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<h1 class="reader-title">Juan Guaidó’s Regime Change Lobby</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By John McEvoy – July 30,
2019<br>
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<p>After Juan Guaidó declared himself Venezuelan
president on 23 January, the opposition leader
immediately sought to legitimise his parallel
government by garnering international support. The US,
most European states, and large parts of Latin America
moved swiftly to recognise Venezuela’s new ‘interim
president’ (indeed, US Vice President Mike Pence had
already given Guaidó Washington’s <a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-call-from-pence-helped-set-an-uncertain-new-course-in-venezuela-11548430259">blessing</a>),
and the opposition leader began <a
href="https://twitter.com/jguaido/status/1090304950301806592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1090304950301806592&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Factualidad.rt.com%2Factualidad%2F304169-quienes-son-diplomaticos-designados-juan-guaido">announcing</a>
his ambassadorial positions before the month’s end.</p>
<p>In the time since, however, Guaidó’s international
credibility has suffered a series of blows. Multiple
failed coup attempts have forced the ‘interim’
president back to the <a
href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190715-venezuela-government-opposition-reopen-barbados-talks">negotiating
table</a>, and members of his Popular Will (VP)
party recently became embroiled in a major <a
href="https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/06/21/uk-media-silence-as-venezuelan-opposition-mired-in-major-corruption-scandal/">corruption
scandal</a>. Though the Western media’s <a
href="https://fair.org/home/western-media-losing-enthusiasm-for-failing-coup-in-venezuela/">love
affair</a> with the Venezuelan opposition has begun
to wane, the US is <a
href="https://twitter.com/VP/status/1153774294247378945">standing
resolute</a> behind Guaidó, even <a
href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-07-16/usaid-diverting-humanitarian-aid-to-political-opposition-in-venezuela">directing</a>
‘aid’ money designated for Honduras and Guatemala to
pay his party’s expenses.</p>
<p>Now, therefore, seems an apt moment to look closer at
who Guaidó’s ‘ambassadors’ are, what they’re up to
and, crucially, where their money’s coming from. In
doing so, Guaidó’s envoys begin to look less like
diplomats than regime change lobbyists. And tied to
oil, old money, and elite US institutions, they
reflect the true essence of the Venezuelan opposition.</p>
<h2>Regime change lobby</h2>
<h3>Tamara Suju</h3>
<p>Tamara Suju, an international human rights lawyer, is
Guaidó’s ‘ambassador’ to the Czech Republic.</p>
<p>Suju is the executive director of the Czech-based
Center for Studies and Analysis for Latin America (<a
href="https://caslainstitute.org/">CASLA) Institute</a>,
whose mission statement is:</p>
<p>to share with Latin-American reformers the finest
lessons of democratic and economic transformation in
post-communist Europe.</p>
<p>The CASLA Institute is one of numerous projects
incorporated within another Czech-based non-government
organisation (NGO) named DEMAS. According to its
website, DEMAS is <a
href="https://www.demas.cz/en/donors-partners/">supported</a>
by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European
Union and, vitally, the National Endowment for
Democracy (NED). </p>
<p>Known as “America’s meddling machine”, the NED is a
central <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2018/08/20/inside-americas-meddling-machine-the-us-funded-group-that-interferes-in-elections-around-the-globe/">organisation</a>
among numerous US regime change agencies. As lawyer
Eva Golinger documented in 2014, the NED and the US
Agency for International Development (USAID) have <a
href="https://consortiumnews.com/2019/01/28/the-dirty-hand-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy-in-venezuela/">agitated</a>
for regime change in Venezuela for well over a decade.
