Venezuela: Resistance or disintegration?

[angelburst29]

Veteran U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson was not able to secure the release of American citizens held as prisoners in Venezuela during his visit to the country, his foundation said in a statement late on Thursday.

Veteran U.S. diplomat Richardson fails to secure release of Americans jailed in Venezuela

July 17, 2020 - On his trip to Venezuela, which he called a private humanitarian mission conducted at the request of “several American prisoners’ families,” Richardson met Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Venezuela’s vice president.

“I am glad we were able to meet with President Maduro to discuss the potential release of the American prisoners and other COVID-19 humanitarian issues,” Richardson said in the statement.

“We regret that we were not able to secure the release of the Americans. Our thoughts are with the families of the 6 Citgo executives - Tomeu Vadell, Alirio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, and Jose Angel Pereira - as well as with former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry,” he added.

The former U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers were arrested in May for leading a failed incursion attempt aimed at capturing Maduro.

The Citgo executives have been imprisoned since 2017 on allegations of embezzlement, which the U.S. government and the executives’ lawyers have said are baseless.

In a statement, Elliott Abrams, Washington’s special envoy on Venezuela, sharply criticized the executives’ imprisonment and called for their release. “The Department of State will continue our efforts to free them until the day when they are released,” Abrams said.

Trump’s administration has tried to oust Maduro by imposing sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector and backing opposition leader Juan Guaido, but Maduro has retained control of the government and wielded security forces against his opponents.

Richardson, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Clinton administration, was previously involved in securing U.S. missionary Joshua Holt’s freedom from detention in 2018.

 

[angelburst29]

A London judge delivered a blow to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s attempt to retrieve $1 billion of gold in Bank of England vaults, ruling that opposition leader Juan Guaido should be recognized as the country’s interim president.

Judge Sides With Guaido in $1 Billion Venezuela Gold Fight

Lawyers for Venezuela’s central bank (BCV) said on Friday they have won the right to appeal a ruling by the English High Court which recognized Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s president.

Venezuela central bank wins right to appeal British ruling recognising Guaido: lawyers
July 24, 2020 - The decision follows a ruling earlier this month which is part of a tug-of-war over whether Guaido or Nicolas Maduro should control $1 billion of Venezuela’s gold reserves stored at the Bank of England in London.

“It is incredibly rare for a trial judge to give leave to appeal against their own judgment, and we are pleased to have been granted a limited appeal,” said Sarosh Zaiwalla, partner at Zaiwalla & Co which represents the BCV.

Guaido’s legal team declined to comment. The court could not immediately confirm details.


After 23 years of unremitting media warfare against Venezuela, the United States announces that it will start a media war against Venezuela. It’s cynical, it’s tragic, it’s even comical. Since 1997, when Commander Hugo Chávez Frías began to emerge in the polls as a presidential option, and until today, the United States has led the most violent media initiatives to influence Venezuelan politics and change the course that through elections the (Venezuelan) people have taken. A brief account of the main episodes of this communications war would clarify how old and stubborn this strategy is.

After 23 Years of Media Warfare Against Venezuela, the US Says it Will Start a Media War - Global Research

July 25, 2020 - The serial genocide perpetretor Elliott Abrams (mastermind of massacres and attacks in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, let it be known) was in charge of delivering this “news” more than two decades later.

Journalistic reports say that “the United States is preparing a new strategy against Venezuela in which it will use the media as part of its pressure campaign against Maduro.”

Abrams, also instigator of United States’ wars and invasions in this century, explained that Washington plans the launch of media actions on radio, television and internet, in order to penetrate Venezuelan territory.

Abrams spoke at an online conference sponsored by the Hudson Institute, one of Washington’s most influential think tanks, entities that, as Canadian professor Rodrigue Tremblay says, “provide political reports on various topics to government officials, usually from a very conservative viewpoint.”

23 years of war
The first movements of the US media war in Venezuela were against the powerful political movement that took the electoral course in 1997. When the then political establishment realized that its lifeboat, the candidacy of the former Miss Universe Irene Sáez, began to deflate, and that Chávez’s popularity grew rapidly, almost the entire media industry in Venezuela lined up behind desperate moves by the right to avoid a debacle.

Washington was a leading part of those alignments, through frequent diplomatic interference and through the unified action of the American media of the time, which was key for news networks such as CNN and Fox News.

