In a secret recording obtained by el Nuevo Herald Venezuelan generals discuss using snipers against protesters in the ongoing anti-government unrest that has besieged the country for almost six weeks. - Source: el Nuevo Herald; edited by Mario Mateo
In secret recording, Venezuelan general pushes for snipers to control demonstrators (Videos)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article151329772.html
Claiming to be primed for civil war, a Venezuelan general issued orders to prepare for the future use of snipers against anti-government protesters, according to a secret recording of a regional command meeting held three weeks ago at a military base in the northwestern Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto.
On the recording, obtained from a Washington source that has provided el Nuevo Herald with information on Venezuela for previous stories, the generals discuss the legality and risks of using snipers during the massive demonstrations taking place almost daily against President Nicolás Maduro.
The military, however, insists publicly that it is not using lethal force against demonstrators, a claim that was repeated on Wednesday by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.
The meeting, chaired by Division General José Rafael Torrealba Pérez, took place in the last week of April as Venezuela’s socialist government continued to try to contain the unrest. Local news reports said at least four demonstrators were killed by gunfire this week, raising the death toll to at least 42, with more than 700 wounded.
“Begin to make preparations with those individuals that can serve as snipers, beginning with psychological and aptitude tests” to make sure the unit commanders are in control of them, Torrealba instructed the military gathering. Torrealba is head of the Lara-state based Integral Defense Operational Zone (ZODI), one of several regional military operational zones.
The generals at the meeting included representatives of the army, air force and national guard, according to the Washington source.
“There will come a time when we will have to employ them [the snipers] and I want us to be ready for the moment that we have to employ them because the president will not remain at a green [preparation] phase, gentlemen,” Torrealba said, a likely reference to Maduro’s activation of the Zamora Plan, a war plan to be activated in the midst of imminent foreign invasion. “He [Maduro] has already signed a range of operations and as I said here [previously] … we could be at the beginning of a subversive urban war.”
The recording of Torrealba’s voice matches the one appearing in videos of his public speeches available on YouTube. His voice also was identified by the Washington source that supplied the tape to el Nuevo Herald.
Some of the others present were National Guard Brigadier General Hernán Enrique Homez Machado, Air Force Brigadier General Carlos Enrique Quijada Rojas, Army Brigadier General Dilio Rafael Rodríguez Díaz, Army Brigadier General Joel Vicente Canelón and Army Brigadier General Iván Darío Lara Lander, according to the source that provided the recordings to el Nuevo Herald. El Nuevo Herald could not independently verify their presence at the meeting.
But at least one person at the meeting, whose voice was not identified on the recording, raised objections to the idea of snipers.
“General, with all due respect, if we keep going with the issue of the snipers, all of us here will end up in jail,” protested one of the generals in attendance. He warned that snipers or expert marksmen should not be used because if anyone was able to photograph a sniper, the “media war is going to kill us.”
But Torrealba said he did not care about public perception and, while saying that he had no plans to use the snipers immediately and acknowledging that it would be unconstitutional, the general ordered those present to go ahead with preparations to use snipers.
He said snipers would keep demonstrators off the streets.
In the end, “it will only be us [the military] that pulls through because … once people start to see dead bodies, and dead bodies begin to appear, then everyone will begin to stay at home,” Torrealba said. “You will remember my words, the armed forces are the ones that have to solve this problem.”
One of the generals in the room claimed the demonstrations are no longer peaceful.
“Sadly, this is the beginning of a war, gentlemen,” he said. “They [the protesters] will continue until reaching the point where an [international] intervention is justified. Let’s not fool ourselves. Sadly, it fell to our generation to live with this conflict, and we have to assume it to the degree that is being demanded by our country.”
Earlier in the discussion, some of the generals argued about the need for keeping the marksmen well-hidden from demonstrator and the reporters covering the events so the military would not be blamed for causing any deaths.
The content of the recording contradicts assurances from Padrino Lopez, the defense minister, that the military does not use firearms against protesters.
