A dictator’s birth

We are witnessing the birth of a dictator. With his newly-minted assembly, established under dubious authority, Maduro will simply continue his bloody quest to silence opponents, thereby ensuring the end of free society. If there was any doubt as to his intentions, the events of the last few days have clarified them.

The ink was hardly dry on Sunday’s shambolic vote when Maduro made a speech threatening to jail opposition legislators and promising to restructure the office of attorney general Luisa Ortega, who has become a vocal critic of his government. “Some of them will end up in cells facing justice, while others will end up in a psychiatric ward because they have shown clear signs of insanity,” Maduro said on Sunday night. “We must impose order.” By “order” Maduro appears to have meant the removal of Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma, opposition leaders, from their homes in the dead of the night. Both had been under house arrest and lawyers said there was no clear legal basis for any change in this status. “12:27 in the morning: the moment when the dictatorship kidnaps Leopoldo at my house,” López’s wife, Lilian Tintori, wrote on Twitter.

Vanessa Ledezma posted a similar video of Ledezma. In the footage, women are heard screaming as men dressed in uniforms indicating they are from Venezuelan intelligence agencies take Ledezma away in pajamas.

The situation is not likely to be helped by the announcement by the US, of sanctions and the threatening of further oil industry measures. Such a move simply plays into the hands of Maduro who has dismissed all opposition to him as being orchestrated by US forces. Additionally, the proposed sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry are likely to further cripple the Venezuelan economy. Such a move is likely to hurt the Venezuelan people more than Maduro who has a strong hold on all of Venezuela’s key institutions.

However, the US is not alone in its condemnation. Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Paraguay have already said they will not recognize Sunday’s vote. Maduro said Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua have expressed support. Russia also expressed support for Maduro and in a thinly-veiled warning to the US said it hoped that countries which “apparently want to increase economic pressure on Caracas will display restraint and abandon their destructive plans”.

Trinidad and Tobago and Caricom cannot condone any process that dismantles democratic values and silences the will of the people.

While we have always upheld the principle that no country should interfere in the sovereign affairs of others, and while we may disagree with the imposition of financial sanctions, we cannot condone Venezuela’s descent into totalitarianism. Hundreds of people have died in protests and attacks over the last few weeks and the situation is getting worse by the day.

Caricom, as a block, has called for a peaceful solution, offering to mediate. But such an offer is conditional on all parties approaching any mediation process with good faith.

The extra-judicial removal of opposition figures from house arrest would suggest the conditions of any engagement now need to be redrawn.

Caricom must act urgently and cannot afford to stand by as a dictator takes complete control.