The king and queen of the Netherlands plan a visit to Venezuela on the second half of November. Willem-Alexander and Máxima are supposed to meet Nicolás Maduro 23 November. Venezuela's government is already jumping on one leg because this means legitimacy from an EU country to a regime that is rapidly falling out of favour with anyone but the least scrupulous profiteers. In the last few years Chávez and then Maduro had more and more trouble getting a picture with high ranking officials from the EU...except for people like Berlusconi and the former prime minister of cash-strapped Portugal.
It has been a long time since the Venezuelan head of state had met any high ranking government official from the EU.
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| She couldn't choose her father, but she could choose not to have her name associated with an autocrat |
And now, even if the human rights situation in Venezuela keeps deteriorating, the symbolic head of the Dutch state wants to go to Caracas and talk to Maduro. Of course they will say something "diplomatic" about their love for all of Venezuela and such. In reality, it's all about Dutch commercial interests, which, as usual, trump any human rights issues.
It is a shame for the Netherlands that the king and queen even consider visiting a person who
1) leads one of the most corrupt regimes in the world
2) calls the whole opposition leaders "murderers" and threatens to send opposition governors to jail any time
3) rejects pluralism
In the next weeks I will be posting some stuff about Dutch-Venezuelan businesses.
I am sending this post to the embassy of the Netherlands in Venezuela.
The opposition should campaign to protest the visit. Hope that would stop them.
ReplyDeleteI hope they will, Boat People, I hope they will. I am passing the information.
DeleteShame on them!
ReplyDeletefue a cobrar http://www.curacaochronicle.com/main/antillean-airlines-in-acute-problems-by-default-venezuela/
ReplyDelete