United Kingdom gave 450,000 sterling pounds to coalition of the Venezuelan right wing

The UK Foreign Ministry gave 450,000 sterling pounds to “Transparencia Venezuela”, a coalition led by the Venezuelan right wing and adverse to the Bolivarian Government, as reported by Declassified.

In 2019, the UK Chancellery contributed £ 250,000 to establish the “Anti-Corruption Coalition”, which is described as “an anti-corruption coalition of civil society and free media actors, to help them fight corruption and organized crime in Venezuela”.

According to Declassified, in the term between March and December 2020, the Chancellory awarded another 200,000 pounds to Transparencia Venezuela “to strengthen the sustainability of the coalition.”

The coalition, which already includes 781 organizations and promotes 243 “initiatives”, is led by Juan Guaidó and the group opposed to the government of President Maduro. The United States (USA) and the United Kingdom acknowledge Guaidó as the alleged interim president of Venezuela.

Transparencia Venezuela “presents progress reports and project management every three months” to the British embassy in Caracas, according to Declassified.

Declassified investigated the UK has funding that has been added to an existing CSSF program entitled “Serious Organized Crime Peru / Colombia”, dated March 2020, which is the government’s only public reference to the Venezuelan coalition. Declassified claims they allocated £ 0.3 million in relief funds in 2019-20 for a “Venezuela anti-corruption project”.

The research indicates that the Venezuelan project “focuses on the resilience of civil society to the corrupt practices of the State.”

The group “is based on transparency and the fight against corruption, and that is why it monitors the resources that are administered or are under the responsibility of the current organs of the State,” said a spokesman for Transparencia Venezuela.

Declassified points out in a recent report that Yonaide Sánchez is the national coordinator of the coalition. Sánchez, a professor at the Lisandro Alvarado University in Barquisimeto, openly supports the opposition’s efforts to overthrow the Maduro government.

Sánchez has asked that “international aid” be delivered to Venezuela to “fight corruption”, and announced that “history will not absolve” Maduro.

Declassified sees British funding in Venezuela likely adding to suspicions that the UK is empowering civil society organizations as a means to topple Maduro.

The former UK ambassador to Venezuela, John Saville, in May this year revealed himself as head of the Venezuela Reconstruction Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Apparently the unit seeks to lead Venezuela towards a “peaceful and democratic” resolution to its current political crisis.

In Venezuela, the misuse of public funds has been exacerbated, generating a major economic crisis, but the corruption ratings are all produced by organizations financed directly or indirectly by Western governments that seek to overthrow the Maduro government, as notes Declassified.

The PanAm Post media points out that two officials from the Voluntad Popular party inflated the count of defectors in order to receive extra funds, and consequently they were investigated by the Colombian government.

Therefore, Guaidó asked Transparencia Venezuela to initiate an investigation, which largely acquitted those accused of embezzlement. Then Guaidó’s team publicly thanked Transparencia Venezuela, and said that the investigation demonstrated the “commitment of the Venezuelan opposition to transparency and the proper use of resources”.

Transparencia Venezuela claims to be a “non-partisan” actor in Venezuela, although its co-founder and director, Mercedes de Freitas, has been director of the People’s Moment Foundation, a Caracas-based legal monitoring organization that received significant funding from the NED and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), another “democracy promotion” foundation funded by the US Government.

The US government has provided money in Venezuela, through institutions such as the NED, to effect a change of regime for two decades.

Transparencia Venezuela financial audits, published annually since 2005 (except in 2019 and 2020), show that the British embassy in Caracas has been one of its main sponsors.

Transparency International’s umbrella organization and operating income of £ 25.7 million, has been funded by the US and UK governments, among others, since its founding in 1993. In 2019, DFID was the largest donor government, giving 4.4 million euros. The Department