The Pete Quiñones Show - Episode 1294: Debunking Regime-Based Venezuela Propaganda w/ Dr. Matthew Raphael Johnson

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

77 MinutesPG-13Dr. Matthew Raphael Johnson is a researcher, writer, and former professor of history and political science, specializing in Russian history and political ideology.Dr. Johnson joins Pete to talk about his research into why the American regime is so hell bent on regime change in Venezuela.Dr Johnson's PatreonDr Johnson's CashApp - $Raphael71RusJournal.orgTHE ORTHODOX NATIONALISTDr. Johnson's Radio Albion PageDr. Johnson's Books on AmazonJohnson's Law in Action: Venezuela and the Foreign Policy of Mass PresumptionDr. Johnson's Pogroms ArticleThe Orthodox Nationalist: Karl Marx “On the Jewish Question” (1844)Article: Karl Marx’s Theses on the Jews and the Necessity of Free Trade: Zur Judenfrage (1844) by Matthew Raphael JohnsonPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

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the piccunioness show.com. You'll see all the ways that you can support me there. And I just want to thank everyone. It's because of you that I can put out the amount of material that I do. I can do what I'm doing with Dr. Johnson on 200 years together and everything else. The things that Thomas and I are doing together on continental philosophy. It's all because of you. And yeah, I mean, I'll never be able to thank you enough. So thank you. The Pekingona Show.com. Everything's there. I want to welcome everyone back to the Piquaneda Show. this isn't 200 years together,

but it is Dr. Matthew Raphael Johnson. How are you doing today, Dr. Johnson? I'm doing okay. We had our roundtable on Regalabion yesterday with Sven Longshank's for the first time. He's totally free of all, you know, probation, everything else. He's a totally free man.

It kind of invigorated me. It was a great time. And now he's back. the site's going to be revamped. And he was mostly talking about, you know, his time in prison and what happened afterwards. And it's definitely worth a listen. It's probably up now. I haven't checked.

But I have to say, I'm doing very, very well. Awesome. Awesome. Well, today we're going to talk about Venezuela. And, you know, you may take this in a direction. People might expect you to considering. Did you see the meltdown that Ben Shapiro has? had about Venezuela recently.

I did not, but you say meltdown Shapiro, it kind of just, it kind of just makes sense to me. Yeah, apparently Tucker, Tucker Carlson said, you know, Venezuela seems to be a pretty right-wing, a conservative kind of country, the kind of place that, um, that Ben Shapiro would, uh, like, what is that? Fuck that. He, it's communist. It's communist. It's communist. It's communist. It's communist. I'll tell you, he is an ignoramus. He peddles cliches in such a way that it makes him sound knowledgeable. It's one of those things where if you use enough labels and you have a certain way of speaking,

you can fool people into thinking that you're intelligent. You know, it's like Peterson, you know, the dumb person's view of what a smart person would be like. and so yeah it is no such thing it has been since the Chavez revolution a national socialist or social national state in one form or another and the worst part is that at least under Chavez it was very very successful that was overturned by by American sanctions unfortunately and sanctions can actually work when you're that close to the U.S. but but everybody there is eating dogs yeah that's what ben Shapiro that's what ben Shapiro told me yeah yeah he he says it he he's he's he's the arbiter of what's right wing can you believe it

well let's talk about venezuela start wherever you want um you know because it's it looks like they want regime change there now and um all the usual suspects are calling for it well there's so much to do. I've been writing on this topic since Chavez first was elected. But even during Trump's first term, the U.S. came close to invading Venezuela, which today would be a very bad idea. You know, what, you know, 25 years, roughly at this point, the country's been in the crosshairs. Venezuela is the best armed country in Latin America. the best air defense um and the reasoning trump's don't trump's the naval build up there i don't don't trump's rationale is so hilarious and ignorant um there there's so many layers of ignorance

and layers of of mythology there it would take a book to to unpack but as we all know late August of this year, the very overstretched and struggling U.S. Navy approached the Venezuelan coast, has done nothing except destroy a couple of boats it claims, without any evidence, never has given any evidence. We're moving drugs and it's gone no further than that. Venezuela under Maduro, and a very smart move, of course, went to Russia and China for assistance, Iran as well. think there's about 10,000 military personnel, I think are mostly Marines, stationed in Puerto Rico. So far, I think there have been five attacks on these boats. So, you know, Donald Trump back in early on, revoked all of the oil concessions like Chevron, everything else.

And I wasn't sure that he had any control over that. So these reporters, you know, he reversed the license given a Chevron to operate in Venezuela. And I wasn't sure. I never heard that the president has a power over that. But at the very least, Donald Trump has been adamant about taking control of the oil and the rare earth minerals there since he was first elected. I guess it comes down to the oil. transaction agreement from 22. So the maximum pressure, the sanctions, as I've said, sanctions can actually work when a country is that close.

They're breaking the dependence on the U.S., but Latin America is so connected to the U.S. That, you know, it can actually hurt, and it is the case there. Now, we should talk about Juan Guido, who has been proclaimed the legitimate president a hundred times, new guy now. And, you know, you have people like John Bolton who somehow believe he has the right to decide whether an election is legitimate or not. There were no American observers for any of these elections. Russia has stood by Venezuela, arming into the teeth. And I think the reason that there has been no attack on Venezuela is because some of the advanced weapon systems the Russians have sent to it. Now in July, Venezuela held its presidential election.

