Maduro and COVID-19: Venezuela’s perfect storm
As the pandemic’s second wave has landed hard across the country — causing a surge in illness and deaths, locking us down, stifling our economy, closing in-person learning at schools and imposing cruel social isolation on so many — we can be forgiven for shifting our focus to domestic challenges.
The conditions we face at home are cause for grave concern, especially as blame on the shortcomings of vaccine delivery continues to bounce around like a ’70s pinball.
Further afield, we have been rightfully horrified by the images of the Uighur genocide in China, we have rallied in defence of courageous Hong Kongers, and most recently, we raised our voices in condemnation of the poisoning and then arrest of anti-Kremlin activist Alexei Navalny in Russia. While each and every one of these crises demands our attention, there is an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe happening closer to home in the Americas, that has fallen from our collective attention.
I first became aware of the crisis in Venezuela on May 10, 2016, when a group of legislators from the democratically elected Venezuelan National Assembly testified before the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights, where I was serving as chair.
They spoke of the threats, the hunger, the corruption and the all-out assault on democracy by the Venezuelan government, lead by president Nicolas Maduro. It was one of the most emotional days of testimony I witnessed during my four years in Parliament, made even more disturbing a few weeks later when I received a note from one of the legislators, informing me that upon their return home, they were brutalized by Maduro’s henchmen, payback for airing the regime’s dirty laundry outside the country. The images of these brave lawmakers bloodied and beaten is still ingrained in my mind to this day.
The deterioration of all facets of life for Venezuelans was the stark reality well in advance of COVID-19, but the pandemic has caused even greater suffering. Since 2015, the regime has consistently eroded and undermined the pillars of democracy; the judiciary, the executive, the legislature and the media.
Any pretense of free and fair elections has long since been abandoned and the most recent presidential and legislative elections were universally condemned as illegitimate. Further, the regime has imprisoned political opponents, academics and journalists in an attempt to silence pro-democracy voices throughout the country.
The case against Maduro is currently on the docket at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where the chief prosecutor recently stated there is a “reasonable basis” to believe the Maduro regime has committed crimes against humanity.
The horrifying numbers speak for themselves: Since 2013, the real GDP of Venezuela has fallen 80 per cent; 96 per cent of Venezuelans live in poverty; and most shockingly, over five million Venezuelans have fled the country in recent years, a humanitarian displacement crisis second only to Syria.
This crisis is underpinned and fuelled by the Maduro regime’s deplorable record on human rights, highlighted most recently in the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela released last fall, which documented arbitrary killings, extrajudicial executions, the use of torture, including rape and sexual violence, and enforced disappearances.
Every time I revisit the situation in Venezuela, I think it cannot possibly get any worse, but the perfect storm created by the COVID-19 pandemic has left Venezuelans even more vulnerable. Already facing an acute health crisis brought on by the Maduro regime’s long-standing contempt for the welfare of the Venezuelan people, the well documented shortages in essential medicines and decaying infrastructure has led Venezuela to be ranked among the least prepared countries in the world in terms of pandemic response.
As we continue to deal with the disruptions to daily life and very real personal, social and economic costs brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic here in Canada, I want to make a plea for us to keep the Venezuelan people in our collective conscience.
The suffering of millions of Venezuelans at the hands of the repressive and brutal Maduro regime was the tragic reality long before COVID-19 further ravaged their country, but the current trajectory is even more dire. The Venezuelan people need our support now more than ever.