Coat of Arms: Faithful Allies Who Resist the Pressure and Support Maduro

CARACAS.- The Venezuelan President,

Nicolás Maduro,

withstand

pressure from the international community

entrenched after his 2000 generals, defended by the battalions of special forces and advised by Cuba, who strongly bet in 2012 for Hugo Chávez to choose "our man in Caracas" as his successor. A court of internal allies and a powerful group of international powers, which protect it from its shield for geostrategic reasons and, above all, to protect its activities and its millionaire debts.

Chavismo is not afraid to appear as the paradoxical revolution, one that is able to always sail to the brink of sinking, but determined to never give up its ships, no matter how many people drowned or the thunder of the storm. Not only does he intend to defeat his detractors once again, but he must also convince the "justice" of his battle against the empire against the radical left of European and American countries by capturing some of their leaders on the basis of a ideology and dollars. And a lot of propaganda, determined to shoot with its "artillery of thought" enough smoke bombs to blur the reality. The work is difficult: there is nothing left of the "beautiful revolution" of Chávez, let alone the "supreme happiness" of Maduro.

It is the internal and external supports that still keep Maduro in power.

1 general staff and generalate

The military leadership accompanies Maduro in all his military exhibitions: he runs beside him, he rides in amphibious vehicles and repeats his orders without blinking. Because they are the big beneficiaries of the current economic model, in charge of importing and distributing food, medicines and medicines. basic products. "Let's make a special plan to keep the Bolivarian national armed forces mobilized [FANB] and to dismantle any foreign provocation, "Maduro told his generals last night, there are many, around 2000 according to Washington, an unprecedented number in the world.

US Senator Marco Rubio warned this week that the time was running out, even highlighted the six most influential military, who have "the future between them in democracy": General Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Minister of the defense; the strategic operational commander Remigio Ceballos, head of the FANB, responsible for these Angostura maneuvers days; Major General Major Jesús Suárez Chourío; the admiral of the Navy, Alessandrello Cimadevilla; Major General Edgar Cruz, who runs the Maiquetía International Airport, and General Antonio Benavides, in front of the National Guard during the 2017 crackdown on students and the head of the capital's district government.

2 The Cuban Government

The alliance woven by Fidel Castro even before Chávez won the 1998 elections remains just as vigorous, as he had already anticipated in 1959 with President Romulo Betancourt: "Throw the gringos with your oil and my oil. revolution." Cuban intelligence services are working unhindered to protect their Venezuelan interests.

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, has quantified the number of Cubans present in Venezuela, which the Parliament describes as an army of occupation. "There are two figures, the first is 46,000 Cubans who are on the payroll of Venezuela and who were financed by money laundering, and another: 22,000 Cubans who voted from Venezuela during the Cuban constitutional referendum. [al margen de salud y cooperación] it is intelligence, civil documents, control of demonstrations and torture. "

The political scientist Ivo Hernandez calls it the "second wall of Berlin" built for two decades and, when he goes to Venezuela, he risks giving a domino effect to Nicaragua and "the island of happiness ", as he liked to define it. Chávez "Parliament did what it had to do and the solution does not lie in Western democracies, the United States, Canada and Europe," Hernández said. "Venezuela is a bankrupt state, a small mafia crossed by world forces, where urgent humanitarian aid is needed," said an academic from the University of Münster in Germany.

3 United Socialist Party of Venezuela

Despite the apparent popular weakness of Chavismo and the abandonment of prominent leaders who have become critical or dissident, the PSUV maintains its narrow ranks through its national and local leaders. The dome around Maduro, ministers, governors, mayors and government activists (Supreme Court of Justice, National Electoral Council, Procuratorate and Office of the Comptroller) line the trench of Miraflores Palace.

Exterior doors, political coups and power struggles are daily, the condition is that they do not affect the central power. Repeatedly participatory democracy has been shattered by the vertical structure that goes from communal councils to Bolívar-Chávez combat units. They also include the militia, which is the main tool to fill the huge gaps in government gatherings. Maduro intends to strengthen the FANB and the National Guard with party militants and order them through 50,000 bodies under the orders of a sergeant.

