Maduro terrorizes Venezuela – by Jordana Timerman

Venezuela’s government has redoubled its efforts to crush dissent after an election whose official results are widely considered fraudulent. The government of Nicolás Maduro has set up a phone app and a military hotline where people can anonymously file complaints about opposition protesters, reports AFP.

Maduro himself said more than 2,200 people had been arrested for their involvement in the protests and that opposition leaders Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and Maria Corina Machado “belong behind bars.”

Rights Group Criminal Law Forum has verified the detention of 1,229 people. Verifying the cases has been hampered by the reluctance of relatives of those arrested or killed to come forward, the Washington Post.

The string of arrests is unprecedented: In just 10 days, security forces have rounded up nearly the same number of people as they did in five months in 2017, Provea told The Associated Press. They are intended to instill fear in Venezuelans and force them into submission, Rafael Uzcategui, co-director of the rights NGO Laboratorio de Paz, told The Associated Press. Guardian.

Amnesty International told the BBC they had “reasonable reasons to believe that the lives and integrity of (the prisoners) are in danger”.

The repression, much of it seemingly arbitrary and random, is having a deterrent effect, Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, told the Associated Press. “It’s not just about discouraging protests. People are afraid to go out on the streets, period,” he said. “There’s a sense that the police have a quota to fill and that anyone can be arrested and taken away as suspected subversive.”

Opposition leaders are facing mounting legal challenges: González was convicted of contempt of court and now faces a prison sentence.Reuters(see yesterday’s summaries.)

It is too early to say that there is a negotiation process with the government, although opposition leader María Corina Machado said that joint diplomatic efforts by Brazil, Colombia and Mexico could bring Maduro to the table. “But what there is on our side is an absolute willingness to start a negotiation process for the transition,” she said. Connections in an interview.

Oliver Stuenkel writes about Brazil’s strategy in America’s Quarterly: “Brazil, like other major powers in the Global South, such as India or Indonesia, often adopts an ambiguous stance of keeping all doors open. This is often described as “pragmatism” by its supporters and labeled as hypocritical or morally questionable by critics.”

More Venezuela

The Catholic Church rejected the repression by the Venezuelan government.The country)
“The governments that support Maduro have common characteristics, including

systematic violations of human rights, censorship and a refusal to allow free and

fair elections. Their alliance, however, is not ideological,” opposition leader Leopoldo López writes for the Wilson Center“Rather, it is supported by a common goal: to keep each other in power at all costs.”
After the elections in Venezuela, “many voters said they knew this would happen,” Argentine journalist Lucía Cholakian told The dial. “They didn’t expect anything from the government, but it still felt like their last chance for change. I was talking to people who were working class, especially people whose children were living abroad or who had chronic illnesses and didn’t have access to healthcare or the medicines they needed. This is a society that is traumatized and broken in so many ways. And I think people now feel like nothing is going to make this better…”

Migration

Maduro’s increasing repression is likely to “unleash a wave of refugees that will cause chaos in neighboring countries as they try to head toward the U.S. border,” the Miami Herald.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has hollowed out his country’s institutions for managing migration since taking office in 2022, leaving the country “ill-equipped to handle the expected surge of Venezuelan migration after the election,” write Shannon K. O’Neil and Will Freeman for Council for Foreign Relations.
Panamanian Border Police in Panama said they have arrested 15 people who allegedly led a smuggling ring to smuggle Chinese migrants through the Darién Gap, the Associated Press.
“Forensic authorities in the Dominican Republic worked Wednesday to identify the remains of at least 14 largely decomposed bodies found on an abandoned ship 10 nautical miles off the northern coast,” the Associated Press.

Colombia

Petro called for a national agreement to move forward with social reforms.The country)
He is halfway through his term, weakened by corruption scandals involving close associates and family members, reports The country.
Two years into Petro’s mandate, there have been fewer assassinations of social leaders in Colombia compared to the first years of his predecessor. But there have been more massacres, Indepaz reports. (Chair Vacía)

Regional

A U.S. judge has dismissed a large portion of Mexico’s unprecedented $10 billion lawsuit that holds American gun manufacturers responsible for facilitating the trafficking of firearms to violent drug cartels in Mexico, the U.S. reported. Reuters.

Brazil

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has nearly halved in the past year compared to the year before, according to government satellite data released yesterday. It is the largest reduction since 2016, when officials began using the current measurement method, the Associated Press.
The Brazilian government has deployed more security agents to the state of Mato Grosso do Sul following violent clashes over land between indigenous people and farmers over the weekend. The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples said it had received reports of farmers attacking Guarani Kaiowa people in the municipality of Douradina on Saturday, injuring at least eight people, the Associated Press.

Peru

Peru’s indigenous Mashco Piro group recently used bows and arrows to attack loggers suspected of violating their territory in the Amazon, a regional indigenous organization said — Associated Press

Bolivia

Bolivian President Luis Arce said national referendums would be held on eliminating fuel subsidies and the constitutionality of presidential re-elections, the first time the government has offered “a concrete path out of the country’s economic quagmire and political limbo,” the Associated Press.

Dominican Republic

The case of a black American citizen who was physically attacked by a Dominican official as he attempted to cross the border into Haiti is an example of the deep-rooted racism that people of color face in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they are often mistaken for Haitian, the Miami Herald.

Argentina

Argentine President Javier Milei has criticised the “progressive hypocrisy” of the “scam they called ‘gender policy’” after former President Alberto Fernández was accused of domestic violence by his wife.Buenos Aires Times, Page 12)
The president’s spokesman said the allegations only show that the previous administration’s efforts to expand women’s rights have been futile.The country)
The scandal will further fuel the government’s vicious attacks on feminists, writes Ingrid Beck in Letter Pbut those who previously supported him politically are among his fiercest critics in light of the allegations. “Let’s be clear: the only person accused of gender-based violence is the former president. Let’s not put it all on the shoulders of feminists again.”
Politicians from all political ranks expressed their solidarity with Fernández’s wife, Fabiola Yáñez, and rejected gender-based violence.Page 12)
Thousands of people protested against the austerity measures of the Milei government in Argentina. They gathered on the day of Saint Cayetano, the patron saint of bread and work, the Associated Press.The country)

Regional relations

The United States is imposing sanctions on Paraguayan tobacco company Tabacalera del Este, which is accused of providing financial support to former President Horacio Cartes, who was sanctioned by the White House last year for corruption.Reuters, Associated Press)