What the Trump administration can do in Venezuela to hasten the Maduro regime’s demise
As a popular uprising in Venezuela enters its second week, opposition leaders, regional diplomats, United States policymakers, and the country’s deeply-divided security forces can help rescue the country from the doomed regime of Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro is weaker than ever. One reason is that unrest has spread to the poorest neighborhoods that were once the stronghold of Hugo Chávez. The most ferocious street fights have been in poor areas, where well-armed pro-regime militants, called “colectivos,” used hit-and-run tactics to terrorize the population. After uniformed police and guardsmen fired tear gas and rubber bullets indiscriminately, in numerous cases demonstrators have overwhelmed security forces and chased them through the streets. Opposition leaders may have convened these demonstrations, but they are hardly in a position to control desperate people with little to lose.
Venezuela’s democratic opposition is more united than ever behind a list of political objectives, insisting that Maduro free political prisoners, schedule national elections, and respect the power of the National Assembly to name new judges and electoral authorities who are committed to a change in government. Political leaders may regard these measures, backed up by international oversight, as irreversible steps toward democracy. However, the opposition must be sensitive to the fact that, after each day of bloody repression, more Venezuelans will demand that Maduro relinquish power.
Another factor that has pinned Maduro’s back against the wall is his international isolation, engineered by Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States. Even before the nearly two dozen deaths in recent weeks, a majority of OAS member countries called on Venezuela to respect its constitution and schedule national elections. A regime that instead has engineered gross violations of human rights by marauding gangs will likely never recover any legitimacy with the international community.
Περισσότερα εδώ:
What the Trump administration can do in Venezuela to hasten the Maduro regime’s demise
Πηγή: American Enterprise Institute
