rigorousintuition.ca

Seeking to keep up pressure, Venezuela opposition plans more protests

By Brian Ellsworth and Diego Oré | CARACAS
Venezuela's opposition renewed nationwide protests on Thursday to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to hold elections and improve a collapsing economy, and vowed to keep up pressure by staging three more protests in the next four days.

Thursday's crowds were smaller than the hundreds of thousands of people who flooded the streets of Caracas and provincial cities on Wednesday, the latest and largest in several weeks of protests against what Maduro's opponents condemn as a lurch toward dictatorship.

But still, thousands of people waving Venezuelan flags and shouting "No more dictatorship" took to the streets in the capital and across the oil-rich nation.

.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venez ... SKBN17M1OO

Some 10,000 Venezuelan passports and other documents were issued to Middle Easterners
BY ANTONIO MARÍA DELGADO
adelgado@elnuevoherald.com

Within the span of a year, Venezuela illegally issued at least 10,000 passports and other documents to citizens of Syria, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries in a scheme spearheaded by current Vice President Tareck El Aissami, according to a former high-ranking immigration official.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation- ... rylink=cpy

As Venezuela Starves, Maduro's Regime Gave Trump $500K for Inauguration Party
THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017 AT 8:54 A.M. BY TIM ELFRINK

Venezuela's dire situation needs no embellishment: Millions are starving. There's hardly any food, no gas, and little medicine. Toilet paper has been scarce for so long that Caracas' airport bathrooms don't even pretend they have any. The dire situation has snowballed into massive protests against President Nicolás Maduro's authoritarian regime, including yesterday's "Mother of All Protests," which brought out hundreds of thousands and left at least three dead.

Amid all of the misery and chaos, $500,000 could go an awfully long way. Think of how many Caracas mothers could feed their families for a month with just a fraction of that sum.

Instead, newly filed federal campaign records show, Maduro's regime gave half a million bucks to Donald Trump to help him throw a party in Washington, D.C. Through the state-owned Citgo Petroleum, Maduro's government dropped that cash to Trump's inaugural committee: one of the largest corporate donations listed on the newly filed federal disclosures.

If it seems odd that a self-branded socialist revolutionary who blames most of his ills on evil American plots would give so much cash to the new U.S. president, it shouldn't. Maduro, though talking tough domestically, has worked hard not to overly antagonize Trump.

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http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/nicol ... es-9290672

Businessmen with ties to Trump met with National Security Council officials: report
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 04/03/17 12:40 PM EDT 113

Businessmen with ties to Trump met with National Security Council officials: report
© Getty
Two businessmen with links to President Trump attended White House meetings in February as part of an effort to persuade officials to remove sanctions against Venezuela, Mic reported Monday.

Mic identified the two men as Gentry Beach and Wadie Habboush, adding that they went to the White House to meet with National Security Council officials on Feb. 8 to discuss how to expand relations with Venezuela.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -officials

Telecom giant AT&T gave more than $2 million for the event. Part of the sum was listed as an in-kind payment for mobile equipment and software.

Financial companies showed up frequently in the filing. Bank of America gave $1 million, while JPMorgan Chase and American Financial Group gave $500,000 each. Shares of banks have performed well since Trump's election, partly due to his pledges to roll back regulations on the financial industry.

Energy companies, which Trump has pledged to empower through his efforts to roll back environmental regulations, also gave heavily to his inaugural committee. Chevron Products contributed $525,000, Citgo Petroleum gave $500,000, Exxon chipped in $500,000 and Murray Energy gave $300,000. Anadarko Petroleum and Continental Resource gave $100,000 each.

Technology companies also show up on the report. Microsoft gave $500,000, part of which is listed as an in-kind contribution for equipment. Intel contributed $500,000, while Google gave $285,000.

Businesses that Trump has publicly criticized also made major contributions to the inaugural committee. Boeing, which the president has criticized for the cost of its Air Force One contract, gave $1 million. General Motors, which Trump has slammed for putting some of its production outside of the United States, gave $498,650, partly in-kind contributions for vehicle expenses.

