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<font size="1"><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/27/trump-bounty-maduro-guaido-plot/">https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/27/trump-bounty-maduro-guaido-plot/</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Trump admin’s $15 million bounty on Maduro triggers explosive confession of violent Guaidó plot</h1>March 27, 2020<br></div>
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<h3 dir="ltr">The Trump administration’s deception-laden
indictment of President Nicolas Maduro and members of his inner circle
has badly backfired, resulting in the exposure of a violent
assassination plan that could lead to the arrest of coup leader Juan
Guaidó.</h3>
<h3 dir="ltr">By Leonardo Flores</h3>
<p dir="ltr">For twenty years, right wing extremists in Miami and
Washington have been slandering the Venezuelan government, accusing it
of drug trafficking and harboring terrorists<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14509" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> without offering even a shred of evidence</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The item at the top of their wishlist was fulfilled on
March 26, when the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled indictments
against President Nicolás Maduro and 13 other current or former members
of Venezuela’s government and military.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In addition to the indictments, Attorney General William
Barr offered a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest
or conviction of Maduro, as well as $10 million rewards for Diosdado
Cabello (president of Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly), Tarek
El Aissami (vice president for the economy), Hugo Carvajal (former
director of military intelligence) and Cliver Alcalá (retired general).</p>
<p dir="ltr">The indictment has backfired already. Hours after the
announcement, Alcalá posted videos online that threaten to cause further
splits in the opposition and exposed a violent plot that could result
in the arrest of Juan Guaidó. Before going into those details, however,
it’s important to understand just how <a href="https://twitter.com/rosendo_joe/status/1243334834195517440" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">politically biased</a> the charges are against Maduro et al.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img tabindex="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/1-_qivXcWgClLTyqhOynrAiIOpSxkVDTdV9kkMTImX6QKRkDDCCHWUbtImOUlgh71Pq342S1LWVDiL7Xc64j_deXNuGScMUgHnBIePTaBpSIoWYFok5NERp-TUvnQjqFfHs8jsGF" width="624" height="473"></p>
<p dir="ltr">The myth that Venezuela is a narco-state has already been debunked by the<a href="https://www.wola.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Narcostate-Venezuela-Drug-Trafficking-Ramsey-Smilde.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Washington Office in Latin America</a> (WOLA), a think tank in Washington that generally supports US regime change operations in the region, as well as by<a href="https://fair.org/home/media-continue-to-push-misinformation-about-venezuela-and-drug-trafficking/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> FAIR</a>,<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14794" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> 15 y Último</a>,<a href="https://medium.com/@misionverdad2012/es-oficial-eeuu-terceriza-sus-operaciones-para-el-derrocamiento-de-nicol%C3%A1s-maduro-10589cf1f6f6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Misión Verdad</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1243234258531028996" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Venezuelanalysis</a>
and others. It cannot be denied that Venezuela is a transit country for
cocaine, but as the maps above and below show, less than 7% of total
drug movement from South America transits from Venezuela (the Eastern
Caribbean region includes Colombia’s Guajira Peninsula). These maps,<a href="https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/DIR-032-18%202018%20NDTA%20final%20low%20resolution.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> produced by the Drug Enforcement Agency</a> and<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-drugs-are-getting-smuggled-from-south-america-to-the-us-2017-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> U.S. Southern Command,</a> respectively, immediately raise questions as to why Venezuela is the country being targeted.</p>
<img tabindex="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/XgStB403WWFWtTXDj5pLdVCwb9hdcqwbTF5vsOJ8Elnh_GNRcd3ZpoK5RgCw0fTPuOr7SrmMOkv8worNLSPLe08vshLXGrFdJOwPUD56bnb9aOzK7Y-RfKbv4pZ_ir8rRYFLAXTf" alt="" width="624" height="413">Maritime drug flows from South America in 2017. Photo: Adam Isaacson
<p dir="ltr"> Of course, the charges have nothing to do with the drug trade; they are the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s “<a href="https://www.codepink.org/maximum_pressure_march_us_hybrid_war_on_venezuela_heats_up" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">maximum pressure March</a>.” The pretext is an alleged plot by the Venezuelan government to flood the United States with “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-remarks-press-conference-announcing-criminal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">somewhere between 200-250 metric tons of cocaine</a>.” Although that figure might seem high, it’s important to understand the context. The United States is the<a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/tocta/4.Cocaine.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> world’s biggest consumer of cocaine</a> and Colombia is the<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45578492" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> world’s biggest producer</a>. On the other hand, Venezuela<a href="https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/crop-monitoring/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> does not cultivate coca</a>,
