thetelegraph--2019-12-13--Times tables focus helps boost primary school maths Sats results, experts say

A focus on times tables has helped to boost primary school Maths Sats results, experts have said.  Data released by the Department for Education (DfE) show that 79 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in Maths this year, the high proportion out of all the “three R’s” and a rise of four percentage points on 2018.  It comes after a drive by ministers to bring back traditional teaching methods such as times tables, as well as efforts to import Chinese-style teaching into the classroom.  More than half a million 11-year-olds across England took national curriculum tests in May, where they were tested in reading, writing and maths as well as science and grammar, punctuation and spelling.  When the Government launched a new "tougher" curriculum four years ago, 70 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in Maths.  This rose to 75 per cent the following year where it remained in 2018, before rising again to 79 per cent this year. Prof Valsa Koshy, an expert in maths education at Brunel University, said that the Government’s emphasis on times tables “is making a difference” in pupils’ abilities in maths.  She told The Daily Telegraph: “I see in schools there is more emphasis on children learning time tables. If you look at Sats maths papers, there is a lot are problem solving.


theverge--2019-04-09--The White House is using fuzzy math to justify net neutrality veto

In a statement on Monday, the White House promised to veto the Save the Internet Act — a bill designed to restore net neutrality protections and undo the FCC’s extremely unpopular 2017 decision to repeal them. To justify the veto, the statement painted a picture of surging broadband investment and robust new networks, free to flourish now that Title II was out of the way.  “Since the new rule was adopted in 2018, consumers have benefited from a greater than 35 percent increase in average, fixed broadband download speeds, and the United States rose to sixth, from thirteenth, in the world for those speeds,” the White House said. “In 2018, fiber was also made available to more new homes than in any previous year, and capital investment by the Nation’s top six Internet service providers increased by $2.3 billion.”  Unfortunately for the White House, there’s no evidence to suggest any of those improvements had anything to do with killing net neutrality. Some of the data points aren’t accurate, and others are the result of policies from past administrations.  One figure comes from a telecom group’s press release  The first portion of the government’s data comes courtesy of an Ookla broadband speed report from last December, which found that average fixed broadband speeds increased by 35.8 percent in 2018. However, the speed tests at the heart of the report were conducted by Ookla users between Q2 and Q3 of last year. Net neutrality wasn’t formally repealed until June 11th of 2018 — or about halfway through the measurement period in question. There’s no evidence to suggest the net neutrality repeal impacted these numbers one way or the other, and past analysis has shown recent broadband growth to be well in line with past years.  The claim about record deployment of fiber (a favorite of Pai’s FCC) also has less to do with deregulation than the White House would have you believe. At least half of 2018’s 5.6 million new fiber-connected homes are included as a condition of AT&T’s merger with Time Warner, negotiated by the previous FCC. As part of that agreement, AT&T agreed to deploy fiber to an additional 3 million homes every year; a far cry from the “light-touch regulatory scheme” the government claims was responsible for the growth.  There’s a litany of other reasons why 2018 broadband speed improvements likely had nothing to do with net neutrality. Cable operators spent much of 2018 finishing up relatively inexpensive DOCSIS 3.1 cable upgrades, which began before Trump was elected. Other improvements were courtesy of community broadband efforts the Trump FCC has actively opposed.  One of the other figures is pulled directly from a telecom lobbying group’s press release. The White House boasted that telecoms had invested $2.3 billion in better networks over the course of 2018 — but the figure seems to have come from a press release sent out by USTelecom, a major broadband lobbying group, which attributed the rise to the FCC’s new hands-off approach. But not everyone agrees: consumer groups say the connection isn’t supported by hard data — and industry CEOs have even disputed that the Title II was stifling investment.  “Whether we look at inflation-adjusted figures or nominal values, these companies did not invest $2.3 billion more in 2018 than they did in 2017,” Free Press general counsel Matt Wood told The Verge. “In fact, four of those six companies saw investment declines in 2018, and the total decline for all of them put together was more than $1.5 billion” said Wood, who pointed to his group’s own analysis of the data.  “We’re getting more and more members of Congress on the record in support of real net neutrality protections”  Wood said there are lots of reasons why industry investment ebbs and flows, including the level of competition ISPs face in their home territories. Few, if any, of those reasons have anything to do with the Pai FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality.  “To claim that large ISPs increased their spending when they did just the opposite—whatever the natural cause for such decreases—is a fraud designed to deter Members of Congress from voting for rules that their constituents need and demand by 4 to 1 margins,” Wood said.  Regardless, the Save the Internet Act still faces long odds as it winds its way through the legislative process. While it may survive a vote today in the House, it faces a tougher uphill battle in passing the Senate and avoiding a Trump veto. Should it fail, the rules could still be restored by an ongoing lawsuit filed by 23 state attorneys general.  “It’s obviously a long shot,” Fight for the Future deputy director Evan Greer told The Verge. “But so was stopping SOPA,” they said, referring to a hugely controversial copyright law only thwarted due to immense internet backlash.  “Either way, we’re getting more and more members of Congress on the record in support of real net neutrality protections,” Greer said. “That’s the key for restoring net neutrality in the long term, and the Save the Internet Act gives us a powerful path to push our way toward that goal.”


truepundit--2019-10-22--Seattle Public Schools plans course showing how math is a tool of racial oppression

A Seattle Public Schools ethnic studies committee is working on an educational framework that aims to teach students to understand and identify the ways math is connected to racial oppression, according to the Daily Caller.  A rough draft of the K-12 Math Ethnic Studies Framework, created by the Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee, details four themes curriculum can focus on: Origins, Identity, and Agency; Power and Oppression; History of Resistance and Liberation; and Reflection and Action.  The first theme, Origins, Identity, and Agency, focuses on the historical beginnings of mathematical knowledge and the cultures, particularly those of color, that contributed to the development of mathematics study.  The Power and Oppression theme is the one that most aggressively frames mathematics as a tool of racial oppression. Here’s the definition of that theme:  Power and oppression, as defined by ethnic studies, are the ways in which individuals and groups define mathematical knowledge so as to see “Western” mathematics as the only legitimate expression of mathematical identity and intelligence. This definition of legitimacy is then used to disenfranchise people and communities of color. This erases the historical contributions of people and communities of color. – READ MORE


usnews--2019-11-13--Tennessee Seeking Public Comment on K-12 Math Standards

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee State Board of Education is seeking public comment on the state's K-12 mathematics standards.  A news release from the board says the comments will be considered when the math standards are updated in 2020. The board is required to review all academic standards at least every six years in a thorough and transparent process.  The public survey went up on Tuesday and is available through Dec. 6 at noon, Central Time. It can be accessed through the board's website at https://www.tn.gov/sbe .  After the public comment window closes, advisory teams will draft recommended standards. Once approved, the state Textbook and Instructional Materials Commission will use those standards to recommend educational resources to school districts.  The revised math standards will go into effect for the 2022-23 school year.  Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


usnews--2019-12-16--As Georgia Revises Math Standards, Some Push for Big Changes

ATLANTA (AP) — As Georgia reviews what public school students learn in math, the first step will almost certainly be a strong cry for change — but it remains unclear how much that will influence the outcome.  Gov. Brian Kemp and state Superintendent Richard Woods kicked off the process earlier this month with the meeting of a citizen review committee to which they appointed a number of prominent critics of the Common Core State Standards.  Big changes to standards would necessarily mean big — and expensive — changes to textbooks and other academic materials, intensive teacher training and an overhaul of the standardized tests given to students in grades 3-8 and high school. Woods told the state Board of Education last week that he wants board members to adopt new standards this June. Next year, teachers would be retrained and tests rewritten, with changes fully implemented in fall 2021. An overhaul of English language arts standards would follow through the same steps one year later.  Common Core was an effort to write academic standards shared by all 50 states, with support from then-Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. One central idea was that students should learn more analytically and less by memorization. Almost a decade ago, 46 states including Georgia adopted Common Core-inspired documents describing what students in each grade should learn in math and English language arts.  But Common Core set off fierce criticism, with complaints including improper federal influence by the administration of President Barack Obama, undesirable changes to traditional math teaching methods, and a failure to track enough students to take calculus in high school. The support from Obama tinged the issue with partisan politics, with opponents trending conservative.  In response to criticism, Georgia made a few changes in 2015, producing a renamed Georgia Standards of Excellence. However, both Kemp and Woods say that was just a fresh coat of paint on Common Core. Kemp repeatedly pledged while running for governor to dismantle Common Core.  For long-suffering Common Core opponents, the ascendancy of Kemp and Woods has opened a window to undo what they see as a colossal mistake. Citizen review committee member Jane Robbins, for example, emphasizes the need to teach arithmetic using traditional methods — the “standard algorithm" — in earlier grades. That would mean, for example, memorizing multiplication tables instead of learning more about the inner workings of math.  “The ideology is that you don't need to teach children the standard algorithm, you don't need to have children able to do math problems fluently until they're 11 or 12 years old,” Robbins said. “That's not the way the brain works and it's not how high-achieving countries teach math.”  Jim Arnold, a retired school superintendent who lives in Midland, said changes in math instruction that made it harder for parents to help young children with homework indicate an important problem.  A report from the citizens review committee, compiled by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, is scheduled to be published later this month. The next step calls for panels of teachers to review grade-level standards and suggest revisions. Those revisions would then be examined by a third group called the academic review committee. Eventually, the state Board of Education would seek public comment and then vote.  The key question may be what the teachers will do. Some education and professional groups support Georgia's current standards and are likely to oppose big changes. The Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics, for example, says that under current standards, students “learn grade-level appropriate content with the development of conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills that prepare them for higher mathematics content.”


