Welcome to BRaVE Group for Venezuela

 To impress on decision-makers the scale of human rights abuses being practised in Venezuela. 

 BRaVE Group for Venezuela will gather information from confidential and reliable sources, and will circulate these materials to our relevant contacts primarily, though not exclusively, in the UK. Our group has access to potential speakers with wide inside knowledge and credibility about the Venezuelan crisis, and we will continue to organise conferences aimed at influential audiences. 

  BRaVE Group for Venezuela is in close contact with Venezuela and is trying to widen the knowledge of human rights abuses. Our objective is to inform decision-makers in the UK and beyond about the reality of the human rights abuses under the current regime of Nicolás Maduro. 

British career diplomat for 35 years serving mainly in the Americas, including as Ambassador in Venezuela 2000-3, and Argentina 2004-8. He was also seconded to the Cabinet Office, BAe Systems, and Shell. In retirement John was Chair of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, and of Canning House.  He has been a Visiting Senior Fellow at London University, at the London School of Economics, and a Visiting Professor in Practice at LSE Ideas, a foreign policy think tank.  Currently, he is a member of the Advisory Board of LSE Ideas.

 Roger Silver was educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and the Manchester Business School. Roger has spent over 50 years living in Venezuela and working as an industrialist and banker. As a Managing Director of both Morgan Grenfell and Deutsche Bank he covered the Andean Region, Central America and the Caribbean. He was President of the Venezuelan / British Chamber of Commerce, and awarded the OBE for services to British culture and exports. He co-founded  CFS Partners, a financial advisory firm with offices in London and Caracas.  

 Frank Coll has been resident in the UK since 1979. Has worked for over 40 years in administration and finance. Considerable experience within the legal sector and charitable organisations. Has worked as Director and Company Secretary to international investment companies. In English Law Frims has held positions as Practice Manager and Director of Finance and Administration.  Has also worked as Finance Manager and Honorary Treasurer in various Charitable Organisations.

 Dr Peter Collecott is a former British diplomat who was the Ambassador in Brazil from 2004 to 2008. Subsequently he was a Trustee of Canning House, the main British institution fostering relations between the UK and Latin America, and Chairman until 2017. 

 Dr Brian McBeth is an economist and holds a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies and a doctorate in Politics from the University of Oxford. He is a former director of Schroder Securities Ltd. who worked in the City of London until 2008 specialising in oil companies. He has written extensively on Venezuela and the oil industry over the years. His books include ‘Juan Vicente Gómez and the Oil Companies in Venezuela, 1908-1935' (1983); ‘British Oil Policy, 1919-1939’ (1985); ‘Gunboats, Corruption and Claims: Foreign Intervention in Venezuela, 1899-1908’ (2001); ‘Dictatorship & Politics: Intrigue, Betrayal and Survival in Venezuela, 1908 – 1935’ (2008); and ‘La Política Petrolera Venezolana: Una perspectiva histórica, 1922-2005’ (2015). Further information on his publications can be seen on his Amazon AuthorCentral link:  

https://www.amazon.com/Brian-S.-McBeth/e/B07CW1L8ZF. Dr McBeth is former Senior Common Room Member of St Antony’s College, and is currently an Affiliate Member of the Latin American Centre, University of Oxford.