Is the U.S. Backing Rousseff’s Ouster in Brazil? Opposition Holds Talks in D.C. as Obama Stays Quiet

[OBenario]

By DemocracyNow!

[Ghost Dog]

1. Will corporatists and oligarchs

see that as being in their, and only their immediate short-term interest?

[Ghost Dog]

2. Thomas A. Shannon, Jr.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Shannon,_Jr.

G.W. Bush-appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs;

Obama-appointed.Ambassador to Brazil & now.current Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the United States Department of State.

[Marksman_91]

4. You mean this guy?! :O

Why the heck are the Venezuelan chancellor and the #2 in Chavismo all being huggy-friendly with him in Haiti?

[Ghost Dog]

5. Professional diplomat. Promoted under Bush & now Obama:

Ambassador Thomas A. Shannon, a career member of the Foreign Service, class of Career Ambassador, currently serves as Counselor of the Department of State, a position he has held since 2013. Ambassador Shannon also served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary in 2013, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil from 2010 to 2013, and Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs in 2011. Prior to that, Ambassador Shannon served as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2005 to 2009. From 2003 to 2005, he was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs on the National Security Council staff. Ambassador Shannon served in the Department’s Bureau for Western Hemisphere Affairs as Deputy Assistant Secretary from 2002 to 2003 and as Director of Andean Affairs from 2001 to 2002. From 2000 to 2001, he served as the United States Deputy Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States and from 1999 to 2000, he was the Director for Inter-American Affairs on the National Security Council staff. His career as a Foreign Service Officer has also included service in Brazil, Gabon, Guatemala, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, and Venezuela. Ambassador Shannon received a B.A. from the College of William and Mary and an M.Phil. and D.Phil. from Oxford University.

https://diplopundit.net/2015/09/21/obama-nominates-fso-thomas-a-shannon-as-foggy-bottoms-new-p/

The day after the impeachment vote in the lower house of Brazil’s congress, one of the leaders of the effort, Senator Aloysio Nunes, traveled to Washington, D.C. He had scheduled meetings with a number of U.S. officials, including Thomas Shannon at the State Department.

Shannon has a relatively low profile in the media, but he is the number three official in the U.S. State Department. Even more significantly in this case, he is the most influential person in the State Department on U.S. policy in Latin America. He will be the one recommending to Secretary of State John Kerry what the U.S. should do as the ongoing efforts to remove President Dilma Rousseff proceed.

Shannon’s willingness to meet with Nunes just days after the impeachment vote sends a powerful signal that Washington is on board with the opposition in this venture...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/25/washingtons-dog-whistle-diplomacy-supports-attempted-coup-in-brazil/

[Marksman_91]

6. Still, you have to wonder why such prominent Chavista figures were being so friendly with him

You'd think they'd know about, or at least suspect, everything you mentioned.

[Judi Lynn]

7. So odd you're trying to make something from this story. I'll post it here:

Venezuelan, US Officials Meet in Haiti to Improve Diplomatic Relations

Human-Rights NGOs "Deeply Concerned"

June 15, 2015 at 4:16 pm



A US government envoy met on Saturday with two high-ranking Venezuelan officials in Haití in an attempt to relax tense relations between the two nations, Venezuelan state media reported.

“The meeting was held amid an ongoing rapprochement between the Venezuelan and US governments to normalize diplomatic relations, while respecting international law, the sovereignty and self-determination of both nations,” stated the government-run Venezuelan News Agency.

In a gathering mediated by Haitian President Michel Martelly, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello met with Thomas Shannon, counselor to US Secretary of State John Kerry

In recent months, Shannon has led a series of low-profile meetings in Caracas with President Nicolás Maduro. In early April, the US official visited Venezuela to quell tensions after President Barack Obama declared Venezuela a treat to US national security.

More:
https://panampost.com/panam-staff/2015/06/15/venezuelan-us-officials-meet-in-haiti-to-improve-diplomatic-relations/

Edit:

Time itself will teach these people not to be so trusting and open with people of Shannon's caliber. They are up against monsters.

[Judi Lynn]

8. It was probably unintentional, yeah, sure, but this thread concerns US/Brazilian relations,

and your US/Venezuela interruption should be dealt with on a separate thread.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Kicking. Rec. n/t

[Ghost Dog]

9. Washington launches its attack against BRICS

By Paul Craig Roberts
April 27, 2016

Having removed the reformist President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Washington is now disposing of the reformist President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff.

... In Brazil, Washington has used corruption insinuations to get President Rousseff impeached by the lower house. Evidence is not necessary, just allegations. It is no different from “Iranian nukes,” Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction,” Assad’s “use of chemical weapons,” or, in Rousseff’s case, merely insinuations. The Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, notes that Rousseff “hasn’t been accused of anything.” The American-backed elites are simply using impeachment to remove a president whom they cannot defeat electorally.

