The Colonels Corner Corporate Coup (Venezuela) Part 7

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Transcript

0:00 Hello, everyone. I'm going to get started over here and go live on Rumble. And we're back to our book today. Off from the vacation. I do want to say a couple of things at the beginning while we're waiting for Bridget to show up. She had a last minute computer blowout that.

0:28 As you guys know, I was at Cocoa Beach Great American Restoration tour over the weekend with a bunch of wonderful patriots and hanging out with people and Alpha stood me up again. So we'll give them a ration of shit on Wednesday. We were going to do a show together live and I was greatly disappointed.

0:54 um that he couldn't even find an hour to do that so i want you guys to all give him a ration of crap too however um hold on let me get this going over here um that did not take away from the fact that we had a blast there uh saturday night they did karaoke and no i did not sing but there was a lot of really awesome singers there and um ash from

1:28 Badlands did a fabulous job. Who knew she could sing? Amazing woman, such a patriot. And what else? I met a girl from New Hampshire named Cara. Wonderful, wonderful woman. Had a fantastic conversation with her. And I would say the preponderance of the people there.

1:57 fully aware of Operation Gladio. And so many people came up and introduced themselves. It was just, it was wonderful. So shout out to everybody that went and just had a fabulous time. It's kind of like a putting, it's like putting yourself on a battery charger when you go to events like that, because you see the momentum of the entire

2:26 movement and you don't feel like you're alone in your office trying to convince the entire world that all of this stuff is true. It just gives you a chance to unplug and get revitalized yourself. So wonderful, wonderful opportunity to do that. Anyway, I will be hosting an event like that for any of you that live in

2:54 Not on that scale, obviously, but we do have a Patriot meetup in a couple of weeks. It's on the Saturday of November 22nd, I believe. And if you guys live in the central Florida area, please reach out in the DMs and get yourself added to the list of people. We have someone who administers a list of people for invites to Patriot affiliated.

3:23 For example, one of the women on that list ran for mayor in my hometown here, and she's very well connected to a lot of people throughout the state of Florida. And she invited the current lieutenant governor to Lakeland, and he will be here some, I don't remember the date off the top of my head.

3:51 This morning, once everything got confirmed, she texted me a link and then I text it to the lady that has our email list so that everybody can choose to go or not go, whatever you want to do. But we have a network here, a communication network is what I'm trying to say. And there's so many different people involved in so many different things like election integrity and stuff like that in the local area that almost every.

4:19 area of interest in the Patriot movement is captured by our email list for the state of Florida. And as a result, we're able to communicate to a large section of people to keep us updated on local events. And of course, I encourage everybody to do that. It's a lot of fun. And if you have people in the local area,

4:45 Of course, we have Brian and Dwayne Cates and Stormy Patriot Joe down the road. You can invite them to be guest speakers at your events and they will do it. They come all the time. So highly encourage you to do that. Anyway, let's get started. Let me get Bridget over here as our co-host. I see XR. Let me get him up here. All right, we're going to get started. We're on chapter six, but episode seven.

5:17 A corporate coup. All right. So Ariza and his colleagues sounded the alarm over Washington's hostile military incursion into their country. The U.S. president was overwhelmingly focused on domestic political front, meaning President Trump.

5:47 He had traveled to Florida International University in Miami for a rally with local Venezuelan expats handing out Make America Great Again hats. He promised his fans among the regime change hungry diaspora that a new day was coming in Latin America.

6:12 In Venezuela and across the Western Hemisphere, socialism is dying and liberty and prosperity and democracy are being reborn. That's a quote from his speech at Florida International University. During the speech, which served as a de facto campaign address, Trump honored a figure who, while unfamiliar to most Americans, was notorious inside of Venezuela. His name was Oscar Perez.

6:41 a former Venezuelan law enforcement officer and B-movie actor who had formed an anti-government terrorist organization in Venezuela. He had hijacked a police helicopter and launched grenades at the country's justice ministry during the Garimba riots in June of 2017.

7:12 Perez six months later in a raid that left six of his collaborators and at least two police officers dead. Oscar, this is what Trump said about him, Oscar was an incredible man who will not have died in vain, unquote. Trump also said that there was a U.S. military presence on the Venezuelan border. Quote, two days ago, the first of

7:45 The first U.S. C-17, that's a big, beautiful airplane, landed in Colombia loaded with crucial assistance, Trump said. He went on, unfortunately, dictator Maduro has blocked the life-saving aid from entering the country. He would rather see his people starve than give them aid, unquote. Shortly before noon on February 22nd, less than 24 hours before the U.S. plane

8:13 The U.S. military planned to invade Venezuela. Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson strutted across a concert stage constructed near the country's border with Colombia. The self-styled rebel billionaire who once peddled technology to address climate change while lobbying to privatize Britain's railways had apparently found a new hot cause.

8:41 for his money. Quote, my friends, we must break the impasse and end the humanitarian crisis. People are dying in Venezuela, unquote. Branson informed the crowd, several hundred thousand people standing in front of him that were gathered for a Venezuela aid live concert, which we all know to be money embezzling opportunities.

9:14 Branson had organized and was supposedly using the money to help the country's suffering people. Behind the event, Branson added a fresh front in the foreign aggression against the Venezuelan government. What began as a potential face-off between militaries of Venezuela and the U.S. was now a cultural confrontation as well, with outlets such as Rolling Stones,

9:44 and Billboard, both have been used by the CIA, which would otherwise have been ignored by the news, taking notice of the conflict thanks to Branson. By doling out untold amounts of cash to build a flashy performance venue, ferry musicians to Columbia, the billionaire had constructed a festival-like atmosphere for Washington's regional collaborators as they actively plotted.

