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Over a month has passed since the Venezuelan presidential elections saw the Bolivarian socialist president Nicolas Maduro retain his position as head of state in an election the United States and their preferred candidate said a month before they wouldn’t recognize.
Could the reader believe they announced they didn’t recognize the election as legitimate? It’s hardly surprising; the opposition Unitary Party is an extremely strange political agglomeration.
It consists of an elderly candidate, with no experience, who rarely appears before reporters or voters and who is in fact never really heard from at all, but instead is constantly spoken for by a woman whose own political aspirations were eliminated after she was found guilty of impersonating an ambassador of Panama at an international summit in which she argued for the invasion of Venezuela, her home country, by the United States, who were paying her small political party inordinate sums of money.
Official polls found that Maduro won by achieving 55% over this opposition figurehead Edmundo Gonzalez, who garnered 41%. It was Maduro’s smallest-ever victory margin, but enough to avoid a runoff election and certify him as the winner outright. After a coalition of opposition parties requested an official review, the Venezuelan Supreme Court concluded the results were legitimate, and, having seen them, urged the national electoral commission to release the official results, polling station by polling station.
The opposition claims they have the true reports, and that Gonzalez won with 66% of the vote, but the authenticity has been called into question. The commission meanwhile says a cyber attack on election night has prevented them from being able to release the final polling data.
During the previous presidential elections in 2018, WaL reported substantially on efforts by the US to overthrow Maduro through the use of political forces in the country. This time she seemed poised to do the same thing, but while not acknowledging the election results as legitimate, Washington has held back from declaring Gonzalez as the president-elect.
According to the Miami Herald, this is a sign that regime-change advocates have downgraded their objectives. But it is hope, stated as such by three of the most consequential voices.
Taking them at their word
Venezuela is the most sanctioned country in the world by the US behind the Russian Federation. Obama, Trump, and Biden and their administrations have all agreed that Venezuela poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security.
Perhaps the best word to describe that claim would be ‘dubious’ as the socialist country, possessing the world’s largest oil reserves among other natural resources like diamonds and lithium, is still one of the poorest in South America, and hearing the claim that the actions of the country are a danger to the bodily or financial health of the American people makes the eyes glaze over.
The quote about being “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security was only to justify declaring a national emergency, which would give the Obama government the right to take a variety of actions that would normally require at least some kind of token authorization from Congress, not least of which being sanctions. President Trump continued, and then expanded this declaration.
The hope was that this unilateral economic pressure, which the United Nations made illegal in a treaty vote two years ago, would cause the collapse of the Maduro government such that future administrations would be more favorable to the US and to US business enterprises. The American people had the opportunity to know this when Trump said that out loud.
“When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over; we would have gotten all that oil,” said the President.
Similarly, Biden’s appointment for commander of the Latin American command of the Pentagon, Laura Richardson, opined: “…the importance of the region cannot be overstated enough, the proximity, number one, but all of the resources. This hemisphere is very rich in natural resources”.
They have the opportunity to hear of it still, as Maria Cornia Machado, the figure mentioned before whose voice gives animation to Gonzalez’s policy, (one presumes at least) released a statement on X claiming that “Venezuelans must keep the security of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia who will be recognized as President-Elect of Venezuela, and on the 10th of January, 2025, will assume the role of President of the Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces”.
It’s strange that for what amounts to a declaration of insurrection one wouldn’t hear from the chief insurrectionist, the one who means to claim power for himself. WaL
We Humbly Ask For Your Support—Follow the link here to see all the ways, monetary and non-monetary.
PICTURED ABOVE: Maria Corina Machado campaigning for Edmundo Gonzalez. PC: Vente Venezuela, retrieved from X.