Maduro won again. Now, it makes sense that he would win. the U.S. typically condemned it before it happened and a telling fact is that the opposition called for a boycott the only reason you would call a boycott is that you know you're going to lose the U.S. tried to disrupt it in many ways someone who I cite all the time drug of Bosnich who he interviewed a Serbian member of parliament Torbizha who was an election observer in Caracas. They had election observers

from all over the world there. Yes, they were under tremendous pressure to elect Washington's candidate, but they did not. They kept going with this mythology, lack of freedom and democracy and all of this. But the, you know,

back prior to the election of Trump, former Secretary of State Blinken, declared that Mundo Gonzalez, or to actively won the presidential election, provided zero evidence here. In fact, he said, the Venezuelan people spoke resoundingly on July 28th and made Gonzalez a president-elect. This coming from the Biden administration, a member of the Biden administration, by the way. EU, NATO, all the other vassals rejected the results of the election.

They had no observers there. In fact, he didn't say he won. He won by an intramountable margin. And the only authority he had was the Carter Center in Atlanta, who had no one there. Beyond that, this NGO he claimed it was independent, but it receives money from many federal agencies, including the State Department. Marco Rubio, I think we all know, he supported the overthrow. Elliot Abrams. In fact, Rubio has called on the Venezuelan military to overthrow Maduro.

Now, you know, in the beginning of the Iraq war, one of the reasons Saddam didn't do well, although he did better than what was said to us in the 90s, was that the U.S. and the Israelis were able to bribe the top brass to abandon Saddam Hussein. with large sums of money there was an attempt to do that here and it failed Venezuela has three things the largest oil reserves over which the US doesn't have any control of course an alliance with Russia China Iran OPEC and a firmly social national social project it isn't communist it is it is national socialist they respect private property. And it's been incredibly successful in terms of, you know, not just, you know,

the equality of workers and land going to the tillers. But as all this is going on, the U.S. done everything to carry out regime change and install a puppet government, sanctions, diplomatic warfare, coup attempts, manipulating elections, secret operations. It was recently, and I can't believe I had to read this three times, the former commander of the U.S. Southern Command, General Laura Richardson. I, I, she directed U.S. military operations in the Caribbean around Venezuela, and she said, well, there are, you know, I'm sure she's a butt of jokes around the top brass in Venezuela and other militaries, too. she said this is really about controlling natural resources, oil, lithium, gold, rare earths. It's an extremely strategic country. She came out directly and pointed to these resource reserves.

It's a main reason behind the decades-long attempt for regime change and economic sanctions. And people like Chavez, and they're well aware of this. The elections were observed, and in general, were free of distortion, except by the U.S. The Supreme Court did a lengthy review of the July 28th elections, you know, and declared it with it. There were a few minor errors, of course, but declared a clear. We have certified in an unobjectionable way, be examined the electoral evidence, confirmed the results proclaimed by the National Electoral Council. He won 52% compared to 43% in Mundo Gonzalez, and third parties, you know, took care of the rest.

Gonzalez, of course, educated American University in Washington. in D.C. You know, but, you know, his victory also is proven by local elections. The social nationalist parties dominated those two. And that's really your proof. You're all kinds of the great patriotic poll, I don't know, a poll meaning, I don't know, I'm sure it sounds better in Spanish, dominated municipal elections. You know, all pro-government parties did extremely well at all levels.

And the opposition, the liberal opposition, lost more than half. They had one in 2021. The pro-American forces led by the American-educated Maria Karina Machado. Reiterated cause for boycott. And the only place they really won were the wealthy East Caracas areas. Pro-government at state capitals, 23 out of 24. Now, I did dig and find out exactly how they vote. And I think it's much better than how the Americans do it.

It's electoral horseshoe, they call them. The first station a voter goes to. They run their fingerprints through an ID machine. Once cleared, they moved to the second step, which is where they vote, a touchscreen machine. then that machine prints a paper backup confirming the choice, and that's deposited in a ballot box. And then voters sign and stamp their fingerprints on the electoral record. So there's numerous safeguards here, especially the biometric ID. You know, the many countries that observed, that they had been,

people from Brazil and Colombia there saying that this was perfectly acceptable. Many of them went to like random polling stations and checked everything and everything seemed fine. There was some long wait times, but that was, you know, the worst thing. They had one touchscreen for, you know, every 800 voters, which caused delays. But that was it. That was the worst part of it. Now, Gonzales is allied with Machado.

We'll get to her in a second. She's not on the ballot because of her. She's been politically disqualified, which normally is what happens when you attempt to overthrow your own government over and over again. That was upheld by the Supreme Court, I guess, in January. And she supported attacks. She wants invasion, you know, the misery of her own people. Well, this is what happens when you're more American than Venezuelan.

She supported... American? Judeized American. Oh, yeah, yeah. Of course, yeah. Yeah, of course, she was educated at Yale. What a shy? They're all the same.

