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+--- Thread: Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans (/Thread-Venezuela-WikiLeaks-confirms-US-plans)
Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans - Peter Lemkin - 09-11-2013
They hate us for our undying fidelity to the principles of international law and democracy...!::laughingdog:: No enemy could ever have destroyed America as those in power have.....they have also managed to destroy much of the rest of the World and seem to want to leave no part not having been destroyed out of their hubris, greed and the love of Thanatos and power. End of an Empire...but still a very dangerous one. Most dangerous entity on Earth, by far, IMO.
Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans - Magda Hassan - 14-02-2014
I noticed some techy comrades posted about a query a few days ago as to the status of the internet and telephone system in Venezuela as they had had reports there was trouble. Now this.
Quote:Venezuela Coup? Gunfire, Clashes as 3 Dead in Violent Caracas Protest
By RT
February 13 2014 "Information Clearing House - "RT" - At least three people have died in violent protests in the Venezuelan capital, officials have confirmed. President Nicolas Maduro has condemned the unrest as an attempt at a coup d'état orchestrated by extremist members of the political opposition.Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of the Venezuelan capital on Wednesday in the worst unrest since Nicolas Maduro assumed the presidency last year. Demonstrators from several different political factions clashed in Caracas, leaving at least three people dead and over 20 injured.Venezuela's top prosecutor confirmed the death of 24-year-old student Bassil Dacosta FrÃas, who was shot in the head and died later in hospital. Officials said that a government supporter was also assassinated in what they decried as an act of "fascism." A third person was killed in the Chacao neighborhood in the East of the Venezuelan capital.[TABLE="width: 80%"]
[TR]
[TD]#Caracas Difunden foto de unidades policiales incendiadas en el centro de la ciudad pic.twitter.com/tO2bUXUOsh[/TD]
Angel VillarroelLara (@avillarroellara) February 12, 2014
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
As night fell in Chacao, police clashed with protesters, firing tear gas into a crowd of young protesters who burned tires and blocked a main road. RT Actualidad's correspondent in Caracas, Karen Mendez, said that gunfire broke out in Chacao later during the night and her team had been caught in the crossfire.
The government and the opposition have already traded blows over the violence in the capital. Leader of the opposition movement Popular Will' Leopoldo Lopez - who participated in the 2002 coup d'état against former President Hugo Chavez - claimed the government had orchestrated the bloodshed to discredit the Venezuelan opposition.[TABLE="width: 80%"]
[TR]
[TD]Plaza Venezuela 11:10am @ElNacionalWeb #12Fpic.twitter.com/LoNpAyQZFz[/TD]
Andrea (@andreesarabia) February 12, 2014
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
"Maduro, you know full well that what happened today was your plan. The dead and the injured are your responsibility," Lopez tweeted.
Nicolas Maduro responded to the violence in a public statement, denouncing the unrest as an attempt to carry out a coup d'état. He laid the blame at the feet of extremist fascist groups and said that those responsible for the violence would be prosecuted by the full weight of the law.Demonstrators run away from tear gas during a protest in Caracas February 12, 2014.(Reuters / Jorge Silva)
"We are facing a coup d'état against democracy and the government that I preside over," said Maduro. He claimed that the fascists group was using civil liberties and democracy as a tool to overthrow the government.[TABLE="width: 80%"]
[TR]
[TD]Despliegue policial en La Av. Universidad, Caracas (Foto VVperiodistas. Hace minutos) pic.twitter.com/DLGNxHK2JQ[/TD]
VVSincensura (@VVperiodistas) February 12, 2014
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Maduro called for peace on the streets of the capital and said that the bloodshed had to end. His political rival during last year's elections, Henrique Capriles also appealed for calm on the streets.
"Violence will never be the way! We are confident that a large majority refuses and condemns it," Capriles tweeted.
Protests have become relatively commonplace in Venezuela with the population disgruntled over shortages of basic goods such as sugar and toilet paper.
The latest bout of demonstrations focuses on the country's economic woes and the high level of inflation Venezuela has experienced recently.Riot police walk past a barricade of burning garbage during a protest against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas February 12, 2014. (Reuters / Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans - Magda Hassan - 14-02-2014
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Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans - Magda Hassan - 18-02-2014
Sorry it's in Spanish but there is a transcript for those who want to do a google translate but beware it is a really bad translation. Two men discussing (presumably) Caprilles, an opponent of both Chavez and Maduro and who is now also an opponent of the current darling of the opposition Lopez. If you are following that...Capriles complained that he wasn't getting a much money as he wanted. I suppose Lopez come cheaper and they have hope for his appeal to a younger crowd. Any way, discussions about infiltrating the pro-Maduro protests. They plan for Maduro to have an 'own goal' by causing disruption resulting in violence and more. Plans for motor bike riders to assassinate. The usual ugly stuff. I don't have time right now for the full translation but will try to get to it later.
