almagro o a s

<div>=</div><div>
</div><div>see venezuela</div><div>
</div><div>=</div><div>
<ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 17.64px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><li style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px; list-style: none; direction: ltr;"><h4 class="subheader" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; direction: ltr; line-height: 1.2em;">=nyt</h4></li></ul><div>When the

opposition leader Juan Guaidó was briefly detained by Venezuelan

intelligence agents last week, some saw the hand of another government

at work.

“This specific agency will be controlled

& directed by experienced oppressors sent by #Cuba & these

kinds of tactics are textbook methods used by the Cuban regime,” Senator

Marco Rubio of Florida said on Twitter.

Cuba seems to loom over the political

crisis roiling Venezuela as President Nicolás Maduro faces a robust

challenge via Mr. Guiadó, who declared himself interim leader This

specific past week.

Cuba will be a longtime ally of

Venezuela in addition to its biggest supporter inside the region. The

government of President Miguel Díaz-Canel has offered Mr. Maduro its

“unwavering solidarity” in addition to called Venezuela’s political

turmoil “the attempt to impose a coup d’état, a puppet government at the

service of the United States.”

<div>

inside the view of many of Mr. Maduro’s

opponents, however, Cuba will be to blame in large part for the

Venezuelan president’s endurance in office. They point to the presence

of Cuban operatives inside the country — spies, intelligence in addition

to political advisers, counterintelligence agents, military trainers —

in addition to contend that will they have propped up Mr. Maduro by

helping to suppress dissent within the armed forces in addition to

throughout society.

María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan

opposition leader, said in an interview that will the presence of Cubans

inside the Venezuelan armed forces was “unacceptable.” The Cuban

government, she insisted, “must understand that will they have to let go

of Venezuela.”

The two nations started out drawing

close with the election of Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, in

The relationship was driven by a deep friendship between Mr.

Chávez in addition to his Cuban counterpart at the time, Fidel Castro.

</div>

<div>

“They were very close, like a father-in

addition to-son relationship,” said Richard Feinberg, professor at the

University of California, San Diego, in addition to a specialist on the

Cuban economy.

The two leaders developed a close

economic in addition to political alliance. In addition to sending

security in addition to military specialists to Venezuela, Cuba sent

experts via additional professions — including doctors, nurses, teachers

in addition to athletic coaches — to beef up the South American

nation’s professional ranks.

</div>

<div>

Still, some analysts say that will while

Cuba’s support for the current Venezuelan government will be important,

that will ultimately will not be decisive.

“This specific claim that will Cuba will

be controlling Venezuela has been around, truly, since Chávez started

out,” said David Smilde, a sociology professor in addition to expert on

Venezuela at Tulane University. “that will’s been long overblown.”

The Cubans, he added, “are key

consultants in addition to advisers, nevertheless I don’t think they’re

calling the shots or telling them what to do.”

While former military officials who have

fled Venezuela have reported the involvement of Cubans within the

security in addition to intelligence forces, experts say the extent of

that will involvement remains shrouded in mystery.

In testimony to the United States Senate

in 2017, Luis Almagro, the secretary general of the Organization of

American States in addition to an outspoken critic of Mr. Maduro,

asserted that will there were about 15,000 Cubans in Venezuela in

addition to likened that will to “an occupation army.”

</div>

<div>

“There’s been a lot of speculation about

This specific, in addition to rumors about numbers in addition to about

how close they are to Maduro,” said Ted Piccone, a senior fellow in

foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. “nevertheless I haven’t

seen any hard, solid reporting on that will.”

Whatever the extent of Cuba’s support,

Venezuela for years supplied heavily subsidized crude oil to the island

nation, at a rate of about 100,000 barrels per day, experts said. Cuba

would certainly refine the surplus in addition to resell that will on

the international market.

</div>

<div>

According to a policy brief published by

the Brookings Institution, by 2012 the trade in goods in addition to

services amounted to 20.8 percent of Cuba’s gross domestic product.

During the Venezuelan economic crisis of

the past several years, however, crude exports to Cuba have dropped as

Venezuelan oil production has collapsed. In 2017, the financial health

of Venezuela’s state-run oil company, Pdvsa, had declined so much that

will Cuba took the company’s 49 percent share in a Cuban refinery as

payment for outstanding debts.

In addition, the ranks of Cuban

professionals working inside the South American country have thinned in

recent years, analysts say, in addition to the relationship between Mr.

Maduro in addition to the current Cuban leadership will be not nearly as

warm as the friendship between their predecessors.

“They are certainly ideological

brothers-in-arms — against the United States in addition to all that

will,” Mr. Piccone said. “nevertheless that will doesn’t hold the same

friendliness as that will used to. in addition to the Cubans aren’t

getting as much out of that will as they used to.”

Yet the alliance has been resilient.

Mr. Maduro said in a televised broadcast

This specific month that will Venezuela would certainly take in 2,000

Cuban doctors who left Brazil after a dispute between the Brazilian in

addition to Cuban governments. Medical clinics run by Cuban doctors once

proliferated throughout Venezuela, nevertheless many have fallen into

decay amid the economic crisis.

</div>

<div>

Political advisers still hold the ear of

key officials inside the Maduro administration, though Mr. Smilde said:

“Cubans often complain that will Maduro doesn’t listen to them.”

nevertheless perhaps most crucially to

Mr. Maduro, Cubans remain a key component inside the intelligence in

addition to military sectors, providing assistance with domestic

surveillance, electronic wiretapping, in addition to internal military

surveillance — to help squelch dissent in addition to shore up loyalty,

analysts said.

</div>

“A coup plot will be a big worry,” said

Harold Trinkunas, deputy director at the Center for International

Security in addition to Cooperation at Stanford University in addition

to an expert on Venezuela.

inside the absence of a clear

information about the extent of Cuban involvement in Venezuela, rumors

have spiraled, in addition to outside assessments have often been molded

for political convenience.

Speaking at a United Nations Security

Council meeting on Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed to

Cuba’s involvement in Venezuela, saying its intelligence officers have

brought their “own worst practices” to Caracas.

“No regime has done more to sustain the nightmarish conditions in Venezuela than the regime in Havana,” Mr. Pompeo said.

There will be plenty of motivation for

Cuba to remain as involved as possible to shore up the Maduro

administration. Havana risks losing an important economic benefactor,

not to mention a leftist ally in a region that will has lately seen a

rightward shift.

Should Mr. Guaidó in addition to the

opposition gain control in Caracas, “that will would certainly, of

course, be very bad news for Havana,” Mr. Piccone said. “They will very

quickly change the relationship with Cuba.”

