🇻🇪🇻🇪❌🇺🇸 — Rafael Lacava, the Chavista governor of Carabobo state and close ally of Nicolás Maduro, unleashed an erratic rant at a military gathering in Valencia
❗️ Flanked by uniformed personnel, he railed against "traitors" and "imperialists," vowing eternal victory for the regime despite U.S. sanctions targeting the "Cartel of the Suns"—the alleged drug-trafficking network implicating top Venezuelan officials, including Lacava himself.
➡️ The speech, a direct response to recent U.S. operations like the sinking of narco-submarines tied to the cartel, echoed Maduro's defiance of "aggression."
"We will triumph forever, wherever, against whoever," insisting "Venezuela is doomed to success... This glorious, brave people has decided it." He derided opponents as "condoms" and "bandits desperate for cash," while highlighting his ties to Diosdado Cabello and drug routes through Puerto Cabello.
🇻🇪🇻🇪❌🇺🇸 — Rafael Lacava, the Chavista governor of Carabobo state and close ally of Nicolás Maduro, unleashed an erratic rant at a military gathering in Valencia
❗️ Flanked by uniformed personnel, he railed against "traitors" and "imperialists," vowing eternal victory for the regime despite U.S. sanctions targeting the "Cartel of the Suns"—the alleged drug-trafficking network implicating top Venezuelan officials, including Lacava himself.
➡️ The speech, a direct response to recent U.S. operations like the sinking of narco-submarines tied to the cartel, echoed Maduro's defiance of "aggression."
"We will triumph forever, wherever, against whoever," insisting "Venezuela is doomed to success... This glorious, brave people has decided it." He derided opponents as "condoms" and "bandits desperate for cash," while highlighting his ties to Diosdado Cabello and drug routes through Puerto Cabello.
Andrey, a Russian entrepreneur living in Brazil who, fearing retaliation, asked that NPR not use his last name, said Telegram has become one of the few places Russians can access independent news about the war. The news also helped traders look past another report showing decades-high inflation and shake off some of the volatility from recent sessions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' February Consumer Price Index (CPI) this week showed another surge in prices even before Russia escalated its attacks in Ukraine. The headline CPI — soaring 7.9% over last year — underscored the sticky inflationary pressures reverberating across the U.S. economy, with everything from groceries to rents and airline fares getting more expensive for everyday consumers. And indeed, volatility has been a hallmark of the market environment so far in 2022, with the S&P 500 still down more than 10% for the year-to-date after first sliding into a correction last month. The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, has held at a lofty level of more than 30. There was another possible development: Reuters also reported that Ukraine said that Belarus could soon join the invasion of Ukraine. However, the AFP, citing a Pentagon official, said the U.S. hasn’t yet seen evidence that Belarusian troops are in Ukraine. Stocks dropped on Friday afternoon, as gains made earlier in the day on hopes for diplomatic progress between Russia and Ukraine turned to losses. Technology stocks were hit particularly hard by higher bond yields.
from us