bbc--2019-04-12--Sudan coup Protesters defy curfew after military ousts Bashir

Sudan coup: Protesters defy curfew after military ousts Bashir

Large crowds have remained on the streets of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, through the night, ignoring a curfew declared by the military.  Long-time President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown and arrested on Thursday after months of street protests.  But demonstrators say the military council which has taken power is part of the same regime.  The fresh stand-off has raised fears of a violent confrontation between protesters and the army.  There is also a real danger that different elements of the security forces and militia could turn their guns on each other, says BBC World Service Africa editor Will Ross.  The UN and the African Union have both called for calm.  Sudan is due to reopen its airspace on Friday, following a 24-hour suspension, but land and maritime borders will remain closed, the military council has said.  The curfew, in force from 22:00 local time (20:00 GMT) to 04:00, was declared for the "safety" of citizens, state media said.  The armed forces and the security council would carry out their "duty to uphold peace and security and protect citizens' livelihoods", it said.  A mood of celebration on the streets of Khartoum, which followed news of Mr Bashir's arrest, evaporated when organisers called for a mass sit-in outside military headquarters to continue.  "This is a continuation of the same regime," said Sara Abdeljalil of the Sudanese Professionals' Association (SPA). "So what we need to do is to continue the fight and the peaceful resistance."  An SPA statement said that "those who destroyed the country and killed the people are seeking to steal every drop of blood and sweat that the Sudanese people poured in their revolution that shook the throne of tyranny".  The SPA has previously said that any transitional administration must not include anyone from the "tyrannical regime".  Crowds waved flags and chanted "Fall, again!" - refashioning their previous anti-Bashir slogan of "Fall, that's all!".  Early on Thursday, military vehicles entered the large compound in Khartoum housing the defence ministry, the army headquarters and Mr Bashir's personal residence.  State TV and radio interrupted programming and Defence Minister Awad Ibn Ouf announced "the toppling of the regime". He said Mr Bashir was being held "in a secure place" but did not give details.  Mr Ibn Ouf said the country had been suffering from "poor management, corruption, and an absence of justice" and he apologised "for the killing and violence that took place".  He said the army would oversee a two-year transitional period followed by elections.  The minister also said a three-month state of emergency was being put in place, with the constitution suspended.  Before the coup, Mr Ibn Ouf was Mr Bashir's first vice-president and defence minister.  He has also served as army commander and military intelligence chief.  He is one of a group of officials subject to US sanctions from 2007 over support for the Janjaweed militia which was blamed for mass killings in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.  This is a military coup with no clear roadmap for how the generals plan to hand over power to civilian rule.  The fear will be that they have no such intention. The security elite has calculated that removing Omar al-Bashir and imposing a curfew will buy them time and end the protests. If so, this represents a serious miscalculation.  The SPA and other civil society groups have made it clear they won't accept a cosmetic change. They have the numbers and are highly organised.  The military has the guns and the capacity for imposing brutal repression. But what then? A crackdown will not resolve the desperate economic crisis that brought years of simmering resentment on to the streets last December.  There is also the question of the cracks within the Sudanese security establishment, evident during the clashes between soldiers and intelligence/militia forces in recent days. It is a volatile and unpredictable situation that demands cool heads and compromise on the part of the military. The stability of Sudan depends on how they react to continued protests.  It is not yet clear what will happen to former the 75-year-old, who is now in custody.  He is the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accuses him of organising war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.  His rule was marked by civil war. A conflict with the south of the country ended in 2005 and South Sudan became independent in 2011.  Demonstrations against his rule began in December, triggered by a rise in the cost of living, and at least 38 people died in the unrest.  The former army officer himself came to power in 1989 through a military coup.  UN Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for "calm and utmost restraint by all" and urged a transition that would meet the "democratic aspirations" of the people. The UN Security Council is to discuss the situation in a closed-door meeting on Friday.  UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that a two-year military council was "not the answer" and called for a "swift move to an inclusive, representative, civilian leadership".  The African Union condemned the military takeover, saying it was not an appropriate response to the challenges facing Sudan and the aspirations of its people.  Russia, which twice hosted Mr Bashir despite the international travel ban he faced, called for calm and said it was monitoring the situation.  Amnesty International's Secretary General Kumi Naidoo said that justice was "long overdue" for Mr Bashir.


channel4uk--2019-04-11--Sudan military coup overthrows president after 30 years in power following mass protests

Sudan military coup overthrows president after 30 years in power, following mass protests

The forecast for the next 5 days


eveningstandard--2019-04-30--Venezuela coup latest Juan Guaido calls for a military uprising to oust President Nicolas Maduro

Venezuela coup latest: Juan Guaido calls for a military uprising to oust President Nicolas Maduro

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has called for a military uprising and said the end of Nicolas Maduro’s rule is near in a video showing him surrounded by soldiers in an apparent coup attempt.  However, the government quickly responded to say it is putting down the small coup by “military traitors” working with right-wing opponents and insisted the armed forces remain “firmly in defence of the national constitution and legitimate authorities”.  Writing on Twitter, Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said Mr Guaido is working “against the constitution and peace of the Republic” and insisted President Maduro’s government “will win”.  It comes as tear gas was fired at Mr Guaido and around 70 men in military uniform gathered outside the Caracas air base La Carlota.  Mr Rodriguez tweeted: "We inform the people of Venezuela at the moment we are confronting and deactivating a reduced group of military traitors who are positioning themselves in the Distribuidor Altamira to promote a coup d'etat against the constitution and the peace of the Republic.  "To this intent is added the putschist and murderous ultra-right which announced its violent agenda months ago. We call on the people to maintain maximum alert so, together the glorious National Armed Bolivarian forces defeat the intent to mount a coup and preserve the peace. We will win."  US-backed Mr Guaido appeared in a video earlier on Tuesday surrounded by soldiers and accompanied by detained activist Leopoldo Lopez when he called for a military uprising.  In the three minute video, released a day before a planned anti-government rally, Mr Guaido said that soldiers would be acting to protect the constitution.  Mr Lopez, who has been under house arrest for leading an anti-government push in 2014, made his first public appearance since he was detained to say: “This is the moment of all Venezuelans, those in uniform and those who aren't.  "Everyone should come to the streets, in peace."  Mr Guaido tweeted shortly after to tell his supporters “the end of the usurpation” was beginning against the government, adding: “In this moment I am meeting with the principal military units of our Armed Forces giving the start to the final phase of Operation Liberty.”


eveningstandard--2019-12-14--Thousands in Thailand join biggest protest since 2014 military coup

Several thousand supporters of Thai opposition party which could be banned took part in the biggest protest since a 2014 coup on Saturday.  A reported 10,000 people burst onto the streets after authorities moved to ban the party that has rallied opposition to the government of former military ruler Prayuth Chan-ocha.  The demonstration in Bangkok was called just a day earlier by Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a 41-year-old billionaire.  Speaking to activists in the capital, Mr Thanathorn urged people to stand up against the government and fight for democracy.  He told them: "This is just the beginning. I think it shows that people will not tolerate dictatorship anymore."  Many demonstrators gave the three-finger salute of resistance, a symbol taken from the Hollywood film The Hunger Games.  Legal moves to dissolve the party have angered supporters who believe there is a conspiracy against it.  There was no sign of any attempt to block the biggest demonstration since Prayuth seized power in 2014 on promises to end such unrest.  The military staged a coup in 2014 led by army general Prayuth Chan-ocha, the current prime minister, who seized power on promises to end a wave of street protests.  The first general election since the coup was held earlier this year when Future Forward came from nowhere to finish third.  The party has an anti-military agenda which has proved popular among young people but has angered the country's conservative establishment.  Thailand's election panel has asked the Constitutional Court to dissolve the Future Forward party, accusing it of infringing the laws governing political parties by accepting multi-million dollar loans from Mr Thanathorn.  Last month, the Constitutional Court disqualified Thanathorn as member of parliament for holding shares in a media company on the date his election candidacy was registered. Thanathorn disputed the ruling.  Among Saturday's crowd were some veteran "red shirt" protesters, supporters of ousted populist leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who had once clashed in Bangkok with the "yellow shirt" conservatives - hardline loyalists of the palace and army.  On Saturday, Mr Thanathorn signed an agreement with six parties in an opposition alliance to push for changes to the constitution drawn up by the junta before the election.  Among those parties was Pheu Thai, linked to Thaksin, who lives in self-exile since he was overthrown in 2006. His sister was ousted as prime minister by Prayuth.  Pheu Thai won the most seats in the 500-member lower house but has adopted a quieter approach to challenging the government than Future Forward, which came third in the election.  New: Daily podcast from the Evening Standard  Subscribe to The Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast or your chosen podcast provider. New episodes every weekday from 4pm.


