Likely sabotage of VZ hydroelectric power plant
‘Venezuela blames sabotage & ‘US electricity war’ after major power outage’, RT.com, 8 Mar, 2019
“Thousands of commuters in Caracas had to walk home as a power outage shut down the capital’s subway, resulting in massive traffic jams.The lights also went out in the largest airport of Caracas.
The outage was caused by “deliberate sabotage” at the Guri hydroelectric power plant, which provides most of the country’s energy, local media reported.
The presumed saboteurs are likely linked to the US-backed opposition, Venezuela’s electric energy minister, Luis Motta Dominguez, claimed on national TV.
The minister pointed out that US Senator Marco Rubio, who is leading a fierce campaign to oust Maduro, tweeted about the outage just minutes after the emergency occurred.”
‘Venezuelan VP: Marco Rubio Behind Nation-Wide Blackout Sabotage’, telesurenglish.net, March 8, 2019
“Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez announced late Thursday that President Nicolas Maduro ordered schools and offices be shut on Friday in order to speed up the repairs of the Venezuelan electric system, which was attacked by far-right groups Thursday afternoon.
In a press conference, the Vice President denounced that Venezuela’s blackout was caused by far-right groups encouraged by U.S. politicians. Among these, she referred to Marco Rubio, a Republican Senator from Florida hostile to the Venezuelan government, who posted a tweet just 3 minutes after the blackout began.
“We want to send a message to the international community: just three minutes after the attack, Marco Rubio, once again, as a crime reporter, reported on the event that was happening in our country,” Rodriguez said and added “Mr. Rubio, I want to inform you that, in a few hours, the Venezuelan people and the international community will know the truth. We’ll know that your rotten hands – supported by your lackeys who permanently attack the Venezuelan people – are involved in this event.”
One might be tempted to pass this off as Paranoid Conspiracy Theory, but given the backstory, I won’t call it that.
First, the opposition’s initial ‘Deadline: Feb. 23’ coup was to be ‘failure to let the (Trojan Horse) ‘humanitarian aid’ convoys into the ‘starving and dying’ citizens of VZ. #Fizzle, because the military and police stood strong.
Next gambit was Gauido’s return to a Caracas airport from his eleven-day tour to LIMA nations to drum up support for a military intervention. He was met at the airport by ambassadors from Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and several other countries which gathered at the arrival gate to huddle around him like a high-profile human shield. Pompeo, et.al. had warned that if Maduro interfered (arrested, we assume) with Guaido in any way: there would be consequences. The Maduro government ignored Guadio. #Fizzle.
Guaido was welcomed by rallies in his honor, and the next day he’d claimed that the result of his meetings with trade union bureaucrats was that they’d agreed to massive worker strikes in the near future, no dates specified.
Although: Two days later the VZ government had declared German ambassador Daniel Kriener persona non grata over what it called “interference into its internal affairs”.
On March 7 wsws.org had reported on a bloomberg news article claiming that:
“An armed force of some 200 Venezuelan military defectors and mercenaries was mobilized on Venezuela’s border with Colombia last month in a bid to force through Washington’s Trojan Horse “humanitarian aid” convoy organized with the aim of fomenting a military coup against President Nicolas Maduro and a potential civil war in the South American country, and that this armed provocation was stopped at the last minute by the Colombian government, which feared that a violent clash on its border with Venezuela could escalate into a military confrontation between the two countries.”
“The report indicated that the armed contingent assembled on Colombian soil was led by retired Gen. Cliver Alcala, a dubious figure who went into exile in Colombia after denouncing the Maduro government. A confidante of the late President Hugo Chavez, who participated in his abortive 1992 military coup in Venezuela, Alcala was one of the first senior Venezuelan military officers to be sanctioned by the US government in 2011, accused of organizing trade in guns and drugs with the Colombian FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas.”
The power outage and the devastation hurting ordinary Venezuelans is not because of the USA. It’s not because of Colombia. It’s not Ecuador or Brazil, Europe or anywhere else. Power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regime’s incompetence.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) March 8, 2019
@SecPompeo /SecPompeo ”Maduro’s policies bring nothing but darkness.”
@SecPompeo “No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro.”
