Every day, Didier François deals with an international topic.
Venezuela, which was already going very badly, lives under total economic blockade since this Wednesday with the entry into force of the freezing of all its assets by the United States. A radical decision by Donald Trump who hopes to bring down Nicolas Maduro?
The least we can say is that the White House has a lot of ideas and Donald Trump does not deviate from his goal which is clearly to overthrow the successor of Hugo Chavez. The electoral solution did not work because the supporters of the head of state, Nicolas Maduro, never recognized the victory in the polls of the opposition leader Juan Guaïdo who still proclaimed himself president with the Parliament's support and support from most Western countries in Europe and Latin America. It was January 23rd and since then there have been two presidents at the head of Venezuela, which of course is not going well. Demonstrations and strikes were triggered in the wake of the elections with the hope of overthrowing the Nicolas Maduro but they were brutally repressed and therefore did not open. An attempted military coup also failed in May. Some officers tried this pronunciamiento but the army and the services of intelligence remained very massively faithful to the regime of which they are besides the main pillar. Following this failure, negotiations were opened between the two presidents in Barbados, mediated by Norway. But it lags in length, Nicolas Maduro camps on his positions without the slightest desire to let go of power. Hence this shift to a strategy of economic asphyxiation.
Do these sanctions have the slightest chance of bringing down Nicolas Maduro?
Nobody knows anything! The presidential decree signed by Donald Trump freezes all Venezuelan government assets and interests in the United States, but there have never been any. Venezuelan leaders are not crazy, their money is in China, Russia or Cuba. Countries that support them and are not very sensitive to the threat of sanctions in case of a transaction with Venezuela. In any case, the Venezuelan economy is already totally bloodless. A terrible famine that hits the country since the arrival of Nicolas Maduro in power in 2013, due to a mixture of negligence and corruption in the management of huge oil resources. Venezuela is already in complete bankruptcy, ruined by hyperinflation and unable to pay for food imports. This is an absolute catastrophe, to the point that more than three million Venezuelans have gone into exile. That's still 10% of the population, which is huge.
But this crisis obviously does not affect its leaders?
Effectively ! The entourage of Nicolas Maduro is very well preserved and therefore feels strong enough to make no compromise. This is certainly the political message that Donald Trump would like to convey by specifically targeting the assets of the regime. He demonstrates all his doggedness against Nicolas Maduro and proves his intention never to let go of his colt, Juan Guaido.