The Colonels Corner Corporate Coup (Venezuela) Part 10

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Transcript

0:00 How are you today, SR? I'm doing great, Colonel. How about yourself? Fantastic. Okay. Hopefully you saw that article I sent you or posted in X about the Columbia President Gustavo and his complaint about his boats being blown up. I have not. I'll look for it at the end.

0:36 I've been reading my thousand page expose on drugs. So sitting out in the sun now that our winter's over. We had 24 hour winter here. So I'm getting recharged in the sun. And I assume Bridget's going to be here any minute. But I did want to go ahead and give her a shout out.

1:07 She recommended this Knudsen morning blend juice drink that's organic. And I got to tell you, it's amazing. Now I've had, it's spelled K-N-U-D-S-E-N. I've had their juice before, but this is amazing. Kind of reminds me of like the,

1:36 So baby food, like the apricot baby food, there's no apricots in it. But for some reason, the first drink that I took reminded me of that. I used to add baby foods, specifically banana to my steel cut oatmeal when I used to lift weights way back in the day.

2:00 I ate way more than my fair share of baby food as an adult by mixing it with oatmeal. It's actually amazing. It's more healthy than that instant oatmeal like from Quaker Oats or whatever. But you get the same taste, only healthy. Because you use real oats and real food if you buy the organic baby food. So if you've never tried it in your...

2:29 interested in something that's healthy for you, I highly suggest it because I loved it. Haven't done it in a long time, but I don't lift weights anymore either. So anyway, now that we're off on those personal stories, this chapter is jaw-dropping. Just not to us, but kind of like a stake in the heart of the international syndicate. So let's get started.

2:56 We talked throughout this the first several chapters of this book about the guy named Carlos Vecchio and his role in the fake government of Juan Guaido. We're going to go into a little bit more depth on that during this chapter. So on the afternoon of May 1st, one day following Guaido's military fake.

3:25 standing in the middle of the streets at Caracas where no one showed up, Carlos Vecchio marched down the 13th Street in Washington, D.C., upscale Georgetown District, prepared for a coup of his own in Washington, D.C., on behalf of Guaido. He was acting as...

3:59 Guaido's quote-unquote ambassador in Washington, D.C. Vecchio was on a mission to complete his shadow regime takeover of the Venezuelan government buildings in the United States, though the U.S. authorities had previously aided his seizure of the Venezuelan D.C. military attaché's office and that of the New York City consulate.

4:28 The country's embassy in Washington, D.C. represented Vecchio's ultimate prize. Situated on Georgetown's scenic Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the Diplomatic Command and Control Center was officially vacated on April 21st when Washington kicked Maduro's U.S.-based diplomats out of the country. At the time, Vecchio's ascent

4:57 to the ambassador's office seemed inevitable. And it would have been, had it not been for a group of U.S. peace activists who mounted an extraordinary defense of the compound. Venezuelan's Embassy Protection Collective was born as a response of Vecchio's capture of the Venezuelan's diplomatic offices during the March timeframe.

5:24 When he had taken over the military attaché's office, they could see the handwriting on the wall. It was conceptualized by Media Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war organization Code Pink. The EPC's strategy was guided by the international diplomatic law that stipulated embassy property was invulnerable.

5:54 and that agents of the receiving state may not enter them except with the consent of the head of the mission. In other words, authorities in Washington could not enter the Venezuelan U.S. Embassy without permission from the Maduro's government. We saw the coup government as able to take over the military attaché building in Georgetown, and they were able to do that in New York.

6:24 Although it was empty, Benjamin said she recalled her decision to approach the Venezuelans UN mission in New York City with a creative pitch. I said, this is terrible. We got to do something about it. So I put forward an idea. Peace activists could start staying in the embassy and protecting it. When Benjamin.

6:54 tweeted an image of herself lounging on the couch within the embassy on the morning of March 20th, she officially kicked off a slumber party that turned into John Bolton's worst nightmare. Slept overnight in the D.C. Venezuelan embassy when we heard opposition might try to take it over, she announced on Twitter.

7:19 For the next eight weeks, the anti-war activists from all corners of the U.S. convened around Washington to join Benjamin's defense of the embassy. In the early days, the EPC converted the four-story Georgian-styled building into a festival ground for anti-war movement, working their jobs at embassy desks by day and hosting teach-ins and concerts in the event hall at night.

7:46 By simply maintaining a constant presence inside the building at the invitation of the Venezuelans' actual government, the EPC forced Washington's hand. Would U.S. authorities violate international law in order to enter the embassy, arrest nonviolent U.S. citizens gathered inside, and turn the building over to an unelected coup regime that they had recognized as the fake government?

8:15 The carnival-like atmosphere at the embassy came to an abrupt halt on April 30th, the day of Guaido's failed military revolt. In coordination with his coup regime effort to ignite an insurrection in Caracas, Vecchio summoned their supporters among the U.S. Venezuelan expat community to Georgetown. Upon their arrival,

8:41 from the Washington area suburbs in South Florida. This group of people promptly transformed the streets outside the embassy into an autonomous zone of chaos. Acting as stormtroopers for the U.S. State Department, they pitched tents along the mission's perimeter, established a 24-hour guard at each of the entry points,

9:09 After setting up their encampment, an act U.S. authorities would have never permitted on the grounds of any foreign embassy, the mob proceeded to block food and other supplies from entering the building. They blasted Bluetooth speaker music during all hours. Vecchio's infantrymen aimed to force the EPG's surrender through an intimidation campaign.

9:42 The siege was an effort to terrorize us to leave. Kevin Zeese, a veteran U.S. peace activist who led the organization, later reflected, I think the government was very insecure about going into the embassy and violating international law. So they were going to use this mob to frighten us. When I entered the embassy on afternoon, and this is Anya talking, on the afternoon of May 1st,

10:11 I had no idea that I would remain inside the building for the next 10 days, hostage of an aggressive expatriate class that appeared to enjoy total immunity from the law. In plain sight of Secret Service agents deployed to the property, Vecchio's gang spent roughly two weeks violently assailing any supporter who got close to the building and attempted to deliver food.

10:40 To prevent us from sleeping, they banged on pots and pans, blared air horns, and trumpeted whistles from sunup to sundown, only taking a respite from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and only after local residents complained about the noise ordinance. They smashed embassy windows, they removed its garage door, and were even

11:08 filmed physically blocking the postman's access to the compound, which is a federal crime. Though international diplomatic law stipulated that it was the responsibility of the Secret Service to prevent damage to the embassy, they looked on and never arrested anyone damaging the embassy. After days of harassment and intimidation, failed to dislodge the people,

11:39 Becchio and his allies in Washington successfully pressured D.C.'s local utility company to cut the electricity, which again, they're not allowed to do. By May 11th, a mystery assailant had even severed the water line, which again is illegal. For those of us inside, the experience felt like a dream, especially when.

12:05 We became acquainted with hunger and the lightheadedness that accompanies it. We had no idea how long the confrontation would last, but we were prepared to stay in the compound. The EPC participant and licensed medical practitioner, Margaret Flowers, even calculated the minimum number of calories we needed to consume. They would eat one piece of bread with peanut butter on it.

12:34 in the morning and another one at night. A retired nurse who had traveled from San Francisco to defend the embassy and eventually took on the role of overseeing security inside the complex. Aside from the hunger pains, life in the embassy was not that bad. In addition, besides having no electricity and no water, aside from the reassuring company of friends, the compound provided extremely livable quarters with a kitchen, showers,

13:04 until they didn't work, and plenty of offices to serve as temporary bedrooms. There was a library with hundreds of books. Our goal was to remain inside the building until the U.S. and Venezuela established a mutual protecting power agreement that would allow a third country to come in and oversee the operations inside the embassy. For a time, it seemed the deal was imminent.

13:29 We were informed that Turkey had agreed to take over Venezuela's diplomatic offices and that the U.S. had entrusted its Caracas embassy to Switzerland. Two days after the water was shut off, however, Secret Service posted a notice on the embassy's front door informing us that Gestapo Tari, Guaido's OAS envoy, had formally ordered us to vacate the building.

