Estefania Melendez, who served as the interim (opposition to Maduro) government of Venezuela's Ambassador to Bulgaria, explains to Kyiv Post's Jason Smart why the Maduro-Putin alliance is so important, and what impact a revolution in Caracas could have on Ukraine' fight for freedom.
Today, the regime of Nicolas Maduro, who has led Venezuela with an iron fist since taking power following the death of his predecessor-dictator Hugo Chavez, is on thin ice as protests have spread around the country due to election results that the international community has denounced as fabricated. Despite domestic and international pressure, Maduro has promised to grasp to the Office of the President while police have begun to abandon their equipment and uniforms, absconding to prevent being lynched by Venezuelan citizens who refuse to suffer further oppression by a regime that does not represent them.
Maduro, himself a former bus driver and union activist, is currently wanted by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on charges of "narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices." According to the FBI, Maduro racked up these charges while helping "manage, and ultimately, lead the Cartel of the Suns, a Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials, as he gained power in Venezuela in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization."