Venezuelan authorities’ response to COVID-19 ratifies how deeply military thinking is rooted in the country. Under pressure by two imperialist forces, The United States and Russia, civic organizations all over the country continue to insist on a peaceful, sovereign and democratic way out of the conflict.
The relationship between the U.S. and the Bolivarian Venezuela has been, as political scientist Carlos Romero calls it, “schizophrenic”: “A government that demonizes The United States while simultaneously getting large benefits from trade with that country: Venezuela sends 1,300,000 oil barrels and derivates per day to the U.S.A -41% of total tales-, using that money to import goods and services”. The confrontation between both nations has been deepened since the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency. Nonetheless, reality surpasses the myth of “the U.S. is attacking Venezuela because it wants to take over its oil”. In fact, Chevron has been extracting oil in 4 different projects in the country under the “Empresas mixtas” (mixed enterprises) modality, which were created by Hugo Chavez in 2007 to attract international private capital to the energy sector. These activities provide 9 out of 10 dollars that enter the state’s finances.
The relationship is changing now that the Trump administration has assumed a “maximum pressure over Maduro” policy, increasing the sanctions that will force Chevron to close their operations in Venezuela as of next December. The decision aims to influence Latin voters in favor of Trump’s aspirations for reelection.
Despite a public rhetoric by some White House staff members who claim “all options are on the table” to end Nicolas Maduro’s government, informants in the country disregard the possibility of a military intervention. Geoff Ramsey, member of the progressive NGO, Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA), has declared: “The U.S. has discarded a military intervention due to political reasons. They know it would be unpopular in the region since the Lima Group -a Latin American governments coalition- has remained firm on their backing of a peaceful exit. It would also be unpopular within the U.S., there hasn’t been domestic approve for interventions after the experiences in Iran and Afghanistan. Let alone during campaign season.”
However, an honest conversation about imperialist interests in Venezuela must include Russia. With their strategy of building a “multipolar world”, Hugo Chávez first, and then Nicolás Maduro, the have made strategic alliances with countries like Iran, North Korea, China, Turkey and Russia. The former has invested 17 billion dollars in oil and gas ventures in Venezuela. Both nations have an agreement (convenio) to establish the first Ak-103 rifles in Latin America, with a capacity to assemble 25 thousand rifles and 60 thousand tires a year, which was scheduled to open its doors by the end of 2019.
Up until when the country fell in an economic crisis due to an international drop in oil and gas prices, Venezuela was the regional leader in gun imports, according to data from the Stockholm Institute for Peace Research (SIPRI). Russia was their principal armament supplier. Between 2000 and 2009 Venezuela purchased 2.068 million dollars in arms from the Russian State. By year 2012, 410 million dollars in military equipment were purchased. One current example of Vladimir Putin’s influence in the country was a recent in-field training and consulting program Russian officials gave to Venezuelan soldiers to face the latest attempt of armed invasion known as “Operation Gedeon.”
American and Russian involvement in the Venezuelan crisis has made some analysts, like Andrei Serbín from the Regional Coordination of Economic and Social Investigations (CRIES), claim that the conflict has turned into a “geopolitical dispute” between those forces and China.
COVID-19 and militarism
Venezuela has a military tradition that precedes the Bolivarian revolution, which was deepened by Hugo Chávez election in late 1998. At the beginning of the democratic era in 1958, the principal poltical parties at the time -excluding the Communist Party- suscribed an alternability agreement known as “Pacto de Punto Fijo” (The Punto Fijo pact) which, among other things, expected to “put the military back in their quarters”, subordinated to civil authorities. Even though they kept an important role in the following decades, their public political belligerence began in 1999, when the new Constitution granted them the right to vote (previously active military were not allowed to vote or be eligible for office).
The first social policy enacted by the chavismo, “Plan Bolívar 2000”, was implemented by the Venezuelan army. Active and retired military began heading ministries, becoming governors and mayors. A military logic was installed from the State to organize the Bolivarian movement, with vertical structures, names and a narrative based on the Armed Forces imagination.
In 2013 expectations that a civil president, Nicolás Maduro, would put an end to military tendencies evaporated quickly. One of its first decisions was to allow military involvement in citizen security matters. In 2015 “Operativos de Liberación del Pueblo” (OLP) (People’s Liberation Operatives) were inacted between military and police forces in slums and low income neighborhoods. According to the Public Ministry’s data these operatives violated 245 victims right to life in just their first 5 months.
In 2017 OLPs were substituted by a new police, las Fuerzas de Acciones Especiales (FAES) (Special Action Forces), created to act on highly lethal operations (such as anti-kidnapping and anti-terrorist efforts), but who actually perform similar citizen security operatives similar to the OLPs.
The terrible human rights situation in Venezuela has been portrayed in the most recent report about the country issued by the UN’s High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The commission’s head, Michelle Bachelet claims about FAES: “Thousands of people have been murdered in alleged altercations with State police forces in the last couple of years. There are reasonable reasons to believe that many of those death constitute extrajudicial executions by security forces, especially the FAES.” She recommends: “to dissolve FAES and establish a national independent and impartial mechanism to investigate extrajudicial killings.” In an update conference given in 2019, Bachelet also talked about military tribunals being held against civilians when she rejected syndicalist Rubén González 5 year sentence. “Applying military justice to judge civilians constitutes a violation to rights to a fair trial, including the right to be judged by an impartial and independent tribunal.”
Given his raising unpopularity, the Armed Forces are Nicolas Maduro’s government main pillar of support. A government whose mismanagement have caused 4 million Venezuelans to flee their country according to the UNHCR. Political prosecution is particularly hostile to unhappy military and a faction of chavismo who call themselves “critical chavismo” and oppose his government. According to Provea 44 members have been detained, harassed or been fired from their jobs, with one of them, Alí Domínguez, being murdered on march 6th 2019. According to the ONG Foro Penal from 402 current political imprisonments, two were high military command during Chavez’s presidency: Raúl Baduel and Miguel Rodríguez Torres.
Today’s existing militarization is also reflected on the authorities’ response to COVID-19. Rather than a health and sanitary emergency, the virus is being treated like a political and military enemy. A quarantine was set in place by a decree declaring a State of Alarm on march 13th 2020, as did the rest of the world. What is different is the exclusion of the health sector from the response, which has given its back to every major and useful stakeholder. Instead of the Health minister being in charge of communications, this is being done by the directive of the ruling party the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) and the minister of defense. To keep maximum control of the information, only one lab in the whole country is allowed to perform coronavirus testing and it has a maximum daily capacity of 200 tests. By using the quarantine to increase control of the population, the government has spiked its censorship effort to the point of criminalizing the only public report about possible scenarios for contagion, performed by the Academy of Physics, Math and Natural Sciences. In two months of quarantine 2 people have been murder for participating in demonstrations demanding water, food, and electricity. 22 journalists have been detained for doing their job and 11 doctors have been detained for denouncing they didn’t have enough supplies in Hospitals.
Venezuelan NGOs have insisted on a democratic and peaceful way out of the conflict, where people can decide in free elections the country’s destiny, rejecting both Russian and American influence. As the door to a nonviolent exit closes, conditions are being set in place for violence.
Translated by: Verónica Mesa
