Paul Singer, the empire of debt and demographic replacement in the United States

by José Alberto Niño

In the series of those known as "the villains of Judea," in the United States

Who is Paul Singer, "the embodiment of Jewish plutocracy"?

Paul Elliott Singer is one of the most influential figures in global finance. This Jewish billionaire hedge fund manager amassed a fortune estimated at between $6,2 and $6,7 billion by buying sovereign and distressed corporate bonds at heavily discounted prices, then waging ruthless legal campaigns to obtain full repayment, including interest.

Born on August 22, 1944, in Teaneck, New Jersey, Singer transformed a $1,3 million start-up in 1977 into Elliott Management, a hedge fund empire managing approximately $65,5 to $72 billion in assets.

However, Singer did not limit himself to financial maneuvers. He established himself as a kingmaker within the Republican Party, becoming the second most important a donor to the party in 2016 and a major figure in AIPAC, immigration reform, and the LGBT rights movement. His business model has devastated entire communities, from Sidney, Nebraska, to Buenos Aires, Argentina. His political activism embraces seemingly contradictory causes, supporting both an uncompromising pro-Israel stance and marriage equality. His most recent operation, the acquisition of Citgo assets in Venezuela for $5,9 billion, allows him to profit from the Trump administration's military intervention in Venezuela.

Singer's business model earned him the nickname "vulture capitalism." In the 1990s, Singer gained notoriety by purchasing $20 million of Peruvian sovereign debt. Through an aggressive legal strategy, he eventually obtained a payment $58 million, nearly triple his initial investment. A U.S. court revealed that Elliott's purchase of Peruvian debt was made with the explicit aim of obtaining full repayment through legal action. Investigative journalist Greg Palast reported that Singer's lawyer confided in him that Singer had enabled Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who had fled the country to escape murder charges, to flee in exchange for the injunction made to the Peruvian Treasury to pay $58 million to Singer.

Between 2002 and 2003, Singer earned over $100 million from a $30 million investment in debt. from Congo-Brazzaville But his most audacious campaign targeted Argentina. Following the 2001 Argentine economic crisis, Singer acquired distressed bonds worth approximately $117 million. Refusing to participate in debt restructuring agreements accepted by other creditors, he instead demanded full repayment in international courts. This campaign culminated in a 2016 settlement that netted Elliott Management $2,4 billion, a staggering return of 1270%.

Singer's tactics proved extraordinary, even for a hedge fund. In 2012, Elliott successfully persuaded a Ghanaian court to grab The Argentine training ship ARA Libertad, with 220 crew members on board, demanded $20 million for its release. The then-Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, refused to pay Singer's fund, calling Elliott and similar companies "financial terrorists" and vulture funds. The Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded that the courts reject Singer's attempt to ruin Argentina, but Singer's legal campaign ultimately succeeded.

Paul E. Singer has established himself as one of the most prominent donors to pro-Israel causes in the United States. Through his foundation, the Paul E. Singer Foundation, he has donated approximately $300 million since 2010. Since 2022, he has given $2 million to AIPAC and $3 million to his super PAC, the United Democracy Project, making him the third-largest donor to AIPAC. He sits on the consulting administration of the Republican Jewish Coalition and co-founded Start-Up Nation Central, an organization that aims to facilitate access for Israeli companies to international markets.

Singer was also a major donor to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a neoconservative think tank advocating hawkish policies aligned with Israeli interests. From 2008 to 2011, he poured $3,6 million to the FDD, making him the second largest donor of the organization. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, has described The FDD as a staunch supporter of a war against Iran. At a meeting of the Jewish Funders Network in Jerusalem, Singer said that "Israel is perhaps the only guarantee that all Jews, everywhere in the world, can rely on for the security and continuity of Judaism.».

Like many Jewish magnates Singer became a fervent advocate for the LGBT cause after his son Andrew found his homosexuality. In 2012, he donated one million dollars to create American Unity PAC whose mission was to encourage Republican candidates to support same-sex marriage. From 2012 to 2015, he contributed to the tune of over $5,5 million to this organization. In 2013, he made a donation of $500,000 to the Human Rights Campaign. Since 2001, Singer has given over $11 million for the legalization of same-sex marriage and support for LGBT causes.

