María Corina Machado: ‘The only thing Maduro has left is terror’

The Venezuelan opposition leader, who lives in hiding, says in an interview with EL PAÍS that she expects ‘much more’ from the international community and argues that the presidential elections held a year ago will sooner or later force the fall of the Chavista regime: ‘It was a citizen mandate’

María Corina Machado, 57, has been in hiding for almost a year. Nicolás Maduro’s regime forced her to retreat to a secret location after the presidential elections of July 28, 2024, which marked a turning point in Venezuela’s recent history. Chavismo, which claimed victory without providing any evidence to certify it, accelerated its decline, deepening its absolute control over all aspects of the state. At the same time, the majority sector of the opposition maintains that Maduro and his entourage were exposed to the world by rejecting the voting records that were made public and showed a resounding victory for the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.

The veteran diplomat was forced into exile in Madrid due to persecution by the authorities while his main supporter, Machado, holds the reins of the opposition structure from Venezuela. The most prominent leader of the anti-Chavista forces speaks to EL PAÍS via video call. Behind her, the same bare wall seen in every one of her appearances since late August of last year. In her words, the same horizon: “Sooner or later, Maduro will go.”

Question. One year later, what message do you think the July 28 elections left?

Answer. July 28th changed the history of Venezuela forever. It was the result of an epic feat that, for me, is one of the greatest victories of democrats over autocrats this century. For 26 years, Venezuelans have faced a regime that has evolved into a fierce tyranny that is not a conventional dictatorship, because it has become a criminal structure that has been destroying everything: institutions, the economy, infrastructure, families. July 28th was the result of years of struggle, of organizing by millions of people who gave their all. And we not only managed to overwhelmingly defeat Maduro, but what we demonstrated then is a milestone. And obviously, Maduro will go. Sooner or later, we will remove him because that was a citizen mandate.

Q. But both then and now, Chavismo remains firmly in power. How do you explain this to the Venezuelans who fought that battle, as you say, for years?

A. I think it’s harder to explain to the outside world because we Venezuelans have always understood that this was much more than an electoral or political struggle. It’s an existential struggle. It wasn’t just about confronting another dictatorship or corrupt system. Maduro has declared war on us, a war we didn’t want because we’re democrats. When we went into the electoral struggle, we knew the conditions weren’t conventional. For years, we saw the regime’s fraud and learned to combat its electoral engineering with electoral intelligence. They had weapons, and we had the people.

Q. What have you done since then?

A. These last 365 days have been luminous, amid all the horror we are experiencing, in the sense that the greatest courage, resilience, discipline, and intelligence of Venezuelan society have come to the surface. First, we have maintained intact our will to fight despite the repression, the torture and the deaths. We have become a clandestine organization because they are persecuting and hunting us. Second, we have managed to get the entire world to recognize Edmundo González’s victory as president-elect. No one doubts it. But we have also succeeded in getting Maduro to see what he is: a human rights violator who has committed crimes against humanity and who, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, engages in practices classified as state terrorism. And that is how these criminal organizations begin to crack and ultimately collapse.

Q. But you are in hiding, Edmundo González had to go into exile in Spain, and Chavismo maintains complete control.

A. The regime had two options: accept defeat, and we offered them the possibility of negotiations with incentives and guarantees, but they rejected it. They chose to move to another battlefield, a battlefield of bullets, torture, prisoners, and deaths. All Maduro has left today is terror, a regime of terror sustained by impunity. In recent days there have been more than 35 disappearances while a prisoner exchange they boasted about was taking place. Why are they doing this? First, because they believe there will be no consequences, and here I feel the international community owes Venezuela. And second, the regime fears us, because even if you don’t see mass protests in the streets, they know there is a country in turmoil. This process is irreversible, and July 28th will be the catalyst for Venezuela’s freedom.

Q. And do you have any horizons for it?

A.I’m putting it on the table and working to keep it as short as possible, but since this fight is about the lives of millions of Venezuelans, our children, our country, I’m not putting any limits on it. We’re willing to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, but I can tell you that this regime has never been so isolated, so vulnerable as it is today, and we’ve never been so determined to achieve our goal.

Q. You’ve said that the international community owes Venezuela a debt. After the presidential elections, there was an attempt at mediation that quickly fell apart. Did you want more pressure from the European Union and the United States?

A. I can assure our allies who have given so much for Venezuela that it’s something we will remember. We will always remember those who have raised their voices: the European Parliament, so many countries around the world, in Latin America, the United States, Canada, and Spain. While we appreciate all these demonstrations, and there are countries in Europe that are particularly committed, and we appreciate it, we expect much more. Nobody can say anymore, ‘Oh, I didn’t know.’ There is an investigation at the International Criminal Court, which, by the way, should have yielded results by now, into the crimes against humanity that have been committed here. What more needs to happen?

Q. And the United States?

A. Yesterday [Friday] a statement finally came out from the U.S. Treasury Department saying that the Cartel de los Soles, of which it places Nicolás Maduro at the head, is being sanctioned as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. It is the first time in this century that a head of state has been designated by the United States as the head of a drug cartel. No one can look the other way anymore. This is no longer about ideological elements of the left and right; this is on a whole other level.

Q. The Donald Trump administration has also reopened the door to Chevron’s oil company operations in Venezuela.

A. I think we should ask Chevron. The dilemma is Chevron’s. What they’re saying here is that Maduro is the head of a cartel. Who is usurping power in Venezuela, who controls PDVSA [the state oil company], who controls the various companies of those operating in Venezuela? In the end, history will be ruthless. And Maduro will be gone.

Q. On what basis do you believe this?

A. Every day we work harder, with more willpower, with more energy, with more people and with more allies. It’s hard, extremely hard, and I live with the threat hanging over my head, because they’ve made it very clear to me that if they find me, they’ll make me disappear.

Q. The prisoner exchange between the United States and Venezuela a few days ago also allowed for the release of political prisoners.

A. Every Venezuelan who is released from prison is a victory, a victory for truth, justice, and freedom. I’ve spoken with some of them, and we’ve cried together. Do you know what distresses them? That their time in prison meant not being able to fight alongside the Venezuelan people for freedom. I’m amazed, proud, and that’s what makes me absolutely certain that Venezuela will be free. These people have already decided.

Q. In the parliamentary and regional elections in May, there was a split in the opposition, with one group deciding to run against the majority. Do you see a realignment of positions possible in the medium term?

A. On May 25, the regime made a move to try to bury and erase what happened on July 28, but the country disobeyed, so there was almost no division within the democratic forces. There is a cohesion of genuine democratic forces with the people of Venezuela and the mandate of July 28.

Q. How do you feel after almost a year sheltered in a secret place?

A. I decided to dedicate my life to the freedom of Venezuela. While this is extremely hard, being completely locked up, without talking to anyone, without seeing anyone, without touching, hugging, kissing, caressing or even seeing my children, my husband, my mother, my colleagues, it has also allowed me to be completely focused on our work. We are ready.

https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-07-28/maria-corina-machado-the-only-thing-maduro-has-left-is-terror.html
Journal of Democracy, July 2025

Venezuela’s Lost Year

A year ago Nicolás Maduro stole Venezuela’s election and entrenched his power by jailing and killing those who opposed him. But the world’s democracies don’t need to sit on the sidelines. Here is how they can raise the costs for Maduro.

By Eric Farnsworth

July 2025

On 28 July 2024, Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly to elect opposition candidate Edmundo González as their next president. After years of economic failure, spiking crime, and political oppression that caused a quarter of the population to flee, exhausted voters turned out in droves to reject the brutal dictator Nicolás Maduro, despite his crude efforts to intimidate them and discredit the opposition. The result wasn’t even close: González received twice as many votes as Maduro according to more than 80 percent of the printed tally sheets — or actas — collected, posted online, and manually tabulated by the opposition. Their strategic verification efforts exposed the true magnitude of González’s win and put paid to regime claims of popular legitimacy. But Maduro’s government actively tried to suppress the results, hiding actas and releasing its own improbable totals that claimed Maduro had won with 51.2 percent of the vote. Within hours, the regime declared victory and vowed to reinaugurate Maduro for a third presidential term.

González has since fled the country, opposition leader María Corina Machado is in hiding, and numerous other opposition figures and supporters have been exiled, jailed, or killed. Maduro remains firmly entrenched, sustained by his regime’s stranglehold on state-security forces and Venezuela’s vast oil and mineral wealth, plus an illegal drug trade. The regime — still desiring a veneer of electoral legitimacy and confident in its own longevity — held state and local elections in May. The opposition boycotted these contests, rightly concerned that participating would have conferred legitimacy on a regime that rejects the results of elections it loses.

