Venezuela: Ruling Over Ashes

“An evil man is capable of burning his own nation to the ground to rule over its ashes.” -Sun Tzu

By Javier Herrera

HAVANA TIMES – Nicolas Maduro, the current President of Venezuela, warned on Tuesday, July 16th, of “a bloodbath, a fratricidal civil war” if he did not win the elections on the 28th of the same month. His statements struck a chord, even among his close political allies like Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva, who stated: “I was scared by Maduro’s declaration that if he loses, there will be a bloodbath; when you lose, you leave.”

In controversial elections, the official National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner with 51% of the votes in his favor without showing the precinct Electoral Records that confirm the result and that, by law, should be available for public scrutiny within 48 hours of the closing of polling stations.

Meanwhile, the opposition, led by Maria Corina Machado, declared Edmundo Gonzalez, candidate for the Democratic Unitary Platform, the winner with 67% of the votes against 30% for the current dictator. The opposition supports its claim of victory with 83% of the Electoral Records, which are displayed on the website https://resultadosconvzla.com/, where they can be scrutinized one by one. It is worth noting that the records were obtained by a vast network of electoral witnesses and collaborators, although in some polling stations they were refused to be handed over to opposition witnesses as is required.

As expected, the people felt defrauded, and with María Corina at the forefront, they took to the streets from the night of July 28th to claim their victory. And, as also expected, the regime deployed its entire repressive arsenal against a people tired of misery and unfulfilled promises.

Repression began by sending the Chavista Collectives (pro-regime paramilitary groups) to the streets to confront the demonstrators, in the same style used by Miguel Diaz-Canel in repressing the July 11th, 2021 protests in Cuba. While the opposition calls for peaceful protests, the regime calls for confrontation, relying on its monopoly of force and weapons.

Well advised by their patrons and mentors in Havana, the Maduro regime has resorted to all its power to contain the popular anger:

• Instead of making the Electoral Records transparent through the discredited CNE, it has taken the issue to the Supreme Court, attempting to certify the results in a body aligned with the regime.

• Instead of seeking national dialogue, it has opted for repression and consequently decreed a de facto curfew, militarized the streets, and granted carte blanche to pro-regime paramilitary bands.

• After morally assassinating the main opposition leaders, they have criminalized them and threatened to impose serious charges, to the point that María Corina and Edmundo González have had to go into hiding.

• Illegal searches, raids, detentions, and kidnappings, including forced disappearances, against protesters who stood out in any demonstration.

• Kidnapping of electoral table witnesses, seeking to get them to retract their statements or trying to identify how the Electoral Records in the hands of the opposition were made public.

• Persecution and imprisonment of journalists critical of the regime.

• Expulsion of diplomatic personnel from countries expressing any criticism or doubt regarding the election results.

Another strategy devised by the regime is the blocking of social networks such as X and Signal, while threatening the same for TikTok, or WhatsApp, and blocking access to many independent media outlets, in a vain attempt to silence the truth and hide the abuses of power committed daily by the forces loyal to the ruler.

As Maduro promised, Venezuela is sinking into a bloodbath that threatens to turn into a civil war if the people insist on asserting their rights. After more than two dozen deaths (the regime acknowledges 25 dead and 192 wounded so far) and a couple of thousand detainees, Venezuela is isolated, questioned in various international forums such as the OAS or the International Criminal Court, which claims to be closely following events.

At the moment, there is no winner in the struggle between the government and the people, but while the former tries to maintain power through violence and terror, the latter, led by María Corina, has called for new demonstrations on August 17th, and insists on asserting their vote. In the end, no matter how much time or blood it costs, the people always triumph over unpopular dictatorships. It is up to the dictators to determine how much blood must be shed.

It doesn’t matter when a nation is set on fire. Dictators will never be able to rule over ashes, over a rebellious majority population. The ashes of a nation are not ashes; they are smoldering embers that at any moment can and will ignite the flame again. There are plenty of examples in recent history: Nicolae Ceaușescu, dictator of Romania; Muammar Gaddafi, in Libya; or more recently, the resignation of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after 40 days of popular protests led by students.

Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.