Venezuela: a country of caudillos and dictators
Venezuelan political history since the 19th century has been marked by dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. Caudillismo and authoritarian regimes are not a new phenomenon in Venezuela. They are phenomena that are part of the development of the configuration of the political power of its elites and emerged after the end of Spanish colonial rule with the dictatorship of the liberator Simón Bolívar, from 1813-1814 and 1828-1830. After the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1830, Venezuela emerged as an independent nation and the political tradition of caudillos and dictators began to consolidate in Venezuela.
General José Antonio Páez established himself as the great military caudillo and ruled with an iron fist for three periods from 1831-1835, 1839-1843 and 1861 to 1863. From 1847 to 1858 the dictatorships of the brothers José Tadeo and José Gregorio Monagas Burgos were consolidated. From 1870 to 1887 the dictatorship of Antonio Guzmán Blanco, who remained in power for 17 years.
The 19th century ends and the 20th century begins with the dictatorship of Cipriano Castro Ruíz, from 1899 to 1908. Then came the 27-year dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez from 1908 to 1935, and the cycle of right-wing dictatorships ended with Marcos Pérez Jiménez from 1952 to 1958. From then on, democracy returned and, in 1992, Colonel Hugo Chávez attempted a coup d'état against President Carlos Andrés Pérez, but failed.
In 1998 Chávez was elected president and another political cycle began in Venezuela with the rise to power of a ‘left-wing’ government with the famous Socialism of the 21st Century, and the historical cycle of left-wing caudillismo in Venezuela began in Miraflores. Chávez ruled until 2013; after his death, Nicolás Maduro, a Cuban-trained political leader, took power and structured an autocratic regime, disguised as a democracy by winning fraudulent elections.
The survival of his regime depends on the mediation efforts of the governments of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. And even more so on Brazil's economic and geopolitical weight as an emerging power and member of the five leading BRICS countries.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva has the leadership to bring the United States, China and Russia to the negotiating table. Three powers with economic and strategic interests in Venezuela's oil wealth and, at the same time, with seats on the UN Security Council. Obviously, the presidents of Colombia and Mexico have the political will and some continental political weight to help resolve the crisis. However, they do not have the global geopolitical role to bring the world's three main powers to the negotiating table to find a way out of the Venezuelan crisis.
President Lula da Silva does have the global leadership to speak directly with the presidents of the United States, Russia and China in the search for a solution to the Venezuelan crisis. The Chinese government, because of its close relations with the Russian regime and the particularities of its quiet and calm diplomacy, can play a mediating role in bringing the Russians and Americans to the table to discuss the Venezuelan situation.
Although the Cuban regime has influence over the Maduro government and the Venezuelan military forces are trained in Cuban military doctrine, the political crisis cannot be resolved without the interventions of the world's three major powers because of the economic, geopolitical and geostrategic importance of Venezuela's energy reserves to them. In short, the crisis will be resolved when the three powers reach certain agreements on Venezuela's energy resources.
@j15mosquera