Between 2013 and 2014 alone, they pumped over $14
million into Venezuelan opposition groups as violent <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/guarimbas-2014">street protests</a>
erupted across the country.</p>
<p>Yet Suju’s ties with the US regime-change apparatus
go further. The CASLA Institute’s website <a
href="https://caslainstitute.org/partners/">boasts</a>
that it is also bankrolled by the NED, as well as
Forum 2000 (a ‘pro-democracy and human rights’ <a
href="https://www.ned.org/ned-participates-in-21st-forum-2000-conference/">conference</a>,
again, funded by the NED). In 2015, the NED <a
href="https://www.ned.org/national-endowment-for-democracy-honors-venezuelas-political-prisoners-with-2015-democracy-award/">awarded</a>
Suju a ‘democracy’ award; she accepted it in person
from NED president <a
href="https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/153/26170.html">Carl
Gershman</a>.</p>
<p>Guaidó’s representative in the Czech Republic is also
the international coordinator for human rights NGO <a
href="https://foropenal.com/venezuela-en-el-subcomite-de-derechos-humanos-del-parlamento-europeo-12102016/">Foro
Penal</a> (Penal Forum), which the US state
department has decorated with <a
href="https://foropenal.com/en/el-foro-penal-venezolano-recibe-premio-del-gobierno-de-estados-unidos-de-norteamerica-a-los-defensores-de-derechos-humanos/">numerous</a>
<a
href="https://foropenal.com/en/eeuu-premia-a-foro-penal-por-mostrar-violaciones-de-derechos-en-venezuela/">awards</a>
for its work in Venezuela. According to WikiLeaks
cables from 2006, Foro Penal has been <a
href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06CARACAS520_a.html">bankrolled</a>
by Freedom House and the Pan-American Development
Foundation (PADF) through a USAID-supported project.
Foro Penal president Alfredo Romero, meanwhile, has
spoken at a “US Democracy Support” <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13388">forum</a>. </p>
<p>Just two weeks before Guaidó pronounced himself
president, Foro Penal <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/09/venezuela-suspected-plotters-tortured">published</a>
a damning report on the alleged use of torture in
Venezuela. The report was widely <a
href="https://www.apnews.com/1a469e5cba5a4c94a4bc6883ef32e228">circulated</a>
in the international press, fanning the flames of
“international pressure” already burning around
Maduro’s feet. More recently, UN human rights chief
Michelle Bachelet widely cited Foro Penal’s report as
if it were a neutral source, demonstrating the
revolving door between the human rights industry and
the US state department.</p>
<p>To this end, Suju is unsurprisingly connected to a
who’s who of regime change hustlers masquerading as
human rights advocates. In March, Organisation of
American States (OAS) general secretary Luis Almagro –
who <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14241">broke
the OAS charter</a> by recognising Guaidó as
president in January - signed an agreement with Suju,
lending OAS support to CASLA as an ‘early-warning
human rights NGO’.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Suju rubs shoulders with <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2017/12/11/human-rights-watch-honduras-venezuela-kenneth-roth/">Human
Rights Watch</a>’s (HRW) <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/about/people/jose-miguel-vivanco">Americas
director</a> José Miguel Vivanco, who <a
href="https://twitter.com/JMVivancoHRW/status/972491865135165446">argued</a>
in 2018 that “US/Canada sanctions do not harm the
poor”. Vivanco also <a
href="https://twitter.com/jmvivancohrw/status/1113427608925081606?lang=ca">concurred</a>
with Joanna Hausmann’s (daughter of <a
href="https://www.salon.com/2019/02/15/inside-the-neoliberal-laboratory-preparing-for-the-theft-of-venezuelas-economy_partner/">neoliberal</a>
economist and Guaidó adviser <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/04/09/nytimes-child-of-venezuela-coup-plotter/">Ricardo
