Nicolás Maduro's panic

By: Luis Gonzales Posada - 29/07/2024

Just as we cannot defeat the murderers of the Aragua Train using toy weapons or guns with blank bullets, we will not defeat Chavismo by living with a corrupt and genocidal regime that has been in power for 25 years and intends to continue for 5 more years.

Diplomacy is not, or should not be, synonymous with silence or complacency when universal principles and values linked to freedom, democracy and human rights are at stake.

In this context, Felipe González, prestigious former president of the Government of Spain, rightly argued that behind the disqualification of the social democratic candidate María Corina Machado (MCM) “there is immense cowardice, panic, that Maduro will lose the elections.”

Panic, too – we add – because losing power Maduro will have to answer for crimes against humanity – murders, kidnappings, torture and illegal imprisonment – crimes attributed to his administration by prosecutors of the International Criminal Court, by the High Commissioner for Human Rights. of the United Nations and the European Community.

Furthermore, the dictator - and his military and political leadership - are authors of the largest looting of public funds in American history, estimated at 300 billion dollars; a gigantic robbery that impoverished the Venezuelan people, causing, according to UN figures, 8 million people to emigrate in search of food, medicine, security and jobs; or, rather, to flee from the hell of the so-called socialism of the 21st century.

In this dramatic scenario, polls project that the opposition candidate would comfortably win the elections.

The Meganalisis company reveals that MCM has a voting intention of 70.6% and Maduro only 8.2%; a difference of 9 to 1, a distance that would be much greater considering voters from abroad, where MCM reaches 98.3% and Maduro 1.7%, according to other reports.

Faced with the looming disaster, the regime's response has been to bring out the political cudgel or executioner, arresting MCM's campaign managers on the accusation – without evidence – that they are conspiring to assassinate him.

But they also insult and slander the political leaders of the hemisphere who repudiate the electoral farce, even threatening to suspend repatriation flights for their compatriots.

The first to protest vigorously was the president of Ecuador, Daniel Novoa, warning that he will not recognize the 2024 electoral results.

The leaders of Guatemala, Costa Rica, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, the United States and the Dominican Republic have also repudiated the veto and Peru has done so with inexplicable timidity, while the OAS maintained that this measure “liquidates the possibility of free, fair elections.” and transparent in Venezuela, a decision that corresponds to clear objectives of political persecution.”

What to do, then, to prevent an electoral hoax from being consumed?

Beyond the protests, which matter little or nothing to a quagmire regime, some measures must be implemented, among others applying economic sanctions, suspending international cooperation programs and the granting of loans from multilateral credit organizations.

Likewise, democratic governments would do well to withdraw their ambassadors from Caracas or reduce their relationships at the level of chargé d'affaires or consular affairs; And it would also be appropriate to call a meeting of the OAS Permanent Council to listen to the candidate María Corina Machado who, without a doubt, will expose the perversities of an oppressive system that seeks to exclude her from the electoral contest.

Coexisting with a satrapy legitimizes the perpetrators and constitutes an act of diplomatic cynicism to interact with a regime that has not hesitated to offer its territory for the training of Russia's armed forces; that buys weapons from the Iranian regime, that protects the fundamentalist group Hezbollah and has Cuba and Nicaragua as political partners, from the same authoritarian underbelly.

Not one step back should be the slogan to free the plains people from oppression and misery.

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».