Individual business and investing giants also gave huge contributions to the inauguration. Hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen gave $1 million, as did Robert Mercer, a major Republican donor. Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone CEO and chairman of Trump's business council, contributed $250,000. John Paulson, a hedge fund manager and Trump campaign advisor, also donated $250,000. Another hedge fund manager, Kenneth Griffin, gave $100,000.

Sports team owners also had a major role in funding Trump's inauguration. Kraft Group, founded by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, gave $1 million. The team visited the White House on Wednesday to celebrate its Super Bowl win. Houston Texans owner Robert McNair gave $1 million. The Madison Square Garden Company, which owns the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, also contributed $1 million.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/19/trumps-i ... nated.html

Refinery locations

Lake Charles, Louisiana
Corpus Christi, Texas
Romeoville, Illinois (due to boundary shift no longer in Lemont)[citation needed]

Sponsorships

Citgo has sponsored several motorsport ventures. The company was a sponsor of the #21 Wood Brothers racing team in NASCAR for many years, with drivers such as Michael Waltrip, Elliott Sadler, Kyle Petty, Neil Bonnett, Morgan Shepherd and Dale Jarrett. They also sponsored the #99 Roush Racing team of Jeff Burton from late 2000 until pulling out of the sport in 2003. The company sponsored the Citgo Pontiac-Riley of Venezuelan car driver Milka Duno in the Rolex Sports Car Series. Duno has three overall wins in the Rolex Series and finished second at the 2007 24 Hours of Daytona, becoming the highest-finishing female in the history of the famous race. Midway through the 2007 season, Citgo sponsored the #23 SAMAX Motorsport entry in the IndyCar Series for Duno. In 2008 and 2009 this sponsorship went with Duno to the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing #23 entry. She took the sponsorship to Dale Coyne Racing in 2010. Citgo is the major sponsor of Ernesto Viso of KV Racing (2012) and Andretti Autosport (2013).

Citgo is a major sponsor of the Bassmaster Fishing Tour, and is also the sponsor of a charity golf tournament benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). The company's relationship with the MDA goes back to its 1983 purchase by Southland, an existing MDA sponsor. Citgo is MDA's biggest corporate sponsor, and its executives have appeared on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.[24] Consistent with its former sponsorship of the Boston Marathon, Citgo has for the past few years sponsored an elite level multisport team that competes in both adventure racing and triathlon events throughout the United States. The logo is seen nationally on the Boston Citgo sign during televised Boston Red Sox games at Fenway Park and locally through replica signs at other baseball grounds. In 2016, the Boston Landmarks Commission granted preliminary landmark status to the sign to study whether the sign should receive historic preservation protection as a Boston Landmark.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo#Refinery_locations

RT

‘Burn her alive’: US reporter tells RT about death threats from Venezuela opposition protesters

Published time: 8 Jun, 2017
...
A US journalist covering mass opposition protests in Venezuela told RT she received numerous death threats during her work on the ground. She says protesters threatened to lynch and burn her alive if she tried to contradict their narrative.

Abby Martin, the host of the Empire Files investigative program on the pan-Latin American TeleSUR TV network has been reporting on the events of the opposition riots in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas....
continued at link.
https://www.rt.com/news/391338-us-journ ... a-threats/

‘Second you contradict the narrative, they threaten to kill you' – US journo on Venezuelan protests

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_l0C5dE3EQ
RT
Published on Jun 7, 2017

Club des Cordeliers‏ @cordeliers

Man who dropped grenade on Venezuela Supreme Court presents himself as a fascist death squad leader



True face of Venezuela "democratic opposition" revealed

It is not clear how much support, if any, the officer has.

Mr Maduro said the pilot had previously worked for former Interior and Justice Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres, who the president has accused of links to the CIA.

Mr Rodriguez Torres quickly denied any involvement.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40426642

Elvis » Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:14 pm wrote:^^^^ That's some decent reporting — highly recommended, 22 minutes well spent.

Thanks for posting that!