Then, when Chávez was in power, almost all of the media apparatus tried in vain to prevent the convocation of a National Constituent Assembly and, since it was not possible to stop that process either, it directed its efforts to try to get the people to reject the new Magna Carta (constitution).

All against Chávez
By 2000, the few media that had given support to Chávez turned around when they realized that the new president would not be their puppet. The war then turned into all-against-the-government and in that vein, the April 2002 coup d’état arrived, which according to all the evidence, including confessions and confidences of the protagonists, was mainly a media coup, closely coordinated by the State Department. At that moment, the perverse figure of Abrams appeared behind the scenes.

Rabidly mediatic were also the following chapters of the saga, including the “military rebellion” in Plaza Altamira and the oil sabotage and lock-down (Dec, 2002). The poisoned communications of those months led vast sectors of the Venezuelan population into mental breakdowns, from which at this point, 18 years later, many still have not recovered.

Maybe it’s something like that Abrams and his minions are considering now. Only, many of the media that were then stellar no longer exist, have modified their editorial lines or are limited to small audiences. To a large extent, the fact of being turned into scrap metal is the consequence of their incursion into a media war in which they emerged as losers.

2004 to 2013: From plot to plot
The use of the media as a weapon of primary importance in the attack against Bolivarian Venezuela continued in 2004 with the backing of the first attempt by the extreme right to overthrow the government through outbreaks of urban disturbances, the wrongly named “guarimbas”.

Also that year, the media, acting in unison in a scenario that they widely dominated, did everything possible to relativize and ridicule the government’s complaint about the paramilitary operation of the Daktari estate, dismantled by intelligence agencies. Also in 2004, all the national and foreign media aligned against Chávez in the recall referendum.

The media were the deciding factor in 2005 in the opposition coalition’s decision to boycott the parliamentary elections, one of the main party leaders, Henry Ramos Allup, later revealed.

In 2007, the scoundrel media suffered a major loss with the non-renewal of a broadcasting television channel concession of RCTV, one of the most bitter enemies of the revolutionary process since 1997. In that year, without the stubborn support of the media, it would not have been possible to create the climate of turmoil that led to the defeat of the Constitutional Reform project and the promotion of a group of young people with far-right ideas, in the style of the fascist movements that carried out the so-called color revolutions in Eastern Europe.

During the following years, until 2011, the media machinery did not rest in its conspiracies, but there was little that it could achieve. The same thing happened to its counterpart, the political opposition, that was in the dark before a Chavez in all his splendor. But that year they found a streak in which they showed their most perverse imprint, by feeding on President Chávez’s illness. They went with that until March 2013, when the president died and even later, because they have continued to work systematically against the memory that a good part of the Venezuelan people and many other countries keep about Hugo Chavez.

2013: Casualties on the battlefront
That year, the media battalion also suffered considerable losses, when the owners of several of the most radically anti-Chavista media decided to sell them to business groups that assumed different editorial and news lines. It was a defeat inflicted on the rightwing media with the dented weapons of capitalism, as “Che” Guevara would have said, because the voice of money spoke. Be that as it may, in short, it was a defeat.

It is possible that the media that Abrams intends to create are the one that played the role that the media sold (by their owners) stopped playing at that time.

In that same 2013, while these plays were being completed, the rest of the media machinery, especially the one based in other countries, remained at war, encouraging adventures such as the “calentera” (new guarimbas) after the defeated Henrique Capriles in the Presidential race after Chavez’s death, which caused more than a dozen of deaths, and developed intense and daily smear campaigns against President Nicolás Maduro.

That same year the economic war intensified and the media component was essential for it to take shape.

2014-2017: More and worse violence with media support
In 2014, allied to the most undemocratic sectors of the Venezuelan right, the media encouraged a new attempted insurrection through a focussed tactic using the guarimba model. These were highly localized violent events in enclaves of the middle and upper classes, so the role of the media was crucial to create, on a global scale, the impression that a great anti-government popular rebellion was underway.

Between that year 2015 and 2017, the media were strategic props in the intensification of the war against the people through shortages, hoarding and speculation of essential goods. At this time, a newspaper network in the US, Latin America and Europe dedicated several pages a day to denouncing topics such as long lines to buy bread or toilet paper. Its purpose was to portray Venezuela as hell and blame the government for the evils intentionally caused by the business community and the reactionary political class.

