“No state or group of states has the right to intervene directly or indirectly, for whatever reason, in the internal or external affairs of any other state or group of states.
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2131 (XX)
The Kingdom of Spain once again takes centre stage in the war that the US and its allies are waging against the Bolivarian Revolution. Once again it is the embassy of the Kingdom of Spain where its complacent subordination to US interests is staged, and it actively collaborates with imperial plans to completely dominate Latin America.
If Spain in 2002 was the epicenter of the conspiracy for the coup d’état against President Hugo Chávez, in January 2019 it was the venue for the unveiling in society of the “president” Juan Guaidó appointed by the United States and last April 30th it became the refuge of Leopoldo López, escaped prisoner serving a sentence of 13 years, 9 months and 7 days for his participation as an instigator and leader of the 2014 guarimbas that cost innumerable material damages to public and private property, the murder of 43 people with atrocious cruelty and more than 800 wounded. Among the victims were numerous law enforcement officers.
Leopoldo López, a criminal linked to the CIA, is part of that list of sinister “native agents” who throughout history, especially in Latin America, have been the authors of the most atrocious crimes; let’s remember Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch and so many others, condemned by the justice system of other countries that the U.S. freed and protected throughout their lives. This is not a new case, it is the usual way the U.S. acts when it comes to defending its interests.
Leopoldo López is a piece that is difficult for the U.S. to replace if the Bolivarian Revolution is to be overthrown; this individual is decidedly pro-imperialist, an authentic leader of the counterrevolution, who has demonstrated that the perpetration of violent acts and crime do not mean any impediment and is the figure that has the capacity to bring together the proto-fascist sectors of anti-chavism, essential actors in U.S. strategy.
The need to keep Leopoldo López active has required two steps: The first step has been to build an image that would allow him to pass from executioner to victim, and the second, his liberation to increase his capacity for movement and communication, while satisfying a demand from opposition groups, especially extreme right-wing. The victim’s discourse has been repeated tirelessly and from all spheres: political, institutional, “intellectual” and media. His condition of political leader of the opposition that was condemned for his ideas and his political leadership has been accompanied by the total decoupling of his crimes, thus affirming the idea that this type of “victims” correspond to a dictatorial state.
As in all war propaganda, against the Bolivarian Revolution, in this campaign resources of an unknown magnitude have been deployed, all techniques of mass manipulation have been employed, from Goebbels to the Agenda Setting, passing through the Spiral of Silence. As a result, there has been a phenomenon of massive alienation greater than that achieved by the Nazis in Germany or the Fascists in Italy. They have enrolled in the cause “Freedom for Leopoldo López” from Manuela Carmena to Iberian fascism, passing through politicians, institutions and academics of all signs.
In order to understand the great interest in the media construction of this fugitive it is necessary to understand the dynamics of the imperialist intervention that is present in Venezuela and that follows the trail of that systematically employed by imperialism: construction of the enemy, criminalization, isolation and destruction, always focusing on the leaders; Fidel Castro in Cuba, Allende in Chile, Sadan Hussein in Iraq, Gaddafi in Libya, Al Asad in Syria or Chávez and Maduro in Venezuela.
Criminalized as enemies of the world and its people, driven by personal interests, corrupt and criminal, in short tyrants that there is no choice but to eliminate without “discarding any option”. The elimination of leaders who do not submit to the empire is explicit and is an essential part of media campaigns. However, what is systematically hidden is the objective of eliminating the social and political organizations that sustain them, the form of state they promote as well as the ideology they defend (in which national sovereignty is the key piece with which they confront the empire). History shows us that this elimination is not administrative, nor political, nor is it carried out peacefully; it is carried out through all kinds of violence and in many cases mass physical extermination; that is, with an atrocious repression in which its consequences have never been taken into account. Like Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Iraq, Libya and so many others.
Once the media matrix has been built against Maduro, the enemy has been criminalized and while this campaign continues, it must be weakened, subjecting it to a siege that makes the population suffer to the point where they stop fighting or repudiate their leaders; this ancestral strategy is the siege.
The blockades and sanctions are euphemisms of this strategy that conceal the economic war, as reprehensible in international law as military destruction. Its effectiveness is based both on the looting it entails and on the facility to obtain allies, since violence does not appear explicitly. Their victims, although they are very numerous, are less visible and more difficult to count; but above all, the leaders themselves can be accused of being the culprits of the situation, blaming them for the problems and accusing them of being the result of their incapacity and corruption, and sometimes, as in the case of Venezuela, it is said that it is the ineffectiveness of the projects and the form of organization of the Bolivarian Revolution, which seeks an unworkable system.
