[News] The US Attempted Coup In Venezuela Uses New Cyber Tools

[Anti-Imperialist News]

popularresistance.org 
<https://popularresistance.org/the-us-attempted-coup-in-venezuela-uses-new-cyber-tools/> 



  The US Attempted Coup In Venezuela Uses New Cyber Tools

By Stansfield Smith, Popular Resistance.
September 15, 2024
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file:///C:/Users/claude/Desktop/us-cyber-command.jpg-1.webpAbove photo: 
US soldiers at the Fleet Operations Center of the US Fleet Cyber Command 
headquarters. US 10th Fleet.


    But cannot Break the Chavista Wall.

The peoples around the world have looked to Venezuela as a vanguard 
leading Nuestra América in its second independence struggle, against the 
US. The US rulers operate as the inheritor of the European colonial 
empires, assuming the right to interfere in other countries’ elections, 
and dictate who are the winners. No other country – save US underlings 
in Europe, and Israel – dares to violate international law so brazenly.

The Venezuelan right-wing had no real plan to win a democratic election, 
but instead prepared for a coup d’etat even before the polls closed. 
Working with the US government and corporate media, they allege 
President Maduro stole the July 28 presidential election, then committed 
human rights abuses to crush protests. This opposition declares it beat 
President Maduro 70% to 30% but refuses to present their “evidence” to 
the National Electoral Council (CNE) or Supreme Court. The opposition 
claimed fraud in every election during the 25-year period of Chavista 
rule – except twice, when they won.

The attempted coup bears much in common with recent US coup attempts in 
Nicaragua (2018), Bolivia (2019) and Venezuela (2013, 2014, 2017, 2019). 
If the US-backed candidates lose, the election is “fraudulent.” This 
scheme drove Evo Morales from power in Bolivia. The US even appointed 
its own president for Venezuela after its 2018 presidential election, 
and then proceeded to steal tens of billions of dollars of Venezuela’s 
resources held overseas.


      US coup attempts use new tools besides the US-trained military as
      in the past

*First,* the US crushes a country with sanctions and economic blockades, 
causing scarcities and shortages, leading to discontent among the people 
over worsening living conditions. National Security gangster John Bolton 
said: <https://www.tortillaconsal.com/bitacora/node/4863> “Sanctions are 
a means of repression and coercion between military warfare and 
diplomacy.” Richard Nephew, Treasury deputy secretary, adds: “Over the 
past decade, the most important tool for enforcing American power is the 
sanctions mechanism.” To justify sanctions, the US relies on its media, 
intellectuals, universities and think tanks, to make them seem humane to 
the public. In Venezuela, US sanctions caused government revenue to 
collapse by 99%, requiring dramatic cuts in the many social programs. 
The sanctions killed over 100,000 civilians 
<https://orinocotribune.com/former-un-rapporteur-on-human-rights-us-sanctions-have-killed-more-than-100-thousand-venezuelans/>, 
Venezuelans knew that voting for Nicolas Maduro would mean a worsening 
of the US-EU economic warfare they face.

*Second,* corporate media and social media now play a coup-making role 
similar to that of Pentagon-trained generals in the past. Supervised by 
the CIA, this media blanket a targeted country and the world with 
disinformation against its government, seeking to foment a “regime 
change” mass movement.

Six corporations control over 90% of the US media 
<https://techstartups.com/2020/09/18/6-corporations-control-90-media-america-illusion-choice-objectivity-2020/> 
and so own the news. They dominate the world media just as the US dollar 
dominates the world financial system. The all-important weapon, social 
media, which saturates billions of mobile phones, are in the hands of 
Elon Musk (X, formerly Twitter) 
<https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-in-the-crosshairs-of-technological-imperialism/>, 
and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram). Working with the 
CIA, they can impose an alternative reality, seen in Nicaragua in 2018, 
Bolivia during the 2019 coup, and Venezuela today.

Corporate media describe the elected Maduro government – and the elected 
ones in Nicaragua and Cuba – as dictatorships.

Delegitimizing Venezuelan elections in advance followed a pattern used 
in Bolivia (2019) and Nicaragua (2021). The US created automated 
networks of thousands of fake social media accounts to swamp the public 
with fake news. These accounts generate streams of posts in a 
coordinated manner, creating the appearance of popular repudiation of 
Evo Morales, Nicolas Maduro, or Daniel Ortega.

