There is no intention to keep his memory alive": how the figure of Maduro is fading in the new Venezuela by Delcy Rodríguez

There is no intention to keep his memory alive": how Maduro's figure is fading in the new Venezuela by Delcy Rodríguez - Author, Alicia Hernández - Author's Title, BBC News Mundo - Publication Date - Reading Time: 9 min New York, September 22, Lotte New York Palace hotel. That city and that day witnessed the scene that probably best exemplifies the political change Venezuela has experienced since January 3rd. The protagonists are Delcy Rodríguez, interim president but increasingly consolidated in Venezuela, and Donald Trump, the supreme authority of the United States. After the meeting at the famous Manhattan hotel, a photo where both are smiling. She makes a V-sign with her fingers. He raises his right thumb. Just 14 kilometers away, in a Brooklyn prison, is Nicolás Maduro, the former president captured one night in January in Caracas by order of Trump and whom Rodríguez was a firm ally for years. Next, Rodríguez speaks to the United Nations General Assembly, a summit that calls upon most of the world's heads of state. The last time a Venezuelan president attended was in 2018, when Maduro was president. In her speech, Rodríguez does not mention the former president at any time. Neither him, nor his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, nor the circumstances that led Rodríguez to be Venezuela's spokesperson to that assembly. Instead, she refers to the US president: "I want to thank President Trump for his willingness to take the path of diplomatic relations and cooperation." This is almost ten months after the unprecedented military operation on Venezuelan soil, where the United States captured Maduro along with his wife, Cilia Flores. Both are facing a trial under charges of drug trafficking and torture, among others. The thanks to Trump and the discursive oblivion of Maduro evidence that the Venezuelan political landscape has undergone a 180-degree turn in some aspects. Rodríguez, leading the country as interim president, has made numerous changes, both in her cabinet -changing figures aligned with Maduro for others closer to her- and in promoting laws such as the Hydrocarbons law, a brief amnesty law, the unlocking of some digital media, or the most recent and unusual oil agreement with the United States. And another of those changes is that the figure of Maduro, without completely disappearing, has been fading... From "acting president" to "president" In her initial speeches after the US incursion into Venezuelan territory, Delcy Rodríguez constantly named the former president Maduro and his wife, the former First Lady Cilia Flores. "They are two heroes we have as hostages in the United States of America," she said. But as relations between the two countries were strengthening, those names appeared less in her addresses. The Venezuelan journalist Valentina Gil conducted a detailed study for the Venezuelan outlet "TalCual" in the months following January 3rd on how many times Maduro appeared in Rodríguez's speeches. "We saw that every time Delcy Rodríguez met with any high official from the United States, nothing mentioned Nicolás Maduro. She said nothing face-to-face with the people who perpetrated that attack," Gil says in an interview with BBC Mundo. Gil analyzed videos that, until a few months ago, were on the YouTube channel of Venezolana de Televisión, the State channel. If in January Rodríguez mentioned him up to 86 times, in April this figure had dropped to 8 mentions, and, as the journalist emphasized in her analysis, she did not do it to refer to him and his situation in the United States, but to "his government actions or his professional relationship with him". Gil commented that the videos are no longer available. The tendency not to name him strengthened after the earthquakes that occurred in Venezuela on June 24th. And other gestures followed. This serves as an example of how linguistic subtlety takes political reality in Venezuela. When Delcy Rodríguez swore in office, she said she came "as executive vice-president of President Nicolás Maduro Moros" and, since then, she was called "acting president", as it appears in her profiles on social media and in presidential press releases. But for more than a month now, in the dozens of official communications, she is named "president", "national mandate holder" or "Head of State". Only on two occasions is she named "acting". "The earthquake helped to blur Maduro's figure, yes. In the sense that he is not among people's concerns. There are other things more important to worry about. Apart from how difficult daily life is in the country, which has not improved at all economically and people see that nothing is progressing," states Phil Gunson, senior analyst for the International Crisis Group for the Andean region, in an interview with BBC Mundo. "There is no active intention to keep the memory of Maduro and Cilia Flores alive. And when they refer to the relationship with the United States, they always do so in positive terms," he says. The US recently presented new charges for torture against Maduro and Flores. The Venezuelan government did not publicly comment in defense of the former president. Gunson emphasizes that although they are not completely forgotten, there are other gestures beyond speeches. For example, recently a large poster that had been in front of a known shopping center in Caracas showing Maduro with Cilia Flores was removed. And within some institutions, this is also happening. Other symbols are also being removed. For years, in the headquarters of the Palace of Justice, a huge concrete complex in the center of Caracas, two giant posters decorated the huge towers on either side. One with Hugo Chávez's face; the other with Simón Bolívar's image in 3D that recreated his government. In their place are two new posters that read "Venezuela is reborn", the slogan of the moment. "Venezuela is reborn" "The earthquake became a very legible opportunity to reinvent the public image of the government based on