Re: Venezuela
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 4:46 pm
Europe awarded an ultra Venezuelan, why?
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter 9
ANDY ROBINSON - 03/30/2019 - 2:55 h
Lorent Saleh with the Colombian neo-Nazi Eduardo Romero de Tercera Fuerza
Questioning the moral character of the Venezuelan opposition is taboo at this time. That is why, perhaps, few European journalists have asked why Lorent Saleh, a Venezuelan right-wing opposition who has planned attacks in Venezuela, was awarded the Sakharov prize for freedom of conscience along with other leaders of the Venezuelan opposition. But it is a question on which all Europeans should be interested above all in a moment of growing violence of the extreme right on a world scale.
Because, as affirmed by one of the Spanish politicians who promoted Saleh's nomination for the award, Beatriz Becerra MEP of the UPyD party, "the Sakharov Prize is awarded by the European Parliament representing 500 million European citizens and therefore means a moral support of the utmost importance ".
Becerra and the euro deputy of the Popular Party José Salafranca are the two MEPs who, with the support of the then PP government in Spain, pushed for Saleh and other representatives of Venezuela's most combative opposition against Nicolás Maduro to receive the prize in 2017 .
After a stay in Cúcuta on the border of Venezuela and Colombia and after a revealing interview held last Tuesday with the former Colombian president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos (he will be in La Vanguardia this weekend), I have come to the conclusion that the inclusion of Saleh in a group of opponents who received the award is highly debatable. Not only for the 50,000 euros of European taxpayer money that is given to the winners but also for the prestige that a prize conferred, the first winner being Nelson Mandela.
Saleh is a young radical of the Venezuelan opposition. He is a close collaborator of former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe who has waged a defamatory campaign against Juan Manuel Santos over the past few years to discredit the negotiations he had with the Colombian guerrilla FARC in order to reach an agreement peace after 50 years of war. Saleh was deported from Colombia by the then Santos government in 2014 after associating with paramilitary and neo-Nazi groups in launching the Nationalist Freedom Alliance party , appearing with the Colombian neo-fascist Eduardo Romero de Tercera Fuerza, and broadcasting a video in the that boasts of having prepared attacks with explosives in Cúcuta and San Cristóbal de Tachira orside of the border. Likewise, photos have been published in which Saleh and another leader of his NGO, Operation Libertad, Gabriel Vallés, appear to be carrying weapons and garments for private use by Colombian military forces.
When I was in Cúcuta last month I was able to see how Operation Libertad used to work at the border in organizing demonstrations in which the strict slogan condemned Castro Chavismo. A former Saleh collaborator who studies law at the Free University of Cúcuta told me that they would be willing to take arms if the supposedly humanitarian operation fails. We publish this article in La Vanguardia, warning about the danger - given the background of Saleh-that a group such as Operation Libertad was at the forefront of the mobilization of citizens who supported the transport of the trucks with help, although few other media made the same warning. Pacifist groups in Cúcuta warned of the danger that paramilitary groups very active on the border and linked to the ultra right, intervened in the operation to provoke violence on the border,
For the 500 million European citizens that - as Becerra explained - implicitly have given their "moral support" to Saleh and perhaps seek more information about their activities, here is a transcription of part of the video in which Saleh threatens to commit attacks on Venezuela (I was provided by the office of former President Santos). "Start a full training, specialist, that training is in Bogotá, there are 10 people, there is a comprehensive plan, from shooting, explosives, strategy, to self defense, parachuting, everything. That is to start after the elections, but we must move the chamos to Bogotá (...) Here we have already achieved some things for the groups at least what are the camping bags, some packs, several things come.
These are surely examples of bravado by a young member of the Venezuelan student movement (formed politically with the help of the same agency USAID that managed the so-called "humanitarian" operation in Cúcuta ). Maybe it would not be worth it to spend more time on a blog for a newspaper whose headquarters is Barcelona. But due to the Sakharov Prize this is already an eminently European issue and, in times of mistrust of European institutions such as Parliament, it is a matter that must be investigated.