Bots were used in a massive way 
<https://medium.com/dfrlab/amid-the-crisis-in-bolivia-a-twitter-flood-of-coup-denial-bot-accusations-and-memes-1490b7222c3#id_token=eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6ImQyZDQ0NGNmOGM1ZTNhZTgzODZkNjZhMTNhMzE2OTc2YWEzNjk5OTEiLCJ0eXAiOiJKV1QifQ.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.Cl-MgC_Wq1grhgux67z6h3LAAkq-UdSx3yG_0VWfJ6ifyQANAqcXaXlxTk8USloqwOPaai-nFG0htYxkBNflXRwNCoEqoip8ocIf5AWM50v3IqSldsyaOBZzE_qDwsdnZ7rULTd1qROV3kDkiXUiiSo-gMh099TaXJV5NCaR6_XxF7Ro3OsUtczrEQSSbgBtTPl7IcCk4MCmoDT5JjKPxv7k__rRa8V-qMBGdUSbkAKmIiVTw9MQKgTvCwE9wx2Y79I_juolfhswAxWORZdBW3biGvU3wfskTgX6GgXLcBjd7MQ0yRy0je7d7BQmklNQ9Idg2T9rEec1QIair3jOSw>against 
Evo’s government. The two main coup leaders created 95,000 twitter 
accounts before the coup to spread the election fraud story and call for 
violent protests. Over 68,000 false accounts 
<https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/twitter-flooded-with-thousands-of-fake-accounts-supporting-bolivia-coup/> 
were set up to legitimize the army’s overthrow of Morales and justify 
killing those protesting the coup.

US social media control in these countries drowns out pro-government and 
independent voices not just by saturating the online conversation, but 
by shutting them down. After the US annointed Juan Guaido the Venezuela 
president, Twitter closed thousands of Chavista accounts to foster the 
impression that most Venezuelans supported Guaido.

Governments in countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia cannot 
respond effectively to the US media disinformation warfare against them 
any more than to the US blockades imposed on them. It takes them years 
to build up national media networks, and even then, their resources are 
minor compared to what the US commands.

*Third, *the US relies on cyberwarfare to incapacitate its opponents. In 
Bolivia in 2019 a cyberattack of the electoral system’s computers 
disrupted the vote count, preventing the authentic results being issued. 
The US-backed opposition then claimed Evo delayed the vote count because 
he was fixing it.

After the July 28 election, 126 digital platforms 
<https://orinocotribune.com/over-120-venezuelan-state-websites-have-suffered-cyberattacks/> 
of the Venezuelan state suffered cyberattacks, the most significant 
being the CNE, the constitutional agency recording the vote. Hacked over 
100 times that night, it could not operate normally, delaying for days 
the release of the results. Again, this was used to claim the vote 
totals were being fixed.

At times 30 million cyber attacks per minute 
<https://ultimasnoticias.com.ve/noticias/politica/mas-de-30-millones-de-ciber-ataques-por-minuto-se-han-recibido-desde-el-28j/> 
occurred between July 28 and August 9th. Such an attack disables 
Venezuelan government computer systems and paralyzes operations. These 
large-scale cyberattacks generated hundreds of gigabytes per second 
(your laptop system memory may have 16 gb).

These attacks falsified IP links, duplicated links, reconfigured 
government portals and hijacked information. Names and addresses of 
government workers were released on social media to “comanditos” 
(opposition gangs), creating a physical threats for those affected.

The US powerful media and cyber weapons, able to swamp a country’s 
airwaves with CIA concocted “news,” while disrupting the country’s 
response, open the door to violent protests against the government.

*Fourth,* having created the conditions for opposition leaders to assert 
the Maduro government stole the election, they then called people into 
the streets to protest and create chaos or guarimbas. “Comanditos” 
<https://chicagoalbasolidarity.org/2024/08/27/the-venezuela-election-the-comanditosthe-terrorist-network-of-fascism-in-venezuela/> 
(small groups paid to instigate violence), caused destruction and 
violence, killed 25 and injured 192, 
<https://www.telesurtv.net/grupos-delincuenciales-y-comanditos-la-realidad-detras-de-los-asesinatos-postelectorales-en-venezuela/> 
burned buildings, sacked several regional CNE headquarters, blocked 
roads, attacked police and military, beat up people who “looked” 
Chavista, attacked local community leaders, food distribution centers, 
public schools, hospitals, offices, ransacked warehouses, the 
transportation system, the electrical grid, all to paralyze the country. 
The US media could portray to the world a picture of national chaos, 
inviting military intervention to restore order, meaning a US 
neo-colonial regime.