that slogan," explains Irina Troconis to BBC Mundo, an associate professor of Latin American Studies at Cornell University (New York) and author of the book "The Necromantic State", precisely about the use of images and propaganda during Chavismo. She explains that it forms "a very logical part within a mechanism that has operated for several years in Venezuela: changing the facade or public image as a way to simultaneously send the message that things are changing and that they are different". Troconis also commented on the change in nomenclature for Delcy Rodríguez -from acting president to president- in official communications. "That is what you are anticipating too. It is a way to gradually erase from the discourse the need for elections." During her speech before the UN Assembly, Rodríguez stated that "there will be elections in Venezuela", without specifying when or the circumstances, except that, when they happen, "real conditions for participation for all political forces" will be guaranteed. The US is also not in a hurry to promote elections, despite the demands of many in Venezuela who consider Rodríguez's presidency illegitimate. A purge and "new" faces Maryhen Jiménez, associate professor of Politics at the National University of Ireland Maynooth (Ireland), explains that "since January 3rd and with Maduro's capture, Venezuela has transformed into some dimensions of political propaganda and the elimination of photos, fences or mentions is a reality." Along with this, "there is a transformation in progress and a relaunching of figures linked to Delcy Rodríguez." In this sense, not only new faces appear who are not really new, such as Héctor Rodríguez, Minister of Education since August 27th; Daniella Cabello, daughter of Diosdado Cabello, as Minister of Tourism; or Miguel Pérez Pirela, a known communicator and founder of Chavismo-aligned programs. But it also means the elimination of those faces more related to Maduro. One of the most pointed figures is Alex Saab, whom the US points to as a puppet of Nicolás Maduro. Saab was Minister of Industry, and after January 3rd, Rodríguez removed him from the position. Shortly after, in a joint operation between the United States and Venezuela, he was detained and, in May, deported to the northern country, where he was recently found guilty of money laundering. The dismissal of Vladimir Padrino López as Minister of Defense after 12 years in that portfolio was also pointed out. He currently holds the Ministry of Agriculture. Along with Padrino López, he changed the entire top echelon of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces. Tarek William Saab, pointed out by various organizations for human rights violations, left his position as Attorney General, and Laura Guerra, Maduro's ex-wife, abandoned the presidency of the Central Bank of Venezuela. "It is a new coalition that wants to sell itself as new, but it is the same actors, only there is an internal readjustment. There are purges of those who will not be part of this new stage, and distancing from Chavistas originating from those who consider that Chavismo is isolating itself from its ideological origins," details Maryhen Jiménez. "The big question is whether this bet to launch a Chavismo 3.0 has the capacity to connect with Venezuelan society," she says. "President Maduro" Some voices within Chavismo do still name Maduro. Valentina Gil points out that Diosdado Cabello, Minister of Interior and Justice, is among those who constantly name him in his television program "Con el mazo dando". "He refers to him as president," says Gil. Also Freddy Bernal, governor of the border state of Táchira, denounced in June the removal of photos of Maduro and Chávez in some government instances. Outside the power structure, other old figures of Chavismo criticize both his erasure and the current situation with the United States. This is the case of Elías Jaua, who was a minister for years with Chávez and even with Maduro; Iris Varela, a relevant figure both with Chávez and Maduro; or the communicator Mario Silva. And in Chavista demonstrations, many remember the one they still consider their president and demand that he return to Venezuela. An interesting figure is that of Maduro's son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, an officialist parliamentarian, who combines the request for freedom for his father with support for Delcy Rodríguez. "We know that Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores will come out sooner or later through diplomacy and dialogue," he said. Although Irina Troconis and Maryhen Jiménez agree that there is an attempt to erase the former president, both also point out that it is impossible to do it completely. "What to do with the figure of Maduro and how to deal with him is also a challenge for other actors. We see how he continues to be used in public discourse in the United States, and also sectors of the Venezuelan opposition still mention him. He is an important figure in Venezuelan history. Basically, he led the process of autocratization and was in front of the government in very dark times," emphasizes Jiménez. Troconis explains that at this moment, "Venezuela represents for the government of the United States the only triumph, in quotes, to which it can refer". "And Maduro represents that single enemy whom it has managed to capture." At the same time, he is "that empty vessel to whom all the blame for the deterioration in Venezuela is attributed". Maduro, says Troconis, "it is necessary both for the government of the United States, to maintain an image that it has achieved something in this war speech, as well as for Venezuela, to show that there has been a change". Although Delcy Rodríguez did not name Maduro even once in her speech to the UN, Trump dedicated a large part of it to the interim president. "It is a gesture of power, of dominance, of reminder," says Troconis. Download the new BBC World Service app. Choose BBC News Mundo and receive news, documentaries, and analysis alerts, all in one place. 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