After being deported and transferred to Venezuela, Saleh accused Santos of having "kidnapped" him and of being a "partner" of Maduro. " He reported mistreatment of the Colombian police. "They take me on a plane like a drug dealer; they beat me they never let me call anyone; and I was 4 years a month and 7 days; the order was from Juan Manuel Santos, they moved a military plane; They were partners of Maduro, "he said. Saleh has repeatedly said that Santos "kidnapped" him because he "cared more about his Nobel prize than Venezuelan human rights." It is an ironic accusation that the perception that Saleh was the victim of mistreatment by Santos helped Saleh achieve his own prize
The problem is that there are reasons to think that everything said by Saleh regarding the deportation of Colombia is false. In the interview in La Vanguardia , Santos accused Saleh and his collaborators of lying shamelessly and gave me documents that support this accusation. "We deported Mr. Saleh because he was in Colombia illegally; He appeared in military uniforms and was doing politics, which is forbidden; He insulted a senator (from the left) in the middle of the street. There were more than enough reasons to deport him and he was never mistreated in Colombia, "the former president said.
After the deportation, Saleh was imprisoned in Venezuela and reported that he had been subjected to torture in a high security prison in Caracas where he remained for four years. It is likely that this testimony is true if one takes into account the suspicions of the Venezuelan authorities that Saleh was a terrorist. As a prisoner, he was added to the candidates for the Sakharov prize, according to the selection of the Venezuelan Criminal Forum, an opposition body that determines who are political prisoners. In 2017, after strong pressure from the Spanish government of the Popular Party, he was released and transferred to Madrid where Becerra welcomed him. Popular Party leader Pablo Casado in a meeting with Saleh in November 2018 called the radical youth a "defender of human rights."
After receiving the European award and being praised as a fighter for human rights, Saleh made a trip to Mexico in January of this year where he attacked President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador because he had not recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuelan president. Saleh was invited to the Mexican Senate by the conservative National Action Party (PAN), where he denounced a supposed democratic deficit in the congress due to the majority of Lopez Obrador's Morena party. The visit caused incidents in Mexico. Then Saleh returned to Colombia, invited by the government of Ivan Duque, very close to Uribe, in violation of the deportation order of the Santos government that prohibited the entry of Saleh until 2024. Saleh met with Uribe and was interviewed in various media from Spanish television to CNN where, presented in a complimentary manner as a human rights fighter, he repeated the accusations against Santos.
But his new image suddenly lost its luster when he was arrested in Cúcuta for provoking a violent incident in a restaurant and deported again but now by the government of Iván Duque. "Saleh is a fanned person (opportunist) likes to figure and shake and took advantage of the invitation to continue doing what he wanted to do in Cúcuta a few years before; but there was another scandal and it fell to the government (de Duque) to deport him to Spain. In the long run, things are known, "summarized Santos, who considers that the latest incident in Cúcuta supports his own decision to deport Saleh in 2014.. Saleh lashed out again against the Colombian government - now Duque's - for ill-treatment.
Becerra, very selectively specialized in human rights issues, employs an intensive communication policy. He regularly blogs about Venezuela (and about Catalonia, although the Catalan political prisoners do not produce the same moral indignation in the battery of tweets of the MEP than their Venezuelan counterparts). It tweeted wrongly on February 24 that "Maduro is capable of burning the medicines and food that Venezuelans need" after the burning of a truck loaded with "help" from USAID that, as explained by the New York Times, was provoked in all likelihood by a Molotov cocktail of the same protesters against Maduro. Becerra has not rectified.
Despite this communication policy, Becerra declined to respond to a written interview sent to his cabinet in Brussels on Friday after being addressed to his office by the European Parliament's general spokesman. I asked in the email if, - in the light of Saleh's arrest in Cúcuta and Santos' statements about the falsehoods that the former president imputes to Saleh - there are reasons for European citizens to question the delivery of the prize to Saleh.
