The stunning audacity of Yemen’s drone strike on Tel Aviv

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The stunning audacity of Yemen’s drone strike on Tel Aviv

Yemen’s unprecedented drone strike on Israel’s economic powerhouse has further shattered the occupation state’s perceived invulnerability. Moreover, it announced the launch of Ansarallah’s fifth phase of war: ‘Target Tel Aviv.’

JUL 24, 2024

On 19 July, a low-altitude drone breached Tel Aviv airspace from the sea and detonated, causing one fatality and injuring ten others.

The incident sent shockwaves through the occupation state, with a panicked populace and bewildered policymakers grappling with the Israeli army’s “mega-failure” to intercept a single drone amid prolonged aggression against Gaza and the mounting tensions with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The attack’s impact was magnified by its direct hit on Tel Aviv, the heart of Israel’s governmental and economic power, starkly exposing inadequacies in its defense strategies and further alarming a population that has for months been questioning the effectiveness of its military preparedness.

It wasn’t long before the de facto Yemeni authorities in Sanaa claimed responsibility for the attack, calling the strike a retaliation for Israeli massacres and threatening more to come.

But how did a Yemeni drone reach the heart of Israel’s most fortified region and strike a blow to Israeli military pride?

Tactical evolution of suicide drones

Suicide drones, as they are known, are a relatively modern weapon, posing significant challenges even for technologically advanced states like the US and Israel. These drones vary in range, warhead size, speed, and guidance methods.

Analysis of the wreckage revealed that the “Yaffa” drone, an enhanced version of Yemen’s Sammad drones, was employed in the operation. The name is deeply symbolic as it references the ancient port city of Jaffa, also known as Yaffa in Arabic, which now forms part of modern-day Tel Aviv.

Its rectangular wing shape and V-shaped tail distinguish it, but it is notably the more powerful 275 cc (16 kW) engine that sets it apart. This engine enables the drone to cover distances exceeding 2000 kilometers – sufficient to reach Tel Aviv from Yemen.

Unlike with ballistic missiles, the difficulty in tracking drones lies in their ability to take unconventional paths, maneuver through winding routes, and hide behind terrain features, making them hard to detect by radar systems.

This detection challenge is a daily issue in northern occupied Palestine, where drones operated by Lebanese resistance groups often go unseen by the increasingly blinded occupation army.

Moreover, drones are typically constructed from lightweight materials such as fiberglass, carbon fiber, or various reinforced plastics that do not reflect radar waves effectively, which is crucial for detection and tracking.

Their low speeds reduce the need for the metallic compositions necessary in constructing conventional military hardware like missiles and fighter jets. Consequently, drones can be mistaken for birds by radar systems. This confusion has occurred regularly in northern occupied Palestine since the war’s onset, with Israel’s Iron Dome defense system spotted expending its limited supply of $50,000 projectiles shooting at birds during this conflict.

Yaffa’s route to Tel Aviv

The suicide drone likely took an unconventional path to evade detection. Previous Yemeni attempts have been intercepted in Egyptian Sinai airspace, with Israeli-allied Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt contributing to these detection and interception efforts.

On the night of the attack, however, no US aircraft carrier groups were in the Red Sea, and the nearest carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was positioned in the Indian Ocean. Israel’s air force has suggested that the drone may have taken a non-traditional route via Eritrea, Sudan, and Egypt, crossing near the Suez Canal before entering the Mediterranean and turning east toward Tel Aviv.

Some aspects of that route seem unlikely: the Suez Canal area is heavily patrolled by Egyptian air defense, with its 8th Brigade stationed there, so the Israeli announcement may have been an attempt to pressure Egypt.

Israel’s response: Bombing Hodeidah

On 20 July, Israeli aircraft launched punishing airstrikes on the besieged Yemeni port of Hodeidah, specifically targeting areas designated for fuel and oil storage, as well as destroying port cranes used for loading and unloading cargo and a power station.

But these were civilian targets in a country already suffering from the effects of the Saudi-led coalition blockade, which has caused severe shortages of fuel and essential resources needed for power generation and transportation.

The strike at these particular target banks, which killed at least six and wounded dozens of others, appears to be primarily aimed at creating significant explosions and large fires to help Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu score points at home.