Meanwhile there is also this:
Quote:http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10357Venezuelan Intelligence Official Arrested in Connection with 12 February Violence in Caracas
![[Image: icon_send.gif]](http://venezuelanalysis.com/sites/venezuelanalysis.com/themes/zen/venezuelanalysis/images/icon_send.gif)
![[Image: icon_print.gif]](http://venezuelanalysis.com/sites/venezuelanalysis.com/themes/zen/venezuelanalysis/images/icon_print.gif)
By Ewan Robertson
Tags
Merida, 17[SUP]th[/SUP] February 2014 (Venezuelanalysis.com) An official of Venezuela's intelligence service has been arrested in connection with the violent clashes last Wednesday in Caracas which left three dead, a Venezuelan newspaper has reported.
An investigation is underway to determine the exact succession of events which led to the deaths of two men that day: Bassil Dacosta, an opposition supporter, and Juan Montoya, a Chavista. President Nicolas Maduro has said that both were killed by the same gun.
The killings occurred two blocks from the Attorney General's office in central Caracas, which footage shows violent opposition supporters attacking beforehand. The events occurred after a large student-led opposition march had concluded in the area, and most participants had already left.
The information on the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) officer's arrest was given to private newspaper Ultimas Noticias by an unnamed "military source". According to the information, the detained official was part of a group of SEBIN officers who ignored presidential orders to remain in the organisation's headquarters that day. The source said the officer is called Melvin Eduardo Collazos Rangel, and was arrested on Saturday.
A compilation of video footage published by the investigation team of Ultimas Noticias appears to show at least seven civilians and SEBIN officials firing against a group of opposition supporters in the area where Bassil Dacosta fell. The video finishes with a list of "elements and doubts" which the team argues need to be answered to ascertain the exact sequence of events and to be able to identify who killed Dacosta and Montoya.
In a national broadcast last night, President Nicolas Maduro confirmed that a group of SEBIN officers had disobeyed orders to remain indoors on Wednesday.
"There was a group of SEBIN officers that directly disobeyed the orders of SEBIN's director…to remain in quarters and not go out onto the street. I ordered SEBIN to remain in their quarters early that morning," explained Maduro.
Maduro also said that the investigation into Wednesday's clashes is "very advanced", and is being directed by the federal prosecutor and the scientific police investigation body (CICPC). The president had previously released videos and photographs of the violence, which showed the attacks against the Attorney General's office, among other acts
Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans - Lauren Johnson - 18-02-2014
Magda Hassan Wrote:
Sorry it's in Spanish but there is a transcript for those who want to do a google translate but beware it is a really bad translation. Two men discussing (presumably) Caprilles, an opponent of both Chavez and Maduro and who is now also an opponent of the current darling of the opposition Lopez. If you are following that...Capriles complained that he wasn't getting a much money as he wanted. I suppose Lopez come cheaper and they have hope for his appeal to a younger crowd. Any way, discussions about infiltrating the pro-Maduro protests. They plan for Maduro to have an 'own goal' by causing disruption resulting in violence and more. Plans for motor bike riders to assassinate. The usual ugly stuff. I don't have time right now for the full translation but will try to get to it later.
Meanwhile there is also this:
Quote:Venezuelan Intelligence Official Arrested in Connection with 12 February Violence in Caracashttp://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10357
By Ewan Robertson
Tags
Merida, 17[SUP]th[/SUP] February 2014 (Venezuelanalysis.com) An official of Venezuela's intelligence service has been arrested in connection with the violent clashes last Wednesday in Caracas which left three dead, a Venezuelan newspaper has reported.
An investigation is underway to determine the exact succession of events which led to the deaths of two men that day: Bassil Dacosta, an opposition supporter, and Juan Montoya, a Chavista. President Nicolas Maduro has said that both were killed by the same gun.
The killings occurred two blocks from the Attorney General's office in central Caracas, which footage shows violent opposition supporters attacking beforehand. The events occurred after a large student-led opposition march had concluded in the area, and most participants had already left.
The information on the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) officer's arrest was given to private newspaper Ultimas Noticias by an unnamed "military source". According to the information, the detained official was part of a group of SEBIN officers who ignored presidential orders to remain in the organisation's headquarters that day. The source said the officer is called Melvin Eduardo Collazos Rangel, and was arrested on Saturday.
A compilation of video footage published by the investigation team of Ultimas Noticias appears to show at least seven civilians and SEBIN officials firing against a group of opposition supporters in the area where Bassil Dacosta fell. The video finishes with a list of "elements and doubts" which the team argues need to be answered to ascertain the exact sequence of events and to be able to identify who killed Dacosta and Montoya.
In a national broadcast last night, President Nicolas Maduro confirmed that a group of SEBIN officers had disobeyed orders to remain indoors on Wednesday.
