The Colombia/Ecuador/Venezuela Mess or Let's Place Bets on How Long Before the U.S. Backs a Colombian War With Venezuela

whataboutery i am fond of because saying "columbia has poverty too" while you preside over a failing state isn't a fucking argument, all arguments in a similar vein carry no water at all, and they're a personal bugbear.

I get where you are coming from but in this specific example, you have a country with, what, 4m internally displaced refugees?, many of whom are in abject poverty, pulling stunts with hundreds of tonnes of rotting food in order to gain international public support for their troops to be able to roll across the border. Pushing back on whether poverty alleviation is the core objective and highlighting that the two countries share some of the same issues is legit. As you say, it’s not an answer for why Venezuela is getting worse, in itself, though.

rotting food? link?

It goes without saying that hundreds of thousands are suffering in Venezuela, and the instinct to alleviate that suffering is a healthy one. But a craven marketing stunt by far-right Cold Warriors—without any buy-in from actual aid organizations—cannot be taken at face value.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-u-s-venezuela-aid-convoy-story-is-clearly-bogus-but-no-one-wants-to-say-it/

fred stop

lol, Adam Johnson at truthdig. And even that bullshitter doesn't claim that the food will be rotting. Bravo.

la cosa está que arde. Hoping tomorrow isn't too horrible

the same regime is in power. would be the equivalent of maduro stepping aside for someone else in the PSUV

― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 21 February 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Which of course would not be enough for the US or whoever. Similarly Corbyn stepping aside wouldn't be enough unless that person was Chris Leslie.

whataboutery i am fond of because saying "columbia has poverty too" while you preside over a failing state isn't a fucking argument, all arguments in a similar vein carry no water at all, and they're a personal bugbear.

screaming "whataboutery" isn't enough either. Its not an argument so much as the lines of thinking and sheer hypocrisy of the West. The UK has murdered disabled and vulnerable benefit claimants - why shouldn't we be invaded? Why shouldn't there be people throwing food and money from boats? If it sounds ridiculous then that's what you are getting at the moment. Let your Danish internet film critic scream "bullshit" and don't join in - the only road from "whataboutery" is going "maybe the opposition isn't so bad they will throw crumbs at the poor Venezuelan blacks". We know a negotiated solution wouldn't satisfy white people who are thosands of miles away.

lol:

The human rights crisis that has engulfed #Venezuela for the past few years has shattered the lives of millions of people. Here’s what you need to know. https://t.co/ea9klXpLX5

— Amnesty International (@amnesty) February 19, 2019

"10. Damaging US sanctions."

Is there an invasion yet? Don’t know why xyz talks about an invasion. In any case, the absolute failure for some people in this thread to see that this was never about sovereignity of plucky little Venezuela but two imperial dicks waving at each other on the corpse of hilariously stupid economic policies is staggering. Economic sanctions and Abrams are shit; so are the russian-armed military who has control of the economy (that’s not socialism imo).

Venezuelans won’t be allowed to sort it out because that is what dictators do not allow. The last elections were fraudulant, lots of people have a hard time finding food or medecine, the military and judiciary are in the President’s camp and Maduro seems very intent into not giving his position away. How can people make a choice in those conditions?

otm

What is all this about "russian-armed military who has control of the economy" wtf. Fred give us a link!

Of course there has been no invasion, atm its parts ridiculous noise but there are sanctions and much pressure being put.

There is no good faith from the side of the opposition that I've seen at all. The path to talks, leading up to elections doesn't look good and there are perfetly fine reasons for that.

VHS otm

Amuse yourselves with this:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2019/feb/23/venezuela-brazil-border-aid-live-news-latest-updates

An invasion isn't exactly crazy talk. With Venezuela no longer controlling its border, Brazil taking control (by encroaching on Venezuelan territory) isn't unthinkable.

Man I have seen thinly veiled plans before but this veil is close to nonexistent https://t.co/soLTGGyxQA

— Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) February 24, 2019

Bevins is quite good in general imo.

Yeah there is no veil and I can not believe Maduro was dumb enough to fall for this.

Jokes, I totally did, Maduro is scum and Maduro is dumb. If he cared a slightest bit about the Venezuelan people he would start looking at ways to transition away, some non-imperalist countries gave him a chance and he kept his this dangerous position.

wtf

pic.twitter.com/ZwxbWyV1HF

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 24, 2019

The game all along. Libya has been turned into a slave market and its migrants have died tried to find a better life in Europe but never mind all that Maduro is dumb and has bought this all on himself "VHS otm".

