In
het hieronder opgenomen artikel van Alexander Rubinstein beschrijft
hij hoe de partij van Guaidó, een nog voor dit jaar onbeduidende oppositiepartij, nu al
wordt geplaagd door verregaande corruptie…. Dit terwijl deze partij
door de VS en de rest van het westen werd gebombardeerd tot de
grootste oppositiepartij en daarmee werd Guaidó gebombardeerd tot
oppositieleider……
Zoals gezegd: voordat
de VS en haar hielenlikkende westerse partners Guaidó tot interim president uitriepen (alsof de VS, Canada, de EU en anderen daartoe gemachtigd zijn…..), was deze figuur bij het grootste deel van het
Venezolaanse volk niet bekend….
Na
alle leugens over Maduro die zijn volk zou uithongeren door zijn
‘desastreuze economisch beleid’, waarbij men hem zelfs beschuldigde
van corruptie (zonder enig bewijs), blijkt nu dat de partij van
Guaidó, Voluntad Popular (‘de wil van het volk’) zich nu al schuldig maakt aan grootschalige corruptie, terwijl het geen regeringsverantwoordelijkheid draagt…..*
Lees
het volgende artikel, eerder op MintPress News en door mij
overgenomen van Anti-Media, waarin Rubinstein o.a. schrijft over het
popconcert (behoorlijk mislukt overigens) door Richard Branson georganiseerd en dat net over de Venezolaanse grens in Colombia. De
opbrengsten werden gebruikt voor o.a. hotels, prostituees, verdovende
middelen, dure kleding en auto’s….. Opvallend trouwens hoe weinig
reguliere westerse mediaorganen dit nieuws brachten, e.e.a. vooral in een paar regels
ver weg in de krant……
Tja,
als je al maanden leugens verkondigt en Guaidó afschildert als een
held, is het natuurlijk niet leuk om te zien dat de partij van deze
fascistische psychopaat nu al is verwikkeld in corruptie…. Men zegt
nu als verdediging dat het maar een paar figuren uit de partij van
Guaidó zijn, echter reken maar dat dit weer het spreekwoordelijke
topje van de ijsberg is, gezien de manipulaties en het enorme aantal leugens…….
Het volgende artikel werd geschreven door Alexander Rubinstein, werd eerder gepubliceerd op MintPress News en door mij overgenomen van Anti-Media:
Massive
Embezzlement Scandal Threatens Juan Guaido’s Political Future
(oplichter Guaidó misbruikt zijn kind voor politieke doeleinden……)
June
18, 2019 at 2:54 pm
Written
by Alexander
Rubinstein
(MPN) — The
political party of Juan Guaido — Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) —
was never all that popular to begin with. The sixth
largest political
party in Venezuela, Popular Will is heavily financed by
the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Now,
a recently exposed embezzlement scandal in Colombia risks to further
alienate the party from the Venezuelan people.
What
was supposed to be Guaido’s watershed moment has instead turned out
to be a public-relations failure far worse than his quickly quelled
attempted military coup, which MintPress
News reported caused
even the New
York Times to
describe Guaido as “deflated.”
What
happened in Colombia appears to be so damning that not only is the
Colombian intelligence service leaking documents exposing wrongdoing
by Popular Will representatives appointed by Guaido, but the
Organization of American States (OAS) — which is typically just as
pro-opposition as the Colombian government — has called for an
investigation.
In
a tweet issued
June 14 at 10:47 p.m. Venezuela time, Guaido called on his ambassador
to Colombia — whom he had shut out of the aid event — to formally
request an investigation by Colombian authorities, whose
already-existing investigation is the reason the story came out in
the first place. That was more than four
hours after
Secretary General of the OAS Luis Almagro called for an investigation
that would clarify the “serious charges,” identify those
responsible and effectuate accountability.
But
Guaido had already been well aware of the charges, having dismissed
his appointees who appear to be ringleaders of the embezzlement
scheme. According to the report, he was contacted by the journalist
who exposed the scandal 30 days before the story was published.
What
happened in Cúcuta isn’t staying in Cúcuta
There’s
barely a peep about the scandal in the Western press. A Google News
search for “Juan Guaido scandal” and “Popular Will scandal”
turned up nothing of relevance at the time of this article’s
writing. But on Latin America social media, everyone is buzzing about
it. American journalist Dan Cohen appears to be the first to
highlight the scandal to an English-speaking audience.