4 Russia, China and Turkey

The triple alliance, more economic than geostrategic, although Moscow maliciously defends its political interests on the continent. "We consider that the situation is alarming and results from a flagrant violation of the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Moscow not only supplies weapons to the FANB, including Sukhoi planes, but it also sends atomic bombers to the eyes of the entire world. At the same time, Russian oil companies are the main beneficiaries of the opening of the Orinoco belt. Also the Chinese, the other major trading partner of Caracas and the one who receives more barrels of oil after the United States.

The friendship with Turkey is the most recent, born from the need to buy cheap food and the sale of gold mined by Venezuela from the mining Arc.

5 special forces of the Bolivarian police

FAES received a few days of leave after leading the crackdown on the January protests, killing more than 40 people, according to the UN. His next destination is the border, on the eve of the opening of humanitarian channels. Born in 2017 as an elite against crime, in the midst of a popular uprising against Maduro, she now looks like an "extermination" battalion, according to Amnesty International's denunciations and reports. Local NGOs such as Provea.

"The difference between the FAES and the other police services lies in their effectiveness: they act on the basis of intelligence actions and are more specific in the killing of suspected criminals," denounced the Venezuelan Observatory. violence. Chavismo knows his total loyalty, which is paid in dollars, and that's why they are the favorites to carry out the repression. It is closely monitored by the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim), which specializes in political repression, which also controls a large part of the Sebin, the political police of the revolution. The United States yesterday sanctioned those responsible for the three bodies, accused of human rights violations.

6 boliburgus businessmen

The businessmen who emerged during Chavism and the clbadic members of the so-called local oligarchy suffer from the encirclement of judicial authorities in the United States and Spain, but they remain the major lobbyists of the revolution in l & # 39; abroad. For that, they have their huge fortune, accumulated after 20 years, during which they have diverted more than 400 000 million dollars, according to the Parliament and also Jorge Giordani, former vice president economic of Chávez. They bought ways to silence critical voices and they also spread themselves as leading figures around the world. They are essential to hide the treasures of the Bolivarian hierarchies.

7 paramilitary groups

They are the other armed wing of the revolution, faithful to Maduro. The famous Chavist collectives participated directly in the repression of 2014 and 2017 and, even in January, they scared people with a clean fire in the popular neighborhoods of the capital. In addition to revolutionary loyalty, they run profitable businesses because of their proximity to power. Valentín Santana, leader of La Piedrita, is the face of impunity: he rubs shoulders with ministers and mayors while two warrants for search and seizure for homicide weigh him. They participate in joint actions with FAES.

Maduro gives them such strategic importance that he even chose them when fighting with General Miguel Rodríguez Torres, when he was Minister of the Interior. The former head of the Sebin was removed from office and jailed for treason.

8 great patriotic pole

The parties that support Maduro beyond the PSUV follow the established scenario: unpretentious criticism and electoral support. With the Communist Party in the lead, they have traditionally contributed to a million votes. Includes Podemos and Patria Para Todos, parties that became part of the opposition, but which the Supreme Court of Justice ordered to hand over to Chavez's leaders. Its leaders insist on the dialogue and the interference of foreign powers. The Somos Venezuela Movement, led by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, is the latest to join the GPP. Maduro's claim to seek votes in the middle clbad and to be an alternative to the PSUV was an electoral fiasco.

9 Colombian guerrillas

The National Liberation Army (ELN) has replaced the FARC as an "indescribable" ally of the revolution. His men and several of his commanders found in the border region of Venezuela the sanctuary for their actions. Even the main perpetrator of the Bogotá bombing, in which 22 police cadets died, made several trips to Venezuela to train him in the handling of explosives.

The Venezuelan Parliament also warned that ELN was carrying out surveillance tasks in the gold mines, including those owned by Maduro's family and Chavez's leaders. The Colombian army denounces since 2017 that the dissidents of the ELN and the FARC "sign" that the Venezuelans cross the border.

10 Bolivia and Nicaragua

The defeat of the presidential candidate of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador deepens Maduro's continental solitude, now dependent on the re-election of Evo Morales in Bolivia and the Nicaraguan resistance of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, whose subsistence depends a lot on the support of Chavista. Venezuelan oil, almost free of charge, supplied the Caribbean islands in exchange for voting at the OAS. It now attracts Saudi Arabia and India, who came to their aid to avoid sanctions. Other countries in Africa and Asia have ties of solidarity through the Non-Aligned Movement, with Iran and Syria acting as walls. And, of course, the North Korean regime does not fail to grant greater ideological influence to the revolution.