Back in late July/early August, the Mockingbird corporate media, not to mention the Democrats, were force-feeding us the story of the election in Venezuela. Given the number of stories happening at any given moment on planet Earth, and given our understanding of media propaganda, it was a good guess that the story was important on more than just the surface level, even though election fraud is absolutely important and is still at the forefront of many an American’s mind considering they just did again here on the downballot.

So a few small thoughts turned into a deeper dig, which turned into a nice little exploratory article that didn’t profess anything specific, but just planted a seed for any future development with Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela. Read it if you’d like more context to what is transpiring now after our own election and the public mandate for Trump concerning deportation:

Invaluable Venezuela

Part of my intrigue back then, incidentally, was Maduro’s stern words concerning the JFK assassination, which I’d been covering at the time as well. That is yet another story that is ongoing.

In addition to this article connecting Maduro to Francis this week, the latest news of Trump needing Maduro’s cooperation for his mass deportation plan is still in its embryonic stages, so I won’t have a whole lot to say on it. But it is worth writing on since the comings and goings of information is what seems to be driving this war, this shadow war for reality itself. From Axios:

In a bid to push his mass deportation plans, Trump may come to a migration agreement with Venezuela’s regime, experts say.

Why it matters: Roughly 270,000 Venezuelans live in the U.S. without authorization, according to the Pew Research Center.

• Now, more people in Venezuela have considered emigrating after mass arrests following the July 28 presidential elections, which the regime of President Nicolás Maduro claims — without showing evidence — he won.

State of play: Venezuela currently doesn’t accept deportees from the U.S., but Trump’s mass deportation plans could push him to make a deal with Maduro, says Ryan Berg, who leads the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Washington, D.C., think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

• “We may end up seeing some kind of arrangement with (Maduro) if it means the ability to deport more people, for Venezuela to accept deportee flights.”

• Berg adds that while initially there could be talk of pressure and sanctions like there were in Trump’s first term, that might be an “opening gambit to leverage an eventual negotiation.”

• Other Latin American analysts have similarly suggested that there is likely to be a “transactional approach” from Trump’s second administration toward Maduro.

The end of the Axios article provides a prime example of why I’ve come to focus on what information is being disseminated to the American public, because as we have seen, there can be many signals in the noise, many raindrops obscuring the lighthouse:

Between the lines: During a campaign event in August, Trump said that “Venezuela is right now being run by a dictator,” referring to Maduro.

• But Trump has in the past also expressed admiration for Maduro as a “strongman,” according to both John Bolton, a national security adviser during Trump’s first term, and former White House adviser Olivia Troye.
• Maduro has been making overtures about an opportunity for “a fresh start,” which Berg says might appeal to Trump’s sense of being a dealmaker.

It is the Art of War. The Art of the Deal. The long game. Chess and not checkers. Here’s more:

While the Pope and Maduro are the same, Donald Trump may be in a different phase, perhaps with new perspectives on old opponents. Maduro recently congratulated Trump on his victory and expressed a desire to rewrite history between Venezuela and the United States….

The Venezuelan government, through a statement, congratulated Donald Trump, highlighting the desire to maintain good relations, based on dialogue and mutual respect, amid the sanctions that have such an impact on the country.

The Venezuelan statement also emphasizes that the recognition of sovereignty and self-determination are essential to build a “new world” based on balance between free nations, thus sending a diplomatic message to the newly elected Donald Trump.

Venezuela reiterated that it seeks historic ties and aspires to peaceful and fair coexistence with the United States, without war or exclusion.

Remember how important BRICS is in all of this. Nations and alliances all over the globe are realigning. Our understanding of history, both recent and non, must be flexible, at least enough to consider new possibilities.

