Sir Richard Branson's Venezualan PR Stunt

 

On February 15th British billionaire entrepreneur and fat cat owner of the Virgin media Group Sir Richard Branson  announced plans for a “Venezuela Aid Live” concert to be held on February 22 in the Colombian border city of Cucuta and also to be live-streamed on the Internet, to  ostensibly raise money for “humanitarian aid” for Venezuelans. But far from being apolitical, in Branson’s own words, the concert is taking aim at what he calls the “Maduro regime” and was apparently organised at the suggestion of the self-appointed “president” Juan Guaidó himself  and opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, coinciding  with them calling for a so-called “humanitarian corridor” to open across the border on February 23, one month after their failed coup attempt.

 
What Branson has effectively annonced is a  cynical propaganda spectacle on the Colombia-Venezuela border this Friday in the form of a concert for regime change. The vulgarity  of the entire event should be highly disturbing to anyone who supports international law. The goal of Guaidó is to overthrow a legally recognised government and as such, staging a concert such as this is nothing short of a geopolitical provocation disguised as a joyous charity event.
Major relief organizations – the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Catholic aid group Caritas – have so far been reluctant to cooperate with the so-called “humanitarian” food and supply efforts of both US AID and the Lima Group, warning against using food as a political pawn.The politicisation of aid is among the most disingenuous things that one could do. UN spokesman Stephen Dujarric told reporters last week, referring to the crisis in Venezuela, that humanitarian action must be independent of political or military objectives.
Sir Branson’s concert is just his own egoistic PR campaign, many  have mocked the call to donate from a man who is worth billions, saying  that if he really cared at all about the plight of the Venezuelan people  he  could easily pony-up the $100 million himself from petty cash, and  pointing out that he could  help the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela by using his power and influence to get the USA to lift sanctions, which have inflicted so much pain on the country making people suffer  while they continue to plan interventions.
 Even Venezuelan economists who oppose Maduro acknowledge it is SANCTIONS that ruin the Venezuelan economy. freely admitting that it’s the sanctions that have crippled their economy. Trump's Economic Sanctions have cost Venezuela about $6bn since August 2017. https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14073:  For these – and  so many other reasons, any coordination with the US government in respect of ‘humanitarian aid’ to Venezuela is at bestdeeply misguided.
Thinking about it where's the Live Aid style event for the people of Gaza or Yemen. There is  a growing movement to ignore the live-streamed event on the Internet, refusing to participate in Sir Richard Branson’s (and Juan Guaido’s and Leopoldo Lopez’s ) PR stunt.
Barely missing  a beat  on Monday the government of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro has responded by  announcing  that it will hold its own huge concert to rival one being organised by Branson's on Saturday and Sunday on Venezuela’s side of the border, Rodriguez did not announce the artists who are expected to perform, saying only that the concert would be massive.“People from all over the world want to take part in this message of love, solidarity and denunciation against the aggression that they’re trying against the Venezuelan people,” Rodriguez said.

The government of Venezauela routinely complains of US interference.Maduro has opposed aid being sent in saying its a trick , blasting it as a ploy to topple the government, instead demanding that Washington lift the economic sanctions imposed on Caracas that could .leading to a military invasion that will be used to enslave the people of Venezuela.

Stepping up the standoff, Rodriguez also promised to deliver 20,000 boxes of government-subsidized food to the poor in the Colombian border city of Cucuta, where tons of aid from the United States is now sitting earmarked for struggling Venezuelans.

Maduro is vowing not to let the U.S. aid enter Venezuela, and he announced on state television Monday evening that his government would import 300 tons of aid from Russia that he said will arrive soon. He said Venezuela paid for the Russian goods and isn’t a country of beggars, lashing out at President Donald Trump for thinking he can force in unwanted assistance.

“They want to enslave us,” Maduro said. “That’s the truth.”

Demonstrations have been planned around the world on February 23 to couter this war propoganda blitz against  Venezuela.
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton has already admitted what U.S. intervention is really about: “It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.” Just like Iraq, this is another U.S, intervention for oil.
Over 200 organizations and thousands of individuals from across the world have endorsed the call for actions on February 23. Read the call and add your name or organization as an endorser at NoWarOnVenezuela.org