Maduro’s deputy hails North Korea as model society

One of the most powerful members of President Nicolas Maduro’s government has returned from a visit to North Korea full of praise for the totalitarian dictatorship, fuelling rumours that it is being considered as a bolt hole for Venezuela’s rulers if they are forced to flee.

‘‘The people are empowered there,’’ Diosdado Cabello, the head of Venezuela’s progovernment assembly and vicepresident of the ruling socialist party, said. ‘‘The cities are beautiful, there’s no rubbish and nobody is in a bad mood,’’ he added effusively during a phone call with Maduro that was televised live.

The president replied: ‘‘That’s because there are no esqualidos’’ the derogatory term for ‘‘squalid people’’ he applies to opposition supporters.

In August Venezuela unexpectedly opened an embassy in North Korea to ‘‘expand the ties of friendship and cooperation’’. A few days later Maduro’s 29-year-old son, known as Nicolascito, was seen at a ceremony in Pyongyang enthusiastically applauding Kim Jong Un.

Antonio Ledezma, an exiled opposition politician, commented: ‘‘Maduro is exploring a new home.’’

Cabello, 56, a former soldier, is regarded as the most powerful man in Venezuela after Maduro. He has deep ties to the military and is said to have a vast personal fortune but his travel options are limited: sanctions prohibit him from visiting the US, Canada and the EU. The US has accused him of ‘‘narcotics trafficking, money laundering, embezzlement of state funds and other corrupt activities’’. He denies the claims.

Venezuela is in the midst of the world’s deepest recession. The economy has shrunk by half since Maduro took office in 2013 and inflation is running at 280,000 per cent. At least 4.5 million people, about 12 per cent of the population, have emigrated.

North Korea is one of the most closed societies in the world, where opposition to the regime is punishable by death. During a famine in the late 1990s an estimated 600,000 people died.

Reporting the visit of Cabello last week, North Korean state media declared that ‘‘the party, government and people of Venezuela are achieving successes in the struggle for the victorious advance of the revolution, foiling the sanctions and sabotages by hostile forces’’. A government spokesman pledged that ‘‘militant friendship’’ between the two nations would grow.

In his phone call with Maduro, Cabello observed that every single fallen leaf appeared to have been picked up from pavements in Pyongyang, leading him to wonder if the city’s trees were plastic.

‘‘We had better send our mayors out there to do a course,’’ Maduro joked.

The opposition leader, Juan Guaido, declared in January that as the elected head of parliament he should be president, on the basis that Maduro rigged last year’s elections.

His claim is backed by most western democracies, including the US, Britain and all the main regional powers in Latin America, but his attempts to inspire a military or popular uprising have failed.

The US is encouraging Maduro to leave Venezuela, suggesting that he would be afforded an amnesty from prosecution. In January John Bolton, the national security adviser at the time, tweeted that he wished Maduro would retire ‘‘on a nice beach somewhere far from Venezuela’’.

‘‘The (North Korean) cities are beautiful, there’s no rubbish and nobody is in a bad mood.’’ Diosdado Cabello, head of Venezuela’s pro-government assembly