The American Media is down playing the Maduro regime and it's atrocities with respect to the citizens of Venezuela. However, the majority of Americans do not have a clue as to why Venezuela is such a hotly contested issue. It is quite possible that the very politicians making comment have no clue as to why Venezuela is an issue.
Maduro was democratically elected to be president of Venezuela in 2018. If banning two of the candidates running against him is considered democratic. Maduro won 68% of the Venezuelan vote due in part that Henrique Capriles and Leopoldo Lopez, were barred from running in the vote. In addition, Maduro told the residents of Venezuela he was running against imperialism, but added the caveat that if the residents did not vote for him they would lose their food subsidies.
“Everyone who has this card must vote,” Maduro said at campaign rallies, referring to the IDs Venezuelans use to receive their subsidies. “I give and you give.”
Maduro bragged about winning by a huge percentage, despite the people complaining about shortages of food and medicine. "Never before has a presidential candidate taken 68 percent of the popular vote," he said. "We are the force of history turned into a permanent popular victory."
Maduro's main rival called for a new vote. Alleging voter fraud at the polls, claiming more than 900 cases of voter irregularities and that the Maduro regime was rewarding people for votes in his favor.
"What we are witnessing is the abuse of power," Falcon wrote. "It's time to remove this cheating government," he added.
Countries supporting the Maduro Regime
Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Syria and Turkey all support the Maduro Regime. Russians have a particular affinity for Maduro. He is highly liked by the Russian elites. According toworld news, Venezuela owes the Kremlin a sizable amount of money and oil.
China has loaned the country a good deal of money and has a vested interest in keeping the Maduro regime in power due to economic purposes. According to American think tank dialogue.org, China has loaned Venezuela more money than any other Latin American country. And experts are fearful that a new government in the Latin American country would focus more on the humanitarian efforts of feeding and getting medicine to its citizens rather than pay back it's debts.
Iran has been in support of the Venezuelan government since Chavez came to power in Caracas. The IRNA news agency claimed, "President Hassan Rouhani has expressed his support for embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro."
Venezuela the exporter
Venezuela is a country rich with natural resources. World top exports quotes, " Economically, Venezuela is highly dependent on its exported oil sales which dominated 98.3% of the country’s total product shipments, bearing witness to Venezuela’s vulnerability to the global downswing in oil prices."
While the country was suffering under former president Chavez, Venezuela economy continues suffering under the Maduro regime. “Venezuela is not a significant oil producer currently,” says Mihir Kapadia, chief executive officer of financial-services firm Sun Global Investments. “The economy is completely oil dependent, and while the U.S. accounts for 41% of Venezuelan oil exports, Venezuela is not particularly significant for the U.S., whose own production, thanks to shale, is booming.” Reported by Barrons.
In January of 2019, the Trump administration placed sanctions on Venezuela in an attempt to pressure the government to renounce Maduro, and put in interim president Juan Guaido. Within hours of declaring the sanctions, "Maduro went on state TV and called the U.S. action “immoral, criminal.” In words directed at President Donald Trump, he said, “Hands off Venezuela!”
The sanctions, while issued for a variety of reasons, one being that Venezuela had been complicit in issuing false passports for members of Hezbollah. As reported by the Miami Herald, "Within the span of a year, Venezuela illegally issued at least 10,000 passports and other documents to citizens of Syria, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries in a scheme spearheaded by current Vice President Tareck El Aissami, according to a former high-ranking immigration official."
As desperate as these sanctions appear, the United States is still allowed to import oil from Venezuelan companies, however as Steve Mnuchin, United States Secretary of the Treasury claimed, "any money that U.S. entities use to buy Venezuelan oil will go into a blocked account in the United States, not the Maduro government."
WECU News is following the situation in Venezuela, and will update it as more information is provided. Thanks for reading. If you have a comment, suggestion or a tip, please drop us a line at admin@Wecunews.com.