Transcription
Uh, three things you have to know about Venezuela. They have the largest reserves of oil on the planet. Second, they have the largest reserves of oil on the planet. And third, they have the largest reserves of oil on the planet.
If Venezuela's main export were broccoli, we wouldn't be blowing up boats and talking about removing their president.
According to the latest New Yorker investigation, the big drug cartel running coke into the uh United States is based in Abu Dhabi.
>> On the line with us, our buddy, the investigative reporter, Guardian, New York Times, author, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, his new film, All Washed Away, about Katrina 20 years later, and Kirk County, Texas flood, and Trump's plan to shut down FEMA in December. available over at Greg's Substack, Greg Palace Substack, uh, and his website, and you can watch it on YouTube. You can also watch his film, Vigilantes, Inc., America's New Vote Suppression Hitman, narrated by Rosario Dawson, produced by Martin Sheen, uh, in the all the above places. Greg Palace.com, Greg Palace.blue sky.social, and Greg_palace on Twitter. Greg, welcome back to the program.
>> Glad to be with you, Tom.
>> Great to Great to have you. Um, we just blew up apparently four more or a couple more alleged drug boats uh off the coast of either Colombia or Venezuela. I'm not sure which. I'm just seeing on MSNBC.
>> Um, you you knew Ugo Chavez and new uh President Maduro.
>> Yes.
>> Um of Venezuela.
>> Yes. And um uh also we're seeing reports by the way that Maduro is saying that he just foiled a false flag attack that the CIA uh a CIA funded criminal cell was going to attack the uh but USS Graali or Gravely a naval destroyer that's in Trinidad. Uh he says this is just like uh this he says it's the same imperial script as the main ship you know remember the main world war the SpanishAmerican war and the Gulf of Tonkan fabricating a conflict
>> yes exactly
>> so what's going on here what's what's the deal with us in Venezuela
>> okay uh and by the way if you go to my substack today you'll see my story about Venezuela and I also have another film to watch the assassination of Hugo Chavez uh he he wasn't actually killed just so you know uh this which you can download for free again or watch at great palace.com.
Uh three things you have to know about Venezuela. They have the largest reserves of oil on the planet. Second, they have the largest reserves of oil on the planet. And third, they have the largest reserves of oil on the planet according to OPEC. It's literally they have four times as much oil as Saudi Arabia. So let me tell you something. If Venezuela's main export were broccoli, we wouldn't be blowing up boats and talking about removing their president. Okay. Uh that's pretty simple.
Um and so yes, I was assign I was a BBC television reporter assigned to cover Venezuela and by the way and Trinidad. And these boats that they were blowing up, uh, even little Marco Rubio said that the boats were headed from Venezuela to Trinidad, which is only seven miles across the water. It's like here in LA we go to Catalina. These are commuters, workers, and the the people that we've been able to identify are absolutely not drug dealers. When have you ever seen a US prosecutor grab a drug vote and not show you the drugs? not give you the names of the drug dealers, not show you the guns and the weapons because these are literally just commuters between Trinidad and Venezuela. Yes, they got a couple of real drug boats, no question, but those are coming out of Venezuela up the Pacific coast. Venezuela does not have any uh seafront on the Pacific Ocean, only the the Caribbean. But it's all about this oil. Chevron is dying to get its hands on the oil. They've been they're there and uh Trump has said unless there's a regime change, they will not be allowed to take their oil out of Venezuela. Exxon wants oil back. They left the country. So, it's about guess what? It's about the oil and you know that's what it's about.
Do you think uh do you think uh Maduro's charge that the the CIA was plotting a false flag attack on on one of the destroyers, the US destroyers in the region?
>> Oh yeah, understand this is our fourth attempt to remove the elected government of Venezuela. Remember the US was behind or supported the kidnapping of Hugo Chavez in 2002. Uh which the US government thought if we kidnapped Chavez, the people would rise up against him. They'd be so happy that this dictator was gone. In fact, it was like the Bay of Pigs. We literally had a couple hundred thousand people surround the coup plotters in the presidential palace. And and I talked with Chavez actually uh through his people while he was being kid while he was kidnapped.
>> Louise and I were there the day that that happened.
>> Yes,
>> we were. No, we Louise and I were were in in Venezuela
>> in Rockus. Uh, no, we were we were actually on a cruise ship and it it it docked there the day of the the day that that happened. Just total coincidence. Anyhow, back to you.
