This article was written by IWP alumna Christine Balling and published by The National Interest.
Political repression can go a long way. Just ask Nicolas Maduro.
Since his inauguration in 2014, the Venezuelan president’s practice of jailing of citizens opposed to his regime has metamorphosed from simply “rounding up the usual suspects” into a broad government crackdown that has arrested citizens en masse without any apparent rhyme or reason. There is a method to Maduro’s madness, however. While millions of Venezuelans have fled their homeland to avoid the country’s unfolding economic collapse, more than a few have done so because they fear political persecution. And that’s precisely what Maduro intends.