In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Venezuelan bus driver, politician & dictator, Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro). He’s best-known for ruining Venezuela, turning it into a dictatorship, and for collaborating with other authoritarian regimes like Russia, Iran & Belarus.

His exact birthplace has been questioned, but most sources agree that Mr. Maduro was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Maduro was raised in a Catholic family, but at some point became a follower of Indian Hindu guru Sathya Sai Baba and even visited the guru in India back in 2005.

Nicolás’ introduction to leftist politics happened during the 80s, when he acted as an unofficial trade unionist and as bodyguard for José Vicente Rangel, who later worked as a foreign minister under Hugo Chávez. He also visited Havana, Cuba, where he “studied communism”,…

…but was also recruited as a mole, working for Cuba’s Dirección de Inteligencia. In the early 90s Nicolas joined a revolutionary group started by Chavez called MBR-200. Chavez later rewarded Maduro’s work by appointing him as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2006.

BBC Mundo stated that as a foreign minister, Maduro “was considered a key player in pushing the foreign policy of his country beyond Latin American borders to approach almost any government that rivaled the United States.” This led Maduro teaming up with countries…

…like Russia, Iran, Belarus, China and al-Assad’s Syria. He was later appointed as the vice president, and after the death of Hugo Chavez in 2013 he quickly became the president. When his presidency was challenged by his rival, the Venezuelan intelligence services…

…started cracking down on the opposition, arresting anyone who dared to challenge Maduro’s rule.

Venezuela was one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America during the 1970s, primarily due to its vast oil reserves.

But boy oh boy, did Maduro run it into the ground.

With the oil prices plummeting after 2011, the country experienced hyperinflation and widespread shortages of basic goods. Extreme poverty skyrocketed and over 7,7 million Venezuelans have left the country to seek a better life abroad.

As is tradition, the children of high-ranking officials in Maduro’s regime were living a lavish life abroad. While Venezuela’s inflation reached 2000%, the daughter of the Caracas mayor was surfing and sipping cocktails on Bondi Beach in Australia.

And the humanitarian situation wasn’t any better — A 2018 Amnesty report “accused Maduro’s government of committing some of the worst human rights violations in Venezuela’s history.” This included over 8000 executions between 2015-2017, many of them by Maduro’s forces.

Putin has been Maduro’s key supporter for years. In 2015, Russian state oil company Rosneft invested billions in Venezuela’s economy to fight against Western sanctions. For this, Maduro was fully supporting Russia when they launched their invasion against Ukraine in February 2022.

But this collaboration had started long before — Russia has shipped weapon systems & small arms to Venezuela for over two decades. These weapons have been used to suppress any protests or opposition to Maduro’s dictatorship. Due to this, Venezuela owes the Kremlin billions.

Both Chavez and Maduro have followed the dictatorship guidebook carefully. They’ve taken over the media (with the help of Russia’s RT), the military, the natural resources. According to the opposition, the Maduro regime has stolen hundreds of billions of USD.

Like Russia and Iran, the Maduro regime also hunts for foreign hostages in order to use them as bargaining chips in negotiations. Maduro has already secured the release of his top financier and two of his nephews in prisoner exchanges with the Biden administration.

Maduro’s former chief of staff stated in 2019 that Maduro “delivered practically nothing in terms of public policy, in terms of direction” and that “he does not have a clear vision for the country. He is very much focused on consolidating his power among his own peers.”

Yet, the dictator still has supporters in the West. The British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called Maduro a “friend of Venezuela” and failed to condemn the regime’s violence. French far-left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon also “welcomed Maduro’s victory”.

While robbing the country, Maduro has come up with all sorts of BS excuses for the extreme poverty of regular Venezuelans. The biggest enemy is of course the US, but he’s also blamed the “Zionists”, “satanists” and even Elon Musk for the plight of the country.

Soon after the elections, @elonmusk accused Maduro of “major election fraud”, after which Maduro challenged the rocket boy to a fight.

Then, like 13-year-olds, the two initiated a back-and-forth which led to Maduro banning X in Venezuela for 10 days.

The interesting thing about Maduro is that he’s so unpopular, that he hasn’t won a single election since 2013. Yet he stays in power through corruption and violence. In the 2024 presidential elections, the opposition gathered over 80% of the voting sheets…

…and the results showed that Maduro had won just 30% of the total vote, compared with 67% for his opponent Edmundo González. An arrest warrant was quickly issued for González, who subsequently fled to Spain. The dictator’s “inauguration” is scheduled for this Friday.

Maduro is actually so unpopular, that the “pro-Maduro rallies” gathered only around 300 people, and most of these are probably paid or forced to join. Counter-protests organized by the opposition leader @MariaCorinaYA on the other hand drew tens of thousands of people.

To conclude, Maduro is a tyrannical dictator whose main goal is to funnel money into his own and his cronies’ pockets, while regular Venezuelans struggle to get by. He rules with an iron fist and doesn’t hesitate to kill or imprison anyone who opposes him. Just like Putin.

Spanish version of this Sancocho will be posted tomorrow on @vatniksoup_es.

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