I've seen that Rubio tweet about 20 times today and I'm not sure I can articulate how angry and sad it makes me

If you think that's wonderful, imagine living in a city with a huge concentration of well-intentioned Venezuelan exiles and their ill-intentioned Cuban supporters for whom that Rubio treat was *chef's kiss*

I was a little skeptical at first, but after listening to Marco Rubio I am more convinced than ever that we need to militarily intervene in Miami

— Mark (@haircut_hippie) February 24, 2019

I'd demand international arbitration, for example from Lakeland, Hialeah, Vero Beach, and Orlando.

Maybe together we can find a solution <-- someone who has never been to Miami.

🔥 30 years ago today in Venezuela: the mass rebellion against neoliberalism known as the Caracazo, which ended in the massacre of 300 to 3,000, most dumped in mass graves. Today, neoliberals claim the mantle of human rights as they try to do the same. Never forget! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/7szkyaGZv3

— George Ciccariello-Maher (@ciccmaher) February 27, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/world/americas/venezuela-aid-fire-video.html?fbclid=IwAR38QIoZuJWFPRevl2HbkQtlI1p1aqdhV7V8gzflbgxxEpf6ClzQ9ggv4zg

Unlike Rubio to get his facts wrong in tweets...

Lmao holy shit Marco Rubio is so dumb pic.twitter.com/HGR4TsM8GW

— liking online (@likingonline) March 10, 2019

There was a report in an Argentine newspaper a few days ago suggesting Pence had been assured by Guaido that half the army would switch sides as soon as the US recognised him as President and that Pence is now fuming that hasn’t happened, though I’m not sure how credible the source is.

Lol, I was just coming here to post that tweet.

Thought this revive would be for

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/world/americas/venezuela-aid-fire-video.html

It was.

Mobile ilx makes me even more of a dumbass than normal

Thread title makes it sounds like it some sort of fun ironic game to place bets on a potential war/civil war and I think it sucks.

i agree
none of this is funny nor is it idly amusing

It sucks but many of you are basically backing a lot of pro-coup rhetoric. I wouldn't worry about a thread title that was written years before this year's events.

Wanting free and impartial elections in Venezuela is not exactly backing pro-coup rhetoric, nor is it pointing out that Maduro's regime constitutes a coup itself.

The United States doesn’t need to invade the country. It just needs to target the bank accounts, Miami properties, and kleptocratic networks exploited by these corrupt Venezuelan officials

https://thinkprogress.org/venezuelas-kleptocratic-partner-in-crime-america/

Currently: imperialist mouthpiece cosplaying as news station MSNBC has the wife of Venezuelan opposition leader Guaido labeled as "Venezuelan First Lady" - which is categorically, undeniably false - on live national TV. The actual Venezuelan First Lady is legendary Cilia Flores. pic.twitter.com/35DvPsUIxY

— basura (@HalfAtlanta) March 27, 2019

maduro is going to allow aid to enter

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/world/americas/red-cross-venezuela-aid.html

Is this the time for Fred to shine? Reports of a coup under way (it's in The Guardian front page anyway)

Looks like it.

People on Twitter are dismissing. Tbh it's all based on a video from Guaido's account.

There’s about twelve soldiers. The idea seems to be to use it as a trigger to get people out onto the streets rather than actually being able to do much militarily.

marco_rubio_cumface.gif

Government claims it's under control, and I'm inclined to believe them. Does not seem as if the people has risen up.

Look at the baby cry

One of Venezuela’s best journalists reporting that today’s action was planned for another day, and had strong military support - but they had to bring it forward because Guaido’s arrest was imminent, and then the military backed out https://t.co/65PLT8tbLZ

— Brian Winter (@BrazilBrian) April 30, 2019

kinda feel like if maduro was gonna arrest him he’d have done it by now

well he definitely be getting arrested now so we'll never know

if that "strong military support" was really strong, it seems to me it wouldn't back out at the first hint of difficulty.

A lot to unpack in that tweet.

Just love how that was the top story in The Guardian website for the afternoon, whereas there was very little by comparison on Twitter -- and that what you got from Twitter was more accurate in the end.

it's a big story. is there another coup attempt going on that i missed?