Imperialist intervention in Venezuela: UPDATE 16

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  • Border clashes, rocks, fire, tear gas, masked thugs, ‘torched aid’, fake Red Cross symbol
  • US “aid”: a Trojan horse and PR stunt
  • Venezuela denounces 2nd false flag operation
  • We are defending our borders and freedom: Maduro
  • Red Cross denounces unsanctioned use of its symbol to smuggle US “aid”
  • Who burnt the truck? Venezuelan FM says ‘false flag expert’ Pompeo should look among his ‘agents’
  • All options open: Guaido to meet Pence, ‘formally’ requests aid to topple Maduro
  • Peoples’ Assembly in Caracas

With false flag operations, imperialists are widening their road to intervention in Venezuela. However, these false flag operations are being exposed.

Media reports said:

Border clashes, ‘masked thugs’, ‘torched aid’, fake Red Cross symbol

In the Venezuela-situation, the US-backed opposition’s call for a “human avalanche” to force U.S. “aid” into Venezuela has erupted in violent clashes.

Self-proclaimed “interim president” Juan Guaido had called on his followers to create a “human wave” and bring the “avalanche” of “humanitarian aid” (humaid) across the borders from Brazil and Colombia on Saturday.

He has sneaked into Colombia unmolested the day before, to attend a concert organized by British billionaire Richard Branson.

Rather than lead the charge across the bridges himself, Guaido was nowhere to be seen on Saturday afternoon.

Opposition supporters clashed with Venezuelan border security forces in several places on Saturday, pelting police officers with rocks and setting tires on fire. In one incident, the opposition activists ripped up a tree and used it as a battering ram against Venezuelan police vehicles

However, the Tienditas Bridge, featured in the MSM media reports on the Venezuela-Colombia border, remained calm.

But there were several incidents at the other two bridges in the area, and police had to use tear gas on several occasions.

At the Simon Bolivar Bridge on the Venezuela-Colombia border, three apparent “defectors” commandeered armored vehicles and rammed through the border posts into Colombia, injuring several people.

The MSM claims some 60 servicemen including a number of officers have defected so far. This rate of “defection” displeases both the opposition and officials in Washington.

Right-wing opposition supporters set on fire one truck attempting to get into Venezuela before it could cross the border. According to witnesses, violent right-wing opposition members torched the trucks on the Colombian side with Molotov cocktails trying to incriminate Venezuelan security forces.

Opposition activists circulated a photograph of the burning vehicle on the Francisco de Paula Santander Bridge.

One video apparently filmed in San Antonio del Tachira, on the Venezuelan side of the border with Cucuta, Colombia, shows a masked man holding what appears to be a pistol, and several shots ringing out while a distressed woman recording the scene cries out that “colectivos” were shooting people in the street – referring to supporters of the Venezuelan government that the US and the opposition have accused of extortion and political violence.

The video ends with several still photos of masked men.

Independent journalist Eva Golinger has warned that there is “lots of false news and videos circulating,” with the goal to “provoke violent confrontation as a means to justify intervention”.

US “aid”: a Trojan horse and PR stunt

Venezuela government has denounced the US aid shipments as a “Trojan horse” intended to bolster Guaido and undermine its authority.

Venezuela denounces 2nd false flag operation

Venezuela government said: A new episode in the false flag operation – burning of trucks with so-called aid – is being waged against the Venezuelan government to justify intervention happened on the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge that links Venezuela and Colombia.

The burning trucks were on the Colombian side of the bridge where Venezuelan opposition leaders have been leading protests.

According to witnesses, violent right-wing opposition members torched the trucks to incriminate the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) and the Bolivarian National Police (PNB).

The trucks were supposedly trying to enter Venezuela, but were then burned on the part of the bridge that belongs to Colombia

In addition, some persons were trying to illegally enter Venezuela using Red Cross jackets, despite not being affiliated with the international medical organization.

On Saturday morning, the Venezuelan government denounced another false flag operation – commandeering of armored vehicles.

We are defending our borders and freedom: Maduro

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has rallied a large crowd of supporters telling them that the country has been defending its sovereignty. The call comes as the opposition was trying to get ‘aid’ from the US across the border.

Maduro rejected the attempts by self-proclaimed interim president Guaido to pressure border guards deployed to border crossings with Colombia to allow trucks in, calling the campaign an “attempted coup”. He called on the people of Venezuela to band behind his government.

“It is not a time of betrayal, it is a time of loyalty to the country and the supreme ideals of Venezuela,” he said.

Maduro dismissed the defectors, saying what they did was for show, just like the entire situation on the border orchestrated by the US government.

He stated that Venezuela was within its rights to defend its borders and the freedom of its people from a “Washington regime-change operation”.

Red Cross denounces unsanctioned use of its symbol to smuggle US “aid”

The largest international aid organization has demanded that activists at the Venezuela-Colombia border not use the insignia of the Red Cross, which is not participating in what Caracas has dismissed as a US “propaganda show.”