All she supported all the sanctions. She knows the misery it causes. You know, and her agenda is a 90-page book. with her plans, her electoral plan that you know most people are not going to read. By the way, Machado's father was a wealthy steel tycoon who had her steel plant, his steel plant nationalized by Chavet. So there's a little bit of a personal issue here as well. And the whole thing is what you might expect, slashing social spending, abolish free health care, deregulate the labor market, reduce worker protections,

but basically austerity. I don't know who would vote for this. It's like Javier Malay in Argentina. Here's something back in, you know, I've been doing, I've been following this for a long time. I want to quote myself here, back in 2019, here's what I said. The Mudd, which is a CIA-directed Democratic Unity Roundtable, is hardly a popular force. Suspiciously, most of its parties are tiny and recently founded. Justice First is the only major party with 33 seats in the Assembly. It was founded only in 2000.

National convergence is minuscule and founded in 93. It has zero seats. Something called the Fearless People's Alliance is based around one person, Antonio Lezima, who won an award by the war. way in the National Endowment for Democracy in 2015. He has no seeds. The ecological movement of Venezuela has a handful of members with founded in 2010 and the movement for a responsible, sustainable, and entrepreneurial Venezuela, apart from having the longest name among political parties. Its website doesn't exist. It might not exist at all. So these parties are created

to make it seem like there's a coalition here. The U.S. has some control. over the press down there, they have some control over polling data down there. Now, it's true that Donald Trump has moved away from the electoral issue, which was a big thing years ago, to the so-called drug issue, which we'll get to also in a moment. But the U.S. provides direct cash support, Juan Guaido, any of these people. Guaida was able to take $3 billion in Venezuelan state funds, which he is effectively pocketed, which is why you don't hear much about him anymore. The CIA conducted something called Operation Pinscher drafted by the U.S. Embassy official

Michael Stier, and he wrote about this. The opposition forces had attacked the Electoral Commission building, Supreme Court, presidential palace. There was an arson attack on the School of Social Work at the Central University of Venezuela for some reason. Well, I think the reason is there were opposition men trapped in there, and they burnt the building down. they've been they've they've given support to you know back in um not that long ago there was attempts to infiltrate the border from columbia even though columbia is an allied state six individuals trying to get to the electrical grid sanctions I mean you know sanctions are a pillar of American foreign policy deliberately designed

to interfere with Venezuelan sovereignty. They result in economic hardship. And the point is, they think that if the economy goes down because of these sanctions, they'll blame Maduro. And they do not. Because he won the elections again, they have now been increased. And the Biden administration was the same way. And the sanctions have a lot to do with problems in the... in the economy. Now, the electoral issue is one thing. That's what it used to be a few years ago.

The drug issue now is where Trump has changed it to. I don't know when it was. It was probably late summer. The Trump administration through Pam Bondi put a $50 million reward on information leading to the arrest of Maduro. And it's to make Maduro seem like a cartel leader, despite the fact that there are no cartels in Venezuela. They've invented one, the cartel of the sons. And then in her speech, Bondi accused Maddo of heading up one of the most notorious drug trafficking operations. That's a threat to the American national security.

He utilizes foreign terrorists and criminal organizations. The Mexican Sinaloa cartel, now this is funny, but they even bring that up. First of all, they're allied with the U.S., and they're in Mexico. There are no native cartels, at least not anymore, in Venezuela. There's maybe some debate over that. but even if they are they're very tiny that military is dedicated to fighting drugs they say the same thing in Afghanistan under the Taliban the same thing in Burma they say the same thing here so suddenly Trump starts talking about

cocaine again they try to link various Venezuelan officials with with drug trafficking there was a federal indictment filed in New York as he rose through the rank to the cartel of the sons that was in actually that was in the Miami Herald and his point was to flood the U.S. with cocaine to inflict harm and damage on the country no offered was no evidence was ever offered the human rights report

for Venezuela you know I've read read this and it condemns it, you know, your typical list of abuses. It's strange. It doesn't look real. I downloaded the official copy. It's not an official letterhead. It uses no standard format. It was very rushed. It looks like someone who was written by someone who's never seen a report before. There's no footnotes or references of any kind. So it's just a list of assertions. So you indict Venezuela for arbitrary and unlawful killings with no footnote. Years ago, those reports normally ran about 9,000 words, but this one is just maybe 1,500. And they're written at about a high school level.

This is very odd. They also, they're also a... they're also accused of failing to protect refugees and asylum seekers. I guess they have plenty of people coming to Venezuela to escape tyranny. Now, institutions like the UN, their special report for human rights, sanctions have accused these sanctions, the U.S., these sanctions of 100,000 excess deaths of the last 10 years. Sanctions are completely different in Latin America than they would be in Russia or China. In fact, they even, Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. So, yeah, the point is because Venezuela has no cartels of any note, the regime had to invent them. The cartel of the

sons made me laugh. It's a mash-up of themes from movies, the series Narcos, which I love, by the way, and cartels from all over Latin America. It started off as some kind of a rumor. It was picked up by the Wall Street Journal in the Washington Post. They just cite each other anyway. And it was repeated as if it was true. because it came from these, you know, global and prestigious outlet. Jackson Deal, who wrote for the Washington Post, who was one of the worst, accused him. And again, no evidence is offered. It reminds me a little bit of what's his face in Pakistan,

in Panama, Noriega. Now, whether Noriega, how deep he was in this, I don't really know, but I'm telling you, there was no reason or purpose for there to be any cartels in Venezuela or for the system to be profiting from it. He claims that, you know, and Venezuela is not really suited for producing cocaine directly. It's mostly Ecuador and, of course, Colombia. that the cartels fly hundreds of tons of Colombian cocaine from Venezuelan airfields to Central America and the Caribbean for eventual distribution in the U.S. and Europe. I thought that was odd. He doesn't explain why Colombia or Peruvian drugs needed to use a third country to deliver a product.