foreignpolicy--2019-04-12--Military Factions Vie for Power After Coup in Sudan

Military Factions Vie for Power After Coup in Sudan  Omar al-Bashir led Sudan for 30 years. His successor, Defense Minister Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, led the country for about 30 hours.  Ibn Auf stepped down as the head of Sudan’s ruling military council Friday, just one day after leading a coup against Bashir. He did not explain his reasons for the resignation but promptly named another general, Abdel-Fatah al-Burhan Abdel-Rahman, as his replacement.  The announcement was the latest political drama to unfold in Sudan, where demonstrators have been protesting for months, demanding economic and political reforms. Friday’s reshuffle was the latest sign that Sudan’s turmoil was not over.  The Sudanese Professionals Association, a group that has spearheaded the protests, renewed its calls for a civilian-led political transition and called on citizens to continue their sit-in at the army headquarters.  The military council that took over following Bashir’s ouster said on Friday it would lead a two-year transition that could end sooner under the right political conditions.  Some analysts said Ibn Auf’s resignation might suggest that groups within Sudan’s security forces are still vying for power behind the scenes—and pointed to two factions in particular.  One includes military officials with ties to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, among them Ibn Auf and Sudan’s intelligence chief, Salah Gosh. Others apparently have the backing of Qatar and Turkey, countries that are pushing for more influence in Sudan in an extension of their regional rivalries with the other Gulf states.  “Nobody’s really agreed who will be in and who will be out,” said Susan Stigant, the director of Africa programs at the United States Institute of Peace. “There’s a risk of escalation of violence between those factions.”  Payton Knopf, a former U.S. diplomat who worked on Sudan, said the United States should focus on ensuring that the regional rivalries are not exported there. “The nightmare scenario is that different camps in the Middle East get grafted onto the situation in Sudan,” he said. “The U.S. is not going to solve this on its own, but it can lead an international consensus to a civilian-led transition”  In the months before his ouster, Bashir was in talks with the Qataris and Saudis for more economic relief, trying to play the two regional rivals off one another, said Willow Berridge, a scholar on Sudan at Newcastle University. She said the military officers who now rule Sudan might “try to play the same game.”  In Washington, U.S. officials have called for a democratic transition of power in Sudan but so far refrained from playing the leading role in mediating the crisis.  “The Sudanese people should determine who leads them and their future. The Sudanese people have been clear that they are demanding a civilian-led transition now,” a State Department spokesman said.  Before Bashir’s ouster, the Trump administration was in talks with his government to lift the State Department’s designation of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism in exchange for progress on human rights and counterterrorism cooperation, among other issues.  The State Department suspended the talks after Thursday’s coup, but the spokesman indicated the United States would consider reopening talks under the right conditions. “We remain open to engagement that would support meaningful progress … with leaders who are willing to address the Sudanese people’s legitimate demands,” the spokesman said.  The abrupt changes in Sudan present the same dilemma that protest organizers have been facing for decades: How do they dismantle the cabal of military leaders ruling the country? Activists are split on how to accomplish the transition to democracy.  Sara Abdelgalil, a spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, said the international community should now focus on preventing a massacre in Sudan. In late 2013, the Sudanese government allegedly killed around 200 people who took part in demonstrations.  “We have reached 70 killed since December and there is an ongoing threat this can happen again. We need you to be looking carefully with us because we are very, very worried and concerned that he will use violence,” Abdelgalil told Foreign Policy. She emphasized that no foreign military should interfere in Sudan’s peaceful change.  Other Sudanese civil society groups are calling for stronger international support to sideline the military and install a civilian-led transition in Sudan.  “There is still hope that a coordinated campaign from within and outside Sudan will influence the new military council to hand over power to a transitional civilian government. To do so, we need to push the African Union member states, the African Union Peace and Security Council and the U.N. Security Council,” said a letter from Sudanese civil society groups circulated in the region that was obtained by FP.  The African Union released a statement Thursday saying that “the military takeover is not the appropriate response.”  Brett Carter, a scholar of African politics at the University of Southern California, said most African Union leaders didn’t have much affection for the Bashir government.  “At the same time, they don’t want to do anything that would encourage other protests that would take their inspiration from recent events in Algeria and Sudan,” he said.  “I think from the AU’s perspective, the sooner this situation gets resolved the better.”

Justin Lynch, Robbie Gramer and Jefcoate O'Donnell


fortruss--2019-01-31--RUSSIA DEFENDS MADURO Moscow blasts Western support for military coup in Venezuela

RUSSIA DEFENDS MADURO: Moscow blasts Western support for military coup in Venezuela

MOSCOW, Russia – The West supports the destructive proposal of Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaidó for a military coup in Venezuela, said a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.  Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó “openly encourages the military to carry out a military coup,” the diplomat said during a press conference, the US newspaper reports.  “We see that Western sponsors support this destructive line by all means,” she added.  This indicates that “Washington’s borders no longer exist: neither interstate, nor economic, nor moral,” Zakharova said, adding that “we can not say that the threat of large-scale armed conflict [in Venezuela] has disappeared.”  In addition, according to the diplomat, the notepad carried by US National Security Adviser John Bolton on the “5,000 troops for Colombia” proves that all options regarding Caracas are still in check.  Zakharova classifies the situation in the South American country as “extremely tense”, commenting that the recent protests, “far more modest” than the previous ones, are “a new testimony that the opposition is reluctant to dialogue, despite official authorities being willing to do so.”  The official representative summoned the partner countries to reflect on “what role Washington assigns them to prepare and trigger a war scenario in the region, previously tested in Iraq, Libya, Syria or Ukraine.”  “Supposedly, we see how sensible political forces are well aware that the only possible way out of the crisis would be a broad internal Venezuelan dialogue.”  The Russian spokeswoman commented that the threat of a major armed conflict persists in Caracas, noting that Russia welcomes the disaffection of several Latin American countries with US policy towards Venezuela, in addition to emphasizing that Moscow is willing to participate in mediation to resolve the crisis in the Bolivarian country.  “We welcome the firm resignation of regional actors to follow the US military line,” she told reporters.  On January 23, Venezuelan leader Juan Guaidó announced himself illegally as interim president of Venezuela, appealing to Article 233 of the Constitution, initiating a series of conflicts in the country.  The second term of Nicolás Maduro, the current president of Venezuela, was not accepted by the United States and twenty other countries, who decided not to recognize him as head of state, on the grounds of the result of “fraudulent” elections held in May last year. Maduro and his administration consider this a coup orchestrated by Washington but has the firm backing of Russia, China and many other states.


fortruss--2019-04-30--BREAKING Guaido traitors launch military coup against Maduro Venezuela stands strong VIDEO

BREAKING: Guaidó traitors launch military coup against Maduro, Venezuela stands strong (VIDEO)

CARACAS – The opposition Juan Guaidó posted a video on his Twitter account with Leopoldo López, another leader of the opposition, who is serving a prison sentence, in which they are accompanied by uniformed personnel, and calls the soldiers to the streets.  Although the video was recorded in a very closed shot, we can see a group of about 30 presumed soldiers and two tanks behind them.  The images were recorded at the height of the Francisco Miranda Military Base, also known as La Carlota, in eastern Caracas.  Venezuela is immersed in a conflict that led to an escalation of the political crisis after the opposition Juan Guaidó was proclaimed interim president of Venezuela. Their calls to the population to take to the streets against the legitimate Government did not have the expected support of the citizens.  The president of the National Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, told the VTV state channel the last call of the self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó to the Venezuelan military to reveal themselves against the government of Nicolás Maduro.  The opposition leader posted a video calling on soldiers to take to the streets. The images were allegedly recorded at the height of the Francisco Miranda Military Base, also known as La Carlota, in eastern Caracas. According to Cabello, the military base has not been touched and is under the control of the legitimate government, “they are in the street giving a sad spectacle”.  “They took a part of the troop deceived, they told them they were going for an activity and then they got involved in this, a group of sergeants from the National Guard and the Sebin (Bolivarian Intelligence Service) have already left La Carlota.”  He also confirmed that “there is a group of the Sebin (Bolivarian National Intelligence Service) that is participating in this coup attempt and they were the ones who freed Leopoldo López”, the opposition leader who was under house arrest for his role in the protests Violent 2014  He also added that “the United States, faced with ineptitude, in the face of not being able to win elections for the Revolution, opts for the coup d’état”.  “Every action will have a strong response … We will be absolutely inflexible, radical in the defense,” the ANC president told the VTV channel.  Cabello stressed that now there is absolute tranquility throughout Venezuela, including the city of Caracas.  “I have spoken with governors, with heads of ZODI (Integral Defense Zone), with heads of the regions and the whole country is absolutely calm,” he said.  Likewise, the president of the Constituent Assembly called on the Venezuelan people to gather in the Miraflores palace, the seat of the Government.  “Let the whole town come to Miraflores because they say they are coming here.”  He concluded with the phrase: “Guaidó is making them easier than we expected.”  “Once again it is evident what we have always denounced: all the conspiracies against Venezuelan democracy, including this coup attempt, are supported and financed by the Colombian government,” he wrote on his Twitter.


fortruss--2019-11-18--Bolivia’s U.S.-backed Coup Government Has Given The Military A License To Kill Protestors