</div></div><div>
</div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuela-coup-leader/254387/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuela-coup-leader/254387/</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small;"><p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/amp/?_twitter_impression=true" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Project</a> — Before the fateful day of January 22, <a href="https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1087447663153500166" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">fewer than one in five</a> Venezuelans had heard of Juan Guaidó. Only a few months ago, the 35-year-old was an obscure character in a politically marginal far-right group closely associated with gruesome acts of street violence. Even in his own party, Guaidó had been a mid-level figure in the opposition-dominated National Assembly, which is now held under contempt according to Venezuela’s constitution.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">But after a single phone call from US Vice President Mike Pence, Guaidó proclaimed himself as president of Venezuela. Anointed as the leader of his country by Washington, a previously unknown political bottom dweller was vaulted onto the international stage as the US-selected leader of the nation with the world’s largest oil reserves.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Echoing the Washington consensus, the New York Times editorial board <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/opinion/venezuela-guaido-maduro.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">hailed </a>Guaidó as a “credible rival” to Maduro with a “refreshing style and vision of taking the country forward.” The Bloomberg News editorial board <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-25/guaido-s-bold-stroke-for-democracy-in-venezuela" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">applauded</a> him for seeking “restoration of democracy” and the Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/revolt-in-venezuela-11548289111" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">declared</a> him “a new democratic leader.” Meanwhile, Canada, numerous European nations, Israel, and the bloc of right-wing Latin American governments known as the Lima Group recognized Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">While Guaidó seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, he was, in fact, the product of more than a decade of assiduous grooming by the US government’s elite regime change factories. Alongside a cadre of right-wing student activists, Guaidó was cultivated to undermine Venezuela’s socialist-oriented government, destabilize the country, and one day seize power. Though he has been a minor figure in Venezuelan politics, he had spent years quietly demonstrated his worthiness in Washington’s halls of power.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">“Juan Guaidó is a character that has been created for this circumstance,” Marco Teruggi, an Argentinian sociologist and leading chronicler of Venezuelan politics, told the Grayzone. “It’s the logic of a laboratory – Guaidó is like a mixture of several elements that create a character who, in all honesty, oscillates between laughable and worrying.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Diego Sequera, a Venezuelan journalist and writer for the investigative outlet, Mision Verdad, agreed: “Guaidó is more popular outside Venezuela than inside, especially in the elite Ivy League and Washington circles,” Sequera remarked to the Grayzone, “He’s a known character there, is predictably right-wing, and is considered loyal to the program.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">While Guaidó is today sold as the face of democratic restoration, he spent his career in the most violent faction of Venezuela’s most radical opposition party, positioning himself at the forefront of one destabilization campaign after another. His party has been widely discredited inside Venezuela, and is held partly responsible for fragmenting a badly weakened opposition.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">“‘These radical leaders have no more than 20 percent in opinion polls,” <a href="http://www.caraotadigital.net/nacionales/luis-vicente-leon-la-oposicion-politica-venezolana-vive-su-peor-momento-historico/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">wrote</a> Luis Vicente León, Venezuela’s leading pollster. According to Leon, Guaidó’s party remains isolated because the majority of the population “does not want war. ‘What they want is a solution.’”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">But this is precisely why he Guaidó was selected by Washington: he is not expected to lead Venezuela towards to democracy, but to collapse a country that for the past two decades has been a bulwark of resistance to US hegemony. His unlikely rise signals the culmination of a two-decades-long project to destroy a robust socialist experiment.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Targeting the “troika of tyranny”</h2><p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Since the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez, the United States has fought to restore control over Venezuela and is vast oil reserves. Chavez’s socialist programs may have redistributed the country’s wealth and helped lift millions out of poverty, but they also earned him a target on his back. In 2002, Venezuela’s right-wing opposition briefly ousted him with US support and recognition before the military restored his presidency following a mass popular mobilization. Throughout the administrations of US Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Chavez survived numerous assassination plots before succumbing to cancer in 2013. His successor, Nicolas Maduro, has <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/27/maduro-assassination-plot-venezuela_n_3820765.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">survived</a> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2344973.stm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">three attempts</a> on his life.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">The Trump administration immediately elevated Venezuela to the top of Washington’s regime change target list, branding it the leader of a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-national-security-advisor-ambassador-john-r-bolton-administrations-policies-latin-america/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">“troika of tyranny.”</a>Last year, Trump’s national security team <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/world/americas/donald-trump-venezuela-military-coup.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">attempted</a> to recruit members of the military brass to mount a military junta, but that effort failed. According to the Venezuelan government, the US was also involved in a plot codenamed Operation Constitution to capture Maduro at the Miraflores presidential palace, and another called <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-27/inside-the-failed-plot-to-overthrow-venezuelan-president-nicolas-maduro" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Operation Armageddon</a> to assassinate him at a military parade in July 2017. Just over a year later, exiled opposition leaders <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J71BT0stT3k" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">tried and failed to kill Maduro</a> with drone bombs during a military parade in Caracas.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">More than a decade before these intrigues, a group of right-wing opposition students were hand selected and groomed by an elite, US-funded regime change training academy to topple Venezuela’s government and restore the neoliberal order.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"> <h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Training from the “‘export-a-revolution’ group that sowed the seeds for a NUMBER of color revolutions”</h2><p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">On October 5, 2005, with Chavez’s popularity at its peak and his government planning sweeping socialist programs, five Venezuelan “student leaders” <a href="https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/venezuela-marigold-revolution" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">arrived</a> in Belgrade, Serbia to begin training for an insurrection.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">The students had arrived from Venezuela courtesy of the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies, or CANVAS. This group is <a href="http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2013/01/14/breaking-desperate-for-destabilization-in-venezuela-us-funded-otpor-rears-its-ugly-head/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">funded</a> largely through the <a href="https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/20/inside-americas-meddling-machine-the-us-funded-group-that-interferes-in-elections-around-the-globe/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">National Endowment for Democracy</a>, a CIA cut-out that functions as the US government’s main arm of promoting regime change; and offshoots like the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. According to leaked internal <a href="https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/17/1792423_information-on-canvas-.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">emails</a> from Stratfor, an intelligence firm known as the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/15/stratfor-canadian-government_n_4449505.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">“shadow CIA,”</a> “[CANVAS] may have also received CIA funding and training during the 1999/2000 anti-Milosevic struggle.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">CANVAS is a spinoff of Otpor, a Serbian protest group founded by <a href="http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO1Oct2017.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Srdja Popovic</a> in 1998 at the University of Belgrade. Otpor, which means “resistance” in Serbian, was the student group that gained international fame – and Hollywood-level <a href="https://vimeo.com/143379353" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">promotion</a> – by mobilizing the protests that eventually toppled Slobodan Milosevic. This small cell of regime change specialists was operating according to the theories of the late Gene Sharp, the so-called “Clausewitz of non-violent struggle.” Sharp had worked with a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, Col. <a href="http://peacemagazine.org/archive/v24n1p12.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Robert Helvey</a>, to conceive a strategic blueprint that weaponized protest as a form of hybrid warfare, aiming it at states that resisted Washington’s unipolar domination.<div id="attachment_254388" class="wp-caption aligncenter" source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" width="width" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 100%; margin: 0px auto 24px;">
