Yesterday and today I participated in an initiative to meet with staff members of progressive Democratic congresspeople to talk about Venezuela. We attempted to refute the narrative of the Trump administration that the economic sanctions are designed to hurt members of the Maduro government, not the Venezuelan people. In addition, we argued that what is happening in Venezuela points to a Libya-type scenario if Trump succeeds in dismantling the Maduro government. We pointed out that Juan Guaidó represents the most radical fringe of the opposition and that the main leaders of the opposition as a whole lack credibility and support in the population as a whole, even among those who are one hundred percent anti-Maduro.

In one of the meetings, one of the staff members asked whether Maduro is responsible for Venezuela’s economic difficulties. This is an important issue because it shifts the blame from the sanctions to the incompetence of the Maduro government. Opposition leaders and anti-Maduro academics are arguing that the sanctions and even the decrease in international oil prices have nothing to do with the current economic difficulties because the economic crisis predates both. If by sanctions, they're referring to Trump's financial sanctions of August 2017, then the argument seems plausible. But the fact is that the war on Chavismo goes back to the U.S. supported coup in 2002 and then the U.S.-supported general lockout of 2002-2003 (both spearheaded by the Venezuelan chamber of commerce), and then came the first U.S. sanctions in 2004. It's been a steady war on the government with members of the Venezuelan elite (the Church hierarchy, the business sector, the traditional politicians and labor leaders) and Washington all playing their part.