Maduro, Get Down From Your Tree and Scram
Venezuela is the holy Job of modern history. Their mixture of struggle and resignation, of resistance, of enduring unnecessary poverty and dispensable humiliation, is an example for the world. The people have once again voted against the mustachioed walrus. There is talk of an opposition victory by as much as 70 percent of the votes. Maduro says he won with 51.2 percent, but that would be a Bolivarian miracle attributed to the possible excess of rum in blood, or to the fact that some Chavistas voted with both hands and feet.
The mustachioed walrus is not going anywhere. It is nothing new. He is a dictator, of course, but he is also a tyrant. Between Saturday and Monday, the regime kidnapped two Spanish compatriots, journalist Cake Minuesa and former congressman Victor Gonzalez. The communist vice-president of the government of Spain congratulated Maduro for his victory; not a word from the government demanding the release of the two Spaniards; no statement from the EU. Nothing. This is how things are. (RELATED: ‘By Hook or By Crook:’ The Venezuelan Election )
The truth is that Maduro’s real fear is not losing power, but that the people will be in a position to hold him accountable for all the damage he has done, the pain he has caused, and the money he has stolen from the Venezuelans. Maduro is beginning to resemble those unwelcome visitors, unexpected friends who stay for dinner, and who are still there watching TV, or talking non-stop when you want to go to bed. In the end, you only have two options: resignation or conflict. To enter into conflict means to get up and demand to know: “But what’s wrong, man, don’t you have a home to go to?” Maduro is the clumsiest dictator of our time, but he is also the heaviest.
Dictatorial Regimes Stay In Power Until People Shed Their Blood
Dictators believe that they have the army on their side. They forget that they have bought the military commanders, but not the whole army. Those in the military have families, children, parents, and friends, and it is likely that none of them have voted for Maduro, because almost no one has done so in these elections. What was he thinking? A minimal split in the army would likely provoke desertion en masse, a change of sides, and the immediate fall of the communist regime.
If it has not happened so far, it is because Venezuelans — starting with the opposition leaders — have had to choose between fighting or waiting for a better opportunity each time they have taken control of the streets and have been brutally repressed, and someone or something always ends up convincing them that it is better to avoid “a bloodbath.” I do not judge them. It is enough for them to survive the mustachioed walrus. But perhaps it is worth remembering that many dictatorial regimes do not give up power until the people shed their blood to free themselves. (READ MORE: Venezuelan Elections Held Hostage)
Ideally, however, peaceful mobilization would be sufficient. There is nothing more painful than a civil war. For peaceful resistance to work, all possible international pressure is required. Is there any? No. I dare say that, as of this writing, Venezuelans have done their job bravely, but the West has not done its part. If the Western countries do not firmly support the struggle for freedom of the Venezuelan people, we will have lost the last hope of identity left to us.
The West Has Failed to Call for Transparency
The EU response has been lukewarm and bureaucratic. It has taken them ages to demand transparency from Maduro when from the beginning they should have condemned the electoral theft and demanded that Maduro step down immediately. Anything else implies support. Nor has the United States been up to the task. Kamala Harris’ statements are like bread without salt, like a slice of cold turkey, like a monument to irrelevance. Asking a bloodthirsty dictator to “respect the will of the Venezuelan people” is like asking the fox to dance with chickens, and not eat them. (READ MORE: Kamala’s Useful Idiots)
Elon Musk has done more for Venezuelans from his X account in the last few hours than all the great Western democracies. I feel ashamed to live amid such cowardice, such lukewarmness, such stupid empty talk.
Unity, democracy, and struggle have achieved, over the last century, the fall of the most powerful and intelligent dictators in history. And now it turns out that we cannot topple the mustachioed walrus, the most cowardly and the dumbest dictator in the world. Oh, but we can. Of course, we can. His time has passed. Long live free Venezuela!
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