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thedailyecho--2019-11-29--Ex Chandler's Ford teacher to host free maths workshops across Hampshire

thedailyecho

Ex Chandler's Ford teacher to host free maths workshops across Hampshire

AN EX teacher based in Chandler's Ford is offering free parent maths workshops to help tackle the "mental block" many kids have with the subject. Caroline Cutress is the founder of Boost Maths Tuition, who have been helping hundreds of children and parents make the subject more engaging for more than 12 years. Now the company is looking to expand further into Hampshire, and is offering free parent maths workshops to schools in the county, which aims to give parents some encouragement and inspiration in providing fun ways to help children with Maths at home without the children noticing. Caroline said: "Most parents don’t know where to start with their child’s Maths, but I’m here to show them that they can sneak so much Maths in, without their child even noticing. Even if a parent knows the whole Maths curriculum, children rarely accept formal help from a parent, but there are dozens of ways to help without the child even realising they are doing Maths! I am really keen to spread the Maths-joy in homes around Hampshire whilst helping local schools in the process." The free workshops will include methods of how to deal with maths anxiety, dozens of examples of fun and practical activities that parents can do with their children without them even noticing, and tips on how to deal with stressful maths homework situations. Schools can apply for a visit or find out more by visiting boostmaths.co.uk/schools.

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/18068491.ex-chandlers-ford-teacher-host-free-maths-workshops-across-hampshire/?ref=rss

Fri, 29 Nov 2019 05:07:01 +0000

science and technology

mathematics

thedailymirror--2019-08-03--Mathematician explains tricky maths question thats been dividing the Internet

thedailymirror

Mathematician explains tricky maths question that's been dividing the Internet

A mathematician has provided an explanation to a simple maths question that has left thousands of Twitter users across the globe baffled. The algebra equation was first posted by a user under the handle @pjmdoll, who challenged people to solve: 8÷2(2+2)=? Alongside she shared an anime scene from popular Japanese manga Naruto with the equation on the blackboard. More than 14,000 people have liked her tweet and thousands replied with their answers - although not everyone agreed. The maths problem has divided people into two groups with some claiming the answer is one and others 16. Hannah Fry, an associate professor in the Mathematics of Cities at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London, spoke to the Mail Online about the mind-boggling question. Hannah, who has written two popular maths books, said the way the question was written leaves 'room for ambiguity' over the answer. She explained: "The (2+2) in brackets is easy enough to deal with - it's equal to four. But then what does the rest of the equation mean? Is it 8÷(2x4)=1? Or is it (8÷2)x4=16? "This is like a maths version of the sentence 'He fed her cat food'. Does it mean the man gave some food to a cat? Or he fed some cat food to a woman. "It's impossible to tell from the information we've been given." The 35-year-old mathematician said it would be clear if the equation was written using fractions instead of division, or obelus, symbol. In conclusion, Hannah said both one and 16 are correct answers and it's just 'depends on how you interpret it'.

mirrornews@mirror.co.uk (Tiffany Lo)

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/mathematician-explains-tricky-maths-question-18820817

2019-08-03 01:14:27+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

theguardianuk--2019-02-11--Girls just wanna do maths - and the women who help them

theguardianuk

Girls just wanna do maths - and the women who help them

“I used to think boys were just better at maths,” said Linah. “But now, it’s like, we go to the same school, we do the same subjects – so if you can do it, I can do it.” There’s a reason for the renewed confidence in the 15-year-old from Dagenham and it’s sitting next to her in a swanky office in the City of London. Elaine McLoughlin is a business control manager for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. She is also a volunteer tutor on a programme to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds and get more girls studying sciences at top universities. “[Maths] used to be one of my favourite subjects but over the years I’ve gone into autopilot,” said Linah, who lives with her two sisters, her mum, who works as a carer and her dad, who is between jobs. “I would freak out if I didn’t understand a topic in class but now I know we can go over it here.” Since last year, her predicted GCSE maths grade at Lister community school in Newham has jumped from a 4 (the equivalent of a C), to a 7 (equivalent to an A). “Practice makes perfect so it’s going back and looking back at those topics that she’s no longer studying in class,” said McLoughlin. In many ways, Linah is archetypal of her age group: she counts editing Instagram photos for friends among her hobbies and is relieved at getting to skip an extra physics class in order to be interviewed on a Friday evening. She has hopes, though, to attend one of the top-tier UK universities to study forensic psychology. Visiting McLoughlin’s office each week is a source of inspiration. Linah said: “I thought it was going to be really intimidating but you walk in and feel like you’re a different person. You see people who have their lives together and you’re like: ‘I’m so gonna be like that guy’, even if you don’t know what their job is.” Although the divide is steadily shrinking, there is still a gender gap within Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. Women make up 14.4% of people working in Stem professions in the UK, which falls far short of the country’s goal of 30%. On top of this, Britain’s booming private tuition sector, worth an estimated £2bn, is making the playing field even less level for disadvantaged children. Last July, an annual survey by The Sutton Trust revealed that 27% of secondary students in England and Wales have had home or private tuition. The figure rises to 41% in London. The Access Project, founded by teacher Alex Kelly in 2008, works to address this inequality in 28 schools. It has more than 1,000 tutors supporting 1,250 students across London and the Midlands. To Mcloughlin, who graduated with a maths and economics degree from University College Dublin and revises Linah’s topics over the weekend and offers her ad-hoc career guidance, diversifying the workforce is about more than equality. “Having more women on board and more diverse teams leads to more successful output,” she said, adding that her boss is a working mum who has “turned a lot of things around”. There is a stigma attached to Stem for women, according to Karishma Honap, 23, an assistant engineer at WSP and Access Project tutor in Birmingham. In the engineering sector, fewer than 9% of professionals are women. “When I applied to do engineering everyone was sort of like: ‘Oh, don’t guys do that? That’s rare for a girl,’” she said. But, according to her student, Melissa, a year 10 pupil at Wood Green Academy in Wednesbury, in the West Midlands, mindsets are already shifting. The 15-year-old says there’s a 50-50 split between boys and girls in her triple science class, despite the fact that the percentage of female A-level physics students has stagnated at about 21% for the past decade. Although she’s always enjoyed science at school, since starting physics mentoring with Honap in October, Melissa’s confidence has blossomed. “I know if I was falling back a bit, I’ve got someone who will support me and understand what I’m facing,” she said. Melissa, who lives in Wednesbury with her mum, a retail assistant, her younger brother and stepdad, wants to study at Oxford University. She will visit the campus with the charity next week. There’s still a way to go, including finishing her GCSEs and starting A-levels before she can apply but in some ways it feels like doors are already being opened to spaces she isn’t accustomed to. When she visits Honap at the Mailbox, an upmarket shopping and office development in Birmingham’s city centre, which she hasn’t visited since she was eight, she feels welcomed. “I was nervous to begin with but now I find it cool how the receptionist knows my name, knows who to contact and just tells me to carry on up to the office,” she added. This article is part of a series on possible solutions to some of the world’s most stubborn problems. What else should we cover? Email us at theupside@theguardian.com

Amy Walker

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/11/access-all-areas-the-tutoring-scheme-for-underprivileged-kids

2019-02-11 06:00:10+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

theindependent--2019-03-14--Can you answer these maths questions aimed at 11-year-olds

theindependent

Can you answer these maths questions aimed at 11-year-olds?

This week a study found that children with maths anxiety are experiencing feelings of rage and despair when faced with sums According to Cambridge University researchers, this emotional response to the subject causes emotional suffering and behavioural problems among pupils. The study of nearly 2,000 British and 1,000 Italian school children found that a general feeling that maths was more difficult than other subjects strongly contributed to this anxiety. The students surveyed also often discussed the role that their teachers and parents played in their development of maths anxiety. Below are a selection of questions from a UK Key Stage Two national curriculum maths exam, typically taken at age 11. Could you pass the test?

Emma Snaith

https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/puzzles-and-games/quizzes/maths-quiz-year-six-key-stage-two-primary-school-a8821441.html

2019-03-14 00:07:27+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

theirishtimes--2019-07-04--What did the Romans ever do for maths Very little

theirishtimes

What did the Romans ever do for maths? Very little

The ancient Romans developed many new techniques for engineering and architecture. The citizens of Rome enjoyed fountains, public baths, central heating, underground sewage systems and public toilets. All right, but apart from sanitation, medicine, education, irrigation, roads and aqueducts, what did the Romans ever do for maths? It might be thought that the great Roman works of engineering and architecture required advanced mathematical understanding and achievement. However, this is a false view. The reality is that, in relation to mathematics, the Roman contribution amounted to essentially nothing. The Romans were disinterested in speculative or logical investigation. They regularly applied simple mathematics to solve practical problems. They also needed elementary arithmetic for surveying and for managing trade and taxes, but they were satisfied with rules-of-thumb that called for little in the way of understanding of the great body of theoretical Greek scholarship. Any educated person asked to name a mathematician of the ancient world would have no difficulty. Certainly Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes are universally familiar, even to people without any knowledge of their work. But they are all Greek. The Wikipedia list of Greek mathematicians names nearly 100 ancient mathematicians from the Hellenic world. There is no corresponding list for ancient Rome. Greek mathematicians continued under the rule of the Roman Republic and later in the days of the Empire, but there were no noteworthy native Roman mathematicians. There is not a single name from the Roman Empire worthy to stand alongside the great mathematicians of Greece. Roman engineers and military technologists were interested only in simple mathematics that was essential for solving practical problems. Curiously, they took little interest in Greek trigonometry, which could have been of great value in surveying, engineering and astronomy. They were oblivious to the beauties of theoretical mathematics and geometry that were so highly valued by the Greeks. The creation of the Roman calendar organised by Julius Caesar, which included a leap day every four years in a 365-day annual cycle, involved some tricky mathematics. But it was a Greek astronomer, Sosigenes of Alexandria, who carried out the design. His scheme stood for 1,500 years until it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar used in modern times. Boethius, a philosopher and statesman who lived around the end of the Empire, has been described as one of the foremost mathematicians of ancient Rome, but this says little. He wrote textbooks on the four mathematical branches of the liberal arts, but they were no more than elementary summaries of earlier Greek classics. His Geometry comprised only statements of the simpler theorems of Euclid’s Elements, without any proofs. His works on Arithmetic, Astronomy and Music were little better. Nevertheless, these books had widespread influence and were used extensively in medieval monastic schools, including the Irish monasteries. Cassiodorus and Isidore of Seville, contemporaries of Boethius, also wrote mathematics books, but neither contributed anything original. During the Second Punic War, the city of Syracuse was besieged by the Romans. The great geometer Archimedes, who lived there, invented ingenious war machines to hurl stones, hooks to smash the Roman ships and mirrors to set fire to them. Alas, when the city was sacked in 212 BC, Archimedes was slain by a Roman soldier. The murder of Archimedes was perhaps the most profound impact of the Roman civilization on mathematics. Peter Lynch is emeritus professor at UCD School of Mathematics & Statistics, – he blogs at thatsmaths.com

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/what-did-the-romans-ever-do-for-maths-very-little-1.3940438

2019-07-04 00:00:00+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

theirishtimes--2019-09-07--Literacy campaign launched to help adults with reading and maths

theirishtimes

Literacy campaign launched to help adults with reading and maths

A campaign aimed at Irish adults who have difficulty with reading or maths will be launched by the National Adult Literacy Agency (Nala) at the weekend to mark Unesco International Literacy Day. One in six, or 550,000 Irish adults, find reading and understanding everyday texts difficult. They may struggle to read a leaflet, bus timetable or medicine instructions, and this affects how they communicate or fail to communicate with the people they need to reach. Speaking about the campaign, Emilie Pine, author and associate professor of modern drama at University College Dublin, said she was passionate about adult literacy. “I think it is a fundamental right and everyone should have the right to read and write. It is essential for life,” she said. “And I think it’s really brave of adults to go back and take the first step into their local adult education centre.” Nala has linked up with the Education and Training Boards Ireland and Solas, the Further Education and Training Authority, to help adult learners improve their skills in reading, writing, maths and technology. Andrew Brownlee, chief executive of Solas, said literacy, numeracy and digital skills are fundamental to employability. “The campaign is designed to raise awareness about Ireland’s skills needs and to ensure that our population are equipped to progress at pace with our changing environment,” he said. The campaign encourages adults who have literacy or numeracy difficulties to contact a Freephone support line, 1800-202065, to free text LEARN to 50050 or to contact their local Education and Training Board to avail of the service. Once they make contact, Nala will put them in touch with their local Education Training Board (ETB) adult education centre or tell them about other free services to meet their needs. Currently in Ireland there are about 63,000 adults attending literacy courses in ETB adult education centres nationwide.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/literacy-campaign-launched-to-help-adults-with-reading-and-maths-1.4010310

2019-09-07 00:00:00+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

theirishtimes--2019-09-11--Most secondary school girls face confidence gap over science technology and maths

theirishtimes

Most secondary school girls face ‘confidence gap’ over science, technology and maths

Many secondary school girls face an “information and confidence gap” over so-called Stem subjects such as science, technology, engineering and maths, according to a new survey. Some 64 per cent of girls say they don’t know enough about Stem , while 26 per cent of students say here are easier ways of getting CAO points than choosing to study Stem. The findings are based on a survey of more than 3,000 girls at second level conducted by I Wish, an organisation that seeks to promote Stem careers to female students. Caroline O’Driscoll, one of the founding members of I Wish, said that sharing information, role models and empowering girls to be confident in their choices were key to closing the gap for girls in Stem. “Year on year, the girls tell us that they want a career where they can help other people, or change the world for the better,” said Ms O’Driscoll, who is a tax partner with Deloitte. “Yet with 64 per cent of them telling us they do not know enough about Stem, they don’t see how Stem can facilitate that.” Ms O’Driscoll said students were losing out, as well as the needs of the wider economy. “We are limiting their choices, limiting their chances to follow their dreams and the world loses an extraordinary talent opportunity,” she said. “We need to change that narrative. We need to equip teachers and students with knowledge, give them access to female role models who have blazed their own trail. We need to better empower girls, to give them the confidence and support to break down stereotypes and misconceptions, to be the generation of change.” Ms O’Driscoll said there were “many amazing women in Stem” involved in world-changing projects who could inspire the next generation of leaders. I Wish has been operating since 2015 and holds showcase events in Dublin and Cork. The organisation says registration is now open for secondary schools across Ireland to attend its 2020 I Wish showcases which will take place in City Hall Cork and the RDS early next year.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/most-secondary-school-girls-face-confidence-gap-over-science-technology-and-maths-1.4015256

2019-09-11 19:12:22+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

theirishtimes--2019-12-05--Particle physics gives maths potentially powerful new tool

theirishtimes

Particle physics gives maths potentially powerful new tool

Although abstract in character, mathematics has concrete origins: the greatest advances have been inspired by the natural world. Recently, a new result in linear algebra was discovered by three physicists trying to understand the behaviour of neutrinos. Neutrinos are subatomic particles that interact only weakly with matter, so that they pass easily through a wall, the Earth or a star. The American poet John Updike described them beautifully in his poem Cosmic Gall: Neutrinos, they are very small. / They have no charge and have no mass/ And do not interact at all./ The earth is just a silly ball/ To them, through which they simply pass, / Like dustmaids down a drafty hall/ Or photons through a sheet of glass. Neutrinos are produced in vast numbers within the sun, and trillions pass harmlessly through our bodies every second. Almost nothing can stop them. Dune (the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) aims to unlock the mysteries of neutrinos. This international experiment will use particle accelerators to send an intense beam of high-energy neutrinos from Fermilab in Illinois 800 miles through the earth to massive detectors a mile below ground in South Dakota. The experiment may lead to life-saving applications in medicine and could change our understanding of the universe. Neutrinos come in three “flavours”, and can switch suddenly from one form to another as they travel at close to the speed of light. Recently, three physicists, Peter Denton, Stephen Parke and Xining Zhang, studying these sudden changes, stumbled upon a new algebraic identity. The mathematical description of how neutrinos interact with matter involves square arrays of numbers called matrices. Every matrix has a set of characteristic numbers called eigenvalues; and along with each eigenvalue goes a direction in space called an eigenvector. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors turn up in a wide range of contexts. Operations that stretch, shrink, shear, reflect or rotate objects in a linear way are described by matrices. The eigenvectors give the directions that remain unchanged under transformation, and the eigenvalues determine the change of length or angle of rotation. The physicists noticed that the eigenvectors of their matrices could be expressed as combinations of the eigenvalues. Since the latter are much easier to calculate than the former, the new identity provides a powerful tool. It applies to symmetric matrices, known as Hermitian, after French mathematician Charles Hermite. The formula gives the eigenvectors in terms of the eigenvalues of the matrix and of sub-matrices called minors. The background mathematics has been studied for centuries, and the physicists felt sure that the result must already be known. But they could not find it anywhere in the literature so they contacted a world-leading mathematician, Terence Tao at the University of California, Los Angeles. Tao responded within hours that he had never seen the result, and included in his email three independent proofs of the formula. The result has already benefited the study of neutrinos. Tao is confident that it will be important elsewhere too. He is quoted in the online magazine Quanta as saying: “It’s so pretty that I’m sure it will have some use in the near future.” Peter Lynch is emeritus professor at the school of mathematics and statistics at University College Dublin. He blogs at thatsmaths.com

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/particle-physics-gives-maths-potentially-powerful-new-tool-1.4095391

Thu, 5 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

science and technology

mathematics

theirishtimes--2019-12-17--Ask Brian: My son is struggling with primary school maths. How can I help?

theirishtimes

Ask Brian: My son is struggling with primary school maths. How can I help?

My son is in fourth class in our local primary school and is struggling with maths. I help him with his homework, but try not to end up doing the work for him. Are you aware of any maths resources which I could get him to engage with to support the work his teacher is doing in class? This is an age-old question and one that all parents and teachers face. Trying to manage the learning of your child or in the case of teachers, up to thirty children in a classroom, whose comprehension of maths and other core competencies are varied, is no easy task. There is a wide range of online content from websites from all over the world available to parents and teachers , supporting the acquisition of mathematical skills by students of all ages. However, very few are linked to the Irish curriculum, thus making it difficult to marry the work undertaken by the teacher in the classroom with relevant online maths support material which will work effectively alongside parental support at home in the evenings. As I have stated above, in a classroom of 30 students, a busy teacher is striving to identify and intervene when students are struggling with lessons or strands within lessons. It is the essence of the skill of teaching. The very basis of all good teaching requires you to be able to assess a student’s knowledge. Unless you do so effectively, you really don’t know who has internalised your lesson and who hasn’t. There are some maths resources for primary pupils online, such as Scoilnet (www.scoilnet.ie) and the PDST (www.pdst.ie/Mathematics). They are worth checking out, although these are aimed more at teachers. I recently came across the work of one Irish company, Kildare-based “Achieve Online Learning” (www.aoll.ie), who have developed an online tool to support the teaching of the maths curriculum at primary level. This is aimed specifically at pupils (there may be others, though I’m not aware of them). It has a section called A+Maths which includes online assessments (automated marking) which produce reports, allowing parents or teachers to understand and assist the student with strand units they may be struggling with, and thus closely monitor the child’s progress. The programme is designed specifically for students from second to sixth class with lots of maths questions available in both English and Irish. It is linked directly to the Irish curriculum, written by Irish teachers and each lesson is linked with page references to the Irish maths primary school curriculum. The programme provides teachers and you as a parent with the tools you need to apply early intervention and assisted learning for your son, using engaging interactive lessons, and is available in both Irish and English. Significantly, from a school’s perspective, A+ Maths is eligible for funding under the Department of Education digital strategy fund for schools 2019-2020. If your son’s school doesn’t use the A+Maths software package, the company provides free trial, after which it costs €5 a month. The Irish version has been partially funded by Foras na Gaeilge and “An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta & Gaelscolaíochta” and is one of the very few websites supporting online maths through Irish.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/ask-brian-my-son-is-struggling-with-primary-school-maths-how-can-i-help-1.4109344

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

science and technology

mathematics

thepoke--2019-04-12--This maths teacher gives his pupils hilarious bonus questions and we wish theyd taught us

thepoke

This maths teacher gives his pupils hilarious bonus questions and we wish they’d taught us

Well here’s a way of making maths more interesting, a teacher who includes a bonus question on exam papers to keep students focussed all the way until the end. Well, that or they forget about the maths questions entirely and just skip to the last bit (but let’s assume they don’t do that). Here are eight brilliant examples, as highlighted by the good people of twentytwowords. We really, really wish theyhad been our maths teacher. This one wasn’t them, but we like this one too.

John Plunkett

https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2019/04/12/maths-teacher-gives-pupils-hilarious-bonus-questions-wish-hed-taught-us/

2019-04-12 12:30:24+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

thesun--2019-01-31--MH370 Brit mathematician calculates crash site with underwater sound waves but claims key data f

thesun

MH370 – Brit mathematician calculates ‘crash site’ with underwater sound waves but claims key data from US defence facility is ‘missing’

A BRITISH mathematician said he has calculated the MH370 crash site with underwater sound waves but claims key data is "missing" from a US defence facility. The Malaysian Airlines jet vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 - and has yet to be found. Dr Usama Kadri, a professor at Cardiff University, said he has been able to identify two possible locations of where the missing plane crashed into the water. One is closer to Madagascar and the other is further north in the Indian Ocean than the search has covered so far, News.com.au reports. He used data from underwater microphones he says picked up sound waves from the plane's impact in the water - although 25 minutes of recordings has mysteriously gone missing. Dr Kadri,whose work focuses on physical oceanography and wave power harnessing , explained that when an object hits the water the surface waves get smaller and smaller until they are no longer visible. The waves do keep travelling through the water and even though they can no longer be seen the “acoustic-gravity waves” can travel for thousands of kilometres without disruption. He added that these waves are “carrying vital information on the source of the impact, before dissipating.” When the flight carrying 239 people crashed into the Indian Ocean, three underwater microphones called hydrophones were active. One of them, called HA08s, is at US bomber base Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Archipelago, in the Indian Ocean. Dr Kadri says there is 25 minutes of missing data from that hydrophone that is unexplained. He wrote in an article: “The locations of signals found using HA08s data do come with high uncertainty but still require further detailed and careful analysis. “Unfortunately, on top of the noisy recorded signals, 25 minutes of data from HA08s is missing. “The signals we have analysed indicate that the there was a 25-minute shutdown that has gone unexplained by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation, which is responsible for the hydrophone stations.” Some experts have claimed that rogue pilot Zaharie Amad Shah deliberately crashed the jet in a “suicide mission”, killing all 239 people on board. And now Victor Iannello, who works for the Independent Group (IG) - which is assisting Australian officials search for the missing plane – is supporting this theory. In a report that has used civilian radar data, he says that Shah may have used a particular flight path to deceive radar operators into believing the plane was planning to land at Penang Airport. Mr Iannello created a flight simulation in order to better understand the route taken. But despite experts’ observations, the Malaysian government, which has signed a “no find, no fee” deal with Texas-based company Ocean Infinity to resume the hunt for the plane, remains silent on the question of Zaharie’s possible involvement. Ocean Infinity started the search on January 22 this year, following a previous failed £111million search for the plane. At the time, experts said they expected to have answers within a matter of weeks. The company has 90 search days to look for the plane, which has been spread over several months. Officials said there was roughly an 85 per cent chance of finding traces of the wreckage in a new 15,000 square mile search area. The investigation is expected to end in mid-June and many people fear MH370 may never be found. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.

Alahna Kindred

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8319826/mh370-flight-crash-site-underwater-waves/

2019-01-31 01:52:52+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

thesun--2019-12-04--UK schools surge up world rankings for reading and maths after Chinese style-lessons were introduced

thesun

UK schools surge up world rankings for reading and maths after Chinese style-lessons were introduced

BRITISH schools have shot up the international league table for reading, maths and science after tougher Chinese style-lessons were introduced. Boris Johnson hailed the “great progress” and said it was down to Tory reforms to relentlessly drive up standards. The Pisa tests showed that in maths Britain is now 18th in the world — up from 27th three years ago. And the UK is ranked 14th for reading and science — up from 22nd and 15th respectively. The tests, carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, rank 79 countries and territories. Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s education director, said the UK was making “positive” progress. The big leap forward in maths came after Chinese methods of teaching were rolled out in English classrooms. The south Asian “mastery” approach involves kids being taught as an entire class and learning to master the basics such as their timetables. Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: “I am quietly confident we will continue to see the UK rocket up the Pisa league in years to come.” China again topped the charts for maths, followed by Singapore and the Chinese territories of Macau and Hong Kong. Mr Schleicher warned it would take a “very long time” for the UK to catch up with the highest achieving countries at its current rate of progress. And while Britain nudged up one place in science, the nation’s overall score in the subject continued its downward trend from 515 Pisa points in 2006 to 505 points in 2018.

The Sun

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10478038/british-schools-world-ranking-surge/

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 00:10:21 +0000

science and technology

mathematics

thetelegraph--2019-01-15--Could maths really solve our future fashion dilemmas

thetelegraph

Could maths really solve our future fashion dilemmas?

Unlike many, I’m a fan of the beginning of the year. It feels pregnant with hope and possibility. It also brings with it interesting predictions and assertions about what the next 12 months may bring. The current woeful state of the high street, which can only hope for Christmas trading results to reach the heady heights of “not as bad as expected”, is depressing. But with a downturn comes creativity of thought and a renewed interest in how to change things for the better. Personally, I don’t blame Brexit or the rise of online shopping for the decline in high-street sales. Shops, often governed by out-of-touch corporations, have been slow to adapt and innovate. Crucially, there is a lack of...

Victoria Moss

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/news/could-maths-really-solve-future-fashion-dilemmas/

2019-01-15 17:23:25+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

thetelegraph--2019-03-17--10-year-old boy believed to be the youngest Briton to recite Pi to 220 places after performing feat

thetelegraph

10-year-old boy believed to be the youngest Briton to recite Pi to 220 places after performing feat in school assembly

A ten-year-old boy is believed to have become the youngest Briton to recite Pi to 220 decimal places, after performing the feat in his school assembly. Charley Thomas, of Wycliffe Preparatory School in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, achieved the feat during a school event to mark Pi Day of March 14, after rehearsing for a week. Pi is calculated by dividing a circle's circumference by its diameter.  The first digits, 3.14, are well known, but the number is infinitely long and extending the sequence is difficult because the number follows no set pattern. Charley said: "I'm not very good at standing up and doing something in front of people so I was a bit nervous at assembly. "I had rehearsed at home and knew I could get to 220 places. I really like maths." The number is used in engineering, physics, supercomputing and space exploration - because its value can be used in calculations for waves, circles and cylinders. According to the Pi World Ranking List website, which names Indian Suresh Kumar Sharma as the person to recite the most digits of pi at 70,030 in 2015, Charley places 451st in the world. Charley's headmaster, Adrian Palmer, said: "This is an incredible achievement and one that no Wycliffe pupil has done before.  Charley received a standing ovation for his efforts in assembly and it was so richly deserved."

Callum Adams

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/17/10-year-old-boy-believed-youngest-britain-recite-pi-220-places/

2019-03-17 14:51:16+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

thetelegraph--2019-12-13--Times tables focus helps boost primary school maths Sats results, experts say

thetelegraph

Times tables focus helps boost primary school maths Sats results, experts say

A focus on times tables has helped to boost primary school Maths Sats results, experts have said. Data released by the Department for Education (DfE) show that 79 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in Maths this year, the high proportion out of all the “three R’s” and a rise of four percentage points on 2018. It comes after a drive by ministers to bring back traditional teaching methods such as times tables, as well as efforts to import Chinese-style teaching into the classroom. More than half a million 11-year-olds across England took national curriculum tests in May, where they were tested in reading, writing and maths as well as science and grammar, punctuation and spelling. When the Government launched a new "tougher" curriculum four years ago, 70 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in Maths. This rose to 75 per cent the following year where it remained in 2018, before rising again to 79 per cent this year. Prof Valsa Koshy, an expert in maths education at Brunel University, said that the Government’s emphasis on times tables “is making a difference” in pupils’ abilities in maths. She told The Daily Telegraph: “I see in schools there is more emphasis on children learning time tables. If you look at Sats maths papers, there is a lot are problem solving.

Camilla Turner

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/13/times-tables-focus-helps-boost-primary-school-maths-satsresults/

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 17:37:09 GMT

science and technology

mathematics

theverge--2019-04-09--The White House is using fuzzy math to justify net neutrality veto

theverge

The White House is using fuzzy math to justify net neutrality veto

In a statement on Monday, the White House promised to veto the Save the Internet Act — a bill designed to restore net neutrality protections and undo the FCC’s extremely unpopular 2017 decision to repeal them. To justify the veto, the statement painted a picture of surging broadband investment and robust new networks, free to flourish now that Title II was out of the way. “Since the new rule was adopted in 2018, consumers have benefited from a greater than 35 percent increase in average, fixed broadband download speeds, and the United States rose to sixth, from thirteenth, in the world for those speeds,” the White House said. “In 2018, fiber was also made available to more new homes than in any previous year, and capital investment by the Nation’s top six Internet service providers increased by $2.3 billion.” Unfortunately for the White House, there’s no evidence to suggest any of those improvements had anything to do with killing net neutrality. Some of the data points aren’t accurate, and others are the result of policies from past administrations. One figure comes from a telecom group’s press release The first portion of the government’s data comes courtesy of an Ookla broadband speed report from last December, which found that average fixed broadband speeds increased by 35.8 percent in 2018. However, the speed tests at the heart of the report were conducted by Ookla users between Q2 and Q3 of last year. Net neutrality wasn’t formally repealed until June 11th of 2018 — or about halfway through the measurement period in question. There’s no evidence to suggest the net neutrality repeal impacted these numbers one way or the other, and past analysis has shown recent broadband growth to be well in line with past years. The claim about record deployment of fiber (a favorite of Pai’s FCC) also has less to do with deregulation than the White House would have you believe. At least half of 2018’s 5.6 million new fiber-connected homes are included as a condition of AT&T’s merger with Time Warner, negotiated by the previous FCC. As part of that agreement, AT&T agreed to deploy fiber to an additional 3 million homes every year; a far cry from the “light-touch regulatory scheme” the government claims was responsible for the growth. There’s a litany of other reasons why 2018 broadband speed improvements likely had nothing to do with net neutrality. Cable operators spent much of 2018 finishing up relatively inexpensive DOCSIS 3.1 cable upgrades, which began before Trump was elected. Other improvements were courtesy of community broadband efforts the Trump FCC has actively opposed. One of the other figures is pulled directly from a telecom lobbying group’s press release. The White House boasted that telecoms had invested $2.3 billion in better networks over the course of 2018 — but the figure seems to have come from a press release sent out by USTelecom, a major broadband lobbying group, which attributed the rise to the FCC’s new hands-off approach. But not everyone agrees: consumer groups say the connection isn’t supported by hard data — and industry CEOs have even disputed that the Title II was stifling investment. “Whether we look at inflation-adjusted figures or nominal values, these companies did not invest $2.3 billion more in 2018 than they did in 2017,” Free Press general counsel Matt Wood told The Verge. “In fact, four of those six companies saw investment declines in 2018, and the total decline for all of them put together was more than $1.5 billion” said Wood, who pointed to his group’s own analysis of the data. “We’re getting more and more members of Congress on the record in support of real net neutrality protections” Wood said there are lots of reasons why industry investment ebbs and flows, including the level of competition ISPs face in their home territories. Few, if any, of those reasons have anything to do with the Pai FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality. “To claim that large ISPs increased their spending when they did just the opposite—whatever the natural cause for such decreases—is a fraud designed to deter Members of Congress from voting for rules that their constituents need and demand by 4 to 1 margins,” Wood said. Regardless, the Save the Internet Act still faces long odds as it winds its way through the legislative process. While it may survive a vote today in the House, it faces a tougher uphill battle in passing the Senate and avoiding a Trump veto. Should it fail, the rules could still be restored by an ongoing lawsuit filed by 23 state attorneys general. “It’s obviously a long shot,” Fight for the Future deputy director Evan Greer told The Verge. “But so was stopping SOPA,” they said, referring to a hugely controversial copyright law only thwarted due to immense internet backlash. “Either way, we’re getting more and more members of Congress on the record in support of real net neutrality protections,” Greer said. “That’s the key for restoring net neutrality in the long term, and the Save the Internet Act gives us a powerful path to push our way toward that goal.”

Karl Bode

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/9/18302113/net-neutrality-veto-white-house-donald-trump-save-the-internet-act-broadband

2019-04-09 16:16:56+00:00

science and technology

mathematics

truepundit--2019-10-22--Seattle Public Schools plans course showing how math is a tool of racial oppression

truepundit

Seattle Public Schools plans course showing how math is a tool of racial oppression

A Seattle Public Schools ethnic studies committee is working on an educational framework that aims to teach students to understand and identify the ways math is connected to racial oppression, according to the Daily Caller. A rough draft of the K-12 Math Ethnic Studies Framework, created by the Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee, details four themes curriculum can focus on: Origins, Identity, and Agency; Power and Oppression; History of Resistance and Liberation; and Reflection and Action. The first theme, Origins, Identity, and Agency, focuses on the historical beginnings of mathematical knowledge and the cultures, particularly those of color, that contributed to the development of mathematics study. The Power and Oppression theme is the one that most aggressively frames mathematics as a tool of racial oppression. Here’s the definition of that theme: Power and oppression, as defined by ethnic studies, are the ways in which individuals and groups define mathematical knowledge so as to see “Western” mathematics as the only legitimate expression of mathematical identity and intelligence. This definition of legitimacy is then used to disenfranchise people and communities of color. This erases the historical contributions of people and communities of color. – READ MORE

admin

https://truepundit.com/seattle-public-schools-plans-course-showing-how-math-is-a-tool-of-racial-oppression/

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 19:53:02 +0000

science and technology

mathematics

usnews--2019-11-13--Tennessee Seeking Public Comment on K-12 Math Standards

usnews

Tennessee Seeking Public Comment on K-12 Math Standards

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee State Board of Education is seeking public comment on the state's K-12 mathematics standards. A news release from the board says the comments will be considered when the math standards are updated in 2020. The board is required to review all academic standards at least every six years in a thorough and transparent process. The public survey went up on Tuesday and is available through Dec. 6 at noon, Central Time. It can be accessed through the board's website at https://www.tn.gov/sbe . After the public comment window closes, advisory teams will draft recommended standards. Once approved, the state Textbook and Instructional Materials Commission will use those standards to recommend educational resources to school districts. The revised math standards will go into effect for the 2022-23 school year. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Associated Press

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/tennessee/articles/2019-11-13/tennessee-seeking-public-comment-on-k-12-math-standards

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 09:29:26 GMT

science and technology

mathematics

usnews--2019-12-16--As Georgia Revises Math Standards, Some Push for Big Changes

usnews

As Georgia Revises Math Standards, Some Push for Big Changes

ATLANTA (AP) — As Georgia reviews what public school students learn in math, the first step will almost certainly be a strong cry for change — but it remains unclear how much that will influence the outcome. Gov. Brian Kemp and state Superintendent Richard Woods kicked off the process earlier this month with the meeting of a citizen review committee to which they appointed a number of prominent critics of the Common Core State Standards. Big changes to standards would necessarily mean big — and expensive — changes to textbooks and other academic materials, intensive teacher training and an overhaul of the standardized tests given to students in grades 3-8 and high school. Woods told the state Board of Education last week that he wants board members to adopt new standards this June. Next year, teachers would be retrained and tests rewritten, with changes fully implemented in fall 2021. An overhaul of English language arts standards would follow through the same steps one year later. Common Core was an effort to write academic standards shared by all 50 states, with support from then-Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. One central idea was that students should learn more analytically and less by memorization. Almost a decade ago, 46 states including Georgia adopted Common Core-inspired documents describing what students in each grade should learn in math and English language arts. But Common Core set off fierce criticism, with complaints including improper federal influence by the administration of President Barack Obama, undesirable changes to traditional math teaching methods, and a failure to track enough students to take calculus in high school. The support from Obama tinged the issue with partisan politics, with opponents trending conservative. In response to criticism, Georgia made a few changes in 2015, producing a renamed Georgia Standards of Excellence. However, both Kemp and Woods say that was just a fresh coat of paint on Common Core. Kemp repeatedly pledged while running for governor to dismantle Common Core. For long-suffering Common Core opponents, the ascendancy of Kemp and Woods has opened a window to undo what they see as a colossal mistake. Citizen review committee member Jane Robbins, for example, emphasizes the need to teach arithmetic using traditional methods — the “standard algorithm" — in earlier grades. That would mean, for example, memorizing multiplication tables instead of learning more about the inner workings of math. “The ideology is that you don't need to teach children the standard algorithm, you don't need to have children able to do math problems fluently until they're 11 or 12 years old,” Robbins said. “That's not the way the brain works and it's not how high-achieving countries teach math.” Jim Arnold, a retired school superintendent who lives in Midland, said changes in math instruction that made it harder for parents to help young children with homework indicate an important problem. A report from the citizens review committee, compiled by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, is scheduled to be published later this month. The next step calls for panels of teachers to review grade-level standards and suggest revisions. Those revisions would then be examined by a third group called the academic review committee. Eventually, the state Board of Education would seek public comment and then vote. The key question may be what the teachers will do. Some education and professional groups support Georgia's current standards and are likely to oppose big changes. The Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics, for example, says that under current standards, students “learn grade-level appropriate content with the development of conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills that prepare them for higher mathematics content.”

Associated Press

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/georgia/articles/2019-12-16/as-georgia-revises-math-standards-some-push-for-big-changes

Mon, 16 Dec 2019 22:01:11 GMT

science and technology

mathematics

bbc--2019-04-12--Sudan coup Protesters defy curfew after military ousts Bashir

bbc

Sudan coup: Protesters defy curfew after military ousts Bashir

Large crowds have remained on the streets of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, through the night, ignoring a curfew declared by the military. Long-time President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown and arrested on Thursday after months of street protests. But demonstrators say the military council which has taken power is part of the same regime. The fresh stand-off has raised fears of a violent confrontation between protesters and the army. There is also a real danger that different elements of the security forces and militia could turn their guns on each other, says BBC World Service Africa editor Will Ross. The UN and the African Union have both called for calm. Sudan is due to reopen its airspace on Friday, following a 24-hour suspension, but land and maritime borders will remain closed, the military council has said. The curfew, in force from 22:00 local time (20:00 GMT) to 04:00, was declared for the "safety" of citizens, state media said. The armed forces and the security council would carry out their "duty to uphold peace and security and protect citizens' livelihoods", it said. A mood of celebration on the streets of Khartoum, which followed news of Mr Bashir's arrest, evaporated when organisers called for a mass sit-in outside military headquarters to continue. "This is a continuation of the same regime," said Sara Abdeljalil of the Sudanese Professionals' Association (SPA). "So what we need to do is to continue the fight and the peaceful resistance." An SPA statement said that "those who destroyed the country and killed the people are seeking to steal every drop of blood and sweat that the Sudanese people poured in their revolution that shook the throne of tyranny". The SPA has previously said that any transitional administration must not include anyone from the "tyrannical regime". Crowds waved flags and chanted "Fall, again!" - refashioning their previous anti-Bashir slogan of "Fall, that's all!". Early on Thursday, military vehicles entered the large compound in Khartoum housing the defence ministry, the army headquarters and Mr Bashir's personal residence. State TV and radio interrupted programming and Defence Minister Awad Ibn Ouf announced "the toppling of the regime". He said Mr Bashir was being held "in a secure place" but did not give details. Mr Ibn Ouf said the country had been suffering from "poor management, corruption, and an absence of justice" and he apologised "for the killing and violence that took place". He said the army would oversee a two-year transitional period followed by elections. The minister also said a three-month state of emergency was being put in place, with the constitution suspended. Before the coup, Mr Ibn Ouf was Mr Bashir's first vice-president and defence minister. He has also served as army commander and military intelligence chief. He is one of a group of officials subject to US sanctions from 2007 over support for the Janjaweed militia which was blamed for mass killings in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. This is a military coup with no clear roadmap for how the generals plan to hand over power to civilian rule. The fear will be that they have no such intention. The security elite has calculated that removing Omar al-Bashir and imposing a curfew will buy them time and end the protests. If so, this represents a serious miscalculation. The SPA and other civil society groups have made it clear they won't accept a cosmetic change. They have the numbers and are highly organised. The military has the guns and the capacity for imposing brutal repression. But what then? A crackdown will not resolve the desperate economic crisis that brought years of simmering resentment on to the streets last December. There is also the question of the cracks within the Sudanese security establishment, evident during the clashes between soldiers and intelligence/militia forces in recent days. It is a volatile and unpredictable situation that demands cool heads and compromise on the part of the military. The stability of Sudan depends on how they react to continued protests. It is not yet clear what will happen to former the 75-year-old, who is now in custody. He is the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accuses him of organising war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. His rule was marked by civil war. A conflict with the south of the country ended in 2005 and South Sudan became independent in 2011. Demonstrations against his rule began in December, triggered by a rise in the cost of living, and at least 38 people died in the unrest. The former army officer himself came to power in 1989 through a military coup. UN Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for "calm and utmost restraint by all" and urged a transition that would meet the "democratic aspirations" of the people. The UN Security Council is to discuss the situation in a closed-door meeting on Friday. UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that a two-year military council was "not the answer" and called for a "swift move to an inclusive, representative, civilian leadership". The African Union condemned the military takeover, saying it was not an appropriate response to the challenges facing Sudan and the aspirations of its people. Russia, which twice hosted Mr Bashir despite the international travel ban he faced, called for calm and said it was monitoring the situation. Amnesty International's Secretary General Kumi Naidoo said that justice was "long overdue" for Mr Bashir.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47903332

2019-04-12 06:47:58+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

channel4uk--2019-04-11--Sudan military coup overthrows president after 30 years in power following mass protests

channel4uk

Sudan military coup overthrows president after 30 years in power, following mass protests

The forecast for the next 5 days

Channel 4 News

https://www.channel4.com/news/sudan-military-coup-overthrows-president-after-30-years-in-power-following-mass-protests

2019-04-11 19:10:09+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

eveningstandard--2019-04-30--Venezuela coup latest Juan Guaido calls for a military uprising to oust President Nicolas Maduro

eveningstandard

Venezuela coup latest: Juan Guaido calls for a military uprising to oust President Nicolas Maduro

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has called for a military uprising and said the end of Nicolas Maduro’s rule is near in a video showing him surrounded by soldiers in an apparent coup attempt. However, the government quickly responded to say it is putting down the small coup by “military traitors” working with right-wing opponents and insisted the armed forces remain “firmly in defence of the national constitution and legitimate authorities”. Writing on Twitter, Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said Mr Guaido is working “against the constitution and peace of the Republic” and insisted President Maduro’s government “will win”. It comes as tear gas was fired at Mr Guaido and around 70 men in military uniform gathered outside the Caracas air base La Carlota. Mr Rodriguez tweeted: "We inform the people of Venezuela at the moment we are confronting and deactivating a reduced group of military traitors who are positioning themselves in the Distribuidor Altamira to promote a coup d'etat against the constitution and the peace of the Republic. "To this intent is added the putschist and murderous ultra-right which announced its violent agenda months ago. We call on the people to maintain maximum alert so, together the glorious National Armed Bolivarian forces defeat the intent to mount a coup and preserve the peace. We will win." US-backed Mr Guaido appeared in a video earlier on Tuesday surrounded by soldiers and accompanied by detained activist Leopoldo Lopez when he called for a military uprising. In the three minute video, released a day before a planned anti-government rally, Mr Guaido said that soldiers would be acting to protect the constitution. Mr Lopez, who has been under house arrest for leading an anti-government push in 2014, made his first public appearance since he was detained to say: “This is the moment of all Venezuelans, those in uniform and those who aren't. "Everyone should come to the streets, in peace." Mr Guaido tweeted shortly after to tell his supporters “the end of the usurpation” was beginning against the government, adding: “In this moment I am meeting with the principal military units of our Armed Forces giving the start to the final phase of Operation Liberty.”

Katy Clifton

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/venezuelan-opposition-leader-juan-guaido-calls-for-a-military-uprising-to-oust-president-nicolas-a4130306.html

2019-04-30 11:06:00+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

eveningstandard--2019-12-14--Thousands in Thailand join biggest protest since 2014 military coup

eveningstandard

Thousands in Thailand join biggest protest since 2014 military coup

Several thousand supporters of Thai opposition party which could be banned took part in the biggest protest since a 2014 coup on Saturday. A reported 10,000 people burst onto the streets after authorities moved to ban the party that has rallied opposition to the government of former military ruler Prayuth Chan-ocha. The demonstration in Bangkok was called just a day earlier by Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a 41-year-old billionaire. Speaking to activists in the capital, Mr Thanathorn urged people to stand up against the government and fight for democracy. He told them: "This is just the beginning. I think it shows that people will not tolerate dictatorship anymore." Many demonstrators gave the three-finger salute of resistance, a symbol taken from the Hollywood film The Hunger Games. Legal moves to dissolve the party have angered supporters who believe there is a conspiracy against it. There was no sign of any attempt to block the biggest demonstration since Prayuth seized power in 2014 on promises to end such unrest. The military staged a coup in 2014 led by army general Prayuth Chan-ocha, the current prime minister, who seized power on promises to end a wave of street protests. The first general election since the coup was held earlier this year when Future Forward came from nowhere to finish third. The party has an anti-military agenda which has proved popular among young people but has angered the country's conservative establishment. Thailand's election panel has asked the Constitutional Court to dissolve the Future Forward party, accusing it of infringing the laws governing political parties by accepting multi-million dollar loans from Mr Thanathorn. Last month, the Constitutional Court disqualified Thanathorn as member of parliament for holding shares in a media company on the date his election candidacy was registered. Thanathorn disputed the ruling. Among Saturday's crowd were some veteran "red shirt" protesters, supporters of ousted populist leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who had once clashed in Bangkok with the "yellow shirt" conservatives - hardline loyalists of the palace and army. On Saturday, Mr Thanathorn signed an agreement with six parties in an opposition alliance to push for changes to the constitution drawn up by the junta before the election. Among those parties was Pheu Thai, linked to Thaksin, who lives in self-exile since he was overthrown in 2006. His sister was ousted as prime minister by Prayuth. Pheu Thai won the most seats in the 500-member lower house but has adopted a quieter approach to challenging the government than Future Forward, which came third in the election. New: Daily podcast from the Evening Standard Subscribe to The Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast or your chosen podcast provider. New episodes every weekday from 4pm.

Bronwen Weatherby

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/thailand-pprotest-thanathorn-juangroongruangkrit-future-forward-a4313661.html

Sat, 14 Dec 2019 19:30:55 GMT

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

foreignpolicy--2019-04-12--Military Factions Vie for Power After Coup in Sudan

foreignpolicy

Military Factions Vie for Power After Coup in Sudan

Military Factions Vie for Power After Coup in Sudan Omar al-Bashir led Sudan for 30 years. His successor, Defense Minister Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, led the country for about 30 hours. Ibn Auf stepped down as the head of Sudan’s ruling military council Friday, just one day after leading a coup against Bashir. He did not explain his reasons for the resignation but promptly named another general, Abdel-Fatah al-Burhan Abdel-Rahman, as his replacement. The announcement was the latest political drama to unfold in Sudan, where demonstrators have been protesting for months, demanding economic and political reforms. Friday’s reshuffle was the latest sign that Sudan’s turmoil was not over. The Sudanese Professionals Association, a group that has spearheaded the protests, renewed its calls for a civilian-led political transition and called on citizens to continue their sit-in at the army headquarters. The military council that took over following Bashir’s ouster said on Friday it would lead a two-year transition that could end sooner under the right political conditions. Some analysts said Ibn Auf’s resignation might suggest that groups within Sudan’s security forces are still vying for power behind the scenes—and pointed to two factions in particular. One includes military officials with ties to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, among them Ibn Auf and Sudan’s intelligence chief, Salah Gosh. Others apparently have the backing of Qatar and Turkey, countries that are pushing for more influence in Sudan in an extension of their regional rivalries with the other Gulf states. “Nobody’s really agreed who will be in and who will be out,” said Susan Stigant, the director of Africa programs at the United States Institute of Peace. “There’s a risk of escalation of violence between those factions.” Payton Knopf, a former U.S. diplomat who worked on Sudan, said the United States should focus on ensuring that the regional rivalries are not exported there. “The nightmare scenario is that different camps in the Middle East get grafted onto the situation in Sudan,” he said. “The U.S. is not going to solve this on its own, but it can lead an international consensus to a civilian-led transition” In the months before his ouster, Bashir was in talks with the Qataris and Saudis for more economic relief, trying to play the two regional rivals off one another, said Willow Berridge, a scholar on Sudan at Newcastle University. She said the military officers who now rule Sudan might “try to play the same game.” In Washington, U.S. officials have called for a democratic transition of power in Sudan but so far refrained from playing the leading role in mediating the crisis. “The Sudanese people should determine who leads them and their future. The Sudanese people have been clear that they are demanding a civilian-led transition now,” a State Department spokesman said. Before Bashir’s ouster, the Trump administration was in talks with his government to lift the State Department’s designation of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism in exchange for progress on human rights and counterterrorism cooperation, among other issues. The State Department suspended the talks after Thursday’s coup, but the spokesman indicated the United States would consider reopening talks under the right conditions. “We remain open to engagement that would support meaningful progress … with leaders who are willing to address the Sudanese people’s legitimate demands,” the spokesman said. The abrupt changes in Sudan present the same dilemma that protest organizers have been facing for decades: How do they dismantle the cabal of military leaders ruling the country? Activists are split on how to accomplish the transition to democracy. Sara Abdelgalil, a spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, said the international community should now focus on preventing a massacre in Sudan. In late 2013, the Sudanese government allegedly killed around 200 people who took part in demonstrations. “We have reached 70 killed since December and there is an ongoing threat this can happen again. We need you to be looking carefully with us because we are very, very worried and concerned that he will use violence,” Abdelgalil told Foreign Policy. She emphasized that no foreign military should interfere in Sudan’s peaceful change. Other Sudanese civil society groups are calling for stronger international support to sideline the military and install a civilian-led transition in Sudan. “There is still hope that a coordinated campaign from within and outside Sudan will influence the new military council to hand over power to a transitional civilian government. To do so, we need to push the African Union member states, the African Union Peace and Security Council and the U.N. Security Council,” said a letter from Sudanese civil society groups circulated in the region that was obtained by FP. The African Union released a statement Thursday saying that “the military takeover is not the appropriate response.” Brett Carter, a scholar of African politics at the University of Southern California, said most African Union leaders didn’t have much affection for the Bashir government. “At the same time, they don’t want to do anything that would encourage other protests that would take their inspiration from recent events in Algeria and Sudan,” he said. “I think from the AU’s perspective, the sooner this situation gets resolved the better.”

Justin Lynch, Robbie Gramer and Jefcoate O'Donnell

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/12/military-factions-vie-for-power-after-coup-in-sudan-africa-bashir-protests/

2019-04-12 23:57:19+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

fortruss--2019-01-31--RUSSIA DEFENDS MADURO Moscow blasts Western support for military coup in Venezuela

fortruss

RUSSIA DEFENDS MADURO: Moscow blasts Western support for military coup in Venezuela

MOSCOW, Russia – The West supports the destructive proposal of Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaidó for a military coup in Venezuela, said a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó “openly encourages the military to carry out a military coup,” the diplomat said during a press conference, the US newspaper reports. “We see that Western sponsors support this destructive line by all means,” she added. This indicates that “Washington’s borders no longer exist: neither interstate, nor economic, nor moral,” Zakharova said, adding that “we can not say that the threat of large-scale armed conflict [in Venezuela] has disappeared.” In addition, according to the diplomat, the notepad carried by US National Security Adviser John Bolton on the “5,000 troops for Colombia” proves that all options regarding Caracas are still in check. Zakharova classifies the situation in the South American country as “extremely tense”, commenting that the recent protests, “far more modest” than the previous ones, are “a new testimony that the opposition is reluctant to dialogue, despite official authorities being willing to do so.” The official representative summoned the partner countries to reflect on “what role Washington assigns them to prepare and trigger a war scenario in the region, previously tested in Iraq, Libya, Syria or Ukraine.” “Supposedly, we see how sensible political forces are well aware that the only possible way out of the crisis would be a broad internal Venezuelan dialogue.” The Russian spokeswoman commented that the threat of a major armed conflict persists in Caracas, noting that Russia welcomes the disaffection of several Latin American countries with US policy towards Venezuela, in addition to emphasizing that Moscow is willing to participate in mediation to resolve the crisis in the Bolivarian country. “We welcome the firm resignation of regional actors to follow the US military line,” she told reporters. On January 23, Venezuelan leader Juan Guaidó announced himself illegally as interim president of Venezuela, appealing to Article 233 of the Constitution, initiating a series of conflicts in the country. The second term of Nicolás Maduro, the current president of Venezuela, was not accepted by the United States and twenty other countries, who decided not to recognize him as head of state, on the grounds of the result of “fraudulent” elections held in May last year. Maduro and his administration consider this a coup orchestrated by Washington but has the firm backing of Russia, China and many other states.

Paul Antonopoulos

https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/01/russia-defends-maduro-moscow-blasts-western-support-for-military-coup-in-venezuela/

2019-01-31 16:00:53+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

fortruss--2019-04-30--BREAKING Guaido traitors launch military coup against Maduro Venezuela stands strong VIDEO

fortruss

BREAKING: Guaidó traitors launch military coup against Maduro, Venezuela stands strong (VIDEO)

CARACAS – The opposition Juan Guaidó posted a video on his Twitter account with Leopoldo López, another leader of the opposition, who is serving a prison sentence, in which they are accompanied by uniformed personnel, and calls the soldiers to the streets. Although the video was recorded in a very closed shot, we can see a group of about 30 presumed soldiers and two tanks behind them. The images were recorded at the height of the Francisco Miranda Military Base, also known as La Carlota, in eastern Caracas. Venezuela is immersed in a conflict that led to an escalation of the political crisis after the opposition Juan Guaidó was proclaimed interim president of Venezuela. Their calls to the population to take to the streets against the legitimate Government did not have the expected support of the citizens. The president of the National Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, told the VTV state channel the last call of the self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó to the Venezuelan military to reveal themselves against the government of Nicolás Maduro. The opposition leader posted a video calling on soldiers to take to the streets. The images were allegedly recorded at the height of the Francisco Miranda Military Base, also known as La Carlota, in eastern Caracas. According to Cabello, the military base has not been touched and is under the control of the legitimate government, “they are in the street giving a sad spectacle”. “They took a part of the troop deceived, they told them they were going for an activity and then they got involved in this, a group of sergeants from the National Guard and the Sebin (Bolivarian Intelligence Service) have already left La Carlota.” He also confirmed that “there is a group of the Sebin (Bolivarian National Intelligence Service) that is participating in this coup attempt and they were the ones who freed Leopoldo López”, the opposition leader who was under house arrest for his role in the protests Violent 2014 He also added that “the United States, faced with ineptitude, in the face of not being able to win elections for the Revolution, opts for the coup d’état”. “Every action will have a strong response … We will be absolutely inflexible, radical in the defense,” the ANC president told the VTV channel. Cabello stressed that now there is absolute tranquility throughout Venezuela, including the city of Caracas. “I have spoken with governors, with heads of ZODI (Integral Defense Zone), with heads of the regions and the whole country is absolutely calm,” he said. Likewise, the president of the Constituent Assembly called on the Venezuelan people to gather in the Miraflores palace, the seat of the Government. “Let the whole town come to Miraflores because they say they are coming here.” He concluded with the phrase: “Guaidó is making them easier than we expected.” “Once again it is evident what we have always denounced: all the conspiracies against Venezuelan democracy, including this coup attempt, are supported and financed by the Colombian government,” he wrote on his Twitter.

Paul Antonopoulos

https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/04/breaking-guaido-traitors-launch-military-coup-against-maduro-venezuela-stands-strong-video/

2019-04-30 11:44:56+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

fortruss--2019-11-18--Bolivia’s U.S.-backed Coup Government Has Given The Military A License To Kill Protestors

fortruss

Bolivia’s U.S.-backed Coup Government Has Given The Military A License To Kill Protestors

The de facto and unelected president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, signed a decree that exempts all military personnel from being criminally responsible, even in the cases of murder, in the midst of demonstrations against the coup d’etat that ousted democratically elected first Indigenous President of Bolivia, Evo Morales. Effectively, Bolivian security forces have a license to kill now. Since the decree was signed last Thursday, it has inevitably caused controversy with demonstrators and social media users alike. And it very well should – it is a blatant U.S.-orchestrated coup against Morales who helped his country reduce unemployment, poverty and illiteracy by at least 50% from 2006 to 2018, and liberated his country from strangling neoliberal policies of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The decree was immediately denounced by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), by Morales, and by regional leaders such as the newly elected president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández. Although the decree is dated November 14, it was only made public on Saturday, a day after an anti-government march of coca growers in the department of Cochabamba left at least nine dead and 115 injured, according to the Office of the Ombudsman. For its part, the United Nations High Commissioner, Michel Bachelet, has expressed concern about the growing violence in the Andean country and the actions taken by the unelected government. There is “information that at least seventeen people have died in the context of the protests, including fourteen only in the last six days,” Bachelet said in a statement from Geneva, adding that “while the first deaths occurred as a result of violent clashes between rival protesters, the most recent seem to derive from an unnecessary or disproportionate use of force by police or military personnel.” However, this should not even be the least bit surprising for the UN commissioner since the U.S. has a long history of violent regime change in Latin America. It was revealed in a report by the Gray Zone that at least six of the main coup plotters were alumni of the infamous School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, a notorious training center that since the times of the Cold War has orchestrated regime operations against anti-U.S. Latin American leaders. The report explained that “brutal regime change and reprisal operations from Haiti to Honduras have been carried out by SOA graduates, and some of the most bloodstained juntas in the region’s history have been run by the school’s alumni.” While U.S. President Donald Trump cheered on a “a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere,” the U.S.-trained Bolivian military have now killed at least 23 people, mostly Indigenous. Although the U.S. espouses the endless mantra of ‘freedom and democracy’, it has continuously demonstrated, such as in Venezuela and Syria, that it is willing to move away from its ‘peaceful’ liberal ideology and utilize reactionary forces when its political and economic interests are under threat. Morales managed to re-found the country politically and economically by embracing the Multipolar World, where the U.S. is no longer the sole power in the world, by improving ties with China and Russia, and by nationalizing natural resources and strategic companies. Evo Morales said during an interview in June 2016: “We had a beggar state in 2005. In the economic part everything was imposed by the International Monetary Fund. The Fund had its office in the Central Bank of Bolivia. The CIA was a parasite that had its offices in the National Palace. The U.S. military group had its own at the headquarters of the Armed Forces in the Great Barracks General Miraflores. When there was political conflict and the parties on the right fought, the United States ambassador was the godfather… We had an agreed democracy. Everything was pact. It was legal, but there was no legitimacy.” Although Morales ran Bolivia, one of Latin America’s poorest countries, mostly uninterrupted for 13 years unlike Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and Brazil’s Lula, the discovery of massive amounts of lithium was a gamechanger. The precious resource is necessary to power all batteries, a demand that is ever increasing for our technological world. Although Morales’ impressive records speaks for itself, as he never prioritized the indoctrination of the Bolivian military, the SOA-trained officers were able to remain dormant until called upon by the U.S. to conduct a coup in the South American country. Two days before the Gray Zone report, in a previous article I already made the argument that former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had radicalized and ideologized the military to the constitutional national ideology and built a people’s militia capable of defending the government from internal and external, which is why even to this day, Maduro has not been ousted in a coup despite endless U.S.-backed attempts. This is something Morales did not do, allowing the U.S. to gain a strong foothold in the Bolivian military. Morales created the Anti-Imperialist Command School in 2016. Completing several courses related to the ideology of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), as well on geopolitics and imperialism, became the only way to become a Captain in the Bolivian military. However, this is only a recent initiative, that began a decade after he became president, not even nearly enough time for him to reform the military ideology, especially since he never expelled pro-U.S. officers from the military, opting to wait for their retirements. And now that Áñez is running the country with the military’s blessing, the years of advancements in Indigenous rights and living standards made by Morales will surely be reversed, especially as she considers their culture to be “Satanic” that is not compatible with modern life and should remain in the mountains or swamplands. Áñez criticizes socialism and expresses her fear that one day Bolivia will become like “Cuba” – this is mostly influenced by her adherence to radical Christian Evangelicalism that believes socialism to be the work of the devil. Guided by her Evangelical beliefs, she is now an ally of Evangelical Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a staunch supporter of the Brazilian dictatorship and has said that “too bad the Brazilian cavalry was not as efficient as the American cavalry that exterminated the Indians,” in reference to the American Indian genocide. Supporting reactionary pro-U.S. forces in Latin America has always meant a contempt and hatred of the Indigenous people – and it has often been the Evangelicals that were used in Latin America alongside paramilitaries or coup plotters to carry out U.S. interests in this region. Although Bolsonaro dreams of a Brazil that is purged of most of its native population, like what was achieved in the U.S., Áñez has begun her own U.S.-backed campaign against the Indigenous populations by already greenlighting the murder of Morales supporters, who are overwhelmingly Indigenous just as the population of Bolivia is. Her license to kill has not just seen many Indigenous murdered, but it will mean we will continue to see the Indigenous being murdered by the Bolivian military as they continue their peaceful mass demonstrations in support of the exiled Morales.

Paul Antonopoulos

https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/11/bolivias-u-s-backed-coup-government-has-given-the-military-a-license-to-kill-protestors/

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:30:02 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

france24--2019-04-11--Sudanese protesters defy military curfew to denounce army coup

france24

Sudanese protesters defy military curfew to denounce army 'coup'

Ashraf Shazly / AFP | Sudanese protesters demonstrate against the new ruling military council following the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir, in Khartoum on April 11, 2019. Sudan's army ousted veteran president Omar al-Bashir Thursday, but protestors against his iron-fisted rule denounced a "coup" and thousands rallied outside army headquarters as a night-time curfew kicked in. In a sombre televised address, Defence Minister Awad Ibnouf announced "the toppling of the regime" and said Bashir had been detained in "a secure place", bringing an end to his three decades in power. Thousands of protestors were staging a sit-in for the sixth night running outside Khartoum army headquarters as the military council's curfew began at 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) despite growing international pressure to hand over to civilian rule. The army had earlier warned protestors not to defy the curfew. Washington said Khartoum should "exercise restraint and to allow space for civilian participation within the government". "The Sudanese people should determine who leads them and their future and the Sudanese people have been clear and are demanding a civilian-led transition," State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters. The European Union urged the army to carry out a "swift" handover to civilian rule. "Only a credible and inclusive political process can meet the aspirations of the Sudanese people and lead to the political and economic reforms the country needs," the bloc's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said. Ibnouf said a transitional military council would replace the president for two years, adding that the country's borders and airspace were shut until further notice. State television later broadcast footage of him taking the oath to become head of the council, alongside his new deputy, army chief of staff Lieutenant General Kamal Abdelmarouf. Bashir, who swept to power in a 1989 coup, was one of Africa's longest-serving presidents and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide and war crimes. Organisers of the protests that have rocked Sudan since December vowed to press on until the whole regime was swept aside. The protestors' Alliance for Freedom and Change said the regime had carried out "a military coup" and kept "the same faces" protestors wanted to oust. It urged demonstrators "to continue their sit-in in front of army headquarters and across all regions and in the streets". Thursday's announcement meant "we have not achieved anything", said Adel, a protestor outside the army headquarters, where defiant demonstrators have braved tear gas and gunfire to keep up the sit-in. "We will not stop our revolution. We are calling for the regime to step down, not only Bashir," he said. Activists outside the compound were seen urging others to spend the night there despite the curfew. Huge crowds of jubilant Sudanese had filled squares across the centre of the capital Thursday as the army promised an "important announcement". Chanting "the regime has fallen," they poured into the open ground outside the army base. But the festive mood later soured. "We are not leaving, we are not leaving. Just fall and that's all," they shouted after Ibnouf's announcement. The opposition Sudanese Congress Party called for the establishment of a joint military and civilian council to rule for a four-year transitional period. It also urged the army to give executive powers to civilians. UN chief Antonio Guterres called for a transition that would meet the "democratic aspirations" of the Sudanese people and appealed for "calm and utmost restraint by all", his spokesman said. That came after the African Union decried Bashir's military ouster, saying it was "not the appropriate response to the challenges facing Sudan and the aspirations of its people". Army vehicles carrying troops were seen deploying across the centre of Khartoum from early Thursday. Troops raided the offices of the Islamic Movement, the ideological wing of Bashir's ruling National Congress Party, witnesses told AFP. Martial music was played on state television as soldiers ordered the TV to halt its normal programming ahead of Ibnouf's announcement. Outside army headquarters, dozens of joyful protesters early Thursday climbed on top of land-cruisers and armoured vehicles that had been posted to protect them from intervention by other branches of the security forces. The military council also said it was declaring a ceasefire across the country, including in war-torn Darfur. But the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA-AW) fighting government forces in Darfur denounced what it called a "palace coup". South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar said in Rome he hoped the situation would be handled "peacefully so that the country can be stable". He added that he hoped it would not affect the peace process in his country where a peace accord was signed in September 2018 to end a ruinous five-year war. Meanwhile, Sudan's feared National Intelligence and Security Service said it was freeing all the country's political prisoners, state media reported. But in the eastern cities of Kasala and Port Sudan, the releases failed to materialise, prompting protesters to storm NISS buildings, according to witnesses. Demonstrators have since Saturday been camped outside the sprawling army headquarters complex in Khartoum, which also houses Bashir's official residence and the defence ministry. Officials say 49 people have died in protest-related violence since the demonstrations first erupted in December. Rights group Amnesty International said Bashir should now be handed over to the ICC so that "victims of these unspeakable crimes can see that justice is done". Neighbouring Egypt, where President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power in similar circumstances, said Thursday it supported the Sudanese people and the army in their political transition.

NEWS WIRES

https://www.france24.com/en/20190412-sudan-protesters-defy-military-curfew-after-bashir-ouster

2019-04-11 22:23:09+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

france24--2019-05-02--Venezuelas Maduro appears with military leaders to denounce coup plotters

france24

Venezuela's Maduro appears with military leaders to denounce 'coup plotters'

HO / Venezuelan Presidency / Jhonn Zerpa / AFP | Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro walks with military troops in Caracas, Venezuela on May 2, 2019. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday called on the armed forces to oppose "any coup plotter" after a military uprising in support of opposition leader Juan Guaido fizzled out, and subsequent street clashes left four protesters dead. On Tuesday, Guaido -- who has been recognized by more than 50 countries as the crisis-wracked country's interim president -- urged the armed forces to rise up against the embattled leader. A small group heeded the call, but the movement failed to ignite -- the military leadership ratified their support for the government, and Maduro is standing his ground despite international pressure. "Yes, we are in combat -- keep morale high in this fight to disarm any traitor, any coup plotter," Maduro said Thursday at a televised event with the military high command, at which he was surrounded by soldiers. "No one can be afraid -- it is the hour to defend our right to peace," he said at a ceremony attended by 4,500 military personnel, according to the government. Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino said: "We've come to ratify our loyalty ... to the supreme commander of the armed forces, who is our only president, President Nicolas Maduro." The failed uprising sparked two days of protests against the government in which four people were killed, including two teenagers who died of their injuries on Thursday. Meanwhile, Venezuela's supreme court ordered the re-arrest of influential opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez -- who made a dramatic appearance alongside Guaido on Tuesday after he was freed from house arrest. Lopez has since taken refuge at the Spanish embassy. The 48-year-old Lopez was a prominent opposition leader in 2014 when he was imprisoned after calling for protests against Maduro. He was transferred to house arrest in 2017. In Washington, US President Donald Trump offered prayers at a White House service for "the people of Venezuela in their righteous struggle for freedom." "The brutal repression of the Venezuelan people must end, and it must end soon," he warned. Opposition lawmakers and family members announced Thursday that two teenage protesters had succumbed to injuries sustained in the anti-government protests. Yoifre Hernandez, 14, was hit by gunfire during Wednesday's clashes in Caracas, while 16-year-old Yosner Graterol suffered a gunshot wound during unrest in the northern town of La Victoria on Tuesday, lawmakers and relatives said. Jurubith Rausseo, 27, died Wednesday after being shot in the head, the non-governmental Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict said on Twitter. Another person was killed in the northern state of Aragua on Tuesday. Human rights organizations and health services reported that dozens of people were hurt on both Tuesday and Wednesday. The government said more than 150 people were arrested on Tuesday. So far, 25 rebel soldiers have sought asylum at the Brazilian embassy. Speaking from the Spanish ambassador's residence, Lopez said the small rebellion on Tuesday would eventually lead to the end of Maduro's "dictatorship." "It's a crack that will become a bigger crack ... that will end up breaking the dam," said Lopez. Madrid said it would not hand over Lopez to Venezuelan authorities, nor would it ask him to leave. Tensions in Venezuela have soared since Guaido, who heads the national legislature, invoked the constitution to declare himself acting president on January 23, claiming Maduro's re-election last year was illegitimate. The country has suffered five years of recession marked by shortages of basic necessities as well as failing public services, including water, electricity and transport. On both Tuesday and Wednesday, security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at stone-throwing protesters. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned Venezuela's authorities not to use deadly force against demonstrators, while the US and Russia accused each other of making the crisis worse, evoking their Cold War-era confrontations. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are to discuss Venezuela when they meet in Finland next week, a US official said. "We're going to remain in the streets until we achieve freedom for the Venezuelan people," Guaido told his supporters in Caracas on Wednesday. Pro-Maduro groups also marched through the capital on May Day. Padrino has described Guaido's moves as "child's play." The International Contact Group of 13 countries -- including Britain, France, Germany and Maduro's ally Bolivia -- announced a meeting in Costa Rica on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the latest flare-up in Venezuela's simmering crisis.

NEWS WIRES

https://www.france24.com/en/20190503-venezuela-maduro-appears-with-military-leaders-denounce-coup-guaido

2019-05-02 23:51:53+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-01-07--AFRICOM Complicity in Gabon Coup Attempt Trump Orders Deployment of 80 Military Personnel to Gabon

globalresearch

AFRICOM Complicity in Gabon Coup Attempt? Trump Orders Deployment of 80 Military Personnel to Gabon

Trump’s deployment of 80 military personnel to Gabon last week on the basis of preparing for a response to “violent protests” in the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo might have been a ruse designed to cover up America’s complicity in the Gabonese coup attempt that just took place at the beginning of this week, which was actually an ingenious AFRICOM power grab in the strategic Gulf of Guinea that aims to give the US a base of operations from which to carve out an expanded “sphere of influence” for itself in the region irrespective if this regime change ploy succeeds or not. Just a day after confirming the assassination of the USS Cole bomber in Yemen, Trump tried to score a second foreign policy success in yet another “Global South” nation, this time the Central African state of Gabon. The news just broke that some members of the country’s armed forces attempted to stage a coup against President Ali Bongo, who’s been recovering in Morocco over the last few months after suffering a stroke back in October, though the government claims that most of the conspirators have been arrested and that the “situation is under control”. Even though it appears as though the state succeeded in thwarting this plot, the US is still poised to geopolitical profit from it by manipulating the outcome to its AFRICOM favor. Bongo narrowly won reelection by less than 6,000 votes, which was used by the opposition as their excuse to torch their parliament in the historically peaceful country and bring it to the brink of Hybrid War chaos. The author wrote about the developing crisis at the time in his piece about “What’s Going On With The Hybrid War On Gabon”, in which some important domestic and foreign policy basics about the country were also described. Gabon had been ruled by the Bongo family since the President’s father took power in 1967, or in other words, 7 years after its independence. It had previously been regarded as one of France’s most prized neo-colonial “possessions” in the continent and was known to be very rich in natural resources, which is why it was an OPEC member from 1975-1995 before returning again in 2016, one year after it interestingly joined the Saudis’ “anti-terrorist coalition”. It might sound strange to many that a majority-Christian nation on the Atlantic Coast of sub-Saharan Central Africa would join this Mideast-based military organization, but one of the reasons might be because Bongo is a member of Gabon’s Muslim minority and that he might have fallen sway to the Saudis’ “personal diplomacy” in wooing his country over to their side. Another complementary explanation could also simply be that Gabon had begun “rebalancing” its foreign policy during that time too, having transitioned from being a French neo-colonial “possession” to a more sovereignty-minded state following its post-Old Cold War partnership with China, though prudently understanding the need for a third strategic partner in order to maintain the best possible “balance” between Africa’s two most important non-regional countries during the opening stages of the New Cold War. Apart from its energy, fishery, and forestry resources, Gabon is also very important for geostrategic reasons, too. As the author wrote in his previously mentioned piece when describing why France retains nearly 1,000 troops in this tiny country, “Paris is able to keep troops on standby for snap-response deployment to Central African hotspots such as the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Additionally, because of its location, Gabon provides France with a midway location between the two rising African powers of Nigeria and Angola, a position which Paris could leverage to maximum effect if need be.” Presciently, it was for the “official” purpose of responding to “violent demonstrations” that might break out in the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (which is the world’s largest producer of cobalt) after its latest elections that Trump deployed 80 US troops there last week. The Purpose Of The American Deployment In hindsight, his signaling about these soldiers being in the Central African nation to supposedly respond to “violent demonstrations” in the DRC might have been nothing more than a ruse to cover up their role in trying to deter the same in Gabon following what is more than likely the AFRICOM-assisted coup attempt that just took place in the country. The true state of the situation still remains unclear, though it’s beginning to look like the government did indeed arrest most of the conspirators and that everything is now under control. Nevertheless, the domestic strife that Gabon experienced two and a half years ago during its last elections could have also been in the process of simmering over once more following rumors about Bongo’s health, which might have prompted the armed forces to preemptively act in the first place seeing as how the organizers declared their sympathy with the opposition supporters who were killed during those riots. The presence of US soldiers on the superficially plausible pretense of preparing to evacuate Americans from the DRC in the event that the nearby conflict-prone country re-erupts into violence following the impending announcement of its election results might just have been to signal the US’ tacit support to the plotters and deter Bongo loyalists from reacting, the latter purpose of which seems to have failed. The US didn’t want to get too directly involved because it wagered that it could leverage its position in the country irrespective of the coup’s outcome. As such, this event is of supreme significance for AFRICOM because the US now has a reason to further embed itself in this strategically positioned country along the energy-rich Gulf of Guinea, which is also surrounded by several weak but similarly strategic states presided over by long-serving elderly leaders and each of which have recently experienced different degrees of domestic unrest. To put it another way, the US deployment might have been ‘bait’ to encourage the coup plotters to go ahead with their attempt, after which the US could take advantage of its outcome one way or another in order to get Gabon to function as AFRICOM’s long-desired base in the continent. On the one hand, had the coup succeeded, then the US could have partnered with the “pariah” government that would have naturally been shunned by the African Union and most other international actors, helping it stabilize the domestic situation and resume a sense of “normality” as soon as possible. On the other, despite the apparent success of the government forces in quelling this coup, this dramatic incident might have shown the state that its domestic political tensions are still simmering and now affecting part of its “deep state” apparatus, thus necessitating the need for another security partner such as the US to maintain stability in case something like this happens again. Either way, the US is poised to profit from what happened in order to pursue its regional agenda. Here’s What Gabon Has Going For It In The Middle Of All The Action: Like it was mentioned earlier in pertinence to the author’s previously cited piece on Gabon, the country is in very close proximity to rising African Great Powers Nigeria and Angola, as well as the mineral-rich DRC. Furthermore, it’s also just a short distance away from the Central African Republic (CAR), which has taken on more importance over the past 12 months since Russia’s UNSC-approved “mercenary” intervention there, which forms the core component of Moscow’s “balancing” strategy in Africa. Given that France has all but lost CAR as a neo-imperial colony and could very well be in the process of losing Gabon too following the coup, it can be said that the “Scramble for Africa” that the author predicted would intensify this year is leading to profound geopolitical changes in the Central African region whereby the former extra-regional hegemon of France is being squeezed out by Russia, the US, and China. Another crucial point to keep in mind is that the surrounding countries of Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo (ROC), and Equatorial Guinea are led by aging leaders who have recently come under different forms of regime change pressure. The first-mentioned is led by Paul Biya (who has been in office for 36 consecutive years) and is unofficially in a state of civil war between the central government and the Anglophone region astride part of the Nigerian border, the second is led by Denis Nguesso (who has been in office for 34 non-consecutive years – 13 years and 21 years, with a 5-year interim break) and only recently reconsolidated peace in the restive southern Pool region outside the capital, while the last-mentioned is led by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (who has been in office for 39 years) and recently thwarted a mercenary-led coup attempt last year. In terms of regional Hybrid War dynamics, Gabon is therefore the perfect place for the US to encourage and guide regime change movements all throughout Central Africa, ultimately carving out an exclusive “sphere of influence” for itself in the eastern Gulf of Guinea from which to exert further influence into the West, Central, and Southern African countries of Nigeria, DRC, and Angola if it’s successful in turning the country into AFRICOM’s base of operations on the continent. Should that happen, then the newly imposed authorities will probably justify this move on the basis of “balancing” even though it’ll obviously be pivoting towards the US and away from France, China, and Saudi Arabia. AFRICOM doesn’t even have to be formally invited into the country either for this to happen, the US just needs to keep its proverbial ‘foot in the door’ and the rest might ‘naturally’ follow. The Gabonese coup attempt caught a lot of observers off guard, but in hindsight, the “writing was on the wall” the whole time and two important signals were sent beforehand that could have tipped people off about it. Bongo’s New Year’s address to the people, recorded from Morocco where he’s currently recovering from his October stroke, showed that he’s still somewhat physically incapacitated and unable to rule the country following his controversial razor-thin reelection in 2016 that represented almost a full half-century of dynastic rule by his family. The dispatch of 80 US troops there late last week on the pretense of preparing to respond to post-election violence in the nearby DRC was clearly a ruse because Gabon doesn’t even border the country in question, with it now looking that those soldiers’ very presence was designed to encourage the plotters and deter the state from reacting. Although the latest reports suggest that the government has reestablished full control over the situation, the coup attempt in and of itself is still a success for American foreign policy irrespective of its outcome because the US is now poised to manipulate its result in order to advance its own interests. A “revolutionary government” would have been internationally shunned and fully dependent on the US, while the recovering state might see the US as an important security partner that plays a crucial role in its “balancing” strategy. In both cases, the deepening US-Gabonese relationship would amount more to a pivot than an evolution of the Central African state’s “balancing” act, as an embedding of the US’ military forces in the country will inevitably have regional repercussions. While a comparatively prosperous and resource-rich country of approximately two million people is a strategic prize in and of itself for any Great Power to “capture” in the New Cold War’s “Scramble for Africa”, Gabon’s deeper significance lays in its geopolitical position in between the rising African Great Powers of Nigeria and Angola, its proximity to the conflict-prone DRC and CAR (where the US’ Chinese and Russian rivals are the predominant patrons of those states, respectively), and its location in the middle of three weaker countries under the leadership of aging presidents who have experienced varying degrees of domestic unrest lately. It’s too early to say whether the Gabonese coup attempt will be a game-changer or not, but it’s obvious that American strategists intend for it to be for the aforementioned reasons, which if successful in full or even part would signify the return of Africa to the US’ international focus. Note to readers: please click the share buttons above. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. This article was originally published on Eurasia Future. Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Featured image is from US Air Force

