Trump, Maduro and five captives

By: Luis Gonzales Posada - 28/03/2025

The dramatic and humiliating situation faced by five Venezuelans seeking asylum at the Argentine embassy in Caracas is a clear example of the barbarity that characterizes the Maduro regime. At the same time, it highlights the absolute ineffectiveness of multinational organizations such as the UN, the OAS, and the Human Rights Council itself. They are incapable of resolving this problem, despite the existence of treaties on the matter, which, unfortunately, are reduced to mere papers soaked in ink; that is, mere declarations without any practical value or effect.

Recent reports indicate, indeed, that the regime's sinister pressure has intensified, using drones to monitor the movements of the five captives inside the diplomatic headquarters, a facility surrounded by snipers, patrol cars, and Bolivarian police officers who move around armed with Kalashnikov rifles and Rottweiler shepherd dogs.

The asylum seekers have been in this situation for over a year, and all the efforts made by the Brazilian embassy—which represents Argentine interests—to obtain safe-conduct passes have not even merited a response from the thuggish Chavista government.

In this sordid context, the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarín reported (March 22, 2025) that the space has become "an enormous, inhospitable dungeon lacking all kinds of services. They have no electricity, water, food, medicine, air conditioning, telephone service, gas, or electric stove. It is a desert full of mosquitoes and vermin where visits and any contact with the outside world are prohibited."

Clarín then adds that the five "resist in the face of adversity. They manage as best they can with a solar fan. They light themselves with candles and ventilate themselves with old-fashioned fans," and the newspaper report warns that the guards are restricting the entry of food.

In other words, they are being kidnapped and tortured by a dictatorial government that intended to imprison them, accused of terrorism and plotting an assassination, without any evidence. This is also the case with 120 other foreigners of 19 nationalities, including four Peruvian citizens, according to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

There are no confirmed figures on the number of people killed by the Army, the Bolivarian Guard, and the so-called "Colectivos," which are motorcycle-riding hitmen gangs financed by the regime. However, two damning reports by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, one of them drafted by former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, revealed hundreds of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, rape, and other criminal acts that remain unpunished.

The Criminal Forum records 1,196 political prisoners, 125 of whom are foreigners from various countries, accused, without any evidence, of "destabilizing actions" and terrorism.

Chavismo has governed for 25 years and has been in power for another six years, following the scandalous electoral fraud that snatched the presidency from opposition diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, who won with 67% of the vote. This tragedy prolongs this nightmare, which includes the migration of 8 million people.

Trump can do something.

For now, the US president has revoked the license of the US oil company Chevron, which finances 32% of the Venezuelan budget, and has imposed 25% tariffs on governments that purchase oil and gas from Caracas, estimated at another $4 billion, while also banning the Chavista elite from entering the country.

The task, however, is complex, because behind Maduro are Russia, Cuba, Iran, China, and satellite governments such as Nicaragua, Honduras, and Bolivia. But with U.S. support for the fight for freedom and democracy in Bolívar's homeland, there are promising prospects.

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