Maduro’s dictatorship in Venezuela is a global challenge and demands a global response | Opinion

Last December, I had the unforgettable opportunity to travel to Cúcuta, with the support of Colombian immigration authorities, and meet with hundreds of my fellow Venezuelans who, fleeing the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, crossed the border and sought refuge in Colombian territory. Women, men, and children not only talked about their suffering but also tirelessly repeated: We must continue fighting, we must put an end to the dictatorship.

Their looks of anguish, those voices of pain, far from breaking me, have strengthened my conviction: The fight must continue, despite the enormous difficulties ahead.

These refugees reflect a society that has been stripped of its fundamental rights. According to data from the 2020 ENCOVI project, about 95 percent of the population lives in poverty or extreme poverty, and 58 percent of Venezuelan children suffer from chronic malnutrition. It’s clear from these sobering statistics that this is a crisis of overwhelming dimensions, where nothing is normal or safe: not electric power, not drinking water network, not Internet access, not the healthcare system, which is dilapidated. I am talking about a country with no public transportation and no fuel.

The question is whether this calamity is a Venezuelan problem or whether its impact goes beyond national borders, with the proportions of a global problem.

My answer? It is global. Not only because of the impact that the flight of more than 6 million people has had — and continues to have — on dozens of countries. It is global because it compromises the decisions and budgets of multilateral organizations and NGOs. It is global — urgently so — because Maduro heads a narco-dictatorship that, in addition to harboring groups of the former FARC and of the ELN, has handed over vast swaths of territory that now serve as a port of departure for drug shipments to Europe, Central America, Mexico, the United States and the North African coast.

In addition, democratic nations cannot continue to ignore Maduro’s growing ties with the Iranian regime and terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, whose dangerous military and geostrategic implications are more than evident. Iran, which insists on exporting its revolution and has Latin America on its radar, intends to build military bases on Venezuelan soil. And Europe should pay attention to Colombian President Iván Duque warning: Maduro is trying to buy missiles through Iran.

Money coming from the corrupt Chávez and Maduro regimes has flooded the financial systems of at least 52 countries so far, and it is highly likely that, as investigations progress, more of it will surface.

Add to all of this the systematic violations of human rights and crimes against humanity, rigorously documented by the OAS, the United Nations and other entities, crimes that are under international jurisprudence, including torture, kidnappings and forced disappearances, cruel treatment and rape.

Less visible tragedy also demands international action: the destruction of vast areas in the southern region of Venezuela through the mining. Eco-cide is carried out by criminal gangs, with the ELN at the forefront. In addition to razing river basins, forests and huge areas of the Venezuelan Amazon, they destroy indigenous villages, forcibly evict their inhabitants and arrest, torture and murder their leaders, all with the authorization and military protection granted them by the dictatorship.

And there is one more global dimension that I cannot fail to mention. The Maduro regime counts as its allies a cartel of the enemies of democracy: Russia, Belarus, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Turkey, the Sao Paulo Forum, the former FARC, the ELN and others.

Widespread and destabilizing problems, such as drug trafficking, money laundering, financial crimes, crimes against humanity, the destruction of the Amazon, mineral trafficking, alliances for the destruction of democracy, are global emergencies that should raise alarms and tell the world: It is not feasible to leave Venezuelans alone. Venezuelan democrats’ struggle is the struggle of democrats around the world.

Leopoldo López was a political prisoner of the Maduro dictatorship for seven years. He currently lives in exile in Spain.