ZIONCONS

Rodriguez unveiled a corruption case linking Guaido with Alejandro Betancourt-Lopez, who faces trials for laundering US$1.2 billion in the United States and US$4 billion in Europe. Since the opposition lawmaker has repeatedly denied having ties with such a businessman, Rodriguez showed photos of a meeting held in the Alamin castle (Spain) which was attended by Betancourt-Lopez, Juan Guaido’s father, and Rudy Giuliani, who is President Donald Trump’s lawyer.

“We start the 2020 Bolivarian Shield Exercise with the deployment of our glorious Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), which maintains a military-civic union with more than 2,300,000 mobilized combatants,” Maduro said. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez confirmed that the Army has been deployed throughout the country for the realization of the new military exercises “We are deployed on every ship, border post, city, and street. Our determination is born from our love to defend the homeland. Let’s go soldiers, let’s go militia, let’s go people! We will win!” he said​​​​​​.

MoA—U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan is likely. The U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been negotiating with a Taliban delegation in Qatar for over a year and a deal during an election year would be a great political price for Trump. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told NATO allies that the U.S. and the Taliban have agreed “in principle” on a “seven-day reduction in violence” in Afghanistan as a test for an upcoming deal

ALAN MACLEOD—As of Friday afternoon, there has been complete silence across the corporate media spectrum with regards to the trial, with nothing in CNN, the New York Times, Fox News or MSNBC, who collectively employ hundreds of reporters in the D.C. area. A search in Google News’ database finds a few scattered articles in small, alternative outlets like AntiWar.com, Sputnik, and Venezuelanalysis – not coincidentally all sites that have been labeled as spreaders of fake news by the same establishment that has collectively decided to ignore the trial. The sinister thing about censorship in democracies, Orwell wrote, is that it is largely voluntary, so people don’t realize they are under it.

MARCO TERUGGI—The international support received by Guaido not only contrasts with his inability to achieve strong support in Venezuela but also contrasts with the position of the block opposing Chavism, which has been divided into two different blocs.