Some of you might have heard of the abrupt ending of the discussions between Cuba and the United States to re-establish diplomatic relations. There is no official cause as of yet as to why this happened, but many people are speculating that the rising tensions between Venezuela and the U.S. have something to do with it.
Obama recently called Venezuela an “extraordinary threat to national security” and placed sanctions on seven Venezuelan government officials who are accused of violating human rights. To me this seems like a good strategy, because most of the money that these officials own, which is stolen from the people of Venezuela by the way, is in foreign bank accounts like those of the U.S. and Switzerland. This move however, places Obama between a rock and a hard place because now Cuba is siding with Maduro over the issue.
These sanctions have allowed President Maduro to play the victim card and accuse the United States of bullying Venezuela. Maduro, who was rapidly losing popularity because of the dropping oil prices, is now being supported by other regional leaders such as Dilma Rousseff from Brazil, Raul Castro from Cuba, Rafael Correa from Ecuador, and Cristina Hernandez from Argentina (all of which have corruption and human violation scandals of their own, might I add). Raul Castro even visited Caracas this week and assured that Cuba will side Venezuela on this conflict and any future conflicts that might arise.
Obama now has two choices: 1) Give in to international pressure and cancel the sanctions, which would harm his image and give Maduro an opportunity to say that he protected Venezuela from American imperialism (which would also raise his popularity again). Or, 2) Keep the sanctions in place and put at risk any reconciliation with Cuba.
The problem here honestly, is that Castro wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to open relations with the United States as trading partners while still keeping their communist regime, but he is not willing to compromise any of his buddies who let Cuba leech oil out of Venezuela.
These sanctions have brought a bigger problem to the Venezuelan people though; because thanks to them, we now have to ask ourselves this:
Can the president declare that being a member of the opposition party is illegal? Yes, now he can.
The members of the National Assembly of Venezuela, which is the equivalent of Congress here in the United States, just approved a law that gives president Maduro the right to legislate against the sanctions that were placed by President Obama on 7 Venezuelan Governmental officials. Basically, this means that Maduro can now make laws on his own without needing the approval of the assembly. And how is he going to use this power, you many ask? To arrest members of the opposition party.
The law will not be put into place until November of this year, but what Maduro is going to do with it is already too obvious. Just last week in the “trial” of the opposition party leader and political prisoner, Leopoldo Lopez, the judge declared that Lopez instigated violence by posting two messages on twitter:
“Our battle is peaceful, but firm and dedicated. Always in the path of the constitution and with the people organized on the streets!”
“Maduro, you can close down communication mediums, put chains, order the judges and assign prison sentences, but you will never be able to hide the truth.”
The charges that he is being accused of could land him 30 years in prison for using twitter. The scary thing is though, that he would not be the first, or even last one, being imprisoned for this. As of now there are 7 other people being detained in the prison of Ramo Verde for using twitter to express their discontent for the government. So how will it be when Maduro can declare illegal anything and everything he wants without any opposition? We can only guess, but it doesn’t look very pretty…….
Sources: http://yusnaby.com/al-igual-que-cuba-maduro-podra-decidir-si-ser-opositor-es-un-delito/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/world/americas/us-cuba-talks-on-restoring-diplomatic-ties-end-abruptly.html?ref=americas&_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/world/americas/venezuela-nicolas-maduro-obama.html?ref=americas
Isabella Frances Teti says
The human rights violations happening in this Venezuela are really disturbing. No doubt the president is paying off his supporters in the National Assembly. Honestly, I think stopping these human rights violations are more important than our relationship with Cuba. Someone needs to put their foot down on this issue, and honestly, what is Fidel Castro really going to do about it? Partnering with the U.S. is a great opportunity for him, and he knows it. If we wants to turn away from the negotiations, fine, but it’s his loss. I’ve always thought Obama’s policy on foreign affairs was pretty solid, and it still is now.
Annika Hansen says
I was wondering why other leaders in the area, like President Roussef are supporting Moduro. Brazil is a democracy so I am not sure why they would support Moduro’s regime. Also, President Obama is in a difficult position. However, I think since Cuba is very invested in reconciling with the US, President Obama should continue to pressure Venezuela.