From The Huffington Post:
Venezuela Could Be The Next North Korea If The World Doesn't Act.
Inflation is higher than in Zimbabwe, violent death rates are
similar to those in Syria and scarcity of resources is of catastrophic levels reaching
the scale of some sub-Saharan
African countries. Blackouts are
recurrent, people eat out of garbage bins, malaria is backand dead children are placed in cardboard caskets.
Democracy is also in shambles. Opposition leaders have been jailed, exiled or disbarred. Their passports have been annulled. And they are not allowed to board local flights. The regime has muzzled the free
press, and it owns most media outlets.
How did we get here? In part from the regime’s own struggles to
maintain a grip on power even after it lost ground ― and the opposition’s
immense effort to continue to hold it to account.
In December 2015, President Nicolás Maduro’s party suffered a landslide defeat in
congressional elections. The opposition secured enough seats in Parliament to
end over 15 years of
legislative control by the regime. As a result, Maduro unleashed a multi-part
rolling coup of sorts to offset this major setback.
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| Venezuela's President Maduro (L) and Venezuela's Supreme Court president shake hands. March 2017. Reuters |
Looking for a way to restructure the government in his favor and
neutralize Congress, Maduro’s outgoing Parliament forced several early
resignations in the Supreme Court and packed it with over 30 of his own supporters to gain absolute control of the
judiciary. This paved the way for the blocking of
legislative prerogatives that
the opposition could exercise.
But the opposition didn’t react lightly to Maduro’s actions.
Instead, it channeled its energy in 2016 towards demanding a referendum to
end the president’s tenure. The dictatorship, attempting to do everything to
survive, used its political leverage to cancel the referendum all together.
Facing pressure from the Organization of American States, or OAS,
Maduro maneuvered to gain a veneer of legitimacy, at least within the
international community, by setting up a “dialogue” with the opposition.
In truth, Maduro’s objective was solely to delay and defer
elections, detain more opposition leaders, deflate street protests, divide the
opposition and deactivate OAS disapproval. Seeing through this false diplomacy,
the Vatican called
out the regime’s deceit in December 2016. But it was too late ― the dictatorship
had castrated Congress and cancelled elections.
By the start of this year, the regime was facing increasing
economic problems, with many in the country struggling to pay for food and
medicine. Drowning in debt, the anti-American, capitalism-bashing friend of
Wall Street put up half of the Venezuelan-owned Citgo petroleum company ― a
major U.S. oil refiner ―
as collateral to bondholders and used the other half for a Russian loan. Oil reserves were also
given as a guarantee for Chinese loans and
Venezuela
Despite this and other financial efforts, creditors were jittery
and loans required congressional approval. To keep the country from defaulting,
Maduro made his next controversial move just two months ago: the Supreme Court shut down Parliament,
assumed legislative power over the country and approved a series of loans. This
move unleashed the massive street protests that we see on the streets of Venezuela
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| A least 60 have been killed in massive protests in the country in the last two months. Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters |
Since then, Maduro has continued to assert his power in defiance
of the public demonstrations. In May, the dictator announced the creation of a
“constituent
assembly,” tasked with rewriting the constitution. The assembly
would allow Maduro to essentially rule indefinitely
without elections.
Initially, Maduro attempted to maintain his tyrannical practices,
disregard precedent and avoid a referendum on the new constitution. But
continued dissent from leftist former Chavez supporters, known as Chavistas,
has now made him change his mind.
If there were any remnants of democracy left in the nation, this
ploy demolishes its last chance at survival ― popular, direct, secret,
universal balloting. The regime in its final throes is attempting to cancel all
future elections, close Congress, remove opposition governors or mayors and
approve all the odious loans that steal the future of Venezuela
In surreal scenes, Maduro first proposed this fraudulent scheme dressed in traditional
Venezuelan clothing, dancing on
national television. Days later, he went to a livestock fair and invited cows to
be part of his constituent assembly, as if voters were just cattle to be duped
and herded. As protests go on, it has become clear that he cannot stop himself
from taking advantage of the Venezuelan people, and unfortunately neither can Goldman Sachs, which just this week bought $2.8 billion
worth of Venezuelan bonds at around 30 cents on the dollar ― essentially
injecting 865 million dollars into Maduro’s pockets.
These are truly the hunger bonds that economist Ricardo Hausmann describes that are funding a
dictatorship in last hurrah for power, desperate to steal whatever it can. It
is contradictory that the United
States
For now, he has asked the Venezuelan people to choose: his
governmental policies, continued violence and repressive dictatorship or more
killings, jail and persecution.
He is right about one thing. The time for choosing has arrived. Liberty Cuba
 |
| The military in Venezuela and our Americas must make a decisio. Yuri Gripas/Reuters |
The military in Venezuela
and our Americas
The OAS general assembly convenes
in Mexico
The people in the streets of Venezuela
Venezuelans have made a moral choice: they will die marching on
their feet and never kneel to the dictator in the true spirit of Simón BolÃvar.
Now it is time for the world to make a choice, too.
Lead photo courtesy Luis Robayo, via Getty Images
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jorge Quiroga is a former President of Bolivia. He held the position of Leader of Opposition in 2006-2010, Woodrow Wilson Scholar in 2002-2003, president of Bolivia in 2001-2002, vice president and president of Congress in 1997-2001, minister of finance in 1992 and Vice Minister of Planning for Public Investment and International Cooperation in 1990-1992. In the private sector, he has worked as vice president, board member and shareholder of a large private bank in La Paz (1993-1997); with Mintec in the mining sector in Bolivia (1989-1990); as a systems engineer with IBM in Texas (1981-1988); as a university calculus teaching assistant (1980-1981); and several others. He is currently active in the private sector and in international organizations, including as vice president of “Club de Madrid” with almost 100 former heads of state and government; on the boards of the “Interamerican Dialogue” and “Results for Development-R4D” in Washington D.C.; as a member of the International Advisory Council of the China Economic Club; and in different capacities on the “Global Adaptation Institute”, the “Foro Iberoamericano” and many others. Since 2002, he has presided FUNDEMOS, a Bolivian public policy foundation. Quiroga holds a Summa Cum Laude B.S. in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from St. Edwards’s University, Texas. He has four children.
Well written article. It has opened up a lot of the issues facing Venezuela in lay man's term.
ReplyDeleteGracias for sharing