Thoughts on the Venezuelan Communist Party's position on the Guyana situation?

Helicopter crash in Esequibo: 5 Guyanese soldiers died and 2 have survived. (Spanish Only)

Five Guyanese military personnel were killed and two survived in an accident while on their way by helicopter to visit troops near the de facto border with Venezuela, the Guyana Defense Force reported Thursday.

The Bell 412 helicopter disappeared on Wednesday, some 48 kilometers from the Venezuelan border, and the search for it was hampered both the day before and today by bad weather.

The deceased are Lieutenant Colonel Michael Charles, who was piloting the aircraft; Colonel Michael Shahoud, commander of the 1st Infantry Battalion; Lieutenant Colonel Sean Welcome; retired Brigadier General Gary Beaton and Sergeant Jason Khan.

According to authorities, the helicopter departed Ayanganna Base in western Guyana at 9:23 local time (14:23 GMT) yesterday with three crew members and four passengers. However, at 11:20 local time (15:20 GMT), the ship sent out an emergency alert in the Arau area of western Guyana.

Chief of Defence Force Staff Omar Khan explained at a press conference last night at the Ayanganna Base that the helicopter landed at Olive Creek to refuel, but after take-off, communication was lost.

The officer indicated that presumably the emergency alert indicated that the helicopter crashed, fell hard or may have been manually tampered with by a crew member. Following this, military forces activated a search and rescue operation, which included a plane loaded with special forces officers and another helicopter.

Prime Minister Mark Phillips says authorities are still trying to determine what caused the helicopter to crash. Officials say there has been no indication to suggest any hostile fire.

The Country of the Week is Laos!

As mentioned in the preamble, feel free to post or recommend any material related to Laos, whether from a thousand years ago or yesterday. You can post it anywhere in the thread, but you can also reply to this comment if you wish.

If you're feeling particularly ambitious and want homework, you could take on any or all of these questions (no reward, but I'll be very proud of you):

• Who are the main political actors? Are they compradors, nationalists, international socialists, something else?
• What are the most salient domestic political issues; those issues that repeatedly shape elections over the last 10, 20 years. Every country has its quirks that complicate analysis - for example, Brexit in the UK.
• What is the country's history? You don't have to go back a thousand years if that's not relevant, and I'm counting "history" as basically anything that has happened over a year ago.
• What factions exist, historically and currently? If there is an electoral system, what are the major parties and their demographic bases? Are there any minor parties with large amounts of influence? Independence movements? Religious groups?
• How socially progressive or conservative are they? Is there equality for different ethnic groups, or are some persecuted? Do they have LGBTQIA+ rights? Have they improved over time, or gotten worse?
• What role do foreign powers play in the country’s politics and economy? Is there a particular country nearby or far away that is nearly inseparable from them, for good or bad reasons? Is their trade dominated by exports/imports to one place? Are they exploited, exploiters, or something in between?
• If applicable, what is the influence of former colonial relationships on the modern economy and politics?
• Is the country generally stable? Do you think there will be a coup at some point in the future, and if so, what faction might replace them?

The previous country was Burkina Faso.

This is our Geopolitics Reading List so far! Please chime in with suggestions!

General Theory:

• Super Imperialism, by Michael Hudson.
• Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis, by John Smith.
• Superexploitation and the Imperialist Drive of Capitalism: How Marini's 'Dialectics of Dependency' Goes beyond Marx's 'Capital', by Andy Higginbottom.
• Capital Volume 3 Lecture Series, 32 videos, 10-15 minutes each, by Andy Higginbottom.
• World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction, by Immanuel Wallerstein.
• Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire, by Radhika Desai.
• Capitalism, Coronavirus and War: A Geopolitical Economy, by Radhika Desai.

Canada:

• Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination, by Tyler Shipley.

Chile:

• 1000 Days of Revolution: Chilean Communists on the Lessons of Popular Unity (I cannot personally find an online version).
• Santiago Boys Podcast, analyzing Allende's government and Cybersyn.

Lebanon:

• A History of Modern Lebanon, by Fawwaz Traboulsi.

United States:

• Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture, by Oswaldo Zavala.

Venezuela:

• Objective Conditions in Venezuela: Maduro’s Defensive Strategy and Contradictions Among the People, a longform article by Steve Ellner.

I believe Saudi 🇸🇦 Arabia air force trashed an f-15, supposidly the second F-15 trashed in a one-year period by the Saudi Air Force.

