Venezuela Protests

https://amp.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article225129345.html

“Enough already!’ Venezuela’s highest ranking military diplomat breaks with Maduro

The military attaché at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, Col. José Luis Silva, broke with the Nicolás Maduro regime Saturday and urged other armed forces members to recognize Juan Guaidó as the legitimate interim president of the South American nation.

“As the Venezuelan defense attaché in the United States, I do not recognize Mr. Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela,” Silva told el Nuevo Herald in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.

“My message to all armed forces members, to everyone who carries a gun, is to please let’s not attack the people. We are also part of the people, and we’ve had enough of supporting a government that has betrayed the most basic principles and sold itself to other countries,” he added.

Silva, like all other Venezuelan diplomatic mission staffers in the United States, was ordered to return home after Maduro announced he was breaking diplomatic relations with Washington because it had recognized Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela.

Maduro’s order met with some resistance from the diplomatic mission staffers.

One diplomat at the Venezuelan consulate in Houston contacted Guaidó to report that she would not obey Maduro and would help him, the interim president announced Friday in Caracas.

Silva told el Nuevo Herald that the great majority of Venezuelan diplomats in the United States share his disapproval of Maduro.

Diplomacy is ‘prisoner of the minority’

“A high percentage of diplomats here do not agree with Maduro’s usurpation of power, but there’s always fear of what can happen to relatives in Venezuela and the uncertainty of what can happen in a foreign country,” said Silva, a colonel in the National Guard.

“Even diplomacy is now prisoner of the minority that has systematically seized control of the power in our country,” he added.

The fears of regime reprisals are shared by many armed forces members in Venezuela, but Silva stressed that honest military members must step forward because of Maduro’s usurpation of power following his allegedly fraudulent reelection.

“Enough! Leave aside the illegal control of our territory and the executive power. The leaders have become millionaires on the backs of the people,” he said. “Captains, commanders: Think about everyone who suffers. Don’t forget that your wives also can’t find milk for your children. Don’t forget that your mothers and fathers also can’t find pills for their [blood] pressure.”

“Enough already! Let’s recognize the man who under the law is the true president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó,” he said.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...it-back-us-oil-people/?utm_term=.33117cba1cd9

Venezuela’s oil gives Maduro little leverage against the United States

As tensions between the United States and Venezuela escalate, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would appear to have an obvious tool to push back against American pressure: oil.

American oil refiners based on the Gulf Coast still rely on supplies from Venezuela to keep their operations running efficiently. As of early 2019, about 500,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude were being imported to the United States. “Venezuelan oil is essential to diesel production in the U.S.,” said John Kilduff of Again Capital, an investment firm.

But Venezuela’s economic collapse has made it virtually impossible for Maduro to use oil exports as a diplomatic weapon.

“Seventy-five percent of cash-generating oil exports are coming here,” said Scott Modell, the managing director of Rapidan Energy and a former CIA officer in Latin America. Though Venezuela exports considerable amounts of crude oil to major diplomatic allies like Russia and China, almost all of the profits are used to service preexisting debts. “They don’t get cash for that, and they are desperate for cash,” Modell said.

Shannon O’Neil, an expert on Latin America at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that stopping exports or other making attempts at hitting back at the United States economically would also have “a cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face quality" and produce a “negative asymmetrical effect — hitting Venezuela much harder than the U.S.,” O’Neil wrote in an email to The Washington Post.

Energy markets seemed to agree on Thursday: Oil prices rose slightly, and there was little immediate effect on U.S. refinery stocks — a change from past crises in Venezuela, which rattled American refinery companies.

One potentially complicating matter is the fate of Citgo, a U.S.-based refiner that has been majority-owned by Venezuela’s national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), since 1990. The company has long operated as an independent entity and only repatriates dividends from current earnings, rather than revenue, to the Venezuelan company.

Citgo’s ownership has long been a source of tension between the United States and Venezuela. In August 2017, the Trump administration signed an executive order that blocked the repatriation of dividends, and sanctions on Venezuelan officials have placed Citgo in an increasingly fraught position.

Just under half of PDVSA’s shares in the company were used as collateral for a $1.5 billion loan the Venezuelan government took out from Russian energy giant Rosneft in 2016. Foreign creditors have suggested they may try to acquire parts of Citgo to service their debts.

Modell said that there is debate in the United States about whether the U.S. government could seize the company itself. Some opposed this, arguing that Citgo should be an asset available for a post-Maduro Venezuela that could help provide a “petroeconomic recovery” for the ailing country.

“On the other hand, people see it as something that still is a revenue generator for Maduro,” said Modell, who favors a U.S. seizure of Citgo.

The United States, which has recognized opposition politician Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president, could have the option of seizing assets — including those of the oil industry — from Maduro’s government and redistributing them to the opposition-dominated National Assembly.

“I think it’s time now for the legal implications to be implemented,” said Moises Rendon, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Once that happens, Maduro really won’t have much room to maneuver.”

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...socialflow-twitter-business&utm_medium=social

Venezuela Retreats From Demand That U.S. Diplomats Leave

Venezuela walked back its decision to sever diplomatic ties with the U.S., announcing that each country agreed to keep an interest section open in their respective capitals.

The decision was made Friday to keep missions open even as U.S. diplomatic staff were already leaving the country after President Nicolas Maduro expelled them two days earlier, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said in a statement Saturday.

The rupture was prompted by the U.S. decision to recognize National Assembly leader Juan Guaido, who has come to represent opposition to the autocratic regime, as the nation’s rightful head of state.

There was no immediate response from the U.S.



The decision came on a day in which Guaido’s supporters maintained a united front from the UN to the streets of Caracas and Venezuela’s military attache in Washington declared allegiance to the newcomer. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told the UN that Maduro must go and the EU demanded speedy elections. In Caracas, Guaido himself asked a crowd to reassure soldiers that they can get amnesty for deserting the president.

In his statement, Arreaza said U.S. personnel in Caracas began leaving Friday in what he called “an effective retreat.” The Venezuelan diplomats in Washington were already returning to Caracas on Saturday, he said.

Now, the governments have 30 days to reach an agreement. Remaining personnel will stay in their respective embassies, protected by "diplomatic prerogatives,” according to the statement.

Interest sections function as de facto embassies.

 

Another quick note that I heard on a Spanish language broadcast cited a Reuters report saying that Maduro is being protected by Russian mercenaries right now. I couldn't find that story but I thought it was interesting.

 

Seriously? Get your head out of the sand and stop making up reality.