13:59 which again, he had no authority to do. By then, only Kevin, Margaret, David, journalist Alex Rubenstein, and American University professor Adrian Pine remained inside. Unwilling to risk arrest, Alex and I exited the building on the afternoon of May 13th. Less than 36 hours later, two dozen federal U.S. agents with

14:30 Flak vest, night vision goggles, looking like they were going to raid the Bin Laden complex, took a battering ram to the door and arrested the four remaining people. Carlos Vecchio's first official act as Guaido's representative in Washington, D.C., was to beseech U.S. officials to violate his country's sovereignty. Days before the arrest, APC's Final Four.

15:00 Vecchio staffs in a dispatch to the State Department formally requesting that it support their effort to take physical occupancy of the Venezuelans U.S. diplomatic compound. In the April 26th letter, which was obtained later, Vecchio even provided his consent for U.S. agents to enter the building, temporarily waived any legal authority.

15:29 and vowed not to pursue charges against any U.S. agents that damaged any of the property. Vecchio's mission, which openly flaunted his obedience to U.S. authorities in absolute disregard for Venezuela's independence, offered to perfect distillation of the coup regime that he represented. Just as Vecchio's takeover of the Venezuelan D.C. embassy

15:56 was only made possible by U.S. Secret Service by May 2019. It was clear that Guaido and his band of activists would only come to power in Caracas on the back of U.S. tanks. Though Guaido served as the official face in Washington, during his time embedded with the FEPC,

16:24 Anya realized that lesser-known figures such as Vecchio were the plot's true power players. As she ventured to learn more about Guaido's team, enlisting the help of Caracas-based friends and colleagues, she discovered that Vecchio's past unveiled the true nature of the Venezuelan-U.S.-backed opposition. Throughout the struggle for the embassy, the clean-cut, unquestionable operative established himself as the leader.

16:55 of Venezuela's expat community. Though he clearly enjoyed basking in the admiration, earnestly shaking his hands and posing for photographs, Vecchio had not set out for life in politics. Instead, he spent his early days of his career as a corporate tax lawyer, rising in the ranks of Venezuela's oil industry, first providing legal counsel,

17:24 to Mobil before it merged with Exxon, and then moving to the country's state oil company, Petrolis, which has the initials PDBSA. Like other leading figures in the opposition, Vecchio belonged to the replacement generation of pro-U.S. Venezuelan elites that had watched their fortunes disappear following the Chavez revolution.

17:53 ever since he and others among the scorned ruling class had colluded with Washington to reassert U.S. corporate interest in Venezuela in the ill-fated effort culminating in Guaido's self-declared presidency. Around the time of Chavez's inauguration in February of 1999, Vecchio left Venezuela to pursue a Fulbright scholarship in the U.S.

18:21 Now, we've talked about the Fulbright Scholarship, which is kind of like the U.S. version of the Oxford Scholarship for people in which the CIA used to recruit foreigners into their ranks. According to the 2018 memoir, U.S. operatives plucked the young lawyer right out of Mobile's corporate office after he aced an interview with U.S. Embassy staff in Caracas.

18:49 And who exactly would that embassy staff be besides the CIA and Caracas? Vecchio recalls that during his Fulbright audition, U.S. officials were particularly keen to know what he would do if he were the Venezuelan finance minister. So interested, in fact, that it was the only question they allowed him to answer in Spanish.

19:16 Though Vecchio did not disclose the content of his reply, the State Department apparently found it worthy of a full-ride scholarship to study English and tax law in Georgetown University, which, of course, is a favorite CIA recruiting ground as well.

19:38 Vecchio continued his journey through the U.S. Ivy League circuit after graduating from Georgetown, pursuing a degree in public administration at the boot camp for neoliberal thought leaders, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, which is where one of the places, Harvard is the same place that Kissinger had his CIA front institution as well.

20:07 The Kennedy School is home to notable officials, including U.S. Treasury Secretary and architect of President Bill Clinton's austerity policy, Larry Summers, ex-Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and ex-Columbian President Juan Manuel Santos. So it's a gathering place for people that the CIA stick in charge of countries.

20:39 Also found there is Obama's U.N. secretary, Samantha Powers, who also served as Joe Biden's USAID regime change administrator. Meanwhile, Ricardo Haasman, that's a name we're going to hear quite a bit. Haasman was a pre-revolution.

21:09 Venezuelan official who served as a prominent member of Guaido's coup regime, directs an entire center at the Harvard Kennedy Business School dedicated to mapping out international capitalist growth trends. He's the economist that goes around the world citing new...

21:36 resources that the international syndicate can set their sights on and send their CIA and USAID regime change crew in to overthrow the government if they can't peacefully convince the country's government on turning over their resources. He's kind of the motor that puts the vehicle in motion. For Budding,

22:06 bureaucrats aspiring to command influence in Washington and U.S.-aligned foreign capital, Harvard's Kennedy School is both a rite of passage en route to the halls of power and a comfortable place to land once your party's not in power anymore. For Vecchio, it was the training ground for his eventual return to Venezuela, where he and his U.S. government sponsors aimed to overthrow Chavez and restore Caracas's compliant, pro-corporate,

22:36 Washington consensus and return their oil to U.S. control. He reflected that while at Harvard, he learned a lot more about the best political practices and how they could be used in his country. As Vecchio drilled English grammar and tax law in the United States, his home country underwent a profound political change.

23:04 In 1999, Venezuelans voted to approve a new constitution that redefined their system of government, drastically expanding social programs and classified basic services such as housing, health care and higher education, a guaranteed right. Which, again, I think is hilarious because you would think all of the Democrats in our country would absolutely love that and want to hold that up as a.

23:32 because that's what they want here. Yet before Chavez could escalate his transformation of Venezuela, he would have to win a fresh mandate under the country's updated constitution. When an election was set for November 2000, the United States and its allies in the Venezuelan oligarchy were presented with their first chance to stall the winds of revolution, leading the charge to undermine Venezuela's 2000 vote.

24:02 was a U.S.-backed activist, Elias Santana, whom Vecchio met while studying at Harvard. Santana had been pocketing paychecks from Washington since 1993. His organization, We Want to Choose, partnered with U.S. government to promote voter education programs, those are in air quotes, in Venezuela. That year, the State Department funded

24:33 International Foundation for Electoral Systems declared that Cuermos Aligar was a worthy recipient of U.S. funding because it was part of an agenda that advocated a greater role for the private sector in the solution of community and national problems. You know, don't do what Chavez wants to do.

25:01 Even though at home, it's exactly what the Democrats tell you they want to do. As Chavez gained popularity and overturned the pro-corporate agenda, Washington and Santana launched an active campaign to sabotage his leadership at every turn. In fact, during the 1998 presidential vote that saw Chavez's initial victory, a public survey circulated by Cuermos Eligar.

25:29 openly thanked the U.S.-backed Inter-American Development Bank for funding its production, which works hand-in-hand with USAID. Santana ran a failed effort to halt Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly process the following year that was working on their new constitution. He then set his sight on subverting the November 2000 election.

26:00 And according to Latin American researcher Richard Lawlander, Santana and his Quirimos Aligar colleagues played important roles opposing the vote and were even called to the Supreme Court as voices of Venezuela's civil society to present arguments for its postponement. Like his previous U.S.-backed endeavors,

26:30 Santana's bid to impair Venezuela's revolutionary momentum failed. Chavez won nearly 60% of the votes in the November 2000 election, securing a new term under Venezuela's new constitution. He then endeavored to revamp the national education system, immediately issuing a presidential decree that expanded public schooling.

26:58 and established a joint venture to fund sports and literacy programs for Venezuelan youth. For his political rivals, Chavez's open partnership with other countries that they viewed as less desirable, to include Cuba, was a red line. When Caracas erupted with protests denouncing the Venezuelan educational reform,

27:25 The first sustained phase of civil revolt against Chavez had finally arrived. With its prior efforts to stop Chavez in its tracks, Santana quickly materialized at the uprising's forefront. Chavez tried to mess with our schools and civil society, he proclaimed. He informed the Associated Press in January of 2001 during a demonstration.

27:57 that this was the largest protest against President Chavez to date. Known as Movement 1.011, the street campaign heated up just as Vecchio's studies in the U.S. wound to a close. Near the end of his time at Harvard, the young lawyer accepted Santana's invitation to participate in this movement.

