MIAMI.- In the face of the anarchy that is being experienced in Venezuela orchestrated by the dictator Nicolás Maduro, As a result of the electoral fraud of July 28, which has led to thousands of protesters being imprisoned without due process and more than 10 deaths to date for demonstrating against the regime, the Human Rights Foundation has made public a complaint against Gustavo Dudamel claiming that he has supported the dictatorship from the time of Chavez to the present.
In a statement to which DIARIO LAS AMRICAS had access, the non-profit organization accuses the orchestra director of profiting financially from the regime that has operated in the South American country for 25 years.
“He concert “Tonight’s performance is presented by the office of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a dictator currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, whose determination to violate the electoral will of the Venezuelan people is being carried out with deadly effect on the streets of Caracas right now, as you enjoy this beautiful performance,” the Human Rights Foundation said on August 2, referring to a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York.
“The children who play in this orchestra are individually innocent, but the collective entity to which they belong, El Sistema, is an effective and essential public relations organ of the Venezuelan regime and is well documented as a diplomatic instrument of soft power on the international stage. Gustavo Dudamel has personally benefited from millions of dollars in under-the-table payments from the dictator and operates as an unregistered foreign agent of the Maduro regime“Dudamel gently criticizes the dictator in public, while in private he serves as an unofficial ambassador for Venezuelan tyranny. This is someone who has remained silent in the face of years and years of repression and violence in Venezuela. Tonight is no different,” the organization added.
Gustavo Dudamel’s silence and support for censorship
The statement also brings up the silence maintained by the current director of the New York Philharmonic when the late former president Hugo Rafael Chavez Fras attacked cultural spaces in Venezuela by closing various centers such as museums and the former Ateneo de Caracas.
“When Chavismo closed the Ateneo de Caracas, looted and confiscated museums considered bourgeois and closed academies and institutions for not being sufficiently revolutionary, Dudamel remained silent,” said the US-based organization.
Another factor mentioned in the document is the censorship of the media that the Chavez government began in 2007 with the closure of the private television channel Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), which stopped broadcasting on May 27 of that year, then went black and was replaced within minutes by the new channel Televisora Venezolana Social (TVES), which is currently under the orders of the dictatorship and which in turn is led by the actor who worked for RCTV, Winston Vallenilla, along with his wife, also an RCTV actress, Marlene De Andrade.
“He Dudamel’s support for Chavez’s censorship had its most public and unpleasant expression in 2007 when Chavez closed RCTVan independent, privately owned television channel with five decades of rich cultural history that refused to submit to government censorship. The Chavez government seized the channel’s facilities and antennas and established a pitiful replacement, TVES. Gustavo Dudamel radiated pride as he conducted the opening concert for this new propaganda channel at midnight“Dudamel’s shameful performance was the first programme under the TVES banner,” recalled the Human Rights Foundation.
“That triumphant celebration of the dictatorship’s new channel (which for freedom-loving Venezuelans regardless of their ideological conviction was the funeral of freedom of speech) is one of dozens of cases of Dudamel, who is always present when his paymasters seem to need him. For example, Dudamel acted again when he attended Chavez’s funeral and cried alongside Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the then president of the Iranian regime. After crying for the dead dictator, Dudamel’s performance took place while hugging Chavez’s designated successor, Nicolas Maduro, in full view of the cameras. Only Dudamel knows whether his support for Maduro is the result of philosophical alignment or simply continued financial reward for him and El Sistema (or both!),” he added.
“While Venezuela burns with protests, Dudamel pretends not to know what is happening there”
“The problem is that now, as Venezuela burns with protests, Dudamel pretends not to know what’s going on there and glibly claims he has no categorical position on the issue of student deaths caused by Maduro’s uniformed thugs. You, the concert-goers, deserve better. Dudamel’s libretto of an apolitical, music-loving ignoramus is unworthy of a world-class artist. Dudamel should stick to one consistent score. He can’t dance to the tune of Chavismo in his country and then hop on a Gulfstream jet back to Los Angeles to rub shoulders with the rich and famous in Beverly Hills and pretend he doesn’t know that his patrons are the enemies of peace, free expression, and tolerant culture,” the Human Rights Foundation said.
The complaint by the non-profit organization, whose mission is to ensure that freedom is preserved and promoted in the Americas, comes as the Venezuelan human rights NGO Provea has recorded at least 15 people killed in protests since July 28 and hundreds of demonstrators arrested, including minors.
“At least 351 protests have been recorded in two days of demonstrations against the results imposed by the CNE. The popular will remains unknown,” the NGO reported.
“Abuses continue in #Venezuela: dozens of protesters arbitrarily detained in Caracas were transferred to the PNB (Bolivarian National Police) cells in Zone 7, Boleta (Caracas). These protesters were not allowed to have contact with NGO lawyers or their families, violating their right to defense,” added Provea.