A Coup in Venezuela?

At COTTonLINE we try to keep track of important happenings in the Western Hemisphere, or as President James Monroe thought of it, our ‘backyard.’ Our go-to guy for commentary on Latin America is the Miami Herald’s Andres Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer weighs in on the most recent developments in Venezuela. He finds we should not think of what is happening there as a coup. See his reasoning:

First, Maduro became a full-blown dictator in January 2016, when he stripped the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Venezuela’s congress, of virtually all powers.

Second, Maduro single-handedly stacked the National Electoral Council with cronies to prevent future opposition election victories.

Third, Maduro re-elected himself to a new term in a fraudulent May 20 election, without allowing any credible international observers and after banning Venezuela’s top opposition leaders from running against him.

Fourth, Maduro illegally proclaimed himself president for a new full term in office on Jan. 10, 2019, despite international warnings that such a move would be unconstitutional.

Almost immediately, more than 50 world democracies — including the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and virtually all 28 members of the European Union — declared Maduro an illegitimate president and recognized National Assembly leader Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim leader, in charge of convening new elections.

And Oppenheimer concludes:

It’s not clear whether Guaidó’s military uprising will succeed or whether it will be crushed, its leaders arrested or even killed. But one thing is clear: A military rebellion against a full-blown dictatorship can be called many things, but calling it a “coup attempt” is wrong.