Terrorist Opposition Plot Revealed by Rodríguez and Maduro

In a confusing incident on the night December 13, agents of the Military Counterintelligence General Division (Dgcim) showed up at the Caracas residence of the National Assembly opposition representative Yanet Fermin. Fermin said the officers had told her they had a “search and citation” order, but refused to show it to her. Opposition leader and Interim President named by the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, and several other opposition deputies rushed to Fermin’s residence made declarations and filmed videos of the procedure. The Dgcim agents left after lawyers insisted they could not take Fermin without showing the alleged citation order.

On the 14^th Communication and Information Minister, Jorge Rodríguez, declared in a press conference that the botched attempt to arrest deputy Fermin was part of the government’s efforts to “disarticulate” a terrorist cell formed by two opposition party Voluntad Popular militants (Yanet Fermín and Fernando Orozco) and lead by opposition leaders Leopoldo López and Juan Guaidó, all under the command of Colombian President Iván Duque.

According to Rodríguez, the terrorist cell would try to “take over” two National Guard headquarters in the city of Cumaná, Sucre state, and generate a “blood bath”. The government’s source, said Rodriguez, is a police officer named Sixto José Salamanca Jiménez, who is under arrest and “collaborating with the investigations”. Salamanca, according to Rodríguez, was recruited by Fernando Orozco (like Fermín, a National Assembly representative of the opposition Voluntad Popular party) to bring, “in a secret operation”, 30 assault rifles from Bogotá and to distribute them in the states of Sucre, Zulia, Táchira, Barinas, Aragua and the Federal District (Caracas).

The aim of this plot would not be to directly topple the government however, said Rodríguez, but to divert public opinion from recent corruption cases in the National Assembly and thus restore Guidós popularity.

Later, Nicolás Maduro also spoke of the plot. However, instead of the Colombian government as revealed by Rodríguez, Maduro claimed the “United States” is the real mastermind behind the conspiracy: “We have initiated the dismantling and the capture of a group led by the United States which attempted to generate violence in Venezuela, so they can tell the world that Venezuela is at war. Fortunately, thanks to the work of patriots, we have completely dismantled this conspiracy.” 

47 Plots against the Air Force

The Venezuelan Air Force has 22 Sukhoi fighter planes. The planes were on the news yesterday because ruling PSUV leader Freddy Bernal told the Spanish paper ABC that the Sukhoi are capable of bombing Bogotá and returning to Venezuelan bases in three minutes.

“I believe Colombia’s president, Iván Duque, is a poor character, without criteria for government, who has become a mere assistant to Álvaro Uribe Vélez. They [the Colombian government] thought that if they threatened us, we would be intimidated, we would hide. But when we moved 10,000 men and women to the border, when we activated our defense mechanisms, the militia, when we moved our Sukhoi planes, which have the capacity to take off from a base in the city of Barquisimeto [Venezuela], bomb the Nariño Palace [Colombia presidential palace in Bogota], and return to their base in only three minutes, they thought twice, because we want peace, but we are ready for war,” Bernal told ABC.

Also yesterday, Nicolás Maduro told Air Force officers that his government has “detected and dismantled” 47 conspiracies against “Venezuela’s air defense system.”

“My recognition to you [Air Force officers], because the morals of the Bolivarian revolution has defeated all these crazy plots. You should know that we have detected 47 plots, many were directed against the Bolivarian Military Air Force, specifically against the Sukoi system, [the plots] were funded with dollars from Colombia,” said Maduro.

He added that all these conspiracies have been defeated: “One by one we have cancelled and eradicated these plots, but I tell you we must be on a high moral guard in order to defeat this madness and these plots.”

Bolivia: It’s a US Coup

Vice-president of Venezuela’s ruling party (PSUV) and President of the pro-government National Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, said yesterday that what has happened in Bolivia is coup d’état orchestrated by the United States. “The government of the United States is not only involved, it is directing the coup d’état against Evo Morales,” said Cabello.

