My Venezuelan friends say Maduro is a dictator
My Venezuelan friends say Maduro is a dictator
247 comments
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It's the same as the Cubans who fled to the US because of how evil Castro was. I wonder how many of them were wealthy class enemies of the Cuban revolution who stood to lose their wealth under Castro's government.
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Conservatives do love self-owning with the anti-Castro rhetoric
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Lmao actual fucking Kirk
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The Communists took away all my family's hard-earned slaves
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He is an authoritarien and the country went to shit.
Venezuela is not a nice place to live in.
Maduro is a corrupt dictator, trump aswell and the current opposition to maduro most likely will just be an authoritarian and fascist pupped goverment that will act in the USAs interest. So yeah multible things can be true at once, just because a nation is opposed to the american empire does not mean that it is automaticallly good.
Its quite sad to see that some terminally online leftist just automaticly replace siding with the imperialist systems that there born into( USA, EU Australia etc.) And just replace that with other imperial powers like russia and china.
Like why?? How about not bootlicking authoritarians?
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Tell us what a non-authoritarian leader of Venezuela would look like to you and how they would resist the constant pressure and hostile actions of the US government, because it seems to me that leftist leaders are always denounced as authoritarian by North American and European based NGOs and governments.
The only way to avoid being labelled as authoritarian is to be friendly to the imperial core countries, i.e. being capitalist.
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It's so funny to see, when the alternative to Maduro is the Venezuelan equivalent of Yeltsin, someone hellbent on stripping their own country for parts and portraying that as "freedom"
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Chavez in his first few months/year of being in office would be a good example of a non-authoritarian in that role.
My problem with Maduro and many of those in the post early days of Chavez taking over is that far too many seem to have a tremendous amount of money that they cannot explain how they came across legally. Executives at PVDSA, the state run petroleum company, seem to be extremely vulnerable to this corruption.
You can make the case that dictatorships/authoritarian structures are needed to protect a socialist revolution, which Im not sure I entirely agree with, without supporting the theft of state resources by people in the government.
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Tell us what a non-authoritarian leader of Venezuela would look like
Presumably they would look not-authoritarian, a description that doesn't fit Maduro at all.
It could well be that, in the face of US policy regarding Venezuela, only an Authoritarian could hold onto the country. That still doesn't make Maduro not an Authoritarian.
it seems to me that leftist leaders are always denounced as authoritarian by North American and European based NGOs and governments.
That's a fair observation but, again, that doesn't mean they are wrong when they say it about Maduro. Maduro is referred to as dictator by Human Rights Watch, the Organization of American States, and other human rights organizations, including some inside Venezuela.
Maduro is a dictator. It's largely the fault of the US that Venezuela has a dictator. If the US succeeds in ousting Maduro, it will almost certainly replace him with an even worse Dictator. All of that can be true with no contradictions.
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This is a vicious cycle of falling back to dictatorship to avoid imperialism, or some of it.
A) The country opens up and holds free elections, leading to an American puppet winning and the country turning into a vassal state at best, a glorified colony at worst.
B) The country turns into a dictatorship to limit foreign influence and fight back against imperialism, becoming a similarly terrible place to live, but at least without giving anything to the empire. Also note that as time passes, it's quite likely that the dictatorship will forget why it was even created, i.e. it will no longer be about rejecting imperialism.
There are often the only two realistic scenarios for countries targetted by the American Empire. Both are bad and I'm not sure I feel like analyzing which one is slightly less bad for the average person.
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Under Maduro, Venezuelan communes and participatory democracy is flourishing. In addition, massive social programs have been implemented, focusing on housing, food security, and poverty eradication. I'm not sure on what basis you distrust him so much, Venezuela is building socialism under Maduro from the bottom-up, and Maduro is doing his part from the top.
Venezuela is a developing country, that is developing despite the US Empire's best efforts. It is regularly improving, which is why the working classes support Maduro.
Russia isn't imperialist, it has no colonies nor neocolonies, and a tiny amount of global financial capital. China isn't imperialist either, it's a socialist country wituout any financial domination of the state or economy. There's no mechanisms pushing for imperialism within China, and this manifests in regular south-south trade leading to development of global south countries when trading with China, unlike the unequal exchange of trade with the west where the west charges monopoly prices for tech and places compradors in power to prevent industrial development.
Multiple things are true, correct. This isn't the grand own you think it is, though. You're passively parroting imperialist narratives.
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Venezuelan communes and participatory democracy is flourishing. In addition, massive social programs have been implemented, focusing on housing, food security, and poverty eradication
I think this really needs to be stressed. Venezuela is a country building Socialism. Maduro and the PSUV is in power because of a genuinely incredible mass movement of communes, neighborhood committees, and other organs of grassroots democracy. This is qualitatively different from say, any of the Gulf oil monarchies
I highly recommend the books Building The Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela, and Commune or Nothing: Venezuela's Communal Movement and Its Socialist Project, for a look at these aspects of Venezuelan politics, because it's often papered over in discussions about the country.
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Russia isn't imperialist, it has no colonies nor neocolonies
Yeah, tell that to Crimea, the Donbas, or even Siberia or the puppet states like Belarus, Georgia and Moldova. Russian neo-colonialism is all over Africa.
China isn't imperialist either, it's a socialist country wituout any financial domination of the state or economy.
China is a kinder imperialist, but they are using largely the same playbook that the west used in Africa, including debt-trap diplomacy, undermining local sovereignty and regulation, and undermining labor movements.
They also have a mix of socialism and capitalism, sometimes getting the best of both, and sometimes the worst. They definitely dominate the state economy through control of banking and the use of capital controls to direct funding to national priorities. The current real estate crisis and "ghost cities" are a pretty obvious example.
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Venezuela is not a nice place to live in.
Hmm, I wonder why? 🤔
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Its quite sad to see that some terminally online leftist just automaticly replace siding with the imperialist systems that there born into
That's not what we’re doing; that’s what intellectually incurious imperial core labor aristocrats think we’re doing.
How about not bootlicking authoritarians?
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Yes he’s certainly an authoritarian. Authoritarian doesn’t automatically mean bad…there’s such a thing as the concept of a benevolent dictator.
What evidence do you have that “the country went to shit” or “Venezuela is not a nice place to live in” or that he’s a “corrupt dictator”?
This original post, presumably, attempts to scratch slightly beneath the surface of what we hear on the news and suggest that your above statements only apply to a certain “deserving” class.
I don’t actually know a lot about Venezuela, and I’m asking these questions in earnest. I started to ask questions a lot earlier, but certainly looking into Maria Machado (this years Nobel Peace Prize winner) made some alarm bells go off. Could it be that the narrative is controlled by Machado and her neoliberal/right wing ilk, and she actually represents a large minority class of people that was purged/displaced in Venezuela?
I’m still investigating.
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Where do we get the idea that Maduro is an authoritarian dictator? We get it from what our governments say, our corporate media say, and our NGOs (which are funded by our governments & corporations) say. These are the very same governments & corporations that want to vassalize Venezuela and pillage its resources. They are—all day, every day—working to manufacture our consent, or if not consent then at least acquiescence.
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There's a concept true. Just not an example. Technically it's possible for sub atomic particles in deep space to randomly coaless as a Ruben sandwich. But you're far more likely to see the evaporation of a super massive black hole.
Power corrupts. And sometimes there really is no point to arguing which shitty person is slightly less shitty than the other shitty person. The only true answer is not play, and that there shouldn't be such positions of power. Anything else is calvinball.
You'll notice that there are no real arguments that he isn't a authoritarian/dictator. Just justification that certain people identify with him, so it's okay. Or that because one cringe group of privileged people criticize him. All criticism against him is from similar cringe groups of people. The meme in a nutshell. A non sequitur.
Maduro absolutely is an authoritarian. As is Trump. I don't agree with either one of them. But Trump absolutely means to fuck all the way off when it comes to continuing to meddle in South America. Argentina and Venezuela have enough problems of their own. They don't need ours.
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The country went to shit before Chavez died as a result of many backing away from trade as a result of US demands as well as a slew of bad policy choices that turned them from a food exporting nation to one that imported food which collapsed the economy. Chavez and Maduro instituted price controls which have harmed the agricultural economy significantly which further harmed things.
That being said while their results were bad their intentions were good which is not going to be true of whatever puppet government the USA would install.
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"Dictatorship vs Democracy" is the new "Savage vs Civilized". Words thrown around without explanation to signal friend and foe in the current ideological framework used to justify imperial conquest.
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Biden literally framed it as “democracy vs autocracy.” As if the US has ever been anything close to a democracy.
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It has danced around notions of being a democratic republic.
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Well that was a lot of credulous Lemmy users. I should spend less time debunking imperial talking points and more time selling these people bridges. I’m leaving money on the table.
Some of them even fired up their dusty old alt accounts to vote multiple times.
