Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has returned from his official visits to Suriname, Guyana, Colombia and Brazil, where he discussed the possibilities of regime change in Venezuela, a nation which has drawn Washington’s ire for over 20 years. On Saturday the 56-year-old former CIA Director announced a $348 million package he said was a “response to the…

The United States has long used foreign aid packages as the carrot in its approach to diplomacy and as a way to grease the wheels in the governments of other countries which might have something that beckons U.S. interests. For decades. though, the task of disbursing said assistance has fallen to USAID, the U.S. Agency…

The political party of Juan Guaido — Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) — was never all that popular to begin with. The sixth largest political party in Venezuela, Popular Will is heavily financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Now, a recently exposed embezzlement scandal in Colombia risks to further alienate the party…

  (Transcript) —This video was produced as part of a MintPress News and Grayzone collaboration — There’s been nonstop talk about the humanitarian situation in Venezuela. In case you haven’t heard, U.S. politicians are really concerned for the Venezuelan people’s well-being — screaming their all-too-familiar code words that justify U.S. intervention, like “a humanitarian crisis … socialist dictator…

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — The international outrage generated by images of U.S.-donated “humanitarian” aid on fire at a Colombian-Venezuelan border crossing last month inspired a frenzied call for Venezuelan regime change from top U.S. politicians and media outlets once the blaze was promptly blamed on the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolás Maduro. Many independent journalists…

This video was produced as part of a MintPress News and Grayzone collaboration. Max Blumenthal investigated Venezuela’s “humanitarian crisis” in a luxury mall in a rich pro-opposition neighborhood in Caracas, where he looked for the “authoritarian socialism” that Trump and the corporate media talk so much about. Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of several…

 This video was produced as part of a MintPress News and Grayzone collaboration. Venezuela has recently come under fire for “refusing humanitarian aid” from the United States and Brazil. American pundits have said that President Nicolas Maduro’s refusal to allow this aid through is proof that he supports poverty and should be overthrown. After all, who…

February 23 saw the latest attempt by the White House, its right-wing regional allies, and self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaido to oust the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro, this time by trying to undermine Maduro’s authority and forcibly violate Venezuela’s borders under the pretext of bringing in “humanitarian aid.” Given that not a single truck,…

WASHINGTON (Analysis) — Nothing unites the D.C. blob like a good old coup d’état. The only other times, it seems, that Donald Trump is given a break by “the resistance” is when he acts “presidential” — i.e., orders military aggression, as we saw with Syria. As veteran journalist Dan Rather put it at the time:…

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA – Two executives at the company that chartered the U.S. plane that was caught smuggling weapons into Venezuela last week have been tied to an air cargo company that aided the CIA in the rendition of alleged terrorists to “black site” centers for interrogation. The troubling revelation comes as Venezuelan President Nicolás…

The International Red Cross has declined to participate in Washington’s controversial humanitarian aid plan to Venezuela, it was announced this weekend. “We will not be participating in what is, for us, not humanitarian aid,” stated Colombia’s International Red Cross (ICRC) spokesperson, Christoph Harnisch. The assistance, which is being coordinated by Venezuela’s self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaido, and…

A meeting of the International Contact Group on Venezuela to address the political crisis in the Caribbean country ended with a non-unanimous statement on Thursday. According to TeleSUR reporter Madelein Garcia, Bolivia, Mexico and Caribbean countries refused to endorse a final statement proposing the holding of elections, the coordination of humanitarian aid and the establishment of…