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Remember Samuel Beckett’s tragicomedy “Waiting for Godot”? It’s playing in Colombia at this writing, but there’s no comedy part, only tragedy for the poor souls who believed in the invincibility of the great country in El Norte.
The article below from Telesur focuses on the negligence of Juan Guaidó, who promised Venezuelan soldiers that if they crossed the border with Colombia and went over to his side, they would be amnestied and all would be well. But Telesur needs to be reminded that when a puppet does something disastrous, it’s not the puppet’s fault. It’s the fault of the person pulling the strings. There were several people pulling the strings in this fiasco, including Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo. Mike told the Venezuelan army that if they defected, they would receive amnesty but otherwise, they would be dealt with harshly for sticking with Nicolas Maduro. Mike imagined he had the authority to speak in the name of the Venezuelan people. After all, isn't Donald Trump the president of planet earth? Nobody in Washington seems to have asked themselves what would happen if most of the military stuck with Maduro. In other words, what if they actually turned out to be true patriots and couldn’t be bought, like US politicians are every day by their lobbies? And then what if the Russians sent down some troops and materiel, including fighter jets and attack helicopters, making it very dangerous for the US to send in its military in case things went wrong with Trump’s brilliant plan to plant the US flag in Venezuela? It was sort of like when Trump announced he was slapping tariffs on all kinds of Chinese imports and promised this would reduce the trade deficit. For those who missed the news on this, 2017 was the year with the biggest US trade deficit in history. The plan backfired big time. And sort of like those 6 times that Trump promised investors a big return on investments in his building projects that then promptly failed. So how does Trump fix his mistakes? While a business man, he filed for bankruptcy each time and left the investors – and his contractors -- high and dry. You could catch a glimpse of another bankruptcy moment during Trump’s televised interview with Guaidó’s wife at the White House. When she asked him what was going to happen now that Russia had sent troops and military equipment to her country, he simply said “the Russians will have to leave” and then quickly said “next question” before she could ask for any more embarrassing details on just how he planned to force the arguably best-armed country in the world out of there without starting a nuclear conflagration threatening all of life on earth. America is a casino. Looks like he’s showing this same behaviour pattern in Latin America, leaving about 200 deserters from the Venezuelan army stuck in Cucuta Colombia without visas or work permits. They are being asked to leave their temporary UN refugee shelters, are given 350 thousand pesos ($111.65 US), and a mat. If they return home, they will be arrested and tried for desertion. If they stay, they will be jobless like millions of other residents of this dirt-poor country. The video at the Telesur site is in Spanish, but if you click on this link, you can see some desperate looking deserters talking through an iron gate to a reporter about their plight. If this news ever gets through the firewall to the US public, it could have implications for the 2020 elections. Of course, if the public doesn’t get it yet, there may not be much risk for the bullet-proof Donald Trump. BEGIN ARTICLE Venezuelan Military Deserters Abandoned by Colombian Government "We are adrift. We do not have the support of anybody. We want Juan Guaidó to come to talk to us face to face," said the group spokesperson. Four of the five invited Caribbean states voted in favor of a U.S.-backed resolution to not recognize the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro. "Most of us do not have relatives in Colombia, we were the breadwinner of our families in Venezuela and now we are here with nothing," lamented the ex-military officer. A group of Venezuelan military deserters that fled to Colombia on February 23, reported on Saturday that Colombian authorities have abandoned them, and had given them a period of 4 days to leave the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) camp where they were living near the border between Venezuela and Colombia. They ask Venezuelan lawmaker Juan Guaidó, who had unconstitutionally auto-proclaimed himself as "Interim president" of Venezuela, to help them. "We are adrift; we do not have the support of anybody. We want Juan Guaidó to come to talk to us face to face," said former Venezuelan Army's second ex-sergeant, Luis Gonzalez Hernandez, who acted as spokesperson for the group. According to Gonzalez Hernandez, the evacuation from the shelter was demanded and prepared by the Colombian authorities in Villa del Rosario municipality, in the border city of Cucuta. In return, they were offered 350,000 Colombian pesos, a mattress, and a bedsheet for each one, he said. https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelan-Military-Deserters-Abandoned-by-Colombian-Government-20190316-0020.html Misión Verdad @Mision_Verdad Atención a este testimonio: militares venezolanos que desertaron el 23 de febrero y huyeron a Colombia denuncian estar “a la deriva y a la espera del presidente Guaidó”. Afirman que Acnur les exige desalojar el campamento y moverse por sus propios medios: translation 18:46 - 16 mar. 2019 "Attention to this testimony: Venezuelan military officers who deserted on Feb. 23 and fled to Colombia reported being "adrift and waiting for President Guaido." They claim that UNHCR requires them to leave the camp and move on their own." "Most of us do not have relatives in Colombia, we were the breadwinner of our families in Venezuela and now we are here with nothing," lamented the ex-military officer. In the weeks leading up to Feb. 23, the date fixed by the Venezuelan right-wing for the entering of the supposed "humanitarian aid" to Venezuela, lawmaker Juan Guaido and several U.S. government spokesmen urged members of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) to ignore their officers and defect to Colombia. Patricia Villegas Marin ✔ @pvillegas_tlSUR “Deben irse. Salgan en 3 días. Hay 350 mil pesos y una colchoneta para cada uno”, esto es lo que les dicen hoy a los desertores militares venezolanos en Cúcuta. Ya no les sirven. El tiempo de su escena ha concluido. Baja el telón. @madeleintlSUR @PortellateleSUR "You must go. Leave in 3 days. Here are 350 thousand pesos and a mat for each one," this is what they said today to the Venezuelan military deserters in Cucuta. They are no longer of any use. The time of your scene is over. The curtain goes down."
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