The spokeswoman for the euro deputy, Anyelita Yanez, a Venezuelan opposition activist, replied: "On behalf of Beatriz I can add that Lorent Saleh has narrated personal and detailed since he arrived in Spain the circumstances of his arrest in Colombia and transfer to the Chavez prisons, (sic). "Santos categorically denies Saleh's testimony about the circumstances of his imprisonment in Colombia and his transfer to the Venezuelan authorities. Two months before the European elections, 500 million European citizens have the right to know who is telling the truth.
http://blogs.lavanguardia.com/diario-it ... -que-88508
Google Translator
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter 9
ANDY ROBINSON - 03/30/2019 - 2:55 h
Lorent Saleh with the Colombian neo-Nazi Eduardo Romero de Tercera Fuerza
Questioning the moral character of the Venezuelan opposition is taboo at this time. That is why, perhaps, few European journalists have asked why Lorent Saleh, a Venezuelan right-wing opposition who has planned attacks in Venezuela, was awarded the Sakharov prize for freedom of conscience along with other leaders of the Venezuelan opposition. But it is a question on which all Europeans should be interested above all in a moment of growing violence of the extreme right on a world scale.
Because, as affirmed by one of the Spanish politicians who promoted Saleh's nomination for the award, Beatriz Becerra MEP of the UPyD party, "the Sakharov Prize is awarded by the European Parliament representing 500 million European citizens and therefore means a moral support of the utmost importance ".
Becerra and the euro deputy of the Popular Party José Salafranca are the two MEPs who, with the support of the then PP government in Spain, pushed for Saleh and other representatives of Venezuela's most combative opposition against Nicolás Maduro to receive the prize in 2017 .
After a stay in Cúcuta on the border of Venezuela and Colombia and after a revealing interview held last Tuesday with the former Colombian president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos (he will be in La Vanguardia this weekend), I have come to the conclusion that the inclusion of Saleh in a group of opponents who received the award is highly debatable. Not only for the 50,000 euros of European taxpayer money that is given to the winners but also for the prestige that a prize conferred, the first winner being Nelson Mandela.
Saleh is a young radical of the Venezuelan opposition. He is a close collaborator of former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe who has waged a defamatory campaign against Juan Manuel Santos over the past few years to discredit the negotiations he had with the Colombian guerrilla FARC in order to reach an agreement peace after 50 years of war. Saleh was deported from Colombia by the then Santos government in 2014 after associating with paramilitary and neo-Nazi groups in launching the Nationalist Freedom Alliance party , appearing with the Colombian neo-fascist Eduardo Romero de Tercera Fuerza, and broadcasting a video in the that boasts of having prepared attacks with explosives in Cúcuta and San Cristóbal de Tachira orside of the border. Likewise, photos have been published in which Saleh and another leader of his NGO, Operation Libertad, Gabriel Vallés, appear to be carrying weapons and garments for private use by Colombian military forces.
When I was in Cúcuta last month I was able to see how Operation Libertad used to work at the border in organizing demonstrations in which the strict slogan condemned Castro Chavismo. A former Saleh collaborator who studies law at the Free University of Cúcuta told me that they would be willing to take arms if the supposedly humanitarian operation fails. We publish this article in La Vanguardia, warning about the danger - given the background of Saleh-that a group such as Operation Libertad was at the forefront of the mobilization of citizens who supported the transport of the trucks with help, although few other media made the same warning. Pacifist groups in Cúcuta warned of the danger that paramilitary groups very active on the border and linked to the ultra right, intervened in the operation to provoke violence on the border,
For the 500 million European citizens that - as Becerra explained - implicitly have given their "moral support" to Saleh and perhaps seek more information about their activities, here is a transcription of part of the video in which Saleh threatens to commit attacks on Venezuela (I was provided by the office of former President Santos). "Start a full training, specialist, that training is in Bogotá, there are 10 people, there is a comprehensive plan, from shooting, explosives, strategy, to self defense, parachuting, everything. That is to start after the elections, but we must move the chamos to Bogotá (...) Here we have already achieved some things for the groups at least what are the camping bags, some packs, several things come.
These are surely examples of bravado by a young member of the Venezuelan student movement (formed politically with the help of the same agency USAID that managed the so-called "humanitarian" operation in Cúcuta ). Maybe it would not be worth it to spend more time on a blog for a newspaper whose headquarters is Barcelona. But due to the Sakharov Prize this is already an eminently European issue and, in times of mistrust of European institutions such as Parliament, it is a matter that must be investigated.
