Rival Demonstrations in Caracas

There are two things which are extremely difficult to find in Venezuela – government repression and opposition support. I am pretty long in the tooth and very experienced in understanding politics and people around the world, and I have found it difficult to locate either.

I would particularly warn you against accepting the political prisoners narrative. There have been excesses, particularly after the unrest following the last disputed elections, but the large majority of those claimed to be political prisoners have been involved in actual, physical attempts to overthrow the government by force, or are involved in drugs related gangs. A combination of credulity, disinformation and the activity of NGOs supported by Western security agencies has presented you with an entirely false picture. I am sorry to say that generally decent organisations like HRW and Amnesty have been particularly credulous.

I absolutely do not support the claim that the opposition achieved two thirds of the vote at the last election. It is an absurdity. There were one million people at Maduro’s closing rally and 50,000 people at the opposition closing rally. Many of the alleged voting tallies the opposition published were obviously fake. There simply is no groundswell of anti-government opinion here, below or above ground.

The bars in which I spend my evenings generally cater to the wealthier and are in the opposition heartlands of Altamira and Las Mercedes. People naturally assume a westerner is anti-Chavismo. The wealthy speak English so they are more or less the only people I can relax into conversation with. Talking to people in bars is my natural milieu. There is no domestic appetite for regime change and literally not one person has ever expressed enthusiasm for Machado.

I have now entered the phase where it is costing me more to be in Venezuela than we have so far raised to be here. As ever we need to spread the load and we are looking primarily to those who have never donated or contributed before. Our Gofundme link for the Venezuelan operation is here:

This is the same crowdfunding account we used for Lebanon so discount the first £35,000 raised as it was spent in Lebanon.

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