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Author & Background
Mario Caraballo is a retired U.S. Army Warrant Officer and Senior Executive Service with operational experience in crisis management, counterintelligence and Human Intelligence. He is a managing partner at Se7ven Arrows Crisis Management Group. The Struggle for Democracy in Venezuela is a retrospective look at an analysis written by Mr. Caraballo on 19 October 2017.
The Struggle for Democracy in Venezuela-19 October 2017
Not even the casual observer would argue that Venezuela is a Democratic State. This was again made evident during the regional elections on 15 October 2017. The revolutionary government of Nicholas Maduro once again used elections as a weapon and not to measure the people’s political will for change.
In revolutionary doctrine, democracy is just a sarcastic word in the manipulation of the people’s hope for a better life. There is no democracy in Venezuela. Venezuela is at best a Castro-communist puppet state that insists in holding power in spite of the total rejection of their policies by 90% of the population.
On 15 October 2017 the opposition candidates overwhelmingly won the popular election in 23 states and yet the government announced its own victory in all but five states. And those who “won” the regional elections are now obligated to swear in with the illegal and unconstitutional (Cuban) National Constituent Assembly instead of the constitutionally elected Venezuelan National Assembly. If they do not they will be disqualified, imprisoned and a new governor assigned.
Many Venezuelans knew that the elections were being manipulated and would have no impact on a real political change in the country. As such some called on boycotting the elections. Others decided it was better to have their vote stolen from them rather than freely give the elections to the government. The government doesn’t care if the people abstain or vote, they will call the victory whether they win it democratically or dictate it with fraudulent results.
They stay in power and at the same time their fraudulent actions dishearten the electorate to participate in future “elections.” What the Venezuelan electorate does not understand is that this activity by a dictatorial government is not only a direct attack on participative democracy; it is the end game argument. If the government can convince the electorate that it’s not worth their participation, then communism wins over democracy.
It is almost impossible at this time to convince the Venezuelan people to stay in the struggle for democracy based on their cultural values of fair play. If the government does not play fair then they don’t want to play. What they must understand is that this is not play for their Marxists rulers, it is war, and wars are not won by walking off the battlefield.
The people of Venezuela have struggled for 70 years to establish and maintain democracy in spite of the numerous and continuous attacks by dogmatic actors. After the introduction of the “Bolivarian Revolution” by Hugo Chavez in 1999 the basis of the movement was “participative democracy.” Venezuelans believed the promise and many followed the firebrand populist into the lie.
What must be remembered by the international community and analysts is that they were deceived (betrayed) and would have never followed Chavez for the present Castro-communist agenda. Now that the revolution is in power they openly violate democratic policy and the country’s constitution because the revolution is not democratic and in truth never was. The revolution has lost 90% of the popular vote and so the government has taken off its democratic mask and will rule from here on as a centralized communist state.
There is no room for political diversity in revolutionary doctrine. There is zero tolerance for dissention or opposition. A true democrat welcomes dialog, political diversity and is willing to negotiate peaceful results during conflict.
There is no “power sharing” in Marxism.
The Venezuelan democratic opposition does not truly understand this reality and as such has continued to fall into the trap of dialog and negotiation with a party that has zero intention of looking for a peaceful resolution and only looks to delay their inevitable collapse.
The “peaceful revolution” of Chavez is prepared and financed to seek their sinister objectives with armed conflict if need be. So conflict now or conflict later, but there is no peaceful solution against authoritarianism.
Autocrats and dictators are not voted out of office. The hunger, lack of medicine, high inflation and the tragedy that is crushing the Venezuelan people is an intentional strangle hold to force their submission to the revolution and for the government to hold power. For the Maduro government holding power is not motivated solely by political ideology, it is primarily motivated by criminal intent.
The revolution is doing to Venezuela what it did to Cuba and insists on doing to the rest of the Americas. They could care less if their people suffer as long as the revolution against the democratic west goes forward. The immense human suffering in Venezuela is not a by product of revolutionary doctrine it is an essential strategy of obligating the country to fall in line with revolutionary doctrine.
As long as there is no democracy in Venezuela there will be no stability for the region. The threat of the revolutionary government in Venezuela impacts not only the people of Venezuela but all democratic nations. Their control of the military is a product of the government corrupting the military by giving them active participation in drug trafficking, contraband and organized crime.
The military only supports the corrupt Maduro government because they are getting rich doing it. If the government falls so do they. No matter the cost of the Venezuelan people who get poorer by the day. The government has weaponized crime as a tool to stay in power. As another part of the revolutionary strategy international terrorism has been adopted as a weapon against the western democratic states.
Terrorism is part of their asymmetric war on the west. This includes direct financial and material support to the FARC, ELN, ETA, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and ISIS. Their agreement is twofold: A safe haven to prepare to attack the west and in return defend the revolution in Venezuela.
The Venezuelan people are totally helpless against this threat. And to have the threat trifecta, the Maduro government is clandestinely mining and exporting uranium and coltan. Drugs, terrorism and nuclear material are all reason enough to not ignore the revolutionary government of Venezuela. Another good reason would be the good people of Venezuela. They deserve rescue from the destructive oppression imposed on them by this criminal government.
The human suffering is massive and persistent. The list of reasons not to ignore the plight of the Venezuelan people also includes the protection of human rights, the rule of law, and the continuation of democracy in the region.
It doesn’t matter to the Venezuelan people why the international community intervenes, but it is important that the democratic west steps up, puts on its big boy pants and rescues Venezuela from this catastrophe. They cannot do it alone. The time has come.
