Advisory Processes
Since the early years of the
presidency of Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013, Germany
has been supporting Venezuela's opposition, which is
essentially composed of the country's traditional
wealthy elites. This had become particularly evident
through the activities of the CDU affiliated
Konrad-Adenauer Foundation in Venezuela. Already in
2001, the Foundation bolstered the young Primero
Justícia party, whose leader, Henrique Capriles
Radonski, is still one of the most influential
opponents of the Venezuelan government. Capriles,
who, from 2000 to 2008, had been mayor of the
Venezuelan capital's wealthy Baruta district
participated in the uprisings leading to the 2002
putsch attempt against Chávez. Since 2008, he is
governor of the federal state Miranda, where Baruta
is located. His party is a member of the opposition
alliance Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD). The
Konrad-Adenauer Foundation continued supporting
Primero Justícia after the putsch, which it played
down as simply a "general protest." (german-foreign-policy.com
reported.[1]) Presumably due to a ban on foreign
support for political parties, the foundation
reported, in 2008, that it was assisting Primero
Justicia and the traditional elite party COPEI
"primarily through their educational institutes" -
described as a "successful" support that should be
"expanded."[2] In 2010, an analysis of the FRIDE
Institute in Madrid divulged that the Adenauer
Foundation is paying "around €500,000 annually" for
projects with Venezuelan opposition parties,
including "long-term advisory processes" in
"political communication."
Contacts in Berlin
The Adenauer Foundation has
repeatedly arranged personal contacts for members of
the Venezuelan opposition in Germany and elsewhere
in the EU. According to the web portal amerika21,
the foundation had also invited politicians from the
Primero Justícia party to Berlin and Brussels in
early 2011. In the German capital, the delegation
had talks with parliamentarians of the Bundestag.[3]
In January 2015, the foundation again organized a
visit to Berlin and Brussels for a MUD delegation.
The members of the opposition - including activists
of the Primero Justícia party that had been involved
in the 2002 attempted putsch - again met with
members of the Bundestag,[4] and had talks also in
the German foreign ministry and chancellery.[5] Last
year, the foundation organized another visit in
June. According to the CDU-affiliated organization,
the delegation met with "parliamentarians and
chairpersons of various Bundestag committees, had
talks in the chancellery and foreign ministry, as
well as with representatives of business and civil
society."[6]
On the Way to Power
Currently, a Venezuelan opposition
delegation is again having a high-level consultation
visit to the EU. Parliamentary President Julio
Borges is reported to discuss the political
situation in Venezuela, today, Wednesday, with
Chancellor Angela Merkel. Monday, Borges had met
with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and in
Madrid he held talks with Prime Minister Mariano
Rajoy and Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis on
Tuesday. A meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May
is also planned.[7] Borges, the founder of the
Primero Justícia party, according to a journal on US
foreign policy, as well as information from
observers of the period, had personally supported
the attempted putsch to overthrow Chávez in April
2002.[8] Today, in his struggle against incumbent
President Nicolás Maduro, he is seeking to take
power.
No Right of Interference
Germany and other EU countries'
blatant support for the Venezuelan opposition has
begun to create diplomatic conflicts. Already in
mid-August, Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge
Arreaza summoned Germany's Ambassador in Caracas,
Stefan Andreas Herzberg, and presented him with a
note protesting Berlin's open support for the
government's opponents. "Neither Germany, nor any
other country in the world, has the right," Arreaza
declared, "to interfere in Venezuela's domestic
affairs."[9] Monday, Arreaza summoned Herzberg
again,[10] giving him, along with his Spanish and
Italian counterparts, another note of protest. This
time the protest pertained to the fact that Caracas
had denied the departure of the Venezuelan
government opponent; Lilian Tintori, who had sought
to accompany Borges on last weekend's trip to
Europe. The German government sharply protested.
Tintori, who was also scheduled to meet with
Chancellor Merkel, was not allowed to leave the
country, because of a pending court subpoena,
provoked by last week's discovery in her car, of 200
million bolivars in cash. This is equivalent to
several tens-of-thousands of euros, a considerable
amount for Venezuela. Because Tintori and her lawyer
had contradicted one another in their explanations
of the purpose of the money,[11] the case will now
be investigated by the court. The fact that February
15, 2017, Tintori had been received by US President
Donald Trump also plays a role in this case. Trump
has even threatened Venezuela with a military
intervention.
The Traditional Elites
It is nothing new that Berlin
interferes in Latin American countries' domestic
conflicts, openly supporting the respective
traditional elites. German expressions of sympathy
for the cold coup carried out in Brazil,[12] or even
the FDP-affiliated Friedrich Naumann Foundation's
contacts to the putschists in Paraguay,[13] and in
Honduras are but a few of the examples. In late June
2009, the Naumann Foundation's representative in
Honduras at the time, Christian Lüth, defended the
putsch, which had just taken place, calling it a
correctly implemented "impeachment procedure." (german-foreign-policy.com
reported.[14]) Lüth has since become the press
spokesperson for Germany's new rightwing
"Alternative für Deutschland" (AfD) party.
Assistance to a Putsch
Even beyond Latin America, it is
usual German foreign policy in countries with
insubmissive governments, to support that country's
forces of the opposition, inviting their opposition
politicians to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
the Chancellery for talks. One of the best known
examples is the support for Vitali Klitschko, the
Ukrainian opposition politician, at the time,
initiated in 2010 by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
That assistance included extensive consultations on
building his party, as well as several invitations
to the foreign ministry and Chancellery for talks. (german-foreign-policy.com
reported.[15]) Berlin pursued this assistance right
up to the February 2014 coup in Kiev.