Many conspiracies ahead of legislative elections campaign

Coinciding with the announcement by the CNE that the legislative elections will finally be held on December 6, this week the government reissued many of the conspiracy claims made in the last months, and produced some new ones.

As in the past most of the claims made by government officials and public media this week attempt to show the supposed links between the Venezuelan opposition and paramilitaries, common crime, and of course, the Empire. 

This past week of hectic conspiracy theorizing by the government is a preview of the next months of intense electoral campaigning. 

 

The Saleh, Ledezma, D’Alta, Bolívar, Guarimba Connection

President Maduro has been insisting this week that he has evidence that the murder of Adriana Urquiola Pérez was part of a plot by the opposition. 

Urquiola, a sign interpreter for hearing impaired, was killed by a gun shot in a confusing event during an opposition protests in March 2014. Urquiola had no connection with the protest and was getting of a bus that had to stop because the road was blocked by protestors when she was shot. Opposition protestors claimed that Urquiloa had been killed by pro-government colectivos that had attacked the guarimba with fire-arms several times during that day.

Maduro instead first blamed the circumstances created by the guarimbas for the death. But lately has been arguing that the murder was an action directly funded by opposition leaders with the aim of destabilizing his government. The link seems to be the suspected murderer Jhonny Bolívar, who was arrested in Colombia and has been deported to Venezuela. Maduro claimed that Bolívar is linked to Leopoldo D’Alta who had been a member of the “ultra-right NGO” Foro Penal –the NGO has denied that D’Alta was ever linked to them.- Also, D’Alta apparently worked for jailed opposition leader Antonio Ledezma when he was Mayor of Caracas, this, for Marudo, stablishing a clear link between the opposition and D’Alta.

Maduro claims to have evidence that Bolívar killed Urquiola, that he is linked to D’Alta, and that D’Alta is the link between the whole plot and Ledezma. It’s all part of ongoing, presumably secret investigations, but Maduro explained that the attorney’s office had granted him “special permission” to make the findings made so far public because, he argued, “it is my responsibility to protect Venezuela from these violent, extremist, guarimberos, terrorist, and murderous groups, whatever I say about them with all the information I have is too little, (…) we are dealing with monsters.”

In his weekly public television show “En Contacto con Maduro,” the president showed a video with part of “all the information” he has. The video (see below) stablishes what it calls “The Guarimba Connection,” and is subtitled with the names of those supposedly linked to the plot: Antonio Ledezma, Lorent Saleh, Leopoldo D’Alta, and Jhonny Bolivar. Saleh is shown in what appears to be a conversation via Skype saying that “not much is needed, only a few people throwing rocks and burning tires.” At one point he says: “pa-pa-pa-pa-pa.” The editors of the video, so as to leave no doubt of how that onomatopoeia should be understood, cut to images of people using firearms during protests. Then Saleh says to the unknown interlocutor that Leopoldo D’Alta will contact him. Saleh describes D’Alta as a lawyer who worked for the Chacao municipality police and also, “worked with Ledezma.” The video adds that D’Alta traveled with Ledezma to Colombia in 2011 and “met Álvaro Uribe.” A picture of D’Alta walking behind Ledezma is also shown. Then, the video cuts to images of the arrest of Jhonny Bolívar in Colombia by the Interpol. The video also claims that the first phone call Bolívar made after his arrest was to D’Alta. The video ends with pictures of Ledezma, Saleh and D’alta crossed with the word “capturado,” and then five more blanked pictures with the words “others linked that are still to be captured.”

The Primero Justicia New York Imperial Connection

Accusations that opposition leaders, mainly from the party Primero Justicia, met in New York with their imperial overlords to receive “instructions” have also been repeated this week by several government officials.

The claim seems to have been first made by Jorge Rodríguez during a meeting with PSUV candidates to the party’s primaries:

“They went to New York, to the imperialist high meeting [cumbre], to receive instructions,” said Rodriguez. “Not even in its darkest moments Venezuela had such a defeatist and sold-out [entreguista y vendido] sector as this Venezuelan right. The only sickness suffered by the democracy of this country is that of the corrupt rightist leadership,” concluded Rodriguez.