28:26 of demonstrations in Caracas that would forever change the course of his career. Having received his first taste of U.S. taxpayer gravy train training, driving opposition to Chavez's government, Vecchio writes upon his return to Venezuela after graduation, Elias was the first one I called, fresh off Harvard's campus.

28:51 Vecchio thus began his ascent into the clandestine network of U.S.-funded civil society groups opposing Chavez by any means necessary. Their offensive reached a head in April of 2002 when Chavez initiated a complete overhaul of the country's state oil company, replacing the entire board and triggering a backlash.

29:19 The events of April 11, 2002 was well established in popular history in response to the shakeup at the state-run oil company. Venezuela's business elite collaborated with rogue military forces to kidnap Chavez and detain him on a prison island. The oligarchy then drafted a document that temporarily installed Pedro Camona, leader of the Venezuela's equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce.

29:48 as the head of the national transition government. So Guaido wasn't their first attempted fake coup. The document, known as the Carmona Decree, established a de facto dictatorship and dissolved Venezuela's newly formed National Assembly and its Supreme Court. It suspended powers of local government officials and completely voided their 1999 constitution.

30:16 Nothing says democracy like getting rid of the Constitution. For several hours, Western media celebrated Chavez's coup. The New York Times even printed a glowing profile of Kimona, the Chamber of Commerce guy, within hours of the coup, legitimizing his leadership as Venezuela's new government. In one day, the man in charge in the presidential palace went from

30:45 A strong-willed populist known for his rambling speeches to a mild-mannered businessman who occasionally chooses every word very carefully. The paper read, the Times ran an official staff op-ed rejoicing, actually called it Venezuelan democracy. It said that Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator. Doesn't that sound like what's going on with Trump?

31:17 Almost exactly. Since the military intervened and handed power to a respectable business leader. What? Yes, thanks to the intervention by the country's U.S. aligned armed forces, Venezuelan democracy was no longer threatened by a president who had actually won the election. They just installed a dictatorship, call it a democracy, you know, like we've seen all over the world. Exact same thing.

31:46 Regardless of the Times' opinion on the matter, the Venezuelan public moved swiftly to reject the overthrow of their government. Throughout the country, masses of people poured into the streets to demand the president's freedom. As the popular mobilization swelled, pro-Chavez presidential guard troops waged a successful fight to retake the seat of power in Caracas.

32:12 Just after midnight on April 13th, a military helicopter returned Chavez to the cheers of his supporters outside the presidential palace. To Venezuelans' overwhelming Catholic population, Chavez's comeback mirrored something like a resurrection and a defeat of the U.S. interventionalists.

32:37 It had failed in less than 48 hours. Diplomatic sources at the OAS in Washington eventually charged U.S. officials with directing the plot, revealing to The Guardian, quote, Venezuelans plotting a coup included Carmona himself, unquote. He had personally visited the White House to coordinate its launch.

33:05 Serving as a crucial figure overseeing a scheme from his post on Bush Jr.'s national security team was none other than Elliott Abrams, the same guy that John Bolton used in 2019 to do the exact same thing. The guy just keeps coming back. Dovecchio was officially employed.

33:32 As a lawyer for a private oil industry at the time, he and Santana managed to leave their mark on the U.S.-directed coup. Just three months prior to the short-lived coup in January of 2002, the pair co-founded a Caracas-based quote-unquote civil society group called Active Citizenry. When the oligarchs moved to El Chavez in April,

34:01 Active citizenry wasted no time backing the fake government that had replaced him. As Venezuela's elected president languished offshore, one of their active citizenry co-founders, Rocio, I don't know how you say this last name, G-U-I-J-A-R-R-O.

34:32 rushed to endorse the now infamous Carmona decree, physically signing the document as an official representative of this active citizenry Venezuelan civil society organization. Though they achieved little more than their own embarrassment in signing that decree, groups like active citizenry announced themselves as willing partners in a U.S. destabilization plot.

35:02 As the State Department set out to expand its soft power operation in the coup's immediate aftermath, a list of Carmona decree signatures provided a useful roster of people that were involved in the coup. Where covert U.S.-backed insurrectionists are concerned, USAID's Office of Transition Initiative is ubiquitous.

35:31 Aptly named to describe its mission to foment transitions of formerly independent countries into colonial possessions, USAID established its Global Office of Transition Initiatives in 1994. And we've talked about this organization. It's just another USAID Office of Public Safety.

35:56 Office of Transition. It's like the millennial challenge. They're all used to fund overthrows. According to USAID's website, the Office of Transition Initiatives, quote, supports U.S. foreign policy objectives, unquote, by providing assistance targeted at key political transitions and stabilization needs.

36:23 Read that as destabilization needs of the U.S. government through its international offices and sponsors of over 1,700 activities around the world with your U.S. taxpayer dollars. In other words, the Office of Transition Initiative was tasked with financing and grooming nominally non-government organizations and media outlets.

36:54 outlets to align with Washington's interest abroad. Operating under the guise of an organic grassroot movement, Office of Transition Initiative partners ultimately serve the State Department's street muscle in foreign capitals, leading anti-government protest campaigns from Damascus to Kiev. Four months following Washington's unsuccessful April 2002 attempt to force a transition in Venezuela,

37:23 USAID opened an OTI branch in Caracas and began doling out tons of your taxpayer dollars to fund further chaos. To identify organizations fit for the task, OTI contracted Development Alternatives Incorporated. And I've talked about this on Alpha Show probably two or three different times. DAI. It's a CIA front. It's a private.

37:54 DC-based firm that routinely rakes in federal contracts from the State Department and the Pentagon. So it's not private at all. It's funded with our taxpayer dollars almost exclusively. But it does provide a way for vested commercial interests, you know, like Exxon, to make contributions privately. So you don't know about your taxpayer dollars being mixed with oligarchs' money.

38:23 to overthrow governments. Leading DAI's Venezuela team was none other than Vecchio's former Georgetown roommate, Antonio Iskander. As luck would have it, the OTI quickly selected Vecchio's organization, Active Citizenry, as one of its first beneficiaries of its multi-million dollar initiative in Caracas.

38:55 So he was the first subcontractor of the continuing destabilization, hopefully regime change, coming. The young Maria Corino Macedo, the one that just won the Peace Prize, yeah, she's in there too. She signed the Camara Decree, identifying herself as

39:27 part of an actual insurrection in Venezuela. She also wound up on Washington's payroll that year when her organization, Sumate, scored a $53,400 handout from the U.S.-backed National Endowment for Democracy. When the U.S. government initiated the next plot to overthrow Chavez, the

39:58 active citizen, is that the name of it? Active citizenry and Sumatres labored to ensure Washington achieved a return on their investment. So here we are just funding coup people, insurrections, while the same people are all in Washington, D.C. screaming that we're insurrectionists because we all called out a fake election. They're actually funding coups all over the world.

40:26 In 2004, Venezuela's opposition introduced a petition to subject Chavez to a recall, an effort that required over 2 million signatures to succeed. Active citizenry in Sumatra led the drive to collect signatures, eventually gathering enough to schedule an August referendum on Chavez's leadership. So they're not done cooing Venezuela.

40:56 We're up to like three or four at this point. A record number of Venezuelans participated in the recall, which delivered a resounding no vote by a 16% margin. Lines at the poll were so long, in fact, that voting hours had to be extended twice. Despite the active citizenry and Sumatra's best efforts, Chavez would remain undefeated at the polls until 2007. By then,

41:29 Vacchio had established a lucrative career with ExxonMobil in Venezuela while moonlighting as a U.S.-backed civil society activist. His path was upended that June when Chavez drove ExxonMobil out of Venezuela as part of his effort to nationalize the oil. It was then that Vacchio emerged as the informal spokesperson for Exxon and all other foreign oil giants impacted.

41:59 I will be fired, Vecchio said. The government will discriminate against me, he said. By then, Vecchio had been mounting a fruitless legal challenge against Chavez's effort to restructure Venezuelan's oil sector for years. After losing his cushy post being on the payroll of ExxonMobil,

42:24 Battling the Venezuelan government on behalf of his multinational corporation, Vecchio then turned politics, announcing his bid to run for mayor in eastern Caracas' wealthy municipality. Though his candidacy flopped, even the wealthy oligarchs didn't want him. It was during his mayoral campaign that Vecchio first met Leopoldo Lopez.