10:14 to invade Venezuela, which is hilarious if you think about it for five seconds. They're standing in the country, Colombia, where all the drugs are coming from, complaining about Venezuela. Several opposition politicians from Venezuela, like Guaido himself, attended the concert, along with the head of state of Colombia, Paraguay, and Chile, the secretary general of the OAS, Luis...

10:47 Almagro was also present. Branson's Washington regional political instruments did not take shape without drawing critics. Days before the event was scheduled to take place, British rock legend and anti-war activist Roger Waters blasted his billionaire compatriot, charging that Branson's project had nothing to do with democracy and was merely representing

11:19 the tycoon's acceptance of Washington's war propaganda. Quote, I've just seen a video clip of Branson with his bleeding heart worn openly on his Virgin Airways t-shirt. Waters remarked, mocking the CEO's professed concern for Venezuelan suffering, Waters went on to reference, quote, friends that are in Caracas right now.

11:47 whose testimonies he said easily dispelled the myths about Venezuela were circulating in Western media, unquote. Max Blumenthal met the recording artist while participating in the 2014 Russian Tribunal on Palestine, a Brussels-based people's initiative to document Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip, where Roger had defined himself as the world's most prominent advocate.

12:22 for Palestinian liberation. By 2019, Rogers had become even more outspoken about US-backed conflicts around the globe, particularly hybrid wars like in Syria and Venezuela. He went on to say, we just need to back off. The US and European citizens are not for this.

12:48 Waters' remarks received widespread attention in international media, forcing outlets to acknowledge that one of the most influential musicians had articulated an alternative view of Venezuela's crisis. More critically, his words disrupted the PR campaign around Branson's pageant. Also, UK artist Peter Gabriel announced that he would not headline the concert.

13:18 dealing Branson another blow. When the Virgin CEO finally appeared on his stage, he stood before roughly 300,000 Venezuelan and Colombians. And this is a quote from him. If we can take people into space, why is it so difficult to take people out of poverty? And of course, he means that with our money, not his.

13:53 was talking about doing it supporting a regime change, which puts more people in poverty than it has ever taken out of poverty. Throughout the concert, roughly 30 of the Latin America's most adorned artists, Lele Pons, La Luma, Ma Luma, performed their hits and took turns denouncing the Venezuelan government. And this is a quote, thanks to dear Colombia,

14:27 and the U.S., vintage Venezuelan balladeer Jose Luis Rodriguez gushed when he took the stage, quote, enough of left-wing dictatorships in Latin America, unquote. So talking about overthrowing a government, again, talking about thanks to Colombia for helping us do this.

14:56 On the other side of the border, Venezuela's government organized a counter concert to take place for three days that featured over 100 artists. They were concentrated on peace and solidarity. One of the things, let's see, quote, with regards to the musical production itself, Venezuela live aid left much to be desired. Rolling Stones later said of the concert.

15:27 The most crucial goal of all was well beyond the experience of the show itself. If Branson wanted to put the eyes of the world on the border, he succeeded. The most apropos summary of the day's events appeared in Billboard magazine, which captured the clumsy absurdity of Branson's hoopla in a few sentences. Quote, at the end, Chilean President Sebastian Panera, Colombian President

15:56 Marquez, and Paraguayan President Mario Benitez all took the stage with Branson. The magazine reported, as it happened, breakdown of the festival. Quote, Juan Guaido, the Venezuelan opposition leader, was going to join them, but opted not to at the last minute due to security concerns. It continued, describing the concert's final sting.

16:28 Benson was shouting liberty and the event concluded. So that's crazy. And what's weird is every one of those countries present, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, had all been overthrown too. None of which ended up better off in the immediate aftermath of the overthrow, by the way, with tens of thousands of people disappeared.

16:59 With Washington's militarized aid delivery looming, the author faced the choice of travel to cover the events from Venezuelan side of the border or remain in Caracas to document how the day played out in the capital. Considering both sides of the border was already oversaturated with international correspondence, they decided to stay in Caracas. On February 23rd, as

17:30 February 23rd approached, they spent hours considering different scenarios with Venezuelan journalists that they had become friends with. Was the U.S. truly prepared to launch an all-out war, or was the whole affair on the border merely a carefully constructed media event to terrorize Venezuela? If the latter was true, Washington's plan was working. On February 16th,

17:58 In a parking lot of her apartment building, one of the Venezuelan correspondents was crying. She said, I saw from far away what happened in countries like Iraq and Libya and Syria, and I'm afraid that's going to come to Venezuela. Earlier that day, she had said at the height of the Garbemba terror in the years past, which was all paid for by USAID and the CIA.

18:27 She had been forced to obscure her identity when traveling throughout the Caracas neighborhoods. As a well-known journalist, she was a walking target for the violent opposition rioters who had seized control of Venezuela's streets in certain areas, kind of like Antifa and the MAGA reporters that are going out to Portland. Same thing. So she couldn't just walk around and freely report on anything.

18:58 Would that soon break out again, was her question. Another journalist, investigative journalist, didn't think so. He was an intellectual who had almost always looked at the bright side of everything. He had served as Anya's guide several times. In some ways, Diego explained, Guaido's foreign-backed assent

19:30 had sucked all the momentum out of the opposition's street strategy because it was outed as a regime change. What purpose would riots serve other than to undermine the illusion of the novice politician was now at the helm of the Venezuelan government because he wasn't? It would just further highlight he wasn't in control of Venezuela.

