Venezuela Cracks Down on Dissent By Sara Schaefer Muñoz and Ezequiel Minaya The Wall Street Journal February 24, 2015
Lawmakers move to strip opposition congressman of seat in what president’s adversaries call a campaign to silence dissent CARACAS—Lawmakers from Venezuela’s ruling party moved to strip an opposition congressman of his seat in what adversaries of President Nicolás Maduro ’s government said was part of an escalating campaign to silence dissent.
The legislative measure came as an antigovernment protest in the western city of San Cristobal turned violent, officials said, with police firing a shot that killed a 14-year-old boy.
Mr. Maduro condemned the killing and vowed to seek justice. “Those who are responsible are jailed,” Mr. Maduro said in a televised appearance, referring to a policeman who was charged.
The shooting came less than a month after the defense ministry issued a resolution allowing soldiers to use deadly force on demonstrators if the soldiers feel their lives are at risk—a rule that Citizen Control, a rights group here, called “dangerously vague.”
The move against the opposition congressman, Julio Borges, is an attempt by the president’s political allies, who control the National Assembly, to permanently remove him from the legislative body. The Supreme Court, widely believed to be allied with Mr. Maduro, is expected to approve the request, as it did in the case of another opposition leader last year.
Without his seat, Mr. Borges would lose his legislative immunity and could be investigated for what the government says is his involvement in a plot to overthrow the government. He denies the allegations.
“We are confronting a weak and highly unpopular government that is resorting to brute force and repression to distract from their failed policies,” said Mr. Borges, a founder of the First Justice party.
Caracas didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Tuesday’s shooting death of the student happened in a city, San Cristóbal, known for its activist student population, where antigovernment protests last year were most fierce. After the shooting, many shops closed and officials halted some public transportation routes in anticipation of unrest. Some schools canceled classes for Wednesday.
Describing the incident, Mr. Maduro said “police say they were surrounded, beaten and attacked with rocks. One of the police officers discharged his gun with a rubber bullet and killed this boy.”
The president has imposed a series of increasingly repressive measures as he struggles with a collapsing economy and falling public support ahead of parliamentary elections in December.
Last week, police arrested at gunpoint Antonio Ledezma, the opposition mayor of Caracas, on charges of conspiracy. This followed the detentions earlier in the month of executives from a supermarket chain and a pharmacy for allegedly hoarding goods to create unrest. The government also transferred a leading government foe, Leopoldo López, from his jail cell—where he awaits trial—to solitary confinement, not explaining why.
And officials issued a decree requiring people who receive state benefits to report suspected antigovernment activity to authorities.
The moves have provoked an outcry from opposition leaders and human-rights groups here and led to criticism from abroad.
On Tuesday, the European Union said, “the recent arrest and detention of Antonio Ledezma is a source of alarm,” and called for a swift and impartial investigation. The State Department earlier expressed alarm over Mr. Ledezma’s arrest. In Spain, the leader of Podemos, a leftist party whose leaders advised Venezuela’s government, criticized the mayor’s detention.
“More and more, they are violating the rights that are in our constitution,” said Rafael Uzcátegui, head of Provea, a Caracas-based rights group. “Maduro does not have the political capacity to manage the country, and every day he is relying more on the military to deal with those who don’t agree with his political project.”
Mr. Maduro pledged to crack down on dissenters, whom he accused of conspiring against him and his ruling United Socialist Party. “Now I am going to radicalize with more force against the parasitic and speculative oligarchy,” he said in an appearance on state Television last week. “You will see.”
The president and his followers have blamed the Obama administration for allegedly orchestrating a destabilization campaign involving Colombian gunmen, allies in Caracas and other “counter-revolutionaries.”
“The elite that govern the United States of America has taken the decision to concentrate all of its fire, all of its power to destroy the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” Mr. Maduro said in an appearance Monday.
The ruling party is moving to remove Julio Borges from the National Assembly. Mr. Borges, center, attended a session of legislature on Tuesday. ENLARGE The ruling party is moving to remove Julio Borges from the National Assembly. Mr. Borges, center, attended a session of legislature on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters . U.S. officials have said the government is looking for scapegoats to deflect from Venezuela’s economic crisis.
Beyond the clampdown on political opponents, journalist groups say their members are increasingly subjected to threats and have been detained for taking pictures of long lines at supermarkets.
Analysts say Mr. Maduro is struggling to hold on to power through intimidation. The country’s soaring inflation—2.2 pounds of milk can cost up to three days of the minimum wage—and a lack of food, car parts and medicine is fueling discontent.
The Caracas-based nonprofit Fundepro, which tracks arrests, said there were a total of 96 political prisoners jailed now and 177 people have been arrested at protests so far this year. Of 77 opposition mayors elected in 2013, the Venezuelan Mayors Association says, 33 are being investigated by the central government.
“We don’t have an independent judiciary, so it acts at the whim of the ruling party,” said Jackeline Sandoval, who heads Fundepro. “We expect this dragnet for anyone connected to the opposition to continue.”
Some observers—including dissidents who have broken with the government—have criticized Mr. Maduro’s stand and say his effort is bound to backfire.
“They have a made a big error in thinking that this is a phase in which they have to show their strength,” said Heinz Dieterich, a Mexican political analyst who served as an adviser to Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez . “What they need to show is the capacity for reform—not the coercive force of the government.”
Private economists say that the economy urgently needs an overhaul. Import restrictions have led to widespread shortages. Currency controls have abetted an inflation rate close to 70% annually, the highest in the world.
The government, however, blames private business for hoarding products in an attempt to destabilize the country, a charge businesses deny. What no one disputes is that the situation has worsened fast.
“The severe measures have gotten worse, absolutely,” said Maria Corina Machado, an opposition leader who has been charged with conspiring to assassinate Mr. Maduro who was removed from the legislature. “They are crossing a red line.”
Ms. Machado, who faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted on the charges but is free as she awaits trial, expressed frustrations about what has largely been the silence of left-leaning Latin American governments, including, she said, the South American alliance Unasur. The group declined to comment.
She criticized the recent comments of Unasur’s secretary-general, former Colombian President Ernesto Samper, who said that what Venezuela needed was dialogue. Mr. Samper has declined to criticize Mr. Maduro, who has publicly called the former Colombian leader a “great friend of Venezuela.”
“Of course we want dialogue,” she said. “But we want dialogue in a democracy, not a dialogue that is a deception.”
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