The next day Disodado Cabello insisted on the claim during his public TV show “Con el Mazo Dando”:

“We are still lacking a rational and nationalist opposition, that party of fascists [Primero Justicia] held its meeting in New York, they went to the United States to discuss problems of Venezuela, but what they really did is to go there to receive instruction form that sector of imperialism that does not want the peace of the country, they went there to kneel down [to imperialism],” said Cabello.

Crime and the opposition

Cabello then continued his show making more concrete accusations against “the right”:

“In Miami there are sector of the right plotting the actions after the international pretension [visit?] of the Spanish ex-president Felipe González, and [the end] of Leopoldo López’s hunger strike. These actions will seek to generate violence with the help of paramilitaries, in order to ask for the liberation of the leader of Voluntad Popular [Leopoldo López.]”

Cabello also linked the opposition with past and coming events that more naïve observers perhaps would blame on common crime:

“[they] will continue with their actions of support to crime groups, especially in the Cota 905 of Caracas, Maracay, Valencia, and Guárico, with the support of paramilitaries and the Colombian ex-president Álvaro Uribe. (…) They will create a brigade to infiltrate the barrios and popular sectors, using the popular networks set by Leopoldo López, with the aim of stablishing populist programs and giving people three month long working contracts, but it will all be a lie.”

The economic war: Update from the front

Also this week, president Maduro was busy fighting the economic war he claims is being waged by the enemies of the revolution against the Venezuelan people.

Maduro signed three agreements with Iran in the areas of commerce, science, and health. The president stressed that the main agreement was, according to the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias (AVN), over an “exchange of methodology, techniques, and policies to face the economic war in the country, which is characterized by hoarding, speculation, and smuggling of basic products, and is orchestrated by financial sectors and business men linked to parties of the right.”

Sabotage!

Finally this, form a piece by Alexander Ulmer published by Reuters on the crime surge affecting the oil industry:

“POLITICAL 'SABOTAGE'?

“PDVSA says it is up against "sabotage" from political enemies who see damaging the oil industry as a means to weaken President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government. The company points to measures, including the arrest of employees for the Monagas theft and the deployment of the army to protect installations in that state, as proof Venezuela is taking oil crime seriously.”

Opposition leadership in New York receiving imperial instructions

Jorge Rodriguez, PSUV leader and mayor of the Libertador Municipality of Caracas, told supporters that the leaders of the opposition party Primero Justicia are currently on a trip to New York receiving “instructions and seeking dollars from corrupt bankers, fugitives, thieves, and drug traffickers from Miami, in order to continue with the conspiracy.”

The Agencia Venezolana de Noticias (AVN) claims that Henrique Carpiles, Richard Mardo and Julio Borges are among those in New York “meeting bankers and businessmen fugitives of the Venezuelan Justice.” DATANALISIS’ director Luis Vicente León is also included by AVN in the list.

“They went to New York, to the imperialist high meeting [cumbre], to receive instructions,” said Rodriguez. “Not even in its darkest moments Venezuela had such a defeatist and sold-out [entreguista y vendido] sector as this Venezuelan right. The only sickness suffered by the democracy of this country is that of the corrupt rightist leadership,” concluded Rodriguez. 

Empresas Polar part of terror media campaign and economic war

Mario Silva, in his weekly public television show La Hojilla, has accused Lorenzo Mendoza, president of Venezuela’s private food products corporation Empresas Polar, of being “linked to the financing of a dirty war media campaign based on [producing] psychological terror against Venezuela, for which it has used 7,200 million Bolivars, with the purpose of generating hopelessness [desesperanza] and chaos [zozobra] among the people [by using] the supposed scarcity of basic products.”

According to the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias (AVN), Silva said that the media terror campaign against Venezuela also includes other Venezuelan businessmen living in Miami, the “rightist” party Primero Justicia, and “recently created digital media outlets, which are in charge of taking to the masses the contents of the dirty war in order to create an negative environment, not only in Venezuela, but also in international circles.” 

Later during the show the CIA, Álvaro Uribe, Armando Briquet, Julio Borges, and Maria Corina Machado, were also included by Silva as part of the plot.

Silva quoted three webpages as the main vehicles of this “terror campaign” against the country: pordavidnci.com, infovzla.com, and cambiavenezuela.com. These webpages are, according to Silva, each financed by Empresas Polar, “Miami based businessmen,” and the Primero Justicia party, respectively.

Facebook and twitter were also included by Silva in an “open alliance with the most terrible sectors of fascism.”

Yván Gil, Minister of Agriculture, also recently accused Empresas Polar of being part of the “economic war” against Venezuela. Gil argues that the evidence of Polar’s participation in the economic war is that the company has been importing corn instead of producing it in the country.

The Minister said: “The position of Empresas Polar is to maximize its earnings through the oil revenues we have been transferring to them, this allows them to generate distortions in the local market, and thus they can preserve that model [of maximizing earnings], and keep that vicious circle turning. This is what we have been seeing and it is the maximum expression of the economic war.”

Gil also explained what the economic war actually is and responded to those who “trivialize and make fun” of the idea that an economic war is actually being waged against the country: “It has been proven that the economic war responds to a methodology designed by the most powerful empire on earth. It [the Empire] uses the worldwide media control to manipulate the basic needs of the human being. It uses its control over the means of production, and even with all that power, we, a country of only 30 million and modest capabilities, have resisted together with the president [Maduro] in good shape and they have not been able to put us up against the ropes.”

Diosdado Cabello assumes leadership role in the economic war

The president of the National Assembly and vice-president of the PSUV, Diosdado Cabello, has returned from his trip to Brazil, where he claims to have made important advances in the pharmaceutical front of the economic war.

According to the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias: “The recent visit to Brazil of the president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, has strengthened the strategic alliances between the two nations in the area of food products and medicines, the distribution of which has been affected by the destabilization plans of the Venezuelan ultra-right and its economic war, which aims at creating anxiety [zozobra] among the population.”

“They are seeking to create anguish among the population,” explained Cabello, “through the economic war, which is characterized by speculation, overpricing, and smuggling of basic products. (…) This has happened not only with milk, but also with sugar, personal hygiene products, and now with medicines.”

Cabello also said that the distribution of the imported medicines will be strictly controlled by the government because, he explained, the pharmaceutical labs in Venezuela are in cahoots with the destabilizing plans of the “Venezuelan ultra-right.”

José Vicente Rangel: There are no innocents in this underworld of infamy

“Never before has something like this been seen. This harassment by local and international sinister interests has no precedents,” begins the most recent article by chavista journalist José Vicente Rangel.

Rangel, without providing evidence but appealing to performative hyperbolism, narrates how never before in the history of Latin America has a government been subject to such an “organic, compact aggression by the right-wing, softened democratic sectors, economic groups, paid [tarifadas] NGOs, and the fiercely aligned media.”

These local conspiracy groups are but the local manifestation of a foreign evil, according to Rangel: “The harassment against Venezuela is being directed by recalcitrant sectors of the United States right, the aggressive intelligence apparatus of that nation.”

The Venezuelan opposition to the government also represents, for Rangel, a unique and unprecedented case in the world history of evil conspiracies: “Never before in Venezuela, or in any other nation, has there been an opposition so divorced from the concept of fatherland, or more willing to sell the country to the highest bidder.”

Who believes in the economic war?

Today the web page Prodavinci has published and interview by Víctor Salmerón with Luís Vicente León from DATANALISIS.

The latest poll by DATANALISIS shows that only 9.3% of those surveyed blame the private sector for food scarcity, while 50% blame the government.

This is Luís Vicente León’s interpretation:

“The government is suffering from the consequences of having used for a long time arguments [to explain scarcity] that are not the real causes: when you resort to arguments such as the economic war, you divide the population between those who believe you and those who don’t. But if the problem continues, you start to be seen as inept. That is: either the economic war is real, or you are not capable of resolving it. This is why the population considers the government, and Maduro, responsible for the scarcity of goods. The people are not buying the story of the economic war.”

