Nicolás Maduro
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Born | Nicolás Maduro Moros 1962-11-23 Caracas, Venezuela | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Children | Nicolás Maduro Guerra | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse | Cilia Flores | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Interest of | Max Blumenthal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Party | United Socialist Party, Fifth Republic Movement | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nicolás Maduro (born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician who has been the President of Venezuela since his formal inauguration on 19 April 2013. Previously he served under President Hugo Chávez as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2013 and as Vice President of Venezuela from 2012 to 2013. After Chávez's death on 5 March 2013, Maduro assumed the powers and responsibilities of the president. A special election was held on 14 April 2013 to elect a new president, and Nicolas Maduro won with 50.62% of the votes as the candidate of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).[1]
Election meddling
A week before the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) elections took place on 30 July 2017, President Maduro accused the United States of plotting “regime change” in Caracas after CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a comment about discussing “transition” in Venezuela with regional partners.[2]
Following months of street protests and clashes in which more than 100 people had died and, despite the violence and an opposition boycott, more than 8 million people participated in the democratic process by casting their votes for the 545 NCA members, who will be empowered to draft a new constitution.
Ahead of the vote, the US Treasury had already slapped sanctions on 13 senior Venezuelan officials for allegedly “undermining democracy” with the initiative. According to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the White House considers the elections held in Venezuela to be illegitimate and holds Maduro responsible:
- “Yesterday’s illegitimate elections confirm that Maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people,” Mnuchin said in a statement. “By sanctioning Maduro, the United States makes clear our opposition to the policies of his regime and our support for the people of Venezuela who seek to return their country to a full and prosperous democracy.”
President Maduro promised to continue to protect his country, despite the newly announced sanctions. In a televised address to the nation, the president emphasised that he does not "take orders from the empire," telling his American counterpart, "Keep up your sanctions, Donald Trump!"
- "I am proud of the alleged sanctions... because I do not wag my tail like a lying dog," Maduro said Monday after the Election Commission announced Sunday's voter's turnout. "I am punished for defending the natural resources of Venezuelan lands. I am the independent president of a free nation," he said, according to Globovision. "You're with Trump or Venezuela, you're with Trump or with democracy, you're with Trump or the free world."
President Maduro claimed victory in Sunday’s vote, but a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, the US and Argentina refused to recognise the election. Russia, however, praised the vote as laying the basis for a peaceful resolution of the contradictions plaguing Venezuelan society:
- “We regret to note that opposition forces did not respond to the call to take part in the vote, but instead tried to hamper the elections, provoking clashes that have resulted in loss of life. We urge the opposing parties to stop the pointless violent confrontation.”[3]
The newly elected NCA quickly voted to remove Luisa Ortega from her role as Venezuela's Chief Prosecutor.[4]
Dictatorship or Democracy
On 19 July 2017, Abby Martin published a video entitled "Empire Files: Constituent Assembly Dictatorship or Democracy in Venezuela?" with the following commentary:
- On July 30th, Venezuelans will elect a people's body called the 'Constituent Assembly' comprised of hundreds of representatives across the country with the power to redraft the constitution.
- US politicians, press and opposition in Venezuela are calling the process a "coup" that should be boycotted by all.
- Abby Martin addresses the criticisms with Head of the Presidential Commission to oversee the Constituent Assembly process, Elias Jaua, speaks to supporters and participants of the Assembly, interviews historian Chris Gilbert and explains what is at stake in Venezuela if the social programmes instituted under Chávez are terminated by the opposition.[5]
On 1 August 2017, President Donald Trump warned Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro to release two opposition leaders seized by masked government agents and denounced his regime as a “dictatorship":
- “The United States condemns the actions of the Maduro dictatorship,” Trump said in a statement released hours after the Venezuelan government took opposition figures Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma into custody. “Mr Lopez and Mr Ledezma are political prisoners being held illegally by the regime,” Trump said, adding that Washington would hold Mr Maduro “personally responsible for the health and safety of Mr Lopez, Mr Ledezma, and any others seized. We reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners,” Trump said.[6]
Related Documents
Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