It
started with a request from Juan Guaido to billionaire investor
and regime-change
enthusiast Richard
Branson.
The
stated purpose of the concert was to help raise funds for
humanitarian aid and spotlight the economic crisis. At least that’s
how it was billed to Americans. To Venezuela’s upper class, it
was touted as
the “trendiest concert of the decade.”
It
was to be a congregation of the elite with the ostensible purpose of
raising funds for the poor.
One
director of Popular Will told Vice
News in
2014 that “the bulk of the opposition protesters are from the
middle and upper classes and are led by Venezuela’s elite.” The
class character of the opposition has not changed since.
Meanwhile,
USAID was to coordinate the delivery of aid alongside Guaido; and
Elliot Abrams, who in Guatemala used “humanitarian aid” as cover
for the delivery of weapons into the country, is running the White
House’s policies toward Venezuela. And so the aid was widely
criticized, even by the International Red Cross, as politicized. By
others, it was called a Trojan Horse.
The
concert was held in Colombia across a bridge linking the country to
Venezuela. International media had claimed Venezuelan President
Nicholas Maduro had the bridge shut down to prevent the delivery of
aid, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that the “Maduro
regime must LET THE AID REACH THE STARVING PEOPLE.” But the bridge,
in fact, has never
been opened for
use.
Nonetheless,
Richard Branson sought to raise $100 million and promised that Guiado
“will be coming to the other side of the bridge with maybe a
million of his supporters.” In the end, it was a little more than
200,000 who came.
Meanwhile,
Guaido told the President of Colombia, Ivan Duque, that more than
1,450 soldiers had defected from the military to join them. But that
figure was also inflated. A new report by PanAmPress, a
Miami-based libertarian newspaper, reveals that it was just 700. “You
can count on your fingers the number of decent soldiers who are
there,” one local told the outlet.
Despite
the low turnout, organizers lived it up in Colombia. Representatives
from Popular Will, which rejects the socialist leadership of
Venezuela, found themselves living like socialites across the border.
There
were earlier signs of excess and debauchery. One Popular Will
representative was hospitalized and his assistant found dead after
overdosing while taking drugs with prostitutes, although Senator
Marco Rubio (R-FL) claims they were poisoned.
The
inflated soldier count meant more funds for the organizers, who were
charged with putting them up in hotel rooms. Guaido’s “army was
small but at this point it had left a very bad impression in Cucuta.
Prostitutes, alcohol, and violence. They demanded and demanded,”
the report said.
They
also left a bad taste in the mouth of the authorities. The Colombian
government was supposed to pay for some of the hotels, the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees was to cover the costs of others, while
Guaido’s people were only going to pony up the cash for two of the
seven hotels.
But
Popular Will never paid, leaving one hotel with a debt of $20,000.
When the situation became completely untenable, the hotel kicked 65
soldiers and their families to the curb. One soldier anonymously told
the outlet that the party was not taking care of their financial
needs as promised.
Guaido’s
ambassador to Colombia took money out of his own pocket to try to
resolve the dispute, but the check bounced.
The
responsibility of taking care of the needs of the defectors went to
Popular Will militants Rossana Barrera and Kevin Rojas, as decreed by
Juan Guaido in a signed statement. They were also charged with
overseeing the humanitarian aid.
Barrera
is the sister-in-law of Popular Will member of Congress Sergio
Vargara, Guaido’s right-hand man. She and Rojas were managing all
the funds.
But
the pair started to live well outside their means, a Colombian
intelligence source told the outlet. “They gave me all the
evidence,” writes PanAmPress reporter Orlando
Avendano. “Receipts that show excesses, some strangely from
different check books, signed the same day but with identical writing
styles.”
Rojas
and Berrera were spending nearly a thousand dollars at a time in the
hotels and nightclubs. Similar amounts were spent at times on
luxurious dinners and fancy drinks. They went on clothes shopping
sprees at high-end retail outlets in the capital. They reportedly
overcharged the fund on vehicle rentals and the hotels, making off
with the extra cash. Berrera even told Popular Will that she was
paying for all seven hotels, not just the two. And they provided
Guaido with the fake figure of more than 1,450 military defectors
that needed accommodation.
