Venezuela will have an election on July 28. We will cover that election here as Venezuela, home of the Bolivarian Republic, has been under unprecedented sanctions for years and this will be used again for more pressure. Venezuela is the country that has shown how to withstand hegemony.  This country will thrive if the destabilization ends and if they can have the income from their oil industry and tourism. Just recently Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc.

Here is some background: Venezuela run-up to elections .. as usual, in the crosshairs

Some older historical facts:

– Unlike the United States, Venezuela has Ratified all Major Human Rights Treaties, Has Incorporated Their Provisions, including Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, into the Bolivarian Constitution and Has Shown a Commitment to Implement Them.

– The Venezuelan government ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1969 and the Venezuelan populace incorporated their provisions into the Bolivarian Constitution, adopted overwhelmingly (72%) by referendum in 1999.

– Since then, a series of laws and executive orders have been adopted to implement those rights by reversing the increasing privatization of the oil sector, including the national oil company PdVSA, that had been siphoning profits to corporations and their elite managers and shareholders; renationalizing major companies that had been privatized in previous decades; and instituting a series of programs and “Misiones”, guaranteeing education, health care and low
cost food to the previously excluded poor.

The Russian Northern Fleet’s ships that made a call to Venezuela on July 2 as part of a long-distance voyage left today, but the reason for showing their flag is somewhat of a warning.  Russia and Venezuela are close and the Russian small fleet gave a visual reminder of this fact.  Venezuela is not alone!

Over the past century, oil has played an outsize role in Venezuela. It is no wonder that the United States, in its never-ending regime-change plots, chose to target this crucial sector with crushing sanctions.

The following video examines the crude reality of coercive measures against the Venezuelan oil industry.

Despite the sanctions, the Venezuelans are approaching the election with their usual effervescence. Everyone has street parades (See Brian Mier’s video at the end). They even cast mock ballots in a rehearsal vote with 3,000 polling stations opened for voters. The dry-run allows for citizens to familiarize with the voting process. The process additionally illustrates the mobilization capacity of competing political organizations. Each time the leftists win, the collective West cries election frauf and irregularities. This pomp and circumstance where most everyone is welcome and it turns into a Grand Fiesta, is one of the ways that this accusation is overcome.

“What happened in the electoral simulation was a true demonstration of how things are done; We congratulate the capacity, deployment and participation of our very powerful machinery.” said Rodríguez on social media. With the campaign period set to officially begin on Thursday, the Socialist Party has announced a major march in Caracas and dozens of cities across the country.

In contrast, the major opposition alliance that is running candidate Edmundo González did not emphasize participation in the electoral dry-run. There were reports that opposition voters were confused about who was the candidate, some saying they wanted to vote for María Corina Machado, who does not appear on the ballot. She was thrown out by the Electoral Commission because she took part in the previous attempt to destabilize the Venezuelan government.

As we saw in Iran with their elections just completed, Venezuela is pretty serious about their elections. The election rehearsal also allowed international observers to tour voting centers and witness the country’s safeguards in action. Yet, they uninvited the European Commission because they started lecturing. The electoral commission said they could do well without the EU’s interference in the country’s affairs. [Not to mention the EU is not representing truly sovereign nations, but US vassal states.—Ed] The US-based Carter Center accepted an invitation by the country’s electoral authority to monitor the vote and announced that it would send a “technical election observation mission” to Venezuela. The Carter Center has observed numerous elections in the South American country, most recently in 2021. The institution said its assessment “will be based on the national legal framework as well as regional and international human rights obligations and standards for democratic elections.”

The CNE has extended invitations to a wide range of observation missions as well as more than 250 individuals, including the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the African Union and an electoral expert team from the United Nations (UN).

This came as a surprise. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced on July 2nd, that his government would reopen direct talks with the United States.

“I have accepted the proposal of the US government to resume direct talks and we will debate and seek new agreements so that what was signed in Qatar is fulfilled,” said Maduro during his weekly television program.

The announcement that the Venezuelan government had accepted the US’ offer to restart negotiations, set to begin Wednesday, comes only a few weeks before presidential elections on July 28.

“They know who is going to win. I am a man of dialogue and I want respect for Venezuela, its democracy, its people through dialogue,” said Maduro.

“I want to overcome this conflict of brutal and sterile confrontation with the north, it is up to them to comply,” he added. Maduro said that Venezuela’s sovereignty and independence would be front and center.

The Venezuelan president’s mention of Qatar is an allusion to previously unacknowledged talks with US officials.

The Spanish newspaper El País first reported Qatar-mediated talks between the US and Venezuela in June of last year, with former White House advisor Juan González leading the US delegation.

In October the US announced the temporary suspension of unilateral coercive measures after the signing of an agreement, known as the Barbados Accords, between the government and the US-backed opposition establishing certain conditions for the elections. The Biden administration later reintroduced wide-reaching economic coercive measures against Venezuela’s oil industry.

Qatari mediation reportedly played a role in the prisoner swap between the US and Venezuela, which saw the release of government envoy Alex Saab in exchange for several US nationals detained in Venezuela, including two former Green Berets who took part in an attempted paramilitary invasion.

Maduro stated that the US had failed to live up to the commitments it made with the help of Qatar, including the full removal of economic sanctions, and that the dialogue would be public moving forward. The president said that the US had been requesting direct talks for two months and that negotiations will be led by National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez alongside Miranda state Governor Héctor Rodríguez.

US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said Tuesday Washington welcomes “dialogue and good faith” but did not explicitly confirm direct talks with Caracas instead that they would work with the “international community and democratic actors” in Venezuela. He repeated the US government’s call for the “full implementation” of the Barbados Accords. You can see there is no goodwill expressed here, but only that the US will continue with their pressure campaign.

Code Pink is usually on the streets, saying the US will use the elections or specifically a win for Maduro to again attack the government of Nicolas Maduro.

Here’s what you need to know to oppose imperialist propaganda.

About the author
amarynth is the nom de guerre of a dedicated anti-imperialist activist and geopolitical analyst residing in the Global South. He is one of the main forces behind WORLD ORDER Z / Chronicles: Global South.