UNITED NATIONS GATE, March 111 – When the foreign minister of Venezuela, or at least of Nicolas Maduro, Jorge Arreaza emerged from the 3 Sutton Place mansion where UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres lives alone and met with him on February 11, Inner City Press asked Arreaza two questions. Video here. Amid the events on the Venezuela - Colombia border on February 23, there was not a word from the UN. Inner City Press again biked by the mansion Guterres lives in - some of the time - and found it empty: no security, no Mercedes, nothing. Periscope video here.
Now late on March 11, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said, "The United States will withdraw all remaining U.S. personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela this week. Like the January 24 decision to withdraw all dependents and reduce embassy staff to a minimum, this decision reflects the deteriorating situation in Venezuela as well as the conclusion that the presence of U.S. diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on U.S. policy."
Also on March 11, journalist Luis Carlos Diaz has been reported missing by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Prensa (SNTP). Professor Ezequiel Korin says "@LuisCarlos was singled out for his supposed role in the sabotage that caused the #VenezuelaBlackout by Chavismo's strongmam Diosdado Cabello, sanctioned in 2018 by the US Treasury Dept. for his role in state-aided narco-trafficking. #DóndeEstáLuisCarlos." What if anything will UN Secretary General Antonio Guterrs say? Back on March 6 when journalists including Cody Weddle and his colleague Carlos Camacho were detained in Venezuela Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a briefing they banned Inner City Press from attending claimed, "I have seen the press report; we are trying to get some details. As a matter of principle, I think, the Secretary-General very much supports the right of journalists to be able to do their work free of harassment and the response would be for every government around this world to ensure that journalists have a space in which to do their work." As to Guterres this is not true. He is a censor. On February 28, a draft U.S. UN Security Council resolution was vetoed by China and Russia (with South Africa also voting no, and abstentions by Indonesia, Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea). Then Russia's draft resolution failed with four in favor, seven against and four abstentions. More dysfunction at the UN. But how would Guterres have voted? Or is his main goal not getting vetoed for a second term of free travel to Lisbon? On March 11, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, "we’re asking the same thing of India as we are of every country: Do not be the economic lifeline for the Maduro regime. So we talked about – I certainly won’t characterize the conversations; they’re private conversations. But I’m very confident – in the same way that India has been incredibly supportive of our efforts on Iran, I’m confident that they too understand the real threat to the Venezuelan people. And so we had a good conversation around that. And in terms of which other countries are hiding assets, I assure you that those countries will know. But I’m not going to share that with you today because if I mention them here today, goodness knows how many of them will end up inside of Russia. We do not want assets that are around the world taken and transferred to Russia, where they’ll be hidden in the very way that I described in my opening remarks today. We have a handful of countries that are providing aid and comfort to the Maduro regime at enormous expense to the people of Venezuela, and we want to make sure that the resources – resources that the Venezuelan people are going to need after Maduro leaves – we want to make sure those resources are available for the Venezuelan people and not shipped off to Cuba or to Russia or to Iran." For a week banned Inner City Press has in writing asked Guterres and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric this question: "February 19-3: What is the SG's response to US Senator Marco Rubio's criticism that he is playing right into Maduro plans... 'When it comes to democracy & human rights UN increasingly worthless'?" Dujarric refused to answer, despite his on camera promise. Finally on February 26 he blathered a defense of the absent Guterres, adding that "we are not going to respond to every tweet." Dujarric blocks Inner City Press on Twitter. Meanwhile in Venezuela according to Univision, this: "Univision News Retweeted Daniel Coronell Attention: A @Univision team, headed by @jorgeramosnews, is being arbitrarily detained at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas. They were interviewing @NicolasMaduro but he didn't like the questions. Their technical equipment was also confiscated." At 9 am on February 26, Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres, his deputy Amina J. Mohammed, USG Alison Smale and Dujarric: "February 26-4: On Venezuela and the the press freedom the SG spoke about in Geneva yesterday, what is his comment and action if any on the reported detention of Univision's Jorge Ramos by the authorities? AGAIN, immediately explain how it is legitimate to ban from enter into the UN the media that has been asking about these and other questions, with no hearing or appeal." No answer. Guterres, Smale and Dujarric banned Inner City Press from entering the UN to cover Arreaza's press conference, or anything else.
