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<h1 class="reader-title">The Making of Juan Guaidó: How the US
Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela's Coup Leader <br>
</h1>
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<span class="cat-links"> </span> <span class="posted-on"><a
href="https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/"
rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date published"
datetime="2019-01-29T02:43:12+00:00">January 29, 2019</time></a></span>
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<h4><strong>Juan Guaidó is the product of a decade-long
project overseen by Washington’s elite regime change
trainers. While posing as a champion of democracy, he
has spent years at the forefront of a violent campaign
of destabilization.</strong></h4>
<h4><strong>By Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal</strong></h4>
<p><span>Before the fateful day of January 22, <a
href="https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1087447663153500166">fewer
than one in five</a> Venezuelans had heard of Juan
Guaidó. Only a few months ago, the 35-year-old was an
obscure character in a politically marginal far-right
group closely associated with gruesome acts of street
violence. Even in his own party, Guaidó had been a
mid-level figure in the opposition-dominated National
Assembly, which is now held under contempt according
to Venezuela’s constitution. </span></p>
<p><span>But after a single phone call from from US Vice
President Mike Pence, Guaidó proclaimed himself
president of Venezuela. Anointed as the leader of his
country by Washington, a previously unknown political
bottom-dweller was vaulted onto the international
stage as the US-selected leader of the nation with the
world’s largest oil reserves.</span></p>
<p><span>Echoing the Washington consensus, the New York
Times editorial board </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/opinion/venezuela-guaido-maduro.html"><span>hailed</span></a><span>
Guaidó as a “credible rival” to Maduro with a
“refreshing style and vision of taking the country
forward.” The Bloomberg News editorial board </span><a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-25/guaido-s-bold-stroke-for-democracy-in-venezuela"><span>applauded</span></a><span>
him for seeking “restoration of democracy” and the
Wall Street Journal <a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/revolt-in-venezuela-11548289111">declared</a>
him</span><span> “a new democratic leader.” Meanwhile,
Canada, numerous European nations, Israel, and the
bloc of right-wing Latin American governments known as
the Lima Group recognized Guaidó as the legitimate
leader of Venezuela.</span></p>
<p><span>While Guaidó seemed to have materialized out of
nowhere, he was, in fact, the product of more than a
decade of assiduous grooming by the US government’s
elite regime change factories. Alongside a cadre of
right-wing student activists, Guaidó was cultivated to
undermine Venezuela’s socialist-oriented government,
destabilize the country, and one day seize power.
Though he has been a minor figure in Venezuelan
politics, he had spent years quietly demonstrated his
worthiness in Washington’s halls of power.</span></p>
<p><span>“Juan Guaidó is a character that has been created
for this circumstance,” Marco Teruggi, an Argentinian
sociologist and leading chronicler of Venezuelan
politics, told <a href="https://grayzoneproject.com/">The
Grayzone</a>. “It’s the logic of a laboratory –
Guaidó is like a mixture of several elements that
create a character who, in all honesty, oscillates
between laughable and worrying.” </span></p>
<p><span>Diego Sequera, a Venezuelan journalist and writer
for the investigative outlet Misión Verdad, agreed:
“Guaidó is more popular outside Venezuela than inside,
especially in the elite Ivy League and Washington
circles,” Sequera remarked to The Grayzone, “He’s a
known character there, is predictably right-wing, and
is considered loyal to the program.”</span></p>
<p><span>While Guaidó is today sold as the face of
democratic restoration, he spent his career in the
most violent faction of Venezuela’s most radical
opposition party, positioning himself at the forefront
of one destabilization campaign after another. His
party has been widely discredited inside Venezuela,
and is held partly responsible for fragmenting a badly
weakened opposition. </span></p>
<p><span>“‘These radical leaders have no more than 20
percent in opinion polls,” <a
href="http://www.caraotadigital.net/nacionales/luis-vicente-leon-la-oposicion-politica-venezolana-vive-su-peor-momento-historico/">wrote</a> </span><span>Luis
Vicente León, Venezuela’s leading pollster. According
to León, Guaidó’s party remains isolated because the
majority of the population “does not want war. ‘What
they want is a solution.’”</span></p>
<p><span>But this is precisely why he Guaidó was selected
by Washington: He is not expected to lead Venezuela
toward democracy, but to collapse a country that for
the past two decades has been a bulwark of resistance
to US hegemony. His unlikely rise signals the
culmination of a two decades-long project to destroy a
robust socialist experiment.</span></p>
<h3><b>Targeting the “troika of tyranny”</b></h3>
<p><span>Since the 1998 election of Hugo Chávez, the
United States has fought to restore control over
Venezuela and is vast oil reserves. Chávez’s socialist
programs may have redistributed the country’s wealth
and helped lift millions out of poverty, but they also
earned him a target on his back. </span></p>
<p><span>In 2002, Venezuela’s right-wing opposition
briefly ousted Chávez with US support and recognition,
before the military restored his presidency following
a mass popular mobilization. Throughout the
administrations of US Presidents George W. Bush and
Barack Obama, Chávez survived numerous assassination
plots, before succumbing to cancer in 2013. His
successor, Nicolas Maduro, has </span><a
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/27/maduro-assassination-plot-venezuela_n_3820765.html"><span>survived</span></a>
