Over the last week, Sri Lanka has been hit by their worst national natural disaster since the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Over 2 million people (about 10% of the population) were affected; the death toll is currently climbing past 600; nearly a hundred thousand homes have been damaged or destroyed, transport infrastructure is heavily damaged; industry has been damaged; and farmland has been flooded. The cost of damage so far looks to be about $7 billion, which is more than the combined budget spent on healthcare and education in Sri Lanka.
While there is plenty to say meteorologically about how this yet another concerning escalation as a result of climate change (Sri Lanka does experience cyclones, but they are usually significantly weaker than this), it’s important to note that such disasters are, to at least a certain extent, able to warned about and their impacts somewhat mitigated. However, this requires both access to early detection and warning equipment, and an economy in which development is widespread - in this case, particularly in the construction of drainage systems and regulated construction, which has not generally occurred.
The IMF, on its 17th program with Sri Lanka, is doing its utmost to prevent such an economy from developing, as they instead promote reductions in public investment. On top of this, the rebuilding effort for Sri Lanka is already being planned and funded, and such donors include, of course, many Sri Lankan oligarchs, who will rebuild the damaged portions of the country yet further according to their visions, while sidelining the working class.
Perhaps neoliberalism’s decay into its eventual death occurring concurrently into the gradual intensification of climate change and renewed wars signifies the rise of the era of disaster capitalism.
Last week’s thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Hey buddy, I heard you like posts… DM me to feature effort posts and good threads in the newsmega/newscomm here (including your own posts). Some great discussion this week. I’m grateful to be part of this community.
Please review and provide feedback on revised comm policy and rules
@xiaohongshu@hexbear.net with a real banger on upward social mobility or lack thereof for China’s Gen Z, the modern appeal of the Cultural Revolution, and CPC censorship Part 1 | Part 2. The subthread with @jack about modern youth Maoism is worthwhile as well.
@jack@hexbear.net on who owes the IMF money and the potential for China to upend the debt of the developing world. @xiaohongshu@hexbear.net has a good response here about the likelihood of China rugpulling the IMF/dollar denominated debt (xhs doubts it).
@seaposting@hexbear.net analyzing the class character of Malaysian resistance to Japanese occupation in WW2 and linguistic nuance around Malaysia’s national monument
@Redcuban1959@hexbear.net on the state of Bolivia, Acre and Morales
Previous posts of the week: Oct 27 | Nov 3 | Nov 10 | Nov 17 | Nov 24 | Dec 1
he doubts it
Appreciate the mentions! But please note that I am not a “he”.
oh my bad, thanks for the heads up
Only been a day and there’s already a lot of great posts!
Best part about this community is that there’s always good posts
there are threads where Nothing Happens and days where GOOD posts are posted
Some US troops were killed by an “ISIS attack” in Syria while entering Palmyra for the first time. Official figures are 2 soldiers dead, 1 translator dead, and multiple wounded. US President Donald Trump has vowed to retaliate.
However, it’s not that straightforward. It looks as if the “ISIS attacker” was affiliated or a member of the Syrian security forces (however had no official leadership position), and was set to be removed from the security forces because of his ISIS aligned ideology.
Source on that with SANA article.
The US Air Force is currently doing “show of force” flights over Palmyra, with A-10s popping flares.
A very bad start to any Syrian-US anti ISIS co-operation with this green on blue incident.
https://xcancel.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1999892823210947002
Is a US power crisis unfolding?
Power demand is expected to exceed available electric generation at peak moments by 2028. Peak demand is projected to reach 1,160 gigawatts, above the 1,158 gigawatts of anticipated supply. By 2033, the power capacity shortfall could widen to as much as 175 gigawatts, a level that materially threatens grid stability. This would stem from peak demand rising to 1,229 gigawatts, while anticipated peak supply declines to 1,128 gigawatts. The US is facing a surge in electricity use from AI data centers, factories, and EVs that is expected to overwhelm generation capacity and drain emergency reserves, sharply increasing the risk of outages and blackouts.
We need more power.
The summary for China’s Central Economic Work Conference this week can be found on a substack here with quite professional translation.
(Note: I don’t know anything about this substack (linked from Naked Capitalism) but the reporting on the CEWC seems accurate compared to the Chinese readouts. I’m just happy not having to do the translation myself this time).
As the summary says:
The meeting noted that there are still many old problems and new challenges in China’s economic development. The impact of changes in the external environment is deepening, the contradiction of strong domestic supply and weak demand is prominent, and there are many risks and hidden dangers in key areas. Most of these are problems arising during development and transformation, and they can be solved through effort. The supporting conditions and the basic trend of China’s economy remaining positive in the long run have not changed. We must strengthen confidence, utilize our advantages, respond to challenges, and continuously consolidate and expand the trend of economic recovery and improvement.