Venezuela is a true international conundrum. The country was once a stable democracy situated at the heart of the Western Hemisphere. But over the last quarter-century, its leaders — Hugo Chávez (1999–2013) followed by his successor, Nicolás Maduro — purposefully steered Venezuela toward authoritarianism. It is now a fully consolidated “electoral dictatorship.” The country, which sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves and other natural resources, was once the wealthiest in Latin America. But today, having lost more than 75 percent of its GDP, Venezuela is home to the worst man-made economic disaster in the region’s modern history. The tragedy stems from a combination of vapid Chavismo ideology, Cuban imperialism, great-power competition, and the unbridled greed and political ambition of its rulers and their cronies, who have looted the national patrimony and replaced vibrant, if imperfect, democracy with grinding dictatorship. Recovery, if it happens, could take generations and will require massive capital outlays.

Elections have long been considered the best way to reverse the excesses of Chavismo, even as the regime shrank democratic spaces, muzzled the free press, used state resources to promote government candidates, and deployed an impressive array of tactics to choke opposition parties and their supporters. Despite the obvious risks, the opposition threw itself into contesting the July 2024 election and addressing systemic issues that had weakened past opposition efforts. The Democratic Unitary Platform, a coalition of opposition parties led by Machado, delivered a united, organized, and clear alternative to Maduro. The coalition’s masterstroke was to develop a strategy to obtain and quickly publicize the vote tallies by stationing volunteers at voting booths across the country. The opposition publicized the genuine results and outmaneuvered the regime, whose subsequent efforts to cover up the fraud were quickly seen as illegitimate.

Maduro’s immediate rejection of the results and claim of victory seem to have caught the United States and broader international community by surprise. Washington had challenged Maduro to hold elections in the first place, no matter how unfree or unfair, in return for sanctions relief, but failed to prepare a “day after” strategy should the regime refuse to honor the outcome. Senior U.S. government officials, preoccupied with their own country’s electoral cycle, paid insufficient attention, and Maduro proceeded to steal the 2024 election with impunity. The Biden administration did call for the release of the actas to verify the results, but Maduro’s government predictably refused to comply and instead instituted its own “days after” strategy to suppress dissent and intimidate citizens into accepting its preferred outcome.

Russia and China immediately leapt to Maduro’s defense, as did key ally Cuba, while neighboring Colombia’s leftist president was noncommittal. The strongest attempt to resolve the electoral crisis came from Brazilian presidential advisor Celso Amorim, who remained in Caracas for days after the election trying to broker a negotiated solution — even pitching an election do-over. He returned to Brasilia when it became clear that Maduro had no intention of relinquishing power.

[ Full article ]

Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela functions as international criminal organization, report finds

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay, May 20 (UPI) — Nicolás Maduro’s regime has transformed Venezuela into an international criminal organization, using state institutions for internal repression, looting of national resources and collaboration with organized crime networks operating throughout the region, according to a report presented to the Organization of American States.

The 2024-2025 Annual Report by the CASLA Institute, issued last week, also reveals that international actors such as Cuba and Russia have played a key role in strengthening the Maduro regime’s repressive structures, consolidating what the report describes as a transnational criminal state.

Outgoing OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro stated that “the regime of Nicolás Maduro has committed a new series of crimes against humanity,” reiterating that these acts follow a structural pattern that should be investigated by the International Criminal Court.

“There is already sufficient evidence to prosecute the chain of command of the Venezuelan regime,” Almagro added, identifying Maduro as the principal party responsible.

Tamara Suju, executive director of the CASLA Institute, which prepared the report, said that the Venezuelan regime is a tyranny structured as a transnational criminal network, where state institutions “have been captured and systematically used for illicit purposes and internal and external repression.”

“This structure combines elements of political, economic and criminal control sustained by a political-military leadership that maintains its power through the use of judicial, intelligence, police and military bodies,” Suju said.

Chapter 2 of the report details the convergence between the state apparatus and transnational organized crime networks.

Former officials and dissidents testified that the regime’s primary motivation to preserve power is aided through illicit enrichment. Members of the regime’s leadership own properties and businesses through front men, both in Venezuela and abroad, facilitating money laundering from illicit activities.

The regime has established alliances with criminal groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the Colombian National Liberation Army, or ELN, which engage in drug trafficking, contraband smuggling and illegal mining.

The report highlights the participation of high-ranking Venezuelan government officials, involved in the so-called “Cartel of the Suns.” in drug trafficking operations, facilitating the transportation of drugs through Venezuela to international markets.

In addition, with the permission of the regime, criminal mega-gangs, such as the “Tren de Aragua,” operate across Venezuelan borders, establishing operations in other Latin American countries. These gangs are involved in crimes such as extortion, kidnapping, human trafficking and arms trafficking.

