Venezuelan elections deal blow to US rulers’ attacks
https://themilitant.com/2020/12/19/venezuelan-elections-deal-blow-to-us-rulers-attacks/
BY RÓGER CALERO
Vol. 84/No. 51
December 28, 2020
Volunteer Cuban doctors treat working people for symptoms of COVID-19 in
Caracas in April. Revolutionary Cuba defends Venezuelan sovereignty
against U.S. sanctions, attacks.
SPUTNIK/MARCO TERRUGI
Volunteer Cuban doctors treat working people for symptoms of COVID-19 in
Caracas in April. Revolutionary Cuba defends Venezuelan sovereignty
against U.S. sanctions, attacks.
The pro-imperialist opposition led by Juan Guaidó that’s seeking to
overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro lost control of the
legislature in elections held Dec. 6. Guaidó, with the backing of U.S.
imperialism, had declared himself president in January 2019.
In one of the lowest electoral turnouts in the 22 years since late
President Hugo Chávez was elected and the United Socialist Party of
Venezuela has been in government, its candidates won 189 out of the
277-seat assembly — 68% of the vote. Less than one-third of eligible
voters participated. The opposition bloc split, with the faction led by
Guaidó boycotting the election and other parties participating, winning
28% of the vote.
The outgoing National Assembly, elected in 2015, had been controlled by
the opposition.
Trying to take the sting out of the blow to the drive to overthrow
Maduro, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed the government rigged the
elections. British and other European imperialist governments joined
Washington in refusing to recognize the vote. Guaidó announced he plans
to continue his presidential “functions” beyond Jan. 5, when the old
National Assembly’s term ends.
Both U.S. administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump have imposed
harsh economic and trade sanctions against Venezuela, and have backed
attempts to provoke a coup against Maduro. The failure of these efforts
has split the opposition.
Some opposition forces now promote a negotiated political solution and
reject Guaidó’s calls for even more sanctions. Two-time opposition
presidential candidate Henrique Capriles called for an end to Guaidó’s
supposed “interim government.” The incoming U.S. administration, he
said, should “understand that this plan has been exhausted.”
Guaidó proclaimed himself president while he was head of the National
Assembly, claiming Maduro’s reelection in 2018 was a fraud. Washington
and European and Latin American governments were quick to recognize the
new “legitimate” government. They used it as cover to further attack
Venezuela’s sovereignty, seizing assets deposited in foreign banks, and
those of Citgo, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil
company, and by taking more far-reaching steps to block international trade.
The Guaidó-led opposition’s support for imperialist economic sanctions —
even during the COVID-19 pandemic — is not popular among working people
in Venezuela, who are hit hardest by them.
“What do I get with Guaidó traveling around the world preaching? Guaidó
can have good relations with the United States, but how does that
benefit Venezuela?” Ajeieh Emghaoech told the Militant by phone Dec. 12.
A resident of the Los Picapiedras neighborhood in Baruta, she said she
didn’t vote in the elections because “nothing is going to change.”
Following the Dec. 6 vote, the weakened opposition forces around Guaidó
organized a six-day online and smaller in-person “popular consultation.”
They claim 6.5 million voters responded to their poll asking if they
want a change of government and whether they reject the results of the
elections. The online vote was open to the over 4 million Venezuelans
who have fled the country in recent years. There is no way, however, to
verify their turnout claim.
“No one could think that an internet consultation has legal value,”
Maduro said Dec. 10.
Washington’s sanctions have deepened the economic and social crisis
working people face. Shortages of medicine, food and other basic
necessities — at prices working people can afford — are widespread.
U.S. sanctions that block Venezuela’s oil exports and imports — and the
collapse of production in local refineries, the country’s main industry
— have created widespread gasoline shortages affecting public
transportation, production and transport of crops. The government has
limited distribution of gasoline at subsidized prices — about 10 cents a
gallon — to roughly two tankfuls a month. Mileslong lines at gas
stations in Caracas, even longer in other states, are a common sight.
“Luckily my day falls on Saturday,” Jeison Balderramo, a welder, told
the Militant. “I can queue up Friday night and be there at sunrise
before they start selling. Otherwise I would have to miss work!” As an
alternative, if you can afford it, said Balderramo, you can go to what
he called the “reliable route” (vía confiable ), which is to pay a $10
bribe to the policeman monitoring the line so you can jump ahead.
In wealthier neighborhoods, gas remains available at much higher market
prices in dollars.
President-elect Joe Biden has said he will continue to back Guaidó and
maintain sanctions against both Venezuela and Cuba. Elliot Abrams, the
Trump administration’s special representative on Venezuela, says there
is a strong bipartisan consensus in Washington over the need to keep
pressure on the Maduro government.
Revolutionary Cuba has continued to call for U.S. hands off Venezuela
and support the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people.
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Carl Sagan “Why do we put up with it? Do we like to be criticized? No,
no scientist enjoys it. Every scientist feels a proprietary affection
for his or her ideas and findings. Even so, you don’t reply to critics,
Wait a minute; this is a really good idea; I’m very fond of it; it’s
done you no harm; please leave it alone. Instead, the hard but just rule
is that if the ideas don’t work, you must throw them away.” ― Carl
Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark