Colombian journalist Gustavo Castillo, correspondent for El Tiempo newspaper in Colombia, confirmed on Thursday the “little credibility” of Juan Guaidó’s emissaries in the border city of Cúcuta, after attending a press conference that instead of clarifying doubts to the media, left a dark trail of doubts, little transparency and much obscurity.
Castillo, who on Twitter says he works “from the border with Venezuela and Catatumbo,” sent a series of tweets detailing the series of problems he experienced at the press conference where the inventory of the “humanitarian aid” for Venezuela was presented.
“Today I knew the true color of the Venezuelan opposition. They called a press conference to show the inventory of humanitarian aid for Venezuela, without spokespeople and with a non-transparent press accreditation, which was not even made public beforehand” he wrote in a first tweet.
“And as expected, the majority of Colombian journalists did not appear on the list. This generated annoyance and delayed access to the place. Inside they told us that they were only going to allow photographic recordings and videos for a period limited to 20 minutes,” he continued.
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He also criticized the spokesmen of the right who “reduced the accounting to two letter-size pages with the breakdown of the donors, names of the beneficiary foundations and with figures. But without explanations and without evidence for these figures”.
“We were all left with doubts: why, starting on June 10, did these donations begin to be distributed without being announced? How was the selection of the beneficiary foundations made? Who supervises the deliveries? And one more: are there guarantees that this food does not end up in some political stronghold?” he said.
Finally he added: “There is no worse press conference than one that awakens more doubts than those already existing. And this was one. A chain of unfortunate events that shows the little credibility of that political group that calls for the ‘cessation of usurpation’ and ‘free elections’ of the neighboring country. ”
The team of Guaidó in Cúcuta is the protagonist of a scandalous case of corruption, misappropriation of funds that are also intertwined with a series of crimes linked to drugs, prostitution, excesses, a murder, thousand-dollar expenses, luxuries, apartment purchases, cheating, lies, fraud and another series of irregularities that are investigated by the Venezuelan, Colombian and US authorities, specifically with Guaido’s executive board in Citgo, [itself] kidnapped by the Donald Trump government.
Hoy conocí el verdadero talante de la oposición venezolana. Convocaron a una rueda de prensa para mostrar el inventario de las ayudas humanitarias para #Venezuela sin voceros y con una acreditación a la prensa poco transparente, que ni siquiera fue difundida de manera previa.
— Gustavo A. Castillo (@Litumaescritor) June 20, 2019
Y como era de esperarse, la mayoría de periodistas colombianos no aparecíamos en la lista. Esto generó molestia y retrasó el acceso al lugar. Adentro nos aclararon que solo se iba a permitir registro fotográfico y toma de videos en un tiempo limitado de 20 minutos.
— Gustavo A. Castillo (@Litumaescritor) June 20, 2019
Y lo peor de todo es que redujeron este balance a dos hojas de tamaño carta, con el desglose de los donantes, nombres de las fundaciones beneficiarias y con cifras. PERO SIN EXPLICACIONES Y SIN EVIDENCIAS DE ESTAS ENTREGAS. ¿? ¿?
— Gustavo A. Castillo (@Litumaescritor) June 20, 2019
Todos quedamos con dudas: ¿por qué desde el 10 de jun. se empezó a repartir esas donaciones sin notificarlo? ¿Cómo se hizo la selección de la fundación beneficias? ¿Quién supervisa las entregas? Y una más: ¿hay garantís de q esos alimentos no terminen en algún fortín político?
— Gustavo A. Castillo (@Litumaescritor) June 20, 2019
No hay peor rueda de prensa que una que despierte más dudas de las ya existentes. Y esta fue una. Una cadena de desafortunados sucesos que muestra la poca credibilidad de ese grupo político que pide el ‘cese de la usuparción’ y ‘elecciones libres’ del vecino país.
— Gustavo A. Castillo (@Litumaescritor) June 20, 2019
Translated by JRE/EF
