obodola iosi
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.counterextremism.com/roundup/eye-extremism-january-11-2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://counterextremismproject.nationbuilder.com/r?u=KVYzWTFUuJ0SsyVZLAg-7Jw2TEvklax0oou7wpg1OCEnjbtz1CuQMLCTkjVMghCc9F3J9sU79K4NtMONf6ubWe-pFFdqvEE_4VdooJuu7oxUaeeSkmku9q4rXy2xgggUd2KJ7spnQvq45vONkohIgA&e=591e68f8a591259df80db68df9e5ac4d&utm_source=counterextremismproject&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=eoe_1_11_2019&n=9" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://counterextremismproject.nationbuilder.com/r?u%3DKVYzWTFUuJ0SsyVZLAg-7Jw2TEvklax0oou7wpg1OCEnjbtz1CuQMLCTkjVMghCc9F3J9sU79K4NtMONf6ubWe-pFFdqvEE_4VdooJuu7oxUaeeSkmku9q4rXy2xgggUd2KJ7spnQvq45vONkohIgA%26e%3D591e68f8a591259df80db68df9e5ac4d%26utm_source%3Dcounterextremismproject%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3Deoe_1_11_2019%26n%3D9&source=gmail&ust=1547305445623000&usg=AFQjCNF_Nydw-Nwh_BxbzW-ZpgImt9tYrA"><strong>Fox News: Venezuela, Iran And Hezbollah - All Hostile To The US - Forge Closer Ties</strong></a></font></p>
<blockquote>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“As<b> </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Iran and Venezuela become increasingly isolated and sanctioned by
the U.S and much of the international community, the two governments
are said to be tightening their bond - with the help of Tehran's proxy
group, Hezbollah, in the middle of the action. </b>"Training between Iran
and Venezuela has increased in the past few years as part of a larger
plan between the Venezuelan regime, consisting of increasing the number
of Hezbollah operatives and their supporters across Latin America,”</span>
<b>Johan Obdola, President of the Canada-based Global Organization for
Intelligence (IOSI) and former counter-narcotics chief in Venezuela,
told Fox News. </b>“(Hassan) Rouhani and (Nicolas) Maduro have established a
very firm and close relationship, which was of course initiated by
(Hugo) Chavez.” Venezuela’s connections to Iran – and by default its
proxy militia, Hezbollah – go back more than a decade. Hezbollah, which
translates to “The Party of God,” is an Iran-backed, Shiite-dominant
political and military group that began in Lebanon in 1982, following
the Israeli occupation. It was designated a foreign terrorist
organization by the U.S State Department in 1997.”</font></p>
</blockquote></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">off bs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.linkedin.com/company/iosiglobal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Global Organization for Security and Intelligence IOSI
Public SafetyOttawa, Ontario422 followers
Johan ObdolaRoberto Hernández HidalgoTomas Martinek
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On behalf of the Board, Executive Committee, Senior Officers and Advisors, it is an honor to introduce the International Organization for Security and Intelligence, an international organization established as a not for profit public safety organization and governed by its members: government officials, law enforcement and military officers, global business leaders and international recognized experts from around the globe.
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Employees at Global Organization for Security and Intelligence IOSI
Johan Obdola
Johan Obdola
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Roberto Hernández Hidalgo
Roberto Hernández Hidalgo
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">more caravan BS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.foxnews.com/world/questions-arise-over-politics-motivations-of-caravan-organizers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">oct 25 no lnx
Questions arise over politics, motivation of caravan organizers
Hollie McKay
By Hollie McKay | Fox News
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What can US do to stop migrant caravans?Video
What can US do to stop migrant caravans?
President Trump vows to deploy troops to the border as migrants from Central America make their way toward the U.S.; insight from former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.
As several thousand Central Americans and Mexicans continue to march toward the United States in the migrant caravan, more questions are being asked about how the effort was brought together, who is behind it, and what prompted the movement to this point just weeks before critical U.S. elections.
While some claim the caravan began organically, others argue opponents of President Donald Trump's immigration policy have played a key role in the movement, with the aim of embarrassing the U.S. administration, and its supporters in Central American countries like Honduras.
“This caravan was initially organized by Bartolo Fuentes, a known leftist activist and former member of the national Congress in 2013, representing the political party of deposed Honduras president Manuel Zelaya," Johan Obdola, president of Latin America-focused global intelligence and security firm IOSI, told Fox News. "Now, this is not new, but is the first time it gets a high level of international media attention. And the reasons are beyond the political.”
