No serious observer of the Venezuelan crisis could believe that President Nicolás Maduro’s recent, hastily planned trip to Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago had anything to do with simply reaffirming his government’s commitment to the PetroCaribe arrangement and improving trade relations and cooperation in the areas of energy and security, as per the official communiqués.
With Venezuela in the midst of an economic, political and social meltdown, it boggles the mind that the president would visit two relatively small, import-dependent, not very rich island states to seek help to bolster his country’s economic fortunes and secure food supplies for his people.
Rather, as has already been mooted in some media, Mr Maduro’s shuttle diplomacy had everything to do with drumming up political support, by reaching out to two of Caricom’s more influential member states, both with new governments in power, in the hope that the bloc’s 14 votes – or 13, given that it is hardly likely that Georgetown would offer any sort of political succour to an openly hostile regime in Caracas – might stymie any attempt to censure Venezuela in forums such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and even endorse a strong statement of solidarity with the Venezuelan government at the forthcoming June 4 summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), in Cuba.
With regard to a possible role for the OAS, however, that body and its outspoken secretary general, former leftist Uruguayan foreign minister Luis Almagro, have already been repeatedly rejected by the chavista administration as interlocutors in the deteriorating relationship with the opposition alliance, the Roundtable for Democratic Unity (MUD in Spanish) and the MUD-controlled National Assembly.
An increasingly strident war of words has been going on since September last year between the Bolivarian regime and Mr Almagro, who has not been shy in speaking out against the jailing of opposition politicians and the erosion of human rights in Venezuela, thereby arousing much chavista ire.
Just last week, in response to an accusation by the Venezuelan government that he was a “CIA agent”, Mr Almagro, in a strongly worded open letter, pulled no punches in calling out Mr Maduro: “You betray your people and your supposed ideology with your rambling tirades, you are a traitor to ethics in politics with your lies and you betray the most sacred principle in politics, which is to subject yourself to the scrutiny of your people. You should return the riches of those who have governed with you to your country, because they belong to the people, you should return justice to your people…You should return the political prisoners to their families…You should give the National Assembly back its legitimate power, because this comes from the people, you should return to the people the decision about their future.”
In Mr Almagro’s view, moreover, obstructing the opposition’s attempt to hold a recall referendum is tantamount to denying the people the right to vote, which would make Mr Maduro “just another petty dictator, like so many this Hemisphere has had”.
Now, many might agree with Mr Almagro’s forthright views but, by eschewing any sort of diplomatic language, he has effectively shut the door on the possibility of the OAS playing any sort of mediating role in the Venezuelan political crisis.
Some may argue that this door was shut a long time ago by the Venezuelan government and that any pronouncement by the OAS would be more symbolic than anything. But Mr Maduro’s recent foray into the Caribbean suggests that he still seems to attribute some relevance to regional and international opinion, even if he has so far been deaf to diplomatic overtures by Argentina and Brazil – admittedly both now with governments that are ideologically opposed to the chavista regime – and, more surprisingly, the Pope.
Venezuela needs help in more ways than one. But whilst the Maduro regime gives every impression that it is circling the wagons by rallying support among members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (Alba) and PetroCaribe beneficiaries, Venezuela’s friends in the region should be trying to help Caracas to find a political solution to the worsening crisis.
With the country facing real prospects of a breakdown of law and order and a humanitarian disaster which could spill over into its neighbours, using mechanisms such as the ACS, the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), to facilitate dialogue between the government and the opposition may be the only way to go, not only to guarantee respect for basic principles of democratic governance, the rule of law and human rights but also in the interest of peace and stability in Venezuela and the region.