Andrew Korybko

https://www.globalresearch.ca/africom-complicity-in-gabon-coup-attempt-trump-orders-deployment-of-80-military-personnel-in-gabon/5664886

2019-01-07 16:00:58+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-02-11--Chile and the United States Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup September 11 197

globalresearch

Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973

September 11, 1998 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. The violent overthrow of the democratically-elected Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende changed the course of the country that Chilean poet Pablo Neruda described as “a long petal of sea, wine and snow”; because of CIA covert intervention in Chile, and the repressive character of General Pinochet’s rule, the coup became the most notorious military takeover in the annals of Latin American history. Revelations that President Richard Nixon had ordered the CIA to “make the economy scream” in Chile to “prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him,” prompted a major scandal in the mid-1970s, and a major investigation by the U.S. Senate. Since the coup, however, few U.S. documents relating to Chile have been actually declassified — until recently. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, and other avenues of declassification, the National Security Archive has been able to compile a collection of declassified records that shed light on events in Chile between 1970 and 1976. These documents, and many thousands of other CIA, NSC, and Defense Department records that are still classified secret, remain relevant to ongoing human rights investigations in Chile, Spain and other countries, and unresolved acts of international terrorism conducted by the Chilean secret police. Eventually, international pressure, and concerted use of the U.S. laws on declassification will force more of the still-buried record into the public domain–providing evidence for future judicial, and historical accountability. Click here to read the documents. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Peter Kornbluh

https://www.globalresearch.ca/chile-and-the-united-states-declassified-documents-relating-to-the-military-coup-september-11-1973/5668290

2019-02-11 16:05:35+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-02-17--Forgotten Anniversaries of US Sponsored Military Coups against Democracy

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Forgotten “Anniversaries” of U.S. Sponsored Military Coups against Democracy

Left-wing nationalist Joao Goulart became the democratically elected president of Brazil in September 1961, setting alarm bells clattering in the liberal Kennedy administration. Goulart began implementing structural reforms in the massive resource-rich South American country, that would help integrate the general population into society. (1) The United States was loathe to sit helplessly by as this movement came within “our hemisphere”, as President John F. Kennedy described it. Goulart, also known as “Jango”, was hostile toward US capitalist democracy that seeks to primarily serve elite powers. Shortly before his death, Kennedy had been preparing the groundwork to oust Goulart, with the coup (March 31-April 1) occurring less than five months under his successor’s reign, Lyndon B. Johnson. (2)  “We just can’t take this one [social movement],” warned Johnson. (3) Goulart’s toppling received crucial CIA funding and arms, while Brazil was placed under a neo-Nazi dictatorship that tortured their people for over 20 years. (4) Guatemala, a small central American nation, remains a ghastly nightmare to this day. The causes for her suffering can be traced to President Dwight D. Eisenhower implementing a CIA-run coup that installed successive military dictatorships. (1) Guatemala had been enjoying a 10-year revolution (1944-54): firstly, under Juan Jose Arevalo, who introduced a minimum wage and increased funding to education. (2) Arevalo’s democratically elected successor in 1951, Jacobo Arbenz, instituted land reforms to grant property to landless peasants. (3) Such inclusive measures were deemed an unacceptable threat to US hegemony over the Western hemisphere. Arbenz’ policies threatened the United Fruit Company (UFC), a powerful corporation exploiting Guatemalan workers which had direct ties to Eisenhower’s administration (the Dulles brothers). (4) The UFC aggressively lobbied Eisenhower, who authorised the CIA to aid a force led by the impending right-wing dictator, Carlos Castillo Armas. With further threat of invasion by American forces, the Guatemalan army eventually refused to fight on – an error of historic proportions. (5) Almost four decades of civil war followed, as successive US-backed dictators committed atrocities such as genocide against the Maya peoples. (6) The 1976 Argentine coup was the sixth, and final, forced government change that took place in the country during the 20th century. The US-backed Argentine Armed Forces installed the most vicious Latin American military dictatorship of all, responsible for tens of thousands of murdered and “disappeared”, under convicted war criminals such as Jorge Rafael Videla and Reynaldo Bignone. (1) Revealingly, the Nazi-style regime was a favorite of US president Ronald Reagan. (2) The coup toppled Isabel Peron, the first female leader in world history, wife and successor of deceased ex-president Juan Peron. Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State, met with several Argentine military commanders suggesting they crush their enemies before human rights issues become known to the American public. (3) The American invasion of the minuscule Caribbean island of Grenada (under President Reagan) drew a scathing international response from the UN General Assembly. (1) It “deeply deplores” the intervention, which “constitutes a flagrant violation of international law”, further condemning “the deaths of innocent civilians… the killing of the Prime Minister [Maurice Bishop].” The intervention was even opposed by most NATO countries and US allies such as France, Portugal, Australia, Spain and the Netherlands. (2) All irrelevant criticism for elite Western figures that believe the United States should be a law unto its own. The usual pretexts for the invasion of Grenada were put forward by the US government, and obediently relayed by the free press: Grenada was a “Marxist dictatorship” and the US army was on a “rescue mission” to defeat a Cuban military presence defending “this outpost of Soviet imperialism”. (3, 4, 5) The true reason for the attack? To expel a government not amenable to American hegemonic demands, and that may act as a further example of defiance (after Cuba) – the abysmal after effects for Grenadians was quickly airbrushed from history. United States interference in the Dominican Republic traces back to the early 20th century of the William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson administrations. (1) Wilson, for example, ordered the invasion of the country by US marines in 1916, their presence lasting over six years – an occupation reviled by the Dominican population. (2) The democratic election of socialist reformer Juan Bosch in February 1963, replacing a military junta, caused undue concern in elite American circles. (3) Their fears were quickly realised as Bosch undertook progressive steps the Dominican population had never known before (or since), initiating plans to reduce poverty, declaring labor rights, strengthening unions, rights for farmers, and so on. Bosch was declared “a communist” by pro-US business magnates and members of the army. (4) On September 25, 1963, a group of commanders led by Elias Wessin y Wessin, with crucial US support, expelled Bosch from the country.  (5)

Shane Quinn

https://www.globalresearch.ca/forgotten-anniversaries-of-u-s-sponsored-military-coups-against-democracy/5600531

2019-02-17 07:13:42+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-02-20--Military Coups Regime Change The CIA Has Interfered In Over 81 Foreign Elections

globalresearch

Military Coups, Regime Change…: The CIA Has Interfered In Over 81 Foreign Elections…

Timely article first posted on Global Research in January 2017, prior to the inauguration of president Donald Trump. The CIA has accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 presidential election (with absolutely zero evidence) by hacking into Democratic and Republican computer networks and selectively releasing emails. But critics might point out the U.S. has done similar things. The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence presidential elections in other countries – it’s done so as many as 81 times between 1946 and 2000, according to a database amassed by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University. That number doesn’t include military coups and regime change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S. didn’t like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile. Nor does it include general assistance with the electoral process, such as election monitoring. Levin defines intervention as “a costly act which is designed to determine the election results [in favor of] one of the two sides.” These acts, carried out in secret two-thirds of the time, include funding the election campaigns of specific parties, disseminating misinformation or propaganda, training locals of only one side in various campaigning or get-out-the-vote techniques, helping one side design their campaign materials, making public pronouncements or threats in favor of or against a candidate, and providing or withdrawing foreign aid. In 59% of these cases, the side that received assistance came to power, although Levin estimates the average effect of “partisan electoral interventions” to be only about a 3% increase in vote share. The U.S. hasn’t been the only one trying to interfere in other countries’ elections, according to Levin’s data. Russia attempted to sway 36 foreign elections from the end of World War II to the turn of the century – meaning that, in total, at least one of the two great powers of the 20th century intervened in about 1 of every 9 competitive, national-level executive elections in that time period. Italy’s 1948 general election is an early example of a race where U.S. actions probably influenced the outcome. “We threw everything, including the kitchen sink” at helping the Christian Democrats beat the Communists in Italy, said Levin, including covertly delivering “bags of money” to cover campaign expenses, sending experts to help run the campaign, subsidizing “pork” projects like land reclamation, and threatening publicly to end U.S. aid to Italy if the Communists were elected. Levin said that U.S. intervention probably played an important role in preventing a Communist Party victory, not just in 1948, but in seven subsequent Italian elections. Throughout the Cold War, U.S. involvement in foreign elections was mainly motivated by the goal of containing communism, said Thomas Carothers, a foreign policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The U.S. didn’t want to see left-wing governments elected, and so it did engage fairly often in trying to influence elections in other countries,” Carothers said. This approach carried over into the immediate post-Soviet period. In the 1990 Nicaragua elections, the CIA leaked damaging information on alleged corruption by the Marxist Sandinistas to German newspapers, according to Levin. The opposition used those reports against the Sandinista candidate, Daniel Ortega. He lost to opposition candidate Violeta Chamorro. In Czechoslovakia that same year, the U.S. provided training and campaign funding to Vaclav Havel’s party and its Slovak affiliate as they planned for the country’s first democratic election after its transition away from communism. “The thinking was that we wanted to make sure communism was dead and buried,” said Levin. Even after that, the U.S. continued trying to influence elections in its favor. In Haiti after the 1986 overthrow of dictator and U.S. ally Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the CIA sought to support particular candidates and undermine Jean-Bertrande Aristide, a Roman Catholic priest and proponent of liberation theology. The New York Times reported in the 1990s that the CIA had on its payroll members of the military junta that would ultimately unseat Aristide after he was democratically elected in a landslide over Marc Bazin, a former World Bank official and finance minister favored by the U.S. The U.S. also attempted to sway Russian elections. In 1996, with the presidency of Boris Yeltsin and the Russian economy flailing, President Clinton endorsed a $10.2-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund linked to privatization, trade liberalization and other measures that would move Russia toward a capitalist economy. Yeltsin used the loan to bolster his popular support, telling voters that only he had the reformist credentials to secure such loans, according to media reports at the time. He used the money, in part, for social spending before the election, including payment of back wages and pensions. In the Middle East, the U.S. has aimed to bolster candidates who could further the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In 1996, seeking to fulfill the legacy of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the peace accords the U.S. brokered, Clinton openly supported Shimon Peres, convening a peace summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik to boost his popular support and inviting him to a meeting at the White House a month before the election. “We were persuaded that if [Likud candidate Benjamin] Netanyahu were elected, the peace process would be closed for the season,” said Aaron David Miller, who worked at the State Department at the time. In 1999, in a more subtle effort to sway the election, top Clinton strategists, including James Carville, were sent to advise Labor candidate Ehud Barak in the election against Netanyahu. In Yugoslavia, the U.S. and NATO had long sought to cut off Serbian nationalist and Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic from the international system through economic sanctions and military action. In 2000, the U.S. spent millions of dollars in aid for political parties, campaign costs and independent media. Funding and broadcast equipment provided to the media arms of the opposition were a decisive factor in electing opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica as Yugoslav president, according to Levin. “If it wouldn’t have been for overt intervention… Milosevic would have been very likely to have won another term,” he said.

Nina Agrawal

https://www.globalresearch.ca/military-coups-regime-change-the-cia-has-interfered-in-over-81-foreign-elections/5567422

2019-02-20 08:11:02+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-03-29--Brazil 55 Years after the Overthrow of Democratically Elected President Joao Goulart the New Far-r

globalresearch

Brazil: 55 Years after the Overthrow of Democratically Elected President Joao Goulart, the New Far-right President, Jair Bolsonaro Has Announced a Celebration of the 1964 Military Coup

Brazil: 55 years after the army staged a coup on 31 March 1964 and overthrew President Joao Goulart, the new far-right President, Jair Bolsonaro has announced a celebration of this said event. There can be no doubt about the active support provided by the US government, the World Bank and the IMF. On 2 April 2014, a US NGO, the National Security Archive (NSA!) publicized an impressive amount of declassified official documents that testify to Washington aiding and abetting the Brazilian army officers who had overthrown Joao Goulart’s democratic government 50 years earlier. See this. In the PhD dissertation I presented at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège in 2004 [1], I discussed the support provided to the coup by Washington, the WB and the IMF. The relevant section is reproduced below. Support for the Brazilian military junta after the overthrow of President Joao Goulart President Joao Goulart’s democratic government was overthrown by the military in April 1964. WB and IMF loans, suspended for three years, resumed very soon afterwards. [2] A brief time line: in 1958, Brazilian president Kubitschek was about to undertake negotiations with the IMF to gain access to a loan of 300 million dollars from the United States. At the end, Kubitschek refused the IMF-imposed conditions and did without the US loan. This earned him wide popularity. His successor, Goulart, announced that he would implement a radical land reform programme and proceed to nationalise petroleum refineries: he was overthrown by the military. The United States recognised the new military regime one day after the coup. Not long afterwards, the WB and IMF resumed their suspended lending policy. As for the military, they rescinded the economic measures the United States and IMF had criticised. Note that international financial institutions were of the view that the military regime was taking sound economic measures [3]. Yet, the GDP fell 7% in 1965 and thousands of firms declared WBruptcy. The regime organised harsh repression, outlawed strikes, caused a dramatic drop in real wages, and eliminated direct ballot voting, disbanded trade unions and made systematic use of torture. Since his first trip in May 1968, McNamara regularly visited Brazil where he did not miss meeting the military rulers. The public reports of the WB systematically praised the policies of the dictatorship in reducing inequalities [4]. Nevertheless, inside the WB, the discussions took a bitter turn. When Bernard Chadenet, Vice-President of Project of the WB declared that the image of the WB is going to degrade following the support to the repressive government of Brazil, McNamara recognized that there was a tremendous amount of repression but he added that it “is not necessarily a great deal different from what it had been under previous governments, and it did not seem to be a lot worse than in some other member countries of the WB. Is Brazil worse than Thailand?” [5] Some days later, Mc Namara followed up “No viable alternative to the Government by generals seemed open” [6]. The World WB realised very well that inequalities would not diminish and that its loans in the agricultural sector would reinforce the big landowners. Nevertheless, it decided to carry on the loans because it absolutely wanted to put the government under its influence. Now, at this juncture, the WB met an obvious failure: the military regime demonstrated a deep mistrust in the context of the WBs desire to increase his presence. Finally, at the end of the 70s, they took advantage of a profusion of loans from the international private bankers granted at a lower rate of interest than that of the WB and moved away from the WB, which they found less useful. The WB has found many systematic means of getting round the prohibiting its operations taking “political” and “non-economic” considerations into account, one of the primary stipulations of its charter, from its founding onwards. The WB refused loans to post-liberation France as long as the Communists remained in the government. The day after they left the government in May 1947, the loan France had requested, blocked until then, was granted [7]. The WB has repeatedly contravened article IV of its own statutes. In truth, the WB has made many choices based on political considerations. The quality of governments’ economic policies is not the determining element in its choices. The WB has often lent money to the authorities in countries despite the dismal quality of their economic policies and a great degree of corruption: Indonesia and Zaire are two cases in point. Specifically, WB choices relative to countries that play a major political role in the eyes of its major shareholders are regularly linked to these shareholders’ interests and outlooks, starting with the United States. From 1947 to the collapse of the Soviet bloc [8], World WB and IMF decisions were determined in large part by the following criteria: To carry out this policy, the World WB and the IMF have generalised a tactic: greater flexibility towards right-wing governments (less demanding in terms of austerity measures) facing a strong left opposition than to left-wing governments facing strong opposition from the right. Concretely, that means IFI are more demanding and make life more difficult for left-wing governments to weaken them and ease the right’s path to power. According to the same logic, the IFI have made fewer demands on right-wing governments facing a left-wing opposition to avoid weakening them and preventing the left from coming to power. Monetarist orthodoxy has variable geometrics: the variations depend on many political and geostrategic factors. The IMF and World WB did not hesitate to support dictatorships when they (and other major capitalist powers) found it opportune. The author of the World Report on Human Development published by UNDP (1994 edition) says so in black and white: Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. This article was originally published on CADTM. Eric Toussaint is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the spokesperson of the CADTM International, and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France. He is the author of Bankocracy (2015); The Life and Crimes of an Exemplary Man(2014); Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket books, Chicago, 2012 (see here), etc.

Eric Toussaint

https://www.globalresearch.ca/brazil-overthrow-president-joao-goulart-far-right-president-jair-bolsonaro-celebration-1964-military-coup/5673022

2019-03-29 05:55:44+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-05-01--Selected Articles The Spontaneous Military Coup in Caracas Was Meant to Fail

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Selected Articles: The Spontaneous “Military Coup” in Caracas Was Meant to Fail?

Online independent analysis of US-led wars, rampant corruption, corporate greed, civil rights and fraudulent monetary transactions is invariably relegated to the bottom rung of search engine results. As a result we presently do not cover our monthly running costs which could eventually jeopardize our activities. Do you value the reporting and in-depth analysis provided by Global Research on a daily basis? Click to donate or click here to become a member of Global Research. The thwarted uprising started in the early morning hours when renegade military and intelligence officers reportedly released Lopez from house arrest. Lopez then joined Guaido and a handful of soldiers on the Altamira overpass in east Caracas, outside the Francisco de Miranda airbase, known as La Carlota. By Comitato No Nato, May 01, 2019 Multiple factors make Libya important in the eyes of the United States and the European powers. It has the largest oil reserves in Africa, precious for its high quality and low cost of extraction, and large reserves of natural gas. The Spontaneous “Military Coup” in Caracas was Meant to Fail? This spontaneous so-called military putsch was meant to fail. Visibly, it was not a carefully planned operation. And Washington was fully aware from the outset that it would fail. There was a lot of confusion, and still is, all through Sri Lanka. Nobody claimed credit for the massacres. There were rumors that Sri Lanka’s President received warnings ahead of the attacks from foreign intelligence, but ignored them. The President denies these allegations. And the explosions continue. Video: “Clinton Foundation and IS Funded from the Same Sources”: Julian Assange interview with John Pilger By Julian Assange and John Pilger, May 01, 2019 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stated that Hillary Clinton’s Clinton Foundation and the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS) are funded from the same sources. Predator Cops, Guilty of Sex Crimes Against Women and Children, Are a Menace to Society Where are the police when these children—some as young as 9 years old—are being raped repeatedly? For that matter, what is the Trump Administration doing about the fact that adults purchase children for sex at least 2.5 million times a year in suburbs, cities and towns across this nation? China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Towards a Just World? Essentially an infrastructure development endeavor it seeks to initiate and support the construction of roads, railways, ports and bridges in at least 65 other countries spanning four continents. With a commitment of over 900 billion US dollars, OBOR is the biggest infrastructure development project ever undertaken in the history of our planet. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Global Research News

https://www.globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-spontaneous-military-coup-caracas-meant-fail/5676211

2019-05-01 14:08:16+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-05-01--Venezuela Failed Military Coup in Caracas Guaido Seeks Refuge at Spanish Embassy

globalresearch

Venezuela: Failed Military Coup in Caracas. Guaido Seeks Refuge at Spanish Embassy

UPDATE: May 1st, 2019. Failed Military Coup. Guaido and Lopez Seek Refuge at Spanish Embassy Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro addressed the country in a televised speech on Tuesday evening, accusing those responsible for the military uprising of trying to provoke a “massacre” and lauding the armed forces for their restraint in avoiding direct confrontations. “Who benefits from these [confrontations]? Who finances them? Undoubtedly the leadership of the terrorist ultra-right party Popular Will,” Maduro declared, referring to the party of Lopez and Guaido. He added that today’s actions would not go “unpunished,” explaining that eight military officers and policemen were wounded in the armed confrontations, before going on to blast US leaders for their role in endorsing the coup attempt. Maduro also showed his appreciation for the tens of thousands who mobilized to defend the presidential palace beginning in the early hours of Tuesday. The Venezuelan president, who was accompanied by high-ranking political and military leaders, ended his speech by calling for a “massive mobilization” on May 1st to celebrate workers’ day and “defend peace.” A military coup attempt is underway in Venezuela on Tuesday, April 30, with imprisoned right wing leader Leopoldo Lopez, and self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaido and some members of the armed forces blocking a highway in Caracas and calling on the military to rise up. According to reports, a group from Venezuela’s Sebin intelligence service freed Leopoldo Lopez from house arrest early Tuesday morning. Lopez then joined Guaido and a handful of members from different branches of the armed forces in the Altamira highway in eastern Caracas close to La Carlota airbase. Lopez and Guaido published videos on social media calling on other elements of the armed forces to join the uprising and on their supporters to take to the streets. Guaido vowed that this was the “final phase” in ousting the Maduro government. The Venezuelan government promptly reacted, condemning the coup attempt and vowing that it would be defeated. The President of the National Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, spoke on state television, vowing that the uprising would be defeated and that those responsible would have to “assume their responsibilities.” He also called on the people and the Bolivarian militia to go out on the streets and defend Miraflores Palace. For his part, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López reported that military units throughout the country reported total normalcy, and that the military remain loyal to President Maduro. At the time of writing, Guaido’s followers are taking to the streets both in Caracas and other parts of the country, blocking roads in support of his new call for a coup. Minor confrontations with tear gas have been reported outside La Carlota air base in Caracas. Guaido had previously called for the “largest march in Venezuela’s history” scheduled for Wednesday May 1, while a Chavista march celebrating workers’ day was also expected to take place. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Venezuelanalysis.com

https://www.globalresearch.ca/venezuela-failed-military-coup-in-caracas-guaido-seeks-refuge-at-spanish-embassy/5676130

2019-05-01 09:17:04+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-05-02--British MSM Lapdog of American Military Coup Again

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British MSM – Lapdog of American Military Coup (Again)

The Washington favourite in Juan Guaido has spent years at the forefront of a violent campaign of destabilization of Venezuela. He has been groomed for 15 years as a long-term CIA project. It was, therefore, never any surprise to those watching that this was somehow a surprise. And of course, it is no surprise that his intentions are simply as an American stooge, to return Venezuela’s oil reserves to US hegemony and control. In the meantime, the British MSM slavishly follows orders. America has a long history of attacking countries with oil reserves with one of two things – bombs or ‘liberal democracy.’ Usually, there’s a smattering of humanitarianism thrown in and coming from America, that is to be feared. To the recipient nations rarely do things end well. Think, Iraq, Libya and countless other countries at the end of America’s greed. And like the attack of Iraq, where the British MSM stood idly by, looking the other way, not once properly challenging the obvious lies of the Tony Blair government and its made up story of WMD, the same is happening in Venezuela. The hypocrisy of Western media and its politicians is breathtaking in every sense when after such events in our recent history, we witness them again and again and nothing is said. There is something insidious about Britain’s media – both printed and presented. That they themselves see a blatant overt military coup, cry about the human rights abuses and turn the real story around 180 degrees against the government that is defending itself against that very coup is at its most charitable described as hypocrisy. It’s a fraud that mocks the nation as nothing more than being dumb and irrelevant. Former British ambassador Craig Murray has some words on the matter. Today, miraculously, the MSM line is no coup attempt happened at all, it was just a spontaneous unarmed protest, and it is the evil government of Venezuela which attempts to portray it as a coup. BBC Breakfast this morning had the headline “President Maduro has accused the opposition of mounting a coup attempt”… Yet there is no doubt at all that, as a matter of plain fact, that is what happened. The MSM today is full of video of water cannons against “protestors” and a horrible video of a military vehicle ramming a group. But it has all been very carefully edited to exclude hours of footage of the same military vehicles being pelted and set alight with molotov cocktails, and shot at. The presentation has been truly shocking. In any civilised country, attempting to mount a military coup would lead to incarceration for life, and that is what should now happen to Juan Guaido. The attempt by the West to protect their puppet by pretending the failed military coup never happened, must be resisted, if only in the cause of intellectual honesty. The resort to violence forces binary choice. I have been and am a critic of Maduro in many respects. I believe the constitutional changes to bypass Parliament were wrong, and the indirectly elected Constituent Assembly is not a good form of democracy. Venezuela does have a rampant corruption problem. US sanctions exacerbate but are not the root cause of economic mismanagement. There are human rights failings. But Chavez made revolutionary changes in educating and empowering the poor, and it is a far better governed country for the mass of its population than it would ever be under a US installed CIA puppet regime. Maduro was legitimately elected. The attempt at violence forces a binary choice. I know which side I am on. It is not Guaido and the CIA.” Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc

True Publica

https://www.globalresearch.ca/british-msm-lapdog-american-military-coup/5676335

2019-05-02 18:06:26+00:00

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coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-06-19--Overthrown in a 2013 Military Coup The Passing of Egypts Mohamed Morsi Man vs Myth

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Overthrown in a 2013 Military Coup, The Passing of Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi: Man vs. Myth

The passing of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi presents the perfect opportunity for reflecting on his controversial legacy and the real impact that this Muslim Brotherhood leader had on the region. Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi passed away on Monday due to what are largely thought to have been health complications arising from his poorly treated blood pressure and diabetes while in custody. The country’s brief leader was overthrown in a 2013 military coup by now-President Sisi in response to rising protests against his rule driven by many of his secular compatriots who were extremely uncomfortable with a member of the previously and once-again banned Muslim Brotherhood as their head of state. Morsi narrowly won the presidency by less than a one million vote margin in a country of over 90 million people, so his mandate was always questionable and gave rise to rumors about its legitimacy. Importantly, Morsi shared the same ideology as both the Qatari and Turkish leaders, so his rise to power provoked fears among some regional security stakeholders that a new axis of influence was forming in the Mideast, one that could threaten both the remaining secular governments and the monarchic ones as well, both of whom shared little in common other than their agreement that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization. It’s due to this strategic consideration that many believe that the Gulf Kingdoms secretly played a role in Sisi’s 2013 coup, which led to the Brotherhood being banned once again and Morsi charged with a bevy of crimes that resulted in an overturned death sentence. Supporters of the coup believe that it prevented the country from descending into civil war given the dangerous polarization that it entered into following the onset of the so-called “Arab Spring“. They also point to Morsi’s anti-Assad stance and believe that he was planning to play a leading role in the War of Terror on Syria had he not been stopped by the military. Critics of the coup, however, denounced it as a foreign-backed anti-democratic seizure of power that merely replicated the same Color Revolution tactics that brought Morsi himself into power in the first place. They’re also very unhappy with with Sisi’s presidency because they don’t see much of a difference between him and Mubarak. Morsi’s alleged mistreatment and ultimate death in custody are also being interpreted by some as a message to Turkish President Erdogan of the fate that could befall him if he’s ever overthrown as well, such as what was unsuccessfully attempted during the summer 2016 coup events. The two leaders are ideological brothers-in-arms with a vision of Islamifying their decades-long officially secular societies, which Erdogan has already almost fully succeeded with whereas Morsi never really had much of a chance. Granted, there are serious differences between both societies that facilitated and impeded those leaders’ plans, but with Morsi out of the picture and Qatar largely “contained”, Erdogan’s Turkey is now the Muslim Brotherhood’s last main torchbearer. Interestingly, although Russia officially regards the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and wasn’t on good terms at all with Morsi, it nowadays has no problem with Erdogan and is actually in a fast-moving strategic partnership with his country. This seemingly contradictory stance can be explained by contemporary geopolitics and the prevailing fears around the time of the “Arab Spring”. Russian General Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov wrote in February 2013 that Moscow regards the aforementioned events as a series of Color Revolutions that catalyzed regional conflicts, whereas President Putin just praised Turkey the other day during the SCO Summit in Bishkek for contributing to Russia and Iran’s joint victory over Daesh in Syria. Quite clearly, Russia doesn’t consider Erdogan’s embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood to be as threatening as Morsi’s was, most likely because Turkey nowadays cooperates real closely with Russia in Syria after its geopolitical volte-face since the failed summer 2016 coup attempt while Egypt was supposedly getting ready militantly export its model to Syria and elsewhere in the region before Sisi’s successful 2013 coup. The thought exercise of comparing and contrasting Morsi’s Egypt with Erdogan’s Turkey therefore reveals that geopolitical calculi were the main reason why Russia eventually came to treat these two very ideologically similar states differently in spite of their nearly identical regional visions. With this in mind and reflecting on the rest of Morsi’s legacy, most observers would agree that this fallen leader elicits very strong partisan political reactions from the average person, who either strongly supports him as the best of Egypt’s post-independence leaders or vehemently opposes him as its worst, believing that he embodied a brief period of hope or epitomized the chaos of the times, respectively. Some will insist that he was brought to power by the people and taken down by a foreign plot, while others maintain that his rise was due to a foreign-influenced Color Revolution and only ended with a patriotic coup. Whichever way one looks at it, the myth will always overshadow the man, for better or for worse, making Morsi’s legacy all the more contentious. Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Andrew Korybko

https://www.globalresearch.ca/overthrown-in-a-2013-military-coup-the-passing-of-egypts-mohamed-morsi-man-vs-myth/5681090

2019-06-19 15:19:01+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-08-15--Sudans Constitutional Declaration Leaves Out Key Political Forces Attempted Military Coups and R

globalresearch

Sudan’s “Constitutional Declaration” Leaves Out Key Political Forces. Attempted Military Coups and Regional Intrigue

Members of the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA), a leading organization within the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), announced on August 9 that they would have no representatives in the soon to be created transitional government. This report comes in the midst of a whirlwind of political developments inside the oil-producing African state which has experienced social unrest, a military coup and ongoing negotiations aimed at establishing an effective interim process. Former President Omer Hassan al-Bashir of the National Congress Party (NCP) was ousted in a putsch on April 11, just five days after the commencement of a sit-in outside the defense headquarters in the capital of Khartoum. The occupation remained until it was violently dispersed nearly two months later at the aegis of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an important component of the security apparatus in the country. Demonstrations began in Sudan during mid-December as a rise in bread prices triggered thousands of people to move into the streets in protest. Soon enough the demands shifted from economic grievances to the call for the resignation of President al-Bashir. A Political Declaration agreed to by the FFC and the Transitional Military Council (TMC) which has ruled the nation since April 11, laid a framework for a Sovereign Council where representatives from both the TMC and FFC will share power for 39 months leading up to multi-party elections. The terms of the implementation of the Constitutional component of the three-pronged transitional framework will remain uncertain particularly with the absence of a pathway towards peace which is contingent upon its adoption by the armed opposition groupings, the Left and other disaffected tendencies. However, the armed Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) have already expressed their displeasure with the terms of the Political Declaration leaving the possibility of continuing demonstrations and other forms of resistance. This same position has carried over as it relates to the Constitutional Declaration agreement as well. The third component of the transitional arrangement, the Legislative Council, is yet to be determined by the principal negotiators of the FFC and the TMC. Sudanese celebrate the signing of the Constitutional Declaration on August 9, 2019 (Photo by EWN) Other groups which have significant followings, the National Umma Party and the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) have also revealed they will not be a part of the transitional government based in Khartoum. An apparent restless populace which has been the target of highly repressive measures by the security forces may not be willing to remain optimistic in light of a myriad of unanswered questions related to the country’s future. SRF affiliates have been engaged in military operations against the central government for many years. Two of the principal members of the alliance are fighting against SAF and RSF units in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and the Darfur region. Consequently, when the SPA said it would not participate in the transitional government, additional questions came to the fore. Moreover, how long will the negotiations continue on outstanding issues related to the Political Declaration and the Constitutional Declaration? A Legislative Council is also under discussion which would theoretically seal a pathway towards a new dispensation. In an article published by Sudan Tribune on August 9, it says that: This same above-mentioned dispatch goes on to note: Therefore, despite the extensive discussions between the FFC and TMC in both Khartoum and in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the mediation of the African Union (AU), existing contentious issues are unresolved. There can be no effective transition to even a bourgeois democratic government without securing sustainable peace treaties mandating the laying down of arms and the creation of an inclusive administration. Another key element of the Sudanese political crises is the numerous accounts of attempted counter-coups within the SAF itself. Several high-ranking military officials have been arrested where they join former President al-Bashir in detention. In addition, there were rumors of ongoing “purges of Islamists” military personnel from the SAF. Defining what the term “Islamists” actually means within the context of contemporary Sudan is undoubtedly complex. The previous government of the NCP under al-Bashir was categorized by some as “Islamist.” At the same time there are other political tendencies such as the Umma Party and the Popular Congress Party (PCP), long in opposition to the NCP, as also fitting into this characterization. These factors raise the question as to the nature of the political disagreements obviously plaguing the military apparatus. For example, the crackdown on the mass demonstrations which occurred in the capital of Khartoum on June 3 has been attributed to the RSF. In a sense the SAF has attempted to distance itself from some of the harsher forms of repression which have resulted in the deaths of more than 300 people. On the international level, there are reports that the RSF militias are supplying weapons to opposition forces in the Central African Republic (CAR). The Seleka Coalition, an alliance of several organizations dominated by the CAR’s minority Muslim population, has recently signed a peace deal with the government in the capital of Bangui. Seleka Coalition affiliates are said to be concerned about a possible offensive to disarm their forces. This comes amid the increasing presence of advisors from the Russian Federation who were requested to assist the military of the CAR by its current President Faustin-Archange Touadera. The appeal was made directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in 2017. Moreover, SAF units are still cooperating with Saudi Arabia and other regional states in the now more than four-year old war being wage in Yemen. This is a United States engineered bombing and ground campaign designed to weaken the Ansurallah (Houthis) Movement. The U.S., Britain and their allies contend that the Ansurrallah are backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran and therefore viewed as a threat to the strategic balance of forces in the Middle East. The Aims of Imperialism in Sudan Washington’s foreign policy towards Sudan has been geared towards regime-change and a total capturing of the state for the purpose ensuring compliance with its political and economic objectives in North and Central Africa. The fact that the previous government of President al-Bashir had exercised a degree of independence from successive U.S. administrations, both Democratic and Republican, resulted in hostile actions towards the NCP over a number of years. The al-Bashir government had made firm economic agreements with the People’s Republic of China in regard to its drilling and export of oil. Ousted President al-Bahir also defied the warrants issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying that they would not recognize this imperialist construct as having any authority over the country and its leaders. Nevertheless, this modicum of independent domestic and international policy would shift after 2014 with the decline in petroleum prices and the worsening economic outlook for the Republic of Sudan in the aftermath of the partitioning of the South. The Republic of South Sudan came into being in 2011 largely as a result of the contradictions which developed during the period of British colonialism in the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries until the country became liberated in 1956. Britain ruled Sudan as two separate entities involving the North and the South. These divisions fomented two civil wars, from 1955-1972, and later from 1983 through 2003. The transition to partition reduced the economic and territorial status of the Republic of Sudan, which prior to the independence of Juba, was the largest geographic nation-state in Africa. The U.S., Britain and the State of Israel supported the creation of the Republic of South Sudan. As events have developed since 2013, the Republic of South Sudan has not proven to be a viable state and has been inflicted with civil war due to a split within the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). Both Juba and Khartoum are suffering from internal conflict and economic malaise. Consequently, the imperialist legacy of domination has effectively impeded the genuine development of the now two separate states. Of course this contemporary history has profound significance for other regional states and Africa as a whole. The necessity for the resolution of internal conflict and the maintenance of sovereignty is the major question facing the AU. The degree to which the Republic of Sudan can resolve its present situation will prove instructive to other African and developing nations. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of Pan-African News Wire. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Featured image: Sudan Constitutional Declaration signed by Transitional Military Council and Force for Freedom and Change Photo by Al Jazeera

Abayomi Azikiwe

https://www.globalresearch.ca/sudans-constitutional-declaration-leaves-out-key-political-forces-attempted-military-coups-and-regional-intrigue/5686446