According to the report, international actors like Cuba and Russia have played a key role in strengthening the Maduro regime, shielding it from external pressure and sustaining its criminal structure.

While Cuba has provided the ideological and technical basis for repression, the Russian government has reinforced the logistical, military and geopolitical apparatus, allowing Maduro to maintain power and expand his networks with greater impunity and sophistication, the report said.

Almagro expressed his concern about the situation in the country due to the high level of repression. He noted that the repression worsened last year during the electoral period and afterward, when Maduro refused to acknowledge defeat in the July 28 presidential elections.

The CASLA report describes how the Maduro regime’s intelligence agencies carry out surveillance, arbitrary detentions and torture of political opponents, activists and ordinary citizens. They are also accused of operating clandestine detention centers where serious human rights violations are committed.

“Crimes against humanity in Venezuela have been systematically used as a tool of political and social control, executed both inside and outside the country. Every branch of the state bears responsibility for the planning, incitement, omission and execution of these crimes. In the context of the elections, the regime needed to intimidate and terrorize the population to avoid losing control, as it had been preparing electoral fraud from the outset,” CASLA’s Suju said.

The report concludes that Venezuela operates as a “terrorist state,” using terror as public policy to silence dissent and maintain power.

The CASLA Institute called on the international community not to recognize the upcoming regional and legislative elections scheduled for May 25, arguing that they lack legitimacy due to previous electoral fraud.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/05/20/paraguay-venezuela-maduro-criminal-organization-report/1141747760867/

Human Rights Watch, April 30, 2025

Punished for Seeking Change 

Killings, Enforced Disappearances and Arbitrary Detention Following Venezuela’s 2024 Election

By Human Rights Watch

Summary

On July 28, 2024, Venezuelans turned out to vote in large numbers despite more than a decade of systematic repression and human rights violations under President Nicolás Maduro.

Hours after polls closed, the Electoral Council declared that Maduro had been re-elected, with over 51 percent of the vote. The United Nations Electoral Technical Team and the Carter Center, which observed the elections, said the process lacked transparency and integrity, and questioned the declared result. The Carter Center said that the precinct-level tally sheets published by the opposition, which seemed to indicate that opposition candidate Edmundo González had won, were reliable and “authentic.” The Electoral Council failed to release the official tally sheets and did not conduct the required audits or citizen verification processes mandated by law.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in demonstrations, most of them peaceful, demanding a transparent and fair counting of the votes. They were met with brutal repression.

This report—based on 100 interviews with victims, their relatives, eyewitnesses, and members of human rights groups, and on analysis and verification of more than 90 videos and photographs—documents human rights violations committed against protesters, bystanders, opposition leaders, and critics during the protests and over the months that followed. It implicates Venezuelan authorities and pro-government armed groups known as “colectivos” in widespread abuses, including killings of protesters and bystanders, enforced disappearances of opposition party members and foreign nationals, arbitrary detention and prosecution of children and others, and torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

Human Rights Watch received credible reports of 25 killings during protests across the country immediately after the elections. Most of these killings occurred on July 29 and 30, with most victims being under the age of 40 and from low-income neighborhoods. Credible evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch points to the involvement of Venezuelan security forces in some of these killings. In other cases, “colectivos” appear to be responsible.

These “colectivo” groups played a key role in suppressing demonstrations. Security forces initially sought to control or disperse protests by setting up barricades, using tear gas, and carrying out arrests. When demonstrations persisted, “colectivo” members would arrive—often armed—to intimidate or attack protesters.

Since the election, over 2,000 people have been detained in connection with protests, political opposition activities, and human rights work. Many have been arrested for participating in demonstrations, expressing criticism of the government, or supporting the opposition. Prosecutors charged hundreds of people with broadly defined offenses, such as “incitement to hatred,” “resistance to authority,” and “terrorism,” which carry severe sentences of up to 30 years.

Those arrested have often faced proceedings riddled with abuses. Authorities have frequently denied arresting people they had in fact detained or refused to disclose the whereabouts of detainees to their relatives, subjecting them to enforced disappearances as defined under international law. This has forced families to search for their loved ones in multiple detention centers—and even morgues—for days or weeks. Many detainees have been held incommunicado and deprived of visits for extended periods, some from the day of their arrest. Most have not been allowed to see a lawyer of their choice, despite requests from them or their families, while others have never met with their court-appointed public defender while detained. Detainees have been repeatedly denied access to their legal case files. Many were charged in virtual and group hearings that further undermined their due process rights.

