U.S. threats and sanctions play into Venezuelan government's hand.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
The political situation in Venezuela--where until recently the government was very much backed into a corner--shifted radically when President Nicolas Maduro managed, on July 30, to impose a controversial constituent assembly (Asamblea Nacional Constituyente, ANC) and US President Donald Trump, shortly afterwards, threatened military action against the country (NotiSur, Aug. 25, 2017).
With the establishment of the ANC, whose 545 seats are occupied by members or minor allies of the governing Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (United Socialist Party of Venezuela, PSUV), the opposition, represented by the Mesa de la Unidad Democratica (Democratic Unity Roundtable, MUD) coalition, was left without answers despite widespread popular concern about the development. The streets, which had been the "property" of the dissidence and the scene of much violence, emptied, and the "down with the dictatorship" slogan that had fueled the guarimbas (barricades set up in middle and upper class neighborhoods to block pedestrian and vehicle traffic) was limited to social networks, a correspondent for the Italian news agency ANSA wrote.
Trump's military threat--along with sanctions issued by the US Department of the Treasury--strengthened Maduro's position even more and left the opposition facing a difficult dilemma, analysts and news outlets around the world argued.
A 'risible' threat
News sources that have been decidedly critical of the Venezuelan government, including the London-based BBC, The New York Times and Agence France-Presse (AFP), have stuck with their editorial line but are now criticizing the US government as well. They took issue, for example, with sanctions announced Aug. 25 by US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin that are directed, for the first time, at the country rather than at individuals. Specifically, the measures look to restrict Venezuela's access to US debt and equity markets by prohibiting US banks from dealing with the Maduro government and the state-run oil company, PDVSA.
The media outlets also criticized Trump's typically non-diplomatic threat of military intervention in Venezuela. "We're all over the world, and we have troops all over the world in places that are very, very far away. Venezuela is not very far away," the US president said on Aug. 11.
"I can't imagine any government in Latin America, right or left, agreeing with the idea of military intervention in Venezuela," Michael Shifter, president of the...
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