Ecuador Conspiracy Theories Monitor

New inheritance taxes proposed by the government have sparked opposition protests against President Rafael Correa of Ecuador.

Correa believes the protests are part of a conspiracy to overthrow his government. His explanations are reminiscent of the language often used by the Venezuelan government to denounce supposed recurrent plots by the opposition and foreign enemies. Correa said that the situation in Ecuador “this week has been very tough. (…) There is a conspiracy on the making. (…) These people [participating in the protests] are very violent and they are complicit with the media. They are openly knocking on the doors of military barracks. They are not only against the inheritance law, they want to overthrow the government.”

Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro has expressed solidarity with Correa and claimed that “Imperialism” is behind the plot: “Look at the conspiracy that imperialism is now plotting against president Rafael Correa, the most democratic and humanist president in the history of his country, a great leader of Latin America. From Venezuela we say to him that he has all our support.”

Maduro also claimed that the alleged conspiracy against Correa included plans to assassinate the president of Ecuador: “Now there is a rightist campaign that is turning criminal, a campaign of magnicidio [assassination of head of state], of hatred, of intolerance and violence in Ecuador.”

Sabotage! Beware of the invisible hand of the right warns Maduro

The Venezuelan government is seeing signs of what it calls “right-wing sabotage” in the oil industry and in the public services infrastructure.

President Maduro warned yesterday via twitter (@NicolasMaduro) that the “invisible hand of the right does not stop in its attack against or people. Justice will be made.”

On Friday, June 5, the PSUV governor of Aragua, Tareck El Aissami, announced that a fire at an electric sub-station near La Victoria, had been caused by an act of sabotage on Thursday. The fire caused a blackout in the central region of the country, including parts of Caracas.

Also on Thursday the Attorney General’s office announced that three workers of the oil industry, and five persons unrelated to the industry, had been arrested for an “act of sabotage” against oil installation in Monagas.

La dura existencia de Jim Luers. Campaña de solidaridad

Pocas campañas difamatorias del Imperio y sus lacayos locales han llegado al bajo extremo de negar  la existencia de la persona vilipendiada. Tal es el caso de la campaña de la cual es víctima el Vocero de la Casa Blanca y Agente del FBI con Responsabilidad para el Hemisferio Occidental, Jim Luers.

La víctima de la estrategia de enlodamiento de la conspiración internacional se ha visto forzada a crear a toda carrera un bolg (primera entrada el 3 de junio) y una cuenta de Twitter (abierta el 3 de junio). A través de esa cuenta de Twitter, Jim ha estado pidiendo ayuda para probar su existencia:

Jim Luers ‏@RealJimLuers  9h @hphernaiz Es importante aclarar el record luego de ciertos misentendidos alrededor de mis declaraciones https://jimluers.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/carta-abierta-sobre-la-veracidad-de-los-

Con gusto me uno a esta campaña por probar el ser de Jim. A mi modo de ver la prueba inequívoca de tal existencia es que los más serios medios comunicación del Estado Venezolano ha citado a Jim como fuente fidedigna en el caso de la supuesta investigación que se le sigue a Diosdado Cabello en USA. El agente del FBI ha afirmado que “las acusaciones del exescolta de Cabello, el militar de la armada Leamsy José Salazar, son totalmente falsas.” Las citas en medios oficiales fueron hechas mucho antes de que Jim se convirtiese en activo bloguero y tuitero, lo cual evidentemente añade verosimilitud a su existencia.

Pero Jim ha hecho más que revelar la verdad de una conspiración mediática contra Cabello. A través de una carta abierta publicada en su blog, Jim ha hecho un uso brillante de una forma de retórica especular a través de la cual, no solo ha probado su propia existencia fuera de toda duda posible (“Pues, aquí me encuentro escribiendo esta carta, así que debo existir”), sino que además demuestra la no existencia de Leamsy Salazar.

