Venezuela-ALBA Weekly News 9.13.2019: Washington Disrupts Venezuela Negotiations and Increases Pressures on Cuba

In early August, there were rumours a pre-agreement concerning elections was being negotiated by the Maduro government and the opposition in Norway-mediated talks. Then, the United States escalated its sanctions with a new executive order signed by Trump on August 5, freezing all Venezuelan government assets in the US and implementing what some analysts have described as an embargo comparable to that imposed on Cuba over the last half-century.

We don’t know what further sanctions are to come. Washington’s Venezuela strategy has gone from high to medium heat, waiting for a different moment while the country’s economic situation continues to deteriorate. All eyes now turn to what the Maduro government effectively can or cannot do to dribble past the sanctions and their deadly impact on the Venezuelan people.

Ties between Juan Guaido, Venezuela’s opposition, Colombia’s narcos and the US government Colombia’s police confirmed alleged ties between Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and drug trafficking group “Los Rastrojos.” The police department of Cucuta, Colombia’s largest border city, confirmed that Guaido posed with two leaders of the group from Cali that manages drug trafficking routes to Venezuela.

Amazon’s Jack Ryan show Focused on Venezuela Denounced as ‘Over-the-Top and Ridiculous’ US Propaganda No matter how cynical you might be about propagandistic American media, you are not prepared for how much watching this trailer is like snorting 100% pure John Bolton.

President Maduro delivered house number 2,800,000 in the Great Housing Mission Venezuela

The first United Nations Habitat Assembly also recognized Venezuela as one of the top countries to guarantee homes for its citizens.

12 million Venezuelans #NoMoreTrump Petitions against the US Blockade to be Presented to UN The government has collected over 12 million signatures over the past month from Venezuelans who reject the United States’ economic and commercial blockade imposed on Venezuela, making it impossible for the nation to get access to its assets outside the country, or for any other countries to do business with Venezuela.

Bolivia
The future of progress is at stake in the Bolivian October elections
A growing economy and the recent launch of universal healthcare has helped Pres. Evo Morales to gain an 11% advantage over his nearest rival, Carlos Mesa, for president in the elections October 20. However, the lead would leave him falling short of a first-round victory, requiring a second round.

Some right-wing opposition figures plan to disrupt the elections with street violence.

Opposition legislator Rafael Quispe has announced a fresh round of national mobilisations, starting 10 days before the elections take place, saying: “On October 10, the march will progressively begin so that the elections are not held or held without the fake candidate … because Evo and Alvaro cannot stay in power.”

Cuba
Increased US Blockade forces Cuba to take contingency measures
Due to the harsh actions taken by Washington to choke the Cuban economy, the island has been unable to receive lately oil supplies, causing shortages of fuels and hurting transportation. Cuba will prioritize a strict use of diesel in public and cargo transportation and temporarily reduce economic activity in productive sectors which are big diesel consumers and centralized fuel allocation.

2nd US-Cuba Agricultural Business Conference Starts in Havana
The co-president of the United States-Cuba Agricultural Coalition, Paul Johnson, the organization that sponsors the conference, recognized in the opening the difficult times in which the links between both countries go through, ‘but I have optimism about the work we have been doing to improve these links’.

British trade unions reiterate solidarity with Cuba CTC Leader Denounces US Blockade at TUC Congress in the UK

Spanish Court Throws out Helms Burton III Lawsuit against Meliá Hotels
“The blockade and big-stick laws are destined to fail. We will continue to promote foreign investment to support Cuba’s economic development,” tweeted Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, minister of Foreign Trade and Investment after a Spanish judge issued a hold on a lawsuit filed by the Sánchez-Hill family seeking compensation from Meliá Hotels International, the first ruling by a European court since the activation of the U.S. Helms-Burton Act’s Title III.

Twitter massively censors Cuban Twitter Accounts
The Twitter accounts of Cuban President Diaz-Canel and of Mariela Castro, director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) were blocked by Twitter yesterday, among many other accounts. This was just before a televised speech given by President Diaz-Canel, where he and other government officials outlined the response to the intensification of the U.S. economic warfare against the country. The accounts include Granma, Mesa Redonda, CubaDebate, Radio Rebelde, and accounts of many Cuban journalists. As is typical when Twitter suspends users, all of them were blocked on the specious grounds of “violating Twitter rules”, without any justification of that false claim.

Nicaragua
Nicaragua’s Reply to the Report of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights at the UN Human Rights Council
Fake news against Nicaragua, including publications are retransmitted by the report without verification, such as the alleged disproportionate use of force, extrajudicial executions, torture and rape in detention centers, among others. All of which is not true. Throughout the report, acts of terrorism, murder, torture, kidnapping, rape, theft with intimidation, arson, extortion and other cases of organized crime, arbitrary and illegal use of weapons of all kinds (including weapons of war), perpetrated by so called “peaceful protesters” from the more than 1,300 roadblocks that paralyzed the country and hampered even the free international transportation of people and vehicles, affecting the population, and in particular the most vulnerable sectors: women, children, and sick people, as well as against members of the National Police, Public Officials and Sandinista sympathizers, are deliberately omitted.

NicaNotes: Green-smearing from Nicaragua to Bolivia, & News Briefs
The timing of the fires in Bolivia’s Amazon is extremely propitious from the perspective of the US authorities and their allies. It takes almost two months for the effects to wear off of the initial psy-warfare bitzkrieg of the kind waged against Nicaragua in 2018 and against Brazil’s Worker’s Party as part of Jair Bolsonaro’s successful 2018 election campaign that same year. Bolivia will almost certainly experience the same kind of psy-warfare assault via social media prior to the October elections.

Events
Asheville, NC Sept. 19 Dan Kovalik presents The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil
Toronto Sept 27: Dan Kovalik and Arnold August – US-Venezuela-Cuba-Canada, the Geopolitics
California October tour of Margaret Flowers, Kevin Zeese, Embassy Protectors
Halifax, Oct 31-Nov. 2: The Cuban Revolution at 60 International Conference

Delegations
National Network on Cuba delegation to November Solidarity Conference
African Awareness Association tour to Cuba for November Solidarity Conference
Cuba: Building Relations with Cuban Labor: November 2019 Trip to Cuba
Cuba with Code Pink December 14-18/21
Calixto Garcia Solidarity Brigade December 1-14, 2019
Organic Growers Ass Cuba Agroecology Tour, January 7-16