In short, this is Washington’s move against the BRICS. Washington is moving to put into political power a right-wing party that Washington controls in order to terminate Brazil’s growing relationships with China and Russia...

... Kirchner and Rousseff’s “crimes” are their efforts to have the governments of Argentina and Brazil represent the Argentine and Brazilian peoples rather than the elites and Wall Street. In Washington, these are serious offenses as Washington uses the elites to control South American countries. Whenever Latin Americans elect a government that represents them, Washington overthrows the government or assassinates the president...

... Washington has always blocked reform in Latin America. Latin American peoples will remain American serfs until they elect governments by such large majorities that the governments can exile the traitorous elites, close the US embassies, and expel all US corporations. Every Latin American country that has an American presence has no future other than serfdom.

http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/17947#.dpuf

[Ghost Dog]

10. Albright is involved in the Brazil Coup:

... Dilma’s relationship with the U.S. was strained for years, significantly exacerbated by her vocal denunciations of NSA spying that targeted Brazilian industry, its population, and the president personally, as well as Brazil’s close trade relationship with China. Her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had also alienated many U.S. officials by, among other things, joining with Turkey to negotiate an independent deal with Iran over its nuclear program when Washington was attempting to assemble global pressure against Tehran. Washington insiders have been making it increasingly clear that they no longer view Brazil as safe for capital.

The U.S., of course, has a long — and recent — history of engineering instability and coups against democratically elected, left-wing Latin American governments it dislikes. Beyond the 1964 coup in Brazil, the U.S. was at least supportive of the attempted 2002 overthrow of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, played a central role in the 2004 ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lent vital support to legitimize the 2009 coup in Honduras, just to name a few examples. Many on the Brazilian left believe that the U.S. is actively engineering the current instability in their country in order to get rid of a left-wing party that has relied heavily on trade with China, and instead usher in a more pro-business, pro-U.S. government that could never win an election on its own.

ALTHOUGH NO REAL evidence has emerged proving this theory, a little-publicized trip to the U.S. this week by a key Brazilian opposition leader will likely fuel those concerns. Today — the day after the impeachment vote — Sen. Aloysio Nunes of the PSDB will be in Washington to undertake three days of meetings with various U.S. officials as well as with lobbyists and assorted influence-peddlers close to Clinton and other leading political figures.

Sen. Nunes is meeting with the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Undersecretary of State and former Ambassador to Brazil Thomas Shannon; and attending a luncheon on Tuesday hosted by the Washington lobbying firm Albright Stonebridge Group, headed by former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Bush 43 Commerce Secretary and Kellogg Company CEO Carlos Gutierrez.

The Brazilian Embassy in Washington and Sen. Nunes’s office told The Intercept that they had no additional information about the Tuesday luncheon. In an email, the Albright Stonebridge Group wrote that there is “no media component” to the event, which is for the “Washington policy and business community,” and a list of attendees or topics addressed would not be made public....

/... https://theintercept.com/2016/04/18/after-vote-to-remove-brazils-president-key-opposition-figure-holds-meetings-in-washington/

Albright Stonebridge Group (ASG) is a global strategy and business advisory firm chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Commerce Secretary and Kellogg Company CEO Carlos M. Gutierrez.

The firm advises multinational firms, financial institutions, industry associations, and non-profit organizations on a variety of matters including international government relations, market entry and risk assessment, regulatory affairs, stakeholder engagement, partner development, and shared value programs.

Members of the firm have served in senior government roles, including at the White House; U.S. Departments of State, Treasury, and Commerce; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; in the U.S. Congress; as ambassadors to and from the United States; and as senior officials and elected representatives in governments around the world.[1]

Albright Stonebridge was created through the merger of international consulting firms The Albright Group and Stonebridge International. ASG is affiliated with Albright Capital Management, an emerging markets investment firm founded in 2005.[2]

/... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albright_Stonebridge_Group

[Judi Lynn]

11. Albright's partner at Albright Stonebridge is inextricably connected to the hard-right Cuban "exiles

Jeb and his father have chosen over the years for business and political purposes, Carlos Gutierrez himself having been raised as the son of a Cuban pineapple plantation owner.

Can't think of two people who should be less involved in Brazil's future than these two! It's truly creepy any of this could ever have happened.

It's hideous learning Senator Nunez went directly to DC after his impeachment festivities to huddle with these creeps, and Bud Corker, and perennial pro-business, right-wing ally, Thomas Shannon.

Couldn't be more conspicuous than that.

[Ghost Dog]

12. Yes, Judy. And of course most US citizens are unaware

and uninformed. Even at DU.




Comme d'habitude... But this time, I observe, is different.

Tipping point,.