Venezuela — Chavismo on the way to another victory -

Venezuela — Chavismo on the way to another victory

27/07/2024

Partners • Political environment

By FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ*

The high and enthusiastic levels of mass mobilization of pro-Maduro forces across the country contrast sharply with the rather weak rallies of candidate Edmundo González

This election takes place in a context dominated by Venezuela's robust economic recovery, which is an almost miraculous phenomenon, considering the calamitous situation in which the country found itself at the end of 2020, the inflation rate of 1% in June this year and a rate of expected growth for 2024 of 5% to 8%. This is despite the application of 930 unilateral coercive measures (also known as “sanctions”) that wreaked havoc in the period 2015-2023[I].

Confirmation of this recovery is the return of almost a million Venezuelans,[ii] who were persuaded with false promises and as part of a psychological campaign of fear to leave the country during the worst moments of the effects of aggressive and brutal US sanctions against this South American nation.

Furthermore, the high and enthusiastic levels of mass mobilization of pro-Maduro forces across the country contrast sharply with the rather weak rallies of candidate Edmundo González, supported and literally led by far-right politician Maria Corina Machado, with people being transported by bus through the cities where they were held. They even resorted to publicizing their rallies with photographs from a rally that took place in 2012 (when the opposition candidate was Henrique Capriles), which they had already used in 2019.

And, despite “lies, damn lies and statistics”, Edmundo González's electoral campaign fails to take off, completely contradicting his statements and the disinformation spread by the global corporate media that González is leading in the polls, which has no other objective than to spread a narrative that would lend some credence to far-right claims of a “fraudulent” election. It is common knowledge that the Venezuelan electoral system is the most audited (16 audits in total) and the most observed in the world, is fraud-proof and was labeled by former president Jimmy Carter as the best electoral system in the world.[iii]

The reason for the lack of popularity stems from several concrete objective facts, but, above all the country's economic recovery, is the fragmentation of the hitherto united opposition into nine candidacies, while Chavismo has one, Nicolas Maduro. The government has presided over a strong economic recovery against a brutal US-led sanctions regime, which represents a defeat for the US and its European accomplices, but particularly for the far-right opposition, currently organized around Maria Corina Machado, and previously around “interim president” Guaidó and a series of prominent members of the far right, who have fled Venezuela and are living mainly in Spain or Miami.

His subversive, seditious and violent efforts over 25 years to overthrow the Bolivarian government, with the aim of eradicating Chavismo from the face of Venezuela, have been repeatedly defeated.

The performance of President Nicolas Maduro's administration is, indeed, impressive. The economy is expected to grow between 5% and 8% in 2024 and inflation has dropped to single digits, being 1% in June this year; more than 40.000 loans were granted to women entrepreneurs and more than 220.000 women's committees were created by women to reinforce the role of women in Venezuela's participatory democracy; Subsidized basic baskets with food and other essential goods reach almost 8 million families, and 97% of the items are produced internally.

Tax collection in the first quarter of 2024 was 78% higher than in the same period in 2023; oil production has recovered substantially, rising from less than 300.000 barrels per day (due to US sanctions) to more than 1 million; 5 million houses were built, the majority under Maduro's government (with another 2 million to be built over the next six years); around 78% of the budget is dedicated to social expenditure, which largely explains people's ability to successfully resist the terrible effects of sanctions; and much more than this has been achieved.[iv]

Furthermore, in the first half of 2024, Venezuela received almost two million tourists, generating income and jobs and thus giving more vigor to the current economic recovery.[v] In his Homeland Plan 2025, President Maduro promises much more of the same, which is the result of discussions across the country with the participation of almost 3,5 million people in more than 34.000 meetings, in an unprecedented exercise of popular democracy .[vi]

On the other hand, the election campaign of US-backed presidential candidate Edmundo González, who is — literally — being run by far-right politician Maria Corina Machado, has been spewing false information about the polls, for which they have published photographs of a large opposition rally held in 2012, as if it were his own rally in 2024 (one of the photographs was also used in 2019 for the same purpose). González has been experiencing serious health problems.[vii]

Most of the campaign is being carried out by Maria Corina Machado, who at several rallies held a sign with the image of Edmundo González and spoke on his behalf. She was seen helping him hold the microphone, which he has difficulty holding. Judging by press reports and video footage, Joe Biden looks like an elite athlete by comparison.

What's more, there has been a small trickle (nonetheless, a trickle) of opposition politicians publicly declaring support for President Nicolas Maduro in the upcoming elections. These are members of the National Assembly, mayors and councilors of several important cities and, most significantly, Carlos Prosperi, former primary candidate for the opposition party, Action democratic. Its main reason was the extreme right's rejection of Maria Corina Machado's message of intolerance and hatred, the improper use and appropriation of the country's assets (such as CITGO and Monomeros) and the corruption conducted by the extreme right leadership. , which he called “illicit enrichment”.[viii]

Of course none of this was reported by the mainstream corporate media, no wonder they get away with blatantly lying about the research. However, taking into account everything we have already said, how can one of the nine candidates from the fragmented opposition lead the polls? It's authentic fake news.