"There was a group of SEBIN officers that directly disobeyed the orders of SEBIN's director…to remain in quarters and not go out onto the street. I ordered SEBIN to remain in their quarters early that morning," explained Maduro.
Maduro also said that the investigation into Wednesday's clashes is "very advanced", and is being directed by the federal prosecutor and the scientific police investigation body (CICPC). The president had previously released videos and photographs of the violence, which showed the attacks against the Attorney General's office, among other acts
Magda, Sorry, but I am not following this? Is it an overheard conversation? Something publicly stated over some radio station?
Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans - Peter Lemkin - 18-02-2014
This Venezuela 'change project' has LONG been on the CIA, State, Military, US Deep Government's drawing boards. They were behind the first coup attempt against Chavez; I strongly suspect that his cancer was NOT a natural phenomenon, but induced with drugs, virus or radiation by the USA; and now they aim to try to complete the job and then move on to all the other suddenly independent of Washington South American States.....after all, it is our 'backyard' and we'll mow the lawn as we like it [with compliant fascist states and puppet leaders who give all the natural resources and money to US/European Corporations and entities - leaving nothing, including freedoms, for the People].
Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans - Magda Hassan - 18-02-2014
Lauren Johnson Wrote:Magda, Sorry, but I am not following this? Is it an overheard conversation? Something publicly stated over some radio station?
It is a recorded conversation (presumably secretly by a third or the second party) it was then broadcast by media.
Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans - Magda Hassan - 20-02-2014
February 17, 2014
Ecnomic Sabotage
Venezuela Under Attack Again
by MARIA PAEZ VICTOR
Again, a highly organized attack is being carried out against the democratic and popular government of Venezuela. It has involved monetary manipulations, economic sabotage, international media campaign against the economy despite excellent economic indicators, defaming the state run oil company, and this last week riots on the streets that have left 3 dead and 66 injured.
The tactics are the same that the un-democratic opposition has tried for 15 years ever since the first election of President Hugo Chávez. Such tactics have been used in the so-called Rainbow Revolutions in Eastern Europe, Libya, in Syria, in Egypt and now in Ukraine. The object is to give a semblance of chaos, to provoke the forces of public order, to discredit the government through the compliant international media, to foster civil unrest, even civil war (as it successfully happened in Syria), and ultimately to promote conditions for international intervention and even occupation.
However, Venezuela is not in the Middle nor Near East and its government is a participatory democracy that enjoys a very strong majority, the backing of all key institutions under the rule of law, and the support of its regional neighbors. Furthermore, the population is linked to many organized community groupings, it is not an amorphous mass.
The stakes are high because the country has the largest known oil reserves and these are a stone's throw from Washington.
The opposition believes that in the absence of Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro, is easy pickings. They greatly underestimate the man whose popularity has soared inside and outside the country.[i]
The attack on Venezuela, aimed to create popular discontent has had the following features:
Monetary warfare. This started with run on the currency, the manipulation of the black market dollar, obtaining dollars at preferential price from the government under false reasons. Maduro did not hesitate: he regulated prices and changed the monetary exchange rules and 70% approved of his response.[ii]
False scarcity: A double blow of outrageous overpricing of goods plus artificial food scarcity started just as people were beginning their Christmas shopping. Wealthy merchants proceeded to hoard essential goods: corn flour, sugar, salt, cooking oil, toilet paper, etc. placing them in hidden warehouses or spirited off to Colombia through a well-planned smuggling operation. The military discovered an illegal bridge built for motorcycles that carried the smuggled goods. Thousands of bags of foodstuffs were discovered simply left rotting on Colombian byways: this was not smuggling for economic reasons, but for political reasons. The Colombian government cooperated with the Venezuelan government to stop this smuggling.
Attack on Venezuela's petroleum company PDVSA: the international press has been alleging that PDVSA is failing because it is using its profits for social programs instead of re-investing, and that the country is running out of petroleum. Funnily enough they never warn Canada or Saudi Arabia about oil scarcity. They even state the preposterous notion that Venezuela is importing gasoline from the USA. The fact is that PDVS owns the large oil company CITGO in USA whose refinery often sends back to Venezuela a special liquid used for improving gasoline grade 95. PDVSA is still one of the top 5 oil companies in the world according to the influential Petroleum Intelligence Weekly.[iii]
Campaign to discredit the economy. The international media has been predicting doom and gloom for Venezuela for years! The Venezuelan economy is doing very well. Its oil exports last year amounted to $94 billons while the imports only reached $59.3 billons a historically low record. The national reserves are at $22 billons and the economy has a surplus (not a deficit) of 2.9% of GDP. The country has no significantly onerous national or foreign debts.[iv] These are excellent indicators that many countries in Europe would envy, even the USA and Canada. The multinational bank Wells Fargo has recently declared that Venezuela is one of the emerging economies that is most protected against any possible financial crisis and the Bank of America Merril Lynch has recommended to its investors to buy Venezuelan government bonds. [v]
Exaggeration of Security risks. Venezuela has high crime rate, unfortunately, just like most countries in Latin America. The recent death of a young high profile media couple spurred the opposition to exaggerate insecurity. Maduro responded by a widespread Plan for Peace with intense community policing, involving communities and communal councils, dividing the cities in sectors with hotlines and special patrols, the creation of 25 citizens committees for Police Control in total 250 people, new services for victim of crime, involvement of media to curb violent programs. This was highly popular.