Singer's crusade to redefine marriage within the Republican Party was just one aspect of his broader agenda; he quickly shifted to advocating for mass immigration to transform American demographics. In 2013, Singer made a significant donation to the National Immigration Forum to support reform global immigration, more commonly known as the amnesty. As one of the first major Republican donors to publicly support the amnesty, Singer worked to mobilize conservative support for an overhaul of federal laws. In 2014, he founded the American Opportunity Alliance, bringing together wealthy Republican donors who share his support for LGBTQ+ rights, immigration reform, and Israel.

Singer's business activities in the United States have generated controversies as devastating as its international operations. In 2015, Elliott Management acquired an 11% stake in Cabela's, an outdoor retailer, and forced a merger with Bass Pro Shops. plunging Sidney, Nebraska, where Cabela's headquarters were located, was in chaos. The city suffered massive job losses, a housing market collapse, and an economic recession. According to court documents, Elliott pressured Cabela's board of directors to sell the company until they finally gave in. The merger netted Elliott nearly $100 million in profits. Residents told Fox News producers that the hedge fund had ruined their city, one of them declarer : "If money is a god in his eyes, he is a deeply sick man.».

In December 2019, Tucker Carlson, host of Fox News, devoted a major investigative report to Paul Singer, focusing on the Cabela's case. Carlson qualified Singer's economic model of "vulture capitalism", consisting of "acquire significant stakes in American companies, lay off employees, artificially inflate stock prices in the short term and, in some cases, obtain government bailouts". He stated : "This is nothing like the capitalism we were promised in school. It creates nothing. It destroys entire cities. It couldn't be uglier or more destructive.».

Carlson emphasized Singer's political power, stressing that "People like Paul Singer exert considerable influence on our political systemHe revealed that Singer wasthe second largest donor to the Republican Party in 2016, and that he gave millions to a super PAC supporting Republican senatorsCarlson added:You may never have heard of Paul Singer, which says a lot, but in Washington, he's a real star.».

During the production of this report, Carlson reported being warned several times by people in Washington:Don't criticize Paul Singer, it's not a good ideaDuring the broadcast, Carlson received a text message froman An influential figure in Washington said:Incredible! I can't believe you're doing this. I'm scared of Paul Singer.».

One of Singer's most controversial business deals involves the Venezuelan oil company Citgo. In November 2025, Elliott Investment Management won a court-ordered auction to acquire Citgo for 5,9 billion Citgo represents the flagship of Venezuela's international oil assets. having three large refineries on the Gulf of Mexico coast, with a processing capacity of 800,000 barrels per day, 43 oil terminals and more than 4000 service stations.

Singer acquired Citgo at a significantly reduced price, according to several sources. Court advisors estimated Citgo's true value at approximately $13 billion, while Venezuelan authorities valued its assets at between $18 and $20 billion. Singer therefore paid about 45% of the estimated market value.

A highly controversial aspect of the sale concerns Robert Pincus, the court-appointed special administrator who oversaw the auction and recommended Singer's bid. Pincus sits on the national board of directors from AIPAC. Gold Reserve Inc., a competing bidder that offered $7,9 billion, filed Requests to recuse Pincus due to conflict of interest. Venezuela rejected the legitimacy of the sale, the calling of "fraudulent procedure" and "theft of the century».

The timing of events has raised serious questions about the links between Singer's acquisition of Citgo and the actions of the Trump administration. In 2024, Singer poured $5 million to Trump's super PAC and $37 million to support Republican candidates for Congress. On January 3, 2026, the U.S. armed forces conducted a military raid in Caracas, capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro's ouster offers Singer the opportunity to reap enormous profits. —Economist Paul Krugman pointed out : "If Trump lifts the embargo, Singer will receive a considerable financial windfall.A few days after Maduro's capture, Trump announced that Venezuela would deliver between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil to the United States.

Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY), a staunch opponent of intervention in Venezuela, also understood how Singer could benefit from military action against Venezuela. tweeted January 4, 2026:According to Grok, Paul Singer, the globalist Republican mega-donor who has already spent $1,000,000 to defeat me in the next election, will pocket billions of dollars from his troubled investment in CITGO, now that this administration has taken control of Venezuela».

As pointed it out Massie, Singer donated one million dollars to MAGA KY, a super PAC seeking to impeach the Kentucky congressman. Singer and his fellow Zionist Jews view Massie as an obstacle to consolidating Jewish supremacy in Congress.

Ultimately, Singer embodies the Jewish plutocracy. He finances the decline of the West by supporting LGBT decadence, mass migration, endless wars waged in the name of global Judaism, and opportunistic finance. Americans must recognize these existential threats, relinquish their elite privileges, and stop the Great Replacement before it consigns our political institutions to oblivion.

https://plumenclume.com/2026/01/15/paul-singer-lempire-de-la-dette-et-du-remplacement-demographique-aux-etas-unis-par-jose-alberto-nino/

TRANSLATION BY: https://www.unz.com/article/villains-of-judea-paul-singers-empire-of-debt-demographic-replacement/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

Speech delivered by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, at the posthumous tribute to the thirty-two fighters who fell in combat in Venezuela, at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune, January 16, 2026, Havana.

Honor and glory to our fallen heroes! (Cries of “Honor and glory!”)

Relatives and families;

Comrades-in-arms and friends of our fighters;

Fellow citizens,

On January 3, 2026, in the darkest hour of dawn, while its noble people slept, Venezuela was cowardly attacked on the orders of U.S. President Donald Trump.

This was further confirmation, this time in his native land, that Bolívar had presciently foreseen the United States' supposed destiny to heap misery upon America in the name of liberty [1], just as Ernesto "Che" Guevara had rightly warned us that imperialism could not be trusted, "not even that!" [2]

Bombs and a kidnapping: this was the United States' response to the Venezuelan president's declarations, who, just hours before, had expressed a willingness to engage in dialogue on any issue.

A difficult dawn for Cuba, when it began receiving the first news of the surprise attack against several states of the sister nation where hundreds of Cuban aid workers were on assignment.

Bitter hours passed amidst outrage and helplessness after we learned that President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been kidnapped.

We, who consider the courageous Personal Security fighters as part of the family and know their Spartan willingness to defend the lives they protect, knew, even before any confirmation, that they would fight like titans to the very end. (Applause.)

“They will have to step over my dead body to take or assassinate the president,” First Colonel Humberto Alfonso Roca, leader of the small group of Cubans who, that morning, protected the presidential couple at the cost of their lives, had declared more than once. (Applause.)

Alongside the Revolutionary Armed Forces fighters who also fell under the attackers' bombardment, they embody in their admirable service all the qualities that distinguish heroes, Cuban heroes! (Applause.)

They crossed national borders to become models in the history of the struggles for a united America, that dream of Bolívar and Martí, still unrealized.

The sacred remains of our thirty-two compatriots arrived yesterday in the homeland, as eternal soldiers of the integration to which we owe it. They are the only possible measure of the courage and character of Cubans, loyal to a brotherhood forged in the time of Bolívar, exalted by Martí, and now legendary thanks to the close relationship between Fidel and Chávez, leaders of regional integration. This relationship has enabled millions of Venezuelans and other Latin Americans and Caribbeans to learn to read and write, regain their sight, and access medical and other forms of healthcare in just a few years. (Applause.)

Those responsible for the attack and kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife, resorting to the most abominable methods of fascism, wove a thick web of lies and defamation against the Bolivarian leaders before cowardly launching their attack against Venezuela. Openly flouting the limits of international law, which until now had guaranteed a minimum of civilized coexistence between nations, the US administration has opened the door to an era of barbarity, atrocities, and neo-fascism, without the slightest concern for the additional war, destruction, and death this may entail.

The news of the aggression hit us hard. For more than twenty-five years, Cuba and Venezuela have shared ideals and endeavors in pursuit of a better world, ready to achieve justice along the path of socialism, each country according to its own methods and different realities.

