Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is preparing for a third term against the backdrop of fake elections and risks losing the support of military leaders, opposition leader Maria Colina Machado said, adding that the president’s position is “It’s not sustainable,” he said.
She claimed the generals feared being abandoned by allies Russia and Iran after the fall of the Syrian regime, which had strong ties to Maduro’s regime.
“Doesn’t President Maduro see himself in the eyes of (Bashar) al-Assad?” Machado said in a video interview with the Financial Times from a secret hiding place in Venezuela. “Don’t you think[his generals who support him]will look in the mirror and see the generals that Assad left behind?”
President Maduro has claimed a new mandate to govern the oil-rich South American nation since his election last July, but has offered no evidence of victory. The opposition released official tallies from polling stations showing its candidate defeated the president, a result recognized by U.S. and European parliaments.
Machado, a charismatic free marketer, was barred from running but appointed Edmundo González to represent him. They have repeatedly appealed to military officials, but they believe support for President Maduro is wavering as he prepares to be sworn in on Friday.
Opposition parties claim that analysis shows that regions with large military and police populations voted in line with the rest of the country last July, overwhelmingly rejecting the president. are. They believe that if pressure increases on Maduro ahead of Friday’s inauguration, his government could collapse.
That hope had been raised by the opposition before, but in vain. This time, Maduro’s opponents believe voters’ rejection of him has undermined his legitimacy in the eyes of rank-and-file soldiers and police.
“The only thing President Maduro has left is repression, so if we break that repression, the regime will collapse, just like what happened in Syria,” Machado said.
Syria experienced a 13-year civil war that divided the country into religious and ethnic factions before the regime collapsed. The situation in Venezuela differs in many ways from the situation in Syria, but the repressive regime in Caracas is allied with the ousted Assad regime and, like that regime, is hated by most of the population.
Maduro and Assad are allies and support each other in trade and diplomatic efforts, a relationship strengthened by Venezuela’s large Syrian-Lebanese community. Venezuela operated regular flights between Caracas and Damascus.
In December, as rebel forces marched toward Damascus, President Maduro told President Assad, “The government and people of Venezuela are supporting Syria in its fight against terrorism,” and warned “the fate of an independent people.” said it was to confront “the United States’ plans for the insurgency.”
President Machado called on Venezuelans to take to the streets on Thursday to express their rejection of President Maduro and the post-election crackdown that has left more than 2,000 people in prison.
González said Tuesday that his son-in-law was kidnapped while he was dropping his grandson off at school in Caracas. Machado said “regime agents” surrounded the home of his elderly and infirm mother, setting up barricades and flying drones overhead.
“Our struggle is a peaceful struggle,” she told the FT. “But that doesn’t mean we’re weak. We’re very strong, very solid. . . . We won’t win freedom unless we overcome fear.”
Maduro’s government has thwarted previous attempts to topple it, and authorities increased security around Caracas ahead of Friday’s ceremony, setting up barricades throughout the city and increasing the police and counterintelligence presence. .
One resident said, “The government is working hard across the country to make people think carefully about (protests).”
Since Maduro came to power in 2013 as successor to revolutionary socialist leader Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s once-wealthy economy has shrunk by about three-quarters, leaving one in four of the population leaked out of the country.
While Machado has been protesting from within Venezuela, González has been forced into exile. He began an international tour last week to drum up support, meeting with the presidents of Argentina and Uruguay over the weekend. On Monday, he met with President Joe Biden in Washington.
The White House said Biden was “inspired by the millions of Venezuelans who bravely voted for democratic change in Venezuela’s deeply flawed July 28 presidential election.” , added, “Mr. González Urrutia received the most votes by an overwhelming margin.”
González said his team is also in contact with President-elect Donald Trump’s team. González met with Florida Republicans at the Capitol on Monday night, including Mike Walz, Trump’s nominee for national security adviser.
Machado said the inauguration, scheduled for Friday, would be a “trial by fire” for democracies to decide whether to side with the democratic opposition or support “a tyranny armed to the teeth.” He said it must be done.
“The time has come to legitimize the position of weakness and equidistance between justice and corruption, peace and violence, truth and lies,” she said.
The US government reimposed broad sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector in April, but left in place individual licenses allowing companies such as Chevron, Repsol and Eni to operate in the country. Opposition parties are calling on the U.S. to revoke the certification and hope the Biden administration will do so before leaving office.
Machado warned Chevron and other companies against “supporting” Maduro. “This is a challenge for these companies as well,” she said. “Just as there is no compromise or justification for soldiers who shoot[at their own people]or governments that turn a blind eye, there is no justification for those who do business with this regime.”
Machado also said Venezuela’s sovereign and state oil company’s outstanding debt, estimated at $160 billion last year, is also an issue. “Bondholders and creditors all know that they will not receive a penny while President Maduro remains in power,” she said.
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Mr Gonzalez had previously promised to return for the inauguration on January 10, but Mr Machado said he would “take the oath in Venezuela at the appropriate time”.
“I can’t say exactly when that would be. If this were a democracy, or if there were minimal democratic conditions, I think it would be January 10th at 10 a.m., but what would happen in Venezuela today? We all know what’s going on.”
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Monday that Mr. Gonzalez “knows that as soon as he sets foot in Venezuela, he will be arrested.”
Additional reporting by Ana Rodriguez Blazon in Caracas