Obdola argued it's in the interest of Honduran opposition members like Zelaya to “actively create violent acts and destabilization in Honduras," and said the caravans are part of a plan to keep the region "in constant chaos." He also argued the former Honduran leader – who served as president from 2006 to 2009 – is closely allied with the Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro, and questioned that conflict-riddled nation’s role in fostering mass migration in an effort to embarrass the current, pro-U.S. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Honduras has been plagued by discord since its election last November of Hernandez, who defeated Zelaya. Many Zelaya supporters protested the results, claiming they were fixed in favor of a U.S-approved leader. The subsequent unrest has been cited as a key factor for Hondurans wanting to leave their country.
Fuentes, a former Zelaya government legislator and host of the migration-focused radio show “Without Borders,” is often characterized by Honduran government figures as a "coyote," or human trafficker. To others, he is a social activist. Fuentes himself last week was pulled from the main caravan group in Guatemala and deported back to Honduras.
Zelaya staunchly denied any link to the caravan, or any effort to push Hondurans toward the United States.
“This apocalyptic exodus is due to the disgraces that the people are living,” he told Fox News in an exclusive interview Thursday. “The caravan is a natural process of unity. It is self-summoned, and there is no organization assembling this quantity of immigrants in the country. It is a reaction from the people to the problems they are living in our countries.”
The former president also accused the U.S. of “maintaining a socialist dictatorship” in its support for the “illegitimate” Hernandez leadership, but denied any other governments – including Venezuela – were behind the caravan.
“No leftist government has come here to promote immigration to the U.S., nor has it financed it. No one needs to pay Honduras to leave. They leave voluntarily,” Zelaya continued, adding that while he has personally worked with Bartolo Fuentes in the past, immigration has long been his most important issue of advocacy.
“Fuentes has worked with the immigrant community for 20 to 30 years – well before entering politics – and that he receives no money for this work nor has he given out money to anyone,” Zelaya insisted.
The Honduras Embassy in Washington and Fuentes did not immediately respond to request for comment. Fuentes wrote on Facebook this week that the migrants are in need of basics like ointments for blisters, socks, shoes, diapers, and umbrellas. He thanked the help of pastors and churchgoers for food and other supplies.
While Fuentes had much to do with helping bring to life and expand the presence of the caravan, others contended he was not the first. Rather, social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp laid the first foundations that made it easy to draw in Hondurans looking for an easier path to the U.S.
“They had been unable to afford coyotes, so they viewed joining this caravan as their opportunity to flee turmoil in much of Central America,” said James Hyde, an analyst and member of the Electromagnetic Pulse Task Force on National and Homeland Security. “When Honduran TV picked up the posts and the reactions to it, the number of people swelled from hundreds to thousands.”
Hiring coyote smugglers for the perilous journey can cost up to $5,000, more than double what most Hondurans make in one year.
Central American migrants walking to the U.S. start their day departing Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018. Despite Mexican efforts to stop them at the border, about 5,000 Central American migrants resumed their advance toward the U.S. border early Sunday in southern Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Central American migrants walking to the U.S. start their day departing Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018. Despite Mexican efforts to stop them at the border, about 5,000 Central American migrants resumed their advance toward the U.S. border early Sunday in southern Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Small groups started to talk among themselves about making a journey last month, sources said, while Fuentes got on-board to help mobilize the migrants – just as he had with another caravan in April – this time urging the group to meet up at the San Pedro Sula bus station.
“It’s very well-organized by those who started the social media campaign. It gained momentum when Bartolo Fuentes got involved and the movement stirred up lawyers group funded with dark money, who teach those headed north what to say for asylum,” Hyde said. “Joining the massive group is simple. People decide to cast away their current lives and jump into the opportunity to join.”
Word spread with media attention and a local news coverage. And soon Hondurans from across the country, who saw it as an opportunity to relocate cheaply and under the guise of “safety in numbers,” allowing them safe passage from dangerous drug cartels and smugglers along the dangerous roads.
Estimates on the size of the current caravan vary. And while there are signs the Mexican government is taking steps to better control or reduce the number of migrants, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras seemed unwilling or unable to take much action. Some two-thirds of those in the caravan are Hondurans, according to estimates, with the remainder from other Central American countries and Mexico.
COLOMBIAN MOTHERS CHALLENGE 'BAD LUCK' TABOOS, TAKE THE LEAD EMERALD MINING
The motivations for those in the group also vary. Many are seeking better economic opportunities. Others are members of persecuted groups who say they're unable to live safely and openly in their home countries. Some were previously deported from the U.S., and are trying to get back to family members who remained behind.
“For most of these people trying to reach the USA, and fleeing violence and poverty, they are the ones paying the highest price as many of them are victims of crime, torture and sexual abuse," said Obdola. “There are some humanitarian and social groups assisting the caravan along the way. Some with only a humanitarian interest, some with more of a political interest who see the USA and Trump as the enemy.”
Sources said the caravan is being supported and nourished in part by an array of Mexican church and human rights organizations, as well as locals on the streets.
“It’s a weird mishmash of people involved. Small amounts of money have been handed out, but it is not clear from who and where,” said one Mexico-based law enforcement source. “It isn’t a cartel operation and cartels aren’t involved. The cartels are very nervous about what is happening, the last thing they want is attention on the border which only makes their job harder.”
Some have strongly argued the issue should be viewed in humanitarian rather than national security concerns.
VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER LAMENTS "GENOCIDE" IN HIS COUNTRY, REVEALS HIS ESCAPE FROM DETAINMENT
“We need to focus on the human aspect of this and consider what is driving this migration; violence, corruption, economic limits or degradation, and the effect of climate change,” said Michael Scadden, Geopolitical Risk and Corporate Security Advisor specializing in Latin America. “Food and water security is a major factor in many migrants’ decisions to take the risk of this journey.”
A caravan migrant stops for a break in Mexico on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
A caravan migrant stops for a break in Mexico on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Others contend that whatever the legitimate asylum claims of those in group, international law dictates caravans should not make it to the United States border.
“International law on asylum is that the asylum seeker is supposed to present themselves to the authorities of the first international border they reach upon fleeing their countries," said Dennis Santiago, a global risk and foreign policy analyst. "For Central Americans fleeing north from their governments, that country is Mexico; specifically, the southern border of Mexico.”
Santiago explained that Mexico, with aid from the international community, should have set up refugee camps at the borders to handle the migrant flow. That would have then triggered the involvement of the U.N. High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR).
"It is from these camps that other organizations such as the U.S. Office for Refugee Resettlement are supposed to process persons to qualify eligible refugees for movement from the camps to a third host nation,” he said.
Santiago also asserted the U.S., Mexico and the U.N. have the money and resources to support the refugee camps.
"We’re talking 1,500 people per caravan, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the 11 million Syrians, Kurds and Yazidis displaced in the Middle East,” he continued. “But most of these people are refusing to go into camps and process as refugees. Somebody’s giving them a better deal than the internationally sanctioned solution set. Instead, they are marching towards the U.S. border. Are these people really legitimate refugees from their own governments?”
Joseph Fallon, a research associate for the U.K. Defense Forum, also argued that “if fear of violence in their country was their primary motive, they could have traveled to neighboring Costa Rica.”
Central American migrants, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., cross the Suchiate River to avoid the border checkpoint in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, October 20, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
Central American migrants, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., cross the Suchiate River to avoid the border checkpoint in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, October 20, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
Under pressure from the Trump administration, Mexican officials have been desperately urging caravan members to stay in Mexico and be processed there. Yet the vast majority have remained steadfast in their endeavor to get to the United States. Migrants in the past have complained that applying for asylum in Mexico is a demoralizing process, which can take more than a year, and even then routinely results in a rejection.
For the first time ever in 2016, Mexico deported double the number of Central Americans than did the United States. That has at least in part what has motivated many to head north.
Yet at least some of those seeking asylum also appear to have been "coached," according to several sources, and have memorized scripted stories that would make them more sympathetic to U.S. immigration officials.
Migrants bound for the U.S.-Mexico border wait on a bridge that stretches over the Suchiate River, connecting Guatemala and Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)
Migrants bound for the U.S.-Mexico border wait on a bridge that stretches over the Suchiate River, connecting Guatemala and Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)
“Caravans didn’t exist before 2010. Trips are carefully planned and coached. Aliens removed do share their experiences back home and that presents lessons learned for a return trip for others planning their first run,” Gabriel Ruiz, a California border-based deportation officer with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told Fox News. "Almost all have birth certificates and identity documents, but establishing the validity of those documents is time-consuming and difficult because a processing officer doesn’t have that sort of time to investigate identities in detail.”
Hollie McKay has a been a Fox News Digital staff reporter since 2007. She has extensively reported from war zones including Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, and Latin America investigates global conflicts, war crimes and terrorism around the world. Follow her on Twitter.
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://thejewishvoice.com/2018/10/31/meet-the-folks-who-are-really-behind-the-illegal-alien-caravan/</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">N</font></b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>ews about the caravan of illegal aliens from Central America who are
making their way across Mexico in an attempt to breach the U.S. border
has been shuttled to the sidelines thanks to the attempted bombing of
prominent Democrats.</b>
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But they’re still coming. And as they approach the U.S. border, more
questions are being asked about who organized the caravan in the first
place.</font>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many on the right believe that George Soros is behind the effort. But
an investigation by Fox News discovered that domestic Honduran politics
was the impetus for forming the caravan and sending it on its way.</font></span>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This caravan was initially organized by Bartolo Fuentes, a known
leftist activist and former member of the national Congress in 2013,
representing the political party of deposed Honduras president Manuel
Zelaya,”<b> Johan Obdola, president of Latin America-focused global
intelligence and security firm IOSI</b>, told Fox News. “Now, this is not
new, but is the first time it gets a high level of international media
attention. And the reasons are beyond the political.”</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Obdola argued it’s in the interest of Honduran opposition members
like Zelaya to “actively create violent acts and destabilization in
Honduras,” and said the caravans are part of a plan to keep the region
“in constant chaos.” He also argued the former Honduran leader – who
served as president from 2006 to 2009 – is closely allied with the
Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro, and questioned that
conflict-riddled nation’s role in fostering mass migration in an effort
to embarrass the current, pro-U.S. Honduran President Juan Orlando
Hernandez.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Honduras has been plagued by discord since its election last November
of Hernandez, who defeated Zelaya. Many Zelaya supporters protested the
results, claiming they were fixed in favor of a U.S-approved leader.
The subsequent unrest has been cited as a key factor for Hondurans
wanting to leave their country.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fuentes, a former Zelaya government legislator and host of the
migration-focused radio show “Without Borders,” is often characterized
by Honduran government figures as a “coyote,” or human trafficker. To
others, he is a social activist. Fuentes himself last week was pulled
from the main caravan group in Guatemala and deported back to Honduras.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zelaya staunchly denied any link to the caravan, or any effort to push Hondurans toward the United States.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zelaya’s supporters may be pulling the strings behind the scenes, but
the group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or “People Without Borders,” was
heavily involved in organizing the caravan.</font>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Capital Research Center:</strong></font></span>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some left-leaning publications such as the New York Times have said
that “no group has claimed responsibility for organizing [the most
recent] caravan,” perhaps in order to stave off claims by President
Trump and other conservatives that it is being aided by left-wing
activists in the United States.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Times, however, is only partially correct. While no single group
has claimed control of the migrant caravan, at least two activists from
Pueblo Sin Fronteras – Denis Omar Contreras and Rodrigo Abeja – are
embedded in the caravan, according to the Los Angeles Times, the
Washington Post, and the Mexican newspaper La Jornada. Contreras
(sometimes spelled Contera or Contrera) reportedly helped lead the
caravan to illegally enter Mexico, where he told migrants “Welcome to
Tapachula!” (referencing a town near the Guatemala border). Abeja, too,
was identified as one of the leaders of the April 2018 caravans, which
were also supported by Pueblo Sin Fronteras.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On October 18, Irineo Mujica – director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras in
Mexico and an American citizen – was arrested by Mexican officials for
allegedly attacking immigration officials at a pro-illegal immigration
protest near the Guatemala-Mexico border.</font></p>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By: Rick Moran
(American Thinker)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/04/is_maduro_another_noriega.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pril 20, 2019</font>
<h1><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Is Maduro another Noriega?</font></h1>
<div class="author"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By <a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/author/silvio_canto_jr/">Silvio Canto, Jr.</a></font></div>
<div class="article_box_ad" id="div-gpt-ad-1455834208841-0">
</div>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:14px;">According to many, drug-trafficking is Maduro's extra source of cash and keeping him floating. This is the report from <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/drug-trafficking-maduro-venezuela" target="_blank">Fox</a>:</span></font></p>
<blockquote>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:14px;">While there an array of factors to blame, analysts are pointing to illicit trafficking rings as a fundamental Maduro lifeline.</span></font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:14px;">"The
Venezuelan military forces has become a narco-criminal, armed
organization. Most of the top and mid-commanders are deeply involved in
corruption, drug operations, and serious human rights abuses," Johan
Obdola, president of Latin America-focused global intelligence and
security firm IOSI, told Fox News, noting that cartel-led, massive drug
operations continue to spawn the country keeping the top echelon
well-fed and financed. </span></font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:14px;">"Small
pro-regime policing agencies and military units across the nation
conduct these criminal operations centered on drug trafficking,
kidnapping, and robbery to survive the crisis."</span></font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:14px;">Kevin
Ivers, Vice President and Latin America expert at public policy firm
DCI Group, pointed out that years ago, the elite of the Venezuelan
military was put in charge of the core elements of the domestic economy,
such as the importation and distribution of food and consumer goods.</span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:14px;">Makes
sense to me. I've been hearing that for years, even back to the Chávez
days. In fact, I've heard that this connection involves Cuba as well.</span></font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:14px;">This
is why I believe that a "Noriega solution" may be in Maduro's future —
in other words, the arrest of Maduro and conviction in a Florida court.</span></font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:14px;">Maduro may be more likely to cut and run if he fears a military intervention that places him in a Florida jail.</span></font></p></div><div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">fox cheerleader venez
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/drug-trafficking-maduro-venezuela"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://www.foxnews.com/world/drug-trafficking-maduro-venezuela</font></a></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx pix [vid?]</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">==-
<b>Drug trafficking keeping Maduro in power in Venezuela, analysts say</b>
Hollie McKay [who?]</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Hollie McKay | Fox News
Pence says Venezuela ambassador 'shouldn't be here' while addressing the UN Security CouncilVideo
Pence says Venezuela ambassador 'shouldn't be here' while addressing the UN Security Council]
It has been more than three months since the <b>U.S. accelerated its onslaught of economic sanctions on Venezuela</b>,
coupled with the back of a new interim President – heightening official
expectation that the Nicolas Maduro-led regime would crumble.
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Only the <b>socialist dictatorship</b>
has failed to fall. While there an array of factors to blame, analysts
are pointing to illicit trafficking rings as a fundamental Maduro
lifeline.</span>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
“The
Venezuelan military forces has become a narco-criminal, armed
organization. Most of the top and mid-commanders are deeply involved in
corruption, drug operations, and serious human rights abuses,<b>” Johan
Obdola, president of Latin America-focused global intelligence and
security firm IOSI, told Fox News,</b></span> noting that cartel-led,
massive drug operations continue to spawn the country keeping the top
echelon well-fed and financed. “Small pro-regime policing agencies and
military units across the nation conduct these criminal operations
centered on drug trafficking, kidnapping, and robbery to survive the
crisis.”
<b>Kevin Ivers, Vice President and Latin America expert at <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">public policy firm DCI Group</span>,</b>
pointed out that years ago, the elite of the Venezuelan military was
put in charge of the core elements of the domestic economy, such as the
importation and distribution of food and consumer goods.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">[In
this Feb. 14, 2019 file photo, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro
speaks during an interview at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas,
Venezuela. (???????AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
“This has
encouraged corruption and profiteering that has made key elements of
the military part of what can be called the regime’s ‘mafia,’ and this
has extended beyond consumer goods to drug trafficking,” he explained. <b>“Maduro
has also spent years systematically splintering the military into
factions and playing them off each other to make it difficult for them
to unite against him.”</b>
PENCE CONFRONTS VENEZUELAN AMBASSADOR AT UN: ‘YOU SHOULDN’T BE HERE’
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Emanuele
Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies, concurred that many in the upper echelons receive a cut
from the regime’s illicit trafficking network – from drugs to food and
medicine racketeering.</span>
“There aren’t enough <b>incentives </b>(for military leaders) to leave and disincentives to stay to tip the balance, especially at the top,” he noted.
Indeed,
military defections – once considered key to Maduro’s expulsion – have
dipped from 80 to 100 per day earlier this year to just two or three,
according to the Washington Post. And of those, very few have come from
the highest ranks and thus failed to generate a game-changing ripple
effect.
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“There
were no key defections, roughly 500 members of the military without any
real commanders. In a 110,000 military it had no impact,” explained
Carlos Ponce, a senior fellow, and director of Latin America Programs at
the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. “There was no real
analysis of the military structure and the breaking points.”</span>
Ponce
said that former leader Hugo Chavez intentionally dismembered the lines
of command to avoid a coup d’état while he was in power. He also
pointed out that those who did make the leap have been paying the price.
“The
commanders and high-ranking officials allegedly caught in anti-Maduro
meetings have been tortured and their families isolated from any social
or food program,” Ponce noted. “So there is a disincentive for anyone
who showed discontent with the regime – jail or torture and abandonment
to their families.”
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Maduro’s
reign is also being held together by external players. The U.S
estimates that more than 20,000 Cuban agents alone are now planted
within the Venezuelan military and law enforcement, presiding over
internal operations and the movements of the top brass.</span>
<b>“Maduro relies heavily on foreigners to prop up his regime – Cuba, Russia, and Iran</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
They have a vested economic and political interest in ensuring he
succeeds. Economically, to ensure that it is they that control the
largest proven oil reserves in the world,” </span>said <b>John Wood, analyst and author of 'Russia, the Asymmetric Threat to the United States</b>.' “Politically, to render the U.S. visibly impotent in its own backyard and thereby lay the groundwork for<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b> building a viable military threat to the USA in its own hemisphere.”</b></span></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Eight-year-old
Franyelis feeds her baby brother Joneiber as their mother Francibel
Contreras holds a bowl of scrambled eggs and rice, at a soup kitchen in
the Petare slum, Caracas, Venezuela. Contreras brings her three
malnourished children to the soup kitchen in the dangerous hillside slum
where they scoop in spoonfuls of food in what could be their only meal
of the day. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
]
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Obdola
also underscored that the Cubans have “established an intense regional
intelligence and surveillance operation” in bordering areas and in
countries that support regime change in Venezuela.</span>
“This
operation is intense and mostly in Colombia, Brazil and other nearby
nations where a very unique gathering of spies, intelligence and even
terrorist operations are very active,” he said.
FIRST SHIPMENT OF RED CROSS AID ARRIVES IN VENEZUELA]
But
the U.S., which has vowed to refurbish the rule of law and bring about
new leadership in Venezuela, is yet to dramatically change its strategy.
Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo said last week that “all options” are on the table
when it comes to Venezuela, insisting that the strategy is “not just an
American strategy” but the “Venezuelan’s people’s strategy.”
“Sometimes
people think Maduro is winning, and yet he’s handed over all his power
to the Cubans, to the Russians,” Pompeo told the<b> Voice of America </b>Spanish.
“This is weakness from Maduro. And so this weakness will ultimately
lead to his departure, and democracy and prosperity will be restored in
Venezuela.”
<b>He has also taken aim at China’s role in standing
by Maduro financially, mandating that their role is prolonging the
protracted crisis in Venezuela.</b>
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">[People
cross the Tachira River into Colombia near the Simon Bolivar
International bridge, which Venezuelan authorities only open to students
and the sick, in Cucuta, Colombia, Tuesday, March 12, 2019, on the
border with Venezuela. People crossing the river are using makeshift
bridges as the water level grows with the approaching rainy season. (AP
Photo/Schneyder Mendoza)
]
Once awash will oil wealth and
deemed the richest country in Latin America, Venezuela has been
beleaguered by an economic crisis since 2015 which has since spiraled
into a grave humanitarian catastrophe and prompted the exodus of almost
four million into now overburdened neighboring nations. Maduro has
consistently blamed the U.S. for purporting to wage "economic war," but
has largely denied that there are mass problems.
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On
the ground in the poverty-plagued Venezuela, it’s a mix of exasperation
and desperation with the vast majority continuing to push for change
and turn to the U.S. for support as time rolls on.
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>
“There is more room for applying sanctions</b>,” Ivers added. “Anything that cuts off the regime’s ability to generate cash, that disrupts its flow of<b> contraband </b>goods
and drug trafficking finances, and increases the pressure of possible
prosecution of senior military and regime figures for <b>crimes against humanity or other criminal acts</b>, will bring the regime closer to the negotiating table to seek an end to the conflict.”</span></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hollie
McKay has a been a Fox News Digital staff reporter since 2007. She has
extensively reported from war zones including Iraq, Syria, Yemen,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, and Latin America investigates global
conflicts, war crimes and terrorism around the world. Follow her on
Twitter.
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