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Rich people love dictators, as long as it's their chosen dictator.
I once worked with a guy from a wealthy family who had to escape Venezuela after Maduro took power. His family hated him, of course, because they'd become rich under the old system, but now they were in America, and he had to work a real job. He flat out told me that he felt like the best governmental system is when 5% of the population is wealthy, and 95% is dirt poor. Of course, he'd been one of the 5%.
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had to escape Venezuela after Maduro took power
they'd become rich under the old system
.... They didn't flee from Chavez? What's the timeline here?
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Yeah, you're probably right, it was probably Chavez. I worked with this guy years ago, I'm not sure of the timeline off the top of my head.
The point is that the rich had it made under the old system, and had to leave when it changed.
I also had some elderly neighbors from Venezuela, and they had relatives that would have loved to visit them, but they were afraid to leave because they were afraid their houses and businesses would be confiscated by the government while they were gone. That happened to one relative when she went to visit family that was living in Paris, so she just stayed in Paris.
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Want to explain?
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These are rich upper class white skinned gusanos who are claiming Maduro is a dictator so they can have the US overthrow the government and resume their ownership class status. They want to privatize all the natural resources and live off the profit in Miami.
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They look like the press kit for one of those Million Dollar Skank-off romance-game-shows. I assume Thursdays at 9, next day on Paramount Plus?
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It's okay they think Maduro is a dictator. That's not a crazy idea, to be fair, but I believe it's a debatable idea, since parties in democracy may get overwhelming support, to the point, the leader of the State can accumulate enormous power. But I struggle to call it a dictatorship or an authoritarian regime, until they start changing laws so they can benefit from them directly without the stated support of the people by referendum. I honestly believe Maduro would have been out by now if it wasn't for the antagonism of the USA and their pets.
It's easier for me to call Bukele a dictator. He kind of bent the law, exercising his authoritarian faculties, so the authorities could "allow" him to have a license from his presidential duties in order to participate in presidential elections. How can anyone forget another symbolic fact? One time, in 2020, Bukele did enter the Legislative House guarded by soldiers and sat on the chair of the President of this power to make some speech. Dictators accommodate well enough to hegemonies since they will accept anything as long as they remain in power. They don't defend sovereignty, they just defend their position.
In the case of my country, we really can't be called a dictatorship, because reelection was banned by historical lessons. The USA plays a familiar game with us, they call it a narco state, instead. I wonder what's the third option in the CIA manual.
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Notice these same people don't come out of the woodwork upon the mere utterance of "El Salvador" or "Bukele" like they do with "Venezuela" and "Maduro" even as Trump is deporting legal citizens to CECOT.
The words "dictatorship" and "authoritarianism" are clue words for followers of western publications to turn off their brains. They want to sort countries, parties, and leaders into neat little "good guys" and "bad guys" bins. These words allow them to do that with minimal effort, circumventing the need to understand the societies involved. Questioning that framing takes research effort and "sympathizing with authoritarians" so they never do it.
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American news media talked about Bukele less because Bukele's allies advertise more in US media.
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Two things can be true at the same time. Maduro can be a dictator and the US can exerciser its military power illegally and attempt to intimidate and topple him.
Both can be true at the same time.
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Both can be true at the same time.
They can also not be, brainiac. Despite what Redditors may think, vagueposting is not an argument.
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Well, the friends are right, because he is a dictator.
Which is still better than whatever USA has in store for Venezuela.
And which absolutely doesn't justify slaughtering Venezuelan civilians.
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Yeah the post screams "your dictatorship is bad so we'll stick with our dictator."
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Yeah, I have a friend who lives in Venezuela, he and his family can barely afford to eat, and I mean barely. Beans everyday and nothing else for years. I tried to send him some computer parts and it was going to be over 5 grand to send them, so I couldn't afford that, but his pc was genuinely very low end 5 years ago and I know he hasn't been able to upgrade, especially with all the money going to his 9 other family members living in the 1 bedroom apartment.
But whatever lies you have to tell yourself to sleep at night buddy.
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So what you're saying is, it's Venezuela's fault for being sanctioned and embargoed? Is it Cuba's fault? Was it Vietnam's fault for being attacked by the US? Is it a slave's fault for revolting when the slaver whips them back down?
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If you think that is because of Maduro and not decades of being illegally sanctioned and blockaded by their northern neighbor then I have a bridge to sell you.
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I think most people are indeed agreeing that Venezuela is facing financial hardship, but not because of Maduro, but mainly due to the sanctions by western govts.