19:57 all the time our government is designating him the president of Venezuela. So it wouldn't have served a good purpose for the coup people. Rather than ignite chaos in Venezuela's streets, the February 23rd plot was designed to test the loyalty of the country's armed forces. By forcing Venezuela's troops to prepare for an invasion, Washington was watching to see psychological warfare-type operations.

20:28 against the military's rank and file aimed at intimidating them to defect. John Bolton didn't even hide that. Quote, this is a John Bolton quote, to the Venezuelan military high command, now is the time to stand up on the side of the Venezuelan people. In a tweet, it is your right and responsibility to defend the constitution and democracy for Venezuela.

20:59 So he's baiting the military in Venezuela to turn against its government. Weeks later, during his February 18th rally in Miami, President Trump issued a statement to Venezuelan troops. We seek a peaceful transition of power, but all options are on the table. We believe that the Venezuelan military and its leadership have a vital role to play in the process.

21:29 He said that if they continue to support Maduro, they would find no safe harbor, no easy exit, and no way out. You'll lose everything, President Trump said. Among the journalists who traveled to the Venezuela-Colombian border for the event was Nicole Cram, a young Chilean photographer with a media outlet called Redfish. In a video posted,

21:59 to the since-deleted Redfish Twitter account that morning, Cram documented what began as a predictable scene for such a tense day. Rows of Venezuelan soldiers guarded by yellow concrete barriers plastered with Venezuelan flags and reading National Guard. On the other side of the border, thrones of Colombian and Venezuelan migrants hurled taunts.

22:29 and trash at the Venezuelan troops. Cram was aiming her camera at the rowdy civilians on the Colombian side when they suddenly turned around and bolted away in fear. Shrieks broke out from behind her. Viewers then heard a loud bang as the screen went black. When the camera came back to life, it broadcast an eerie ground-level view of the deserted concrete street.

23:00 Eventually, Venezuelan military boots appeared in the frame as soldiers arrived to carry Cram to safety. Cram had been struck by an armored military vehicle as three Venezuelan soldiers inside hastily sped across the country's border and into Colombia. They were among a handful of military personnel who heeded Trump and Bolton's call to defect from Venezuela.

23:27 It was an attack on civilians, Cram said, following the accident. I can't believe they are being treated as heroes. If I didn't run and was 15 centimeters closer, I wouldn't be here to tell you about it. I would be dead. As terrifying and deadly as Cram's experience was, the three soldiers responsible for injuring her represented a minority within the Venezuelan military.

23:55 As February 23rd progressed, it became clear that Washington's stunt was not going according to plan. Rather than surrender, Venezuelan armed forces stood with their government and reinforced the country's border and the U.S. military fortified on the other side. If the U.S. truly wanted to ram its military equipment and aid into Venezuela, it would have to declare war. Back in Caracas, the drama unfolded on the border seen far away.

24:24 As foreign correspondents rotated in and out of live positions with backdrops of different venues throughout the city, there was many denouncing Venezuela's government for refusing to accept Washington's assistance. In the capital, the task of assembling opposition support was left to Marie Karina Macedo. That's the woman that just won the Nobel Peace Prize.

24:58 the U.S.-backed politician who had served as one of the most radical figures in Venezuela's opposition over a decade, particularly during the 2014 Salida riots. On the afternoon of February 23rd, Mercado rallied supporters outside the airbase located blocks from the Caracas town center. When the author arrived on the scene,

25:28 We once again found ourselves in a wave of white fabric as the protests swarmed an overpass bordering the airbase and shut down traffic. Older couples wandered aimlessly around like a picnic atmosphere while young masked men on motorcycles waved Venezuelan flags and sped up and down the highway. The beached blur momentarily swelled with excitement as Marketo emerged.

26:00 on a makeshift stage to shout promises of a new free Venezuela. The lack of a sound system or even a megaphone made it difficult to hear her. After only a few minutes, she climbed down from the platform to take pictures with the crowd. As Anya elbowed her way towards her, who appeared to be in a daze of excitement, and asked,

26:31 her why she had previously made calls for the U.S. to invade her country. Watch how the fight for liberty continues, she said. By mid-afternoon, Makedo was gone. None of the troops inside the airbase had come out and the crowd disappeared. They had, let's see, they had tried taunting the airmen inside.

27:05 the base. Their taunting intensified as several hecklers physically were maneuvering between the cameras and the people they were trying to take pictures of, the protesters, to try to give them a more even, that there were pro and con.

27:29 in the area because all of the international reporters were only focusing their cameras on the opposition when there was an entire another version of groups gathered there. After it all calmed down, Anya returned to the apartment flanked by opposition fanatics filtering in and out of different restaurants in the area.

27:59 As they walked past a Chinese restaurant, an older man in a white outfit stopped by. In unison, he yelled Maduro and everyone else was repeating the cries that were dressed in white of the opposition. Even as they had failed to win over the rank and file of Venezuela's military,

28:36 There were pockets of these, and you could tell by the way they were dressed, they were very wealthy people. Brand name pocketbooks, like silk shirts. These weren't the peasant people. These were the very elite bourgeois. In Western Caracas, the capital base of Maduro's support, the mood was much more jubilant. Throughout the afternoon,

29:05 Tens of thousands of Venezuelans participated in a Balerian March of Dignity pro-government rally. President Maduro came out and said, raise the Venezuelan flag, surrounded by his ministers and prominent people within their party. The people of Caracas swelled to the streets to support the peace and support.

29:35 the government and say no to imperialism was kind of the message. There was a poster that said hands off Venezuela hung above him. One said hashtag Trump hands off Venezuela as well. The atmosphere in Western Caracas was celebratory. Their country had just stood up to the U.S. again.