“We don’t use lethal firearms. There are no rifles, handguns or machine guns,” Padrino Lopez said in a pronouncement given Wednesday to announce the initiation of the second phase of the Zamora Plan in the border state of Tachira, where the demonstrations have intensified.
“In addition, President Nicolás Maduro, with his vision of statesman, and as president, has ordered us to recall even the weapon that is use for the restitution of order, which is shotguns with plastic munitions,” he added.
While it is not known where the gunfire originated that killed the four demonstrators on Monday and Tuesday, Organization of American States Secretary General, Luis Almagro, on Tuesday blamed the Venezuelan national guard.
“The Bolivarian National Guard and its head, Major General Benavides Torres, are directly responsible for the repression that has murdered, imprisoned and tortured people,” Almagro said.
Retired National Guard Colonel Antonio Semprun, who lives in South Florida, said the violence that is taking place in Venezuela against the demonstrators surpasses all that has previously been experienced in the country in what seems to be the government’s last-ditch attempt to keep Maduro in power.
“The Venezuelan population has reached a point of no return. It is committed to reaching what is being demanded on the streets, the freedom of the nation,” he said. “And what they are doing against the people — who are unarmed, protesting in the streets — are crimes against humanity.”
Anti-government protesters are met with tear gas fired by security forces as they try to march to the Interior Ministry in Caracas on Thursday
U.S. sanctions Venezuelan Supreme Court judges over National Assembly power grab
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article151333057.html
The Trump administration sanctioned eight Venezuelan Supreme Court judges Thursday, freezing their assets and banning them from travel to the U.S. as punishment for stripping the Venezuelan Congress of all powers earlier this year, a decision the court later reversed amid widespread international outcry.
The sanctions are the first unrelated to drug trafficking imposed by the Trump administration against high-ranking members of the Venezuelan government. They are intended to continue to isolate the embattled administration of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, which has been besieged by weeks of escalating protests following an economic collapse that has left Venezuelans tired, poor and hungry.
“The United States is not going to allow those who impede democracy or violate human rights to go unpunished,” Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who pushed for the sanctions, told the Miami Herald. He decried some of the judges by name Wednesday on the Senate floor, calling them “puppets who do [Maduro’s] bidding.”
The court, stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared in March it would assume all legislative functions from the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which had been deemed illegitimate after being held in contempt of previous court rulings. Denounced by the opposition and international community as an undemocratic power grab, the court’s decision was undone days later by the judges themselves, under apparent pressure from Maduro.
Even if reversed, the decision was only the latest in a series of rulings that undermined the legislative branch’s authority, senior Trump administration officials told reporters Thursday. One of them referred to “the rupture of democratic norms.”
“They have made a mockery of the separation of powers, and they have denied the Venezuelan people the right to shape their future,” the official said.
Rubio’s office worked behind the scenes with the White House and National Security Council on the sanctions, which are intended to continue to punish Venezuela’s government but not its people or its economy. The U.S.’s approach has been to back civil society and call for national elections and the release of political prisoners — while pushing other countries in the region to do the same.
Targeted by the Treasury Department sanctions are Supreme Court President Maikel Moreno and the seven principal members of the court’s Constitutional Chamber: Juan José Mendoza, Arcadio de Jesús Delgado, Gladys Gutiérrez, Carmen Zuleta de Merchán, Luis Fernando Damiani Bustillos, Lourdes Benicia Suárez Anderson and Calixto Ortega.
The sanctions were authorized under a March 2015 executive order signed by then-President Barack Obama, who at the time targeted seven Venezuelan government officials, citing eroded human-rights protections, political persecutions and violence in response to opposition protests. Congress passed legislation seeking sanctions in December 2014, and extended them for another three years last July.
Thursday’s announcement was met with resounding praise from Miami Republicans in Congress, who along with Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, have prodded the Trump administration — as they did the Obama administration — to take action. On Wednesday, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a Rubio friend, brought up Venezuela for the first time during a closed-door Security Council meeting.