Hausmann</a>) observation that: “Hands off
[Venezuela] can actually mean ‘blood on your hands’”. </p>
<p>CASLA also <a
href="https://twitter.com/caslainstitute/status/1042140536663158785">participated</a>
in the Oslo Freedom Forum in New York, organised by
the Human Rights Foundation (HRF). Despite its
apparently innocuous title, HRF’s founder is the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/oslo-freedom-forum-founders-ties-islamophobes-who-inspired-mass-killer-anders-breivik/12451">disgraced</a>
Thor Halvorssen, who also happens to be the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/oslo-freedom-forum-founders-ties-islamophobes-who-inspired-mass-killer-anders-breivik/12451">first
cousin</a> of VP founder Léopoldo Lopez – another
recipient of NED funds.</p>
<p>It thus comes as little surprise that Suju has long
agitated for regime change in Venezuela. In her
acceptance speech for the NED ‘democracy’ award in
2015, Suju unsubtly pled for foreign intervention,
saying: “The Venezuelan people cannot take on the
irrational army and dangerous government alone”. </p>
<p>At the <a
href="https://www.forum2000.cz/demokraticka-solidarita-2018-demokraticka-solidarita-2018">NED-funded</a>
Solidaridad Democrática en América Latina conference
in Colombia in 2018, Suju <a
href="https://twitter.com/caslainstitute/status/992781971997839361">told</a>
a packed audience that Venezuela needed “more
sanctions... because this government won’t go with
votes”. CASLA’s website, meanwhile, <a
href="http://caslainstitute.org/informe-2018-sobre-tortura-sistematica-en-venezuela/">describes</a>
Venezuela as “a large open-air concentrate camp” – a
provocative charge for an NGO based in the Czech
Republic. </p>
<p>With her privileged status as a human rights lawyer,
Suju has become an important strand in a spider’s web
of US-funded public support factories for regime
change. Indeed, as the CASLA Institute <a
href="https://twitter.com/caslainstitute/status/1098607563619348483">bragged</a>
on Twitter: “The US press is echoing the work of the
CASLA Institute on Venezuela. Yesterday, the
Washington Post, Fox News, NBC News published pieces
on our denunciation of torture presented by the
International Penal Court”. Her US funders, it seems,
are getting decent value for their money.</p>
<h3>Vanessa Neumann</h3>
<p>Vanessa Neumann is Guaidó’s ‘ambassador’ to the UK.
She is the founder and owner of Asymmetrica, a company
which <a
href="http://asymmetrica.net/venezuela-humanitarian-aid-rebuffed-now-what/">specialises</a>
in corporate risk assessment for Fortune 500 oil and
gas companies in Latin America.</p>
<p>Alongside Henriy Kissinger quotes and dense corporate
euphuism, Asymmetrica’s website hosts a blog written
by Neumann. On 25 February, two days after the USAID
‘humanitarian aid’ <a
href="https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2019/03/12/the-new-york-times-burning-aid-story-shows-the-corporate-media-is-weeks-behind-independent-outlets/">debacle</a>
(and three weeks before Guaidó would appoint her
ambassador), Neumann frothed how USAID trucks were
“burned by the criminal regime”, and <a
href="http://asymmetrica.net/venezuela-humanitarian-aid-rebuffed-now-what/">explained</a>
how a “Guaidó government needs to be strategic and
project its power”. In a self-endorsing article
masquerading as friendly advice, she claimed Guaidó
must:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Hire the private sector team with a long track
record in aggressive asset recovery: if they
nailed Hezbollah and ISIS, they can nail the
Maduro regime.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Appoint ambassadors to the world’s financial
centers who have serious diplomatic and
anti-illicit finance credibility.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Asymmetrica, whose staff also includes Guaidó’s
‘ambassador’ to Brazil Maria Teresa Belandria, has not