Venezuela is a small country and the US is a large and influential one. So such sanctions are going to hurt Venezuela.
Can I ask a question to get the idea across?
We have heard news that Palestinians have faced food shortages and there was even famine warning.Do you see it as a failure of their leadership or that of Israel blocking food and aid to the place, while isolating and attacking them?
If it is the latter, then wouldn't Venezuela be in the same position but relatively more favorable?
I think that is the view that many in the thread have.-
Palestine and Venezuela are not even remotely similar, while both have been screwed over by US stupidity, they are so vastly different in circumstance I personally find comparisons to be a little silly.
Venezuela is well known to have screwed up its own economy in previous leadership, while spurred from US sanctions and interference it was ultimately their own actions that caused their economic collapse. Maduro has not helped with these issues and has only helped expand these problems. Though not nearly as problematic as previous leaders.
And while I personally get the hate Venezuela has towards the US, Jesus they are playing with fire. The US is out for blood, and will likely flatten the country just because they can, its going to be quite bad, and very sad.
At the point that US starts flattening Venezuela, killing hundreds a day and planning to rebuild it, then that would be a more fair comparison.
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Anything's possible when you make shit up kiddo
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Maybe that's cuz he IS a fucking dictator?
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Of course, the US imperial media that lied to me 386231757 times would never lie to me a 386231758th time! Especially not when oil is involved!🤡
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If you look what happened since 2013 when he took over. He is a dictator though. Trump is actually following his playbook, but in a lighter since. Some examples.....
Electoral Fraud and Illegitimate Power
Maduro's grip on power relies fundamentally on electoral manipulation. In the July 28, 2024 presidential election, Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE)—controlled by Maduro loyalists—declared he won with 51.2% of the vote despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The opposition collected 83.5% of voting tally sheets showing their candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, actually won with approximately 67% of votes compared to Maduro's 30%. The CNE refused to release disaggregated results or conduct post-election audits, and its website remains inactive. International observers, including the Carter Center and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, documented widespread fraud throughout the electoral process. The government disqualified opposition candidate María Corina Machado, obstructed voter registration for millions, imposed restrictions on opposition poll watchers, and used state resources during campaigns. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concluded it cannot recognize Maduro's re-election as democratically legitimate due to the "severe disruption to Venezuela's constitutional order".
Following the contested 2024 election, Maduro launched "Operation Tun Tun" (Operación Tun Tun), a brutal crackdown described by experts as "state terrorism". Authorities conducted door-to-door raids to detain anyone with suspected opposition ties, creating what human rights groups call a "climate of terror" intended to terrify Venezuelans into submission.According to official figures, over 2,000 people were arrested in the first month after the election, including at least 129 children. As of July 2025, 853 political prisoners remain behind bars. These detentions are characterized by systematic torture, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary detention without warrants. Victims reported beatings, electric shocks, suffocation, and confinement in dark, overcrowded cells. Amnesty International documented that at least 198 children have been subjected to unfair detention, torture, and abuse, with four months passing before many saw their families.A 2024 UN fact-finding mission report concluded there are "reasonable grounds to believe that the crime of persecution on political grounds has been committed". Between 2015 and 2017 alone, Venezuelan security forces carried out 8,292 extrajudicial executions, with 22% of all homicides in one year committed by state forces. The UN mission has documented that Venezuela's intelligence agencies have used sexual and gender-based violence to torture detainees since at least 2014.
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Maduro is a popularly supported leftist president that was elected democratically. Machado is a fascist that directly asked the US Empire to invade, she's supported by the wealthy compradors in Venezuela while Maduro is supported by the working classes. The odds appear to be pretty damn high that Machado would have lost against Maduro, because in general she's a deeply unpopular fascist.
Under Maduro, Venezuelan communes and participatory democracy is flourishing. In addition, massive social programs have been implemented, focusing on housing, food security, and poverty eradication. I'm not sure on what basis you distrust him so much, Venezuela is building socialism under Maduro from the bottom-up, and Maduro is doing his part from the top.
It's incredibly unsurprising that the US Empire is manufacturing consent to invade Venezuela, and overturn their anti-imperialist president. Outside election monitors back up the results, and indicate that the Venezuelan electoral system is far more advanced than the US. I'd trust evidence more if it came from Cuba or Nicaragua than the heart of the empire. This is on top of your vague claims of Maduro being a "monstrous dictator."
