Maduro's Army Remaining Loyal?

Guaido hoped for defections, obviously. As of now, Reuters reports he's not getting many.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Tuesday made his strongest call yet to the military to help him oust President Nicolas Maduro, although there was little sign of defection from the armed forces leadership and isolated clashes fizzled out.

But....

Officials from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration said three top Maduro loyalists had apparently been in talks with the opposition and indicated they would support a peaceful transition of power.

Is that true or kayfabe? I don't know.

John Sexton earlier posted reports that the head of Venezuela's secret police had defected:

The Pan Am Post is also reporting that the head of SEBIN, which is the Venezuelan intelligence force used to keep people in line, has turned on Maduro. This reads, "President of the Committee of Defense of the constituent Chavez confirms to radio Venezuelan that the director of the SEBIN, General Cristopher Figuera, is part of the uprising against Maduro."

Jazz mentioned this earlier but opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has been released and is walking the streets today. He was apparently released by SEBIN which dovetails with the claim above that the group’s director has turned on Maduro. Lopez' lawyer said his client’s freedom today was a sign that soon all Venezuelans would be free.

But at the moment, it doesn't seem as if that set off the cascade of defections one might hope for.

Hours ago there were reports of a massive movement of people towards the Presidential Palace, not likely to tell Maduro "You're doing great!"

MSNBC was actually forced to admit that Maduro's dictatorship is empowered by the fact that they confiscated all guns from the citizenry years ago:

Trump's making threats about Cuban troops in Venezuela.

I actually take this as a bad sign. The US' first preference, I figure, is to stay out of this until it's won. These petty tyrants always love using US involvement as propaganda to gin up their supporters -- even when we're not involved at all.

If we're intervening, even rhetorically, then I take that as an omen that we're pessimistic about the outcome as it stands right now.

Obviously I hope they boot this guy out, of course.

Russian Meddling? Via tami --

posted by Ace of Spades at 05:59 PM

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