US Plots Conquest of Venezuela in Wake of Chavez DeathTony Cartalucci In reality, AEI is talking about dismantling entirely the obstacles that have prevented the US and the corporate-financier interests that direct it, from installing a client regime and extracting Venezuelas wealth while obstructing, even dismantling the progress and geopolitical influence achieved by the late President Hugo Chavez throughout South America and beyond. Now is the time for US diplomats to begin a quiet dialogue with key regional powers to explain the high cost of Chvezs criminal regime, including the impact of chavista complicity with narcotraffickers who sow mayhem in Colombia, Central America, and Mexico. Perhaps then we can convince regional leaders to show solidarity with Venezuelan democrats who want to restore a commitment to the rule of law and to rebuild an economy that can be an engine for growth in South America.Of course, by Venezuelan democrats, West Has Positioned Proxies to Strip Venezuela to the Bones After Chavez Passing The Harvard Kennedy School, which hosts the notorious Belfer Center, includes the following faculty and alumniof Lopez, co-founder of the current US-backed opposition in Venezuela: John P. Holdren, Samantha Power, Lawrence Summers, Robert Zoellick, (all as faculty), as well as Ban Ki-Moon (84), Paul Volcker (51), Robert Kagan (91), Bill OReilly (96), Klaus Schwab (67), and literally hundreds of senators, ambassadors, and administrators of Wall Street and Londons current global spanning international order. Harvards Kennedy School of Government (KSG) is clearly one of several universities that form the foundation of both creating corporate-financier driven globalist-international policy, as well as cultivating legions of administrators to execute it. To understand fully the implications of Lopez education it helps to understand the leadership and principles guiding Harvards mission statements, best exemplified by KSG Belfer Center, which to this day, lends its public support to Lopez and his Primero Justicia opposition party. Named after Robert Belfer of the Belco Petroleum Corporation and later, director of the failed Enron Corporation, the Belfer Center describes itself as being the hub of the Harvard Kennedy Schools research, teaching, and training in international security affairs, environmental and resource issues, and science and technology policy. Robert Belfer still sits in as an International Council Member. Belfers director, Graham Allison provides an example of self-serving corporatism steering US policy. He was a founder of the Trilateral Commission, a director of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a consultant to the RAND Corporation, Director of the Getty Oil Company, Natixis, Loomis Sayles, Hansberger, Taubman Centers, Inc., and Belco Oil and Gas, as well as a member of the advisory boards of Chase Bank, Chemical Bank, Hydro-Quebec, and the shady International Energy Corporation, all according to his official Belfer Center bio. Other questionable personalities involved as aBelfer alumnus are Goldman Sachs, CFR member, and former-World Bank president Robert Zoellick. Sitting on the board of directors is CFR member and former Goldman Sachs consultant, Ashton Carter. There is also former director of Citigroup and Raytheon, former Director of Central Intelligence and CFR member John Deutch, who required a pardon by Clinton to avoid prosecution over a breach of security while fumbling his duties at the CIA. Meanwhile, Nathaniel Rothschild of Atticus Capital and RIT Capital Partners, Paul Volcker of the Federal Reserve, and former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff all serve as Belfer Centers advisers. Last but not least, there is John P. Holdren, also a Council on Foreign Relations member, science adviser to both President Clinton and President Obama, and co-author with Paul Ehrilich, of the now notorious bookEcoscience. When Holdren isnt brand-building for Climate Disruption, he is dreaming of a Malthusian-fueled totalitarian global government that forcibly sterilizes the worlds population. He feared, erroneously, that overpopulation would be the end of humanity. He claimed in his hubris filled, fact deficient book, The No Growth Society, that by the year 2040, the United States would have a dangerously unsustainable population of 280 million he called much too many. The current US population is over 300 million, and despite reckless leadership and policies, it is still sustainable. One could argue that Lopez education is in his past, independent of his current political activities, however, the interests driving the agenda of the Belfer Center are demonstrably still backing his Primero Justicia partys bid for seizing power in Venezuela. Lopez, Radonski, and Borges are to this day still receiving substantial funding and support through NGO networks funded directly by the US State Departments National Endowment for Democracy, and is clearly favored by the Western press. Furthermore, the CFR, Heritage Foundation, and other corporate-financier driven think-tanks have all come out in support of Radonski and Primero Justicia, in their bid to restore democracy American-style in Venezuela. With Chavez passing, the names of these opposition figures will become mainstays of Western reporting ahead of anticipated elections the West is eager to have held elections the West is well positioned to manipulate in favor of Lopez, Radonski, and Borges. Whatever one may have thought about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his policies, he nationalized his nations oil, forcing out foreign multinational corporations, diversified his exports to reduce dependency on Western markets (with US exports at a 9 year low), and had openly opposed corporate-financier neo-imperialism across the globe. He was an obstruction to Western hegemony an obstruction that has provoked overt, depraved jubilation from his opponents upon his death. And while many critics are quick to claim President Chavez policies are a failure, it would be helpful to remember that the US, on record, has arrayed its vast resources both overtly and covertly against the Venezuelan people over the years to ensure that any system outside the Wests sphere of influence inevitably fails. Dark Days Ahead. Dark days indeed lay ahead for Venezuela, with the AEI checklist foreshadowing an uprising, stating: As Venezuelan democrats wage that struggle against chavismo, regional leaders must make clear that Syria-style repression will never be tolerated in the Americas. We should defend the right of Venezuelans to struggle democratically to reclaim control of their country and its future. Only Washington can make clear to Chinese, Russian, Iranian, and Cuban leaders that, yes, the United States does mind if they try to sustain an undemocratic and hostile regime in Venezuela. Any attempt to suppress their self-determination with Chinese cash, Russian arms, Iranian terrorists, or Cuban thuggery will be met with a coordinated regional response. US military contractors and special forces had been caught operating in and around Venezuela. Just as there were warning signs in Syria years before the 2011 conflict began, the US intentions of provoking bloodshed and regime change in Venezuela stretch back as far as 2002. Just as Syria is now facing a Western-engineered proxy war, Venezuela will too, with the AEI already declaring US plans to wage a Syria-style proxy war in South America. The AEI also reminds readers of the Wests faux-human rights, economic development, and democracy promotion racket Hugo Chavez had ejected from Venezuela and displaced across parts of South America, and the Wests desire to reestablish it: US development agencies should work with friends in the region to form a task force of private sector representatives, economists, and engineers to work with Venezuelans to identify the economic reforms, infrastructure investments, security assistance, and humanitarian aid that will be required to stabilize and rebuild that country. Of course, the expectation will be that all the costs of these activities will be borne by an oil sector restored to productivity and profitability. Finally, we need to work with like-minded nations to reinvigorate regional organizations committed to democracy, human rights, anti-drug cooperation, and hemispheric solidarity, which have been neutered by Chvezs destructive agenda. The fate of Venezuela lies in its peoples hands. Covert destabilization must be faced by the Venezuelan people, while the alternative media must do its best to unravel the lies already being spun ahead of long-planned operations in post-Chavez Venezuela. For the rest of us, we must identify the corporate-financier interestsdriving this agenda, interests we most likely patronize on a daily basis, and both boycott and permanently replace them to erode the unwarranted influence they have used, and will continue to use against the Venezuelan people, as well as people across the globe. Tony Cartaluccis articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at Land Destroyer Report, Alternative Thai News Network and LocalOrg. Read other contributed articles by Tony Cartalucci here. 