Edit: even funnier, according to hindustan times the dude that crashed was a Saudi prince

Actual unironic Ukraine ad...

So fucking stupid. Who is the target audience?

Presidents of Venezuela and Guyana will meet on December 14 due to tension due to territorial dispute (Spanish Only)

Maduro invites Guyana and the oil company ExxonMobil to talk about Essequibo.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was also invited to the meeting.

The presidents of Venezuela and Guyana will meet next week in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the midst of high tensions due to a territorial dispute between both countries over the Essequibo, which has reached the United Nations Security Council.

The Prime Minister of the host country, Ralph Gonsalves, informed in a letter addressed to the Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, and his Guyanese counterpart, Irfaan Ali, that the meeting will be held on December 14 at 10:00 am (14:00 GMT) in that Caribbean island.

"Given the events and circumstances regarding the territorial dispute (...) we have assessed, in the interest of all (...), the urgent need to defuse the conflict and institute a proper dialogue, face to face, between the presidents of Guyana and Venezuela," the text said. "Both (presidents) have shown themselves in favor of this position in the search for a peaceful coexistence."

The meeting is being promoted by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), of which Gonsalves is president pro-tempore, and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Earlier, in a communiqué, Caracas reported recent conversations of President Nicolás Maduro with Lula da Silva, as well as with the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves (who holds the Presidency of CELAC), and the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres.

Venezuela and Guyana have been disputing the Essequibo territory for more than a century, but tensions have soared since the National Government held a referendum last Sunday in which 95% of voters supported declaring Venezuela as the legitimate owner of the region, according to official results.

South American countries, as well as Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States called these days for a détente and a peaceful solution.

Venezuela maintains that the Essequibo is part of its territory, as it was in 1777, when it was a colony of Spain. It appeals to the Geneva agreement, signed in 1966, before Guyana's independence from the United Kingdom, which laid the foundations for a negotiated solution and annulled an award of 1899.

The dispute was reignited when in 2015 U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil discovered huge crude oil reserves in the area. Guyana, with 800,000 inhabitants, was left with estimated reserves of 11 billion barrels of crude, the highest per capita in the world.

With this potential, Venezuela began to insist on its demand and since last Sunday's referendum, President Maduro ordered the state oil company PDVSA to issue licenses to authorize the extraction of crude oil in the region.

Similarly, Maduro decreed that Tumeremo, a town in the state of Bolivar (southeast), bordering the disputed area, be the capital of the eventual state of Guayana Esequiba, and opened an office of the identification agency (Saime) so that the inhabitants of that region can claim their nationality and identity card.

IDF Field Goon Cave

Seized from twitter

Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela, is calling on Guyana to "talk and dialog" about the Esequibo.

He says he wants to resolve everything the easy way, always with the Geneva Agreement of 1966.

The Geneva Agreement, signed in 1966 between Venezuela and the United Kingdom (Guyana's colonizer at the time), stipulates that the solutions found on the territory of the Esequibo must be agreed by both parties.

Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela, announced in an official statement that his country and Guyana will meet for a meeting on the Esequibo situation.

The date of the meeting will be announced in the next few days, and will be mediated by Brazil and CELAC.

Kissinger ass goodbye.

Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in 1875 Midwestern politics

19th century American names were so crazy man it's unbelievable

Costa Rica has been getting good at recruiting lgbt talent. Their posters are always strategically placed in gay bars and other queer spaces. Our gay and trans populations have been plummeting because of this.

A couple images I enjoy

The ultra-patriotic dance of Maduro's government, the right and the business community

Article by the newspaper of the Communist Party of Venezuela

Sino-Indian proxy war time?

On the fence about Guyana. Maduro has more credibility than our presidents do with Belize, but it still looks like he's potentially walking into a trap.

I numbered the following Guardian summary to be easier to comment on. What a horror show.

The summary has lots of links if you're interested.

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tl;dr

2. The cumulative total is 17,177 deaths and 46,000 injured

3. Nowhere is safe.

5. Israel is attacking a hospital. I put this in a comment already.

7. In the West Bank - Israel is shooting people in the head and torso instead of the legs.

8. Unbearable, unsustainable, no safe place

9. Netanyahu warned Hezbollah.

10. Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, said that Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip is "genocide".