responded to questions regarding its financing at the
time of writing.</p>
<p>Neumann’s LinkedIn page, meanwhile, <a
href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessaneumannphd/">adds</a> that
she is a <a
href="https://www.fpri.org/contributor/vanessa-neumann/">former
senior fellow</a> at the neoconservative thinktank
Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), and that she
has:</p>
<p>Lobbied [the] US government for oil industry
interests under Venezuela’s Minister Counselor for
Petroleum Affairs [during the 1990s].</p>
<p>In 2017, Neumann <a
href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cia-venezuela-crisis-government-mike-pompeo-helping-install-new-remarks-a7859771.html">appeared</a>
to lobby then-CIA director Mike Pompeo for regime
change directly. At an Aspen Institute think-tank
Q&A, Neumann told Pompeo she was “interested in
your open assessment on American interests in or
threats from Venezuela”. She punctuated her question
by saying: “regime change looks to be – we hope –
imminent or spiralling down”. Pompeo <a
href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cia-venezuela-crisis-government-mike-pompeo-helping-install-new-remarks-a7859771.html">responded</a>
by suggesting that plans were <em>already</em>
underway to topple the Maduro government – a crucial
detail on both counts given the Venezuelan
opposition’s main indignation centres around the 2018
presidential election.</p>
<p>Speaking to the House Foreign Affairs Committee of
the US congress in March, Neumann <u><a
href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA00/20190313/109113/HHRG-116-FA00-Wstate-NeumannV-20190313.pdf">claimed</a></u>
“Venezuela... has a legitimate interim government that
is loved by the people”, and suggested possible
“military cooperation” with the US. Notably, Neumann
also cited Foro Penal to the House, demonstrating in
remarkable fashion how information laundered through
the US government can come full circle – presented
back to its originators as evidence for regime change</p>
<p>Since her appointment as ambassador later the same
month, Neumann has <a
href="https://twitter.com/GotPropaganda/status/1119080354717896706/photo/3">attended</a>
the Middle East Institute’s (MEI) ‘Venezuela,
Hezbollah and Iran’ event in London. The most recently
published <a
href="https://www.mei.edu/sites/default/files/2016%20Contributions.pdf">donor
list</a> for the MEI includes Chevron, ExxonMobil,
Shell, Raytheon, and numerous Saudi government
institutions. She has also frequented various
‘security’ <a
href="https://twitter.com/vanessaneumann/status/1151886781249249280">events</a>
including the Rockefeller brothers-funded
AspenSecurity conference (where she <a
href="https://twitter.com/vanessaneumann/status/1151992437641842688">met</a>
“teenage idol” Madeleine Albright), and the <a
href="https://www.defenceiq.com/events-cabsec/sponsors">defence
industry-sponsored</a> CABSEC/SAMSEC forum.</p>
<p>While gunning for regime change, Neumann barely
conceals a nostalgia for the pre-Hugo Chávez days – a
period marked by unfettered <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2019/02/13/neoliberalism-or-death-the-u-s-economic-war-against-venezuela/">neoliberalism</a>
and burgeoning racial inequality in Venezuela. In an
interview with CNN‘s John Fredericks in 2018, Neumann
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXmlOzS7pOc">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Oh my god... please, we want the return of the
Americans... I grew up in a country that… loved the
US, saw it as a model of the region. And now the
people are starving, you have 30 million who have
basically been, like, kidnapped.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Neumann <a
href="https://www.ft.com/content/76b65524-86bf-11e9-a028-86cea8523dc2">told</a>
the Financial Times in June that “no one’s given me
anything. And I’m quite a chunk of my own money down.