42:54 the guy we've talked about many times in this book. He was the aristocratic poster boy for Venezuela's U.S.-backed opposition. In Vecchio's words, he actually wrote this in 2018, he and Lopez swiftly became political brothers. Their friendship would leave Venezuela's pro-U.S. opposition bloc forever changed and deliver Chavez's first official defeat at the ballot box.

43:23 In August 2007. And by this time, guys, we've spent tens, hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuela. In media and protests. And they've been under assault nonstop during this entire process. With all kinds of crazy things that would have never been allowed in a dictatorship. But somehow USAID was free to operate there, even though we've all been told that.

43:52 It's been a dictatorship for a long time. Then how is USAID even there? How is any of these people not in jail? Small questions. Okay. In August 2007, Chavez introduced a proposal to amend 32 articles of the Constitution, having won a third landslide victory the previous year that solidified his mandate.

44:23 Chavez aimed to redirect the momentum behind his re-election to codify the social gains made across the decade since he was first elected. As detailed in Chapter 4, voters shot down the proposal following a months-long foreign-backed street riot led by a group of students named Generation 2007, which was funded by us.

44:52 Heralded in the press as the greatest threat to Chavez's continued reign, Generation 2007 was not a natural phenomenon. Under the command of Vecchio's Georgetown roommate, USAID had actively trained and funded the movement's student leaders throughout Caracas's, funded by the Office of Transition Initiatives.

45:18 Meanwhile, USAID contracted the tax lawyer's own civil society, Active Citizenry, to produce informational handouts critical of Chavez's proposal in the lead up to the vote. After scoring the opposition's and Washington's first victory against Chavez since 1998's inception,

45:43 Vecchio says he and Lopez began to see themselves as leaders of a political organization instead of a movement. By 2009, the dual formally emerged their energy of generation 2007 with Venezuela's covert network of foreign backed NGOs to form an official political party. And this people are this. This is the.

46:13 grandchild of the political warfare cadre academy that we first talked about years ago in Taiwan. You set up these grassroots fake efforts to overthrow a government and then you slap on a political party name to a foreign-backed opposition calling it a political party.

46:39 And even though they're literally insurrectionists, they are people funded by a foreign government trying to overthrow their government on behalf of that foreign government. As long as they call themselves a political party, the U.S. CIA controlled media then says anything that government does to those foreign paid insurrectionists is.

47:02 attacking democracy. That's exactly what they have done in Hungary, in Georgia, and every place else. Okay, united under Lopez, the opposition's most charismatic and prominent national figure, Volad Popular provided a political home to several characters who would later serve in Venezuela's U.S.-backed coup regime, including Juan Guaido.

47:34 He joined it, too. As was the case with nearly all Vecchio's endeavors, the hidden hand of the U.S. government gave them their first push. According to a former Office of Transition Initiative Caracas employee, actually admitted they gave them the money to do it. They disclosed that to U.S. academic Tim Gill.

48:07 and Rebecca Hansen in 2019. Quote, they were pulling people away from Chavez in a subtle manner. Gill and Hansen detailed the Caracas Office of Transition Initiatives method. This is a quote. Since USAID Office of Transition Initiatives could not directly fund political parties, they worked with party leaders, including those from Validad Popular.

48:38 to help opposition activists set up community groups in neighborhoods where Chavez's support was prominent. The groups, which claim to promote and provide training related to participatory democracy, ultimately aim to put opposition activists in contact with Chavez supporters in an effort to generate Chavez support for their

49:05 political parties. In other words, just divert his support into their candidates. According, unquote, according to the Office of Transition Initiative source, USAID labored to ensure these community groups appeared very neutral in the eyes of the Venezuelan government, while ultimately serving as proxies of Washington. On top of that, volunteer popular strategized to court middle and working class Venezuelans who benefited

49:34 from Chavez's policies by adopting a leftist veneer. In 2014, the party was admitted into the socialist international status that enabled it to cast itself as a progressive, not only to Venezuelans, but self-proclaimed leftists in the West, then pressed to describe volunteer popular platforms as such.

50:03 However, Vecchio struggled to offer anything beyond boilerplate commitments to quote-unquote democracy and freedom. In effect, there is only one example of Vecchio clearly articulating the party's ideology in a coherent manner. Quote, we want oil to be a normal commodity in the international arena, the former ExxonMobil employee said.

50:34 in a 2013 interview with Yale, so much for their progressive commitment to socialism. Since Validad Popular's inception, the party had performed poorly at the ballot box, most recently coming in fifth during parliamentary elections in 2015. The party's boycott subsequent elections issuing baseless claims of vote rigging.

51:04 because they were doing so poorly. Yet, despite their failure to garner popular support, Lopez and Vecchio demonstrated an uncanny ability to create chaos in exactly the right times. Valendad's popular presence in Venezuela's streets reached its heights in 2014 during the Gramenaba

51:32 riots that swept the country in the afternoon aftermath of Chavez's death. The anarchy culminated with a Lopez-led political march that concluded with his supporters attempting to set fire to Venezuela's Office of the Attorney General. Following the February incident, Venezuela's government issued arrest warrants for both Vecchio and Lopez on charges

52:01 of public incitement, property damage, arson, and conspiracy. Though authorities arrested Lopez within a week, his partner had escaped. Vecchio materialized in New York City months later, explaining to the media that his Baladad popular cohorts had decided that he could most effectively represent them in the safety of the United States.

52:29 They considered that I am most useful at this moment denouncing the abuse which continued to exist against human rights in Venezuela on the international level, he told CNN in his first appearance since fleeing Venezuela. Vecchio described the influence campaign he launched upon arriving in the United States in his memoirs, writing, I had to meet in the U.S. Congress, the White House, the State Department.

53:00 with professors in U.S. universities, different ambassadors, influential civil organizations in the states. From the comfort of Washington and Miami, Vecchio assumed the position of a top lobbyist for the Venezuelan opposition. His arrival in the states directly coincided with the Obama administration's 2015 decision

53:26 to classify Venezuelan as a national security threat. So he came after all the chaos that USAID's Office of Transition Initiative came here to blame all of the shit that they had done on the Venezuelan government and convinced Obama to declare them a national security threat, even though they were definitely not a national security threat to you and I.

53:58 to Exxon maybe, not to you and I, as well as subsequent escalations against Maduro's government at the OAS. In his memoirs, Vecchio took credit for preparing the OAS report that inspired Venezuela's government to initiate its withdrawal from the organization. When the Trump administration announced the recognition of Guaido two years later, effectively designating the decidedly unpopular,

54:30 Validad Popular Bloc as Venezuela's ruling party, even though they've never won an election. Vecchio was perfectly situated to take over as the coup regime's highest ranking official in the United States as the fake Venezuelan ambassador, because he orchestrated the whole thing. At least he was part of it.

54:55 The pinnacle of Vecchio's career came in May 15, 2019, when U.S. Secret Service agents raided the Venezuelan D.C. embassy and arrested the four peace activists who had guarded it.

55:08 After enabling Vecchio's troops to deface Venezuela's diplomatic compound for weeks with zero repercussions, the U.S. government ultimately charged the final four embassy protesters with a federal crime for interfering with Washington's ability to service the building. The defendants in Washington, D.C. has no requirement to service the building because it's not their property.

55:36 And if by servicing they mean cutting off the electricity and the water, they certainly did that. The defendants were each faced a maximum one year prison sentence and a fine up to $100,000. One of them, Kevin, later described the EPC's trial overseen by U.S. District Judge for D.C., none other than Beryl Howell, who we found in the January 6th garbage as well.

56:09 As through the looking glass experience, indeed, Judge Howell barred their defense team from discussing the political situation in Venezuela. A gag order. One allowed to talk about it. Explaining the dynamics of the mutual protecting power agreement that served as a justification for their entire existence. Didn't want to hear about that either. Or even so much as a mention of international law in her court. Not allowed to talk about it, even though.

56:38 It was a foreign government's embassy and international law certainly applied. The Obama appointee went on to play a critical role in the federal investigation of Donald Trump, taking the extreme decision to grant DOJ prosecutors access to the notes of his personal attorney, including private conversations with the former president. In the end, Judge Howell.