does not produce cocaine and, according to the U.S. government’s own
figures, less than 10% of global cocaine traffic transits through the
country.</p>
<p dir="ltr">For the sake of comparison, the U.S. agencies that provided
Barr with the figure of “200-250 tons” also say that an average of
nearly 2,400 tons of cocaine flowed through Colombia between 2016 and
2019 (Venezuela averaged 216 tons – ten times less – in the same
period). Colombia’s current president, Iván Duque, is a close ally of
the country’s former president, Alvaro Uribe, who himself has<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/world/americas/colombia-uribe-drugs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> been linked to drug trafficking</a>. Almost exactly a year ago, President Trump complained that “<a href="https://colombiareports.com/drug-trafficking-from-colombia-up-since-duque-took-office-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more drugs are coming out of Colombia right now than before</a>” Duque was president, yet the U.S. continues giving millions in security aid to Colombia as part of its failed war on drugs.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The U.S double<a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/tony-hernandez-cocaine-honduras-venezuela" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> standard about narco-states</a> is not limited to Colombia. Honduras’s U.S.-backed president, Juan Orlando Hernández,<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/03/honduran-president-juan-orlando-hernandez-drug-money" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> was linked to drug trafficking in a U.S. court,</a>
yet this news did not warrant a major announcement by the DOJ,
presumably because Hernández is a U.S. ally. Another U.S. ally,
Guatemala, had<a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/beyond-the-narco-state-narrative-what-u-s-drug-trade-monitoring-data-says-about-venezuela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> six times as much cocaine flow through its territory</a> as Venezuela.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The indictments are another brick in the foundation for a
pretext for either a direct U.S. military invasion or a proxy war using
Colombian forces. There are obvious comparisons to 1989, when the U.S.
put a $1 million bounty on Panamanian president Manuel Noriega, only to
subsequently invade the country,<a href="http://elsiglo.com.pa/panama/muertos-invasion-misterio-aclarar/23829789" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> causing an estimated 4,000 deaths</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The rewards the U.S. is offering for Maduro and four others are also troubling, as they have<a href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1243247388782989312" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> already been compared to a bounty</a>.
Maduro has survived at least one assassination attempt (in August 2018
when drones laden with explosives detonated prematurely), and the
rewards could be interpreted as, at minimum, a “get out of jail free”
card should someone succeed in murdering him. On the other hand, the
rewards verify what the Venezuelan government has been saying all along:
the U.S. is offering millions of dollars for people to turn on the
country’s leadership.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Yet the Trump administration appears to have made a serious
miscalculation by including the retired General Alcalá in the
indictments. A former ally of ex-president Hugo Chávez, Alcalá joined
the opposition in 2015 and has been linked to various coup plots and
planned terror attacks since 2016. He is the highest profile former
officer to turn against Maduro and is considered the “<a href="https://www.perfil.com/noticias/internacional/alcala-el-general-que-era-chavista-y-ahora-lidera-a-los-militares-pro-guaido.phtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">leader of pro-Guaidó military personnel</a>.” Alcalá is now wanted both by the United States and by Venezuela.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Alcalá is implicated in a recent plot to attack the Maduro government. On March 24, Colombian authorities<a href="https://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/otras-ciudades/incautan-armamento-de-guerra-entre-cienaga-y-barranquilla-476388" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> seized a truck full of weapons and military equipment, including 26 assault rifles</a>, worth $500,000. Venezuelan intelligence services linked the weapons to three camps in Colombia where paramilitary groups of<a href="https://albaciudad.org/2020/03/jorge-rodriguez-3-campamentos-riohacha-colombia-arsenal-armas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Venezuelan deserters and U.S. mercenaries</a>
are training to carry out attacks against Venezuela. According to
Venezuela’s Communication Minister Jorge Rodríguez, these groups were
planning to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to attack military
units and plant bombs. He also linked the groups to Alcalá.</p>
<p dir="ltr">These allegations proved to be correct, as Alcalá, in a
video he posted online hours after the indictments, admitted that the
weapons were under his command. He further admitted that the<a href="https://twitter.com/Mision_Verdad/status/1243251030445494273" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> weapons were purchased with funds given to him by Juan Guaidó</a>,
with whom he allegedly signed a contract. Additionally, Alcala claimed
that the operation was planned by U.S. advisors, with whom he
supposedly met<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14825" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> at least seven times</a>.
