After 25 years of Chavismo, the people of Venezuela cling to the hope of change. President Nicolas Maduro is not only determined to steal the July 28 elections, but he is also trying to assassinate opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, using the Cuban style of a tragic accident.
The regime is in a new stage. They no longer offer houses, appliances or money to the people. Those days are over. The government is running out of carrots. Now they promise bloodbaths, chaos and civil war if Maduro loses the elections.
This is a rigged electoral process without a happy ending. Maduro has already dismissed all credible international observation. The European Union was banned. The infamous Sao Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group are the only observers that the tyrant blindly trusts. Caracas has also invited a relatively small delegation from the Carter Center to save face.
Maduro is desperate to revive his leadership and has put on display a pathetic show. From copying, without any success, María Corina Machado’s campaign spots, to complaining about the lack of followers at his rallies. “This is ugly, many cameras and very few people,” the tyrant said during his visit to the state of Táchira.
The dictatorship is afraid. Human rights organizations like Foro Penal have reported the arrest of more than 100 people in the context of the electoral process. Hotels and restaurants were closed for the crime of offering food or accommodation to opposition leader Edmundo González and María Corina Machado. None of this has stopped the wave of hope for a change in Venezuela.
“Maduro knows that he has already been defeated,” María Corina Machado bravely states. It is a spiritual and moral defeat, in the streets and public squares, among the 8 million exiled Venezuelans who will not have a real opportunity to vote and the millions who cling to their badly wounded homeland
Nicolas Maduro, heir of the late Hugo Chavez, is only good for crime and drug trafficking. The New York Prosecutor’s Office has pointed out the outrages and maneuvers of Nicolás “El Gallo Pinto” Maduro, to climb the ladder to become one of the top bosses in the “Cartel de Los Soles.” A $15 million in reward weighs on the head of the outlaw tyrant.
The Maduro dictatorship clings to power thanks to a regional antidemocratic environment. Strong and influential Latin American countries like Mexico and Brazil are fierce defenders of the Venezuelan autocracy. The anti-American ideological factor unites them. This makes it very difficult to block the dictator’s path.
A handful of brave countries – Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Uruguay, Guatemala and Ecuador – have called for free elections in Venezuela. Colombia and Chile have modestly questioned the chavismo brutality and the dictatorships of Cuba and Nicaragua unquestioningly support a new electoral fraud.
In this regional scenario, Maduro is flagrantly willing to steal, cancel or postpone the elections. He would never accept the imminent defeat on the ballots. Out of power, only the International Criminal Court awaits him, for crimes against humanity, or immediate capture, for drug trafficking and organized crime.
Maduro is preparing Nicaragua-style elections. Arresting the entire opposition leadership, putting them to auction or exchanging them for fewer sanctions. Like Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said: “change the narrative.” No one would talk about elections. They would focus on the release of political prisoners.
Venezuela’s elections are not an exclusive problem for Venezuelans. The regime is a key ally of the autocracies of Russia, Iran and China. The 8 million migrants that the regime has sent into forced exile confirm this. The vast majority of these are honest hardworking people, however there are also some criminals who enter the United States without any type of control.
An example of this migration challenge is the so called Tren de Aragua. According to the U.S. government, it is a transnational criminal organization that began as a prison gang in the Tocorón Prison in the state of Aragua in Venezuela. Over the past six years, Tren de Aragua leader Niño Guerrero has expanded the group’s criminal network throughout South America and recently extended north into Central America and the United States.
The situation in Venezuela is complex and difficult to solve. In this dangerous minefield, the only remaining alternative is to support the opposition and guarantee the personal integrity of its leaders. It is urgent to reestablish a hemispheric alliance in favor of democracy in Venezuela both in the United Nations and in the Organization of American States. Communication channels must be kept open, and all alternatives and relevant sanctions need to be reviewed to put pressure on the tyrant and hold him accountable.
While the communist regime chooses the tools for his next electoral heist, the only antidote to save Venezuela remains to keep the flame of hope alive. Fight for democratic change. Fight the good fight. As María Corina says: the fight is until the end.
Arturo McFields Yescas is an exiled journalist, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS and former member of the Norwegian Peace Corps (FK).