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In 2016, Venezuela had 30.7 million people but became engulfed in political and economic crises, which led to more than 7.7 million people leaving the country. How did this oil-rich country, which used to be the third-richest country in the hemisphere, get into so much trouble?
In the recent Presidential election, Venezuela’s opposition party alleges massive government corruption. It has been widely reported that Maduro had used fraud and physical force to retain power when all polls showed the opposition party and candidate had won. There are reports of ballot boxes being seized and burned.
Since 1999, Venezuela has been run by two men from the same party and almost identical political philosophy. From 1999 to his death in 2013, Hugo Chávez held office. He was succeeded by his long-term ally, Nicolás Maduro. Over their combined terms, their socialist party has gained total control of the critical levers of power, including much of the judiciary, the electoral council, and the Supreme Court.
They have also run their country into the ground.
In an orchestrated effort to maintain power through manipulation, the president's role has become much more potent as checks and balances have been eroded. Venezuela's oil income has entirely funded its socialist programs. Unfortunately, global oil prices plummeted not long after Mr. Maduro was elected. Add in political patronage and corruption, and Venezuela was plunged into a seven-year recession, during which inflation skyrocketed and shortages of essential goods became widespread.
After a police crackdown, four years of anti-government protests fizzled out. Millions of Venezuelans left the country to flee economic hardship and political repression. Using the power of his captured political institutions, Mr. Maduro was re-elected in 2018 despite the growing discontent in an election widely dismissed as neither free nor fair.
Today, President Nicolás Maduro declared he won Venezuela's presidential election, according to partial results announced by the electoral council. The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso—a close ally of Mr. Maduro—said that with 80% of ballots counted, President Maduro had 51% of the vote, compared to 44% for his main rival.
The Venezuelan opposition dismissed the CNE's announcement as fraudulent and promised to challenge the result. It said its candidate, Edmundo González, had won 70% of the votes and insisted he was the rightful president-elect. The opposition said vote tallies it had received, as well as quick counts, showed Mr. González had a lead of 40 percentage points over the incumbent. Opposition parties had united behind Mr. González in an attempt to unseat President Maduro after 11 years in power. Opinion polls conducted ahead of the election had suggested Mr. González would roundly defeat the president.
The opposition had deployed thousands of witnesses to polling stations across the country to be able to announce its vote count. However, a spokeswoman for the coalition led by Mr. González said their witnesses had been "forced to leave" many polling stations. Voting in Venezuela is electronic. Voters punch in a button assigned to their preferred candidate on a voting machine. The electronic results are sent to the CNE headquarters, but the machine also prints a paper receipt, which is then placed in a ballot box.
By law, parties are allowed to send witnesses to count the paper receipts at each polling station, but many were prevented.
They had planned to monitor these tallies to see if they squared with the results announced by the CNE, but the opposition said late on Sunday that it had so far been given access to less than a third of the printed receipts.
A PSUV-led coalition holds 256 out of 277 seats in the National Assembly, Venezuela's legislative body.
This almost total control of the legislature has, in turn, allowed the Maduro government to take control of two other vital institutions whose members are chosen by the National Assembly:
- Supreme Tribunal of Justice - Venezuela's highest court
- National Electoral Council (CNE) - the body responsible for organizing elections
With the government in control of the executive, the legislative, and, to a large extent, the judiciary, democracy has been undermined.
Further, as Red State reported today, "Kamala Harris and Joe Biden had different ideas. While the press will no doubt bury the story, the current administration was at the center of this fraudulent election, having handed Maduro sanctions relief in exchange for "free and fair elections." That sounds like a great deal in exchange for only a hollow promise. Just two weeks before the elections, Kamala and Joe throw Maduro a bone and a boatload of economic benefits. Figures, I guess; leftists supporting leftists.
I hope this is not a preview of November, but I fear it could be. Maybe it will be a well-needed lesson for all to learn from. We must learn from Sunday’s election, or we will likely repeat Venezuela's results on November 5, 2024. We cannot allow another presidential election in the USA to be corrupted by unmanned ballot boxes, non-citizen voting, electronic glitches, etc. If the Democrats have their Marxist radical agenda passed through a Kamala Harris presidency, we are all going to be living in Venezuela shortly.
This all sounds too familiar, and the plan is being developed with the Biden regime right now. Look at the short timeline from prosperity to destruction.
We must wake up our voters; staying home elects Democrats, and worse, we have heard that if you don’t like the Republican running, vote Democrat. This sounds like Soros infiltrating our ranks.
President Trump said, “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT,” and we must fight the Marxist's take-over with everything we have because they are here; the clock is ticking, and it’s real.
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