This
week saw Leopoldo Lopez, a so-called “revolutionary” and major
figure in Venezuela’s right-wing opposition, released from prison
to house arrest due to “health concerns.” Though celebrated by
foreign media, Lopez has a history of inciting fatally violent
protests.
by
Whitney Webb
Part
3 - The dark side of the Venezuelan opposition
In the years
following the coup attempt against Chavez, López began to meet with
various right-wing figures who were well-known throughout Latin
America, including numerous meetings with Colombia’s infamous
former president Alvaro Uribe, who was known for his ties to
Colombia’s murderous paramilitary factions.
Soon after,
López began to support violent tactics like those used in the 2002
coup attempt and assumed his role as leader of the most extreme
faction of Venezuela’s right wing. As a result, he quickly became
an incredibly divisive figure within the Venezuelan opposition.
According to
a 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable, Mary Ponte of the Primero Justicia
party that López co-founded stated that “For the opposition
parties, Lopez draws ire second only to Chavez. The only difference
between the two is that López is a lot better looking.” In the
same cable, U.S. State Department officials referred to López as a
“divisive figure within the opposition […] often described as
arrogant, vindictive, and power-hungry – but party officials also
concede his enduring popularity, charisma and talent as an
organizer.”
López’s
ability to generate support among radical right-wing youth both in
Venezuela and abroad has been key to the Venezuelan opposition’s
efforts. In 2013, López was joined by several other key figures in
the opposition who began to call for the “exit” of the elected
government, particularly after the opposition’s crushing electoral
defeat that year, which saw socialist candidates take 75 percent of
mayoralties.
Also in
2013, a leaked conversation involving López’s greatest political
ally, Maria Corina Machado, was made public. The conversation
described what Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, the chairman of the
opposition umbrella group Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, told
Undersecretary for Latin American Affairs Roberta Jacobsen, whom he
had recently met in Washington.
She stated:
“I
found out that Ramon Guillermo Aveledo told the State Department that
the only way to resolve this (salir de esto) is by provoking and
accentuating a crisis, a coup or a self-coup. Or a process of
tightening the screws and domesticating to generate a system of total
social control.”
The
following year, López and Machado led the effort to
opportunistically take advantage of student marches commemorating
Venezuela’s National Youth Day by fomenting violent protests among
the youth opposition, over whom López holds considerable sway.
What was
originally a peaceful march devolved into chaos when youth opposition
members led a parallel march that turned violent as protesters
destroyed public buildings, including the Attorney General’s
office, and used Molotov cocktails to burn property and block roads.
The clashes
claimed three lives, but 40 more would soon lose their lives as López
– following the initial event – called for more “resistance”
in the streets. This resistance took the form of violent street
barricades called guarimbas that continue to remain a popular tactic
among opposition protesters. Despite the mounting death toll, López
continued to push for more violent protests and was later arrested
for his role in inciting and allegedly planning the events.
López’s
arrest made him a rallying point for the violent protests that have
followed, particularly in the Chacao district he once governed, which
has been a focal point of the recent unrest. From behind bars, López
has continued to call for violent resistance to the current
government, even urging the nation’s armed forces to “rebel”
against President Maduro last month.
According to
TeleSur, Venezuelan officials hope that placing López under house
arrest will lead the opposition – protesters and leaders alike –
to heed calls for peace and dialogue. Given López’s background,
however, this seems highly unlikely.
López’s
role in the violence, as well as the violence of extremist factions
of the Venezuelan opposition, has largely been ignored by the
mainstream press, as such inconvenient truths do not fit U.S.
interests. U.S. politicians and media are eager to treat López as a
heroic political prisoner while declining to acknowledge atrocities
committed by facets of the opposition that idolize him as a leader.
For
instance, media coverage of the torching of 21-year-old Orlando
Figuera was minimal. In May, Figuera was attacked after violent
protesters assumed he was a Maduro supporter due to his skin color.
He was beaten, stabbed, and set aflame – later dying from his
wounds. Opposition protesters have set numerous people on fire over
the course of the 2017 protests.
Among the
independent journalists who have reported on the ground from Caracas,
the violence used by opposition groups – largely concentrated in
wealthy pockets of Caracas – has been obvious and even
life-threatening. Independent U.S. journalist Abby Martin traveled to
Caracas to interview opposition members and government supporters but
quickly found herself, along with her producer Mike Prysner, the
subject of death threats after Venezuelan opposition leadership
accused them of being “infiltrators.”
Source,
links:
http://www.mintpressnews.com/the-violent-past-of-venezuelan-opposition-leader-leopoldo-lopez/229679/
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