2019-08-15 09:54:00+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-11-06--Bolivia: Leaked Audios Confirm Involvement of Opposition Leaders, Ex-Military and US in Coup Plans

globalresearch

Bolivia: Leaked Audios Confirm Involvement of Opposition Leaders, Ex-Military and US in Coup Plans

The Radio Education Network of Bolivia (Erbol) leaked 16 audios involving opposition leaders who are calling for a coup d’etat against the government of President Evo Morales, a political action which would have been coordinated from the U.S. embassy in the Andean country. Among those mentioned in the audios are the U.S. senators Marco Rubio, Bob Menendez and Ted Cruz, who have would maintained contact with the Bolivian opposition in order to achieve a possible regime change in the South American country.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ The audios also reveal participation in the political conspiracy of the former prefect of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa, who was accused of corruption in 2009 and fled Bolivia to seek asylum in the U.S., where he is currently living.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ In their conspiracy talks, Bolivian politicians also mention​​​​​​​ a former Bolivian president whose name is not explicitly mentioned, former New Republican Force lawmaker Mauricio Muñoz and former Army officers Oscar Pacello, Remberto Siles, Julio Maldonado and Teobaldo Cardozo.​​​​​​​ The Erbol leaked information audios also mention calls from opposition leaders to burn government party structures and to put together a general strike across the country. All these ​​​​​​​actions, which were expected to be advertised as based on social unrest​​​​​​​, would be part of the response to the triumph of Evo Morales in the last presidential elections​​​​​​​. The opposition plans would also include an eventual attack against the Cuban Embassy, very similar to what happened in the coup against Venezuela’s late president Hugo Chavez in 2002. So far, none of the opposition leaders in Bolivia has said anything about the leaked audios.​​​​​​​ Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Telesur

https://www.globalresearch.ca/bolivia-audios-linking-civic-ex-military-us-coup-plans/5694142

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 03:42:08 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-11-11--PSL Statement: We Condemn Military Coup; US Hands Off Bolivia

globalresearch

PSL Statement: We Condemn Military Coup; US Hands Off Bolivia

The Party for Socialism and Liberation strongly condemns the military coup in Bolivia, and extends our solidarity to the Bolivian people who are struggling to defend the massive gains won under the leadership of President Evo Morales in the face of this counter-revolution. U.S. imperialism is clearly the sponsor of the coup and we are outraged at this crime against Bolivian sovereignty and democracy. The goal of the coup is to restore the absolute authority of the Bolivian elites who rule as clients of the United States. They despise the country’s Indigenous majority and want to eviscerate the rights of the working class. The coup also has a clear regional significance. Progressive and revolutionary forces have been on the march over the past year. President López Obrador’s new government in Mexico committed itself to non-interference in the sovereign affairs of the nations of Latin America. Venezuela defeated the U.S.-backed coup attempt of Juan Guaidó. An uprising in Ecuador forced the government to flee the capital city and cancel an IMF-imposed austerity package. An ongoing rebellion in Chile has brought historic crowds into the streets and put the right wing government of Sebastian Piñera on the defensive despite vicious repression by the police and military. The right wing government in Argentina was voted out of office in favor of the progressive Alberto Fernández-Cristina Fernández presidential ticket. And immediately preceding the Bolivian coup, wrongfully imprisoned ex-President Lula was freed. The Bolivian ruling class and their military are following the dictates of the U.S. government, which has worked overtime to turn back the leftwing tide sweeping Latin America. Upon assuming the presidency in 2006, President Morales nationalized the country’s oil and gas wealth. This wealth was used to meet the needs of the people and promote economic development. Morales’ Movement for Socialism (MAS) drew its support from the working class of Bolivia, whose population is majority Indigenous, and transformed Bolivia from one of the poorest countries in the world to the fastest-growing economy in the region. Evo Morales is the first Indigenous President in the history of Bolivia, and his presidency has posed a challenge to the racist ruling elite by empowering the Indigenous majority culturally and economically. The battle in Bolivia and all of Latin America continues between the forces that want to empower the people and those that want to restore the power and wealth of the elite. People in the United States can play an important role in this intense struggle by pressuring our imperialist government to end its war on the people in Latin America and the Caribbean. U.S. hands off Bolivia! Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Party for Socialism and Liberation

https://www.globalresearch.ca/we-condemn-military-coup-us-hands-off-bolivia/5694640

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 14:47:14 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-11-11--The Military Coup Against Morales Won’t End the Hybrid War on Bolivia

globalresearch

The Military Coup Against Morales Won’t End the Hybrid War on Bolivia

President Morales resigned under duress following the military’s “request” that he do so after the US-backed OAS alleged that it uncovered evidence supposedly proving that his recent re-election was rigged, but the military coup won’t end the Hybrid War on Bolivia even in the unlikely “best-case” scenario that it ends the cycle of violence in the country because the structural-institutional consequences of this ongoing campaign will inevitably lead to a reversal of the socio-economic rights that were bestowed upon the majority-indigenous population and therefore risks returning millions of people to their prior position as slaves to the neoliberal-globalist system. The Beginning Of The End? The Hybrid War on Bolivia has thus far succeeded in removing the country’s democratically re-elected and legitimate head of state after President Morales resigned under duress following the military’s “request” that he do so, with this coup being made possible only because US intelligence had already co-opted the armed forces and therefore ensured that this outcome was a fait accompli even before it was officially announced. On the surface, it might appear as though the Hybrid War is over after it achieved its most visible victory of carrying out regime change in this lithium-rich and geostrategically located state smack dab in the center of South America, but the fact of the matter is that this campaign is far from over for several very important reasons. The first one is the most obvious, and it’s that there might be some uncertain degree of physical resistance from (“former”) President Morales’ mostly indigenous supporters, whether in the form of street protests or possibly even a nascent insurgency that could represent the tangible beginning of a national liberation movement to liberate the country from the US-backed military-oligarchic yoke that it’s suddenly been returned under after 13 years of freedom. The military preemptively sought to offset this scenario just prior to the coup by commencing what Reuters reported was “air and land operations to ‘neutralize’ armed groups that act outside the laws”, which in the country’s political context could only have been a euphemism for beginning operations against President Morales’ mostly indigenous supporters and not their right-wing opponents allied with the armed forces who were rioting throughout the country for several weeks already. This is an important detail that many observers missed amid the fast-moving events that transpired on Sunday but one which crucially reveals that the military went rogue even before demanding President Morales’ resignation by launching operations against what are presumably his supporters despite not legally having the authority to do so. In hindsight, this means that not only did a military coup occur, but that it was preceded by what was arguably the unofficial onset of a low-level civil war whereby the armed forces went outside the legal chain of command (considering that they had yet to demand his resignation at the time) in order to “confront the people” despite previously denying that they had any such intention. This dramatic move came after the “opposition” seized state media in the capital, the homes of President Morales’ sister and two of his governors were torched Saturday night, and an allied mayor was lynched in the streets by the “opposition” a few days prior. It’s little wonder then that President Morales implored his countrymen during his resignation speech to “stop attacking the brothers and sisters, stop burning and attacking” since he feared for his supporters’ lives after what had recently just taken place, especially seeing as how he would have already had knowledge of the military’s ongoing operation against them that was commenced earlier that same day. Knowing this, he fled the capital before they could capture him and potentially carry out a Gaddafi-like regicide while serving a so-called “warrant” for his arrest (on the presumable basis of something having to do with electoral or another form of alleged “corruption”) and relying on what would have been the unsubstantiated claim that he “resisted” or was “armed” in order to “justify” killing him in cold blood just like their predecessors did to the famous Che Guevara a little over half a century ago. If they don’t succeed in capturing him soon, the US-backed armed forces might even request American and/or Brazilian “anti-terrorist” assistance after possibly claiming that he and his supporters are connected to Iran’s IRGC and/or Colombia’s FARC considering President Morales’ close ties with the Islamic Republic and vehement support of socialism, respectively. They could also “justify” their request for a direct military intervention by reminding the region of his alliance with Venezuelan President Maduro and alleging that the latter is somehow involved in President Morales’ so-called “terrorist” and possibly even “drug-trafficking” activities. The deck is therefore stacked against him and his supporters even in the event that they resort to waging a national liberation campaign, which would be entirely within their legal rights after external forces took control of the state by proxy and commenced the ongoing low-level civil war. That’s the worst-case scenario, but the “best-case” one isn’t much better, which would see the US-backed right-wing forces rapidly reversing the socio-economic rights that President Morales bestowed upon the majority-indigenous population throughout his 13 years in office without having to fight an intense civil war first. In other words, his supporters would simply surrender and allow the process to unfold without any physical resistance, which seems extremely unlikely but could nevertheless still occur if the campaign of terror presently being waged against them succeeds in scaring the population into submission. It should be taken for granted that some members of the riotous mobs will team up with the US-backed military in order to form death squads that will kill anyone who resists, beginning with members of his government (both currently serving and those who recently resigned in order to protect their families after their loved ones were at credible risk of being harmed) and their supporters who might take to the streets in protest against this illegal seizure of power. Either way, the grand strategic outcome that the coup plotters are pursuing is to purge all state structures of socialists in order to more easily impose a hyper-neoliberal regime as soon as possible, with the only question being whether the population actively resists this “lustration” or not. Some of the most likely structural-institutional consequences would be the granting of fiscal (and possibly even political) autonomy to the gas-rich “opposition” strongholds of the so-called “Media Luna” lowlands where most of the mestizos live and the drastic reduction of taxes on foreign mining firms operating in the indigenous-populated highlands, which could altogether serve to deprive President Morales’ mostly indigenous supporters of the resources needed to subsidize their socio-economic programs. The end result would naturally be that millions of people risk returning to their prior position of undignified servitude that they toiled under prior to President Morales’ ascent to office. Acutely aware of the future that awaits them if the military coup succeeds in stripping them of their hard-earned socio-economic rights and institutionalizing their status as slaves to the neoliberal-globalist system supported by their country’s oligarchy and its American/Brazilian backers, it wouldn’t be surprising if the “worst-case” scenario transpires of President Morales’ mostly indigenous supporters waging a full-fledged national liberation insurgency. That, however, also dangerously carries with it the high risk that the state will “simplify” its “counter-insurgency” strategy by siccing death squads on anyone of native Bolivian heritage (especially in the rural areas), therefore leading to ethnic cleansing against them or even genocide if this strategy is taken to its “logical” conclusion. As such, it’s way too early to say that the Hybrid War on Bolivia is over just because President Morales was forced to resign under duress since this campaign will never truly end given the literally fascist outcome that it’s aiming to indefinitely perpetuate of informally returning the indigenous population to noeliberal slavery. Considering the dynamics at play, Bolivia might soon become known as the “Latin American Libya”, and the consequences could easily spread throughout the rest of South America just as Libya’s spread throughout Africa. Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. This article was originally published on OneWorld. Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Andrew Korybko

https://www.globalresearch.ca/military-coup-against-morales-wont-end-hybrid-war-bolivia/5694623

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 18:05:22 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-11-13--Bolivia Coup Led by Christian Fascist Paramilitary Leader and Millionaire – with Foreign Support

globalresearch

Bolivia Coup Led by Christian Fascist Paramilitary Leader and Millionaire – with Foreign Support

Bolivian coup leader Luis Fernando Camacho is a far-right multi-millionaire who arose from fascist movements in the Santa Cruz region, where the US has encouraged separatism. He has courted support from Colombia, Brazil, and the Venezuelan opposition. When Luis Fernando Camacho stormed into Bolivia’s abandoned presidential palace in the hours after President Evo Morales’s sudden November 10 resignation, he revealed to the world a side of the country that stood at stark odds with the plurinational spirit its deposed socialist and Indigenous leader had put forward. With a Bible in one hand and a national flag in the other, Camacho bowed his head in prayer above the presidential seal, fulfilling his vow to purge his country’s Native heritage from government and “return God to the burned palace.” Far-right Bolivian opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho in Bolivia’s presidential palace with a Bible, after the coup Bolivia’s extreme right-wing opposition had overthrown leftist President Evo Morales that day, following demands by the country’s military leadership that he step down. Virtually unknown outside his country, where he had never won a democratic election, Camacho stepped into the void. He is a powerful multi-millionaire named in the Panama Papers, and an ultra-conservative Christian fundamentalist groomed by a fascist paramilitary notorious for its racist violence, with a base in Bolivia’s wealthy separatist region of Santa Cruz. Camacho hails from a family of corporate elites who have long profited from Bolivia’s plentiful natural gas reserves. And his family lost part of its wealth when Morales nationalized the country’s resources, in order to fund his vast social programs — which cut poverty by 42 percent and extreme poverty by 60 percent. In the lead-up to the coup, Camacho met with leaders from right-wing governments in the region to discuss their plans to destabilize Morales. Two months before the putsch, he tweeted gratitude: “Thank you Colombia! Thank you Venezuela!” he exclaimed, tipping his hat to Juan Guaido’s coup operation. He also recognized the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, declaring, “Thank you Brazil!” Camacho had spent years leading an overtly fascist separatist organization called the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista. The Grayzone edited the following clips from a promotional historical documentary that the group posted on its own social media accounts: While Camacho and his far-right forces served as the muscle behind the coup, their political allies waited to reap the benefits. The presidential candidate Bolivia’s opposition had fielded in the October election, Carlos Mesa, is a “pro-business” privatizer with extensive ties to Washington. US government cables published by WikiLeaks reveal that he regularly corresponded with American officials in their efforts to destabilize Morales. Mesa is currently listed as an expert at the Inter-American Dialogue, a DC-based think tank funded by the US government’s soft-power arm USAID, various oil giants, and a host of multi-national corporations active in Latin America. Evo Morales, a former farmer who rose to prominence in social movements before becoming the leader of the powerful grassroots political party Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), was Bolivia’s first Indigenous leader. Wildly popular in the country’s substantial Native and peasant communities, he won numerous elections and democratic referenda over a 13-year period, often in landslides. On October 20, Morales won re-election by more than 600,000 votes, giving him just above the 10 percent margin needed to defeat opposition presidential candidate Mesa in the first round. Experts who did a statistical analysis of Bolivia’s publicly available voting data found no evidence of irregularities or fraud. But the opposition claimed otherwise, and took to the streets in weeks of protests and riots. The events that precipitated the resignation of Morales were indisputably violent. Right-wing opposition gangs attacked numerous elected politicians from the ruling leftist MAS party. They then ransacked the home of President Morales, while burning down the houses of several other top officials. The family members of some politicians were kidnapped and held hostage until they resigned. A female socialist mayor was publicly tortured by a mob. Following the forced departure of Morales, coup leaders arrested the president and vice president of the government’s electoral body, and forced the organization’s other officials to resign. Camacho’s followers proceeded to burn Wiphala flags that symbolized the country’s Indigenous population and the plurinational vision of Morales. The Organization of American States, a pro-US organization founded by Washington during the Cold War as an alliance of right-wing anti-communist countries in Latin America, helped rubber stamp the Bolivian coup. It called for new elections, claiming there were numerous irregularities in the October 20 vote, without citing any evidence. Then the OAS remained silent as Morales was overthrown by his military and his party’s officials were attacked and violently forced to resign. The day after, the Donald Trump White House enthusiastically praised the coup, trumpeting it as a “significant moment for democracy,” and a “strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua.” Emerging from the shadows to lead a violent far-right putsch While Carlos Mesa timidly condemned the opposition’s violence, Camacho egged it on, ignoring calls for an international audit of the election and emphasizing his maximalist demand to purge all supporters of Morales from government. He was the true face of the opposition, concealed for months behind the moderate figure of Mesa. A 40-year-old multi-millionaire businessman from the separatist stronghold of Santa Cruz, Camacho has never run for office. Like Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaidó, whom more than 80 percent of Venezuelans had never heard of until the US government anointed him as supposed “president,” Camacho was an obscure figure until the coup attempt in Bolivia hit its stride. He first created his Twitter account on May 27, 2019. For months, his tweets went ignored, generating no more than three or four retweets and likes. Before the election, Camacho did not have a Wikipedia article, and there were few media profiles on him in Spanish- or English-language media. Camacho issued a call for a strike on July 9, posting videos on Twitter that got just over 20 views. The goal of the strike was to try to force the resignation of Bolivian government’s electoral organ the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). In other words, Camacho was pressuring the government’s electoral authorities to step down more than three months before the presidential election. It was not until after the election that Camacho was thrust into the limelight and transformed into a celebrity by corporate media conglomerates like the local right-wing network Unitel,Telemundo, and CNN en Español. All of a sudden, Camacho’s tweets calling for Morales to resign were lighting up with thousands of retweets. The coup machinery had been activated. Mainstream outlets like the New York Times and Reuters followed by anointing the unelected Camacho as the “leader” of Bolivia’s opposition. But even as he lapped up international attention, key portions of the far-right activist’s background were omitted. Left unmentioned were Camacho’s deep and well-established connections to Christian extremist paramilitaries notorious for racist violence and local business cartels, as well as the right-wing governments across the region. It was in the fascist paramilitaries and separatist atmosphere of Santa Cruz where Camacho’s politics were formed, and where the ideological contours of the coup had been defined. Cadres from the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista (UJC), the Bolivian fascist youth group that Luis Fernando Camacho got his start in Luis Fernando Camacho was groomed by the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista, or Santa Cruz Youth Union (UJC), a fascist paramilitary organization that has been linked to assassination plots against Morales. The group is notorious for assaulting leftists, Indigenous peasants, and journalists, all while espousing a deeply racist, homophobic ideology. Since Morales entered office in 2006, the UJC has campaigned to separate from a country its members believed had been overtaken by a Satanic Indigenous mass. The UJC is the Bolivian equivalent of Spain’s Falange, India’s Hindu supremacist RSS, and Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov battalion. Its symbol is a green cross that bears strong similarities to logos of fascist movements across the West. And its members are known to launch into Nazi-style sieg heil salutes. Even the US embassy in Bolivia has described UJC members as “racist” and “militant,” noting that they “have frequently attacked pro-MAS/government people and installations.” After journalist Benjamin Dangl visited with UJC members in 2007, he described them as the “brass knuckles” of the Santa Cruz separatist movement. “The Unión Juvenil has been known to beat and whip campesinos marching for gas nationalization, throw rocks at students organizing against autonomy, toss molotov cocktails at the state television station, and brutally assault members of the landless movement struggling against land monopolies,” Dangl wrote. “When we have to defend our culture by force, we will,” a UJC leader told Dangl. “The defense of liberty is more important than life.” Camacho was elected as vice president of the UJC in 2002, when he was just 23 years old. He left the organization two years later to build his family’s business empire and rise through the ranks of the Pro-Santa Cruz Committee. It was in that organization that he was taken under the wing of one of the separatist movement’s most powerful figures, a Bolivian-Croatian oligarch named Branko Marinkovic. In August, Camacho tweeted a photo with his “great friend,” Marinkovic. This friendship was crucial to establishing the rightist activist’s credentials and forging the basis of the coup that would take form three months later. Branko Marinkovic is a major landowner who ramped up his support for the right-wing opposition after some of his land was nationalized by the Evo Morales government. As chairman of the Pro-Santa Cruz Committee, he oversaw the operations of the main engine of separatism in Bolivia. In a 2008 letter to Marinkovic, the International Federation for Human Rights denounced the committee as an “actor and promoter of racism and violence in Bolivia.” The human rights group added that it “condemn[ed] the attitude and secessionist, unionist and racist discourses as well as the calls for military disobedience of which the Pro-Santa Cruz Civic Committee for is one of the main promoters.” In 2013, journalist Matt Kennard reported that the US government was working closely with the Pro-Santa Cruz Committee to encourage the balkanization of Bolivia and to undermine Morales. “What they [the US] put across was how they could strengthen channels of communication,” the vice president of the committee told Kennard. “The embassy said that they would help us in our communication work and they have a series of publications where they were putting forward their ideas.” In a 2008 profile on Marinkovic, the New York Timesacknowledged the extremist undercurrents of the Santa Cruz separatist movement the oligarch presided over. It described the area as “a bastion of openly xenophobic groups like the Bolivian Socialist Falange, whose hand-in-air salute draws inspiration from the fascist Falange of the former Spanish dictator Franco.” The Bolivian Socialist Falange was a fascist group that provided safe haven to Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie during the Cold War. A former Gestapo torture expert, Barbie was repurposed by the CIA through its Operation Condor program to help exterminate communism across the continent. (Despite its antiquated name, like the German National Socialists, this far-right extremist group was violently anti-leftist, committed to killing socialists.) The Bolivian Falange came into power in 1971 when its leader, Gen. Hugo Banzer Suarez, ousted the leftist government of Gen. Juan Jose Torres Gonzales. The government of Gonzales had infuriated business leaders by nationalizing industries and antagonized Washington by ousting the Peace Corps, which it viewed as an instrument of CIA penetration. The Nixon administration immediately welcomed Banzer with open arms and courted him as a key bulwark against the spread of socialism in the region. (An especially ironic 1973 dispatch appears on Wikileaks showing Secretary of State Henry Kissinger thanking Banzer for congratulating him on his Nobel Peace Prize). The movement’s putschist legacy persevered during the Morales era through organizations like the UJC and figures such as Marinkovic and Camacho. The Times noted that Marinkovic also supported the activities of the UJC, describing the fascist group as “a quasi-independent arm of the committee led by Mr. Marinkovic.” A member of the UJC board told the US newspaper of record in an interview, “We will protect Branko with our own lives.” Marinkovic has espoused the kind of Christian nationalist rhetoric familiar to the far-right organizations of Santa Cruz, calling, for instance, for a “crusade for the truth” and insisting that God is on his side. The oligarch’s family hails from Croatia, where he has dual citizenship. Marinkovic has long been dogged by rumors that his family members were involved in the country’s powerful fascist Ustashe movement. The Ustashe collaborated openly with Nazi German occupiers during World War Two. Their successors returned to power after Croatia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia – a former socialist country that was intentionally balkanized in a NATO war, much in the same way that Marinkovic hoped Bolivia would be. Marinkovic denies that his family was part of the Ustashe. He claimed in an interview with the New York Times that his father fought against the Nazis. But even some of his sympathizers are skeptical. A Balkan analyst from the private intelligence firm Stratfor, which works closely with the US government and is popularly known as the “shadow CIA,” produced a rough background profile on Marinkovic, speculating, “Still don’t know his full story, but I would bet a lot of $$$ that this dude’s parents are 1st gen (his name is too Slavic) and that they were Ustashe (read: Nazi) sympathizers fleeing Tito’s Communists after WWI.” The Stratfor analyst excerpted a 2006 article by journalist Christian Parenti, who had visited Marinkovic at his ranch in Santa Cruz. Evo Morales’ “land reform could lead to civil war,” Marinkovic warned Parenti in the Texas-accented English he picked up while studying at the University of Texas. Today, Marinkovic is an ardent supporter of Brazil’s far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, whose only complaint about Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was that he “didn’t kill enough.” Marinkovic is also a public admirer of Venezuela’s far-right opposition. “Todos somos Leopoldo” — “we are all Leopoldo,” he tweeted in support of Leopoldo López, who has been involved in numerous coup attempts against Venezuela’s elected leftist government. While Marinkovic denied any role in armed militant activity in his interview with Parenti, he was accused in 2008 of playing a central role in an attempt to assassinate Morales and his Movement Toward Socialism party allies. He told the New York Times less than two years before the plot developed, “If there is no legitimate international mediation in our crisis, there is going to be confrontation. And unfortunately, it is going to be bloody and painful for all Bolivians.” An assassination plot links Bolivia’s right to international fascists In April 2009, a special unit of the Bolivian security services barged into a luxury hotel room and cut down three men who were said to be involved in a plot to kill Evo Morales. Two others remained on the loose. Four of the alleged conspirators had Hungarian or Croatian roots and ties to rightist politics in eastern Europe, while another was a right-wing Irishman, Michael Dwyer, who had only arrived in Santa Cruz six months before. Image on the right: Alleged assassination plotter Michael Dwyer with his weapons The ringleader of the group was said to be a former leftist journalist named Eduardo Rosza-Flores who had turned to fascism and belonged to Opus Dei, the traditionalist Catholic cult that emerged under the dictatorship of Spain’s Francisco Franco. In fact, the codename Rosza-Flores assumed in the assassination plot was “Franco,” after the late Generalissimo. During the 1990s, Rosza fought on behalf of the Croatian First International Platoon, or the PIV, in the war to separate from Yugoslavia. A Croatian journalist told Time that the “PIV was a notorious group: 95% of them had criminal histories, many were part of Nazi and fascist groups, from Germany to Ireland.” By 2009, Rosza returned home to Bolivia to crusade on behalf of another separatist movement in Santa Cruz. And it was there that he was killed in a luxury hotel with no apparent source of income and a massive stockpile of guns. The government later released photos of Rosza and a co-conspirator posing with their weapons. Publication of emails between the ringleader and Istvan Belovai, a former Hungarian military intelligence officer who served as a double agent for the CIA, cemented the perception that Washington had a hand in the operation. Marinkovic was subsequently charged with providing $200,000 to the plotters. The Bolivian-Croatian oligarch initially fled to the United States, where he was given asylum, then relocated to Brazil, where he lives today. He denied any involvement in the plan to kill Morales. Image below: Rosza and Dwyer with their arms cache in Bolivia As journalist Matt Kennard reported, there was another thread that tied the plot to the US: the alleged participation of an NGO leader named Hugo Achá Melgar. “Rozsa didn’t come here by himself, they brought him,” the Bolivian government’s lead investigator told Kennard. “Hugo Achá Melgar brought him.” Achá was not just the head of any run-of-the-mill NGO. He had founded the Bolivian subsidiary of the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), an international right-wing outfit that is known for hosting a “school for revolution” for activists seeking regime change in states targeted by the US government. HRF is run by Thor Halvorssen Jr., the son of the late Venezuelan oligarch and CIA asset Thor Halvorssen Hellum. The first cousin of the veteran Venezuelan coup plotter Leopoldo Lopez, Halvorssen was a former college Republican activist who crusaded against political correctness and other familiar right-wing hobgoblins. After a brief career as a firebrand right-wing film producer, in which he oversaw a scandalous “anti-environmentalist” documentary financed by a mining corporation, Halvorssen rebranded as a promoter of liberalism and the enemy of global authoritarianism. He launched the HRF with grants from right-wing billionaires like Peter Thiel, conservative foundations, and NGOs including Amnesty International. The group has since been at the forefront of training activists for insurrectionary activity from Hong Kong to the Middle East to Latin America. Though Achá was granted asylum in the US, the HRF has continued pushing regime change in Bolivia. As Wyatt Reed reported for The Grayzone, HRF “freedom fellow” Jhanisse Vaca Daza helped trigger the initial stage of the coup by blaming Morales for the Amazon fires that consumed parts of Bolivia in August, mobilizing international protests against him. At the time, Daza posed as an “environmental activist” and student of non-violence who articulated her concerns in moderate-seeming calls for more international aid to Bolivia. Through her NGO, Rios de Pie, she helped launch the #SOSBolivia hashtag, which signaled the imminent foreign-backed regime-change operation. Courting the regional right, prepping the coup While HRF’s Daza rallied protests outside Bolivian embassies in Europe and the US, Fernando Camacho remained behind the scenes, lobbying right-wing governments in the region to bless the coming coup. In May, Camacho met with Colombia’s far-right President Ivan Duque. Camacho was helping to spearhead regional efforts at undermining the legitimacy of Evo Morales’ presidency at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, seeking to block his candidacy in the October election. Camacho with Colombian President Ivan Duque in May That same month, the rightist Bolivian agitator also met with Ernesto Araújo, the chancellor of Jair Bolsonaro’s ultra-conservative administration in Brazil. Through the meeting, Camacho successfully secured Bolsonaro’s backing for regime change in Bolivia. This November 10, Araújo enthusiastically endorsed the ouster of Morales, declaring that “Brazil will support the democratic and constitutional transition” in the country. Then in August, two months before Bolivia’s presidential election, Camacho held court with officials from Venezuela’s US-appointed coup regime. These included Gustavo Tarre, Guaido’s faux Venezuelan OAS ambassador, who formerly worked at the right-wing Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington. After the meeting, Camacho tweeted gratitude to the Venezuelan coup-mongers, as well as to Colombia and Brazil. Back in Bolivia, Carlos Mesa occupied the spotlight as the opposition’s presidential candidate. His erudite image and centrist policy proposals put him in a seemingly alternate political universe from fire-breathing rightists like Camacho and Marinkovic. For them, he was a convenient front man and acceptable candidate who promised to defend their economic interests. “It might be that he is not my favorite, but I’m going to vote for him, because I don’t want Evo,” Marinkovic told a right-wing Argentine newspaper five days before the election. Indeed, it was Camacho’s practical financial interests that appeared to have necessitated his support for Mesa. The Camacho family has formed a natural gas cartel in Santa Cruz. As the Bolivian outlet Primera Linea reported, Luis Fernando Camacho’s father, Jose Luis, was the owner of a company called Sergas that distributed gas in the city; his uncle, Enrique, controlled Socre, the company that ran the local gas production facilities; and his cousin, Cristian, controls another local gas distributor called Controgas. According to Primera Linea, the Camacho family was using the Pro-Santa Cruz Committee as a political weapon to install Carlos Mesa into power and ensure the restoration of their business empire. Mesa has a well-documented history of advancing the goals of transnational companies at the expense of his own country’s population. The neoliberal politician and media personality served as vice president when the US-backed President Gonzalo “Goni” Sanchez de Lozada provoked mass protests with his 2003 plan to allow a consortium of multinational corporations to export the country’s natural gas to the US through a Chilean port. Bolivia’s US-trained security forces met the ferocious protests with brutal repression. After presiding over the killing of 70 unarmed protesters, Sanchez de Lozada fled to Miami and was succeeded by Mesa. By 2005, Mesa was also ousted by huge demonstrations spurred by his protection of privatized natural gas companies. With his demise, the election of Morales and the rise of the socialist and rural Indigenous movements behind him were just beyond the horizon. US government cables released by WikiLeaks show that, after his ouster, Mesa continued regular correspondence with American officials. A 2008 memo from the US embassy in Bolivia revealed that Washington was conspiring with opposition politicians in the lead-up to the 2009 presidential election, hoping to undermine and ultimately unseat Morales. The memo noted that Mesa had met with the chargé d’affaires of the US embassy, and had privately told them he planned to run for president. The cable recalled: “Mesa told us his party will be ideologically similar to a social democratic party and that he hoped to strengthen ties with the Democratic party. ‘We have nothing against the Republican party, and have in fact gotten support from IRI (International Republican Institute) in the past, but we think we share more ideology with the Democrats,’ he added.” Today, Mesa serves as an in-house “expert” at the Inter-American Dialogue, a neoliberal Washington-based think tank focused on Latin America. One of the Dialogue’s top donors is the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the State Department subsidiary that was exposed in classified diplomatic cables published on Wikileaks for strategically directing millions of dollars to opposition groups including those “opposed to Evo Morales’ vision for indigenous communities.” Other top funders of the Dialogue include oil titans like Chevron and ExxonMobil; Bechtel, which inspired the initial protests against the administration in which Mesa served; the Inter-American Development Bank, which has forcefully opposed Morales’ socialist-oriented policies; and the Organization of American States (OAS), which helped delegitimize the Morales’s re-election victory with dubious claims of irregular vote counts. When Carlos Mesa touched off nationwide protests in October by accusing the Evo Morales government of committing electoral fraud, the right-wing firebrand hailed by his followers as “Macho Camacho” emerged from the shadows. Behind him was the hardcore separatist shock force that he led in Santa Cruz. Mesa faded into the distance as Camacho emerged as the authentic face of the coup, rallying his forces with the uncompromising rhetoric and fascist symbology that defined the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista paramilitary. As he declared victory over Morales, Camacho exhorted his followers to “finish the job, let’s get the elections going, let’s start judging the government criminals, let’s put them in jail.” Back in Washington, meanwhile, the Trump administration released an official statement celebrating Bolivia’s coup, declaring that “Morales’s departure preserves democracy.” Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and author, and the founder and editor of The Grayzone. Ben Norton is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker, and the assistant editor of The Grayzone. All images in this article are from The Grayzone

Max Blumenthal

https://www.globalresearch.ca/bolivia-coup-led-christian-fascist-paramilitary-leader-millionaire-foreign-support/5694852

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 12:25:52 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-11-18--Bolivia’s U.S.-backed Coup Government Has Given the Military a License to Kill Protestors

globalresearch

Bolivia’s U.S.-backed Coup Government Has Given the Military a License to Kill Protestors

The de facto and unelected president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, signed a decree that exempts all military personnel from being criminally responsible, even in the cases of murder, in the midst of demonstrations against the coup d’etat that ousted democratically elected first Indigenous President of Bolivia, Evo Morales. Effectively, Bolivian security forces have a license to kill now. Since the decree was signed last Thursday, it has inevitably caused controversy with demonstrators and social media users alike. And it very well should – it is a blatant U.S.-orchestrated coup against Morales who helped his country reduce unemployment, poverty and illiteracy by at least 50% from 2006 to 2018, and liberated his country from strangling neoliberal policies of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The decree was immediately denounced by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), by Morales, and by regional leaders such as the newly elected president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández. Although the decree is dated November 14, it was only made public on Saturday, a day after an anti-government march of coca growers in the department of Cochabamba left at least nine dead and 115 injured, according to the Office of the Ombudsman. For its part, the United Nations High Commissioner, Michel Bachelet, has expressed concern about the growing violence in the Andean country and the actions taken by the unelected government. However, this should not even be the least bit surprising for the UN commissioner since the U.S. has a long history of violent regime change in Latin America. It was revealed in a report by the Gray Zone that at least six of the main coup plotters were alumni of the infamous School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, a notorious training center that since the times of the Cold War has orchestrated regime operations against anti-U.S. Latin American leaders. The report explained that “brutal regime change and reprisal operations from Haiti to Honduras have been carried out by SOA graduates, and some of the most bloodstained juntas in the region’s history have been run by the school’s alumni.” While U.S. President Donald Trump cheered on a “a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere,” the U.S.-trained Bolivian military have now killed at least 23 people, mostly Indigenous. Although the U.S. espouses the endless mantra of ‘freedom and democracy’, it has continuously demonstrated, such as in Venezuela and Syria, that it is willing to move away from its ‘peaceful’ liberal ideology and utilize reactionary forces when its political and economic interests are under threat. Morales managed to re-found the country politically and economically by embracing the Multipolar World, where the U.S. is no longer the sole power in the world, by improving ties with China and Russia, and by nationalizing natural resources and strategic companies. Evo Morales said during an interview in June 2016: Although Morales ran Bolivia, one of Latin America’s poorest countries, mostly uninterrupted for 13 years unlike Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and Brazil’s Lula, the discovery of massive amounts of lithium was a gamechanger. The precious resource is necessary to power all batteries, a demand that is ever increasing for our technological world. Although Morales’ impressive records speaks for itself, as he never prioritized the indoctrination of the Bolivian military, the SOA-trained officers were able to remain dormant until called upon by the U.S. to conduct a coup in the South American country. Two days before the Gray Zone report, in a previous article I already made the argument that former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had radicalized and ideologized the military to the constitutional national ideology and built a people’s militia capable of defending the government from internal and external, which is why even to this day, Maduro has not been ousted in a coup despite endless U.S.-backed attempts. This is something Morales did not do, allowing the U.S. to gain a strong foothold in the Bolivian military. Morales created the Anti-Imperialist Command School in 2016. Completing several courses related to the ideology of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), as well on geopolitics and imperialism, became the only way to become a Captain in the Bolivian military. However, this is only a recent initiative, that began a decade after he became president, not even nearly enough time for him to reform the military ideology, especially since he never expelled pro-U.S. officers from the military, opting to wait for their retirements. And now that Áñez is running the country with the military’s blessing, the years of advancements in Indigenous rights and living standards made by Morales will surely be reversed, especially as she considers their culture to be “Satanic” that is not compatible with modern life and should remain in the mountains or swamplands. Áñez criticizes socialism and expresses her fear that one day Bolivia will become like “Cuba” – this is mostly influenced by her adherence to radical Christian Evangelicalism that believes socialism to be the work of the devil. Guided by her Evangelical beliefs, she is now an ally of Evangelical Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a staunch supporter of the Brazilian dictatorship and has said that “too bad the Brazilian cavalry was not as efficient as the American cavalry that exterminated the Indians,” in reference to the American Indian genocide. Supporting reactionary pro-U.S. forces in Latin America has always meant a contempt and hatred of the Indigenous people – and it has often been the Evangelicals that were used in Latin Americaalongside paramilitaries or coup plotters to carry out U.S. interests in this region. Although Bolsonaro dreams of a Brazil that is purged of most of its native population, like what was achieved in the U.S., Áñez has begun her own U.S.-backed campaign against the Indigenous populations by already greenlighting the murder of Morales supporters, who are overwhelmingly Indigenous just as the population of Bolivia is. Her license to kill has not just seen many Indigenous murdered, but it will mean we will continue to see the Indigenous being murdered by the Bolivian military as they continue their peaceful mass demonstrations in support of the exiled Morales. Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. This article was originally published on InfoBrics. Paul Antonopoulos is a Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies.

Paul Antonopoulos

https://www.globalresearch.ca/bolivia-us-backed-coup-government-given-military-license-kill-protestors/5695284

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:24:34 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

hotair--2019-01-21--Trump leaving military option on the table for Venezuela Is a coup coming

hotair

Trump leaving military option on the table for Venezuela. Is a coup coming?

