Petro’s deafening silence over Maduro’s 2024 election threats

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s brazen proclamation on Sunday, vowing to secure victory in the 2024 presidential elections “by any means necessary,” echoes a dangerous and authoritarian tone. Amidst a grand celebration commemorating the failed 1992 coup by Hugo Chávez, Maduro seized the opportunity to issue a stark warning to the opposition: “we will win, the good way or the bad way…whether they (the opposition) like it or not.”

The lack of specificity regarding the methods he plans to use is deeply worrisome, with Maduro boldly declaring: “it has been said, I won’t say more.” His statement has left Washington out in the cold, and plunged the political barometer of U.S foreign policy in the region into a deep freeze.

Maduro’s blatant peddling of using electoral fraud to maintain the regime’s grip on power, and Petro’s failure to endorse a peaceful democratic process in Venezuela shows the degree to which two leaders are towing the autocratic line. With rising tensions in Venezuela, as well as Colombia given Petro’s call for mass “mobilizations” to support his embattled presidency, Maduro’s statement is a clarion call for the military to defend the dictatorship.

Despite Venezuela’s High Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) disqualifying opposition leader María Corina Machado from the 2024 elections, citing a 15-year ban imposed by the Comptroller’s Office in 2015, Maduro remains steadfast in ensuring elections proceed as soon as possible. The tribunal’s decision, closely aligned with the Chavista regime, has sparked international condemnation, except from two Latin American nations – Mexico and Colombia. The unilateral decision to exclude Machado triggered the Biden administration to reinstate economic sanctions on Venezuelan gold, but not oil.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s conspicuous silence in the face of these authoritarian actions is so deafening that his failure to condemn Maduro’s power grab and the suppression of democratic processes also poses a serious question among Colombian lawmakers as to the ultimate objective of Petro with the 2026 national election.

In a political landscape rife with criticism over Petro’s failure to denounce the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel by Hamas, and closer to home, the arbitrary ruling against the democratic front runner Machado, the Colombian President has radicalized his narrative against the media, opposition leaders and judiciary. President Iván Duque’s former Minister of Finance, José Manuel Restrepo, voiced deep concern, highlighting Maduro’s mockery of the “Barbados Agreements” and apparent shift towards maintaining power through brute force. In a call to action, Restrepo urged people not to remain silent in the face of these blatant abuses against democracy in Latin America.

The centrist opposition party Cambio Radical (CR) also fiercely criticized Maduro’s “cynical” assertion of winning the elections “by any means necessary.” The CR’s condemnation is accompanied by a scathing commentary on President Petro’s “eloquent” silence, leaving the impression of complicity with the erosion of democratic values in Venezuela.

With social media erupting with strong reactions, right-wing House Representative Andres Forero of the Centro Democrático party confronted Petro directly on “X,” questioning his “supposed democratic commitment” and urging him to break his silence on the alarming developments in Venezuela.