Cabello has therefore called for a national mobilization of Chavista followers to take place on November 16, the same day the opposition has called for mobilizations against Maduro. “The PSUV is on a revolutionary mobilization alert and we are activating all the street, communities, and national leadership mechanisms. Tomorrow [November 12] there will be a great demonstration by our afro-descendant brothers, to which we are now adding the struggle against fascism. […] Every conspiracy form the right must be answered with more revolutions. They know it, that’s why we are waiting for them the 16 [November], we will meet them here.” explained Cabello.

Opposition and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

In previous posts I have been following the trend by part of the opposition denouncing a conspiracy behind National Assembly appointed President Juan Guaidó. These conspiracy claims generally take the form of accusations that Guaidó has been “unwilling” to clearly call for an international intervention in the Venezuelan crisis, and instead has participated in the Norwegian mediated dialogue (now on indefinite hold). According to this sector of the opposition, Guaidó and other main opposition party leaders, are either betting on a smooth cohabitation with Maduro, or have been outright bought by the regime.

Political analyst Juan Manuel Trak (@juanchotrak) aptly summarized the circular and self-fulfilling character of these arguments:

“Fake News manual by @PanAmPost_es and @EmmaRincon

1. Invent a possible scenario

2. Claim that the scenario does not come true because there is a conspiracy by others

3. When the scenario does not come true (self-fulfilled prophecy) claim that you were right the whole time and the conspirators are to blame

4. Repeat the same thing all day long”

The Panam Post Juan Manuel Trak is referring to is a Miami based news outlet linked to the sector of the opposition supporting these conspiracy theories about Guaidó and the main opposition parties.

Emmanuel Rincón (@EmmaRincon) recently published a piece in the Panam Post titled “Why It’s Time to Close the Guaido Chapter in Venezuela” stressing the claims that the Venezuela regime is behind the recent unrest in Latin America, and admonishing Guidó for participating in negotiation efforts, calling for the appointment of a new electoral arbiter and for new elections.

Trak was commenting on this Twitter post by Emmanuel Rincón:

“In Venezuela there was no military intervention because Guaido’s envoys sold to the US the theory that Maduro would panicky and flee by only using threats. The North Americans made the mistake of believing this, thus the failure of April 30 and Trump’s mistrust of Bolton.”

Further down a long Twitter thread Rincón claims that the military invasion of Venezuela was considered by Trump, but that he was unwilling to commit US troops to put into power a “soft-Chavista” regime of the opposition led by Guaido and the main parties in the National Assembly, who “are corrupt (and also socialists).” The main evidence for this claim, according to Rincón, is historical: South Vietnam fell, and the Vietnam War was lost at least in part because of the corrupt character of South Vietnam officials. Trump has learned the lessons from that war and will not make the same mistake in the Venezuelan case. “Ultimately,” finishes Rincón his thread, “the US will not move its pieces while a corrupt group, contrary to US ideological interests, holds power. It’s not me saying this, this is not an opinion, this is the weight of history.” By a group holding power Rincón is not referring to Maduro and his government, but to Guaidó and the parties backing him.  

Destabilizing the World

Guido’s foreign minister, Julio Borges (@JulioBorges) has added this image to his series of Twitter posts accusing the Maduro government of being behind most of the recent unrest in Latin America. Beyond Latina America, the “Scheme of Destabilization by Maduro and Cuba” includes “Populist parties” such as the leftist Unidas-Podemos in Spain. Cuba is clearly providing the “Know How” in this destabilization scheme.

“This is the destabilization scheme used by Maduro and Cuba to destroy democracy in the countries of the free world. ¡We need to stop this real threat to the entire hemisphere!” Further explains Borges.