America First’s Ongoing War Against the Deep State

We’ll never know perhaps, but based on all of this, it is a good guess that Trump and Maduro already have some sort of working relationship, even if it is managed in back alley channels. I’d guess the same about Trump and Putin, Trump and Xi, Trump and most any world leader for that matter, too. I’ve written at length on why I believe our perceived (perhaps created) enemies can work to our advantage if we look at them as ciphers of information instead of an arrangement of Skeletors across the battlefield that never seems to actually materialize kinetically as Mockingbird would have us believe.

An online anonymous account, one I’ve come to respect because of his in-depth historical dives, produced a wealth of valuable information in August shortly after I ran the “Invaluable Venezuela” piece. Here is an abstract of that August article:

We’ve reported before on the 2022 Guilty Plea by Glencore to Foreign Bribery and Market Manipulation Schemes, which included $1.2 million paid to a Venezuelan oil official. While the DOJ press release doesn’t cite the official by name, it is very likely that the official in question is Francisco “Squito” Morillo, who was highlighted in a 2023 Bloomberg article that explains that Morillo’s scorned ex-wife delivered his laptop to Maduro in March 2017, which contained all the evidence of his corruption, and that laptop was used by Maduro’s lawyers to file civil action lawsuits in US court.

Clearly this lawfare led to a number of prosecutions of officials from Glencore and its two competitors, all of which were engaged in bribing officials from countries all over the world, including the Democratic Republic of Congo—where Israeli oligarch Dan Gertler had exclusive mining rights that were stripped from him by President Trump using Executive Order 13818.

(If you’re wanting links, check back a little later. For whatever reason my internet has not been taking me to substack.com the last two days. I pulled that abstract from a subscription email).

Throw on top of all of that a story that almost triggered my fingers into returning to Venezuela last week. In a potential connection to said mining story, the following announcement was made concerning Russia and Venezuela:

The most notable agreements include memorandum of understanding between the state oil companies PDVSA and Rosneft for training and technical advice on energy security.

In addition, an agreement was established with TNG Group for oil services and extra-heavy crude oil recovery technology in the Orinoco Oil Belt, a region that houses important hydrocarbon reserves over a 600-kilometer stretch.

In terms of security, both nations signed an agreement on intelligence, counterintelligence and counterespionage.

Another article connecting Russia includes a flashback to the contested Venezuelan election. This was important then, but is more important now with Trump as President as we observe his maneuvers with world leaders–especially those whom we have traditionally viewed as enemy:

Russia is one of the few countries to have recognized leftist Maduro’s claim to have won a third consecutive term in the July 28 election, which was disputed by the opposition and later saw widespread protests break out.

The United States and several Latin American countries have backed opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the rightful winner, based on detailed election results published by the opposition. Venezuelan election authorities aligned with Maduro have yet to release a vote breakdown.

Caracas drew closer to Moscow under socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who led the country on a hard-left, anti-U.S. platform from 1999 until his death from cancer in 2013. Those ties have endured under Chavez’s hand-picked successor Maduro, who has defended Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and once produced more than three million barrels a day of oil — long its only notable foreign currency earner.

Following years of mismanagement and crushing sanctions, output has dropped to around one million barrels.

I will not pretend to understand or even offer a guess as to what all of this means. All I know is that Americans want illegals deported, Trump has announced that he will work with Maduro to make that happen, and Russia is smack dab in the middle of everything. This multi-layered story will likely continue to challenge our understanding of not only contemporary politics, moves, and countermoves, but perhaps more importantly our understanding of history and who exactly our friends and foes are.

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May everyone named directly or referenced indirectly ask forgiveness and do penance for their sins against America and God. I fight this information war in the spirit of justice and love for the innocent, but I have been reminded of the need for mercy and prayers for our enemies. I am a sinner in need of redemption as well after all, for my sins are many. In the words of Jesus Christ himself, Lord forgive us all, for we know not what we do.

Jeff LeJeune is the author of several books, writer for RVIVR and The Hayride, editor, master of English and avid historian, teacher and tutor, podcaster, and creator of LeJeune Said. Visit his website at jefflejeune.com, where you can find a conglomerate of content.