Above: Workers of state-run oil company PDVSA take part in a rally against US imperialism. The placard reads: “The Oil is Ours, Yankee Go Home”. Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins for Reuters.
Memo from Kevin Zeese, March 23, 2019:
More information is coming out about the reports of Guaido’s chief of staff and his bodyguard being arrested on terrorism charges. The US reacted in anger about these arrests and promised retribution. Now, we can see why they were angry — a major plot was uncovered and stopped. They were going to use a billion dollars in seized Venezuelan asset for a major series of terrorist attacks, including an attempted assassination of Maduro and an attack on the presidential palace, Miraflores.
In making the arrests a lot more information has come out about their plot and it is pretty significant. It is excellent that the government was able to stop them.
Tomorrow we will be publishing the article linked below on Popular Resistance. The “Note” I wrote for the article gives a lot more details.
KZ
by Kevin Zeese, from Popular Resistance Newsletter, March 24, 2019
Mission Verdad reports that the arrest of Guaido’s ‘chief of staff,’ Roberto Marrero, earlier this week was tied to more widespread terrorist plans. The evidence points to terrorism plots funded by assets seized from Venezuela and channeled into bank accounts through Colombia. The United States, which put in place new sanctions after the arrest of Guaido’s terrorist assistant, is implicated as is the US puppet Juan Guaido.
Reporting on a press conference by Jorge Rodríguez, Minister of Communication and Information, Mision Verdad describes eight to ten teams of assassins, brought from Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, who were trained in Colombia to carry out terrorist acts in Venezuela. They planned selective assassinations of high-profile figures of the Venezuelan State and attacks on the country’s public services. Half these groups had entered the country, while others were blocked by the shutdown of the borders.
The objectives of the terrorist plot, including the assassination of social and political leaders, were shown in a slide by Jorge Rodríguez. The slide described how Operation Libertad (or Operation Freedom) planned:
- Selective killings of government officials
- New sabotage to the Caracas Metro, the Cable Car and the electric service
- False-positive operations or false flags by people disguised as military deserters
- A general strike, an assault on Miraflores and terrorist actions such as the assassination of President Maduro
The teams were going to conduct their terrorist acts disguised as deserters of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces to portray these mercenaries as “military deserters.” They sought to show a false conflict between the Venezuelan military and elected government.
They also report that the among the material seized from Marrero were cell phones that allowed investigators access to conversations, which showed $500,000 and $700,000 being spent per day to pay these assassins and to bribe members of the military to desert and join them. The money was deposited by NGOs created in January and February in accounts of Banesco and Bank of America by the government of Iván Duque after Juan Guaidó asked him to do so. The communications infer the funds came from money seized from Venezuelan companies. The money stolen from Venezuela that would be used to finance this operation is estimated to amount to a total of $1 billion.
The US, which seems to be behind these plans for terrorism in Venezuela, sanctioned the Economic and Social Development Bank of Venezuela when Guaido’s terrorist aid, the so-called, chief-of-staff, was arrested on suspicion of terrorism.
Mission Verdad reports Guaido himself and right-wing leader, Leopoldo Lopez, who is under house arrest for previous violence, were implicated, writing,
“On Marrero’s phone, conversations were also found in a group called ‘the General Staff,’ made up of members of the Voluntad Popular party. Among them, Leopoldo López is identified, in charge of his leadership; Freddy Guevara, in charge of advising on the discursive line of Guaidó; Marrero, the deputies Freddy Superlano and Sergio Vergara, and Juan Guaidó himself.”
Guaido called this “Operation Freedom.” Freddy Guevara describes how the operation is moving “from a strategy of siege to one of assault” articulated with selective assassinations and attacks against public services. This is all consistent with Guaido’s comments at a rally on March 22 in El Tigre, Anzoátegui state, where he said: “Venezuelans do not beg for our rights, so soon we are going together to Miraflores to rescue the office of all Venezuelans,” and told his followers “we must organize because the dictator will not go out kindly.”
In a speech at the Mobilization for Peace outside of the Miraflores Palace on Saturday, President Maduro described how the country is facing “the strongest imperialist aggressions that the Republic has ever survived in 200 years.” Maduro said the people continue to be “the greatest guarantee of peace, democracy, and sovereignty of the Fatherland” against the attacks perpetrated by the Venezuelan right-wing and the US. Regarding the plans of the terrorist cell described in the article below, he assured the people: “We are going to capture them and hand them over to Justice.” KZ
Venezuela Presents Evidence of Anti-Bolivarian Terrorism
from TeleSUR English, March 23, 2019
The Venezuelan Minister of Culture unveiled telephone conversations between leaders of the right planning violence against the country.
The government of Venezuela announced the dismantling of a series of violent operations that were intended to be carried out in the country by mercenaries and assassins who entered the Venezuelan territory within the last few weeks.
The Minister of Communication Jorge Rodriguez, denounced that among these operations included the selective assassination of social and political leaders, through lists of names, sabotage against the metro system and the Caracas cable car, fake news through media and social networks, a conspiracy of general strikes in the labor sector, an assault on Miraflores Palace (the seat of Government), and false flag terrorist actions.
The Venezuelan politician also said that Central American and Colombian mercenaries and assassins who managed to enter the country, some of whom the government has identified, are being sought and will be arrested “wherever they are.”
Rodriguez also revealed a series of tests and detailed telephone conversations involving leaders of the Venezuelan right, such as the lawmaker of the National Assembly — in contempt since 2016 — the self-proclaimed Juan Guaido, Leopoldo Lopez, and Freddy Guevara among others, in preparation of terrorist operations against the Venezuelan state.
The government of Nicolas Maduro accused local and international right-wing objectives to move from a strategy of siege through financial asphyxia, to an assault strategy, with the aim of taking power in its entirety or divide the country into two territories.
Kevin Zeese is an American political activist who has been a leader in the drug policy reform and peace movements and in efforts to ensure a voter verified paper audit trail. Margaret Flowers, M.D., is a Maryland pediatrician seeking the Green Party nomination for the US Senate. She is co-director of PopularResistance.org and a board adviser to Physicians for a National Health Program and is on the Leadership Council of the Maryland Health Care Is a Human Right campaign.