>> Yes. Yes. So, what's happened is we we keep Now, one thing to understand, Hugo Chavez, despite what the US State Department said, was incredibly popular. I actually was also, not only was I basically a friend of Hugo Chavez, I tend not to be friends of politicians, but I was also close with Maduro, the current president. And I got to tell you, Chavez was very popular. He was elected by landslides. I don't care what the State Department said, but I got to tell you, I'm sorry my progressive friends. Maduro stole the last election. He won his first two, but the last one he did lose. He won't leave office. He, my good friend, has become a dictator. Now, he visited me in New York, but a dictator is a dictator. I don't care uh you know that and I have to say so. But talking, you know, if you're talking about removing dictators who are moving drugs, according to the latest New Yorker investigation, the big drug cartel running coke into the uh United States is based in Abu Dhabi. Remember that's, you know, these we're talking about the Emirates, which gave $2 billion uh to Trump buying his coins. They gave him a 747, not to the US government, but personally to Donald Trump. And so they're not being overthrown.
>> Well, wait a second. How does Qatar uh provide drugs to the United States? They're in the Middle East.
>> It's uh the Kahan uh organized drug gang, which is uh so if you read the United Nations uh World Drug Report, they say Venezuela is just not a source of production or distribution of uh of drugs because obviously they're under they are on the Caribbean. There's no way that an intelligent drug dealer is going to give involve the Venezuelan government in this type of activity.
>> Um but uh yeah, so the Kinhand organized drug cartel has run out of Abu Dhabi. Um you know, read read the latest New Yorker and um but not uh not Chavez or Maduro. So the the question is do we want to um uh remove a a head of state by bullets or by ballots? And that's what I think we need uh we need to work on that issue.
>> Mhm. Yeah. So wow. What what do we do with this Greg? I mean h how I I I get it that you know blow it seems like there's two separate issues here. Number one is that Donald Trump killing these people in these boats, these people who are commuting back and forth between Trinidad and Venezuela, the seven milei stretch of water there. Um uh you know that that is a crime. That is murder on the high seas as the president of Pinto I think his name is or Pina uh the president of Colombia, thank you. Yeah, has has pointed out.
>> Um, so you've got that.
>> And by the way, and by the way, the government of Trinidad and and the president of Trinidad, by the way, is a big Trump fan.
>> Yeah.
>> But she said you killed two of our citizens, six kids who were just commuting to work from Venezuela.
>> Right.
>> And that's and that's a real close Trump ally is the
>> And we had their names for like that was like a three-hour story here in the American media.
>> Yeah. Um, I'm looking for their names, but it's uh one um um uh Indian descent kid cuz that's typical in Trinidad and an African and and a Trinidadian African. And they were just, you know, these are kids who were killed because they were commuting to work. But
>> the the key thing again is the attempt to seize oil. And I should say, by the way, this and now, by the way, according to the Wall Street Journal, uh, the Trump administration on background to the Journal was very direct. We're either going to kidnap or kill Maduro. We're going to change their president. The problem is we could end up with another bay of pigs like we did in 2002 in Venezuela or like as we did in Cuba where Venezuelans may not like Maduro right now
>> because the economy is devastated by the US embargo which doesn't allow their oil out and doesn't allow oil equipment in to keep the oil flowing. They're down to 700,000 barrels a day of production versus the 2.4 million barrels a day they used to have. Now, why do we care? Because that's about a, you know, I'm an I'm an energy economist by training and um statistitian and I can tell you it's a roughly between 50 cents and a dollar added to the pump price of our gas. So, we have done that by creating an embargo on Venezuela where we've lost 2 million barrels today of potential production into the uh into the world supply. This is serious stuff. So, it's so I think that Trump's idea is that we'll get a hold of the oil, the price of gasoline will come down and he'll be uh reelected to his third term.
I I understand that, and correct me if I'm wrong on this, that the the only major refinery in the United States that can refine this heavy kind of tarlike oil that comes out of Venezuela is owned by the Koch family, Charles Ko, and and his family.
>> Well, if that's true, why is he not leaning on Trump? Or is he leaning on Trump? I mean, is that does that have a play a role in this?
>> I you know, I've been following the Cokes for a while. Obviously, they would they would do very very well if we got a hold of that oil because they took over the uh uh Sun Oil refineries on the Texas coast which were specifically designed just to refine Venezuelan super heavy oil. It's really gunky stuff and only a few refineries can do it. Also, couple sitco refineries which were owned by the government of Venezuela. The US government actually seized sitco refineries and gave it to this guy Juan Guaido, a white guy uh who was living in Washington that we said that we tried to force on Venezuela as president. In the end, he never ran because you have to understand it's a black and Indian mystiso nation and uh until Chavez, they never had one of their own. It was always a white president. So, they're not going to go back to an apartheid system. But again, Maduro isn't popular uh because of the embargo. And imagine, by the way, if Texas were told you can't sell your oil outside of Texas, you can't get any supplies.
>> Greg Abba would melt down.
>> Yeah, I get it. Greg, you always bring the goods. Thank you so much for illuminating this issue for us. I appreciate it.
>> You're very welcome, Tom. Thank you. And uh if you stick around for about five minutes, you'll hear your little song there. Thanks a lot, Greg.
>> Sing along.
>> There you go.