57:08 Restrictions on EPA's defense resulted in extreme confusion among the jury, which struggled to reach a decision. The deadlock forced Howell to declare a mistrial in February of 2020, and the four defendants eventually negotiated a plea deal with U.S. authorities. I proudly pleaded guilty to obstructing imperialism and neoliberal fascism, one of the defendants said.

57:35 On September 6, 2020, seven months after the legal fight came to an end, one of them passed away unexpectedly in his sleep. That afternoon, Anya recalled their memories of him and his fight. And that's the end of that chapter. So, comments? Bridget, can you talk? Your mic's not there. Can you hear me? I can. Great.

58:13 Evil, evil, evil, evil SOBs. The CIA needs to be burnt, buried, and then a nuclear waste. But aside from that, their playbook is so recognizable anymore. If you guys didn't get to watch the show last night, the Alpha Warrior show was really epic that they did.

58:48 Just more pieces to the puzzle, you know? Yeah. I really enjoyed doing that show. And it was funny watching, not to get off topic, but it was funny watching Alpha. He kept trying to find articles. And like he said, he could verify everything that I was telling him was true. But it kept coming up with more recent stuff that looked exactly like the stuff we were covering.

59:17 Because until it's something is done about it, it's never going to go away. Absolutely. And well said. And that's what I guess I'm still reeling because in the background, of course, I'm doing the same thing. And this wasn't done one time. It was done a thousand times. I mean, and again, I guess I'm just so pissed off at myself for not noticing it before, you know.

59:48 Yeah, but how would you know? I mean, we all collectively started digging on this and found the skeleton, Gladio. Right. I don't know how you'd have put all the pieces together. Yeah. SR, go ahead. True. Thank you, Colonel. The Camara decree was something else when you take a look at what it did. And Camara himself.

1:00:16 to this day, as far as we know, is still in exile. Bolivia has been trying to get him back into the country to try him. But evidently, that's not going to happen. As for Elliott Abrams, that guy has been involved in so much, what do I want to call it? Destruction. Period. Yes. He was an evil person. Very evil.

1:00:46 So if anybody wants to look him up and take a look at what he's done, there's a rabbit hole to go into. Yeah, evil, evil, evil, evil. And he hangs out with all of the evil other people. And if I may, my usual, I'd like to extend a welcome to everybody here on X as well as Rumble. Please join us. Have comments. Ask for a mic. Raise your hand. The Colonel will entertain. Thank you, Colonel.

1:01:19 Sure. Yeah, it's crazy. Absolutely crazy. Okay. Anybody else? Where's Stellar? Get your butt up here. Well, one thing I can say about your show with Alpha last night is that was... How do I want to put it?

1:01:53 We had talked about Belize. As a matter of fact, I was with you. I thought Belize was just a playground for the rich and famous. And it turns out to be much more than that. But we go from a ranch in Texas to Belize to Bolivia to Venezuela. And back along with the Texas National Guard, we have armories.

1:02:23 Ice going on like crazy. It just blew my mind. Yeah, and it's funny how over the course of all of these books, there's little pieces of this story with no one pulling all of them together. Because in some of the different stories, I have heard it oftentimes repeated that the CIA will stash weaponry at guard.

1:02:51 or even active duty army bases for use in operations. But I had not, until the last, I don't know, two or three books that I've read, heard about the thefts out of these armories.

1:03:11 And then when you start searching on Yandex about the number of National Guard and Army base thefts, to include Marine, as you heard Alpha say, it's crazy. There's a lot of them. And those weapons get transported all over the world. And it's just like the people were saying, you know, bury seals.

1:03:38 Those weapons were being ferried out on aircraft down to Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, where all the death squads were, and they all need lots of guns, and they were bringing drugs back on the same aircraft. And then to find an entire operation being ran out of the Texas National Guard base with a colonel who was...

1:04:03 court-martialed and then had his court-martial classified and given an honorable discharge. It's beyond the pale. Why are you so mad? Go ahead. I'm going to say it every single time. Amazing job you guys have done. This has been so eye-opening for everybody who even has the privilege to even hear it. Keep up the good work.

1:04:31 You guys are leaving an absolute legacy for generations and again, heartfelt appreciation. Thank you. Thank you. Miles, go ahead. You know, the common theme by listening to this for so long is that we can just call them common criminals, but they're not. These people are entitled and they think that they are better than everyone else. So they deserve it.

1:05:02 They're doing the right thing and they'll do anything to get what they want. So, yeah, because in some of those riots, people were killed that they instigated and they don't care. They also didn't care that by pursuing the hoax that Venezuela is a communist dictatorship. They also.

1:05:32 perpetuate the starvation of their population with the sanctions. So I want you guys to think about this. Now, obviously in America, we believe that we have tons of natural resources, right? And it is perfectly logical to think, because Alaska did it.

1:05:56 Alaska believes that the oil fields in Alaska belongs to Alaskans. And they get paid a royalty check every year based on the amount of money that they benefit from the oil revenues. And they use the oil revenues to pay a lot of their infrastructure and stuff like that. How is that different than what...

1:06:25 Chavez and now Maduro was trying to do with their oil revenue. If it is wrong for a country to nationalize their resources and use the money that is generated from that national resource, because you can't argue it's a national resource. And that's exactly what in a roundabout way.

1:06:53 Trump has been talking about with the natural minerals in America. So how can you say that it's not okay? And let me take it one step further. If you go to the Scandinavian countries and they have a very high tax there and a very big social welfare program.

1:07:19 the medical care, education, all of that stuff. So how is it different in your mind that they take the citizens' wealth and then distribute it via the government as if that is their wealth, the government's wealth, to the population at large in the form of social services?

1:07:49 The Scandinavian governments were collectively sitting on the biggest oil field in the world. And instead of taxing the people and redistributing the wealth in these large social programs, they just use the oil revenue to do exactly the same thing and allow people to keep their earned wages. How is that any different?

1:08:15 Because that's exactly what the bottom line is to Venezuela and to Libya and to so many of these others. That's what Burkina Faso is doing right now with their gold mines. They want the sovereign wealth of their country to be enjoyed by their own citizens and not by some Western oligarch who takes their resources and gives them a few pennies. Stellar, go ahead.

1:08:49 I absolutely love your spaces. Oh, my gosh. I was fiending so bad. You guys have been hitting it so on target lately, and it's totally showing the rinse and repeat happening even here in the United States. I just love you guys. They fucking suck. I'm going to agree with Bridget. Those parasites are about to be exterminated. We can hope. Bridget, go ahead.

1:09:21 jumping back into the article that I sent Alpha, that he read right at the end, was very telling because it was, as he pointed out, components. But the components were to things such as grenade launchers. And they keep claiming, the other thing that I had sent to you, was that they keep claiming, oh, how is it these weapons are showing up on the streets?

1:09:52 Last I checked, I don't think a lot of these gangs have grenade launchers. You know, it's telling us where it's going. The weapons caches that we've talked about. Now we just added that missing piece. Yes. How they acquire and store these weapons caches. Yes. Yeah. It's crazy. And again.

1:10:20 If you guys haven't watched the show last night, go watch it. Because I tell you at the beginning, I literally just thought Belize was this, you know, I knew that there was drug trafficking. I think I've shared with you guys before. My husband and I were looking at when we were at the height of our real estate investing and doing all that other stuff that we looked at buying.

1:10:45 a house down there on Ambergus Key. During the research that I did looking into Belize, because they have this wonderful retirement program that if you have a pension of some kind, guaranteed income of over $2,000 at the time, this was like 10 years ago, you live there tax-free. You don't pay taxes on anything. You buy anything you want. You don't pay taxes on anything, a house, anything.

1:11:15 but you cannot take a Belizean job. So you can open a company and you can hire people, but you cannot take one of their jobs. You know, that's like totally weird to us in the United States where we just import millions of people and allow them to take our jobs here, but whatever. And so in looking at the demographics and the geography of Belize, they have a big coastline, but...

1:11:44 What you find out in looking at the crime rates there, they have a huge drug problem. But I thought the drug problem came from the transporting of them from the South because on their northern border is Mexico. And I thought, you know, they probably just have caravans coming through there that, you know, the normal narco.

