Trump Administration “listening” in Venezuela
[Headline from DRJ]
AP Exclusive: US talks secretly to Venezuela socialist boss
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The U.S. has opened up secret communications with Venezuela’s socialist party boss as members of President Nicolás Maduro’s inner circle seek guarantees they won’t face retribution if they cede to growing demands to remove him, a senior U.S. administration official has told The Associated Press.
Diosdado Cabello, who is considered the most-powerful man in Venezuela after Maduro, met last month in Caracas with someone who is in close contact with the Trump administration, said the official. A second meeting is in the works but has not yet taken place.
[…]
The administration official said that under no circumstances is the U.S. looking to prop up Cabello or pave the way for him to substitute Maduro. Instead, the goal of the outreach is to ratchet up pressure on the regime by contributing to the knife fight the U.S. believes is taking place behind the scenes among competing circles of power within the ruling party.
Similar contacts exist with other top Venezuelan insiders, the official said, and the U.S. is in a listening mode to hear what it would take for them to betray Maduro and support a transition plan.
I thought this is what the CIA or the local embassy does, while Administrations try to avoid inconvenient entanglements.
— DRJ
I have also seen that movie.
nk (dbc370) — 8/18/2019 @ 8:35 pmI do not know what the US could have done or should have done, but the resolution in Venezuela could hardly be worse. A Communist dictatorship is established. The populace are starving to death or fleeing. Cuba and Russia will control Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Ugh!
David in Cal (0d5a1d) — 8/18/2019 @ 8:54 pmLike JFK avoided plotting the overthrown of Diem?
Kevin M (21ca15) — 8/18/2019 @ 9:13 pmDavid in Cal (0d5a1d) — 8/18/2019 @ 8:54 pm
Yeah, I wanna see Cuba exploit those oilfields after a couple decades of communist “maintenance.”
Kevin M (21ca15) — 8/18/2019 @ 9:18 pmIf your a deplorable like me, the last group of hacks you would trust would be the CIA.
mg (8cbc69) — 8/19/2019 @ 4:27 amThey’re talking to the wrong people.
They need to be talking to the Cubans surrounding Maduro.
Sammy Finkelman (6a3404) — 8/19/2019 @ 7:23 amwell lucein conein, who later headed the dea taskforce, did manage the plot, he says if he had been in charge Watergate would have succeeded,
narciso (d1f714) — 8/19/2019 @ 2:55 pm