These pasty little shits with their ugly haircuts. These flying monkeys whom the black tweeters are ridiculing as we speak. They’re actually trying to get taken seriously as a Political Force To Be Reckoned With? So much so that their so-called intellectual leader (and coiner of that idiotically PC name for what’s otherwise just a motley bunch of Klukers and Nazi-punkasses) is considering running for office. In Montana. Where his own mother, who disagrees with him politically, is facing economic ruin thanks to him. If he does try it, I hope he gets his pasty ass kicked. The country is already facing total ruin thanks to their Dear Leader, Der Drumpf, and these guys are just gonna dig that hole deeper? They’d better be prepared to be the first to fall into it when the shots are fired. Because there is no way this can end well.

Good night, and get fucked!

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Mainstream western media roll over for bloodthirsty foreign dictator

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Sabina Becker

Note that this is NOT the Onion. And neither is it Russia Today, reporting on Bashar al-Assad. This is the CBC, reporting on the so-called president of the Philippines:

Yes, that’s Rodrigo Fucking Duterte, cheerfully admitting that he’s a bloodthirsty butcher who actually went around looking for confrontations just so he had an excuse to kill someone. And who instructed police to do the same.

Now for the truly surreal bit: Did you catch that bit of commentary at the end, between CBC anchor Ian Hanomansing (at right) and the reporter? They’re actually asking “how seriously we should take” what he says.

Are these guys shittin’ me?

By the CBC’s own reporting, there are over 2,000 Filipinos dead since this fascist bastard took office. And they’re debating “how seriously” we should take his claim to personally butchering people just for the hell of it, just to show his bullyboys how it’s done? I guess neither of these guys ever learned the old saying: When someone tells you who they really are, believe them.

And no, I don’t believe that PR person from the Philippine justice department, running out to cover the boss’s ass. I believe Duterte when he says he’s a butcher. I may not believe another word out of that ugly mouth of his, but that he’s a cold-blooded killer who personally thrives on murder and mayhem, I do believe. An ever-growing pile of corpses doesn’t lie.

But if the CBC is to be believed, ah-ha-ha, oh that Roddy, what a kidder. He’s just exaggerating his penis size!

Well, at least the Young Turks (who are NOT a mainstream media outlet) got it right:

…aside from a few too-nice things to say about the IMF (dirty MF) and World Bank, that is. But that’s grist for another entry.

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Posted in Bullies, Drrrrruuuugs, Fascism Without Swastikas, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Newspeak is Nospeak, Not So Compassionate Conservatism | Comments Off

Drumpf supporters get Berned

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Sabina Becker

Watch how, in less than five minutes, Bernie Sanders reaches a voter who was duped by Drumpf:

How I wish he’d done this before the election. For that matter, how I wish he’d done this as the Democratic candidate, which is what he should have been.

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Posted in Der Drumpf, Economics for Dummies, The "Well, DUH!" Files, The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off

Colombian currency mafias in Venezuela: How they operate

Posted on December 12, 2016 by Sabina Becker

A Colombian currency smuggler arrested by Venezuelan federal police. Stacks of 100-bolivar notes can be seen on the truck bed behind him.

Further to my earlier piece today, here’s a little information on what the Venezuelan government is tackling with its efforts to counter the smuggling of 100-bolivar notes out of country:

Since 2013, Venezuela has been confronting a national and international right-wing attack on all fronts. A fierce economic war is part of the strategies used to batter the Bolivarian homeland. Among its tactics is an attack on the nation’s currency.

This crime — forbidden under the Organic Law Against Organized Crime and Financing for Terrorism — was denounced by president Nicolás Maduro, who announced that the operation is directed by mafias from Colombia.

The president indicated on Sunday that in Colombian cities such as Cúcuta, Maicao, Cartagena and Bucaramanga, they are warehousing Venezuelan banknotes, especially the 100-bolivar denomination, which will be out of circulation this week as a measure against those mafias.

Once the paper money is extracted from Venezuela, the mafias use various options to exchange the bolivars according to their whims. The trade in bolivars is legal in Colombia since the year 2000, when the the Bank of the Republic of Colombia, which functions as a central bank, announced Resolution 8, which authorizes direct monetary exchanges with neighboring countries, without converting to US dollars first.

