🇻🇪🇨🇺 What to watch for in a Venezuela without Maduro: its relationship with Cuba

👉 Domestically, Venezuela seems to be “in a fairly secure place,” notwithstanding the kidnapping of its president, says veteran international affairs analyst and Cuba trade expert John Kavulich.

💬 “Government institutions have thus far publicly been resilient. The vice president is stepping in, the cabinet is stepping up, there aren’t riots, etc.,” Kavulich told Sputnik.

🗣 “But it’s Venezuela’s relationship with Cuba that’s going to be incredibly demonstrative. How much pressure does President Trump force the current government of Venezuela to lessen its support?” That’s the key question, the observer says.

🔊 “Venezuela provides energy to Cuba. Cuba provides workers, healthcare workers to Venezuela, and they pay them billions of dollars a year…So a turning off of the commercial economic financial relationship between Venezuela and Cuba can really put a lot of pressure on Cuba. And then the question becomes, who steps up, If anyone?” regionally or internationally.

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🇰🇵🇷🇺 North Korea conducts hypersonic missile launch drill — reports

A sub-unit of the Korean People’s Army conducted a hypersonic missile launching drill on January 4 as part of evaluating the readiness and effectiveness of the DPRK’s war deterrent, according to KCNA.

💬 “We must continuously upgrade the military means, especially offensive weapon systems. It is just an essential undertaking for self-defence,” Kim Jong-un said while personally overseeing the exercise.

KCNA reported that the hypersonic missiles were launched from Ryokpho District in Pyongyang and hit targets 1,000 km away in the Sea of Japan. Kim thanked the missile sub-unit for launching the first combat drill of the new year and said the missile forces would remain a reliable shield defending the DPRK’s sovereignty and security.

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🔥🇻🇪 ‘Venezuela will not be governed by any foreigner’ — La Guaira governor

💬 “We were brutally attacked. This is an act of state terrorism, and they shamelessly say that (…) they are going to govern Venezuela,” La Guaira Governor José Alejandro Terán told Sputnik during a demonstration in Caracas against US aggression. “Venezuela is governed by the Venezuelan people. We exercise sovereignty and freedom.”

Terán said Washington’s attack exposed “the false narrative about drug trafficking” and that its real interest is oil.

💬 “They have a legitimate president kidnapped in the United States, along with his wife. The Venezuelan people will not leave the streets until they return President Nicolás Maduro to us,” he said.

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🚨 ‘We’re in charge’ — Trump claims US is running Venezuela

President Donald Trump said the US is dealing with the authorities, adding that he has not personally spoken with acting president Delcy Rodriguez but that “other people have.” He also said “she’s cooperating.”

💬 "It's a dead country right now," Trump said, arguing Venezuela needs to be “brought back,” including “big investments by the oil companies.”

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❌ ‘We don’t think we’re going to need it’ — Trump on another attack on Venezuela

Asked about contingencies if Venezuela’s military resists the US “running” Venezuela, President Donald Trump said Venezuela “thus far has been very nice.”

💬 “It helps to have a force like we have,” Trump added, saying the US was “ready for a second wave” but “don’t think we’re going to need it.”

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🚨 Trump threatens similar attack on Colombia

💬 “Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,” President Donald Trump told reporters.

❓ Reporter: “So there will be an operation by the US in Colombia?”

💬 Trump: “It sounds good to me, yeah. You know why? They kill a lot of people.”

Trump also mentioned that the US military killed "a lot of Cubans" who were protecting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

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🚨 ‘We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security’ — Trump

President Donald Trump said Greenland is “so strategic,” claimed it is currently “covered with Russian and Chinese ships,” and argued that “Denmark is not going to be able to” ensure security there.

💬 “And the European Union needs us to have it. And they know that,” Trump added.

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🚨 ‘If they don’t behave, we’ll do a second strike’ — Trump on Venezuela

President Donald Trump said the US was “prepared” to carry out a second strike in Venezuela and suggested it remains an option.

He added that the presence of American troops on the ground would “depend” on what happens, including under “the new administration, if you want to call it that.”

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❗️❗️❗️ Ex-Chavez advisor says ‘time is not on Washington’s side’ in Venezuela

💬 “The message” the US hoped to send to regional leaders through its brazen attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro is that Washington “calls the shots…and that if you do not obey, we will apply the Monroe Doctrine,” Professor Heinz Dietrich told Sputnik.

🟠 To China, which buys 80% of Venezuela’s oil, and whose yuan and BRICS-based oil payment systems President Maduro was looking to join, it’s the same message, Dietrich, a former aide to the late President Chavez, who now heads a research center at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City, said.

🟠 The US’s “obsolete” imperialistic approach “will not work” this time, the academic stressed. Acting president Delcy Rodriguez seems set on sticking to the national sovereignty-oriented course Maduro pursued.

💬 “What is the strategic objective of kidnapping Maduro? There is no strategic objective because [the US] has nobody to substitute the kidnapped president. There’s a vacuum of power now for US imperialist interests in Venezuela.”

🟠 What’s more, the Venezuelan police and armed forces are opposed to US intervention, as are a majority of Venezuela’s people (55-60%). Accordingly, there’s no base “for a solid transition to a US-managed exploitation of the oil reserves” to stand on, Dietrich said.

💬 “The US empire is broke. The United States needs $5T this year to finance its desolate financial situation…There is a lot of wealth, imperial wealth at stake, which the US would like to have, but I don’t think they have either the strategic thinking nor the real power, maritime or aerial power, to push this through. So I think time works against the US,” Dietrich summed up.

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