Venezuela is behind protests in the US

Mirroring accusation by chavismo that imperial agents are behind most protests in Venezuela, some opposition leaders and social media influences are claiming that the Venezuelan government is behind the recent wave of protests in cities across the United States.

The main evidence for this is a blurry and widely shared picture, according to some, of pro-chavista journalist Max Blumenthal, filming/participating in one of the protests and wearing a t-shirt with the famous image of Chavez’ eyes. Blumenthal is known for having filmed a 6 minutes video report in Caracas early in 2019 in which he strolls around a well stocked high end supermarket of the city. The purpose of the documentary is apparently to show that the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is really a media lie. He does find some of the items incredibly expensive, but blames this on “speculation brought on by the capitalist class.”

Be it Blumenthal or not in the picture, Guaido’s Foreign Relations Commissioner, Julio Borges (@JulioBorges), has re-twitted the image and commented: “Again the (Venezuelan) regime shows up as promoter of destabilization, this time in the United States. The (Venezuelan) dictatorship uses the media, and barbaric [vandálico] groups to promote violence. Maduro is a threat to democracy across the continent, this is why we need to focus on removing him from power”

Opposition Twitter influence Ángel García Banchs (@garciabanchs) also wrote: “The protests now taking place in the United States and Canada have been organized by the same people who organized the protests in Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, etc. And they are the same who organized the Caracazo.”

The Caracazo refers to the week-long violent protests and looting which took place started in Caracas February 27, 1989 and spread to most of the country. The deployment of the military and the repression of the left 300 death according to official counts, although Human Rights groups claim that as many as 2000 people died. Despite evidence that the protests and violence spread spontaneously following the increase in transport fees, a wide spread conspiracy theory claims that left-wing groups orchestrated the Caracazo.