Maduro won Venezuelan vote openly, fairly

Canada wrong to back his ouster, James Winter says.

The Canadian and U.S. governments are now openly supporting the overthrow of the democratically elected Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro. I’m not surprised by Donald Trump’s bullying, but I’m somewhat taken aback by Justin Trudeau, a “moral leader of the free world,” according to the New York Times. Maduro won a national presidential election in May 2018 with 68 per cent (6.2 million) of the votes cast. Henri Falcon came in second with 21 per cent. The turnout was 46 per cent, despite a boycott by some opposition members. Although Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said recently that “the Maduro regime … seized power through fraudulent and anti-democratic elections” and said he is “now fully entrenched as a dictatorship,” this is blatantly incorrect. International observers of the 2018 Venezuelan elections published four independent reports, all of which concluded that the election results represented the will of the voters and were “uncontestable.”

An international observer mission led by the Council of Electoral Experts of Latin America said the election was clean.

As reported in the Windsor Star edition of the National Post on Feb. 5, a Canadian delegation that observed the election reported: “We witnessed a transparent, secure, democratic and orderly electoral and voting process.” Despite all of this, the media continues to refer to Maduro’s 2018 election as “widely viewed as fraudulent.”

Canada and the U.S. have now recognized Juan Guaido, president of the national assembly, as acting president of Venezuela. Guaido is an appointed, unelected leader of the opposition-controlled national assembly, which has been largely powerless since Venezuela’s Supreme Court, which supports Maduro, tried to dissolve it in March 2017.

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Guaido did not reject the possibility of supporting U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. For his part, Donald Trump, who has offered support to Guaido, has threatened a “military option” for Venezuela.

Media and politicians say Venezuela has been “badly managed.”

I’m reminded of Fidel Castro’s quote: “For 40 years you try to strangle us. And then you criticize us for the way we breathe.”

The late former president Hugo Chavez and Maduro both have promoted social programs that help the poor majority. When oil prices were high under Chavez, this paid for poverty reduction, health care, education, etc. According to the CIA Factbook on Venezuela: “Social investment in Venezuela during the Chavez administration reduced poverty from nearly 50 per cent in 1999 to about 27 per cent in 2011, increased school enrolment, substantially decreased infant and child mortality, and improved access to potable water and sanitation through social investment.”

The Venezuelan economy is based on oil. It has the largest oil reserves in the world, three times those of Saudi Arabia.

Shortly after Maduro took office in 2013, oil prices began their collapse and he was forced to borrow money to support the vast social programs, which caused wild inflation. The bank accounts of the white privileged class have become nearly worthless.

In tangent with this, the U.S. began what the UN rapporteur for Venezuela called “medieval sieges.” Now, Trump has cut off Venezuela from oil sale proceeds in the U.S., its biggest customer, receiving 41 per cent of its exports. Trump has seized Venezuelan-owned Citgo oil in the U.S. The British government has seized Venezuelan gold assets. Both are holding these assets until Guaido is president. This violates UN principles expressing a duty not to intervene in domestic matters and to refrain from the threat or use of force against any state.

Now Trump has cut off Venezuela from access to U.S. banks, which renders international transactions difficult, if not impossible. In August 2017, he restricted Maduro’s access to U.S. banks.

Trump also banned gold transactions with Venezuela. Under U.S. pressure, the Bank of England is currently withholding $1.2 billion worth of gold from Maduro’s government. The “disrespectful” Mestizos have dared to keep their oil revenues for the benefit of their own people.

They must be punished.

Maduro certainly is managing badly under this blockade.

James Winter, PhD, is a professor in the graduate program in communication and social justice at the University of Windsor.