Brazil will not allow U.S. use its territory to invade Venezuela - vice president

[Judi Lynn]

25. Your source cites two gentlemen from "US broadcaster Univision."

Univision is most clearly NOT an unbiased source. A former 25% stockholder is Venezuela's newspaper billionaire, Gustavo Cisneros, who was George H W Bush's "fishing buddy," and one of the coup-plotters in the 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez. He is still a member of the Board there. He is entirely right-wing. Immediately after the people overturned the coup Cisneros and Bush flew to the Dominican Republic to huddle and regroup at the resort owned by Pepe and Alfi Fanjul, the mega wealthy Sugar Baron brothers of pre-revolutionary Cuba, who also own extensive sugar cane operations in South Florida, on the land retrieved from swamp land by the taxpayers and the US Army Corps of Engineering.

Here's Gustavo and George H W with Pepe Fanjul in the D.R. where they were in consultation post-coup at Casa de Campo:



Here's George H W and Alfi Fanjul with their spouses:



Gustavo Cisneros and George W with the President of the D.R., Leonel Fernandez, in the suit:



Cisneros has been described as "Venezuela's Berlusconi."

From Newsweek:

HUGO'S CLOSE CALL
BY MICHAEL ISIKOFF ON 4/28/02 AT 8:00 PM

eople power it wasn't. Although more than 200,000 antigovernment protesters marched through the streets of Caracas--some to their deaths--the short-lived April 11-12 coup against President Hugo Chavez was secretly hatched by two small but powerful groups: senior military officers and several of the country's richest businessmen. The leaders of the putsch had extensive ties to the U.S. political and economic establishment. At the vortex of the whole mess was the billionaire television magnate Gustavo Cisneros, a fishing buddy of former president George H. W. Bush and king of a business empire stretching from the United States to the Southern Cone.

. . .

Some of the toughest will be about Gustavo Cisneros, 58, the suspected bankroller of the coup. The broadcast tycoon was one of Chavez's biggest backers four years ago, before the two fell out over the president's increasing tilt to the left. Cisneros denies any role in ousting Chavez, but as the coup emerged on the evening of April 11, several of its alleged leaders met at the headquarters of his Venevision TV station. Among them was Pedro Carmona, the businessman who took over as "interim president" in the early hours of April 12. "That government was put together in the offices of Gustavo Cisneros," says opposition legislator Pedro Pablo Alcantara. "The supreme chief was Cisneros." Cisneros insists he had no role in the interim regime. He calls the congressman's allegations "false, irresponsible and unacceptable."

Otto Reich, the State Department's lead man on Latin American affairs, tells NEWSWEEK he spoke with Cisneros "two or three times" during the coup. Reich says he was only seeking information, not trying to encourage or direct the plotters. "We had absolutely nothing to do with this," he says. Upon learning that Carmona had dissolved the National Assembly, Reich adds, he instructed Ambassador Shapiro to give the interim president an urgent message: "If there's going to be an extraconstitutional government, we can't work with you." It was already too late. Cisneros called Reich on Saturday afternoon to say an angry pro-Chavez mob was besieging Venevision's offices. The businessman insists that was the sole contact he had with Reich during the coup. As everything disintegrated, Cisneros was in the presidential palace, pleading in vain by phone for the public support of popular labor leader Carlos Ortega.

. . .

https://www.newsweek.com/hugos-close-call-143197


Short Forbes article:

#201 Gustavo Cisneros & family
03.10.10, 06:00 PM EST



AP Photo
Net Worth: $4.2 bil
Fortune: Inherited and Growing
Source: media
Age: 64
Country Of Citizenship: Venezuela
Residence: Caracas
Education: Babson C, Bachelor of Arts / Science
Marital Status: Married, 3 children

One of South America's most prominent businessmen oversees a diversified empire with interests in Venezuelan television stations, telecom outfits, a regional brewery and a baseball team. Sold U.S. Spanish-language TV network Univision to a private equity consortium led by U.S. billionaire Haim Saban for $700 million in 2007. After locking horns with president Hugo Chavez, Venevision, his Venezuela TV company, is avoiding politics these days, preferring to concentrate on entertainment content, including hugely popular Latin American soap operas. Cisneros and his wife are familiar figures in high society, hobnobbing with former presidents, designers and fellow billionaires; George H.W. Bush is his fishing buddy. Boasts an extensive collection of Latin American art: one favorite is an Amazonian landscape by German artist Frank W. Post. His foundation promotes education and protection of indigenous people in the Amazon basin.

https://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_Gustavo-Cisneros-family_GX8F.html