The de facto and unelected president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, signed a decree that exempts all military personnel from being criminally responsible, even in the cases of murder, in the midst of demonstrations against the coup d’etat that ousted democratically elected first Indigenous President of Bolivia, Evo Morales. Effectively, Bolivian security forces have a license to kill now.  Since the decree was signed last Thursday, it has inevitably caused controversy with demonstrators and social media users alike. And it very well should – it is a blatant U.S.-orchestrated coup against Morales who helped his country reduce unemployment, poverty and illiteracy by at least 50% from 2006 to 2018, and liberated his country from strangling neoliberal policies of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.  The decree was immediately denounced by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), by Morales, and by regional leaders such as the newly elected president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández.  Although the decree is dated November 14, it was only made public on Saturday, a day after an anti-government march of coca growers in the department of Cochabamba left at least nine dead and 115 injured, according to the Office of the Ombudsman. For its part, the United Nations High Commissioner, Michel Bachelet, has expressed concern about the growing violence in the Andean country and the actions taken by the unelected government.  There is “information that at least seventeen people have died in the context of the protests, including fourteen only in the last six days,” Bachelet said in a statement from Geneva, adding that “while the first deaths occurred as a result of violent clashes between rival protesters, the most recent seem to derive from an unnecessary or disproportionate use of force by police or military personnel.”  However, this should not even be the least bit surprising for the UN commissioner since the U.S. has a long history of violent regime change in Latin America. It was revealed in a report by the Gray Zone that at least six of the main coup plotters were alumni of the infamous School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, a notorious training center that since the times of the Cold War has orchestrated regime operations against anti-U.S. Latin American leaders. The report explained that “brutal regime change and reprisal operations from Haiti to Honduras have been carried out by SOA graduates, and some of the most bloodstained juntas in the region’s history have been run by the school’s alumni.” While U.S. President Donald Trump cheered on a “a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere,” the U.S.-trained Bolivian military have now killed at least 23 people, mostly Indigenous.  Although the U.S. espouses the endless mantra of ‘freedom and democracy’, it has continuously demonstrated, such as in Venezuela and Syria, that it is willing to move away from its ‘peaceful’ liberal ideology and utilize reactionary forces when its political and economic interests are under threat. Morales managed to re-found the country politically and economically by embracing the Multipolar World, where the U.S. is no longer the sole power in the world, by improving ties with China and Russia, and by nationalizing natural resources and strategic companies.  Evo Morales said during an interview in June 2016: “We had a beggar state in 2005. In the economic part everything was imposed by the International Monetary Fund. The Fund had its office in the Central Bank of Bolivia. The CIA was a parasite that had its offices in the National Palace. The U.S. military group had its own at the headquarters of the Armed Forces in the Great Barracks General Miraflores. When there was political conflict and the parties on the right fought, the United States ambassador was the godfather… We had an agreed democracy. Everything was pact. It was legal, but there was no legitimacy.”  Although Morales ran Bolivia, one of Latin America’s poorest countries, mostly uninterrupted for 13 years unlike Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and Brazil’s Lula, the discovery of massive amounts of lithium was a gamechanger. The precious resource is necessary to power all batteries, a demand that is ever increasing for our technological world.  Although Morales’ impressive records speaks for itself, as he never prioritized the indoctrination of the Bolivian military, the SOA-trained officers were able to remain dormant until called upon by the U.S. to conduct a coup in the South American country. Two days before the Gray Zone report, in a previous article I already made the argument that former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had radicalized and ideologized the military to the constitutional national ideology and built a people’s militia capable of defending the government from internal and external, which is why even to this day, Maduro has not been ousted in a coup despite endless U.S.-backed attempts. This is something Morales did not do, allowing the U.S. to gain a strong foothold in the Bolivian military.  Morales created the Anti-Imperialist Command School in 2016. Completing several courses related to the ideology of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), as well on geopolitics and imperialism, became the only way to become a Captain in the Bolivian military. However, this is only a recent initiative, that began a decade after he became president, not even nearly enough time for him to reform the military ideology, especially since he never expelled pro-U.S. officers from the military, opting to wait for their retirements.  And now that Áñez is running the country with the military’s blessing, the years of advancements in Indigenous rights and living standards made by Morales will surely be reversed, especially as she considers their culture to be “Satanic” that is not compatible with modern life and should remain in the mountains or swamplands. Áñez criticizes socialism and expresses her fear that one day Bolivia will become like “Cuba” – this is mostly influenced by her adherence to radical Christian Evangelicalism that believes socialism to be the work of the devil.  Guided by her Evangelical beliefs, she is now an ally of Evangelical Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a staunch supporter of the Brazilian dictatorship and has said that “too bad the Brazilian cavalry was not as efficient as the American cavalry that exterminated the Indians,” in reference to the American Indian genocide. Supporting reactionary pro-U.S. forces in Latin America has always meant a contempt and hatred of the Indigenous people – and it has often been the Evangelicals that were used in Latin America alongside paramilitaries or coup plotters to carry out U.S. interests in this region.  Although Bolsonaro dreams of a Brazil that is purged of most of its native population, like what was achieved in the U.S., Áñez has begun her own U.S.-backed campaign against the Indigenous populations by already greenlighting the murder of Morales supporters, who are overwhelmingly Indigenous just as the population of Bolivia is.  Her license to kill has not just seen many Indigenous murdered, but it will mean we will continue to see the Indigenous being murdered by the Bolivian military as they continue their peaceful mass demonstrations in support of the exiled Morales.


france24--2019-04-11--Sudanese protesters defy military curfew to denounce army coup

Sudanese protesters defy military curfew to denounce army 'coup'

Ashraf Shazly / AFP | Sudanese protesters demonstrate against the new ruling military council following the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir, in Khartoum on April 11, 2019.  Sudan's army ousted veteran president Omar al-Bashir Thursday, but protestors against his iron-fisted rule denounced a "coup" and thousands rallied outside army headquarters as a night-time curfew kicked in.  In a sombre televised address, Defence Minister Awad Ibnouf announced "the toppling of the regime" and said Bashir had been detained in "a secure place", bringing an end to his three decades in power.  Thousands of protestors were staging a sit-in for the sixth night running outside Khartoum army headquarters as the military council's curfew began at 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) despite growing international pressure to hand over to civilian rule.  The army had earlier warned protestors not to defy the curfew.  Washington said Khartoum should "exercise restraint and to allow space for civilian participation within the government".  "The Sudanese people should determine who leads them and their future and the Sudanese people have been clear and are demanding a civilian-led transition," State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters.  The European Union urged the army to carry out a "swift" handover to civilian rule.  "Only a credible and inclusive political process can meet the aspirations of the Sudanese people and lead to the political and economic reforms the country needs," the bloc's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said.  Ibnouf said a transitional military council would replace the president for two years, adding that the country's borders and airspace were shut until further notice.  State television later broadcast footage of him taking the oath to become head of the council, alongside his new deputy, army chief of staff Lieutenant General Kamal Abdelmarouf.  Bashir, who swept to power in a 1989 coup, was one of Africa's longest-serving presidents and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide and war crimes.  Organisers of the protests that have rocked Sudan since December vowed to press on until the whole regime was swept aside.  The protestors' Alliance for Freedom and Change said the regime had carried out "a military coup" and kept "the same faces" protestors wanted to oust.  It urged demonstrators "to continue their sit-in in front of army headquarters and across all regions and in the streets".  Thursday's announcement meant "we have not achieved anything", said Adel, a protestor outside the army headquarters, where defiant demonstrators have braved tear gas and gunfire to keep up the sit-in.  "We will not stop our revolution. We are calling for the regime to step down, not only Bashir," he said.  Activists outside the compound were seen urging others to spend the night there despite the curfew.  Huge crowds of jubilant Sudanese had filled squares across the centre of the capital Thursday as the army promised an "important announcement".  Chanting "the regime has fallen," they poured into the open ground outside the army base.  But the festive mood later soured.  "We are not leaving, we are not leaving. Just fall and that's all," they shouted after Ibnouf's announcement.  The opposition Sudanese Congress Party called for the establishment of a joint military and civilian council to rule for a four-year transitional period.  It also urged the army to give executive powers to civilians.  UN chief Antonio Guterres called for a transition that would meet the "democratic aspirations" of the Sudanese people and appealed for "calm and utmost restraint by all", his spokesman said.  That came after the African Union decried Bashir's military ouster, saying it was "not the appropriate response to the challenges facing Sudan and the aspirations of its people".  Army vehicles carrying troops were seen deploying across the centre of Khartoum from early Thursday.  Troops raided the offices of the Islamic Movement, the ideological wing of Bashir's ruling National Congress Party, witnesses told AFP.  Martial music was played on state television as soldiers ordered the TV to halt its normal programming ahead of Ibnouf's announcement.  Outside army headquarters, dozens of joyful protesters early Thursday climbed on top of land-cruisers and armoured vehicles that had been posted to protect them from intervention by other branches of the security forces.  The military council also said it was declaring a ceasefire across the country, including in war-torn Darfur.  But the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA-AW) fighting government forces in Darfur denounced what it called a "palace coup".  South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar said in Rome he hoped the situation would be handled "peacefully so that the country can be stable".  He added that he hoped it would not affect the peace process in his country where a peace accord was signed in September 2018 to end a ruinous five-year war.  Meanwhile, Sudan's feared National Intelligence and Security Service said it was freeing all the country's political prisoners, state media reported.  But in the eastern cities of Kasala and Port Sudan, the releases failed to materialise, prompting protesters to storm NISS buildings, according to witnesses.  Demonstrators have since Saturday been camped outside the sprawling army headquarters complex in Khartoum, which also houses Bashir's official residence and the defence ministry.  Officials say 49 people have died in protest-related violence since the demonstrations first erupted in December.  Rights group Amnesty International said Bashir should now be handed over to the ICC so that "victims of these unspeakable crimes can see that justice is done".  Neighbouring Egypt, where President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power in similar circumstances, said Thursday it supported the Sudanese people and the army in their political transition.