But the Israeli response against civilian targets also reveals that Tel Aviv suffers from a dearth of intelligence on potential Yemeni military targets. It was also evident that the selected targets were ones that Saudi Arabia and the US have refrained from striking due to fears of Yemeni retaliation, which could strike Saudi commercial ports or oil exports in one of the world’s most vital energy passages.

Indeed, Riyadh was quick to deny any involvement in the assault, fearing reprisals from Sanaa, although reports that Israeli jets used Saudi airspace for this attack suggest otherwise.

Video footage shows that Israel used F-35 and F-15 fighter jets, as well as Boeing 707 tanker aircraft, due to the distance involved – a range exceeding 4,000 kilometers round trip. Israeli-released footage suggests that the strikes were carried out using Spice guided missiles launched from outside the Yemeni air defense range.

Some of these missiles are equipped with boosters that extend their range up to 150 kilometers, which only showcased Israeli operational limitations against Yemen in a broader conflict, in which Sanaa’s air defenses will be surely activated against enemy aircraft, drones, and projectiles.

Yemen’s retaliation

Yemeni officials, led by Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi and Yemeni Armed Forces Spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree, quickly announced a decision to launch retaliatory strikes against Israel, in which they declared Tel Aviv to be an “unsafe zone” and warned of Yemen’s readiness for a “long war” against the occupation state.

Given the targeting of vital civilian infrastructure, this places several Israeli targets on the list of potential Yemeni target banks. These include fuel tanks in Haifa, clearly shown in video footage taken by a Hezbollah drone weeks ago, as well as fuel tanks in Ashkelon and the power stations adjacent to these tanks.

What concerns Israelis the most, however, is Yemen’s potential targeting of vital gas platforms in the Mediterranean Sea, stationary targets highly susceptible to significant ignition and explosion. While there are currently only three active Israeli gas fields – Karish, Tamar, and Leviathan – in operation, these fields have become essential to Israel’s energy independence.

Underestimating Sanaa’s resolve

The damaging Israeli strike on Hodeidah Port was based on an assumption by Tel Aviv that it would deter a Yemeni counterstrike. But Yemen’s Ansarallah Movement, which has endured years of punishing Saudi, Emirati – and now US and UK – military attacks, has shown no inclination whatsoever to halt its operations in support of Gaza.

While the Israelis may have felt an obligation for a quick military fix by striking Hodeidah – the port, incidentally, has already reopened for business – it comes at the expense of any logical assessments of losses and gains. Already facing strategic defeat in Gaza and unable to follow through with its threats against Lebanon, Tel Aviv has cracked open a new front with Yemen, the most fearless component of West Asia’s Axis of Resistance.

The Israelis are between a rock and a hard place, desperately trying to cleave to old narratives of regional military superiority to keep domestic faith in the Zionist project, yet unable to score victories anywhere.

Based on Yemen’s oft-declared resolve not to retreat from any escalation, it is expected that the outcome of the Hodeidah strike will lead to a compounded retaliatory operation against the occupation state. Israel, however, has limited operational freedom due to issues related to geographic distance – such as the airspace and uninterrupted refueling access required – which makes waging war against Yemen a nonstarter.

Harsher strikes on critical Israeli centers are likely to drive Israel into greater missteps and strategic errors, especially at a time when escalation and the further weakening of its deterrence are counterproductive to its interests.

By targeting the Yemenis directly, Israel has underestimated the resolve and capabilities of a formidable adversary, potentially choosing the worst possible opponents in this round of conflict.

Lili News 029

In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.

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Netanyahu’s Speech Was As American As It Gets

Be sure to distribute this article as widely as possible. Pushing back against the Big Lie is really up to you.

Caitlin Johnstone
ROGUE JOURNALIST

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Depraved war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu doing his disgusting theatrics —to great acclaim—before the abominable US Congress. Stomach this: 58 standing ovations.

Netanyahu’s Speech Was As American As It Gets
Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress was everything you’d expect: packed full of lies and propaganda spin, but simultaneously very illuminating and revealing.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress was everything you’d expect: packed full of lies and propaganda spin, yet simultaneously very illuminating and revealing.

The Israeli prime minister received no fewer than 58 standing ovations while speaking before both houses of Congress and spewing the most despicable lies you could possibly imagine in his conspicuously American accent. Depending on how politically aware you are, this spectacle could be perceived as either deeply un-American, or as American as it gets.

