Maduro dictatorship blocks US aid to starving Venezuelans

American Thinker ^ | 02/06/2019 | Monica Showalter

[SeekAndFind]

I had planned to write about the strikingly impressive strategy of the U.S. and its allies to send large shipments of aid to starving Venezuelans instead of Marines, all in a bid to persuade Venezuela's military to finally come over to support President Juan Guaidó and effectively boot the detested socialist dictatorship.  The idea was to get the Venezuelan military to allow U.S. and other neighborly aid shipments through to help the starving people, which would in fact require defying the Maduro dictatorship.

We have an answer, at least for the moment: they aren't.

Here's a report from AFP:

Venezuelan military officers blocked a bridge on the border with Colombia ahead of an anticipated humanitarian aid shipment, as opposition leader Juan Guaido stepped up his challenge to President Nicolas Maduro's authority.

Earlier Tuesday the opposition-dominated National Assembly had warned the armed forces, which make up much of Maduro's power base, not to cross a 'red line' by blocking aid.

Guaido, who proclaimed himself acting president on January 23 – sparking an international crisis – claims that up to 300,000 people face death if the aid is not delivered.

'You know there's a red line, you know well there's a limit, you know that medicines, food and medical supplies are that limit,' lawmaker Miguel Pizarro said in a message to the military.

Maduro, though, said humanitarian aid would be the forerunner of a US-led invasion, insisting that 'no one will enter, not one invading soldier.'

Venezuelan military officers used a tanker truck and huge shipping container to block access to the Tienditas bridge, which links Cucuta, Colombia to Urena, Venezuela.

See it on Twitter:

[SeekAndFind]

The Bolivarian National Guard have blocked the Puente Binacional Tienditas bridge between Venezuela and Colombia. This is the bridge that Colombia planned to send aid into Venezuela over. A Water Tank has been placed across the bridge #Venezuela #Colombia pic.twitter.com/lpV9MVZlCO— CNW (@ConflictsW) February 5, 2019

The dictatorship's military leadership has actually blockaded entry of aid – of which the U.S. is sending a gargantuan shipload, with other nations pitching in as well.  Canada, for instance, has pledged $53 million.  It's strange stuff, given that many dictatorships keep themselves afloat through the vehicle of aid.  Maduro sees a threat to his own power and has justified his disgusting move by claiming that Venezuela is not a "country of beggars," a false statement if there ever was one, given the presence of Venezuelan beggars in every large city of Latin America.  It's fine with Maduro that it's a nation of starvers.

[blueunicorn6]

Give a Venezuelan a fish and he eats for a day.

Give a Venezuelan an automatic rifle and he can kill the communist thugs starving his family and his country.

[lgjhn23]

Typical vindictive democrat...er, I mean, communist.

[lurk]

Keeping the people hungry. What could go wrong?

[stompk]

we need to air-dop some of those little liberator .45’s like we did in France in WWII.