Name? Nicolás Maduro
Westphalian identity? Venezuelan
Age? 58
Why is he in the news? Yesterday, the President of Venezuela held parliamentary elections. Well, kind of. Maduro held elections with a boycott from the opposition, without any election observers, and with a humanitarian crisis pushing 96% of Venezuelan households into poverty. In other words, he “held” elections.
Why do we care? At RAIA Group, we are against any form of bullying and hope that Nicolas’ dictator friends will not make too much fun of him. Winning 68% of the votes when only 31% of the population participates and the opposition boycotts this process? Those are rookie numbers that Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko can only laugh about.
Why should you care? 96% of the Venezuelan population lives under the poverty line and 6,5 million have fled the country. If these are not reasons for you to care about Venezuela, there is also a lot of oil … *cough* India *cough*
Who else cares? We are tempted to say that nobody cares because the international community really did not seem to care at all. But in the domestic community, someone who cares is interim President (recognised by Western countries) Juan Guaidó. He has just lost his main source of legitimacy. As president of the national assembly (parliament), the Constitution determines Guaido as interim president in case of “the absence” of the President. As bad as election turnout was, it still argues against Guaido.
Any further comments? In 2015, the opposition managed to overcome their differences with Maduro as a common enemy, winning two-thirds of the parliament. Five years later, the opposition is as divided as ever and only agreed to boycott these elections. The Western world has a problem now as they cannot accept Maduro as President and no longer a serious alternative. Former contestants to Maduro are either under house arrest (Juan Requesens), not in office (Juan Guaidó), or not in Venezuela (Leopoldo Lopéz).
