Venezuelan protesters trained by neo-Nazis

Venezuela’s Foreign Minister, Elias Jaua, is touring Latina America explaining the government’s version of the causes of the recent opposition protests.

According to the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias, Jaua has so far visited Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil: “giving details of the reality of the country and of a plan, with foreign funding, to topple the Bolivarian Revolution. [The plan] is also supported by international media corporations that distort the truth about what the Venezuelan people are living, and instead promote the vandalism of violent shock groups of the right.”

In Buenos Aires, Jaua explained that “the protests in Venezuela are not the result of political or social dissatisfaction, but are the result of a strategy planned for five years, (…) in order to overthrow the democratic government.”

In Brazil, Jaua declared that “the violent [protests] groups have a racist character and have been trained under the guidance of neo-Nazis and neo-fascists, financed by United States institutions, such as the NED [National Endowment for Democracy] and USAID, among others.”

On February 25, before leaving for his South American tour, Jaua was the protagonist of an incident with a reporter of the private TV channel TELEVEN. Jaua declared that Colombian ex-president Uribe Vélez (often accused by the Venezuelan government to be the mastermind behind conspiracies against the country) is the “boss of the aggression against Venezuela, he is a paraco [paramilitary] and is harming our fatherland, but we will defeat him.” The TELEVEN reporter asked Jaua if he had any proofs of the accusations against Uribe, Jaua lost his temper and retorted: “are you Venezuelan or Colombian?”

The next day, on February 26, Colombian Foreign Minister María Teresa Holguín, publically asked Jaua to show respect for Uribe Vélez: “We ask [Jaua] to refrain from such expressions against Uribe (…). All countries have their problems, but we are being asked to believe that all of Venezuela’s problems come from Colombia.”