Therefore, the main message of Edmundo González's campaign is one of the many forms of threats to trigger violence if the National Electoral Council declares President Maduro the winner. The threats have been made fiercely, especially by Maria Corina Machado herself. She has repeatedly used an aggressive and intimidating tone: “President Maduro’s government will only leave power when faced with the credible, imminent and severe use of force.”

This explains why the far-right candidate, Edmundo González, refused to participate in the special meeting of the ten presidential candidates to sign an agreement accepting the results, which González also refused to sign. Knowing that they are actually losing in the polls because of their very unpopular government plan, they have no intention of recognizing the results as they have done for 25 years, as they realize that they cannot win.[ix]

The fact that they do not sign means that they are likely to shout “electoral fraud” again with the not-very-implied threat of unleashing violence on the day. And, predictably, the world's corporate media is repeating his false claims (with the The Guardian, as always, being one of the worst).[X] Recently, a Colombian paramilitary group reported having been contacted by representatives of Venezuelan far-right movements to destabilize Venezuela, including attacks on electrical infrastructure, assassinating President Nicolas Maduro and creating chaos if he is re-elected.[xi]

Maria Corina Machado played a central role in every illegal and violent attempt to overthrow Venezuela's democratically elected government: the six-month waves of violence in 2014 and 2017; support for Guaidó’s “interim presidency”; the illegal seizure of Venezuela's assets abroad (including 31 tons of gold in the Bank of England[xii]; the fervent appeal and support for all the brutal US sanctions (there were 930) against Venezuela itself, which led to the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of people and the misery of millions of innocent Venezuelans; the short-lived coup d'état in 2002 against President Chávez and the failed coup d'état against President Maduro in 2019; and virtually all other destabilizing and violent efforts to overthrow Venezuela's legitimate government.

And no less. Although the electoral campaign of the far-right candidate, Edmundo González, obscenely sought to hide his true government plans, these were discovered after a prolonged effort. It is a plan to dismantle and revert almost every aspect to pre-Chávez Venezuela. The 85-page plan is titled “Venezuela: land of grace"[xiii] (October 2023) and, strangely, was only available in English.

The overwhelmingly dominant objective of the plan is the privatization of almost everything that exists in Venezuela: the oil and gas industries, all state-owned companies and public assets, the use of financial resources obtained from the privatization program to pay off the external debt of the country, the privatization of education, the abolition of all private sector financial payments to protect workers (contributions for pensions, holidays, maternity leave, etc.) and the abolition of current labor legislation[xiv] to maximize the “flexibility” of the labor market, the privatization of the pension system, the free circulation of all international currencies, which leads to the abolition of the national currency (the Bolívar), the adoption of a health system based on insurance and the abolition of the current free healthcare system and, last but not least, the dismantling of popular militias and the adoption of a “hemispheric geopolitics”, which means subordination and collaboration with the Organization of American States and the Southern Command , or perhaps even much worse than that.

It makes perfect sense. For decades, the Venezuelan oligarchy grew rich by diverting substantial portions of the country's main source of revenue: the oil industry. Thus, their calculation is based on the following: to remain in power, if they emerge victorious in July 2024, they would need the maximum level of privatization of the national economy so that they would be the beneficiaries, mediating between the Venezuelan State and the multinational companies that they would buy the assets, and this level of participation in the national economy by foreign businesspeople would guarantee solid support from very powerful transnational organizations, behind which is normally the heavy US military apparatus, which in the case of Latin America means SOUTHCOM.

This explains the secrecy of their plans and the fact that they were written in English. The global corporate media understands this perfectly, hence the fact that they repeat the Venezuelan far right's cries of “electoral fraud”. Thus, the risks are indeed high.

We have to counter the media's lies about Venezuela, and if you haven't already, join the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign[xv] and help us to tell the truth about the electoral system in Venezuela, to reject and condemn opposition violence and threats of violence, to demand respect for the results issued by Venezuela's electoral authority, the National Electoral Council, and, above of everything, to demand that the will of the people of Venezuela be respected.

*Francisco Dominguez is professor of political science at the University of Middlesex (England).

Translation: Fernando Lima das Neves.

Notes

[I] https://n2-aws.telesurenglish.net/venezuelan-growth-in-q1-2024-exceeds-imf-projection/.

[ii] https://www.consuladovenezuela.co.cu/mas-de-un-millon-de-venezolanos-regresan-con-la-gran-mision-vuelta-a-la-patria/#:~:text=En%20el%20programa%2052%20de,Misión%20Vuelta%20a%20la%20Patria.

[iii] For more details on how elections take place in Venezuela, see https://orinocotribune.com/lies-and-damned-lies-about-venezuelas-presidential-elections/.

[iv] https://www.telesurenglish.net/venezuela-achieves-96-7-local-food-supply-president-maduro/.

[v] https://orinocotribune.com/more-than-1-9-million-tourists-visited-venezuela-in-first-6-months-of-2024/.

[vi] https://residuoselectronicosal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Plan-Patria-2019-2025.pdf.

[vii] https://orinocotribune.com/edmundo-gonzalezs-candidacy-in-jeopardy-due-to-health-issues/.

[viii] https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-oppositions-carlos-prosperi-announces-support-for-president-maduros-re-election-bid/.

[ix] https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/07/18/venezuelas-election-is-a-referendum-on-revolution/.