Not quite six figures, but nearly”. Though her pockets
are undoubtedly <a
href="https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/05/21/venezuelas-coup-representative-in-the-uk-says-shes-too-young-to-discuss-brutal-us-record-in-latin-america/">deep</a>,
her opaque financing and political track record raise
serious questions about who else may be filling
them, and in whose interests she might function as an
official ambassador.</p>
<h3>Elisa Trotta Gamus</h3>
<p>Guaidó’s Argentinian ‘ambassador’, Elisa Trotta
Gamus, is also a human rights lawyer. According to her
Linkedin <a
href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisa-trotta-gamus-17959413/?originalSubdomain=ar">page</a>,
<a
href="https://www.eldisenso.com/politica/la-diplomatica-nombrada-por-guaido-es-empleada-legislativa-del-pro-y-aportante-de-cambiemos/">Trotta</a>
has worked as a coordinator for USAID and the Ford
Foundation in Venezuela. </p>
<p>In Argentina, Trotta heads an NGO <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/alianzaXvenezuela/">named</a>
‘Alianza por Venezuela’, apparently designed to help
Venezuelan migrants in the country. But Trotta is also
named within a list of beneficiaries of Argentinian
president Mauricio Macri’s PRO party within the
ominous context of “strengthening Latin American
democracies”. </p>
<p>“Like any PRO foundation worth its salt”, <a
href="https://www.eldisenso.com/politica/la-diplomatica-nombrada-por-guaido-es-empleada-legislativa-del-pro-y-aportante-de-cambiemos/">writes</a>
Argentinian news outlet El Disenso, “Alianza por
Venezuela is opaque to the point of illegality... it
is impossible to know the amount or origin of the
funds it manages”. Trotta also reportedly <a
href="https://www.eldisenso.com/politica/la-diplomatica-nombrada-por-guaido-es-empleada-legislativa-del-pro-y-aportante-de-cambiemos/">donated</a>
to Macri’s 2017 election campaign to the tune of
$15,000. </p>
<p>“Following social media”, El Disenso <a
href="https://www.eldisenso.com/politica/la-diplomatica-nombrada-por-guaido-es-empleada-legislativa-del-pro-y-aportante-de-cambiemos/">continues</a>,
“we find a very sensible woman who, in between photos
of yachts, travelling the world, long drinks and
oyster plates, always finds a moment to worry about
the misery of her brothers [in Venezuela], upon which
she’s cemented a prosperous career”.</p>
<h3>Carlos Vecchio</h3>
<p>As the Grayzone <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/18/exxon-ambassador-carlos-vecchio-venezuela-coup-lobbyist/">reported</a>
in June, Carlos Vecchio has led the regime change
charge in the US for some years. He was awarded for
his efforts on 14 May, when <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/25/how-sen-rick-scott-became-big-oils-point-man-on-venezuelan-regime-change/">regime
change enthusiast</a> and Florida senator Rick Scott
<a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/18/exxon-ambassador-carlos-vecchio-venezuela-coup-lobbyist/">presented</a>
Vecchio with the International Republican Institute’s
(IRI) Freedom Award. Keeping with fashion, the IRI is
another US-government funded <a
href="https://consortiumnews.com/2019/01/28/the-dirty-hand-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy-in-venezuela/">regime
change factory</a> with longstanding links with
Venezuela; its Freedom Award is <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/18/exxon-ambassador-carlos-vecchio-venezuela-coup-lobbyist/">sponsored</a>
by the NED and ExxonMobil. </p>
<h3>Julio Borges and Carlos Scull Raygada</h3>
<p>Julio Borges is Guaidó’s Lima group ‘ambassador’.
Borges is one of the co-founders of the Primero
Justicia party, which was <a
href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-dirty-hand-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy-ned-in-venezuela/5666727">largely
built</a> on IRI and NED funds. Guaidó’s envoy to
Peru, Carlos Scull Raygada, was also a significant
Primero Justicia operative in the Sucre mayorship,
Caracas, in 2014. During this time, Scull was also <a
href="https://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=240037">linked</a> to NED
funding. </p>
<h2>Regime change legacy</h2>
<p>A significant number of Guaidó’s international envoys
– supposedly responsible for behaving diplomatically –
are linked to past regime change efforts in Venezuela,
including plots to assassinate high-level government
officials.</p>
<p>Guaidó’s ‘ambassador’ to France, Isadora Zubillaga,
is one of the founding members of VP and widely seen
as the right-hand woman of Leopoldo Lopez. Like
Primero Justicia, VP was <a
href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-dirty-hand-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy-ned-in-venezuela/5666727">bankrolled</a>
by the NED from its <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5441">earliest
days</a>.</p>
<p>In a video <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggmtTq6dzsk">diffused</a>
in 2016 by the Venezuelan socialist party’s chairman,
Diosdado Cabello, Zubillaga is accused of leaving
Venezuela more than 30 times to launder money through
construction sites for VP. Cabello also claims that
Zubillaga organised the “Mexican party” – a 2010
meeting in Mexico City, where high-end VP officials
laid out a <a
href="https://www.noticias24.com/venezuela/noticia/309369/investigan-en-espana-a-isadora-zubillaga-por-presunto-lavado-de-dinero/">coup
plot</a> against Chávez.</p>
<p>Guaidó’s German ‘ambassador’, Otto Gebauer, <a
href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-declines-to-recognize-juan-guaidos-berlin-emissary/a-48107479">manned</a>
Hugo Chávez’s prison cell during a <a
href="https://www.dumptheguardian.com/world/2002/apr/21/usa.venezuela">coup
attempt</a> in 2002. After the event, Gebauer wrote
a <a
href="https://ottogebauer.wordpress.com/libro-2/">book</a>
entitled “I saw him Cry”, claiming the president
tearfully requested to be released and sent to Cuba.