But he says the only reason they can survive sanctions is because they're selling drug. He offers no evidence for any of this. Peter Bolton, which I'm sure has no relation to the other one. This is back in 2019. These allegations have been going on for a long time. He says this. Four years since the launch of this probe, this investigation to this guy, DEA, DOJ, they've yet to convict anyone.

The mainstream media reports these allegations that there would be on question. They talk about the cartel of the sons, even though no one's ever witnessed it before. Insight crime, who I've actually cited before, who's actually a good organization on some things. They claim to have files on all of this, but their report on the matter doesn't have a citation on it. Rather, they cite an anonymous Justice Department official as their source. as air source it's not a drug exporting country but it's necessary the myth is necessary to justify an attack um if anything if venezuela it may be a single digits may have at one point gone through venezuelan territory you know um but but donald Trump gives these speeches

where he talks about fentanyl, he talks about, you know, fentanyl's a synthetic opiate, actual opiates. The UN office on drugs and crime, who did an inspection, says Venezuela is free, both drug crop cultivation and drug labs. You know, there's no, there's no, it's not like there's, it's not like North Korea. They can go wherever they want in the country. Now, the opposition is led by, as we've already mentioned, Maria Machado. She is an oligarch, as I've mentioned. She was named Time Magazines, one of the 100 most influential women in the world. She testified in front of Congress that Venezuela was the world's fourth largest producer.

of cocaine, which it's a cosmic scale line, but that's just fed into the mythology. As I mentioned, she was educated at Yale. I think she lives in North Carolina, at least some of the time. She shows up at the Davos forums on occasion, but she's the one consistent figure within the oligarchy supporting these American-supported candidates. that 90-page program that I mentioned before, her agenda, I'm not so sure, I mean, she's an educated woman, but I think it was written by an American PR firm. But the fact that she would support sanctions against her own country, knowing the misery it causes, even a foreign invasion, you start getting suspicious here.

who would want this. Now, you realize just how Judaic American she is when she starts talking about same-sex marriage. Like, that's a big priority down there. There's probably zero support for that in Venezuela. She even claims on occasion to be homosexual, sometimes.

All the trendy issues, legalization of medical cannabis she wants legal abortion these are American priorities not Venezuelan but when she starts talking about her gratitude for the harsh measures against her country which were thousands

have suffered this is just this is just this is outrageous for full net would be a Marina Karina Machado I had not verified I said back in 2019 that she lives in North Carolina

I haven't verified it though and the government very rightly accuses her of approaching the military to foam into coup and she has and she acts outraged now right on her website which is mostly in English she has an appeal to the army among its few

published essays I do think she has a stunted intelligence. This is what happens when you grow up in a life of indulgence and luxury, given how wealthy her father was. Appeal to the army. Of course, it was a call for a coup. Now, I don't know the percentage of Venezuelans that speak English, but most of her stuff is in English.

But Venezuela is caught in what we used to call a hybrid war. strangling the economy, making wild accusations, sponsoring its opponents, threatening armed intervention. These ridiculous accusations of the human rights industry and everything else. But from a military point of view, Venezuela has been dug in for some time. It has a national militia, civilian volunteers, which has a huge support basis. I think as of right now, there are three guided missile destroyers there. Since Donald Trump said that cartels are foreign terrorist organizations, and their imaginary cartels are in Venezuela, this is what justifies this in his mind.

Although I don't know what even, I think the number now is 10,000 Marines in Puerto Rico. I don't know what they're going to do. That's certainly woefully insufficient. But people think Venezuela, you know, that Donald Trump has a terrible vice of believing in the invincibility of the American military. and we all know it's a it's not true and it is a paper tiger as i said venezuelan airspace is the best defended in south america uh back in um 2005 i wrote on this years ago they have a long range 3d surveillance radars they got from china um they bought 51 military helicopters from russia

all of these have been delivered the advanced models to 100,000 AK or the AK103 actually delivered in 2006 or 7 in fact he even has a license to make Kalishnikovs in Venezuela himself 24 SU30

fighters they showed up in 2008 their missile array remember what happened to the British task force in 1982 and the falcons I have a whole paper on that

it was almost completely wiped out there's a whole set of reasons why non-military reasons why Argentina surrendered and I go into that at length in the paper but Argentina won that war by a massive margin and it was because of these

at the time the advanced the exocet the advanced missiles from France now even years ago I'm sure there's been more since then the KAB 500 laser guided bombs the KH 29 surface to air missiles and then the 50 KH 31 which are the anti-ship missiles which are very important now the 100 Vimple I think is the how you pronounce it

he is he is armed to the teeth here he has the Russian Sam systems the T-72 tanks military cargo aircraft you know so and then Russia has been financing all of this it's given given Venezuela credit to purchase all of these things

The U.S. is, you know, this is why I don't think anything's going to happen. I don't think the U.S. wants to expose itself to even a marginally competent military. And the Venezuelan military has had 10 years at least, 10, 15 years, to familiarize itself with these weapons. And, of course, there's been Russian personnel there and Chinese personnel to assist them. I don't know if anyone in the U.S. military even would bring up the Falkins case, but they suffered ridiculous amounts of damage because of the advanced missiles from France and elsewhere. Now, regardless of what they send, what the U.S. sends to Caribbean, what percentage of them are combat ready?

