Venezuela: Is the Emperor Naked?

By: Beatrice E. Rangel - 14/05/2025

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The successful operation to extract Maria Corina Machado's collaborators from the Argentine embassy in Venezuela presents a turning point in the South American nation's destiny. Until now, the criminal regime that has confiscated the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people has been able to maintain power through the use and abuse of two elements: terror and money.

Through terror, the Venezuelan regime managed to silence the dissent that grew exponentially as the people saw their jobs disappear, the currency liquefied, and the worst repression in the world applied. Nearly eight million Venezuelans fled the tyranny by walking along the continent's roads. It is estimated that the regime's prisons hold around 1,000 Venezuelans. It is also estimated that more than a million people died as a result of not having access to food, essential medical services, and/or medicine.

But after twenty-six years of assaulting the public treasury and destroying all the public enterprises that financed the well-being of Venezuelans; the constant exercise of overt and covert repression; and the economic free fall, the Venezuelan people have decided that the time has come to oust the self-proclaimed Bolivarian leaders from the seat of power. The remittances sent by their emigrated relatives assure them that they will at least have income to provide for themselves and their transportation to the odd jobs they earn to survive. The problem has been that this is a brave and combative but unarmed people.

The government, on the other hand, has several types of armies because in this wave of government piracy, the state has leased its arms monopoly. Aside from the Bolivarian Armed Forces in Venezuela, there are at least two irregular armies controlled by the regime. One is composed of a sort of violent militia that is part of the ruling party and is used to terrorize and persecute citizens who dare to mobilize to express their discontent with the regime. These armed gangs, in addition to sowing terror at protest demonstrations, chase opponents to their homes and then intimidate them by telling them they know where they live and that they will soon execute them. Then there are irregular armies linked to organized crime, equipped with ultramodern weapons and communications equipment, whose job is to cooperate with repressive forces like the SEBIN (National Intelligence Service) in the liquidation of opponents without leaving any trace. These gangs are both national and foreign. Among the national ones, the Aragua train has gained international fame for its misdeeds in Chile and the United States. With this military structure, the regime has stifled freedom in Venezuela. Until now!

Because the economic debacle is already devouring the members of the three armed groups, and desertions and betrayals are beginning to occur. The shortage of food, gasoline, medicine, and educational and medical services is severely affecting the families of members of the armies of repression. Little by little, the members of these groups are beginning to fall victim to the regime, unable to access public services because they are overwhelmed, while private services are prohibitively expensive. These individuals are already beginning to see the end of the party and are preparing to avoid succumbing to the regime.

It was this sense of defeat among the regime's loyalists and supporters that facilitated and crowned the rescue operation with success. In an operation reminiscent of Colombia's Operation Jaque to rescue Ingrid Betancourt, a squad parallel to that of the SEBIN was created to guard the hostage-taking facility. The squad's doubles entered the force with the changing of the guard to rescue the hostages and smuggle them out of the country. The operation therefore enjoyed the internal support of the agencies responsible for repressing the hostages.

Aside from the undeniable merit of rescuing hostages under any circumstances, the significance of this episode is that it reveals the presence of deep cracks within the regime. It also reveals a clear inclination on the part of the US administration to support Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. And perhaps most importantly, it has revealed to the world that the Venezuelan regime is not invulnerable; that it lacks the support of its own people, and that the July 28th electoral verdict is a resounding reality that is eroding the foundations of the regime. We all know that the emperor of terror who has reigned in Venezuela is naked and that his capacity for resistance is truly minimal. The question that arises then is whether the international community, and especially the regional community, will take advantage of this moment of manifest weakness to rescue the rest of the Venezuelan people. To date, there has been no pronouncement, just as there was none when a criminal gang murdered a Venezuelan opposition figure in Chile. There was only a terse statement from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry indicating that their requests for safe passage had not been heeded. Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the conviction that the end is near and that the final battle will soon be fought grows stronger every day.

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