So, first, please don’t tell me that China has “no domestic consumption and oversupply problem”, which is a narrative perpetuated by many pro-China accounts on Twitter who don’t even live in China (a lot of them are overseas Chinese who live comfortably in New Zealand, Australia and the likes).
The Chinese government has fully acknowledged the adverse effects on the current state of its economy and has made it a priority to solve the problems.
The most important points are:
- We must continue to implement a more proactive fiscal policy.
- Maintain necessary fiscal deficit levels, total debt scale, and total expenditure, strengthen scientific fiscal management, optimize the structure of fiscal expenditure, and standardize tax incentives and fiscal subsidy policies.
- Attach importance to solving local fiscal difficulties and firmly hold the bottom line of the “three guarantees” at the grassroots level. (Note: the three guarantees refer to guaranteeing basic livelihood, wage and services e.g. education, healthcare etc.)
- Enforce strict financial and economic discipline, and insist that party and government organs get used to “tightening one’s belt 过紧日子”.
- We must continue to implement a moderately loose monetary policy.
- Take promoting stable economic growth and a reasonable recovery of prices as important considerations for monetary policy, flexibly and efficiently use various policy tools such as cutting the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) and interest rates to maintain sufficient liquidity, smooth the transmission mechanism of monetary policy, and guide financial institutions to increase support for key areas such as expanding domestic demand, technological innovation, and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
- Keep the RMB exchange rate basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level.
In other words, nothing really new here. From other reports, it looks like the 2026 goal is still to maintain a 5% GDP growth with 4% deficit (same as 2025), which in my opinion, is far too low to solve the low consumption problem caused by the massive wealth inequality.
Nothing about providing jobs guarantee (of which high youth unemployment is a real issue). It’s still mostly focusing on providing fiscal stimulus in necessary areas to help the private sector to create new jobs, rather than direct government intervention. The problem with this approach is that you need to have a lot of faith in the private sector to do the right thing, but that’s what the libs believe, I guess.
And obviously since the government is not inclined to run a high deficit, the already outsized debt burden in the private sector will continue to mount with little means to be alleviated.
Although the official policy will not be made until early next year, the CEWC pretty much sets the direction for what is to come, especially with the new Five-Year Plan about to commence.
Robin Ince has been made to resign his job as presenter of a BBC radio/podcast show over his support of trans rights.
Not a huge story by itself, he presents a comedy science show, but the implications are fucked.US forces stormed cargo ship travelling from China to Iran: Report Al Jazeera
United States forces raided a cargo ship travelling from China to Iran last month, according to the Wall Street Journal, in the latest reported instance of increasingly aggressive maritime tactics by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Unnamed officials told the newspaper that US military personnel boarded the ship several hundred miles from Sri Lanka, according to the report on Friday. It was the first time in several years US forces had intercepted cargo travelling from China to Iran, according to the newspaper.
The operation took place in November, weeks before US forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela earlier this week, citing sanctions violations. It was another action Washington has not taken in years.
US Indo-Pacific Command did not immediately confirm the report. An official told the newspaper that they seized material “potentially useful for Iran’s conventional weapons”. However, the official noted the seized items were dual-use, and could have both military and civilian applications.
Officials said the ship was allowed to proceed following the interdiction, which involved special operation forces.
Iran remains under heavy US sanctions. Neither Iran nor China immediately responded to the report, although Beijing, a key trading partner with Tehran, has regularly called the US sanctions illegal.
Earlier in the day, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun condemned the seizure of the oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, which was brought to a port in Texas on Friday.
The action came amid a wider military pressure campaign against Venezuela, which Caracas has charged is aimed at toppling the government of leader Nicolas Maduro.
Beijing “opposes unilateral illicit sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction that have no basis in international law or authorisation of the UN Security Council, and the abuse of sanctions”, Guo said.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday the Trump administration would not rule out future seizures of vessels near Venezuela.
Of course, both Iran and China are quiet about it.
It may seem as though China and Iran have ongoing strategic partnership if you only listen to the “anti-imperialist” alt media news, but anyone paying attention to their relations will notice that China (together with Russia) is pulling their strategic influence away from the Middle East since June 2025.
Trump’s B-2 stunt on the Iranian nuclear facilities killed this partnership. The real message being sent by Trump is that economic investment in the Middle East is far too tenuous for the Chinese investors.
