South American Politics thread - Page 30

We have more than 59 hours of videos from more than 7 meetings by the terrorists” said Rodriguez, who then proceeded to play leaked recordings of phone calls and meetings between opposition figures in which they discussed the logistics of carrying new violent attacks, and their liaisons with foreign groups.

One revelation was that former military figures discussed the need to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro, along with his wife Cilia Flores and President of the National Constituent Assembly Diosdado Cabello

Another detail revealed was the high level of cooperation between coup plotters and foreign armed groups, namely from Panama and Israel. One former army general, known as "Simón" is said to be the go-between for the Israelis. In one call the Israelis cooperating with them were referred to as “those of the holy land”.

As Rodriguez concluded the press conference he listed those who have been detained for their involvement in the coup and published the identities of those who are still in connection to it. The minister said that one of them, José Gregorio Valladares, was known as a torturer and drug trafficker during the neoliberal period, he also asked the public for information on the whereabouts of Ilich Sanchez Farias, a senior military figure who is wanted for involvement in the April 30th coup, and was recorded calling for the murder of Cuban doctors in Venezuela.

Thursday’s press conference was a follow up to one that took place on Wednesday that exposed the deep divisions among the opposition during the most recent coup attempt. One revelation was that a faction of military officers was secretly plotting to declare former general Baduel rather than Juan Guaido as the self-declared ‘President’ were the coup to have been successful.

Tapachula, Mexico - Maical Garcia carried almost no belongings when he fled Honduras earlier this month. Once in Mexico, he contacted relatives to ask for a copy of his father's death certificate, a case linked to the death threats that forced him to flee years later.

Garcia's father, Jose Luis Garcia Manueles, was a primary school teacher and part-time local radio correspondent in Marcala, a town in western Honduras. The political climate was tense in early 2009, but Garcia Manueles aired contentious local perspectives on politics and allegations of political corruption in town, his son said.

"He received telephone threats and messages left on his vehicle, telling him to stop the [radio] programme," Maical Garcia, 28, told Al Jazeera.

"He never stopped working. He never thought it would cost him his life," he said.

On May 19, 2009, Garcia Manueles was shot in the head. His body was dumped along a road out of town.

His family was in mourning the following month when the Honduran military overthrew elected President Manuel Zelaya, who had gradually shifted somewhat to the left while in office. Politicians from both main political parties, including Zelaya's, closed ranks behind the military, instating a civilian de facto government pending elections.

Friday marks the anniversary of the June 28, 2009 coup d'etat that set in motion a decade of political crises, violence, mass protests, militarisation and repression. Ten years later, the government of President Juan Orlando Hernandez has instituted a crackdown on protesters, and Hondurans continue to flee by the thousands every month.

On June 30 2019 00:37 JimmiC wrote:
Estimates are now that migration will hit 8 million!!! which makes it more than Syria, yikes.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/oas-venezuela-migration-largest-world-2020-190628174012682.html

On June 30 2019 02:48 JimmiC wrote:



That gets super complicated considering that they have two people claiming to be president and the one in control of the army will not allow aid. And the other one has no control and now also has some corruption swirling around his people so it is even murkier. At least the US is fighting this with economy instead of bombs. The Venezuelans I know still want the US and rest of the world to continue down this path as they feel Maduro will never do right by the people but time will tell.

On June 30 2019 04:34 JimmiC wrote:


They are not contrarian to "ourselves". They have a leader who has destroyed their democracy stolen from his people and ruined the countries economy before the sanctions. Perhaps do some actual research instead of jumping on the "must be bad because Murcia is involved" plan. Over 2 million had left pre-sanctions. It is hard to even say how much the sanctions are effecting the people since almost no money made it to them anyway. Perhaps you believe in full isolationism and letting everyone sort everything else out themselves and North Korean would be a oasis if not for the evil hand of the west. I don't believe that, I don't believe in "socialism" where the leaders are somehow billionaires.

If you could let me know how you think the western world should treat a dictatorship who stole the democracy from the country and won't allow free elections, arrests and tortures any one who disagrees with him, leaves his people to starve while him and the other oligarchs get ultra rich, let me know.

On June 30 2019 06:57 JimmiC wrote:


It is funny that you are offended by "making guesses" when this is exactly what you did to me. Feel free to pretend to be so offended that you can't explain yourself but you should then at least not do the exact same thing.

I'd agree they have not been effective, which is why I asked what you would do. So far it appears that the only options are do nothing, economic sanctions, or war. I prefer the second though if there is something better I'd be interested.

I generally disagree with the US foreign policy, and if they had replaced Maduro with their own dictator I wouldn't have been happy. I also think it is despicable when they replace democracies with their own choice for economic benefit. Neither has happened here, and basically every democracy that has "picked a side" has not picked Maduro, and basically every dictatorship has.

On July 01 2019 00:12 Godwrath wrote:
Might be that your comment about "atleast they are not bombing it" were in tongue in cheek, but from most of your posts i took that you are not against the sanctions (or atleast your position has been "what else can we do?", which is something i find facepalm worthy). If that isn't true, i apologize.

My opinion on how to deal with Venezuela doesn't differ from a openess strategy, most likely because that's how most democracies had been successfully installed. Commerce, tourism and migration would help way more to change the lifestyle expectations from a good chunk of Venezuelans than crushing their hopes through sanctions if they don't revolt and start a civil war, which they might not win and would still be catastrophic to the country.

We can blame Maduro for not stepping down, but from there the international community (and more specifically the US) shouldn't bring pain to regular citizens which are the ones that will suffer the most through these sanctions, just to give the aesthethic that they are punishing the regime, which in return gets into a better position to entrench itself even further.

The United States has continued to support successive administrations in Honduras, even though elections have been biased by vote buying, fraud, and assassinations. The United States sends the Honduran military and police aid even though these security forces have been ordered to beat and shoot non-violent protesters and there are credible allegations of death squads formed to assassinate journalists and citizens working for social change. One of these citizens was the well-known environmental activist Berta Cáceres. No one is held accountable for these crimes.

The 10 years since the (US supported) coup have resulted in increasing poverty, privatization of social goods keeping services out of the reach of the poor, violence from both drug cartels and state security forces against Honduran citizens, human and civil rights violations, corruption, and a dramatic increase of refugee migration fleeing the country, many to the United States. Almost 70 percent of Hondurans live in poverty, and Honduras now has the most uneven wealth distribution in Latin America.