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By Matthew Russell Lee, Video CJR PFT Q&A

UN GATE, January 19 – 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. Now on January 5, with Guterres still silent while censor the Press now 565 days, this Q&A from the traveling US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: "Q:  Guaido is going to be in Colombia.  Are you planning to meet with him and what are your goals with regards to Venezuela as it relates to Colombia?  SECRETARY POMPEO:  Yeah.  Well, we hope he’ll be there.  When we have leaders and we’re talking about counterterrorism in South America, he’s the duly elected leader in Venezuela; we hope he’ll join us and I look forward to having a meeting with him.  Our mission in Venezuela hasn’t changed.  We are convinced that the Venezuelan people deserve a better 2020 than they had in 2019.  Maduro has been destructive.  He – you have millions of people who have to flee the country to the very country I’m headed to, to Colombia." We'll have more on this.

UNSG Guterres, meanwhile, was out of New York City on a junket, saying nothing on this - in fact, he used public money to con NYPD to restrict the Press which questions him, on March 22 on the sidewalk of 96th Street in Manhattan, here. #DumpGuterres.  On March 15 from DC, this Q&A: "The IDB has put out a statement already saying that Mr. Hausmann can begin as the representative there because enough – there have been sufficient votes cast.  What does this mean generally speaking for any kind of economic help for Venezuela?  Venezuela is in arrears to the IDB anyway.   And then also, the IMF has delayed a decision by the board, their board, to discuss or – a poll that would basically recognize Guaido, and as you know, the IMF is important as a seal of approval for other big institutions like the World Bank.  But what does this overall mean to – for lending or economic help?  MR ABRAMS:  I think most – the most important task that Professor Hausmann will be undertaking is to work with the IDB on the preparations for post-Maduro Venezuela.  He has personally done a lot of work on this.  We actually met yesterday.  And there are – there’s been really an enormous amount of work done over the last several years by Venezuelans and by others, and the IDB has clearly a leading role in the recuperation of the Venezuelan economy when we think of things like the electric sector, the energy sector, which are in bad shape.  So he will now be in a position officially to represent Venezuela in those IDB preparations, and that’s a lot better than doing it from a university.  He’ll be inside." And the UN, which bans the Press? 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." Sounds like Guterres' UN....

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