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VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes: In a recent VHeadline.com article www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=23039 Cofavic condemns accusations vs. Sumate directors as threat to all NGOs, Cofavic's executive director, Liliana Ortega, expresses her disapproval of the way the Venezuelan government is proceeding by calling directors from Sumate to court for testimony.

But … what is Sumate?

What is Cofavic?

And … who is Liliana Ortega?

Headed by a lady called Maria Corina Machado, Sumate is a Venezuelan “civil association” which offers services for elections management and the like. It is the organization which “managed” the signature collection campaign to “get rid of Chavez” both in February 2003 and in spring 2004.

Sumate worked directly for the anti-Chavez movements in Venezuela, was partially funded by the USA and worked in close collaboration with most of the radical anti-Chavez (anti-democracy) sectors in Venezuela … those sectors which were primarily responsible for the industry sabotage and the destabilization of the country in 2002 and 2003.

Cofavic means, “Committee for the Relatives and Victims of the Events of February and March of 1989.” The 1989 events referred to are the same events which propelled Chavez toward politics … the food riots whereby the Venezuelan government at the time sent the military to the streets to assassinate hundreds (if not thousands) of mostly innocent Venezuelan citizens. Cofavic is described as a “human rights” organization which “targets institutions and officials that play a role in ensuring human rights, from Venezuela's new constitutional assembly to front-line prison guards and police.”

According to a website called osloforum.com, www.osloforum.com/templates/Page____157.aspx Liliana Ortega “was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the fifty Latin America's Leaders for the New Millennium.

Apparently, Liliana Ortega was a corporate-law student who became interested in pursuing the avenue of “human rights” and is the director of Cofavic. In some reading material she is addressed as “Dr.” So, she is possibly a Doctor of law.

According to a document from the Inter American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), Liliana Ortega, along with Yris Medina Cova, Hilda Páez (Gilda Páez), Maritza Romero, Aura Liscano (Lizcano), Alicia de González and Carmen Alicia Mendoza (all from Cofavic at the time) were personally described in an IACHR “court” ruling as being victims of threats and in need of personal protection by the Venezuelan government. The ruling (November 27, 2002) “orders” the Venezuelan government to provide police protection for all the above-mentioned people as well as for their Cofavic offices … www1.umn.edu/humanrts/iachr/Espan/Sortega11-27-02.html and “orders” the government to provide Liliana Ortega with a radio so that she can be in touch with police forces whenever necessary.

But what is the IACHR?

It is a “court” which was created by the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1979 with the apparent purpose of providing rulings regarding the statutes in the American Convention on Human Rights.

But wait a minute … why did Liliana Ortega resort to Costa Rica (where the IACHR is) to get a ruling in her (and Cofavic's) favor?

And wait a minute … the IACHR is part of the OAS … and where is the OAS based? In Washington.

Wait a minute … and what does the IACHR have to do with Liliana Ortega?

According to the osloforum.com, “she has worked as external advisor for the Human Rights Interamerican Institute in Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica …”

Wait a minute! Isn't there some kind of conflict here?

Or maybe some kind of special treatment?

Why was Liliana Ortega able to get a ruling from the IACHR?

Is it because she was an advisor to them?

Can I get a ruling from the IACHR if someone threatens me?

Many anti-Chavez people threatened me with death for about 6 months in 2003 because I refused to write against Chavez … and later on because I wrote about which anti-Chavez organizations the US government's National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was funding.

Hey, maybe I should try this and get free security guards and cell phones and full-time (free) police supervision of my offices.

That would be great! Wouldn't it?

Can Chavez apply to the IACHR for a ruling against all the people who have been threatening to get rid of him?

People like Carlos Ortega (any relation to Liliana Ortega?), Carlos Andres Perez, Carlos Fernandez, Juan Fernandez, Enrique Mendoza, Capriles, Pedro Carmona and many more who are/were in hiding in Miami, Colombia and Costa Rica (!) … and organizations such as the CIA, the NED, USAID and the US State Department, which all directly or indirectly contributed to the “get rid of Chavez by whatever means” syndrome.

And how about all the poorer Venezuelans?

Can they apply to get a ruling from the IACHR for free protection from their wealthy bosses who constantly threaten them unless they “do as they are told?”

And how about the land reformers in Venezuela?

Can the 200 or so who have been assassinated by wealthy land-owners come back from the dead now to get a ruling from the IACHR stating that they have the right to free police protection and radios?

By the way, Carlos Ortega (ex-president of the CTV) was in hiding from the Venezuelan law (on criminal charges) in Costa Rica … the same place where Liliana Ortega got her favorable “court” ruling.

Coincidence? I wonder?