Security forces arrested Sofía Sahagún Ortíz, a Spanish-Venezuelan citizen, on October 23 when she was boarding a plane at the Caracas airport. The family’s lawyer went to the Attorney General’s Office and the Ombudsperson’s Office asking officials for information on her whereabouts, but authorities denied the request for information. In mid-December, she was allowed to call her family and told them she was being held in a police center in Caracas. In January, the Ombudsperson’s Office informed Sahagún Ortíz’s family that in December she had been taken before an anti-terrorism judge, in a virtual hearing, and that the following day she had been transferred to Helicoide, Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional, SEBIN) headquarters, in Caracas. At time of writing, she remained detained, facing several charges, including “financing of terrorism.”

Venezuela’s Attorney General’s Office claims that roughly 2,000 people detained following the elections have been released. Many have been forced to sign documents prohibiting them from disclosing information about their arrest or legal proceedings. In some cases, they were also compelled to record videos stating that their rights were respected during their detention.

Security officers in black uniforms took Estuardo Pérez Olmedo (pseudonym), a community human rights defender, from his home in early August. They told him they were following a “presidential order.” Over four months, he was transferred between six detention centers, enduring harsh conditions, including lack of access to water, food, and medicine. Security forces pressured him to falsely accuse opposition figures of organizing protests. In November, he learned he was being accused of setting fires during protests that took place on July 29 and 30 near his home. He denied any involvement in these events. He was charged with terrorism and incitement to hatred. Upon his release in December, he was forced to sign a document saying that his rights had not been violated. The criminal investigation against him remains open.

The post-electoral crackdown has forced elected officials, local authorities, campaign coordinators, polling station workers, human rights defenders, and journalists to leave the country. Many are seeking protection abroad, where they face asylum systems in Latin America that are plagued with delays, and stalled resettlement proceedings to the United States.

A decade since Maduro took office, domestic and international efforts to protect human rights in Venezuela are at a critical juncture. While most governments have criticized Maduro’s power grab, repression in Venezuela has reached new heights.

Years of varying international and domestic policies towards Venezuela—from “maximum pressure” under the first administration of President Donald J. Trump in the United States to government and opposition talks supported by the Biden administration that help lead to the 2024 elections—have failed to produce a transition to democratic, rights-respecting governance. In the context of increased global crises, past failures risk future paralysis: a turning away from initiatives to protect rights in Venezuela and a normalization of grave human rights violations, unfair elections, and political repression.

The current Trump administration is seeking migration cooperation and the release of detained American citizens from Maduro, including through diplomatic engagement and sectoral sanctions. Some recent statements and decisions adopted by the administration show worrying indications that the US government intends to prioritize these goals over broader efforts to promote human rights and the rule of law in Venezuela. Given the diplomatic weight of the United States in the region and the increasing backlash against migration across Latin America, other governments are likely to adopt similar approaches, deprioritizing principled policies toward Venezuela. Simultaneously, Colombia and other countries bordering Venezuela may feel the need to seek Maduro’s cooperation on a varying range of issues, including security.

Maduro is likely to use such short-term cooperation to try to legitimize his power grab. That would only set the stage for increased repression in Venezuela and a new outflow of Venezuelans, with new refugees and migrants joining the millions of others who have left the country in the last decade.

Instead of giving up on human rights in Venezuela, governments in Latin America, Europe, and the United States should build on the admittedly insufficient results achieved so far. The July 2024 election and its aftermath deprived the government of any credible democratic legitimacy and helped spur renewed global condemnation of Maduro’s abuse of power. This is thanks in large part to brave efforts of Venezuelans who risked—and often suffered—grave human rights violations, including many whose stories are documented in this report.

A central issue is that, to date, foreign and domestic efforts have failed to make a dent in Maduro’s domestic carrot-and-stick incentives that reward abusive authorities and security forces, making them loyal to the government, while punishing, torturing, and forcing into exile critics, opponents, and even security force members who support democracy and human rights.

To disrupt these incentives, foreign governments should fully support existing accountability efforts against perpetrators of human rights atrocities in Venezuela—including by imposing carefully-designed targeted sanctions and supporting the continued work of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (FFM), established by the UN Human Rights Council, and the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose prosecutor is investigating potential crimes against humanity in Venezuela. This support also requires defending the work and independence of the ICC, particularly in light of recent Trump administration sanctions targeting the court.

They should also explore ways to encourage or pressure governments that assist Venezuela in its repression to end such activity. This includes the Cuban government, which according to evidence compiled by the FFM, has “trained, advised and participated in intelligence and counter-intelligence” with counterparts at Venezuela’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dirección General de Contrainteligencia Militar, DGCIM) and provided training to the SEBIN.

Foreign governments should also use their engagement with the Maduro government as leverage to secure verifiable, even if gradual or stepwise, improvements in human rights—particularly the release of people, both nationals and foreigners, who have been forcibly “disappeared” or arbitrarily detained.

Importantly, foreign governments should expand support for Venezuelan civil society groups, independent journalists, and others advocating for democracy and rights. They should also urgently expand protections for those forced to leave the country due to persecution and other forms of abuse. In particular, the administration of President Trump should reinstate key sources of support that were suspended as part of the United States’ larger rollback of foreign assistance. It should also consider reinstating the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and resettlement programs for vetted Venezuelans fleeing abuses in their country. Latin American and European governments should help address financing gaps and expand their efforts to protect Venezuelans who flee.

With 8 million Venezuelans abroad, the rights crisis in Venezuela remains arguably the most consequential in the Western Hemisphere. The region cannot give up on the plight of Venezuelans and their struggle for democracy and human rights.

[ Full Report ]

https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/04/30/punished-seeking-change/killings-enforced-disappearances-and-arbitrary-detention

Miami Herald, August 21, 2024

As Venezuelans face political upheaval, Havana should stop interfering in Venezuela’s internal affairs*

By John Suarez

Eleven days before the election, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro predicted a blood bath and a fratricidal civil war if he lost last month’s presidential elections.

On July 28, 2024, opposition candidate Edmundo González defeated Maduro by more than two to one, despite multiple irregularities committed by Maduro regime operatives. González won 67% of the vote, beating Maduro, who garnered 30%.

Now, Maduro is attempting to make his prediction a reality. Thousands of Venezuelans have been arbitrarily detained, and so far 24 have been killed with witnesses identifying government agents in 11 of the extrajudicial deaths, according to Provea, the Venezuela based human rights NGO.

This week, Amnesty International denounced the Maduro government for enacting an “anti-NGO law that punishes efforts to assist victims and defend human rights.” Genocide Watch is reporting that in poor neighborhoods the letter “X” is being painted on people’s homes to show they do not support Maduro, exposing them to possible retaliation.

Things can get a lot worse, especially if Cuba continues to interfere in Venezuela’s internal affairs.

In 2017, Maduro ordered the formation of the FAES – the Spanish acronym for the Bolivarian National Police’s Special Action Forces.” According to Caracas Chronicles, “they are police death squads in all but name.”

That same year, the Miami Herald reported that it had a secret recording of a Venezuelan general advocating for the use of snipers against street demonstrators.

A 2019 report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights found that 6,856 Venezuelans were extrajudicially executed between January 2018 and May 2019 by Maduro’s “security forces, particularly the special forces (FAES).”

Andrés Oppenheimer, syndicated foreign affairs columnist for the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, wants to know what is holding up the order of arrest for Maduro in his Aug. 17, column, “Human rights leaders demand action: Why is the ICC delaying Maduro’s arrest warrant?”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has been looking into Maduro’s possible crimes against humanity for the past six years.

The ICC also looked into Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader in less than a year.

And, after a seven-month inquiry, the ICC prosecutor declared in mid-May that he will seek arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and the leader of the terrorist organization Hamas for crimes committed during the Israel-Hamas war that broke out after the October attack on Israel.

Will the ICC finally do the same for Maduro?

The role that Havana is playing during this crucial political crisis inside Venezuela should not be underestimated.

This week, in an interview, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado discussed Havana’s ongoing involvement inside Venezuela. “There are serious complaints from national and international human rights organizations…Several of the Venezuelan opposition victims have reported abuses committed [by Cuban oppressors]. We have known for a long time that Cuba has had a terrible impact in multiple areas: in methods of repression, persecution, espionage, and torture. And we have seen truly heartless things in recent days.”

Others have previously noted Havana’s significant presence in Venezuela. Beginning with guerilla expeditions in the 1960s and culminating in the recruitment of Nicolas Maduro as a Cuban mole, Cuban Communist officials recognized that if Venezuela, with all of its natural resources, fell, the rest of Latin America would soon follow.

Back in 2018, Secretary General Luis Almagro of the Organization of American States warned that “there are an estimated 46,000 Cubans living in Venezuela, part of an occupation force that is trained in repression, intelligence work and tracking the activities of civilians.”