<a
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2344973.stm"><span>three
attempts</span></a><span> on his life.</span></p>
<p><span>The Trump administration immediately elevated
Venezuela to the top of Washington’s regime change
target list, branding it the leader of a </span><a
href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-national-security-advisor-ambassador-john-r-bolton-administrations-policies-latin-america/"><span>“troika
of tyranny.”</span></a><span> Last year, Trump’s
national security team </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/world/americas/donald-trump-venezuela-military-coup.html"><span>attempted</span></a><span>
to recruit members of the military brass to mount a
military junta, but that effort failed.</span></p>
<p><span>According to the Venezuelan government, the US
was also involved in a plot, codenamed Operation
Constitution, to capture Maduro at the Miraflores
presidential palace; and another, called </span><a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-27/inside-the-failed-plot-to-overthrow-venezuelan-president-nicolas-maduro"><span>Operation
Armageddon</span></a><span>, to assassinate him at a
military parade in July 2017. Just over a year later,
exiled opposition leaders </span><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J71BT0stT3k"><span>tried
and failed to kill Maduro</span></a><span> with
drone bombs during a military parade in Caracas.</span></p>
<p><span>More than a decade before these intrigues, a
group of right-wing opposition students were
hand-selected and groomed by an elite US-funded regime
change training academy to topple Venezuela’s
government and restore the neoliberal order.</span></p>
<h3><b>Training from the “‘export-a-revolution’ group that
sowed the seeds for a NUMBER of color revolutions”</b></h3>
<p><span>On October 5, 2005, with Chávez’s popularity at
its peak and his government planning sweeping
socialist programs, five Venezuelan “student leaders”
</span><a
href="https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/venezuela-marigold-revolution"><span>arrived</span></a><span>
in Belgrade, Serbia to begin training for an
insurrection. </span></p>
<p><span>The students had arrived from Venezuela courtesy
of the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and
Strategies, or CANVAS. This group is </span><a
href="http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2013/01/14/breaking-desperate-for-destabilization-in-venezuela-us-funded-otpor-rears-its-ugly-head/"><span>funded</span></a><span>
largely through the <a
href="https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/20/inside-americas-meddling-machine-the-us-funded-group-that-interferes-in-elections-around-the-globe/">National
Endowment for Democracy</a>, a CIA cut-out that
functions as the US government’s main arm of promoting
regime change; and offshoots like the International
Republican Institute and the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs. According to
leaked internal </span><a
href="https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/17/1792423_information-on-canvas-.html"><span>emails</span></a><span>
from Stratfor, an intelligence firm known as the “<a
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/15/stratfor-canadian-government_n_4449505.html">shadow
CIA</a>,” CANVAS “may have also received CIA funding
and training during the 1999/2000 anti-Milosevic
struggle.”</span></p>
<p><span>CANVAS is a spinoff of Otpor, a Serbian protest
group founded by </span><a
href="http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO1Oct2017.php"><span>Srdja
Popovic</span></a><span> in 1998 at the University
of Belgrade. Otpor, which means “resistance” in
Serbian, was the student group that gained
international fame — and Hollywood-level </span><a
href="https://vimeo.com/143379353"><span>promotion</span></a><span>
— by mobilizing the protests that eventually toppled
Slobodan Milosevic. </span></p>
<p><span>This small cell of regime change specialists was
operating according to the theories of the late Gene
Sharp, the so-called “Clausewitz of non-violent
struggle.” Sharp had worked with a former Defense
Intelligence Agency analyst, Col. </span><a
href="http://peacemagazine.org/archive/v24n1p12.htm"><span>Robert
Helvey</span></a><span>, to conceive a strategic
blueprint that weaponized protest as a form of hybrid
warfare, aiming it at states that resisted
Washington’s unipolar domination.</span></p>
<p><span>Otpor was supported by the National Endowment for
Democracy, USAID, and Sharp’s Albert Einstein
Institute. Sinisa Sikman, one of Otpor’s main
trainers, once </span><a
href="https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/17/1792423_information-on-canvas-.html"><span>said</span></a><span>
the group even received direct CIA funding. </span></p>
<p><span>According to a </span><a
href="https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/17/1713359_re-insight-venezuela-canvas-analysis-.html"><span>leaked
email</span></a><span> from a Stratfor staffer,
after running Milosevic out of power, “the kids who
ran OTPOR grew up, got suits and designed CANVAS… or
in other words a ‘export-a-revolution’ group that
sowed the seeds for a NUMBER of color revolutions.
They are still hooked into U.S. funding and basically
go around the world trying to topple dictators and
autocratic governments (ones that U.S. does not like
;).”</span></p>
<p><span>Stratfor revealed that CANVAS “turned its
attention to Venezuela” in 2005, after training
opposition movements that led pro-NATO regime change
operations across Eastern Europe.</span></p>
<p><span>While monitoring the CANVAS training program,
Stratfor outlined its insurrectionist agenda in
strikingly blunt language: “Success is by no means
guaranteed, and student movements are only at the
beginning of what could be a years-long effort to
trigger a revolution in Venezuela, but the trainers
themselves are the people who cut their teeth on the
‘Butcher of the Balkans.’ They’ve got mad skills.