30:06 At 2.12 in the afternoon on February 23rd, a private Colombian television posted an urgent message to Twitter. Venezuelan National Police burned three aid trucks by launching tear gas canisters at the caravan, the dispatch read, featuring a video of correspondent Luis Gonzalo Perez standing before a semi-truck engulfed in flames.

30:35 The humanitarian aid is being consumed by flames at this moment, he announces. The masked youth wearing sunglasses and banishing a police shield jumped into the shot and shouted illegibly as Gonzalo continued down the bridge that connected Colombia to Venezuela. Every U.S. aid truck in sight was on fire. Finally, Guaido's

31:02 coup regime operation and their U.S. handlers had a narrative they could broadcast to the world. Leading the propaganda blitz was Marco Rubio, the Florida senator born in the Cuban expat community. Rubio was once considered a rising Republican star, despite a questionable past. In 2011, the Washington Post revealed Rubio had based his entire political

31:32 Coming-of-age story on a lie. Though he had repeatedly spouted the South Florida tale of his parents escaping from Fidel Castro's socialist hellscape, immigration records demonstrated that Rubio had in fact gained permanent U.S. residency nearly three years before the 1959 revolution. Not Rubio per se, but his family.

32:02 meaning they had actually fled the regime of the country's U.S.-backed installed dictator, Batista, not Castro. Rubio's character was also tarnished by revelations that throughout the 1980s, his brother-in-law, Orlando Cecilia, directed a $75 million cocaine smuggling ring out of his home in West Kendall, Florida.

32:31 Cecilia was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 35 years in prison in 1989. He was released in the year 2000. In a 2013 memoir, Rubio, who by then had featured Cecilia on numerous campaign events, claimed that he was completely unaware of his brother-in-law's criminal activity or that he had ever went to jail despite

33:01 having lived with him while he was a teenager. For anyone to argue that teens or adults living at the same time in Miami didn't know what their family members were in the cocaine business is total horseshit, a former Miami-Dade detective told the publication in response to Rubio's claim that he didn't know anything. Now, you guys keep in mind, I've done a lot, a lot of reading on

33:32 drug trafficking in the last three years the one thing you know if you're a cocaine trafficker is there's lots of comings and goings from your house all day and night it's kind of hard to miss and all the people look exactly the same they come they're there five minutes there's money exchange there's drug exchange and then they go and this guy actually was doing it out of his house

34:00 He wasn't one of the other guys that rented a warehouse. They were doing it out of their house. It's very easy. And even if you didn't know at the time when you're a teen what was going on, five minutes after you leave the house and you're out in the real world, you're like, son of a bitch. He was doing drugs. It's not something that like at 30, you don't know what was going on. But Rubio declined to comment on the story once it aired.

34:33 and earned the nickname Narco Rubio among Venezuelans, including government officials whom the senator repeatedly accused of trafficking drugs. How ironic. So he wouldn't know a drug trafficker if he lived with one, but he can find all the others. However, the senator's most well-known nickname is Little Marco.

35:07 which of course was bestowed upon him by President Trump. Despite suffering routine public humiliation at the hands of Trump, who dealt a lethal blow to the senator's national political ambitions, Rubio had become a servant of the Latin American policy. In February 2019, he traveled to the Colombian border.

35:38 to drum up support for a U.S. invasion of Venezuela. The aid is going to get through, Rubio assured CNN on February 17th. I think ultimately the question is whether it gets through in a way that Maduro is cooperative with or not. As news that the aid was set ablaze emerged, Rubio leapt.

36:05 to accuse the Venezuelan government of setting the fire. Quote, Maduro's national police set fire to an aid truck carrying food and medicine while people in Venezuela starved, he wrote on Twitter, linking a video of the burning convoy. Secretary of State Pompeo repeated Rubio's narrative, blaming Maduro's thugs.

36:32 What kind of sick tyrant stops food from getting to hungry people? The images of burning trucks filled with aid. That's sickening, Pompeo tweeted. So, we were watching all of this, Anya says. And as it turns out, we did not need to be present on the border to dispel the media's deception rapidly emerging out of Colombia.

37:03 Max Blumenthal had spent the evening of February 23rd glued to his laptop, poring over images, witness testimonies, and video footage of the disorder at the border. Shortly after midnight, he surfaced with an article that documented how hooligans on the Colombian side of the frontier resembling the masked youth that would appear in the Gazalo report.

37:33 had lit fire to the convoy torching the aid in order to frame Maduro's government. It was a classic false flag operation, but done very sloppily. He linked the multiple videos and photos chronicling the events of the young men looking more like Gambinos than Venezuelan troops. They tossed Molotov cocktails.

38:02 onto the aid trucks. Even Bloomberg News, which has run a relentless stream of pro-opposition reports, published videos showing these hooligans on the bridge making Molotov cocktails, which could easily set a truck cabin or its cargo on fire. Images posted on Telesaur correspondent Madeline Garcia even captured one youth.

38:34 dousing the inflamed cargo with gasoline. Once again, Washington's official narrative had crashed. The New York Times published a recycled version of Blumenthal's report weeks later, confirming that the opposition itself, not Mr. Maduro, had set the cargo on fire.

39:01 The paper of record characterized the fire as, quote, unquote, accidental. You know, accidental with Molotov cocktails. That accidental. However, that didn't stop Mike Pence. He's quoted as saying the tyrants of Caracas danced as their henchmen murdered civilians and burned food and medicine. That was his tweet.

39:37 after it was already exposed as a false flag. Nobody died. No one was more emotionally distraught by the events of February 23rd than Marco Rubio. As the day came and went, leaving nothing but a smoldering aid, burnt out trucks on the Colombian-Venezuela border, the senator went into a Twitter meltdown. The outburst...