11. No progress on a new humanitarian pause.

12. Biden's going to use the US's veto at the UN when they call for ceasefire.

13. The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said Israel should "behave differently".

14. On October 13th Israel killed a Reuters journalist

16. Four arms factories in UK closed due to protesters. Other activity happening in France, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Summary of the day so far | The Guardian

It’s 10pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

1. Israel’s military has continued its heavy bombardment amid intense fighting in Gaza as its war with Hamas hit the two-month mark. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had struck about 250 targets in Gaza over a 24-hour period, ending on Thursday morning. At the northern end of the Gaza Strip, there was heavy fighting in the Jabaliya refugee camp.
    
2. At least 350 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the course of 24 hours, the territory’s health ministry said in its latest update on Thursday. The cumulative total is 17,177 deaths and 46,000 injured since the war began on 7 October, according to the ministry’s tally. About 20 people were killed in airstrikes that hit two homes in the residential part of Rafah in southern Gaza, according to witnesses. Rafah, a town on the southern border with Egypt, is where the IDF has told people to relocate to avoid areas likely to be bombed.
    
3. Israeli forces have given contradictory recommendations to Gaza civilians on where to seek refuge and humanitarian relief. Those who have fled to an IDF-declared “humanitarian zone” at al-Mawasi in the south-west corner of the Gaza Strip have depicted a desperate scene with no shelter and barely any food. The IDF, meanwhile, has not ruled out bombing the area.
    
4. The UN aid chief has said there are “promising signs” that the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel could soon be opened to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. “It would be the first miracle we’ve seen for some weeks, but would also be a huge boost to the logistical process and logistical base of a humanitarian operation,” Martin Griffiths told reporters on Thursday. His comments came after a senior Israeli official said that Israel will open the crossing for the inspection of humanitarian aid trucks for the first time since the outbreak of the war.
    
5. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has described reports of Al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza being besieged as “extremely concerning”. On Wednesday, a hospital spokesperson said the facility was “besieged” by Israeli forces, adding that 95 employees and 38 patients were still inside the hospital.
    
6. The IDF said it killed two senior officials in Hamas’s intelligence division in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip this week. In a statement, the IDF said Abed al-Aziz Rantisi and Ahmed Ayush were killed in a strike on a Hamas intelligence command room “a few days ago”. Separately, the IDF said the son of Israeli cabinet minister Gadi Eizenkot was killed in fighting in northern Gaza.
    
7. The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said there had been a “clear shift” in the injuries of Palestinian gunshot victims in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. MSF staff in West Bank hospitals have noted that victims are now being shot more often in the head and torso rather than the limbs, according to the organisation’s international president, Christos Christou. Meanwhile, Belgium will deny entry to Israeli settlers from the occupied West Bank involved in violence against Palestinians, the country’s deputy prime minister, Petra De Sutter, has said.
    
8. MSF head Christos Christou has also warned that Gaza faces a catastrophe extending far beyond a humanitarian crisis, describing the situation in the densely populated enclave as chaotic. “My teams on the ground keep saying to me that it is unbearable. It is unsustainable...There is no safe place,” he said.
    
9. Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Hezbollah against escalating the fighting after an Israeli man was killed by a guided-missile attack fired from Lebanon on Thursday, according to Israeli reports. “If Hezbollah chooses to start an all-out war then it will by its own hand turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Younis,” the Israeli prime minister said.
    
10. The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has said that Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip amounted to “genocide”, and urged the bombing be stopped as soon as possible. His comments came as he spoke to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in a meeting on Thursday at a meeting in the Kremlin, in which Putin said it was vital to discuss the issue of Palestine.
     
11. The White House has said Israel and Hamas are not close to another deal on a new humanitarian pause. Discussions are happening “literally every day” on a possible new agreement, the White House’s national security council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday. The Pentagon said the US military has resumed its flights of surveillance drones over Gaza to aid the search for hostages taken by Hamas.
     
12. The Biden administration geared up for a showdown at the UN security council in the next 48 hours at which it may feel impelled to use its veto to protect Israel by rejecting calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The United Arab Emirates, the only Arab country on the 15-strong security council, said it would table a resolution on Thursday for debate on Friday after the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and most Islamic states called for the ceasefire.
     
13. The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said Israel should “behave differently” in southern Gaza than it has in the north. Cameron, in an interview with CNN, said he agreed with comments by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, that Israel “cannot have a repeat of what happened in the north in the south in terms of harm being done to civilians”.
     
14. Israeli tank shells fired in quick succession killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six others as they filmed in Lebanon on 13 October, investigations by their employers have found. Human rights groups have called for a war crimes investigation into the attacks.
     