When you see students at five Venezuelan universities
hold simultaneous demonstrations, you will know that
the training is over and the real work has begun.”</span></p>
<h3><strong>Birthing the “Generation 2007” regime change
cadre</strong></h3>
<p><span>The “real work” began two years later, in 2007,
when Guaidó graduated from Andrés Bello Catholic
University of Caracas. He moved to Washington, DC to
enroll in the Governance and Political Management </span><a
href="http://sri.ucab.edu.ve/sites/default/files/Convenio%20UCAB-%20CAF%20George%20Washington%20University.pdf"><span>Program</span></a><span>
at George Washington University, under the tutelage of
Venezuelan economist Luis Enrique Berrizbeitia, one of
the top Latin American neoliberal economists.
Berrizbeitia is a </span><a
href="https://www.caf.com/media/3571/resumenexecutive.pdf"><span>former
executive director</span></a><span> of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) who spent more than
a decade working in the Venezuelan energy sector,
under the old oligarchic regime that was ousted by
Chávez.</span></p>
<p><span>That year, Guaidó helped lead anti-government
rallies after the Venezuelan government </span><a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2424"><span>declined
to</span></a><span> to renew the license of Radio
Caracas Televisión (RCTV). This privately owned
station played a leading role in the 2002 coup against
Hugo Chávez. RCTV helped mobilize anti-government
demonstrators, falsified information blaming
government supporters for acts of violence carried out
by opposition members, and banned pro-government
reporting amid the coup. The role of RCTV and other
oligarch-owned stations in driving the failed coup
attempt was chronicled in the acclaimed documentary <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/video/2611">The
Revolution Will Not Be Televised</a>.</span></p>
<p><span>That same year, the students claimed credit for
stymying Chavez’s constitutional referendum for a
“21st century socialism” that </span><a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2890"><span>promised</span></a><span>
“to set the legal framework for the political and
social reorganization of the country, giving direct
power to organized communities as a prerequisite for
the development of a new economic system.” </span></p>
<p><span>From the protests around RCTV and the referendum,
a specialized cadre of US-backed class of regime
change activists was born. They called themselves
“Generation 2007.”</span></p>
<p><span>The Stratfor and CANVAS trainers of this cell
identified Guaidó’s ally – a street organizer named
Yon Goicoechea – as a “key factor” in defeating the
constitutional referendum. The following year,
Goicochea was </span><a
href="https://www.cato.org/friedman-prize/yon-goicoechea"><span>rewarded</span></a><span>
for his efforts with the Cato Institute’s Milton
Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, along with a
$500,000 prize, which he promptly invested into
building his own Liberty First (Primero Justicia)
political network.</span></p>
<p><span>Friedman, of course, was the godfather of the
notorious neoliberal Chicago Boys who were imported
into Chile by dictatorial junta leader Augusto
Pinochet to implement policies of radical “shock
doctrine”-style fiscal austerity. And the Cato
Institute is the libertarian Washington DC-based think
tank founded by the Koch Brothers, two top Republican
Party donors who have become </span><a
href="https://theintercept.com/2017/08/09/atlas-network-alejandro-chafuen-libertarian-think-tank-latin-america-brazil/"><span>aggressive
supporters</span></a><span> of the right-wing across
Latin America. </span></p>
<p><span>Wikileaks published a 2007 </span><a
href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/07CARACAS1128_a.html"><span>email</span></a><span>
from American ambassador to Venezuela William
Brownfield sent to the State Department, National
Security Council and Department of Defense Southern
Command praising “Generation of ’07” for having
“forced the Venezuelan president, accustomed to
setting the political agenda, to (over)react.” Among
the “emerging leaders” Brownfield identified were
Freddy Guevara and Yon Goicoechea. He applauded the
latter figure as “one of the students’ most articulate
defenders of civil liberties.”</span></p>
<p><span>Flush with cash from libertarian oligarchs and US
government soft power outfits, the radical Venezuelan
cadre took their Otpor tactics to the streets, along
with a </span><a
href="https://frentemanuelpiar.blogspot.com/2011/01/nuestro-orgulloso-movimiento.html"><span>version</span></a><span>
of the group’s logo, as seen below:</span></p>
<h3><b>“Galvanizing public unrest…to take advantage of the
situation and spin it against Chavez”</b></h3>
<p><span>In 2009, the Generation 2007 youth activists </span><a
href="https://orhpositivo.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/los-culos-de-la-derecha-venezolana-al-aire-contra-chavez/#jp-carousel-2150"><span>staged
their most provocative demonstration</span></a><span>
yet, dropping their pants on public roads and aping
the outrageous guerrilla theater tactics outlined by
Gene Sharp in his regime change manuals. The
protesters had mobilized against the arrest of an ally
from another newfangled youth group called JAVU. This
far-right group “gathered funds from a variety of US
government sources, which allowed it to gain notoriety
quickly as the hardline wing of opposition street
movements,” according to academic George
Ciccariello-Maher’s book, “Building the Commune.”</span></p>
<p><span>While video of the protest is not available, many
Venezuelans have <a
href="http://www.lechuguinos.com/juan-guaido-pela-nalgas/">identified</a>
Guaidó as one of its key participants. While the
allegation is unconfirmed, it is certainly plausible;
the bare-buttocks protesters were members of the
Generation 2007 inner core that Guaidó belonged to,
and were clad in their trademark Resistencia!