france24--2019-05-02--Venezuelas Maduro appears with military leaders to denounce coup plotters

Venezuela's Maduro appears with military leaders to denounce 'coup plotters'

HO / Venezuelan Presidency / Jhonn Zerpa / AFP | Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro walks with military troops in Caracas, Venezuela on May 2, 2019.  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday called on the armed forces to oppose "any coup plotter" after a military uprising in support of opposition leader Juan Guaido fizzled out, and subsequent street clashes left four protesters dead.  On Tuesday, Guaido -- who has been recognized by more than 50 countries as the crisis-wracked country's interim president -- urged the armed forces to rise up against the embattled leader.  A small group heeded the call, but the movement failed to ignite -- the military leadership ratified their support for the government, and Maduro is standing his ground despite international pressure.  "Yes, we are in combat -- keep morale high in this fight to disarm any traitor, any coup plotter," Maduro said Thursday at a televised event with the military high command, at which he was surrounded by soldiers.  "No one can be afraid -- it is the hour to defend our right to peace," he said at a ceremony attended by 4,500 military personnel, according to the government.  Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino said: "We've come to ratify our loyalty ... to the supreme commander of the armed forces, who is our only president, President Nicolas Maduro."  The failed uprising sparked two days of protests against the government in which four people were killed, including two teenagers who died of their injuries on Thursday.  Meanwhile, Venezuela's supreme court ordered the re-arrest of influential opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez -- who made a dramatic appearance alongside Guaido on Tuesday after he was freed from house arrest. Lopez has since taken refuge at the Spanish embassy.  The 48-year-old Lopez was a prominent opposition leader in 2014 when he was imprisoned after calling for protests against Maduro. He was transferred to house arrest in 2017.  In Washington, US President Donald Trump offered prayers at a White House service for "the people of Venezuela in their righteous struggle for freedom."  "The brutal repression of the Venezuelan people must end, and it must end soon," he warned.  Opposition lawmakers and family members announced Thursday that two teenage protesters had succumbed to injuries sustained in the anti-government protests.  Yoifre Hernandez, 14, was hit by gunfire during Wednesday's clashes in Caracas, while 16-year-old Yosner Graterol suffered a gunshot wound during unrest in the northern town of La Victoria on Tuesday, lawmakers and relatives said.  Jurubith Rausseo, 27, died Wednesday after being shot in the head, the non-governmental Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict said on Twitter. Another person was killed in the northern state of Aragua on Tuesday.  Human rights organizations and health services reported that dozens of people were hurt on both Tuesday and Wednesday.  The government said more than 150 people were arrested on Tuesday.  So far, 25 rebel soldiers have sought asylum at the Brazilian embassy.  Speaking from the Spanish ambassador's residence, Lopez said the small rebellion on Tuesday would eventually lead to the end of Maduro's "dictatorship."  "It's a crack that will become a bigger crack ... that will end up breaking the dam," said Lopez.  Madrid said it would not hand over Lopez to Venezuelan authorities, nor would it ask him to leave.  Tensions in Venezuela have soared since Guaido, who heads the national legislature, invoked the constitution to declare himself acting president on January 23, claiming Maduro's re-election last year was illegitimate.  The country has suffered five years of recession marked by shortages of basic necessities as well as failing public services, including water, electricity and transport.  On both Tuesday and Wednesday, security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at stone-throwing protesters.  UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned Venezuela's authorities not to use deadly force against demonstrators, while the US and Russia accused each other of making the crisis worse, evoking their Cold War-era confrontations.  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are to discuss Venezuela when they meet in Finland next week, a US official said.  "We're going to remain in the streets until we achieve freedom for the Venezuelan people," Guaido told his supporters in Caracas on Wednesday. Pro-Maduro groups also marched through the capital on May Day.  Padrino has described Guaido's moves as "child's play."  The International Contact Group of 13 countries -- including Britain, France, Germany and Maduro's ally Bolivia -- announced a meeting in Costa Rica on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the latest flare-up in Venezuela's simmering crisis.


globalresearch--2019-01-07--AFRICOM Complicity in Gabon Coup Attempt Trump Orders Deployment of 80 Military Personnel to Gabon

AFRICOM Complicity in Gabon Coup Attempt? Trump Orders Deployment of 80 Military Personnel to Gabon

Trump’s deployment of 80 military personnel to Gabon last week on the basis of preparing for a response to “violent protests” in the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo might have been a ruse designed to cover up America’s complicity in the Gabonese coup attempt that just took place at the beginning of this week, which was actually an ingenious AFRICOM power grab in the strategic Gulf of Guinea that aims to give the US a base of operations from which to carve out an expanded “sphere of influence” for itself in the region irrespective if this regime change ploy succeeds or not.  Just a day after confirming the assassination of the USS Cole bomber in Yemen, Trump tried to score a second foreign policy success in yet another “Global South” nation, this time the Central African state of Gabon. The news just broke that some members of the country’s armed forces attempted to stage a coup against President Ali Bongo, who’s been recovering in Morocco over the last few months after suffering a stroke back in October, though the government claims that most of the conspirators have been arrested and that the “situation is under control”. Even though it appears as though the state succeeded in thwarting this plot, the US is still poised to geopolitical profit from it by manipulating the outcome to its AFRICOM favor.  Bongo narrowly won reelection by less than 6,000 votes, which was used by the opposition as their excuse to torch their parliament in the historically peaceful country and bring it to the brink of Hybrid War chaos. The author wrote about the developing crisis at the time in his piece about “What’s Going On With The Hybrid War On Gabon”, in which some important domestic and foreign policy basics about the country were also described. Gabon had been ruled by the Bongo family since the President’s father took power in 1967, or in other words, 7 years after its independence. It had previously been regarded as one of France’s most prized neo-colonial “possessions” in the continent and was known to be very rich in natural resources, which is why it was an OPEC member from 1975-1995 before returning again in 2016, one year after it interestingly joined the Saudis’ “anti-terrorist coalition”.  It might sound strange to many that a majority-Christian nation on the Atlantic Coast of sub-Saharan Central Africa would join this Mideast-based military organization, but one of the reasons might be because Bongo is a member of Gabon’s Muslim minority and that he might have fallen sway to the Saudis’ “personal diplomacy” in wooing his country over to their side. Another complementary explanation could also simply be that Gabon had begun “rebalancing” its foreign policy during that time too, having transitioned from being a French neo-colonial “possession” to a more sovereignty-minded state following its post-Old Cold War partnership with China, though prudently understanding the need for a third strategic partner in order to maintain the best possible “balance” between Africa’s two most important non-regional countries during the opening stages of the New Cold War.  Apart from its energy, fishery, and forestry resources, Gabon is also very important for geostrategic reasons, too. As the author wrote in his previously mentioned piece when describing why France retains nearly 1,000 troops in this tiny country, “Paris is able to keep troops on standby for snap-response deployment to Central African hotspots such as the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Additionally, because of its location, Gabon provides France with a midway location between the two rising African powers of Nigeria and Angola, a position which Paris could leverage to maximum effect if need be.” Presciently, it was for the “official” purpose of responding to “violent demonstrations” that might break out in the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (which is the world’s largest producer of cobalt) after its latest elections that Trump deployed 80 US troops there last week.  The Purpose Of The American Deployment  In hindsight, his signaling about these soldiers being in the Central African nation to supposedly respond to “violent demonstrations” in the DRC might have been nothing more than a ruse to cover up their role in trying to deter the same in Gabon following what is more than likely the AFRICOM-assisted coup attempt that just took place in the country. The true state of the situation still remains unclear, though it’s beginning to look like the government did indeed arrest most of the conspirators and that everything is now under control. Nevertheless, the domestic strife that Gabon experienced two and a half years ago during its last elections could have also been in the process of simmering over once more following rumors about Bongo’s health, which might have prompted the armed forces to preemptively act in the first place seeing as how the organizers declared their sympathy with the opposition supporters who were killed during those riots.  The presence of US soldiers on the superficially plausible pretense of preparing to evacuate Americans from the DRC in the event that the nearby conflict-prone country re-erupts into violence following the impending announcement of its election results might just have been to signal the US’ tacit support to the plotters and deter Bongo loyalists from reacting, the latter purpose of which seems to have failed. The US didn’t want to get too directly involved because it wagered that it could leverage its position in the country irrespective of the coup’s outcome. As such, this event is of supreme significance for AFRICOM because the US now has a reason to further embed itself in this strategically positioned country along the energy-rich Gulf of Guinea, which is also surrounded by several weak but similarly strategic states presided over by long-serving elderly leaders and each of which have recently experienced different degrees of domestic unrest.  To put it another way, the US deployment might have been ‘bait’ to encourage the coup plotters to go ahead with their attempt, after which the US could take advantage of its outcome one way or another in order to get Gabon to function as AFRICOM’s long-desired base in the continent. On the one hand, had the coup succeeded, then the US could have partnered with the “pariah” government that would have naturally been shunned by the African Union and most other international actors, helping it stabilize the domestic situation and resume a sense of “normality” as soon as possible. On the other, despite the apparent success of the government forces in quelling this coup, this dramatic incident might have shown the state that its domestic political tensions are still simmering and now affecting part of its “deep state” apparatus, thus necessitating the need for another security partner such as the US to maintain stability in case something like this happens again.  Either way, the US is poised to profit from what happened in order to pursue its regional agenda.  Here’s What Gabon Has Going For It  In The Middle Of All The Action:  Like it was mentioned earlier in pertinence to the author’s previously cited piece on Gabon, the country is in very close proximity to rising African Great Powers Nigeria and Angola, as well as the mineral-rich DRC. Furthermore, it’s also just a short distance away from the Central African Republic (CAR), which has taken on more importance over the past 12 months since Russia’s UNSC-approved “mercenary” intervention there, which forms the core component of Moscow’s “balancing” strategy in Africa. Given that France has all but lost CAR as a neo-imperial colony and could very well be in the process of losing Gabon too following the coup, it can be said that the “Scramble for Africa” that the author predicted would intensify this year is leading to profound geopolitical changes in the Central African region whereby the former extra-regional hegemon of France is being squeezed out by Russia, the US, and China.  Another crucial point to keep in mind is that the surrounding countries of Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo (ROC), and Equatorial Guinea are led by aging leaders who have recently come under different forms of regime change pressure. The first-mentioned is led by Paul Biya (who has been in office for 36 consecutive years) and is unofficially in a state of civil war between the central government and the Anglophone region astride part of the Nigerian border, the second is led by Denis Nguesso (who has been in office for 34 non-consecutive years – 13 years and 21 years, with a 5-year interim break) and only recently reconsolidated peace in the restive southern Pool region outside the capital, while the last-mentioned is led by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (who has been in office for 39 years) and recently thwarted a mercenary-led coup attempt last year.  In terms of regional Hybrid War dynamics, Gabon is therefore the perfect place for the US to encourage and guide regime change movements all throughout Central Africa, ultimately carving out an exclusive “sphere of influence” for itself in the eastern Gulf of Guinea from which to exert further influence into the West, Central, and Southern African countries of Nigeria, DRC, and Angola if it’s successful in turning the country into AFRICOM’s base of operations on the continent. Should that happen, then the newly imposed authorities will probably justify this move on the basis of “balancing” even though it’ll obviously be pivoting towards the US and away from France, China, and Saudi Arabia. AFRICOM doesn’t even have to be formally invited into the country either for this to happen, the US just needs to keep its proverbial ‘foot in the door’ and the rest might ‘naturally’ follow.  The Gabonese coup attempt caught a lot of observers off guard, but in hindsight, the “writing was on the wall” the whole time and two important signals were sent beforehand that could have tipped people off about it. Bongo’s New Year’s address to the people, recorded from Morocco where he’s currently recovering from his October stroke, showed that he’s still somewhat physically incapacitated and unable to rule the country following his controversial razor-thin reelection in 2016 that represented almost a full half-century of dynastic rule by his family. The dispatch of 80 US troops there late last week on the pretense of preparing to respond to post-election violence in the nearby DRC was clearly a ruse because Gabon doesn’t even border the country in question, with it now looking that those soldiers’ very presence was designed to encourage the plotters and deter the state from reacting.  Although the latest reports suggest that the government has reestablished full control over the situation, the coup attempt in and of itself is still a success for American foreign policy irrespective of its outcome because the US is now poised to manipulate its result in order to advance its own interests. A “revolutionary government” would have been internationally shunned and fully dependent on the US, while the recovering state might see the US as an important security partner that plays a crucial role in its “balancing” strategy. In both cases, the deepening US-Gabonese relationship would amount more to a pivot than an evolution of the Central African state’s “balancing” act, as an embedding of the US’ military forces in the country will inevitably have regional repercussions.  While a comparatively prosperous and resource-rich country of approximately two million people is a strategic prize in and of itself for any Great Power to “capture” in the New Cold War’s “Scramble for Africa”, Gabon’s deeper significance lays in its geopolitical position in between the rising African Great Powers of Nigeria and Angola, its proximity to the conflict-prone DRC and CAR (where the US’ Chinese and Russian rivals are the predominant patrons of those states, respectively), and its location in the middle of three weaker countries under the leadership of aging presidents who have experienced varying degrees of domestic unrest lately. It’s too early to say whether the Gabonese coup attempt will be a game-changer or not, but it’s obvious that American strategists intend for it to be for the aforementioned reasons, which if successful in full or even part would signify the return of Africa to the US’ international focus.  Note to readers: please click the share buttons above. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.  This article was originally published on Eurasia Future.  Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.  Featured image is from US Air Force


