I am Venezuelan. The first time that Chávez won was legitimate. A lot of people wanted a change. He had been forgiven by the previous president who let him out of jail after being imprisoned for attempting a military coup. But after his first term, many were unhappy. He was expropriating private, local, big and small businesses, then bringing them to ruins. He would also badmouth the US constantly. Many international companies were very uncertain of investing in the country and started removing their businesses. He had also threatened TV and radio channels, as well as newspapers with closing them; which he ended up doing to some in his next term. There were massive protests against him in which many protesters were shot. Several national ONG's started asking for international assistance to stop his totalitarian practices. His second term was a questionable win. He changed the constitution to be reelected indefinitely and to extend his presidency time from 5 to 6 years. He took over the CNE (which counts the votes in all the elections). His support to narcotraficking activities in Colombia, as well as his corrupted ways, were alteady well known. He was perpetuated in power even after the massive protests. The CNE lost its credibility. Many of the opposition, though, were very naive, and continued to play the game of elections. National industries such as oil, power, water, transportation, communications, and construction were being neglected by the government, affecting their services to the public. Inflation kept on increasing, and Chavez continued deleting zeroes from the Bolivar, our currency, thinking that it would make a difference. He had put the country into a huge debt, and now we were depending mostly on oil. I forgot to mention that in the meantime, Chavez had brought cubans to be part of every existing government institution in Venezuela. People from all classes were very upset because of the lack of basic services such as water and electricity, as well as the increasing inflation, and insecurity. Express kidnappings became common. This was over 12 years ago. When Chavez learned of his sickness, he chose Maduro to be his succesor. Many basic products were already scarce, such as milk, sugar, oil, flour, gas for cars and for cooking, and cement. Many in the opposition believe that Maduro was one of the shooters in the protests against Chavez. In 2013 he was put there by the CNE after many irregularities were reported, such as huge bags of ballots found in abandoned roads. One cousin of mine found a bag. Throughout all these years, protests continued to be massive. Ever since I can remember there had been protests against Chavez and Maduro in Venezuela. Huge, massive, and constant. The worst ones I can remember were in 2014 and 2017, when civilians were bluntly shot by military and colectivos. The Colectivos started with Chavez as community groups to help them organize and solve their issues together. But they were armed by the government and during every protest receive the order from Maduro to "contain the rebels by any means." Chavez and Maduro's motto is Patria, Socialismo o Muerte. (Homeland, socialism or death.) The result of 20 years of protests has been thousands of political prisioners, as well as studens, and regular civilians of all ages and social statuses, who have been put in jail, or shot in daylight for opposing the government. Human Rights Watch has been following the situation for years, same as the OEA. After Maduro took over, the situation went even more south. He had been left with a humongous debt, industries were collapsing, yet he continued expropriating private businesses, and getting into more debt. Promises made 20 years ago were long gone. The oil prices had decreased, which is normal because it follows a cycle, inflation continued to cripple, and basic products such as rice, meat, chicken, eggs, fruit, vegetables, butter, toilet paper, femenine care, medicines, personal care, among others mentioned previously, were very scarce or nonexistent. Inflation had gone over 700%. Vendors stopped putting price marks on all their products (food, clothes, medicine, personal care, everything) because prices change everyday. This has been happening in the last 6 years. Power and water go out for days, so more businesses go under. Minimun wage is not enough to buy a dozen eggs. There is no public transportation. People have to walk 15 to 30 blocks to get to their jobs. Parts of cars are almost impossible to find and afford. Many don't drive their cars anymore because they cannot afford it and this also affected the bus system. Protests have dwindled because over 5 million people (rich and poor) have left. The rich and middle clases take planes. The poor cross the colombian or brazilian borders after days of walking. Some venture to Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, with no money, barely a backpack. Colombia has been very supportive creating refugee camps to give them food and shelter. People leave because there is no more sovereignty. If they protest, they get shot, or tortured, and voting doesn't count. It's a charade put by the government to make believe the international community that they are democratic. But they bought these machines called Smartmatic and have been rigging the elections in the last 10 years. The CNE, which manages the elections, is ran by the government, Tibisay Lucena has runned it since 2006. The methods of torture practiced by the Sebin in El Helicoide, were they put all political prisoners, are horrid. They force them to mutilate each other, eat each other parts, and then kill each other. The colectivos drive by the neighborhoods of those who start the protests, from high, to middle and low income classes. They shoot whoever is walking on the street. They have entered homes to capture protesters, bit them up, kill them, or put them in jail. Most people that still live in Venezuela have quit their jobs because it's not worth it to work. Most of them survive by receiving dollars from family members abroad, and selling crafts, such as bakery goods, and spirits. They also used to do online surveys to earn pennies and a few dollars, but with the power gone everyday, they can't even do that anymore. In the last ten years, the government also created another control system: Only those who voted for Chavez could get "El carnet de la patria", a political party ID to buy cheaper food. Before things got worse, the government also began requiring civilians to only purchase food on certain days, according to the last number of their regular ID. This was for everyone. After waiting hours in line outside the supermarket, risking your life because people would attack each other for a better spot, you would go an put your fingerprint to be allowed to enter the grocery store. You were only allowed to buy one item of any product, if they had it. Most times, you wouldn't find it. This was Chavez and Maduro's way of solving the problem. Now they sell the Clap bag, which is not available all the time, and which products many times are expired. You need to have El Carnet de la patria to buy it. The products in it are also very random, never the same, so you pay for it without even knowing what you are getting. For 20 years, Chavez, Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, Tareck El Aissami, and those in the military and political parties, as well their families, have stollen the profits that come from oil, narcotraficking, and ilegally gold mining; destroying our rainforest. Their money has gone to bank accounts abroad. A few years ago Panama papers revealed some of their names. The nephew of our "first lady" (Maduro's wife) was caught traficking drugs and is being processed by international authorities. For all these reasons, the Venezuelan people asked for an international intervention. Many military that have tried to rebel against Maduro have been killed, such is the case of Oscar Perez. We need international help to get rid of this dictatorship of horror. Over 56 countries have supported us, as well as the ONU. We hope more countries join our fight, so we can have free elections without Maduro or any of his criminal allies as options, and end this nightmare for once and for all. For more info go to https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/venezuela or check Indigo Traveller Venezuela.
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