Venezuelan Blackouts: Trump Regime Sabotage
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, the Trump regime planned and carried out multiple attacks on Venezuela’s electricity grid since early March.
Affecting large parts of the country, repairing the damage entirely will take months. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Alexander Fomin said Trump regime war on Venezuela includes whatever it takes to pressure the country, adding:
“They do not reject any tool. They widely use the tools of hybrid wars, color revolutions, as well as train leaders and militants of radical movements” – notably ISIS, al-Qaeda, and it al-Nusra offshoot in Syria.
"You can see that an operation called ‘Blackout. is underway. It is a planned and artificial closure of energy facilities, which also negatively affects the atmosphere in the country and only aggravates the existing crisis, mainly the economic crisis.”
Russia is helping Venezuela repair and protect its electrical power grid, Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov, saying:
“According to the country’s legitimate government headed by President Nicolas Maduro, as well as information from other credible sources, the electricity sector of Venezuela came under attack from abroad on March 7 of this year.”
“We provide all necessary assistance to Venezuelan friends on the basis of requests from the legitimate government.”
Sabotaging its power grid was a “comprehensive remote influence on the control and monitoring systems of the main power distribution stations where the equipment produced in one of the Western countries has been installed,” he explained.
Responsible parties in Washington and others in Venezuela knew precisely what to attack and how.
Fomin believes Venezuela’s military can defend the country against aggression by a foreign power. Russian “technical-military cooperation” is helping greatly.
“We have several agreements that we respect, and we assist in the maintenance of operational readiness, weapons and war equipment,” Fomin explained, accusing the US of “ignor(ing) and trampl(ing) on international law.”
Russian S-300s are installed and operating at strategic locations in the country – able to down multiple hostile 4th and 5th generation aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as other aerial targets at high or low altitudes up to 155 miles away with great accuracy.
Venezuela has at least six installations in place, each able to strike multiple aerial targets simultaneously.
A Pentagon attack on the country would be extremely costly. No ground invasion will happen without air cover. It’s believed Russian personnel in Venezuela are installing the latest S-300 upgrades, assuring they’re state-of-the-art.
The Pentagon fears they can take out its advanced F-35 stealth warplanes if used against targets where these systems are operating.
On Tuesday, Venezuela’s Minister of Communication Jorge Rodriguez named five saboteurs involved in attacking the country’s electricity grid from the US and internally.
They include Oswaldo Garcia in Spain, Miguel Jose Freita in Colombia, Julio Cesar Acuna and Jesus Rodriguez Landoni in the US, and detained suspect Otoniel Ramon Sanchez.
Requests were made to Interpol for the four others at large to be arrested and extradited to Venezuela to be prosecuted for their offenses.
According to Rodriguez, from March 7 to April 23, there were several major and dozens of minor attacks on Venezuela’s electricity grid, adding:
Efforts are underway (with Russian help) to protect the grid from attacks once a new system is in place, what Rodriguez said will be “impossible to be attacked by” saboteurs – an overstatement, but hopefully the grid will be much better protected than before.
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