Sir, – The letter from the organisers of a march against the Iraq war (Letters, February 20th), in which I also took part, frankly let down the people of Venezuela.
Of course many of them no doubt oppose Donald Trump’s shameful attempt to exploit their misery, but failing to recognise that the real problem is Maduro amounts to complicity. He has turned Venezuela into a de facto dictatorship, which Amnesty International has also condemned for carrying out thousands of extrajudicial killings. Worse still, he has destroyed what was the richest country in Latin America, creating the largest refugee crisis in its history with the UN saying as many as five million may have fled widespread hunger, deepening poverty and chaos by year’s end.
Backing a dictator like Maduro means giving his even more corrupt and brutal army a blank cheque to continue repressing the people and driving the economy – already in meltdown – further into the ground, condemning many effectively to death (given malnutrition and the fact the health system has all but collapsed).
Ireland is absolutely right to support the EU position demanding a free presidential election in Venezuela to let the people decide their future, as they are the only ones with the right to effect regime change. – Yours, etc,
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RONAN L TYNAN
East Wall,
Dublin 3.