Only those who are ignorant of the value of friendship, solidarity, and cooperation forged between peoples could mistake the relationship between Cubans and Venezuelans for a mere business deal or a vulgar exchange of goods and services.

We, Cubans and Venezuelans, are first and foremost brothers! (Applause.)

Giving one's own blood, even one's life, for a brotherly people may surprise others, but not Cubans.

US officials acknowledged with astonishment, but also with undisguised admiration, the bravery of this handful of men who, despite their clear disadvantage…

Despite their [AMERICANS] superior numbers and firepower, they [CUBANS] offered fierce resistance to the hostage-takers, even wounding several enemy personnel and, to our knowledge, partially damaging one of their vehicles.

No matter how much they insist on boasting about their soldiers in camouflage gear, helmets, body armor, and night-vision goggles, heavily protected by planes, helicopters, and swarms of drones, amidst deliberate darkness, the US authorities know that the Delta Force terrorist assault was no walk in the park they claim to be selling to the rest of the world!

One day, we will know the whole truth, but even Trump couldn't deny that several of his attackers were wounded.

Our courageous fighters, armed with conventional weapons and with no other protection than their morale and loyalty to the mission they were carrying out, fought to the death and inflicted casualties on their adversaries! (Applause.)

None of them were supermen: they were all honorable soldiers, trained in the ethical school of Fidel and Raúl in patriotism, anti-imperialism, and unity; heirs to the ideals of Antonio Maceo, who immortalized himself at Baraguá by categorically refusing to negotiate a peace without freedom [3], and of Juan Almeida, who, under a hail of bullets in the middle of a sugar cane plantation, cried out: “Here, no one surrenders!” [4] (Applause.)

The emperor in the White House and his infamous Secretary of State keep threatening us. “I don’t think we can exert much more pressure,” Trump declared, thus tacitly acknowledging the extreme lengths to which he has pushed the blockade his country has imposed on Cuba for over sixty years.

“Go in and destroy everything”—that, according to his imperial conception, is all he has left to do to subdue us. This grotesque phrase, which has deeply outraged the Cuban people, can only be interpreted as an incitement to massacre, with no regard for a country that has never fostered hatred against others.

José Martí expressed Cuban patriotism very early on in Abdallah [5]:

Ah! Love, O Mother, of the homeland

Is not the useless love we bestow upon the earth,

Nor upon the grass our plant treads upon in the threshing floor:

It is the invincible hatred of the one who oppresses it,

It is the enduring resentment of the one who oppresses it. (Applause.)

The Cuban people are not anti-imperialist because of textbooks. It is imperialism itself that has made us anti-imperialist! But not only Cuba: the world will always be more anti-imperialist because of this violation of all international norms, this affront to human intelligence and dignity, this act of criminal arrogance by an empire that attacks a sovereign state and despises the rest of the nations. 

All the victories of the Cuban people are linked to the strength of their unity. Every time the patriotic forces have been divided, we have lost. Every time they have united, we have prevailed. And the enemies of our nation know this well, which is why they are counting on the rupture of this unity.

Their current threats remind us of those of almost every US administration controlled by hawks, by warmongers. Do today's hawks know that our revolutionary defense strategy, known as the People's War, was born in response to the worst threats from other hawks? Do they know how much their warrior predecessors invested in preparation for the post-Castro era, once all their attempts to destroy an indestructible leadership failed?

Young people have been sharing the barracuda anecdote, experienced and recounted by Fidel himself, on social media in recent days. He recounts that, while diving, he saw a barracuda approaching him and his first reaction was to back away, but he regained his composure, lunged at the fish known for its aggression, and it disappeared. This is how one must act against an empire, which is simultaneously barracuda, piranha, shark, and vermin! (Applause.) But I insist and repeat: it was young Cubans who made this video go viral on social media.

And here we are, not one, but millions, continuing the work of Fidel, Raúl, and their heroic generation. They should imprison millions of us or wipe us off the map. And even then, they would be forever haunted by the ghost of this small archipelago that they had to pulverize, unable to subdue it! (Applause.)

No, gentlemen imperialists, we are not afraid of you at all! And we don't much like being threatened, as Fidel said. You will not intimidate us! [6] (Applause.)

