Nicolás Maduro
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His Excellency Nicolás Maduro Moros (1962–) is the current president of Venezuela since 2013, ruling the country with an iron fist as a brutal dictator. He adheres to a Venezuelan view of socialism, and is influenced by his predecessor Hugo Chávez. Despite being the subject of intense western propaganda, his legacy was a mixed bag before 2022. As an example, Maduro has resisted western imperialism and stood his ground against western taunting (mostly condemning such comments from the Trump administration).[1] However, he has implemented several policies unsuccessfully, which he has mostly done almost nothing to mitigate.[2]
As an example of the kind of person he is, Maduro claimed Chávez himself appeared to him (reincarnated as a bird) flying around him as a sign of him endorsing in his presidential run as a sign from god.[3]
Started from the bottom, now we're here[edit]
Maduro was born to a relatively stable working class family with left-wing politics, and was raised as a Roman Catholic (also having Jewish ancestry, which is extremely ironic because of his strong anti-semitism).[4][5] Maduro was considered a suspect by the Venezuelan authorities in the 1979 kidnapping of William Niehous, an American businessman who was head of Owens-Illinois in Venezuela, who was captured and held hostage by leftist militants who would later become Hugo Chávez's closest allies.[6]
Before entering politics, Maduro had humble origins as a bus driver, eventually working his way to become a trade union leader. It was from there that his political career began, and he was elected to the National Assembly in 2000.[7] From there, Maduro moved to Cuba and lived in Havana, serving with fellow leftists from various militant groups and even served as a mole for Cuban intelligence to observe Hugo Chávez's activities. He also served as a senior member of the Communist Party of Cuba and was close to Fidel Castro.[8]
The good[edit]
Under his presidency, Maduro has enacted several social programs aimed at decreasing poverty in his country, such as minimum wage increases and raising education rates.[9] However, this policy was never fully and successfully implemented, and some outlets reported that his policies may have created even more economic inequality due to the taxes causing rising food and housing prices to skyrocket rather than causing the intended effect of alleviating them.[10]
The bad[edit]
After Maduro won the election in 2013, he referred to his unmarried opponent, Henrique Capriles, as a "homosexual" and “a little princess, and loudly bragged at a rally “I do have a wife!”, “I like women!”. Maduro was widely condemned by various leftists for his remarks, and has since retracted them and apologized, claiming that he is not a homophobe and champions LGBT rights.[11]
In the 2015 election, Venezuela's legislature, the National Assembly, was won by Maduro's opposition, but the the nation's supreme court was still controlled by Maduro.[12] In 2016, Maduro began having political opponents arrested for initiating a recall petition against him.[13] A 2017 election was marked by violence and widespread food shortages.[12] The 2017 election was viewed by the United States as illegitimate and subsequently labeled Maduro as a dictator.[14] Maduro has also been described by many other sources as a dictator.[15]
Maduro has supported Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, mostly because he sees the war as an opportunity to fill in the void of oil suppliers left by Russia after they became a pariah state because of the war. Maduro has also assured that Venezuela has strong support for Russia.[16]
Maduro also has imperialist ambitions directed towards his neighbors, promising to annex most of Guyana as the final state of Venezuela (represented as a missing state on their country flag) and vowing to continue what Chavez started. Since February 2024, Maduro has stationed troops on the border between Venezuela and Guyana.[17]
Maduro has championed his shitty policies that starved his nation as a Venezuelan weight loss program, referred to as "the Maduro diet".[18][No, not The Onion] When he gained major pushback from human rights groups, he attempted to ease the food shortage crisis by getting Venezuelans to eat rabbits. This moronic idea of a plan was met with significant backlash, both inside and outside of Venezuela.[19]
Maduro has recently attempted to woo the Christian community in Venezuela in an effort to secure their votes in future elections, as they are a large voting bloc with considerable influence in Venezuelan politics (not unlike in the United States).[20][21] Ironically, this is similar to the approach Trump is taking in regards to his voting bloc with American evangelicals (as they're well known for supporting authoritarians and dictators). And like Trump there is a dispute with the 2024 Venezuelan election results between Maduro and the opposition with allegations of a stolen election. [22] [23]
See also[edit]
- Hugo Chavez - his predecessor.
References[edit]
- ↑ Venezuela's Maduro to Trump: 'Why would you want a repeat of Vietnam?' NBC News
- ↑ Venezuela: Why I oppose Nicolas Maduro Al Jazeera
- ↑ Nicolás Maduro Assures Hugo Chávez Appeared To Him As A 'Little Bird' To Bless Him (VIDEO) Huffington Post
- ↑ Waiting to See if a ‘Yes Man’ Picked to Succeed Chávez Might Say Something Else New York Times
- ↑ Venezuela’s ‘anti-Semitic’ leader admits Jewish ancestry The Times of Israel
- ↑ William Niehous survived three years in captivity in Venezuela The Globe and Mail
- ↑ Nicolas Maduro: The Path From Bus Driver to Venezuelan President NBC News
- ↑ The 'dolphin' that will lead the Bolivarian revolution El Tempo
- ↑ Venezuela Boosts Minimum Wage by 43% to Quell Growing Protests Bloomberg
- ↑ Maduro Asks Venezuela to ‘Resist’ as He Skips Minimum Wage Hike Bloomberg
- ↑ Why Latin America’s Homophobic Leaders Should Stop Their Gay Bashing Time
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Fear spreads in Venezuela ahead of planned protest of controversial election by Anthony Faiola & Mariana Zuñiga (July 28, 2017 at 8:32 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Venezuela Detains Activists Calling for Maduro's Ouster: Opposition party is trying to generate support for a referendum to remove the nation’s president amid severe food shortage by Anatoly Kurmanaev (July 6, 2016 4:29 pm ET) The Wall Street Journal.
- ↑ Treasury Sanctions the President of Venezuela (7/31/2017) U.S. Department of the Treasury (archived from August 1, 2017).
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Nicolás Maduro § Dictatorship charges.
- ↑ Ukraine Crisis: Venezuela Assures "Strong Support" To Russia NDTV World
- ↑ Venezuela building up troops on Guyana border, satellite images show The Guardian
- ↑ “The Maduro Diet”: A Photo Essay from Venezuela Americas Quarterly
- ↑ Let Them Eat Rabbit Is Venezuelan President's Response To Food Shortages NPR
- ↑ Venezuela's leftist leader Maduro makes a play for evangelical voters NPR
- ↑ Nicolás Maduro places his faith in the evangelical churches El Pais
- ↑ Venezuela’s Maduro asks top court to audit the presidential election, but observers cry foul, AP News
- ↑ Venezuela's Maduro, opposition each claim presidential victory, Reuters