(NOTE: The CTV is the Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions, a corrupt group of Venezuelans who led, along with other groups such as Sumate, the 2002-2003 sabotage of the Venezuelan economy. The CTV was also financed by the USA … as was Sumate.)

What got me wondering is the fact that Liliana Ortega is basically saying that it is a “human rights” violation for the Chavez government to “go after” Machado and Plaz (both from Sumate) for “receiving funds from international bodies for subversive ends” … even though the Venezuelan government is going through the legal system to “go after” them!

It certainly appears that Liliana Ortega is more than willing to support people like Machado who openly collaborated with the likes of Carlos Ortega in the massive 2002-2003 industry and media-backed movement to ruin the country through sedition and sabotage. One of the major negative results of this anti-Chavez movement was the verifiable-fact that thousands upon thousands of innocent Venezuelans lost their jobs … and many never got paid for their last few weeks of work.

Is this what Liliana Ortega is supporting?

The loss of jobs of innocent people because their wealthy bosses suddenly decided to shut down industry and take extended “vacations” abroad … in places like Costa Rica?

Human rights? Yeah, sure … human rights, my big foot!

She continues, “… Venezuela has been regularly submitted to an internal intimidation campaign aimed at disqualifying people and groups that have taken a critical position vis-a-vis the government. The attempt to open court hearings against several civil organizations contradicts the commitment to respect and guarantee the work of human rights activists.”

Sorry, Liliana Ortega … I think you have lost your ability to reason regarding what is right and what is wrong. To openly back a movement whose aim was to destroy a country is not an innocent act. This is what Sumate did and this is what you are doing now!

If Liliana Ortega is suggesting that it is within the precepts of “human rights” to allow organizations such as Sumate to intentionally assist in acts of sedition and instigation to mass civil unrest … then Liliana Ortega should quit Cofavic … or Cofavic should be closed down (by its own volition) because Cofavic is not a supporter of human rights. It is a backer of criminal activity. The monies received by Sumate from the USA were not used for peaceful or democratic or positive purposes. They were very clearly used for sabotage, sedition and instigation to civil unrest, assassinations and for the intentional creation of mass panic and destabilization.

Liliana Ortega says that what the Attorney General's Office is trying to do with Sumate in accusing it of “receiving funds from abroad to conspire against the government,” reveals serious risks to all non-government organizations (NGOs) … “every NGO should feel threatened…”

Of course Sumate was receiving funds from the USA with the express purpose of conspiring against the Venezuelan government … a freely-elected and democratically-elected government at that!

But wait a minute!

Why is Liliana Ortega so gung-ho about protecting Sumate … or any other Venezuelan organization which receives funding from governments abroad?

The Cofavic website clearly states that it does not receive funding from any political group or from any Venezuelan government organization. www.cofavic.org.ve/quienes.htm However,it does take money from the Ministries of External Affairs of outside governments (although the website calls these Ministries “foundations”): Canada, Finland, France, Norway, the United Kingdom, and more.

In much the same way as Liliana Ortega used the IACHR to rule in her favor, is her support of Sumate a way to slyly seek to protect herself from potentially losing funding for her organization?

In other words, if we all suddenly find out that Cofavic is being financed by Canada and other countries … and if Liliana Ortega is found out to be somehow linked to Machado (Sumate) or Carlos Ortega (CTV) … will the fact that she is being financed by Canada and other countries be construed as “being funded by abroad to conspire against the government?” Probably…

She goes on to say that when a group receives funding from abroad, it is public and the groups are subject to permanent scrutiny by the funding organizations.

This statement, in case people don't yet know, is untrue … in other words, it is a lie. Try to get information from the US government's National Endowment for Democracy (NED) about which Venezuelan anti-Chavez (anti-democratic) organizations have been funded since January 2002. www.venezuelafoia.info/NED/SUMATE/SUMATE%20index.htm Some information has been released but only because a few persistent reporters used the Freedom of Information Act against the NED. Even then, some of the information was blacked out!

As for other public funding organizations, for example, The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (the British equivalent to the NED) … or the Canadian government's Ministry of External Affairs … I would challenge anyone to try to get relevant “public” information in such matters: up-to-date names, numbers, dates, etc. She also says, “ …any accusation directly affects diplomatic relations between States …” Of course it does … and it should. It is about time that taxpayers from “western” countries become aware of where their money is going to and why!

Most citizens in the USA and Britain have no idea that their tax dollars are going toward subversive actions against democratically-elected governments through organizations such as the NED, USAID and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

Do the taxpayers know where their money is going to when it is handed out to organizations such as Cofavic?

The answer is, “no.”

Oscar Heck
mailto:oscar@vheadline.com

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