Massive Demonstrations Against The Venezuelan Government

Thousands of Venezuelans marched on May 30^th to protest the deteriorating situation in Venezuela that includes impoverishment, rationing, scarcity, oppression, imprisonment, citizens’ insecurity, mafia style government and repression.

The demonstrations in Venezuelan cities were echoed by marches in many cities in the world including Brazil, the United States, Spain, Switzerland, Chile, Canada, Costa Rica, and other countries and cities.

Venezuelans protested the unjust and unlawful incarceration of political leader Leopoldo Lopez (now holding a hunger strike), former San Cristobal mayor, Daniel Ceballos (also in a hunger strike) and the mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma.

Likewise, demonstrators demanded that a date be established to have parliamentary elections in Venezuela, a step that the government-controlled national electoral council has so far refused to do.

At the same time the deteriorating economic situation has reached levels unknown in the country. Food and medicine are now being meagerly rationed in a country that once was among the most prosperous in Latin America.

An inflation of between 50 and 100% per month is expected to take place this year. There is a parallel black market to purchase dollars. The price of the dollar on the black market is almost 100 times higher than the official rate. Imports have considerably diminished. Food and medicines are scarce. An underground economy exists but it is far from sufficient to satisfy the needs of society. Now it is the populations that the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) claims to represent, the poorest, the humble, and the needy that are also struggling. The assault against the capitalistic economy has destroyed the productive forces that delivered the goods necessary to make life possible. A situation like this was never experienced even in the worst times of pre-Bolivarian Venezuela.

The gravity of today’s Venezuela is reflected in the fact that the PSUV has created internal dissidence. A political faction of the PSUV, Marea Socialista (Socialist Tide), seceded from the party claiming that the revolution was betrayed and that Maduro does not represent “true Chavismo”. Of course, there is no way we can realistically say that Hugo Chavez‘s wasteful and repressive policy is not directly related to the current situation in Venezuela. Indeed Marea Socialista is as fanatic and stubborn as Chavez and Maduro but what matters here is that the crisis is causing an internal rupture within the government making the Maduro regime more vulnerable, and more likely to collapse

This also explains the electoral council’s delay in scheduling a date for parliamentary elections. The result of such election could be so catastrophic for Maduro and his accomplices that more time is needed to prepare a major systematic fraud, a fraud that common sense will make very difficult, if not impossible to hide.

Interestingly enough, only a few leaders of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) participated in the march. The key leaders of MUD insist that the institutional framework is the way to defeat the Maduro government. They suggest continuing to try the electoral option and defeat Maduro at the ballots is the best plan of action.

However, as we have repeatedly pointed out, the Bolivarian government has been designed from the beginning to perpetuate itself in power and does not show any signs that will accept a different party in government. Therefore, a transition can only take place through mass mobilization and international pressure.

The internal rupture within the government may provide an opportunity to make both mass mobilization and international pressure easier.

A handful of former Latin American and Spanish presidents led by former Bolivian president, Jorge Quiroga expressed their support for the protestors.

These former leaders include a diverse gamut of political views and ideologies including the socialists Felipe Gonzales (Spain) and Ricardo Lagos (Chile), the Social democrat Fernando Henrique Cardozo (Brazil), the conservatives Jose Maria Aznar (Spain) and Andres Pastrana (Colombia) and others. They demanded a halt to persecution of journalists, the liberation of political prisoners, the demand for free and transparent elections and removal of government controls over the economy as an important first step. Former presidents of Colombia and Bolivia, Andres Pastrana and Jorge Quiroga visited Mayor Ceballos in prison and attended the Caracas demonstration in person.

However, we are still waiting for Latin American presidents and world presidents including President Obama to do what these ex-presidents have done. Leopoldo Lopez’s wife, Lilian Tintori implored the three Latin American women presidents, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Cristina Kirchner of Argentina to intervene on behalf of the prisoners and the Venezuelan people.

Unfortunately, they are unlikely to answer Tintori’s pleas, least of all Cristina Kirchner whose sympathies towards the Maduro regime are crystal clear. Bachelet has praised the Venezuelan government for its achievements in bringing social justice but has said nothing about the hunger and scarcity suffered by those populations. Some Latin American leaders live in a situation of frivolity and indifference that reminds us of the world during the Nazi period.

As we pointed out in an article that we published early in May, Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Assembly and the second most powerful person in the Venezuelan government is being investigated by U.S. authorities as being one of the heads of trafficking and shipping operations of cocaine. It is expected that U.S. authorities will issue an indictment sometime soon. Likewise, the same informants and dissidents that have testified against Venezuelan top officials seem to have confirmed that the Venezuelan government had substantially cooperated with Hezbollah to help the terrorist organization establish terrorist cells, receive false passports, weapons, and engage in money laundering activities.

If the U.S authorities issue an indictment it will be imperative upon President Obama to take punitive measures against Venezuela for the illicit activities the country is involved in and promoting. By the same token, if evidence is provided, Congress should quickly move to declare Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism and /or narco-state. Proper sanctions must ensue.

Indeed, something needs to be done. The status quo is unsustainable. Venezuela is a living hell for its citizens and a threat to regional and U.S. security.