Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro claimed in an interview that he can prove that National Security Adviser John Bolton ordered an assassination attempt against him last year, an accusation that does not place the Trump administration in a very good light, despite the undeniable need for regime change in that country.
“I can tell you that today I have proof that the assassination attempt was ordered by John Bolton in the White House,” Maduro told Blumenthal.
“We have testimony, we have witnesses, proof,” Maduro continued. “All the material authors of this assassination attempt by drone were captured. Some of the operational and intellectual authors were captured. And it all points to Julio Borges in Bogotá. It all points to Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia. All of it. All the logistics, the institutional support, technical assistance, support from Colombian intelligence. It all points to John Bolton, who has a criminal mentality, a murderer’s mentality.”
Maduro claimed that those who planned the logistics of the attack are “under U.S. government protection” in Miami. The dictator did not offer to provide such evidence to Blumenthal or explain what exactly it might include.
Tensions with Trump
The assumption of those on the left will undoubtedly be that President Donald Trump must have been somehow involved in the assassination attempt if it is true that Bolton played a role. However, Maduro actually contradicted this line of thinking in the interview.
“I can’t accuse President Trump, I can’t do it at this time, but I do have all the evidence to accuse and ask for a landmark investigation into John Bolton,” Maduro said.
While Maduro claims that he was legitimately and fairly elected president of Venezuela, many countries around the world including most of Latin America, the U.S., and Canada, have said that corruption in the process made the election meaningless and have recognized opposition party leader Juan Guaidó as the true president.
Trump has denounced Maduro and the socialist government of Venezuela, a regime many blame for the widespread food shortages, massive inflation and humanitarian crises that have gripped the country. A particularly corrupt element of Maduro’s election strategy was to promise poverty-stricken Venezuelans that they would receive food subsidies in exchange for their vote, with citizen compliance ultimately tracked via their government assistance identification cards.
Denial and defiance
Russia and China continue to prop up Maduro and provide aid to Venezuela, as do other similarly problematic governments including that of Bolivia, which is having its own leadership problems as President Evo Morales now faces allegations of widespread corruption. But Maduro’s main ally is his own military, the loyalty of which he essentially purchased early on in his tenure by transferring control of food and oil production to its leaders.
While Blumenthal likes to present himself as an alternative to the mainstream media who tells the real truth about what’s going on in the world, the interview showed him to be little more than a mouthpiece for Maduro’s propaganda.
As he claimed that Trump wants to starve the Venezuelan people by cutting off his fraud-riddled food aid program, Maduro repeatedly referred to Bolton, Trump and the U.S. as “KKK” for their actions against him. He either minimized his country’s catastrophic economic conditions or blamed them on sanctions, while steadfastly proclaiming that his election was entirely just and proper.
The disconnect between Maduro’s claims and indisputable facts on the ground, together with his unwillingness to provide tangible proof of his assertions about Bolton make the entire performance rather hard to swallow.
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