They could send a ship. That's a whole separate. I've got a book's worth of papers on that very question. I would say about half of the assets are combat ready. But with advanced Chinese and Russian missiles, they're extremely vulnerable. And in August of 2025, the Chinese foreign ministry came out and said, we object to this completely we oppose the threat or use of force

we hope the U.S. will come to its senses you know in diplomatic speak this is almost a veiled threat and you know Trump came into office condemning the color revolutions condemning the nonsense regime change policies and he's been involved in one after another and I don't know if I mentioned this

already because it's so outrageous but Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize I got you this year which shows you exactly what the Nobel Peace Prize really is but I've heard I've heard that I winning that it shows that you're really high IQ in like the smartest people in the world. I don't even know. I don't know. I mean, of course, I expected it. But the Nobel Peace Prize for a woman who's calling for an invasion of her own country

from her mansion in North Carolina or wherever she's living and sanctions on her own, allegedly her own country. I mean, she, you know, her claims to Venezuelan, uh, uh, ethnic, status are pretty minimal. Look, the United States and this Judea's government sided with Stalin over their own, you know, over their own people and sided with, um, against a, um, a national, a national socialist government. I mean, this is just history repeating itself. So, you know, yeah, and I think that's something that, that spun Hitler's head around.

How, really? And they were, of course, well aware of what they were doing in the U.S.S.R. And, of course, that had to be projected onto the Germans later on. You know, I spoke a bit about the victory over drugs and crime in El Salvador. And the only reason that the U.S., now, not so much, the Trump administration has been pretty good on that. Biden administration condemned it to the skies. but even so-called like the National Review condemned El Salvador. Because El Salvador has a relationship with Venezuela.

So I'm not sure off the top of my head if Trump soured on El Salvador. It's too tiny. But let me go into the record, at least before all these sanctions. This is how I got into this in the first place. Here you have a clear example of social nationalism put into action. starting roughly in 1999. The poverty rate went down from 44% to 26%. Extreme poverty from 17% to 7% in 2011.

American sanctions have ruined a lot of this. The genie coefficient. The genie coefficient is a number, it's actually decimal, that measures wealth inequality. one means one person in the country controls all the well zero is totally quality and it used to be 0.46 in 99 it went to 0.39 in 2011 well under an oligarchy that would of course go through the route Venezuela has the lowest recorded genie coefficient in Latin America. And it's a pleasant memory today. And that's a good thing. This is because

farmers were given title to land. A communist government doesn't accept private property. This moron, this little midget talking about it's communist. You know, these are just labels in his head. There's no such thing as private property in Marxist state. But there's actual ownership of land there. Land reform continued. Farmers, absentee landlords were gone. Three million hectares. Hector, I think, is like roughly three acres. And 99 Venezuela was making maybe half its own food, 70% in 2011. I've said these so many times. Food consumption increased 81% since 1999. And not like, you know, McDonald's, I mean, their food. Chloric intake went up 50% with some subsidies.

There was malnutrition before, 21% actually, and it's less than 3% in 2012, according to the FAO. So you hear you have his policies, nationalization, but respect for private property and for the small guy, for the small farmer, small businessman. worked within a patriotic context. The worst thing, I think, he nationalized the oil company in 2000, the main oil company. That alone, PSV, VSA, PD, VSA, whatever it was, and then Steele, as I mentioned later on, was owned largely by foreigners.

He nationalized it and that allowed that created national sovereignty. So he created Petro-Caribbe, I think it's how you say it. Chavez did this. Allowed 18 countries in Latin America for a secure energy supply. And oil subsidies not just locally, but also to their neighbors. Remember when Chavez was in office, when gas prices went through the roof, Venezuela did a very good PR thing. It offered assistance to poorer people by providing fuel at subsidized rates.

Then he nationalized the electrical and telecommunications sectors. he created 50,000 cooperatives unemployment went down to almost nothing huge increase in the minimum wage the highest in Latin America actually in 2011 2012 I think when was it when he first started this

like 65% people who were actually making wage like 65 or 70% were making that minimum wage. But 13 years later, it was only 21%. He reduced working hours to six hours a day, 30, six hours a week without any loss of pay. Public debt fell entirely.

But as well, withdrew from the IMF and the World Bank. They paid their long-term debts early, as the Russians had done. I mean, you know, that's their very. record. Now, Maduro has struggled, as we all know, but because it's the nature of sanctions. Typical, you know, social nationalism, you know, a socially conscious nationalism. The nationalism has to be socially conscious. We're one people. So nationalism is almost inherently socialist, and not in a Marxist way, but in a Chestertonian kind of a way. in a distributist kind of a way

in an idealist kind of a way and it worked same thing occurred in South Korea I've been through this so many times but you know what well we only have 10 minutes left I wanted to tell the story

of the 2020 coup it's kind of funny do I have time no take all the time you need go ahead okay I hated Operation Gideon again blasphemy against the Old Testament judge it was hilarious

