Nicolás Maduro is not content with dynamiting the partial agreements of Barbados by ordering the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) to annul the opposition primaries, which underpinned the political phenomenon that María Corina Machado represents today. The people’s president has gone a step further by accusing the Unitary Platform and its own unitary leader, former political prisoner Leopoldo López and former governor Henrique Capriles, of violating the Barbados agreements.
“The extreme right, they are incorrigible. In their mischief of cheating and evil, of fraud and violence. They are anti-patriarch, traitors come out of their pores. We signed an agreement to bring them into the fold of democracy, but they left there and now they have started a campaign against the Essequibo referendum, which violates the Barbados agreements and offends the people,” Maduro shouted surrounded by the main leaders of Chavismo.
Once again the world is upside down, that unknown dimension that the revolution likes so much, which also has extensive experience when it comes to breaking agreements, even with its admired Francisco. The Pope complained about Caracas’ attitude after the 2016 and 2017 talks, which ended with Chavista leaders accusing Pietro Parolin, Francis’s right-hand man, of being a fascist. The same coined today against Machado.
On this occasion, the revolutionary strategy involves taking advantage of the nationalist sentiment around the border territory of Essequibo, in dispute with Guyana for two centuries and administered by Georgetown. A territory forgotten by Hugo Chávez and by Maduro himself for two decades, as Guyana is a historical ally of Cuba and because it is part of the Caribbean community, to which Caracas has always turned to obtain international support.
The tables have turned after the million-dollar energy discoveries in Essequibo, which have twisted the Chavista strategy with respect to Guyana, whose president Maduro accuses of being a “wimp in the pay of Exxon Mobil,” the American oil company responsible for the gold discoveries. black. The Bolivarian Government has called a referendum for December 3 on Essequibo, when opinion in the country about the Venezuelan nature of the disputed territory is unanimous. Something like raising a question in Spain so that citizens can vote on whether the potato omelette is Spanish or not.
“Maduro is trying to inject nationalist steroids into his re-election campaign and wants to polarize public opinion that continues in the wake of the effects of the primaries and the election of a new opposition leadership. He wants to unite, around his figure, one of the points on which all Venezuelans agree: the border wound that exists to the east of our territory. Nothing like a border conflict, with a military vocation, to try to cleanse the face and mobilize citizens subjected to a dictatorship in its darkest hours. drops in popularity,” underlines sociologist Gianni Finco, who has confirmed how Bolivarian propaganda is already comparing the case of Essequibo with the Argentine Malvinas.
The big question is how Washington, an ally in addition to Guyana, will react after the Chavista attack against the primaries and when it has not yet complied with what was demanded in the face of the ultimatum that ends on November 30: the rehabilitation of Machado and the release of the prisoners. politicians of American origin. Opposition sources confirmed to EL MUNDO that members of the two delegations, government and opposition, have met with US envoys in the last few hours.
“The US Government is going to be very cautious in its response. The ultimatum is relevant because it could affect the United States’ willingness to grant additional concessions, which it has already discussed with Maduro. Therefore, the most likely scenario is that if there is no progress In terms of a process for the review of disqualifications and more releases of political prisoners, possible additional concessions could be stopped, but the license to the Venezuelan oil sector would be maintained until April 2024,” Mariano de Alba, senior advisor of the CrisisGroup.
But if there is a factor of weight in this framework also immersed in world geopolitics, it is the weight of illegal immigrants in the United States. On Tuesday, Caracas received the third flight with deportees from Texas. “The 50-60% decrease in the entry of Venezuelans into the US since the repatriation flights were agreed reduces Biden’s margin of action,” notes De Alba.
It is precisely Washington’s attitude, according to Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, that has pushed the Spanish Executive to opt for forgiveness for the 55 Chavistas (higherarchs, generals, torturers and collaborators) sanctioned by Europe. Precisely one of them, the false opponent José Brito, was the one who demanded that the TSJ annul the October 22 primaries.