Venezuelanvoices.org
Pictures by EFE
As Venezuelanvoices.org had predicted in an analysis published as the voting process started, the government continued with the fraudulent scheme with which the electoral process developed since its early stages. After the midnight of July 29, the president of the National Electoral Council, Elvis Amoroso, awarded the victory to Maduro, alleging that with 80% of the voting accounted for, the president would have obtained 51.2% of the votes against 44.2% for Edmundo González, the main opposition candidate. The sum of all other candidates would be 4.6%. Amoroso, who is also a Chavista political leader who has held important positions in the Chávez and Maduro governments, proceeded a few hours later to hastily proclaim Maduro as the winner of the race, without even having concluded the counting of the votes or issued a second report.
Observers from the UN and the Carter Center have requested the publication of the complete and detailed results, includinf information regarding voting centers and polling stations. The center-left governments of Brazil and Mexico have called on the Venezuelan government to publish the complete results before taking a stance on the validity of the election. The Chilean government also would not give credit to the results announced by the Venezuelan government, while the governments of Honduras and Bolivia congratulated Maduro.
Candidate Edmundo González and María Corina Machado, of the traditional right wing opposition, explained that they received only 40% of the election results when the transmission of information was suspended in the totalization room of the National Electoral Council. An hour later, the president of the organization announced the triumph of Maduro, with a count of 80%, but without the opposition delegates having received the corresponding information. Amoroso seemed to confirm this version by alleging that the transmission of information to the totalization room was suspended due to alleged hacking. In record time, the Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, claimed the morning of the 29th to have solved the hacking case, stating that it had been carried out from North Macedonia and coordinated by three opposition leaders, one of them Machado. By striking two blows in one, the government thus justifies the abrupt interruption of the data transmission prior to the announcement of the results and criminalizes its electoral adversaries. The Attorney General, also with a long trajectory with several political positions in the governments of Chávez and Maduro, is known for indulging in ultra right conspiracy theories, for example believing that trans people and Covid 19 are elements of a globalist plan to diminish the world's population.
Enrique Márquez, candidate supported by the Communist Party of Venezuela, rejected the official results, as did candidate Antonio Ecarri. The leftist opposition Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL for its initials in Spanish) also rejected the fraud, supporting the spontaneous protests in Caracas and other cities. "We call for the people to take to the streets to defeat the fraud and the Maduro government", reads a statement by the international current in which that party takes part. The PPT, party that supported Chávez during his almost 14 years of government, denounced the fraud and called to discuss the call for a national strike. Since the morning hours, there have been pots and pans banging in the popular neighborhoods of the capital. In their press conference, after rejecting the official voting figures as fraudulent, both Machado and Gonzalez refused to call for protests.
The Venezuelan conflict is used by anti-democratic regimes around the world to pose as democrats. U.S. Imperialism, which is conducting alongside Israeli aparthed a genocide against the Palestinian people, has raised, through its spokesman John Kirby, its alleged concern about the transparency of the election, while Russian and Chinese imperialism expressed their support for Maduro. The extreme right-wing governments of Argentina, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, together with the right-wing governments of Peru, Uruguay and Costa Rica, issued a joint communiqué demanding a recount of votes. For their part, the regimes of Nicaragua, Cuba and Iran congratulated Maduro.
While at the international level alignments are taking place, inside the country the confrontation that is brewing is one that pits the popular communities, especially in the cities, against the bourgeois military and police apparatus of Chavismo.
Picture: Henry Chirinos. Protest in Caracas, July 29th
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