Maduro’s tattered presidency

Jan 19, 2019 Editorial

Last week Thursday, it was painful – for most if not all Guyanese who did – to watch Nicolás Maduro sworn in for a second term as President of Venezuela after a blatantly rigged election and especially given the fact that Georgetown and Caracas have not enjoyed fruitful and friendly relations of late.
On the day of his inauguration, Guyana voted with 18 other members of the Organization of American States (OAS) to not recognize the legitimacy of Maduro’s second term as president of Venezuela, thus leaving his presidency in tatters.
However, his recent inauguration does not bode well for Guyana because of his refusal to cease from issuing military and other threats to annex the resource-rich Essequibo region, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory. His most recent threat was the declaration that Venezuela plans to remap its offshore oil territory which will definitely include the oil-rich Stabroek Block which is Guyana’s.
This latest intimidation by the Maduro regime has been deemed absurd by the Guyana government, and could lead to escalating tension with the U.S. oil giant, ExxonMobil, which continues to explore for more oil.
In light of his deliberate disregard for democracy, his inauguration was shunned by a number of world and regional leaders included the Lima Group which is made up of 14 Latin American countries, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and members of the OAS, all of which have dubbed his re-election illegitimate, as the polls were boycotted by the majority of the Opposition parties.
The ceremony was, however, attended by several South American leftist leaders, hundreds of his diehard supporters and the military top brass. Among the other countries represented were Russia, China, Cuba, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Iraq, Turkey, and Mexico, as well as the Caribbean nations of St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.
Following his swearing in ceremony by Venezuela’s Supreme Court, the 56-year-old leader flashed the victory sign and vowed to take strong action against those who opposed his regime and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the country’s institutions. Maduro has also threatened to take diplomatic action against those neighbouring countries which have refused to recognize his reelection and his government. The isolated former bus driver and union leader, who was the hand-picked successor of the late leftist firebrand President, Hugo Chavez has gained control of virtually all of Venezuela’s political institutions and enjoys the support of the military.
However, as it now stands, things are not looking good for the Venezuelan people, as many blamed Maduro for the country’s economic woes, which have left much of the population living in poverty with shortages of basic foods and medicines. He must deal with the drastic economic decline, which according to the International Monetary Fund, the country’s inflation rate has spiraled to 1.35 million percent in 2018 and will hit a staggering 10 million percent by 2020. The IMF also predicts that Venezuela’s GDP contracted significantly to reach an all-time low of minus nine percent in 2018, its exchange rate has dropped by more than 2000 percent and its stock and bond markets have collapsed.
Since 2015, more than three million Venezuelans have migrated to the U.S and several neighbouring countries, including Guyana. However, Maduro has blamed the collapse of Venezuela’s economy and the shortages of basic human amenities on U.S sanctions which he claimed have cost the country in excess of US$60 billion in 2018, and another US $40 billion in 2017.
Over the years, the Opposition parties have tried every means, including street protests to dislodge the Maduro regime, but they remained fragmented. Many prominent opposition leaders are either in jail or in exile and various factions continue to squabble over power while the National Assembly, the one institution that they have control over, has been left impotent after Maduro created the rival Constituent Assembly and filled the Supreme Court with loyalists judges who have annulled every decision made by Parliament.

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