Maduro's entrenchment puts Venezuelan opposition on the ropes

About to be realized One month before the presidential elections in Venezuela, The Caribbean country is living in a deadlock of unknown dimensions after dozens of crises. The opposition and part of the international community denounce the lack of transparency and irregularities in the controversial victory that the ruling party gave to Nicolas Maduro. The initiative of the opposition to publish a report to declare the winner Edmundo Gonzalez It is beginning to dissipate in the face of the regime's assaults under the slogan of “Bolivarian fury.” The legal, political and repressive barrier in the streets and in the communications sector has managed to inhibit the opposition.

The final chapter of this massive response in force remains active. This Monday, Opposition candidate failed to appear to testify before prosecutor and received a new summons for Tuesday. González is facing an investigation for publishing on the Internet copies of electoral documents that prove his victory in the presidential election of July 28. The diplomat who replaced María Corina Machado in the election had already criticized the prosecutor's office on Sunday in a video published on his social networks after the summons. “The Public Ministry intends to subject me to an interview without specifying under what conditions I am supposed to appear and without pre-qualifying the crimes not committed,” he said in the recording in which he accuses the prosecutor. Tarek William Saab, that on Friday he had brought forward this summons. “He has behaved repeatedly like a political accuser,” he said. “He condemns in advance and now promotes a situation without guarantees of independence and due process.”

Such Edmundo Gonzalez Like María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who was disqualified as a candidate, they are facing a repression that stuns the population. For days, behind closed doors, they have maintained a strategy that is repeated: they have once again claimed their electoral victory, they have thanked the expressions of support and solidarity from the international community and they have called for a new demonstration in the streets, this Wednesday, August 28, one month before the elections. In the current context, no one knows the times or places until very shortly before the concentration, fervently welcomed by the population in recent weeks. The leaders are sheltered, people do not want to gather, no one wants to declare themselves, many prefer not to go out to demonstrate. Anxiety and speculation are increasing. But the call has been made.

The “Bolivarian fury”

The so-called “Bolivarian fury” It is a social alert device that revolutionary commanders activate when they detect a threat that could remove them from power. Decreed as a slogan by Maduro, it emerged as a response from Chavismo, in particular, to the sanctions of the United States government in 2019, after the proclamation of Juan Guaido as interim president and in the context of the country's economic collapse and deepening political crisis.

Comfortably anchored in all the crevices of the Venezuelan state, Chavism manages its alerts efficiently: repression in the street increases, general suspicion is activated, police and judicial procedures are refined, and citizens are monitored more rigorously. The armed groups, shock groups that Chavism has at its disposal, remain on their guard; the National Guard faces the people with much less patience.

This manifestation of “fury”, however, is the broadest of all due to its intensity. The electoral results are behind us for the ruling party. On Sunday, state security forces arrested journalist Carmela Longo, linked to entertainment information published in the official newspaper. Latest news. The reasons for his arrest are unclear. In just over a month, 12 journalists have already been imprisoned in Venezuela.

The Venezuelan Penal Forum documents the existence of 1,674 political prisoners, “the highest number so far in the 21st century in the country,” four times more than there were a few months ago.

The human rights NGO Provea published a harsh statement on its social networks, in which it denounces that, since the announcement of the electoral results, “2,400 people have been arbitrarily detained in 16 days, with an average of 150 daily arrests, far exceeding the antecedents of previous political crises at that time, such as those of 2014, 2017 and 2018; double the daily number of detainees and disappeared that there were in Chile after the coup d'état of Augusto Pinochet, and with a total of 24 deaths.

Maduro and the leaders of Chavismo are orchestrating an aggressive communication strategy to implicitly justify their procedures and assert their truth in this situation. The “civil-military-police union” that is being discussed seems galvanized. The president addresses the public several times a week, at rallies with his supporters, on his television programs, in special addresses, on his own podcast.

THE Maduro and PSUV's tolerance levels towards opposition demands have disappeared“I hope that this process will serve to organize a new opposition in the country,” said Diosdado Cabello, one of the regime's strongmen, in a speech before the National Assembly. “We cannot continue like this: here every pardon is followed by a new plot, and every plot, by a new pardon.”

Maduro does not stop talking, not so much to celebrate his victory as to denounce the plot of a coup d’état in progress. So far, he has demonstrated a very clear mastery of the levers of power in the country. This time, he says, “there will be no forgiveness.” There is much talk of topics such as fascist cyberbullying and a National Cybersecurity Council has been created to penalize the content of WhatsApp groups. The Chavista government is trying to create a conceptual framework: the country is fighting fascism. Venezuela must be protected from the extreme right. The PSUV identifies it as a violent current, trained internationally, chronically dissatisfied with the electoral results, a friend of American imperialism, promoter of the discrediting of the country’s institutions, anarchy and bad governance.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab acknowledges the deaths reported in recent days, but attributes them to “split” unrest in the streets, adding: “So far, no one has presented this office with a substantiated accusation … of human rights violations.”

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