Aclalá also alleged that Leopoldo López, the founder of Guaidó’s party
Voluntad Popular who was sprung from house arrest during Guaidó’s<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2019/apr/30/venezuela-opposition-leader-juan-guaido-claims-coup-underway-live-news" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> April 30 attempted insurrection</a>, had full knowledge of the terror plot.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As a result of these videos, Venezuela’s Attorney General has<a href="https://albaciudad.org/2020/03/fiscalia-venezolana-abre-investigacion-contra-guaido-y-cliver-alcala-por-intento-de-golpe-de-estado/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> opened an investigation into Juan Guaidó for an attempted coup</a>.
Despite Guaidó’s self-proclamation as president in January 2019, his
attempted insurrection in April 2019, his repeated calls for sanctions
and a military invasion, Venezuelan authorities had refrained from
moving against him. The U.S. indictments appear to have caused the
Venezuelan government to issue its strongest response to the Trump
administration’s and Guaidó’s continued provocations.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Of course, if the Trump administration were truly serious
about combating terror, corruption and drug trafficking, the first
Venezuelan they should look at ought to be Juan Guaidó. After all, he
was<a href="https://www.codepink.org/the_venezuelan_opposition_s_paramilitary_gambit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> photographed with members of the infamous Los Rastrojos drug cartel</a>,
who allegedly helped him cross into Colombia in exchange for his
turning a blind eye to the cartel’s expansion from Colombia into western
Venezuela. Guaidó’s team in Colombia<a href="https://es.panampost.com/orlando-avendano/2019/06/14/enviados-de-guaido-se-apropian-de-fondos-para-ayuda-humanitaria-en-colombia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> embezzled humanitarian aid funds</a>
and now he has been directly implicated in a terror plot, one which
presumably used money given to him by the United States (as that is his
only source of financing).</p>
<p dir="ltr">The revelations about Guaidó’s spending of U.S. funds to
buy weapons and his alleged involvement in yet another violent plot are
putting pressure on opposition figures and parties that have hinted at
wanting to participate in this year’s legislative elections but have yet
to fully commit to dialogue. A day before the U.S. indictments were
revealed, President Maduro<a href="https://albaciudad.org/2020/03/presidente-maduro-llama-a-un-dialogo-nacional-con-la-oposicion-para-combatir-pandemia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> invited several of these leaders to join a dialogue</a>
in the Apostolic Nuncio (the Vatican’s embassy in Caracas) in order to
try to reach consensus over the nation’s response to COVID-19. Now they
are faced with the difficult choice of either angering Venezuelan voters
(<a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/news/venezolanos-rechazo-sanciones-eeuu-20200224-0022.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">83% of whom reject a military option</a>) by continuing to support Guaidó’s violence or angering the United States by working with indicted government officials.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The Trump administration has been sabotaging a negotiated
solution to Venezuela’s problems for two years, including in February
2018, when it threatened an oil embargo and support for a coup during
negotiations between the government and the opposition in the Dominican
Republic, and again in August 2019, when it imposed a full embargo
during another attempt at dialogue. These new indictments, which even
the New York Times described as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/nyregion/venezuela-president-drug-trafficking-nicolas-maduro.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">highly unusual</a>”,
seemed timed to sabotage negotiations once again, as earlier in the
week members of the moderate opposition, including National Assembly
president Luis Parra, had recently urged the<a href="https://talcualdigital.com/luis-parra-pide-levantar-ineficientes-sanciones-para-afrontar-crisis-por-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> U.S. to lift the sanctions due to the coronavirus pandemic</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Yet another blunder with the indictments is that the Trump
administration is sending contradictory messages. On the one hand, they
have spent three years urging high level Venezuelan government and
military officials to defect, promising space to operate politically
after a transition government comes into power. On the other, they
indicted the most high-profile member of the military who has defected,
Cliver Alcalá, on serious charges of narcoterrorism.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The brazenness of the indictments in attempting to cast
Venezuela as a narco-state, the lack of foresight regarding possible
repercussions, the attempted sabotage of dialogue and the mixed
messaging are all signals that the Trump administration is desperate to
ensure its regime change policy shows results. The victims of this
policy are the Venezuelan people, who would be much better off with a
policy of de-escalation, dialogue and a removal of the deadly sanctions.</p>
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