Tag: Illegal drug trade

Opinion: Oversight Hearings Are Great, But Where’s the Accountability?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)2 Comments

Congressional Oversight Hearings are meant to monitor the implementation of policy by any given presidential administration and hold those accountable who may have violated people’s civil rights, the nation’s laws, or codes of conduct. However, it seems that more focus than ever is on proselytizing, rather than asking hard questions. Meanwhile, confirmation hearings have always been partisan in this way. Those are largely based on support for a nominee, as we saw in the hearing for Markwayne Mullin, where Republican lawmakers and Mullin promoted false narratives about immigration and migrants who have been detained and deported under Trump.

Opinion: Oversight Hearings Are Great, But Where’s the Accountability?

Laura Dogu and Washington’s Regime-Change Playbook: Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela + More

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Laura Dogu and Washington’s Regime-Change Playbook: Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela

Laura Dogu’s appointment ultimately signals not innovation but continuity: a recalibration of tactics in pursuit of the same objective that has defined US policy toward the Bolivarian Revolution for decades – regime change through pressure, attrition, and delegitimization. Whether branded as “stabilization,” “economic recovery,” or “transition,” the underlying premise remains that Venezuela’s political future should be shaped in Washington, not Caracas.

Yet the record in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Venezuela itself suggests that external coercion has limits. Dogu’s mission will test not only Venezuela’s resilience but also the durability of the unremitting US strategy of Latin American interventions.

Previously:

Read More »

Behind the DOJ’s Politicized Indictment of Maduro: A CIA-Created ‘Network’ and Coerced Star Witness +

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The US Department of Justice indictment of Venezuela’s kidnapped leader, Nicolas Maduro, is a political rant that relies heavily on coerced testimony from an unreliable witness. Despite DOJ edits, it could expose more Americans to the CIA’s own history of drug trafficking.

…

Weaponizing the “narco-terror” hoax
The bulk of the case against Maduro rests on the accusation that the defendants “engaged in… drug trafficking, including in partnership with narco-terrorist groups.” According to the DOJ, Maduro conspired with TDA, as well as the Mexican Sinaloa and Los Zetas cartels to traffic drugs between 2003 and 2011. However, these cartels were not designated by the Trump administration as Foreign Terrorist Organizations until February 2025, a move obviously designed to justify Maduro’s kidnapping and juice up his indictment.

Behind the DOJ’s Politicized Indictment of Maduro: A CIA-Created ‘Network’ and Coerced Star Witness

Related (Los Zetas):

Read More »

Trump Claims Venezuelan Airspace Is Closed in Latest Illegal, ‘Dangerous Escalation’

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Policy experts and advocates on Saturday denounced President Donald Trump’s claim that he had ordered the airspace above and around Venezuela “to be closed in its entirety”—an authority the US president does not have but that one analyst said signaled a “scorched earth” policy in the South American country and that others warned could portend imminent airstrikes.

Trump Claims Venezuelan Airspace Is Closed in Latest Illegal, ‘Dangerous Escalation’

Hopefully, when I wake up from my catnap, Venezuela is still there—and not renamed ‘Trump Tower South.’ /s

Gimenez: The Tweets and the Foreign Lobbying Firm

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)3 Comments

Brian Berletic:

US Authorizes CIA Violence in Venezuela, Then Blames Venezuela For It…

The US already openly announced the CIA is conducting operations inside Venezuela, then says “Venezuela” is doing it to themselves to blame the US or its terrorist proxies inside Venezuela…

The NYT had reported:

“The new authority would allow the C.l.A. to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela and conduct a range of operations in the Caribbean.

Read More »