globalresearch--2019-02-11--Chile and the United States Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup September 11 197

Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973

September 11, 1998 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. The violent overthrow of the democratically-elected Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende changed the course of the country that Chilean poet Pablo Neruda described as “a long petal of sea, wine and snow”; because of CIA covert intervention in Chile, and the repressive character of General Pinochet’s rule, the coup became the most notorious military takeover in the annals of Latin American history.  Revelations that President Richard Nixon had ordered the CIA to “make the economy scream” in Chile to “prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him,” prompted a major scandal in the mid-1970s, and a major investigation by the U.S. Senate. Since the coup, however, few U.S. documents relating to Chile have been actually declassified — until recently. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, and other avenues of declassification, the National Security Archive has been able to compile a collection of declassified records that shed light on events in Chile between 1970 and 1976.  These documents, and many thousands of other CIA, NSC, and Defense Department records that are still classified secret, remain relevant to ongoing human rights investigations in Chile, Spain and other countries, and unresolved acts of international terrorism conducted by the Chilean secret police. Eventually, international pressure, and concerted use of the U.S. laws on declassification will force more of the still-buried record into the public domain–providing evidence for future judicial, and historical accountability.  Click here to read the documents.  Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.


globalresearch--2019-02-17--Forgotten Anniversaries of US Sponsored Military Coups against Democracy

Forgotten “Anniversaries” of U.S. Sponsored Military Coups against Democracy

Left-wing nationalist Joao Goulart became the democratically elected president of Brazil in September 1961, setting alarm bells clattering in the liberal Kennedy administration. Goulart began implementing structural reforms in the massive resource-rich South American country, that would help integrate the general population into society. (1)  The United States was loathe to sit helplessly by as this movement came within “our hemisphere”, as President John F. Kennedy described it. Goulart, also known as “Jango”, was hostile toward US capitalist democracy that seeks to primarily serve elite powers.  Shortly before his death, Kennedy had been preparing the groundwork to oust Goulart, with the coup (March 31-April 1) occurring less than five months under his successor’s reign, Lyndon B. Johnson. (2)  “We just can’t take this one [social movement],” warned Johnson. (3) Goulart’s toppling received crucial CIA funding and arms, while Brazil was placed under a neo-Nazi dictatorship that tortured their people for over 20 years. (4)  Guatemala, a small central American nation, remains a ghastly nightmare to this day. The causes for her suffering can be traced to President Dwight D. Eisenhower implementing a CIA-run coup that installed successive military dictatorships. (1) Guatemala had been enjoying a 10-year revolution (1944-54): firstly, under Juan Jose Arevalo, who introduced a minimum wage and increased funding to education. (2)  Arevalo’s democratically elected successor in 1951, Jacobo Arbenz, instituted land reforms to grant property to landless peasants. (3) Such inclusive measures were deemed an unacceptable threat to US hegemony over the Western hemisphere.  Arbenz’ policies threatened the United Fruit Company (UFC), a powerful corporation exploiting Guatemalan workers which had direct ties to Eisenhower’s administration (the Dulles brothers). (4)  The UFC aggressively lobbied Eisenhower, who authorised the CIA to aid a force led by the impending right-wing dictator, Carlos Castillo Armas. With further threat of invasion by American forces, the Guatemalan army eventually refused to fight on – an error of historic proportions. (5) Almost four decades of civil war followed, as successive US-backed dictators committed atrocities such as genocide against the Maya peoples. (6)  The 1976 Argentine coup was the sixth, and final, forced government change that took place in the country during the 20th century. The US-backed Argentine Armed Forces installed the most vicious Latin American military dictatorship of all, responsible for tens of thousands of murdered and “disappeared”, under convicted war criminals such as Jorge Rafael Videla and Reynaldo Bignone. (1)  Revealingly, the Nazi-style regime was a favorite of US president Ronald Reagan. (2)  The coup toppled Isabel Peron, the first female leader in world history, wife and successor of deceased ex-president Juan Peron. Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State, met with several Argentine military commanders suggesting they crush their enemies before human rights issues become known to the American public. (3)  The American invasion of the minuscule Caribbean island of Grenada (under President Reagan) drew a scathing international response from the UN General Assembly. (1) It “deeply deplores” the intervention, which “constitutes a flagrant violation of international law”, further condemning “the deaths of innocent civilians… the killing of the Prime Minister [Maurice Bishop].”  The intervention was even opposed by most NATO countries and US allies such as France, Portugal, Australia, Spain and the Netherlands. (2) All irrelevant criticism for elite Western figures that believe the United States should be a law unto its own. The usual pretexts for the invasion of Grenada were put forward by the US government, and obediently relayed by the free press: Grenada was a “Marxist dictatorship” and the US army was on a “rescue mission” to defeat a Cuban military presence defending “this outpost of Soviet imperialism”. (3, 4, 5)  The true reason for the attack? To expel a government not amenable to American hegemonic demands, and that may act as a further example of defiance (after Cuba) – the abysmal after effects for Grenadians was quickly airbrushed from history.  United States interference in the Dominican Republic traces back to the early 20th century of the William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson administrations. (1) Wilson, for example, ordered the invasion of the country by US marines in 1916, their presence lasting over six years – an occupation reviled by the Dominican population. (2)  The democratic election of socialist reformer Juan Bosch in February 1963, replacing a military junta, caused undue concern in elite American circles. (3) Their fears were quickly realised as Bosch undertook progressive steps the Dominican population had never known before (or since), initiating plans to reduce poverty, declaring labor rights, strengthening unions, rights for farmers, and so on.  Bosch was declared “a communist” by pro-US business magnates and members of the army. (4) On September 25, 1963, a group of commanders led by Elias Wessin y Wessin, with crucial US support, expelled Bosch from the country.  (5)


globalresearch--2019-02-20--Military Coups Regime Change The CIA Has Interfered In Over 81 Foreign Elections

