Venezuelans are ready to throw off the dictatorship. Will the international community support us?
By Maria Corina Machado
I am writing this from hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen from the dictatorship led by Nicolás Maduro.
Mr. Maduro didn’t win the Venezuelan presidential election on Sunday. He lost in a landslide to Edmundo González, 67% to 30%. I know this to be true because I can prove it. I have receipts obtained directly from more than 80% of the nation’s polling stations.
We knew that Mr. Maduro’s government was going to cheat. We have known for years what tricks the regime uses, and we are well aware that the National Electoral Council is entirely under its control. It was unthinkable that Mr. Maduro would concede defeat.
The regime did everything in its power to sabotage and derail our campaign. Even though I won an open primary with 92% of support, it banned me from running for president. Then it disqualified my chosen replacement, Corina Yoris. Eventually Mr. González bravely took on this job. All the while, dozens of my colleagues were imprisoned, and six of my top aides, including my campaign chief, sought asylum in the Argentine Embassy.
The regime could never have imagined that our movement would grow in numbers and slowly take over the entire voting base of chavismo. The poor and rural people who fueled Hugo Chávez’s meteoric rise are now disillusioned and have taken control of their future. We started this self-financed campaign in the periphery and moved into the urban areas.
Our people were like a tidal wave. They are tired of a quarter-century of divisiveness, hatred and ideology. They want their families and dignity back. Organically, communities organized into more than 60,000 comanditos, small campaign units set up around kitchen tables all around the country. More than one million volunteers took on specific roles to prepare for the election, training to defend every single vote that would be cast that day.
From the early hours on Sunday, we understood what the unifying force of this massive civic action would bring. We saw turnout rise like a rocket ship. Minutes after returns began coming in, we confirmed that our victory was overwhelming. And we knew that those who are in power, terrified of the personal consequences of decades of misrule, would do everything to hold on to power.
They did. They announced a fraudulent result by 11 p.m. Sunday, indicating Mr. Maduro had won with 51% of the vote with “80% of the votes counted.” The truth is that Mr. Maduro didn’t win in a single one of Venezuela’s 24 states. This wasn’t only confirmed by four different quick counts and two independent exit polls, but also by every single voting receipt that we saw coming in, in real time.
Hastily, Mr. Maduro acted to neutralize our testigos, witnesses volunteering in the polling stations. Orders were given to make their work impossible, to expel them from voting centers, to deny them the physical proof of the results. These orders were disobeyed by National Electoral Council personnel and the military. Against all odds, our testigos protected the voter receipts with their lives throughout the night.
On Monday morning we had gathered almost half of those receipts. By Monday afternoon, we had enough to confirm the mathematical certainty of our victory. The next day, they were uploaded onto a website for the world to see. Proof of this brazen fraud was furnished to heads of state across the world.
The National Electoral Council, which is mandated by law to publish these results no later than 48 hours after the election, rapidly shut down its own website. The reason, its members allege, is a cyberattack from North Macedonia.
After this farce, spontaneous protests broke out, especially in poor sectors of Caracas and other cities. Mr. Maduro responded with brutal repression. State security forces have killed at least 20 Venezuelans, imprisoned more than 1,000, and forced 11 disappearances. Most of our team is in hiding, and after seven diplomatic missions were expelled from Venezuela, my aides in the Argentine Embassy are being protected by the government of Brazil. I could be captured as I write these words.
We Venezuelans have done our duty. We have voted out Mr. Maduro. Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government. The repression must stop immediately, so that an urgent agreement can take place to facilitate the transition to democracy. I call on those who reject authoritarianism and support democracy to join the Venezuelan people in our noble cause. We won’t rest until we are free.
____________________________________________________________________
Maria Corina Machado is the leader of the Venezuelan opposition. Energiesnet.com does not necessarily share these views.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Wall Street Journal, on August 1, 2024. EnergiesNet.com do not reflect either for or against the opinion expressed in the comment as an endorsement of Petroleumworld or EnergiesNet.com
I Can Prove Maduro Got Trounced – WSJ
Use Notice: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of issues of environmental and humanitarian significance. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
EnergiesNet.com 08 02 2024