40:08 Began shortly after 2 a.m. So here's some advice. Don't tweet or post when you're drunk. And don't do it at 2 a.m. Because if you're up at 2 a.m., you're most likely drunk. Just don't do that. But he did it. He tweeted out side-by-side photos of the former head of the Panama military junta, Manuel Noriega.

40:39 You know, the one the CIA installed and then disinstalled and sent to jail. One image showed Noriega delivering a fiery speech and the other showed his mugshot taken within a Miami prison after the U.S. invaded his country and overthrew his government. Several hours later, Rubio followed up with two pictures of the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

41:07 one depicting him proudly seated on a golden throne and the other one taken shortly after NATO, mercenary captured him, raped him with a bayonet, his face lifeless and bloodied. Rubio ended the series of tweets with the image of a former Romanian head of state, Nicolae Cruciacu.

41:36 and his wife Elena's arrest taken days before they were both executed. Though none of the snapshots were accompanied with words, Rubio's message was clear. Maduro was going to be assassinated or arrested, whichever. Amid his post, Rubio found time to suggest that Venezuela's government was poisoning

42:07 opposition figures in Colombia, not in his country, ones living in Colombia. Quote, grave situation developing right now inside of Colombia. He tweeted, a member of the National Assembly of Venezuela was poisoned this morning at breakfast inside of Colombia and is in serious condition. His assistant, Carlos Salinas, had died from poisoning.

42:41 Twitter immediately lit up with the rumors that Maduro had targeted the men, but the drama would not play out the way Rubio had hoped. It was later revealed that Supilano and Salinas, who were cousins, had been drugged and robbed by two prostitutes they met after attending Branson's Live Aid concert. The Salinas' cousins enjoyed Friday night in the company of two women after picking them up at the shopping center.

43:11 The foursome stayed out all night before deciding to go to a hotel to continue partying. At the motel, the women drugged the cousins, made off with their cash, cell phone, and rings. An autopsy confirmed that Salinas died after ingesting alcohol benzodiazepine, a victim of his own corruption and decadent lifestyle. So they were taking drugs.

43:40 and drinking alcohol, which is probably not good to do. And the women who, as it turns out, Superlano and Salinas were not the only members of the Venezuelan opposition living in Colombia. Several others partying after that event had been accosted as well and rocked. Throughout months following,

44:23 Washington's border stunt, thrones of desperate Venezuelan military defectors and their family roamed the streets of Colombia like hopeless zombies because they thought America was coming. So they left Venezuela and was going to join the raiding party as it entered Venezuela that never materialized. They thought that they were going to be viewed as heroes.

44:55 By April, some of the defectors were preparing to embark on a journey to Bogota from the border with Venezuela, where they planned to apply for refugee status. Others resorted to joining local paramilitary groups and narco gangs to survive. The men complained to Colombian media that the UN refugee agency, Colombian government, and Guaido...

45:23 coup regime had effectively abandoned them all. As their presence in the Colombian border town became increasingly impossible to ignore, Spanish language media noted their plight received little attention from anyone, especially the members of Guaido's supposed presidential staff. They paid no attention to them at all. Two of those members, Kevin Rojas,

45:56 and Edith Barrera, failures to carry out their duties went far beyond just neglecting these people who had believed them and left Venezuela. In June of 2019, the Miami-based Pan Am Post published an explosive story revealing that those two people, Rojas and Barrera,

46:24 had in fact embezzled funding earmarked for the defectors. The investigation, authored by the site's Anto Maduro editor, Orlando Avendano, explained that defecting soldiers had been lured across the border with promises of stays in hotels, care for them and their families, medicine, food, hospital visits, whatever else they needed.

46:52 But the assistance never materialized. And this is coming from a Maduro hater. And dozens of families were ultimately evicted from the hotels and dumped out on the streets with nowhere to go. According to the report, Rojas and Barrera had squandered tens of thousands of dollars appropriated for the soldiers and spent it on themselves.

47:20 He based his investigation on information from multiple sources, including Colombian intelligence, which he said caught wind of the fraud when Barrero and Rojas began to lead lives that didn't correspond to their former life. They gave me all the evidence, Abando said, including invoices that show expenses.

47:46 of more than $800 in Colombian hotels and nightclubs per night for themselves, not the Venezuelans that they were supposed to be spending the money on. They would spend thousands of dollars on food and drinks. They spent money on clothing in very pricey ritzy stores in Bogota. They rented vehicles for their use.

48:13 Rojas and Barrera kept the cash flowing by inflating the numbers of defectors under their care. Though they officially reported to be managing 1,450 people, Colombian intelligence independently determined there were only about 700 total defectors. So they weren't caring for 1,400. They weren't even caring for the 700 that actually existed.

48:44 According to itemized receipts, Rojas and Barrera ran expenses totaling roughly $47,000. What's more, the investigator alleged that 60% of the food donated by pro-Guido government on February 23rd had rotted at the border, stating his sources showed him photographs of the aid decaying.

49:12 So even the ones that weren't burnt was never actually given to the people in that area that had defected. They just let it sit in a warehouse and rot. According to the investigation, this created a lot of really bad press. Quote, does humanitarian aid also include alcohol and prostitutes? One media site asked. The news even prompted a.