In 2016, after the opposition victory in the legislative elections (in December 2015), the rightwing media went as crazy as the partisans. They launched together from all directions different attempts to put an early end to the Maduro government. The media (local and international) breathed life into suggestions as far-fetched as the removal of the President in six months, the abandonment of office, doubts about his nationality and forced early elections.

In 2017, another episode occurred in which the media is deeply involved. It was the third and bloodiest yet, wave of terrorist violence (guarimbas), which this time lasted four months and included lynchings and barbaric acts as few had been seen in many years in Venezuela. The anti-Chavez communication machinery (now reinforced by new digital native media, many of them openly funded by the US and the European Union) glorified violent protesters; it made martyrs of young people who were put to death by the extreme right-wing political leadership, and it hid or relativized the hate crimes and acts against humanity perpetrated in the opposition coven, including the vile murder of people who were burned alive (just because they “looked” Chavista).

The media manipulation regarding these days reached worldwide levels. On July 30, the date of the elections (for governors), the terrorist opposition tried to impede the elections and the communication apparatus presented the violence to the world as promoted by the government.

2017-2019: Diaspora, assassination and commissioning
Throughout all these years and until 2019, the power of the media was paramount in consolidating the narrative of Venezuela as a nation in humanitarian crisis and on the brink of famine as a result of erroneous policies. It was also key to encouraging hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, especially young people, to leave the country. The “reports” about the so-called “diaspora” were part of a gigantic psychological operation that has had dire consequences for its victims, due to outbreaks of xenophobia, human trafficking, exploitation of workers and, this year, terrible human dramas.

In 2018, the same media were complicit in the political right that, after negotiating and reaching agreements, kicked over the table in the Dominican Republic on orders from the State Department. They also did their best to delegitimize the May presidential election and sought to discredit and ridicule the frustrated August assassination attempt [on Maduro] using drones. Only months after the events, one of those media decided to make the truth known, with testimonies from the material authors of the terrorist plot. Others have never deigned to admit that they misled their audiences.

Since 2019, the entire media machinery has been essential in sustaining the arbitrary “government in charge” of Juan Guaidó, on express instructions from Washington. The deployment that this character was given as a supposed national leader, has nothing to do with journalism, but is further proof of its role as a weapon in the conspiracy.

Among the highlights of 2019 in which the communication apparatus was – or claimed to be – of great weight in the insurrectional strategy, are Guaidó’s self-proclamation; Cúcuta’s concert and the failed invasion attempt under the guise of humanitarian aid; the blackouts in March, April and July, and the attempted coup d’état on April 30.

In the humanitarian aid episode, all the right-wing media conspired to support the false version that the Venezuelan government had ordered the burning of the trucks with food and medicine (allegedly coming from Cucuta), despite evidence that the fire had been caused by anti-Chavistas from the Colombian side of the border, as verified and recognized, weeks later, by The New York Times.

The same media that had demanded that Maduro be tried for crimes against humanity due to that destruction, did not ask for any sanction, not even a reprimand, against the true authors of the crime.

In 2020, the alleged informative bodies were, once again, a cog in the strategy of “regime change” by endeavoring to keep the Guaidó operation alive, hiding or downplaying the enormous cases of corruption that have been perpetrated under cover by his alleged commissioners.

Meanwhile, new media, which for the most part operate from outside the country, try to use the “fight against corruption” argument to destroy the social program of the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP), which have been a response to the economic war. In this way they serve the US strategy of suffocating the Venezuelan population until it rises up against the government.

What else might they try?
After this quick walk through of more than two decades of the media turned into cannons and bombs from the right, one has to wonder what the serial genocide Abrams is thinking now when he talks about “starting” a media offensive.

What are they going to do now, those who follow the instructions of this murderer of towns and recipient of “fees” from USAID, the more or less decent face of the CIA? What can they try that they have not already tried? We will see soon enough.

 

[angelburst29]

Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry hit back at the Trump administration after it offered US $5 million for information leading to the arrest of Supreme Court President Maikel Moreno last week.

Venezuela Rejects Washington’s ‘Wild West’ Bounty Against Chief Justice Moreno - Global Research
The State Department has offered US $5 million for information leading to his capture.