A fence covered with posters of Slobodan Milosevic behind bars, titled “When?” and “People’s Movement Otpor” in Belgrade, Serbia, March 30, 2001. Darko Vojinovic | AP]</div><figure id="attachment_1809" class="wp-caption alignnone amp-wp-inline-086b83d24e4412010a175ea3dba11ca3" source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 40px 12px; max-width: 100%;"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Otpor was supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID and Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institute. Sinisa Sikman, one of Otpor’s main trainers, once <a href="https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/17/1792423_information-on-canvas-.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">said</a> the group even received direct CIA funding. According to a <a href="https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/17/1713359_re-insight-venezuela-canvas-analysis-.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">leaked email</a> from a Stratfor staffer, after running Milosevic out of power, “the kids who ran OTPOR grew up, got suits and designed CANVAS… or in other words a ;export-a-revolution’ group that sowed the seeds for a NUMBER of color revolutions. They are still hooked into U.S. funding and basically go around the world trying to topple dictators and autocratic governments (ones that U.S. does not like ;).”</figcaption></figure><p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Stratfor revealed that CANVAS “turned its attention to Venezuela” in 2005 after training opposition movements that led pro-NATO regime change operations across Eastern Europe.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">While monitoring the CANVAS training program, Stratfor outlined its insurrectionist agenda in strikingly blunt language: “Success is by no means guaranteed, and student movements are only at the beginning of what could be a years-long effort to trigger a revolution in Venezuela, but the trainers themselves are the people who cut their teeth on the ‘Butcher of the Balkans.’ They’ve got mad skills. When you see students at five Venezuelan universities hold simultaneous demonstrations, you will know that the training is over and the real work has begun.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"> <h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Birthing the “Generation 2007” regime change cadre</h2><p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">The “real work” began two years later, in 2007, when Guaidó graduated from Andrés Bello Catholic University of Caracas. He moved to Washington DC to enroll in the Governance and Political Management <a href="http://sri.ucab.edu.ve/sites/default/files/Convenio%20UCAB-%20CAF%20George%20Washington%20University.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Program</a> at George Washington University under the tutelage of Venezuelan economist Luis Enrique Berrizbeitia, one of the top Latin American neoliberal economists. Berrizbeitia is a <a href="https://www.caf.com/media/3571/resumenexecutive.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">former executive director</a> of the International Monetary Fund who spent more than a decade working in Venezuelan energy sector under the oligarchic old regime that was ousted by Chavez.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">That year, Guaidó helped lead anti-government rallies after the Venezuelan government <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2424" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">declined to</a> to renew the license of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). This privately-owned station played a leading role in the 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez. RCTV helped mobilize anti-government demonstrators, falsified information blaming government supporters for acts of violence carried out by opposition members, and banned pro-government reporting amid the coup. The role of RCTV and other oligarch-owned stations in driving the failed coup attempt was chronicled in the acclaimed documentary, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">That same year, the students claimed credit for stymying Chavez’s constitutional referendum for a “21st century socialism” that <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2890" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">promised</a> “to set the legal framework for the political and social reorganization of the country, giving direct power to organized communities as a prerequisite for the development of a new economic system.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">From the protests around RCTV and the referendum, a specialized cadre of US-backed class of regime change activists was born. They called themselves “Generation 2007.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">The Stratfor and CANVAS trainers of this cell identified Guaidó’s ally – a street organizer named Yon Goicoechea – as a “key factor” in defeating the constitutional referendum. The following year, Goicochea was <a href="https://www.cato.org/friedman-prize/yon-goicoechea" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">rewarded</a> for his efforts with the Cato Institute’s Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, along with a $500,000 prize, which he promptly invested into building his own Liberty First (Primero Justicia) political network.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">[milton prize px]<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">no lnx pix<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"> Goicoechea receives the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, May 15, 2008. Seth Wenig | AP<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Friedman, of course, was the godfather of the notorious neoliberal Chicago Boys who were imported into Chile by dictatorial junta leader Augusto Pinochet to implement policies of radical “shock doctrine”-style fiscal austerity. And the Cato Institute is the libertarian Washington DC-based think tank founded by the Koch Brothers, two top Republican Party donors who have become aggressive supporters of the right-wing across Latin America.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Wikileaks published a 2007 email from American ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield sent to the State Department, National Security Council and Department of Defense Southern Command praising “Generation of ’07” for having “forced the Venezuelan president, accustomed to setting the political agenda, to (over)react.” Among the “emerging leaders” Brownfield identified were Freddy Guevara and Yon Goicoechea. He applauded the latter figure as “one of the students’ most articulate defenders of civil liberties.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Flush with cash from libertarian oligarchs and US government soft power outfits, the radical Venezuelan cadre took their Otpor tactics to the streets, along with a version of the group’s logo, as seen below:<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Otpor | Venezuela px]<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">“Galvanizing public unrest…to take advantage of the situation and spin it against Chavez”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">In 2009, the Generation 2007 youth activists staged their most provocative demonstration yet, dropping their pants on public roads and aping the outrageous guerrilla theater tactics outlined by Gene Sharp in his regime change manuals. The protesters had mobilized against the arrest of an ally from another newfangled youth group called JAVU. This far-right group “gathered funds from a variety of US government sources, which allowed it to gain notoriety quickly as the hardline wing of opposition street movements,” according to academic George Ciccariello-Maher’s book, “Building the Commune.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">While video of the protest is not available, many Venezuelans have identified Guaidó as one of its key participants. While the allegation is unconfirmed, it is certainly plausible; the bare-buttocks protesters were members of the Generation 2007 inner core that Guaidó belonged to, and were clad in their trademark Resistencia! Venezuela t-shirts, as seen below:<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Juan Guaido | Protest<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Is this the ass that Trump wants to install in Venezuela’s seat of power?<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">That year, Guaidó exposed himself to the public in another way, founding a political party to capture the anti-Chavez energy his Generation 2007 had cultivated. Called Popular Will, it was led by Leopoldo López, a Princeton-educated right-wing firebrand heavily involved in National Endowment for Democracy programs and elected as the mayor of a district in Caracas that was one of the wealthiest in the country. Lopez was a portrait of Venezuelan aristocracy, directly descended from his country’s first president. He was also the first cousin of Thor Halvorssen, founder of the US-based Human Rights Foundation that functions as a de facto publicity shop for US-backed anti-government activists in countries targeted by Washington for regime change.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Though Lopez’s interests aligned neatly with Washington’s, US diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks highlighted the fanatical tendencies that would ultimately lead to Popular Will’s marginalization. One cable identified Lopez as “a divisive figure within the opposition… often described as arrogant, vindictive, and power-hungry.” Others highlighted his obsession with street confrontations and his “uncompromising approach” as a source of tension with other opposition leaders who prioritized unity and participation in the country’s democratic institutions.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Leopoldo Lopez | Wealth<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Popular Will founder Leopoldo Lopez cruising with his wife, Lilian Tintori.]<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">By 2010, Popular Will and its foreign backers moved to exploit the worst drought to hit Venezuela in decades. Massive electricity shortages had struck the country due the dearth of water, which was needed to power hydroelectric plants. A global economic recession and declining oil prices compounded the crisis, driving public discontentment.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Stratfor and CANVAS – key advisors of Guaidó and his anti-government cadre – devised a shockingly cynical plan to drive a dagger through the heart of the Bolivarian revolution. The scheme hinged on a 70% collapse of the country’s electrical system by as early as April 2010.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">“This could be the watershed event, as there is little that Chavez can do to protect the poor from the failure of that system,” the Stratfor internal memo declared. “This would likely have the impact of galvanizing public unrest in a way that no opposition group could ever hope to generate. At that point in time, an opposition group would be best served to take advantage of the situation and spin it against Chavez and towards their needs.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">By this point, the Venezuelan opposition was receiving a staggering $40-50 million a year from US government organizations like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, according to a report by the Spanish think tank, the FRIDE Institute. It also had massive wealth to draw on from its own accounts, which were mostly outside the country.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">While the scenario envisioned by Statfor did not come to fruition, the Popular Will party activists and their allies cast aside any pretense of non-violence and joined a radical plan to destabilize the country.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Towards violent destabilization<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">In November, 2010, according to emails obtained by Venezuelan security services and presented by former Justice Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres, Guaidó, Goicoechea, and several other student activists attended a secret five-day training at the Fiesta Mexicana hotel in Mexico City. The sessions were run by Otpor, the Belgrade-based regime change trainers backed by the US government. The meeting had reportedly received the blessing of Otto Reich, a fanatically anti-Castro Cuban exile working in George W. Bush’s Department of State, and the right-wing former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">At the Fiesta Mexicana hotel, the emails stated, Guaidó and his fellow activists hatched a plan to overthrow President Hugo Chavez by generating chaos through protracted spasms of street violence.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Three petroleum industry figureheads – Gustavo Torrar, Eligio Cedeño and Pedro Burelli – allegedly covered the $52,000 tab to hold the meeting. Torrar is a self-described “human rights activist” and “intellectual” whose younger brother Reynaldo Tovar Arroyo is the representative in Venezuela of the private Mexican oil and gas company Petroquimica del Golfo, which holds a contract with the Venezuelan state.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Cedeño, for his part, is a fugitive Venezuelan businessman who claimed asylum in the United States, and Pedro Burelli a former JP Morgan executive and the former director of Venezuela’s national oil company, Petroleum of Venezuela (PDVSA). He left PDVSA in 1998 as Hugo Chavez took power and is on the advisory committee of Georgetown University’s Latin America Leadership Program.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Burelli insisted that the emails detailing his participation had been fabricated and even hired a private investigator to prove it. The investigator declared that Google’s records showed the emails alleged to be his were never transmitted.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Yet today Burelli makes no secret of his desire to see Venezuela’s current president, Nicolás Maduro, deposed – and even dragged through the streets and sodomized with a bayonet, as Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi was by NATO-backed militiamen. <p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">View image on TwitterView image on Twitter<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Pedro Mario Burelli<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">@pburelli<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"> .@NicolasMaduro, jamas me has hecho caso. Me has fustigado/perseguido como @chavezcandanga jamás osó. Óyeme, tienes sólo dos opciones en las próximas 24 horas:<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">1. Como Noriega: pagar pena por narcotráfico y luego a @IntlCrimCourt La Haya por DDHH.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">2. O a la Gaddafi.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Escoge ya!<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">1,051<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">10:09 PM - Jan 16, 2019<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">1,252 people are talking about this<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">The alleged Fiesta Mexicana plot flowed into another destabilization plan revealed in a series of documents produced by the Venezuelan government. In May 2014, Caracas released documents detailing an assassination plot against President Nicolás Maduro. The leaks identified the Miami-based Maria Corina Machado as a leader of the scheme. A hardliner with a penchant for extreme rhetoric, Machado has functioned as an international liaison for the opposition, visiting President George W. Bush in 2005.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">maria corina machado | george bush<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Machado and George W. Bush, 2005.]<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">“I think it is time to gather efforts; make the necessary calls, and obtain financing to annihilate Maduro and the rest will fall apart,” Machado wrote in an email to former Venezuelan diplomat Diego Arria in 2014.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">In another email, Machado claimed that the violent plot had the blessing of US Ambassador to Colombia, Kevin Whitaker. “I have already made up my mind and this fight will continue until this regime is overthrown and we deliver to our friends in the world. If I went to San Cristobal and exposed myself before the OAS, I fear nothing. Kevin Whitaker has already reconfirmed his support and he pointed out the new steps. We have a checkbook stronger than the regime’s to break the international security ring.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Guaidó heads to the barricades<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">That February, student demonstrators acting as shock troops for the exiled oligarchy erected violent barricades across the country, turning opposition-controlled quarters into violent fortresses known as guarimbas. While international media portrayed the upheaval as a spontaneous protest against Maduro’s iron-fisted rule, there was ample evidence that Popular Will was orchestrating the show.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">“None of the protesters at the universities wore their university t-shirts, they all wore Popular Will or Justice First t-shirts,” a guarimba participant said at the time. “They might have been student groups, but the student councils are affiliated to the political opposition parties and they are accountable to them.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Asked who the ringleaders were, the guarimba participant said, “Well if I am totally honest, those guys are legislators now.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Around 43 were killed during the 2014 guarimbas. Three years later, they erupted again, causing mass destruction of public infrastructure, the murder of government supporters, and the deaths of 126 people, many of whom were Chavistas. In several cases, supporters of the government were burned alive by armed gangs.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Guaidó was directly involved in the 2014 guarimbas. In fact, he tweeted video showing himself clad in a helmet and gas mask, surrounded by masked and armed elements that had shut down a highway that were engaging in a violent clash with the police. Alluding to his participation in Generation 2007, he proclaimed, “I remember in 2007, we proclaimed, ‘Students!’ Now, we shout, ‘Resistance! Resistance!’” <p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Guaidó has deleted the tweet, demonstrating apparent concern for his image as a champion of democracy.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">On February 12, 2014, during the height of that year’s guarimbas, Guaidó joined Lopez on stage at a rally of Popular Will and Justice First. During a lengthy diatribe against the government, Lopez urged the crowd to march to the office of Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz. Soon after, Diaz’s office came under attack by armed gangs who attempted to burn it to the ground. She denounced what she called “planned and premeditated violence.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Leopoldo Lopez | Juan Guaido<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Guaido alongside Lopez at the fateful February 12, 2014 rally. Photo | PanAm Post]<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">In a televised appearance in 2016, Guaidó dismissed deaths resulting from guayas – a guarimba tactic involving stretching steel wire across a roadway in order to injure or kill motorcyclists – as a “myth.” His comments whitewashed a deadly tactic that had killed unarmed civilians like Santiago Pedroza and decapitated a man named Elvis Durán, among many others.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">This callous disregard for human life would define his Popular Will party in the eyes of much of the public, including many opponents of Maduro.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Cracking down on Popular Will <p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">As violence and political polarization escalated across the country, the government began to act against the Popular Will leaders who helped stoke it.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Freddy Guevara, the National Assembly Vice-President and second in command of Popular Will, was a principal leader in the 2017 street riots. Facing a trial for his role in the violence, Guevara took shelter in the Chilean embassy, where he remains.