Remember the Iran-China 25 year cooperation program signed back in 2021 that promised $400 billion investment in Iran? Four years on and not even 1% of the investment has reached Iran.
Not only that Chinese investors are pulling away, trade has also gone down, with Chinese customs statistics reporting -25% import and export with Iran in 2025.
On the international stage, China has been quietly abstaining on the UNSC resolution votes on issues pertaining to the Middle East since June 2025 (see my comment here).
Therefore, it is no surprise that the Chinese MFA is keeping quiet on the US seizure of their cargo, for China does not want to get dragged into a bottomless defense for what will turn out to be unprofitable investment in the Middle East.
But most significantly, Trump’s B-2 stunt had smashed the whole Brzezinski’s Grand Chessboard scam about a Russia-Iran-China axis, which unfortunately many “anti-imperialists” on Twitter are still regurgitating about.
It has fully exposed that China’s foreign policy that emphasizes economic cooperation is far inferior to the USSR model of military protection when it comes to mitigating Western imperial advance.
Turns out that economic cooperation contracts can easily be thrown into the dustbin the moment a country is threatened with war. The recipient country is too busy preparing for war to honor whatever contracts they have signed, while the investing country sees too little profit to made if their all investment is sunk by the drop of the first bombs.
There is no Russia-Iran-China axis until they are serious about military alliance and reviving the USSR-style foreign policy. Don’t be fooled by the “alt media” telling you that China’s “strategy” is providing economic partnership to those countries. Trump’s B-2 stunt showed unequivocally the harsh reality that the fist speaks louder than the wallet. Anything else is cope.
Switzerland reduces F-35 buy after $610 million price hike
“Due to foreseeable additional costs, it is not financially viable to maintain the originally planned number” of aircraft, said a Swiss statement.
more
Switzerland has decided to cut an order of 36 Lockheed Martin F-35A fifth-generation fighter jets due to a price increase of roughly $610 million enforced by the US government, and following a contract dispute between the two sides. In a statement today, the Swiss Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport said that “due to foreseeable additional costs, it is not financially viable to maintain the originally planned number” of aircraft, instead signaling that a “maximum” quantity of the stealth jets will be acquired in line with an approved 6 billion Swiss Franc (7.5 billion USD) budget. The statement did not reveal a revised aircraft figure to be acquired. “Talks held with the US in the summer revealed that Switzerland cannot enforce the contractually agreed fixed price for the F-35A fighter jet,” noted the Swiss statement. “The US cites increased costs due to inflation, rising raw material prices, and other factors.”
At the time the contract dispute initially emerged in August, a DoD official told Breaking Defense that “costs associated with the F-35 program, particularly for airframes and engines, have been trending higher than the initial estimates outlined in the F-35 Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA), originally offered to Switzerland.” The official went on to say that an “estimated $610” million price hike is the result of inflation, global raw material price increases and supply chain disruptions. Additionally, the DoD official added then that a specific note requested by Bern, labelled “Note 55” confirms that “the [Swiss] aircraft will be purchased using fixed-price contracts but clarifies that the price estimated in the LOA may differ from the actual contract price. Fixed-price contracts account for inflation and provide cost predictability but do not guarantee that the estimated LOA price will match the final contract price.” The Office of the Secretary of Defense deferred questions about the reduced buy to the Swiss government today.
As Breaking Defense reported, Switzerland previously argued that a fixed-price had been “abandon[ed]” despite “intensive discussions” between Swiss and American officials, leading to inflationary and tariff pressures that could drive up the cost of the order between anywhere from 650 million to 1.3 billion Swiss francs. Switzerland initially selected the F-35 in 2021, before agreeing a contract in 2022. Deliveries were originally slated to begin in 2027 and run through 2030. Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.
GAO finds V-22 ‘serious accident’ rate shot up in 2023, 2024
The GAO’s report was published the same day that the Navy released its own report on the V-22, saying it was committed to the program.
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The Marine Corps and Air Force’s Osprey fleets have had more “serious accidents” in the previous two fiscal years on average than compared to the past eight, according to newly published analysis by government auditors. “In fiscal years 2023 and 2024, 18 serious, non-combat accidents occurred involving death; permanent disability; extensive hospitalization; property damage of $600,000 or more; or a destroyed aircraft,” auditors wrote in a new Government Accountability Office report. “Rates of serious accidents were between 36 percent and 88 percent higher than each service’s average rate for the prior 8 fiscal years.” The report didn’t elaborate what caused accident rates to climb specifically in recent years, but GAO said program staffers attributed V-22’s higher rate relative to other aircraft as it being a first-generation tiltrotor aircraft and the plane’s “complex and expensive components, which, when damaged, result in higher accident classes by cost.”
