Venezuela right-wing opposition wins control of National Assembly by a landslide

 In taking power from the National Assembly, the ruling removed what most consider to be the only remaining counterbalance to the president’s growing power in the country.

The court said that lawmakers were “in a situation of contempt,” and that while that lasted, the justices themselves would step in to “ensure that parliamentary powers were exercised directly by this chamber, or by the body that the chamber chooses.” It did not say whether it might hand power back.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/world/americas/venezuelas-supreme-court-takes-power-from-legislature.html?emc=edit_nn_20170331&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=77748371&te=1

Canada Calls on Venezuela's Govt to Restore Democracy

https://t.co/lpqbWQwkdW

"The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement..."

Yet a corrupt Banderite Nazi Oligarchy  is "the best government Ukraine has had in its entire history."

Venezuela Fake News Debunked: Assembly Not Annulled, No Coup

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuela-Fake-News-Debunked-Assem...

It may be no coincidence that ExxonMobil's considerable 'interest' in Venezuela and the present 'concern' by the 'international community', eg US vassals,  could have something to do with ExxonMobil's former CEO, Rex Tillerson  now being Trump's Sec-State.

Decision apparently reversed

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/denounced-as-a-dictato...

It would seem embedded in the Washington Post story is a glimpse at the real power games being played by both sides. 

Saturday’s ruling reinstated the National Assembly’s legislative powers, but it was not a complete reversal. It grants Maduro new powers to enter into joint-venture business investments and oil projects with foreign partners, deals that are supposed to require lawmakers’ approval.

That decision may reveal the true purpose for the attempted power grab. With a nearly $3 billion debt service payment due in less than two weeks and oil prices slumping again, Maduro’s government has been in negotiations for a cash infusion from the Russian state oil company Rosneft, according to Reuters. Saturday’s court ruling means Venezuela’s legislature would have no power to stop such a deal.

So Maduro told them they should re-think it, and they re-thought it.

I wonder how that would play out in Canada.

And I wonder if Venezuela's attourney general is going to re-think her calling it a "rupture of the constitutional order".

Quote:

The OAS Is Getting Ready to Attack Venezuela Again — Here’s How

Organization of American States, OAS, Secretary General Luis Almagro has called for a “special meeting” to be held on Monday to discuss the recent Venezuela Supreme Court decision, despite the fact that the decision was reversed due to criticisms within Venezuela's government.

In case you don't want to waste time reading a bunch of government-dictated blather about right wing enemies colluding, the problem appears to be OAS speaking with opposition leaders.  Telesur certainly earns their keep, in terms of never, ever criticizing the President or his party.

Quote:

Organization of American States, OAS, Secretary General Luis Almagro has called for a “special meeting” to be held on Monday to discuss the recent Venezuela Supreme Court decision, despite the fact that the decision was reversed due to criticisms within Venezuela's government.

It's super that they reversed it (frankly, probably more because the whole world saw through it, rather than "due to criticisms within Venezuela's government").

But that doesn't change the fact that they still did it, and they only reversed it when it was clear they couldn't get away with it.  Surely that's still worth some words?

If Canada's government were to announce that homosexuality was illegal again, and then they reversed that 48 hours later, would it be worth discussing?  Or would it be water under the bridge?

Maduro tipped his hand.  AND he's left with nothing to show for it.  It will be fascinating for the world to see whether the STJ reversal actually goes so far as to allow the elected Assembly (minus three) to govern as they were elected to do.  Any bets on that?

Venezuela opposition leader Capriles banned from politics

Quote:

Mr Capriles, who has run twice as a presidential candidate, is seen as the opposition's best hope of defeating President Maduro in elections scheduled for next year.

I guess if they waited until right before the election to ban him from politics it might look OBVIOUS or something.

Geez, it's only been a week since they tried dissolving the Assembly and replacing them with the Supreme Court.