49:46 anti-Chavista OAS Secretary General Luis Algarmo to call for an investigation into Rojas and Barrero, declaring there is no democratization possible under a darkness of corrupt acts. Sensing growing political insecurity, Guaido attempted to distance himself from the duo and ordered his quote-unquote ambassador,

50:15 to Bogota for a government he doesn't have to request that Colombian authorities formally investigate the allegations. For its part, Venezuela's government announced a criminal inquiry into Guaido's role in the scheme, claiming he personally directed the actions. Rojas and Barrera scandal provided only a small window into the fraud of February 23rd.

50:45 In April 2021, USAID published an internal audit that confirmed that the Venezuelans government had claimed all along the border stunt had been driven entirely by politics, not humanitarian objectives. The audit reported that the State Department White House National Security Council, John Bolton, had overseen shipments.

51:15 directly inhibiting USAID's ability to adhere to humanitarian principles and mitigate operational risks. So in other words, it isn't the normal USAID chain of food being delivered there. What was being delivered there, whatever it was, was sent there by the National Security Council and

51:46 the State Department, which tells you it wasn't humanitarian aid because that's not what they ship. They ship a whole bunch of other stuff, usually weapons. Additionally, the report asserted the aid package had not been designed based on a needs assessment, which normally requires a team to go into the country to determine what's missing so they know how to position the aid.

52:17 in order for it to be actual aid. So they didn't really care what anybody in Venezuela needed. They're just going to put a bunch of crap, fly it down on airplanes, and shove it into the country and leave all the people that normally do any of that out of the picture. The IG argued that the U.S. government resources may have fallen into corrupt hands, revealing that USAID spent $2 million of taxpayer money to purchase and transport the aid.

52:47 It neglected to impose proper fraud controls on its distribution, which means if it was weapons, they're all over Columbia. Again. Meanwhile, the roughly $2.4 million raised by Branson's concert was funneled into the formation of a nonprofit called Aid Live Foundation.

53:11 which claimed to be promoting the integral development and well-being of Venezuelan children in vulnerable communities and Venezuelan migrants living in Colombia, the ones that were kicked out of their hotel, which if it was being used for that, they wouldn't have got kicked out of their hotel, though the foundation's website boasted that it had provided services for over 11,000 people. There's only 700 people that defected.

53:44 And none of this money went inside of Venezuela. It's impossible to validate any of it. The border town in Colombia was abused. For several weeks in February 2019, U.S. government officials like Rubio converted the urban backwater into a staging ground for a media spectacle, risking an all-out war. Venezuela opposition treated the city as a personal playground.

54:16 partying with local prostitutes and leaving hundreds of military defectors turned refugees desperately wandering around its streets. A publicity-obsessed British tycoon spent tons of money building a concert venue on the grounds to be used for one afternoon, and by the end of it all, no charity dollars were ever accounted for raised by the concert.

54:45 Long after Branson returned to his international oligarch outer space performances, the Colombian locality where he put on his show remains one of the poorest ones in all of Colombia. Long after the ashes of the humanitarian aid burning, 52% of Colombia in the surrounding region,

55:19 remains in poverty. So, not a happy story. The next chapter is going to deal with the role of the Organization of American States, the OAS, which we know had gotten involved with the World Anti-Communist League and all kinds of nefarious things. So, we're going to show you what the role in this whole thing was because it's just as ridiculous.

55:52 I personally don't think, based on anything I've read, they had a lot of respect before, but they have even less now as a result of this stunt. So we'll go through that chapter tomorrow. Where did SR go? I guess he didn't get his co-host. Are you able to talk, Bridget? Yes, at the moment. But that could change at any second. Crazy puppy. But I am up and running.

56:29 Hey, that's crazy. I mean, just now the whole Marco Rubio thing. My opinion, Ray Charles could have seen through that. What is your opinion on that? I was drinking. Don't do that. I almost spit out my juice. Ray Charles could have seen through that. Yeah. I mean, it's not that he doesn't know. Of course he knew. But you're not going to get elected saying, hey, you know.

57:01 I'd spent a few years in my whatever it was, brother-in-law's house or cousin's house or whatever, and he was dealing drugs. That doesn't make for a good story. And so much of our politicians that are career politicians, life's a big lie anyway. Haven't we figured that out yet? It's interesting to me.

57:28 the role that Rubio is playing now, given how much those of us who are Florida residents know about his real past, it would make you suspect that he was basically given the opportunity to atone for his past discretions. Because anybody that has followed his career knows that there was no...

57:56 bigger voice in all of Florida in politics than Marco Rubio on amnesty. None. He wanted amnesty every day, all day long, and talked about it all the time when he was in the state legislature. So, so much. Not that politicians' views don't change over time, but

58:24 He's like radically 180. It's not just a, oh, for this and that or whatever. It's like almost like someone gave him a second chance to come do this and he took it. So very interesting turnaround. SR, go ahead. Thank you, Colonel. I want to thank everybody for attending here on X as well as on Rumble. A couple of things.

58:56 Shout out to all my fellow Marines out there. Semper Fi. Happy birthday. Absolutely. What I was thinking about here is Branson. I remember when Branson was very big in the news. I also remember this egg concert, this food egg concert. Of course, there were a lot of food egg concerts going on at the time as well. I mean, you had.

59:24 Willie Nelson doing his aid for farmers and this, that, and that. They were all over the place. But all of a sudden, Branson is no longer on everybody's lips. And I wonder why. I haven't heard a thing about Branson in the news in a long time. Yeah, well, you know, he has an island down there by Jeffrey Epstein. And once they knocked off Jeffrey Epstein, he may have decided to shut up.

59:52 Just a thought. Renee, go ahead. Hey, everybody. Hey, Colonel. Yeah, I was totally thinking about Richard Branson as well. Necker Island was the island he had. But then it started to go, my brain started to go in the direction of, you know, Mar-a-Lago and Trump purchasing, getting into Florida and the timeline.

