What to do about Venezuela
- is arming to militarize the population and threaten its neighbors:
- though Venezuela has long had a domestic military small-arms industry of its own, and for decades manufactured the Belgian FN-FAL assault rifle, the regime is currently importing 100,000 Russian Kalashnikov assault rifles, and may import as many as 400,000 AK-47s. Venezuela’s standing Army of 84,000 uses FAL rifles, leading many analysts to wonder what will become of the excess Russian weaponry;
- Venezuela also plans to purchase as many as 50 Russian MiG fighter aircraft, replacing or augmenting its small fleet of U.S. warplanes and giving it an unprecedented offensive military capability. In addition, the regime is purchasing military hardware from Spain.
- has curbed civil rights and civil liberties. The media has, until recently, served as the only effective check to arbitrary government power. In poll after poll, the Venezuelan media ranks as the most respected institution in the country. This explains why the regime:
- has instigated violent verbal and physical attacks against the owners, editors, and employees of the media. Buildings have been bombed, reporters have been injured and killed, and automobiles, cameras, and other media property have been destroyed by armed members of the Bolivarian circles militia or by unknowns that the security forces claim they could never find.
- has raided the homes of prominent journalists and compelled them to testify to the secret police. The International Broadcasting Association, Interamerican Press Society, and the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights of the Organization of American States have pleaded in vain with the regime to protect freedom of the press.
- uses presidential decrees routinely to interrupt regular television and radio broadcasts, forcing all media to transmit hours of pro-government propaganda.
- instituted a new penal code that states “anyone who offends with his words or in writing or in any other way disrespects the President of the Republic or whomever is fulfilling his duties will be punished with prison of 6 to 30 months if the offense is serious and half of that if it is light.” Journalists who “expose another person to contempt or public hatred” can receive a prison sentence of one to three years.
- authorized prosecutors to track down allegedly criminal inaccuracies in truth not only in newspapers and electronic media, but also in e-mail and telephone communications. The new code specifies that anyone charged with the crimes mentioned here will not be entitled to legal due process. Already, private TV stations are showing signs of self-censorship.
- is becoming one of the hemisphere’s worst violators of human rights. The Bolivarian regime:
- intimidates, beats, maims, and murders opponents via the Bolivarian Circles and other means. Members of the militia have injured or killed several foreign citizens (including citizens of Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and the United States).
- has indicted hundreds of leading members of Venezuelan civil society for the crime of “civil rebellion,” a charge that carries a minimum twelve year and a maximum twenty-five year sentence. Among them: three former elected governors, the president of the radio broadcasting association, the former president of the Inter-American Human Rights Court, the former president of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, the president of the bankers association, the personnel of numerous NGOs, the president of the AFL-CIO affiliated Venezuelan federation of labor, and the head of the Venezuelan chamber of commerce;
- persecuted democracy activists who were awarded funds from the National Endowment for Democracy;
- is trying to limit Washington’s latitude for action by cultivating and co-opting decision-makers. The Caracas regime has:
- opened a costly effort, the Venezuelan Information Office, to serve as media promoters for the government;
- cultivated key American lawmakers of both parties and won the support of the Congressional Black Caucus;
- bought influence from others in Washington, including a prominent Republican political figure;
- cooperates with existing left-wing grassroots organizations to disinform about U.S.involvement in the region in a strategy that seeks to pre-empt any palliative measures in favor of Venezuelan democracy;
- used former President Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center; retains a Republican firm to set up and run electronic propaganda operations in the United States.
Senior Analyst for Strategy
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