The Washington Post published an article today outlining some of the claims that former National Security Advisor John Bolton makes in his new book, “The Room Where It Happened”, which is scheduled to be released next week. The tell-all book is highly critical of US president Donald Trump, and is full of first-hand accounts of his abhorrent and erratic behaviour.
The article contains snippets of stories that Bolton shares related to Venezuela. For example, the book allegedly contains an account of how Russian president Vladimir Putin attempted to persuade Trump to warm up to Maduro using “Soviet style propaganda” techniques:
In one May 2019 phone call, for example, Russian President Vladimir Putin compared Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, part of what Bolton terms a “brilliant display of Soviet style proganda” to shore up support for Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Putin’s claims, Bolton writes, “largely persuaded Trump.”
The most explosive Venezuela-related claim outlined in the article is that Trump once said that invading Venezuela would be “cool”, and that it was “really part of the United States”:
Bolton attributes a litany of shocking statements to the president. Trump said invading Venezuela would be “cool” and that the South American nation was “really part of the United States.”
According to the article, the book paints Trump as an opportunistic, deeply ignorant man who acted on whims based on what he thought would personally benefit him at the time, and who does not operate with any kind of overarching moral or policy framework.
Bolton’s book is scheduled to come out next week.
Opposition Parties Rally Together Under Supreme Court Pressure
Opposition leader Juan Guaido held a press conference today alongside other opposition figures to deliver a message of unity in the face of recent attacks from the Tribunal Supremo de Justicia (Supreme Court, TSJ) against two opposition parties.
During the press conference, Guaido said that an attack on any one party was an attack on the entire opposition struggle against the Maduro government, and that the recent moves from the TSJ were “not the first time that a dictator has wanted to make a political party disappear”.
In recent days, the TSJ ruled to unilaterally remove the leadership of the Accion Democratica (AD) and Primero Justicia (PJ) parties, and replace them with hand-picked operators loyal to the Maduro government.
Venezuela Breaks Record of New COVID-19 Cases
Maduro announced today that there were 231 new cases of COVID-19 detected in the country over the last 24 hours, a new high for the country. He also announced the death of another patient, whom he identified as a 41-year-old man in Caracas, bringing the total number of dead from the disease to 28.
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