a handful this is the Bay of Piglets it was called for a while it was a private security firm a guy named Jordan Godro Silver Corp USA they were going to infiltrate Venezuela by sea and remove Maduro from power. It was set for May of 2020. Now, there were a handful of former military personnel living in Colombia that were supposed to enter the country by boat at Makuto,

take control of an airfield, then capture Maduro and expel them from the country. I think just some steps missing there. So he did. didn't I don't know how many people are you a break a breaking bad or a I know you a better call saw fan I am the attempt to the the mercenaries that broke into Lalo's compound yeah how many were there six yeah could you what of course they were not going to do it you would need you would need a thousand guys to do something like that with air support

an unknown compound with very well armed, they sent in six guys. Well, this is kind of like that. And he honestly believed that that could actually work. He even went so far, you know, he's a nut. Silver Corp actually was going to stay to maintain humanitarian aid distribution. you know he what he said in an interview to a p reporter when he was in Florida was that this handful of guys were going to lead to a catalyst he said 60 guys can come in and topple regime or at a minimum 60 guys can go in and inspire everyone else to topple the regime

He had a drug trafficker with him, too, named Elkin Javier Lopez. This came from Columbia. Columbia was not in on it. Two boats launched towards the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, maybe 60 dissidents, two American former Green Berets. They were employed by Silver Corp. Of course, within, you know, 30 seconds, they were intercepted before they reached land. There was a shootout, six Venezuelan dissidents were killed, all but four were captured. Their interrogations were broadcast on state television.

Funny, a good drone never quite made it to Venezuela. He was on, he was tweeting statements, as this was all going on, suggesting that he was winning. Venezuelan agencies, you know, is there so poorly done that they knew this was coming. He didn't know how to cover his tracks, but Maduro did, you know, he said he called them terrorists, the one who's going to kill him, created by the U.S. The opposition then went into damage control, saying it's a false flag that Maduro were orchestrated. So I guess they do believe in false flags after all. He, Godreau is unbalanced. I don't know what his war record really is

but he called himself this little band Freedom fighters seeking to restore democracy He was a sergeant first class He was Special Forces medical sergeant Indirect Fire Infantryman from 2001-2016 Now

he claimed that Juan Guido and two of his political advisor signed a contract with him for $213 million on October of 2019 the two Americans were Luke

Denman and Ari and Barry both Special Forces operatives of course everyone denied everything um five years you know even even these people have been arrested. To cover its tracks, the U.S. even arrested Goodrow. He claimed he was

weapons trafficking. It's almost like to cover the failure. Still, five years later, you know, whatever, how long it's been, there's still no trial. Godrejo is the source of the rumors that Venezuela is the source of fentanyl in the U.S. Godreo filed suit. Can you believe this? Against all of these people for not paying them for something he got arrested for something he got arrested for CIA was behind him all the way violation of contract you know I can't imagine it went anywhere there was one clever Akala former Venezuelan general who went to Columbia in 2018 he's one dissident who wanted a coup against, something happened with him.

The Colombians arrested a handful of Colombians that were their contribution. Juan Guaido, of course, whether he gets sued or not, denied any connection to it, even though his signature appears on a leaked copy. And I have the image that I could click on when I publish this thing on his contract. The Washington Post, believe it or not, found documentation connecting Guaido to this operation, which means the CIA was more than aware of it. Can you imagine something so stupid? But it's a plan so stupid.

It's consistent with the projections and constructions of the American intelligence community concerning its enemies, right? because they view Venezuela as a country dying to get out from under the boot of this tyrant. So even a handful of guys will allow democratic forces to take action and get rid of them. There'll be a spontaneous revolt. They'd enter the capital as heroes. It almost has certain similarities to the Kursk incursion in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Even the Bay of Pigs.

At a minimum, it was a test. of the Venezuelan defenses along its coast but anyone you know this was this was the most absurd it's a little bit like the coup attempt in the Seychelles I don't know when that was 1970 whenever it was what these guys were thinking that this could ever possibly work and it was all over you know Venezuelan TV and as his member being arrested and killed goodrow who was never part of it never part of the the group that actually was going there tweeting that oh my god it started already there's going to be a massive

uprising against the government so you know that I mean it's not funny in the sense of people were killed but I think it is consistent with how the US views its its enemy how anyone any military man could ever believe that that would succeed but this is a level this is the u.s will do anything including approve something like this to get rid of uh to get rid of that man once you're in in the crosshairs it becomes a fanatical absolute fanatical obsession but the fact that he then went brought these people to court here's he said And I don't know if he went to jail or what. I don't think anything came of his arrest.

I think it was just to cover their tracks. I can't find any record of any trial anywhere with this guy. And this was in 2020. Weapons trafficking. And then he sues everyone, including one way to himself, for not paying the 213 million. So God knows how much money he was out personally. But, you know, this, it was their version of the Bay of Pigs, the Bay of Piglips.

And you have to admit, it's a little funny, just like the attack on Lalo's compound with six guys who had no idea where they were going or anything was. think they're going to be successful. And I had to laugh when I saw that. You don't have to be a military man to know that is absolutely going to fail. I don't care if Lalo did unlock the gate. So this was just a, it was almost entertainment at the time. And I think that once Maduro kind of calmed down,

he thought it was much larger than it was, he did treat it as entertainment. But the U.S. was involved. was involved, CIA was involved, and the so-called opposition was involved. We have his signature to prove it. And that's the level. And again, it's consistent with how the Americans view their enemies. They thought this might work. Or at least, we want to see how they react. And on that note, we've got to say, Venezuela is armed to the teeth with a loyal, substantial military force. That's well-trained. and the use of these advanced weapon systems. The U.S. is treading on dangerous ground. I'll bring up the Falklands example again. The British were destroyed by those exocet missiles.