Netanyahu repeated evidence-free atrocity propaganda about what happened on October 7, falsely asserting that Hamas “burned babies alive” and killed two babies in an attic. He falsely claimed that Hamas “butchered 1,200 people”, pretending it’s not a well-established fact that many of the 1,139 Israeli deaths that day came from both indiscriminate IDF fire and deliberate targeting in implementation of the Hannibal Directive.

"This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal."
~ Aaron Bushnell https://t.co/omrIn5SNr1

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 24, 2024

He made the completely baseless claim that Iran may be paying the anti-genocide demonstrators outside the Capitol Building during his speech, saying, “When the Tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”

Netanyahu spent minutes ranting and raving about protests in America against his government’s atrocities in Gaza, during which he received a standing ovation from Congress that went on for nearly a minute.

He accused the International Criminal Court of “antisemitism” and “blood libel” for saying that Israel deliberately targets civilians, as though this hasn’t been conclusively established by mountains of evidence like the IDF’s Lavender AI system and statements from doctors describing what can only be deliberate sniper executions of children in Gaza.

He repeated Israel’s evidence-free claim that the only reason people are starving in Gaza is because Hamas is “stealing” all of the aid Israel allows in for itself.

Netanyahu went out of his way to frame Israel’s plight as civilized people against uncivilized barbarians, which only works if you harbor a supremely racist worldview. He kept repeating the word “civilization”, contrasting this with the “barbarism” of Hamas and its supporters, calling Israel’s US-backed military violence “a clash between barbarism and civilization” and saying “Israel fights on the frontline of civilization”.

He made these appeals to the racism that westerners harbor toward middle easterners in the same speech wherein he decried the “outrageous slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal”.

Netanyahu said Israel “must retain overriding security control” over Gaza “for the foreseeable future”, an open admission of plans for indefinite military occupation.

This deluge of lies and racist invective received dozens and dozens of standing ovations. The same political class that’s spent the last eight years shrieking about the threat of misinformation, disinformation and foreign propaganda just normalized and applauded a foreign genocidal war criminal as he stood before Congress telling lie after lie after lie.

You couldn’t ask for a better example of everything Washington stands for than this. Both houses of Congress rising to feverishly applaud one of history’s worst genocidal monsters dozens of times as he lies over and over again is a much better representation of what the US government is about than anything you’ll see during the presidential race from now until November.

This is everything Israel is, and this is everything the US empire is. They’re showing you who they are. Believe them.

Lili News 029

In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.

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Let’s Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He Arrives in Washington! He’s an international war criminal and also helped steal American nuclear technology

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Philip Giraldi

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Let’s Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He Arrives in Washington!

He’s an international war criminal and also helped steal American nuclear technology

PHILIP GIRALDI • JULY 18, 2024

America’s highly esteemed president who should be called Doodle-Head every time he opens his mouth came out with a beauty last Tuesday, claiming that if it weren’t for the existence of Israel “every Jew in the world would be at risk.” No Joe, you got it wrong. The reality is that Israeli behavior is precisely what fuels anger directed against what might be referred to as the “International Jewish Conspiracy,” whereby the wealthy and powerful Jewish diaspora enables Israel to literally get away with war crimes and mass murder without any consequences. Joe has also said the he has done more for the Palestinians than anyone, which means that he finds some benefit in watching them die under relentless bombardment by Israel with US provided munitions.

spoke Tuesday at the RNC, providing the standard line about poor suffering American Jewry, saying “President Trump will bring back law and order so that American Jews can once again wear a kippah and walk the streets without fear,” while waving a kippah with Trump’s name embroidered on it. This playing the perpetual victim is true in the United States most particularly, but it also works in Britain, France, Canada and Germany where fundamental rights like freedom of speech are under attack to protect the state of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a monster, even regarded as such in his own country due to his corruption and that of his wife. He knows that if the Gaza war were to end, he might quickly wind up impeached and in jail. Interestingly, one of his major crimes involved receiving $250,000 as a bribe from Israeli film maker Arnon Milchan, who made his fortune in the United States and was also involved in espionage directed against US nuclear technology to enable the Jewish state to develop its own secret – and illegal – nuclear weapons arsenal. Milchan and Netanyahu were together involved in illegally obtaining the nuclear triggers needed to detonate the nukes.

