The Enigma of Nicolas Maduro: A Man of the People or Authoritarian Leader?

Designated successor to Hugo Chavez in 2013, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, considered an insignificant trade unionist by his detractors, was able to stay in power by ruling the country with an iron fist while maintaining the image of a man of the people.

At 61, he is seeking a third term at the head of this oil country of 30 million inhabitants, during the presidential election scheduled for July 28.

Tall, with a proud mustache, the former metro-bus driver frequently recalls his origins and likes to cultivate an image of a man of the people. He likes to often evoke common sense, to butcher English words, to talk about baseball or his TV evenings with his wife Cilia Flores, the “first fighter”, a former prosecutor omnipresent on the Venezuelan political scene.

“It’s a genre that he gives himself. As for English, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs for years (2006-2013). It’s hard to believe that he doesn’t master it perfectly,” confides a diplomatic source. .

Trained in Cuba, his culture goes far beyond that of the bus driver. “He is one of the young leaders with the best abilities” to lead the country, Hugo Chavez said at the end of 2012, designating him as his heir before his death a year later.

Many underestimated him. Wrongly. He knew how to assert himself against his rivals within the United Socialist Party (PSUV) of which he is president, to maneuver in the storms of the monster demonstrations which followed his contested 2018 election boycotted by the opposition, to juggle an economic crisis unprecedented, economic sanctions, the pandemic and corruption scandals running into billions of dollars. He has also survived the plots, real and imaginary, which he regularly denounces.

– “Super moustache” –

The propaganda presents him as “Indestructible!”, like the slogan of “Super-Bigode” (Super-moustache), the cartoon superhero in the likeness of Maduro who, like Superman, defends Venezuela against monsters and the bad guys that are the United States or “opponent-saboteurs”.

He does not have the charisma or eloquence of Chavez, but spends hours on television or on the networks with well-oiled communication. Combining pure political discourse, sometimes heavy jokes, and personal asides, he knows how to keep a crowd in suspense.

A sympathetic image clashing with his way of running the country which relies largely on the army and the security apparatus. Venezuela is in the sights of the International Criminal Court. NGOs denounce arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial executions, framed trials, censorship and control of the media.

“Chavez was electorally competitive, regardless of his mistakes,” said Benigno Alarcon, professor of politics at Andres Bello University. “The government could afford the luxury of calling for elections. From 2015, the government understands that it can no longer win and no longer wants free and democratic elections.”

Despite the speech, Maduro shows that he is capable of RealPolitik. He cut all social spending, removed customs duties on imports to allow the resupply of a country that lacked everything and authorized dollarization to curb hyperflation.

The greenback of the hated enemy is now king in the land of Chavista socialism.

Ultra-liberal recipes, notes Chavez’s former finance minister, Rodrigo Cabezas: “It is the most unequal capitalism in Latin America” ​​with an “abandonment of anti-poverty policies” and a “socially destroyed country” .

– “Marxist and Christian” –

Uncompromising in his anti-Yankee speech, Maduro also knows how to negotiate on the sly.

He thus managed to have the American sanctions temporarily lifted from November to April (not extended due to the confirmed ineligibility of the main opponent Maria Corina Machado). He was also able to obtain the release of two nephews of Cilia Flores convicted of drug trafficking in the United States, and especially in December of Alex Saab, considered one of the main intermediaries in Venezuela, imprisoned in the United States for money laundering and considered Maduro’s straw man.

“I have never had a bank account abroad, companies, properties, and I do not want to have one, ever…” Maduro retorts, denying any personal enrichment.

Although he still calls himself a Marxist, he is not an atheist. He supported with the power of the State the beatification by the Catholic Church of José Gregorio, the “doctor of the poor” in 2021. But above all he made a turn towards the evangelical Christian churches. Some see it as a maneuver towards an electoral windfall. Others a true faith.

“I am a child of our Lord Jesus Christ and I know why he protects me. They (enemies) could not reach me because Christ is with us,” he said.

Mr. Maduro also summarizes himself as follows: “Bolivarian (of Simon Bolivar, born in Venezuela and emblematic figure of the emancipation of the Spanish colonies in South America), Marxist and Christian”.

2024-03-12 07:44:50
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