This established a double foreign currency exchange rate in Colombia: one official, established by the Bank of the Republic, and another special one, applied only at the borders.

This dual rate, supported by Resolution 8, facilitates irregular use of bolivars. For example, on Sunday, the Bank of the Republic of Colombia, located in Bogotá, fixed the exchange rate of the bolivar at 300.58 pesos, while the exchanges in Cúcuta (on the Colombian/Venezuelan border) impoverish the bolivar with a price of 2.45 pesos.

That is, while a 100-bolivar note has an official value at the Colombian central bank of 30,058 pesos, at the border, an exchange house will pay just 245 pesos for the same bill.

Later, that quantity is exchanged in Colombia for US dollars. Sunday’s exchange rate was 3,002.80 pesos to the dollar. 100 bolivars would buy 10 US dollars.

Later, those 10 dollars would be exchanged for bolivars in Venezuela, using the “parallel dollar” rate, with which the would obtain, at today’s rate, a gain of more than 42,540 bolivars, used later to buy subsidized products in Venezuela and resell them on Colombian soil.

“It’s been calculated that more than 300 billion bolivars are in the hands of international mafias directed from Colombia, part of the economic coup,” announced the Venezuelan president.

In 2015, socialist leader Diosdado Cabello denounced three ways the Colombian mafias use the bolivar note. At that time, Cabello warned of the “three-legged operation”, which consists of the purchase of three 100-bolivar notes for 250 bolivars apiece, for a total of 750 bolivars in all.

The first note would be hoarded by US and Colombian groups, who would keep it for four or five months in an effort to force the Venezuelan government to print more money in an effort to deal with the scarcity of the currency.

The second note would be passed to exchange houses in Bogotá, where its value is 50 times higher than in Cúcuta, in order to be brought later to the border region to acquire Venezuelan products which are sold as contraband.

And the third note would return to Venezuela in order to buy gasoline, food and subsidized products, and smuggle them to Colombia.

Translation mine.

And Colombian mafias aren’t the only ones in on this business. According to the Venezuelan justice minister, the US government is also part of the scheme, via some of its usual suspects:

Venezuelan justice minister Major-General Néstor Reverol Torres informed that the US government is contracting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to extract Venezuelan paper money from the country.

An investigation into the flight of large sums of cash money, which have rocked the land, determined that this is part of a plan to “end the circulation of money and asphyxiate the national financial system”, according to the Venezuelan National Anti-Drug Office (ONA).

The minister explained that the NGOs contract organized crime groups to extract the money in the form of 100-bolivar notes, the largest denomination in Venezuelan territory, via Colombia, and move it to Asia and Europe. “These operations are being done to leave our country without economic liquidity, as part of the economic war [on Venezuela]”, said Reverol.

Reverol detailed how 300 billion bolivars have been deposited in warehouses in Switzerland, Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic. “This is part of a financial coup,” he said.

Reverol also revealed how these actions have occurred in other countries, such as Libya and Iraq, “to bring down governments via a non-conventional war. They call it ‘Operation Redemption’. Those countries are their objectives, where they are looking to strangle the financial system.”

Reverol showed the media the front page of a European newspaper, where he showed a photo, with a current date, which reveals evidence of the existence of money in foreign warehouses. He also showed videos and other recordings revealing the same.

The Venezuelan authorities are conducting an investigation to determine how these large sums of money left the country.

Reverol denounced the existence of a pact on the part of the NGOs: that once the Venezuelan government falls, the money will be repatriated “at the rate of $30.80 US per 100 bolivars”. For that reason, he says, the president has decided that this money will never return to the country.

[…]

Reverol Torres announced that security forces, along with the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), would implement all actions to establish strict vigilance over land, sea and air, in order to prevent this money from clandestinely re-entering the Venezuelan banking system.

Translation, again, mine.

So we can see that the smugglers now have egg all over their faces, as well as a whole slew of useless 100-bolivar notes rotting in their warehouses. No word on the identity of the NGOs supposedly acting on behalf of the US government, but don’t be too surprised if we hear in days to come that they are tied to the laughably-misnamed “National Endowment for Democracy” and its two partisan arms, as Eva Golinger has found in years gone by. After all, the economic coups against Venezuela have remained constant no matter which party was currently occupying the White House.

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