After being deported and transferred to Venezuela, Saleh accused Santos of having "kidnapped" him and of being a "partner" of Maduro. " He reported mistreatment of the Colombian police. "They take me on a plane like a drug dealer; they beat me they never let me call anyone; and I was 4 years a month and 7 days; the order was from Juan Manuel Santos, they moved a military plane; They were partners of Maduro, "he said. Saleh has repeatedly said that Santos "kidnapped" him because he "cared more about his Nobel prize than Venezuelan human rights." It is an ironic accusation that the perception that Saleh was the victim of mistreatment by Santos helped Saleh achieve his own prize
The problem is that there are reasons to think that everything said by Saleh regarding the deportation of Colombia is false. In the interview in La Vanguardia , Santos accused Saleh and his collaborators of lying shamelessly and gave me documents that support this accusation. "We deported Mr. Saleh because he was in Colombia illegally; He appeared in military uniforms and was doing politics, which is forbidden; He insulted a senator (from the left) in the middle of the street. There were more than enough reasons to deport him and he was never mistreated in Colombia, "the former president said.
After the deportation, Saleh was imprisoned in Venezuela and reported that he had been subjected to torture in a high security prison in Caracas where he remained for four years. It is likely that this testimony is true if one takes into account the suspicions of the Venezuelan authorities that Saleh was a terrorist. As a prisoner, he was added to the candidates for the Sakharov prize, according to the selection of the Venezuelan Criminal Forum, an opposition body that determines who are political prisoners. In 2017, after strong pressure from the Spanish government of the Popular Party, he was released and transferred to Madrid where Becerra welcomed him. Popular Party leader Pablo Casado in a meeting with Saleh in November 2018 called the radical youth a "defender of human rights."
After receiving the European award and being praised as a fighter for human rights, Saleh made a trip to Mexico in January of this year where he attacked President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador because he had not recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuelan president. Saleh was invited to the Mexican Senate by the conservative National Action Party (PAN), where he denounced a supposed democratic deficit in the congress due to the majority of Lopez Obrador's Morena party. The visit caused incidents in Mexico. Then Saleh returned to Colombia, invited by the government of Ivan Duque, very close to Uribe, in violation of the deportation order of the Santos government that prohibited the entry of Saleh until 2024. Saleh met with Uribe and was interviewed in various media from Spanish television to CNN where, presented in a complimentary manner as a human rights fighter, he repeated the accusations against Santos.
But his new image suddenly lost its luster when he was arrested in Cúcuta for provoking a violent incident in a restaurant and deported again but now by the government of Iván Duque. "Saleh is a fanned person (opportunist) likes to figure and shake and took advantage of the invitation to continue doing what he wanted to do in Cúcuta a few years before; but there was another scandal and it fell to the government (de Duque) to deport him to Spain. In the long run, things are known, "summarized Santos, who considers that the latest incident in Cúcuta supports his own decision to deport Saleh in 2014.. Saleh lashed out again against the Colombian government - now Duque's - for ill-treatment.
Becerra, very selectively specialized in human rights issues, employs an intensive communication policy. He regularly blogs about Venezuela (and about Catalonia, although the Catalan political prisoners do not produce the same moral indignation in the battery of tweets of the MEP than their Venezuelan counterparts). It tweeted wrongly on February 24 that "Maduro is capable of burning the medicines and food that Venezuelans need" after the burning of a truck loaded with "help" from USAID that, as explained by the New York Times, was provoked in all likelihood by a Molotov cocktail of the same protesters against Maduro. Becerra has not rectified.
Despite this communication policy, Becerra declined to respond to a written interview sent to his cabinet in Brussels on Friday after being addressed to his office by the European Parliament's general spokesman. I asked in the email if, - in the light of Saleh's arrest in Cúcuta and Santos' statements about the falsehoods that the former president imputes to Saleh - there are reasons for European citizens to question the delivery of the prize to Saleh.
The spokeswoman for the euro deputy, Anyelita Yanez, a Venezuelan opposition activist, replied: "On behalf of Beatriz I can add that Lorent Saleh has narrated personal and detailed since he arrived in Spain the circumstances of his arrest in Colombia and transfer to the Chavez prisons, (sic). "Santos categorically denies Saleh's testimony about the circumstances of his imprisonment in Colombia and his transfer to the Venezuelan authorities. Two months before the European elections, 500 million European citizens have the right to know who is telling the truth.
http://blogs.lavanguardia.com/diario-it ... -que-88508
Google Translator