More than a month has passed since the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro He stole the July 28 election, and demands from the United States and several Latin American countries for him to provide proof of his self-proclaimed electoral victory have gone unheeded.
The patience of several democracies in the region, which were waiting for the results of the efforts of the presidents of Brazil and Colombia, is already running out. convince Maduro to show his electoral results and allow a transition to democracy.
As the President of Panama told me in an interview, Jose Raul MulinoUnless there is a collective international effort to isolate Maduro, the Venezuelan dictator will cling to power indefinitely. That could lead to a new exodus of millions of Venezuelans, adding to the nearly eight million who have already fled the country since Maduro came to power in 2013.
Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
EFE
The Panamanian president told me that the efforts of Brazil and Colombia with Maduro would come to nothing and that Brazil’s proposal that Venezuela hold new elections would only help Maduro buy time.and would give the Venezuelan dictator “a giant oxygen tank.”
Panama, which will assume the presidency of the United Nations Security Council on January 1, has already severed diplomatic relations with the Maduro regime, suspended air traffic with Venezuela and recognized the opposition leader. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the elected president of this country.
According to exit polls and copies of vote tallies released by the Venezuelan opposition, González Urrutia won the election overwhelmingly with nearly 70 percent of the vote.
Mulino told me that the time had come for democratic countries to implement a “real material isolation” of Venezuela. When I asked him whether other countries should follow Panama’s example and suspend air traffic with Venezuela, he replied: “I think so.”
There is a major debate in Washington DC over whether the United States should impose broader economic sanctions on Venezuela. or if it would only accelerate the country’s economic collapse and trigger a new wave of migration.
Venezuelan opposition leaders say that at a minimum, the president Joe BidenLatin America and Spain should impose more personal sanctions, such as visa cancellations, on Venezuelan officials and their business cronies.
Biden has already revoked the visas of many senior Venezuelan officials and their families, but opposition leaders tell me they have given U.S. diplomats a list of 1,560 Venezuelan officials and businesspeople they say should also be subject to sanctions.
They have lost all sense of reality. By threatening the elected president, they only succeed in uniting us more and increasing the support of Venezuelans and the whole world for Edmundo González.
Serenity, courage and firmness. We are moving forward.
– María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) September 2, 2024
Juan Guaidothe former president of the Venezuelan National Assembly who was recognized by some 50 countries as interim president after the 2018 elections, confirmed to me that the list had been handed over to the State Department earlier this year. The people on it should be held accountable for their crimes, he said.
“It is time to increase the pressure and impose sanctions on those responsible for the theft of the elections”Guaidó told me.
Maduro finds himself in a much weaker position today than he was after the 2018 elections. Some of his main leftist allies, such as Brazil and Colombia, have distanced themselves from him, he has lost the support of Chavista sectors in working-class neighborhoods, and he has less money to pay for his security forces after the reintroduction of some U.S. oil sanctions.
Can Maduro count on the ordinary soldiers of the Bolivarian National Guard or the army, who earn barely ten dollars a day? Ryan Bergfrom the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
The U.S. State Department issued a statement on August 29 tacitly congratulating some votes in the Organization of American States while demanding “transparency” and an “impartial review” of the Venezuelan vote.
This is all well and good, but it is just words. It is time for Biden and Latin American countries to adopt collective economic and diplomatic sanctions against Maduro. to accelerate its fall, restore democracy and avoid a new mass exodus of Venezuelans.