#MaduroCrimeFamily stole all the money they should have invested in maintaining the power grid. Now #Venezuela is on its 14th hour of a nationwide blackout.
God help the babies in incubators & dialysis patients & others for whom this is life threatening.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 8, 2019
Marco Rubio at his most clever.
Note: March 7 More armed troops at the border?
The U.S. today is airlifting more humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, to help the people of #Venezuela. In cooperation w/ @USAID & @StateDept, a @USAirForce C-130 aircraft is flying the supplies from @Homestead_ARB in Florida to #Colombia. #EstamosUnidosVE @theOFDA pic.twitter.com/zdavnc6dp4
— U.S.
Southern Command (@Southcom) March 7, 2019
(cross-posted from Café Babylon)
Comments
Same happened to Allende a month before coup
Blackout Interrupts Address by Allende
same shit, different
half century. thanks, amigo. loved this:
all of it was a CIA-sponsored coup d'etat, of course. 'allende shot himself w/ a rifle, the investigations ruled'. did you ever read Isabelle Allende's 'The House of Spirits'? first magical realism i'd ever read, i think.
Deja vu all over again.
Also sounds like the same games plan our PTB used to put the shah of iran into power and act we're still getting blowback from.
a couple of additions:
first, from the guardian, as even-handed as ever:
'Venezuela: 'country has stopped' as blackout drags into second day, Delcy Rodríguez said schools were closed and workers should stay home after ‘technological attack’ on Guri hydroelectric plant
'potentially destabilizing blackout'; 'children attached to ventilators: how are they faring', dragging in video of kids dying under hugo chavez; 'whole swathes of the nation still without power', and as to rodriquez's charging rubio:
‘Venezuelans Go About Their Day as Power Gradually Restored’, telesur english
dunno if that were just in miranda or not, but contra the hype, one would think most hospitals would have plenty of diesel for back-up generators, or could easily get it. the report lists different states and sections where power has been restored, not that social media loyal to maduro might not be putting a happy face on it all.
Yes, I thought back up
power was fairly standard for hospitals.
That said, what a lucky, lucky coincidence for the people supporting the coup!
dfarrah
indeed.
kinda wish i knew what a portable electrical plant is, though. ; )
at least they're all singing
in the same choir:
I thought the US
had already seized as many Venezuelan assets in banks as it could.
So, gee, why doesn't the US release those funds for the power system repair?
dfarrah
and ya hadn't even
included a snark tag on your Q, you devil!
well, the bank of england won't give over a billion in gold back to 'the maudro regime', and the 'regime's' confiscated assets are said to be in escrow or some such for He Who'd Crowned Himself Randomguydo (h/t b A Moon of alabama).
iirc, RT had reported (check that; here it is: 'VZ to move state oil firm PDVSA office from Lisbon to Moscow', march 1, reuters...and the explanation about protecting its assests, but this as well:
"Lavrov told the same news conference that Russia had sent a first shipment of medical aid to Venezuela and that Moscow was also helping Venezuela with supplies of wheat.
Russia has supplied 64,100 tonnes of wheat to Venezuela so far in the 2018/19 marketing season, data from Russia’s SovEcon agriculture consultancy showed on Feb. 18.
Russia has accused the United States of trying to engineer an illegal coup to topple Maduro and the prospect of his being ousted is a geopolitical and economic headache for Moscow."
why aren't 'they' feeding the poor in this country?
we have starving homeless people here
will save on shipping costs
to supply that aid
humanitarian
local
lol. because:
USAID = CIA, as does NED, the national endowment for democracy' (see philip agee)
homeless and hungry in amerika: let them eat out of dumpsters! oh, wait: most cities have laws against dumpster-diving, esp. outside grocery stores! in some cities, even Feeding the Homeless on the streets is illegal. okay is: christian soup kitchens where you have to pray with them before receiving the soup.
thanks for commenting, QMS; i swear i've been in some despair over my having been hoggging the comments again.
guess we'll see what happens tomorrow in colombia with the 'new' USAID flown in.
well that explains it
if it is illegal to be poor in the home of the free
then the rest of the world's poor has to be also punished
equality except for the elites
thanks for the george h good song
welcome,
and sweet dreams if you can, QMS.
yes, but i should have brought
more than the 'philip agee' hyperlink, but named the title, too: 'Former CIA agent tells: How US infiltrates "civil society" to overthrow governments'
i was glad to have found it; most of his exposés are on youtube, 2 L 2 watch for me.