Venezuela t-shirts, as seen below:</span></p>
<p><span>That year, Guaidó exposed himself to the public
in another way, founding a political party to capture
the anti-Chavez energy his Generation 2007 had
cultivated. Called Popular Will, it was led by <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11452">Leopoldo
López</a>, a Princeton-educated right-wing firebrand
heavily involved in National Endowment for Democracy
programs and elected as the mayor of a district in
Caracas that was one of the wealthiest in the country.
Lopez was a portrait of Venezuelan aristocracy,
directly descended from his country’s first president.
He was also the first cousin of </span><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/oslo-freedom-forum-founders-ties-islamophobes-who-inspired-mass-killer-anders-breivik/12451"><span>Thor
Halvorssen</span></a><span>, founder of the US-based
Human Rights Foundation that functions as a de facto
publicity shop for US-backed anti-government activists
in countries targeted by Washington for regime change.
</span></p>
<p><span>Though Lopez’s interests aligned neatly with
Washington’s, US </span><a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10388"><span>diplomatic
cables</span></a><span> published by Wikileaks
highlighted the fanatical tendencies that would
ultimately lead to Popular Will’s marginalization. One
cable identified Lopez as “</span><span>a divisive
figure within the opposition… often described as
arrogant, vindictive, and power-hungry.” Others
highlighted his obsession with street confrontations
and his “uncompromising approach” as a source of
tension with other opposition leaders who prioritized
unity and participation in the country’s democratic
institutions.</span></p>
<p><span>By 2010, Popular Will and its foreign backers
moved to exploit the worst drought to hit Venezuela in
decades. Massive electricity shortages had struck the
country due the dearth of water, which was needed to
power hydroelectric plants. A global economic
recession and declining oil prices compounded the
crisis, driving public discontentment. </span></p>
<p><span>Stratfor and CANVAS – key advisors of Guaidó and
his anti-government cadre – devised a shockingly
cynical </span><a
href="https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=218642"><span>plan</span></a><span>
to drive a dagger through the heart of the Bolivarian
revolution. The scheme hinged on a 70% collapse of the
country’s electrical system by as early as April 2010.
</span></p>
<p><span>“This could be the watershed event, as there is
little that Chavez can do to protect the poor from the
failure of that system,” the Stratfor internal memo
declared. “This would likely have the impact of
galvanizing public unrest in a way that no opposition
group could ever hope to generate. At that point in
time, an opposition group would be best served to take
advantage of the situation and spin it against Chavez
and towards their needs.” </span></p>
<p><span>By this point, the Venezuelan opposition was
receiving a staggering $40-50 million a year from US
government organizations like USAID and the National
Endowment for Democracy, according to </span><a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5441"><span>a
report</span></a><span> by the Spanish think tank,
the FRIDE Institute. It also had massive wealth to
draw on from its own accounts, which were mostly
outside the country.</span></p>
<p><span>While the scenario envisioned by Statfor did not
come to fruition, the Popular Will party activists and
their allies cast aside any pretense of non-violence
and joined a radical plan to destabilize the country.
