Despot Times
Newsweek Europe|April 19,2019

The self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela says this is not about Trump, Maduro or him—it is about the people of Venezuela.

Juan Guaido
Despot Times
EARLY THIS MONTH, VENEZUELA’S illegitimate National Constituent Assembly removed my immunity. But this isn’t about what happens to me. This piece is about all Venezuelans who are fighting hard to restore our democracy. And this is not about a conflict between the president of the United States and a revolutionary leader, as propaganda from Nicolás Maduro’s friends would have you believe. This is a conflict between the people—who want freedom—and a tyrant.

Maduro’s dictatorship has been a tragedy for Venezuela. Since 2014, its gross domestic product has contracted by 50 percent. For several years, it has had the world’s highest inflation, and last year it fell into hyperinflation. Several million Venezuelans have left the country. Poverty has increased to about 90 percent, and more than 65 percent habitually go hungry—the highest level since records began. Tens of thousands of children and the elderly have died from malnutrition or preventable diseases.

In the past 15 years, more than 250,000 Venezuelans have died from the violence. These figures are similar to Mexico’s in the same period, but it has more than 130 million people while Venezuela has 31 million. Venezuela has the highest homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants in South America. People are being warned of a bloodbath, but the bloodbath has been going on for years.

This story is from the April 19,2019 edition of Newsweek Europe.

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This story is from the April 19,2019 edition of Newsweek Europe.

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