Saving Private Maduro

It's naïve to hope for guards when power slips away.

There are no hopeless situations even for the highest ranks. No matter how hard this or that ruler is pushed, everyone has a second option. There's no need to panic and fly to arms to retain power in a minute of extreme danger. It's easier to weigh things up and take an unbiased look at a situation. However, it's the point when dictators start to bustle desperately and and make a fatal mistake.

It's silly to hope for guards when power slips away. Everything is in tatters. It's not possible to explain why suspicious Ceausescu suddenly trusted his corrupt secret police. And wise leader Muammar imagined that in case of danger he would be protected by reckless girls from the inner circle. It's an unforgettable mistake for such wise rulers. But the lesson is forgotten. And the same scenario repeats itself in another part of the world.

And only a friend can save a private dictator in this situation, only if he remembers and gives a call. Where to hide at the very moment when all resources are exhausted, and the most loyal tonton macoutes or whoever is there are already looking around?

Comrade Maduro was lucky. The loop hadn't been closed yet, as the phone rang. It turned out that it was a friend from sunny Drazdy. He assured that proud Venezuela could always count on support of the Belarusian side. Only a strange phrase, as if prepared in advance by a odd office, bothered brotherly embrace. "We categorically deny any interference in internal affairs of a sovereign state, including those aimed at destabilization of the situation in the country".

This sincere impulse, even in the office form, would be priceless, but there was a slight problem. Almost at the same time another friend from the Kremlin called. And his words were almost the same: "Destructive external interventions grossly violate fundamental norms of international law. Is this coincidence accidental?

There were all sorts of rumors as if a sudden impulse of the Kremlin ruler and his constant ally was self-serving. Even specific figures appeared. It's as if our fussy power, hoping for high profit, hastened to invest at least half a billion dollars in a shaky Venezuelan economy. And Russia behaved recklessly in general - it invested twenty or all twenty-five billion dollars. So should one be surprised by coincidences? Dreams of a possible freeload end up in one manner.

People, who are now protesting on the streets and squares of the largest cities of Venezuela, cannot even realize how abandoned they will be if the wind of inevitable change extinguishes the brightest torch of indomitable power. The ruler says it's terrible to stay without a leader. Moreover, he has repeatedly reported on his vast resources. And this was true.

He has recently awarded officers who had distinguished themselves in the dispersion of protesters. Each of these heroes received three rolls of toilet paper from his brave president. Rumors and incisive smiles are not acceptable. These rolls are extremely needed in modern Venezuela, which is on its way to the high goal set by the leader. And if Comrade Maduro had to turn to his strategic reserves on such an occasion, then the affair is a simple fizzle.

And all this is happening in the country with enormous oil reserves. They exceed even the proven reserves of the Middle East. Moreover, there is the ocean, waterways for free transportation of this wealth around the world. The blessed land and an appropriate climate - one can harvest twice a year, or even three. What a unique talent the authorities have to bring such a country to the rationing, fantastic inflation, and even mass poverty. It's no wonder that protests are of permanent nature there and last for long.

Lonely dictatorships are dotted around the world. They seem to be completely different. But they are striving for a single pattern. And that is why they are infinitely cherish each other. Whatever promises they make, each of these exotic systems eventually comes to a common end - a roll of toilet paper. As a sign of a deficit, a high reward for devotion and the payment equivalent of valorous labor.

However, on this long journey to unique symbol of universal happiness, sometimes quite fantastic events occur. In these January days, when far away Venezuela suffers wicked passions, something incomprehensible happened in our beautiful country, to be more precise, in a quiet and quite European Brest.

It was snowing and a young woman, as it usually happens on such days in different parts of the world, made a snowman. And since she had repeatedly protested against the construction of a battery plant capable of polluting her beloved city with lead wastes, she decided to decorate this creature of snow in her own way. She attached a paper with three short phrases on it.

"Get away with poison! No plant here! People in power!"

The uncompromising guards of the local order appeared in no time. They examined the snowman and these short phrases. They revealed a hidden threat to local stability and drew drawn up the protocol.

Things have happened in the country in recent years. However, simple-minded snowmen have not yet been persecuted. But these happy times did not last long. The authorities have taken control of the snow revolt. Could anything else happen in the country of long overdue dictatorship? What snowmen can we talk about, if the brotherly regime is shaking in distant Venezuela?

It's frightful to think of what would happen if the list of jewelry of this snow creature also had a black mustache known by everyone.

Therefore, there's a natural question arises: could such a unique country not hurry to help unstoppable Comrade Maduro? Dictators are obliged to protect each other. And if one of them suddenly disappears from TV screens, it's not known who is next on edge of their common abyss.

This abyss is deep and terrifying. But whom can one complain about the evil fate, if a ridiculous power prefers to follow this path?

It's useless to argue with instincts.

Uladzimir Khalip, especially for Charter97.org