Victory for the anti-imperialist coalition
Venezuela’s left-wing Simón Bolívar alliance (Gran Polo Patriotico, SBGPP), in coalition with the ruling PSUV (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela), declared victory on 7 December with 67 percent of the votes for Venezuela’s national assembly, which had been held by opposition forces since 2015 and was being used by them to try to disrupt the political process in Venezuela.
The coalition secured 253 of the 277 seats inside the new national assembly and will take power on 5 January 2021. (Venezuela election update: PSUV coalition wins 67 percent of the vote, Telesur, 6 December 2020)
However, Juan Guaidó, failed coup leader, US pawn, traitor to his country and current federal deputy to the national assembly, does not plan to go gentle into that good night.
Never one to shy away from the prospect of violence against his fellow countryman, Guaidó has made his nefarious intentions clear, stating: “We must have all possible alternatives in mind.”
The electoral process, he asserts, “was a fraud because of the low turnout and the absence of opposition parties on the ballots”. Mr Guaidó failed to mention that he had actually called upon his few remaining supporters to boycott the election. The fact that, in spite of his impotent call, the elections involved 107 political organisations, 98 of which were part of the opposition, also seems to have escaped him.
Just 20 out of 118 opposition parties heeded the Guaidó’s call to abstain, showing that imperialism’s poster boy and ‘interim president’ has lost what little credibility he may once have had. To add insult to injury, he is now reportedly being ignored by incoming US president Joe Biden.
Guaidó’s nonsense was backed up by one of his puppetmasters, the warmonger and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who fumed: “This farce is only an attempt to install a national assembly complicit with Maduro while destroying the country’s only democratic institution that truly represents the Venezuelan people.”
In reality, “it was lawmakers from the outgoing national assembly who applauded the US blockade that has directly affected the Venezuelan population”. (Guaidó threatens to use force to overthrow President Maduro, Telesur, 8 December 2020)
The usual suspects in the Organisation of American States (OAS) were also up to their old tricks, hoping to effect regime change in a manner similar to that which they employed against Bolivia in November 2019. However, the OAS’s feeble efforts were defeated by the representatives from Argentina, Mexico and Bolivia, who outright rejected a new resolution that would disregard the result of the elections and call for a transitional government.
“The representatives condemned the new attempts at destabilisation against Venezuela, noting the belligerent strategy promoted by the OAS resolution, which claimed the elections did not observe international law’s guarantees.” (New OAS attempt at interference in Venezuela rejected, Telesur, 10 December 2020)
Imperialism throw its toys out of the pram
“The United Kingdom does not recognise the result of the illegitimate Venezuelan national assembly election held on 6 December 2020,” read a statement from the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
The 2020 election was “neither free nor fair” whined an official spokesperson from the FCDO. “It did not meet internationally accepted conditions,” which were of course laid out by such friends of democracy as Britain, the OAS and the European Union.
“Nor did it meet the requirements of Venezuelan law,” the statement continued, with the FCDO preposterously appointing itself as arbiter on this question.
As such, “the UK considers the election to have been illegitimate and does not recognise the result”. Instead, it “recognises the national assembly democratically elected in 2015 and recognises Juan Guaidó as interim constitutional president of Venezuela”.
The spokesperson then climbed high upon his pedestal, righteously proclaiming: “It is vital that Venezuelans are given the opportunity to vote soon in presidential and legislative elections that are free, fair and effectively overseen. The UK considers that restoring democracy is an essential step towards ending the political, economic and humanitarian crises afflicting Venezuela’s long-suffering people and calls on all its leaders to commit to supporting a solution to this end.”
It would appear from this statement that the British government shares Mr Pompeo’s great love of irony, given that ‘Venezuela’s long-suffering people’ are suffering from the results of criminal sanctions put in place by the US and enthusiastically supported by Britain – not to mention the daylight banditry of the Bank of England’s seizing of $1bn-worth of Venezuelan gold held in its coffers. (Venezuelan national assembly elections, 6 December 2020: FCDO statement, 7 December 2020)
Imperialism’s loyal media lackeys were quick to line up behind the FCDO and condemn the election result. “Nicolás Maduro seizes total power after sham poll,” wept Stephen Gibbs, writing for the Times.
“The vote gives Maduro control over the national assembly, the last democratic institution [ie, the only one that was in the hands of the friends of imperialism] in the nation.
“All the main opposition parties chose not to participate in the vote on Sunday, complaining that the electoral commission which supervised the counting of ballots was blatantly biased,” he went on, indignantly. (Venezuela election: Nicolás Maduro seizes total power after sham poll by Stephen Gibbs, The Times, 8 December 2020)
Gideon Long and Michael Stott, writing for the Financial Times, weighed in: “After two decades of revolutionary socialist rule, Venezuela’s once-wealthy oil economy is in ruins and its people are suffering acute shortages of water, fuel and electricity.” This echoes the tired fallacy that the economic situation in Venezuela is due solely to the government’s policies, rather than to the crushing genocidal sanctions placed upon the country by the imperialist US.
“The US, UK and some Latin American countries plan to continue to recognise the Guaidó-led congress as the country’s legitimate legislative body, and Mr Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela but it is unclear whether the EU and other nations will follow suit.”
Former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who was invited to observe the election by President Nicolás Maduro, brought a sense of reality to proceedings by pointing out that to continue to insist, as the US, Britain and co do, that Guaidó is Venezuela’s rightful leader is “the biggest absurdity in the history of international law”. (Maduro claims victory in Venezuela election boycotted by opposition by Gideon Long and Michael Stott, Financial Times, 7 December 2020)
A victory for the international working class
We extend our congratulations to the SBGPP-PSUV coalition and share in the joy of Venezuela’s workers and peasants.
Venezuela once again has a legitimate legislative assembly backed by the popular vote. Following five difficult years of ever more desperate attempts by the US-backed ‘opposition’ to overthrow the popular government led by President Maduro, years during which economic sabotage and imperialist sanctions have caused great harm to the Venezuelan masses, it is to be hoped that the comprador forces within the country can begin to be routed.
This is a victory not just for the workers and peasants of Venezuela, but of the whole world, constituting as it does a significant challenge to the imperialists’ criminal plans for shoring up their control over the region.
Despite the best efforts of the US imperialists to impose their will on Venezuela, they have so far failed, and will continue to do so while the country is led by staunchly anti-imperialist forces that are willing and able to express the will of the Venezuelan masses.
