More news that's NOT fit to print? | Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela |Axisoflogic.com

Editor's Commentary:
What follows appears to be another in a series of media stories designed to turn world opinion to a place where a US invasion of Venezuela seems justified (as if the US invading ANY country is ever justified). I have not included the video that ABC News used to illustrate their story because it is unrelated to today's events (assuming those events actually did occur) and is intended only to be inflammatory.

The story was flagged for me by co-editor Les Blough, who lives in Venezuela. He sent it with the following message:

This is another story that broke within the hour about a supposed uprising within the military, this one carried by AP and headlined in Google News.

The one I sent to our group 3 days ago was only seen in the Miami Herald, an arch enemy in the media war. Within hours of Maduro's inauguration the imperialists opened several fronts either new or old ones resurging with unprecedented force, the latter seen in wild food price increases amounting to doubling and even tripling prices within days and in some cases even the same day and 2 supermarkets in my city stripping half their shelves 4 hours after Maduro started this term in office.

This second report in 3 days on "mutiny" within the military tells me that either turning the military against Maduro (very unlikely to succeed) - or just giving that appearance/theatrics for western media consumption is their latest tactical move. A third angle is trying to force government to come down hard on these small groups of "rebels" to build cause for foreign military or paramilitary intervention.

The Miami Herald report I sent to you on the 18th about the group in Peru has come to nothing, disappeared. It was clearly staged. They appeared to be young kids either given free passage & paid for the act or were already in self-exile in Peru seeking "a better life" and we're not sure that they were active duty soldiers or even if they existed at all. We've seen enough other video fabrications in Syria and other countries to have doubts. This report on National Guardsmen is hardly any evidence of fracturing within the military as the AP/ABC report magnifies it to be. From everything we can see the armed forces are intact, solidly behind Maduro and government.

- prh, ed.

Venezuela puts down mutiny by national guard unit

Venezuela's government says it has put down a mutiny by a National Guard unit in a poor neighborhood a few miles from Venezuela's presidential palace

Venezuela's government said Monday it put down a mutiny by a National Guard unit in a poor neighborhood a few miles (kilometers) from Venezuela's presidential palace.

The uprising triggered protests in the same neighborhood, which were dispersed with tear gas as residents set fire to a street barricade of trash and chanted demands that President Nicolas Maduro leave power.

The armed forces in a statement said that it had captured all those involved in what it described as "treasonous" acts motivated by "obscure interests tied to the far right."

It said at around 2:50 a.m. (06:50 GMT), a small group of guardsmen took captive a captain in charge of a police station in western Caracas and then moved across the capital in two military trucks to the poor neighborhood of Petare, where they stole a cache of weapons from another outpost.

They met resistance and were caught hours later at a national guard outpost 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Miraflores presidential palace.
The armed forces said all the weapons had been recovered and the mutinous troops captured.

A few hours earlier, a group of heavily armed national guardsmen published a series of videos on social media saying they won't recognize President Nicolas Maduro's government, which has come under increasing domestic and international pressure over a newly launched second term that the opposition-controlled congress and many nations consider illegitimate. [Note that despite the assertion, we haven't seen any sign of these 'videos'. ABC News doesn't appear to have them since good journalism would call for the videos to accompany this article, instead of a video that is completely unrelated. prh, ed.]

In one of the videos, a man identifying himself as 3rd Sgt. Alexander Bandres Figueroa, addressing the "people of Venezuela," urges his compatriots to take to the streets to show support for their rebellion.
"You asked to take to the streets to defend the constitution, well here we are," he said in a video shot at night in which several heavily armed men and a national guard truck can be seen in the background

"You wanted us to light the fuse, so we did. We need your support," he added.

At daybreak in the adjacent neighborhood of Cotiza, a group of shirtless young men, some with their faces covered, built a barricade across the street with a burning car, heavy sewer grates and a large chunk of concrete.

An angry group of women shouted that they have lived for too long without running water.

"Freedom! Freedom!" they chanted. "Maduro has to go!"

"We must defend our homeland," Maria Fernanda Rodriguez, a 36-year-old manicurist, told The Associated Press, her eyes welling from the tear gas.

Juan Guaido, president of the congress, said the incident is a sign of growing discontent within the armed forces.

"Our military knows that the command chain is broken by the usurpation of the presidency," Guaido said in a message on Twitter in which he reiterated a promise to support all members of the armed forces working to restore Venezuela's democratic order.

Pressure has been mounting on Maduro to cede power after he began as second, six-year term this month. The U.S. and dozens of other foreign governments consider it illegitimate, in part because he banned several leading opponents from running against him.

[More than 145 countries fully support the legitimacy of Maduro's election win. To quote Axis of Logic columnist Arturo Rosales (who lives in Venezuela):

Readers of Axis of Logic should be aware that this attitude and behavior of the Venezuelan opposition with the backing of foreign powers is far from democratic. The opposition refused to participate in: the recent local council elections; in the 20 May 2018 presidential elections that were brought forward at the opposition behest; in the mayoral elections of December 2017; and refused to sign a political agreement to work for the country in the Dominican Republic in early February 2018.]

While discontent among Venezuelans is rising amid widespread food shortages and hyperinflation, Maduro is believed to have the loyalty of his top military command. In the past troops have easily put down small uprisings.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said on Twitter that those responsible for the incident would be punished with the full force of the law.

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