July 28, 2020 - The Venezuelan government once again rejects the Donald Trump administration’s illegal and coercive actions against the Venezuelan people…by way of false accusations and bounties in the style of cowboys and the Wild West,” Caracas said in a statement.

“The US people… deserve institutions dedicated to resolving the serious problems in society, including the justice system, such as determining the truth and perpetrators… in the Epstein case,” the statement continued, referring to notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his high-profile establishment connections

The Foreign Ministry also pledged to include the move as additional evidence in its case before the International Criminal Court, in which Caracas argues that Washington’s sanctions constitute “crimes against humanity.

Last week, the US State Department accused Moreno of “participating in transnational organized crime” and of “personally receiv[ing] money or property as bribery payments to influence the outcome of civil and criminal cases in Venezuela.” Moreno has categorically dismissed the allegations as “unfounded.”

The bounty is the latest in a series of similar compensations offered for the arrest of high-profile Venezuelan officials, including US $15 million for President Nicolas Maduro and US $10 million for other important figures, including National Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello and Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami. All three men, alongside Moreno, were indicted by US federal prosecutors in March.

Moreno, who took over as Supreme Court president in 2017, was blacklisted by the US and Canada the same year, alongside dozens of other top officials, including President Maduro. The top judge was likewise sanctioned by Switzerland, Panama and the European Union in 2018.

Since declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security in 2015, Washington has targeted scores of senior Venezuelan officials, freezing their foreign assets and imposing travel bans. Beginning in 2017, the Trump administration levied crippling financial sanctions, which it later escalated into an oil embargo and sweeping ban on dealings with Venezuelan state entities, enforced via secondary sanctions against third parties.

 

[angelburst29]

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on two former officials of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, barring them from traveling to the United States over accusations they were involved in significant corruption.

Pompeo bars two former Venezuelan officials from traveling to United States

July 28, 2020 - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the two former officials, including Luis Motta, who was sacked by Maduro as electricity minister last year after a series of blackouts, had accepted bribes and kickbacks in exchange for awarding “lucrative” supply equipment contracts for Venezuela’s state power company, Corpoelec.

Pompeo also accused Motta and Eustiquio Jose Lugo Gomez, a former deputy minister of finance at the electricity ministry, of misappropriating public funds to enrich themselves.

Tuesday’s action bars both former officials and their immediate family members from traveling to the United States.

The officials were previously blacklisted by the United States last year in a decision that froze any of their U.S. assets and generally prohibits Americans from dealing with them.

“This designation reaffirms the U.S. commitment to combating corruption in Venezuela,” Pompeo said

The United States and dozens of other countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate president, regarding Maduro’s 2018 re-election as a sham. But Maduro has remained in power, backed by the country’s military and by Russia, China and Cuba.

“The United States continues to stand with Interim President Juan Guaido, the democratically elected National Assembly, and the people of Venezuela in their fight against corruption and for the peaceful restoration of democracy and economic stability,” Pompeo said.

U.N. experts warn Venezuela it could be in breach of North Korea sanctions -documents
NEW YORK - U.N. investigators monitoring compliance with sanctions on North Korea are looking into a possible military and technology deal between Pyongyang and Venezuela and have warned Caracas that it could be in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

In two previously unreported letters to Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador, Samuel Moncada - sent in October and last month and seen by Reuters - the independent panel of U.N. experts asked for specific terms of the agreement and spelled out the U.N. sanctions that could bar such a deal.

The probe comes as U.S. sanctions on the South American country, intended to force out President Nicolas Maduro over allegations he rigged his 2018 re-election, and increasing diplomatic isolation are pushing Venezuela to deepen ties with U.S. adversaries like Iran and North Korea.

“Taking into consideration that such cooperation is a recognized way for the DPRK to violate relevant U.N. resolutions, the Panel would like to request a response ... concerning information regarding above suspected cooperation,” panel coordinator Alastair Morgan wrote on June 12.

 

[Michael B-C]

Well that's yet another failed colour revolution that is quietly being ignored by the western propaganda machine (funny how there's next to no coverage of this). Juan Guaidó officially toast.

 

[EmeraldR]

Well that's yet another failed colour revolution that is quietly being ignored by the western propaganda machine (funny how there's next to no coverage of this). Juan Guaidó officially toast.

