Dear John,

Our taxpayer money is being used to pay the salaries of Venezuelan politicians! USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) announced that it will divert $41.9 million in aid funds allocated to Central America and instead send it to the Venezuelan opposition in order “to pay for their salaries, airfare, ‘good governance’ training, propaganda, technical assistance for holding elections and other ‘democracy-building’ projects.” That’s right, opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s cronies, including his U.S. representative Carlos Vecchio (a former Exxon lawyer), are now making money off the backs of hard-working Americans.

Send an email now to the State Department to tell them it is unacceptable that our tax dollars are going into the pockets of Venezuelan politicians.

According to the L.A. Times, “the money being diverted will go to Guaidó and his faction.” This is the same Juan Guaidó whose representatives in Colombia are under investigation for embezzling humanitarian aid funds. This is the same Guaidó who was photographed with a paramilitary drug cartel. His representative in Washington, Carlos Vecchio, recently went to Florida for a political event with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — which means that we’re now paying for foreign politicians to influence U.S. policy.

We can't complain about foreign interference in our system when we are paying the salaries of Venezuelan opposition figures. Join us to put a stop to USAID’s funding of Venezuelan politicians.  

Thank you for standing with us,

Leonardo, Michelle and Teri
CODEPINK Latin America Team

P.S. Don't forget to read our latest blog: The Embargo Deepens as Adobe and Oracle leave Venezuela.