There is a section of the opposition that is democratic and law abiding, unfortunately it is the undemocratic elements of opposition that seems to lead. These last few days, these prominent leaders of the undemocratic opposition, parliamentarians Leopoldo López and Maria Corina Machado, were urging violence. Orchestrated riots, with professional sabateurs, and the manipulation of young men, assassinated 3 people and injured 66.[vi] López whose link to the CIA goes back to his stay at Kenyon College, Ohio[vii] stated publicly that the violence would go on until they "got rid of Maduro". One of the protestors told the media "We need a dead guy". Twitter messages abound urging that someone kill Maduro. One Twitter message gave out details of the school of the child of President of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, urging that the child be kidnapped.False scarcity: A double blow of outrageous overpricing of goods plus artificial food scarcity started just as people were beginning their Christmas shopping. Wealthy merchants proceeded to hoard essential goods: corn flour, sugar, salt, cooking oil, toilet paper, etc. placing them in hidden warehouses or spirited off to Colombia through a well-planned smuggling operation. The military discovered an illegal bridge built for motorcycles that carried the smuggled goods. Thousands of bags of foodstuffs were discovered simply left rotting on Colombian byways: this was not smuggling for economic reasons, but for political reasons. The Colombian government cooperated with the Venezuelan government to stop this smuggling.
Attack on Venezuela's petroleum company PDVSA: the international press has been alleging that PDVSA is failing because it is using its profits for social programs instead of re-investing, and that the country is running out of petroleum. Funnily enough they never warn Canada or Saudi Arabia about oil scarcity. They even state the preposterous notion that Venezuela is importing gasoline from the USA. The fact is that PDVS owns the large oil company CITGO in USA whose refinery often sends back to Venezuela a special liquid used for improving gasoline grade 95. PDVSA is still one of the top 5 oil companies in the world according to the influential Petroleum Intelligence Weekly.[iii]
Campaign to discredit the economy. The international media has been predicting doom and gloom for Venezuela for years! The Venezuelan economy is doing very well. Its oil exports last year amounted to $94 billons while the imports only reached $59.3 billons a historically low record. The national reserves are at $22 billons and the economy has a surplus (not a deficit) of 2.9% of GDP. The country has no significantly onerous national or foreign debts.[iv] These are excellent indicators that many countries in Europe would envy, even the USA and Canada. The multinational bank Wells Fargo has recently declared that Venezuela is one of the emerging economies that is most protected against any possible financial crisis and the Bank of America Merril Lynch has recommended to its investors to buy Venezuelan government bonds. [v]
Exaggeration of Security risks. Venezuela has high crime rate, unfortunately, just like most countries in Latin America. The recent death of a young high profile media couple spurred the opposition to exaggerate insecurity. Maduro responded by a widespread Plan for Peace with intense community policing, involving communities and communal councils, dividing the cities in sectors with hotlines and special patrols, the creation of 25 citizens committees for Police Control in total 250 people, new services for victim of crime, involvement of media to curb violent programs. This was highly popular.
The Attorney General, who is a woman, was physically attacked her offices ransacked. Police cars burnt, cultural establishment vandalized, the Governor of Tachira's house was nearly burnt with his family in it.
The opposition's violence has a been a constant. Last October, Henrique Capriles, the presidential candidate four times a loser, upon losing to Maduro openly called for violent protest saying: "go out into the streets and show your rage." The result was that 10 people died (one who was a 5 year old indigenous little girl) and 178 injured, 19 popular clinics attacked and set fire to, Cuban doctors having to flee Cuban doctors fleeing for their safety.
The international press does NOT REPORT THE VIOLENCE UNLEASHED BY THE VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION. When it reports these violent events it insinuates that it is the fault of the government.
The result of 15 years of the Bolivarian Revolution is evident in the increasing wellbeing of its population.[viii] The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has declared Venezuela to be now the least unequal country of the region (GINI Coefficient) having reduced inequality by 54%.[ix]
Poverty levels are at 21% and extreme poverty dropped from 40% to 7.3%. Infant mortality has been reduced from 25/1000 (1990) to 10/1000. [x] The Chávez government eliminated illiteracy and provided free public education, housing and health services. In just one decade, Venezuela advanced 7 places in the UN Human Development Index.[xi]
Polls show Venezuela has one of the happiest populations in the world. [xii]In all this it has been greatly helped by the solidarity and expert teachers and doctors from Cuba. Cuba and Venezuela have shown the world what is real solidarity between nations.
