Same ole…browbeating

There are some who think your Eyewitness was a tad too tough on Mad Maduro – especially when Pressie gave him the benefit of the doubt by going along with Ralph Gonsalves at Argyll. Ralphie insisted the dictator wanted “peace”. But your Eyewitness’ wariness was justified when the madman went on to appoint a GOVERNOR of Essequibo after declaring it a province of Venezuela!! Giving Ralphie the benefit of the doubt, he must’ve thought Mad Maduro said “peace” when he really meant “piece”!! Calculating his take from the PetroCaribe funds gotta be distracting!!
Anyhow, your Eyewitness has maintained the same scepticism towards Mad Maduro’s successor, Delcy Rodriguez, as far as our Essequibo’s concerned. Maybe even more – since it stands to reason she’d be quite skittish about those Chavistas in the military and the Government looking at her “betrayal” of their principles by cooperating with the gringos of the north!! And since she’d been the one personally telling the ICJ where to get off as far as their border controversy was concerned, she wasn’t just a hardliner – she’d converted the hard line into a stone wall!! Like practically every Venezuelan, she’s been weaned from childhood on the myth that Essequibo’s theirs and they were “robbed” of it by the Brits – into whose boots we’ve stepped!!
So, your Eyewitness wasn’t in the least bit surprised when she announced Venezuela’s objection to the seismic surveys we’d just commissioned in our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) – to better market new awards of oil blocks. He remembers Mad Maduro’s very first act – after taking over when Chavez died from cancer in 2013 – was to have his navy seize the ‘Teknik Perdana’ that was carrying out a deep-water seismic survey for Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum, hired by our Government!! The survey was in the Roraima Block and was long before Exxon’s strike in 2015 but AFTER a discovery off French Guiana in 2011!! It was low-hanging fruit for Mad Maduro to gain local support – and remains one for Delcy!!
So, what about the Yanks who say they’re “running” Venezuela?? Hasn’t the Big Man himself shown solidarity with our Pressie when they met in Florida last week?? Haven’t they been insisting they support the Arbitral Award of 1899 – which acknowledges Essequibo as ours? Well, Dear Readers, while your Eyewitness has (strongly) supported Pressie’s tilt towards the Yanks, he just as strongly insisted they’ve always declared quite up front that they will act in furtherance of THEIR national interests!! Meaning that going forward they’ll weigh the benefits that might accrue to them from us or Venezuela – and back the one that’s ahead by that criterion!!
As Tina Turner asked, “What’s love got to do with it?”

…curveball
In American baseball, they dub our “off- or leg spin” – where the ball’s moved away from a straight line by imparting spin – as a “curveball”. The term then gravitated into their general parlance to signal anything that deviates from the expected!! Well, they were just handed a curveball in the ongoing Iran War after they used Israeli intelligence to wipe out the entire upper echelons of the Government and the military forces through a pinpoint bombing!!
While they thought this would create chaos in the decision-making apparatus to run the country and react to the attacks, it actually solved a problem that had long bedevilled the Iranians!! The problem of an orderly succession to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei!! He’d been widely conceded by those in the know to have lost some support from the business class that had backed Ayatollah Khomeini.
Khamenei’s son – who had been close to both his father and the Revolutionary Guards – became a shoo-in!! Ensuring continuity!!

…red herrings
Another happenstance that didn’t surprise your Eyewitness was the latest claim by Sanction Man and his Daady’s lawyer that the US OFAC sanctions were imposed not because of their gold smuggling – but because of their pro-Palestinian support!!
Another Hail Mary!!