Venezuela is a failed state. People
are starving, the economy is in shambles, shortages are the rule, power failures
are routine, the crime rate is soaring, the nation’s best and brightest have
left, the petroleum infrastructure is cracking at the seams (oil is the
economic mainstay), unemployment runs rampant, smuggling has become a
necessity, the currency is all-but-worthless and repression is brutal.
President Nicolás Maduro, a self-proclaimed populist
socialist, a former bus driver-turned-union leader, has become a raging
dictator. Taking power following the 2013 death of former socialist strongman,
Hugo Chávez, and following several
exceptionally suspicious elections, Maduro (above left) retains a bulldog-bite
grip over the government.
He’s stacked the highest court in the land and disqualified any candidate who
might oppose him.
Having
been voted extraordinary powers by a sympathetic legislature (the National
Assembly) upon his ascension to power, Maduro rules pretty much by decree.
Those who oppose him are often imprisoned, tortured or simply disappear. No one
believes election results, and his decrees attempt to defy economic realities.
Venezuela’s inability to fuel his populist dream has not deterred his efforts,
which have failed dramatically. But like Donald Trump, he fabricates stories
and statements of his “success,” even as his people suffer like never before.
“Venezuelans reported
losing on average 11 kilograms (24 lbs) in body weight last year [2017]
and almost 90 percent now live in poverty, according to a new university study
on the impact of a devastating economic crisis and food shortages.” Reuters,
2/21/18. 2019 is even worse.
After what most
experts agree was another phony election last year, an opposition leader rose
to challenge Maduro. “Juan Gerardo Guaidó Márquez [above right, referred
to and pronounced GUY-doh] is a Venezuelan politician who is the President
of the National Assembly of Venezuela and is recognized as acting President of Venezuela by 54 governments…
“Guaidó took a public
oath to serve as acting President on 23 January 2019, contesting the leadership
of Nicolás Maduro. AP News reported that
‘familiar geopolitical sides’ had formed in the 2019 Venezuelan
presidential crisis, with allies Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and Cuba supporting Maduro, and the US,
Canada, and most of Western Europe supporting Guaidó. His position on holding
the acting presidency is based on an
interpretation of Article 233 of the Constitution of Venezuela. The Supreme Tribunal of
Justice (TSJ)
rejected the National Assembly decisions, while the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela in exile welcomed him as acting
president.” Wikipedia.
Maduro has a few
international supporters in neighboring countries like Bolivia and Cuba and
distant global powers like Russia and China. Most of the world finds him
reprehensible, however. There are local diehard populists who rally in support
of their socialist hero, but for most Venezuelans, life is so miserable that
they dream of a coup that will depose the Maduro regime; they cheer every time Guaidó appears anywhere. The United States
has supplied humanitarian aid, blocked by Maduro’s armed forces at the
Colombian border where it was presented, and the Trump administration has made
it clear that the United States would consider direct military intervention if
it deemed such effort necessary. The US has withdrawn all of its diplomatic
personnel.
At the end of April and
the first days of May, major civil unrest erupted across Venezuela. The only
force keeping Maduro in power is the military, so Guaidó made an appeal to the soldiers backing the regime: “Venezuelan opposition leader Juan
Guaido triumphantly appeared outside La Carlota air base here [Caracas] Tuesday
[4/30] with a group of soldiers wearing blue armbands that signified support
for his efforts to topple the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
“‘To all the brothers of the armed
forces, this is the moment,’ Guaido declared, anticipating what he called the
‘final phase’ of the opposition campaign to bring down Maduro. ‘We know that
the pain of the armed forces is the same pain of a people enduring hunger and
difficulties. We all want a change.’
“By the end of the day, however,
Maduro had declared an end to the ‘coup,’ his supporters were denouncing
‘traitors’ in the armed forces, and about two dozen defecting soldiers had
taken shelter in the Brazilian Embassy… What Guaido — who proclaimed himself
interim president in January — apparently viewed as a broad military uprising
had failed.
“‘They will not be able to divide’
the armed forces, Maj. Gen. Jesus Suarez Chourio, the Venezuelan army chief,
vowed in a Twitter message, while denouncing the soldiers who deserted as
‘lackeys of the empire… They will not again deceive and sell the homeland . We
are eminently Loyal! And Patriots!’
“He was among several members of the
country’s top brass who reaffirmed their support for the president… The
military is widely viewed as the key bloc keeping Maduro in power, and for now
the command appears to be sticking with him despite a string of desertions and
reports of minor uprisings within the ranks.” Los Angeles Times, May 2nd.
Why is Maduro able to keep his military in line in light of the obvious mass
suffering of his people?
“Experts said the reasons have to do
less with ideology than with the evolution of Venezuela’s armed forces as a
lucrative partner in a government that hands out financial and other benefits
and sundry perks to its military partners. Military officers have been linked
to industries as wide ranging as the oil sector, mining, the food import
business and drug trafficking… Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo
Chavez, liberally bestowed general and admiral ranks on hundreds of officers in
a bid to help cement their loyalty.
“‘The leadership of this armed
structure acts as an armed political party, and its function is to channel and
communicate at the service of the regime,’ said Jose Machillanda, a professor
at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas… Rather than serving as a defender of ‘liberal
democracy,’ Machillanda said, the armed forces have become the promoter and
protector of Maduro’s political agenda.
“Critics such as Machillanda, an
ex-colonel, see self-interest at the core of the military’s continued backing
of Maduro and worry that the armed forces establishment has become so
intertwined with his administration that there could be serious legal and
financial consequences if he is dislodged.
“‘The military is very
self-interested,’ said David Smilde, a sociology professor at Tulane University
and expert on Venezuela at the Washington Office on Latin America, a research
and advocacy group. ‘They have huge economic interests and are very compromised
in the corruption and human rights abuses. They want things to continue as they
are.’” LA Times. Reading between the lines, many officers know that should
there be a regime change, scores of officers (and some non-commissioned officers)
would likely face trials for corruption, torture and even murder. Their
maintaining the Maduro regime is, to them, a fight of life or death.
I’m Peter Dekom, and the irony of a
nationalistic, self-involved populist autocrat – Maduro – being fiercely
opposed by a nationalistic, self-involved populist autocrat-wannabe – Trump –
is not lost on me.
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