The financial crisis that has hit the North these past six years, has been met with state antagonism against workers and the general population. With the excuse of a supposed need for austerity, public programs are cut and unions undermined. The crisis also affected Venezuela as oil prices dropped. However, the government solidly continued to reduce poverty, increase salaries, trained thousands of workers, and the country's Human Development Index continued to rise despite the contraction of the economy. By protecting employment as a basic strategy to counter the crisis, the economy continued to grow at an average that has ranged from 2.5 to 5% GDP. [xiii]
The real opposition in Venezuela is the USA, its allies and its agents who feed the illegal pipeline of dollars that pour into bogus NGOs and the opposition parties.
Venezuela represents the rejection of neo-liberal economics and corporate capitalism. The corrupt elite- governed Venezuela, darling of corporate capitalism, that had impoverished its own population during 40 years, is no more.
These violent tactics have no hope of succeeding because, unlike 1999, the Venezuelan people are now organized into many groups: the communal councils, the communes, the thousands of health, security, militia, sports, educational, cultural committees. The Bolivarian Revolution has fostered, not a mass of people, but an organized organic population that makes decisions about its living conditions along with its government because Venezuela is now a fully functioning participatory democracy.
The opposition has no popular base as can be seen by its string of electoral defeats.
It has no support of the military even governors who form part of the democratic opposition have appeared on TV denouncing these tactics with military staff standing beside them.
They do not have the backing of any South American neighbour, as countries have been quick to avow solidarity with President Maduro and denounce their violence.
Their only card is to hope Venezuela is invaded by US Marines. That would be the beginning of regional warfare.
MarÃa Páez Victor is a sociologist, born in Venezuela.
Notes.
[i] Rafael Rico RÃos, Un pueblo maduro, Rebelión, 09/12/13; Survey by international news outlet NTN24 indicates Nicolás Maduro is the most popular president in Latin America, as well the poll by ICS. YVK Mundial - www.aporrea.org
01/10/13 - www.aporrea.org/venezuelaexterior/n237249.html
[ii] AVN, 15 Dec. 2013,Hinterlaces: 70% de los venezolanos apoya la ofensiva económica emprendida por Maduro;
[iii] Agencia Venezolana de Noticias, 09/05/2013
[iv] Mark Weisbrot, How Europe can learn from Latin Amrica's independence, The Guardian, 21 August 2013; El tan esperado apocalisis en Venezuela es poco probable,
http://www.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/opinion/firmas/mark-weisbrotdesconsenso-en-washington/el-tan-esperado-apocalipsisen-venezuela-es-poco.aspx#ixzz2jc5ULbi7
Is Venezuela in Crisis? Ewa Sapiezynska & Hassan Akram, AL JAZEERA, 2 December 2013; Venezuelanalysis.com
[v] La Guerra económica y las elecciones municipales, Juan Manuel Karg, Rebelión, 2 diciembre 2013
[vi] Ryan Mallett-Outtrim, Venezuelan Opposition Leaders Demand More Demonstrations Following Deadly Clashes, VENEZUELANALYSIS, Feb 13th 2014
[vii] Jean-Guy Allard, Para destruir la obra de Chávez, la CIA apuesta por López, el fascista que crió, TWITTER: @AllardJeanGuy
[viii] Carles Muntaner, Joan Benach, Maria Paez Victor, The Achievements of Hugo Chavez, COUNTERPUNCH, 20 December 2013.
[ix] http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/06-12-2012/120428-Venezuela_Lessons_in_Socialism-0/
[x] National Institute of Statistics, Agencia Venezolana de Noticias, 27 March 2012; Yolanda Valey, BBC, 4 March 2012
[xi] UN Human Development Index http://www.telesurtv.net/articulos/2013/03/16/venezuela-subio-en-el-indice-de-desarrollo-humano-segun-pnud-8411.html
[xii] Gallup Poll 2012; Happy Planet Sustainable Wellbeing Index, Global Footprint Network, 14 June 2012; New Economic foundation, 24 Oct. 2012; World Happiness Report, University of Columbia, 2012.
[xiii] Jesse Chacón, "La economÃa nacional en el context de la crisis global del capitalismo" 27 abril 2012, Agencia Venezolana de Noticias"
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/17/venezuela-under-attack-again/
Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans - Magda Hassan - 21-02-2014
Who is Leopoldo Lopez?
Leave a replyOslo Freedom Forum Leopoldo López from OsloFreedomForum on Vimeo.
Above: Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez speaks at the 2009 Oslo Freedom Forum organized by his first cousin, Thor Halvorssen
It is hard to argue that many of those involved in anti-government protests in Venezuela don't have legitimate grievances widespread insecurity and media repression cannot be ignored or that the government's charges against opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, including "terrorism," have been filed with sufficient substantiation.
