Uh, Maduro is one of the good guys.
He really isn't. Maduro is better than the people trying to replace him, certainly. But the majority of Venezuelans who continue to support the Bolivarian Revolution need to find a way to move past Maduro. He has proven himself to be weak and an awful torch bearer of Chavez's legacy, primarily due to his weakness, incompetence, and attempts at pragmatism. When he failed to destroy the currency controls that governed the distribution of oil income, the result was the current crisis, with black market currency speculation, hoarding and smuggling of gas and food, and an explosion of already rampant corruption. When protests erupted, he supported a confused policy of supporting both grassroots production and courting private corporations.
His attempt to reach a compromise resulted in an election that saw his party soundly defeated in the polls, which has allowed the opposition to take one branch of government and provoke an institutional crisis as they attempt to seize the other branches by constantly violating Supreme Court rulings and trying to topple Maduro. The opposition has strongly encouraged violent protests, wherein the protesters, not the government, have caused deaths. 55% still support Chavez and about half oppose the violent tactics of the opposition attempting to topple the democratically elected President. The opposition has turned to employing violent tactics, like street blockades, looting, bombings and infrastructural attacks on public transport, hospitals, state television, and milk production facilities, and has recently threatened to name a government-in-resistance.
For a supposed authoritarian government, it sure hasn't done much to stop the democratic process or end street protests. All the claims of government corruption conveniently ignore the private companies that took billions of dollars worth of government funds and disappeared into thin air. The empty shelves are attributable more to intentional sabotage of production than the government, due to businesses aligning with the opposition. Meanwhile, proponents of Bolivarian Revolution have recognized the need to move past Maduro's government, primarily by using the Constitutent Assemply and cleansing the government of corruption, while also nationalizing key industries like banking and foreign exchange, disempower the military, and end currency controls. If the rightwing wins, then drastic austerity will be implemented and civil war seems inevitable.
And all of that fails to mention the blatant hypocrisy of Maduro's foreign critics, who focus their attention on his government, while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the
far more damning actions of Brazil's unelected President with 5% approval. The man has literally been caught on audio engaging in bribery, his staff caught on video with a briefcase full of bribery money, put into office by a Congress half of whose members were being investigated for corruption that claimed the elected President was corrupt (she was guilty of moving around some numbers on government reports, IIRC), and once she was ousted, proceeded to end corruption investigations, pass Constitutional changes that restricted social welfare spending, implemented austerity, and have voted to protect President Temer from his Supreme Court indictment for corruption. All of that is fine to Western governments and commentariat, but Maduro is simply unacceptable?
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