By Ángel Guerra Cabrera on February 17, 2022
parachute brigade of Cordoba
The servility of some Latin American rulers before the White House has no limits, even when it comes to vile actions against the national sovereignty of their countries, against Latin-Caribbean unity, or others things which may cause bloodshed among their own peoples and those of the Patria Grande. The right-wing former president of Argentina Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) is a magnificent example of this. Secret documents recently revealed by the renowned Argentine journalist Horacio Verbitsky show that the army of that country participated in a frustrated multinational plan to invade Bolivarian Venezuela, promoted by President Donald Trump during Macri’s administration(https://bit.ly/3gQzuXS). Under the name of exercise Puma and under the supervision of the US military’s Southern Command, the participation of military units of that country took place in seven sessions in the garrison of Campo de Mayo and, by videoconference, with the parachute brigade of Córdoba, the mechanized brigade X of La Pampa and forces of the Special Operations Command, in coordination with units of the navy and the air force, all under the command of General Juan Martín Paleo, then head of the rapid deployment force and today head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces.
The exercise took place between April and June 2019 and ran parallel to Trump’s colossal escalation of Washington’s offensive to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, which included the crazy attempt to impose as “in charge” president of that country the imbecile and thief Juan Guaidó. The documents published by Verbitsky confirm the impudence and hatred with which they acted against a brotherly people, such as the Venezuelan, the government of Macri and – it is clear from the documents – those of Uribe/Duque and Bolsonaro. Always under the pretense of defending human rights and humanitarian assistance, which the empire is in the habit of raising every time it feels like attacking other countries. Verbitsky underlines: “The first session led by Paleo was held on April 15, 2019. On the 30th, Guaidó led a military uprising called Operation Liberty… to repeat the 2002 coup attempt against Chavez.”
“In the Puma exercise led by General Paleo – adds Verbitsky-, South America is called South Patagonia. Venezuela is Vulcan and its opposing authorities are NM and JG, that is to say the initials of Nicolás Maduro and Juan Guaidó. But when describing the operation, the map is that of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the names of its main cities are maintained. Colombia is Ceres; the two Guianas and Surinam are Tellus; Brazil is Febo; Peru and Ecuador are Fauno; Chile is Juno; Argentina is Ares, Uruguay is Baco, Paraguay and Bolivia disappear”. It is worth reading the full article by colleague Verbitsky and within it “the reasoning” of General Paleo as it clearly shows the Pentagon’s hand and mentality behind each one of them. I must emphasize this is the supreme genuflection before Washington and, consequently, the mental colonialism of the elites of our region before U.S. imperialism.
Macri’s government was also deeply involved in the coup d’état against Bolivia’s President Evo Morales. Particularly scandalous is the issue of arms smuggling from Argentina in support of the coup perpetrators. About this, Ariel Basteiro, Argentine ambassador in Bolivia has pointed out: “Macri and half of the Cabinet are involved in the arms smuggling. It is a huge scandal. The case came to light a month ago and, in that short time, a large amount of documentation and sufficient elements were gathered to charge them in the Argentine and Bolivian courts. The Governments of both countries are already sending official notes for the exchange of information on this issue, and the Courts as well”. To which our colleague Stella Calloni, correspondent of La Jornada in Argentina, adds in a recent book: “Information is slowly beginning to emerge that increasingly complicates the Macri government, the governors of the northwest of the country, the Argentine military and the presence of advisors from the Southern Command on the Argentine border with Bolivia”.
Trump’s military and diplomatic plans to put an end to the Bolivarian Revolution -executed by lackeys such as Macri, Duque and Bolsonaro- crashed resoundingly against the popular resistance and the cohesion of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces expressed in their civic-military union and the dictatorship of Añez was buried by the Bolivians under a mountain of votes. Neither could Trump pull it off with Cuba, despite his enormous and harmful efforts.
Quite rightly, President Maduro has asked the Argentine government for an investigation into Verbitsky’s serious denunciation.
Source: La Pupila Insomne, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English