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Post by TsarSamuil on May 9, 2020 13:01:04 GMT -5
Delivering Maduro to America was objective of failed Venezuelan incursion – US mercenary says in interrogation tape.
RT.com
6 May, 2020 18:56
Kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and bringing him to the US was the objective of a failed incursion into the country, one of the two captured US mercenaries said in an interrogation tape released by state TV.
Two employees of Florida-based security firm, Silvercorp, have been detained by Venezuelan forces in connection with the failed invasion.
The only instructions he received before Sunday's botched operation was to take control of the airport in order to facilitate the transfer of Maduro to the US, Luke Denman, one of the detained Americans, said in the footage.
Denman also claimed that there was a good payout waiting for him following the successful completion of the risky mission. “I expected anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000,” he said.
Maduro announced on Wednesday that Denman and fellow Silvercorp employee, Airan Berry, will go on trial in Venezuela. Caracas will also be demanding Washington extradite Silvercorp boss, Jordan Goudreau, as he was the one who allegedly coordinated the actions of the mercenaries.
In his comments after the broadcast of the interrogation tape, Maduro insisted that “Donald Trump is the direct chief of this invasion.”
Washington has made little secret of its desire to see Venezuela's socialist president removed from power. It has been actively supporting opposition figure Juan Guaido, who declared himself ‘interim president’ in January 2019, and it even offered a reward of $15 million for any information leading to Maduro's arrest.
However, Trump was quick to deny any involvement by the US administration in the failed Venezuelan incursion.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged that the White House would use “every tool” in order to bring the two Americans – who used to serve in US special operations forces – back home.
Denman and Berry, along with 11 other ‘foreign mercenaries’, were arrested by Venezuelan security forces on Monday as they were intercepted while allegedly trying to reach the country's shore by speedboat.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Jul 21, 2020 5:14:08 GMT -5
Ex-president Correa of Ecuador sentenced to 8 years in prison in bribery case as court dismisses his appeal.
RT.com
21 Jul, 2020 00:05
Ecuador’s National Court of Justice has turned down an appeal filed by former president Rafael Correa in an “aggravated bribery” case, upholding the eight-year sentence that Correa has called politically motivated.
Correa and 17 other Ecuadorian officials were charged and convicted in absentia back in April, on charges of accepting bribes and spending them on political campaigning. The former president’s appeal was dismissed on Monday and he was sentenced to eight year in prison.
Reacting to the verdict on Twitter, Correa said such a decision “was expected” while branding the whole case against him “ridiculous.” He also denounced the court decision as “one of the darkest pages” in Ecuador’s history.
The former president has repeatedly claimed the charges were based on “fraudulent” evidence and were part of a political campaign launched by his opponents to prevent him from running for the presidential office once again. Ecuador is expected to hold both presidential and parliamentary elections next year. Correa’s sentence disqualifies him from running for any public office for 25 years.
Ecuador’s National Electoral Council also suspended several political parties on Sunday, citing some “irregularities” in their registration process. Among them was the Force of Social Commitment (FCS) party that supports Correa. All four parties were given ten days to defend themselves, in a process that could see them losing the right to participate in the next year’s elections.
Correa ran Ecuador from 2007 to 2017, and is known among other things for giving political asylum to WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. He later moved to Belgium and currently hosts a talk show on RT Spanish.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Jul 22, 2020 10:21:50 GMT -5
US puts $5 MILLION bounty on president of Venezuela’s supreme court, accusing him of ‘corruption’
RT.com
21 Jul, 2020 20:10
Washington is offering $5 million for the arrest of the presiding judge of Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice, accusing Maikel Moreno of accepting bribes in criminal cases and of being a “crony” of President Nicolas Maduro.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the bounty on Tuesday, saying that Moreno “used his position of authority for personal gain” and that his designation sends a clear message that the US “stands firmly against corruption.”
Moreno has chaired the court – known by its Spanish initials TSJ – since December 2014. He had already been placed on the US sanctions list in May 2017, over the court’s ruling that allowed Maduro to disband the National Assembly.
The $5-million bounty against Moreno is the latest move in Washington’s campaign to effect regime change in Caracas. The US also placed a $15-million bounty on Maduro in March, accusing the Venezuelan president of conspiring to “flood the United States with cocaine.”
So far, Maduro has managed to thwart every US attempt to overthrow him, including the recognition of opposition politician Juan Guaido as “interim president” in January 2019, an attempted military coup by Guaido supporters four months later, sanctions on oil exports and the seizure of Venezuelan gold and oil assets.
Driven in part by the bounty, a group of militants led by two Americans attempted to infiltrate Venezuela in May and kidnap Maduro, but were themselves taken prisoner by Venezuelan security forces.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 12, 2020 17:24:12 GMT -5
Venezuela wins UK court decision in battle to get its gold back.
RT.com
5 Oct, 2020 13:39
The UK’s appeals court has ruled in favor of President Nicolas Maduro’s government in the battle to repatriate Venezuela’s $1 billion worth of gold held at the Bank of England, reversing an earlier decision.
The UK High Court ruled in favor of opposition politician Juan Guaido earlier this year, saying that London unequivocally recognizes him as “interim president” of the South American nation, rather than President Maduro. The judgment came as the two sides were battling for access to gold reserves stored in the vaults of the Bank of England.
The UK Court of Appeals overturned the previous lower court ruling on Monday, saying that the gold case should be reconsidered. The judges, led by Stephen Males, found that the UK government’s statements on Guaido may not have reflected the reality on the ground. Thus, London’s recognition of Guaido is “ambiguous, or at any rate less than unequivocal,” the judge said in the ruling.
