Please Follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Truth Social, Gettr, Twitter
Doral, Florida - Socialism is a system of government that you can vote yourself into, but then you have to shoot your way out of. The people of Venezuela started that process at the end of 1998 when they elected Hugo Chavez, a former army officer who had led an attempted coup in 1992, as their President.
Thereafter, Chavez collaborated with his Cuban sponsors to strangle liberty and impose a socialist revolution. They proceeded to disarm the population, manipulated elections starting with a recall effort held during 2004, and packed the supreme court. This socialist attack on bourgeois norms and market capitalism led to the usual misery and despondency. Almost eight million Venezuelans have left their country and settled all over the world since this turn to socialism. A country sitting on some of the largest deposits of oil and gas in the world could not support its population. Hunger, unemployment and homelessness have become rampant. As Milton Friedman observed during the Cold War, if the Soviet Union were put in charge of the Sahara Desert, within 20 years there would be a shortage of sand.
Chavez remained President until his death from cancer in 2013, when he was succeeded by another socialist, Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver and trade union leader. Maduro has continued the socialist policies of his predecessor and consolidated the regime’s totalitarian power, despite attempts by the opposition to install an alternative government. He won re-election in 2018 in a process marred by electoral irregularities. Venezuela has been lacking in respect for the rule of law and election integrity.
A presidential election was scheduled for this year in Venezuela, and Maduro’s government prepared last year for his re-election campaign this year by prohibiting the candidacy of the leader of the opposition: Maria Corina Machado. The Maduro government was implementing third-world tactics which have been borrowed by Democrats in America against the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump. Maria Corina is a charismatic libertarian with courage and an independent disposition. Her opponents on both sides believed that she is too pale-faced and from an upper-middle class family to connect with the people. Nevertheless, her courageous enthusiasm and shrewd tactics have won her a large following.
President Maduro ran for re-election on Sunday, July 28, against opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, a 74-year old retired diplomat supported by Maria Corina. The opposition expected electoral irregularities, so they recruited poll-workers to staff most of the over 30,000 polling stations throughout the country. There was no early voting and everyone voted in person. At the end of voting on election day, the poll workers hand-counted the votes and signed tally sheets with the results. Voting machines also reported results to the National Electoral Council controlled by the socialist government.
Exit polls conducted by various media organizations pointed to a 60% to 30% victory for the opposition. Nevertheless, the National Electoral Council brazenly declared President Maduro the winner by 51% to 44%. This is where Maria Corina’s shrewd tactics paid off: the opposition collected 80% of the signed vote tally sheets, and they showed an insurmountable lead for Edmundo Gonzalez.
Countries like Russia and China rushed to congratulate President Maduro on his re-election, but other countries held back. The organization of American States failed to condemn the Maduro regime due to negative votes from Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and many Caribbean countries. Nevertheless, Peru finally declared that the election was stolen, and now even the United States Secretary of State Blinken has followed in refusing to accept the election. What will come next is not clear, but the election fraud has been called out.
Supporters of democracy, the rule of law and electoral integrity in Venezuela gathered in Downtown Doral Park, 8395 NW 53rd Street, Saturday, August 3 @ 3:00 to 6:00 pm, to “Stop The Steal!” The City of Doral has the most Venezuelan immigrants of any city in the United States.
