The much-publicized February 23 presented as the breaking point of the Venezuelan situation, through the political operation of “humanitarian aid”, began early in its operational aspects. It is a riálity blow , which instrumentalizes social networks to create a parallel reality under the premises of a “pop rebellion”, in order to cover up the heavy and aggressive aspects of the coup.
The agenda of the day brings with it, from the beginning, several operations of hauling, oxygenation and special effects with which they seek to keep the show on the top ten, as high as possible, to precipitate the conditions of a violent confrontation in different scales artificially planned : “Colombia vs. Venezuela”, “Pemones vs. State”, “FANB vs. peaceful protesters (“humanitarian combatants”)”. Another element is that the protection of Juan Guaidó by the Colombian government places the security of the Venezuelan State in a critical situation.
By how the day begins and by its own scale of importance, the writing of Mission Verdad will address the most relevant maneuvers on the border chess board and how it is reproduced within the country and in the media landscape. After the concert “Venezuela Aid Live”, the operators of the war against Venezuela begin to work formally, and so do we.
- Morning data (8:30). After crashing a tank against the bars that divide the Simón Bolívar bridge, three GNB troops passed to the other side of the border and were received by the deputy José Manuel Olivares. The false positive feature was evident, to the point that they shouted “it’s one of ours, do not shoot”, evidencing the planned nature of what happened. This is the first push and oxygenation maneuver of the “humanitarian aid”, since until now, Juan Guaidó has not managed to get military commanders to affiliate with the insurrectionary agenda of the United States,
Falso positivo en la frontera colombo-venezolana: Tres militares desertores romper parte del bloqueo en el Puente Simón Bolívar y cruzan al lado colombiano. Se oye claramente como de ese lado dicen “no disparen, son de nosotros.”
(Video Román Camacho) pic.twitter.com/DFNzZbZG0D— Misión Verdad (@Mision_Verdad) February 23, 2019
- The narrative cover of the provocation is drawn (11:30). From the Colombian side of the Tienditas bridge, which today has been cleared, Juan Guaidó held a press conference with the president of Colombia, Iván Duque. In this conference, the dolphin of Álvaro Uribe Vélez stressed that the “humanitarian aid” was given to Guaidó to be admitted to Venezuela along with the group of “volunteers” formed for that purpose. Duque said that “not allowing the entry of humanitarian aid could constitute a crime against humanity,” in addition to holding Venezuela responsible for any act of violence that could happen. Guaidó, according to his landfill figure of all information operations, put as an example of “transition” the case of the three soldiers who deserted in the morning hours while asking other uniforms to imitate their attitude, like the Chavistas located on the Venezuelan side of the Tienditas bridge. On the other hand, the reports indicate that the opposition demonstrators meet with Venezuelan flags for what will surely be the staging of an informative operation, where the supposed “peaceful character” of the attempt to invade Venezuela by force will be hierarchized. In the early hours of the morning, from Ureña, Venezuela, the opposition supporters have sought, in that sense, to overexpose an “excessive repression” of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) when they tried to break the closure of the border on the Simón Bolívar Bridge , closed for security reasons. All of that prefigures, again, the narrative that they will seek to project internationally when they try to confront Venezuelan security forces.
VIDEO | Presidente de Colombia, Iván Duque: “Impedir el ingreso de la ayuda humanitaria es un atentado contra los DDHH y podría constituir un crimen de lesa humanidad” https://t.co/5DoFxLn1UF pic.twitter.com/p1H6ymnU9Y
— AlbertoNews (@AlbertoRodNews) February 23, 2019
- Violence begins with a call to the Venezuelan military (12:20). From Caracas, the deputy Miguel Pizarro of “Primero Justicia” party announced that by order of Guaidó opposition supporters are summoned to protest outside the military barracks and initiate the entry of “humanitarian aid” across borders. Again, as is the tone of the day, Guaidó’s parallel ambassador in Brazil, María Teresa Belandria, announced as a victory the supposed entry of the first truck with “humanitarian aid” from the Brazilian state of Roraima, a report that was not confirmed by any source. Belandria acts from Brazil only with the support of Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo, but without visibility of the Brazilian military, opposed to the “humanitarian operation”. Both Belandria, former professor of a university of the Department of Defense of the United States, like Ernesto Araujo, represent the closest allies to Trump in Brazil. While this is happening, on the Simón Bolívar bridge, which borders Colombia, acts of violence are recorded from the side of Venezuela by opponents, while on the Colombian side a group seeks to break a blockade by the Bolivarian National Police (PNB). The deputy Juan Manuel Olivares, meanwhile, announces from the Simón Bolívar bridge the progress of a volunteer group shielding the trucks with “humanitarian aid” to press for their entry. Acts of violence are video recorded from the side of Venezuela by opponents, while on the Colombian side a group seeks to break with a blockade of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB). The deputy Juan Manuel Olivares, meanwhile, announces from the Simón Bolívar bridge the progress of a volunteer group shielding the trucks with “humanitarian aid” to press for their entry.