Battle for control of Venezuelan gold continues – DW – 08/04/2022

The legal battle over 31 tons of Venezuelan gold has taken a new twist after a court in London ruled that opposition leader Juan Guaido should be in control of it. The Maduro administration will appeal the ruling.

www.dw.com

brits got the gold still... ...

 

[Glenn]

Well, they now have a dream team in place to replace Guaidó. (No mention of AOC ).

All-female team replaces Juan Guaidó as face of Venezuela opposition​

Three women, mostly exiled former lawmakers, were selected in hopes they can reconnect with disillusioned voters ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

All-female team replaces Juan Guaidó as face of Venezuela opposition

Three women, mostly exiled former lawmakers, were selected in hopes they can reconnect with disillusioned voters ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

www.nbcnews.com

Kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel?

By Associated Press

---

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s opposition has selected an all-female team of mostly unknown exiled former lawmakers to replace the beleaguered Juan Guaidó as the face of its faltering efforts to remove socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

Last week, politicians who were elected to the National Assembly in 2015 voted to oust Guaidó from his role as “interim president,” a title he claimed as head of what was widely considered the South American nation’s last democratically elected institution.
On Thursday, those same former lawmakers chose Dinorah Figueroa as his replacement. She’ll be joined by two other backbenchers — Marianela Fernández and Auristela Vásquez — in a triumvirate leadership of a legislature that operates as a symbolic shadow to Maduro’s rubber-stamping National Assembly, which convened Thursday in its neoclassical chambers.
The women represent three different parties that had been pushing for Guaidó’s removal as a way to reconnect with disillusioned voters ahead of next year’s presidential elections. But it remains to see how, living outside Venezuela, they will manage to mobilize their compatriots to counter Maduro’s increasingly firm grip on power.
Figueroa, a medical surgeon who has been living in Spain, appealed for unity in her first address to fellow Maduro opponents. She also promised to work to shield the OPEC nation’s extensive oil assets abroad, which include Houston-based refinery Citgo, from seizure by a long list of creditors stiffed by Maduro’s profligate spending over the years.
“I have the conviction that this parliament will raise the flag of faith, hope and justice,” Figuera said in the session, which was held virtually, in a Zoom meeting, because so many opposition politicians like her have fled Venezuela in recent years.
In January 2019, the National Assembly, then controlled by the opposition, voted to stop recognizing Maduro as president after several top opponents were barred from running against him. It then appointed Guaidó, who was one of the few leaders in his Popular Will party to avoid arrest or exile, to be the nation’s “interim president,” in accordance with the order of succession outlined in Venezuela’s constitution.
Guaidó was quickly recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate leader by the United States and dozens of governments in Europe and Latin America.
But his interim government was unable to win over the military, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela, and the opposition-controlled National Assembly’s five-year mandate officially ended at the close of 2020. With leftist leaders winning elections across Latin America in recent years, the U.S.-led international coalition to pressure Maduro has also frayed. Colombia, Brazil and Spain are among the countries that recently re-established diplomatic ties.
Guaidó, in Thursday’s meeting, thanked his many supporters, both domestic and foreign, in what was something akin to a farewell address. Standing at a lectern emblazoned with the Venezuelan presidential seal, the 39-year-old said he would remain in Venezuela — despite calls for his arrest from among Maduro’s more radical supporters — and urged his successors to rebuild the unity needed to unseat Maduro.
“We can’t generate a power vacuum that only benefits the de-facto dictator,” he said.
Guaidó’s departure from the political scene may only be temporary however.
Although no longer the harbinger of hope he was when he rose from obscurity amid a wave of street protests to challenge Maduro’s rule, he remains a popular figure in the otherwise rudderless opposition, admired for his bravery and commitment to the cause of Venezuela’s democracy if not for always delivering results. He’s expected to be among those who will compete in opposition primaries this year to see who runs against Maduro in 2024.
Meanwhile, Maduro’s supporters seemed to be relishing the opposition’s squabbles.
At Thursday’s session inaugurating the legislative year, loyalist lawmakers re-elected Jorge Rodriguez to lead the National Assembly. Rodríguez, a close Maduro ally, accused the opposition of causing imposing undue “pain, suffering and aggression against the Venezuelan people” by supporting U.S. sanctions on the country.
Socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello also took a shot at the rival legislature, saying: “They love to live in a fantasy, they love to live dreaming.”
The Biden administration has largely tried to avoid wading into the opposition’s feuding while continuing to pressure Maduro to make meaningful concessions to the opposition in negotiations taking place in Mexico that would pave the way for free and fair elections.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Tuesday that the U.S. stands ready to work with any individual, or collective body, chosen by the 2015 National Assembly to represent it.
“Our approach to Nicolás Maduro has not changed,” Price said Tuesday. “He is illegitimate. We support the 2015 National Assembly as the only remaining vestige of democracy in Venezuela.”

