A drawing of a brain in a light bulb. Photo: La Iguana.
By Clodovaldo Hernández – Sep 17, 2024
The “resistance-to-the-dictatorship” industry continues to diversify. Every day, in Miami, Madrid, Bogotá, or any other place in the world, the “managers” of this business put into practice new ways of quickly becoming millionaires. Some of these entrepreneurs have already done so through the fiction of the interim government; with the heartbreaking story of the humanitarian crisis; with the excuse of the wave of migration that they themselves provoked; and with the creation of all kinds of NGOs financed by the United States and countries of the European Union. In all cases, the funds have ended up in corporate and personal accounts.
As these avenues are already partially exhausted, and as their owners protect them like fierce dogs, a part of the Venezuelan “exile” population has come up with a “new” method of plunder, although it is based on the very old system of making a cow, lately known by the anglicism “crowdfunding,” which translates as micromecenazgo.
Those who could not participate in the feast of the money looted from CITGO, the bank accounts and the gold of Venezuela (or those that participated but already spent the money); those who can no longer find official US or European agencies to siphon off resources in dollars or euros; and those who have already been exposed as freeloaders in the offices of international organizations now want their lives in golden exile to be financed by wild opposition voters. It is told and not believed, said a friend.
The modus operandi of religious worship
Strictly speaking, the modus operandi of “hammering” captive and gullible audiences is copied from the modus operandi of numerous churches and sects. The opposition parishioners are offered a future time of peace, harmony, and permanent happiness, free of chavismo (equivalent to heaven or the eternal life of religious cults), and in exchange, they are required to pay a voluntary tithe, a joyful contribution.
[By the way, in many cases of religious cults, this tithe only serves to allow the pastor to enjoy a heavenly standard of living. But that is a separate issue.]
The strategy is also aimed at calming the consciences of those opponents who, deep down, feel that they have not done enough against the “regime.” They offer them a typical capitalist solution to alleviate their guilt: you pay for others to come and do the dirty work. Great.
A simple scam
Nobody should believe that in order to set up this transnational racket operation, the guys have spent a lot of money putting together a credible setup, a more or less solid parapet. No. Not even that. What they offer are the services of a typical mercenary and hitman company (of the kind that swarm “legally” in the great US democracy) and the reputation of escualido heroes such as Ivan Simonovis, the man with 20 terminal illnesses who, despite this, escaped from his house arrest by rappelling down the side of the building and left the country personally piloting a plane (at low altitude so that he would not be detected by radar) to the paradise of freedom, that is, Miami.
More or less in the same vein is the operation they are announcing to free Venezuela from tyranny. To put it without much fanfare, the characters have proposed to amass a fortune by means of fresh lies.
Promotions to attract sponsors also rely on the services of a military aviator who launches insurrectional proclamations for the Bolivarian National Armed Forces and, immediately afterwards, asks believers to donate their dollars. He runs a racket, like that television personality, Brother Coco, whose motto was “Faith moves mountains, but you have to pay.” In short, this pilot believes himself to be an airplane.
An opposition columnist joked on his X account that the aforementioned officer (who, in videos, appears semi-uniformed, as if to make people believe that he is about to climb into an armed F-16) should start jogging a bit because, at least in this initial stage, he does not have that “Rambo look,” ready for combat, that people would like to see. If they raise the money and attack with this type of commander, there is a high probability that they will end up like those of Operation Gideon, biting the dust somewhere on a coast whose name they will not want to remember later.
Despite the crudeness of the scheme, there are many who dare to predict that the promoters of this fishing network will become millionaires by accumulating the contributions of many taxpayers in Venezuela and abroad. Every day, there are thousands of people who, in good faith, fall into the clutches of scammers who use all kinds of methods, from the very old Chilean package to the famous “Hello, I am Maria” (without any reference to any specific Maria).
Beyond these aspects related to the credulity and candor of people who consider themselves very savvy, in this episode of geopolitical roguery, there are those who wonder how it is that such a fundraising campaign can be launched from one country, with impunity, to destabilize the government of another country.
In reality, it is nothing unusual. On the contrary, it is consistent with the actions of the political elite of the host nation of the scam, which has been saying for years that Venezuela is an unusual and extraordinary threat to its national security: that is why they offer rewards for none other than the president and his main collaborators.
What would happen if a similar offer of bounty was offered by Venezuela and against the United States or against one of its favored right-wing or lukewarm left-wing governments? A response would come from the UN Security Council, in some disheveled initiative by OAS Secretary Almagro, and in a chorus of the global press against such a great infamy.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/KW/SL
Clodovaldo Hernández
Venezuelan journalist and writer. He writes regularly for La IguanaTV, Supuesto Negado, and Mision Verdad.
