Keir Starmer still hasn’t spoken to Donald Trump since US forces captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela over the weekend. For all the excited talk about how well Starmer has handled his personal relationship with the US President, the Number 10 spokesman confirmed this morning he still hasn’t been able to place a phone call to the White House. Although Trump still found time to dial in to Fox News, and seemingly any other journalist who called the switchboard…
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper did at least speak to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last night, where she told him the UK “respects international law“. Starmer is expected to finally get his call in at some point tomorrow, after he jets off to Paris to meet the Coalition of the Willing. A foreign trip already in the books in the first week of the year…
Lady Nugee is “calling out” Donald Trump for his intervention in Venezuela this morning – which will leave Delta Force quaking in their boots. The Labour chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee is at odds with the Prime Minister…
No10 is trying not to offend Washington further by taking a muted position on the operation to lift Maduro out of the country. Meanwhile, Thornberry writes in the Mirror:
“Is Trump allowed to do that? Well no. You really aren’t allowed to walk into other countries and arrest the leadership, then take them off to be tried in your domestic court. Where would it end? Anyway, it’s not really about drugs, it’s about oil. If it was about drugs, there are many other countries that are much bigger sources of illicit drugs, Venezuela is a long way down the list.”
Thornberry has a curious record on Venezuela, having failed to call for a change to the Maduro regime when she was Shadow Foreign Secretary under Corbyn. In 2019 she refused to recognise Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president, defying the US, European countries, and UK government. Labour’s position on the issue has long been Caracas…
Jeremy Corbyn has called for international solidarity with Latin American leftist movements after US action in Venezuela. Sweat running down a few brows in Havana…
Corbyn, alongside fellow MP Richard Burgon, spoke at tonight’s “emergency online rally” organised by Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The demands of which are “an immediate end to this illegal military action, the safe return of President Maduro, and respect for Venezuela’s sovereignty”…
The Your Party leader (for now until its elections) attacked Nobel Peace Prize-winning Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and blamed ‘global corporate interests’ for the arrest of Maduro:
“Trump said he’s going to make Venezuela safe for American global oil companies. The alleged leader of the Venezuelan opposition put out a video, a quite chilling video, saying that she was going to make the country ready for privatisation. I was thinking to myself on an even greater scale than Boris Yeltsin did in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. What we’re really up against here is global corporate interests working through politicians, working through politicians like Trump in order to use the military to create opportunities for themselves. We know which side we’re on. We know which side of history we’re on. We know which side of history are going to be found out for those people that supported this illegal act.”
Corbyn, speaking to those assembled on Zoom and 220 viewers on YouTube, also accused Starmer himself of breaking international law, which “requires that you recognise that, when a genocide takes place, you don’t fuel the fire of that genocide. His government has done exactly that by the provision of arms to Israel.”
Longtime Trotskyist writer/activist Tariq Ali, also present, said Trump argued gunrunning “weapons would have been used against the United States. Well all I can say – I wish they had been. But they weren’t. They captured him before there could be any armed fightback.” Indeed – quite some operation from Delta Force there…
Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro is begging Putin for help as pressure from Donald Trump ramps up on his regime. A dog appeals to its owner…
According to a US intelligence briefing given to the Washington Post, Maduro has requested from Russia:
- Help upgrading air defences, in particular restoring Russian Sukhoi Su-20MK2 aircraft purchased by Venezuela.
- An overhaul of eight engines and five radars.
- 14 sets of what are believed to be Russian missiles.
- Unspecified “logistical support.“
This comes after multiple US military strikes on Venezuelan and other drug traffickers in the open ocean. Which have dispatched 61 people since last month…
Russian interests in the country are long-held since Hugo Chavez was in power: From 2005-2007 alone Venezuela signed 12 arms contracts with Russia to the tune of $4.4 billion. Moscow is keen on using Venezula as a base for its strategic bombers. It wields huge influence in its axis of likeminded states Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua…
Over the weekend Maduro and Putin ratified a new strategic treaty and on Sunday an Ilyushin Il-76 transport jet arrives in Caracas.
The latest UK Trade and Investment statistics on Venezuela, published today, shows total UK imports from the country “amounted to £41 million in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2025 (an increase of 57.7% or £15 million in current prices, compared to the four quarters to the end of Q2 2024).” Our trade with the dictatorship has been increasing from its 2020 low…
A former Institute of Economic Affairs wonk has been abducted in socialist Venezuala for campaigning for democracy. Jesús Armas was working at the IEA in 2020 and has since become the organiser of the successful María Corina Machado campaign in Caracas. Efforts to monitor vote tallies in Venezuela’s July election proved that Machado’s candidate Edmundo González had beaten socialist dictator Maduro by a wide margin…
Armas, a Bristol University graduate, was last seen at 2100 last night exiting a coffee shop when he was abducted by men in a Toyota Fortuna. Guido hopes his safe return can be secured as quickly as possible…
UPDATE: The IEA has written to Lammy regarding the abudction. Read the full letter below:
Continue reading “Westminster Wonk Abducted in Venezuela for Opposition Campaign”
After polling suggested the opposition would win in troubled Venezuela, the Maduro regime has claimed victory in an election where he banned his main opponent and the military supervised the voting process.
Chile’s President Gabriel Boric undiplomatically said that Maduro’s government “must understand” that the results giving him the victory “are difficult to believe,” adding that his government won’t recognise “any result that is not verifiable.”
Chile’s foreign affairs minister tweeted, “given the situation in Venezuela, we think its important to wait for the opinion of international observers.”
Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves rejected Maduro’s win, “We will work with the democratic countries across the continent and international organizations to achieve the respect the Venezuelan people deserve,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.” The only regional power to welcome the result was the Cuban dictatorship, congratulating Maduro and promising Cuba would “stand by the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution…”
Speaking to Sky News off the back of Rachel Reeves’ Air Passenger Duty hike, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said:
“Labour is dependent on those Red Wall seats, and yet every move she makes poisons economic growth and damages the UK’s recovery… it’s the Chancellor who stumbles from policy misstep to policy misstep… I think her policy decisions are incredibly stupid.”