Gebauer “is an incendiary figure in Venezuela”, <a
href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-declines-to-recognize-juan-guaidos-berlin-emissary/a-48107479">writes</a>
German-based news outlet DW: “You don’t have to oppose
Guaidó to wonder whether he might not have been able
to come up with a more diplomatic figure”. Borges also
played a <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/5-Venezuela-Opposition-Leaders-Who-Took-Part-in-2002-Coup-20170410-0036.html">significant
role</a> in the 2002 coup, and in various subsequent
destabilisation efforts.</p>
<p>Humberto Calderón Berti is Guaidó’s ‘ambassador’ to
Colombia. In July, Venezuelan-based news outlet Mision
Verdad reported that Calderon was <a
href="http://misionverdad.com/TENDENCIAS/en-colombia-planifican-la-creacion-de-un-ejercito-paramilitar-para-invadir-venezuela">personally
contacted</a> by a marksman involved in an alleged
plot to assassinate president Nicolas Maduro and
various high-ranking Venezuelan officials.</p>
<p>Numerous members of Guaidó’s diplomatic team,
meanwhile, are close allies of María Corina Machado,
who has been accused of inciting <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11077">violent
street protests</a> and <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9769">discussing</a>
coup plots against the Venezuelan government with US
state department officials. Brazilian ‘ambassador’
Teresa Belandria served as international coordinator
for Machado’s VenteVenezuela party. Canadian
‘ambassador’ Orlando Viera-Blanco is an apparent <a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/canada-bid-overthrow-maduro-venezuela-coup/259362/">supporter</a>
of Machado. Neumann has <a
href="https://twitter.com/vanessaneumann/status/92614930943049728">called</a>
her a “friend”, and <a
href="https://twitter.com/vanessaneumann/status/886592695040430080">celebrated</a>
voting in the 2017 elections with Machado’s cousin.
Suju has made similar <a
href="https://twitter.com/search?q=(machado)%20(from%3ATAMARA_SUJU)&src=typed_query">remarks</a>.</p>
<p>With these combined cases, we see not the image of a
diplomatic team but of a regime change lobby which is
historically inclined to launch violent
destabilisation campaigns. At some level, their
propensity to play a zero-sum regime change game must
cast aspersions on the level of good-will present
around the negotiating table in Barbados.</p>
<h2>Born to rule</h2>
<p>Guaidó’s envoys also seem to have a
quasi-aristocratic relationship to power. Many are
descendants of the pre-Chávez political establishment
or the old Venezuelan oligarchy, and their
stubbornness to concede power is revealing.</p>
<p>Indeed, Carlos Vecchio (US), son of former COPEI
official Rafael Vecchio, once <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/18/exxon-ambassador-carlos-vecchio-venezuela-coup-lobbyist/">claimed</a>
unironically: “My father was a politician, so it must
be in my blood”. He would later <a
href="http://thepolitic.org/an-interview-with-yale-world-fellow-carlos-vecchio/">claim</a>:
“I felt that it was my responsibility to go into
politics after watching my father’s efforts”.</p>
<p>Maria Faría (Costa Rica) is “the <a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/venezuela-juan-guaido-first-ambassador-fake-twitter-diplomat-slammed-costa-rica/255401/">daughter</a>
of would-be Hugo Chávez assassin” Jesus Faría
Rodriguez and <a
href="http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/article/responsable-de-asalto-embajada-venezolana-en-costa-rica-es-nuera-de-blanca-iba%C3%B1ez">step-daughter</a>
of politician and aid to former president Jaime
Lusinchi, Blanca Ibánez. Elisa Trotta Gamus
(Argentina) is the <a
