After frustrating the maritime incursion in the village of Macuto, La Guaira state, President Nicolas Maduro indicated the activation of this and other military operations in order to dismantle the groups of mercenaries who were trying to penetrate other regions.

The Minister of Interior Relations, Justice and Peace, Nestor Reverol, said Friday that in the region of Petare, which was one of the distractions designed by the invaders to divert the security forces of Venezuela, a strong operation was still underway, Prensa Latina reported.

This is a special device for the search of organized crime gangs that seek to alter the internal order and tranquility of our people, the minister said on Twitter.

Among the evidence presented at the beginning of this week by the Vice President of Communication, Tourism, and Culture, Jorge Rodriguez, is the testimony of one of the mercenaries who said that the internal confrontations promoted in the neighborhoods of that parish were part of the plan designed by the United States, Colombia, and the Drug Control Administration.

He pointed out that the confrontations in Petare were organized to divert attention from the maritime incursion that was intended to take place off the Venezuelan coast on May 3.

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“Thirteen terrorists were caught. We seized materials they intended to use for their plan. We found drugs, dollars, arms, satellite phones, radio receiving sets, and night vision equipment,” Maduro said during a speech in Caracas broadcast by the national TV, TASS reported.

He added that everyone who had taken part in the operation to capture the criminals would be rewarded and promoted.

On May 3, the Venezuelan authorities announced that they had successfully foiled an attempt to infiltrate the country by a mercenary group traveling from Colombia looking to stage a coup d’etat in Venezuela. According to President of Constitutional Assembly Diosdado Cabello, the mercenaries were trying to break through into the country aboard boats.

Colombia rejected the statement of the Venezuelan side. According to the Colombian authorities, Caracas is putting forward unfounded accusations against Bogota to distract from the country’s domestic issues.

The political crisis in Venezuela exacerbated on January 23, 2019, when Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and parliament speaker, whose appointment to that position had been canceled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital of Caracas. Several countries, including the United States, and most of the EU states recognized him.

In contrast, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria, and Turkey voiced support for Maduro, who has blasted the move as a coup staged by Washington and said he was severing diplomatic ties with the US.

The post Coup in Venezuela Failed appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Morales announced in a tweet on Monday that he had boarded a plane to Mexico, where he had been granted asylum after his resignation. Iran News quotes the news of PressTV.

The announcement came after the Organization of American States (OAS) delivered a report alleging irregularities during the October presidential election in Bolivia, which Morales had won.

That prompted some of Morales’ ruling party allies to relinquish power and the army to urge the leftist leader to resign, which he agreed to do even as he stressed that his electoral victory had been valid.

Morales secured an outright win in the presidential election on October 20, while his rival and the head of the Civic Community opposition party, Carlos Mesa, refused to recognize the results of the vote.

Mesa’s refusal to concede defeat initiated weeks of violent protests in the capital, La Paz, and in El Alto and other Bolivian cities.

Still, and after Morales’ departure, Bolivia’s military and security forces were deployed in major cities on Monday night following a day of violence and looting, with scuffles on the streets.

Clashes between police and Morales’ supporters reportedly left some 20 people injured.

The 60-year-old president had earlier urged his supporters to resist the “dark powers” that had forced him to step down.

Aymara, a group from the indigenous community of Red Ponchos, said they were marching to La Paz to express their support for Morales, the country’s first indigenous president.

Morales’ opponents, however, celebrated across Bolivia, setting off fireworks and waving national flags, according to local media reports.

The commander of Bolivia’s armed forces ordered troops to conduct joint operations with police to prevent violent clashes.

Mixed reactions to Bolivian leader’s resignation

Meanwhile, people took to the streets of the Argentinean capital, Buenos Aires, on Monday to protest against Morales’ forced resignation.

Nicaragua and Venezuela also expressed solidarity with the leftist leader.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said a “wave of violence unleashed by the opposition” had prevented the “presidential mandate of Evo Morales” from being completed.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel said in a tweet that what happened in Bolivia had been “a violent and cowardly coup d’etat against democracy.”

US President Donald Trump described the move as “a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere.”

Snap vote around the corner

Bolivia’s deputy senate speaker, Jeanine Anez, who is constitutionally in line to become interim president, has pledged to call fresh elections to restore calm to the Latin American country.

The OAS is scheduled to hold a special meeting on the situation in Bolivia at its Washington headquarters on Tuesday.

The organization also issued an urgent call for the Bolivian assembly to meet “to ensure the functioning of institutions and to name new electoral authorities to guarantee a new electoral process.”

Meanwhile, Morales has vowed to return “with more strength and energy.”

The post Chaos Hit Bolivia after Morales’ forced resign appeared first on Iran News Daily.

By: Hamid Reza Naghashian

Since Venezuela is considered as the last bridge for full and all-out return of Washington to the Latin American scene, all pressures have been exerted on a country which is the root of all independence-seeking movements in the region, and the U.S. does its efforts to push back this move from the starting point and suppress all anti-capitalist revolutions in the continent. So from the moment Donald Trump took office as the U.S. President through the claimed Russia’s support, he has been constantly beefing up economic sanctions on Venezuela, condemning Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and inviting Venezuelan people to topple Maduro’s government which is actually an anti-U.S. government and ray of hope for materializing the ideals of opponents of American-style capitalism in the sub-continent.

To this end, President Trump has taken some measures and the CIA is in charge of implementing them. Venezuela’s dollar dominated bonds, whose prices had soared by almost 25 percent since last months of 2018, once again soared with more pace during the days of unrests and it was because of the growing pressure from the opponents of Venezuela’s legal government .

According to those who are familiar with the matter, Trump Administration is also ready to impose more restrictions on Venezuela’s oil sales but the reason, why he has not imposed it, is that he waits for the performance of anti-Venezuelan government protesters. However, Trump’s coup against Venezuela’s  legal government has been defeated; and protesters believe that because of Maduro’s defiance against the opposition leader Juan Gerardo Guaido, Trump will undoubtedly impose his oil embargo against Venezuela’s government and people. They think after the failed coup by the 35-year-old Guaido who is the president of Venezuelan National Assembly, Mr. Trump has told reporters that all options were on the table and the U.S. could use against the Maduro government but he has excluded military action.

A U.S. administration official has warned that if Maduro does not transfer the authority of all financial affairs to Guaido, Trump would impose more sanctions. According to reports, some White House officials had warned some U.S. oil managers in early January that Trump Administration is mulling restriction on Venezuela’s oil exports and recommended them to find replacement for Venezuela’s heavy crude.

Guaido, since January 5 when he was elected as the president of National Assembly, has started to exert pressure on military activists and international community to recognize him as legal president of Venezuela.

After Trump’s statement, Brazil, Colombia, Canada, Peru and Chile recognized Guaido as the legal Venezuelan leader. During his speech among thousands of his supporters during a protest rally in eastern part of Caracas, Guaido said, “I swear in to take office as the interim Venezuelan President till toppling the usurper government.” After his swear-in, his supporters started singing patriotic songs and national anthem.

After this quasi-revolt, president of Venezuelan Supreme Court who is one of Maduro’s allies ruled against Guaido and disavowed him as chief of National Assembly and annulled the assembly’s decision over illegalizing Maduro’s government.

Trump’s official support of Guaido officially exposed the U.S.-backed coup and Maduro said that the coup against his government has been backed financially by the Yankees. The U.S. has found its interests in danger and is preparing to bring a puppet government to the power while Russia and China have a strategic approach towards developments in Venezuela and take stance in favor of Maduro. President Hassan Rouhani’s diplomatic body did not take a strong stand against coup attempters and it is regrettable for the Iranian nation.

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