Venezuelanalysis: Venezuela’s Maduro Grants Pardon to 110 Opposition Figures President Maduro has pardoned more than 100 opposition leaders as the country heads toward parliamentary elections in December. “The intention is to deepen the process of national reconciliation in view of the next electoral process,” Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said in a news conference. The release is likely a product of the negotiations that the government is holding with a sector of the opposition led by Henrique Capriles, twice a presidential candidate.
Orinoco Tribune: “I Understand the Indignation, but I Want Peace”: President Maduro on the Pardon – European Union’s Borrell Welcomes it “I want peace,” Maduro said, referring to the political action that quickly became controversial on social media, among Chavismo and the pro-US Opposition. “I understand the outrage,” he continued, but criticism of the Decree is not going to push us towards participation and the resolution of problems in Venezuela. “I know what I’m doing, like when I called the Constituent Assembly.” Besides taking advantage of the growing divisions among the Opposition and their rejection of Guaido, this should help create the conditions for dividing the Opposition further, win broad electoral participation, and undermine the US attempts to repudiate the elections.
AP: Venezuela opposition leader Henrique Capriles breaks with US-backed Guaidó Henrique Capriles said he’s determined to fight for fair elections on Dec. 6, despite obstacles created by President Maduro. “We aren’t going to hand over the National Assembly to Maduro as a gift — never,” Capriles said. “If he’s going to take anything away from us, he’s going to have to do it by force, which only looks bad for him.” In an hour-long speech live streamed online, Capriles criticized Guaidó without naming him. He said Maduro clearly holds power in Venezuela while opposition lawmakers maintain only an “internet government,” holding online meetings.
Miami Herald: US (Elliot Abrams) tells Venezuelan opposition talk of US military intervention is ‘magical realism’ In a harsh response to the increasing division in the Venezuelan opposition, Abrams said that one opposition leader’s latest comments on a potential American military intervention to solve the country’s crisis reminded him of Gabriel García Márquez’s “magical realism.” In fact, this also increasingly discredits the US using Guaido as a tool, as Guaido’s only hope for Venezuela now lies in US military invasion, which Abrams rules out.
Orinoco Tribune (Pasqualina Curcio): The Productive Engines (I) From 2013 to 2018, production in Venezuela fell 49%, that is, the cake was reduced by half. The Central Bank of Venezuela has not published production information since that year, however, the Economic Commission for Latin America estimated a fall of 25.5% only for the year 2019 and forecasts that it will fall 26% in 2020, which means that at the end of this year and with respect to 2013, the Venezuelan economy will have reduced 72%. In simple terms, if 100 were produced in 2013 in December of this year, only 28 will be produced.
To this situation we must add the fact that not only is the cake smaller, but it has been being distributed more unevenly. In 2014, according to the BCV, the bourgeoisie was left with 31% of the pie and the workers with 36%, let’s not forget that we workers are many more than the bourgeoisie. By 2017, being the smallest cake, the bourgeoisie ate half (49%) and left only 18% to the zillions of workers. We are waiting for the BCV to publish the information for the years 2018 and 2019 to find out who has eaten more or less cake in the last two years.
Middle East Monitor: US seized websites allegedly linked to Iran-Venezuela oil deal
On 14 August, the US Justice Department said it took custody of more than a million barrels of Iranian oil aboard four Greek-owned, Liberia-flagged tankers named the Bella, the Bering, the Luna, and the Pandi. However, it has been reported today that shippers based in the UAE, Oman and UK told a US court that they hold title to the seized vessels. The UAE-based Mobin International said it had purchased all the “petroleum-product” cargoes, chartered the vessels which were heading to Trinidad and Tobago, for sale to customers in Peru and Colombia. The three companies said they had the right to “title, possession, and control” of the cargoes.Both countries are sanctioned by the US which as a result are not allowed to trade oil at all, let alone with each other.
RT: Sanctioned Venezuelan oil exports rise from historic lows thanks to increase in India sales Increased purchases from India boosted Venezuela’s oil exports last month, after they crashed to multi-decade lows under US sanctions. The increase could be short-lived, though, as Washington is threatening to apply more pressure.Almost half of Venezuela’s oil exports are going to India, which imported 216,000 bpd last month, according to the data. The country’s biggest corporation, Reliance Industries, resumed loading Venezuelan crude under a swap deal in June after receiving permission from the US Treasury Department.
NicaNews: Nicaragua Honors Brian Willson with Highest Award “Thirty-three years ago, on a bright sunny September 1st, 1987, I went to the Concord, California, Naval Weapons Station (the Pentagon’s largest storage arsenal on the US West Coast) at about 11 am, with two other military veterans, along with about 50 supporting witnesses. We took our positions to begin our permanent human blockade ON the Station’s railroad tracks. Everyday, locomotives hauled boxcars full of various armaments from the interior storage bunkers on three miles of tracks to be loaded on ships in the Sacramento River. Destination: To murder peasants in El Salvador and Nicaragua, 3,500 miles further south.” see link for whole speech
Upcoming Events
September 6: Venezuela Solidarity Online forum – conversatorio – Fundraising
Representative from Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current
Francisco Dominguez,Venezuela Solidarity Campaign (UK)
Teri Mattson, Code Pink
Eulalia Reyes, coordinator of AVSN Brisbane-Australia.
September 7, 8: New York City Rallies in support of Julian Assange as his Extradition Hearing begins
September 26: Cuban Doctors Speak: 15 years of the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade
Danny Glover and Vijay Prashad host this event celebrating 15 years of the contingent.
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