By Socialist Workers Unity – Venezuela
On Monday, July 29, youth and the population of the popular Venezuelan neighborhoods took to the streets of Caracas and several cities throughout the country to show their indignation at the fraud that occured during the presidential elections that has kept the dictator Nicolas Maduro in government. The response of the dictatorship has been a brutal repression against unarmed youth. So far there are 11 dead, dozens wounded, several disappeared and a hundred imprisoned.
No to electoral fraud!
The dictatorship of the “Bolivarian bourgeoisie “1 announced, more than six hours after the closing of the polls, results that do not match at all with the reality observed in terms of the preference of votes during the election day. Nor do the results match with those the polling station witnesses were reading at the closing of the polls in the different electoral centers.
It is also very suspicious that, during the announcement, the CNE did not offer details of the results by states, municipalities, or electoral centers, since there are also inconsistencies between the percentages of votes that were announced to have been obtained by all candidates and the totality of the electoral roll.
While the repressive bodies of the dictatorship shoot at youth and the inhabitants of the popular sectors in the streets of Venezuela, the Brazilian PT and part of the so-called Latin American “left” has congratulated the dictatorial government and the fraud, qualifying it as a “peaceful, democratic and sovereign day”. By supporting a bourgeois dictatorship, guilty of the economic and social disaster in Venezuela, they are responsible for the growth of the right wing in Latin America.
From the Socialist Workers Unity (UST), we warn that a possible government of Edmundo Gonzalez – Maria Corina, would continue to deepen the subordination of the country to the interests of the multinationals, we cannot have any confidence in the old Venezuelan oligarchy or in the “Bolibourgeoisie”, which has now deepened its anti-democratic drift. We denounce that these results announced by the CNE constitute a real electoral fraud whose aim is to maintain in power a bourgeois sector, the “bolibourgeoisie”, which to guarantee its interests has deepened its dictatorial turn, and which is widely repudiated by the Venezuelan masses.
We affirm that this fraud is not limited only to the announcement of the results, but is the continuity and consequence of an electoral process plagued with anti-democratic vices since its convocation. It was carried out in a context of more than a hundred workers arrested and prosecuted for fighting in defense of their labor and social rights, of more than three hundred political prisoners, with the disqualification of political leaders from participation, with legal challenges to and the kidnapping of parties by the government of Maduro, the withdraw of the legality of some parties, mainly leftist parties, which were prevented from presenting a candidacy that would represent the interests of the working class.
We are categorical in affirming that the government of Nicolás Maduro is a capitalist, corrupt, starving, and repressive dictatorship, that has been applying for years against the workers and the Venezuelan people a brutal capitalist, anti-worker and anti-popular adjustment, that has cut the wages of the working population, reducing them to their minimum expression, that has curtailed all labor rights, that has destroyed the state productive apparatus and public services, that keeps the Venezuelan working population in conditions of hunger and misery, while granting benefits to national and foreign employers. It has taken away from the workers and the Venezuelan people their most elementary economic, social, union and democratic rights. With this fraud, Maduro now intends to illegitimately perpetuate himself in power by striking a new blow to the democratic rights of the workers.
Contrary to what the reformist left that supports Maduro says, those who are in the streets are the same poor people that in 2002 confronted the coup organized by imperialism against Chávez. Now these people hate the dictatorship of a bourgeoisie, the Bolibourgeoisie of Diosdado Cabello (one of the biggest bourgeoisie in Venezuela and Maduro).
U.S. imperialism supports Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez. We cannot have any confidence in them. They want to deepen the semi-colonization of Venezuela. And Chinese and Russian imperialism support the fraud of the Maduro dictatorship. They also want to extend the plundering of the mineral reserves of the country. We are against imperialist domination and defend class independence.
Likewise, we reject any call for military intervention or imperialist interference to resolve the Venezuelan political crisis, we only trust in the workers and popular mobilizations to overthrow the dictatorship.
Unify, deepen and strengthen the mobilizations until the dictatorship is defeated.
As was to be expected, the fraudulent results announced have generated the rejection and repudiation of the popular sectors of the country against them. Therefore, after midday on Monday July 29, they have come out to mobilize, registering a significant number of protests and popular mobilizations against the fraud in the different cities of the country, mainly in the capital. From the UST, we express our unconditional support for these protests and we call to strengthen, unify and deepen them, developing them independently until the fraud is defeated.
We denounce the repression that the dictatorial government of Maduro has been unloading against them through the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), the police forces and their para-police apparatus, the so-called colectivos. According to reports, this are at least 11 dead and forty-four wounded.
We also denounce the attempts of the bourgeois opposition leadership (Edmundo – María Corina Machado – MUD) to dissociate themselves from the popular mobilizations, as well as their pretensions to control, calm and discipline them. This is due to their class character, contrary to the interests of the mobilized sectors.
From here we call on the military and police forces, especially the troops and their lower and middle commanders, not to repress the people, not to obey the orders of repression of the high officers against the workers and inhabitants of the popular sectors in demonstration, who in many cases are their neighbors, relatives and acquaintances.
As has been demonstrated with the electoral fraud, the dictatorship will not respect the people’s repudiation, as Maduro has announced that he will maintain and deepen the repression. Therefore it is necessary to unify, deepen and strengthen independently the mobilizations until the dictatorship is defeated. We consider it pertinent to discuss democratically, in the popular sectors and in the workplaces, the actions to be taken to give continuity to the process of confronting the dictatorship, to maintain the street mobilizations and build a general strike that will overthrow the dictatorship.
As has been demonstrated once again, there is no possibility of putting an end to Maduro’s dictatorship through elections. Only direct mobilizations of the masses will be able to overthrow this dictatorship and open the way for the overcoming of capitalism in Venezuela.
Down with the dictatorship!
- Bourgeois sector benefited with the oil rent by the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolas Maduro, which includes important sectors of the officers of the Armed Forces ︎
