Venezuela's poor join protests as turmoil grips Chávez's revolution

[Zorra]

142. OK, I don't mind posting educational information here, but...

No offense meant, but if you don't know that Henry Capriles Rothman, and Leopoldo Lopez are extreme RW corporatists who are instigators and leaders of this protest, then I suggest, if you wish me to debate this subject with you further, you spend a minimum of two weeks gaining somewhat of an idea of the history and politics of Latin America.

I will no longer be responding to your posts. Best wishes to you, and thank you for providing me with an opportunity to post information about extreme RWers Capriles and Lopez, leaders of the RW opposition who are fueling the violent protests in Venezuela.

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
― Benito Mussolini

"Heeding the call of opposition leader Henrique Capriles, governor of Miranda state and former presidential candidate, anti-government protesters massed near a shopping mall in the Caracas neighborhood of Sucre."

http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-threatens-cut-off-fuel-protest-areas-205822959.html

Venezuelan Protests: Another Attempt by U.S.-Backed Right-Wing Groups to Oust Elected Government?

What is happening in Venezuela today?

GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER: Well, there’s a great deal happening, and I think you’ve got your finger on the fact that this is a crucial test for the Maduro government. And I think it’s our obligation to put it in its broad historical context to understand who’s acting. And I think there’s a tendency—there’s an unfortunate tendency, if you follow Twitter or if you’re on the Internet, that, you know, in this sort of post-Occupy moment and in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, every time we see—every time we see protesters in the streets, we start retweeting it, and we start to sort of, you know, feel sympathetic, without necessarily knowing what the back story is. And I think we’re obligated to do that here. And once we look into this back story, what we see is yet another attempt in a long string of attempts of the Venezuelan opposition to oust a democratically elected government, this time taking advantage of student mobilizations against—you know, ostensibly against insecurity and against economic difficulties to do that.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, George Ciccariello, who is Leopoldo López? The Washington Post describes him as a 42-year-old, Harvard-educated, left-leaning moderate. What do you know about his history?

GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER: Left-leaning moderate would be quite a stretch]. Leopoldo López represents the far right of the Venezuelan political spectrum. In terms of his personal and political history, here’s someone who was educated in the United States from prep school through graduate school at the Harvard Kennedy School. He’s descended from the first president of Venezuela, purportedly even from Simón Bolívar. In other words, he’s a representative of this traditional political class that was displaced when the Bolivarian revolution came to power.

Henry Capriles Radonsky:

Venezuela: A close look at opposition candidate Capriles Radonski

The right-wing leader Henrique Capriles Radonski, who, amidst the coup d’etat against President Hugo Chavez in April 2002, led the assault on the Cuban Embassy in Caracas along with Cuban-Venezuelan terrorists, and who was unmasked by Wikileaks as a collaborator of the USA Embassy in Caracas, will be the candidate for the presidency that will confront President Hugo Chavez in next October elections.

As was anticipated in view of the alliances between candidates, Capriles won the majority of the votes in the election carried out last Sunday by the so called Democratic Unity Table (Mesa de la Unidad Democratica) or MUD. According to observers, its campaign commanders were characterized by voting delinquencies such as illegal party propaganda.

Capriles is the leader of the party Primero Justicia and was born on 11 July 1972, in Caracas to one of the most privileged families in Venezuela....

Venezuelan opposition leader shifts tactics amid protests
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/usatoday/article/5757375

CARACAS - Venezuela's opposition leader Henrique Capriles returned to the fore this weekend, leading a rally of thousands and offering up a unified opposition as violent protests continue across the country.

López, in turn, is seen by many as a wealthy member of the country's elite. He was educated at Harvard and speaks flawless English - traits that are not admired among supporters of the socialist government.

With Capriles' involvement and leadership, the protests now have a chance to galvanize the entire opposition rather than just its wealthier or more radical elements.

In his speech, Capriles highlighted the opposition's reluctance to leave wealthy areas of the city. Most of its rallies and the accompanying violence have taken place in Plaza Altamira, long a focal point for opposition unrest.

Capriles was born in Caracas, on 11 July 1972. He is the son of Monica Cristina Radonski-Bochenek and Henrique Capriles García.[4][5] Henrique was a successful businessman, and in the 1950s, he helped launch Kraft Foods' entry into Venezuela by inviting the vice-president of its Nabisco subsidiary and persuading him to do business there.[6] Capriles’ father was from Curaçao, and Capriles’ great-grandfather, Elías Capriles, was born in Curaçao in 1850.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capriles

Exposing the Venezuelan Right-Wing’s Attempts to Discredit April’s Presidential Election

Diego Arria himself was a candidate in the opposition’s Presidential primaries held last year that chose Henrique Capriles as the right-wing coalition’s candidate. He is a high profile member of the Venezuelan right-wing opposition and a regular contributor in the international media about Venezuela. He is also a strong supporter of Henrique Capriles candidacy for the forthcoming Presidential election, saying in the Huffington Post article “Count on me for whatever you might think necessary in the coming days”.