Same thing is going on here. But I think they're just there for show. I don't know what's going to come of it. But the cartel of the Suns, yes, it's mostly from a few movies. But that's how bad it is. And the newspapers will report cartels, tell all the sons, it's like it's a real thing. And that's the grounds for these ships being there right now. Is it still just the oil?

How much of this has to do with the oil? Because it just seems like that's the excuse they always use. But, you know, I mean, this is oil that's like sludgy. There is very few refineries in the United States that can refine it. So I would assume those who own those refineries would be excited to get a hold of that oil. But it just seems like that's too much, it's too easy an excuse. And it was used during all throughout the 2000s for every war. And it just seemed like that was the, like the knit width, the low,

low information excuse for these precisely it's um i think sitgo was there a gas station in america i haven't seen a sit go in years i think for obvious i remember them yeah i remember them they were big up north yeah right with the red triangle um but um yeah that's lazy journalism you know in in the middle east the left was saying that back the then to avoid mentioning Israel, despite the fact the U.S. got zero oil from that part of the world. The U.S. is completely self-sufficient in oil, you know, if it wanted to be, completely. The environmentalist had, you know, shut it down. I have heard, I've not, I don't know what we're confirmed, but I have heard that it's not the highest quality oil in the world.

but that's such an easy thing lazy journalism and it gets repeated so that must be true this is how politics is done you know political scientists who are supposed to know better well there are of course plenty of other issues there's gold there

there's rare earth minerals there not in Ukraine but there some of them lithium in particular lithium is a big deal and not just for batteries for a lot of things like that to the telecommunications industry and that

that has a lot to do with it. The American economy is de-industrialized so it's totally dependent on its capitalist for-profit industries invested everywhere from Vietnam to the Philippines to

to Mexico to you know wherever they can get away with it including its military production yeah the oil is not something your refineries are not going to work with something that low quality you may have some can be very expensive to take a long time you know Russian Middle Eastern oil is not like that lithium is a big deal it wasn't a big deal you know when it first started but it is now but beyond that there is this ideological side to this you have a firmly nationalist government conservative socially I don't know why the left is claiming that it's theirs I this pisses me off I was reading someone with an Hispanic name claiming that he was a

leftist he was saying why it was far right no no no this this was a, by any measure, something like a national socialist government, very conservative when it comes to social issues and the family and private property, but socialist when it came to, you know, things like a steel industry, a firm sovereignty over its currency, its big industries. Because if you're an oil producing country, in a steel producing country, if those are controlled by foreigners, you now have zero independent. So, and don't forget, Chavez throughout the IMF, the World Bank, and prospered as a result. These countries that have done that, from Lukashenko to Putin to Putin many years ago,

to Cheng He Park, to even Shanghai-Hishk in military government in Taiwan, they're standing embarrassments. I have a whole paper where the U.S. tilted to North Korea when Chonghi Park was in office. And it's true, they did, including the Pueblo thing, which the U.S. permitted to happen. Long story. But in this case, to have the so-called Washington consensus, the Davos consensus, the regime get kicked out, and then they prosper. that can't be allowed to stand so things like sanctions and all this stuff threats all the sabotage all the same things that they're doing to destroy the economy you see that's what that's what national socialism really causes and um so that's don't underestimate that that's a that's a big part

of it you know the regime can't have its polar opposites doing well um and what we know that we we know the route to prosperity for a country and it's that it's worked so many times and in so many different places around the world third world first world doesn't matter um that we know the basic structure of national socialism economically works um and it brings prosperity Venezuela was in terrible shape in 2008 2007 uh she wasn't after 10 10 years of Chavet. And then the sanction started. And it wasn't as if the government was going to not sell its oil to the U.S.

You know, that was never an issue. I remember when I was in early college, I was 18, I remember the journalist talking about, well, if Saddam Hussein takes over, takes over Saudi Arabia, he's going to put an embargo on the American purchases of oil. Well, number one, the U.S. doesn't get any oil from there. And number two, oh, the EU did. And number two, why would it do that? Why would it deliberately lose money that way?

And there's sort of some of that left here. That, you know, and you have a lot of very powerful people, steel and oil industry, including the so-called opposition leader herself, who lost out. they're still millionaires. It's not like they're eating dirt today. She's not eating cat food. But having her father steal plants nationalized is part of the reason why she's the way she is. And plus her a whole lifestyle of indulgence that changes you. That changes. Because she hasn't heard the word no before until, you know, to get kicked out of the country. and none of this is mentioned in these articles about her

I couldn't see I can't watch the Nobel Prize thing about her I don't know what kind of speech if she was even there I can't even imagine the garbage the nonsense she's an oligarch no one's going to vote for that program no one's going to vote for austerity if people are old enough to live through Chavez no one's going to vote for what she

has planned. This is a woman who thinks an invasion is wonderful. That the best are great, despite how many, you know, the UN 100,000 excess deaths, the misery it's caused. Who's going to vote for that? So you have to lie about it. I think that's why it's 90 pages. So, and of course, you know, there's an English version, which I've read. I bet you the English version came first, was not written by her, but maybe was approved by her. It's very PR-ish. So, yeah, the oil is a piece of it, but that's not, that's not the question.

