Caracas, Venezuela
2018.10.01
Autor: Marcos Mora
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This is my response to a comment found in this article on Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/af68e6e2-c0b4-11e8-84cd-9e601db069b8
I write it here because I cannot respond directly to the comment unless I have a paid subscription to FT.
First, you can have context on the original article embedded here (I do this because FT probably have a daily limit of "3 free article reads" per day, as The Economist has:
The world has a responsibility to protect the people of Venezuela
Probing the Maduro government for crime against humanity is just a first step
Luis Almagro SEPTEMBER 27, 2018
As an international community, we have failed to live up to our responsibilities in Venezuela.Former US president Bill Clinton once told the people of Rwanda: “It may seem strange to you here, especially the many of you who lost members of your family, but all over the world there were people like me sitting in offices, day after day after day, who did not fully appreciate the depth and speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror.”
His quote could easily be applied to the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis taking place today. The cases are different, as are the crimes committed, but the world is showing the same inaction in the face of suffering, gross violations of human rights, and crimes against humanity.
There has been discussion in recent weeks of military intervention and what must be done. Let me be clear, I will unequivocally condemn any illegitimate armed attack, invasion or aggression. We must act in accordance with public international law — including the UN’s 2005 “responsibility to protect” commitment to prevent genocide, and international criminal law — and the international norms that protect democracy and our rights and freedoms.
But we can no longer allow ourselves to be accomplices to the crimes of Nicolás Maduro’s regime. The entire premise of ideas such as the responsibility to protect is that we must act before we are counting the dead. When we do not act soon enough, we are forced to confront a state-run killing machine.
The commitment to prevent genocide is the one last hope for victims who have been forgotten. It is not about the protection of governments, nor is it a question of ideology. Our responsibility is to the people that make up our societies — it is to humanity.
Nearly three years ago, I first publicly raised my concerns about Mr Maduro’s slide into dictatorship. The Organization of American States tracked and documented the regime’s assault on its country as it dismantled, co-opted and corrupted its institutions. Its rampant corruption and incompetence has created the most devastating humanitarian crisis our hemisphere has experienced.
Back then there was no political will to act. The international community shirked its responsibility, hiding behind a misinterpretation of the notion of non-intervention to maintain the status quo. While the world waited, the Maduro regime tightened its grasp on power and the suffering of the Venezuelan people worsened.
More than 12,000 Venezuelans have been arbitrarily detained, more than 1,300 political prisoners incarcerated, more than 131 protesters killed by state security forces or government-aligned paramilitaries, and more than 8,000 murdered extrajudicially. Detainees are tortured and abused, in some cases raped or subjected to other forms of sexual violence. And this is just what we can already prove.
The regime has used the country’s humanitarian crisis as a weapon, depriving civilians of food and essential medicines. We cannot begin to measure the lives lost due to a lack of medicine, or to a failure to receive life-saving care, or simply from complications because even basic sanitary conditions cannot easily be met in the country’s hospitals. This crisis has created a lost generation.
More than 2.3m people — more than 7 per cent of the Venezuelan population — have fled the country in the past three years, according to UN estimates in July, and hundreds more do so every day. If current trends continue, a further 1.5m will leave in the next year, forced out of their homes. They are flooding into neighbouring countries in search of food, shelter, healthcare, and employment. This is larger than the recent migrant crisis that shook the establishment in Europe, and it is now threatening the stability and security of the region.
The greatest tragedies of our lifetime are a result of the failure to act. In Rwanda, should we have intervened after 100, 1,000, or 10,000 deaths? The international community has allowed this to happen too many times. Our inaction and indecision has allowed too many crises to escalate until they reach a scale that is an affront to all of humanity.
The responsibility to protect commitment requires leaving all options on the table. This is not a message of violence; it is the opposite. We must do everything within our power to end the violence, to stop the repression, and bring an end to the suffering of the Venezuelan people.
This is why one year ago I initiated a process at the OAS to consider whether crimes against humanity have been perpetrated by the regime in Venezuela. In May 2018, I personally submitted the case to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. On Wednesday, six countries took the historic step of asking the ICC to investigate.
This is a first and vital step in addressing the crisis. We must do more. We must consider every tool and measure available to us. We must address the corruption that is starving an entire country’s population, and provide humanitarian assistance to those who are desperately in need.
We must act — it is already too late.
The writer is the secretary-general of the Organisation of American States
Then, there is the comment:
EdmundBurke1776
a) I don't believe it is right for the US or EU to intervene in Venezuela beyond supporting a tight sanctions regime. So calm down neo-isolationists, you're ok. It should be up to South American countries to cooperate and support the opposition and find a solution to this mess, as they are the ones where the masses of refugees are going tob) A lot of people seem delighted to make the point over and over about socialism is evil. Guess what: you're 100% right, socialism doesn't work and never has. The tragedy here is that an authoritarian movement used the tools of democracy to undermine the system from within and set up a narco-state in its place. They don't care one fig about Marx - they care about power. They care about the dollars that come in from using the country as a route for drugs to be shipped to North America and Europe. Grow up
c) I was born in Venezuela and left as a young child with my parents long before the decline set in. However, I have watched in horror as the country I visited and knew as an affluent and freedom-loving society has deteriorated into this hellish place. It is heartbreaking and I agree, it is self-inflicted. Around half of the population chose to go down this route and they are paying for it dearly. But have some compassion for those who never supported this mess and even for those who did and now regret their mistake.
And here is my response to @EdmundBurke1776
What Venezuela needs is a change of government
a) "cooperate and support the opposition find a solution" yes, the cooperation we —freedom fighters in Venezuela— require are intense pressures for the dictatorial regime to leave the country so we can take office and revert the crisis. This does include personal sanctions (no single South American country have done it so far) but also much more stronger measures, as a means to an end. Problem is, can the international community agree than the best goal and end solution is a change of government by both internal and external pressure? (aka not by elections, since they are fraud).
b) you are right, but they DO care about Marx, in the way that his writing (+Lenin's & +Castro's expertise in domination) serve the purpose as a way to keep power via the tool of discourse of utopia. "using the country as a route for drugs to be shipped to North America and Europe" and THIS is enough reason for US and EU to step forward and pursue a solution to the cause to prevent more drugs to flow in. The cause is Venezuela.
c) this is not self inflicted, every single election since 2002 can be called into question, that is the year when the big conglomerate we now call the "false opposition" (aka MUD) came into being. The details of fraud are research of another topic, but suffice to say: this kind of regimes always create "their own opposition", loyal to the system, that will never take power within the system itself by design. Think easter germany before reunification, they had "elections" and "opposition", all described here by Georg Eickhoff. By fortune we realized that in 2014 and formed the real deal, the dissidents, now grouped in the Alliance SoyVenezuela: http://soy-venezuela.com
I hope to collect your comments, questions and doubts as I will be delighted to hear foreigners about this topic that affects my personality, as im living this hell and fighting to change the system using and implementing a strategy: a change of government THAT IMPLIES a change of system. This will cure the root cause and end this humanitarian crisis, this nightmare.