Cuban Doctors Explain How the Maduro Administration Coerced Venezuelan Voters Through Medical Missions
The opposition party is now accusing the Cuban government of supporting Maduro's administration through sending intelligence agents. Cuba-Venezuela ties are bolstered by oil trade and the export of doctors.
Juan Guaidó, opposition-controlled legislature leader, was also widely recognized as Venezuela's president. Guaidó called Maduro's election undemocratic, and the had the support of the United States in removing Maduro from office.
Political agenda in medical missions
During his campaign, Maduro was proposing subsidies to vulnerable groups in Venezuela to win their support for the elections.
Free healthcare is now provided to even the poor in Venezuela by Cuban doctors, who are the nation's most valuable export. In turn, Venezuela paid Cuba with oil.
This was a regular program that started with former President Hugo Chávez in 200 called Barrio Adentro.
Cuban doctors who were frequently sent to medical missions in Venezuela explained in interviews how Maduro's administration used their services to coerce the majority of the voting population to support the Socialist Party.
They need only show IDs called the "homeland card" for rations at the poll spots. Another way Maduro maintained control over Venezuelans was through Cuba's international medical corporations.
These political tactics involved the Cuban doctors having to remind the voters about the upcoming elections, and telling patients to refuse treatment from supporters of the opposition.
They added that part of their job was to visit voters' houses offering medicine, and then cautioning them to vote for Maduro, or else they would no longer receive treatment. Most of the residents were either impoverished or elderly, and so the management of the operation was easy.
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Maduro's regime
Director of the Americas program at Human Rights Watch José Miguel Vivanco believed that the Cuban government was contributing to the regime of the Venezuelan government.
Maduro won by the narrowest margin in years, with 50.6 percent of the Venezuelan population on April 14, 2013.
The opposition, Henrique Capriles Radonski, garnered almost as much as Maduro. He, among other candidates like Leopoldo López, was removed from the elections either by imprisonment and mass boycott.
Oil production was low back in 2015, and so there were shortages of resources like food and water. Venezuelans were stacked with bills to pay on top of the taxes. Criminality was surging as the economy plummeted.
Healthcare systems in the country were not able to import essential medicines, and the water cuts were so bad that surgeons had to wash their hands with bottled water. These provided candidates for the 2018 election the opportunity to give the nation the basic resources.
Maduro was proposing to the voters left and right large subsidies using the homeland card to compensate for the shortages. This promised the Venezuelans many essentials, but Maduro's administration was withholding more than they initially bargained for.
Medical supplies were apparently run out at the time before the elections because they were hoarded. It was suspected that Maduro's party could have been behind this, since he soon "fixed" the shortages of the resources by flooding hospitals with provisions.
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