Leopoldo Lopez

Showdown looms for Venezuela as protest leader Leopoldo López vows new march
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/showdown-looms-for-venezuela-as-protest-leader-leopoldo-lopez-vows-new-march/2014/02/17/69689270-97ea-11e3-ae45-458927ccedb6_story.html
After five days of bloody student-led street protests, Venezuela appeared headed for a dangerous new showdown as opposition leader Leopoldo López said he will emerge from hiding Tuesday to lead an anti-government march.
snip---
López has emerged as the most forceful and fearless critic of Maduro, at a time when annual inflation is topping 50 percent and the oil-rich country’s economy is tanking, with citizens facing chronic shortages of toilet paper, milk and other basic goods.

Leopoldo López Mendoza (born 29 April 1971 in Caracas) is a Venezuelan politician and economist. From 2000 until 2008, López was the mayor of the Chacao Municipality of Caracas. López played a role in the attempted 2002 coup d'état against then Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, though he later tried to distance himself from the event.[1] In 2006, López was the leader of the opposition to President Chávez, as well as a social activist working for "grass-roots judicial reform".[2] The government of Venezuela [3] disqualified him from public office for six years;[4] the Inter-American Court of Human Rights sanctioned Chávez for violating the human rights of opposition candidates by disqualifying them from running,[5][6][7][8] and in 2010 the court reached a unanimous decision in favour of Lopez.[9] The government of Venezuela refused to comply with the court. During the 2014 Venezuelan protests, the government accused him of instigating arson, damage and criminal gatherings; he turned himself into police after addressing a crowd of supporters.[10] in relation to the 2014 Venezuelan protests.

Personal and professional life and education

López was born in Caracas on 29 April 1971. He has two sisters, Diana and Adriana López. He studied at the Colegio Santiago de León de Caracas and graduated from the HunSchool of Princeton.[11] He graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio in 1993,[12] where he received a degree in Sociology. He subsequently attended Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government where he obtained a Master of Public Policy in 1996.[13] In 2007, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Kenyon.[14] In May 2007 he married Lilian Tintori,[13][15] with whom he had a daughter in 2009 followed by a son in 2013.[16]

López' mother, Antonieta Mendoza, is the daughter of Eduardo Mendoza Goiticoa, who was Secretary of Agriculture for two years during the democratic period from 1945 to 1948. Through her, López is the great-great-great-grandson of the country's first president, Cristóbal Mendoza. López is the great-great-grand nephew of Simón Bolívar.[17] Bolivar's sister, Juana Bolivar, is Lopez's fourth grandmother making him one of Bolívar's few living relatives. His first cousin is Thor Halvorssen Mendoza.[18]
snip---
López worked as an economic consultant to the Planning Vice-President in Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) between 1996 and 1999, and has served as a professor of Institutional Economy in the Economics Department at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.[13]

What the Wikileaks Cables Say about Leopoldo López

In recent months, López has come out as more radical than Capriles, attracting opposition supporters who were perhaps disappointed Capriles had failed to take over from the social government.

While López strongly backed the protests, Capriles stood at the sidelines, hedging against their failure. Now he has stolen back the limelight.
---snip
Still, the violence has also played into government hands. Most evenings this week, Maduro, 51, has appeared on state television denouncing the protests by focusing on those injured or killed by the violence.

"A Nazi-fascist current has emerged again in Venezuela," said Maduro. "They want to lead our nation to violence and chaos."

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/usatoday/article/5757375

Lopez is the son of a former oil executive — Halvorssen’s aunt — who allegedly funnelled profits from the state-run oil company into his new political party, leading to corruption charges that placed his political ambitions in peril, as the Associated Press reported in February (“Leopoldo Lopez, Opponent Of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Faces Corruption Charges In Venezuela”).

Described by the US embassy in Venezuela as “vindictive, and power-hungry” but also as “a necessity,” Lopez received large sums of financial support from the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy.

http://maxblumenthal.com/2014/02/who-is-leopoldo-lopez/

Right Wing Groups Riot In Venezuela As State Department Dodges Questions of US Involvement

One of the leaders of the “peaceful assemblies” is Leopoldo Lopez Mendoza. Lopez is currently facing arrest for murder and terrorism and is the first cousin of frequent uncredited Buzzfeed source and Wikipedia editor Thor Halvorssen Mendoza.

Lopez attended the Kennedy School of Government and was close with members of the Bush Administration. In Venezuela Lopez was sanctioned for influence peddling and embezzlement of funds partly for using money from Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA. Lopez was also sanctioned for illegal fund transfers when he was Mayor of Chacao. He and his associates have additionally been caught taking money from the US National Endowment for Democracy, an organization created as an alternative to funding from the CIA to pursue US interests abroad.

The statement from the US State Department that the US is not “helping organize protesters” is an interesting claim. While US government officials may or may not be involved in on the ground organizing the US government has been funding the organizers.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2014/02/18/right-wing-groups-riot-in-venezeula-as-us-state-department-dodges-questions/

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. "

-Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Recommendations Relative to the Strengthening and Enforcement of Anti-trust Laws"

Have a wonderful day!