In
order to keep the funds flowing, Rojas and Berrera pitched a benefit
dinner for the soldiers to Guiado’s embassy in Colombia. But when
the embassy refused to participate, Berrera created a fake email
address posing as a representative of the embassy, sending
invitations to Israeli and U.S. diplomats. They canceled the event
after Guaido’s embassy grew wise to the scheme and alerted those
invited.
“The
whole government of Colombia knew about it: the intelligence
community, the presidency, and the foreign ministry,”
writes PanAmPress,
calling it an “open secret” by the time Guaido dismissed the
pair. But that was after Guaido had been defending them staunchly,
trying to avoid a firing by transferring responsibilities to the
embassy.
Berrera
was called to the embassy for a financial audit, represented by Luis
Florido, a founding member of Popular Will. She turned in just a
fraction of the records uncovered by Colombian intelligence,
accounting for only $100,000 in expenditures. “The [real] amount is
large,” the outlet reports, citing an intelligence agent who says
far more was blown.
Meanwhile,
“at least 60 percent of the food donated” by foreign governments
“was damaged.”
“The
food is rotten, they tell me,” the PanAmPress reporter
said, adding that he was shown photographs. “They don’t know how
to deal with it without causing a scandal. I suppose they will burn
it.”
It
isn’t yet known exactly how much was embezzled by Popular Will, but
it is likely the truth will come out in due time, and more
investigations are likely underway. On Monday, Venezuelan defectors
said they will hold a press conference in Cucuta, showcasing more
corruption by Popular Will. For now, however, the fallout remains to
be seen.
Guaidone?
One
thing is certain: the scandal threatens to end Juan Guaido’s 15
minutes of fame. The de facto opposition leader had little name
recognition inside Venezuela and never won a political position with
more than 100,000 votes behind him. But the overnight sensation never
had a lengthy life expectancy anyway.
Though
he received so few votes (Venezuela’s population is nearly 32
million), Guaido became the president of the National Assembly
because the body is controlled by a coalition of opposition groups,
despite President Nicolas Maduro’s PSUV Party being the largest in
the country. That was in January, and the length of the term lasts
only one year. In 2015, the opposition coalition decided that after
each term, the seat would be rotated to a representative of a
different opposition party. While there is no law barring Guaido from
being appointed president of the National Assembly again, tradition
runs counter to it and another party may want to seize on a chance to
get into the limelight.
Supporters
of the coup — and Guaido’s self-declaration as interim president
— claim that Maduro is derelict of his duties, which justifies a
transition of presidential power according to the constitution. But
the article that allows for such a transition in certain cases
stipulates that ”a new election by universal suffrage and direct
ballot shall be held within 30 consecutive days.”
To
date, Guaido has run 145 days past his deadline to have elections
held, and the opposition has made
it clear they
are not willing to accept new elections if Maduro runs.
This,
of course, makes little dent in Guaido’s legitimacy in the eyes of
the U.S. and other countries that have recognized his presidency.
U.S. allies in Latin America have shown over the past few years that
they have little regard for the sanctity of their constitutions. In
2017, a U.S.-backed candidate in Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez,
ran for re-election in explicit violation of that country’s
constitution and only wound up winning through fraud. Last week,
Ecuador made the decision to allow the U.S. military to operate from
an airfield in the Galapagos Islands despite a constitutional
provision stating that the “establishment of foreign military bases
or foreign facilities for military purposes shall not be allowed.”
