ABC Editorial: Another sad day for the world

Nicolás Maduro yesterday reaffirmed his status as a tyrant by consolidating the coup d’état that he has been perpetrating since back in July he stole the elections after Venezuelans turned their backs on him at the polls, fed up with poverty, widespread corruption and the disappearance of any trace of human rights in a country condemned to misery and exile in a frightening and gigantic exodus of seven million people. The investiture pantomime held yesterday in Caracas was on par with any totalitarian and liberticidal regime that has ever existed, one of those that does not even bother to feign a mirage of democracy. He did not even bother to falsify the electoral records with the typical punch, in an election where he was devastated by the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, although the victory is due to the courage of an extraordinary woman, María Corina Machado, to whom that Maduro did not allow himself to appear and that he managed to humiliate Chavismo. The day was doubly bitter because González Urrutia finally did not appear in Venezuela on January 10 to try to swear in his position as president-elect, as he had promised, contenting himself with the previous international tour of the region, where he garnered the support of both Biden and, days later, from Trump. Yesterday, therefore, the error of leaving the country into exile was also confirmed, facilitated by the Government of Spain, which later refused to recognize him as president-elect and which has renounced championing internationally the cause of the recovery of democracy from a sister nation to which we are united by centuries-old historical ties. Sánchez has followed the unpresentable strategy of Rodríguez Zapatero, devoted to Maduro for years, and has shown that he is much better at ‘fighting’ against dead dictators than against those who are still alive and continue to subjugate their people. This being the case, it is difficult to be optimistic about the opening of a new phase in the opposition’s fight to end the Maduro dictatorship. In any case, yesterday it was also confirmed that Gonzaléz Urrutia cannot be the person to lead this operation and that María Corina Machado must be the one who, from clandestinity, leads this battle for the freedom of Venezuela. Maduro knew of her very high value and that is why he removed her from the candidacy and that is why he also admitted González Urrutia as a rival. The international community owes a debt to the Venezuelans after too many democratic governments have turned their backs on a just cause, apathetic in the face of the latest ruse of a genocidaire.