By Eva Golinger
Anti-government protests in Venezuela that seek regime change have
been led by several individuals and organizations with close ties to the US
government. Leopoldo Lopez and Maria Corina Machado- two of the public leaders
behind the violent protests that started in February - have long histories as
collaborators, grantees and agents of Washington. The National Endowment for
Democracy “NED” and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have
channeled multi-million dollar funding to Lopez’s political parties Primero
Justicia and Voluntad Popular, and Machado’s NGO Sumate and her electoral
campaigns.
These Washington agencies have also filtered more than $14 million
to opposition groups in Venezuela between 2013 and 2014, including funding for
their political campaigns in 2013 and for the current anti-government protests
in 2014. This continues the pattern of financing from the US government to
anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela since 2001, when millions of dollars were given
to organizations from so-called “civil society” to execute a coup d’etat
against President Chavez in April 2002. After their failure days later, USAID
opened an Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in Caracas to, together with
the NED, inject more than $100 million in efforts to undermine the Chavez
government and reinforce the opposition during the following 8 years.
At the beginning of 2011, after being publically exposed for its
grave violations of Venezuelan law and sovereignty, the OTI closed its doors inVenezuela and USAID operations were transferred to its offices in the US. The
flow of money to anti-government groups didn’t stop, despite the enactment by
Venezuela’s National Assembly of the Law of Political Sovereignty and NationalSelf-Determination at the end of 2010, which outright prohibits foreign funding
of political groups in the country. US agencies and the Venezuelan groups that
receive their money continue to violate the law with impunity. In the Obama
Administration’s Foreign Operations Budgets, between $5-6 million have been
included to fund opposition groups in Venezuela through USAID since 2012.
The NED, a “foundation” created by Congress in 1983 to essentially
do the CIA’s work overtly, has been one of the principal financiers of
destabilization in Venezuela throughout the Chavez administration and now
against President Maduro. According to NED’s 2013 annual report, the agency
channeled more than $2.3 million to Venezuelan opposition groups and projects.
Within that figure, $1,787,300 went
directly to anti-government groups within Venezuela, while another $590,000 was
distributed to regional organizations that work with and fund the Venezuelan
opposition. More than $300,000 was directed
towards efforts to develop a new generation of youth leaders to oppose Maduro’s
government politically.
One of the groups funded by NED to specifically work with youth is
FORMA (http://www.forma.org.ve), an organization led by Cesar Briceño and tied to Venezuelan
banker Oscar Garcia Mendoza. Garcia Mendoza runs the Banco Venezolano de Credito,
a Venezuelan bank that has served as the filter for the flow of dollars from
NED and USAID to opposition groups in Venezuela, including Sumate, CEDICE, Sin
Mordaza, Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones and FORMA, amongst others.
Another significant part of NED funds in Venezuela from 2013-2014 was
given to groups and initiatives that work in media and run the campaign to
discredit the government of President Maduro. Some of the more active media
organizations outwardly opposed to Maduro and receiving NED funds include Espacio
Publico, Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS), Sin Mordaza and GALI. Throughout
the past year, an unprecedented media war has been waged against the Venezuelan
government and President Maduro directly, which has intensified during the past
few months of protests.
In direct violation of Venezuelan law, NED also funded the opposition
coalition, the Democratic Unity Table (MUD), via the US International
Republican Institute (IRI), with $100,000 to “share lessons learned with
[anti-government groups] in Nicaragua, Argentina and Bolivia...and allow for
the adaption of the Venezuelan experience in these countries”. Regarding this initiative, the NED 2013
annual report specifically states its aim: “To develop the ability of political and civil society actors from Nicaragua,
Argentina and Bolivia to work on national, issue-based agendas for their
respective countries using lessons learned and best practices from successful
Venezuelan counterparts. The Institute will facilitate an exchange of
experiences between the Venezuelan Democratic Unity Roundtable and counterparts
in Bolivia, Nicaragua and Argentina. IRI will bring these actors together
through a series of tailored activities that will allow for the adaptation of
the Venezuelan experience in these countries.”
IRI has helped to build
right-wing opposition parties Primero Justicia and Voluntad Popular, and has
worked with the anti-government coaltion in Venezuela since before the 2002
coup d’etat against Chavez. In fact, IRI’s president at that time, George
Folsom, outwardly applauded the coup and celebrated IRI’s role in a pressrelease claiming, “The Institute has served as a bridge between the nation’s
political parties and all civil society groups to help Venezuelans forge a new
democratic future…”
Detailed in a report published by the Spanish institute FRIDE in
2010, international agencies that fund the Venezuelan opposition violate
currency control laws in order to get their dollars to the recipients. Also
confirmed in the FRIDE report was the fact that the majority of international
agencies, with the exception of the European Commission, are bringing in
foreign money and changing it on the black market, in clear violation of
Venezuelan law. In some cases, as the FRIDE analysis reports, the
agencies open bank accounts abroad for the Venezuelan groups or they bring them
the money in hard cash. The US Embassy in Caracas could also use the diplomatic
pouch to bring large quantities of unaccounted dollars and euros into the
country that are later handed over illegally to anti-government groups in
Venezuela.
What is
clear is that the US government continues to feed efforts to destabilize
Venezuela in clear violation of law. Stronger legal measures and enforcement may be necessary to ensure the
sovereignty and defense of Venezuela’s democracy.
