AN INTERIM GOVERNMENT TO END THE DICTATORSHIP IN VENEZUELA

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
March 18, 2019

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The “realpolitik” or politics based on practical interests, convenience, and concrete actions reveal that the chiefs of political parties-candidates who comprise the majority in Venezuela’s National Assembly, have approved as law “The Statute for the Transition Towards Democracy” with dire and serious effects in the fight against the dictatorship: 1. The National Assembly does not recognize Guaido as Venezuela’s President In Charge. 2. Neither does it allow the institution of an Interim or Transitional President until the departure of the dictator. It is urgent to correct this in order to establish a Transitional Government who, through legitimate actions, ends Venezuela’s dictatorship.

Today, in Venezuela, there are only two institutions that do not recognize Juan Guaido as the President In Charge and these are; Maduro’s dictatorship and the National Assembly who supposedly wants to end the dictatorship. Guaido is hostage to the sum of minorities who comprise the opposition’s majority and who prevent the President from forming a government, given that in Articles 7, 25, and 26 of the aforementioned statute it was mandated that there will be a Transitional Government only “after the usurpation of the Presidency by Nicolas Maduro Moros ends”.

This phenomenon “Venezuela with a President without a Government, and a dictator without a State” gets further aggravated with the confrontation that appears to be a paradox of “the irresistible force against an unremovable objective” to which the very National Assembly contributes, thus increasing the risk that in a few weeks the dictatorship suffocate Guaido’s leadership. If this were to happen, it would be a failure, an almost definitive defeat for freedom and democracy, but a very convenient result for some of the National Assembly’s presidential candidates.

Up to now the international support -with its repeated dismissal of the use of force- is vital but insufficient to remove dictator Maduro and the Castroist Chavist dictatorship. Other efforts, such as the extraordinary street demonstrations, popular mobilizations, heroic acts, and extreme sacrifices of true Venezuelan heroes who have put their lives, freedom, and physical well-being on the line and who suffer from famine and the humanitarian crisis, have neither been enough to achieve this objective

There is no doubt freedom and democracy are winning the fight against the Castroist Chavist dictatorship, but very soon a prompt and definitive victory is needed to include the departure of the dictator and the end of the dictatorship. Progress made is so important that Venezuela now has a President In Charge, a National Assembly and a Supreme Tribunal who have already been recognized by nearly 60 States worldwide.

Time is ticking in favor of the dictatorship who is applying a strategy to suffocate Guaido, whittling down his very high popular support and using this as his greatest political weakness. The dictatorship uses the great popular support Guaido has to secure the absence of a real backing from the leadership of political parties who call themselves “the opposition” because if Guaido is successful in removing the dictatorship and calls for elections to be held, Guaido could easily be elected and this way he would win the upper hand against three generations of presidential hopeful candidates who now control the National Assembly.

As things are, what the Venezuelan people, international governments and organizations who have recognized Venezuela’s President In Charge must verify are: 1. That Juan Guaido be recognized as Venezuela’s President In Charge within the plenary of the National Assembly with all nominal and protocolar symbols of his tenure included; 2. That the President In Charge be able to conform a transitional government of national unity, designating a Vice President, and Ministers; 3. That chiefs of political parties and organizations who are represented and constitute the majority in the National Assembly comprise the Cabinet of Ministries.

We must immediately end with the suspicion of the two faced -or functional- opposition to the dictatorship. Discourses to end Maduro’s dictatorship while at the same time these discourses do not recognize Juan Guaido as the President In Charge and prevent the conformation of a Transitional Government must once and for all end.

A Transitional Government is what is missing to end the dictatorship in Venezuela because it will be able to: “through its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Condemn Cuba and order it to remove its occupation forces from Venezuelan territory”; through its “Minister of Defense, remove and re-designate new military commanders”; through its “Minister of Economy, prohibit the sending of oil to Cuba and hold those who continue to do so personally liable” . . . and more. It is about being able to Govern in place of the dictator with the legitimacy of the backing of the people willing to respect and enforce the orders of the legitimate government and with the backing of the international community.

*Attorney & Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.

Published in Spanish by Infobae.com on Sunday, March 10, 2019
Translated from Spanish by; Edgar L. Terrazas, member of the American Translators’ Association, ATA # 234680.