Since Chavez came to power, Venezuela has not had a break. Well, yes, only a few months, until they realized that the new government would overturn some business when they found that the unknown ruler for the world was willing to make geopolitical kind changes. It is from the moment of crossing the red line and touching the business of those who rule in those backyards when problems arised, and it is then when the supposed defenders of human rights emerge and are heard in unison voices of major world media or the thinkers and politicians who have space in major media platforms.

It is curious that before they did not care about that 80% of Venezuela’s population lived in poverty, some in extreme poverty or that those same outraged did not raise their voice when President Carlos Andres Pérez, a member of the Socialist International like the former Spanish president Felipe González, cause the death of over 3,000 people in the so-called Caracazo, after throwing the army against the starving population because of the implementation of brutal measures promoted by the International Monetary Fund. Yes, the same that it is imposing them today in Greece.

It is shameful the interested use of human rights for those seeking to overthrow a government. And it is something absolutely irresponsible because trivializes and makes discretionary something universal and must be applied with the same criterion. Not on political interests seeking to twist the popular will of emerged from the urns governments. It is, in short, the tool with which they intended to violate the sacred right consecrated in the UN Charter to respect the sovereignty of nations.

We cannot compare the interested look of those who defend freedom and human rights in some countries, always in conflict to Washington, and they look away with others that, oddly, always go together with the political agenda of the US.

To take just one example that includes Venezuela, we will see the data of journalists killed in recent years according to Reporters Without Borders: Mexico, 84; Colombia, 56; Honduras after the coup d’etat, 27; Venezuela, 0. Look for those who fill social gatherings, studios or audiences. Look for those who rush to demonize, to destabilize, to launch a single Manichean discourse on Venezuela and find them talking in the same tone, the same intensity and with the same impact of these journalists. What about the 26,000 disappeared in Mexico since 2006. Or about the 100 trade unionists and human rights defenders killed last year in Colombia. Or the bombing of civilians in Saudi Arabia in Yemen. They will not find them. These countries are applied to the human rights of exception, the exception to real invisibility that means to be the US strategic partner.

In the case of Leopoldo López we lack some information we needed to understand what happened and what facts have motivated his sentence. His background says a lot about himself: Mr. Lopez, Mayor of Chacao until 2008, participated activately in the 2002 coup d’etat against the government of President Hugo Chávez, being one of the signatories of the Carmona Decree which intended to legitimize the coup. In addition, he was involved in the illegal and violent arrest of the Minister of Interior and Justice, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, as well as the attempted assault on the Embassy of Cuba in Caracas. And yes, he remained free, thanks to the amnesty that was passed by President Chavez himself.

Only twelve years later, we have the same character coup ignoring the results of democratic elections and calling street riot to topple a government out of the urns. In many of his statements he asks for the use of “non-peaceful” methods.

It is all part of a strategy called “the way out” which was to encourage street demonstrations, occupate squares and streets and the use of generalized violence, to cause an untenable situation that will end with the fall of the government.

The results of this harassment campaign of a democratically legitimized government, and that would not be tolerated in any European country, are eloquent. 43 people killed and 878 wounded. Of those killed, nine were officers of the Security Forces of the State and eight died for actions of state officers.

These figures give us the dimension of the generated violence. The images presented in court or in social media are clear: demonstrator with assault rifles, firing weapons, using homemade mortars or placing wires in the streets to slaughter motorized policemen. There are no doubts.

Before the lie that all dead people were the result of the Government violence which practices widespread impunity, the figures speak again. Until January 3, 2015, the Public Prosecutor filed 2,844 investigations, of which 1,402 were accusations, six ended in fiscal file and there were 1,436 dismissals.

In relation to the excesses and crimes committed by members of the police, on the same date, 215 investigations were presented, of which 13 were accusations,184 dismissals and 19 fiscal file.Today, 22 investigations remain open. They were also charged with homicide two officers; with cruelty, 21; and with homicide, seven.

When data comes to light, they leave us a completely different view of what mass media give. Leopoldo López is an amnesty leader coup (2007) and, in 2014, he reiterated his attempt to push an illegal shift of power constituted by the violent civil conflict and that besides, in the middle of the crisis, rather than participating in social appeasement, as other Opposition leaders did and international bodies such as UNASUR, he dedicated to fan a fire that killed 43 Venezuelans.

In any democracy in the world he would be on trial but in Venezuela, he has the possibility of appealing his sentence.

Neither peaceful nor democratic, nor an angel.//