Like the reeds bound in a bundle at the center of our coat of arms, unity is the most powerful weapon of our Revolution.

Dear compatriots,

Several comrades who fought on the front lines are now back home, their bodies riddled with shrapnel like medals for bravery. It was one of them, Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Márquez, who hit the helicopter and who knows how many men on board with his anti-aircraft gun, even though he was wounded in the leg, which was bleeding profusely. (Applause.)

The word they all use to describe the confrontation with the aggressors is: courage. And they name the first Colonel, Lázaro Evangelio Rodríguez Rodríguez, who commanded the attempt to rescue the first fallen men, until he was hit by a drone. “I’m wounded. Long live Cuba!” These were his last words. (Applause.)

It is precisely at the moment when it seems the world is burying even the last utopia, when money and technology prevail over all human dreams, when humanity is growing weary, it is precisely at this moment, therefore, that thirty-two courageous Cubans offer their lives and become giants in a fierce battle fought to the very last bullet! To the very last breath! (Cries of: "Glory to them!") No enemy can intimidate such heroism!

The fact that most of those killed in combat were promising young men brings to mind the verses Martí dedicated to the eight medical students murdered by the Spanish metropolis in 1871:

Beloved corpses, you who once were

The dreams of my homeland… [7]

All that we know of their personal stories, of the love and bravery that distinguished their actions, of the commitment, devotion, and selflessness with which they went into battle, intensifies our grief. A grief that does not diminish, but that further enhances the patriotism and generosity of Cubans. (Applause and cheers.) It now bears thirty-two new faces, thirty-two new stories, this unsurpassed definition of Martí: the homeland is humanity!

They did not merely defend the sovereignty of Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro, and his wife Cilia Flores; they defended human dignity, peace, and the honor of Cuba and Our America. They were the sword and shield of our people against the advance of fascism. And they will forever be a symbol, proof that no people are small when their dignity is so unwavering!

Thank you for your courage and your example, comrades! (Applause.) 

Today we embrace your loved ones: mothers, fathers, wives, sons, grandsons, brothers, grandfathers, your comrades-in-arms, and your friends. “It cannot be said that grief is shared,” Fidel said at the funeral of the martyrs of Barbados, “it multiplies. And when a strong and virile people weeps, injustice trembles!” [8] (Applause and a chorus of "Injustice trembles!") Silvio [9] then sang: "Let injustice tremble when Fidel's hardened people weep.”

Cuba does not threaten, does not issue challenges! Cuba is a land of peace! It was here in Havana, at Cuba's initiative, that twelve years ago, at the Second CELAC Summit, Latin America and the Caribbean proclaimed themselves a Zone of Peace, a conquest brutally violated by the fascist coup in Venezuela.

This commitment to peace in no way diminishes our readiness to fight and defend our sovereignty and territorial integrity. Should we be attacked, we would fight with the same bravery bequeathed to us by several generations of valiant Cuban fighters, from the Wars of Independence in the 19th century, through the Sierra Maestra, the clandestine operations [10] and Africa [11] in the 20th century, to Caracas in the 21st century. There is no surrender or wavering possible, just as there will never be any common ground based on coercion or intimidation!

Cuba has no reason to make the slightest political concession, and this point will never be raised at the negotiating table for an agreement with the United States. It is important that they understand this: we will always be open to dialogue and to improving relations between our two countries, but on an equal footing and on the basis of mutual respect. This is what we have been saying for over sixty years. History will be no different now!

We say to the empire that threatens us: Cuba, we are millions! We are a people ready to fight, if attacked, with the same unity and bravery as the thirty-two Cubans who fell on January 3rd.

Fellow Cubans,

Let us march together! And, in honor of their heroic example, let us swear:

Homeland or death!

We will conquer! (Cries of: "We will conquer!")

Homeland or death!

We will conquer! (Cries of: "We will conquer!")

Homeland or death!

We will conquer! (Cries of: "We will conquer!")

Until victory forever! (Cries of "Forever!" Cries of: "Until victory forever!" and cheers to the Revolution. Ovation.)

Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

https://www.legrandsoir.info/discours-prononce-par-miguel-mario-diaz-canel-bermudez-president-de-la-republique-de-cuba-a-l-hommage-posthume-rendu-aux-trente.html

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

TRANSLATION BY JULES LETAMBOUR

The CIA is setting up a permanent outpost in Venezuela, from where it will reportedly replicate its work in Ukraine. That could mean anything from controlling local politicians to turning the country into a forward operating base for regime change.

With Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in US custody and acting President Delcy Rodriguez cooperating with Washington, America’s “priority number one” is to establish a CIA “annex” in Caracas, an anonymous US source told CNN on Tuesday. Long before the formal opening of a US embassy, this outpost will allow CIA agents to reach out to Rodriguez’s government and opposition parties, and “target third parties who may be threats,” the source said.

That the CIA would want to expand its operations in Venezuela is no surprise. US President Donald Trump authorized the agency to conduct covert operations in Venezuela last October, three months before Maduro was abducted by US special forces. Following the raid, CIA Director John Ratcliffe was the first senior American official to visit Venezuela to meet with Rodriguez and her military chiefs.

However, one comment by CNN’s source stands out. Paraphrasing the official, CNN said the CIA’s work in Venezuela would parallel “the agency’s work in Ukraine.”

Back in 2024, the New York Times published a startlingly frank account of the CIA’s activities in Ukraine. Speaking long after the fact, American and Ukrainian sources described how a 2014 phone call started a chain of events that would culminate in open war with Russia.

Days after President Viktor Yanukovich was overthrown in the US-orchestrated Maidan coup, the country’s new spy chief, Valentin Nalivaichenko, called the CIA’s station chief in Kiev and asked for help rebuilding Ukraine’s intelligence apparatus. The CIA accepted. working first with the country’s secret police agency, the SBU, and later with its military intelligence agency, the HUR.

The agency trained and equipped a paramilitary force known as Unit 2245. This team would conduct sabotage and assassination operations on Russian soil long before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, according to the New York Times and ABC News. The current head of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s office, Kirill Budanov, served in this unit and went on to lead the HUR from 2020 until earlier this month.

Such was Budanov’s value as an asset, the CIA flew him to a military hospital in the US when he was wounded in a raid on Crimea in 2016.

The agency also trained “a new generation of Ukrainian spies who operated inside Russia, across Europe, and in Cuba and other places where the Russians have a large presence,” and oversaw “a training program, carried out in two European cities, to teach Ukrainian intelligence officers how to convincingly assume fake personas and steal secrets in Russia,”the NYT reported.

By February 2022, the CIA had built more than a dozen underground bases near Ukraine’s then-border with Russia. “Without them, there would have been no way for us to resist the Russians,” former SBU chief Ivan Bakanov told the NYT.

”US intelligence services, such as the CIA and others, have been present in Ukraine long before the coup broke out,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in 2024. “After the coup, they set up camp there. They occupied a whole floor, perhaps even two floors, in the SBU building. No one has any doubt about it. Ukraine is run by Anglo-Saxons and some other NATO and EU countries.”

The CIA’s goals in Venezuela and beyond are unclear. However, some loose assumptions can be made based on statements from the White House.

Immediately after the abduction of Maduro, Trump warned that Cuba is “ready to fall” next. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the following day that “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned,” and both Politico and the Wall Street Journal article have since reported that Rubio is pushing for regime change in Cuba by the end of this year.

Having a permanent CIA presence in Venezuela would aid US intelligence gathering efforts, and get agents closer to potential allies in Havana – which has extensive trade and diplomatic links with Caracas. At present, US officials are relying on Cuban exiles in Miami for information on weak links in the Cuban government, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Trump also warned Colombian President Gustavo Petro to “watch his ass,” telling reporters that a military operation in Colombia “sounds good to me.” Venezuela shares a 2,200-kilometer border with Colombia, meaning that if Trump were to intervene against Petro, CIA assets in Venezuela would likely be involved.

