Venezuela’s Latest Scandal Shows Signs the Regime Chávez Built Is Falling Apart
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro seems on a constant quest to deflect attention from his country’s economic mess, its violent-crime crisis and the fact that he only narrowly won last month’s special election to succeed his demigod, Hugo Chávez, who died in March. As part of that effort, Maduro last week called for the creation of a “workers militia” to “defend the sovereignty of the homeland.” But while he’s girding for imperialist invasions, a new scandal suggests the biggest threat to Maduro’s government lies within the socialist, anti-U.S. Bolivarian revolution that Chávez left him to lead.
They’re calling it “Silva-gate,” after demagogue TV talk show host Mario Silva. He’s Venezuela’s left-wing version of right-wing U.S. radio bully Rush Limbaugh. Early last week, the political opposition released what it said was a recording of Silva briefing a Cuban intelligence agent at a Caracas military base in late April. In it, Silva accuses Maduro’s rivals inside his United Socialist Party (PSUV) not only of corruption but of scheming to oust him in a military coup. For good measure, Silva raises sexist concerns that Maduro’s wife, Attorney General Cilia Flores, is manipulating him. The recording lays bare the PSUV discord that began during Chávez’s long cancer illness and has gotten louder since Maduro’s surprisingly lame April 14 victory. (He defeated centrist candidate Henrique Capriles by 1.5 percentage points. Chávez beat Capriles last year by 11 points.)
In fact, according to transcripts of the recording published in the Venezuelan media, Silva says Maduro should take former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s advice and “get rid of these bourgeois elections…Because [voters] make mistakes [and] here, with elections the way they are, we could be struck down. They could knock the revolution down.”
It’s not surprising to hear that from Silva, a radical Marxist who has not denied that it’s his voice on the tape. But it’s striking how he confirms what pundits have long speculated: First, that Cuba exercises inordinate influence over Venezuela. And more important, that the PSUV, or the Venezuelan socialist movement known as Chavismo, which has ruled for 14 years, is split between a more ideological faction led by Maduro, whom Chávez anointed as his successor, and a more pragmatic one headed by National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, who has strong ties to business and the military and has been at least indirectly critical of Maduro’s performance. “The fierce Chavista infighting and intrigues that [Silva] so explicitly lays out all sound plausible,” says Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C. “With Chávez gone, there’s no comparable figure who can hold it together.”
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