We’ve been watching the deteriorating situation in Venezuela quite closely here over the past couple of years, with one question always hanging over the discussion. What, if anything, should the United States be doing about the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro aside from the sanctions we already have in place? While rumors have circulated in the past, some recent revelations appear to indicate that President Trump has never entirely taken the idea of either military intervention or at least logistical support of a Venezuelan military coup off the table. One of his former NSC members clarified that during a recent speech. (Business Insider) The Trump administration had several clandestine meetings with rebellious Venezuelan military officers in 2018 but ultimately rebuffed their requests to support a coup. At a Wilson Center event in Washington, DC, in September, [former Trump administration National Security Council staffer Fernando] Cutz said the White House “never debated supporting a coup” or providing support for a coup while he worked there but was always open to listening when a player in Venezuela wanted to talk. Cutz also said at the event the administration had escalatory steps for developments in Venezuela, including a military response, for which he specifically mentioned the killing of US citizens or a massacre of Venezuelans as potential triggers. The steps also included “a full-fledged oil embargo,” he said. I will once again suggest that any consideration of a direct military intervention in Venezuela by the United States, particularly if we were going in alone, would be a terrible idea. Not only have such nation-building exercises been unmitigated disasters in the past (particularly when we’re talking about Central and South America), but we have far more to lose than to gain in that nation. We already know that the Chinese are heavily invested in Maduro’s government and they would most certainly want to protect their economic interests. Even worse, the Russians not only own a large stake in Venezuela’s oil industry now, but they also have a military presence in the country, including both ships and air force units. If we started a shooting war down there we would very likely wind up taking on the Russians and that opens up an entirely unpleasant can of worms. But supporting a coup might not be as dangerous if the attempt had any chance of succeeding. With that in mind, it’s worth looking at this headline that showed up in the past 24 hours. Is there a coup coming? (Reuters) Reuters hasn’t been able to confirm the authenticity of the video and there’s no action in the streets at the moment. And even if it’s real, if this guy is speaking only for himself he’s likely to “disappear” in short order. But if there is indeed growing unrest in the military about the way Maduro has eviscerated the nation, they’re probably the only ones who could remove him from office. That’s not any sort of guaranteed panacea. Even if the military were to remove Maduro and lock him up, what would we get as a replacement? The military might turn over control to the National Assembly and restore the old order, but they might just as easily decide to keep power and set up a junta. If that’s the case, it probably couldn’t be any worse than what they’ve got now, but it also might not be much better.

Jazz Shaw

https://hotair.com/archives/2019/01/21/trump-leaving-military-option-table-venezuela-coup-coming/

2019-01-21 14:21:21+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

instapundit--2019-04-30--LIVE UPDATES Juan Guaido Launches Military Coup in Venezuela Against Socialist Maduro Im not

instapundit

LIVE UPDATES: Juan Guaidó Launches Military Coup in Venezuela Against Socialist Maduro. I’m not …

I’m not sure “coup” is the right word here. InstaPundit is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

Stephen Green

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pjmedia/instapundit/~3/tJlTsVM2S4s/

2019-04-30 14:32:17+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

instapundit--2019-11-18--AND SEE, THERE’S MILITARY AND THERE’S MILITARY:  A military coup and Trump’s the good guy in all …

instapundit

AND SEE, THERE’S MILITARY AND THERE’S MILITARY:  A military coup and Trump’s the good guy in all …

AND SEE, THERE’S MILITARY AND THERE’S MILITARY: A military coup and Trump’s the good guy in all this.

Sarah Hoyt

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pjmedia/instapundit/~3/wEPEJtnLCz0/

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 07:30:43 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

mintpressnews--2019-01-25--Amnesty International Should Oppose US Economic Sanctions and Incitement of a Military Coup in Venez

mintpressnews

Amnesty International Should Oppose US Economic Sanctions and Incitement of a Military Coup in Venezuela

The following letter to Amnesty International was signed by various writers, academics and political activists including Australian filmmaker, John Pilger; Canadian journalist and author, Linda McQuaig; former UN independent investigator on Venezuela, Afred de Zayas; the Venezuela-based academic Steve Ellner and journalists working the reader-supported media outlet VenezuelAnalysis.com. Last year, Amnesty International was asked if it denounced US-led economic sanctions on Venezuela and remarks by various US officials (Trump, Rex Tillerson) encouraging a military coup in Venezuela. Amnesty said it took no position on these matters.  Now the US has “recognized” a Venezuelan legislator as Venezuela’s new president. This strategy has been applauded by prominent Venezuelan opposition members as a way to prevent Venezuela’s state oil company from getting paid for oil sales to the United States without the authorization of the “new government” named by Trump. It amounts to an effort to impose an oil embargo on Venezuela aimed at driving Venezuela’s government from office through a military uprising. US-backed military coups in the Western Hemisphere have cost hundreds of thousands of lives in the post WWII era. In this century alone, a US-perpetrated coup in Haiti (in 2004) cost thousands of lives. Before this recent escalation, US financial sanctions have already cost the Venezuelan government over $6 billion USD in lost revenue since August of 2017 in an economy that was only able to import $11.7 billion USD worth of goods in 2018. As US economist Mark Weisbrot noted the sanctions “do actually kill people by depriving them of access to medicines” Amnesty has denounced governments and even non-state actors for saying things that encourage attacks on vulnerable people. Amnesty should similarly object when the world’s most powerful government produces a steady stream of comments that make it crystal clear a military coup in Venezuela would be welcome – as indeed the Bush administration made clear in 2002 when it welcomed the dictatorship of Pedro Carmona. This kind of support for a military coup is, just like other statements that Amnesty has previously denounced, aiding and abetting of human rights violations. For example Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just stated the following on January 10. Amnesty should change its position. US economic sanctions and remarks like these from US officials should be strongly opposed. Top Photo | Activist Medea Benjamin with the group Code Pink, heckles remarks by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during an extraordinary session about the crisis in Venezuela held by the Organization of American States, Jan. 24, 2019 in Washington. Luis Alonso Lugo | AP Joe Emersberger is a Canadian engineer and UNIFOR member with Ecuadorian roots. He writes primarily for Telesur English and Znet.

Many Signatories

https://www.mintpressnews.com/ask-amnesty-international-oppose-us-economic-sanctions-incitement-military-coup-venezuela/254217/

2019-01-25 15:42:20+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

mintpressnews--2019-04-30--Venezuelan Coup Attempt Sputters as Majority of Military Remain Loyal to Maduro

mintpressnews

Venezuelan Coup Attempt Sputters as Majority of Military Remain Loyal to Maduro

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — (Analysis) In an act described by the Venezuelan government as a small coup attempt, self-declared “President” of Venezuela Juan Guaidó appeared in a video alongside uniformed men who he claimed were a number of military defectors, declaring this as the “final phase” of Nicolás Maduro’s presidency. The Venezuelan military generals and the vast majority of the military have pledged their loyalty to Maduro, who urged them to have nerves of steel. The counter-revolutionary “activist” backed by the US State Department Leopoldo Lopez was among the instigators of this “final phase” coup. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza claims that the U.S. likely paid a guard to let him out of house arrest to join the coup. Arreaza assured the public that this coup attempt will be contained and thousands of pro-Maduro protesters have taken to the streets and have surrounded the presidential palace. The government of Mexico has expressed concern over possible bloodshed, as live rounds were being used as well as tear gas. Mexico has not recognized Guaidó as the leader of Venezuela, but has offered to broker a peace process. Bolivian President Evo Morales has expressed his disdain for the coup attempt. He released a statement via twitter: The Venezuelans leading the coup see it quite differently. They seem to acknowledge that their efforts won’t end with today’s brazen actions. In a statement earlier today, they doubled down on their mission towards a mixed military and civilian coup. However, they denied that their undertaking is a coup. Opposition leader Carlos Vecchio held a press conference earlier today: This is only the beginning…This is an operation that is developing right now. We will see more events in the hours and the days to come. This is a constitutional process led by the Venezuelan people under the leadership of a civilian — the interim president of Venezuela Juan Guaidó. He’s calling for the restoration of our Constitution and of course, the restoration of our democratic system…” Venezuela is ready for a change. You must facilitate the transition in our country. You must allow the Venezuelan people to re-establish the democratic system. The time is now. Venezuela is ready for a change. Nobody is going to stop it.” It’s quite astonishing that Vecchio would invoke the democratic process while leading a violent coup in support of a “president” who earned the title by standing at a podium and declaring himself president. The Russians have registered a much more level-headed response to the coup attempt, invoking the United Nations. That long-standing pan-global institution was created in no small part to respond to this type of situation. The Russian Foreign ministry had this to say: The radical opposition in Venezuela has once again turned to confrontation with the use of force. Instead of peaceful resolution of political disagreements, a course was chosen that is aimed to incite conflict, provoking disruptions of public order, clashes involving the armed forces. We urge [Venezuelans] to say no to violence. It’s important to avoid turmoil and bloodshed. Issues that Venezuela is facing right now must be resolved via a responsible process of talks without any preset conditions. Any action must be taken exclusively within the framework of the legal field, in full accordance with the Constitution and without any destructive outside interference. We confirm our principled position supporting political, civilized ways of resolving inner disagreements by the Venezuelans themselves. We appeal to all members of the international society, including the closest neighbors of this country, with an urge to affirm their adherence to the UN Charter, and norms and principles of international law, and to support Venezuela’s return onto a path of stable and incremental development through a dialogue that includes all responsible political powers within the country.” The Russians call for peace at a time when the media, the United States, Europe and their hired Venezuelan plotters are all beating the drums of war. Russia has spent most of the last decade as a reasonable counterweight to aggression from the U.S. and NATO. Guaidó’s plan seems to follow the same cynical formula used time and again for regime change. The opposition will not be able to achieve success on its own. Instead, leaders of the opposition will try to pull larger world powers like the U.S. and NATO into the conflict so that they can topple the Maduro regime. Somehow the media will spin this as a victory for the people of Venezuela. Even though before Guaidó declared himself “president,” 80 percent of those people didn’t know who he was. Feature Photo | Venezuela’s Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Remigio Ceballos, speaks during military drills in response to President Trump’s threat of military action, at Fort Tiuna, Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 25, 2017. Ricardo Mazalan | AP Nick Rehwaldt is a MintPress News intern. He is an author, artist, and standup comedian focused on political issues, with much of his material ripped from the headlines on any given week. He’s also a proud non-voter and global citizen who happens to live in the U.S.

Nick Rehwaldt

https://www.mintpressnews.com/venezuelan-coup-attempt-sputters/258023/

2019-04-30 20:31:27+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

mintpressnews--2019-11-11--5 Fast Facts About the Military Coup in Bolivia and What You Can Do

mintpressnews

5 Fast Facts About the Military Coup in Bolivia and What You Can Do

The United States is currently backing a military coup against Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, who recently won re-election. Bolivia has enjoyed relative calm during the length of Morales’ presidency which began in January 2006. In 2008, Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador and counter-narcotics agents. The two countries have not had an ambassadorial relationship since 2009. Despite what the mainstream media headlines would have you believe, a military coup is underway in Bolivia. Morales was forced to step down in an attempt to avert further violence and destruction at the ends of the violent right-wing opposition. “Bolivian President Evo Morales steps down following accusations of election fraud“ “President of Bolivia steps down amid allegations of election rigging” Nowhere in these headlines do we see the word “coup” or any mention of the history or the violence at the hands of the opposition that includes the burning of a governor’s home, the dragging of a mayor through the streets after her hair was cut off and her body painted red, and most recently the destruction of Evo Morales’ home. Here’s what you need to know: A Bolivian court gave Morales the “green light” to run for a fourth term as president after opponents said doing so would be unconstitutional. Bolivians went to the polls on October 20, only weeks ago, to select their president. When all was said and done, Morales walked away with 47.1 percent of the vote while his main opponent, who came in second place, had 36.5 percent of the vote. Because Morales secured more than 40 percent and had higher than a 10-point margin over the runner up, in accordance with the rules, a first-round win was declared with no need for a runoff. Even before the election was concluded, Mesa declared that he would not accept the results if Morales were declared the winner. The following day, after much outrage from the opposition, the Organization of American States (OAS) released a statement. While the statement did say that the elections took place in a “peaceful and orderly manner,” the OAS expressed “its deep concern and surprise at the drastic and hard-to-explain change in the trend of the preliminary results revealed after the closing of the polls.” The statement failed to include any actual evidence or data. Prior to that statement, Senator Marco Rubio tweeted the following false information: The main criticism of the OAS is the significant increase in votes for Morales that came in near the end of the count. While this can sometimes be a red flag, simply looking at the voting records shows that it is a result of the geography of Bolivia. Morales has more support in poor and rural areas, areas whose votes often come in later. The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) said in a statement on Friday: It should be noted that the OAS was created by a U.S. official and anti-communist leaders from South America in 1948 with the sole purpose of disputing democratic elections in which a communist or socialist candidate wins. In effect, the OAS is an agent of regime change, often driven by US imperialism. In 2000, the OAS flip-flopped on Haiti’s national election, first declaring it “a great success” before changing their position, paving the way for Washington’s regime change efforts of 2000-04 that resulted in the murder of thousands of people. The OAS then interfered in Haiti’s 2010 election by literally reversing the results. Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, recognized the U.S.-backed opposition leader and self declared “interim president” of Venezuela in January, just prior to the failed coup attempt. 3. Carlos Mesa has a cozy relationship with the U.S. Morales’ main opponent, Carlos Mesa, served as president of Bolivia from 2003-2005. U.S. hostilities against Bolivia have increased steadily since Mesa left office and he is Washington’s preferred candidate. Government cables released by WikiLeaks reveal communications between Mesa and U.S. officials. 4. 50-70% of the world’s lithium supply is found in Bolivia Some have called Bolivia the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” The global demand for the alkali metal has steadily increased as technology such as cell phones, laptops, and hybrid cars have become woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. And the demand for it isn’t expected to slow anytime soon. Bolivia has invested significantly in lithium mining in the country with Morales having once said: But those same salt flats are also a major nature reserve that includes flamingos, cacti, geysers, and hot springs. Thousands of tourists visit the area each year to enjoy the hot springs. Foreign companies have repeatedly expressed interest in Bolivia’s mining operations, but Morales has been understandably wary of foreign intervention. Bolivia has been left one of the poorest countries in Latin America despite possessing large reserves of oil and gas as well as the world’s largest silver mine. As the world attempts to transition to greener fuels, it should come as no surprise that eyes are on Bolivia and its massive lithium supply. And most importantly, Evo Morales has been in direct opposition of U.S. imperialism throughout his entire presidency. In 2016, Morales opened an “anti-imperialist” military academy in direct opposition to U.S. policies and military involvement throughout Latin America, to counter the influence of the School of the Americas. Morales said: Morales went on to say, “Each time that the United States invades nations, launches missiles, or finances regime change, it does so behind a propaganda campaign which incessantly repeats the message that it is acting in the course of justice, freedom and democracy, in the cause of human rights or for humanitarian reasons.” And in 2017, Morales declared that Bolivia had “total independence” from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Many leaders from around the world have described the situation in Bolivia as a military coup.

Emma Fiala

https://www.mintpressnews.com/5-fast-facts-military-coup-bolivia-can/262741/

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 18:33:46 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

newsbiscuit--2019-01-08--Gabon foils military coup by having a Peoples Vote

newsbiscuit

Gabon foils military coup by having a ‘People’s Vote’

The Gabonese government has managed to avoid open rebellion by having offering a second Brexit referendum. This follows five soldiers taking control of the national radio station, demanding an end to the presidency of Omar Bongo, no more straight bananas and £350million extra a week for the NHS. Despite it being 3,500 miles from Brussels, 48% of Gabon are strongly in favour of a European customs union, while 52% back malaria, intestinal worms and 17% infant mortality. Sleeping sickness is particularly prevalent among those having to listen to Chuka Umunna. Tony Blair has demanded a second referendum, although this is not the first time an African republic has fallen under the spell of a known war-criminal. Said one Gabonese voter: ‘The recent coup in Zimbabwe showed us you can easily get rid of a corrupt Prime Minister – unless of course you are the 1922 Committee.’

Wrenfoe

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2019/01/08/gabon-foils-military-coup-by-having-a-peoples-vote/

2019-01-08 15:00:23+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

newsbusters--2019-11-24--Carole Simpson: Nets Feared Military Coup During Nixon Resignation Address

newsbusters

Carole Simpson: Nets Feared Military Coup During Nixon Resignation Address

How paranoid were the Nixon-hating TV networks during Watergate? Far enough out there that, according to liberal former ABC correspondent Carole Simpson, they feared that instead of resigning, President Nixon would announce a military coup supporting him. Appearing on Joy Reid's MSNBC show AM Joy this morning, Simpson testified about the media conspiracy theories during Nixon's televised address to the nation of August 8, 1974, in which he announced his resignation: CAROLE SIMPSON: I have to tell you, though, on the night he gave the resignation speech, I was a baby reporter then. But they had me out in Chicago, we were in major cities across America waiting for the riots or whatever that's going to happen after his announcement because people weren't sure that he wasn't -- the camera wouldn't pull back on Nixon and he’d be surrounded by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying he’s going to take over the government. The networks were really thinking something like that may happen." Of course, back in the Watergate day, all of the TV networks were of a liberal bent, along with all leading newspapers other than the Wall Street Journal. And Simpson herself, as our Brent Baker has documented, has a long history—both as an ABC correspondent and later in her career—of pushing the liberal line. Simpson's comments came during a segment on media coverage of the impeachment process currently unfolding against President Trump. Simpson blamed Fox News for the fact that during the impeachment hearings, President Trump's approval ratings have gone up, and support for impeachment has gone down. Fretted Simpson: I don't understand what's happening in the country. [Laughter] You know, his approval ratings have gone up, support have done up, despite what we heard in two weeks of public hearings. So I don't know what's going on with the American people, but I have one suspicion, and I think it is Fox News. And the fact that most people are getting their news from Fox, and they believe Trump and Fox tell the truth, and the rest of us are enemies of the people. And it scares me that if people are just watching Fox, they have a completely skewed idea of what it is happening here. So it is very scary. >> Help us fight back against the media’s impeachment crusade. <<

Mark Finkelstein

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2019/11/24/carole-simpson-nets-feared-military-coup-during-nixon

Sun, 24 Nov 2019 11:45:00 -0500

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

newsweek--2019-01-25--Russian Secret Military Mercenaries Deployed to Venezuela to Protect Maduro From Coup Capture Repo

newsweek

Russian Secret Military Mercenaries Deployed to Venezuela to Protect Maduro From Coup, Capture: Report

As Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro faces the biggest challenge to his rule since coming to power in 2013, Russia has quite literally come to the strongman leader’s defense. On Friday, Reuters reported that Kremlin-linked military contractors from the Wagner group had traveled to Venezuela in the past several days to provide security for Maduro. At least one source told Reuters that there were around 400 Russian military contractors in the country. After the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Juan Guaido, declared himself president of Venezuela on Wednesday, Russian officials have offered their full-throated support for the embattled Maduro. President Donald Trump and other leaders from the European Union and Canada, however, have recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president and have backed the position of Venezuelan opposition leaders who say Maduro’s presidency is illegitimate. Maduro’s approval rating is currently hovering at around 20 percent, but experts say Russia is unlikely to give up its support for Maduro even if he faces widespread opposition at home. Moscow has continued to support Maduro even as he oversaw a severe economic decline that provoked a humanitarian and regional refugee crisis. “As the financial situation of the Venezuelan government became precarious due to a lack of oil profits, the Venezuelan leaders have been forced to look to other countries to bring in hard currency, and Russia has been all too eager to support a regime in Caracas that is anti-United States and has taken a number of actions to threaten the interests of not just the U.S. but other countries in the region,” Jason Marczak, director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Washington, D.C.-based Atlantic Council, told Newsweek. “Russia has gained a strong ally in the Americas as Russia looks to counter the U.S. Also Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, so Rosneft has acquired access to oil fields in Venezuela, and Russia supplies arms to Maduro and the military,” Marczak added. Russia has also helped Venezuela develop a cryptocurrency to avoid U.S. sanctions. Maduro announced in February last year that Venezuela would launch an online currency called the petro, which would be backed by the value of one barrel of oil. The move mimicked Moscow’s attempt to launch its own digital currency to avoid U.S. sanctions. The petro was widely deemed a desperate and risky attempt to attract foreign currency to the cash-strapped country. Meanwhile, other Russia-aligned countries such as China and Turkey have also thrown their weight behind Maduro. Researchers at the Atlantic Council who track disinformation online noted that some of the most prominent pro-Maduro Twitter hashtags originated out of Turkey. The Russian military contractor group Wagner is a secretive organization headed by a Russian lieutenant named Dmitri Utkin who is a member of the Russian military intelligence the GRU. The group has been linked to the death of three Russian journalists who were producing a documentary about Wagner’s work in the Central African Republic. Aside from its incursions into Africa, Wagner is also present in Syria and Ukraine. Russian media claims that Wagner is coordinated by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a man who has been nicknamed “Putin’s chef.” Prigozhin allegedly ordered the Russian mercenaries to attack U.S. troops in Syria in February 2018. Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted Prigozhin, alleging that his St. Petersburg-based troll farm the Internet Research Agency played a major role in Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. Both Prigozhin and Utkin are also subject to U.S. sanctions.

https://www.newsweek.com/russian-military-venezuela-maduro-coup-1306071?utm_source=Public&utm_medium=Feed&utm_campaign=Distribution

2019-01-25 21:25:35+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

prisonplanet--2019-04-05--Top Tory Brexiteer King Letwin and Remain MPs Have Carried Out Military Coup Without Guns

prisonplanet

Top Tory Brexiteer: ‘King Letwin’ and Remain MPs Have Carried Out ‘Military Coup’ Without Guns

Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom has described moves by Remain MPs to seize control of the parliamentary timetable and block a No Deal Brexit as a kind of “military coup” without the firearms. Mrs Leadsom, who also serves as Lord President of Her Majesty’s Privy Council, said that, “If these people had guns, we would be describing it as a military coup. But it is certainly a coup by King Letwin,” after MPs voted by a majority of one for an anti-Brexit bill, rammed through the House in just four hours with the help of a criminal MP released from prison on an electronic tag. A source close to Mrs Leadsom later confirmed that she was clarifying what the bill’s passage meant. “She said it’s a complicated day for procedure and I want to explain it: ‘It’s a coup but using paper rather than guns’.” Leadsom’s reference to “King Letwin” was aimed at Sir Oliver Letwin MP (pictured above), the Tory Remainer who along with Labour’s Yvette Cooper was one of the main players behind the bill — with the name coming partly because he is regarded as having appointed himself as a kind of ad hoc prime minister, and partly because he has earned the sobriquet “Oliver F***king Letwin” among party colleagues. This article was posted: Friday, April 5, 2019 at 6:06 am

admin

https://www.prisonplanet.com/top-tory-brexiteer-king-letwin-and-remain-mps-have-carried-out-military-coup-without-guns.html

2019-04-05 11:06:46+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

prisonplanet--2019-05-01--Pompeo Threatens Military Intervention After Maduro Declares Victory Over Attempted Coup

prisonplanet

Pompeo Threatens Military Intervention After Maduro Declares Victory Over ‘Attempted Coup’

Update (7:16 am ET): Here we go again… Now that the monthslong simmering rebellion against Maduro has exploded into a full-fledged uprising – one that’s in danger of being brutally suppressed by the Maduro regime – it’s time for the US to revive its threats of military intervention with the added subtext of ‘this time, we mean it’. After footage from yesterday’s riots showed regime tanks brutally crushing opposition supporters, Mike Pompeo appeared on Fox Business this morning and said that the US hasn’t ruled out military intervention. His comments come as supporters of the regime and opposition prepare to take to the streets for another wave of massive demonstrations on Wednesday. Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido has called for a second day of street protests on Wednesday, but after the Venezuelan government successfully beat back the Guaido-led “popular uprising” – as the vast majority of Venezuela’s military remained loyal to Nicolas Maduro – it’s looks like the Russia- and China-backed socialist regime has resisted this latest challenge to its rule. The coup attempt was hardly bloodless – there were horrifying incidences of extreme violence – but for all the jawboning from President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NSA John Bolton, it appears Guaido’s most prolific attempt yet to force Maduro from power was a spectacular failure. Some members of the military defected, but Maduro by and large retained control over the military and other levers of power. Presenting a surprising lack of confidence in Guaido, opposition supporters celebrated the release of Leopoldo Lopez from house arrest, the former opposition leader immediately sought refuge in the Chilean embassy. Late on Tuesday, Maduro took to twitter to thank the supporters of his regime who took to the streets to help suppress the rebellion, and the leaders who stood up for the Bolivarian revolution. Flanked by military leaders, Maduro delivered a speech where he demanded that all opposition supporters who participated in the day’s violent skirmishes must be identified and arrested, and he bragged that the military base at La Carlota resisted a takeover attempt. In honor of May Day, widely celebrated as International Workers Day, Maduro called for supporters to take to the streets for a ‘millions-strong march’. Forming an  unusual alliance, it appears CNN has joined the Trump administration in spreading disinformation about the events in  Venezuela to try and destabilize the regime. Still, Guaido hasn’t given up yet, calling for his “Operation Liberty” to continue on Wednesday, he asked opposition supporters to take to the streets for the ‘largest march in history’ (though, after seeing footage of opposition supporters being crushed by a tank on Tuesday, we imagine that some might have second thoughts). Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry has said Pompeo’s claim that Moscow had convinced Maduro to resist the coup and cling to power was “fake news”. Pompeo said Tuesday that Maduro had intended to step down, but Russia had convinced him to stay. “Washington tried its best to demoralise the Venezuelan army and now [has] used fakes as a part of an information war,” Moscow spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told CNN on Wednesday. As Venezuelans prepare for a second day of unrest, the number of dead and wounded in Tuesday’s clashes hasn’t yet been reported. This article was posted: Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at 6:50 am

admin

https://www.prisonplanet.com/pompeo-threatens-military-intervention-after-maduro-declares-victory-over-attempted-coup.html

2019-05-01 11:50:56+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

rawstory--2019-02-01--Odds of military coup in Venezuela rise every day Maduro stays in office

rawstory

Odds of military coup in Venezuela rise every day Maduro stays in office

It would be reasonable to expect the worst for Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s embattled president. Two weeks after Maduro’s re-inauguration, opposition leader Juan Gauidó has declared himself the country’s rightful president. The power struggle follows a failed military mutiny against Maduro, whose easy re-election in May 2018 during an economic, political and humanitarian crisis has lead many to say Venezuela is a dictatorship. Analysts worldwide are already debating whether a coup against Maduro – with or without U.S. backing – would be good or bad for Venezuelan democracy. As a political risk analyst, it is my job to predict when leaders will be overthrown. Surprisingly, the coup forecaster I use, CoupCast, shows Maduro hanging on – at least for now. Why won’t Maduro be overthrown soon? Using historic data on the conditions behind every coup and coup attempt since 1950, CoupCast has identified six factors that can suggest a leader is at imminent risk of overthrow. • How long regime has been in power – Young regimes are at most risk of a coup. • Time since last coup attempt – The longer a country goes without a coup, the less its risk of a leader being overthrown. • Incumbent electoral defeat – Recent electoral defeats increase risk. So do long periods of incumbent victories. • Relative precipitation – Extreme drought and excessive rainfall both raise coup risk because they can disrupt agricultural and market dynamics. • Gross domestic product (GDP) per person – This measure of wealth distribution can provide clues into whether a leader can buy off potential rivals within the military. Beyond Venezuela’s economic crisis, the Maduro regime does not stand out on any CoupCast factors. Maduro has been in office since 2013 – not long enough to be high-risk. Likelihood of a coup begins to rise after 15 years, on average. The current Socialist Party regime, which began with Hugo Chávez in 1999, has also matured enough to avoid the initial period of vulnerability that young regimes face. The last coup attempt in Venezuela was a failed plot against Chávez in 2002, a healthy 17-year buffer. The average lapse between coups is five years. Venezuela’s Socialist regime has not lost a presidential election since Chávez first won, in 1998, which also bodes well for Maduro. Finally, in 2019, Venezuela is not expected to have droughts, floods or other weather that is out of the norm. Taken together, these factors do not suggest an imminent coup against Maduro. However, Venezuela’s risk of coup increases the longer Maduro stays in power, as CoupCast’s trove of historic data shows. Maduro’s biggest vulnerability is the prospect of further economic decline. Venezuela’s oil-fueled government is going bankrupt due to declining petroleum production, U.S. and EU sanctions and seized assets. Eventually, Maduro’s strategy of paying the military brass for its loyalty will be unsustainable. Maduro’s position becomes especially precarious over time if he continues to stand for election. Authoritarians who hold elections are at higher risk of being deposed – especially if they lose and stick around anyway. Venezuela’s coup risk increases the longer Maduro continues to “win” elections as well. However, even the most powerful forecasting models cannot account for everything. Venezuela’s deep economic crisis, for example, is somewhat misleading. Citizens are hurting badly, but the Maduro government still has enough funds to offer military leaders governmental appointments and economic kickbacks. That make a serious plot against him less likely. Russia, China, and Turkey have also expressed support for the regime – potentially even military backing – likely depressing coup risk further. The recent power struggle most similar to what’s happening in Venezuela occurred in Zimbabwe in 2008. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed to be the legitimate winner of a flawed election against long-time President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe retaliated with a campaign of violence and intimidation to secure his victory in a dubious runoff. Tsvangirai’s power struggle didn’t unseat Mugabe, but it likely hurt his legitimacy internally. Mugabe was overthrown in a military coup in November 2017. In my assessment, Guaidó’s challenge won’t result in Maduro’s immediate exit – but it will further weaken his base of support, both among the Venezuelan people and within the government. The longer Maduro stays in power, the more likely he is to be removed by force. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/02/odds-military-coup-venezuela-rise-every-day-maduro-stays-office/

2019-02-01 12:10:40+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

rawstory--2019-11-12--In statement that ‘reads like a chilling warning of more coups to come,’ Trump celebrates military c

rawstory

In statement that ‘reads like a chilling warning of more coups to come,’ Trump celebrates military coup in Bolivia

“The Trump administration has cast aside the pretext of calling for new elections. Now it’s praising Evo Morales’ resignation at the barrel of a gun.” U.S. President Donald Trump made official his administration’s support for the military coup in Bolivia with a celebratory statement late Monday that one observer said “reads like a chilling warning of more coups to come.” “The United States applauds the Bolivian people for demanding freedom and the Bolivian military for abiding by its oath to protect not just a single person, but Bolivia’s constitution,” Trump said in a statement posted to the White House website. “These events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail,” Trump added. “We are now one step closer to a completely democratic, prosperous, and free Western Hemisphere.” The governments of Nicaragua and Venezuela—both victims of past U.S.-backed military coups—have condemned the ouster of Morales in Bolivia. The Trump administration has not been quiet about its desire for the removal of Bolivia’s socialist President Evo Morales, who resigned Sunday under threat from the nation’s military, police forces, and violent right-wing protesters. Hours before Morales resigned in a televised address, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted his support for the findings of the U.S.-dominated Organization of American States (OAS), which alleged Morales’ victory in the October presidential election was riddled with fraud. Pompeo also echoed OAS’ call for new elections, a demand Morales accepted shortly before he was forced aside. Guillaume Long, senior policy analyst Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and co-author of recent analysis of the October election, disputed the OAS findings in a statement last week, arguing “there is simply no statistical or evidentiary basis to dispute the vote count results showing that Evo Morales won in the first round.” Following Morales’ resignation, “the Trump administration has cast aside the pretext of calling for new elections,” tweeted journalist Dan Cohen. “Now it’s praising Evo Morales’ resignation at the barrel of a gun.” “In the parlance of American empire,” Cohen said, “a military coup is considered an expression of democracy.” CEPR co-director Mark Weisbrot tweeted late Monday that Trump’s statement in support of the coup in Bolivia is “no surprise.” “The Trump/[Sen. Marco] Rubio team has been helping the coup all along,” Weisbrot said. “But his statement, like his ‘I like oil, we’re keeping the oil,” in Syria, is embarrassingly blunt and also menacing.” Trump’s applause for the coup in Bolivia came as the Mexican government granted asylum to Morales, who tweeted Monday night that he is leaving Bolivia amid concerns for his safety. “I am leaving for Mexico, grateful for the openness of these brothers who offered us asylum,” said Morales. “Soon I will return with more strength and energy.”

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/11/in-statement-that-reads-like-a-chilling-warning-of-more-coups-to-come-trump-celebrates-military-coup-in-bolivia/

Tue, 12 Nov 2019 11:50:42 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

rferl--2019-02-22--Turkey Orders Almost 300 Military Personnel Arrested Over Alleged Links With Coup

rferl

Turkey Orders Almost 300 Military Personnel Arrested Over Alleged Links With Coup

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has suspended all Indian applications to host future events and called for the country’s international sports isolation after two Pakistanis were denied visas for a competition in New Delhi. The IOC on February 22 said it had been informed that Indian authorities did not grant entry visas to the Pakistani delegation for the 25-meter rapid-fire pistol event at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup. At stake in the competition are two places at next year's Tokyo Olympics. The visa refusal comes as tensions are rising to new highs between the rival nuclear powers. India has blamed Pakistan for a February 14 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed more than 40 soldiers, and it has warned its neighbor of a "jaw-breaking response." Islamabad has denied any involvement and vowed to retaliate if it comes under attack. The attack on Indian troops was claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e Mohammad (JeM) militant group. The ISSF said on February 20 that it faced "an urgent situation as Pakistani athletes cannot get entry visas to participate in the competition" because of the Kashmir attack. The IOC said that "since becoming aware of the [visa denial] and in spite of intense last-minute...efforts...and discussions with the Indian government authorities, no solution has been found to allow the Pakistani delegation to enter India in time to compete.” "As a result, the IOC Executive Board also decided to suspend all discussions with the Indian [National Olympic Committee] and government regarding the potential applications for hosting future sports and Olympic-related events in India," it said. The IOC said India’s action went against the principles of the Olympic charter relating to discrimination and political interference from the host country. The IOC said the Olympic spots would still be at stake in the competition, "in the interest of the other 500 athletes from 61 countries participating in the other events who are already in India for their competition." The body also urged all international sports federations not to hold events in India, or grant it rights to host future competitions, until the government had provided "clear written guarantees" to ensure access for all athletes. Rajeev Mehta, secretary-general of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), told Reuters that the developments constituted "a big setback for sports in the country.” "We've been in constant touch with the government, trying to explain to them and convince them to grant visas to the Pakistani shooters. This is really unfortunate," he said.

https://www.rferl.org/a/turkey-orders-almost-300-military-personnel-arrested-over-alleged-links-with-coup/29784555.html

2019-02-22 08:18:36+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

slate--2019-04-30--Venezuelas Opposition Leader Is Calling for a Military Coup Is the Military Actually Behind Him

slate

Venezuela’s Opposition Leader Is Calling for a Military Coup. Is the Military Actually Behind Him?

It’s all or nothing for Juan Guaidó now. Venezuela has been in an agonizing stalemate since January, when the opposition leader and president of the national assembly declared himself interim president of the country and was quickly recognized as such by the United States and the majority of governments in the region. President Nicolás Maduro, who remains in control of the country’s government and armed forces, has refused to budge. Meanwhile, crippling international sanctions have worsened the already dire economic conditions in what was once one of Latin America’s richest nations, now plagued by food and medicine shortages, widespread blackouts, and an ever-worsening refugee crisis. On Tuesday morning, Guaidó threw down a gauntlet by releasing a video from an air force base near the capital, Caracas, surrounded by armed military forces. Guaidó said that the “main military units of the Armed Forces” were backing what he called the final phase of “Operation Liberty.” He also appeared with imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo López, who said he’d been freed by military guards loyal to Guaidó. Gunfire between pro-Guaidó and pro-Maduro troops was reported at the air base following Guaidó’s announcement. #OperacionLibertad was quickly backed on Twitter by U.S. officials including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton, and Sen. Marco Rubio. Regional governments including Colombia and Brazil also voiced their support. Guaidó has been calling for the armed forces to back him from the beginning, but Tuesday’s actions are a significant escalation, the apparent beginning of an attempted military coup, though not everyone wants to call it that. Rubio, describing Guaidó as the internationally recognized legitimate president, has called CNN’s reporting “grotesque” and “shameful” for describing Tuesday’s events as an “armed coup.” He protests a bit too much: Calling something a coup is not a value judgment. Brutal dictators can be overthrown by their own militaries—just look at recent events in Sudan—and there are plenty of examples of militaries acting in coordination with peaceful protesters and even working to restore democracy. The bigger reason to be hesitant about calling Tuesday’s events a coup is that it’s not clear an overthrow is actually happening. The fighting at the air base fizzled out quickly, and while there have been demonstrations and violent clashes between protesters and security forces throughout Caracas, Reuters reports that “several hours after Guaidó’s announcement there was no sign of any other military activity and there were no immediate reports of casualties.” Maduro has tweeted that regional defense commanders have “expressed their total loyalty,” and until we see otherwise, the assumption should be that the bulk of the military is still backing the government. Still, if a small but significant part of the armed forces has defected to Maduro, it could raise the stakes of the standoff significantly: While the Maduro government has arrested hundreds of opponents in recent weeks, it hasn’t touched Guaidó himself, recognizing the risks of detaining the man whom many world governments recognize as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Bolton has promised a “significant response” if Guaidó is touched. Tuesday’s actions will raise pressure on the regime to take action to finally stop Guaidó, and raise pressure on his international backers to take action—peaceful or otherwise—on his behalf. Today may not be the final battle for control of Venezuela, but the odds just went up significantly that Guaidó will end up dead, in jail, or sitting in the presidential palace.

