MUD-slinger

/ July 11, 2014

Ramón José Medina, MUD head-honcho and, inexplicably, also Víctor Vargas’ attorney, said in an interview with José Rafael Briceño that Leopoldo López “brought about jail for himself.” See the video above (in Spanish) and judge for yourself.

This comes on the heels of Leopoldo writing a strong, heartfelt, handwritten letter to a Chilean academic, in which he makes his case for a Constitutional Assembly to rid Venezuela of the perverse system of government it has. In the letter, Leopoldo comes across as clear and convincing.

Medina’s lack of empathy is simply appalling. He doesn’t bat an eye when, basically, saying that Leopoldo had it coming. The only thing missing from his statement was a ringing endorsement for the impartial Luisa Ortega Díaz and her cadre of lingüistic forensic detectives obsessed with Leopoldo’s “ethos.” No mention is given to the unfairness of Leopoldo’s trial. ¡A mí … plin!

Put Medina’s disgusting comment next to Leopoldo’s letter, and most folks will find it easy to tell who the good guy is in this debate. Watch the video above right before this one …

… and we can see where the dividing lines in the opposition are.

But as much as we are outraged, we should be thankful for Medina’s honesty. The worst-kept secret in the opposition is that Leopoldo López … is a problem, and the longer he stays in jail, the better everyone else breathes.

No blanket calls for unity can hide the fact that, without basic human empathy, unity within the opposition is a non-starter. Medina has made that crystal clear, and he should be ashamed of himself.

UPDATE: Juan Carlos Zapata is saying Ramón José Medina is leaving the MUD. Not sure if this is related to the interview…

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62 thoughts on “MUD-slinger”

    • Podridos todos y todas. Venezuela me enseño que TODOS tienen un precio.
      Si el mundo es como Venezuela me voy a vivir solo en una montaña.

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      • “The unsophisticated you brainwash, the sophisticated and dishonest you bribe, the sophisticated and honest you repress”

        We know which camp Medina falls in.

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  5. Just to make something clearer.
    You’re probably right!, but you have to admit that your conclusions are based on your interpretation of the the subjective part of the statement, NOT on the objective’.

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  6. It’s not so much what Medina says about LL’s fate (and didn’t LL break away from the MUD?), but how Medina answers the interviewer’s “Qué planes tienen ustedes [la MUD] para sacar a Leopoldo López de la cárcel?”

    Medina dixit: “Para sacarlo de la cárcel, no tenemos ningún plan, porque aquí el único que inventó el plan para estar en la cárcel fue el mismo, o sea, el fue que se entregó …”

    (with a screechy tone from the interviewer, Medina finds an out with:)

    “entonces es complicadoooo …. sacarlo de la cárcel es muy complicadooo.”

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    • ” (and didn’t LL break away from the MUD?)”

      I don’t remember Leopoldo hinting in any way that he could be leaving MUD. Nor has MCM or Ledezma said anything about dividing MUD, scraping MUD or anything like that. VP is still in MUD, and so is ABP and ProVe.

      They just went ahead with a plan that wasn’t blessed by all members of MUD. That could arguably be considered acting outside MUD, but not against MUD.

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  8. Juan, you have taken Medina’s comments completely out of contest, this was an interview with a comedian, not a reporter, and Medina was clearly making a joke, albeit a bad one, I admit. Besides, deep down you know that Leopoldo’s gamble was that his incarceration would be brief and he would come out as the new leader of the opposition. A little selfish and shortsighted, don’t you think?

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  9. Corruption is the key to to all things evil, let corruption spread unchecked and it will always work in your favor, as long as you’re holding the keys to the bus.

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  10. Oh noes… RJM is leaving MUD???? Does this means there’s no one left to lobby the U.S government to abstein from levying sanctions against Diosdado & Co?

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  11. Muy mal gusto tuvo el Sr. RJM, malisimo.

