Groundhog Day: Juan Guaidó Is Trying to Overthrow the Venezuelan Government
Again
One year since his audacious coup attempt failed spectacularly, Guaidó is once
again trying to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro.
by Alan Macleod
May 01st, 2020
By Alan Macleod
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Exactly one year since his audacious coup attempt failed spectacularly,
self-declared Venezuelan president Juan Guaidó is once again trying to
overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro. “Today I speak to the patriotic
soldiers of our Armed Forces who rebelled against hunger and destruction and
sided with the constitution,” he announced on social media last night, “To the
majority of patriotic soldiers who are still in each branch of the Armed
Forces: today, more than ever, there are obvious reasons for them to act and
support the formation of a National Emergency Government…we are going to
liberate all of Venezuela.” In a separate video published today, Guaidó
addressed Maduro directly: “Every political agreement to save Venezuela begins
with your departure from power,” he said, demanding his immediate resignation.
Julia Buxton
@BuxtonJulia
You have to be kidding me. Again?? The same tweet ... again 🤪 on and on and on
https://twitter.com/jguaido/status/1256061922799161347 …
Juan Guaidó
✔
@jguaido
Hoy le hablo a los militares patriotas de nuestra Fuerza Armada que se
rebelaron al hambre y destrucción y se pusieron del lado de la constitución, a
favor del Pueblo y contra los corruptos y narcotraficantes que tienen
secuestrado el poder. Les reitero mi respeto y admiración.
3
5:18 AM - May 1, 2020
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See Julia Buxton's other Tweets
Guaidó’s call for the military to come over to his side and for Maduro to step
down comes precisely one year after his most notable coup attempt, which
primarily consisted of him standing on an overpass near a military base,
claiming to have taken it over and to lead a huge rebel army. This narrative
was rudely interrupted when state media rushed there and filmed the base in a
state of complete normalcy, soldiers and even commanders unaware of their
supposed defeat. Guaidó continued to address the nation via social media,
claiming the small group of people around him in non-matching military uniforms
were actual defecting soldiers. The day, like his three other coup attempts
that year, ended in embarrassing defeat. The government brushed off the action,
labelling it a “small” coup attempt.
However, there are reasons why the U.S. might be able to force their candidate
on Venezuela this time. For one, the Trump administration has frozen and
transferred $342 million from the Central Bank of Venezuela’s Citibank account
to Guaidó, who is using the Venezuelan people’s collective wealth to pay his
supporters $5,000 per month, an enormous salary in Venezuela. He is also
offering local medical workers a stipend during the coronavirus pandemic,
hoping to increase his base of support. At a time of collapsing oil prices (the
country’s major export) the United States has also sent warships to the region
to tighten sanctions against the country, all under the guise of an anti-drug
operation. Venezuela imports a great deal of food, and much of it is controlled
by oligarchical corporations linked to the opposition. For example, over half
of the country’s flour is controlled by Empresas Polar, (the country’s largest
private company) whose CEO, Lorenzo Mendoza, considered standing as the
opposition’s presidential candidate in 2018. Mendoza has regularly used his
power to starve the country at times of political tension.
On the other hand, Guaidó is as unpopular as he has ever been inside the
country, even among the opposition, who removed him from his post as head of
the National Assembly in January. His own political party, Voluntad Popular,
also expelled him from their ranks. Opposition presidential candidate in 2018,
Henri Falcón recently attacked his credibility, asking if oil company CITGO is
truly in his hands, why is there a gasoline shortage in the country. The most
recent polls show he has a 10 percent approval and a 69 percent disapproval
rating. He is even unpopular among his fellow coup-plotters; after a failed
attempt in January 2019, his co-conspirators fled to the United States,
thinking they would be given a hero’s welcome. Instead, they have spent over a
year in an ICE concentration camp for crossing the border illegally. The
highest ranking member of the group told reporters that they feel abandoned by
Guaidó.
While Maduro is often disparaged in Western media because of his working class
roots (he was a bus driver and union organizer before entering politics),
Guaidó is constantly presented as the true humble man of the people. This,
despite the fact his father was an international airline pilot, sending his son
to private schools and a private university in Washington, D.C. It appears he
is unable to travel freely around the country for fear of coming into contact
with working class people. In February, for example, he touched down at Simon
Bolivar International Airport in Caracas, where enraged crowds of travelers and
even airline employees began hectoring, jeering and manhandling him, dousing
him in water and other, less sanitary liquids, shouting that he was a “traitor”
and a “fascist.” The incident was unironically described across Western media
as him being “greeted by a throng of cheering supporters.”
Thus, while the COVID-19 pandemic makes Venezuela more economically weak than
ever, it appears unlikely that Guaidó’s latest action will result in the sudden
overthrow of the Maduro government, in power since 2013.