Joshua Keating

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/venezuela-guaido-maduro-coup.html?via=rss

2019-04-30 17:09:46+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sottnet--2019-02-08--Duterte laments to soldiers why military coups dont work Drop all politicians

sottnet

Duterte laments to soldiers why military coups don't work: "Drop all politicians"

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday introduced yet another radical idea to soldiers if they want to oust him through mutiny.Duterte, citing past military-backed revolts against former Filipino leaders, said the military would always resort to giving the power to a deposed leader's opponents instead of grabbing the power itself.The President said it would be more ideal if the military would just choose a new set of leaders and "drop all politicians, including me.""The problem with you guys... is [when] you go on a mutiny, rebellion, you do it, you time it [when] there's a disturbance... in society, a political turmoil...," Duterte said in a speech in Malacañang.Duterte said instead of "wasting their time," the military should"Drop all politicians, including me. I can swim slowly. I can always go home to Davao swimming. One kilometer a day would be fine," he said in jest.In his speech, Duterte again spoke of his desire to retire from politics. The 73-year-old former Davao City mayor is almost midway into his 6-year term as president."I'll go home. I am ripe for retirement. If God wills it. I don't know kung mag-abot ba tayo diyan (I don't know if we will reach that). I've been 40 years in politics. Add it to the years of my father, I practically, well eating politics as a daily bread," he said.This was not the first time the President toyed with the idea of having the country placed under military rule.

https://www.sott.net/article/406836-Duterte-laments-to-soldiers-why-military-coups-dont-work-Drop-all-politicians

2019-02-08 23:11:18+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sottnet--2019-04-07--Libyan Army launches Volcano of Rage military operation to defeat Haftars coup forces

sottnet

Libyan Army launches "Volcano of Rage" military operation to defeat Haftar's coup forces

Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

https://www.sott.net/article/410710-Libyan-Army-launches-Volcano-of-Rage-military-operation-to-defeat-Haftars-coup-forces

2019-04-07 21:49:21+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

thesun--2019-01-31--Venezuelas US-backed interim president Juan Guaido holds secret meetings with military to win suppo

thesun

Venezuela’s US-backed interim president Juan Guaidó holds secret meetings with military to win support for coup ousting Maduro

THE leader of Venezuela's opposition party claims he has held secret talks with the military to win crucial backing in his bid to oust President Nicolás Maduro. The news comes after Juan Guaidó declared himself the country's interim president and was immediately recognised by the US and several neighbouring Latin American countries. However, the superpowers of Russia and China support Maduro which is why military support is seen as key to him holding on to power. "We have had clandestine meetings with members of the armed forces and the security forces," Mr Guaidó wrote in an article for the New York Times. "The military's withdrawal of support from Mr Maduro is crucial to enabling a change in government, and the majority of those in service agree that the country's recent travails are untenable." He added he has offered an amnesty to members of the armed forces "found not guilty of crimes against humanity". However Guaidó did not say exactly who in the military he had met with. His claims came just a day after his rival was spotted addressing troops in Maracay, Venezuela. Donald Trump earlier tweeted on he had spoken to Guaidó and supported his "historic assumption of the presidency",  adding later that "The fight for freedom has begun!" The tweets came after Maduro had bizarrely claimed Trump ordered the mafia to murder him. He made the astonishing claim as he caved into pressure to hold talks with Guaido. In an interview with Russian state-owned RIA Novosti news agency, Maduro said: "Donald Trump gave the order to kill me, told the Colombian government, the Colombian mafia to kill me. "If something happens to me once, Donald Trump and Colombian President Ivan Duque will be responsible for everything what happens to me." In the same interview Maduro also said he was willing to negotiate with the opposition. Guaido has called for snap presidential elections, arguing that Maduro fraudulently won a second term last year. On Tuesday, he urged Venezuelans to step outside their homes and workplaces for two hours on Wednesday in the first mass mobilisation since last week's big protests. Maduro had previously rejected calls to hold fresh elections, saying it amounted to blackmail and that the countries calling for them must wait until 2025. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.

jlockett

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8320570/venezuela-us-president-juan-guiado-maduro-secret-meetings/

2019-01-31 09:09:04+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

thetelegraph--2019-03-24--Military-backed party heading for surprise win in first Thai election since 2014 coup

thetelegraph

Military-backed party heading for surprise win in first Thai election since 2014 coup

Thailand's military-backed party was on Sunday night headed for an unexpected win over a populist party leading a “democratic front” in the country's first election since a 2014 coup. Early partial results announced by the Southeast Asian nation’s election commission after it had counted 89 percent of votes put Phalang Pracharat, led by military junta chief Prayuth Chan-o-cha, in the lead with 7 million votes. The main opposition party, Pheu Thai, had 6.6 million. However, in another surprise twist, Ittiporn Boonprakong, the commission chairman, said the full unofficial results would only be declared on Monday morning, without giving any reason for the delay. Polling day saw a high turnout among Thailand’s 51.2 million eligible voters who were determined to cast their ballots after five years of military rule under a junta led by General Prayuth. The close result reflects the deep divisions that remain between supporters of the pro-monarchy junta and those who back Pheu Thai and other parties aligned with Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire former prime minister currently living in exile.

Nicola Smith

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/24/military-backed-party-heading-surprise-win-first-thai-election/

2019-03-24 17:55:08+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

thetelegraph--2019-04-04--Brazilian education minister to revise school textbooks to deny 1964 military coup

thetelegraph

Brazilian education minister to revise school textbooks to deny 1964 military coup

School textbooks in Brazil will be rewritten after its education minister denied a 1964 military coup, prompting accusations of historical revisionism. Ricardo Vélez Rodriguéz told the Valor Económico magazine that “there will be progressive changes [in textbooks] to the extent that a wider version of history is rescued.” The announcement comes days after a judge in Brazil barred far-Right president Jair Bolsonaro from publicly celebrating the anniversary of the 1964 coup that ousted the democratically elected government of João Goulart. The education minister described the following 21 years of military rule in Brazil as "a democratic regime by force", and said that students should be taught a “true and real” version of events. He added: “Brazilian history shows that what occurred on March 31, 1964 was a sovereign decision of the Brazilian society”.

Gino Spocchia

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/04/brazilian-education-minister-revise-school-textbooks-deny-1964/

2019-04-04 17:29:40+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

thinkprogress--2019-01-22--With reports of an attempted coup military defections is the end near for Venezuelas Maduro

thinkprogress

With reports of an attempted coup, military defections, is the end near for Venezuela’s Maduro?

Fresh protests have hit Venezuela, triggered by a shortage of goods and the continuing rise in prices for basic food and medical supplies. Other protests on Monday were triggered by the arrest of around two dozen National Guardsman who reportedly tried to overthrow the president, according to the Associated Press. Fires were still smoldering around the capital city of Caracas, where teargas canisters and upturned dumpsters littered some neighborhoods. More demonstrations are expected on Wednesday following what the government classified as a thwarted coup in the past couple of days. There are also reports that a group of Venezuelan soldiers have crossed into Colombia, where they have issued a statement denouncing the embattled government of President Nicolas Maduro. With signs of a military revolt, as well as the Bank of England announcement that it is won’t (yet) release some $550 million in gold from Maduro’s government, we have to wonder: Can a president without a loyal military and access to liquid funds continue to rule a country where he is increasingly unpopular? Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves, has been hit with sanctions and embargoes from multiple nations (including the United States) over what critics say is the subversion of democracy and deterioration of human rights. “The military is unfortunately the decisive actor in Venezuela right now,” said Benjamin Gedan, senior adviser at the Wilson Center’s Latin American program. Gone are the days (for now) that the opposition could affect change through the legislative process and elections, and so the military holds some important cards. Gedan, who was also the National Security Council’s South America director under the Obama administration, said one of two things could happen: a military uprising (unlikely) or the military simply refusing to repress dissent. “Should the military do so, Venezuelans have it in their hands to affect a peaceful and democratic transition,” he said, referring specifically to the armed forces and not the National Guard.  After all, Venezuela has a history of democratic government. “All eyes are on the military,” said Gedan. This crisis has been unfolding for years now, with deadly protests beginning in 2014, a savage rate of hyperinflation, major shortages, and at least 3 million Venezuelans fleeing the country. The United States has so far contributed just over $100 million to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, and it hasn’t really organized an international response in support of the migrants. “Unfortunately, given the anti-immigrant attitude, the United States utterly lacks the credibility to do so. So while we’re restricting the access to the United States of refugees and various asylum seekers, it would be very hard for the United States to be the leader, to say that others need to be absorbing more Venezuelans and to be treating them more humanely,” said Gedan. Neighboring countries, he added, have been “quite generous” to Venezuelans, who, with some exceptions, have not suffered much xenophobia in their host countries. Brazil has been one of those exceptions, where with the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, Venezuelan migrants might start to face more hardships there. Gedan said he’s fairly confident that a transition will occur “in a reasonably short timeframe” — it’ll be tough for Maduro’s government to survive this level of economic chaos. With the currency being in a freefall, the Venezuelan government has limped on this long with help from China, which has only helped the oil sector enough to get the debts owed to it repaid, and Russia, which is a supporter of Maduro regime but doesn’t have enough cash to bail it out. But the money is running out. Gedan points out Venezuela has defaulted on its loans, can’t refinance its debts due to U.S. sanctions, and can’t access its gold, which is its only way generating foreign exchange. Other than considering an invasion, President Donald Trump hasn’t had much to say about Venezuela, with this administration placing consistent pressures on Maduro via sanctions. And that’s a good thing, said Gedan. Still, he adds, the White House should be focused on Venezuela in a productive way. “I do regret that this crisis has reached this level of urgency at a time when the U.S. has no longer any credibility on the issues of democracy protection, human rights defense, and, frankly, the humane treatment of migrants,” he said.

D. Parvaz

https://thinkprogress.org/with-reports-of-an-attempted-coup-military-defections-is-the-end-near-for-venezuelas-maduro-eec5784b6705/

2019-01-22 20:18:45+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

unian--2019-04-11--Omar al-Bashir Sudan military coup topples ruler after protests

unian

Omar al-Bashir: Sudan military coup topples ruler after protests

Sudan's intelligence service said it was freeing all political prisoners. After nearly 30 years in power, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has been ousted and arrested, the country's defense minister says. Speaking on state TV, Awad Ibn Ouf said the army had decided to oversee a two-year transitional period followed by elections, the BBC reports. He also said a three-month state of emergency was being put in place. Protests against Mr Bashir, who has governed Sudan since 1989, have been under way for several months. Meanwhile, the main group that has been organising the demonstrations called for them to continue on Thursday, despite the military intervention. "I announce as minister of defence the toppling of the regime and detaining its chief in a secure place," Mr Ibn Ouf said in a statement. It is not clear where Mr Bashir is being held. Mr Ibn Ouf said the country had been suffering from "poor management, corruption, and an absence of justice" and he apologized "for the killing and violence that took place". He said Sudan's constitution was being suspended, border crossings were being shut until further notice and airspace was being closed for 24 hours. As the news broke, crowds of protesters celebrated outside army headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, embracing soldiers and climbing on top of armoured vehicles. Sudan's intelligence service said it was freeing all political prisoners, state-run Suna news agency reported. Mr Bashir is the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accuses him of organising war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's western Darfur region. However it is not clear what will happen to him following his arrest.

https://www.unian.info/world/10513440-omar-al-bashir-sudan-military-coup-topples-ruler-after-protests.html

2019-04-11 17:15:00+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

veteranstoday--2019-08-17--Turkey The Secret Story of the Assad Family and the July 15 2012 Western-Arab Military Coup

veteranstoday

Turkey: The Secret Story of the Assad Family and the July 15, 2012 Western-Arab Military Coup

Syria was in political and military cooperation with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact until 1954 and was the country that received the most foreign aid from these countries. Since then, Syria has pursued a policy against Western interests and targets, as well as its pro-Western neighbors and Arab countries, in line with Russia’s regional interests. Hafiz Essed  who was a member of the Nusayri minority which is accounts for 12% of the population, came to power in 1970 and tried to use terrorism as a method for the same goals. In the early 1970s, anti-Semitism was a major force in Syrian politics. In the 1967 and 1973 wars, Golan Heights and Kunaitra region of Syria were occupied by Israel. In 1974, Syria reached an agreement with Israel and retrieved Kunaitra region. Israel and the US, which wanted to hold the Golan Heights, allowed Syria to invade Lebanon on May 31, 1976. After the 1975 – 1976 civil war, poppy production in the Bekaa valley of Lebanon was around 10% of agricultural production. After Syria’s entry into Lebanon, this rate increased to 85%. Hafiz Essed’s brother Rifad Essed was the organizer of the biggest drug and antiquities trafficking in the Middle East. Brigadier General Gazi Kenan, Head of Syrian Military Intelligence, played an important role in this organization. In these years, Turkey was in bad odor with Greece because of the Cyprus issue. Russia launched cooperation between Syria and Greece using its influence on the Orthodox community. In 1977, during the reign of Syrian Ambassador to Athens, Ali Civil, there was a close cooperation between the Greek Intelligence Organization (EIP) and the Syrian Intelligence Organization Muhaberat on staff exchange, training and intelligence exchange. During this period, the Marxist – Leninist terrorist organizations were receiving support from Russia’s ally Syria against the US, NATO and Turkey . In October 1980, the Friendship and Cooperation Agreement was signed between Syria and the Soviet Union for 20 years. Under this agreement, while Syria receiving Soviet long-range weapons, T-72 tanks and MIG-25 fighter aircraft; The Soviets began to use the ports of Syria (Latakia-Tartus) as a base. Following this, Armenian terrorist organizations active in Caucasus and Middle East regions and having relations with KGB were also included in the Syrian & Soviet alliance. In the 1980s, Syria-based terror had two important goals. On the one hand, Israel and Lebanon, on the other hand the US, France and Turkey and Jordan. In 1980, upon the deterioration of Jordan – Syria relations, Jordan and its representatives in the world were exposed to Syrian terror. Following the assassination of Jordanian Prime Minister Mudar Badran, many Jordanian diplomats were attacked. Behind the terrorist alliance were the Soviet Union, Armenia, Greece and Libya. In January and February 1981, General Ali Haydar, the commander of Syria’s Special Commando Units and Said Kaddafi, the President of the Libyan Green Beret Association, came together in Britain and decided to take action against the common goals and opponents. In 1982, the Soviet Union provided military supplies of $ 4 billion to Syria under favorable terms for three years. When Syria could not to pay its debt with money, it began to provide terror services to the Russia account. Organizations receiving shelter, training and arms support under their control in Syria and Lebanon have started sabotage actions against the US, NATO and Jordanian targets. Even the famous terrorist Jackal Carlos worked under the command of Syrian Air Intelligence President General Mohammed al-Hayli during this period. Carlos’ close associates, such as Johannes Wienrich and Nicolas Bechara who was born in Aleppo in 1933, planned joint actions with Syrian European ambassadors and Adnan Handani, Head of the Counterespionage Department of Muhabarat. On the other hand, Syria which was in favor of the conflict in the Middle East, fell out with the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Yasser Arafat, which were in favor of the peace. Abu Musa group left the PLO and entered Syria’s command. In time, al-Saika which was Baath’s arm in the Palestinian movement, George Habbas’s People’s Front for the Liberation of the Palestine (PFLP), Naif Havatme’s Democratic Front for the Liberation of the Palestine (DFLP), Ahmed Cibril’s People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command Organization (PFLP-GC), Abdulfettah Ganem’s Palestine Liberation Front, Samir Gisha’s People’s Liberation Front, Nadja Alish’s Arab People’s Liberation Front, Abu Nidal’s (Sabri al-Benna) Black June Organization were started to be managed from Damascus. Throughout history, there have been Shiites along with various ethnic and religious groups in Lebanon. Especially after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the increase in conflicts in South Lebanon caused the Shiites to emigrate to Beirut and settle in the southern districts of the city. Unemployment, poverty and the social pressure of the big city accelerated the congregation and radicalization between them. Musa Sadr, who came to Lebanon from Iran at the age of 38, began to organize this society which was ready to rebel against its economic and political oppression. He founded the “Deprived Movement’, one of the first important organizations in Lebanon. On the one hand, while fighting for faith against Israel, on the other hand, he demanded the Lebanese government to protect the interests of the oppressed people. During this period, Sadr received approximately £ 700,000 in aid each year from the Shah’s secret service, Savak. However, after Khomeini’s strengthening abroad after 1972, he cut off relations with the Iranian administration and supported Khomeini. Because of the Lebanese government was inadequate in the face of Israeli attacks, Musa Sadr founded the Efvacu’l Mukavemetu’l Lebanon, meaning the the Lebanese Resistance Movement on 6 July 1975. All Shiites, whether leftist or liberal, began to gather under this roof. Over time, the organization became stronger and received significant support from Syria. Syria supported AMAL against the PLO of the Palestinians and the LMH of the Druze, and set out to gain influence in Lebanon and the Middle East. For this, in 1976, AMAL supported the Syrian invasion of Lebanon and its actions against some Islamic groups and opposed some other countries and organizations. The founder and leader of the organization, Imam Musa Sadr, mysteriously disappeared on a trip to Libya in 1978. After Musa Sadr, the organization was headed by Hussein Hussein. On April 4, 1981, Nebih Berri, the leader of AMAL, put the organization on a secular and nationalist line and put it under the control of Syria. Meanwhile, the pro-Syrian and Iranian supporters formed separate groups. Some of the supporters of Iran paved the way for the establishment of the Hezbollah organization. The understanding of the organization, which was expressed by M. Hüseyin Fadlullah, one of the Shiite religious leaders-born in Najaf, was put into practice by about 1000 Iranian soldiers who came to Lebanon Baalbek after the 1982 Israeli attack. The main aim was to establich a Iranian model state by organizing the Lebanese Shiites. Iran’s Ambassador to Damascus, Ali Akbar Mohtesemi, played a major role in the establishment of the organization. He convinced Syria on the one hand and Israel on the other to form the great Hezbollah. Syria was wanting to be active in Lebanon. On the other hand, Israel had disturbed by the activities of Palestinians approved by the Lebanese army in Southern Lebanon. With the strengthening of the Shiites in the region, Israel thought that there would be a sectarian conflict against Palestinian groups, which would contribute to its own security. However, the developments were not in line with the expectations of the US and Israel. The first sensational action of the organization was the bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut and the Marines in October 1983. 241 US soldiers were killed in this attack. Hezbollah occupied the US embassy in September 1984. Hezbollah was under Iran’s command and support in response to the Syrian support to Amal. On 15 February 1985, the organization openly declared its loyalty to Khomeini. In the 1990s, Hezbollah focused on social activities in Lebanon, opened free schools and hospitals, and established charitable organizations. In this way, he became the representative of almost all Lebanese Shiites and received also support from other Islamic groups. After Leader Abbas Musevi was killed in March 1992, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah became the leader. Iran and Syria had common enemies in the region. The Turks in Syria and the Azeris in Iran posed a threat to the governments of both countries. In addition, the including of Hatay region to Turkey by Ataturk in 1938; The fact that the Shah of Iran took Ataturk as an example in many areas were again an important basis for the historical hostility of these countries. Iran’s alliance with Syria in the Middle East led to the transformation of Islamic revolution into Islamic terrorism. Iran, which has called itself the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, ignored Hama Massacre that was shocked Sunni political Islamist organizations and the Islamic world in January 1982. Sunni political islamists realized that Iranian Islamic revolution was in fact a Shiite movement. The only way left for Iran which was excluded in this way was to support the Shiite opposition movements and some of the Sunni Islamist organizations such as HAMAS. Some time after the Sykes-Picot Agreement, France was betrayed by Britain and left the Middle East. But France’s dream of being active in the Middle East has never ended. Years later, Khomeini and his students, who realized the Islamic Revolution of Iran, remained under the auspices of France for many years. During this period, Russia, which killed the Khomeini’s eldest son Mustafa in 1978 and prepared the ground for the Iranian revolution, had good relations with France. Christian minorities in Lebanon have long been influenced by French culture. Likewise, the biggest supporter of the Armenians which were active in the Lebanese and Syrian economy, was France. Hafiz Essed’s brother Rifaat Essed was the Vice President. He went to Russia and did a PhD in Political Science about “The Class Struggle in Syria“. He gave important support to the terrorist organizations run by Russia in the Middle East. And it has established close cooperation with the PKK terrorist organization. PKK Leader Abdullah Ocalan who fled from Turkey in 1979, was in a villa in Latakia hosted by Rifaat Essed. Drugs, Historical Art Smuggling and Black Money Traffic in Syria were managed by him. He had a great influence on the Shiite Nusayri leaders especially in Latakia. In 1982, Rifaat Essed, the Commander of Defense Brigades, suppressed the rebellion of the Sunni Opponents in Hama and killed 40,000 people. In 1984, at a time when Hafez Essed had a heart attack, he was exiled to France because of attempting a failed coup against Hafez. While in exile, Hafez Essed gave him some missions. In 1998 he was appointed Vice President. Rifaat Essed was like the secret manager of France in Lebanon and Syria. Rifaat Essed pursued policies in the direction of the regional interests of France. He gave great support to the separatist Kurdish and Armenian terrorist organizations in Europe and the Middle East. When the US left Lebanon in 1984, France wanted to continue its influence over Lebanon. For this reason, Syria supported the French “Direct Action” organization. On November 27, 1985, a bombing took place at Rome Airport, killing 20 people. In 1985, the Soviet Union brought together the Syrian, Iranian and Libyan Foreign Ministers in Damascus in order to expand the area of activity in the Middle East and to control the Shiite terrorist organizations that started to strengthen. Meanwhile, a meeting was held in Damascus on 30 April 1986 and a joint action decision was taken between ASALA and Abu Nidal group. In September 1986, the Abu Nidal group killed 21 people in an attack on the Newe Shalom synagogue in Istanbul. In the same year, after a series of bombings in France, the French head of Homeland Security went to Syria and made a secret agreement. Provided there was no action in France, it was decided to tolerate pro-Syrian terrorist organizations. When Bashar came to power after Hafez Essed, all dreams of Rifaat Essed fell into the water. He criticized Bashar’s coming to the administration and said that “Bashar will soon have to leave his post”. He began to work secretly to overthrow Bashar. After 2007, Rifaat Essed developed close relations with Saudi Arabia, England and Spain. Sudden clashes began in Damascus, the capital of Syria, on Sunday, July 15, 2012, and increased by July 17. Meanwhile, General Manaf Tlass who was the Commander of the Republican Guard and Navaf Faris who was Syria’s Ambassator in Baghdad went to Paris. Navaf announced that he had broken ties with the Bashar government. Faris also stated that some bomb attacks in the capital were carried out by al-Qaeda militants supported by the government itself. In fact, behind the clashes in Damascus was the intelligence of Britain, the United States, Israel and German, led by Saudi Arabia Intelligence. Their aim was to overthrow Bashar Essed with the help of a military administration that supported them. The day before, British Foreign Minister William Hague, who visited the Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, called for “ The dismiss of the Syrian President”. Indeed, there was a top management group in Damascus, the capital, who took action to overthrow Bashar Essad. These were none other than the Crisis Group headed by Hassan Turkmani. Some walls in the capital were equipped with anti-Bashar graffiti inscriptions. However, Iran was aware of the coup attempt. What leaked information to Iran was German Intelligence Organization (BND), which re-established the Iranian Intelligence Institutions after 1993. At that time, Bashar’s brother Maher Essed, the head of the State Security Division Ali Mamlouk, Air Intelligence Unit President Cemil Hassan and Military Intelligence Unit President General Abdul Fatah Qaddisiya were close to Iran. This group firstly changed the guards inside the Palace of the Republic and arrested about 40 people. On July 18, clashes in Damascus reached its peak. Crisis group took Sunni soldiers in the Syrian Army to the field. After a while, they would isolate Bashar with the excuse of turmoil and establish a Military Administration headed by Hisham Bakhtiar, Head of National Intelligence. Special forces from Saudi Arabia and neighboring Arab countries were also in the Free Syrian Army. Syrian Air Force was under the command of Maher and his team and for this reason the Sunni coup attempt failed. Soon, Hezbollah militias and Shiite Nusayri soldiers of Maher Essed appeared and took control of the streets. Bashar and Maher ordered the killing of the Crisis Group. National Security Building where the Military Administration was in the meeting, was bombed. Crisis Group President Hassan Turkmani, Vice President Asif Shawkat, National Defense Minister David Raja, Interior Minister Muhammad al-Shaar and National Intelligence President Hisham Bakhtiar were killed. Only Bashar’s brother-in-law was Asif Shawkat Shiite Nusayri. One was Christian and the others were Sunni. On the other hand, Asif Shawkat was hating Essed family for a long time. Maher had previously arrested his brother-in-law, Asif Shawkat, several times, and even fired in 1999 to kill him during an argument in the Palace. Asif Shawkat was also responsible for the killing of Hezbollah Commander Imad Mugniyah in Damascus in 2008, and Iran took his revenge in this way. Thanks to Iran, Bashar Essed got rid of the coup attempt. The month of Ramadan would going to start. Bashar declared that they would not start Ramadan with the Arab world and that they would fast on the same dates with Iran and Iraq. After that date, Bashar Essed and Iran became a close ally. Meanwhile, following the failure of the Salafist Coup Attempt, the next day the President of Intelligence of Saudi Arabia was dismissed and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a close friend of the CIA, became President of the RIA (Riyasetu’l Istihbaratu’l Amme) on July 19. Hafez Essed’s son Basil, who had prepared for him replacement, died in a car accident on the Damascus highway at the age of 31 in 1994. Therefore, Bashar Essed’s leadership path was opened. Hafez’s youngest son Majid died in 2009 due to drugs. The last brother Maher became the second strongest man in the Essed regime and tried to resist Sunni Opponents as the commander of the 4th Mechanized Brigade between Idlib and Latakia. However, he suffered constant defeats within 3 months after Ramadan 2019 and was dismissed with Cemil Hassan, whom he acted with in the 2012 coup attempt. This was actually the operation of Syria’s clearance of Iranian effect after a result of Russia’s secret agreement with Israel and the United States. (As we mentioned in a previous article: https://www.veteranstoday.com/2019/07/09/sold-out-by-putin-are-iranian-supporters-in-syria-in-danger/). Lastly, let’s talk about an interesting incident that took place recent days: Firas, son of Rifaat Essed, explained that his grandfather Ali Essed’s last name was “Wild” and was changed to Essed (meaning Lion) in 1920. Firas also shared a historical document about his grandfather. Suleiman, Ali’s father, had worked for France according to French Foreign Ministry documents. The Syrian people have been moaning under the persecution of the Essed family since the 1970s. During Hafez Essed period, Sunni Opponents used the word Essed instead of Assad. The word “Essed” in Arabic means “The Dog attacking to hunt” and was in accordance with historical facts.

VT Editors

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2019/08/17/turkey-the-secret-story-of-the-assad-family-and-the-july-15-2012-western-arab-military-coup/

2019-08-17 22:50:01+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

westernjournal--2019-01-23--Thailand election authorities set March 24 for general election first since May 2014 military coup

westernjournal

Thailand election authorities set March 24 for general election, first since May 2014 military coup

The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand election authorities set March 24 for general election, first since May 2014 military coup. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

AP Reports

https://www.westernjournal.com/ap-thailand-election-authorities-set-march-24-for-general-election-first-since-may-2014-military-coup/

2019-01-23 09:30:43+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sottnet--2019-04-30--SOTT FOCUS Washington Goes For The Jugular Puppet Leader in Venezuela Launches Military Coup A

sottnet

SOTT FOCUS: Washington Goes For The Jugular: Puppet 'Leader' in Venezuela Launches 'Military Coup' Against Maduro Government

It's all about the optics Self-declared Venezuelan 'interim president', Juan Guaido, aka RGN (Random Guy Named) Guaido (aka 'Guido', to the US State Department) - whose uncanny resemblence to former US president Barack Obama continues to amaze -. So far, it just amounts to rioting at one location in Caracas, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends that way.With his bosses in Washington perplexed over the failure of their color-revolution attempt back in January, they're going for the jugular by attempting to instigate a military coup.Appearing in a video that was apparently shot at (or near) a Caracas military airbase, and accompanied by a number of what appear to be Venezuelan soldiers, along with fellow 'revolutionary', Leopoldo Lopez, Guaido announced that:This, ironically, is exactly what might happen now that Washington has gone 'all in' with an attempted coup: they have gifted Maduro all the justification he needs to round up Guaido and his accomplices.Leopoldo Lopez, incidentally, was arrested in 2014 and - because the Maduro government has been far too soft in its treatment of what are de facto rabid terrorists - was held under house arrest after being found guilty of inciting violence during that first post-Chavez round of bombings, murder and mayhem. Lopez claims that he is in attendance for today's outbreak of democrazi because he was "released by the military under Guaido's orders." More likely, he simply walked out of his house...RGN's three-minute video was clearly timed to coincide withGuaido had earlier claimed on Twitter that he was meeting with "the key military units" of the Venezuelan army as "the beginning of the final phase of Operation Freedom," but like everything else that comes from his mouth, that too is almost certainly fantasy. I don't know who these soldiers are that he and Lopez were speaking with this morning, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're not even Venezuelan...Venezuela's Vice President (its real one), Jorge Rodriguez, has said on Twitter that "a small group of traitor troops" have positioned themselves in the Altamira neighborhood of Caracas "to promote a coup" against the (real) government, and that they were acting to counter them.Venezuela's Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, has reassured the country that the military remains fully under the control of Maduro's democratically-elected government, writing on Twitter Padrino added that the defense force "reject this coup movement that aims to fill the country with violence" and stated the "pseudo political leaders" fronting "this subversive movement have used troops and police with weapons of war on a public road in the city to create anxiety and terror", calling them "cowards".To their eternal shame, most LatAm countries support Washington's coup in Caracas. Not all of them though. Bolivian president Evo Morales has voiced his support for the Maduro government, writing on Twitter:He pointed a finger at the Guaido-supporting US in a second tweet, writing:The Mexican and Cuban governments have lent similar support , calling for the ongoing coup to cease because it risks escalating into bloody conflict.If the US and its regional co-conspirators can get the right 'optics' out of this operation, they could, theoretically, swing momentum for Venezuelan public support behind their putsch.It's extremely unlikely though.. Venezuela's Foreign Minister (the real one), Jorge Arreaza, has told Reuters that no more than 30 soldiers are engaged in this provocation with RGN Guaido. He also confirmed what most already know -The 'coup' isn't a day old andThe ultra-violent gangs running with the so-called 'opposition' have thus far baited Venezuelan security forces into tear-gassing them on a highway near the airbase Guaido made his coup call from:There have also been exchanges of gunfire (apparently between the Chavista Collectivos and Washington's Ultras) at this location:Here's a clash that took place closer to the city center today, apparently showing soldiers arresting other soldiers. In all likelihood, it's the real, legitimate soldiers arresting 'soldiers' who are part of the coup-by-media:Here it is again, from closer. As you can see, they give up without a fight, probably because they know they're completely outnumbered and outgunned. They were never meant to 'go down fighting' or to become 'martyrs of democracy'. They were only paid to provide 'optics' - specifically, to provide realistic images that would 'plausibly' suggest that civil war is imminent...I don't know where exactly this was filmed, but this is the kind of 'optics' the mainstream media is only too happy to showcase as evidence that "Maduro is an evil socialist dictator":Confirming what everybody sees, but which everyone is apparently also supposed to pretend is not happening - that this is a form of warfare against Venezuela by the USA - Trump's lunatic advisor John Bolton has piped up to tell US media that what we're seeing unfold in Caracas is "not a coup attempt" (which is accurate, in fact, though not for the reason he's saying it) because this stunt is just the 'legit' leader (Guaido) giving orders to his 'legit' military, which is "upholding Venezuela's constitution against a Maduro government controlled by Cuba."If you're thinking 'you couldn't make this up', that's because you couldn't: only batsh*t Washington Crazies could.

https://www.sott.net/article/412104-Washington-Goes-For-The-Jugular-Puppet-Leader-in-Venezuela-Launches-Military-Coup-Against-Maduro-Government

2019-04-30 19:53:22+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sottnet--2019-05-05--Lavrov set to meet with Venezuelan FM after failed coup attempt in Caracas warns US against militar

sottnet

Lavrov set to meet with Venezuelan FM after failed coup attempt in Caracas, warns US against military option

The Venezuelan foreign minister is heading to Moscow for a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. The top diplomats are set to discuss recent developments after a failed coup attempt in Caracas.The talks between Jorge Arreaza and Sergey Lavrov are expected to begin on Sunday after the Venezuelan minister arrives in Moscow. During the rare face-to-face discussion, they will seek a solution to the bitter political crisis that is crippling the Latin American nation, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.Arreaza and Lavrov will also discuss "options for international mediation efforts to facilitate dialogue between the government and the opposition." Finally, their meeting will touch upon trade, investment and military cooperation.Lavrov denounced "an unprecedented campaign led by the US and aimed at toppling Venezuela's legitimate government." What Venezuela needs right now is political dialogue, not power grab attempts, the Russian minister said.Only Venezuelans themselves can define the fate of their state, Lavrov said, as he called for "inclusive political dialogue."The meeting comes at a troubled time for Venezuela, which recently saw a massive effort by US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power. During violent clashes in and around Caracas, Guaido called for an uprising against the government, but the army and security forces remained loyal to President Maduro.Moscow and Washington are at odds over Venezuela, but the Russian Foreign Ministry said the timing of two meetings does not contain any message.Pompeo himself had commented on the Venezuelan unrest, reiterating that "military action is possible." President Maduro has urged the army to remain vigilant and ready should the US launch an offensive on Venezuela.

https://www.sott.net/article/412423-Lavrov-set-to-meet-with-Venezuelan-FM-after-failed-coup-attempt-in-Caracas-warns-US-against-military-option

2019-05-05 15:45:25+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sottnet--2019-06-27--Venezuela intel claims it foiled a Maduro assassination and military coup plot

sottnet

Venezuela intel claims it foiled a 'Maduro assassination and military coup' plot

They are fascist groups, not just coup plotters. They are assailants of power, murderers who want to come to power on the basis of a bloodbath." Venezuelan intelligence says it has foiled an assassination attempt against President Nicolas Maduro, which envisioned a group of rogue officers storming the presidential palace and installing an imprisoned general in his stead.The plot by current and former military officersIntelligence agencies said they had been unraveling the plot for 14 months."140,000 seized cartridges for machine guns and several combat groups were predetermined to be used to capture president Nicolas Maduro," Minister of Communications and Culture Jorge Rodriguez told the nation on Wednesday, announcing the arrests of conspirators.Rodriguez added thatwhich was allegedly endorsed by US national security adviser John Bolton."The complicity and participation of Duque and the government of Colombia in this fascist attempt to assassinate me is evident," Maduro said in reaction to the news. "Colombia is conspiring and we will not tolerate it!

https://www.sott.net/article/415740-Venezuela-intel-claims-it-foiled-a-Maduro-assassination-and-military-coup-plot

2019-06-27 19:15:20+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sottnet--2019-11-14--BEST OF THE WEB: 'A classic coup': Bolivia's new government is a 'military regime with no constituti

sottnet

BEST OF THE WEB: 'A classic coup': Bolivia's new government is a 'military regime with no constitutional authority' - Max Blumenthal

The political upheaval in Bolivia is a textbook coup that was carried out through violence and intimidation, Max Blumenthal told RT.Opposition politician Jeanine Añez declared herself interim leader of Bolivia on Wednesday, after President Evo Morales was urged by his country's military chief to step down. But her legitimacy has already come into question. As the editor of the Grayzone Project pointed out, Añez is a fringe figure who garnered only 1.7 percent of the votes cast in Bolivia's last elections.Commenting on possible US ties to the plot, Blumenthal noted that six key coup plotters from the military command of Bolivia were trained and educated at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia - an institution notorious for hatching regime change plots and training right-wing military dictators throughout the past decades. A top police official credited with launching the coup, Vladimir Yuri Calderón, even participated in a police training program overseen by the FBI, Blumenthal explained.Washington has hailed the developments in Bolivia as a "significant movement for democracy in the Western Hemisphere" - a statement that essentially endorses a "purge" of Evo Morales' supporters, Blumenthal argued.

https://www.sott.net/article/423909-A-classic-coup-Bolivias-new-government-is-a-military-regime-with-no-constitutional-authority-Max-Blumenthal

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 16:56:12 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sottnet--2019-11-21--Bolivia's 'military mutiny' key factor in successful coup & main reason Venezuela's Guaido can't ous

sottnet

Bolivia's 'military mutiny' key factor in successful coup & main reason Venezuela's Guaido can't oust Maduro

The ouster of Bolivian President Evo Moralesand Venezuela's opposition is unlikely to effect its own putsch plot while the army has Caracas's back, an analyst told RT.After another lackluster attempt to launch mass demonstrations to depose Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, opposition figurehead Juan Guaido may be wondering how his counterparts in Bolivia obtained their coup with such speed. But Lucas Koerner, independent political analyst and editor of Venezuelanalysis.com, says it's all about the guns."The key factor are the armed forces," Koerner told RT's Rick Sanchez. "In Venezuela, the military has stayed on the side of the constitutionally elected president, whereGuaido's failure to win the support of the security services is not exactly surprising. A survey conducted last year by Caracas-based polling firm Delphos found that a whopping 97 percent of Venezuelans had never even heard of the US-backed opposition leader, let alone supported him to lead a military junta to depose the elected president. Even within the Venezuelan opposition, Guaido's faction has made enemies in other ways as well."This goes back to last year, when the opposition had a presidential candidate, Henri Falcon, who was the highest polling opposition figure at that time, and had the opposition united behind him they could have defeated Maduro," Koerner said.In choosing to allow Maduro to run uncontested, Koerner suggested the opposition threw away its one chance to remove the socialist leader from office by democratic means.Guaido declared himself "interim president" of Venezuela in January and received instant endorsement from Washington and its Latin American allies in the Organization for American States (OAS). But unlike Bolivia's opposition movement, which unseated President Morales after just a few weeks of protest with support from the military, similar efforts against Maduro have so far been unsuccessful.

https://www.sott.net/article/424369-Bolivias-military-mutiny-key-factor-in-successful-coup-main-reason-Venezuelas-Guaido-cant-oust-Maduro