1:12:07 terrorists kind of killing this guy because they were trying to steal that guy's drugs or whatever. So keep off the beaten path of the drug narcos and you're probably fine. So Belize City is totally crime ridden and it really is the only way in and out. That's where you fly in and then you take a ferry out to Ambergus Key. Ambergus Key is this beautiful

1:12:32 island that's probably as long as the total Florida Keys, but it's one continuous island off the coast. And it's absolutely drop dead gorgeous. And the houses are not that expensive there. So I kept thinking, you still got to fly into Belize City. You still got to fly into Belize City. And how do you get out to the island? You're going to trust somebody to take you out on a boat that you don't even know.

1:13:01 And so everything about it was really a red flag for me. But again, that was my knowledge of Belize. And when I started looking back over all of the Central American countries that had been noticeably overthrown, like we were just talking here with USAID, Office of Transition Initiatives, Office of Public Safety, I didn't see any of those things in Belize. And because my research indicated that

1:13:31 While they're technically not a colony, they still recognize the queen. English is their official language. They use everything as if they were. And I'm like, they just probably got left alone because they basically are submissive to the city of London already. No big deal. Until I ran across this story. And it first came up.

1:13:58 in the book, The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush that we're going to do next. And it talks about a lot of the flights out of Texas going to Belize. And I'm like, oh, holy crap. So, and one of the guys bought like, I'm just going to pull this number out of thin air. It was like 700,000 acres.

1:14:22 down there. That's large. And they put airstrips in there. And so it was no kidding a functioning narco state. And many of the people that were involved in the failed savings and loans, which was basically just a large money operation, money laundering operation, had bought property down there. And that's when I started looking around for CIA, Belize, and

1:14:53 drugs. And that's when I came across that Texas National Guard story. And I was like, my mind was blown. It was crazy. Miles, go ahead. Yeah, I just want to point this out. I'm always thinking like, okay, we have to take care of the situation. Who's going to help us? Who's going to have the expertise to do it? Well, I learned something last night that I, a lot last night.

1:15:22 And it was on Absolute Storm. And it was a deep dive on the USCG. And I was like, whoa, they have a lot of powers I didn't even know about. The Coast Guard. Yes, ma'am. I know all about them because we had Coast Guard at CENTCOM. I know exactly what they can do. They are the only entity that has worldwide arrest authority. Is that what they were talking about, Miles?

1:15:55 Yeah, and they were pulling up because they did the deep dive on it, so they were pulling up stuff that I had never even known about. And you probably know if you went to college about this, but for the average person, it was really enlightening and kind of gave me some hope that something's going on. I didn't know that they had powers over the military in certain situations, and they actually can.

1:16:24 um have some control over special ops yeah so um it is very interesting and the only reason i know it i i didn't learn that i mean i know what the roles and missions are from a um high level military how everybody fits together which is what we've learned in professional military education but what when i really learned about what the coast guard can and can't do was at u.s central command um during the planning operations for

1:16:54 after 9-11, where they're actually in the command center briefing roles and missions and who has what authorities to do what as part of the overall plan. It was very eye-opening what their real wartime capability, and I mean, obviously, they have it in peacetime. They're kind of like this little hidden secret.

1:17:23 um as far as their capabilities and just so that you guys know when my daughter my middle daughter had decided that she was um going to be a pilot um which she did not follow through on but when she made that decision she had wanted to since she was in junior high to be a helicopter pilot and when looking at what service

1:17:50 that would be the best one to go into. So she didn't have to spend years and years and years of going through flight school on her own dime. I told her flat out that Coast Guard, because she wanted to fly helicopters, Coast Guard would be the number one. I don't know if you guys know this, but some of the very first female anythings happened in the Coast Guard. The first commander of a ship happened in the Coast Guard. They are very...

1:18:20 very awesome as a service. I think you guys remember a couple of years ago when we were doing this, I stayed on the Coast Guard base at Elizabeth City in North Carolina. And I met a lot of the Coast Guard guys there. That's where they filmed The Guardian. That's where they do all of their...

1:18:44 They buy military aircraft like C-130s and Blackhawks, and then they retrofit them for their Coast Guard mission. And all of that, because, of course, I'm in aircraft maintenance background, all of that capability is done out of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. They have big hangars there. It was the biggest Coast Guard base I've ever been on. And it's just an amazing service because it's small and they all.

1:19:13 know what their job is they do amazing stuff um and they have a lot of capability that most americans don't know they have so um sr71 go ahead thank you colonel i i'm getting back to our deal with and your show with alpha and and what really kicked it off for me was when you started discussing belize and that these were all the narco traffickers and

1:19:47 Everybody else into the narco business met. That's where they were going to make their deals. That's where all of this is coming from. So it just blew my mind when you mentioned that. They found a place that nobody was paying attention to except you, Colonel. We found them out. I mean, obviously other people or other authors, I'm getting this information from them, but yeah.

1:20:17 Current day, nobody knows. Nobody ever talks about it. And it's huge. Yeah, I agree. Miles, go ahead. Colonel, just on a personal note, my old rig made it from Minnesota down to Gonzales, Texas. So I'll be spending the winter down here and I'm enjoying the warm weather. And I'll probably go down to the Gulf America with Molly, my dog. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. What part of Texas are you in? North?

1:20:50 Gonzalez. Well, Gonzalez is okay. I'm 45 minutes from the woke town of Austin. And I'm like about an hour and 15 minutes from San Antonio. Yeah.

1:21:06 And about two hours from Houston and about two hours from the Gulf of America. Yeah, we've stayed at several of the KOAs in the Austin area because that's where my daughter is. And I love that area. We've stayed at Fort Hood in their RV park. That's where I took that beautiful sunset video because it's right on the water. Yeah, I mean, other than Austin itself, I love that area. It's really neat. Lots of things to do.

1:21:35 Yeah, I mean, it's interesting where I'm at. And look, God's helping me out because I don't know if you probably know who he is. He's talked in your space once in a while. It's don't bend a knee and he's got an old oil rig. Greg is a godly man and he's helping me out. And he's been driving me around getting to know the area. He's let me use one of his trucks so I don't have to, you know, break camp to go somewhere. Yeah.

1:22:05 But it's interesting, right down the road from me, Nolan Ryan has got a huge ranch. And then a woman from 4-H right across the road, she owns a bunch of property. So, I mean, there's more cows in this area than humans. And if you go south, then you get into, like, the oil rigs. But it's just really nice.

1:22:33 I'm paying attention to the cold weather up in Minnesota, but I ain't going to be experiencing it. So I'm happy to be down here, guys. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I lived in shirts just outside of San Antonio, and Gonzales is not that far from there. Really nice area. All right. Colonel, do you know what Gonzales is famous for? What?

1:23:03 Well, they have their own flag, and it's a cannon barrel, and it says, come and get it. So it was these people that migrated over to this area, and they were called the Dykes. And when they settled here, it was the 190 years ago was the first shot went out for basically the Texas-Mexican War.

1:23:33 And they knew that they had a can in here. And they said, yeah, you're right. Come get it. I think they lost that battle. Cool. All right. Stellar, go ahead. Well, I am still very optimistic that as all of these exposures get it, all of these things get exposed, just like what you're doing.

1:23:59 With the free information flowing and stuff like that, I think that there will be justice at one point or another. So I'm going to keep my rainbow, rose-colored Gladio glasses on and just watch all this, watch all it being dismantled. So I am optimistic. Me too. I could not be more optimistic as all of this stuff.

1:24:26 is being exposed i feel like i've got front row seats to the revelations um it's truly amazing i agree 100 and honestly without you showing me and thousands upon thousands of others over the years um i would have just thought we're just kind of plugging away doing the same old thing but not realizing how deep and how

1:24:54 how everything truly is connected. So I am very grateful for you. I'm grateful for SR. I'm grateful for Bridget. I'm grateful for Cousin Ed. I'm grateful for golfing. I'm grateful for Alvin. I'm grateful for everyone on your team. And if I didn't mention you, my apologies, but I'm so thankful and grateful for all of you. Yeah, me too. Because you know what? I think had I not, all of us collectively been on this journey, it would look

1:25:23 like the same old crap, just a different day, just a different president. But having the ability to know the significance of closing down USAID and the Office of Transition Initiatives and all of those things, most Americans do not appreciate that because they don't know how nefarious those things were.