Blocked by national guard, what was meant to be a peaceful protest in #Venezuela is turning increasingly violent. Masked protesters hijacked a government bus and set it a blaze trying to break the soldiers’ barricade. pic.twitter.com/i17ws0QEdD
— Andy Rosati (@andrewrosati) February 23, 2019
- Oversized expectations, disinformation and attempted pressure against security forces (12:55). The “humanitarian operation” is projected through the voices of Juan Manuel Olivares and the deputy Gabriela Arellano. The first is located on the Colombian side of the Simón Bolívar Bridge, speaking through a loudspeaker so that the uniformed of the PNB allows the “entry” of “humanitarian aid”. Arellano does the same from the Venezuelan side of the Ureña bridge where there were acts of violence a few minutes ago. Both Arellano and Olivares project the entrance of a truck from Brazil as an attempt to persuade the uniformed to let them pass, given the “irreversible” nature of the events. However, financial journalist Bloomberg, Patricia Laya, reports that the truck did not go through Venezuela’s customs controls on the border with Brazil.
Periodista del medio estadounidense Bloomberg, asegura que ningún camión de los que intentan cruzar en la frontera de Venezuela con Brasil, han podido pasar por los controles de seguridad o aduana. CNN también genera la misma información. https://t.co/ZIKSZcwpyg
— Misión Verdad (@Mision_Verdad) February 23, 2019
- First provocations against uniformed Bolivarian National Police (13:20). The group of “humanitarian volunteers” located on the Colombian side of the Simón Bolívar bridge attempted to cross the police fence, under the lead of deputy Juan Manuel Olivares. With hands raised, flags of Venezuela and singing the anthem, the group quickly backed down after tear gas bombs were thrown. Once again, the Venezuelan media for information, funded by the State Department, reported the alleged delivery of a uniformed Special Forces Force of the PNB, a unit constantly attacked by the media for its role of containing violent cells from January 23. Once again: they try to project, as in the morning, the defection of the uniformed in terms of pressing to break the unit of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces. In spite of that, as with the Brazilian humanitarian truck, it is difficult to verify the veracity of this defection that would be minimal if it is understood that in Venezuela there have not been important military pronouncements against the constitutional order.
#EnVivo Presunto funcionario del FAES indicó que se “entregará” para ponerse a disposición del pueblo. #23Feb ¡Conéctate ya! https://t.co/PvQ2Nao5h1 pic.twitter.com/UNea7YJ0ei
— VPItv (@VPITV) February 23, 2019
- They try to launch trucks against police fences (14:10). After the first attempt to cross on the Simón Bolívar Bridge, in Ureña, the group of “humanitarian volunteers” threw themselves at the police fence on the Venezuelan side with four trucks full of civilians. In one of the photos published by the New York Times journalist, Nick Casey, he shows a clear intention in the use civilians, as women and children, as human shields to project acts of repression against what they have called a “humanitarian avalanche”. ” While this is happening, social networks project the meeting of Guaidó with the four Venezuelan soldiers who crossed into Colombia in the morning, and the journalist Madeleine García reports the overflight of Colombian drones on the Venezuelan side in a clear provocation. It’s already 2 pm, at the time this happens, in Caracas, a March held by Chavismo is on Urdaneta Avenue near Miraflores Palace, where President Nicolás Maduro is expected to deliver a speech.
Trucks started moving on Simon Bolívar bridge to huge cheers, but now stalled after passing first checkpoint. pic.twitter.com/z0ICS1uMs6
— Nick Casey (@caseysjournal) February 23, 2019
- Psychological operation and armed violence in Santa Elena de Uairén (2:45 pm). After clashes promoted by violent groups in the city of Santa Elena de Uairén, with the excuse of giving entrance to the “humanitarian aid”, the media have reported a murder. Disinforming about what happened and transferring the absolute responsibility of the fact to the FANB, the handling of the situation aims to generalize the idea that the FANB represses peaceful protesters. This is linked, in the framework of a pincer operation, to what happened earlier in Ureña, with the aim of pressing from both sides of the border to inhibit the capacity of action of the FANB. Juan Guaidó from Cúcuta tried to defend the story, asserting that people are being massacred in Santa Elena, thus shaping the final goal of the day: adding the largest number of military defections to show authority. An objective that still can not be consolidated.