GAO was prompted to produce the report at the behest of a House committee that sought auditors’ opinions on trends in Osprey incidents, the extent to which the program office and services have taken steps to identify and resolve issues and discuss how the services proliferate safety information. Variants of the V-22 Osprey are flown by the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. The unique tiltrotor aircraft combines the capabilities of a helicopter and turboprop plane which the Pentagon uses largely for troop and cargo movements. A series of lethal accidents in recent years have raised intense scrutiny by both lawmakers and outside observers of the plane’s safety record, and resulted in the Pentagon revealing several defects in the aircraft itself. “Osprey program stakeholders have not fully identified, analyzed, or responded with procedural or materiel mitigations to all safety risks,” according to the GAO report. “For example, program stakeholders, which include the Osprey Joint Program Office and military services that operate the aircraft, had closed 45 risk assessments at the time of our review, but had not fully responded to 34 known system-related risks related to the potential failure of airframe and engine components.”
In its totality, the report gives only minor credit to the Pentagon for more recent initiatives to comprehensively address the aircraft’s problems, but states the Defense Department has not done enough to ensure the plane’s safety and airworthiness moving forward. Government auditors made a series of recommendations to the Pentagon concerning how the program identifies, analyzes and responds to safety risks, establishes an oversight structure to ensure timely resolution and how the services implement process to routinely share relevant safety data. In a letter contained in the report, Peter Belk, acting assistant secretary of defense for readiness, concurred with all of GAO’s recommendations. “As a Department, it is our duty to protect our military’s most valuable asset, our people,” Belk wrote in response to one recommendation. “The Secretary of Defense will ensure the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of the Air Force continually underscore the importance of safety at every level to ensure an environment where safety and risk management are essential and integrated parts of our operations.”
Navy Says It Remains ‘Committed’
The GAO’s report was not the only V-22 report to be released today, as Naval Air Systems Command released findings of what it called a “comprehensive review” of the aircraft. That review, originally ordered in September 2023, “reaffirmed the airworthiness of the V-22 platform under established controls allowing the continued safe operations of this critical joint capability.” The review identified “32 actions” to “improve saftey and readiness,” and Naval Air Systems Command leader Vice Adm. John Dogherty said in a video posted online the NAVAIR and the V-22 program office have “initiated clear, enforceable action plans to drive these issues to closure.” “The V-22 delivers unmatched operational flexibility for the Department of Defense,” he said, adding that through its mitigation efforts, the Navy is “committed” to the program. Still, the Navy report warned, “If the V-22 enterprise fails to take immediate and decisive action on the findings in this report, the existing risk mitigation timelines will increase the likelihood of a risk materializing, potentially resulting in catastrophic outcomes, including both fatal and non-fatal consequences.”
Trump said to Petro “after Maduro, you’re next”. Fucking deranged piece of shit. Absolutely no redeemable qualities. Stop calling it one nation under God. They’re an affront to whatevet God they worship
Liberals and the right won the municipal elections in Kerala today.
In my opinion, it was a victory of culture wars over material issues. Focusing on the kind of corruption that doesn’t affect regular people in any way and with BJP doing religious polarization. Concerningly, the BJP won a Municipal corporation for the first time (afaik).
It doesn’t bode well for the state Gov elections to be held next year. BJP and the liberals have no solution for any material issues of course, and the Left has done a better job on that front
. But better isn’t enough when the liberals and the right don’t have to focus on material issues, or provide any solution to existing material issues. The BJP Central Gov will strangle Liberals fiscally just like they are doing to the Left currently, if they win the 2026 elections. On top of this, Liberals in Kerala have historically been corrupt being controlled by the bourgeoisie, so their Gov will be shit in general. It provides an avenue for culture war ‘issues’ to be promoted by the BJP.Before anyone asks, US F/A-18 Super Hornets did not fly over mainland Venezuela. Flightradar24 can provide both an actual position (blue line/track) and an estimated position (dark gray or black line/ track). The F/A-18 showing up over Venezuela was based on an estimated position. Estimates can be (and are in this case) inaccurate.
Estimations:
When an aircraft is flying out of coverage, Flightradar24 will estimate the position of the aircraft for up to 4 hours if the destination of the flight is known. For aircraft without a known destination, positions are estimated for up to 10 minutes. The position is calculated based on many different parameters and in most cases it’s quite accurate, but for long flights the position can in worst cases be up to about 200 km (110 miles) off. You can customize how long aircraft out of coverage are estimated on the map under Settings. Estimations are displayed with a black trail on the map.
