HRF protests Gustavo Dudamel, Maduro’s unofficial ambassador

NEW YORK (Nov. 5, 2024) — On Oct. 25-27 and Nov. 1-3, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) held peaceful protests in front of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Calif., where Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel was leading a concert series.

Through “El Sistema,” a state-run music education program that doubles as an important tool for the Venezuelan regime’s propaganda efforts, Dudamel has received millions of dollars in off-the-books payments from the Maduro and Chavez dictatorships. This is why, despite Nicolas Maduro’s corruption, violent repression of civil society, economic collapse, mass exodus, and recent electoral fraud in Venezuela, Dudamel has largely remained silent. 

And this is also why HRF and the cause to expose enablers of the Venezuelan tyranny were present, with advertising trucks asking Dudamel why he continues to serve as Maduro’s “puppet and henchman” and calling out Maduro for stealing the election from Edmundo González, the man Venezuelans overwhelmingly voted for as their next president.

Dudamel “gently criticizes the dictatorship in public while, in private, serving as an unofficial ambassador for Venezuela’s tyranny. He has been silent in the face of years and years of repression and violence in Venezuela. He refuses to condemn Maduro. Dudamel refuses to call out the human rights violations of the regime. Dudamel says nothing about the stolen election of July 28, 2024,” HRF said in a letter shared with concertgoers.

This behavior is hardly deserving of an award for excellence and humanitarian efforts. 

On Monday, Dudamel was awarded the 2024 Sophia Award for Excellence, given by the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute for “those who build appreciation for Spain and the Spanish-speaking world through wisdom and humanitarianism.” HRF also had four trucks lined up outside of the University Club of New York, where the award, with Queen Sofia in attendance, was presented.

If Dudamel is the humanitarian this award professes him to be, he would call out rampant human rights violations of the Venezuelan regime immediately.

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The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.