Really, not to
mention the aid we could give to prevent migration.
dfarrah
closing time for me;
it seems silly not to, as there's such scant interest in this next step in the coup against maduro's veneuela.
tonight's lullaby just has to be george harrison's (RIPower, amigo) 'beware of darkness'.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPuFDaPC5XM]
but the zapatista 'little schools for chaiapas' came in entitled '"Take care of that little light that we gave you. Don’t let it go out."
dunno if the newsletter will show; if not, i'll try something else tomorrow. sleep well, dream well, or at least instructively if you can.
on edit: oh, bother, it didn't work; this will have to do.
http://schoolsforchiapas.org/
g' night.
Why no regime change here?
I lived there when this happened and during California's brutal summer heat. Babies are being born in Fallujah with hideous birth defects from depleted uranium. Now there's some irony for ya. We supposedly went into Iraq because they had WMDs, found none, but then used our own.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
dah. i was about to answer:
well, the two wars on iraq *were* about regime change; but you lived there? but now i see you meant in amerika.
ah, yes. turn the desert to glass with depleted uranium: the gift that keeps on giving for generations... remember that the doctors began begging women not to conceive once so many new babbies had been born with so many defects and childhood cancers? so many of the photos of would burn into one's brain, no? goddam, just scanning this years later brings thought crimes to my mind. it includes a ink to 2010: women warned not to have babbies.
Oh, you Masters of War…
You’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain’t worth the blood
That runs in your veins.
~ Bob Dylan
made me cry again. but damn, a lot of folks did some great exposés on it.
morning additions:
‘Back to square one? Washington now says ‘no timeline’ for regime change in Venezuela (VIDEO)’, RT.com, 9 Mar, 2019
“Not only has the US failed to deliver its “humanitarian aid” to Venezuela, but Washington’s allies have unanimously ruled out military action.”
[Sure, that’s what they say publicly, even Dark Heart Bolsonaro.]
...what RT’s Igor Zhdanov described as a “thinly veiled admission of failure.” Washington still contends that “all options are on the table” – but how many options are left? Watch the full report below.”
Well, plenty of options are left....
i'd gotten on jill stein's twit account to see if she knew if the greens were running a candidate for prez, and was glad to see her all over the coup plans in VZ. this is what i believe, as well (the bloomberg claims):
@DrJillStein · Mar 6 :An attack on Venezuela's border to force in US "aid" was aborted at the last minute - but the plan reveals a real danger that Elliott Abrams may be plotting a new Contra war to terrorize #Venezuela like he terrorized Central America. #HandsOffVenezuela
this is fascinatingly hideous and sure does ballast the intention fucking of the guri hydro
dam:
from the exposé above:
Elliott Abrams.
How does one who personifies pure evil come to be?
dfarrah
even though yours is a
rhetorical Q, and would require a hella lot of philosophical and psycho-spiritual possibilities, this is by way of hannah arendt's 'banality of evil':
a line from a film from a book i'd heard recently (cannae remember which author), but: "I'm not an evil man, just a practical one."
i'm not sold, but then i support swiss psychologist alice miller's (mostly) Male authoritarian formula, and this is shorthand:
Humiliations, spankings and beatings, slaps in the face, betrayal, sexual exploitation, derision, neglect, etc. are all forms of mistreatment, because they injure the integrity and dignity of a child, even if their consequences are not visible right away. However, as adults, most abused children will suffer, and let others suffer, from these injuries. This dynamic of violence can deform some victims into hangmen who take revenge even on whole nations and become willing executors to dictators as unutterably appalling as Hitler and other cruel leaders. Beaten children very early on assimilate the violence they endured, which they may glorify and apply later as parents, in believing that they deserved the punishment and were beaten out of love. They don’t know that the only reason for the punishments they have ( or in retrospect, had) to endure is the fact that their parents themselves endured and learned violence without being able to question it. Later, the adults, once abused children, beat their own children and often feel grateful to their parents who mistreated them when they were small and defenseless.