No sea que la canalla mediática o algunos de sus troles apátridas logre bloquear el blog de Jim, copio y pego aquí su carta en la cual hace un análisis histórico-literario que obliga a Salazar a dejar de existir:

Carta Abierta Sobre la Veracidad de los Dichos de Jim Luers

JUNE 4, 2015 / JIM LUERS

Carta abierta a quien pueda concernir:

Escribo esta carta directamente sin el por medio del staff de la Casa Blanca para aclarar las alegaciones que se han hecho sobre mis declaraciones y la validez de mis testimonios. Antes de pasar a explicar la veracidad de mis dichos, quiero dejar en claro que me rijo por los más claros principios de acontabilidad que me merecen el ser un ciudadano de los Estados Unidos de América.

Se ha dicho por distintos medios que mis declaraciones sobre la falsedad de la investigación al señor Presidente del Congreso venezolano Diosdado Cabello y otros asuntos de Venezuela, declaraciones hechas bajo mis funciones como declarante de la Casa Blanca y funcionario de la Oficina Federal de Investigación (FBI por sus letras en inglés), son falsas. Es importante que quede claro que mis declaraciones no se refieren a unas exculpación de Sr. Cabello, sino sobre la total invalidez de los dichos de los diarios ABC y Wall Street. Y la razón, principal, y que vemos con principal preocupación tanto en la oficina de declarantes de la Casa Blanca, como en el FBI, es que el testigo principal argüido por los señores ABC no existe. Y me refiero a la referencia del señor testigo Leamsy Salazar. Este personaje es una creación ficticia de poderes fácticos venezolanos junto al paramilitarismo bogotano de extrema derecha. Repito, tal testigo no existe ni el gobierno de los Estados Unidos de América tiene testigo alguno declarando en contra de funcionarios venezolanos.

La primera pista de la no existencia de esta persona es el nombre: Leamsy. No es secreto para mis allegados que soy un devoto de la historia y las grandes luchas sociales. He estudiado con profundidad lo que a mi me gusta llamar “Las Dos Grandes Revoluciones Latinas,” que no son otros más que la Sandinista y la Campaña Admirable de Simón Bolívar (el George Washington venezolano, o sería Washington el Bolívar americano?). El nombre Leamsy, como vemos claramente, es un anagrama de Ysmael. “Call me Ishmael,” o “llámenme Ysmael” en la variante latina del hebreo, así reza la primera línea de Moby Dick de Herman Melville. Como bien sabe quien sabe de historia Melville era un gran admirador de Bolívar. Se cruzaron brevemente en aquellos tiempos de revolución, pero el verdadero conocimiento que Melville tuvo de Bolívar fue a través de las historias que Manuela Saenz, “Manuelita,” como le decían, le contó en el lecho de su muerte. Esos últimos días de la heroína latina los pasó conversando con el escritor sobre las hazañas del Libertador de la América, y él quedó muy marcado por una frase que Manuelita le dijo: “Bolívar es una rareza de la historia que debimos proteger. Pero no, por su singularidad, el espíritu mezquino del hombre quiso perseguirlo y borrarlo. No pudieron. Bolívar era una ballena blanca.” Y de ahí la idea de Moby Dick, que se convirtió en una metáfora para el ideal de Bolívar detrás de la campaña admirable. Una metáfora de Bolívar. Que no se volvió a utilizar hasta la llegada de Hugo Chávez. Así, el poder fáctico utilizó el anagrama del nombre del testigo del intento de asesinato de la ballena para crear un personaje que sería el testigo principal para derrumbar el estructurado actual de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Un testigo que asesinaría a la Ballena Blanca. Donde se equivoca el paramilitarismo es que al final Moby Dick y su espíritu sobreviven, igual que los ideales de SU Simón Bolívar.

De esta manera, y gracias a mis conocimientos de la historia, intuimos que esa persona no existía y que se trataba de un nombre código típico del paramilitarismo que por años ha negado a la figura de la “Ballena Blanca” como un héroe de la historia neogranadina. Y, por supuesto, el hecho que no encontramos a tal persona en nuestras bases de datos de testigos.

