On May 28, I shared some documents on Twitter that I obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a quasi-governmental agency created under the Reagan administration in 1983 to carry out US foreign policy efforts abroad, much of which was formerly performed by the CIA. The group and its affiliated agencies, including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, provides funding and training to both political parties and nongovernmental organizations abroad, many of whom oppose governments at odds with the United States.

One of the approximately two dozen agreements in 2011 I received involved funds for youth rock bands to perform and record songs with CD distribution. Under the agreement, Venezuelan bands competed against one another in a national contest, and winners performed in a final concert in Caracas. In this particular agreement, the NED references how its project objectives included “promot[ing] greater reflection among Venezuelan youth about freedom of expression, their connection with democracy, and the state of democracy in the country.” Inside Venezuela, the NED teamed up with its grantee, Un Mundo Sin Mordaza (SM), to organize and host the competition.

While SM is technically a nongovernmental organization, it is far from nonpartisan, and its affinity for the right-wing political opposition in Venezuela, as well as the US government, is evident from a cursory glance of their webpage. Even more, the NED has publicly shown their own mutual affinity for the group by publishing a glowing story on their executive director, making their relationship more than clear to the public.