But who is Lopez, and is there any evidence that his own methods are more democratic than those of the government he paints as corrupt and aims to topple through extra-constitutional means?
So far, US and international media has generally portrayed Lopez as an outspoken "maverick," alluding only in passing to his oligarchic pedigree and hardline right-wing politics. Lopez has been involved in coup attempts that aimed to oust Hugo Chavez since the late president was first elected. Lopez's leadership of the current round of protests after a hard fought election won by Chavez's successor, President Nicolas Maduro, appears to be an extension of those efforts.
I wrote about Lopez in my investigation of Thor Halvorssen and his Potemkin Village-like Human Rights Foundation. Halvorssen is a former right-wing campus activist who has leveraged his fortune to establish a political empire advancing a transparently neoconservative agenda behind the patina of human rights.
Among Halvorssen's main PR megaphones is Buzzfeed, whose correspondent Rosie Gray flew to Oslo in 2013 to write a fawning profile of him and his Oslo Freedom Forum. (Gray has not disclosed whether Halvorssen covered her travel expenses or provided her with resources like food and lodging). Michael Moynihan, another writer who was flown to Oslo to participate in Halvorssen's confab, published an editorial in the Daily Beast this week praising "the handsome, telegenic, and Harvard-trained Leopoldo Lopez" and slamming President Nicolas Maduro as "Mussolini-on-the-piazza." The Daily Beast followed up with a translated version of the dramatic and carefully staged speech Lopez delivered before he turned himself in to Venezuelan authorities, which Halvorssen promptly promoted on Twitter.
Besides being the son of a CIA asset who channeled money from Venezuelan oligarchs to the Nicaraguan Contras, Halvorssen happens to be Lopez's first cousin Leopoldo is the son of Thor's oil executive aunt. Through his human rights apparatus, he has played a critical role in marketing Lopez to an international audience.
In 2009, Halvorssen showcased Lopez at his Oslo Freedom Forum, presenting him beside figures like Elie Wiesel and Vaclav Havel as a "human rights leader." I wrote about the unusual spectacle for Electronic Intifada:
In 2010, Halvorssen invited his first cousin, the Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, to speak at the Oslo Freedom Forum. Lopez, the Harvard-educated mayor of a wealthy district in Caracas, was among the politicians who signed as witnesses in the new government after Chavez was briefly ousted in the failed US-backed coup in 2002.
Lopez is the son of a former oil executive Halvorssen's aunt who allegedly funnelled profits from the state-run oil company into his new political party, leading to corruption charges that placed his political ambitions in peril, as the Associated Press reported in February ("Leopoldo Lopez, Opponent Of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Faces Corruption Charges In Venezuela").
Described by the US embassy in Venezuela as "vindictive, and power-hungry" but also as "a necessity," Lopez received large sums of financial support from the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy.
At the 2009 Oslo Freedom Forum, Lopez was a presented as a "human rights leader,"appearing at an event that had been graced by Nobel Prize recipient Elie Wiesel and Nobel nominee Vaclav Havel. He stirred his audience with lofty rhetoric about peace, democracy and the coming wave of freedom, casting the Venezuelan opposition as "David against Goliath." "We know that we will overcome," Lopez proclaimed, "we know that change will come in Venezuela."
Noting that Lopez's appearance at the Oslo Freedom Forum was covered far more heavily in Venezuelan media than in Oslo, where it was virtually ignored, Manifestaccused Halvorssen of using his human rights confab for the purpose of "whitewashing Leopoldo Lopez … to establish a real contender for the Venezuelan presidency."
The magazine described the Oslo Freedom Forum as a cleverly crafted "Washing Machine."
http://maxblumenthal.com/2014/02/who-is-leopoldo-lopez/
Lopez is the son of a former oil executive Halvorssen's aunt who allegedly funnelled profits from the state-run oil company into his new political party, leading to corruption charges that placed his political ambitions in peril, as the Associated Press reported in February ("Leopoldo Lopez, Opponent Of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Faces Corruption Charges In Venezuela").
Described by the US embassy in Venezuela as "vindictive, and power-hungry" but also as "a necessity," Lopez received large sums of financial support from the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy.
At the 2009 Oslo Freedom Forum, Lopez was a presented as a "human rights leader,"appearing at an event that had been graced by Nobel Prize recipient Elie Wiesel and Nobel nominee Vaclav Havel. He stirred his audience with lofty rhetoric about peace, democracy and the coming wave of freedom, casting the Venezuelan opposition as "David against Goliath." "We know that we will overcome," Lopez proclaimed, "we know that change will come in Venezuela."
Noting that Lopez's appearance at the Oslo Freedom Forum was covered far more heavily in Venezuelan media than in Oslo, where it was virtually ignored, Manifestaccused Halvorssen of using his human rights confab for the purpose of "whitewashing Leopoldo Lopez … to establish a real contender for the Venezuelan presidency."