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Lester Toledo, a Popular Will legislator from the state of Zulia, was wanted by Venezuelan government in September 2016 on charges of financing terrorism and plotting assassinations. The plans were said to be made with former Colombian President Álavaro Uribe. Toledo escaped Venezuela and went on several speaking tours withHuman Rights Watch, the US government-backed Freedom House, the Spanish Congress and European Parliament.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Carlos Graffe, another Otpor-trained Generation 2007 member who led Popular Will, was arrested in July 2017. According to police, he was in possession of a bag filled with nails, C4 explosives and a detonator. He was released on December 27, 2017.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Leopoldo Lopez, the longtime Popular Will leader, is today under house arrest, accused of a key role in deaths of 13 people during the guarimbas in 2014. Amnesty International lauded Lopez as a “prisoner of conscience” and slammed his transfer from prison to house as “not good enough.” Meanwhile, family members of guarimba victims introduced a petition for more charges against Lopez.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Yon Goicoechea, the Koch Brothers posterboy and US-backed founder of Justice First, was arrested in 2016 by security forces who claimed they found a kilo of explosives in his vehicle. In a New York Times op-ed, Goicoechea protested the charges as “trumped-up” and claimed he had been imprisoned simply for his “dream of a democratic society, free of Communism.” He was freed in November 2017.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">View image on Twitter<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">@YonGoicoechea<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"> Hoy, en Caricuao. Llevo 15 años trabajando con @jguaido. Confío en él. Conozco la constancia y la inteligencia con la que se ha construido a sí mismo. Está haciendo las cosas con bondad, pero sin ingenuidad. Hay una posibilidad abierta hacia la libertad<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">5:10 PM - Jan 19, 2019<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">136 people are talking about this<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">David Smolansky, also a member of the original Otpor-trained Generation 2007, became Venezuela’s youngest-ever mayor when he was elected in 2013 in the affluent suburb of El Hatillo. But he was stripped of his position and sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Supreme Court after it found him culpable of stirring the violent guarimbas.  <p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Facing arrest, Smolansky shaved his beard, donned sunglasses and slipped into Brazil disguised as a priest with a bible in hand and rosary around his neck. He now lives in Washington, DC, where he was handpicked by Secretary of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro to lead the working group on the Venezuelan migrant and refugee crisis.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">This July 26, Smolansky held what he called a “cordial reunion” with Elliot Abrams, the convicted Iran-Contra felon installed by Trump as special US envoy to Venezuela. Abrams is notorious for overseeing the US covert policy of arming right-wing death squads during the 1980’s in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. His lead role in the Venezuelan coup has stoked fears that another blood-drenched proxy war might be on the way.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">David Smolansky<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">@dsmolansky<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"> Cordial reunión en la ONU con Elliott Abrams, enviado especial del gobierno de EEUU para Venezuela. Reiteramos que la prioridad para el gobierno interino que preside @jguaido es la asistencia humanitaria para millones de venezolanos que sufren de la falta de comida y medicinas.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">10:46 AM - Jan 26, 2019<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">2,619 people are talking about this<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Four days earlier, Machado rumbled another violent threat against Maduro, declaring that if he “wants to save his life, he should understand that his time is up.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">A pawn in their game<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">The collapse of Popular Will under the weight of the violent campaign of destabilization it ran alienated large sectors of the public and wound much of its leadership up in exile or in custody. Guaidó had remained a relatively minor figure, having spent most of his nine-year career in the National Assembly as an alternate deputy. Hailing from one of Venezuela’s least populous states, Guaidó came in second place during the 2015 parliamentary elections, winning just 26% of votes cast in order to secure his place in the National Assembly. Indeed, his bottom may have been better known than his face.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Guaidó is known as the president of the opposition-dominated National Assembly, but he was never elected to the position. The four opposition parties that comprised the Assembly’s Democratic Unity Table had decided to establish a rotating presidency. Popular Will’s turn was on the way, but its founder, Lopez, was under house arrest. Meanwhile, his second-in-charge, Guevara, had taken refuge in the Chilean embassy. A figure named Juan Andrés Mejía would have been next in line but reasons that are only now clear, Juan Guaido was selected.   <p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">“There is a class reasoning that explains Guaidó’s rise,” Sequera, the Venezuelan analyst, observed. “Mejía is high class, studied at one of the most expensive private universities in Venezuela, and could not be easily marketed to the public the way Guaidó could. For one, Guaidó has common mestizo features like most Venezuelans do, and seems like more like a man of the people. Also, he had not been overexposed in the media, so he could be built up into pretty much anything.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">In December 2018, Guaidó sneaked across the border and junketed to Washington, Colombia and Brazil to coordinate the plan to hold mass demonstrations during the inauguration of President Maduro. The night before Maduro’s swearing-in ceremony, both Vice President Mike Pence and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland called Guaidó to affirm their support.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">A week later, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rick Scott and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart – all lawmakers from the Florida base of the right-wing Cuban exile lobby – joined President Trump and Vice President Pence at the White House. At their request, Trump agreed that if Guaidó declared himself president, he would back him.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met personally with Guaidó on January 10, according to the Wall Street Journal. However, Pompeo could not pronounce Guaidó’s name when he mentioned him in a press briefing on January 25, referring to him as “Juan Guido.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"> Embedded video<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Dan Cohen<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">@dancohen3000<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"> Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just called the figure Washington is attempting to install as Venezuelan President "Juan Guido" - as in the racist term for Italians. America's top diplomat didn't even bother to learn how to pronounce his puppet's name.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">1:58 PM - Jan 25, 2019<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">By January 11, Guaidó’s Wikipedia page had been edited 37 times, highlighting the struggle to shape the image of a previously anonymous figure who was now a tableau for Washington’s regime change ambitions. In the end, editorial oversight of his page was handed over to Wikipedia’s elite council of “librarians,” who pronounced him the “contested” president of Venezuela.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Guaidó might have been an obscure figure, but his combination of radicalism and opportunism satisfied Washington’s needs. “That internal piece was missing,” a Trump administration said of Guaidó. “He was the piece we needed for our strategy to be coherent and complete.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">“For the first time,” Brownfield, the former American ambassador to Venezuela, gushed to the New York Times, “you have an opposition leader who is clearly signaling to the armed forces and to law enforcement that he wants to keep them on the side of the angels and with the good guys.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">But Guaidó’s Popular Will party formed the shock troops of the guarimbas that caused the deaths of police officers and common citizens alike. He had even boasted of his own participation in street riots. And now, to win the hearts and minds of the military and police, Guaido had to erase this blood-soaked history.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">On January 21, a day before the coup began in earnest, Guaidó’s wife delivered a video address calling on the military to rise up against Maduro. Her performance was wooden and uninspiring, underscoring the her husband’s limited political prospects.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">At a press conference before supporters four days later, Guaidó announced his solution to the crisis: “Authorize a humanitarian intervention!”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">While he waits on direct assistance, Guaidó remains what he has always been – a pet project of cynical outside forces. “It doesn’t matter if he crashes and burns after all these misadventures,” Sequera said of the coup figurehead. “To the Americans, he is expendable.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Top Photo | Venezuela’s self-declared interim leader Juan Guaido, center, greets supporters after a rally at a public plaza in Las Mercedes neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 26, 2019. Fernando Llano | AP]<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Dan Cohen is a journalist and filmmaker. He has produced widely distributed video reports and print dispatches from across Israel-Palestine. Dan is a correspondent at RT America and tweets at @DanCohen3000.