This isn’t just evasive, this is pure, copper-bottomed nonsense. One can sympathise with the difficulties of El Sistema in the current situation. Although it’s run by an independent foundation, it’s no secret that Hugo Chavez was jealous of its fame and resentful of its independence. He wanted to co-opt El Sistema as a symbol of the Venezulean revolution, and given that most of the organisation’s funding comes from the state, it’s hard to believe the organisation is as free from government interference as it likes to suggest. Especially as Chavez’s successor, Nicholas Maduro, seems to have inherited all his authoritarian tendencies.