All of these possibilities, however, depend on the agency’s success in penetrating Rodriguez’s government, and in finding collaborators among the opposition. Unlike in post-Maidan Ukraine, Maduro’s government remains in power, albeit with the more US-friendly Rodriguez at its head. Still, Rodriguez has publicly condemned “Washington’s orders regarding politicians in Venezuela,” and declared that Venezuelans alone would “resolve our differences and our internal conflicts.”

In interviews and public speeches, Maduro repeatedly accused the CIA of working to undermine his government and remove him from power. He was proven right earlier this month, and his officials will likely be extremely wary of the American agents setting up operations in Venezuela. By contrast, Nalyvaichenko and Ukraine’s other intelligence chiefs “assiduously courted the CIA,” according to the New York Times.

https://www.rt.com/news/631649-cia-venezuela-ukraine-plan/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday signed a law that will open the nation’s oil sector to privatisation, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.

Lawmakers in the country's National Assembly approved the overhaul of the energy industry law earlier in the day, less than a month after the brazen seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a US military attack in Venezuela’s capital.

As the bill was being passed, the US Treasury Department officially began to ease sanctions on Venezuelan oil that once crippled the industry, and expanded the ability of US energy companies to operate in the South American nation, the first step in plans outlined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio the day before.

The license authorisation by the Treasury Department strictly prohibits entities from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea or Cuba from the transactions.

The moves by both governments on Thursday are paving the way for yet another radical geopolitical and economic shift in Venezuela.

“We’re talking about the future. We are talking about the country that we are going to give to our children," Rodríguez said.

Rodríguez proposed the changes in the days after US President Donald Trump said his administration would take control of Venezuela’s oil exports and revitalize the ailing industry by luring foreign investment.

The legislation promises to give private companies control over the production and sale of oil and allow for independent arbitration of disputes.

Rodríguez’s government expects the changes to serve as assurances for major US oil companies that have so far hesitated about returning to the volatile country. Some of those companies lost investments when the ruling party enacted the existing law two decades ago to favor Venezuela’s state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.

The revised law would modify extraction taxes, setting a royalty cap rate of 30% and allowing the executive branch to set percentages for every project based on capital investment needs, competitiveness and other factors.

It also removes the mandate for disputes to be settled only in Venezuelan courts, which are controlled by the ruling party. Foreign investors have long viewed the involvement of independent courts as crucial to guard against future expropriation.

Ruling-party lawmaker Orlando Camacho, head of the assembly’s oil committee, said the reform “will change the country’s economy.”

Meanwhile, opposition lawmaker Antonio Ecarri urged the assembly to add transparency and accountability provisions to the law, including the creation of a website to make funding and other information public. He noted that the current lack of oversight has led to systemic corruption and argued that these provisions can also be considered judicial guarantees.

Those guarantees are among the key changes foreign investors are looking for as they weigh entering the Venezuelan market.

“Let the light shine on in the oil industry,” Ecarri said.

Oil workers dressed in red jumpsuits and hard hats celebrated the bill’s approval, waving a Venezuelan flag inside the legislative palace and then joining lawmakers in a demonstration with ruling-party supporters.

The law was last altered two decades ago as Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, made heavy state control over the oil industry a pillar of his socialist-inspired revolution.

In the early years of his tenure, a massive windfall in petrodollars thanks to record-high global oil prices turned PDVSA into the main source of government revenue and the backbone of Venezuela’s economy. 

Chávez’s 2006 changes to the hydrocarbons law required PDVSA to be the principal stakeholder in all major oil projects.

In tearing up the contracts that foreign companies signed in the 1990s, Chávez nationalised huge assets belonging to American and other Western firms that refused to comply, including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. They are still waiting to receive billions of dollars in arbitration awards.

From those heady days of lavish state spending, PDVSA’s fortunes turned — along with the country’s — as oil prices dropped and government mismanagement eroded profits and hurt production, first under Chávez, then Maduro. 

The nation home to the world’s biggest proven crude reserves underwent a dire economic crisis that drove over 7 million Venezuelans to flee since 2014. Sanctions imposed by successive US administrations further crippled the oil industry.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20260130-venezuela-oil-sector-privatisation-policy-shift

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