Is Venezuela close to regaining its democracy? We hope so | Editorial

On Tuesday morning, Venezuelans and democracy advocates in the region rose up with encouraging news: Venezuelan interim President Juan Guaidó announced the beginning of “Operation Freedom,” an effort by opposing forces to Restore democracy in the South American country. Let’s hope it works for the sake of the Venezuelan people.

By early afternoon, a Maduro government official at the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, went on TV to say the effort to remove Maduro, the illegitimate president of Venezuela, had been defeated. He blamed the presidents of Colombia and the United States and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for the “coup,” which Maduro had been expecting, he said.

The U.S. rejected that summation of events.

Still, the image and message from Guaidó Tuesday morning were powerful: At dawn, Guaidó was surrounded by members of the armed forces, transmitting his message from La Carlota air Base in Caracas and accompanied by Leopoldo López, the most important political prisoner in the country and who had been released from house arrest in the early morning thanks to a pardon from the interim president supported by government soldiers.

The decision to launch “Operation Freedom” would open the door to the return of democracy to Venezuela. Those are lofty words we hope can be kept alive.

This courageous and challenging maneuver would be the beginning of a movement to bring down the regime of Nicolas Maduro, one of the three main points of the political agenda of Guaidó, together with the establishment of a transitional government and the free elections organization.

The reaction of the Venezuelan people has been positive. Thousands of people have come out into the streets in dozens of cities in support of Guaidó and the military involved in this civic-military uprising. Let’s see how the day goes.

According to reports and images on social networks, in some cases the Venezuelans appeared hugging the soldiers and taking selfies with the uniformed officers. From the outset, the interim president has highlighted the fundamental role that the armed forces must play in ensuring compliance with the Constitution and restoring the democratic system that over the years was destroyed by the maneuvers Autocratic of the Chavismo.

This uprising between military and civilian recalls the feat of Jan. 23, 1958, which achieved the overthrow of the dictator General Marcos Pérez Jiménez and marked the beginning of which would become one of the strongest democracies in Latin America.

The possibility of recovering thedemocratic past of Venezuela will be welcomed in the region. As soon as the uprising was announced, support messages were sent by the leaders of Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States, among other countries.

President Trumps issued a Twitter statement Tuesday afternoon saying “we stand with the people of Venezuela.”

Florida Sens. Rubio and Rick Scott have also expressed their support for “Operation Freedom.” Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott have also expressed their support for “Operation Freedom.” Let’s hope the movement is a success, but as the day progresses we must watch and see.

This story was originally published April 30, 2019 at 3:33 PM.