Finalmente, el otro adicional sobre el escarnioso esgrimido por los medios, y en el cual no vale la pena profundizar, es en los detalles sobre la existencia de mi persona. Pues, aquí me encuentro escribiendo esta carta, así que debo existir.

James K. Luers

Declarante de la Casa Blanca y funcionario del FBI

United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is unimpressed by “Economic War”

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a body of 18 independent experts that monitors the implementation of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, has concluded its consideration of the third periodic report on Venezuela on 3 June.

Ricardo Menéndez, Minister of Planning and Knowledge, led the delegation in charge of presenting the Venezuelan government report to the Committee.

After the presentation be the Venezuelan delegation, which basically noted the accomplishments of the Bolivarian Revolution, Committee members questioned the delegation on several topics such as poverty reduction, crime rates, health, and corruptions.

One of the most contested issues was that of the “economic war”, which the government argues is being waged by the opposition and its “foreign allies” against the country.

Rodrigo Uprimny, a Committee member, directly questioned the “economic war” narrative: “When there is progress, these are because of the Revolution, but when there are problems you blame the economic war.” Two more members, Mohammed Ezzeldin Abdel-Monein and Shiqiu Chen asked for specific examples of the economic war, and for an explanation of what exactly the concept referred to.

Menéndez answered that the economic blockade [cerco económico] on the country was an undeniable fact and asked the Committee for respect, and not to “make value judgements” or “trivialize the economic war.”

As examples of economic war he said that international markets manipulated to harm oil prices and destabilize the Venezuelan currency.

According to the Committee´s web page, Menéndez: “said that human rights were a fundamental pillar of the Constitution and were planted and transposed in the plan for the homeland and were a daily action of the Government. Venezuela was not governed by corporations, but by its people and the desire to live better. The question of economic war must be fully borne in mind, and it must be remembered that despite the 60 per cent decline in income as a result of a drop in oil prices, human development indicators had remained steady over the years, and this was because of a different approach that the country employed.”

Hinterlaces: opposition causing destabilization and “neurotization”

The latest report Monitor País of the Venezuelan pollster Hinterlaces analyzes the “hopes and anguishes” of the population.

The in-depth analysis of the data is provided by Hinterlace’s José Useche in a piece titled “The Economic Crisis Takes its Toll” [pasar factura]. Useche does start by acknowledging that there is in fact  a “rooted [arraigada] crisis,” and that there has been a “rise in distress, pessimism, sadness, and preoccupation compared with last March.”

However, according to the Monitos País, there is no simple cause and effect relation between the crisis and sadness; there is also an intervening variable: “the neurotization media campaigns and the economic crisis have, in only two months, affected the indicators of this study.”

“The campaign of destabilization and neurotization against the Venezuelan society has achieved an over-inflation [sobredimensionar] of the crisis and has fueled discontent,” further explains Useche.

There is little doubt for Useche that this campaign of “over-inflation” of the crisis is a strategy of the opposition: “it is a strategy that seeks to achieve the weakening of the presidential image by using mockery, excess, and discredit.”

This is not the first Monitor País that has used a form pop political-social-psychology rhetoric to back the government’s claim that perceptions of the crisis are being negatively manipulated by a coordinated media campaign. Last January  Hinterlaces claimed that the opposition was “preparing the Venezuelan society for future neurotic responses.”

Back in its January report, Hinterlaces also warned of the coming psyco-social war: “The current campaign, executed by an experienced and professional ‘Mass Clinic’ [Clínica de Masas], constitutes a new chapter in a long planned process of accumulation of collective distress [angustia] that aims at rekindling the uncertainty and the feeling of defenselessness [of the people], and also at provoking the overflowing of irrational responses.” All part of an “insurrectional strategy –through a psyco-social war- that the most radical adversaries of the Bolivarian Revolution have declared…”

The current Monitor País analysis seems to be Hinterlaces’ way of arguing that its predictions are being “fulfilled.”