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Max Blumenthal is the founder and editor of GrayzoneProject.com, the co-host of the podcast Moderate Rebels, the author of several books and producer of full-length documentaries including the recently released Killing Gaza. Follow him on Twitter at @MaxBlumenthal.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"><p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">Source | GrayZone Project</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div><div></div><div>And then you have, you know, the whole narrative that this has something to do with human rights. So, when Marco Rubio, who’s basically in charge of policy here for the Trump administration, and his Florida crony, who’s the U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States, and he’s—you know, he goes around to countries there and threatens them and tells them to vote with the U.S. And all this is treated as though they’re trying to promote human rights in Venezuela. And again, the media accepts this narrative. And then you look at the U.S. allies in Latin America, you look at Mexico, where over a hundred journalists have been killed, and in most of those cases there’s government involvement implicated. And you don’t have a single case in Venezuela in the last 20 years of a journalist killed, where the government is implicated. And you look at Guatemala, where most—where, you know, you talk to a human rights defender there, and they don’t expect to be alive a year from now. Again, you don’t have anything near that violent in Venezuela. In Colombia, human rights defenders and activists are being killed every week, as you’ve reported on this show. And again, it’s nowhere near. So, that’s not defending the Venezuelan government; that’s just saying that anyone who states publicly that this intervention by the United States, which is constant, which includes a financial embargo that’s explicitly intended to prevent the economy from recovering—anybody who says that this has something to do with human rights has to be dishonest.AMY GOODMAN: I want to go back to National Security Adviser John Bolton speaking on Fox News Sunday, denying the U.S. was behind the drone blast in Venezuela on Saturday.<blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 30px; border-left: 3px solid rgb(241, 242, 243); letter-spacing: -0.2px;">JOHN BOLTON: These are things he’s said before, and you have to take them for what they’re worth. If the government of Venezuela has hard information that they want to present to us that would show a potential violation of U.S. criminal law, we’ll take a serious look at it. But in the meantime, I think what we really should focus on is thecorruption and the oppression of the Maduro regime in Venezuela.</blockquote>AMY GOODMAN: Alejandro Velasco, can you respond to what he said? Not only talk about the U.S., but also President Maduro talking about the outgoing president of Colombia being behind this, Santos, who will leave office tomorrow. Tomorrow is Inauguration Day in Colombia.ALEJANDRO VELASCO: Yeah, I mean, interestingly, Colombia, even as the rest of Latin America over the last 20 years, during the so-called left turn or pink tide, most countries in Latin America were electing left-wing governments, Colombia sort of bucked that trend. And so, first with the presidency of Álvaro Uribe, who was Santos’s mentor, and then with Santos to some extent continuing that policy, Colombia really positioned itself as very much against not only Venezuela’s Bolivarian government, but, more broadly, sort of the left in the region. Of course, that relationship has become even more soured of late, since many Venezuelans have flocked to Colombia over the last year, year and a half, as economic conditions have deteriorated there. And not only that, but I think, importantly, it’s worth mentioning that many opposition leaders, including a group that fashions itself the national “Supreme Court in Exile,” actually conducts its business in Colombia, with the support of the Colombian government. And so, there’s sort of a parallel government that’s housed in Colombia. And so, all of this sort of suggests that Colombia really is positioning itself as very much against the Venezuelan government.</div><div>=</div><div>wiki</div><div>
</div><div>Luis Leonardo Almagro Lemes (Spanish pronunciation: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Spanish" title="Help:IPA/Spanish" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none !important;">[ˈlwis alˈmaɣɾo]</a>; born June 1, 1963) is a Uruguayan lawyer, diplomat, and politician, currently serving as the 10th Secretary General of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_American_States" title="Organization of American States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Organization of American States</a> (OAS). He also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2010 and 2015, during the Presidency of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mujica" title="José Mujica" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">José Mujica</a>.</div><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1;"><div class="toctitle" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;" lang="en">
</div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Background_and_earlier_life" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1Background and earlier life</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Foreign_Minister_of_Uruguay" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Foreign Minister of Uruguay</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Secretary_General_of_the_OAS" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3Secretary General of the OAS</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1Election</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Haiti" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2Haiti</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#MACCIH" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.3MACCIH</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Venezuela" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.4Venezuela</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Inter-religious_Dialogue" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.5Inter-religious Dialogue</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Nicaragua" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.6Nicaragua</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Cuba" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.7Cuba</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Academic_activities" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4Academic activities</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#Awards" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5Awards</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">7External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">
</h2><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">Background and earlier life[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=1&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Background and earlier life" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>Luis Almagro was born June 1, 1963, in Cerro Chato/Paysandu, Uruguay. Almagro studied at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, where he earned his law degree. During his 23 year career with the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry, Almagro represented Uruguay in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran" title="Iran" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Islamic Republic of Iran</a> (1991–1996), in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany" title="Germany" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Germany</a> (1998–2003), as well as serving as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Ambassador_to_China" class="mw-redirect" title="Uruguayan Ambassador to China" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ambassador to China</a> (2007–2010). He is fluent in Spanish, English, and French.In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_general_election,2014" class="mw-redirect" title="Uruguayan general election, 2014" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">the 2014 general election</a>, Almagro was elected to the Senate of Uruguay. He later resigned to take the position of OAS Secretary General.Almagro is married and has seven children.<h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">Foreign Minister of Uruguay[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=2&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Foreign Minister of Uruguay" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>During Almagro's time as Foreign Minister (2010–2015), Uruguay drew global recognition for a small South American country as they were the largest per capita contributor to UN peacekeeping forces <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a> as well as secured Uruguay's successful election seat to the UN Security Council.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a> Almagro also supported efforts on the restoration of relations between Cuba and the US.Almagro's commitment to human rights extended to domestic affairs as demonstrated by the active role in the repeal of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_on_the_Expiration_of_the_Punitive_Claims_of_the_State" title="Law on the Expiration of the Punitive Claims of the State" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1986 Expiry Law</a>, which granted amnesty for crimes and human rights abuses committed during the civic-military dictatorship between 1973 and 1985, and actively supported prosecutions for these crimes.A lawyer, Almagro was a member of the Executive Committee that drafted the groundbreaking legislation regulating the possession, growth, and distribution of marijuana in Uruguay in 2013. Uruguay is the first country in the world to introduce legislation of its kind.