VENEZUELA VOTES TO END NEOCOLONIALISM, CREATE ITS OWN PATH
By Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance.
December 6, 2020 | , NEWSLETTER
On December 2, the Embassy Protection Collective (EPC) members, who were
arrested in May 2019 when the United States illegally invaded the Venezuelan
embassy in Washington, DC, completed their probation, ending the risk of the
30 days in prison that was being held over their heads. I am one of the four
who were arrested. Sadly, Kevin Zeese, another member and the co-director of
Popular Resistance, died unexpectedly in September.
For the past 18 months, those who were arrested on May 16 had to check in
regularly with the federal government and required permission from the
judge, who had a clear disdain for the defendants, to travel. The three who
remain marked their freedom this week by traveling on December 3 to
Venezuela to serve as official international election observers invited by
the National Electoral Council. Travel to Venezuela is challenging at the
moment due to the United States' illegal economic blockade.
The election, which will be held on December 6, is for a new National
Assembly. To prepare for observation, the EPC members and others from the
United States and Canada who are also official observers received training
to understand the election process. They also met with members of the right
wing opposition and left wing critics to better understand the political
context. An official report will be filed after the election and my
interviews with several people who are knowledgeable about the historical
and current politics will be available this Tuesday on Clearing the FOG.
Margaret Flowers, Rick Sterling and Michelle Munjanattu ready to head to the
voting centers. By Margaret Flowers.
The current situation in Venezuela is dire for many people. The United
States has been interfering in Venezuelan affairs for decades. Prior to the
Bolivarian Revolution, which was solidified with the election of Hugo Chavez
in 1998, Venezuela was the greatest ally of the US in Latin America. This
alliance served US corporate interests well. There was a small class of
Venezuelans who were extremely wealthy because of it while the vast majority
of the people lived in poverty.
Since Chavez took office, and then continuing during the Maduro
administration, there has been an effort, called the Bolivarian process, to
put the people's interests over those of corporations by using the nation's
resources for social good.
The first step was the creation of a people's Constitution through a
participatory process that codified rights to health care, housing,
education and more, including the right to vote. The socialist Venezuelan
government worked to end poverty and has nearly eradicated illiteracy. The
government built hospitals, schools and free or low-cost housing. They built
electrical, water and transportation infrastructure to serve poor people
whose existence was not acknowledged in the past. The people have been
working to build participatory democracy from the ground up through local
community assemblies and regional communes composed of these local
assemblies.
For this, the United States and its allies in Latin America and the European
Union have been waging a hybrid war against Venezuela, which intensified
under the Trump administration. Venezuela is viewed as a threat to US
corporate interests and the long term Monroe Doctrine because it has been a
leader of the Pink Tide, a movement in Latin America towards socialism and
rejection of US imperialism.
The hybrid war against Venezuela includes a misinformation campaign,
interference in its internal processes such as elections, the imposition of
illegal unilateral coercive measures (referred to as 'sanctions'), covert
sabotage campaigns and coup attempts conducted with paramilitary mercenaries
based in Columbia and threats of overt military invasion. Almost everything
people hear or read in the US corporate media about Venezuela is false.
This hybrid war, which violates international law, has brought great
suffering to the Venezuelan people and has stifled progress on the
Bolivarian process. The sanctions have caused food and medicine shortages
and hyperinflation and have damaged industrial capacity and public services.
The economic blockade has caused a severe fuel crisis that exacerbates all
of the above.
The Venezuelan government is pursuing legal avenues to stop the deadly
economic war through a lawsuit filed in the International Criminal Court
that charges the United States of crimes against humanity because the
sanctions are a form of collective punishment. Venezuela is fighting the
British courts for access to its $1.2 billion in gold being held in the Bank
of London. The government plans to use that to buy food and medicine, which
are crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic. And recently, the Venezuelan
United Nations ambassador Samuel Moncada called on the UN General Assembly
to take action to stop the economic war being waged against Venezuela and
many countries around the world.
Mural in Caracas. Margaret Flowers.
Across the political spectrum in Venezuela, except for the extreme right,
which is financed and given legitimacy by the United States, there is
rejection of US interference, especially the economic blockade. The extreme
right, led by Juan Guaido, who illegally declared himself president of
Venezuela in January 2019, supports US intervention, including an outright
military invasion, to overthrow the elected government. Guaido is calling on
the Right to boycott the upcoming election in an effort to undermine it.
Already, the United States is claiming the election is rigged, a common
regime change tactic. Leo Flores speaks about this on Clearing the FOG.
Most of the Right did boycott the presidential election in 2018, but this
time around they chose to participate. They joined together as the
Democratic Alliance and have been in negotiations with the Maduro government
over the past year. In a meeting with election observers on December 5,
candidates and representatives of the five parties in the alliance clearly
stated that they believe the best path to solving the crises in Venezuela is
peaceful, using elections and diplomacy. They hope the United States will
lift the economic blockade and restore diplomatic relations in a way that
respects the sovereignty of Venezuela and the people's right to determine
their own path.
The Left in Venezuela has also formed a new alliance, the Popular
Revolutionary Alternative (APR), composed of thirteen parties, to push the
ruling party, the United Socialist Party or PSUV, to do more to continue
building the Bolivarian Process and meet the people's needs. They agree with
the PSUV on foreign policy but oppose the increasing privatization of
industries, state institutions and public services. They are running
candidates for all of the 277 National Assembly seats.
