« Guerrilla violence in South Africa is a prelude of what’s coming to the US | Don't be surprised if there is a Walz on the ticket »
July 29, 2024

Venezuela: Electoral fraud, right in their faces

By Monica Showalter

An old truism in politics is that if the win is big enough, the other guy can't steal it.

Venezuela's latest election just put paid to that nonsense. Any filthy tyrant, especially a socialist with a lot to hide and a will to entrench himself in permanent power, can steal an election ... right in front of his voters' faces.

And in the case of Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, be perfectly confident that he'll always get away with it. The opposition will be told to accept the result and go prepare for the next election six years from now. The West will wring its hands a bit, and just go along. Venezuelans have seen this movie before.

Which is why Joe Biden's decision to drop sanctions on Venezuela in exchange for "free and fair elections" was such a disgusting deal, empowering the Maduroites to steal themselves another election, and enjoy the newly freed-up money, which included buying guns to fire into crowds, and then taking out the opposition afterwards through lawfare. That's what Maduro is doing now.

Quite a steal for Maduro, and in more ways than one.

The hopes were so high, the polls were so strong, and the opposition candidate, Maria Corina Machado, (along with her designated surrogate after she was disqualified from running, Edmundo González), was so spotless, that the only question left in this election was how Maduro was going to get out of this one. He was going to lose; the crowds were out there, the slums had turned against him, the Venezuelans were rallying for Machado, and the polls were scarily unified showing gargantuan majorities in support of her and González.

Every dirty trick in the book was tried -- from disqualifying Machado, to disqualifying overseas voters, to creating confusing ballots, to arresting Machado's aides and even her security chief, hauling them all off, to attempting to kill her by cutting the brake hoses to her campaign's cars, which happened several days ago. Every dirty trick.

Sound familiar?

With every one of those acts foiled, Maduro got what he wanted through his customary method, which was stealing the election, same as Venezuela's socialists have been doing since 2004, through already-cast ballots, problems at polling stations, a mysterious stoppage of counting at midnight, followed by a change of direction in the voting, illogical turnout numbers, and a reported close result.

Except that this time, it was way too nakedly obvious that the result was fraudulent. Voters stood in the rain for hours, people walked to polling stations on canes and knees, lines were long, even in the slums, and turnout was huge.

That's why we have scenes like these across Venezuela now, starting with unrest in the capital:

Destruction of campaign propaganda:

...and the flag of its Cuban colonizers:

The protests spreading to a naval base:

Update: Reportedly the army base Fuerte Tiuna, and the airport out of Caracas, too.

Update: With suggestions the military may be declining to fire, which is ominous for Maduro:

Ceaucescu talk among Venezuela's top observers.

 

 

 

 

Places that have never protested Chavista socialism now protesting Chavista socialism:

 

 

The protests getting very close to the presidential palace.

 

 

 

 

Snipers have been positioned onto the roof of the presidential palace:

 

 

Maduro has thrown out the entire diplomatic corps of multiple Latin American neighbors whose leaders have condemned or at least expressed concern about his fraud:

 

 

And Chavez statues toppling:

 

 

The fraud was naked and the anger is palpable. Maduro may yet get what he wants by massacring the protestors and arresting the opposition leaders. His powder remains dry, note other observers. But he's got a lot of incandescent anger inside as well as outside observers who can see what's going on and calling it for what it is, such as Argentina's president, Javier Milei and for that matter, Elon Musk, whom Maduro has since invited to fight with him.

In Maduro's favor, he seems to have the Biden administration expressing mealy-mouthed "concern" instead of full blown damnation such as Milei has done, but more about that later.

Musk tweeted earlier that he felt this kind of fraud set a precedent with implications for the U.S. That's the most worrying thing. If Maduro can get away with this, anyone else can, too. Who might that be?

Image: Screen shot from Twitter video

If you experience technical problems, please write to helpdesk@americanthinker.com