Crisis in Venezuela and the elections
Introduction
In May 2018, Maduro won the presidential elections with 68% of the votes in his favor, despite having a 46% participation, according to the German newspaper Deutsche Welle. The main leaders of the Venezuelan opposition at that time have been imprisoned, exiled or detained. The accusations of electoral fraud have made Maduro not recognized as elected president.
Therefore, on January 23 of the following year, Juan Guaidó, the current president of the National Assembly, was announced as the Venezuelan legitimate president. Referring to article 233 of the Constitution, he affirms that, since no president was legitimately elected before January 10, the president of the National Assembly must assume the position until selected elections are held.
Developing
The United States supports the actions of the Armed Forces, which have met with Juan Guaidó and to free the opposition politician Leopoldo López, who was under house arrest. The Secretary of the State, Mike Pompeo, said that the United States government fully supported Venezuela in its search for freedom and democracy and that democracy should not be defeated.
When Chávez came to power, the price of oil was very low, about $ 10 per barrel, and when he left, he had increased to $ 100. For 2014, the price of oil began to fall, and with that, Venezuelan GDP. The low prices meant that there was no money to finance housing and infrastructure projects.
Maduro decided to increase inflation spending, which severely disadvantaged the poorest, because soon Venezuelans could not buy the indispensable minimum resources, and even some companies had to close. As a result, imports in Venezuela have fallen by 80% and it is thought that inflation will reach 10.000.000% in 2019 according to an IMF report, the highest percentage throughout the continent.
According to British encyclopedia, populism is a political movement that favors the opinions of common citizens as opposed to elites. It usually revolves around a charismatic demagogue that addresses the concerns and fears of the people, in this case Chávez, and proposes a concrete exit. Crises can make populist attitudes more likely.
A financial crisis, for example, makes citizens lose confidence in the elites that govern them, blaming them for ruining things, leading to the most radical movements to feed collective anger. In addition, generalized corruption in the government instigates distrust of elites and, therefore, to increase the support of populist parties.
The press in Venezuela faces a very serious problem of repression and censorship due to the governments of Chávez and Maduro and their feeling of impunity. Their methods of repression against those who opposed also included the cancellation of licenses, unfeasible fines, and the arrests of journalists, such as Alberto Cabrera and Antonio Medina, who were apprehended in 2017 with positions of military rebellion. As for the Maduro government, since he came to power, between 2013 and May 2018, 80 of the 155 media that were in circulation have disappeared, as the Colombian newspaper La República has said.
The media have also lost their independence and thus their freedom of expression, since the percentage of independent media has reduced 42% in the last 20 years. A year ago, the National Constituent Assembly approved a law that limits the variety of the content of all media and punishes those who disseminate hate through these platforms with sentences of 20 years in prison.
conclusion
Rumors about Russia’s interference in the crisis in Venezuela have been circulating, since the country shows sympathy for Maduro due to shared ideologies. The sources say that Russia had helped move the Venezuelan gold from its deposits in the Russian Central Bank to sell in Dubai. Information about Moscow’s paramilitary support had also circulated sending private military contractors, possibly for the protection of President Maduro.
On the other hand, Chile has been trying to weaken Maduro’s control over Venezuela, with its Minister of Foreign Affairs, swearing to work with its allies to cut Venezuela’s communications, close its airspace and implement a naval block if Maduro refuses to celebratefree elections.
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