[News] Sir Richard Branson’s Venezuelan-Border PR Stunt

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/19/sir-richard-bransons-venezuelan-border-pr-stunt/ 



  Sir Richard Branson’s Venezuelan-Border PR Stunt

by Joyce Nelson <https://www.counterpunch.org/author/dr4pudug/> - 
February 19, 2019
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Isn’t it amazing how the billionaires of the world seem to think they 
can meddle in anything and everything? “We Are the World!” they appear 
to assume, picking up on that “humanitarian” song from thirty years ago. 
I guess all that champagne consumed at Davos and elsewhere goes directly 
to their egos, inspiring new heights of arrogance and intrigue.

On February 15th Sir Richard Branson (whose net worth is estimated at 
about $4 billion) announced plans for a “Venezuela Aid Live” concert to 
be held on February 22 in the Colombian city of Cucuta and also 
live-streamed on the Internet, to raise $100 million for food aid.

Founder of the Virgin Group (400+ companies), Sir Branson is setting up 
the concert “at the request of” Juan Guaido (who declared himself 
interim president on Jan. 23) “and jailed opposition leader Leopoldo 
Lopez to draw attention to the crisis in Venezuela. ‘Our goal is to 
raise $100 million dollars in 60 days and reopen Venezuela’s border so 
humanitarian aid can finally reach those millions who need it the most,’ 
said Branson.” [1]

There’s a lot to unpack in that one paragraph, so let’s start there and 
save the list of performers for later.

*The Date*

Juan Guaido has frequently pledged that the aid piling up in Colombia, 
Brazil and Curacao will enter Venezuela on Feb. 23. So Sir Branson’s 
concert is scheduled the day before Guaido’s deadline. Guaido has 
frequently taunted the Venezuelan military, trying to entice them into 
abandoning President Nicolas Maduro and opening a Trojan Horse aid 
corridor (operated by the U.S. and Guaido) that would allow direct 
foreign intervention in Venezuela.

Major relief organizations – the United Nations, the International 
Committee of the Red Cross, and the Catholic aid group Caritas – have so 
far been reluctant to cooperate with the so-called “humanitarian” food 
and supply efforts of both US AID and the Lima Group, warning against 
using food as a political pawn.

As Adam Johnson wrote for Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), “We 
have ample evidence the Maduro government is more than willing to work 
with international aid when it’s offered in good faith, not when it’s a 
thinly veiled mechanism to spur civil war and contrive PR victories for 
those seeking to overthrow the government. It’s not just Maduro – as the 
Western media are presenting it – who opposes the US aid convoy; it’s 
the UN and Red Cross. Why do none [of the mainstream media] note this 
rather key piece of information, instead giving the reader the 
impression it’s only the stance of a sadistic, power-hungry madman?” [2]

Sir Branson’s concert is part of that PR campaign. While Sir Richard 
could easily pony-up the $100 million himself from petty cash, he wants 
the rest of us to naively pitch in and participate in this PR stunt.

Branson is also one of those multi-billionaires perennially criticized 
in the UK for his clever tax avoidance. Like most of the uber-rich, he 
prefers to be a philanthropist. A columnist for The Guardian (UK) has 
provided a useful definition of that term: “a rich person who doesn’t 
want to pay tax or fair wages but does want to get applauded for giving 
a bit of money to a charity of their choice now and again.” [3]

*The Location*

Cucuta, Colombia (where the concert will take place) is the main 
entrance for Venezuelans migrating to Colombia. According to Kevin Zeese 
and Margaret Flowers, “Curcuta has a high presence of Colombian 
paramilitaries and smuggling mafias and is where those who attempted to 
assassinate [President] Nicolas Maduro last year were trained.” [4] So 
for those who want to establish a Trojan Horse “humanitarian corridor” 
into Venezuela, the Colombian city of Cucuta is a logical choice.