- President Nicolás Maduro affirms that the “coup is defeated” and breaks diplomatic relations with Colombia (15:22). In a massive ceremony on Urdaneta Avenue (Caracas), near the Miraflores Palace, the President affirmed that the “coup was defeated thanks to the military-civic union of Chavismo.” In addition, he affirmed that in 30 days, Juan Guaidó has not “done anything” and wondered why he did not call elections if he has the power (as mandated by Article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution). He also criticized the opposition for lending itself to an intervention in Venezuela and maintained that Trump hardly wants to collaborate with the country with a “false humanitarian aid”, a pretext to a military intervention. Finally, he announced the breakdown of diplomatic relations with Colombia for lending its territory to attack Venezuela. In this context, he gave a period of 24 hours for the Colombian diplomats to leave the country. The political picture at this moment reflects a chavismo mobilized in Caracas in support of Maduro, while the opposition is scattered in mobilizations in Caracas and Colombia to force the entry of “humanitarian aid”.
Presidente Maduro: Hemos derrotado el golpe de Estado en marcha https://t.co/SateOYblCs #VenezuelaEnDefensaDeLaPaz pic.twitter.com/N2nFLF4n7z
— VTV CANAL 8 (@VTVcanal8) February 23, 2019
- Another false positive and insurrectionist elements (15:50). On the border side of Colombia, two trucks allegedly carrying “humanitarian aid” were torched without further details except for the automatic transfer of blame to the Venezuelan State security forces, in an attempt to create another false positive due to the inconsistency of the reports. On the other side of the border, there are no officials or soldiers of the FANB who could have made such a belligerent action. Also, in La Grita (Táchira state), an insurrectionist group (“peaceful protesters”) took control of a GNB tank, which could be used for other mounts of false flags, as occurred in the city of Caracas a couple of weeks ago with the hijacking of a FAES vehicle, or for terrorist acts against the population and the state security forces.
ÚLTIMA HORA | VIDEO – Régimen de Maduro quema camiones con la ayuda humanitaria en frontera colombo-venezolana que intentaba ingresar a Venezuela https://t.co/IVhjUJvdNf pic.twitter.com/MuGVv0S4B5
— AlbertoNews (@AlbertoRodNews) February 23, 2019
Avanzamos en Boca de la Gritaaaaaa adelante ! pic.twitter.com/Rqrz4C3b85
— CarlosAlbornoz (@CarlosOAlbornoz) February 23, 2019
- New aggression on the Colombian side (16:10). Social networks are already running images of what happened before and after the fires of “humanitarian” trucks: a group of terrorists, with the obvious support of the officials of Migration Colombia, threw blunt objects and Molotov cocktails towards the Venezuelan side, guarded by the FANB. The hypothesis that some bombs could have fallen on the transport in question gains ground, as well as the advance of the confrontation via irregular violence.
- The opposition accuses the government of crimes against humanity and reveals the “thesis” of the armed groups (16:42). The fire of the gandolas in the bridge of Ureña directly has been homologated as a “crime against humanity” and violation of the Geneva Convention, according to the statements of Juan Guaidó. The lack of images about the reasons for the fire, plus the fact that opposition supporters walked with gallons of gasoline near them, shows what could be a false positive to swell the failed state file against Venezuela. In addition, the accusations launched at a press conference by the leader of Voluntad Popular, Juan Andrés Mejía, of the fact that the fire was caused by “armed groups” and members of the PNB. This trend of opinion on the focus of violence is also projected on the clashes in Santa Elena de Uairén,where uniformed men collided with members of the Pemon guard that on Friday had another episode against troops of the GNB.
ÚLTIMA HORA | Juan Andrés Mejía: “Nos estamos jugando el futuro del país. Hemos visto hoy más de 100 manifestaciones pacíficas y coordinadas. Contabilizamos al menos 4 personas asesinadas y 20 heridos en el pueblo pemón” https://t.co/IVhjUJvdNf pic.twitter.com/uEetQqTOlH
— AlbertoNews (@AlbertoRodNews) February 23, 2019
- Opponents attack the deputy Juan Manuel Olivares confusing him with a “colectivo” (18:25). Almost at the close of day in the streets of Colombia, opposition protesters again tried to enter Venezuela with the “humanitarian aid” trucks. The operation, however, was aborted when allegedly violent opponents of the so-called Resistance began to beat a citizen for being “chavista colectivos.” In the middle of this tumult, the deputy Juan Manuel Olivares, who in the Simón Bolívar Bridge was in charge of ordering the offensives from a loudspeaker, was assaulted by opponents after being mistaken for a “colectivo”. The episode is nothing more than a metaphor for a day like today where the inability to introduce the trucks was replaced by a broad media noise, focused on the alleged repression of Chavista paramilitary groups, as they commonly say in this type of context, and the burning of trucks with “humanitarian aid”. Even the deputy Miguel Pizarro in his last speech of the day said that he “would have liked to have reached the end of the day announcing the entry of most humanitarian aid.”