By Alexander
Rubinstein / Creative
Commons / MintPress
News / Report
a typo
================================
*
De VS heeft de partij van Guaidó waarschijnlijk uitgekozen daar de
rest van de oppositie zich al schuldig had gemaakt aan corruptie en
er over de onbeduidende partij van Guaidó, die zoals gezegd amper
bekend was, veel minder misdadig gedrag vertoonde en zelfs al zou
deze partij zich daar schuldig aan hebben gemaakt, men kende Guaidó
en zijn partij niet en berichten over corruptie zouden daarom al snel verdwijnen naar ‘pagina 80’ van de landelijke media……
Zie ook:
‘Max Blumenthal (journalist van The Grayzone) in feite gearresteerd voor berichtgeving over belagen Venezolaanse ambassade in VS‘
‘Venezolaanse ambassade Washington gewelddadig ontruimd‘
‘Tirannie op de straten van Washington, een vergelijking met de start van nazi-Duitsland‘
‘Venezolaanse ambassade in Washington belaagd, er mag zelfs geen voedsel worden gebracht….‘
VS gaat door met uithongeren Venezolaanse volk >> de westerse wereld negeert deze afschuwelijke oorlogsmisdaad‘
Reuters houdt rapport tegen over 40.000 Venezolaanse doden door VS sancties‘
‘Guaidó wil 4 miljoen Venezolaanse paspoorten om o.a. een grote achterban voor hem te vormen‘
‘Venezuela: overleg in Noorwegen eindigde met telefoongesprek tussen Guaidó en Pence‘
‘Venezuela: Edwin Koopmans (o.a. ‘deskundige’ van VPRO) met anti-Maduro propaganda‘
‘Venezuela: ‘studentenprotest’ wordt uitgevoerd door ingehuurde troepen………‘ (waarin een Nederlander die 15 jaar lang in Venezuela ondernemer was, met ‘een iets ander verhaal’ dan Koopmans)
‘Edwin Koopman (VPRO Bureau Buitenland) over Venezolaanse verkiezingen met anti-Maduro propaganda bij de ‘onafhankelijke NOS…..‘
‘Venezuela: VS ministerie van BuZa publiceert per ongeluk een lijst met sadistische terreurdaden tegen het Venezolaanse volk‘
‘Pence to offer ‘carrots’ to Venezuela military, warnings to judges‘
‘Venezuela: VS zal desnoods militair geweld gebruiken om een vreedzame overgang van regime te bewerkstelligen…… ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!‘
‘Venezuela: ultieme couppoging van Guaidó mislukt‘
‘Trump vermoordde al 40.000 Venezolaanse burgers‘
‘Venezuela: humanitaire hulp stunt van de VS ingegeven om de kruistocht tegen Maduro een versnelling te geven‘
‘Venezuela: 4 belangrijke zaken aangaande humanitaire hulp waarover de reguliere media niet berichten‘
‘Trump en Bolton bedreigen openlijk de familie van Venezolaanse militairen‘
‘Congreslid Ilhan Omar fileert het monster Elliot Abrams, de speciale gezant van de VS voor Venezuela‘
Venezuela: de anti-propaganda van John Oliver (en het grootste deel westerse massamedia) feilloos doorgeprikt‘
‘BBC World Service radio >> fake news and other lies about Venezuela‘ (bericht van dit blog)
‘Joel Voordewind (CU 2de Kamer) bakt de ‘Venezolaanse vluchtelingencrisis’ op Curaçao wel erg bruin en van Ojik (GL 2de Kamer) schiet een Venezolaanse bok‘
‘Venezolaanse verandering van regime bekokstoofd door VS en massamedia‘
‘Guaidó is een ordinaire couppleger van de VS, e.e.a. gaat volledig in tegen de Venezolaanse constitutie‘
‘Venezuela >> regime change: ‘de 12 stappen methode’ die de VS gebruikt‘
‘Venezuela >> VS economische oorlogsvoering met gebruikmaking van o.a. IMF en Wereldbank‘
‘Venezuela ontwricht, wat de reguliere media u niet vertellen……..‘
‘VS steunt rechtse coalitie (MUD) in Venezuela………‘
‘Venezuela’s US-Backed Opposition Turns Up The Violence Following Assembly Vote‘
‘10 Things You Need to Know About the Terrorist Attack in Venezuela‘
‘Venezuelans in the Streets to Support Constituent Assembly‘
‘What Mainstream Media Got Wrong About Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly Vote‘ (met mogelijkheid tot directe vertaling)
‘The Left and Venezuela‘ (met mogelijkheid tot directe vertaling)
‘Abby Martin Busts Open Myths on Venezuela’s Food Crisis: ‘Shelves Fully Stocked’‘ (zie ook de video in dat artikel!)
![National Accord Government troops clash military commander Khalifa Haftar's troops on course of the airport in Al Sawani region of Tripoli, Libya on 15 May 2019 [Amru Salahuddien/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/20190515_2_36469609_44497116.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&quality=75&strip=all&ssl=1)