Thank you for quoting TeleSur, the Venezuelan equivalent of FoxNews.  Where else would we be able to hear what the Venezuelan government would like us to hear?   Can anyone throw us a link in which TeleSur criticizes Maduro's government in any even-slightly meaningful way?  Just ONE link??

I loved this one, though:

Quote:

Events at the OAS have been followed up by calls from right-wing leaders in Venezuela to force out the court's magistrates through street demonstrations, some of which have turned violent as opposition protesters have attacked police.

Goodness!  Those violent right wingers!  Evidently, there has been at least one death during protests in the last week.  Was it:

a) a proud soldier or police officer, keeping the peace but brutally murdered by right wing hoodlums?

b) a regular citizen, protesting?

Don't click on that link until you've made your guess!  No cheating!

Let me just suggest again that TeleSur is to Maduro as FoxNews is to Trump.

Or, perhaps you can respond to this:

Quote:

Thank you for quoting TeleSur, the Venezuelan equivalent of FoxNews. 

...

Can anyone throw us a link in which TeleSur criticizes Maduro's government in any even-slightly meaningful way?  Just ONE link??

I'd LOVE to see it, eapaulo13.  What have you got?  Anything, whatsoever, to demonstrate that TeleSur is independent of the Venezuelan government, and ready to earn their journalistic chops by actually daring to criticize it?

It's hardly an "obsession" epaulo13 -- he's the president and he calls the shots.

And yes, I didn't respond to the purported "U.S." report, I responded to the pretty-much-inevitable Venezuelan response to this purported U.S. response.

And honestly, epaulo13, do you look at posts at babble and say to yourself "what do I honestly think about this and does this even make sense?"

Or do you just ask yourself "WHOSE SIDE AM I ON?" and go from there?  Because to be honest, it seems like you can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any ridiculous claim, as long as it's the most radical lefty of the claims.  Doesn't matter how stupid.

So Magoo tell me which US MSM do you trust to provide you unbiased news that does not further the ruling elites agenda? You realize of course that the non-government media in Venezuela is  far worse than Fox and prone to publishing outright lies about the government. 

Do you trust any news agencies to provide unbiased coverage? IMO they all embed biased opinions amongst a smattering of facts. Telesur contains as many hard facts as most news reports.  Its bias is on full display as are the biases of all the other media in that country.

Mr. Magoo wrote:

It's generally facts I'm interested in, much moreso than editorializing.  But TeleSur has a pretty consistent habit of treating any claim by the Venezuelan government as a "fact". 

Like the CBC claiming the Syrian government gassed its people because those are Trudeau's facts?  How often do you curse the CBC for their embedded biases or is it only media supporting left wing governments that are required to live up to your high standards?

..from my prospective, this piece sheds some light on what is going on in venezuela.

The sources of Maduro's crisis

On March 29, the Venezuelan Supreme Court ruled that the National Assembly--controlled since the last elections by the right-wing opposition--was in contempt of the constitution and took over its duties. After protests broke out in Caracas, and the country's attorney general criticized the Court, President Nicolás Maduro convened an emergency National Security Council meeting. In response, the Supreme Court partially reversed itself.

This was the latest constitutional clash between Maduro's government and the right-wing opposition that swept National Assembly elections in December 2015. Since then, the Court and the National Assembly have been engaged in a tug of war over the fate of three opposition legislators whom the Court ruled had attained their seats through electoral fraud. Seating the three has become a major issue: If they were in the legislature, the opposition would have the two-thirds majority it would need to make far-reaching decisions.

With the economy in a free fall as the price of oil--the country's main source of foreign exchange and revenue for social programs--has collapsed, workers have endured high prices, shortages of basic consumer goods and government corruption. Former President Hugo Chávez's once-popular vision of "socialism for the 21st century" has lost support.

In an article that appeared in Spanish at La Diaria, an independent daily newspaper in Uruguay, Edgardo Lander, a sociologist at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and longtime social movement activist, analyzed the implosion of Venezuela's rentier economic model, the right's attempts to seize on the crisis, and the move by Maduro's government to curtail democratic rights. The interview was translated into English by Lance Selfa....

