Greg Palast - In Venezuela, White Supremacy is a Key to Trump's Coup

[Celerity]

https://www.gregpalast.com/in-venezuela-white-supremacy-is-a-key-to-trump-coup/

On January 23, right after a phone call from Donald Trump, Juan Guaidó, former speaker of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself president. No voting. When you have official recognition from The Donald, who needs elections? Say what? I can explain what’s going on in Venezuela in three photos:

First, we have Juan Guaidó, self-proclaimed (and Trump-proclaimed) president of the nation, with his wife and child, a photo prominently placed in The New York Times.



Next, the class photo of Guaidó’s party members in the National Assembly, white as snow…



…especially when compared to their political opposites in the third photo, the congress members who support the elected President Nicolás Maduro. The Maduro supporters are nearly all of a darker hue.



This is the story of Venezuela in black and white, the story not told in The New York Times nor the rest of our establishment media. This year’s so-called popular uprising is, at its heart, a furious backlash of the whiter (and wealthier) Venezuelans against their replacement by the larger Mestizo (mixed-race) poor.

Four centuries of white supremacy in Venezuela by those who identify their ancestors as European came to an end with the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez who won with the overwhelming support of the Mestizo majority. This turn away from white supremacy continues under Maduro, Chavez’ chosen successor.


snip

[brooklynite]

1. What's his excuse for all the other nations that have endorsed Guaid?

[Celerity]

3. he didn't address that, so I couldn't tell what his exact thoughts on it are

[DetlefK]

2. You are embarassing yourself.

Maduro created new seats on the venezuelan Supreme Court and stacked them with loyalists.

After losing the 2016 parliamentary elections to the opposition-parties, his Supreme Court dissolved the parliament and declared itself the new parliament.

Next there were elections for a constitutional assembly in 2017, whose job would be to rewrite the constitution. The company that built the voting-machines said that the results of the election had been tampered with. Maduro's party won every single seat on that assembly.
Btw, that assembly also declared itself to be a parliament.

Next, there were presidential elections in 2018. The only candidates who were allowed on the ballot were Maduro and a few lackies from Maduro's party. Not a single opposition-candidate was permitted to run. Maduro won.




But Guaido didn't win the election!

And he's white!!!!!!!!

Ohhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PeeJ52]

4. But Palast was the one who investigated the fraud in Georgia for governor...

do we pick and chose when we want to believe him? tRump and Faux Noise have blasted us with propaganda and lies for so long, plus our news sources have dwindled to few sources, it's hard to tell what is and what isn't true any more. It's easy to believe the US would want regime change for oil. We've done it before. It worked in Iraq. Venezuela has been under economic attack from the US for many years, trying to kill their economy. It is working. There appear to be a large number of protesters in Venezuela on both sides. I'm not seeing a lot of frail, starving, people in the crowds, in fact a lot of them appear to be extremely well fed and in exceptionally good shape, so it is hard for me to believe the people can't afford to eat stories. They may be a bit exaggerated. They may be true due to the political unrest and economic sanctions that have been placed so long, but not as bad as we have been led to believe.

You have to admit, propaganda is everywhere and we love our oil. I've heard of crazier conspiracies.

[DetlefK]

5. This is not about picking and choosing. This is about intentionally ignoring. Lie by omission.

Are we supposed to ignore what Maduro did and side with him for the sole reason that Trump dislikes him???

[PeeJ52]

7. The US has been after Venezuela for years.

Are we supposed to ignore what we have done? I just don't know what to believe any more...

https://fair.org/home/us-administrations-have-been-intervening-in-venezuela-since-at-least-the-early-2000s/

[DetlefK]

9. If two bad guys argue, that doesn't mean that one of them MUST be a good guy.

[IluvPitties]

6. Guaid himself is not white...

[Hortensis]

11. Now, now, you're confusing the race-baiting agitprop.

Oppressed POC v. white elites is the OP.

Guaido just has to be white in order to be the white ruling class oppressor trying to overthrow The People's Starvation Party's ruthless-but-still-righteous dictator.

And the lighting and exposures of those crowd photos must not be adjusted to spoil the theme either.

[2naSalit]

8. K&R

[Adrahil]

10. Sorry, this is a piss poor argument.

Chavez, and especially Maduro do not get a pass on inexcusable authoritarian power grabs and criminal mismanagment and outright theft because someone choose to wrap in a cloak of opposing White Supremacy!

I do not understand the romance some have for authoritarians just becuase they say some of the right words and SEEM to support some underlying principal.

Just note the last line there... "This turn away from white supremacy continues under Maduro, Chavez’ chosen successor. "

CHAVEZ's chosen successor. Dictators choose their successors.

[Hortensis]

12. Yes. U.S. could soon follow Venezuela's failed democracy.

In the face of their severe national emergency, the opposition groups in Venezuela's legislature recently came together to fight Maduro's increasing takeover of their nation, and Madura and agents packed in the courts stopped them cold by changing the laws they were going to use to stop him.

The Republicans here are very busy, probably literally right now, continuing their packing of our courts with their agents as part of a right-wing takeover. It's far from certain already that an attempt to halt Trump's illicit uses of power would be stopped by SCOTUS.

[Adrahil]

14. Exactly. THANK YOU. NT

[PeeJ52]

13. You're welcome to join this thread. It's not always as you're led to believe...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142263568