Nicolás Maduro’s failures all too apparent

Posted on Monday, 04.14.14

Nicolás Maduro's failures all too apparent
BY CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER
ELBLOGDEMONTANER.COM

Nicolás Maduro didn't fare well in the first round of talks at
Miraflores Palace. Man does not live by slogans alone.

He, his government and half of Venezuela for the first time had to (or
could) listen in silence to the complaints and recriminations of an
opposition that represents at least half of the country.

A revolutionary leader is a voracious and strange creature that feeds on
empty words.

It is easy to spout revolutionary rhetoric in a pompous voice, gaze lost
in space, perhaps looking for talking birds or miraculous faces that
appear on walls, while accusing the victims of being fascists, bourgeois
or any other nonsense that comes to mind.

The official team spoke of the revolution in the abstract. The
opposition spoke of the daily life. For those spectators who are not
dogmatic, the result was obvious: The opposition won sweepingly.

It is impossible to defend oneself from the lack of milk, from the
evidence that this awful government has destroyed the productive
apparatus, from the inflation, from the mass flight of the most
hard-working Venezuelans, from the most scandalous corruption the
country has ever suffered, from the plunder perpetrated daily by the
insolvent Cuban government, from the terrible fact that last year 25,000
Venezuelans were murdered with impunity by a criminal element that grows
daily.

Why did Maduro stage that anti-government guarimba — demonstration — at
Miraflores Palace?

Why did he pay the price of hugely hurting the image of the political
movement he inherited from the late Hugo Chávez, and why did he expose
his own weakness by giving the opposition a forum?

He had two clear objectives and failed to achieve them.

• The first was to silence the protests and remove the young people from
the streets. The "Student Movement" — the nation's most respected
institution, according to a poll by analyst Alfredo Keller — had managed
to paralyze Venezuela and disseminate the images of an oppressive regime
enforced by paramilitary groups and National Guards-men who behaved with
the cruelty of armies of occupation and had committed 40 murders.

• The second was to repair his own image and that of the regime. The
polls showed that they're both in free fall. Maduro lags about 18 points
behind the opposition. He is blamed (even by his own people) for
scuttling Chávez's project and being responsible for the shortages of
consumer goods and the violence.

Almost no one believes that the crisis is caused by a plot by the
merchants and the United States. The great majority of the people (81
percent) supports the existence of private business. Two out of three
Venezuelans have the worst opinion of the Cuban government.

That phenomenon carries a high political and international cost. One
hundred and ninety-eight parliamentarians from various South American
countries, led by Argentine deputy Cornelia Schmidt, appeared before the
International Criminal Court at The Hague to accuse Maduro of genocide,
torture and murders. He could end up behind bars, like Serbia's Slobodan
Milosevic did.

To be a member of the Chávez movement is very costly, as Costa Rican
presidential candidate José María Villalta found out. That (fair)
accusation pulverized him at the polls. A survey conducted by Ipsos in
Peru confirmed that 94 percent of the country rejects Maduro and
Chavismo, a fact acknowledged by Ollanta Humala, who now stays a prudent
distance from Caracas.

Now, even the popular Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former president of
Brazil, appreciates those dangerous liaisons. Only Rafael Correa, who
suffers from a noticeable confusion of values and doesn't understand
what freedom and democracy are, insists on his unbreakable friendship
with Maduro.

The opposition — as Julio Borges said — will remain on the streets and,
of course, will continue its dialogue with the regime. For how long?
Until all political prisoners are released, including the opposition
mayors, and until the rights of María Corina Machado and Leopoldo López
are reinstated.

Until the regime renounces Havana's shameful and unaffordable tutelage,
creates a neutral National Electoral Council and restores the
Judiciary's independence. Until the government desists from its
communist rudderlessness and admits that Venezuelans don't want to
"navigate toward the Cuban sea of happiness."

In sum, until clean elections are held, in the presence of impartial
observers, and the will of the people is truly confirmed: Out with
Maduro and his cronies.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/14/4059843/nicolas-maduros-failures-all-too.html