Venezuela: Maduro's new presidential term

Washington Post reports that this past Thursday, President Nicolas Maduro started his new six year term. To celebrate his new term, the opposition went after Maduro:

The opposition-controlled National Assembly — stripped of its powers by Maduro in 2017 — declared the president an “usurper” and called itself the country’s only “legitimate power.” The assembly’s newly named president, Juan Guaidó, said in a video statement that the body would work with foreign powers toward a political transition in Venezuela.

The article goes on to state that one of the problems with the opposition is that they can't put together a coordinated plan to dispose of Maduro. Also, Maduro has threatened to dissolve the National Assembly.

Al Jazeera makes the real points on why it will be difficult to get rid of Maduro even if "a recent survey by the country's most reliable pollster, Datanalisis, found that nearly 72 percent of people wanted Maduro to resign, rather than begin his second term."


Venezuela's armed forces renewed their pledge of loyalty to Maduro at a parade following the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday.

"Russia, China, and Turkey all play crucial roles in propping up the Maduro regime economically. All have investing significantly in the country - Russia recently pledged $5bn to increase Venezuelan oil production, and Turkey has become a major importer of Venezuelan gold," Max Klaver, senior analyst at Foreign Brief, a geopolitical risk analysis website, told Al Jazeera.

It should be remembered that Venezuela's military also has a significant stake in the oil industry so why would they want to support the opposition, which would most likely want to end the military's influence.

Though Venezuelans are unlikely to remove Maduro from power, that doesn't mean Venezuelans aren't doing something about their situation.

Miami Herald reports:

The United Nations is expecting at least 2 million more Venezuelans to flee their country in 2019, as the hemisphere’s largest migratory crisis continues to accelerate . . .The vast majority are heading to neighboring Colombia, which is home to more than 1 million Venezuelans, but almost every nation in the region has seen the impact of Venezuelan migration.

It should be noted that Venezuela has a population of 32 million as of 2017. Interestingly, even with all this migration out (5.4 million per the article by end of 2019), WorldoMeters still has the population growing. Maybe that website isn't taking into account all the migration out of the country?

As mentioned in previous blogs, Guyana, Venezuela's neighbors, is currently developing their oil fields. How many Venezuelans will soon find their way to Guyana?