..i'm still working on it as well but yes an excellent analysis.

Quote:

This very week, Williams Davila, an opposition representative of the state of Merida, declared to the international news agency EFE, that their intention is not to get Venezuela suspended from OAS, but to force the government to call elections. This is funny since they are accusing the legitimate government of “breaking the constitutional order”, but calling an election, after failing to comply with the appropiate steps to revoke the President’s mandate, is inconsistent at best.

Except that they did, in fact, comply with those appropriate steps.  The government simply shut them down anyway.

What's funny is everyone clutching pearls over a "coup" to remove the President but ignoring the electorate's constitutional right to a recall vote, which was surely intended as a non-violent means to remove an unpopular politician.  If you promise the people a legitimate electoral process, then renege, what's left for them?  "Suck it up" isn't working any more.

Sidebar:  Chavez faced a recall vote and won it.  So what seems to be the problem here?

Quote:

the government is recuperating popularity and most Venezuelans disagree with opposition tactics

Could be.  I have to think that to some degree, they're just sick of everything, both the government and the opposition.

But in most countries, an elected opposition has the opportunity to "oppose" in the Legislature, or to oppose by running candidates in elections.  If Maduro wants to deny them both of those, in contravention of the Constitution, then what is he leaving for them?  Everything he claims to be worried about, basically.

If he doesn't want demonstrations and he doesn't want "a coup" then what if he just obeyed his own Constitution and held a real recall referendum and mandatory elections??

It's a pretty obvious solution.  Either he and his government will have their mandates renewed and legitimized, or not, but there would be no more excuse for disruption or violence of any sort.

The problem with the whole "U.S./Imperialist economic coup" explanation isn't that it's impossible and could never happen.

It's that mere suggestion of this seems to satisfy Maduro, Telesur, Venezuelanalysis and others.  No evidence need ever be shown.  The "evidence" so far seems to be the assertion that the U.S. doesn't love Maduro (probably true) and that the U.S. has interfered with South American governments in the past (definitely true).  But nothing concrete, and nothing TODAY.

And maybe even more importantly, the whole "U.S./Imperialist bogeyman" theory doesn't actually EXPLAIN Venezuela's situation, nor its government's decisions.

Is the U.S. the reason why Venezuela keeps printing billions of Bolivars worth of new banknotes and is driving inflation through the roof?

Is the U.S. the reason why Venezuela basically stopped producing anything but oil years ago?

Is the U.S. the reason why Venezuela's oil industry is so poorly maintained and staffed that they barely even have oil going for them any more?

Is the U.S. the reason why Venezuela needed three official exchange rates (now whittled down to a mere two)?  Or needed to set the official price of staples lower than the cost of manufacture and expect businesses to just take that loss?  And then act all shocked and aggreived when nobody's selling those staples any more?

Is the U.S. the reason why Venezuela can't have a recall election, as per their Constitution, or scheduled general elections, as per their Constitution?

Is the U.S. the reason why Venezuela's answer to a political opposition is to jail them, ban them or simply send their "impartial" Supreme Court to take their place?  Yes, I know they walked that one back, but they "would have got away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids!"

Venezuelan Opposition Accused of Attacking Maternity Hospital, 10 Dead in Riot

https://t.co/G9C0uuvvv2

"Venezuelan authorities have accused anti-government groups of launching a series of attacks overnight Thursday on public service and infrastructure, while at least 10 people have been confirmed dead in a riot..."

Massive Pro and Anti-Government Protests in Venezuela (and vid)

https://t.co/Pwm0eHTJnj

"While international media focused almost exclusively on the opposition protests and clashes with police, the pro-government protests were equally as large..."

https://www.facebook.com/venanalysis/videos/10158512371155142/

Joe Emersberger

http://twitter.com/rosendo_joe

"The real blackout on news about Venezuela is perpetrated by by the international media and NGOs."

