HAVANA, Cuba. – Finally, after a campaign that simultaneously inspired hope and distrust in large masses of citizens of Venezuela and all of Latin America, the long-awaited presidential elections were held in the Homeland of the Liberator. As is known, these took place this Sunday, the 28th, a date chosen… because it is the birthday of the Liberator. deceased founder of chavismo!
The National Electoral Council (CNE), a body controlled by the Chavista dictatorship, took longer than usual to announce the results. In fact, it waited until the early hours of Monday. The justification given was an “attack on the data transmission system.” According to official data (based on the results of 80% of the polling stations), Nicolas Maduro achieved victorywith just over 51% of valid votes.
To begin with, these numbers do not fit the “irreversible” character that the electoral figures are supposed to have in order for the CNE to declare one of the candidates the winner. According to the announcement made by the ineffable Elvis Amoroso (a Chavista deputy who became head of the Electoral Power), the results of 20% of the tables were still to be counted. Since there was a 59% electoral participation, these tables represent some 2,700,000 votes. The hypothetical difference in favor of Maduro is some 705,000 votes… Of course, with these figures, it makes no sense to describe the dictator’s lying “victory” as “irreversible.”
This result is completely different from Polls conducted by serious pollstersThis, as expected, has sparked natural indignation among the voters of the South American country, who, quite rightly, feel that their overwhelming desire for change has been rudely violated.
But also (something much more important) these supposed results contradict those recorded in the minutes drawn up in the different electoral tables where the voter registration receipts deposited by the voters were counted. In these, the margin of the vote favored Edmundo González Urrutia by 30 percentage points or even more.
This vulgar “pucherazo” joins the countless abuses that, throughout the entire electoral campaign, the ruling party perpetrated against the political forces that openly confronted it. These arbitrary acts began with the disqualification of the undisputed leader of the democratic opposition, Maria Corina Machado. Despite having swept the primaries held within the anti-Chavez movement, she could not be registered as a candidate.
But the abuses perpetrated by Maduro and his clique did not end there. They also did not allow the registration of Mrs. Machado’s substitute, her namesake Corina Yoris. In the end, the prestigious former career diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia was registered as a candidate, and all the forces of the true opposition gathered around him.
The pettiness and extreme baseness of Maduro and his gang was evident in many other arbitrary acts. Those who rented their amplification equipment to the Edmundo-María Corina duo for them to use in their campaign events held in different cities (an action that for the former represented their means of subsistence) suffered reprisals as a consequence.
The same thing happened with the owners of restaurants and inns that offered their services to the opposition members who visited their town. The rule was that those owners had their gastronomic centers closed in a totally arbitrary manner. In another order of things, Maduro, using a more bellicose vocabulary, even resorted to blackmail, promise “a bloodbath” and even a “civil war” if the electorate did not grant him “victory.”
It was against all these abuses and blackmail that the opposition leaders had to carry out their electoral campaign. Among the servants of the dictatorship were not only members of the other branches of the State; even the members of the CNE, which is supposed to mediate between the different political forces, was made up of unconditional supporters of the dictator Maduro!
Of course, the indignation of the Venezuelan people against this blatant mockery of their sovereign will must not go unpunished. The dictator himself, after speaking of a “bloodbath” and a “civil war,” indulged in long disquisitions about the supposed “vocation for peace” of the Chavista regime. But these demagogic expressions, in light of the announcement made by the CNE, force us to think of the well-known saying “Tell me what you boast about and I will tell you what you lack.”
In short, the Maduro dictatorship, instead of accepting a harmonious solution to the tense situation that it has enthroned in fraternal Venezuela, has opted to ignore the popular will and engage in confrontation. I do not entrust Maduro or his lackeys with any gains! The brave Venezuelan people have only just begun to speak!
OPINION ARTICLE
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