</span></p>
<h3><b>Towards violent destabilization</b></h3>
<p><span>In November, 2010, according to </span><a
href="https://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/n250229.html"><span>emails</span></a><span>
obtained by Venezuelan security services and presented
by former Justice Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres,
Guaidó, Goicoechea, and several other student
activists attended a secret five-day training at the
Fiesta Mexicana hotel in Mexico City. The sessions
were run by Otpor, the Belgrade-based regime change
trainers backed by the US government. The</span><span>
meeting had </span><a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/analysis/Who-is-Venezuelan-Terror-Plotter-Lorent-Saleh-Four-Former-Latin-American-Presidents-Just-Might-Know-20140924-0071.html"><span>reportedly
received the blessing</span></a><span> of Otto
Reich, a fanatically anti-Castro Cuban exile working
in George W. Bush’s Department of State, and the
right-wing former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. </span></p>
<p><span>At the Fiesta Mexicana hotel, the emails stated,
Guaidó and his fellow activists hatched a plan to
overthrow President Hugo Chavez by generating chaos
through protracted spasms of street violence. </span></p>
<p><span>Three petroleum industry figureheads – Gustavo
Torrar, Eligio Cedeño and Pedro Burelli – allegedly
covered the $52,000 tab to hold the meeting. Torrar is
a self-described “human rights activist” and
“intellectual” whose younger brother Reynaldo Tovar
Arroyo is the representative in Venezuela of the
private Mexican oil and gas company Petroquimica del
Golfo, which holds a contract with the Venezuelan
state. </span></p>
<p><span>Cedeño, for his part, is a fugitive Venezuelan
businessman who claimed asylum in the United States,
and Pedro Burelli a former JP Morgan executive and the
former director of Venezuela’s national oil company,
Petroleum of Venezuela (PDVSA). He left PDVSA in 1998
as Hugo Chavez took power and is on the </span><a
href="https://lalp.georgetown.edu/people/pedro-burelli"><span>advisory
committee</span></a><span> of Georgetown
University’s Latin America Leadership Program. </span></p>
<p><span>Burelli insisted that the emails detailing his
participation had been </span><a
href="https://www.scribd.com/document/232153227/Evidence-in-English-Evidencia-en-Castellano"><span>fabricated</span></a><span>
and even hired a private investigator to prove it. The
investigator </span><a
href="https://www.apnews.com/5d93086fccd34d2c8ea5e92ca793da3b"><span>declared</span></a><span>
that Google’s records showed the emails alleged to be
his were never transmitted.</span></p>
<p><span>Yet today Burelli makes no secret of his desire
to see Venezuela’s current president, Nicolás Maduro,
deposed – and even dragged through the streets and
sodomized with a bayonet, as Libyan leader Moammar
Qaddafi was by NATO-backed militiamen. </span></p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="es">.<a
href="https://twitter.com/NicolasMaduro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NicolasMaduro</a>,
jamas me has hecho caso. Me has fustigado/perseguido
como <a
href="https://twitter.com/chavezcandanga?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@chavezcandanga</a>
jamás osó. Óyeme, tienes sólo dos opciones en las
próximas 24 horas:</p>
<p>1. Como Noriega: pagar pena por narcotráfico y luego
a <a
href="https://twitter.com/IntlCrimCourt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IntlCrimCourt</a>
La Haya por DDHH.</p>
<p>2. O a la Gaddafi.</p>
<p>Escoge ya! <a href="https://t.co/pMksCEXEmY">pic.twitter.com/pMksCEXEmY</a></p>
<p>— Pedro Mario Burelli (@pburelli) <a
href="https://twitter.com/pburelli/status/1085781149413228545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January
17, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>The alleged Fiesta Mexicana plot flowed into
another destabilization plan revealed in a </span><a
href="http://albaciudad.org/2014/05/video-fotos-pruebas-maria-corina-machado-kevin-whitaker-diego-arria-magnicidio-golpe-maduro/"><span>series
of documents</span></a><span> produced by the
Venezuelan government. In May 2014, Caracas released
documents detailing an assassination plot against
President Nicolás Maduro. The leaks identified the
Miami-based Maria Corina Machado as a leader of the
scheme. A hardliner with a penchant for extreme
rhetoric, Machado has functioned as an international
liaison for the opposition, </span><a
href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/05/images/20050531_p44959-105jasjpg-2-515h.html"><span>visiting
President George W. Bush</span></a><span> in 2005.</span></p>
<p><span>“I think it is time to gather efforts; make the
necessary calls, and obtain financing to annihilate
Maduro and the rest will fall apart,” Machado wrote in
an email to former Venezuelan diplomat Diego Arria in
2014.</span></p>
<p><span>In </span><a
href="http://albaciudad.org/2014/05/video-fotos-pruebas-maria-corina-machado-kevin-whitaker-diego-arria-magnicidio-golpe-maduro/"><span>another
email</span></a><span>, Machado claimed that the
violent plot had the blessing of US Ambassador to
Colombia, Kevin Whitaker. “I have already made up my
mind and this fight will continue until this regime is
overthrown and we deliver to our friends in the world.
If I went to San Cristobal and exposed myself before
the OAS, I fear nothing. Kevin Whitaker has already
reconfirmed his support and he pointed out the new
steps. We have a checkbook stronger than the regime’s
to break the international security ring.” </span></p>
<h3><b>Guaidó heads to the barricades</b></h3>
<p><span>That February, student demonstrators acting as
shock troops for the exiled oligarchy erected violent
barricades across the country, turning
opposition-controlled quarters into </span><a
href="http://misionverdad.com/la-guerra-en-venezuela/cronicas-guarimberas-el-asesinato-indirecto-zello-y-el-ramboshow-de-vivas%20"><span>violent
fortresses</span></a><span> known as </span><i><span>guarimbas</span></i><span>.
While international media portrayed the upheaval as a
spontaneous protest against Maduro’s iron-fisted rule,
there was ample evidence that Popular Will was
orchestrating the show. </span></p>
<p><span>“</span><span>None of the protesters at the
universities wore their university t-shirts, they all
wore Popular Will or Justice First t-shirts,” a </span><i><span>guarimba</span></i><span>
participant </span><a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11853"><span>said</span></a><span>
at the time. “They might have been student groups, but
the student councils are affiliated to the political
opposition parties and they are accountable to them.”
