The vice-president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Freddy Guevara, has sought refuge in the residence of the Chilean ambassador to Venezuela. He is wanted by the Maduro government for inciting violence by calling for protests against the Maduro regime. The government has revoked his parliamentary immunity and banned him from leaving the country. Guevara says that he is not guilty of these crimes and that he is being persecuted for opposing Maduro. He did organize protests as a member of the Popular Will party, a major opposition party.
The Maduro regime has had many members of the opposition arrested, including the founder of Popular Will, Leopoldo Lopez. Guevara said that he sought refuge from the Chilean ambassador because he did not want to give Maduro another political “hostage.” The Chilean ambassador took in five pro-opposition magistrates that were being threatened with jail time earlier this year. They were then smuggled out of Venezuela into Colombia, and then flown to Chile. Chile has, like many other Latin American countries, condemned the Venezuelan government for its many rights abuses. The US State Department has denounced the attempted arrest of Guevara, calling it, “yet another extreme measure to close the democratic space in Venezuela, criminalize dissent and control information.”
The articles portray Latin Americans in general in no particular light. They do highlight the political problems ongoing in Venezuela. They try to strike a balance between the two parties, but are slightly more favorable to the opposition, as they are portrayed more as the victims of the Maduro regime, while the Maduro regime tries to portray itself as a victim of violence from the opposition.
These articles relate to class themes in that they describe a government’s attempt to concentrate power at the expense of its opponents. This is similar to the efforts of colonial governments to centralize their own power, often at the expense of other groups, whether they were indigenous leaders, earlier Iberian conquerors, or other groups. This event also connects to class themes of conflicts between the rulers of colonial societies and those they ruled over. In this case there is conflict between Maduro and his supporters and the opposition parties.