Military Coups, Regime Change…: The CIA Has Interfered In Over 81 Foreign Elections…

Timely article first posted on Global Research in January 2017, prior to the inauguration of president Donald Trump.  The CIA has accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 presidential election (with absolutely zero evidence) by hacking into Democratic and Republican computer networks and selectively releasing emails.  But critics might point out the U.S. has done similar things.  The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence presidential elections in other countries – it’s done so as many as 81 times between 1946 and 2000, according to a database amassed by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University.  That number doesn’t include military coups and regime change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S. didn’t like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile. Nor does it include general assistance with the electoral process, such as election monitoring.  Levin defines intervention as “a costly act which is designed to determine the election results [in favor of] one of the two sides.”  These acts, carried out in secret two-thirds of the time, include funding the election campaigns of specific parties, disseminating misinformation or propaganda, training locals of only one side in various campaigning or get-out-the-vote techniques, helping one side design their campaign materials, making public pronouncements or threats in favor of or against a candidate, and providing or withdrawing foreign aid.  In 59% of these cases, the side that received assistance came to power, although Levin estimates the average effect of “partisan electoral interventions” to be only about a 3% increase in vote share.  The U.S. hasn’t been the only one trying to interfere in other countries’ elections, according to Levin’s data.  Russia attempted to sway 36 foreign elections from the end of World War II to the turn of the century – meaning that, in total, at least one of the two great powers of the 20th century intervened in about 1 of every 9 competitive, national-level executive elections in that time period.  Italy’s 1948 general election is an early example of a race where U.S. actions probably influenced the outcome.  “We threw everything, including the kitchen sink” at helping the Christian Democrats beat the Communists in Italy, said Levin, including covertly delivering “bags of money” to cover campaign expenses, sending experts to help run the campaign, subsidizing “pork” projects like land reclamation, and threatening publicly to end U.S. aid to Italy if the Communists were elected.  Levin said that U.S. intervention probably played an important role in preventing a Communist Party victory, not just in 1948, but in seven subsequent Italian elections.  Throughout the Cold War, U.S. involvement in foreign elections was mainly motivated by the goal of containing communism, said Thomas Carothers, a foreign policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  “The U.S. didn’t want to see left-wing governments elected, and so it did engage fairly often in trying to influence elections in other countries,” Carothers said.  This approach carried over into the immediate post-Soviet period.  In the 1990 Nicaragua elections, the CIA leaked damaging information on alleged corruption by the Marxist Sandinistas to German newspapers, according to Levin.  The opposition used those reports against the Sandinista candidate, Daniel Ortega. He lost to opposition candidate Violeta Chamorro.  In Czechoslovakia that same year, the U.S. provided training and campaign funding to Vaclav Havel’s party and its Slovak affiliate as they planned for the country’s first democratic election after its transition away from communism.  “The thinking was that we wanted to make sure communism was dead and buried,” said Levin.  Even after that, the U.S. continued trying to influence elections in its favor.  In Haiti after the 1986 overthrow of dictator and U.S. ally Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the CIA sought to support particular candidates and undermine Jean-Bertrande Aristide, a Roman Catholic priest and proponent of liberation theology.  The New York Times reported in the 1990s that the CIA had on its payroll members of the military junta that would ultimately unseat Aristide after he was democratically elected in a landslide over Marc Bazin, a former World Bank official and finance minister favored by the U.S.  The U.S. also attempted to sway Russian elections. In 1996, with the presidency of Boris Yeltsin and the Russian economy flailing, President Clinton endorsed a $10.2-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund linked to privatization, trade liberalization and other measures that would move Russia toward a capitalist economy.  Yeltsin used the loan to bolster his popular support, telling voters that only he had the reformist credentials to secure such loans, according to media reports at the time.  He used the money, in part, for social spending before the election, including payment of back wages and pensions.  In the Middle East, the U.S. has aimed to bolster candidates who could further the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.  In 1996, seeking to fulfill the legacy of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the peace accords the U.S. brokered, Clinton openly supported Shimon Peres, convening a peace summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik to boost his popular support and inviting him to a meeting at the White House a month before the election.  “We were persuaded that if [Likud candidate Benjamin] Netanyahu were elected, the peace process would be closed for the season,” said Aaron David Miller, who worked at the State Department at the time.  In 1999, in a more subtle effort to sway the election, top Clinton strategists, including James Carville, were sent to advise Labor candidate Ehud Barak in the election against Netanyahu.  In Yugoslavia, the U.S. and NATO had long sought to cut off Serbian nationalist and Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic from the international system through economic sanctions and military action.  In 2000, the U.S. spent millions of dollars in aid for political parties, campaign costs and independent media. Funding and broadcast equipment provided to the media arms of the opposition were a decisive factor in electing opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica as Yugoslav president, according to Levin.  “If it wouldn’t have been for overt intervention… Milosevic would have been very likely to have won another term,” he said.


globalresearch--2019-03-29--Brazil 55 Years after the Overthrow of Democratically Elected President Joao Goulart the New Far-r

Brazil: 55 Years after the Overthrow of Democratically Elected President Joao Goulart, the New Far-right President, Jair Bolsonaro Has Announced a Celebration of the 1964 Military Coup

Brazil: 55 years after the army staged a coup on 31 March 1964 and overthrew President Joao Goulart, the new far-right President, Jair Bolsonaro has announced a celebration of this said event. There can be no doubt about the active support provided by the US government, the World Bank and the IMF. On 2 April 2014, a US NGO, the National Security Archive (NSA!) publicized an impressive amount of declassified official documents that testify to Washington aiding and abetting the Brazilian army officers who had overthrown Joao Goulart’s democratic government 50 years earlier. See this.  In the PhD dissertation I presented at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège in 2004 [1], I discussed the support provided to the coup by Washington, the WB and the IMF. The relevant section is reproduced below.  Support for the Brazilian military junta after the overthrow of President Joao Goulart  President Joao Goulart’s democratic government was overthrown by the military in April 1964. WB and IMF loans, suspended for three years, resumed very soon afterwards. [2]  A brief time line: in 1958, Brazilian president Kubitschek was about to undertake negotiations with the IMF to gain access to a loan of 300 million dollars from the United States. At the end, Kubitschek refused the IMF-imposed conditions and did without the US loan. This earned him wide popularity.  His successor, Goulart, announced that he would implement a radical land reform programme and proceed to nationalise petroleum refineries: he was overthrown by the military. The United States recognised the new military regime one day after the coup. Not long afterwards, the WB and IMF resumed their suspended lending policy. As for the military, they rescinded the economic measures the United States and IMF had criticised. Note that international financial institutions were of the view that the military regime was taking sound economic measures [3]. Yet, the GDP fell 7% in 1965 and thousands of firms declared WBruptcy. The regime organised harsh repression, outlawed strikes, caused a dramatic drop in real wages, and eliminated direct ballot voting, disbanded trade unions and made systematic use of torture.  Since his first trip in May 1968, McNamara regularly visited Brazil where he did not miss meeting the military rulers. The public reports of the WB systematically praised the policies of the dictatorship in reducing inequalities [4]. Nevertheless, inside the WB, the discussions took a bitter turn. When Bernard Chadenet, Vice-President of Project of the WB declared that the image of the WB is going to degrade following the support to the repressive government of Brazil, McNamara recognized that there was a tremendous amount of repression but he added that it “is not necessarily a great deal different from what it had been under previous governments, and it did not seem to be a lot worse than in some other member countries of the WB. Is Brazil worse than Thailand?” [5] Some days later, Mc Namara followed up “No viable alternative to the Government by generals seemed open” [6]. The World WB realised very well that inequalities would not diminish and that its loans in the agricultural sector would reinforce the big landowners. Nevertheless, it decided to carry on the loans because it absolutely wanted to put the government under its influence. Now, at this juncture, the WB met an obvious failure: the military regime demonstrated a deep mistrust in the context of the WBs desire to increase his presence. Finally, at the end of the 70s, they took advantage of a profusion of loans from the international private bankers granted at a lower rate of interest than that of the WB and moved away from the WB, which they found less useful.  The WB has found many systematic means of getting round the prohibiting its operations taking “political” and “non-economic” considerations into account, one of the primary stipulations of its charter, from its founding onwards. The WB refused loans to post-liberation France as long as the Communists remained in the government. The day after they left the government in May 1947, the loan France had requested, blocked until then, was granted [7].  The WB has repeatedly contravened article IV of its own statutes. In truth, the WB has made many choices based on political considerations. The quality of governments’ economic policies is not the determining element in its choices. The WB has often lent money to the authorities in countries despite the dismal quality of their economic policies and a great degree of corruption: Indonesia and Zaire are two cases in point. Specifically, WB choices relative to countries that play a major political role in the eyes of its major shareholders are regularly linked to these shareholders’ interests and outlooks, starting with the United States.  From 1947 to the collapse of the Soviet bloc [8], World WB and IMF decisions were determined in large part by the following criteria:  To carry out this policy, the World WB and the IMF have generalised a tactic: greater flexibility towards right-wing governments (less demanding in terms of austerity measures) facing a strong left opposition than to left-wing governments facing strong opposition from the right. Concretely, that means IFI are more demanding and make life more difficult for left-wing governments to weaken them and ease the right’s path to power. According to the same logic, the IFI have made fewer demands on right-wing governments facing a left-wing opposition to avoid weakening them and preventing the left from coming to power. Monetarist orthodoxy has variable geometrics: the variations depend on many political and geostrategic factors.  The IMF and World WB did not hesitate to support dictatorships when they (and other major capitalist powers) found it opportune. The author of the World Report on Human Development published by UNDP (1994 edition) says so in black and white:  Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.  This article was originally published on CADTM.  Eric Toussaint is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the spokesperson of the CADTM International, and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France. He is the author of Bankocracy (2015); The Life and Crimes of an Exemplary Man(2014); Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket books, Chicago, 2012 (see here), etc.


