Maduro Has Opposition Leader Detained: This Is What Totalitarian Government Looks Like

The left loves to point at anyone to the right of Che Guevara and shout “Authoritarian!” Few of them know what a real authoritarian government is like, much less what living in one is like.

People in Venezuela do. Venezuelans have been under the boot of Nicolás Maduro for a while now, and he’s making sure his political opposition doesn’t amount to much – even to the point of having them reportedly detained by the police.

Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s aides said she was detained on Thursday, followed moments later by official denials of her arrest, in a confusing episode that capped a day of protests seeking to block President Nicolás Maduro from clinging to power.

It remained unclear what exactly happened after Machado bid farewell to hundreds of supporters, hopped on a motorcycle and raced with her security convoy down a main Caracas avenue.

At 3:21 p.m. local time, Machado’s press team said in a social media post that security forces “violently intercepted” her convoy. Her aides later told The Associated Press that she had been detained, and international condemnation poured in from leaders in Latin America and beyond, demanding her release.

But about an hour later, a proof-of-life, 20-second video of Machado emerged online in which she says she was followed after leaving the “wonderful” rally and had dropped her purse. 

So things are a little muddled. This could be a major misunderstanding or a deliberate attempt to intimidate a political opponent.

Maduro’s camp responded in predictable form:

Meanwhile, Maduro’s supporters denied Machado had been detained, claiming that government opponents were trying to spread fake news to generate an international crisis. 

“Nobody should be surprised,” Communications Minister Freddy Nanez said. “Especially since it’s coming from the fascists, who were the architects of the dirty trick.”

Now that has a familiar ring to it. But it’s not the American right that is looking at the first few pages of this playbook. Four years of lawfare against a former president speak eloquently to that.

Maduro’s government, some reports indicate, is actually sending members of the notorious Tren de Aragua prison gang to the United States.

See Related: Tren de Aragua Is Now in 18 States: The Latest, Utah

Thanks, Joe: Tren de Aragua Gang Members Wielding Blades, Tire Irons, Storming Border Crossings

Nicaragua is a hot mess and has been for a long time. There are signs of hope in Latin America, but Nicaragua is the wrong place to look to find it. Javier Milei’s Argentina is looking up, but Venezuela? The bad times started in 1998 with the election of socialist thug Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s predecessor in the parade of thugs that has run Nicaragua for almost 30 years.

This is the kind of government the left accuses the right of wanting, of attempting to put in place. This is the kind of government that the left, routinely, every time, actually does put in place. The hallmarks of socialist societies are always the same – central control. Central control of the economy, central control of politics – all of it – and central control of the citizenry.

Socialism is anathema to the principles of liberty, private property, free economies, and everything the United States was meant to be. That’s what socialism is. That’s what it always was. That’s what it always will be. Nicaragua stands as eloquent proof of that.