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I remember when Maduro claimed that a bird visited him and it was Hugo Chávez. It was the funniest thing at the time. The fact that so many Venezuelans ate it up was quite disturbing.
Here he is telling his "experience" with the 'Hugo Chávez' bird. He was very serious. LOL
Birds can drop other products from on high. But Maduro is already quite stuffed with that.
Remember when Chavez was telling the people what a paradise Cuba was and how Venezuela should aspire to have a similar socialist paradise? Most sane Venezuelans said no thanks, but easy to buy a lot of votes and deny the vote to some in a country where the military has all the control they need.
Actually you'd be surprised how many seamingly sane Venezuelans bought into Chavez's "vision" as late as 2010. I remember when it was Colombia against the rest of South America on the political front. At the time the internet, the globe even, was awash with Chavez sympathizers & supporters. People forget the immense outpouring of national grief of Chavez's death in 2013 hence Maduro easily won the popular vote as Chavez's personal pick. Maduro was democratically elected by the Venezuelan people, the first time around at least not the last election which was fraught with abstention and corruption.
Maduro for sure beat Capriles fair and square back in 2013, though Venezuela still did very shady things like close the consulate in Miami right around election time to keep that community from voting against him. Thousands of Venezuelans drove from South Florida to the next consulate over in my hometown New Orleans just to cast their ballot regardless. You wonder if those overseas votes were even counted though...anyway I digress, the people for the most part still turned out because they were mourning the death of Chávez and out of the respect they voted for this Don Nadie.
His re-election in 2018 was completely illegitimate because any real candidate who would have stood against anything Maduro did was arrested or disqualified on bogus "corruption" charges. If Capriles or Leopoldo would have been allowed to turn in 2018, either of them would have smashed Maduro easily. The two other candidates represented splinter parties of the PSUV and it wasn´t a question of real competition. Notice the shockingly low turnout, which was estimated at less than 20% by non-partisan international agencies.
The attention of the media is definitely focused on the Colombia-Venezuela border, but on the other side of the country it´s just as complicated and tense:
What I am trying to say is that it was the will of Chávez that caused over 50% of the people to pull the lever for whoever had his posthumous endorsement. Though plenty of them clearly regret using that logic now.
What I am trying to say is that it was the will of Chávez that caused over 50% of the people to pull the lever for whoever had his posthumous endorsement. Though plenty of them clearly regret using that logic now.
The country was heading the same way with or without Chavez. It was Chavista policies that caused this mess, the problem being the pinch of irresponsible policies are not adversely felt till 5-10 years down the line.
I would argue Venezuela would be more dangerous with Chavez still around. He was more calculating and manipulative and I'm sure the ties with Putin & Communist China would've gone much much deeper with him still in charge. The region would've been more politically unstable, although maybe there would be less hunger with the propping up of more Chinese money than there is already.
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