An oil industry executive, a fugitive banker, a former opposition deputy and governor, plus a daughter of the old Venezuelan business oligarchy, have at least two things in common. They were part of the 4th Republic’s corrupt economic elite, and involved in recently revealed plans to assassinate the country’s President and carry out a coup d’état. María Corina Machado is a consummate coup plotter, involved in numerous U.S. plans to destabilize Venezuela. Given the waning of violent protests, frustration with repeated electoral defeat and the population’s clear support for the Bolivarian Revolution, María Corina Machado contacted Pedro Burelli, Eligio Cedeño, Gustavo Tarre and Diego Arria, among others, to "annihilate" President Nicolás Maduro. Her efforts were documented in now public e-mail messages she sent. María Corina Machado was among those who signed a decree issued by Pedro Carmona Estanga to legitimize the short-lived coup carried out in April, 2002, against President Hugo Chávez. She was on hand at Miraflores to applaud the dictator installed when Estanga dissolved the country’s democratically elected institutions. She is a daughter of the prominent bourgeois Machado Zuloaga family, major stockholders in such companies as Caracas Electric, Sivensa, Banco Mercantil, Viasa, Tacoa Investments and its affiliates. With the arrival of the Bolivarian Revolution in 1999, the family lost its privileges, economic power and access to the country’s oil earnings, obtained as a result of influence within the ruling class. Pedro Burelli, one of the individuals contacted by Machado to organize the assassination of President Maduro, is a former oil industry executive and worked for the U.S. bank J.P. Morgan. Also involved in the assassination plans was Pedro Burelli, a former oil industry executive, named as PDVSA overseas director by Rafael Caldera, known for his efforts to privatize the state oil company. He was quoted in an interview with El Nacional, saying, "I am more inclined toward the position that PDVSA should be sold." Currently resident in the United States, Burelli is married to Cristina Vollmer, another member of the Venezuelan capitalist class with investments in banking and industry. Eligio Cedeño, a former banker and fugitive from justice - now resident in the U.S. - was another figure involved in the plot. He left Venezuela to avoid prosecution for embezzlement and real estate fraud, and is a long-time financial supporter of plans to put an end to the Bolivarian Revolution. Mayor of the Caracas municipality of Libertador, Jorge Rodríguez, denounced the assassination plot which has been in the works for months, he said. In May, Interior Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres revealed that Cedeño was one of the principal suppliers of funds for violent protests and acts of vandalism which occurred this past February and March. Also appearing in Corina Machado’s e-mails was the name of Henrique Salas Römer, a businessman who has been involved in politics defending the economic interests of those who once controlled most of the country’s oil revenue. He was a member of Congress and governor of the state of Carabobo during the 4th Republic. On May 2, 2014, Minister Rodríguez denounced Salas Römer as the financier of the right wing youth group Juventud Activa Venezuela Unida (Javu), based in the city of Valencia, in Carabobo state. Two figures from the discredited Christian Democrat and Democratic Action parties were also implicated in the assassination plan: lawyer Gustavo Tarre, elected to Congress in 1979, 1983, 1988 and 1993; and Diego Arria, governor of the Federal District (now Capital) in 1974. Caracas and other major cities have experienced violent street protests this year, orchestrated as part of efforts to destabilize the country and overthrow the elected government, encouraged and financed by the United States. Tarre was second in command of Christian Democrat ranks in the legislature, and in 2010 supported the candidacy of Machado for the National Assembly. Arria – who, after the incriminating messages were revealed, said that his telephone had been stolen – was accused of real estate fraud in the state of Vargas when he was governor. As president of the Simón Bolívar Center (CSB) he was linked to a shady operation in which CSB acquired property in Maquetía to erect an expensive, middle-class housing project, trampling the rights of residents who had lived there for some 50 years. In 1978, Arria was a candidate in the Presidential elections won by Luis Herrera Campíns, garnering a mere 90,000 votes. All of those implicated have ties with the U.S. government, and an interest in recuperating the privileges they once enjoyed in Venezuela. They have lots of money, but cannot count on many votes to elect a President to their liking. What they have in common is a penchant for violence, as the only way they can oust the government of Nicolás Maduro, democratically elected by the majority of Venezuelans. (AVN)