I don't remember, did Chavez have, did say anything about the Jews? I think he did. I'd have to go looking for quotes. I'm not really sure. I can't say for sure. I thought he did. but I'm not sure off top my head I don't know so that's my that's my pitch here everything you've heard just like everything else but the Venezuelan situation is utter nonsense

and Donald Trump is is even further now weakening his base the U.S. isn't going to do anything there it's not going to risk getting in the way of those missiles with a very motivated enemy that's been dug in and waiting for this this is why we know Iran won the so-called 12-day war they were they were waiting for they knew what was going to happen they've been digging in for years decades actually I love how the assumption with these wars that they just leave everything out in the open you know

uh that's that's the assumption that's that's how you know everything has been brought underground removed whatever it is to protect it and plans have been put in place that have been there for decades and what the hell's five thousand marines going to do anyway i found some uh some hugo shavez quotes um he was vocal critic of israel's military actions particularly during conflicts in gaza and lebanon which he described as genocide and a new holocaust his government severed diplomatic ties with israel in 2009 he often used the words jewish and zionists interchangeably at practice critics they blurred the line between political criticism of israel and anti-semitism because you know Zionism has nothing to do

with judaism no no no no nothing at all um he's had they say he had classic uh anti-semitic themes like um saying they're the descendants of the ones that crucified Christ and that they controlled global wealth. He also used a phrase wandering Jews to refer to the opposition, although his supporters claim that's just a common metaphor that's used. But apparently, there's a Jewish community down there that he actually was kind of friendly with insofar as like the leftist, the leftist Jews, like the union Jews. Well, yeah, I mean, there's a Jewish community in Iran, too. Yep.

As far as they're loyal, no one's going to bother them. There's a Jewish community in Russia, and I've been told that because there's a Jewish community in Russia, that means that Putin is controlled by Jews, and Putin went to the wall, the wailing wall, and kissed the wall and everything. Yeah, and then he took a picture with members of Chabad one time. time. And that picture is an argument. You know, it's true. This is, and oh, and the Iranian leadership is all Jewish, too, by the way. And I have to deal with this stuff. I have to deal with this stuff. You know, I chose to do this stuff full time.

You know, there's a, there's a point at which I just can't. But yeah, I knew that he was like that. And that reminds me, actually, what's her name? The opposition figure, Machado? Machado actually went to Netanyahu, before the war, of course, started, seeking military assistance to overthrow the government. That was on the global research site. I haven't put that in the paper. I just discovered there recently. So, you know, she is heavily judiized, obviously.

Corina, is her, is her. Well, Douglas, Colonel Douglas McGregor said in an interview with Tucker Carlson that she said that her, the first thing she would do if she took over as leader of the country was moved the Venezuelan embassy to Jerusalem. Yeah. yeah um yeah i had forgotten about that in my in my lengthy uh discussion here but yeah so you know now we're getting to the to the deeper reasons for the antipathy um for the country you know powerful jews you know run much of the economy run you know they're the majority of both parties uh donors i mean we have to take that seriously that matters yeah i knew i knew i knew he was saying i couldn't remember from the top of my head but i knew i had a

feeling he had said he had said things against uh the jews in one way or another shabez did well i mean it's he's a latin american leader who hasn't in latin america yeah yeah but this just adds to the thing this is a a national socialist government that took a poverty-stricken country to on its way to development today without American interference of course it would be a first world

nation and poor Savas died so young what was it a pancreatic what did he die of? I don't remember I thought he died of cancer

yeah let's see but so he was fairly young. Battling tough illness for nearly two years. He died of a massive heart attack and his cancer, he had cancer in the pelvic region, which had advanced when he died. Oh. Okay.

Yeah, I knew cancer was in there somewhere. How old was he? I don't remember. He was fairly young, I think. He was. Pulling it up, pulling it up. Jeez. Yeah, he was born in 1954, so, yeah, he died.

he was 58 yeah yeah that's you know that's very young um he was an extremely popular figure his successors would be two of course no one's as charismatic as chavez as one else you can't expect that from Maduro or anyone else any other member of of the party he just was he was a character he was funny um then he was a beloved figure and a military man uh so he was a parachuteist he was airborne so yeah the US the US is is really it's messing with with it's playing with fire as a slogan goes as far as a but it hasn't died other than you know to killing these people I don't know I don't know if they were all Venezuelan citizens I have no idea because they're not

saying anything we have no evidence from it. They just claim that they're, they did the same thing in Afghanistan. They blow up a building and they say that was a Taliban heroin, you know, distribution place. I'm supposed to take their, despite the fact that they had banned it and there's a thought wall against it. I'm supposed to just take their word for it. But that happens all the time. The New York Times says it. all right let's get out of here um i will put all the same links i always put in for the 200 years episodes and um encourage you to go to the show notes and the description to uh donate to dr johnson's work and um we'll be back in a couple days to do episode 88 of 200 years together

all righty all right dr johnson thank you very much all right my friend talk to you then bye-bye Thank you.