PODCAST. From Hugo Chavez to Nicolas Maduro, conspiracy theories in Venezuela

On July 28, 2024, Nicolas Maduro won the presidential election with 51.2% of the vote according to the National Electoral Council (CNE). The council claims to be the victim of a computer hack. That same evening, the opposition denounced massive electoral fraud. Candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia should have been elected.

While Nicolas Maduro was re-elected as president of Venezuela on July 28, the opposing camp is talking about a rigged election. His candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia took refuge in Spain on September 8. This election has brought back various conspiracy theories that the Venezuelan regime is fond of.

Repression of demonstrations, arrests of opposition leaders, the president sees an international plot to overthrow him… Before him, conspiracy theories around the “Comandante” had many supporters. He even claims the opposition is “financed” by a global Jewish conspiracy.

In his speeches, Nicolas Maduro accuses “international Zionism” of supporting the post-election protest. On this global Jewish conspiracy, “The theme of ‘international Zionism’ has been regularly used by Chavistas for over 20 years”notes Rudy Reichstadt, director of Conspiracy Watch.

The Venezuelan president is a follower of conspiracy theories, as in another speech on July 30, 2024 during a joint meeting of the Council of State and the National Defense Council, where he mentioned the conspiracy theory surrounding the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. “Kennedy was killed by the Miami criminal mafia and the CIA”assures Nicolas Maduro, mentioning the film “JFK” by Oliver Stone, a fictional film that takes up this theory. For Rudy Reichstadt, the president “makes a connection between JFK and the attempted assassination of Trump on July 13, during a rally in Pennsylvania: his conspiratorial worldview is stronger than his aversion to Trump”analyzes Rudy Reichstadt.

Even before him, the remarks of Nicolas Maduro’s predecessor, former President Hugo Chavez, were tinged with anti-Semitic references. “Hugo Chavez has distinguished himself on several occasions by speeches that are ambiguous enough for an anti-Semitic ear to find something to like in them.says Rudy Reichstadt. For example, in December 2005, he denounced the ‘masters of the world’ who, he said, were ‘the descendants of those who crucified Christ’. He added that ‘this minority has seized the riches of the world’.

Anti-Semitic references but also anti-imperialism and anti-Americanism on the part of the one nicknamed “El Comandante”. Just like his successor, Hugo Chavez targeted the United States and the State of Israel, as when in 2006, he accused President George W. Bush of having himself planned the September 11 attacks against the Twin Towers in New York to justify the fight against terrorism.

Tristan Mendès France and Rudy Reichstadt also return to Hugo Chavez’s cancer, which has fueled many conspiracy theories. “It should be remembered that in December 2011, Hugo Chavez suggested that his cancer could have been caused by a mysterious American technology”recalls Tristan Mendès France.

“More than permeable, the Venezuelan regime is a ‘vector’ of conspiracy theories that keep the country in a form of permanent political paranoia”according to Rudy Reichstadt. For Tristan Mendès France, “The current political instability is unfortunately conducive to the spread of conspiracy theories, and it is really not unlikely that the Maduro regime will increasingly resort to this type of conspiratorial rhetoric in the weeks and months to come.”

“From Chavez to Maduro, conspiracy theories in Venezuela” is the 72nd episode of Complorama with Rudy Reichstadt, director of Conspiracy Watch, and Tristan Mendès France, lecturer and member of the conspiracy observatory, specialist in digital cultures. A podcast to be found on the franceinfo website, the Radio France application and several other platforms such as Apple podcasts, Podcast Addict, Spotify, or Deezer.