Havana’s intelligence and security apparatus “has created a permissive environment for international terrorists to live and thrive within Venezuela,” reported the U.S. State Department in 2021.

Venezuelan torture victims have testified how their sessions were overseen by the political police at Venezuela’s national intelligence agency, with assistance from Cuban intelligence officers.

As Venezuelans fight for democracy and a fair presidential election in their country, now is the time for the world’s democracies to send a clear and unambiguous message to Havana: Hands off Venezuela! It is long past the time for the Cuban repressive apparatus to leave.

John Suarez is the Executive Director of the Center for a Free Cuba. Suarez was a program officer for Latin America Programs at Freedom House. http://www.cubacenter.org/

https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/article291231015.html

*This was the original suggested title

The Washington Times, August 20, 2024

Free world must impose sanctions on Maduro regime

Countries siding with Venezuelan dictator should also face consequences

By John Suarez

OPINION:

Since Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro  launched his attempt to steal the election that he lost in a landslide on July 28, thousands have been detained, 24 Venezuelans have been killed by government agents, and threats are made daily by the regime that it will go against Venezuelan opposition leaders Edmundo Gonzalez or Maria Corina Machado.

Many underestimate the role of Cuba in the present crisis. The Castro regime assisted Hugo Chavez in his rise to power in Venezuela in 1999, and oversaw the succession of Mr. Maduro, who took over when Chavez died of cancer in 2013.

“It is estimated that the Cuban presence in Venezuela is 46,000 people, an occupation force that teaches to torture, to repress, to do intelligence tasks, civil documentation, migration,” said Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, on Dec. 7, 2018.

“Venezuela has turned into an ally in the region of Russia, Iran, China, Cuba,” Ms. Machado said in her Aug. 11 interview on CNN with Fareed Zakaria. In the interview, she also observed that “Venezuela is a safe haven for irregular activities of criminal networks that are spreading in the region, not only narco trafficking, but illegal mining, traffic of human beings.”

The Cuban military dictatorship facilitated these relationships between Venezuela, Iran, China, Russia, and criminal networks involved in drug trafficking, as well as the creation of new ones such as the Soles Cartel, which is linked to the Venezuelan military . Havana served as a middle-man building alliances with regimes hostile to the United States and seeking to expand their influence in the Western Hemisphere to counter U.S. power.

In May, the Casla Institute, an organization that promotes democracy and the rule of law based in the Czech Republic, documented in its annual report how Cuban officials oversee, with Mr. Maduro’s approval, the repressive apparatus in Venezuela. Cuban officials are “the ‘experts’ who direct the torture to make the detainees say what the regime needs,” the report said.

“We have the largest torture center in Latin America,” Ms. Corina Machado said in her February 7, 2024, appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

The Venezuelan opposition leader added, “Cuban agents have been involved in torture cases in our country.”

The crisis stems from the Biden administration’s gambit of promising sanctions relief and normalized ties in exchange for free and fair elections. The more unified and well-organized democratic opposition in Venezuela is exposing the dictatorship’s falsehood, while simultaneously maintaining nonviolent discipline in the face of repeated acts of violence and repression by regime agents and their sympathizers.

What is happening in Venezuela is part of a disturbing pattern.

The Biden Administration loosened sanctions on both Russia, and Iran providing the hostile nations with more resources. The results have been disastrous.  In the case of Moscow, as troops amassed on the border of Ukraine, the United States threatened new sanctions if the invasion materialized, but did not apply them before Vladimir Putin invaded in February 2022.

Iran was provided with more resources while cracking down on Iran’s pro-democracy movement, and funded its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, and Hezbollah to increase their attacks on Israel.

Today there are wars in Europe and the Middle East, and a huge loss of life, and it appears that this policy of loosening sanctions and inviting more chaos will now engulf Latin America.

The Biden Administration made a deal with Mr. Maduro that if he held free elections, then the United States would lift all sanctions, and normalize relations with Venezuela. This has created a crisis that can benefit the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people who voted for change by an overwhelming majority on July 28.

Through diplomatic channels and nonviolent means, including sanctions, democratic nations have the opportunity to pressure Maduro to respect the results of the Venezuelan presidential election. There will be hemispheric repercussions if the democratic world is unable to effectively assist Venezuelans defend their popular sovereignty using nonviolent means.

Caracas has bought a large quantity of heavy weapons from Moscow, and Tehran. Mr. Maduro in 2023 began threatening to invade and annex Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of neighboring Guyana’s territory, to stoke nationalist sentiment in Venezuela, and seize its rich oil deposits. It is highly likely that if Mr. Maduro survives the electoral challenge from Mr. González that he will pursue war with Guyana in an attempt to gain support but more importantly to advance Russian, Chinese, and Iranian objectives in the South Atlantic.

The democratic world must do more now to rally, work together,and impose multilateral sanctions to ostracize the Venezuelan dictatorship as was done with the apartheid regime in South Africa. It must target individual Venezuelan officials who engaged in crimes against humanity with sanctions and charges in the International Criminal Court.  Other countries siding with Mr. Maduro must also be sanctioned and publicly called out.

The future of Latin America will be decided in Venezuela over the next few weeks, and if autocracy triumphs, war is bound to follow. Providing carrots, such as amnesty and safe harbor is fine. But sticks must also be displayed to discourage the continued brutalization of Venezuelans.

Jeffrey Scott Shapiro’s Washington Times opinion piece on July 30 calling for the U.S. to “arrest Maduro on 2020 narco-terrorism charges” raises the question: Is there a red notice out on Nicolas Maduro with interpol?

• John Suarez is a human rights activist and executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba and a former program officer for Latin America Programs at Freedom House.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/aug/20/free-world-must-impose-sanctions-on-maduro-regime/

Miami Herald August 1, 2024

Reflections on nonviolent resistance in Venezuela | Opinion

By Regis Iglesias Ramírez And John Suárez

The Venezuelan people and democratic leaders now have a duty to defend popular sovereignty as demonstrated civically through their vote for freedom, and they appear to be doing so.

Some may argue that they should not have gone to the elections with a National Electoral Council that is an extension of the chavista regime, among other adversities and evidence that fraud, as in previous occasions, would be the regime’s way of maintaining power, delaying the inevitable day of freedom.

The process should have been contested when chavismo violated the Barbados accords and María Corina Machado was barred from participating as a candidate.

It should have been flagged the moment international observers were denied entry after it was decided they’d participate in the elections, and the irregularities that occurred during the day, which exemplified the gangster-like chavista regime’s intentions, should have been more forcefully denounced.

Despite the regime’s perverted and criminal nature, which is true of communist governments, the Venezuelans chose to accept the challenge. They opted to vote for Edmundo González , and the vast majority supported change.

This happened in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Albania, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Chile, and South Africa. People under repressive regimes, as Venezuelans are now doing, follow agreements between the parties to promote and ensure the legitimacy of those processes. They overcame tyranny by their ballots because their leaders were steadfast, and the international community was supportive.

Those who ignore this and try to diminish the civic struggle that people have chosen to achieve their freedom or who undervalue nonviolence as a path to free and prosperous societies have every right to believe otherwise. Still, violence is not a guarantee of success.

In their 2008 study “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict,” university academics Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth compared the outcomes of 323 violent and nonviolent resistance actions from 1900 to 2006. They found that major nonviolent initiatives were successful 53% of the time, compared to 26% of violent resistance actions.

The investigation additionally demonstrates “that nonviolent campaigns are more likely to succeed than violent campaigns in the face of brutal repression.”

Those who believe in and offer extreme remedies, which are not radical because radical means getting to the root of the problem, and the central issue in totalitarian systems is a lack of popular sovereignty, should amass troops and war resources to achieve their objective. However, this would be a mistake because violence rarely results in freedom or healthy nations.

In 1981, Narcotics Anonymous published “the basic text,” which stated that “insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.” The same is true for both addicts and people who resort to violence.

What will happen in Venezuela now is up to democratic leaders and their voters. Let us hope Venezuelans do not grow weary but continue in their civic demand through their mobilization for the nation’s freedom.

What will the international community do? The Biden administration said Thursday it is getting ready to officially recognize González as the country’s president-elect.

This is also a subject free nations must address. The supportive position is to refuse to recognize the dictator and establish an independent commission to review all voting records and thus declare the civic opposition’s victory, as all evidence indicates is the will of the Venezuelan people.

If those who have taken over Venezuela over the past 25 years do not accept it, then impose an international boycott, as was done in Apartheid South Africa in the 1980s. We have requested the same sanctions for Communist Cuba, as well as for Maduro’s dictatorship.

Venezuelans are ultimately the protagonists. They will determine whether they will overcome tyranny this time or whether they will have to wait over 65 years to obtain their freedom, as we Cubans still do.

Regis Iglesias Ramírez is the spokesperson for the Christian Liberation Movement. John J. Suárez is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba

https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/article290673149.html