nicolas maduro

U.S. government officials Juan Gonzalez, Jimmy Story and Roger Carstens officially traveled to Venezuela over the weekend for talks with Nicolas Maduro. Carstens had already been to Caracas in early December to discuss the CITGO 6. People seem surprised by what they perceive as a change of heart at the White House, ignoring that Carsten and Bill Richardson had already visited Maduro (unofficially).

The problem with Venezuela is which of its realities should be prioritised. It is a country "governed" by a group of people who have a fluid stance with a kind of criminality that would make any government subject to rule of law and independence of institutions collapse. Chavismo's relationship with Colombia's narco terrorist groups (FARC, ELN, etc.) is well documented. Hugo Chavez himself was vociferous about his sympathies with the enemies of the Colombian State, and his successor is not different.

A well known trope in Venezuela is that Hugo Chavez was the most charismatic politician, and that Nicolas Maduro was just the loyal fool handpicked to continue the "Bolivarian Revolution". When Chavez's death was announced, nobody gave Maduro much of a chance. The thinking was that he was no Chavez, that he didn't have what it took. Maduro has been massively underestimated. For years. Yet he can easily claim to be the shrewdest, more so than even Chavez, whose time in power was aided by the largest oil windfall ever received.

Dear Department of Justice,

Further to your recent superseding indictment against Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates, I want to help with information that could lead to their arrests. Fact is, only those within a rather small circle keep in regular contact with Maduro and co, and know of their whereabouts. To members of that circle $15 million is, beyond an insult, pocket change.

Little to add to yesterday's historical U.S. Department of Justice's (DoJ) news about narco terrorism, corruption, and drug trafficking charges, brought in superseding indictment (see below) against Nicolas Maduro and some of the thugs that form Venezuela's "government".

Persistent rumours about a super indictement against Nicolas Maduro, Cilia Flores, Tareck el Aisami, and Diosdado Cabello are making the rounds. It would be President Trump's administration way of ratcheting up pressure on chavismo, and according to sources could go as far as including Venezuela in the list of States Sponsors of Terrorism along Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

The good thing about the now-official bankruptcy of Victor Vargas' ALLBank in Panama is the amount of evidence of corruption that it will produce. A cache of internal documents from ALLBank seen by this site shows that Vargas' operation was little more than a money laundering platform.

Nicolas Maduro is in a bit of a pickle: the Trump administration has recognised Juan Guaidó as legitimate President of Venezuela and, crucially, Carlos Vecchio as his official U.S. Chargé d'Affairs. What this means in practical terms is that the U.S. government will only talk business with Guaidó through Vecchio. Maduro's retort?

This site has learned that high officials of Donald Trump's White House shut down an interview Nicolas Maduro gave recently to FoxNews. Journalist Maria Elvira Salazar, on unofficial assignment / agreement with FoxNews, met and interviewed Maduro in Caracas. The interview was translated to English, with the purpose of broadcasting it in FoxNews to send a message to the Trump administration, about Maduro's intentions to establish some kind of dialogue. White House officials intervened, censored the whole thing, and the interview ended up being aired, in Spanish, in Univision.

It is not an exaggeration to say that in many Venezuelan homes, regardless of politics, there's a weapon. The website gunpolicy.org cites some stats: "The estimated total number of guns (both licit and illicit) held by civilians in Venezuela is 1,600,000 to 4,100,000... In a comparison of the number of privately owned guns in 178 countries, Venezuela ranked at No. 27... Unlawfully held guns cannot be counted, but in Venezuela there are estimated to be 1,100,000 to 2,700,000".