Nicolás Maduro: Difference between revisions

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Maduro's thugs have committed extrajudicial killings and torture, have taken political prisoners and severely restricted freedom of expression, all in a brutal effort to retain power.

[[File:Protester with riot shield Venezuela 2014.jpg|thumb]]

[[File:Protester with riot shield Venezuela 2014.jpg|thumb|347x347px]]

In 2015, opposition parties in favor of democracy flatly defeated the Maduro regime in the legislative elections. Shortly after, Maduro began dismantling several branches of government. The outgoing President of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, hastened to fill the country's courts with unskilled fans of the party to serve as guarantors of Maduro's power.

===Constitutional crisis===

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In this context, Juan Guaidó, elected on January 5, 2019, as President of the National Assembly, the only legitimate and democratically elected institution remaining in the country, invoked relevant articles of the Venezuelan constitution and will be seen as Interim President of Venezuela .

===Corruption===

[[File:A.jpg|thumb|347x347px]]

Maduro's most serious corruption plan consisted of the embezzlement of the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA). In 2015, the Financial Crime Control Network (FinCEN) of the US Department of the Treasury issued a ruling under Section 311 of the US PATRIOT Act. (USA PATRIOT Act). A European bank accepted exorbitant commissions to process approximately US $ 2 billion in transactions related to third-party money launderers, fictitious companies and complex financial products to divert funds from PDVSA.

In 2018, a US $ 1.2 billion money laundering plan that involved Matthias Krull, a German citizen and a Panamanian resident, and Gustavo Adolfo Hernández, a Colombian citizen and a naturalized US citizen, exploited PdVSA and took advantage of corruption in the systems of Foreign currency exchange of Venezuela by exchanging US dollars for Venezuelan bolivars at market prices and then investing the exchange.

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In 2017, after a seven-month investigation, the National Assembly of Venezuela discovered cases in which the regime “spent” US $ 42 for a food box, which it then distributed in exchange for votes, at a time when those foods cost less than US $ 13. Maduro's internal circle kept the difference, which amounted to more than US $ 200 million in at least one case.

Venezuela ranks 169th out of 180 countries in the 2017 Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International.

[[File:Dbd9rmt-5b7417db-95dc-427f-98ba-953053eecaad.jpg|thumb|347x347px]]

===Recent developments===

In October 2018, the Councilor of Caracas, Fernando Alban, traveled to New York to denounce the brutality of the Maduro regime, outside the General Assembly of the United Nations. Upon his return to Venezuela on October 5, Maduro's secret police arrested him at the airport. He died in custody a few days later, when he mysteriously fell from a window on the 10th floor of a maximum security prison in Caracas.

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 Maduro's thugs have committed extrajudicial killings and torture, have taken political prisoners and severely restricted freedom of expression, all in a brutal effort to retain power.
-[[File:Protester with riot shield Venezuela 2014.jpg|thumb]]
+[[File:Protester with riot shield Venezuela 2014.jpg|thumb|347x347px]]
 In 2015, opposition parties in favor of democracy flatly defeated the Maduro regime in the legislative elections. Shortly after, Maduro began dismantling several branches of government. The outgoing President of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, hastened to fill the country's courts with unskilled fans of the party to serve as guarantors of Maduro's power.
 ===Constitutional crisis===
@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 In this context, Juan Guaidó, elected on January 5, 2019, as President of the National Assembly, the only legitimate and democratically elected institution remaining in the country, invoked relevant articles of the Venezuelan constitution and will be seen as Interim President of Venezuela .
 ===Corruption===
+[[File:A.jpg|thumb|347x347px]]
 Maduro's most serious corruption plan consisted of the embezzlement of the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA). In 2015, the Financial Crime Control Network (FinCEN) of the US Department of the Treasury issued a ruling under Section 311 of the US PATRIOT Act. (USA PATRIOT Act). A European bank accepted exorbitant commissions to process approximately US $ 2 billion in transactions related to third-party money launderers, fictitious companies and complex financial products to divert funds from PDVSA.
 In 2018, a US $ 1.2 billion money laundering plan that involved Matthias Krull, a German citizen and a Panamanian resident, and Gustavo Adolfo Hernández, a Colombian citizen and a naturalized US citizen, exploited PdVSA and took advantage of corruption in the systems of Foreign currency exchange of Venezuela by exchanging US dollars for Venezuelan bolivars at market prices and then investing the exchange.
@@ Line 42: / Line 43: @@
 In 2017, after a seven-month investigation, the National Assembly of Venezuela discovered cases in which the regime “spent” US $ 42 for a food box, which it then distributed in exchange for votes, at a time when those foods cost less than US $ 13. Maduro's internal circle kept the difference, which amounted to more than US $ 200 million in at least one case.
 Venezuela ranks 169th out of 180 countries in the 2017 Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International.
+[[File:Dbd9rmt-5b7417db-95dc-427f-98ba-953053eecaad.jpg|thumb|347x347px]]
 ===Recent developments===
 In October 2018, the Councilor of Caracas, Fernando Alban, traveled to New York to denounce the brutality of the Maduro regime, outside the General Assembly of the United Nations. Upon his return to Venezuela on October 5, Maduro's secret police arrested him at the airport. He died in custody a few days later, when he mysteriously fell from a window on the 10th floor of a maximum security prison in Caracas.