Western hemisphereVenezuelan Regime Preparing to Confiscate Exiles’ homes, property

During the past two decades, the government of Venezuelan has systematically expropriated billions of dollars in land and other assets of private companies. Reports from Venezuela say that the government is now turning its attention to the homes of the millions of Venezuelans living abroad.

The Miami Herald reports that a census ordered this month by Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to determine how many homes are empty is fueling fears that the regime is preparing the way for the massive confiscation of real estate.

Already, hundreds of buildings and other types of properties have been taken over by communal association which support the regime or by the Colectivos, the feared armed paramilitary gangs controlled by the government.

The census could put hundreds of thousands of properties at risk of confiscation by giving the pro-regime association and paramilitaries information of what the next targets might be.

“For a long time, they have been thinking about the idea of capitalizing on” the exodus of Venezuelans, lawyer and constitutional expert Leonardo Palacios told the Herald.

More than four million people — about 15 percent of the population — have left the country because of the deteriorating economic conditions and the growing authoritarianism of the regime.

“Due to the massive emigration there are many homes that were vacated, that belong to people who left and who could not or would not sell for economic reasons,” Palacios added.

Maduro ordered the XV National Census of the Statistical and Geographical System to carry out the census immediately, rather than in 2021, as was originally planned. Maduro also said that the procedure would consist first in the collection of real estate information, and then in determining whether they are occupied.

If the Maduro government were to launch a broad policy of confiscating property owned by people who have left the country, it would be following in the footsteps of the Cuban regime, but the inspiration for the move appears to be a similar policy undertaken by the Syrian regimes.

In early 2018, the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria issued a decree which aimed to complete one of the largest ethnic cleansing campaigns since the end of the Second World War. The key to Assad’s plan was codifying in law the massive dispossession of millions of Syria’s Sunnis.

Those who started the rebellion against Assad in 2011 were Sunnis inspired by the Arab Spring. To reduce the influence of Sunnis in Syria, the Assad regime killed about 480,000 Sunni civilians (the war’s 560,000 death toll includes about 80,000 combatants on all sides), and used the help of the Russian Air Force systematically to destroyed the infrastructure of Sunni cities, towns, villages, and neighborhoods. The campaign included the methodical destruction of hospitals, clinics, medical facilities, water and sewage treatment centers, schools, bridges and canals, power stations, and phones relay towers.

In addition, the Assad regime forced more than 11 million Sunnis out of their homes (5.6 million Syrians have fled the country, and 6.1 million have been internally displaced).

Assad’s early-2018 decree is viewed as essentially the last step in the regime’s ethnic cleansing campaign, as it would prevent the 11 million Sunnis who have fled their homes from even coming back.

Observers note that Maduro’s plan may have a similar goal in mind: Preventing millions of Venezuelans who have left the country – and who are regarded by the regime as the most hostile toward the government – from coming back. Or, if they do wish to come back while Maduro is still in power, they will have to do so on the regime’s terms.