probably referring to Aravindan Balakrishnan. it’s a really fucked up story, so i won’t even attempt to summarize it. i try not to think of some people as inherently evil, but this guy really tests that conviction.

this was a very logical move by her. the sanctions were still very new (started by Obama in 2015-16), and Trump seemed very bribe-able right then. it would have been a dereliction of her duty to the people of Venezuela to not give it a shot. if it had worked, it would have prevented a lot of pain for Venezuelans, and likely much less of the social instability that Maduro is getting blamed for.

also, archive link

in case anyone is confused by this, actual employee owned businesses make their employees into petite bourgeoisie, which fundamentally does not threaten capitalist power, and can instead be used as a pull yourself up by the bootstraps feel-good story to further fragment worker power.