Posted on 05/01/2019 6:12:49 AM PDT by Red Badger
enezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was prepared to leave the country Tuesday and seek asylum in Cuba but was stopped by Russia, U.S. officials said.
“We’ve watched throughout the day, it’s been a long time since anyone’s seen Maduro,” Pompeo told CNN. “He had an airplane on the tarmac, he was ready to leave this morning as we understand it and the Russians indicated he should stay.”
Pompeo said Maduro had been planning to travel to Havana.
Asked if Maduro would have been allowed to safely depart for Cuba, Pompeo dodged the question.
“Mr. Maduro understands what will happen if he gets on that airplane. … He knows our expectations,” he said.
Maduro hasn’t made a public appearance since his rival, interim President Juan Guaidó, called on Venezuelans early Tuesday to take to the streets and oust the 57-year-old leader.
Venezuela and Cuba have been staunch allies, and the U.S. has accused the communist island of propping up Maduro.
“Mr. Maduro understands what will happen if he gets on that airplane. … He knows our expectations,” he said.
Why would Maduro listen to the Russians if he thought his time was up?
Muammar Gaddafi Therapy..................
Don’t forget that we were practically the only ones embargoing Cuba and it’s products, mainly sugar, tobacco products and such.
They had a thriving tourist industry without us. Canadians, Europeans, and Asians could come and go as they pleased to Cuba, leaving their tourist dollars there when they left.................
“Why would Maduro listen to the Russians if he thought his time was up?”
I’m not exactly a fan of all of these foreign entangements that we’ve been in for the last 75 years. But Cuba & Nicaragua have supported terrorism and Communism around the globe (mainly in Central/South America and Africa) for as long as they’ve been around - obviously with Soviet/Russian help - and if they get a foothold in extremely mineral-rich Venezuela, that’s going to be big trouble for us. Look for them to specifically target Mexico next, just because it will completely screw us over if there is massive civil unrest there (it is bad enough now, when they’re just a generic Turd World shithole).
We have a situation where the Russians (primarily) and the Chinese are very committed to establishing a foothold in this hemisphere, one with enormous potential financial resources that won’t go away any time soon. You may not agree, but I think that we have to contribute to getting those two obviously hostile powers out of this hemisphere. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t disengage from a lot of stuff going on near their nations (we probably should), or that we shouldn’t persuade/incentivize nations near Venezuela (principally Brazil and Columbia) to do the lion’s share of the work (we should). But to do nothing would, IMHO, be very foolish.
That influx is rock-solid guaranteed if the US intervenes. Venezuela is not our fight.
Of course, you are entitled to your own opinions, but I do not agree with you that Trump, Pompeo and Bolton WANT to start a “futile war” in Venezuela. Or agree with you that the Russians have “clean hands” in the human catastrophe there, that has created millions of refugees.
Since you seem to disapprove of the current actions being taken by the White House, I wonder what YOUR plan to end the suffering of the Venezuelan people would be:
1. Send Maduro a “strongly-worded” note of disapproval?
2. Cancel Maduro’s invitation to attend America’s July 4 Celebration?
3. Draw a joke “Red Line”, that Cuban and Russian soldiers would not be “permitted” to cross — as Obama did in Syria?
4. Nuke ‘em?
5. Something else?
If you have a good idea, please share it!
If Venezuela falls, there will be void to fill. Why do we care? Because we don't want that void to be filled with bad players who will take over and cause more havoc in the region.
Venezuela used to be an oil-rich nation with a high standard of living. It has been brought to its knees by the forces of Chavez and Maduro. They have taken gold and made it into dirt.
We will want some say in who fills the void so we don't have to deal with an enemy who will cause more disruption and chaos to not only Venezuela's future, but to the countries around it in the Western Hemisphere.
Not to speak of the Venezuelan people who have seen their once thriving nation destroyed before their very eyes by socialists and communists.
If your neighborhood was disrupted by bad people who moved into a house and dealt drugs and committed crimes and brought a blight to your once placid home, you'd want to do the same.
That is why we should care.
True or not it makes his supporters think ,LOL
“Gotta love it when the Secretary of State is a former CIA Director”.
Excellent point.
Diplomatic or economic pressure, sure... but military -- no way.
“Screw Venezuela. Let it go up in flames. Why do we care? It’s not a threat to the US.
I’m tired of butting in when it’s none of our business. If it becomes a risk to the US, then we go in and level the place, full on. No holds barred. Until then, this is yet another civil war.”
As for it not being a threat to us - yeah, I don’t see Venezuelan mechanized divisions ready to invade Texas. But it isn’t them I’m worried about, nor what happens next week. I’m worried about the Russian, Chinese and Cuban interest in the place (really, in its oil) - because THEY are a threat. Plus, Venezuela could be turned into another Cuba in the sense of sending soldiers all over the place to fight for their and the Russians’ interests (it should be noted that Cuba has about 11 million people, and Venezuela nearly 32 million - so they can muster far more troops and cause far more trouble).
It is one thing to avoid getting involved in every conflict in every corner of the world (we SHOULD avoid that). But this one is different - it is near our backyard, and it involves hostile foreign powers and a very big player in a key economic commodity (perhaps THE key such commodity), so it IS different than some random shithole 5,000 miles away.
America has to set well-formed outcomes. If we want a free and rational world, that is not a danger to us, we have to control what we can do - what lies within our area of control. To wait for others to do what we want them to do dis-empowers us.
It’s easy to forget the Venezuelans chose socialism. It was theirs to enter and, if they choose to do so, it’s theirs to exit. If we intervene militarily, we face a certainty of hundreds of thousands of hostile Chavistas joining the already untenable numbers of other Central Americans accessing this country.
We should’ve learned from the debacle in Iraq that what looks like early success can, without nearly flawless execution, morph into an intractable quagmire in short order. What should NEVER be overlooked is the fact that, while many Venezuelans disapprove of Maduro at present, what will unite that country is opposition to a hostile foreign power launching a military intervention. We would pay a very steep price for a military adventure in Venezuela.
The delay is the Russians did not have enough time to get the country’s gold reserve on the plane with him
Venezuela is ruled by an iron-fisted dictator. It's naive to think that the Venezuelan people had any say in what's happened to their country.
They may have voted but Chavez and Maduro both, claimed election victories with 100% of the votes. It's called democRATic socialism. You get to vote for your dictator. Sound familiar?
They are striving now to overthrow the Maduro regime by force. Apparently the ballot box didn't work.
We’ll see how intense this attempt to overthrow Maduro really is in the coming days. And no, the voting results weren’t 100% for Chavez and Maduro. Until proven otherwise, the Venezuelans have shown they are in favor of socialism... they just don’t like Maduro right now.
After the mess in Iraq and the ongoing one in Afghanistan, we need to be very prudent with the use of the military instrument. And this time, there needs to be support from Congress.
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