Thankfully, we are far from the Venezuelan scenario. Let's keep it that way
This week the pot finally boiled over in Venezuela. Free people everywhere are praying and pulling for the supporters of Juan Guaido, the Venezuelan opposition leader recognized by most Western nations as the country's president.
Guaido called for supporters to return to the streets Wednesday, tweeting that protests would "continue with more force than ever in Venezuela."
As we watch the uprising play out, there is a hugely important lesson to be learned. First under Hugo Chavez and then under disputed President Nicolas Maduro, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela consolidated nearly everything in the hands of the central government, including their communications infrastructure.
“It is efficient” they said, “it will stop the evil oligarchs from ‘robbing’ the people.” What no one in the government revealed was that in times of dissent (such as the present circumstances), the central government had a kill switch.
One of the things Maduro’s thugs have done (besides starve, shoot and run down with armored military vehicles their own citizens) is to cut off those same people from communications. Amid this week's unrest, they reportedly attempted to turn off public access to Google, YouTube and all service to Android phones.
There is only one service provider in Venezuela, and it is owned, run and utterly controlled by Maduro’s government henchmen. These bullyboys are not satisfied with bludgeoning people in the streets; they quickly exercised their power over all things digital to shut them down.
Thank goodness the brave people following Guaido have not given up. May they never do so until their country is free.
That said, we in America must resist the calls of some misguided individuals who have suggested that we have the federal government build the U.S. 5G network. If we halt the ongoing (and close to successful) efforts of numerous commercial telecom providers to build a nationwide 5G network, we will have wasted years of investment and experience and will start back at zero.
Thankfully, we are far from the Venezuelan scenario. We need to stay far away from it.
Let’s drop the ridiculous idea of mandating that the federal government build and control our communications, specifically the 5G networks. We must protect American freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and all our constitutional rights.
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We must opt to allow multiple commercial companies to build out our 5G. It is effective, it is safe, and it is right.
Steven Bucci, who served America for three decades as an Army Special Forces officer and top Pentagon official, is a visiting research fellow at The Heritage Foundation.