This is why society’s ignorance remains so immovable and parents continue to produce severe pain and destructivity – in all “good will”, in every generation. Most people tolerate this blindly because the origins of human violence in childhood have been and are still being ignored worldwide. Almost all small children are smacked during the first three years of life when they begin to walk and to touch objects which may not be touched. This happens at exactly the time when the human brain builds up its structure and should thus learn kindness, truthfulness, and love but never, never cruelty and lies. Fortunately, there are many mistreated children who find “helping witnesses” and can feel loved by them."
while it's a new and widely misunderstood theory, babies who'd failed to bond (attach) to a primary care-giver, exhibit sort of 'conscience-free' lives. dunno what abram's early life was like, do we?
but in a contest of 'evil ones' i dunno how full a field that might be, or if he'd even win the #1 spot.
Of course it is deliberate sabotage. Which makes it terrorism.
No doubt when it is connected back to Marco Rubio loyalists he will be sent straight to prison like Chelsea Manning...NOT.
Right wingers are such amoral hypocrites.
i agree, glad you do, 2
twine it all w/ the back-story history, rubio's 'in the blink of an eye the countries (sic) entire aluminum production capacity was destroyed by the blackout'...talk about dancing on one's grave (they hope), *and* the immunities act passed as per venezuelanalyis oppo in 2016 above...
on edit: reminds one of 'making the economy scream' in chile, kissinger, nixont, and aided by the Chicago Boys shock doctrine economists, milton friedman @ co. 'privatize everything again; austerity needs must to pay back loans!'
nope, washington, we don't believe you've given up any regime change timeline what.so.ev.er. just tryin' to lull folks in a false sense of complacency?
but you've reminded me...hasn't there been a move to try guaido/guido (h/t pompeo) and his troika of evil at the hague for crimes against humanity? iirc, VZ fore reign minister went to the UN human rights commission last week.
aha: more klews from mini-guaido:
@marcorubio · 2h2 hours ago "Overnight police disrupted efforts to set up stage for @jguaido rally today. Now large police presence at site of planned rallies this morning.
The opposition to #MaduroRegime isn’t going to fade away. Freedom will come to #Venezuela"
oopsie; don't you mean #Democracy will come...?
sigh.
‘Cyberattacks & insider sabotage’: Venezuela’s power grid still under attack – Maduro’, RT.com, just now
now here's telesur english's version (in part):
closing time for me.
g'night, i hope your sleep is restorative. tonight's lullaby is santana & everlast:
Cause there's a monster
Living under my bed
Whispering in my ear
There's an angel
With a hand on my head
She say I've got nothing to fear
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCBS5EtszYI]
irony abounds.
including the rubbish 'protestors set it alive accidentally'...
we'll take your word for it, marco:
telesur english, after the third cyber attack on the guri hydroelectric plant:
"The automated control system of the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant, which is popularly known as El Guri, was attacked. Inside this high-tech power plant, three of five backup generators were electronically sabotaged, Jorge Rodriguez, vice president of communication, tourism and culture revealed Thursday in a statement.
On Friday, Rodriguez clarified that the circulating reports that 79 people died in hospitals because of the electrical failure were "false."
"They didn’t know we had a generator system set up to prevent from happening everything they are saying has happened,” Rodriguez said to the press."
in case you want more...
b a MoA apparently put up this yesterday: ‘Venezuela - Three Total Blackouts In Three Days - Government Presumes U.S. Cyberattack’. he has a nice photo of the guria dam and power plants.
i'm too tired to comb thru it. been gettin' my 1961 singer sewing machine out if its cabinet ready to go to the hospital. the bobbin winder's broken, and i've been having to wind them by hand to mend all the things that need mending. they want $160 just to look at it... bah.
here's a weird one:
from telesurenglish.net today:
The fake report made on counterfeit Hotel Eurobuilding Caracas letterhead claiming crew members of Air Europa were attacked on their way to the Caracas hotel."
not strange, just par for the course: WaPo always drinks the Oppo Koolaid:
U.S. Southern Command Retweeted
from stephen lendman: