Press. voanews.com
U.S. President Donald Trump's talk of possible military action in
Venezuela could be a political lifeline for the country's unpopular leader, who
has long used the threat of U.S. aggression to justify policies that have
shredded the economy. President Nicolas Maduro has continued the free-spending
socialist "revolution" started by his predecessor, the late Hugo
Chavez, almost 20 years ago. Key to the populist rhetoric used by both is a
constant drumbeat of warnings that the U.S. "empire" is planning an
invasion to steal Venezuela's oil.
That threat was laughed off by the opposition and until Friday night,
when Trump said a military option was not out of the question for dealing with
the Venezuelan government's crackdown on the opposition and deepening social
crisis. "He's doing Maduro a favor by reinforcing the nationalist position
that the Gringos want to come and attack Venezuela. This has always been part
of Maduro's rhetoric, and Chavez before him. And it has served them both
well," said lawyer Luis Alberto Rodriguez while sitting at a cafe, smoking
a Cuban cigar, in one of Caracas' wealthier neighborhoods.
"It's not going to have any impact other than the government using
it to further unify its people and attack the opposition," the 44-year-old
added. Maduro loyalists, who regularly insult opposition leaders as
Washington's lackeys, wasted no time in pouncing. "Mind your own business
and solve your own problems, Mr. Trump!" thundered Maduro's son, also
named Nicolas, at the country's new constituent assembly, which was elected
last month to rewrite the constitution. The opposition fears the assembly will
remove any checks that remain on the president's powers, and critics globally
have condemned it as an affront to democracy. "If Venezuela were attacked, the rifles would arrive in New York,
Mr. Trump," the younger Maduro said. "We would take the White House."
'No Greater Gift'
Marches against Maduro were held in Caracas on Saturday, with few
confrontations with state security forces and no deaths. More than 120 have
been killed in unrest since April, as the economy collapses deeper into a
recession compounded by triple-digit inflation as well as food and medicine
shortages.
The opposition's Democratic Unity coalition on Sunday issued a statement
rejecting foreign threats to the country, without specifically identifying
Trump or the United States. "The Democratic Unity coalition rejects the
use of force, or the threat of its use, by any country [against]
Venezuela," said the statement published on the group's Twitter account.
The coalition added: "Venezuela has for years been militarily and
politically intervened by Cuba," echoing opposition criticism that Maduro
has allowed foreign allies to colonize Venezuela even has he decries U.S.
imperialism. The opposition, which controls a congress that has been neutered
by Maduro's loyalist Supreme Court, boycotted last month's election of the new
legislative superbody.
Opposition leaders called instead for an early presidential election,
which Maduro would likely lose as his popularity gets pummeled by the country's
economic woes. "Maduro could not have asked for a greater gift from
Trump," said David Smilde, senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin
America, a human rights think tank. "He provided substance for Maduro's
heretofore implausible conspiracy theories."
Smilde said Trump's threat of military force put the Venezuelan
opposition "on its heels" after a group of Latin American governments
joined last week in reprimanding Maduro for sponsoring the July 30 election of
the constituent assembly. "It has threatened to deflate the emerging
regional consensus regarding Venezuela," Smilde said. "Today the
countries that on Tuesday signed on to a strong statement criticizing Maduro's
authoritarian direction are spending their time criticizing Trump's statements."