14ymedio, Miguel Henrique Otero, Madrid, 24 August 2019 — I agree with those analysts who argue that the end of the Maduro regime will have numerous consequences at the international level, which could be analyzed in several chapters.
For Bolivia governed by Evo Morales; for Argentina on the verge of returning to the corruption networks of the Kirchners; for Brazil’s Lula da Silva, imprisoned for corrupted; for the Ecuadorian fugitive Rafael Correa; for the populist exhibitionism o Mexico’s López Obrador; for narco guerrilla groups such as the ELN and the regrouped FARC; for different drug cartels from Colombia and Peru; for the partners of the circuits dedicated to the smuggling of fuels, wood, minerals, food and medicines, which operate across the borders with Brazil and Colombia; for the unscrupulous who enrich themselves at the cost of the famine of Venezuelan families; for beneficiaries like Venezuelan ex-guerilla Gustavo Petro; for the bunch of scoundrels who traveled to Caracas from different parts of the continent, to participate in the large banquets, spree and drunkenness of the Sao Paulo Forum, during the last days of July; for gangs that scam, steal, kidnap, exploit and subdue those fleeing Venezuelan territory, often without a coin in their pocket; for all these, things will be very different, because the coffers of Venezuela and the Venezuelans themselves will cease to be a source of loot that is distributed daily.
Not only on the continent, but also in other parts of the world there will be questions to review, reorder, investigate, eliminate, adjust, challenge or denounce. Hundreds of agreements, negotiated, exchanges or deals without legal support, contrary to national interest, violating the Constitution and the respective laws, which were made with governments or companies of China, Russia, Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, India and some others.
Since 1999, agreements have been announced, trips by delegations, commissions, exchanges, signing of contracts, various works, creation of companies and infrastructure projects, which were not undertaken, which were abandoned shortly after, which were interrupted or that collapsed
Might we even have a brief idea of how much the trips of Chavez, Maduro, hundreds of ministers, thousands of officials, advisors, relatives, loved ones, assistants, friends, bodyguards, nannies, doctors, nurses, cooks and more have cost?
Do we have the right to know the amount of expenses incurred for the constant travel of Venezuelan officials to Cuba? Or those of Padrino López to Russia? Or, conversely, will it be possible to investigate and know how much the visits of Marta Harnecker, Juan Carlos Monedero, Maradona, Danny Glover, Ramonet, Hebe de Bonafini, Eva Golinger, and several other hundreds of communist parasites, usufructuaries of the Venezuelan oil industry have cost the Venezuelan nation?
I venture this: we really do not have an idea of the extent and depth of the way in which Venezuelan goods and resources have been squandered. Scholarships, donations, per diems, aid, air tickets, hotels, restaurants, advice, contributions for the most diverse purposes; all these total an amount unique in the world: billions of dollars. The destruction of national heritage is not limited to the great acts of corruption: there has also been a constant bleeding through these bureaucratic and frequent practices that, on another scale, are also corrupt and abusive.
As soon as the end of the dictatorship takes place, not only the less visible facts of the gigantic robbery operation that is and has been Venezuela’s “Bolivarian Revolution” will come to the surface: the acceleration of the collapse of the other two communist dictatorships remaining in Central America will also take place: that of the Castro brothers in Cuba — now under the care of one of their most servile officials, Miguel Díaz Canel — and the one headed by Rosario Murillo, Daniel Ortega and the rest of the members of the Ortega-Murillo cartel in Nicaragua.
Chavismo-Madurismo’s relationship with Cuba will constitute the most abundant chapter of corruption in these twenty years. There is probably no such case in the history of the world: that the governing power of a country has as its main economic policy to transfer, through all kinds of mechanisms, some of them openly illegal, the greatest amount of financial resources possible to another country.
Because it’s not just about the gift of crude and fuel oils. That is one part, the most scenographic operation of all, that prevents us from seeing the others. Chavez and Maduro have given Castroism control over key issues related to national security, business operations, imports, huge resources in exchange for services or advice that did not exist, financing the repair or reconstruction and even the construction of infrastructure, which disguised themselves as part of non-existent maintenance projects for highways, roads, schools and hospitals in Venezuela.
To a lesser extent, but using similar techniques, the regime, again with national monies, in an unqualified, illegal and secret manner, has financed the dictatorship of Murillo and Ortega, and has sent squadrons to repress and shoot their citizens. It has created mechanisms to launder money from corruption, and has been the driving force of similar policies to destroy the media and liquidate the citizen’s right to be informed.
First the dictatorship in Venezuela will end. And, once the diminished drip of resources is finished once and for all, those of Nicaragua and Cuba will follow.
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Editor’s Note: Miguel Henrique Otero is president and CEO of the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional .
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