teacido:

Last sunday, we had presidential elections here in Venezuela. After several incidents that, in any other democratic country, would invalidate the process, it was determined by the CNE (the “impartial” organization that manages elections in Venezuela, which is not impartial at all, as many pieces of evidence suggest) that the candidate from the ruling party that has had the power for more than 14 years, had won. It was a fraud. Everyone knows, and there’s proof of it. Actually, other countries don’t even acknowledge Nicolás Maduro as the president. The candidate that actually won the elections stated that it was his right, and the right of all the venezuelans who voted for him, to ask for a recount of the votes. The CNE refused thoroughly, with no acceptable excuse for it. After that, a series of violent events have taken place in Venezuela, where the national guard and police have attacked civilians that were manifesting against this awful abuse of power, and other clear acts of injustice. The illegitimate president has warned that he’s going to radicalize the “revolution”, and that he’s going to arrest Capriles Radonski, the actual president of Venezuela, and other members of his party. Besides, the government has people pretending to be on the opposing party’s side, and has had them perform punishable actions such as damaging public and private property, so it appears that Capriles and his followers are at fault.

This is a dictatorship. 

I’m attaching a couple of videos from said violence toward the civilians. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=293898557410136

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWVrM-FuH8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XRGkcgaBlPI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xSn6V_xH1kI

Please, spread the word, and feel free to investigate further on this matter

Wrong. Wrong on so many levels.

The opposition waited until yesterday (Wednesday) to present a formal request to the CNE for a recount, despite claiming fraud since Sunday night. Furthermore, sectors of the opposition have claimed fraud, illegitimacy, or “irregularities” in every single election since 1999, except the one referendum that it won in 2007.

In 2004 Venezuela held an opposition-demanded recall referendum (the only country in the world that I’m aware of where a referendum can be held on a president) against Hugo Chavez, which they lost by 18%. They cried fraud, even as the world recognized electoral transparency. In 2005 they threatened a boycott of the National Assembly elections with a list of demands, and even after all the demands were met they boycotted anyway, then cried dictatorship. In 2006 they lost the presidency. They cried fraud. In 2008 they lost the governors’ election. It must have been fraud again! And again in 2009, and again in 2010, and again in 2012, and again in 2013! No matter how many international observers recognize the results, they insist that the Chavez government, and now Maduro, are capable of forcing millions of people to attend rallies, manipulating freely-conducted pre-election polls, and skewing the results of the electoral system that Jimmy Carter has called “the best in the world.” Furthermore, one has to ask, if every election is fraudulent, why do they keep participating?

The opposition has not presented reasonable evidence in this case to show that their “irregularities” can account for 250,000 votes. One of the main instances of “proof” presented by Henrique Capriles was showing that at a particular voting station, more people voted (712) than were registered for that station (500ish). However, Capriles showed the vote total for the entire station while only showing the registration numbers for one of the two voter lists for that location; individually, each list had around 500 voters but combined it was over 1,000. Not evidence of fraud in the slightest. What there is proof of, however, is that Henrique Capriles threatened to bring down a Maduro government during an interview 9 days before the election, in the case that Maduro were to win.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) has already done an audit of 54% of the ballots, with observers from all parties, in which the original results were confirmed. Even Vicente Diaz, a member of the CNE who is openly sympathetic to the opposition, stated that he has no doubt about the veracity of the result. No other country in the world has an automatic ballot audit of even close to that many votes. What the opposition also neglects to inform its outside audience is that the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), Capriles’ coalition, utilized the services of the National Electoral Council for its own internal primary elections in 2012, and last year its leading figures recognized the security and legitimacy of Venezuela’s electoral system. Capriles won the governorship of Miranda state in elections just four months ago by a small margin, and the opposition won an election in 2007 by an even narrower margin than this one, and the chavistas did not hesitate to recognize either of these defeats.

Tons of other countries have acknowledged Nicolas Maduro, including virtually all of Latin America—Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Haiti and the regional organizations UNASUR, OAS, ALBA, and Mercosur. Even Spain decided to acknowledge Maduro’s victory, as well as France and Portugal. In fact, as far as I know the only country to openly refuse to acknowledge Maduro is—you guessed it—the United States, the same country that immediately recognized the legitimacy of the “transitional government” of a short-lived coup d’etat against Hugo Chavez in 2002 (a transitional government that proceeded to immediately dissolve the National Assembly, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court during the 48 hours it was in power).

So far all 8 of the fatalities in the chaos following the election have been Maduro supporters killed by Capriles supporters. There have been injuries among Capriles supporters in clashes with the National Guard and the Police, but the caprilistas have also been responsible for burning medical clinics, threatening Cuban doctors, setting up guarimbas (roadblocks, usually with burning objects), and beating up suspected chavistas. The OP suggests that it is government supporters disguised as oppositionists that are causing the damage, but was it or was it not recognized opposition figure Nelson Bocaranda who incited people to descend upon a medical clinic because—get this—he said that the government was hiding ballot boxes in the clinic, and that Cuban doctors were preventing people from retrieving them. Furthermore, was it not the opposition that attacked offices of the Socialist Party? Who is setting up the guarimbas?

I encourage everyone to actually investigate further on this matter. Look up my assertions, then look up those of the OP. Find out which ones are backed by evidence and which ones are not.

Because you know
That pain is not
Our motherland

That suffering 
Is not our
Divine right

That heaven is
What we make 
On earth

Like houses
Love 
And bread

Because you come
From the heart
Of the soil

And do not sprinkle us
With holy water
Pie-in-the-sky lies and
Ashes to ashes dust to dust

Because you know 
That your big mouth
And your curly hair

Is African
And your brown skin
And dark eyes is Indian

Because you don’t point
To Europe for
Beauty or salvation

Because you know
As Che and Fidel and 
Maurice Bishop and Roque Dalton

And Walter Rodney
And Neruda and Allende
And Patrice Lumumba

That life is what
We make with our 
Hands

Because you know as Jesus 
That it is not difficult to
Multiply bread and fish

That oil is not 
The lifeblood
Of the earth

That it should not 
Run through our veins
Like fear

Because you are David
In the shadow
Of Goliath

And know that 
The price of freedom
Is love

© 2006 Tony Medina