Milchan earned his fortune, estimated to be in excess of $3 billion, in part by spying for Israel to the detriment of the United States which is the country that has provided him with the opportunities to become rich and relatively famous. The Milchan tale is just one part of the successful effort by Israel to obtain the technology and raw materials for its secret nuclear arsenal. Preventing nuclear proliferation was a major objective of the US government when in the early 1960s President John F. Kennedy learned that Tel Aviv was developing a nuclear weapon from a CIA report. He told the Israelis to terminate their program or risk losing American political and economic support but was killed before any steps were taken to end the project. Many believe that Israel may have had a hand in the killing of both Jack and Bobby Kennedy and the American public is still waiting for the US government to release all the reports detailing what was obtained in the investigation of the deaths.

Israel accelerated its nuclear program after the death of President Kennedy. By 1965, it had obtained the raw material for a bomb consisting of US government owned highly enriched weapons grade uranium obtained from a company in Pennsylvania called NUMEC, which was founded in 1956 and owned by Zalman Mordecai Shapiro, head of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Zionist Organization of America. NUMEC was a supplier of enriched uranium for government projects but it was also from the start a front for the Israeli nuclear program, with its chief funder David Lowenthal, a leading Zionist, traveling to Israel at least once a month where he would meet with an old friend Meir Amit, who headed Israeli intelligence. NUMEC covered the shipment of enriched uranium to Israel by claiming the metal was “lost,” losses that totaled more than six hundred pounds, enough to produce dozens of weapons. Such was the importance of the operation that in 1968 NUMEC even received a private incognito visit from Israeli top spymaster Rafi Eitan. In spite of all the evidence that something extremely shady had taken place at NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro was never charged with any crime.

With the uranium in hand, the stealing of the advanced technology needed to make a nuclear weapon is where Milchan and later Netanyahu come into the story. Arnon Milchan was born in Israel but moved to the United States and eventually wound up as the founder-owner of a major movie production company, New Regency Films. In a November 25, 2013 interview on Israeli television Milchan admitted that he had spent his many years in Hollywood as an agent for Israeli intelligence, helping obtain embargoed technologies and materials that enabled Israel to develop a nuclear weapon. He worked for Israel’s Bureau of Science and Liaison acquisition division of Mossad, referred to as the LAKAM spy agency.

personally recruited MILCO’s president Richard Kelly Smyth as an agent before turning him over to another Heli Trading employee, none other than Benjamin Netanyahu, for handling. Smyth was eventually arrested in 1985 and cooperated in his interrogation by the FBI before being sentenced to prison, which means that the Federal government knew all about both Milchan and Netanyahu at that time but did not even seek to interview them and ultimately did nothing about them, a cover-up to protect Israel that persists to this day.

Assuming that the statute of limitations on the crime has not run out it should still be possible to arrest and try the perpetrators, which would include both Milchan and Netanyahu. And there should be plenty of evidence if one were to look for it. An exhaustive investigation was carried out on both the thefts given their role in “nuclear proliferation,” though the complete reports have not to this day been made public as the Jewish state’s friends in government and the media have scrambled to cover up the direct Israeli government role insofar as possible. Also, there was physical evidence relating to the diversion of the uranium. Refined uranium has a technical signature that permit identification of its source. Traces of uranium from NUMEC were identified by Department of Energy inspectors in Israel in 1978. The Central Intelligence Agency has also looked into the diversion of enriched uranium from the NUMEC plant and has concluded that it was part of a broader program to obtain the technology and raw materials for a nuclear device for Israel.

Milchan initially retained his US visa even though his role in the trigger thefts had been exposed in the media. The multi-year residency visa was restored to him in 2016 through the intervention of Prime Minister Netanyahu with Secretary of State John Kerry, perhaps predictably, though Milchan has not traveled to the US recently and is believed to be living in Europe and is in poor health. He is also avoiding visiting Israel due to pending charges relating to his bribery of Netanyahu. The issue of Israel’s nukes is regarded as particularly sensitive both in Washington and Jerusalem as, under the Symington Amendment, the US is forbidden from providing military aid to any government that has secret or undeclared nuclear weapons. If the law were applied as written, US arming and funding Israel in its slaughter of the Palestinians would have to stop, but the deference to Israeli interests in this case is just one more example of how the Jewish state is above the law in the reckoning of American government officials and the media.