</span></p>
<p><span>Asked who the ringleaders were, the </span><i><span>guarimba</span></i><span>
participant said, “Well if I am totally honest, those
guys are legislators now.” </span></p>
<p><span>Around 43 were killed during the 2014 </span><i><span>guarimbas</span></i><span>.
Three years later, they erupted again, causing mass </span><span>destruction
of public infrastructure, the murder of government
supporters, and the </span><a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13081"><span>deaths</span></a><span>
of 126 people, many of whom were Chavistas. In several
cases, supporters of the government were burned alive
by armed gangs.</span></p>
<p><span>Guaidó was directly involved in the 2014 </span><i><span>guarimbas</span></i><span>.
In fact, he tweeted video showing himself clad in a
helmet and gas mask, surrounded by masked and armed
elements that had shut down a highway that were
engaging in a violent clash with the police. Alluding
to his participation in Generation 2007, he
proclaimed, “I remember in 2007, we proclaimed,
‘Students!’ Now, we shout, ‘Resistance! Resistance!'” </span></p>
<p><span>Guaidó has deleted the tweet, demonstrating
apparent concern for his image as a champion of
democracy. </span></p>
<p><span></span></p>
<p><span>On February 12, 2014, during the height of that
year’s </span><i><span>guarimbas</span></i><span>,
Guaidó joined Lopez on stage at a rally of Popular
Will and Justice First. During a </span><a
href="https://youtu.be/YTlGxofwNLw"><span>lengthy
diatribe</span></a><span> against the government,
Lopez urged the crowd to march to the office of
Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz. Soon after, Diaz’s
office came under attack by armed gangs who attempted
to burn it to the ground. She denounced what she
called “planned and premeditated violence.”</span></p>
<p><span>In an televised appearance in 2016, Guaidó </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/RedRadioVe/status/1088237230211190790"><span>dismissed</span></a><span>
deaths resulting from </span><i><span>guayas</span></i><span>
– a </span><i><span>guarimba</span></i><span> tactic
involving stretching steel wire across a roadway in
order to injure or kill motorcyclists – as a “myth.”
His comments whitewashed a deadly tactic that had </span><a
href="https://www.telesurtv.net/news/Muere-joven-venezolano-por-guaya-colocada-por-grupos-fascistas-20140222-0059.html"><span>killed</span></a><span>
unarmed civilians like Santiago Pedroza and </span><a
href="http://notitweet-sucesos.blogspot.com/2014/02/este-es-elvis-duran-el-motorizado.html"><span>decapitated</span></a><span>
a man named Elvis Durán, among many others. </span></p>
<p><span>This callous disregard for human life would
define his Popular Will party in the eyes of much of
the public, including many opponents of Maduro.</span></p>
<h3><b>Cracking down on Popular Will </b></h3>
<p><span>As violence and political polarization escalated
across the country, the government began to act
against the Popular Will leaders who helped stoke it.</span></p>
<p><span>Freddy Guevara, the National Assembly
Vice-President and second in command of Popular Will,
was a principal leader in the 2017 street riots.
Facing a trial for his role in the violence, Guevara <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics/venezuela-opposition-leader-guevara-seeks-refuge-in-chile-ambassadors-home-idUSKBN1D50LN">took
shelter</a> in the Chilean embassy, where he
remains.</span></p>
<p><span>Lester Toledo, a Popular Will legislator from the
state of Zulia, was wanted by Venezuelan government in
September 2016 on charges of financing terrorism and </span><a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/12395"><span>plotting</span></a><span>
assassinations. The plans were said to be made with
former Colombian President Álavaro Uribe. Toledo
escaped Venezuela and went on several speaking tours
with Human Rights Watch, the US government-backed
Freedom House, the Spanish Congress and European
Parliament.</span></p>
<p><span>Carlos Graffe, another Otpor-trained Generation
2007 member who led Popular Will, was </span><a
href="http://www.el-nacional.com/noticias/oposicion/carlos-graffe-salio-libertad-tras-cinco-meses-prision_217102"><span>arrested</span></a><span>
in July 2017. According to police, he was in
possession of a bag filled with nails, C4 explosives
and a detonator. He was released on December 27, 2017.
</span></p>
<p><span>Leopoldo Lopez, the longtime Popular Will leader,
is today under house arrest, accused of </span><span>a
key role in deaths of 13 people during the </span><i><span>guarimbas</span></i><span>
in 2014</span><span>. Amnesty International </span><a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/07/venezuela-leopoldo-lopez-moved-to-house-arrest-as-repression-deepens/"><span>lauded</span></a><span>
Lopez as a “prisoner of conscience” and slammed his
transfer from prison to house as “not good enough.”
