Venezuelan Opposition Angered By Publication Of Holiday Vacation Destinations

Opposition lawmakers, journalists and businessmen in Venezuela have been angered by the government’s publication on Thursday of details on the opposition members’ travel plans for holiday vacations. El Universal reports that Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s Minister of Communication and Information, posted a list of 27 names and their international vacation destinations on her Twitter account. Rodríguez noted that President Nicolás Maduro had rung in the new year “with the people” in a celebration in the center of Caracas, contrasting that with the international holidays of the “trio of evil” – the preferred Chavista term for opposition leaders Henrique Capriles, María Corina Machado and Leopoldo López.

The Latin American Herald-Tribune notes that aside from Capriles (a two-time presidential candidate and current governor of Miranda state), Machado (member of the Venezuelan National Assembly), and López (former mayor of Caracas’ Chacao municipality), who were headed to Aruba, Frankfurt, and Miami, respectively, the list includes Lorenzo Mendoza, the president of Polar – the nation’s largest privately-owned company – and two journalists who regularly criticize the Chavista-led government. One, Nelson Bocaranda, is a television commentator and columnist for newspaper El Universal; Alberto Ravell is the former president of the anti-Chavista news channel Globovisión and founder of the news site La Patilla.

Supporters of the opposition question how the information might have been obtained, and Animal Politico notes that some have pointed out possible errors with the list’s claims – for instance, the case of Henrique Capriles, who published photos on Twitter on Christmas Eve which depicted him ringing in Christmas with firefighters in Miranda. Rodríguez’s list puts his date of departure as Dec. 22^nd. BBC correspondent Daniel Pardo points out that the episode comes only weeks after Maduro received opposition leaders at the presidential palace in Miraflores, where he asked for them to “turn a new page” and work with him on anti-poverty projects.