The tragedy is that spying for Israel appears to be regarded as something like a victimless crime, but in the case of Milchan it was dead serious, involving as it did nuclear proliferation on behalf of a nation that might generously be described as aggressively paranoid. And note that Benjamin Netanyahu, the very “statesman” who received 29 standing ovations from the US Congress, was also involved in the major Mossad operation to steal critical technology from the United States. In fact, even though the Israelis and their “friends” continue to rob America blind it is extremely difficult to be punished for doing so even after being caught red handed.

Prosecutions for Israeli spying are so few because of Department of Justice unwillingness to pursue them, according to a retired FBI agent who claimed that hundreds of potential prosecutions were rejected for political reasons. The actual convictions involve crimes so egregious that they cannot be ignored or covered up, like overheard conversations over lunch, as when Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin provided intelligence on Iran to American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) staffers Keith Weissman and Steve Rosen as well as to officials in the Israeli Embassy. Franklin went briefly to jail and was subsequently reported to be waiting on tables in West Virginia. US Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard, America’s most damaging spy of all time, stole enough top secret codeword secret material to fill a room before he was arrested and convicted. He obtained Israeli citizenship while in prison and is now living in Israel and is celebrated there having been freed of his parole conditions by President Donald Trump. Apart from that, nada! Time to change all that.

Netanyahu, Milchan and the others are not friends of the United States, quite the contrary, and deserve to be treated like any other spies caught in flagrante. The American people should demand that the government begin to recognize that fact and act accordingly. Putting Arnon Milchan and his colleague Benjamin Netanyahu in jail, or even sanctioning them to strip them of their assets, as has been done to numerous Iranians and Russians by Joe “Mumbles” Biden, would be a great start. Arresting Netanyahu on his upcoming celebration trip to address the Joint Session of Congress and visit Biden in the White House would really send a message to the Israelis about proper deportment and would be even better. One can only imagine what it would look like to see Netanyahu in an American prison! Hard labor, please!

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VENEZUELA CONTRA MUNDUM

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By Maria Paez Victor
POPULAR RESISTANCE

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Joseph Conrad insightfully wrote in his book Lord Jim: “You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends“. The same can be said about a nation. So, it should be a clue to any observant person, that the forces of the extreme right, and those who are hoodwinked by them, lead the charge against Venezuela, with a relentless hybrid war and smear campaign.

The USA and its allies are at the head of this campaign. Their motives lie undoubtedly in the desire to take control of the nation’s immense oil reserves, plus its gas, gold and lithium. As well, the USA is imposing collective punishment on Venezuelans with illegal sanctions for daring to assert their sovereignty in deciding that only they, the Venezuelan people, in fair elections, can determine their governance.

Can anyone doubt that the forces of the extreme right are ascendant in geopolitics?

In the USA, the extreme right grows bolder and stronger each day. Under the leadership of Trump, a narcissistic man whose speeches are tinged with rage and absurdities, they violently mobbed Capitol Hill in Washington while denying the results of the election won by Biden. The world looks on in astonishment and dismay as Trump is poised to win the presidential elections on Nov. 5, especially now that he can drape himself with the cloak of martyrdom. His core supporters are very forgiving, or have highly selective memories, or are simply infatuated by the self-proclaimed savior from the continuing decline of their country. During Trump’s last presidency, illegal sanctions against Venezuela became extreme and he threatened military invasion. The Venezuelan vice-president Delcy Rodríguez, in defining fascism stated that: “…it not only manifests itself in expression of hatred, violence and death but also forms of economic fascism, such as the US criminal blockade imposed against Venezuela.”[1]

The hopeful exceptions in Europe are those of the UK and France whose recent elections amazingly sidelined the far right. But it seems everywhere else we see extreme right parties – some could be considered as openly fascist – rise in Spain, Germany, Estonia, Serbia, Finland, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland. Some of these parties form the government or part of it, some have legislative representatives where before they had few or none, and some are in opposition nipping at the heels of governments. But their presence is palpable, and menacing. The far right in the European Union always vote to malign and attack Venezuela.

