By EDUARDO VASCO*

Venezuelans, despite yet another victory, should keep an eye on Donald Trump's Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who is a staunch anti-communist

1.

The coup-supporting opposition will complain, but Nicolás Maduro will be sworn in as reelected president of Venezuela on January 10. An attempt has been made to create a climate of instability in the country, with rumors that the defeated Edmundo González Urrutia, “exiled” in Madrid, would return triumphant and be sworn in to replace Nicolás Maduro.

“They are weaker than ever,” shouted US agent María Corina Machado, repeating her eternal prediction of an imminent collapse of the Chavista government. But they themselves know that, at least at this moment, there is no climate for a second phase of the coup offensive, after days of intense opposition violence at the end of July, in response to the defeat at the polls.

Edmundo Urrutia, a puppet of María Corina, doesn’t even know who his ministers will be, just a few days before his inauguration as a joke. “I haven’t thought about it yet,” he told the newspaper in late December. CNN.

It was believed that with Edmundo Urrutia it would be possible to repeat what the right wing, guided by the US, did with Juan Guaidó a few years ago. At that time, the opposition created a parallel National Assembly and managed to divert government money that had been stolen by the United States to it. But the opposition is now extremely weakened.

At one point, Juan Guaidó managed to secure the support of the governments of Brazil and Colombia, aligned with the US and the far right. He even threatened an alleged freedom caravan to enter Venezuelan territory and take power, which was celebrated by the hungry masses tired of the dictatorship. He would arrive with humanitarian aid provided by Washington and its satellite regimes, as if it were a blessing for the Venezuelans.

If that sounded like a fairy tale with a favorable external scenario, now that Brazil and Colombia are not aligned with the coup plan, this goal seems even less achievable. Edmundo Urrutia was left with a much more distant stage for his play. Javier Milei's Argentina, the spearhead of the current Latin American coup, could do little to implant the opposition in Miraflores. At most, a small contribution to add a new chapter to the fictional plot. But not even the Argentines are in a position to dramatize this script at the level of the one from five years ago.

During the last elections, the opposition spent a lot of money producing and disseminating cheap propaganda against the government. Resources have run out and there is no longer any cohesion among the leaders. “Nicolás came out unscathed,” said a member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

At least for now, the government has achieved greater success than in combating previous destabilizations. In fact, as expected, the political and institutional hegemony and alliances of Chavismo have neutralized the most aggressive impact coming from the right and the United States government.

Miguel Jaimes, a Venezuelan political analyst, agrees that the government has “controlled the political situation” after the elections. He does not believe that the opposition will try to escalate the situation again in the near future.

On the other hand, the population is tired of the economic, political and social deterioration of recent years. There has been a setback in the political training of the Chavista leadership and activists, as well as in the reformist socialist policies implemented by the government, according to activists. Nicolás Maduro is more moderate.

Miguel Jaimes believes that the demands that will come to the government in the coming months will come from its own political base, to improve the country's economic and social situation, and less from the opposition, which will need to recover from the post-election weakening.

Venezuela's energy resources can now be allocated to social investments (77,6%, according to the 2025 budget) and not to the headquarters of foreign oil companies. China, Russia and the BRICS will raise the level of partnerships with the country, contributing to the diversification of the Venezuelan economy.

This is not what imperialism would like. This is how the new (and already old) “fraud” campaign was set up. The same thing happened in most of the 30 previous elections (municipal, state and national). The “fraud” discourse only did not spread when the right won, because it was obviously not convenient.

2.

The same thing is happening in Georgia. The Georgian Dream party, which has always had a pro-EU and pro-US policy, has become more pragmatic and now advocates neutrality in the West vs. Russia conflict. This was enough for the entire imperialist propaganda apparatus to label it as “pro-Russian” and to claim that its victory in the parliamentary elections was fraudulent. A color revolution was attempted (along the lines of the Ukrainian Maidan and the Venezuelan guarimbas), but with little force.

Salomé Zurabishvili, the president of Georgia who holds French citizenship, played the same role as María Corina. She did not recognize the victory of her rivals in the parliamentary or presidential elections and did not want to leave the presidency after her term ended. She left through the back door of the presidential palace, without the popular support she thought she would have.

Romania was not so lucky. Calin Georgescu, an independent candidate who also sought neutrality in the West-Russia relationship, won the first round. It was said that he had suspiciously promoted his campaign on Tik Tok, but suddenly the big excuse to annul his victory was “Russian interference” in his favor. Pure propaganda and no evidence. Result: not only was Calin Georgescu’s victory annulled, but the entire election was. The then president, Marcel Ciolacu, was then declared the winner, despite the protests of the other candidates.

At his inauguration, Marcel Ciolacu announced a new fiscal tightening: “in this term, I do not intend to be popular, but rather extremely efficient.”

Of course, Romania's electoral authorities were applauded by the European Union and the US, the same ones that consider Maduro an illegitimate dictator.

Venezuelans, despite yet another victory, should keep an eye on things. Donald Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is a staunch anti-communist and has been working for years, ever since he was a senator, to overthrow the Chavista regime. Now he will have more power than ever to make his desires come true — which are the same as those of the entire imperialist apparatus, and those of Donald Trump himself.

*Edward Basque is a journalist. Author, among other books, of The Forgotten People: A History of Genocide and Resistance in Donbass. [https://amzn.to/3AjFjdK]

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