Trump's support costs Machado liberal support

 Don Surber  

"Reporter: “If you can seize a tanker without killing anyone, shouldn’t that be how we handle these fishing boats?”   Senator Eric Schmidt: “FISHING BOATS?! The drug runners?! Those aren’t FISHING BOATS.” Reporter: “Yeah, but...' ”

"María Corina Machado left her hiding place in Venezuela to visit Oslo, where her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for Machado on Wednesday—just as President Trump seized an oil tanker that was trying to smuggle contraband oil for the Venezuelan regime. The seizure was not a covert operation to overthrow the government because Trump is quite transparent about his activity.

"In Norway, Machado faced the press.

Reporter: Yesterday, the U.S. seized a ship off the coast of Venezuela. Would you welcome a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela?

María Corina Machado: Look, some people talk about an invasion in Venezuela, the threat of an invasion, and I answer: Venezuela has already been invaded. We have Russian agents. We have Iranian agents. We have terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas operating freely with the regime’s approval.

We have the Colombian guerrilla and drug cartels controlling 60% of our territory, involved not only in drug trafficking but also in human trafficking and networks of prostitution. This has turned Venezuela into the criminal hub of the Americas.

What sustains the regime is a very powerful, well-funded system of repression. Where does that funding come from? From drug trafficking, the black market in oil, arms trafficking, and human trafficking.

We need to cut those flows. Once that happens and the repression is weakened, it’s over, because violence and terror are all the regime has left. We ask the international community to cut those sources, because the regimes supporting Maduro and the criminal networks have turned Venezuela into a safe haven for their operations across Latin America.

"A reporter asked her how she got to Norway. She replied, “One day I will be able to tell you, because certainly I don’t want to put [those who helped her] at risk right now." . . .