Humberto Mendez Prince/Staff Writer
Once more, international attention has shifted towards Venezuela’s conflict. On Tuesday, Feb. 3, interim president Juan Guaidó visited Miami on the last stop of a political tour that was meant to announce his party’s objectives for this year.
As he stood in the Miami Airport Convention Center preparing to give the same repetitive speech, the public began calling for military intervention in Venezuela, cutting him off for about two minutes. Subsequently, he resumed his speech by affirming that help will come to the Venezuelan people but nations would have to see them protesting in the streets— a tactic that has proven ineffective.
2019 was a hectic year for the South American country. This year, the 23rd of January marked the anniversary of President Guaidó’s appointment to office. Since then, he has accomplished nothing.
As acting president of Venezuela, Guaidó promised his people an end to more than two decades of communist reign, reassuring them that in less than a year Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian regime would be a thing of the past. He followed that up with a failed coup attempt back in April, refusal of his responsibility to call for a military intervention and a scandal concerning diverted funds in June, all while repeating the same catchy phrase through every campaign. All of this has made him as incompetent as his predecessors.
Guaidó’s recurring slogan consists of “ending [Maduro’s] usurpation of power” and promising “transitional government and free elections for all Venezuelans.” For the majority of Venezuelans listening to these words at every rally, this has become unnerving and reflects a more sinister pattern.
Just months before President Guaidó was appointed president of Congress, the hopes of a new democratic Venezuela were directed towards the body’s former head, Henry Ramos Allup. Allup was later found to have had financial ties with the Maduro regime, causing immediate disappointment and anger among his supporters.
Before him, politician Leopoldo Lopez was the name on every Venezuelan’s lips when talking about the country’s liberation. Lopez got arrested and subsequently freed just to get taken into custody again.
The pattern has been exposed and remains clear: if you are an aspiring opposition leader in Venezuela, you either get bought by the regime with luxurious benefits like company contracts, or you get arrested for not complying with the country’s United Socialist Party.
For some time now, Venezuela has been placing the future of its nation on incapable leaders to solve a political crisis that is far more complicated than we can imagine. So far, every solution these so-called opposition leaders introduce is an eventual election that will never occur under the current communist regime, leading many former supporters to brand these politicians as Maduro’s collaborators.
The politicians who are supposed to help get rid of this regime are the ones who end up buying them time, producing a stigma surrounding any kind of opposition leader and as a result as well as a general sense of distrust amongst the Venezuelan people.
It’s quite evident why the popularity of the Interim President has gone down. Since he was appointed last January he has stalled the process of asking for military intervention, which is within his rights and duties as acting president under the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance and bought the Maduro administration more time.
Still, Trump’s administration has continued to voice support for Guaidó and the Venezuelan people for more than a year despite the latter’s waste of valuable time and resources. It would be wise for the Interim President to take this opportunity and make the best out of it.
At this point, the public’s pressure towards Guaido’s party has become visible. The general feeling of the Venezuelan population is impatience and uncertainty, and every day that passes without a concrete solution translates in losses of lives on Venezuelan soil.
Politicians who are revered and deified by the public are not the solution to this crisis, but a coalition that puts an end to this regime by calling for external help from the United States.
Featured Image by The White House on Flickr.
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Excelente artículo. Felicitaciones en pocas palabras se resumen los últimos eventos