10 Questions for Venezuela’s president

Posted on Saturday, 02.22.14
IN MY OPINION

Andres Oppenheimer: 10 Questions for Venezuela's president
BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

Dear President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro,

Since I have repeatedly requested an interview with you, but have never
received an answer, I respectfully submit 10 questions to you in hopes
that you will be so kind as to respond to them in writing, if that's
your preference.

I understand that you are very busy, but I have interviewed most Latin
American presidents, as well as President Barack Obama, and would very
much appreciate if you could help clarify some key issues surrounding
the political violence that is rocking your country, as well as last
week's arrest of opposition leader Leopoldo López.

1. If, as you say, Venezuela is at peace and "here we are working,
studying, building our fatherland," but the U.S. "empire," CNN and
"fascist" groups are promoting the false notion that there is civil
unrest, how do you explain the images of bloody confrontations on the
streets that have already resulted in at least eight dead and more than
250 wounded in recent days?

2. You keep saying that the student protesters and opposition leaders
are "fascists." But who are the real "fascists" in Venezuela? The
students who march on the streets demanding a separation of powers, free
and fair elections, and end to press censorship, or pro-government
militias who wear military-looking clothes, chant "Fatherland or
death!," burn down newspaper offices, fire at unarmed street protesters,
and glorify dictatorships such as those of Cuba and Syria?

3. You also keep calling the student protesters "golpistas," or
coup-mongers. But you yourself recently celebrated the Feb. 4
anniversary of late President Hugo Chávez's 1992 military coup attempt
as "the day of national dignity" in Venezuela. Do you think there are
"good coups" and "bad coups"?

4. On a related subject, you say that Cuba — it has not allowed free
elections, political parties or a free press in more than five decades —
is a shining light for the rest of Latin America. Do you think there are
"good dictatorships," and "bad dictatorships"? And if Cuban leader Gen.
Raúl Castro is so popular, why doesn't he allow a free election?

5. If the allegedly "fascist" and "coup-plotting" students who are
protesting on the streets are being organized by the U.S. Embassy, as
you claimed last week when you ordered the expulsion of three U.S.
diplomats, can you show us evidence of the diplomats' destabilizing
activities?

6. If Venezuela is a true democracy, as you claim, why did you order the
arrest of opposition leader Leopoldo López, and the closing of the NTN24
international news channel last week? Since when is it a crime in a
democracy for an opposition leader to call for peaceful protests to ask
for a president's resignation, or for a television network to show
images of street demonstrations?

7. If you truly want to "put an end to hatred and intolerance, and
create a fatherland of love," as you stated last week, why did you
threaten your political rivals that same day by saying that "one by one,
we will go after the fascists." Wouldn't it be much more constructive to
call for a national moratorium on insults in Venezuela, and thereby lay
the groundwork for a national dialogue?

8. Why didn't you allow international observers from the European Union,
the Organization of American States and other groups in last year's
April 14 presidential elections, which according to your
government-controlled electoral tribune, you won by a 1.49 percent
margin? Wouldn't it help restore calm in your country if you announce
measures to allow a truly independent electoral tribunal and equal
access to television for the next elections, and started implementing
those measures now?

9. How do you explain that Venezuela has benefited from the biggest oil
bonanza in history? Since Chávez took office in 1999, oil prices have
boomed from $9 a barrel that year to $100 today, the country currently
has the world's highest inflation rate (56 percent), Latin America's
lowest economic growth rate (1 percent) and growing shortages of milk,
cooking oil, flower and sanitary paper?

10. Since both you and opposition leader Henrique Capriles have held
separate audiences with Pope Francis recently, and both of you claim to
respect him, would you agree to a Church-brokered mediation effort to
restore democratic guarantees, the separation of powers, freedom of
expression and social peace in Venezuela?

Please be so kind and respond to these questions, Mr. President. They
would help clarify some of the things we honestly don't understand about
what is happening in Venezuela.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/22/3951994/andres-oppenheimer-10-questions.html