An effort to topple Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro came close, but ultimately fell short. What next for Juan Guaidó?
Welcome to Plain English, your recipe for success, a podcast for English learners. I’m Jeff; JR is the producer; and this is episode 155. You can see a full transcript of this episode at PlainEnglish.com/155.
Coming up on today’s episode: Venezuela is one of the world’s worst-governed countries, but the strongman Nicolás Maduro clings to power. The most recent effort by Juan Guaidó, who has been recognized as interim president, fell short, leaving Venezuela with no good options. Later in the episode, we’ll talk about what it means when something is “in the works.” And JR has a great song for you—I first heard this song in high school and I think it’s a great one for this audience. So stay tuned for that.
Quick reminder that our partner, Audible, helps us pay the bills here at Plain English. They’re the ones that produce audiobooks—not just in English but in a lot of other languages too. You can get a free audiobook with a trial membership at PlainEnglish.com/book .
Failed uprising puts Venezuela in a bind
One of the world’s worst governments came tantalizing close to falling on April 30, but the effort to topple the regime of Nicolás Maduro failed, and Venezuela finds itself in even worse shape than before.
You’ll remember from Episode 125 that the presidency of Venezuela is contested. Nicolás Maduro, the strongman who has ruled Venezuela with an iron fist since 2013, declared himself the winner of a fraudulent election in 2018. However, Juan Guaidó, the president of the National Assembly, said that, according to the Venezuelan constitution, he is the rightful president, since the Maduro election was a fraud. Countries around the world, including the US, Canada, many Latin American neighbors, and much of Europe have recognized Guaidó as the president. However, Maduro still holds all the levers of power—specifically, control of the media, the armed forces, and the state-owned companies that provide fuel and electricity.
The people on the streets of average Venezuelan neighborhoods have suffered gravely. Violence is pervasive: people are shot on the street for no reason. Government agents arrest people for just walking outside at night, on suspicion of being opposition protesters. There’s no power, and no running water, for days at a time. The economy has all but ceased to function: people have no jobs; they scrap for food; and they struggle to survive. As we talked about in Episode 63, a tenth of the population, about 3 million people, have fled the country in the last year or two. Far more would flee if they were able.
Guaidó is trying to wrest control of the Venezuelan state in any way he can; however, Maduro has a morbid talent for holding onto power. In part, that’s due to the support he gets from Cuba and Russian intelligence. Maduro has demanded loyalty of the country’s military forces—and they have largely remained loyal to him. Without control of the armed forces, Guaidó will always be on the sidelines.
So the morning of April 30 dawned on a hopeful note, as Guaidó appeared with opposition figure Leopoldo López, and a few dozen National Guardsmen. Guaidó’s plan was to start a mass defection of military leaders, starting a snowball effect that would eventually force Maduro to flee the country. At the same time, Guaidó announced the biggest protest in Venezuelan history. He was hoping that the support of key military leaders, including the Defense Minister; plus pressure from international diplomats; plus a massive street uprising would win him control of the Venezuelan government.
It didn’t work out that way.
Protesters, already weary from unsuccessful previous efforts, poured onto the street, but the government immediately fought them back with tear gas and their typical violent repression; two were killed and dozens more were injured. The military support that Guaidó had hoped for didn’t materialize: one by one, top military leaders appeared on television or on social media to proclaim their support for Maduro. By the end of the night, Maduro appeared on television, his top military officials by his side, and denounced what he called the attempted coup.
The military officials and opposition leaders who appeared with Guaidó are now taking refuge at the Brazilian embassy or at the residence of the Spanish ambassador. They are likely in for a long stay: if they leave, they’ll be subject to arrest—and worse—by the government’s brutal intelligence police.
It’s still not yet clear what went wrong with Guaidó’s plan. Some say that military leaders were expecting the effort to start a couple of days later, so they were caught unprepared when it started on April 30. Guaidó was reportedly counting on the support of the Supreme Court, which he did not get. Some foreign diplomats thought that Guaidó overplayed his hand by starting the uprising before he was truly ready. Now many in Venezuela are starting to doubt his skills.
What next? There are no great options. The opposition could try again, but each unsuccessful attempt makes people more cautious about participating in a future effort. Help will probably have to come from abroad. The US, Europe, and Latin American countries are reaching out to Russia and Cuba, which are together propping up the Maduro regime, to negotiate for a transition. Both the American Secretary of State and the Lima Group of Latin American countries have issued statements suggesting a deal with Cuba may be in the works.
What a tragedy. It’s hard to believe today that Venezuela was once the wealthiest country in Latin America. You know, a lot of your fellow listeners are originally from Venezuela. I hear from so many Venezuelans who are living in Florida, Peru, Brazil, all over the place. So keep them in your thoughts as we wait for a better situation in Venezuela.
Today I’d like to say hi to Wagner from the city of Ouro Preto from Minas Gerais, Brazil. Wagner is in the same position as many of you, I think. He studied English for a while, got pretty good, but then got a little rusty. That means, he started to forget some things. So he’s tuning in to get back in practice. He also sent me a song about Chicago in Portuguese. It’s called Chicago 40 degrees; I think that’s a play on another famous song called Rio 40 Degrees. But if you speak Portuguese, that’s a fun song about my home town, courtesy of Wagner.
Audiobooks are a great way to continue practicing your listening. But a lot of audiobooks go pretty fast. But that’s why I like Audible—on the app, you can actually slow down the speed to 75% speed if you need to. Then, by the end of the book, you might be able to try listening at full speed. Audible has a great offer for Plain English listeners: if you sign up for a free trial, you’ll get one audiobook for free—and you can keep it forever. They have all the Harry Potter books on there and all the books that inspired Game of Thrones. Also lots of books in German, Chinese, Spanish, not just English. PlainEnglish.com/book . That’s where you’ll get your free trial to Audible. Sign up for a free month, get your audiobook to keep forever. And if you like it, you can stay on as a paying member. If not, no sweat. Just cancel within a month and you won’t have to pay anything. PlainEnglish.com/book .
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