Already, the toll of the present political unrest has been excessive. For the reason that July election, a minimum of 23 individuals have died in Venezuela’s protests, in accordance with Victim Monitor, a human rights group. Foro Penal, in the meantime, has documented 1,581 arrests.
Some critics have speculated that, if Maduro continues to lose widespread help, the Venezuelan army might activate him.
Even the opposition’s presidential candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, urged the nation’s safety forces to “fulfil their constitutional duties” and never “repress the individuals”.
Straka, the historian, identified that the Venezuelan army has turned its again on leaders up to now, most notably within the case of the dictator Perez Jimenez.
That the army performed a task in his downfall took “everybody unexpectedly”, Straka defined. “The armed forces — Perez Jimenez’s principal help — had been divided.”
However that end result is much less probably in Maduro’s case, in accordance with Gunson, the Venezuela knowledgeable on the Worldwide Disaster Group. He indicated that some army leaders might face prosecution with out Maduro’s safety.
“If the army had been to abandon Maduro, his authorities would fall,” Gunson informed Al Jazeera. “However the excessive command is unlikely to try this within the close to future a minimum of as a result of it could threaten their very own private positions.”
In latest weeks, the army even reaffirmed its help for Maduro amid the election disaster.
On August 25, the Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) pledged their “absolute loyalty and subordination to the commander-in-chief of the FANB, President Nicolas Maduro”.
Nonetheless, Gunson believes the army may not be as unified because it seems.
“There isn’t a cause to consider that members of the safety forces voted any otherwise from the remainder of the inhabitants,” Gunson mentioned, pointing to the widespread help for Venezuela’s opposition coalition.
“There are many anecdotes to help the thesis that many members of the Nationwide Guard and the police sympathise with demonstrators,” he added. “In recent times, 1000’s of members of the armed forces have abandoned, and lots of have left the nation.”
The energy of the opposition has given Tenreiro — the lady who witnessed the autumn of Perez Jimenez over 60 years in the past — a measure of hope. She mentioned she needs to see one other authoritarian chief topple in her lifetime.
“I don’t wish to depart this world earlier than seeing the beginning of change [in Venezuela] as soon as once more.”