    Same as MUD and some opposition parties lack of acknowledgement for the criminal repression on street protested over the last 6 months or so.

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    • In cold analysis … I think that if someone breaks away from an organization (and I’m not clear on whether LL did or didn’t), that organization has no responsibility, really, as an organization, to help the ‘defector’ after the fact.

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      • You must the know the answer: Did Leopoldo López leave the MUD or not?
        Remember: This question and my previous comment have nothing to do with the asinine behavior of Medina. I just want to know the facts. Anyone??

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      • He didn’t defect, Defection is what William Ojeda did, he went from supporting MUD to supporting Chavez.

        VP is still a full member of MUD.

        And if MUD were only going to defend the opposition political prisoners that are on the good side of the AD-UNT-PJ-COPEI, lack of unity/solidarity would be coming from those parties

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        • And, even if he did defect, he’s still jailed without a fair trial on BS charges by the regime, so the MUD should be moving their asses to make sure that he and the rest of the political prisioners, including the protesters, get out, not making “jokes” out of their suffering. Because even if you disagree with López position, or his actions, he still doesn’t “deserve” to be in jail.

          I happen to remember our host saying that nobody on the MUD believed that. I honestly hoped that he was correct. But alas…

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          • You are completely right that the MUD and everyone else in the opposition should be doing all they can to free all political prisoners. Now, what can they do? What actions would contribute to that? That to me is the important question.

            For students direct but not too loud advocacy is probably the best just like Foro Penal does. For high profile figures like LL, Afiuni, Simonovis that doesn’t work. Also pleading with the government like Zambrano has tried with Simonovis also doesn’t work since for the regime these prisoners are a “point of honor” (in quotes because they have no honor).

            What is left is to make an outcry to the Venezuelan people. To remind them constantly that these people are suffering from this injustice every day. To not let people forget them. But it must be done in creative ways so that it doesn’t become tiresome.

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  13. holy cr*p, had never seen such level of honesty from a politician, he’s not even trying to be respectfull, he’s just saying everything as it comes to his mouth, I thought politicians weren’t allowed to do that, how can this guy be a lawyer?

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  14. What the Mud doesn’t understand is that their cowardly attitude towards Leopoldo’s case is not helping them at all. The lack of unity and solidarity is sinking the opposition. That they opened dialogue with the government while students were being tortured, politicians and majors imprisoned showed the sort of backstabbers these folks are.

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  15. The biggest deal, is that everybody that said that the MUD were collaborating with the regime to protect their “guisos” were right.

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    • Well, even if it were a joke, such lack of common sense is disqualification enough from holding the second highest post in MUD.

      Either way he needs to go.

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      • I think this pirouette will cost him his career, if not in the MUD, then in the legal profession. No one wants someone that careless looking after their affairs.

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        • His legal carrer depends on whether Victor Vargas feels he’s been representing his interests properly or not.

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          • JRM has never been a practicing lawyer , he is a career pol who because he holds a law degree ( as do many other careeer pols) can use the title to present himself as a lawyer . he does have close relatives who are real practicing lawyers and who may or may not help him out whenever he needs to act as a lawyer.

            As a pol he is more a practical day to day tactician than a long term strategist . Not sure his comments on LL were particularly wise or useful ( even if they represent his personal opinion ) . A professional pol has to draw a line between his public opinions ( which he can express to the public) and his personal opinions ( which he ought to keep to himself ) , it doesnt pay for a pol to wear his opinions on his sleeves.

            The problem for practical pols is thas as St Paul said of his own role as an evangelist ‘ he must be all things to all men’ so there are many things on which its better if he keeps silent or which he must endevour to explain in ways that make them palatable to the constituency he has or aspires to have.!!

