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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
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href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/19/sir-richard-bransons-venezuelan-border-pr-stunt/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/19/sir-richard-bransons-venezuelan-border-pr-stunt/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Sir Richard Branson’s Venezuelan-Border
PR Stunt</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/dr4pudug/"
rel="nofollow">Joyce Nelson</a> - February 19, 2019</span></div>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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]</p>
<p>There’s a lot to unpack in that one paragraph, so let’s
start there and save the list of performers for later.</p>
<p><strong>The Date</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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]</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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]</p>
<p><strong>The Location</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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]</p>
<p>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]</p>
<p><strong>Leopoldo Lopez</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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]</p>
<p>Evidently, Leopoldo Lopez as Chairman of the company,
could immediately change the situation of flour-scarcity
and lengthy bread lines if he wanted to.<br>
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.</p>
<p>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]</p>
<p>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.<br>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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”?</p>
<p><strong>Footnotes:</strong><br>
[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.<br>
[2] Adam Johnson, “Western Media Fall in Lockstep for
Cheap Trump/Rubio Venezuela Aid PR Stunt,” Fairness
& Accuracy In Reporting, February 9, 2019.<br>
[3] Arwa Mahdawi, “Don’t call Howard Schultz a
billionaire. He’s a ‘person of means’,” The Guardian,
February 6, 2019.<br>
[4] Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, “Venezuela: US
Pursuing Humanitarian Aid Path to War,” Global Research,
February 6, 2019.<br>
[5] Reuters, “US aid for Venezuela arrives in Colombia,
but delivery uncertain,” The Guardian, February 17,
2019.<br>
[6] Quoted in ibid.<br>
[7] Alan MacLeod, “’Venezuela’: Media’s One-Word
Rebuttal to the Threat of Socialism,” Fairness &
Accuracy In Reporting, February 8, 2019.<br>
[8] Stephen Lendman, “Venezuelan Coup Plotter Released
to House Arrest,” Global Research, July 11, 2017.<br>
[9] Ibid.</p>
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