In Canada, the main opposition party, the Conservative Party, is moving further right under a mediocre leader, Poilievre, who leads the polls against the Liberal Justin Trudeau. The strategy of Poilievre is typical of the far right that hide their real aims under an ad hominem campaign: that is, very scarce in providing solutions and virulently blaming and insulting the person of Trudeau. It is proving so effective that if the Liberal Party was smart, it would replace Trudeau and deflate the campaign of the Conservatives.

Both the Liberal and the Conservative parties of Canada, in their rush to kowtow to their powerful southern neighbour, have unjustly and mean-spiritedly lashed out against Venezuela, a nation that has not harmed Canada nor any Canadians. They have imposed illegal sanctions, organized and led the now defunct Lima Group, a cabal of far-right governments that pushed for “regime change” in Venezuela, broke diplomatic relations with Venezuela so that not even consulates are allowed, and denied the right of Canadian/Venezuelans to vote in the last Venezuelan presidential elections and upcoming one.

In Latin America, Brazil’s would-be dictator, the erratic Bolsonaro, led an attack on the Brazilian Congress a lá Trump. While in power, he managed to sideline both Dilma Rousseff and Lula with legal injustices of lawfare. He is not in power now but is still not a political pariah and not behind bars, as he should be. His disdain for the Venezuelan government was such that only the Brazilian army was able to persuade him against invading Venezuela.

In Argentina, Javier Milei is a prime example of an extremist leader with a disordered mind, saying publicly: “I’m the king of a lost world! I’m the king and I will destroy you!”[2]. Melei is bent on dismantling social rights and attacking anyone who opposes him. He has taken it upon himself to insult the Venezuelan government and president whenever he can. The Argentinian embassy in Caracas has become a haven of the far right.

So, in this sea of rising far right extremism, there is a country in open defiance that fights the violence and deceptions of fascism, the racist elites and the predatory corporations. A government that is on the side of the working classes, that zealously protects their social benefits and welfare and their Human Rights and champions the environment. That country is Venezuela, whose Constitution, on its first page, proclaims itself a democratic society, participatory, multiethnic, and pluricultural, with the values of liberty, solidarity and the common good.

The far-right forces, backed by Washington and the fascist, racist Venezuelan elites, have never ceased to try to destabilize the nation and overthrow the government. In 2014 they were responsible for a series of virulent street violence that led to 43 deaths, 878 injured and millions in damages. In 2017 they continued with 121 deaths and 1,958 injured, including the horrendous death of a young man, Orlando Figuera, who because of his dark skin, “looked Chavista” and was burned alive on the street.

These violent events were portrayed by the world media as “protests” carried out by “people who wanted democracy”, and even “students”, when in fact they were carried out by thugs and criminal gangs, paid in dollars. I myself actually witnessed on the street a man dolling out dollars to a bunch of “protesters”. The supposed, rules-based, “international community” totally ignored these violations of the peace and Human Rights of the Venezuelan people, and some even had the gall to blame the government for the opposition’s violence. They just keep gushing out the lies.

Currently, in this presidential year, the violence is simmering. The Attorney General has denounced at least five attempts to murder the president,[3] and a series of sabotages of the nation’s electrical system. A Colombian guerrilla group, which is in the midst of peace negotiations, revealed that far-right leaders of Venezuela had asked them to carry out violent acts on the border to disturb the coming elections. [4] These events have been linked to the darling fascist “candidate” of Washington, Maria Corina Machado, and is being investigated.

The presential elections are on the 28^th of July. There are 9 candidates from opposition parties. The candidate of Washington, Maria Corina Machado, cannot run because in 2014 she was barred for malfeasance (refusing to disclose the origin of donated funds) and representing a foreign government – Panama – while being a deputy of the National Assembly. Later in 2023 this barring from office was reimposed by the Comptroller General and ratified by the Supreme Court of Venezuela because Machado called on the USA to invade Venezuela.[5] Her stand-in is unknown to the public – an elderly political hack, Edmundo Gonzalez.

