The Trump administration is working to
overthrow the government of Venezuela. They are not at this time doing this by
military invasion, nor by funneling thousands of armed militants into the
country, nor even solely with starvation sanctions and CIA ops.
The first and foremost
means of overthrowing Venezuela’s government currently being utilized by the
United States government is the low-risk, low-cost plan to simply control the
stories that everyone tells themselves about who is in charge in Venezuela.
Adept
manipulators understand that humans are storytelling animals. The only thing keeping the
powerful powerful, keeping money operating the way it operates, and keeping
government running the way it runs is the stories we all agree to tell each
other about those things. If everyone collectively decided today that
poker chips are the new currency and Kim Kardashian is the Supreme Ruler of the
Entire World, those stories would be the new reality, and tomorrow we’d all be
doing whatever Empress Kim commands and Las Vegas would be the new Wall Street.
The
Trump administration is exploiting this exact principle in Venezuela by
singling out some guy named Juan and calling him Mister President, despite the
fact that he’s never received a single vote for that office and holds no actual
power. If they can persuade enough Venezuelans (particularly the ones with the
big guns) and the rest of the world’s governments to do the same, then Guaido
will indeed become the functional president of the country.
Everything the Trump administration
does to Venezuela is done with the goal of controlling the stories people tell
about it. They smash the country with starvation sanctions,
then tell everyone to believe that Maduro is starving his people. They stage
a “humanitarian aid” stunt on
Venezuela’s border, then they lie and tell everyone that Maduro is blocking all
aid to Venezuela and setting aid trucks on fire, because he wants to starve the
hungry and kill the sick. It’s all about controlling the narrative with the
goal of changing who is recognized as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
We
saw this illustrated especially clearly in a recent press
briefing with the State Department’s “Special
Representative for Venezuela”, war criminal Elliott Abrams. Abrams was asked by a reporter to
“explain to us the article under which Mr. Guaido declared himself president”
because “It is said that it has expired last month.”
Indeed,
when Guaido declared himself interim president back in January we were told
that it would be a month-long position in the interim while a new election is
prepared. As Reuters reported at the
time, “Venezuela’s constitution says if the presidency is
determined to be vacant, new elections should be called in 30 days and that the
head of the congress should assume the presidency in the meantime.”
But,
since the Trump administration’s coup-by-narrative has not gone as planned,
Abrams stumbled all
over himself informing the press that the goalposts of the
story have been moved:
ABRAMS: As
to the Venezuelan constitution, the National Assembly has passed a resolution
that states that that 30-day period of interim presidency will not start ending
or counting until the day Nicolas Maduro leaves power. So the 30 days doesn’t
start now, it starts after Maduro. And they – that’s a resolution of the
National Assembly.
QUESTION: When
did they – they did that after he —
ABRAMS: They
did that – this is roughly a month ago. We could try to find the date for you.
QUESTION: When
he was – when he was – took the mantle of interim president, that wasn’t there.
ABRAMS: Yes,
when – that’s correct. And so people —
QUESTION: Can
you do that ex post facto like that?
ABRAMS: When
people ask a question how do —
QUESTION: That
seems to be like saying I was elected for four years to be president, and then
two years in you change the rules so that your term didn’t start – hasn’t even
started yet. How does that happen?
ABRAMS: Well,
you don’t get a vote because you’re not in the National Assembly.
QUESTION: Well,
you don’t. You’re not in the National Assembly either.
QUESTION: If
it matters, does the U.S. view that as constitutional under their system?
MR
ABRAMS: Yes. I mean, we’re taking the – the National Assembly is the
only legitimate democratic institution left in Venezuela, and their
interpretation of the constitution, as you know, is that as of the date of this
alleged term for Maduro, the presidency is vacant. But they have also said that
that 30-day period starts when Maduro goes.
QUESTION: So
Juan Guaido is the interim president of an interim that doesn’t exist yet?
MR
ABRAMS: The 30-day end to his interim presidency starts counting.
Because he’s not in power, that’s the problem. Maduro is still there. So they
have decided that they will count that from when he actually is in power and
Maduro’s gone. I think it’s logical.
QUESTION: So
then he really isn’t interim president, then?
MR
ABRAMS: He is interim president, but he’s not —
QUESTION: With
no power.
MR
ABRAMS: — able to exercise the powers of the office because Maduro
still is there.
QUESTION: So
their interpretation is that until and unless he actually has the power to run
the country, he’s not actually the interim president?
MR
ABRAMS: No. Their interpretation is that the constitution requires a
30-day interim period, but it – those 30 days should not be counted while
Maduro is still there exercising the powers of his former office.
So
to recap, Guaido is still the president of Venezuela after his 30-day window
closed because his interim presidency doesn’t currently exist, and because he
has no power. By those standards, I’m just as much president of Venezuela as
Guaido is. Where’s my meeting with Mike Pence?
But
of course facts don’t figure into this equation at all, because this is a coup
by narrative. As we discussed
yesterday, narrative always takes precedence over fact in these
games. They will keep referring to Juan the guy as “President Guaido”, despite
the admitted fact that he does not actually have any of the powers or
recognition that an actual president has, and despite the fact that there is currently
a guy in Caracas who does have all those things. They will keep advancing this
narrative control war until it either succeeds or fails, and in the case of the
latter they’ll change tactics and try something else.
The battle for power is the battle to control as many humans as
possible, and the battle to control as many humans as possible is the battle to
control the stories those humans are telling each other. Humans are
storytelling animals, so if you can control the stories you can control the humans.
Understand this and you’ll understand the behaviors of governments and media
around the world.
____________________
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https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/03/20/americas-venezuela-strategy-coup-by-sheer-narrative-control/