 

[Glenn]

And the US is still supporting Guaido?


usnews.com

Washington Coy on Venezuela's Guaido, Still Recognizes 2015 National Assembly
U.S. News StaffJuly 6, 2021

~3 minutes

---

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States still recognizes Venezuela's 2015 National Assembly after a recent shakeup and will keep coordinating with its former leader Juan Guaido "and other like-minded individuals," the White House said on Wednesday.
Washington's years-long recognition of Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate interim president was called into question late last month when the country's opposition National Assembly stripped him of the title and dissolved his government.
In a press call, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the United States still recognized that assembly, elected in 2015, as Venezuela's "last remaining democratic institution."
Asked whether Washington still recognized Guaido as interim president, Kirby said he did not want to "get into hypotheticals" and promised the United States would "coordinate with him and other like-minded members" of the opposition legislature.
Axios reported on Wednesday evening that a State Department official confirmed the United States no longer recognizes Guaido as Venezuela's leader. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Political Cartoons on World Leaders​

The administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate president after President Nicolas Maduro won re-election in a 2018 vote that Washington and other Western governments called a sham.
Maduro has maintained his grip on power supported by the Venezuelan military as well as Russia, China, Cuba and Iran.
The interim government's dissolution raised questions about the future of assets in its control. Opposition lawmakers voted last week to appoint a commission to govern the assets.
Kirby's comments echoed State Department spokesperson Ned Price, who on Tuesday left open the question of Guaido's official designation.
"We'll continue to coordinate with him as a member of the 2015 national assembly and with other like-minded democratic actors in Venezuela to support the Venezuelan people in their aspirations of democracy, rule of law, and prosperity in their country," Price told reporters.
Washington's position on the need for free and fair elections in Venezuela and on Maduro had not changed, Price said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Writing by Katharine Jackson and Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.

 

[youlik]

Another conflict is on the way. In principle, it is quite logical that in the process of weakening the "world hegemon", many will try to solve their previously unresolved problems. The problem with this disputed territory, by the way, is already quite old. Approximately 200 years have not been able to definitively resolve this issue.

Maduro declared the territory of Essequibo the new 24th state of Venezuela
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has declared the disputed territory of Essequibo, belonging to Guyana, Venezuela's "integral defense zone". This statement was made during a meeting of the Federal Council of the Government. According to information published by the Venezuelan news agency Ultimas Noticias, Maduro proposed to create departments in Essequibo responsible for issuing licenses for the extraction of gas, oil and other minerals. This region will now be considered the 24th state of Venezuela, known as Guyana-Essequibo.

In addition, Maduro proposed to prohibit the conclusion of contracts with companies operating or cooperating under unilateral concessions granted by Guyana at sea. He instructed to discuss this issue in the Venezuelan parliament.

The President also gave companies engaged in development on the Essequibo shelf a three-month period to cease operations in the undimited sea, while expressing readiness for negotiations and respect for international law and laws. Maduro ordered the creation of the High Commissioner for the Defense of Essequibo, to develop a plan for social assistance to the population of the region and to conduct a population census, issuing identity cards to its residents. He also demanded the publication and distribution of a new map of Venezuela in the country's educational institutions.

Nevertheless, the statement of the Venezuelan president was ignored, since the inclusion of Essequibo into Venezuela has not received recognition from any country in the world, including Russia.

Мадуро объявил территорию Эссекибо новым 24-м штатом Венесуэлы

Spoiler: Russian spelling

Очередной конфликт на подходе. В принципе вполне логично, что в процессе ослабления "мирового гегемона" многие попытаются решить свои нерешенные ранее проблемы. Проблема с этой спорной территорией, кстати, уже довольно старая. Примерно 200 лет не могут окончательно решить этот вопрос.