Interviews with Claudio Jose Sandoval

That Chavez has control of the National Electoral Council. And that is the reason why there is no electoral exit to the crisis. The two elements there –One element that proves he has electoral control is Cantv, which is the information technology and telecommunications company of the country. It is the main one and is under Chavez´s control. So it was a private company before and he nationalized it under his Marxist vision. So the role technology has played — Or technology — Technology has played a vital role in this fight for democracy. The fact that Chavez controls the main telecommunications company of the country, like Cantv, has damaged us.

He´s also used technology to tap telephones, to plant counterintelligence or false information on the Internet or delete information. The government is now signing an agreement with China, and through a company called Huawei, it is improving the country´s technological platform. We hope that — This is welcomed. It can only be welcomed when it is used to improve the quality of service. But it´s being rejected — At least I reject it if its intention is to try to control the people. But the opposition also took advantage of the technology. When I took part in the student movement, we used it a lot during marches. A lot of people were saved from repression thanks to the fact that a friend sent a text message saying, “Do not cross this street because the police are coming from there and they´re throwing tear bombs,” for example.

It also served to create massive campaigns through the Internet and the different things that can´t be avoided, like Twitter. Twitter was a way — It has been of great help to the cause of democracy. But although President Chavez tried to combat it in the beginning, he realized that he could use it to his benefit. And, in fact, he has one of the largest followings today. And basically, what I want to say is that technology is being used in this political crisis in Venezuela by both sides. And we, until now, have used it efficiently. And I am convinced that technology is going to help us greatly with campaigns in this strategic plan. Despite the fact that the government is going to try to cut certain technological spaces.

Claudio Jose Sandoval is a Venezuelan human rights advocate. He was trained in social work and studied law at Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas. After the government of President Hugo Chávez closed down the country’s largest private television network, RCTV, in 2007, Sandoval became active in student organizations supporting freedom and democracy in Venezuela. He was active in the pro-democracy coalition Foro por la Vida (Forum for Life) and co-founded an organization called Generación de los Puentes (Generation of Bridges). His book “Beyond the Student Movement” discusses how Venezuela might achieve national reconciliation.

Venezuela is a South American country of 28.5 million people with a history of multiparty constitutional democracy. President Nicolas Maduro took office after Hugo Chavez succumbed to cancer in 2013.

During the 1998-2013 presidency of Colonel Hugo Chavez, a series of constitutional and legal changes were implemented that make it far more difficult for citizens to change their government. The Chavez government systematically used public resources to secure its power, closed down independent news media, and used legal and extralegal means to harass and intimidate its critics.

Soon after his first election, Chavez called for a new constitution that would give expanded powers to the president and replace Venezuela’s bicameral Congress with a unicameral national assembly. The new constitution was approved by referendum in 1999. Chavez acquired substantial control of the military, the judiciary, the electoral commission, and the news media. The government closed Radio Caracas Television Internacional (RCTV Internacional), the country’s largest television network, and forced into exile the president of Globovision, the other major opposition-aligned network.

The Chavez government’s increasingly repressive methods generated strong public opposition, including a series of public protests by students, workers, and others who were not previously aligned with the political opposition. In the 2010 National Assembly elections, opposition parties received the majority of the votes, but under the new electoral rules the government took a substantial majority of the seats in the Assembly.

Venezuela’s vast oil resources allowed Chavez to implement policies that steered the country towards a socialist economy. The country’s oil wealth funded a major expansion of government social programs, much to the approval of government supporters in the lower class. Oil became the foundation of Venezuela’s relationship with Cuba, which has strengthened substantially over the last few decades due to shared ideology and financial and security interdependence. Venezuela has replaced the Soviet Union as Cuba’s major benefactor, financially supporting the Castro regime. Cuba in turn has supported the transformation and strengthening of the Venezuelan military. In 2004, the two nations founded the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), a group of socialist and social democratic nations working toward economic integration. ALBA and its member nations often champion anti-American policies and sentiments. This alliance has led to close ties between Venezuela and nations such as Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.

Immediately after Chavez’s passing, Vice President Maduro assumed the role of interim President. He then went on to narrowly defeat an opposition candidate by a 1.5 percent margin in the April 2013 presidential elections. Maduro has pledged to complete Chavez’s socialist transformation of Venezuela.

Recently, Venezuela has struggled with a rising crime and homicide rate, blamed by some on a recent economic downturn, the availability of arms, and the weak judicial system. However, Chavez and Maduro both have linked this increase in crime to the media’s portrayal of both fictional and real violence and have continued to influence what programming and content is available. Both leaders have expanded the security forces within the country, calling on police, militias, and the military to fight crime.

In Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report, Venezuela earned “partly free” status, with an overall rating of 5. A rating of 1 represents the most free and 7 represents the least free.