Havana/Various voices from Cuban civil society have been reacting since this Saturday, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro by US troops. Activists and independent journalists have celebrated the arrest of the president and demand that the process in Venezuela lead to a real, peaceful, orderly and verifiable democratic transition.
For the opponent Angel Moyathe capture of Nicolás Maduro is a positive step and recalls that the ruler “gave the order to murder and imprison hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan fighters for freedom, justice and human rights.” The former prisoner of the Black Spring of 2003 recommended that US President Donald Trump “demand the freedom of political prisoners immediately” and guarantee “security for opponents and for exiles who decide to return”, among them, María Corina Machado and Edmundo García.
For his part, dissident Manuel Cuesta Morúa, president of the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, pointed out that the events reopen the debate on sovereignty, given that Chavismo, the historian also affirms, usurped the popular will expressed at the polls in the July elections of last year.
In Cuesta Morúa’s opinion, there is an opportunity for the Venezuelan people to recover their democratic process, although he stressed the importance of respecting international law. The activist also warned that, for Cuba, the fall of Maduro would have serious implications: loss of a key ally, an essential economic source and international support for its authoritarian model.
“Cancer is not cured with paracetamol”
Jose Daniel Ferrerleader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba and recently exiled in Miami, described as “necessary and positive” the United States military action to capture and try Maduro for crimes linked to drug trafficking. Ferrer maintained that as long as the Cuban regime persists, freedom and human rights will continue to be at risk in the region. “Cancer cannot be cured with paracetamol. When chemotherapy is required, chemotherapy must be applied. The rest is pure hypocrisy or total complicity,” he warned.
The academic Alina Barbara Hernandez He opted for caution and announced on his Facebook account that he needs to reflect a little more to give his opinion on what happened: “I am taking a little time to publish my analysis of what is happening.” However, he shared a text from the Cuban digital creator José Manuel González Rubines who made it clear that after the US operation “Maduro is no longer in power and, in all likelihood, will be tried in the United States” and “his clique of satraps handed him over and, with him, handed the country over to a foreign military intervention and a ‘guarded transition’.”
Meanwhile, the writer Jorge Fernández Era called for caution in the face of propaganda and anticipated possible unexpected turns in the Venezuelan political scene. For its part, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, based in Madrid, celebrated the arrest and demanded the immediate release of the political prisoners and the reestablishment of democracy.
In a statement from the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba, its general secretary Iván Hernández Carrillo emphasized that any legitimate exit must lead, unambiguously, to a transition with clear rules, a public schedule and national and international verification, which culminates in the installation of the Government elected by Venezuelans.
In this newspaper, Yoani Sánchez wrote on your blog: “what will happen in the next few hours is decisive for both nations, but it is already clear that the boastful and arrogant Nicolás Maduro is a thing of the past. The Cuban dictatorship will observe him with a magnifying glass in his next appearances, like someone looking in the mirror.”