The Red Cross learned that some “people not affiliated” with the agency are trying to disguise themselves as aid workers to smuggle cargo for Venezuela’s opposition across the closed frontiers.

“They might mean well but they risk jeopardizing our neutrality, impartiality & independence,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza stressed that the UN and the International Red Cross are not participating in the “propaganda show” staged by the U.S.

“It is clearly an action with political objectives, it could never be described as a humanitarian action,” he said on Twitter, accusing the governments involved in the US plot of violating the principles of the UN charter.

Venezuelan government condemns US-orchestrated ‘propaganda show’ at Colombian border

Arreaza has blasted the U.S. and Colombia for organizing a “propaganda show” at the country’s Colombian border.

“From the propaganda show organized at the border, the governments of the United States and Colombia have violated practically all the principles and purposes of the UN Charter,” Arreaza tweeted on Saturday. “The world community observes them and will take appropriate action within the UN.”

Rabidly anti-Maduro Senator Marco Rubio has visited the border to drum up support for regime change in Venezuela, as has US envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams, best known for smuggling weapons in aid shipments to Nicaragua’s right-wing Contras in the early 1980s.

President Trump, who threw his support behind Guaido has tweeted “God Bless the people of Venezuela!”

The UN has warned the US against using aid as a political pawn, and called for negotiations between Maduro and Guaido. “Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or other objectives,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Wednesday.

Who burnt the truck? Venezuelan FM says ‘false flag expert’ Pompeo should look among his ‘agents’

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has challenged US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He lashed at Pompeo and his ‘hitmen’ saying they were searching for the pretext for war.

“The CIA expert in false flag operations, Pompeo, thinks he can fool the world with a truck set ablaze by his own agents in Colombia,” Arreaza tweeted on Saturday in response to recent clashes along the Venezuelan-Colombian border.

In his tweet, Arreaza posted several photos, which appear to show the burnt truck on the Colombian side of the bridge, where it was set on fire after failing to cross the border.

“If you want to find those who burnt the truck with fake humanitarian aid, look among your own employees,” Arreaza wrote.

All options open: Guaido to meet Pence, ‘formally’ requests aid to topple Maduro

Venezuela’s self-proclaimed interim leader has ‘formally’ requested that his international partners consider ‘all options’ necessary to depose Maduro, as he now heads to the Lima Group summit to meet US Vice President Mike Pence.

“The events of today oblige me to take a decision – to propose formally to the international community that we should keep open all options for the liberation of our homeland, which is fighting and will continue to fight,” Guaido tweeted Saturday.

Guaido planned to attend the Lima Group summit in Bogota, apparently to discuss a course of further action with the countries that have supported his claim to power.

The declaration came right after Pence’s aide confirmed a scheduled face-to-face meeting of the Vice President and the US-supported politician at the upcoming Lima Group summit in the Colombian capital on Monday.

Peoples’ Assembly in Caracas

More than 400 members of different political and social organizations are in Caracas to attend the International Peoples’ Assembly.

The event takes place on Sunday to debate, articulate and deepen international solidarity and the fight against U.S. interference in Venezuela.

Committees from more than 80 countries attending the assembly are denouncing the military intervention by the U.S. and its allies trying to overthrow the constitutional government of President Maduro.

The meeting will continue up to 27.

João Pedro Stedile, member of the National Board of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST), and coordinator of the Vía Campesina International, said that the date chosen for the event symbolizes solidarity with Venezuela, which is a target of attacks from neighboring governments and the U.S.

The spokesperson of the popular organizations of Zambia, representing the peoples of Africa, addressed a speech to the Venezuelans and said: “Your struggle is our struggle. For 500 years, the African people have suffered from colonialism and imperialism and we know what you are suffering now. It is unacceptable that foreign authorities think that the sovereignty of the country does not belong to the people of this country.”

For her part, U.S. spokesperson Claudia Cruz, expressed her support for the Bolivarian Revolution and its leader, Maduro.

She described the immoral speech of the U.S. Governments’ accusations of Venezuela having a humanitarian crisis, as “shameful.”

“Venezuela does not have a humanitarian crisis; Venezuela has a fight in defense of life. The United States cannot say that. Venezuela is an example of the struggle for the dignity of all the peoples of the world and that is why we are here,” she said.

She continued, “It is embarrassing, it is criminal and immoral that the United States – a country where 140 million poor people live, where 6 million live with hunger daily – comes and tells Venezuela that there is a humanitarian crisis. Venezuela has the resistance and the defense of the revolution that permits the redistribution of riches to the most poor, the most dispossessed.”

The coordinator of the Pan-Africanism Federal Movement, Mamadu Djabi Djalo, said: “We will win this fight and we will do this together, we stand in solidarity with the people of Venezuela in the face of the United States’ pretensions.”

As part of the opening ceremony of the Assembly, a “Concert for Peace” will be held in Caracas.

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