Kakav babun, da oproste babuni.

names already being floated ... including former Blackwater founder Erik Prince. Story w/ @kylieatwood & @ikhurshudyan: https://cnn.com/2026/01/15/politics/trump-private-contractors-venezuela-oil

https://x.com/ZcohenCNN/status/2011749462033526951

Taj Erik Prince je ko Ana Bekuta. Bio ovde u Ekvadoru pre izbora da malo poboljsa rejtgin predsednika. Vodali ga ko mecku okolo.

Edited January 15Jan 15 by duda

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/machado-says-she-presented-trump-with-her-nobel-peace-prize-medal-2026-01-15/

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she presented U.S. President Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal during their meeting on Thursday. She did not answer reporters' questions as to whether he accepted it.

María Corina Machado to US Senators:

"What is happening right now is historic, not only for the future of Venezuela, but for the future of freedom in the world.

I am just one of millions of Venezuelans determined to recover freedom, justice, and democracy for our country. We want our families to be together again. We want dignity. We want equality.

We want equality before the law. We are a deeply pro-American society. Today, in Venezuela, there is not a single institution that is truly standing.

I want to assure you that we are going to turn Venezuela into a free and secure country, and into the strongest ally the United States has ever had in this region.

When Venezuela is free, millions of Venezuelans will return of their own free will. There is hope for the future.

You trusted the Venezuelan people when many believed it was impossible. We managed to reunite a country.

This will be difficult — very difficult — but what we have achieved so far is extraordinary.

I have just had an extraordinary meeting with President Trump.

I know there are concerns about what has happened in Venezuela. January 3 changed the history of our country forever, and for the better.

I ask you to think about everything we have lived through: 26 years, 35 elections, millions of people in the streets. Some were murdered. Teenagers and children. Women sexually abused simply for defending their vote. Seventeen different attempts at dialogue, all of them betrayed.

This administration understands that if we want Venezuelans to return, we must rebuild institutions, respect human rights, guarantee freedom of expression, uphold the rule of law, and establish a new, authentic electoral process.

I have insisted — and I will continue to insist — that Venezuela has a president-elect, and I am very proud to work alongside him.

Regarding my meeting with President Trump:

I believe the President understands very well what is happening in Venezuela and fully grasps our country’s potential as a strong ally of the United States.

He is deeply concerned about the safety of the Venezuelan people — about children who are not going to school because teachers earn barely one dollar a day. The President truly understands this reality.

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to convey what the Venezuelan people are going through at this moment".

https://x.com/EmmaRincon/status/2011904881729446025

María Corina Machado about Delcy Rodríguez:

“I want to warn that if there is one thing this regime has known how to do efficiently in the past, it is to buy time and take advantage of efforts made in good faith.

Delcy Rodríguez is part of the regime. There is no way a country where 86% of the population lives in poverty can attract real investment.

Who is going to invest in Venezuela if there is no independent judiciary and private property is not respected?

In this hemisphere and beyond, the law enforcement operation has generated expectations and hope, but it has also sent a clear message across the region about security—and to irregular and criminal actors about the consequences of their actions.

They understand that this is over. This model is not sustainable.

For reconciliation to happen, there must be justice.

We must dismantle the system of repression so that people can express themselves freely. It is not just about political prisoners: they can be released and still not be truly free”.

https://x.com/EmmaRincon/status/2011906913680916976

Ali kako je ispizdeo kad mu je ova iz Exxon-a rekao da je Venecuela "uninvestible"...

Obaška što je ta ekipa "naftaša" za ozbiljnu robiju, koliko si ti debil da onako reaguješ...

12 hours ago, Jeremija said:

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/machado-says-she-presented-trump-with-her-nobel-peace-prize-medal-2026-01-15/

Potvrđeno mu je predala medalju s posvetom, okačeno je na Trampovom topiku.

to be distributed inside Venezuela for health and infrastructure projects, meaning the United States is retaining a little over one-third of the proceeds from the first shipment of the 30–50 million barrels President Trump says Venezuela has agreed to transfer to the US.

Five Venezuelan private banks have been authorized to receive those funds from the Banco Central de Venezuela: Bancamiga, Mercantil, Banco Nacional de Crédito (BNC), Banesco, and Provincial, according to Bitácora Económica. The transfers depend on a license currently being finalized by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Oil revenues will be deposited into a BCV account at Qatar National Bank, whose US correspondent is JPMorgan Chase, requiring OFAC approval before funds can be distributed to other Venezuelan banks.

In a speech to the Parliament today, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said the revenues will be placed into two sovereign funds: one for social protection, including hospitals, schools, food, housing, and workers’ income; and a second for infrastructure and services such as water, electricity, and roads. She also ordered the creation of a technological platform to ensure transparency, saying the funds must be free of “bureaucracy, corruption, and indolence.”