1:25:52 I think it offers us a calmness that most Americans who don't understand this don't have right now. And I am very grateful for that. SR, go ahead. Thank you, Colonel. I want to thank you for that, Stella, and everybody else here that joins us. We're all part of this group. And it makes it so much more. It delivers an impact. Let me put it that way.

1:26:25 The other thing, when you stop and think about it, we are not given enough information, and the information we are given is not always true. I mean, you would think from the show last night, learning what I learned last night about all of these heists that were going on and weapons being stolen and this, that, and the other, it would have been national news.

1:26:56 It's not. Never has been. It's been local, but that's about as far as it goes. So thank you, Colonel. Sure. Deller, go ahead. I have one more thing to add, and I don't know if this is something that you guys, I think I've been texting you guys and kind of saying, kind of keep an eye on Las Vegas. So another thing that I found out about six or eight months ago, it's kind of like a hedge fund.

1:27:27 type of thing, like how Blackstone, BlackRock type of thing is. But if you look at all of their holdings, they hold all the land on Las Vegas Boulevard, whether it's Caesars Palace, MGM, Fountain Blue, Resorts World. They're just now acquiring the land and the building for Stratosphere. And then these companies, like how AIG separated things out.

1:27:51 So now the like MGM and Caesars and Resorts World and all that stuff are just renting and paying like a triple net to a to Vici. And if you look at like who the holdings are and stuff, you know, because we do know that Las Vegas and these gaming things are all attached to the laundering and stuff. I think that you guys are going to be very interested in all of that stuff. And if you look at the stock prices over the last.

1:28:17 year or two, you'll see like how MGM and Caesars went down. Yes, they're purposely keeping the prices down for whatever reason, for maybe their negotiations for this stuff. But they are doing a lot of renovations and AI stuff within the hotel. So it's almost like it's purposely done on that. Everything changes in the next couple of years when the baseball team comes here. And you guys know about the...

1:28:43 You know, like all the laundering and gambling with all the sports teams. We're not getting a basketball, but we've got the baseball team coming. And the original owners, I think, are out of the Oakland A's is coming to Vegas and that stadium. So just Vici, V-I-C-I. Sorry. V-I-C-I? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Okay. Very interesting. Everyone, take care.

1:29:16 Have a nice evening. We'll be back tomorrow. And we're going to continue the exposure. Take care, everyone. Have a nice evening. Love you. Love you, too.

Entities here

United States25 Venezuela25 Carlos Vecchio25 Hugo Chavez25 Washington, D.C.24 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt17 Office of Transition Initiatives15 Caracas15 Antonio Vecchiana14 Belize13 Elias Santana12 Juan Guaidó12 Harvard Kennedy School9 Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective9 Active Citizenry8 United States Coast Guard8 George Mason University7 U.S. State Department7 Leopoldo Lopez7 Voluntad Popular6 Pedro Carmona6 USAID5 U.S. Secret Service5 Medea Benjamin5 CIA5 2018 Venezuelan presidential election5 ExxonMobil5 Georgetown5 Beryl Howell4 We Want to Choose4 Manhattan4 Gonzales, Texas4 Sumate4 Caesar's Palace3 Las Vegas3 Carmona Decree3 Barack Obama3 Vici Properties3 Donald Trump3 Kevin Zeese3

Claims made here

Carlos Vecchio appointed Juan Guaidó documented ▶ 3:59

“Guaido's quote-unquote ambassador in Washington, D.C. Vecchio was on a mission to complete his shadow regime takeover of the Venezuelan government buildings in the United States, though the U.S. autho…”

Carlos Vecchio attempted_coup_against Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 3:59

Medea Benjamin founded Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective documented ▶ 4:57

“to the ambassador's office seemed inevitable. And it would have been, had it not been for a group of U.S. peace activists who mounted an extraordinary defense of the compound. Venezuelan's Embassy Pro…”

U.S. Secret Service covered_up Carlos Vecchio host_asserted ▶ 11:08

“filmed physically blocking the postman's access to the compound, which is a federal crime. Though international diplomatic law stipulated that it was the responsibility of the Secret Service to preven…”

U.S. State Department funded Carlos Vecchio host_asserted ▶ 15:29

“and vowed not to pursue charges against any U.S. agents that damaged any of the property. Vecchio's mission, which openly flaunted his obedience to U.S. authorities in absolute disregard for Venezuela…”

Carlos Vecchio worked_for Mobil documented ▶ 16:55

“of Venezuela's expat community. Though he clearly enjoyed basking in the admiration, earnestly shaking his hands and posing for photographs, Vecchio had not set out for life in politics. Instead, he s…”

Carlos Vecchio worked_for PDVSA documented ▶ 17:24

“to Mobil before it merged with Exxon, and then moving to the country's state oil company, Petrolis, which has the initials PDBSA. Like other leading figures in the opposition, Vecchio belonged to the …”

CIA recruited Carlos Vecchio book_quoted ▶ 18:21

“Now, we've talked about the Fulbright Scholarship, which is kind of like the U.S. version of the Oxford Scholarship for people in which the CIA used to recruit foreigners into their ranks. According t…”

Carlos Vecchio member_of George Mason University documented ▶ 19:16

“Though Vecchio did not disclose the content of his reply, the State Department apparently found it worthy of a full-ride scholarship to study English and tax law in Georgetown University, which, of co…”

Henry Kissinger front_for CIA host_asserted ▶ 19:38

“Vecchio continued his journey through the U.S. Ivy League circuit after graduating from Georgetown, pursuing a degree in public administration at the boot camp for neoliberal thought leaders, Harvard'…”

Carlos Vecchio member_of Harvard Kennedy School documented ▶ 19:38

Juan Manuel Santos member_of Harvard Kennedy School documented ▶ 20:07

“The Kennedy School is home to notable officials, including U.S. Treasury Secretary and architect of President Bill Clinton's austerity policy, Larry Summers, ex-Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and …”

Larry Summers member_of Harvard Kennedy School documented ▶ 20:07

Felipe Calderón member_of Harvard Kennedy School documented ▶ 20:07

Samantha Power member_of Harvard Kennedy School documented ▶ 20:39

“Also found there is Obama's U.N. secretary, Samantha Powers, who also served as Joe Biden's USAID regime change administrator. Meanwhile, Ricardo Haasman, that's a name we're going to hear quite a bit…”

Ricardo Hausmann member_of Harvard Kennedy School documented ▶ 21:09

“Venezuelan official who served as a prominent member of Guaido's coup regime, directs an entire center at the Harvard Kennedy Business School dedicated to mapping out international capitalist growth t…”

Elias Santana funded We Want to Choose documented ▶ 24:02

“was a U.S.-backed activist, Elias Santana, whom Vecchio met while studying at Harvard. Santana had been pocketing paychecks from Washington since 1993. His organization, We Want to Choose, partnered w…”

U.S. State Department funded We Want to Choose documented ▶ 24:33

“International Foundation for Electoral Systems declared that Cuermos Aligar was a worthy recipient of U.S. funding because it was part of an agenda that advocated a greater role for the private sector…”

Inter-American Development Bank funded We Want to Choose documented ▶ 25:29

“openly thanked the U.S.-backed Inter-American Development Bank for funding its production, which works hand-in-hand with USAID. Santana ran a failed effort to halt Venezuela's National Constituent Ass…”

Pedro Carmona installed Venezuela documented ▶ 29:19

“The events of April 11, 2002 was well established in popular history in response to the shakeup at the state-run oil company. Venezuela's business elite collaborated with rogue military forces to kidn…”

Pedro Carmona visited Trump administration documented ▶ 32:37

“It had failed in less than 48 hours. Diplomatic sources at the OAS in Washington eventually charged U.S. officials with directing the plot, revealing to The Guardian, quote, Venezuelans plotting a cou…”

Elliot Abrams ordered_assassination_of Hugo Chavez host_asserted ▶ 33:05

“Serving as a crucial figure overseeing a scheme from his post on Bush Jr.'s national security team was none other than Elliott Abrams, the same guy that John Bolton used in 2019 to do the exact same t…”

Elias Santana founded Active Citizenry documented ▶ 33:32

“As a lawyer for a private oil industry at the time, he and Santana managed to leave their mark on the U.S.-directed coup. Just three months prior to the short-lived coup in January of 2002, the pair c…”