Meanwhile, family members of </span><i><span>guarimba</span></i><span>
victims </span><a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/12939"><span>introduced</span></a><span>
a petition for more charges against Lopez.</span></p>
<p><span>Yon Goicoechea, the Koch Brothers posterboy and
US-backed founder of Justice First, was arrested in
2016 by security forces who claimed they found </span><a
href="https://www.telesurtv.net/news/Detienen-en-Venezuela-a-opositor-equipado-con-explosivos-20160829-0053.html"><span>found
a kilo</span></a><span> of explosives in his
vehicle. In a New York Times </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/04/opinion/venezuela-prison-democracy.html"><span>op-ed</span></a><span>,
Goicoechea protested the charges as “trumped-up” and
claimed he had been imprisoned simply for his “</span><span>dream
of a democratic society, free of Communism.” He was </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/YonGoicoechea/status/926828442594799616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fen%2Fvenezuelan-authorities-release-two-anti-maduro-activists-from-prison%2Fa-41241026"><span>freed</span></a><span>
in November 2017.</span></p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="es">Hoy, en Caricuao. Llevo 15 años
trabajando con <a
href="https://twitter.com/jguaido?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jguaido</a>.
Confío en él. Conozco la constancia y la inteligencia
con la que se ha construido a sí mismo. Está haciendo
las cosas con bondad, pero sin ingenuidad. Hay una
posibilidad abierta hacia la libertad. <a
href="https://t.co/Lidm8y5RTX">pic.twitter.com/Lidm8y5RTX</a></p>
<p>— Yon Goicoechea (@YonGoicoechea) <a
href="https://twitter.com/YonGoicoechea/status/1086793086406152193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January
20, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>David Smolansky, also a member of the original
Otpor-trained Generation 2007, became Venezuela’s
youngest-ever mayor when he was elected in 2013 in the
affluent suburb of El Hatillo. But he was stripped of
his position and sentenced to 15 months in prison by
the Supreme Court after it found him culpable of
stirring the violent </span><i><span>guarimbas</span></i><span>.
</span></p>
<p><span>Facing arrest, Smolansky shaved his beard, donned
sunglasses and </span><a
href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42270859"><span>slipped
into Brazil</span></a><span> disguised as a priest
with a bible in hand and rosary around his neck. He
now lives in Washington, DC, where he was hand picked
by Secretary of the Organization of American States
Luis Almagro to lead the working group on the
Venezuelan migrant and refugee crisis.</span></p>
<p><span>This July 26, Smolansky held what he called a
“cordial reunion” with Elliot Abrams, the convicted
Iran-Contra felon </span><a
href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/26/trumps-axis-evil-pompeo-bolton-abrams"><span>installed
by Trump</span></a><span> as special US envoy to
Venezuela. Abrams is notorious for overseeing the US
covert policy of arming right-wing death squads during
the 1980’s in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
His lead role in the Venezuelan coup has stoked fears
that another blood-drenched proxy war might be on the
way.</span></p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="es">Cordial reunión en la ONU con
Elliott Abrams, enviado especial del gobierno de EEUU
para Venezuela. Reiteramos que la prioridad para el
gobierno interino que preside <a
href="https://twitter.com/jguaido?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jguaido</a>
es la asistencia humanitaria para millones de
venezolanos que sufren de la falta de comida y
medicinas. <a href="https://t.co/vHfktVKgV4">pic.twitter.com/vHfktVKgV4</a></p>
<p>— David Smolansky (@dsmolansky) <a
href="https://twitter.com/dsmolansky/status/1089233083839270915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January
26, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Four days earlier, Machado rumbled another
violent threat against Maduro, <a
href="https://twitter.com/ErikaOSanoja/status/1087755816113967104">declaring</a>
that if he “wants to save his life, he should
understand that his time is up.”</span></p>
<h3><b>A pawn in their game</b></h3>
<p><span>The collapse of Popular Will under the weight of
the violent campaign of destabilization it ran
alienated large sectors of the public and wound much
of its leadership up in exile or in custody. Guaidó
had remained a relatively minor figure, having spent
most of his nine-year career in the National Assembly
as an alternate deputy. Hailing from one of
Venezuela’s least populous states, Guaidó </span><span>came
in second place during the 2015 parliamentary
elections, winning just 26% of votes cast in order to
secure his place in the National Assembly.</span><span>
Indeed, his bottom may have been better known than his
face.</span></p>
<p><span>Guaidó is known as the president of the
opposition-dominated National Assembly, but he was
never elected to the position. The four opposition
parties that comprised the Assembly’s Democratic Unity
Table had decided to establish a rotating presidency.
Popular Will’s turn was on the way, but its founder,
Lopez, was under house arrest. Meanwhile, his
second-in-charge, Guevara, had taken refuge in the
Chilean embassy. A figure named Juan Andrés Mejía
would have been next in line but reasons that are only
now clear, Juan Guaido was selected. </span></p>
<p><span>“There is a class reasoning that explains </span><span>Guaidó</span><span>’s
rise,” Sequera, the Venezuelan analyst, observed. “</span><span>Mejía</span><span>
is high class, studied at one of the most expensive
private universities in Venezuela, and could not be
easily marketed to the public the way Guaidó could.