Economist Francisco Rodríguez of CEPR notes the arrangement carries major legal implications: under Section 25B of the Federal Reserve Act, US banks can only process transactions involving Venezuela’s central bank if the State Department certifies its representatives. That certification, Rodríguez writes, can only be issued if the US recognizes the government those officials serve, implying de facto recognition of the Rodríguez government and potentially undercutting the authority of the 2015 National Assembly and the opposition-appointed ad hoc PDVSA board.

https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2012031162135281696

https://bsky.app/profile/nytimes.com/post/3mck4lyvyae2r

Edited January 16Jan 16 by vememah

https://x.com/anadoluagency/status/2012049697859355042

indispensability to regime continuity. https://archive.ph/vU0bZ#selection-689.0-696.0

https://x.com/michaeldweiss/status/2012313509657215160

Exclusive: US talks with hardline Venezuelan minister Cabello began months before raid

NEW YORK/MIAMI/WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Trump administration officials had been in discussions with Venezuela's hardline interior minister Diosdado Cabello months before the U.S. operation to seize President Nicolas Maduro, and have been in communication with him since then, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

The officials warned Cabello, 62, against using the security services or militant ruling-party supporters he oversees to target the country's opposition, four sources said. That security apparatus, which includes the intelligence services, police and the armed forces, remains largely intact after the January 3 U.S. raid.

Cabello is named in the same U.S. drug-trafficking indictment that the Trump administration used as justification to arrest Maduro, but was not taken as part of the operation.

The communication with Cabello, which has also touched on sanctions the U.S. has imposed on him and the indictment he faces, dates back to the early days of the current Trump administration and continued in the weeks just prior to the U.S. ouster of Maduro, two sources familiar with the discussions said. The administration has also been in touch with Cabello since Maduro's ouster, four of the people said.

The communications, which have not been previously reported, are critical to the Trump administration's efforts to control the situation inside Venezuela. If Cabello decides to unleash the forces that he controls, it could foment the kind of chaos that Trump wants to avoid and threaten interim President Delcy Rodriguez's grip on power, according to a source briefed on U.S. concerns.

It is not clear if the Trump administration's discussions with Cabello extended to questions about the future governance of Venezuela. Also unclear is whether Cabello has heeded the U.S. warnings. He has publicly pledged unity with Rodriguez, whom Trump has so far praised.

While Rodriguez has been seen by the U.S. as the linchpin for U.S. President Donald Trump's strategy for post-Maduro Venezuela, Cabello is widely believed to have the power to keep those plans on track or upend them.

The Venezuelan minister has been in contact with the Trump administration both directly and via intermediaries, one person familiar with the conversations said.

All of the sources were granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive internal government communications with Cabello.

The White House and the government of Venezuela did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

CABELLO HAS BEEN MADURO LOYALIST

Cabello has long been seen as Venezuela's second most powerful figure. A close aide of late former President Hugo Chavez, Maduro's mentor, he went on to become a long-time Maduro loyalist, feared as his main enforcer of repression. Rodriguez and Cabello have both operated at the heart of the government, legislature and ruling socialist party for years, but have never been considered close allies of each other.

A former military officer, Cabello has exerted influence over the country's military and civilian counterintelligence agencies, which conduct widespread domestic espionage. He has also been closely associated with pro-government militias, notably the colectivos, groups of motorcycle-riding armed civilians who have been deployed to attack protesters.

Cabello is one of a handful of Maduro loyalists Washington has relied on as temporary rulers to maintain stability while it accesses the OPEC nation's oil reserves during an unspecified transition period.

But U.S. officials are concerned that Cabello - given his record of repression and a history of rivalry with Rodriguez - could play the spoiler, according to a source briefed on the administration's thinking.

Rodriguez has been working to consolidate her own power, installing loyalists in key positions to protect herself from internal threats while meeting U.S. demands to boost oil production, Reuters interviews with sources in Venezuela have shown.

Elliott Abrams, who served as Trump's special representative on Venezuela in his first term, said many Venezuelans would expect Cabello to be removed at some point if a democratic transition is to advance.

"If and when he goes, Venezuelans will know that the regime has really begun to change," said Abrams, now at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

US SANCTIONS AND INDICTMENT

Cabello has long been under U.S. sanctions for alleged drug trafficking.

In 2020, the U.S. issued a $10 million bounty for Cabello and indicted him as a key figure in the "Cartel de los Soles," a group the U.S. has said is a Venezuelan drug-trafficking network led by members of the country's government.

The U.S. has since raised the award to $25 million. Cabello has publicly denied any links to drug trafficking.

In the hours after Maduro's ouster, some analysts and politicians in Washington questioned why the U.S. didn't also grab Cabello - listed second in the Department of Justice indictment of Maduro.

"I know that just Diosdado is probably worse than Maduro and worse than Delcy," Republican U.S. Representative Maria Elvira Salazar said in an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation" on January 11.

In the days following, Cabello denounced American intervention in the country, saying in a speech that "Venezuela will not surrender."

But media reports of residents being searched at checkpoints - sometimes by uniformed members of the security forces and sometimes by people in plain clothes - have become less frequent in recent days.

And both Trump and the Venezuelan government have said many detainees who are considered by the opposition and rights groups to be political prisoners will be released.

The government has said that Cabello, in his role as interior minister, is overseeing that effort. Rights groups say the liberations are proceeding extremely slowly and hundreds remain unjustly detained.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-talks-with-hardline-venezuelan-minister-cabello-began-months-before-raid-2026-01-17/

https://x.com/FT/status/2011975146962051155

Arhiviran ceo članak:

https://archive.is/rDx6G

https://x.com/Reuters/status/2014227310698779078