Machado is a scion of two very wealthy elitist families. They are elites that have traditionally obtained their wealth by being the willing vassals of the USA, which allowed them to join in the looting their own country, and in recent years, have been partners in crime with Colombian narco-gangs and other criminals. Machado enthusiastically believes in using violence to gain power, including repeatedly asking the USA to invade Venezuela. [6] Gonzalez for his part, is implicated in the financing and logistics of the death squads in El Salvador.[7]

What is there for the world media to object to about Venezuela? A nation beleaguered by far-right groups and governments, struggling to keep its sovereignty, its resources and to protect its people. Why does so much of the world media back far-right forces linked to violence and plunder? Are news outlets, journalists and newspapers being paid to do so?

Since its inception the Bolivarian governments of Chávez and Maduro, have nurtured social rights and benefits, championed indigenous rights and women’s rights, poured state funds effectively and efficiently, into food security, education, health services, infrastructure, and an astounding public housing program that in 7 years has built 5 million units.

The canard invariably levelled at Venezuela, is that Nicolas Maduro is authoritarian. This is without foundation, but it is the imperial script and is repeated ad nauseum. These accusers have obviously never been to Venezuela, never visited the 40,035 Communal Councils spread all over the country that hold in their hands the development of their communities. They have never attended a meeting of any of the 1,401 Communes and have never attended any meeting of the Presidential Counsel of the Communes (Consejo Presidencial de las Comunas) whereby the President is advised directly by the communes, as part of his cabinet.

As well, those who say there is an authoritarian regime in Venezuela are completly ignorant of the 28,791 registered social movements in the country that carry out a whole host of varied social and political activities. The country is a hot bed of free, creative, democratic participation. This stimulates its artistic communities in a clear and wonderful fashion. Nobody “reins in” the free-spirited actors, artists, dancers, or musicians. The Bolivarian Revolution has been enhanced and advanced by the unleashing of creative talents that previously had been blocked by elites.

Once I was passing by Caracas’ largest theatre which had been “in possession” of the upper-class elites. Previously, “ordinary” people were not welcomed nor could afford the entry tickets; therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to see a very long line-up of “ordinary” people waiting to be let in. It turned out that they were lining up to hear a classical music concert featuring the music of Mahler. The theatre now is a favorite venue for all sorts of popular events where the people are welcome and they know it.

The people of Venezuela are very music- literate. The musical education program “El Sistema” has a lot to do with this. “El Sistema” is now world famous, more than 25 countries have established musical education programs directly based on it. Venezuela’s National System of Orchestras and Chorus boasts 443 centres, 120 juvenile orchestras and 60 children’s orchestras, with the participation of approximately 350,000 youths.

Heart-warming Venezuelan achievements such as this are rarely covered in the mainstream media while this week, for example, they rush to publicize the arrest of Machado’s ‘head of security’ for violence against women, and blame the authorities. You have to wonder about their motives.

Venezuela is definitely “contra mundum”, that is, against a world where fascism, with its violence, rapaciousness, lies, disregard for peace, nature, human rights and welfare is on the rise.

That is a world worth opposing.

Venezuela is at the vanguard of the defence of democracy, socialism and humanity itself. Its struggle is not just to defend a government, a president or a party, but a political and social system based on the Human Rights of the people, and their peaceful coexistence with others in the region and the world.

That is a world worth defending.

About the Author(s)

María Páez Victor, Ph.D. is a Venezuelan born sociologist living in Canada.

APPENDIX

https://internationalmanifesto.org/

Notes:

[1] https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-govt-presents-anti-fascist-law-calls-for-global-action-to-protect-humanity/

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/23/javier-milei-buenos-aires-argentina

[3]
https://misionverdad.com/venezuela/la-incesante-campana-de-maria-corina-machado-por-la-intervencion-militar

[4] https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-will-investigate-colombian-paramilitarys-revelation-of-right-wing-requests-for-destabilization-terrorism/

[5] https://orinocotribune.com/what-the-mainstream-media-isnt-saying-about-venezuelas-maria-corina-machado/

[6] “Presidente Maduro denunció que EEUU diseñó planes para atentar en su contra”, aporrea, 20 April 2024; https://www.aporrea.org/imprime/n392224.html

[7] https://ultimasnoticias.com.ve/noticias/politica/revelan-pasado-sanguinario-de-edmundo-gonzalez/;https://www.laradiodelsur.com.ve/edmundo-gonzalez-urrutia-tuvo-vinculado-a-escuadrones-de-la-muerte-en-el-salvador/

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APPENDIX

https://internationalmanifesto.org/

Notes:

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