1:00:20 I guess what he got involved in Atlantic City early 80s and then Mar-a-Lago was mid 80s. And Richard Branson got, I think, Necker Island. I don't know if it was late 70s, early 80s, but it makes one kind of connect dots and think about the positioning, the strategy of Trump and Florida and close to the Caribbean and all this stuff. Right. Yeah.

1:00:49 It's very interesting. Ron, go ahead. I found it interesting that Roger Waters was, you know, I came in a little bit late and you were talking about Roger Waters. Were they saying good things about him or bad things about him? Roger Waters is the former lead singer of Pink Floyd. He was saying that he's tired of the regime change stuff.

1:01:20 Hold on. Let me go back and look. Because they had three different ones of them. Well, that would make sense. But I just kind of, you know, I don't know how many you guys are.

1:01:35 Pink Floyd fans, but I mean, Roger Waters kind of went off the deep end. He wanted total control of Pink Floyd. It was like he became kind of a totalitarian himself. So it's just kind of like a little bit of hypocrisy there from a Roger Waters standpoint. Yeah, Roger Waters was against the regime change in Venezuela, as was Peter Gabriel. Okay. Yeah.

1:02:04 I just I just I wanted a little bit of clarification there. OK, thank you. Sure. All right. Well, that's all I got for today. Unless anybody has anything off topic that they want to chat about real quick. Way to go viral. Just saying. Yeah. Well, to be honest, Colonel, I'm still sitting here waiting on Congress to make a decision what they're going to do about this. This whole government shutdown. Who knows at this point?

1:02:40 And of course, I see all of the airlines that are that are shutting down flights and everything else and thinking this is stupid. They don't have to do that. Somebody's guiding all of that to happen somewhere along the line. Thank you. Renee, go ahead. Yeah, something a little off topic. I don't know if you shared, but I or maybe I missed it. How was your grandbaby's first Halloween? Well, I missed it. So that was my.

1:03:11 I saw him that night, but Halloween was the night I flew back from D.C. And so I was supposed to get home in plenty of time. And then the jerks delayed my flight out of National for two hours. And then we were not on the interstate from Tampa to my house five seconds when there was a seven car pileup. And we sat in traffic, not going anywhere for like.

1:03:40 two miles for two hours. And so I did not get home until nine 30. He had already done his trick or treating. Um, but I did, we went directly over there so I could see him. Um, but yeah, it was so depressing. That's why I hate to fly. Yeah. Ron, go ahead. But thank you. Um, the, uh, um, go on, go into the point about the, uh, the government shutdown.

1:04:14 And this is off topic. You know, to me, it feels like they're, I don't know if the Republicans are trying to break the Democrats in a way. But, you know, when you go back and you look at all of the services that are being shut down, I was actually having this debate with a friend the other day.

1:04:37 And it's like, you know, the federal government employs more people than any entity in this country. And it was never supposed to be that way. So as far as I'm concerned, you know what? Shut the government down and keep it shut down in perpetuity, in my humble opinion. So, Ron, Ron, Ron, the government shutdown is breaking both parties. You know, because if...

1:05:05 You actually had a real Republican MAGA first party. The first day of the shutdown, the nuclear option would have been because you would have exposed the Democrats at that point. Right. They'll starve you for continuing their Ponzi scheme of the ACA. So using.

1:05:34 COVID-19 subsidies, for heaven's sake. It's been over for five years now. And so you've exposed them. So you immediately invoke the nuclear option, and then you spend the next three years passing everything, election reform, everything. And if you passed enough of that by midterms, the midterms would be a landslide, right? Because that would give you plenty of time to start feeling

1:06:02 all of the solutions to, you know, all of this. And what do they do? No, no. And I said yesterday, there's no way they're going to invoke the nuclear option because it would expose the Republicans. They'd actually have to fucking do something. They're not going to do anything. They're worthless pieces of trash too.

1:06:29 I agree with that. And forgive me, I'm by not saying the Republicans, I wasn't leaving them out. Forgive me, but I can understand why you would infer that. Yeah, because they're just as guilty in this whole kabuki dance as the Democrats. And they always are. And what is the one thing that they're now touting? Oh, look, let's rewrite.

1:06:58 He just showed up with my grandson. Sorry. They're touting as reinstating all of the furloughed people that have been let go. Yeah, no, we're not okay with that. Well, there's things going on with the Federal Reserve. There's things going on with the dollar. There's things going on with the market. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on. And if Trump only has another three years to fix this, I kind of feel like.

1:07:30 I don't know if, and then I just want your, I don't have anything to, to, uh, to affirm this, but I just, I don't know. I have something, a feeling in my gut that something is about to give here. Yeah, I do too. I agree. All right. You guys are going to have to go over on rumble and see my grand baby. Hey, um, SR go. And then I got to go.

1:08:01 Yeah, I agree with Ron at this point. There's a lot of things going on at this point. And the one thing I'm not hearing any more about or very little about is Ukraine. Nobody's saying anything about Ukraine on the news or anymore unless you go to Euronews or you go somewhere else, Al Jazeera, even to get some kind of news about what's going on in Ukraine. You hear zip.

1:08:41 I hear you. You're right. I don't hear anything about Ukraine either. The markets are going up and down. And I have long believed that the financial...