Armed Civilian Bands in Venezuela Prop Up Unpopular President

Quote:

CARACAS, Venezuela — The bikers thundered up in a phalanx of red jackets and dark clothes, some with faces covered, revving motorcycles before a thousand protesters in Caracas. They threw tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. Then, witnesses say, they pulled pistols and fired.

Someone fell. Carlos Moreno, 17, lay sprawled on the ground, a pool of blood around his head.

“His brain matter was coming out,” recalled Carlos Julio Rojas, a community leader who witnessed the fatal shooting in Venezuela’s capital on Wednesday.

The uniformed men who shot Mr. Moreno were not government security forces, witnesses say. Rather, they were members of armed bands who have become key enforcers for President Nicolás Maduro as he attempts to crush a growing protest movement against his rule.

The groups, called collectives or colectivos in Spanish, originated as pro-government community organizations that have long been a part of the landscape of leftist Venezuelan politics. Civilians with police training, colectivo members are armed by the government, say experts who have studied them.

Colectivos control vast territory across Venezuela, financed in some cases by extortion, black-market food and parts of the drug trade as the government turns a blind eye in exchange for loyalty.

Now they appear to be playing a key role in repressing dissent.

Seems they've been implicated in a lot of the deaths that have taken place since the recent round of protests, even as the President insists it's all the traitor Opposition, supported by the "imperialists", who are responsible for the violence.

How do you say "brown shirt" in Spanish?

Venezuela Delivers Letter Formalizing Exit From 'Coercive' OAS

http://bit.ly/2pqMnwh

"Washington will never determine Venezuela's destiny."

Government 'Repression' of 'Peaceful Protesters' in Venezuela

https://youtu.be/-QJoRrn-NQo

What are you talking about, k?

We had a demo here a few days ago which is now being branded "violent" because someone leaned on a car hood and there was some shouting (and in fact a protester was punched by someone coming through the line), so a few film clips does not tell the whole story. Not of one demo, even, and certainly not of public anger in an entire country.

I have no idea what the political motive of people in those clips is - how many are "right wing" as you say, and how many are just hungry.

But the Black Bloc seem to make a career of providing footage like that so people can make exactly the same assumption you are about others who had nothing to do with the violence.

Of course the fact that the legislature has seated three deputies that the courts said won their seats by fraud means nothing to you. You make a complex issue very black and white when it is anything but.

Quote:

Of course the fact that the legislature has seated three deputies that the courts said won their seats by fraud means nothing to you.

Have you heard anything more about this -- evidence, or something similar?

I would think that if, in Canada, an MP won his or her seat through electoral fraud there would be an investigation, and if the outcome confirmed that fraud, a by-election.

What about in Venezuela?

And more to the point, what on God's green earth does that have to do with REGIONAL elections, and why they apparently can't happen?

Venezuela's vegetable brigades help families with escalating cost of food

Quote:

Victor Zambrano, one of the group's leaders, said the collective of several hundred poor and middle-income people provides vegetables that will last a typical family several weeks and cost about one-quarter of the supermarket price.

"These vegetables are better quality and cheaper because we get them directly from the farmers," he said.

Here is an article I found that appears to give a good summary of the issues and crisis facing Venezuela. 

There are two contrasting narratives currently circulating about Venezuela’s crisis. The first, prominent in mainstream western media, portrays the government as a dictatorial regime engaged in ruthless repression of a heroic opposition peacefully seeking a return to democratic rule. The second, put forward by the government and a small (and likely dwindling) group of international solidarity activists, portrays a democratically elected government besieged by a violent, unhinged opposition that (a) represents a small minority of wealthy elites; (b) enjoys full support from the US empire; and (c) will stop at nothing to achieve regime change, regardless of the legality or morality of its actions.

Both narratives contain elements of truth, but neither does justice to Venezuela’s crisis.

http://nacla.org/news/2017/04/28/why-venezuela-spiraling-out-control