Maduro’s legal team insisted during September hearings that the elected leader was holding power “de facto.”
Venezuela’s central bank, Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV), backed by Maduro, was seeking to release the bullion, saying the country needs funds to battle the coronavirus outbreak, including purchases of necessary medical equipment. The opposition says the funds could be misappropriated and sought to block access for the Maduro government. The British court sided with Guaido after Venezuela sued the Bank of England for withholding its gold, but Caracas won the right to challenge the decision in July.
BCV board solicitor Sarosh Zaiwalla said that the lower court judgment had led to “a completely unrealistic situation.” He earlier stated that the outcome of the case could present “a further threat to the international perception of English institutions as being free from political interference, as well as the Bank of England’s reputation abroad as a safe repository for sovereign assets.”
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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 24, 2020 4:11:58 GMT -5
Good, now get ridd of that imbecile in Brazil too
Bolivia’s official presidential vote count confirms win by socialist Luis Arce, ally of ousted leader Morales.
RT.com
23 Oct, 2020 15:43
Socialist Luis Arce has won the presidential election in Bolivia with 55 percent of the vote, the official count confirmed after all ballots were counted on Friday.
Arce’s leading rival, Carlos Mesa, took just under 29 percent of the vote, meaning the socialist’s tally exceeded the required 20 percentage-point lead for an outright win.
The result also marks a return to the left for Bolivia. The present conservative caretaker government stepped in after Evo Morales, who governed for almost 14 years, was ousted last year.
On Monday, Arce’s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party had already claimed victory in the election held the previous day, and Mesa conceded. Arce served as economy minister during the Morales era and is said to have been handpicked by the former leader, who resigned under pressure last year. However, the president-elect said on Tuesday he saw “no role” in his government for Morales, who still leads MAS from exile in Argentina.
“He will not have any role in our government,” Arce told Reuters. He said that the former leader can return to the country “because he’s Bolivian,” but added that the new president will decide who forms the administration.
The president-elect, who grew up in a middle class La Paz household, oversaw a nationalization program and commodities boom while minister. These policies helped provide funds to lift millions of indigenous Bolivians out of poverty in a period of sustained growth.
However, given the current recession, Arce warned that the government “will have to have austerity measures.”
Speaking on diplomatic ties with the US, which have been severed, Arce said: “If they want to reestablish a relationship with us, the only thing we ask for is that we are respected as equals.”
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Bolivia promises to buy Russian Covid-19 vaccine as new leader pledges to restore relations that ‘deteriorated’ after 2019 coup.
RT.com
26 Oct, 2020 18:42
The newly-elected President of Bolivia Luis Arce has pledged to improve ties with Russia, and plans to order its Covid-19 vaccine once it's ready for sale, saying relations with Moscow 'deteriorated' under the previous government.
In an interview with Moscow's Sputnik news agency, Arce outlined the numerous avenues for partnership with Russia that he wants to open up, including the exchange of technology, gas imports and construction of a new nuclear facility together with state energy corporation Rosatom.
Arce blamed the outgoing interim government for tainting the relationship between the two countries.
"I believe that Bolivia's relations with Russia deteriorated in the past 11 months due to the presence of the de facto government, which came to power thanks to a coup and which did not understand what is really behind the relations of our countries."
Arce said he would like to personally meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin as soon as possible and get the ball rolling on a new partnership.
The new leader also claimed that Bolivia is interested in buying Russia's 'Sputnik-V' coronavirus vaccine once it's mass-produced and available for export.
"I understand that the vaccine is not for sale yet, but I think it has been already discussed that Bolivia has become one of the first countries that could have it," the president said.
Russia became the first country to officially register a Covid-19 vaccine. The creators of Sputnik V, which is currently in its third and final stage of clinical trials, claim over 40 countries expressed their interest in it.
Arce has previously told the Spanish international news agency EFE that he also intends to restore relations with Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and China, adding that the previous government "has acted very ideologically," depriving the Bolivian people of access to medicine and technologies these countries offer.
Bolivia is currently recovering from a year of political turmoil. Incumbent President Evo Morales was declared the winner of last October's elections, but eventually agreed to a rerun and resigned from the post after widespread protests and accusations of fraud by Western observers.
Senior opposition lawmaker Jeanine Anez was declared interim president ahead of a new election, which was delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Arce, who succeeded Morales as leader of the socialist party, won in a landslide with over 55 percent of the vote. He's due to be inaugurated in late November.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Dec 31, 2020 1:41:57 GMT -5
Nicolas Maduro claims Colombia planning new mercenary attacks on Venezuela ‘at the end of this year’ or first days of 2021. RT.com 29 Dec, 2020 14:28 Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has alleged that forces inside Colombia, backed by the President Ivan Duque, are plotting to attack the Venezuelan military in the next couple of days. “Colombia is preparing new attacks against the country's military, with trained mercenaries, with funding from [president] Ivan Duque, preparing attacks at the end of this year or the first days of 2021,” Maduro said in a Monday speech while praising the national armed forces. The president was referencing a May incident, which greatly heightened tensions between Caracas and Bogota. Then, the Venezuelan military engaged a squad of armed individuals who were trying to infiltrate the country, killing several of them and capturing over a dozen, including two former US Green Berets. The group also apparently had connections to local anti-government cells, which had provided them with vehicles and supplies. The Venezuelan government pinned the blame for the failed incursion on Colombia and the US, with Maduro claiming that the group's objective was “to kill the president of Venezuela.” Both Bogota and Washington denied these accusations, dismissing them as “unfounded.” The contentious incident itself came around a year after a failed military coup attempt led by the Venezuelan opposition headed by Juan Guaido, who was openly supported by the US and some of its allies. |
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