Jose Mauricio Gaona, The Globe and Mail: Dictatorship in Venezuela will soon be reality
Jose Mauricio Gaona is an O’Brien Fellow at McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, a Saul Hayes Fellow at McGill University’s Faculty of Law, and a Vanier Canada Scholar.
Sunday’s election in Venezuela of a national constituent assembly does not represent the very beginnings of Mr. Maduro’s dictatorship, but its final ascension. In truth, the actions of Mr. Maduro’s government in the past 12 months are archetypical of a dictatorship, not a democracy.
Once a government turns its security forces against its owns citizens and breaks the system of checks and balances between branches of power that upholds democracy, all that follows is dictatorship. In 2016, of the 21,752 homicides in the country, nearly 5,000 were at the hands of security forces. Since protests started on April 1 this year, 115 people have been killed, nearly 2,000 injured and more than 4,000 detained. As Mr. Maduro appeals for reconciliation and peace, more than 400 civilians are being prosecuted before military tribunals.
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WNU Editor: AP had a picture last night of a few old people sitting on chairs in front of a polling station waiting to vote .... they were the only ones there. If this is the 41.5% that the Venezuelan government is boasting non-stop that voted .... what can I say .... I experienced enough Soviet elections in my life to know a bogus claim when I see one. On a side note the above author of this Globe and Mail commentary is Jose Mauricio Gaona. He is an O’Brien Fellow at McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism in Montreal, and I have seen him speak on what is happening in Venezuela. What he has to say is riveting, and the above commentary is a must read.