1:08:59 aspect has to go first otherwise you can't fix everything else because without the financial thing fixed uh it's essentially it's like bringing cancer into a brand new body you you you have to get that fixed you have to get the federal reserve situation fixed in my opinion i think that little grandbaby here said it all there colonel tell you like it is all right guys i gotta go

1:09:34 I don't think she heard anything we said, but it's okay. I'm just fascinated with him. He blows kisses now. All right. Well, go enjoy your grandbaby, and happy Veterans Day if I don't talk to you all tomorrow. Thank you. Tell him bye-bye. Say bye-bye. Take care, everyone.

Entities here

Venezuela31 Colombia25 Marco Rubio20 Richard Branson18 Nicolás Maduro14 Donald Trump10 Kevin Rojas9 Edith Barrera9 Juan Guaidó8 Roger Waters7 Nicole Cram5 Maria Corina Machado5 Carlos Salinas4 USAID4 Chile4 Orlando Cecilia3 Miami3 John Bolton3 Max Blumenthal3 Óscar Pérez3 Carlos Suppiano3 Paraguay3 U.S. State Department2 Luis Almagro2 Garimbo riots2 Virgin Group2 National Security Council2 Peter Gabriel2 Syria2 Mike Pompeo2 Redfish2 Ukraine2 Orlando Avendano2 Colombian Intelligence2 Organization of American States2 Mar-a-Lago2 Pink Floyd2 Elena Ceaușescu1 Operation Gladio1 Iran1

Claims made here

Donald Trump targeted_for_regime_change Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 5:47

“He had traveled to Florida International University in Miami for a rally with local Venezuelan expats handing out Make America Great Again hats. He promised his fans among the regime change hungry dia…”

Óscar Pérez carried_out_attack Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 6:41

“a former Venezuelan law enforcement officer and B-movie actor who had formed an anti-government terrorist organization in Venezuela. He had hijacked a police helicopter and launched grenades at the co…”

Richard Branson targeted_for_regime_change Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 9:14

“Branson had organized and was supposedly using the money to help the country's suffering people. Behind the event, Branson added a fresh front in the foreign aggression against the Venezuelan governme…”

Richard Branson funded Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 9:14

Roger Waters exposed Richard Branson host_asserted ▶ 10:47

“Almagro was also present. Branson's Washington regional political instruments did not take shape without drawing critics. Days before the event was scheduled to take place, British rock legend and ant…”

USAID funded Garimbo riots host_asserted ▶ 17:58

“In a parking lot of her apartment building, one of the Venezuelan correspondents was crying. She said, I saw from far away what happened in countries like Iraq and Libya and Syria, and I'm afraid that…”

John Bolton targeted_for_regime_change Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 20:28

“against the military's rank and file aimed at intimidating them to defect. John Bolton didn't even hide that. Quote, this is a John Bolton quote, to the Venezuelan military high command, now is the ti…”

Donald Trump targeted_for_regime_change Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 20:59

“So he's baiting the military in Venezuela to turn against its government. Weeks later, during his February 18th rally in Miami, President Trump issued a statement to Venezuelan troops. We seek a peace…”

Nicole Cram carried_out_attack Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 23:00

“Eventually, Venezuelan military boots appeared in the frame as soldiers arrived to carry Cram to safety. Cram had been struck by an armored military vehicle as three Venezuelan soldiers inside hastily…”

Maria Corina Machado targeted_for_regime_change Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 24:58

“the U.S.-backed politician who had served as one of the most radical figures in Venezuela's opposition over a decade, particularly during the 2014 Salida riots. On the afternoon of February 23rd, Merc…”

Marco Rubio targeted_for_regime_change Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 31:02

“coup regime operation and their U.S. handlers had a narrative they could broadcast to the world. Leading the propaganda blitz was Marco Rubio, the Florida senator born in the Cuban expat community. Ru…”

Orlando Cecilia trafficked West Kendall, Florida host_asserted ▶ 32:02

“meaning they had actually fled the regime of the country's U.S.-backed installed dictator, Batista, not Castro. Rubio's character was also tarnished by revelations that throughout the 1980s, his broth…”

NATO captured Muammar Gaddafi host_asserted ▶ 41:07

“one depicting him proudly seated on a golden throne and the other one taken shortly after NATO, mercenary captured him, raped him with a bayonet, his face lifeless and bloodied. Rubio ended the series…”

Marco Rubio ordered_assassination_of Nicolás Maduro host_asserted ▶ 41:36

“and his wife Elena's arrest taken days before they were both executed. Though none of the snapshots were accompanied with words, Rubio's message was clear. Maduro was going to be assassinated or arres…”

Kevin Rojas embezzled Edith Barrera book_quoted ▶ 46:24

“had in fact embezzled funding earmarked for the defectors. The investigation, authored by the site's Anto Maduro editor, Orlando Avendano, explained that defecting soldiers had been lured across the b…”

Kevin Rojas laundered_money_for Edith Barrera book_quoted ▶ 46:52

“But the assistance never materialized. And this is coming from a Maduro hater. And dozens of families were ultimately evicted from the hotels and dumped out on the streets with nowhere to go. Accordin…”

National Security Council oversaw USAID documented ▶ 50:45

“In April 2021, USAID published an internal audit that confirmed that the Venezuelans government had claimed all along the border stunt had been driven entirely by politics, not humanitarian objectives…”

Organization of American States involved_with World Anti-Communist League host_asserted ▶ 55:19

“remains in poverty. So, not a happy story. The next chapter is going to deal with the role of the Organization of American States, the OAS, which we know had gotten involved with the World Anti-Commun…”

Roger Waters opposed Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 1:01:35

“Pink Floyd fans, but I mean, Roger Waters kind of went off the deep end. He wanted total control of Pink Floyd. It was like he became kind of a totalitarian himself. So it's just kind of like a little…”

Peter Gabriel opposed Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 1:01:35