David Noriega, VICE News: This is why Venezuela’s Maduro is still in power
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Nicolás Maduro has had a tumultuous 2019.
He's been locked in a power struggle with 35-year-old Juan Guaidó since January, when the young opposition leader declared himself Venezuela’s rightful interim president with the backing of 50 countries, including the U.S. He's faced several rounds of sanctions that have crippled the country’s oil sector and sharply exacerbated an already disastrous crisis, making an economic recovery all but impossible any time soon. He's overseen one massive power outage after another, leaving entire neighborhoods without running water for days or even weeks at a time.
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WNU Editor: The regime of Nicolas Maduro is still in power because of the following reasons:
- loyalty among the upper military establishment who are primarily Maduro political appointees.
- keeping a military force of about 10,000 soldiers who are properly paid and taken care of in the event of a military uprising.
- an intelligence network that roots out opposition leaders. An intelligence network that has a strong Cuban presence and now a Russian one.
- the 'colectivos' keep order in the barrios by controlling who gets aid, and who does not.
- control of the media and the dissemination of information.
- financial support (until recently) from China, and financial/military support from Russia (paid for by future oil sales).
- a government bureaucracy that is sill loyal to Maduro.
But the biggest reason why Maduro is still in power is because a good segment of the population believe in Chavismo, and have trust that Maduro will still carry on this legacy. My one contact in Caracas tells me that he believes about 30% of the population are still loyal to the revolution, even though they are suffering terribly right now. I can understand this reasoning. When the Soviet Union was falling apart and everyone was suffering economically, support for Lenin/the Revolution/Communism/etc. was still strong among a third of the population. It was only when the other two thirds finally got fed up, that these dinosaurs were thrown out. Will the same fate happen in Venezuela? I give it another year or two. On a side note. This loyalty to a political party and/or ideology is universal. Case in point .... I live in Canada and there was an election in the province of Alberta this week. The Socialist government that was in power for the past four years produced a legacy of high unemployment, the collapse of the oil industry (even though the oil industry is booming worldwide), record deficits, high and confiscatory taxes to small and medium businesses, the highest minimum wage in Canada that has put many small businesses out of business, and a social policy that many Albertans are in disagreement with. They lost the election but they still received the support and vote of 1/3 of the province. In a normal situation, these people should have received zero support for the harm they did to the population, and the divisiveness of their rule. But they got this 1/3 support because the cause is more important than its impact and the harm that it will cause. The same can be said about Venezuela.