The magazine described the Oslo Freedom Forum as a cleverly crafted "Washing Machine."
http://maxblumenthal.com/2014/02/who-is-leopoldo-lopez/
Venezuela: WikiLeaks confirms US plans - Magda Hassan - 21-02-2014
The media is our window on the world but what if that window is dirtied and blurred? How can we really know what's happening in, say, Venezuela, where an increasingly authoritarian government with Marxist inclinations is up against a rebellion by middle-and-working class folks and the US government is further muddying the picture by rather openly aiding and directing the opposition?
It used to be that we couldn't know the reality on the ground without a great deal of research combined with actually going there. These days, however, technology has conquered distance and displaced the gumshoe approach and the library stacks at least insofar as grasping events in their immediacy. We have the Internet, and specifically we have the Twitterverse, where one can reach out to people on the other side of the globe and get a response in mere seconds.
This immediacy is a check on governments everywhere: what they do in the dark, or what is observed through the blurred lens of biased observers, is now played out on the world stage. There is no hiding from the Internet unless the "off" switch is pulled. State-owned communications networks can monitor and cut off the flow of information into and out of their domain but even this is problematic. There are ways to get around it.
Technology has forced repressive states into a corner: if state officials refrain from pulling the "off" switch, then they risk the chance that events will spiral out of control and they'll find themselves living in exile, or perhaps in a high security prison. If they clamp down, they'll be admitting to the world and their own people that all the rhetoric about "freedom" and "self-determination" they emit in to justify their rule is so much hogwash.
These rhetorical defenses are not just noise, although it certainly sounds that way. Elites require legitimacy, i.e. some form of consent by the governed. Even in societies where elections are either nonexistent or else quite limited in their impact on how and by whom the country is actually ruled.
The act of cutting off the Internet, or some aspect of it, is therefore a serious step for any government to take and, yes, before you ask, there is an American "off switch." But before officials take that step they must consider the political implications and think about how to take such an enormous hit to their credibility. To some governments, such as the North Korean regime, that wouldn't matter quite so much, since they have no credibility to begin with. To others say, the US or some other Western country such a decree would have enormous consequences, which is why it is almost (but not quite) inconceivable, at least in the present context.
To a nation such as Venezuela, however, which is on the cusp of authoritarian rule, turning off the Internet, or even messing with it around the margins, could throw the game to one side or the other. Which is why this Bloomberg story claiming the leftist government of President Nicolás Maduro Moros did so, published on the eve of violent protests against the regime, is so important.
The piece reports not only claims from opposition activists that the government was censoring images of the protests and rampant violence by the State sent via Twitter, but also a statement from Twitter spokesman and Washington lobbyist Nu Wexler that definitively pins the blame on direct government censorship.
But how definitive was Wexler's accusation? As it turns out, not very.
Wexler's claim is undone by the product his own company specifically this Twitter account, which clearly shows photos of police beatings and shootings by state actors, transmitted over a period of days. The protest images start here, on February 12, and continue uninterrupted until the present day.
I reached out to the journalist tweeting these images and asked about the censorship charge. The answer: "I haven't had any problems to tweet photos today." Yes, but what about yesterday, and the day before, when the violence was at its height? The answer was pretty definitive: "OK but I insist: I haven't had any problem to tweet photos."
"I insist" but so does Twitter spokesman Wexler. So do the three reporters responsible for the Bloomberg piece. I contacted two out of three of those reporters, but they couldn't be bothered to reply. I also contacted one of the editors of the story: no response.
So who's right and who's lying wrong?
Back in the day, in the year 1 B.T. (Before Twitter), we would have no way of knowing. Today, however, we do know because the evidence is right there in front of our eyes, courtesy of one Indira Guerrero, the director of Noticias Radio, an outlet that is not even part of the opposition indeed, this account disdains it as a pro-government mouthpiece. On the other hand, this report of a speech given by militant anti-government Leopoldo Lopez now wanted by the authorities for sedition notes it was broadcast by Noticias, hardly what one would expect from a Chavista propaganda organ. In any case, here is a real reporter living in Caracas who witnessed the events she chronicles and unwittingly undermined a key talking point of the regime's international critics, the US government among them.
There was no censorship of Twitter, either of photos or text. Yet the Bloomberg story went out over the wires, was picked up by every major news outlet in the Western world, and soon achieved the status of the undisputed Conventional Wisdom. Those dirty rotten commies in Venezuela were not only clubbing and shooting their own citizens, but they also were hiding the evidence!
Except they weren't hiding the evidence: it was and is there for all to see.
Washington's war on the Chavistas is a matter of public record: the US government has been funding the opposition since the now departed Hugo Chavez came to power, and the heavy hand of the Bush administration was no doubt involved in a 2002 coup attempt a brazenly stupid move that only served to cement Chavez's rule.