In this election, there are 107 political parties and 14,ooo candidates. The
election is run by an independent government body, the National Electoral
Council (CNE). One of the major challenges in this election is the loss of
all of their voting machines in a suspicious fire early in the year.
However, the CNE succeeded in replacing the machines, despite the blockade,
and improving the process as it did so.
Venezuela's electoral process is very secure and transparent. The election
observers, myself included, were trained in how to use the machines and
visited the warehouse to learn about the safeguards and quality-control
processes. When they vote, Venezuelans are required to show their national
id, which everyone has. The machine is activated through a digital scan of
the voter's fingerprint, which verifies the voter is in the correct polling
center. In this election, Venezuelans will cast two votes, one for their
delegate to the National Assembly and one for a political party. Venezuela
uses both direct election of representatives and proportional representation
of parties in the National Assembly.
Once the voter makes their selections, they submit their vote and the
machine creates a paper receipt the voter can use to verify their vote is
accurate. This is placed in a box that corresponds to that machine. Finally,
the voter signs a log book and again provides a fingerprint to verofy they
completed the process.
At the end of the day, a public audit of at least 54% of the machines in
each polling center is conducted. The paper ballots are counted in front of
party representatives and anyone who wants to be present and are compared to
the machine count. If it matches up, the votes are sent to the information
center for tallying. If they don't, a hand count of all of the paper ballots
at that center is done.
This year, extra precaution are being taken to prevent the spread of
COVID-19. There is a strict protocol of distancing, mask-wearing, use of
hand sanitizer and disinfecting the machines. In fact, Venezuela has a
strong public health approach to controlling the pandemic, which is why they
have a low number of cases per million population compared to most Latin
American countries.
Venezuelan voters and the party alliances on the Right and the Left have
high confidence in the voting process. Despite this, the US government
claims there is rigging and refuses to respect the will of the people in
choosing their government. One member of the opposition alliance, who worked
at the CNE for ten years, said the greatest fraud was convincing the public
there was fraud.
Evo Morales and Andronico Rodriguez, the current Senate President in
Bolivia, visit a voting center in Caracas. Margaret Flowers.
The current election is widely viewed as one of the most important elections
in Venezuela's history because it is a referendum against US imperialism. As
Vijay Prashad and Carlos Ron write, the simple fact that Venezuela is
holding this election is a victory because of the US' actions to prevent and
undermine Venezuelan democracy.
The previous election for National Assembly was five years ago. In that
election, the US claimed it was illegitimate until the Right won the
majority of seats and suddenly the US changed its tune. Shortly after that,
it was discovered that there was a scheme to buy votes in a remote region of
the country. The Supreme Court ordered the National Assembly to redo the
races that were involved but the right-wing parties refused to comply. This
put them in contempt of court and invalidated the National Assembly. The
Right and the US claimed the NA delegates were victims of the current
government, even though it was the Right's decision not to comply and regain
their power.
In 2018, the United States urged the Right to boycott the Presidential
election, even threatening those who decided to participate with sanctions,
and then it claimed the election was illegitimate. The US refused to
recognize President Maduro, who won, and even tried to assassinate him a few
months later.
Failing at that, the US backed Juan Guaido, a little known National Assembly
delegate from a small state, as the president and pressured its allies to
recognize him too. With the help of the US, this fake 'president' also has a
fake Supreme Court that operates out of Miami, Florida, and a fake National
Assembly that operates out of a right wing television station.
Members of the Democratic Alliance called this absurd fake government crazy
and said it has made diplomacy with other countries very difficult. Most
countries recognize the Constitutional government under President Maduro,
some recognize Guaido as the President but maintain their relationship with
the Maduro government and a minority of countries only recognize Guaido. The
Democratic Alliance reiterated that Guaido only has a base of support among
the wealthy Venezuelans who moved to the United States. They want people in
the US to know that there is a right-wing opposition with support in
Venezuela who respects the rule of law and wants to work to solve
Venezuela's crises without US intervention and within the legitimate
institutions.
This is why protecting the Venezuelan embassy from being handed over to
Guaido's people last year was critical. It would have further solidified the
ability of the US to claim that Guaido was legitimate and it would have
provided a base for the extreme right to continue organizing its coup
efforts. Since the arrest of the final four Embassy Protectors who were
inside the embassy, the embassy has remained empty.
This election will cement the end of the fake Guaido presidency. There will
be zero basis to make that claim, although Mike Pompeo is already saying the
US will continue to recognize him. We in the US must demand the Biden
administration recognize the elected government of Venezuela and stop
supporting Guaido.
Carlos Ron, the vice foreign minister for North America writes:
"The new National Assembly will no longer be a platform for politicians to
plead for US intervention, rather it can push legislation to overcome the
blockade and it can turn into a new space for political dialogue between
government and opposition. Challenges will continue, but the US will need to
reassess its Monroe Doctrine once again. For Venezuela, and the Latin
American progressive movement, however, these elections will be another
victory of resistance and resilience."
We, in the US, must demand the United States respect Venezuela's
sovereignty, end the brutal economic blockade and re-establish diplomatic
relations instead of military aggression. Learn more about the Venezuelan
election and what we must do in this webinar "Venezuelans Want to Vote"
featuring Carlos Ron, Gabriel Aguirre, Ajamu Baraka, Vijay Prashad and more.
