Nicolás Maduro, Besieged and Immovable

He is surrounded, but he doesn't budge. The Chavista regime remains steadfast, crushing its interlocutors, settling scores with its adversaries, and repressing mercilessly. In short, it offers new evidence every day that it has Venezuela's political and military situation under control, despite the war tensions with the United States. And its leader, the supervision currently exercised by the so-called Bolivarian Revolution over society is unprecedented in decades. The limits of censorship are becoming increasingly strict. In all areas of public life, the official narrative carries the most weight, and the intelligence apparatus is present everywhere. And the recent recognition of opposition figure María Corina Machado, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is a public taboo. Maduro and his government are unpopular, but they are entrenched, on high alert, and constantly carrying out anti-imperialist propaganda. At the same time, he frequently organizes gatherings with civil society to present displays of splendor. In recent weeks, the president has held various musical and cultural activities, with peace as a central theme, always seeking to project a sensible and humanitarian image. Simultaneously, this week the Vente Venezuela party, founded by Machado, denounced that "the wave of repression" unleashed by state security forces has led to "at least 30 unjustified arrests and several arbitrary house searches." A statement from the party adds that these operations are being carried out "violently and without a court order."