Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's authoritarian head of state, only appears to have emerged stronger from the elections, says DW's Johan Ramirez.
December 6 will go down in Venezuelan history as a sombre day of defeat. The parliamentary elections held by the authoritarian head of state, Nicolas Maduro, are a disgrace for the South American country, run down over the course of decades by caudillos, dictators and corrupt politicians.
Both the government and the opposition emerged as losers on Sunday, the day of the election. All of Latin America and the international community lost, too, but the most painful loss is that of the 30 million Venezuelans who suffer daily under the endless crisis, and of those who fled the chaos and live scattered around the world.
Control over parliament
Even if Maduro's party achieved its aim of taking control of Parliament, the government still lost because it went so far as to threaten the Venezuelans with a "hunger quarantine" if they did not vote. Despite all that, voter turnout was only 31%. The greatest humiliation for tyrants is when the people are no longer afraid of them.
When the new National Assembly meets for the first time on January 5, Maduro will have a servient Parliament at his disposal. But he has lost the tiny shred of credibility he still had among leftist ideological hardliners. How do they plan to stand up for a regime that usurps other parties to force them to participate in rigged elections?
DW's Johan Ramirez was prevented from entering Venezuela to report on the election
Maduro fired the leaders of the opposition groups and appointed his own supporters in their place, who then declared themselves willing to participate in the election. The variety of parties on Sunday's ballot was a farce fit for a circus.
The opposition lost, too, on Sunday. Not because of the results that were fixed months in advance. It lost because over the five years it controlled the National Assembly, it proved incapable of living up to the trust the people placed in it in 2015. The opposition lost because it was unable to translate the hopes of almost 8 million Venezuelan voters into policies. The opposition lost because it was clumsy and arrogant after its 2015 victory.
After five years, it leaves behind a deplorable record: no laws to protect the weakest members of society, no decrees worth remembering, no political project that could serve as a legacy. Juan Guaido, head of the opposition and self-proclaimed interim president, also lost because at the end of his second term as president of the National Assembly, he did not fulfill his biggest promise: replacing Nicolas Maduro.
Worthless protest
The international community is another loser of an electoral farce that revealed the impotence of diplomatic mediation attempts. Both the states of the so-called Lima Group and the international contact group have thoroughly embarrassed themselves. The European Union's protest notes were worthless lip service and Donald Trump's threats were nothing but pompous ramblings. On Sunday, Maduro defied them all again and made fun of them. It is a dangerous warning for a region that does so well for autocrats. An unscrupulous government can do whatever it wants without the international community intervening.
The Venezuelan people suffered the greatest defeat, however. It doesn't matter who sits in the plenary hall if no one can point the way out of the crisis.
A day after the parliamentary elections, the country continued its drowsy state of decline. People headed to supermarkets to pay millions for groceries, standing in lines that stretch over miles to put gas in their cars in an oil-rich country. They worry about their emaciated children and about hospitals that constantly have power outages and no water.
Families are torn apart because the young people decide to leave Venezuela in search of a future their country cannot offer them. On December 6, there were only losers in Venezuela. Election victories are worthless if they do not lead to solutions for the people's problems.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Empty fridges
Venezuela had its highest inflation rates ever in 2018: 65,374%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) marked it even higher, at 1,370,000%. A lack of hard currency meant precious few items could be imported. Soaring prices have made it impossible for most Venezuelans to shop at the supermarket.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Feeding the poor
Only those who can provide their own plate or bowl get something to eat here because even aid organizations cannot afford disposable tableware. The once wealthy country has been suffering a massive supply crisis for years and is now short on everything from food and medicine to everyday items like soap and diapers.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Hungry children
Children in Caracas hold out their hands as aid organizations and church groups distribute food. Many haven't eaten for days. Statistics compiled for a study at the Catholic Andres Bello National University (UNAB) in Chile say 96% of Venezuelan households live in poverty, and 64% in extreme poverty. Few families in the country can afford meat, fish, eggs, fruits or vegetables.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Health care system on the verge of collapse
People needing hospitalization, such as here at San Juan de Dios Hospital in Caracas, have to pay for their own medicine and medical instruments like catheters and syringes. More than one-third of Venezuela's 66,000 registered doctors have left the country. Overall, the ranks of medical personnel have been in decline, too, pushing the country's health care system to the verge of collapse.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Building with mud and wood
A child plays in a Bahareque house made of sticks and mud, a building technique dating back to pre-Columbian times and now popular once again due to extreme poverty in the country's rural regions. Such houses have no plumbing or electricity.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
No electricity
Blackouts regularly paralyze the country — opposition politicians say lack of investment as well as corruption and poor maintenance of power plants are to blame for the dire situation. The crisis has also prompted the government to take drastic measures in hopes of saving energy. Experiments with a two-day work week for government employees have done little to help so far.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Life on the street
When the electricity goes out, the climate can become unbearable — air conditioners are useless. Life moves out onto the streets, like here in Maracaibo. Regional and even national blackouts have become common across Venezuela over the past several years. President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly blamed the outages on acts of infrastructure sabotage committed by the country's enemies.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Acute lack of water
The water supply in Valencia's Santa Rosa district has collapsed. Now, people there bathe and wash themselves in puddles on the side of the road. There is no drinking water in the district.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
A river full of sewage
These days the only things flowing into the Guaire River are sewage and toxic chemicals. Electricity and water in Venezuela are precariously interconnected: Lack of electricity and maintenance has led to cracks in dams, thus leading to water loss. That has meant less power for the country's hydroelectricity plants, leading to yet more blackouts in what has become a vicious circle.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Search for potable water
A resident of the state of Carabobo pushes a canister through the streets of Guacara in hopes of finding drinking water. Some places in Venezuela only have running water for a couple of hours a week. Most families fill up anything they can to have drinking water the next time supplies are shut down.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Contaminated waters
Venezuelans are swimming in oil, but not in a good way. Fishers floating in inner tubes from tires cast their nets into Lake Maracaibo, even though it's contaminated with oil. The coast has also been affected. Recently, an oil pipeline leak and an accident at a refinery near Puerto Cabello in the northwest caused some 20,000 barrels of crude oil to be pumped into the ocean.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
'The people need gas'
Cars have been lined up waiting for fuel at a Guacara gas station for more than two weeks. Venezuela has been forced to import its gasoline from Iran because its own system is so decrepit that it can barely even pump oil. Ten years ago, Venezuela was pumping some 2.3 million barrels a day. Now it is pumping less than half of that.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Collapsed energy supply
In Caracas, people wait in the streets with empty propane tanks in hopes of being able to fill them one day. Since electricity and gasoline have become scarce in Venezuela, many residents have turned to natural gas. Demand has in turn made it scarce too.
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Venezuela: A country bled dry
Fading heroes
Portraits of Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Evo Morales and Rafael Correra adorn the side of a building in Caracas, looking over an overflowing dumpster. Many here worshipped the socialist leaders of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Ecuador like saints. But in Venezuela, the socialism of the 21st century has been unable to deliver on its promise of prosperity for all.
Author: Mirjam Gehrke
This article was translated from German
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