Fear on the streets of Caracas as Maduro’s inauguration looms

CNN
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“If you need one word to describe Venezuela these days, it would be terrible.” A Latin American diplomat told CNN this week, reflecting on the strange atmosphere in the country.

Venezuelans are bracing for another wave of repression as strongman leader Nicolas Maduro prepares to be sworn in for a third term on Friday – sealing an election result that opposition politicians and the US government say was stolen.

In recent days, the government has put in a show of force ahead of the inauguration, increasing the number of policemen and security officers on the streets and detaining dozens of people across the country, including a former presidential candidate, according to human rights activists.

The climate of fear is palpable on social media, too Instagram account from Venezuela’s military counterintelligence agency, which recently posted a video of a hand knocking on a door in the middle of the night — a message that suggests the kind of retaliation critics may face.

Maduro and his allies “are showing that they will not tolerate any dissent and people are afraid,” the diplomat said, asking to speak anonymously to avoid possible repercussions.

Maduro’s re-election could hardly be more controversial. On July 28, he was declared the winner of the presidential election by election authorities under the tight control of the ruling Socialist Party.

But Venezuela’s opposition released thousands of tallies claiming their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, had indeed won the vote with 67% to Maduro’s 30%. Independent observers such as the Carter Center and the Colombian Electoral Mission, as well as CNN’s own analysis, found the opposition numbers to be legitimate but little changed in Venezuela.

As protests erupted over the vote, Maduro’s government detained over 2,000 people in less than a week to quell dissent.

Gonzalez is now on an international tour of sympathetic countries – such as the United States, whose government formally recognizes Gonzalez as Venezuela’s president-elect – to rally support for what he claims is his rightful presidency.

Probably at great personal risk, Gonzalez is also vowing to crash Maduro’s re-election party by returning to Caracas – where he now faces terrorism charges, with a $100,000 bounty on his head – ahead of Friday’s inauguration.

Several Latin American leaders, including nine former heads of state from across the region, have pledged to accompany him to Caracas, to which the Maduro government responded by banning the group from entering the country.

How exactly Gonzalez intends to do that is anyone’s guess: Maduro remains firmly in control of the country’s military, and security measures have been tightened as the government claims to be under constant threats from insurgency and foreign plots.

On Tuesday, Maduro put Venezuela’s army on the streets to “guarantee the victory of peace”. He also announced that seven foreign mercenaries, including two American citizens and three Ukrainians, had been detained for terrorism in the country, without showing any proof, but promised that the group will soon confess to their alleged crime.

“It’s really tense,” said Gerardo, a tour guide who often travels outside Caracas, and who believes the number of checkpoints and controls has increased in recent days.

“It’s not normal to have military counterintelligence, and not just the police manning the checkpoints on the way to the airport… When you’re driving around and you’re suddenly stopped by men in balaclavas with an AK-47 asking to see your ID,” he said, asking only to go by his first name because of security concerns.

Arrests and ‘political beheading’

In quick succession, Tuesday also saw the alleged detentions of Gonzalez’s son-in-law, Rafael Tudares; Carlos Correa, a human rights activist and director of the NGO Espacio Publico; and Enrique Marquez, who also ran for president in July, according to their families.

CNN reached out to Venezuelan authorities to confirm the detentions and is awaiting a response.

Such detentions have a clear strategy — “political beheading,” according to Gonzalo Himiob, the director of Foro Penal, a Venezuelan NGO that provides legal aid to political prisoners.

“It means putting a leader in jail to scare away the whole movement, political or human rights,” Himiob said.

“Correa is a veteran of human rights activism in Venezuela, he is a reference for the entire human rights movement. His reported detention and enforced disappearance is very serious because it foreshadows the repressive response the government is taking ahead of Friday’s inauguration,” said Laura Dib, director of the Venezuelan program at the Washington Office for Latin America, a think tank.

Meanwhile, Maduro has increased his public appearances. He maintains that the show of force is necessary to prevent his country from descending into chaos and conspiracies, although the Venezuelan government has so far presented no evidence of any destabilizing plan.

A high-profile case in recent weeks involves Nahuel Gallo, an Argentine policeman detained in Venezuela late last year. Caracas accuses him of plotting to kill Maduro’s deputy Delcy Rodriguez, while Buenos Aires says Gallo was simply visiting his partner’s family on vacation. Over the past six months, at least 125 people of 25 different nationalities have been detained on similar charges, according to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

The first possible major confrontation between the government and its critics could come on Thursday, when Gonzalez’s ally in the country Maria Corina Machado has vowed to lead mass protests.

Her followers are very aware of the risks. “You try not to be paranoid, but you walk down the street and you see so many policemen, so many of them looking for you, it’s hard to stay calm,” said one opposition leader. in the central state of Aragua, who asked to speak anonymously for fear of retaliation.

“Personally I haven’t decided if I’m going to go out on Thursday or not, we have to see what happens,” he said.

In a video message Tuesday, Machado told supporters to have courage and welcome defectors with open arms. Indeed, many security officials in uniform are ready to turn their backs on Maduro, she also said.

It is not impossible, according to another diplomat in Caracas, who said the government’s actions could well signal that it also fears dissension within the uniformed ranks.

“The fact that the government is sending out other security forces to integrate those already on the streets indicates that they are also suspicious of their own ranks,” the diplomat said.

For many, this new wave of government muscle has a sense of déjà-vu as the country went through a similar cycle of expectation and repression in the summer after the presidential vote.

Nathaly’s teenage son was detained on August 2 as part of a widespread security crackdown on post-vote protests. He was held until December 20, when the government released hundreds of political prisoners in a pre-Christmas plea for leniency.

When she finally saw him walk out of prison, “it was like my soul came back to my body: every step we took, I felt lighter,” Nathaly recalls.

This week, however, she has begun to feel nervous that he might be taken again. She asked to use a pseudonym with CNN because she is not allowed to speak to the press as part of the conditions of her son’s release.

“He didn’t do anything wrong, he was just walking down the street… When he came out he had lost 19kg and from that moment I never lost sight of him… I’m just afraid that if they did once, they can do it again…” she said.

“All mothers in Venezuela have the same fear: Don’t take our children away from us,” she says.