The Hispanic Soviet Union. The Foro the Sao Paulo Explains Everything

(Image: El Político)

When events are of an overpowering nature, such as “El Caracazo” in Venezuela in 1989, or recent protests in Chile, we seek for explanations that “go beyond” abstract social or economic factors, we want to find someone to blame for the events. We also find it difficult to accept that discontent over policies can trigger chain reactions in the form of uncontrollable protests, and that these events can be unpredictable. Such explanations are considered “naïve”: instead, we feel more comfortable with narratives that find order and “coordination” behind the events.

       

“La ‘Union Soviética Hispana’ La Conspiración Comunista contra Latinoamérica está en pleno desarrollo” is the title of an article by José Valdivia Sotomayor, originally published by El Político, a Miami based news page. Sotomayor is a retired Peruvian military officer.

According to Sotomayor “The main objective of the Foro de Sao Paulo” is to establish, in the American Continent, a Union of Countries under communist rule, similar to the defunct USSR.”

Not only communists or radical leftists are included in this huge conspiracy because, argues Sotomayor, “From a political viewpoint, the terms Communism, Socialism, Progressives, Avant-gardists, Liberalism, Leftism, are synonymous,” all under the leadership of the Foro de Sao Paulo.

The article has become viral in Twitter and has been widely shared in Venezuelan social media in the last two days. As commented by Venezuelan journalist Ewald Scharfenberg (@Ewalds6), “The Foro de Sao Paulo is the new version of the Protocol of the Elders of Zion.” As I reviewed yesterday, the Foro de Sao Paulo, and the “Grupo de Puebla”, are seen as the conspirators behind a coordinated effort causing recent protests in Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile. As is the case with many other political conspiracy theories, the effect is the depoliticizing of local actors: Discontent over policies in Latin American countries cannot explain such level of unrest; rather protestors are considered puppets under the coordinated control of external forces, and thus eventually criminalized as foreign agents.

Here is the original article by Sotomayor in Spanish:

El Objetivo fundamental del Foro de Sao Paulo es establecer en el Continente Americano una Unión de Paises bajo gobiernos comunistas semejante a la desaparecida Unión de Repúblicas Soviéticas Socialistas (URSS)

José Valdivia Sotomayor/El Político

Desde el punto de vista político, los términos Comunismo, Socialismo, Progresistas, Vanguardistas, Liberalismo, Izquierdismo, son sinónimos.
El Grupo de Puebla es un frente del Foro de Sao Paulo que aglutina a los líderes comunistas de Latinoamèrica y España.

La aparente ventaja del Foro de Sao Paulo se la da el viraje táctico que hicieron para tomar el control de paises en la región. Abandonan la lucha armada y utilizan las vulnerabilidades que presentan los gobiernos democráticos para apoderarse por esta via del poder en los países blanco.

Esos países blanco son todos los países del Continente Americano incluyendo a los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica.

En este País, el partido Demócrata está muy penetrado por polìticos izquierdistas, muchos de ellos radicales y otros, confesos comunistas, como el pre candidato presidencial Sander,s que quieren instaurar en USA un gobierno socialista.

El Grupo de Puebla

Como anunciaran la “Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela” años antes de que Hugo Chavez tomara el poder y después la “República Plurinacional de Bolivia”, ahora lo hacen con el Perú.

El “Grupo de Puebla” dice que ya tiene una nueva “Constitución Socialista del Siglo XXI” para el Perú.

El “Grupo de Puebla” aplaude la disolución del Congreso en Perú, y felicita al pueblo combativo peruano, que hoy celebra feliz en las calles, la derrota del Imperialismo y el triunfo de las clases oprimidas.

El “Grupo de Puebla” manifestó que la nueva Constitución de la “República Andina Multicultural del Perú ”, ya ha sido redactada y se está a la espera del nuevo Congreso, para reemplazar la obsoleta Constitución capitalista y opresora.

Pero antes un poco de historia para saber

¿Qué es el “Grupo de Puebla”?

El “Grupo de Puebla” es la reunión “de los más altos lideres Socialistas de Latinoamérica y España”, y se basa en el “Foro de SaoPaulo”. Éste Grupo tiene otros nombres: “Grupo Progresista”, “Los Progresistas”, “Partido Progresista”.

La última reunión del Grupo se llevo a cabo en México, bajo la venia del Partido Político “MORENA”, cuyo líder es Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), actual presidente de México y miembro del Foro de Sao Paulo.

Al “Grupo de Puebla” pertenecen el cubano Raul Castro, el ex presidente español Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, el español Pablo Iglesias (líder de “PODEMOS”), el chileno Jose Miguel Insulsa, Nicolás Maduro, el ecuatoriano Rafael Correa, Kristina Fernandez de Kritchner, Lula Da Silva, entre otros.

Michelle Bachelet, siendo miembro del Foro de Sao Paulo, está un poco alejada del “Grupo de Puebla” debido al informe sobre Venezuela en el que expresó, “aunque muy suavemente”, los atropellos a los derechos humanos.

¿Qué es el “Foro de Sao Paulo”?

En 1989, a la caída del Muro de Berlín y de la Unión Soviética (URSS), se reunieron en Sao Paulo (Brasil), con la venia de la “Internacional Comunista”, muchos partidos Comunistas, Socialistas y Grupos Guerrilleros de Sudamérica, convocados por Fidel Castro.

La finalidad fue establecer “nuevas estrategias”, en vista que ya no habría más dinero para armas, ni para solventar movimientos guerrilleros desde la URSS.

Se le llamó, el “Foro de Sao Paulo”.

Entre los personajes que asistieron al “Foro de Sao Paulo” están: Lula Da Silva, Hugo Chavez, Kristina Krichner, Daniel Ortega, Rafael Correa, Evo Morales, López Obrador, Jesús Santrich, Elena Iparraguirre, Genaro Ledesma, Nestor Cerpa Cartollini, etc.

Además fueron representantes de grupos comunistas-guerrilleros como Sendero Luminoso, FARC, ELN, los Montoneros, el ERP, La Campora argentina y el Sandinismo, entre otros.

¿Qué pretende el “Foro de Sao Paulo”?

El Foro de Sao Paulo tiene como objetivo “recomponer” las ideas comunistas en el mundo hispano y lograr que España, Sudamérica y el Caribe se conviertan en sociedades socialistas, es decir “una Unión Soviética Hispana”.

Para ello usó los criterios del libro “Socialismo del Siglo XXI” de Manuel La Guarda. En otras palabras, “llegar al poder por las armas ya no era la prioridad; la nueva idea, es llegar al poder por la vía democrática, ofreciendo al pueblo, normalmente no instruido y crédulo, todo lo que sea necesario (Populismo), algo muy parecido a lo que estamos viviendo hoy en día en el Perú, que ha propiciado la crisis política del Estado, a vista y recompensada paciencia del “Foro de Sao Paulo” sin pronunciamiento en contra por ahora, de ningún ente democrático.

Para cumplir los objetivos, dicho Foro determinó algunos pilares:

Cuba:

A cargo de la parte estratégica y en razón de su experiencia. Ellos operan escuelas de la antigua KGB y que tiene mas de 25,000 ex agentes rusos y cubanos entrenados con las estrategias de esa agencia de inteligencia soviética

Conseguir dinero

La estrategia consiste en que los países que van formando parte del Eje Socialista del Siglo XXI, provean con sus recursos naturales, dinero para continuar la estrategia. El petróleo Venezolano, las empresas brasileñas, los minerales del Perú, el sílice de Bolivia, el petrolero ecuatoriano, etc.

Odebrecht, herramienta del Foro de Sao Paulo

Recordemos que “Odebrecht” fue inicialmente una herramienta del gobierno socialista de Lula Da Silva para esparcir la ideología socialista por Sudamérica, pagar coimas y obtener financiamiento para cumplir con los objetivos finales del Foro.

Actualmente Odebrecht, “está jugando con los gobiernos” haciendo tiempo, ayudando a crear el caos, y descalificar las instituciones y personas.

El “Grupo de Puebla” nunca imaginó que la “herramienta Odebrecht” sería tan efectiva para cumplir uno de sus mejores objetivos fundamentales: que los países digan: “Todo esto está podrido, tiremos abajo la democracia”.

Usar cualquier medio posible

El Objetivo es conquistar el poder ¿“democráticamente”? por lo cual, la finalidad es aprovechar cualquier sentimiento, rechazo o sentido de debilidad existente en el pueblo, tales como: el Nuevo Orden Mundial, el aborto, el ambientalismo, la identidad de género, el feminismo, el cambio climático, la inmigración indiscriminada, etc.

Además, infiltrar las universidades, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, organizaciones de derechos humanos, OEA y ONU (Michelle Bachelet es ahora parte de la ONU).

Que es el G-2

Al producirse la revolución cubana, Fidel Castro pidió asistencia a la URSS para “controlar” al pueblo, Nikita Serguéievich Krushchev envió a agentes de la KGB e instaló varias Escuelas de Formación de la KGB en todo el territorio cubano, donde perfeccionaron técnicas de tortura, e interrogatorio.

¿Los G-2 son cubanos?

No todos, es más, en las Escuelas G-2 cubanas se han formado miles de agentes peruanos, venezolanos, bolivianos, argentinos, etc. Es por eso que alguien podría decir: “yo no veo cubanos en Venezuela o Bolivia, cómo es entonces dicen que hay 25,000 G-2? Es que la mayoría de Agentes G-2 que imponen el terror en Venezuela, son venezolanos formados en las Escuelas Cubanas.

La Estrategia

Aunque hay muchos libros al respecto, partiendo del libro de La Guarda, la estrategia podría resumirse en la siguiente:

1.- Desacreditar las instituciones democráticas del país objetivo: Congreso, Poder Judicial, Poder Ejecutivo, Fuerzas Armadas, Tribunal Constitucional, Medios de Comunicación, organizaciones políticas, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, etc.
2.- Copar las nuevas instituciones luego del Caos.
3.- Tomar el poder
4.- Apoyar al nuevo líder nacional con un grupo numeroso de miembros del G-2 cubano (Escuelas KGB) para reducir a los altos mandos de las FFAA y a cualquier opositor.
5.- Reemplazar la Constitución existente por una compatible con el Socialismo del Siglo XXI, previamente preparada y redactada por el “Grupo de Puebla”, tal como pasó en Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, etc.
6.- Usar los recursos económicos del país para el progreso de la causa en los otros países objetivo.

Ejemplo Venezuela

Se siguió los pasos anteriores en estricto orden, luego de desacreditar al Congreso, Ejecutivo, Poder Judicial y otras instituciones, apareció Hugo Chávez que prometio hacerlos ricos y vivir mucho mejor.

Chávez tomó el poder, llegaron de Cuba inicialmente 20,000 miembros del G-2 que fueron colocados como “asesores” en puestos clave, quitando poder a las fuerzas militares. Luego todo fue más fácil.

Impuso la Constitución “previamente ideada y redactada” por el “Foro de Sao Paulo” (todavia no existía el Grupo de Puebla), cambió el nombre del país por República Bolivariana de Venezuela, y el resto es conocido.

Otro ejemplos idénticos fueron Bolivia, Nicaragua y Ecuador, éste último se salvo por suerte.

Países Objetivo

México:

AMLO ya es presidente de México, en estos momentos están distribuyendo los G-2 en las instituciones militares y de poder; tomará un tiempo pues es un país muy grande y deben de ser muy cuidadosos por su cercanía con EEUU.

Argentina y Perú:

25.000 miembros del G-2 cubano mayormente de nacionalidades peruana y argentina (ex componentes del MRTA, Sendero Luminoso, La Campora, el ERP, etc.) se encuentran en Bolivia con la misión de saltar sobre Argentina y Perú.

Ya han establecido contacto y se han infiltrado en organizaciones ecologistas, anti-mineras, partidos políticos, organizaciones campesinas, universidades, colegios de abogados, asociaciones de médicos, etc. de Perú y Argentina.

Argentina
Aquí se está trabajando y sólo se esperan las elecciones de Octubre y que gane Kristina Fernández, miembro del “Foro de Sao Paulo” y Socialista del Siglo XXI de conocida trayectoria y de triste recordación.

Perú
En Perú las instituciones democráticas han sido avasalladas, producto de su propia corrupción, los miembros del G-2 se han infiltrado en proyectos mineros como “Las Bambas” o “Tía María”, en organizaciones LGTB, en ONGs, partidos politicos, en medios de radio y televisión, en la Policía, en el Ejército del Perú, juzgados en diferentes niveles, Poder Judicial, Universidades importantes, etc.

El Congreso ha sido disuelto y se llamará a Elecciones en Enero del 2020. Es el momento ideal para que muchos miembros del G-2 se hagan congresistas.

Actualmente en Perú se cuenta con conocidos políticos, periodistas, jueces, fiscales, empresarios, que se han preparado en las Escuelas G-2 cubanas, y muchos, ni siquiera se conocen entre ellos.

Éste es el panorama actual y lo que se vislumbra sin ser adivino ni agorero con predicciones a futuro. Es una realidad que invito a comprobar sin dejarse llevar por apasionamientos, rivalidades, encono simpatías, empatías o antipatias. Está en juego el Perú de un mañana muy cercano
mucho más de lo que se puedan imaginar

Dejemos fanatismos intrascendentes que no conducen a nada, sino a la fácil polémica para tratar de demostrar quién tiene o tuvo la razón.

Por tanto fijarnos en el triste pasado, hemos perdido de vista un presente tortuoso y un futuro más que peligroso para los que somos realmente Demócratas.

¡Reacciona PERÚ!

José Valdivia Sotomayor Coronel PNP
DNI 10312625

Maduro is destabilizing Latin America

Recent protests in several Latin American countries are not the result of local discontent, but the product of Venezuela’s government destabilizing influence through the region.

Ramsey and Pantoulas summarize the arguments made about protests in Colombia and Ecuador by Venezuela’s opposition, but also by several Latin American leaders:

"The recent protests in Ecuador produced tensions between the governments of Venezuela and Ecuador. The Ecuadorian government has accused both Nicolas Maduro and the ex-president of Ecuador Rafael Correa that motivated and financed the protests against Lenin Moreno’s austerity package (seven states of the region have issued a statement rejecting any attempt by Maduro to destabilize the region). The Venezuelan opposition held a similar position and said that Maduro and the Cuban government are behind the recent protests in Ecuador and Colombia so they can divert attention from their regimes. Maduro for his part denied any connection to the protests and has argued that people protest against the IMF and the Ecuadorian government because of their austerity policies (when Moreno announced that the proposed austerity measures would be revised, Maduro congratulated the Ecuadorian people for their historic victory against the IMF)."

Venezuela’s opposition Supreme Justice Tribunal, in exile, has published an “official communique” expressing concern for recent protests in the region. According to the judges, the real root of the international conspiracy to destabilize the region is the Foro de Sao Paulo:

“Events after the Foro de Sao Paulo meeting have produced factual situations in the republics of Perú, Ecuador, Colombia, and now Chile, disturbing peace and tranquility of the said societies, producing vandalism, with unspeakable purposes that go beyond [those of] usual protests allowed by democracy, and risking democratic stability, governance, property, and tranquility.”

Guaido’s foreign minister, Julio Borges (@JulioBorges), also in exile, has directly accused the Venezuelan government of being behind the unrest. On October 18 he wrote on Twitter:

“The destabilization of the region is due to Cuban infiltration and to corrupt money from @NicolasMaduro, which is used to finance narcoterrorist groups and focalized violence. This is the main obstacle to peace, security, and development in all of Latin America!”

And yesterday, Borges wrote about the protests in Chile along the lines of the exiled Supreme Tribunal:

“In the final declaration of the Foro de Sao Paulo there is a section which deals exclusively with Chile’s situation. What happened yesterday is not fortuitous; no democracy is safe from the destabilization plan by Maduro and Cuba. It is time to join forces!”

Chavismo’s Antisemitism?

In early July 2017, as opposition protests raged in Caracas and around the country, Venezuelan State sponsored media began to run stories about “mysterious symbols” graffitied on the city’s walls. As the stories went, “a series of scripts in Hebrew nomenclature, forming part of cabalistic symbols, have been localized along the path of the violent street protests, (…) and they could be indicative of a phase of foreign incursions in the conflict...” Telesur’s reporter Madelein García (@madeleintlSUR) was, to all accounts, the original source of this strange story. She produced a video for the news channel explaining that the “cabalistic symbols” meant “unconditional love” but could also be interpreted as “I am here” and thus be part of a “communication strategy” by which the opposition would secretly signal the location of targets to “foreign agents” of a soon to come “Imperialist military invasion” of the country. The plot, according to Gracía, was fortunately aborted by police investigations.

But why would these foreign agents use 43 “cabalistic symbols” written in Hebrew script to code their invasion route? To answer this question Madelein García interviewd in her video, according to Telesur’s caption, a “specialist in Israel and its intelligence services” named Samir Abu Saleh. He claimed that the same symbols appeared written in walls in “Damascus, El Cairo, Tunisia, and Libya, and this without a doubt, is evidence of the existence of US, Zionist, Masonic and other organization that are trying to harm those governments working to serve their people. (…) behind these efforts we always find humanitarian organizations that are really part of a plan of US intelligence services and the Israeli Mossad working against the freedom and the wellbeing of the people.” An alleged opposition protestor, on the ground, confessing his interaction with foreign agents speaking through interpreters, was also interviewed by García in her video as evidence of the conspiracy.

The story by Madelein García was also picked up by Russian news outlet RT, which added quotes by the analyst “specialist in Middle East issues,” Basem Tajeldine. The symbols were no surprise to him, given the “historical position taken by the Bolivarian Revolution in favor of the Palestinian cause.” He sayd that the “support from Israel to the violent groups of the Venezuelan opposition is not direct, but via infiltrated paramilitary groups from Colombia.”

In a press release, the Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the reports by Venezuelan State media as antisemitic. "The Hebrew letters provided as evidence of a Zionist/Israeli conspiracy, are meaningless gobbledy gook... They are most likely fake news of a desperate regime,” said the Center’s Director for International Relations Dr. Shimon Samuels.

All said, the curious story by Telesur’s reporter was not followed by any other journalistic account of this “Hebrew graffiti” conspiracy in Venezuelan State media in the following months. Indeed, no further account of the “undergoing police investigation” was ever given by Telesur. This is common practice in conspiracy allegations by the Venezuelan government: stories like these are run, further evidence to be provided in the future is promised, the story is completely dropped, and then at a later time it resurfaces as evidence of yet another conspiracy. But given the clear anti-Semitic undertones of this particular story, the question if antisemitism plays a central role in Venezuelan government’s conspiracy theories comes to the forefront.

At first sight, the answer to this question is no. The Jewish community in Venezuela is small and dwindling, as many have fled the economic and political crisis in the country (according to some reports of the 25,000 members of the community living in 1999, only 9,000 remain.) Both opposition leader Capriles Radonski and President Nicolás Maduro claim Jewish ancestry. But there is no denying that the community has felt directly threatened in the past 19 years of Bolivarian rule. The most serious event took place November 2004, when the police raided the Centro Hebráica in Caracas, which houses an elementary and secondary school and a cultural center. According to the then Interior Minister, Jesse Chacón, the police raided the center “searching for weapons.” Although no such weapons were found, the center was again raided by the police in December. There have been other incidents, apparently unrelated to the government, such as the breaking into and vandalizing with antisemitic graffiti of Caracas’ main synagogue in January 31, 2009. Nicolás Maduro, then Chávez’s Foreign Minister, promised a quick investigation of the incident. A group of police officers were arrested in ration to the attack, and the President of the Asociación Israelita de Venezuela, Elías Farache, declared that he considered the case closed and thanked the authorities for the quick results of the investigations.

In general, Chavismo relies on a highly conspiratorial worldview. In its understanding of reality, enemies of the Bolivarian Revolution are permanently bent on its destruction. These enemies are most often characterize under the catch-all term “imperialism”, but also include the local opposition leadership, the bourgeoisie, the oligarchs, the CIA, the world Right, etc. Jews are not often mentioned as part of the world plot of the powerful, but they have been sometimes included in it by some government officials, chavista leaders and chavista media. But, under the well-known rhetorical move of distinguishing between Zionism and Jews in general, Israel and the Mossad are often mentioned as part of the counter-revolutionary plots.

And then, blatant anti-Semitism, such as expressed in the case described above of Telesur’s reported, has sometime made its way into the chavista discourse. For example, Christina Gonzalez, Director of Radio Nacional De Venezuela, on her radio show “Noticia Final” in April 4, 2011 openly recommended the reading of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. She declared: “I have been looking over some materials, looking over things that have been happening in the last few days, searching for a book that might help me with some kind of explanation. I came up the Protocol of the Elders of Zion, and I found many interesting things”. She went on to read some paragraphs of the book and commented: “always the Jews are the bosses of the financial situation, because they have millions and millions (…), they always are manipulating money in circulation (…) no important job can be done without the sons of Israel.” Following protests by the Confederación de Asociaciones Israelitas, Gonzalez was removed from her post. She was however later that same month commended by Information Minister Izarra for her achievements as Director of RNV and later awarded a government official prize for journalism.

Cases such as those of Madelein García and Cristina González are admittedly rare in Venezuela. But they do raise concerns from time to time. To date, Madelein García has not been made to rectify her report, much less resign from her post. Venezuelan political leaders, from the government and opposition, abstain from blatant antisemitic remarks. There is, however, one notable exception about which I wrote a post early this year: Luis Fuenmayor Toro. Here is what I wrote then:

“The inexistence of the Holocaust is more than documented. You only need to read Rassinier’s “The Lie of Ulysses”, Hoggan’s “The Myth of the Six Million”, and the book by Ilan Pappe to know this. A holocaust is what we have today, live, in Palestine.” Wrote on Twitter Luis Fuenmayor Toro (@LFuenmayorToro) on January 22.

Fuenmayor (read his autobiographical note here), a medical surgeon, was Rector of the Universidad Central de Venezuela from 1988 to 1992. A Chávez supporter he was Director of the Venezuelan universities coordinating agency OPSU, and Minister for Higher Education from 2002 to 2004. He later fell out with chavismo and is now a critic of the Maduro government.

Fuenmayor has insisted on his position while answering his critics via Twitter. Told that “there are many documents [about the Holocaust],” he answered: “Precisely, what we don’t have is documents that prove what they say. What we have are movies, videos, hoaxes [montajes], which were later discovered and denounced by diverse people. Lech Walesa is no communist and he was very clear [when he spoke] in the most emblematic concentration camp.”

In the same Twitter line, Fuenmayor blames the “financial and propaganda power of the Zionist entity called Israel” for the many answers (cayapa) he has been receiving, as well as for the phone threats he claims to have received after he posted his comment.