“It’s a step in the right direction to holding the Maduro regime accountable and sends a strong message to the people of Venezuela that we have not given up on their aspirations for a return to a true democratic order,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. (In 2015, Maduro labeled her, Rubio and other U.S. lawmakers “terrorists” and banned their entry into Venezuela.)
Miami is home to the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S., and Venezuelan government officials are known to keep properties and bank accounts in Florida, and frequently travel to Miami and Orlando on vacation. Though the U.S. won’t disclose how many assets, if any, the judges might have in the country, the sanctions affect financial transactions that pass through the U.S. even if they originate in foreign banks.
More than 40 people have died over the past six weeks as hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets.
Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump hosted Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the White House and spoke about Venezuela, an issue the two had already previously discussed by phone.
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the chief judge and seven other members of Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Thursday as punishment for annulling the opposition-led Congress earlier this year, U.S. officials said.
Venezuela Supreme Court judges hit with U.S. sanctions
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-usa-exclusive-idUSKCN18E2UD
The new sanctions package was aimed at stepping up pressure on the leftist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his loyalists amid growing concern over a crackdown on street protests and his efforts to consolidate his rule over the South American oil-producing country.
The move provoked condemnation from Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez. "It's outrageous and unacceptable for the United States to impose sanctions on a sovereign and independent nation in violation of Venezuelan and international laws," she said on Twitter.
Venezuela's latest wave of anti-government unrest, which has left at least 45 people dead in the last six weeks, began with the Supreme Court, packed with Maduro supporters, assuming the authorities of the opposition-led Congress in late March.
There was an international outcry against the court's de facto annulment of the National Assembly, which the opposition won in late 2015 during an unprecedented economic and social crisis. The decision was later partially reversed, though it did not stop the unrest.
“The Venezuelan people are suffering from a collapsing economy brought about by their government’s mismanagement and corruption. Members of the country’s Supreme Court of Justice have exacerbated the situation by consistently interfering with the legislative branch’s authority,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
“By imposing these targeted sanctions, the United States is supporting the Venezuelan people in their efforts to protect and advance democratic governance in their country," he said.
Among those hit with sanctions was Maikel Moreno, a Maduro ally who became president of the 32-judge court in February. All of those targeted will have U.S. assets frozen and be denied travel to the United States, while American citizens will be barred from doing business with them, officials said.
Maduro spoke on state television for some two hours on Thursday soon after the sanctions were confirmed but made no mention of them.
Word of the new sanctions came as President Donald Trump expressed dismay at how once-prosperous Venezuela was now mired in poverty, saying “it's been unbelievably poorly run."
Speaking in Washington alongside visiting President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Venezuela’s neighbor, Trump called the humanitarian situation “a disgrace to humanity” and promised to help fix it, but he offered no new U.S. approach.
A senior U.S. official warned of further action against "bad actors" if there are no changes in the country. But sanctions so far have stopped short of hitting the oil sector in Venezuela, which is a major U.S. oil supplier.
Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, who had pushed for further sanctions, called the measures a message “to Maduro and his thugs that their actions are not going to go unpunished.”
UNREST - Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across Venezuela in protest against the Maduro’s government, demanding elections, freedom for jailed activists, foreign aid and autonomy for the opposition-led legislature.
Maduro's aides accuse them of seeking a violent coup.
The Treasury Department has in the past sanctioned Venezuelan officials or former officials, charging them with trafficking or corruption. In February, the United States blacklisted Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami for alleged links to drug trafficking.
The officials have denied the charges and called them a pretext to try to topple Maduro's government, something Washington has denied.
The U.S. government said the judges were being targeted because they had "usurped" democratic authority.
In March, the court stated it was assuming the Congress' role in a ruling authorizing Maduro to create oil joint ventures without the previously mandated congressional approval.
The court said the National Assembly was in contempt over vote-buying accusations against three lawmakers. Even though they no longer sit in Congress, the court said opposition leaders had not handled their case legally.
The decision was partially reversed though protests have continued nationwide. Maduro's critics say it was an excuse for him to consolidate power and muzzle the opposition.