15. The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, has described a decision by António Guterres to invoke article 99 of the UN charter as “the right thing to do”. The UN chief infuriated Israel on Thursday by invoking the article to notify the security council that the crisis in Gaza represented a threat to world peace. It was the first time he had invoked the article since he became secretary general in 2017.
     
16. Four arms factories in the UK producing parts for Israeli fighter jets have been forced to close by protesters operating under the banner Workers for a Free Palestine. The blockades have been organised in coordination with workers in France, Denmark and the Netherlands, who are also blockading arms factories.

2 maps of rail lines in the Levant, one in the early 1900s and one in 2023. The establishment of the Zionist entity basically severed connection between Egypt, Iraq, and the Gulf states: https://nitter.cz/political_aya__/status/1732124435694374951

Wait, sudan is still doing their weird military vs military civil war

Lula will not attend Milei's inauguration

The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party), will not attend the inauguration of Javier Milei as President of Argentina on December 10, as confirmed to the portal G1 by the Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil. Vice-President Geraldo José Alckmin (Socialist Party of Brazil) will not attend either.

The official sources quoted by the portal also added that Brazil will be represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira.

The IDF is kettling Gazans in Khan Younis into the LAX-sized Al-Mawasi on the Meditraian. Al-Muwasi is mostly wasteland. Like Gaza - it's also a strip of land that surreally looks like Gaza itself. CNN apparently does not have spellcheck technology. They misspelled it as Al-Muwasi. Clowns.

Israeli military tells Khan Younis residents to evacuate to area with few facilities on the coast

The Israeli military has instructed residents of much of Khan Younis, the second-largest city in the Gaza Strip, to evacuate to the Al-Muwasi area, a strip of land with few facilities on the coast, as well as specified blocks shown on an IDF interactive map.

The Israel Defense Forces said:

"The general instruction for residents is to move to the Al-Muwasi area, as well as blocks updated in the IDF interactive map published last week.” The military was responding Saturday to a CNN inquiry about where people should go. Earlier, the IDF issued what it called "an urgent appeal" for civilians to leave much of the area in and around Khan Younis where fierce fighting is underway.

In a post on ‘X,’ the IDF’s spokesperson for Arab media, Avichay Adraee, urged residents of the "neighborhoods of Al-Katiba, Al Mahatta, and the city center in Khan Younis Governorate” to evacuate.

Adraee specified five blocks (47, 55, 104 – 106) on the map published by the IDF.

“We call on you to leave where you are urgently and go toward known shelters west of Khan Younis,” he said.

It’s unclear how many people might be aware of the instruction given the lack of communications networks and internet availability in much of Gaza. It’s also unclear what shelters Adraee is referring to. CNN has reached out to the IDF for further clarification.

Al-Muwasi is a strip of some 20 square kilometers on the coast.

A statement last month by United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups such as Care International, Mercy Corps and the World Health Organization, said the area could not function as a safe zone until all sides pledged not to fight there.

Al-Muwasi is largely open land but has already seen an influx of people trying to escape from the fighting.

- CNN

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Edit

At least 10 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

An Israeli air strike hit a house earlier today, killing at least 10 Palestinians and injuring dozens more, WAFA news agency reported citing medical sources. An unconfirmed number of people remain missing under the rubble in the west of Khan Younis. The city, now hosting tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced by fighting in northern Gaza, has endured relentless shelling from the Israeli military.

- Al Jazeera

Lol if is saying truth (big fucking if):

Lloyd Austin informed members that if they don’t appropriate more money for Zelensky, “we’ll send your uncles, cousins and sons to fight Russia.”

Think moral calculus for ukraine tilts towards not giving money, unlimited on the senate

Interrogation? Just call it what it is - they are taking Gazans ("suspects") to Israel for torture.

Dozens of suspects arrested in Gaza taken to Israel for interrogation, IDF spokesperson says

Dozens of suspects who were arrested by Israel's forces in Gaza over the past 48 hours have been taken to Israel for interrogation, IDF spokesperson rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Friday.

“We eliminate many terrorists, and gradually see more terrorists who surrender during the battles, and turn themselves over to our forces," Hagari said during his daily briefing. Over the past 48 hours we have arrested over 200 suspects, dozens of them were taken to Israeli territory for interrogation."

Hagari said the Israeli military is in an “intensive stage” of its ground operation in Gaza.

“Our troops are operating in the hearts of Hamas’s centers of gravity, in the northern and southern Gaza Strip simultaneously […] We conduct fierce fights against Hamas terrorists who hide underground and come up due to the activity of our forces,” he added.

- CNN