A war with Venezuela would jack up the price of oil for
Exxon Mobil, Gazprom & Koch brothers.
The corporate news would fawn over
Trump's leadership and defense contractors could have their "shock and
awe".
All pipeline construction will be accelerated.
Get ready.
------------------------------------
"There
is no U.S. economic blocked on Venezuela. Yet the economy of a rich nation is
in shambles, because the Maduro government has given away your oil and much of
your sovereignty to Cuba," said Rubio, who is fluent in Spanish.
'For
Nicolás Maduro, who I am sure is watching, the current path you are on will not
end well for you.'
The address,
taped in Washington, aired on Globovisión, which is expected to continue
playing the speech Tuesday.
Hours after
the speech's initial airing, Venezuelan state security agents took two
political prisoners who were under house arrest into custody.
On Sunday, Maduro's government
carried out a violent-marred election widely seen as fraudulent for a new
all-powerful constituent assembly...
Rubio noted
in a Tuesday statement that Vice President Mike Pence had spoken to one of the prisoners,
high-profile opposition leader Leopoldo López, by phone Friday. The other
prisoner is former Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma.
'There
should be no doubt that his arrest is a direct challenge to President
Trump," Rubio said."
MORE AT:
--------------------------------
CNN
Updated 10:17 PM ET, Mon July 31, 2017
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General John F. Kelly United States Marine
Corps Commander, U.S. Southern Command:
"For years, Kelly has been asking
Congress for more money for SOUTHCOM.
In July of 2014, he told Defense One that
“near collapse of societies in the hemisphere with the associated drug and
[undocumented immigrant] flow” were existential threats. “If the average
American doing a little blow on the weekends thinking there is no harm in it
knew the harm is it results in countries being destroyed,” he said, things may
change. As it is, “We don’t get very many assets.”
A number of countries in the
region are seeking intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance resources
elsewhere, turning to Israel, Russia and China for drones.
The Middle East’s wars still
touched his region, but Kelly said claims that terrorist groups such as ISIS
are taking advantage of the instability to infiltrate either the U.S. or its
backyard are divorced from reality. Officials have observed a slight increase
in recruits travelling to Syria — from roughly 100 last year to 150 or so, Kelly
estimated — but he downplayed the danger. His concern now, he said, was ISIS’s
encouragement for recruits to stay home — so-called “lone wolf” attacks.
'It seems like the Islamic
extremists and terrorists have shifted a lot of their message, and that is,
‘Hey, rather than come to Syria, why don’t you stay at home and do San
Bernardino, or do Boston, or do Fort Hood,’” he said. 'Even just a few of these
nuts can cause an awful lot of trouble in the Caribbean.”
MORE AT:
Here’s What America’s Longest-Serving General Most Fears
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"Venezuela’s political chaos, violence and a full-blown economic depression risks taking down one of Russia’s most important allies in the Western Hemisphere.
Years of high oil prices and a pro-Kremlin government brought billions of dollars worth of Russian investment and military sales into the country — which now gives Venezuela one of the most capable air forces in Latin America.
While China has hedged its bets and reached out to Venezuela’s opposition, Russia remains closely tied to the government, such as via the oil industry. Were the crisis to deteriorate further, Russia could not intervene to the same extent as it did in Syria due in large part because of distance.
Nevertheless, the possibility of a total Venezuelan collapse is gaining attention in the Russian military press. One noteworthy recent article by Konstantin Strigunov in the July 2017 of Voenno-promyshlennyi kur’er, or Military-Industrial Courier, an influential Russian journal covering military affairs, sketches out options in a hypothetical Venezuelan civil war."
MORE AT
The National Interest
July 30, 2017
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The Russian military armed Venezuela when oil prices were high.
Oil prices have collapsed making tough times for Russia Gazprom, Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries.
A war that would skyrocket oil prices makes sense for both Trump and Putin.
And General John F. Kelly United States Marine Corps former Commander of the Southern Command is now Chief of Staff of the Trump Administration.
