Sham Legislative Elections Being Staged by the Maduro Regime to Usurp the Only Democratically Elected Body Left in Venezuela
By USAID Acting Deputy Administrator John Barsa
Acute food and drinking water shortages. Crippling power outages. Severe gasoline scarcity. Collapsed health and education sectors. A destroyed economy, once among the wealthiest in the world. Today, ninety-six percent Venezuelans are poor and seventy-nine percent languish in extreme poverty, according to the latest ENCOVI survey from the country’s Andrés Bello Catholic University.
This is the stark reality for the average Venezuelan. It is estimated that seven million Venezuelans are in need of humanitarian assistance. Then, there are the more than five million Venezuelan migrants and refugees who have fled into neighboring countries. Is this the aftermath of a war, you ask? No.
This is the product of an unnecessary, man-made catastrophe executed at the expense of the Venezuelan people for the sole benefit of — Nicolas Maduro and his cronies. And yet, the Maduro nightmare continues, as the regime sets the stage for sham legislative elections on December 6, meant to bulldoze the last democratically elected body left in the country.
Let’s call it what it is. Maduro is not the legitimate president of Venezuela. The smoke and mirrors being prepared for the December 6 “election” flies in the face of constitutional and international norms, and is as illegitimate as Maduro himself. His blatant chicanery to keep the country hostage, stealing a second election, only prolongs the Venezuelan people’s continued suffering. Have they not endured enough?
The sham sets new lows. This will be the most manipulated “electoral process” carried out in Venezuela in the last two decades. It is a process stripped of minimal conditions for a credible, transparent, and plural election. How? First, the electoral system has been rigged to arrive at a pre-ordained outcome, preventing the Venezuelan people from choosing their leadership freely and fairly and, thus, violating the Venezuelan Constitution. Second, the Electoral Commission (CNE) that oversees elections is stacked with Maduro’s lackeys. The regime has taken over the country’s three main opposition parties and installed its people as candidates, creating a bogus opposition to confuse the electorate. And third, not only is there a significant shortage of voting machines, the electronic voting system has absolutely no safeguards, including no verification, or audit process for independent observers which further ensures the CNE retains full control of the outcome. The December 6 charade has already been vocally rejected by the legitimate Interim President Juan Guaido, as well as the international community, including the US, the EU, the Lima Group, and the OAS. On top of all of that, the question remains as to how voters and administrators will be protected from COVID-19 on December 6 — if the regime has taken any precautions, they’re not communicating it. On the contrary, they have begun to openly blackmail Venezuelans — if they don’t participate on December 6, they don’t eat.
In deep contrast, Interim President Juan Guaido’s La Consulta (the People’s Vote, Referendum), from December 7 through 12, mixes both virtual and live participation, and authentically allows Venezuelans to “raise their voice” to demonstrate how their will for change endures. And unlike Maduro’s fake election, the Consulta has precautions in place to protect Venezuelans’ health in the pandemic. For more information, go to https://www.consultaporvzla.com/.
Judge, Jury, and Executioner. In September, a United Nations Human Rights Fact Finding Mission found reasonable grounds to conclude that some of Maduro’s security forces’ human rights abuses amount to crimes against humanity. Additionally, the Mission found evidence that political opponents were arbitrarily detained, and were unlawfully executed by security forces on the regime’s orders. How can those behind such crimes against humanity, who have no regard for the rule of law, hold free and fair elections?
The bottom line: the regime cannot be trusted. For the sake of the Venezuelan people, who have already suffered endlessly, Maduro must step aside once and for all, so that a transitional government can ensure free and fair legislative and presidential elections. Only then can the rebuilding and healing of Venezuela begin.
About the Author
John Barsa is the Acting Deputy Administrator for USAID. Follow him @JBarsaUSAID.