On Saturday, February 16, a U.S. military transport plane carrying tons 
of aid landed in Cucuta. It was the first of three such U.S. military 
flights scheduled to arrive this week. According to The Guardian (UK), 
“The acting US defence secretary, Patrick Shanahan, said on Saturday the 
US used military aircraft to send aid to the Venezuelan border in 
Colombia because of the urgency of the humanitarian needs. ‘It’s a 
message to Venezuela that we are supporting their humanitarian needs,’ 
Shanahan said, adding the aid was being transported by three C-17 
aircraft.” [5]

At the Saturday news conference in Cucuta, a representative for Juan 
Guaido told Reuters that “millions of Venezuelans” will be traveling to 
Cucuta by Feb. 23 to “safeguard arriving aid”. He said: “We are going to 
have the accompaniment of people, of hundreds of thousands, of millions 
of Venezuelans that our president, Juan Guaido, has called upon, who we 
have asked to go to the border dressed in white as a sign of peace.” [6]

*Leopoldo Lopez*

Sir Branson has stated that his Venezuela Aid Live concert has been set 
up at the request of Juan Guaido and “jailed opposition leader Leopoldo 
Lopez”. Actually, Lopez isn’t in jail but is under house arrest – very 
lenient treatment, as we shall see.

While there is much mainstream media reporting about lengthy bread lines 
in Venezuela and the lack of flour for making bread, such reporting 
overlooks a crucial fact. Leopoldo Lopez is the Chairman of the Board 
for Empresas Polar, the private company that controls the majority of 
the flour production and distribution in Venezuela.

To my knowledge, there’s been only one English-language report of this 
fact: FAIR (Feb. 8, 2019) reported, “Conspicuously, it’s the products 
that [Empresas] Polar has a near-monopoly in that are often in shortest 
supply. This is hardly a secret, but never mentioned in the copious 
stories (CNN, Bloomberg, Washington Post, NPR) focusing on bread lines 
in the country.” [7]

Evidently, Leopoldo Lopez as Chairman of the company, could immediately 
change the situation of flour-scarcity and lengthy bread lines if he 
wanted to.
So who is Leopoldo Lopez? Besides being the Chairman of Empresas Polar 
and the political party mentor of Juan Guaido, Lopez has a very dubious 
past.

As noted by Stephen Lendman, “In September 2015, anti-Bolivarian fascist 
coup plotter Leopoldo Lopez was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison 
for inciting months of violence and related crimes against the state [of 
Venezuela]. They resulted in 43 deaths, many injuries and destruction of 
public property. Lopez got off lightly. In America, he’d likely have 
been prosecuted and convicted of sedition, sentenced to decades or life 
in prison.” [8] But in July 2017, Venezuela’s Supreme Court ruled that 
Leopoldo Lopez be transferred to house arrest as “a ‘humanitarian 
gesture,’ citing unexplained health issues.” [9]

Of course, by being moved to house arrest, Leopoldo Lopez regained 
freedom to operate politically through associates like Juan Guaido and 
now Sir Richard Branson.
As of February 15 (according to Sir Branson’s website), the performers 
scheduled for the Venezuela Aid Live concert include Peter Gabriel, 
Nacho, Alejandro Sanz, Carolos Vives and Juanes, Luis Fonsi, and Miguel 
Bose.

There is a growing movement to ignore the live-streamed event on the 
Internet, refusing to participate in Sir Branson’s (and Juan Guaido’s 
and Leopoldo Lopez’s) PR stunt.

Interestingly, in announcing his concert, Sir Branson had said, “We must 
break this impasse or soon many Venezuelans will be on the edge of 
starvation or death.” Why doesn’t Sir Branson simply pick up the phone 
and ask Leopoldo Lopez to direct his company Empresas Polar, and other 
Venezuelan private sector food and medical suppliers, to stop preventing 
supplies from reaching the public”?

*Footnotes:*
[1] “Richard Branson announces Venezuela Aid Live concert which aims to 
raise $100 million for food and supplies in the crisis-hit country,” 
Daily Mail (UK), February 15, 2019.
[2] Adam Johnson, “Western Media Fall in Lockstep for Cheap Trump/Rubio 
Venezuela Aid PR Stunt,” Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, February 9, 2019.
[3] Arwa Mahdawi, “Don’t call Howard Schultz a billionaire. He’s a 
‘person of means’,” The Guardian, February 6, 2019.
[4] Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, “Venezuela: US Pursuing 
Humanitarian Aid Path to War,” Global Research, February 6, 2019.
[5] Reuters, “US aid for Venezuela arrives in Colombia, but delivery 
uncertain,” The Guardian, February 17, 2019.
[6] Quoted in ibid.
[7] Alan MacLeod, “’Venezuela’: Media’s One-Word Rebuttal to the Threat 
of Socialism,” Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, February 8, 2019.
[8] Stephen Lendman, “Venezuelan Coup Plotter Released to House Arrest,” 
Global Research, July 11, 2017.
[9] Ibid.

-- 
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