Contributed by Joe Montero
Venezuela went through presidential elections last weekend and the victory by Nicolas Maduro was predictable. Not as some of the media, including the Guardian claimed, because Maduro and his people cheated. It was because he really did win.
All Venezuelans, including those living overseas and the more than 4 million in the United States had the right to vote. Many of them did vote against Maduro. But it was a different story inside Venezuela.
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I have travelled the country more than once, met the people and got a good feel for their aspirations and views on what was happening in their country. This is very different from the narrative heard in countries like Australia.
So why is Maduro and the Chavismo phenomenon hated so much by media foreign to that country? The answer is simple. Under the leadership of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela stood up took on the power of the land and oil cartels and defied the wishes of Washington. This has continued under Maduro. Even more importantly, millions of Venezuelans have been busy building an on the ground democracy, where communities manage their affairs though cooperatives, which provide services, supervise government, and build the local economy.
The other part of the story is the role Washington plays on behalf of its own oil cartel seeking to recapture Venezuelan oil. It has backed coup attempts, launched physical attacks on the country’s infrastructure, enforced crippling sanctions against through population through the denial of food, medicine, spare parts, and more. Washington has been connected to tow attempts on Nicolas Maduro’s life.
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Video from Democracy Now
Washington is the backer of the big landowner-based elite who used to control the nation. They still own most of the media in Venezuela, the top echelons of the Catholic Church, have close ties with American oil companies. This part of Venezuela is mostly of European descent, tend to be citizens of the United States because they spend much of every year there, and abhor what they consider the transfer of power to brown and black people.
A section of this oligarchy, that with the closest link to Wahington and American corporate interests, first headed by María Corina Machado and now Edmundo González, made no secret that even before the election campaign began that they would disrupt a result noy going their way by claiming fraud and violent confrontation in the streets. Washington backed this. In fact, Washington operatives served as advisors and money bagmen for the González election campaign.
By going through the capital Caracas and other cities, I could see that the neighbourhoods of the rich are clearly demarcated. Not demarcated merely by differences in the different architecture, but also, by the different colour of skin. They are enclaves of mostly well to do European descendants. I have come across some of these people and hard them complain about the country falling into the hands of “los negros,” and angrily proclaim the need to take it back for the whites.
What happened last weekend? Given the promise that there would be trouble if González did not win, violence in the streets was inevitable. He did not win, and the move is on to try and stage yet another coup attempt. There will be calls from this camp for direct United States intervention. The aim is destabilisation to create a scenario for their coup.
Maduro declared winner in Venezuela’s presidential election
Video from TRT World Now
Maduro vows to defend democracy, demands respect after Venezuela election win
Video from ANC 24/7
A massive hacking attack was made on the system transmitting votes, which if successful would have held back the declaration on the winner for days. But the lag only went for a few hours and the result has declared close to midnight.
Washington’s man González isn’t exactly a democrat. He’s a former diplomat closely associated with the old elite ultra right-wing element. He supported past coup attempts and the pick of Machado, who was a signatory to the ill-fated coup against Hugo Chavez, after his election victory. Their political ideology has accurately been described as fascist.
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The strategy if the Maduro camp was to bring sections of the opposition closer to them on a joint platform for national sovereignty and defence of the nation from foreign interference called the Great patriotic Pole. Representing the United Socialist party of Venezuela, Maduro launched a program for economic growth and a better sharing of the wealth of the nation, now that its economy is on the rise. It grew by 7 percent over the last financial last year.
Building the front meant leaving space for opposition groups within it and not really challenging them. His brough Maduro fewer votes than would otherwise be the case. There were 9 other candidates for the presidency. Winning just over 51 percent in these circumstances and under Venezuela’s electoral system is a result that most western leaders would envy.
This electoral system is both electronic and paper. Voters vote by pressing a button, and this generates a paper version of the vote, which is then lodged in a ballot box. Scrutineers from all parties observe every step of the election process. Then the electronic and paper tallies are matched. No other country can equal this for transparency and checks and balances.
How does the claim that there was a huge difference between exit polls and the declared election result match up with this? First of all, exit polls are not allowed under the election law. This means that proper sampling was not possible. Even more important, the exit poll published and used by the media was conducted by a company called Edison Research, a subsidiary of the United States government owned and controlled US Agency for Global Media. The same agency was behind so-called opinion polls that forecast a massive win for González. It’s intervention in Venezuela during this election was funded by the Wall Street Journal.
The declared result was supported by the other opposition candidates. Benjamín Rausseo for the Piedra Party said,
“After the referee has announced the verdict, the next step is to turn the page on the election and start a new chapter together… It is up to the winner to send the necessary signals and messages that will help lower the level of conflict.”
The candidate for the Arepa Digital party, Daniel Ceballos, congratulated all Venezuelans on the elections, stating that the country is capable of resolving differences through voting.
Likewise, the candidate for Primero Justicia (PJ), José Brito, recalled that they committed to always respect the results of the CNE the electoral office.
“We said we would recognize the election results and the call for peace,” he said.
More than 900 international observers from more than 100 countries testified to the fairness of the election.
Congratulations from China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belarus, Qatar, and Bolivia, among others. A few have remained non-committal.
Seven Latin American heads of State closely aligned with Washington backed González. None of them are pin up posters as champions of champions for democracy. This sordid alliance of would be Latino tin pot dictators, the United Sates, and Europe is being falsely precented presented as world opinion.
All have been involved in some way in ongoing efforts to undermine the will of the people of Venezuela, by either participating in or encouraging sanctions and violence in the past, and during this election, an unprecedented and synchronised campaign of attacks and statements, aimed at influencing the result and setting a scene for further intervention and violence. Maduro was repeatedly named a dictator and continuously put out the banner before and during the election campaign that only a win for their chosen candidate would be considered a fair election.
A short time after the close of the ballot and before the election result was announced the González team declared victory and United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced his concern about the election process. He couldn’t exactly call the win for his man when the result wasn’t out yet. But he did issue a threat by stating that the world, that “international community,’ meaning Washington’s the small band of its closest allies.
Nicolas Maduro | “Long live Venezuela”
Video from TeleSUR English
The situation in Venezuela is tense at the moment. But this time around, the orchestrated opposition is in weaker position than at the last presidential election. Although they managed to get tens of thousands out in in streets, and there was some rioting. This pales next to the 1 million strong celebration march in Caracas the capital.
Part of the million strong rally in capital Caracas celebrating the election victory on the day after the election result was declared
A bigger mobilisation is planned for next Saturday their time.
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