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a> He also represented Uruguay at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Centre_for_Settlement_of_Investment_Disputes" title="International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes</a> (ICSID), in the suit brought by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Morris_International" title="Philip Morris International" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Philip Morris International</a> against Uruguay for its anti-tobacco policies. After six years, ICSID ruled in favor of Uruguay.Also responsible for trade, Almagro also played a key role in expanding and diversifying Uruguay market access, growing exports each year of his term. A key focus was opening up non-traditional markets to Uruguayan exporters, including as securing access to key US markets for Uruguay's citrus fruit.A strong advocate for refugees, Almagro played an integral role in negotiating the transfer of a group of ex-detenidos (former detainees) from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp" title="Guantanamo Bay detention camp" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Guantanamo Bay detention camp</a> to Uruguay. Almagro also led the process to welcome dozens of Syrian refugees to Uruguay, along with former President Mujica. For this they were listed among <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP_Top_100_Global_Thinkers" title="FP Top 100 Global Thinkers" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Foreign Policy magazine's top Global Thinkers</a> for 2014.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a> Almagro is one of only 10 decision-makers in the region to be awarded this international distinction.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a> In 2018, Almagro was listed 4th in the ranking of top 100 leaders from multilateral organizations<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a>.<h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">Secretary General of the OAS[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=3&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Secretary General of the OAS" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Election[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=4&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>Almagro was elected Secretary General of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_American_States" title="Organization of American States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Organization of American States</a> on March 18, 2015, earning the support of 33 of the 34 Members States, including one abstention. He officially took office on May 26, 2015.Almagro's first year in office was marked by his outspoken stance on democracy and human rights. His leadership has widely been seen as reinvigorating an Organization.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-7" title="Luis Almagro" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a>His election campaign centered on the idea of "More Rights for More People". In addition to four programmatic pillars of democracy, human rights, security and development, he announced a set of new strategic initiatives to achieve this goal including<ul style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" width="%225%22" height="%2213%22%3E" ccircle="Ccircle" cx="%222.5%22" cy="%229.5%22" r="%222.5%22" fill="%22%2300528c%22/%3E" c="C" e="E" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">The OAS School of Governance to train civil servants and civil society with the tools for transparent and accountable government</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">The Inter-American Education System to ensure quality, inclusive, and equitable education</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">The Regional System for the Prevention of Social Conflicts to facilitate dialogue between investors, states and communities in key productive sectors.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-:0-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></li></ul>Under the renewed vision, Almagro continues to champion key OAS initiatives including the Inter-American Human Rights System, the Inter-American Judicial Facilitators Program, the MACCIH, and the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.mapp-oea.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" width="%2212%22" height="%2212%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" fill="%22%23fff%22" stroke="%22%2336c%22" d="%22M9.995" h5.982v10.5h1.5z="h5.982V10.5H1.5z" e="E" h11v5.39l9.427="H11v5.39L9.427" l-1.31-1.31l5.393="l-1.31-1.31L5.393" l-2.69-2.688="l-2.69-2.688" l4.2="L4.2" z="z" l.022="l.022" l8.2="L8.2" l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z="l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z" c="C" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data">Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP)</a>, along with electoral cooperation and observation missions as priorities for the organization.<h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Haiti[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=5&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Haiti" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>Following the suspension of the second round of presidential elections on January 24, 2016, President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Martelly" title="Michel Martelly" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Michel Martelly</a> requested assistance from OAS Secretary General Almagro to facilitate a discussion on finding a way forward. On January 29, an OAS Special Mission travelled to Haiti to assess the situation and help reach an understanding "agreed by Haitians."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a> The Mission engaged in dialogue with key political and civil society stakeholders facilitating a consensus formula for next steps. On February 6, 2016, former President Martelly announced a transitional agreement electing an interim President and confirming a consensus Prime Minister.After the completion of the Mission, the Representative of Haiti to the OAS, Jean Josué Pierre, applauded the OAS, stating that "the Mission not only supported and accompanied the negotiations, but has reestablished the image of the Organization."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a>Almagro has been critical of the slow progress to resolve the political impasse; "It is imperative for Haitian political stakeholders, including Parliamentarians and those provisionally governing the country, to fully assume their responsibilities towards the nation. The interests of the Haitian people must supersede partisan interests."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">MACCIH[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=6&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: MACCIH" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>Anticorruption has been a focus from the outset of Secretary Almagro's term. In the spring of 2015, widespread protests erupted when a multi-million corruption scandal involving the Honduran social security system was uncovered by the local media. In August 2015, Honduran President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Orlando_Hern%C3%A1ndez" title="Juan Orlando Hernández" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Juan Orlando Hernández</a> invited Secretary General Almagro to Honduras to facilitate a dialogue and response to the protests. Almagro met with government representatives, political parties and civil society on how to end impunity and repair trust between the country's government and its citizens.On January 19, 2016, Secretary General Almagro and the Government of Honduras signed an agreement creating the OAS Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH). The MACCIH created an international anti-corruption team of investigators and judges to work with Honduran judges, prosecutors and police officers to better investigate and prosecute complex public corruption cases. While the Mission's focus is to investigate cases involving networks of public and private corruption, it will also support reform in four key areas: preventing and fighting corruption, criminal justice reform, political and electoral reform and public security.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a> The first members of the MACCIH arrived in Honduras in April 2016.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-:0-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Venezuela[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=7&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Venezuela" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>In the lead up to the December <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Venezuelan_parliamentary_election" title="2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2015 parliamentary elections</a> in Venezuela, Secretary General Almagro sent an 18-page open letter to the president of that country's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Electoral_Council(Venezuela)" title="National Electoral Council (Venezuela)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">National Electoral Council (CNE)</a> in which he publicly denounced “the Government's violations of human rights and efforts to undermine the December 2015 elections through the monopolization of the media, interference in the election process, oppression of free assembly and the detention of political prisoners″. The letter represented the first open criticism of the Venezuelan government by a senior diplomat from the region.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a> The former president of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay" title="Uruguay" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Uruguay</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mujica" title="José Mujica" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">José Mujica</a>, declares about him : “I regret the direction that you chose to follow and I know it is irreversible, so now, I tell you goodbye”.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a>As the situation in Venezuela deteriorated dramatically after the December elections, in June 2016, Secretary General Almagro released a 114 page report <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-auto-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a> detailing the deteriorating economic situation and humanitarian crisis. Under article 20, the Secretary General invoked the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-American_Democratic_Charter" title="Inter-American Democratic Charter" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Inter-American Democratic Charter</a> on the grounds that Venezuela has experienced "an alteration of the constitutional order".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a> Key recommendations from the report include the immediate release of all political prisoners; implementation of the constitutionally mandated recall referendum before the end of 2016; a return to the balance of powers between the Judicial, Executive, and Legislative branches of government; a bi-partisan review of judicial appointments; and, the establishment of an independent body to combat corruption.