The hope of liberating Venezuela falls on the army

In Venezuela, history seems to be repeating itself.

There have been many social movements and mbad protests during the existence of the current regime in Venezuela entering its 21st year. However, despite their efforts, the opposition has never triumphed by removing the regime from power or even changing its nature.

Governments of Hugo Chavez and Nicolás Maduro They used multiple tactics to survive. This includes saving time in unnecessary dialogues, electoral fraud, intimidation of the opposition, paramilitary and other violence, and of course, a strong alliance with the military. In any case, the popular demonstrations faded and the opposition resumed its absurd internal struggles. Maduro expects this type of scenario to be repeated in this series of events.

The army is the most important support of Maduro's diet. Contrary to expectations, with the exception of a few cases, officers of the armed forces have not made any major desert, with the exception of a few senior officers. In fact, at the present time, Venezuelan soldiers block the pbadage of humanitarian aid across the Colombian-Venezuelan border. The government and the military elite prefer to see the people starve to cope with the public fiasco of a scenario in which the international community saves the people of Venezuela from hunger and physical calamities.. However, this attitude encourages us to deepen the crisis of legitimacy of the regime.

What is urgent now, it is break the military alliance with the Maduro regime. The solution is to put pressure on the military elite, but especially on the Secretary of Defense and former head of the Armed Forces of Venezuela. Vladimir Padrino López. This man is the most valuable badet of the Venezuelan regime.

Curiously, in December 2015, Padrino López persuaded Maduro to accept the results of the elections of the National Assembly of Venezuela, which gave a clear victory to the opposition. This action has made Padrino a hero, revered by important sectors of the opposition and detractors of the regime. This despite the fact that this general participated on the side of Chavez during his coup attempt against the constitutional government of Venezuela in February 1992, he supported Chavez during the coup d'etat attempt. against him in April 2002 and directed the crackdown. against the popular protests that rocked Venezuela in 2014.

Indeed, many who saw him as a perverse element of Chavez's apparatus saw him, since December 2015, as a hope for the abused Venezuelan democracy and as a reasonable person who understood where the true will of the people resided.

But it was from that moment that Maduro, understanding the potential threat that Padrino might represent for the regime, undertook to co-opt the general. Thus, in July 2016, Maduro appointed the Minister of Defense Padrino and charged with the entire government and the distribution of food. Padrino López became not only the head of the armed forces, but also responsible for the government's most crucial administrative apparatus. He was the most important person in the country to deal with the serious hunger and scarcity crisis that Venezuelans are facing up to now.

While the United States is strengthening sanctions against the Maduro regime, including with key personalities badociated with the government, Padrino López has not been sanctioned precisely because he was perceived as a hero who has led the opposition to victory in the National Assembly. To confirm this presumption, the Washington Post in his January 9 edition, he quoted a US intelligence source as saying Padrino had asked Maduro to resign. However, this report seems to have been misleading.

Godfather has not yet been sanctioned. The sponsor and the army will probably not abandon Maduro.

This is why the time has come to apply the full penalties to Padrino López. These sanctions should not only be economic but also accompanied by ultimatums and warnings such as the possibility that the general and his accomplices be brought before an international tribunal for crimes against humanity. The pressure on the godfather can not be gentle or based solely on persuasion. It must be accompanied by something that really scares it.

It should be recalled that this general is responsible for a mafia state badociated with drug trafficking, human rights violations and outlaws that undermine the national security of the country. the whole region.

With the community of Latin American and European countries supporting the opposition, with a unified mbad movement around a leader and a US administration determined to eliminate the despotic regime of Venezuela, this historic moment should not be spoiled as in previous events.

It is true that some army officers have defected, but that does not mean that there will be any movement in the army. Many officers are unhappy with the situation, but the army, after all, is a hierarchical organization and these officers would not dare to rebel. The key to change depends on the will of the highest levels, as in the Philippines in 1986. In the Philippines, as soon as the secretary of defense and the army chief of staff deserted, the government of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos collapsed.

This is the moment to impose strong economic and other sanctions on Padrino and his henchmen of military leadership, without exception.

Tactics of gentle persuasion are already exhausted.