globalresearch--2019-05-01--Selected Articles The Spontaneous Military Coup in Caracas Was Meant to Fail

Selected Articles: The Spontaneous “Military Coup” in Caracas Was Meant to Fail?

Online independent analysis of US-led wars, rampant corruption, corporate greed, civil rights and fraudulent monetary transactions is invariably relegated to the bottom rung of search engine results.  As a result we presently do not cover our monthly running costs which could eventually jeopardize our activities.  Do you value the reporting and in-depth analysis provided by Global Research on a daily basis?  Click to donate or click here to become a member of Global Research.  The thwarted uprising started in the early morning hours when renegade military and intelligence officers reportedly released Lopez from house arrest. Lopez then joined Guaido and a handful of soldiers on the Altamira overpass in east Caracas, outside the Francisco de Miranda airbase, known as La Carlota.  By Comitato No Nato, May 01, 2019  Multiple factors make Libya important in the eyes of the United States and the European powers. It has the largest oil reserves in Africa, precious for its high quality and low cost of extraction, and large reserves of natural gas.  The Spontaneous “Military Coup” in Caracas was Meant to Fail?  This spontaneous so-called military putsch was meant to fail. Visibly, it was not a carefully planned operation. And Washington was fully aware from the outset that it would fail.  There was a lot of confusion, and still is, all through Sri Lanka. Nobody claimed credit for the massacres. There were rumors that Sri Lanka’s President received warnings ahead of the attacks from foreign intelligence, but ignored them. The President denies these allegations. And the explosions continue.  Video: “Clinton Foundation and IS Funded from the Same Sources”: Julian Assange interview with John Pilger  By Julian Assange and John Pilger, May 01, 2019  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stated that Hillary Clinton’s Clinton Foundation and the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS) are funded from the same sources.  Predator Cops, Guilty of Sex Crimes Against Women and Children, Are a Menace to Society  Where are the police when these children—some as young as 9 years old—are being raped repeatedly?  For that matter, what is the Trump Administration doing about the fact that adults purchase children for sex at least 2.5 million times a year in suburbs, cities and towns across this nation?  China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Towards a Just World?  Essentially an infrastructure development endeavor it seeks to initiate and support the construction of roads, railways, ports and bridges in at least 65 other countries spanning four continents. With a commitment of over 900 billion US dollars, OBOR is the biggest infrastructure development project ever undertaken in the history of our planet.  Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.


globalresearch--2019-05-01--Venezuela Failed Military Coup in Caracas Guaido Seeks Refuge at Spanish Embassy

Venezuela: Failed Military Coup in Caracas. Guaido Seeks Refuge at Spanish Embassy

UPDATE: May 1st, 2019. Failed Military Coup. Guaido and Lopez Seek Refuge at Spanish Embassy  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro addressed the country in a televised speech on Tuesday evening, accusing those responsible for the military uprising of trying to provoke a “massacre” and lauding the armed forces for their restraint in avoiding direct confrontations.  “Who benefits from these [confrontations]? Who finances them? Undoubtedly the leadership of the terrorist ultra-right party Popular Will,” Maduro declared, referring to the party of Lopez and Guaido.  He added that today’s actions would not go “unpunished,” explaining that eight military officers and policemen were wounded in the armed confrontations, before going on to blast US leaders for their role in endorsing the coup attempt. Maduro also showed his appreciation for the tens of thousands who mobilized to defend the presidential palace beginning in the early hours of Tuesday.  The Venezuelan president, who was accompanied by high-ranking political and military leaders, ended his speech by calling for a “massive mobilization” on May 1st to celebrate workers’ day and “defend peace.”  A military coup attempt is underway in Venezuela on Tuesday, April 30, with imprisoned right wing leader Leopoldo Lopez, and self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaido and some members of the armed forces blocking a highway in Caracas and calling on the military to rise up.  According to reports, a group from Venezuela’s Sebin intelligence service freed Leopoldo Lopez from house arrest early Tuesday morning. Lopez then joined Guaido and a handful of members from different branches of the armed forces in the Altamira highway in eastern Caracas close to La Carlota airbase. Lopez and Guaido published videos on social media calling on other elements of the armed forces to join the uprising and on their supporters to take to the streets. Guaido vowed that this was the “final phase” in ousting the Maduro government.  The Venezuelan government promptly reacted, condemning the coup attempt and vowing that it would be defeated.  The President of the National Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, spoke on state television, vowing that the uprising would be defeated and that those responsible would have to “assume their responsibilities.” He also called on the people and the Bolivarian militia to go out on the streets and defend Miraflores Palace.  For his part, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López reported that military units throughout the country reported total normalcy, and that the military remain loyal to President Maduro.  At the time of writing, Guaido’s followers are taking to the streets both in Caracas and other parts of the country, blocking roads in support of his new call for a coup. Minor confrontations with tear gas have been reported outside La Carlota air base in Caracas.  Guaido had previously called for the “largest march in Venezuela’s history” scheduled for Wednesday May 1, while a Chavista march celebrating workers’ day was also expected to take place.  Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.


globalresearch--2019-05-02--British MSM Lapdog of American Military Coup Again

British MSM – Lapdog of American Military Coup (Again)

The Washington favourite in Juan Guaido has spent years at the forefront of a violent campaign of destabilization of Venezuela. He has been groomed for 15 years as a long-term CIA project. It was, therefore, never any surprise to those watching that this was somehow a surprise. And of course, it is no surprise that his intentions are simply as an American stooge, to return Venezuela’s oil reserves to US hegemony and control. In the meantime, the British MSM slavishly follows orders.  America has a long history of attacking countries with oil reserves with one of two things – bombs or ‘liberal democracy.’ Usually, there’s a smattering of humanitarianism thrown in and coming from America, that is to be feared. To the recipient nations rarely do things end well. Think, Iraq, Libya and countless other countries at the end of America’s greed.  And like the attack of Iraq, where the British MSM stood idly by, looking the other way, not once properly challenging the obvious lies of the Tony Blair government and its made up story of WMD, the same is happening in Venezuela. The hypocrisy of Western media and its politicians is breathtaking in every sense when after such events in our recent history, we witness them again and again and nothing is said.  There is something insidious about Britain’s media – both printed and presented. That they themselves see a blatant overt military coup, cry about the human rights abuses and turn the real story around 180 degrees against the government that is defending itself against that very coup is at its most charitable described as hypocrisy. It’s a fraud that mocks the nation as nothing more than being dumb and irrelevant.  Former British ambassador Craig Murray has some words on the matter.  Today, miraculously, the MSM line is no coup attempt happened at all, it was just a spontaneous unarmed protest, and it is the evil government of Venezuela which attempts to portray it as a coup. BBC Breakfast this morning had the headline “President Maduro has accused the opposition of mounting a coup attempt”… Yet there is no doubt at all that, as a matter of plain fact, that is what happened. The MSM today is full of video of water cannons against “protestors” and a horrible video of a military vehicle ramming a group. But it has all been very carefully edited to exclude hours of footage of the same military vehicles being pelted and set alight with molotov cocktails, and shot at. The presentation has been truly shocking. In any civilised country, attempting to mount a military coup would lead to incarceration for life, and that is what should now happen to Juan Guaido. The attempt by the West to protect their puppet by pretending the failed military coup never happened, must be resisted, if only in the cause of intellectual honesty. The resort to violence forces binary choice. I have been and am a critic of Maduro in many respects. I believe the constitutional changes to bypass Parliament were wrong, and the indirectly elected Constituent Assembly is not a good form of democracy. Venezuela does have a rampant corruption problem. US sanctions exacerbate but are not the root cause of economic mismanagement. There are human rights failings. But Chavez made revolutionary changes in educating and empowering the poor, and it is a far better governed country for the mass of its population than it would ever be under a US installed CIA puppet regime. Maduro was legitimately elected. The attempt at violence forces a binary choice. I know which side I am on. It is not Guaido and the CIA.”  Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc