Putin with his puppy dog at Helsinki
On Wednesday, May 1, Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, warned that “military action is possible” in Venezuela. “If that’s what’s required, that’s what the United States will do,” he said.
He also said, “The Cubans invaded [Venezuela] some time ago; the Russians have now followed suit. The numbers of Cubans in the security apparatus alone are in the thousands. The Russians have people working over there in the hundreds, if not more. These are the folks who are actually controlling the direction of travel for Venezuela.”
Two days later, on Friday, Trump had an hour long private conversation with Putin on the telephone. Within hours, Trump held a news conference in which he said, “I had a very good talk with President Putin — probably over an hour. And we talked about many things. Venezuela was one of the topics. And he is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela, other than he’d like to see something positive happen for Venezuela. And I feel the same way. We want to get some humanitarian aid.”
In a previous article Oaklandsocialist considered whether Trump would order an invasion of Venezuela. We wrote, “One of the main complicating factors is Trump’s history as a money launderer for the Russian mafia capitalist class. That history has placed him under the powerful influence of the capo di tutti capo of that mafia: Vladimir Putin. We saw it in Trump’s performance in Helsinki and again with his call for US troop withdrawal from Syria. Since Putin supports Maduro, he will be pressuring Trump to keep his hands off.”
How to explain this sort of thing if not by saying simply that Trump’s long connections with, his money laundering for, the Russian mafia capitalist class is the major factor here? We also have to wonder whether a new crisis in the Trump administration is developing.
In December of last year, Trump precipitated a crisis in his administration when he announced that he was withdrawing all US troops from Syria. Among other things, his chief of staff, John Kelly, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned. Now, Trump’s two most trusted people are Secretary of State Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton. The more Trump concedes to his paymaster, Putin, the more he will be coming into conflict with Bolton and Pompeo.
We are not, of course, advocating for a US invasion of Venezuela. But it’s necessary to understand the inner workings of those who rule over us.
Putin with his puppy dog at Helsinki
Categories: Trump