Venezuela, Last Trench of the Castroist Dictatorial Empire

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
Publicado abril 26, 2017

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The extraordinary struggle of the Venezuelan people to regain their freedom could have already been successful had it been an internal struggle solely between Venezuelans. The problem is that they -almost alone- are facing the Castroist Dictatorial Empire that has turned Venezuela as its most important colony. The triumph of the Venezuelan people would make Cuba lose its regional hold and would force it to defend itself in its own territory, this is why Venezuela is the last trench of the Castroist Dictatorial Empire.

The real enemy of the Venezuelan people is the Cuban dictatorship that has all 21st Century Socialism’s (SSXXI) dictatorships in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, subordinated to it and controls, through grants of Venezuelan oil, countries of the Petrocaribe that include, besides Cuba and Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Surinam, Santa Lucia, El Salvador, Guatemala, San Cristobal and Nieves, San Vicente and the Grenadines, Honduras, and Haiti.

Control of the SSXXI subordinates and of the Petrocaribe countries means that Cuba without being actively involved in the Organization of American States (OAS) has control of 22 out of the 35 active member’s votes. This is why Cuba, as long as it controls the puppet regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela or if it substitutes it with another Castroist puppet, will sustain its control of the Petrocaribe and as a result will be able to manipulate the majority of votes in the OAS, threatening it and stopping it from rescuing its principles and values that are a trademark of Secretary General Luis Almagro.   This situation makes it almost impossible to take any effective action in favor of democracy and the implementation of any sanction against the dictatorships, even after electoral fraud is committed as it just happened in Ecuador.

This regional power structure was created by the partnership of Hugo Chavez with Fidel Castro using money generated by Venezuelan oil and supported by corruption and narcotics trafficking, all of it under an antiimperialist banner which was led by Chavez until his death. While Chavez lived, he was the leader, the chief, and the Castro’s were relegated to a second place to the point that in order to give Fidel Castro a role they created a sort of “Habana’s Oracle” where all subordinates visited to ask the Cuban dictator for advice, all while Chavez travelled, intervened, deposed, or sustained governments, gave orders, doled out money, insulted and threatened the United States and exercised power in the region, manipulating Secretary Insulza at will, and indicating seizures, imprisonments, exile, or the granting of rewards.

Hugo Chavez’s death gave the Castroist the political leadership of Latin America. The first demonstration of this was the finger-pointing designation of Nicolas Maduro, from among the inner circle of the ruling political party, as Chavez’s successor in Venezuela and the electoral fraud against Capriles in Venezuela’s elections in 2013. This is how the Castroist subordinated the Chavez’s camp under the guise of a so-called Bolivarian Revolution and with a Castroist puppet president in place, Venezuela became its colony. Castro replaced the deceased Chavez in the leadership of the extended but agonizing project of the SSXXI and with this power Cuba consolidated its control of institutions in the United Nations (UN), the OAS, gained influence over the Vatican and the government of the United States to the point of being able to get the “normalization of relations”.

With Chavez alive, the FARC were allies subordinated to the SSXXI project introduced by the Castroist which sustained, protected, and used them through many years. Cuba went from being an ally of the FARC to become an impartial mediator and conducted the “Colombia-FARC peace process” which was signed in spite of the fact the Colombian people said NO in a referendum. The relationship FARC-Castroist-Chavez quickly turned the bordering Venezuela and Ecuador into an important support base for the guerrilla and made Venezuela “the hub of narcotics trafficking” fed by the Colombian and coca grower Evo Morales’ Bolivian production. Noteworthy events demonstrating the high level of complicity were; the arrest for narcotics trafficking in New York of the nephews of the Venezuelan First Lady, the arrest in Florida of the Bolivian antinarcotics Czar, and the accusation of narcotics trafficking levied against the current Venezuelan Vice President El Aissami, to cite a few.

The Castroist dictatorship facilitated and enabled the regimes of Russia, Iran, and North Korea to penetrate its controlled territories in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Kirchner’s Argentina Lula and Rousseff’s Brazil, and obviously the Petrocaribe’s countries. The strengthening of these worldwide alliances gave Cuba a greater level of power that to this date it holds at the UN and its specialized institutions, increasing its capacity to confront and negotiate with the United States. The great flow of money allowed it to favor business or commercial ventures with counterparts friendly to Castroist objectives throughout the region, turning allied governments into unconditional allies such –for example- that of the Spanish government of Rodriguez Zapatero.

This brief summary is verified history. It shows that the Venezuelan people in their effort to regain their freedom and democracy are not fighting against “the puppet dictator Nicolas Maduro”, this is not an internal strife solely between Venezuelans. The enemy is “the Castroist Dictatorial Imperialism” with its power base in Habana and with; its unconditional allies Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia Nicaragua, 18 additional Petrocaribe countries, the FARC and narcotics traffickers mobilized (as they did for the toppling of the Bolivian president in 20103), a control/neutralization apparatus in international organizations, very powerful worldwide allies that coincide in their attack against the United States or with whom they have prosperous commercial or business ventures, transnational organized corruption; many new rich operating the media and means of communication, their access to unlimited amounts of money to corrupt further, ties to Islamic terrorism. For the sake of their own security democratic countries and governments cannot afford to abandon the Venezuelan people.

Published in Spanish by Diario las Américas on Sunday April 23rd, 2017.