href="https://www.perfil.com/noticias/internacional/representante-de-guaido-en-argentina-ningun-dialogo-con-maduro-como-usurpador-esta-puesto-como-una-posibilidad.phtml">niece</a>
of opposition politician Paulina Gamus. And Guarequena
Gutiérrez (Chile) is the <a
href="https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2019/02/18/quien-es-guarequena-gutierrez-la-representante-en-chile-de-guaido-que-niega-que-la-moneda-le-dicte-las-pautas/">daughter</a>
of former opposition politician José Bernabé
Gutiérrez.</p>
<p>Neumann, meanwhile, is the grand-daughter of Hans
Neumann, who formed part of Venezuela’s old economic
elite and, according to WikiLeaks <a
href="https://search.wikileaks.org/?query=hans+neumann&exact_phrase=&any_of=&exclude_words=&document_date_start=&document_date_end=&released_date_start=&released_date_end=&new_search=True&order_by=most_relevant#results">cables</a>,
<a
href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1979CARACA00536_e.html">organised</a>
official US visits to the country during the 1970s.
She, like Calderón Berti (Colombia) and Vecchio, has
significant ties with private oil interests.</p>
<p>A considerable number of Guaidó’s ‘ambassadors’ were
also educated in elite US institutions. Neumann (UK)
is a Yale fellow and former student of Stanford;
Vecchio (US) studied law at Georgetown; Calderón Berti
(Colombia) <a
href="https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0001469309.pdf">studied</a>
petroleum engineering in Oklahoma; Trotta Gamus
(Argentina) <a
href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisa-trotta-gamus-17959413/?originalSubdomain=ar">received</a>
a Master’s degree from Brandeis university in
Massachusetts; Teresa Belandria (Brazil) is a <a
href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-teresa-belandria-exp%C3%B3sito-26725323/?originalSubdomain=br">research
scholar</a> at the National Defense University in
Washington; Zubillaga (France) has <a
href="https://lascosasdelquerer.com/2019/02/10/isadora-zubillaga-no-tengo-duda-de-que-el-proceso-ya-es-irreversible-venezuela-va-a-florecer/">worked</a>
with the Kennedy Foundation in human rights and with
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg; Rene de Sola
Quintero (Ecuador) <a
href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ren%C3%A9-de-sola-quintero-227bba22/?originalSubdomain=ec">studied
law</a> in Washington; and Borges (Lima group) <a
href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/venezuela-opposition-founded-by-wall-street-alumni/5307549">earned</a>
his masters at Boston College and is Oxford university
alumni.</p>
<p>Though formally out of government since 1998, certain
sections of the Venezuelan opposition have never truly
accepted the mandate of the Bolivarian revolution. The
current coup attempt must be contextualised within a
wider effort to restore the ‘normal’ pre-Chávez class
order in Venezuela.</p>
<h2>Limbo</h2>
<p>For all intents and purposes, Guaidó’s attempts to
forcibly remove the elected government of Venezuela
have failed. And though this is far from the first
US-backed <a
href="https://truthout.org/articles/the-us-is-orchestrating-a-coup-in-venezuela/">coup
attempt</a> in the country, none have yet left an
entire diplomatic mission – lacking the political and
material means to fulfil the requirements of the role
- in limbo, leaving major questions about their
financing unanswered.</p>
<p>This crisis of legitimacy, it seems, is only likely
to deteriorate as the gulf between political reality
and regime change expectations grows.</p>
<p><em>Edited by Venezuelanalysis.com.</em></p>
<p><em>The views expressed in this article are the
author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of
the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.</em></p>
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