These protests (as in Bolivia in 2019 and Nicaragua in 2018, Cuba in 
2021) are portrayed in the corporate media as peaceful democracy 
rallies. When police forces and mobilized Chavista organizations attempt 
to stop the violence, the corporate media charges democracy protests are 
being repressed. This has been a habitual corporate media scam in US 
regime change operations, yet people still fall for it. In fact, the 
strategy was first used in the coup against the democratic government of 
Iran in 1953.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez noted the comanditos were 
financed entirely by NGOs 
<https://en.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/news/politics/rodriguez-commandos-were-financed-under-the-guise-of-alleged-NGOs/>. 
“When the actions and financing of these groups were investigated, it 
was discovered that they were financed by organizations of dubious 
origin from Europe or by the United States Agency for International 
Development (USAID)”

Eva Golinger 
<https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/17/1730002_colored-revolutions-a-new-form-of-regime-change-made-in-usa-.html> 
wrote years ago, “Wherever a coup d’etat, a colored revolution or a 
regime change favorable to US interests occurs, USAID and its flow of 
dollars is there…The same agencies are always present, funding, training 
and advising: USAID, National Endowment for Democracy [NED], 
International Republican Institute [IRI], National Democratic Institute 
[NDI], Freedom House, Albert Einstein Institute [AEI], and International 
Center for Non-Violent Conflict [ICNC].”

*Fifth,* US coup attempts count on funding NGOs to carry out “regime 
change.” Besides the CIA-controlled USAID, NED, NDI, and IRI, NGOs 
receive millions fromOpen Society Foundations 
<https://realisticobserver.blogspot.com/2017/04/fyi-206-us-organizations-funded-by.html>, 
Ford Foundation, and others. The US uses them to buy an internal 
opposition, similar to AIPAC in the US – except here AIPAC works to 
disenfranchise we the people.

NED funds NGOs worldwide 
<https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202205/08/WS6277847fa310fd2b29e5b4c2.html> 
to incite color revolutions against those the US empire finds not 
properly subservient. Between 2016-2019 1600 NGOs 
<https://swprs.org/organizations-funded-by-the-ned/#latin-america> 
received NED grants, highlighting the value the US places on the NGO 
coup-making tool. Needless to say, the US does not tolerate foreign 
countries funding NGOs pressing for political change here.

 From 2000-2020, the US spent $250 million 
<https://orinocotribune.com/washington-openly-spent-about-250-million-in-subversive-actions-against-cuba-since-2000/> 
funding “regime change” NGOs in Cuba. Tracey Eaton wrote, “An extensive 
network of groups financed by the US government sends cash to Cuba to 
thousands of ‘democracy activists,’ journalists and dissidents every 
year.” Since 1996, the US spent $20-$45 million dollars a year to fund 
these Cuban groups. These NGOs created the CIA Cuban social media 
ZunZuneo, and even infiltrated the Cuban hip-hop scene 
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-point-to-us-hand-in-cuba-protests/277987/>, 
laying the basis for the 2021 protests.

 From 2017 through 2019, USAID admitted giving nearly $467 million 
<https://resumen-english.org/2020/01/usaid-admits-it-has-given-467-million-to-the-venezuelan-opposition-since-2017/> 
to the Venezuelan opposition. USAID committed another $128 million to US 
appointed president Juan Guaidó. In 2006, Ambassador William Brownfield 
in 2006 revealed the goals of USAID funding 
<https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06CARACAS3356_a.html>: “1) 
Strengthening Democratic Institutions, 2) Penetrating Chavez’ Political 
Base, 3) Dividing Chavismo, 4) Protecting Vital U.S. business, and 5) 
Isolating Chavez internationally.” The NED disclosed in 2010 that 
<https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5441/> agencies funded the 
opposition $40-50 million annually.