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:30:34 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sputnik--2019-01-08--Blood Blunders and Blame Worlds Best Worst and Weirdest Military Coups

sputnik

Blood, Blunders and Blame: World's Best, Worst and Weirdest Military Coups

But forces loyal to President Bongo — who has ruled since 2009 when he succeeded his father Omar — regained control soon after and captured or killed the rebels. Critics have accused the Bongo family of profiting from the country's vast natural resources while allowing more than a million people to live in poverty. There have been hundreds of military coups, with most of them taking place in Africa, Latin America or Asia. They can sometimes be violent but often they are bloodless and occasionally they are so inept as to be downright comical. Twenty years after it became independent from the Netherlands, Indonesia was ruled by a populist leader called Sukarno, who was increasingly falling under the spell of China and Chairman Mao. On the night of September 30/October 1, 1965 a group of army plotters tried to take over Djakarta, purportedly to propel the Indonesian Communist Party and its leader, D. P. Aidit, to power. But the coup's leaders, Lieutenant Colonel Untung and Brigadier General Supardjo, bungled it, allowing the army commander General Nasution to get away and rally the rest of the armed forces. Sukarno, whose dithering and ambivalent attitude to the plotters was heavily criticised, was ousted and replaced by Suharto, a figure closely associated with the CIA and the United States. In the wake of the coup up to a million people suspected of being communist sympathisers were murdered by the army and by right-wing militias, a genocide which was horribly described in detail in the award-winning documentary The Act Of Killing. If the Indonesian coup was a blueprint for how not to do it, then the coup in Chile in September 1973, was the opposite. The Chilean armed forces, under the command of General Augusto Pinochet, swept away the democratically elected Marxist government of Salvador Allende and took power with a combination of ruthlessness and attention to detail, with the full support of the CIA and the US government. Allende, 64, had been elected President three years earlier but had repeatedly clashed with the military and with their conservative allies in the Chilean establishment over his plans to nationalise key parts of the economy. As the economy floundered the military and their big business allies ran out of patience and on September 11 air force jets strafed the presidential palace, La Moneda, as tanks opened fire on Allende, who refused to resign. It is not clear if Allende committed suicide or was murdered but by the end of the day he was dead and Pinochet took power. The tiny former Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea in central Africa was thrust into the spotlight in March 2004 when 60 mercenaries were arrested in Zimbabwe while apparently on their way there to start a coup. Five months later Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was arrested at his home in South Africa and accused of taking part in the coup plot. It later emerged the coup had been led by Simon Mann — a former army officer whose father George had once captained the England cricket team — and was designed to bring to power exiled opposition leader Severo Moto Nsa. It was allegedly bankrolled by Lebanese businessman Ely Khalil, who wanted to get his hands on Equatorial Guinea's huge oil reserves. Mann was extradited to Equatorial Guinea, served five years in the notorious Black Beach prison and was released in 2009. He testified on behalf of the son of the country's President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, in a Paris court in 2017 and claimed George Soros had attempted another coup in 2011. Sir Mark pleaded guilty to breaching anti-mercenary laws in South Africa and was fined three million rand ($500,000). One warm summer's night in 2016 Turkish television viewers were suddenly greeted by the shocking news that a coup was under way by soldiers and airmen seeking to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Military jets bombarded the Turkish parliament in Ankara and tanks patrolled the streets of Istanbul. But again the plotters made a crucial mistake — they failed to locate and capture Erdogan, who was on holiday on the Mediterranean coast. "There is no power higher than the power of the people," he told her, as he urged Turks to come out onto the streets to thwart the coup. Thousands heeded his words and the rebel soldiers were not prepared to mow down civilians with bullets or tank shells, so they began surrendering. The coup was over but the mystery remains as to who was behind it. Erdogan has blamed the cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is in exile in the US, but the evidence has been less than watertight and the trials of several of the coup's leaders, including air force commander General Akin Öztürk, have still not finished. "To be tried on accusations of being a traitor and of being related to the treacherous coup attempt is the biggest punishment that can be given to me," said Öztürk during a court appearance in 2017. The country has had 21 coups in total, including two in the last 13 years. In 2006 the army, which has close links to the royal family and to the upper classes in Thailand, overthrew democratically-elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was hugely popular in the countryside, especially in the north-eastern province of Isan, for his policies which tended to help the poorest in society. But his supporters — the Redshirts — frequently clashed with the rival Yellowshirts, who drew much of their support from Bangkok. Thaksin fled into exile — where he bought and sold Manchester City football club — and then backed his sister Yingluck, who was elected as Prime Minister in 2011. The Thai military did not like her policies either and turfed her out in another bloodless coup in 2014. She too is in exile, possibly in London. In 1987 coups in Africa were ten a penny and rarely got much news coverage because they were so common. So it was in October 1987 when Captain Thomas Sankara — who had himself taken power in a coup four years earlier — was ousted by his former friend Captain Blaise Compaoré, who ordered his body to be dismembered and scattered. But in the intervening 30 years Sankara has been turned into something of an African Che Guevara. His left-wing policies were revolutionary at the time and, unlike hundreds of African leaders, he was honest, incorruptible and genuinely out to improve the plight of his people. In 1984 he even changed the name of the nation — a former French colony — to Burkina Faso (meaning Land of Honest Men) from Upper Volta. Compaoré kept the name but unpicked almost all of Sankara's policies and hung on to corrupt power until 2014. Until his ignominious death in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi instilled fear in Libya and ruled the country's fractious tribes with an iron hand. But he rose to power, aged just 27, in a coup. On September 1, 1969, the country's playboy monarch King Idris was out of the country at a health resort. Gaddafi and about 70 fellow plotters surrounded the royal palace and other key government buildings, arrested top officials and routed the king's personal guard, who put up only token resistance. The plotters called themselves the Free Officers Movement and later formed a Revolutionary Command Council but it was always Gaddafi pulling the strings. But it led to the Spanish Civil War which the coup plotters, calling themselves Nationalists, eventually won in 1939. The coup was launched by right-wing officers on July 18, 1936, five months after a leftist coalition won a general election in Spain. Francisco Franco, who was to become the rebel leader, broadcast a speech imploring the military to overthrow the government. The 30,000-strong Army of Africa seized Spanish-controlled Morocco and was airlifted to the mainland by planes from fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. But some army garrisons sided with the Republican government, triggering a three-year civil war which claimed tens of thousands of lives. Liberia was set up by freed American slaves in 1847 and it had been politically dominated for years by an elite who traced their heritage back to the United States. But there was great resentment among indigenous Liberians and it boiled over on April 12, 1980. A group of 17 non-commissioned officers, led by Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, stormed government buildings and seized the President William Tolbert and members of his Cabinet. Tolbert, 66, was one of Liberia's wealthiest businessmen, and his government was accused of corruption. Tolbert was shot dead in the executive mansion at 1am and 13 Cabinet members were summarily executed by firing squad on the beach in the capital, Monrovia. He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword and Doe was tortured and executed by Johnson and his men in a videotaped ordeal in September 1990. Johnson can be seen sipping beer as one of his men cuts off Doe's ears.

https://sputniknews.com/africa/201901081071306118-gabon-coups-history-weirdest/

2019-01-08 17:14:00+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sputnik--2019-01-30--Maduro Military Defectors in Colombia Planning Coup Attempt Against Venezuela

sputnik

Maduro: Military Defectors in Colombia Planning Coup Attempt Against Venezuela

"We are facing conspiracies and we are defeating them every day… a group of military deserters has become mercenaries of the Colombian oligarchy and conspired from Colombia to divide the national armed forces at my command", Maduro said Wednesday. READ MORE: US Orchestrates Coup in Venezuela as Countries Take Sides on Uprising Earlier in the day, in an exclusive interview with Sputnik Nicolas Maduro said that Trump had ordered the Colombian government and mafia to kill him in order to get access to the Venezuelan oil. "If something happens to me, it will be Donald Trump and Colombian President Ivan Duque that are responsible for that," Nicolas Maduro told Sputnik. Later on Tuesday, acting US Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan told reporters that he has not discussed with Bolton an apparent plan to deploy US troops to Colombia. At the same time, amid confusion caused by Bolton media reported citing military sources that US Army South Commander Maj. Gen. Mark Stammer will soon arrive in Colombia. READ MORE: Maduro: Bolton Prohibited Trump From Initiating Dialogue With Me (EXCLUSIVE) On January 23, the speaker of the opposition-led Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, declared himself interim head of state amid ongoing anti-government protests. The United States and a number of other countries, which disputed last year’s re-election of President Nicolas Maduro, have recognized the opposition leader. Maduro slammed Guaido as a US "puppet" and accused Washington, which has stated that it has all options on the table to respond to the crisis, of organizing a coup in Venezuela. Russia, China, Mexico, and Uruguay, were among those that voiced their support for Maduro as the country's only legitimate president and expressed readiness to act as mediators in the conflict between the government and the opposition.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/201901301071961437-maduro-defectors-colombia/

2019-01-30 12:32:00+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sputnik--2019-02-14--Russia Suspects Venezuela Coup by Military Means Becoming US Priority

sputnik

Russia Suspects Venezuela Coup by Military Means Becoming US Priority

The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned of an increasing number of signs that a military coup in Venezuela is becoming the "West's priority". READ MORE: Maduro Slams Trump-Duque Meeting as 'Feast of Hatred Toward Venezuela' The ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the United States has chosen a highly confrontational scenario in Venezuela and is openly encouraging Venezuela's armed forces to mutiny. "In general, all suggests that the White House has chosen a scenario of acute confrontation with the use of force in Venezuela. I believe that [Washington] even does not try to hide that. All means of information and psychological pressure are being used: from manipulation and provocative media speculations to direct blackmailing and incitement to hatred. The main target is the armed forces of the Bolivarian Republic", she said. "Venezuelan servicemen are openly being incited to a rebellion. High-ranking officials in Washington are calling on the armed forces of a sovereign state to side with new political leadership. What right does the United States have to talk about democracy and legal framework both within a separate state and on the global stage after that?" Zakharova added. In a phone conversation with his American counterpart Mike Pompeo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned Washington against any military interference in Venezuela, Zakharova said. "I would like to remind you that the day before yesterday, on the initiative of the American side, there was a telephone conversation between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the US Secretary of State, Mr Pompeo, during which the Russian minister warned against any external interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela". The ministry spokeswoman elaborated that Russia was sticking to norms of international law and sovereignty in accordance with the UN Charter, and was ready for a dialogue based on those principles, including with the United States. According to her, a provocation was being prepared from Colombia's Cucuta under the guise of a humanitarian convoy to Venezuela, and emphasised that it could nor rule out casualties. “Let us not be deceived, or deceive others — a provocation, including with casualties, is being prepared under the guise of a humanitarian convoy. And it is needed as a pretext for a forceful action from outside. And everyone should clearly understand this. We consider it urgently necessary to refrain from steps and statements that could provoke an escalation of tension in Venezuela, in particular, any appeals to the Venezuelan armed forces fraught with their involvement in an internal civil confrontation", she said. The comment came after US President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart Ivan Duque agreed to provide "humanitarian aid" to Venezuela, which is strongly opposed by Nicolas Maduro. Last week, Reuters cited a senior White House official as saying that the Trump administration expected more servicemen to pledge allegiance to Juan Guaido, Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president: "We believe these to be those first couple pebbles before we start really seeing bigger rocks rolling down the hill. We're still having conversations with members of the former Maduro regime, with military members, although those conversations are very, very limited", the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. The report came shortly after US National Security Adviser John Bolton tweeted that Washington might consider lifting sanction on senior Venezuelan military officers if they abandon incumbent President Nicolas Maduro: Venezuela has been embroiled in an ongoing political crisis since Guaido declared himself the country's interim president, thus challenging the legitimately elected Maduro. The move was swiftly recognised by the United States, which has also been encouraging the international community to follow suit. In a bid to force Maduro out of office, the Trump administration imposed sweeping sanctions on state-run oil giant PDVSA and blocked his government's assets, having passed control over certain frozen assets to Guaido instead. Washington has also said that a military intervention in Venezuela was "an option". While Maduro slammed the restrictions as illegal, the Venezuelan Supreme Court hit back by blocking Guaido's bank accounts and financial transactions within the country's jurisdiction, and imposed a travel ban on him until a probe into his activities is completed. The United States, Canada, Israel, a handful of European countries and a number of South American nations have recognised Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, while Russia, Cuba, China, Iran, Turkey and several other nations have backed Maduro as the legitimately elected head of state.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/201902141072408875-russia-venezuela-coup-military-scenario/

2019-02-14 07:55:00+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sputnik--2019-04-11--Things to Know About Sudans President Amid Reports of Attempted Military Coup

sputnik

Things to Know About Sudan's President Amid Reports of Attempted Military Coup

Following months of protests, the Sudanese Armed Forces have decided to remove the country’s long-time president, Omar al-Bashir, from all posts and dismiss the government, Arabic-language media reported. In light of the alleged military coup, here are some key facts about al-Bashir, who’s been governing Sudan for 30 years. Al-Bashir, who was born into a farmer family in 1944 in northern Sudan, which used to be a part of the Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan, enrolled in a military academy in Egypt in 1960. He also graduated from another military academy in Khartoum in 1966 after his family moved to Sudan. He rose through the ranks quickly and even took part in the 1973 Yom Kippur War against Israel, serving in the Egyptian Army. Being a brigadier in the Sudanese Army, al-Bashir was responsible for waging operations in the south of the country against the late rebel John Garang, who led the Sudan People’s Liberation Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War. After dissolving the military junta in 1993 which had brought him to the helm in the first place, al-Bashir appointed himself the civilian head of state and has since been repeatedly elected president. As reports of a military coup in Sudan flood in, it appears that this is not the first time that the Sudanese Armed Forces have attempted to topple al-Bashir. Several months after he ascended to power in 1989, a group of officers tried to overthrow his government, in April 1990, but the coup was quickly foiled. In 2005, al-Bashir’s government managed to put an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War, which broke out in 1983 between the central government in Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. He negotiated a peace agreement, which eventually saw Southern Sudan separate from Sudan following a 2011 independence referendum. In 2009, the International Criminal Court (ICC) accused al-Bashir of carrying out war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western region of Darfur – a 2003 armed conflict that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians – and issued an arrest warrant against him. The warrant was, however, condemned by the Arab League and the African Union, with a number of countries refusing to detain the president and hand him over to the ICC during his international trips. Al-Bashir, who became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC, has himself rejected the charges, saying that “these things are lies”.

https://sputniknews.com/africa/201904111074030924-things-to-know-sudan-president-military-coup/

2019-04-11 11:02:00+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sputnik--2019-04-30--US Signs Off on Coup Calls on Military to Support Opposition - Venezuela FM

sputnik

US Signs Off on Coup, Calls on Military to Support Opposition - Venezuela FM

"The leaders of the coup acknowledge their unscrupulous authorship. The Trump administration in desperate to generate an internal conflict in Venezuela. Democratic institutions in Venezuela will guarantee the country's peace. #TrumpHandsOffVenezuela," the minister wrote on Twitter. US National Security Adviser John Bolton, in his turn, said that the Venezuelan military should support the opposition-controlled National Assembly. Large-scale protests against Maduro began in Venezuela on January 21 soon after he was sworn in for a new term. Guaido proclaimed himself an interim leader of the country. A number of Western countries, including the United States, backed his claim. Maduro, in turn, has accused the United States of trying to orchestrate a coup in order to install Guaido and take over Venezuela’s natural resources. Russia, China, Cuba, Bolivia, Turkey and a number of other countries have voiced their support for Maduro as the only legitimate president of Venezuela.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/201904301074588218-venezuela-fm-coup-opposition/

2019-04-30 14:54:00+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sputnik--2019-07-25--Sudanese Military Arrests Senior Officers After Failed Coup

sputnik

Sudanese Military Arrests Senior Officers After Failed Coup

The plotters wanted to undo the April revolt, which toppled Sudan’s longtime ruler Omar Bashir, and bring his party back to power, the Suna news agency cited the army’s statement as saying. The coup attempt reportedly involved chief of the joint staff Hashim Abdul-Muttalib, high-ranking national security and intelligence officers and leading figures of Bashir’s National Congress and its affiliate, the Islamic Movement. The military took over after months of popular revolt ended Bashir’s almost 30-year rule, but uncertainty about the African nation’s transition to civil government kept protesters in the streets. The standoff between the military and the opposition culminated in a deadly break-up of a sit-in outside the army office in Khartoum. The military agreed to a power-sharing deal with protesters under pressure from the African Union.

https://sputniknews.com/africa/201907251076352860-sudan-military-arrest-senior-officers-failed-coup/

2019-07-25 02:38:15+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sputnik--2019-11-13--Former UN Official Says Military Coup in Bolivia Bodes Ill for Democracy Across Region

sputnik

Former UN Official Says Military Coup in Bolivia Bodes Ill for Democracy Across Region

Last month, Morales won in the first round of the presidential election. However, the opposition, led by Carlos Mesa, accused him of electoral fraud and refused to recognise the vote results. The Organisation of American States (OAS) then published a preliminary report that found irregularities in the 20 October voting. Amid everything, people were taking to the streets to protest Morales' victory and demand his resignation. They were soon joined by the armed forces and police. This all culminated in Morales stepping down on Sunday and leaving for Mexico earlier on Tuesday after being granted political asylum. Commenting on the OAS' report, the former UN official said that such irregularities were not unprecedented for the region and beyond, adding that even if a full recount confirmed the details in the report, the best option would be a new election. At the same time, de Zayas pointed out that although similar discrepancies had been observed by the OAS during the election that placed Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez in power for his second term in 2018, Washington supported his administration, a development that was lacking when it came to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Morales. US President Donald Trump stated on Monday that Morales' resignation was a "significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere," a view that stands in contrast with the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement that "a wave of violence unleashed by the opposition has not allowed Morales to complete his presidential mandate". De Zayas added that Morales' resignation created a scenario in which it was unclear who may take his place as a constitutionally valid successor, with the possibility of further electoral irregularities remaining a concern. Morales had been president of Bolivia since 2006, during which time he established himself as the country's first indigenous leader and a beacon of the global left. His stepping down and subsequent departure for Mexico has been viewed by several countries, including Venezuela, Cuba, and Mexico as a military coup.

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201911131077295510-former-un-official-says-military-coup-in-bolivia-bodes-ill-for-democracy-across-region/

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 11:16:14 +0300

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

sputnik--2019-11-13--The Real Story Behind the Military Coup in Bolivia

sputnik

The Real Story Behind the Military Coup in Bolivia

Bolivian President Evo Morales arrived in Mexico yesterday, where he was granted asylum after being overthrown in a military coup. The coup took place at the urging of right wing opposition leaders and mutinying police officers. Every constitutional successor has resigned, leaving the opposition Senator Jeanine Áñez in nominal charge of the country now effectively ruled by a military junta. Attorneys representing presidential candidate and Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard have sent a letter to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanding that Clinton retract a statement she made several weeks ago calling Gabbard a “Russian asset.” When challenged about the assertion, Clinton responded, “If the nesting doll fits..” Gabbard’s lawyers say the statement was defamatory, and they want a retraction. Meanwhile, two new likely entrants are trying to upset the Democratic presidential primary. Jim Kavanagh, editor of thepolemicist.net whose latest article is “Trump’s Syrian See-Saw: From Pullout to Pillage,” joins the show. Bill Ayers is Loud & Clear’s regular guest on “Education for Liberation” about the state of education around the country. But today he discusses the election victory of his son Chesa Boudin as district attorney of San Francisco, California. Against huge odds, and despite the fact that the police union spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat him, Chesa won the race and is expected to institute radical reforms that will bring a fairness in sentencing that has not been previously seen. Brian and John speak with Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author of the book “Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto.” Google over the past year has been secretly working with one of the largest health-care networks in America to collect and analyze personal health care data on millions of people across 21 states. In an initiative codenamed Project Nightingale, Google has collected lab results, diagnoses, and hospitalization records, patient names and dates of birth, among other information, all without the patients’ approval or even knowledge. Patricia Gorky, a software engineer and technology and security analyst, joins the show. In this segment, The Week Ahead, the hosts take a look at the most newsworthy stories of the coming week and what it means for the country and the world, including the ongoing right-wing coup in Bolivia, the protestors in Hong Kong, Israel’s killing of a senior commander of Islamic Jihad, and the upcoming public impeachment hearings. Sputnik News analysts and producers of this show Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show. Today’s regular segment that airs every Tuesday is called Women & Society with Dr. Hannah Dickinson. This weekly segment is about the major issues, challenges, and struggles facing women in all aspects of society. Dr. Dickinson is out this week. Nathalie Hrizi, an educator, a political activist, and the editor of Breaking the Chains, a women’s magazine; and Loud & Clear producer Nicole Roussell join the show. We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

https://sputniknews.com/radio_loud_and_clear/201911131077292664-the-real-story-behind-the-military-coup-in-bolivia/

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 01:16:00 +0300

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

tass--2019-02-22--Venezuela has no conditions for military coup or popular uprising says foreign ministry

tass

Venezuela has no conditions for military coup or popular uprising, says foreign ministry

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. A military coup in Venezuela is impossible while the population is aware that discord is being imposed from outside, Venezuela’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Gil said at a meeting with the chairman of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee Konstantin Kosachyov in Moscow on Friday. "We can promise our strategic partners here in Russia that in Venezuela there is no possibility of a military coup or popular uprising. A majority of the population is well aware of what is happening and it is mobilized to provide support for the legitimate government," he said. "At the same time we must acknowledge that the risk and threat of foreign intervention that may trigger chaos among the population always remains." Gil believes that the United States’ plan is to cause a split in the Venezuelan military with the aim to trigger a coup and the toppling of the current president. "With this in mind it has unleashed an unprecedented multifactor campaign, including psychological pressure, speculations in the mass media and the claims it is necessary to deliver humanitarian aid either through Colombia or the Netherlands-governed islands of Curacao or Brazil," he said. "This campaign rolls on in the media, social networks, radio, and television. The main aim is to make the people panic, to split the population, thus causing the government’s fall.". In other media

http://tass.com/world/1046032

2019-02-22 16:10:06+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

tass--2019-11-19--Turkey orders arrest of over 130 military allegedly linked to coup — TV

tass

Turkey orders arrest of over 130 military allegedly linked to coup — TV

ANKARA, November 19. /TASS/. Prosecutors in Izmir have issued an order on detaining 133 Turkish military as part of an operation against members of the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which Ankara blames for an attempted coup in July 2016, NTV reported on Tuesday. Turkey sent official request to US on extradition of Fethullah Gulen According to the report, the Turkish security forces are carrying out an anti-terrorist operation simultaneously in 44 provinces across the country. Among the suspects 82 individuals are now serving in the army. On July 15, 2016, a group of Turkish soldiers and officers attempted to stage a coup d’etat and overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. About 250 people were killed in clashes in Istanbul and Ankara, over 2,000 were injured. Ankara accuses FETO of staging the coup, with its leader Fethullah Gulen, currently residing in the US, being considered a key suspect in the criminal case.

https://tass.com/world/1090275

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 09:07:03 +0300

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

theantimedia--2019-04-30--Coup Attempt in Venezuela After US-Backed Guaido Calls for Military Uprising

theantimedia

Coup Attempt in Venezuela After US-Backed Guaido Calls for Military Uprising

(CD) — The elected government of Venezuela said it is working to put down a right-wing coup attempt after U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido called for a military uprising in a video posted to Twitter Tuesday morning. “The moment is now,” said Guaido, who was flanked by dozens of heavily armed soldiers and armored vehicles. “People of Venezuela, it is necessary that we all go out into the streets, to support democracy and recover our liberty. Organized and united, we should move to the main military installations.” Shortly following Guaido’s call, videos posted to social media appeared to show clashes between government forces and the opposition beginning to erupt. On Twitter, Venezuelan information minister Jorge Rodriguez said the government is “confronting and deactivating a small group of traitor military personnel who positioned themselves… to promote a coup d’état against the Constitution.” And Vladimir Padrino, the Maduro government’s defense minister, said in a tweet: “We reject this coup attempt that wants to fill the country with violence. The pseudo-political leaders of this subversive attempt have employed troops and policemen with weapons on a public highway to sow chaos and terror.” Even as the news of Guaido’s video statement was breaking, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), one of the loudest voices in the U.S. government backing the overthrow of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, took to Twitter with a series of posts calling on Venezuelans, including military and police, to pick up arms against the government. “Liberty & freedom is never easy,” tweeted Rubio from his safe vantage point in the U.S., thousands of miles away. “But it is always worth it.” Online, RT was carrying a live stream from a section of a highway in Caracas near where the reported clashes appeared to be taking place: This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy. Since you’re here… …We have a small favor to ask. Fewer and fewer people are seeing Anti-Media articles as social media sites crack down on us, and advertising revenues across the board are quickly declining. However, unlike many news organizations, we haven’t put up a paywall because we value open and accessible journalism over profit — but at this point, we’re barely even breaking even. Hopefully, you can see why we need to ask for your help. Anti-Media’s independent journalism and analysis takes substantial time, resources, and effort to produce, but we do it because we believe in our message and hope you do, too. If everyone who reads our reporting and finds value in it helps fund it, our future can be much more secure. For as little as $1 and a minute of your time, you can support Anti-Media. Thank you. Click here to support us

Jake Johnson

http://theantimedia.com/clashes-erupt-venezuela-guaido-military-uprising/

2019-04-30 14:28:46+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

theantimedia--2019-11-14--“We Don’t Want Any Dictators”: Bolivians Flood Streets to Protest Military Coup

theantimedia

“We Don’t Want Any Dictators”: Bolivians Flood Streets to Protest Military Coup

(CD) — Unrest continued in Bolivia Thursday as protests against the right-wing coup that unseated democratically-elected President Evo Morales on Sunday and the anti-Indigenous ideology behind it entered their fourth day. Demonstrators filled the streets of the Bolivian capitol, La Paz, waving the indigenous wiphala flag and registering their disapproval of the new interim government of Jeanine Añez. “We don’t want any dictators,” protester Paulina Luchampe told Time Magazine on Wednesday. “This lady has stepped on us—that’s why we’re so mad.” New president Añez has come under criticism for a history of comments promoting an extreme right-wing Christian theocratic ideology, including referring to the country’s Indigenous population as “satanic.” Members of the country’s police and military forces, whose support for the coup over the weekend precipitated Morales’ resignation Sunday, have been photographed cutting the wiphala flag off of their uniforms. “Anti-Indigenous racism is at the heart of what’s happening in Bolivia,” tweeted Cherokee activist and writer Rebecca Nagle. Right-wing militias burning the flag and attacking the country’s Indigenous protest movement mean that the conflict is more than just about political differences, said Bolivian feminist Adriana Guzman—it’s about the country’s right-wing being opposed to everything the Morales government stood for. “The coup d’état is against all of that,” said Guzman. “That’s why they degrade. That’s why they punish. That’s why they burn the Indigenous wiphala flag.” In an opinion piece for The Guardian, Nick Estes, co-founder and editor of The Red Nation, said that the difference between the two camps in Bolivia is clear. “The future of Bolivia is currently marching in the streets, the millions of people who voted for Evo in the last elections, the 47% whose voices and votes were stolen by the violent return of the old, colonial oligarchy,” wrote Estes. Protester Luchampe said she hoped the protests would continue until there is a resolution to the conflict that undoes the coup. “We’re going to fight with our brothers and sisters until Evo Morales is back,” said Luchampe. “We ask for his return. He needs to put the house in order.” This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy. Since you’re here… …We have a small favor to ask. Fewer and fewer people are seeing Anti-Media articles as social media sites crack down on us, and advertising revenues across the board are quickly declining. However, unlike many news organizations, we haven’t put up a paywall because we value open and accessible journalism over profit — but at this point, we’re barely even breaking even. Hopefully, you can see why we need to ask for your help. Anti-Media’s independent journalism and analysis takes substantial time, resources, and effort to produce, but we do it because we believe in our message and hope you do, too. If everyone who reads our reporting and finds value in it helps fund it, our future can be much more secure. For as little as $1 and a minute of your time, you can support Anti-Media. Thank you. Click here to support us

Eoin Higgins

http://theantimedia.com/bolivians-flood-streets-protest-military-coup/

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 19:29:15 +0000

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

thedailycaller--2019-04-30--Maduro Regime Denies Military Revolt Blames The US For Leading This Coup

thedailycaller

Maduro Regime Denies Military Revolt, Blames The US For ‘Leading This Coup’

Venezuela Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza on Tuesday denied the Venezuelan military is trying to oust President Nicolas Maduro and accused opposition leader Juan Guaido of leading a coup as an agent of the U.S. “It is not a coup attempt from the military. This is directly planned in Washington, in the Pentagon and Department of State, and by [U.S. National Security Adviser John] Bolton,” Arreaza told Reuters in a phone interview. “They are leading this coup and giving orders to this man Guaido.” Arreaza repeated Maduro’s claim that the military still supports the Venezuelan government and that violence that has broken out between Maduro’s and Guaido’s forces is the fault of the U.S. (RELATED: Venezuela Banned Private Gun Ownership Less Than A Decade Ago) “[Maduro] is in his place of command as always, and he is in control of the situation. He is making government decisions as he does every day,” Arreaza said. “We are not threatening anyone with the use of violence. It’s the United States, it’s the opposition.” The U.S. is prepared to provide economic relief to Venezuela, which is under a slew of U.S. sanctions, after the Guaido is installed at interim president, according to a Tuesday statement from the U.S. Treasury. Arreaza denounced the U.S. Treasury’s statement as “another criminal confession of the Trump government.” Military personnel have defected to Guaido’s cause and some have joined thousands of protesters in marching on Venezuela’s Presidential Palace, where Nicolas Maduro works while he is in the capital. Guaido launched the revolt, called “Operation Liberty,” from La Carlota air base near Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, Tuesday morning, calling for a last effort to topple Maduro’s regime and hold new elections for Venezuela’s president. Guaido’s campaign has lasted months and garnered the support of the U.S., Brazil and other countries. Maduro’s regime has retained the support of Cuba, China and Russia. Protesters have flooded the streets of Caracas in a show of support for Guaido and to oppose Maduro. Maduro-backed forces have used tear gas to break up crowds of protesters and exchanged gunfire with opposition forces. In one case, Maduro’s military forces plowed into a crowd of protesters with an armored vehicle, appearing to injure several. Follow updates on the situation in Venezuela here. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Tim Pearce

https://dailycaller.com/2019/04/30/nicolas-maduro-juan-guaido-venezuela-revolt/

2019-04-30 18:55:39+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

theduran--2019-02-01--Venezuela Coup Attempt Part Of A Larger Project Military Intervention Likely To Fail

theduran

Venezuela – Coup Attempt Part Of A Larger Project – Military Intervention Likely To Fail

Venezuela - Coup Attempt Part Of A Larger Project - Military Intervention Likely To Fail The Trump administration has launched a large political project to remake several states in Latin America. The Wall Street Journal headlines: U.S. Push to Oust Venezuela’s Maduro Marks First Shot in Plan to Reshape Latin America The Trump administration’s broader aim is to gain leverage over Cuba and curb recent inroads in the region by Russia, Iran and China The plan includes regime change in Venezuela, Nicaragua and eventually Cuba. The removal of any Russian or Chinese interest is another point. It is a multiyear project that has bipartisan support. It will likely require military force. The targets: Raúl Castro of Cuba, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. bigger The project seems to echo the "New Middle East" plan then Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice launched in 2006. It largely failed due to U.S. incompetence but left behind severely damaged states. That the U.S. is going for such a wide ranging plan in the western hemisphere might explain why Trump is pressing to end the other military projects in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The starting shot for the new plan, the U.S. led coup attempt in Venezuela, is already in trouble. The U.S. selected puppet Juan Guaidó had called for demonstrations in support of his coup that were supposed to take place yesterday. But even the NYT, which propagandizes for each and every regime change operation the U.S. undertakes in Latin America, could find only little evidence of support: Mr. Guaidó also took part in protests on Wednesday at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, where he was swarmed by international reporters. Wearing a white lab coat, he linked arms with medical students and marched with them up a roadway, before speeding off on the back of a motorbike. The demonstration was one of a handful in the city on Wednesday, though on a smaller scale than some recent demonstrations. Some workers walked out of their jobs for hours in protest against Mr. Maduro and his government, gathering on corners through the capital. Videos from Venezuela showed a crowd of some hundred people in the better off quarters of Caracas. Meanwhile pictures of several pro-Maduro demonstrations in various cities showed much larger crowds. New demonstrations will be held on Saturday and are likely to show similar results. The Washington Post claims that anti-government protests took place in two of the more destitute areas of Caracas. But the report contradicts itself. It starts: As the opposition campaign to oust President Nicolás Maduro dramatically escalated, the warren-like streets of the Puerta Caracas slum filled with pot-banging, anti-government demonstrators. A culture center run by Maduro loyalists was burned down. Hungry, beaten-down residents felt a rush of hope. Then night fell, along with the boot steps of government forces. Maduro called the arsonists “fascist criminals,” and residents in the western Caracas enclave paid the price. Mask-wearing special forces, locals said, swarmed the neighborhood last week, kicking in doors, rounding up young people and imposing an effective curfew. Twenty propaganda filled paragraphs later we learn that the described arson of a culture center took place before the coup attempt happened and likely has nothing to do with it: The uprisings began the night of Jan. 22, with residents of Puerta Caracas banging pots and lighting dumpsters on fire. Around midnight, neighbors say, a group of hooded boys threw molotov cocktails at the culture center. Early Wednesday, family members said, Abel Pernia, 19, was heading to a doctor’s appointment when armed intelligence police officers grabbed him, shoved him against a wall and handcuffed him. ... ... [more] protests erupted in Petare last Wednesday and continued until dawn. A group set fire to barricades, threw stones and attacked an outpost of the National Guard. Security forces repelled them with tear gas as residents chanted “we don’t want food boxes! What we want is for Nicolas to leave!” Neighbors said that criminal gangs were among the crowd and created havoc by violently confronting the police. The response was immediate. The coup attempt was launched on January 23. The arson incident took place on January 22. The following day the police came and arrested people involved in it. More gang riots followed. The whole story has nothing to with the coup attempt or with general protests against Maduro. It is about gang crime in some slum quarters. Gang fighting has long been a problem in Caracas. A special police force, the FAES, was set up in 2017 to get it under control. That the Washington Post has to use an unrelated incident to proclaim that the poor people support the coup attempt shows how little real evidence it has to support that propaganda claim. The public in Venezuela is evidently not supporting the foreign induced coup attempt. A recent poll shows that more than 80% of the people are against sanctions and other international interventions to remove President Maduro. 80% also support talks between the government and the opposition which Maduro repeatedly offered but which the coup plotters reject. It is very unlikely that civil disobedience or demonstrations will be able to remove the government of Venezuela. The opposition simply does not have enough people on its side to create more than inconveniences. It is obvious that the U.S. wants a violent conflict. Either the Venezuelan military will have to launch a coup or the violence will have to be brought in from the outside. The military has for now declared that it is not willing to do anything against the government. Other measures will have to be taken. That the Trump administration selected Elliott Abrams, Ronald Reagan's "Assistant Secretary of Dirty Wars", as special envoy to its puppets is telling: The choice of Abrams sends a clear message to Venezuela and the world: The Trump administration intends to brutalize Venezuela, while producing a stream of unctuous rhetoric about America’s love for democracy and human rights. Combining these two factors — the brutality and the unctuousness — is Abrams’s core competency. An oped by the U.S. selected dude, who was created by the U.S. regime change machine, was published in today's New York Times: Juan Guaidó: Venezuelans, Strength Is in Unity To end the Maduro regime with the minimum of bloodshed, we need the support of pro-democratic governments, institutions and individuals the world over. Notice the "minimum of bloodshed"? One wonders how many thousands of dead will do. Guaido explains the murky legal foundation for his claims to presidency: I would like to be clear about the situation in Venezuela: Mr. Maduro’s re-election on May 20, 2018, was illegitimate, as has since been acknowledged by a large part of the international community. His original six-year term was set to end on Jan. 10. By continuing to stay in office, Nicolás Maduro is usurping the presidency. My ascension as interim president is based on Article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution, according to which, if at the outset of a new term there is no elected head of state, power is vested in the president of the National Assembly until free and transparent elections take place. This is why the oath I took on Jan. 23 cannot be considered a “self-proclamation.” It was not of my own accord that I assumed the function of president that day, but in adherence to the Constitution. The early election in May 2018 was held on demand of the opposition parties some of which, urged by the U.S., did not take part in it. There is no evidence of fraud that lets one doubt the results. Maduro won among several candidates with more than 60% of the votes. One might argue that has more legitimacy than some other elected people. Not liking the outcome is not a reason to declare an election illegitimate. If Maduro's first term ended on January 10 why did it take it Guaido, as head of the National Assembly, thirteen days to find that Maduro's second term was 'illegitimate'? Moreover, if article 233 is used as justification to temporarily usurp the presidency then Guaido has the duty to hold new elections within 30 days. So far he has not even called for them. His reasoning is not convincing at all. Guaido goes on to say that he needs support of the military. But this does not sound like he has it: The transition will require support from key military contingents. We have had clandestine meetings with members of the armed forces and the security forces. We have offered amnesty to all those who are found not guilty of crimes against humanity. The military’s withdrawal of support from Mr. Maduro is crucial to enabling a change in government, and the majority of those in service agree that the country’s recent travails are untenable. He further claims, like the Washington Post above, that the gang violence before the coup attempt shows that Maduro has lost all support: Mr. Maduro no longer has the support of the people. Last week in Caracas, citizens from the poorest neighborhoods that had been Chavista strongholds in the past took to the streets in unprecedented protests. They went out again on Jan. 23 with the full knowledge that they might be brutally repressed, and they continue to attend town hall meetings. Guaido ends by calling for external support for his endeavor. What he needs are billions of dollars to build up some mercenary army that will help him to overthrow the government. The U.S. seized Venezuelan assets but will have trouble handing them to Guaido. The main asset is CITGO, which owns refineries and gas stations in the United States. But CITGO is deep in debt. Its refineries depend on the heavy oil from Venezuela. If might well go into bankruptcy in which case the debt holders will take it over. At least 49.5 % will go to the Russian company Rosneft. The legal process will take years. So how much U.S. money is Trump willing to invest in his plan? Venezuela will have trouble defending itself against a foreign military attack. The Maduro government is not the most competent, the military is quite corrupt, and money is scarce. China and Russia may support it with some additional loans, but are otherwise unlikely to come to its help. Cuba and Nicaragua may be willing to send troops but have little else to offer. But the Bolivarian movement in Venezuela has millions of supporters. Most are poor people who would lose out under a new rightwing government. While the Venezuelan military may be corrupt and not very willing to fight, many people will surely take up arms to defend the gains they made under Maduro and Chavez. It might be relatively easy to invade Venezuela and to defeat its regular military. But the following occupation would be a very difficult endeavor. The Pentagon has seen how this worked out in Iraq. It will likely warn against the use of any U.S. troops in Venezuela. Other countries will likewise be careful not to get into such a mess. The CIA and the coup plotters can hire thousands of throat cutting thugs to do some extreme damage to Venezuela. But they have little chance to win more than a completely destroyed country. Might that be the real aim? Is the project for the New Latin America one of complete destruction? Posted by b on January 31, 2019 at 01:59 PM | Permalink

Moon of Alabama

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/01/venezuela-coup-attempt-part-of-a-larger-project-military-intervention-likely-to-fail.html

2019-02-01 13:03:13+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

theduran--2019-05-01--Maduro congratulates military for defeating coup attempt as Guaido calls for more protests

theduran

Maduro congratulates military for ‘defeating’ coup attempt as Guaido calls for more protests

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has congratulated the military for “defeating” the plotters of a coup after a day of protests called for by opposition leader Juan Guaido. Maduro called the opposition supporters a “small group that tried to fill the country with violence” and confirmed his government has faced several “modalities” of a coup d’état. He pinned Tuesday’s violence on the US, who the president believes masterminded the failed attempt to overthrow his government. The president also announced the appointment of “three special prosecutors” to examine “criminal” actions by the opposition, noting that “we have colonels wounded by bullets and in intensive care.” Some of the protests were peaceful and others led to intense skirmishes, yet fatalities were avoided throughout the day. A few dozen people were injured by rubber bullets, tear gas and – allegedly – live ammunition. An armored vehicle was also recorded ramming into a cluster of Guaido supporters. At least five soldiers and two colonels were also injured in the clashes after being shot by coup plotters, Maduro claimed. At the onset of the violence, Venezuela’s defense minister warned early in the day that the army would resort to force if necessary. Guaido called for more protests on Wednesday, as part of what he titled ‘Operation Freedom’. He insisted once again that the opposition is supported by the military. Maduro stated that 80 percent of troops involved in the mutiny attempt had abandoned Guaido, with only a small group of about 20 officers “handing over their souls to the coup-mongering far right.” Those military officers who answered Guaido’s calls for regime change in the country, Maduro noted, were lured by the opposition “under false pretenses,” but once they came to their senses, they “left the coup leaders alone” and surrendered. The Venezuelan leader also refuted opposition claims that the military base of La Carlota, in the east of Caracas, was captured, stressing that the facility “was never taken.” “As of now, there is no indication of any military support outside of this very small detachment of troops,” reporter Lucas Koerner told RT America from Caracas, claiming that many officers had been deceived into believing that Tuesday’s events were a “drill led by the government.” “None of them are ranking officers that command troops of any standing, therefore they are largely irrelevant,” Koerner added. Maduro defended the use of force, saying the opposition planned to lead the country into a “civil war.” The president also vowed that Venezuela would stay on the course of the Bolivarian Revolution and fight the interventionist Monroe Doctrine of the US.

