Reports on the Venezulan coup attempt

Here are a couple of videos from Democracy Now! which has been covering the Venezuela coup attempt now under way. Although the attempt is off to a pretty strange start.

A Coup in Progress? Trump Moves to Oust Maduro & Install Pro-U.S. Leader in Oil-Rich Venezuela Democracy Now! 01/24/2019:

That segment includes an excerpt of a message by Vice President Mike Pence, future Great Statesman and Savior of the Republic, recorded the day before the coup government was declared. Future Savior Mike Pence seems to be his Administration's point person on this right now. He may be looking to create a Pence Addendum to the Monroe Doctrine.

Former U.N. Expert: The U.S. Is Violating International Law by Attempting a Coup in Venezuela 01/24/2019:

Alexander Reid Ross posted on his Facebook page 01/26/2019:


He makes a good point. The Democracy Now! report should have disclosed Alfred de Zayas' affiliation with the Desiderius-Erasmus-Stiftung if they were going to use him as a source. At the very best, Zayas is lending credibility to this think-tank associated with the far right AfD, which definitely is anti-EU is widely regarded in Germany and Europe as anti-democracy. (Though it is a legal party in Germany, which means that the German government formally acknowledges that at the moment it recognizes the AfD as accepting the Constitution.) Zayas himself over the years seems to have been sympathetic to revanchist narratives about the postwar explusions of ethnic Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Russia.

But I would also add that Zayas' comments in the Democracy Now! segment doesn't contain what I would consider any obvious whoppers. Although his comments about the Carter Center's views on Venezuelan elections are misleading. The Center monitored various Venezuelan elections through the presidential elections of 2012. The Center notes that their monitoring of the 2013 election that Maduro narrowly won was not comprehensive, but they did raise various concerns about it. The Constituent Assembly elections of 2017 and the presidential election of 2018 are legitimately subject to criticism for what we could generously call democratic deficits. But the choice by much of the opposition to boycott both those elections also complicate the picture. Election boycotts are a tricky tactic.

A Carter Center statement on Thursday called "on all Venezuelans to work urgently toward a peaceful political solution with a clear road map to restore legitimate democratic governance." Which pretty clearly means they don't regard Maduro's government as being that, though it doesn't call Juan Guaidó the legitimate leader and doesn't mention him by name. (Carter Center Urges Venezuelans to Restore Legitimate Democratic Governance 01/24/2019)

The Carter Center's past election monitoring is being cited by opponents of intervention. I haven't noticed the regime change advocates citing them, because that wouldn't fit with their pro-coup arrative. But then, neocons aren't known for strict adherence to facts when they're trying to start a war. (See: Iraq, WMDs)

This brief Aljazeera report also references the grim precedent of Chile, 1973, Venezuela crisis: US accused of interference 01/27/2019:

Deutsche Welle brings this report today, UN session on Venezuela: Is the US organizing a coup d'etat? 01/26/2019: