Guaidó is Funded by Chavismo

(Image downloaded from @jcajias and retweeted by @garciabanchs)

Part of the opposition is convinced that its own leadership is being sponsored by the Maduro regime and is betraying a clear and clean break with chavismo. The theory is linked to a warranted skepticism in Venezuela’s electoral system and with the belief that only a foreign military intervention will trigger a transition from authoritarian rule. Any sign by the opposition leadership of willingness to negotiate a peaceful transition, basically through elections, is considered by this faction of the opposition as a sellout to the regime. Indeed, to simply engage in dialogue with the government is tantamount to collaboration with a criminal narco-regime.

A good example of this conspiracy theorizing is Ángel García Banchs (@garciabanchs), a popular Twitter influencer with 336.1 K followers. García Banchs is convinced that Juan Guaidó, interim president named by the National Assembly, has been unwilling to unequivocally call for a foreign military intervention against the Venezuelan government because he is funded by bolichicos and boliburgueses (corrupt pro-government businessmen and government officials.)

Here is my translation of some recent posts by García Banchs:

“Foreign military intervention will happen even despite @jguaido and all the collaborators with the narco-regime, funded by the bolichicos and boliburgueses who looted PDVSA, CORPOELEC and the Venezuelan nation.”

García Banchs, however, is concerned that some people in the United States may be lobbying against a military intervention in Venezuela. They are doing this because they are financed by the Maduro government:

“How is it that these people are falling from the sky [paracaidistas] and giving talks in Washington? Money from the narco-regime or the bolichicos.”

“If there is funding by the bolichicos and the boliburgueses, the National Assembly and @jguaido are part of the regime. They will never become separated [from the regime].”

“Bolichicos and boligurgueses pay for the very expensive trips and lobbies of those talking about a PSUV-MUD transition. Unfortunately serious Venezuelan industrialists are not funding radicals in Washington [lobbies] to talk about the foreign military rupture/intervention”

“VENEZUELA is in the hands of a lobby struggle. Lobbies payed by bolichicos and boliburgueses to convinced Washington to wait for free presidential elections or for a coup by Padrino [Lopez], which will never happen. In the end, everything leads to a foreign military intervention.”

García Banchs seems aware that a military intervention would be far from a clean affaire and would entail sacrifice and suffering. Today he wrote:

“I won’t lie: the foreign military intervention, of course, will be a war. Those who speak of a surgical intervention are most likely referring to XIX Century surgery, not to XXI Century laparoscopy surgery. It’s either war with freedom or peace with submission under Maduro”

In fact, in the following audio, García Banchs argues that an “inevitable” foreign military intervention will lead to a purifying civil war which will purge Venezuela of chavistas and narcos, but also of populism and socialism. The war will end with a victory of “those in favor freedom, by which I mean liberals,” and will ensue in “the first economic miracle of the Twenty First Century.”