The more things change, the more they remain the same. This adage rings true for many things. Real Madrid will be favourites to win the UCL, Man City will dominate the league and the world will continue to heat. One more thing we can add to that list is the attempts by Western regimes to overthrow the Chavista Government in Venezuela.
These attempts to overthrow the revolutionary Government can be traced back to 1999 and became active in 2002 when Hugo Chavez was temporarily overthrown in a military coup. They continued through the Barack Obama Administration with Venezuela becoming one of the most sanctioned countries in the world and were accelerated under Donald Trump who increased sanctions and attempted a failed armed insurgency against the Bolivarian republic.
Joe Biden, in an attempt to cloak himself with the same evil brush as his predecessors, has maintained sanctions on Venezuela and now, in an attempt to ape Trump, looks set to endorse a member of the Opposition as president following contested elections.
The elections on 28 July, according to Caricom members, were legitimate though they did have flaws. The flaws came with electronic voting and were blamed on external actors who sought to attack and otherwise hack the voting system. The result showed Nicolas Maduro winning with 51 per cent of the vote while the Opposition candidate got 44 per cent (the rest was split among other candidates). The Opposition cried foul and maintained that their candidate won with over 70 per cent of the vote.
Now, rather than challenge the official result in court, a move which would be a cakewalk based on their numbers, they have declined to provide evidence to the courts who were reviewing the matter. Rather than challenge the result constitutionally they have decided to take to the streets and engage in violence similar to that carried out in 2016. Rather than challenge the result they have reached out to allies in the US to endorse the losing candidate and seek to belittle the court by labelling them as Maduro stooges.
On a slight tangent, if we were to follow that line of argument then Chief Justice Bryan Sykes is a JLP stooge while Sotomayor in the US slavishly tows the DNC line. That line of argument gets us nowhere, these are appointed judges who are independent and use their legal experience to come to decisions.
The Opposition is made up of a loose alliance of centre-right and far-right parties with the far right being the most vocal, it is made up of people who view the working majority as serfs and would cease all revolutionary activities — such as the clap programme — if elected and it is for those reasons, along with their infighting, why they cannot gain a majority at the ballot box.
How should we react to this? Should we be like Brazil and Colombia, poking our nose in and seeking a government of cohabitation, something they would never countenance if the shoe were on the other foot? Should we be like the 10 nations who have labelled the election a sham? Or should we be like Mexico and wait until the courts decide?
I say none of the above. The failed street protests, which were outnumbered by pro-government protests, are evidence enough that the vote was not stolen though it does show lagging support for the revolution. That could be for many reasons, but chief among them are the sanctions which will only be lifted with the collapse of the US or Venezuelan Government. The courts have ruled that Maduro and the PSUV won we must accept this and move on with our lives.
If the Opposition really cared about the state of democracy and the well-being of Venezuela’s citizens, they would call for an immediate halt to the sanctions, but they have not, and instead have called for an increase in the sanctions. They do this because their objective is not the same as the Government’s, their aim has been and remains to bring back the old neoliberal agenda after its expulsion almost 30 years ago. People must not fall for the same tired routine, denouncing elections, recognizing opposition leaders and setting up ‘parallel governments’ to act in international forums.
The principle of non-interference must be upheld, it is not our place to dictate how Venezuela acts and though suggestions are not off the table that does not mean they are bound to our suggestions. The Venezuelan people have lived with this type of electoral interference for over 20 years, they know how to handle this situation and we must respect their institutions.
The type of interference called for by countries allied to the US or countries looking to score easy friend points with the US is a slippery slope and is one which must be avoided. In Brazil, where the far-right was recently calling elections fraudulent, and in Colombia where the far-right remains ingrained in institutions, a government of cohabitation or a rerun of the elections in opposition to the court’s decision will open them up to similar and stronger interference in their affairs.
I know how strong the allure of Western media are; their siren song and flashy presentation really make you want to believe them, but as with many other things they are lying and we cannot afford to fall for it. This is a repeat of the previous election, we are going to witness a Guido 2.0, and we will witness regional countries who are terrified of getting on the bad side of the US participating. In many ways this is similar to Haiti, an issue we have no reason to interfere in but do because it is an easy way to placate the US.
Venezuela remains a bulwark in the region against the unipolar world, and despite its rhetoric as it relates to Guyana is an example that another way which puts its people first. We in the region can’t afford for an opposition to win via intimidation and fraud and as such we must call for a Venezuelan solution to a Venezuelan issue. Anything else, even from erstwhile allies, is giving ground to the far right which has only gone from strength to strength over the past few years.
Let Venezuela figure out how to handle this foreign interference; this does not mean we can’t make suggestions, but we must accept that it will be a Venezuelan solution to this issue and not one from outside parties, no matter how well-meaning.
