One year ago today, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro defeated Henrique Capriles Radonski in an election widely considered fraudulent by the international observers present. Today, Maduro celebrates his victory after announcing a new Ministry of International Communication to improve his government's image around the world.
"It is a great challenge for any nation to confront a communications war," Maduro told newspaper Últimas Noticias,
adding that the new Minister would fight "an international plan against
Venezuela, which we will defeat thanks to our resilience on the
international stage." Roy Chaderton, the current Venezuelan ambassador
to the Organization of American States, is said to head the agency
thanks to his work in convincing the OAS not to interfere in Venezuela
after ousted opposition deputy María Corina Machado was barred from speaking before the group in Washington, D.C.
Maduro has made strides in engaging the international community
thanks to allies in international media. Last month, Maduro published a column in the New York Times in
which he accused the opposition of violence and called for a "peaceful"
resolution in which he maintained power. "Antigovernment protesters
have physically attacked and damaged health care clinics, burned down a
university in Táchira State and thrown Molotov cocktails and rocks at
buses," he wrote of the most anti-Chavista state in the country, which
is currently under martial law. Maduro arrested and convicted the mayor
of San Cristóbal, the capital of Táchira, last month for "inciting violence."
Maduro also used the anniversary of his fraudulent election to praise the Bolivarian National Guard,
his street combat troops and riot police now responsible for dozens of
deaths of young protesters throughout the country. The National Guard,
Maduro said in a speech, are "the people in arms" and "should continue
to expand their work." The National Guard have been implicated in more
than 100 incidents of abuse and torture, and 97 soldiers are being investigated by the government in relation to these, though none yet taken through a judicial process or convicted.
A study by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime released last week found
that Venezuela had risen to second place on the list of nations in the
world with the highest peacetime murder rates, after Honduras. Forty-one
have died since the current wave of protests began in Venezuela last
February, when Maduro arrested Popular Will opposition party leader
Leopoldo López on charges of arson and inciting violence for organizing a
protest against the government. López remains in prison, along with a
number of other Popular Will members and other opposition figures
arrested for their ties to student protesters.
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