Dissident Spotlight: Eduardo Galindo Peña
Eduardo Peña was arrested by an organization that can only exist in the tortured language a dictatorship makes possible.
Eduardo Peña is a Venezuelan writer and political dissident. His journalism included criticisms of Nicolas Maduro’s regime, which starved Venezuelans while Maduro and his inner circle profited from over-priced food parcels imported into the country.
In 2020, Peña was arrested by the National Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Command. This organization investigates extortion and kidnapping cases. So, in a rich twist of irony, Peña was charged with “providing false information, creating public uncertainty, and resisting authority.” His wife and nephew were also arrested alongside him.
For about two years, Peña had to report to the police every 15 days. He finally caught a break in 2022 after state prosecutors failed to meet a judicial deadline. While the case against him was dismissed, it shows how Maduro’s regime is weaponized against journalists trying to clarify how the government is run.
Names and Opposites
Totalitarian regimes may not be democratic or representative, but they feel the need to adopt the language of liberal democracies. Monarchs are out, and presidents are in.
“National Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Command” is a particularly flagrant abuse of language. Blaming a journalist for facts published on his website and arresting him for seeing what’s in front of him is extortion by any other name. Dragging him and his family to a police station would be kidnapping if a private citizen committed the same crime.
Names are the first line of defense that authoritarians deploy to mask the sinister intentions of the organizations carrying out the leader’s wishes. They may not seem like much, but names do the heavy lifting for people who want to look the other way.
It’s why Peña and people like him are so important. Their work reveals the gap between what the government says it does and how it really operates. If Maduro’s vice president remains in power, then the free Venezuela will remain a distant hope for people who know they deserve better leadership.