For one, </span><span>Guaidó</span><span> has common
</span><i><span>mestizo</span></i><span> features like
most Venezuelans do, and seems like more like a man of
the people. Also, he had not been overexposed in the
media, so he could be built up into pretty much
anything.”</span></p>
<p><span>In December 2018, Guaidó sneaked across the
border and junketed to Washington, Colombia and Brazil
to coordinate the plan to hold mass demonstrations
during the inauguration of President Maduro. The night
before Maduro’s swearing-in ceremony, both Vice
President Mike Pence and Canadian Foreign Minister
Chrystia Freeland called Guaidó to affirm their
support. </span></p>
<p><span>A week later, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rick Scott
and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart – all lawmakers from the
Florida base of the right-wing Cuban exile lobby –
joined President Trump and Vice President Pence at the
White House. At their request, Trump </span><a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-call-from-pence-helped-set-an-uncertain-new-course-in-venezuela-11548430259?tesla=y&mod=djemalertNEWS"><span>agreed</span></a><span>
that if Guaidó declared himself president, he would
back him.</span></p>
<p><span>Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met personally
withGuaidó on January 10, according to the Wall Street
Journal. However, Pompeo could not pronounce Guaidó’s
name when he mentioned him in a press briefing on
January 25, referring to him as “Juan Guido.” </span></p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
just called the figure Washington is attempting to
install as Venezuelan President "Juan *Guido*" – as in
the racist term for Italians. America's top diplomat
didn't even bother to learn how to pronounce his
puppet's name. <a href="https://t.co/HsanZXuSPR">pic.twitter.com/HsanZXuSPR</a></p>
<p>— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) <a
href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1088919163022819329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January
25, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>By January 11, Guaidó’s Wikipedia page had been </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/Naldoxx/status/1083847986143248384"><span>edited</span></a><span>
37 times, highlighting the struggle to shape the image
of a previously anonymous figure who was now a tableau
for Washington’s regime change ambitions. In the end,
editorial oversight of his page was handed over to
Wikipedia’s elite council of “librarians,” who
pronounced him the “contested” president of Venezuela.</span></p>
<p><span>Guaidó might have been an obscure figure, but his
combination of radicalism and opportunism satisfied
Washington’s needs. “That internal piece was missing,”
a Trump administration </span><a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/without-a-road-map-trump-administration-pins-hopes-on-venezuelas-opposition/2019/01/24/e132b3c8-1ff6-11e9-8e21-59a09ff1e2a1_story.html"><span>said</span></a><span>
of Guaidó. “He was the piece we needed for our
strategy to be coherent and complete.”</span></p>
<p><span>“For the first time,” Brownfield, the former
American ambassador to Venezuela, </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/world/americas/venezuela-news-protests-noticias.html"><span>gushed
to</span></a><span> the New York Times, “you have an
opposition leader who is clearly signaling to the
armed forces and to law enforcement that he wants to
keep them on the side of the angels and with the good
guys.”</span></p>
<p><span>But Guaidó’s Popular Will party formed the shock
troops of the </span><i><span>guarimbas</span></i><span>
that caused the deaths of police officers and common
citizens alike. He had even boasted of his own
participation in street riots. And now, to win the
hearts and minds of the military and police, Guaido
had to erase this blood-soaked history. </span></p>
<p><span>On January 21, a day before the coup began in
earnest, Guaidó’s wife delivered a </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/LlaneroDigitalV/status/1087502656950714368"><span>video
address</span></a><span> calling on the military to
rise up against Maduro. Her performance was wooden and
uninspiring, underscoring the her husband’s limited
political prospects. </span></p>
<p><span>At a press conference before supporters four days
later, Guaidó </span><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcGX37FlivY"><span>announced</span></a><span>
his solution to the crisis: “Authorize a humanitarian
intervention!”</span></p>
<p><span>While he waits on direct assistance, Guaidó
remains what he has always been – a pet project of
cynical outside forces. “It doesn’t matter if he
crashes and burns after all these misadventures,”
Sequera said of the coup figurehead. “To the
Americans, he is expendable.”</span></p>
<hr>
<p><strong><em>Max Blumenthal</em></strong> <em>is an
award-winning journalist and the author of several
books, including best-selling <a
href="https://www.amazon.com/Republican-Gomorrah-Inside-Movement-Shattered/dp/1568584172">Republican
Gomorrah</a>, <a
href="https://www.amazon.com/Goliath-Life-Loathing-Greater-Israel/dp/1568586345">Goliath</a>, <a
href="https://www.amazon.com/51-Day-War-Ruin-Resistance/dp/156858511X">The
Fifty One Day War</a>, and <a
href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2868-the-management-of-savagery">The
Management of Savagery</a>. He has produced print
articles for an array of publications, many video
reports, and several documentaries, including <a
href="https://killinggaza.com/">Killing Gaza</a>.
Blumenthal founded The Grayzone in 2015 to shine a
journalistic light on America’s state of perpetual war
and its dangerous domestic repercussions.</em></p>
<div itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope=""
itemprop="author">
<p><br>
</p>
<div>
<p>Dan Cohen is a journalist and filmmaker. He has
produced widely distributed video reports and print
dispatches from across Israel-Palestine. Dan is a
correspondent at RT America and tweets at @<a
href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000">DanCohen3000</a>.</p>
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