Comments by "Harry Stoddard" (@HarryS77) on "Venezuela’s Crisis: What My Fellow Liberals Don’t Understand | NYT Opinion" video.

@3s0t3r1c The point is that she and her family have financial and ideological stakes in the coup succeeding. She's acting as if she's just a random Venezuelan giving her opinion when she's anything but.
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Are you serious? They are accepting aid, from the UN, from Russia, from China, from organizations like the Red Cross. They're just not stupid enough to accept trojan horse aid from the US. Abrams used a similar tactic in the 80s to smuggle arms to the Contras, and more broadly it is a way to trigger discontent and defection. The Red Cross has refused to partner with USAID, which is basically a CIA front group with a problematic history of trying to undermine governments. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/02/venezuela-humanitarian-aid-weapon-regimes/583309/ https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14316 https://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/4/is_usaid_the_new_cia_agency
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@TheJazzyOtaku "more than likely" Sounds to me like you're speculating.
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@TheJazzyOtaku You didn't have a point. You made a random assertion with no evidence that Maduro was pocketing money...except a lot of the aid isn't in the form of money, so how could he...I'll let you explain your "point." https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/02/20/venezuela-accepts-shipment-russian-humanitarian-aid-reports-a64572 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-29/red-cross-to-begin-humanitarian-aid-mission-inside-venezuela But look, if you have actual sources or evidence I'd be happy to see them. I'm not a Maduro supporter, so I'd have no problem accepting that he's misappropriating funds intended for aid.
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@3s0t3r1c What she describes is a very distorted version of reality, as seen from a white person of privilege living outside the country and with a politically-active family. There's a huge vague conceptual space between "change is needed" and what Hausmann and her neoliberal economist father want. https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/14/ricardo-hausmanns-morning-after-for-venezuela-the-neoliberal-brain-behind-juan-guaidos-economic-agenda/
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@alexvaznogueira2817 He's actually not a socialist.
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joseaca Because I know how the English language works. It's nice that you come from Venezuela, but who cares? I also wouldn't listen to, for instance, some rabid Trump supporter spout patent nonsense just because they happen to come from America. Citizenship doesn't confer on you a doctorate in poli-sci or privileged knowledge. Moreover, I didn't offer my opinion. I offered the expert opinion of an economist who is himself opposed to Maduro, who would have every ideological reason for backing Guaido and the sanctions. Maybe you need to direct your grief toward him. And another thing: the only real issue I addressed in this thread is the sanctions. Which were imposed by my country. So...are you trying to tell me I don't know how my country works?
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joseaca And if you can say something like "pinochet himself only killed around 3k people" you are just a terrible person. I honestly can't imagine being that craven and delusional. To try to justify a brutal dictatorship on the basis that it "only" harmed so many people—you didn't include all those kidnapped, tortured, imprisoned—and managed to wring some money out the population to funnel to top. Anyway, the "Chilean Miracle" is basically a fraud. "On the eve of its presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday, Chile stands as one of the most economically stratified countries in the world. Economist and Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz has stated that one percent of the country's population possesses one-third of its wealth, while a new study by the University of CHile cites a figure of 30.5 percent—compared to the 27 percent owned by the richest one percent in the US." https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/11/other-side-chile-economic-miracle-201311159282210130.html
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@tacticalrants8559 Would these be the same people who molotoved the "aid" and then tried to blame it on Maduro? Everyone knows that "aid" was a trojan horse and a farce. Venezuela is accepting aid from organizations and other countries—just not the US. Would Venezuela have been justified for intervening in the US when Bush II refused Chavez's Hurricane Katrina aid? No. Same logic here. While you can find people of every stripe supporting this or that side, those who support Guaido are predominantly white and middle to upper class (and more upper class people are white, incidentally). It's not an accident that Guaido was holding his rallies in well-to-do parts of town rather in the working-class neighborhoods—that's where he had more support. "White" is relative, and by Venezuelan standards, this woman is white, as are 99% of the people in that infamous picture of Guaido's party's National Assembly. https://twitter.com/vijayprashad/status/1088875934680338433
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@alexvaznogueira2817 He's literally not though. His policies and rhetoric track with neoliberal doctrine. Not surprising that he appointed socialist neoliberal economist Ricardo Hausmann (Joanna's father) to be his representative to the IDB.
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Judith Miller and Michael Gordon would love a second shot.
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@tacticalrants8559 One thing I've seen a lot is the argument that "the sanctions did not cause" the crisis. Which is true. I don't think many people would argue otherwise. Which is why that's not what people are saying about the sanctions. They're saying that the sanctions made a bad but survivable situation into a nightmare, which is what sanctions are designed to do. So what you really need to address, if you want to be an apologist and lackey for Guaido and the neoliberal plundering of Venezuela, is explain how the crippling sanctions that even Maduro-critic Francisco Rodriguez has condemned as injurious to the Venezuelan people did not create the crisis as it is today. Even in the NYT, buried in an article, it was admitted that the sanctions were responsible for the long duration of the blackout. That's an example of how the sanctions—while they may not have "created" the crisis—nevertheless ensured that it was as bad as possible.
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@heaven7370 Humanitarian aid isn't supposed to be used as a political weapon, which is why organizations like the Red Cross and the UN have condemned America's trojan horse humanitarian aid, not that you'd hear that on the MSM where it's just assumed that rejecting opposition "aid" means rejecting all aid. Brazil is being run by a fascist who's pledged to purge his country of any and all leftists, so no sane person can blame a left-wing government for being suspicious, just as they should be suspicious of Elliot Abrams's aid, he who used that same tactic in the 80s to supply the Contras with millions of dollars in weapons so that they could butcher the opposition. Or you could compare cases. Take when Hurricane Katrina battered the southern US. Chavez offered a substantial aid package while Bush 2 and FEMA were botching emergency services. Bush rejected the aid. I don't remember anyone calling for an invasion of the US on those grounds. If we were really serious about being humanitarian there's a simple solution: end the sanctions that are costing the country billions. It's hypocritical to put a stranglehold on the country—threatening companies and countries that would do business with Venezuela, preventing its oil industry from generating revenue—and offering a pittance in terms of food and medicine as if that constituted benevolence. Please.
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Fitting that this was posted on April 1st, because this is a joke. Do yourselves a favor and research who Joanna Hausmann is and, more importantly, who her father is. Economics, financial interests, and race play a huge role in the disparity seen between opposition to the coup and support for it. https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/14/ricardo-hausmanns-morning-after-for-venezuela-the-neoliberal-brain-behind-juan-guaidos-economic-agenda/
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