she comes from a rightwing family and holds rightwing views. Considered in isolation, of course, it would not mean much that she decided during the Reagan era to immigrate to the US or that in the last Presidential election she supported the Republican campaign (one of the nastiest campaigns in recent memory). But such facts need not be considered in isolation. She has regularly appeared on rightwing talkshows. More to the point, her understanding of Venezuela today is probably colored by her brother's views. So let us remember briefly who her brother is:
Venezuela Captures Paramilitary Group Seeking to Overthrow Chavez
May 9th 2004, by Venezuelanalysis.com
unday, May 9, 2004 (Venezuelanalysis.com).- Venezuelan authorities captured this morning a group of 55 Colombian paramilitaries who were receiving training at a farm nearby Caracas in preparation for attacks on Venezuelan military bases and for a coup d'etat against the government of Hugo Chavez.
The raid was conducted by the civilian intelligence service DISIP, military intelligence officers and the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigation Department (CICPC). The property where the paramilitaries were captured is located in the municipality of Baruta, in southeastern Caracas. Footage by state TV showed what appeared to be living quarters, with beds and kitchens ...
According to authorities, the property where the paramilitaries were captured belongs to anti-government political leader Robert Alonso. Mr. Alonso, of Cuban origin, is a legal resident of the United States, and creator of the civilian resistance plan called "Guarimba", aimed at toppling the Chavez government and which was first implemented at the end of February in Caracas during the Presidential Summit of the Group of the 15.
Mr. Robert Alonso is one of the leaders of an opposition coalition know as Bloque Democrático (Democratic Block) and he is also tied to the larger Coordinadora Democratica opposition coalition. He is the brother of Cuban-Venezuelan actress Maria Conchita Alonso ...
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/498 War on Hugo Chávez
An outlaw and former spook takes on the Venezuelan dictator
By Janine Zeitlin
Published on October 10, 2007 at 10:41am
... Robert dubs the plan that caused him to flee his homeland La Guarimba, and says it's nonviolent. But the last time he made his pitch for revolt — in 2004 — at least 13 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in clashes. "If you don't follow the instructions, it's not my fault.... When you commit yourself to something, you have to quemar los barcos, burn the ships. There's no way out," says the 57-year-old with a shock of white hair and an ample belly. "We're at war" ...
At some point in April 2004, he met with other activists calling themselves the "Brigade Daktari." (A Venezuelan flag hangs on his home office wall with about 50 signatures from this mysterious meeting.) Then he left for Colombia. Carrying a GPS, Alonso says, he navigated the jungle between the two countries and then hopped a bus to Bogotá. He took a plane to Miami in late April ...
Alonso looks like a retiree who stopped by for an afternoon cafecito. He's wearing blue sweatpants, tan sandals, and a turquoise T-shirt. Clamor from the espresso machine and blenders fills the room as a man in a button-down shirt carrying a briefcase strides through the bakery doors and beelines for the table. He silently drops a manila folder before Alonso.
The mystery man is Marlon Gutiérrez, a 45-year-old former Nicaraguan Contra. Alonso takes some papers from the folder and looks them over. They are bylaws for their new group, Fundación Interamericana por la Democracia, which will organize Guarimba resistance movements in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela ...
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2007-10-11/ne... /
One can infer the political role María Conchita Alonso plays rather clearly from articles like the following:
Alonso rips tyrant Chavez
... The former beauty queen and pop singer is producing a documentary, "Two Minutes of Hate," about the events of April 11, 2002, when Chavez dispatched snipers to stop a peaceful protest march. "Nineteen died, and more than a hundred were hurt," said Alonso, who fears it is already too late to stop him ...
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06042007/gossi... Now, on April 11, 2002, there was a
coup d'état in Venezuela, that seized control for two days and installed Carmona, who dissolved the National Assembly and Supreme Court before Chavez's elected government regained control. So perhaps one might want to know rather more than two minutes about those days, more than could be provided by Alonso's "Two Minutes" (billed as a fictional love story interspliced with "archival footage"). "Two Minutes of Hate" certainly gave Alonso an extended opportunity to propound her view without fear of contradiction -- since, of course, the talkshows typically don't allow counterpoint when actresses promote their films
