Venezuela continues slide into dictatorship

CARACAS, Venezuela– Protests have reignited across Caracas this week following the death of opposition lawmaker, Fernando Alban.

While sitting President Nicolás Maduro claims Alban committed suicide by jumping out of his tenth-floor jail cell, many Venezuelan citizens believe he was the target of a government ordered murder.

“There’s no doubt this was an assassination,” said Julio Borges, former leader of Venezuela’s opposition party.

The political organization that Alban represented also released a statement, expressing their belief that he was executed.

“(It is) with great pain and thirst for justice we tell the people of Venezuela that Councilman Fernando Alban was murdered at the hands of the regime of Nicolas Maduro,” the party wrote.

This extrajudicial death highlights the increasingly dire circumstances facing citizens of the once wealthy Latin-American country. Formerly a stronghold of democracy and freedom in South America, Venezuela has experienced a steady decline in civil liberties since the election of Maduro in 2013.

Many of the socialist policies that assuaged civil unrest during the previous administration of Hugo Chávez collapsed under the current administration, miring the country in a mess of hyperinflation and government bribery.

U.S. president Donald Trump has increased pressure on Maduro in recent months, and released a statement condemning the killings while hinting at a new round of U.S sanctions.

“The Trump administration will continue to increase pressure on the Maduro regime and its insiders until democracy is restored in Venezuela,” he wrote Wednesday.

Several U.S senators have expressed interest in military intervention within Venezuela. During a September interview, Texas senator Marco Rubio voiced his support for military action.

“For months and years, I wanted the solution in Venezuela to be peaceful,”  he said “(however) I believe that there is a very strong argument that can be made at this time that Venezuela and the Maduro regime has become a threat to the region and even to the United States.”