Edit: Lmao the cryptofash on MeanwhileOnGrad got upset at this
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It’s interesting that I agree with you, here. A major difference I see between Venezuela and the USSR is that the USSR generally tried to assimilate, arrest or murder the resistant capitalist classes (ie dekulakization), while Venezuela seems to be generally exiling or marginalizing them.
It’s my understanding that Venezuela has kept its political assassinations and imprisonments low and targeted, which was not the case in the USSR.
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Netanyahu congratulated Machado on her Nobel win and commended her efforts to promote democracy and peace. Machado has previously pledged to move Venezuela’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem if her movement comes to power, aligning her with other Latin American leaders who have taken pro-Israel stances, including Argentina’s President Javier Milei and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
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Source: The CIA
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https://directoriolegislativo.org/en/maduro-began-his-third-term-amid-fraud-allegations/
https://www.oas.org/en/IACHR/jsForm/?File=%2Fen%2Fiachr%2Fmedia_center%2FPReleases%2F2025%2F007.asp
https://latinoamerica21.com/en/venezuela-from-fraudulent-elections-to-clandestine-elections/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/americas/south-america/venezuela/report-venezuela/
https://democratic-erosion.org/2025/04/17/populism-and-authoritarianism-in-venezuela/
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described by experts as “state terrorism”.
“Experts” from the imperial core.
creating what human rights groups call a “climate of terror
Imperial core human rights groups. “Always the same map” human rights groups. Citations Needed podcast: The Human Rights Concern Troll Industrial Complex
intended to terrify Venezuelans into submission.
Which Venezuelans? The poor or the wealthy? The working class or the capitalist class?
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Maduro’s grip on power relies fundamentally on electoral manipulation.
All the "Maduro cheated to win the election" stuff comes from the same people insisting Biden cheated to win in 2020 and Obama cheated in 2008.
Following the contested 2024 election, Maduro launched “Operation Tun Tun” (Operación Tun Tun), a brutal crackdown described by experts as “state terrorism”.
Were these experts affiliated with Elliot Abrams?
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Yeah obviously the elections were not fair, that is not what I disagree upon, just that the main US backed opposition candidate Machado will sell off Venezuela to the US empire and be quite a lot worse than Maduro.
Calling Maduro a dictator that needs to be overthrown directly benefits the US in the current tense climate, something needs to be done but Machado is certainly not the way out, just even deeper into the ground.
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I feel like a lot of people are missing the obvious conclusion that everyone involved here is awful.
Maduro? Brutal dictator. His domestic opposition? Violent fascists. His international opposition? Absolute war criminals.
It's really sad. My primary opinion is that the US needs to leave Venezuela the fuck alone. If you want democracy in Venezuela, you can't get it through sanctioning the population into starvation if they don't vote the way Chevron tells them to. Did Maduro steal an election? Yes! But his opposition at home and abroad isn't mad that it wasn't fair: they're mad because they think it's bullshit for him to steal it after they stole it first!
Get the fuck out and let them actually decide what they want. The US is the clearly the greatest villain in a story with no obvious good guys.
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The problem is that all of the "evidence" for Maduro cheating comes from the same people that said the US 2020 election was rigged, and are using it as ammo for regime change. Machado and the like are fascists that are trying to topple a democratically elected socialist, just like Pinochet with Allende.
Under Maduro, Venezuelan communes and participatory democracy is flourishing. In addition, massive social programs have been implemented, focusing on housing, food security, and poverty eradication. I'm not sure on what basis you distrust him so much, Venezuela is building socialism under Maduro from the bottom-up, and Maduro is doing his part from the top.
Maduro is no dictator just like Allende wasn't.
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I know most of accounts in some instances automatically will upvote anything that goes with their PV and downvote the opposite (i.e. .ml and the meme in this post). It's disappointing that for years the up/downvote rhetoric has been for what really adds to the conversation and I find this reply more according to the reality from the PV of someone that is not Venezuelan but has roots and friends there but most importantly that we're not part of the meme, just average people that don't wish for anyone what means to live there as the average or below. I do remember when I was a child and had the joy of go to Venezuela and to have fun on vacations, now I it's not joy but the feeling of accomplish humanitarian labor and donations to average and poor Venezuelans that at first supported the socialism that Chávez sold them and later Maduro, Cabello and others continue in a nonsense of left political system. If someone downvote replies citing sources from the Venezuelan diaspora, let me remind you that that diaspora is not 100% from the people of this post meme but real Venezuelans that have left/lost almost everything because of really bad politics and actions of Chávez, Maduro and others that surprise: the last presidential election didn't got official acts published.
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