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Document:British military presence near Venezuela ‘extremely concerning’ | Article | 5 February 2019 | Phil Miller | “Britain’s recent history of catastrophic military interventions should rule out any UK participation in Donald Trump’s attempts to destabilise a democratically elected government in Venezuela.” |
Document:Canada sanctions 40 Venezuelans with links to political, economic crisis | Article | 22 September 2017 | Michelle Zilio | Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, MP for the Toronto district of University-Rosedale, said: "I have some Venezuelan Canadians living in my constituency and they have been really vocal … and have said our family, our friends, they need help and they're counting on Canada to speak up." |
Document:Coordinating Regime Change in Iran and Venezuela | diplomatic communication | 25 August 2010 | Trowbridge Ford | Iran and Venezuela, prime candidates for regime change |
Document:How Chrystia Freeland Organised Donald Trump’s Coup in Venezuela | Article | 7 February 2019 | Eric Zuesse | That’s what Ukraine, and now Venezuela, and many other US coups and invasions, are - and have been - really about. It’s about the ‘peace’ of the graveyard, NOT any democracy, anywhere at all. |
Document:In Venezuela, White Supremacy Is a Key Driver of the Coup | Article | 7 February 2019 | Greg Palast William Camacaro | Four centuries of White Supremacy in Venezuela by those who identify their ancestors as European came to an end with the 1998 election of Hugo Chávez, who won with the overwhelming support of the Mestizo majority. This turn away from White Supremacy continues under Nicolás Maduro, Chavez’s chosen successor, who was re-elected in 2018 for a second six-year term. |
Document:Is Oil Behind Washington’s Venezuela Coup Madness | Article | 3 February 2019 | William Engdahl | Leaving aside whether or not Maduro is a saint, the decision by President Trump to back the Bolton-Pence call for a US intervention in Venezuela may prove a fatal error for the Trump presidency. |
Document:Ken Livingstone: Venezuela should have followed my economic advice | Interview | 3 August 2017 | Julia Hartley-Brewer Luke Dolan | "America played a major part in Venezuela's current crisis but we won't know until 30 years from now, when all the papers get published." |
Document:Sanctions of Mass Destruction: America’s War on Venezuela | Article | 1 February 2019 | Garikai Chengu | America’s largest export used to be manufactured goods made proudly in the United States. Today, America’s largest export is the US dollar. Any nation like Venezuela that threatens that export is met with America’s second largest export: weapons, chief amongst which are Sanctions of Mass Destruction. |
Document:The Lima Group: International Outlaws | Article | 4 February 2019 | Christopher Black | Canada takes the lead in the aggression against Venezuela on Monday 4 February 2019 when it hosts a meeting in Ottawa of a group of international war crime conspirators, known as the Lima Group, a group of Latin American and Caribbean lackeys of the United States, including Mexico and Canada which was set up by the United States at a meeting in Lima, Peru on 8 August 2017 with the express purpose of overthrowing President Maduro. |
Document:The Making of Juan Guaidó: How the US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela’s Coup Leader | Article | 29 January 2019 | Dan Cohen Max Blumenthal | Juan Guaidó is the product of a decade-long project overseen by Washington’s elite regime change trainers. While posing as a champion of democracy, Guaidó has spent years at the forefront of a violent campaign of destabilisation in Venezuela |
Document:The Relative Value of Life and Death | Wikispooks Page | 29 July 2024 | Craig Murray | Israel has been bombarding Syria relentlessly from long before October 2023 and has continued unabated – and unreported by western media. Israel’s attacks on civilian areas of Damascus this last few weeks have been devastating. It is pretty obvious that any loose missile that dropped on Majdal Shams is likely to have come from Israel, which is slinging huge quantities of munitions into Syria and Lebanon with wild abandon. |
Document:Venezuela critics are just Blairites having a kick at Jeremy Corbyn | Interview | 7 August 2017 | George Galloway Luke Dolan | For nineteen years the United States government and its secret agents have been trying to overthrow the Venezuela political process. Why might that be? Well, there are many reasons but the biggest among them has the smallest name: OIL. |
Document:What’s Not Being Said About the Venezuela Oil War | Article | 17 February 2019 | William Engdahl | The Venezuela Oil War Is Really About Huge Oil Reserves in the District of Guayana Esequiba |
Document:Why is the CBC Lying About Venezuela | Article | 17 October 2018 | Alison Bodine | It is our responsibility as people living in the United States and Canada to elevate the voices of poor, working and oppressed people in Venezuela who support the revolutionary government of President Nicolás Maduro. |
References
- ↑ "Nicolas Maduro sworn in as new Venezuelan president". BBC News. 19 April 2013. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
- ↑ "CIA chief hints agency is working to change Venezuelan government"
- ↑ "US Treasury sanctions Venezuelan president Maduro"
- ↑ "Luisa Ortega: Venezuela's chief prosecutor"
- ↑ "Empire Files: Constituent Assembly Dictatorship or Democracy in Venezuela?"
- ↑ "Trump warns Venezuelan president to release 2 political opponents seized by ‘dictatorship’"