RT

https://theduran.com/maduro-congratulates-military-for-defeating-coup-attempt-as-guaido-calls-for-more-protests/

2019-05-01 12:20:52+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

thegatewaypundit--2019-04-30--Developing Military Coup Underway in Venezuela Maduro Regime Fires Tear Gas at Guaido Protest VI

thegatewaypundit

Developing: Military Coup Underway in Venezuela – Maduro Regime Fires Tear Gas at Guaido Protest (VIDEO)

On Tuesday morning Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido called on the the military to rise up and oust the Socialist Maduro regime. Guaido appeared with activist Leopoldo Lopez who was freed from house arrest by members of the military. Later in the morning the Maduro Regime supporters fired tear gas on the Guaido protesters. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó took to the streets with activist Leopoldo Lopez and a small contingent of heavily armed soldiers early Tuesday in a bold and risky call for the military to rise up and oust socialist leader Nicolas Maduro. “I want to tell the Venezuelan people: This is the moment to take to the streets and accompany these patriotic soldiers,” said Lopez, who had been detained since 2014 for leading anti-government protests. “Everyone should come to the streets, in peace.” Lopez said he has been freed from house arrest by members of the military responding to an order by Guaidó, whom the U.S. and dozens of other governments recognize as Venezuela’s rightful leader. As he spoke on a highway overpass, troops loyal to Maduro sporadically fired tear gas from inside the adjacent Carlota air base as the crowd of a few hundred civilians, some of them brandishing Venezuelan flags, scurried for cover. The crowd was growing as people sensed what could be their strongest opportunity yet to overthrow the government after months of turmoil that has seen Maduro withstand an onslaught of protests and international pressure with the support of the top military command and allies such as Russia and Cuba.

Jim Hoft

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/04/developing-military-coup-underway-in-venezuela-maduro-regime-fires-tear-gas-at-guaido-protest-video/

2019-04-30 12:51:51+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

theguardianuk--2019-05-02--Venezuela Maduro thanks military and denounces senseless coup-mongers and traitors

theguardianuk

Venezuela: Maduro thanks military and denounces 'senseless coup-mongers and traitors'

Nicolás Maduro has thanked Venezuela’s military for resisting what he branded a treacherous “imperial” plot to topple him this week by sparking a conflict that would justify foreign military intervention. “Loyalty is a value that you either have or you don’t … I know you will not fail the homeland,” Maduro told troops during an early-morning parade in Caracas that was broadcast on state television. “How many deaths would there be if a civil war started here because of the senselessness of the coup-mongers and traitors? How much physical destruction would there be and how many years of war would we face?” Maduro asked. “Because we will never surrender.” The parade – which state TV called a “march to reaffirm the absolute loyalty of the armed forces” – was designed to buttress Maduro’s position after Tuesday’s botched pre-dawn attempt to overthrow him. At shortly before 5am that day, opposition leader Juan Guaidó appeared outside a key military airbase in Caracas – just six miles from the presidential palace – and urged the country’s armed forces to turn on Maduro. But that call went largely unanswered despite reports that opposition leaders had spent months locked in secret talks aimed with top Maduro officials, including Venezuela’s head of military intelligence, Iván Rafael Hernández, and defence minister, Vladimir Padrino López. US officials claimed that a detailed draft plan had been agreed upon between those officials and the opposition, by which Maduro would be able to leave, to be replaced by Guaidó as interim president. The supreme court and military command would remain in their positions, and elections would be held within a year. Padrino López appeared alongside Maduro at Thursday morning’s parade and hinted at those claims, berating what he called the opposition’s attempts to buy Venezuela’s military “as if we were mercenaries”. In a high-profile show of support for Maduro, Padrino López said Venezuela’s “anti-democratic, fascist, extremist and far-right” opposition had nothing to offer the country or the armed forces. “Always loyal, never traitors!” he shouted in conclusion, using what has become the maxim of Maduro’s three-month battle to retain power. At least four people died, more than 230 were injured, and 205 were detained during demonstrations and clashes between protesters and security forces this week, according to Venezuelan human rights groups. Thursday’s parade came hours after Guaidó’s most powerful international backer, Donald Trump, said Washington would do everything short of “the ultimate” to force out Maduro, who he called a “tough player”. “It’s an incredible mess … The place is so bad and so dangerous … so something is going to have to be done,” Trump told Fox News in a rambling 10-minute discussion of Venezuela’s crisis. Asked what the United States’ options were, Trump replied: “Well, some of them I don’t even like to mention to you because they are pretty tough. “A lot of things will be going on over the next week and sooner than that. We will see what happens.” Elliott Abrams, the US envoy for Venezuela, claimed the US did not take part in the negotiations between the opposition and members of the regime, but insisted an agreement laying out terms of a political transition had been ready to sign. “There is a document,” Abrams told the Venezuelan channel, VPITV. “The US was not involved in the negotiations, but they tell me it is a long document – there are 15 points I think – it mentions guarantees for the military, a dignified exit for Maduro, Guaidó as interim president, the supreme court and the high command stay in position, free elections within 12 months.” Abrams called it “a good plan for the recovery of a stable democracy in Venezuela”. The US national security adviser, John Bolton, said that under the plan: “The [Venezuelan] supreme court would declare Maduro’s constituent assembly illegitimate. That would clarify for everybody, if anybody needed clarification, the legitimacy of the national assembly led by Juan Guaidó.” Bolton told Hugh Hewitt, a radio talkshow host, on Wednesday, that the court decision “would have allowed the military to cover themselves in a way – defence minister Padrino and others – to take action. Now for reasons that are still not clear, that didn’t go forward yesterday.” Maduro reportedly became aware of the plans on Monday, forcing Guaidó to bring forward his plan by a day and, perhaps, contributing to its failure. There is also speculation that the opposition may have been tricked by Padrino and others into thinking they had a deal, in order to portray them as coup-plotters. Bolton said a meeting of Trump’s top national security and foreign policy aides on Venezuela was held at the White House on Wednesday. The acting defence secretary, Patrick Shanahan, cancelled a trip to Europe because of the crisis. According to the Washington Post, Bolton and his team have clashed with US military leaders over their reported reluctance to put forward military options for Venezuela. In his remarks on Wednesday, Bolton appeared to goad military leaders into taking an aggressive stance. “Adm Faller [head of Southern Command] had a great line a couple of days ago referring to the Southern Command which he’s in charge of. He said we’re on the balls of our feet ready to go. And that’s the kind of attitude we need,” Bolton said. The national security adviser also seemed to make a pitch to his own boss for tougher action. “We’re at a time for choosing here,” Bolton said. “And I just don’t believe President Trump is prepared to see foreign governments effectively take over the control of Venezuela, and which possesses the largest reserves of petroleum in the world.”

Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent and Julian Borger in Washington

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/02/venezuela-military-and-maduro-hold-early-morning-parade-we-will-never-surrender

2019-05-02 16:19:18+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

theguardianuk--2019-11-13--Many wanted Morales out. But what happened in Bolivia was a military coup | Gabriel Hetland

theguardianuk

Many wanted Morales out. But what happened in Bolivia was a military coup | Gabriel Hetland

On Sunday, the head of Bolivia’s military called on Evo Morales to resign from the presidency. Minutes later, Morales was on a plane to Cochabamba where he did just that. These facts leave little doubt that what happened in Bolivia this weekend was a military coup, the first such event in Latin America since the 2009 military coup against the Honduran president Manuel Zelaya. (The 2012 and 2016 impeachments of Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff are widely viewed as “parliamentary coups”.) The mainstream press has bent over backwards, and tied itself in more than a few tangled knots, to avoid drawing this conclusion. The Wall Street Journal celebrates Morales’ ouster as “a democratic breakout”. The New York Times is characteristically more circumspect, hemming and hawing about how “the forced ouster of an elected leader is by definition a setback for democracy” but might also “help Bolivia restore its wounded democracy”. This head-spinning rhetoric does not prevent the New York Times from swiftly dismissing left-of-center politicians’ “predictable” claims that what happened was a coup. The Trump administration has unsurprisingly welcomed Morales’ fall. The White House says “Morales’s departure preserves democracy,” and argues: “These events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail.” The foreign minister of Brazil’s far-right government has similarly declared: “There is no coup in Bolivia.” It is hardly surprising that conservative governments and powerful media outlets applaud Morales’ forcing out and dismiss the claim it constitutes a coup. More surprising is that leftist commentators, including Raquel Gutiérrez and Raul Zibechi, have taken a similar stance. Zibechi attributes Morales’s fall to a “popular uprising”. This claim cannot be lightly dismissed. It points to the massive popular demonstrations that confronted Morales in the weeks after the 20 October election. Protesters rallied around two main claims. The first is that Morales should not have been on the ballot at all in 2019 because he lost a February 2016 referendum on indefinite presidential re-election, which a slight majority of voters rejected. Morales overcame this hurdle when Bolivia’s electoral court declared in 2017 that not allowing Morales to run for indefinite re-election violated his “human rights.” Many Bolivians disagreed with this controversial decision, including some who previously supported Morales. The second is that the 20 October election was fraudulent. Suspicion centered in particular around a 24-hour suspension of the live transmission of “rapid-count” results of the election. At the time of the suspension, on election night, the count showed Morales leading by less than 10% over his nearest rival, Carlos Mesa. This would have triggered a December runoff election, but when the transmission of the vote count resumed a day later, Morales had the requisite 10% lead needed to avoid a runoff. Suspicion that this change was due to fraud led to large and growing protests in the week after the vote, with Morales eventually agreeing to a binding audit of the vote by the Organization of American States. Mesa also initially agreed to the OAS audit, but withdrew his agreement under pressure from far-right leaders, who rejected the elections entirely, and began to call for Morales’s resignation. On Sunday, the OAS delivered the results of its audit, which found irregularities in the vote process extensive enough that the OAS said it could not certify the vote as accurate. As promised, Morales accepted this finding, and immediately called for new elections. This is what protesters had initially demanded. But in the weeks after 20 October, the principal demand changed from a new election to Morales’ resignation. This demand was initially voiced by Bolivia’s far right, centered in the lowland department of Santa Cruz. Yet, in the days before Morales’ fall, the demand for his resignation was also voiced by popular movements, including the miners’ union and the Bolivian Workers’ Central, which on November 10 somewhat tentatively called on Morales to “reflect on resigning if doing so would be for the good of the country”. For Zibechi, Gutiérrez, and other leftists, popular movements’ calls for Morales to resign prove his fall was not a coup. This view, however, ignores the critical timeline by which Morales resigned only after he was pressured to do so by the military. Unlike all other actors in Bolivia, when the military “suggested” Morales leave office he had no choice but to say yes, or risk tremendous violence. Unfortunately, events of the last several days suggest that the coup will not end the violence and chaos gripping Bolivia. Since Morales resigned, many MAS elected officials have also resigned their posts, claiming that they are doing so for fear of their own and their families’ safety. Video shows Morales’s house being ransacked on Sunday and chilling instances of police abuse of power in the last several days. On Tuesday night, the far right vice president of Bolivia’s Senate swore herself in as president, to a nearly empty legislative chamber. MAS senators boycotted the proceedings, with at least some saying they did so for fear of their safety. Whatever the broad array of forces that contributed to Morales’s downfall, the fact that the military pushed him out has emboldened the worst elements of Bolivian society. It may also embolden popular movements to strike back, as has occurred so often in Bolivia’s history. Indeed, predominantly Indigenous protesters in El Alto, La Paz, and elsewhere are in the streets denouncing the burning of the Indigenous wiphala flag and growing military repression of the populace. Some protesters are now calling for civil war. The debate over whether or not Morales’s ouster constitutes a coup is revealing. Those who deny that there has been a coup – Trump, Bolsonaro, and mainstream press – express the predictable and longstanding animosity of the powerful towards leftist governments that challenge the status quo and offer the powerless hope for an alternative. For those in this camp, Morales’ fall is fully (or largely) legitimate and something to be welcomed as the return of democracy, regardless of how it occurred. The denunciation of Morales’s ouster as a coup – the position of leading leftist figures in Latin America, the US, and UK – reveals an equally longstanding, and yes predictable, concern with military intervention in the political process, particularly when this is hitched to the type of oligarchic rightwing revanchist racism now on display in Bolivia. But the Bolivian conflict is not black and white. What we need at this moment is not a simplistic condemnation or uncritical defense of Morales and the MAS. We need to recognize the multiplicity of forces, including popular movements, which challenged Morales in recent weeks (and often for much longer). We also need to recognize that, right now, it is not popular movements that have taken charge in Bolivia, but a Bible-thumping racist right that has burned the wiphala, promised that “Pachamama will never return to the [presidential] palace” and chillingly called on the military and police to “pacify” Bolivia’s streets. The sad result of this is chaos and violence by state security forces and at least some MAS supporters. At the end of the day the most important question may not be whether or not this was a coup, but what comes next? The picture so far is decidedly grim. • None Gabriel Hetland is an assistant professor of Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies and Sociology at University at Albany, SUNY

Gabriel Hetland

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/13/morales-bolivia-military-coup

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 18:20:09 GMT

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

theindependent--2019-01-23--Thailand set to hold first general election since military coup in 2014

theindependent

Thailand set to hold first general election since military coup in 2014

Thailand is set to hold its first general election since the military seized power in a coup in 2014. Having not held elections for five years, the country’s royal palace has now issued a decree authorising the vote to be held on 24 March. Election laws that were drafted by the current military government, which has kept tight control over political activities in the country, have now come into force. Initial promises of holding elections had been pushed back and the most recent date of 24 February had to be abandoned because the decree giving the go-ahead was not issued in time to allow for the necessary preparations. Election commission chief Ithiporn Boonpakong said the 24 March date was "flexible enough and should be beneficial to everyone concerned". Anti-government protesters have staged sporadic demonstrations on Bangkok's streets in recent months, demanding no further delays in holding elections. The office of the prime minister, Prayut Chan-ocha, said with the laws in place, the decree "should end any further doubts on the holding and timing of general elections". The military has already overseen the drafting of a new constitution that will limit the power of future elected governments, shifting oversight to unelected bodies. Any new government will also be required to follow a 20-year "national strategy" drawn up by the military government. Several parties seen as serving as proxies for the military have been established and Mr Prayut could run with one or he could become a so-called "outsider prime minister" under new rules that don't require the premier to be a member of parliament. Some parties already have announced their support for Mr Prayut to stay in power and for several months he has been active in making public appearances around the country in what resembles a political campaign.

Shehab Khan

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/thailand-general-election-date-when-military-coup-king-maha-vajiralongkorn-2014-a8743111.html

2019-01-23 19:10:35+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

theindependent--2019-03-24--Thai elections latest Military-backed party takes the lead in Thailandaposs first vote since coup

theindependent

Thai elections latest: Military-backed party takes the lead in Thailand&apos;s first vote since coup

A military-backed party has taken the lead in Thailand’s first election since a coup in 2014, preliminary results showed, suggesting junta leader and prime minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha could stay in power. With 89 per cent of votes counted on Sunday, the Palang Pracharat party was first with 7 million votes. Pheu Thai, which was the governing party ousted by the coup, was next with 6.6 million votes. A new party, Future Forward, which became popular with young voters, had scooped up nearly 4.8 million votes. Voters deserted the Democrat Party, Thailand’s oldest political party, and its leader resigned. Thais voted for a 500-member parliament, which along with a 250-member junta-appointed senate will decide the next prime minister. The election was the latest chapter in a nearly two-decade struggle between conservative forces including the military and the political machine of Thaksin Shinawatra, a tycoon who upended tradition-bound Thailand’s politics with a populist political revolution. Mr Thaksin was ousted as prime minister in a 2006 military coup and now lives in exile abroad to avoid a prison term, but parties allied with him have won every election since 2001. His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who led the Pheu Thai government that was ousted in 2014, also fled the country after what supporters said was a politically motivated prosecution. Mr Prayuth, the blunt-speaking army chief who led the 2014 coup, was hoping to extend his hold on power after engineering a new political system that aims to stifle the influence of big political parties not aligned with the military. About 51 million Thais were eligible to vote. Leaders of political parties opposed to military rule urged a high turnout as the only way to derail Mr Prayuth’s plans, but many voters stayed at home. Thailand’s powerful king, Maha Vajiralongkorn, issued a statement on the eve of the election saying the role of leaders is to stop “bad people” from gaining power and causing chaos. It was also broadcast on Thai television stations minutes before voting started. Invoking a speech by his father, the previous Thai king who died in 2016 after reigning for seven decades, King Vajiralongkorn said not all citizens can be transformed into good people, so leaders must be given support in ruling to create a peaceful nation. He urged government officials, soldiers and civil servants to look after national security. It was the monarch’s second notable intervention in politics recently. Last month, he demanded his sister Princess Ubolratana Mahidol withdraw as a prime ministerial candidate for a small Thaksin-allied party within 24 hours of her announcement. When it seized power in 2014, the military said it was to end political unrest that had periodically turned violent and disrupted daily life and the economy. The claim has been a selling point for Mr Prayuth, who according to critics has overseen a period of growing inequality and economic hardship in Thailand. After the coup, political party gatherings were banned and pro-democracy activists and other dissenters were regularly arrested, interrogated and imprisoned. Just days before Sunday’s election, Pheu Thai said the houses of party officials and its campaign canvassers in some provinces had been searched by military personnel in an act of intimidation. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.

Stephen Wright, Preeyapa T. Khunsong

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/thai-elections-military-party-palang-pracharat-pheu-thailand-a8837761.html

2019-03-24 19:01:37+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

theindependent--2019-04-30--Venezuela news Police vehicles drive at opposition supporters as Maduro forces try to put down Guaid

theindependent

Venezuela news Police vehicles drive at opposition supporters as Maduro forces try to put down Guaido&apos;s &apos;military-backed&apos; coup

Venezuela has seen a day of tumult and protests as the country's opposition leader Juan Guaido began what he described as the "final phase" of his plan to take wrest control of the Venezuelan government from president Nicolas Maduro. The day of unrest began on Tuesday with Mr Guaido appearing in a video surrounded by troops who he said had put their weight behind the opposition leader's claim to leadership — a claim that Mr Guaido would make repeatedly throughout the day at several locations in Caracas. As the day progressed, Mr Maduro described the effort to remove him from office as a "coup" dreamed up in Washington, and claimed that he had been assured of "total loyalty" to his cause by military leaders in the country. In a later interview, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated that Mr Maduro was prepared to flee the country on Tuesday morning, but had been talked out of doing so by Russian officials. But, as images and videos of violence broadcast around the world from Caracas, several officials in countries around the world weighed in on the events, including John Bolton, the national security adviser in the White House. Mr Bolton told reporters at the White House that no options had been taken off the table for the United States, including military action, even though a peaceful transfer of power was preferable. During those remarks, Mr Bolton suggested that the Cuban government and military was propping up thee Maduro regime. Later, in a tweet, Mr Bolton tagged several senior aides to Mr Maduro to tell them "your time is up." "This is your last chance," Mr Bolton wrote. "Accept Interim President Guaido's amnesty, protect the Constitution, and remove Maduro, and we will take you off our sanctions list. Stay with Maduro, and go down with the ship." Back in Venezuela, Mr Guaido called for Venezuelans and the military to back him to end Mr Maduro's "usurpation", declaring: "The moment is now." There is some expectation that demonstrations — which included reports of gunfire, and military vehicles driving into crowds of demonstrators — would last through the night and into Wednesday. Thanks for reading along as we watched the situation in Venezuela

Chris Baynes, Clark Mindock

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/venezuela-coup-live-updates-crisis-latest-guaido-maduro-president-military-caracas-protest-a8892666.html

2019-04-30 11:30:00+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

themoscowtimes--2019-04-12--Russians Not Under Threat in Sudan Following Military Coup Embassy Says

themoscowtimes

Russians Not Under Threat in Sudan Following Military Coup, Embassy Says

An estimated 140 Russian citizens are registered as residing in Sudan, where a military coup overthrew President Omar al-Bashir, a close ally of Russia, after 30 years of autocratic rule on Thursday. The U.S. State Department has warned Americans against traveling to Sudan due to "crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping and armed conflict." Russians traveling in Sudan are not in danger after the ouster of the African nation’s longtime leader and ongoing unrest, the Russian Embassy in Khartoum said Thursday. “Despite the declared emergency measures, the situation in the country remains calm. There is no threat to Russian citizens in Sudan,” Vladimir Tomsky, the Russian Embassy’s press attache, told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Tomsky said the embassy plans to continue its operations amid the unrest, including protests demanding military leaders to hand over power to civilians. Thousands of Sudanese demonstrators who have been holding almost daily anti-Bashir protests rejected the decision to set up a transitional military council to run the country for two years and vowed to continue protests until a civilian government is established. Canada shut its embassy doors and urged Canadians to avoid travel to Sudan. The United States said it was suspending talks with Sudan on normalizing relations and the State Department has ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees to leave the country.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/04/12/russians-not-under-threat-in-sudan-following-military-coup-embassy-says-a65210

2019-04-12 08:08:03+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

activistpost--2019-05-13--US Special Forces School Publishes New Book on Overthrowing Governments

activistpost

US Special Forces School Publishes New Book on Overthrowing Governments

(ANTIWAR.COM) — US Special Operations Command can now be said to have literally written the book on US-imposed regime change, with the book Support to Resistance: Strategic Purpose and Effectiveness released this week by their official school. The official study covers 47 distinct cases of US special forces trying to intervene in various countries from 1941-2003. It did not include some of the more famous US-backed coups, as the study said they did not involve “legitimate resistance movements.” This meant a few pages covering each incident, attempts to sort them into various categories, and determinations if they were successful or failures. Overwhelmingly, they determined their own interventions were successful. Apparently anticipating the problems in years to come, the study also addressed mounting unrest across the Middle East in its early portion, and waved this away by arguing that it was generally the fault of the Soviet Union, and would’ve happened no matter what the US did. Provide, Protect and Profit in unstable times! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.

Activist Post

https://www.activistpost.com/2019/05/us-special-forces-school-publishes-new-book-on-overthrowing-governments.html

2019-05-13 11:55:47+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-01-22--US-Gate Overthrowing Other Peoples Governments The Master List of US Regime Changes

globalresearch

“US-Gate”? Overthrowing Other People’s Governments: The Master List of U.S. “Regime Changes”

This incisive list countries by the late William Blum was first published in 2013,  posted on Global Research in 2014. In relation to recent developments in Latin America and the Middle East, it is worth recalling the history of US sponsored military coups and “soft coups” aka regime changes. In a bitter irony, under the so-called “Russia probe” the US is accusing Moscow of interfering in US politics. This article reviews the process of overthrowing sovereign governments through military coups, acts of war, support of terrorist organizations, covert ops in support of regime change. Needless to say, while “US-Gate” is not an issue, this list in nonetheless revealing. In recent developments, the Trump administration is supportive of a US sponsored regime change in Venezuela and Cuba Instances of the United States overthrowing, or attempting to overthrow, a foreign government since the Second World War. (* indicates successful ouster of a government) Q: Why will there never be a coup d’état in Washington? Global Research Editor’s note: To this list published in February 2013, we must add Ukraine, where Viktor Yanukovych was successfully ousted in February 2014.

William Blum

https://www.globalresearch.ca/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list-of-u-s-regime-changes/5400829

2019-01-22 14:48:33+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-02-11--The Cynicism of Empire Sen Rubio Tells Venezuelans to Overthrow Their Governmentor Starve

globalresearch

The Cynicism of Empire: Sen. Rubio Tells Venezuelans to Overthrow Their Government…or Starve!

There is a sad disregard for human life among the neocon regime-changers. The devastation of Iraq, with its million dead, was a mere stepping stone to a “re-making” of the Middle East. A Libya turned into a modern day slave market after neocon-backed “liberation” is off the radar screen. Who cares, right? Syria suffered a half million dead after a US backed jihadist insurgency – strongly backed by the neocons – and not a word of remorse. In fact, in a remarkable act of chutzpah, neocons have taken to blaming the victims in Syria, with the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin branding Assad, who fought and ultimately defeated US-backed terrorists (and in so doing saved Syria’s ancient Christian community) an “enemy of humanity.” One need not join the Assad fan club to come to the easy conclusion that an al-Qaeda-controlled Aleppo, for example, was a living hell while an Aleppo liberated by Assad very soon was on its feet again as a multi-confessional and multi-cultural center of Syria. The sick disregard for human life as Washington gins up the regime change machine is on display again, bolder and more sadistic than ever. Witness the neoconservative Senator from Florida, shown above, who Tweeted this week that as hunger is growing in Venezuela, that country’s military must make a choice whether to support the US-backed overthrow of its government or allow the people to starve. Clearly threatening war, Rubio wrote, “military leaders should make a choice, before a choice is made for them.” Other neocons behind this regime change operation are showing signs of desperation as after more than a week of their backing the US-selected “interim president” – who had never run for the office – there are not yet any major signs of the Maduro government crumbling under the pressure. National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has spearheaded this idiotic operation (as he helped spearhead the idiotic 2003 invasion of Iraq), is almost begging the Venezuelan military to change sides. He is no doubt frustrated that the “cake walk” he likely promised Trump is to this point looking like no such thing. Translation: “Want some money? Help us overthrow your government!” The cynicism goes even deeper than that, however. After supporting the most brutal and aggressive sanctions against Venezuela for years – a policy that no doubt contributed to the misery they now pretend to seek to ameliorate – the regime changers are now dangling US “humanitarian” aid in front of Venezuelans if only they come over to the pro-rebel side and help overthrow their government. A US convoy of “humanitarian” relief trucks has set out in Colombia all the way to the Venezuelan border. After trying to starve Venezuelans for years, suddenly the US government dangles food in front of them. For a price. But the US “aid” convoy to Venezuela was so obviously a political move to use food as a weapon that even the UN and other NGOs refused to take part in the charade. Unsurprisingly, the Venezuelan government did not allow the US convoy to enter its territory and deliver aid to any rebels that might be eager to receive it. Another example of how paranoid and unstable the Venezuelan government really is? No, actually just a couple of days earlier another “aid” shipment was found to contain a cache of weapons slated for delivery to the rebels. Maybe they were just “moderate” rebels”? You don’t believe the US government would make such a dishonest and dangerous move as to hide a cache of weapons inside a “humanitarian” aid shipment? Ha! For Bolton and his new/old comrade in charge of regime change in Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, this was a return to the “good old days” where such practice was all in a day’s work. As an article in the 1987 Los Angeles Times informs us: Boltlon, Abrams, and the rest of Trump’s neocons aren’t even trying to make this original. They have pulled the old 1980s “support Latin American dictators” playbook off the shelf and are blatantly plagiarizing themselves! And the tens of thousands of innocent dead littering the scorched earth of their murderous policies? Don’t expect an apology: they are panting for more death and destruction! The US “aid” convoy to Venezuela was a farce from the beginning. Delivering humanitarian aid was the last thing on the neocon mind. Much more important was to deliver a message. And thanks to the slavishly compliant mainstream media in the US and among its allies, that message was amplified to all corners of the globe. As German government mouthpiece Deutsche Welle put it, “Maduro rejects humanitarian aid as nation starves.” Score that headline a major win for the CIA and other psy-op masters. Except unlike in Yemen, where the Germans and other “allies” back the US and Saudi genocide of the population amidst plenty of concrete evidence of horrific starvation, there is no evidence of anything remotely resembling a Yemen-like starvation nightmare in Venezuela. If there was, we’d see it in full livid detail. And again, Yemen doesn’t count because it’s the US and its allies doing the starving and blocking the humanitarian relief. The neocons still have not broken up the Venezuelan government but they are not out of weapons. Secretary of State and top neocon dog Mike Pompeo may be about to go nuclear. In the face of a stalled regime change Pompeo came out yesterday with the outlandish claim that the Venezuela is now a central battle ground in the “War on Terror”! He told FoxNews’ Trish Regan that Venezuela is full of “active Hezbollah cells.” And that, “The Iranians are impacting the people of Venezuela and throughout South America.” He added, ominously: “We have an obligation to take down that risk for America.” Having over decades established Hezbollah as the ultimate bogeyman (despite their not targeting Americans or the US and in fact being primarily focused against Israeli expansionism and aggression), the neocons are now doing their best to use raw fear of terrorism to motivate Americans to support a US invasion of Venezuela. And if Americans are not sufficiently propagandized that the Venezuelan government is the new Hitler and must be deposed before it throws more babies from incubators and distributes more Viagra to its troops? Breitbart is always good for a few low-IQ chunks of red meat to the feverish masses. Today they breathlessly report – PROOF of the depravity of Maduro – that…”Nicholas Maduro Threatens to Kill American Troops if They Invade Venezuela.” What a revelation! Has there been country in history that actually welcomed a hostile invasion? What is next for Venezuela and the neocon regime change plan? Well it is not going to plan at present, but as with all of these operations it is the neocons holding the cards (and the cash). The “correlation of forces” are definitely on their side. The neocon regime changers must only hit the target once, while the legitimate government of Venezuela must parry each blow. As for the obligatory disclaimer (this is getting tedious): No, we do not “support” Maduro or socialism or all the really bad things he is accused of in Venezuela. Our opposition is as American patriots: We do not want a global US empire that arrogates to itself the authority to decide who is and who is not acceptable to govern a foreign country. No sanctions, no meddling, no “regime change”. A sound defense of this country and a passionate dedication to leading not by force or subterfuge, but by example. The neocons have been given carte blanche by a seemingly lazy or uninterested President Trump. Will we rise to the occasion and defend real American values against their obsessive, failed attempts to conquer the globe? Will we hold our representatives in Congress accountable to real American values? There is some wavering in Congress about an implied authorization for the use of force in Venezuela. It is a unique opportunity for us to make our preferences known in a way that might make a difference. What do you say? It’s not that hard. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Daniel McAdams

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cynicism-of-empire-sen-rubio-tells-venezuelans-to-overthrow-their-government-or-starve/5668274

2019-02-11 12:19:39+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-02-26--Canadian Aid to Venezuela Part of Plan to Overthrow Government

globalresearch

Canadian ‘Aid’ to Venezuela Part of Plan to Overthrow Government

If more people understood that “aid” often goes hand in hand with military intervention there would be less uncritical support for it. An important, though little acknowledged, principle of Canadian ‘aid’ policy is that military intervention elicits international assistance. Or, in the case of Venezuela ‘aid’ is a tool being used to stoke military conflict. In fact, a long-standing element of foreign policy is that wherever Canadian and US troops kill Ottawa provides ‘aid’. This military-intervention-equals-aid pattern dates back at least to the 1950-53 Korean War when the south of that country was a major recipient of Canadian assistance. Canadian ‘aid’ flowed  to south Vietnam during the U.S. war there and to Grenada after the 1983 US invasion. During the 1990-91 Iraq war Canada provided $75 million in assistance to people in countries affected by the Gulf crisis. Hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into Haiti after Canadian troops helped overthrow the country’s elected government in 2004. In the years after the invasions, Afghanistan, Iraq and Haiti were the top three recipients of Canadian ‘aid’. A sizable proportion of the $2 billion in ‘aid’ Canada spent in Afghanistan was a public relations exercise to justify the war. The intervention-equals-aid pattern is an outgrowth of the primary objective of Canadian overseas assistance, which is to advance Western interests, particularly keeping the Global South tied to the US-led geopolitical order (as articulated  in 1950 when Ottawa began its first significant non-European allocation of foreign aid through the Colombo Plan). Justin Trudeau announced Canada would deliver $53 million in ‘aid’ to Venezuelans at the most recent “Lima Group” meeting. The Ottawa gathering also called on the Venezuelan military to oust  the elected president and urged the military not to impede humanitarian assistance from entering the country. The US and self-appointed interim president Juan Guaidó have made delivering ‘aid’ central to their campaign to oust Maduro. US military planes have transported hundreds of tons of ‘aid’ to the Colombian border City of Cucuta. To test the military’s loyalty to the government, Guaidó announced plans to force ‘aid’ into the country.The US and Colombia clearly aimed exploit this moment to intervene. Whether it reaches the point of armed confrontation, the ‘aid’ gambit is a public relations strategy. The aim is to exaggerate the scope of the economic downturn and to portray Nicolas Maduro as indifferent to the population’s (real) hardships.The public relations campaign even included a “Live Aid” style Venezuela fundraiser put on by billionaire Richard Branson in Cucuta last night before Guaido said he will seek to force ‘aid’ into the country. The concert fizzled with only about 5,000 people showing up and some artists pulling out at the last minute. For their part, the International Red Cross and UN have refused to participate in the US led ‘aid’ endeavor. A UN spokesperson called Washington’s ‘aid’ plan “politicised”. The politics driving the ‘aid’ deployment is obvious, but some progressives have been seduced by the label. In an internal memo responding to media backlash over their principled criticism of Ottawa’s regime change efforts in Venezuela, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said it supports the federal government’s decision to increase humanitarian assistance to Venezuelans. But, the slow-moving coup attempt and Canadian ‘aid’ disbursements can’t be separated. They are simply different parts of a single plan. It’s not uncommon for progressive organizations to support ‘imperial aid’ as a way to soften their criticism of international policies. At their 2006 convention, for instance, the NDP leadership sought to temper the “troops out” of Afghanistan demand pushed by activists by including language in the resolution that called for “support[ing] the continuation of development assistance to Afghanistan.” But, the ‘aid’ there was obviously designed to support Canada’s military occupation. In the academic literature it’s understood that the Canadian International Development Agency was “not a policy maker, but a policy taker.” The dissolution of CIDA into Global Affairs Canada in 2013 further subordinated aid policy to foreign policy objectives. Far and away the largest contribution announced, Canada’s humanitarian assistance to Venezuela is not designed to alleviate suffering. Its aim is to overthrow the government, which may spark and/or require war. If that disastrous situation develops, we need to add the ‘aid-leading-to-military intervention principle’ to our critical foreign policy lexicon. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Yves Engler

https://www.globalresearch.ca/canadian-aid-to-venezuela-part-of-plan-to-overthrow-government/5669739

2019-02-26 13:37:01+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat

globalresearch--2019-05-14--US Special Forces Command Issues New Guide for Overthrowing Foreign Governments

globalresearch

US Special Forces Command Issues New Guide for Overthrowing Foreign Governments

No kidding – this is not our headline, but Newsweek’s: “US Special Forces School Publishes New Guide For Overthrowing Foreign Governments” – and as far as we can tell they are the only major mainstream outlet to have picked up on the fact that the US military is now essentially openly bragging on past and future capabilities to foster covert regime change operations. The 250-page study entitled “Support to Resistance: Strategic Purpose and Effectiveness” was put out by the Joint Special Operations University under US Special Operations Command, which is the Army’s official unified command center which overseas all joint covert and clandestine missions out of MacDill AFB, Florida. The study examines 47 instances of US special forces trying to intervene in various countries from 1941-2003, thus special attention is given to the Cold War, but it doesn’t include coups which lacked “legitimate resistance movements” — such as the case of ‘Operation AJAX’ in 1953 which overthrew Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Though infamous disasters such the abortive CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba are highlighted, the US military report (perhaps predictably) finds that among those nearly fifty covert interventions surveyed, most interventions were “successful”. “One thing common to all 47 cases reviewed in this study is the fact that the targeted state was ruled either by an unfriendly occupying force or by a repressive authoritarian regime,” the author, Army Special Forces veteran Will Irwin wrote. The study focuses on historical regime change operations but in parts hints at the future, saying, “Russia and China have boldly demonstrated expansionist tendencies.” Success vs. Failure data from the new US military study published earlier this week entitled Support to Resistance: Strategic Purpose and Effectiveness It also asserts that unrest across the Middle East since the fall of the Soviet Union should ultimately be blamed on the legacy of past Soviet policy and failures, rather than on the United States. And further another interesting element involved the failure of operations which intervened in countries “under peacetime conditions”: Other major findings included observations that most operations “were carried out under wartime conditions, with those being nearly twice as successful as cases conducted under peacetime conditions” and “support to nonviolent civil resistance seems to be more likely to succeed than support to armed resistance.” At the same time, they were also “most effective when conducted in direct support of a military campaign rather than as an independent or main effort operation.” The report identifies about half a dozen governments from Indonesia to Afghanistan to Serbia to Iraq that were “successfully” overthrown by US operations, but in many more cases identifies covert “disrupt” operations for a desired outcome. The study did not include within its scope current US involved proxy wars which have unfolded in the past decade, such in Syria or Libya or Ukraine, but only mentions these in passing. In concluding remarks the author acknowledges that the study could help “explore ways the timely application of SOF capabilities” can influence “resistance movements” which are becoming increasingly violent, “thereby possibly helping to prevent the next Syria”. Whether this means swifter action would have resulted in quick regime change in Syria or if the study author believes US support to the “rebels” was doomed from the beginning remains unexplored. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. All images in this article are from ZH

Zero Hedge

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-special-forces-command-new-guide-overthrowing-foreign-governments/5677282

2019-05-14 01:35:46+00:00

conflict, war and peace

coup d'etat