En medio del caos generado por grupos violentos en la frontera colombo-venezolana, José Manuel Olivares es golpeado por gente de su mismo bando. pic.twitter.com/NdvgudtHjn (vía @GotPropaganda)
— Misión Verdad (@Mision_Verdad) February 23, 2019
- Balance of paramilitary violence and the (violent) metamorphosis of “humanitarian volunteers” (20:30). Disarticulated outbreaks of violence in the area near the bridges that connect the Colombian-Venezuelan border, and in Roraima and Santa Elena de Uairén on the southern side, the State Protector Táchira, Freddy Bernal, offered a report on the violence generated by anti-Chavista armed cells at different points. Bernal also made reference to a group of paramilitaries that tried to take the La Grita bridge, in the Táchira state, an action that was repelled by the organized people and REDI in the area. This fact confirms not only the strength of the FANB to dismantle technically organized threats to take strategic points of the border, but also how the metamorphosis of the “humanitarian volunteers” into armed cells was premeditated to achieve the necessary balance of violence that would allow the matrix of “repression of peaceful protesters” to be exported. What emerges from here, as the hours progress, is the use of media manipulation in the field to impose a story of “crimes against humanity” on the Venezuelan State, but also the rapid deterioration of the “civil phase” of the humanitarian aid “with the objective of precipitating conditions towards the shipment of arms, financing and creation of an irregular armed component that takes charge of making “effective” its entry into Venezuelan territory. The political discourse of the opposition actors of the last hours tries to remedy the failure of the operation, demanding a military intervention.
Señala @FreddyBernal que hay 42 venezolanos heridos, dos de bala, hubo tres personas incendiadas vivas y siete efectivos GNB heridos tras los hechos violentos del día de hoy en el estado Táchira. También hay 7 traidores.
— Luigino Bracci Roa (@lubrio) February 23, 2019
- The pretext for a force maneuver (21:00) is set.In a press conference, Colombian President Iván Duque, who represents one of the public figures and leaders of the “humanitarian aid” operation, institutionally reinforces the information operation built in the afternoon with the burning of “humanitarian trucks” located on the Colombian side of the border and guarded by violent opposition cells, who were ultimately responsible for the fact according to the photographic records that abound on social networks. This operation of false flag has sought to impose itself as a symbol and narrative axis of the day, under which the information flows are oriented towards the creation of an express file of alleged violation of human rights and the Geneva Convention, to enable the institutional steps that lead to a humanitarian intervention, from the paradigm of the “responsibility to protect”, which would try to overcome the veto of Russia and China in the UN Security Council. Faced with the failure of the operation, those who manage the war against Venezuela outside its borders (Elliott Abrams, Ivan Duque, John Bolton, Marco Rubio, among others) seem to look for the most crazy and perverse variant to reverse the political and media costs of not having achieved the ingress of “humanitarian aid”. A situation that confirms the improvisation and the action on the emptiness of the operators of the war against Venezuela.
- Guaidó returns to talk about “human costs” and asks the Lima Group to put all options “on the table” (21:15).Visibly angry by the photos that Diosdado Cabello shared of the antichavist bunker today, Guaidó transferred the responsibilities of the “humanitarian operation” failure, reflected in his long face in the photos, to those in Miraflores for “burning food in front of the hungry and medicines for the sick”. His speech, in addition, was directed in this context to project two trends of opinion aimed at establishing an image of force and increase the pressure on the Venezuelan military corps. According to Guaidó, 80% of the Venezuelan military are against Maduro, and his orders to “massacre the Venezuelan people”, both matrices repeated by the deserters as if they are stuffed with them. From this perspective, the Self-Proclaimed one, like Duque, stressed that today was a before and after for the international community in the face of a “dictatorship that sets fire to food and medicines, in addition to repressing its people.” For this, finalizing his statement, he asked the countries of the Lima Group to have “all the options on the table”, and announced that he will be present at the next meeting of the group this Monday in Bogota. This closure shows the failure of the coup 2.0, led by Guaidó, however, the similarity of his statements with those affirmed by Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and Marco Rubio, cast an immediate picture that is quite dangerous. On Friday, Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, launched a complaint that the United States is pressuring the members of the Lima Group to sign a declaration eliminating the figure of a “transition without the use of force.” That, in a week where Guaidó spoke of deaths that are an “investment in the future”, lights up alarms about the until now latest collapse of the failed regime change in Venezuela.
.@CubaMINREX denuncia imposición de #EEUU del texto de una Declaración que emitirá el lunes 25/2 el llamado Grupo de Lima, en presencia de Pence, el cual contiene párrafo 5 que “condena acción deliberada” del gob. de #Venezuela, “en caso no pueda operar canal humanitario” mañana.
— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) February 22, 2019
Translated by JRE/EF