But criminalizing and besieging is not enough in Venezuela, at least at the pace demanded by the empire, so it is necessary to promote the next phase: destruction. It is in this phase that Leopoldo López acquires a relevant role. Cracking the army is costing them more work than they thought and they have the experience that in other cases it has been a cornerstone for the success or failure of the empire. So, in order to intensify a possible crack and to increase the suffering of the population, it is necessary to bring together the internal forces and be prepared to carry out large-scale actions that more effectively undermine military unity.
The promotion of Juan Guaidó has turned out to be a real failure, he is a weak character, without charisma, who has been imposed without really having any power, who does not even reach the category of a media figure and who can only partially play the instrumental role, becoming a pathetic ghostly figure due to what is not very relevant, a bad actor incapable of interpreting his role in this farce, which already publicly acknowledges his null capacity to summon people.
On 31 January, Agencia EFE published the news that Spain was sending GEOS forces to increase the security of the Spanish embassy in Venezuela, without any apparent justification. Since April 30, Leopoldo López and his family have been guests at the Spanish embassy, where he can neither seek asylum nor claim subsidiary protection, among other reasons for having a firm conviction for crimes against peace and public order.
According to declarations by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Spain, Josep Borrell, Leopoldo López will remain as a guest “until the steps to be followed are clarified”, a way to gain time since if there were any legal figure in which to take refuge, it would have already been used; the reasons for protecting an escape from justice must be included in international law; however, the subordination and submission of the Kingdom of Spain to the United States has led to its imperial drift, deviating from international law and in this case, seriously violating it. In a state in which the defence of the “rule of law” is repeatedly boasted or it is said with emphasis “within legality everything out of nothing”, we have placed ourselves outside the Vienna Convention in force since January 24, 1968 and that is a norm that we have signed and we are obliged to comply with and specifically in this case the articles:
- Article 31.4 which reads: “The immunity from jurisdiction of a diplomatic agent”… “does not exempt him from the jurisdiction of the accrediting state”.
- Article 41.1 “They are also under an obligation not to interfere in the internal affairs of that state.
- Article 41.3 “The premises of the mission shall not be used in a manner incompatible with the functions of the mission”.
It must also be considered that the ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain, Jesús Silva, has acted against the Spanish Criminal Code with regard to the cover-up and specifically in its articles:
- Article 408 “Any authority or official who intentionally fails to promote the prosecution of the crimes of which he or she becomes aware, or those responsible for them, shall incur the penalty of special disqualification.
- Article 451.3 “Helping those presumed responsible for a crime… to avoid their search or capture”.
- Article 451.3a “That the covert act constitutes… terrorism, homicides”.
- Article 451.3b “That the flatterer has acted with abuse of his public functions”.
The Spanish government should give explanations on all these questions and not limit itself to saying that it has a “guest” in the embassy.
At the moment we are waiting for events, remembering that the U.S. insists that “no option is ruled out” on Venezuela.
On May 2nd, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a communiqué saying: “the government of Spain… reiterates its willingness to contribute constructively to a democratic and peaceful solution to the Venezuelan crisis. Is the decision to deny the legitimacy of current President Nicolás Maduro, elected in elections accepted by the opposition and followed by international observers, including former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, democratic? However, a self-proclaimed president appointed by the US has been recognised with the sole argument that 53 countries have also recognised him, but omitting that 140 others have not, forgetting also that the United Nations has not recognised him, only smaller organisations have done so under pressure from the US.
As for the contribution to peace, it is sarcastic to defend it while protecting and protecting those who tried to unleash a civil war and use terrorism as a means to achieve their objectives. Likewise, contributing to peace is incompatible with assuming the continuous threats of armed intervention by the US.
As if this were not enough, Leopoldo López, from the Spanish embassy and before numerous media outlets, launched a soflama demanding a definitive military coup to hold “free elections”. In order to understand the conditions for these elections to be held, it is enough to look at the government program presented by the self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaidó. Whoever reads it will be able to verify that the elections have no date and that they will take place when the right conditions are met. These conditions are the elimination of all vestiges of chavismo, including political, social, popular and even official organizations that have carried out their functions during the 20 years of the Bolivarian Republic. A bitter reminder of such sinister characters as Franco, Pinochet, Videla and so many others.
The Kingdom of Spain, obedient and pleased with its subordination to the United States, has abandoned international law and the framework of the United Nations as spaces for settling disputes; the rule to follow is obedience to the empire, the institutions it controls and the order it imposes.
It is grotesque of a state, the Spaniard, who calls himself a defender of democracy, has a head of state and of the armed forces who is not elected and is immune to the law, who preemptively imprisons elected representatives for calling votes while protecting and protecting a bloody coup plotter, who claims to contribute to peace while participating in wars around the world and supports and protects those who carry out acts of cruel violence.
10 May 2019.
Anti-Imperialist Internationalist Front