Similar US operations against Nicaragua are revealed in How 
Billion-Dollar Foundations Fund NGOs to Manipulate U.S. Foreign Policy 
<https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/06/08/how-billion-dollar-foundations-fund-ngos-to-manipulate-u-s-foreign-policy-a-case-study-from-nicaragua/>, 
In 2018, in the US attempted coup, USAID spent $24.5 million 
<https://thegrayzone.com/2020/01/23/usaid-venezuela-regime-change-trump/> 
andNED $4.1 million 
<https://www.rt.com/news/444172-us-democracy-nicaragua-protest/> to 
train and support  the opposition movement, while the Soros Foundation 
<https://dissidentvoice.org/2021/06/the-cia-attempting-coups-in-nicaragua-with-tax-dollars-through-us-agencies-and-corporate-foundations/> 
gave $6.7 million to propagate fake news.

Venezuela 
<https://orinocotribune.com/foreign-minister-gil-us-will-not-be-able-to-fund-terrorism-in-venezuela/> 
and Nicaragua 
<https://www.tortillaconsal.com/bitacora/node/4833>recently passed laws 
controlling NGOs – which the US painted as a sign of their dictatorial 
nature.


      How Venezuela Defeated this Five-Pronged Coup Attempt

The Maduro government had campaigned for months educating and warning 
the people of opposition schemes to disrupt the election, refuse to 
recognize the results, create new guarimbas, and that united popular 
action could stop this. They succeeded. The violent coup attempt on July 
29-30 failed 
<https://www.facebook.com/arnold.august.3/videos/1233030510950850>; on 
July 31 the terrorists were being rounded up, and calm restored. On 
August 3, more than half a million Chavistas marched to support 
President Maduro and peace.

Internationally, the Maduro government benefited from the considerable 
prestige it had gained standing up to everything the US rulers threw at 
it. The US has likewise lost much credibility, especially over its full 
support for the endless massacres in Gaza. It could not even get the 
subservient OAS to condemn Maduro.

Venezuela, like Cuba, has developed a strong civic-military union 
supported by thousands of voluntary militias that has been a bastion 
against the war – economic, military, propaganda, and cyberwar – against 
the country. Moreover, the Venezuelan military command, like in Cuba and 
Nicaragua, is dedicated to defending the constitutional order, denying 
US coup-plotters an opening.  A people’s militia in Bolivia, which did 
not and still does not exist, could have maintained order in October 
2019 after the police and military commands declared they would not stop 
rightwing violence.

Besides the mass civic-military union, the Venezuelan government, like 
Cuba, relies on mobilizing the people. President Maduro’s closing 
campaign rally culminated in over a million marching on July 25th.  
Right after the July 28 election, hundreds of thousands of Chavistas 
took to the streets of Caracas and other cities. This was an antidote to 
the coup attempt and violence, since these mobilizations vastly 
outnumbered the capacity of the opposition.

After 25 years of the US forcing the Chavista leadership live under 
pressure cooker conditions, it has been unable to divide them and 
overturn the revolution as it has so often elsewhere, such as Grenada, 
Burkina Faso, Algeria, the Soviet bloc, and now threatens Bolivia.

The Maduro government maintains broad popular support because of its 
commitment to the people. The oil industry was nationalized and its 
income, while curtailed due to the US blockade, benefits the people. 
Mass literacy campaigns ended illiteracy. Over 5.1 million homes have 
been built for the poor. Venezuela has become almost self-sufficient in 
food production. The CLAP program distributes discounted or free food to 
7.5  million families 
<https://orinocotribune.com/president-maduro-venezuela-produces-95-of-products-distributed-in-clap-program/> 
every month. Free health care and education through university are 
provided to all. Venezuela is overcoming the US blockade with the 
economy expected to grow 10% in 2024 
<https://orinocotribune.com/president-maduro-announces-expected-10-gdp-growth-for-venezuela-in-2024-exchange-rate-issues/>, 
and has the lowest inflation rate in 14 years. In recognition, about one 
million Venezuelans have returned home.

Chavismo defeated this coup because of its organic connection with the 
people, because of the class consciousness that has matured in its 
citizens since Hugo Chavez initiated the Bolivarian process, and because 
of the political clarity and determination of the Chavista leadership. 
Their victory is one for the peoples of the world.

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