If we were to strip the name and surname of the protagonist of the following production, you would conclude that it is a tragicomedy, worthy of a third-rate theater, in a banana republic.
In the first act of this production, the local autocrat, a former bus driver, turned “strongman,” disqualifies the main opposition leader from participating in the presidential elections.
In the second act, the local tyrant is proclaimed by a chorus of unconditional supporters as the winner of the elections, without fulfilling his obligation to present the corresponding electoral records.
In the third act, the local despot harasses the protesters and suspends diplomatic relations with seven neighboring countries that dared to question the outcome of this fifth-rate operetta.
As a finale, the opposition claims to have the minutes that prove a categorical and mathematically irreversible victory.
Sadly, the protagonist of this bad zarzuela does have a name and surname: Nicolás Maduro. The disqualified leader is María Corina Machado.
And the seven countries are Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay, some of which questioned the result and requested an urgent meeting of the Permanent Council of the OAS in Washington. Panama had already suspended relations.
The young president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, gave perhaps the best lesson in democracy to other veteran leaders of the region who have remained silent.
“We have done nothing more than support what we want to be correct: that the results of the election be transparent and verifiable by observers not committed to the current government through the full publication of the minutes… we hope that the will of the Venezuelan people is respected.” Venezuela responded by expelling the Chilean mission.
The United States, the European Union and the OAS, among others, have joined this call for transparency. Only China, Russia, Iran and Bolivia congratulated Maduro on his electoral “victory.”
At the time of writing these lines, the situation in Venezuela is highly volatile. Thousands of protesters are still in the streets and protests are widespread. Statues of Hugo Chavez have been torn down and although a national strike has not been called, Venezuela is experiencing a moment of paralysis.
Maduro, the protagonist of the operetta, compared the situation in Venezuela to the film The Exorcist. “I saw it only once in my life, terrible, I didn’t like it,” said Maduro in the Miraflores Palace, surrounded by two of his collaborators with pale faces.
Possibly Maduro did not like the film, because he felt alluded to when the demon is forced to give up the body of Linda Blair’s character. And the best way to exorcise the demon of autocracy is democracy. And that must have him truly terrified.
