Chavismo has deployed all its capacity for repression and intimidation 72 hours after the inauguration. In a country shielded by the police and the military, Edmundo González’s son-in-law was arrested early on Tuesday and hours later drones began to fly over the house of María Corina Machado’s mother, who was left without electricity due to power outages. light applied to that area. Hooded agents were stationed at the door of the homes of dissidents and critics, and opponents were arrested throughout the country, in numbers yet to be determined. In some neighborhoods of Caracas, residents have protested with banging pots and pans from their balconies. The president, Nicolás Maduro, said that seven foreigners, alleged “mercenaries,” had been detained, adding to the 125 held by the Chavista authorities in recent days. At this hour, no one is safe in Venezuela.
Maduro has spent almost the entire day on television. Your Government has responded to each and every complaint from countries critical of what is happening, especially the United States. The day before, Edmundo González had been received by Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House. The winner of the July 28 presidential elections, according to the records collated by international organizations, left with the outgoing president’s promise that they will support his fight. Donald Trump’s entourage has also informed the opponent, who acts largely on behalf of María Corina Machado, the politician who has achieved massive mobilization to achieve a transition in Venezuela, that they will support him in the same way once he He takes possession on the 20th.
Edmundo González insists that he will be in Caracas on Friday to be sworn in. Chavismo assures that it will arrest him as soon as he steps on Venezuelan soil, as well as the former Latin American presidents who want to accompany him. María Corina Machado will face a similar risk on Thursday, when she plans to lead an act of protest. Machado will be seen in public for the first time after months of having remained in a secret place from which he interacts through telephone and video calls. Diosdado Cabello, Minister of the Interior, has directly threatened her: “She is eager to be caught.”
Maduro has surrounded himself in this new political crisis with his most faithful and radicals, those who have no problem facing an international trial. Maduro himself has said that he is willing to die before stepping aside and believes that he must remain in office “by the will of God,” as if he had received a divine mandate. The Venezuelan State is preparing as if it were going to enter combat. The president has added in some confusing statements in which he seems to imply that a defense mechanism has been activated at the national level: “I am proceeding to sign a proposal from General Vladimir Padrino López (Minister of Defense) to immediately convene and activate the Comprehensive Defense Body of Venezuela, the ODI, which is the highest body at the national, state and parish level.”
The repressive wave caused panic. Those harassed made public with photos and videos on social networks the pressure to which they are being subjected. Panic led to indignation: banging pots and pans were recorded in neighborhoods of Caracas, according to witnesses consulted by telephone. The police went to those places to stop the protest. Citizens complained about issues such as the arrest, in broad daylight, of Rafael Tudares, Edmundo’s son-in-law. They took him out of a van, in which he was traveling with his children on the way to school, and took him away. Nothing is still known about his whereabouts. Nor that of Carlos Correa, director of an NGO that defends journalists —Correa also has Spanish nationality. The authorities have said that on Friday the press will not be able to broadcast the inauguration live and their electronic equipment will be “checked.” At the end of the day, the arrest of Enrique Márquez, a moderate opponent who had always advocated a negotiated solution for Chavismo, was announced, which had earned him criticism from the most radical anti-Chavistas.
Under current conditions, it is very unlikely that Edmundo González will take possession. He and people around him are already talking about what will happen “sooner rather than later,” implying that the fact that Maduro dons the band will not be the end of the opposition movement. On Tuesday night he arrived in Panama City, where this Wednesday he will participate in an event with the president of that country and a significant number of Latin American leaders who support him, the same ones who say they will travel to Caracas if necessary. To this day, it is not known what Edmundo’s ultimate plans are, probably for obvious security reasons.
In any case, the opposition assures that it will carry out more than a symbolic act. That leaves room for speculation. Maduro has said that no one is going to erode him with psychological warfare. For years, Chavismo has applied what is known as psychoterror, an exercise of verbal and mental intimidation added to the real one. There are those who say that the opponents, from suffering so much, have learned the trick and return it like a boomerang. There is a sense of defining moment in the air. The world remains waiting for what is going to happen on Friday.