In all the screenshots of this F/A-18, the black trail is visible over Venezuela, it’s an estimated position, not an actual one.
While it’s not necessarily news, just thought it was worth posting because every second twitter account is talking about "F-18s over Venezuela.
Thailand is dropping bridges now in Cambodia with their F-16s, as well as plinking tanks and rocket artillery/MLRS launchers with laser guided munitions. Thailand has been threatening to destroy bridges for days now, while also targeting Cambodian “scam call centres” in the meantime. Targeting the bridge is an escalation.
Trump has been talking about a “ceasefire” between Cambodia and Thailand that was set to go into effect this evening.
Update, Thailand has conducted a follow up airstrike to completely destroy the bridge:
Heavily damaged earlier this morning:
Now destroyed after the second airstrike:
A UN fact-finding mission has accused the Bolivarian National Guard of crimes against humanity
Can’t comment on how true it may be but seems like something we should have on our radar and understand fully.
spoiler
GENEVA – Officials of Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) have committed serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity for more than a decade, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela said in its latest report today.
This report was prepared during the mandates of the three Members – Marta Valiñas, Francisco Cox Vial, and Patricia Tappatá Valdez – the latter two having concluded their terms on 31 October 2025.
The report – which includes an in-depth analysis of the internal operational structures of the GNB, including its chain of command – concluded that GNB officials perpetrated arbitrary deprivation of life, arbitrary detentions, sexual and gender-based violence, as well as torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during law enforcement operations in the context of protests and in actions of targeted political persecution since 2014. The persistence of these abuses reflects structural failures within Venezuela’s accountability and political system which have further entrenched impunity.
“The facts we have documented show the role of the GNB in a pattern of systematic and coordinated repression against opponents or those perceived as such, which has continued for more than a decade,” said Marta Valiñas, Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission. “The persistence of these crimes and the absence of adequate justice require a determined response from national and international accountability mechanisms.”
The report details how Venezuela’s “national security” doctrine has merged military and police functions, legitimising the militarization of public security and expanding the role of the GNB in operations aimed at social control and internal repression. The highly centralised chain of command – under the direction of the President of the Republic as Commander-in-Chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) – has facilitated the execution of unlawful actions without effective internal control mechanisms or accountability.
During protest peaks in 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2024, the GNB used excessive force, including the improper use of lethal and less-lethal weapons. The Fact-Finding Mission has reasonable grounds to believe that GNB officials fired firearms indiscriminately, including shots aimed directly at vital areas of victims’ bodies. The Fact-Finding Mission also received information regarding the practice of modifying projectiles to cause greater harm.
The report also documented mass and targeted arbitrary detentions, physical violence during arrests, planting of evidence, torture and other ill-treatment, and sexual and gender-based violence inside GNB facilities used as temporary detention centers.
“The torture, ill-treatment, and acts of sexual violence we have verified – including assaults andremoved – were not isolated incidents. They form part of a pattern of abuse used to punish and break victims,” said Valiñas.
The Fact-Finding Mission found that the GNB was a central actor in the commission of the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds. According to data collected by civil society, it carried out the highest number of politically motivated detentions in 2019 and 2020. It also played a key role in the 2024 post-election “Operation Tun Tun,” aimed at targeting and criminalizing opponents through unfounded accusations of terrorism or incitement to hatred.
The report identifies a pattern of structural impunity sustained by systemic failures within the Venezuelan judicial system, revealing its inability or unwillingness to investigate or prosecute violations committed by the GNB: stalled investigations, prolonged procedural paralysis, manipulation of evidence, deliberate obstruction by the GNB, and accountability limited exclusively to low-ranking personnel.
The Fact-Finding Mission considers that there are reasonable grounds to believe that GNB officials, as well as senior military and political authorities, may bear criminal responsibility under Articles 25 and 28 of the Rome Statute as direct and indirect perpetrators, co-perpetrators, and through command responsibility.
“The Mission has reasonable grounds to believe that GNB officials made essential contributions to the crimes under investigation, including arbitrary detentions, torture and ill-treatment, gender-based violence, and persecution,” said Valiñas.
ENDS
Read the full report (in Spanish only) here.
The Grayzone revealed that the NED’s “International Republican Institute” (IRI) secretly funded this year’s color-coup that targeted Nepal:
The IRI sought to cultivate a Nepalese network of young political activists explicitly designed to “become an important force to support US interests,” it said.
The documents say the IRI’s program “connects vibrant youth… and political leaders” and “provides comprehensive trainings on how to launch advocacy campaigns and protests,” The Grayzone reported.
https://www.rt.com/india/629369-us-backed-regime-change-agency/
