🚨I'M A DECENT MAN: Maduro pleads not guilty at his New York court arraignment

🔶Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty, saying he is a decent man and remains the president of his country.

🔶He addressed the court in Spanish, using an interpreter.

🔶Maduro’s wife also declared her innocence.

🔶Maduro said he had not previously seen the indictment and was unaware of his legal rights.

🔶Maduro and his wife requested a consular visit.

🔶According to his lawyer, Maduro is not seeking release at this stage; the defense plans to file a bail request later.

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🚨First court hearing in the Maduro case concludes: a New York judge ordered Nicolás Maduro to appear in court on March 17 for the next hearing.

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🤔 Why didn’t Venezuela shoot Maduro’s kidnappers out of the sky? Three explosive possibilities

👉 Glowing MSM reports on the operation to capture Maduro attribute success to the US military’s super-duper high-tech weaponry, tactics, and planning. But there are other, potentially far more plausible explanations, says Egor Lidovskoy, director of St. Petersburg’s Hugo Chavez Latin American Cultural Center.

Option #1

💬 “The first option is incompetence on the part of government agencies” and those responsible for Maduro’s protection, Lidovskoy told Sputnik.

Option #2

🔶 Maduro's betrayal is another theoretical possibility, perhaps if some officials agreed to collude with the US to give up the president in exchange for promises to profits from oil extraction if and when the Americans arrive in Venezuela.

💬 “We don’t have any evidence that this or that member of Maduro’s government or team betrayed him. We don’t have such facts. Therefore, I think it’s wrong to make unfounded accusations in advance,” Lidovskoy said. Instead, for now, “we must closely monitor what is happening, and based on this, draw conclusions about whether such a conspiracy exists or not,” he suggested.

Option #3

🔶 The most provocative possibility is that the kidnapping “was a Trojan Horse operation,” which would remove questions about betrayal and incompetence and explain “many inconsistencies,” Lidovskoy says.

💬 “The gist of this theory is that a US delegation accompanied by armed guards arrived at Maduro’s residence to discuss the parameters of a peace deal at a dinner, to conduct peace talks, to find common ground.”

🔶 This would explain the lack of incoming fire by Venezuelan air defenses on US helicopters.

💬 “Once inside, the delegation’s armed guard (revealed to be special forces) shot all of Maduro’s guards – who were unprepared for this – and captured the president. And only when the signal came in that something had gone wrong and the president had been captured did the bombing of Venezuelan bases and key air defense points begin, providing a smokescreen for the US withdrawal.”

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🔸 I'm a decent man: Maduro pleads not guilty at his New York court arraignment

🔸 Russia urges US to free Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife

🔸 Venezuela not as vulnerable to internal betrayal as its neighbors have been historically: here’s why

🔸 From confidants to coup-plotters: inner circle betrayals that have shaped Latin American politics

🔸 US plans creation of a ‘functional protectorate’ in Venezuela - expert

🔸 US interventions in Latin America – from WWII to today

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🇺🇸 ⚔️ 🇻🇪‘US wants to be in charge in Venezuela without directly running it’

The US is interested in “an artificial government running Venezuela” that follows White House orders, Portuguese expert Alexandre Guerreiro told Sputnik.

💬 “Everything is still unclear, but there is America’s intention is to rule in Venezuela through the country’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez,” he said.

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🚨🇻🇪 Delcy Rodríguez sworn in as acting president of Venezuela

Venezuela’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as acting president following a Supreme Court ruling.

💬 “I come with sorrow for the suffering inflicted on the Venezuelan people after an illegitimate military aggression against our homeland. I come with sorrow for the kidnapping of two heroes held hostage in the United States of America — President Nicolás Maduro and the first combatant, the first lady of this country, Cilia Flores,” Rodríguez said.

💬 “I come with sorrow, but also with honor, to swear in the name of all Venezuelans… I swear by our liberator father Simón Bolívar, whose liberating blood runs through the veins of Venezuelans,” she emphasized.

Rodríguez concluded the oath by invoking Hugo Chávez, pledging to work for the country’s economic and social stability.

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🔊US-backed coups in Latin America are bad enough, Judas-style betrayals are worse

👉The US began overthrowing governments in Latin America in the 1890s, often working with internal elements, “usually the military and the business community,” to do so, Peter Kuznick, the director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, told Sputnik.

🗣“It's the internal betrayal that is sometimes even more disturbing, because that is not a question of US egregious use of power…That is some people committing the moral sin of working with the enemy, working with the aggressor, selling out the internal interests of the people in Chile or Guatemala or El Salvador, you go down the line, Brazil, that in some ways is more offensive because it could be avoidable,” Kuznick said.

“Within the Catholic tradition, this is especially outrageous because this is what happened to Jesus Christ. Jesus was betrayed by Judas. And so within the Catholic theological tradition, this internal betrayal is the arch enemy. Now, in Jesus' case, it wasn't so much the outside forces, although that was at play also, but the focus on Judas. So Pinochet is the equivalent Judas,” the historian pointed out.

💬“So the US has its puppets. The US has its cronies. The US has its betrayers who are willing to stab people in the back in order to get their own power for the military,” he added.

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🇺🇸 🇻🇪US stance on Venezuela adds to global instability

US actions in Venezuela creates the lack of trust, security and stability for the world as it invokes the so-called Monroe Doctrine to claim that “all Latin America is the US backyard,” and that Washington “can do and decide whatever it wants,” Portuguese expert Alexandre Guerreiro told Sputnik.

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🗣 Trump: US ‘not at war’ with Venezuela — reports

President Donald Trump said the United States is not at war with Venezuela, portraying US aggression against the country as part of a broader campaign against drug trafficking, NBC News reported.

💬 “No, we’re not,” Trump said. “We’re at war with people that sell drugs.”

Trump said Venezuela will not hold new elections in the next 30 days, arguing that the country must first be stabilized.

💬 “We have to nurse the country back to health,” he claimed.

He also suggested oil companies could help rebuild Venezuela’s energy infrastructure, with costs reimbursed by the US government or through revenue. Asked who is ultimately in charge, Trump answered:

💬 “Me.”

Trump said the US is prepared to carry out further military action if needed and claimed he does not require new authorization from Congress, adding that lawmakers “knew what we were doing.”

NBC News reported Trump made the remarks shortly after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was arraigned in New York and pleaded not guilty, while Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as acting president in Caracas.

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🇺🇸 🇻🇪 Monroe Doctrine ‘no longer valid under international law’

The White House only worries about US elites when applying the Monroe Doctrine “to impose regime change wherever it will be considered needed.”

But the doctrine is “pretty outdated” and “no longer valid under international law,” Portuguese expert Alexandre Guerreiro told Sputnik.

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🚨🇻🇪 Gunfire reported near presidential palace in Caracas

Sounds of gunfire are reported near the presidential palace in Caracas, according to BNO News.

Several outlets have published videos they say show shooting in the area around the Miraflores Palace.

Footage from social media

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