Compilation image showing Venezuelan Journalist Diego Sequera (Left) and US Regime Leader Donald Trump (Right). Photo: MintPress News.
It is a monumental act of war. After being kidnapped and flown to the United States, President NicolĂĄs Maduro has pled not guilty to spurious drugs charges in New York â even as U.S. government documents admit that Venezuela is not a major drugs producer, and prosecutors concede that Maduroâs supposed Cartel of the Suns never existed.
Moreover, Trumpâs star key witness, former Venezuelan Gen. Hugo âEl Polloâ Carvajal, is a deeply compromised figure. Once a senior official in military intelligence, Carvajal has long been frozen out of power in Venezuela, and became a vocal supporter of U.S.-backed, self-proclaimed president, Juan GuaidĂł. Moreover, Carvajal himself pled guilty to narcotics charges, with The Miami Herald reporting that he had truck a plea deal which would grant him âa considerable sentence reduction if he provides âsubstantial assistanceâ to US investigationsâ â i.e., to lie in the service of the American government.
Joining MintPress Newsâ Mnar Adley today to talk about the trial, the kidnapping, and the response inside Venezuela is Diego Sequera. Diego is a writer and journalist based in Caracas, whose work you can find in Spanish and English at MisionVerdad.com.
Despite videos circulating on social media (many of which have been produced by A.I.) Sequera noted that the United Statesâ blatant act of aggression is not playing well in Venezuela, with more liberal opposition sectors rejecting the move as an act of imperial violence. Millions of people have come out on the streets to demand the return of Maduro and his First Lady, Cilia Flores.
Venezuela has been in the United Statesâ crosshairs since the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez. Chavez proposed that Venezuela could choose an alternative path to that of âsavage capitalism,â and began reorientating the countryâs economy towards the needs of the people. Under Chavez, poverty and unemployment were halved, and extreme poverty fell by 75%. The undernourished population fell from 3.8 million to virtually zero by 2012. Chavezâs United Socialist Party built schools and free healthcare clinics across the country, and UNESCO declared Venezuela illiteracy free in 2005.
Venezuela: Communes Are on the Frontline in Defense of the Bolivarian Revolution
Over the past decade, however, the United States has carried out a campaign of economic warfare against the country, strangling Venezuela and bringing it to its knees. Now, it wishes to finish the job off.
Trumpâs actions are rapidly eroding international law, a concept which he said today that he âdoesnât needâ anymore. He has also stated that Colombian president Gustavo Petro is ânextâ in line for regime change. âColombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And heâs not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you,â he stated, adding that a military operation against Petro âsounds goodâ to him. In recent days, Trump has also noted that Cuba looks âready to fall,â and that the United States intends to annex Greenland.
Corporate media has steadfastly supported Trumpâs decision to kidnap a democratically-elected head of state. Yet the reality inside Venezuela is very different to the one we are being presented, argues Sequera.
Donât miss this unique opportunity to hear a first-hand account from the heart of the action.
Mnar Adley
Mnar Adley is founder, CEO and editor in chief of MintPress News, and is also a regular speaker on responsible journalism, sexism, neoconservativism within the media and journalism start-ups. She started her career as an independent multimedia journalist covering Midwest and national politics while focusing on civil liberties and social justice issues posting her reporting and exclusive interviews on her blog MintPress, which she later turned MintPress into the global news source it is today. In 2009, Adley also became the first American woman to wear the hijab to anchor/report the news in American media. Contact Mnar at mnar@mintpressnews.com. Follow Mnar on Twitter at @mnarmuh
