CIA
Director Pompeo’s latest conspiracy theory: Venezuela crisis because of RUSSIA!
He
also falsely accused Iran, Cuba and the Lebanese party Hezbollah of operating
in Venezuela.

For
most people, the Venezuela crisis is about the political tensions between the
popularly elected socialist President Nicolas Maduro and the legislature which
backs him, the Constituent Assembly. The executive and Constituent Assembly are
in conflict with the pro-US National Assembly whose powers have been reduced
after Venezuela’s Supreme Court discovered voting irregularities in the 2015
election. Because of this protesters who are strongly backed and funded by the
United States and US based NGOs have been engaged in violent protests and even
a small terrorist operation against the government.
But
CIA Director Mike Pompeo feels otherwise. For him it is because of RUSSIA, CUBA, IRAN and HEZBOLLAH!
In
a recent interview, Pompeo stated,
“Venezuela
could very much become a risk for the United States of America. The Cubans are
there; the Russians are there, the Iranians, Hezbollah are there. This is
something that has a risk of getting to a very very bad place, so America needs
to take this very seriously”.
Let’s
break down this patent absurdity point by point.
1.
Russia
Russia
has healthy, normal relations with Venezuela. In October of 2016, the
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro awarded President Putin the first
ever Hugo Chavez Peace Prize.
Russia
and Venezuela are both energy producers, but unlike Venezuela, Russia is not in
OPEC. Apart from that, Russia maintains an embassy in Caracas and normal
bilateral relations.
2.
Cuba
Although
the Marxist-Leninism of the Castros is not identical to the Bolivarian
Socialism of Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro, Cuba has tended to
give strong political backing to a fellow left-wing country. Cuba no longer has
a Russian military base on its soil but it does still have a very controversial
US base at Guantanamo Bay.
Cuba
maintains good fraternal relations with Venezuela, but Cuba is in no position
to assist Venezuela even if it wanted to. Venezuela due to its oil is a far
richer country than the small island of Cuba.
3.
Iran
Iran
and Venezuela maintain healthy bilateral relations. Both states are members of
OPEC and both states have frequently been the target of US military threats.
Iran’s
military however limits itself to the Middle East where it is fighting
terrorism in Syria at the behest of the Syrian government.
There
is no contingent of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Caracas and there
probably never will be. The only Iranians in Venezuela are those in the embassy
as well as the occasional international businessman.
4.
Hezbollah
The
Lebanese political party Hezbollah has literally nothing to do with Venezuela.
Hezbollah is not an international organisation but a Lebanese one whose armed
resistance wing primarily acts to secure southern Lebanon and has more recently
helped Syria in its fight against groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda.
The
only remote connection between Venezuela and Lebanon is the fact
that Tareck El Aissami, the current Vice President of Venezuela has a Lebanese
mother and a Syrian father.
His
Druze father was involved in the secular socialist Ba’ath party in the Middle
East but not with the primarily Shi’a group Hezbollah.
Apart
from this, Venezuela’s connection to the Middle East is limited to the fact that
the Venezuelan left strongly supporters Palestine.
Mike
Pompeo has yet again shown his penchant for wild conspiracies.
His
previous conspiracy theories include stating that Russia rigged the elections
in the US where Barack Obama won, that Julian Assange would have been a Nazi in
a past life, RT and Sputnik prevent Russia from going to war and this is bad,
RT runs Wikileaks.
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