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            • I’m going on infodio, but some google fu helped me find this:

              http://caracas.tsj.gov.ve/DECISIONES/2013/MAYO/2119-31-AP11-V-2009-000128-PJ0042013000208.HTML

              PARTE ACTORA: Sociedad Mercantil CORP BANCA C.A., BANCO UNIVERSAL, compañía anónima domiciliada en el Municipio Autónomo Chacao del Estado Miranda, el 31 de Agosto de 1954, bajo el Nº 384, Tomo 2-B, cuyo cambio de denominación social a Corp Banca C.A., consta de asiento de Registro de Comercio inscrito ante el Registro Mercantil Primero de la circunscripción Judicial del Distrito Federal y el Estado Miranda, el 21 de octubre de 1997, bajo el Nº 5, Tomo 274-A Pro.
              APODERADOS JUDICIALES DE LA PARTE ACTORA: RAMON JOSE MEDINA, LUIS GONZALO MONTEVERDE, OLIMAR MENDEZ MUÑOZ, LEONARDO PALACIOS MARQUEZ, JUAN KORODY, PEDRO URIOLA Y TOMAS CARRILLO, abogados en ejercicio inscritos en el INPREABOGADO bajo los números 11.614, 14.643, 86.504, 22.646, 112.054, 27.961 y 82.545

              Is that the same Ramon Jose Medina? I don’t know.

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              • I know people who know the guy from way back , he was a copeyano congressman in the 90’s and maybe before that , he has close relatives who do practice law and have an established law firm with a lot of work. I suppose they take him in when his political career is in recess because he didnt get reelected or something so he can have an office and other facilities and maybe allow him to participate in ocassional jobs . He is really a full time politician , .
                .
                Appearing together with a lot of other lawyers in a lawsuit doenst mean he is active , only that they put his name in in case one day the really active lawyers are busy so he can replace them on an specific ocassion., happens all the time , the other lawyers are probably friends or colleagues of his lawyer relatives .

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            • He has never practiced law? From his looks he looks like slightly older than 30 years old :-)
              I suppose he had a job before 2000, right?

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              • I have to quality somewhat my description of him as not ever having been an practicing lawyer, For much of his life he has held jobs which either were totally political in both congress and in govt or combined the functions of legal advisor to govt institutions with those of director of those institutions . During the 90’s he was a member of the old National Congress and president of the Comision Permanente de Energia y Petroleos of that body.

                I guess i dont see him as a practicing lawyer because for the most part of his life his activity as a lawyer has been secondary to his holding of official positions in govt or in political movements or other non business organizations . The relatives law firm prospectus (which took him in sometime after he ceased holding a public position) describes him not as a partner in the firm or even as an associate but rather as a kind of outside advisor. Meantime he was very active in organizations which are either political or semi public in nature.until he joined the MUD .

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  17. Si se observa con cuidado puede verse que Briceño ni remotamente se esperaba que el tipo le saliera con semejante respuesta.

    Para gente como ese Medina, existe un adjetivo: “Pajúo malagradecido.”

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  19. Fue un comentario desafortunado y mas viniendo del secretario adjunto de la mesa, voluntad popular hace bien pidiendo su renuncia. Ahora el tema de que es abogado de victor vargas es algo que ya la mesa lo sabía desde hace tiempo y no hicieron nada, al parecer era mas importante el dinero que este generaba.

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  21. No estoy de acuerdo con el tono, ni las declaraciones de RJM. Al menos no se le puedo acusar de hipòcrita. Pero LL se entregó. Con qué fin? No sé y me lo he preguntado muchas veces. En los escasos recuentos de WWII de mi papá, nunca recuerdo oir que la resistencia francesa se entregara a los nazis, ni a Pompeyo o Teodoro entregándose tampoco y cuando finalmente los agarraban, se escapaban.

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    • Neither MUD, nor VP, nor LL have engaged in, or advocated armed resistance.

      On the other hand, Mandela and Aung San Suu Ky (Burma) endured lengthy prison sentences.

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    • Yo creo que Leopoldo pensaba que la hacía falta una épica personal, como muchos políticos que han luchado contra dictaduras y han sido presos, como Mandela y el mismo Capriles.

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