Carlos Vecchio founded Active Citizenry documented ▶ 33:32

Active Citizenry carried_out_attack Carmona Decree host_asserted ▶ 34:32

“rushed to endorse the now infamous Carmona decree, physically signing the document as an official representative of this active citizenry Venezuelan civil society organization. Though they achieved li…”

Rocio Guijarro member_of Active Citizenry host_asserted ▶ 34:32

Office of Transition Initiatives contracted DAI Global host_asserted ▶ 37:23

“USAID opened an OTI branch in Caracas and began doling out tons of your taxpayer dollars to fund further chaos. To identify organizations fit for the task, OTI contracted Development Alternatives Inco…”

Antonio Vecchiana member_of George Mason University host_asserted ▶ 38:23

“to overthrow governments. Leading DAI's Venezuela team was none other than Vecchio's former Georgetown roommate, Antonio Iskander. As luck would have it, the OTI quickly selected Vecchio's organizatio…”

Office of Transition Initiatives funded Active Citizenry host_asserted ▶ 38:23

Antonio Vecchiana member_of Active Citizenry host_asserted ▶ 38:23

Leopoldo Lopez member_of George Mason University host_asserted ▶ 38:23

Maria Corina Machado member_of Sumate host_asserted ▶ 39:27

“part of an actual insurrection in Venezuela. She also wound up on Washington's payroll that year when her organization, Sumate, scored a $53,400 handout from the U.S.-backed National Endowment for Dem…”

National Endowment for Democracy funded Sumate host_asserted ▶ 39:27

Sumate attempted_coup_against Hugo Chavez host_asserted ▶ 39:58

“active citizen, is that the name of it? Active citizenry and Sumatres labored to ensure Washington achieved a return on their investment. So here we are just funding coup people, insurrections, while …”

Active Citizenry attempted_coup_against Hugo Chavez host_asserted ▶ 39:58

Sumate carried_out_attack Hugo Chavez host_asserted ▶ 40:26

“In 2004, Venezuela's opposition introduced a petition to subject Chavez to a recall, an effort that required over 2 million signatures to succeed. Active citizenry in Sumatra led the drive to collect …”

Active Citizenry carried_out_attack Hugo Chavez host_asserted ▶ 40:26

Hugo Chavez removed_from_power ExxonMobil host_asserted ▶ 41:29

“Vacchio had established a lucrative career with ExxonMobil in Venezuela while moonlighting as a U.S.-backed civil society activist. His path was upended that June when Chavez drove ExxonMobil out of V…”

Antonio Vecchiana member_of ExxonMobil host_asserted ▶ 41:29

Antonio Vecchiana member_of Voluntad Popular host_asserted ▶ 42:54

“the guy we've talked about many times in this book. He was the aristocratic poster boy for Venezuela's U.S.-backed opposition. In Vecchio's words, he actually wrote this in 2018, he and Lopez swiftly …”

Leopoldo Lopez member_of Voluntad Popular host_asserted ▶ 42:54

Generation 2007 carried_out_attack Hugo Chavez host_asserted ▶ 44:23

“Chavez aimed to redirect the momentum behind his re-election to codify the social gains made across the decade since he was first elected. As detailed in Chapter 4, voters shot down the proposal follo…”

Office of Transition Initiatives trained Generation 2007 host_asserted ▶ 44:52

“Heralded in the press as the greatest threat to Chavez's continued reign, Generation 2007 was not a natural phenomenon. Under the command of Vecchio's Georgetown roommate, USAID had actively trained a…”

Antonio Vecchiana member_of Generation 2007 host_asserted ▶ 44:52

Office of Transition Initiatives funded Generation 2007 host_asserted ▶ 44:52

Tim Gill exposed Office of Transition Initiatives book_quoted ▶ 47:34

“He joined it, too. As was the case with nearly all Vecchio's endeavors, the hidden hand of the U.S. government gave them their first push. According to a former Office of Transition Initiative Caracas…”

Rebecca Hansen exposed Office of Transition Initiatives book_quoted ▶ 47:34

Office of Transition Initiatives funded Voluntad Popular book_quoted ▶ 48:07

“and Rebecca Hansen in 2019. Quote, they were pulling people away from Chavez in a subtle manner. Gill and Hansen detailed the Caracas Office of Transition Initiatives method. This is a quote. Since US…”

Voluntad Popular member_of Socialist International host_asserted ▶ 49:34

“from Chavez's policies by adopting a leftist veneer. In 2014, the party was admitted into the socialist international status that enabled it to cast itself as a progressive, not only to Venezuelans, b…”

Venezuela ordered_assassination_of Leopoldo Lopez host_asserted ▶ 51:32

“riots that swept the country in the afternoon aftermath of Chavez's death. The anarchy culminated with a Lopez-led political march that concluded with his supporters attempting to set fire to Venezuel…”

Venezuela ordered_assassination_of Antonio Vecchiana host_asserted ▶ 51:32

Leopoldo Lopez carried_out_attack Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 51:32

Antonio Vecchiana member_of United States host_asserted ▶ 52:01

“of public incitement, property damage, arson, and conspiracy. Though authorities arrested Lopez within a week, his partner had escaped. Vecchio materialized in New York City months later, explaining t…”

United States installed Juan Guaidó host_asserted ▶ 53:58

“to Exxon maybe, not to you and I, as well as subsequent escalations against Maduro's government at the OAS. In his memoirs, Vecchio took credit for preparing the OAS report that inspired Venezuela's g…”

Antonio Vecchiana appointed Juan Guaidó host_asserted ▶ 54:30

“Validad Popular Bloc as Venezuela's ruling party, even though they've never won an election. Vecchio was perfectly situated to take over as the coup regime's highest ranking official in the United Sta…”

U.S. Secret Service carried_out_attack Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 54:55

“The pinnacle of Vecchio's career came in May 15, 2019, when U.S. Secret Service agents raided the Venezuelan D.C. embassy and arrested the four peace activists who had guarded it.…”

Beryl Howell covered_up Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 56:09

“As through the looking glass experience, indeed, Judge Howell barred their defense team from discussing the political situation in Venezuela. A gag order. One allowed to talk about it. Explaining the …”

Belize targeted_for_regime_change USAID host_asserted ▶ 1:13:01

“And so everything about it was really a red flag for me. But again, that was my knowledge of Belize. And when I started looking back over all of the Central American countries that had been noticeably…”

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush cited_as_source Belize book_quoted ▶ 1:13:58

“in the book, The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush that we're going to do next. And it talks about a lot of the flights out of Texas going to Belize. And I'm like, oh, holy crap. So, and one of the guys bou…”

Texas National Guard covered_up Belize host_asserted ▶ 1:14:53

“drugs. And that's when I came across that Texas National Guard story. And I was like, my mind was blown. It was crazy. Miles, go ahead. Yeah, I just want to point this out. I'm always thinking like, o…”

United States Coast Guard member_of United States Central Command guest_asserted ▶ 1:15:22

“And it was on Absolute Storm. And it was a deep dive on the USCG. And I was like, whoa, they have a lot of powers I didn't even know about. The Coast Guard. Yes, ma'am. I know all about them because w…”

Vici Properties secretly_owned Las Vegas caller_asserted ▶ 1:27:27

“type of thing, like how Blackstone, BlackRock type of thing is. But if you look at all of their holdings, they hold all the land on Las Vegas Boulevard, whether it's Caesars Palace, MGM, Fountain Blue…”

Vici Properties secretly_owned Stratosphere caller_asserted ▶ 1:27:27

Las Vegas laundered_money_for Vici Properties caller_asserted ▶ 1:27:51

“So now the like MGM and Caesars and Resorts World and all that stuff are just renting and paying like a triple net to a to Vici. And if you look at like who the holdings are and stuff, you know, becau…”

Resorts International front_for Vici Properties caller_asserted ▶ 1:27:51

Caesar's Palace front_for Vici Properties caller_asserted ▶ 1:27:51

Oakland Athletics moved_to Las Vegas caller_asserted ▶ 1:28:43

“You know, like all the laundering and gambling with all the sports teams. We're not getting a basketball, but we've got the baseball team coming. And the original owners, I think, are out of the Oakla…”