EXTRA EDITION - The Thin Red Line

By Adriaan van Ginkel

It is possible that after publishing, this might be my last news brief for now. I hope not; my plan is to keep on writing and publishing my briefs about Venezuela, the country in which I am living and working, and cover all kind of topics. I was planning to write about something else, like the sad situation in the animal shelters – one of the worst on this continent – and as an active animal protectionist, this subject stays very close to my heart. But what happened these last days here on the political scene has pushed me to devote some lines on what is happening at this very moment in Venezuela concerning freedom of speech and conscience. 

I think it would be like writing about the local cuisine while a natural disaster has struck the region. Totally ridiculous and unethical. Self-censure has been one of the biggest evils of our modern times. So I’ll give it a shot, telling you one or two things about what is really threatening my blog, and maybe risking a knock on the door by uniformed guys afterwards. The internet here is almost prehistoric and has hampered my publishing more than once, but what is now looming over freedom of speech and conscience is far worse than wobbly technology.

First a word or two about the main picture. It’s noticeable that authoritarianism has become more and more common in our world, don’t you think so? Consider Putin’s Russia, for example. But supposedly democratic countries like the US are increasingly linked to cloak-and-dagger activities like massive email monitoring and peeping into what people are saying in the social media. Within the European Union, it has become risky to say or publish anything that might be considered an attack on Islam or Muslims - which is explained officially as acting against racism and discrimination, but in fact is an authoritarian move against freedom of speech and conscience. In an earlier news brief featuring the banned Venezuelan cartoonist Rayma, I already touched the subject. Venezuela is no exception to the growing power of governments trying to control our minds these days. Very few media worldwide can be trusted on their independence. Political lobbies are not the only forces bending news behind the scenes to someone’s benefit. State meddling has become an even darker force. But the extremes, to which the Venezuelan government has ventured the last years, are notable. And increasingly troubling. 

Writing about Venezuela from within has become a tricky business these last years. I have to be very careful in my wording to not tread on some sore revolutionary toes. My knowledge about how people in the Eastern Europe of before 1989 managed to read and tell the truth between the lines has helped me a lot till now. It’s like walking on a thin red line. But how thin is that line really? Or is it more like walking on sheet-thin ice?

The day the Maduro government arrested the metropolitan major of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, at his office and a huge force of secret police armed to the teeth pushed the 59-year-old opposition politician around like some criminal in front of CCTV camera’s, I knew that things are getting serious in Venezuela. Ledezma has been accused of conspiring to stage a coup and overthrow Nicolás Maduro. The proof? His signature under an opposition alliance declaration calling for a transition government following that of the incumbent, but within the frame of the constitution. This was taken by Maduro as an incitement to overthrow his government. Ledezma is now locked up and the (mock) trial will almost surely condemn him to a lengthy stay in prison. And all for having voiced his disagreement with Chávez and Maduro over the years, and for his signature under that declaration. 

In a normal democracy it’s OK to voice your dissent against the sitting government, right? As long as it’s done in a democratic and respectful way. But Maduro has now clearly crossed the line between apparent democracy, something the macchiavelic juggler Hugo Chávez left behind, and true authoritarian rule. Maduro sees every criticism against his person, no matter how carefully put, as a direct attack on Venezuela, and thus high treason if it concerns domestic critics. To me, Maduro’s style of ruling, together with a personality cult that is surpassing that of Chávez in a quick tempo (as I have personally witnessed), has turned a corner right into Autocrat Street that leads to true dictatorship. He is not there yet. His authority is as yet challenged within the government party PSUV, and there has been a growing protest within and outside the country against the arrest of Ledezma. His government record since 2013 has been so disastrous that about a week ago, Maduro asked his audience, in a jokingly way, NOT to take the first two years of his presidency into account. The new state currency exchange machine SIMADI that I commented on lately, by the way, is still grounded because of lack of currency, need I say more? More on SIMADI further below. 

Apart from the fact that the statement above, coming from a head of state, is downright pathetic, it also shows that Maduro is fully aware that things are not going well for him. Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez has stated in her blog some days ago that it has become apparent that Maduro is incapable of governing. Her words, not mine.

The sudden arrest of Ledezma – and others may follow the coming days – is, to my personal opinion, a show of force coming from a unpopular president who tries desperately to show to everyone that he is in control and that he is the boss. It might carry him further for some months, and between constant reports (true or not) of conspirations against him and uncovering of assumed assassination plots (again, true or not) by unhappy military or opposition members “paid by Miami”, Maduro might survive the economic tsunami that will engulf us all the coming months. 

SIMADI has turned out to be not a way for people like me or you to buy dollars or euro’s in exchange of bolivars, since the system stipulates that you have to buy at least 300 US dollars in ONE single day to participate (IF the dollars are available), leaving the average person out of the game. 300 dollars at the government’s exchange rate equals two average monthly wages, and who can pay that money and buy dollars legally? Only the rich, the powerful and the famous. Some social justice! It is apparent that with yet another failed attempt to control the economy, confidence in Maduro’s government to stabilize the economy, and hence the country, is quickly vanishing. And the government’s new method of smashing any political dissent to bits, together with arbitrary expropriations and verbal threats to private business, does not restore at all that vanishing confidence. There are many threats to Maduro’s government, even from within the own ranks, and I am not stating that all opposition members are cute little daisies either. There are some hardliners I really wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley, mind you.

What is becoming more and more apparent to me, is that Nicolás Maduro has very little clue as to what he is doing. His rambling and incoherent speeches don’t add anything positive to the record, and his disastrous approach of the economy, without apparent course or purpose except the consolidation of his own power, really does frighten me as a resident of this country. You can have bad presidents (whom you can kick out of their seats at the next elections) or good dictators who really do good things in between bad, but who very rarely know when it’s time to leave power. But a bad, unfit dictator is maybe one of the worst things that can happen to any country. Is Maduro such a leader? I truly hope not!

I hope and pray (you become very religious in a country like Venezuela) that president Maduro will have the courage to admit that he needs better advisers, a new policy, or else just quits with honor and calls for new elections. And I also hope that I won’t end in some dark SEBIN dungeon just for stating that in my blog. I live and work in this country, and I and my family see with growing desperation how the money earned is worth less and less, how it’s impossible to leave the country without selling a proverbial kidney, how hope fades in your mind and your heart of ever living a normal life and not worrying that the loaf of bread that you got at the bakery, might cost you double next week, or maybe not be available at all. Living under such a pressure, and watching a president thinking only of his own power and his glory while the country is going down – man, it gives you nightmares. 

That is how walking the red line goes in countries like Venezuela. One step too much to the side, and you might be out. Ledezma slipped and fell, who is next?

Have a great week and hopefully till this coming Wednesday!

© Adriaan van Ginkel 2015