Governments want to control the flow the information, and the Venezuelan regime is hardly an exception to that inflexible rule. Maduro and his avowedly socialist party have moved to muzzle opposition media outlets, and mobilized mobs of their supporters in order to tamp down rising criticism of their haplessly incompetent rule. The country is a mess, with skyrocketing inflation, endemic shortages of basic necessities, and a crime rate shocking to our delicate Western sensibilities. Yet the Chavistas aren't stupid: they know they'd face a backlash at home and abroad if they dared clamp down the way some of them would probably like to.
And they aren't the only ones who want to control the flow of information about what is happening on the ground in Venezuela (and elsewhere). After all, Edward Snowden has shown the US government aspires to worldwide control of information flows: as Glenn Greenwald puts it, their goal is to eliminate the very concept of privacy. And not only that, but, as history shows, Washington is not above manipulating both the media and private companies in order to achieve its foreign policy goals one of which is the overthrow of Chavista rule in Venezuela.
There is no evidence of direct collaboration between the journalistic and corporate entities that spread the narrative about the alleged "censorship" of Twitter. Yet such direct links are quite unnecessary: news media who want access to government officials and companies that want to avoid angering regulators don't need to be told what to say.
This is how the media is controlled in a "democratic" society and it's only a difference in degree from what occurs on a daily basis in Venezuela, Russia, or some other non-Western country in America's crosshairs. It usually isn't as brazen as what goes on in, say, Zimbabwe or Belarus, but neither is it all that subtle especially now that technology gives the detectives among us the tools to track down the truth behind the lies. And as the reactions of some Western governments to Snowden's revelations have shown, the mandarins of the "liberal" democracies are capable of throwing subtlety entirely out the window when pressed.
What we have seen in the West is the veritable merger of the political class with the media elite until the two are virtually indistinguishable. Journalists working in the "mainstream" media are little more than servitors of the State, their role reduced to transcribing the pronouncements of government officials rather than embracing the traditionally adversarial role of the press in a free society.
This is why we started Antiwar.com in the first place: I vividly recall watching the loquacious and quite opinionated Christiane Amanpour nearly demanding US military intervention as she "reported" on the conflict in the Balkans. Ms. Amanpour, by the way, was (and still is) married to James Rubin, State Department spokesman at the time. Talk about the marriage of journalism and State! The two were a veritable interventionist tag-team and CNN, you'll recall, was the biggest (and I think the only) cable news organization.
It was left to the Internet's nascent alternative media mainly Antiwar.com to bring the unvarnished truth about that nasty little war to the American people. And although the government largely got away with successfully manipulating the media and the public that time, the Internet was growing at such a pace that they soon lost control of the narrative. As the target shifted from the Balkans to the Middle East, Antiwar.com's audience and credibility had grown sufficiently to pose a real challenge to the Established Wisdom.
Today, this website with a worldwide audience growing by the day continues to debunk the lies put out by our arrogant rulers, who still think they can pull the wool over the eyes of a supposedly gullible public. Except they increasingly can't: when they lie, it doesn't take all that much to expose them. Anyone with a computer and a detective's sense of where the bodies are buried can unearth the truth about what is really going on and why our government doesn't want us to know about it.
This is why Antiwar.com is so vital to those of us who want to live in a more peaceful world.
You won't read about the deception surrounding the alleged "censoring" of Twitter in what passes for the mainstream media: not only are they in league with the very people they're supposed to be fact-checking but they're also incredibly lazy. They just couldn't be bothered to check Twitter to see if the claims of censorship were correct: not even Twitter's spokesman in Washington took the trouble to use his own company's new and improved search function to discover the reality hiding beneath the propaganda. Or maybe he knew better than to contradict the officials of a national security state who are doing everything they can to violate the privacy of Twitter's many customers.
I don't and can't know what value you place on a service like this: what is the truth worth to you, anyway?
In my world, it's priceless, but as any student of Austrian economics can tell you, value is subjective: like beauty, it exists in the eyes of the beholder. You might care more about the next episode of House of Cards than the continued existence of Antiwar.com, and make your spending choices accordingly. On the other hand, it could be that you recognize and care about the difference between fiction and reality, between entertainment and enlightenment, enough to contribute to our fundraising drive.
Because we desperately certainly need your tax-deductible contribution, especially now when the survival of independent journalism on the foreign policy front is so essential. As the US government moves to consolidate and extend its overseas empire, invoking the eternal "war on terrorism" to justify not only military intervention but also an all-pervasive surveillance system on the home front, the stakes have gone way up. The battle we've been fighting since 1998 yes, we've been around that long shows every sign of reaching a rather dramatic climax, as the American people wake up to the threat posed to peace and freedom emanating from their own government.
We can win this battle but not without your help. Please help us end this fundraising drive successfully: make your donation today.
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/02/16/was-twitter-censored-by-the-venezuelan-government/