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-auto-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a>The Secretary General continues to lead the international community in advocating publicly on behalf of political prisoners<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a> and for a return to the constitutional order in Venezuela. On September 23, Almagro expressed dismay at the rules and timetable published by the CNE that further delayed the recall process into 2016, guaranteeing that the ruling party remains in power until the end of the term in 2019. "The recall referendum belongs to the people, and it is up to the CNE to ensure the guarantees for the free expression of the people, instead of curtailing and trying to annul their rights."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a>As the situation in Venezuela worsened, on March 14, 2017, the Secretary General presented an <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.oas.org/documents/spa/press/Informe-VZ-Spanish-signed-final.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Updated Report on the Situation in Venezuela</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a> outlining the further deterioration of the conditions in the country, stating that there had been a complete rupture of the democratic order.In the wake of the violent protests during the summer of 2017, the Secretary General published a <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.oas.org/documents/spa/press/TERCER-INFORME-VENEZUELA-SPANISH-Final-signed.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Third Report on the Situation in Venezuela</a>. In this Report, the Secretary General stated that there was “evidence that pointed to the systematic, tactical and strategic use of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence” are part of a targeted campaign and systemic policy against those who opposed the government. The OAS General Secretariat was tasked with monitoring further developments in Venezuela and to “specifically look at the individuals and institutions that directly or indirectly enable the use of these repressive tactics and tools” to determine whether crimes against humanity have taken place.A <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scm.oas.org/pdfs/2017/CP38157INFORME.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Fourth Report</a> was published detailing the complete elimination of democracy following the establishment of the unconstitutional “National Constituents Assembly” in September of 2017.In July 2017, Secretary General Luis Almagro appointed former <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court" title="International Criminal Court" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">International Criminal Court</a> (ICC) Prosecutor, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Moreno_Ocampo" title="Luis Moreno Ocampo" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Luis Moreno Ocampo</a> as a Special Advisor on Crimes Against Humanity. In this position, Ocampo helped to define and launch an independent and impartial process to assess whether crimes against humanit have taken place in Venezuela. In September 2017, a Panel of Independent International Experts was established to oversee the process including a series of public hearings that were held at OAS Headquarters in Washington, DC in September, October, and November of that year.In May 2018, the Panel of Independent Experts released their report indicating that there are reasonable grounds that satisfy the burden of proof required by Article 52 of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_Statute_of_the_International_Criminal_Court" title="Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rome Statue</a>, to believe that against humanity had taken place in Venezuela. Shortly after, Secretary General Almagro formally submitted the Report to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, requesting that the Prosecutor open a full investigation into the situation on an urgent basis.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a>During subsequent months, the Secretary General worked diligently to identify a coalition of countries to take the historic step of invoking Article 14 of the Rome Statute and refer the situation in Venezuela to the ICC. On September 26, 2018, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru formally submitted the Article 14 referral to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a>The Secretary General has called upon the international community to consider using all mechanisms available in international law to protect the rights of Venezuelans. This includes, but is not limited to, Responsibility to Protect and International Humanitarian Law.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[21]</a>On October 12, 2017, the newly-elected <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Tribunal_of_Justice_of_Venezuela_in_exile" title="Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela in exile" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Supreme Tribunal of Justice</a>, were sworn in the OAS Headquarters. The 33 magistrates, elected by the National Assembly in July 2017, were forced to take office in exile due to political persecution, intimidation and threats of being detained by the Maduro dictatorship.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a>As the number of Venezuelans fleeing their country reached precedent-setting numbers, in September 2018, Secretary General Almagro established the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=S-047/18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" width="%2212%22" height="%2212%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" fill="%22%23fff%22" stroke="%22%2336c%22" d="%22M9.995" h5.982v10.5h1.5z="h5.982V10.5H1.5z" e="E" h11v5.39l9.427="H11v5.39L9.427" l-1.31-1.31l5.393="l-1.31-1.31L5.393" l-2.69-2.688="l-2.69-2.688" l4.2="L4.2" z="z" l.022="l.022" l8.2="L8.2" l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z="l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z" c="C" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data">Working Group on Crisis of Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees of the OAS</a>, chaired by David Smolansky, to provide “solutions to he exodus of the Venezuelan people – the most visible face of the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela – who can today be found walking through the cities and towns of the Americas looking for the bread they cannot get in their own homeland."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Inter-religious Dialogue[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=8&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Inter-religious Dialogue" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>The initiative "Protecting our Home Common Home: Ensuring more rights for more people in the Americas"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[24]</a> is organized through the cooperation of the OAS, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_See" title="Holy See" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Vatican</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Interreligious_Dialogue" title="Institute for Interreligious Dialogue" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Inter-religious Institute for Dialogue</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[25]</a>The inaugural meeting on September 7–8, 2016, established a Hemispheric Network of Dialogue for the Common Home which creates platform for dialogue between countries of OAS Member States and religious leaders to support reconciliation and the search for solutions to promote peace and stability, in line with Article 2 of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_Organization_of_American_States" title="Charter of the Organization of American States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">OAS Charter</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[26]</a><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Nicaragua[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=9&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Nicaragua" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>In his role as Secretary General, Almagro has been one of the strongest voices defending the principles of democracy and rule of law in the context of the political and human rights crisis in Nicaragua, which has worsened exponentially since April 2018. Led by Almagro, the General Secretariat of the OAS activated different diplomatic and denouncing mechanisms to expose the serious situation that the Central American country faces. A project of electoral reforms was agreed between the General Secretariat of the OAS and the government early in 2017 with the objective of strengthening democratic institutions. While the agreement is currently on hold given the ongoing crisis, Secretary Almagro remains a staunch supporter of mechanisms that would allow for redemocratization, and to achieve justice for the hundreds of Nicaraguan victims. In this context, his good offices made possible the first visit on-site visit of the Inter American Human Rights Commission (CIDH, by its initials in Spanish) in many years, and he approved the creation of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI, by its initials in Spanish) to seek truth and help investigate the crimes committed. Facing an attitude of denial from the government, in December 2018 he announced the activation of article 20 of the Inter American Democratic Charter for Nicaragua.<h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Cuba[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=10&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Cuba" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>On December 7, 2018, under the leadership of Secretary General Almagro, the OAS hosted the first Conference on the Situation of Human Rights in Cuba since the 2009 Resolution lifting Cuba’s suspension from the Organization. The conference included dialogue on the criminality of freedom of Expression in Cuba, as well as the situation of political prisoners and accountability for repressors in the country.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Almagro#cite_note-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">Academic activities[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luis_Almagro&action=edit&section=11&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Academic activities" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>Almagro has given special lectures and classes at prestigious academic centers including University of Oxford, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Syracuse University, UNAM of Mexico, University of Pennsylvania, and University of the Republic of Uruguay, among others.<div></div>