I was going to ask how it's possible to stop so many Venezuelans living abroad from voting. Then, of course, you get to
The regime imprisoned over 2,000 people, many of whom are still unaccounted for, and unofficially killed about 20 people in the context of the protests
... and it doesn't seem so shocking.
Terrifying stuff, what's going on in Venezuela. Though what you said about passports being annulled (while also terrifying) made me wonder. Why? So people don't say the election was stolen. Yet I think of so-called democracies like the US, where you had a lot of people talking about how the election was stolen (both in 2016 and in 2020) and in the end, what they said online didn't matter. Similar in my own native Romania. Stolen election this year, people made a fuss online for a could of days, then it blew over. Nobody cared. Which makes one wonder, why go to such length to stop someone talking if nobody will care about injustice anyway?
I hope you continue writing as I'd like to understand more about what is happening over there, and I happen to enjoy your writing. Also, unrelated, but I was wondering if you'd consider answering a few questions on minimalism for the MINIMALIST community? I'm running an interview series on that, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. We could talk more about it on Discord (honeydue8397) if you're interested. Cheers.
Hey, thanks for commenting and for the appreciation!
Well, they could prevent voting because they control the consulates and embassies, and the electoral system too. In fact, the only reason the opposition leadership got access to the actual ballots was because they have a LOT of dissent within their own ranks and couldn't hold military officials from leaking this information through unmonitored channels.
As for why they'd annul passports and engage in other intimidation tactics, this is just what tyrannies do. There doesn't need to be a logic behind it except keeping people on edge, uncertain and afraid. Pretty much every leader in a regime like this is a sadist. From a psychological standpoint, they're also terribly afraid, they're beset by the very machinations of terror that they've created, and can't trust anyone, so that's what they project unto the public.
Sure, that'd be great. I don't use Discord, though. No matter how I've tried, I never been able to get into that app. We could talk over WhatsApp or Telegram if you use them. Let me know!
Yeah, I'm sure you're right. It's a fool's errand, looking for logic in tyrannies.
That's great about the interview! Let's chat on Telegram, maybe? I'm @honeydue9 over there. B&W profile pic. Hope we find each other. And thanks!