On 13 Mar 2022, Lefty Lundquist <
lefty_l...@ggmail.com> posted some
news:t0l4c6$3b7$
4...@dont-email.me:
> The USA is on the way to losing the freedoms of their forefathers.
> Thanks to progressive liberals.
Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro declared on Thursday that the deal
signed between his socialist regime and the Venezuelan “opposition” to
hold a “free and fair” 2024 presidential election was “mortally
wounded,” implying the cancellation of the election.
The agreements, signed in Barbados in October through the mediation of
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, committed Maduro to taking steps
towards holding a “free and fair” presidential election in the second
half of 2024. Some of the steps included the lifting of bans on
opposition politicians from running for office — including a ban on
María Corina Machado, Maduro’s presumptive rival in the hypothetical
electoral event. Maduro never lifted the ban and never fixed a date for
the election at the time he declared the plan dead.
In exchange for the apparently defunct promise of elections, the
administration of leftist President Joe Biden awarded the rogue
socialist regime a generous oil and gas sanctions relief package that is
presently allowing the state-owned PDVSA oil company to once again
freely sell Venezuelan oil and gas in the U.S. and international
markets.
The sanctions relief package granted by President Joe Biden lifted
sanctions imposed on PDVSA in 2019 during the administration of former
President Donald Trump, who sanctioned the state oil company in response
to myriad human rights violations by the socialist regime against its
own people.
“Today, the Barbados agreements are mortally wounded. I declare them in
intensive care, they were stabbed, they were kicked,” Maduro said during
an official event. Maduro, despite never showing any signs of respecting
his commitments, claimed that he hoped the agreements could be saved and
that both sides could “push, through dialogue, great agreements of real
national consensus, face to face, without hidden cards, without macabre
plans.”
Maduro’s statements followed the launch of a crackdown on dissidents
this week labeled “Bolivarian Fury,” an alleged response to the
purported discovery of “foreign conspiracy plots” to kill Maduro and
generate “violent and seditious actions” against the ruling socialist
regime.
The first hours of the “Bolivarian Fury” crackdown saw the kidnapping of
three of Machado’s campaign administrators, as well as attacks on the
local headquarters of Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, in at least ten
of the nation’s states. Other political parties and civil organizations
also reported vandalization.
Vente Venezuela released a statement on Thursday asking U.S. authorities
to address the situation, given their involvement in the collapsing
election deal.
“While the U.S. government makes concessions to the regime, such as the
suspension of some sanctions, there are serious human rights violations
in Venezuela, such as the arbitrary detention and forced disappearance
of several Venezuelan regional leaders,” the statement read.
Machado appealed her ban to the nation’s socialist-controlled courts in
December, but the courts are yet to issue a ruling. She thus presently
remains banned from running in this year’s “free and fair” election and
the Maduro regime has openly expressed its intention to uphold the ban.
Jorge Rodríguez, the head of the Venezuelan National Assembly,
vehemently asserted during Thursday’s parliamentary session that “there
is no way” that Machado will be a candidate for any Venezuelan election.
Rodríguez condemned Machado for proposing the creation of peace units to
crackdown on Venezuela’s organized crime groups and establish order in
the country.
Rodríguez, who led the regime’s delegation during the Barbados
negotiations, claimed that Machado’s proposal was actually a plan to
exterminate Chavistas.
“This lady was told that she had to wash her face a little, Machado had
to tone it down a little. They forgot to tell them to delete the
tweets,” Rodríguez said, referring to posts on Twitter in which she made
those claims. Rodríguez then claimed there would be elections in
Venezuela regardless of the agreements, but Maduro would win them.
Rodríguez also accused Machado of allegedly being involved in plans for
the “assassination of all Chavista leaders” and regime sympathizers.
“She didn’t even have the foresight to delete her posts, formerly called
tweets, and I got what she calls her government program for the first
few days after they exterminate us,” he said.
Rodríguez did not publicly offer any evidence that sustained all of his
accusations against Machado.
At a later press conference, Rodríguez “swore” on his children that
there will “never again” be free and fair elections, claiming that the
“opposition” intends to “exterminate” democracy and “hand over” the
country’s resources to foreign countries.
“Free and fair elections? Only for them, for the cursed caste of the
surnames [referring to establishment “opposition” figureheads]. On my
children, I swear, never again, because we know what you [Machado] are
coming to,” he said. “When you talk about free and fair elections,
include the people. They have the right to have the sanctions you asked
for lifted.”
Polls released in November suggest that Machado, in an actual free and
fair presidential election, would easily defeat Maduro, sweeping roughly
70 percent of the votes.
In an interview with the Colombian news channel NTN24, Brian Nichols,
Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, described the
ongoing situation in Venezuela as “extremely worrisome,” nothing that
the United States is “not seeing progress towards a competitive election
in Venezuela.”
“It is an extremely difficult moment. It is harassment from officials of
Vente Venezuela and other opposition parties, from campaign headquarters
in different states. It is extremely worrisome,” Nichols said.
Nichols assured that if the agreements signed on Barbados do not
materialize, then the United States is studying the possibility of
reversing the sanctions relief package granted to the Maduro regime.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under
socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
https://www.breitbart.com/latin-america/2024/01/26/another-biden-diplomac
y-fail-venezuela-kills-presidential-election-after-clinching-sanctions-re
lief/